5th Millennium Cal BC Research Articles

Correction: The Beginning of Metallurgy in the Southern Levant: A Late 6th Millennium CalBC Copper Awl from Tel Tsaf, Israel

Correction: The Beginning of Metallurgy in the Southern Levant: A Late 6th Millennium CalBC Copper Awl from Tel Tsaf, Israel

The Beginning of Metallurgy in the Southern Levant: A Late 6th Millennium CalBC Copper Awl from Tel Tsaf, Israel

The beginning of metallurgy in the ancient Near East attracts much attention. The southern Levant, with the rich assemblage of copper artifacts from the Nahal Mishmar cave and the unique gold rings of the Nahal Qanah cave, is regarded as a main center of early metallurgy during the second half of the 5th millennium CalBC. However, a recently discovered copper awl from a Middle Chalcolithic burial at Tel Tsaf, Jordan Valley, Israel, suggests that cast metal technology was introduced to the region as early as the late 6th millennium CalBC. This paper examines the chemical composition of this item and reviews its context. The results indicate that it was exported from a distant source, probably in the Caucasus, and that the location where it was found is indicative of the social status of the buried individual. This rare finding indicates that metallurgy was first defused to the southern Levant through exchange networks and only centuries later involved local production. This copper awl, the earliest metal artifact found in the southern Levant, indicates that the elaborate Late Chalcolithic metallurgy developed from a more ancient tradition.

Potential Freshwater Reservoir Effects in a Neolithic Shell Midden at Riņņkalns, Latvia

Riņņukalns is the only known prehistoric shell midden in the eastern Baltic, and is one of the few middens in northern Europe consisting mainly of freshwater mussel shells. Situated on the Salaca River at the outlet of Lake Burtnieks, in northeastern Latvia, the site was originally excavated in the 1870s, and reinvestigated several times over the following decades. A new excavation in 2011 showed that part of the midden remained intact. The new exposure, dated to the later 4th millennium cal BC, yielded rich fishbone and mollusk shell assemblages, herbivore, human and bird bones, and a wide range of artifacts typical of a subsistence economy based on fishing, hunting, and gathering. Human remains from burials excavated in the 1870s were also located in archives. The co-occurrence at Riņņukalns of human remains with a broad range of terrestrial and aquatic food remains provides an ideal setting to study freshwater reservoir effects and other isotopic signals of diet and mobility. The extent of 14C depletion in local freshwater resources is an essential parameter for such studies; on the basis of 14C ages of modern and paleoenvironmental samples, we estimate that the applicable reservoir age in Lake Burtnieks is in the order of 800–900 14C yr.

Potential Freshwater Reservoir Effects in a Neolithic Shell Midden at Riņņkalns, Latvia

Riņņukalns is the only known prehistoric shell midden in the eastern Baltic, and is one of the few middens in northern Europe consisting mainly of freshwater mussel shells. Situated on the Salaca River at the outlet of Lake Burtnieks, in northeastern Latvia, the site was originally excavated in the 1870s, and reinvestigated several times over the following decades. A new excavation in 2011 showed that part of the midden remained intact. The new exposure, dated to the later 4th millennium cal BC, yielded rich fishbone and mollusk shell assemblages, herbivore, human and bird bones, and a wide range of artifacts typical of a subsistence economy based on fishing, hunting, and gathering. Human remains from burials excavated in the 1870s were also located in archives. The co-occurrence at Riņņukalns of human remains with a broad range of terrestrial and aquatic food remains provides an ideal setting to study freshwater reservoir effects and other isotopic signals of diet and mobility. The extent of14C depletion in local freshwater resources is an essential parameter for such studies; on the basis of14C ages of modern and paleoenvironmental samples, we estimate that the applicable reservoir age in Lake Burtnieks is in the order of 800–90014C yr.

Seasonality and season of birth in early Eneolithic sheep from Cheia (Romania): methodological advances and implications for animal economy

Cheia (early 5th millennium cal BC) is a prehistoric village in the Dobrodgea province in Romania. Its occupation is attributed to the Early Eneolithic period or Hamangia III phase. The exploitation of animal resources is heavily dominated by husbandry. Although cattle are dominant, they were complemented by caprines, mainly sheep, exploited for tender meat (as highlighted by a 6–12 months age class peak in the mortality profile). Sheep reproduction patterns were investigated through stable isotope analyses in order to characterize the annual rhythms of slaughtering for tender meat acquisition while informing a more general picture on sheep demographical management and animal husbandry at the settlement. Results from δ18O analysis on second and third molar enamel were modeled and compared with modern reference populations. Sheep births took place over less than four months, from late winter to early summer. From this it could be concluded that tender meat could be provided most of the year, excepted over short period in early summer. Finally, comparison of datasets obtained on the M2 and M3 suggests that the M2 presents a more accurate representation of birth seasonality due to lower inter-individual variability in the chronology of tooth growth.

