Bronze Research Articles

A REVIEW OF THE CAPE GELIDONYA AND ULUBURUN SHIPWRECKS SHED LIGHT ON CYPRUS MARITIME ACTIVITIES

Cyprus had an important place in the ancient Mediterranean trade thanks to its geostrategic location. The island, drew attention with its copper resources and ceramic products in the Bronze Age. Archaeological remains unearthed in Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya shipwrecks support this situation. The cargo of shipwrecks and the route they followed show both the extent of maritime trade during this period and Cyprus’ position in these commercial activities. The high ratio of Cypriot copper and ceramics to the total amount of goods in the shipwrecks is instructive in terms of understanding the role of Cyprus in the maritime activities. The hypothesis of their potential Cypriot origin is supported by the higher quantity of Cypriot-origin products found on these wrecks compared to others. The fact that Cyprus is an important port on the route followed by merchantships and even the view that it could be the initial departure point of them, makes it worth to consider. Accordingly, in this study, the Cape Gelidonya and Uluburun shipwrecks, and the Cypriot goods they contain are examined, and the active role of Cyprus in the maritime trade of the period is investigated.

Archaeometric analysis of pottery sherds from Barveh Tepe: Insights into Early Bronze Age pottery‐making techniques and firing temperatures

AbstractBarveh Tepe, an archaeological site from the Early Bronze Age in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, was the focus of an archaeometric analysis in this study. The aim was to evaluate the firing temperature of excavated pottery sherds from Barveh Tepe and to gain insights into the pottery‐making techniques employed. A range of analytical methods, including optical microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDS), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD), was utilized to characterize the pottery sherds. The results revealed the utilization of two primary types of raw clays: calcite‐rich (calcareous) and calcite‐poor (non‐calcareous). The presence of calcite in calcareous pottery samples was confirmed, with the calcareous pottery showing a low CO3−2 vibrational band, indicating a low firing temperature. Through the integration of SEM images, FTIR spectra, TGA curve and XRD pattern results, the estimated firing temperature range for Barveh Tepe pottery was determined to be between 600 and 1100°C. These findings provide new insights into the pottery‐making practices of the Early Bronze Age and shed light on the technological advancements of the period.

Carnelian Beads from the Early Bronze Age Fifa Cemetery, Jordan: Aspects of Technology, Use, and Exchange

Between 1989 and 1990 the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain excavated a group of 15 tombs at the Early Bronze Age IA (c.3700–3400) cist-tomb cemetery at Fifa, Jordan. These tombs contained a variety of grave goods including beads made from carnelian. The present study employs morphometric data and microscopic indicators of manufacture and use to explore the relationship between carnelian beads, burial practices, manufacturing processes, and exchange. Manufacturing traces suggest that the beads from Fifa were created through a process of knapping and progressive stages of abrasion. Beads were perforated through pecking on one or two sides. Polish from use was observed on beads throughout the assemblage, suggesting that the beads were worn prior to their deposition, albeit for an unknown period of time. The amount of this use polish was highly variable suggesting that different beads were in use for greater or lesser periods of time. Morphometric and manufacturing data were utilized in tandem in order to suggest where the beads were produced. While a great deal of prior scholarship has suggested that carnelian beads found in the Early Bronze Age Levant originated in Egypt, we argue that some or all of these beads may alternatively have been produced in Northwestern Arabia or Eastern Jordan. This study demonstrates the value of systematic approaches to the study of beads in order to better understand processes of ritual behavior, craft production, and exchange.

Salt, clay, and society: Towards a reconstruction of salt-making chaînes opératoires in the Bronze and Early Iron Age in the Kraków–Wieliczka salt-bearing region

Abstract The progress of field research and studies of archaeological sites from southern Poland (Małopolska) and experimental activities related to salt-making in the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the last two decades have created conditions for attempting to recreate the chaîne opératoire of this branch of prehistoric production. The use of ceramic containers for evaporating brine and drying and portioning salt means that we are dealing with two operational sequences (production of ceramics and salt) intertwined at some stage – from obtaining raw materials (clay and brine) to the distribution of transportable product and discarding of disposable containers. We conducted multi-aspect studies on the characteristics of materials related to each stage, including their spatial location, based on all available material from western Małopolska, in particular several large-scale benchmark sites (Podłęże 17, Brzezie 17 and Kraków-Bieżanów 11). This allowed us to identify certain differences in production sites. A comprehensive review of the source database also allowed us to establish a rather limited scope of both the degree of craft specialisation of the brewers and the scale of the centre’s influence. Nevertheless, in some periods, as in the beginning of the Urnfield period, this centre gained supra-regional importance, as evidenced by, among others, certificates of weight standardization of finished products.

