The geosite of Pertosa-Auletta cave: an educational journey into the underworld

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosangela Addesso ◽  
Simona Cafaro ◽  
Filomena Papaleo ◽  
Rosanna Alaggio ◽  
Francescantonio D'Orilia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Karst System ◽  
Landscape Value ◽  
Below Ground ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Underground River ◽  
Archeological Museum ◽  
Dissemination Of Results ◽  
The Bronze Age

<p>The Pertosa-Auletta cave is a complex karst system of southern Italy included in the “Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni” UNESCO Global Geopark as a focal geosite for the important geological heritage, the experience in geoturism management and the cultural, didactic and recreational appeal. Representing one of the most important perennial springs of the Alburni massif, since the early 1900s, this cave has played a key role within the territory of the Alburni, Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, so the complex welcomes thousands of visitors from all over the world every year. The site is managed by the MIdA Foundation (Integrated Environmental Museum) with the goal of education on environmental and landscape value of the caves. Geological peculiarities, historical-cultural characteristics, as well as environmental protection of the geosite are the main subjects of MIdA actions targeted to the local community and geotouristis. Thanks to the cooperation with several national and international research institutes, the Foundation contributes to the production of new knowledge and to the dissemination of results through its organization. In addition to the cave, the MidA system includes two Museums: the Speleo-Archaeological Museum and the Soil Museums, where visitors are led on a journey into the underworld. Tours and practical activities focus on multidisciplinary information about carsism, genesis of the Pertosa-Auletta cave, archeological findings in the site. A special effort is devoted to soils, precious sources of underground treasures, and ecosystem processes regulating life on the planet. The tour starts from the rocks and their properties and continues through habitats for the growth of numerous lifeforms linked to their structure and chemical composition. The complex relationshis of below-ground environments with water and other earth features are presented. The Pertosa-Auletta cave offers a good example of how people can understand the importance of a complex karst system. Inside the cave the Negro, an underground river flows and it plays an important role in the karst complex. Water and sediments of the Negro have preserved an archeological settlement on piles dating back to the Bronze Age. The presence of piles inside a cave represents one of the most characteristic features of this karst complex and is an example of different uses of the cave through the ages. During the Bronze Age, the Pertosa-Auletta cave was used for both a cultural and a living purpose. In Classical and Medieval times, the complex became a shrine, dedicated first to pagan gods related to fertility and then to the Archangel Michael. Findings are shown in the MIdA Speleo-Archeological Museum along with multimedia displays and reconstructions of the Prehistoric pile. The Pertosa-Auletta cave is also a research site on karst phenomena, hydrology and speleo-biology with important findings on vermiculations, where the evidence of microbial activity supports the possible involvement of biogenic processes in vermiculation development in karst caves. </p>

scholarly journals Big-Men and Small Chiefs: The Creation of Bronze Age Societies

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rune Iversen
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Early Late ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Big Men

AbstractThis paper investigates to what extent the significant material changes observable at the end of the Neolithic reflect transformations of the underlying social dynamics. Answering this question will help us to understand the formation of Bronze Age societies. The analysis concerns southern Scandinavia with a certain focus on Denmark. The assumption is that the creation of Bronze Age societies must be understood as a long formative process that partly originated in the culturally-heterogeneous Middle Neolithic. Four aspects seem to have been essential to this process: the rise of the warrior figure, the reintroduction of metal, increased agricultural production, and the establishment of one of the characteristic features of the Bronze Age, the chieftain hall. These aspects do not appear simultaneously but are introduced stepby- step starting out in the late Middle Neolithic and early Late Neolithic to fully develop around 2000 BC. Consequently, this paper argues that the final Late Neolithic (LN II, c. 1950-1700 BC) was de facto part of the Earliest Bronze Age.

scholarly journals Morphological Analysis and Dating of Pottery from the Posolskaya Site (Based on the Excavations of E. A. Khamzina in 1959)

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
O. I. Goriunova ◽  
◽  
A. G. Novikov ◽  
D. А. Markhaeva ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Compositional Structures ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The One ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Bronze Age

