The Pigi Athinas Tumuli Cemetery of Macedonian Olympus

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paraskevi Tritsaroli
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The People ◽  
Gender And Health ◽  
Funerary Treatment ◽  
Over Time

The Middle-Late Bronze Age (1620–1500 B.C.) was a period of emerging and intensifying social complexity involving small-scale settlement hierarchies, but the archaeological understanding of social organization at this time has remained limited. In a comparative case study of funerary treatment and skeletal biology, the authors consider the distribution of multiple skeletal pathological conditions between distinct tumuli-style burials at Pigi Athinas. Though social rank may have started to displace the centrality of kinship, subtle variations in both funerary and bioarchaeological data indicated the most important structuring factors were sex and age distinctions. Over time, the influence of differential diets, divisions of gender, and ritual feasting appear as the people participated in a widespread Mycenaean system that shaped both gender and health in ancient Greece.

STOPPERS, TRANSPORT STIRRUP JARS AND WINE TRANSPORT, 1450–1150 bc

2019 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 93-117
Author(s):  
Trevor Van Damme
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Maximum Diameter ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Meaningful Relationship ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Ceramic Vessels

This paper examines Late Bronze Age chipped ceramic and stone discs known most commonly as stoppers. Stoppers are distinguished from other classes of archaeological finds, including pierced discs and lids. Although it has long been known that stoppers could play a role in sealing ceramic vessels, recent scholarship has preferred to see them as multifunctional. For this article, 158 stoppers and 100 spout apertures from transport stirrup jar spouts found in secure Late Bronze Age III contexts have been studied. The results demonstrate a strong correlation in the apertures of transport stirrup jar spouts and the maximum diameter of stoppers that points to a meaningful relationship between the two. As the primary transport container of the Late Bronze Age, transport stirrup jars required careful sealing in order to allow their contents to transit without spilling or spoiling. There were many possible sealing configurations, however, and indeed this paper demonstrates some support for independent Mycenaean and Minoan traditions. A comparison with sealing traditions throughout the eastern Mediterranean reveals that the stopper method of sealing endured or reoccurred for thousands of years for the storage and transport of a specific commodity – wine. I conclude with the case study of stopper distributions at ancient Eleon, Boeotia, in order to show that a contextualised study of stoppers and stoppering activities in domestic structures has much to contribute to the study of social processes and domestic consumption practices.

scholarly journals Striking Cobra Spitting Fire

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46
Author(s):  
Kasia Szpakowska
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
Ancient Egyptian

Abstract In this paper, a working definition and examples of “demonic paraphernalia” are provided, as well as methods of recognition. Besides being of interest in and of themselves, these types of objects provide clues as to the nature of the demons, thus helping us in our quest for a taxonomy and “demonology” of Ancient Egypt. More specifically, this paper focuses on the use of Late Bronze Age clay cobra figurines as a case-study for the broader exploration of Ancient Egyptian “demonic paraphernalia”.

scholarly journals Hunting Warriors: The Transformation of Weapons, Combat Practices and Society during the Bronze Age in Ireland

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry P.C. Molloy
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Peer Relations ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Martial Art ◽  
The Social ◽  
Training Resources ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Bronze Age

Warfare is increasingly considered to have been a major field of social activity in prehistoric societies, in terms of the infrastructures supporting its conduct, the effects of its occurrence, and its role in symbolic systems. In the Bronze Age many of the weapon forms that were to dominate battlefields for millennia to come were first invented—shields and swords in particular. Using the case study of Ireland, developments in Bronze Age warfare are traced from the Early to the Late Bronze Age. It is argued that during this period there was a move from warfare that made use of projectiles and impact weapons to warfare that used both defensive and cutting weapons. This formed the basis for a fundamental reorganization in combat systems. This in turn stimulated change in the social organization of warfare, including investment in material and training resources for warriors and the development of new bodily techniques reflecting fundamental changes in martial art traditions. Metalwork analysis of bronze weapons and experimental archaeology using replicas of these are used to support this position. The article explores how developments in fighting techniques transformed the sociality of violence and peer-relations among warriors and proposes that these warriors be regarded as a category of craft specialist exerting significant social influence by the Late Bronze Age.

scholarly journals Bronze age sickles in diverse roles

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-30
Author(s):  
Eszter Fejér
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Carpathian Basin ◽  
Research Interest ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The People ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Special Value ◽  
The Bronze Age

