Bronze Age Cultures Research Articles

A Return to the Dark Ages? Reply to Thornton et al. 2010

A synthetic theory pointing out the central importance of metallurgy in the emergence of Bronze Age civilizations was recently published in the AJA ("From Metallurgy to Bronze Age Civilizations: The Synthetic Theory" [2009] 497–519). In reaction, six well-known authors (Christopher Thornton, Jonathan Golden, David Killick, Vincent Pigott, Thilo Rehren, and Benjamin Roberts) have written a rebuttal devoted mainly to defending the current localizationist paradigm challenged by the synthetic theory. In this reply, the epistemological nature of localizationism and its position regarding scientific theories is considered first, then three critical points underlying the synthetic theory are discussed: (1) the external mode of crucible heating, (2) the incompatibility of crucible and furnace smelting, and (3) the prevalence of southern Canaan in the emergence of furnace metallurgy.

A Chalcolithic Error: Rebuttal to Amzallag 2009

In the October 2009 issue of the AJA, Amzallag published a hypothesis for the origins and spread of furnace-based metallurgy in the Old World ("From Metallurgy to Bronze Age Civilizations: The Synthetic Theory," AJA [2009] 497–519). Amzallag's paper is rife with misunderstandings of both an archaeological and a technical nature, leading to a skewed vision of early metallurgical development. In this rebuttal, we seek to correct some of the more egregious errors in his article and provide a counterargument for the origins of copper-based metallurgy in the Old World.

Selenium in skeletal remains

Contents of selenium (Se) were determined in human skeletal remains of prehistoric populations by in situ trapping of Se hydride by ET AAS (atomic absorption spectrometry with electrothermal atomisation). Dr Korunova worked out a method of determination of Se in preparation. The method of determination of Se was verified by means of radioactive indicator 75Se incorporated in the tissues of laboratory animals. Detection limit of the method was 23 pg Se. Se is another element suitable for dietary reconstruction in past populations as it relates to the consumption of meat in a similar way to zinc. Through the analysis of Se, we were able to distinguish between Eneolithic archaeological cultures (Corded Ware ceramic, Bell Beaker culture) and Bronze Age cultures (Protounětice, Starounětice, Unětice cultures). Significant differences were found in the levels of Se in the bones of individuals derived from the Bell Beaker and Uneětice Cultures, to the 95% confidence interval. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

ANTHROPOMORPHIC, ZOOMORPHIC, AND SOLAR SYMBOLISMS ON BRONZE AGE CERAMICS FROM THE WESTERN BAIKAL REGION

Artistic features and semantics of anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and solar images on Bronze Age ceramics from the Western Baikal region are described. Themes and stylistic characteristics of images on ceramics are paralleled by petroglyphs found in the same area. Anthropomorphic images on ceramics fall into four stylistic groups. Representations of the Baikal ceramics resemble those on the contemporaneous Samus pottery found in Western Siberia. The similarity of the themes, artistic features, and ideological stereotypes indicate broad intercultural contacts between Bronze Age cultures.

A Holistic Approach to Examining Ancient Agriculture

Agriculture provided the foundation for the development and sustenance of Bronze and Iron Age civilizations in the Near East, yet remarkably little is known about how its practice varied across the region at this time. Archaeobotany and zooarchaeology have been used independently to study ancient agriculture, but there is a dire need for a more comprehensive and holistic approach, one that integrates the two data sets and better represents the reality of food production. Correspondence analysis can be an effective tool for quantitatively integrating regional Bronze and Iron Age plant and animal data spanning Syria and Jordan. Distinct regional patterns of food production and wild resource use are evident. The main variable driving this trend is available moisture. Theoretically, the method outlined here can be applied to any region and time period.

Les gravures rupestres du Chalcolithique et de l’âge du Bronze ancien de la région du mont Bego. Les mythes cosmogoniques des premiers peuples métallurgistes des Alpes méridionales

