3rd Millennium BC Research Articles

A multi-embankment Chalcolithic walled enclosure

Ota, a key part of the Chalcolithic walled enclosure phenomenon in Portuguese Estremadura, represents a unique settlement strategy within the actual territory of Portugal. The architecture and social dynamics of this site remained largely unexplored until 2019. This study marks a significant shift in its study, utilizing a synergistic approach of archaeology and geotechnologies, embodied in the using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle equipped with LiDAR. This innovative combination successfully penetrated the dense vegetation, revealing 21 previously unknown archaeological features. The results from the fieldwork unveiled a novel type of walled enclosure at Ota, characterized by a series of four embankments. This discovery prompts a re-evaluation of the roles and practices of 3rd millennium BC communities in Portuguese Estremadura. Furthermore, the proven efficacy of this methodology paves the way for its application in similar archaeological contexts. The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the recent fieldwork, integrating interpretations from LiDAR data, material studies and 14C dating.

Cranial surgery in the North Pontic region during the 3rd millennium BC.

This study examines the development of cranial surgery in the North Pontic region during the Early and Middle Bronze Age (late 4th and 3rd millennium BC according to the Eastern European chronology). 389 skulls from burials of this period were examined for evidence of surgical intervention. Twenty five such cases were identified and analysed for sex, age, temporal and spatial distribution, size and number of lesions, signs of healing, technique, motivation and complications of the surgery. The study indicates that cranial surgery was a well-developed medical practice in the North Pontic region during the period under consideration. Most of the cases are concentrated in the Dnipro steppe area, suggesting the possibility of outlining another centre of cranial surgery on the map of Europe. The predominant trepanation technique used here was scraping, although alternative methods were also practised. Treatment of traumatic injuries is considered to be one of the main reasons for cranial surgery in our sample. The percentage of individuals who underwent cranial intrusions increased significantly from 1.2% in the first half to 10.4% in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, indicating a chronological shift in the distribution of cranial surgery. This trend is believed to be related to changes in weaponry during the Middle Bronze Age. The introduction of stone battle axes and maces as common weapons led to a significant increase in the occurrence of blunt force injuries, both depressed and penetrating. Trepanation may have been employed as an effective medical treatment for such traumas.

Sex estimation using long bones in the largest burial site of the Copper Age: Linear discriminant analysis and random forest

Sex estimation of the individuals in a sample is fundamental for any bioarchaeological study to define a particular demographic assemblage or to classify isolated remains. Long bones are an excellent alternative for sex estimation when the most dimorphic anatomical parts are not preserved or are highly altered. Here we propose a set of discriminant functions and classification models to estimate the sex of prehistoric individuals using linear discriminant analysis and machine learning approaches. Different osteometric variables were taken from the humeri, ulnae, radii, femurs and tibias of a sample of 109 articulated skeletons buried in the collective tomb of Camino del Molino (Region of Murcia, SE-Spain), dated to the 3rd millennium BC. Sex was estimated based on standard anthropological methods and ancient DNA analysis of a control sample. Fifty-two discriminant functions with prediction thresholds higher than 0.8 on the ROC curve were obtained using independent (22) and combined variables (30). The best LDA models for sex prediction were those based on proximal epiphyseal widths or their combination with other variables, reaching values close to 0.98 on the ROC curve. The random forest-based model obtained an accuracy of 0.94 and confirmed the importance of epiphyseal widths in sex classification. This analysis is more comprehensive than univariate LDA, as it allows for ranking the importance of bones in sex discrimination and considers correlations between long bones rather than treating them as independent observations. In contrast, applying LDA to each bone makes it easier to predict the sex of other coeval collections that do not have such a complete sample. This work aims to overcome the scarcity of methods that can be applied to sex estimation of the large volume of isolated remains from Camino del Molino and for other Mediterranean skeletal series from the Late Prehistory with high biological affinity and that share similar environmental conditions.

Manufacturing architecture, evidence of pottery production from Tappeh Graziani, Sistan, Iran

In West Asia, at the end of the 4th and 3rd millennium BC, inter-regional exchanges and trades increased, and the southeastern region of Iran played a key role in these trades due to its geographical location. At this point in time, we witness the formation of the largest urban center, namely Shahr-i Sokhta, with countless satellite settlements and industrial sites. In order to educate the students of the university of Zabol and also to examine the cultural, social and economic characteristics of Hirmand’s civilization area, the author excavated the three seasons of Tappeh Graziani, where archaeological evidences of residential architecture, industrial productions and administrative management were found. In this article, an attempt is made to examine evidence related to pottery production in this satellite settlement of Shahr-i Sokhta based on the first season excavations. The pottery kilns show that part of the economy of this site depended on pottery production. The above kiln is closed type with a semi-circular plan, and the reconstruction of the floor shows that this kiln has been used for a long time.

