scholarly journals FIVE SEASONS OF EXCAVATIONS IN AREAS 2A AND G OF SARUQ AL HADID (DUBAI, UAE): IRON AGE II EVIDENCES OF COPPER PRODUCTION, WORKSHOP AREA AND CEREMONIAL ACTIVITIES

Author(s):  
Tatiana Valente ◽  
Fernando Contreras ◽  
Ahmed Mahmud ◽  
Mansour Boraik Radwan Karim ◽  
Mahra Saif Al Mansoori ◽  
...  

Within five years of excavations in Area 2A and G of Saruq al-Hadid, several pit-like structures used in combustion activities were found whose purpose is still unclear. Near these, a rich collection of metal objects from the Iron Age II was gathered, along with evidences of their production at the site. Frequent identification of raw materials and working tools, mainly for jewellery production, suggests that the site was also a production centre for these kind of objects, as well as a site with religious connotation as suggested by the votive objects discovered, such as copper anthropomorphic figurines, snakes, miniature weaponry, and soft stone and ceramic vessels with parallels in other places of worship.

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-527
Author(s):  
I. S. Nikitenko ◽  
O. V. Starik ◽  
V. A. Marchenko

The purpose of the work was to determine the provenance of the raw materials of ancient stone products, found during the excavations of the Bronze-Early Iron Age monument Tokivske-1, with the aim to establish connections of the ancient population of the area with residents of other regions. The archaeological monument Tokivske-1, located in the northern outskirts of the village Tokivske, Apostolove Raion, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, has been explored by the expedition of Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum named after D.I. Yavornytskyi since 2012. The authors of this article already carried out petrographic study of stone artefacts from this monument, which had been found during the first five years of excavations. However, over the past two years, a number of stone and other items were found that could expand our knowledge of the links of Tokivske-1 with ancient industrial centers of other regions. To carry out the petrographic analysis, six artefacts were taken, mainly those made from macroscopically different rocks. Most of them can be related to metalworking. The analyzed samples are represented by an amphibolite hammer for forging jewels or peening sheet copper, a dolerite anvil-prop for a specified hammer, a fragment of an abrasive stone made of ferruginous quartzite, a quartz tile, which is a fragment of an altar, and fragments of an anvil and a scepter-pestle made of sandstone. Petrographic analysis of artefacts allowed determining the probable provenance of their raw materials. Amphibolites are quite common in the territory of the Middle Dnipro area, but by the color of the hornblende, the predominance of epidotization processes over sericitization and macrostructural features, the studied rock is more similar to the amphibolites from the middle stream of the Bazavluk River. Dolerites, similar to the raw material of the anvil-prop, are also common in the area of excavations, and by  the presence of the micropegmatite in its composition, its origin can be localized in the middle stream of the river Bazavluk or in the valley of the river Mokra Sura. Magnetite quartzite – the raw material of the abrasive stone – most likely comes from the territory of the city of Kryvyi Rih. Quartz tile – a fragment of an altar – is a quartz vein, similar to those that intersect granites of the Tokivskyi massif directly near the village Tokivske. Sandstones, from which the anvil and the scepter-pestle were produced, appeared to be very similar in their petrographic features. They are represented by quartz sandstones with fragments of rocks and polymineral cement with the predominance of quartz regenerative and porous sericite cement. Also, the relic chalcedony and, more rarely, clay cement are present in the pores. In the territory of Ukraine, the most similar to them, according to petrographic characteristics, are the sandstones of the Carboniferous system, which crop out in the Donbas. Thus, the obtained data testifies to the connection of the Tokivske-1 archaeological complex with other parts of the Middle Dnipro area, such as the middle stream of the Bazavluk River and the Kryvyi Rih area, as well as with more distant regions such as the Donbas. It should be noted that scepter-pestles, similar to the one studied by us, are associated with metalworking, and the Donetsk basin, where the raw material of the indicated tool originates from, was the copper production center of the Late Bronze Age.


1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-285
Author(s):  
Paul A. Raber

Investigations at 36Ch161, a site in the Piedmont Uplands of Chester County, Pennsylvania, have revealed a series of early Late Woodland Period camps associated with the Minguannan Complex. The use of local quartz seems to have been a primary focus of settlement at the site. Quartz, which formed an overwhelming majority of the assemblage, was used in ways that contrast strongly with that of non-local materials like jasper, a minority component of the assemblage obtained from quarries in the Hardyston Formation. The selection of raw materials suggests restrictions on access to certain materials perhaps imposed by territorial constraints. The combined evidence of artifact assemblage and cultural features indicates that 36Ch161 was inhabited seasonally by small, mobile groups of non-horticulturalists, a reconstruction consistent with that of Custer and others regarding the economy of the Minguannan Complex and related cultures of the Piedmont Uplands.


Author(s):  
Matthew Suriano

The history of the Judahite bench tomb provides important insight into the meaning of mortuary practices, and by extension, death in the Hebrew Bible. The bench tomb appeared in Judah during Iron Age II. Although it included certain burial features that appear earlier in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, such as burial benches, and the use of caves for extramural burials, the Judahite bench tomb uniquely incorporated these features into a specific plan that emulated domestic structures and facilitated multigenerational burials. During the seventh century, and continuing into the sixth, the bench tombs become popular in Jerusalem. The history of this type of burial shows a gradual development of cultural practices that were meant to control death and contain the dead. It is possible to observe within these cultural practices the tomb as a means of constructing identity for both the dead and the living.


