Anatolia and the Transcaucasus Themes and Variations ca. 6400–1500 B.C.E.

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Sagona
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Late Chalcolithic ◽  
Chalcolithic Period ◽  
Identity Attitudes ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Bronze Age

This article examines Anatolian–Transcaucasian interactions spanning the Chalcolithic through the Bronze Age. The five millennia surveyed here have highlighted some broad patterns of cultural interaction. At present, evidence suggests that farming was introduced to the Transcaucasus. It appears fully fledged in the late seventh millennium BCE, together with compounds of round houses built for the most part with plano-convex bricks. The degree of interplay with surrounding regions cannot be ascertained, but it does appear that in these formative centuries Transcaucasian communities remained isolated and developed their own distinctive cultural identity. Attitudes changed in the Late Neolithic when Halaf networks made inroads into the mountains of southern Transcaucasia, probably to exploit the rich sources of obsidian. The tempo of communication accelerated during the Late Chalcolithic period.

scholarly journals Big-Men and Small Chiefs: The Creation of Bronze Age Societies

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rune Iversen
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Early Late ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Big Men

AbstractThis paper investigates to what extent the significant material changes observable at the end of the Neolithic reflect transformations of the underlying social dynamics. Answering this question will help us to understand the formation of Bronze Age societies. The analysis concerns southern Scandinavia with a certain focus on Denmark. The assumption is that the creation of Bronze Age societies must be understood as a long formative process that partly originated in the culturally-heterogeneous Middle Neolithic. Four aspects seem to have been essential to this process: the rise of the warrior figure, the reintroduction of metal, increased agricultural production, and the establishment of one of the characteristic features of the Bronze Age, the chieftain hall. These aspects do not appear simultaneously but are introduced stepby- step starting out in the late Middle Neolithic and early Late Neolithic to fully develop around 2000 BC. Consequently, this paper argues that the final Late Neolithic (LN II, c. 1950-1700 BC) was de facto part of the Earliest Bronze Age.

Cultural Metallurgy—A Key Factor in the Transition from the Chalcolithic to Bronze Age in the Southern Levant

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Nissim Amzallag
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Practical Approach ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Religious Expression ◽  
Late Chalcolithic ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Bronze Age

The causes of the disappearance of Late Chalcolithic society (Ghassulian) in the early fourth millennium bc remain obscure. This study identifies the collapse as the consequence of a change in the approach to metallurgy from cosmological fundament (Late Chalcolithic) to a practical craft (EB1). This endogenous transition accounts for the cultural recession characterizing the transitional period (EB1A) and the discontinuity in ritual practices. The new practical approach in metallurgy is firstly observed in the southern margin of the Ghassulian culture, which produced copper for distribution in the Nile valley rather than the southern Levant. Nevertheless, the Ghassulian cultural markers visible in the newly emerging areas of copper working (southern coastal plain, Nile valley) denote the survival of the old cosmological traditions among metalworkers of the EB1 culture. Their religious expression unveils the extension of the Ghassulian beliefs attached to metallurgy and their metamorphosis into the esoteric fundaments of the Bronze Age religions.

The Baigetuobie cemetery: New discovery and human genetic features of Andronovo community’s diffusion to the Eastern Tianshan Mountains (1800–1500 BC)

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 095968362097026
Author(s):  
Jiangsong Zhu ◽  
Jian Ma ◽  
Fan Zhang ◽  
Yinqiu Cui ◽  
Marcella Festa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Tianshan Mountains ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Eastern Tianshan ◽  
Genetic Features ◽  
Funeral Rituals ◽  
Short Time ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
New Discovery

