Archaeological Research Articles

A drive around Pictland

A damaged carving of a two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle appears on the Pictish cross-slab from Skinnet Chapel, Halkirk, Caithness (Skinnet 1). In this paper the vehicle’s original design is partly re-created, with details of the pair of horses yoked to it. The slab, now in Thurso Museum, was surveyed in 2015 and 2017 by the use of RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging), a computer-based enhancement process. Resulting augmentation of surface relief in the processed images allows multiple overlays to be drawn/traced from various light vectors to create a composite final image. The restored components of the vehicle – cart or chariot – are discussed, with relevance to its possible role. Atypical physical features carved on the facing horse of the horse pair may hint at some ceremonial motive for their presence. After a short survey of known evidence for Pictish vehicles, direct derivation of design from antecedent archaeological finds of Iron Age chariots are assessed as unlikely due to the wide time gap. Possible construction influence (in both cultural directions) from wheels found in Scottish Roman sites is noted. The common format of wheels and vehicles on the Skinnet 1 stone and Irish High Cross illustrations of ‘chariots’ are described and mapped, with the appearance of the latter in early medieval times attributed to Pictish traditions of cartwrighting.

From Šulgi to Abraham: Encounters with Ur in the First Millennium BCE

Of all the ancient cities that could have served as Abraham’s hometown, why does the Hebrew Bible choose Ur? This article explores how different groups may have interacted with Ur and its legacy circa the exilic and postexilic periods of biblical authorship, to discern the ways different groups in Babylonia engaged with Ur, and how their interactions may have informed their perception of the city. It argues that Babylonian Judeans largely did not have direct access to the city or to the cuneiform artifacts that described its history. Instead, Judeans would have had to rely on information transmitted orally from Babylonians, whose interest in Ur may have been elevated due to the preponderance of artifacts from the Third Dynasty of Ur. As such, this article will evaluate different forms information traveled in the ancient world, and the ways they impacted the direction of cultural memory: through archaeological discoveries, word-of-mouth transmission, and scholarly rationalization.

DOVER BRONZE AGE BOAT: THE BOAT, THE REPLICA, THE LEGACY

Hailed as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, the Dover Bronze Age boat is one of the oldest sea-going boats in the world. Thirty years after its discovery, it is important to remember its incredible but little-known story. This paper will summarise over two decades of fascinating international research and experimentation. It will also document first-hand discussions with key members of the team that made the replica. I will also reflect on first-hand experience of maintaining and operating the replica boat, as well as being responsible for the conservation of both the original boat and decision making for the long-term future of the replica. This discussion will be broken down into three main sections: “the Boat”, “the Replica” and “the Legacy.”

Analysis of the ivory remains from the Etruscan tumulus of Carmignano (Central Italy) using 3D digital microscopy

The Tumulus of Montefortini is an Etruscan tomb located in Carmignano (Central Italy), which is believed to date from the 7th century BC. The tumulus is an oval burial mound 80 metres long and 11 metres high, which houses two tombs. More than 10,000 ivory fragments, that were likely part of a rich grave good, were recovered from this site. The main raw material exploited was probably the proboscidean dentine given the presence of the "Schreger lines" on the surfaces of many specimens. In this work we analyzed a sample of this archaeological assemblage using a 3D digital microscope. This noninvasive procedure allowed to investigate the main micromorphological and micromorphometrical features of the proboscidean dentine in a relatively brief time, preserving the integrity of the archaeological finds. Unexpected results regarding to the Schreger structure were obtained from this analysis. Data collected in the present work will be useful to evaluate, through further analysis of the examined sample, the accuracy and reliability of the 3D digital microscopy in the characterization of the proboscidean taxa exploited in the past.

