Beeswax remnants,phase and major element chemical composition of the bronze age mould from Gaj Oławski (SW Poland)

The recently found metal casting mould from Gaj O?awski (SW Poland) was designed for the production of socketed axes typical for later stages of the Bronze Age in Poland (ca. 1100–900 bc). This unique artefact is a half of a durable, two-piece wedge-shaped mould and measures 17.5?×?7.2?×?4.0 cm. The surface of the mould is covered copper oxides and carbonates, and the remnant of beeswax was found on its inner surface. The metal forming mould consists of cored dendrites of Cu-dominated (Cu >96.5 wt%, up to 2.2 wt% Sn) and Cu impoverished (Cu ~86.0 wt%, Sn ~9.4 wt%, some Sb, As and Ag) end compositions and volumetrically subordinate α?+?δ eutectoid. The “as cast” structure of the metal shows that the mould was never used for molten metal casting. Since this kind of moulds was used for mass casting of metal, the Gaj O?awski one was probably never used, and the beeswax is the remain of its coating. This is the first remain of the Bronze Age beeswax described in metallurgical context in Europe.     

Integrated geological,petrologic and geochemical approach to establish source material and technology of Late Cypriot Bronze Age Plain White ware ceramics

Late Cypriot Bronze Age Plain White Wheelmade ware samples from several Cypriot excavation sites and the northern Canaanite coast were studied to ascertain their production centres and details of their manufacturing processes and post-depositional alteration. The investigation of the ceramics, using combined geoscientific analytical techniques (XRF, ICP-MS, XRD and EPMA) allowed four groups of pottery to be distinguished based on their common raw-material sources and/or technological analogies. Sediments that were sampled in East Cyprus (eastern Mesaoria Plain) for comparative purposes indicated that most of the investigated ceramics were produced from raw materials available around the ancient settlement of Enkomi. Appraising technological variations and discriminative raw-material characteristics, several pottery producing workshops in ancient Enkomi (Eastern Cypriot coast) have been identified that merchandised their commodities on Cyprus and, in all probability, also overseas.     

The Composition and Microstructural Variation of the Bronze Age Metal Ornaments from Lower Silesia (South‐West Poland): Chemical Analytical and Archaeological Aspects

Metal ornaments from Únětice (Mierczyce, Tomice, Jordanów and Opatowice) and Urnfield culture (Szprotawa, ?arek and Wroc?aw ?erniki) sites in south‐west Poland are made of bronze of varying composition, with the exception of the early Bronze Age Przec?awice site, where the copper items are found in graves from stages III/IV. The combined XRF and electron microprobe study of 37 ornaments (mostly pins) shows that those excavated from Únětice culture graves usually consist of cored dendrites, plus a Sb‐rich phase in some. The copper objects from Przec?awice correspond in composition to the East Alpine Copper or to the Ösenring copper and were produced from fahlore. Those from the Urnfield culture sites consist of homogeneous bronze. The Únětice culture ornaments were produced with little control of the effect of varying bronze composition on its microstructure. The results of XRF analyses of heterogeneous metal artefacts vary depending on the proportion of phases in the analysed site, and should be combined with micrometre‐scale analytical data and microstructural information yielded by electron microprobe methods. The same refers to deeply weathered or corroded objects made of homogeneous metal, which contain irregularly dispersed decomposition products.     

Scelus Femineum: Adultery and Revenge in Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica Book 2 (98–241) and Seneca's Agamemnon

This article makes the case for the importance of Seneca's Agamemnon as a model, in terms of both language and content, for the account of the Lemnian massacre in the second Book of Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica, an episode which has been much discussed or disputed because of its extensive and digressive character. It will thus become evident that the semantics of adultery and crime, combined with those of vengeance elaborated on in the Agamemnon, have exercised a significant influence on Valerius’ detailed sketching of the slaughter conducted by the Lemnian women as well as on the thematic coherence of the second Book as a whole.     

Integrated GIS,remote sensing and geomorphologic approaches for the reconstruction of the landscape habitation of Thessaly during the neolithic period

The aim of this study is to manifest the contribution of integrated approaches such as GIS, geomorphology, remote sensing and DEM analysis for the detection of neolithic settlements, the modeling of habitation and the reconstruction of neolithic landscape in the area of Thessaly.