scholarly journals Finnic language islands in eastern Latvia: Archaeological background and perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-122
Author(s):  
Heiki Valk
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Physical Anthropology ◽  
Distribution Area ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Research Tradition ◽  
Cultural Pattern

This article discusses the archaeological background of the Leivu and Lutsi Finnic language islands. In contrast to the earlier research tradition, a hidden Finnic presence is suggested by the distribution area of Roman Iron Age tarand graves up to and including the Medieval Period when the presence of a Finnic population in northeastern Latvia (“the Chud in Ochela”) is noted in 1179/80. The Leivu language island west of Alūksne may be the last descendants of this population, formed by the merging of a Finnic substrate and Latgalian superstrate and standing between the Estonians and Livonians. The borders of this Finnic area in northern and northeastern Latvia – a diverse network of communities, existing in parallel with Latgalian ones and based on various ethnic components – are difficult to determine, as archaeological traces of its cultural pattern in the 12th–14th centuries have much in common with the Latgalians despite definite peculiarities. The Finnic traces in the Lutsi area are more difficult to identify archaeologically, although physical anthropology suggests a former Finnic presence there too. Kokkuvõte. Heiki Valk: Lõunaeesti keelesaared Ida-Lätis: arheoloogiline taust ja perspektiiv. Artikkel käsitleb leivu ja lutsi keelesaarte arheolooglist kujunemist. Erinevalt varasemast, baltikesksest vaatenurgast eeldatakse läänemeresoome rahvastiku varjatud püsimist rooma rauaaja tarandkalmete alal kuni keskajani ja ka keskaja vältel – kirjalikud allikad mainivad aastatel 1179– 1180 “Otšela tšuude” (tinglikult “adsele maarahvast”). Leivu keelesaar võiks endast kujutada selle läänemere substraadi ja latgali superstraadi ühtesulamise tulemusena kujunenud ning eestlaste ja liivlaste vahel paiknenud rahvastiku viimaseid järeltulijaid. Läänemeresoome asuala piire Läti põhja- ja kirdeosas on raske määratleda, kuna ilmselt oli tegemist eriilmeliste, läti asustuse kõrval eksisteerinud kogukondade võrgustikuga ja 12.–14. sajandi rahvastiku kultuuri arheoloogilised jäljed on vaatamata teatud iseärasustele paljuski latgalipärase ilmega. Lutsi asualal on läänemeresoome jälgi arheoloogias raskem leida, kuigi füüsilise antropoloogia andmed sellele viitavad.

The Britons in Southern Scotland

Antiquity ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 29 (114) ◽  
pp. 77-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
The West ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
The North ◽  
Dark Ages ◽  
The People ◽  
Northern Portion

The archaeological background of the people of what is now Scotland south of the Forth and Clyde in the Roman period was a La Téne one, and specifically chiefly Iron Age B. This links them intimately with the Britons of southern Britain in the conglomeration of Celtic tribes who called themselves Brittones and spoke what we call the Brittonic or Ancient British form of Celtic, from which are descended the three modern languages of Welsh, Cornish and Breton. To the north of the Forth was a different people, the Picts. They too were Celts or partly Celts; probably not Brittones however, but a different branch of the Celtic race, though more closely related to the Brittones than to the Goidels of Ireland and (in later times) of the west of Scotland. Not being Brittonic, the Picts may be ignored here. Our southern Scottish Brittones are nothing but the northern portion of a common Brittonic population, from the southern portion of which come the people of Wales and Cornwall. Some historians speak of the northern Brittones as Welsh, following good Anglo-Saxon precedent, but this is apt to lead to confusion. The best term for them, in the Dark Ages and early Medieval period, as long as they survived, is ‘Cumbrians’, and for their language, ‘Cumbric’. They called themselves in Latin Cumbri and Cumbrenses, which is a Latinization of the native word Cymry, meaning ‘fellow-countrymen’, which both they and the Welsh used of themselves in common, and is still the Welsh name for the Welsh to the present day. The centre of their power was Strathclyde, the Clyde valley, with their capital at Dumbarton.

