Bronze Age farms and Iron Age farm mounds of the Outer Hebrides

Hebridean sites of the coastal sand cliffs and associated machair, or sandy plain have been known for many years. Artefacts and ecofacts of various types have long been collected from archaeological sites in the eroding sand-cliffs of the machairs of the Outer Hebrides. Early in 1983, personnel of the then Central Excavation Unit of Historic Scotland's predecessor revisited very nearly all of the coastal archaeological sites then known in the Long Isle, with the specific task of identifying those at immediate threat from coastal erosion and of assessing the feasibility of their excavation or preservation. Some 32 sites were seen to be undergoing active erosion; at nine of them preservation was not being pursued and excavation was feasible. These sites were of two morphotypes: sites exposed in roughly vertical sand-cliffs and sites exposed over relatively large horzontal areas of sand deflation. It was decided to examine one sand-cliff site along its exposed face. The site selected was Balelone in North Uist, its excavation designed to explore both the problems associated with the excavation of deep midden sites with complex stratigraphy and the not-inconsiderable problems of excavation in sand. In the light of the Balelone trial excavation, a new approach was called for. A structured approach aimed firstly at establishing the three-dimensional extent of the sites to be examined. Four sites were then sampled (the sand-cliff sites of Baleshare, on the island of the same name off the west coast of North Uist and Hornish Point, South Uist and the deflation sites of South Glendale, South Uist and Newtonferry, North Uist) within a rigorously-defined research framework.The machair sites were formed by sand accretion, facilitated by human activities ranging from construction to refuse disposal and cultivation. Their formation was intermittent and they underwent episodes of major erosion, isolating the sites from the landscape mass of the machair sands. Despite their apparent wealth of suitable material, the dating of Hebridean coastal sites presents special problems. The strategy here was to provide a dating framework for the sequences on each site, from which the dates of archaeological significant structures and events could then be arrived at by extrapolation. Preliminary dates from the earliest and latest strata at Balelone spanned such a small period that a First Millennium BC date-range could be assigned. At Baleshare, the deposits investigated were chiefly later Bronze Age; following abandonment (roughly 200 radiocarbon years) of the Period I cultivated soil Period II represented extensive, manured, cultivated fields in the vicinity of a settlement now lost to the sea. As Period II went on. the settlement seems to have moved closer to the excavated area. After another hiatus of a minimum of 350 radiocarbon years, there were further cultivated plots and associated settlement of Iron Age date (Period III). By contrast, the site at Hornish Point (including successive wheelhouses and associated cultivation areas) is considered to be all of one - dynamic, Iron Age - period, lasting some 300 radiocarbon years (with potentially earlier structures unexcavated). A post-medieval blackhouse of characteristic Lewisian form had been cut into the settlement mound. The three dates from Newtonferry suggest that some Early Medieval activity took place at the site, while the bulk of the deposits date from the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries AD. At South Glendale, the radiocarbon dates indicate occupation sometime between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries AD; stratigraphically lower, fragmented and truncated remains were prehistoric, probably early Bronze Age.

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The excavation of pit circles at Romancamp Gate, Fochabers, Moray, 1990

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland ◽

10.9750/psas.123.255.268 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 123 ◽

pp. 255-268

Author(s):

Gordon J Barclay

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

Structural Elements ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Regional Council ◽

First Millennium ◽

First Millennium Bc ◽

Mesolithic Period

The excavation was undertaken with the funding and support of Grampian Regional Council to test hypotheses relating to the interpretation of cropmark pit circles: were they Neolithic or Bronze Age ceremonial or funerary structures, or were they Iron Age houses, and to what extent could the two classifications be differentiated on aerial photographs? The excavation revealed the remains of four circles (between 8.5 m and 11.5 m in diameter) of large post- holes, fence lines (one with a gate), and many other pits and post-holes. Radiocarbon dates place the post circles late in the first millennium BC uncal. The pit circles may be interpreted as the main structural elements of four substantial round houses, two of which burned down. Flint tools of the Mesolithic period were recovered.

