scholarly journals The Spatial Dimensions of Early Mesopotamian Urbanism: The Tell Brak Suburban Survey, 2003–2006

Iraq ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Ur ◽  
Philip Karsgaard ◽  
Joan Oates
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Surface Survey ◽  
Spatial Dimensions ◽  
Field Systems ◽  
Remote Sensing Methods ◽  
Final Settlement

The 2003–2006 Suburban Survey at Tell Brak investigated the spatial dimensions of the city's urban origins and evolution via intensive systematic surface survey. This report places this research in the broader context of research on Near Eastern urban origins and development, describes the survey and remote sensing methods and summarises the results, which challenge several long-held models for the timing and geographical origins of urbanism in the Near East. Urbanism at Brak coalesced over the course of several centuries in the late fifth and early fourth millennia BC, when it evolved from a series of spatially discrete settlement zones into a 130-hectare city, without the benefit of irrigated agriculture. Other urban phases occurred in the late third millennium (70 hectare) and in the Late Bronze Age (45 hectare), all with different urban morphologies. Brak's final settlement occurred in the Abbasid period, when a 14-hectare town grew around the Castellum. In addition to the timing, growth and variability of urban form at the site, the Suburban Survey also documented well preserved off-site ancient landscapes of tracks, field systems and irrigation canals.

The Ritual Background of the Dying God in Cyprus and Syro-Palestine

1982 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noel Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
General Type ◽  
Urban Society ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Common Culture ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Roman Literature

In Frazer'sGolden Boughthe leading instance of the central figure whom he called “the dying god” was Adonis, famous from Greco-Roman literature and art but firmly localized in Semitic Phoenicia, Syria, and Cyprus. Since Frazer wrote, his other Near Eastern instances have been so transformed by increasing knowledge that it can be doubted whether they severally belong to the same type or indeed whether any general type exists. Adonis has hardly shared in these discoveries and debates, for research has emphasized instead the large developments which overtook his worship within the Greco-Roman world. Most of this research does not bear at all on the origins of Adonis, but scholars have sometimes been so bemused by the Greek elements as to forget or deny the Semitic. Everything has been called into question at different times. Such features of his myth as the boar and the myrrh tree and the incest are discounted as Greek embroidery; his peculiar festival, with mourning women and miniature gardens of lettuce, is traced to the preoccupations of Greek urban society; even the Semitic derivation derivation of his name is disputed. This Greek exclusivism cannot be sustained. All accounts of Adonis' life and lineage, and all analogies for his worship converge in the Levant — not in a single site or land, but in Phoenicia, coastal Syria and Cyprus together, lands which from the Late Bronze Age onward display a distinctive common culture, above all with respect to religion. This is where Adonis is at home, and where we may look for evidence to explain the figure of the dying god.

The Siting of Metalwork Hoards in the Bronze Age of South-East England

2010 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 41-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Yates ◽  
Richard Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
Field Systems ◽  
South East England ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
As If

AbstractThe paper discusses the siting of Middle and Late Bronze Age hoards in south Hampshire, Sussex and parts of Surrey and Kent. It presents the results of fieldwork at the findspots of a hundred metalwork deposits and discusses the most informative ways of studying them on the ground. On the coastal plain the hoards were not far from occupation sites, and can be associated with evidence of burnt mounds and occasionally with field systems. That was less common on the chalk. Throughout the study area these deposits were normally located along watercourses, with a special emphasis on small areas of ground beside, or overlooking springs and confluences. It seems as if the deposition of bronze metalwork was governed by certain conventions. For that reason it may be possible to predict the pattern of future discoveries.

An Assemblage of Late Bronze Age Metalworking Debris from Dainton, Devon

1980 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 177-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Needham ◽  
R. J. Silvester ◽  
Hilary Howard
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Small Proportion ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Permanent Pasture ◽  
South West ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Agricultural Use ◽  
Field Systems

Excavated sites referable to the earlier first millennium B.C. are rare in the south-west peninsula. Although Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor exhibit well preserved Bronze Age landscapes, most of the upland settlements are attributed to the second millennium and there are few which on present evidence fall within the succeeding centuries (Silvester 1979). Beyond the granite moors, pottery from Kent's Cavern, Torquay and the Mount Batten peninsula, near Plymouth, suggest sporadic occupation, while radiocarbon dates from Killibury in Cornwall imply activity prior to the construction of the hillfort (Miles 1977, 111). Yet such is the imbalance of archaeological activity in the region that even in well worked areas such as west Cornwall, few sites of relevant date can be readily identified. In Devon, other than on Dartmoor and Exmoor, the limestone plateaux around Torbay provide the only surface evidence of open settlements. A small proportion of the modern fields and woods on the limestone preserve groups of clearance cairns and rubble banks of varying complexity; many of these are undoubtedly medieval in date, but in two locations at Dainton, also known as Miltor Mator Common (SX 859668), and Walls Hill, Torquay (SX 935651), there are the unobtrusive remains of rectangular field systems. The former consisted of a minimum of perhaps ten fields, averaging just over 0·4 ha. in area, and randomly spaced cairns, most of which are presumably contemporary (fig. 1). Part of Walls Hill is covered by dense ashwood scrub, a recurring feature of the limestone plateaux, but on the cliff top are the vestiges of nine fields which are generally of smaller size than those at Dainton. That these sites survive is fortuitous but perhaps not surprising; the soil on the plateau is well-drained but normally less than 0·3 m in depth (Clayden, 1971, 122). Loose rock occurs frequently and occasional outcrops add to the problems of agricultural use. Consequently the limestone hills tend to be given over to permanent pasture and are ploughed only rarely.