The analysis of pottery materials of Posolskaya site (excavations by E. A. Khamzina in 1959), which is located on the southeast coast of Lake Baikal (Kabansk district, the Republic of Buryatia), is carried out in this article. Based on morphological features, several groups of pottery with a set of characteristic features are identified. A comparison of them with the materials of supporting multilayer objects on the coast of Baikal and Cis-Baikal area, in general, made it possible to determine the relative and absolute chronology of these groups. It was determined that pottery complexes of layers 2 and 3 contain artifacts of different cultural and chronological periods from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in a mixed state. They contain materials of the Middle and Late Neolithic (Posolskaya and Ust-Belaya ceramic types), the Early Bronze Age (pottery with pearls, with fingernails and Northern Baikal type) and the Late Bronze Age (Tyshkine-Senogdinsk type). Reticulated pottery, recorded in small quantities, was found in all complexes of the Neolithic era of the region. The pottery studies showed, on the one hand, its morpho-typological proximity with similar pottery in the south of Central Siberia as a whole. On the other hand, there were some regional differences (thickening of the corolla in bulk on Posolskaya type pottery in two versions: from the outside and from the inside; a variety of compositional structures on vessels with an external thickening of the corolla was revealed, expressed in simplification of the ornamental design; pottery combining features of Posolskaya and Ust-Belaya types was distinguished. A series of radiocarbon dates from stratified complexes of multilayer objects on the Baikal coast made it possible to determine chronological ranges for almost all pottery groups identified at Posolskaya site. Posolskaya type pottery in two of its variants corresponds to a chronological interval of 6750–6310 cal BP; Ust’-Belaia type (focusing on the dates of Ulan-Khada and the Gorelyi Les) – 5581–4420 cal BP; pottery with pearls and constructions from wide lines of the retreating spatula – 4500–3080 cal BP, pottery with finger pinches corresponds to 3370–3230 cal BP; Northern Baikal type – 3346–3077 cal BP; Tyshkine-Senogdinsk type – 2778–1998 cal BP.

scholarly journals Formation And Development Of Military Architecture In Fergana (Antiquity, Early Middle Ages)

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 106-109
Author(s):  
Dedakhanov Bakhodir
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Evolutionary Development ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Military Architecture ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article reveals the problem of the development of military architecture in the territory of ancient Fergana, based on the long-term research of archaeologists of Uzbekistan. It identifies the main factors that have contributed to the improvement of this architecture. In each separately taken historical period, starting from the Bronze Age, the author defines the characteristic features of the fortification architecture of Fergana cities based on specific examples. At the same time, a comparative analysis with neighboring historical and cultural regions (Sogd and Khorezm) is performed, and the issues of the continuity of traditions and evolutionary development in this type of structure are revealed using the examples of military architecture of the early medieval period.

scholarly journals SIGN OF THE WAY IN THE SYMBOLISM OF THE FEDOROVO CULTURE

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 74-83
Author(s):  
Olga N. Korochkova ◽  
◽  
Emma R. Usmanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Local Society ◽  
Funeral Rite ◽  
The North ◽  
The Status ◽  
Chelyabinsk Region ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Bronze Age

The authors offer an interpretation of one of the exclusive attributes of the Fedorovo culture such as clay containers known as dishes. Artifacts from two burial sites are considered as the main source: Urefty I (forest-steppe Trans-Urals, Chelyabinsk region) and Lisakovsky I (Northern Kazakhstan, Kostanay region). The analysis of contexts and analogies in the Bronze Age cultures of Central Europe makes it possible to regard clay dishes as wagon models. This symbolism corresponds to the dynamics of the Fedorovo culture, the bearers of which had a pronounced motivation to move. The Fedorovo culture has a widespread distribution of its sites within the Andronovo community. The main features of this culture are the complexity of the funeral rite, a significant influence on aboriginal cultures during the colonization of the lands to the North and East of the original migration territory. All of the above indicates the formation of an autonomous group in the hierarchy of local society, which had a high degree of mobility. The original core of the Fedorovo culture was formed in the steppe Trans-Urals and Kazakhstan in the status of the subculture of one of the local community elites, which was represented by sites of the Alakul culture. It was here that the original “chariot complex” had been formed, which reflected innovations in the field of transport and speed, representing an expressive form of ritual practice. The development of the “mobility sign” in the funeral rite from the chariot (the Sintashta culture) to its imitation (the Petrovka culture), and then to a more capacious expression in the form of a wagon model (the Fedorovo culture) corresponds to the symbol’s universal trajectory.

scholarly journals Late Holocene Changes in Vegetation of the Mrągowo Lakeland (Ne Poland) as Registered in the Pollen Record From Lake Salęt

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Szal ◽  
Mirosława Kupryjanowicz ◽  
Mariusz Wyczółkowski
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Forest Structure ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Pollen Record ◽  
Lake District ◽  
Ne Poland ◽  
Bottom Deposits ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The Bronze Age

Abstract Pollen analysis of sediments from the upper part of bottom deposits from Lake Salęt allowed reconstruction of main stages of the Late Holocene vegetation transformation in the Mrągowo Lake District (from ca. 3600 cal. years BC) and to correlate some of these changes with immigration and economic activity of local human groups. Significant spreading of secondary semi-natural birch forest, development of horn beam forest and increasing importance of anthropogenic open communities were the most characteristic features of vegetation evolution. A definite break down of elm took place between 2900 and 2500 cal. years BC, slightly after increased contribution of birch in wood lands. Disappearance of hazel around 1200 cal. years BC, accompanied by expansion of horn beam has been observed and should be linked with activity of the Ząbie-Szestno type culture and the Lusatian culture tribes during the Bronze Age, but not with a climate change. Considerable intensification of settlement processes recorded in the younger part of the Subatlantic chronozone was one of the important reasons that were responsible for quick changes in forest structure. Strong and continued deforestation started as early as the end of the 10th century AD and was substantially intensified in the first half of the 13th century.

