scholarly journals Skupinové pohřebiště únětické kultury z Lovosic (okr. Litoměřice). K funerálním areálům starší doby bronzové v severozápadních Čechách / The Únětice Culture Group Cemetery from Lovosice (Litoměřice District). On Early Bronze Age Burial Grounds in Northwest Bohemia

2021 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 101-196
Author(s):  
Marek Půlpán ◽  
Katarína Petriščáková ◽  
Jana Kuljavceva Hlavová ◽  
Agnieszka Půlpánová-Reszczyńska ◽  
Peter Pavúk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Mature Stage ◽  
Exchange System ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
River Region ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Wooden Structures ◽  
Burial Grounds

The subject of the article is the “group” Unětice culture cemetery from the Early Bronze Age investigated in 2014 in Lovosice (Litoměřice district, northwest Bohemia). The cemetery’s dating to 2021–1751 BC corresponds to the mature stage of the Unětice culture in other parts of Bohemia (Moucha’s preclassical and classical stages). The cemetery is characterised by stone and apparently even wooden structures, multiple burials and the exclusive presence of miniature vessels. The population was composed primarily of old adults with the corresponding degenerative productive changes; only two non-adults were determined. Epigenetic marks on the skeletons testifying to a certain degree of kinship between the buried individuals were documented at the group cemetery and outside of it. New excavations have provided more detailed information on the spatial structure of burial grounds which, in addition to large cemeteries (of the Liběšovice, Březno near Louny, and Velke Žernoseky type), are composed of cemeteries with 10–20 graves, small groups of graves and solitary graves. These are also frequently accompanied by contemporary settlements located either close to the cemeteries or, as in the case of Lovosice, in the middle of the burial grounds. The spatial distribution of exogenous artefacts (amber beads, gold ornaments, silicite daggers) points to the possibility of the existence of an established network of long-distance routes in northwest Bohemia in the Early Bronze Age. One of the possible nodal points connected to the long-distance exchange system could have been located in the lower Ohře River region. This is documented, among other things, by the concentration of burial grounds with exceptional finds, settlements with evidence of metallurgy and the largest Bohemian hoards of ingots concentrated in the geographically defined microregion of Lovosice.

scholarly journals Argonauts of the North Sea - a Social Maritime Archaeology for the 2nd Millennium BC

2006 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 267-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Van de Noort
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Maritime Archaeology ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
The North Sea

This paper aims to offer a new analysis of the social dimensions of seafaring in the 2nd millennium BC and a consideration of the role of seafaring in (re)creating the social order at the time through its economic, sociopolitical and ritual significance. It revisits the sewn-plank boats from Ferriby, Kilnsea, Dover, Calidcot, Testwood Lakes, Goldcliff and Brigg, and aspects of the way in which seafarers signified themselves and their world through their imagined relationship with the environment are illuminated. The study argues that in the Early Bronze Age, sewn-plank boats were used for directional, long-distance journeys, aimed at the ‘cosmological acquisition’ of exotic goods, and the contexts of these boats link the overseas journeys to the ancestors. In the Middle and Late Bronze Age, sewn-plank boats were used for down-the-line exchange, and fragments of sewn-plank boats were included in structured deposits, within or near river crossings, reflecting the idioms of transformation and regeneration which are well established for this period. Through the reconstruction of the boats' crews, it is suggested that the development of a retinue was a prerequisite for the successful completion of the long-distance journeys, and the social identities that were cultivated during these voyages are recognised as a potentially important element in the rise of elite groups in the Early Bronze Age.

