Iron Age Research Articles

The origin of the Protogeometric style in northern Greece and its relevance for the absolute chronology of the Early Iron Age

Classical archaeological chronologies are steeped in relative dating, but the application of absolute methods does not always support such clear-cut seriation. Here, the authors consider the significance of a Macedonian vase in reconciling the conventional and absolute chronologies of Early Iron Age Greece. Decorated with compass-drawn concentric circles and found in a Late Bronze Age context at ancient Eleon, Boeotia, the authors argue that this vessel establishes a chronological anchor and supports a twelfth-century BC emergence of the Protogeometric style in central Macedonia. A model for the indigenous development and dispersal of the Macedonian Protogeometric style is presented for future elaboration.

МАГИЧЕСКОЕ ОРУЖИЕ ГЕРОЕВ ЭПОСА «НАРТЫ»

The article examines the archaic cult of the god of iron and the patron saint of metal Tlepsh, the emergence of metallurgy, the creation of the first weapons and armor made of metal, which are reflected in the Adyghe heroic epic Narts. The relevance of the article is due to the fact that the heroic epic Narts is almost not considered in the scientific literature as a source of information for the study of objects and tools, the creation of the first weapon, the addition of a complex of weapons and armor of horsemen. The purpose of the study is to compare the weapons of the heroes of the Nart epic, endowed with magical properties, having certain qualitative characteristics, technological features of manufacture, with the materials of archaeological sites of the Northwestern Caucasus. To achieve these goals, a comparative historical research method was used to determine the features of the origin and composition of various types of offensive and defensive weapons, reflecting the stages of development of blacksmithing and weapons production in a historical context. The transformation of the Chthonic «fire» god into the patron saint of iron and blacksmithing of the nart Tlepsha translates in the legends of the Nart epic the historical and economic prerequisites for the origin of metalworking in the Early Iron Age, the creation of the first tools and weapons of the sleds, which became models for creating the best defensive and offensive weapons in Eurasia. The archaeological sites of the Northwestern Caucasus confirm the continuous development of metallurgy and metalworking since ancient times and the creation of highly artistic bronze, gold, and silver products. The initiated research on this topic has a long–term perspective and requires continued work on the study of the original texts of the Adyghe heroic epic «Narts» for comparison with archaeological artifacts found in the Northwestern Caucasus.

Where is everybody? The unburied dead in late Roman and early medieval England

Substantial debate surrounds the relative lack of formal burials in Britain during the fifth century AD, which was a key period of social and economic transition following the withdrawal of the Roman army. Here, the authors argue that the ‘missing fifth century’ may be explained, in part, by the continuation of archaeologically invisible mortuary treatments practised in the preceding Iron Age and Roman period. Compilation of published radiocarbon dates from human remains found in cave and riverine contexts demonstrates that a variety of methods for the disposal of the dead—outside of formal cemeteries—existed in the first millennium AD.

중국 요동반도 남부 선사시대 적석분의 고고학적 검토

Stone mound tombs, in which the deceased was placed upon the ground and the burial covered by stones, have a restricted spatial distribution and are observed mainly in the southern Liaodong Peninsula of China, the Amnok (Yalu) River basin, and the Han River basin. In this study, analysis was undertaken on the prehistoric stone mound tombs of the southern Liaodong Peninsula of China in order to lay down the foundations for future re-search on the relationship between the stone mound tombs of the different regions. The stone mound tomb was built from the end of the Neolithic Age until the introduc-tion of iron culture exclusively within the southern Liaodong Peninsula region; therefore, it can be regarded as a very conservative and exclusive tomb tradition. Stone mound tombs can be divided according to structure type into linear attached multiple tombs and clusters of single tombs featuring multiple burials. An increase in the latter can be observed over time. A change in burial method from single individual to multiple individual burials in tombs occurred, and cremation took place at multiple individual tombs. Linear attached tombs corresponded with single individual burials, and clustered tombs corresponded with multiple individual burials. Cremation also increased over time. The stone mound tombs of the southern Liaodong Peninsula were popularly used during the Bronze Age but their use came to an end around the period of the Warring States and the Qin-Han transition in the Chinese mainland. The stone mound tombs of Gangouzi, Changbai, in the upper-middle reaches of the Amnok River and the stone mound tombs of Seokchon-dongg, Seoul, are linear attached multiple tombs, the stone mound tombs in Jeongseon, Gwangju, and Yongin are clusters of single tombs featuring multiple burials. Therefore it can be said that there are similarities, in terms of structure and buri-al method, between these tombs of the Amnok and Han River regions and those of the southern Liaodong Peninsula, although a direct casual relationship cannot be posited. This relationship must be further explored within Korean archaeology, as the appearance and termination of the stone mound tomb tradition in the southern Liaodong Peninsula is re-spectively linked to the Neolithic Age to Bronze Age transition and the Bronze Age to Iron Age transition.

