Late Bronze Age Site Research Articles

Freshwater Mussel (Unio pictorum) Shells Reveal Hydrological and Environmental Change From 1300 BC to the Present Day.

Preserved biological communities can provide baseline data about the historical ecosystems and environmental conditions that preceded recent anthropogenic alteration. Freshwater mussel shells show particularly good preservation, and the shell assemblages commonly found during archaeological excavations can offer insights into past ecosystems. We studied assemblages of Unio pictorum mussel shells from palaeochannel silts associated with the Late Bronze Age site of Must Farm in eastern England (c. 850 BC), on an ancient tributary of the modern-day River Nene. We compared archaeological shells from two sediment horizons (broadly 1300-700 BC) to live individuals collected from two analogous sites on the present-day Nene. Size and growth rate, interannual growth variability and stable isotope (δ18O and δ13C) composition were compared between the populations. Size and the von Bertalanffy growth parameter L∞ differed among all four populations. Mean lengths and L∞ were higher in the two modern populations (mean lengths 77.3 ± SE 0.8 and 73.8 ± SE 1.1 mm, L∞ 91.8 ± 5.4 and 79.0 ± 8.1 mm) than the ancient populations (mean lengths 58.1 ± SE 1.6 mm and 68.4 ± SE 0.9 mm; L∞ 71.5 ± 16.9 and 76.8 ± 6.2 mm). Modern individuals also showed greater variation in age-corrected year-to-year growth. δ13C was lower in modern shells (-11.8‰ for modern shells, -9.03‰ and -9.02‰ for ancient shell populations), potentially reflecting altered hydrological and nutrient regimes. δ18O and δ13C were positively correlated for all but one sampled ancient shell, but not modern shells. These results reflect changes in local environmental conditions, particularly the transition from a shallow, slow-flowing tributary to a deeper, canalised river with faster flow, as well as effects of anthropogenic nutrient enrichment. The findings demonstrate the importance of long-term data in studying anthropogenic ecosystem alteration and avoiding shifting baseline syndrome in conservation planning.

The Geochemistry of Unalloyed Copper Metallurgical Group Indicates Copper Ore Sources in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages of the Urals

Trace elements in copper artifacts from Late Bronze and Early Iron Age sites in the Urals, formerly attributed to the metallurgical group of “chemically pure” copper, were analyzed using the method of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The metal of which artifacts included in this group are made reveals geochemical markers suggesting that “pure” copper actually falls into several subgroups. The PCA analysis of the results identifies 11 clusters corresponding to various sources of copper ores and their mixtures. At least seven principal associations can be linked to copper deposits of different geological types and origin: Au-Te-Bi, Au-Se-Te-Sb, Fe-Co-Ni-As-Sb, Fe-Co-Ni -Zn, Se-Co-Fe, Ag-Pb-Ni, and Sb-Pb-Zn-As. Also, several mixed associations reflect the fusion of copper items and metal scrap initially obtained from different sources: Sn-Pb, Fe-Co-Ni-Zn + Sn, Fe-Co-Ni + Au-Te-Bi-Ag, Fe-Co-Ni + Au-Te-Bi + Sn. A separate association, for which the ore source remains unknown, consists of artifacts characterized by a low content of trace elements, jointly making up less than 0.01 wt%. The largest sample in the Late Bronze Age “pure copper” group falls within the Sn-Pb cluster representing a mixture of local copper and imported Sn-containing copper scrap. Judging by trace elements, the main sources of ore in the “pure copper” group of the Itkul and Sarmatian cultures were the Gumeshki mine and another unidentified source. Both could have been used already in the Final Bronze Age.