Agriculture and Crop Management in the Ninevite V Culture.

Ninevit V culture is the culture that spread across most of the land of (southern, northern and western of present-day Kurdistan) in the early 3rd millennium BC. and lasted for 500 years. Despite some environmental challenges such as low rainfall, agriculture and administration of its products، the two most important economic sources of Ninevit V community at that time. This article which is part of a doctoral dissertation on Ninevite V culture، seeks to identify these two important aspects of society's life. It divided into two parts، the first being the cultivation and how Ninevite V community was trying to increase their agricultural output. The second part: focuses on the management of agriculture and grain storages. It's about how to build silos and store crops.

Woodland in the Curonian spit during the 3rd millennium BC based on anthracological evidence from Neolithic sites

In this paper we present the first attempt to apply anthracological analysis in paleoenvironmental research in Lithuania. We present the results of charcoal analysis of three Neolithic archaeological sites in the Lithuanian part of the Curonian Spit. The formation and development of the Curonian Spit was a complex and dynamic process. Constant aeolian processes caused periods of sand deflation, which led to the movement of the dunes and drastic changes in the landscape until the 19th century when a protective dune ridge was built and systemic tree planting began. Curonian woodlands currently consist of mostly planted pine forests. Knowledge of the spit’s vegetation and its dynamics in prehistoric and historic periods is mainly based on palynological data. This study aims to gain a more detailed understanding of the composition and development of the Curonian Spit forests in the 3rd millennium BC. Anthracological analysis of charcoal samples from three sites located in the middle and northern parts of the spit show that broad-leaved tree species such as oak, maple and lime were spreading during the Neolithic and suggest that woodland vegetation in different parts of the spit was not uniform, with broad-leaved species thriving around Nida site and pine forests around Alksnynė. We propose that one of the reasons for the observed difference between the sites is the different phases of the spit formation that these sites underwent during the settlement period, as the middle part of the spit was formed earlier than the northern part and is therefore represented by less developed soils.

The Role and Value of Children in the Ancient Near East During the 3rd Millennium BC: A View from Archaeological and Textual Sources

ABSTRACT In an attempt to reconstruct the role and value of childhood in 3rd millennium BC Near Eastern societies, this article discusses specific archaeological aspects related to the material culture of children, integrating notions provided by contemporary cuneiform sources. In particular, burial contexts from selected sites of the Euphrates Valley will be analysed since they offer a large set of tangible data to investigate the remains of children and the artefacts associated with them. In this respect simple statistics and spatial analysis of burials is presented, ultimately trying to reconstruct the value accorded to children by adults through the lens of the funerary sphere.

Application of electrochemical methods to assess the stability and investigation of factors influencing the ancient copper-arsenic artefacts from 3rd Millennium BC

Application of electrochemical methods to assess the stability and investigation of factors influencing the ancient copper-arsenic artefacts from 3rd Millennium BC

Exploring local and regional vegetation compositional changes during the Neolithic (5th–3rd millennium BC): A case study on the forager impact on vegetation in north-east Europe

This research explores the vegetation compositional changes between the fifth and third millennium BC on the Karelian Isthmus (north-west Russia). Special emphasis is placed on studying the timing and magnitude of the impact of hunter-fisher-gatherers on the vegetation. First, we reconstruct the local vegetation around Lake Bolshoye Zavetnoye by using the Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm modelling. The application of different scenarios to the relevant source area of pollen is used to assess the local vegetation around Lake Bolshoye Zavetnoye (BZL) at specific distances from 500 to 3000 m. The regional vegetation reconstruction is assessed by using the REVEALS model. Second, we present new pollen and charcoal data from adjacent Lake Ikmenlampi (LI). Third, we calculate indices of vegetation change for BZL, LI and the region. We further explore the potential causes for these differences between the spatial scales and compare all these outcomes with local and regional archaeological data. The results show that foragers actively manipulated their environment. A shift towards more heliophilous conditions is shown by ca 4800 BC. Between 4000 and 3000 BC, an increase in archaeological material suggests intensive resource procurement and landscape management activities, particularly near settlements. Around the BZL site a local decrease in birch is observed from 4100 BC, coinciding with an increase in the rate of vegetation changes. Additionally, a decline in tree species (spruce, hazel, Alder) from 3500 to 3300 BC suggests human activities. The high fire frequency recorded between 4090 and 3150 BC further supports the presence of local human disturbances by the deliberate use of fire to create favourable living conditions. The results from the LI site go in the same direction with fluctuating abundances of spruce and the presence of pollen from Cannabis, Hordeum, Urtica and Plantago lanceolata from ca 4000 to 3600 BC, indicating the use of spruce-dominated forests and an early, incipient cultivation.

