TREGIFFIAN: THE CHRONOLOGY OF AN ENTRANCE GRAVE

The Tregiffian project involved the analysis and dating of the archive from unpublished excavations in the 1960s and 1970s at an entrance grave in Penwith, Cornwall. A major aim of the project was to establish a robust chronological basis for the use of the entrance grave for burial: 10 samples of cremated human bone were submitted for radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling undertaken. The modelling indicates that the use of the chamber for burial between began in 1780–1510 BC and ended in 1595–1425 BC. The results are hugely significant as they provide the first modelled dating from a Penwith entrance grave. This paper discusses the results from the radiocarbon dating project and reconsiders entrance graves in the wider context of the Early Bronze Age megalithic tombs which are found around the Irish Sea.     

The Chemical Environment in a Burial Mound Shortly after Construction—An Archaeological–Pedological Experiment

A number of burial mounds from the South Scandinavian Early Bronze Age have contained iron pan encapsulated, wet mound cores, in which organic material has been extraordinarily well preserved. Chemical analysis of iron pan formations in recently excavated burial mounds from Jutland, Denmark have demonstrated that the iron pans were formed by redox-processes, caused by anaerobic conditions in the core of the mound and possibly influenced or determined by the way the mound was constructed. In 1995 an experimental burial mound was erected at the Historical-Archaeological Research Centre at Lejre in Denmark. The purpose of the experiment was to test and elaborate the theories on the iron pan formation and the mound construction developed on the basis of the previous chemical analysis. Three years after construction the mound was excavated and the iron pan formation and the preservation of organic matter in an oaken log coffin were studied. Anaerobic conditions had developed in the mound core and the contents of the oaken log coffin were found to be well preserved. This paper describes the results of the experiment.     

Dating Ancient Burial Mounds in Denmark – Revealing Problematic Ancient Charcoal

The National Museum of Denmark and the Department of Geography at the University of Copenhagen have collaborated on a project investigating burial mounds near early Medieval churches. The aim was to identify a possible continuity in cult sites across the shift to Christianity in the late Viking Age. Charcoal samples from 18 mounds were radiocarbon dated but the results showed they were far older than expected. Control dating undertaken on burial mounds of known age confirmed that charcoal in the mound fill can at least be up to 3000 years older than the mound itself. As charcoal can survive in the surface soil layer for millennia, in spite of ploughing, bioturbation and frost, it may also dominate the charcoal pool of the grass or heather turfs used in the mound construction. Therefore, the article concludes, charcoal cannot be used to securely date archaeological features built with turfs and it is important to be aware of the possible presence of very old charcoal when selecting material for dating archaeological features, even those which otherwise would be judged unaffected by material from earlier archaeological periods.     

‘Old wood’ effect in radiocarbon dating of prehistoric cremated bones?

Numerous reports of successful radiocarbon dating of cremated bones have emerged during the last decade. The success of radiocarbon dating cremated bones depends on the temperature during burning and the degree of recrystallisation of the inorganic bone matrix. During cremation bones undergo major morphological and mineralogical changes which have raised some interesting questions and discussion on the origin of the carbon source in archaeologically cremated bones. Recent laboratory experiments reveal that the properties of the combustion atmosphere play a significant role regarding the source carbon in cremated bones. Thus radiocarbon dating cremated bones is potentially dating the wood used for the cremation fire. Here we compare a high precision radiocarbon dated human bone with an associated dendrochronological age from an oak coffin. We find that the age discrepancy between the dendrochronological age and the cremated bone of 73 ± 26 ¹⁴C yr is best accounted for by the so called ‘old wood’ effect.     

