Mobility and Alterity in Iberian Late Prehistoric Archaeology: Current Research on the Neolithic–Early Bronze Age (6000–1500 BCE)

Archaeological investigations of late prehistoric Iberia between the Neolithic and Bronze Age (6000–1500 BCE) have long been a battleground between indigenist and exogenous models, and understandings of mobility and alterity have played an important role in these debates. Prior to the development of radiocarbon dating, key cultural transformations, such as megaliths, copper metallurgy, fortified hilltop settlements, and Beakers, were generally associated with nonlocal peoples, migrants, or colonizers. With the incorporation of radiocarbon dating to Iberian archaeological contexts in the 1980s and the determination of the antiquity of many of these cultural changes, the pendulum swung in the other direction, with a marked shift toward viewing autochthonous origins for these watershed transitions. In recent years, developments in strontium isotope analyses, genetics, and raw material characterization studies have provided new evidence for the mobility of peoples and things, and diffusionist models, sometimes without critical theorization, have once again reemerged.

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New evidence for prehistoric copper metallurgy in the vicinity of Bor

Starinar ◽

10.2298/sta1666173k ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 173-191

Author(s):

Aleksandar Kapuran ◽

Dragana Zivkovic ◽

Nada Strbac

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Copper Ore ◽

North Eastern ◽

Metallurgical Furnaces ◽

Copper Metallurgy ◽

New Evidence ◽

The Bronze Age

The last three years of archaeological investigations at the site Ru`ana in Banjsko Polje, in the immediate vicinity of Bor, have provided new evidence regarding the role of non-ferrous metallurgy in the economy of the prehistoric communities of north-eastern Serbia. The remains of metallurgical furnaces and a large amount of metallic slags at two neighbouring sites in the mentioned settlement reveal that locations with many installations for the thermal processing of copper ore existed in the Bronze Age. We believe, judging by the finds of material culture, that metallurgical activities in this area also continued into the Iron Age and, possibly, into the 4th century AD.

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An Archaeological Investigation of Early Mineworkings on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth: New Evidence for Prehistoric Mining

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society ◽

10.1017/s0079497x00005909 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 54 ◽

pp. 329-333 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Simon Timberlake ◽

Roy Switsur

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Radiocarbon Dating ◽

Archaeological Investigation ◽

Middle Bronze Age ◽

Mine Workings ◽

Prehistoric Mining ◽

The Hill ◽

New Evidence

In September 1986 a small excavation was done by S. T. to investigate an area of primitive-style mine-workings on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, Dyfed (SN816756). A small opencast and several overgrown tips associated with pebble hammers occur where the copper-rich Comet Lode outcrops on the brow of the hill. Copa Hill is within an area of seventeenth–twentieth-century lead-mine workings which extend for 1.2 km along the N side of the Ystwyth Valley (fig. 1). Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from within one of the tips suggests that mining commenced in the middle Bronze Age.

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Using Debitage Analysis to Investigate an Alberta Archaeological Site

COMPASS ◽

10.29173/comp24 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 25-41 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jennifer Hallson

Keyword(s):

Raw Materials ◽

Archaeological Site ◽

Raw Material ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

Late Prehistoric ◽

Aggregate Analysis ◽

New Information ◽

Lithic Artifacts ◽

Field Schools

Ahai Mneh (FiPp-33) is a significant pre-contact archaeological site in Alberta. Located west of Edmonton on Lake Wabamun, this site contains material from the Early Prehistoric right up until Late Prehistoric pre-contact times. Ninety-five percent of the lithic artifacts collected are pieces of debitage. Aggregate analysis is a method of examining the whole of the debitage collection, rather than analysing singular pieces. This method is more time efficient, less subject to bias, replicable, and is used often, and successfully, at archaeological sites with immense quantities of debitage. Here I use aggregate analysis to examine the debitage assemblage from two field schools at Ahai Mneh. I investigate various characteristics such as size, raw material type, cortex amount, and number of dorsal scars. I argue that this method is successful, as it provided new information on where people were acquiring raw materials, as well as what types of flintknapping occurred at this site. These analyses resulted in the determination of a focus on local raw material, yet this material was being brought to the site as prepared cores or blanks, rather than complete unaltered cores. Tool production was the focus at this site, and this trend continued throughout time.

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Mineral inclusions in the late bronze age metal objects оf Southern Transurals

10.35597/2313-545x-2021-7-4-5 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 70-82

Author(s):

M.N. Ankushev ◽

I.A. Blinov ◽

I.P. Alaeva ◽

N.B. Vinogradov ◽

F.N. Petrov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Raw Material ◽

Late Bronze Age ◽

Mineral Inclusions ◽

Tin Bronze ◽

Skarn Deposits ◽

Subordinate Role ◽

Determination Of Copper

The paper is devoted to the determination of copper raw material types based on the analysis of mineral inclusions and the composition of metal objects from the Late Bronze Age settlements of the Southern Transurals (XIX–XIII centuries BC). The composition of alloys, inclusions of sulfdes, oxides and metals of objects was established by scanning electron microscopy. The composition of objects is dominated by copper and tin bronze, with a subordinate role of arsenic bronze. The presence of chalcocite and bornite inclusions in most objects indicates the use of rich ores from secondary sulfde enrichment zone. In comparison with analogs, the low total amount of sulfdes in the Southern Transuralian metal objects may indicate the use of mixed oxide and sulfde concentrates. The high Se and Te concentrations of sulfdes are indicative of using of ores of volcanic-hosted massive sulfde or skarn deposits. Keywords: metal objects, copper, bronze, sulfdes, Late Bronze Age, Southern Transurals

