In recent years the use of near-surface geophysical survey – especially magnetometry – has been on the rise across sub-Saharan Africa, illustrating its utility at both large and/or built-up sites ...with stone architecture, as well as smaller and more ephemeral village sites in equatorial and sub-tropical regions of the continent. This article describes geophysical surveys and excavations at Nanga and Kanono, two Iron Age village sites in the Machile Valley, Western Zambia, undertaken between 2019 and 2022. Surveys allowed for detailed analyses of village layouts and showed the relationship between domestic areas and areas of iron production. Subsequent ground-truthing of both domestic and iron production areas elucidated differential spatial patterns of iron production stages (i.e., smelting and smithing) between village sites dating to between 800 and 1400, and allowed for the identification, excavation, and analyses of several Early Iron Age smelting furnaces.
•Magnetic gradiometry is effective for mapping shallow (<1.5 m) southern African Iron Age village sites.•Settlement patterns in Machile changed between the late 1st/early 2nd millennium from dispersed villages to nucleated villages•Gradiometry surveys show changes in the organization and spatial arrangements of iron working practices in Western Zambia•Spatial changes have implications for regional understandings of iron production as a socio-technical institution.
The article presents the results of research on the settlement of the Pyrzyce Lowland, NW Poland, in the Pre Roman and Roman Iron Ages. The central part of this area was covered in the past by a ...large water body, pre-Miedwie lake, which due to natural processes and subsequent human intervention was partially drained. In order to carry out the research, 85 Pre-Roman and 305 Roman Iron Age sites were catalogued. The main method of researching the spatial organization was triangulation and subsequent polygon networking. The results of the spatial analysis were confronted with data from lake Racze’s palynological profile. Thanks to this procedure information was obtained on settlement structures, population, environment and economy, as well as their changes in time. The similarities and differences between the Pre-Roman and Roman Iron Ages were then discussed. During the research a strong suggestion of settlements having been relocated according to changes of the palaeo-shoreline of pre-Miedwie lake was concluded. Also, the change from inhabiting large and stable settlements in PRIA to single, often relocating farms in RIA was registered. There were no significant changesin terms of economy, which stayed diversified during the entire PRIA and RIA periods. The changes in anthropopression were most likely linked with changes in population size, reflecting 8 distinct phases of settlement in the area.
During the Early Bronze Age (EBA), a relatively small number of European societies developed into highly centralised and hierarchical political entities. In contrast to the intensive research focused ...on these groups, little attention has been paid to their relationship with neighbouring populations, which had a much more egalitarian structure. In the southeast quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula, over a century of research on the EBA (ca. 2200 –1550 BC) communities has failed to identify distinctive traits leading to the definition of archaeological entities beyond the El Argar group, which according to many authors reached the form of an early state organisation around 1750 BC. This study aims to go beyond previous culturalist approaches and to focus on how communities with very different social organisations interacted in this macro-region as well as in a border region between El Argar and La Mancha. To that effect, we analyse primarily settlement size as an expression of the demographic and economic strength of a community, and ‘enrockment’ (enrocamiento), a concept that defines the degree of protection and spatial distancing of a settlement from its surrounding land and neighbouring communities. This large-scale comparative approach reveals the distinctiveness of highly dispersed and well-protected communities settling in the belt immediately north of El Argar and shows how this cost-intensive strategy changes with increasing distance from El Argar, when flat land and often larger settlements become dominant. The combination of settlement patterns and economic organisation also highlights the marked differences between El Argar and all the other communities living in the Iberian Peninsula.
In 2003, a hitherto unknown Viking age settlement was discovered at Füsing in Northern Germany. Finds and building features suggest that the site was an estate centre and assembly place. As such, the ...site flourished from around 700 to the end of the 10th century. With Hedeby/Schleswig and the Danevirke in direct eyesight from the site, Füsing is embedded in a special topographical context. What would in other circumstances have been yet another high-status estate centre to be discovered in South Scandinavia thus takes on a different significance. It is suggested that Füsing – among other functions – fulfilled the role of a seasonal garrison and naval base in the defensive system of the Danevirke. As such, the site may be identical with the mystical Sliesthorp, which is mentioned in early written sources as the power-centre of the first Danish kings in this disputed border-region of their realm.
Little is known about the lifeways of the commoner populations that supported the expansive pre-industrial cities of Southeast Asia. Archaeologically driven understandings are constrained by the fact ...that the architecture and much of the material culture utilized by ordinary citizens were made from perishable materials, and many living floors were also raised above the actual ground surface on piles. The challenges associated with searching for and interpreting these quotidian remains, once they are found, can be mitigated to some degree through the integration of ethnoarchaeological insights. This study outlines the results of detailed ethnoarchaeological investigations within ten traditional Myanmar villages located in proximity to the remains of 'classical' Bagan's walled and moated royal city. We then explore how these findings have helped our excavation team recognize and interpret a range of residential remains associated with the ancient city's peri-urban support population.
Finding Sliesthorp? andres Siegfried dobat
Danish journal of archaeology,
05/2022, Letnik:
11
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In 2003, a hitherto unknown Viking age settlement was discovered at Füsing in Northern Germany. Finds and building features suggest that the site was an estate centre and assembly place. As such, the ...site flourished from around 700 to the end of the 10th century. With Hedeby/Schleswig and the Danevirke in direct eyesight from the site, Füsing is embedded in a special topographical context. What would in other circumstances have been yet another high-status estate centre to be discovered in South Scandinavia thus takes on a different significance. It is suggested that Füsing – among other functions – fulfilled the role of a seasonal garrison and naval base in the defensive system of the Danevirke. As such, the site may be identical with the mystical Sliesthorp, which is mentioned in early written sources as the power-centre of the first Danish kings in this disputed border-region of their realm.
