scholarly journals The Excavation of the Sculptor's Cave, Covesea, Morayshire

1931 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 177-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Benton

An account of excavation in the cave made famous by its Pictish carvings. The earliest Bronze Age phase of occupation is represented by a range of objects including gold and bronze rings, bracelets, worked bone objects including needles and pottery. Material from the Roman phase include bronze rings, bracelets, wire and glass beads, pins, toilet instruments, needles, samian and native pottery and coins. Disarticulated human bone comprised mainly children. Animal bone was also present throughout.

Radiocarbon ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (02) ◽  
pp. 767-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Shishlina ◽  
V Sevastyanov ◽  
E Zazovskaya ◽  
J van der Plicht

Human and animal bone collagen from different Steppe Bronze Age cultures, including the Yamnaya, East Manych Catacomb, and Lola cultures, show large variations in δ13C and δ15N values. More positive values of δ13C and δ15N are caused by change in diet and/or a more arid climate. Human bones show reservoir effects caused by aquatic diet components. These effects can be quantified by paired dating of human bone and associated terrestrial samples. Previous research showed reservoir corrections for several cultures of the Eurasian steppes Bronze Age, leading to a revision of the local chronologies. Additional investigations showed that some paired dates do not reveal reservoir effects. Recently, our database was extended significantly with new13C,l5N, and14C analyses of the Lola, Krivaya, and Babino cultures. The size of the reservoir offset for the studied cultures is discussed.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 767-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Shishlina ◽  
V Sevastyanov ◽  
E Zazovskaya ◽  
J van der Plicht

Human and animal bone collagen from different Steppe Bronze Age cultures, including the Yamnaya, East Manych Catacomb, and Lola cultures, show large variations in δ13C and δ15N values. More positive values of δ13C and δ15N are caused by change in diet and/or a more arid climate. Human bones show reservoir effects caused by aquatic diet components. These effects can be quantified by paired dating of human bone and associated terrestrial samples. Previous research showed reservoir corrections for several cultures of the Eurasian steppes Bronze Age, leading to a revision of the local chronologies. Additional investigations showed that some paired dates do not reveal reservoir effects. Recently, our database was extended significantly with new 13C, l5N, and 14C analyses of the Lola, Krivaya, and Babino cultures. The size of the reservoir offset for the studied cultures is discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne Verbrugge ◽  
Maaike Groot ◽  
Koen Deforce ◽  
Guy De Mulder ◽  
Wouter Van der Meer ◽  
...  

Abstract Archaeological research at Aalst – Siesegemkouter revealed several pits within a Middle to Late Bronze Age settlement. Most of them hardly contained any artefacts, but one exception showed a structured stratigraphy with an abundance of finds, including a large amount of shattered pottery, charcoal and calcined animal bone. The study of this assemblage, and comparison with two other pits showing similarities, provides strong indications of a closing deposit or another type of ‘site maintenance practice’. In the Low Countries, comparable contexts generally date from the Iron Age, suggesting that the finds from Aalst – Siesegemkouter represent early forerunners of this ritual practice. On top of this early date, the large volume of cremated animal bone represents an almost unique characteristic for which, until now, parallels from the Metal Ages have hardly been found, even on a Northwestern European scale. In general, the role played by organic remains in ritual contexts from these periods and regions is poorly understood, often due to bad preservation conditions or the lack of a multidisciplinary approach.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 749-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Shishlina ◽  
E Zazovskaya ◽  
J van der Plicht ◽  
V Sevastyanov

Bronze Age human and animal bone collagen from several steppe Bronze Age cultures (i.e. Early Catacomb, East and West Manych Catacomb, and Lola cultures) shows large variations in δ13C and δ15N values. In general, we observed that the older the sample, the lower the δ13C and δ15N values. We hypothesize that more positive values of δ13C and δ15N are caused by change in diet and a more arid climate. For ancient sheep during drier periods of the Early Catacomb, East and West Manych Catacomb, and Lola cultures, we observed 2 groups with different C and N isotopic compositions, reflecting consumption of different types of fodder. During periods of aridization, C4 and C3 plants with high δ15N values appeared in the vegetation, also influencing bone collagen values. Human bones show reservoir effects, caused by aquatic diet components. These effects can be quantified by paired dating of human bone and associated terrestrial samples. Reservoir corrections have revised chronologies for the region. Some paired dates do not reveal reservoir effects. This can be explained in 2 alternative ways. One is that the human diet did not include aquatic components; rather, the diet was based on C3 vegetation with high δ15N values (13–15‰), and flesh/milk of domesticated animals. An alternative explanation is that humans consumed food from freshwater resources without reservoir effects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-274
Author(s):  
Flemming Kaul

