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Century BC (century + bc)
Kinds of Century BC Selected AbstractsSOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND HUMAN SPACE IN NORTH-EASTERN IBERIA DURING THE THIRD CENTURY BCOXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 4 2008CARME RUESTES Summary By using GIS (Geographical Information System) visibility analysis, the visual surveillance of, and ways in which people engaged and experienced, an Iberian landscape north of Barcelona during the third century BC are explored. The study of visual surveillance from the hillforts that dominated the area is understood as a means to address issues of social structure and hierarchy. How Iberian people might have viewed and rationalized their world, which is an issue that has so far not been addressed within the theoretical approaches that currently characterize this area of Mediterranean archaeology, is explored here for the first time. Emphasis is placed on people's sense of place and on hillforts' prominence. Visibility analysis indicates a highly structured society, where each hillfort might have primarily controlled given zones of the landscape and might have informed others about events taking place there through an integrated visibility network. Whilst hillforts appear to have been sited according to the view that they offered, they do not seem to have been intended to maximize their own visual impact. Social and experiential approaches compellingly coincide to suggest a subdivision of this society between mountain and coastal communities in both practical and perceptual terms. [source] Metals, Salt, and Slaves: Economic Links Between Gaul and Italy From the Eighth to the Late Sixth Centuries BCOXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 3 2003Daphne Nash Briggs Summary. This paper discusses the role of metals, salt, textiles, and slaves in the development of networks of reciprocal exchange that interlinked the élites of Etruscan Italy and Early Iron Age Gaul between the eighth and sixth centuries BC. Maritime and transalpine contact are considered separately. Certain regional specialisms in Gaul are discussed: metals in the west and centre, supporting prosperous HaD élites around the rim of the Massif Central, salt on coasts and in the east, perhaps in exchange for Italian textiles, and slaves perhaps especially from the sixth-century BC Aisne,Marne/Mont Lassois complex. A principal point is to establish the ubiquity and economic importance of women and children as domestic slaves both in Italy and Gaul and their consequent significance as valuable objects of élite exchange. Development in patterns of slave procurement during this period are considered. [source] Settlement Dynamics and Social Organization in Eastern Iberia during the Iron Age (Eighth,Second Centuries BC)OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 3 2003Ignacio Grau Mira Summary. This paper explores the formation of urban societies in the eastern Iberian Peninsula. From the Early Iberian Iron Age onwards it is possible to trace the emergence of a hierarchical settlement pattern in which larger settlements carried out the most important functions of control and exploitation of the resources in this territory, extending their authority over several small farming villages. This settlement pattern is associated with the complex socio-economic structures and political organization of Iberian aristocracies. In this paper we will focus on the development of the Iberians' active role in exchanging goods with oriental traders; it is this contact which subsequently produces social change in the Iron Age period. [source] Searching for schizophrenia in ancient Greek and Roman literature: a systematic reviewACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 5 2003K. Evans Objective:, The aim of this study was to systematically examine ancient Roman and Greek texts to identify descriptions of schizophrenia and related disorders. Method:, Material from Greek and Roman literature dating from the 5th Century BC to the beginning of the 2nd Century AD was systematically reviewed for symptoms of mental illness. DSM IV criteria were applied in order to identify material related to schizophrenia and related disorders. Results:, The general public had an awareness of psychotic disorders, because the symptoms were described in works of fiction and in historical accounts of malingering. There were isolated instances of text related to psychotic symptoms in the residents of ancient Rome and Greece, but no written material describing a condition that would meet modern diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia. Conclusion:, In contrast to many other psychiatric disorders that are represented in ancient Greek and Roman literature, there were no descriptions of individuals with schizophrenia in the material