scholarly journals Neolithic pits and Late Bronze Age roundhouses in the Upper Ury Valley, Aberdeenshire

Author(s):  
Richard Moore ◽  
Claire Lingard ◽  
Melanie Johnson ◽  
Ann Clarke ◽  
Mhairi Hastie ◽  
...  

Archaeological monitoring of works on a gas pipeline route in Aberdeenshire, north-west of Inverurie, resulted in the discovery and excavation of several groups of Neolithic pits and four Bronze Age roundhouses. The Neolithic pits were concentrated around the Shevock Burn, a small tributary of the Ury, and in the East and North Lediken areas to the north. They produced significant assemblages of Early Neolithic Impressed Ware and of Modified Carinated Bowl. The Bronze Age roundhouses included the heavily truncated remains of a post-built structure near Pitmachie, the remains of a pair of ring ditch structures near Little Lediken Farm, and another ring ditch structure close to Wrangham village.

1987 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 182-182
Author(s):  
Reynold Higgins

A recent discovery on the island of Aegina by Professor H. Walter (University of Salzburg) throws a new light on the origins of the so-called Aegina Treasure in the British Museum.In 1982 the Austrians were excavating the Bronze Age settlement on Cape Kolonna, to the north-west of Aegina town. Immediately to the east of the ruined Temple of Apollo, and close to the South Gate of the prehistoric Lower Town, they found an unrobbed shaft grave containing the burial of a warrior. The gravegoods (now exhibited in the splendid new Museum on the Kolonna site) included a bronze sword with a gold and ivory hilt, three bronze daggers, one with gold fittings, a bronze spear-head, arrowheads of obsidian, boar's tusks from a helmet, and fragments of a gold diadem (plate Va). The grave also contained Middle Minoan, Middle Cycladic, and Middle Helladic (Mattpainted) pottery. The pottery and the location of the grave in association with the ‘Ninth City’ combine to give a date for the burial of about 1700 BC; and the richness of the grave-goods would suggest that the dead man was a king.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-45
Author(s):  
Fabio Silva

This paper applies a combined landscape and skyscape archaeology methodology to the study of megalithic passage graves in the North-west of the Iberian Peninsula, in an attempt to glimpse the cosmology of these Neolithic Iberians. The reconstructed narrative is found to be supported also by a toponym for a local mountain range and associated folklore, providing an interesting methodology that might be applied in future Celtic studies. The paper uses this data to comment on the ‘Celticization from the West’ hypothesis that posits Celticism originated in the European Atlantic façade during the Bronze Age. If this is the case, then the Megalithic phenomenon that was widespread along the Atlantic façade would have immediately preceded the first Celts.


1963 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 326-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Coles

One of the features of the Irish Late Bronze Age is the appearance of wind instruments, commonly called ‘Trumpets’, often found in groups and only rarely in association with other material. Being conical and curved, these are therefore members of the horn family, to which the other large musical group of the Bronze Age, the north Europeanlurer, also belong.The Irish horns have attracted the attention of antiquarians for over 100 years, with the principal collection and listing of these beginning in 1860. Evans devoted a section of his 1881 book to the ‘trumpets’, and was followed by Day, Allen and Coffey. The latest treatment, which brought together most of the previous lists of horns, was by MacWhite in 1945. All of these later works were primarily concerned with the typology of the horns, and attention was paid neither to their actual production nor to their music. In the present study, all previously published horns have been examined where possible, as well as a number of unpublished finds, and an attempt will be made not only (i) to describe the typological variations and dating of the horns, but also (ii) to discuss their production as objects from Late Bronze Age workshops and (iii) to consider for the first time their musical potential.


1987 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 182-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Holladay

A recent discovery on the island of Aegina by Professor H. Walter (University of Salzburg) throws a new light on the origins of the so-called Aegina Treasure in the British Museum.In 1982 the Austrians were excavating the Bronze Age settlement on Cape Kolonna, to the north-west of Aegina town. Immediately to the east of the ruined Temple of Apollo, and close to the South Gate of the prehistoric Lower Town, they found an unrobbed shaft grave containing the burial of a warrior. The gravegoods (now exhibited in the splendid new Museum on the Kolonna site) included a bronze sword with a gold and ivory hilt, three bronze daggers, one with gold fittings, a bronze spear-head, arrowheads of obsidian, boar's tusks from a helmet, and fragments of a gold diadem (plate Va). The grave also contained Middle Minoan, Middle Cycladic, and Middle Helladic (Mattpainted) pottery. The pottery and the location of the grave in association with the ‘Ninth City’ combine to give a date for the burial of about 1700 BC; and the richness of the grave-goods would suggest that the dead man was a king.


Author(s):  
Magnus Kirby ◽  
Sue Anderson ◽  
Mhairi Hastie ◽  
Adam Jackson ◽  
Melanie Johnson ◽  
...  

