The Use and Abuse of Cinnabar in Late Neolithic and Copper Age Iberia

Author(s):  
Steven D. Emslie ◽  
Ana Maria Silva ◽  
António Valera ◽  
Eduardo Vijande Vila ◽  
Linda Melo ◽  
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Keyword(s):  
2014 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dragoş Diaconescu

Methoden derLes nouvelles méthodes de datation et d’analyse des correspondances et AMS nous permettent de préciser et d’améliorer les schémas de chronologie relative dont nous disposons. Ainsi, pour la culture de Lengyel, (également connue sous le nom de Groupe morave-autrichien oriental), des schémas de chronologie absolue sont disponibles, mais la situation du Bassin des Carpates est actuellement différente: il n’existe pratiquement aucune date publiée pour la culture de Lengyel dans cette région. Un nouveau modèle chronologique pour la culture de Lengyel est proposé ici, sur la base d’une étude de la céramique retrouvée dans les ensembles funéraires qui fait usage de la méthode de l’analyse des correspondances et des approches Bayésiennes. Il en résulte que certains synchronismes (tels Lengyel I and II = Néolithique final = cultures de Tisza-Herpály: Lengyel III = Chalcolithique ancien = culture de Tiszapolgár) ne semblent plus valables.The AMS data and correspondence analysis methodology could correct and improve the relative chronology picture. For Lengyel culture (also named Moravian-Eastern-Austrian group) absolute chronological models have already been proposed. In Carpathian Basin the situation is quite different for the moment. Almost no absolute data are published for Lengyel culture in this area. A new chronological model for Lengyel culture is proposed based on the morphological aspects of the pottery inventory from funerary contexts and using correspondence analysis cross-checked by Bayesian approaches. The most interesting fact is that relative chronology synchronisms such as Lengyel I and II = Late Neolithic = Tisza-Herpály cultures and Lengyel III = Early Copper Age = Tiszapolgár culture do not seem to be valid anymoreModelarea datelor AMS şi utilizarea analizei de corespondenţă, ca şi metode de lucru, pot îmbunătăţi şi corecta tabloul cronologiei relative. Pentru cultura Lengyel (numită şi Grupul Morav – est-austriac) au fost deja propuse modele cronologice absolute. În Bazinul Carpatic situaţia este la acest moment un pic diferită. Extrem de puţine date radiocarbon pentru cultura Lengyel sunt publicate pentru acest areal. Un nou model cronologic al culturii Lengyel este propus aici, bazat pe analiza aspectelor morfologice ale inventarului ceramic provenit din contexte funerare. Analiza de corespondenţă, dublată de abordări Bayesiene ale datelor 14C, au fost folosite ca şi metode de lucru. Cel mai interesant aspect al rezultatelor obţinute este faptul că sincronisme ale cronologiei relative de tip Lengyel I–II = Neolitic Târziu = culturile Tisza-Herpály şi Lengyel III = Epoca Timpurie a Cuprului = cultura Tiszapolgár par a nu mai fi valabile.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-199
Author(s):  
Viktor Vladimirovich Morozov

The paper deals with the analysis of the Novoilyinskaya culture sites existed in the Lower Kama region between the Kama Neolithic culture collapse and the Copper Age cultures with porous (shell tempered) ceramics appearance. The analysis of the ceramic complex of the Novoilyinskaya culture shows its similarity with the comb ornamented pottery of the Kama Neolithic culture according to a number of indicators. A lack of clear data on stratigraphy and spatial distribution of finds as well as a small series of absolute dates do not give a clear idea of the formation time and the development of the Novoilyinskaya culture. Currently available data show that the Samara collar (Ivanovskaya) traditions disappeared until the last quarter of the 5th Millennium cal BC. Specific ceramics of the Neolithic-type shape is formed in the Lower Kama region. At the same time the Novoilyinskaya culture ceramics of the Ik and Belaya Rivers interfluve has some features which are the reminiscences of the Levshinskaya stage which are not characteristic for the Middle and Upper Kama region. These features are: thickening on the inner side of the rim; rows of pits and bulges (formed by pits imprinted from the inner side) under the rim; closed forms of the pots and an ornamentation - stepping comb impressions. The proximity of the ceramic complexes of the Novoilyinskaya culture sites to the Late Neolithic ceramics of the Kama culture as well as the radiocarbon dates and the absence of the metalworking evidences prove the functioning of the Novoilyinskaya culture sites of the Lower Kama region during the border of the Stone Age and the period of Early Metals. Another important question is - which southern components took part in the formation of the Novoilyinskaya type or influenced it. Researchers of the forest-steppe Copper Age cultures supposed that in the process of forest Copper Age cultures formation - the Garin and Bor cultures as well as the Middle Volga variant of the Volosovo culture - the Tok and even Altata elements took part. In our opinion, the influence of the Tok traditions is already clearly visible on the Novoilyinskaya culture ceramics. This conclusion is supported by the ⁴C dates which established the synchronicity of the Tok and Novoilyinskaya sites.