Mapping a peripheral landscape: The Bronze Age transformation at Schnals Valley (South Tyrol/Italy)

The evolving human impact on the high alpine side valleys of the Alps has increasingly become the focus of the scientific community in recent decades. Despite the ongoing controversy surrounding the integration of the newly acquired economic area into the settlement zone, the research conducted in the Schnals Valley has proven instrumental. The extensive archeological survey, which goes beyond the conventional investigation of visible structures or rock shelters, has led to the discovery of 20 high alpine Bronze Age sites, of which only 15% are visible above ground. This study presents compelling evidence of an Early Bronze Age intensification that spanned the 19th and 18th centuries BC and an intensification expressed through an increase and territorial distribution, as well as in the diversification of archeological record during the Middle Bronze Age. The cultivation of the research area seems to have been completed approximately in the 15th century BC, with only isolated Late Bronze Age sites being added. This transition parallels the contemporaneous development of central settlement areas, underscoring a symbiotic relationship between human activity in the high alpine regions and the growth of lowland communities. The detailed archeological investigation of six sites provides the first insight into the Bronze Age high alpine building culture and the interior design, in particular well constructed hearths associated with the production of secondary products. The investigated high alpine building culture of Schnals Valley corresponds to that of inner alpine settlements, and highlights the synchronous cultural development on the valley floor and in the high mountains. Crucially, this cultivation of the natural landscape of the Schnals Valley is intricately tied to the broader tapestry of cultural contacts and the exchange of goods throughout Europe during the Bronze Age.

Excavations at the Late Bronze Age site of Erimi-Pitharka, Cyprus (2022-2023 seasons): Regional production and storage in the Kouris Valley

The rural site of Erimi-Pitharka is located in the archaeologically rich Kouris Valley of south-central Cyprus. Previous rescue excavations by the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, have revealed a subterranean complex, industrial areas, and a building complex at the highest topographical point of the site. New excavations by an international team began in 2022 and continued in 2023. We here report on the findings from these first two seasons, which have focused on the large building complex in Area I/1A. Dated to LC IIC-IIIA (c. 1300-1150 BCE), this part of the site is characterised by an emphasis on agricultural production and storage. The inhabitants took advantage of the soft limestone-rich bedrock to create subterranean and semi-subterranean installations, rooms and storage spaces, and pithoi were similarly used for storage and industrial activities. Pitharka was peacefully abandoned, and much of the material culture was removed in the process.

Biomolecular evidence for changing millet reliance in Late Bronze Age central Germany

The Bronze Age of Central Europe was a period of major social, economic, political and ideological change. The arrival of millet is often seen as part of wider Bronze Age connectivity, yet understanding of the subsistence regimes underpinning this dynamic period remains poor for this region, in large part due to a dominance of cremation funerary rites, which hinder biomolecular studies. Here, we apply stable isotope analysis, radiocarbon dating and archaeobotanical analysis to two Late Bronze Age (LBA) sites, Esperstedt and Kuckenburg, in central Germany, where human remains were inhumed rather than cremated. We find that people buried at these sites did not consume millet before the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) (ca. 1600 BCE). However, by the early LBA (ca. 1300–1050 BCE) people consumed millet, often in substantial quantities. This consumption appears to have subsequently diminished or ceased around 1050–800 BCE, despite charred millet grains still being found in the archaeological deposits from this period. The arrival of millet in this region, followed by a surge in consumption spanning two centuries, indicates a complex interplay of cultural and economic factors, as well as a potential use of millet to buffer changes in aridity in a region increasingly prone to crop failure in the face of climate change today.

A fragmentary limestone votive vessel of Iron Age date from Enkomi-Ayios Iakovos rediscovered

Two fragments of a stone vase decorated with palmettes under the handles, discovered during the British Museum excavations at Enkomi-Ayios Iakovos in 1896 and briefly described by Alexander Murray in a report published in 1900, were reidentified in the Museum reserves only in the past few years by Thomas Kiely. They deserve to be studied in detail because this type of object is rather rare in Cyprus, part of a small series dominated by the colossal vase in the Louvre from the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Amathus, and to which an unpublished example from Idalion can now be added. The Enkomi fragments are especially notable because they were found in the ruins of the famous Late Bronze Age site of Enkomi, along with other Cypro-Archaic limestone and terracotta items; these discoveries are complemented by Iron Age figurines from the excavations of Porphyrios Dikaios in the 1940s and 1950s. In this article, T. Kiely presents the history of discovery and the archival record, and describes the two fragments in their present condition, while A. Hermary provides a detailed analysis within their broader cultural and topographical context.