assessed in this review. [source] Mitochondrial DNA analysis of horses recovered from a frozen tomb (Berel site, Kazakhstan, 3rd Century BC)ANIMAL GENETICS, Issue 3 2005C. Keyser-Tracqui Summary Sequence polymorphism of the mitochondrial DNA D-loop was used to determine the genetic diversity of horses recovered from a Scythian princely tomb dating from the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Eight haplotypes were found among the 13 ancient horse samples tested. Phylogenetical analysis showed that these ancient horse's sequences, along with two Yakut ones, were distributed throughout the tree defined by modern horses' sequences and are closely related to them. No clear geographical affiliation of the specimens studied was thus determined. Our work, among others, supports the very ancient origin of the matrilines in horses. [source] Mineralogical And Chemical Investigations Of Bloomery Slags From Prehistoric (8th Century Bc To 4th Century Ad) Iron Production Sites In Upper And Lower Lusatia, GermanyARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 2 2001R. B. Heimann More than 400 fayalitic bloomery slags from prehistoric iron production sites in Upper and Lower Lusatia, eastern Germany, as well as bog iron ore samples and intermediary samples of the smelting process, were analysed by chemical and mineralogical techniques. While the precursor bog iron ores exploited in the two regions under investigation were very similar in composition, consisting of low-manganese/low-barium as well as high-manganese/high-barium types of ore, pronounced differences in slag composition were detected. Slags from 17 investigated sites in Upper Lusatia showed average P2O5 contents between 1 and 3 mass%, whereas slags from 15 investigated sites in Lower Lusatia were generally much richer in phosphorus, reaching values as high as 7 mass% P2O5. Since a reasonable correlation exists between calcium and phosphorus contents in the slags of the latter sites, it is conjectured that deliberate addition of CaO to the ore/charcoal charge of the bloomery furnace may have taken place in order to fix the phosphorus in the slags effectively. In many samples, this conjecture is being supported by the detection of a slag mineral Ca,Fe phosphate Ca9,xFe1+x(PO4)7 that presumably crystallized from a residual phosphorus-rich melt and shows a cotectic relationship to both Ca-rich fayalite and wustite, as well as to members of the solid solution series magnetite,hercynite. [source] A Newly Acquired Ancient Ship-model in Kassel, GermanyINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 1 2004Arvid Göttlicher Study of the small clay ship-model T832 in the Kassel Museum suggests that it is an instructive document bearing on ancient Greek maritime history and folklore. A preliminary dating that has had to rely on iconographic and literary sources gives an origin in the 6th or 5th centuries BC and a tentative identification as a small coastal warship. Some suggestions as to the purpose and use of the model are discussed. © 2004 The Nautical Archaeology Society [source] Dental pathology and diet at Apollonia, a Greek colony on the Black SeaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 3 2008A. Keenleyside Abstract Dental pathology has the potential to provide insight into the composition of the diet and to reveal dietary differences based on age, sex and social status. Human skeletal remains from the Greek colonial site of Apollonia (5th to 2nd centuries BC) on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria were analysed for various forms of dental pathology in order to: assess the prevalence of dental disease in the population; compare the dental pathology data from Apollonia with dietary data derived from ancient literary texts and from previous stable isotopic analysis of the colonists' remains; explore variations in dental disease with respect to age and sex; and compare the prevalence of dental pathology in the Apollonians with that of other Greek populations. The composition of the diet, as indicated by the dental pathology data, is consistent with the stable isotopic evidence from Apollonia and with the ancient literary texts, both of which indicate the consumption of a relatively soft, high carbohydrate diet. The higher frequency of dental caries, abscesses, calculus, and antemortem tooth loss in older adults compared with younger ones reflects the age-progressive nature of these conditions. The lack of significant sex differences in caries, abscesses, calculus and tooth loss corresponds with the stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic data derived from bone collagen, which indicate no significant sex differences in the consumption of dietary protein. In contrast, these findings conflict with the ancient literary texts, which refer to distinct dietary differences between males and females, and with the stable carbon isotopic values derived from bone carbonate, which indicate sex differences with respect to the overall diet. Despite the lack of marked sex differences in dental pathology, overall trends point to subtle dietary differences between males and females. A greater degree of tooth wear in males also hints at possible sex differences in the use of the teeth as tools. