scholarly journals Bronze Age Swordsmanship: New Insights from Experiments and Wear Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 1040-1083 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Hermann ◽  
Andrea Dolfini ◽  
Rachel J. Crellin ◽  
Quanyu Wang ◽  
Marion Uckelmann
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Body ◽  
Experimental Methodology ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Wear Analysis ◽  
Future Experimentation ◽  
Supplementary Material ◽  
And Training

Abstract The article presents a new picture of sword fighting in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe developed through the Bronze Age Combat Project. The project investigated the uses of Bronze Age swords, shields, and spears by combining integrated experimental archaeology and metalwork wear analysis. The research is grounded in an explicit and replicable methodology providing a blueprint for future experimentation with, and wear analysis of, prehistoric copper-alloy weapons. We present a four-step experimental methodology including both controlled and actualistic experiments. The experimental results informed the wear analysis of 110 Middle and Late Bronze Age swords from Britain and Italy. The research has generated new understandings of prehistoric combat, including diagnostic and undiagnostic combat marks and how to interpret them; how to hold and use a Bronze Age sword; the degree of skill and training required for proficient combat; the realities of Bronze Age swordplay including the frequency of blade-on-blade contact; the body parts and areas targeted by prehistoric sword fencers; and the evolution of fighting styles in Britain and Italy from the late 2nd to the early 1st millennia BC. All primary data discussed in the article are available as supplementary material (Appendix) so as to allow scrutiny and validation of the research results.

The Late Cycladic Period: a Review

1981 ◽  
Vol 76 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. L. N. Barber
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Body ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
History Of

Excavation and research in the Cyclades in the last thirty years have added substantially to the body of evidence for the Late Bronze Age in the islands. Whilst much of the excavated material is not yet fully published, our understanding of the culture and history of the LC period has been considerably extended. Below, I review this evidence and make some suggestions as to its interpretation.

The Use and Significance of Socketed Axes During the Late Bronze Age

2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Roberts ◽  
Barbara S. Ottaway
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Experimental Work ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Parallel Development ◽  
Wear Analysis ◽  
Use Wear

The widespread employment and acceptance of use-wear analysis on materials such as flint and bone has not been accompanied by a parallel development in archaeometallurgy. This article explores its potential and problems through the investigation of socketed axes in eastern Yorkshire, in England and south-east Scotland during the late Bronze Age. Experimental work on modern replications of socketed axes was compared with wear traces on prehistoric socketed axes. The results indicate that prehistoric socketed axes had been used as multi-purpose tools, but that the nature and extent of their uses before deposition varied considerably. By combining use-wear analysis with contextual information on socketed axes in the late Bronze Age landscape, ideas concerning their significance can be explored.

Cremations as Transformations: When the Dual Cultural Hypothesis was Cremated and Carried Away in Urns

1999 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-364
Author(s):  
Terje Oestigaard
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Body ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Burial Site ◽  
Viking Period

A cremation and subsequent burial can be analysed as a set of technological, social and ritual transformations. It consists of three parts: first, the place where the body was burnt or cremated; secondly, the intermediary period in time and space, where the cleaned bones are often transported somewhere else; this interval increases the room for manoeuvre in those aspects which are concerned with the renewal, reorganization and re-legitimization of relations between the living; and, finally, the place where the ashes or the bones were deposited or buried, which may be the same place where the body was cremated, but normally it is not. Thus the urn represents the place where the deceased died, the cremated bones are from the rite of cremation, whereas the burial of the urn and the deposition of undamaged artefacts are from the final burial site, where other rituals were performed by the descendants, relatives and others. The distribution of urns may illuminate the notion that distance has hardly been a barrier and that people from, the ‘northern margins’ have travelled all over Europe from the late Bronze Age to the Viking period. This approach attacks the dual cultural hypothesis and some elements of core–periphery models.

