Redox-thermal behavior of archaeological ceramics from the North Caucasus (Russia, Bronze/Iron Age)

The recent advances in microscopy and scanning techniques enabled the image analysis of archaeological objects in a high resolution. From the direct measurements in images, shapes and related parameters of the structural elements of interest can be derived. In this study, image analysis in 2D/3D is applied to archaeological ceramics, in order to obtain clues about the ceramic pastes, firing and shaping techniques. Images were acquired by the polarized light microscope, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and 3D micro X-ray computed tomography (µ-CT) and segmented using Matlab. 70 ceramic sherds excavated at Ransyrt 1 (Middle-Late Bronze Age) and Kabardinka 2 (late Bronze–early Iron Age), located in in the North Caucasian mountains, Russia, were investigated. The size distribution, circularity and sphericity of sand grains in the ceramics show site specific difference as well as variations within a site. The sphericity, surface area, volume and Euler characteristic of pores show the existence of various pyrometamorphic states between the ceramics and within a ceramic. Using alignments of pores and grains, similar pottery shaping techniques are identified for both sites. These results show that the image analysis of archaeological ceramics can provide detailed information about the prehistoric ceramic production technologies with fast data availability.

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The northern Black Sea and North Caucasus

The Oxford Handbook of the European Iron Age ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696826.013.35 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Valenina Mordvinceva ◽

Sabine Reinhold

Keyword(s):

Black Sea ◽

Iron Age ◽

Seventh Century ◽

The Black Sea ◽

North Caucasus ◽

The North ◽

Long Time ◽

History Of ◽

Northern Shore ◽

Greek Colonization

This chapter surveys the Iron Age in the region extending from the western Black Sea to the North Caucasus. As in many parts of Europe, this was the first period in which written sources named peoples, places, and historical events. The Black Sea saw Greek colonization from the seventh century BC and its northern shore later became the homeland of the important Bosporan kingdom. For a long time, researchers sought to identify tribes named by authors such as Herodotus by archaeological means, but this ethno-deterministic perspective has come under critique. Publication of important new data from across the region now permits us to draw a more coherent picture of successive cultures and of interactions between different parts of this vast area, shedding new light both on local histories and on the role ‘The East’ played in the history of Iron Age Europe.

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Early Iron Age Sword from the Territory of the Middle Yenisei

Vestnik NSU Series History and Philology ◽

10.25205/1818-7919-2021-20-7-135-143 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (7) ◽

pp. 135-143

Author(s):

Oleg A. Mitko ◽

Sergey G. Skobelev

Keyword(s):

Iron Age ◽

Low Carbon Steel ◽

Morphological Characteristics ◽

Early Iron Age ◽

Low Carbon ◽

North Caucasus ◽

Group Iii ◽

The North ◽

Minusinsk Basin

Purpose. The article is devoted to the characteristics of a double-edged iron sword, which can be attributed to the unique phenomena of the early Iron Age of the Minusinsk Basin. Results. According to its morphological characteristics, the sword is an increased technological modification of the traditional Tagar dagger. The total length of the sword is 59.5 cm; the width of the lenticular blade in cross-section is about 7 cm. The handle with a volute-like pommel is separated from the blade by a narrow butterfly-shaped crosshair. The length of the hilt is 8 cm, which corresponds to the size of the hilts of most Scythian swords. This is a very small size, since in men the average palm width is about 12 cm. Probably, the rounded outlines of the pommel and narrow crosshairs allow, due to their shape, to hold the short handle of a heavy sword more tightly. Conclusion. According to the classification of O. I. Kura, Scythian swords with a narrow butterfly-shaped crosshair and volute-like pommel are included in Group III, Type II A2 dating from the end of the 5th – 4th centuries BC, which corresponds to the boundary between the Podgorny and Saragashen stages of the Tagar culture. The earliest form of sword hilts with typologically similar forms of crosshairs (kidney-shaped, heart-shaped, butterfly-shaped) with bar-shaped pommels appeared in the North Caucasus in the first half of the 7th century BC. On the territory of the Minusinsk Basin, most morphologically similar daggers are usually dated to the 6th – 4th centuries BC. Before the discovery of the Krasnoyarsk sword, long-bladed iron weapons were not known there. At the same time, swords of the Scythian time were found in the nearest regions of Altai and Kazakhstan. The later appearance of the technology for processing iron in the Minusinsk Basin makes it possible to consider the Krasnoyarsk sword an import item. According to another hypothesis, it belongs to the period of the late 3rd – 2nd centuries BC, when local craftsmen mastered the processing of iron and began to make massive quantities of weapons and tools from low-carbon steel. In doing so, they copied traditional archaic forms.