South India's Iron Age Cultures: A Comprehensive Study of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

South India's Iron Age Cultures: A Comprehensive Study of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

Visual affordances and social interactions at Early Iron Age Khirbat al-Mudayna al-ʽAliya, Jordan

Social archaeology of the early Iron Age southern Levant has tended to work from the top-down, using abstract models of social organization, collective identity and subsistence economies to interpret archaeological remains. In this paper a bottom-up approach that uses the visual affordances of the built environment of Khirbat al-Mudayna al-ʽAliya, an Iron Age IB site on Jordan’s eastern Karak Plateau is proposed. Four different methods of visibility analysis are proposed, including a bespoke hybrid approach developed by one of the authors (Wilson). Analyses suggests that the two largest houses at Khirbat al-Mudayna al-ʽAliya were exempt from the dense inter-visible monitoring afforded by the built environment of the site. Combined with other archaeological evidence, the analysis supports the inference that these two houses were occupied by households whose status differed from their fellow residents by degree, if not kind. It is argued that extending this sort of micro-political analysis to other sites would allow for the construction of more nuanced, bottom-up, narratives of social change in the early Iron Age southern Levant firmly grounded in the archaeological record.

QURAYYAH PAINTED WARE OUTSIDE THE HEJAZ: EVIDENCE OF A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE IN THE LATE BRONZE AND EARLY IRON AGES?

SummaryQurayyah Painted Ware (QPW) is the most solid evidence of contacts between the Hejaz and the southern Levant in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. However, even after decades of research, there is still much uncertainty regarding the chronology of these contacts and their nature. Here, we present an exceptionally rich collection of QPW fragments documented recently in the copper smelting sites of the Timna Valley. We argue that the distribution of this painted ware in the southern Levant extended from the early thirteenth to ninth centuries BC and that its prominent presence in industrial contexts in the Aravah Valley is related to the transmission of metallurgical ‘know‐how’ from the Hejaz, which included rituals in which QPW vessels took part. While the original exchange probably involved craftspeople from the Hejaz in the Aravah's metalworking, the continuous use of QPW throughout several centuries in the southern Levant is best explained as a reflection of an enduring community of practice of the local populations with the metalworkers of the Hejaz.

A FAIENCE HEAD OF A BEARDED MALE FROM TEL ABEL BETH MAACAH: ICONOGRAPHY, TECHNOLOGY AND CONTEXT

SummaryA faience head depicting a bearded male was unearthed in a ninth‐century BC context at Tel Abel Beth Maacah, located on the modern Israel‐Lebanese border. During the Iron Age, the site was at the interface between the kingdoms of Israel and Aram‐Damascus and the Phoenician city‐states of Tyre and Sidon. The article discusses the object’s iconography, style, composition and manufacturing technology in comparison to other faience heads, as well as its regional and contextual significance. Despite its unique iconography and high quality, we demonstrate its similarity to at least one other head in manufacturing technology and style. It is suggested that it depicts an ideal elite persona, possibly serving as a votive.

Transformation processes in the osteoarchaeological record between the Iron Age and the Roman times with reference to the civitas Treverorum

AbstractThis paper discusses transformations in human behavior between the Iron Age and the Roman times in the tribal territory of the Treveri, later civitas Treverorum, located between the Rhine and the Ardennes. This aspect has been examined from two perspectives: first, from an anthropological point of view vis‐a‐vis the historical inhabitants, and second, from an archaeozoological perspective regarding domestic animals. Due to small sample sizes and/or difficulty in dating, both regarding humans and domestic animals, transformations in living conditions and animal‐keeping could mostly be outlined only for the La Tène and Roman times. Only the Celtic‐Roman cemetery of Wederath‐Belginum with continued use from middle La Tène to late antiquity offers a more complex insight into human mortality and animal offerings. People lived longer in the Roman times but had more pathologies compared with the previous La Tène period. Body height remained similar in the La Tène and Roman times. However, differences existed within specific human groups (for example, warriors and craftsmen), compared to the normal population. Sex differences in mortality persisted from La Tène to Roman times. The faunal composition in the burials, settlements, and sanctuaries also shows changes. Since the middle La Tène period, chickens have been present. The first oysters can be found in Augustean times, whereas exotic birds such as crested fowls and peacocks are found only in later Roman times and are quite rare. A new direction in animal‐keeping is demonstrated via an increasing logarithmic size index (LSI) in cattle and sheep. The multivariate methods applied in this study offer further insights into the domain and can serve as helpful tools for osteoarchaeological data analysis.

