scholarly journals Commercial Landscapes of Long-distance Contacts in Western Asia, C. 3200 – 1600 BC: Perspectives from Material Culture

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Massa1 ◽  
Alessio Palmisano
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Western Asia

scholarly journals The Life and Death of a Child: Mortuary and Bodily Manifestations of Coast–Interior Interactions during the Late Formative Period (AD 100–400), Northern Chile

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Christina Torres-Rouff ◽  
Gonzalo Pimentel ◽  
William J. Pestle ◽  
Mariana Ugarte ◽  
Kelly J. Knudson
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Interregional Interaction ◽  
Intercultural Identity ◽  
Late Formative

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.

scholarly journals Isotopic Evidence for Long-Distance Connections of the AD Thirteenth-Century Promontory Caves Occupants

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jessica Z. Metcalfe ◽  
John W. Ives ◽  
Sabrina Shirazi ◽  
Kevin P. Gilmore ◽  
Jennifer Hallson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Isotopic Analysis ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Turnover Rates ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Carbon Isotopic ◽  
Local Plant ◽  
Northern Utah ◽  
C Value

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.

Made for exchange: the Russian Karelian lithic industry and hunter-fisher-gatherer exchange networks in prehistoric north-eastern Europe

Antiquity ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Alexey Tarasov ◽  
Kerkko Nordqvist
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Exchange Networks ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Agricultural Societies ◽  
Lithic Industry ◽  
Distance Communication

The hunter-fisher-gatherers of fourth- to third-millennium BC north-eastern Europe shared many characteristics traditionally associated with Neolithic and Chalcolithic agricultural societies. Here, the authors examine north-eastern European hunter-fisher-gatherer exchange networks, focusing on the Russian Karelian lithic industry. The geographically limited, large-scale production of Russian Karelian artefacts for export testifies to the specialised production of lithic material culture that was exchanged over 1000km from the production workshops. Functioning both as everyday tools and objects of social and ritual engagement, and perhaps even constituting a means of long-distance communication, the Russian Karelian industry finds parallels with the exchange systems of contemporaneous European agricultural populations.

Mobility in Prehistory and Early Historic Times

2019 ◽  
pp. 103-121
Author(s):  
D. W. Harding
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Culture Contact ◽  
Migration And Invasion ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Dna Analyses ◽  
Documentary History ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
North Western

For most of the twentieth century migration and invasion were the default explanation of material culture change in archaeology. This model was largely derived from the record of documentary history, which not only recorded the Gaulish diaspora of later prehistory but the migrations that resulted in the breakup of the Roman Empire. The equation of archaeological distributions—the formula ‘pots = people’—was a model adopted and promoted by Gordon Childe, and remained fundamental to archaeological interpretation into the 1960s. Thereafter diffusionism was discredited among British prehistorians, though less so among European archaeologists and classical or historical archaeologists. Even the Beaker phenomenon became a ‘cult package’ rather than the product of settlers, and it is only as a result of more recent isotopic and DNA analyses that the scale of settlement from the continent introducing Beakers has begun to be demonstrated. Other factors in culture contact including long-distance trade have long been evident, for example, from the distribution of finds of Baltic amber from Northern and North-Western Europe to the Mediterranean, or the distribution of continental pottery and glass via the western seaways in the post-Roman period.

scholarly journals Contextualising Numismatic with Religion: Focus on Medieval Northeast India

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Debajit Dutta
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
The State ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Religious Symbolism ◽  
Cultural Affinity

Coins are utility object mostly produced by the state for the use of day-do-day transactions, long-distance trade and sometimes as gifts. Hence, numismatic has mainly been used for the study of economic, political and administrative histories. But numismatic can also be used for the reconstruction of the material culture of our glorious past. By a minute study of our ancient and medieval coinage, we can get an impression about contemporary religious and cultural sensibilities of various ethnic societies. By examining the religious epithets and figures of gods and goddesses and other non-anthropogenic signs present on the coins, one can judge the religious affiliation of the state or the king. This article will address the issue of religious symbolism on medieval Northeast Indian dynastic coins like those of Tripura, Koch Behar and Ahom kingdoms and will try to ventilate how these kingdoms used coins to advocate their religio-cultural affinity as well as to maintain their sovereign stature for quite a long period in their respective domains.

