Evolution of rites and funerary systems during the Early and Middle Bronze Age in the north-west of France

Excavation at Heatherstone Grange, Bransgore, Hampshire, investigated features identified in a previous evaluation. Area A included ring ditches representing two barrows. Barrow 1.1 held 40 secondary pits, including 34 cremation-related deposits of Middle Bronze Age date, and Barrow 1.2 had five inserted pits, including three cremation graves, one of which dated to the earlier Bronze Age, and was found with an accessory cup. A number of pits, not all associated with cremation burials, contained well-preserved urns of the regional Deverel-Rimbury tradition and occasional sherds from similar vessels, which produced a closely-clustered range of eight radiocarbon dates centred around 1300 BC. Of ten pits in Area C, three were cremation graves, of which one was radiocarbon-dated to the Early Bronze Age and associated with a collared urn, while four contained only pyre debris. Barrow 1.3, in Area E, to the south, enclosed five pits, including one associated with a beaker vessel, and was surrounded by a timber circle. Area F, further to the south-west, included two pits of domestic character with charcoal-rich fills and the remains of pottery vessels, together with the probable remains of a ditched enclosure and two sets of paired postholes. Area H, located to the north-west of Area E, partly revealed a ring ditch (Barrow 1.4), which enclosed two pits with charcoal-rich fills, one with a single Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age potsherd, and the other burnt and worked flint. A further undated pit was situated to the east of Barrow 1.4. The cremation cemetery inserted into Barrow 1.1 represents a substantial addition to the regional record of Middle Bronze Age cremation burials, and demonstrates important affinities with the contemporary cemeteries of the Stour Valley to the west, and sites on Cranborne Chase, to the north-west.

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A gold diadem from Aegina

The Journal of Hellenic Studies ◽

10.2307/630083 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 107 ◽

pp. 182-182

Author(s):

Reynold Higgins

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

British Museum ◽

The South ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

The Dead ◽

Middle Helladic ◽

Dead Man ◽

The Bronze Age ◽

Grave Goods

A recent discovery on the island of Aegina by Professor H. Walter (University of Salzburg) throws a new light on the origins of the so-called Aegina Treasure in the British Museum.In 1982 the Austrians were excavating the Bronze Age settlement on Cape Kolonna, to the north-west of Aegina town. Immediately to the east of the ruined Temple of Apollo, and close to the South Gate of the prehistoric Lower Town, they found an unrobbed shaft grave containing the burial of a warrior. The gravegoods (now exhibited in the splendid new Museum on the Kolonna site) included a bronze sword with a gold and ivory hilt, three bronze daggers, one with gold fittings, a bronze spear-head, arrowheads of obsidian, boar's tusks from a helmet, and fragments of a gold diadem (plate Va). The grave also contained Middle Minoan, Middle Cycladic, and Middle Helladic (Mattpainted) pottery. The pottery and the location of the grave in association with the ‘Ninth City’ combine to give a date for the burial of about 1700 BC; and the richness of the grave-goods would suggest that the dead man was a king.

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Before the Celts: Cosmology, Landscape and Folklore in Neolithic Northwest Iberia

10.46472/cc.0122.0205 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 29-45

Author(s):

Fabio Silva

Keyword(s):

Iberian Peninsula ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Mountain Range ◽

The West ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

Celtic Studies ◽

The Bronze Age ◽

Northwest Iberia

This paper applies a combined landscape and skyscape archaeology methodology to the study of megalithic passage graves in the North-west of the Iberian Peninsula, in an attempt to glimpse the cosmology of these Neolithic Iberians. The reconstructed narrative is found to be supported also by a toponym for a local mountain range and associated folklore, providing an interesting methodology that might be applied in future Celtic studies. The paper uses this data to comment on the ‘Celticization from the West’ hypothesis that posits Celticism originated in the European Atlantic façade during the Bronze Age. If this is the case, then the Megalithic phenomenon that was widespread along the Atlantic façade would have immediately preceded the first Celts.

