Copper Mines,Chromite Copper Ores and Slags of the Ishkinino Bronze Age Archaeological Microregion,The Southern Urals

The study addresses copper mines structure and composition of copper ores and slags at the Ishkinino archaeological microregion, Orenburg Province. Both ores and slags contain chromites derived from the host ultrabasite rock. Chromites were subdivided into three categories in terms of Cr2O3 content: 45–50%, 50–55%, and 55–61%. The proportions are similar to those observed in chromites of the malachite ores of the Ishkinino cobalt-copper-pyrite deposit. The reguli found in the slag contain copper sul?des and iron phosphides with a high content of nickel. Our results evidence the exploitation of local copper mines in the Late Bronze Age. Finds of chromite ores and slag at the archaeological sites of the Southern Urals are listed, and goals for future research are outlined.     

Buccino: The Early Bronze Age Village of Tufariello

Abstract

The excavation of the Early Bronze Age village at Tufariello (Buccinno) in southern Italy represents a major archaeological advance in a little-known period of Italian prehistory in this region. The emphasis of the following report is in the integration of archaeological material, especially the statistical study of abundant pottery material from three distinct stratigraphic phases of the site, and the discussion of the unexpected rectangularly planned buildings of the site, with reports on evidence of flora and fauna. The result is the first synthetic view of the life of a southern Italian community of the end of the third millennium B.C.

The excavation has been the most recent phase of the exploration of this area undertaken since 1968 by Brown University in collaboration with the Superintendency of Antiquities of Salerno. This report is made up of the following sections.

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Introduction and Stratigraphy by R. Ross Holloway</list-item><list-item>

Architecture by Ned P. Nabers</list-item><list-item>

Pottery by Susan Snow Lukesh</list-item><list-item>

Stock Economy by Graeme Barker</list-item><list-item>

Stone and Bone Objects by Nicholas B. Hartmann</list-item><list-item>

Pottery Manufacture by Ethel R. Eaton</list-item><list-item>

Metal Tools by Hugh McKerrell and Ethel R. Eaton</list-item><list-item>

Vegetal Remains by William LaCroix Phippen</list-item><list-item>

Preliminary Geological Note by Giuseppe Leuci</list-item></list>     

Palaeodiet at Eton College Rowing Course, Buckinghamshire: isotopic changes in human diet in the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman periods throughout the British Isles

Through isotopic investigations of directly dated human remains recovered from the Eton College Rowing Course, we examine changes in diet from the Neolithic to the Roman period. The human isotope signatures point to a diet based on C₃ terrestrial resources. A significant correlation is visible between human ??¹³C values and time, but no such trend is observed in ??¹⁵N. The animal isotope data from Eton are unevenly distributed, making it difficult to determine if the human values mirror the animal values. To assess whether the results from Eton are typical, we compare our results to isotope data from other British sites dating from the Neolithic to the Roman period. Across this time period, we see a strong correlation between the mean ??¹⁵N of the humans and that of the main domesticated herbivores, with an offset of ??4.5?? between the two. Thus, the changes in the human isotope values are likely linked to changes in the isotopic signatures of the herbivores rather than changes in the protein composition of human diets. By contrast, no clear temporal relationship is observed between the mean ??¹³C of the humans and that of the main domesticated herbivores, with an offset of ??1.4?? between the two. There is, however, a weak correlation observed between the mean ??¹³C of the humans and that of the cattle, which may account for some of the variation in human ??¹³C values between sites. The absence of a strong correlation between mean human and animal ??¹³C suggests that the primary factor influencing human ??¹³C values between sites is dietary composition. The lack of co-variation between ??¹³C and ??¹⁵N is likely to reflect the different representation of dietary macronutrients. Given that the nitrogen results suggest that the animal protein consumption patterns are similar across sites, the human ??¹³C variation between sites is likely to reflect the plant portion of the diet.     