2015 ◽  
pp. 377-403
Author(s):  
Daniel Neumann ◽  
Zsuzsa Siklósi ◽  
Roman Scholz ◽  
Márton Szilágyi

This study aims to present the first results of fieldwork conducted by the teams of the Römisch-Germanische Kommission (Frankfurt am Main) and the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest) in the scope of a joint project. The investigated tell site, Berettyóújfalu-Szilhalom is well known by prehistoric archaeology due to earlier excavations. The main goals of the project were to gain a better understanding of Late Neolithic tell formation processes, to investigate the relations of a tell and its adjacent horizontal settlement and to get a more detailed picture on the Late Neolithic–Early Copper Age transition. Therefore we re-opened the refilled trench of the excavation carried out in 1976, collected bone, soil and micromorphological samples for further examinations, performed geomagnetic prospections, made drillings and field surveys.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-91
Author(s):  
Gheorghe Lazarovici ◽  
Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici

Abstract In this study we have resumed the problem of Neolithic settlements with a complex architecture (defense systems with ditches, palisades, towers, bastions; residential buildings; cult constructions; social constructions) which support the idea of a proto-urban organization since the PPN. We have analyzed current definitions of cities and fairs, which mainly reflect situations from classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, but they cannot be applied to prehistoric realities, which, according to interdisciplinary research, offer another perspective. We also believe that religion too has played an important part in these sites, some of them being real centers of worship.


2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 29-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan T. Thomas

From an analysis of over 3,000 beads and pendants from seven contemporary Late Neolithic/Copper Age (3500–2500 BC) sites in the Portuguese Estremadura, two dominant patterns emerge: (1) most beads show a high degree of standardization in terms of size and shape and are made from local materials; and (2) a minority are made from non-local, rare, and visually distinctive materials (e.g.variscite, ivory), and are less standardized and more labour-intensive. The emphasis on a wide-range of materials suggests that uncommon ornaments may have functioned as ‘value added' materials with special significance, enhancing potential design combinations. Material preferences for beads, bracelets, pendants, plaques, and ground stone tools (da Veiga Ferreira 1951; Lillios 1997, 2008) appear to mirror other Western Mediterranean raw material preferences for ornaments and other polished stone objects (Goñi Quinteiro et al. 1999; Harrison and Orozco Köhler 2001; Pascual Benito 1998; Skeates 2010; Teruel Berbell 1986) suggesting that the Estremadura participated in aspects of a wider system of shared symbolic values.


Author(s):  
Tünde Horváth

This article focus on the status of the woman in the main cultures (Baden complex and Yamna) of the Late Copper Age (3600–2800 BC) and the transitional period (2800–2600 BC). Although the Bell Beaker complex belongs to the Early Bronze Age in Hungary (2500–1900 BC), in European terminologies it is a Late Neolithic culture and belongs to the Reinecke A0 horizon in its late phase, which is why I included it into my research. I identify charismatic people displaying signs of agression in these three culture complexes, whose personalities are associated with warfare. In all three cultures there were women with specialised status: their knowledge, property and profession raised them above the average man and woman.


