Middle Bronze Age Burials in the Southern Levant: Spartan Warriors or Ordinary People?

Intermediate and Middle Bronze Age tombs with weapons (mainly daggers) in the southern Levant were often interpreted as ‘warrior graves’. Taking into consideration new data from Rishon Le‐Zion (Israel), recent work on early warfare and warriors, and a study of so‐called ‘warrior graves’ in Mesopotamia (Rehm 2003), we suggest that most of these graves are not graves of elite warriors, but typical male burials. We also discuss the assumed ‘burial kit’ and the decline in numbers of weapons per burial, which is in our view related to the shift from individual burials (in the Intermediate Bronze and Middle Bronze IIA periods) to multiple shaft burials (in the Middle Bronze IIB period).     

陕西韩城梁带村芮国墓地西区发掘简报

简报首次披露了梁带村墓地西区2007年发掘的10座中小型墓的信息,据出土玉器的纹饰特征等推断,这些墓葬年代为春秋早期偏晚阶段。这批等级较低的墓葬普遍有棺椁或单棺作葬具,但均不随葬陶器,而有少量玉器的现象在其他地区同时期的墓地是非常少见的,从另一层面揭示了周代芮国墓葬的突出特点。中型墓多有铜翣及串饰也较有特色,是研究周代墓葬制度的重要资料。M18出土铸有"虢季"字样铭文的铜鼎,则反映出芮国与虢国的联系交流情况,或可印证有关文献的记载。     

The existence of archery in Early Bronze Age southern Levant warfare: a note

The Early Bronze Age was a time of major changes in southern Levantine regions. The spread of urbanisation in the course of the third millennium BC was accompanied by various socio-political transformations, tensions and also violent encounters, even if the evidence for the latter is hard to detect in the archaeological record. The almost complete absence of arrowheads from settlements and tombs in the southern Levant from this period has led to the assumption that combat archery was not employed during the Early Bronze Age.

This paper challenges this orthodoxy using evidence from the southern Levant and beyond, and it concludes that archery was employed in combat activities during the Early Bronze Age, albeit on a small scale that was determined by military considerations.     

THE UTINKA BURIAL

New Middle Bronze Age fi nds are described originating in the Achinsk-Mariinsk forest-steppe, southwestern Siberia which represents a contact zone between the Okunev and Samus cultures. A burial discovered near Lake Utinka by local inhabitants, northeastern Kemerovo region, was found to contain steatite beads and unusual pendants in the form of a bear and a bird. The subsequent fi eld survey revealed characteristics of the burial construction and fragments of clay vessels. The designs on the vessels suggest that the burial was associated with the Samus culture. However, their manufacturing technology and the features of the steatite beads indicate Okunev affi nities. Based on the totality of available evidence, it is suggested that contact existed between the Samus and Okunev cultures in the Achinsk-Mariinsk forest-steppe area.     

News and Short Contributions

Abstract

Temporal and spatial patterns of faunal, floral, and ceramic deposition reveal several aspects of household and village economy at Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan. Hayyat was a modest farming hamlet (0.5 ha) with 100–150 inhabitants, which was occupied in six major phases between ca. 2100 and 1500 B.C. This timespan covers the entire Middle Bronze Age, commonly considered the heyday of early urbanism in the southern Levant. Ethnographic and ancient historical exa1nples of agrarian villages in SW Asia include settlements administered by crown or temple estates, held as private property by elite families or absentee landlords, or owned collectively by resident villagers. Data drawn from Tell el-Hayyat Phases 5,4, and 3 (dating to Middle Bronze IIA and IIB) suggest some changes toward a commercially-oriented rural economy, as might be anticipated for villages held by institutional or private estates. Most of the Hayyat data, however, suggest trends toward enhanced economic autonomy, as expected for a collectively owned community. Tell el-Hayyat exemplifies the economic resilience of Levantine villages in the face of developing Middle Bronze Age town and city life.     

CONTEXTUALISING THE LARNAX: TRADITION, INNOVATION AND REGIONALISM IN COFFIN USE ON LATE MINOAN II–IIIB CRETE

Summary. This paper analyses coffin use in the tombs of Late Bronze Age Crete in terms of both mortuary traditions on the island and regional variations in cultural practices. It argues that the revival of coffin use in the Final and Post-palatial periods (in ceramic terms, Late Minoan II–IIIB) constituted a recourse to an earlier burial custom within negotiations of rapidly changing mortuary practices across the island. However, this ‘re-invention’ involved significant modifications to the form and significance of the coffin. The paper then explores spatial variations in choices of coffin types, as one potential window onto the issue of intra-island regionalism in social and cultural practices.     