Defining Issues

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Harding
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Subjective Assessment ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Structural Morphology ◽  
Social Unit ◽  
River Bends

‘Hillfort’ is a term of convenience. It is widely recognized that the monuments in question are not restricted topographically to hills, and that their role may not have been primarily, and certainly not exclusively, for military defence. Nor are they restricted chronologically to the Iron Age, though during that period they are particularly prominent. The term came into general currency following the publication in 1931 of Christopher Hawkes’ paper, simply entitled ‘Hillforts’, in Antiquity, which also established their predominantly Iron Age date in Britain. Prior to that, Christison (1898) in Scotland had discussed ‘fortifications’, and Hadrian Allcroft (1908) for England had classified ‘earthwork’, both extending their studies into the Medieval period. But ‘hillfort’ for all its limitations has remained in general usage in Britain. Chronologically, this study is concerned with the ‘long Iron Age’; that is, including the post-Roman Iron Age in northern Britain especially, and with later Bronze Age antecedents. Geographically it is concerned with regional groups throughout Britain, but with further reference to Ireland, and in the wider context of relevant sites and developments in continental Europe. The key element of the sites under consideration is enclosure, physically or conceptually demarcating an area to which access is restricted or controlled. This may be achieved by rampart and ditch, stockade or fence, or by the incorporation of topographical and natural features such as cliff-edge or marsh. The scale of enclosing works may range from a relatively modest barrier to massive earthworks that reshape the landscape, and in structural morphology, from single palisade or bank to multiple lines, variously disposed. Topographically they may be located around hilltop contours, on cliffedge, ridge, or promontory, on spurs or hill slopes, in wetlands or spanning river bends, or across variable terrain. In area enclosed they may range from well under a hectare to 20 ha and more, with the territorial or terrain oppida of the late pre-Roman Iron Age attaining 300 ha or more. From size alone, therefore, we may infer a great diversity in the practical, social, and symbolic purposes that they may have served. At the smaller end of the scale, the distinction between hillforts and other enclosed settlements is sometimes a matter of subjective assessment, but otherwise their size and scale suggests that they were community sites, serving a social unit larger than a single family or household.

Strip Lynchets

Antiquity ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 40 (160) ◽  
pp. 277-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. C. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Medieval Period

The study of strip lynchets is one which has been sporadically carried out by many people for the last 70 to 80 years. Recently there has been an increase of interest in this field with the result that much more is now known about their purpose and construction. However all this work has not produced any general agreement on their date. There is no dispute that they were cultivated in the medieval period, but while some workers have seen them as medieval, others have suggested their origins lie in the Roman or Iron Age period.

scholarly journals A new chronology for crannogs in north-east Scotland

2018 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
pp. 147-173
Author(s):  
Michael J Stratigos ◽  
Gordon Noble
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Detailed Understanding ◽  
North East ◽  
Historic Records ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Emerging Pattern

This article presents the results of a programme of investigation which aimed to construct a more detailed understanding of the character and chronology of crannog occupation in north-east Scotland, targeting a series of sites across the region. The emerging pattern revealed through fieldwork in the region shows broad similarities to the existing corpus of data from crannogs in other parts of the country. Crannogs in north-east Scotland now show evidence for origins in the Iron Age. Further radiocarbon evidence has emerged from crannogs in the region revealing occupation during the 9th–10th centuries ad, a period for which there is little other settlement evidence in the area. Additionally, excavated contexts dated to the 11th–12th centuries and historic records suggest that the tradition of crannog dwelling continued into the later medieval period. Overall, the recent programme of fieldwork and dating provides a more robust foundation for further work in the region and can help address questions concerning the adoption of the practice of artificial island dwelling across Scotland through time.

scholarly journals Bronze Age “pristinity”, Iron Age anthropization and Medieval intensification of human impact around Lake Montcortès (southern-central Pyrenees): a possible mid-elevation pattern and its significance for the definition of the Anthropocene

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentí Rull ◽  
Teresa Vegas-Vilarrúbia ◽  
Juan Pablo Corella ◽  
Blas Valero-Garcé
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Impact ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Human Pressure ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Central Pyrenees