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] NEW APPROACHES ON THE ARCHAIC TRADE IN THE NORTH-EASTERN IBERIAN PENINSULA: EXPLOITATION AND CIRCULATION OF LEAD AND SILVEROXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2010NÚRIA RAFEL Summary A wide-ranging study based on compositional and isotopic analyses of minerals and manufactured objects from the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula and their respective archaeological and cultural contexts demonstrates significant lead mineral exploitation in the El Priorat area (Tarragona province) linked to Phoenician trade (seventh,sixth centuries BC). This exploitation continued, despite losing intensity, until the Romanization of the territory. Our project also aims to determine the nature and origin of the lead and silver supply in the northern Iberian territory surrounding the Phocaean enclave of Emporion, especially with regard to the demands of the colonial mint. The behaviour pattern of the circulation of lead, silver and copper in Catalonia in the period studied indicates a plurality of contemporary supply sources, although, at least from the fifth century BC onward, minerals and metals from the south-eastern Iberian Peninsula take on considerable importance. [source] THE BROCH CULTURES OF ATLANTIC SCOTLAND: ORIGINS, HIGH NOON AND DECLINE.OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 3 2008200 BC, PART 1: EARLY IRON AGE BEGINNINGS c.700 Summary. A new overview of the broch and wheelhouse-building cultures is offered because recent comparable attempts have omitted substantial amounts of relevant data, such as discussion of the most plausible broch prototypes and of the details of the material cultural sequence, particularly the pottery. Well dated Early Iron Age roundhouse sites have often been described, but promontory forts of the same period, showing the specialized broch hollow wall, have not. The example at Clickhimin, Shetland, is now reliably dated to the sixth century BC at the latest and the associated pottery shows clear links with north-west France. Another unexcavated example in Harris can be restored in some detail and shows how these sites were probably used. The pivotal role of Shetland in the emergence of the new culture is confirmed by the early dating of the broch at Old Scatness to the fourth/third centuries BC. However, a separate development of the round broch tower seems also to have occurred in the west, in the third/second centuries BC. English Early Iron Age pottery is also prominent in some of the earliest sites in the west and north. The picture is of a dynamic, maritime zone open to influences from several remote regions. [source] Metals, Salt, and Slaves: Economic Links Between Gaul and Italy From the Eighth to the Late Sixth Centuries BCOXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 3 2003Daphne Nash Briggs Summary. This paper discusses the role of metals, salt, textiles, and slaves in the development of networks of reciprocal exchange that interlinked the élites of Etruscan Italy and Early Iron Age Gaul between the eighth and sixth centuries BC. Maritime and transalpine contact are considered separately. Certain regional specialisms in Gaul are discussed: metals in the west and centre, supporting prosperous HaD élites around the rim of the Massif Central, salt on coasts and in the east, perhaps in exchange for Italian textiles, and slaves perhaps especially from the sixth-century BC Aisne,Marne/Mont Lassois complex. A principal point is to establish the ubiquity and economic importance of women and children as domestic slaves both in Italy and Gaul and their consequent significance as valuable objects of élite exchange. Development in patterns of slave procurement during this period are considered. [source] The Dead with Golden Faces.OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2000Connections, II Other Evidence In this second part of this paper I extend the study of the regions where gold funeral masks were widespread in the late 6th,early 5th centuries BC. The broader cultural and historical contexts give the opportunity to understand more clearly the ethnic situation in these northern Balkan lands and the political development of the local tribal communities. The cultural interrelations between ethnically different people in this territory are studied as well, while the iconography of the local metalwork allows some religious concepts to be considered. [source] CHARACTERIZATION OF