Neolithic Causewayed Enclosures and Later Prehistoric Farming: Duality, Imposition and the Role of Predecessors at Kingsborough, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, UK

2008 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 235-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Allen ◽  
Matt Leivers ◽  
Chris Ellis ◽  
Simon Stevens ◽  
Susan Clelland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Relationship ◽  
Special Function ◽  
Chronological Sequence ◽  
Agricultural Use ◽  
Field Systems ◽  
The Bronze Age

Developer-funded archaeology on the Isle of Sheppey resulted in the discovery of not one but two Neolithic causewayed enclosures on the same hilltop in very close (c. 300 m) proximity. In the later Bronze Age enclosures and cremation cemeteries were constructed immediately to the east, followed by Iron Age enclosures and, ultimately, field systems dating to the later Iron Age onwards. A radiocarbon programme enabled the chronological sequence and hiatus between all of these events to be discerned, but the majority of this paper explores the physical, chronological, and social relationship between the two Neolithic causewayed enclosures. These were of different forms and, although on the same hilltop, they each seem to have had distinctly different viewsheds over the Thames and the Swale respectively. There are subtle, but potentially significant, differences in the material culture and deposition which allow exploration of the possible functions and role(s) of the two largely contemporaneous sites. Questions may be addressed such as whether they performed the same functions for two communities or had separate and distinct roles for a single community. Beyond the Neolithic, the paper also explores the nature of the later use of the hilltop. The Bronze Age enclosures, though agricultural in function, clearly seem to respect their Neolithic predecessors invoking a remembrance of space, which is lost by the Iron Age. The shift away from the special function of this landscape in the Neolithic to a subsequent agricultural use is explored, as is the hiatus in use and subsequent re-use of the area.

scholarly journals New evidence for prehistoric copper metallurgy in the vicinity of Bor

Starinar ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 173-191
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Kapuran ◽  
Dragana Zivkovic ◽  
Nada Strbac
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Copper Ore ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Metallurgical Furnaces ◽  
Copper Metallurgy ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
The Bronze Age

The last three years of archaeological investigations at the site Ru`ana in Banjsko Polje, in the immediate vicinity of Bor, have provided new evidence regarding the role of non-ferrous metallurgy in the economy of the prehistoric communities of north-eastern Serbia. The remains of metallurgical furnaces and a large amount of metallic slags at two neighbouring sites in the mentioned settlement reveal that locations with many installations for the thermal processing of copper ore existed in the Bronze Age. We believe, judging by the finds of material culture, that metallurgical activities in this area also continued into the Iron Age and, possibly, into the 4th century AD.

scholarly journals Non-discursive Knowledge and the Construction of Identity Potters, Potting and Performance at the Bronze Age Tell of Százhalombatta, Hungary

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Budden ◽  
Joanna Sofaer
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
Differential Acquisition ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Bronze Age

This article explores the relationship between the making of things and the making of people at the Bronze Age tell at Százhalombatta, Hungary. Focusing on potters and potting, we explore how the performance of non-discursive knowledge was critical to the construction of social categories. Potters literally came into being as potters through repeated bodily enactment of potting skills. Potters also gained their identity in the social sphere through the connection between their potting performance and their audience. We trace degrees of skill in the ceramic record to reveal the material articulation of non-discursive knowledge and consider the ramifications of the differential acquisition of non-discursive knowledge for the expression of different kinds of potter's identities. The creation of potters as a social category was essential to the ongoing creation of specific forms of material culture. We examine the implications of altered potters' performances and the role of non-discursive knowledge in the construction of social models of the Bronze Age.

Conclusions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Segal
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
21St Century ◽  
International Conflict ◽  
Materials Development ◽  
The Bronze Age

Chapter 13 is the last chapter. It suggests how the 21st century may be described in terms of ‘ages’ analogous to the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Will the 21st century be described as the Silicon Age? Or perhaps be referred to as the Genomic Age? Or maybe the New Polymer Age? The role of climate change and international conflict on the pace of materials development are discussed.

scholarly journals Exotic foods reveal contact between South Asia and the Near East during the second millennium BCE

2020 ◽  
Vol 118 (2) ◽  
pp. e2014956117
Author(s):  
Ashley Scott ◽  
Robert C. Power ◽  
Victoria Altmann-Wendling ◽  
Michal Artzy ◽  
Mario A. S. Martin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Second Millennium Bce ◽  
Access To Food ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Shed Light

