Southern France

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Territorial Organization ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Temperate Europe ◽  
Production Agriculture ◽  
Burial Grounds ◽  
Mediterranean Communities ◽  
Insight Into

A distinct material culture, economy, and society developed in the south of France during the Iron Age. This phenomenon was related to the way in which local communities were situated between the traditional Celtic societies of temperate Europe, and Mediterranean communities such as the Phoenicians, Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans. This chapter examines the changing nature of settlement types (architecture, urbanization, material culture, topography) and territorial organization during the first millennium BC. From the eighth century BC, local forms of production (agriculture, crafts, trade) were confronted with market activity that greatly expanded after the foundation of Massalia in 600 BC, and towns began to develop soon after. The distinctive monuments and sculpture, public buildings, and burial grounds of the region provide a wealth of insight into religious and funerary practices. The place of different ethnic groups in the regional history is also considered.

Edges and interactions beyond Europe

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter S. Wells ◽  
Naoise Mac Sweeney
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The North ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Temperate Europe ◽  
The North Atlantic

Iron Age Europe, once studied as a relatively closed, coherent continent, is being seen increasingly as a dynamic part of the much larger, interconnected world. Interactions, direct and indirect, with communities in Asia, Africa, and, by the end of the first millennium AD, North America, had significant effects on the peoples of Iron Age Europe. In the Near East and Egypt, and much later in the North Atlantic, the interactions can be linked directly to historically documented peoples and their rulers, while in temperate Europe the evidence is exclusively archaeological until the very end of the prehistoric Iron Age. The evidence attests to often long-distance interactions and their effects in regard to the movement of peoples, and the introduction into Europe of raw materials, crafted objects, styles, motifs, and cultural practices, as well as the ideas that accompanied them.

Sardinia

2019 ◽  
pp. 519-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Roppa
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Late Ninth Century ◽  
Basic Features ◽  
Mixed Communities

Starting from the late ninth century bce, groups of Phoenician sailors and merchants landed on the island of Sardinia, searching for resources—metals in particular—to trade along the trans-Mediterranean maritime network they had begun to establish. The earliest permanent Phoenician settlement dates back to the first half of the eighth century bce, and by the end of the following century new Phoenician settlements appeared, mainly on the coasts of Sardinia’s southern part. In this chapter, the author explores interactions between Phoenicians and the local Nuragic culture, which was thriving at the time of the newcomers’ arrival, and the spread of Phoenician material culture on the island. The chapter traces the patterns of Phoenician presence as outcomes of diversified forms of contact and interaction with Nuragic communities, varying significantly across the island throughout the Iron Age. The author lays out the basic features of Iron Age Nuragic society, and explores how and to what extent local communities made use of Phoenician material culture between the late ninth and eighth centuries bce. The chapter then moves to define the archaeological features of Phoenician sites, and focuses on interaction and the appearance of mixed communities, particularly at indigenous sites in the seventh and sixth centuries bce. Finally, the specific context of the Phoenician diaspora on Sardinia is set in the wider western Mediterranean contemporary scenario.

Phum Lovea: A moated precursor to the pura of Cambodia? Sociopolitical transformation from Iron Age settlements to early state society

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 468-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dougald O'Reilly ◽  
Louise Shewan
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Sociopolitical Complexity ◽  
Metal Production ◽  
Exchange Networks ◽  
Archaeological Investigation ◽  
Technological Transfer ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Trade And Exchange ◽  
Insight Into

The understanding of Angkorian pre-state society has been greatly enhanced by an increase in archaeological investigation in recent years. From excavations conducted at Cambodian Iron Age sites we have evidence that attests to a transformative period characterised by increasing sociopolitical complexity, intensified inter- and trans-regional mercantile activity, differential access to resources, social conflict, technological transfer and developments in site morphology. Among the growing corpus of Iron Age sites excavated, Phum Lovea, on the periphery of Angkor, is uniquely placed to provide insight into increasing sociopolitical complexity in this area. The site is one of the few prehistoric moated settlements known in Cambodia and the only one to date to have been excavated. Excavation of the site has revealed an Iron Age agrarian settlement whose occupants engaged in trade and exchange networks, craft specialisation, metal production, and emergent water management strategies. These attributes can be seen as antecedent to the profound developments that characterise the first millennium CE polity centred on Angkor.

A goddess among Storm-gods. The stele of Tavşantepe and the landscape monuments of southern Cappadocia

2015 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 79-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Lanaro
Keyword(s):  
Eighth Century ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Taurus Mountains ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
First Millennium Bc ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractLittle is known about the geo-political landscape of central Anatolia after the collapse of the Hittite Empire. In particular, almost no archaeological evidence for stone monumental art dating to the post-Hittite period north of the Taurus mountains has survived. Now, the stele of Tavşantepe sheds new light on the history of southern Cappadocia during the so-called ‘dark age’ and offers us a unique insight into the artistic production of this region at the beginning of the first millennium BC. Moreover, its location along one of the most important routes connecting southern Cappadocia with central Anatolia, the Altunhisar valley, helps us reconstruct the socio-religious developments in this area in the period predating the emergence of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Tuwana in the eighth century BC.

