The Use and Significance of Early Bronze Age Stone Battle-axes and Axe-hammers from Northern Britain and the Isle of Man

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 237-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber Sofia Roy
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Isle Of Man ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
Wear Analysis ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
The Status ◽  
Different Shapes

The perforated stone battle-axes and axe-hammers of Early Bronze Age Britain have been used either to interpret the status of individuals they were buried with or have been overlooked; this is especially the case with axe-hammers. Previous understandings have assumed battle-axes were purely ceremonial, while the rougher axe-hammers were neither functional nor prestigious, being too large and too crude to be prestige items. Studies of the 20th century were focused on creating a typology and understanding the manufacture and petrological sources of the stone, concluding that haphazard exploitation of stone was used to create a variety of different shapes of both implements. This paper revisits the question of how these artefacts were used. It presents the results of the first large-scale application of use-wear analysis to British Early Bronze Age battle-axes and axe-hammers, from northern Britain and the Isle of Man. Combining the results of the wear analysis with experimental archaeology and contextual analysis, it is argued that these objects were functional tools, some of which saw prolonged use that might have spanned multiple users. The evidence shows that the few implements found in burial contexts were both functional and symbolic; their inclusion in burial contexts drawing upon relational links which developed through the itineraries of these objects. It is also apparent that use and treatment were similar across all types of battle-axe and axe-hammer, with some regional variation in the deposition of axe-hammers in south-west Scotland. It is concluded that battle-axes and axe-hammers had varied and multiple roles and significances and that it is possible to discover what each artefact was used for by deploying a use-wear analysis methodology.

scholarly journals Recycling in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age: evidence of flint recycling at Ein-Zippori, Israel

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoni Parush ◽  
Richard Yerkes ◽  
Bar Efrati ◽  
Ran Barkai ◽  
Gopher Avi
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Separate Paper ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Wear Analysis ◽  
Use Wear

This paper presents a new techno-typological analysis of a sample of small flakes that were produced through recycling from discarded blanks at the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age site of Ein-Zippori, Lower Galilee, Israel. This study shows that the systematic production of small flakes from previously discarded blanks was not related to a scarcity in raw materials, but rather to specific decisions concerning the types of tools needed to complete necessary tasks. These results are supported by use-wear analysis noted briefly here and presented in more detail in a separate paper. The results indicate that recycling was a significant lithic production trajectory during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Recycling also contributes to the variability in lithic assemblages from those cultural periods.

From Texts and Iconography to Use-Wear Analysis of Ceramic Vessels

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-210
Author(s):  
Bartłomiej Lis ◽  
Trevor Van Damme
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Wear Analysis ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Repeated Use ◽  
Funerary Rites

While handwashing is attested in the Bronze Age cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and appears in both Linear B records and Homeric epics, the custom has not been discussed with regard to the material culture of Mycenaean Greece. On analogy with Egyptian handwashing equipment, we explore the possibility that a conical bowl made of bronze and copied in clay was introduced in Greece early in the Late Bronze Age for this specific use. We integrate epigraphic, iconographic and formal analyses to support this claim, but in order to interrogate the quotidian function of ceramic lekanes, we present the results of use-wear analysis performed on 130 examples. As use-wear develops from repeated use over a long time, it is a good indicator of normative behaviour, particularly when large datasets are amassed and contrasted with other shapes. While not conclusive, our results allow us to rule out a function as tableware for food consumption, and in combination with all other analyses support the interpretation of lekanes as handwashing basins. We then trace the development of this custom from its initial adoption by elite groups to its spread among new social classes and venues after the collapse of the palace system: at home, as part of communal feasting and sacrifice or as an element of funerary rites. The widespread distribution of handwashing equipment after 1200 bc closely mirrors the situation in our earliest surviving Greek Iron Age texts and joins a growing body of evidence pointing to strong continuity in social practices between the Postpalatial period and the early Iron Age in Greece.

scholarly journals Alalakh: an account of the excavations at Tell Atchana in the Hatay, 1937–1949

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard Woolley
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Gold Silver

This monograph describes large-scale excavations undertaken by Sir Leonard Woolley from 1937 to 1939, and again from 1946 to 1949, at the site of Alalakh (modern Tell Atchana) – a late Bronze Age city in the Amuq River valley of Turkey's Hatay Province. Described is the evidence of a series of superimposed palaces and temples, town defences, private houses and graves, in 17 archaeological levels reaching from late Early Bronze Age (Level XVII, c. 2200–2000 BC to Late Bronze Age (Level 0, 13th century BC). Supplementary reports describe the architecture and frescoes, sculptures, and portable objects in fired clay, gold, silver, ivory, stone, and glass.

