scholarly journals CHRONOLOGY OF RAMPARTS IN EASTERN CRIMEA (2015-2018 EXCAVATIONS)

Author(s):  
А. А. Супренков

Статья посвящена результатам работ автора на оборонительных валах Восточного Крыма в 2015-2018 гг. В ней кратко изложена история изучения этих объектов, рассматривается археологический материал, полученный в процессе работ, и делаются некоторые предположения относительно времени и обстоятельств возникновения этих масштабных сооружений. The paper reports on excavations conducted by the author on defensive ramparts in Eastern Crimea in 2015-2018. It summarizes the history of the excavations on these fortifications, examines archaeological materials obtained during the excavations and provides some suggestions on the period and the circumstances concerning these impressive constructions.

Author(s):  
Л.А. Беляев ◽  
С.И. Баранова

Задача статьи – понять, где, сколько и каких сохранилось археологических материалов по истории наиболее известного из гражданских дворцовых соо­ружений, срубленных из дерева, – дворца в Коломенском. Дворец использовался как летняя государственная резиденция в основном царем Алексеем Михайловичем и его сыновьями, Федором и Петром I (в юности), а позже эпизодически правительницами России XVIII в. После разборки в 1760-х гг. от него сохранились описания, обмеры и даже модели. За столетие (с 1920-х гг.) остатки усадьбы не раз исследовались археологически, материалы фиксации отложились в ряде архивов и музеев, в основном московских. На будущее ставится задача свести эти материалы воедино и заново проанализировать их вместе с другими видами источников. The paper is aimed at shaping a clear idea on what, where, and how much of archaeological materials on the history of the Kolomenskoye Palace, which is the most famous civil palace construction made from logs, has been preserved. The palace was used as a summer state residence, mostly, by tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich and his sons – Fyodor and Peter I (in his childhood), and in the subsequent period in the 18th century from time to time by female rulers of Russia. In the 1760s the palace was dismantled; its descriptions, measurements and even models were preserved. Over a hundred years (since the 1920s), the remains of this estate have been repeatedly excavated, and the records have been stored in a number of archives and museums, mostly, in Moscow. The future task is to consolidate these materials and analyze them along with other types of sources.


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 51-59
Author(s):  
M. O. Tarasenko ◽  
Z. V. Khanutina

We describe a group of Egyptian faience scarabs unearthed from the necropolis on the Iluraton Plateau, Eastern Crimea, by the expedition from the State Museum of the History of Religion (St. Petersburg) in 1987–1990. Artifacts made of so-called Egyptian faience were found in eight of the sixty-two burials—those of g irls aged below 1.5, dating to the 1st to early 2nd centuries AD. The most numerous among the faience items were beads in the form of scarabs. The analysis shows them to fall into three groups in terms of presence and nature of images on the reverse side: those without images (3 spec.), those with abstract images (3 spec.), and those with anthropo-zoomorphic images (2 spec.). In two cases, representations point to specifi c Egyptian workshops. Scarabs in girls’ burials of the Roman period elaborate on the thanatological imagery, which originated among the Scythian-Saka tribes of Eurasia in the mid-1st millennium BC.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-375
Author(s):  
Alexey A. Tishkin ◽  
Nikolay N. Seregin

Abstract Metal mirrors are important indicators when reconstructing the history of the ancient peoples of Altai on the basis of archaeological materials. Among the latter there are imported products, recorded in the mounds of the Xiongnu time (2nd century BC – 1st century AD). The article gives an overview of the results of a comprehensive study of the mirrors. Only one mirror was found intact, and the rest are represented by fragments. This collection of 19 archaeological items is divided into two groups, reflecting the direction of contacts of the Altai population in this period. The first demonstrates Chinese products that could have entered the region indirectly from the Xiongnu who dominated Inner Asia. Some of them were made in the previous period, but were used for a long time. The analyses of metal alloys from the Yaloman-II site supplements the conclusions made during the visual examination. The second group, through its origin, is associated with the cultures of the so-called Sarmatian circle, whose sites were located to the west of the Altai. A separate section of the article is devoted to a discussion of reconstruction of some aspects of the social history of the nomads and their world.


