Twelfth Century BC Research Articles

Vessel use at the Mycenaean Palace of Ayios Vasileios, Laconia, using Organic Residue Analysis

Abstract In Mycenaean palaces a wide range of consumption activities took place, from the most exclusive to mass-consumption. Here we apply organic residue analysis to a typologically wide ceramic assemblage from the Mycenaean palace of Ayios Vasileios (early fourteenth to mid thirteenth century BC), and the succeeding settlement of the early twelfth century BC, with the aim of investigating the functions of common shapes and to observe patterns of chronological and spatial differentiation related to the palatial and post-palatial phases, the first study of its kind for a Mycenaean palace.

The origin of the Protogeometric style in northern Greece and its relevance for the absolute chronology of the Early Iron Age

Classical archaeological chronologies are steeped in relative dating, but the application of absolute methods does not always support such clear-cut seriation. Here, the authors consider the significance of a Macedonian vase in reconciling the conventional and absolute chronologies of Early Iron Age Greece. Decorated with compass-drawn concentric circles and found in a Late Bronze Age context at ancient Eleon, Boeotia, the authors argue that this vessel establishes a chronological anchor and supports a twelfth-century BC emergence of the Protogeometric style in central Macedonia. A model for the indigenous development and dispersal of the Macedonian Protogeometric style is presented for future elaboration.

Ancient DNA reveals admixture history and endogamy in the prehistoric Aegean

The Neolithic and Bronze Ages were highly transformative periods for the genetic history of Europe but for the Aegean—a region fundamental to Europe’s prehistory—the biological dimensions of cultural transitions have been elucidated only to a limited extent so far. We have analysed newly generated genome-wide data from 102 ancient individuals from Crete, the Greek mainland and the Aegean Islands, spanning from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. We found that the early farmers from Crete shared the same ancestry as other contemporaneous Neolithic Aegeans. In contrast, the end of the Neolithic period and the following Early Bronze Age were marked by ‘eastern’ gene flow, which was predominantly of Anatolian origin in Crete. Confirming previous findings for additional Central/Eastern European ancestry in the Greek mainland by the Middle Bronze Age, we additionally show that such genetic signatures appeared in Crete gradually from the seventeenth to twelfth centuries bc, a period when the influence of the mainland over the island intensified. Biological and cultural connectedness within the Aegean is also supported by the finding of consanguineous endogamy practiced at high frequencies, unprecedented in the global ancient DNA record. Our results highlight the potential of archaeogenomic approaches in the Aegean for unravelling the interplay of genetic admixture, marital and other cultural practices.

An Absence of Time: Remarks on the Temporal Mode of Being in Royal Elamite Inscriptions

The surviving royal inscriptions from ancient Elam (in the south and southwest of modern Iran) speak of two historical characters who occupy particular positions outside physical time. These are Šilhaha (probably active in the early nineteenth century BC) and Princess Bar-Uli (in the second half of the twelfth century BC). Šilhaha became a prominent figure in Elamite history. His position is known through a legitimizing formula used by several subsequent rulers who claimed to be the ‘son of Šilhaha’s sister’. Thus, Šilhaha became a sempiternal being as his metaphysical existence was necessary for all the future kings who would make such a claim. However, his temporal mode of being changed from sempiternal to omnitemporal when he appeared in a curse formulated in the late twelfth century BC. In this curse, Šilhaha occupies a divine position. To appear in such a position means that his metaphysical existence would become necessary for the future both within and outside physical time. As for B/Par-Uli, she is called the ‘beloved daughter’ and ‘salvation’ of King Šilhak-Inšušinak I (conventionally 1150-1120 BC). Being her father’s ‘salvation’ denotes her role in this world and the hereafter. Moreover, her image, engraved in a mirror-like scene on a chalcedony bead, further emphasises her position and role. Drawing on the terms ‘temporal’, ‘sempiternal’ and ‘omnitemporal’, this paper examines the textual contexts to see how the shift in the temporal modes of being occurred. In the end, the image on the chalcedony bead will be briefly discussed.