Andronovo has been regarded as one of the most powerful cultures in Central Asia, which reflected frequent cultural interflow, people migration, and technique diffusion on the Bronze Age Eurasian steppes. In the past decade, many new discoveries in Xinjiang, such as Adunqiaolu and Jartai, have drawn broad attention to the communication of the Andronovo culture in the central Tianshan Mountains. However, systematic study is still insufficient on the communication and influence of the Andronovo culture or the “Andronovo phenomenon” along the Tianshan Mountains. Based on our comprehensive investigation of tomb structure, funeral rituals and assemblages, this article reclassifies relevant Andronovo remains in Xinjiang into five categories. Two categories represented by the Xiabandi cemetery and the Adunqiaolu show clear resemblance to those at Semirech’ye in all aspects, which indicated people in these regions may have maintained close and consistent interaction. Other three categories in the Kuokesuxi and Tangbalesayi cemetery have different tomb structures and funeral rituals from those typical discoveries of the Andronovo cultures in Central Asia in spite of the their similarity in pottery and bronze ornaments, which can be considered as the result of product exchange or technical communication, rather than population migration. New discovery of the Baigetuobie cemetery with evidence of tomb structure, dating, and human genetic features in the Balikun grassland suggested that there might be a small group of people, probably came from the central Tianshan Mountains or Semirech’ye or further west, had migrated to the Eastern Tianshan Mountains about 1600 BC, which was likely facilitated by the relatively warm and humid environment. They had preserved their traditional tomb architecture and were not active in cultural interaction and population fusion with people of Hami Oasis in the south. Due to some reason unknown, people of Baigetuobie had faded away from Balikun grassland after a short time.

Early Cultures of the South Anatolian Plateau, II

1963 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 199-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Mellaart
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Late Chalcolithic ◽  
Chalcolithic Period

The end of the Çatal Hüyük West culture is shrouded in mystery. Both Çatal and Kara Hüyük South were apparently deserted and never reoccupied and it is only at Can Hasan Hüyük east of Karaman that later deposits have been recognised overlying remains of the early Chalcolithic culture. Elsewhere the evidence lies buried in the cores of the numerous city mounds of the Early Bronze Age period. Late Chalcolithic remains are fairly common in the Konya Plain, but they were in nearly every case found on sites where no earlier or later remains were encountered. This might suggest a shift in the settlement pattern of the plain after the end of the Early Chalcolithic period (see map, Fig. 1).

Metals and Metallurgy

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
James D. Muhly
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Molten Copper ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Late Chalcolithic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Bronze Age

This article reviews the impact of metals and metallurgy on Anatolian societies, from the first emergence of metal experimentation in the Neolithic to the full-blown metallurgical societies of the Bronze Age. Evidence suggests that Late Chalcolithic metalworkers thought of tin as a metal to be used for coating the surface of a copper artifact, presumably to imitate the appearance of silver, before they thought of adding tin to molten copper to produce bronze. During the transition from Late Chalcolithic to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, ca. 3000 BCE, the main focus of metallurgical development in Anatolia shifted from the eastern part of the country to central and western Anatolia.

The impact of early trans-Eurasian exchange on animal utilization in northern China during 5000–2500 BP

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 095968362094116
Author(s):  
Guanghui Dong ◽  
Linyao Du ◽  
Wenyu Wei
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Wild Mammals ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Animal Utilization ◽  
Human Subsistence ◽  
The Bronze Age

Transcontinental exchange emerged and intensified in northern China since the late fifth millennium BP (Before present), especially in the arc, which was the core area of the eastern part of the trans-Eurasian exchange during the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age. In the arc, the exchange profoundly affected the human subsistence strategy and human-environment relationship. Relative to the crop patterns and human diets during the Bronze Age in northern China, systematic investigations of zooarcheological data based on broad spatial and temporal framework to understand the influence of introduced livestock and indigenous livestock on human subsistence are lacking. To show the spatial-temporal variation in animal utilization patterns and its relation to prehistoric trans-Eurasian exchange, the zooarcheological data from 40 sites in northern China dated between 5000 and 2500 BP were analyzed. The strategy of animal utilization in northern China changed substantially from 5000 to 2500 BP, with notable spatial features in different chronological phases. From 5000 to 4300 BP, wild mammals and indigenous livestock (pig, dog) use dominated in the arc and the North China Plain (NCP). During 4300–3500 BP, the importance of introduced livestock (cattle, sheep/goat, horse) exceeded that of indigenous livestock in the arc, whereas indigenous livestock continued to dominate in the NCP. Indigenous livestock acted as the most important animal subsistence in northern China, although the exploitation of introduced livestock increased during 3500–2000 BP. These spatio-temporal differences in animal utilization appear to be closely associated with the prehistoric trans-Eurasian exchange, but were also affected by local environment, agriculture development, and climate change.

