A Late Bronze Age Hoard from Blackrock in Sussex and its Significance

1949 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 107-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. Piggott
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
The Other ◽  
List Type ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
British Isles ◽  
The Past ◽  
North Germany ◽  
Cross Dating

The hoard of bronzes from Blackrock near Brighton, was first published in 1916, and later received treatment by Curwen in his Archaeology of Sussex. The obviously foreign elements in the hoard have not been clearly recognised in the past, and in view of their significance it is desirable that a more detailed description of the finds should be put on record, and that some attempt should be made to fit them into the existing pattern of the Late Bronze Age of the British Isles.The following objects (all of bronze) were found in the hoard:I. Three ‘Sussex Loops.’II. Two plain armlets.III. Eight unlooped palstaves.IV. Rapier blade with three rivet holes.V. Dirk handle.VI. Decorated spiral finger-ring.Unfortunately the exact locality and conditions of finding cannot be determined with certainty, but there is good reason to believe that the discovery was made at Blackrock, about two miles to the east of Brighton. There is little doubt that all these objects were found together, and that they comprised the whole hoard.Of these objects, the Sussex loops can be fairly closely dated in the British Bronze Age, and the bronze dirk handle and decorated spiral finger-ring are imports from Schleswig-Holstein or North Germany. The origin of the other objects is less certain, but it is immediately clear that a study of this hoard may be of value in cross-dating between our own Bronze Age and that of the Northern Countries.First we will discuss the ‘Sussex Loops’ and their chronological position in the British Isles.

Horned Objects in Anatolia and the Near East and possible connexions with the Minoan “Horns of Consecration”

1969 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 147-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Diamant ◽  
Jeremy Rutter
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
The Past ◽  
North East ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
East Anatolia

Numerous interpretations of the meaning, function, and derivation of the Minoan “horns of consecration” have been put forward since Evans discovered the first object of this kind in his excavations at Knossos. As yet, not one of the various theories proposed has been universally accepted. Consequently, the authors of this article would prefer not to be so presumptuous as to claim that they have indeed solved the problem of the usage and origins of the Minoan “horns”; on the other hand they believe that excavations in the past twenty years have strongly suggested that the Minoan “horns” have their origins in Anatolia and that the object's function, originally at least, was a pot-support in a hearth.In Anatolia, horned objects which we consider served as precursors of the Minoan “horns of consecration” fall into three classes. Examples of the first of these classes have been found in EB II hearths at Beycesultan and at Tarsus. Survivals of this type of “horns” are also found in Late Bronze Age [hereafter LB] Kusura C and Beycesultan III–II. The second class consists of the pot-stands or andirons connected with Khirbet Kerak ware in the 'Amuq, Palestine, north-east Anatolia, and the Caucasus.

Tribes and Empires c.1500 bc–ad 500

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Cunliffe ◽  
Martin Millet
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
British Isles ◽  
The South ◽  
Historical Tradition ◽  
British People

The period of two thousand years or so which we set out to cover here— roughly 1500 bc to ad 500—begins at a time when the evidence available to us is purely archaeological, untainted by the vagaries of history, and ends when the gleanings from archaeology have to be reconciled with a rich historical tradition and the varied interpretations of linguists. Thus, in spanning the millennia, we bridge the disciplines. The first historian to consider the tribes of the British Isles from a truly informed position was Tacitus. Writing towards the end of the first century ad he had access not only to the vague and anecdotal writings of the Posidonian tradition and the observations of Julius Caesar on the tribal situation in the south-east, but he was also able to draw upon the reminiscences of his father-in-law, Julius Agricola, who had spent many seasons campaigning in Britain first as a legionary commander and later as governor of the province. Agricola travelled from one end of the island to the other and, incidentally, was probably responsible for killing more Britons than any other Roman. Assessing the varied array of evidence available to him in an attempt to characterize the British population, Tacitus showed the commendable restraint of an historian in his famous summation . . .who the first inhabitants of Britain were, whether native or immigrant remains obscure: one must remember, we are dealing with barbarians. (Agricola, 11). . . After several centuries of hard archaeological endeavour the situation has changed little. Forty years ago, in considering the formation of the British people, we would have been much more confident. We would have talked of a series of ‘invasions’ bringing in successive waves of new people from the Continent— Deverel-Rimbury folk in the Late Bronze Age about 1000 bc, Hallstatt overlords resplendent on their horses and wielding long slashing swords in the seventh century, invaders from the Marne region around 400 bc and Belgae first raiding and then settling in the south-east in the first century bc (Hawkes and Dunning 1931).

