The management of bone tools from the Bronze Age site of El Portalón of Cueva Mayor, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos

In this paper we analyze the set of Bronze Age bone tools recovered at the archaeological site of El Portalón of Cueva Mayor in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos). The Bronze Age cultural period is the best represented in the cavity and its study has forced us to unify the different excavation and stratigraphical criteria undertaken from the earliest archaeological excavations developed by J.M. Apellániz during the 70s until the excavations of the current research team (EIA) since 2000. We propose here for the first time a relationship between the initial system of “beds” used by Apellániz and our recent sedimentary sequence that recognizes eleven stratigraphic levels radiometrically dated from the late Upper Pleistocene to the Middle Age. Within the bone industry assemblage we recognize a large variety of utensils and ornamental elements, with native and allochthonous features, that make evident a regional as well as long distance relationships of these populations of the interior of the Iberian Peninsula during the recent Prehistory.

Bronze and iron weapons from Luristan

The 30,000 km2 province of Luristan is situated in western Iran and encompasses the upper valleys of the Zagros Mountains. Even today, local tribesmen inhabit Luristan with their settlement patterns similar to ancient times. Several scientific excavations in the Luristan region have uncovered evidence that this particular region was a major attraction for human settlements from the Paleolithic era onwards. In Ancient Iran, the existence of rich mines together with discoveries made by innovative and inventive artisans spurred the growth of the metalworking culture as an art and a skill among early human communities in Ancient Iran. The art of Luristan can be described as the art of nomadic herdsmen and horsemen with an emphasis on the crafting of small, easily portable objects, among these a number of bronze daggers, swords and other weapons. Throughout its history, Luristan was never an ethnic or political entity because Luristan has been occupied by various tribes and races, throughout its history. Next to Elamites, other tribes who inhabited Luristan were the Hurrians, Lullubians, Kutians, and Kassites. As local tribesmen of Luristan were illiterate, information about their history can only be partially reconstructed from the literature of their southern neighbors: the Elamites and Babylonians. Luristan smiths made weapons for both civilizations. The region was later invaded by Assyrians and finally the Iranians settled the area and absorbed the local tribes. Following an accidental find by the local inhabitants in Luristan in 1928 CE, a number of unlawful diggings reveal a number of metal objects made of bronze and iron that showed a high level of craftsmanship. These objects were offered for sale on the art market with fancy names to hide their origin. The subsequent scientific excavations several decades after the initial discovery provided fascinating information about the culture of Luristan. The metalworking art of Luristan spans a time period from the third millennium BC to the Iron Age. The artifacts from Luristan seem to possess many unique and distinctive qualities, and are especially noteworthy for the apparently endless, intricate diversity and detail that they characteristically depict. The bronze artifacts found in or attributed to Luristan can be each be classed under five separate heads: a) arms and armor, including swords, dirks, daggers, axes, mace heads, spearheads, shields, quiver plaques, protective bronze girdles, helmets; b) implements related to horsemanship, including decorative or ornamental objects for horses as well as bits and snaffles; c) items for personal adornment and hygiene, including anklets, bangles, bracelets, finger rings, earrings and tweezers; d) ceremonial and ritual objects, including talismans, idols, pins, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines; and e) utilitarian objects comprising various vessels and tools, including beakers, bowls and jugs. The scope of this article is limited to a discussion of the bronze and iron weapons made in Luristan. The techniques used for making bronze weapons in Luristan included: casting with open molds, casting with close molds, and casting with lost wax process. For metal sheets used for quiver plaques and bronze protective belts, the hammering technique was used. Edged weapons made in Luristan can be classified into: a) daggers, dirks, and swords with tangs; b) daggers, dirks, and swords with flanges; and c) daggers, dirks, and swords with cast-on hilts. Next to bronze, iron was also used for making weapons such as the characteristic weapon from this area, the iron mask sword.

