scholarly journals ‘The Dead are Watching Us’: A Landscape Study of Prehistoric Rock-cut Tomb Cemeteries in Ossi, Sardinia, Italy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Guillaume Robin ◽  
Florian Soula ◽  
Pascal Tramoni ◽  
Laura Manca ◽  
Kirsty Lilley

The island of Sardinia is well known for its Late Neolithic and Copper Age underground rock-cut tombs that were used over generations for collective burials. Many tombs were decorated to resemble house interiors and cemeteries are often referred to as villages of the dead. Research so far has focused on excavating stratigraphic contexts within some of these monuments, or on typological classifications of tomb plans and wall decorations, but the landscape context of the cemeteries and their relationship to settlements have been overlooked. The article presents the results of two seasons of survey in Ossi (north-west Sardinia), focusing on two major cemeteries (Mesu ‘e Montes and S’Adde ‘e Asile). Combining fieldwalking, mapping and 3D recording techniques, the survey provides a comprehensive documentation of the cemeteries (from the underground architecture of individual tombs to their landscape setting) and yields evidence of prehistoric settlements in their vicinity. The article discusses the topographic and visual relationships between the tombs and the residential areas and how they may reflect social interactions between the living and the dead in late prehistoric Sardinia.

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna J. Waterman ◽  
Ana Maria Silva ◽  
Robert H. Tykot

This paper details the results of a comparison of stable isotopic data from bone samples acquired from 31 individuals from two Late Neolithic-Copper Age (3500-2000 BC) burial sites in the Estremadura region of Portugal. The chosen sites of Feteira II and Paimogo I are geographically close and temporally overlapping but represent distinctive types of burial structures, one being a natural cave and the other a tholos. Because stable isotope analyses can quantify individual dietary intake, it can be useful in distinguishing patterns of food consumption within and between populations. The goal of this research was to ascertain if there are dietary differences that would indicate that socially-differentiated populations were interred in these burial spaces. The results of this study indicate diets based primarily on C3 plants and terrestrial animals for both sampled populations. Although several individuals do exhibit dietary signatures that suggest they were consuming some fish, marine resources do not appear to be major dietary staples in either group despite close proximity to the sea. Some variation in food and water consumption is apparent between individuals at the two burial sites with individuals at Feteira II exhibiting more variability in isotopic indicators of dietary carbohydrates and drinking water sources while individuals from Paimogo I exhibit more variability in protein source and intake. However, no statistically significance differences in isotopic values were found that would point to clear dietary distinctions between the compared burial populations.


1987 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 182-182
Author(s):  
Reynold Higgins

A recent discovery on the island of Aegina by Professor H. Walter (University of Salzburg) throws a new light on the origins of the so-called Aegina Treasure in the British Museum.In 1982 the Austrians were excavating the Bronze Age settlement on Cape Kolonna, to the north-west of Aegina town. Immediately to the east of the ruined Temple of Apollo, and close to the South Gate of the prehistoric Lower Town, they found an unrobbed shaft grave containing the burial of a warrior. The gravegoods (now exhibited in the splendid new Museum on the Kolonna site) included a bronze sword with a gold and ivory hilt, three bronze daggers, one with gold fittings, a bronze spear-head, arrowheads of obsidian, boar's tusks from a helmet, and fragments of a gold diadem (plate Va). The grave also contained Middle Minoan, Middle Cycladic, and Middle Helladic (Mattpainted) pottery. The pottery and the location of the grave in association with the ‘Ninth City’ combine to give a date for the burial of about 1700 BC; and the richness of the grave-goods would suggest that the dead man was a king.


