scholarly journals When and Why? The Chronology and Context of Flint Mining at Grime’s Graves, Norfolk, England

2018 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
pp. 277-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Healy ◽  
Peter Marshall ◽  
Alex Bayliss ◽  
Gordon Cook ◽  
Christopher Bronk Ramsey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Bone Tools ◽  
The West ◽  
The Third ◽  
Copper Mines ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Copper Metallurgy

New radiocarbon dating and chronological modelling have refined understanding of the character and circumstances of flint mining at Grime’s Graves through time. The deepest, most complex galleried shafts were worked probably from the third quarter of the 27th century calbcand are amongst the earliest on the site. Their use ended in the decades around 2400 calbc, although the use of simple, shallow pits in the west of the site continued for perhaps another three centuries. The final use of galleried shafts coincides with the first evidence of Beaker pottery and copper metallurgy in Britain. After a gap of around half a millennium, flint mining at Grime’s Graves briefly resumed, probably from the middle of the 16th century calbcto the middle of the 15th. These ‘primitive’ pits, as they were termed in the inter-war period, were worked using bone tools that can be paralleled in Early Bronze Age copper mines. Finally, the scale and intensity of Middle Bronze Age middening on the site is revealed, as it occurred over a period of probably no more than a few decades in the 14th century calbc. The possibility of connections between metalworking at Grime’s Graves at this time and contemporary deposition of bronzes in the nearby Fens is discussed.

Daggers in the West: Early Bronze Age Daggers and Knives in the South-west Peninsula

2013 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 165-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy M. Jones ◽  
Henrietta Quinnell
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Copper Alloy ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
South West ◽  
South West England

This paper describes the results from a project to date Early Bronze Age daggers and knives from barrows in south-west England. Copper alloy daggers are found in the earliest Beaker associated graves and continue to accompany human remains until the end of the Early Bronze Age. They have been identified as key markers of Early Bronze Age graves since the earliest antiquarian excavations and typological sequences have been suggested to provide dating for the graves in which they are found. However, comparatively few southern British daggers are associated with radiocarbon determinations. To help address this problem, five sites in south-west England sites were identified which had daggers and knives, four of copper alloy and one of flint, and associated cremated bone for radiocarbon dating. Three sites were identified in Cornwall (Fore Down, Rosecliston, Pelynt) and two in Devon (Upton Pyne and Huntshaw). Ten samples from these sites were submitted for radiocarbon dating. All but one (Upton Pyne) are associated with two or more dates. The resulting radiocarbon determinations revealed that daggers/knives were occasionally deposited in barrow-associated contexts in the south-west from c. 1900 to 1500 calbc.The dagger at Huntshaw, Devon, was of Camerton-Snowshill type and the dates were earlier than those generally proposed but similar to that obtained from cremated bone found with another dagger of this type from Cowleaze in Dorset: these dates may necessitate reconsideration of the chronology of these daggers

Early Bronze Age Pits at Inchbelle Farm, Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL MASSER ◽  
ANN MacSWEEN
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The North ◽  
Almost All

A group of four pits was excavated on a low gravel terrace above the floodplain of the River Kelvin to the north of Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire (National Grid Reference NS 6677 7518). One pit contained sherds from four collared urns, while another contained fragments from a fifth collared urn. Radiocarbon dating suggests an 18th-16th century BC date for these features. Whereas almost all known collared urns accompany cremations, this was not the case with the material from Inchbelle Farm, and alternative reasons for the deposition of the pottery are discussed.