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The concentration and centralization of late prehistoric settlement in central Italy: the evidence from the Nepi Survey

Papers of the British School at Rome ◽

10.1017/s0068246213000032 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 81 ◽

pp. 1-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Ulla Rajala

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Central Italy ◽

Population Pressure ◽

Early Iron Age ◽

Late Prehistoric ◽

Gis Modelling ◽

Middle Bronze Age ◽

New Evidence ◽

The Bronze Age

This article discusses the evidence for the concentration and centralization of late prehistoric settlement in central Italy, using the territory of Nepi as an example of settlement aggregation in southern Etruria. This example helps to explain the regional developments leading to urbanization and state formation in Etruria from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The article also publishes new sites with late prehistoric ceramic material from the Neolithic or Epineolithic to the Iron Age in the territory of Nepi found during the Nepi Survey Project. This new evidence is discussed together with previously published material, and presented as further evidence that the developments leading to the occupation of naturally defended sites in the Final Bronze Age had their origins in the Middle Bronze Age. Similarly, the analysis, aided by agricultural and GIS modelling, suggests that the hiatus in the settlement and its dislocation after an apparent break between the Final Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age may have been caused by population pressure. After the settlement aggregated in one centre at Nepi, there are signs of further expansion in the Iron Age.

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BRONZE AGE TEXTILE FROM THE CHESMENKA 3 KURGAN GROUP IN THE VORONEZHREGION: TECHNOLOGY, ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION AND RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY

Краткие сообщения Института археологии (КСИА) ◽

10.25681/iaras.0130-2620.260.209-227 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Н.И. Шишлина ◽

О.В. Орфинская ◽

Д.В. Киселева ◽

А.В. Сурков

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Radiocarbon Dating ◽

Raw Material ◽

86Sr Ratio ◽

The Caucasus ◽

Isotopic Signatures ◽

The North ◽

Material Sources ◽

Wool Fibers ◽

Radiocarbon Chronology

Статья посвящена анализу сложного аксессуара, найденного в могильнике Чесменка 3, курган 2, погребение 4. Для изготовления многокомпонентного изделия использовались материалы разного происхождения: войлок, на который льняными нитями были пришиты пронизи, нанизанные на шерстяные нити. Радиоуглеродное датирование фрагмента льняной нити позволило отнести захоронение ранней покровской культуры к 1800–1700 гг. до н. э. Определение вариаций отношений стронция 87Sr/86Sr во фрагменте льняного шнура и сравнительный анализ с фоновыми «изотопными метками» указывают на возможные западные ареалы происхождения растительного сырья. Использование шерстяных нитей и войлока соотносится с хронологией и траекторией распространения шерстяного волокна и шерстяных тканей в начале II тыс. до н. э. из южных регионов Кавказа и прилегающей степи на север. The paper analyzes a composite accessory discovered in the Chesmenka 3 cemetery, kurgan 2, grave 4. Various materials were used to make the item. It consists of several components such as felt, tubular beads strung on wool threads and sewn onto the felt with a linen thread. Radiocarbon dating of linen thread fragment helped relate this grave to the early Pokrovka culture (1800–1700 BC). The variation in the 87Sr/86Sr ratio in the linen thread fragment and comparative analysis with the use of background «isotopic signatures» point to likely western areas of plant raw material sources. The use of wool fibers and woolen cloths correlates with the chronology and the distribution pattern of wool fibers and wool cloths in the early second millennium BC, i.e. from the southern areas of the Caucasus and the adjacent steppes to the north.

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When and Why? The Chronology and Context of Flint Mining at Grime’s Graves, Norfolk, England

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society ◽

10.1017/ppr.2018.14 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 84 ◽

pp. 277-301 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Frances Healy ◽

Peter Marshall ◽

Alex Bayliss ◽

Gordon Cook ◽

Christopher Bronk Ramsey ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Radiocarbon Dating ◽

16Th Century ◽

Early Bronze Age ◽

Bone Tools ◽

The West ◽

The Third ◽

Copper Mines ◽

Middle Bronze Age ◽

Copper Metallurgy

New radiocarbon dating and chronological modelling have refined understanding of the character and circumstances of flint mining at Grime’s Graves through time. The deepest, most complex galleried shafts were worked probably from the third quarter of the 27th century calbcand are amongst the earliest on the site. Their use ended in the decades around 2400 calbc, although the use of simple, shallow pits in the west of the site continued for perhaps another three centuries. The final use of galleried shafts coincides with the first evidence of Beaker pottery and copper metallurgy in Britain. After a gap of around half a millennium, flint mining at Grime’s Graves briefly resumed, probably from the middle of the 16th century calbcto the middle of the 15th. These ‘primitive’ pits, as they were termed in the inter-war period, were worked using bone tools that can be paralleled in Early Bronze Age copper mines. Finally, the scale and intensity of Middle Bronze Age middening on the site is revealed, as it occurred over a period of probably no more than a few decades in the 14th century calbc. The possibility of connections between metalworking at Grime’s Graves at this time and contemporary deposition of bronzes in the nearby Fens is discussed.

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