scholarly journals Exploring the Efficacy of Comparative Bioarchaeological Approaches in Providing Answers on Marginality and Networking

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitra Ermioni Michael ◽  
Linda Fibiger ◽  
Christina Ziota ◽  
Liana Gkelou ◽  
Barry Molloy
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Northern Greece ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Isotopic Analyses ◽  
Economic Marginality ◽  
Specific Community ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Intense Physical Activity

This paper investigates the efficacy of comparative bioarchaeological approaches in exploring the impact of economic marginality on human lifeways. Skeletal remains from the Late Bronze Age cemetery of Achlada in Northern Greece were chosen to address this, as this specific community was probably less well networked, evident in its location away from major communication routes and the paucity of grave goods at the site. A biocultural methodology combining comparative data on funerary practices and lifestyle was implemented. Sex differences were found within the community and seem to agree with the differential burial placement of the sexes possibly representing the different roles that society symbolically attributed to men and women in deathways. Comparative intercemetery data did not reveal poorer health and diet, or more intense physical activity, compared to well-networked sites. Nonetheless, Achlada, as well as numerous, mostly north communities of the wider context, probably faced more physiological challenges during growth, at least of a mild to moderate level, compared to a number of populations connected by major communication routes. The current study highlights the importance of implementing comparative bioarchaeological approaches as a means of identifying the impact of marginality on human lifeways, particularly in settings with limited material culture information.Limitations linked to preservation issues and the multifactorial nature of lifestyle indicators could be dealt with by future biomolecular and isotopic analyses. Η παρούσα εργασία έχει στόχο να διερευνήσει το κατά πόσο οι συγκριτικές βιοαρχαιολογικές προσεγγίσεις είναι εφικτό να δώσουν απαντήσεις ως προς την επίδραση της οικονομικής περιθωριοποίησης στον ανθρώπινο τρόπο διαβίωσης. Επιλέχθηκαν σκελετικά κατάλοιπα της Ύστερης Εποχής Χαλκού από το νεκροταφείο της Αχλάδας στη Βόρεια Ελλάδα ώστε να απαντηθεί το εν λόγω ερώτημα, καθώς η συγκεκριμένη κοινωνία -βάσει της θέσης της μακριά από τα μεγάλα δίκτυα επικοινωνίας και της παρουσίας πολύ λίγων ταφικών ευρημάτων-ήταν πιθανώς λιγότερο καλά δικτυωμένη. Ακολουθήθηκε μια συνδυαστική βιοπολιτισμική προσέγγιση συγκριτικών ταφικών δεδομένων και συγκριτικών αποτελεσμάτων δεικτών τρόπου διαβίωσης. Βρέθηκαν διαφορές μεταξύ των δύο φύλων στον εν λόγω πληθυσμό οι οποίες φαίνεται να συμφωνούν με την διαφορετική πλευρά κατάκλισής τους, η οποία πιθανώς να συμβόλιζε τη διαφορετικότητα των ρόλων που η κοινωνία απέδιδε σε άντρες και γυναίκες στο ταφικό περιβάλλον. Συγκριτικά αποτελέσματα μεταξύ νεκροταφείων δεν φανέρωσαν χαμηλότερο επίπεδο υγείας και διατροφής, ούτε πιο έντονη εργασιακή καταπόνηση, σε σχέση με καλά δικτυωμένες θέσεις. Παρόλα αυτά, η Αχλάδα, όπως και μια σειρά –κυρίως βόρειων- κοινωνιών τουευρύτερου πλαισίου, πιθανότητα αντιμετώπισαν περισσότερα φαινόμενα καταπόνησης (στρες) κατά τη διάρκεια της ανάπτυξης, τουλάχιστον ήπιου και μετρίου επιπέδου, συγκριτικά με καλύτερα δικτυωμένους πληθυσμούς. Η παρούσα εργασία τονίζει τη σημασία της εφαρμογής συγκριτικών βιοαρχαιολογικών προσεγγίσεων ως μέσο μελέτης της επίδρασης της περιθωριοποίησης στους ανθρώπινους πληθυσμούς, ιδιαιτέρως σε θέσεις με περιορισμένες πληροφορίες υλικού πολιτισμού. Μεθοδολογικοί περιορισμοί οι οποίοι συνδέονται με ζητήματα διατήρησης αλλά και με τον πολυπαραγοντικό χαρακτήρα των δεικτών τρόπου διαβίωσης, ενδεχομένως να αντιμετωπιστούν μέσω των επερχόμενων βιομοριακών και ισοτοπικών αναλύσεων. 

