scholarly journals An Analysis of Natural Factors Affecting the Dispersal and Establishment of Iron Age III Settlements in the Western Zayandehrand Basin (West and Northwest of Isfahan)

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masoomeh Dehkordi ◽  
Alamdar Alian
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Geological Structure ◽  
The West ◽  
Statistical Population ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Communication Paths

Humans are always lenders to their surroundings which makes it possible to create habitable environments and create habitat patterns that fit the surrounding environment. In this research, settlement patterns of Iron Age III sites in the west and northwest of Isfahan was studied via GIS. The area studied is one of the most important but unknown areas of archaeological research due to its location in the center of the Iranian plateau and a link between the north-west and the south-west of the country. The environmental characteristics of the studied area have attracted the attention of humans since ancient times. Therefore, it was considered necessary to conduct archaeological excavations. To achieve this goal, the area was first studied archaeologically. As a result of this survey, approximately 50 ancient sites were identified which included the statistical population used for analysis. The effect of environmental variables on the distribution of settlements in the study area was investigated including altitude, slope (percentage and direction), climate, geological structure, distances and proximity to water resources, distance to and land use, and the proximity to communication paths. Through analytical-descriptive method, the factors affecting the formation and distribution of the establishment patterns of the period in question was studied. After analyzing the information and maps, the results indicated that among all the factors, three environmental factors were the most important in the formation of ancient settlements of the Iron Age III era in the west and northwest of Isfahan: factors relating to water resources, proximity to communication paths, and slope percentage and direction.

An Iron Age A site on the Chilterns

1951 ◽  
Vol 31 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 132-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Richardson ◽  
Alison Young
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Roman Villa ◽  
Adjoining Area ◽  
Cursory Examination ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Hill

In 1946 a visit to the barrow, which lies on the edge of the western scarp of Chinnor Common, and a cursory examination of the adjoining area, cultivated during the war, resulted in finds of pottery and other objects indicating Iron Age occupation. The site lies on the saddleback of a Chiltern headland, at a height of about 800 ft. O.D. Two hollow ways traverse the western scarp, giving access to the area from the Upper Icknield Way, which contours the foot of the hill, then drops to cross the valley, passing some 600 yards to the north of the Iron Age site of Lodge Hill, Bledlow, and rising again continues northwards under Pulpit Hill camp and the Ellesborough Iron Age pits below Coombe Hill. The outlook across the Oxford plain to the west is extensive, embracing the hill-fort of Sinodun, clearly visible some fourteen miles distant on the farther bank of the Thames. The hollow way at the north-west end of the site leads down to a group of ‘rises’ hard by the remains of a Roman villa, and these springs are, at the present day, the nearest water-supply to the site.

The Excavation of an Iron Age Souterrain and Settlement at Carn Euny, Sancreed, Cornwall

1978 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 309-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia M. L. Christie ◽  
S. M. Elsdon ◽  
G. W. Dimbleby ◽  
A. Saville ◽  
S. Rees ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Dry Valley ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Hill ◽  
The Village

The ancient village of Carn Euny, formerly known as Chapel Euny, lies on a south-west slope just above the 500 foot contour in the parish of Sancreed in West Cornwall (fig. 1). The granite uplands of the region are rich in antiquities, as a glance at a recent survey shows (Russell 1971), not least those of the prehistoric period. The hill on which the site is situated is crowned by the circular Iron Age Fort of Caer Brane (pl. 27). Across the dry valley to the north-west rises the mass of Bartinny Down, with its barrows, while in the valley below the site near the hamlet of Brane is a small, well preserved entrance grave and other evidence of prehistoric activity. To the south-east about one mile away is the recently excavated village of Goldherring dating from the first few centuries of our era (Guthrie 1969). From later times, the holy well of St Uny and the former chapel which gave its name to the site, lie nearby to the west. The village contains a fine souterrain, locally known as a fogou, after a Cornish word meaning a cave (Thomas 1966, 79).Nothing appears to have been known of the settlement or Fogou before the first half of the 19th century when the existence of an unexplored fogou at Chapel Uny is first mentioned by the Reverend John Buller (1842), shortly followed by Edmonds (1849) who described to the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society an ‘Ancient Cave’ which had been discovered by miners prospecting for tin.

Old Smyrna: the Iron Age fortifications and associated remains on the city perimeter

1959 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 35-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. V. Nicholls
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Great Depth ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
East Side ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Small Probe ◽  
South West ◽  
The City

Traces of fortifications around the area apparently once occupied by the city of Old Smyrna were observed by Louis Fauvel, and our first detailed description of them is that of Prokesch von Osten, who accompanied him there on a second visit in 1825. As we shall see later, it seems likely, though proof is no longer possible, that most of the circuit wall around the tell, as well as that on the low spur to the west of it on which the modern village now stands, as described by Prokesch, may have belonged to the defences of the classical city. Nothing today survives of these above ground, owing to extensive stone-plundering in the interval; and it is to be feared that the fate of much of this rather exposed classical enceinte has been to provide masonry either for the houses of the modern village or for the terrace walls which today encircle the tell.The plundering of this outermost circuit probably left the earlier ones inside it rather more exposed to view. I have not been able to verify which of the city walls it was that was photographed by Keil in 1911, but when Franz and Helene Miltner excavated here in 1930 a part of the late-seventh-century B.C. circuit was visible on the east side of the city. Here they cleared about 80 metres of its face, for the most part to no great depth, then picked up its line again with a small probe some 20 metres farther north. Two further small trenches seem to have located more of this late-seventh-century wall-line south-south-west of their long cut, in addition to traces of yet other circuits. Besides this they report sinking two shafts into the mound dominating the north-west corner of the tell and making two small probes in occupation levels within the city itself.