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The Excavation of a Settlement of the Later Bronze Age and Iron Age at Myrehead, Falkirk District

Glasgow Archaeological Journal ◽

10.3366/gas.1983.10.10.41 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 41-71 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

G J Barclay

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Farming System ◽

Activity Period ◽

Limited Evidence ◽

Ring Groove ◽

Domestic Activity ◽

First Millennium ◽

First Millennium Bc ◽

Actual Settlement

SUMMARY Myrehead has revealed the eroded remnants of activity from the Beaker period (Period A) onwards, with actual settlement evinced only from about the early first millennium be. The three houses and the cooking pits of Period B may have been constructed and used sequentially. This open settlement was probably replaced during the mid first millennium bc, possibly without a break, by a palisaded enclosure (Period C), which may have contained a ring-groove house and a four-post structure. Continued domestic activity (Period D) was suggested by a single pit outside the enclosure, dated to the late first millennium bc/early first millennium ad. The limited evidence of the economy of the settlements suggests a mixed farming system.

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Ancient genomic time transect from the Central Asian Steppe unravels the history of the Scythians

Science Advances ◽

10.1126/sciadv.abe4414 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (13) ◽

pp. eabe4414

Author(s):

Guido Alberto Gnecchi-Ruscone ◽

Elmira Khussainova ◽

Nurzhibek Kahbatkyzy ◽

Lyazzat Musralina ◽

Maria A. Spyrou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Gene Pools ◽

Social Rules ◽

Eurasian Steppe ◽

Central Asian ◽

Genome Wide ◽

Genome Wide Data ◽

History Of ◽

First Millennium

The Scythians were a multitude of horse-warrior nomad cultures dwelling in the Eurasian steppe during the first millennium BCE. Because of the lack of first-hand written records, little is known about the origins and relations among the different cultures. To address these questions, we produced genome-wide data for 111 ancient individuals retrieved from 39 archaeological sites from the first millennia BCE and CE across the Central Asian Steppe. We uncovered major admixture events in the Late Bronze Age forming the genetic substratum for two main Iron Age gene-pools emerging around the Altai and the Urals respectively. Their demise was mirrored by new genetic turnovers, linked to the spread of the eastern nomad empires in the first centuries CE. Compared to the high genetic heterogeneity of the past, the homogenization of the present-day Kazakhs gene pool is notable, likely a result of 400 years of strict exogamous social rules.

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The Culture of the Sakas of Semirechye: Contemporary State and Current Issues of Study

Vestnik NSU Series History and Philology ◽

10.25205/1818-7919-2021-20-3-22-35 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 22-35

Author(s):

Ernar A. Estemesov

Keyword(s):

Iron Age ◽

Social Groups ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Funeral Rites ◽

The Third ◽

Urgent Task ◽

Wide Range ◽

Burial Mounds ◽

Second Category

Purpose. The article describes the history and analysis of the main issues in the study of archaeological sites of the Saka period in Semirechye. They are presented by three main types on this territory: burial and memorial complexes, settlements and hoards. The first type of monuments includes numerous burial mounds, where the elite burials of “royal” type and ordinary burials are located. Both social groups are combined by the unity of funeral rites, and the main differences are the complexity of architecture, memorial practices, and richness of burial equipment in the “royal” type burial mounds. The second category of monuments is presented by the settlements that are mostly small in size. The constructions like half dugouts were discovered on them, which gave a rich ceramic material. The third type of monuments of the Saka period in Semirechye includes numerous hoards of bronze items. Some of them are represented by the cult objects (sacrificial tables, lamps and cauldrons) that mark the places of worship. A significant percentage of the hoards contain items of weapons, horse equipment and household purposes and, apparently, serve as offerings to the spirits. However, despite the considerable progress in the study of the Saka monuments of the Semirechye Region, the main problem is their cultural attribution at this time. Some researchers suggest that the independent Saka archaeological culture was formed and developed on the territory of Semirechye in the Early Iron Age, while others believe that the Saka monuments of this region belong to the broader historical and cultural community that also covers the neighboring regions of Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang. Results Another important issue in the study of the Saka sites of Semirechye is to clarify the chronology of burial and memorial complexes. Up to now, the significant database of radiocarbon dates has been accumulated, which allows us to consider the chronological positions of a wide range of monuments in a new way. It was of great importance to obtain such dates from several burials of Karatuma necropolis, which showed that it belonged to the Saka period, since burial monuments of this appearance are traditionally dated back to the Wusun period. Conclusion. The necessity of solution of these problems is an urgent task for further research of burial and settlement objects of the Saka period in this region.