Bronze sickles are among the most numerous types of artefacts discovered in Late Bronze Age assemblages in Europe, and they have been found in particularly large numbers in the Carpathian Basin. Since their form has barely changed during the last few thousand years and they are generally regarded as having a very ordinary function, for a long time they had failed to spark research interest. Nevertheless, detailed analysis of their find contexts and condition, as well as their comparison with historical, anthropological, and ethnographic observations reveal that they may have had diverse meanings, a greater significance than previously thought, and a special value for the people of the Bronze Age.

scholarly journals Resourcefulness Skills Use by Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren: A Longitudinal Case Study Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 495-496
Author(s):  
Alexandra Jeanblanc ◽  
Carol Musil ◽  
Elizabeth Tracy ◽  
Jaclene Zauszniewski
Keyword(s):  
Program Implementation ◽  
Family System ◽  
Skills Training ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
Entire Family ◽  
Developmental Issues ◽  
The Family ◽  
Over Time

Abstract In the U.S., over 2.7 million grandparents are primary caregivers to grandchildren. It is critical to understand the experiences of grandparent caregivers to design tailored, supportive programs. Our aim was to analyze 4 weeks of daily online journals of 129 grandmothers with respect to their use of a set of Resourcefulness Skills© following web-based skills training. Using a thematic analysis approach, coding was completed by a three person team using NVIVO 12. Percent agreement among coders was over 90% (Kappa = .956). Twelve cases were randomly selected for case study development. Comparative case study analysis was used to look within and across cases for instances where skills were used and how skill use changed over time. The pattern of skill use showed that grandmother caregivers used resourcefulness skills to deal with the grandchild’s behavior and developmental issues as well as within the entire family system to manage conflicted relationships with the grandchild’s parents, balance relationships with their spouse/partner, and maintain relationships with other relatives. Case studies will be presented to show skill use over the four weeks of journaling in the context of the family system, as well as the strategies used by participants who improved skill use over time and those who faced barriers to skill use. Findings highlight the use of journals as a means to assess enactment fidelity of treatment interventions and the importance of the family network in skills training program implementation and ways to help grandmothers make use of skills training in the family setting.

Understanding the role of metal within the Late Bronze Age community at Mycenae: challenges and potential approaches

2020 ◽  
pp. 247-270
Author(s):  
Stephanie Jane Aulsebrook
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Metal Artifacts ◽  
The Relationship

Metal has been widely argued as playing a decisive role in the development of Mycenae, which became one of the foremost centers on the Late Bronze Age Greek mainland. Yet, little is understood as to how metals were integrated into the lives of the inhabitants. Most scholarship has concentrated on the relationship between the ruling class and metal artifacts, drawing much of the evidence from the Linear B archives and top-down models of trade, society and internal redistribution that are increasingly considered untenable within the study of other aspects of Mycenaean life. This paper presents a new project, which uses a practice-orientated approach based around object biographies to study the use of metal across the entire social spectrum of the Late Bronze Age community at Mycenae (approximately 1700–1050 BC). The benefits of such an approach are discussed through a case study that examines the unexpected absence of gold vessels from the Palatial period archaeological record from the perspective of social practice and demonstrates how the holistic use of evidence from multiple sources can help overcome the difficulties inherent in the study of the use of metal in past societies.

The Bioarchaeology of Early Social Complexity in Bronze Age Spain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia A. Jiménez-Brobeil ◽  
María G. Roca
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
State Level ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
The People ◽  
Lower Status ◽  
Funerary Treatment ◽  
Class Divisions ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

From ca. 2200 to 1430 B.C., the people at Cerro de la Encina participated in the El Argar culture of Bronze Age Europe, which was an emergent state-level society defined by rather clear sociopolitical class divisions, settlement hierarchies, and gendered differentiation in mortuary treatments. The authors describe health variation and social status in a small sample of 30 individuals and aim to overcome this issue via cross-contextual comparisons of multiple lines of evidence including funerary treatment. The authors find that nearly all signs of elevated morbidity correlate to individuals in lower status funerary contexts. This chapter sheds new light on the potential biocultural consequences of emergent sociopolitical hierarchy in Spain and proposes new questions and research agendas for the bioarchaeology of Bronze Age Western Europe.