More than 100,000 graphic signs, of which 40,000 are figurative, were carved on around 4000 rocks in the mont Bego region, in Tende, in the southern Alps, approximately 80 km north of Nice (Alpes-Maritimes). These carved rocks are dispersed at an altitude of 2000 to 2700 m in the high valleys surrounding mont Bego and are regrouped in seven different sectors: the Merveilles valley, Valaurette, val de Fontanalba, val de Sainte-Marie, Valmasque, col du Sabion and the Vei del Bouc lake. The daggers, halberds and axes represented by these carvings make it possible to attribute them to Chalcolithic cultures, like the Remedello, or to early Bronze age cultures, like the Polada or the Rhodanian, and to date them between 3300 and 1800 years BC. Among the 40.000 figurative carvings, very few iconographic themes are represented: corniculates (about 70% of all figurative carvings), harnesses (2.9%), daggers (about 5.4% of all figurative carvings), halberds (1.1%), axes (0.08%), reticulates (5.5%), rectangular or oval shaded zones (6.9%) and several rare anthropomorphous figures. The consistency of the techniques and of the iconographic themes shows that these carvings were not carried out at random. They correspond to a conception of the world, transmitted from generation to generation by way of a graphic code. These representations are in fact ideograms: by carving signs and symbols, these Chalcolithic and Bronze Age populations depicted real or imaginary objects and by combining them, they created ideas in relation to the natural or supernatural world. The rock carvings of the mont Bego region correspond to a symbolic language inscribed in stone at the end of the fourth millenium and throughout the third millennium BC., by the first metallurgic settlers in the southern Alps. The ideograms were thus inscribed on rocks polished by Quaternary glaciers in the sacred Bego mountain. These carvings, the works of agricultural and pastoral populations in the southern Alps during the Chalcolithic and the ancient Bronze age, translate not just the daily preoccupations of these populations who needed rain, sources and lakes in order to fertilise their fields, but also their cosmogonic myths. At the centre of these myths are the bull god, brandishing lightning, master of the storm and provider of fertilising rain, and the high goddess, mother goddess or goddess earth, who needs to be fertilised herself by rain from the sky in order to bring abundance to humans.

From Metallurgy to Bronze Age Civilizations: The Synthetic Theory

During the past few decades, evidence for the ancient smelting of copper has been discovered in areas isolated from one another. In most of them, the beginning of metallurgy had no substantial social and cultural consequences. Accordingly, the diffusionist theory (assuming the existence of a single homeland for metallurgy and its central importance in cultural development) has been replaced by a localizationist theory, in which the emergence of metallurgy is simply a continuation of the working of native copper. But neither of these theories is able either to correlate similarities observed among disparate Bronze Age civilizations or to explain the status of the smelter as civilizing hero in ancient mythologies. The problem, I argue, arises because previous scholars did not distinguish properly between two modes of copper production: crucible metallurgy and furnace smelting. According to the localizationist theory, crucible metallurgy appears as a spontaneous extension of the melting of native copper but does not result in any substantial cultural change, whereas the general principles of a diffusionist theory would regard the emergence of furnace metallurgy as a unique event that spread rapidly and spurred on vast cultural changes (if diffusionists had ever actually understood the difference between the two production methods). I propose instead a synthetic theory in which the spread of furnace metallurgy—which was fundamentally different from crucible metallurgy and depended on complex technical knowledge—from the southern Levant generated a wide network linking Bronze Age societies. This has important implications for our understanding of the international network of exchanges in technology, artifacts, and ideas during the Bronze Age.

RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY OF NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES IN YAKUTIA

Based on 92 radiocarbon dates (some unpublished) obtained from 30 sites subjected to dendrochronological calibration, previous chronologies of the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Yakutia are revised and a new “calendar chronology” proposed. During the Bronze Age, two newly described cultures existed in addition to the Ust-Mil culture: Ulakhan Segelennyakh and Sugunnakh, the latter being a derivative of Ymyiakhtakh. In the 2nd millennium BC, the Ulakhan Segelennyakh culture became distributed throughout southern, southwestern, and southeastern Yakutia. The distinctive feature of this culture is perceived as being its ceramics which are decorated with punched nodes, stamp, and impressed designs. According to radiocarbon dating, the Sugunnakh culture existed in the transpolar regions of Yakutia from the 1st millennium BC at least until the first centuries AD. All the three Bronze Age cultures of Yakutia evidently originated from the Late Neolithic Ymyiakhtakh culture.

Diplomacy by Design: Luxury Arts and an “International Style” in the Ancient Near East, 1400–1200 B.C.E by Marian H. Feldman

