Preliminary report on the 2016 season in Metsamor (Armenia)

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 561-573
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Jakubiak ◽  
Mateusz Iskra ◽  
Ashot Piliposyan ◽  
Artavazd Zakyan

Excavation in Metsamor in 2016 was focused on the settlement area as well as necropolis. Extended trenches uncovered a substantial part of the settlement and contributed new stratigraphic and chronological data on the three phases of occupation, especially the heavy fire that appears to have destroyed the buildings in the early 8th century BC. A unique find from this level of destruction was a necklace made of sardonyx, agate and gold beads. In the post-Urartian period, the northeastern part of the settlement was clearly rearranged. Exploration of a kurgan tomb in the cemetery showed that the tomb had been reused for the most recent burial, looted, which may have included a symbolic horse burial. The construction of the tomb, based on finds from a layer at the bottom of the burial chamber, which included several golden adornments and beads of different materials, can be dated to the Middle Bronze Age, the latest burials to the Iron I period.

Starinar ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 51-84
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Kapuran ◽  
Mario Gavranovic ◽  
Mathias Mehofer

In archaeological literature, the site of Trnjane, near Bor in eastern Serbia is known as an urn necropolis, with 43 discovered urn graves. The excavations in Trnjane took place between 1985 and 1987-1989, and continued in 1998. The investigations also included an excavation of a nearby settlement, but the results of this research were never published. In most of the previous studies, Trnjane was assigned to the Middle and Late Bronze Age, while the necropolis was often connected with the spread of the Urnfield Phenomena from Central Europe toward the Balkans. New investigations started in 2017 as cooperation between the Archaeological Institute in Belgrade and the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology (OREA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences shed new light on the chronology and cultural assignment of Trnjane and other similar surrounding sites in the region of eastern Serbia. The excavation of the settlement area in 2017 and 2018 yielded numerous finds indicating metallurgical activities connected with copper ore smelting (slag and ores), while pottery finds showed a typological resemblance with an Early and Middle Bronze Age repertoire. The radiocarbon dates from the settlement area and from urn graves of the neighbouring necropolis also point to a much earlier time than previously assumed. The new chronological determination of Trnjane raises a set of new questions, especially regarding the cultural connections between central Europe and the Balkans and transfers of copper ore smelting technology in the Bronze Age.


2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-124
Author(s):  
Jacek Tomczyk

The middle Euphrates valley (Syria) is a very interesting and important region for the history of Mesopotamia. The excavations are currently carried out at Tell Ashara and Tell Masaikh. The first site is primarily the remains of a Bronze Age (2700–1500 BC). At Tell Masaikh were discovered the remains of a settlement from the Chalcolithic (4500 BC), and the Middle Bronze Age, as well as a huge governor’s palace from the times of the Assyrian empire’s days of glory (800–650 BC). The paper is a summary of anthropological research conducted in 2009. We have been excavated 80 human skeletons (50 individuals from Tell Masikh, and 30 from Tell Ashara). 


2009 ◽  
Vol 104 ◽  
pp. 27-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Renfrew ◽  
Olga Philaniotou ◽  
Neil Brodie ◽  
Giorgos Gavalas

The 2008 excavations on the small island of Dhaskalio opposite Dhaskalio Kavos on the Cycladic island of Keros are reviewed. An account is given of the survey, recording many walls of the early Bronze Age, and of the excavations, continued from the 2007 season. Excavations at the summit of Dhaskalio revealed a substantial building 16 m long and 4 m wide, within which was discovered the ‘Dhaskalio hoard’ comprising a chisel, an axe-adze, and a shaft-hole axe of copper or bronze. Study of the pottery reveals continuity, within which a sequence of three phases within the Early Cycladic II and III periods can be established.Excavations were continued and concluded within the Special Deposit at Kavos South with the recovery of many more special but fragmentary materials including marble vessels and figurines. Specialist studies for the geomorphology, geology, petrology, ceramic petrology, metallurgy and environmental aspects (botanical and faunal remains, phytoliths) are in progress. No more fieldwork is planned prior to final publication of the 2006 to 2008 seasons.Στο άρθρο ετηχειρείται ένας συνοπτικός απολογισμός των ανασκαφών της περιόδου του 2008 στην νησΐδα Δασκαλιό, απέναντι από τον Κάβο Δασκαλιού, στο ΝΔ άκρο της νήσου Κέρου, των Κυκλάδων. Περιληππκά αναφέρονται τα αποτελέσματα της τοπογράφησης με τον εντοπισμό πολλών τοίχων της Πρώψης Εποχής του Χαλκού, αλλά και αυτά της ανασκαφής, η οποία αποτελεί την συνέχεια των ανασκαφών του 2007. Κατά τις ανασκαφές στην κορυφή του Δασκαλιού αποκαλύφθηκε ένα ευμέγεθες κτήριο μήκους 16 μέτρων και πλάτους 4 μέτρων, εντός του οποίου βρέθηκε ο ‘Θησαυρός του Δασκαλχού’, ο οποίος αποτελείται από μία σμίλη, μία αξίνα-πέλεκυ, κοα έναν πέλεκυ με συμφυή οττή για την τοποθέτηση του στειλεού, όλα χάλκινα ή μπρούτζινα. Η μελέτη της κεραμικής απέφερε σημαντικά αποτελέσματα και απέδειξε ότι υπάρχει συνέχεια. Η αυτή ίδια μελέτη κατέδειξε μία ακολουθία τριών φάσεων, οι οποίες χρονολογήθηκαν από την Πρωτοκυκλαδική II έως και την Πρωτοκυκλαδική III περίοδο.Οι ανασκαφές στον Κάβο Δασκαλιού συνεχίστηκαν και ολοκληρώθηκαν στην περιοχή της Νότιας Ειδικής Απόθεσης με την αποκάλυψη πλήθους ιδιαίτερων, αλλά αποσπασματικά σωζόμενων, ευρημάτων, μεταξύ των οποίων, πολλών μαρμάρινων αγγείων και ενδοίλίων.Οι εξειδικευμένες μνκρομορφολογικές-γεωαρχαιολογικές, γεωλογικές και πετρογραφικές μελέτες, αλλά και οι αναλύσεις πηλού και οι μελέτες, που αφορούν στην αρχαιομεταλλουργία και στο παλαιοπεριβάλλον (αναλύσεις των καταλοίπων της χλωρίδας και της πανίδας αλλά και των φυτολίθων), βρίσκονται σε εξέλιξη. Άλλες έρευνες επί του εδάφους προς το ηαρόν δεν προγραμματίζονται, πριν από την ολοκλήρωση της τελικής δημοσίευσης των αποτελεσμάτων των ερευνών των περιόδων 2006 έως και 2008.