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Bronze Age and Early Iron Age house and settlement development at Forsandmoen, south-western Norway

AmS-Skrifter ◽

10.31265/ams-skrifter.vi28.377 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-300

Author(s):

Trond Løken

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Early Iron Age ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

15Th Century ◽

Storage House ◽

In The Beginning ◽

The University ◽

House Structure

The ambition of this monograph is to analyse a limited number of topics regarding house types and thus social and economic change from the extensive material that came out of the archaeological excavation that took place at Forsandmoen (“Forsand plain”), Forsand municipality, Rogaland, Norway during the decade 1980–1990, as well as the years 1992, 1995 and 2007. The excavation was organised as an interdisciplinaryresearch project within archaeology, botany (palynological analysis from bogs and soils, macrofossil analysis) and phosphate analysis, conducted by staff from the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger (as it was called until 2009, now part of the University of Stavanger). A large phosphate survey project had demarcaded a 20 ha settlement area, among which 9 ha were excavated using mechanical topsoil stripping to expose thehabitation traces at the top of the glaciofluvial outwash plain of Forsandmoen. A total of 248 houses could be identified by archaeological excavations, distributed among 17 house types. In addition, 26 partly excavated houses could not be classified into a type. The extensive house material comprises three types of longhouses, of which there are as many as 30–40 in number, as well as four other longhouse types, of which there are only 2–7 in number. There were nine other house types, comprising partly small dwelling houses and partly storage houses, of which there were 3–10 in number. Lastly, there are 63 of the smallest storage house, consisting of only four postholes in a square shape. A collection of 264 radiocarbon dates demonstrated that the settlement was established in the last part of the 15th century BC and faded out during the 7th–8th century AD, encompassing the Nordic Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. As a number of houses comprising four of the house types were excavated with the same methods in the same area by the same staff, it is a major goal of this monograph to analyse thoroughly the different featuresof the houses (postholes, wall remains, entrances, ditches, hearths, house-structure, find-distribution) and how they were combined and changed into the different house types through time. House material from different Norwegian areas as well as Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands is included in comparative analyses to reveal connections within the Nordic area. Special attention has been given to theinterpretation of the location of activity areas in the dwelling and byre sections in the houses, as well as the life expectancy of the two main longhouse types. Based on these analyses, I have presented a synthesis in 13 phases of the development of the settlement from Bronze Age Period II to the Merovingian Period. This analysis shows that, from a restricted settlement consisting of one or two small farms in the Early BronzeAge, it increases slightly throughout the Late Bronze Age to 2–3 solitary farms to a significantly larger settlement consisting of 3–4 larger farms in the Pre-Roman Iron Age. From the beginning of the early Roman Iron Age, the settlement seems to increase to 8–9 even larger farms, and through the late Roman Iron Age, the settlement increases to 12–13 such farms, of which 6–7 farms are located so close together that they would seem to be a nucleated or village settlement. In the beginning of the Migration Period, there were 16–17 farms, each consisting of a dwelling/byre longhouse and a workshop, agglomerated in an area of 300 x 200 m where the farms are arranged in four E–W oriented rows. In addition, two farms were situated 140 m NE of the main settlement. At the transition to the Merovingian Period, radiocarbon dates show that all but two of the farms were suddenly abandoned. At the end of that period, the Forsandmoen settlement was completely abandoned. The abandonment could have been caused by a combination of circumstances such as overexploitation in agriculture, colder climate, the Plague of Justinian or the collapse of the redistributive chiefdom system due to the breakdown of the Roman Empire. The abrupt abandonment also coincides with a huge volcanic eruption or cosmic event that clouded the sun around the whole globe in AD 536–537. It is argued that the climatic effect on the agriculture at this latitude could induce such a serious famine that the settlement, in combination with the other possible causes, was virtually laid waste during the ensuing cold decade AD 537–546.

