The Bone

1985 ◽  
Vol 51 (S2) ◽  
pp. 46-72
Author(s):  
Sue Browne
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
The Other ◽  
Eastern Side ◽  
Worked Bone ◽  
Post Hole ◽  
Burnt Bone

In all, 1065 fragments of bone were recovered from trench B. The bulk of the bone (868 fragments: 81%) came from the ditch; 121 fragments came from pits and scoops, 74 fragments from post holes and 1 fragment from a layer in the ‘working area’. Four of the pits and three of the post holes are in the ‘working area’ and they contained a total of 104 fragments of bone; the five post holes interpreted as a four-post structure contained 40 fragments of bone. With the exception of post holes 96 and 117, which contained one and two fragments of bone respectively, no bone was recovered from contexts east of the ditch running north-south at the eastern side of the site (39 and 78), nor from those contexts lying between its terminals. Two fragments of worked bone were recovered, one from context 5 in the ditch and one from post hole 75, which also contained one of the bird bones; the other bird bone came from context 41 in the ditch. The human remains and the dog bones were recovered exclusively from the ditch. The distribution of the bones of the larger domesticates and pig indicates consistency and continuity in disposal practices: 95.6% of the identified horse bones, 92.5% of the identified cattle bones and 80.5% of the identified pig bones w*re recovered from the ditch. Only the caprovid bones were spread more evenly over the site: 66.7% came from the ditch, 26.1% from the pits and scoops and 7.2% from post holes. Fragments of burnt bone were recovered from contexts 3 (ditch), 16 (post hole) and 107 (pit). Butchered and gnawed bones were distributed without any particular pattern in all three types of bone-bearing context.

The Rabbit and the Hare in Wales

Antiquity ◽  
1941 ◽  
Vol 15 (60) ◽  
pp. 371-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Matheson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Numerous Type ◽  
The Status ◽  
Post Hole

The rabbit shares one characteristic with the archaeologist—both dig into the earth. Hence the latter, contemplating some object or evidence revealed by his spade, may sometimes be viewing merely the result of the activities of a humbler but much more numerous type of excavator. Is he not warned to ‘always make sure that an apparent post-hole is not a rabbit- or rat-hole’? And does not Professor James Ritchie describe the rabbit as ‘a burrower and a vandal which makes short cuts through the neat layers and classifications of the excavator’? On the other hand, the rabbit's activity or lack of it may on occasion be of service; it was a long patch of virgin turf on Easton Down, untouched by rabbits or moles, which led Dr Stone in 1932 to remove the turf, thus revealing a layer of tightly packed flint nodules covering a Bronze Age urn-field. Hence no apology, we feel, is needed for an article on the rabbit in a journal primarily concerned with archaeological research; particularly as much of the article deals with the status of the rabbit in medieval times, a topic which has already figured briefly in ANTIQUITY.

III.—Picrite from the Ampwihi River, Mozambique

1917 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 150-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Holmes ◽  
H. F. Harwood
Keyword(s):  
Narrow Channel ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
The Other ◽  
The South ◽  
Eastern Side ◽  
South West ◽  
Western Side ◽  
The Right ◽  
Sand And Gravel ◽  
The Military

Almost due west of Mozambique Island, at a distance of about forty-two miles from the sea, the military road from Mosuril to Nampula crosses the Ampwihi River, an important tributary of the Monapo. During the dry season the stream is reduced to a string of stagnant pools, separated by long reaches of sand and gravel that here and there are interrupted by outcrops of the underlying formations. Throughout the greater part of its course the Ampwihi flows through a region in which gneisses persist with monotonous regularity, the only variation being that due to occasional intrusions of granite and of still later pegmatite dykes. At the point where the military road crosses the narrow channel a welcome diversion is introduced by the presence of a dark compact dyke about 10 feet in thickness. The dyke appears on the right-hand bank and crosses obliquely to the other side, taking a N.N.W.–S.S.E. course across the strike of the older rocks. Upstream, about seventy yards to the south-east, the Ampwihi bends to the south-west, so that it returns towards the dyke, which is again exposed across its sandy floor. The dyke was traced by Mr. E. J. Wayland in July, 1911, for a distance of altogether 200 yards, and was examined by Mr. D. Alex. Wray and later by myself during the same year. It is clearly the latest rock of the district, and is intruded along a line of fault, for in two cases pegmatite dykes seen on the eastern side are broken across and reappear on the western side with a well-marked northerly displacement.