scholarly journals Grafheuvels bij Arnhem. Opgravingen op het landgoed Warnsborn 1947-’48

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
L.P. Louwe Kooijmans
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Soil Conditions ◽  
Small Community ◽  
University Professors ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
New Construction ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Bronze Age

Barrows near Arnhem; excavations on the Warnsborn estate, 1947-’48.In 1947 and 1948 six barrows were excavated on the Warnsborn estate, to the west of Arnhem. Although seemingly initiated for purely scientific purposes, no report was ever published, only some very short notes. This paper gives an account of the organization, the procedures followed and a critical (re)interpretation of the findings, on the basis of the field drawings and the field journal. The conclusion differs in many respects from the excavators’ original interpretations. It may be viewed as a cautionary tale for those relying on records of earlier investigations of this kind. The research was initiated and supervised by prof. Van Giffen, but in fact executed rather independently by his experienced field technician and draughtsman, assisted by two students, who some years later were to be appointed university professors and as such shaped post-war archaeology in the Netherlands. It was the period in which the State Service (ROB, now RCE) was founded, which, headed by Van Giffen, ultimately must have been the responsible institution. The barrows to be excavated were an arbitrary selection from the numerous mounds in the shallow valleys of the Heelsum and Wolfheze brooks: four dating to the Bronze Age, along the valley floor, and two from the Beaker period, slightly apart. All six appear to be part of a long row, as found in many regions across the country, comprising19 barrows. One of the Beaker burials (IV) had a characteristic early Single Grave inventory and was surrounded by a narrow palisaded ditch. The reliability of the observation of a corpse silhouette must however be doubted. The other Beaker barrow (V) was dated only on the basis of its appearance and the fossil soil conditions. It only shows some features that are hard to interpret. The group of four Bronze Age burials offers us a glimpse of the changing burial customs among a small local community. They are characterized by the absence of cremations and the exclusive practice of inhumation in all 27 burials documented. All recorded bodies were supine, with only one exception, a slightly flexed burial. None of these were equipped with any imperishable grave goods. It is remarkable that this small community in the interaction zone of the southern and northern burial traditions had exclusively followed the northern practice of extended inhumation. In the absence of radiocarbon dates and artifacts, dating had to be based purely on circumstantial evidence; with Middle Bronze Age A as the result, with a possible extension into MBA-B, i.e. 1800-1400 cal BC. Two of the Bronze Age barrows (I and II) are relatively small, simple and one-phased, with a single, supine central inhumation, one of these accompanied by a subsequent child burial. The two others (III and the large, so-called ‘Meelworstenberg’) had started similarly, but had grown to larger dimensions, up to 15 and 18 m in diameter, by the addition of new construction phases linked with new central graves. The larger one incorporated a small and low sand dune already present. The barrows became more complex and significantly different also by the introduction of secondary burials, in the form of 6 and 15 shaft graves respectively, orientated tangentially all along the barrows’ margins, and the raising of surrounding post circles. In one case this circle was only partially preserved and documented, but it was of quite impressive dimensions around the larger barrow, and seemingly not connected with a central burial, but with the secondary burials only. In both cases we observe a fundamental shift from a function as an exclusive tomb for selected individuals from the local community, as customary in earlier times, to a communal cemetery for numerous members of the community. This change in burial custom may serve as an argument for the contemporaneity of the last phase of both barrows, the simple barrows representing the earlier stage only.

scholarly journals The Dynamics of Anthropological Types of the Sarmatian Population That Left Staritsa Burial Mound

2019 ◽  
pp. 49-56
Author(s):  
Mariya Balabanova
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Lower Volga Region ◽  
Lower Volga ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Burial Mounds ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Caucasoid Population

The paper presents the intergroup analysis made by the canonical method aimed at determining variability of anthropological types in chronological groups of the Sarmatian population that left Staritsa burial mound. For this purpose, digital information on 44 male and 30 female series including all three stages of Sarmatian culture from the burial mounds of the Lower Volga region was studied. The results of the analysis reveal smaller massiveness of the Sauromatian and Sarmatian population in comparison with the Bronze Age samples. The main anthropological type, whose carriers were the early Sarmatian groups of Staritsa burial mound, is the type of ancient Eastern Caucasians, and they are not separated from the synchronous population of other burial mounds. Characteristic features of this type include meso-brachycrania, weakened horizontal profiling at the upper facial level and a quite Caucasoid structure of the nose and nasal bones. There is the influx of the long-headed Caucasoid population in the middle Sarmatian epoch, which increases due time, and the late Sarmatian population acquires dolicho-mesocrane features. In the early epoch, the middle– late 2nd century A.D., some cultural and morphological features are blurred, as the material from burial 2 of barrow 8, burial 1 of barrow 54 and burial 1 of barrow 11 shows. In the late Sarmatian time, the inflow of not only long-headed groups, but also individuals with the mixed anthropological Caucasoid-Mongoloid type was possible. Like the early Sarmatian group from Staritsa burial mound, the late Sarmatian group is more similar to the synchronous population from other Lower Volga burials.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document