Final Bronze Age Research Articles

Glass beads from Villanovian excavations in Bologna (Italy): an archaeometrical investigation

Excavations performed in the 1970s in the present-day trade fair zone of Bologna brought to light remains of civilisations of the 8–7th century B.C. Archaeological studies identified a large number of objects which clearly indicated the existence of an extensive Villanovian village. Fifteen blue, turquoise, and dark green glass beads were selected and analysed in the present study. Chemical analyses of major and minor elements were obtained by EMPA, whereas trace elements were determined on selected samples by LA-ICP-MS. The occurrence of eventual opacifying agents dispersed in the matrix was attested by SEM observations. The chemical data allow identification of a group of four beads characterised by a mixed alkali composition, typical of Frattesina Final Bronze Age production. All the other samples have low levels of K 2 O ( 2 O (>15 wt%). Among these last samples, which can be classified as natron-based glass, a number of blue beads show a high quantity of MgO (about 3 wt%), in combination with a low K 2 O amount. These low-K, high-Mg glasses also exhibit extremely high amounts of Al 2 O 3 , possibly due to the use of Co-bearing alum as colouring compound. Also the trace-element data confirm the division of the natron-based samples into two different sub-groups on the basis of the concentration of V, Cr, Ti and Zr. This suggests that the glass found at this site derives from three different melts. Regarding the opacity of the samples, in most of the cases this effect is due to the dark colour of the glass ( i.e., blue, dark green) which hinders the transmission of light. Crystalline particles of calcium antimonate were found only in the turquoise-colour samples.

L'architecture et les occupations du Bronze final 1 et du Bronze final 2b du site du Gournier, secteur de Fortuneau, à Montélimar (Drôme)

The rescue excavation of the site of Fortuneau, though still in progress, has provided an opportunity to apply precise excavation and sedimentary analysis methods to large surfaces of a habitat occupied two times during the Final Bronze Age. This double methodology compensates for the limits imposed by the instability of anthropogenic structures and post-depositional processes. The chronological distinction is based on stratigraphic data, pottery reference assemblages and radiocarbon dates. In BF1 and BF2b, we find architectural structures with supporting posts, which are still poorly known in the south-east. These constructions are associated with various anthropogenic sedimentary forms that suggest the possibility of horticultural practices nearby. An isolated building found in the Final Bronze Age 1 corresponds well to similar finds in the Prealps. The cultural components of the pottery assemblage correlates, with a few differences in two excavation zones, with the Rhône Basin, and more broadly, the Rhône-Saône-Jura zone, as well as the Midi and Alps zones. At the scale of the vast site of Gournier, different scattered installations that could correspond to a series of farms were discovered. In the Final Bronze Age 2, a town expanded to cover a large surface, though its true extension remains unknown. Its organization corresponds to that often observed in the Rhône Bronze Age. In particular, we find the coexistence of several architectural ensembles composed of a habitation building associated with one or two possible agricultural buildings. A series of granaries on posts is concentrated at the junction between a sector in which we observe rather isolated and close architectural groups and a sector in which the spaces between buildings clearly tend to become smaller. This configuration corresponds to the evolutionary scheme of land habitats in the north-east Alpine zone during the Final Bronze Age, with a trend toward the grouping together of houses and the concentrationdensification of the town, but whose extension toward the Midi is a new element that raises new questions. This phenomenon, which concerned the Jurassian zone of the eastern Rhine-Switzerland-France culture, contradicts the hypothesis of a Rhône and Languedoc cultural group whose limits would be suggested by the recurrent presence of numerous pottery types. It would thus appear that these architectural choices were related to symbolic – and political ? – constraints with a greater geographic extension, rather than to cultural expression. The future necessary development of research on the Bronze Age in southern France will allow us to test this hypothesis.

The Metallurgy of the Sicilian Final Bronze Age/Early Iron Age necropolis of Madonna del Piano (Catania, Sicily)

This paper presents the analysis results of the copper- based finds, from the important Sicilian necropolis of Madonna del Piano, near Grammichele (Catania), dated between the local Final Bronze Age 2 and the Early Iron Age IA. 122 copper-based finds from the 273 graves (1970-71) of the large cemetery have been analysed. The sampled objects belong to different classes, there are for instance weapons of offence and defence, such as swords and greaves, small decorative objects for personal use, such as rings, fibulae, belt hooks, belt decorations, and small tools, such as the knives used by women, reels, needles and razors, but also small functional parts, such as rivets and nails, repairs and even a kind of musical instrument, such as the tintinnabula. The methods employed were AAS and SEM, where possible, and XRF in all cases. The aim of the research was that of evaluating the skill of the local artisans, of determining the most common copper-based alloys in use in Sicily in this period and comparing the data with the analysis results of contemporary groups of finds from other areas of the Italian peninsula and from other European regions.