A fluorite bead from Bronze Age Tianshanbeilu cemetery, Xinjiang, Northwest China

The Tianshanbeilu cemetery is the largest Bronze Age cemetery in eastern Xinjiang, China, and plays important roles in connecting the Eurasian interior to the Hexi Corridor, and further to the Central Plains region. Utilizing micro-XRF and Raman spectroscopy techniques, we identified a fluorite bead at this cemetery. This barrel bead is the earliest record of such a fluorite bead in China, dating back to approximately 1385–1256 BCE. Comparing the unearthed records of fluorite beads in eastern China spanning from the Neolithic Age to the Western Zhou dynasty, we notice that in the early Western Zhou period, fluorite beads found in élite burials are only in barrel or biconical shapes, both of which first appeared in the eastern region of Xinjiang, such as the Tianshanbeilu cemetery in Hami and the Yanghai cemetery in the Turpan Basin. We proposed that the barrel fluorite bead drilled by metal tubular drill first appearing in the Tianshanbeilu cemetery might have spread eastward to the Central Plains region and finally constituted a component of the ritual revolutions during the Western Zhou dynasty.

Reconstructing dietary practices at Tell Kamid el-Loz (Lebanon) during the Bronze and Iron Age III / Persian to Hellenistic periods using plant micro-remains from dental calculus and stable isotope analysis of bone collagen

Tell Kamid el-Loz (Lebanon) was an important Bronze Age urban center that dominated one of the central crossroads of the Ancient Near East, connecting Egypt and the Levant with northern Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Syria, as well as the interior with the Mediterranean coast. However, by the early Iron Age, the site had shrunk to a small rural settlement. Later, in the Iron Age III / Persian-Hellenistic, only enigmatic pits and a large cemetery remained. In this paper, we analyzed plant micro-remains from the dental calculus of 15 individuals (3 from the Middle Bronze Age II and 12 from the Iron Age III / Persian-Hellenistic) and δ13C and δ15N stable isotope data from tbulk bone collagen of 74 individuals (10 from the Middle Bronze Age II and 64 from the Iron Age III / Persian-Hellenistic) and 13 Late Bronze Age animal bones (7 Ovis/Capra and 6 Bos). Our results indicate general stability of human diet throughout the Middle Bronze Age II and the Iron III / Persian-Hellenistic periods, with a reliance on C3 plant crops and terrestrial animals also consuming C3 plants. In the later period, the plant micro-remains indicate the consumption of C4 plants and sedges, and the stable isotope analysis indicates differences in diet between males and females.

A comprehensive and innovative chemometric approach: Archaeometric analysis of the sherds from the Neolithic Period to the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age with the full deployment of FTIR's molecular spectroscopic capabilities

In this study, the mineralogical composition of 284 sherds obtained from the sites of Yeşilova Höyük and Yassıtepe Höyük, two of the oldest settlements in Western Anatolia, and corresponding to a wide period starting from the Neolithic period to the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age (EBA), was studied by attenuated total reflectance (ATR) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. FTIR data was used to classify the sherds and state their firing conditions as a result of determining their mineralogical composition using principal component analysis (PCA), multivariate curve resolution (MCR), and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). According to the PCA results, the second-order derivative FTIR spectrum with 19 smoothing points in the range of 1300–400 cm−1 was determined to be the most successful model in classifying sherds. As a result of MCR, which allows comparison of standard minerals obtained within the scope of the study, it was determined that kaolinite, illite, chlorite, and some feldspar types were dominant in the sherds. According to HCA analysis, all sherds except five of them exhibited a similar mineralogical structure. According to the derivative spectra, it was seen that the sherds had a composition consisting of kaolinite, illite, hematite, chlorite, and some feldspar types at different rates. Upon examining the data, it becomes evident that the sherds are composed of nearly identical minerals and might have been fired in an oxidizing atmosphere. Even while 279 sherds had many mineralogical traits, N-061, EB-030, N-043, C-068, and N-059 were found to have distinct proportions of comparable minerals, including more kaolinite, illite, calcite, and chlorite. Regarding color, additives, and the amount of ceramic pastes present, these five sherds differ from the others. This suggests that there might have been attempts at manufacture or pots brought in from outside the Yeşilova Höyük-Yassıtepe Höyük sites. The results provided from the derivative spectra showed that all sherds except five of them have been fired at about at temperatures slightly above 450–500 °C due to their relatively low kaolinite character, but below 800 °C because diopside and similar high-temperature minerals could not be detected. The five sherds may have been fired at a temperature of around 450–500 °C due to the presence of a high character of kaolinite, illite, and chlorite. It was understood that the residents of the sites of Yeşilova Höyük and Yassıtepe Höyük produced their ceramics using the same raw materials and the same production methods from the Neolithic period to EBA thanks to FTIR and chemometrics, which are very good tools for analyzing large numbers of sherds with low cost and fast analysis time.