Research on the Hungarian Bronze Age since 1936 and the Bronze-Age Settlement at Békés-Várdomb

1956 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 123-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Banner
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
The State ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Modern Approach ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
At Home

The state of current knowledge on the Bronze Age in Hungary, was summed up twenty years ago by Dr Francis Tompa, who had by then written several shorter studies on the subject, and had excavated a number of cemeteries and settlements. His summary defined the modern approach to the Bronze Age in Hungary though his conclusions have since been modified in detail by later explorers. How fruitful his work proved to be was shown by the interest of critics abroad and by the fact that research at home took a sudden upward swing.A few years later Dr Paul Patay published a study in which he came to somewhat different conclusions on the chronology of the Early Bronze Age; he also gave a detailed account of the various cultures that must have shaped the course of the Bronze Age in Hungary and in this he was substantially in agreement with Dr Francis Tompa.Dr Amelia Mozsolics dealt with chronological problems of the Bronze Age in Hungary, but had not yet reached satisfactory newer conclusions. Her paper was published only in Hungarian. She presented a useful summary of the history of her subject, and at the same time sharply criticized the views held by foreign and Hungarian experts on the Bronze Age.

Double Edged Blades: Re-visiting the British (and Irish) Flint Daggers

2014 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 33-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine J. Frieman
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
No Production ◽  
New Classification ◽  
Dry Land ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Made In

Flint daggers are a well-known and closely studied category of artefact found throughout western Europe during the final centuries of the Neolithic and the earliest phases of metal use. They are widely linked to the adoption of metal objects and metallurgy – in many cases being described as copies of metal daggers. In Britain, several hundred flint daggers have been recovered from a variety of contexts, among the best known of which are a handful of rich Beaker single inhumation burials. The British flint daggers were of great interest to early archaeologists, and were the subject of several publications in the early 20th century, most notably the seminal 1931 typochronology and catalogue by W.F. Grimes. However, despite 80 years of evolution in our understanding of the British Early Bronze Age, Beaker burials, European flint daggers, and lithic technology in general, little further attention has been accorded to the British flint daggers. This paper returns to the flint daggers deposited in British contexts. It proposes a new classification for British daggers, distinguishing between those probably produced in Britain and those brought in from elsewhere on the continent. It further examines thechaîne opératoirefor these daggers based on their final form as no production locales are yet known and examines in detail the choices made in their deposition, not just in funerary contexts but on dry land and, most importantly, in wet contexts. Finally, it proposes a sequence of development for British flint daggers which links them technologically and morphologically to lanceolate Scandinavian daggers in circulation in the Netherlands. It is suggested that people in south-east Britain knowingly played up this Dutch connection in order to highlight a specific ancestral identity linking them directly to communities across the Channel.

The Early Bronze Age Flint Dagger in England and Wales

1932 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 340-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. F. Grimes
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Simple Leaf ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Very High

The chronology of the flint dagger which is the subject of the present paper has been discussed by R. A. Smith, who established the date of the type in the first phase of the Bronze Age, the period to which it had already been assigned by Montelius. A summary ot the list made by Mr. Smith is given in Appendix II below (p. 354-5); the few examples recorded with datable associations since 1919 bring the total up to 26.Sir John Evans's description, adopted by Mr. Smith, gives the length and breadth of the type as varying generally between 5 and 7 ins. and 1½ to 2½ ins. respectively, although both larger and smaller examples occur. The blades are thin in proportion to their length, and lanceolate in outline, although in this respect there is a certain amount of variation. Both faces are flaked, and the working is generally of a very high character. In some cases major excrescences have been reduced by grinding.Some typological development may be observed in the forms, although this cannot be compared with the elaborate evolution of the well-known Scandinavian series (below, p. 350). The changes take place in the butt. The earliest form typoiogically speaking, would seem to be a simple leaf-shaped blade, the widest part of which is approximately at the middle. There is no distinction between blade and tang or handle, and the latter is generally rounded off. Such daggers as the Green Low, Alsop Moor (Appendix I, no. 27, and fig. 1), and Acklam Wold (126) examples represent this form. It is not always easy to decide, however, whether other blades approximating to this shape represent a so-called prototype, and care has also to be taken to differentiate surface-found laurel-leaf blades of Solutrean age, although these are more usually pointed at both ends.

scholarly journals BIOARCHAEOLOGY OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS OF THE EARLY BRONZE AGE ON THE BASIS OF MATERIALS FROM THE BURIAL GROUNDS OF THE VOLGOGRAD REGION

