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Late Bronze Age (late + bronze_age)
Selected AbstractsUSING AND ABANDONING ROUNDHOUSES: A REINTERPRETATION OF THE EVIDENCE FROM LATE BRONZE AGE,EARLY IRON AGE SOUTHERN ENGLANDOXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2007LEO WEBLEY Summary. It has recently been demonstrated that a number of roundhouses of the early first millennium BC in southern England show a concentration of finds in the southern half of the building. It has thus been argued that this area was used for domestic activities such as food preparation, an idea which has formed the basis for discussion of later prehistoric ,cosmologies'. However, reconsideration of the evidence suggests that this finds patterning does not relate to the everyday use of the buildings, being more likely to derive from a particular set of house abandonment practices. Furthermore, evidence can be identified for the location of domestic activities within contemporary roundhouses that appears to contradict the established model. [source] Bronze Age paleohydrography of the southern Venetian PlainGEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2010Silvia Piovan The Bronze Age paleohydrography of the distal Adige and Po alluvial plain (northeastern Italy) is notable for its relations with protohistoric human activities in this area. This paper regards the stratigraphy and petrography of the Saline,Cona alluvial ridge, upon which the Saline, Sarzano, and Cantarana Bronze Age sites lie, and the petrography of Fratta alluvial ridge, upon which the Frattesina complex (Bronze,Iron Age) lies. Sand analyses indicate the Po River as the source for sediments underlying the alluvial ridge that runs through Fratta Polesine, Rovigo, Sarzano, and Cona. Radiometric ages indicate that the branch of the Saline,Cona ridge was formed by the Po River between the second half of the 3rd millennium B.C. and the end of 2nd millennium B.C. This ridge represents the maximum northward expansion of the Po alluvial system, through the same area of coastal plain crossed by the Adige and Brenta paleochannels. This paleohydrographic setting implies that fluvial connections between the Central Po Plain settlements, the Venetian Plain and Alps were relatively less complex in the Early and Middle Bronze Age than in the Late Bronze Age, when the terminal reach of the Po River was separated by the Adige River by hundreds of km2 of swampy terrain. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Late Bronze Age paleogeography along the ancient Ways of Horus in Northwest Sinai, EgyptGEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2008Stephen O. Moshier The northwest Sinai contained the eastern frontier of New Kingdom Egypt during the Late Bronze Age. The ancient Pelusaic branch of the Nile Delta influenced the environmental setting of this region at that time. Fortresses were built along the coastal byway through the study area known as the Ways of Horus to protect Egyptian-held territory from immigrants and intruders from Canaan and the Mediterranean Sea. Building on previous geomorphic studies in the region, this paper presents the results of field investigations of Holocene sedimentary deposits, aided by satellite photography, used to create a paleogeographic map that places archaeological sites in their proper environmental context. CORONA satellite photographs from the late 1960s reveal surface features that have been obscured by more recent agricultural development in the region. Canals dug for an agricultural project provided easy access to the shallow subsurface for mapping the extent of Holocene sediments representing barrier coast, lagoon, estuarine, fluvial, and marsh depositional environments. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] The management of arable land from prehistory to the present: Case studies from the Northern Isles of ScotlandGEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2006Erika B. Guttmann The arable soils from two multiperiod settlements were analyzed to identify changes in agricultural methods over time. The settlement middens were also analyzed to determine whether potential fertilizers were discarded unused. Results suggest that in the Neolithic period (,4000,2000 B.C. in the UK) the arable soils at Tofts Ness, Orkney, and Old Scatness, Shetland, were created by flattening and cultivating the settlements' midden heaps in situ. The arable area at Tofts Ness was expanded in the Bronze Age (,2000,700 B.C. in the UK), and the new land was improved by the addition of ash, nightsoil, and domestic waste. Cultivation continued briefly after the fields were buried in windblown sand in the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age, but by the Early Iron Age cultivation ceased and organic-rich material was allowed to accumulate within the settlement. By contrast, at Old Scatness, arable production was increased in the Iron Age (,700 B.C.,A.D. 550 in Scotland) by the intensive use of animal manures. The results indicate that during the lifespan of the two settlements the arable soils were fertilized to increase production, which was intensified over time. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Origin of post-Minoan caves and volcaniclastic cave fill, Thera (Santorini), GreeceGEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 5 2003Joan M. Ramage The Aegean island of Thera (Santorini) was covered by tephra from its cataclysmic Late Bronze Age (ca. 3600 yr B.P.) eruption. Vertical exposures of the eruptive sequence show secondary, nonvolcanic, circular (in cross section) features composed of stratified sediment. Many are inaccessible from the floors of modern quarries and appear to be caves filled with younger sediment, but show no connection to the land surface. A filled cave was found in the wall of a modern gully outside the modern quarries, and a filled cave was found in a terrace scarp, well above the modern gully. Natural (and probably rapid) incision by gullies into the thick tephra deposit left many locations with lateral access to tephra. Inhabitants from post-Minoan to recent times excavated tephra for materials and buildings, and caves were subsequently filled by sporadic (possibly seasonal) flood events that deposited sediment. These gullies may have provided access for modern tephra removal that isolated the filled caves high on the modern quarry walls. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] A beetle's eye view of London from the Mesolithic to Late Bronze AgeGEOLOGICAL JOURNAL, Issue 5 2009Scott A. Elias The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the environmental history of the London region, based on changes in beetle faunal assemblages from the Mesolithic to Late Bronze Age. Eight sites were studied, all but one of which are within 2,km of the modern course of the Thames. The sites produced 128 faunal assemblages that yielded 218 identified species in 41 families of Coleoptera (beetles). Beetle faunas of Mesolithic age indicate extensive wetlands near the Thames, bordered by rich deciduous woodlands. The proportion of woodland species declined in the Neolithic, apparently because of the expansion of wetlands, rather than because of human activities. The Early Bronze Age faunas contained a greater proportion of coniferous woodland and aquatic (standing water) species. An increase in the dung beetle fauna indicates the presence of sheep, cattle and horses, and various beetles associated with crop lands demonstrate the local rise of agriculture, albeit several centuries after the beginnings of farming in other regions of Britain. Late Bronze Age faunas show the continued development of agriculture and animal husbandry along the lower Thames. About 33% of the total identified beetle fauna from the London area sites have limited modern distributions or are extinct in the U.K. Some of these species are associated with the dead wood found in primeval forests; others are wetland species whose habitat has been severely reduced in recent centuries. The third group is stream-dwelling beetles that require clean, clear waters and river bottoms. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] CONTRASTING SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES IN THE EARLY IRON AGE?OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2009AND 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] A Bronze Ingot-bearer from CyprusOXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 4 2001Vassos Karageorghis Cypriot bronze four-sided stands represent some of the most impressive metal artefacts produced in the Eastern Mediterranean. As such they offer insight into the high level of the Cypriot bronzework of the Late Bronze Age and witness the advanced skills of the Cypriot metalsmiths. A bronze fragment depicting a man bearing an oxhide ingot, detached from a four-sided stand and housed in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, is now added to the corpus of these works. Although unprovenanced, its Cypriot origin is proven by its close typological, technological and stylistic affinities when compared to other Cypriot stands. The discussion of technology, style and chronology of this fragment serves as an opportunity for the evaluation of the stands as a whole and their establishment as products of great technical and artistic virtuosity. [source] Magnetic survey in the investigation of sociopolitical change at a Late Bronze age fortress settlement in northwestern ArmeniaARCHAEOLOGICAL PROSPECTION, Issue 1 2010Ian Lindsay Abstract The construction of large stone fortresses across much of northern Armenia during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500,1150 BC) represented a shift away from centuries of nomadic pastoralism, and also marked a profound transformation in the constitution of political authority and how social orders were mediated through the built environment. To date, however, little archaeological attention has been given to Late Bronze Age (LBA) settlements located outside the fortress citadels, partly due to the difficulty in detecting them from the surface. In this report we highlight results and observations from a magnetic gradiometry survey in northwestern Armenia where we test the hypothesis that an extensive LBA domestic complex existed at the