scholarly journals ATOP THE KADMEIA: MYCENAEAN ROOF TILES FROM THEBES IN CONTEXT

2020 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 175-245
Author(s):  
Vassilis L. Aravantinos ◽  
Ioannis Fappas ◽  
Yannis Galanakis
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Systematic Study ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Similar Material ◽  
Widespread Distribution ◽  
The Past ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
First Time

Questions were raised in the past regarding the use of Mycenaean tiles as ‘roof tiles’ on the basis of the small numbers of them recovered in excavations and their overall scarcity in Mycenaean domestic contexts. The investigation of the Theodorou plot in 2008 in the southern part of the Kadmeia hill at Thebes yielded the single and, so far, largest known assemblage per square metre of Mycenaean tiles from a well-documented excavation. This material allows, for the first time convincingly, to identify the existence of a Mycenaean tiled roof. This paper presents the results of our work on the Theodorou tiles, placing emphasis on their construction, form and modes of production, offering the most systematic study of Mycenaean tiles to date. It also revisits contexts of discovery of similar material from excavations across Thebes. Popular as tiles might have been in Boeotia, and despite their spatially widespread attestation, their use in Aegean Late Bronze Age architecture appears, on the whole, irregular with central Greece and the north-east Peloponnese being the regions with the most sites known to have yielded such objects. Mycenaean roof tiles date mostly from the mid- and late fourteenth century bc to the twelfth century bc. A study of their construction, form, production and contexts suggests that their role, apart from adding extra insulation, might have been one of signposting certain buildings in the landscape. We also present the idea that Mycenaean tile-making was guided by a particular conventional knowledge which was largely influenced by ceramic-related technologies (pottery- and drain-making). While production of roof tiles might have been palace-instigated to begin with, it does not appear to have been strictly controlled. This approach to Mycenaean tile-making may also help explain their uneven (in terms of intensity of use) yet widespread distribution.

A Life Less Ordinary: the Ritualization of the Domestic Sphere in Later Prehistoric Europe

2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Social Archaeology ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Domestic Life ◽  
Contemporary Archaeology ◽  
The Past

This article, which is based on the fourteenth McDonald Lecture, considers two tensions in contemporary archaeology. One is between interpretations of specific structures, monuments and deposits as the result of either ‘ritual’ or ‘practical’ activities in the past, and the other is between an archaeology that focuses on subsistence and adaptation and one that emphasizes cognition, meaning, and agency. It suggests that these tensions arise from an inadequate conception of ritual itself. Drawing on recent studies of ritualization, it suggests that it might be more helpful to consider how aspects of domestic life took on special qualities in later prehistoric Europe. The discussion is based mainly on Neolithic enclosures and other monuments, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement sites and the Viereckschanzen of central Europe. It may have implications for field archaeology as well as social archaeology, and also for those who study the formation of the archaeological record.

The Late Bronze Age Razors of the British Isles

1946 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 121-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. Piggott
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Class Ii ◽  
Class I ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
British Isles

Although a large number of bronze ‘razors’ have been found in these islands, the literature concerning them is very scattered, and there has been no attempt to synthesize the information concerning them. There are frequent references to the so-called ‘plantain’ (our Class I) form or to the ‘maple-leaf’ (Class II) examples with their suggested connection with Siculan razors, but there has been no detailed analysis of their chronological and cultural positions in the British Late Bronze Age. This paper attempts such a classification of the razors on a typological and cultural basis so that they can be fitted with greater accuracy intq their place in Late Bronze chronology.

Antler Cheekpieces of the British Late Bronze Age

1976 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Britnell
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Functional Type ◽  
British Isles

SummaryA group of antler cheekpieces are described and illustrated which provide a small but significant contribution to the evidence of horsemanship in the later Bronze Age in the British Isles. Although independent dating evidence is meagre, they form a coherent stylistic and functional type which has parallels in the late Urnfield period in Central Europe. An attempt is made to reconstruct other elements of the bridle, and they are compared with a number of bronze cheekpieces which show some affinity.