Two Traditions of Bronze Age Burial in the Stonehenge Landscape

A study of the size of round barrows in relation to their position in the Stonehenge landscape allows us to define two types of mound, here termed 'Conspicuous' and 'Inconspicuous'. Conspicuous barrows are large and prominently located, whilst inconspicuous barrows are smaller and less strikingly placed. Inconspicuous barrows were associated mainly with funerary urns and were constructed throughout the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Conspicuous barrows contain a wider range of grave goods and were mainly built in the later part of the Early Bronze Age. The Conspicuous barrows were impressive features of the prehistoric landscape and may have been built there because of the long-established significance of some of the local monuments, including Stonehenge itself. They contain exotic grave goods and could have been the burial places of a wider population. By contrast, the Inconspicuous barrows appear to be associated with settlement areas. They contain a range of ceramic grave goods which extend throughout the Early and Middle Bronze Ages and may have been built by the people who were living in the area. The latter tradition is the longer lived and retained its importance into the Middle Bronze Age when more conspicuous mounds were no longer built.     

河南南阳市一中新校址汉墓发掘简报

20 0 1年 2月～ 10月 ,南阳市文物考古研究所在市一中新校址发掘古墓葬 4 4 7座 ,出土了大量随葬器物。其中在M 3 6中出土两件泥质灰陶虎座钫壶 ,为古代陶塑艺术佳作 ,系豫西南地区首次发现。     

A Comparison Study of Middle Bronze Age II Daggers and Their Rivets as a Tool for a Better Understanding of Their Production

The Middle Bronze Age II is a period during which there exists a contemporaneous usage of arsenic copper and tin bronze for metal weaponry production. In order to learn more about the alloys used in this period, the blades and rivets from 65 daggers of two significantly different types, which were discovered at the Rishon LeZion (RL) cemetery, Israel, were tested by the non‐destructive method of X‐ray fluorescence (XRF). The results reveal new knowledge of the alloys selected for dagger and rivet production, both of which represent fine examples of the Middle Bronze Age II Southern Levant in metal industry.     

Context for a carnyx: excavation of a long-lived ritual site at Leitchestown,Deskford, Moray,north-east Scotland

Excavations at the findspot of the Deskford carnyx, a major piece of Iron Age decorated metalwork found in a bog in the early nineteenth century, revealed a special location with a long history. Early Neolithic activity on the adjacent ridge consisted of massive postholes and pits, suggesting a ceremonial site. An Early Bronze Age cremation became the focus for a feasting event in the Middle Bronze Age. Around this time, peat began to form in the valley, with vessels of pot and wood smashed and deposited there; these activities on ridge and bog may be connected. Activity in the bog intensified in the later Iron Age, when offerings included quartz pebbles, the dismantled carnyx head, and two unusual animal bone deposits. The ridge was cut off at this period by a complex enclosure system. This Iron Age activity is interpreted as communal rituals at a time of increasing social tension. The site’s significance in this period may stem from its unusual landscape character, with flowing water to one side and a bog to the other. The area saw occasional activity in the Early Medieval period, but its significance had waned.     

Identification of dermestid pupal chambers on Southern Levant human bones: inference for reconstruction of Middle Bronze Age mortuary practices

Unique bone damage identified on Middle Bronze Age human skeletal material from the Southern Levant provided important information about the processes of modification and the possible funerary practices resulting in such damage. By comparing archaeological remains with recent skeletal material and by using computed tomography (CT) scans and 3D imaging techniques, the damage is interpreted as pupal chambers created by dermestid beetles. Using skeletal remains from two Middle Bronze Age sites, Jericho Tomb E1 and Munhata Tomb 641, we then discuss how the bores and tunnels left by dermestid beetles on human bones might constitute an interpretative key to the funerary practices of Middle Bronze Age collective burials.     

COPPER ALLOYS FROM THE ‘ENOT SHUNI CEMETERY AND THE ORIGINS OF BRONZE METALLURGY IN THE EB IV – MB II LEVANT

Tin bronze replaced arsenical copper as the preferred alloy in the Levant for reasons that have long been debated. Found almost exclusively in graves, these two types of copper alloys share nearly identical mechanical properties. The Bronze Age cemetery of ‘Enot Shuni has yielded the first metals ever analysed from an uninterrupted stratigraphic sequence in the Levant, spanning the earliest adoption of tin bronze from the Early Bronze Age (EB) IV through the Middle Bronze Age (MB) II (c. 2300–1530 bc ). SEM–EDS analysis of these artefacts, combined with a compositional meta‐database of all previously published EB IV – MB II alloys, reveals diachronic alloy progression as selected by populations of the Levant. It has long been qualitatively understood that bronze became the primary alloy by the MB II. These results verify this trend and quantify human demand, showing that tin importation increased by 103% and arsenic content decreased by 49% throughout these periods. This shift in technological choice is attributed to cultural reorientation from the Egyptian to Mesopotamian sphere of influence, as well as to tin's appreciable fuel efficiency over pure copper and arsenical copper in light of unprecedented timber shortages.     