The New Swedish Cyprus Expedition (The Söderberg Expedition): Excavations at Hala Sultan Tekke autumn 2021 and spring 2022. Preliminary results

In 2021 and 2022, the 13th and 14th seasons of excavations at the Late Bronze Age site of Hala Sultan Tekke were carried out in Area A, and as a result of these investigations numerous tombs were found. These tombs were threatened by farming. Four magnetic anomalies, indicated in the 2017 survey magnetometer map, were investigated. They represent three tombs, L198, TT, and UU, and the probable Offering Pit SS-S. The minimum number of individuals (MNI) in Pit Tomb L198, which contains only secondary burials, is six. They are associated with 21 ceramic vessels of which a few were imported from Anatolia. Chamber Tomb TT was completely excavated and contained a minimum of 25 individuals and 78 objects. Among these are 47 ceramic vessels of which a few are from the Mycenaean sphere of culture. Other mortuary gifts are various objects of metal, faience, carnelian, haematite, and rock crystal in addition to three scarabs. The incompletely excavated large (Chamber?) Tomb UU contained, so far, a minimum of 19 individuals and 140 objects. They comprise 124 ceramic vessels including numerous Late Helladic, Late Minoan, and Anatolian pottery. Other finds are bronze and gold jewellery, the latter including a diadem, and a duck-shaped ivory box from the same context as Egyptian-imported vessels of calcite. None of the tombs and the offering pit, which can all be roughly dated to the 14th century BC, were looted. The special arrangements of the human bones in Chamber Tomb TT and the multitude of imported materials in Tomb UU offer additional insights into complex Late Cypriot mortuary practices and the far-reaching interregional connections of the urban élites of Hala Sultan Tekke.

About the functionality of the animal lower jaw in the economy of the Late Bronze Age (from finds of Bay-Kiyat I settlement, Tarkhankut peninsula)

Investigations of functional features of the lower jaws of animals were carried out at the Late Bronze Age site Bai-Kiyat I. The Bai-Kiyat I settlement is one of the most significant settlements in North-Western Crimea, which was excavated by V.I. Kolotukhin in the 1990s. About 14 living structures, numerous household structures, as well as finds of ceramic fragments; clay artifacts, bones and horns, and stone, and bronze tools were found. Archival materials on archaeozoological collection from this settlement showed that domestic animals (96%) are represented by agricultural species, among which sheep have a large proportion. The lower jaws of sheep were processed and used by the population of this settlement as tools in economic activities. Similar tools are widely known in the Late Bronze Age at many sites, as well in the south of the European part and in Central Asia, and on the Altai sites. According to their functional specifics, they were defined as sickles, tools for working leather, anvils in blacksmithing, etc. Determination of traces of human activity on the bone surfaces and microtomographic scanning showed that the lower jaws of sheep from the Bai-Kiyat I settlement were used for processing animal skin. Thus, complex scientific and historical archival research for the first time established the role of sheep breeding in the economic system of settled pastoral settlements of the Late Bronze Age and the presence of leather production on the territory of the North-Western Crimea.

Morphometrics of waterlogged archaeological seeds give new insights into the domestication and spread of Papaver somniferum L. in Western Europe.

