Excavations at Sérvia in Western Macedonia

1932 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Heurtley
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Hill ◽  
East West

The mound lies on the south bank of the Haliakmon at the point where the modern road from Macedonia to Thessaly crosses the river by an iron bridge built by the Turks in 1912 (figs. 1 and 2). Except for slight traces of occupation in Byzantine and Turkish times the site seems to have been derelict since the early Bronze Age, its strategic equivalent being at one time the fortress (of uncertain date) that crowns the hill immediately north of the bridge, and, at another, the Byzantine castle above Sérvia that commands the entrance to the Sarardáporo pass and the road to the south. East-west communications past the site cannot have been considerable at any time, since north-eastwards the river, after flowing past the mound, soon enters a rocky and impassable gorge, from which it emerges only at Verria some forty kilometres distant.

The Early Minoan Occupation of Knossos: A Note on some new Evidence.

1972 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 115-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Evans
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Major Obstacle ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Hill ◽  
New Evidence

Following their discovery of the “Burnt Palace” at Beycesultan in the mid 1950's, Seton Lloyd and James Mellaart drew attention to a number of features of its architecture which seemed to indicate links with the palace architecture of Minoan Crete, and discussed the possible significance of these similarities (Lloyd and Mellaart, 1956 118–123, 1965 61, 62). Whatever this may be in terms of relationships between the two areas in the second millennium B.C., however, it seems clear that they cannot throw any light on the first appearance of palaces in Crete. The problems of the origin and development of the Cretan Bronze Age palaces are complex, and though they have been much discussed since the first excavations in the early years of the century, a major obstacle to progress has always been the lack of precise evidence, or even of any evidence at all, for the early stages of the process. As they stand, most of the palaces are the product of a series of rebuildings and remodellings over a long period, and it is not always clear just what they were like when first erected. Most frustrating of all, however, is the lack of evidence bearing on the question of whether they were preceded, during the Early Bronze Age, by buildings which were in any respect analogous in form and function. It has long been clear that the sites of some of the major Middle and Late Minoan palaces were occupied during the Early Minoan period, but at Phaistos and Knossos at any rate extensive clearing and levelling in preparation for the erection of the Middle Minoan palaces has obliterated practically all traces of the Early Minoan buildings. At Phaistos Branigan has hinted that the fragments of walls found by Pernier (1935, pl. VI) on the highest point of the hill might have belonged to a building of some consequence, possibly similar to the Early Minoan II mansion known as the House on the Hill at Vasiliki (Branigan 1970, p. 41). Branigan thinks that in addition to the rooms mentioned by Pernier, there may be traces of a corridor similar to that in the Vasiliki building. Only the bottom two courses of the walls survive, so that it is difficult to say much about their construction, though it seems to be poorer than that of the walls of some Early Minoan private houses later found by Levi on another part of the site.

Early Cultures of the South Anatolian Plateau, II

1963 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 199-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Mellaart
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Late Chalcolithic ◽  
Chalcolithic Period

The end of the Çatal Hüyük West culture is shrouded in mystery. Both Çatal and Kara Hüyük South were apparently deserted and never reoccupied and it is only at Can Hasan Hüyük east of Karaman that later deposits have been recognised overlying remains of the early Chalcolithic culture. Elsewhere the evidence lies buried in the cores of the numerous city mounds of the Early Bronze Age period. Late Chalcolithic remains are fairly common in the Konya Plain, but they were in nearly every case found on sites where no earlier or later remains were encountered. This might suggest a shift in the settlement pattern of the plain after the end of the Early Chalcolithic period (see map, Fig. 1).

Prehistoric Copper Extraction in Britain: Ecton Hill, Staffordshire

2013 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 159-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Timberlake
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Mining Activity ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Copper Extraction ◽  
Mine Shaft ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Prehistoric Mining ◽  
The Hill

