Sibirskoye I: a Late Irmen Site in the Irtysh Steppe

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-67
Author(s):  
A. Y. Trufanov ◽  
L. N. Mylnikova

This article describes the fi ndings at Sibirskoye I, a Late Bronze to Early Iron Age site in the steppe part of the Irtysh basin. The history of excavations is outlined. A detailed description of ceramics, including shard accumulations and fragments of 44 vessels, is provided. We analyze paste composition, provenance of clay, and temper. The principal raw material was high-quality western Siberian montmorillonite and hydromicaceous clay. The temper, preventing cracks and waste, consisted of grog, sand, and organic matter. Shaping techniques are described. On the basis of proportions, groups of vessels are established, and their decoration is analyzed. Decorative motifs combine those typical of the Late Irmen pottery and those marking the Irmen and Krasnozerskoye cultures. The Sibirskoye I ceramics are paralleled by those from Om-1 and Chicha-1. Certain categories of ware are imported. The planigraphy and the distribution of ceramics suggest that this was a ritual site. The ceramics and the site as a whole were associated with the Late Irmen culture, dating to the transitional stage from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age. Sibirskoye I is the westernmost Irmen site—the fi rst one discovered on the Irtysh. Judging from parallels with sites having a reliable chronology, we date it to 900–700/600 BC.

Author(s):  
KIRYUSHIN K. ◽  
◽  
KIRYUSHIN Yu. ◽  

The article is devoted to the publication of finds of fragments of ceramic dishes discovered at the settlement of Pestryakovo Lake (Zavyalovsky district of Altai Territory). A group of ceramics which belongs to the early Iron Age and the Middle Ages, is pointed out. Single fragments find analogies in the materials of the sites of the Early and Late Bronze Age. The ceramic collection of the Pestryakovo Lake settlement includes groups of ceramics that belong to the Neolithic or Eneolithic. These are fragments of vessels ornamented with prints of a “string”, pricks, imprints of a short comb stamp, a dingle-dingle stamping. Linear-pricked and receding-pricked ceramics are quite informative. On the outer and inner surfaces, as well as in the fractures, traces of burnt-out organic matter (animal hair) are recorded. Such ceramics are widely represented in the south of Western Siberia and are associated with various settlement and burial complexes from the Ob to the Irtysh and various cultural formations of the Neolithic and Eneolithic. Keywords: settlement, ceramics, ornamentation technique, comparative typological analysis, neolithic, eneolithic


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Thomas

Abstract This article reviews the major problems in the political history of Megiddo during the early Iron Age (Iron Age I–IIA), at the time of the early monarchic period in Israel (eleventh–ninth centuries BCE). Megiddo has been central to an ongoing debate over the nature of the early monarchic period in Israel and the exact chronology of the Iron Age I–IIA periods. This importance derives both from the extensive excavations of the relevant strata at Megiddo (VIA, VB and VA-IVB) as well as Megiddo’s appearance in relevant historical sources, namely the Hebrew Bible, which claims that Solomon “built” Megiddo, and its appearance in the campaign list of pharaoh Sheshonq I. Though the fragment of a stela of Sheshonq I was found at Megiddo, it was only found after having been discarded and so its stratigraphic attribution is unclear. Radiocarbon dating from these strata has assisted to some degree but still left dating and historical questions quite open. This article will demonstrate that the political history of Megiddo during the early Iron Age is beset with ambiguities in the evidence, which have been divided into seven ambiguities for the purpose of the discussion here. When these ambiguities are taken into account, it becomes clear that the interpreter has much latitude in making their reconstruction, specifically in how they date strata and associate them with putative historical developments. Different cases can be made for associating particular strata and their termination with Solomon, Sheshonq or even later kings, but none can claim to objectively be the correct or superior reconstruction.


Author(s):  
CLAUDE RAPIN

This chapter examines the role of the nomads in shaping the history of Central Asia during the period from the early Iron Age to the rule of the Kushan Empire. This study is based on the archaeological and chronological framework provided for the middle Zerafshan Valley by the site of Koktepe. The findings suggest that the nomads are a constant factor in the history of the steppe belt and of all the adjacent southern lands, and that they may have played an important role in the renewal of cultures and in the development of international trade.


The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 095968362094113
Author(s):  
Lele Ren ◽  
Ying Yang ◽  
Qianqian Wang ◽  
Shanjia Zhang ◽  
Tingting Chen ◽  
...  