A micro-geoarchaeological look at adaptive and glocal socio-economic aspects: the case of Middle Bronze Age Tel Dor, Israel

Adaptative mechanisms used by coastal urban Middle Bronze Age (MBA) settlements in the southern Levant are regularly studied from the point of view of maritime connectivity. Here we look into the adaptive mechanisms of MBA Tel Dor by investigating the utilization of geogenic (rock, soil, sediment) resources for construction — materials used for wall foundations, mudbrick superstructure and wall plaster — and for pottery making. The composition and fabric of archaeological materials were compared to those of local natural sediments from two boreholes. The results show that stones for wall construction relied on the local kurkar, that red-coloured mudbricks were produced from local Carmel coast sediments, while beige-coloured mudbricks were produced by mixing local red sediments with non-coastal calcareous rock fragments, and that wall plaster was made of non-coastal geogenic marl. From a small pilot sample of pottery, six petrofabrics were identified, including the local Carmel coast, along with five other, distant, production centres. These characteristics suggest that while the site’s inhabitants utilized local resources, they were firmly interconnected with regional, ‘global’, Mediterranean networks, suggesting MBA Dor was a glocalized society, and that diversification of resources served as a promotor of resilience for this coastal society, allowing it to thrive for millennia.

Exploring Pottery Function and Cooking Practices in Bronze Age Sicily: The Results of High-resolution GC-MS of Organic Residues

ABSTRACT Despite the extended application of GC-MS for detecting organic residues from archaeological ceramics, the potential of gas chromatography – high-resolution and accuracy mass spectrometry (GC-HRAMS) has not yet been fully explored. This study conducted lipid residue analysis (using an Exactive Orbitrap GC-MS system) of dolia and jars from two Early and Middle Bronze Age (2200-1450 BC) archaeological sites in south-eastern Sicily, comparing chromatograms obtained by both GC-HRAMS and GC coupled to quadrupole, low-resolution MS (GC-LRMS). The archaeological question aimed at verifying the use of the selected vessels for cooking purposes and exploring hypotheses concerning their employment in different cooking methods (boiling or roasting) based on the analysis of morphological features and burning traces on the surfaces. The results showed clear advantages of using GC-HRAMS in targeted and untargeted approaches.

Craft Specialization in the Highland Longshan Society: Perspective from the Bone Needle Workshop on the Central Mound at the Shimao Site, Shaanxi, China

The emergence of Shimao, a proto-urban center at the contact zone between agropastoral communities of the Loess Plateau and herders/hunter-gatherers of Monogolian Plateau, offers critical insights into the economic activities during the transition to the Bronze Age in continental East Asia. Unprecedented in scale in prehistoric China, the bone needle workshop at the central mound was a prelude to the specialized, industrial-scale bone production workshops seen in the Bronze Age cities of Zhengzhou, Anyang, and Zhouyuan during the second and early first millennium BCE. The bone needle production at Huangchengtai probably supplied a sophisticated craft industry for the production of garments using animal hides and textiles.

Modelling land and water based movement corridors in the Western Mediterranean: a least cost path analysis from chalcolithic and early bronze age ivory records

The transportation of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age ivory raw materials and artefacts across the Mediterranean has been in the focus of archaeological research for over a century now. However, tracing the flow of ivory has mostly been restricted to traditional theoretical models of raw materials distribution deriving from socio-culturally centred considerations. Environmental conditions, potential transportation networks and dissemination routes have not yet been considered decisive for the spread of ivory raw material from the African shores and the eastern Mediterranean towards the Iberian Peninsula. Implementing computational environmental and archaeological modelling, we present a fully reproducible quantitative approach to estimate potential communication and transportation networks based on environmental covariates. We deploy a Network Analysis model and a predictive model based on Least Cost Path density to propose a potential land- and sea-based movement corridor for the western Mediterranean Basin that could have enabled the cultural spread of resources during the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Using the presented model and the open-source data underlying the analyses, distribution patterns of multiple material resources from different chronological subsets or regions can be developed, which will contribute to understanding prehistoric human patterns across the Mediterranean.

