scholarly journals Cultivating Corpses: A Comparative Approach to Disembodied Mortuary Remains

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-104
Author(s):  
Anders Kaliff ◽  
Terje Oestigaard
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Mortuary Practice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Funeral Practices ◽  
Traditional Understanding

Disembodied remains of corpses are often found in the archaeological record but seldom interpreted and understood. This mortuary practice challenges our traditional understanding of funerals and what constitutcs a "grave". Through a comparative analysis of prehistoric Bronze Age and Iron Age mortuary remai ns and contemporary funeral practices in Nepal, it is argued that the disembodiment is a cosmogonic act whereby the corpse is an intrinsic part of the agricultural and hydrological cycle. An explicit combination of the past and present for interpretations of the past is a premise for understanding and knowledge production in archaeology, and this theoretical stance is developed and explored.

A Life Less Ordinary: the Ritualization of the Domestic Sphere in Later Prehistoric Europe

2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Social Archaeology ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Domestic Life ◽  
Contemporary Archaeology ◽  
The Past

This article, which is based on the fourteenth McDonald Lecture, considers two tensions in contemporary archaeology. One is between interpretations of specific structures, monuments and deposits as the result of either ‘ritual’ or ‘practical’ activities in the past, and the other is between an archaeology that focuses on subsistence and adaptation and one that emphasizes cognition, meaning, and agency. It suggests that these tensions arise from an inadequate conception of ritual itself. Drawing on recent studies of ritualization, it suggests that it might be more helpful to consider how aspects of domestic life took on special qualities in later prehistoric Europe. The discussion is based mainly on Neolithic enclosures and other monuments, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement sites and the Viereckschanzen of central Europe. It may have implications for field archaeology as well as social archaeology, and also for those who study the formation of the archaeological record.

Grave Structures and Altars: Archaeological Traces of Bronze Age Eschatological Conceptions

1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Kaliff
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Site ◽  
Mortuary Practice ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
Different Types ◽  
People’S Perceptions

Mortuary practice can be interpreted as a system of rituals based on people's perceptions of life and death. There is a great deal to suggest the prehistoric find sites we usually call cemeteries also had an important function as ritual sites. Several types of structure occurring at cemeteries from the late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age in southern Scandinavia favour a broader interpretation of these sites. This article is based on the results of the excavated ritual and burial site at Ringeby in Kvillinge parish, Östergötland, an excavation which was undertaken with the express purpose of studying the archaeology of religion. The article also includes a general discussion of the concept of ‘grave’ and different types of structure which can be interpreted as places for cults.

Dead Sea Levels during the Bronze and Iron Ages

Radiocarbon ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Joy Kagan ◽  
Dafna Langgut ◽  
Elisabetta Boaretto ◽  
Frank Herald Neumann ◽  
Mordechai Stein
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
The Past ◽  
Organic Debris ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead

The history of lake-level changes at the Dead Sea during the Holocene was determined mainly by radiocarbon dating of terrestrial organic debris. This article reviews the various studies that have been devoted over the past 2 decades to defining the Dead Sea levels during the Bronze and Iron Ages (≃5.5 to 2.5 ka cal BP) and adds new data and interpretation. In particular, we focus on research efforts devoted to refining the chronology of the sedimentary sequence in the Ze'elim Gully, a key site of paleoclimate investigation in the European Research Council project titled Reconstructing Ancient Israel. The Bronze and Iron Ages are characterized by significant changes in human culture, reflected in archaeological records in which sharp settlement oscillations over relatively short periods of time are evident. During the Early Bronze, Intermediate Bronze, Middle Bronze, and Late Bronze Ages, the Dead Sea saw significant level fluctuations, reaching in the Middle Bronze an elevation of ≃370 m below mean sea level (bmsl), and declining in the Late Bronze to below 414 m bmsl. At the end of the Late Bronze Age and upon the transition to the Iron Age, the lake recovered slightly and rose to ≃408 m bmsl. This recovery reflected the resumption of freshwater activity in the Judean Hills, which was likely accompanied by more favorable hydrological-environmental conditions that seem to have facilitated the wave of Iron Age settlement in the region.

scholarly journals Hillforts, rocks and warriors

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 154-165
Author(s):  
Javier Rodriguez-Corral
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Past ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
The Bronze Age

During the Late Iron Age, monumental stone statues of warriors were established in the northwest of Iberia, ‘arming’ landscapes that ultimately encouraged specific types of semiotic ideologies in the region. This paper deals with how these statues on rocks not only worked in the production of liminality in the landscape – creating transitional zones on it –, but also how they functioned as liminal gateways to the past, absorbing ideas from the Bronze Age visual culture up to the Late Iron Age one, in order to create emotional responses to a new socio-political context.

scholarly journals Beyond the Indigenous/Phoenician divide: Spheres of Interaction and Scales of Integration in the Early Iron Age of Southern Portugal (8th–5th centuries BCE)