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Calendar Age of the Baigetobe Kurgan from the Iron Age Saka Cemetery in Shilikty Valley, Kazakhstan

Radiocarbon ◽

10.1017/rdc.2015.15 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 58 (1) ◽

pp. 157-167 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Irina P Panyushkina ◽

Igor Y Slyusarenko ◽

Renato Sala ◽

Jean-Marc Deom ◽

Abdesh T Toleubayev

Keyword(s):

Central Asia ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Iron Age ◽

Burial Mound ◽

North Caucasus ◽

Tree Ring Chronology ◽

Burial Site ◽

Archaeological Wood ◽

The North ◽

Burial Rites

AbstractThis study addresses the development of an absolute chronology for prominent burial sites of Inner Asian nomadic cultures. We investigate Saka archaeological wood from a well-known gold-filled Baigetobe kurgan (burial mound #1 of Shilikty-3 cemetery) to estimate its calendar age using tree-ring and 14C dating. The Saka was the southernmost tribal group of Asian Scythians, who roamed Central Asia during the 1st millennium BC (Iron Age). The Shilikty is a large burial site located in the Altai Mountains along the border between Kazakhstan and China. We present a new floating tree-ring chronology of larch and five new 14C dates from the construction timbers of the Baigetobe kurgan. The results of Bayesian modeling suggest the age of studied timbers is ~730–690 cal BC. This places the kurgan in early Scythian time and authenticates a previously suggested age of the Baigetobe gold collection between the 8th and 7th centuries BC derived from the typology of grave goods and burial rites. Chronologically and stylistically, the Scythian Animal Style gold from the Baigetobe kurgan is closer to Early Scythians in the North Caucasus and Tuva than to the local Saka occurrences in the Kazakh Altai. Our dating results indicate that the Baigetobe kurgan was nearly contemporaneous to the Arjan-2 kurgan (Tuva) and could be one of the earliest kurgans of the Saka-Scythian elite in Central Asia.

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COULD THE PERSONS BURIED IN PEREPIATIKHA BARROW BE THE LORDS OF THE HILLFORD OF KHOTIV?

Archaeology and Early History of Ukraine ◽

10.37445/adiu.2019.03.05 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 63-75

Author(s):

E. A. Kravchenko

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Iron Age ◽

Building Materials ◽

Steppe Zone ◽

Burial Mound ◽

North Caucasus ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

Local Material ◽

Bronze Mirrors

North-West side of Forrest-Steppe zone had no high activity in historical events of the beginning of Iron Age, so the material culture of sites of these territories have had no sharp chronological rappers. They took places in aristocratic complexes just with appearance of Scythian in Middle Dnieper region. The article deals with two brilliant sites dating to the Early Scythian time — hillford of Khotiv and Perepiatikha burial mound. How is traditional and innovative on these sits divided? The antiquities of the previous period in Central and Eastern Europe became a conservative feature in the local material culture. This is a way of building and building materials, bi-ritual burial ceremony, hand-made pottery, prestigious personal metal things of the Thracian-Illyrian type, bronze details of a traditional costume, metal and stone tools, stone dishes and crackers. Innovation is divided into several categories. The first is the technology of fortification, which was appeared in placement of defense from the cavalry, and not only from the archers, and the emergence of new types of arrows — so called Scythian, which in fact became a forced import. In other words, innovation in technology relates to the sphere of warfare. The second category is import. Early imports are associated with the antiquities of the North Caucasus, the Middle East and Asia Minor (Khotiv’s predator, griffins from Perepiatikha, bronze mirrors, geshire and paste beads), which can be called jewelry and toilet items on the whole, that is, luxury items. Late imports connected with Greek policies. These are amphorae — containers of wine or other products, willing fineware and cooking pottery, which in general can be called consumer goods. Both types of innovation are generally associated with adoption or inventing, as well as getting through trade of new things or technologies that are not associated with the massive migration of carriers of innovation features. At the same time, traditional features show that the ethnic characteristics of the population of the region are not unchanged at the time of being of both sits — hillfort of Khotiv and the funeral complex of Perepiatikha.

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Traditions in Transition: Some Thoughts on Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Burial Costumes from the Northern Caucasus

European Journal of Archaeology ◽

10.1179/eja.2003.6.1.25 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 25-54 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sabine Reinhold

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Social Identities ◽

Northern Caucasus ◽

Early Iron Age ◽

Late Bronze Age ◽

North Caucasus ◽

The North ◽

Large Numbers ◽

North Eastern

Ornaments, jewellery, personal equipment and weapons in graves can be defined as relicts of ancient costumes and weapon assemblages which are connected to the social identities of the buried persons. At several late Bronze Age and early Iron Age sites in the north Caucasus (Koban culture) large numbers of richly furnished graves allow the reconstruction of specific costume and armour groups. These can be related to factors which structured these communities into a ranked society. This article is based on the investigation of two cemeteries in Chechenia (north-eastern Caucasus) which demonstrate the change in social differentiation during the developed Iron Age. The article also includes a general discussion about the concepts of costumes and their potential for reconstructing social identities.

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