EUBAR: A Database of 14C Measurements for the European Bronze Age. A Bayesian Analysis of 14C-Dated Archaeological Contexts from Northern Italy and Southern France

Radiocarbon ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (02) ◽  
pp. 851-869
Author(s):  
Giacomo Capuzzo ◽  
Elisabetta Boaretto ◽  
Juan A Barceló

The chronological framework of European protohistory is mostly a relative chronology based on typology and stratigraphic data. Synchronization of different time periods suffers from a lack of absolute dates; therefore, disagreements between different chronological schemes are difficult to reconcile. An alternative approach was applied in this study to build a more precise and accurate absolute chronology. To the best of our knowledge, we have collected all the published14C dates for the archaeological sites in the region from the Ebro River (Spain) to the Middle Danube Valley (Austria) for the period 1800–750 BC. The available archaeological information associated with the14C dates was organized in a database that totaled more than 160014C dates. In order to build an accurate and precise chronology, quality selection rules have been applied to the14C dates based on both archaeological context and analytical quality. Using the OxCal software and Bayesian analysis, several14C time sequences were created following the archaeological data and different possible scenarios were tested in northern Italy and southern France.

Radiocarbon ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 851-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Capuzzo ◽  
Elisabetta Boaretto ◽  
Juan A Barceló

The chronological framework of European protohistory is mostly a relative chronology based on typology and stratigraphic data. Synchronization of different time periods suffers from a lack of absolute dates; therefore, disagreements between different chronological schemes are difficult to reconcile. An alternative approach was applied in this study to build a more precise and accurate absolute chronology. To the best of our knowledge, we have collected all the published 14C dates for the archaeological sites in the region from the Ebro River (Spain) to the Middle Danube Valley (Austria) for the period 1800–750 BC. The available archaeological information associated with the 14C dates was organized in a database that totaled more than 1600 14C dates. In order to build an accurate and precise chronology, quality selection rules have been applied to the 14C dates based on both archaeological context and analytical quality. Using the OxCal software and Bayesian analysis, several 14C time sequences were created following the archaeological data and different possible scenarios were tested in northern Italy and southern France.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Zerboni ◽  
Anna Maria Mercuri ◽  
Assunta Florenzano ◽  
Eleonora Clò ◽  
Giovanni Zanchetta ◽  
...  

<p><span>The Terramare civilization included hundreds of </span><span>banked and moated villages, located in the alluvial plain of the Po River of northern Italy, and developed between the Middle and the Recent Bronze Ages (XVI-XII cent. BC). This civilization lasted for over 500 years, collapsing at around 1150 years BC, in a period marked by a great societal disruptionin the Mediterranean area. The timing and modalities of the collapse of the Terramare Bronze Age culture are widely debated, and a combined geoarchaeological and palaeoclimatic investigation – the SUCCESSO-TERRA Project –is shading new light on this enigma. The Terramare economy was based upon cereal farming, herding, and metallurgy; settlements were also sustained by a well-developed system for the management of water and abundant wood resources. They also established a wide network of commercial exchange between continental Europe and the Mediterranean region.The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project investigated two main Bronze Age sites in Northern Italy:(i) the Terramara Santa Rosa di Poviglio, and (ii) the San Michele di Valestra site, which is a coeval settlement outside the Terramare territory, but in the adjoining Apennine range. Human occupation at San Michele di Valestra persisted after the Terramare crisis and the site was settled with continuity throughout the whole Bronze Ages, up to the Iron Age. The combined geoarchaeological, palaeoclimatic, and archaeobotanical investigation on different archaeological sites and on independent archives for climatic proxies (offsite cores and speleothems) highlights the existence of both climatic and anthropic critical factors triggering a dramatic shift of the landuse of the Terramare civilization. The overexploitation of natural resources became excessive in the late period of the Terramare trajectory, when also a climatic change occurred. A fresh speleothem record for the same region suggests the occurrence of a short-lived period of climatic instability followed by a marked peak of aridity. The<span> </span>unfavourable concomitance between human overgrazing and climatic-triggered environmental pressure, amplified the on-going societal crisis, likely leading to the breakdown of the Terramare civilization in the turn of a generation.</span></p>


2008 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Scicchitano ◽  
Fabrizio Antonioli ◽  
Elena Flavia Castagnino Berlinghieri ◽  
Andrea Dutton ◽  
Carmelo Monaco

AbstractPrecise measurements of submerged archaeological markers in the Siracusa coast (Southeastern Sicily, Italy) provide new data on relative sea-level change during the late Holocene. Four submerged archaeological sites have been studied and investigated through direct observations. Two of them are Greek archaic in age (2.5–2.7 ka) and are now 0.98–1.48 m below sea level; the other two developed during the Bronze age (3.2–3.8 ka) and are now 1.03–1.97 m below sea level. These archaeological data have been integrated with information derived from a submerged speleothem collected in a cave located along the Siracusa coast at − 20 m depth. The positions of the archaeological markers have been measured with respect to present sea level, corrected for tide and pressure at the time of surveys. These data were compared with predicted sea-level rise curves for the Holocene using a glacio-hydro-isostatic model. The comparison with the curve for the southeastern Sicily coast yields a tectonic component of relative sea-level change related to regional uplift. Uplift rates between 0.3 and 0.8 mm/yr have been estimated.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 2617
Author(s):  
Rita Deiana ◽  
David Vicenzutto ◽  
Gian Piero Deidda ◽  
Jacopo Boaga ◽  
Michele Cupitò

