Search results for "bronze age"
showing 10 items of 183 documents
Early human peopling of Sicily: Evidence from the Mesolithic skeletal remains from Grotta d'Oriente
2010
The site of Grotta d'Oriente, Island of Favignana, Sicily has yielded the complete skeleton of an adult female (OB) dated to the Mesolithic age. The cranial morphometry of this individual can provide us with some useful information about the peopling of Sicily in the Early Holocene period.Morphological affinities of OB and other Sicilian Mesolithic specimens were assessed to verify hypotheses concerning the early peopling of Sicily.Craniofacial metric data were employed in a comparative analysis with European Upper Palaeolithic (UP), Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Copper/Bronze age samples, and contemporary Italians. Both a model-free and a model-bound approach were used not only to calculate c…
Historical mining and smelting in the Vosges Mountains (France) recorded in two ombrotrophic peat bogs
2010
Two peat sequences were sampled in the vicinity of the main mining districts of the Vosges Mountains: Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines and Plancher-les-Mines. Lead isotopic compositions and excess lead fluxes were calculated for each of these radiocarbon-dated sequences. Geochemical records are in very good agreement with the mining history of the area, well known over the last millennium. Except for an anomaly corresponding to the Middle Bronze Age which has not yet been resolved, there is no clear geochemical evidence of local metal production in the Vosges before the 10th century as excess lead deposition archived between 500 BC and 500 AD is attributed to long-range transport of polluted particul…
Social and technological changes in the ceramic production of the Northern Levant during the LBA/IA transition: New evidence about the Sea People iss…
2019
Abstract The transition from the Late Bronze Age (LBA) to the Iron Age (IA) in the Levant is marked by the collapse of the Egyptian and Hittite empires, which dominated the political scene of the 14th–13th century BCE. The role of the Sea People, groups of migrants who were defeated by the Egyptian king Ramses III around 1175 BCE, is the focal point concerning this period. After the collapse of the LBA empires, written sources disappeared, and the archaeologists’ primary tool to define cultural processes is to analyze the evolution of pottery. Because of this, studies about the distribution of Aegeanizing ceramic production, considered here to have derived from the Sea People culture, can p…
The Cave of Vecchiuzzo: anthropology, paleopathology and hierarchy of the human group with a statistical overview (Petralia Sottana – Palermo, Italy)
2013
Lo scavo della Grotta del Vecchiuzzo fu il primo effettuato nelle Madonie (Sicilia centrooccidentale). Fin dalla sua scoperta avvenuta per mano di Collisani e Carapezza nel 1936, il ritrovamento di manufatti nel vano principale indicò che la grotta era stata abitata. Gli scavi, effettuati a partire dal 1937, indicarono che la grotta era stata adibita ad abitazione o forse a santuario e che era stata abitata intorno al terzo millennio a.C. I resti scheletrici, attribuiti ad almeno quindici individui, sono stati studiati dal punto di vista antropologico, antropometrico e paleopatologico, combinando metodologie tradizionali a quelle più moderne. Sui dati odontometrici raccolti è stata effettua…
A special body: Exposure ritual of a Bronze Age seated cadaver from the cemetery of Humanejos (Parla, Madrid, Spain)
2020
Abstract Seated positions are extraordinarily exceptional in prehistoric graves and despite the increasing number of new cases its social meaning remains uncertain. This paper presents a new finding of a Bronze Age seated burial discovered in the prehistoric cemetery of Humanejos (Parla). Such a unique burial is carefully analyzed in the context of the IInd millennium cal BC burial rituals. Firstly, the different phases of the inhumation were described through an archaeothanatological approach, which showed that the body was originally bound in a sitting position and then the upper part, which was exposed, naturally collapsed after the decomposition process. Furthermore, the biological feat…
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…
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…
Claiming the sea: Bronze Age fortified sites of the north-eastern Adriatic Sea (Cres and Lošinj islands, Croatia)
2017
ABSTRACTMore than 1,000 Bronze and Iron Age hillforts can be listed for the eastern Adriatic region. These constructions left a mark on the landscape which is still perceptible today. In some cases, such as the island of Losinj, this density is challenging to explain: almost thirty hillfort (or simply hilltop) sites were recorded on a rugged island with an area of 74km2. Different factors potentially involved in the formation of this settlement pattern are discussed (territorial control, surveillance, control of maritime networks), only to show that without considering some kind of symbolic display a plausible explanatory model cannot be devised. A new reading of the coastal seascape is pro…
Commensality in the Late Bronze Age : places and practices : the contribution of recent discoveries in the south-east of the Paris Basin
2021
This doctoral dissertation uses data from the extensive preventive archaeological research carried out in the Upper Seine Valley in the south-east of the Paris Basin for at least five decades an area where Bronze Age and Early Iron Age sites are numerous and generally well preserved. The 2005 excavation by Inrap of the Villiers-sur-Seine site "le Gros Buisson", an "unusual" settlement dating to the final phase of the Late Bronze Age (9th century B.C.) is the main focus of this study, having shed new light on domestic contexts of this pivotal period. This fortified aristocratic dwelling is characterised by an organised plan, abundant artefacts, as well as the unusual consumption of young pig…
Early pastoral communities in the mountains of Sicily. Prehistoric evidence from Vallone Inferno (Scillato) in the palaeoenvironmental framework of t…
2021
Abstract This paper discusses the Middle Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age phases of the occupation of a rock shelter at Vallone Inferno (Scillato, Palermo) in Sicily. Vallone Inferno is a key site for studying the early establishment and development of pastoralism in the prehistoric mountainous environments of Sicily. Seasonal use of the site as a shelter is documented for the earliest pastoral communities that exploited the Madonie mountain range. The results of the analysis of pottery and lithic assemblages contribute to the definition of two chronocultural frameworks that were linked by the same economic subsistence base. The special role of obsidian emerges, while the mobility pattern…