scholarly journals An Archaeological Experiment to Reconstruct a Compound Bow of the Sintashta Culture Stepnoe Burial Ground

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (37) ◽  
pp. 117-126
Author(s):  
Ivan A. Semyan ◽  
◽  
Spyridon Bakas ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Long Range ◽  
International Association ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Compound Bow ◽  
Experimental Archeology ◽  
Reliable Interpretation ◽  
Chelyabinsk Region ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article presents data from an international experimental study on the reconstruction of the Sintashta culture compound bow. The project is carried out by a collective of researchers from Russia and Greece as part of the grant program of the international association of experimental archeology EXARC. The high role of long-range weapons in the life of the Sintashta society has been repeatedly noted by researchers. The production processes that directly affect the practice of using weapons, as well as the issues of the evolution of weapons, are poorly understood. A complex of horn parts from barrow 4, pit 13 of Stepnoe burial ground (Chelyabinsk region) was chosen as the object for the reconstruction of the Sintashta bow as the most constructively interesting examples. For a reliable interpretation of this category of artifacts, the authors reviewed the global context of the design features of finds of the Bronze Age bows. Analysis of the materials revealed evolutionary trends in the development of long-range weapons, as well as localizing various traditions. Based on experimental studies, the project participants obtained the first conclusions about possible design solutions and the practice of using ancient weapons. Full-scale modeling allowed us to conclude that the Sintashta bow was a hybrid type of long bow, compound type. This type of bow is unique and may reflect the combination of the “steppe” and “european” traditions of the manufacture of long-range weapons. The article is intended to show the main types of bow construction of the Bronze Age and to determine the place of the Sintashta materials in this context, as well as to present the variants of experimental solutions for bow modeling.

scholarly journals Establishing the Middle Sea: The Late Bronze Age of Mediterranean Europe (1700–900 BC)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Iacono ◽  
Elisabetta Borgna ◽  
Maurizio Cattani ◽  
Claudio Cavazzuti ◽  
Helen Dawson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Mediterranean Europe ◽  
Northern Shore ◽  
Comparative Survey ◽  
The Bronze Age

AbstractThe Late Bronze Age (1700–900 BC) represents an extremely dynamic period for Mediterranean Europe. Here, we provide a comparative survey of the archaeological record of over half a millennium within the entire northern littoral of the Mediterranean, from Greece to Iberia, incorporating archaeological, archaeometric, and bioarchaeological evidence. The picture that emerges, while certainly fragmented and not displaying a unique trajectory, reveals a number of broad trends in aspects as different as social organization, trade, transcultural phenomena, and human mobility. The contribution of such trends to the processes that caused the end of the Bronze Age is also examined. Taken together, they illustrate how networks of interaction, ranging from the short to the long range, became a defining aspect of the “Middle Sea” during this time, influencing the lives of the communities that inhabited its northern shore. They also highlight the importance of research that crosses modern boundaries for gaining a better understanding of broad comparable dynamics.

scholarly journals NEW DATA ON THE DENTAL CHARACTERISTICS EXHIBITED BY THE POPULATION OF THE KULAYKA CULTURE IN THE NOVOSIBIRSK OB AREA

2019 ◽  
pp. 140-151
Author(s):  
M.S. Kishkurno ◽  
A.V. Sleptsova
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Standard Procedure ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Dental Morphology ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Intergroup Comparison ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article covers the results of a study on the odontological series from the Kamenny Mys burial ground (3rd–2nd centuries BC). In this work, we set out to study the genesis of the Kulay population of the Early Iron Age in the Novosibirsk Ob area. The main relations of the population with the groups of adjacent territories, as well as the nature of their interaction with the local groups, were determined. The odontological series from the Kamenny Mys burial ground includes the teeth of 24 individuals: 12 males, 6 females and 10 adult individuals whose gender could not be determined. The anthropological materials were examined according to a standard procedure, which involves the description of the tooth crown morphology considering the archaic features of the dental morphology. Also, an intergroup comparative analysis was performed via the method of the principal component analysis using the program STATISTICA version 10.0. It was established that the dental characteristics exhibited by the Kulayka population reveal signs of mixed European-Mongoloid formation with a significant predominance of the Eastern component. We compared the morphological characteristics of the sample with data obtained for the populations of the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The intergroup comparison revealed the closest connection between the Bolshaya Rechka culture and the Kulayka group. The studied material provides anthropological confirmation of the interaction between Kulayka (taiga) and Bolshaya Rechka traditions (steppe), drawing on the data about the burial rite and ceramic complexes. The comparison of the Kulayka series with Bronze Age samples suggests that the forest-steppe populations occupying the territories of the Novosibirsk and Tomsk Ob and the Ob-Irtysh areas had no effect on the genesis of the Kulayka population. We suppose that the origins of the Kulayka population in the Novosibirsk Ob area should be traced to the populations from the West Siberian taiga of the Bronze Age, which is significantly complicated by the lack of sufficiently complete and representative series dating back to the specified period from the territory of the Middle Ob area. Further accumulation of anthropological material from the Middle Ob area will provide the opportunity to trace the genesis of taiga populations of the Early Iron Age.