The Alluvial Geoarchaeology of the Upper River Kennet in the Avebury Landscape: a Monumental Transformation of a Stable Landscape

Geoarchaeological research as part of the AHRC funded Living with Monuments (LwM) project investigated the upper Kennet river system across the Avebury World Heritage landscape. The results demonstrate that in the early–mid-Holocene (c. 9500–1000 bc) there was very low erosion of disturbed soils into the floodplain, with floodplain deposits confined to a naturally forming bedload fluvial deposit aggrading in a shallow channel of inter-linked deeper pools. At the time of the Neolithic monument building in the 4th–early 3rd millennium bc, the river was wide and shallow with areas of presumed braid plain. Between c. 4000 and 1000 bc, a human induced signature of soil erosion became a minor component of fluvial sedimentation in the Kennet palaeo-channel but it was small scale and localised. This strongly suggests that there is little evidence of widespread woodland removal associated with Neolithic farming and monument building, despite the evidently large timber requirements for Neolithic sites like the West Kennet palisade enclosures. Consequently, there was relatively light human disturbance of the hinterland and valley slopes over the longue durée until the later Bronze Age/Early Iron Age, with a predominance of pasture over arable land. Rather than large Neolithic monument complexes being constructed within woodland clearings, representing ancestral and sacred spaces, the substantially much more open landscape provided a suitable landscape with areas of sarsen spreads potentially easily visible. During the period c. 3000–1000 bc, the sediment load within the channel slowly increased with alluvial deposition of increasingly humic silty clays across the valley floor. However, this only represents small-scale landscape disturbance. It is from the Late Bronze Age–Early Iron Age when the anthropogenic signal of human driven alluviation becomes dominant and overtakes the bedload fluvial signal across the floodplain, with localised colluvial deposits on the floodplain margins. Subsequently, the alluvial archive describes more extensive human impact across this landscape, including the disturbance of loessic-rich soils in the catchment. The deposition of floodplain wide alluvium continues throughout the Roman, medieval, and post-medieval periods, correlating with the development of a low-flow, single channel, with alluvial sediments describing a decreasing energy in the depositional environment.

Standardization of Ancient Egyptian Pottery in the Second Half of the 3rd Millennium BC: Typological Illusion or Reality?

Standardization of Ancient Egyptian Pottery in the Second Half of the 3rd Millennium BC: Typological Illusion or Reality?

Six feet under – the Funnel Beaker megalithic graves under the Ahlen-Falkenberger Moor, Germany

Abstract In the Elbe-Weser Triangle, located in the north-west of Germany and framed by the rivers Elbe and Weser, a total of approx. 350 megaliths of the Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC) have been identified. Despite their large number there is little knowledge about the monuments themselves, their architecture or their history of use. This lack of information is partly attributed to widespread destruction or disturbance of the megaliths located in the open landscape during the past centuries. Other monuments have been covered by bog or clay deposits of marine inundations and thus have not been investigated or even found, yet. However, due to intense draining measures within the bog area of Ahlen-Falkenberg, dist. Cuxhaven several megalithic graves were discovered in the past decades, revealing a protected burial landscape of the 4th and 3rd millennium BC. This paper focuses on three passage graves, which have been examined in the scope of a research project in the years 2019–2022. The fieldwork has brought to light well preserved elements of the original burial structures, including a protective massive stone packing around the chambers. We were further able to identify and typochronologically date different burial activities of the FBC, as well as activities related to people associated with the Single Grave Culture. The latter seem to have had massive impact on the monuments and their accessibility. In the light of environmental changes in the Neolithic, the reconstruction of the monuments biographies was attempted. In sum the monuments show individual, local and regional traditions that were embedded in a supra-regional FBC network.