Major investigations were undertaken of the Ecton Copper Mines, Staffordshire, following the discovery of hammerstones and a red deer antler tool dating to the Early Bronze Age during surface and underground exploration in the 1990s. Ecton Hill was surveyed, the distribution of hammerstone tools examined, and two identified sites of potential prehistoric mining close to the summit of the hill excavated in 2008 & 2009. Excavations at Stone Quarry Mine revealed noin situprehistoric mining activity, but hammerstones and Early Bronze Age bone mining tools from upcast suggest that an historic mine shaft had intersected Bronze Age workings at around 10–25 m depth. On The Lumb one trench revealed evidence for medieval lead mining, while another examined the lowest of four primitive mines associated with cave-like mine entrances along the base of a small cliff. Evidence for prehistoric mining was recorded within a shallow opencut formed by during extraction of malachite from a layer of mineralised dolomite. Traces of the imprint of at least 18 bone and stone tools could be seen and seven different types of working were identified. Most prehistoric mining debris appears to have been cleared out during the course of later, medieval–post-medieval prospection; some bone and stone tools were recovered from this spoil. The tip of a worn and worked (cut) antler tine point was the only such mining tool foundin situat this site but nine tools were radiocarbon dated toc.1880–1640 calbc. Bayesian modelling of the dates from both sites probably indicates mining over a much briefer period (perhaps 20–50 years) at 1800–1700 calbc, with mining at Stone Quarry possibly beginning earlier and lasting longer than on The Lumb. A single date from The Lumb suggests possible renewed mining activity (or prospection?) during the Middle Bronze Age. The dating of this mining activity is consistent with the idea that mining and prospection moved eastwards from Ireland to Wales, then to central England, at the beginning of the 2nd millenniumbc. At Ecton the extraction of secondary ores may have produced only a very small tonnage of copper metal. The mine workers may have been Early Bronze Age farmers who occupied this part of the Peak District seasonally in a transhumant or sustained way

Notes on the Bronze Age in the East Midlands

1950 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 65-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. G. E. Powell
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Environmental Archaeology ◽  
The South ◽  
Hill Country ◽  
Natural Region ◽  
East Midlands ◽  
Ancient Forest ◽  
Modern Geography ◽  
Forest Lands ◽  
The Hill

The English Midlands (fig. 1) as a natural region, and for the purposes of environmental archaeology, form a more restricted area than that to which the term is usually applied in modern geography. Fox (1943, 68) has written of ‘… the great triangle of forest lands which form the Midlands …’ and reference to the maps in the same work shows this triangle as roughly lying between the Dee estuary at Chester, the confluence of the Severn and the Avon at Tewkesbury, and a point in the vicinity of the watershed between the Trent and the rivers of the Wash. For convenience of reference it is suggested that the approximate eastern point should be represented by the site of Belvoir Castle for here the plain has narrowed between the southern tip of the Pennines, and the uplands of Leicestershire, to the effective basin of the Trent. This river in its course below Nottingham flows through ancient forest lands, but it is no longer Midland country.The most uniform frontier of the Midlands, as here defined, is that provided to the south and east by the great sweep of the Jurassic uplands from the Cotswolds to Lincoln Edge. To the west, the Severn and the hill country of the Welsh borderlands form a zone which provides natural communications north and south and into the Welsh massif, but which, as it were, turns its back to the east. The northern confines of the Midlands are altogether less definite, but may be said to creep round the edges of the southern Pennines from the south bank of the Mersey to the middle course of the Trent.

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

Urban Development in Central Transcaucasia in Anatolian Context: New Data

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vakhtang Licheli
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Slope ◽  
Eastern Slope ◽  
The North ◽  
Lower Terrace ◽  
The Hill ◽  
Northern Wall ◽  
North Western

Abstract The settlement and necropolis of Grakliani Hill are located in Central Transcaucasia, Georgia. Excavations of the settlement on the eastern slope and the necropolis on the south-western part of the hill demonstrated that the site had been occupied between the Chalcolithic and the Late Hellenistic periods. The most interesting remains of buildings belong to 2nd and 1st millennium BC. Several sanctuaries of this period were excavated. A monumental altar was discovered in the eastern part of the settlement. The altar was located in the north-western corner of a building. On its eastern side there was an ash pit with a platform along the northern wall. The platform was used for placing offerings, including a South Mesopotamian seal. An architectural complex of the following period (450-350 B.C) was discovered in the western part of the lower terrace. It consisted of three main rooms and three store-rooms. Burials of various periods were discovered in the western part of the hill’s southern slope. The earliest one is a pit-burial dating to the Early Bronze Age, the latest one belongs to the 2nd century BC. After analyses of the finds several directions of cultural and commercial links were identified: Colchis, Persia, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor.