1995 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 347-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bradley ◽  
Felipe Criado Boado ◽  
Ramón Fábregas Valcarce

This paper discusses the relationship between the earlier prehistoric pattern of settlement in Atlantic Europe and the creation of rock art. It investigates the organisation of the Copper Age and Early Bronze Age landscape of north-west Spain using the evidence provided by the distribution, siting, and composition of rock carvings. It presents the results of field survey in three sample areas extending from the centre to the outer edge of their distribution. Although these drawings cannot be interpreted as illustrations of daily life, they may have helped to define rights to particular resources in an area which experienced abrupt changes of ground conditions over the course of the year.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 52-63
Author(s):  
Mihai Dunca ◽  
Sanda Băcueț Crișan

This article analyses ground stone discoveries from the late neolithic site of Pericei located in north-west of Romania, in Șimleu Depression. Combined characteristics of chisels and adzes in working process are discussed along with their context, especially those connected to stone working: the layer, dwellings and pebble agglomerations. We conclude that Pericei was a production center for stone chisels, appeared to supply the demand that until then was satisfied by Suplac/Porț site that continued to produce ground stone tools for a longer period.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Ramadhan Priadi ◽  
Dede Yunus ◽  
Berlian Yonanda ◽  
Relly Margiono

On July 17, 2006 an earthquake with a magnitude of  7.7 triggered a tsunami that struck 500 km of the coast in the south of the island of Java. The tsunami generated is classified as an earthquake tsunami because the waves generated were quite large compared to the strength of the earthquake. The difference in the strength of the earthquake and the resulting tsunami requires a tsunami modeling study with an estimated fault area in addition to using aftershock and scaling law. The purpose of this study is to validate tsunamis that occur based on the estimation of the source mechanism and the area of earthquake faults. Determination of earthquake source mechanism parameters using the Teleseismic Body-Wave Inversion method that uses teleseismic waveforms with the distance recorded waveform from the source between  Whereas, tsunami modeling is carried out using the Community Model Interface for Tsunami (commit) method. Fault plane parameters that obtained were strike , dip , and rake  with dominant slip pointing up to north-north-west with a maximum value of 1.7 m. The fault plane is estimated to have a length of 280 km in the strike direction and a width of 102 km in the dip direction. From the results of the tsunami modeling, the maximum inundation area is 0.32 km2 in residential areas flanked by Pangandaran bays and the maximum run-up of 380.96 cm in Pasir Putih beach area. The tsunami modeling results in much smaller inundation and run-up from field observations, it was assumed that the fault plane segmentation had occurred due to the greater energy released than the one from the fault area, causing waves much larger than the modeling results.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1 and 2) ◽  
pp. 11-30
Author(s):  
Lionel Sims ◽  
David Fisher

Three recent independently developed models suggest that some Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments exhibit dual design properties in monument complexes by pairing obverse structures. Parker Pearson’s1 materiality model proposes that monuments of wood are paired with monuments of stone, these material metaphors respectively signifying places of rituals for the living with rituals for the dead. Higginbottom’s2 landscape model suggests that many western Scottish megalithic structures are paired in mirror-image landscape locations in which the horizon distance, direction and height of one site is the topographical reverse of the paired site – all in the service of ritually experiencing the liminal boundaries to the world. Sims’3 diacritical model suggests that materials, landscapes and lunar-solar alignments are diacritically combined to facilitate cyclical ritual processions between paired monuments through a simulated underworld. All three models combine in varying degrees archaeology and archaeoastronomy and our paper tests them through the case study of the late Neolithic/EBA Stonehenge Palisade in the Stonehenge monument complex.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Díaz-Guardamino ◽  
Leonardo García-Sanjuán ◽  
David Wheatley ◽  
José Antonio Lozano-Rodríguez ◽  
Miguel Ángel Rogerio-Candelera ◽  
...  

This paper examines how monuments with ‘local’ idiosyncrasies are key in processes of place-making and how, through persistence, such places can engage in supra-local and even ‘global’ dynamics. Departing from a detailed revision of its context, materiality and iconography, we show how a remarkable Iberian ‘warrior’ stela brings together the geo-strategic potential of a unique site, located literally between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic worlds, the century-long dialogue between shared and local identities and the power of connectivity of inexorable global processes. Previous approaches to Iberian late prehistoric stelae have had problems in developing bottom-up, theoretically informed and empirically sound approaches to their simultaneously local and supra-local character. The remarkable site of Almargen provides the opportunity to explore this issue. Located in Lands of Antequera (Málaga), a region with a strong tradition of landscape-making through monuments going back to the Late Neolithic, the Almargen ‘warrior’ stela serves us to explore the notion of ‘glocalization’, which embodies persistent local engagements with material culture, sites and landscapes on the one hand, and their connections with wider regional and even ‘global’ worlds on the other.