Honour where Honour is Due: Regional Features on Honorific Monuments of Pisidia?

1993 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 193-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lutgarde Vandeput
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Free Standing ◽  
Eastern Side ◽  
Regional Features

During the survey campaigns of 1986, 1987 and 1988 at Sagalassos, one of the main cities of ancient Pisidia, the visible remains on both the Upper (S. Mitchell and M. Waelkens, 1987, p. 38; S. Mitchell and M. Waelkens, 1988, pp. 62-3; M. Waelkens, 1992, pp. 50-1) and the Lower Agora (S. Mitchell and M. Waelkens, 1989, p. 68; M. Waelkens, 1989, p. 121, Fig. 6; M. Waelkens, 1992, p. 51) were examined and a series of honorific monuments of varying shape on both the agoras were recorded. The excavation of these squares during this year's campaign (1992) uncovered even more of them. Larger, free-standing honorific monuments adorn the centre of the Upper Agora; smaller monuments were placed around the edges, in front of the porticoes. From the remains, it appears that especially the eastern side of the Upper Agora, together with its corners were regarded as very suitable for this kind of honorific monuments. Similar small memorials also enliven at least the eastern and the southern borders of the Lower Agora.The diversity in form and the richness of decoration and mouldings of some of these small monuments are eye-catching and deserve a more detailed analysis. Unfortunately, although similar memorials most likely decorated most of the other Classical cities in Asia Minor, they have hardly received any attention hitherto. This paper is a first attempt to classify the small honorific monuments in Sagalassos.

Furness’s First Farmers: Evidence of Early Neolithic Settlement and Dairying in Cumbria

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 165-198
Author(s):  
Gav Robinson ◽  
Matthew Town ◽  
Torben Bjarke Ballin ◽  
Ann Clarke ◽  
Julie Dunne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Lipid Analysis ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Hazelnut Shell ◽  
Surrounding Landscape ◽  
Post Hole ◽  
Dairy Fats ◽  
Polished Stone Axes ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Burnt Bone

In 2015, excavations at Stainton Quarry, Furness, Cumbria, recovered remains that provide a unique insight into Early Neolithic farming in the vicinity. Five pits, a post-hole, and deposits within a tree-throw and three crevices in a limestone outcrop were investigated. The latter deposits yielded potentially the largest assemblage of Carinated Bowl fragments yet recovered in Cumbria. Lipid analysis identified dairy fats within nine of these sherds. This was consistent with previous larger studies but represents the first evidence that dairying was an important component of Early Neolithic subsistence strategies in Cumbria. In addition, two deliberately broken polished stone axes, an Arran pitchstone core, a small number of flint tools and debitage, and a tuff flake were retrieved. The site also produced moderate amounts of charred grain, hazelnut shell, charcoal, and burnt bone. Most of the charred grain came from an Early Neolithic pit and potentially comprises the largest assemblage of such material recovered from Cumbria to date. Radiocarbon dating indicated activity sometime during the 40th–35th centuries cal bc as well as an earlier presence during the 46th–45th centuries. Later activity during the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age was also demonstrated. The dense concentration of material and the fragmentary and abraded nature of the pottery suggested redeposition from an above-ground midden. Furthermore, the data recovered during the investigation has wider implications regarding the nature and use of the surrounding landscape during the Early Neolithic and suggests higher levels of settlement permanence, greater reliance on domesticated resources, and a possible different topographical focus for settlement than currently proposed.

XVII. On the occurrence of flint-implements, associated with the remains of animals of extinct species in beds of a late geological period, in France at Amiens and Abbeville, and in England at Hoxne

1860 ◽  
Vol 150 ◽  
pp. 277-317 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
The Other ◽  
Negative Evidence ◽  
Extinct Species ◽  
Human Bones ◽  
The Many ◽  
Geological Period ◽  
Organic Remains

