scholarly journals The impact of ancestral heath management on soils and landscapes: a reconstruction based on paleoecological analyses of soil records in the central and southeastern Netherlands

SOIL ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marieke Doorenbosch ◽  
Jan M. van Mourik
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Cattle Grazing ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Bronze Age

Abstract. The evolution of heathlands during the Holocene has been registered in various soil records. Paleoecological analyses of these records enable reconstruction of the changing economic and cultural management of heaths and the consequences for landscape and soils. Heaths are characteristic components of cultural landscape mosaics on sandy soils in the Netherlands. The natural habitat of heather species was moorland. At first, natural events like forest fires and storms caused small-scale forest degradation; in addition on that, the forest degradation accelerated due to cultural activities like forest grazing, wood cutting, and shifting cultivation. Heather plants invaded degraded forest soils, and heaths developed. People learned to use the heaths for economic and cultural purposes. The impact of the heath management on landscape and soils was registered in soil records of barrows, drift sand sequences, and plaggic Anthrosols. Based on pollen diagrams of such records we could reconstruct that heaths were developed and used for cattle grazing before the Bronze Age. During the late Neolithic, the Bronze Age, and Iron Age, people created the barrow landscape on the ancestral heaths. After the Iron Age, people probably continued with cattle grazing on the heaths and plaggic agriculture until the early Middle Ages. Severe forest degradation by the production of charcoal for melting iron during the Iron Age till the 6th–7th century and during the 11th–13th century for the trade of wood resulted in extensive sand drifting, a threat to the valuable heaths. The introduction of the deep, stable economy and heath sods digging in the course of the 18th century resulted in acceleration of the rise of plaggic horizons, severe heath degradation, and again extension of sand drifting. At the end of the 19th century heath lost its economic value due to the introduction of chemical fertilizers. The heaths were transformed into "new" arable fields and forests, and due to deep ploughing most soil archives were destroyed. Since AD 1980, the remaining relicts of the ancestral heaths are preserved and restored in the frame of the programs to improve the regional and national geo-biodiversity. Despite the realization of many heath restoration projects during the last decades, the area of the present heaths is just a fraction of the heath areal in AD 1900.

scholarly journals The impact of ancestral heath management on soils and landscapes: a reconstruction based on paleoecological analyses of soil records in the middle and southeast Netherlands

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Doorenbosch ◽  
J. M. van Mourik
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Cattle Grazing ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Bronze Age

Abstract. The evolution of heath lands during the Holocene has been registered in various soil records. Paleoecological analyses of these records enable to reconstruct the changing economic and cultural management of heaths and the consequences for landscape and soils. Heaths are characteristic components of cultural landscape mosaics on sandy soils in the Netherlands. The natural habitat of heather species was moorland. At first, natural events like forest fires and storms caused small-scale forest degradation, in addition on the forest degradation accelerated due to cultural activities like forest grazing, wood cutting and shifting cultivation. Heather plants invaded on degraded forest soils and heaths developed. People learned to use the heaths for economic and cultural purposes. The impact of the heath management on landscape and soils was registered in soil records of barrows, drift sand sequences and plaggic Anthrosols. Based on pollen diagrams of such records we could reconstruct that heaths were developed and used for cattle grazing before the Bronze Age. During the Late Neolithic, the Bronze Age and Iron Age, people created the barrow landscape on the ancestral heaths. After the Iron Age people probably continued with cattle grazing on the heaths and plaggic agriculture until the Early Middle Ages. After AD 1000 two events affected the heaths. At first deforestation for the sale of wood resulted in the first regional extension of sand drifting and heath degradation. After that the introduction of the deep stable economy and heath sods digging resulted in acceleration of the rise of plaggic horizons, severe heath degradation and the second extension of sand drifting. At the end of the 19th century the heath lost its economic value due to the introduction of chemical fertilizers. The heaths were transformed into "new" arable fields and forests and due to deep ploughing most soil archives were destroyed. Since AD 1980, the remaining relicts of the ancestral heaths are preserved and restored in the frame of the programs to improve the regional and national geo-biodiversity.

scholarly journals Continuities and changes of animal exploitation across the Bronze Age – Iron Age boundary at mining sites in the Eastern Alps

