scholarly journals Of Mice and Merchants: Connectedness and the Location of Economic Activity in the Iron Age

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan David Bakker ◽  
Stephan Maurer ◽  
Jörn-Steffen Pischke ◽  
Ferdinand Rauch
Keyword(s):  
Causal Relationship ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
World Level

We study the causal relationship between geographic connectedness and development using one of the earliest massive trade expansions: the first systematic crossing of open seas in the Mediterranean during the time of the Phoenicians. We construct a geography based measure of connectedness along the shores of the sea. We relate connectedness to economic activity, which we measure using the presence of archaeological sites. We find an association between better connected locations and archaeological sites during the Iron Age, at a time when sailors began to cross open water routinely on a big scale. We corroborate these findings at world level.

Geoarchaeological evidence of multiple climatic and anthropic triggers driving the breakdown of the Terramare civilization (Bronze Age, Northern Italy)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Zerboni ◽  
Anna Maria Mercuri ◽  
Assunta Florenzano ◽  
Eleonora Clò ◽  
Giovanni Zanchetta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Po River ◽  
Commercial Exchange ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Dramatic Shift

<p><span>The Terramare civilization included hundreds of </span><span>banked and moated villages, located in the alluvial plain of the Po River of northern Italy, and developed between the Middle and the Recent Bronze Ages (XVI-XII cent. BC). This civilization lasted for over 500 years, collapsing at around 1150 years BC, in a period marked by a great societal disruptionin the Mediterranean area. The timing and modalities of the collapse of the Terramare Bronze Age culture are widely debated, and a combined geoarchaeological and palaeoclimatic investigation – the SUCCESSO-TERRA Project –is shading new light on this enigma. The Terramare economy was based upon cereal farming, herding, and metallurgy; settlements were also sustained by a well-developed system for the management of water and abundant wood resources. They also established a wide network of commercial exchange between continental Europe and the Mediterranean region.The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project investigated two main Bronze Age sites in Northern Italy:(i) the Terramara Santa Rosa di Poviglio, and (ii) the San Michele di Valestra site, which is a coeval settlement outside the Terramare territory, but in the adjoining Apennine range. Human occupation at San Michele di Valestra persisted after the Terramare crisis and the site was settled with continuity throughout the whole Bronze Ages, up to the Iron Age. The combined geoarchaeological, palaeoclimatic, and archaeobotanical investigation on different archaeological sites and on independent archives for climatic proxies (offsite cores and speleothems) highlights the existence of both climatic and anthropic critical factors triggering a dramatic shift of the landuse of the Terramare civilization. The overexploitation of natural resources became excessive in the late period of the Terramare trajectory, when also a climatic change occurred. A fresh speleothem record for the same region suggests the occurrence of a short-lived period of climatic instability followed by a marked peak of aridity. The<span> </span>unfavourable concomitance between human overgrazing and climatic-triggered environmental pressure, amplified the on-going societal crisis, likely leading to the breakdown of the Terramare civilization in the turn of a generation.</span></p>

scholarly journals Child burials in domestic contexts at an Iron Age hillfort: The Oppidum of Monte Bernorio (Villarén, Palencia)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Carnicero-Cáceres ◽  
Jesús F. Torres-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
European Origin ◽  
The North ◽  
Cantabrian Region ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Funerary Ritual ◽  
Archeological Site

The practice of child burials underneath house floors in the Late Prehistory has been considered a characteristic trait of the Iberian religion. However, this custom has also been documented in different archaeological sites both in the Mediterranean and Central Europe as well as Celtic areas of the Iberian Peninsula, so we can explain this funerary practice by an Indo-European origin. We report the archeotanatological and osteoarcheological study of 10 subadults found in the Iron Age site of Monte Bernorio oppidum, the first archeological site in the western and central Cantabrian region with this funerary rite documented. It is the confirmation of both, the survival of an ancient funerary ritual, widely extended in all Europe, and its presence in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. We also review all the archeological sites in the Iberian Peninsula with similar archeological contexts and analyse the rite from the bioarcheology of the care.

scholarly journals Ancient Rome: A genetic crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 366 (6466) ◽  
pp. 708-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret L. Antonio ◽  
Ziyue Gao ◽  
Hannah M. Moots ◽  
Michaela Lucci ◽  
Francesca Candilio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Ancient Rome ◽  
Genetic Composition ◽  
Mediterranean Populations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Genetic Contributions

Ancient Rome was the capital of an empire of ~70 million inhabitants, but little is known about the genetics of ancient Romans. Here we present 127 genomes from 29 archaeological sites in and around Rome, spanning the past 12,000 years. We observe two major prehistoric ancestry transitions: one with the introduction of farming and another prior to the Iron Age. By the founding of Rome, the genetic composition of the region approximated that of modern Mediterranean populations. During the Imperial period, Rome’s population received net immigration from the Near East, followed by an increase in genetic contributions from Europe. These ancestry shifts mirrored the geopolitical affiliations of Rome and were accompanied by marked interindividual diversity, reflecting gene flow from across the Mediterranean, Europe, and North Africa.