scholarly journals IMPLEMENTASI PERTANGGUNGJAWABAN PELAKU TINDAK PIDANA MEMPERNIAGAKAN BAGIAN-BAGIAN TUBUH SATWA YANG DILINDUNGI (Studi Putusan Nomor: 1027/Pid.Sus/LH/2018/PN.Tjk.)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parama Nawa Yoga ◽  
Hutomo Wahyu Adi Santoso ◽  
Ujang Tommy
Keyword(s):  
Field Studies ◽  
The Body ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Library Studies ◽  
Empirical Research Methods ◽  
Resources Conservation ◽  
Endangered Species Protection ◽  
Protected Animal

Ilegal wildlife trade is a serious threat to the conservation of wildlife in Indonesia. Wildlife illegally traded based on the facts found in the wield are mostly caught from the wild, instead of breeding. Natural Resources Conservation Center as an institution that has an important role in rescue efforts are strategic and Endangered species protection of law number 5 of 1990 on Conservation of Biological Resources and Ecosystem. The problem in this study is whether the factors causing the perpetrators to commit criminal acts trade the body parts of the protected animals, and how they are accountable and what efforts to overcome them. Juridical normative and empirical research methods, using secondary and primary data, obtained from library studies and field studies. Based on the results of research and discussion, it is known that the factors causing the perpetrators to commit criminal acts trade the body parts of protected animals, namely economic factors, environmental factors, and factors of public knowledge of the prohibition. The responsibility of the perpetrator of the crime of trading the body parts of the protected animal has been decided by the defendant proven guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for: 3 (three) years and a fine of Rp. 50,000,000 (fifty million rupiah). One of the factors that caused the criminal act to trade the body parts of the protected animals was due to the lack of socialization or knowledge of the community against the prohibition on killing / selling wild animals.

REPRESENTING, OBJECTIFYING, AND FRAMING THE BODY AT LATE BRONZE AGE KNOSSOS

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELLEN ADAMS
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Body ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Human Form ◽  
The World

Abstract This paper explores how the human form is depicted, objectified and contextualized, in order to clarify the complex relationship between ‘representation’ and ‘reality’, and to investigate the various ways the body is bounded. Part one argues that objectification is not always a passive process, but that the body is deliberately presented to the world to be observed and evaluated. Part two focuses on the configuration of bodily boundaries, and how the body is framed, for example, by clothing, architecture and the mortuary context. The wealth and range of evidence (wall paintings, seals and sealings, figurines, stone vases and burials) render Knossos an excellent case study for this approach. This paper asks not who the Knossians were, in terms of identity and ethnicity, but rather how they wanted to be presented to the world and each other.

scholarly journals Paleopathological peculiarities of the population of timber-grave (Srubnaya) culture of the Late Bronze Age originating from the burials of Archedino-Chernushensky Kurgan group

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Evgenii Vladimirovich Pererva ◽  
Aleksandr Vladimirovich Sitnikov
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
The Body ◽  
Volga Region ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Lower Volga Region ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Lower Volga ◽  
First Time

Skeletal remains from the burials of timber-grave period of the Late Bronze Age originating from kurgans of the Archedino-Chernushensky group served as the material for this research. The archaeological monument is located in the territory of the Frolovsky Municipal District of Volgograd Oblast. The remains of 12 individuals (6 adults, 4 children, and 2 adolescents) were explored. In the course of this research, the author applied the method of account for the occurrence of discretely varying traits on the skull and bones of postcranial skeleton, as well as evaluation program for dissemination of pathological characteristic developed by the national researchers A. A. Movsesyan, E. V. Pererva, A. P. Buzhilova. The archaeological explorations of group Archedino-Chernushensky Kurgan group were carried out in 2020. Therefore, the acquired anthropological materials are introduced into the scientific discourse for the first time. The author was able to establish that the equal number of children and adult burials can be attributed to timber-grave period. The examined skeletal remains of the Late Bronze Age of the Lower Volga Region demonstrate the signs of episodic stress (enamel hypoplasia) and distribution of diseases related to the deficiency of microelements in the body (porosis of the diaphysis in individuals who did not reach the age of puberty). The records of such type of deviations on anthropological materials of deviations indicates chronic stress associated with systematic occurrences of famine, which is natural for the population of the Late Bronze Age of the Lower Volga Region, who were involved in mixed farming. The excavations reveal the series of injuries of household and battle nature among adult population. The prevalent burial method of timber-grave culture Archedino-Chernushensky Kurgan group of appears to be the cremation ritual.   