The Use and Significance of Socketed Axes During the Late Bronze Age

2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Roberts ◽  
Barbara S. Ottaway
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Experimental Work ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Parallel Development ◽  
Wear Analysis ◽  
Use Wear

The widespread employment and acceptance of use-wear analysis on materials such as flint and bone has not been accompanied by a parallel development in archaeometallurgy. This article explores its potential and problems through the investigation of socketed axes in eastern Yorkshire, in England and south-east Scotland during the late Bronze Age. Experimental work on modern replications of socketed axes was compared with wear traces on prehistoric socketed axes. The results indicate that prehistoric socketed axes had been used as multi-purpose tools, but that the nature and extent of their uses before deposition varied considerably. By combining use-wear analysis with contextual information on socketed axes in the late Bronze Age landscape, ideas concerning their significance can be explored.

Weapon and tool use during the Nordic Bronze Age

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Horn ◽  
Tine Karck
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Object Category ◽  
Wear Analysis ◽  
Gradual Loss ◽  
Over Time

The article is based on wear analysis carried out on 101 bladed objects including swords, spears, daggers, and knives. They are dating mostly to the Early Nordic Bronze Age. Wear marks vary over time and for each object category. The data are discussed to investigate the implications of the variation in the wear patterns. It is argued that a true specialization of the combat roles of swords and spears occurs first during the advanced Early Bronze Age. This may lead to the gradual loss of the role daggers had in combat. This is interpreted as evidence that the design and use of bladed objects inform each other and cause gradual changes.

The Collfryn Hillslope Enclosure, Llansantffraid Deuddwr, Powys: Excavations 1980–1982

1989 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Britnell ◽  
Jenny Britnell ◽  
Timothy C. Darvill ◽  
Stephen Greep ◽  
Elizabeth Healey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Drainage Ditches ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
High Social Status

The report on partial rescue excavations of the Collfryn enclosure between 1980–82 presents a summary of the first large-scale investigation of one of the numerous semi-defensive cropmark and earthwork enclosure sites in the upper Severn valley in mid-Wales. Earlier prehistoric activity of an ephemeral nature is represented by a scattering of Mesolithic and Late Neolithic or early Bronze Age flintwork, and by a pit containing sherds of several different Beaker vessels. The first enclosed settlement, constructed in about the 3rd century bc probably consisted of three widely-spaced concentric ditches, associated with banks of simple dump construction, having a single gated entranceway on the downhill side. It covered an area of about 2.5 ha and appears to have been of a relatively high social status, and appropriate in size for a single extended-family group. This was subsequently reduced in about the 1st century bc to a double-ditched enclosure, by the recutting of the original inner ditch and the cutting of a new ditch immediately outside it. The habitation area between the 3rd and 1st centuries bc probably focused on timber buildings in the central enclosure of about 0.4 ha, whose gradually evolving pattern appears to have comprised between 3–4 roundhouses and 4–5 four-posters at any one time. Little excavation was undertaken between the outer ditches of the first phase settlement, but these are assumed to have been used as stock enclosures. A mixed farming economy is suggested by cattle, sheep/goat and pig remains, and remains of glume wheats, barley and oats. Industries included small-scale iron and bronze-working. The Iron Age settlement was essentially aceramic, although there are significant quantities of a coarse, oxidized ceramic probably representing salt traded from production centres in the Cheshire Plain. The entranceway was remodelled in about the late 1st or early 2nd, century AD by means of a timber-lined passage linked to a new gate on the line of the inner bank. There is equivocal evidence of continued occupation within the inner enclosure continuing until at least the mid-4th century AD, possibly at a comparatively low social level, associated with domestic structures of uncertain form sited on earlier roundhouse platforms, and including some four-posters and possible six-posters. Drainage ditches were dug across parts of the site during the Medieval and post-Medieval periods, which were associated with various structures, including a corn-drying kiln inserted into the inner enclosure bank in the 15th century.

The Aduun Chuluu Site and Cemetery of early Bronze Age in Wenquan (Arixang) County, Xinjiang

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Tianshan Mountains ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Eurasian Steppe ◽  
Western Tianshan ◽  
Stone Slab ◽  
Cultural Connotations

AbstractIn 2012 and 2013, four large-scale architectural remains and 16 stone slab cists were excavated in Aduun Chuluu Site and Cemetery, from which potteries, stone implements, small bronze objects and gold-filled bronze earring and stone human statues were unearthed. The dates of the remains and burials were concentrated between the 19th to the 17th centuries BCE, which was the early Bronze Age in this region. This discovery is helpful for revealing the features of the sites of the early Bronze Age in the western Tianshan Mountains and provides important clues for the explorations on the cultural connotations of the early Bronze Age in Xinjiang and the cultural intercommunication in the Eurasian Steppe area at that time.