Bronze Age landscape dynamics: spatially detailed pollen analysis from a ceremonial complex

The late Neolithic and early Bronze Age are periods marked by the construction of conspicuous concentrations of ‘ritual’ complexes, used for funerary rituals, seasonal gatherings and communal activities. Understanding the environmental context of monuments may provide detailed insights into relationships between the physical environment and the activities undertaken at individual monuments. Raised burial mounds (barrows) are generally assumed to have been constructed in open landscapes (the so-called ‘landscape openness’ hypothesis) thus rendering them highly visible in the surrounding landscape. This paper seeks to test to what extent vegetation (and in particular openness) around a dense concentration of barrows was actively managed, using three pollen sequences in close spatial juxtaposition to the archaeology. The local vegetation histories, supported by radiocarbon dating, demonstrate spatial differences in vegetation pattern both during the time of monument construction and use (c. 2000–1500 cal BC) and during subsequent periods. They do not support the ‘landscape openness’ hypothesis. This suggests that there is no single ‘blueprint’ for vegetation structure on and around these types of monument complexes. There is no evidence for major restructuring of the landscape during the early Bronze Age. The data describe a major transformation of the vegetation around 1500 cal BC (the Middle Bronze Age) in an area not known for archaeology of this date. This serves to emphasize the role of palaeoecology in augmenting the archaeological record of landscape re-organisation and transformation in prehistory.     

Late pre‐Islamic burials at Mleiha,Emirate of Sharjah (UAE)

The history of two monumental grave buildings (nos. 4 and 5), excavated in area P of the late pre‐Islamic city of Mleiha, has been studied in detail. Like all other tombs excavated up to the present day in Mleiha, their chambers had been emptied in ancient times. They were found devoid of human remains and grave‐goods. In the upper parts of the grave fills, however, skeletal remains were encountered. One of the skeletons was radiocarbon dated to AD 623–656, the time of the Islamisation of south‐east Arabia. A radiocarbon date of 384–233 BC for a wooden beam from the same tomb showed that it was built during the late pre‐Islamic period (PIR‐A). These dates and stratigraphic observations made clear that the interments were intrusive. The surrounding sediments were deposited by flooding. Directly underneath the skull of the dated skeleton, a layer of sandy loam was encountered, showing mud cracks. To understand the relationship between the burial and these deposits, micromorphological analyses of the surrounding sediments were conducted. The microstructural organisation of the sedimentary components implied that the skull was interred as part of a burial, and not deposited by natural processes.     

江苏溧阳杨家山土墩墓群D1和D3发掘简报

杨家山土墩墓群D1保存状况一般,清理墓葬5座、器物群8处,为典型的一墩多墓式结构,中心墓葬有“人”字形木椁;D3保存较差,发现墓葬1座、器物群4处,为一墩一墓式结构,中心墓葬铺设石床。随葬品主要有几何印纹灰陶罐、硬陶坛、陶鼎、陶盂、原始瓷碗、原始瓷盂等,时代为春秋中期。     

New dates from Ushki-1, Kamchatka,confirm 13,000 cal BP age for earliest Paleolithic occupation

For many years cultural layer 7 at the Ushki sites, Kamchatka was considered to represent the earliest human occupation of Beringia, because four radiocarbon dates indicated an age of 16,000–17,000 calendar years ago (cal BP). In 2003, however, Goebel et al. reported that layer 7 more likely formed only 13,000 cal BP, nearly 4000 years later than N.N. Dikov, the site’s primary excavator, originally reported. Some researchers have downplayed the significance of the new dates, continuing to regard Dikov’s early dates as evidence that at least some of the hearth and dwelling features previously excavated at Ushki-1 date to as early as 17,000 cal BP. Here we present four new radiocarbon dates (and two previously unpublished dates) on curated charcoal from hearth features excavated at Ushki-1 more than 20 years ago. They indicate that these hearths and associated dwelling features date to about 13,000 cal BP. We now know 15 radiocarbon dates on charcoal from a variety of features and profiles across Ushki-1 and Ushki-5 that indicate the age of layer 7 is about 13,000 cal BP. We discount the four 16,000–17,000 cal BP dates, first, because two of them came from a deeply dug human burial pit and were likely secondarily introduced into the burial; second, because provenience data for the other two dated samples were never reported and do not exist in the records of the radiocarbon laboratories that produced them; and, third, because sediments immediately underlying layer 7 at Ushki-1 are only a few centuries earlier than 13,000 cal BP, providing an important lower-limiting age for the layer-7 occupation. We conclude that the age of all of the layer-7 features at Ushki-1 and Ushki-5 should be considered to be about 13,000 cal BP, at least until the earlier obtained old dates of 16,000–17,000 cal BP can be replicated.     

