scholarly journals Radiocarbon Results for the British Beakers

Radiocarbon ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 916-927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Ambers ◽  
Sheridan Bowman ◽  
Alex Gibson ◽  
Ian Kinnes
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
A Priori ◽  
British Museum ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Calendar Date ◽  
Relative Dating ◽  
The Social ◽  
Direct Association ◽  
Economic Developments ◽  
The Bronze Age

The beginning of the Bronze Age in the British Isles has traditionally been marked by the appearance, in the archaeological record, of Beaker assemblages, mainly characterized by the Beaker pottery form itself. Ceramic typologies based on this style, which is undoubtedly continental in origin, have been used both for relative dating and as evidence of the social and economic developments of the period. Systematic radiocarbon dating has been attempted for the continental European Beaker material (Lanting, Mook & van der Waals 1973), but no such program has been carried out on British material. An examination of the existing radiocarbon results for the British Beakers showed many to be flawed in some way, particularly in the use of materials, such as mature wood, where there is no a priori reason for assuming a direct relationship between sample death and context. An attempt has been made at the British Museum to test the validity of archaeologically derived chronologies for the Beaker pottery of the British Isles. This involved analysis of a group of carefully selected human bone samples from Beaker burials, where there is a known direct association between ceramic usage and the cessation of carbon exchange. Twenty such samples have been identified and measured. The results presented here, combined with other previously produced determinations, show no obvious relationship between pottery style and calendar date of deposition.

The Dunaverney and Little Thetford Flesh-Hooks: History, Technology and Their Position within the Later Bronze Age Atlantic Zone Feasting Complex

2007 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 53-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheridan Bowman ◽  
Stuart Needham
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Design Features ◽  
Atlantic Seaboard ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
County Antrim ◽  
The Bronze Age

Discovered in County Antrim and Cambridgeshire respectively, the Dunaverney and Little Thetford flesh-hooks are two of only thirty-six currently known examples from the Bronze Age of the Atlantic seaboard of Europe. Both are impressive and enigmatic objects and are among the most elaborate of later-series flesh-hooks dating to c 1100–800 BC. Not surprisingly, from the time it was found in 1829, Dunaverney was the subject of much antiquarian interest. Yet, despite their rarity and unusualness, the Dunaverney and Little Thetford flesh-hooks have never been adequately studied.Our investigations have provided an understanding of the technology of these two fleshhooks, as well as new chronological information for the type as a whole. They have also revealed new uses of lost-wax casting in the British Isles, where the use of this technique is otherwise rare. The bird motifs on the Dunaverney flesh-hook remain unique, although it is now possible to set them against a broader background of iconographic representations on Atlantic feasting gear. Moreover, certain recurring design features may suggest that iconographic symbols were originally more often present on flesh-hooks. The findspot of Dunaverney lies at the heart of deposits of other contemporary prestige metalwork and that of Little Thetford within the greatest concentration of finds of the innovative Wilburton-stage metalworking tradition; both re-enforce the social significance of these rare objects.

scholarly journals Non-discursive Knowledge and the Construction of Identity Potters, Potting and Performance at the Bronze Age Tell of Százhalombatta, Hungary

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Budden ◽  
Joanna Sofaer
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
Differential Acquisition ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Bronze Age

This article explores the relationship between the making of things and the making of people at the Bronze Age tell at Százhalombatta, Hungary. Focusing on potters and potting, we explore how the performance of non-discursive knowledge was critical to the construction of social categories. Potters literally came into being as potters through repeated bodily enactment of potting skills. Potters also gained their identity in the social sphere through the connection between their potting performance and their audience. We trace degrees of skill in the ceramic record to reveal the material articulation of non-discursive knowledge and consider the ramifications of the differential acquisition of non-discursive knowledge for the expression of different kinds of potter's identities. The creation of potters as a social category was essential to the ongoing creation of specific forms of material culture. We examine the implications of altered potters' performances and the role of non-discursive knowledge in the construction of social models of the Bronze Age.

A gold diadem from Aegina

1987 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 182-182
Author(s):  
Reynold Higgins
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
British Museum ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Middle Helladic ◽  
Dead Man ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Grave Goods

A recent discovery on the island of Aegina by Professor H. Walter (University of Salzburg) throws a new light on the origins of the so-called Aegina Treasure in the British Museum.In 1982 the Austrians were excavating the Bronze Age settlement on Cape Kolonna, to the north-west of Aegina town. Immediately to the east of the ruined Temple of Apollo, and close to the South Gate of the prehistoric Lower Town, they found an unrobbed shaft grave containing the burial of a warrior. The gravegoods (now exhibited in the splendid new Museum on the Kolonna site) included a bronze sword with a gold and ivory hilt, three bronze daggers, one with gold fittings, a bronze spear-head, arrowheads of obsidian, boar's tusks from a helmet, and fragments of a gold diadem (plate Va). The grave also contained Middle Minoan, Middle Cycladic, and Middle Helladic (Mattpainted) pottery. The pottery and the location of the grave in association with the ‘Ninth City’ combine to give a date for the burial of about 1700 BC; and the richness of the grave-goods would suggest that the dead man was a king.

scholarly journals Beyond Transgressive Lands and Forgotten Seas: Towards a Maritime Understanding of Rock Art in Bohuslän

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-140
Author(s):  
Johan Ling
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Clay Soil ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Bronze Age

Since the beginning of the 20th century rock art in Bohuslän has traditionally been interpreted, on the basis of its adjacent location to the clay-soil plains, as an indicator ofpermanent pastoral or agrarian settlement units. However, recent results ofthe first substantial and extensive shoreline study, covering the whole of Bohuslän, have shown that, during the entire Bronze Age, many of these lower, clay- soil plains were in fact sea bottoms in shallow bays. On the basis of these results new measurement of the rock art panels and the surrounding terrain were made. The study showed that many rock carvings had been placed on or near the contemporary shore during the Bronze Age. It therefore seemed essential to present new questions about the social and ritual behaviour, as manifested by the rock art in these particular areas. It is here suggested that the rock art in the investigated area may be a materialised reflection of seasonal maritime interactions during the Bronze Age.