Archaeofauna ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 77-106
Author(s):  
KONSTANTINA SALIARI ◽  
ERICH PUCHER ◽  
MARKUS STAUDT ◽  
GERT GOLDENBERG
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Small Ruminants ◽  
Eastern Alps ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mining District ◽  
Mining Sites ◽  
Age Variations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Bronze Age

Since the 1990s, the Schwaz-Brixlegg mining district in the Lower Inn Valley, North Tyrol, Austria, features excavations on mostly Late Bronze (LBA) to Early Iron (EIA) Age sites, focusing on the reconstruction of metallurgic activities and of all aspects related to it. This paper reviews the Schwaz-Brixlegg archaeozoological materials and compares them with those from contemporaneous mining (copper and salt) sites on the Eastern Alps, to assess diet and subsistence strategies of the early alpine, geo-resource-centered, communities. The faunal remains from Schwaz-Brixlegg document a change in diet for the Lower Inn Valley area from the LBA to the EIA exemplified by a shift from a pig-based economy to another one based on cattle and occasionally small ruminants. These species were most often brought whole to the sites and only occasionally as meat cuts (in particular, ribs). Age and sex profiles indicate that miners consumed high-quality meat. As is also documented on prehistoric mining sites from the Eastern Alps, butchery marks evidence a standardized slaughtering process car- ried out by professional butchers. At Weißer Schrofen, pig was the main meat provider during the LBA, whereas cattle and sheep/goat were more important as dairy products and wool/skin providers. This pattern changed in the EIA, when sheep became the dominating meat supplier at the site of Bauernzeche. This shift may reflect an adaptation to climate changes, which determined the amount of fodder available for stocks, and/or to the impact of cultural and economic developments taking place during the Final Bronze Age. Variations on the faunal assemblages might also reflect agents such as topography and altitude. All in all, a logistic balance between miners (consumers) and peasants (producers) is revealed although more information is required (e.g. archaeobotany), to shed more light on the major changes recorded in the EIA. Based on gnawing marks from Weißer Schrofen, some of the dogs there must have been large-sized. Although this may constitute an exceptional case for the Bronze Age, similar results were reported from the EBA Brixlegg settlement at Mariahilfbergl. Future research is needed to elucidate the possible functional role of dogs in the context of early mining activities.

Investigating Burnt Mounds in Clydesdale during Motorway Construction

1998 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
John A Atkinson ◽  
Camilla Dickson ◽  
Jane Downes ◽  
Paul Robins ◽  
David Sanderson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Short Account ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Bronze Age

Summary Two small burnt mounds were excavated as part of the programme to mitigate the impact of motorway construction in the Crawford area. The excavations followed a research strategy designed to address questions of date and function. This paper surveys the various competing theories about burnt mounds and how the archaeological evidence was evaluated against those theories. Both sites produced radiocarbon dates from the Bronze Age and evidence to suggest that they were cooking places. In addition, a short account is presented of two further burnt mounds discovered during the construction of the motorway in Annandale.

From the bronze age to the iron age

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Grecian ◽  
Safwaan Adam ◽  
Akheel Syed
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The Bronze Age

The Political Machine

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam T. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Mortuary Ritual ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Organized Violence ◽  
Political Sovereignty ◽  
Political Machine ◽  
Material Goods ◽  
The Bronze Age

This book investigates the essential role that material culture plays in the practices and maintenance of political sovereignty. Through an archaeological exploration of the Bronze Age Caucasus, the book demonstrates that beyond assemblies of people, polities are just as importantly assemblages of things—from ballots and bullets to crowns, regalia, and licenses. The book looks at the ways that these assemblages help to forge cohesive publics, separate sovereigns from a wider social mass, and formalize governance—and it considers how these developments continue to shape politics today. The book shows that the formation of polities is as much about the process of manufacturing assemblages as it is about disciplining subjects, and that these material objects or “machines” sustain communities, orders, and institutions. The sensibilities, senses, and sentiments connecting people to things enabled political authority during the Bronze Age and fortifies political power even in the contemporary world. The book provides a detailed account of the transformation of communities in the Caucasus, from small-scale early Bronze Age villages committed to egalitarianism, to Late Bronze Age polities predicated on radical inequality, organized violence, and a centralized apparatus of rule. From Bronze Age traditions of mortuary ritual and divination to current controversies over flag pins and Predator drones, this book sheds new light on how material goods authorize and defend political order.

