scholarly journals Human mobility at Tell Atchana (Alalakh) during the 2nd millennium BC: integration of isotopic and genomic evidence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tara Ingman ◽  
Stefanie Eisenmann ◽  
Eirini Skourtanioti ◽  
Murat Akar ◽  
Jana Ilgner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Near East ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Isotope Data ◽  
Individual Mobility ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Trade And Exchange

AbstractThe Middle and Late Bronze Age Near East, a period roughly spanning the second millennium BC (ca. 2000-1200 BC), is frequently referred to as the first ‘international age’, characterized by intense and far-reaching contacts between different entities from the eastern Mediterranean to the Near East and beyond. In a large-scale tandem study of stable isotopes and ancient DNA of individuals excavated at Tell Atchana (Alalakh), situated in the northern Levant, we explore the role of mobility at the capital of a regional kingdom. We generated strontium isotope data for 53 individuals, oxygen isotope data for 77 individuals, and added ancient DNA data from 9 new individuals to a recently published dataset of 28 individuals. A dataset like this, from a single site in the Near East, is thus far unparalleled in terms of both its breadth and depth, providing the opportunity to simultaneously obtain an in-depth view of individual mobility and also broader demographic insights into the resident population. The DNA data reveals a very homogeneous gene pool, with only one outlier. This picture of an overwhelmingly local ancestry is consistent with the evidence of local upbringing in most of the individuals indicated by the isotopic data, where only five were found to be ‘non-local’. High levels of contact, trade, and exchange of ideas and goods in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, therefore, seem not to have translated into high levels of individual mobility detectable at Tell Atchana.

scholarly journals Human mobility at Tell Atchana (Alalakh), Hatay, Turkey during the 2nd millennium BC: Integration of isotopic and genomic evidence

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0241883
Author(s):  
Tara Ingman ◽  
Stefanie Eisenmann ◽  
Eirini Skourtanioti ◽  
Murat Akar ◽  
Jana Ilgner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Near East ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Dental Enamel ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Trade And Exchange

The Middle and Late Bronze Age, a period roughly spanning the 2nd millennium BC (ca. 2000–1200 BC) in the Near East, is frequently referred to as the first ‘international age’, characterized by intense and far-reaching contacts between different entities from the eastern Mediterranean to the Near East and beyond. In a large-scale tandem study of stable isotopes and ancient DNA of individuals excavated at Tell Atchana (Alalakh, located in Hatay, Turkey), we explored the role of mobility at the capital of a regional kingdom, named Mukish during the Late Bronze Age, which spanned the Amuq Valley and some areas beyond. We generated strontium and oxygen isotope data from dental enamel for 53 individuals and 77 individuals, respectively, and added ancient DNA data of 10 newly sequenced individuals to a dataset of 27 individuals published in 2020. Additionally, we improved the DNA coverage of one individual from this 2020 dataset. The DNA data revealed a very homogeneous gene pool. This picture of an overwhelmingly local ancestry was consistent with the evidence of local upbringing in most of the individuals indicated by the isotopic data, where only five were found to be non-local. High levels of contact, trade, and exchange of ideas and goods in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, therefore, seem not to have translated into high levels of individual mobility detectable at Tell Atchana.

Dairy Queen. Churns and milk products in the Aegean Bronze Age

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 205-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah P. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Dairy Products ◽  
Near East ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Specific Function ◽  
Milk Products ◽  
The Third ◽  
Household Processing

This article assembles examples of an unusual vessel found in domestic contexts of the Early Bronze Age around the Aegean and in the Eastern Mediterranean. Identified as a “barrel vessel” by the excavators of Troy, Lesbos (Thermi), Lemnos (Poliochni), and various sites in the Chalkidike, the shape finds its best parallels in containers identified as churns in the Chalcolithic Levant, and related vessels from the Eneolithic Balkans. Levantine parallels also exist in miniature form, as in the Aegean at Troy, Thermi, and Poliochni, and appear as part of votive figures in the Near East. My interpretation of their use and development will consider how they compare to similar shapes in the archaeological record, especially in Aegean prehistory, and what possible transregional relationships they may express along with their specific function as household processing vessels for dairy products during the third millennium BC.

Late second–early first millennium BC abrupt climate changes in coastal Syria and their possible significance for the history of the Eastern Mediterranean

2010 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Kaniewski ◽  
E. Paulissen ◽  
E. Van Campo ◽  
H. Weiss ◽  
T. Otto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Alluvial Deposits ◽  
Iron Age I

AbstractThe alluvial deposits near Gibala-Tell Tweini provide a unique record of environmental history and food availability estimates covering the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The refined pollen-derived climatic proxy suggests that drier climatic conditions occurred in the Mediterranean belt of Syria from the late 13th/early 12th centuries BC to the 9th century BC. This period corresponds with the time frame of the Late Bronze Age collapse and the subsequent Dark Age. The abrupt climate change at the end of the Late Bronze Age caused region-wide crop failures, leading towards socio-economic crises and unsustainability, forcing regional habitat-tracking. Archaeological data show that the first conflagration of Gibala occurred simultaneously with the destruction of the capital city Ugarit currently dated between 1194 and 1175 BC. Gibala redeveloped shortly after this destruction, with large-scale urbanization visible in two main architectural phases during the Early Iron Age I. The later Iron Age I city was destroyed during a second conflagration, which is radiocarbon-dated at circa 2950 cal yr BP. The data from Gibala-Tell Tweini provide evidence in support of the drought hypothesis as a triggering factor behind the Late Bronze Age collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean.