Chapter Four: Archaic and Classical Ceramics of Eleon

After a long gap in the ceramic record following the twelfth century bc, ceramic materials dating from the eighth through the fourth century bc are documented in our excavations. This contribution presents for the first time the key deposits of Archaic and Classical material identified on the acropolis of Eleon from 2011 to 2014, including the evidence for the dating of the polygonal wall, the only monumental construction of this period identified so far at the site. Attention is also drawn to the large quantities of votive materials recovered from the ramped entryway and other areas of the site, which appear to attest to one or more cults operating on the acropolis during the sixth through the fourth century bc, if not earlier.

Mobile elites at Frattesina: flows of people in a Late Bronze Age ‘port of trade’ in northern Italy

Abstract

5. White Hair and Feeding Bottles: Exploring Interactions Between Children and the Elderly in the Late Bronze Age Aegean

Scholarship on age and gender in prehistoric Greece has taken an adult-centric approach with focus placed mostly on young to middle-aged men and women and, as a result, two significant age groups – children and the elderly – have been widely neglected. Lacking a strong insight into attitudes that were shown towards these two age groups, however means that archaeologists do not really harbour a concept of the whole span of life in the cultures that developed in the Aegean region during the Late Bronze Age. Making children and the elderly visible in the archaeological record and examining their social roles, agency and interactions is vital for a better understanding of the social workings of the prehistoric Aegean world. Integrating an interdisciplinary methodology with a systematic study of the available material remains – ranging from the study of funerary contexts to iconographic sources and textual references, this study seeks to assess the evidence for childhood and old age in the Late Bronze Age Aegean, and to shed light − for the first time − on the interactions between the younger and older segments of the population in both life and death from the mid-seventeenth to the twelfth centuries BC.

Geological evidence of tsunamis in the past 3800 years at a coastal lowland in the Central Fukushima Prefecture, Japan

We found seven event deposits during the past 3800 years in a total of 16 geological core samples from a coastal lowland in Fukushima Prefecture, about 12 km north of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The event deposits consisted of well-sorted and rounded fine to coarse sand with single normal grading structures, parallel laminae, mud drapes, rip-up clasts, and erosional basal contacts. They were distributed about 2 km inland from the current shoreline and commonly became thinner landward. The third and fifth sand layers were characterized by many climbing ripples and parallel and trough-cross bedding that were probably caused by storm surges or some other events during the period of absent beach ridges. The other deposits were characterized by sedimentological features common to tsunami deposits. The top layer appeared to have been deposited by the 2011 Tohoku tsunami, and the second layer might have been resulted from the AD 869 Jogan Tohoku tsunami. The other three tsunami deposits corresponded to tsunami events between the second and fourth centuries AD, the sixth and fourth centuries BC, and the twelfth and ninth centuries BC. The average recurrence interval of the paleo-tsunamis was estimated to be 560–950 years. These dates are mostly consistent with previous studies of the Sendai plain, suggesting that paleo-tsunamis that reached the Sendai plain also reached the coast of Fukushima Prefecture. However, no trace was found from an earthquake around the 15th century, which had been considered as a predecessor of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake (Mw 9.0) in the tsunami deposit surveys in Sendai plain.

Detecting Mobility in Early Iron Age Thessaly by Strontium Isotope Analysis

This article presents evidence of population movements in Thessaly, Greece, during the Early Iron Age (Protogeometric period, eleventh–ninth centuriesbc). The method we employed to detect non-local individuals is strontium isotope analysis (87Sr/86Sr) of tooth enamel integrated with the contextual analysis of mortuary practices and osteological analysis of the skeletal assemblage. During the Protogeometric period, social and cultural transformations occurred while society was recovering from the disintegration of the Mycenaean civilization (twelfth centurybc). The analysis of the cemeteries of Voulokaliva, Chloe, and Pharsala, located in southern Thessaly, showed that non-local individuals integrated in the communities we focused on and contributed to the observed diversity in burial practices and to the developments in the formation of a social organization.

