scholarly journals The early Bronze Age feature from Wilczyce, site 10, Sandomierz district – An interpretation of its functioning in light of multidimensional analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 77-102
Author(s):  
Paweł Jarosz ◽  
◽  
Tomasz Boroń ◽  
Barbara Witkowska ◽  
Małgorzata Winiarska-Kabacińska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Young Female ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Multidimensional Analysis ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Human Skull ◽  
Animal Bones ◽  
The Dead

The aim of this paper is to present the multidimensional characteristics of the feature number 4 at the site in Wilczyce located on the Sandomierz Upland. During exploration of the pit rich flint material, fragments of pottery vessels and animal bones were found and just above the bottom a “deposit” involved a human skull of the young female, two cattle mandibles, a sheep/goat tibia and astragalus, a damaged cattle scapula and radius, and a polishing stone were deposited. The C14 date obtained from the tooth from the cattle jaw was 3790 ± 35 BP. Based on the shape and the size of discovered feature it is possible to classify it as a typical storage pit but presence of “deposit” enable to postulate a ritual character of assemblage that reflect some kind of burial practices of the Mierzanowice culture. Rituals in the form of interring the dead or parts of their bodies can be found also in the Unietice culture so such features may indicate the emergence of a certain supra- -regional and cross-cultural trend in the early Bronze Age.

The living and the dead in northern Scotland 3500–2000 BC

Antiquity ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (286) ◽  
pp. 786-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Phillips ◽  
Aaron Watson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The Dead

A fieldwalking project focused on the Neolithic/Early Bronze Age of northern Scotland investigates different regional traditions and changing relationships with ancestors.

Pathways for the Dead in the Middle and Late Bronze Age in Ireland

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Cooney
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Entire Population ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Physical Treatment ◽  
Mortuary Practice ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Population Treatment ◽  
Over Time

Because of its diversity and visibility the mortuary record of the Early Bronze Age (2400–1500 cal. BC) has long dominated interpretation of that period in Ireland (e.g. Cooney and Grogan 1994; Waddell 1998; Brindley 2007) and burials from Bronze Age cemeteries represent over 70 per cent of the burial record from Irish prehistory (Murphy et al. 2010). The explosion of development-funded excavation in the period from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s provided a settlement balance to that picture and also evidence for additional cemeteries (e.g. Grogan et al. 2007; McQuade et al. 2009). This suggests that Early Bronze Age cemeteries served as local foci for communities. From the evidence of the numbers interred over a number of generations the dead buried in the cemeteries represent what Mary Helms (1998) has usefully called the ‘distinguished dead’ from communities, not the entire population. Treatment of the dead within the cemeteries is complex and there are clear indications of change over time. Interpretative models had associated inhumation with males and a broader shift over time from inhumation to cremation relying on a view of cremation and inhumation as opposed, separate mortuary rites (e.g. Mount 1997). However, the evidence indicates a much more complex set of pathways in the postmortem treatment of the dead in which cremation and inhumation were employed as complementary mortuary rites with an increasing focus on cremation over time (e.g. Cahill and Sikora 2011). This new picture has important implications for the increasing significance of the the pyre and the transformation of the dead (Mizoguchi 1993: 232). In looking at the period after 1500 cal. BC we see continuity in aspects of mortuary practice and use of sites, but in other ways mortuary practice changed dramatically. Cremation is now the dominant mortuary rite. Burial in the Middle and Late Bronze Age (down to 600 cal. BC) has been widely discussed as less visible, and hence much less important as an aspect of social behaviour (e.g. Cooney and Grogan 1994: 144). But it is more useful to think in terms of shifting emphases in mortuary practice. In a recent discussion Lynch and O’Donnell (2007: 107) have described this period as being characterized by ‘an incredibly intricate and variable physical treatment of the dead’.

Claiming Social Identities in the Mortuary Landscape of the Late Bronze Age Communities of Macedonia

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-197
Author(s):  
Sevi Triantaphyllou ◽  
Stelios Andreou
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Dead

Burial practices in Late Bronze Age Macedonia do not manifest particularly elaborate traits in terms of grave architecture and prestigious items accompanying the dead. In contrast to practices in the southern mainland, local communities adopted subtler and less homogeneous forms of treating the deceased in an attempt to signify their particular identities in the cultural, political, and symbolic landscape. Recent research has established a special focus on descent in extramural cemeteries, such as the cist grave cemetery with multiple burials at Spathes on Mount Olympus, the tumuli of Western Macedonia and Southern Pieria, the burial enclosures of Faia Petra, and the tumuli at Exochi and Potamoi in Eastern Macedonia. In Central Macedonia, on the other hand, where tell settlements dominate the natural and symbolic landscape, burial practices possess a less prominent place in the social space. The dominant trait here seems to be the absence of formal mortuary practices. Burials may occur within the settlement without special care regarding the treatment of the dead, but with a desire to mark out the links of the deceased with particular residential groups. The handling of death in Late Bronze Age Macedonia emerges therefore as a powerful practice, which was manipulated in different modes by the living communities in order to claim a diverse set of social identities and significant properties in the diverse cultural landscape and the varied political scenery of the area.

