Cal BC (cal + bc)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences80%

Selected Abstracts

TOMBS FOR THE DEAD, MONUMENTS TO ETERNITY: THE DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION OF MEGALITHIC GRAVES BY FIRE IN THE INTERIOR HIGHLANDS OF IBERIA (SORIA PROVINCE, SPAIN)

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 3 2010
MANUEL A. ROJO-GUERRA
Summary An interpretation of the features surrounding the complex and deliberate closure ritual in several collective Middle Neolithic tombs of the Ambrona Valley (Soria) is offered, where fire and quicklime played a major role in the rituals. The problems involved in the excavation and the understanding of this complex burial evidence are examined. The roles they might have played in the context of the important social and economic transformations of the local Neolithic groups around the end of the fourth millennium cal BC are also analysed. It is argued that the burial rituals tried to reinforce group solidarity at a time when the community was beginning to fragment, as the economic systems began to yield a surplus production whose management would have altered political structures. [source]

CONTRASTING SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES IN THE EARLY IRON AGE?

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2009
AND THE THRACIAN PLAIN, BULGARIA, HUNGARY, NEW RESULTS FROM THE ALFÖLD PLAIN
Summary. What can students of the past do to establish the predominant land-use and settlement practices of populations who leave little or no artefactual discard as a testament to their lifeways? The traditional answer, especially in Eastern Europe, is to invoke often exogenous nomadic pastoralists whose dwelling in perpetuo mobile was based on yurts, minimal local ceramic production and high curation levels of wooden and metal containers. Such a lacuna of understanding settlement structure and environmental impacts typifies Early Iron Age (henceforth ,EIA') settlements in both Bulgaria and eastern Hungary , a period when the inception of the use of iron in Central and South-East Europe has a profound effect on the flourishing regional bronze industries of the Late Bronze Age (henceforth ,LBA'). The methodological proposal in this paper is the high value of palynological research for subsistence strategies and human impacts in any area with a poor settlement record. This proposal is illustrated by two new lowland pollen diagrams , Ezero, south-east Bulgaria, and Sarló-hát, north-east Hungary , which provide new insights into this research question. In the Thracian valley, there is a disjunction between an area of high arable potential, the small size and short-lived nature of most LBA and EIA settlements and the strong human impact from the LBA and EIA periods in the Ezero diagram. In the Hungarian Plain, the pollen record suggests that, during the LBA,EIA, extensive grazing meadows were established in the alluvial plain, with the inception of woodland clearance on a massive scale from c.800 cal BC, that contradicts the apparent decline in human population in this area. An attempted explanation of these results comprises the exploration of three general positions , the indigenist thesis, the exogenous thesis and the interactionist thesis. Neither of these results fits well with the traditional view of EIA populations as incoming steppe nomadic pastoralists. Instead, this study seeks to explore the tensions between local productivity and the wider exchange networks in which they are entangled. [source]

Gradients of occlusal wear in hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2009
Christina A. Deter
Abstract Occlusal wear was recorded in maxillary teeth from three North American late Archaic (3385 ± 365 cal BC) hunter-gatherer sites (n = 306) and late Anasazi-early Zuni agricultural sites (,1300 AD) (n = 87). Comparisons were undertaken using descriptive and inferential statistics to determine differences between these groups, and along the maxillary tooth row. The hunter-gatherers had a significantly greater percentage of occlusal wear than the agriculturalists. For both hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists, occlusal wear was greatest on the central incisors and first molars. The third molars had the least amount of wear. It was inferred from these results that the hunter-gatherers had a more abrasive diet, and different daily task activities compared to the agriculturalists. One further finding was that wear patterns on anterior and posterior teeth are influenced by the order that teeth erupt into the jaw, as well as diet and behavior. Am J Phys Anthropol 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

A NEW METHOD FOR EXTRACTION, ISOLATION AND TRANSESTERIFICATION OF FREE FATTY ACIDS FROM ARCHAEOLOGICAL POTTERY

ARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 5 2010
M. W. GREGG
This paper presents evidence for increased recovery of organic residues from archaeological pottery through use of a microwave-assisted liquid chromatography protocol. C16:0 and C18:0 saturated fatty acids were obtained from archaeological potsherds recovered from nine Neolithic settlements in the Middle East dating between 4700 and 7300 cal bc, including materials that had not produced evidence for the survival of any lipid species through use of ,conventional' solvent extraction techniques. Compound-specific isotopic analyses of C16:0 and C18:0 fatty acids in potsherd extracts subsequently revealed ,13C/,12C compositions consistent with modern subcutaneous fats of wild boar and goats pastured on lands adjacent to the Jordan Valley, and residues from a modern pottery vessel used in the manufacturing of butter, cheese and yogurt in central Turkey. These results are presented as an illustration of capabilities of the microwave-assisted recovery protocol. The reclamation of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids from archaeological pottery fragments recovered from a number of the earliest ceramic horizons in the Middle East is herewith reported, and the extraction methods and instrumental analytical techniques are described. [source]

IS THE MACROSCOPIC CLASSIFICATION OF FLINT USEFUL?

ARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 2 2009
A PETROARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF FLINT RAW MATERIALS FROM THE IBERIAN NEOLITHIC MINE OF CASA MONTERO
Casa Montero is a mining complex located outside Madrid (Spain), dated from the Early Neolithic (c. 5400,5000 cal bc). An area of some 4 ha has been investigated and some 4000 shafts recorded, of which 324 have been excavated. The characterization of its raw flint materials and the establishment of its diagnostic features are indispensable in the reconstruction of the distribution of the mine's products beyond the immediate site. This work reports the geological study of the mine's Miocene flint layers and their petrological characterization. Archaeological samples from the mine's shafts were classified according to macroscopic features and petrological characteristics. [source]