The Bronze Age was a formative period in European history when the organisation of landscapes, settlements, and economy reached a new level of complexity. This book presents the first in-depth, ...comparative study of household economy and settlement in three micro-regions: the Mediterranean (Sicily), Central Europe (Hungary), and Northern Europe (South Scandinavia). The results are based on ten years of fieldwork in a similar method of documentation, and scientific analyses were used in each of the regional studies, making controlled comparisons possible. The new evidence demonstrates how differences in settlement organisation and household economies were counterbalanced by similarities in the organised use of the landscape in an economy dominated by the herding of large flocks of sheep and cattle. This book's innovative theoretical and methodological approaches will be of relevance to all researchers of landscape and settlement history.
New archaeobotanical finds from Baradla Cave Mervel, Máté
Dissertationes archaeologicae ex Instituto Archaeologico Universitatis de Rolando Eötvös Nominatae.,
03/2024, Letnik:
3, Številka:
11
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The Baradla Cave is located in the Aggtelek Karst Region in Northern Hungary; it is one of the oldest known prehistoric sites in the country. The first excavations there in 1876–1877 are considered a ...milestone in Hungarian archaeology, and the research involved the first archaeobotanical analyses in Hungary. Although the cave was used in many periods with varied intensity, the vast majority of the artefacts are dated to the Middle Neolithic, while the Late Bronze Age represents a smaller but still significant portion of the archaeological record. The latest rescue excavation was carried out in 2019 in the Róka-ág Róka branch of the cave by a team from the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University. This paper presents the preliminary results obtained from the archaeobotanical analyses of the macro-remains recovered from the soil samples collected during this excavation. The charred remains were badly preserved, but it was possible to identify, among other seeds, emmer, barley, pea, and lentil. The uncertain dating of the samples further complicated the interpretation of the archaeobotanical finds.
In the spring of 2017, amateur metal detectorists discovered a Late Bronze Age hoard near the village of Kaliska, Poland. Comprising over 120 artefacts, it is one of the most impressive Bronze Age ...finds within Pomerania. The authors discuss the hoard's contents and context, as well as its chronology.
Pigmentation is a polygenic trait encompassing some of the most visible phenotypic variation observed in humans. Here we present direct estimates of selection acting on functional alleles in three ...key genes known to be involved in human pigmentation pathways— HERC2 , SLC45A2 , and TYR —using allele frequency estimates from Eneolithic, Bronze Age, and modern Eastern European samples and forward simulations. Neutrality was overwhelmingly rejected for all alleles studied, with point estimates of selection ranging from around 2–10% per generation. Our results provide direct evidence that strong selection favoring lighter skin, hair, and eye pigmentation has been operating in European populations over the last 5,000 y.
This volume interrogates the nature of warfare in the Aegean world during the Bronze Age, reviews the essential forms of evidence, considers the social and cultural place of war, and revisits some ...longstanding questions.
This volume provides a series of contributions on the crucial aspects relating to the Bible and the Late Bronze Age period. The volume is introduced with a background essay surveying the main areas ...of history and current scholarship relating to Late Bronze Age Palestine and to the Egyptian New Kingdom (Dynasties 18-20) domination of the region, as well as the question of the biblical account of the same geographical area and historical period.Specific chapters address a range of key concerns: the history of Egypt's dealing with Canaan is surveyed in chapters by Grabbe and Dijkstra. The Amarna texts are also dealt with by Lemche, Mayes and Grabbe. The archaeology is surveyed by van der Steen. The Merenptah Stela mentioning Israel is of considerable interest and is discussed especially by Dijkstra. This leads on to the burning question of the origins of Israel which several of the contributors address. Another issue is whether the first Israelite communities practised egalitarianism, an issue taken up by Guillaume, with a response by Kletter.
Various techniques were used to illuminate domestic structures at EBII Arad (3000-2880 BCE) and its enclaves and outposts in southern Sinai. The dwellings were constructed in a manner that required ...some form of illumination on overcast days and at night. The residents had three options for lighting the interior of their dwellings: first, sunlight streaming through an open door was the most efficient means of illumination as it did not require the expenditure of fuel; second, the flint “stoves” that were used for cooking provided a certain amount of light; third, lamp-bowls fueled with olive oil were used to illuminate many broadroom dwellings at Arad, but not those in southern Sinai. Lamp-bowls were not used in the latter region because the fuel had to be imported and the amount of light cast by these devices was equivalent to a candle. In this context, hearths were a more appropriate form of illumination as there was a ready supply of firewood in southern Sinai. Lastly, burning olive oil in intact vessels to provide artificial illumination was an act of conspicuous consumption practiced by elites.
This paper aims to present new archaeobotanical data from the Late Bronze Age settlement of Tállya-Óvár in the North Hungarian Mountains. Upon investigating the area around a bronze hoard found ...earlier, the floor of a building was unearthed, and 16 archaeobotanical samples were taken. The interpretation of the botanical finds was difficult due to a low to medium density of remains and the judgement sampling method. This paper focuses mainly on cereal remains, attempting to interpret them by comparing them with the record of contemporary sites in Hungary and placing them in a broader European context. The samples from Tállya-Óvár were dominated by spelt, barley, and millet. In general, the archaeobotanical assemblage fits the hypotheses concerning Late Bronze Age agriculture. These results are important because no archaeobotanical data have yet been published from high-altitude fortified settlements in the North Hungarian Mountains.
Entre ca. 2200-1550 a. n. e. se manifiesta una marcada dispersión de la población del cuadrante centroriental de la península ibérica en asentamientos de pequeño tamaño y su enrocamiento en ...posiciones elevadas o fortificadas. Esta pauta de asentamiento, que prevalece durante más de seis siglos, resulta excepcional en la Edad del Bronce de Europa y difícilmente se explica sin una situación de conflicto social latente. El presente trabajo realiza un escrutinio de las principales evidencias productivas registradas en los 1.445 yacimientos documentados hasta el momento en un territorio de 117.444 km2 con el fin de determinar la distribución y organización de las fuerzas productivas. El análisis cuantitativo identifica diferencias económicas significativas entre asentamientos de llanura, de altura y en cuevas, así como entre poblados fortificados y no fortificados. Mientras los grupos culturales identificados, como Las Motillas o el Bronce Valenciano, compartieron los mismos medios de producción, El Argar se distingue de una forma nítida. Este contraste lleva a valorar si la particular organización económica y social de la periferia argárica puede entenderse como una respuesta de estas comunidades enrocadas y atomizadas al desarrollo expansivo de El Argar y su necesidad de obtener determinados recursos estratégicos. En definitiva, se presenta una metodología de estudio paleoeconómico en arqueología a partir de grandes series de datos procedentes tanto de prospecciones como de excavaciones.
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