Dentistry in Ancient Egypt

Dentistry, dated in Ancient Egypt as an independent profession since the early 3rd millennium BC, was the first specialty recorded in a document in ancient Egypt, but nothing proves teeth interventions in mummies. The mouth and dental preservation was very important in rituals and theology because, as a source of exterior speech, it allowed man to express his spiritual feelings. The emphasis put on the mouth, lips, tongue, palate and teeth, was connected with the soul, the expression, and articulation of words. In the ‘Opening of the mouth’ ceremony, the dead jaws were freed to rebirth, give a voice and utter the words and names of power. Thus the white and healthy child Horus’ teeth allow to make up the undamaged mouth (PT 79 a) and five onions, their symbolic representation, were given the dead as a sacred offering. The emphasis put on the mouth, lips, tongue, palate and teeth, was connected with the soul, the expression, and articulation of words. As source of exterior speech, they allow man to express his spiritual feelings. In the Memphite theology the intellectual God Creator Ptah have generated the world pronouncing their names. Teeth and lips represent the magical verbal action and the tongue means speech, the _logos_. Dental problems were well known and some indications of doctor’s different diagnosis and treatments were found in medical papyri. The most common dental diseases were: attrition, frequent until pulp exposure, receding gums, caries and the destruction of enamel, chronic suppurative periodontitis that causes mobility, dental abscess and sepsis, loose teeth, ulcerative stomatitis, alveolar diseases and heavy deposits of calculus. Egyptian paleopathology and molecular biology provide new medical information and had revolutionized all aspects of dentistry, changing previous beliefs. However Egyptians were creative or witty and had devised many treatments for the various affections, both chirurgical and medicinal in nature, using different drugs. By studying a critical scrutiny of the development of dentistry profession in ancient times, it has been possible an exploration of dental problems, diseases and treatments and establishing guidelines and difficulties.

Barrow Necropolis from the 3rd and 2nd Millennia BC in Western Ukraine. A Bayesian Modeling and Isotopic Study

AbstractThis article discusses the absolute chronology of burials from the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC discovered under the mounds of three barrows in the Kordyshiv cemetery in western Ukraine. Its aim is to create a chronological model of the burials by modeling 27 AMS 14C dates obtained from 21 individuals buried in single and collective graves. Dietary analysis of stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope values are presented. The Bayesian modeling of the 14C dates from the three Kordyshiv barrows revealed the extremely important role of these monuments as long-term objects used for ritual purposes. At the end of the 3rd millennium BC, the epi-Corded Ware Culture (epi-CWC) community erected a mound over the central burial in Barrow 2, then interred the graves of three additional deceased. After several hundred years Barrow 2 was reused by Komarów Culture (KC) communities from the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) who interred their deceased in the existing mound. The oldest monument with MBA burials was Barrow 3, in which the dead were buried in a two-stage sequence before and after the mid-2nd millennium BC. The youngest dated grave was Burial 1 in Barrow 1, comprising a collective burial that was interred between 1400 and 1200 BC. The additional analyses of carbon and nitrogen isotopes show significant differences in the diet of epi-CWC individuals buried in Barrow 2 from the individuals representing the KC.

Geochemical study of a Neolithic metallurgical site, Le Planet (France): Detection of paleopollution recorded in archaeological soils

A geochemical study was carried out at the metallurgical site of Le Planet (Fayet, Aveyron), situated in the south of France. The site dates from the 3rd millennium BC, and is one the oldest copper smelting metallurgical sites known in France. The site reveals numerous phases of occupation, all dated from the Late Neolithic. The geochemical study of the site aimed at identifying the signature of the metallurgical activities in the archaeological soils and their spatial distribution. The analyses were carried out by X-ray fluorescence (p-XRF). Two main sampling methods were used. The first, grid-based method, allowed the sampling of the totality of the archaeological excavation surface. The second sampling method aimed to study the vertical distribution of the trace elements in the stratigraphic sequence. Four vertical profiles, positioned throughout the site, allowed a high-resolution sampling of the totality of the stratigraphy, which permitted to identify the stratigraphic distribution of polluted archaeological horizons. The geochemical analyses reveal the importance of the pollution due to the prehistoric metallurgical activities, mainly of lead, copper and arsenic. For instance, the measured values of lead vary between 26 and 9831 ppm. These values for copper are between 53 and 1154 ppm, whereas for arsenic they vary between 35 and 258 ppm. The metallurgical furnaces seem to constitute the main hotspots for the spatial distribution of the pollution. The geochemical study of the profiles identifies two main polluted archaeological horizons, and thus allows having a better understanding of the stratigraphic extension of horizons containing geochemical traces of metallurgical activities.

Lead isotopes of prehistoric copper tools define metallurgical phases in Late Neolithic and Eneolithic Italy.