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Large tare vessels of the bronze age Turganic settlement in Orenburg Region

Samara Journal of Science ◽

10.17816/snv20164204 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 91-98 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Natalya Petrovna Salugina ◽

Nina Leonidovna Morgunova ◽

Mihail Aleksandrovich Turetskii

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Burial Mound ◽

North Caucasus ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Orenburg Region ◽

The North ◽

Type Selection ◽

Large Size ◽

Culture Formation ◽

Middle Bronze Age

In the ceramic collection of Turganic settlement in the Orenburg region there is a group of bronze age pottery, which by its morphological and technological indicators stands out sharply from the main group of dishes. They are large size vessels with massive aureoles and distended body. The authors called these vessels hums. The aim of this study is to identify cultural-chronological position of the specified group of dishes in the system of the antiquities of the early - middle bronze age. Within this group the authors distinguish two types. The basis for type selection was the particular design of the upper part of the vessel. The first type is ceramics from Turganic settlement and the vessel from the burial mound Perevolotsky I. Morphological and technological features, and a series of radiocarbon dates has allowed to date these vessels to the time of the yamnaya culture formation in the Volga-Ural region (Repinsky stage). The authors suggest that the appearance of such vessels should be an imitation of the Maikop pottery. It could be penetration of small groups of craftsmen or the intensification of contacts with the population of the North Caucasus. The second type of pottery from Turganic settlement is similar to the burial mound Kardailovsky I (mound 1, burial 3) in Orenburg region, in the Northern pre-Caspian, region of the Samara river, Kuban and the Dnieper. Researchers have noted the scarcity and originality of this dish. The chronological and cultural position of such vessels is determined within the III Millennium BC (calibrated values).

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Middle Bronze Age Long Distance Exchange through Europe and Beyond

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia ◽

10.1163/15700577-12341372 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 266-274

Author(s):

Flemming Kaul

Keyword(s):

Chemical Composition ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Glass Beads ◽

The South ◽

Long Distance ◽

Blue Glass ◽

The North ◽

Southern Scandinavia ◽

Middle Bronze Age ◽

The Mediterranean

Abstract The introduction of the folding stool and the single-edged razor into Southern Scandinavia, as well as the testimony of chariot use during the Nordic Bronze Age Period II (1500-1300 BC), give evidence of the transfer of ideas from the Mediterranean to the North. Recent analyses of the chemical composition of blue glass beads from well-dated Danish Bronze Age burials have revealed evidence for the opening of long distance exchange routes around 1400 BC between Egypt, Mesopotamia and South Scandinavia. When including comparative material from glass workshops in Egypt and finds of glass from Mesopotamia, it becomes clear that glass from those distant lands reached Scandinavia. The routes of exchange can be traced through Europe based on finds of amber from the North and glass from the South.

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Deforestation and Human Agency in the North Atlantic Region: Archaeological and Palaeoenvironmental Evidence from the Western Isles of Scotland

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society ◽

10.1017/ppr.2018.8 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 84 ◽

pp. 145-184 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Rosie R. Bishop ◽

Mike J. Church ◽

Ian T. Lawson ◽

Katherine H. Roucoux ◽

Charlotte O’Brien ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

North Atlantic ◽

North Atlantic Region ◽

Late Neolithic ◽

Atlantic Region ◽

North West ◽

Farming Communities ◽

The North ◽

New Synthesis ◽

Main Period

This paper considers the timing and mechanisms of deforestation in the Western Isles of Scotland, focusing in particular on the landscape around the Calanais stone circles, one of the best preserved late Neolithic/early Bronze Age monumental landscapes in north-west Europe. We present new archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence from a soil and peat sequence at the site of Aird Calanais, which spans the main period of use of the Calanais circles. We then draw on a new synthesis of archaeobotanical and palynological evidence from across the Western Isles and a review of comparable data from the wider North Atlantic zone, before assessing the role of early farming communities in clearing the wooded landscapes of the region. Pollen and radiocarbon dating at the site of Aird Calanais reveal that a layer of birch branches, dating to the late Neolithic (2912–2881 calbc), was contemporaneous with a decline in woodland at the site, as well as with the major phase of Neolithic activity at the Calanais stone circle complex. However, our synthesis of the pollen and plant macrofossil evidence from across the Western Isles suggests that the picture across these islands was altogether more complex: woodlands declined both before, as well as during, the Neolithic and deciduous woodlands remained sufficiently abundant for Neolithic fuel procurement. Finally, we consider the implications of the results for understanding the interactions between first farmers and woodlands in the wider North Atlantic region.