Rediscovering the Body: Cremation and Inhumation in Early Iron Age Central Europe

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Rebay-Salisbury
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Cultural Entity

The Late Bronze Age Urnfield Period in Central Europe (BA D, Ha A/B, c.1300 to 800 BC) is characterized by the dominance of cremation as a burial rite. The simple appearance of urn burials give an impression of simplicity, but they are the endpoint of a chain of actions and practices that constitute the funerary ritual, many of which may not be simple at all, but include a large number of people and resources. The washing, dressing, and furnishing of the body as it is laid out prior to cremation leave no traces. The funerary pyre, as spectacular as it may have looked, smelled, and felt during the cremation, preserves only under exceptional circumstances. The rituals and feasts associated with selecting the cremated remains from the funerary pyre and placing them in a suitable organic container or a ceramic urn prior to their deposition do not leave much evidence. The large-scale spread of cremation during the Late Bronze Age has traditionally been explained by the movements of peoples (e.g. Kraft 1926; Childe 1950), or a change in religious beliefs (e.g. Alexander 1979). More recently, a change in how the human body is ontologically understood and how it has to be transformed after death is seen as the more likely underlying cause (Harris et al. 2013; Robb and Harris 2013; Sørensen and Rebay-Salisbury in prep.), although a simple and single reason is rarely the driver of such pan-European developments. This chapter will be concerned with another transition, the change from cremation back to inhumation, several hundred years later during the Early Iron Age, and investigates its background and causes. In Central Europe, cremation is given up as the solitary funerary rite, and a range of different options, including inhumations in burial mounds, bi-ritual cemeteries, and new forms of cremation graves emerge. This change happens at a different pace in the various areas of the Hallstatt Culture and adjacent areas, which will be surveyed here. Despite doubts about the validity of the term ‘Hallstatt Culture’ as a cultural entity (e.g. Müller-Scheeßel 2000), it remains a convenient shorthand to the Early Iron Age in Central Europe, c.800–450 BC, in eastern France, southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and parts of northern Italy.

scholarly journals Peelhill Farm

2021 ◽  
Vol 150 ◽  
pp. 355-384
Author(s):  
Tobias Mörtz ◽  
Matthew G Knight ◽  
Trevor Cowie ◽  
Jane Flint
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Local Topography ◽  
Supplementary Material

The hoard of bronze weapons found in 1961 at Peelhill Farm in South Lanarkshire remains one of the most remarkable discoveries of Late Bronze Age metalwork from Scotland, its importance reflected in the detailed account of the find published by John Coles and Jack Scott in 1963. In the present paper, the contents, location and significance of the discovery are reassessed in the light of more recent approaches to research on hoards. In particular, the renewed investigation provided fresh insights into the use and treatment of the artefacts prior to their deposition, while the local topography may have influenced the choice of location to a greater degree than previously assumed. Radiocarbon dates indicate a likely date in the 9th century BC. Taken together, Peelhill Farm and the related find of metalwork from Duddingston Loch, Edinburgh, comprise the northernmost representatives of a group of weapon-dominated hoards mainly recorded in southern Britain. In view of the bias towards martial equipment in their composition, it is argued that the evidence of unrepaired impact marks, and deliberate damage by bending, breaking and burning, all assume greater significance than hitherto recognised. Taken together with what may be assumed to be intentional placement of the artefacts into a boggy setting, the deposition at Peelhill Farm is interpreted as a weapon sacrifice after a warlike event rather than as a ‘scrap hoard’ as once thought. View supplementary material here.