Nuragic Settlement Dynamics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cezary Namirski
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Settlement Dynamics ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Bronze Age

The book is a study of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Nuragic settlement dynamics in two selected areas of the east coast Sardinia, placing them in a wider context of Central Mediterranean prehistory. Among the main issues addressed are the relationship between settlement and ritual sites, the use of coastline, and a chronology of settlement.

scholarly journals THE BEGINNING OF THE IRON AGE AT ARSLANTEPE: A 14C PERSPECTIVE

Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Federico Manuelli ◽  
Cristiano Vignola ◽  
Fabio Marzaioli ◽  
Isabella Passariello ◽  
Filippo Terrasi
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
High Precision ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Archaeological Data

ABSTRACT The Iron Age chronology at Arslantepe is the result of the interpretation of Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions and archaeological data coming from the site and its surrounding region. A new round of investigations of the Iron Age levels has been conducted at the site over the last 10 years. Preliminary results allowed the combination of the archaeological sequence with the historical events that extended from the collapse of the Late Bronze Age empires to the formation and development of the new Iron Age kingdoms. The integration into this picture of a new set of radiocarbon (14C) dates is aimed at establishing a more solid local chronology. High precision 14C dating by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and its correlation with archaeobotanical analysis and stratigraphic data are presented here with the purpose of improving our knowledge of the site’s history and to build a reliable absolute chronology of the Iron Age. The results show that the earliest level of the sequence dates to ca. the mid-13th century BC, implying that the site started developing a new set of relationships with the Levant already before the breakdown of the Hittite empire, entailing important historical implications for the Syro-Anatolian region at the end of the 2nd millennium BC.

Art and Archaeology of the Bronze Age in China

Art History ◽  
2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
English Language ◽  
Pictorial Representation ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Museum Displays ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Bronze Vessels ◽  
The Bronze Age

“China” here designates much but not all of China Proper or Inner China, terrain controlled during the Imperial era (221 bce to ce 1912) by historic dynastic states. Vast regions to the northeast, north, and west—Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet—are excluded even though they are now integral to the modern-day nation-state. Similarly, we slight areas of the south, for example the modern-day Lingnan and Yun-Gui macroregions, that only gradually were absorbed after the Bronze Age. In Chinese scholarship, “Bronze Age” (qingtong shidai青铜时代) serves as an alternate for the “Three Dynasties” (san dai三代) of traditional historiography: Xia (Hsia), Shang, and Zhou (Chou). Bracketing dates of c. 2000–221 bce are now widely used, the first an approximation, the latter firm. Bronze alloy, however, was just one ingredient of material cultures of the Three Dynasties. Other features include the appearance of states, social stratification, urbanization, warfare, and the appearance of iron (the Iron Age), in addition to achievements in literature, music, and philosophy during the latter centuries, a kind of “Classical Age.” Today, “arts” may encompass many forms of crafting materials for a variety of purposes and audiences. This bibliography specifically addresses architecture, bronze, jade, lacquer, and silk as well as music, pictorial representation, and writing. A term from the Bronze Age—“Six Arts” (or “skills,” liu yi六艺)—defined expertise for an elite male as ritual, music, archery, chariot driving, writing, and calculation. While the overlap between the ancient and modern categories is at best partial, these concepts do intersect in terms of makers and consumers and in social and religious purposes. The elite’s luxury lifestyle was sustained by the “arts.” Ritual required bronze vessels, and the requisite music was performed on instruments of bronze, stone, lacquer, etc. Chariots were outfitted with bronze; writing and picturing employed silk. This bibliography emphasizes Chinese archaeology, both as a discipline and as a realm of knowledge that have burgeoned since the late 20th century. Archaeology creates fresh evidence, which then becomes the stuff of excavation reports, investigative scholarship, exhibitions and museum displays, and reference works. Only some of this bounty can be cited here, and readers are directed to Oxford Bibliographies for Chinese Studies (e.g., Chinese Architecture, Calligraphy, Ceramics, Paleography, Ancient Chinese Religion) for further advice. This essay is limited to publications from 1980 and, when possible, favors English-language sources.

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