scholarly journals Symbolic connotations of animals at early Middle Helladic Asine. A comparative study of the animal bones from the settlement and its graves

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 128-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella Macheridis
Keyword(s):  
Species Composition ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Body Part ◽  
High Status ◽  
Wild Mammals ◽  
Animal Bones ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Middle Helladic

This paper is a contribution to the zooarchaeological research on animals or animal parts found in human graves during the Middle Bronze Age in Greece. The animal bones from the early Middle Helladic settlement (MH I-II, c. 2100–1800 BC) and contemporary burials at Asine are presented. The goal is to compare the animal bones from the settlement with those from the burials, in terms of species composition and body part distribution. Through this comparison, this paper aims to discuss any symbolic connotations of bone waste from everyday-life practices. The results show that the most common domesticates from settlement contexts, pig, sheep/goat and cattle, also appear to be the most abundant animals deposited in the early MH graves at Asine. This is consistent with mortuary data from other sites on the Peloponnese, especially Lerna. The pig was most abundant in both settlement and graves at Asine. The similarities between wild and domestic pigs might be important, and are discussed as a possible inspiration for the pig symbolism in MH I-II Asine. I also propose a regional change in the later Bronze Age of how animals were deposited in graves, in which period the presence of wild mammals, dogs, and horses in high status graves increases. Throughout, pig, sheep/goats and cattle remained the most important animals for ritually connoted events such as funerary meals or feasts.

A MIDDLE HELLADIC TOMB IN THE ATHENIAN KERAMEIKOS AND SOME THOUGHTS ON THE EARLY CONNECTIONS OF ATTICA

2019 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 119-143
Author(s):  
Anthi Balitsari ◽  
John K. Papadopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Aegean Islands ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Minoan Crete ◽  
Middle Helladic

This paper focuses on a presentation and discussion of the solitary Middle Helladic tomb found in the Athenian Kerameikos. Our purpose is twofold: first of all, to present in detail the tomb offerings that we were able to relocate, and to suggest a MH I date for the burial. Secondly, given the significant presence of ceramic imports from various Aegean islands, we outline the connectedness that Attica enjoyed at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. This is a story that involves not just Athens, but Aigina, the Argolid, and Minoan Crete, as well as the much sought-after metal ores of Laurion.

scholarly journals Human mobility in a Bronze Age Vatya ‘urnfield’ and the life history of a high-status woman

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0254360
Author(s):  
Claudio Cavazzuti ◽  
Tamás Hajdu ◽  
Federico Lugli ◽  
Alessandra Sperduti ◽  
Magdolna Vicze ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
High Status ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
History Of ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

In this study, we present osteological and strontium isotope data of 29 individuals (26 cremations and 3 inhumations) from Szigetszentmiklós-Ürgehegy, one of the largest Middle Bronze Age cemeteries in Hungary. The site is located in the northern part of the Csepel Island (a few kilometres south of Budapest) and was in use between c. 2150 and 1500 BC, a period that saw the rise, the apogee, and, ultimately, the collapse of the Vatya culture in the plains of Central Hungary. The main aim of our study was to identify variation in mobility patterns among individuals of different sex/age/social status and among individuals treated with different burial rites using strontium isotope analysis. Changes in funerary rituals in Hungary have traditionally been associated with the crises of the tell cultures and the introgression of newcomers from the area of the Tumulus Culture in Central Europe around 1500 BC. Our results show only slight discrepancies between inhumations and cremations, as well as differences between adult males and females. The case of the richly furnished grave n. 241 is of particular interest. The urn contains the cremated bones of an adult woman and two 7 to 8-month-old foetuses, as well as remarkably prestigious goods. Using 87Sr/86Sr analysis of different dental and skeletal remains, which form in different life stages, we were able to reconstruct the potential movements of this high-status woman over almost her entire lifetime, from birth to her final days. Our study confirms the informative potential of strontium isotopes analyses performed on different cremated tissues. From a more general, historical perspective, our results reinforce the idea that exogamic practices were common in Bronze Age Central Europe and that kinship ties among high-rank individuals were probably functional in establishing or strengthening interconnections, alliances, and economic partnerships.

Kinship-based social inequality in Bronze Age Europe

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 366 (6466) ◽  
pp. 731-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alissa Mittnik ◽  
Ken Massy ◽  
Corina Knipper ◽  
Fabian Wittenborn ◽  
Ronny Friedrich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
High Status ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Genome Wide Data ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Shed Light

Revealing and understanding the mechanisms behind social inequality in prehistoric societies is a major challenge. By combining genome-wide data, isotopic evidence, and anthropological and archaeological data, we have gone beyond the dominating supraregional approaches in archaeogenetics to shed light on the complexity of social status, inheritance rules, and mobility during the Bronze Age. We applied a deep microregional approach and analyzed genome-wide data of 104 human individuals deriving from farmstead-related cemeteries from the Late Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age in southern Germany. Our results reveal individual households, lasting several generations, that consisted of a high-status core family and unrelated low-status individuals; a social organization accompanied by patrilocality and female exogamy; and the stability of this system over 700 years.

