scholarly journals On the Lookout: Directional Visibility Cones and Defense in the Nebo Region, West-Central Jordan

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-18
Author(s):  
Steven Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Line Of Sight ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
Urban Centre ◽  
Visual Contact ◽  
Direct Communication ◽  
West Central ◽  
Central Jordan ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Town

AbstractThis article uses directional visibility analysis to assess the defensibility of two Iron Age (9th–8th cent. BCE) sites from the Nebo region of west-central Jordan: the fortified town of Khirbat al-Mukhayyat and its adjacent watchtower at Rujm al-Mukhayyat. Directional visibility cones illustrate how the improved viewsheds afforded by the watchtower at Rujm al-Mukhayyat were needed to establish line of sight between Khirbat al-Mukhayyat and other settlements located higher up on the Transjordanian plateau. Without the addition of the watchtower, Khirbat al-Mukhayyat would have been cut off from direct communication with nearby towns at Hesban and Ma’in. Despite the increased visibility provided by the watchtower at Rujm al-Mukhayyat, Khirbat al-Mukhayyat retained limited capacity to monitor movement to the south in the vicinity of Ma’in. Further, it could not establish direct visual contact with the important urban centre at Madaba to the southeast. These findings may have implications for understanding the military strategy adopted by the Moabite king Mesha in his mid-9th century BCE campaign against the Town of Nebo, identified with Khirbat al-Mukhayyat.

scholarly journals Nidarneset før Nidaros

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-74
Author(s):  
Julian P. Cadamarteri ◽  
Christopher McLees, ◽  
Anna Petersén ◽  
Ian Reed
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Urban Centre ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Settlement History ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Town

This article presents and discusses the range of prehistoric archaeological material derived from excavations in the medieval town of Trondheim. The town grew up on Nidarneset, a low-lying peninsula located at the point where the River Nid enters Trondheim Fjord. It became the site of Nidaros kaupang during the 10th century, but recent archaeological finds document the presence of an agrarian settlement since the early Pre-Roman Iron Age at c. 1500 BC. The Iron Age population lived in a natural environment created by combined formation processes throughout the period, including isostatic recovery, alluvial deposition and a landslide which covered part of the peninsula with a thick body of clay. The archaeological material is presented in the context of this dynamic process, demonstrating the close interaction of natural processes and human actors in the formation and use of the landscape. The settlement history is discussed in the wider context of local and regional developments during the Iron Age. The article’s chief aim is to provide for the first time a comprehensive overview of the settlement history of Nidarneset throughout the Iron Age, and to offer some tentative suggestions regarding how this may have contributed to the context in which the urban centre emerged.

scholarly journals Burials with Weapons and Horse Bridle of Yuldashevsky Burial Ground in the South Ural Region

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 152-166
Author(s):  
Lyasovich Vsevolod I. ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Specific Group ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Relative Proximity ◽  
The Military ◽  
Archaeological Monument

The study of the peculiarities of the armament of the Pianobor tribes is an urgent direction of modern archaeological science. The purpose of this article is to isolate and then analyze the sets of weapons for the male burials of the Yuldashevsky burial ground of the Pyanobor archaeological culture of the Early Iron Age. The problem of the study is to reconstruct the nature of the military culture of one local group in the Pianobor society. The novelty of the work is the fact that the totality of weapons in the burial, the weapon set, is considered within the framework of one specific archaeological monument, and not as a whole in terms of culture.The Yuldashevsky burial ground belongs to one of the necropolises of the Pianobor culture, where an increased content of weapons is noted. The occurrence as well as the combination of a certain type of weapon in the burial inventory makes it possible to distinguish weapon sets, as well as to designate popular types of weapons among a specific group of the drunken population. Applying the comparative-historical method, including the method of statistics and chronology, it was possible to focus on the number of weapon sets, their filling with weapons, the time frame of some weapons, and its similarity with the Kara-Abyz set of weapons. As well as the Kara-Abyz, the Pianobor culture inherited a set of weapons characteristics of the Ananyin time. Its indispensable attributes are: a) polearms in the form of spears with small points; b) arrowheads made of different materials ‒ bronze, iron and bone, with the domination of the latter in quiver sets; c) long single-edged blades ‒ combat knives. Despite the relative proximity of the habitat of the Pianobor tribes to the Sarmatian world, the latter did not have a significant impact on the armament complex of the Pyanobor tribes. Moreover, in the drunken environment, its own standardized weapon set was formed, represented by various variations in the mutual occurrence of a bow, spear and a combat knife. Keywords: Pianobor archaeological culture, weapons, burial ground, military burials, early Iron Age, Yuldashevsky burial ground, southern Urals

Iron in Anatolia and the Nature of the Hittite Iron Industry

1985 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 67-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Muhly ◽  
R. Maddin ◽  
T. Stech ◽  
E. Özgen
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Iron Ore ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Industry ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Major Break ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Great Invention

The development of the skills necessary for working in iron, making possible the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, has long been regarded as one of the major break-throughs in man's technological history. For Lewis Henry Morgan, writing in 1877, the smelting of iron ore was a development on a par with the domestication of animals (Morgan 1877:39):“The most advanced portion of the human race were halted, so to express it, at certain stages of progress, until some great invention or discovery, such as the domestication of animals or the smelting of iron ore, gave a new and powerful impulse forward.”The importance of the appearance of iron as a practical, utilitarian metal has usually been seen in terms of a military context. With iron it was possible to produce weapons not only superior to those of bronze but also much cheaper. These improvements made it possible to arm a large peasant infantry in order to challenge the military superiority of the chariot forces of the Late Bronze Age aristocracy, armed with bronze weapons.

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