Chicago : University of Chicago Press , 2006 . 278 pp. While individual studies on aspects of stylistic interchange in the Bronze Age Mediterranean routinely appear in discussions of archaeological material from the Near East, Egypt, and the Aegean World, there has not really been a synthetic compendium of this material since the pioneering work of Helene Kantor and William Stevenson Smith.1 A vast amount of new information has been recovered since Kantor and Smith's day and this volume makes an impressive first step in addressing this important, but long neglected, field of study. Kantor's study was exhaustive but narrowly focused on a few motifs, while Smith's was broader but quite idiosyncratic and scattershot. Smith was the first, however, to coin the term “International Style” in reference to the material culture of the Late Bronze Age. Marian H. Feldman defines this term as the “use of shared visual forms across multiple cultural regions” (p. 1). She goes on to cite some analogs such as Gothic design in Medieval Europe or the “International Style” of mid-century modern architecture. However, the “International Style” (or koiné, as she prefers) of the Bronze Age Mediterranean was less concerned with the architectural unit than were these examples and was instead focused on individual motifs most often found on decorative objects, often goods designed as diplomatic gifts. In this and an earlier study, the author notes that there are two basic subsets of the “International Koiné,” an indigenous Levantine one and a hybrid pan-Mediterranean (eastern Mediterranean, anyway) school.2 Because the Levantine coast, and the port of Ugarit in particular, was the principal conduit for trade goods flowing from east and west, it was a perfect crucible for the amalgamation of polyglot artistic traditions. Feldman not only brings a theoretical framework and a rigorous definition of terms to this discussion, but also adds textual evidence, often overlooked in earlier studies (see especially pp. 105–127, 161–175). Most of the objects that she discusses are small, portable, and precious objects that were diplomatic gifts similar to the exchange of presents among the royal houses of early modern Europe. The author examines in depth important aspects of these cosmopolitan products in chapters that define the style and motifs used. Two basic categories of style prevail: a dynamic style often focused on animal combat, usually associated with the Aegean; and a symmetrical style of passive images found frequently in the art of the ancient Near East. Following her examination of the two most common styles, Feldman discusses a “hybrid” style that she ascribes to the Levant that adopts and reinterprets motifs from Egypt, the Aegean, and Mesopotamia. In later chapters she tries to localize not only regionally specialized styles but also production centers. Chapters 7 and 8 address the regional sources of these objects and the mechanics of the exchange systems that spread them around the eastern Mediterranean. The author dates the end of this system of luxury exchange with the disruptions (invasion, warfare, population shift) of the “Sea Peoples,” beginning in the 13th century B.C.E. This period marks not only an end to many of the great empires of the Bronze Age, but also to the rudimentary trade patterns that were soon replaced by the large-scale export of profitable merchandise and the beginnings of modern commerce. This volume has a useful index and exhaustive bibliography and is copiously illustrated with line drawings and photographs, both black and white and color. Peter Lacovara is the Senior Curator of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern Art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University. He has curated numerous special exhibitions and is the author of a range of works, including (with Betsy Teasley Trope and Stephen Quirke) Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College, London (Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2005) and The Collector's Eye: Masterpieces of Egyptian Art from the Thalassic Collection (Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, 2001)..

Digging Up the Past: Prehistory and the Weight of the Present in Vietnam

This essay argues that prehistory in Vietnam has been powerfully shaped by the contemporary social and political circumstances in which it has been produced, both during the French colonial period and in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. It argues that in both periods the degree of professionalism in the field and the prevailing political ideology shaped the kind of prehistory produced. The discussion focuses particularly on the Bronze Age culture of Đông Sỏn and its link to the Hùng kings and their kingdom of Văn Lang.

Paleoecology, Subsistence, and14C Chronology of the Eurasian Caspian Steppe Bronze Age

Combined analysis of paleoenvironment,13C,15N, and14C in bone, including paired dating of human bone and terrestrial materials (herbivore bone, wood, charcoal, and textile) has been performed on many samples excavated from Russian kurgan graves. The data can be used for dietary reconstruction, and reservoir corrections for14C dating of human bone. The latter is essential for an accurate construction of chronologies for the Eneolithic and Bronze Age cultures of the Caspian steppes.

A Study of the Bronze Age Culture in the Tumen River Valley

A Study of the Bronze Age Culture in the Tumen River Valley

Vegetation history of the SE section of the Zagros Mountains during the last five millennia; a pollen record from the Maharlou Lake, Fars Province, Iran

A pollen diagram was derived from a 150 cm core taken from the shallow hypersaline Lake Maharlou in the south-eastern part of the Zagros Mountains, SW Iran. The pollen record shows that Quercus brantii woodland and Pistacia–Amygdalus scrub dominated the area during the late Holocene. The record starts at around 5700 cal b.p. with a dry period during which both Pistacia–Amygdalus scrub and Quercus brantii woodland were at their minimum extent. This period was followed by the expansion of Pistacia–Amygdalus scrub in the area and the spread of Quercus brantii woodlands at higher altitudes. An important occupation phase, characterized by the appearance of several cultivated tree species such as Juglans, Olea, Vitis and Platanus, started at ca. 4300 cal b.p., coinciding with the onset of the Bronze Age civilization of Jiroft in Central Iran. Human activities become very clear after 3700 cal b.p. Around 2700 cal b.p., extensive stands of Pistacia–Amygdalus scrub became profoundly degraded, presumably under strong human pressure coinciding with the beginning of the Persian Empires. The maximum expansion of the Quercus brantii woodland occurred about 2100 to 1700 cal b.p. This woodland remained relatively stable until the end of the diagram at 400 cal b.p.