Wild boar hunting in the Eastern Mediterranean from the 2nd to the 1st millennium BC

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Sophie Dalix ◽  
Emmanuelle Vila
Keyword(s):  
Wild Boar ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The North ◽  
The People ◽  
Common Activity ◽  
Food Economy ◽  
Ras Shamra ◽  
Wild Boar Hunting

Recent studies of the archaeozoological material from the site of Ras Shamra- Ugarit and of related textual sources have been added to the archaeological data; these studies demonstrate in an unexpected manner the importance which the wild boar held on this site during the Late Bronze Age. Is this importance characteristic of Ugarit or of the Late Bronze Age? This question encouraged us to look for traces of wild boars and wild boar hunting in the osteological, iconographic, and textual data for this period in neighbouring regions. This study represents the first stage in research which is intended to be carried out in more detail. Thus here we will only propose avenues for reflection. The site of Ras Shamra on the Syrian coast corresponds to the ancient city-state of Ugarit, the flourishing capital of a small coastal kingdom. Its key geographical situation and its port rendered it a point of contact between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean world. The city prospered in the Late Bronze Age before being destroyed by the ‘sea people’ in about 1180 BC. The ‘sea people’ and the ‘people from the North’ are known exclusively from Egyptian sources (Ramsès III, Medinet Abu). They are considered to be the destroyers of almost all the Levantine cities of the coast at that period. The excavations of the port (Minetel- Beida), the royal palace, the sanctuaries, and the residential quarters have produced many objects which are evidence of relations with Egypt, Cyprus, and Anatolia, as well as exceptional archives (2nd millennium BC)—numerous economic, administrative, literary, and mythological texts on clay tablets. Ugarit was an important commercial crossroads (Yon 1997). The archaeozoological study carried out on nearly 7000 bone remains reveals a food economy based on the breeding of cattle, sheep, and goats (Vila in press c). Evidence of pig rearing was not found. Hunting was not a common activity, being concentrated mainly on deer and sometimes wild boar. Although its domestic equivalent the pig was not bred at Ugarit, the wild boar was hunted and consumed on the site: 22 remains, some with butchering marks, provide the evidence (Vila & Dalix 2004).

Pathways for the Dead in the Middle and Late Bronze Age in Ireland

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Cooney
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Entire Population ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Physical Treatment ◽  
Mortuary Practice ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Population Treatment ◽  
Over Time

Because of its diversity and visibility the mortuary record of the Early Bronze Age (2400–1500 cal. BC) has long dominated interpretation of that period in Ireland (e.g. Cooney and Grogan 1994; Waddell 1998; Brindley 2007) and burials from Bronze Age cemeteries represent over 70 per cent of the burial record from Irish prehistory (Murphy et al. 2010). The explosion of development-funded excavation in the period from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s provided a settlement balance to that picture and also evidence for additional cemeteries (e.g. Grogan et al. 2007; McQuade et al. 2009). This suggests that Early Bronze Age cemeteries served as local foci for communities. From the evidence of the numbers interred over a number of generations the dead buried in the cemeteries represent what Mary Helms (1998) has usefully called the ‘distinguished dead’ from communities, not the entire population. Treatment of the dead within the cemeteries is complex and there are clear indications of change over time. Interpretative models had associated inhumation with males and a broader shift over time from inhumation to cremation relying on a view of cremation and inhumation as opposed, separate mortuary rites (e.g. Mount 1997). However, the evidence indicates a much more complex set of pathways in the postmortem treatment of the dead in which cremation and inhumation were employed as complementary mortuary rites with an increasing focus on cremation over time (e.g. Cahill and Sikora 2011). This new picture has important implications for the increasing significance of the the pyre and the transformation of the dead (Mizoguchi 1993: 232). In looking at the period after 1500 cal. BC we see continuity in aspects of mortuary practice and use of sites, but in other ways mortuary practice changed dramatically. Cremation is now the dominant mortuary rite. Burial in the Middle and Late Bronze Age (down to 600 cal. BC) has been widely discussed as less visible, and hence much less important as an aspect of social behaviour (e.g. Cooney and Grogan 1994: 144). But it is more useful to think in terms of shifting emphases in mortuary practice. In a recent discussion Lynch and O’Donnell (2007: 107) have described this period as being characterized by ‘an incredibly intricate and variable physical treatment of the dead’.

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