Abstract The introduction of the folding stool and the single-edged razor into Southern Scandinavia, as well as the testimony of chariot use during the Nordic Bronze Age Period II (1500-1300 BC), give evidence of the transfer of ideas from the Mediterranean to the North. Recent analyses of the chemical composition of blue glass beads from well-dated Danish Bronze Age burials have revealed evidence for the opening of long distance exchange routes around 1400 BC between Egypt, Mesopotamia and South Scandinavia. When including comparative material from glass workshops in Egypt and finds of glass from Mesopotamia, it becomes clear that glass from those distant lands reached Scandinavia. The routes of exchange can be traced through Europe based on finds of amber from the North and glass from the South.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Izumi Nakai ◽  
Kriengkamol Tantrakarn ◽  
Yoshinari Abe ◽  
Sachihiro Omura

In this article we report a comparative study on excavated objects and artifact from museums to reveal an aspect of ancient trade. The target artifact is Western Asiatic cast ribbed rectangular beads excavated from an architectural remain at Kaman-Kalehöyük, Turkey. Blue glass beads of this type have been excavated in Western Asia from north Iran and Iraq to the Syro-Palestinian coast from second half of 16th to 14th century BC. The analysis of the samples was carried out by using a portable Xray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer developed by us. The instrument was brought to the excavation site in Turkey as well as to the museums to analyse typologically similar glass beads from the collection of Okayama Orient Museum and MIHO MUSEUM in Japan, for comparison. Our XRF analyses suggested that all analysed glass artifacts are plant ash sodalime silica glass with 2-4 wt% magnesium and potassium. The three glass beads exhibited similar compositional characteristic, i.e. they contain Sb, Pb, Fe, Cu and Sr in similar quantities. A typological and principal component analysis comparison of the glass beads unearthed from Kaman- Kalehöyük site with those of the museums and literature data support that they should have a similar origin. In addition, archaeological context of the glass from Kaman-Kalehöyük also supports that the artifact belongs to the Middle-Late Bronze Age (16th to 15th centuries BC). This is the first scientific material evidence that shows the possibility of a cultural flow from Mesopotamia region to Kaman-Kalehöyük during Middle- Late Bronze Age.


1998 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 139-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair Whittle ◽  
Michael Wysocki ◽  
Mike Richards ◽  
Amanda Rouse ◽  
Elizabeth Walker ◽  
...  

First investigated in 1869, the transepted long cairn of Parc le Breos Cwm was re-excavated in 1960–61 but without a report being published. This account presents a number of radiocarbon dates and a detailed re-examination of the human bone assemblages, and attempts to put the monument in local and regional context. Radiocarbon dates place the long cairn in the later part of the earlier Neolithic, and support a fairly long span of time over which its mortuary deposits were accumulated; they also show secondary re-use of the passage, and perhaps also the deliberate incorporation of very old animal bone from nearby caves. The analysis of the human bone assemblages indicates prior exposure of the remains found in the chambers, in contrast to those in the passage. Variation in musculoskeletal stress markers may indicate a mobile lifestyle for at least some of the male mortuary population. Other lifestyle indicators are noted, and isotopic evidence is presented for a terrestrial and mainly meat-oriented diet in the sampled group. The isolated context and hidden setting of the Parc le Breos Cwm long cairn and the apparently low density of south Welsh monuments are stressed.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 1252-1264 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Oinonen ◽  
A Vasks ◽  
G Zarina ◽  
M Lavento

The Bronze Age site of ķivutkalns with its massive amount of archaeological artifacts and human remains is considered the largest bronze-working center in Latvia. The site is a unique combination of cemetery and hillfort believed to be built on top of each other. This work presents new radiocarbon dates on human and animal bone collagen that somewhat challenge this interpretation. Based on analyses using a Bayesian modeling framework, the present data suggest overlapping calendar year distributions for the contexts within the 1st millennium BC. The carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios indicate mainly terrestrial dietary habits of studied individuals and nuclear family remains buried in one of the graves. The older charcoal data may be subject to the old-wood effect and the results are partly limited by the limited amount of data and the 14C calibration curve plateau of the 1st millennium BC. Therefore, the ultimate conclusions on contemporaneity of the cemetery and hillfort need to wait for further analyses on the massive amounts of bone material.


2015 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 168-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanette Varberg ◽  
Bernard Gratuze ◽  
Flemming Kaul

Antiquity ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 83 (320) ◽  
pp. 359-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joakim Goldhahn

AbstractThe famous monumental Bronze Age cairn Bredarör on Kivik with its decorated stone coffin or cist has been described as a ‘pyramid of the north’. Situating his work as the latest stage in a long history of interpretation that began in the eighteenth century, the author analyses the human bone that survived from the 1930s excavation and shows that the cist and chamber must have remained open to receive burials over a period of 600 years.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document