2018 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
pp. 145-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosie R. Bishop ◽  
Mike J. Church ◽  
Ian T. Lawson ◽  
Katherine H. Roucoux ◽  
Charlotte O’Brien ◽  
...  

This paper considers the timing and mechanisms of deforestation in the Western Isles of Scotland, focusing in particular on the landscape around the Calanais stone circles, one of the best preserved late Neolithic/early Bronze Age monumental landscapes in north-west Europe. We present new archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence from a soil and peat sequence at the site of Aird Calanais, which spans the main period of use of the Calanais circles. We then draw on a new synthesis of archaeobotanical and palynological evidence from across the Western Isles and a review of comparable data from the wider North Atlantic zone, before assessing the role of early farming communities in clearing the wooded landscapes of the region. Pollen and radiocarbon dating at the site of Aird Calanais reveal that a layer of birch branches, dating to the late Neolithic (2912–2881 calbc), was contemporaneous with a decline in woodland at the site, as well as with the major phase of Neolithic activity at the Calanais stone circle complex. However, our synthesis of the pollen and plant macrofossil evidence from across the Western Isles suggests that the picture across these islands was altogether more complex: woodlands declined both before, as well as during, the Neolithic and deciduous woodlands remained sufficiently abundant for Neolithic fuel procurement. Finally, we consider the implications of the results for understanding the interactions between first farmers and woodlands in the wider North Atlantic region.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo García Sanjuán ◽  
Juan Manuel Vargas Jiménez ◽  
Luis Miguel Cáceres Puro ◽  
Manuel Eleazar Costa Caramé ◽  
Marta Díaz-Guardamino Uribe ◽  
...  

MANUSYA ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Daranee Thavinpipathkul ◽  
Luksanawadee Tanamee

Social interaction refers to the communication among people within one particular area. This act can be recognized and done through simple talk or even through equipment that is commonly used these days, such as televisions, radios, telephones, and all kinds of transportation. Activities also help people to know and become a part of a community, by working and being involved in the same things, such as traditional community festivals, community development, and so on. These activities should be done continually as part of the system of social interaction. Social integrative mechanism means the existence of those who take part in running or working in a communication role, which leads to the interaction among people within a community; social control mechanisms such as laws and norms, organizations or groups within the community, including interest groups for economic or social benefit; communication, transportation, and meeting places such as a community centers. The definitions above are used to explain the patterns of social interaction and integrative mechanisms in communities in the northern Bangkok extended metropolitan region. Prachathipat, Klong-Song, Chiang-RakYai, and Pued-Udom in Pathumthani province were used as case studies. Research results reveal that communities in the northern Bangkok extended metropolitan region are transitioning from rural to urban type at different paces and to different degrees due to physical factors, i.e. , geographical setting, location, distance from the city, and accessibility. In addition, the differences are also due to socio-economic factors, i.e., age, sex, religion, educational level, occupation, income, and duration of stay of community residents, who are mostly comprised of two groups: old-timers and new-comers. In conclusion, three types of communities revealing different patterns of social interaction and integrative mechanisms are found in this area. The first type consists of communities exhibiting low-intensity land use, mostly as residential areas, located on agricultural land. Almost all of the residents are old-timers and have primary social interaction within the family and among friends. The level of social integration is high and integrative mechanisms are informal. The second type is communities with more intense and diverse land use than the first type. The old-timers in these communities begin to have "urban type" social interactions, with rather high levels of social integration through both formal and informal integrative mechanisms. The newcomers in these communities engage in "urban type" social interactions just to gain convenience and safety in living and working. The third are communities with highly intense and diverse activities and land use. Among old-timers in these communities, there is almost no trace of "rural type " social interaction, while integrative mechanisms are both formal and informal. Among newcomers, social interaction is the same as in the second type of community with a low level of integration and mostly formal integrative mechanisms.


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