Domesticated opium poppy Papaver somniferum L. subsp. somniferum probably originated in the Western Mediterranean from its possible wild progenitor, Papaver somniferum L. subsp. setigerum and spread to other European regions. Seeds of opium poppy have been identified in different European regions since the Early Neolithic (from the 6th millennium cal. BC onwards) period. However, until recently, the absence of morphological identification criteria has prevented the discrimination between wild and domestic morphotypes. New morphometric approaches to distinguish modern subspecies have been proven to be applicable to waterlogged archaeological remains, opening the possibility of understanding the process of domestication of the plant in both time and space. This paper applies seed outline analyses, namely elliptic Fourier transforms, combined with size and number of cells to archaeological waterlogged Papaver seeds throughout the Neolithic period in the NW Mediterranean and the surroundings of the Alps. Furthermore, one example from the Late Bronze Age (LBA) was added to see what kind of differences appeared during the >1000 years between the end of the Neolithic and the LBA. The aim of the study is to classify the archaeological seeds as domestic or wild morphotypes and observe morphometric changes in connection to geographical and chronological patterns that can explain the spread and domestication process(es) of this important crop. A total of 295 archaeological seeds coming from 10 waterlogged sites dating between 5300-2300 cal. BC (Neolithic), and one LBA site dating to 1070 cal. BC were analysed. The results indicate the presence of seeds, similar to the wild morphotype, in the Mediterranean sites and larger seeds, similar to the domestic morphotype, in the regions surrounding the Alps. The number of cells mainly increased during the Late Neolithic (3300 to 2300 cal. BC) and, finally, in the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1050-800 cal. BC), larger, morphologically domesticated seeds are clearly predominant. A change in the shape of the seeds is only clearly visible in the LBA material. Altogether our results suggest that opium poppy seeds show no sign of domestication in the early periods of the Neolithic, despite the fact that the plant was very probably already cultivated at that time in the western Mediterranean region.

A Late Bronze Age ‘Hoard’ and Metal Stray Finds from Tiszalök-Rázompuszta (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, Hungary)

The paper presents an uncertain Late Bronze Age (Ha B1) hoard and metal stray finds from Tiszalök (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County) that were discovered more than half a century ago, around 1952, and remained hidden for research in the private collection of László Teleki, the chief engineer of the Tiszalök hydroelectric power plant’s construction. Based on an escrow contract between the granddaughter of the late collector, Zsófia Farkasné Teleki and the Hungarian National Museum, the objects are temporarily kept in the Prehistoric Collection of the Department of Archaeology. The assemblage and stray finds were discovered at the construction site of a hydroelectric power plant on the north-eastern edge of the so-called Rázompuszta. Information on the hoard’s composition is contradictory, and it can be best reconstructed from the lists of Emília Risztics, who documented the collection on the construction site in 1952. Most of the objects—a sword, a socketed axe, a spearhead, two plano-convex ingots, and several bracelets and annular rings—that arrived at the Hungarian National Museum through the escrow contract appear in her lists and are identifiable by their dimensions and her sketches. This selection of objects suggests that the uncertain hoard in question belongs to the common category of “hoards with mixed composition”. The typo-chronological analysis of the finds dates this assemblage to the Ha B1, assigning it to the so-called Hajdúböszörmény horizon. The study provides a basic typological and technological overview of the uncertain hoard and the stray finds, with particular emphasis on ornament types not subjected to in-depth analysis. Metal finds from Tiszalök-Újtelep and Tiszalök-Vásártér are also presented in the text to add to our understanding of the local Late Bronze Age sites near Tiszalök.

