scholarly journals Silver Isotopes in Silver Suggest Phoenician Innovation in Metal Production

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 741
Author(s):  
Tzilla Eshel ◽  
Ofir Tirosh ◽  
Naama Yahalom-Mack ◽  
Ayelet Gilboa ◽  
Yigal Erel
Keyword(s):  
Isotopic Composition ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
The West ◽  
Metal Production ◽  
Ore Minerals ◽  
Pb Isotopic Composition ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Silver Isotopes

The current study presents Ag isotopic values of 45 silver artifacts with known Pb isotopic composition from the Southern Levant. These items originate from seven pre-coinage silver hoards, dating from the Middle Bronze Age IIC to the end of the Iron Age (~1650–600 BCE). These are the earliest silver artifacts analyzed for Ag isotopes; all former studies were performed on coins. All the sampled silver in this study contains relatively unfractionated Ag (−2 ≤ ε109Ag ≤ 1.5) that was more likely produced from hypogene, primary Ag-bearing minerals (e.g., galena and jarosite) and not from native, supergene silver. Four of the sampled hoards containing silver from Anatolia and the West Mediterranean (Iberia and Sardinia) are associated with the Phoenician quest for silver (~950–700 BCE). A significant amount of this Phoenician silver (12/28 items) plots within a narrower range of −0.5 ≤ ε109Ag ≤ 0.5. This is in contrast to non-Phoenician silver, which mostly underwent some degree of fractionation (16/17 items ε109Ag ≥ I0.5I). The results suggest that while all silver was exploited from primary ore sources, the Phoenicians dug deeper into the deposits, reaching ore minerals that did not undergo any weathering-associated fractionation. The results also call for further investigation regarding the influence of sealing and bundling in silver hoards on post-depositional fractionation of Ag isotopes.

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.

scholarly journals Vegetation and Climate Changes during the Bronze and Iron Ages (∼3600–600 BCE) in the Southern Levant Based on Palynological Records

Radiocarbon ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dafna Langgut ◽  
Israel Finkelstein ◽  
Thomas Litt ◽  
Frank Harald Neumann ◽  
Mordechai Stein
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Anthropogenic Activity ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

This article presents the role of climate fluctuations in shaping southern Levantine human history from 3600 to 600 BCE (the Bronze and Iron Ages) as evidenced in palynological studies. This time interval is critical in the history of the region; it includes two phases of rise and decline of urban life, organization of the first territorial kingdoms, and domination of the area by great Ancient Near Eastern empires. The study is based on a comparison of several fossil pollen records that span a north-south transect of 220 km along the southern Levant: Birkat Ram in the northern Golan Heights, Sea of Galilee, and Ein Feshkha and Ze'elim Gully both on the western shore of the Dead Sea. The vegetation history and its climatic implications are as follows: during the Early Bronze Age I (∼3600–3000 BCE) climate conditions were wet; a minor reduction in humidity was documented during the Early Bronze Age II–III (∼3000–2500 BCE). The Intermediate Bronze Age (∼2500–1950 BCE) was characterized by moderate climate conditions, however, since ∼2000 BCE and during the Middle Bronze Age I (∼1950–1750 BCE) drier climate conditions were prevalent, while the Middle Bronze Age II–III (∼1750–1550 BCE) was comparably wet. Humid conditions continued in the early phases of the Late Bronze Age, while towards the end of the period and down to ∼1100 BCE the area features the driest climate conditions in the timespan reported here; this observation is based on the dramatic decrease in arboreal vegetation. During the period of ∼1100–750 BCE, which covers most of the Iron Age I (∼1150–950 BCE) and the Iron Age IIA (∼950–780 BCE), an increase in Mediterranean trees was documented, representing wetter climate conditions, which followed the severe dry phase of the end of the Late Bronze Age. The decrease in arboreal percentages, which characterize the Iron Age IIB (∼780–680 BCE) and Iron Age IIC (∼680–586 BCE), could have been caused by anthropogenic activity and/or might have derived from slightly drier climate conditions. Variations in the distribution of cultivated olive trees along the different periods resulted from human preference and/or changes in the available moisture.

scholarly journals Animal husbandry from the Middle Bronze Age through the Iron Age in the Shephelah—faunal remains from the new excavations at Lachish

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shyama Vermeersch ◽  
Simone Riehl ◽  
Britt M. Starkovich ◽  
Katharina Streit ◽  
Felix Höflmayer
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Faunal Analysis ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
Iron Age Ii ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Synchronic Comparison