Land-use patterns and cultural change in the Middle to Late Bronze Age in Ireland: inferences from pollen records

In Ireland, the Middle to Late Bronze Age (1500-600 cal. B.C.) is characterised by alternating phases of prolific metalwork production (the Bishopsland and Dowris Phases) and apparent recessions (the Roscommon Phase and the Late Bronze Age-Iron Age transition). In this paper, these changes in material culture are placed in a socio-economic context by examining contemporary settlement and land-use patterns interpreted from the pollen record. The vegetation histories of six tephrochronologically-linked sites are presented that provide high-resolution and chronologically well-resolved insights into changes in landscape use over the Middle to Late Bronze Age. The records are compared with published pollen records in an attempt to discern if there are any trends of woodland clearance and abandonment from which changes in settlement patterns can be inferred. The results suggest that prolific metalworking industries correlate chronologically with expansive farming activity, which indicates that they were supported by a productive subsistence economy. Conversely, declines in metalwork production occur during periods when farming activity is generally less extensive and perhaps more centralised, and it is proposed that disparate socio-economic or –political factors, rather than a collapse of the subsistence economy, lies behind the demise of metalworking industries.

Late Bronze Age casting debris and other base metal finds from Haughey’s Fort

This paper provides a full overview of base metal finds from the excavations conducted at Haughey's Fort between 1987 and 1995. Most of the assemblage consists of waste metal from casting activities relating to the Late Bronze Age occupation of the site. A small minority of objects are of a later date, mostly Iron Age. Both the latter and the vast majority of Late Bronze metal items were recovered from a specific sector of the inner enclosure. Typological parallels, context and chronology of the finds are discussed, and a tentative interpretation of the evidence proposed.

Sintaxis espacial en el oppidum ibérico. Reflexiones sobre los modelos espaciales y sociales

En el presente trabajo realizamos un aproximación mediante el análisis basado en la sintaxis espacial aplicado al espacio doméstico de las sociedades de la edad del Hierro de la franja central de la Iberia Mediterránea, entre los siglos VI y III a. C. En una primera sección se introduce la importancia de la configuración de las casas para comprender la sociedad ibérica. A continuación seleccionamos algunos ejemplos de la mitad meridional del País Valenciano para realizar nuestro análisis. Se identifican de dos modelos espaciales claramente definidos. Por último se relacionan estos esquemas constructivos con los procesos de agregación de unidades familiares para constituir las comunidades ibéricas.

Archaeological sites in China during the Neolithic and Bronze Age

A total of 51,074 archaeological sites from the early Neolithic to the early Iron Age (c. 8000-500 BC), with a spatial extent covering most regions of China (c. 73-131°E and c. 20-53°N), were analysed over space and time in this study. Site maps of 25 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, published in the series 'Atlas of Chinese Cultural Relics', were used to extract, digitalise and correlate its archaeological data. The data were, in turn, entered into a database using a self-developed mapping software that makes the data, in a dynamic way, analysable as a contribution to various scientific questions, such as population growth and migrations, spread of agriculture and changes in subsistence strategies. The results clearly show asynchronous patterns of changes between the northern and southern parts of China (i.e. north and south of the Yangtze River, respectively) but also within these macro-regions. In the northern part of China (i.e. along the Yellow River and its tributaries and in the Xiliao River basin), the first noticeable increase in the concentration of Neolithic sites occurred between c. 5000 and 4000 BC; however, highest site concentrations were reached between c. 2000 and 500 BC. Our analysis shows a radical north-eastern shift of high site-density clusters (over 50 sites per 100 * 100 km grid cell) from the Wei and middle/lower Yellow Rivers to the Liao River system sometime between 2350 BC and 1750 BC. This shift is hypothetically discussed in the context of the incorporation of West Asian domesticated animals and plants into the existing northern Chinese agricultural system. In the southern part of China, archaeological sites do not show a noticeable increase in the absolute number of sites until after c. 1500 BC, reaching a maximum around 1000 BC.