Early Dilmun and its rulers: new evidence of the burial mounds of the elite and the development of social complexity,c. 2200–1750 BC

This paper deals with the social organisation of early Dilmun in Bahrain based on evidence from the burial mound record. Complete aerial photography survey and mapping have documented the extensive mound fields of Bahrain in their entirety and revealed a new and rare type of burial mound encircled by an outer ring wall. From the spatial distribution and appearance of these ‘ring mounds’ it is argued that they cover the time span 2200–1750 BC. It is further argued that the ring mounds reflect the entombment of a prominent segment of early Dilmun society and thus testify to the presence of a social elite as early as the late third millennium BC. The paper offers evidence supporting the view that fundamental changes in the size of the ring wall and the encircled mound occurred over time, culminating in the colossal ‘royal’ mounds near Aali village. The increase in size of the special mounds and the exclusive appearance of the type in the Aali cemetery after the emergence of ten concentrated cemeteries around 2050 BC are correlated with the already available evidence of increasing social complexity in Dilmun. Three clusters of ring mounds in Aali are argued to reflect the appearance of one or more ruling lineages that were ultimately to found the colony on Failaka, Kuwait, and rule not only Bahrain but also the adjacent coast of Saudi Arabia.     

New age constraints for hominid footprints found on Jeju Island,South Korea

In 2004 numerous hominid footprints, along with diverse animal footprints, were found in the Late Quaternary strata of Jeju Island, South Korea. However, the age of the sediments in which the footprints were found is still controversial. Previous age estimates included radiocarbon ages of ca. 15,000 yr BP (Late Pleistocene) and quartz optically stimulated luminescence ages of ca. 7000 yr BP (mid-Holocene). In this study we report on 11 AMS ¹⁴C dating results from a new set of samples collected from the footprint-bearing strata and from associated sediments. Despite some variations and age reversal, all samples collected from the footprint-bearing strata yielded ¹⁴C ages of late Pleistocene. These ages are comparable with previous radiocarbon dating results. Furthermore, the presence of the proboscidean footprints attributable to woolly mammoths in the footprint-bearing strata supports the radiocarbon dating results. Based on the new radiocarbon dates and the presence of the alleged mammoth footprints, the age of the hominid footprints found at Jeju Island is thought to be late Pleistocene (about 19,000–25,000 cal yr BP). Therefore, this is the second discovery of hominid footprints dated to the Pleistocene age in Asia, and the first to be discovered in Korea.     

韩国坟丘墓社会的性质

在古代韩国,马韩盛行过坟丘墓,其主要特征是在地上的坟丘中,由多个埋葬主体通过追加葬形式形成。坟丘墓最晚到公元前1世纪开始出现,其存在从方形木棺向圆形石室的变迁过程。韩国坟丘墓社会中只有百济国发展成为国家百济,因其与先进地区临近,容易接收先进文化,其它小国在酋长社会状态下被吞并,因其农业共同体性质过强,并且与周边国家对等交流困难。     

Golden Biographies: The Production,Curation, Fragmentation and Deposition of the Armorican-Type Rolled-Gold Bead-Like Ornaments found at Pendleton,Lancashire

A rare Chalcolithic rolled-gold bead-like ornament dated to c. 2400–2200 cal. BC was found in association with sherds of early Beaker ware in an Early Bronze Age Collared Urn burial dated to c. 1545–1450 cal. BC. The grave was located at Pendleton, Lancashire. This paper reports on the AMS radiocarbon dates for the burial context along with X-ray composition analysis of the gold ornament, which shows the object had a high platinum content consistent with alluvial, placer, deposits possibly originating in Brittany, France rather than the British Isles. This unparalleled rolled-gold ornament is compared to the corpus of British and French rolled-gold ornaments and contemporary goldwork and a provenance, manufacture and biography of the find is explored. Both curation and fragmentation are considered in the context of a dated Beaker ware assemblage from the local domestic site of Lower Brockholes, Preston, as well as existing corpora of Beaker and Collared Urn ware from the region.     

