Rezultate preliminare ale cercetărilor geofizice și de teledetecţie de la Coldău, jud. Bistriţa Năsăud / Preliminary results of the geophysical and teledetection researches at Coldău, Bistrița Năsăud

2018 ◽  
pp. 93-102
Author(s):  
Dan Ștefan ◽  
Alexandru Popa
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Magnetic Anomalies ◽  
Entire Surface ◽  
The Past ◽  
Small Density ◽  
Geophysical Anomalies ◽  
The Bronze Age

The study presents the results of a series of interdisciplinary researches conducted in the area of Coldău fortification, especially through methods specific for aerial archaeology of low and medium altitude, as well as geophysical measurements and investigations. These were meant to complete the already known data from previous archaeological diggings conducted by N. Vlassa in 1967. The fortification’s rampart is not visible in height, but is marked on the surface with quite visible, large, brown or brick-red boulders. Their structure is very different of the soil’s matrix. The boulders have a high density, compact texture, many gaseous inclusions and a glass-like gloss. A first evaluation of the fortification system was done through measuring the soil’s magnetic susceptibility (2012). Later (2012, 2015) the geophysical studies were continued on larger surfaces, by using magnetometry. The site at Coldău belongs to the wider frame of vitrified forts. These stand out by having, inside the rampart, a nucleus that went through strong structural changes due to extreme thermic conditions. Both the rampart and the surrounding ditch are well visible in the magnetic map processed during our researches. The geophysical data show that they both had the same dimensions throughout the entire surface we measured: the ditch was approx. 8 m wide and the rampart approx. 11 m. The fortification system is not the only element that requires reopening the discussion about the site at Coldău. Based on the magnetometric maps one can easily notice that the inner part of the site does not totally lack magnetic anomalies. These are quite many in the western part of the site. They could be interpreted as traces of degraded prehistoric complexes. Nevertheless, the small density of these magnetic anomalies does not offer proper support for any scenery in which the site could have been the host of intense human activity in the past. In order to decode the role of the fortification at Coldău in the economic and cultural landscape of this region at the end of the Bronze Age we need to conduct further interdisciplinary researches and, maybe even extend the archaeological diggings, especially in the areas where we already detected geophysical anomalies.

scholarly journals 8,000 years of climate, vegetation, fire and land-use dynamics in the thermo-mediterranean vegetation belt of northern Sardinia (Italy)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiziana Pedrotta ◽  
Erika Gobet ◽  
Christoph Schwörer ◽  
Giorgia Beffa ◽  
Christoph Butz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Juglans Regia ◽  
Fire Disturbance ◽  
Lake Productivity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Evergreen Oak ◽  
The Bronze Age

AbstractKnowledge about the vegetation history of Sardinia, the second largest island of the Mediterranean, is scanty. Here, we present a new sedimentary record covering the past ~ 8,000 years from Lago di Baratz, north-west Sardinia. Vegetation and fire history are reconstructed by pollen, spores, macrofossils and charcoal analyses and environmental dynamics by high-resolution element geochemistry together with pigment analyses. During the period 8,100–7,500 cal bp, when seasonality was high and fire and erosion were frequent, Erica arborea and E. scoparia woodlands dominated the coastal landscape. Subsequently, between 7,500 and 5,500 cal bp, seasonality gradually declined and thermo-mediterranean woodlands with Pistacia and Quercus ilex partially replaced Erica communities under diminished incidence of fire. After 5,500 cal bp, evergreen oak forests expanded markedly, erosion declined and lake levels increased, likely in response to increasing (summer) moisture availability. Increased anthropogenic fire disturbance triggered shrubland expansions (e.g. Tamarix and Pistacia) around 5,000–4,500 cal bp. Subsequently around 4,000–3,500 cal bp evergreen oak-olive forests expanded massively when fire activity declined and lake productivity and anoxia reached Holocene maxima. Land-use activities during the past 4,000 years (since the Bronze Age) gradually disrupted coastal forests, but relict stands persisted under rather stable environmental conditions until ca. 200 cal bp, when agricultural activities intensified and Pinus and Eucalyptus were planted to stabilize the sand dunes. Pervasive prehistoric land-use activities since at least the Bronze Age Nuraghi period included the cultivation of Prunus, Olea europaea and Juglans regia after 3,500–3,300 cal bp, and Quercus suber after 2,500 cal bp. We conclude that restoring less flammable native Q. ilex and O. europaea forest communities would markedly reduce fire risk and erodibility compared to recent forest plantations with flammable non-native trees (e.g. Pinus, Eucalyptus) and xerophytic shrubland (e.g. Cistus, Erica).

scholarly journals Seeing Children in Prehistory: A View from Bronze Age Ireland

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Mark Haughton
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Past ◽  
Written Sources

Despite growing strength in recent decades, an archaeology of childhood has often been overlooked by those studying prehistory. This is concerning because communities are enlivened by their children, and conversations with and about children often provide a critical arena for the discussion of aspects of societies which prehistorians are comfortable addressing, such as social structure, identity and personhood. Through an exploration of childhood as expressed in the Earlier Bronze Age burials from Ireland, this article demonstrates that neither written sources, artistic depictions nor toys are necessary to speak of children in the past. Indeed, an approach which tacks between scales reveals subtle trends in the treatment of children which speak to wider shared concerns and allows a reflection on the role of children in prehistory.

