scholarly journals The Dziedzice inscription and West Germanic rhotacism

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-63
Author(s):  
Bernard Mees

Abstract The inscription discovered in 1931 on the remains of a cinerary urn near Sedschütz, Upper Silesia, was at first proposed to be runic. Later analysed as a Germanic text written in Roman characters, the long-obscure Iron Age inscription has only recently been republished after being moved from the museum where it was originally conserved. Presumably executed by a member of the Buri, the early Germano-Roman text is only partially preserved and appears to feature key evidence for the early dialectal development of Germanic. Contemporary with the period of the Marcomannic Wars, its single interpretable lexical element seems to contain the earliest evidence for West Germanic rhotacism.

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Markiewicz ◽  
Eugeniusz Tomczak

Abstract The idea of covering pottery with polychrome ornaments adopted from the Greek art of the Late Geometric period spread to almost every corner of Early Iron Age Europe, including some areas in present-day Poland. Painted pottery was manufactured in Middle Silesia and southern Greater Poland. Finds of painted vessels are recorded also in Upper Silesia, and a smaller number still, in Lesser Poland. The presented paper addresses painted pottery identified with the Upper Silesian-Lesser Polish regional group of the Lusatian culture from settlement and funerary contexts (cremation and bi-ritual cemeteries). A closer look is taken at the previously unpublished finds of polychrome vessels from the cemetery at Dobrzeń Mały investigated during the 1970s. Their collection is now displayed and preserved in the Museum of Opole Silesia in Opole.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (64) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minerva Piha

In this article, I will examine South Saami prehistory from the perspectives of archaeology and historical lexicology. I will present a theoretical model that can be applied to a multidisciplinary research that uses methodologies from both the sciences and test it using South Saami material. My linguistic data consists of North-West Germanic and Early Proto-Scandinavian loanwords in South Saami. These loanword strata can be dated to 1–550 CE. I will make an inventory of the semantic categories of the words in the loanword strata to see from which domains words were borrowed. I will also examine the prominent individual words that might have significance as intercultural markers. The archaeological material used in the research includes hunting ground graves, iron manufacturing sites and dwelling sites in Dalarna and Jämtland, Sweden. I will consider remain types, artefact finds and remain structures dated to 1–550 CE. Only those sites that have been excavated will be included in the data. I will correlate the lexical finds with the archaeological find groups in order to examine what the datasets together reveal about contacts between the South Saami and Scandinavian speakers. The combination of archaeological and lexical research gives new advantages and perspectives to the study of prehistory. The study brings new evidence for the prior hypothesis about South Saami speakers as domestic animal herders. The combination of the sciences also reveals that the earliest hunting ground graves should be considered to have belonged to a non-Saami speaking Paleo-European people.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Przemysław Dulęba ◽  
Renata Abłamowicz ◽  
Agata Sady-Bugajska ◽  
Jacek Soida

Abstract The results of excavations show that the La Tène culture community which inhabited the microregion of the contemporary village of Samborowice (Upper Silesia, Poland) in the Iron Age did not differ from its brethren from the area of Moravia and the middle basin of the Danube. Our intention is to try to identify the most important features of local economy based on newly acquired archaeobotanical and archaeozoological sources. The results from Samborowice in the form of a set of cereals characteristic of La Tène culture settlements from Central Europe suggest that the set of remains being analysed comes from a period when changes to the selection of cereals had yet to occur. The population in this period of history applied a model of economy based on agriculture and livestock rearing, with cattle being the most important animals, followed by pigs and small ruminants interchangeably.


1984 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
S P Carter ◽  
D Haigh ◽  
N R J Neil ◽  
Beverley Smith

Summary Excavations at Howe revealed a complex series of settlements which spanned the whole of the Iron Age period and were preceded by two phases of Neolithic activity. A probable stalled cairn was succeeded by a Maes Howe type chambered tomb which was later followed by enclosed settlements of which only scant remains survived. These settlements were replaced by a roundhouse with earth-house, built into the ruins of the chambered tomb. The roundhouse was surrounded by a contemporary defended settlement. Rebuilding led to the development of a broch structure and village. Partial collapse of tower brought about changes in the settlement, andalthougk some houses were maintained as domestic structures, others were rebuilt as iron-working sheds. The construction of smaller buildings and a later Iron Age or Pictish extended farmstead into rubble collapse accompanied a decline in the size of the settlement. The abandonment of the farmstead marked the end of Howe as a settlement site.


1983 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Cracknell ◽  
Beverley Smith

Summary The excavations revealed a stone house and showed that it was oval, 13 m × 10 m, with an interior about 7 m in diameter. In the first occupation phase the entrance was on the SE side. During the second phase this entrance was replaced with one to the NE and the interior was partitioned. The roof was supported on wooden posts. After the building was abandoned it was covered with peat-ash which was subsequently ploughed. There were numerous finds of steatite-tempered pottery and stone implements, which dated the site to late Bronze/early Iron Age. The second settlement, Site B, lay by the shore of the voe and consisted of two possible stone-built houses and a field system. Two trenches were dug across the structures and the results are reported in Appendix I. Although damaged in recent years it was in no further danger.


1983 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
G J Barclay

SUMMARY Myrehead has revealed the eroded remnants of activity from the Beaker period (Period A) onwards, with actual settlement evinced only from about the early first millennium be. The three houses and the cooking pits of Period B may have been constructed and used sequentially. This open settlement was probably replaced during the mid first millennium bc, possibly without a break, by a palisaded enclosure (Period C), which may have contained a ring-groove house and a four-post structure. Continued domestic activity (Period D) was suggested by a single pit outside the enclosure, dated to the late first millennium bc/early first millennium ad. The limited evidence of the economy of the settlements suggests a mixed farming system.


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