2019 ◽  
pp. 106-120
Author(s):  
E.V. Pererva ◽  
A.N. Dyachenko
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Solid Food ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Lower Volga ◽  
Burial Grounds

The paper studies the burials and anthropological materials of children (Early Bronze Age; Yamna culture), originating from the burial complexes of the Lower Volga using the method of paleopathological examination of skeletal remains and through the interpretation of the archaeological material. The skeletal remains of seven indi-viduals whose age did not exceed 15–16 years were examined. The bone material exhibited varying degrees of preservation. In 6 skeletal remains, only fragments of the cranium were examined, whereas in 5 individuals it was possible to examine the postcranial remains along with the skull bones. In this study, we applied a procedure for studying pathological abnormalities in the human skeleton developed by A.P. Buzhilova [1998]. Different me-thodological recommendations were used when recording bone porosis [Ortner, Ericksen, 1997; Ortner, Putschar, 1981; Lukacs, et al., 2001; Brown, Ortner, 2011; Maclellan, 2011]. The analysis of anthropological series helped to assess the incidence of porotic hyperostosis of eye sockets (cribra orbitalia) and cranial roof bones; to detect the signs of inflammatory processes in the bones of the postcranial skeleton in the form of periostitis, inflamma-tion on the inner surface of the bones of the cranial vault, as well as the pathological conditions of the dental sys-tem [Hegen, 1971; Stuart-Macadam, 1992; Waldron et al., 2009; Walker et al., 2009; Suby, 2014; Zuckerman et al., 2014]. The analysis of archaeological materials from children's burials of the Early Bronze Age revealed that almost all burials of children and adolescents are inlet, i.e. they do not have their individual barrows. The collec-tion of items is extremely small and is primarily represented by ceramics of very poor quality. A low proportion of children's burials attributed to the Yamna culture is observed in the Lower Volga burial grounds. As a rule, chil-dren are buried together with adults, so separate burials are very rare. Two of the seven studied individuals were 4 to 7 years old, while the remaining five individuals were buried at the age of 8–16. The reason for the small number of children's burials of the Yamna culture is associated with the low social status of the immature part of the population, which, in turn, may suggest some special, poorly fixed archaeologically, burial ritual for the bulk of children, given that subsequently the number of children's individual burials increased quite significantly on the same territory. Nevertheless, their design and accompanying items are not much different from those of adult burials. Young individuals of the Early Bronze Age are characterised by markers of episodic stress that occurred during various periods of childhood, predominantly from 2 to 4 years old. The stress can be associated with the transition from the dairy diet to the solid food diet. The widespread occurrence of tartar in immature individuals can indicate the specificity of their diet, which was based on soft and, possibly, fatty food. In addition, it may indi-cate a lack of oral hygiene, which is quite natural for the historical period. Vitamin deficiency recorded in the stu-died group results either from exposure to negative factors during the late transition from breastfeeding to solid food or from chronic hunger. Young people of the Early Bronze Age had non-specific inflammations, which, most likely, were not systematic, but occurred sporadically. We can presume that children and adolescents of the stu-died age lived peacefully and participated in the economic activities of the social groups. Being exposed to epi-sodic stresses, immature individuals of the pit culture successfully adapted to environmental factors.

Long distance trinket trade: Early Bronze Age obsidian from the Negev

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 775-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven A. Rosen ◽  
Robert H. Tykot ◽  
Michael Gottesman
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Long Distance

scholarly journals Paleoanthropological study of a skull from a burial at the Chemurchek sanctuary Hulagash (Bayan-Ulgii aimag, Mongolia)

2020 ◽  
pp. 78-95
Author(s):  
A.A. Kovalev ◽  
K.N. Solodovnikov ◽  
Ch. Munkhbayar ◽  
M. Erdene ◽  
A.I. Nechvaloda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Altai Mountains ◽  
Intergroup Comparison ◽  
South Siberia ◽  
Cultural Affinity ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Ritual Site ◽  
Burial Grounds

