scholarly journals Central Sites and the Development of Rural Settlements from the Middle to Late La Tène Period in Central Moravia

2021 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 197-236
Author(s):  
Ivan Čižmář ◽  
Alžběta Danielisová

At a certain point in time, there were two central places in central Moravia: an older unfortified central agglomeration near the present-day village of Němčice nad Hanou and a younger oppidum at Staré Hradisko. Each of this centres had its own approach to raw materials, orientation of the socio-economic contacts, and possibly political focus as well. Němčice, being located at one of the main branches of the Amber Road, connected the Middle Danube area from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic; Staré Hradisko eventually expanded these contacts into a systematic trade network, being under the strong influence of the Bohemian region with links to Bavaria. During the LT C2, in addition to the location of the central place, changes took place in terms of material culture and settlement strategies in the region. This was further accentuated in LT D1 by the shift of settlements towards the west, to the vicinity of the oppidum and, at the same time, vacation of the corridor around the Morava River. In an attempt to chronologically assess the settlement pattern, it became evident how important it is to define, as precisely as possible, the dating of individual sites. This was only possible thanks to the detailed and extensive study of the material available (Čižmář 2018). Thanks to precise dating of settlements and classification based on the new chronology, the seemingly illogical group of settlements in central Moravia revealed a distinct settlement network which, in particular during the period contemporary with the oppidum, allows us to see the significant changes in the number of sites and in the orientation of long-distance contacts that were possibly associated with historical events.

Land ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jody Gordon

During the Early Roman period in the Mediterranean (ca. 30 BC–330 AD), the key central places that distinguished socio-political landscapes were towns. These urban centers functioned as economic and administrative focal points that were controlled by local elites who oversaw wealth redistribution and maintained a dialectical relationship with Rome that mutually benefitted both parties. Yet, beyond providing such rudimentary observations, central place theory has recently been revised to examine how local factors, such as a place’s long-term geography and history, intersect with globalizing ones to transform settlement hierarchies as well as economic, political, and cultural landscapes. This article’s goal is to explore such intersections through a study of how port towns functioned as central places that connected globalized imperial networks to localized provincial ones within island contexts. It examines a range of material culture including, ceramics, architecture, prestige goods, and coinage from ports in Early Roman Cyprus in order to investigate how the island’s integration into Roman networks created central places that altered existing settlement types, hierarchies, and thus, local identities. Overall, this study shows how the reanalysis of central places within their unique geohistorical contexts can shed new light on both regional and state-level processes of cultural change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 602-629
Author(s):  
Elena V. Podzuban ◽  

The article introduces into the scholarship the collection of findings of prehistoric material culture obtained at Bestamak during the stationary studies of 2001 field season. The total area of the archaeological site is 260,000 m2. It was excavated by Turgay expedition in the 1980s. Bestamak settlement is situated on the Turgay trough connecting the West Siberian and Turan plains. In the west, the Turgay trough is bounded by the Trans-Ural Plateau; in the east — by the Kazakh upland and spurs of the Ulutau mountains. Natural and geographical features of Turgay trough allow for their cultural layers to mainly contain diachronous material, with Bestamak serving as an example. Due to this specificity, the collections of stone industry discovered in the monuments of the Turgay trough should be studied on the basis of technical and typological analysis, the main parameters of which being products of primary cleavage; morphological parameters of the plates, the size of plates and tools on the plates; percentage ratio of ingots and tools from plates and rock flakes; secondary processing methods; typological composition of tool kit. The composition of raw materials is used as an independent indicator. In the course of the research, the author concluded that the primary cleavage, nuclei “rejuvenation” and secondary processing of blanks were performed on the site of the settlement. Judging by the results of the technical and typological analysis, the stone industry was deposited from the end of the Mesolithic-the Early Neolithic to the Late Eneolithic. The Neolithic stone industries, starting from the early and late Eneolithic, are predominant at Bestamak. The presence of Mesolithic and Early Eneolithic stone industries on the site is just an assumption. Fragments of ceramics and metal products suggest that people stayed at Bestamak until Late Bronze.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lino Bianco