Author(s):  
Norman Herz ◽  
Ervan G. Garrison

This chapter is only a brief introduction to lithic archaeological materials. Archaeologists with but little knowledge of rocks and rock-forming minerals are urged to learn about them in greater detail than that presented here. Lithic resources are abundant in almost every archaeological site, and lithic artifacts are invariably the best preserved of any remains. Early societies learned how to exploit these resources, and the use and production of lithics go back to the earliest known sites, at least 1.5 million years. In fact, the earliest cultures are distinguished on the basis of their lithic industries and lithic artifacts. Horror stories in misidentification of lithics abound. Not only have misidentified artifacts proven embarrassing to the archaeologist, but also they have made it difficult to make meaningful comparisons of different societies using published descriptions. In addition, conservation strategies for historical monuments cannot be developed without an understanding of the nature of the material used in their construction. Some egregious examples of ignorance of the rocks and minerals from our personal experience include the following: 1. An archaeologist asked if a quartzite scraper was either flint or chert. When told that it was neither, he asked, "Well then, which is it more like?" (answer, still neither). 2. Egyptian basalt statues have been called limestone in publications (and several other rock types). 3. Sources for alabaster were searched to explain a trading link between a site and elsewhere when the geological map showed the site was adjacent to a mountain of gypsum, the mineral component of alabaster (the gypsum may have merely rolled down the hillside to the workshops, where it became the more salable alabaster). 4. Conservators searched for methods to preserve an allegedly granitic historic monument, or so it had been identified. Chemical analysis revealed only abundant Ca, Mg, and carbonate. Fossils were also abundant in the "granite," which dissolved easily in hydrochloric acid (the "granite" was clearly limestone). Petrology is the branch of geology that deals with the occurrence, origin, and history of rocks. Petrography is concerned with descriptions of rocks, their mineralogy, structures, and textures.


Author(s):  
Norman Herz ◽  
Ervan G. Garrison

Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once" (anonymous). Time is a continuum—we sense this continuum as a succession of events. In archaeological matters it is one of the most salient attributes. To determine time accurately the archaeologist must rely on modern dating techniques. Age determination by chemical methods relies on the constancy or predictability of rates of chemical processes. For instance the oxidation of iron—rust—could be used for dating purposes if one could determine a chemical rate, in this case that of oxidation, that applied to more than the singular event. Unfortunately, the rate of the oxidation of iron is highly variable, being affected by temperature, available moisture, and the particular type of iron (mild, cast, stainless, etc.). Another common chemical change is the patination of certain types of glass. Yet here, too, the process is highly variable, making dating impractical. Still, there have been attempts to use patination and rock "varnish" for archaeological dating, as we shall see. In the main, chemical dating is used to determine relative ages since absolute ages require calibration for each sample and its find site using independent dating measures such as radiometric or dendrochronological techniques. We shall first discuss the relative techniques based on the uptake or decrease in fluorine, uranium, and nitrogen found in bone. This is most appropriate because these chemical techniques played a key role in unmasking one of the most famous frauds in the history of science: Piltdown Man. Next we shall examine the two most accepted chemical processes utilized in absolute age determination, which are based, respectively, on amino acid racemization and obsidian hydration. Finally, we shall examine a few techniques that show some promise for the dating of archaeological materials or deposits, such as those using patination ("varnish") and cation ratios. Our points of reference are those events we view as, in some sense, marking a change in the state of things. Stylistic or formal change in an archaeological facies can be a chronological landmark for the archaeologist and allows us to divide the continuum of time into discrete segments or phases.


Heritage ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 587-605
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Loughmiller-Cardinal ◽  
J. Scott Cardinal

Archaeologists have likely collected, as a conservative estimate, billions of artifacts over the course of the history of fieldwork. We have classified chronologies and typologies of these, based on various formal and physical characteristics or ethno-historically known analogues, to give structure to our interpretations of the people that used them. The simple truth, nonetheless, is that we do not actually know how they were used or their intended purpose. We only make inferences—i.e., educated guesses based on the available evidence as we understand it—regarding their functions in the past and the historical behaviors they reflect. Since those inferences are so fundamental to the interpretations of archaeological materials, and the archaeological project as a whole, the way we understand materiality can significantly bias the stories we construct of the past. Recent work demonstrated seemingly contradictory evidence between attributed purpose or function versus confirmed use, however, which suggested that a basic premise of those inferences did not empirically hold to be true. In each case, the apparent contradiction was resolved by reassessing what use, purpose, and function truly mean and whether certain long-established functional categories of artifacts were in fact classifying by function. The resulting triangulation, presented here, narrows the scope on such implicit biases by addressing both empirical and conceptual aspects of artifacts. In anchoring each aspect of evaluation to an empirical body of data, we back ourselves away from our assumptions and interpretations so as to let the artifacts speak for themselves.


