Search results for "Prehistory"
showing 10 items of 4397 documents
The role of fire within Neolithic collective burials: Spatial analyses of cremains from the site of La Truie Pendue, France
2016
International audience; The use of collective graves is one of the main features of the western European Late Neolithic. A single gravesite received the successive deposition of dozens or sometimes hundreds of individuals. While cremations or even full-fired inhumation layers are often found within these funerary deposits, the actual role of fire is still poorly understood. Recently discovered within the important archaeological complex of Passy (Yonne, France), the burned collective grave of La Truie-Pendue provides an outstanding case study to examine the use of fire within Neolithic funerary rites. In this study, we develop a new contextual approach to bone alterations in order to recons…
Ivory in the Chalcolithic enclosure of Perdigões (South Portugal): the social role of an exotic raw material
2015
AbstractThis article discusses the social role played by ivory and ivory articles in the Perdigoes enclosures (South Portugal) during the Chalcolithic (third millennium bc), in the context of the emergence and development of social complexity on the Iberian Peninsula. Perdigoes is a Portuguese prehistoric site with some of the highest concentrations of ivory objects known in Iberia and with the greatest variety. The contexts, almost exclusively funerary, are discussed along with the results of provenance studies. Comparing the different contexts and the categories of objects made of ivory makes it possible to distinguishing a variety of active social dimensions (such as individual status, g…
Last Glacial Human Settlement in Eastern Cantabria (Northern Spain)
2002
While the excavation of individual sites remains fundamental to the creation of the Palaeolithic archeological record, increasingly the focus of prehistoric research is on human adaptations to and within natural regions. Such a reorientation implies viewing sites and occupations as samples of different suites of activities in various habitats across space and time; it is dependent on the use of radiocarbon to date and relate occupation residues among sites; and it necessitates the application of methods to uncover patterns of human mobility as an integral aspect of subsistence economy, demographic arrangements and social relations. This paper contributes to the regional study of Last Glacia…
A funerary perspective on the Bell Beaker period in the Wester Mediterranean Reading the social context of individual burials at La Vital (Gandia, Va…
2013
[EN] The discussion about social dynamics in recent Pre- history is supported by the study of funerary practices. The presence and significance of individual and collec- tive burials in Final Neolithic/Chalcolithic societies in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula provides new evi- dence for the debate concerning the emergence of social inequalities in this region. Our contribution is based on the recent discovery and excavation of several individual pit burials in domestic contexts at the site of La Vital (Gandía, Valencia). The particularities of the identified burials (different ritual episodes) and their content (Bell Beaker pottery, metal objects, animal offerings) together with an …
Precise chronology of Polynesian temple construction and use for southeastern Maui, Hawaiian Islands determined by 230Th dating of corals
2015
International audience; Emergent archaic states in pre-contact Hawai'i used a ritual control hierarchy implemented through a system of temples to manage production, extract tribute, and reinforce the legitimacy of the ruling elites. Based on a limited sample of precise 230Th dates from coral offerings on Maui Island temples it had been hypothesized that this temple system rapidly expanded during the period from A.D. 1580–1640. We tested this hypothesis by obtaining an expanded sample of 39 new 230Th coral dates from temples in Kahikinui District, and one sample from the summit of a cinder cone that likely had ritual significance. Combined with seven coral dates previously obtained, this yie…
Facing the face – the construction of the frontal face in prehistoric and ancient two- and three-dimensional images
2020
Interpersonal communication depends to a large extent on the human face, with its many sensory organs, easily recognizable features and expression capacities. This is clearly evidenced by the abund...
Documenting carved stones by 3D modelling – Example of Mongolian deer stones
2018
Rock art studies are facing major technical challenges for extensive documentation. Nowadays, recording is essentially obtained from time-consuming tracing and rubbing, techniques that also require a high level of expertise. Recent advances in 3D modelling of natural objects and computational treatment of the modelled surfaces may provide an alternative, and reduce the current documentation bottleneck. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which such treatments can be applied. The case study presented here concerns the famous deer stones erected by ancient Mongolian nomad populations. The 3D acquisition workflow is based on structure-from-motion, a versatile photogrammetric tech…
Statistical analysis of engraving traces on a 3D digital model of prehistoric stone stelae
2016
International audience; Studying cultural heritage artefacts, using 3D digital models, is gaining interest. It not only allows applications in documentation and visualisation, but also permits further contact-less examination. In this paper, we are presenting a statistical analysis of stone engravings based on features that were semi-automatically extracted from 3D acquisition data. Our objects of study are two Neolithic stone stelae and a faithful replica that was created in the course of an archaeological study. We use common statistical methods and investigate the populations of depth and diameter of the engraving traces, as well as their correlation. We observe that the erosion of the t…
Prácticas rituales ibéricas en La Cueva del Sapo (Chiva, Valencia): más allá del caliciforme
2014
Se presentan los resultados del estudio interdisciplinar del yacimiento ibérico de la Cueva del Sapo (Chiva, Valencia). Las características del conjunto estudiado muestran un contexto ritual que sería frecuentado entre los SS. V-II a. C. La diversidad cronológica y material así como el volumen de restos indican la existencia de varias actividades rituales intermitentes, no generalizadas y que se suceden en el tiempo. Nos acercamos a ellas a través de la presencia de restos de fauna, con escasas evidencias de consumo que reflejan un ritual principal en torno a la figura del ciervo, huesos humanos sin incinerar con marcas que demuestran un tratamiento concreto del cadáver ligado a un complejo…
The Protohistoric sword from Le Gué-de-Velluire (Vendée, France): a pasticcio's history unveiled by archaeometrical research
2020
International audience; The Gué-de-Velluire sword (Vendée, France) is part of the Rochebrune collection collected during the 19 th and the 20 th centuries and now preserved in the Dobrée Museum in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique, France). The unusual shape of its hilt, its uncorroded rivets and the rather uncommon combination of a bronze grip with an iron blade made this sword an exceptional object. It has been depicted in a large number of papers since the 20 th century, but the question of its authenticity has hardly ever been tackled. New analyses performed with the support of the Dobrée Museum, the Arc'Antique laboratory and Ghent University delivered new data enabling us to discuss this delic…