Raking over the Ashes—The Analysis of the LBA Ashmounds from NE Romania

During the end of the Bronze Age, the territory of present-day eastern Romania was occupied by Noua communities, belonging to the Noua-Sabatinovka-Coslogeni (NSC) cultural complex. Although these communities have left us a large number of archaeological sites, this period is rather poorly known and understood, mostly because the investigation of Late Bronze Age (LBA) sites is very rare, usually consisting of small test trenches or fieldwalks. The main characteristic of these communities and the subject of our study is represented by the so-called ashmounds (grey, quasi-circular spots, visible on the soil surface, with small elevations and diameters of 25–30 m), present inside most settlements. Our paper aims at highlighting the spatial characteristics of these sites, using GIS (Geographic Information System) tools, as well as aerial photographs, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) measurements, magnetometry and geo-electrical methods, in order to identify the relationship existing between Noua communities and the inhabited environment, in the area known as the Jijia River catchment. Thus, our approach was able to outline the way in which the geographical peculiarities determined the establishment of new settlements, revealing that the human groups from the end of the Bronze Age preferred low terrains with smooth slopes, located in the immediate vicinity of the most important watercourse of the inhabited micro-area. Additionally, our geophysical studies allowed us to confirm the lack of ash located within the ashmound, as well as to signal the possibility that these features have become visible on the soil surface only due to the irreversible damage caused by intensive agricultural processes. Despite the small number of excavations, to this day an important number of studies have been dedicated to the communities and features in question; however, no analysis has yet been performed that unites the tools specific to GIS software with the usage of non-invasive methods (such as aerial photographs, LiDAR measurements and geophysical techniques).

Radiocarbon Dating of Late Bronze Age Burials from the Great Urals (Steppe Trans-Urals and Northern Kazakhstan) and Bayesian Modeling

ABSTRACT In the last two decades, the Bronze Age chronology of the Great Urals was revolutionized by the first large-scale radiocarbon dating programs. Since then, the chronology of the Bronze Age in this area has been under discussion. In this paper, we present 23 new AMS dates from Late Bronze Age sites in the steppe and forest steppe areas of the southern Trans-Urals and northwestern Kazakhstan. This includes the first successful dating of cremated bone samples from this area. Bayesian modeling was conducted to date the Late Bronze Age into three chronological phases. The considerable number of outliers suggests previously undetected biases in the material. In addition, we found differences between the Bayesian models of the steppe and forest steppe areas that are not reflected in the archaeological record. This study emphasizes the value of Bayesian modeling for the prehistoric chronology of the Great Urals but also highlights its issues.

Laser-Aided Profile Measurement and Cluster Analysis of Ceramic Shapes

ABSTRACT Ceramics are one of the commonest sources of archaeological information, yet their abundance often confounds documentation and analysis. This article presents a new method of documenting and analyzing ceramics that includes laser-aided profile measurement to capture ceramic shape and other information quickly and accurately, resulting in digital outputs suitable for both publication and morphometric analysis. Linked software and database solutions enable unsupervised machine learning to cluster shapes based on similarity, eventually assisting typological analysis. Following an overview of current practices in ceramic recording and both standard and computational shape classification analyses, the new approach is discussed in full as a documentary and analytical tool. A case study from the Middle and Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı in western Anatolia demonstrates the benefits of the recording method and helps show that a combination of automated and manual shape clustering techniques currently remains the best practice in ceramic shape classification.

Using UAV Survey, High-Density LiDAR Data and Automated Relief Analysis for Habitation Practices Characterization during the Late Bronze Age in NE Romania

The characterization of prehistoric human behavior in terms of habitation practices using GIS cartography methods is an important aspect of any modern geoarchaeological approach. Furthermore, using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveys to identify archaeological sites with temporal resolution during the spring agro-technical works and automated mapping of the geomorphological features based on LiDAR-derived DEM can provide valuable information about the human–landscape relationships and lead to accurate archaeological and cartographic products. In this study, we applied a GIS-based landform classification method to relief characterization of 362 Late Bronze Age (LBA) settlements belonging to Noua Culture (NC) (cal. 1500/1450-1100 BCE) located in the Jijia catchment (NE Romania). For this purpose, we used an adapted version of Topographic Position Index (TPI) methodology, abbreviated DEV, which consists of: (1) application of standard deviation of TPI for the mean elevation (DEV) around each analyzed LBA site (1000 m buffer zone); (2) classification of the archaeological site’s location using six slope position classes (first method), or ten morphological classes by combining the parameters from two small-DEV and large-DEV neighborhood sizes (second method). The results indicate that the populations belonging to Noua Culture preferred to place their settlements on hilltops but close to the steep slope and on the small hills/local ridges in large valleys. From a geoarchaeological perspective, the outcomes indicate a close connection between occupied landform patterns and habitation practices during the Late Bronze Age and contribute to archaeological predictive modelling in the Jijia catchment (NE Romania).