Trial trenching carried out by CFA Archaeology Ltd in 2006 to the north of Lockerbie Academy identified four areas of archaeological significance covering a timescale from early Neolithic to post-medieval periods. The earliest site identified was the remains of a Neolithic timber hall, which was situated on top of the flat plateau towards the northwest end of the site (Area A). Pottery recovered from the Neolithic structure was of the Carinated Bowl ceramic tradition.At the summit of the rounded knoll in the centre of the area (Area D) a Bronze Age phase consisting of a cremation and inhumation cemetery enclosed by a possible ring-cairn was identified. The Bronze Age cemetery included a Collared Urn and a copper alloy dagger of Butterwick type.At the base of the rounded knoll, the remains of an Early Historic timber hall were identified (Area C). This Anglian timber hall reoccupied the site of a post-built structure, which was interpreted as a timber hall, possibly belonging to an earlier British tradition. Radiocarbon dates taken from the primary fill of two of the post-holes of the earlier structure gave dates which are broadly contemporary with the dates obtained for the Anglian hall, suggesting that the post-built structure immediately preceded it.A corn-drying kiln was identified cut into the same knoll as the Bronze Age cemetery (Area D) and has been dated to the late medieval or early post-medieval period.A segmented ditched enclosure was located towards the north-east end of the site (Area B), but the poor survival of this feature combined with a lack of finds and palaeobotanical evidence means that it remains undated and poorly understood.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 713-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
N I Shishlina ◽  
J van der Plicht ◽  
R E M Hedges ◽  
E P Zazovskaya ◽  
V S Sevastyanov ◽  
...  

For the Bronze Age Catacomb cultures of the North-West Caspian steppe area in Russia, there is a conflict between the traditional relative archaeological chronology and the chronology based on radiocarbon dates. We show that this conflict can be explained largely by the fact that most dates have been obtained on human bone material and are subject to 14C reservoir effects. This was demonstrated by comparing paired 14C dates derived from human and terrestrial herbivore bone collagen. In addition, values of stable isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N) and analysis of food remains from vessels and the stomach contents of buried individuals indicate that a large part of the diet of these cultures consisted of fish and mollusks, and we conclude that this is the source of the reservoir effect.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 663-673
Author(s):  
O. S. Sovetova ◽  
O. O. Shishkina ◽  
I. V. Abolonkova

The paper features rock art images of Kremennaya mountain, which is situated in the North-West part of Tepsey archeological microdistrict. The images were discovered by Kemerovo archeologists in 2015. The opening of the petroglyph site replenished the collection of graphic sources of one of the largest rock art sites of the Minusinsk Basin. It also revealed a completely new graphic tradition of the late Bronze Age. In total, four surfaces covered with rock carvings were found, i.e. 52 distinct figures. They are presumably related to the Karasuk and Tagar cultures. According to the stylistic characteristics of Bronze Age, at least two art traditions were distinguished in the context of Karasuk culture: "Wire" figures and "full-weight" silhouette characters). Similar images were found in other site of the Tepsey mountains. Excavations performed in the 1960s revealed that Tepsey archaeological microdistrict has both burial and settlement sites of two chronological stages of the Karasuk culture (XIII to XI centuries, BC). The images of Kremennaya mount provide a more detailed understanding of Tepsey, which is one of the largest rock art sites of Minusinsk basin.


1935 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 16-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Holleyman ◽  
E. Cecil Curwen

Plumpton plain is situated on the top of the South Downs, roughly 600 feet above sea level, six miles north-east of Brighton and four miles north-west of Lewes (fig. 1). From its western end a broad spur slopes gently southwards from the northern escarpment of the Downs, lying between Moustone Valley on the south-east and Faulkners Bottom on the west. Most of this Downland is covered with a dense scrub of gorse, thorn and bramble, and with large patches of bracken and heather. A series of broad paths running roughly at right angles with one another has been cut through this vegetation to facilitate the preservation of game. Along the main ridge of the spur running north and south is a broad gallop which, at a height of 600 feet O.D., passes through a group of earthworks situated 1500 feet from the north edge of the Downs and 2300 feet east of Streathill Farm. This group was the primary object of bur investigations and will be referred to as Site A (fig. 2).Site B (fig. 3) lies a quarter of a mile to the south-east of Site A on a small lateral spur jutting between the twin heads of Moustone Bottom. The only visible evidence of prehistoric occupation was a quantity of coarse gritty sherds and calcined flints on the surface to the south-east of a low bank and ditch which runs across the spur.Several groups of lynchets enclosing square Celtic fields are to be seen in the neighbourhood of these two sites. They lie principally to the south-east of Site A and to the south of Site B.


2019 ◽  
pp. 210-243
Author(s):  
Matthew Rutz

Syria and the southern Levant has a long and rich epigraphic tradition that was rediscovered in the last century through archaeological excavation. Written remains stretching from the Bronze Age (Ebla, Mari, Alalakh, Ugarit, and Emar) down into the Roman period (Qumran) provide ample evidence for the collecting of literary texts, broadly conceived, and the formation of ancient libraries. This survey gives an overview of the archaeological distribution of what modern scholarship has termed ‘libraries’ and considers the chronological, geographic, and textual depth of the data from the region as whole. It then considers the principal case studies from ancient Syria and the Levant—cuneiform libraries from the north Syrian sites of Ugarit and Emar dating to the last centuries of the second millennium BCE.


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