scholarly journals The Social Role of Non-metal ‘Valuables’ in Late Bronze Age Britain

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 665-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Brück ◽  
Alex Davies
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Social Agents ◽  
Prestige Goods ◽  
The Social

Bronze Age metal objects are widely viewed as markers of wealth and status. Items of other materials, such as jet, amber and glass, tend either to be framed in similar terms as ‘prestige goods’, or to be viewed as decorative trifles of limited research value. In this paper, we argue that such simplistic models dramatically underplay the social role and ‘agentive’ capacities of objects. The occurrence of non-metal ‘valuables’ in British Early Bronze Age graves is well-documented, but their use during the later part of the period remains poorly understood. We will examine the deposition of objects of amber, jet and jet-like materials in Late Bronze Age Britain, addressing in particular their contexts and associations as well as patterns of breakage to consider the cultural meanings and values ascribed to such items and to explore how human and object biographies were intertwined. These materials are rarely found in burials during this period but occur instead on settlements, in hoards and caves. In many cases, these finds appear to have been deliberately deposited in the context of ritual acts relating to rites of passage. In this way, the role of such objects as social agents will be explored, illuminating their changing significance in the creation of social identities and systems of value.

scholarly journals Argonauts of the North Sea - a Social Maritime Archaeology for the 2nd Millennium BC

2006 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 267-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Van de Noort
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Maritime Archaeology ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
The North Sea

This paper aims to offer a new analysis of the social dimensions of seafaring in the 2nd millennium BC and a consideration of the role of seafaring in (re)creating the social order at the time through its economic, sociopolitical and ritual significance. It revisits the sewn-plank boats from Ferriby, Kilnsea, Dover, Calidcot, Testwood Lakes, Goldcliff and Brigg, and aspects of the way in which seafarers signified themselves and their world through their imagined relationship with the environment are illuminated. The study argues that in the Early Bronze Age, sewn-plank boats were used for directional, long-distance journeys, aimed at the ‘cosmological acquisition’ of exotic goods, and the contexts of these boats link the overseas journeys to the ancestors. In the Middle and Late Bronze Age, sewn-plank boats were used for down-the-line exchange, and fragments of sewn-plank boats were included in structured deposits, within or near river crossings, reflecting the idioms of transformation and regeneration which are well established for this period. Through the reconstruction of the boats' crews, it is suggested that the development of a retinue was a prerequisite for the successful completion of the long-distance journeys, and the social identities that were cultivated during these voyages are recognised as a potentially important element in the rise of elite groups in the Early Bronze Age.

Claiming Social Identities in the Mortuary Landscape of the Late Bronze Age Communities of Macedonia

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-197
Author(s):  
Sevi Triantaphyllou ◽  
Stelios Andreou
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Dead

Burial practices in Late Bronze Age Macedonia do not manifest particularly elaborate traits in terms of grave architecture and prestigious items accompanying the dead. In contrast to practices in the southern mainland, local communities adopted subtler and less homogeneous forms of treating the deceased in an attempt to signify their particular identities in the cultural, political, and symbolic landscape. Recent research has established a special focus on descent in extramural cemeteries, such as the cist grave cemetery with multiple burials at Spathes on Mount Olympus, the tumuli of Western Macedonia and Southern Pieria, the burial enclosures of Faia Petra, and the tumuli at Exochi and Potamoi in Eastern Macedonia. In Central Macedonia, on the other hand, where tell settlements dominate the natural and symbolic landscape, burial practices possess a less prominent place in the social space. The dominant trait here seems to be the absence of formal mortuary practices. Burials may occur within the settlement without special care regarding the treatment of the dead, but with a desire to mark out the links of the deceased with particular residential groups. The handling of death in Late Bronze Age Macedonia emerges therefore as a powerful practice, which was manipulated in different modes by the living communities in order to claim a diverse set of social identities and significant properties in the diverse cultural landscape and the varied political scenery of the area.

scholarly journals Ordinary or Extraordinary? Redressing the Problem of the Bronze Age Corded Skirt

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-96
Author(s):  
Sophie Bergerbrant
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Married Women ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Entire Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Bronze Age

This article uses previously overlooked evidence to discuss the social role of the Bronze Age corded skirt found in Scandinavia. This skirt type has been interpreted in many different ways through the years, from a summer dress to the attire of un­ married women, and more recently the popular la­ bel “ritual dress” has been applied. The aim of this article is to critically review the various interpreta­ tions of the use and social role of the corded skirt, drawing on the entire data set available for study rather than just a small sample of the known traces of corded skirts. Here it is shown that there is evi­ dence indicating that the corded skirt was used at more times, and by more people and age groups, than previously thought, suggesting that it might have been an ordinary, everyday garment rather than something extraordinary.