POLITICS, RESEARCH AGENDAS AND ABORTIVE FIELDWORK PLANS OVER LYKTOS, CRETE: A HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH

2019 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 399-443
Author(s):  
Antonis Kotsonas
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Academic Factors ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
History Of ◽  
Research Agendas ◽  
The Impact

Politics and research agendas have had a major role in shaping the archaeology of Crete. This article focuses on the history of research on Lyktos, one of the most important ancient cities of the island, to explore the impact of academic and non-academic factors on archaeological fieldwork. Relying on wide-ranging archival research and extending from the Renaissance to the early twenty-first century, the analysis covers the fluctuation of international scholarly interest in Lyktos, the often abortive plans for excavations by numerous British, Italian, German and Greek archaeologists, and the ways in which fascination with the ancient city relates to broader political and disciplinary history. I also synthesise the small-scale fieldwork conducted at the site and reconstruct its archaeological landscape from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period, offering several new insights in local topography and material culture. This work challenges the characterisation of Lyktos as a ‘phantom city’ and highlights the significance of the site for the archaeology of Crete.

Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces: Spain

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pere P. Ripollès
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Mediterranean Coast ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
Republican Period ◽  
North East ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
The Impact

The Ethnic and Cultural Composition of Iberia was not uniform before the Romans arrived; literary sources and archaeological research provide evidence of different influences over several Late Bronze Age strata. An account of the groups there previously is an essential first step before assessing the impact of Roman intervention, so that we can determine the extent to which the arrival and dominion of the Romans modified existing traditions. Before the coming of the Romans, the foreign peoples who principally influenced native Iberians were Phoenicians and Greeks (Map 6.1). The Greek colonies at Emporion and Rhode in north-east Iberia played an important role in the trade of commodities and the spread of ideas along the Mediterranean coast. In the south, the Phoenicians had settled early on, and created the great centralized settlements in this area, which includes part of what is now Portugal, and several villages commercially attached to the coast. The south and Mediterranean coast included the most Hellenized native towns, villages, and peoples; the Late Bronze Age populations evolved towards a culture that is generally speaking labelled as Iberian, and owed many features to their contacts with Greeks and Phoenicians. However, important variations in settlement patterns, religion, artistic traditions, and social organization can be recognized. Some of the most important settlements developed urban models. The inhabitants spoke a pre-Indo- European language and had their own writing. The eastern part of the inner Iberian Peninsula was inhabited by Celtiberians, throughout a wide territory that extended over the lands located south of the river Ebro and on the eastern part of both Mesetas. They had been developing a form of urban organization since the fourth century BC, and their material culture shows some indirect Greek influences from contacts with coastal Iberians. Their language belongs to the Indo-European family. The central and western parts of Iberia were inhabited by peoples with few Mediterranean influences, and with a strong presence of their own Late Bronze Age traditions. There are no signs of urban development, as seen in the Greek, and later Roman, worlds, until the Late Republican period.

scholarly journals Ptolemaic Cavalrymen on Painted Alexandrian Funerary Monuments

Arts ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Sara E. Cole
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Northern Greece ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Funerary Monuments ◽  
Geographic Origins ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Military Status