scholarly journals Reconciling evidence from ancient and contemporary genomes: a major source for the European Neolithic within Mediterranean Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1851) ◽  
pp. 20161976 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana B. Pereira ◽  
Marta D. Costa ◽  
Daniel Vieira ◽  
Maria Pala ◽  
Lisa Bamford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Near East ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Dna Evidence ◽  
Late Glacial Period ◽  
Potential Source ◽  
Mediterranean Europe ◽  
Genetic Pool

Important gaps remain in our understanding of the spread of farming into Europe, due partly to apparent contradictions between studies of contemporary genetic variation and ancient DNA. It seems clear that farming was introduced into central, northern, and eastern Europe from the south by pioneer colonization. It is often argued that these dispersals originated in the Near East, where the potential source genetic pool resembles that of the early European farmers, but clear ancient DNA evidence from Mediterranean Europe is lacking, and there are suggestions that Mediterranean Europe may have resembled the Near East more than the rest of Europe in the Mesolithic. Here, we test this proposal by dating mitogenome founder lineages from the Near East in different regions of Europe. We find that whereas the lineages date mainly to the Neolithic in central Europe and Iberia, they largely date to the Late Glacial period in central/eastern Mediterranean Europe. This supports a scenario in which the genetic pool of Mediterranean Europe was partly a result of Late Glacial expansions from a Near Eastern refuge, and that this formed an important source pool for subsequent Neolithic expansions into the rest of Europe.

scholarly journals Gimbutas’ Smile – An Archaeology Led, Archaeogenetic Model

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Kenyon
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Strategic Review ◽  
Advanced Knowledge ◽  
Trade And Exchange ◽  
High Level ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Archaeological Cultures ◽  
Related Population

Migrations are much more important than currently recognised, for explaining important patterns observed in the European archaeology record – according to this archaeology led model. At a high level, they explain the introduction of different farming, monument building, the spread of metalworking and patterns of trade and exchange.This paper presents an archaeogenetic model based on a strategic review of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic archaeology of Europe, alongside a review of recently published ancient DNA data. The model is archaeology led. It takes archaeology themes and proposes migratory events to explain them. Ancient DNA data and further archaeology evidence is then used to test these proposed migrations- to reject or refine them.The model introduces a new and more strategic way of looking at archaeological cultures - that updates early 20th century approaches to studying archaeology cultures, and integrates with the detailed ‘post processual’ studies of the late 20th Century.The model consists of seven maps – each showing multiple migration events – with key evidence to support each migration map. It proposes a new category of a ‘Black Sea’ related population that makes a major genetic contribution to the Middle Neolithic of Europe.The proposed migrations provide an explanation for the observed patterns of archaeology, for example:• multiple Neolithic migrations that introduced, farming and metalworking into Europe;• a major ‘Black Sea’ related ‘Middle Neolithic’ migration that carried advanced knowledge of astronomy that can be recognised in a variety of types of monument from the Neolithic through to Bronze Age Europe; and,• migrations of related cultures (‘supercultures’) that explain patterns of trade and exchange in Bronze Age western Europe.The model also provides ancient DNA and archaeology based support for the key aspects of Childe’s ‘dawn of civilisation’ in Europe and Egypt and Gimbutas’ ‘Old Europe’ and “three waves of migration from the Steppe”.

scholarly journals A geostatistical approach to modelling human Holocene migrations in Europe using ancient DNA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Racimo ◽  
Jessie Woodbridge ◽  
Ralph M. Fyfe ◽  
Martin Sikora ◽  
Karl-Göran Sjögren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Fauna ◽  
Population Replacement ◽  
European Continent ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Geostatistical Approach ◽  
Broad Leaf ◽  
Westward Movement

AbstractThe European continent was subject to two major migrations of peoples during the Holocene: the northwestward movement of Anatolian farmer populations during the Neolithic and the westward movement of Yamnaya steppe peoples during the Bronze Age. These movements changed the genetic composition of the continent’s inhabitants, via admixture and population replacement processes. The Holocene was also characterized by major changes in vegetation composition, which altered the environment occupied by the original hunter-gatherer populations. Here, we use a combination of paleogenomics and geostatistical modelling to produce detailed maps of the movement of these populations over time and space, and to understand how these movements impacted the European vegetation landscape. We find that the dilution of hunter-gatherer ancestries and the Yamnaya steppe migration coincided with a reduction in the amount of broad-leaf forest and an increase in the amount of pasture lands in the continent. We also show that climate played a role in these vegetational changes. Additionally, we find that the spread of Neolithic farmer ancestry had a two-pronged wavefront, in agreement with similar findings based on patterns of the cultural spread of farming from radiocarbon-dated archaeological sites. With thousands of ancient genomes publicly available and in production, we foresee that the integration of ancient DNA with geostatistical techniques and large-scale archaeological datasets will revolutionize the study of ancient populations movements, and their effects on local fauna and flora.