CORAL RED SLIPS ON GREEK ATTIC POTTERY,ARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 3 2009M. S. WALTON Samples of red and black gloss from Greek Attic pottery of the late sixth to fifth centuries bc were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM and FIB/STEM). The focus of the study was the chemical and microstructural characterization of the red gloss that was first produced during this period. Two groupings of red gloss were revealed. One red was found to be compositionally similar to the black glosses (labelled ,LCM coral red'). The other red showed more significant chemical differences, such as higher calcium and magnesium, in comparison to the black (labelled ,HCM coral red'). The existence of two chemically distinct reds,otherwise identical in colour and texture,suggests that there was more than one source of clay available to the Attic potters for producing red. [source] THE ALPS,A BARRIER OR A PASSAGE FOR CERAMIC TRADE?*ARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 2 2005M. MAGGETTI The Alpsas a barrier: ceramic remnants of the so-called Laugen-Melaun culture (c. 11th to c. sixth centuries bc) can be found in the northern Italy (Trentino/Alto Adige),eastern Switzerland,Liechtenstein and western Austria region. A petrographic study of 454 sherds from this area covering a time span of 500 years reveals the following. (1) The pottery from the Trentino/Alto Adige contains a predominantly volcanic temper, which can be linked to the volcanic rocks of the Bolzano area,in other words, to the core region of this culture. This material is therefore of a local/regional production. (2) These ceramics were imported from the Bolzano region to southeastern Switzerland (the Inn Valley) and the amount of imported pottery decreases markedly from the 11th century bc (approximately 70% imported) to the seventh to sixth centuries bc (approximately 10% imported). (3) No imported pottery can be detected north of the Alpine crest in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria, and in this region serpentinite temper was preferred by ancient potters. These results demonstrate that long-lasting contacts and ceramic trade existed between the populations of the Inn Valley and the Trentino/Alto Adige. Such contacts could have been motivated by intermarriages between the two populations and/or economic exchange. The potters north of the Alpine ridge adopted the Laugen-Melaun style and produced such pottery locally. The use of serpentinite temper is puzzling and not related to any technological advantage. (Could it be recycled material? Or does it have any sociocultural specificity?) The Alps as a passage: 59 fragments of a black gloss ware, the so-called Campana, unearthed at 11 Late Latene sites (second to first centuries bc) in Switzerland and neighbouring Germany were analysed chemically by X-ray fluorescence. The results revealed: (1) that all of them were produced either in Italy or Lyon and then exported to the north; (2) that two principal south,north exchange routes existed, (a) fluviatile, along the Rhône,Rhine corridor and (b) trans-Alpine, using the Alpine passes, such as the Simplon and the Grand St Bernard. [source] The Earliest Naval RamINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2008Samuel Mark Analyses of the Kuyunjik (Kouyunjik) relief and other data suggest Phoenicia probably did not build ships with rams before the Battle of Salamis. A review of Greek literature, iconography, and archaeology suggests the naval ram may have been a Greek invention, appearing at the earliest in the 6th century BC and possibly as late as the 5th century. Its evolution may have led to a shift from laced to pegged mortise-and-tenon joinery in Greek shipbuilding as well as the development of the wineglass-shaped hull and heavier framing. It may also have influenced the development of large-scale bronze-casting in Greece. © 2008 The Author [source] Evidence for Indo-Roman Trade from Bet Dwarka Waters, West Coast of IndiaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 1 2006A. S. Gaur India had a very active maritime trade contact with the Roman world between the 4th century BC and the 4th century AD. In this context recent finds of stone anchors, potsherds, lead anchors and a lead ingot from 5 to 8 m water-depth near Bet Dwarka jetty is significant. The sherds include amphoras, jars, bowls and lids. Archaeological finds along the Indian coast and comparison between amphoras from Bet Dwarka and the Mediterranean suggest that the artefacts from Bet Dwarka may be datable to between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD. The numbers of stone anchors suggests that this was an ancient anchorage. © 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society [source] A funerary rite study of the Phoenician,Punic necropolis of Mount Sirai (Sardinia, Italy)INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2010G. Piga Abstract A recent excavation in the Phoenician,Punic necropolis of Mount Sirai, located in the southwestern part of Sardinia, Italy, has brought to light a number of tombs contextually attributed to a period from the early 6th to early 5th century BC, which is simultaneous with the beginning of the Carthago influence in Sardinia. Among the interred burials recently brought to light, the skeletal remains, sometimes of two superposed bodies, are found in a primary position and with fine anatomic connection. Some of the bones were visually stained, suggesting they were possibly subjected to fire treatment. In order to ascertain more objectively whether the bodies were subjected to burning, the bones from all the tombs were investigated by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopy techniques. After excluding the role of important diagenetic effects, from line broadening/sharpening analysis of hydroxylapatite in the bones according to the Rietveld method, it was evaluated that the bodies were probably subjected to a temperature regime from 300 to 700°C. These data were supplemented and confirmed by an analysis of the splitting factor (SF) of apatite phosphate peaks in the infra-red spectrum of the bones. Our results indicate the existence of a rite intermediate between incineration and inhumation. This sort of ,semi-combustion', perhaps limited to the period of the early 5th century BC, appears to be peculiar just to this site. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Raman spectroscopy in art and archaeologyJOURNAL OF RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY, Issue 8 2008Pietro Baraldi Abstract This paper introduces presentations given at the fourth International Conference on the Application of Raman Spectroscopy in Art and Archaeology, held in Modena, Italy, in the Ducal Palace, on 5,8 September 2007. The subjects of lectures and posters presented were concerned mainly with the new applications of Raman microscopy and other Raman techniques to more problematic samples, such as lakes, inks, and fluorescent dyes. Chronologically, the applications extended from the 10th century BC to the present day. The areas considered in the research were wide-ranging in terms of subject-matter and also geographically. New techniques have been developed for the study of binders in paintings and lakes, and with movable instrumentation on unmovable samples. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] NEW APPROACHES ON THE ARCHAIC TRADE IN THE NORTH-EASTERN IBERIAN PENINSULA: EXPLOITATION AND CIRCULATION OF LEAD AND SILVEROXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2010NÚRIA RAFEL Summary A wide-ranging study based on compositional and isotopic analyses of minerals and manufactured objects from the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula and their respective archaeological and cultural contexts demonstrates significant lead mineral exploitation in the El Priorat area (Tarragona province) linked to Phoenician trade (seventh,sixth centuries BC). This exploitation continued, despite losing intensity, until the Romanization of the territory. Our project also aims to determine the nature and origin of the lead and silver supply in the northern Iberian territory surrounding the Phocaean enclave of Emporion, especially with regard to the demands of the colonial mint. The behaviour pattern of the circulation of lead, silver and copper in Catalonia in the period studied indicates a plurality of contemporary supply sources, although, at least from the fifth century BC onward, minerals and metals from the south-eastern Iberian Peninsula take on considerable importance. [source] SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND HUMAN SPACE IN NORTH-EASTERN IBERIA DURING THE THIRD CENTURY BCOXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 4 2008CARME RUESTES Summary By using GIS (Geographical Information System) visibility analysis, the visual surveillance of, and ways in which people engaged and experienced, an Iberian landscape north of Barcelona during the third century BC are explored. The study of visual surveillance from the hillforts that dominated the area is understood as a means to address issues of social structure and hierarchy. How Iberian people might have viewed and rationalized their world, which is an issue that has so far not been addressed within the theoretical approaches that currently characterize this area of Mediterranean archaeology, is explored here for the first time. Emphasis is placed on people's sense of place and on hillforts' prominence. Visibility analysis indicates a highly structured society, where each hillfort might have primarily controlled given zones of the landscape and might have informed others about events taking place there through an integrated visibility