An Early British Interest in Knossos

1987 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 85-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinclair Hood
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Early History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Eyewitness Account ◽  
Sanctuary Of Demeter ◽  
The Bronze Age

Four letters written in 1879, 1880, and 1884, by Thomas B. Sandwith, the British Consul in Crete, to the British Museum throw light on the early history of the site of the Bronze Age palace at Knossos. The first of these letters (1879) contains a brief eyewitness account of the excavations of Minos Kalokairinos there in the winter of 1878–9 and urges the British Museum to continue his work. The two later letters (1884) deal with his gift of a pithos from the palace excavations to the Museum. The letters also refer to clandestine excavations in the Sanctuary of Demeter at Knossos.

Towards a refined chronology for the Bronze Age of the southern Urals, Russia

Antiquity ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (312) ◽  
pp. 353-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.K. Hanks ◽  
A.V. Epimakhov ◽  
A.C. Renfrew
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Central Russia ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Bronze Age

Cultural interactions in central Russia are famously complex, but of very wide significance. Within the social changes they imply are contained key matters for Europe and Asia: the introduction of Indo-Europeans and other languages, the horse and the chariot, and the transition towards nomadism. Of crucial importance to future research is a sturdy chronological framework and in this contribution the authors offer 40 new radiocarbon dates spanning the conventional Bronze Age in the southern Urals.

A NEWLY DISCOVERED MINOAN FAIENCE PLAQUE FROM THE KNOSSOS TOWN MOSAIC IN THE BRISTOL CITY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY: A TECHNOLOGICAL INSIGHT

2014 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Momigliano ◽  
Laura Phillips ◽  
Michela Spataro ◽  
Nigel Meeks ◽  
Andrew Meek
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
British Museum ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Art Gallery ◽  
History Of Collecting ◽  
History Of ◽  
Technological Study ◽  
Museum Study ◽  
The Town ◽  
The Bronze Age

This article presents the curatorial context of a newly discovered fragment of Minoan faience, now in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery (BCMAG), and the technological study conducted on this piece at the British Museum. It also discusses the British Museum study of comparable fragments, now in the Ashmolean Museum, belonging to the Town Mosaic from Knossos, an important and unique find brought to light during Sir Arthur Evans's excavations of the ‘Palace of Minos’ at the beginning of the twentieth century. Both the stylistic study and the analytical results suggest that the Bristol fragment is genuine, and most likely belonged to the Town Mosaic. The Bristol piece does not possess features that can advance our understanding of Crete in the Bronze Age, but its curious biography adds something to the history of collecting and the history of archaeology.

Troy and Anatolian Early Bronze Age Chronology

1979 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 51-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jak Yakar
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Relative Dating ◽  
Relative Chronology ◽  
Absolute Dating ◽  
Dating Method ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Bronze Age

The use of an absolute chronological framework based on tree-ring calibrated C-14 dates has been recently proposed by D. F. Easton in his attempt “… to come to grips with the crucial and difficult dating of Troy” (Easton 1976:146). Easton points out that unlike Tarsus, whose relative dating vis-a-vis Mesopotamia and Egypt is stable, Troy's relative chronology is not agreed upon and this “impinges not only on Anatolia, but on the Aegean and Bulgaria as well”.In establishing his chronology Easton uses, in addition to “the normal comparative methods”, two sources: (a) radiocarbon dates which, after calibration, especially when using Suess's calibration curve, affect both relative and absolute dating, (b) his reassessed stratigraphy of the Bronze Age levels at Troy (Easton 1976; 1977).Easton in his new chronological structure has not taken into consideration certain facts and opinions surrounding tree-ring calibrated radiocarbon dating. In view of the persisting controversy regarding this scientific dating method, it is premature, at least as far as Anatolia is concerned, to replace the relative dates derived from historical synchronisms with calibrated “absolute” C-14 dates.

Minoan Fayence in Mesopotamia

1928 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-74
Author(s):  
H. R. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Full Publication ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Of Greece

In my forthcoming publication of the Rhind Lectures, 1923, on The Civilization of Greece in the Bronze Age I have briefly referred (pp. 225–6) to the remarkable discovery by Dr. Walter Andrae for the Deutsche Orient Gesellschaft, at Ḳala'at Sharḳat, the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Ashur, on the Tigris, of a series of objects in fayence not only of precisely the same type as the remarkable fayence vases and other objects found by the British Museum excavators at Enkomi and Maroni in Cyprus, but some of them, one would think, made by the same hand. These Assyrian objects were among those brought back to England from Mesopotamia after the war, and finally assigned to the British Museum, when eventually a division-was made of the whole between London and Berlin. Before this division was effected I had recognized these particular fayence objects as the counterparts of those already in the British Museum from Enkomi, and Dr. Andrae and I, after I had pointed out the fact to him on a visit made by him to London, agreed that we should publish them separately, he as their discoverer in their context in his full publication of his finds, I in order to emphasize their identity with the Enkomi finds and their Minoan character.

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