The diffuse presence of small copper ore deposits in the Alpine area, mostly exploited since Late Medieval times, led most scholars to assume that these deposits may actually be active much earlier and that many of the circulating prehistoric metal objects found in the area were produced with local copper sources. This assumption was recently validated for the Recent Bronze Age through the use of lead isotope tracers, and well supported by the archaeometallurgical evidences found in the South-Eastern Alps. However, the scarcity of available lead isotope data for pre-Bronze Age metals precluded to date the reconstruction of the metal flow through the Late Neolithic and Eneolithic (or Copper Age). Based on 49 new analyses of important archaeological objects from the Alpine region, the Po River Valley and Central Italy, mostly axes dated from the Late Neolithic to the Late Eneolithic, here we show that the diffusion of copper in Northern Italy (approximately 4500-2200 BC) includes three major periods of metal use and/or production, each related to specific ore sources. The South Alpine copper was massively used only starting from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, in connection or slightly earlier than the Beaker event.

Tracing the pyro-technological evidence during the 3rd millennium bc in “Shahdad” through archaeometallurgical remains

Shahdad is located on the western side of the great “Lut” desert in the south-central Iranian Plateau. Shahdad has been a major focus of archaeological research in the region due to extensive metallurgical activities, which were documented at the site and supposedly have the most abundant remains of copper metallurgy in southeastern Iran during the Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC). Due to the archaeological studies of the vast peripheral area, the settlement was a permanently occupied city during the 3rd millennium BC. New excavations at Shahdad offer a unique opportunity to reconsider the pyro-technological remains which were probably related to metallurgical practices during this era. This research will focus on the characterization of typical Shahdad pottery styles and remains of metallurgical slags scattered across the area in association with amounts of other metallurgical remains such as copper ores, moulds, crucibles, furnaces and metallic residues. The typical characteristic style of pottery are their dense structure heavy with rough fabrication. The objects have been studied through optical microscopy, ICP-MS, and XRF to determine their chemistry, micro-chemistry, and mineralogy. The evident complexity of pottery production at Shahdad may eventually allow a better understanding of the timing of innovations and/or the adaptation of technological features observed in the overburden of Shahdad that as yet have not been scientifically documented. The scientific examination of slags and pottery sherds presented here recognizes new information regarding the microchemistry and production techniques of pottery and their possible potential application for metallurgical purposes.

STONE MORTARS AND TRIPOD MORTARS IN EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN BETWEEN 2ND AND 1ST MILLENNIUM BC

The main purpose of this contribution is to outline a general framework on the origins and functions of stone tripods, a particular and multifunctional class of material, attested for the first time in Syria in the 3rdmillennium BC. The tripod bowl, or tripod-mortar,appears in the sites of the Southern Levant in the Middle Bronze Age and spread during the Iron Age. These specimens will know a wide diffusion throughout the Eastern and Western Mediterranean basin; in fact,mortars/bowls on three feet in stone -and in ceramic -are also attested in the Phoenician colonies of the West

Barrow Cemetery in Zbudza in the Eastern Slovak Lowland

The barrow site in Zbudza is located in the East Slovak Lowland. In 1980, Elena Miroššayová carried out excavations on the burial mound (no. 1) located behind th old Jewish cemetery. The central burial pit and clusters of pottery and traces of hearths were discovered. Some potsherds the possess ornamentation typical for the Corded Ware culture. The charcoal found near the burial pit were radiocarbon dated to 4140±35 BP (Poz-151727), which can be correlated to the years 2866–2632 BC. At the site in Zbudza and the neighbouring Trnava pri Laborci, thanks to the LIDAR data, about 20 burial mounds in various states of preservation and different chronological positions were registered. Some of them should be associated with the presence of the Corded Ware and Yamna cultures from the 3rd millennium BC. Geophysical prospection of burial no. 2 located in the part of the village called “Imrička” was conducted in 2021.

A unique funerary and ritual complex at the border zone of the Northern and Eastern European Plains as a record of cultural and social changes at the turn of the Neolithic and Bronze Age

In the 3rd millennium BC, the area of the Masurian Lake District, located at the border zone of the North and Eastern European Plains, was still dominated by hunter-gatherers. It was then that the Late Neolithic farming and pastoralist communities reached the region, where cultural and social changes were initiated. Tracing these changes is possible through an analysis of the unique funerary and ritual complex on the island of Lake Lanskie. Burials of representatives of the elites of rankingcommunities from the Late Neolithic were found there, as well as the discontinuation of such burials in the Early Bronze Age, which has already been associated with egalitarian communities.