The development of the hillfort in prehistoric Ireland

Hillforts are one of the best known, and certainly the largest, monuments of the later prehistoric period in Ireland. Their immense size testifies to the significance these central places held in economic, political and ideological terms for societies of the later Bronze Age. Hillforts were centres for high-status residence, ceremony and assembly, and a visual expression of power in the landscape. Their occurrence is another manifestation of a warrior culture that spread across Europe during the later second millennium BC. This paper presents the results of a recent investigation of hillfort chronology in Ireland. The first examples were built c.1400–1200 BC during the Middle Bronze Age, and the number of hillforts grew significantly during the twelfth and eleventh centuries BC into the Late Bronze Age. The possibility of hillforts dating to other periods of Irish prehistory is also considered in relation to hilltop enclosures of the Early Neolithic and Iron Age.

Micromorphological contributions to the study of ritual behavior at the ash altar to Zeus on Mt. Lykaion, Greece

The ash altar to Zeus, located on a peak of Mt. Lykaion (Greece), consists of a thick, anthropogenic deposit that formed as a result of repeated deposition of burnt offerings. Excavations conducted from 2007 to 2010 uncovered evidence of a long history of use of the mountain summit as a purely ritual locality. Micromorphological analyses of sediment from the southern area of the altar confirm that a majority of the sedimentary components are microscopic artifacts sourced from combustion activities. The basal units comprise the remnants of a thin soil which contains inclusions of charcoal, burned bone, and fat-derived char and is associated with Mycenaean (sixteenth–twelfth centuries BC) materials. Ritual burning activities in the southern area peaked in the Protogeometric through Classical periods (tenth–fourth centuries BC), with intensive burning associated with the practice of thysia (ritual sacrifice) yielding a deposit in which the <2 mm particle size fraction is composed almost entirely of burned bone, wood ashes, charcoal, and other charred materials. Both the basal and uppermost portions of the sequence were impacted by decalcification, which resulted in the dissolution of ashes and surficial weathering of rock fragments. Postdepositional bioturbation also contributed to the observed distribution of archaeological materials within the feature. The geoarchaeological analyses suggest that similar types of burning activities were conducted in Mycenaean and later times. This finding is relevant to hypothesized continuity of cult between the Bronze and Iron Ages and makes Mt. Lykaion one of the very few sites in the entire Greek world where ritual continuity can be demonstrated.

Manufacture of Eastern European decorative tin–bronze discs from twelfth century BC

During the European Bronze Age, flat discs with a variety of decorative elements were produced to be used most likely as either decoration attached to clothing or as parts of horse harnesses. The size and decoration differ according to region and period. The discs discussed here were all found in hoards deposited in a rather short period around 1200–1100 BC in Croatia, Bosnia and Austria. They were analysed to obtain information about their composition and manufacture, both of which may have changed in relation to increasing distance from the centre of distribution or supposed production as a result of copying, or might not have changed significantly if the discs were imported.

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The Philistines and Aegean migration at the end of the late Bronze Age

In this study, Assaf Yasur-Landau examines the early history of the biblical Philistines who were among the 'Sea Peoples' who migrated from the Aegean area to the Levant during the early twelfth century BC. Creating an archaeological narrative of the migration of the Philistines, he combines an innovative theoretical framework on the archaeology of migration with new data from excavations in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel and thereby reconstructs the social history of the Aegean migration to the southern Levant. The author follows the story of the migrants from the conditions that caused the Philistines to leave their Aegean homes, to their movement eastward along the sea and land routes, to their formation of a migrant society in Philistia and their interaction with local populations in the Levant. Based on the most up-to-date evidence, this book offers a new and fresh understanding of the arrival of the Philistines in the Levant.