scholarly journals Constraining Holocene hydrological changes in the Carpathian-Balkan region using speleothem δ<sup>18</sup>O and pollen-based temperature reconstructions

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 381-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Drăguşin ◽  
M. Staubwasser ◽  
D. L. Hoffmann ◽  
V. Ersek ◽  
B. P. Onac ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Temperature Dependent ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Average Annual Temperature ◽  
Temperature Reconstructions ◽  
Hydrologic Change ◽  
Balkan Region

Abstract. Here we present a new speleothem isotope record (POM2) from Ascunsă Cave (Romania) that provides new data on past climate changes in the Carpathian-Balkan region from 8.2 ka until present. This paper describes an approach towards constraining the effect of temperature changes on calcite δ18O values in stalagmite POM2 over the course of the Middle Holocene (6–4 ka), and across the 8.2 and 3.2 ka rapid climate change events. Independent pollen temperature reconstructions are used to constrain the temperature-dependent component of total isotopic change in speleothem calcite. This includes the temperature-dependent composition of rain water attained during vapour condensation and during calcite precipitation at the given cave temperature. The only prior assumptions are that pollen-derived average annual temperature reflects average cave temperature, and that pollen-derived coldest and warmest month temperatures reflect the range of condensation temperatures of rain at the cave site. This approach constrains a range of values between which speleothem isotopic changes should be found if controlled only by surface temperature variations at the cave site. Deviations of measured δ18Oc values from the calculated range are interpreted towards large-scale hydrologic change independent of local temperature. Following this approach, we show that an additional 0.6‰ enrichment of δ18Oc in the POM2 stalagmite was caused by changing hydrological patterns in SW Romania during the Middle Holocene. Further, by extending the calculations to other speleothem records from around the entire Mediterranean Basin, it appears that all Eastern Mediterranean speleothems recorded a similar isotopic enrichment due to changing hydrology, whereas all changes recorded in speleothems from the Western Mediterranean are fully explained by temperature variation alone. This highlights a different hydrological evolution between the two sides of the Mediterranean. Our results also demonstrate that during the 8.2 ka event, POM2 stable isotope data fit the temperature-constrained isotopic variability, with only little hydrologic change at most. In the case of the 3.2 ka event, the hydrological factor is more evident. This implies a potentially different rainfall pattern in the Southern Carpathian region during this event at the end of the Bronze Age. This study brings new evidence for disturbances in Eastern Mediterranean hydrology during the Holocene, bearing importance for the understanding of climate pressure on agricultural activities in this area.

scholarly journals BRONZE AGE SHEPHERDS AND METALLURGISTS: ISOTOPE DATA AND RECONSTRUCTION OF SEASONAL MIGRATIONS

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 15-23
Author(s):  
Natalia I. Shishlina ◽  
◽  
Natalia V. Roslyakova ◽  
Olga P. Bachura ◽  
Daria V. Kiseleva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Isotope Data ◽  
Animal Bone ◽  
Seasonal Migrations ◽  
Slaughter Age ◽  
Seasonal Basis ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Seasonal Population

The aim of the paper is to analyze animal bone assemblages from seasonal Catacomb culture campsites of the Salsk-Manych Ridge and from the Mikhailo-Ovsyanka Srubnaya settlement located in the steppe Trance-Volga region. Proposed models of seasonal population movements are based on the animal bone assemblage, the slaughter age of animals, seasonality of the animal slaughter, animal ratio and identification of local/non-local animals. The Catacomb population developed an economic system based on the rotation of seasonal pastures and organized seasonal movements within the developed economic areas. Isotope data confirm the seasonal character of the explored sites. The local Srubnaya population searched and mined ore, smelted metal, and cast items on a seasonal basis: from mid-summer to autumn. It was not possible to extract ore during the winter. The slaughter age analysis indicates to a seasonal and/or free-range system of animal husbandry. Stable isotope data demonstrates that animals were grazing near the site or in nearby areas. The local groups primarily exploited the resources in the Irgiz river basin. The presence of non-local animals could have been a result of exchange system with population from areas located far away from the place where the metal was produced.

Huurlingen, mobiliteit en reizigerslatijn

Lampas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-419
Author(s):  
Jorrit Kelder
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Private Entrepreneurs ◽  
Greek World ◽  
Do So

Summary The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it argues that the Mycenaean Greek world served as a nexus for international trade between the Near East and Europe during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600 to 1100 BCE). Rather than a barbarian periphery, Europe – and in particular regions such as the Carpathian basin and the southern Baltic (Denmark and Scania) – was an integral part of the much better known ‘civilised’ world of the ancient Near East. Second, it argues that ‘mercenaries’ (a term that I will use rather loosely, and which includes both private entrepreneurs and military captives) served as a hitherto overlooked conduit for knowledge exchange between Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Near East. It will do so by highlighting a number of remarkable archaeological finds, and by discussing these against the backdrop of contemporary (Late Bronze Age and Iron Age) texts as well as later legends.

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