scholarly journals Bracelet from an Elunino burial at the Teleut Vzvoz-I site

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
I.A. Valkov
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Trace Analysis ◽  
Western Siberia ◽  
Average Diameter ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article studies a stone bead bracelet found in an Early Bronze Age burial of the Elunino archaeological culture during the excavation of the Teleut Vzvoz-I burial ground (heterogeneous in time) in the south of Western Siberia (Forest-Steppe Altai). According to a series of calibrated radiocarbon dates, the Elunino burial ground at the Teleut Vzvoz-I site was used in the 22nd–18th centuries BC. The artefact under study was found in double burial No. 16 of the indicated burial ground, on the wrist of an adult (gender is not established). The bracelet in-cludes 66 stone beads, as well as one stone base. This piece of jewellery is unique in terms of technique, as well as the sacral meaning embedded in it. The ornament found on the beads bears no analogies to those discovered in the well-known Bronze Age archaeological sites of Western and Eastern Siberia. The present publication con-siders the morphological and raw material characteristics of the bracelet, as well as the specifics of its production and use. In this study, trace analysis was performed, i.e. the analysis of macro- and micro-traces left on the sur-face of the item as a result of its production and subsequent use. All traces were examined using an MBS-10 stereoscopic microscope at a magnification of ×16–56. It was found that some of the beads in the bracelet were made of serpentinite. The nearest sources of this stone are at least 250–300 km away from Teleut Vzvoz-I. The beads are made by counter-drilling, drilling of blind holes, polishing and grinding. This find is unique due to orna-mental compositions found on several beads in the form of oblique notches on side faces. The extremely small size of the beads (average diameter of 3.3 mm; average thickness of 1.4 mm) makes the pattern invisible to the naked eye. Thus, it is concluded that the ornament had a sacred meaning, and the bracelet itself served as an amulet. Despite no finds of ornamented bracelets dating back to the Bronze Age in Western Siberia and adjacent territories, typologically the bracelet bears analogies to the antiquities of the Okunevo culture, the Yamna cultural and historical community, as well as in the materials of the Bronze Age archaeological site of Gonur Depe (Turk-menistan). The study of the bracelet demonstrates the relevance of performing trace analysis of such items from other archaeological sites.

scholarly journals Three examples of geometrical morphometry employment for earthenware vessel shapes study (On the opportunities and limitations of method)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Е.В. Суханов ◽  
Е.В. Волкова
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Modern Method ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
The Third ◽  
Culturally Different ◽  
Source Data ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
Technology Of Production ◽  
The Bronze Age

The geometrical morphometry represents a modern method of statistical analysis of objects’ morphology. The article is dedicated to discussion of opportunities and limitations of geometrical morphometry methods for study of earthenware shapes. The article deals with three examples of geometrical morphometry use for analysis of vessel shapes study in solving research problems of various complexity. Every of these examples differs in amount of known source data on objects of study. In the first example results of analysis of two types of early Byzantine amphorae forms are considered. By dint of geometrical morphometry it became possible to establish legitimacy of these types detachment and to explain that the principal differences between these types consist in the general proportionality of vessels. In the second example 252 shapes of vessels from the Balanovo burial ground of the Bronze Age are analyzed. An attempt is undertaken to detach peculiarities of shapes specific to two culturally different groups of population that left the burial ground. We succeeded in solving the task with the aid of geometrical morphometry in about a half of cases. In the third example an attempt is made to determine earthenware produced by different potters. For that purpose 30 vessels made by 6 professional potters of high skills and 15 vessels made by three potters who had no stable skills of earthenware production were used. In result of geometrical morphometry method application several conditional arrays of vessels have been detached. As it happens, vessels that have virtually nothing in common in their morphology, technology of production and skill level of potters who made the vessels allotted these arrays. Data considered allow making the conclusion that the biggest efficiency of geometrical morphometry application is achieved in search of peculiarities built in general proportionality of earthenware shapes. But an inefficiency of geometrical morphometry method is marked in solution of more complicated tasks related to analysis of detailed peculiarities of vessel outlines. The results obtained put in question possibilities to consider the geometrical morphometry as a sound method of archeological vessel shapes study.