2015 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 567-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitka R. Golub

In this study, I investigated all personal names with the element שלם in the Land of Israel during the Iron Age ii period. I collected the names from archaeological and biblical sources, analyzed and compared their distribution according to geography, chronology, and political affiliation. The results show that while שלם is a popular element in Judah from the eighth to the early sixth centuries, it is absent from Israel. The element שלם in unvocalized names from archaeological sources is interpreted mostly as ‘replacement, substitute’ (for the deceased child). However, the popularity of the element שלם solely in Judah may indicate that שלם was used more often than we assume as a divine name referring to YHWH, as do all other Judean popular names. In addition, the comparison between the names from archaeological and biblical sources may be interpreted to indicate that the Bible reflects Judean and not Israelite onomastic traditions.


1951 ◽  
Vol 31 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 132-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Richardson ◽  
Alison Young

In 1946 a visit to the barrow, which lies on the edge of the western scarp of Chinnor Common, and a cursory examination of the adjoining area, cultivated during the war, resulted in finds of pottery and other objects indicating Iron Age occupation. The site lies on the saddleback of a Chiltern headland, at a height of about 800 ft. O.D. Two hollow ways traverse the western scarp, giving access to the area from the Upper Icknield Way, which contours the foot of the hill, then drops to cross the valley, passing some 600 yards to the north of the Iron Age site of Lodge Hill, Bledlow, and rising again continues northwards under Pulpit Hill camp and the Ellesborough Iron Age pits below Coombe Hill. The outlook across the Oxford plain to the west is extensive, embracing the hill-fort of Sinodun, clearly visible some fourteen miles distant on the farther bank of the Thames. The hollow way at the north-west end of the site leads down to a group of ‘rises’ hard by the remains of a Roman villa, and these springs are, at the present day, the nearest water-supply to the site.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-210
Author(s):  
Bartłomiej Lis ◽  
Trevor Van Damme

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-360
Author(s):  
Matthew D. Howland ◽  
Brady Liss ◽  
Thomas E. Levy ◽  
Mohammad Najjar

AbstractArchaeologists have a responsibility to use their research to engage people and provide opportunities for the public to interact with cultural heritage and interpret it on their own terms. This can be done through hypermedia and deep mapping as approaches to public archaeology. In twenty-first-century archaeology, scholars can rely on vastly improved technologies to aid them in these efforts toward public engagement, including digital photography, geographic information systems, and three-dimensional models. These technologies, even when collected for analysis or documentation, can be valuable tools for educating and involving the public with archaeological methods and how these methods help archaeologists learn about the past. Ultimately, academic storytelling can benefit from making archaeological results and methods accessible and engaging for stakeholders and the general public. ArcGIS StoryMaps is an effective tool for integrating digital datasets into an accessible framework that is suitable for interactive public engagement. This article describes the benefits of using ArcGIS StoryMaps for hypermedia and deep mapping–based public engagement using the story of copper production in Iron Age Faynan, Jordan, as a case study.


Author(s):  
Johanna Banck-Burgess

This chapter challenges traditional views on Iron Age dress. Recent research has greatly enhanced our understanding of how textiles were manufactured in Iron Age Europe. The variety of qualities, textures, techniques, raw materials, colours, and cuts give insights into the detailed knowledge of the craftspeople involved. Textiles used for dress, blankets, or furniture fittings were appreciated not only for their appearance, but also for the quality of the work. In everyday life, their optical qualities were used to express and signal gender, social roles and status, while the labour expended on textiles found in wealthy burials underlines both the status of the deceased and the extent of conspicuous consumption in funerary rituals—for instance, for wrapping grave furniture and goods. The chapter also looks at experimental data showing how labour-intensive textile production was, and the types of clothing and accessories found in different archaeological contexts or depicted in visual representations.


Author(s):  
Peter S. Wells ◽  
Naoise Mac Sweeney

Iron Age Europe, once studied as a relatively closed, coherent continent, is being seen increasingly as a dynamic part of the much larger, interconnected world. Interactions, direct and indirect, with communities in Asia, Africa, and, by the end of the first millennium AD, North America, had significant effects on the peoples of Iron Age Europe. In the Near East and Egypt, and much later in the North Atlantic, the interactions can be linked directly to historically documented peoples and their rulers, while in temperate Europe the evidence is exclusively archaeological until the very end of the prehistoric Iron Age. The evidence attests to often long-distance interactions and their effects in regard to the movement of peoples, and the introduction into Europe of raw materials, crafted objects, styles, motifs, and cultural practices, as well as the ideas that accompanied them.


Author(s):  
YU. V. BOLTRIK ◽  
E. E. FIALKO

This chapter focuses on Trakhtemirov, one of the most important ancient settlements of the Early Iron Age in the Ukraine. During the ancient period, the trade routes and caravans met at Trakhtemirov which was situated over the three crossing points of the Dneiper. Its location on the steep heights assured residents of Trakhtemirov security of settlement. On three sides it was protected by the course of the Dnieper while on the other side it was defended by the plateau of the pre-Dneiper elevation. The ancient Trakhtemirov city is located around 100 km below Kiev, on a peninsula which is jutted into the river from the west. Trakhtemirov in the Early Iron Age was important as it was the site of the Cossack capital of Ukraine. It was also the site of the most prestigious artefacts of the Scythian period and a site for various items of jewellery, tools and weaponry. The abundance of artefacts in Trakhtemirov suggests that the city is a central place among the scattered sites of the middle course of the Dneiper.


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