Child burials in domestic contexts at an Iron Age hillfort: The Oppidum of Monte Bernorio (Villarén, Palencia)

The practice of child burials underneath house floors in the Late Prehistory has been considered a characteristic trait of the Iberian religion. However, this custom has also been documented in different archaeological sites both in the Mediterranean and Central Europe as well as Celtic areas of the Iberian Peninsula, so we can explain this funerary practice by an Indo-European origin. We report the archeotanatological and osteoarcheological study of 10 subadults found in the Iron Age site of Monte Bernorio oppidum, the first archeological site in the western and central Cantabrian region with this funerary rite documented. It is the confirmation of both, the survival of an ancient funerary ritual, widely extended in all Europe, and its presence in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. We also review all the archeological sites in the Iberian Peninsula with similar archeological contexts and analyse the rite from the bioarcheology of the care.

Piraci czy sułtani? Dahlak Kebir jako ośrodek handlowy i polityczny na Morzu Czerwonym VII–XVI wiek

The monograph shows the history of the Dahlak Archipelago, located in the Red Sea, near Eritrea. On the basis of written sources (Greek, Arabic, Judeo-Arabic, Ethiopian, Turkish and Portuguese) and the research conducted at the Dahlak Kebir archeological site (including Arabic funerary inscriptions from the island), the author analyses political and economic nature of Dahlak between the 7 th and 16th century.

Human-Altered Soils at an Archeological Site of the Bronze Age: The Tyater-Araslanovo-II Settlement, Southern Cis-Ural Region, Russia

This paper presents the results of studying the soils at the archeological site of the Tyater-Araslanovo-II settlement located in the Republic of Bashkortostan, eastern European Russia. The settlement functioned in the 15th–12th centuries BCE (the Late Bronze Age). We compared the soil properties at four sites in the study area: archeological (1), buried (2), affected by long pyrogenic exposure (3), and background site (4). In soil samples, the total carbon content, the fractional composition of humus and organic matter characteristics, alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen, total phosphorus, mobile phosphorus, potassium, absorbed calcium and magnesium, pH, particle size distribution, basal soil respiration, and optical density were estimated. The study results showed the anthropogenic impact on the archeological site’s soils. The newly formed AU horizon at the archeological site (1), affected by the cattle summer camp, was richer in soil nutrients and agrochemical properties, namely, the content of exchangeable and gross forms of phosphorus, alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen, and exchange cations of the soil absorbing complex compared to the reference soil (4). For the pyrogenic layer (AU[hh]pyr) from the ancient furnace (fireplace) (3), the mobile and total forms of phosphorus were several times higher than those in the reference soil (4) but inferior regarding other agrochemical parameters. Thus, the activities of ancient people (especially cattle breeding) greatly influenced the properties of the soil.

Characterization of Archaeological Artefacts Using Methods Specific to Materials Science: The Case Study of Dacian Ceramics from 2nd c. BC to 1st c. AD

Combined analysis methods such as optical microscopy (OM), cathodoluminescence (CL) microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM–EDX) have made it possible to obtain the first physico-chemical data of Dacian potsherds, exhumed at the archeological site of Ocnița-Buridava, Romania; the samples were provided by the “Aurelian Sacerdoțeanu” County Museum Vâlcea, dating from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD. The mineralogical and petrographic analyses revealed two types of ceramic pastes, taking into account the granulometry of the inclusions and highlighting the choice of the potter for fabricating the ceramic either by wheel or by hand. All samples showed an abundance in quartz, mica (muscovite and biotite), and feldspars. These observations were confirmed by cathodoluminescence imagery, revealing heterogeneous pastes with varied granulometric distributions. The XRD patterns indicated the presence of the mineral phases, indicating a firing temperature below 900 °C. The wheel-made ceramics have a fine, compact matrix with very fine inclusions (<40 µm). On the other hand, the hand-made ceramics present a coarse matrix, with inclusions whose granulometry reaches approximately 2 mm. The difference between these two types of ceramics is also confirmed by the mineralogical and chemical analysis. The wheel-made potsherds are more abundant in MgO, Al2O3, and CaO contents.