Early Israel’s Origins, Settlement, and Ethnogenesis

2020 ◽  
pp. 78-93
Author(s):  
Ann E. Killebrew
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Infiltration Models

The search for biblical Israel in the textual and archaeological record has been a focus of scholarly research for over a century. Using as their starting point the books of Exodus, Joshua, and Judges, Albright’s unified conquest and Alt’s peaceful infiltration models emphasize the external, or foreign, origin of Israel as presented in the biblical narrative. More recent suggestions highlight the indigenous nature and role of Late Bronze Age Canaan in Israel’s emergence. These approaches, including the social revolution, pastoral Canaanite, and mixed multitude models, enlist, to varying degrees, biblical and Egyptian sources (principally the Merneptah Stela), archaeological evidence, and a variety of sociological, anthropological, environmental, and other approaches to reconstruct the complex process of early Israel’s ethnogenesis.

scholarly journals The Early Bronze Age of the Southern Caucasus

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulio Palumbi
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Northern Caucasus ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Mountain Regions ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Southern Caucasus ◽  
Funerary Customs ◽  
Changing Role

The aim of this article is to highlight the social and cultural developments that took place in the Southern Caucasus during the Early Bronze Age. Between 3500 and 2500 BC ca., new pottery, architectural and metallurgical traditions, known collectively as Kura-Araxes, new settlement forms in the mountain regions and new funerary customs emerged. Examining these changes, the article draws a picture of the organization of the Early Bronze Age communities in the Southern Caucasus societies centering primarily on the household and horizontal kinship relationships. We argue that this model was radically different from those of the vertically organized societies of Southern Mesopotamia and Northern Caucasus. Finally, the paper focuses on the changing role of metals towards the mid-third millennium BC and that, by causing radical social transformations, also brought to an end the Kura-Araxes traditions.

scholarly journals Bayesian Modeling of an Early Bronze Age Cemetery at Armadale, Isle of Skye, Scotland

Radiocarbon ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 693-708
Author(s):  
Anthony M Krus ◽  
Mary Peteranna
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Site ◽  
Small Stone ◽  
Site Chronology ◽  
A Site ◽  
Isle Of Skye ◽  
Infrequent Event

AbstractExcavations from 2009–2010 in Armadale, Isle of Skye, Scotland, encountered a burial site with seven cists, pits containing cremation burials, a kerbed cairn, and a small stone and post circle. Twenty-one radiocarbon measurements were taken from single entities of wood charcoal, carbonized residue on pottery, and cremated human bone. A site chronology has been constructed using a Bayesian approach that considers the stratigraphic contexts and feature formation processes. The site was host to thousands of years of discontinuous human activity beginning with little understood Mesolithic and Neolithic components. Modeling estimates that mortuary activity at the site began in the Early Bronze Age in2220–1985 cal BC(95% probability) and to have ended in1880–1660 cal BC(95% probability). The span of activity during this burial component is estimated to be140–520 yr(95% probability) in the primary Bayesian model and50–470 yr(95% probability) in an alternative model. These modeling results demonstrate that human burial at Armadale was an infrequent event and further suggest that the memory of the location and social role of Armadale as a burial ground persisted throughout much of the Early Bronze Age.

Synergetic Theory of Document in Evolution of Document Science

2018 ◽  
pp. 1060-1068
Author(s):  
Galina A. Dvoenosova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Role ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Universal Theory ◽  
Social Self ◽  
Social Goal ◽  
The Social ◽  
Synergetic Theory ◽  
First Time

The article assesses synergetic theory of document as a new development in document science. In information society the social role of document grows, as information involves all members of society in the process of documentation. The transformation of document under the influence of modern information technologies increases its interest to representatives of different sciences. Interdisciplinary nature of document as an object of research leads to an ambiguous interpretation of its nature and social role. The article expresses and contends the author's views on this issue. In her opinion, social role of document is incidental to its being a main social tool regulating the life of civilized society. Thus, the study aims to create a scientific theory of document, explaining its nature and social role as a tool of social (goal-oriented) action and social self-organization. Substantiation of this idea is based on application of synergetics (i.e., universal theory of self-organization) to scientific study of document. In the synergetic paradigm, social and historical development is seen as the change of phases of chaos and order, and document is considered a main tool that regulates social relations. Unlike other theories of document, synergetic theory studies document not as a carrier and means of information transfer, but as a unique social phenomenon and universal social tool. For the first time, the study of document steps out of traditional frameworks of office, archive, and library. The document is placed on the scales with society as a global social system with its functional subsystems of politics, economy, culture, and personality. For the first time, the methods of social sciences and modern sociological theories are applied to scientific study of document. This methodology provided a basis for theoretical vindication of nature and social role of document as a tool of social (goal-oriented) action and social self-organization. The study frames a synergetic theory of document with methodological foundations and basic concepts, synergetic model of document, laws of development and effectiveness of document in the social continuum. At the present stage of development of science, it can be considered the highest form of theoretical knowledge of document and its scientific explanatory theory.

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