Physical activity and social status in Early Bronze Age society: The Mokrin necropolis

This paper investigates the social structure of an Early Bronze Age society whose members were buried at the necropolis of Mokrin (Serbia, Southeastern Europe), by comparative analysis of musculo-skeletal markers (MSM) of activity and social status as induced on the basis of grave contents. The main objective of the analysis is to determine whether quantitative and qualitative differences in activity are related to social status. Besides using an overall measure of activity, we attempted to isolate different qualitative aspects (facets) of activity through factor analysis of MSM scores. No correlation between social status and overall labor intensity was found. However, there are clues that social status and a single facet of activity are related. Positive correlation between vertical status and the intensity of use of upper arm and shoulder muscles was found among male individuals, while negative correlation between the aforementioned variables was found among the females. The general conclusion based on the results of this study is that there is no simple correlation between the overall labor intensity and social status.     

Ceramics of the Ulakhan-Segelennyakh Culture,Early Bronze Age,Yakutia

The principal diagnostic feature of the Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC) Ulakhan-Segelennyakh culture of southern, southwestern, and western Yakutia, which was first described by the present author, is pottery decorated with punched nodes in combination with dentate impressions and stamp imprints. This type of pottery differs from Ust-Mil pottery and resembles both ancestral Ymyiakhtakh ceramics and ceramics made by immigrants. The Ulakhan-Segelennyakh culture did not spread across all Yakutia, but occupied vast taiga regions in the basins of the Aldan, Olekma, Vilyui, and Middle Lena. Most immigrants were descendants of the Glazkovo people, and entered Yakutia along the upper reaches of these rivers.     

Reconstructing Cycladic Prehistory: Naxos in the Early and Middle Late Bronze Age

The lack of published deposits from Cycladic settlement contexts has been a serious setback to our knowledge of Cycladic prehistory, as it has led to inflexible 'pan-Aegean' models of cultural history, imposed on the islands without consideration of local particularities and regional variations. Naxos, the largest and most central of the Cyclades, is a prime example of an important island, whose cultural history, especially in the early and middle Late Bronze Age (roughly from the sixteenth to the thirteenth centuries BC), is not well known. In the present article the author reconstructs the stratigraphic and chronological sequence of the island's only excavated settlement at Grotta, examines the development of settlement pattern on Naxos, and attempts to assess the position of the island in the Aegean during the periods in question. It is suggested that the fluctuations in the number of settlements and the changes in settlement pattern of the island could be tied to the degree of integration of the island into the Minoan and Mycenaean exchange networks. In periods of limited integration (LC I/II and LH IIIB) the settlement pattern consists of one or two important centers (Mikre Vigla and/or Grotta) and a number of small settlements dispersed in the interior of the island. In periods of advanced integration (LH IIIA1-IIIA2), a process of nucleation takes place, in which small settlements are abandoned, Mikre Vigla declines, and Grotta is established as the only settlement of the island.     

Modeling Expansive Phenomena in Early Complex Societies: the Transition from Bronze Iron Age in Prehistoric Europe

The Bronze Age/Iron Age transition in Prehistoric Europe represents a perfect case study to test different and competing hypotheses of social dynamics and economic change in small-scale societies. The paper discusses the possibilities of modeling what could have happened in Europe between 1800 and 800 bc, in terms of spatiotemporal dynamics. The paper presents some theoretical aspects of the dynamic study of expansive phenomena and gives an overview of a computer model programmed to explain the way new burial forms expanded in Europe. The main idea is comparing classic demic diffusion models (spread of population), cultural transmission models (spread of ideas), and technological innovation diffusion model (spread of goods). We will present the fundamentals of a preliminary study towards the computational simulation of such hypothetical social mechanisms, using a dataset composed of more than 1,500 georeferenced and radiocarbon dated archaeological contexts of a period between the Early Bronze Age and the first Iron Age (1800–800 bc) from an area including the North-East of Iberian Peninsula, Southern France, Northern and Central Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Southern Germany.     