1960 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 31-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seton Lloyd

A final season of excavating at Beycesultan was arranged in the autumn of 1959 and lasted from 15th September to 28th October. The work was once more in charge of the Director, who was accompanied by Mrs. Seton Lloyd and a staff consisting of Mr. Martin Harrison (Institute Scholar for 1958–59) and Mrs. Harrison, Mr. Harry Smith of Christ's College, Cambridge, Miss Carol Cruikshank, Mr. Michael Brett as architect and Bay Osman Aksoy as Turkish Government representative. The Assistant Director and Miss Clare Goff also took part in the excavations during the second half of the season.It had been decided on this occasion to concentrate the entire resources of the expedition on the continued clearance of the Middle Bronze Age palace on the eastern summit of the mound, partly excavated in the seasons of 1954 and 1955, in the hope of recovering as much of the plan as possible before the excavations finally closed down. This was accomplished with considerable success. Two large new areas of the building were cleared and a point reached where any further extension would have met with serious practical difficulties.


2007 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 153-217
Author(s):  
Carl Knappett ◽  
Anna Collar

Results of excavations in 1962–3 at the Minoan coastal town of Palaikastro were published in the Annual in 1965 and 1970, as PK VI and PK VII. While those publications did report on all excavated contexts, in some cases this took the form of a preliminary report pending fuller study. The current paper (PK VIII) fills in most of the main gaps, particularly where the Middle Minoan period is concerned, but also with some attention to the Early and Late Minoan periods. Contexts and deposits from different blocks in the town are presented, as well as from outside the main town towards the area known as Sarantari. These provide good evidence for the existence of particular phases of occupation in the town, notably throughout the Middle Minoan period (MM IA, IB, II, IIIA and IIIB), as well as in EM IIB and LM IB. Some of these phases are not very well known at Palaikastro, or in east Crete more generally. This paper thus contributes to a fuller characterisation of certain ceramic phases at the level of both the site and the region, as well as supplementing our knowledge of the long-term occupation of this important coastal town throughout the Middle Bronze Age.


Author(s):  
Д.В. Бейлин ◽  
А.Е. Кислый ◽  
А.М. Михайлов ◽  
В.В. Рогудеев ◽  
А.В. Шарапа ◽  
...  

The Hospital II settlement is located in the coastal part of Kerch in the basin of Dzhardzhava river. Excavations of the settlement were carried out in 2017 in connection with the construction of the Crimean bridge. Six housing and economic complexes, household pits, an artificial platform, enclosed by stone walls, were investigated. The complex of findings allows to construct vertical and horizontal stratigraphy and chronological chain of development of this site. The most informative findings refer to the Kamensk culture of the Eastern Crimea and, in general, to the Kamensk-Leventsovsk horizon of the Middle Bronze Age. They confirm that the cultural peculiarities of the “catacombs” with the participation of the tribes of the wide district in the Eastern Crimea were transformed into a special type of monuments. Complexes of the Late Babinsk-Srubna horizon and further – of Early Belozersky emphasize the complex ways of development of the original population of the region. Probably, the investigated object was a winter village, the inhabitants of which were engaged in distant-pasture cattle breeding. The territory was also used in the antique era, but to a lesser extent. 9 burials were found: 1 – of catacomb culture, 5 – of Babinsk-Srubna horizon, 1 – of the era of the Great Migration of Nations and 2 – destroyed, of indefinite time.


1958 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 93-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seton Lloyd ◽  
James Mellaart

Short Reports on the Institute's excavations at Beycesultan, dealing with discoveries in the seasons of 1954, 1955 and 1956 have already been published in this journal (vols. V–VII). In the third of these reports, a break in continuity was occasioned by our temporary concentration on a single isolated discovery; and accordingly, before resuming the more general account, a short recapitulation of our operational sequence may be desirable.In the final weeks of the 1955 season, a sounding was made in Area “A” on the western summit (see site-plan, Fig. 1), which revealed the presence in this part of the mound of a large public building of the Middle Bronze Age, corresponding in time to the “Burnt Palace” already partly excavated on the eastern summit (Level V). Some preliminary investigations were also made of three occupation levels (VI, VII and VIII) lying directly beneath this building (see Anatolian Studies VI). In 1956 an extension of this sounding was made in the form of a 5-metre trench more than 40 metres long, running out approximately eastwards towards the flank of the mound (Trench “S”). After passing through the already well established sequence of later occupations, further foundations of the Middle Bronze Age were here encountered and it became clear that the building discovered in Area “A” formed part of an administrative complex, perhaps covering the whole of the western summit, and surrounded by its own substantial enclosure wall.


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