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.

Ancient colonialism and the economic geography of the Mediterranean

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitris K Chronopoulos ◽  
Sotiris Kampanelis ◽  
Daniel Oto-Peralías ◽  
John O S Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Economic Geography ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Urban System ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
System Of Cities ◽  
The Mediterranean

Abstract This article investigates the legacy of ancient Phoenician, Greek and Etruscan colonialism in shaping the economic geography of the Mediterranean region. Utilising historical data on ancient colonies and current data on population density and night light emissions (as a proxy for economic activity), we find that geographical areas colonised by these ancient civilisations have higher population density and economic activity in the present day. We also find that ancient colonialism affected the origin and evolution of the urban system of cities and settlements prevalent in the Mediterranean region.

THE ‘SOS’ AMPHORA: AN UPDATE

2015 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 213-245
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
New Information ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
New Distribution ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

Research conducted and published over the last 35 years has brought to light much new information concerning the so-called ‘SOS’ amphora, produced primarily in Attica and Euboea in the Archaic period. However, little focused work has been undertaken in the study of these vessels since Johnston and Jones' seminal work in 1978. This paper therefore provides a critical update on the production and distribution of SOS amphorae using the current data available. Included in this update is a discussion of recent research on Early Iron Age amphorae that may help situate the SOS amphora within a broader ceramic milieu. A new distribution of SOS amphorae also necessitates a reappraisal of some previously held ideas concerning their chronological patterns and the specific actors involved in their shipment. Taking into consideration the multiple spatial and temporal varieties of SOS amphorae, it can be shown that these vessels were relatively evenly deposited across the Mediterranean, from Iberia to the Levant, very early in the Archaic period. In combination with other factors, this widespread distribution may support the hypothesis that non-Greek seafarers were involved with transporting Athenian and Euboean SOS amphorae. Ultimately, it is hoped that a fresh look at this ceramic shape, however brief, might contribute to existing scholarly debates on cultural interactions and mobility within the Mediterranean basin during the Archaic period.

scholarly journals Revisiting the “West-Baltic” Type Hydronymy in Central Russia

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-87
Author(s):  
Pavel A. Gusenkov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
East European Plain ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
The West ◽  
East European ◽  
Central Russia ◽  
Distribution Scheme ◽  
Eastern Baltic

The article examines the substrate hydronymy of the middle Oka and the Dnieper regions (ending in -va, -da, etc.) that is typically attributed to the West-Baltic toponymic stratum and associated with the language of the Moschinskaya archaeological culture and the related archaeological sites. The author analyzed its spatial distribution in the East European Plain. The study has found that: 1) the spread of names of waterbodies ending in -va correlates with the distribution scheme of substrate Baltic hydronymy in general and the monuments of the Dnieper-Dvina, Yukhnovskaya, and Late Dyakovo cultures of the Early Iron Age; 2) the spread of hydronyms with zh/z sound variation (including as a distinctive feature) correlates with the Krivich and Radimich culture areas, and the range of Russian dialects with lisping pronunciation which makes no difference between sibilants and hushing sounds; 3) Baltic hydronymy ending in -da is not attested in the area of the Moschinskaya culture and related archaeological sites; 4) among the names with the root ape-/upe- found in the same cultural milieu, only those containing Eastern Baltic variant are verifiable; 5) the hypothesis for East Baltic origination of the names with the root stab- is not inferior to the West Baltic; 6) there are no sufficient grounds for tracing some river names to the Prussian words pannean and sug since most of these hydronyms refer to a later period while the others have more plausible explanations; 7) for some hydronyms (Zerna, Opochinka, Ponya, Sezhikovka, etc.) the substrate origin is not confirmed. Based on the above observations, the hypothesis for the presence of a West-Baltic layer of hydronymy in the middle Oka region and the consequent assumption of the West-Baltic origin of the Moshinskaya culture were disputed.

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