Valuing animal use in the agropastoral societies of the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages in North China

Agerbruget i enkeltgravskultur – Senneolitikum og ældre bronzealder i Jylland belyst ud fra plantemakrofossil

Et monumentalt midtsulehus ved Nørre Holsted i Sydjylland

This chapter focuses on Lower Nubias interface with Egypt and Upper Nubia in the Late Neolithic, Early and Middle Bronze Age by discussing cases of parallelism, acculturation and retardation in the symbolic and descriptive representation of the world and the structure and iconography of rulership and religion. The similarities and differences between Egypt and Nubia before the New Kingdom are discussed. The chapter presents a survey of Lower Nubian history in a period, when there existed no political frontiers and life in the Nile Valley was not separated from life in the desert. In Kerma, the trend of development of conceptions connected to the rulers ultimate authority was the opposite. Besides the Western Deffufa and the shrines of the secondary agglomeration, a great number of chapels of different architectural types were discovered in the Middle and Classic period town.Keywords: Early Bronze Age; Kerma; Late Neolithic age; Lower Nubia; Middle Bronze Age; Nile Valley; Western Deffufa

Mobility in Central European Late Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age: tibial cross-sectional geometry

In this paper, we investigate the Scandinavian Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of Kinnekulle in southwestern Sweden. The above-mentioned periods in the study area are poorly understood and the archaeological record consists of a few stray finds and a concentration of 20 gallery graves. This study focuses on three of the gallery graves where commingled skeletons from successive burials were recovered. The human remains and the artefacts from the graves were used for discussing individual life stories as well as living societies with the aim of gaining new knowledge of the last part of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Early Bronze Age in southwestern Sweden. We focused on questions concerning health and trauma, mobility and exchange networks, and diet and subsistence of the people using the graves. Chronological, bioarchaeological, and biomolecular aspects of the burials were approached through the application of archaeological and osteological studies, as well as stable isotope, strontium isotope, radiocarbon, and mtDNA analyses. The study provides evidence for high mobility and diverse diets, as well as inhumations primarily dated to the transition between the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. We suggest that the mountain plateau of Kinnekulle was mainly reserved for the dead, while the people lived in agriculture-based groups in the surrounding lower lying regions.

There are two primary sources of data for understanding the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age societies of northern China. The early Bronze Age, Shang dynastic period (c. 1600–1046 B.C., Qiu and Cai 2001), is the first period for which a writing system is known. Most of the written records are inscriptions carved on cattle bone and turtle shells, referred to as oracle bone inscriptions. Another important medium for writing is inscriptions on bronze vessels. No written records from the immediately preceding Xia dynasty (represented by the Erlitou culture, c. 1900–1500 B.c.) have been discovered. The other primary source of data for the early Bronze Age is settlement sites and burials. For the entire late Neolithic period, which lacks written records, researchers must rely exclusively on archaeological data. This study also employs later historical texts from China to make proposals about the nature of social and economic organization during the late Neolithic period and early Bronze Age.KeywordsNorth China PlainCraft ProductionYellow River ValleyDescent GroupPrestige GoodThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Høje, landskab og bosættelse – Rekognosceringer ved Tobøl-Plougstrup-højgruppen

Flodfund - Bronzealderdeponeringer fra Gudenåen

This paper presents a new techno-typological analysis of a sample of small flakes that were produced through recycling from discarded blanks at the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age site of Ein-Zippori, Lower Galilee, Israel. This study shows that the systematic production of small flakes from previously discarded blanks was not related to a scarcity in raw materials, but rather to specific decisions concerning the types of tools needed to complete necessary tasks. These results are supported by use-wear analysis noted briefly here and presented in more detail in a separate paper. The results indicate that recycling was a significant lithic production trajectory during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Recycling also contributes to the variability in lithic assemblages from those cultural periods.

Some scholars explain the absence of settlements in the Bohemian and Moravian Late Eneolithic (Corded Ware archaeological culture) as a consequence of pastoral subsistence with a high degree of mobility. However, recent archaeological studies argued that the archaeological record of the Late Eneolithic in Central Europe exhibits evidence for sedentary subsistence with mixed agriculture, similar to the subsequent Early Bronze Age. Because the archaeological data do not allow us to address unambiguously the mobility pattern in these periods, we used cross-sectional analysis of the femoral midshaft to test mobility directly on the human skeletal record. The results of femoral midshaft geometry do not support a high degree of mobility in the Late Eneolithic in Central Europe. This conclusion is supported mainly by no significant differences in male groups between the Late Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age in mechanical robusticity and shape of the femoral midshaft, although Corded Ware males still exhibit the highest absolute mean values of the diaphyseal shape (I(A-P)/I(M-L)) ratio and antero-posterior second moment of area. However, Late Eneolithic females have significantly higher torsional and overall bending rigidity because of a significantly higher medio-lateral second moment of area. This finding cannot be directly linked with a higher degree of long-distance mobility for these females. A significant difference was also found in overall decrease of size parameters of the femoral midshaft cross section for one of the Early Bronze Age samples, the Wieselburger females. Since the decrease of size and mechanical robusticity for Wieselburger females does not correspond with the parameters of Early Bronze Age females, we can expect a mosaic pattern of changes during the Late Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age period, instead of a simple unidirectional (diachronic) change of the mechanical environment.