Although the key role of long-distance trade in the transformation of cuisines worldwide has been well-documented since at least the Roman era, the prehistory of the Eurasian food trade is less visible. In order to shed light on the transformation of Eastern Mediterranean cuisines during the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, we analyzed microremains and proteins preserved in the dental calculus of individuals who lived during the second millennium BCE in the Southern Levant. Our results provide clear evidence for the consumption of expected staple foods, such as cereals (Triticeae), sesame (Sesamum), and dates (Phoenix). We additionally report evidence for the consumption of soybean (Glycine), probable banana (Musa), and turmeric (Curcuma), which pushes back the earliest evidence of these foods in the Mediterranean by centuries (turmeric) or even millennia (soybean). We find that, from the early second millennium onwards, at least some people in the Eastern Mediterranean had access to food from distant locations, including South Asia, and such goods were likely consumed as oils, dried fruits, and spices. These insights force us to rethink the complexity and intensity of Indo-Mediterranean trade during the Bronze Age as well as the degree of globalization in early Eastern Mediterranean cuisine.

Archaeology of the Biblical Period: On Some Questions of Methodology and Chronology of the Iron Age

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID USSISHKIN
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Archaeology ◽  
Biblical History ◽  
The One ◽  
The Bronze Age

This chapter discusses the role of archaeology in the study of the biblical period and biblical history, with special reference to the ninth century – that is, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, in the land of Israel. This discipline is known as biblical archaeology. When biblical archaeological research began more than 150 years ago, it was dependent on the Bible and biblical research. The dependence of archaeology on the biblical text is symbolized by the phrase ‘bible and spade’. The chapter argues that the disciplines of archaeology on the one hand and history and biblical studies on the other are based on different methods and different ways of thinking, and also claims that the archaeologist should refrain from analysing the Bible and history. Furthermore, it contends that the proper methodology should involve some cooperation between archaeologists, biblical scholars, and historians. The chapter also takes a look at the archaeological framework of the Iron Age, which is made of stratigraphy and chronology.

Excavations on Sheep Hill, West Dunbartonshire, 1966–69: A Late Bronze Age timber-framed dun and a small Iron Age hillfort

2015 ◽  
Vol 36-37 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Euan W. MacKie
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
Preliminary Account ◽  
The University ◽  
The Hill ◽  
Small Team ◽  
The Bronze Age

Excavations at Sheep Hill hillfort, West Dunbartonshire, took place at weekends between 1966 and 1969, with a small team of volunteers. The fort is sited on a volcanic plug of basalt with extensive views up and down the river Clyde. The finds are in the Hunterian Museum of the University of Glasgow, and a preliminary account of the discoveries was published a few years later ( MacKie 1976 ). The hilltop stronghold was found in fact to have been two successive forts. The first (Fort 1) was a timber-framed dun – a drystone enclosure on the summit of the hill. This was destroyed by fire and partly vitrified near the end of the Bronze Age, and most of the rubble from the walls was re-used in the larger Iron Age hillfort (Fort 2) which was built on top of it. A midden from this early fort was found under the rampart of the later one and contained gritty Dunagoil pottery as well as pieces of fired clay moulds for bronze implements. It is possible that a palisaded enclosure preceded the vitrified fort. Nearby on the north was once one of the finest cup-and-ring carved rocks in the country which may have been damaged for building material. The later hillfort consisted of several enclosures defended by rubble and earth ramparts. An important element in the associated material culture was the shale armlet, several examples of which were found. They appear to have been made on the site. The fort is difficult to date precisely but was almost certainly pre-Roman. No Roman artefacts were found although the fort at the west end of the Antonine wall is only a short distance to the east.

Shaping Social Identities in Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Western Iberia: The Role of Funerary Practices, Stelae, and Statue-Menhirs

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Díaz-Guardamino
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Shared Understandings ◽  
The Bronze Age

This paper assesses the applicability of modern notions of gender identity and individuality, and examines ‘relationality’ as a key dimension structuring social identity during the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Early Iron Age in western Iberia through a focus on funerary practices and stelae- and statue-menhir-making. It is argued that these practices were involved in the recollection of genealogical and mythical pasts. They entailed the creation of the dead and the ancestors as relational entities through the explicit inscription of graphic and spatial relations. Ultimately, these practices were structured by, and structured, shared understandings of the self and the roles of the deceased and the ancestors in social life—understandings in which ‘relationality’ played a seminal role.

scholarly journals An interdisciplinary tillage erosion experiment: establishing a field in grassland with reconstructed ard plough of the Bronze Age-Iron Age