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Part I. Neolithic Mycenae

The Annual of the British School at Athens ◽

10.1017/s0068245400012946 ◽

1957 ◽

Vol 52 ◽

pp. 195-196 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

A. J. B. Wace

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Recent Work ◽

Early Bronze Age ◽

The South ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

Fabric Hand ◽

A Site

Stamatakes's excavations in the Grave Circle area revealed, although it was not recognized until much later, that Mycenae had been inhabited in the Early Bronze Age, the Early Helladic Period. This was confirmed by subsequent researches which produced Early Helladic material from the foot of the Ramp, outside the Grave Circle, beneath the South House and below the Palace. Now the recent work of Dr. Papademetriou and ourselves has yielded fresh evidence. He has found more E.H. material in Schliemann's Grave Circle and some possible Neolithic sherds as well. In the area of the Prehistoric Cemetery outside the Cyclopean walls to the north-west of the Lion Gate we have found in a mixed unstratified layer at the eastern foot of the mound or tumulus which covered the dome of the ‘Tomb of Aegisthus’ many fragments of E.H. pottery, both decorated and plain. Since the plain E.H. ware found is of a simple, thickish fabric hand-polished and usually of a dull red or of a mud colour, we had at times wondered whether some of these fragments might not almost be classed as Neolithic. This was especially so in the case of some of the fragments from the lowest strata at the foot of the Ramp. Unfortunately these fragments were lost during the war in the Nauplia Museum and cannot now be checked.The discovery of Neolithic B pottery at the Argive Heraeum, and still more recently Dr. Caskey's most successful excavations at Lerna, encouraged us in the idea that a site like Mycenae was probably inhabited in Neolithic times also. Since the Early Helladic material is not stratified, except in areas like the foot of the Ramp or below the South House, it was hardly to be expected that Neolithic remains, if found, would be stratified. It is always possible, however, that some part of the site, not yet explored, may have escaped later disturbance or overbuilding. We have therefore now paid particular attention to the unstratified debris found above the Prehistoric Cemetery at the eastern foot of the Aegisthus mound. Among this we have found two sherds which are in our opinion almost certainly Neolithic.

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Middle Bronze Age land use practices in the north-western Alpine foreland – A multi-proxy study of colluvial deposits, archaeological features and peat bogs

10.5194/soil-2020-84 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sascha Scherer ◽

Benjamin Höpfer ◽

Katleen Deckers ◽

Elske Fischer ◽

Markus Fuchs ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Microbial Biomass Carbon ◽

Peat Bogs ◽

The North ◽

Settlement Site ◽

Middle Bronze Age ◽

Alpine Foreland ◽

North Western ◽

Land Use Practices

Abstract. This paper aims to reconstruct Middle Bronze Age (MBA) land use practices in the north-western Alpine foreland (SW Germany, Hegau). We used a multi-proxy approach including the biogeochemical proxies from colluvial deposits in the surrounding of the well-documented settlement site of Anselfingen and offsite pollen data from two peat bogs. This approach allowed in-depth insights into the MBA subsistence economy and shows that the MBA in the north-western Alpine foreland was a period of establishing settlements with sophisticated land management and land use practices. The reconstruction of phases of colluvial deposition was based on ages from optically luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dating from multi-layered colluvial deposits and supports the local archaeological record with the first phase of major colluvial deposition occurring during the MBA followed by phases of colluvial deposition during the Iron Age, the Medieval period, and modern times. The onsite deposition of charred archaeobotanical remains and animal bones from archaeological features, as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), charcoal spectra, phytoliths, soil microstructure, urease enzymatic activity, microbial biomass carbon (Cmic) and heavy metal contents, were used as proxies for onsite and near-site land use practices. The charcoal spectra indicate MBA forest management which favoured the dominance of Quercus in the woodland vegetation in the surrounding area north of the settlement site. Increased levels of 5ß stanols (up to 40 %) and the occurrence of pig bones (up to 14 %) support the presence of a forest pasture mainly used for pig farming. In the surrounding area south of the settlement, an arable field with a buried MBA plough horizon (2Apb) could be verified by soil micromorphological investigations and high concentrations of grass phytoliths from leaves and stems. Agricultural practices (e.g. ploughing) focussed on five stable cereal crops (Hordeum distichon/vulgare, Triticum dicoccum, Triticum monococcum, Triticum spelta, Triticum aestivum/turgidum), while the presence of stilted pantries as storage facilities and of heat stones indicate post-harvest processing of cereal crops and other agrarian products within the settlement. In the area surrounding the settlement, increased levels of urease activity, compared to microbial biomass carbon (up to 2.1 µg N µg Cmic−1), and input of herbivorous and omnivorous animal faeces indicate livestock husbandry on fallow land. The PAH suites and their spatial distribution support the use of fire for various purposes, e.g. for opening and maintaining the landscape, for domestic burning and for technical applications. The offsite palynological data support the observed change in onsite and near-site vegetation as well as the occurrence of related land use practices. During the Early and Middle Bronze Age fire played a major role in shaping the landscape (peak of micro-charcoal during the MBA) and anthropogenic activities promoted oak dominated forest ecosystems at the expense of natural beech forests. This indicates a broader regional human influence in the north-western Alpine foreland at low and mid altitude inland sites during the Middle Bronze Age.