Chumnungwa Glass Beads: New Insights into the Geochemistry, Circulation, and Consumption Patterns of Pre-European Glass Beads in Iron Age Southern Africa, CE 980–1650

Chumnungwa Glass Beads: New Insights into the Geochemistry, Circulation, and Consumption Patterns of Pre-European Glass Beads in Iron Age Southern Africa, CE 980–1650

Environmental Archaeology of an Urban Defensive Area at the Time of the Roman Conquest: New Insights from a Hilltop Pond in Lugdunum (Lyon, France)

ABSTRACT This study shows how fine and organic sediments in urban contexts can document landscape changes, anthropogenic activities and depositional processes. We focus on the transition between the late Iron Age and the Roman period in the city of Lyon (France), where an archaeological excavation conducted on Fourvière Hill aimed at understanding the evolution of a defensive site located south-west of the former Roman city. The discovery of a Gallic wall made of earth, wood and stone (murus gallicus) probably indicates the oppidum status of Lyon before the Roman colonisation. Fine-textured, organic and hydromorphic sediments containing a variety of artefacts (fine wares and amphora fragments) and abundant palaeoecological indicators (seeds, fruits, wood and charcoal fragments, pollen, shells, and parasites), were preserved at the foot of the rampart. A multidisciplinary study of these remains reveals the presence of a former hilltop pond surrounded by riparian woodlands with multi-proxy evidence of arable land or gardens, discharge from human settlements (consumption wastes, human parasites), and grazed areas (faecal inputs, animal parasites and plants tolerant to trampling). After several episodes of sediment inputs and backfill, the palaeoenvironmental record ended at the beginning of the Roman Empire, when a defensive wall was built over the site.

IRON AGE LEVANTINE POLITIES AND THEIR MATERIAL CULTURE, WITH A CASE STUDY FROM TEL REḤOV, NORTHERN ISRAEL

SummaryThe following article deals with the possible association of political entities with specific material culture. By referring to a test case from the southern Levant – that of Late Iron IIA (late tenth–ninth centuries BC) Tel Reḥov and its political affiliation within the context of the regional settlement system, this article discusses the methodological caveats and prospects pertinent in any attempt to archaeologically identify political entities. It further demonstrates how settlement patterns and material culture may reveal the underlying social complexity of the Iron Age Levantine territorial polities, and the ways in which political hegemony was practised among diverse communities.

Burial of a Golden Horde Nomad from the Kovalevka Kurgan Cemetery

Introduction. The article introduces into scientific circulation the archaeological and anthropological materials from the Golden Horde burial of the Kovalevka Kurgan Cemetery. Kurgan No. 35 dating back to the early Iron Age was studied in the course of the fieldwork carried out by the Volgograd State University expedition in the Oktyabrsky district of the Volgograd region in 2021. The Kurgan is located in the southern part of the cemetery on the upper terrace of the right bank of the river Aksai Esaulovsky in an arable field. Methods and materials. Two burials were examined because of the archaeological excavations. The main burial No. 2 dates back to the late Sarmatian period, while the intake burial No. 1 dates back to the middle age period. Analysis and results. New anthropological materials were obtained in the course of the excavations, which complement our understanding of the nomadic population from the Lower Volga region. The bone remains belonged to a male individual of mesomorphic build of about 164.5 cm tall with a long and narrow skull. A set of pathological conditions were recorded on his bones, appearing because of an active lifestyle and professional activity. The outcomes of the archaeological study of the Kurgan No. 35 from the Kovalevka Kurgan cemetery as of 2021 can be used in the museum and local history work, as well as in studies of the Lower Volga regional ancient history. Authors’ contributions. In this study, V.I. Moiseev and V.Yu. Moiseeva prepared a descriptive part of the archaeological material, carried out the funeral rites and grave goods analyses, and prepared conclusions based on the results of the research. E.V. Pererva conducted a study of anthropological material and defined the craniological, osteological, and pathological features of the individual from burial 1 of the Kurgan No. 35.

Tuberculosis in Human Bones from 4000 Years Ago, Iran.

Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is a contagious and infectious disease; in the first stage, it destroys the lungs and in the next stage other body organs, such as the spine and long bones. This disease is transmitted through an infected person and due to the weakness of the immune system, the infection intensifies. Tuberculosis has two stages: low activity and high activity. In this article, we have discussed the signs of tuberculosis destruction with high intensity on the bones of prehistory human remains. The examples of our research are related to human remains from the ancient cemetery of 4000 years ago from Sagezabad region of Qazvin Province of Iran. That period of history coincides with the Iron Age 2 and 3 in the region. People inside the Sagezabad cemetery were very near to early urban (the late rural) society. By matching the form of bone destruction with international atlases for tuberculosis, we have reached a satisfactory result in this article. Due to the strong penetration of the infection into the bones, destruction in the remains was high, so it has simplified the diagnosis for us. We found tuberculosis among the bones. This common ancient disease existed even among Neanderthals.