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 101 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Pavelka ◽  
A. Smetanová ◽  
J. Rejman ◽  
P. Kováčik
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Loose Soil ◽  
Mean Width ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Seedbed Preparation ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Tillage Erosion

Despite recognising the role of tillage erosion in landforms evolution, little research has documented its effects in prehistoric times. Herein, an interdisciplinary archaeological-geomorphological experiment with reconstructed tillage tools and management was conducted in order to measure tillage erosion when a new field in grasslands was established in the Bronze Age-Iron Age. Three wooden ards were reconstructed based on archaeological findings. They were tested in a cross-tillage experiment, consisting of a tillage pass perpendicular to the primary slope (6.5-9.7%), and a second tillage pass parallel to the primary slope of a convex-convex ridge with mowed grass (0.2 m high, vegetation cover >90%). The standard sole ard proved to be the most effective, with a mean tillage depth of ~0.12 m, a mean tillage speed of 3.8 km h-1, and a mean distance between furrows of 0.20-0.25 m. Only 13% of the 264 tracers placed on 6 transects were displaced, and the mean tracers displacement parallel to the primary slope was 0.04 ± 0.17 m. Contour tillage perpendicular to primary slope created V or U shaped furrows with a mean depth of 0.1-0.12 m, a mean width of 0.05-0.1 m, and incision under the main root zone. Only soil in direct contact with the ard was displaced, with a mean translocation distance of 0.06 ± 0.2 m parallel and 0.06 ± 0.3 m perpendicular to the primary slope. During tillage parallel to slope, soil clods of ~0.20 x 0.25 x 0.10 m were created and slightly disturbed or turned over one another. The tracers moved within the furrows and with the soil clods. Loose soil, resembling a seedbed, was not covered by soil clods. Mean displacement during the second pass was 0.03 ± 0.19 m parallel and 0.00 ± 0.15 m perpendicular to primary slope. The displacement from cross-tillage with a wooden ard in permanent grasslands was lower than many previously measured values of traditional animal-powered metal ploughs in permanent fields. No relationship between mean soil displacement and slope gradient was found. Dense vegetation and root structure influenced ard soil-penetration, its movement within the soil, and the displacement of tracers packed between the roots. Cross-tillage with a wooden ard proved to be insufficient for seedbed preparation. The results suggest that grazing or fire management, followed by repeated tillage with ard or hoe in order to destroy soil clods were necessary to establish a new field in grasslands during the Bronze Age-Iron Age.

scholarly journals On the influence of Vatin and Verbicioara cultures in the finds of the Gamzigrad cultural group

Starinar ◽  
2009 ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Kapuran
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Small Area ◽  
Ceramic Materials ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Middle Iron Age ◽  
The Bronze Age

The Timocka Krajina region has not been sufficiently investigated archaeologically, which coupled with the fact that a very small number of metal finds and remains have been discovered, makes the reconstruction of the start and end of the Bronze Age that much more difficult. Identification work in the area around Romuliana on two occasions in 2001 and 2008 led to the discovery of another 10 predominantly multi-layered sites dating back to the Bronze Age, of which 7 are highland settlements while 3 are lowland settlements located in the immediate vicinity of the Timok river or its tributaries. The discovered sites 1. Varsari, 2. Djokin Vis, 3. Kravarnik, 4. Mustafa, 5. Nikolov Savat, 6. Njiva Zore Brzanovic, 7. Petronj, 8. Potes-Petronj, 9. Strenjak and 10. Zvezdan; bare the characteristics of the material culture of the ?Gamzigrad group? of the Middle Iron Age. Besides known ceramic forms and characteristic ornamentation of this culture, there is a visibly strong influence of the Vatin (Crvenka-Cornes?i) and Verbicioara elements to a greater extent, and Paracin cultural elements to a lesser extent. Given that this material was collected during identification work, we are now aware of the stratigraphic relations between these elements, and have devoted more attention to common characteristics and interconnections from which certain conclusions can be drawn. Based on the finds from archaeological sites that have been excavated it can be concluded that the distribution of sites with Gamzigrad cultural characteristics is limited to a very small area, i.e. only to the vicinity of the Crni Timok river. Nearly at all sites, both highland and lowland, Vatin and Verbicioara elements are strongly visible on the ceramic materials. The geographic position of the Crni Timok, which is located in the area where the Paracin, Vatin and Verbichoar cultures connected and overlapped, could contribute to shedding light on the origin and characteristics of this phenomenon of the Middle Bronze Age in Eastern Serbia.

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