Delineation of Fractures Using a 2D GPR Processing Strategy for 3D Imaging: Weak Zones within Carbonates at the Archaeological Site of Xochicalco in Mexico

The use of GPR data multipath summation on data acquired over parallel study lines is presented here within the framework of a study on the effects of natural hazards on cultural heritage areas in order to image weak zones within carbonates, such as fractures and caverns. This study was realized at the archeological site of Xochicalco in Mexico, where fractures and caverns are potential sources of the degradation of the archeological remains. Dense parallel GPR study lines spaced every 0.25 m were surveyed using a 400 MHz monostatic antenna with the aim to image possible weak zones in three dimensions. We used a 2D imaging approach, namely, the method of multipath summation, which efficiently focused the scattered energy within the GPR sections. The study revealed, at depths of 1.6m and 1.8m, several linear events attributed to fractures, leading to the preliminary conclusion of this on-going project that cracks on the walls of the Quetzalcoatl Temple after a large earthquake in 2017 are prone to instability of carbonates rocks.

Technical and Scientific Imaging for Archaeological purpose – A Brazilian case.

This paper is about Technical and Scientific Imaging for caving painting (archeological site in Brazil). High quality imaging with color management has been used, in addition to scientific procedures to generate digital images, capable for recording not visible light (ultraviolet and infrared radiation). In addition, the RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging) technique was used. Rock Art is a kind of Cultural Heritage, extremely fragile archaeological remains and susceptible to a series of factors (physical, chemical, anthropic and others) that can cause different impacts for their preservation. The Rock Art can suffer an irreversible damage, which can greatly compromise research and relative studies, then, requiring great scientific and technical procedures for imaging.

The concept of ecological and archeological site "Donskaya Troya"

The aim of the work is to form conceptual solutions of the ecological and archaeological site "Donskaya Troya’. The unique archaeological site founded in the 17th century, BC by the tribes of the North Caucasian catacomb culture locates westward Rostov-on-Don, on the right bank of the Mertvy Donets River, between Karataevo and Liventsovka villages in the Soviet region. The stone fortresses discovered by archaeologists in the 1960s, are the oldest in Eastern Europe. The preservation of the Liventsovka archaeological ensemble is very relevant, since today it is in a deplorable state, namely excavations with bushes, dacha garbage dumps, dilapidated walls and ditches filled with stones. The media quite keenly discuss the sad fate of this territory. The paper proposes to create a museum to show the unique historical and cultural potential of the Karataevo and Liventsovka fortresses, which will be and open-air museum, a festival space with a research center and other educational and entertainment areas. Urban planning, scenario-functional and artistic-figurative concepts of the museum relate to the existing historical and cultural artifacts, the ideas of a "living ethnic landscape", the life of people from re-created times and modern trends in the design of museum complexes.

Karasor-3 Site in the Upper Tobol

The paper introduces a collection of prehistoric artifacts from Karasor-3 archeological site (1999). The Karasor cluster is located in the Upper Tobol region near the town of Lisakovsk, in the northern part of the Turgai depression, which connects the West Siberian and Turan plains. The Turgai depression borders on the Trans-Ural Plateau on the west and on the Kazakh hummocks and the Ulutau Mountains on the east. This environment does not contribute to the preservation of the cultural layer. As a result, the pottery and stone fragments found at the Karasor 3 site were collected from the surface. The article contains a detailed description of the pottery. The stone tools underwent a technical and typological analysis based on the products of primary splitting, morphological parameters and size of plates, the ratio of blanks and tools made of plates and flakes, methods of secondary processing, and typological composition of the tool kit. The nature of the raw materials was considered as an independent indicator. The stone industry of the Late Eneolithic era proved similar to the Tersek culture. The pottery ranged from the Late Eneolithic to the Early Iron Age.