The Golden Age of Islam and Its Impact on European Technology: A Historical Analysis

This study explores the profound influence of the Islamic Golden Age on the technological advancements in Medieval Europe. It investigates how the innovations and knowledge from the Islamic world, particularly between the 8th and 14th centuries, were transferred to and assimilated within European societies, thereby playing a pivotal role in shaping the technological landscape of Europe. The primary aim is to delineate the extent of Islamic contributions to European technology, addressing the historical narrative that often overlooks these influences. This research seeks to bridge the gap in historical understanding and acknowledge the intercultural exchanges that have significantly impacted the development of technology. Employing a historical-analytical method, the study analyzes primary and secondary sources, including historical texts, scientific manuscripts, and archaeological findings. This approach facilitates a comprehensive understanding of the technological exchanges between the Islamic world and Europe. Key findings reveal that various technological innovations, such as advancements in mathematics, astronomy, engineering, and medicine, originated from the Islamic world and were instrumental in European technological progress. The study highlights specific instances of knowledge transfer, such as through the translation movement in Al-Andalus and the Crusades, which introduced Europe to a wealth of Islamic scholarly works and inventions. The findings underscore the importance of recognizing the Islamic Golden Age's contributions to European technology, challenging the Eurocentric view of history and science. This research contributes to a more inclusive historical narrative and underscores the value of intercultural knowledge exchange in technological advancement.

The Latest Archaeological Discoveries from the Merisi Valley

The Latest Archaeological Discoveries from the Merisi Valley

A new and ‘riveting’ method: Micro-CT scanning for the documentation, conservation, and reconstruction of the Gjellestad ship

The cultural heritage sector has increasingly explored the use of micro-CT (µCT) across numerous projects seeking to better understand past cultures and the materials they have left behind. As such, the role of micro-CT (µCT) is still being developed and projects continue to show novel ways that the technology can be adapted to. The Gjellestad ship, located in Halden (Østfold in Viken), Norway, is dated to the Viking Age and was found in a poor state of preservation. Both organic and metallic materials were deteriorated to the degree that standard excavation methods would have resulted in further damage to, or even the destruction of, these elements. A new approach was needed, and this presented an opportunity to explore the use for µCT as a documentative tool for field archaeology and conservation. As the remaining rivets were too fragile to handle directly, they were removed together with the surrounding matrix as soil blocks. To retain important stratigraphic and position information, a georeferencing system was developed that would be visible to µCT and included within each soil block. This enabled the spatial (re)positioning of the soil blocks by use of 3D GIS and in alongside with other spatial documentation gathered at the time of excavation. The quantity of soil blocks will give us a large dataset to work with and, although we continue to document the soil blocks with µCT, we now can discuss our preliminary results pertaining to the positive impact that µCT has for the documentation, conservation, and reconstruction of cultural heritage.

SNP heterozygosity, relatedness and inbreeding of whole genomes from the isolated population of the Faroe Islands

BackgroundThe population of the Faroe Islands is an isolated population but very little is known about it from whole genome sequencing. The population of about 50000 people has a high incidence of rare diseases e.g., 1:300 for Primary Carnitine Deficiency. A screening programme was implemented, and eleven persons were also whole genome sequenced at x37 coverage for diagnostic purposes of those cases that were not affected by the known mutations. The purpose of our study is to utilize the high coverage data to explore the genomic variation and the ancestral history of the population. We study the SNP heterozygosity, the pairwise relatedness from kinship, the inbreeding from runs of homozygosity ROH, and we find the minor allele frequency distribution. We estimate the population ancestry and the timing of the founding event by using the whole genomes from eight consenting individuals.ResultsWe find the number of SNPs and the heterozygosity for the eight individual samples, and for merged samples, for which we also study the relatedness. We find close relatedness between the supposedly unrelated individuals. From ROH, we interpret the high relatedness as an ancient property of the isolated population. A bottleneck event is estimated starting between years sim 50-300 with a maximum consanguineous population in year sim 600 and similarly consanguineous between years 500-700. The ancestry analysis shows the population descends from founders of >99% European and <1% Admixed American ancestry. A distinct clustering near the central European and British populations of the 1000 Genome Project is likely the result of the population isolation and genetic drift. The minor allele frequency distribution suggests many rare variants.ConclusionsThe ancestry is mainly European while the inbreeding is higher compared to European populations and population isolates. The Faroese population has inbreeding more like ancient Europeans. We discovered a bottlenecked and consanguineous population event and estimated it starting in the 1st-4th century as compared to the oldest archaeological findings from the 4th-6th century.