AbstractRuins are a statement on the building materials used and the construction method employed. Casa Ippolito, now in ruins, is typical of 17th-century Maltese aristocratic country residences. It represents an illustration of secondary or anthropogenic geodiversity. This paper scrutinises these ruins as a primary source in reconstructing the building’s architecture. The methodology involved on-site geographical surveying, including visual inspection and non-invasive tests, a geological survey of the local lithostratigraphy, and examination of notarial deeds and secondary sources to support findings about the building’s history as read from its ruins. An unmanned aerial vehicle was used to digitally record the parlous state of the architectural structure and karsten tubes were used to quantify the surface porosity of the limestone. The results are expressed from four perspectives. The anatomy of Casa Ippolito, as revealed in its ruins, provides a cross-section of its building history and shows two distinct phases in its construction. The tissue of Casa Ippolito—the building elements and materials—speaks of the knowledge of raw materials and their properties among the builders who worked on both phases. The architectural history of Casa Ippolito reveals how it supported its inhabitants’ wellbeing in terms of shelter, water and food. Finally, the ruins in their present state bring to the fore the site’s potential for cultural tourism. This case study aims to show that such ruins are not just geocultural remains of historical built fabric. They are open wounds in the built structure; they underpin the anatomy of the building and support insights into its former dynamics. Ruins offer an essay in material culture and building physics. Architectural ruins of masonry structures are anthropogenic discourse rendered in stone which facilitate not only the reconstruction of spaces but also places for human users; they are a statement on the wellbeing of humanity throughout history.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-52
Author(s):  
Sam Harper ◽  
Ian Waina ◽  
Ambrose Chalarimeri ◽  
Sven Ouzman ◽  
Martin Porr ◽  
...  

This paper explores identity and the recursive impacts of cross-cultural colonial encounters on individuals, cultural materials, and cultural practices in 20th-century northern Australia. We focus on an assemblage of cached metal objects and associated cultural materials that embody both Aboriginal tradition and innovation. These cultural materials were wrapped in paperbark and placed within a ring of stones, a bundling practice also seen in human burials in this region. This ‘cache' is located in close proximity to rockshelters with rich, superimposed Aboriginal rock art compositions. However, the cache shelter has no visible art, despite available wall space. The site shows the utilisation of metal objects as new raw materials that use traditional techniques to manufacture a ground edge metal axe and to sharpen metal rods into spears. We contextualise these objects and their hypothesised owner(s) within narratives of invasion/contact and the ensuing pastoral history of this region. Assemblage theory affords us an appropriate theoretical lens through which to bring people, places, objects, and time into conversation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Christina Torres-Rouff ◽  
Gonzalo Pimentel ◽  
William J. Pestle ◽  
Mariana Ugarte ◽  
Kelly J. Knudson

Camelid pastoralism, agriculture, sedentism, surplus production, increasing cultural complexity, and interregional interaction during northern Chile's Late Formative period (AD 100–400) are seen in the flow of goods and people over expanses of desert. Consolidating evidence of material culture from these interactions with a bioarchaeological dimension allows us to provide details about individual lives and patterns in the Late Formative more generally. Here, we integrate a variety of skeletal, chemical, and archaeological data to explore the life and death of a small child (Calate-3N.7). By taking a multiscalar approach, we present a narrative that considers not only the varied materiality that accompanies this child but also what the child's life experience was and how this reflects and shapes our understanding of the Late Formative period in northern Chile. This evidence hints at the profound mobility of their youth. The complex mortuary context reflects numerous interactions and long-distance relationships. Ultimately, the evidence speaks to deep social relations between two coastal groups, the Atacameños and Tarapaqueños. Considering this suite of data, we can see a child whose life was spent moving through desert routes and perhaps also glimpse the construction of intercultural identity in the Formative period.


2004 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 922-933 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Gallant ◽  
C H Bérubé ◽  
E Tremblay ◽  
L Vasseur

The objective of this study was to examine the foraging behaviour of the beaver (Castor canadensis Kuhl, 1820) and to explain its selection of terrestrial woody plant species according to central place foraging theory. Limitations in variety of food items in most studies with regard to size and (or) distance from the central place and information on availability of forage choices give a partial view of the subject. In this study, the theory is tested in a natural environment with high variability in food items with regard to these factors. Foraging choices by beavers were inspected by measuring variables on cut and uncut trees of every species encountered within 1 m of trail systems made by 25 beaver colonies in Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick, Canada, thereby quantifying the availability of the different food items. The effect of habitat quality (food availability) on the foraging behaviour of beavers was also tested. The results of this study suggest that with increasing distance from the pond, beavers in high-quality habitats selected fewer, but larger, trees and are more species selective. This selectivity was diminished in habitats of lower quality. The results of this study are consistent with the predictions of the central foraging theory.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jessica Z. Metcalfe ◽  
John W. Ives ◽  
Sabrina Shirazi ◽  
Kevin P. Gilmore ◽  
Jennifer Hallson ◽  
...  