2019 ◽  
pp. 15-27
Author(s):  
Francisco João Bentes Gomes
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Group Interactions ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Southern Portugal ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Identity Discourses

The arrival of the first Phoenician merchants and colonists in the Iberian Far West tipped off the delicate balance of the regional Late Bronze Age networks, setting in motion a far-ranging process which completely changed the socio-political landscape of Southern Portugal. However, the growing volume of available data seems to show that far from being a linear, straightforward process, the ensuing restructuration was complex and dynamic. In this contribution, it is argued that “traditional” models based on normative views of culture are no longer suited to explain the diversity of the archaeological record, and that new, more nuanced approaches are in order. It is suggested, in particular, that this diversity is the reflection of specific representation discourses in which “traditional” and innovative, often exogenous elements were combined according to variable, situational and socially negotiated identity discourses deployed on multiple levels, from the microregional context of inter- and inter-group interactions to the transregional, Mediterranean level.

scholarly journals The Prevailing Art and Tradition of Intentional Dental Modification in Prehistoric Southeast Asia | Ang Namamayaning Sining at Tradisyon ng Intensyonal na Modipikasyon ng Ngipin sa Sinaunang Timog-Silangang Asya

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Kathryn N. Purnell ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Data Representation ◽  
Body Modification ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Rite Of Passage ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
The Bronze Age

Since prehistoric times, humans have changed select characteristics of their bodies, such as tattooing, hair-dyeing, cranial and feet deforming, and teeth modifying. Teeth are some of the most well-preserved remains in the archaeological record, with which we can study past cultural and ritualistic beliefs. Previous publications on dental modifications in Southeast Asia are mostly limited to the mainland, thus this paper reviews modifications observed in prehistoric sites across Southeast Asia, identifying common techniques and motivations. Findings show occurrence of dental ablation, filing, plating, and coloration, which began in the Neolithic, disappeared in the Bronze Age, but reappeared in the Iron Age, although the absence may be due to sampling shortage. Modifications have been associated to aestheticism, group identity, rite of passage, practicality, and medical benefit, but whether these all ring true remains uncertain. It is recommended that future research expand scope for better data representation, analyze modifications with context of community profiles, and investigate the significance of migration in the prevalence of certain techniques and patterns as part of understanding the cultural aspects of past humans’ lives, and assess the cultural (dis)continuity of these traditions into modern-day forms of body modification, art, healing, self-expression, and identity. Magmula sinaunang panahon, maitatala ang mga pagbabagong pisikal sa katawan, tulad ng pagtatato, pagkukulay ng buhok, at pag-iiba-anyo ng ulo, paa, at ngipin. Nabibilang ang ngipin sa mga lubos na napepreserbang artepakto sa arkiyoloji, at sa gayo’y magagamit pang-aral ng mga nakalipas na kultura at ritwal. Kasalukuyang limitado sa mainland ng Timog-Silangang Asya ang saliksik sa intensyonal na modipikasyon ng ngipin, kaya tatalakayin dito ang mga sinaunang modipikasyong nabanggit sa buong rehiyon, at tutukuyin ang pagkakatulad sa mga teknik at motibasyon. Nagsimula ang paglaganap ng sadyang pagtatanggal, pagliliha, pagkakalupkop, at pagkukulay ng ngipin noong Panahong Neolitiko, naglaho noong Panahong Tanso, at bumalik muli pagsapit ng Panahong Bakal, ngunit maaaring iukol ang paglaho sa kakulangan ng datos. Hindi pa tiyak, pero pwedeng ang mga modipkasyon sa estetisismo, pakikisama, pagriritwal, praktikalidad, at benepisyong-medikal. Inirerekomendang palawakin sa susunod na saliksik ang sakop para sa mas mabuting representasyon ng datos, suriin ang mga modipikasyon sa konteksto ng komunidad, at imbestigahan ang kahalagahan ng migrasyon sa paglaganap ng mga partikular na teknik at padron habang inuunawa ang mga aspetong kultural ng sinaunang panahon, at tasahan ang pagpapatuloy (o hindi) ng mga tradisyong nabanggit sa kasalukuyang modipikasyon ng katawan, sining, paggagamot, pagpapahayag ng sarili, at identidad.

