Late Bronze Age Settlement Research Articles

Керамический комплекс эпохи поздней бронзы поселения Жарково-3

Керамический комплекс эпохи поздней бронзы поселения Жарково-3

Petrographic and chemical characterization of Bronze Age pottery from the settlement of Mount San Paolillo (Catania, Italy)

The excavations at Mount San Paolillo (Catania, Italy) led to the discovery of a Prehistoric site that still represents the most important evidence of Middle and Late Bronze Age settlement in this area. During the excavations, archeologists located a hut, a store for ceramic storage vessels, and a pottery workshop, all of which provided a large quantity of heterogeneous ceramics with apparent typological parallels in other areas of Sicily, such as Syracuse, Augusta, and Messina. A large number of specimens were selected in order to cover all the macroscopic types and the main classes. The results identified four petrographic fabrics. Most of the ceramics are characterized by abundant tempers consisting of volcanic rock fragments and occasionally of grog. Only a few samples contained common fine-grained quartz. The groundmass ranges from non-micaceous to very micaceous. In some cases, there is evidence of mixed clays. Analysis of the chemical composition of the ceramics revealed the existence of two groups with low and high CaO contents. The high Fe2O3 content (more than 8.7 wt%) is probably due to the use of temper from altered pyroclastic rocks which are of local provenance as SEM-EDX data suggest, even if petrographic and chemical results suggest that different raw materials may have been used. The data provided by these archeometric analyses have made a significant contribution to the study of Middle and Late Bronze Age pottery from the Catania area, by offering insights into the methods, production processes, and high technical level of the prehistoric craftsmen.

Paleodiet, Radiocarbon Chronology, and the Possibility of Freshwater Reservoir Effect for Preobrazhenka 6 Burial Ground, Western Siberia: Preliminary Results

This article presents the results of radiocarbon dating and a chronology of the Preobrazhenka 6 site of the Odino culture (Baraba forest steppe, western Siberia). Currently available 14C data for the necropolis do not allow accurate determination of the presence or absence of reservoir effects, and as such, further research is needed. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating of paired samples of terrestrial faunal and fish remains from a Neolithic pit suggest the absence of a reservoir effect in fish bone collagen. Middle Bronze Age burials have therefore been estimated to date to the 23rd–20th centuries cal BC. Pits with fish remains are dated earlier than burials, to the 63rd–61st centuries cal BC. Stable isotope measurements of human bone collagen (high δ15N and low δ13C values) indicate diets based on C3 plants and fish. Apparently, the role of animal protein in the diet was not significant. Dental paleopathology analysis has confirmed the important role of wild plants in human diet. Neolithic fish bones are elevated in δ13C [–13.5‰, average mean (n = 4)]. They are significantly different from the associated values of fish from the Late Bronze Age settlement of Chicha 1 [–22.5‰, average mean (n = 10)], which is also located in the Baraba forest steppe. The difference in δ13C values in fish bones may be determined by the origin of the samples, being derived either from lakes or rivers.

Further work at Kilise Tepe, 2007-2011: refining the Bronze to Iron Age transition

AbstractThe excavations at Kilise Tepe in the 1990s inevitably left a range of research questions unanswered, and our second spell of work at the site from 2007 to 2011 sought to address some of these, relating to the later second and early first millennia. This article gathers the architectural and stratigraphie results of the renewed excavations, presenting the fresh information about the layout and character of the Late Bronze Age North-West Building and the initial phases of the Stele Building which succeeded it, including probable symbolic practices, and describing the complex stratigraphic sequence in the Central Strip sounding which covers the lapse of time from the 12th down to the seventh century. There follow short reports on the analyses of the botanical and faunal materials recovered, a summary of the results from the relevant radiocarbon dating samples and separate studies addressing issues resulting from the continuing study of the ceramics from the different contexts. Taken together, a complex picture emerges of changes in settlement layout, archi¬tectural traditions, use of external space, artefact production and subsistence strategies during the centuries which separate the Level III Late Bronze Age settlement from the latest Iron Age occupation around 700 BC.

Microbial characteristics of soils depending on the human impact on archaeological sites in the Northern Caucasus

