TWO BRONZE AGE MINIATURE WAGON AND WHEEL BURIALS IN ENCS (NORTH-EASTERN HUNGARY)

During an excavation of a Bronze Age, Füzesabony-culture cemetery at Encs (north-eastern Hungary), a clay wagon model with spoked wheels (grave 1290) and three miniature solid clay wheels were found (grave 1389). Miniature wagon and wheel models in burials began to appear in the Late Copper Age and lasted until the Iron Age in Central Europe. Their presence allows of several interpretations. These spoked wheels of grave 1290 provide early evidence about the appearance of such in the Carpathian Basin. Focussing on the two graves from Encs, this article reports AMS radiocarbon dates that suggest the spoked wheels belong to the early second millennium BC. The implications of these finds are interpreted though a comparative review of both wagon models from the Füzesabony culture and the evidence for early spoked wheels in the Carpathian Basin.     

Histories of deposition: creating chronologies for the Late Bronze Age–Early Iron Age transition in Southern Britain

The Late Bronze Age–Early Iron Age midden sites of Southern Britain are amongst the richest archaeological sites in the country. The organic accumulations contain substantial quantities of animal bone, decorated ceramics, metalwork and other objects; the often deep stratigraphy allows for changes in material culture and depositional practices, food production and consumption, and shifts in social identities, to be traced through time. The well-stratified assemblages also provide useful materials for dating the deposits. This has been problematic, however, as the majority of samples produce unhelpfully broad calibrated radiocarbon dates, due to the effects of the earlier Iron Age plateau in the calibration curve, which spans c. 800–400 BC. Interpretation has relied on current understandings of the associated pottery and metalwork, which placed most midden sites somewhere between the tenth and the seventh/mid-sixth centuries cal BC (c. 1000–600/550 cal BC), but the end-date of these traditions is particularly uncertain. This article addresses this issue by presenting the results of a new dating programme for East Chisenbury in Wiltshire, southern England. Twenty-eight radiocarbon determinations were obtained and combined with the site stratigraphy in a Bayesian chronological model. The results have transformed the chronology of the site, with the end of the occupation sequence being pulled forward some one-hundred years, to the mid-to-late fifth century cal BC. These new chronologies have significant implications for our understanding of the Late Bronze Age–Early Iron Age transition and require a revision of the currently accepted chronology of post-Deverel Rimbury decorated wares in south-central England.     

Diet in the Iron Age cemetery population at Wetwang Slack,East Yorkshire,UK: carbon and nitrogen stable isotope evidence

This paper reports δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values for human and animal bone collagen from the middle Iron Age site at Wetwang Slack, East Yorkshire, UK. The data indicate a human diet which was high in animal protein, with no evidence for any significant marine food input. No differences were found between high-status vehicle (or ‘chariot’) burials and the rest of the population and no other status differentiations are visible according to burial rite, age or sex groupings, although the data obtained for the older males display an unusual trend. No dietary variation is seen between two site phases and no evidence for an early immigrant group is present. The range of isotope values for the adult human group as a whole is small, indicating that the diet is likely to have been consistent over time and across the population, although two individuals stand out as unusual amongst the 62 analysed.     

Roman Remains Discovered at Avenches,the Chief City of the Helvetii

More iron objects have been found in East Yorkshire than in any other part of Iron Age Britain of comparable size, largely in the burials of the Arras Culture, named after the excavations at Arras near Market Weighton (1815–17). The region also contains one of Britain's largest prehistoric iron production centres, contemporary with the Arras Culture. This article aims to contribute to re-establishing early iron production and consumption, and its social and economic significance in the archaeological mainstream, and demonstrate the importance of understanding ironworking for the Iron Age landscape.     

The Emergence of Chariots and Riding in the South Caucasus

Summary.   The beginning of the Late Bronze Age, i.e. the late fifteenth–early fourteenth centuries BC, saw the emergence of chariots in Transcaucasia, where rich barrows of this period yielded bronze chariot models. The latter correspond to the type of chariots widespread in the western Near East in the late sixteenth–early thirteenth centuries BC. Hence it can be inferred that, regardless of the ultimate origin of Near Eastern chariots, Transcaucasian specimens belong to the Near Eastern tradition. However, in Transcaucasia, in contradistinction to the Near East, the chariot was merely a prestige marker. The growing role of the horse indicative of horseback riding is attested by some Transcaucasian funeral complexes of the late second millennium BC, which correspond to those of the steppes of south Russia. It seems likely that the builders of these barrows were related to the Iranian population of the Russian steppes.     

