scholarly journals The first casting mould for a ‘Syrian Bottle’ from Lipnik, Bulgaria

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyuben Leschtakov ◽  
Thomas Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Precious Metals ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
Green Sand ◽  
Sand Core ◽  
Cultural Entities

Abstract The following article presents the first mould ever discovered for casting a so-called “Syrian Bottle”, a distinctive vessel type that originated in Mesopotamia around the mid 3rd millennium BC and soon after spread to Anatolia, the Aegean and Southeast Europe, as imports and local derivatives. A few examples were made from precious metals and lead, the most notable one being a golden globular bottle, part of “Priam’s” Treasure A” from Early Bronze Age Troy. The mould from Lipnik seems to have been intended for the production of small metal bottles of ‘Syrian’ shape, and supportive agents like a green sand core applied for the production of such a complex item. The mould, however, was obviously never used. A review of associated manufacturing details like pegholes, riser and vent show that although these features were particularly prominent in the 2nd millennium BC, moulds from earlier (Anatolian) contexts do possess such characteristics as well. This currently unique, locally produced example is therefore dated to the latest 3rd or earliest second millennium BC, coinciding with ever-growing interaction between distant cultural entities stretching from Mesopotamia to Southeast Europe and beyond, and allowing for the exchange of ideas, fashions and technologies.

The bronze headbands of Prehistoric Lofkënd and their Aegean and Balkan connections

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 33-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
John K. Papadopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
Young Females ◽  
The Many ◽  
Votive Offerings

This paper begins with an overview of the bronze headbands from the prehistoric (Late Bronze to Early Iron Age) burial tumulus of Lofkënd in Albania, which were found among the richest tombs of the cemetery, all of them of young females or children. It is argued that these individuals represent a class of the special dead, those who have not attained a critical rite de passage: marriage. In their funerary attire these individuals go to the grave as brides, married to death. The significance of the Lofkënd headbands is reviewed, as is their shape and decoration, but it is their context that contributes to a better understanding of Aegean examples, including the many bronze, gold, and silver headbands found in tombs from the Early Bronze Age through the Early Iron Age, as well as those dedicated as votive offerings in sanctuaries. In addition to discussing the evidence for headbands in the Aegean and much of southeast Europe, this paper also attempts to uncover the word used in this early period in Greece for these distinctive items of personal ornament. In memory of Berit Wells.

scholarly journals New 14C evidence for the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age transition in Southeast Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yannis Maniatis ◽  
Zoï Tsirtsoni ◽  
Christine Oberlin ◽  
Pascal Darcque ◽  
Chaido Koukouli-Chryssanthaki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Human History ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The One ◽  
Neighbouring Island

The transition from the Late Neolithic (LN) period (locally also called Final Neolithic or Chalcolithic) to the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in Greece and the Southeast Balkans is an obscure period in human history. Previous radiocarbon evidence showed that in settlements with stratigraphical sequences stretching out on both periods, the absolute dates featured a gap ranging from 700 to 1000 years (roughly between 4000 and 3300/3000 cal. BC). On the other hand, there is only scarce evidence about settlements that would have been founded during the missing period, thus arising questions of paramount importance about the human occupational strategies in this period. Investigation tackling this particular problem is carried out within the framework of a broader research project (Balkans-4000) funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR). Here we discuss the latest radiocarbon results from three recently excavated multilayer settlements on the continental Greek Eastern Macedonia: Dikili Tash, Kryoneri and Sidirokastro. In all cases, the existing LN radiocarbon dates do not go beyond about 4000 BC, whereas the earliest EBA layer dates begin at around 3300 BC. A date in the last 1/3rd of the 4th millennium BC is also the date suggested for the one-layer transitional settlement on the neighbouring island of Thasos (Aghios Ioannis). The fact that the gap affects settlements of different types and locations, although there are no signs of major environmental changes, suggests that the reasons of their possible total or partial abandonment are more likely to be social than strictly environmental.

scholarly journals Anatolia as a bridge from north to south? Recent research in the Hatti heartland

2007 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 65-75
Author(s):  
Thomas Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
The Third ◽  
The North

AbstractThis paper aims to reappraise and evaluate central Anatolian connections with the Black Sea region and the Caucasus focusing mainly on the third millennium BC. In its first part, a ceremonial item, the knobbed or ‘mushroom’ macehead, in its various appearances, is discussed in order to reconstruct a possible pattern of circulation and exchange of shapes and values over a longer period of time in the regions of Anatolia, southeast Europe and the Caucasus in the third and late second to early first millennium BC. The second part is devoted to the archaeometrical study of selected metal and mineral artefacts from the Early Bronze Age necropolis of Resuloğlu, which together with the contemporary settlement and graveyard at Kalınkaya-Toptaştepe represent two typical later Early Bronze Age sites in the Anatolian heartland. The high values of tin and arsenic used for most of the smaller jewellery items are suggestive of an attempt to imitate gold and silver, and the amounts of these alloying agents suggest a secure supply from arsenic sources located along the Black Sea littoral in the north and probably tin ores to the southeast of central Anatolia. This places these ‘Hattian’ sites within a trade network that ran from the Pontic mountain ridge to the Taurus foothills.

Two Early Helladic II terracotta rollers from Asine and their glyptic context

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 81-96
Author(s):  
Michael Lindblom ◽  
Gullög Nordquist ◽  
Hans Mommsen
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Chemical Characterization ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The Third ◽  
Archaeological Perspective

Two Early Helladic II terracotta rollers from the Third Terrace at Asine are presented. The objects, used to impress relief decoration on pithoi and hearths, are unique in that no other examples are known from the Early Bronze Age Aegean. Their origin is discussed based on chemical characterization and their depositional contexts are reviewed from an archaeological perspective. Although there are no known impressions from these rollers on pithoi and hearths at Asine, it is shown that their owners surrounded themselves with different objects featuring similar glyptic impressions. Two such impressions find identical parallels at Tiryns and the combined evidence strongly suggest that Asine was the home for one or several potters who produced Early Helladic impressed hearths and pithoi.

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.

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