Las estatuas-menhir noroccidentales en contexto: conectividad y conexiones materiales durante el Bronce Tardío/Final

Este artículo analiza las estatuas-menhir noroccidentales que se distribuyen en el área comprendida entre los valles del río Duero y el río Miño, pero que descubrimientos recientes han extendido a regiones fuera de este área nuclear. Partiendo de tres aspectos claves para su interpretación (la cronología, su relación con el paisaje y su sentido iconográfico), se examinan las relaciones entre estas formas materiales y un paisaje socio-material de acción específico (las formas socio-materiales de interacción propias del Bronce final atlántico). Para ello, se tiene en cuenta diferentes conexiones materiales (presencia, encuentro, coexistencia, hibridación, etc.) que permiten contextualizar las estatuasmenhir dentro de un proceso histórico particular: la integración del noroeste de la península Ibérica en un contexto de relaciones mediterráneo-atlánticas, en la segunda mitad del II milenio a.C.

"Lancea", Lusitanian Word, and the "Lancienses" Ethnogenesis

Analysis of the word lancea, of Hispanic origin after Varro, and of place names, people´s names and personal names derived from it. It confirms that the spear was the most important weapon in the Bronze Age, belonging to the iuventus and used as heroic and divine symbol. This analysis confirms also the personality of the Lusitanians, a people related to the Celts but with more archaic archaeological, linguistic and cultural characteristics originated in the tradition of the Atlantic Bronze in the II millennium BC. It is also relevant to better know the organisation of Broze and Iron Age societies and the origin of Indo-Europeans peoples in Western Europe and of pre-Roman peoples of Iberia.

Application of XRF and correspondence analysis to provenance studies of coastal and inland archaeological pottery from the Mngeni river area, South Africa

XRF spectrometry was applied to provenance studies of Iron Age pottery specimens that originated from the Mngeni river area in South Africa. Ten transition metals (Sc to Zn) mere determined in 107 potsherds, excavated from four different sites. The data were subjected to a computerized mathematical technique (correspondence analysis), which was used to group the samples according to the similarity of their elemental distributions. The groupings were interpreted in terms of social or cultural interaction between the sites. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suomen rautakautiset kulkuset, kellot ja kelloriipukset : äänimaiseman arkeologiaa

The thesis addresses the problem of Finnish Iron Age bells, pellet bells and bell pendants, previously unexplored musical artefacts from 400–1300 AD. The study, which contributes to the field of music archaeology, aims to provide a gateway to ancient soundworlds and ideas of music making. The research questions include: Where did these metal artefacts come from? How did they sound? How were they used? What did their sound mean to the people of the Iron Age? The data collected at the National Museum of Finland and at several provincial museums covers a total of 486 bells, pellet bells and bell pendants. By means of a cluster analysis, each category was divided into several subgroups. The subgroups, which all seem to have a different dating and geographical distribution, represent a spread of both local and international manufacturing traditions. According to an elemental analysis, the material varies from iron to copper-tin, copper-lead and copper-tin-lead alloys. Clappers, pellets and pebbles prove that the bells and pellet bells were indisputably instruments intended for sound production. Clusters of small bell pendants, however, probably produced sound by jingling against each other. Spectrogram plots reveal that the partials of the still audible sounds range from 1 000 to 19 850 Hz. On the basis of 129 inhumation graves, hoards, barrows and stray finds, it seems evident that the bells, pellet bells and bell pendants were fastened to dresses and horse harnesses or carried in pouches and boxes. The resulting acoustic spaces could have been employed in constructing social hierarchies, since the instruments usually appear in richly furnished graves. Furthermore, the instruments repeatedly occur with crosses, edge tools and zoomorphic pendants that in the later Finnish-Karelian culture were regarded as prophylactic amulets. In the Iron Age as well as in later folk culture, the bell sounds seem to have expressed territorial, social and cosmological boundaries.