Cultural Interaction Patterns in the Bronze Age: Ritual Bronze Artifacts from Korea and Japan

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 68-73
Author(s):  
A. L. Nesterkina ◽  
E. A. Solovieva ◽  
I. S. Gnezdilova
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Distribution Center ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Complex Construction ◽  
Korean Type ◽  
High Social Status ◽  
The Bronze Age

This study focuses on ritual bronze items that are very informative for reconstructing cultural ties and migrations between Korea and Japan in 400 BC to 300 AD. Their large-scale introduction to Korea is related to the culture of Korean-type daggers, whose distribution center was located in northwestern Korea. We give a detailed description of Bronze Age artifacts, including weapons and ritual items from that area. They occur mostly in single burials with a complex construction, possibly attesting to high social status. In Japan, Korean-type artifacts fi rst appear in northern Kyushu during the Yayoi age, in burials with wooden coffi ns and urns. The analysis of molds for casting narrow-bladed daggers, socketed spearheads, and picks suggests that Korean-type items spread from northern Kyushu. Late Yayoi ritual bronze artifacts include mostly mirrors of the Han type, evidently indicating migrations from the mainland.

scholarly journals Morphological Analysis and Dating of Pottery from the Posolskaya Site (Based on the Excavations of E. A. Khamzina in 1959)

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
O. I. Goriunova ◽  
◽  
A. G. Novikov ◽  
D. А. Markhaeva ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Compositional Structures ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The One ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Bronze Age

The analysis of pottery materials of Posolskaya site (excavations by E. A. Khamzina in 1959), which is located on the southeast coast of Lake Baikal (Kabansk district, the Republic of Buryatia), is carried out in this article. Based on morphological features, several groups of pottery with a set of characteristic features are identified. A comparison of them with the materials of supporting multilayer objects on the coast of Baikal and Cis-Baikal area, in general, made it possible to determine the relative and absolute chronology of these groups. It was determined that pottery complexes of layers 2 and 3 contain artifacts of different cultural and chronological periods from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in a mixed state. They contain materials of the Middle and Late Neolithic (Posolskaya and Ust-Belaya ceramic types), the Early Bronze Age (pottery with pearls, with fingernails and Northern Baikal type) and the Late Bronze Age (Tyshkine-Senogdinsk type). Reticulated pottery, recorded in small quantities, was found in all complexes of the Neolithic era of the region. The pottery studies showed, on the one hand, its morpho-typological proximity with similar pottery in the south of Central Siberia as a whole. On the other hand, there were some regional differences (thickening of the corolla in bulk on Posolskaya type pottery in two versions: from the outside and from the inside; a variety of compositional structures on vessels with an external thickening of the corolla was revealed, expressed in simplification of the ornamental design; pottery combining features of Posolskaya and Ust-Belaya types was distinguished. A series of radiocarbon dates from stratified complexes of multilayer objects on the Baikal coast made it possible to determine chronological ranges for almost all pottery groups identified at Posolskaya site. Posolskaya type pottery in two of its variants corresponds to a chronological interval of 6750–6310 cal BP; Ust’-Belaia type (focusing on the dates of Ulan-Khada and the Gorelyi Les) – 5581–4420 cal BP; pottery with pearls and constructions from wide lines of the retreating spatula – 4500–3080 cal BP, pottery with finger pinches corresponds to 3370–3230 cal BP; Northern Baikal type – 3346–3077 cal BP; Tyshkine-Senogdinsk type – 2778–1998 cal BP.

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