930 Geschichte des Altertums bis ca. 499, Archäologie
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The Nok Culture of Central Nigeria is known for its sophisticated terracotta figurines initially described in the 1950s by the British archaeologist Bernard Fagg. Since 2009, the Nok Culture has been the subject of research at the Goethe University Frankfurt within the scope of a long-term project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). This book is the outcome of a PhD thesis that involved pXRF analysis of features associated with the Nok Culture, namely stone-pot-arrangements and pit features.
Stone-pot-arrangements are considered to be burials, indicated by arranged and modified stones associated with complete pots and, in a few cases, a necklace made of stone beads. However, the absence of bones and other skeletal remains meant that their interpretation as burials was unresolved. The interpretation of pits or pit-like structures, of various shapes and sizes, also remained inconclusive.
Employing pXRF analysis succeeded in revealing traces of a decomposed body, supporting the hypothesis of stone-pot-arrangements being interments. Together with the analysis of pits, new ideas about the formation and use of Nok sites were advanced. These culminated in a 'patchwork model' that assumes a repetitive cycle of utilising land for farming, settlements and burials, followed by abandonment and subsequent re-visiting and re-use of the formerly abandoned land.
The Yobe valley is one of the many refugia that dotted the Chad basin after the commencement of the desiccation of the Sahara. It hypothetically must have been attractive to the population that had to move away from the aridized zone in search of favourable ecotones. As the Mega Chad receded from its Bama ridge shores, new lands were progressively made available for human occupation along the valley. It is one of the principal goals of the Yobe Valley Archaeological project to investigate how and when this new valley was occupied. This paper has been divided into three principal sections. The first section deals with the search for the earliest settlements of the Yobe valley. The excavations conducted at Garingada and Damakarwa were aimed at tackling this problem. The second section deals with the development of complexity. The excavation at Gambaru was directed towards this problem. The third section seeks to discuss on the bases of the excavations at the three sites, manenvironment relationship. The concluding part of the paper focuses attention on the problems and prospects of the Yobe Valley Archaeological Project.
Metal artifacts from the Paleometal Epoch (ca. 1100 BC–400 AD) of the Primorye (Russian Far East) have shed new light on the introduction of the earliest bronzes into the Pacific coastal areas of prehistoric Eurasia. However, little is known about raw material circulation and the role of metal in the context of inter-regional exchange. This paper investigates 12 copper artifacts from major Paleometal settlements using alloy composition, trace elements, and lead isotopes to explore the metal sources and distribution networks. The results suggest that most objects are made of a copper-tin alloy, but some have arsenic as a significant minor element . Geologically, copper is unlikely to have come from local ore sources, but rather from the Liaoxi corridor and Liaodong Peninsula in Northeast China. This may indicate an inland route of metal trade across Northeast China or alternately, a coastal route via the northern Korean Peninsula. Archaeologically, the combined study of artifact typology and chemistry indicates two possible origins for the metal: the Upper Xiajiadian culture in Northeast China and Slab Grave culture in Mongolia/Transbaikal. Remarkably, the connection with Upper Xiajiadian communities parallels the transport route along which millet agriculture spread from Northeast China to the Primorye during the Neolithic.
In this work we present an overview of the proliferation of walled hilltop sites in southwestern Europe, named castellari in Liguria, castellar in Provence, castelo in Portugal, with the question whether they are real settlements or just fortified enclosures in the Final Bronze Age. In many cases scholars considered only those with a similar context in Iron Ages as real fortifications. But, after a study with the support of psychology and physiology of violence and a careful examination of the structures and their contexts, it is possible to hypothesize their defensive nature also during the Final Bronze Age with less doubt. In this way it is possible to delineate, in a chronologically non-uniform way, in southwest Europe a social phenomenon definable as ‘castling’, and we can link this phenomenon to specific causes. Within this phenomenon, we can consider the use of walls on hilltops as practical-symbolic function concurrently. The case study of the Portuguese Middle Tagus region in Central Portugal and of the Liguria region in northwest Italy, the two extremities of the considered macro-region, are considered.