Anthropogenic deposits from the Bronze Age site of Fondo Paviani (Verona, Italy): Pedochemical and micropedological characteristics

Fondo Paviani is a Bronze Age archaeological site located in the Valli Grandi Veronesi area in the lower Venetian plain (northeastern Italy). The inhabited area is surrounded by a moat and a quadrangular rampart, a structural characteristic specific to the so-called terramare, villages that were common in the alluvial plains both north and south of the Po River during the middle and recent Bronze Age. Dark-coloured anthropogenic deposits occurring inside the site of Fondo Paviani were exposed during archaeological excavations and along stratigraphic cross-sections. Here, the micropedological and pedochemical characters of the deposits have been used as a key to decipher the formation processes and post-depositional modifications involved in order to reconstruct the human activities and environmental conditions recorded in the stratigraphy. This reconstruction has been formulated by integrating the abovementioned analytical techniques with geomorphological, pedological and archaeological data. This study focuses on three main lines of research. First, it investigates the cultural and natural mechanisms responsible for the vertical accretion of anthropogenic deposits and for their dark colour. Secondly, it reveals the conversion of a part of the intra-site space to a cultivated area through the establishment of a ridge-and-furrow system in the final Bronze Age, the period in which population density of the site was decreasing. The phenomenon of the conversion of originally inhabited areas to cultivated space in terramare during phases of population change appears to be recurring and requires further investigation. Finally, this study records the occurrence of progressively wetter environmental conditions during and after the abandonment of the site in the final Bronze Age. This is marked by the overflow of muds from the un-managed moat and by the successive deposition of wide alluvial covers related to the reactivation of spring-fed rivers in the Valli Grandi Veronesi area in response to a shift towards wetter climatic conditions.

Las Lunas, Yuncler (Toledo). Un depósito de materiales metálicos del Bronce Final en la Submeseta Sur de la Península Ibérica

Here we present the results of the preliminary study carried out on a new group of metallic materials of the Final Bronze Age, recovered at the end of 2008 in the archaeological excavations at the settlement of Las Lunas (Yuncler, Toledo, Spain). Its geographical situation far away from the main zones of distribution of this type of finds, the singularity of the materials, and the evidence of Atlantic and Mediterranean relations make these materials a remarkable sample for the study of the Final Bronze Age in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula.

L’abri Sous les Rideaux à Lespugue (Haute-Garonne) et l’Âge du bronze dans les gorges de la Save

The test excavation of the “ Abri Sous-les-Rideaux” (Lespugue, Haute-Garonne) disclosed occupation levels dating between the Middle Ages and the Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic periods. Our purpose is to study the ceramics. Occupation was intense during the different periods of the Bronze Age up to the Final Bronze Age, and continued during the Iron Age. The largest corpus seems however to have belonged to the Early and Middle Bronze Age. The previously unknown «plateau polypode » [ «polypod tray » ] could belong to this period. This corpus belongs to the Pyrenean Early-Middle Bronze Age, as shown by comparisons with pottery from Aquitaine or the piedmont up to the eastern Pyrenees and beyond. Moreover, some decorative similarities are possible with the Noyer group in Quercy. This study proposes the hypothesis of a crossing of influences during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, along a north-south axis as well as east-west. Thus the populations of the Save gorges in the Pyrenean foothills would also have been in contact with the territories of the lower Garonne and Lot river valleys.

Romagna between the end of terramare and the set-up of protohistoric settlement pattern of Central Italy. The settlement of Calbana.

Most part of Padana plain was deserted consequently the collapse of Terramare Culture at the end of Recent Bronze Age. In the Romagna area, along the lower line of Marecchia River, several settlements, three hoards, suggest that during the Final Bronze Age there was well defined cluster in relationship with the network between Frattesina in the North and Etruria at South . This paper presents the result of excavations of one of those settlements, Ripa Calbana hill, nearby S. Giovanni in Galilea.

