scholarly journals The origin of alpine farming: A review of archaeological, linguistic and archaeobotanical studies in the Alps

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1503-1511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fridtjof Gilck ◽  
Peter Poschlod

Alpine farming and pasturing at high altitudes in the Alps has created one of the most species-rich and diverse landscapes in Europe. In order to fully understand, appreciate and protect these habitats it is essential to learn about their history and origin. Until the present day, alpine farming provides essential additional food sources for livestock of farmers in the alpine valleys. Based on written sources, historians are able to track alpine farming back to the Middle Ages. Other approaches from different fields in science, however, can look back even further in search of evidence for alpine farming. This interdisciplinary literature review therefore aims to summarize the scientific work that has been done in different fields of science such as Archaeology, Palynology, Pedoanthracology and linguistic research in order to address the question of the beginning of alpine farming in the Alps. With the discovery of remains from alpine dairy huts, archaeological studies show that there is definite proof of alpine farming beginning in the Bronze Age (2200–800 BC) in different parts of the Alps. Archaeological and palynological data as well as linguistic findings from many different studies and study areas arrived at the same conclusions. Palynological studies found indicators for high-altitude pasture use even earlier, beginning from 4500 BC. The exact type or intensity of this pasture use though remains unclear. In order to confirm these findings, more archaeological research of these areas would be necessary.

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-128
Author(s):  
Gavin Macgregor ◽  
Irene Cullen ◽  
Diane Alldritt ◽  
Michael Donnelly ◽  
Jennifer Miller ◽  
...  

Summary A programme of archaeological work was undertaken by Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) at West Flank Road, Drumchapel, in close proximity to the site of the prehistoric cemetery of Knappers. This paper considers the results of excavation of a range of negative features, including earlier Neolithic and Bronze Age pits and postholes. The earlier Neolithic features date to c. 3500–3000 BC and are interpreted as the partial remains of a subrectangular structure. The Bronze Age features may relate to ceremonial activities in the wider area. The significance of these remains is considered in relation to the site of Knappers and wider traditions during the fourth to second millennia BC.


Britain and Ireland - Stephen Oppenheimer. The origins of the British: A Genetic detective Story. 2006. London: Constable & Robinson; 978-1-84529-158-7 hardback £20. - Trevor Rowley. The English landscape in the twentieth century. xvi+472 pages, numerous illustrations. 2006. London: hambledon continuum; 1-85285-388-3 hardback £30. - Timothy Darvill. Stonehenge: the biography of a landscape. 320 pages, 118 illustrations, 27 colour plates, 4 tables. 2006. Stroud: Tempus; 0-7524-3641-4 hardback £25. - Roy Loveday. Inscribed across the landscape: the cursus enigma. 222 pages, 84 illustrations. 2006. Stroud: Tempus; 0-7524-3652-X paperback £19.99. - Stan Beckensall. Circles in Stone: a British prehistoric mystery. 224 pages, 25 colour plates. 2006. Stroud: Tempus; 978-07524-4015-6 paperback £18.99. - Steve Burrow. The tomb builders in Wales 40003000 BC. x+150 pages, numerous b&w & colour illustrations. 2006. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales; 0-7200-08568-X paperback £14.99. - Christopher Evans & Ian Hodder. A woodland archaeology: Neolithic sites at Haddenham (The Haddenham Project Volume 1 ). xxii+390 pages, 189 illustrations, 102 tables. 2006. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research; 9871-902937-31-1 hardback£35. - Christopher Evans & Ian Hodder. Marshland communities and cultural landscapes from the Bronze Age to present day (The Haddenham Project Volume 2). xxvi+510 pages, 293 illustrations, 160 tables. 2006. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research; 9871-902937-32-8 hardback £35. - Stephen Parry. Raunds Area Survey: an archaeological study ofthe landscape of Raunds, Northamptonshire 1985-94. xx+292 pages, 101 tables, 105 illustrations +12 large colour maps in case. 2006. Oxford: Oxbow; 978-1-84217-180-6 paperback and maps in hard case £30. - Jerry O’Sullivan & Michael Stanley (ed.). Settlement, Industry and Ritual: Proceedings ofa Public Seminaron ArchaeologicalDiscoverieson NationalRoad Schemes, September 2005 (Archaeology and the National Roads Authority Monograph Series 3). x+154 pages, 95 b&w & colour illustrations. 2006. Dublin: National Roads Authority; 0-954955-2-1 paperback.

Antiquity ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (311) ◽  
pp. 249-250
Author(s):  
Madeleine Hummler

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 103-118
Author(s):  
Andrew P. Borodovsky ◽  
Yuri V. Oborin

Purpose. This article examines the collection of recently discovered items from lower Pyshma River (Tyumen region, Tyumen district), belonging to the Seima-Turbino time, which to be found on the territory of Eurasia is rather a rare archaeological phenomenon. Results. The researchers identified a set of items encompassing bronze objects – spears, knives, celts, an ice pick and mask. This composition of items entirely reflects a standard set of artifacts belonging to the Seima-Turbino time. Furthermore, this set of items is obviously close to religious collections (Galichsky Klad), which contained anthropomorphic metal objects. Of special interest in the collection is a metal mask with a protruding nose made of bronze plates. The sharp angled upper and lower parts of the face are considered to be its culturally determining signs. The shape and appearance of the top of the head may well be classified as headgear characteristic of the Samus’sko-Seima time. Such tight-fitting hats are typical of various samples of anthropomorphic plastic art in the south of Western Siberia. The iconographic features of this toreutics item belonging to the Bronze Age largely encapsulates peculiarities of similar-purpose images that existed in the forest territories of Western Siberia up until the Middle Ages. Conclusion. It is important to emphasize that this collection presents great significance in terms of studying non-ferrous processing technologies. Overall, the discovered items can be considered as both a set of tools, and as part of cult paraphernalia and the transcultural phenomenon of Middle bronze Age, especially in connection with the discovered bronze mask.


