A context for the Luzira Head

Antiquity ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (315) ◽  
pp. 99-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Reid ◽  
Ceri Z. Ashley
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
African Art ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
First Millennium

The Luzira head, a pottery figure discovered in a Ugandan prison compound in 1929, has remained curiously anonymous ever since. New archaeological work on the northern shores of (Lake) Victoria Nyanza has defined a formative period of political centralisation at the end of the first millennium AD. The authors show that this period of early to late Iron Age transition is where this remarkable object and related figurative material belongs. This has implications both for the formation of kingdoms in Uganda and for the story of African art more generally.

scholarly journals Neolithic domesticity and other prehistoric anomalies: excavations at Laigh Newton, East Ayrshire

2011 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronan Toolis ◽  
Jo Bacon ◽  
Gillian McSwan ◽  
Ingrid Shearer ◽  
Torben Bjarke Ballin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Charcoal Burning ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Third Millennium ◽  
Third Millennium Bc ◽  
First Millennium

A series of archaeological evaluations and excavations at Laigh Newton in East Ayrshire revealed evidence for intermittent occupation of this valley terrace between the Mesolithic and the Late Iron Age. The plough-truncated archaeology included the remains of a rectangular building and associated features of the mid-late fourth millennium BC, a more ephemeral structure and related pits of the mid third millennium BC, a charcoal-burning pit of the mid-first millennium AD and two other rectilinear structures of indeterminate date.

On the History and Evolution of Qws: The Portrait of a First Millennium BCE Deity Explored through Community Identity

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-189
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Danielson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Community Identity ◽  
Immigrant Communities ◽  
Current Collection ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
Shifting Identities ◽  
A Current

Abstract This article explores the history and evolution of the deity Qws through a study of the communities affiliated with Qws, presenting also a current collection of all inscriptional references to this deity. Diachronic and spatial analyses of the references reveal nuanced insights into how Qws was understood by his adherents, as well as the patterns of behavior, linguistic practices, and identities that marked these communities. The attestations of Qws demonstrate the deity’s relative obscurity during the Late Bronze Age, a rapid rise in inscriptional popularity among persons associated with the region of Edom during the late Iron Age, and a regional perpetuation of attestation following the dissolution of the Iron Age southern Levantine polities. Furthermore, attestations of Qws among diasporic community’s present insights into the shifting identities and cultic practices of the immigrant communities affiliated with the deity.

scholarly journals Out of the Norwegian glaciers: Lendbreen—a tunic from the early first millennium AD

Antiquity ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 87 (337) ◽  
pp. 788-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Vedeler ◽  
Lise Bender Jørgensen
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
First Millennium

As the temperature rises each year, the assemblages of prehistoric hunters emerge from the ice. Archaeologists in Norway are now conducting regular surveys in the mountains to record the new finds. A recent example presented here consists of a whole tunic, made of warm wool and woven in diamond twill. The owner, who lived in the late Iron Age (third–fourth centuries AD), was wearing well-worn outdoor clothing, originally of high quality.

What does early Christianity look like? Mortuary archaeology and conversion in Late Iron Age Scotland

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 39-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrián Maldonado
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Mortuary Archaeology ◽  
Sacred Place ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Vexed Question ◽  
Christian Practices

The study of the inhumation cemeteries of Late Iron Age Scotland tends to revolve around the vexed question of whether or not they provide evidence for Christianity. As a result, our approach has been to look for ‘Christian’ practices (lack of grave goods, west-east orientation) that are expectations based on analogy with the more standardised Christianity of the later medieval period. As these burial practices originate in a Late Iron Age context, recent theoretical approaches from the study of late prehistory also need to be applied. It is the emergence of cemeteries that is new in the mid-first millennium AD, and this distinction is still under-theorised. Recent theoretical models seek to understand the significance of place, and how these cemeteries are actively involved in creating that place rather than using a predefined ‘sacred’ place. By tracing their role in shaping and being shaped by their landscapes, before, during and after their use for burial, we can begin to speak more clearly about how we can use mortuary archaeology to study the changes of c. AD 400–600. It is argued that the ambiguity of these sites lies not with the burials themselves, but in our expectations of Christianity and paganism in the Late Iron Age.

Identity, Gender, Religion and Economy: New Isotope and Radiocarbon Evidence for Marine Resource Intensification in Early Historic Orkney, Scotland, UK

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Barrett ◽  
Michael P. Richards
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Protein Consumption ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Cultural Contingencies ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Fish Trade ◽  
Marine Protein

Stable isotope measurements and radiocarbon dates on 54 burials from northern Scotland document trends in marine protein consumption from the late Iron Age to the end of the Middle Ages. They illuminate how local environmental and cultural contingencies interrelated with a pan-European trend towards more intensive fishing around the end of the first millennium AD. Little use was made of marine foods in late Iron Age Orkney despite its maritime setting. Significant fish consumption appeared in the Viking Age (ninth to eleventh centuries AD), first in the case of some men buried with grave-goods of Scandinavian style but soon among both sexes in ‘Christian’ burials. There was then a peak in marine protein consumption from approximately the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries AD, particularly among men, after which the importance of fish-eating returned to Viking Age levels. The causes of these developments probably entailed a complex relationship between ethnicity, gender, Christian fasting practices, population growth, long-range fish trade and environmental change.