AbstractLachish (Tell ed-Duweir) is located in the southern part of the Judean foothills, known as the Shephelah, and is one of the larger and most extensively excavated multi-period sites in the southern Levant. We present the faunal results of the first three seasons of the most recent excavations, the Austrian-Israeli Expedition to Tel Lachish. The expedition focusses on two areas of the tell encompassing the Middle Bronze Age III through the Iron Age II, area S (deep section) and area P (palace area). The aims for the faunal analysis are threefold: comparing the results between the two areas, seeing how our results compare to previous analyses, and comparing Lachish to other synchronous sites in the Shephelah. We observe differences in subsistence strategies between the areas in addition to diachronic differences. Ovicaprids dominate all assemblages, but we see shifts in the sheep to goat ratio and mortality profiles through time indicating changes in subsistence strategies. Our new results largely agree with the results from previous analyses, showing the value of previous studies and their potential compatibility with newer research. A synchronic comparison of Lachish within the Shephelah shows the occupants of the site were largely self-sufficient but possibly engaged in an exchange of resources in the vicinity.

The first religious buildings: ‘sacred huts’

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Hot Springs ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Religious Activity ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
The Bronze Age

The votive assemblages that form the primary archaeological evidence for non-funerary cult in the Neolithic, Bronze, and early Iron Ages in central Italy indicate that there is a long tradition of religious activity in Latium and Etruria in which buildings played no discernible role. Data on votive deposits in western central Italy is admittedly uneven: although many early votive assemblages from Latium have been widely studied and published, there are few Etruscan comparanda; of the more than two hundred Etruscan votive assemblages currently known from all periods, relatively few date prior to the fourth century BC, while those in museum collections are often no longer entire and suffer from a lack of detailed provenance as well as an absence of excavations in the vicinity of the original find. Nevertheless, it is possible to recognize broad patterns in the form and location of cult sites prior to the Iron Age, and thus to sketch the broader context of prehistoric rituals that pre-dated the construction of the first religious buildings. In the Neolithic period (c.6000–3500 BC), funerary and non-funerary rituals appear to have been observed in underground spaces such as caves, crevices, and rock shelters, and there are also signs that cults developed around ‘abnormal water’ like stalagmites, stalactites, hot springs, and pools of still water. These characteristics remain visible in the evidence from the middle Bronze Age (c.1700–1300 BC). Finds from this period at the Sventatoio cave in Latium include vases containing traces of wheat, barley seed cakes, and parts of young animals including pigs, sheep, and oxen, as well as burned remains of at least three children. The openair veneration of underground phenomena is also implied by the discovery of ceramic fragments from all phases of the Bronze Age around a sulphurous spring near the Colonelle Lake at Tivoli. Other evidence of cult activities at prominent points in the landscape, such as mountain tops and rivers, suggests that rituals began to lose an underground orientation during the middle Bronze Age. By the late Bronze Age (c.1300–900 BC) natural caves no longer seem to have served ritual or funerary functions.

The Expansion of Settlement (1100–250 BC)

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bradley ◽  
Colin Haselgrove ◽  
Marc Vander Linden ◽  
Leo Webley
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Basic Unit ◽  
Funerary Monuments ◽  
Main Metal ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Metal Artefacts ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

The previous chapter addressed an important period of change, but this would not have been apparent to the scholars who devised the Three Age Model. The most important developments between 1600 and 1100 BC were most clearly evidenced in the ancient landscape and registered to a smaller extent by the metalwork finds on which the traditional scheme depends. The same is true of the evidence considered in this chapter, for it cuts across the conventional distinction between the Bronze and Iron Ages. It begins in a period when bronze was still the main metal, but also considers a time when a new kind of raw material was employed. Similarly, it ends part way through the phase usually characterized as ‘Iron Age’, so that the drastic economic and political transformations that communities experienced in the late first millennium BC can be considered separately. These provide the subject of Chapter 7. By the late Bronze Age, evidence for settlements and houses is fairly abundant, and some sparsely used parts of the landscape were occupied for the first. This expansion—which continued into the Iron Age—is associated with new agricultural techniques and a wider range of crops. The nature of settlements suggests an emphasis on small household groups as the basic unit of society. New kinds of focal sites also appeared, which may have been used for assemblies and public ceremony. They include hillforts in upland regions, while other communal centres may have played the same role in lowland areas. Meanwhile, the trend towards less elaborate burial practices that had begun during the middle Bronze Age spread increasingly widely. Investment in funerary monuments was generally modest, and mortuary rituals displayed social distinctions in relatively subtle ways. While prestige objects were rarely placed with the dead, the deposition of metalwork in rivers and other places in the landscape increased. These metal artefacts have provided the basis for studies of long-distance interaction, and their styles have been used to define three geographically extensive traditions, in Atlantic, Nordic, and central Europe. Other ritual practices that developed during this time involved feasting and cooking.

scholarly journals There and back again: A zooarchaeological perspective on Early and Middle Bronze Age urbanism in the southern Levant