Unravelling the function of funerary pottery vessels of the 2nd-1st millennia BC in the Dailaman Province (Iran) through typology, petrography, and organic residue analyses.

Pottery vessels often comprise major burial goods at archaeological sites, thus providing valuable information for reconstructing past mortuary practices. However, because of the uncertainty of its function or use, which has been interpreted mostly through typological studies alone, the analytical potential of pottery as a burial good has not been fully exploited. This study applied bio-chemical and geochemical analyses for the first time to funerary pottery vessels of the Iron Age of North Iran to examine their function and use. The study materials are from the necropolis of Ghalekuti, Dailaman, excavated in the 1960s. Direct radiocarbon dating conducted on human and animal bones in the graves and typological analysis of the pottery anchored the chronological position of the pottery materials to the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. A petrographic analysis revealed that pottery vessels can be classified into six fabric types, including those with coarse tempers that are effective for cooking. Pottery pastes with finer inclusions less suited for cooking appeared during the early first millennium BC (Iron Age III). To obtain further insight into the function of the pottery, we conducted organic residue analyses. The results demonstrated that the vessels retained remains of botanical and animal origin. In particular, jars with tubular spouts, characteristic of the Iron Age III period, were likely specialised for botanical products. Interestingly, both carcass and dairy products from ruminant animals (cattle and caprine) were processed in short-neck jars and bowls, including spouted bowls, suggesting their use in a liquid state. Products from ruminants, particularly dairy products, may have played a significant role in the daily and ritual use of pottery vessels during the study period in Northern Iran. These results indicate that a range of pottery vessels used for specific purposes before the burial was offered for graves, helping us better understand the mortuary practices of Iron Age Iran.

To the periodisation of the Transitional Period from the Bronze Epoch to Early Iron Age in the lower Ishim River basin

To the periodisation of the Transitional Period from the Bronze Epoch to Early Iron Age in the lower Ishim River basin

When Barley and Wheat Meet Millet: Cereal Cultivation Patterns in the Forest and Forest-Steppe of Eastern Europe from the Early Iron Age to the Early Middle Ages

When Barley and Wheat Meet Millet: Cereal Cultivation Patterns in the Forest and Forest-Steppe of Eastern Europe from the Early Iron Age to the Early Middle Ages

Traces of Disease in Cremated Children’s Bones: Age and Health in Bronze and Iron Age Communities North and South of the Alps

Traces of Disease in Cremated Children’s Bones: Age and Health in Bronze and Iron Age Communities North and South of the Alps

One place, many worlds – nutrition strategies of human groups inhabiting the site 3 in Miechów (southern Poland) since the Neolithic until the Iron Age

Abstract Studies on the ratios of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen constitute a research tool commonly applied in bioarchaeology to reconstruct human diets, including the origins of proteins consumed, the relationship between plant and animal foods, weaning processes, and parameters of the environment from which the food was obtained. Within the comprehensive analysis of the excavation results carried out at site 3 in Miechów (approximately 30 km north of Kraków), isotope analyses of δ13C and δ15N were performed on the human groups that inhabited the site from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. In total, 41 skeletons were investigated. The analyses aimed to hypothesise the nutritional strategies of communities of successive periods and to compare the knowledge obtained with current data and interpretations on food management in prehistoric communities of Central Europe. The results indicate a general predominance of a terrestrial diet, with plant-based foods prevailing, although not conspicuously. However, there are indications of slightly varying nutritional strategies among successive human groups. These differences are related to the contribution of animal protein and the relationship between C3 and C4 plants. For instance, in the Middle Neolithic (4th millennium BC), a greater consumption of meat and/or cereals from manured fields can be postulated compared to the Early Neolithic (late 6th and 5th millennia BC). On the other hand, the proportion of meat in the diet of Early Bronze Age inhabitants (2nd millennium BC) was possibly the lowest in the entire history of site occupation. This proportion returned to near-Neolithic levels in the developed Bronze Age and Iron Age (1st millennium BC). Regarding plant food, the results indicate greater variability in the plants consumed in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Levels of δ13C imply some contribution from C4 plants, that is, millet, during these periods. This aligns with recently formulated theories suggesting the post-Neolithic beginnings of millet cultivation and consumption in Central Europe.

Continuity and change in animal husbandry during the Later Iron Age of Britain

Continuity and change in animal husbandry during the Later Iron Age of Britain