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SEYITOMER MOUND MİDDLE BRONZE AGE LİNE DECORATİON SPİNDLE WHORLS

IEDSR Association ◽

10.46872/pj.335 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (15) ◽

pp. 136-151

Author(s):

Hülya KARAOĞLAN

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Archaeological Research ◽

Human Beings ◽

Mixed Composition ◽

The North ◽

Spindle Whorls ◽

Line Angle ◽

Middle Bronze Age ◽

Spindle Whorl ◽

Made In

Since prehistoric times, human beings have decorated their daily items such as tools, utensils, pots and fugitives by applying ornaments with various techniques. These decorations are not only haphazardly but also systematically and as works of art. Seyitömer Mound is located 30 km northwest of Kütahya Province in the north of Afyon-Altıntaş-road in Seyitömer Town of Kütahya. Nine years of uninterrupted excavations were carried out by the Kütahya Dumlupınar University Archeology Department in Seyitömer Mound. During the excavations carried out in Seyitömer Mound , spindle whorls dating back to the Middle Bronze Age and used in rope spinning are quite common. Decorations in various compositions were applied on these finds using the scraping technique. These decorations are divided into groups as Mixed Composition, Bow, Line, Angle, Zigzag and Star, Point, Nail, Ring, Wave, Radial Decoration. In this study, in Seyitömer Mound spindle whorl finds BC. twenty one spindle whorls belonging to the 2nd millennium and decorated (marked) with "arc-shaped" decoration were studied. In this spindle whorls group, many compositions have been created from arc-shaped lines. These compositions were mostly made in groups of nested double-triple-quadruple arcs, four-five. In the study, drawings of Seyitömer Mound bow-shaped spindle whorls, their location, dimensions and descriptions were added as a catalog. In addition, its contemporaries and similar peripheral centers are specified with a compared bibliography. The aim of the study is to include this group of finds, which is important for archaeological research, into the literature.

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Communities of the dead

Death and Burial in Iron Age Britain ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199687565.003.0008 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Dennis Harding

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Burial Ground ◽

Burial Site ◽

North West ◽

Sacred Landscapes ◽

The North ◽

The Dead ◽

Burial Grounds

Burial monuments of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, individual or in cemeteries, were often located in topographically prominent positions, or in zones of concentration that might qualify as ‘sacred landscapes’. In the Iron Age by contrast it is not obvious what governed the choice of location for cemeteries and smaller burial grounds, whether they were sited in relationship to settlement or whether there were traditional locations dedicated to burial. For some of the eastern Yorkshire square-ditched barrow cemeteries Bevan (1999: 137–8) considered proximity to water may have been a factor. Dent (1982: 450) stressed the siting of Arras type barrows and cemeteries adjacent to linear boundaries and trackways, a factor that is very apparent in the linear spread at Wetwang Slack. Though we may distinguish burials that are integrated into settlements from those that are segregated into cemeteries, therefore, there is no implication that cemeteries were remote from settlements. In fact, the contrary is often demonstrably the case. There is some evidence that small cemeteries or burial grounds were located immediately beyond the enclosure earthworks of hillforts. At Maiden Castle, Dorset (Fig. 3.1; Wheeler, 1943), the picture is prejudiced by the dominance of the ‘war cemetery’ in the eastern entrance, but the reality is that there had been a burial ground just outside the ramparts well before the conquest. A possible parallel is Battlesbury, where Mrs Cunnington (1924: 373) recorded the discovery of human skeletons from time to time in a chalk quarry just outside the north-west entrance to the camp. Some of these were contracted inhumations, and apparently included one instance of an adult and child buried together. The attribution of a ‘war cemetery’ (Pugh and Crittall, 1957: 118 evidently refers to this external burial site, which should be distinguished from the burials excavated more than a century earlier by William Cunnington within the hillfort at its north-west end (Colt Hoare, 1812: 69). Iron Age inhumations were also found, just within the rampart circuit, at Grimthorpe in Yorkshire (Mortimer, 1905: 150–2; Stead, 1968: 166–73). One of these was the well-known warrior burial, found in 1868.

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