THE IMPACT OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDING ON THE STUDY OF METAL ARTEFACTS. MYCENAE 1939: A CASE STUDY

Aegean Archaeology is one of the oldest branches of prehistoric archaeological scholarship, and many important settlements and cemeteries, such as those at Mycenae, were excavated before the development of more advanced recording techniques that we take for granted today. Nevertheless, the significance of these legacy data as a source of knowledge means we must still find ways to integrate them into our interpretations, despite their limitations. To derive the most robust results possible, it is important to understand exactly what types of impact these earlier recording strategies may have had on our perception of their findings. Yet this type of investigation is rare, meaning that in many cases we know more about the repercussions of taphonomy and the social practices of past societies on the archaeological record than those caused by the actions of our own predecessors. In preparation for a holistic study of all aspects of the use of metals at the Late Bronze Age site of Mycenae, this paper details the exploration of the recording processes in place during the 1939 excavation season. This has been identified as an ideal case study for examining recording strategies because its organisational structure gave each trench supervisor a great deal of individual freedom. Concentrating on their consequences for metal artefacts in particular, each stage of the recording process, in the field, in the museum and in publications, is discussed, as is the aftermath of the Second World War.

Sava Valley (Posavina) – a heritage of communication Some examples from the Late Bronze Age

Dolina na Savi is a settlement and cemetery dated to the younger phase of the Late Bronze Age and the transition to the Early Iron Age. It is situated across the well-known site of Donja Dolina in northern Bosnia. Ten years of excavations in Dolina yielded numerous traces of communication between the communities along and across the river Sava through the centuries. A similar concentration of Late Bronze Age sites on the Sava can be observed near the settlement of Topolovaca Bregovi, some 70 m downstream. The data collected by archaeological research sheds new light on the role of the River Sava in the communication network of the transitional area between the Carpathian Basin, western Balkans, the Danube, and south-eastern Alps. In contrast to the modern perception of the River Sava as a border, the archaeological record from the Late Bronze Age clearly points to Posavina Region as a coherent cultural territory with a strong communication network both on local and regional scales. The distribution of specific bronze objects found in graves and settlements, but also discovered frequently as single finds along the riverbank, indicate the integration of the Posavina communities from the younger phase of the Late Bronze Age (late 12th – 10th centuries BC) into the communication network spanning eastern Austria, Moravia, Bohemia, and western Hungary. Better knowledge of the local communication heritage on both sides of the river is therefore crucial for the understanding of the wider contexts in a diachronic perspective, especially in the important and dynamic area of the middle Sava valley.

НАЗНАЧЕНИЕ ШАХТНЫХ ПЕЧЕЙ ЗАПАДНОАЗИАТСКОЙ МЕТАЛЛУРГИЧЕСКОЙ ПРОВИНЦИИ

The article addresses the problem of the functional purpose of shaft-type furnaces with chimneys found at the Late Bronze Age sites of Northern Eurasia. This category of thermal engineering structures became widespread in the eastern wing of the West Asian (Eurasian) metallurgical province. Thermal sets with flue channels are physical evidence of the implementation of technological algorithms of the pastoral model of metal production based primarily on multistage processing of secondary copper sulfides. Shaft furnaces with flues of the Ural-Kazakhstan region are functionally similar to the more structurally simple fi re pits-furnaces present in the structure of mining and processing complexes of the steppe Cis-Ural region. They were intended for decrepitation, pyrotechnic enrichment, and refining of ore protolith during a long fi re setting using brushwood and wood fuel at relatively low temperatures in the range of 600–800 °C. The degree of complexity of thermal engineering structures was determined by the nature of the raw materials used. Ordinary fi re pits turned out to be acceptable for ore-bearing complexes in the copper shales and sandstones of the steppe Cis-Ural region. The ores of the ultrabasic deposits of the Ural-Mugodzhar region were difficult to be processed and required the use of mine furnaces with flues, which were also characteristic of the metal production centers of the Kazakhstan mining and metallurgical region. Further improvement of thermal engineering structures with flue channels was due to the need to overcome the raw material crisis caused by the exhaustion of available sulfide reserves in secondary enrichment zones within ultrabasic deposits, and copper shale ore occurrences at the end of the Bronze Age. It required the transition to the use of chalcopyrite and greatly contributed to the discovery of iron metallurgy.