Irish Bronze Age Horns and their relations with Northern Europe

1963 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 326-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Coles
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Wind Instruments ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The North ◽  
Actual Production ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Bronze Age

One of the features of the Irish Late Bronze Age is the appearance of wind instruments, commonly called ‘Trumpets’, often found in groups and only rarely in association with other material. Being conical and curved, these are therefore members of the horn family, to which the other large musical group of the Bronze Age, the north Europeanlurer, also belong.The Irish horns have attracted the attention of antiquarians for over 100 years, with the principal collection and listing of these beginning in 1860. Evans devoted a section of his 1881 book to the ‘trumpets’, and was followed by Day, Allen and Coffey. The latest treatment, which brought together most of the previous lists of horns, was by MacWhite in 1945. All of these later works were primarily concerned with the typology of the horns, and attention was paid neither to their actual production nor to their music. In the present study, all previously published horns have been examined where possible, as well as a number of unpublished finds, and an attempt will be made not only (i) to describe the typological variations and dating of the horns, but also (ii) to discuss their production as objects from Late Bronze Age workshops and (iii) to consider for the first time their musical potential.

Plank-built in the Bronze Age

Antiquity ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 54 (211) ◽  
pp. 118-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Hale
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Experimental Model ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Sea Trial ◽  
North Germany ◽  
Southern Norway ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
The Bronze Age

In 1972 Paul Johnstone initiated a project to build and sail a hide-covered boat which would embody the theories of those Norwegian scholars—in particular Professor Sverre Marstrander—who have classified the boats of the Scandinavian Bronze Age with the Eskimo umiak and the Irish curragh. Thanks to the publicity given the experimental model by the BBC ‘Chronicle’ series and the enthusiastic advocacy of Bregger, Marstrander and Johnstone himself (‘Bronze age sea trial’, Antiquity, XLVI, 1972), the skin-boat theory has become almost an orthodoxy in Britain and Scandinavia. In fact, however, the reconstructed boat itself clearly demonstrated the awkwardness of translating into the medium of a hidecovered frame the boat designs of the bronze age rock art, which include several features utterly irreconcilable with the requirements and norms of skin-boat construction. For no type of boat before the age of photography has such a vast corpus of evidence been preserved as for the vessel that served the fishermen, traders and raiding parties of Scandinavia between 1200 and 600 BC (that is, the Bronze Age periods 111, IV and V). The boat is a favoured motif in thousands of rock carvings in southern Norway, Sweden, and the Baltic islands, and on at least 200 late bronze age razors from Denmark and North Germany.

scholarly journals Revisiting “Tin in South-eastern Europe?”

Starinar ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 85-94
Author(s):  
Wayne Powell ◽  
Ognjen Mladenovic ◽  
Steffanie Cruse ◽  
Arthur Bankoff ◽  
Ryan Mathur
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Isotopic Signature ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Placer Deposits ◽  
South Eastern Europe

The important role of the Balkans in the origin and development of metallurgy is well established with respect to copper. In addition, Aleksandar Durman, in his 1997 paper ?Tin in South-eastern Europe??, essentially initiated studies into the role of the Balkans in Europe?s Bronze Age tin economy. He identified six geologically favourable sites for tin mineralisation and associated fluvial placer deposits in the former Yugoslavian republics, and suggested that these may have added to the tin supply of the region. The viability of two of these sites has been confirmed (Mt Cer and Bukulja, Serbia) but the exploitation potential for the other locations has remained untested. River gravels from these four sites (Motajica and Prosara in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bujanovac in Serbia; Ograzden in North Macedonia) were obtained by stream sluicing and panning. The sites of Prosara and Bujanovac were found to be barren with respect to cassiterite (SnO2). Streams flowing from Motajica and Ograzden were both found to contain cassiterite, but in amounts several orders of magnitude less than at Mt Cer and Bukulja. Although it is possible that minor tin recovery occurred at Motajica and Ograzden, it is unlikely that they could have contributed meaningfully to regional tin trade. This is supported by the fact that the isotopic signature (?124Sn) of cassiterite from Motajica is highly enriched in light isotopes of tin compared to that associated with Late Bronze Age artefacts of the region.

scholarly journals Imaginary Vessels in the Late Bronze Age of Gotland and South Scandinavia: Ship Settings, Rock Carvings and Decorated Metalwork

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-103
Author(s):  
Richard Bradley ◽  
Peter Skoglund ◽  
Joakim Wehlin
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Bronze Age

The paper compares the Bronze Age ship settings of Gotland with the vessels portrayed in rock carvings on the Scandinavian mainland. It also makes comparisons with the drawings of vessels on decorated metalwork of the same period. It considers their interpretation in relation to two approaches taken to the depictions of ships in other media. One concerns the use of boats to transport the sun, while the other emphasises the close relationship between seagoing vessels and the dead. A third possibility concerns the distinctive organisation of prehistoric communities on Gotland. It seems possible that the largest of the ship settings were equivalent to the Bronze Age cult houses found on the mainland and that they may even have represented the island itself.

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