Few strata have been more extensively worked than the superficial sands, clays, gravels, and brick-earth belonging to the Drift or Pleistocene series, and a great number of cavedeposits belonging to the same period have also been carefully explored; nevertheless it is only in a few exceptional cases that the remains of man or of his works have been recorded as occurring in association with the mammalian and other organic remains so often found in such situations, and even these few exceptions have generally been viewed with doubt or else entirely rejected. The conclusion, in fact, that man did not exist until after the latest of our geological changes and until after the dying out of the great extinct mammals, had become almost a point of established belief. Although resting mainly upon negative evidence and preconceived opinion, this prevalent belief was strengthened by the failure of the many ill-observed and dubious cases which had, from time to time, been brought forward. Owing to these circumstances there is little doubt that cases really meriting inquiry have been neglected or overlooked. To name only a few highly probable instances:— In 1833, Dr. Schmerling of Liége discovered in some caves in the valley of the Meuse, and at elevations of about 200 feet above the river, some bones of man associated with others of recent and extinct mammals: and he further subsequently recorded the occurrence, under the same conditions, both of worked flints and of worked bones. Amongst the human remains were two skulls, one of which, found at a depth of 5 feet in the cave-earth, “was surrounded on all sides by teeth of Rhinoceros, Horse, Hyœna, and Bear :" the other was lying at the bottom of the deposit by the side of a tooth of an Elephant . The human bones, like those of the extinct animals, were mostly broken and fragmentary. They were all of the same colour and mixed together indis­criminately; and, according to Dr. Schmerling, there were no traces of the ground having, in those places, been artificially disturbed.

Radiocarbon Chronology of the Tlatoani Site at Tlayacapan, Morelos, Mexico

Radiocarbon ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 501-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Cherkinsky ◽  
Raúl Francisco González Quezada
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Three Samples ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Radiocarbon Chronology ◽  
The Hill ◽  
Good Agreement

The archaeological site of Tlatoani at Tlayacapan is located in the Mexican Highlands, in the present-day state of Morelos. The site is an extant settlement located at the top of the Tepoztlan mountain range, and has been occupied since the Late Preclassic period (AD 150–500). At the height of its occupation in the Epiclassic and Early Postclassic periods (AD 600–1150), Tlayacapan was situated on the top of the hill. The radiocarbon investigations reported herein revealed some further distinct findings, although no clear absolute chronology was demonstrated. A dog skull was found inside the oldest foundation stage, and dated between cal AD 646 and 765, the middle of the Epiclassic period. Human remains found in the first grave belonged to three individuals. A male skeleton was dated to AD 1158–1227. Fragments of an incomplete skeleton of a child and an incomplete skeleton of a second male were placed on top of the first male skeleton and were dated in the range AD 1030–1156. A fourth skeleton found nearby in the second grave gave a similar date of AD 1164–1253. These burials were in accordance with the Middle America cosmovisional system, where bodies were buried beneath the household space. It is evident from the 14C dates of the skeletons that the burial sites beneath the household space had been reused by exhuming and reburying skeletons that had been previously buried there. A comparison of dates on fractions of collagen and bioapatite of the same bones was possible. Two of the samples were in good agreement between these fractions, whereas the other three samples are close but just outside the 2σ range.

Two hiatuses in human bone radiocarbon dates in Britain (17 000 to 5000 cal BP)

Antiquity ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (305) ◽  
pp. 505-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella M. Blockley
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Human Bone ◽  
The Other ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
Burial Practice ◽  
Climatic Record ◽  
A Chain

Undertaking a comprehensive review of radiocarbon dates for the 12 000 years preceding the Neolithic in Britain, the author defines two periods when human remains become hard to find. One of these (already noted by Chamberlain) lies between 7-6000 BP; the other, a new addition, runs from 13 850 to 11 000 BP. What could have caused these ‘hiatuses’? Comparison of dated human remains and dated activities associated with humans, with the climatic record from ice cores, shows that the most likely explanation was a change in burial practice, even if this was itself one of a chain of behavioural changes initiated by the rise in sea level.

Notes and Inscriptions from Pisidia. Part II

1960 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 43-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. E. Bean
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Rock Surface ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Main Road ◽  
Rock Face ◽  
Eastern Side ◽  
East And West ◽  
The Hill

I pass now to the eastern side of the central mountain range, to the ancient sites lying east and west of the main Burdur–Antalya road.In the little plain of Çineovası, 13 km. from Burdur, about 300 yards east of the main road, just opposite the 110th kilometre-stone from Antalya, is a rocky hill some 40 m. high carrying a small fortified site that seems hitherto to have escaped observation. The top of the hill has been levelled to form an area some 25 by 15 m., surrounded on all four sides by a wall of excellent coursed polygonal masonry 1·20 m. thick (Pl. Va). On the west this wall merely supplements the precipitous rock-face; on the other sides it still stands to a height of some 5 m., and was originally much higher, as beds for polygonal blocks can be seen in several places in the rock-surface on the summit, and great quantities of these blocks are lying on the slopes below. In the interior are traces of four or five walls up to 1 m. thick, now flush with the ground, and a large rock-cut cistern some 5 by 4 m. and over 2 m. deep. At the south-east corner are the collapsed ruins of an ornamented building, the blocks carefully cut, with mouldings and clamp-holes; one of these blocks forms a shallow anta. Two architectural blocks apparently belonging to this building are lying in the cistern.