Baks-Temetőpart. Analysis of a Gáva-ceramic style mega-settlement

This paper focuses on the analysis and interpretation of the ceramic material discovered in 2007 during the excavations of the site Baks-Temetőpart (Csongrád County). This was the first time when an excavation took place on this previously researched Late Bronze Age site, resulting a rather intense amount of finds. The most significant part of the material consists of ceramic fragments (approximately 4000 pieces), which are kept in the Móra Ferenc Museum in Szeged. The pottery as evaluated typologically and correspondence analysis as a statistical method was also applied. The results from these methods are specifically meant for this particular material, which indicates that a further study or a larger amount of ceramic fragments can in some extent affect the conclusions described below.

Reconstructing the childhood diet of the individuals from the Middle Late Bronze Age Bezdanjača Cave, Croatia (ca. 1430 1290 BCE) using stable C and N isotope analysis of dentin collagen

This paper investigates the childhood diet of 16 individuals from the Middle Late Bronze Age (1430 1290 BCE) Bezdanjača Cave (Lika region, Croatia) using stable isotope analysis of dentin collagen from permanent first molars. Results from the analysis reveal that the individuals from Bezdanjača consumed notable quantities of C4 plants during their childhood. The most common C4 plant is millet, whose spread throughout Southern Europe was recently dated to the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE, which agrees with the results obtained in this research. Comparisons between the data collected for the individuals from Bezdanjača and other Middle and Late Bronze Age sites in Croatia suggest that only the individuals from the site of Veliki Vital (Middle Bronze Age, inland Croatia) exhibit similar isotopic values to those from Bezdanjača. Human isotopic values from coastal sites, however, reveal that during the Middle and Late Bronze Age people from the coast had diet that still predominantly contained C3 plant-based foods, which appears to suggest that the dispersion of this crop in Croatia during the Bronze Age followed an east-west trajectory, appearing earlier (Middle and Late Bronze Age) in inland settlements such as Veliki Vital and Bezdanjača and only later (Late Bronze Age and mostly Iron Age) in coastal sites.

Multi-proxy analyses reveal regional cremation practices and social status at the Late Bronze Age site of Herstal, Belgium

The funerary Bronze Age culture in the Belgian part of the Meuse valley is poorly understood due to the challenging nature of cremation deposits that dominate the archaeological record. Only a few sites were analysed in that region, limiting the possibilities to reconstruct the development of Bronze Age populations in Belgium. Due to its good preservation and detailed excavation reports, the site of Herstal (Belgium) offers a unique opportunity to finally gain new insights into the life and death of those buried in the Meuse Valley during the Late Bronze Age. A total of 21 graves were analysed using a multi-proxy approach, combining grave typology, osteoarchaeology, strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr), and radiocarbon dating. The 87Sr/86Sr results show that the individuals of Herstal most likely used a variety of local food supplies while having interactions with other populations in and beyond the Meuse Valley, as demonstrated by the bronze artefacts and ceramics displaying clear influences from Germany, Southern Netherlands, and North-West France. The cemetery most likely shows a local burial style with the presence of two (or even three) individuals in several cremation deposits containing a number of privileged individuals who had access to bronze trading networks.