The settlement histories of Cyprus at the opening of the twelfth century BC

L ’ existence d ’ États politiquement et économiquement puissants de Méditerranée orientale s ’ acheva par une «crise » (fin XIIIe s . -début XIIe s . av . J . -C .) : disparition des sociétés palatiales de l ’ empire hittite et des Mycéniens , graves destructions dans la plupart des États prospères de la côte syro-palestinienne , voire abandon . Entre Égée et Levant , Chypre occupe une place centrale dans ces débats . Son organisation récente en centres urbanisés , suscitée par la demande extérieure de cuivre , lui donne une spécificité dont on examinera la géographie politique (villes côtières contrôlant le commerce du cuivre …), et l ’ impact sur l ’ île de la «crise » : ni dévastateur ni uniforme , il met en évidence une continuité politique et matérielle du Bronze Récent au premier âge du Fer . L ’ objectif de cette étude est de mettre en lumière les diverses réponses régionales des villes chypriotes à la «crise » du XIIe s ., et de reconstituer pour chacune l ’ histoire de son établissement .

Radiocarbon dating the Iron Age in the Levant: a Bayesian model for six ceramic phases and six transitions

The Bayesian model presented in this article is the first attempt to produce a chronological framework for the Iron Age in the Levant, using radiocarbon dating alone. The model derives from 339 determinations on 142 samples taken from 38 strata at 18 sites. The framework proposes six ceramic phases and six transitions which cover c. 400 years, between the late twelfth and mid eighth centuries BC. It furnishes us with a new scientific backbone for the history of Iron Age Levant.The article is supported by an online supplement which can be found in at http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/finkelstein324

POST‐COLLAPSE: THE RE‐EMERGENCE OF POLITY IN IRON AGE BOĞAZKÖY, CENTRAL ANATOLIA

SummaryHow communities reorganize after collapse is drawing increasing attention across a wide spectrum of disciplines. Iron Age Boğazköy provides an archaeological case study of urban and political regeneration after the widespread collapse of eastern Mediterranean Late Bronze Age empires in the early twelfth century BC. Recent work at Boğazköy has significantly expanded our understanding of long‐term occupation in north central Anatolia. This work counters previous suggestions that Boğazköy was abandoned after the collapse of the Hittite Empire during the Early Iron Age. In this paper, we focus on the Iron Age occupations at the site to show how growth in the scale and complexity of ceramic production and trade during this period provides another line of evidence for economic and political re‐emergence. Based on the increasing diversity of non‐local ceramics and ceramic emulations during the Iron Age, we suggest that only in the Late Iron Age, 500–700 years after Hittite collapse, did Boğazköy re‐emerge as a significant polity in central Anatolia.

'Profiling' the Philistines

At the beginning of the twelfth century BC the political system of the ancient Near East then dominated by the Amarna 'Great powers club' suffered an almost entire collapse, marking the end of the Late Bronze and the beginning of the Early Iron Age. One of the events related to this turning point in history is the invasion of the so-called Sea Peoples, forming a mighty coalition to challenge the military super powers of their time. The ancient sources pertaining to that invasion are limited and mainly - even though not entirely - come from Egypt. This paper does not claim to reflect, even summarily, the entire discussion related to the topic, and will concentrate on only one tribe of Sea Peoples - the Philistines. Essentially, based on the iconographic evidence from the mortuary temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu it is intended to outline some of the major concepts and problems of interpretation of the Philistine migration, and to stress its central importance for the history of the ancient Near East and Egypt.

The Aegean from Bronze Age to Iron Age: Continuity and Change between the Twelfth and Eighth Centuries BC. By O. T. P. K. Dickinson.

<i>The Aegean from Bronze Age to Iron Age: Continuity and Change between the Twelfth and Eighth Centuries BC</i>. By O. T. P. K. Dickinson.

The Prehistory of the Istanbul Region

Within the greater of Istanbul, well outside the historic precinct, chance finds and systematic excavtions are revealing the extent of this region's prehistory. The periods represented extend from the Palaeolithic, through Mesolithic Neolithic and Chalcolithic, and then to the Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age (thirteenth to twelfth centuries BC) transition. Within central Istanbul proper building activities over the last century and in various locations, as well as general maintenance work by local councils, have brought to light a range of artefacts that provide clues to the occupation of this historically prominent region.