scholarly journals Burial Mounds, Ard Marks, and Memory: A Case Study from the Early Iron Age at Bamble, Telemark, Norway

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-226
Author(s):  
Christian Løchsen Rødsrud
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
Old Field ◽  
Field System ◽  
Burial Mounds ◽  
Point Of Departure

The point of departure for this article is the excavation of two burial mounds and a trackway system in Bamble, Telemark, Norway. One of the mounds overlay ard marks, which led to speculation as to whether the site was ritually ploughed or whether it contained the remains of an old field system. Analysis of the archaeometric data indicated that the first mound was related to a field system, while the second was constructed 500–600 years later. The first mound was probably built to demonstrate the presence of a kin and its social norms, while these norms were renegotiated when the second mound was raised in the Viking Age. This article emphasizes that the ritual and profane aspects were closely related: mound building can be a ritualized practice intended to legitimize ownership and status by the reuse of domestic sites in the landscape. Further examples from Scandinavia indicate that this is a common, but somewhat overlooked, practice.

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.

scholarly journals Mapping and Damage Assessment of “Royal” Burial Mounds in the Siberian Valley of the Kings

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gino Caspari
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Damage Assessment ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
River Terrace ◽  
Burial Site ◽  
Southern Siberia ◽  
Northern River ◽  
Preservation Conditions ◽  
Burial Mounds

The Valley of the Kings in Tuva Republic, southern Siberia, is arguably one of the most important archaeological landscapes in the eastern Eurasian steppes. Nonetheless, little information exists about the spatial characteristics and preservation conditions of this burial ground consisting of large “royal” mounds. We map the large monuments of the Uyuk Valley’s northern river terrace and assess their state of preservation based on high-resolution optical satellite data. The burial site consists of several hundred mounds, over 150 of them with diameters of more than 25 m, the largest monuments are bigger than 100 m in diameter. This makes the Valley of the Kings in Tuva Republic one of the largest Early Iron Age burial sites in the Eurasian steppes. Unfortunately, around 92% of the large monuments are in bad condition, mostly due to looting.

scholarly journals On the Study of Scythian Mobility Based on Paleoanthropological Materials

2020 ◽  
pp. 275-287
Author(s):  
Maria Dobrovolskaya ◽  
Semen Volodin
Keyword(s):  
Isotopic Composition ◽  
Bone Tissue ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Population Mobility ◽  
Geochemical Parameters ◽  
Burial Mounds ◽  
The Individual

Introduction. The paper is about the study of the human skeletal remains isotopic composition from Middle Don burial mounds of the Scythian time to characterize the population mobility. Methods and materials. The materials from the monuments of Kolbino 1, Ternovoe 1, Gorki I, Devitsa V, Durovka are considered. Data on the isotopic composition of strontium enamel in teeth and bone tissue is used to estimate the mobility of the population. Information on the isotopic composition of bone carbon collagen and nitrogen is also used to reconstruct food models that reflect cultural traditions as well as environmental patterns. Analysis. Values of 87/86 Sr of bone and tooth enamel are considered as markers of an individuals stay at different ages in a territory similar or different by geochemical parameters to regional Middle Don. Data on the isotopic composition of nitrogen and carbon in bone tissue from the burial mounds are considered with broad comparative data of the steppe Eurasian population of the Early Iron Age. Results. The authors discuss carbon delta values marking the use of C4 type photosynthesis plants. Millet is this cultural plant in Eurasian history of the Early Iron Age. This plant is widely spread in all steppe and nomadic cultures. The individual variability of carbon delta of Middle Don population is increased compared to all others. There are individuals who differ from the majority in lower carbon deltas corresponding to the C3 type of photosynthesis. This feature is proposed to consider as an evidence of contacts with the territories with the antique agriculture traditions.

WIGGLE-MATCH DATING OF A FLOATING OAK CHRONOLOGY FROM AN EARLY IRON AGE GRAVE CONSTRUCTION (ERESZTVÉNYI FOREST, FEHÉRVÁRCSURGÓ, HUNGARY)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Z Kern ◽  
B Jungbert ◽  
A Morgós ◽  
M Molnár ◽  
E Horváth
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Construction Period ◽  
Eastern Border ◽  
Matching Procedure ◽  
Burial Mounds ◽  
Age Range

ABSTRACT Archaeological excavations unearthed three burial mounds between 1983 and 1986 at Fehérvárcsurgó (Hungary). Based on the archaeological determination the site was dated to the Early Iron Age. A complex wooden architecture was observed in the largest tumulus containing inner and outer beam constructions separated by stone blocks. Dendrochronological and radiocarbon (14C) analyses were performed on conserved logs (n=5) to constrain the felling date of the timber, identified as oak, and the construction period of the tumuli. The four longest ringwidth series were synchronized providing a 153-yr-long floating chronology. Five blocks were removed from the cross sections and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C analysis was performed on the separated α-cellulose. A wiggle-matching procedure was employed as the 14C ages were in agreement with their relative position in the tree-ring sequence and concurred with the expected archaeological period. The calibrated age range of the last extant ring is 747–707 cal BC (95.4%). The earliest possible felling date of the trees used in the construction was between 735 and 695 BC considering the missing sapwood. This is the first 14C dated tree-ring width chronology from the Early Iron Age in Hungary providing a valuable reference for dendroarchaeological studies along the eastern border of the Hallstatt Culture.

Gender, Temporalities, and Periodization in Early Iron Age West-Central Europe

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Danube River ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Social Variables ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Individual Mobility ◽  
The Social ◽  
Archaeological Chronologies

Archaeological chronologies tend to conflate temporalities from all cultural contexts in a region without consideration for the different depositional trajectories and life histories of the objects that serve as the basis of those chronologies. Social variables, such as gender, age, status, and individual mobility, act on artifacts in ways that must be identified and differentiated in order for seriations derived from one context to be applicable in another. This article presents evidence from early Iron Age contexts in Southwest Germany to illustrate this phenomenon and discusses its ramifications from the perspective of a case study focusing on the mortuary landscape of the Heuneburg hillfort on the Danube River. Gender in particular is strongly marked in this society and can be shown to affect the depositional tempo of certain artifact categories, which have different social lives and depositional fates depending on context. Artifact assemblages vary not only in terms of archaeological context and temporality but also are impacted by the social personae of the human agents responsible for, or associated with, their deposition.

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