Third-millennium BC Research Articles

The Architecture and Pottery of a Late Third-Millennium Residential Quarter at Tell Hamoukar, North-Eastern Syria

The 2001 excavations in Area H on Hamoukar's lower town produced a wealth of information on a residential neighbourhood of a late third-millennium BC city. The excavations were intended to address several issues, including chronology, urban form and the final abandonment of the site. Toward these ends, a broad exposure of over 400 m2 was opened, revealing a prosperous neighbourhood that had been sacked and abruptly abandoned. This report addresses two aspects, its architecture and ceramic assemblage, in detail. The architecture demonstrates broadly shared principles in spatial patterning and planning, as well as similarities in construction, with variations connected to socioeconomic status. The ceramics represent a snapshot of the assemblage of the late or post-Akkadian period, including many whole or reconstructable forms. Contrary to the expectations of abrupt climatic change models, Hamoukar remained settled and urbanised after the proposed 2200 BC Akkadian collapse, and its abandonment was the result of a sudden and violent military event.

Late Holocene climate variability in the southwestern Mediterranean region: an integrated marine and terrestrial geochemical approach

Abstract. A combination of marine (Alboran Sea cores, ODP 976 and TTR 300 G) and terrestrial (Zoñar Lake, Andalucia, Spain) geochemical proxies provides a high-resolution reconstruction of climate variability and human influence in the southwestern Mediterranean region for the last 4000 years at inter-centennial resolution. Proxies respond to changes in precipitation rather than temperature alone. Our combined terrestrial and marine archive documents a succession of dry and wet periods coherent with the North Atlantic climate signal. A dry period occurred prior to 2.7 cal ka BP – synchronously to the global aridity crisis of the third-millennium BC – and during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (1.4–0.7 cal ka BP). Wetter conditions prevailed from 2.7 to 1.4 cal ka BP. Hydrological signatures during the Little Ice Age are highly variable but consistent with more humidity than the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Additionally, Pb anomalies in sediments at the end of the Bronze Age suggest anthropogenic pollution earlier than the Roman Empire development in the Iberian Peninsula. The Late Holocene climate evolution of the in the study area confirms the see-saw pattern between the eastern and western Mediterranean regions and the higher influence of the North Atlantic dynamics in the western Mediterranean.

Identity and Adornment in the Third-millennium bc Mesopotamian ‘Royal Cemetery’ at Ur

This article presents a study of the deposition of jewellery on bodies in the third-millennium bc Mesopotamian ‘Royal Cemetery’ at Ur. Four assemblages of adornments are identified and evaluated in relation to burial type, gender, age, privilege, and behavioural role. Aspects of the social and ritual identities of the dead are then interpreted through adornment. While the historic definition of the interred community and the precise nature of their practices are open to speculation, this study begins to clarify dynamics of group and individual identity at this site of human sacrifice.

Egypt and Syro‐Mesopotamia in the 4th Millennium: Implications of the New Chronology

Previous articleNext article No AccessReportsEgypt and Syro‐Mesopotamia in the 4th Millennium: Implications of the New Chronology1Alexander H. JoffeAlexander H. JoffeDepartment of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. 16802, U.S.A. ([email protected]). 14 iv 99 Search for more articles by this author Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. 16802, U.S.A. ([email protected]). 14 iv 99PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 41, Number 1February 2000 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/300110 Views: 262Total views on this site Citations: 11Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Nasir Eskandari, Massimo Vidale Drilling stone vessels in third-millennium BC Iran: new evidence from Hajjiabad-Varamin, Jiroft (Kerman Province), Antiquity 96, no.389389 (Aug 2022): 1142–1161.https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2022.87Raphael Greenberg The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant, 43 (Oct 2019).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316275993Philippe Beaujard The Worlds of the Indian Ocean, 84 (Oct 2019).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108341004Cecil Seethal Historical Settlement: Africa, (Mar 2017): 1–11.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0976Alice Stevenson The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation, Journal of Archaeological Research 24, no.44 (Mar 2016): 421–468.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-016-9094-7 Domestication, Agriculture, and the Rise of the State, (Mar 2014): 109–120.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139050814.020 The Mid-Holocene, the Late Neolithic, and the Urban-State Revolution, (Mar 2014): 165–212.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139050814.007 Bibliography, (Nov 2011): 256–348.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444342369.biblio Bibliography, (Oct 2010): 1154–1212.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444320053.biblio1Stephen Bourke, Ugo Zoppi, John Meadows, Quan Hua, Samantha Gibbins The Beginning of the Early Bronze Age in the North Jordan Valley: New 14 C Determinations from Pella in Jordan, Radiocarbon 51, no.33 (Jul 2016): 905–913.https://doi.org/10.1017/S003382220003397XBruce G. Trigger Understanding Early Civilizations, 17 (Jun 2014).https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840630

Egypt and Syro-Mesopotamia in the 4th Millennium: Implications of the New Chronology

Previous articleNext article No AccessReportsEgypt and Syro‐Mesopotamia in the 4th Millennium: Implications of the New Chronology1Alexander H. JoffeAlexander H. JoffeDepartment of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. 16802, U.S.A. ([email protected]). 14 iv 99 Search for more articles by this author Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. 16802, U.S.A. ([email protected]). 14 iv 99PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 41, Number 1February 2000 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/300110 Views: 267Total views on this site Citations: 11Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Nasir Eskandari, Massimo Vidale Drilling stone vessels in third-millennium BC Iran: new evidence from Hajjiabad-Varamin, Jiroft (Kerman Province), Antiquity 96, no.389389 (Aug 2022): 1142–1161.https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2022.87Raphael Greenberg The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant, 43 (Oct 2019).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316275993Philippe Beaujard The Worlds of the Indian Ocean, 84 (Oct 2019).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108341004Cecil Seethal Historical Settlement: Africa, (Mar 2017): 1–11.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0976Alice Stevenson The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation, Journal of Archaeological Research 24, no.44 (Mar 2016): 421–468.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-016-9094-7 Domestication, Agriculture, and the Rise of the State, (Mar 2014): 109–120.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139050814.020 The Mid-Holocene, the Late Neolithic, and the Urban-State Revolution, (Mar 2014): 165–212.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139050814.007 Bibliography, (Nov 2011): 256–348.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444342369.biblio Bibliography, (Oct 2010): 1154–1212.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444320053.biblio1Stephen Bourke, Ugo Zoppi, John Meadows, Quan Hua, Samantha Gibbins The Beginning of the Early Bronze Age in the North Jordan Valley: New 14 C Determinations from Pella in Jordan, Radiocarbon 51, no.33 (Jul 2016): 905–913.https://doi.org/10.1017/S003382220003397XBruce G. Trigger Understanding Early Civilizations, 17 (Jun 2014).https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840630