The Iron Age ritual building at Uppåkra, southern Sweden

Antiquity ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (311) ◽  
pp. 11-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Larsson
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Southern Sweden ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
New Directions ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Tall Structure

Six years ago we reported the discovery of a central place at Uppåkra in southern Sweden which promised to be unusually rich and informative (Hårdh 2000). At 40ha it already stood out as the largest concentration of residual phosphate in the whole province of Scania, with surface finds of Roman and late Iron Age metalwork (second-tenth century AD). Following this thorough evaluation, the project moved into its excavation phase which has brought to light several buildings of the first millennium AD, among them one that has proved truly exceptional. Its tall structure and numerous ornamented finds suggest an elaborate timber cult house. This is the first Scandinavian building for which the term ‘temple’ can be justly claimed and it is already sign-posting new directions for the early middle ages in northern Europe.

Excavations at Copse Farm, Oving, West Sussex

1985 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen Bedwin ◽  
Robin Holgate ◽  
P. L. Drewett ◽  
C. R. Cartwright ◽  
S. D. Hamilton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Coastal Plain ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ceramic Production ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Agricultural Economy ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Small Scale Industries ◽  
Insight Into

Two farmsteads, one of late Iron Age (second-first centuries BC) date and the other dating to the early Romano-British period (first-second centuries AD), were excavated at Copse Farm, Oving. The site is situated within the Chichester dykes on the Sussex/Hampshire Coastal Plain. The Iron Age farmstead produced pottery spanning ‘saucepan’ and ‘Aylesford-Swarling’ traditions, a transition in ceramic production which is poorly understood in Sussex. Information on the agricultural economy and small-scale industries (principally metalworking) practised at this site give an insight into the way the Coastal Plain was settled and exploited at the end of the first millennium BC.

scholarly journals Archaeogenetics of Late Iron Age Çemialo Sırtı, Batman: Investigating maternal genetic continuity in North Mesopotamia since the Neolithic

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reyhan Yaka ◽  
Ayşegül Birand ◽  
Yasemin Yılmaz ◽  
Ceren Caner ◽  
Sinan Can Açan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Demographic History ◽  
High Genetic Diversity ◽  
Asian Populations ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Genetic Continuity ◽  
The Impact

AbstractNorth Mesopotamia has witnessed dramatic political and social change since the Bronze Age, but the impact of these events on its demographic history is little understood. Here we study this question by analysing the recently excavated Late Iron Age settlement of Çemialo Sırtı in Batman, southeast Turkey. Archaeological and/or radiocarbon evidence indicate that the site was inhabited during two main periods: the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE and the first millennium BCE. Çemialo Sırtı reveals nomadic items of the Early Iron Age, as well as items associated with the Late Achaemenid and subsequent Hellenistic Periods. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes from 12 Çemialo Sırtı individuals reveal high genetic diversity in this population, conspicuously higher than early Holocene west Eurasian populations, which supports the notion of increasing population admixture in west Eurasia through the Holocene. Still, in its mtDNA composition, Çemialo Sırtı shows highest affinity to Neolithic north Syria and Neolithic Anatolia among ancient populations studied, and to modern-day southwest Asian populations. Population genetic simulations do not reject continuity between Neolithic and Iron Age, nor between Iron Age and present-day populations of the region. Despite the region’s complex political history and indication for increased genetic diversity over time, we find no evidence for sharp shifts in north Mesopotamian maternal genetic composition within the last 10,000 years.

The Carpathian and Danubian area

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurel Rustoiu
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Carpathian Basin ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Danube Region ◽  
Greek World

This chapter provides an overview of Iron Age societies in the eastern Carpathian basin and lower Danube region, from the Great Hungarian Plain to the Black Sea, drawing on funerary and settlement data from the different regions. The first iron objects occur in Transylvania in the late Bronze Age, but ironworking only developed fully in the early first millennium BC. Throughout the period, the area was open to contacts with central Europe, as well as the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. The so-called Scythian and Celtic horizons in the Carpathian basin were both associated with newcomers, although the nature and extent of population movement remains open to discussion. In the north Balkans, a series of opulent graves and fortified settlements attests to the development of an aristocracy with strong ties to the Greek world, followed in the late Iron Age by the rise of the impressive but short-lived Dacian kingdom.

Introduction

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Sharples
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Animal Products ◽  
Central Places ◽  
North West ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Long Time ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Surrounding Landscape

This book covers the first millennium BC in central southern Britain, or Wessex, a period and an area of considerable importance in understanding the evolution of human society in north-west Europe. Wessex is one of the most intensively studied areas in European prehistory and has a rich and varied archaeological record that provides a finely textured view of a past society that is just beyond the reach of the historical sources. This book was begun a long time ago and has emerged due to a number of different stimuli. My first significant involvement with Wessex was as a result of my employment as Director of the English Heritage excavations at Maiden Castle in Dorset. During this period I lived in Dorset and became very familiar with the archaeology of this county and the neighbouring county of Wiltshire. The excavations were written up promptly (Sharples 1991a, 1991c) and I was also able to produce a couple of short papers (Sharples 1990b, 1991b) on related issues. These papers were part of a series of publications that came to define a new archaeological understanding of the Wrst millennium BC. They provide a context for the creation of this book that is worth exploring. In the middle of the 1980s, understanding of the Iron Age of Wessex was dominated by the views of Professor Cunlifie, which were widely disseminated in a range of publications, but most comprehensively in his book Iron Age Communities in Britain (Cunlifie 1991, 2005). He presented a picture of Iron Age society where dominant elites lived within hillforts and each hillfort controlled a clearly defined territory. These permanently occupied settlements acted as central places that absorbed cereals and animal products from dependent communities in the surrounding landscape and exchanged these basic foodstuffs for materials not available in the region. The communities in hillforts controlled contact with neighbouring territories and were closely tied to ports, through which Continental trade was channelled. As the Iron Age progressed, the territories become larger and the hillforts become fewer until distinct tribal units ruled by kings become recognizable in the Late Iron Age.

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