1st Mill Research Articles

Strontium isotope evidence for a trade network between southeastern Arabia and India during Antiquity

Cotton (Gossypium sp.), a plant of tropical and sub-tropical origin, appeared at several sites on the Arabian Peninsula at the end of the 1st mill. BCE-beginning of the 1st mill. CE. Its spread into this non-native, arid environment is emblematic of the trade dynamics that took place at this pivotal point in human history. Due to its geographical location, the Arabian Peninsula is connected to both the Indian and African trading spheres, making it complex to reconstruct the trans-continental trajectories of plant diffusion into and across Arabia in Antiquity. Key questions remain pertaining to: (1) provenance, i.e. are plant remains of local or imported origin and (2) the precise timing of cotton arrival and spread. The ancient site of Mleiha, located in modern-day United Arab Emirates, is a rare and significant case where rich archaeobotanical remains dating to the Late Pre-Islamic period (2nd–3rd c. CE), including cotton seeds and fabrics, have been preserved in a burned-down fortified building. To better understand the initial trade and/or production of cotton in this region, strontium isotopes of leached, charred cotton remains are used as a powerful tracer and the results indicate that the earliest cotton finds did not originate from the Oman Peninsula, but were more likely sourced from further afield, with the north-western coast of India being an isotopically compatible provenance. Identifying the presence of such imported cotton textiles and seeds in southeastern Arabia is significant as it is representative of the early diffusion of the crop in the region, later to be grown extensively in local oases.

Reconceptualizing water history of Chinese Central Asia: Hydraulic modeling of the early 1st mill. AD irrigation system at Mohuchahangoukou-4 (MGK4), Xinjiang, China

Irrigation is a fundamental technology that has supported farming in Xinjiang, China, facilitating the region’s long-term role as a bridge between East Asia and western Eurasia. The dominant narrative of Xinjiang’s water history ties most evidence for ancient irrigation to immigrants from Inner China, mainly arriving during the Han (202 BCE-220 CE), Tang (618–907 CE), and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties. In this study, we provide an investigation of an early 1st mill. AD irrigation system at the Mohuchahangoukou-4 (MGK4) site in southern Xinjiang using hydraulic modeling. The results show that this system was most likely a sophisticated spate irrigation system that fundamentally differed in operational principles from those river-diversion systems built by contemporaneous or earlier immigrants from Inner China. Combining the new results with those of previous research, we conclude that the irrigation technologies used at MGK4 were either developed locally or were derived from areas west of modern-day Xinjiang. This conclusion poses the necessity for us to reconceptualize the development of ancient irrigation technologies in Xinjiang as a non-linear process, in which at least two branches coexisted for a considerable period. One of them was imported from Inner China, while the other either developed locally or was imported from western Central Asia and beyond. At least since the early 1st mill. AD, the newly identified foothill irrigation technology has enabled agro-pastoralists to grow crops on considerable scales outside major oases, which we argue provided them a key role in transcontinental communications along the Silk Roads of western China.

Rémy Boucharlat. “Irrigation in Southern Iran in the Early 1st mill. AD. Some hypotheses about draining galleries”

Le hasard des calendriers de parution fait que cet article est sorti la meme annee que R. Boucharlat 2017 (cf. le compte rendu de l’article paru dans ce meme numero : AI40-41 (2017-2018), R3.0 / N°4). Le contenu et l’objectif de ce second article, plus court et donc plus synthetique sur certains aspects, sont tres proches. Il traite en effet de l’apparition, de la diffusion et des evolutions de la technique d’abduction d’eau par galerie drainante souterraine sur le pourtour du Golfe Persique....

The sacred canals of the Temple of Bastet at Bubastis (Egypt): New findings from geomorphological investigations and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT)

This contribution highlights recent findings of geomorphological and geophysical investigations that were undertaken at the excavation site of Bubastis (Eastern Nile Delta, Egypt) in order to find evidence of the existence and location of the sacred canals of Bubastis that were described by Herodotus in the 5th century BCE. None of the preceding archaeological missions have reported remains of these canals. Drilling and sediment analyses in 2018 revealed clayey/silty deposits in the centre of the site at depths below 2.5 m above sea level, close to the northern enclosure of the Temple of Bastet. The recovered sediments, with a thickness of at least four metres, were situated below the floor level of the Temple of Bastet of the 1st mill. BCE and contained fragments of pottery as well. Conducted DCR (direct current resistivity) and 2D electrical surveying confirmed the drilling results. These geophysical investigations indicated trench-formed layers of low resistivity values adjunct to the northern enclosure of the Temple of Bastet. The recovered deposits were therefore interpreted as infills that were most likely accumulated in a fluvial system of very low energy, e.g. an ox-bow lake, (abandoned) channel or lake. Presumptively, this waterway was prone to refilling, but also to infilling, by a tributary situated north or north-west of the Temples of Bastet and Pepi I.

About cylinder ceramic objects from central Ciscaucasia of the first half of the 1st mill. AD

About cylinder ceramic objects from central Ciscaucasia of the first half of the 1st mill. AD

Interdisciplinary Study of Egyptian Mummies from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts Collection at the National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”

Nine ancient Egyptian mummies (dated preliminarily to the period from the 1st mill. BCE to the first centuries CE) from the collection of the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts have been studied at the National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute” (NRC KI) on the base of the complex of NBICS technologies. Tomographic scanning is performed using a magneto-resonance tomograph (3 T) and a hybrid positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET-CT) scanner. Three-dimensional reconstructions of mummies and their anthropological measurements are carried out. Some medical conclusions are drawn based on the tomographic data. In addition, the embalming composition and tissue of one of the mummies are preliminarily analyzed.