Anthropogenic impact in prehistoric settlements results in a considerable alteration of soil microbial communities depending on intensity and the character of human activities. This paper present a case study from a Late Bronze Age settlement located in the high-mountain part of the North Caucasus (Russia). The site represents a community, which presumably specialized in intensive livestock herding. Samples from settlement soils anthropogenically affected in the past and unmodified background soils were taken and studied. Of particular interest were divergences in soil microbial communities, expected to indicate different activities and animal presence in the site. The total microbial biomass, their respiratory activity, the biomass of fungal mycelium and the proportion of dark-colored hyphae were determined, as well as the quantitative state of keratinophilic fungi.The microbial characteristics vary considerably within the settlement locations, and contrast sharply with the reference soils exterior to the archaeological site. The cultural layer has higher percentage of active metabolizing microorganisms, whereas the total microbiological biomass is considerably lower than in the unmodified soils from the surroundings. A determining factor to transform the respiratory activity of microorganisms, in both qualitative and quantitative aspects, is the composition of the organic material which has been accumulated in the ground as a result of various human activities in the past. The cultural layers contain microorganisms, which can be reactivated when glucose is added. In the anthropogenically unmodified soils surrounding the prehistoric settlement, in contrast, 97% of the cells cannot be reactivated. Based on the mycological characteristics of the studied cultural layers and unmodified soils, in particular with regard to the total biomass of fungi mycelium, the dark pigmented fungal biomass, and the existence of keratin-decomposing soil fungi, detailed information about activity areas and their specific usage is given. The use of bio-indicators allows not only diagnosing anthropogenic impact in soils as such, but also significantly complements description of cultural layers of activity areas in the settlement, specifying their purpose. The paper presents the microbiological analyses applied and, moreover, discusses the potential of this approach as a non-destructive prospecting method on archaeological sites.

L'abitato dell'Età del Bronzo di S. Giovanni in Triario (Bologna)

This paper summarizes the results of researches carried out in S. Giovanni in Triario (North-East plain of Bologna) by piecing together several heterogeneous data coming from old rescue soundings' reports, aerial photo-interpretation and recent investigations consisting of core drillings and surface surveys. Thanks to new inspections on the deposit and the study of a consistent sample of artifacts it is now possible to outline the main cultural and chronological features of this Late Bronze Age settlement.

Late Bronze Age Pottery Production: Evidence from a 12th–11th century calbcSettlement at Tinney's Lane, Sherborne, Dorset

Excavations at Tinney's Lane, Sherborne in 2002 uncovered extensive evidence for Late Bronze Age settlement and pottery production, dating from a short time period probably within the 12th or 11th century calbc. Well-preserved deposits of burnt stone, broken vessels, and burnt sherds, together with resulting debris redeposited in associated pits, were accompanied by a series of post-hole structures interpreted as round-houses and four-post settings. Environmental evidence in the form of charcoal, charred plant remains, and molluscs has provided important information concerning sources of fuel and water for pottery production as well as allowing a reconstruction of the local vegetation. Finds of fired clay, metal, stone, shale, flint, and bone include items from distant sources, informing topics such as site status and exchange, and include many categories of tools and equipment that would have been used within the pottery-making processes. Analysis of the spatial distribution of these finds amongst the structures and surviving layers of burning has allowed the definition of a series of industrial activity areas, each comprising one or more round-houses, a four-post structure, bonfire bases or pits used for firing, and other pits with specific related functions. Altogether the site has provided some of the best evidence for pottery production within prehistoric Britain.

Dagger from the late bronze age settlement on the lyuskus river

The study provides a typological analysis of a dagger found at a Late Bronze Age settlement in Southern Siberia. The dagger has analogues among the same type of weaponry from Southeastern Europe (the Hetin Treasure and incidental fi nds). A sample from the burial of Kovacici-Vinogradi enables daggers of this type to be attributed to the Gava culture. It is suggested that this type of dagger is not typical of Southeastern Europe and that the origin of the artifact is related to the cultural genesis of the Bronze Age Black Sea region. The author proposes a hypothesis for the dagger's origin based on the fact of transit exchange between the population of Europe and the population of Southern Siberia in the Late Bronze Age.

Metal finds at the Middle and Late Bronze Age settlement of Scoglio del Tonno (Taranto, Apulia): results of archaeometallurgical analyses

Scoglio del Tonno (Taranto) is a settlement with a strategic location in one of the best natural harbours of the Italian Peninsula. During the Late Bronze Age it was an emporion, a privileged and permanent landing place for ships sailing between the Aegean and Italian Peninsulas. Crucibles and a number of metal artefacts were found during its excavation (1899, Quagliati 1900; Saflund 1939); this work reports the quantitative analysis of these metal artefacts by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence. All are made of copper alloys except for one piece, an eyelet pin made of a gold-silver-copper alloy. The examination of these objects and the analytical data obtained help reconstruct the functions of this site. Metal was systematically accumulated at Scoglio del Tonno, presumably to be shipped towards the eastern Mediterranean. The site highlights the exponential increase in northern Italian metal production during the Recent Bronze Age (ca. 14 th -13 th c. BC).

