Pits and Post-holes in the British Early Iron Age: some alternative explanations

1971 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Ellison ◽  
Peter Drewett
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Type Site ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Post Hole ◽  
Ways Of Life

From ethnography and social anthropology ‘the prehistorian learns how particular peoples adapt themselves to their environments, and shape their resources to the ways of life demanded by their own cultures: he thus gains a knowledge of alternate methods of solving problems and often of alternative ways of explaining artefacts resembling those he recovers in antiquity. Study of ethnography will not as a rule … give him straight answers to his queries. What it will do is to provide him with hypotheses in the light of which he can resume his attack on the raw materials of his study’ (Clark, 1957, 172). Such a controlled use of ethnographic parallels has recently been applied successfully in the spheres of art and burial practices (e.g. Ucko, 1969, 262 and references there cited) but not as yet to the study of prehistoric settlement patterns or economy. In this paper it is hoped to show how the consideration of ethnographic parallels can help us to reach some possible alternative interpretations of two classes of excavated evidence: the pits and the two-, four-, five- and six-post-hole structures found mainly on Lowland Zone Iron Age settlements in Britain. These, usually interpreted in the literature as storage pits, ‘drying-racks’ and ‘granaries’ have been taken to be characteristic features of the ‘Woodbury Type’ economy of the earlier pre-Roman Iron Age in the Lowland Zone (Piggott, 1958, 3–4 and Bowen, 1969, 13–5), bearing in mind that ‘the type site must be clearly distinguished from the economy, and the economy itself seems to have been as variable as possible within the rather narrow Iron Age technical limits, (Bowen, 1969, 13).

Dating Gordion: the Timing and Tempo of Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Political Transformation

Radiocarbon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 495-514
Author(s):  
Lisa Kealhofer ◽  
Peter Grave ◽  
Mary M Voigt
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Subsequent Formation ◽  
Absolute Dating ◽  
Type Site ◽  
Key Events

ABSTRACTGordion has long served as an archaeological type site for Iron Age central Anatolia and provided pioneering radiocarbon (14C) determinations as reported in the first issue ofRadiocarbon(1959). Absolute dating of key events at Gordion continue to reshape our understanding of regional development and interaction in the Iron Age, with a major conflagration in the late 9th BCE century at this site the most recent focus of attention (DeVries et al. 2003). Here we present the latest series of14C determinations for Gordion from Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age contexts. Fifteen absolute dates provide a critical new framework for establishing the timing and tempo of cultural transformation from the collapse of the Hittite Empire through to the subsequent formation of the Phrygian polity that dominated central Anatolia from the 9th to the 7th c. BCE. This chronometric revision transforms our perspective on the LBA/EIA transition at this site: from disengagement from Hittite hegemony in the 12th c. BCE, to the precocious emergence of the Phrygian capital in the early 9th c. BCE.

Cemeteries and Settlement Patterns of the Iron Age on the Yorkshire Wolds

1982 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 437-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Dent
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Essential Requirement

The Yorkshire Wolds hold an air of mystery for students of the Iron Age. As is well known these chalk hills lie at the heart of the largest group of Early Iron Age burials in Britain, the ‘Arras Culture’, so-called after the first and richest cemetery to be excavated (fig. 1; Stead 1979). Although these burials are often quoted in general discussions and formed an important piece of evidence in the ‘invasion controversy’, it is only in the last few years that up to date illustrations of the material have begun to appear in textbooks (Cunliffe 1978; Champion 1979) following the publication of interim excavation reports (Brewster 1976; Stead 1977). Little is known of the settlements which these cemeteries served and even less is published. The present paper is an attempt to trace settlement patterns by an examination of the funerary material in conjunction with the domestic evidence which was found in the very large-scale excavations in Garton and Wetwang Slacks (Brewster 1981; Dent 1982).A heavy funerary bias in the material is further exaggerated because the distinctive square-plan barrows of the ‘Arras Culture’ are readily identifiable from the air whereas settlement can rarely be dated without excavation. Many hundreds of barrows are now known in this way (Ramm 1973; 1974; Loughlin and Miller 1979) and all but the most recently excavated have been catalogued (Stead 1979). An essential requirement for a discussion of these is the ability to date the material involved, either in absolute or in relative terms. It would be useful if distinctive groups could be recognized among the pottery from these sites since the metalwork is rare in domestic contexts, whereas even poor sites usually produce some sherds. Unfortunately there is virtually no decorated pottery and the plain jars which are found in graves cannot at present be used as a basis for a chronology. It is the metalwork which presents the best opportunity for such a classification.

scholarly journals Mesolithic Sites in the Upper Tobol

2022 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 897-910
Author(s):  
E. V. Podzuban
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Arrow Head ◽  
Stone Industry ◽  
The Town