Environmental and cultural changes during the terminal Neolithic: Qingpu, Yangtze delta, eastern China

The lower Yangtze, eastern China, was colonized by several Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures giving rise to possibly the highest concentration of prehistoric sites in the world. Early Neolithic cultures in the delta region cultivated rice ( Oryza sativa) and agricultural developments appear to have occurred throughout the Neolithic with abrupt socio-economic changes possibly associated with the terminal Neolithic. Given the extensive history of environmental exploitation and well-preserved archaeological sites, the Yangtze delta is an ideal setting to explore the complex interactions between humans and their environment. Multiproxies of environmental changes, namely pollen, charcoal and phytoliths, in a 14C AMS-dated sequence of sediments from an exposed profile at Qingpu, Yangtze delta, were investigated. 14C AMS dating indicates that the age range of the sedimentary sequence analysed is from c. 1800 to 6000 BP, and therefore encompasses the terminal Neolithic and subsequent Bronze Age in the region. This paper reviews this sediment-based evidence in the light of current understanding of human—environment interactions during a critical phase of the development of the Yangtze delta and associated human cultures.

“The Anau Seal and the Questions It Raises”

“The Anau Seal and the Questions It Raises”

The Avellino 3780-yr-B.P. catastrophe as a worst-case scenario for a future eruption at Vesuvius

A volcanic catastrophe even more devastating than the famous anno Domini 79 Pompeii eruption occurred during the Old Bronze Age at Vesuvius. The 3780-yr-B.P. Avellino plinian eruption produced an early violent pumice fallout and a late pyroclastic surge sequence that covered the volcano surroundings as far as 25 km away, burying land and villages. Here we present the reconstruction of this prehistoric catastrophe and its impact on the Bronze Age culture in Campania, drawn from an interdisciplinary volcanological and archaeoanthropological study. Evidence shows that a sudden, en masse evacuation of thousands of people occurred at the beginning of the eruption, before the last destructive plinian column collapse. Most of the fugitives likely survived, but the desertification of the total habitat due to the huge eruption size caused a social-demographic collapse and the abandonment of the entire area for centuries. Because an event of this scale is capable of devastating a broad territory that includes the present metropolitan district of Naples, it should be considered as a reference for the worst eruptive scenario at Vesuvius.

Resenlund og Brøndumgård bronzedepoter – Kult og samfund i yngre bronzealder

Resenlund og Brøndumgård bronzedepoter – Kult og samfund i yngre bronzealder

Scratching beneath iconographic and textual clues: A reconsideration of the social hierarchy in the Dian culture of Southwestern China

The use of historical texts to interpret archaeological data is a common practice in Chinese archaeology. The selective use of archaeological material as evidential support to textual accounts can however project a limited view of ancient societies, where social behavior from distinct contexts are conflated to produce a single coherent narrative. This paper addresses this prevalent interpretational approach to the Dian polity, a Bronze Age culture located in southwestern China, through a systematic analysis of the mortuary evidence from four cemeteries. Results from the multivariate analysis are contrasted against the textual and iconographic materials to provide a more comprehensive understanding of Dian social organization and to demonstrate social patterning that challenges conceptions about the nature of Dian social hierarchy.

Intervenciones arqueológicas en el yacimiento de la Edad del Bronce del Cerro de la Encina (Monachil, Granada)

New archaeological fieldwork has been carried out from November 2003 to May 2004 in the Bronze Age site of Cerro de la Encina, due to the interest of the regional government of Andalusia in displaying the settlement for visitors. The aim of this fieldwork has been the systematic excavation of a large settlement area partially known thanks to the excavations developed at the beginning of 1980s. A first toccupation period belonging to the Argaric Culture has been documented, highlighting specially the funerary ritual characterized by individual inhumations located below dwellings. After a gap in the occupation of the settlement a new social group belonging to the Late Bronze Age Culture of Southeast of Spain inhabits the Cerro de la Encina.

Book Review: The Hyksos: New Historical and Archaeological Perspectives

This volume contains the proceedings of a seminar which focused on the Hyksos against the background of Middle Bronze Age civilizations, with the primary objective of examining the diverse data, methodologies and interpretations that have emerged from the rather meager textual evidence, and particularly from the results of the extensive archaeological exploration of Egypt, Nubia, Palestine, Syria, Anatolia, Cyprus, and the Aegean.University Museum Monograph 96, Symposium Series 8