Early Evidence of Post-Mortem Fetal Extrusion in Equids: A Case from the Western Zhou Period (1045-771 BC) Site of Yaoheyuan in Northwestern China.

Post-mortem fetal extrusion, also known as "coffin birth", refers to the phenomenon where a fetus is pushed out of a deceased female due to pressure from decomposing gas in the abdominal cavity. While post-mortem fetal extrusion has been documented in humans at several archaeological sites, there are few reports of it occurring in non-human animals. In this study, we present a case of post-mortem fetal extrusion in equids observed in a chariot-horse pit (CMK2) at the Western Zhou period site of Yaoheyuan in northwestern China, dating to the early first millennium BC. This specific pit, one of four excavated at the site, contained at least 29 horses and 3 wooden chariots. Most of these horses were young adults aged between 4 and 12 years. Out of the 22 horses with sex estimates, 21 were males. Among these individuals, one adult female horse (Horse 6) and one infantile horse (Horse 10) were of particular importance. Based on the age-at-death, sex, and head orientation of the two individuals, alongside their spatial relationships, it is highly likely that Horse 6 was the fetus of Horse 10 and was extruded in the pit. According to the parturition stage of Horse 10, Horse 6 was likely interred in CMK2 in late spring or early summer of the year, during which the relatively high temperature may have generated gas that led to the extrusion of the fetus. Although the specific reason for the inclusion of a pregnant mare in a chariot-horse pit at Yaoheyuan remains a topic for future research, this case marks the first report of post-mortem fetal extrusion in archaeological horses. The findings offer insights into the timing of horse interment as part of ritual practices among the settled elites during the Bronze Age in China and provide valuable reference data for contemporary equine veterinary science.

Palaeoseismic crisis in the Galera Fault (southern Spain): consequences in Bronze Age settlements?

Abstract. Palaeoseismological studies play a crucial role in the seismic characterization of regions with slow-moving faults. This is the case in the central Betic Cordillera, a highly populated area for which the record of prehistoric earthquakes is very limited, despite being one of the regions with the greatest seismic hazard in Spain. We present here a palaeoseismological characterization of the Galera Fault, one of the active faults accommodating deformation in the central Betic Cordillera. We excavated and analysed several trenches along the fault trace. We quantitatively correlate the results from these trenches, resulting in a surface rupture history involving seven or eight events (accounting for the epistemic uncertainties) during the last ca. 24 000 years, with recurrence intervals ranging from 1520 to 1720 years. Further analysis of this surface rupture history seems to indicate that the Galera Fault is prone to producing earthquake clusters as we recorded five events in ∼400 years (ca. 1536–1126 BCE) and only two events in the ∼3200 years that followed. Using the fault geometry and palaeoseismological data, we also carried out a seismogenic characterization of the fault. This analysis yielded a maximum expected magnitude of 6.7 ± 0.3 and a recurrence interval of 1857 years. Furthermore, we also present a geodetic rupture scenario for the maximum expected event, involving displacements of up to 0.5 m. Finally, we discuss the possible impact of the deduced palaeoearthquakes on the development of Bronze Age human settlements located in the vicinity of the fault. In addition to their intrinsic value, our results will provide the basis for future seismic-hazard assessments carried out in the central Betic Cordillera.

A Newly Dated Late Pleistocene and Holocene Archaeological Assemblage from Bukhtarma Cave in the Southern Altai Piedmont, East Kazakhstan

The Altai mountains contain a number of cave and rockshelter sites that have given crucial information about human evolution in Asia. Most of these caves are located in the Gornyi Altai of Siberia, while the southern flank of the range remains much less known. Bukhtarma Cave was a karstic cave located near the former village of Peshchera, on the banks of the Bukhtarma River running through the foothills of the southern (Kazakh) Altai mountains. The Soviet East Kazakhstan Archaeological Expedition carried several excavation campaigns in the cave in the early to mid 1950s, discovering Paleolithic stone tools as well as animal bones. The collections were split between the East Kazakhstan Regional Museum of Local History in Öskemen (the lithic and part of the faunal collection) and the Zoological Institute in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) (most of the fauna). Subsequently, the site was flooded by the construction of the Bukhtarma Reservoir in 1958, such that further fieldwork is impossible. However, in 2020, we reanalyzed the zooarchaeological collections and obtained several 14C dates. Based on the excavation documentation and the newly obtained dates exclusively taken from cut marked and carnivore-modified bone, we reconstruct at least three Paleolithic archaeological horizons, spanning the time between ca. 47–30 ka cal BP and exhibiting Middle and Upper Paleolithic characteristics, as well as the remains of several Holocene occupations, the latest of which dates to the Bronze Age. We present here a summary of the lithic and faunal assemblage and draw general conclusions about the site’s placement within the regional Paleolithic.