scholarly journals Testing Late Bronze Age mobility in southern Sweden in the light of a new multi-proxy strontium isotope baseline of Scania

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0250279
Author(s):  
Pernille Ladegaard-Pedersen ◽  
Serena Sabatini ◽  
Robert Frei ◽  
Kristian Kristiansen ◽  
Karin Margarita Frei
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The North

The Bronze Age of Sweden’s southernmost region, Scania, is complex and intriguing. One could say that Scania represented in many ways a gateway for people, ideas and material culture connecting continental Europe with Sweden. Shedding light on the dynamics of human mobility in this region requires an in depth understanding of the local archaeological contexts across time. In this study, we present new archaeological human data from the Late Bronze Age Simris II site, located in an area of Scania showing a dynamic environment throughout the Late Bronze Age, thus likely involving various forms of mobility. Because the characterization of solid strontium isotope baselines is vital for delineating human mobility in prehistory using the strontium isotope methodology, we introduce the first environmentally based multi-proxy (surface water-, plant- and soil leachates) strontium isotope baselines for sub-regions of Scania. Our results show, that the highly complex and spatially scattered lithologies characterising Scania does not allow for a spatially meaningful, geology-based grouping of multi-proxy data that could be beneficial for provenance studies. Instead, we propose sub-regional baselines for areas that don’t necessarily fully correspond and reflect the immediate distribution of bedrock lithologies. Rather than working with a Scania-wide multi-proxy baseline, which we define as 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7133 ± 0.0059 (n = 102, 2σ), we propose sub-regional, multi-proxy baselines as follows: Area 1, farthest to the north, by 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7184 ± 0.0061 (n = 16, 2σ); Area 2, comprising the mid and western part of Scania, with 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7140 ± 0.0043 (n = 48, 2σ); Area 3–4, roughly corresponding to a NW-SE trending zone dominated by horst-graben tectonics across Scania, plus the carbonate dominated south western part of Scania with 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7110 ± 0.0030 (n = 39, 2σ). Our results also reflect that the complexity of the geology of Scania requires systematic, high density, statistically sound sampling of multiple proxies to adequately constrain the baseline ranges, particularly of those areas dominated by Precambrian lithologies. The averaging effect of biosphere Sr in surface water might be beneficial for the characterization of baselines in such terranes. Our sub-regional, area-specific baselines allow for a first comparison of different baseline construction strategies (single-proxy versus multi-proxy; Scania-wide versus sub-regional). From the Late Bronze Age Simris II site, we identified six individuals that could be analysed for Sr isotopes, to allow for an interpretation of their provenance using the newly established, environmental strontium isotope baselines. All but one signature agrees with the local baselines, including the 87Sr/86Sr value we measured for a young individual buried in a house urn, typically interpreted as evidence for long distance contacts. The results are somewhat unexpected and provides new aspects into the complexity of Scandinavian Bronze Age societies.

Archaeology and Material Culture of Ammon and the Ammonites

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig W. Tyson
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Local System ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Modern City ◽  
Iron Age Ii

