Late Fourth Millennium BC Research Articles

Settlement Patterns of Bronze-Age Sites of the Upper and Middle Atrak Basin in Northeastern Iran

In archaeological studies of Southwestern Asia, during the period from the late fourth millennium BC to the beginning of the Iron Age (second half of the second millennium BC), phenomena such as growth of settlements in terms of area and population, emergence of early cities, trans-regional trade, formation of government institutions, emergence and spread of gray-and-black pottery, extensive changes in technology, dramatic development of smelting and use of bronze tools were identified. In this process, an extensive communication network aimed at controlling trade routes and access to raw materials across the plateau, by land and sea, connected many areas. Economically, remote trade was established in this period of time, various communities establishing ties with places located thousands of miles away in order to obtain their needed resources. Bronze-Age cultures are well-known in most parts of Iran, but Khorasan is an exception since the data are rare and insufficient. Moreover, information about the chronology and distribution of sites during different periods of prehistoric times in different parts of it is minimal. Thirty-eight sites from the Bronze Age have been studied in this research. These sites were identified in the archaeological surveys of the upper and middle Atrak during the last decade. This study was done using the descriptive-analytic method. GIS and SPSS software and Correlation and Cluster analysis methods were used for data analysis. The settlement pattern in the upper and middle Atrak basin is similar. It consists of two-rank models with a large main site and several small sites around it. The results of this study indicate that due to the lack of water resources in the region, access to constant water resources has been an essential factor in the shaping of Bronze-Age settlements. Most sites were also formed during the early Bronze Age, and we also faced a decrease in the number of sites in the middle and late Bronze Ages.

From horticulture to agriculture: New data on farming practices in Late Chalcolithic western Anatolia

We combine stable isotope analysis of crop remains with functional ecological analysis of their associated weeds to investigate arable farming strategies at Late Chalcolithic Bakla Tepe and Liman Tepe, western Anatolia. Our results reveal ‘low-input’ cultivation practices at both sites, with cereals grown on plots with low soil fertility that received low to moderate levels of manuring. In contrast, water supply was unlikely to have been a limiting factor to crop cultivation. Land management strategies were adapted to the tolerances of different crops, with pulses more intensively manured than cereals at Liman Tepe and barley cultivated on drier soils than glume wheats at both sites. This attests to a spatial differentiation in crop cultivation that resembles the practices of recent farmers in the Aegean engaged in extensive systems of land use. Expanded forms of these agricultural systems were used to amass agrarian wealth by elites occupying the citadels of later Early Bronze Age (EB/EBA) western Anatolia, suggesting that the agroecological foundations of this phenomenon were already in place by the late fourth millennium BC. In contrast to the pronounced wealth inequality visible in EBA citadels, however, we suggest that extensive land use fostered productive equality through cooperation between small-scale households in the Late Chalcolithic. It was only with the emergence of more extended domestic units in the EBA, capable of greater autonomy in arable farming, that disparities in production could be maintained over the long-term. This shift may have contributed to the emergence of social structures designed to dampen arable wealth inequality in the EBA.

Kashmir and Swat During Neolithic Times – A Comparative Analysis of Material Culture Between the Sites of Two Distinct Regions

Beginning in late fourth millennium BC and continuing to the end of second millennium BC the material culture of the Neolithic period has been reported from several places in Kashmir in the past. However, more recently in a systematic survey of North West Kashmir six more sites from Baramulla District were added to the list. Systematically studying these new sites permitted some attempts to characterise settlement patterns during this period in the district, through understanding types of sites, landscape features, material culture and any evidence for interactions inside and outside Kashmir. Burzahom, Gufkral and Kanispora, (the key excavated sites of Kashmir), and several others thought to be Neolithic on the grounds of surface finds, have already provided some information about interactions during the Neolithic period in Kashmir with South Asia more closely with Pakistan. Through this paper, I aim to contextualise new interpretations in the broader region of South Asia and understand the level of interactions between Kashmir and Swat during Neolithic times. This is achieved by considering findings and results of the material culture from new sites in Baramulla as well as the previously known in the Kashmir region.

Settlement and social organisation in the late fourth millennium BC in Central Europe: the waterlogged site of Zurich-Parkhaus Opéra

With the exception of Circum-Alpine wetland sites, structural remains of fourth-millennium BC settlements in Central Europe are rarely encountered. As a result, there is a dearth of information concerning settlement organisation and social differentiation. Recent excavations at the waterlogged Parkhaus Opera site on the shores of Lake Zurich have, however, provided important new evidence for the existence of complex Late Neolithic settlement strategies and social stratification. Excellent organic preservation conditions permit extensive dendrochronological analyses of structures and the precise phasing of building activity. The results reveal a complex and highly dynamic settlement system, and provide a rare insight into the organisation of Late Neolithic Central European society.

New radiocarbon dating and demographic insights into San Juan ante Portam Latinam, a possible Late Neolithic war grave in North-Central Iberia.

San Juan ante Portam Latinam is one of a small number of European Neolithic sites meeting many of the archaeological criteria expected for a mass grave, and furthermore presents evidence for violent conflict. This study aims to differentiate between what is potentially a single episode of deposition, versus deposition over some centuries, or, alternatively, that resulting from a combination of catastrophic and attritional mortality. The criteria developed are intended to have wider applicability to other such proposed events. Ten new AMS 14 C determinations on human bone from the site, together with previously available dates, are analyzed through Bayesian modeling to refine the site's chronology. This is used together with the population's demographic profile as the basis for agent-based demographic modeling. The new radiocarbon results, while improving the site's chronology, fail to resolve the question whether the burial represents a single event, or deposition over decades or centuries-primarily because the dates fall within the late fourth millennium BC plateau in the calibration curve. The demographic modeling indicates that the population's age and sex distribution fits neither a single catastrophic event nor a fully attritional mortality profile, but instead may partake of elements of both. It is proposed that San Juan ante Portam Latinam was used as burial place for the mainly adolescent and adult male dead of a particular or multiple violent engagements (e.g., battles), while previously or subsequently seeing use for attritional burial by other members of one or more surrounding communities dead over the course of a few generations. The overall bias towards males, particularly to the extent that many may represent conflict mortality, has implications for the structure of the surviving community, the members of which may have experienced increased vulnerability in the face of neighboring aggressors.

SHELL PERSONAL ORNAMENTS CRAFT AT THE SITE OF THA KAE, LOPBURI PROVINCE, CENTRAL THAILAND. TRACING THE SOUTHWARD DISPERSAL OF THE DRILLING TECHNIQUE

The collection of mollusk remains excavated at Tha Kae has been recently re-analyzed and identified as to genera or family level. Out of 5 main fresh/salt-water mollusk families, only Conus and Tridacna were used to make personal ornaments and, for Tridacna, small adzes, during the local Bronze Age (BA) (c. 1100-500 BCE).The study of 100 kg of production debris and of whole/fragmentary ornaments demonstrated the manufacturing cycle consisted of two main steps: 1) Procurement of the raw material; 2) Transformation in a sequence of six stages of the raw material into the base material for luxuries that arguably entered inter-regional exchange circuits. The manufacturing cycle, possibly part of a system organized at the community level, implied procurement expeditions and skilled craftspeople able to organize and use the relevant tool kit, whose origin can be traced back to the lower Yangtze valley (late fourth millennium BC). The shell-craft cycle also sheds light on the cognitive processes of the craftsmen, who had to make a choice in order to maximize the output of their work.The study provides newly organized data of direct archaeological interest to the field of Southeast Asian pre-protohistory, as well as to those of social and cultural anthropology, cognitive science, marine palaeobiology and to palaeogeography.

Investigating ceramic production during the Proto-Elamite period at Tepe Yahya, southeastern Iran: Results of instrumental neutron activation analysis of periods IVC and IVB ceramics

This article presents results of new instrumental neutron activation analysis of ceramics from Tepe Yahya (southeastern Iran) dating to Periods IVC and IVB and their implications for our understanding of the dynamics of ceramic production and distribution in southeastern Iran during the early Bronze Age period. This analysis was conducted as part of the National Science Foundation funded project Coordinated, Regional Trace-Element Studies at the OSU-RC Archaeometry Lab, focused on a re-evaluation of the Uruk expansion and interregional ceramic exchange in the late fourth millennium BC. Period IVC corresponds to the Proto-Elamite occupation at Tepe Yahya dating to ca. 3000BCE, and Period IVB follows Period IVC in the third millennium BCE after a chronological hiatus.Through this analysis we show that the ceramic assemblage recovered in Period IVC Proto-Elamite occupation resulted from a complex system that included local production as well as intraregional and interregional exchange. We suggest that the community that settled at Tepe Yahya built most of its typical Proto-Elamite ceramic vessels using clays available locally in the valley surrounding the site. Surprisingly, Burnished ware, a ceramic style well-represented at the site but usually more common in northern Iran, was also built using local clays. In the same period, additional, different styles of painted ceramics were present at the site. We suggest that these ceramics were made using clays available elsewhere in Kerman and Seistan-and-Balochistan provinces. Comparisons with compositions of materials from Period IVB revealed that changes occurred in ceramic production during this period.Beyond ceramic production, broader implications are derived from these results for the understanding of the Proto-Elamite Culture, interactions in southeastern Iran around 3000 BCE, and the Proto-Elamite legacy in this area.

Temporal fluctuation of human occupation during the 7th–3rd millennium cal BP in the central-western Korean Peninsula

In this paper the population fluctuation in the central-western region of the Korean Peninsula is investigated using radiocarbon data obtained from prehistoric pit houses in residential bases or settlements during the seventh to third millennium cal BP comprising the Neolithic, Bronze and Early Iron ages in Korea. Fluctuation in radiocarbon date distribution is compared with summed probability distribution of calibrated dates as well as total numbers of settlements and dwellings arranged in chronological order. Results indicate the appearance of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements in the early sixth and the late fourth millennium BC each followed by a rapid growth of population with a peak around 5500 and 3000 cal BP. Population decline is identified from 5300, 4900, 4500 cal BP during the Neolithic and 2800 and 2400 cal BP during the Bronze Age. The period between 4500 and 3500 cal BP corresponds with the lowest density of settlements and dwellings. Agricultural villages collapsed 2400–2000 cal BP. The paper suggests the hypothesis that climate change, especially cold or dry climate induced by weak Asian monsoon events, is possibly responsible for the fluctuation of settlements and population in prehistoric Korea.

A recipe for disaster: emerging urbanism and unsustainable plant economies at Early Bronze Age Ras an-Numayra, Jordan

The intensification of agriculture as farming communities grew in size did not always produce a successful and sustainable economic base. At Ras an-Numayra on the Dead Sea Plain, a small farming community of the late fourth millennium BC developed a specialised plant economy dependent on cereals, grapes and flax. Irrigation in this arid environment led to increased soil salinity while recurrent cultivation of flax may have introduced the fungal pathogen responsible for flax wilt. Faced with declining yields, the farmers may have further intensified their irrigation and cultivation schedules, only to exacerbate the underlying problems. Thus specialised crop production increased both agricultural risk and vulnerability to catastrophe, and Ras an-Numayra, unlike other sites in the region, was abandoned after a relatively short occupation.

An Architectural Pattern in Late Fourth-Millennium BC Western Iran: A New Link Between Susa, Tal-I Malyan, and Godin Tepe

This paper delineates a recurrent architectural pattern—unnoticed up to now—observed in late fourth-millennium BC strata at the Iranian sites of Susa, Tal-i Malyan, and Godin Tepe. On the basis of this evidence, the article proposes some considerations for understanding aspects of the period characterised by the so-called “Proto-Elamite phenomenon”.

Fourth-millennium-BC ‘leopard traps’ from the Negev Desert (Israel)

Stone-built installations known as ‘leopard traps’ are found throughout the deserts of the Middle East. They have generally been considered to be recent in date, and to have been built by Bedouin or other local communities to trap carnivores that threatened their flocks. But how much older might they be? Survey in the hyper-arid ‘Uvda Valley of the southern Negev Desert in Israel discovered 23 ‘leopard traps’, 19 of them clustered in a relatively small area. This study describes the architecture and function of these structures and presents the first optically stimulated luminescence ages for two of them. These results demonstrate that the traps are ancient and were already in use before the late fourth millennium BC, not long after the adoption of herding by the desert dwellers.

The Emergence of Metallurgy in the Central Mediterranean Region: A New Model

This study seeks to discuss the origins and early spread of metal technology in the central Mediterranean region. Neolithic and Copper Age evidence of metal-working and metal-using is first reviewed. It is claimed in particular that copper tools were first used, and probably also made, south of the Alps in the late Neolithic, and that complex polymetallic metallurgy developed in the early Copper Age after a short-lived intensification phase in the final Neolithic. In the second section, current models explaining the emergence of metallurgy in this region are then discussed, and a new proposal is put forward. This claims that metal technology, coming from eastern Europe, was imported into the whole of the east-central alpine region in the third quarter of the fifth millennium BC. Thence, it would have swiftly spread throughout northern Italy, central Italy, and Sardinia, and would have reached Corsica, southern Italy, and Sicily somewhat later. Finally, it is argued that the Copper Age metalworking communities dwelling in the western part of the central Mediterranean, and especially those located in west-central Italy, would have played a key role in transmitting knowledge of extractive metallurgy further west in the late fourth millennium BC.

Mahtoutabad III (Province of Kerman, Iran): An “Uruk-Related” Material Assemblage in Eastern Iran

During recent excavations in the third-millennium BC plundered graveyard of Mahtoutabad, next to Konar Sandal (Kerman, Iran), the authors excavated layers with Uruk-related ceramics. The types include bevel-rim bowls, flowerpots, low-sided trays, nose-lugged jars and other types previously encountered at several other contemporary sites in highland Iran. This new material is presented here with some preliminary comments on the general picture of the Uruk-related sites and pottery assemblages across the Iranian plateau of the mid- and late fourth millennium BC. We suggest that the related elements of the material culture of these contexts should be considered as open single questions, rather than as part of a monolithic cultural pattern awash with demanding historical or even ethnic implications.

A Rosetta Stone for the Prehistoric Solar Calendar? Kerbstone K15 at Knowth, Ireland

Interpreting Neolithic passage grave art is difficult but, according to middle range theory, could be achieved with analogies with known other factors. Celestial phenomena present one possibility and can easily be assessed qualitatively and quantitatively; however, a single match in modern eyes need not necessarily have been intended by Neolithic minds; independent corroboration is needed. The late fourth millennium BC kerbstone KI5 at Knowth, Ireland, bears a fan-shaped pattern that has been controversially interpreted as a solar calendar yet it has not been noted until now that there is independent evidence for exactly this calendar, in fine detail, in the standing stone alignments of Britain. A new examination and reinterpretation of the rock carving reveals a strikingly good match with this “menhir calendar” of Alexander Thom and strongly supports his statistical deductions from his survey data. Also offered is an interpretation of the “diamond and spiral” symbol that appears rarely on passage grave art and once on a sherd of Orkney Grooved ware. A link with the solar calendar is possible.

Immigration and transhumance in the Early Bronze Age Carpathian Basin: the occupants of akurgan

You never know until you look. The authors deconstruct a kurgan burial mound in the Great Hungarian Plain designated to the Yamnaya culture, to find it was actually shared by a number of different peoples. The Yamnaya were an influential immigrant group of the Late Copper Age/Early Bronze Age transition. The burials, already characterised by their grave goods, were radiocarbon dated and further examined using stable isotope analysis on the human teeth. The revealing sequence began with a young person of likely local origin buried around or even before the late fourth millennium BC—a few centuries before the arrival of the Yamnaya. It ended around 500 years later with a group of different immigrants, apparently from the eastern mountains. These are explained as contacts built up between the mountains and the plain through the practice of transhumance.

The earliest cylinder seal in the Arabian Peninsula

A cylinder seal of Late Uruk (late fourth millennium BC) type from Abu Dhabi is presented and analysed. Comparisons with excavated finds from elsewhere in the Near East are discussed. An inventory of cylinder seals from sites in the UAE and the Sultanate of Oman shows that cylinder seal use, while not unknown in the region, was never very great. The ways in which the seal may have arrived at its eventual place of discovery are described and the significance of the seal is assessed.

Isolation or Interaction: Prehistoric Cilicia and the Fourth Millennium Uruk Expansion

The late fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia may be understood in terms of a complex economy that expanded across western Asia. Some suggest that this trading network may be described as an Uruk-dominated world system in which the southern Mesopotamian core expanded to incorporate the peripheral regions of Syro-Mesopotamia, the Iranian highlands, and southeastern Anatolia. Alternatively, others suggest that the Late Uruk expansion was a catalyst for the development of the Mesopotamian hinterlands, resulting in socio-economically complex regional centers. Such centers may have competed for resources to satisfy both a local elite class as well as a newly established exchange system with southern Mesopotmia. Whatever its nature, within the realm of this Mesopotamian political and economic expansion, but on its fringes, was the region of Cilicia. This study examines the Cilician reaction to this economic expansion period. The Late Uruk period forms the main focus of this study, although the periods preceding are also of considerable importance; the Cilician history of economic interaction with neighboring regions prior to, during, and after the Late Uruk period is traced. An explanation for Cilicia's apparent absence from the late fourth millennium Mesopotamian economic structure is offered.

A survey of the Neolithic pottery of eastern and central Scotland

Pottery from at least sixteen sites in eastern and central Scotland can be attributed more or less certainly to the Earlier Neolithic. Although the quality of much of the evidence precludes detailed classification, at least some of the groups, characterised by the presence of carinated bowls, may be presumed to date from an early stage of the Neolithic. Other types, including a range of heavy unshouldered bowls, were certainly current by the mid-- to late fourth millennium BC, in terms of calibrated radiocarbon dates, while the evidence from other regions suggests that some decorated pottery may have made a similarly early appearance. The Later Neolithic pottery from the region is discussed briefly, mainly to highlight some of the problems which may be resolved by future discoveries. Major domestic assemblages of Earlier Neolithic pottery are yet unknown; some material derives from intact contexts involving structured deposition, but much is from residual and unrepresentative scatters.

Prehistoric Roads and Tracks in Somerset, England: 3. The Sweet Track

SummaryThe excavation of the Sweet track at two sites in the Somerset Levels has yielded unique material of the late fourth millennium bc. The track was built across a reed marsh, and the builders used a variety of timber obtained from both nearby fen-wood and from the dry land of the Burtle sand and the Poldens. Pollen analyses indicate that certain areas of the Levels were particularly favourable for forest clearance and cultivation, and the debris from the track shows a range of woodwork so far unique to the British Neolithic.