Terminal Pleistocene Later Stone Age Human Remains from the Mlambalasi Rock Shelter,Iringa Region,Southern Tanzania

This paper introduces research at the Mlambalasi rock shelter in the Iringa Region of southern Tanzania. The deposits are composed of a historic and Iron Age occupation, a microlithic Holocene Later Stone Age (LSA), and then a macrolithic Late Pleistocene LSA. Middle Stone Age deposits are also present on the slope in front of the rock shelter. Excavations in A.D. 2002, 2006, and 2010 yielded fragmentary human remains as well as pottery, iron, stone tools, faunal bone, and glass and ostrich eggshell beads. Among the human remains, four individuals are present: two adults and a juvenile were found in the same LSA context, and another adult associated with the Iron Age/historic period. The most complete skeleton is an adult of indeterminate sex that was found in situ in an LSA deposit. Charcoal in proximity to the bone was AMS radiocarbon dated to 12,925 cal BC (OxA‐24620), which is consistent with radiocarbon dates on giant land snail shells from above and below the remains. The skeleton exhibits a series of pathological changes such as extensive dental wear and carious lesions, as well as damage most likely caused by termites, post‐mortem. The most striking aspect of this individual is its small size; stature and body mass estimations place it in the range of historic Khoesan from southern Africa. Consequently, this research adds to the discourse regarding the existence of small‐bodied people in the East African LSA. Findings from this new skeletal sample will contribute to studies of human biology and variation in Africa during the terminal Pleistocene and Holocene. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

RAVENS AND CROWS IN IRON AGE AND ROMAN BRITAIN

The raven and crow skeletons from Danebury are re‐examined, taking into account their taphonomy, their context and the associated finds. Raven and crow burials from other Iron Age and Roman sites are surveyed, again with a discussion of their context and associated finds where these could be ascertained. Taken together, the evidence makes it clear that most if not all were deliberate burials, often at the base of pits. We demonstrate how interpretations of such burials have changed, with zooarchaeologists initially proposing functional explanations and archaeologists readier to accept that the burials were deliberate. We go on to argue that the unique character of ravens and crows, including their tolerance of humans, their scavenging habits, and their voice, led to their playing an important role in Iron Age and Roman rites and beliefs.     

The Living and The Dead,Memory and Transition: Bayesian Modelling of Mesolithic and Neolithic Deposits from Vlasac,the Danube Gorges

The paper applies Bayesian statistical modelling to radiocarbon dates obtained for a stratigraphic sequence comprising occupation features and superimposed burials from the Late Mesolithic (c.7400–6200 cal BC) to the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition (c.6200–5900 cal BC), from Vlasac in the Danube Gorges region of the north‐central Balkans. This sequence, investigated in the course of excavations at the site in 2006–9, yielded stratigraphic evidence of the transformation of local forager populations as a result of contact with Neolithic communities. Our paper provides a reliable chronological framework for changes from Late Mesolithic burial rites to new, Neolithic types of ornamental beads at the top of the sequence. The use of the same burial location and continuities in burial rites over a considerable period of time raise significant questions about the role of tradition and the potential for enduring practices in prehistoric societies.     

Recent Excavation and Recording at the New Neolithic Rock Art Site of Vallée Aux Noirs,Buthiers (Seine‐et‐Marne,France)

Following the exceptional discovery of Neolithic engravings on a boulder at Vallée aux Noirs in the Fontainebleau forest, south of Paris, an excavation trench was opened in order to access the buried part of the decorated rock panel and explore the stratigraphic context of the artwork. A palaeosol was found two metres below the modern ground level, underneath multiple layers of sterile sandy soil forming a very compact sequence from which only one archaeological artefact was recovered – an Iron Age fibula (c.200–300 BC). Dating of the palaeosol was attempted through two different methods: AMS dates from charcoal suggest a significant span from the Early Bronze Age to the Iron Age, while two more consistent OSL dates point to formation of the palaeosol during the Late Neolithic (3500–3000 cal BC). The entire engraved rock surface (16 m²), including its buried part, was fully recorded. Four main semiotic groups were identified: a typical fifth‐millennium crook‐hafted axe with a ring, two boats with steering oars, and a central, very tall human figure dominating the composition from its 3.5‐metre height.     

