BARROW 6 OF VODOSLAVKA BURIAL GROUND. THE GRAVE OF SCYTHIAN NOBILITY

This is the first publication of the barrow 6 of burial ground placed near Vodoslavka village in Novotroitskyi district of Kherson Oblast of Ukraine. Under the small mound of soil 1.4 m height two wealthy persons were buried in the same catacomb with two entering pits. Due to stratigraphy observation, the funeral rate in this case had two phases. Firstly, the body of Scythian noble warrior was placed in the grave in his armour and with weapon. Near him on the West his horse was putted in separate small grave. Some time since, the woman’s corpse dressed in ceremonial gown with gold decoration was placed near man in his grave. Lately, the grave was robbed (probably not long time since funeral rates). But robbers used the second entering pit for their purpose. It is very uncommon, that after taking some of the grave goods and disturbing the upper part of bodies, thefts have leaved in the second entering pit the animal sacrifice (?) — horse corpse. The grave goods demonstrate the high social level of the two Scythians. The man was buried with representative set of weapon: set of ranged weapon, spears and javelins, scaled armour and antique greaves. On the woman’s skeleton the number of gold clothes decorations were recorded. Besides that, the set of silver table ware was found inside the catacomb, and the entrance to the grave was lock with wagon parts. The analysis of the gold appliquйs and rings, armour, weapon and silver vessels shows the time of burial — second—third quarter of the 4th century BC. The area, where these noble Scythians found their last resting place, was strategically important at that time. This barrow was built on the way that leaded from the Bosporan Kingdom to the center of the Scythia in the Dnieper River area.

The Chasteen Site (41UR18) on Big Cypress Creek, Upshur County, Texas

The Chasteen site (41UR18), also known as the W. S. Chastain site appears to be an early Titus phase (ca. A.D. 1450-1550) mound center and village (with an associated cemetery) on an upland landform overlooking Big Cypress Creek. The small mound (18m in diameter and 1.5 m in height) at the Chasteen site, apparently constructed over an important building, is part of a larger complex of Titus phase mound centers at this locale, including the Harroun (41UR10), Camp Joy (41UR144), and the Dalton (41UR11) sites. The village deposits at the Chasteen site are estimated to cover 3-4 acres around the mound, and contain numerous ceramic sherds and concentrations of daub from ancestral Caddo house structures contemporaneous with the house mound. Other artifacts in the village indicate some very limited use of the upland in Late Archaic and Early Caddo periods. The Robert L. Turner, Jr. surface collection from the site came from a midden area within the village.

The lion, the king and the cage: Late Chalcolithic iconography and ideology in northern Mesopotamia

Recent excavations at Tell Brak, Syria, have explored the site's early urban expansion, including excavation of Late Chalcolithic mass graves in a small mound at the site's outer edge. This mound built up rapidly and is primarily composed of industrial rubbish, particularly ceramics and flint debitage. The rubbish layers also contained nearly one thousand clay container sealings bearing stamp-seal impressions. The most important images represented are human figures in combat with lions, and caged single lions. These images date to ca 3800 BC and are evidence for the early development of the iconography and ideology of power and leadership.

Once in a Lifetime: the Date of the Wayland's Smithy Long Barrow

Twenty-three radiocarbon results are now available from the Wayland's Smithy long barrow, and are presented within an interpretive Bayesian statistical framework. Four alternative archaeological interpretations of the sequence are considered, each with a separate Bayesian model, though only two are presented in detail. The differences are based on different readings of the sequence of Wayland's Smithy II. In our preferred interpretation of the sequence, the primary mortuary structure was some kind of lidded wooden box, accessible for deposition over a period of time, and then closed by the mound of Wayland's Smithy I; Wayland's Smithy II was a unitary construction, with transepted chambers, secondary kerb and secondary ditches all constructed together. In the Bayesian model for this interpretation, deposition began in the earlier thirty-sixth century cal. bc, and probably lasted for a generation. A gap of probably 40–100 years ensued, before the first small mound was constructed in 3520–3470 cal. bc. After another gap, probably of only 1–35 years, the second phase of the monument was probably constructed in the middle to later part of the thirty-fifth century cal. bc (3460–3400 cal. bc), and its use probably extended to the middle decades of the thirty-fourth century cal. bc. Results are discussed in relation to the local setting, the nature of mortuary rites and the creation of tradition.

An Achaemenid « Palace » at Qarajamirli (Azerbaijan) Preliminary Report on the Excavations in 2006

Excavations on a small mound near the village Qarajamirli in western Azerbaijan provided remains of a monumental building, as well as quite a number of fragments of limestone column bases. The symmetrical ground plan of the building, the architectural sculpture and the pottery found on the floor closely follow Persian models from the Achaemenid era. Similar structures are known from Sary Tepe (Azerbaijan) and Gumbati (Georgia). These, as well as the building in Qarajamirli, can be interpreted as the residences of Persian officials, who left this area when the Achaemenid Empire collapsed. The painted pottery from the following period, when some peasants or herdsmen occasionally lived there, so far finds parallels only in Eastern Georgia.