Different Shades of Grey Minyan: Dissecting an “Iconic” Ceramic Class of Middle Bronze Age, Mainland Greece

2021 ◽  
Vol XII (2) ◽  
pp. 217-233
Author(s):  
Anthi Balitsari ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Significant Variation ◽  
Main Subject ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Middle Helladic

The Middle Helladic Grey Minyan ware is usually assigned with archetypical features, including the systematic use of the potter’s wheel. However, because of the significant variation observed, terms such as “True Grey Minyan” and “Imitations of Grey Minyan” were commonly applied in order to emphasise the differences, which, nonetheless were never systematically analysed. The main subject of the present paper is to highlight the differences existing in the potting traditions of Grey Minyan in two nearby regions, namely the Argolid and Attica, which seem to belong to different cultural spheres, given the divergence observed especially in the shape repertoire. The identification of different production and consumption practices is obviously related to different cultural phenomena, as evidenced through (a) the production of similar wheel-fashioned and hand-built Grey Minyan shapes in Attica, and (b) the introduction of foreign potting traditions, namely wheel-fashioned Grey Minyan pots, which are completely alien to the local, handmade ceramics of the Argolid.

Redating Rams Hill and reconsidering Bronze Age enclosure

1994 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Needham ◽  
Janet Ambers
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Regional Economy ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
High Status ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
First Time ◽  
Precise Role

A new set of radiocarbon measurements for the three phases of Bronze Age enclosure at Rams Hill allows refinement of their chronology. Phase 1 is radiocarbon dated for the first time and appears, contrary to previous indications, not to be very much earlier than phases 2 and 3. The dates are on carefully selected bone samples and give a rather later timespan overall than an earlier set of dates on charcoal, within the 13th–10th centuries cal BC. This span bridges the formal Middle–Late Bronze Age transition, overlapping the use ofPenard and Wilburton metalwork. The opportunity is taken to clarify some confused aspects of Bronze Age periodization.The development of Bronze Age enclosure in Britain is reviewed. A former suggestion that Rams Hill is representative of a class of Middle Bronze Age high-status enclosure is re-examined. Current evidence does not support the idea of a coherent set of sites either functionally or chronologically. It is considered likely that Rams Hill represents an emergent state of larger-scale enclosure, perhaps after the regular embanking of small domestic sites. However, the precise role of Rams Hill in the regional economy remains enigmatic.

scholarly journals Italo-Mycenaean and other Aegean-influenced pottery in Late Bronze Age Italy: the case for regional production

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard E. Jones ◽  
Sara T. Levi ◽  
Marco Bettelli ◽  
Valentina Cannavò
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Petrographic Analysis ◽  
High Status ◽  
Regional Production ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Bronze Age

AbstractDecorated Italo-Mycenaean (IM) pottery, a high-status class found and made over three centuries from the Italian Late Middle Bronze Age onwards, was the subject of a large archaeological and archaeometric enquiry published by the present authors in 2014. The present paper focuses on identifying IM’s centres of production. The results of chemical analysis of IM using mainly ICP-ES make a strong case for regional production, irrespective of findspots in several parts of Italy. This accords well with the relative stylistic individuality of IM observed among the finds of IM across many parts of Italy, suggesting that IM is a powerful archaeological indicator of the way local communities were constructing and negotiating their identities at this crucial time of social and economic change at the end of the Bronze Age. A picture of more dispersed intra-regional production emerges from the combined chemical and petrographic analysis of two other pottery classes displaying Aegean influence: wheel-made Grey ware and decorated Final Bronze Age/Early Iron Age (FBA/EIA) pottery from sites in present-day Apulia and from Broglio di Trebisacce in Calabria. Potters manufacturing the former applied their knowledge of the wheel and kiln firing to handmade impasto shapes which were largely shared by local communities within a region. The results obtained for the latter reflect demands of the new elites of the emerging FBA/EIA in southern Italy to create symbols expressing a new cultural identity: this pottery’s style, especially of Protogeometric, was uniform but its production was localised.

scholarly journals The place of millet in food globalization during Late Prehistory as evidenced by new bioarchaeological data from the Caucasus

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucie Martin ◽  
Erwan Messager ◽  
Giorgi Bedianashvili ◽  
Nana Rusishvili ◽  
Elena Lebedeva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Setaria Italica ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Animal Bones ◽  
Isotopic Analyses ◽  
Significant Enrichment ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

AbstractTwo millets, Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica, were domesticated in northern China, around 6000 BC. Although its oldest evidence is in Asia, possible independent domestication of these species in the Caucasus has often been proposed. To verify this hypothesis, a multiproxy research program (Orimil) was designed to detect the first evidence of millet in this region. It included a critical review of the occurrence of archaeological millet in the Caucasus, up to Antiquity; isotopic analyses of human and animal bones and charred grains; and radiocarbon dating of millet grains from archaeological contexts dated from the Early Bronze Age (3500–2500 BC) to the 1st Century BC. The results show that these two cereals were cultivated during the Middle Bronze Age (MBA), around 2000–1800 BC, especially Setaria italica which is the most ancient millet found in Georgia. Isotopic analyses also show a significant enrichment in 13C in human and animal tissues, indicating an increasing C4 plants consumption at the same period. More broadly, our results assert that millet was not present in the Caucasus in the Neolithic period. Its arrival in the region, based on existing data in Eurasia, was from the south, without excluding a possible local domestication of Setaria italica.

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