Chronostratigraphy of an Eroding Complex Atlantic Round House,Baile Sear,Scotland

A high-resolution chronostratigraphy has been established for an eroding Atlantic round house at Sloc Sàbhaidh (North Uist, Scotland), combining detailed OSL profiling and dating of sediments encompassing the main bracketing events associated with the monument, radiocarbon AMS dates on bone recovered from excavated features and fills within it, and TL dates on pottery and burnt clay. Concordant OSL and radiocarbon evidence place construction of the wheelhouse in the first to second centuries AD, contemporary with dates from the primary occupation. Beneath the wheelhouse, clay deposits containing burnt material, attest to cultural activity in vicinity to the monument in the preceding second to first centuries BC. At a later date, the southern wall collapsed, was rebuilt, and the interior spaces to the monument re-structured. The chronology for the later horizons identified from the sediment luminescence dates extends to the second half of the first millennium AD, which goes beyond the range of the radiocarbon dates obtained. The data from ceramics encompass both periods. The juxtaposition of the dating evidence is discussed relative to short and longer chronologies for this Iron Age monument. Corollaries of this research are the implications that based on the long chronology, some of the ecofacts (bone) appear to be residual, and that the temporal duration of Hebridean Coarse Ware may extend into the second half of the first millennium AD.     

Historical context and chronology of Bronze Age land enclosure on Dartmoor,UK

The upland of Dartmoor, southwest England, is one of the flagship prehistoric landscapes within Britain owing to the excellent survival of extensive prehistoric coaxial field systems. Archaeological surveys and rescue excavations during the 1970s and 1980s did much to further the understanding of this landscape; however, much remains to be explored, in particular the chronology of enclosure, the nature of the pre-enclosure landscape and the relationship between Bronze Age communities and their environment. Reconsideration of this landscape is important, given the place it holds in our understanding of subdivision of the landscape across northwest Europe during prehistory. This paper presents new palaeoecological data recovered as part of an integrated archaeological and palaeoecological project on northeast Dartmoor. The sequences detailed here include the first dated Neolithic period palaeoenvironmental data from within the prehistoric enclosed land on the moor, providing a longer-term context for enclosure. Neolithic groups are implicated in the first establishment of heathland in the study area at around 3630–3370 cal BC. During the early Bronze Age, reestablishment of hazel scrub in the study area implies reduced use of the upland, although it is not clear whether this is local or indicative of the wider landscape. A combination of pollen and fungal spore data indicates a substantial shift to species-rich grassland with grazing animals at c.1480 cal BC in a phase that lasted 400 years. The later Bronze Age and early Iron Age are characterised by low intensity use of the upland. These data provide new chronological data for land cover change on Dartmoor and whilst they broadly confirm existing models of upland land use in later prehistory, their proximity to the standing archaeology affords a more nuanced interpretation of local change.     

Mid- to late-Holocene vegetational and land-use change in the Hadrian's Wall region: a radiocarbon-dated pollen sequence from Crag Lough,Northumberland, England

Pollen, charcoal and sedimentological analyses of a radiocarbon-dated sediment sequence from Crag Lough, by Hadrian's Wall, northern England, are used to reconstruct vegetational and land-use change since ca. 3000 cal BC. Clearance of Quercus and Corylus avellana woodland began at ca. 2600 cal BC, followed by a substantial decline of Alnus glutinosa and spread of Calluna vulgaris at ca. 400 cal BC. Local cereal cultivation occurred sporadically from ca. 2200 cal BC, with a decline (perhaps associated with climatic deterioration) at ca. 900 cal BC, then an increase at ca. 600 cal BC. Secale cereale was grown in the area from approximately the first to fifth centuries AD, followed by a second phase from ca. AD 1250–1700, when it was accompanied by Cannabis sativa.The sequence is interpreted in the light of the archaeological record, particularly in relation to the impact of Roman military activity in the area. The most significant episodes of woodland clearance occurred in the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age period and then in the middle Iron Age, creating a patchwork of woodland, heather moorland, pasture and arable land by the Roman period. The main changes in the Roman period were a decline in the extent of Betula woodland and perhaps the local introduction of Secale cereale cultivation. Local land management practices involving fire seem to have been suspended in the Roman period, but resumed afterwards. The end of the Roman period may have been accompanied by a shift towards pastoral land-use and abandonment of less favourable agricultural land, but the effect was minor compared to that at other sites in the region. Later shifts in land use may relate to climate variability, as reconstructed from several mires in northern England.     