network. Whilst hillforts appear to have been sited according to the view that they offered, they do not seem to have been intended to maximize their own visual impact. Social and experiential approaches compellingly coincide to suggest a subdivision of this society between mountain and coastal communities in both practical and perceptual terms. [source] THE BROCH CULTURES OF ATLANTIC SCOTLAND: ORIGINS, HIGH NOON AND DECLINE.OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 3 2008200 BC, PART 1: EARLY IRON AGE BEGINNINGS c.700 Summary. A new overview of the broch and wheelhouse-building cultures is offered because recent comparable attempts have omitted substantial amounts of relevant data, such as discussion of the most plausible broch prototypes and of the details of the material cultural sequence, particularly the pottery. Well dated Early Iron Age roundhouse sites have often been described, but promontory forts of the same period, showing the specialized broch hollow wall, have not. The example at Clickhimin, Shetland, is now reliably dated to the sixth century BC at the latest and the associated pottery shows clear links with north-west France. Another unexcavated example in Harris can be restored in some detail and shows how these sites were probably used. The pivotal role of Shetland in the emergence of the new culture is confirmed by the early dating of the broch at Old Scatness to the fourth/third centuries BC. However, a separate development of the round broch tower seems also to have occurred in the west, in the third/second centuries BC. English Early Iron Age pottery is also prominent in some of the earliest sites in the west and north. The picture is of a dynamic, maritime zone open to influences from several remote regions. [source] WHO WERE THE GLASSMAKERS?OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 3 2007STATUS, THEORY AND METHOD IN MID-SECOND MILLENNIUM GLASS PRODUCTION Summary. Glass was first produced in a regular and controlled manner in the Near East in the sixteenth century BC. This paper examines a wide variety of textual, archaeological and analytical sources to try and determine more about the makers of this first glass. It attempts to show how modern ideas about medieval glassmaking have been anachronistically applied to the second millennium BC, and readdresses this by turning instead to second millennium sources of evidence. Using these sources, it investigates the position of glass within Late Bronze Age society and the status of glassmakers themselves. It goes on to examine the evidence for ritual and experimental behaviour in LBA crafts and industries and applies this to ideas of technological innovation and change in the period. It looks at the alchemical nature of glass production and proposes new ways of attempting to understand the glassmakers themselves. [source] ON THE ORIGIN OF STAMPED AMPHORAE FROM THRACE (BULGARIA)OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 1 2007IVELIN KULEFF Summary. The contents of 25 elements in 74 stamped (and some unstamped) amphora finds from nine Thracian sites in Bulgaria dated to the fifth,third century BC have been determined using INAA. The samples investigated were grouped by cluster analysis on the basis of the similarity in their chemical composition. The chemical profiles of the 16 clusters formed were determined and common production centres for some of the stamped amphorae are identified. [source] MORTUARY DISPLAY AND CULTURAL CONTACT: A CEMETERY AT KASTRI ON THASOSOXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 4 2006SARA OWEN Summary. This article explores how the patterns of development within the local populations prior to Greek colonization, or even Greek contact, can elucidate the process of Greek colonization. Focusing upon the Thracian Early Iron Age cemetery of Kastri on Thasos, it suggests that past interpretations of such cemeteries as undifferentiated is due to the imposition of modern ideas of value. This article instead uses the criterion of diversity to suggest that the cemetery in fact has clear patterns of social differentiation in the first and last periods of use. Furthermore imports are restricted to graves of highest diversity in the last period of use (the early seventh century BC). This pattern is repeated over Early Iron Age Thrace, and is indicative of a social change within Thrace prior to Greek colonization which saw nascent Thracian elites seeking out imports from many areas in order to bolster their status. [source] Text and image in celtiberia: the adoption and adaptation of written language into indigenous visual vocabularyOXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2003FIONA A. ROSE SummaryThis study is concerned with the relationships between text and image in central Spain during the period second century BC,second century AD. Three discrete relationships