The Promontory caves (Utah) and Franktown Cave (Colorado) contain high-fidelity records of short-term occupations by groups with material culture connections to the Subarctic/Northern Plains. This research uses Promontory and Franktown bison dung, hair, hide, and bone collagen to establish local baseline carbon isotopic variability and identify leather from a distant source. The ankle wrap of one Promontory Cave 1 moccasin had a δ13C value that indicates a substantial C4 component to the animal's diet, unlike the C3 diets inferred from 171 other Promontory and northern Utah bison samples. We draw on a unique combination of multitissue isotopic analysis, carbon isoscapes, ancient DNA (species and sex identification), tissue turnover rates, archaeological contexts, and bison ecology to show that the high δ13C value was not likely a result of local plant consumption, bison mobility, or trade. Instead, the bison hide was likely acquired via long-distance travel to/from an area of abundant C4 grasses far to the south or east. Expansive landscape knowledge gained through long-distance associations would have allowed Promontory caves inhabitants to make well-informed decisions about directions and routes of movement for a territorial shift, which seems to have occurred in the late thirteenth century.


Antiquity ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Mila Andonova ◽  
Vassil Nikolov

Evidence for both basket weaving and salt production is often elusive in the prehistoric archaeological record. An assemblage of Middle–Late Chalcolithic pottery from Provadia-Solnitsata in Bulgaria provides insight into these two different technologies and the relationship between them. The authors analyse sherds from vessels used in large-scale salt production, the bases of which bear the impression of woven mats. This analysis reveals the possible raw materials used in mat weaving at Provadia-Solnitsata and allows interpretation of the role of these mats in salt production at the site. The results illustrate how it is possible to see the ‘invisible’ material culture of prehistoric south-eastern Europe and its importance for production and consumption.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-96
Author(s):  
Lailah Fujianti ◽  
Shinta Budi Astuti ◽  
Rizki Ramadhan Putra Yasa

Abstrak   Kemuning adalah desa di kecamatan Ngargoyoso, Kabupaten Karanganyar, Provinsi Jawa Tengah. Secara geografis batas Desa Kemuning  sebelah barat berbatasan dengan Desa Ngargoyoso, sebelah timur berbatasan dengan Desa Segoro Gunung, sebelah Utara  berbatasan Kecamatan Jenawi dan sebelah selatan berbatasan Desa Girimulyo. Desa ini memiliki Misi yang ingin diwujudkan  yaitu Desa Wisata. Pemerintah setempat  memberikan pelatihan untuk membuat produk inovatif guna melengkapi kebutuhan sebagai desa wisata kepada pelaku UMKM dan Penrajin. Produk Inovatif tersebut akan dijual kepada pengunjung wisata sebagai oleh-oleh. Akan tetapi pelaku UMKM dan Penrajin memiliki kelemahan pembukuan usaha terlebih lagi dalam penetuan biaya produksi produk inovatif. Mereka hanya memperhitungkan biaya bahan baku sebagai komponen biaya produksi.   Tim pengabdian FEB Universitas melaksanakan pengabdian  untuk memberikan materi mengenai konsep perhitungan biaya produksi yang dilakukan dengan interaktif.     Kata Kunci: Desa Kemuning, Harga Pokok Poduksi, Smart Village   Abstract:  Kemuning Villages is one of the villages located in Ngargoyoso district, Karanganyar Regency, Central Java Province. Geographically, Kemuning Village is bordered to the west by Ngargoyoso Village, to the east by Segoro Gunung Village, to the north by Jenawi District and to the south by Girimulyo Village. Kemuning village has a mission to be realized, namely the Tourism Village. The local government provides training to make innovative products to complement the needs of a tourism village for MSMEs and craftsmen. These innovative products will be sold to tourist visitors as souvenirs. However, SMEs and craftsmen have weaknesses in business bookkeeping, especially in determining the cost of producing innovative products. They only take into account the cost of raw materials as a component of production costs. The Team from FEB University Pancasila carried out the service to provide material on the concept of calculating production costs which was carried out interactively.     Keywords: Desa Kemuning, Cost of Good Sold, Smart Village


Author(s):  
Peter S. Wells ◽  
Naoise Mac Sweeney

Iron Age Europe, once studied as a relatively closed, coherent continent, is being seen increasingly as a dynamic part of the much larger, interconnected world. Interactions, direct and indirect, with communities in Asia, Africa, and, by the end of the first millennium AD, North America, had significant effects on the peoples of Iron Age Europe. In the Near East and Egypt, and much later in the North Atlantic, the interactions can be linked directly to historically documented peoples and their rulers, while in temperate Europe the evidence is exclusively archaeological until the very end of the prehistoric Iron Age. The evidence attests to often long-distance interactions and their effects in regard to the movement of peoples, and the introduction into Europe of raw materials, crafted objects, styles, motifs, and cultural practices, as well as the ideas that accompanied them.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document