The Late Middle Bronze Age to Older Hallstatt Period necropolis in the cadastral municipality of Kainach (municipality of Wildon, Styria) was discovered in 2004 and explored in several excavation ...campaigns (Verein Kulturpark Hengist). In total, more than 28,000 m2 were investigated and around 240 cremation graves were discovered. To date, around 15% of the grave inventories have been fully restored, including graves 186, 226, 114, 42, 30, 93, 70 and 102 as well as grave 120 and object 266, which are presented here in chronological order. The area between the Mur and Kainach rivers was a ritual landscape that developed into a large burial area over the centuries. Graves 186 and 226 in particular are of great significance for the late Middle Bronze Age and the early/older Urnfield Period in Styria. Remarkable are the contacts to the Laugen-Melaun culture respectively to the western inner Alpine region, as evidenced by the inventory of Kainach grave 42.
Are We Creating Our Past? Chiara G. M. Girotto
Documenta praehistorica,
12/2020, Volume:
47
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Urnfield Culture hilltop settlements are often associated with a predominant function in the settlement pattern. This study challenged the idea of centrality by means of density estimates and spatial ...inhomogeneous explanatory statistics. Reflecting on the differences in spatial trends and material culture, no conclusive evidence for a consolidation of power, economic, or cultic dominance was observed. The dataset strongly points towards the inapplicability of commonly used parametric and/or homogenous spatial algorithms in archaeology. Tracer variables as well as the methodological and theoretical limitations are critically reviewed and a methodological framework to increase the reproducibility and reusability of archaeological research is proposed.
•Metallographic, chemical and petrographic investigations of mortuary goods.•People buried at Wartosław could be the members of a lineage or clan associated with metalworking.•Status and organization ...of Lusatian metalworkers.•A strict symmetry between metal casting and funeral rites-of-passage.
In 2009, an exceptional discovery was made in west-central Poland. At the Late Bronze Age necropolis in Wartosław, tools used in metalworking were unearthed from a mass grave belonging to the Lusatian people that can be dated to 1100–900 BCE. Twelve out of over 70 ceramic vessels from the burial pit were identified as urns that contained the ashes of at least eight deceased individuals, including two adult men, one young woman, one unspecified adult, and at least four children. Metallographic, chemical, and petrographic investigations of mortuary goods were used to determine their provenance and use in metalworking. The results of these investigations were used as a proxy to analyze the mass grave according to the ritual and social strategies of the era, including the status and organization of Lusatian metalworkers, and to consider the possibility of identifying their burials in the archeological record.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
El estudio de los resultados de las campañas de excavación llevadas a cabo durante tres años consecutivos (2002-2004) en el yacimiento de El Morredón (Fréscano, Zaragoza) ha permitido identificar una ...sucesión de ocupaciones que se extienden desde el Bronce Reciente o Tardío hasta el final de la Primera Edad del Hierro (1200 – 500 cal BC). La existencia de al menos tres poblados ha quedado demostrada mediante dataciones absolutas. El estudio de los diferentes materiales arqueológicos apoya la existencia de las fases y permite determinar la evolución interna de la ocupación del cerro. Ocupación dilatada que se ha documentado en otros lugares del valle del Ebro, en especial en la cuenca media, y que permite contrastar una precisa estratigrafía, reflejo de una realidad compleja en la que se dan cita procesos de interacción económica y social entre diferentes comunidades que, en un ecosistema con escasas variaciones entre territorios cercanos, modularon el devenir histórico de la primera mitad del primer milenio BC.
•The microstructures of various slags from the Bronze Age mining settlement of Prigglitz-Gasteil are described in detail.•A SnO2 particle was found on one slag and small amounts of Sn were detected ...in 3 of 10 slags.•This can be explained by the fact that, in addition to copper smelting, bronze processing was also carried out in Prigglitz-Gasteil.