‘Adaptive cycles’ and climate fluctuations: a case study from Linear Pottery Culture in western Central Europe

By applying cycle-based resilience theory the dynamics of the Early Neolithic west-central European Linear Pottery Culture (LBK) are investigated. These are interpreted as resulting from a combination of internal socio-economic processes as well as external environmental parameters. Resilience theory is helpful in understanding periods of increased vulnerability and inherent trends to social complexity. Cycles and threshold levels also help to understand why societies experience periods of increasing fragility and subsequent decline.Results are based on the correlation of a typology and dendrochronology-based archaeological chronology for western LBK and various palaeoclimatic proxy-data. The 14C-production curve is taken as an indicator for solar activity fluctuations, and an age model for laminated sediments as an indicator for rainfall fluctuations. We currently consider this correlation as agreeably robust; however future fine-dating may result in slight shifts within the archaeological chronology.According to the applied age model, the simple farming societies of the LBK (5600–4900 cal BC) in west-central Europe were not immediately and devastatingly affected by most climate fluctuations. Yet, they might have been one destabilising component within broader processes. However, periods of decreased or irregularly spaced rainfall are contemporaneous to periods of population decline, while periods of increased rainfall may have favoured population growth. Towards the end of the 6th millennium cal BC, the final years of LBK in western Central Europe are contemporaneous to a general trend to less rainfall punctuated by short-term increases in precipitation. During this climatically highly volatile period LBK reaches its highest population rates and at the same time experiences a period of warfare. Thereafter population rates decline and LBK gradually vanishes from the archaeological record, being replaced by Middle Neolithic societies.

Stone Age hunter-gatherer ceramics of North-Eastern Europe: new insights into the dispersal of an essential innovation

This paper explores the emergence and dispersal of the earliest pottery among the hunter-gatherer groups east and north of the Baltic Sea in the 6th and 5th millennium calBC. By combining existing knowledge with the results of detailed statistical analyses of 17 selected early ceramic complexes with altogether 535 vessel units from Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Russia, chronological, typological and spatial trajectories in the history of early ceramics are reconstructed. On the basis of this information, a scenario for the spread of the pottery technology into the study area is put forward, illuminating the situation not only for the actual research area, but for a wider region from the Baltic to the Urals mountains and from the Barents Sea to the Black and Caspian Seas. As a result, it is suggested that three separate lines of tradition in early pottery development played a role in the genesis of early ceramic groups east and north of the Baltic Sea.

14C calendar chronologies and cultural sequences in 5th millennium BC in Slovenia and neighbouring regions

In the paper, Bayesian analysis of 14C dates implemented in the OxCal program is used to develop calendric time-scale chronologies of individual sites and archaeological cultures of the 5th millennium calBC in Slovenia and Croatia. Case studies are presented in which 14C dates are analysed and reinterpreted with the aid of contextual archaeological data. At the site level, stratigraphic sequences are used in models to constrain and then precisely date activities within them. At the regional level, the results of the chronological modelling of archaeological cultures are used to present them on a calendric time-scale and within a broader spatial framework of Central and Southeastern Europe. Special emphasis is placed upon critical comparison of modelled calendar and cultural sequences. On the basis of this comparison, some inconsistencies and contradictions in the relative chronological schemes of periods and archaeological cultures are presented.

Baltiško gintaro radiniai Šiaurės Suomijoje 4000–2000 m. pr. Kr.

Some time during the late 5th millennium cal BC (cal), East Baltic amber imports began to reach Finland, where it occurred associated with the so-called Typical Comb ware (TCW, c. 4100–3500 cal BC). Imports of this rare fossil resin continue through the remaining of the Finnish Middle Neolithic, but seem to dwindle by the end of the 3rd millennium BC (Äyräpää, 1945, 1960; Luho, 1962; Edgren, 1966, 1992; Siiriäinen, 1967; Rankama, 1977; Torvinen, 1979; Koivunen, 1996, 2006; Oikarinen, 1998; Franzén, 2009). [...]