1990 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-22
Author(s):  
V. A. Bashilov ◽  
V. I. Gulyaev

The study in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the earliest history of native Latin Americans falls into two distinct periods. The first, associated with an interest in the ancient Mexican and Peruvian civilizations, can be divided into two stages: the 1920s to the early 1940s, when Soviet scholars first acquainted themselves with antiquities from the region and used them for historical parallels; and the late 1940s and early 1950s, when Soviet historians turned to an analysis of Latin American materials. The second period went through three stages: the first, from the early 1950s to the early 1960s, mainly was dominated by Yury Knorozov, who was engaged in deciphering the language of the Maya, and Rostislav Kinzhalov, who studied their art and culture. During the second stage, the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, more scholars and research institutions undertook studies of the early cultures of Latin America. The thematic range became wider as well, covering—besides Mesoamerica and the central Andean region—the Intermediate region and the Caribbean. The third stage, which started in the late 1970s and continues to the present day, witnesses ethnographers and archaeologists pooling their efforts in studying the region. There were several conferences in which specialists engaged in various fields of Latin American studies participated. Their contacts with foreign colleagues became wider; Soviet archaeologists and ethnologists took part in fieldwork in Latin America. The primary aims today are to introduce Soviet readers to archaeological materials from a number of cultural-historical regions (such as the southern fringes of Mesoamerica, Amazonia, the southern Andes, etc.), to detail Soviet studies of cultural complexes and historical processes in ancient America, and to compare them to the processes that took place in the Old World, with the aim of establishing shared historical “laws” and patterns.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6/2) ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
Sergey V. YARTSEV ◽  
Viktor G. ZUBAREV ◽  
Sergey L. SMEKALOV

The object of the research is the peculiarities of the historical process on the Kerch Peninsula in the context of the local history of one of its regions. The authors conduct a detailed study of the most inhabited region of the Crimean Azov region – the Adzhiel tract, located in the western part of the peninsula to the territory adjacent to the Kazantip Bay. This gully, which goes in the north-western and south-eastern direction, fences off a significant part of the Kerch peninsula and represents one of the natural protective boundaries of the Eastern Crimea. The subject of research is to reconstruct the historical picture of the area, to define the main results and prospects for further research. Relying on a wide range of sources, primarily on the archaeological material of their own perennial excavations in the specified area, with the use of the source analysis method, the authors consider the known facts and events of the ancient history of the Kerch Peninsula in a new way. The methodological basis of the work is objectivity and historicism, which contributed to conducting of unbiased research. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time on a wide material, the stages of the historical development of one of the regions of the Kerch Peninsula were highlighted and the actual directions for further research in this area were identified. Due to the abundance of water and fertile soil, the Adzhiel tract was almost always inhabited by people. However, the most intense events occurred in the tract in the era of the Bosporus kingdom, when a system of defensive fortifications of the western borders of the state functioned here. Perhaps this system was more complicated than it previously seemed. This is indicated by the remains of another, previously unknown tower discovered by the authors in 2018. Thus, the authors conclude that the further prospects of research in the Adzhiel tract are connected both with the detailed reconstruction of the defence system of the Bosporus on the western frontiers of the state and also with the continuation of the study of Christian antiquities, including medieval time, and the religious life of the population of the Khazar Khaganate.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 348-357
Author(s):  
T. M. Neradenko

The materials of Molyukhiv Buhor, obtained during excavations in 1955—1956 by V. M. Danylenko, were constantly used by D. Y. Telegin in his scientific works particularly in the monograph «Dnipro-Donetsk Culture. To the History of the Population of the Neolithic Epoch — Early Metal of the South of Eastern Europe» 1968; in the monograph «Seredni Stoh Culture of the Copper Age» in 1973; in the article «Cultural identity and dating of supine Eneolithic burials of the Steppe Dnieper» 1987; in the book «Neolithic Burial Grounds of the Mariupol Type» 1991; in the publication «Settlements of the Dnieper-Donetsk Ethnocultural Community of the Neolithic Era» 1998 (co-authored by O. M. Titova); in the book «Seredni Stoh and Novodanilivka cultures of the Eneolithic of the Azov-Pontic region: an archaeological-anthropological analysis of materials and catalog of sites» 2001 (co-authors A. L. Nechitaylo, I. D. Potekhina, Y. V. Panchenko). The conclusions of the scholar according to the first two monographs became the basis for the recognition of Molyukhiv Buhor as one of the outstanding sites of Ukraine in the Neo-Eneolithic Age. Since 1992 the archeological study of Molyukhiv Buhor has been carried out by the author who has discovered on the settlement the system of «moats» and «pillars», the remains of Neolithic dwellings, residential-economic complex of the late Neolithic age, the ancient burial ground with 6 different graveyards, 44 economic pits of different historical periods, etc. A diverse collection of archaeological materials, the total number of which is more than 103700 finds, is the ceramic complex, flint tools, stone tools, horn and bone products, copper products, and allows to describe fully and comprehensively the material culture of the inhabitants in the Neolithic and Eneolithic periods. Thus, new research allows us to clarify, supplement and expand our understanding of the material culture of the tribes of Dnieper-Donetsk and Seredni Stoh cultures, compare them with the research of D. Ya. Telegin 1960—1970 and note that many conclusions of the scholar of 50 years ago find their confirmation in new studies of Molyukhіv Buhor. Archaeological studies of the settlement are being continued. In recent years, they have focused on the excavation of a large residential and commercial complex in the north of the settlement.


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