Collaborative multimethod geophysics at the Prewitt Slave Cemetery, Northport, Alabama

AbstractThis paper serves to highlight the partnership built between the Prewitt Slave Cemetery Association (PSCA) and the University of Alabama (UA) through the work conducted by the UA archaeological field school at the Prewitt Slave Cemetery (PSC) in Fall 2022. During this collaborative project, the field school students geolocated, recorded and photographed more than 700 above‐ground grave markers and conducted a multi‐method geophysical survey that included magnetic gradiometry, electrical resistance, electromagnetic induction and ground‐penetrating radar. Results from this survey aided researchers in identifying the locations of over 800 marked and unmarked graves. The benefits of the partnership between PSCA and UA were mutual and multiple. First, the data recorded by the UA field school helped the PSCA achieve its immediate goal of identifying unmarked graves, allowing the organization to move forward with efforts to preserve and protect the PSC. Second, the UA field school students gained valuable experience related to proper cemetery study techniques, including geophysical survey, and learned to conduct community‐based participatory research in collaboration with descendant communities. Additionally, this project allowed for further research related to the use of multiple methods of geophysical instrumentation for identifying unmarked graves beyond ground‐penetrating radar.

Introduction. Epigraphy, the Qurʾān, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia

Abstract A wide range of archaeological finds is rapidly expanding our knowledge of the pre-Islamic cultural milieu and the political structures of the Arabian Peninsula during Late Antiquity, and thereby of the Qurʾān’s cultural context. This material can offer a complementary reading to the literary accounts on pre-Islamic Arabia, which were mostly composed outside of Arabia or long after the late antique period. There is a growing need to make the recent exciting discoveries of scholars working on the Qurʾān and Arabia more widely accessible to historians who may not have a solid background in archaeology and epigraphy. As such, the ERC project “The Qur'an as a Source for Late Antiquity” (QaSLA) organized a conference, titled “Epigraphy, the Qur'an, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia”, which took place in Tübingen on 8 – 10 September 2022. The three-day international conference brought together specialists in epigraphy as well as scholars of the Qurʾān to explore how recent epigraphic and archaeological findings and research have been changing our understanding of the Qurʾān and the Arabian religious, cultural, and political landscape. Accordingly, the conference sought to integrate new archaeological finds with ongoing studies on the genesis of the Qurʾān, its Arabian background, and the broader cultural milieu of pre-Islamic Arabia with a special focus on the dawn of Islam. The conference also featured an important contribution by Peter Webb on pre-Islamic poetry, another neglected corpus of inquiry into the history of pre-Islamic Arabia. Aiming to foster discussion between scholars, each panel was paired with a specialist on the Qurʾān or the wider history of Arabia.

Kinsarvik i Hardanger – byen som aldri blei til

In the High Middle Ages Kinsarvik in Hardanger was ideally situated as a hub, where iron and other outfield resources flowed from the eastern inland regions to the more populous coastal areas to the west. Archaeological finds, building remains, written sources and previous investigations show Kinsarvik as an urban marketplace, with production and regional and interregional trade, as well as a place with administrative and political functions. Comparable to the more well-known marketplace Kaupanger in Sogn. &#x0D; The location, as well as finds and structures, indicates that non-agrarian resources from the mountainous settlements to the east were a major foundation for Kinsarvik as a marketplace. A consequence being that, from the late 13th century, when there is a significant decrease in iron production and other outfield resources, Kinsarvik as an urban marketplace looses much of its basis for existence and gradually goes out of use.