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. e0227255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane S. Gaastra ◽  
Tina L. Greenfield ◽  
Haskel J. Greenfield
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

The ceramics of centralisation and dissolution: a case study from Rough Cilicia

2007 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 141-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.N. Postgate
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Far East ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Control ◽  
The West ◽  
Administrative Practices ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
The Bronze Age

AbstractStarting from Kilise Tepe in the Göksu valley north of Silifke two phenomena in pre-Classical Anatolian ceramics are examined. One is the appearance at the end of the Bronze Age, or beginning of the Iron Age, of hand-made, often crude, wares decorated with red painted patterns. This is also attested in different forms at Boğazköy, and as far east as Tille on the Euphrates. In both cases it has been suggested that it may reflect the re-assertion of earlier traditions, and other instances of re-emergent ceramic styles are found at the end of the Bronze Age, both elsewhere in Anatolia and in Thessaly. The other phenomenon is the occurrence of ceramic repertoires which seem to coincide precisely with the frontiers of a polity. In Anatolia this is best recognised in the case of the later Hittite Empire. The salient characteristics of ‘Hittite’ shapes are standardised, from Boğazköy at the centre to Gordion in the west and Korucu Tepe in the east. This is often tacitly associated with Hittite political control, but how and why some kind of standardisation prevails has not often been addressed explicitly. Yet this is a recurring phenomenon, and in first millennium Anatolia similar standardised wares have been associated with both the Phrygian and the Urartian kingdoms. This paper suggests that we should associate it directly with the administrative practices of the regimes in question.

scholarly journals Radiocarbon Dating Shows an Early Appearance of Philistine Material Culture in Tell es-Safi/Gath, Philistia

Radiocarbon ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 825-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yotam Asscher ◽  
Dan Cabanes ◽  
Louise A Hitchcock ◽  
Aren M Maeir ◽  
Steve Weiner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Archaeological Artifacts

The Late Bronze Age to Iron Age transition in the coastal southern Levant involves a major cultural change, which is characterized, among other things, by the appearance of Philistine pottery locally produced in styles derived from outside the Levant. This transition in the coastal southern Levant is conventionally dated to the 12th century BC, based on historical and archaeological artifacts associated with the Philistine pottery. Radiocarbon dating can provide a more precise independent absolute chronology for this transition, but dating for the period under discussion is complicated by the wiggles and relatively flat slope in the calibration curve, which significantly reduce precision. An additional complication is that the stratigraphic record below and above the transition at this site, as well as at most other sites in the region, is far from complete. We thus used a variety of microarchaeological techniques to improve our understanding of the stratigraphy, and to ensure that the locations with datable short-lived materials were only derived from primary contexts, which could be related directly to the associated material culture. The 14C dates were modeled using Bayesian statistics that incorporate the stratigraphic information. Using this integrative approach, we date the appearance of the Philistine pottery in Tell es-Safi/Gath in the 13th century BC.

scholarly journals Early human impact on soils and hydro-sedimentary systems: Multi-proxy geoarchaeological analyses from La Narse de la Sauvetat (France)

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 1780-1800
Author(s):  
Alfredo Mayoral ◽  
Salomé Granai ◽  
Anne-Lise Develle ◽  
Jean-Luc Peiry ◽  
Yannick Miras ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Societal Factors ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

We analysed the late-Holocene pedo-sedimentary archives of La Narse de la Sauvetat, a hydromorphic depression in the southern Limagne plain (central France), where chronologically accurate studies are scarce. The multi-proxy geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental analysis of two cores from different areas of the basin was carried out through sedimentological, geochemical, micromorphological and malacological investigations. Integration of these datasets supported by a robust radiocarbon-based chronology allowed discussion of socio-environmental interactions and anthropogenic impacts from Late Neolithic to Early Middle Ages. Until the Middle Bronze Age, there was no clear evidence of anthropogenic impact on soils and hydro-sedimentary dynamics of the catchment, but two peaks of high alluvial activity probably related to the 4.2 and 3.5 kyr. BP climate events were first recorded in Limagne. Significant anthropogenic impacts started in the Late Bronze Age with increased erosion of the surrounding volcanic slopes. However, a major threshold was reached c. 2600 cal BP with a sharp increase in the catchment erosion interpreted as resulting from strong anthropogenic environmental changes related to agricultural activities and drainage. This implies an anthropogenic forcing on soils and hydro-sedimentary systems much earlier than was usually considered in Limagne. These impacts then gradually increased during Late Iron Age and Roman periods, but environmental effects were certainly contained by progress in agricultural management. Late Antiquity environmental changes are consistent with regional trend to drainage deterioration in lowlands, but marked asynchrony in this landscape change suggests that societal factors implying differential land management were certainly predominant here.

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