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The Expansion of Settlement (1100–250 BC)

The Later Prehistory of North-West Europe ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199659777.003.0011 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Richard Bradley ◽

Colin Haselgrove ◽

Marc Vander Linden ◽

Leo Webley

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Raw Material ◽

Basic Unit ◽

Funerary Monuments ◽

Main Metal ◽

Political Transformations ◽

Metal Artefacts ◽

First Millennium ◽

Middle Bronze Age

The previous chapter addressed an important period of change, but this would not have been apparent to the scholars who devised the Three Age Model. The most important developments between 1600 and 1100 BC were most clearly evidenced in the ancient landscape and registered to a smaller extent by the metalwork finds on which the traditional scheme depends. The same is true of the evidence considered in this chapter, for it cuts across the conventional distinction between the Bronze and Iron Ages. It begins in a period when bronze was still the main metal, but also considers a time when a new kind of raw material was employed. Similarly, it ends part way through the phase usually characterized as ‘Iron Age’, so that the drastic economic and political transformations that communities experienced in the late first millennium BC can be considered separately. These provide the subject of Chapter 7. By the late Bronze Age, evidence for settlements and houses is fairly abundant, and some sparsely used parts of the landscape were occupied for the first. This expansion—which continued into the Iron Age—is associated with new agricultural techniques and a wider range of crops. The nature of settlements suggests an emphasis on small household groups as the basic unit of society. New kinds of focal sites also appeared, which may have been used for assemblies and public ceremony. They include hillforts in upland regions, while other communal centres may have played the same role in lowland areas. Meanwhile, the trend towards less elaborate burial practices that had begun during the middle Bronze Age spread increasingly widely. Investment in funerary monuments was generally modest, and mortuary rituals displayed social distinctions in relatively subtle ways. While prestige objects were rarely placed with the dead, the deposition of metalwork in rivers and other places in the landscape increased. These metal artefacts have provided the basis for studies of long-distance interaction, and their styles have been used to define three geographically extensive traditions, in Atlantic, Nordic, and central Europe. Other ritual practices that developed during this time involved feasting and cooking.

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New radiocarbon dates for Eastern and Southern Africa

The Journal of African History ◽

10.1017/s0021853700000232 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 1-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

J. E. G. Sutton

Keyword(s):

Iron Age ◽

Southern Africa ◽

Congo Basin ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

Stone Age ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Eastern And Southern Africa

This article is a follow-up to that of Mr D. W. Phillipson published in this Journal in 1970, and to the six earlier lists compiled for the whole of sub-Saharan Africa by Dr B. M. Fagan. I have endeavoured to include here all radiocarbon dates for archaeological sites of the Iron Age and most of those of the end of the Stone Age in the eastern and southern part of Africa—that is from Ethiopia, the Upper Nile and the Congo Basin southward—which have been published or made available since the preparation of the former articles. Some of these dates are already included in recent numbers of the Journal Radiocarbon, or have been mentioned in publications elsewhere, as indicated in the footnotes. A large proportion of these new dates, however, have not yet been published, and are included here through the agreement of the various individual archaeologists and research bodies, all of whom I wish to thank for their cooperation. In particular, I am indebted to Mr David Phillipson for his willing assistance in providing a number of contacts and relaying information from southern Africa.

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Prehistoric Figurines in China

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199675616.013.023 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Sascha Priewe

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Yellow River ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Three Dimensions ◽

The Yellow River ◽

Early China ◽

First Millennium ◽

Relative Rarity ◽

First Millennium Bc ◽

Regional Cultures

In early China there was no widespread tradition of making figurines until about the mid-first millennium bc when human figurines started to be placed in burials to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. In prior millennia only pockets of China had seen the emergence of figurines, but these appeared to be short-lived phenomena clearly rooted and linked to local and regional cultures. The overall paucity of three-dimensional imagery and relative rarity of human representations both in two and three dimensions meant that China does not feature in surveys of early figurines. This chapter surveys and discusses selected appearance of figurines of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, with an emphasis on the Hongshan Culture in the northeast, the Yellow River and the Shijiahe Culture along the middle Yangtze.