scholarly journals Cultural attribution vs radiocarbon chronology (on the example of materials from the Bronze Age burial ground of Shatmantamak I)

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-39
Author(s):  
A.V. Epimakhov ◽  
A.D. Tairov ◽  
M.G. Epimakhova
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
Steppe Zone ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article presents the results of excavations at the Shatmantamak I burial ground located in steppe zone of the Southern Urals (south-west of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia). The materials of the site combine the features of the Late Bronze Age Srubnaya and Alakul archaeological cultures dated to the first half of the 2nd mil. cal BC. With this work, we aimed to test the interpretation possibilities for the obtained materials, proceed-ing from their chronological sequence, rather than cultural attribution. Three mounds comprising seven burial structures of the Bronze Age (three above ground and four burial pits) have been excavated. The main procedure of treating the dead was inhumation on the left side (with the single exception on the right side) with their heads orientated towards the northern sector with deviations to the east. All graves contained single adult individuals, except one with the skeletons of two children. One of the burials is clearly distinctive, with the deceased set in sitting position. The grave goods included ceramic vessels and a single bone pommel. A series of radiocarbon dates (n = 4), stable nitrogen and carbon isotope analysis, along with the analysis of the context, allowed us to propose the scenario of utilisation of the site in the Bronze Age. The sequence of building of kurgans and individ-ual burials has been determined. For a long period (20th–17th c. cal BC), they combined features of the Alakul and Srubnaya cultural traditions within the same cemetery, or even mound. Syncretic sites represent a typical phe-nomenon for the Late Bronze Age of the Southern Urals and adjacent territories. Despite the differences in the chronology and cultural features (pottery and funeral rite) of the Shatmantamak I burial ground, a high stability of the nutrition system has been revealed, which was based on the products of complex husbandry. This brings us to the assumption that the identified cultural mosaicism was determined not by the mobility and interaction of groups with different traditions, but by their joint or parallel habitation in a specific area.

scholarly journals THRONE-LIKE ARMCHAIRS AND WAGONSIN THE BRONZE AGE СULTURES OF THE CIRCUMPONTIC AREA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
А.Н. Гей
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Written Sources

На основании недавней находки двух повозок и необычного сиденья-кресла в новотиторовской культуре (погребение 21 кургана 4 Межкирпильского I могильника в степном Прикубанье), вероятных аналогий ей в материалах ямной и катакомбных культур Причерноморья и Предкавказья, а также беденской культуры на территории Грузии ставится вопрос о сложении особой, престижной формы погребального обряда с использованием двух повозок и кресла-трона. Возможные реплики его имеются и южнее, в Месопотамии (некрополь Ура). Специальный культ трона существовал у хеттов, две повозки и трон фигурируют и в хеттском царском погребальном ритуале, известном по письменным источникам. Хронологический приоритет подобных находок в новотиторовской культуре (29-28 вв. до н. э.) перед относящимся к беденской культуре курганом 3 Ананаури (24 в. до н. э.), тем более перед хеттскими табличками II тыс. до н. э., говорит в пользу сложения данного ритуала в среде степных курганных культур с последующим распространением в Закавказье и Анатолию. Что в свою очередь представляет интерес для реконструкции социальных процессов в различных культурах бронзового века, а также для выяснения путей проникновения групп носителей индоевропейских диалектов в Анатолийско-Месопотамский регион. The recent discovery of two wagons and an unusual chair looking like an armchair attributed to the Novotitorovka culture (grave 21, kurgan 4, Mezhkirpilsky I burial ground in the steppe Kuban region), and likely analogies to this find in the Yamnaya and Catacomb assemblages from the Black Sea maritime steppes and the Fore-Caucasus as well as the Bedeni culture in Georgia raise the issue of emergence of a special, prestigious form of the funerary rite with the use of two wagons and an armchair that looks like a throne. Likely replicas have been found further to the south in Mesopotamia (the Ur cemetery). A special cult of the throne existed among the Hittites for example, two wagons and a throne feature in the Hittite kingly funerary rite is known from written sources. The chronological priority of such finds in the Novotitorovka culture (2900-2800 СalBC) regarding kurgan 3 of Ananauri (2400 CalBC) attributed to the Bedeni culture, and, in particular, Hittite tablets dating to 2000 BC argues in favor of development of this rite among the steppe kurgan cultures with its subsequent dissemination in the South Caucasus and Anatolia. This fact is interesting for reconstruction of social processes in various Bronze Age cultures as well as clarification of the routes via which speakers of Indo-European dialects penetrated the Anatolia-Mesopotamia region.