Hest, hjort, ku eller geit! Hvilke typer lær ble brukt til sko i Borgund på Sunnmøre i sen vikingtid og tidlig middelalder?

Leather types and tanning technique used on shoes during the late Viking Age / early Medieval Periods in Norway, are addressed with 139 shoes from the deserted town Borgund in Sunnmøre, western Norway, as a case. Shoe-leather is species identified through hair follicle pattern interpretation and ZooMS analysis. Tanning technique is assessed visually. The study shows that the Borgund-shoes were made of leather from domesticated animals, predominantly from cow (Bos taurus), but also horse (Equus caballus), goat- (Capra circus) and tentatively sheep (Ovis aries) was used. Furthermore, raw tanned leather was used for both soles and shoe uppers in Borgund. Borgund’s strong preference for leather made of cattle has parallels in both Danish and English contemporary urban contexts, whereas horse leather is not previously identified as shoe-leather in contemporary Norse-sphere urban contexts. For future research an atlas of Viking Age / Medieval hair follicle patterns based on archaeological leather finds is presented.

Mapping Art: 3D geo-visualization and virtual worlds in cultural heritage

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the use of digital mapping and GIS in combination with 3D geo-visualization in depicting landscapes and cultural heritage sites. As computers evolve in their processing capabilities (graphics card, processor, memory speed), so does the graphical output representing our world that can be done in less time. Short processing times and available highly sophisticated software create conditions to test existing models of our 3D world or best create alternative renderings of monuments and landscapes. A study area has been chosen to present such a methodology. Ancient Pylos was selected as the study area due to the abundance of bibliographic references available, facilitating the creation of a cartographic representation of the region based on archaeological discoveries and historical sources. The advantages of employing 3D geo-visualizations in archaeology are numerous and are examined within this article. Visual imaging aids archaeologists in elucidating intricate or deficient details pertaining to a monument, simultaneously streamlining archaeological data for easier comprehension by the general public. The use of 3D geo-visualization to represent data and other non-photorealistic details is expected to dominate in the near future.

A Novel Profound Learning-Based System for Breast Cancer Location and Classification Utilizing Exchange Learning

Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in Asian women. Breast cancer can be detected early and treated aggressively. In this paper, we propose a new deep learning framework utilizing the index learning concept for breast cancer diagnosis and imaging. Typically, in-depth questions from experts are designed and presented in a specific format. Unlike classical learning paradigms, which are based on parallel development and emergence, the goal is to use the knowledge gained from solving one problem to solve another problem. In this study, we used CNN pretrainers to extract features from images, such as Google Net, VGGNet (Visual Geometry Group Network), and ResNet (Unsupervised Network), which combine the principles of neural networks and social networks. This has already happened. Contains partial information. Use the blunt treasure in the veil. A standard data model was used to evaluate the proposed optical products. Chemical images of different types of breast cancer have been discovered in archaeological finds and have proven useful in educational exploration into the unknown.

“The identification of the Silk Road mainly relies on archaeological discoveries”

“The identification of the Silk Road mainly relies on archaeological discoveries”

“Egyptian Statue”, Revealed in the South-Eastern Region of Azerbaijan, in the system of Ancient Cultural and Trade Relations

Ancient Egypt, being one of the developed centers of the East, had close ties with Western Asia and the South Caucasus, both from a political and commercial point of view. This country, which had not been conquered until the VII century BC, was in the forefront as a political and military power of the period. It was from this viewpoint that many countries sought to establish political union with it, as well as the trade relations. As a result of this relationship, various works of art related to Ancient Egypt also spread to the South Caucasus through the Western Asia. No doubt that Egyptian art items found in Egypt itself are more than samples from other countries where similar finds are common. The paper deals with the archaeological finding – an Egyptian figurine. This artifact, which is so far the only example, found in Azerbaijan, testifies to the existence of ties between the South Caucasus and Egypt. The discovery also contributes to the creation of certain ideas about the small plastic art of that period. It is possible that complex archaeological studies in the region will reveal new artifacts of such art