Context Types of site Figurines have been found in four broad categories of sites: village sites in the open (30 figurines, 18 sites); occupied caves (11 figurines, 3 sites); caves and rock-shelters used for burial and other cult purposes (8 figurines, 5 sites); other funerary sites (11 figurines, 4 sites). There seems to be a clear chronological distinction in the types of context. In the earlier period the vast majority of figurines come from settlement contexts — either open villages or occupied caves — while a few come from cult caves. By contrast, all but one of the 12 figurines of the later period (Late Neolithic and Copper Age) come from burials, mostly individual, either from the tombs themselves or from votive pits closely associated with graves. As we shall see, there are also typological distinctions between the types of figurines found in different contexts. Some of these may represent chronological rather than (or as well as) contextual differences, but a possible difference may also be detected between the figurines from settlement sites and those from cult caves within the earlier Neolithic time range. There are also regional differences in the proportions of different types of context occurring. In northern Italy, 13 sites have produced figurines; of these 8 are village sites, 2 are occupied caves, 1 is a tomb and the other 2 are either certainly or possibly cult cave/ rockshelter sites. In central Italy only 4 sites, all settlements, have produced figurines, while in southern Italy, 9 sites have produced figurines; of these 6 sites are settlements, 1 is a tomb and 2 are cult caves. The situation in Sicily stands out as markedly different in many ways: here 5 sites have produced figurines, of which only 2, both Neolithic, are occupation sites (one cave, one village), 2 are cemetery sites of Copper Age date, and 1 is a cult cave, used in both the Neolithic and the Copper Age (but yielding 2 figurines one definitely, the other presumptively, from Neolithic levels). Specific contexts Unfortunately we have specific evidence of location for very few of the figurines. For those coming from settlement sites, none seem to have been associated with buildings of any kind, domestic or other. Some are unstratified surface finds, while others were found in residual layers, redeposited from earlier levels. The only clear contexts in which figurines have been found is in pits (Rivoli, Vhò), a hollow (Alba) and a compound ditch (Passo di Corvo) and in all cases these may represent secondary depositions, as rubbish. In the occupied caves the figurines, when stratified at all, are found either in original occupation layers or in later layers with other redeposited material. The situation is a little better with the cult caves/rock-shelters. While two figurines, one from Grotta di Ponte di Vara (no. 17) and one from Grotta di San Calogero (no. 51), are unstratified, those from Riparo Gaban (nos 8-10) and Grotta di San Calogero (no. 50) come from stratified Neolithic deposits. Moreover, we have two examples from primary and significant depositions: these are the two distinctive clay heads from the central Apulian cult caves of Grotta di Cala Scizzo (no. 39) and Grotta Pacelli (no. 40). The first was found placed in the corner of an artificial stone enclosure at the back of a small cave used for cult purposes, in a layer with late Serra d'Alto and Diana wares and a C date of c.4340 - 3710 cal.BC (lc). The second was placed face downwards on a hearth inside a limestone slab-built monument; the pottery from this level was of Serra d'Alto type, typologically slightly earlier than that from Grotta di Cala Scizzo. On the basis of their contexts, it seems reasonable to interpret these two figurines as performing some function in the rituals carried out in these caves. This is discussed further below. For some of the 11 figurines from cemeteries or individual tombs we have more detailed evidence of context. Of the two stone figurines attributed to the Late-Final Neolithic, the one from Arnesano (no. 46) in southeast Italy apparently came from a rock-cut tomb of

2016 ◽  
pp. 109-110

2013 ◽  
pp. 179-204
Author(s):  
Kitti Köhler

Abstract of PhD thesis submitted in 2013 to the Doctoral School of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest under the supervision of Gyula Gyenis. Between 2006 and 2009 rescue excavations preceding the construction of M6 Motorway were carried out, in the course of which a settlement and a related cemetery of more than two thousand graves of the Late Neo­lithic-Early Copper Age Lengyel culture have been excavated at the site of Alsónyék-Bátaszék, in Southeastern Transdanubia (Tolna county). Present study considers the northern, so-called 010/B part of the site (cemetery), comprising 862 graves. According to the current archaeological consensus earlier Central European Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK) played a crucial role in the formation of the Lengyel culture, but an infiltration or migration of new populations during this time period cannot be excluded. Present dissertation has been designed to investigate this fundamental question. In addition, I completed a detailed demographic analysis and published the frequency data of several pathological and dental alterations. In the course of the still ongoing investigation a case showing the classic symptoms of tuberculosis had been found.


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