Mineral soda alumina glass: occurence and meaning

Mineral soda–alumina (m-Na–Al) glass has been found across a vast area stretching from Africa to East Asia. m-Na–Al glass appears around the 5th c. B.C. and is relatively common for periods as late as the 19th c. A.D. It is particularly abundant in South Asia, where raw materials to produce m-Na–Al glass are readily available, and was likely manufactured there; however, the number and the importance of the manufacturing centers is unknown as archaeological information are extremely scarce. The interpretation of data obtained using compositional analysis on a large corpus of artifacts (486) shows that at least five sub-groups of m-Na–Al glass can be identified using the concentrations of calcium, magnesium, uranium, barium, strontium, zirconium and cesium measured with laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). From this data, it is possible to infer the existence of several m-Na-Al glass making centers, not all of them located in South Asia as previously assumed. They were operating over different time periods and were connected to different exchange networks.     

Death in Flames: Human Remains from a Domestic House Fire from Early Iron Age,Denmark

This paper presents osteoarchaeological analyses of the human skeletal material from a burnt down house in Jutland, Denmark, dated to the first century bc . We describe how the osteological analyses of this complex site were approached and illustrate how we reconstructed the death of the human victims. Besides basic osteological analyses, we also tried to reconstruct the posture of the deceased humans using 12‐in. posable wooden mannequins. Along with bones from several domestic animals, skeletal elements from six human individuals were recovered. All individuals were located in the eastern end of the house—the byre end. The demographic structure indicates a small family household. Our posture reconstruction further proposes that they did not die of asphyxiation while sleeping: At least two of the individuals were lying face down, trying to protect themselves. Two other individuals were lying on their side in crouching positions, which cannot be ruled out as examples of pugilistic attitude. However, we suggest this is rather unlikely. The humans could have died as they failed to rescue their invaluable animals from the fire. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An early Iron Age assemblage of faience beads from Ashkelon,Israel: chemical composition and manufacturing process

The microstructure and chemical composition of eight faience beads from an early Iron Age (12th century BCE) assemblage found in the ancient city port of Ashkelon (Israel) are determined by means of FTIR spectrometry, pXRF, microRaman and SEM-EDS analysis. The results are compared with published data of Egyptian and Near Eastern artifacts. Each sample exhibits a hue which is obtained by adding a specific colorant to the glazing mixture. A new gray chalcopyrite-manganese-based colorant was identified. Cementation glazing was most likely used in the manufacturing process of the specimens analyzed, except for the blue bead, which is an Egyptian blue frit. The results suggest that these objects represent a unique assemblage, quite different from contemporary Egyptian and Near Eastern materials, and provide new information regarding the Iron Age faience evidence in the southern Levant.