Embracing Heritage, Empowering Communities: Visualizing Fieldwork and the 6 February 2023 Earthquakes at the Bronze Age City of Tell Atchana, Alalakh

ABSTRACT The earthquakes on 6 February 2023 in southeastern Türkiye and northern Syria were a disaster on a massive scale. Tens of thousands of lives were lost, and the destruction is still being assessed and grappled with today, over a year later. As one of the archaeological projects in the disaster zone, we at the Tell Atchana Excavations, many of us survivors, have had to consider ways in which we can move forward while incorporating and honoring the past—both the past that we study and our own experiences. We have embraced the engagement with the past that characterizes archaeology as a discipline and have come together to support one another and our communities through a large-scale project of preserving the exposed mudbrick monuments at Tell Atchana. This photo essay journeys through the difficulties we faced and the opportunities we found in them and celebrates the healing potential of archaeology in the face of disaster.

Early evidence of an archaeological dyed textile using scale-insects: The Cave of Skulls, Israel

The color red has held significant historical symbolism and meaning throughout history and can be produced from various sources, including plants and animals. Some of the most luxurious red dyes were derived from various species of scale insects, particularly those of the Coccoidae superfamily. Today, advanced analytical methods allow to trace the origins of dyes even after thousands of years, providing insights into the technological capabilities of the ancient world as well as past economic and social conditions. In our research on textiles discovered in the Cave of Skulls in the Judean Desert, we conducted dye analyses using High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and identified one unique, red-dyed textile, which was dyed with scale insects. Our analysis enables to pinpoint the precise source of the red color in archaeological textiles down to the species level, and it can be determined with a high degree of certainty that the dye used was Kermes vermilio. Direct radiocarbon dating places this textile in the Middle Bronze Age (1954–1767 BCE), shedding light on the early use of scale-insect dyes in ancient textile production.

Review of the Early Bronze Age Book of Tepeköy Höyük Excavations in the Varto District of Muş Province

Review of the Early Bronze Age Book of Tepeköy Höyük Excavations in the Varto District of Muş Province

A community of practice approach to the management of metal resources, metalworking and hoarding in Bronze Age societies

The burial of metals in hoards is a trademark phenomenon of prehistoric Europe that may be counterintuitive to perceptions of value nowadays. For the first time here, we establish detailed biographies of a large corpus of hoarded metal objects, providing new insights into how societies in the second millennium BC engaged with their convertible material wealth. We move beyond previous research on prehistoric hoarding commonly focussing on separate questions such as what was placed in hoards, who selected the objects, what were the origins of materials, and where and when they were buried. Analysing ca. 200 metal tools and weapons, we use data reduction methods to define technological pathways in the long biographies of hoarded objects extending across the sourcing of materials, production, use, decommissioning, and deposition in the Carpathian Basin. We show how the differential treatment of materials and objects was strongly biased by social decisions across artefact types. We identify shared, standardised signature treatments that crossed over social-spatial boundaries. Our findings bring new insights on the interface between communal and elite wealth management at the intersection of technological reasoning and cultural beliefs in prehistoric communities.

Integrating and Dividing in a Late Bronze Age Society: Internal Organization of Settlements of the Tisza Site Group in the Southern Carpathian Basin, 1600–1200 b.c.

ABSTRACT Recent research in the later Bronze Age of the southern Carpathian Basin has revealed an extensive network of large, often-enclosed settlements. Within this network, a particularly dense group of sites has recently been characterized: the Tisza Site Group (TSG). Building on advances in inter-site relations in recent research, we explore social organization within settlements using five case studies from different parts of this network. Using a multi-proxy approach of satellite imagery, systematic surface survey, and geophysical prospection, we studied the distribution of archaeological features and surface traces of activity within the enclosed space. Results indicate that sites in the TSG shared a common ethos regarding the use of space and the role of the built environment that was specific to LBA occupation of this landscape. Activity areas with domestic assemblages distributed in low-density relative to the enclosed space indicates settlement and specialist subsistence activities took place in parallel.

Ascalone, Enrico, Bronze Age weights from Mesopotamia, Iran & Greater Indus Valley

Ascalone, Enrico, Bronze Age weights from Mesopotamia, Iran & Greater Indus Valley