Author(s):  
Dedakhanov Bakhodir

The article reveals the problem of the development of military architecture in the territory of ancient Fergana, based on the long-term research of archaeologists of Uzbekistan. It identifies the main factors that have contributed to the improvement of this architecture. In each separately taken historical period, starting from the Bronze Age, the author defines the characteristic features of the fortification architecture of Fergana cities based on specific examples. At the same time, a comparative analysis with neighboring historical and cultural regions (Sogd and Khorezm) is performed, and the issues of the continuity of traditions and evolutionary development in this type of structure are revealed using the examples of military architecture of the early medieval period.


Author(s):  
З. Самашев

В статье приводятся сведения о петроглифах урочища Шимайлы на территории Тарбагатайского района Восточно-Казахстанской области Республики Казахстан. Наскальное искусство этого памятника охватывает время от эпохи бронзы до раннего средневековья. Основные мотивы изображений бронзового века антропоморфная фигура, зооморфные изображения, колесница, знаки-символы и предметы вооружения. Основу звериного образа наскальных изображений Шимайлы бронзового века составляет триада рогатых животных: бык, горный козел/архар, олень. В репертуар петроглифов эпохи бронзы входят также и другие травоядные животные, хищные звери и птицы. Последние представлены изображениями дрофы, которые чаще всего включены в состав многофигурных композиций. Хищники представлены фигурами волков, которые преследуют или терзают парнокопытных. К переходному периоду от эпохи бронзы к раннему железному веку в Шимайлы относятся образы птицеголовых или клювастых оленей, идентичные фигурам на так называемых оленных камнях. К раннесакскому и развитому сакскому периодам относятся изображения оленей поджарых, в летящей позе и/или стоящих на кончиках копыт, с большими глазами, ветвистыми откинутыми назад рогами. Зафиксированы тамги средневековых народов. The article includes new information on the petroglyphs of the Shimaily (Tarbagatai district of the East Kazakhstan region of the Republic of Kazakhstan). The imagery of this rock art site is related to the period from the Bronze Age to the Early Middle Ages. The main images of the Bronze Age are an anthropomorphic figure, numerous zoomorphic images, a chariot, depictions of weapons, signs and symbols. Animal images are basically represented by the figures of bulls, mountain goats and deer. Other herbivores are also depicted as well as predators and birds. The latter are represented by images of bustards, which are most often included in the multi-figure compositions. Predators are mostly wolves that shown in the scenes of pursuing or tormenting the artiodactyls. Another series of images in Shimaily refers to the transitional period from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. These are birdheaded or beaked deer, identical to the figures depicted on the so-called deer stones. The Early Saka and developed Saka periods include a series of typical deer figures: theiy are lean, flying and/or standing on the tips of the hoofs, with large eyes, with branchy antlers thrown back. The tamga-signs of the medieval peoples are also recorded in Shimaily.


Author(s):  
Robert Van de Noort

Movements between different lands around the North Sea have always been taking place. While the North Sea was evolving gradually, over the millennia, following the melting of the Devensian ice sheet, close contacts across what remained of the North Sea Plain never ceased, as evidenced by near-parallel developments of the Maglemosian-type tools in southern Scandinavia and Britain (Clark 1936), and by particular practices such as the deliberate deposition of barbed points (see chapter 3). Connections across the North Sea throughout the Mesolithic and the beginning of the Neolithic would have been made easier because of the number of islands surviving within the rising sea. The polished axes from Dogger Bank and Brown Bank either represent human presence on these islands in the early Neolithic or else indicate that the existence of these islands sometime in the pre-Neolithic past was embedded in the social memory of later periods. Both possibilities emphasize the fact that the North Sea was a knowable and visited place. Movements across the North Sea took various forms: as exchange between elites from different regions of exotic or ‘prestige’ goods, and possibly of marriage partners; as trade in both luxury and bulk commodities; and in the transfer of people, in some cases as individuals such as pilgrims and missionaries, and in other cases as groups of pirates or as part of larger-scale migrations. Over time, connectedness across the North Sea changed both in nature and in intensity; this was due in no small part to changes in the nature of the craft available. An outline of the movement of goods from the Neolithic through to the end of the Middle Ages illustrates this. Contacts across the North Sea for the Neolithic and the Bronze Age are demonstrated in the long-distance exchange of exotic objects and artefacts, including Beaker pottery, jewellery, or other adornments of gold, amber, faience, jet, and tin; also copper and bronze weapons and tools, and flint daggers, arrowheads, and wrist guards (e.g. Butler, 1963; O’Connor, 1980; Bradley 1984; Clarke, Cowie, and Foxon 1985).


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