An Early Bronze Age urn from Milton, Northamptonshire

1967 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. F. C. Hawkes
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Board Of Directors ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The Road ◽  
South West ◽  
The University

The drawing fig. I, by Mrs. Marion Cox, and photograph pl. xxxix a, by Mr. R. L. Wilkins, were made while this urn was on loan to the University Institute of Archaeology at Oxford, soon after discovery in November 1965. A cinerary urn, it was found in the course of mechanical digging for sand on land at Milton Malsor, formerly owned by Mrs. Raynsford of Milton Malsor Manor, now owned and worked by Milton Sand, Ltd., and is published here by their permission. The firm being grouped under Mixoconcrete (Holdings) Ltd., possession of the urn remains with this company's Board of Directors, at Little Billing near Northampton. Milton (name contracted from ‘Middleton’) is some three miles south-south-west of Northampton and its ancient passage of the Nene (fig. 2), on the Lias sands of the first ridge south from the landmark hill of Hunsbury; the road south-west from there, crossing the ridge a mile to westward as ‘Banbury Lane’, here represents the old main trackway from the Humber down to the Cotswolds.

Tranchet Axe Manufacture from Cliffe, Kent

1988 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 315-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Ashton
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Discrete Group ◽  
British Museum ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
Small Trial

In the summer of 1978 pottery and flintwork were noticed in the sections to the south of Cliffe Village during the laying of a pipeline by British Gas (TQ 734744) (fig. 1). This led to the excavation of a series of small trial trenches by Mr David Thomson with the help of local volunteers in the same year. The retrieval of a Beaker and Collared Urn suggested an early Bronze Age site, and excavations by Dr Ian Kinnes for the British Museum were done in September 1979. Although the excavated features contained mainly Iron Age pottery and metalwork, both seasons' work also produced a large quantity of flint artefacts ranging from Mesolithic to Bronze Age in date. The following report is an analysis of the Mesolithic tranchet axe manufacturing debitage which could be distinguished as a discrete group from the other flintwork. It is not intended to present a comprehensive flint report for Cliffe, but to provide a framework for analysis at other sites where tranchet axe production has been shown to take place (Wymer 1962; Parfitt and Halliwell 1982).

Part I. Neolithic Mycenae

1957 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 195-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. B. Wace
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Fabric Hand ◽  
A Site

Stamatakes's excavations in the Grave Circle area revealed, although it was not recognized until much later, that Mycenae had been inhabited in the Early Bronze Age, the Early Helladic Period. This was confirmed by subsequent researches which produced Early Helladic material from the foot of the Ramp, outside the Grave Circle, beneath the South House and below the Palace. Now the recent work of Dr. Papademetriou and ourselves has yielded fresh evidence. He has found more E.H. material in Schliemann's Grave Circle and some possible Neolithic sherds as well. In the area of the Prehistoric Cemetery outside the Cyclopean walls to the north-west of the Lion Gate we have found in a mixed unstratified layer at the eastern foot of the mound or tumulus which covered the dome of the ‘Tomb of Aegisthus’ many fragments of E.H. pottery, both decorated and plain. Since the plain E.H. ware found is of a simple, thickish fabric hand-polished and usually of a dull red or of a mud colour, we had at times wondered whether some of these fragments might not almost be classed as Neolithic. This was especially so in the case of some of the fragments from the lowest strata at the foot of the Ramp. Unfortunately these fragments were lost during the war in the Nauplia Museum and cannot now be checked.The discovery of Neolithic B pottery at the Argive Heraeum, and still more recently Dr. Caskey's most successful excavations at Lerna, encouraged us in the idea that a site like Mycenae was probably inhabited in Neolithic times also. Since the Early Helladic material is not stratified, except in areas like the foot of the Ramp or below the South House, it was hardly to be expected that Neolithic remains, if found, would be stratified. It is always possible, however, that some part of the site, not yet explored, may have escaped later disturbance or overbuilding. We have therefore now paid particular attention to the unstratified debris found above the Prehistoric Cemetery at the eastern foot of the Aegisthus mound. Among this we have found two sherds which are in our opinion almost certainly Neolithic.

scholarly journals II.—Topography: Bardoúnia and North-Eastern Maina

1910 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 62-71
Author(s):  
H. A. O.
Keyword(s):  
The South ◽  
Hill Country ◽  
The Road ◽  
Eastern Side ◽  
The North ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
The Hill

The following paper, which completes the series of papers on the classical topography of Laconia, is an account of the hill-country on the eastern side of Taÿgetos, bounded on the north by the road from Sparta to Anavryté, on the south by Gytheion and Pánitsa. (Fig.1.)

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