During the Middle and Recent Bronze Age, the Po Plain and, more broadly Northern Italy were populated by the so-called “Terramare”, embanked settlements, surrounded by a moat. The buried remains of these archaeological settlements are characterized by the presence of a system of palaeo-environments and a consequent natural gradient in soil moisture content. These differences in the soil are often firstly detectable on the surface during the seasonal variations, with aerial, satellite, and Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) images, without any information on the lateral and in-depth extension of the related buried structures. The variation in the moisture content of soils is directly related to their differences in electrical conductivity. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and frequency domain electromagnetic (FDEM), also known as electromagnetic induction (EMI) measurements, provide non-direct measurements of electrical conductivity in the soils, helping in the reconstruction of the geometry of different buried structures. This study presents the results of the multidisciplinary approach adopted to the study of the Terramare settlement of Fondo Paviani in Northern Italy. Remote sensing and archaeological data, collected over about 10 years, combined with more recent ERT and FDEM measurements, contributed to the analysis of this particular, not yet wholly investigated, archaeological site. The results obtained by the integrated multidisciplinary study here adopted, provide new useful, interesting information for the archaeologists also suggesting future strategies for new studies still to be conducted around this important settlement.


2019 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 31-48
Author(s):  
Tomasz Goslar

The article presents the results of the radiocarbon dating and Bayesian analysis of 14C dates of bones from the burial ground in Domasław. The Bayesian analysis used the relative chronology obtained based on the characteristic features of grave goods and the assigning of individual burials to specific periods of the late Bronze Age (III EB – V EB ) or the early Iron Age (HC – LtA). A coherent chronological model of the burial ground was accepted after assuming that graves with transitional features, attributable to two subsequent periods, could have been contemporary of graves from one or the other period. The temporal frames of particular periods calculated by the model allow us to improve previously published chronological diagrams of the late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age in the region.  


1993 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 772-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
MONICA FERRARONI ◽  
MARIETTE GERBER ◽  
ADRIANO DECARLI ◽  
SYLVIA RICHARDSON ◽  
ETTORE MARUBINI ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 2719
Author(s):  
Nicodemo Abate ◽  
Alessia Frisetti ◽  
Federico Marazzi ◽  
Nicola Masini ◽  
Rosa Lasaponara

Unmanned aerial vehicles are currently the most used solution for cultural heritage in the field of close range and low altitude acquisitions. This work shows data acquired by multitemporal and multispectral aerial surveys in the archaeological site of San Vincenzo al Volturno (Molise, Italy). The site is one of the most important medieval archaeological sites in the world. It is a monastic settlement that was particularly rich during the early Middle Ages, and is famous for its two full-frescoed crypts which represent a milestone in the history of medieval art. Thanks to the use of multispectral aerial photography at different times of the year, an area not accessible to archaeological excavation has been investigated. To avoid redundancy of information and reduce the number of data to be analysed, a method based on spectral and radiometric enhancement techniques combined with a selective principal component analysis was used for the identification of useful information. The combination of already published archaeological data and new remote sensing discoveries, has allowed to better define the situation of the abbey during the building phases of the 8th/9th century and 11th century, confirming and adding new data to the assumptions made by archaeologists.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Federico Manuelli ◽  
Cristiano Vignola ◽  
Fabio Marzaioli ◽  
Isabella Passariello ◽  
Filippo Terrasi

ABSTRACT The Iron Age chronology at Arslantepe is the result of the interpretation of Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions and archaeological data coming from the site and its surrounding region. A new round of investigations of the Iron Age levels has been conducted at the site over the last 10 years. Preliminary results allowed the combination of the archaeological sequence with the historical events that extended from the collapse of the Late Bronze Age empires to the formation and development of the new Iron Age kingdoms. The integration into this picture of a new set of radiocarbon (14C) dates is aimed at establishing a more solid local chronology. High precision 14C dating by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and its correlation with archaeobotanical analysis and stratigraphic data are presented here with the purpose of improving our knowledge of the site’s history and to build a reliable absolute chronology of the Iron Age. The results show that the earliest level of the sequence dates to ca. the mid-13th century BC, implying that the site started developing a new set of relationships with the Levant already before the breakdown of the Hittite empire, entailing important historical implications for the Syro-Anatolian region at the end of the 2nd millennium BC.


Author(s):  
J. Specht

Writing an archaeological prehistory of the New Guinea islands in northern Near Oceania is hindered by the paucity of field research and reliance on other disciplines to fill gaps in the archaeological data. Five themes are reviewed that require attention: better chronological controls for the archaeological sites, testing of theories about Pleistocene colonization and subsequent population movements, reconstruction of paleoenvironmental conditions from first settlement onward, exploration of subsistence systems especially regarding the use and management of plant foods, and a broader view of the nature and consequences of interaction between individuals and communities. It concludes with a call for greater involvement of Pacific Islanders in the production of regional and local prehistories.


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