Summary of Part IA Brief History of Death in Judah during the Iron Age

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Suriano
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The State ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Role ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Surrounding Landscape ◽  
Insight Into

The remains of Judahite mortuary practices provide invaluable insight into the historical role of the dead in the culture of the biblical writers. The events of the eighth and seventh centuries proved formative for the kingdom of Judah, and the development of the state during this period became intricately tied to mortuary practices. Burying the dead in a particular way became part of being Judahite. Collective interments served to identify ancestors and connect living communities to the surrounding landscape. These actions involved distinct notions of family and religion, and the use of mortuary culture to express these ideas impacted the area long after the Southern Kingdom was destroyed. I offer the following history based on the inscriptions and material culture that have been collected and reviewed up to this point....

Excavations at Copse Farm, Oving, West Sussex

1985 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen Bedwin ◽  
Robin Holgate ◽  
P. L. Drewett ◽  
C. R. Cartwright ◽  
S. D. Hamilton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Coastal Plain ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ceramic Production ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Agricultural Economy ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Small Scale Industries ◽  
Insight Into

Two farmsteads, one of late Iron Age (second-first centuries BC) date and the other dating to the early Romano-British period (first-second centuries AD), were excavated at Copse Farm, Oving. The site is situated within the Chichester dykes on the Sussex/Hampshire Coastal Plain. The Iron Age farmstead produced pottery spanning ‘saucepan’ and ‘Aylesford-Swarling’ traditions, a transition in ceramic production which is poorly understood in Sussex. Information on the agricultural economy and small-scale industries (principally metalworking) practised at this site give an insight into the way the Coastal Plain was settled and exploited at the end of the first millennium BC.

Food, foodways, and subsistence

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hansjörg Küster
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Farming System ◽  
New Crops ◽  
The North ◽  
System P ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Oil Plant ◽  
Temperate Europe ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Agricultural Innovations

In the first millennium BC, three major subsistence ‘belts’ can be distinguished in Europe: one around the Mediterranean, a second in temperate Europe, and the third in the north. Shifting colonization was still practised in places, but cereal farming was well developed across most of the continent, with less amenable soils now brought into cultivation. Farmers relied on at least two cereal crops, sometimes with millet cultivated as a third cereal, possibly for fodder. Cultivated legumes included beans, peas, and lentils, while linseed was the predominant oil plant, and was also used for textiles, along with hemp. Rare finds of exotica, such as walnuts, figs, vines, and spices were imports from the Mediterranean zone. Woodland exploitation is also considered. During the Roman Iron Age, new crops and agricultural innovations are seen in areas beyond the limes. Along with iron technology, these laid the foundations for the early medieval farming system.

Scandinavia and Northern Germany

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frands Herschend
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
First Century ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Northern Germany ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
External Acquisition ◽  
Over Exploitation

The long Iron Age in northern Europe (c.500 BC–750 AD) was characterized by centuries of gradual development, punctuated by major episodes of transformation in the first century BC and the mid-first millennium AD. This chapter adopts a thematic approach, starting with the economy, envisaged as the intertwining of subsistence, exploitation of natural resources, and external acquisition. These lead to wider issues such as land ownership, social stratification, and over-exploitation. A second theme is warfare, ranging from small-scale fighting in earlier centuries to the battlefields of the Roman Iron Age. Next, the implications of key changes in material culture are examined, from domestic artefacts, to grave goods, and architecture. The final theme covers narrative, belief, and ritual, as manifested in lakes with votive and war offerings, founder graves, magical use of runic inscriptions, and the ideologically tinted myths relating to Iron Age societies preserved in poems written down in later centuries.

scholarly journals Fields, Funerals and Furnaces: On the Use of Fire during the Pre-Roman Iron Age on the Island of Gotland

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-23
Author(s):  
Anna Arnberg
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Iron Production ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Physical Transformation ◽  
Roman People ◽  
Field Systems ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Burial Grounds

By studying the material culture of the island of Gotland, one can conclude that the use of fire was integrated into the lives of the Pre-Roman people. Agricultural land was cleared by fire and cremation was a part of the burial tradition. Fire converted clay into ceramics, wood into charcoal and bog ore into iron. By being subjected to the flames human beings, objects and the landscape were created and/or trans formed. This paper presents fossilized field systems, burial grounds and areas with iron production as places for this physical transformation, as well as places for the creation of bonds between people.

Central Europe

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carola Metzner-Nebelsick
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Urban Forms ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
La Tène ◽  
The Alps ◽  
La Tene

This chapter covers the area between eastern France and western Hungary, and from the Alps to the central European Mittelgebirge, following the established division between the early Iron Age (Hallstatt) and later Iron Age (La Tène) periods, beginning each section with a summary of the history of research and chronology. After characterizing the west–east Hallstatt cultural spheres, early Iron Age burial rites, material culture, and settlements are explored by region, including the phenomenon of ‘princely seats’. In the fifth century BC, a new ideological, social, and aesthetic concept arose, apparent both in the burial record, and especially in the development of the new La Tène art style. This period also saw the emergence of new, larger proto-urban forms of settlement, first unfortified agglomerations, and later the fortified oppida. Finally, the chapter examines changes in the nature and scale of production, material culture, and religious practices through the first millennium BC.

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