scholarly journals The ‘Solarization’ of the Moon: Manipulated Knowledge at Stonehenge

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lionel Sims
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
European Neolithic ◽  
Cultural Origins

Recent archaeological research now views the northwest European Neolithic and Early Bronze Age as a period of separation from a resilient complex of traditions of Mesolithic and even Palaeolithic origin. Extending this insight to recent findings in archaeoastronomy, this article treats the sarsen monument at Stonehenge as one among a number of monuments with lunar–solar alignments which privileged night over day, winter over summer, dark moon over full. The aim of the monument builders was to juxtapose, replicate and reverse certain key horizon properties of the sun and the moon, apparently with the intention of investing the sun with the moon's former religious significance. This model is consistent with both current archaeological interpretations of burial practices associated with the monument, and with recent anthropological modelling of hunter-gatherer cultural origins.

From sheep to (some) horses: 4500 years of herd structure at the pastoralist settlement of Begash (south-eastern Kazakhstan)

Antiquity ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 83 (322) ◽  
pp. 1023-1037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Frachetti ◽  
Norbert Benecke
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Sheep And Goats ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Animal Bones ◽  
Herd Structure ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
First Millennium Bc ◽  
Eastern Kazakhstan

Does the riding of horses necessarily go with the emergence of Eurasian pastoralism? Drawing on their fine sequence of animal bones from Begash, the authors think not. While pastoral herding of sheep and goats is evident from the Early Bronze Age, the horse appears only in small numbers before the end of the first millennium BC. Its adoption coincides with an increase in hunting and the advent of larger politically organised groups.

scholarly journals The Excavation of Neolithic Pits and a Bronze Age Burial Site at Ness Gap, Fortrose

2020 ◽  
Vol 91 ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Nuala C Woodley ◽  
Julie Lochrie ◽  
Alison Sheridan ◽  
Trevor Cowlie ◽  
Claire Christie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Housing Development ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Site ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Domestic Activity ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Cereal Production ◽  
Wild Resources ◽  
The Bronze Age

An investigation by Headland Archaeology (UK) Ltd took place in early 2013 in advance of a housing development at Ness Gap, Fortrose, Highland. The excavation revealed domestic activity dating from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. A cluster of Neolithic pits provided insights into the development of agriculture in the area, with evidence for cereal production and the gathering of wild resources. The use of the site changed in the Bronze Age, with the landscape utilised for funerary practices, which were represented by stone cists and cremation burials, both urned and unurned. Analysis has further informed on the burial practices of the Bronze Age and added to our understanding of a unique peninsular landscape rich in prehistoric activity. 

Date antropologice referitoare la unele dintre descoperirile funerare ale Epocii Bronzului de la Păuleni-Ciuc (jud. Harghita) / Anthropological data about several Bronze Age funerary discoveries at Păuleni-Ciuc (Harghita County)

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Adult Female ◽  
Small Object ◽  
Long Bones ◽  
New Born ◽  
Animal Bones ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Grinding Stone

The study details the anthropological analyses of 14 archaeological cases in which entire or partial human skeletons were found in the Bronze Age site of Păuleni-Ciuc, Ciomortan (Harghita county) during the excavation campaigns 2000-2002, 2007, 2009 and 2011. Two collective deposits, a ritual pit, two dwellings and other findings delivered a total of 22 individuals, among which 8 were aged seven or less. Feature 14, an oval pit researched in 2002, contained a grinding stone, an entire ceramic vessel, animal bones and the remains of 5 individuals: the skull of 15 years old female with traces of peri-mortem blow inflicted with a small object in the mandible, the skull and ribs of a seven years old child, parts of the hands and ribs of two infans I, the entire skeleton, deposited flexed on its right side, on the bottom of the pit (a woman, 17-21 years old, 160 cm height). The woman’s skeleton had traces of burning on the ribs, right tibia and cubitus, suggesting that the dead was laid on the remains of a recently consumed fire. Traces of cuts and blows were identified on the long bones. Feature 14a, a flexed skeleton of an adult (22-24 years old) male (159 cm height, robust) was found in the vicinity of the previously described situation. They could be connected. The mandible showed signs of an abnormal disposition of the teeth with rotated canines. Feature 13 was associated with the fortification, maybe with a decommissioned gate. It comprised the entire skeleton of an adult man (24-30 years old) and the remains of 4 other individuals: an adult female (represented by unburnt fragments of the skull), one infans I (cremated, with traces of clay on the skull), a new-born and a 4 years old. The robust man was partially cremated, laid flexed, on its left side, mixed with animal bones. Traces of ochre were found on its right femur. He had suffered from osteoarthritis. Pit 36, dug in the fortification, contained 7 Wittenberg vessels and the entire skeleton of a 4 years old child. Remains of two infans II were discovered in two dwellings (8 and 8A) excavated in 2000.

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