scholarly journals Lithic Industry of the Itomiura Site in the Lower Angara Region (Neolithic and Bronze Ages): Spatial Organization and Key Characteristics

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
Dmitry A. Gurulev ◽  
Liliya A. Maksimovich ◽  
Polina O. Senotrusova ◽  
Pavel V. Mandryka
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Industry Dynamics ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Lithic Industry ◽  
Stone Industry ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article presents the results of the analysis of the collection of the Itomiura site located in the Lower Angara region. As for today, no markers or concepts of stone industry dynamics in the Neolithic and Bronze Age have been described for the territory of the Lower Angara region. The materials of the Itomiura site allow us to define some of these concepts. Based on the spatial distribution of findings in the cultural layer of the site, we identified 12 areas of concentration of stone pieces (clusters). The areas differ in their composition and types of economic and production activities held. Knapping areas with large amounts of debitage, unfinished items and used microcores predominate. There are also areas that are likely to be more associated with the use of stone tools and their rejuvenating. The combined occurrence of stone pieces with pottery fragments made it possible to distinguish several cultural and chronological complexes. The most clearly identifiable complexes are one with net-impressed pottery, previously dated to the late – final Neolithic period (4th – first half of the 3rd millennium BC), and another with “pearl-ribbed” pottery of the Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC). The Neolithic complex is characterized by the use of various siliceous raw materials. The Bronze Age complex is marked by a wide use of purple-burgundy sedimentary rocks, the specificity of the industry in this period is also created by a series of bifacial items and thinned preforms. Stone industries of both assemblages include a variety of expedient flake tools and microblade production products, represented by different prismatic and edge-faceted cores. The data obtained, with their further correlation with the materials of other sites, can be used for the further study of stone industries of the Lower Angara region and the development of the concept of regional paleocultural dynamics

scholarly journals Mesolithic Sites in the Upper Tobol

2022 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 897-910
Author(s):  
E. V. Podzuban
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Arrow Head ◽  
Stone Industry ◽  
The Town

The article introduces prehistoric artifacts from the sites of Karasor-5, Karasor-6, and Karasor-7 obtained in 1998. The archaeological site of Karasor is located in the Upper Tobol region, near the town of Lisakovsk. Stone tools, pottery fragments, a ceramic item, and a bronze arrow head were collected from a sand blowout, which had destroyed the cultural layer. The paper gives a detailed description of the pottery. The stone tools were examined using the technical and typological analysis, which featured the primary splitting, the morphological parameters and size of plates, the ratio of blanks, plates, flakes, and finished tools, the secondary processing methods, and the typological composition of the tools. The nature of the raw materials was counted as an independent indicator. The pottery fragments, the bronze arrow head, and the ceramic item belonged to the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The stone industry of the Karasor archeological cluster proved to be a Mesolithic monument of the Turgai Trough. The technical and typological analysis revealed a close similarity with the Mesolithic sites of the Southern and Middle Trans-Urals, as well as the forest-steppe part of the Tobol-Irtysh interfluve. The stone artifacts were dated from the Mesolithic to the Early Iron Age.

scholarly journals From near and far: Stone procurement and exchange at Çukuriçi Höyük in Western Anatolia

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Schwall ◽  
Michael Brandl ◽  
Tatjana M. Gluhak ◽  
Bogdana Milić ◽  
Lisa Betina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Rock Types ◽  
Stone Materials ◽  
Procurement Strategies

The focus of this paper are the stone tools of Çukuriçi Höyük, a prehistoric site situated at the central Aegean coast of Anatolia. The settlement was inhabited from the Neolithic, through the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age 1 periods, a period lasting from the early 7th to the early 3rd millennium BCE. A long-term interdisciplinary study of the excavated lithics with different scientific methods on various stone materials (thin section analysis, pXRF, NAA, LA-ICP-MS) offer new primary data about the procurement strategies of prehistoric societies from a diachronic perspective. The results will be presented for the first time with an overview of all source materials and their distinct use through time. The lithic assemblages from Çukuriçi Höyük consist of a considerable variety of small finds, grinding stones and chipped stone tools. The high variability of raw materials within the different categories of tools is remarkable. In addition to stone tools manufactured from sources in the immediate vicinity of the settlement (i.e., mica-schist, limestone, marble, amphibolite, serpentinite), others are of rock types such as chert, which indicate an origin within the broader region. Moreover, volcanic rocks, notably the exceptionally high amount of Melian obsidian found at Çukuriçi Höyük, attest to the supra-regional procurement of distinct rock types. Small stone axes made of jadeite presumably from the Greek island of Syros, also indicate these far-reaching procurement strategies. The systematic and diachronic analyses of the stone tools found at Çukuriçi Höyük has demonstrated that as early as the Neolithic period extensive efforts were made to supply the settlement with carefully selected raw materials or finished goods procured from distinct rock sources.

A Review of the Earliest Evidence of Agriculture in Lithuania and the Earliest Direct AMS Date on Cereal

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mindaugas Grikpėdis ◽  
Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Cultivated Plants ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Pollen Data ◽  
Baltic Region ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequence ◽  
Crop Cultivation ◽  
The Bronze Age

Current knowledge of the beginnings of crop cultivation in Lithuania is based mainly on Cerealia-type pollen data supplemented by other indirect evidence such as agricultural tools. We argue that these records, predating carbonized remains of cultivated plants, are not substantial enough indicators of the early stages of agriculture in Lithuania. Here, we demonstrate that the macroremains of cultural plants that were previously reported from two Neolithic settlements in Lithuania were either mistakenly identified as domestic crops or incorrectly ascribed to the Neolithic period due to movement through the stratigraphic sequence and the absence of direct dating of cereal grains. Furthermore, we present a charred Hordeum vulgare grain from the Bronze Age settlement of Kvietiniai in western Lithuania. It was AMS-dated to 1392–1123 cal bc, and at present represents the earliest definite evidence for a crop in the eastern Baltic region. We conclude that, presently, there are no grounds to suggest that crop cultivation took place in Lithuania during the Neolithic.

The first religious buildings: ‘sacred huts’

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Hot Springs ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Religious Activity ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
The Bronze Age

The votive assemblages that form the primary archaeological evidence for non-funerary cult in the Neolithic, Bronze, and early Iron Ages in central Italy indicate that there is a long tradition of religious activity in Latium and Etruria in which buildings played no discernible role. Data on votive deposits in western central Italy is admittedly uneven: although many early votive assemblages from Latium have been widely studied and published, there are few Etruscan comparanda; of the more than two hundred Etruscan votive assemblages currently known from all periods, relatively few date prior to the fourth century BC, while those in museum collections are often no longer entire and suffer from a lack of detailed provenance as well as an absence of excavations in the vicinity of the original find. Nevertheless, it is possible to recognize broad patterns in the form and location of cult sites prior to the Iron Age, and thus to sketch the broader context of prehistoric rituals that pre-dated the construction of the first religious buildings. In the Neolithic period (c.6000–3500 BC), funerary and non-funerary rituals appear to have been observed in underground spaces such as caves, crevices, and rock shelters, and there are also signs that cults developed around ‘abnormal water’ like stalagmites, stalactites, hot springs, and pools of still water. These characteristics remain visible in the evidence from the middle Bronze Age (c.1700–1300 BC). Finds from this period at the Sventatoio cave in Latium include vases containing traces of wheat, barley seed cakes, and parts of young animals including pigs, sheep, and oxen, as well as burned remains of at least three children. The openair veneration of underground phenomena is also implied by the discovery of ceramic fragments from all phases of the Bronze Age around a sulphurous spring near the Colonelle Lake at Tivoli. Other evidence of cult activities at prominent points in the landscape, such as mountain tops and rivers, suggests that rituals began to lose an underground orientation during the middle Bronze Age. By the late Bronze Age (c.1300–900 BC) natural caves no longer seem to have served ritual or funerary functions.

scholarly journals From the Parochial to the Universal: Comparing Cloth Cultures in the Bronze Age

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanna Harris
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Textile Fibre ◽  
Eighteenth Dynasty ◽  
Salt Mines ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
Chronological Period ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Thread Count

The aim of this research is to compare the cloth cultures of Europe and Egypt in the Bronze Age and New Kingdom. The comparison focuses on the fourteenth century cal BC and includes four geographically separate areas, including the oak coffin burials of southern Scandinavia, the Hallstatt salt mines of central Europe, Late Minoan Crete, and the tombs and towns of the later Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. The comparative approach can bring insights even when applied to unconnected cultures or regions. However, in this study I concentrate on a restricted chronological period and areas that were connected, directly or indirectly, by widespread networks of trade or exchange. The concept of cloth cultures is used to include both textiles and animal skins as these were closely related materials in the prehistoric past. Information was gathered according to the following categories: raw materials, including textile fibre, and species of skins; fabric structure and thread count (only for textiles); decoration and finish; and use and context. From this study, it is possible to recognize the universally shared principles of cloth cultures and the great versatility and creativity in the regional cloth cultures of the Bronze Age.

scholarly journals Neolithic Thessaly: radiocarbon dated periods and phases

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 34-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agathe Reingruber ◽  
Giorgos Toufexis ◽  
Nina Kyparissi-Apostolika ◽  
Michalis Anetakis ◽  
Yannis Maniatis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Central Greece ◽  
Absolute Dating ◽  
The Bronze Age

Thessaly in Central Greece is famous for settlement mounds (magoules) that were already partly formed in the Early Neolithic period. Some of these long-lived sites grew to many metres in height during the subsequent Middle, Late and Final Neolithic periods, and were also in­habited in the Bronze Age. Such magoules served as the backbone for defining relative chronolo­gical schemes. However, their absolute dating is still a topic of debate: due to a lack of well-defined se­quences, different chronological schemes have been proposed. New radiocarbon dates obtained in the last few years allow a better understanding of the duration not only of the main Neolithic pe­riods, but also of the different phases and sub-phases.

scholarly journals Transformations of Metal Supply during the Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-330
Author(s):  
Viktória Kiss
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Neutron Radiography ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Carpathian Basin ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Metal Artifacts ◽  
Mining Sites ◽  
The Bronze Age

This paper presents recent research questions which have been raised and methods which have been used in the study of Bronze Age metallurgy in connection with available natural resources (ores) in and around the Carpathian Basin. This topic fits in the most current trends in the research on European prehistoric archaeology. Given the lack of written sources, copper and bronze artifacts discovered in settlement and cemetery excavations and prehistoric mining sites provide the primary sources on which the studies in question are based. The aim of compositional and isotope analysis of copper and tin ores, metal tools, ornaments, and weapons is to determine the provenience of the raw materials and further an understanding of the chaine operatiore of prehistoric metal production. The Momentum Mobility Research Group of the Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities studies these metal artifacts using archaeological and scientific methods. It has focused on the first thousand years of the Bronze Age (2500–1500 BC). Multidisciplinary research include non-destructive XRF, PGAA (promptgamma activation), TOF-ND (time-of-flight neutron diffraction) analyses and neutron radiography, as well as destructive methods, e.g. metal sampling for compositional and lead isotope testing, alongside archaeological analysis. Microstructure studies are also efficient methods for determining the raw material and production techniques. The results suggest the use of regional ore sources and interregional connections, as well as several transformations in the exchange network of the prehistoric communities living in the Carpathian Basin.

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