Geoarchaeology of Phasis (Georgia)

The City of Phasis is located on the East coast of the Black Sea (Georgia). The location of the biggest and most successful of the colonies established by Ionian Greeks is still not known, a subject that has attracted interest from scholars for almost two hundred years. Based on written sources, geomorphological and archeological data, it is assumed that, due to tectonic and geomorphological changes, part of the ancient settlement/cultural layers dating back to the 1st mill. BC are below current sea level. These two changes mean that the present landscape is completely different to the 1st mill. BC situation. This observation is significant in resolving Phasis’s location. We report that: 1. The Greeks did not establish the city of Phasis adjacent to a lake. 2. The early city was located north of the river. 3. Early Phasis (6th-4th c. BC) is consistent with the settlement of Sagvichio or east of it.

Late Holocene landscape reconstruction in the Land of Seven Rivers, Kazakhstan

A landscape reconstruction for the late Holocene was carried out in the Land of the Seven Rivers, Kazakhstan, to investigate the environmental conditions during the prehistoric nomadic occupation of the Sakes (∼1st mill. BC). Two sampling locations were sedimentologically analysed: a) radiocarbon-dated late Holocene colluvial deposits and b) fluvial deposits of assumed late Pleistocene to early Holocene age. The geochemical and mineralogical components (ICP element analysis, carbon contents, grain size distributions, X-ray diffractometry) were investigated to identify synsedimentary weathering conditions. A modified weathering index (mCIA) was used to evaluate the weathering processes. The mCIA results were compared with the silt-clay-ratio as an additional indicator for post-depositional soil forming processes. Differences within the silt-clay-ratios and mCIA indexes revealed that during the late Holocene, increased erosion processes occurred in the catchment. A first, tentative geochronology is based on radiocarbon and luminescence ages, ranging from 14.5 ± 1.4 ka to 3.23 ± 0.07 cal ka BP for the colluvial deposits. This paleoenvironmental reconstruction is supplemented by a detailed geomorphological characterization of the present landscape (relief, landforms and landscape units) close to the Sakian graves.

Holocene terraces in the Middle Euphrates Valley, between Halfeti and Karkemish (Gaziantep, Turkey) [ Terrasses holocènes dans la moyenne vallée de l'Euphrate entre Halfeti et Karkemish (Gaziantep, Turquie).

The Holocene fluvial and archaeological records in the valleys draining the south-eastern piedmont of the Taurus range present several contrasted phases, interrupted by transition and/or rupture periods. The low terrace records identified in the Middle Euphrates valley between Halfeti and Karke- mish give the following results 1 ) a pre-Holocene incised topography is dated Upper or Late Pleistocene, 2) Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene alluviation deposited sands and silts forming a "high terrace" (+8-10 m) fossilising the previous incision, 3) at mid-Holocene the valley was forested and the landscape stable, 4) at the end of the 5th mill. BC, erosion and incision preceded the instalment of new settlements on the valley floor, 5) high floods followed this incision, 6) during the 2nd mill. BC or only in its second half, the river deposited a +4 m terrace, which was followed by incision during the first centuries of the 1st mill. BC. The comparison with previous works realised within the Turkish and Syrian Middle Euphrates basin shows similarities and differences in the chronology of events and in the interpretation of the possible climatic significance of the changes observed Discussion then tries to take into account 1) the records of global and regional climatic changes, 2) the sizes and geographic characters of the watersheds studied, 3) their position in the whole Euphrates basin, 4) the specific history of man's occupation of the land.

The Antiquities of Transoxiana in the Light of Investigations in Uzbekistan (1985-1990)

AbstractThe archaeological study of pre-Islamic Uzbekistan (Bactria, Sogdiana) has been intensified since. World War II and this survey presents the most important recent results of this work. Bronze Age sites show a process of cultural change in Bactria, particularly the settlement of the area by farmers and the emergence in proto-cities of new urban forms of social organisation and systems of belief. The Iron Age sees the assimilation of new ethnic groups into the region, the expansion of a strong (Achaemenid) state, the development of defended cities and administrative centres and the beginnings of specialised craft industries. In the Classical period the Macedonian conquest brought about the sharp decline of existing urban centres, but the centralised states that followed were able to establish (e.g. through irrigation projects) new cities in new agricultural zones. Excavation into the lower levels of medieval cities has revealed several previously unknown ancient cities, many of which seem to have been derelict in the period before or during the Arab conquest. Bactrian cities of the Classical period have been shown to be extensive in area, well defended by strong walls and a citadel, and to have performed administrative, economic, religious as well as military functions. Cult buildings discovered show the presence of Avestan religion (although not the orthodox Zoroastrianism of Iran), cults of the Great Mother Goddess, and Buddhism (though limited to a few remarkable centres), and in the North of Sarmatian totemic cults using zoomorphic representations, finds of art, sculpture and wall-painting reveal a process in Bactria in which a native substratum was synthesized with Hellenistic, Indian and Sako-Sarmatian elements to produce work of high quality and originality. Epigraphical finds include ostraca, graffiti, inscriptions, and even papyri, representing scripts and languages from Bactrian to Pahlavi, to Greek and Latin. Finds of coins, including Greco-Bactrian and Parthian, help to date archaeological layers and produce accurate chronologies. Scholars from Uzbekistan have also contributed to the "Great Silk Road" programme, which is showing that routes crossing the region were formed in the 1st mill. B.C. and constituted a dense branched network by the end of the Classical period.