Wood analyses helped to determine the location and approximate construction period of the Roman bridge over the Drava River in ancient Poetovio (Ptuj, Slovenia)

We present the results of a dendrochronological study and radiocarbon dating of the wooden piles of the bridge over the Drava River in Ptuj. The piles, together with stone elements (a fragment of an imperial building inscription and parts of the architectural decoration) were retrieved from the riverbed in 1913 and are now in the Regional Museum Ptuj - Ormož. Using dendrochronology, radiocarbon dating of carefully selected annual rings in the wood and calibration with the wiggle-matching method, the date of the last (outermost) annual ring on the pile was determined to be 161 ± 27 cal AD (1σ) or 160 ± 32 cal AD (2σ). Since the pile contained no sapwood, the dating approximately agrees with the date of the building inscription on the stone slab, which attributes the commission for the reconstruction or construction of the bridge to Emperor Hadrian in the last years of his reign (117-138 AD). The dating of the wood has thus confirmed that the remains examined do indeed belong to a Roman bridge, probably built or renovated during the reconstruction of the road network in the area of the colony of Poetovio under Hadrian or one of his successors.

The Relief of Harput

In the spring of 2016 a unique stone slab carved in relief was accidentally discovered on Kurey Tepesi near Harput/Elazığ in eastern Turkey. The relief depicts the capture of a heavily fortified city in horizontally arranged registers. At first sight it comes to recognition that the Harput Relief stands in the tradition of Mesopotamian victory steles, starting with the Eannatum Stele (Stele of Vultures) in Early Dynastic Sumer (c. 2900–2350 BC) and continuing with the kings of Akkad (c. 2350–2150 BC). From a stylistic and iconographic point of view, the relief seems closer to the victory stele of Daduša of Ešnunna and the Mardin Stele of the early Old Babylonian period (c. 2000–1600 BC). The subsequently excavated archaeological context, a heavily burned architectural layer, contained Middle Bronze Age I pottery typical of the Elazığ-Malatya region, corroborating a date in the early second millennium BC.

Two Sarmatian Stone Slabs with Tamgas in Odessa Archeological Museum Collections

Based on a series of high-quality photos, new analysis was performed for tamgas along with animal and male images on Sarmatian stone slabs from Kryvyi Rih and from Gorgippia. Both stone slabs were created as a result of natural shape stones edges chipping; both were dug into the ground and functioned as the mini-shrines located, probably, in sacred places or at the settlement entrances. They are similar in size, both painted red and both contain a number of sacrificial recesses at the top (in the sacred numbers 3 or 7). Slab from Kryvyi Rih (Figs. 1–2) depicts large earliest signs (mostly used on territories of Western Ukraine and the “barbarian” parts of Crimea) placed around the head of a god with animal ears (similar to the Ossetian Afsati). The later minor signs include the largest number of the Lower Don and the Central Asia (Kangju, Khorezm) tamgas. Also the signs of the kings found here (the ruler of Khorezm – no. 9, the co-ruler of Tiburius Julius Eupator of Bosporus – no. 8). The complex of images was in use since the beginning of the 1st until the middle of the 3rd centuries CE. Five hands of different men are depicted in relief on the stone slab from Gorgyppia (Fig. 3). There are three hands with goblets for making a contract and a quiver with a belt in front of them (probable heroization motif). There are also a hand raised for prayer and a hand passing a quiver. Those three participants match three tamgas (belonging to the “barbarian” regions of Crimea) and three sacrificial recesses at the top. All the images on the slab were probably made at the same time, shortly after the middle of the 2nd c. CE.

Barrow 11 of the “Garden” Group in the Lower Dniester Region and Contemporary “Mythmaking” About Scythian “Amazons”

