Settlement, Landscape and Social Identity: The Early-Middle Bronze Age Transition in Wessex, Sussex and the Thames Valley

In southern England, the end of the Early Bronze Age is marked by the appearance of archaeologically visible farmsteads and field systems. This paper explores and critiques the widespread idea that these changes are the direct result of a need to intensify agricultural production. Such discussions have implicitly drawn on evolutionist images of economic maximization and environmental exploitation that do not sit easily with our knowledge of other aspects of Bronze Age society. In this paper, I shall consider economic change as a consequence rather than the cause of wider changes to the social fabric at this time. A review of the Early and Middle Bronze Age settlement evidence provides insights into how society became transformed over the period and begins to hint at some of the reasons why subsistence practices changed so visibly.     

图们江流域的青铜时代文化研究

图们江发源于白头山的东麓,由南向北蜿蜒穿流于长白山和咸镜山脉之间,自图们市开始东折,最后注人日本海。沿途的主要支流有海兰江、布尔哈通河、嘎呀河、挥春河等。该水系之北为绥芬河流域,以西     

嫩江流域青铜时代生业方式研究

本文详细地分析了嫩江流域青铜时代的遗址墓葬的地理分布及周围环境、遗址自身特点、生产生活用具的分类及数量、动物骨骼及各种贝类遗存等方面的资料,得出该地区的生业方式是一种复合型的——定居、狩猎、捕捞、采集、畜养、手工业以及少量的交换经济,这几种经济方式相互补充,共同构成了一种有别于青铜时代中原地区以农业经济为主的新的生业方...     

图们江流域青铜时代的几个问题

根据现有材料,图们江流域的青铜时代考古学遗存可以分为两种考古学文化类型,早期为兴城文化,其年代跨度为龙山文化末期-夏代;晚期为柳庭洞类型,年代跨度为商-春秋战国。大六道沟遗址的考古遗存既包括新石器时代堆积,也包括青铜时代堆积,从而否定了原有的关于该遗址为单一的新石器时代遗存的观点。     

青铜器与青铜时代

青铜是指红铜（纯铜）与锡或铅等元素的合金,因表面色泽黄中泛白,略显青色而得名。青铜的熔点比红铜低,而硬度却比红铜高,所以具有较强的可塑性与较高的耐用性,适合于铸造各种器具。     

Agriculture in the Central Asian Bronze Age

Journal of World Prehistory - By the late third/early second millennium BC, increased interconnectivity in the mountains of Central Asia linked populations across Eurasia. This increasing...     

Sheep wool in Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe

This study presents the results of a series of wool measurements from Bronze Age and Iron Age skins and textiles from Hallstatt, and Bronze Age textiles from Scandinavia and the Balkans. A new method of classification that was set up and applied on mostly mineralised Iron Age material has now been applied to a large body of non-mineralised material from the Bronze and Iron Ages. Three types of microscopes were used and their advantages and disadvantages assessed. The results of the investigation cast new light on sheep breeding and fibre processing in prehistoric Europe, and suggest that different sheep breeds existed in Bronze Age Europe.     

A dystocic childbirth in the Spanish Bronze Age

Prehistoric cases of maternal and fetal death during labour are difficult to document. However, this must have been a frequent cause of death among young women who lived in hard circumstances and precarious health conditions. In this paper, a case of a Bronze Age woman who probably died during childbirth due to unavoidable reasons is presented: her baby was lying transversely with the right fetal arm protracted. Death of both mother and child was inevitable. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Bronze Age Quarry in Eastern Crete

Abstract

The sandstone quarry at Mochlos is one of four major quarries in eastern Crete that were worked during the New Palace Period of Minoan civilization (ca. 1700–1450 B.C.) to produce large ashlar blocks for nearby Minoan sites. At that time sandstone, or ammoudha, as it is known locally, was especially valued as a building material, partly because of its distinctive color and texture, but mainly because of the ease with which it could be cut, and the stone was used extensively for exterior façades, for walls around interior courts, and for other architectural features of the more important buildings on these sites. This article describes the quarry at Mochlos in some detail, including the quarrying techniques employed, and argues that the destination of the stone from the Mochlos quarry was the Minoan palace at Gournia. The article ends with a comparison of the four ammoudha quarries in eastern Crete.     

Saxon Emmer Wheat from the Upper and Middle Thames Valley,England

Abstract

Discoveries of Triticum dicoccum (emmer wheat) on two middle Saxon settlements in the Thames Valley point to the re-introduction of this crop to Britain after the end of the Roman period. Radiocarbon determinations on charred glumes confirm the dating of the remains.     

湘江流域西周时期的铜器窖藏

本文对湘江流域出土的西周时期的铜器窖藏做了介绍,讨论了窖藏的时代,对与铜器窖藏相关的学术问题进行了探讨。     

Evidence of Social Stratification in Bronze Age Denmark

Abstract

The Late Bronze Age hoards (12th–6th centuries B.C.) from Denmark are examined as evidence of the existence of social ranking in that prehistoric society. The hoards contain bronze weapons and ornaments which seem to function as sumptuary goods and appear to be ranked according to regular rules. The hoards also represent economic wealth and include objects of ritual importance. This intersection, in single finds, of material reflections of the political, religious, and economic systems in the society, along with the inferred existence of social ranking, suggests the presence of a prehistoric chiefdom in Denmark in the Late Bronze Age.     

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.     

New data on Bronze Age jewelry in the Southeastern Urals

New finds relating to the jewelry of the Alakul people are described. The analysis of molds indicates a much greater variation of ornaments compared to that implied by funerary items. The technology of jewelry is reconstructed. Personal adornments may have been made not only of bronze but of precious metals as well.