The Gansu–Qinghai region lies in the key position for trans-Eurasian cultural exchange, and hence investigations of the history of agricultural development in this region are significant for understanding the spatiotemporal evolution of prehistoric crop dispersal in Eurasia. However, systematic archaeobotanical studies concerning the history of the development of prehistoric agriculture in this area are scarce. Here, based on archaeobotanical analysis and radiocarbon dating at the Jinchankou site, we investigated the history of agricultural development in the Datong River valley during the Qijia culture. Combined with previous archaeobotanical studies of the Gansu–Qinghai region, we explored the diachronic changes in the cropping patterns from the Late Neolithic to the Early Iron Age. The results suggest that millet remained the most important subsistence plant during 4100–3700 BP, while barley and wheat were first cultivated around 3900 BP at the Jinchankou site. Humans only cultivated foxtail and broomcorn millet in the Gansu–Qinghai region with a high level of agricultural management during 5900–4000 BP. Barley and wheat were added to the agricultural system in the area during 4000–3600 BP, although they played a subsidiary role compared with millet. During 3600–2100 BP, barley played an increasingly important role in the Gansu–Qinghai region but with evident differences among geomorphic units, and there was an obvious decrease in agricultural management level. It is likely that the transformation of cropping patterns and agricultural management levels in the Gansu–Qinghai region from 5900 to 2100 BP was primarily promoted by prehistoric trans-continental cultural exchange and secondly by climate change in the area.


Archaeologia ◽  
1916 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 145-162
Author(s):  
C. Hercules Read ◽  
Reginald A. Smith

The important series of antiquities that forms the subject of this communication was discovered at Hallstatt in the Salzkammergut, Austria, about the year 1869. The exploration was undertaken at the instance of Sir John Lubbock (afterwards Lord Avebury), and it is believed that a journal was kept of the daily results, as appears to have been the case in all instances where authorized digging took place on the site. Unluckily in the interval between 1869 and the present time the journal referring to Lord Avebury's exploration has disappeared, and we thus lack an important part of the information that it should have furnished, viz. the indications as to what objects were associated together, and whether the interments to which they belonged were by cremation or by inhumation. While this loss is much to be regretted, yet the absolute value and importance of the series is still very great, both as typical of the period which stands prominent as the classical example of a cultural turning-point in the history of the arts, and as filling a very serious gap in the evolutionary series in the national collection.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 133-151
Author(s):  
Georgia Pliakou

This article offers an overview of the habitation history of the basin of Ioannina Epirus, from the Early Iron Age to the Roman period. The numerous settlements in this region experienced continuous, often uninterrupted, habitation from the Late Bronze Age to the Hellenistic or even Roman Imperial period. The foundation of fortified settlements/acropoleis in the late fourth to early third century BC should no longer be interpreted as a result of a synoecism, since unfortified villages continued to flourish. From the Augustan period onwards, Romans seem to have settled in the area, although it is also possible that the local population adopted Roman habits.


1907 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 284-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. E. Peet

To theorize with regard to the development of South Italy in prehistoric times is at once easy and dangerous: easy because the ascertained facts to be accounted for are few, dangerous because the chance of new and disconcerting discoveries is greatest in an unexplored territory. At the same time the theory which is at present most widely held with regard to the early iron age in South Italy is not entirely convincing. Until recently the history of South Italy in pre-Roman times was almost a complete blank, no explanation being possible because there were no facts to be explained. But the discoveries at Torre del Mordillo, Spezzano Calabrese, Piedimonte d'Alife, Cuma, Suessola, and other places have lately provided a certain basis for construction. Very few attempts, however, have been made to supply the explanation of these data; indeed archaeologists were already well employed upon the far more copious material of Northern and Central Italy. But in 1899 interest in the south of the Peninsula was heightened by Quagliati's discovery of a terramara at Tarentum. To anyone who has examined the immense mass of material from this site there can be no particle of doubt that the terramara of Scoglio del Tonno at Tarentum is exactly identical in type with the terremare of the Po valley.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-58
Author(s):  
N. V. Polosmak ◽  
E. V. Karpova ◽  
E. V. Amosov

We present the results of an interdisciplinary study of an unusual sample of wool fabric, found at the Jety-Asar-2 fortifi ed site, representing the Jety-Asar culture of the late 4th century BC to early 1st century AD, in the central Turan Plain. We outline the results of the analysis of the dyes and technological characteristics of the fabric. The woven pattern is described in detail. The specimen is compared with the tapestry from Shanpula (Sampul) cemetery in the Hotan oasis, Xinjiang, China. We examine the idea that the Jety-Asar fabric had been manufactured in Shanpula and transported to the Aral basin along the Great Silk Road. Previously, this type of tapestry was believed to have been used only in the Hotan oasis, because no direct parallels with other areas were known. A direct parallel with such a remote westerly region is all the more intriguing. Apparently, colorful strips of woolen tapestry depicting animals, birds, humans, fantastic beings, mountains, and fl owers were in big demand. The tradition, then, may have been distributed much more widely than previously thought. Many anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, plant, and purely decorative motifs have numerous parallels in the Early Iron Age art of the Eurasian steppes, highlands, and piedmont areas. The Shanpula people used such fabric for decorating skirts. In other cultures, it was destined for various purposes.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document