Analysis of Final Bronze Age–Early Iron Age Pottery in Northeastern Italy

The main aim of this article is to investigate the mineral composition of the so-called “pot with flaring rim and flat lip,” a sort of “index fossil” vessel, widespread in the settlements of Friuli Venezia Giulia area (Pordenone, northeastern Italy), at the end of the Bronze Age and in the early phases of Iron Age. Thin section analyses have been carried out on several samples coming from three major ancient sites in order to better understand the technological aspects of the pottery assemblage and draw hypotheses about the provenance of the pottery raw material.

Domi mansit, lanam fecit

Seven female tombs from ancient Lazio dating from Latial period I (Final Bronze Age, 11th-10th centuries BC), and some 250 tombs dating from Latial period II (Early Iron Age, 10th-9th centuries BC) from the cemetery of Osteria dell’Osa, Rome, are analyzed from a gendered perspective. The sample shows a few significant features, which seem to differentiate it from the male component of the same contexts: 1. Gender specific personal ornaments are given to women from birth. 2. Some age specific artefacts and roles can be identified for all age classes. 3. A small number of female outfits includes some special indications of prestige; however, neither a systematic formalization of prestige features, nor specific correlates of roles or functions, can be identified. 4. ‘Priesthood’ is the only vertical role apparently given to women; in this case, too, there is some consistent indication that it was appointed from birth. 5. Secondary religious functions also seem to have been performed by some women. 6. Witchcraft might be the only self-appointed female role, which, however, apparently implied a diminished degree of integration in the community and kin group.

Ceramics of Ategua (Córdoba, Spain): Mineralogical and petrographic study

This paper is part of research project on the ceramics of Ategua, a village located in the Guadalquivir depression near Córdoba (S. Spain). Ategua is a major archaeological deposit with pre-Roman (pre-colonial, Tartessian and Iberian) ruins that are highly rich in ceramic pieces. This work was conducted on 20 selected pieces found in various archaeological layers spanning the following phases in the period from 900 to 350 B.C. ( i.e. the beginning of the Roman republic): (a) Phase I: pre-colonial Bronze age, from 900 to 859 B.C. in a pre-colonial necropolis. (b) Phases II–IV: western-style and Final Bronze age, from 750 to 550 B.C. In order to identify the origin of ceramics and the different types of materials used to produce the ceramic pieces studied, we used various techniques including: X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy with EDS microanalysis and petrographic microscopy (thin section). The materials identified in most of the ceramic pieces from the archaeological phases studied were similar and also present in the geological environment, which supports an autochthonous origin. The presence of metamorphic rock clase, amphiboles and small content of TiO 2 in some of the ceramic simples could suggest its allocthonous origenorigin. This paper reports the first mineral and petrographic data on pre-Roman ceramics from Ategua.

The metal of the moon goddess

Arsenical copper was widely used in the Early Bronze Age, but it was not employed after the introduction of copper–tin alloys in the period around the Middle Bronze Age.Nevertheless the present research showed that a few ornamental objects of particular kind were made of a copper alloy with a silvery surface, containing arsenic, antimony and often some cobalt and nickel still in the Final Bronze Age and in the Iron Age. This alloy is very fragile and can only be cast, it is very difficult to cut and file and shows a characteristic silvery surface.The shiny and silvery grey colour of these objects is due to a segregation phenomenon. During the slow cooling of the metal the As rich α and γ compound (eutectic) is pushed to the surface through feeders which look like filaments running into the metal body and forms the typical silvery grey layer. The microstructure of the eutectic shows a solid solution phase α and a compound γ, containing 29˙65 As (Cu3As). The eutectic can develop already with 1–2% of As in the alloy.Ornamental objects made of this distinctive and beautiful material were worn by women who had special powers and exceptional functions in the society of the time and were connected with the cult of the moon and fertility goddess.