scholarly journals An Archaeometallurgical Explanation for the Disappearance of Egyptian and Near Eastern Cobalt-Blue Glass at the end of the Late Bronze Age

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Wood ◽  
Yi-Ting Hsu
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Glass Production ◽  
Glass Frit ◽  
Ore Deposits ◽  
Western Desert ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Blue Glass ◽  
Native Silver ◽  
Cobalt Blue

A recent compositional study of Egyptian cobalt-blue glass from museum collections in Japan (18th Dynasty) and from the site of Dahshur (18th and 19th-20th Dynasties) concluded that a new source of cobalt was exploited for the later Dahshur glass, thereby suggesting that glass production continued into the Ramesside period (Abe et al. 2012). It is shown in the current article that some of this 18th Dynasty glass and the majority of the 19th-20th Dynasty glass had been recycled, not only supporting the general consensus that glass production virtually disappeared by 1250 BC, but that the cobalt source did not necessarily change. It is further proposed, however, that the generally accepted cobalt source for Egyptian glass was not the alum deposits of Egypt's Western Desert, but derived from cobaltiferous siliceous ores, possibly from central Iran. Re-analysis of the compositions of cobalt-blue glass frit found at Amarna, as well as Egyptian and Mesopotamian glass, suggests that the cobalt colourant was a by-product of silver extraction from these ores and can therefore be considered as a concentrated cobalt glass slag, which travelled in the form of a frit to glass producers who added it to locally derived base glasses and/or their precursors. Experiments conducted on ore containing cobalt-nickel arsenides with native silver demonstrate that not only can silver be extracted and that concentrated cobalt glass can be produced simply by adding a flux, but that some components of the ore partition preferentially into the silver or the glass slag, thereby weakening their associations with the other components in archaeological glass. Treating the cobalt-blue colourant as a slag composed of the gangue of a smelting system provides an explanation for the unique elevated levels of alumina and lower levels of potash found in cobalt-blue glasses, as well as providing an explanation for the cessation of cobalt exploitation at the end of the Late Bronze Age. It is suggested that the exhaustion of native silver and siliceous silver ore deposits during the Bronze Age, with argentiferous lead ores becoming the main source of silver, depleted the amount of cobalt available, thereby reducing the amount of glass produced which, in turn, led to increases in recycling during the New Kingdom period.

The Role of the Lukka People in Late Bronze Age Anatolia

Antichthon ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. R. Bryce
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Clear Picture ◽  
General Character ◽  
The Political ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Population Groups ◽  
Near Eastern

In a number of Near Eastern texts dating to the period of the Hittite New Kingdom, the term Lukka appears as a geographical and/or ethnic designation for one of the Late Bronze Age population groups of western Anatolia. Unfortunately we have no documents which deal primarily or specifically with the Lukka people; what we know of them rests essentially on incidental references in Hittite treaties, letters, prayers and historical records, along with several references in non-Hittite sources. Yet although the evidence is meagre, it still provides a relatively clear picture of the general character of the Lukka people and the role they played in the political and military affairs of Hittite Anatolia.

scholarly journals Remote sensing in the study of Late Bronze Age settlements in North-Western Crimea

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-310
Author(s):  
Tatiana Smekalova ◽  
Maja Kashuba
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Step Method ◽  
The North ◽  
High Resolution Satellite Images ◽  
Geophysical Surveys ◽  
Remote Sensing Methods ◽  
North Western

The article is devoted to the results of applying a comprehensive interdisciplinary methodology combining remote sensing methods, GIS, geophysical and archaeological research the Late Bronze for revealing and investigation of the Late Bronze Age settlements in the North-Western Crimea. The discovery of these settlements causes a certain difficulty, since they are buried under a layer of soil and do not have direct visual signs. A comprehensive step-by-step method of non-destructive remote sensing was developed, including the analysis of high-resolution satellite images in the Google Earth Pro resource, identifying promising areas by plant and landscape features, creating GPS routes for ground reconnaissance, geophysical surveys (magnetic and electromagnetic) on promising areas for identifying Late Bronze Age settlements, GPS mapping of surface material, point archaeological sounding. All the results obtained are placed in a special geo-information system, the substrate layers of which are detailed topographic, soil, geological, hydrogeological, digital relief maps. As a result, 48 new settlements of the Late Bronze Age were identified, including 19 settlements with double stone pens. These pens were first discovered only with help of remote sensing methods, especially magnetic surveying. The final answer about the existence and layout of the settlement of the Late Bronze Age before the archaeological excavations is given only by magnetic and electromagnetic surveys. The GIS created on the monuments of the Late Bronze Age in the North-Western Crimea will serve both scientific purposes and to preserve the cultural heritage of the Republic of Crimea, which is especially important in conditions of rapid economic development of land and the construction of trunk roads.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document