are isolated, each one representative of a unique strategy for communicating with both written and figured language. The paper argues that the Celtiberian populi adopted Roman epigraphic practice into a pre-existing visual vocabulary, reconfiguring written communication into an indigenous framework that met local predilections. [source] The distribution of republican amphorae in franceOXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2003MATTHEW E. LOUGHTON SummaryRecent research on assemblages of Republican amphorae from France has greatly altered our understanding of the wine trade during the Late Iron Age. However, much of this work, and its implications, are not well known in Britain and this paper aims to disseminate this information by examining the latest evidence concerning the dating and distribution of Republican amphorae (Dressel 1, Lamboglia 2, Brindisi and Republican Ovoid amphorae) in France during the Late Iron Age. In total 1975 findspots of Republican amphorae have been recorded. This includes a significant number of Greco-Italic findspots that testify to an important phase of amphora importation to non-Mediterranean France that possibly started as early as the late third or early second century BC. Parts of southern and central France received an exceptional quantity of Republican amphorae. [source] The Isle of Portland: An Iron Age Port-of-tradeOXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2001John Taylor The Isle of Portland (Dorset, England) was part of a trading system that involved the circulation of goods in and across the English Channel during the first century BC. This paper assesses the suitability of Portland as an Iron Age port-of-trade, focuses on the exotics found there and discusses evidence for its hill-fort, which was destroyed in the middle of the nineteenth century [source] Mitochondrial DNA analysis of horses recovered from a frozen tomb (Berel site, Kazakhstan, 3rd Century BC)ANIMAL GENETICS, Issue 3 2005C. Keyser-Tracqui Summary Sequence polymorphism of the mitochondrial DNA D-loop was used to determine the genetic diversity of horses recovered from a Scythian princely tomb dating from the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Eight haplotypes were found among the 13 ancient horse samples tested. Phylogenetical analysis showed that these ancient horse's sequences, along with two Yakut ones, were distributed throughout the tree defined by modern horses' sequences and are closely related to them. No clear geographical affiliation of the specimens studied was thus determined. Our work, among others, supports the very ancient origin of the matrilines in horses. [source] NEW EVIDENCE FOR APULIAN RED-FIGURE PRODUCTION CENTRESARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 5 2010J. THORN A total of 52 South Italian red-figure vases were subjected to neutron activation analysis. The primary aim of the study was to determine whether all Apulian red-figure pottery datable to the period c. 430,340 bc was produced at the Greek colony of Taras, as has been widely assumed. Three chemically distinct compositional groups were isolated and compared to archaeological reference material from Taranto. The results of this comparison suggest that some Early Apulian red-figure pottery may have been produced outside of Taras from the fifth century bc onwards. [source] ROMAN WINDOW GLASS: A COMPARISON OF FINDINGS FROM THREE DIFFERENT ITALIAN SITESARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 2 2010R. ARLETTI Thirty-three samples of window glass and five glass lumps coming from three Italian archaeological sites,the Suasa excavations (Ancona, settled from the third century bc to the fifth to sixth centuries ad), the Roman town of Mevaniola (Forlì-Cesena, settled from the Imperial Age up to the fourth century ad) and Theodoric's Villa of Galeata (Forlì-Cesena, settled from the sixth century ad onwards),were analysed to track the changes in the chemical composition and manufacturing technology of window glass through the centuries. The aims of this study were: (1) to establish the origin of the raw materials; (2) to verify the chemical homogeneity among samples coming from different sites and/or produced using different techniques; and (3) to sort the samples into the compositional groups of ancient glass. The analysis of all the chemical variables allowed two groups to be distinguished: (a) finds from Mevaniola and Suasa; and (b) finds from Galeata. All the samples had a silica,soda,lime composition, but the analysis of minor elements,in particular, of Fe, Mn, and Ti,made it possible to split the samples into two groups, with the higher levels of these elements always found in the Galeata samples (HIMT glass). In conclusion, it can be asserted that the main differences between the samples are related to their chronology. [source] | |||||||||||||