Tribology’s contribution to archaeology

Nowadays, archaeology is a multidisciplinary science, aware of the possibilities which advanced technologies can bring about. Thus tribology, the science of wear and friction, has been for some time one of the analysing techniques leading to a better knowledge of our past. It studies the mechanisms of wear, abrasion and friction which took place during the manufacturing or the use of an object. Recently, two hoards of bronze objects, dating from the middle phase of the Final Bronze Age (1100–900 BC), were discovered on the site of les Feuilly in Saint-Priest (Rhône, France). These bronzes which reached us are the last markers of the techniques of former craftsmen: their surfaces reveal many traces, which are the memory of their manufacturing skills and their ‘social life’. The archaeological and tribological study was conceived to raise questions about gestures and processes used particularly for the decoration of bronze objects, in order to have a better knowledge of the crafstman’s know-how. We could determine that decorative patterns of the bracelet 375 were created after the casting process, by chasing. The tools used were thus chasing tools, probably made of bronze. We had also the possibilities to reconstitute part of the kinetics of the bracelet decoration.

L'anthropisation du Massif jurassien : bilan des données palynologiques

Pollen studies carried out over the last years in the Jura Mountains allow to reconstruct the regional history of the vegetation and human impact during the last 8 millennia. Successive phases of increasing and decreasing human impact have been recognised. The first pollen evidence of human impact occurred in the Early Neolithic period (6th millennium BC). Marks of human impact appear to have been relatively weak during the Early Bronze age, and nearly absent during the Middle Bronze age. They show a clear increase at ca 1000 cal BC during the Final Bronze age. The picture is more difficult to outline for the Iron age due to problems inherent in radiocarbon dating. During the Gallo-Roman period, the increase in human impact appears to be different depending on considered altitude. The transition between Antiquity and Medieval Times coincided with a decrease in human impact, which, once again, increased during the 7th century and more particularly the 8th century. Around 1000 AD, forested areas underwent a clear retreat. After wars and epidemics which characterised the 14th century, the 15th century marked a new increase in human impact, responsible for a quasi-disappearance of forests on the Jura Mountains.

Checking the homogeneity of gold artefacts of the final bronze age found in Roca Vecchia, Italy by proton induced X-ray emission

Seven gold artefacts found in the same cultural and chronological context in the archaeological site of Roca Vecchia, Southern Italy, have been analyzed in air by proton induced X-ray emission at CEDAD, the AMS-IBA facility of the University of Lecce, Italy. The age of the artefacts has been also indirectly determined by carrying out AMS radiocarbon analyses on short lived organic materials archaeologically associated with the studied objects.The measurements confirmed that the artefacts were formed by a native alloy with a gold concentration ranging from 83.10 to 88.51wt%. The compositional homogeneity of the artefacts seems to confirm the hypothesis of a common metalworking and origin of the raw materials.

Chemical analyses of Bronze Age glasses from Frattesina di Rovigo, Northern Italy

Abstract Within the frame of a project aimed to systematically characterize Bronze Age glasses in Northern Italy, a few glasses from Frattesina (Rovigo, Italy) were chemically analyzed by wavelength-dispersive electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS). Trace chromofores were also analyzed by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Frattesina di Rovigo (Final Bronze Age (FBA), 1200–1000 BC) is at present the only recognized European locality showing evidence of glass working in the Bronze Age. The results of the investigation, which was initially carried out for standardization and comparison purposes of the chemical analyses of coeval glasses, yield interesting information if interpreted on the basis of the available chemical data from other Northern Italian and European glasses. The protohistoric glasses from Frattesina were likely produced with a rather advanced production technology. At least three different source materials were used, besides the pigments: a nearly pure source of silica, a source of stabilizers (mainly CaO, MgO), and a source of monovalent alkalis (Na2O, K2O) used to lower the softening point, possibly derived from wood ashes. The restricted range observed for the total alkali content and the presence at Frattesina of two classes of materials characterized by distinct Na2O/K2O ratios indicate a rigorous control of the physical properties of the glass, and the availability of at least two different sources of alkaline elements. The color of the glass was determined by the use of chromophoric elements (especially Cu, Co, Fe, Mo) and by skillful control of oxidation/reduction conditions during the working process. A thin red coating on bulk blue glasses was obtained by exposing the material to reducing conditions and by inducing the exsolution of crystals and crystal aggregates of metallic copper in the surface layer. The metallic particles have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and have dimensions of the order of 0.2–0.4 μm. The technique is surprisingly similar to the one used to obtain metallic luster in renaissance glazes and optoelectronic effects in modern composite nanomaterials.