An Iron Age Hill-Fort at Grimthorpe, Yorkshire, England

1969 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 148-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. M. Stead ◽  
M. Jarman ◽  
Angela Fagg ◽  
E. S. Higgs ◽  
C. B. Denston
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Circular Area ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
White Horse ◽  
The Hill ◽  
Grave Goods

The Iron Age hill-fort at Grimthorpe (Grid reference SE.816535) in the parish of Millington, East Riding of Yorkshire, is on the western edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, with a commanding position over the Vale of York. There is an uninterrupted view to the White Horse on the Hambleton Hills, 25 miles to the north-west; beyond York, 13 miles to the west, to the Pennines; and to the south 25 miles to the chimneys of Keadby and Scunthorpe. To the west and south the land slopes away to the Vale of York, and to the north and east there is a sharper fall to Given Dale and Whitekeld Dale. The hill-fort defences follow the 520 feet contour, and enclose an approximately circular area of eight acres (fig. 1).A traditional reference may be preserved in the field-name—Bruffs—perhaps a variation of ‘Brough’, which ‘refers in all cases to ancient camps, usually Roman ones’. But all surface indications have now been obliterated by ploughing, and even a century ago there was little more to be seen. John Phillips in 1853 noticed ‘unmistakable traces of ancient but unascertainable occupation’, and in 1871 an excavation by J. R. Mortimer located ‘the filled up inner ditch of a supposed camp’. But Mortimer was not concerned with the settlement; his interest had been aroused by the discovery, in 1868, of a burial with rich grave-goods, including metalwork with La Tène ornament, in a chalk-pit within the south-west sector of the hill-fort.

Excavation of Four Barrows, and a Middle Bronze Age Cremation Cemetery, at Heatherstone Grange, Bransgore, Hampshire

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-89
Author(s):  
Richard Massey ◽  
Elaine L. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

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.

Excavations on Pilsdon Pen, Dorset, 1964–71

1977 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 263-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter S. Gelling
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Nearest Point ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
East End ◽  
The Hill

Pilsdon Pen is in west Dorset, very close to the Devon border, some 6 miles north-west of Bridport, and about 5½ miles from the nearest point of the coast (ST 413013). It is a long flat-topped hill, the highest in Dorset, reaching 908 ft above OD, and dominating Marshwood Vale from the north. The hill-fort occupies the south-east end of the Pen, at the north-west end of which there is a small embanked enclosure, much levelled by ploughing, which could be of Iron Age date also. The two nearest hill-forts are Lambert's Castle and Coneys Castle, about 3 and 3½ miles away respectively, which overlook Marshwood Vale from the west (fig. 1).Excavation began in 1964, and continued annually until 1971, all but one of the seasons lasting four weeks. The work was initiated, and largely supported, by the owner of the site, Mr Michael Pinney, of Bettiscombe Manor, to whom archaeology owes a great debt. Mrs Betty Pinney was one of our most skilful excavators, and all those who took part will remember her hospitality. Financial help was also given by the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society and by Birmingham University. Among many helpers, to all of whom I am most grateful, I should like to mention in particular my wife, who shouldered the daunting task of keeping the camp supplied, and Mr Jack Wells, of Tanyard Farm, Marshwood, without whose regular assistance the excavation would have taken much longer, and cost a great deal more.

Hembury (Devon): Roman troops in a hillfort

Antiquity ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 58 (224) ◽  
pp. 171-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Todd
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Western Side ◽  
Clear Weather

Hembury is chiefly noted as the site of a neolithic settlement and one of the finest hillforts of the Iron Age in the South-West (PL. XXIV & FIG. I ) . These prehistoric works lie at the southern tip of a long, narrow promontory extending southwards from the Greensand mass of the Blackdown Hills and overlooking the broad valleys of the Otter and the Culm. Beyond these to the west lies the Exe valley and further west still (and visible in clear weather) the Haldon ridge and the eastern tors of Dartmoor. Excavations by Miss D. M. Liddell (Liddell, 1930; 1931; 1932; 1935) between 1930 and 1935 revealed the significance of Hembury for the south-western Neolithic in particular, the material culture of the early neolithic settlement being plainly related to that of Windmill Hill. Miss Liddell's examination of the iron age fort was centred upon the two fine gates, on the western side and at the north-west angle. Little work was devoted to the interior except to trace the ditch of the neolithic causewayed enclosure and to explore the extreme southern tip of the promontory.