Iron Age Burial in Wales: Patterns,Practices and Problems

Until the latter part of the twentieth century, Iron Age burial in Britain was thought to be largely archaeologically invisible. However, over the last 40 years the recovery of large assemblages of human remains, often from pits and ditches rather than beneath monumental structures, has changed our understanding of Iron Age funerary practices. The problem, though, is that the majority of this material derives from core areas of study, particularly southern England and Yorkshire. Our knowledge of burial in the more peripheral areas of Britain, such as Wales, is much more poorly understood. The perceived paucity of burials from such regions is often still interpreted as resulting from the practice of archaeologically invisible disposal methods such as excarnation or the scattering of cremated remains. This paper presents a comprehensive review and analysis of Iron Age human remains in Wales. Although the resource for study is relatively small, a variety of practices, disposal methods and treatments of bodies can be recognized which challenge our current narratives. The scarcity of burials when compared to other parts of Britain, such as Wessex, is suggested to be a result of both poor preservation and bias in archaeological research strategies, rather than the dominance of an ‘invisible’ burial rite.     

Notices of Ancient Ornaments and Appliances of Sacred Use

Burial customs described under five headings are traced from the Iron Age through to the end of the Roman period. A final section discusses religious belief as evidenced by burials. Two major periods of change are identified, in the late first century B. C. following Caesar's expeditions, and in the second half of the fourth century A.D. In between these the treatment of burials suggests a long period of stability. The impact of Christianity on burial practices is assessed.     

Multi-method Analysis of Avian Eggs as Grave Goods: Revealing Symbolism in Conversion Period Burials at Kukruse,NE Estonia

Eggshells are unusual finds in the Iron Age of eastern Europe (500 BC–1200 AD) deserving extra attention in terms of analysis as well as interpretation. This paper discusses two rare eggshell finds, discovered in female burials at the conversion period (12th–13th century AD) cemetery at Kukruse, NE Estonia. Our multianalytical study combining FT-IR, SEM(-EDS), microscopy and ZooMS provides an overview of methods applicable for identifying egg species, their predepositional history and curation. Based on the analytical results and the comparative analysis of the content and context of these two burials, we argue that different aims and connotations lay behind depositing eggs as burial goods, allowing well-supported interpretations of both pagan and Christian religious worldviews simultaneously.     

THE BROCH CULTURES OF ATLANTIC SCOTLAND: ORIGINS, HIGH NOON AND DECLINE. PART 1: EARLY IRON AGE BEGINNINGS c.700–200 BC

Summary.   A new overview of the broch and wheelhouse-building cultures is offered because recent comparable attempts have omitted substantial amounts of relevant data, such as discussion of the most plausible broch prototypes and of the details of the material cultural sequence, particularly the pottery. Well dated Early Iron Age roundhouse sites have often been described, but promontory forts of the same period, showing the specialized broch hollow wall, have not. The example at Clickhimin, Shetland, is now reliably dated to the sixth century BC at the latest and the associated pottery shows clear links with north-west France. Another unexcavated example in Harris can be restored in some detail and shows how these sites were probably used. The pivotal role of Shetland in the emergence of the new culture is confirmed by the early dating of the broch at Old Scatness to the fourth/third centuries BC. However, a separate development of the round broch tower seems also to have occurred in the west, in the third/second centuries BC. English Early Iron Age pottery is also prominent in some of the earliest sites in the west and north. The picture is of a dynamic, maritime zone open to influences from several remote regions.     