The multiethnic environment of Ptolemaic Alexandria resulted in cross-cultural transmission of funerary practices and associated material culture that introduced many traditions to Egypt from the Mediterranean world. Along with an influx of mercenaries serving in the Ptolemaic army came cultural and artistic knowledge from their places of origin, which they (or their families) incorporated into their burials. One motif, which appears on late 4th–3rd-century painted funerary monuments from Alexandria, is that of a soldier on horseback, alluding to images of the heroic hunter or warrior on horseback found in tombs in the regions of northern Greece. These Alexandrian monuments commemorated members of the Ptolemaic cavalry, some of whom are identified as Macedonian or Thessalian by accompanying Greek inscriptions. The image of a soldier astride his rearing horse not only emphasized the deceased’s military status, but also established a link with Macedonian and Ptolemaic royal iconography. This type of self-representation served a number of purposes: to signal the deceased’s cultural and geographic origins, demonstrate his elite role in Ptolemaic society and imply connections to the Ptolemaic court, all of which were important to the immigrant inhabitants of early Alexandria as they sought to express their identity in a new geographical, cultural, and political setting.

scholarly journals Isotopic evidence for population dynamics in the Central Italian Copper Age and Bronze Age.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Romboni ◽  
Ilenia Arienzo ◽  
Mauro Antonio Di Vito ◽  
Carmine Lubritto ◽  
Monica Piochi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Copper Age ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
The North ◽  
Regional Dynamics ◽  
Isotopic Analyses ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
C And N

The mobility patterns in the Italian peninsula during prehistory are still relatively unknown. The excavation of the Copper Age and Bronze Age deposits in La Sassa cave (Sonnino, Italy) allowed to broaden the knowledge about some local and regional dynamics. We employed a multi-disciplinary approach, including stable (carbon and nitrogen, C and N, respectively) and radiogenic (strontium, Sr) isotopes analyses and the identification of the cultural traits in the material culture to identify mobility patterns that took place in the region. The Sr isotopic analyses on the human bones show that in the Copper Age and at the beginning of the Bronze Age, the cave was used as a burial place by different villages, perhaps spread in a radius of no more than 5 km. Stable isotopes analyses suggest the introduction of C4 plants in the diet of the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) communities in the area. Remarkably, in the same period, the material culture shows increasing influxes coming from the North. This evidence is consistent with the recent genomic findings tracing the arrival of people carrying a Steppe-related ancestry in Central Italy in MBA.

A Trait-Based Analysis of Structural Evolution in Prehistoric Monumental Burials of Southeastern Arabia

2019 ◽  
pp. 141-160
Author(s):  
Eugenio Bortolini
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Structural Evolution ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Diversity Measures ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary

This work analyses change in prehistoric funerary structures and related material culture of Early Bronze Age eastern Arabia (Northern Oman and UAE, 3100-2000 BC) from the perspective of cultural evolutionary theory. By observing decorative and structural elements in monumental tombs and pottery, new hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms of cultural transmission can be explored. The main objective is to transcend the traditional dichotomy between early and late tomb types by creating an explanatory framework that looks at diachronic variation for inferring cultural processes. The research develops a new systematic description of burials and ceramics. Diversity measures are used to investigate the role played by human interaction/isolation and demography in determining adoption, replication, and systematic preference and persistence of the examined cultural variants. Results confirm that, for both tombs and ceramics, specific mechanisms are at work in different moments of time. Starting to research the processes underlying structural change allows for a reassessment of the current interpretation of prehistoric funerary practices and generates new hypotheses on the movement of people and ideas in a still largely unexplored context.

Implications of higher retirement age for the labor market

2017 ◽  
pp. 22-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ivanova ◽  
A. Balaev ◽  
E. Gurvich
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Labor Supply ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
Demographic Trends ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Demographic Projections ◽  
The Impact

The paper considers the impact of the increase in retirement age on labor supply and economic growth. Combining own estimates of labor participation and demographic projections by the Rosstat, the authors predict marked fall in the labor force (by 5.6 million persons over 2016-2030). Labor demand is also going down but to a lesser degree. If vigorous measures are not implemented, the labor force shortage will reach 6% of the labor force by the period end, thus restraining economic growth. Even rapid and ambitious increase in the retirement age (by 1 year each year to 65 years for both men and women) can only partially mitigate the adverse consequences of demographic trends.

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.

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document