Excavations at a Neolithic Enclosure on The Peak, near Birdlip, Gloucestershire

Surveys and excavations in 1980–1 confirmed Peak Camp as a Neolithic enclosure on a flat promontory of the Cotswold escarpment overlooking the Severn Valley just 1 km south of Crickley Hill. Although heavily eroded by quarrying the site can be reconstructed as having two concentric arcs of boundary earthworks forming an oval plan which was probably open to the north where a steep natural slope defined the edge of the site. A section through the outer boundary showed four main phases of ditch construction, at least one causewayed. An extensive series of radiocarbon dates shows construction began in the late 37th century calbcand probably continued through successive remodellings into the 33rd century calbcor beyond. An internal ditch or elongated pit situated in the area between the inner and outer boundary earthworks had a similar history. Where sampled, the ditch and internal feature were rich in material culture, including a substantial assemblage of plain bowl pottery; flint implements and working waste; animal remains dominated by cattle but including also the remains of a cat; human foot bones; slight traces of cereal production; a fragment of a Group VI axe; part of a sandstone disc; and a highly unusual shale arc pendant of continental type. It is suggested that the ditch fills represent selectively redeposited midden material from within the site that started to accumulate in the late 5th or early 4th millennium calbc. The construction and use of Peak Camp is contemporary with activity on Crickley Hill, and the two sites probably formed components of a single complex. Its use was also contemporary with the deposition of burials at local long barrows in the Cotswold-Severn tradition which are linked by common ceramic traditions and the selective deposition of human body parts.

Feasting between the Revolutions

Feasting has attracted much attention in archaeological research, both within the Near East and elsewhere in the world. Recent evidence of feasting includes occurrences in the Near East at prehistoric as well as Bronze and Iron Age sites, reflecting the diversity of types and functions of feasts. This article presents new evidence for feasting related to the intermediate protohistoric period in the southern Levant, coming from Middle Chalcolithic (late 6th millennium Cal BC) Tel Tsaf in the Jordan Valley. The evidence for feasting includes numerous large-scale cooking facilities (earth ovens) and concentrations of faunal remains. It is suggested that if social differentiation had increased during the Chalcolithic, then the provisioning of feasting at Tel Tsaf from household pig sties may have created new arenas for the negotiation of prestige and social status.

Upland Olive Domestication in the Chalcolithic Period: New 14C Determinations from El-Khawarij (Ajlun), Jordan

New radiocarbon results on olive stones from el-Khawarij date olive cultivation at this site, in the Jordanian highlands, to the last 2 centuries of the 5th millennium cal BC. This period also sees the emergence of olive cultivation at Teleilat Ghassul, by the Dead Sea. The 10 new AMS dates were deliberately obtained from carbonized olive stones in order to date the exploitation of olives at el-Khawarij, a late prehistoric settlement believed to have been reliant on olive production. The results reveal a much longer span of occupation than hitherto suspected, including 2 dates that may fall later than 3900 cal BC (particularly OZI221, 3950–3530 cal BC). These later dates are in line with dates from other upland sites in the region, and may strengthen suggestions that Chalcolithic settlement persisted for longer in better watered upland areas (Lovell 2002). Further, an early date from a sample in a rock-cut installation in Area A suggests a much earlier date for occupation at the site, implying that upland olive exploitation may have commenced before 4700–4450 cal BC.

The Beginning of the Early Bronze Age in the North Jordan Valley: New14C Determinations from Pella in Jordan

This article reports on 10 new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates from early phases of the Early Bronze Age at the long-lived settlement of Pella (modern Tabaqat Fahl) in the north Jordan Valley. The new AMS dates fall between 3400 and 2800 cal BC, and support a recent suggestion that all Chalcolithic period occupation had ceased by 3800/3700 cal BC at the latest (Bourke et al. 2004b). Other recently published Early Bronze Age14C data strongly supports this revisionist scenario, suggesting that the earliest phase of the Early Bronze Age (EBA I) occupied much of the 4th millennium cal BC (3800/3700 to 3100/3000 cal BC). As this EB I period in the Jordan Valley is generally viewed as the key precursor phase in the development of urbanism (Joffe 1993), this revisionist chronology has potentially radical significance for understanding both the nature and speed of the move from village settlement towards a complex urban lifeway.

Structured Deposition in Early Neolithic Northern Italy

The paper reviews the interpretations of pits found in early Neolithic settlement sites in the Po valley of northern Italy, with particular attention paid to the concentration of late 6th–early 5th millennium Cal BC sites around Vhò (Piadena, Cremona). It argues that these are unlikely to have been pit-dwellings, despite a long tradition of interpreting them in this way. It suggests that the assemblages and associations found in the fills of some of the pits indicate the practice of structured deposition, and explores the consequences of this finding for our interpretation of sites dating from this period.