scholarly journals Non-discursive Knowledge and the Construction of Identity Potters, Potting and Performance at the Bronze Age Tell of Százhalombatta, Hungary

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Budden ◽  
Joanna Sofaer
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
Differential Acquisition ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Bronze Age

This article explores the relationship between the making of things and the making of people at the Bronze Age tell at Százhalombatta, Hungary. Focusing on potters and potting, we explore how the performance of non-discursive knowledge was critical to the construction of social categories. Potters literally came into being as potters through repeated bodily enactment of potting skills. Potters also gained their identity in the social sphere through the connection between their potting performance and their audience. We trace degrees of skill in the ceramic record to reveal the material articulation of non-discursive knowledge and consider the ramifications of the differential acquisition of non-discursive knowledge for the expression of different kinds of potter's identities. The creation of potters as a social category was essential to the ongoing creation of specific forms of material culture. We examine the implications of altered potters' performances and the role of non-discursive knowledge in the construction of social models of the Bronze Age.

Reform in the Rail and Electricity sectors in Russia: Restructuring, Competition and the Ministry for Antimonopoly Policy

2003 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Pittman
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
International Experience ◽  
State Ownership ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Control ◽  
Two Sectors

The Russian Federation is in the process of making major structural changes to its railway and electricity sectors. Both sectors will be at least partly vertically disintegrated, with the aim of creating competition in the “upstream” sector while maintaining state ownership and control of the monopoly “grid”. This paper examines the details of reform and restructuring in the context of the international experience with reform and restructuring in these two sectors, and considers the role of the Ministry for Antimonopoly Policy in reform, both in the past as an “advocate for competition” within the government, and in the future as the guarantor of non-discriminatory access to the grids by non-integrated upstream producers.

scholarly journals New evidence for prehistoric copper metallurgy in the vicinity of Bor

Starinar ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 173-191
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Kapuran ◽  
Dragana Zivkovic ◽  
Nada Strbac
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Copper Ore ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Metallurgical Furnaces ◽  
Copper Metallurgy ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
The Bronze Age

The last three years of archaeological investigations at the site Ru`ana in Banjsko Polje, in the immediate vicinity of Bor, have provided new evidence regarding the role of non-ferrous metallurgy in the economy of the prehistoric communities of north-eastern Serbia. The remains of metallurgical furnaces and a large amount of metallic slags at two neighbouring sites in the mentioned settlement reveal that locations with many installations for the thermal processing of copper ore existed in the Bronze Age. We believe, judging by the finds of material culture, that metallurgical activities in this area also continued into the Iron Age and, possibly, into the 4th century AD.

scholarly journals Redefining the role of metal production during the Bronze Age of south-eastern Iberia. The mines of eastern Sierra Morena

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 138-153
Author(s):  
Luis Arboledas-Martínez ◽  
Eva Alarcón-García
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
New Mineral ◽  
Metal Production ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Sierra Morena ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Metallurgical Activities

Researchers have traditionally paid little attention to mining by Bronze Age communities in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula. This has changed recently due to the identification of new mineral exploitations from this period during the archaeo-mining surveys carried out in the Rumblar and Jándula valleys in the Sierra Morena Mountains between 2009-2014, as well as the excavation of the José Martín Palacios mine (Baños de la Encina, Jaén). The analysis of the archaeological evidence and the archaeometric results reveal the importance of mining and metallurgical activities undertaken by the communities that inhabited the region between 2200 and 900 cal. BC, when it became one of the most important copper and silver production centers during the Late Prehistory of south-eastern Iberia.

A survey of instrumented indentation studies on metallic glasses

2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.A. Schuh ◽  
T.G. Nieh
Keyword(s):  
Metallic Glasses ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Shear Banding ◽  
Depth Sensing ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Fundamental Physics ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rate Dependent

The development of instrumented nanoindentation equipment has occurred concurrently with the discovery of many new families of bulk metallic glass during the past decade. While indentation testing has long been used to assess the mechanical properties of metallic glasses, depth-sensing capabilities offer a new approach to study the fundamental physics behind glass deformation. This article is a succinct review of the research to date on the indentation of metallic glasses. In addition to standard hardness measurements, the onset of plasticity in metallic glasses is reviewed as well as the role of shear banding in indentation, structural changes beneath the indenter, and rate-dependent effects measured by nanoindentation. The article concludes with perspectives about the future directions for nanocontact studies on metallic glasses.