The Ammonites (literally, “sons of Ammon”) were a tribal group with a core territory in and around the modern city of Amman, Jordan. This core area could also be referred to as Ammon; the name of the modern city is also derived from this designation. Though they are known best for their role as kin and enemy to Israel in the Bible, archaeological work has revealed much about the indigenous cultural traditions of the region. The earliest possible evidence naming the Ammonites is from the 9th century bce, but there is little doubt that they inhabited the region before that, though how much before that is difficult to say. Regardless of their date of origin, it is helpful to chart their appearance on the stage of history in the Iron Age II by including some chronological depth. Beginning with the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1150 bce), the region around Amman was sparsely settled with a few fortified towns and evidence for participation in international trade. New Kingdom Egypt appears to have had at least one garrison on the Plateau, probably to help control trade. The Iron Age I–IIA (c. 1150–850 bce) saw a drop in international trade associated with the disruption of the international order at the end of the Late Bronze Age. At the same time, there was an uptick in the number of sites showing occupation. In addition to bringing the first contemporary textual references to the Ammonites, the Iron Age IIB–IIC (c. 850–500 bce) was an era of increased sociopolitical complexity and economic intensification stimulated by the pressures and opportunities presented by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. These changes are visible in the development of an indigenous tradition of writing, an unparalleled sculptural tradition, an increase in the number and variety of imports, and a significant increase in the number of small agriculturally oriented sites across the landscape. The independent polity of Ammon was turned into a province sometime in the 6th century—probably under Babylonian hegemony. The archaeological remains indicate a continuation of agricultural production and participation in long-distance trade networks, and an eventual replacement of the local system of writing with the Aramaic used by the Persians. Note on transliterations: A variety of systems exist for transliterating ancient and modern place names in Semitic languages. A simplified version of the most common transliterations is used here.

scholarly journals Archaeological evidence for two separate dispersals of Neanderthals into southern Siberia

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (6) ◽  
pp. 2879-2885 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kseniya A. Kolobova ◽  
Richard G. Roberts ◽  
Victor P. Chabai ◽  
Zenobia Jacobs ◽  
Maciej T. Krajcarz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Source Region ◽  
Northern Caucasus ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Southern Siberia ◽  
Dry Steppe ◽  
Western Asia ◽  
Northern Croatia ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Mountains Of Southern Siberia

Neanderthals were once widespread across Europe and western Asia. They also penetrated into the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, but the geographical origin of these populations and the timing of their dispersal have remained elusive. Here we describe an archaeological assemblage from Chagyrskaya Cave, situated in the Altai foothills, where around 90,000 Middle Paleolithic artifacts and 74 Neanderthal remains have been recovered from deposits dating to between 59 and 49 thousand years ago (age range at 95.4% probability). Environmental reconstructions suggest that the Chagyrskaya hominins were adapted to the dry steppe and hunted bison. Their distinctive toolkit closely resembles Micoquian assemblages from central and eastern Europe, including the northern Caucasus, more than 3,000 kilometers to the west of Chagyrskaya Cave. At other Altai sites, evidence of earlier Neanderthal populations lacking associated Micoquian-like artifacts implies two or more Neanderthal incursions into this region. We identify eastern Europe as the most probable ancestral source region for the Chagyrskaya toolmakers, supported by DNA results linking the Neanderthal remains with populations in northern Croatia and the northern Caucasus, and providing a rare example of a long-distance, intercontinental population movement associated with a distinctive Paleolithic toolkit.

Commercial Networks Connecting Southeast Asia with the Indian Ocean

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Hoogervorst
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Commercial Networks ◽  
The Indian Ocean

Southeast Asian history has seen remarkable levels of mobility and durable connections with the rest of the Indian Ocean. The archaeological record points to prehistoric circulations of material culture within the region. Through the power of monsoon sailing, these small-scale circuits coalesced into larger networks by the 5th century bce. Commercial relations with Chinese, Indian, and West Asian traders brought great prosperity to a number of Southeast Asian ports, which were described as places of immense wealth. Professional shipping, facilitated by local watercraft and crews, reveals the indigenous agency behind such long-distance maritime contacts. By the second half of the first millennium ce, ships from the Indo-Malayan world could be found as far west as coastal East Africa. Arabic and Persian merchants started to play a larger role in the Indian Ocean trade by the 8th century, importing spices and aromatic tree resins from sea-oriented polities such as Srivijaya and later Majapahit. From the 15th century, many coastal settlements in Southeast Asia embraced Islam, partly motivated by commercial interests. The arrival of Portuguese, Dutch, and British ships increased the scale of Indian Ocean commerce, including in the domains of capitalist production systems, conquest, slavery, indentured labor, and eventually free trade. During the colonial period, the Indian Ocean was incorporated into a truly global economy. While cultural and intellectual links between Southeast Asia and the wider Indian Ocean have persisted in the 21st century, commercial networks have declined in importance.

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