Search results for "Prehistory"

The Mycenaean drainage works of north Kopais, Greece: a new project incorporating surface surveys, geophysical research and excavation

2013

The attempt to drain the Kopais Lake was one of the most impressive and ambitious technical works of prehistoric times in Greece, inspiring myths and traditions referring to its construction and operation. The impressive remnants of the Mycenaean hydraulic works represent the most important land reclamation effort during prehistoric Greek antiquity, thus attracting the attention of the international scientific community. Nevertheless, in spite of the minor or extended contemporary surveys, the picture of the prehistoric drainage works in Kopais has remained ambiguous. Concerning the function of these works and their precise date within the Bronze Age, the proposed theories were based solely…

A prehistoric jade axe from Galicia (Northwestern Iberia): Researching its origin

2021

International audience; The Vilapedre axe (Lugo, Northwest Iberia) has been traditionally considered by archaeologists as evidence of prehistoric long-distance contacts along the Atlantic Coast of France and Spain. This artefact - as other “Tumiac type” axes (long polished blades, generally butt-perforated) - would have been produced in Brittany during the Neolithic (5th millennium BCE) using jadeitite as raw material, a green-coloured rock for which there are sources in the western Italian Alps. In this paper, we have traced the possible archaeological origin of this artefact back by examining the personal files of one of its first owners, Santiago de la Iglesia. Furthermore, we have condu…

Magnetic imaging of a late Bronze Age tumulus in France before and during excavation

2002

Geophysical surveying is taking place in the Chatillon-sur-Seine area in France to examine and map prehistoric settlements and the structure of tumuli (grave-mounds which originally reached a height of up to 5 m but which are now almost level). The magnetic survey discussed here was conducted to detect archaeological structures within a late La Tene (100-50 bce) necropolis, in particular the preexcavation recording of a late Bronze Age round barrow. During the excavation, additional surveys were carried out to analyze the influence of immediate subsurface soil layers on the magnetic anomalies originating from the deeper archaeological features. Additional radar surveys made use of a 500 MHz…

Vavouranakis, G., Kopanias, K., Kanellopoulos, C. (eds.) (2018). Popular Religion and Ritual in Prehistoric and Ancient Greece and the Eastern Medite…

2020

VAVOURANAKIS, GIORGOS, KOPANIAS, KONSTANTINOS, and KANELLOPOULOS, CHRYSANTHOS (eds.) (2018). Popular Religion and Ritual in Prehistoric and Ancient Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. Oxford: Archaeopress. 188 pp., 38,40€ [ISBN 978-1-7896-9045-3] [Reseña]

Author response: 'Palaeoshellomics’ reveals the use of freshwater mother-of-pearl in prehistory

2019

Aslian linguistic prehistory: A case study in computational phylogenetics

2011

This paper analyzes newly collected lexical data from 26 languages of the Aslian subgroup of the Austroasiatic language family using computational phylogenetic methods. We show the most likely topology of the Aslian family tree, discuss rooting and external relationships to other Austroasiatic languages, and investigate differences in the rates of diversification of different branches. Evidence is given supporting the classification of Jah Hut as a fourth top level subgroup of the family. The phylogenetic positions of known geographic and linguistic outlier languages are clarified, and the relationships of the little studied Aslian languages of Southern Thailand to the rest of the family ar…

THE PLEISTOCENE–HOLOCENE TRANSITION IN THE IBERIAN PENINSULA: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN HUMAN ADAPTATIONS

1998

Abstract Data obtained from recent excavations (as well as from selected older excavations) are used to outline the principal environmental, technological and economic aspects of the Pleistocene–Holocene transition in three distinct regions of the Iberian Peninsula: Portugal, Cantabrian and Mediterranean Spain. The period covered extends from the terminal Paleolithic Magdalenian period to the initial Neolithic. Despite proximity to SW France and many similarities with that classic prehistoric culture area in terms of artistic/symbolic expression and technology, the Iberian regions show significant differences, especially in terms of subsistence strategies and their development during the Ta…

The Paleolithic Site of San Teodoro

2021

Description of the Second Stop in The Excursion at the SanTeodoro Cave

Postpleistocene evolution of the brain?

1976

The number of extraneurons (Nc) has been calculated with the formulae of Jerison ('63) for prehistoric population samples to check the hypothesis that Nc may not only increase by increasing of cranial capacity but also by decreasing of body-weight (gracilisation). Body weight of skeletal populations has been estimated by the formula of Debetz ('67). Samples from the Western part of Europe and Egypt support the hypothesis, but Eastern europoid samples display opposite relations: Nc increases with robusticity. It seems (as Jerison already suggested) that Nc is no measurement of the level of behavior in the populations of H. sapiens; but it may point towards allometric differences between West…

Gendering fibulae: animals and gender roles in Iberian Iron Age societies

2013

Desde la Antigüedad, los animales domésticos y salvajes han sido parte integrante de la vida del ser humano como alimento para su supervivencia, como transporte y también como iconos en la construcción del imaginario cultural. En la cultura ibérica las representaciones figuradas en diversos soportes (cerámica, escultura en piedra, terracotas, metales y monedas), “lo imaginario”, y los restos faunísticos de poblados, necrópolis y lugares culturales, “lo real”, ilustran las relaciones entre las sociedades de la Edad del Hierro de la mitad SE de la Península Ibérica con los animales de su entorno. En este trabajo se analiza un tipo de objeto de la indumentaria íbera: las fíbulas, como ejemplo …