Excavation of Four Barrows, and a Middle Bronze Age Cremation Cemetery, at Heatherstone Grange, Bransgore, Hampshire

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-89
Author(s):  
Richard Massey ◽  
Elaine L. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

Excavation at Heatherstone Grange, Bransgore, Hampshire, investigated features identified in a previous evaluation. Area A included ring ditches representing two barrows. Barrow 1.1 held 40 secondary pits, including 34 cremation-related deposits of Middle Bronze Age date, and Barrow 1.2 had five inserted pits, including three cremation graves, one of which dated to the earlier Bronze Age, and was found with an accessory cup. A number of pits, not all associated with cremation burials, contained well-preserved urns of the regional Deverel-Rimbury tradition and occasional sherds from similar vessels, which produced a closely-clustered range of eight radiocarbon dates centred around 1300 BC. Of ten pits in Area C, three were cremation graves, of which one was radiocarbon-dated to the Early Bronze Age and associated with a collared urn, while four contained only pyre debris. Barrow 1.3, in Area E, to the south, enclosed five pits, including one associated with a beaker vessel, and was surrounded by a timber circle. Area F, further to the south-west, included two pits of domestic character with charcoal-rich fills and the remains of pottery vessels, together with the probable remains of a ditched enclosure and two sets of paired postholes. Area H, located to the north-west of Area E, partly revealed a ring ditch (Barrow 1.4), which enclosed two pits with charcoal-rich fills, one with a single Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age potsherd, and the other burnt and worked flint. A further undated pit was situated to the east of Barrow 1.4. The cremation cemetery inserted into Barrow 1.1 represents a substantial addition to the regional record of Middle Bronze Age cremation burials, and demonstrates important affinities with the contemporary cemeteries of the Stour Valley to the west, and sites on Cranborne Chase, to the north-west.

scholarly journals Neolithic Complex of the Settlement of Barsova Gora II/9

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 191-202
Author(s):  
Yury P. Chemyakin
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Functional Identification ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
The West ◽  
Settlement Type ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
The Right

Purpose. Materials published here describe findings on the ancient settlement Barsova Gora II/9b (located 7 km to the west of Surgut city on the right bank of the Ob river). Over the 5 years of excavations, the remains of structures from different time periods were uncovered and studied, among which 5 seated below grade square and rectangular dwellings stand out. Results. Original flat-bottomed pottery, clay ornamented bars and a spherical pommel have been found inside these dwellings. Clay bars were probably used as spatulas for smoothing dishes, skin scrapers. Among stone tools, polished ones predominate: chopping tools (axes, adzes, chisels, including grooved ones), lancet-shaped arrowheads and knives, as well as abrasives. Flint tool findings were less common: a few leaf-shaped arrowheads, scrapers and one lithic core. A fragment of a quartz lithic core and about ten quartz flakes were found as well. Among the pottery next to flat-bottomed vessels, there are round-bottomed vessels. Generally pottery is decorated in a variety of ways – drawn, impaled, using a walking comb stamp, with pits. Among the patterns there appears straight, broken or wavy lines, areas of a walking stamp. Clear geometric shapes are rare. On some pots horizontal compositions are replaced by vertical ones in the lower half of the vessels. Flat bottoms are ornamented with crossed, wavy and other patterns. Conclusion. Incorrect functional identification of the clay bars during first excavations led to initial incorrect dating of the settlement as belonging to the Early Bronze Age. The stratigraphy and radiocarbon dating during the new excavations revealed earlier settlement dates going back to early Neolithic. Some similarities to these structures and settlement type can be found in the ancient settlements of Boborykino and Bystrinsky cultures, Petrovoborsky and Kayukovsky types, settlements of Amnya I and others within the Eneolithic Period as well. However, the settlement of Barsova Gora II/9b is a unique cultural type dating from 6th – early 5th millennium BC.