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Matching Data: Analyzing the Chronological Use Sequence in the Iron Age Necropolis of the Staggered Turriform of Son Ferrer (Balearic Islands, Spain)

Radiocarbon ◽

10.1017/s0033822200049432 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 56 (02) ◽

pp. 361-374

Author(s):

Manuel Calvo Trias ◽

Jaume García Rosselló ◽

David Javaloyas Molina ◽

Daniel Albero Santacreu ◽

Mark Van Strydonck

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Management Practices ◽

Archaeological Site ◽

Research Strategies ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Space Management ◽

Archaeological Material ◽

Management Processes ◽

Excavation Process

The Son Ferrer archaeological site presents a series of successive occupations spanning a long period of time. At the beginning of the Iron Age (∼850 BC), a staggered turriform structure was built for a ritual purpose over an artificial hypogeum that had already been used as a collective necropolis during the Early Bronze Age (∼1800–1500 BC). Later, in the post-Talayotic phase (Second Iron Age, 550–123 BC), the hypogeum was again reused as a collective burial place. The present work is focused on the chronological and functional analysis of this last phase, which began ∼500 BC and ended ∼180 BC with the saturation and sealing of the hypogeum. The excavation process revealed that significant removal of archaeological material has occurred as a result of complex funerary space management practices, which generated a secondary archaeological context. Given this situation, and in order to establish the different use phases of the post-Talayotic necropolis, a dual strategy of excavation and research was implemented. First, an extensive series of radiocarbon dates on human remains (18 dates) was obtained, which were later analyzed following Bayesian strategies. Second, a detailed spatial analysis was carried out, georeferencing the location of all the archaeological finds. This strategy allowed the reconstruction of the space management processes and movement patterns that took place in the burial space. Despite some initial difficulties, the combination of these research strategies embedded in a contextual analysis provided both material and chronological references that have contributed to define the various use phases of the hypogeum.

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Geoarchaeological evidence of multiple climatic and anthropic triggers driving the breakdown of the Terramare civilization (Bronze Age, Northern Italy)

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-6485 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Andrea Zerboni ◽

Anna Maria Mercuri ◽

Assunta Florenzano ◽

Eleonora Clò ◽

Giovanni Zanchetta ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Mediterranean Area ◽

Northern Italy ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Po River ◽

Commercial Exchange ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Dramatic Shift

The Terramare civilization included hundreds of banked and moated villages, located in the alluvial plain of the Po River of northern Italy, and developed between the Middle and the Recent Bronze Ages (XVI-XII cent. BC). This civilization lasted for over 500 years, collapsing at around 1150 years BC, in a period marked by a great societal disruptionin the Mediterranean area. The timing and modalities of the collapse of the Terramare Bronze Age culture are widely debated, and a combined geoarchaeological and palaeoclimatic investigation &#8211; the SUCCESSO-TERRA Project &#8211;is shading new light on this enigma. The Terramare economy was based upon cereal farming, herding, and metallurgy; settlements were also sustained by a well-developed system for the management of water and abundant wood resources. They also established a wide network of commercial exchange between continental Europe and the Mediterranean region.The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project investigated two main Bronze Age sites in Northern Italy:(i) the Terramara Santa Rosa di Poviglio, and (ii) the San Michele di Valestra site, which is a coeval settlement outside the Terramare territory, but in the adjoining Apennine range. Human occupation at San Michele di Valestra persisted after the Terramare crisis and the site was settled with continuity throughout the whole Bronze Ages, up to the Iron Age. The combined geoarchaeological, palaeoclimatic, and archaeobotanical investigation on different archaeological sites and on independent archives for climatic proxies (offsite cores and speleothems) highlights the existence of both climatic and anthropic critical factors triggering a dramatic shift of the landuse of the Terramare civilization. The overexploitation of natural resources became excessive in the late period of the Terramare trajectory, when also a climatic change occurred. A fresh speleothem record for the same region suggests the occurrence of a short-lived period of climatic instability followed by a marked peak of aridity. The&#160;unfavourable concomitance between human overgrazing and climatic-triggered environmental pressure, amplified the on-going societal crisis, likely leading to the breakdown of the Terramare civilization in the turn of a generation.

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