Early Iron Age tombs at Knossos: (Knossos Survey 25)

1961 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 68-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. S. F. Hood ◽  
John Boardman
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
The West ◽  
Main Road ◽  
North West ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
The Road ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Roman Concrete

This group of tombs lies about 50 metres south-west of the main Knossos–Herakleion road, immediately opposite the new Sanatorium. Here in the autumn of 1953 Mr. David Smollett, then engaged in making the map for the Knossos Survey, noticed some large sherds which had been thrown into a rubbish pit on the edge of a small patch of ground newly ploughed for a vineyard (Plan, Fig. 1, a). The vineyard lay on the top of a slight knoll behind the café on the west side of the road. The knoll had until this time been occupied by a threshing floor, and was pointed out by the local inhabitants as the site of the ‘Tomb of Caiaphas’. But the great Roman concrete-built tomb traditionally known as the ‘Tomb of Caiaphas’, was really, it appears, on the main road some metres away to the north-west (Knossos Survey 23): it was destroyed about 1880 when the road was built.The sherds recovered by Mr. Smollett, some of them large and freshly broken from fine Geometric vases, made it seem likely that there was a disturbed tomb of that period in the area. Permission was therefore sought, and readily granted by Dr. N. Platon, Ephor of Antiquities for Crete, to explore the field before it was planted with vines. Trials led to the discovery of three small collapsed chamber tombs, all apparently Iron Age in date, cut in the soft kouskouras rock. The tombs clearly belong to the same complex as tombs L, Π, and TFT which have been published by Brock in Fortetsa (1957). They stood in a row with their entrances facing south towards Knossos. Two isolated burials (Plan, Fig. 1, b, c), extended on their backs with their heads to the west and feet to the east immediately below the surface of the field, may be Roman or later; there was a bent iron nail by the left hand of burial c. The knoll with the tombs lies near the western edge of the big Roman cemetery which covered the region now occupied by the new Sanatorium (Knossos Survey 35).

Excavations at Fishbourne, 1963. Third Interim Report

1964 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Keyword(s):  
Interim Report ◽  
The West ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
North West ◽  
The Third ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
The Future ◽  
Set Up

Early in 1963 much of the land occupied by the Roman building at Fishbourne was purchased by Mr. I. D. Margary, M.A., F.S.A., and was given to the Sussex Archaeological Trust. The Fishbourne Committee of the trust was set up to administer the future of the site. The third season's excavation, carried out at the desire of this committee, was again organized by the Chichester Civic Society.1 About fifty volunteers a day were employed from 24th July to 3rd September. Excavation concentrated upon three main areas; the orchard south of the east wing excavated in 1962, the west end of the north wing, and the west wing. In addition, trial trenches were dug at the north-east and north-west extremities of the building and in the area to the north of the north wing. The work of supervision was carried out by Miss F. Pierce, M.A., Mr. B. Morley, Mr. A. B. Norton, B.A., and Mr. J. P. Wild, B.A. Photography was organized by Mr. D. B. Baker and Mrs. F. A. Cunliffe took charge of the pottery and finds.

The use of high-resolution stratigraphy and derived lithoclasts to document structural inversion; a case study from the Paleogene, Isle of Wight, U.K.

2021 ◽  
pp. jgs2020-156
Author(s):  
Andy Gale
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
Geologic Time ◽  
Northern Limb ◽  
The North ◽  
Basement Faults ◽  
Structural Inversion ◽  
Geologic Time Scale ◽  
Radiometric Ages

The effects of structural inversion, generated by the Pyrenean Orogeny on the southerly bounding faults of the Hampshire Basin (Needles and Sandown Faults) on Eocene sedimentation in the adjacent regions were studied in outcrops by sedimentary logging, dip records and the identification of lithoclasts reworked from the crests of anticlines generated during inversion. The duration and precise age of hiatuses associated with inversion was identified using bio- and magnetostratigraphy, in comparison with the Geologic Time Scale 2020. The succession on the northern limb of the Sandown Anticline (Whitecliff Bay) includes five hiatuses of varying durations which together formed a progressive unconformity developed during the Lutetian to Priabonian interval (35-47Ma). Syn-inversion deposits thicken southwards towards the southern margin of the Hampshire Basin and are erosionally truncated by unconformities. The effects of each pulse of inversion are recorded by successively shallower dips and the age and nature of clasts reworked from the crest of the Sandown Anticline. Most individual hiatuses are interpreted as minor unconformities developed subsequent to inversion, rather than eustatically-generated sequence boundaries:transgressive surfaces. In contrast, the succession north of the Needles Fault (Alum Bay) does not contain hiatuses of magnitude or internal unconformities. In the north-west of the island, subsidiary anticlinal and synclinal structures developed in response to Eocene inversion events by the reactivation of minor basement faults. The new dates of the Eocene inversion events correspond closely with radiometric ages derived from fracture vein-fill calcites in Dorset, to the west (36-48Ma).

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