Ounjougou, Mali: new data on bifacial point production in the southern Sahara during the Middle Holocene

To date, archaeological sites dated between the 7th and 4th millennia cal BC are rare in West Africa. The Neolithic workshop of Promontoire at Ounjougou, Mali, had specialized in the bifacial shaping of armatures on sandstone, a local raw material. This industry was discovered in the upper section of a sequence of mixed fine red loess, dated near the site within an interval between the 6th and 4th millennia cal BC (OSL date of 6.3 ± 0.8 ka), while the geomorphological analysis of the zone and the insertion of the site into neighbouring sequences by radiocarbon dating yield a terminus ante quem of 3500 cal BC, confirming the attribution of the sequence to the Middle Holocene. While typological similarities exist between this bifacial industry and those of the Tilemsi Valley, the Winde Koroji, in southwest Nigeria and the Kintampo culture in Ghana, there remains a significant chronological discrepancy. Moreover, the archaeological material from West African sites contemporaneous with Promontoire Neolithique is most often characterized by a microlithic industry. In the present state of knowledge, the industry of Promontoire Neolithique, chronologically isolated, falls within a dynamic of population movement or influences preceding the current aridity, perhaps as-sociated with climatic changes that took place during the Middle Holocene between the 6th and 3rd millennia cal BC.

The Antler Maceheads Dating Project

This paper reports the first examples of direct radiocarbon measurements from antler maceheads, demonstrating that both the middle Thames specimens and those from northern Britain date to the second half of the 4th millennium cal BC. This suggests a degree of contemporaneity between riverine activity in the south and ‘prestige’ burial in the north, although the possibility that this is a function of the radiocarbon calibration curve cannot be discounted. The possibility that lattice decorated maceheads can be regarded as prototypes for the Maesmore series of fine stone maceheads is considered but the failure of two out of three decorated examples to produce radiocarbon determinations means that the debate cannot yet be settled.

From Big Houses to Cult Houses: Early Neolithic Timber Halls in Scotland

This paper addresses a small group of Neolithic monuments recorded as cropmarks in eastern lowland Scotland that have been termed timber halls, the best known example being the large rectangular building, Balbridie. Three such sites have now been excavated, and all have been shown to date to the early centuries of the Neolithic and to have been largely similar structures; further possible examples in the cropmark record will be assessed, through looking at the use of the term ‘timber hall’ in Scottish archaeology over the past 40 years. The paper will also address a number of sites, mostly known as cropmarks, which have similar dimensions and architectural traits to these timber halls. Excavations, however, have shown them to have a very different form (for instance, probably unroofed), and to date to the latter half of the 4th millennium calBC,several centuries later than the first timber halls. Drawing on excavation results, cropmarks, and evidence from outwith Scotland, this paper will discuss the changing form and function of the Neolithic ‘timber hall’ tradition in Scotland, arguing that roofed ‘big houses’ were later replaced by ceremonial and mortuary ‘cult houses’, drawing on social memory and tradition.

The End of the Chalcolithic Period in the South Jordan Valley: New 14C Determinations from Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan

This article reports on 12 new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates from the latest phases of the Chalcolithic period occupation (late 5th millennium cal BC) at Teleilat Ghassul, type site for the south Levantine Ghassulian Chalcolithic culture. The new AMS dates from Teleilat Ghassul favor an amendment to a previous suggestion (Bourke et al. 2001), that all significant occupation at the site had ceased by 4000/3900 cal BC. This end-date should now be amended to 3900/3800 cal BC. Follow-up statistical modelling sourced to published 14C data drawn from a wide selection of south Levantine Chalcolithic period sites (Bourke 2001; Burton and Levy 2001) raises the possibility that Chalcolithic period occupation had ceased at virtually all major centers by 3800/3700 cal BC. This, in turn, suggests that the new data bearing on the end-date for occupation at Teleilat Ghassul may reflect a more widespread horizon of abandonment in the southern Levant.

Migration, acculturation and culture change in western temperate Eurasia,

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.

The Chronology of the First Settlement of the Balearic Islands

The goal of this paper is to establish a solid chronology which spans the earliest human presence in each of the three larger Balearic Islands. For this purpose, a review is undertaken of archaeological evidence and associated absolute dating related to the period before the 2nd millennium Cal BC. Additionally, palaeoecological, sedimentological and palaeocultural evidence for human absence on these islands during the middle Holocene is introduced. The most recent values for ranges of the earliest reliable radiocarbon dates relating to human occupation of the three islands indicate, with p > 95%, human presence on Mallorca before 2030 cal BC, on Menorca before ca. 1930 Cal BC, and on Eivissa before 1880 Cal BC. On the other hand, the evidence for human absence indicates that, on Mallorca and Menorca the human irruption must have occurred during the 3rd millennium cal BC, whereas on Eivissa it can only be said that this irruption was later than 6th millennium Cal BC.