This paper presents the microstructures and chemical analyses of 10 plate slags from the Late Bronze Age copper production site of Prigglitz-Gasteil in Lower Austria. The analytical results of overview measurements (XRF) and local measurements on metallographic samples (SEM-EDX) are compared. The samples belong to the category of thin plate slags (PS-C, thickness < 0.5 cm) and the newly defined category of very thin plate slags (PS-D, thickness < 0.2 cm). From their chemical and phase composition, three groups could be distinguished. These different groups did not indicate separate stages during the working process but rather haphazard variations. The amount of residual Cu observed in all the plate slags was small (average Cu content 0.59 wt%), indicating an efficient process of copper smelting, comparable with other prehistoric copper production sites in the Eastern Alps. Remarkably, some of the investigated plate slags contained Sn as a trace element which most likely came into the slag through contamination from the nearby bronze processing. In line with previous archaeometallurgical investigations, the analysis of plate slags confirms that primary and secondary metallurgy were carried out in immediate vicinity at the Prigglitz-Gasteil site.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The genesis of Lusatian culture is not sufficiently understood due to the demanding nature of its funeral ideology, which suddenly makes the highest social group invisible in the eyes of ...archaeologists. The elite proto-Lusatian burial of Nitrica I (Bz C2/D – ca. 1350–1300 BC) points to a persisting warrior-chief component of the Middle Bronze Age origin, which survived here from the previous period and probably contributed to the spread of Lusatian-style pottery. It reveals the diachronic acculturation of ending Tumulus facies, which has retained the habits of depositing votive wealth in graves, while the community of the Urnfield facies have decided (or been forced) to drastically reduce the importance and investment in funeral deposits. Typologically, this is the richest burial of Lusatian cultural zone with a significant continental importance, and offers an excellent case for the integration of multidisciplinary approaches in chronology, sociology, cultural development, and others. Selection of the location of the central burial and its position in the landscape was not accidental, and later began to function as a ritual centre/territorial marker with a high occurrence of metal hoards – which raises several implications in social archaeology and points to a sophisticated spiritual thinking of the Lusatian communities.
Are We Creating Our Past? Girotto, Chiara G. M.
Documenta praehistorica,
12/2020, Volume:
47
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Urnfield Culture hilltop settlements are often associated with a predominant function in the settlement pattern. This study challenged the idea of centrality by means of density estimates and spatial ...inhomogeneous explanatory statistics. Reflecting on the differences in spatial trends and material culture, no conclusive evidence for a consolidation of power, economic, or cultic dominance was observed. The dataset strongly points towards the inapplicability of commonly used parametric and/or homogenous spatial algorithms in archaeology. Tracer variables as well as the methodological and theoretical limitations are critically reviewed and a methodological framework to increase the reproducibility and reusability of archaeological research is proposed.
In this publication, the characteristic bell-shaped pits are investigated from initial use as storage facilities for grain to the final backfilling process. The study demonstrates that the “central ...site” of Stillfried also served as a large grain storage place in the Late Bronze Age (Urnfield culture). The observed backfill patterns in the abandoned pits suggest profane or religiously motivated rules imposed by a legislative authority.
In dieser Veröffentlichung wird die kennzeichnende Befundgruppe der kegelstumpfförmigen Gruben von der Erstnutzung als Getreidespeicher bis zum abschließenden Verfüllungsgeschehen erfasst. Die Untersuchung belegt, dass der „Zentralort“ Stillfried in der späten Urnenfelderzeit unter Anderem auch als ein großer Getreidespeicherplatz diente. Die beobachteten Verfüllungsmuster in den aufgelassenen Vorratsgruben lassen an profane oder auch religiös motivierte Regeln denken, die von einer gesetzgebenden Autorität vorgegeben wurden.
Three sites from network of 27 structures of the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age Lusatian culture from NE Poland (Biebrza and Narew river basins) and man-environment interaction were study. These circular ...structures have a relatively uniform location, structure, type of construction and dimension. Two areas within these structure coud be distinguished: a protective area consisting of a system of ditches and embankments and a central area consisting of a flat central square with only some archaeological traces of economic activity. Determining the function of the structures is extremely difficult. Their structure does not indicate the defensive function of the objects. Their location near peat bogs may suggest their use as corals for grazing animals and intensive agricultural use of the environment are reflected in the valley bottom sediments. There are many indications that we are dealing here rather with a kind of stable socio-administrative-religious centre concentrating dispersed in the microregion population of the Lusatian culture.
Las excavaciones realizadas entre 2002 y 2004 en El Morredón, yacimiento del Bronce Final y la Primera Edad del Hierro situado en el valle del Huecha, Zaragoza, han permitido la revisión del ...yacimiento y el estudio de sus materiales inéditos mediante nuevas técnicas y metodologías. El repertorio metálico del yacimiento se identifica con un conjunto de ámbito doméstico, mayoritariamente realizado en bronce, de reducida tipología, en el que predominan los objetos de adorno seguidos de armas y útiles de trabajo. Con el objetivo de conocer la composición de estos materiales se han realizado análisis mediante fluorescencia de rayos X –XRF–. Se ha documentado la presencia de dos aleaciones distintas: bronce binario de Cu-Sn y ternario, Cu-Sn-Pb. Esta composición apunta posibles conexiones con el Bajo Ebro y, a su vez, con la Meseta Sur, Levante o Andalucía, mientras la tipología de algunas piezas parece vinculada a la tradición del Bronce Atlántico o Centroeuropeo. La producción metalúrgica que se desarrolló en el propio poblado es una muestra más de la confluencia de tradiciones: mediterránea y atlántica, que cada vez se detecta con mayor claridad e intensidad en este territorio.
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