A simple Bayesian approach to tree‐ring dating

Tree‐ring dating involves matching sequences of ring widths from undated timbers to dated sequences known as ‘master’ chronologies. Conventionally, the undated timbers (from a building or woodland) are sequentially matched against one another, using t‐tests to identify the relative offsets with the ‘best’ match, thus producing a ’site’ chronology. A date estimate is obtained when this is matched to a local master chronology of known calendar age. Many tree‐ring sequences in the UK produce rather low t‐values and are thus declared not to have a ‘best’ match to a master chronology. Motivated by this and the routine use of Bayesian statistical methods to provide a probabilistic approach to radiocarbon dating, this paper investigates the practicality of Bayesian dendrochronology. We explore a previously published model for the relationship between ring widths and the underlying climatic signal, implementing it within the Bayesian framework via a simulation‐based approach. Probabilities for a match at each offset are produced, removing the need to identify a single ‘best’ match. The Bayesian model proves successful at matching in both simulated and real examples.     

A multi-layered prehistoric settlement structure (tell?) at Niederröblingen,Germany and its implications

At least 15 settlement layers, deposited above each other from the early Neolithic (ca. 5300 cal BC) until Roman Imperial Times (ca. 400 cal AD), have been discovered at Niederröblingen, Germany. Constituting the longest duration of prehistoric settlement in central Europe so far known (ca. 4000 yrs), the site is thought to represent the first multi-layered settlement mound (tell?) north of the Alps. This implicates that the occurrence of settlement mound is not limited to the circum-Mediterranean area. The detailed chronology, based on archaeological, radiocarbon and OSL dating and supporting a Bayesian model, shows one clear occupational gap (early Neolithic) and a possible hiatus (Roman Times). Erosion phases of the settlement mound and the deposition of alluvial sediments (since Roman Imperial Times) in the surroundings resulted in an almost complete disappearance of the mound from the recent scenery. Being difficult to detect, similar sites might be present, undetected, in central Europe. Their discovery and study would enable the precise reconstruction of the settlement history as well as of the prehistoric man–environmental interactions at a high resolution.     

Osteological and paleodietary investigation of burials from Cova de la Pastora,Alicante, Spain

We present results of osteological and isotopic analyses of human remains from Cova de la Pastora (Alcoi, Alicante, Spain) and discuss the implications in light of a new sequence of radiocarbon dates indicating that the cave was used as a burial site in the Late Neolithic (ca. 3800–3000 cal BC), Chalcolithic (ca. 3000–2500 cal BC), Bell Beaker Transition (Horizonte Campaniforme Transicional - HCT; ca. 2500–2200 cal BC) and the Bronze Age (ca. 2200–1500 cal BC). Similarities in stable isotopic values of C and N indicate little variation in subsistence between men and women, and a similar nutritional base from the Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age. This pattern of stability is augmented by evidence of trauma and disease found on numerous skulls in the collection. Since no clear associations of specific grave goods with certain individuals based on sex or age could be determined, the only suggestion of social inequality lies in the burial practice itself, where certain individuals were interred in caves while others were not.     