The article introduces prehistoric artifacts from the sites of Karasor-5, Karasor-6, and Karasor-7 obtained in 1998. The archaeological site of Karasor is located in the Upper Tobol region, near the town of Lisakovsk. Stone tools, pottery fragments, a ceramic item, and a bronze arrow head were collected from a sand blowout, which had destroyed the cultural layer. The paper gives a detailed description of the pottery. The stone tools were examined using the technical and typological analysis, which featured the primary splitting, the morphological parameters and size of plates, the ratio of blanks, plates, flakes, and finished tools, the secondary processing methods, and the typological composition of the tools. The nature of the raw materials was counted as an independent indicator. The pottery fragments, the bronze arrow head, and the ceramic item belonged to the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The stone industry of the Karasor archeological cluster proved to be a Mesolithic monument of the Turgai Trough. The technical and typological analysis revealed a close similarity with the Mesolithic sites of the Southern and Middle Trans-Urals, as well as the forest-steppe part of the Tobol-Irtysh interfluve. The stone artifacts were dated from the Mesolithic to the Early Iron Age.

scholarly journals РЕЗУЛЬТАТЫ ТЕХНИКО-ТЕХНОЛОГИЧЕСКОГО АНАЛИЗА КЕРАМИКИ ИЗ МОГИЛЬНИКА ШЕЛОМОК I, ПОСЕЛЕНИЙ КИЖИРОВО, САМУСЬ II

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyudmila Pletneva ◽  
Irma Ragimkhanova ◽  
Nadezhda Stepanova
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Molding Compounds ◽  
Cultural Processes ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Technological Analysis

Статья продолжает серию публикаций по результатам технико-технологического анализа керамики памятников раннего железного века Томского Приобья, относящихся к шеломокской культуре и к томскому варианту кулайской культурно-исторической общности. Для анализа были взяты фрагменты керамики из могильника Шеломок I, поселений Кижирово и Самусь II. Результаты анализов показали, как сходство, так и отличия в выборе исходного сырья и подготовки формовочных масс. Например, если для поселения Шеломок II – базового памятника шеломокской культуры, характерна примесь дресвы из гранита с белыми и прозрачными включениями кварца (Плетнёва, Степанова, 2018), то в формовочных массах керамики из могильника добавляли гранит с красными (розовыми) включениями кварца. Памятники эти расположены рядом, на расстоянии 500 м друг от друга, то есть природная среда была одинаковой. Датировка поселения Шеломок II укладывается в пределы V–III вв. до н. э., а могильника Шеломок I – IV–III вв. до н. э., что свидетельствует об их синхронном существовании. Предметы из могильника находят ближайшие аналогии в материалах шеломокской культуры. Сравнение предметного ряда изделий из бронзы, кости и рога свидетельствует о контактах оставившего его населения с тагарцами Ачинско-Мариинской лесостепи, а также, возможно, с населением большереченской культуры, по мнению И. Ж. Рагимхановой и возможно, по мнению Л. М. Плетневой, материалы могильника отражают сложные культурные процессы раннего железного века, происходившие в Томском Приобье и фиксируют приход населения из Ачинско-Мариинского района тагарской культуры.This paper continues a series of publications that report the results oftechnical and technological analysis of ceramics from the Early Iron Age monuments of the Tomsk Ob Region, which are attributed to Shelomok and Tomsk variants of the Kulay cultural and historical community. Fragments of ceramics have been taken for analysis from the Shelomok I burial ground, Kizhirovo and Samus II settlements. The results of analysis demonstrate both similarities and differences in the choice of raw materials and the preparation of molding compounds. For example, the addition of granite gruss with white and transparent quartz inclusions to the pottery paste was typical of Shelomok II settlement (Pletneva, Stepanova, 2018), while the pottery paste from the burial ground included granite with red (pink) quartz inclusions. These monuments are located nearby, at a distance of 500 m away from each other, in the same natural environment. Perhaps, the materials of the burial ground reflect the complex cultural processes of the early Iron Age that took place in the Tomsk Ob region and record the arrival of the population from the Achinsk-Mariinsky district of tagar culture.

What Is the Norm?