The Palamas Archaeological Project. A preliminary report of the 2022 fieldwork conducted by the ongoing Greek–Swedish archaeological field programme in Palamas, region of Karditsa, Thessaly

This paper presents the preliminary results from the 2022 fieldwork of the Palamas Archaeological Project, an ongoing Greek–Swedish collaboration in the region of Karditsa, Thessaly. Working over the course of two separate field seasons, the project team conducted aerial, architectural, fieldwalking, and geophysical surveys at a number of sites within the survey area, including at the important multi-phase fortified settlements at Metamorfosi and Vlochos. Limited excavations were also conducted at the latter site, producing new evidence for the Hellenistic and Early Byzantine phases of the ancient city, including a probable cemetery. The work continues to add to the knowledge of the archaeology of the region, highlighting the long and dynamic history of human habitation in western Thessaly.

6 Shipwreck archaeology in the past 10 years

This paper reviews the trends, topics, and research directions in shipwreck archaeology over the past decade. As archaeology increasingly embraces advances in technological methods that can aid our research, the so-called ‘digital turn’, it behoves maritime archaeologists, and archaeologists more broadly, to consider how collaborative utilization of specialized fields including biomolecular archaeology, geophysics, and contemporary philosophy have spurred on a rapid modernization of our field in recent times. Archaeological research, both terrestrial and underwater, has long been a collaborative discipline. However, we argue here that difficulties in working underwater have encouraged maritime and underwater archaeologists to embrace technological developments at a rapid pace. An explicit theoretical framework and the incorporation of contemporary philosophy in the field of underwater archaeology was, until recently, largely lacking in the discipline’s discourse. The incorporation and advancement of adjacent disciplines within the field of underwater archaeology mark the most relevant changes within the shifting tides of shipwreck research.

Late Pliocene Gilbert Type Delta and Early Pleistocene Drainage System Changes in the Erzurum Basin, NE Turkey

Erzurum intermontane basin in north-eastern Turkey experienced terrigenous and carbonate sedimentation in Mio-Pleistocene. A Gilbert-type delta is described in the west of the basin. The delta deposits are dated to Late Pliocene based on bio- and magnetostratigraphy. The eroded surface of the delta is overlain by pebbles dated to Early Pleistocene by archaeological finds. The Erzurum Basin is the westernmost member in a row of intermontane basins that continues to the east with the Pasinler, Horasan, and Ararat basins that are drained by the Araxes River and its tributaries. It is likely that the paleo-Araxes River spread to the west in Late Pliocene and the studied delta was formed by its upper reaches that flowed into the water body of the Erzurum Basin. The delta deposits were covered by coarse alluvium in Early Pleistocene when the Erzurum Basin was tectonically isolated from the Araxes drainage system. In the latest Early Pleistocene or early Middle Pleistocene, the paleo-Araxes upper reaches were captured by the Euphrates River upper reaches that drain the Erzurum Basin now.

4 The past 15 years of archaeological work on Roman and Byzantine Crete

This article aims to overview the last 15 years of archaeological work on Crete (2007–2022) for the Roman and Byzantine periods. It is a resource that can provide the first step in the research process for those looking to investigate these time periods in Crete. It not only communicates recent discoveries and research, but also directs scholars to earlier key publications – which this article follows on from – and to an extensive bibliography of recently published research. After covering the main publications of the last 15 years and the workshops, congresses, and conferences that have taken place, it organizes the recent archaeological discoveries by site type. It begins by covering surveys of both the landscape and those conducted underwater that have been extensive across and around Crete. It then covers public buildings and infrastructure, domestic architecture, production and craft, and cemeteries. While it is not a complete listing of all finds, it summarizes the key discoveries, publications, and events in order to demonstrate the major developments for study of these time periods in Crete.