Economic and social zones during the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age in Jæren, Southwest Norway. Reconstructing large-scale land-use patterns

2018 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-88
Author(s):  
Lisbeth Prøsch-Danielsen ◽  
Christopher Prescott ◽  
Mads Kähler Holst
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Land Use Patterns ◽  
Use Patterns ◽  
Large Scale Land

Zusammenfassung Basierend auf einer Untersuchung der ökologischen und archäologischen Hinterlassenschaften für Jæren, Südwest-Norwegen, wird vorgeschlagen, dass der Übergang zu einer agrar-pastoralen Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft am Übergang vom mittleren zum späten Neolithikum (2400–2350 v. Chr.) erfolgte und es in Folge zu einer raschen Strukturierung der besiedelten Kulturlandschaften kam. In den folgenden Jahrzehnten und Jahrhunderten entwickelte sich die Gesellschaft auf dieser Basis fort. >Eines der charakteristischen Merkmale der damaligen Landschaften ist, dass diese umfassend in das soziale und rituelle Leben integriert wurden, was auf lokaler Ebene zu einer Zonierung der Landschaft mit jeweils deutlichen Unterschieden in den wirtschaftlichen, sozialen und kulturellen Ausdrucksformen führte. In den offenen, gras- und heidedominierten Küstenzonen manifestiert sich der Befund auf monumentaler und ritueller Ebene, während geeignete quartäre Lagerstätten als Zonen unterschiedlich intensiven Getreideanbaus genutzt wurden. Die beschriebenen Landschaften entwickelten sich als Reaktion auf eine nachhaltige Wirtschaftspraxis, die eine kontinuierliche Ausweitung der Beweidung, eine Intensivierung der Getreideproduktion und den Zugang zu Kommunikationswegen umfasste. Unterschiede im Nutzungsdruck, in der Produktion und in der Wirtschaftsstrategie spiegeln eine Reihe von Umweltparametern wider. Somit korrelieren die Aktivitätszonen weitgehend mit physikalischen Eigenschaften der Landschaft, was offensichtlich sowohl einen adaptiven Aspekt in der Wirtschaft als auch Muster einer umfassenden Ressourcenausnutzung der Zonen widerspiegelt, etwa in der Kombination von Getreideproduktion, Wanderweidewirtschaft, Jagd und Zugang zu maritimen Engstellen. Zur Interpretation schlagen die Autoren ein Modell sozialer und wirtschaftlicher Organisationen und Interaktionen in der Region Jæren vor, basierend auf den Verteilungen mehrerer Kategorien archäologischer Funde. Das Modell präsentiert eine Reihe voneinander abhängiger Zonen innerhalb einer einheitlichen, aber diversifizierten Wirtschaft mit Querschnittsaktivitäten und Mobilitätsmustern. Der präsentierte Ansatz stellt eine Alternative zu bestehenden Hierarchiemodellen innerhalb begrenzter Gebiete dar. Die Landschaftszonierung in Jæren ähnelt jener in Westskandinavien, einschließlich Jütlands, Dänemark. Aus diesem Grund war die Einführung einer subsistenzorientierten, Feldbau und Weidewirtschaft kombinierenden Landwirtschaft in Jæren von externen Impulsen abhängig.

scholarly journals Harcosnők klubja? – Specializált társadalmi helyzetű nők a késő rézkor időszakában Magyarországon

2018 ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Tünde Horváth
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Late Phase ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Copper Age ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Neolithic Culture ◽  
The Status ◽  
Bell Beaker

This article focus on the status of the woman in the main cultures (Baden complex and Yamna) of the Late Copper Age (3600–2800 BC) and the transitional period (2800–2600 BC). Although the Bell Beaker complex belongs to the Early Bronze Age in Hungary (2500–1900 BC), in European terminologies it is a Late Neolithic culture and belongs to the Reinecke A0 horizon in its late phase, which is why I included it into my research. I identify charismatic people displaying signs of agression in these three culture complexes, whose personalities are associated with warfare. In all three cultures there were women with specialised status: their knowledge, property and profession raised them above the average man and woman.

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