Mycenae Revisited Part 3. The Human Remains from Grave Circle A at Mycenae. Behind the Masks: A Study of the Bones of Shaft Graves I–V

2010 ◽  
Vol 105 ◽  
pp. 157-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Papazoglou-Manioudaki ◽  
Argyro Nafplioti ◽  
J.H. Musgrave ◽  
A.J.N.W. Prag
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Third ◽  
Isotope Analyses

This article is the third in a series inspired by the rediscovery in 2003 of two skeletons excavated in 1877 in Shaft Grave VI in Circle A at Mycenae by Panayiotis Stamatakis. Having studied those two individuals and reconstructed their faces, and having conducted a study of strontium isotope analyses on all the individuals from Grave Circle A, we now move on to a reconsideration of the circumstances in which Shaft Graves III, IV, and V were excavated by Schliemann and Stamatakis, and place the human remains in the context of the other finds from the graves (no human remains from Graves I and II can be located at present). We then describe the first study of the skeletons themselves since Angel's work in 1937, and reassess them in the light of modern osteological techniques and theories.To παρόν άρθρο είναν το τρίτο μιας σειράς άρθρων εμπνευσμένων από την εκ νέου ανακάλυψη, το 2003, σύο σκελετών που ανέσκαψε ο Παναγιώτης Σταματάκης το 1877 στο Λακκοεισή Tάφο VI του Tαφικού Kύκλου A των Μυκηνών. ´Eχοντας ήδη μελετήσει τα οστά αυτών των σύο ατόμων και αποκαταστήσει τα πρόσωπά τους, και έχοντας εφαρμόσει αναλύσεις για την ανίχνευση τησ ισοτοπικής αναλογίας του στροντίου σε δείγματα από την πλειοψηφία των ατόμων του Tαφικού Kύκλου A, προχωρούμε τώρα σε μια επαναδιερεύνηση των συνθηκών υπό τις οποίες ανασκάφηκαν οι Λακκοειδείς Tάφοι III, IV, και V από τους Schliemann και Σταματάκη, και συσχετίςουμε τα ανθρώπινα σκελετικά υπολείμματα με τα υπόλοιπα ευρήματα από τους τάφους (δεν έχουν ακόμη εντοπιστεί σκελετικά υπολείμματα από τους Tάφους I και II). Στη συνέχεια περιγράφουμε τα αποτελέσματα της πρώτης, μετά από εκείνη του Angel το 1937, μελέτης αυτών των ανθρωπίνων σκελετικών υπολείμμάτων, επανεξετάςοντάς τα σύμφωνα με ςύγχρονες οστεοαρχαιολογικές θεωρίες, μεθόδους και τεχνικές, με τελικό στόχο την ανασύνθεση του τρόπου ςωής των ατόμων που είχαν ταφεί στον Tαφικό Kύκλο Α.

A Mass Grave outside the Walls

2019 ◽  
pp. 187-211
Author(s):  
Andrei Soficaru ◽  
Claudia Radu ◽  
Cristina I. Tica
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
The Other ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Urban Center ◽  
Mass Grave ◽  
Archaeological Investigation ◽  
The Way ◽  
Late Roman

This chapter focuses on the Roman frontier province of Scythia Minor during the fourth–sixth centuries CE, in an attempt to get a glimpse of how life on the frontier might have worked. In the fourth century, Ibida, a major urban center in the northern part of Scythia Minor, was the largest settlement after the capital Tomis. A non-specific mortuary assemblage, known as feature M141, was identified in 2008 when scattered human remains were discovered during the archaeological investigation of the foundation of the walled enclosure’s tenth tower. The way these human remains were processed and treated in a mortuary context fundamentally differs from the other two burial assemblages found at the site. There is compelling evidence that the remains of these individuals were subjected to a violent, irreverent, and unceremonious treatment, instead of the prescribed funerary ceremony and interment common in Scythia Minor during the late Roman Empire.

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