Grave-goods, contexts and interpretation: towards regional narratives of Early Bronze Age Scotland

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 21-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil C.A. Wilkin
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Spatial Patterning ◽  
Contextual Approach ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
East Central ◽  
North East ◽  
The Rich

This paper proposes that a contextual approach is required to make the most of the rich and diverse evidence for Early Bronze Age funerary practices in Scotland. It reviews the spatial patterning of the principal funerary traditions and identifies significant regional differences in their popularity by region. The chronological relationship between Beaker and Food Vessel burials is then reviewed in the light of new radiocarbon dates. Both distributional and chronological factors then contribute to a refined, regional and contextual approach to Beaker typology. The paper concludes by bringing these various strands together within the geographical and historical context of North-East and East-Central Scotland, in order to provide two regional ‘narratives’ of social organisation and identity.

The Excavation of Duddo Stone Circle, Northumberland

2011 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 321-353
Author(s):  
Benjamin Edwards ◽  
Roger Miket ◽  
Rosie Bishop
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Archaeobotanical Remains

This paper reports on the 2008 excavations at Duddo Stone Circle, Northumberland; the first excavation of a stone circle in the north-east of England under modern conditions. The project was successful in radiocarbon dating archaeobotanical material that suggests a date for construction at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, and cremated human bone that dates its potential re-use for burial to around 1700 calbc. This report provides a stratigraphic account of the results of the excavation and specialist reports on the archaeobotanical remains, the radiocarbon dates, and the finds recovered. The discussion considers Duddo in the context of other stone circles in the North-East and Borders, and more generally across the United Kingdom, concluding that heterogeneity is a regional trait in north-eastern England and southern Scotland, much as architectural or landscape affinities link similar monuments in other regions.

Pictures and people. Seals, figurines and Peloponnesian imagery

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 185-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Weiberg
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Initial Description ◽  
Seal Impressions ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Coastal Settlement

The point of departure for this paper is the publication of two Early Helladic sealing fragments from the coastal settlement of Asine on the north-east Peloponnese in Greece. After an initial description and discussion they are set in the context of sealing custom established on the Greek mainland around 2500 BCE. In the first part of the paper focus is on the apparent qualitative differences between the available seals and the contemporary seal impressions, as well as between different sealing assemblages on northeastern Peloponnese. This geographical emphasis is carried into the second part of the paper which is a review and contextualisation of the representational art of the Aegean Early Bronze Age in general, and northeastern Peloponnese in particular. Seal motifs and figurines are the main media for Early Helladic representational art preserved until today, yet in many ways very dissimilar. These opposites are explored in order to begin to build a better understanding of Peloponnesian representational art, the choices of motifs, and their roles in the lives of the Early Helladic people.

First archaeological investigations of barrows in the Bačka region and the question of the Eneolithic/Early Bronze Age barrows in Vojvodina

2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-375
Author(s):  
Jovan Koledin ◽  
Urszula Bugaj ◽  
Paweł Jarosz ◽  
Mario Novak ◽  
Marcin M. Przybyła ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Western Region ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Funeral Ritual ◽  
Science Centre ◽  
National Science ◽  
Steppe Communities ◽  
Burial Mounds ◽  
Two Stages

AbstractIn various prehistoric periods, the territory of Vojvodina became the target of the migration of steppe communities with eastern origins. The oldest of these movements are dated to the late Eneolithic and the beginning of the Early Bronze Age. There are at least two stages among them: I – dated to the end of the fourth millennium BC / beginning of the third millennium BC and II – dated from 3000 to 2600 BC and combined with the communities of the classical phase of the Yamnaya culture. The data documenting these processes have been relatively poor so far – in comparison with the neighboring regions of Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. A big drawback was the small number of systematically excavated mounds, providing comprehensive data on the funeral ritual of steppe communities. This poor database has been slightly enriched as a result of the design of the National Science Centre (Cracow, Poland) entitled “Danubian route of the Yamnaya culture”. Its effect was to examine the first two barrows located on the territory of Bačka – the western region of Vojvodina. Currently, these burial mounds are the westernmost points on the map of the cemeteries of the Yamnaya culture complex. Radiocarbon dates obtained for new finds, as well as for archival materials, allow specifying two stages of use of cemeteries of Yamnaya culture: I – around 3000–2900 BC and II – around 2800–2600 BC. Among the finds from Banat, there were also few materials coming probably from the older period, corresponding to the classical phase of Baden – Coţofeni I–II. The enigmatic nature of these discoveries, however, does not allow to specify their dating as well as cultural dependencies.

Palestinian radiocarbon dating: a reply to James Mellaart

Antiquity ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 54 (210) ◽  
pp. 21-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Weinstein
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Near East ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
As If

James Mellaart’s attempt to demonstrate a ‘high’ chronology for Egypt and the Near East for the period of c. 4000-1500 BC will undoubtedly stimulate much discussion among historians and archaeologists. He has forcefully pointed out various problems which have arisen in trying to reconcile the standard historical chronologies established between and within individual countries. It is probably true that some scholars have treated the so-called ‘middle’ chronology as if it was almost sacred, and certainly some individuals have ignored radiocarbon dates (especially calibrated dates) if they appeared to be in conflict with results obtained from traditional historical and archaeological sources. But neither these faults, nor others pointed out by the author, justify his own methods of trying to demolish the middle chronology in favour of a significantly higher one. Since elsewhere in this issue Barry Kemp is presenting a critical review of Mellaart’s Egyptian historical data, and has included some remarks on the Egyptian radiocarbon dates, I will restrict my own remarks here largely to the Palestinian radiocarbon materials, and will only comment on the Egyptian C14 dates as they pertain to Palestinian Early Bronze Age chronology.