The earliest horse-bits of western Europe

1973 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 425-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Balkwill
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
New Combinations ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Rite

Within recent years, much attention has been focused on the earliest objects of harness which have long been noticed in the archaeological record. They are a matter of some importance in the perception of social structure from extant remains; Kossack (1954) presented strong arguments in favour of interpreting, in this manner, the early Hallstatt (Ha C) horse harness from Bavarian graves. Other major publications have since added to the picture of widespread, supposedly aristocratic adoption of harness and wagons in association with burial rite (northern and central Italy in the Early Iron Age, von Hase 1969; the Iberian peninsula in the same period, Schüle 1969; the Middle Danube to the Russian Steppes and to the Asian hinterland, Potratz 1966). Nor has the thesis of Gallus and Horvath (1939) been ignored, and the activities of ‘Thraco-Cimmerian’ cavalry still play a large part in the interpretation of west European horse harness. Already in 1954, however, Kossack observed the continuing elements of native, western Urnfield Europe in the entirely new combinations of grave-goods in Ha C and he indicated that the cheekpieces, while being modelled closely on the lines of preceding types found in the region of the Middle Danube, were, in fact, local variants chiefly concentrated in the graves of Bohemia and Bavaria. That western Europe had long had its own forms of cheekpiece was demonstrated by Thrane in 1963, yet the mouthpieces themselves have received no consolidated attention. This paper is an attempt to redress the balance, by gathering together the earliest metal bits in Europe west of Slovakia and Hungary, in order to see what light they throw on the problems of continuity and transition at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age.

Barbarian Europe and Early Iron Age Greece

1965 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 229-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Snodgrass
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Aegean Area ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
The People ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Relationship

This paper is concerned with the nature of the relationship that existed between Central Europe and the Aegean area in the early 1st millennium B.C. Interest in Aegean-continental connections has been strong for a considerable time, but has been intensified, particularly from the continental standpoint, in the past fifteen years. Although some of these studies have been concerned with the contacts between 2nd millennium (Late Bronze Age) Greece and the north, others have examined in detail the evidence for the links between the Urnfield culture and Greece during the 10th, 9th and 8th centuries. For Greece, this is an utterly different period from the preceding one; the evidence for foreign contacts suddenly becomes scarce and that for military disasters is virtually non-existent. Yet some scholars have reached very similar conclusions, involving the transmission of objects and of the people who carried them from Central Europe into Greece, for this period as for the preceding Late Bronze Age. Such arguments have a recent exponent in Professor W. Kimmig, whose paper Seevölkerbewegung und Urnenfelderkultur ranges over the whole period from about 1200 to 700. His list of objects and practices in this period, which he considers to have been donated by the Danube-Balkan peoples to the Mediterranean world, is comprehensive indeed: it would include bronze shields and body armour, the equipment of Goliath, the knobbed ware of Troy VII B, the practice of cremation in the Iron Age, the ritual spoliation of weapons in graves, iron swords, spears, knives, bits, lugged axes, spits, fire-dogs, bronze personal objects generally, clay idols, the maeander pattern and the swans of Apollo.

Radiocarbon Dates and the Scottish Iron Age

Antiquity ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 43 (169) ◽  
pp. 15-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Euan MacKie
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Past ◽  
Iron Age I

Within the past two years the chronology of the later prehistoric period in Scotland has been given a new precision by no less than 24 C14 dates obtained from nine different sites, most of which are conventionally assigned to the pre- Roman Iron Age. Previously the identification and dating of the cultures and sites of this period had depended almost entirely on various exotic bronzes and the time that they and other traits were estimated to have reached Scotland from further south in Britain and from the Continent. The last phase of the Late Bronze Age was fairly confidently assigned a start in the mid-6th century BC on the basis of links with the continental Halstatt Iron Age [I] but the bronzes concerned are nearly all stray finds or from hoards and cannot be tied to any contemporary structures or material cultures except at Covesea and, tenuously, at Traprain Law. The same is true of the various examples of decorated Celtic metalwork which have been found in Scotland: these can be given rough dates on stylistic grounds but were stray finds and unconnected with other aspects of the contemporary material cultures. The dating of hillforts and domestic sites of late pre-Roman times has had to rely on the rare examples

Centrality, ‘capitals’ and prehistoric cultures: a comparative study of late Bronze Age Crete and Cyprus

2010 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 1-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Adams
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Capital Cities ◽  
Central Places ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Complex Relationships

Early states functioned under entirely different circumstances from modern nation states, which politically and administratively require a capital city. The nature and extent of centralization in ancient societies is much harder to define. A comparative study of two similar geographical entities, such as islands, can shed light on the diverse and complex relationships between ancient polities and central places. Scholars have, at times, assigned capital cities to the Late Bronze Age island cultures of Crete and Cyprus – namely Knossos and Enkomi respectively. Differences in these cultures and settlements notwithstanding, this paper seeks to explore the multi-layered and diverse nature of past and present interpretations through a comparative approach. It is argued that we need to acknowledge the roles that recent politics and archaeological practices have had on previous and current narratives of the past. The often-troubled transformations undergone by modern nation states, and the expectation that such entities possess capitals, have coloured previous interpretations of the past more than is generally recognized. The categories constructed and models applied have guided our approaches but they have also imposed potentially anachronistic frameworks. This paper seeks further historical depth, and to better understand the complex and varied roles ancient central places had in their wider context.

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