Empty tombs? The taphonomy of burials on Bahrain

The number of empty tombs on Bahrain has been the focus of several analyses of Bronze Age burial practices on the island. Such analyses, however, have failed to take into account normal taphonomic processes affecting the recovery of bone. Once the factors determining the state of preservation have been accounted for, the frequency of empty tombs found on Bahrain is seen to be comparable to numerous other sites in the world. It is argued that mortuary analysis must take account of the intervening steps between burial in an ancient society and modern excavation of that burial, and that, in the case of Bahrain, elaborate explanations of the absence of human bone are unnecessary.     

对徐州龟山和狮子山汉墓结构的几点认识

本文主要通过对徐州地区发现的两座楚王墓--龟山汉墓和狮子山汉墓结构设计、建造以及陪葬品等方面的讨论,进一步说明徐州地区楚王陵的结构形制特点,使我们对西汉葬制有较为深入的认识.     

An Investigation of Ceramic Forming Method Using Reverse Engineering Techniques: The Case of Oinochoai from Dion, Macedonia, Greece

A method for investigating the forming technique of ancient ceramic vessels is presented. The recording, analysis, and comparison of the vessels' metrical properties by means of computer tomography, three-dimensional laser scanning, and solid-modeling software enables the identification of the applied manufacturing methods. A finite elements method-based simulation of the developed deformations during the vessels' manufacture offers significant insight into the applied shaping procedures. By making possible the exact recording of both the internal and external form of the vessels as well as the simulation of the forming procedure, the method represents a marked improvement to hitherto applied methods based on radiography. The method is applied on two early iron age ceramic jugs (oinochoai) found as offerings in tombs in excavations in Dion, Greece.     

湖北丹江口市八腊庙墓群第二次发掘简报

2011年6～7月,为配合南水北调工程,湖北省文物考古研究所对湖北丹江口市八腊庙墓群进行了第二次抢救性发掘。共清理墓葬23座,其中东周墓18座、唐墓2座、明清墓3座。东周墓主要为长方形竖穴土坑墓,随葬器物有以鬲、盂、罐为主的日常生活用品组合,墓葬时代约在春秋中、晚期,以鼎、敦、壶为主的仿青铜礼器组合,墓葬时代为战国中晚期。本次发掘为探讨丹江口库区楚文化以及该地区楚文化与中原文化的交融提供了新的研究资料     

I Will Follow You into the Dark: Death and Emotion in a Mycenaean Royal Funeral

Despite many years of intensive research into burial and funeral practices in Late Bronze Age (LBA) Greece, emotion remains largely absent from the discussion. Yet death and the emotions it provoked would have been familiar aspects of daily life in Mycenaean Greece. The dead had to be dealt with and moved on through various rites until they became a safe part of the landscape and memory of individuals and communities. In addition to anthropological and psychological research on death and grieving, we have several categories of evidence that can allow us a glimpse of the emotional world of death in LBA Greece: the Homeric poems the Iliad and Odyssey, iconographical representations of death, funeral practices and mourning, and the archaeological material itself – the tombs and offerings. In this paper, I introduce the various categories of evidence and draw on them to support an imaginative reconstruction of an event that happened, but which is not recorded in any historical sources – the death and burial of a great king of Mycenae. I argue that using emotion as a lens through which to view the evidence can sometimes allow deeper interpretation and enable fuller historical reconstructions of lived lives and experiences.     

THE TEL NAGILA MIDDLE BRONZE AGE HOMES—STUDYING HOUSEHOLD ACTIVITIES AND IDENTIFYING CHILDREN IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD

Abstract

The excavation at Tel Nagila uncovered a series of domestic structures dating to the Middle Bronze Age II. In the following paper, a division of the finds in the various structures is undertaken, in order to further our understanding of the use of space at the site. Within the domestic structures, many miniature vessels were found. We suggest that these were not votive offerings, rather attest to the presence of children in the various rooms of the homes. The role of children and the ability to identify them in the archaeological record is discussed.     

A provenance study of Mycenaean pottery from Northern Israel

The occurrence of imported Mycenaean pottery in the Late Bronze Age southern Levant is one of the most conspicuous aspects of Eastern Mediterranean trade connections during this period. A group of 183 Mycenaean pottery vessels from 14 sites in northern Israel, from both coastal and inland settlement contexts were analyzed by Neutron Activation Analysis. The results indicate that the vast majority of these vessels have a similar profile and can be provenanced to the north-eastern Peloponnese or more specifically, to the Mycenae/Berbati workshop in the Argolid. Possible interpretations of these results are presented and discussed against the historical and cultural background of the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean.