Relative Chronology Research Articles

Poetic Style and Innovation in Old English, Old Norse, and Old Saxon

Poetic Style and Innovation in Old English, Old Norse, and Old Saxon

Birkas svarta jord 1969–2021

Birkas black earth 1969–2021 - the development of a stratigraphic method. Birka’s role is a main reference point in discussions on land upheaval chronology, which is important in understanding prehistoric settlement in Scandinavia. Birka was also the central point of a wide-reaching hinterland throughout the Lake Mälaren region on the eastern coast of central Sweden. This was apparent at the restart of investigations into the settlement history of this area during the 1960s, and it was easy to incorporate in the post-war research into the history of West European towns. The complexity of the cultural layers of this settlement together with numerous small finds was a challenge already from the beginning of the Black Earth investigations in 1969–1971. It quickly became evident that new, more effective and rational excavation techniques and methods of documentation were needed. These were further developed at the beginning of the project, Excavations in the Black Earth 1990–1995, which was generously financed by Tetra Pak AB along with several companies and foundations. A concise account of how these problems were solved is described in this paper. The stratigraphic analysis of this extensive material is especially interesting. Thanks to these techniques and methods of documentation, it has been possible to construct a new relative chronology based on short intervals of only 5–10 years for the greater part of the Viking Age, although dendrochronological material is not preserved in these dry cultural layers.

Publication Dating through Observations of Differences in Woodblock Printing Characteristics among Various Versions of Wanpanbon Editions of Honggildongjeon (Tale of Hong Gil Dong)

To understand the process of publication and distribution of ancient Korean novels under the Joseon dynasty and Japanese occupation, collecting information on the publication of various printed materials and estimating their publication date through various methods is extremely important. In this study, the characteristics and differences that appeared in the woodblock printing process were investigated using image comparison among editions of the Honggildongjeon (Tale of Honggildong) of Wanpanbon (完板本) (published in the Jeonju region) with other commercial editions of the ancient Korean novels. Additionally, the publication year of each edition was estimated. Printed images of different versions were compared with those of a recently discovered original series version and the changes in the process of carving replacement woodblocks were investigated and summarized. Various phenomena, such as differences in fonts, borderline shapes and integrity of printed characters, appearing in woodblock prints provided useful information for determining chronological relationships between the prints and estimating the approximate publication year for each edition. The various characteristics of woodblock printing obtained through this study are expected to serve as a reference for estimating the relationship between the printing method and the approximate publication date of old books and paper-based printed historical records.

The historical development of imperfect indicative and conditional inflection in Pyrenean Romance*

AbstractEven historical developments which appear opaque due to limited empirical data may prove tractable when sources of diverse types are combined. For systems of three‐way inflectional contrast among imperfect indicative forms in a geographically coherent cluster of Catalan, Aragonese and Gascon varieties (e.g. first‐conjugation [kanˈtaβam] ‘we sang’; third‐conjugation [peɾˈðeβam] ‘we lost’; fourth‐conjugation [paˈtiβam] ‘we suffered’ in the Catalan variety of Castigaleu), two principal accounts have been proposed: an ‘etymological’ hypothesis in which three‐way imperfect contrasts represent a conservative feature continuing Latin forms, and an ‘analogical’ hypothesis in which thematic labials in non‐first‐conjugation imperfects are ascribed to analogical innovation. By examining historical texts, modern dialect data and areal patterns in order to develop a unified analysis of the Pyrenean systems, this study demonstrates that the modern systems result from analogical innovation, and further establishes the directionality and relative chronology of the analogical changes involved.

Structural Anatomy of the Intraterrane Shear Zones in the Archean Bundelkhand Craton, North-Central India and Its Possible Linkage to Supercontinent Assembly: Insights from Field- and AMS-Based Kinematic Analysis

Abstract Delineation and characterization of the intraterrane shear zones (ITSZs) are very significant in establishing suitable models to understand the tectonic evolution of continental blocks and often provide crucial information on supercontinent assembly. The granitoid rocks of the Bundelkhand Craton (BC) host mesoscale ductile shear zones of varying width and direction and typically represent decoupling zones (high and low strain), characteristic of ITSZs. The detailed study on the structural anatomy and nucleation of the ductile shear zones in the BC suggests the presence of four distinct sets of ITSZs along ~N-S, ~NE-SW, ~NW-SE, and ~ E-W directions. The nucleation of the ITSZs in the granitoid rocks is possibly a result of reactivation of the precursor fractures due to the rheological transformation induced by a fluid phase, which percolated through the fractures. Also, the thickness of the ultramylonite zone in the ITSZs is attributed to the width and style of the brittle fracturing. Here, we also construe a relative chronology of the development of fabric elements related to the ITSZs in BC with the help of cross-cutting relationships as observed in the field and further corroborated it to the available chronological data. This suggests, ~E-W trending ITSZs along the Bundelkhand tectonic zone (BTZ) and Raksa shear zone (RSZ) as the oldest followed by the evolution of ~N-S, ~NE-SW, and ~ NW-SE trending ITSZs. The kinematic analysis of these ITSZs, with the help of angular relationship between the measured mylonitic foliation and determined magnetic foliation data (by AMS analysis), suggests that fabric development in the ITSZs is dominantly governed by general shear except the oldest ~E-W trending ITSZs, which shows pure shear dominated progressive deformation. Also, with the help of field evidences and magnetic fabric analysis, we conclude that transpression was involved over a protracted period for the evolution of the ITSZs in the BC. Finally, we argue that the BTZ served as the site for the localization of the ~E-W trending ITSZs and represents the zone of amalgamation between North BC and South BC during the formation of Kenorland.

New Arabian desert kites and potential proto-kites extend the global distribution of hunting mega-traps

New desert kites have been discovered over the past two years during the observation of satellite images of north-western Arabia. Great numbers of these large archaeological traps were known prior to this from the Aralo-Caspian zone to the Arabian Peninsula. Many of these recent discoveries are constructions without the same closed enclosures as kites, but which are nonetheless clearly related to kites as, like them, they comprise pit-traps. The study of all these ‘open kites’, based on the observation of satellite images, focused on the characterisation of their morphology, topographical location and comparisons of their geographical distribution with that of kites in the region. The analysis of these data was confirmed by a field study in Khaybar, Saudi Arabia, of a sample of open kites in the spring of 2021, during which elements of relative chronology were observed. Open kites are more rudimentary and less systematically organised than kites and represent a ‘mega-trap’ form that pre-dates the desert kites. Groups of kites were identified on the basis of morphological resemblances, using two different methods, resulting in the overall mapping of mega-traps in the southern part of the kite distribution range. These localised morphological variations probably reflect the evolution of the hunting technique using these traps. They provide new information, which, combined with chronological data from excavations, aims to record the spread of the kite phenomenon.

The early history of clicks in Nguni

AbstractLanguage contact between migrating Bantu speakers and resident Khoisan speakers has resulted in the adoption of clicks in various southern African Bantu languages. This paper uses the comparative method to show that for one particular cluster of Bantu click languages, the Nguni languages, a large number of phonemic clicks can be reconstructed to its putative ancestor Proto-Nguni, including a palatal click rarely found in Bantu languages and no longer used as such in any living Nguni language. Although clicks have undergone subsequent developments in individual Nguni languages, no new click phonemes were acquired through language contact, showing that clicks were already present very early in the history of the Nguni languages. This relative chronology provides new insights into how the relations between Bantu- and Khoisan-speaking communities in southern Africa developed over time.

Typology and language change: The case of truncation

Diachronic change of prosodic structures, as it is encountered for instance in the history of stress systems, has been described as a slow process involving a series of minimal changes in a language’s grammar (Lahiri, 2015). We show that minimal grammatical change of prosodic structures is observed as well in the domain of name truncation (e.g. Italian hypocoristic formation: Francesca > France), where diachronic change is fast and therefore analyzable in real time. Following a study by Boschiroli (2017) on the perceived age of Italian truncation patterns, we establish a relative chronology of French and German truncation patterns and propose an analysis where minimality in language change is defined in terms of the ranking conditions (typological properties) determining the typological system of truncation.

A New Insight into the Biostratigraphy of Usfan and Haddat Ash Sham Formations, West Central Saudi Arabia

A clastic-dominated sedimentary succession is exposed in different localities at the central part of western Saudi Arabia, unconformably overlying the weathered Precambrian Arabian Shield rocks. The age and chronological relationships of the different formational names applied to that succession is still a matter of debate among geologists. The succession is assigned to Cretaceous-Eocene or Oligo-Miocene according to the ages of the overlying Tertiary basic volcanics (harrat).

Imperishable light of the Amber from the Japod necropolises in the Una valley

Imperishable light of the Amber from the Japod necropolises in the Una valley

Орудия труда из объектов сяньбийского времени комплекса Карбан-I (Северный Алтай)

The article presents the analysis of the tools found in the burials of the Bulan-Koby culture of the Karban-I necropolis. Research on this site, located in the Chemal region of the Altai Republic, was carried out by an expedition of the Barnaul Pedagogical Institute (now Altai State Pedagogical University) in 1989–1990. The source base of the work is composed of the materials from eight undisturbed burials of adults (mounds No. 9, 11, 14, 25, 27, 30, 33, 39). They are represented by four knives, five awls, two whip handles, one adze, one oselok. The authors analyzed the general, special and individual morphological signs of these objects to determine their relative chronology, taking into account dated analogies from other necropolises of the Bulan-Koby culture, as well as archaeological sites of Central and North Asia of the last quarter of the 1st millennium BC — the first half of the 1st millennium AD. It has been established that most of the recorded tools have an initial period of existence among the population of Altai no earlier than the 2nd century AD. A significant standardization of the location of knives and awls in the graves, in almost all cases at the right thigh of a deceased person, was revealed. The results of the study of materials from the excavations of the Karban-I necropolis allow us to conclude that all the categories of tools discovered were an attribute of the accompanying equipment of men.

Бронзы из курганного могильника Арчекас на реке Кия (по материалам раскопок 1971 года на северо-востоке Кузбасса)

To solve the problem of cultural and chronological affiliation of the Archekas burial mound, located on the right bank of the Kiya River (left tributary of the Chulym River), in the Middle Kiya archaeological microdistrict in the north-east of Kuzbass, the author analyzed the elemental composition of the metal of the accompanying inventory from two collective and one single burials of the burial ground, which consisted of two burial mounds. The materials of the archaeological site have a chronologically and territorially wide range of analogies; therefore, since the first comprehension of the results of excavations in 1971 (the works of A.M. Kulemzin), they entail conflicting dating and understanding of the cultural attribution of this object. The data published in the article about the composition of copper-bronze alloys of seven objects (two mirrors, a celt, two buckles, a knife and a badge-wheel) were obtained as a result of application of two methods - non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analysis of the surface and atomic emission spectroscopy with inductively coupled plasma, when a metal sample in the form of swarf is analyzed. The publication of the results of the analysis of metal products is accompanied by their description and illustrations. Statistical and archaeometallurgical interpretation of the data obtained showed that by the ratio of chemical and metallurgical groups of copper-based alloys (43% of tin bronzes, 14% of arsenous-tin bronzes, 29% of “pure” copper, 14% of arsenic copper) the studied collection of bronzes is close to the materials of the sites of the Upper Ob region (Kulay culture, Kamenny Cape burial ground), Kiya-Chulym interfluve (Lepeshkinsky stage of the Tagar culture, Serebryakovo I burial ground) and Tuva (Uyuk-Saglyn culture, Suglug-Khem burial ground) dated III-II centuries BCE. Like the Archekas collection, the sets of non-ferrous metal of this time are distinguished by the absence of pieces with a pronounced predominance of tin or arsenic alloys. This shows the transitional nature of the metallurgical strategy, which fits in terms of relative chronology between the tradition of tin alloys of the middle of the 1st millennium BCE and copper-arsenic alloys at the turn of the era. In combination with the analysis of the range of late analogies of the objects of the Archekas burial ground, covering the period from the II century BCE until the VI century BCE, the data on the elemental composition of the bronzes allow concluding that the metallurgical tradition is archaic, which is recorded on the basis of the materials of the only burial site investigated in the Archekas archaeological complex. The analogies given for the Archekas inventory from the monuments of the Bolsherechensk culture of the Upper Ob region, mainly of its Berezovsky stage (II-I centuries BCE), are supported by the hypothesis earlier expressed by V.V. Bobrov about the nearby Kuznetsk Basin as a seasonal pasture of the population of the Bolsherechensk culture.

Gyakorisági viszonyok a korai ómagyar kori hangtani nyelvjárási különbségek leírásában

Frequency Conditions in the Description of Phonological Dialectal Differences in the Early Old Hungarian Era The primary, direct source material for the description of phonological dialectal differences in the early Old Hungarian Era is represented by linguistic data found in linguistic records. The source value of data in linguistic records in historical dialectology, however, may vary significantly. The main obstacle to the use of linguistic records from the early Old Hungarian Era, besides pitfalls posed by orthographic history, is represented by their characteristic linguistic variation, thus when studying the source value of historical data for historical dialectology we also need to consider the causes of dualities seen in linguistic records. There¬fore, I have already addressed this problem in detail in one of my earlier papers. When it comes to the description of the regional features of the phonological dichotomies during the Old Hungarian Era, we also need to keep it in mind that some of the remnants found in the charters do not necessarily reflect the dialect of the local name users but that of the scribe of the charter. I examined this issue as well when studying charters that have survived in different copies and were created at almost the same time as by scrutinizing these sources we may hope to find out why certain phenomena in historical dialectology emerge also in areas and at times where and when it would not otherwise be expected. When defining the source value of historical data for historical dialectology we cannot disregard, besides all these, the regional and chronological unevenness of the sources. In this paper I present how these factors determine the attitude towards historical data from the early Old Hungarian Era, i.e., the use of which methodological principles may bring us results when assessing the frequency of data. Of the phonological dialectal features from the early Old Hungarian Era I provide examples for phonological dichotomies related to i ~ ü, ë ~ ö, é ~ í, the dropping of l and the ëÝ diphthong. The inclusion of historical data from the early Old Hungarian Era in research on historical dialectology is made more difficult my several circumstances. A cautious attitude towards data and their use with the help of different filters may avoid these restrictive factors in a reassuring manner. The results and methodo¬logical solutions presented here indicate that it is not only the relative frequency of chronological and regional features that must be considered due to the uneven¬ness of data distribution but because of the scarce sources of certain areas we also need to keep in mind the absolute frequency relations in order to avoid a distorted image. Of course, the introduction of regional and chronological relations cannot be independent of one another. Those cases underlie the expediency of relying on both aspects together which although do not show differences in chronological frequency due to the conservative nature of orthography but spatial representation shows the spreading process of the given dialectal phenomenon well.

Helynévtörténeti adalékok Bihar vármegye korai településtörténetéhez

Insights from Historical Toponomastics into the Early Settlement History of Bihar County The historical Bihar County was one of the largest administrative units of the Kingdom of Hungary that played a key role in the life of the eastern region from the beginning. The conclusions of historians regarding the settlement date of its territory are only theoretical suppositions based on the projection of subsequent natural circumstances and ethnic features to an earlier time and they lack real historical or archeological evidence. With the help of settlement name data, linguists may draw more certain conclusions regarding the chronological features of the settlement of the county. Based on the toponyms preserved in sources, we may examine the productive period of particular settlement name types. Although the documentation of names is contingent, this affects all names and thus all name types the same way. Therefore, even if the absolute chronology (date of creation) of particular names is not revealed, the relative chronology of different name types (i.e., relative to one another) may be well indicated also by the first name occurrences of the settlements in the case of a larger quantity of names. The chronological curve of a name type may undoubtedly indicate the changes in the frequency of name specimen belonging to the type only with a temporal delay (and what is more, we cannot even explore the parameters of the delay), however, we have no other tool with which we could examine and model the internal chrono¬logical movements of the name system. The first part of the paper introduces how this method works using the type of settlement names with an ethnonym origin. Geographically and in the daily life of people living in Bihar County, the Sebes-Körös river had an outstanding role. The second part of the paper analyzes the settlement name corpus of the river valley from the Old Hungarian Era. In consideration of the etymological, spatial and chronological attributes of the de¬nominations and using the toolbox of toponym reconstruction, it reveals the varied features of the name patterns of the areas along the Sebes-Körös. The basis of the study is provided by four areas distinguished based on the natural and topog¬raphical features along the river: the lower and upper sections of the Sebes-Körös and the right, i.e., northern, and left, i.e., southern regions of the two sections. The paper introduces the chronological distribution of settlement names in the region. The region-specific differences identified in the toponymic system of particular regions are referred to as name patterns. Of the numerous attributes defining the differing name patterns of the four regions along the Sebes-Körös, the paper introduces the differences in the structural features of the settlement names as linguistic attributes primarily defining the names. The results of the onomatosystematical studies regarding the toponymic system of the Sebes-Körös region provide the following three important conclusions regarding settlement history: 1. Hungarians settling in the area could encounter people speaking another language (Slavic) only in traces. Other foreign people did not settle here in larger numbers in later times either. 2. The characteristics of the name system indicate that in the lower section (despite its marshy, swampy features) settlements of Hungarians could be created earlier. 3. The growth rate and onomatosystematical features of the name corpus indicate that there could also be a second, stronger village foundation wave in the settlement process of the area to the south of the river.

THE ANTIKYTHERA WRECK: A NUMISMATIC APPROACH

THE ANTIKYTHERA WRECK: A NUMISMATIC APPROACH

Funeral complexes of the Globular Amphora culture from the vicinity of Ostrog, Volhynia, Ukraine

A funeral complex of the eastern group of the Globular Amphora culture was excavated in an Eneolithic cemetery at the Ostrog-Zeman site, Volhynia, Ukraine, in 2006. The complex consisted of a human tomb and an animal burial located nearby. The tomb, built of small stone slabs and oriented with its long sides along the east-west axis, was divided into two almost identical parts (chambers) – eastern and western. А pot and an amphora were deposited in the eastern chamber, near the transverse wall. At least four people were buried in the western part, destroyed in modern times. The furnishings of this part comprised four amphorae and one bowl. Two meters to the northwest of the tomb, an animal burial without any artefacts was found; it included three skeletons of cattle (bulls) and one of a young pig. Analysis of pottery showed that it belonged to the period around 2950 BC and was synchronous with the early graves of the Volhynian subgroup, e.g. in Tovpyzhyn and Mykolaiv. At the same site, relics of a Globular Amphora culture settlement were also discovered, represented by pottery clusters. To some extent, they confirmed the relative chronology established for the tomb. In the context of these new discoveries, materials from the tomb recovered in 1900 in Mezhyrich-Filvarka (actually – Mezhyrich-Pidvarka), located in the vicinity of Ostrog, are re-analysed and re-published. The relevance of the re-publication stems from the need to clarify the technical details of the description of items from the tomb and their proper graphic documentation.

The Early Medieval graves of Groß Ottenhagen (Berezovka). On the way from Sambia to the middle reaches of the Niemen

The field research at Groß ottenhagen (Berezovka) conducted in 2003 and 2004 was the first international scientific collaboration between German and russian archaeologists in kaliningrad region since 1945. The Groß ottenhagen cemetery demonstrates almost continuous functioning for about 1,000 years, from the roman iron Age up to the middle Ages. The part of the site considered in the article belongs to the last stage of the development of sambian-natangian culture among the old Prussians in the 11th to the 13th centuries Ad. despite a first analysis by the excavators in 2005, this data from the cemetery has never been fully published. Groß ottenhagen graves from the discussed period are represented by so-called double layer burial features, with human cremations on top of horse burials. The burial rites and grave goods at the cemetery are discussed in the context of archaeological material from the sambian peninsula and southwest and central lithuania. The relative chronology of Groß ottenhagen is based on an analysis of grave goods, as well as the stratigraphy and the spatial distribution of the graves. According to the absence of imported/status goods at Groß ottenhagen, the cemetery probably belonged to a peripheral group of the late sambian-natangian region culture of the Prussians.

Surficial and Shallow Subsurface Geology of the Northern and Central Exuma Cays, The Bahamas

The surface and subsurface geology of the Exuma Cays in the central Bahama Islands records sea-level cyclicity that extends back to the Jurasssic, however the focus of this paper is the Plio-Pleistocene, since approximately 1–3 million years ago. During the 1990s, the first author surveyed a large number of the islands by boat, mapped the geology on 1:25,000 topographic maps with the aid of air photos, and more recently complemented these mapping studies using Google Earth Pro. In 1994, two 33 m cores were extracted from Norman's Pond Cay and Lee Stocking Island in the southern group of the Exuma Cays. The outcropping rocks throughout the Cays are characterized by a mix of nearly pure bioclastic and oolitic sediments and limestone units. Generally, the highstand limestone deposits are capped with lowstand terra rossa paleosols, red-stained micritic limestone, calcrete, or karst surfaces. From surface and subsurface geology, a minimum of seven stratigraphic units are recorded, yet many cycles are obviously missing. Three broad eustatic intervals are evident from the δ18O record. These are associated with the Pliocene-early Pleistocene (“PP” >1.2 Ma), Mid-Pleistocene Transition (“MPT” ∼1.2–0.7 Ma), and the mid-late Pleistocene (“MLP” ∼0.7 Ma to present). A combination of physical stratigraphy, geomorphology, paleomagnetism, and amino acid racemization (AAR) provide a general age framework for these deposits. Pliocene beds at -25 m in only one core appear to indicate slow subsidence of the Bahama Banks. An interval of prolonged bank marginal or lower sea stands of the MPT are indicated by a cluster of dense, clayey red paleosols. Many MLP rocks on the islands and in the cores retain sufficient amino acids to establish a relative chronology for the MLP. The geomorphic and stratigraphic succession from the Exumas shows very rapid progradation of the over-steepened bank margin toward Exuma Sound by several km since the Plio-Pleistocene. The purpose of this paper is to: 1) characterize the geology of the existing Exuma rocks and cays; 2) demonstrate the shallow-subsurface stratigraphy in two 33-m long cores; and 3) provide some examples of how the Exuma Cays and their margins have evolved over the past 1–3 million years.

An Elucidation of the Absolute (C14) and Relative Chronologies of the Zab Basin’s Bronze Age Cultures Using AMS; The Genesis of Cultural Identity Against the Backdrop of the Late Chalcolithic Developments

An Elucidation of the Absolute (C14) and Relative Chronologies of the Zab Basin’s Bronze Age Cultures Using AMS; The Genesis of Cultural Identity Against the Backdrop of the Late Chalcolithic Developments

Combining Relative Chronology and AMS 14C Dating to Contextualize ‘Megasites’, Serial Migrations and Diachronic Expressions of Material Culture in the Western Tripolye Culture, Ukraine

Scholarship regarding the Eneolithic Cucuteni-Tripolye cultural complex of Romania, Moldova and Ukraine has recently focused on ‘megasites’ of the Western Tripolye culture (WTC) in Central Ukraine. However, in order to properly contextualize such unusual phenomena, we must explore the broader typo-chronology of the WTC, which is suggestive of a high degree of mobility and technological transfer between regions. We report 28 new AMS 14C dates from sites representing diagnostic types and propose a high-resolution chronological sequence for the WTC’s development. Our results support the relative chronology and offer an opportunity to propose a new chronological synthesis for the WTC.