Excavations at Mad Mans Window, Glenarm, Co. Antrim: Problems of Flint Exploitation in East Antrim

1992 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. C. Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Narrow Strip ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Flat Side ◽  
Neolithic Age ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Basalt Plateau ◽  
The Bronze Age

This study examines the archaeological significance of the material from a group of Neolithic chipping floors rescued during the rebuilding of the Antrim coast road, at Mad Mans Window, south of Glenarm, Co. Antrim. It shows that the lithic production strategies vary significantly between assemblages although it is presumed that they are all Neolithic in date and come from the same area of coast. It is apparent that flint axe production was of limited importance on these sites and that in spite of the abundance of flint available along the Antrim coast, relatively few polished flint axes were manufactured. Instead the numerous flint caches found in adjacent parts of the north-east of Ireland tend to produce scrapers and blades. Hoards containing arrowheads may be confined to the Bronze Age.Around 300 polished flint axes and roughouts are known from Ireland. These are frequently small and only partially polished. A limited number of highly polished axes with ground flat side facets have been designated sub-type A. The tendency to use porcellanite rather than flint for axe manufacture may be due to its ability to withstand robust shock.During the last 100 years, the role of flint as a key resource in the stone age of north-eastern Ireland has always been recognized but this has usually led to an uncritical assumption as to the paramount importance of flint. Work in recent years has shown that its significance in attracting and retaining Mesolithic settlement may have been over-emphasized.The role of the flint industries in the Irish Neolithic in this region has never been properly assessed, either in relation to older Mesolithic manufacturing traditions or in the broader context of supply to the Neolithic communities of this part of Ireland.In particular, good or even reasonable quality flint is usually only exposed in Cretaceous outcrops along a narrow strip on the edge of the basalt plateau and, therefore, has a very limited availability in parts of Co. Antrim as well as parts of Counties Down and Deny. As a contrast, erratic and beach flint is available in some quantity down the east coast of Ireland from Co. Down to Wexford. A second potential constraining factor is that unlike Britain, where flint was exploited for axe manufacture in the east and other rocks in the west, flint sources and porcellanite for axe manufacturing are both found adjacent to each other in the same corner of Co. Antrim. In particular, a number of more substantial chipping floors of Neolithic age are known, e.g. the opencast quarry sites at Ballygalley Head. The purpose of this study is to assess the role of flint production on the Antrim coast with particular reference to its significance in the Neolithic. This topic will be developed in the context of an analysis of the material found at Mad Mans Window near Glenarm.

scholarly journals Excavation of an urned cremation burial of the Bronze Age, Glennan, Argyll and Bute

2003 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin MacGregor ◽  
Jennifer Miller ◽  
Julie Roberts ◽  
Michael Donnelly ◽  
Gary Tompsett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Joint Disease ◽  
Section 8 ◽  
Research Division ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Animal Bone ◽  
National Museums ◽  
The Bronze Age

As part of the Historic Scotland Human Remains Call Off Contract, Glasgow Univ ersity Archaeological Research Division (GUARD)undertook an archaeological excavation of a prehistoric urned cremation deposit within a boulder shelter at Glennan, Kilmartin, Argyll and Bute (NGR NM86220097). Analysis has shown the cremation was of a male probably aged between 25 and 40 years. He had suffered from slight spinal joint disease, and mild iron deficiency anaemia, though neither seems likely to have affected his general health. He was cremated shortly after death, together with a young sheep/goat, and their remains were subsequently picked from the pyre and co-mingled before burial in the urn. An unburnt retouched flint flake was recovered which may have accompanied the burial. The closest parallels for the cremation container are found within the tradition of Enlarged Food Vessel urns, a tradition that is poorly dated but probably has a currency in the first half of the second millennium BC. Radiocarbon dating was problematic: a sample of heather-type charcoal from the fill of the urn was dated and provided a range of cal AD1260-1390 at 2 sigma (OxA-10281). A second date was obtained from a sample of hazel charcoal from the lowest part of the fill of the urn, which provided a range of 3370-2920 cal BC at 2 sigma (GU-9598). There are sufficient examples of animal bone previously found accompanying Bronze Age burials to suggest that animals may have had a role in mortuary rites before burial of human remains, though the role and status of these animal remains is not always clear. Although the sample is small, the evidence suggests that, depending on the burial rite, some species of animals were considered more appropriate than others for inclusion; pigs associated with inhumation and goat/sheep associated with cremation burials. The choice of a domesticated animal to accompany the mortuary rites may have been of significance during a period when agro-pastural farming was being widely practiced, and may reflect the perceived inter-relationship between the cultural landscape of people and their livestock. The context of deposition of an Enlarged Food Vessel urn at Glennan, in a boulder shelter in the uplands, provides an interesting contrast with the known deposition of Food Vessels focused on the valley floor at Kilmartin. It indicates that while many of the more visible ceremonial and funerary sites of the second millennium BC may focus on the floor of the glen, other parts of the landscape were also significant in terms of such activities.POSTSCRIPT The cremated bone from the Glennan urn, that had previously given some problematic dates (Report Section 8) has now (March 2004) produced a result of 3615+/-35BP (GrA-24861). At 2130-1880 calBC (2-sigma), this is well within the range of dates for such Vase Urns. The author of SAIR 8 acknowledges the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for funding this radiocarbon date and the National Museums of Scotland Dating Cremated Bone Project (especially Dr Alison Sheridan) for organising it.

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