Evaluating the Reliability of Fluoride Dating at Two Prehistoric Mound Sites in Mississippi

Abstract

Ion-selective electrode fluoride dating is used to address chronological problems at two mound sites located in Mississippi. At the Mississippian period (A.D. 900–1520) Lyon's Bluff site, 220K520, the fluoride content of deer and human bone is compared with radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic levels to evaluate the reliability of the fluoride dating method for understanding relative burial chronology. At a second site, Pocahontas Mound A (22HI500), fluoride content of deer bone is used to corroborate radiocarbon dates and to establish the proper chronology of levels associated with two distinct occupations (Archaic and Coles Creek/Plaquemine) identified in a large midden area. Fluoride analysis also is used to date a second midden area at this site. For Lyon's Bluff; fluoride dates did not correspond with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)-dated burials and midden strata. In contrast, fluoride dating proved very useful in determining chronological placement of midden levels and dating other areas at Pocahontas Mound A. Sample age, site location, soil, and bone preservation are considered as possible causes for the negative results at Lyon's Bluff.     

Radiocarbon dating of the bronze age bone pins from Eurasian steppe

Bone catapult and hammer-headed pins played one of very specific roles in funerary offerings in the Bronze Age graves uncovered in the Eurasian Steppes and the North Caucasus. Scholars used different types of pins as key grave offerings for numerous chronological models. For the first time eight pins have been radiocarbon dated. ¹⁴C dating of bone pins identified the catapult type pin as the earliest one. They marked the period of the Yamnaya culture formation. Then Yamnaya population produced hammer-headed pins which became very popular in other cultural environments and spread very quickly across the Steppe and the Caucasus during 2900–2650 cal BC. But according to radiocarbon dating bone pins almost disappeared after 2600 cal BC.     

A possible case of ‘poll‐evil’ in an early Scythian horse skull from Arzhan 1, Tuva Republic,Central Asia

Occipital bone lesions on an Iron Age horse cranium from the burial mound of Arzhan 1, Tuva, Central Asia, are described and interpreted. Cavitations around the nuchal ligament attachment site on the skull are interpreted as foci of inflammation and necrosis following local infection. It is suggested that the pathology represents a case of ‘poll‐evil’, most likely due to a bacterial infection. The significance of such an interpretation is discussed, including its implications for disease ecology and the possible infection risks to contiguous animal and human communities of the first millennium BC in Central Asia. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Radiocarbon and dendrochronological dating of Sub-fossil oaks from Smarhoń riverine sediments

Sub-fossil oaks from Smarhoń in Belarus have been investigated and tree-ring chronologies were assembled. According to radiocarbon dating, the oldest oak grew from 5782–5612 cal BC and the youngest from 1575–1747 cal AD. Radiocarbon and dendrochronological dating of 97 samples, four single series, 10 mean curves (containing 2–9 series) and three chronologies (10–25 series) were constructed. The longest chronology (No. 16), covering 549 years, was absolutely dated against various oak chronologies of Polish/Baltic origin to AD 778–1326. Germination and dying-off phases were assessed from the three best replicated chronologies. A spectral analysis of the chronologies provided cycles of variable length, on average of 25 years.     

ANATOLIA AND THE BALKANS, ONCE AGAIN – RING-SHAPED IDOLS FROM WESTERN ASIA AND A CRITICAL REASSESSMENT OF SOME 'EARLY BRONZE AGE' ITEMS FROM İKİZTEPE, TURKEY

Summary. The ring‐shaped idol pendant, a distinctive type of Chalcolithic ritual (?) jewellery, is discussed with regard to its chronology in the Balkans in light of its occasional appearance in Asia Minor. Known from domestic contexts, funerals and hoards (?), none of the so far documented Anatolian pendants (clearly another aspect testifying to the well‐known Anatolian–Balkan connections in the fourth millennium BC) can be dated later than the Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age I. This fact provides further evidence for the developing hypothesis that certain inventories from İkiztepe, the only prehistoric reference site on the Turkish Black Sea coast excavated on a large scale, need some profound chronological redating. Selected features and levels dated to ‘Early Bronze Age II–III’ at İkiztepe seem to be several centuries older than currently believed, which has implications for the overall chronological range of these pendants.