Impacto medioambiental de la minería y la metalurgia del cobre durante la Edad del Bronce en Kargaly (región de Orenburgo, Rusia)

Kargaly (Orenburg, Russia) is a copper-producing region in which two main phases of mining activity have taken place: the 4th-2nd millennia BC and the 18th-20th centuries AD. This article is a comparative study on the impact of those mining episodes in the distribution of the forest resources in the region, aimed to estimate the scale of prehistoric mining and metallurgical works. For that purpose two paleopalinological sequences obtained from natural deposits located in Kargaly are analysed by inferential Statistics and Multivariate Methods. The results are compared both with a regional sampling of recent pollen rain supported by an analytical model of the present day landscape, and with the anthracological data coming from the Late Bronze Age settlement of Gorny 1. Analysis confirm the large scale of the prehistoric mining impact on the forest cover from the beginnings, as well as the strong effect of husbandry once mining works ended. These results allow us to dismiss a climatic change as main explanation for the detected diachronic variability in the palinological record. They also prove the viability of the proposed approach as a means of integrating the paleoenvironmental disciplines in Landscape Archaeology.

The Late Bronze Age Settlement of Meldola (FC).

The paper deals with the recent excavation of a Late Bronze Age settlement at Meldola (FC), presumably coinciding with XIX cent. discoveries. The settlement is located in the hill upland inside a region scarcely documented for the protohistorical period and interesting for a reconstruction of the settlement pattern. The pottery found at the site shows a full adherence to the Subappenninic with several analogies in Romagna and Middle Adriatic lands. The evaluation of faunistic remains extends the analysis of the site.

Magnetic survey in the investigation of sociopolitical change at a Late Bronze age fortress settlement in northwestern Armenia

AbstractThe construction of large stone fortresses across much of northern Armenia during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500–1150 BC) represented a shift away from centuries of nomadic pastoralism, and also marked a profound transformation in the constitution of political authority and how social orders were mediated through the built environment. To date, however, little archaeological attention has been given to Late Bronze Age (LBA) settlements located outside the fortress citadels, partly due to the difficulty in detecting them from the surface. In this report we highlight results and observations from a magnetic gradiometry survey in northwestern Armenia where we test the hypothesis that an extensive LBA domestic complex existed at the base of the fortified hill at the site of Tsaghkahovit. The study surveyed four grids in the settlement area at the base of fortress. Three test units were excavated in three of the four survey areas to test selected anomalies. Two of the test units confirmed the presence of subsurface LBA deposits, including basalt stone walls, burned features, and a storage pit, appearing in the data as large dipoles. The spatial configurations of buildings revealed by the gradiometry surveys elucidate the extent of the Tsaghkahovit settlement and the formal differentiation of domestic and institutional spaces as new architectural traditions emerge during the Middle to Late Bronze Age transition. However, targeted subsurface tests also hint at the ephemeral nature of the domestic constructions suggesting the retention of mobility among subject populations under the authority of settled fortress elites. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Survey at Arediou "Vouppes" (Lithosouros), a Late Bronze Age Agricultural Settlement on Cyprus: Settlement on Cyprus: A Preliminary Analysis of the Material Culture Assemblages

A Late Bronze Age settlement was identified at Arediou Vouppes, Cyprus, in 1993. This has been interpreted as an agricultural support village and, as such, forms a lynchpin in the development of ...

Geoarchaeology and aggradation around Kinet Höyük, an archaeological mound in the Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey

We examined the alluvial history of the plain near Kinet Höyük, an archaeological mound (or Tell) with a sequence of six millennia of occupation on the southeast Mediterranean coast of Turkey, through 17 excavations over a 1000 m transect near the Mound. Excavations ranged from 2 to 6 m deep and up to 20 m across. This low gradient, alluvial plain shows significantly different rates and processes of near-Mound sedimentation, with one unit having nearly 4 m of Late Bronze Age habitation and flood deposits and another having 4 m of Hellenistic channel and floodplain deposition. This flat, alluvial surface turns out to be a rich geoarchaeological landscape that shrouds Early and Late Bronze Age settlements, Hellenistic walls, and two epochs of Roman Roads. One widespread phenomenon was a Hellenistic or earlier paleosol and occupation level covered by channel gravels and overbank deposits mostly from the Hellenistic to the Late Roman period. These channel and floodplain deposits filled in and flattened out the off-Mound settlements, blanketing the Pre-Hellenistic topography and silting in a long active port. This glut of alluvium correlates in time with drier conditions and the most intensive land uses in the watershed, where Roman and Hellenistic sites today are severely eroded.