scholarly journals Pottery complex of the Bronze Age burial ground of Kulevchi VI: typology and technical-technological analysis

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-47
Author(s):  
V.V. Ilyushina ◽  
I.P. Alaeva ◽  
N.B. Vinogradov
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Organic Additives ◽  
Natural Clays ◽  
Dual Evolution ◽  
In Fire ◽  
Burial Grounds ◽  
Technological Analysis ◽  
The Bronze Age

This paper presents the results of the typological study and technical-technological analysis of the pottery complex from the Late Bronze Age burial ground of Kulevchi VI (Southern Ural, Russia). The typological analysis of 107 objects yielded 10 types of the vessels correlated with four cultural and chronological groups: Petrovka; Early Alakul; Alakul and Alakul-Fedorov. The presence of all designated groups and types of vessels in the burial ground indicates functioning of the necropolis during the whole period of existence of the Alakul Culture: types IА, IБ and IВ — the formation stage of the actual Alakul Culture associated with the pottery of the Petrovka type of the sites; types IIБ, IIВ, III — the golden age of the Alakul Culture; and type IIГ — the late stage of the Alakul Cul-ture, reflecting the engagement with sub-cultural groups of the Fedorovskaya population. The technical-technological analysis using the method developed by A.A. Bobrinsky revealed the pottery skills of the population making different types of vessels. Amongst the studied population, only natural clays were used for pottery. The molding composition included organic additives and talcum gruss, and sometimes also chamotte. One program of constructing of the clay blank, the vaulted bottom type, has been identified, and the use of the patchwork spiral applique has been recorded. The surface of the vessels was smoothened and subjected to glazing. The firing of pottery items was carried out in fire-pits and hearths. Close similarity of the potters’ skills at different stages of pottery making has been observed for the items of the Petrovka, Early and Classical Alakul and Alakul-Fedorov Cultures. Correlation of the collected information with the known data on the ceramics of the Petrovka and Alakul types demonstrates commonality of the skills possessed by these groups of the population of Southern Ural and Northern Kazakhstan. On the basis of similarity of the pottery-making technologies of different chronological groups of the burial grounds of Kulevchi VI, it has been established that the development of the pottery-making traditions of the population was taking place within affinal groups. The similarity of the pottery traditions and gra-dual evolution of the Petrovka, Early Alakul; Alakul and Alakul-Fedorov groups allow considering them within the framework of the same phenomenon — the Alakul Culture.

scholarly journals Analysis of shapes and ornamental designs of vessels from the Balanovo burial ground

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Е.В. Волкова
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Volga River ◽  
Volga River Basin ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Structural Levels ◽  
Two Populations ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Related Population

The article is devoted to analysis of shapes and ornamental designs of 121 vessels from the Balanovo burial ground. The burial field belongs to the Bronze Age and is situated in the Mari part of the Volga river basin. The analysis has been carried on within framework of the historical-and-cultural approach to pottery study developed by A.A. Bobrinsky (Bobrinsky, 1978). Vessel shapes have been study in accordance with procedure developed by Yu.B. Tsetlin. The procedure includes three consecutive stages: 1. determination of general proportionality of vessels; 2. detachment of vessels’ functional parts; 3. determination of the functional parts’ maturity. Analysis of ornamental designs has been carried out in accordance with the procedure developed by the author of the article and consisted of detachment of technological ornamental traditions (type of ornamental tools and ways of its drawing) and of stylistic ornamental traditions (at four structural levels: an 251 element, an image, a motif, and a composition). In result the author has detached the Balanov and the Atli-Kasin pottery traditions of forms creation and ornamentation (there is no differences in pottery traditions of these two populations). Mixed Balanov-Atli-Kasin traditions have been detached also. The presence of mixed traditions allows the author to make a more substantiated conclusion that the Balanov burial ground was left by two closely related population groups, by Balanovo and Atlikan groups.

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