Panel discussion
(2019)
This paper provides a glimpse into the palaeoecological conditions at the prehistoric settlement Corneşti-Iarcuri in the southwest Romanian Banat, which is known as the largest Bronze Age fortification in Europe. Preservation of pollen is generally poor in the region, where extensive marshlands have been drained and converted into arable lands since the 18th century. Remarkably, some fossil topsoils buried under thick colluvial layers within the fortification proved to contain pollen. Together with the sediments themselves, which serve as direct evidence for anthropogenically infl uenced geomorphodynamics and could partially be put into chronological context by radiocarbon dating, the on-site palynological data offer a unique opportunity to reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental setting at Corneşti. Results reveal that during the Chalcolithic period, a partially cleared open woodland with Tilia, Quercus and Corylus prevailed. Soil erosion began in some central parts of the settlement site, resulting in the accumulation of up to 90 cm of colluvium in the main valley. Until the Early Iron Age, regional tree percentages dropped from around 38 to 22 %, while anthropogenic indicators (Cerealia, Plantago lanceolata, Polygonum aviculare) increased from 11 to 16 %. Meanwhile, between 50 to 170 cm of colluvium were deposited at the investigated floodplain sites.
In this contribution the sub-project of the LOEWE initiative which is researching Late Bronze Age hilltop sites between the mountain ranges of the Vogelsberg and Taunus is presented. Special emphasis is placed on the first results from an evaluation of the data from archives and remote sensing as well as from geophysical examinations of particular sites.
Attributing the large-scale, but tactically suspect, south Levantine Bronze Age fortification systems a ‘social’ role has become an archaeological commonplace, yet it begs the crucial question of form – if a polity, a social class, or a collective wish to advertise their cohesion, power, or wealth, why choose fortifications, rather than burial monuments, temples or palaces? In other words, what social end was served by conspicuous, inefficient, military consumption? This paper aims to offer a preliminary answer to this question through three interlocking arguments: The first, that societies like that of the Levantine Bronze Age are characterized by the existence of cooperative labor obligations; the second, that this collective labor investment was, in the ancient Levant, primarily dedicated to defense; the third, that tactically imperfect fortifications were nonetheless strategically successful as defensive installations, even while promoting social cohesion and projecting elite power.
The article presents an interdisciplinary project that is focussed on an important cultural monument, namely a fortified hilltop settlement in the cadastre of Hradiště near Pilsen. This fortification is attested by five phases, which correspond to the main epochs of the erection of west Bohemian ramparts during the time span from the turn of the early to the Middle Bronze Age until the early medieval period. Geophysical prospection and trial excavations conducted there in 2012 and 2013 revealed important and new information on the stratigraphy and natural environment of the site. The project is particularly directed towards collaboration between archaeology and scientific studies. Geophysical and geochemical aspects of archaeological contexts, archaeobotanical and archaeozoological finds as well as geological composition of the materials from the fortification were analysed. Special attention was given to the problematic of the so-called vitrified walls (Schlackenwälle) associated with this site.
Responding to studies on prejudice in the Greco-Roman world, E. Gruen argues that Greeks and Romans had more nuanced and complex opinions about foreigners than often recognized. G. observes that the Greek and Romans could discover or invent links with these other societies through cultural appropriations of the past. These connections, G. contends, show that the Greeks and Romans cannot be ‘blanketed’ with xenophobia, ethnocentrism, and “let alone racism” (p. 3). G. argues that the Greeks and Romans were more interested in drawing connections with the other through cultural appropriation. G. contends that this approach reveals a positive outlook which does not reject or degrade the foreign other.
After the introduction of the pottery tradition of La Hoguette and contemporaneous research on Earliest LBK about 10 to 15 years ago, research onthe spread of farming in Central Europe had somewhat stagnated; there were hardly any major advances in factual knowledge, nor could theoretical models be refined. In the last few years, however, an abundance of new data has appeared, partly deriving from botanical and anthropological analyses. Furthermore, newly available results from excavations in European Russia widenour understanding of the manifold and complex changes occurring during the latter 7th and 6th millennium cal BC.
We combined biostratigraphical analyses, archaeological surveys, and Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) models to provide new insights into the relative sea-level evolution in the northeastern Aegean Sea (eastern Mediterranean). In this area, characterized by a very complex tectonic pattern, we produced a new typology of sea-level index point, based on the foraminiferal associations found in transgressive marine facies. Our results agree with the sea-level history previously produced in this region, therefore confirming the validity of this new type of index point. The expanded dataset presented in this paper further demonstrates a continuous Holocene RSL rise in this portion of the Aegean Sea. Comparing the new RSL record with the available geophysical predictions of sea-level evolution indicates that the crustal subsidence of the Samothraki Plateau and the North Aegean Trough played a major role in controlling millennial-scale sea-level evolution in the area. This major subsidence rate needs to be taken into account in the preparation of local future scenarios of sea-level rise in the coming decades.
Micromorphology is a suitable method to study the contents and stratigraphic relationships of pit fills. Within the ramparts of Corneşti-Iarcuri, fill layers of a pit were sampled. Th e pit fill was macroscopically divided into primary and secondary fill due to striking differences. These differences could be verified and concretized micromorphologically.