Haitians, Magic, and Money: Raza and Society in the Haitian-Dominican Borderlands, 1900 to 1937

Sitting on the banks of the shallow riverine waters separating the northern border towns of Dajabón of the Dominican Republic and Ouanaminthe of Haiti, one can see children wade, market women wash, and people pass from one nation to another. They are apparently impervious to the official meaning of this river as a national boundary that rigidly separates these two contiguous Caribbean island nations. Just as the water flows, so do people, goods, and merchandise between the two countries, even as the Dominican border guards stationed on a small mound above the river watch. The ironies of history lie here, as well as the poetics of its remembrance. This river is called El Masacre, a name which recalls the 1937 Haitian massacre, when the water is said to have run scarlet red from the blood of thousands of Haitians killed by machetes there by soldiers under the direction of the Dominican dictator, Rafael M. Trujillo (1930–61).

Guzmán Mound: A Late Preclassic Salt works on south coast of Guatemala

Salvage excavation of a small mound on the south coast of Guatemala revealed evidence of Late Preclassic salt production. Most potsherds are of a crude, thin-walled utility ware believed to have been used in evaporating salt water over fires. Level-by-level attribute analysis suggests evolution of a more efficient vessel form for this purpose. A typological study of fine ware and radiocarbon dating firmly position the mound chronologically. Charcoal was abundant; daub and elongated hearths probably figured in the technology. Also, the absence of edible plant remains and the scarcity of obsidian blades and animal bone add to the picture of a specialized, salt-producing locality. The represented salt-making technology is partially reconstructed using comparative ethnographic, ethnohistorical, and archaeological sources from southern Mesoamerica.

Notes on nesting and parental care in Caiman crocodilus crocodilus in northern Suriname and an analysis of crocodilian nesting habitats

Caiman c. crocodilus constructed nests on small elevations in swamps during the long rainy season (May-July). Eggs were buried just beneath ground level and in addition covered by a small mound of dry leaves. This nest type is intermediate between the hole-type and the mound-type nest. Hatching occurred from the beginning until midway into the long dry season. One of two egg-containing nests studied was destroyed by predators. In the other nest 18 of 28 eggs hatched, which coincides with estimates based on pod sizes and estimated mean clutch sizes. Hatchlings stayed together (sometimes associated with second year caimans) for up to 18 months. Most of these pods were attended by an adult caiman for about seven months, until the beginning of the long rainy season. The sex ratio of newborn young was 0.5, but some pods seemed to consist of one sex only (sex ratio being 0 or 1). These results are compared with data on other populations of C. crocodilus and other crocodilians. In general there is a correlation between the nest type used and the nesting season; hole-nesting species nest in the dry season, whereas mound-nesting species usually nest in the rainy season. Nesting in the dry season by mound-nesting species occurs and possibly can be explained by avoidance of competition with sympatric moud-nesting species.

A Barrow Cemetery of the Second Millennium B.C. at Tallington, Lincolnshire

SummaryThe excavation examined two barrows which formed part of a cemetery in use towards the middle of the second millennium BC. The smaller barrow (Site 17) contained a large pit-grave in which successive inhumation burials had been made associated with a long-necked beaker, bronze earrings and a flint knife. The larger barrow (Site 16) began as a small mound covering an inhumation burial with a Food Vessel. Four stake circles were added following a second inhumation burial and the original mound was enlarged on two subsequent occasions. Many features of the barrows find their closest parallels in Yorkshire.

The twelfth-century castle at Ascot Doilly, Oxfordshire: Its history and excavation

SummaryThe castle of Ascot Doilly appears from documentary sources to have been put up c. 1129–50. Excavation in 1946–7 of a small mound on this manorial site showed that it had contained a stone tower 35 ft. square which had been built up from the natural surface of a 4-ft. rise of Lias clay protruding through the gravel of the Evenlode valley bottom. Round this tower, as it was raised, had been piled a low mound of clay; thus the impression of a tower on a mound was created. Beside it are remains of a bailey and contemporary paddocks. The tower had been deliberately demolished, probably c. 1180.The excavation thus revealed a new principle in smaller defensive building of the period, a mound piled round a stone tower. It also yielded a useful series of mid- to later twelfth-century pottery and other objects, and evidence of domestic window glass in the twelfth century.There are remains of thirteenth-century and later buildings in the bailey area. The village of Ascot represents a dual holding, with two mound-and-bailey castles at opposite ends 800 yds. apart, and between them the church (with twelfth-century work). There is also evidence of pottery-making in the village, at least in the early thirteenth century.