Innovation and industry during the Early Iron Age in East Africa: the KM2 and KM3 sites of northwest Tanzania

1985 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter R. Schmidt ◽  
S. Terry Childs
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Iron Age

A New Look at Interpretations of the Early Iron Age in East Africa

1975 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 127-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter R. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Analytical Method ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Temporal Domain ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Archeological Evidence

Since the publication in English in 1965 of Jan Vansina's Oral Tradition, historians of Africa have been increasingly concerned with developing methods which confirm the historical value of oral traditions. Independent proof for the historicity of oral traditions is often lacking; consequently the historian is usually left with comparative analysis as his primary analytical method. Archeologists such as Merrick Posnansky, Frank Willett, and John Sutton have in part attempted to show linkages between oral traditions and archeological evidence.Posnansky, especially, has contributed much to the idea that it is possible to combine the two sources to obtain a more comprehensive view of Hfeways usually referred to as ‘prehistoric’ Recent research, though, now suggests that the concept ‘prehistoric’ must be questioned, particularly in cases where there is a demonstrated tie between archeological evidence and oral traditions. When archeology affirms the accuracy of oral traditions which explain, comment on, interpret, or locate activities and sites which predate a literate tradition, then the germaneness of the concept must be critically questioned. It is my position here that when archeological evidence confirms the historical value of oral traditions about preliterate life, then those cultural phenomena in that time period should be considered historic rather than prehistoric. To retain ‘prehistory’ as a concept in this context ignores and even militates against the historiographies and historical concepts of other cultures. The ramifications of this relativist perspective are considerable both for the study of history and of prehistory. Given this logic, historians must begin to reassess and expand their concepts of what history is and prehistorians must prepare to forfeit part of the temporal domain previously considered as prehistory.

Fire and human record at Lake Victoria, East Africa, during the Early Iron Age: Did humans or climate cause massive ecosystem changes?

The Holocene ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 997-1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Battistel ◽  
Elena Argiriadis ◽  
Natalie Kehrwald ◽  
Maddalena Spigariol ◽  
James M Russell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Polycyclic Aromatic ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ecosystem Changes ◽  
Favorable Conditions

Organic molecular markers determined in a sediment core (V95-1A-1P) from Lake Victoria (East Africa) were used to reconstruct the history of human impact and regional fire activity during the Early Iron Age (~2400 to ~1100 yr BP). Fire history was reconstructed using levoglucosan and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as markers for biomass burning that demonstrate two distinct fire periods peaking at 1450–1700 and 1850–2050 cal. yr BP. A partial correlation between levoglucosan and PAHs is interpreted as different transport behaviors and burn temperatures affecting the proxies. A fecal sterol index (CoP-Index) indicates the presence of humans near the lakeshore, where the CoP-Index lags a few centuries behind the fire peaks. The CoP-Index peaks between 1850 and1950 cal. yr BP and between 1400 and 1500 cal. yr BP. Retene, a PAH that indicates softwood combustion, differs from other PAHs and levoglucosan by abruptly increasing at ~1650 cal. yr BP and remaining high until 1200 cal. yr BP. This increase may potentially signal human activity in that the development of metallurgy and/or ceramic production requires highly efficient fuels. However, this increase in retene occurs at the same time as severe drought events centered at ~1500 and ~2000 yr BP where the droughts and associated woodland to grassland transition may have resulted in more intense fires. The grassland expansion could have created favorable conditions for human activities and triggered settlement growth that in turn may have created a positive feedback for further landscape opening.

Archaeological Investigations at Mavis Grind, Shetland

1983 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Cracknell ◽  
Beverley Smith
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Field System ◽  
M 10 ◽  
Settlement Site

Summary The excavations revealed a stone house and showed that it was oval, 13 m × 10 m, with an interior about 7 m in diameter. In the first occupation phase the entrance was on the SE side. During the second phase this entrance was replaced with one to the NE and the interior was partitioned. The roof was supported on wooden posts. After the building was abandoned it was covered with peat-ash which was subsequently ploughed. There were numerous finds of steatite-tempered pottery and stone implements, which dated the site to late Bronze/early Iron Age. The second settlement, Site B, lay by the shore of the voe and consisted of two possible stone-built houses and a field system. Two trenches were dug across the structures and the results are reported in Appendix I. Although damaged in recent years it was in no further danger.

Trees and shrubs in the sanctuary. Wood charcoal analysis at the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia, Poros

2019 ◽  
pp. 255-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Ntinou
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Wood Charcoal ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Charcoal Analysis ◽  
Additional Source ◽  
Olive Cultivation ◽  
Trees And Shrubs ◽  
By Products

Wood charcoal analysis at the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia, Poros aims to provide information on the vegetation of the area and its management and on the range of plants used in the activities taking place at the sanctuary. During the excavations of 2003–2005 in Areas D and C, systematic samples from fills and features from all the excavated strata were recovered and water flotation was used for the separation of wood charcoal from the sediment. Wood charcoal was found in two pits dated to the Early Iron Age, near the supposed altar of the Archaic period (Feature 05), in a deposit of the Hellenistic period (the “dining deposit”), in floor deposits (Early Iron Age and Late Classical/Early Hellenistic periods), and fills of different chrono-cultural periods (Archaic–Early Roman). All the taxa identified in the wood charcoal assemblages are thermophilous Mediterranean elements, most of them evergreen broad-leaved. The assemblages show that the most frequent taxon is the olive, followed by the prickly oak, the Fabaceae, and the heather. In most assemblages mock privet/buckthorn, strawberry tree, the pear and Prunus family species are present, while Aleppo pine, lentisc, the fig, and the carob trees are less frequent. Olive cultivation was an important economic activity during the whole life of the sanctuary and probably olive pruning constantly provided the sanctuary with fuel. The woodland would be the additional source of firewood for the sanctuary’s needs for fuel for mundane activities such as heating and cooking, for more formal ones, such as sacrifice, but also for industrial activities such as tile firing. Activities related to the reorganization of space and the expansion of the sanctuary may be reflected in charcoal of carpentry by-products as the fir, cypress, and maybe pine remains.

The bronze headbands of Prehistoric Lofkënd and their Aegean and Balkan connections

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 33-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
John K. Papadopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
Young Females ◽  
The Many ◽  
Votive Offerings

This paper begins with an overview of the bronze headbands from the prehistoric (Late Bronze to Early Iron Age) burial tumulus of Lofkënd in Albania, which were found among the richest tombs of the cemetery, all of them of young females or children. It is argued that these individuals represent a class of the special dead, those who have not attained a critical rite de passage: marriage. In their funerary attire these individuals go to the grave as brides, married to death. The significance of the Lofkënd headbands is reviewed, as is their shape and decoration, but it is their context that contributes to a better understanding of Aegean examples, including the many bronze, gold, and silver headbands found in tombs from the Early Bronze Age through the Early Iron Age, as well as those dedicated as votive offerings in sanctuaries. In addition to discussing the evidence for headbands in the Aegean and much of southeast Europe, this paper also attempts to uncover the word used in this early period in Greece for these distinctive items of personal ornament. In memory of Berit Wells.

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