This paper presents the results of elemental and lead isotopic analysis of copper alloys, copper-based pigments and an extremely rare tin-based alloy from the town of Amara West (Sudan), the centre ...for pharaonic control of occupied Upper Nubia between 1300 and 1070 BCE. It is the first assemblage of its kind to be analysed for Upper Nubia during this period. This research examines the selection and consumption of alloys in a colonial context, in light of earlier and contemporaneous practices and patterns in both Egypt and Nubia, to assess broader systems of resource management and metal production. Drawing on the complementary information obtained from pigment analysis, novel insights into interactions between different high-temperature crafts are obtained, particularly in terms of shared provisioning systems. From this unique perspective, pigment analysis is used for the first time to illuminate copper sources not reflected in metal assemblages, while scrap copper alloys are identified as a key colourant for Egyptian blue manufacture. The integrated application of strontium isotope analysis further highlights the potential for identifying links between glass, faience and Egyptian blue production systems within Egypt and for distinguishing these from other manufacturing regions such as Mesopotamia. The analysis of a tin artefact further expands our understanding of potential tin sources available during the New Kingdom and their role in shaping copper alloy compositions. Overall, this holistic approach to copper alloys and their application in other high-temperature industries ties together different strands of research, shaping a new understanding of New Kingdom technological practices, supply networks and material stocks circulating throughout the Nile Valley.
•New Kingdom copper provisioning and alloying at a colonial settlement in Nubia.•Novel cross-craft approach to copper alloys, pigments and faience in the Nile Valley.•Integrated trace element and Pb & Sr isotopic analysis of Egyptian blue.•Rare tin-based artefact.
Mid and late-Holocene climate shifts are considered to have profoundly shaped demographic developments and adaptive responses of communities globally. Yet their onset, duration, and impact on ...Neolithic and Early Nordic Bronze Age communities in the high-latitude ranges of southern and north-western Scandinavia remain a major research gap. Here, we built on an emerging body of archaeological and paleoclimate data, encompassing 20,908 anthropogenic 14C dates and 49 climate records from the Holocene. Additionally, we gathered and correlated a new archaeological dataset of 3649 houses from southern Scandinavia and southern Norway. In this study, we utilised 6268 reliable 14C dates and 2519 dwellings to generate time series and socio-economic trends from ∼4100 to 1100 BCE. Our study revealed three key findings: (1) A distinct lateral zonation, with variations in the duration and timing of the Holocene Thermal Maximum (∼7050–2050 BCE). In Southern Scandinavia, a warmer climate may have facilitated the spread of crop cultivation (3820–3790 BCE), coinciding with significant population growth. Neolithic communities settled in permanent two-aisled houses 90–160 years later (3700–3660 BCE). (2) The 2250 BCE (4.2 ka BP) cooling trend marked the beginning of a climate regime shift with varying duration and timing (∼3450–1450 BCE). This period coincided with demographic growth, migration, crop cultivation diversity, and the development of houses with crop storage facilities (2290–2215 BCE). (3) Severe abrupt cooling periods (∼1850–1450 BCE) corresponded to short-term demographic decline including disruptions in trade networks with continental Europe. However, repopulation and redistribution of wealth (∼1450 BCE), along with the development of stable three-aisled houses (1475–1450 BCE), underscore the resilience of food-producing economies in mitigating environmental disturbances.
Excavations at the site of Tell el-Retaba since 2007 have revealed an extensive settlement and associated material culture dating from the Third Intermediate Period (1070–664 BC). This work ...represents the only large-scale investigation into domestic archaeology from this period in Egypt and the results offer important insights into aspects of urban life for an under-studied phase of Egyptian history.
This publication presents research on the first peasants of the Linear Pottery group in Brandenburg, northern Germany. The region is of particular interest because it is situated in the absolute ...periphery of the Linear Pottery area. The volume combines the results on settlement features, pottery and stone tools with archaeobotanical and archaeozoological studies on the diet and economy of these Neolithic people with focus on the site of Lietzow 10. This holistic approach fulfils a research desideratum, because the state of knowledge about such enclaves of agricultural life in the midst of the settlement area of forager groups is still incomplete. The excavation of the site Lietzow 10 yielded features from which a settlement site with two farmsteads could be reconstructed, which was inhabited for 2-3 generations. Large quantities of pottery were found, according to typology dating into the period around 5100 to 5000 BCE at the latest, i.e. to the younger LBK. Several radiocarbon dates support this chronological classification and confirm the Linear Pottery chronologies from Central Germany for Brandenburg features. Despite its peripheral location, the settlement site was by no means isolated; the pottery finds even attest to long-distance contacts. The supply of raw material for the stone implements points to a regional network, for flint and grindstone raw material were not extracted in the vicinity of the site, but were apparently mined some distance away. The archaeozoological and archaeobotanical investigations - for the latter, samples from other Neolithic settlements in Havelland were also available - provide insights into the economic practices and diet of the settlers. The cereals found were almost exclusively emmer, other crops were flax and pea. Animal husbandry was of outstanding importance for the food supply. Among the domestic animals, cattle probably played the greatest economic role, but pigs and small ruminants were also significant. Both, the crop and the domestic animal evidence show a fully developed agriculture. In addition, there is evidence for extensive gathering. Hunting - unlike fishing - did not play a major role in the diet, although wide range of game species is represented.