Dating the Ramat Saharonim Late Neolithic desert cult site

The Ramat Saharonim site, located in the central Negev desert, Israel, consists of four shrines in a shallow valley and 30 tumuli, aligned on two cuesta cliffs on the valley's sides. Previous assessments based on site surveys suggested a general chronological span from Late Neolithic period (ca. 5000–5500 BC) through the Early Bronze Age (third millennium BC). Excavations in one shrine and three tumuli revealed a well-constructed double wall at the shrine and seven primary adult burials in the three tumuli. Quartz from sediment samples post-dating the construction of the burials and shrine was dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) using the single aliquot regenerative dose (SAR) protocol, and charcoal and leather samples were dated by ¹⁴C. The OSL results for a burial in one tumulus are 7500 ± 700 to 6000 ± 600 years. In a second tumulus, OSL ages of 2000 ± 200–1800 ± 170 years and a ¹⁴C age on leather of 390–200 BC (2340–2150 cal BP) imply that this burial is Nabatean and that the site was used also in the Hellenistic period. Two ¹⁴C ages on charcoal from the shrine give an age between 5280 and 4710 BC (7230–6660 cal BP). OSL single aliquot ages for sediment from the shrine are highly scattered and far too old (60,000 to 12,000 years). The unlikely old ages are due to insufficient resetting of the OSL signal of some of the quartz grains when sand was blown onto the site. Indeed, single grain measurements for six samples of sediment postdating the shrine show a very large range of grain ages, but with a distinct young population in all samples. Ages calculated from these young populations average 5400 ± 800, in better consistence with the ¹⁴C dates and confirming our supposition that only some of the transported grains were reset at the time of deposition. The combined OSL and ¹⁴C dating shows that the shrines and tumuli are contemporaneous and attributes the complex to the Late Neolithic. This has clear ramifications for our understanding of the period and the rise of desert pastoral societies.     

A Bronze Age Round Barrow Cemetery,Pit Alignments,Iron Age Burials,Iron Age Copper Working,and Later Activity at Four Crosses,Llandysilio, Powys

Excavation undertaken at the Upper Severn valley round barrow cemetery at Four Crosses, Llandysilio, Powys, between 2004 and 2006 has increased the known barrows and ring ditches to some twenty-seven monuments within this complex, and revealed additional burials. Based on limited dating evidence, and the data from earlier excavations, the majority of the barrows are thought to be constructed in the Bronze Age. The barrows are considered part of a larger linear cemetery. The landscape setting and wider significance of this linear barrow cemetery are explored within this report. Dating suggests two barrows were later, Iron Age additions. The excavation also investigated Iron Age and undated pit alignments, Middle Iron Age copper working and a small Romano-British inhumation cemetery and field systems. Much of this evidence reflects the continuing importance of the site for ritual and funerary activity.     

Evaluation of radiocarbon dates from the Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer cemetery Khuzhir-Nuge XIV,Lake Baikal,Siberia

A data set of 87 radiocarbon determinations obtained for the Bronze Age Khuzhir-Nuge XIV cemetery in the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia is analyzed from the perspective of data quality and within the local archaeological context. Bone preservation, expressed in terms of collagen yields, is a very important factor affecting both the accuracy and precision of ¹⁴C dates and, therefore, publication of this information should be adopted as a required standard. According to the calibrated high-collagen dates, after a single Serovo interment the cemetery was used continuously by Glazkovo peoples for up to 700 years (∼2700–2000 BC), and 70% of all burials were interred within a relatively short peak period between approximately 2500 and 2300 BC. The extensive radiocarbon data from KN XIV allow for the re-evaluation of existing models and perspectives on the place of the Glazkovo culture within the Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age.     

Field anthropology: application to burial contexts in prehistoric Southeast Asia

The context of burials in archaeological sites, that is whether the body was inhumed, wrapped, or in a coffin, is an aspect of mortuary ritual that has been missing from English-language publications on the subject. This is despite the development and use in France over at least the last two decades of methods of determining the context under the rubric ‘l'Anthropologie de Terrain’, or Field Anthropology. This paper briefly reviews the methods and applies them to prehistoric burial samples from two sites in Southeast Asia. This shows that burials at the Bronze Age site of Ban Lum Khao were either in coffins or wrapped. The practice of coffin burial appears to have been abandoned later, as all burials at the nearby Iron Age site of Noen U-Loke were wrapped.