2020 ◽  
pp. 170-189
Author(s):  
Nils Müller-Scheessel ◽  
Carola Berszin ◽  
Gisela Grupe ◽  
Annette Schwentke ◽  
Anja Staskiewicz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Great Variability ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Small Children ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Isotopic Analyses ◽  
The Dead ◽  
High Degree

Despite great variability, most burials of the Early Iron Age in Central Europe exhibit a high degree of standardization. Richly furnished graves consist of wooden chambers furnished with grave goods like chariots, vessels, and other objects, while less “rich” burials—clustered in “regular” cemeteries—show the same orientation to the south as well as regularly reappearing objects like weapons or ornaments. Because of these strict rules, scholars have accepted such burials as “the norm,” and any other form of deposition of the dead as “abnormal,” hinting at macabre customs like cannibalism or sacrifice. This chapter analyzes one kind of Iron Age deviant burial, those in settlement pits, discussing bioarchaeological and isotopic analyses, a reassessment of archaeological evidence, and a comparison with normative burial practices. The dead in settlements belonged to at least three social categories, each probably considered incomplete in some way and unfit to be buried in regular cemeteries: very small children, adolescents, and other individuals that had suffered an untimely or “bad” death, and individuals of low social standing.

scholarly journals Detecting Mobility in Early Iron Age Thessaly by Strontium Isotope Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 590-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleni Panagiotopoulou ◽  
Janet Montgomery ◽  
Geoff Nowell ◽  
Joanne Peterkin ◽  
Argiro Doulgeri-Intzesiloglou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Strontium Isotope Analysis ◽  
Cultural Transformations ◽  
Non Local

This article presents evidence of population movements in Thessaly, Greece, during the Early Iron Age (Protogeometric period, eleventh–ninth centuriesbc). The method we employed to detect non-local individuals is strontium isotope analysis (87Sr/86Sr) of tooth enamel integrated with the contextual analysis of mortuary practices and osteological analysis of the skeletal assemblage. During the Protogeometric period, social and cultural transformations occurred while society was recovering from the disintegration of the Mycenaean civilization (twelfth centurybc). The analysis of the cemeteries of Voulokaliva, Chloe, and Pharsala, located in southern Thessaly, showed that non-local individuals integrated in the communities we focused on and contributed to the observed diversity in burial practices and to the developments in the formation of a social organization.

Excavations at a Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure, Orsett, Essex, 1975

1978 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 219-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hedges ◽  
David Buckley ◽  
C. Bonsall ◽  
I. A. Kinnes ◽  
J. C. Barrett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The State ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Rectangular Enclosure ◽  
Middle Iron Age ◽  
Post Hole ◽  
Hole Structure

SummaryThe Causewayed Enclosure at Orsett, Essex, was trial trenched in 1975 to determine the state of site preservation and confirm its postulated Neolithic date and site sequence. The enclosure consisted of three incomplete circuits of discontinuous ditch with an associated timber palisade slot lying inside and concentric to the middle ditch. Within the interior was an oval post hole structure of a contemporary date. Quantities of Mildenhall style pottery and flint artifacts of the mid third millennium b.c. were recovered from the primary ditch silts and other features. A small quantity of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age wares came from the secondary ditch silts and the interior.Later phases on the site were represented by unenclosed Early Iron Age occupation, a Middle Iron Age sub-rectangular enclosure and Saxon ring-ditch burials.

Prehistoric Mortuary Practices and the Constitution of Social Relationships: Implications of the First Radiocarbon Dates from Maski on the Occupational History of a South India “Type Site”

Radiocarbon ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 795-806 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M Bauer ◽  
Peter G Johansen
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Late Medieval Period ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Social Affiliations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Type Site

In 1954, B K Thapar excavated the multicomponent site of Maski (Raichur District, Karnataka) to establish an archaeological sequence for the southern Deccan region of India. Thapar identified four major periods of occupation, now known as the Neolithic (3000–1200 BC), Iron Age (1200–300 BC), Early Historic (300 BC to AD 500), and the Medieval periods (AD 500–1600). Renewed research at the site by the Maski Archaeological Research Project (F.1/8/2009-EE) has investigated the development of social differences and inequalities in south Indian prehistory. This article reports the first ever radiocarbon assays from habitation and megalithic burial contexts in the vicinity of Maski. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates of charcoal sampled from exposed occupational strata on Maski's Durgada Gudda hill and subsequent Bayesian analyses indicate that the site was extensively occupied during the 14th century AD, corroborating interpretations of numismatic and inscriptional materials. Associated artifacts with these 14C samples have significant implications for recognizing late Medieval period ceramics and occupation in the region. AMS assays of four charcoal samples from exposed megalithic burials just south of the Durgada Gudda hill, similar to those recognized by Thapar, indicate that burial practices commonly attributed to the Iron Age predate the period, and thus are not precise chronological markers. However, the results also suggest that megalithic burial practices became more labor intensive during the Iron Age, creating a cultural context for the generation of new forms of social affiliations and distinctions through differential participation in the production of commemorative places.

The Cemetery of Azor and Early Iron Age Burial Practices

Levant ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ben-Shlomo
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Burial Practices
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