The wealth of settlement evidence has supposed a decisive difference between prehistoric archaeology of the Mediterranean compared to that of Central Europe. This situation has changed substantially during recent years due to large scale rescue excavations carried out in central and eastern Germany. Individual houses as well as large settlement complexes have been systematically recorded and can now be dated to the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. The catalogue of all ground plans discovered up to 2019 in the federal states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia has recently been published as a supplementary volume of the proceedings of the conference ‘Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Settlement Archaeology’, held in Halle (Saale) in October 2018. Based on the geographical distribution, shape, size, orientation, and dating of the more than 240 building ground plans, the present study examines the architecture and settlement development of the Corded Ware and Bell Beaker communities, as well as of the Únětice complex, between the rivers Saale and Elbe. This analysis offers new insight into the way of life of the first full metalworking societies of central Germany from the 3rd and first half of the 2nd millennium bce, which so far have mainly been approached through their outstanding, but numerically limited, funerary remains and hoards.

This book presents the first big synthesis of sociopolitical development in northwestern Scandinavia, and outlines a theoretical model for concurrent but contrasting sociopolitical strategies that can be applied cross-culturally. It focuses on the sociopolitical development and the organisational differences between societies in northwestern Scandinavia in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (2350–1100 BCE). Grounded in a political economy approach, this book presents a theoretical model that emphasises a dialectic negotiation between societies exercising coercive or cooperative strategies through processes of categorisation. Within this theoretical model the archaeological material is studied using a two-tiered approach. First, an extensive archaeological corpus, consisting of settlement and burial patterns, lithics, metal, and rock art is investigated comparatively for patterns of diachronic, regional and societal differences. Second, patterns from the first-tier are scrutinised and three case studies are selected, each expressing different organisational patterns based on local ecological advantages and/or restrictions. These aspects are then discussed on an interregional level, suggesting that utilisation of the seaway was one of the primary movers of increased complexity along the coast. The intended readership for this book is scholars and students within the field of prehistoric archaeology, and the European Bronze Age in particular. However, the book’s comparative basis and emphasis on theoretical development within anthropological archaeology also make it accessible to a broader scholarly field.

During the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, migrations and the advent of working bronze alloy materials triggered profound cultural, social, and economic shifts across Central Europe. As a result of this processes, many communities with distinct archaeological and cultural characteristics emerged during the Central European Early Bronze Age (between circa 2200/2100 and 1600/1500 BC) in Central Europe, and with the Middle Bronze Age of the Carpathian Basin (between 2000/1900 and 1500/1450 BC). This study examines the biological relationships among these populations through biodistance analyses, aiming to clarify connections between cultural and biological affinities within the emerging heterogeneous communities. Craniometric and population graph analyses highlight the Danube’s complex role as a barrier to gene flow across Early Bronze Age communities. The population graph analysis suggests varying connectivity among male and female groups. Beside geographical location and sex-biased mobility, population admixture may have had an impact on the formation of population structure in the Early Bronze Age, as communities north of the Danube have more connections to Corded Ware cultures, whereas southern groups are more closely associated with Bell Beaker populations.

The results of a microwear analysis of samples of fan scrapers and fan scrapers spalls from late Pottery Neolithic (PN) and Early Bronze Age (EBA) occupation layers at Ein Zippori, Lower Galilee, Israel are presented. The goal of the microwear analysis was to determine the function of the fan scrapers and compare the visible usewear on the scrapers found in late PN and EBA lithic assemblages. The results indicate that during both periods most of the fan scrapers were used to skin and butcher animals, while some were also used for hide processing and bone working. The working edges of the fan scrapers had sharp, moderate, or steep edge-angles, and different edges were used for different tasks. Edges with microwear from scraping meat, bone, and hides (including some hides that may have been treated with abrasives) had steep edge-angles, while there were moderate or sharp edge-angles on the edges of fan scrapers used for cutting. Two sub-types of fan scrapers were identified, flat cortex fan scrapers (FCFS), and cortical fan scrapers (CFS) with convex dorsal faces. The CFS were abundant in PN contexts, while the FCFS were more common in EBA layers. However both of the sub-types had similar microwear traces.

170 copper-based objects from various sites in mainland Greece covering the Late Neolithic period and the whole of the Bronze Age have been analysed for their chemical content (twelve elements) by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results indicate that at all sites during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age relatively pure copper and arsenical copper were used, while during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages bronze dominated. Bronze objects of the Early Bronze Age were probably imported. Lead was not usually used to help casting. Metallographic examination of eight Late Neolithic, Early and Late Bronze Age hammered objects revealed that they have been cold-worked and annealed, most probably through several cycles.