Minos and Daidalos in Sicily

1948 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Dunbabin
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The West ◽  
The Third ◽  
Common Heritage ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Two Sides

My subject in this paper is the familiar one of the impact of civilised on uncivilised in the widest extension of Minoan and Mycenaean civilisation. In dealing with the earliest relations between the Aegean and Italy, I do not propose to discuss the parallels which have been drawn between the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age pottery of the two sides of the Adriatic. The unquestioned likenesses may be due to sharing a common heritage, and do not prove direct contact between the two areas.Probably as early as the Middle Minoan I period, at the end of the third millennium, Minoan navigators occasionally reached Sicily. The earliest Cretan objects in the West are sporadic, and may have passed from hand to hand. But from the close of the Early Minoan period liparite is found regularly in Crete, and it is natural to suppose that the Cretans, went to the Lipari Islands to get it. It is suggested also that tin, which from the same period was increasingly used in alloying copper, was brought from the Western Mediterranean. On the other side, there are many Sicilian II swords and daggers which imitate L.M.I. types. Most of these cannot be so old as their prototypes. Though there are no weapons in Sicily which are certainly Minoan, it is clear that Minoan swords must have been imported, and served as models for a Siculan type which had a long currency.

Two Early Helladic II terracotta rollers from Asine and their glyptic context

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 81-96
Author(s):  
Michael Lindblom ◽  
Gullög Nordquist ◽  
Hans Mommsen
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Chemical Characterization ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The Third ◽  
Archaeological Perspective

Two Early Helladic II terracotta rollers from the Third Terrace at Asine are presented. The objects, used to impress relief decoration on pithoi and hearths, are unique in that no other examples are known from the Early Bronze Age Aegean. Their origin is discussed based on chemical characterization and their depositional contexts are reviewed from an archaeological perspective. Although there are no known impressions from these rollers on pithoi and hearths at Asine, it is shown that their owners surrounded themselves with different objects featuring similar glyptic impressions. Two such impressions find identical parallels at Tiryns and the combined evidence strongly suggest that Asine was the home for one or several potters who produced Early Helladic impressed hearths and pithoi.

Dairy Queen. Churns and milk products in the Aegean Bronze Age

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 205-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah P. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Dairy Products ◽  
Near East ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Specific Function ◽  
Milk Products ◽  
The Third ◽  
Household Processing

This article assembles examples of an unusual vessel found in domestic contexts of the Early Bronze Age around the Aegean and in the Eastern Mediterranean. Identified as a “barrel vessel” by the excavators of Troy, Lesbos (Thermi), Lemnos (Poliochni), and various sites in the Chalkidike, the shape finds its best parallels in containers identified as churns in the Chalcolithic Levant, and related vessels from the Eneolithic Balkans. Levantine parallels also exist in miniature form, as in the Aegean at Troy, Thermi, and Poliochni, and appear as part of votive figures in the Near East. My interpretation of their use and development will consider how they compare to similar shapes in the archaeological record, especially in Aegean prehistory, and what possible transregional relationships they may express along with their specific function as household processing vessels for dairy products during the third millennium BC.

From tools to production: recent research on textile economies in Greece

2021 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 109-128
Author(s):  
Bela Dimova ◽  
Margarita Gleba
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Wool Fibre ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Textile Production ◽  
Spindle Whorls ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Of Greece

The aim of this report is to provide a summary of the latest developments in the textile archaeology of Greece and the broader Aegean from the Neolithic through to the Roman period, focusing in particular on recent research on textile tools. Spindle-whorls and loomweights appeared in the Aegean during the Neolithic and by the Early Bronze Age weaving on the warp-weighted loom was well established across the region. Recent methodological advances allow the use of the physical characteristics of tools to estimate the quality of the yarns and textiles produced, even in the absence of extant fabrics. The shapes of spindle-whorls evolved with the introduction of wool fibre, which by the Middle Bronze Age had become the dominant textile raw material in the region. The spread of discoid loomweights from Crete to the wider Aegean has been linked to the wider Minoanization of the area during the Middle Bronze Age, as well as the mobility of weavers. Broader issues discussed in connection with textile production include urbanization, the spread of different textile cultures and the identification of specific practices (sealing) and previously unrecognized technologies (splicing), as well as the value of textiles enhanced by a variety of decorative techniques and purple dyeing.

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