The use of correspondence analysis to compare major and trace elements for provenance studies of iron-age pottery from the Mngeni river area, South Africa

Provenance studies of iron-age pottery specimens originating from the Mngeni river area in South Africa was carried out by applying XRF spectrometry. A total of sixteen major and trace elements were analysed in a batch of 107 potsherds, excavated from four different archaeological sites in the aforementioned area. A multivariate statistical programme Correspondence Analysis was used in this study to obtain the relevant clustering patterns according to the similarity of the elemental distributions. Differences and similarities in the clusters obtained for the majors and trace elements are discussed.

A study, by fire-assay and ICP-MS, of the distribution of rhodium, platinum, and gold in iron-age pottery

Forty-six archaeological specimens were treated by fire-assay and subsequently analysed by ICP-MS for selected precious metals: Ph, Pt and Au. The investigation was prompted by the possibility that archaeological samples could serve as "indicators" of the precious metal composition of the clays from the excavated sites. Therefore, the experimentally obtained concentrations were carefully studied to determine if there were anomalous levels of these precious metals in the deposits from which the specimens originated. Furthermore, the analytical data were used to establish if it was feasible to distinguish ancient potsherds based on precious metal concentrations, for employment as a basis in provenance studies.

Death, Destruction and Commemoration : Tracing ritual activities in Finnish Late Iron Age cemeteries (AD 550-1150)

The thesis is connected with death, memory and ancestor commemoration during the Merovingian Period, the Viking Age and the beginning of the Crusade Period (AD 550-1150) in Finland. During this time, cremation was the dominant burial rite. It was not until the end of the Viking Age that inhumation became more common but both cremations and inhumations are performed even at the same sites throughout the time. Three different burial types 1) cremation cemeteries below level ground, 2) inhumation burials and 3) water burials are discussed in five articles. I consider these burial forms from three different viewpoints; collectivity-individuality, visibility-invisibility and cremation-inhumation. The thesis also discusses the topics of memory, memorialisation and monument re-use, which have been neglected subjects in Finnish archaeology until now. Both cremation cemeteries below level ground and inhumation burials have been re-used during their time of usage, and on most occasions are situated in a landscape that is overlaid by other monuments as well. The main questions of the thesis are: What kinds of ritual behaviour can we detect in the burials during the period (AD 550-1150)? How did people perceive the moraine hills that functioned as burial places? What kind of re-use can be detected in the Iron Age cemeteries? Why have ancient sites and artefacts been re-used? This thesis shows that it is possible to claim that both artefact and site re-use is a much more widespread phenomenon than has previously been thought in Finnish archaeology. It is also a conscious and deliberate behaviour that can be related to an ancestor cult and commemoration of the dead. The funerary rituals during this time period show great variation and complex, both regionally and nationally. Not only have the dead been buried using elaborate rituals, they have also been mourned and commemorated in intricate ways that proves that death was not an end product, but the start of something new.

Charred seeds in Mikkeli Orijärvi : A study of subsistence strategies of an Iron Age settlement in East Finland

In this study the over 350 macrofossil samples, containing over 2300 charred plant remains from an Iron Age settlement containing fossil fields in Mikkeli Orijärvi Kihlinpelto, were studied archaeobotanically. The aim was to get more information about subsistence strategies, especially agriculture and study differences in the plant combinations in the different structures and use the archaeobotanical theory to interpret these structures. The methodological question was to study the taphonomy of the charred plant material. The results gave a diverse impression of the agriculture and subsistence strategies of the settlement in Orijärvi, where barley was the most important cereal with rye, wheat and oat cultivated as minor crops. The arable weed assemblage indicates that the fields were situated in different kinds of soils and the crops were cultivated when different kind of weather conditions were prevailing. Ergot was found with the cereals, and it was growing on some of the arable crops and it also indicates wet climate. Hemp and flax were cultivated and wild plants were collected. The meadow and wetland plants found in the material derive most probably from animal fodder. Tubers of bulbous oat-grass were interesting, because they are usually found in graves. Comparison with other Iron Age settlements and graves indicates that the plant material found from the ancient field layers derives most probably from dwellings and graves, which were taken into cultivation.

Recently discovered Iron Age lion figurines from Jerusalem

Abstract: More than 500 Iron Age figurines were discovered in the 2005–2010 Western Wall Plaza excavations in Jerusalem.1 The excavations revealed a large building, probably of the four-room type. Many figurines were discovered in this building, others in fills below and above it, dating in general to the eighth-sixth centuries BCE. Here we focus on two heads most likely depicting lions, one of them exceptional—holding another animal in its mouth. We discuss the identification of these figurines as lions, the lion motif in a variety of media in the Southern Levant, and finally recent theories concerning lions in the Hebrew Bible and their relation to Yahweh. We suggest that the two Western Wall Plaza figurines represent lions as wild animals, in similarity to other figurines of wild animals made on occasion by Judean coroplasts.

A multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental investigation of the findspot of an Iron Age bog body from Oldcroghan, Co. Offaly, Ireland

In 2003, the remains of an Early Iron Age bog body, known as ‘Oldcroghan Man’, were recovered during the cutting of a drainage ditch in a bog in the Irish Midlands. Only some fingernails and a withe fragment remained undisturbed in situ in the drain face, providing the sole evidence for the original position of the body. A detailed reconstruction of the depositional context of the body has been undertaken through multi-proxy analyses of a peat monolith collected at the findspot. The palynological record shows that the surrounding area was the focus of intensive human activity during the Later Bronze Age, but was largely abandoned during the Bronze Age–Iron transition in the mid-first millennium BC. In the mid-4th century BC, a bog pool developed at the site, evidenced in the stratigraphic, plant macrofossil, testate amoebae and coleopteran records. Plant macrofossil and pollen analysis of peat samples associated with the fingernails suggests that the body was deposited in this pool most likely during the 3rd century BC. The absence of carrion beetle fauna points to complete submergence of the body within the pool. Deposition occurred shortly before or around the time that the surrounding area again became the focus of woodland clearance, as seen in the extended pollen record from the peat monolith. This period corresponds to the Early Iron Age in Ireland, during which renewed cultural connections with Britain and continental Europe can be seen in the archaeological record and widespread forest clearance is recorded in pollen records from across Ireland. The palaeoenvironmental results indicate, therefore, that the demise of Oldcroghan Man took place at a pivotal time of socio-economic and perhaps political change.

Tuberculosis among Iron Age individuals from Tyva, South Siberia: palaeopathological and biomolecular findings

The study focuses on the evidence for tuberculosis apparent in an Iron Age population recovered from the cemetery of Aymyrlyg, Tyva (Tuva), South Siberia. A recent wholly molecular study of five of the cases confirmed the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) complex DNA in four of the individuals. In all cases the disease was caused by strains of Mycobacterium bovis rather than Mycobacterium tuberculosis and represents the first positive identification of the bovine form of the disease in archaeological human remains. Details of the palaeopathological characteristics of the cases are provided in the current paper, while the molecular observations are extended to include a quantitative evaluation of the surviving mycobacterial DNA using real-time PCR. The observation that bovine tuberculosis was the pathogen responsible is discussed in terms of current understanding of the evolution of the MTB complex as well as the implications for future ancient DNA studies in this area.