Archaeomagnetic dating of a vitrified wall at the Late Bronze Age settlement of Misericordia (Serpa, Portugal)

The age of cooling of a vitrified wall at the Late Bronze/Second Iron Age settlement of Misericordia (Serpa, Portugal) has been determined using archaeomagnetic dating. Vitrification occurred in the Late Bronze Age (842–652 BC), in agreement with archaeological constraints based on the style of the potteries recovered at the site. This demonstrates the suitability of vitrified structures for archaeomagnetic dating and the potential for developing absolute chronologies for similar structures in Iberia and across Europe as a whole. Magnetite, low Ti-content titanomagnetite and, to a lesser extent, metallic Fe carry the archaeomagnetic signal, thus representing phases formed during the heating event. Native Fe was preserved due to it being isolated within the glassy matrix. The vitrified structure underwent at least one strong heating event which led to partial melting of the rocks used in its construction. Both microprobe and archaeomagnetic data support a single heating event, although multiple heating to temperatures >600–800 °C cannot be excluded on archaeomagnetic grounds.

Reconstruction of the old cultural surface of a Bronze Age Settlement – An example for a multi-methodological interaction of Soil Science and Archaeology in Southern Germany

During the excavation of a Late Bronze Age settlement at Mintraching (near Regensburg, Germany) the on-site pedological and geomorphological settings were studied in order to collect data regarding the palaeopedological and geomorphological conditions of the settlement area, as well as to elaborate further on the former Bronze Age surface. Pedological and geophysical field methods in combination with laboratory analyses were used in close proximity to the archaeological excavation site. Studies about the terrace stratigraphy of the river Danube and associated soil profiles provided data to determine the altitude of the ancient surface. This assisted in calculating the altitude of the former surface of the highest prehistoric building found in Bavaria to date. Since Bronze Age, a minimum amount of 80 - 100 cm soil loss referring to the original Holocene surface could be calculated. Furthermore, the accumulation history of black sediments distributed nearby is described. The black sediments, which are rich in organic matter, accumulated in an old palaeo channel close to the settlement since the Neolithic period. The deposits are not the remnants of a Tschernosem soil as previously thought. Erosion and deposition of the black material give an indication of anthropogenic activities like clearing and farming in the close vicinity of the former settlement area which was located next to an old water filled channel.

Pottery Wares from the Prehistoric Settlement at Ialysos (Trianda) in Rhodes

Among the vast amount of pottery yielded from the Late Bronze Age settlement of Ialysos (Trianda) on Rhodes, 233 samples have been selected for chemical analysis by means of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) at the Bonn Laboratory. Thus, a rather comprehensive new data-base for pottery assemblages from Rhodes and other related production centres has been provided. Further evidence has been also suggested for the local mechanisms of pottery production and the patterns of continuity and changes from the LM IA, through to LMIB/LH IIA and LH IIB-III A1 to LH III A2/LH III B1 periods, in both the intra site and inter site relations of the island with Minoan Crete, the Greek mainland, the Argolid, Cyprus, and other eastern Mediterranean sites.The study sets the basis for further studies towards the identification of the rather complex system of the society of Ialysos and its interaction with some other yet unknown centers in the Aegean during the early stages of the Bronze Age and throughout the periods of the Minoan and Mycenaean expansion.

Ironworking in the Bronze Age? Evidence from a 10th CenturyBCSettlement at Hartshill Copse, Upper Bucklebury, West Berkshire

Excavations at Hartshill Copse in 2003 uncovered evidence for Late Bronze Age settlement, securely dated to the 10th centuryBC, associated with long alignments of closely set posts: prehistoric landscape features with few known parallels. Extensive sampling of the settlement remains yielded quantities of burnt flint and plain Post Deverel-Rimbury potsherds, and, quite unexpectedly, a substantial quantity of iron hammerscale. This paper presents the excavation data, with supporting dating evidence, and the results of detailed analysis of the metallurgical residues. It explores the spatial distribution of artefact types within the settlement, and presents an interpretative model for settlement use. The nature of the settlement, with its carefully planned use of space and close relationship with the post alignments, is then discussed. Together, all this provides conclusive evidence for the earliest ironworking site yet recognised in Britain. The paper concludes with a comprehensive discussion of early ironworking in its British and European context.

Identifying Prehistoric Collected Wild Plants: A Case Study from Late Bronze Age Settlements in the French Alps (Grésine, Bourget Lake, Savoie)

The late Bronze Age lakeshore settlements of Gresine (French Alps) have yielded archaeobotanical evidence of 14 cultivated and 153 wild plants. Some of the wild taxa may have been collected, but many are probably here by chance. Three criteria are used as evidence for human transport and manipulation of wild plant remains: number of items, fragmentation, and carbonization. Relations between these criteria and known ethnobotanical properties of the identified plants are statistically analyzed. Results display good evidence of the gathering of edible wild fruits and seeds. Other gathering practices are not documented. Edible fruits and seeds seem to have been gathered mainly from ruderal spring weed communities and, possibly, from forest clearances and hedge communities. Fragmentation appears to be less of a discriminating factor than number of plant remains and carbonization.

Late Bronze Age settlement patterns in Southern Cyprus : the first Kingdoms ?

Late Bronze Age settlement patterns in Southern Cyprus : the first Kingdoms ?