河南龙山时代和早期青铜时代考古六十年

河南位于中原腹地,在龙山时代和早期青铜时代,河南的龙山文化和二里头文化在中华文明起源与发展进程中,对以中原为中心的趋势的形成和夏王朝的建立,起着举足轻重的作用。对新中国成立60年来,河南的龙山文化和二里头文化的考古发现和研究成果的回顾和总结,将有利于我们对中华文明形成的机制、动力和规律等问题作持续的新的探索。     

The production of speiss (iron arsenide) during the Early Bronze Age in Iran

In this paper, analyses of some unusual slag samples from the prehistoric site of Tepe Hissar in northeastern Iran are presented. These slags are the remains of a five-thousand-year-old pyrotechnological process that produced speiss, a quasi-metallic material usually formed as an accidental by-product of copper or lead smelting. We argue that the “speiss slags” from Tepe Hissar suggest the intentional production of iron–arsenic alloy (“speiss”) in prehistory. Why the Tepe Hissar metalworkers produced speiss is a question that requires further investigation, but our preliminary assessment suggests that it was to provide arsenic as an alloying component for arsenical copper, the preferred copper alloy during much of the Early Bronze Age in Iran, and widely used across the ancient world. This recognition significantly advances our understanding of the early stages of metallurgy in the Old World.     

Statistical Analysis of Spatial Distribution of Ceramics from Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Sites in Southwestern Siberia

Results of the statistical analysis of spatial distribution of ceramics at Chicha-1, Zavialovo-5, and Linevo-1 indicate ethnic heterogeneity and the presence of native and immigrant ceramic traditions within separate sites and even within single dwellings. The arrangement of pottery inside residence structures follows certain regularities. All residents, however, were apparently involved in the same manufacture.     

Resilient Social Actors in the Transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age on Cyprus

Journal of World Prehistory - Our understanding of the earliest Iron Age on Cyprus has long remained somewhat obscure. This is the result of both a relative lack of material evidence and the fact...     

From the Ground Up: Agency,Practice, and Community in the Southwestern British Bronze Age

Embodied, sensual, engagements between people, earthly elements, and celestial bodies during focused, periodic acts of ritual construction and artifact deposition in the southwestern British Bronze Age resulted in the remaking of identities, local communities, symbolic/mythical knowledge, and the landscape itself. To appreciate how material culture, time, and space were employed to define the criteria by which people understood themselves and their world necessitates an archaeological focus upon shared practices in particular settings that served to define rules of engagement with the environment based upon shared human perceptions. Agency appears in this encounter as central in the construction and perpetuation of symbolic perception, shared social memory, and community identity.     

Panlongcheng,Zhengzhou and the Movement of Metal in Early Bronze Age China

Journal of World Prehistory - The role of Panlongcheng—a walled settlement on the Yangtze River with obvious links to the Erligang capital at Zhengzhou, ~?500&nbsp;km to the...     

The Source Provenance of Bronze Age and Roman pottery from Cyprus

Archaeological interpretations of ancient economies have been strengthened by chemical analyses of ceramics, which provide the clearest evidence for economic activity, and comprise both the objects of exchange and its means. Pottery is often manufactured from local materials, but its compositional diversity typically prevents significant patterns of resource utilization from being identified. Centrally located and positioned on traditional shipping routes, Cyprus maintained ties with and supplied a variety of distinctive ceramic products to the major commercial centres in the eastern Mediterranean throughout Antiquity. We analysed two Cypriot .ne wares and a variety of utilitarian pottery, as well as samples of extant Cypriot clays to determine source provenance. These chemical analyses provide an objective indication of the origins of ancient (Bronze Age and Roman) ceramics manufactured on Cyprus. The distribution of the probable clay sources and the links between pottery style and the material environment also afford a perspective on the spatial organization of large‐scale pottery production on the island. Compositional analysis provides the means to assemble geographies of pottery production and to unravel the interregional system of exchange that operated in Antiquity, but the ability to accomplish these tasks is predicated on systematic analyses of ceramic products and raw materials that are found far beyond the bounds of individual archaeological sites.