The article publishes and analyzes materials obtained during the study of the Scythian barrow 11 of the “Garden” group excavated in 2018 near village Glinoe, Slobodzeya district, on the left bank of the Lower Dniester, for the first time.The barrow was surrounded by a circular ditch and contained four burials – one infant and three female. The tools from the barrow are represented by knives, spindle-whorls, needle. The only piece of tableware was found and it was a wooden bowl. The adornments (a pair of earrings, two bead necklaces, one bead bracelet, two “elbow bracelets”) were also discovered. Earrings with conical bulges on one of the endings testify to the Thracian influence on the material culture of the Scythians of the North-West Black Sea region. All female graves contained mirrors. Two of them are identical, and both were laid under the body of the buried. One of the mirrors has handle aforethoughtly broken in antiquity. The cult objects are a pendant made of a dog’s tooth and a stone slab, the arrowheads are the only weapons. The barrow dates back to the second half (preferably the third quarter) of the 4th century BC. Finding a quiver set in the grave 4 of barrow 11 of Glinoe/”Garden” group made the authors to analyze the burials of the so-called Scythian “amazons” of the North Black Sea region. It turned out that many of them were attributed with flagrant violations of scientific methods as burials of women-warriors, which is nothing more than modern “myth-making”. As a result, the authors claim that an open-minded analysis allows us to distinguish three groups of Scythian burials with weapons: 1) containing weapons, placement of which reflects certain “ethnographic” features of the rite or the special status of buried; 2) containing arrowheads that may indicate hunting; 3) the burials of warriors with diverse and numerous weapons.

Between Yerushalayim DeLita and Jerusalem—The Memorial Inscription from the Bimah of the Great Synagogue of Vilna

During excavations of the bimah (the platform for reading the Torah) of the 17th-century Great Synagogue of Vilna (Vilnius, Lithuania), an important memorial inscription was exposed. This paper describes the new finds associated with the baroque-rococo architecture of the bimah and focuses on the inscription and its meaning. The Hebrew inscription, engraved on a large stone slab, is a complex rabbinic text filled with biblical allusions, symbolism, gematria, and abbreviations. The text describes the donation of a Torah reading table in 1796 in honour of R. Ḥayim ben Ḥayim and of Sarah by their sons, R. Eliezer and Shmuel. The inscription notes the aliyah (emigration) of Ḥayim and Sarah to Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel. The interpretation of the inscription shows the use of multiple messianic motifs. Historical analysis identifies the involvement of the Vilna community with the support of the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Ottoman Palestine) and the aliyah of senior scholars and community leaders at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Amongst these figures were Ḥayim ben Ḥayim and Sarah, with Ḥayim ben Ḥayim going on to represent the Vilna community in the Land of Israel as its emissary, distributing charitable donations to the scholarly Ashkenazi community resident in Tiberias, Safed, and later Jerusalem.

A SLAB WITH IMAGES OF HORSES FROM THE TUBA RIVER BANK (THE MIDDLE YENISEI)

Статья посвящена характеристике изображений, нанесенных на плиту с прибрежного кряжа у реки Тубы (Средний Енисей), открытых в 1904 году А.В.Адриановым. В 1968 г. рисунки были обследованы Каменским отрядом Красноярской археологической экспедиции под руководством Я.А.Шера, а в 2017 2018 гг. участниками Тепсейского отряда кафедры археологии КемГУ. Благодаря архивным фотографиям и новым полевым материалам, удалось провести мониторинг состояния плиты, оценить ее сохранность, выявить изменения, происходившие на протяжении ста лет. К сожалению, в настоящее время часть изображений утрачена, их можно восстановить лишь по фотографии А.В.Адрианова. Авторами обозначены некоторые вопросы хронологии и семантики основных персонажей коней-ахалтекинцев. Рисунки имеют аналогии с изображениями на соседнем памятнике Оглахты и датируются ранним железным веком. The article is devoted to the particular characteristics of images carved on a stone slab at the rock bank ridge near the Tuba river (the Middle Yenisei). It was discovered in 1904 by A. V. Adrianov. The object was recorded in 1968 by Kamensky Group of the Krasnoyarsk archaeological expedition under the guidance of Ya.A. Sher, and in 2017 2018 by the Tepsey expedition of the Archaeology department of the Kemerovo State University. Thanks to the archive photographs and new field materials, it becomes possible to monitor the state of the panel, assess its safety, identify and assess losses that have occurred over the past hundred years. Unfortunately, at present some of the images are lost and can only be recovered due to the archival data. The authors also consider some issues of chronology and semantics of the main images of the panel: the Akhal-Teke horses. They have analogies among the imagery of the neighboring Oglakhty site and are dated back to the Early Iron Age.