scholarly journals Late Bronze Age anthropological materials from the Nepljuevski kurgan cemetery

2020 ◽  
pp. 133-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.K. Karapetian ◽  
N.A. Leybova ◽  
S.V. Sharapova
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
The Body ◽  
European Ancestry ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The People ◽  
Tripolye Culture ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Culture Sample

The body of works on craniological and paleoodontological analyses of the materials from the Bronze Age sites of the Southern Trans-Urals still has not clarified the question of the genesis of the people who lived in this area. This is partly due to fragmentary state of the available materials, so that publication of new data appears highly relevant. This paper deals with the results of craniological and dental analyses of an osteological sample from two kurgans of the Nepljuevski burial ground, excavated between 2015 and 2017 by a Russian-German archaeological expedition. The burial ground is located 300 km south-west of Chelyabinsk city, in Kartalinsky dis-trict in the steppes of the Southern Trans-Urals. The recovered materials are dated to the Late Bronze Age and attributed to the Srubnaya-Alakul Culture variant. Materials and methods. Metric description of 5 male and 6 fe-male crania is given. The dental sample comprised remains of 14 children and adolescents and 12 adults. Stan-dard craniometric and paleoodontological protocols were used. Statistical procedures included principal compo-nent analysis (PCA) for craniometric traits and correspondence analysis for odontological traits. Results. Gener-ally, the crania show morphology characteristic for the European (Caucasian) groups. The male crania are ho-mogenous in such traits as narrow, vividly protruding nose and a pronounced horizontal profiling. The sample is dominated by individuals with a high facial height. Females and males generally show morphological similarities, but females, on average, have a relatively higher braincase, wider and lower orbits, a relatively wider nose, and slightly less pronounced horizontal profiling. The odontological analysis is in line with the cranoimetric data indi-cating European ancestry. One of the distinct characteristics of this sample is the presence of «enamel pearls» — a usually rare trait — in 5 out of 12 individuals, which may indicate an increased percentage of biological relatives in it. Conclusion. Overall, the crania from kurgan 1 find analogies among gracilized high-faced forms widespread in Southern Urals and Kazakhstan during the Bronze Age, often linked to the southern ancestry. The attribution of the Nepljuevski sample to the circle of gracile forms is indicated by the results of odontological analysis, which revealed its proximity to the Tripolye culture sample.

scholarly journals Paleopathological features of the Late Bronze Age population: anthropological skeletal materials excavated from burial grounds near the village of Krasnosamarskoye, Samara Region

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 144-153
Author(s):  
Evgeniy Vladimirovich Pererva ◽  
Yulia Olegovna Kapinus
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
The Body ◽  
Infant Mortality Rate ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Micronutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Traumatic Injuries ◽  
High Infant Mortality ◽  
The Village ◽  
Burial Grounds

The paper is devoted to the analysis of anthropological skeletal materials related to the Srubnaya culture and excavated in 2010 and 2018 in the mounds near the village of Krasnosamarskoye, Kinelsky District of the Samara Region. One hundred and three skeletal remains were studied. In the course of the examination, a standard program for fixing pathological conditions on human bones was applied. As a result of the work, it was possible to establish that the population of the Late Bronze Age buried in the mounds near the village of Krasnosamarskoe had a high infant mortality rate and a relatively short mens life expectancy. In the studied skeletal series, a specific pathological complex in the dental system is found. It indicates that the diet consisted mainly of meat and dairy. Widespread markers of micronutrient deficiencies in the body were observed on the children bones which is also an indicator of negative environmental and social factors such as famines or parasitic infestations. High frequency of discrete-varying characters on the bones of the postcranial skeleton indicates that a closely related population is buried in the mounds of the Krasnosamarsky IV burial ground. Specific traumatic injuries presence in buried skeletal remains as well as their positive correlation with diseases of the joints and spine allows us to assume its association with domestic or professional economic activity.

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