base of the fortified hill at the site of Tsaghkahovit. The study surveyed four grids in the settlement area at the base of fortress. Three test units were excavated in three of the four survey areas to test selected anomalies. Two of the test units confirmed the presence of subsurface LBA deposits, including basalt stone walls, burned features, and a storage pit, appearing in the data as large dipoles. The spatial configurations of buildings revealed by the gradiometry surveys elucidate the extent of the Tsaghkahovit settlement and the formal differentiation of domestic and institutional spaces as new architectural traditions emerge during the Middle to Late Bronze Age transition. However, targeted subsurface tests also hint at the ephemeral nature of the domestic constructions suggesting the retention of mobility among subject populations under the authority of settled fortress elites. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] ISOTOPIC DISCRIMINANTS BETWEEN LATE BRONZE AGE GLASSES FROM EGYPT AND THE NEAR EASTARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 3 2010P. DEGRYSE This paper presents oxygen, strontium and neodymium isotopic analysis from a series of Late Bronze Age glasses from Egypt and Mesopotamia. It was found that oxygen and neodymium isotopes alone cannot readily distinguish between glasses from the various sites. However, combined Sr and Nd isotope analysis separate the data into three groups: an Egyptian group with relatively low Sr and Nd ratios; a Late Bronze Age (LBA) Nuzi group with high Sr and low Nd ratios; and an intermediate Sr and high Nd ratio grouping of glasses from Tell Brak. These findings suggest that most of the glass from Nuzi and Tell Brak had different raw materials and hence the glass was probably produced at different manufacturing sites. However, one glass ingot found at Tell Brak (TB1) appears to have Nuzi-type Sr,Nd characteristics. This is the first positive identification of multiple production sites in LBA Mesopotamia and an exceptional example of a glass that may have been exchanged from one LBA site to another. [source] THE ANALYSIS OF SECOND MILLENNIUM GLASS FROM EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA, PART 1: NEW WDS ANALYSES,ARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 4 2006A. J. SHORTLAND A recent analytical study by SEM,WDS was carried out on 226 glasses from the Late Bronze Age, analysing each of the glasses for a total of at least 22 elements, the largest such analytical study conducted on these glasses. The aim of the analysis was first to identify which elements were brought in with each of the raw materials and, second, to accurately characterize those raw materials. Since different glassmaking sites in Egypt and the Near East would probably use at least some local raw materials and these raw materials will vary slightly from site to site, this has potential for provenancing the glass. Analysis showed new patterns in the compositions of glass from the various sites and led to new conclusions about the supply of raw materials and personnel for the glass workshops. This forms the basis for further work by LA,ICPMS to be presented in part 2 of this paper. [source] Upper limb musculoskeletal stress markers among middle Holocene foragers of Siberia's Cis-Baikal regionAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 4 2009Angela R. Lieverse Abstract This evaluation of musculoskeletal stress markers (MSMs) in the Cis-Baikal focuses on upper limb activity reconstruction among the region's middle Holocene foragers, particularly as it pertains to adaptation and cultural change. The five cemetery populations investigated represent two discrete groups separated by an 800,1,000 year hiatus: the Early Neolithic (8000,7000/6800 cal. BP) Kitoi culture and the Late Neolithic/Bronze Age (6000/5800,4000 cal. BP) Isakovo-Serovo-Glaskovo (ISG) cultural complex. Twenty-four upper limb MSMs are investigated not only to gain a better understanding of activity throughout the middle Holocene, but also to independently assess the relative distinctiveness of Kitoi and ISG adaptive regimes. Results reveal higher heterogeneity in overall activity levels among Early Neolithic populations,with Kitoi males exhibiting more pronounced upper limb MSMs than both contemporary females and ISG males,but relative constancy during the Late Neolithic/Bronze Age, regardless of sex or possible status. On the other hand, activity patterns seem to have varied more during the latter period, with the supinator being ranked high among the ISG, but not the Kitoi, and forearm flexors and extensors being ranked generally low only among ISG females. Upper limb rank patterning does not distinguish Early Neolithic males, suggesting that their higher MSM scores reflect differences in the degree (intensity and/or duration), rather than the type, of activity employed. Finally, for both Kitoi and ISG peoples, activity patterns,especially the consistently high-ranked costoclavicular ligament and deltoid and pectoralis major muscles,appear to be consistent with watercraft use. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] | |||||||||||||