Les structures funéraires à crémation de l'Âge du Bronze au Semirech'e, Kazakhstan (nécropoles de Kul'Saj, de Kyzyl-Bulak et d'Oj-Dzhajljau)

This article presents a bio-anthropological study of an assemblage of cremations found in various sites of the Late and Final Bronze Ages of the Semirich'e area (southeast Kazakhstan). The results indicate that burning took place once or twice and concerned not only adults of both sexes but also immature individuals. In the case of vety young individuals, it seems that there was a specific process at the time of deposition in the pit. Double burials could contain either two cremated individuals, or one cremated and one buried individual, especially among the immature examples. The simultaneity of these two funeral practices is not demonstrated, and in certain cases it could well be related to secondary "inhumation ". A radiocarbon date shows that these features, even though they are dated to the Final Bronze Age by their discoverers, a radiocarbon date shows that these features could be older, Early or Late Bronze Age (1 700-1 500 ВС). Thus, this region could have been inhabited Andronovo populations well before the date advanced a researchers.

The glass bead game: archaeometric evidence for the existence of an Etruscan glass industry

Glass historians have long posited the existence of an Etruscan glass industry on the basis of artefact forms distributed within the Etruscan koine. Principally this has been the core-formed glass vessels known as stachelflaschen, whose distinctive decoration is unique to Etruscan contexts. Given an apparent independent European Bronze Age glass industry, with the most comprehensive archaeological evidence for it in Northern Italy, the possibility of an independent Etruscan industry also seems possible. The first chemical analyses of several stachelflaschen, a leech-shaped brooch slider and some, less diagnostic, Etruscan glass beads fromBritish collections are discussed here. The technology embedded in the chemistry of these artefacts suggests that a diagnostic Etruscan glass technology was used to make beads rather than the ornate vessels. Reference is made to the compositional results of glass from the cemetery of Magdaleska Gora in Slovenia. I N T R OD U C T I ON As part of a broader study of ancient glass from Italian contexts from ca. 1200 – ca. 200 BC, eighteen samples of “Etruscan” glass were chemically characterised using electron microprobe analysis. The samples were all taken from objects held in museum collections. Despite the poor provenance of a number of the artefacts, the forms include core-formedvessels andbrooch decoration previously attributed to Etruscan manufacture, along with less diagnostic beads. Previous arguments for the possible existence of an Etruscan glass industry have been strengthened by the demonstration of an earlier glass industry in Northern Italy (and elsewhere), using a distinct glassmaking technology (mixed alkali glass and glassy faience) defined by the analysis of material from the Final Bronze Age sites of Frattesina,Mariconda and Montagnana and middle bronze age and later (compositionally related) glassy faience and faience from Grotte Vittorio Vecchi and Vicofertile, Frabulino, Chiaromonte, and Poviglio. Given the sophisticated pyrotechnology of the Etruscan metal and ceramic

Depósito funerario y recinto fortificado de la Edad del Bronce en el Castro del Chao Samartín: argumentos para su datación

The Chao Samartin hillfort, in western Asturias, was initially fortified at the end of the Bronze Age. A large building enclosed within several defensive lines was present at the settlement around the 8th century B.C., its excavation yielding important bronze artefacts. A small stone urn containing a human female cranium has been recently uncovered by the main gate of this fortress. The aim of this contribution is to present a set of new radiocarbon dates that allow us to ascertain the placement of this burial within the chrono-archaeological context of the Final Bronze Age settlement.

Los celtas: identidad, etnicidad y arqueología

Celtic concept is often used as an ethnological one. Current theories about ethnicity and its application in Archaeological interpretations make it impossible to determine whether a celtic identity existed in protohistoric past. Problems arise from approaches to ethnicity as a time and space homogeneous essence. This work emphasizes anthropological, linguistic and archaeological approaches to this topic. Western Europe protohistory is my case study. Ethnicity is a language of multiple identities situational and contextually manifested, and a way for an ethiology of Final Bronze Age and Iron Age trade routes.

Macizo/hueco, soldado/fundido, morfología/tecnología. El ámbito tecnológico castreño a través de los torques con remates en doble escocia

We oppose the direct observation of the artefacts and the study of the fabrication, distribution and consumption processes against the traditional typological view of the castro torcs. Technological variability defines best this particular archaeological material which forms part of the Iron Age goldwork in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. We forget its quality of adornment and conceptualize the object as a collective investment within a diachronic context beginning in the Final Bronze Age and extending into the Period of romanization.