Abstract The varved sediments of Lake Montcortès (central Pyrenees) have provided a continuous and well-dated high-resolution record of the last ca. 3000 years. Previous chronological and sedimentological studies of this record have furnished detailed paleoenvironmental reconstructions. However, palynological studies are only available for the last millennium, and the vegetation and the landscape around the lake had already been transformed by humans by this time. Therefore, the primeval vegetation of Montcortès and the history of its anthropogenic transformations remains unknown. This paper presents a palynological analysis of the interval between the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1100 BCE) and the Early Medieval period (820 CE), aimed at recording the preanthropic conditions, the anthropization onset and the further landscape transformations. During the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1100 BCE to 770 BCE), the vegetation did not show any evidence of human impact. The decisive anthropogenic transformation of the Montcortès catchment vegetation and landscape started at the beginning of the Iron Age (770 BCE) and continued during Roman and Medieval times in the form of recurrent burning, grazing, cultivation, silviculture, hemp retting and other human activities. Some intervals of lower human pressure were recorded, but the original vegetation never returned. The anthropization that took place during the Iron Age did not cause relevant changes in the sediment yield to the lake, but a significant limnological shift occurred, as manifested in the initiation of varve formation, a process that has been continuous until today. Climatic shifts seem to have played a secondary role in influencing catchment vegetation and landscape changes from the Iron Age onwards. These results contrast with previous inferences of low anthropogenic impact until the Medieval Period, at a regional level (central Pyrenees). The intensification of human pressure in Early Medieval times (580 CE onwards) has also been observed in Lake Montcortès, but the overall anthropization of its watershed had already commenced a couple of millennia before, at the beginning of the Iron Age. It could be interesting to verify whether the same pattern – i.e., Late Bronze “pristinity”, Iron Age anthropization and Early Medieval intensification of human pressure – may be a recurrent pattern for mid-elevation Pyrenean landscapes below the tree line. This pattern complicates the definition of the “Anthropocene”, as it adds a new dimension, i.e., elevational diachronism, to the anthropization of mountain ranges, in general.

scholarly journals Sten som betydelsebärare i den förhistoriska föreställningsvärlden

AmS-Varia ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 77-86
Author(s):  
Marianne Lönn
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Migration Period ◽  
Basic Change ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Similar Appearance ◽  
The Bronze Age

This article discusses the meaning of stones and the practice of gathering stones, in graves, clearance cairns and stone-covered hillocks. The emphases are on stone-covered hillocks and their long-term usage (up to 1500 years), analyzed using the concept of longue durée. In this paper I propose that the stones in themselves have a cultic meaning as well as the actions, i.e. the remodeling of hillocks and the placing of clearance cairns among graves. In this, I see a connection between stone-covered hillocks, graves and clearance cairns. The underlying concept is a stable, but slowly changing, prehistoric religious tradition that lasted from the Bronze Age to the Migration Period and possibly also through the Late Iron Age. A basic change in this does not take place until the coming of Christianity in the Medieval Period. The reason that Medieval and later clearance cairns were placed together with graves is probably due to their similar appearance.

The African Lords of the Intercontinental Gold Trade Before the Black Death: al-Hasan bin Sulaiman of Kilwa and Mansa Musa of Mali

1997 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 221-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. G. Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
World History ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Black Death ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Calendar Date ◽  
External Sources ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Universal Applicability ◽  
African Iron Age

Where we are able to combine external sources of the ‘medieval’ period with local African ones – oral and linguistic, ethnographic and archaeological – we can begin to discern the place of Africa, or of parts of it, in world history. At the same time, we begin to gain chronological perceptions for regions where otherwise we are apt to fall back on synchronic notions of ‘traditional’ cultures and societies living as if in a permanent ethnographic present. The occasional allusion bearing a calendar date of universal applicability presses questions of correlation over broad distances, in a way that radiocarbon measurements (which we should hesitate to call ‘dates’) cannot do. Notwithstanding the importance of the latter technique for the study of the African Iron Age, the individual results are inherently imprecise (whether ‘calibrated’ or not) and, being run on specific samples, bear frequently an uncertain relationship to the historical event or episode in question.

Feeding Infants from the Iron Age to the Early Medieval Period in Britain

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca C. Redfern
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Developmental Processes ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Early Medieval Period

The feeding and rearing of infants are sociocultural and developmental processes, each with their own timetables that can either unite or diverge, depending on the wellbeing and physiological growth of the infant, and the needs of the mother or carer and the society in which they live. They are highly emotive and complex topics, which go to the heart of human relationships and behaviours, because they are regarded as important steps to achieving personhood and a social identity. Furthermore, because these processes begin during pregnancy, they rely on the intimate connections between a mother and foetus, and carer and baby. This chapter will examine these processes from pregnancy through to childhood, providing a framework to understand the practices and choices made by the Iron Age, Roman and Saxon communities in Britain and Europe.

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