A contextual approach to the interpretation of the early Bronze Age skeletons of the East Anglian Fens

Antiquity ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 72 (275) ◽  
pp. 188-197
Author(s):  
Jo Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Contextual Approach ◽  
Prehistoric Burials

The fenland peats of eastern England have produced some 36 prehistoric burials, whose distinctive associations place them into the early Bronze Age–just sufficient for pattern to be evident in their placing and character.

scholarly journals Southern Palestinian Chronology: Two Radiocarbon Dates for the Early Bronze Age at Tell El-Hesi (Israel)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger W Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates

Several articles reporting radiocarbon dates of Early Bronze Age (EB) material from excavations in the southern Levant have been published over the last 30 yr. The excavations conducted at Tell el-Hesi have produced material from which 2 additional 14C dates have been extracted to date. The 2 samples confirm the EB dating of Field VI material and suggest EB III settlement at Hesi might be earlier than previously reported based on pottery typology.

scholarly journals The Beginning of the Early Bronze Age in the North Jordan Valley: New14C Determinations from Pella in Jordan

Radiocarbon ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 905-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Bourke ◽  
Ugo Zoppi ◽  
John Meadows ◽  
Quan Hua ◽  
Samantha Gibbins
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Jordan Valley ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The North ◽  
Precursor Phase ◽  
Chalcolithic Period ◽  
Early Phases ◽  
Ams Dates

This article reports on 10 new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates from early phases of the Early Bronze Age at the long-lived settlement of Pella (modern Tabaqat Fahl) in the north Jordan Valley. The new AMS dates fall between 3400 and 2800 cal BC, and support a recent suggestion that all Chalcolithic period occupation had ceased by 3800/3700 cal BC at the latest (Bourke et al. 2004b). Other recently published Early Bronze Age14C data strongly supports this revisionist scenario, suggesting that the earliest phase of the Early Bronze Age (EBA I) occupied much of the 4th millennium cal BC (3800/3700 to 3100/3000 cal BC). As this EB I period in the Jordan Valley is generally viewed as the key precursor phase in the development of urbanism (Joffe 1993), this revisionist chronology has potentially radical significance for understanding both the nature and speed of the move from village settlement towards a complex urban lifeway.

DEATH BY COMBAT AT THE DAWN OF THE BRONZE AGE? PROFILING THE DAGGER-ACCOMPANIED BURIAL FROM RACTON, WEST SUSSEX

2017 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 65-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Needham ◽  
James Kenny ◽  
Garrard Cole ◽  
Janet Montgomery ◽  
Mandy Jay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
North West ◽  
Limited Efficacy ◽  
Elite Level ◽  
Protein Rich ◽  
Left Humerus ◽  
The Bronze Age

A previously unresearched Early Bronze Age dagger-grave found in 1989 at Racton, West Sussex, is profiled here through a range of studies. The dagger, the only grave accompaniment, is of the ‘transitional’ Ferry Fryston type, this example being of bronze rather than copper. Bayesian analysis of relevant radiocarbon dates is used to refine the chronology of the earliest bronze in Britain. While the Ferry Fryston type was current in the earlier half of the twenty-second centurybc, the first butt-riveted bronze daggers did not emerge until the second half. The Racton dagger is also distinguished by its elaborate rivet-studded hilt, an insular innovation with few parallels.The excavated skeleton was that of a senior male, buried according to the appropriate rites of the time. Isotopic profiling shows an animal-protein rich diet that is typical for the period, but also the likelihood that he was brought up in a region of older silicate sedimentary rocks well to the west or north west of Racton. He had suffered injury at or close to the time of death; a slice through the distal end of his left humerus would have been caused by a fine-edged blade, probably a dagger. Death as a result of combat-contested leadership is explored in the light of other injuries documented among Early Bronze Age burials. Codified elite-level combat could help to explain the apparent incongruity between the limited efficacy of early dagger forms and their evident weapon-status.

scholarly journals Chronology of the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant: New Analysis for a High Chronology

Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 525-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Regev ◽  
Pierre De Miroschedji ◽  
Raphael Greenberg ◽  
Eliot Braun ◽  
Zvi Greenhut ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Bayesian Modeling ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Given

The chronology of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in the southern Levant and the synchronization between the sites, considering seriation and radiocarbon dates, have shown large inconsistencies and disagreement. We have assembled 42014C dates, most of them previously published and a few provided directly by the excavators. The dates have been re-evaluated on the basis of their archaeological context and using analytical criteria. Bayesian modeling has been applied to the selected dates in relation to the given seriation of the EBA subperiods (EB I, II III, IV). Sites with 2 or more sequential sub-phases were individually modeled in order to define the transitions between the subperiods. The new chronology indicates that the EB I–II transition occurred site-dependently between 3200–2900 BC, with EB II–III around 2900 BC, and EB III–IV ∼2500 BC.

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