Design errors and performance defects as causes of the risk for a collapse of the ceiling of the concert hall

The issue presented concerns the proper assessment of a ceiling underneath a modernised concert hall in a historic building as a case study. The reason for a reconstruction was to replace a wood block floor with stone slab floor made of marble. Shortly after the construction works, cracks which appeared, made the floor unsuitable for further use. In order to determine the cause of the damage, a detailed analysis of a state of the construction was performed within the technical diagnostics. The first element that was inspected was the way the cracks were distributed. This layout was typical for overloading of ceiling. It was assumed that the thickness of the concrete overlay of the Ackerman floor was 9 cm. In order to verify the actual layout of the floor layers, five different opencast works were taken from the top level of the floor cavity blocks. The actual layout of the uncovered parts differed from both the assumptions that were made and the new design. The arrangement of the floor layers that differed from the design documents, caused the overloading of the supporting structure of the Ackerman floor. Additionally, an incorrect design assumption has overlapped.

Under the stone slab burials in Volhyn and Galician-Volhynian borderline: verification and cataloging

Based on the elaboration of a wide range of sources and literature, several archaeological sites, which represent the under-slab burial grounds of princely age on the territory of Volhynian land and Galician-Volynian borderline are distinguished. The source base has verified, new and little known facts of the results of archaeological research carried out during the end of XIX-XX centuries are introduced to the academic community. The proposed work is based on the principle of cataloging, rather than interpreting highlighted material or determining their genesis etc. Instead of that, an attempt was made to delineate as closely as possible the circumstances of the discovery, the study history and, most importantly, the topography, shape and context of the burial object in all its possible aspects. The problems of the presence under the slab burial grounds on the territory of the Ukrainian Sub-Carpathian region has repeatedly attracted the attention of Ukrainian, Polish and Slovak researchers, and consequently produced different theories as to their origin. However, the main focus of scientists is still concentrated mainly on the sites of the highest accumulation of under the slab burial grounds in the Dnister River Basin. The necropolises, which have been found in the territory of Volhyn (Western Bug, Styr and Horyn basins), either skip the attention or concisely note the presence of only separate under the slab graves within the cemeteries. Fair to say, the main reason for this tendency is the lack of comprehensive information on the subject of research in the scientific literature. It is determined the expending of such works in this area, the embodiment of which is the proposed article. It was investigated that a significant part of under the slab burial grounds was accidentally discovered or did not attract the attention of the scientists during stationary studies, so information on them is extremely limited. Despite this, there is still a noticeable tendency to found luxury objects in under the slab burials. Information about the location of individual burials, their amount, and characteristic are managed to expand. Their topography is represented by the southern part of Volhynian land. Key words: Middle Ages, Rus’, Volhyn, under the slab burials, necropolises, grave, funeral culture.

Scythian Barrow of the Second Half of the 5th Century BC in the Lower Dniester Region

Introduction. The article publishes and analyses the materials obtained during excavations of Scythian barrow 9 of the group Vodovod near the Glinoe village, Slobodzeysk district, on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. The barrow was surrounded by a ring ditch and contained two burials of medieval nomads - the main one, the Scythian, and the secondary, the inlet one. Methods. The mound was excavated by the method of parallel trenches, leaving stratigraphic profiles. When analyzing the materials obtained, a comparatively typological method was applied. Analysis. The main burial was made in a catacomb of unusual construction. The entrance well of the catacomb was filled with stone slabs and boulders characterized with utmost accuracy of production. Despite this, in antiquity the burial was robbed three times: through the entrance well, through the roof of the funeral chamber and through the robbery mine, which went to the burial chamber from the north-eastern floor of the mound. The preserved grave goods are represented with a handmade pot, an iron knife, an iron needle and an awl, a lead finial, a stone slab, a burned pebble, a piece of mineral paint, a wooden kneader, a bronze horse harness and golden pendants. The stone slab was made very carefully, and the wooden kneader is the second such find in the North-West Black Sea region. Bronze items of horse harness have no analogues in the Scythian burial complexes of the North Black Sea region. The construction of barrow 9 of the group Vodovod dates back to the second half of the 5th century BC and is determined on the basis of gold pendants, which analogies are known only in the Malyy Chertomlyk barrow in the Lower Dnieper region. Results.The most important is the fact that the studied barrow was found in the microzone (near the Glinoe village of the Slobodzeya district), where at the moment not only the Scythian burial sites of the 5th - 2nd centuries BC are known, but also a settlement of that time. This testifies to the continual dwelling of the Scythians on the left bank of the Lower Dniester River during this period.