Recent studies show that, in the 3rd millennium BC, the highlands in the basin of the upper reaches of the Khovd (Kobdo) River constituted a ritual zone, which was of particular importance for the population inhabiting the western foothills of the Mongolian Altai Mountains. Its cultural singularity was due to the so-called Chemurchek cultural phenomenon — a set of characteristics of West European origin, which appeared there no later than 2700–2600 BC. Three large-scale ritual complexes-‘shrines’ attributed to this period were discovered in the area of Lake Dayan Nuur. Excavations conducted by the expedition of A.A. Kovalev and Ch. Munkhbayar revealed that these structures constituted fences consisting of vertical stone slabs, decorated all-over on the outside with the images of fantastic anthropomorphic creatures and animals. The excavation of Hulagash 1 (one of these sanctu-aries), radiocarbon dated to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, revealed a single grave in the centre of the structure, synchronous with the time when the complex was used. The grave belonged to a man of advanced age, whose body was wrapped in a wide piece of cloth. The significance of this man being buried in the centre of the ritual site remains unclear. This person could have been sacrificed during construction or, conversely, he could have had a special status. Craniometrical measurement and dentological investigation of the scull from the Chemurchek sanctuary Hulagash were conducted; its graphic reconstruction was performed. Its anthropological type shows a significant Mongoloid component. Intergroup comparison revealed its significant morphological dif-ferences from markedly Caucasoid groups, including the Afanasievo culture of South Siberia and Central Asia. This excludes the morphogenetic continuity of the Chemurchek phenomenon from the antecedent Afanasievo popula-tion. The individual from Hulagash bears the greatest anthropological similarity to the Neolithic-Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age populations of the Circumbaikal region (Serovo and Glazkovo cultures) and the Barnaul-Biysk Ob area (Itkul and Firsovo XI burial grounds dating back to the pre-Bronze Age; Early Bronze Age burial grounds of the Elunino culture). This is obviously a manifestation of a shared anthropological substrate, since the anthropological component of the Baikal type (which the population of the Elunino culture included) was recorded in the Neolithic-Eneolithic materials from the northern foothills of the Altai Mountains. Remarkable morphological similarities between the individual from Hulagash and the bearers of the Elunino archaeological culture reinforce the assumption that there is a cultural affinity between the Chemurchek and Elunino populations of the Early Bronze Age.

Folklore of Fossils Part II

Antiquity ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 39 (154) ◽  
pp. 117-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Oakley
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Sea Urchins ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Left Shoulder ◽  
The South ◽  
Southern England ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Country People

There are several kinds of fossil sea-urchin that are the subject of folklore, the commonest in the south of England being casts in flint, derived from the Chalk, of the heart-urchinMicraster, and of the helmet-urchinEchinocorys. Both of these, but more commonly the latter, are known to the country people as shepherd's crowns or fairy loaves (PL. xxib). Formerly at least, the Essex labourer believed that so long as one of these fossil sea-urchins was kept in the house, his family would never go short of bread (Johnson 1908, 149). At a number of localities in southern England fossil echinoids are traditionally placed on dairy shelves to keep milk from going sour. This practice is clearly linked with the ancient idea that these fossils are thunderstones.The earliest known case of fossil echinoids being used in a ceremonial burial is in the Early Bronze Age tumulus on the Dunstable Downs, where nearly IOO shepherd’s crowns, mainlyMicraster, had been arranged to encircle the bodies of a woman and child (Worthington Smith 1894, frontispiece, 337-8). H. S. Toms collected evidence that up to the middle of the last century fossil sea-urchins were called thunderstones throughout Sussex, whereas they are now simply regarded as ‘lucky’ (PL. XXIIb), and if seen in the soil and not brought home, at least one should spit on the shepherd’s crown and throw it over the left shoulder. Even the idea of luck being attached to sea-urchins found on the fields has disappeared latterly from many villages. As there were still scattered traces of the thunderstone belief in Sussex in 1930, it is probable that more than a century ago the thunderstone aspect was dominant there. This idea survived longer in West Sussex than in East Sussex, and oral tradition can be traced back to 1860.

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