Summary
This article describes the important discovery of a Late Bronze Age gold torc that was unearthed in a field of Acehúche (Cáceres, Spain). It was buried underneath some rocks at a site near a ...river crossing over the Tagus river. In its immediate vicinity, archaeological remains dating from the Copper Age to the Late Bronze Age have been found, which indicates the long use of this crossing. Until recently here, there existed a ferry and a chapel; and the place went by the toponym of the Dehesa de San Cristóbal. Legend too has it that the water from the river had curative properties. All of these components have maintained the sacred nature of the spot, otherwise transformed over the course of time, and reflect an earlier sacred landscape with quite ancient roots.
The observations of the present paper, following the footsteps of previous studies, provide researchers with a rich set of data that shed more light on the pottery manufacturing techniques of Late ...Copper Age potters. The investigated assemblage belongs to the Baden culture, excavated at Hódmezővásárhely-Kopáncs-Olasz-tanya I in 2009. So far, four studies have been published on other sites from the heritage of Baden culture, which have been examined in a similar way, focusing on pottery technology. Therefore, the Baden culture is currently the most researched in this respect because the same macroscopic methods were used. In this state of research, we have an opportunity to compare these five assemblages, which allows us to identify similarities and differences in certain details of the technology of potting tradition of different regions in one extended cultural complex. In order to clarify the terminology and certain procedures of handbuilding techniques and possible tool usage in burnishing I make corrections on earlier statements. In addition to observations of potting technology also documenting the use-traces, the secondarily used sherds and any noticeable phenomena, such as grain imprints on ceramics. For the question of intentional or accidental occurrence of grain imprints on ceramics, I share the potter’s viewpoint, to shed more light on this topic. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss a wide range of phenomena that can be used for the chaîne opératoire of pottery production and object-biographical studies.
We studied the architectural remains of two Chalcolithic (Ghassulian) cultic complexes at En-Gedi and Teleilat Ghassul Area E in order to trace aspects of the architectural planning principles and ...methods involved in their design and construction. Architectural Formal Analysis has brought to light hitherto unnoticed spatial relations between architectural elements that seem to have structured the ritual activity at the two sites. The discerned geometric regularities imply that specific mathematical knowledge and the same set of design principles and methods were used in the planning of both complexes. The emerging pictures of highly structured ritual and of the use of geometry in Ghassulian cultic production may be used to support suggestions regarding some sort of cultic establishment (priesthood) during the Chalcolithic Ghassulian.
Different funerary behaviors are recorded in the Iberian Peninsula during Late Prehistory. Cremation is not the most common practice and the association between human cremains and fauna is even ...scarcer. We present two Chalcolithic pits (pits 16 and 40) from the Perdigões ditched enclosures, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal. Humans were accompanied by animals and other votive materials such as arrowheads, ivory anthropomorphic figurines, and marble idols. Differences between the two contexts are discussed regarding the selection of faunal anatomical parts, the abundance of species, and the manipulation of remains. The results obtained were compared to previously published data from anthropological analysis. Burning damage intensity is different among pits and between humans and fauna. Hence, this suggests that the latter also resulted from diverse practices, including the possible selection of animal body portions for cremation and/or the deposition of selected burned bones or even related to patterns existing in the contexts of the provenance of the cremated materials before the cremation events.
Ceramic technology is a topic widely explored in archaeology, especially for its social inferences. This volume addresses the social aspects of production and the role of potters within prehistoric ...communities. The book focusses on the Copper Age when social complexity was incipient and ceramic production was not considered a formalised activity.
Summary
During an excavation of a Bronze Age, Füzesabony‐culture cemetery at Encs (north‐eastern Hungary), a clay wagon model with spoked wheels (grave 1290) and three miniature solid clay wheels ...were found (grave 1389). Miniature wagon and wheel models in burials began to appear in the Late Copper Age and lasted until the Iron Age in Central Europe. Their presence allows of several interpretations. These spoked wheels of grave 1290 provide early evidence about the appearance of such in the Carpathian Basin. Focussing on the two graves from Encs, this article reports AMS radiocarbon dates that suggest the spoked wheels belong to the early second millennium BC. The implications of these finds are interpreted though a comparative review of both wagon models from the Füzesabony culture and the evidence for early spoked wheels in the Carpathian Basin.
•Analysis of relationship between social complexity, residence and gender dissymmetries.•Centrality of gender in the analysis of early social complexity.•Interdisciplinary approach to residential ...mobility, using ethnographic and archaeological data.•Comprehensive assessment of potential of strontium data using Iberian record.•Residential mobility and aggregation practices in Copper Age ‘mega-sites’.
The relationship between residence, gender and mobility is central to the study of early social complexity. And yet, until recently, it was deemed as archaeologically intractable. The recent combination of strontium data and genomics with other methods has opened up entirely new possibilities for the archaeological study of human mobility, but these advances are not without problems. Theoretical framing, empirical accuracy and data interpretation remain controversial. In this paper we address the relationship between residence patterns, gender and mobility among early complex societies, combining both ethnographic and archaeological evidence. Our approach focuses on Chalcolithic Iberia, a period in which the stage for emerging social complexity was set. The possible existence of male-centered residential patterns and their possible connection with conflict, social complexity and gender inequalities is examined. The available data on strontium isotopes suggest women were more frequently buried in places different from those where they grew up, which can be linked to bilocality biased to patrilocality, especially in the so called ‘mega-sites’. While preliminary, this body of evidence opens up fresh lines of enquiry for the study of early complex societies, highlights the benefits of combining different kinds of evidence, and underlines the centrality of gender in the social analysis.
Eleven biconical vessels from the Copper Age sites Pietrele and Blejesti (Romania) have been investigated using p-XRF. In most cases, traces of lead could be measured on their surfaces. Samples of ...slag-like material from two vessels and the clay of one vessel were investigated using laboratory methods, namely SEM, XRD, LIA and optical microscopy. The vessels were obviously used as a kind of crucible in which slag-like remains and galena ore were detected. It still remains unclear as to what final product was gained by smelting galena in this way. The amount of these such vessels in the Pietrele settlement, their appearance as grave goods in Pietrele and VÄrÄÈti (Romania), and their supposed occurrence in a number of other Copper Age settlements in Romania and Bulgaria show the significance of this phenomenon. It must have been a widespread and more or less well known practice, an important part of cultural habit during a particular period in the Lower Danube region and likely even farther afield. For the first time, extensive experimentation with lead ore can be shown in a clear chronological horizon, ca. 4400-4300 BCE in southeastern Europe.
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