Search results for "iron age"

Rethinking the perishable: Identifying organic remains in metal objects at the Iron Age site of La Bastida de les Alcusses (Moixent, Spain)

2019

Abstract The use of certain perishable materials for handicraft, such as wood, has been underestimated in archaeological investigation due to their poor preservation. Its study through indirect evidence (other non-perishable materials, ethnographic sources) is partial, and does not account for the real importance of wood in domestic, craft and ritual contexts in past societies. In this review we reclaim the use of wood as a co-constitutive material of objects by focusing on Iron Age tools, weapons and carpentry elements from a case-study in the Western Mediterranean. We also suggest the adoption of protocols for sampling and analysing the remains of wood adhered to metal objects, which may …

Evidence for “Celtic migrations”? Strontium isotope analysis at the early La Tène (LT B) cemeteries of Nebringen (Germany) and Monte Bibele (Italy)

2013

Abstract Strontium isotope analysis on human remains from the Iron Age (4th/3rd century BC) cemeteries of Nebringen, Germany and Monte Bibele, Italy were carried out to investigate the role of residential changes during the period of the historic “Celtic migrations”. From an archaeological perspective, the location of the cemeteries in the Celtic core (Nebringen) and expansion area (Monte Bibele), and the distinctive development of their material culture, suggest that the buried populations had differing mobility rates. On the contrary, the strontium results indicate that only few individuals were mobile or non-local. There is, however, a difference in variation of strontium isotope ratios …

Cuevas rituales ibéricas en el territorio de Kelin (ss. V-III a.C.).

2018

La Meseta de Requena-Utiel, en el interior de la provincia de Valencia, constituyó en época ibérica el territorio de la ciudad de Kelin. Entre otros aspectos, dicho territorio destacó por presentar una elevada concentración de cuevas con materiales ibéricos, de las cuales claramente cinco son resultado de prácticas rituales en su interior. Estas cuevas rituales fueron espacios estrechamente ligados al proceso de territorialización acaecido en la zona entre los siglos V y III a.C. En el presente artículo planteamos una revisión de sus características, ajuares y cronologías, integrándolas en todo momento en el paisaje y entorno inmediato. The Requena-Utiel plateau, in the interior of the Prov…

Bodegas, lagares y almazaras en el territorio de Kelin (siglos V-III a. C.): el caso de la Rambla de la Alcantarilla (Requena, Valencia)

2016

Archaeological evidences date the expansion of grape vineyards in the territory of the Iberian Iron Age city of Kelin from the 5th to 3rd centuries BC; although the origins are documented in the 7th BC. One of the singularities of this territory is the existence of outdoors stone structures for the production of wine and oil. All are located in a specific area of the territory (la Alcantarilla and Los Morenos ravines) (Requena, Valencia), and are associated with archaeological materials that allow date them as Iberian. In this paper we approach the rural settlement pattern in la Alcantarilla ravine and we present in detail the archaeological sites of Rambla de la Alcantarilla and Solana de …

Insights into the economic organization of the Phoenician homeland : a multidisciplinary investigation of the later Iron Age II and Persian period Ph…

2018

This paper details the results of a large-scale multi-disciplinary analysis of Iron Age pottery from a settlement in the core of the Phoenician homeland. The research presented is centred upon a large corpus of Phoenician carinated-shoulder amphorae (CSA) from the later Iron Age II and Persian period contexts at the coastal site of Tell el-Burak. Traditional typological investigations are combined with a focused archaeometric approach including a new quantitative method for the morphometric analysis of amphorae, thin-section petrography, geochemistry and organic residue analyses, aimed at gaining a more detailed understanding of the organization of the Phoenician economy. Despite gradual, b…

Oppida, Agglomerations, and Suburbia: the Bibracte Environs and New Perspectives on Late Iron Age Urbanism in Central-eastern France

2013

This paper explores the nature and chronology of La Tène and early Roman unenclosed agglomerations in central-eastern France. It has been prompted by the discovery of a c. 115 ha La Tène D2b/Augustan (c. 50 BC to AD 15) site close to Bibracte in the Morvan, located around the source of the River Yonne. This complex provides a new perspective on the chronology and role of Late La Tène and early Roman unenclosed settlements, adding further complexity to the story of the development of Late La Tène oppida. It indicates that these ‘agglomerations’ followed remarkably varied chronological trajectories, raising important issues concerning the nature of landscape and social change at the end of th…

Raw material, gestures, artefacts. An approach to the work of bone and ivory in the Iron Age in the Iberian peninsula

2018

Abstract This work seeks to give visibility to the industry of hard animal materials that is documented during the Iron Age in the Iberian peninsula. We focus on the analysis of three common artefacts within the bone and ivory industry in the Iberian culture (between the 6th to the 1st Century BC): pins, perforated plates and combs. We have studied these objects from a technological point of view, thanks to a series of experimental work carried out in order to meet different operational chains, necessary to manufacture each one of these items and tools that could be used for this purpose. So, we searched the archaeological tool models to work bone and ivory, and whenever it has been possibl…

2020

Skeletal remains in archaeological strata are often assumed to be of similar ages. Here we show that combined Sr and O isotope analyses can serve as a powerful tool for assessing fish provenance and even for identifying fossil fish teeth in archaeological contexts. For this purpose, we established a reference Sr and O isotope dataset of extant fish teeth from major water bodies in the Southern Levant. Fossil shark teeth were identified within Iron Age cultural layers dating to 8–9th century BCE in the City of David, Jerusalem, although the reason for their presence remains unclear. Their enameloid 87Sr/86Sr and δ18OPO4 values [0.7075 ± 0.0001 (1 SD, n = 7) and 19.6 ± 0.9‰ (1 SD, n = 6), res…

Pigs and Cattle in Gaul: The Role of Gallic Societies in the Evolution of Husbandry Practices

2017

International audience; In diesem Artikel wird eine vergleichende Untersuchung der Morphologie von Schweinen und Rinder vorgelegt sowie eine Analyse stabiler Isotopen, die die Führung des Schweinebestands in Levroux Les Arènes (Indre, Frankreich) betrifft, um die Veränderungen in den Tierhaltungspraktiken zwischen der Eisenzeit und der Römerzeit in der gallischen Gesellschaft auszuwerten. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass neue Produktionsstrukturen und Vertriebssysteme wahrscheinlich vor dem 2. Jahrhundert v. Chr. eingeführt wurden, und dass bestimmte Größen/Gewichte in der spezialisierten Erzeugung von Schweinefleisch ausgesucht wurden. Die Statur der Schweine und Rinder nimmt zunehmend vom s…

An integrative skeletal and paleogenomic analysis of prehistoric stature variation suggests relatively reduced health for early European farmers

2021

AbstractHuman culture, biology, and health were shaped dramatically by the onset of agriculture ~12,000 years before present (BP). Subsistence shifts from hunting and gathering to agriculture are hypothesized to have resulted in increased individual fitness and population growth as evidenced by archaeological and population genomic data alongside a simultaneous decline in physiological health as inferred from paleopathological analyses and stature reconstructions of skeletal remains. A key component of the health decline inference is that relatively shorter statures observed for early farmers may (at least partly) reflect higher childhood disease burdens and poorer nutrition. However, while…