scholarly journals Economy and status of Neolithic to Early Bronze age sites in the Southern Caucasus during the 6th‐3rd mill. BCE: The evidence from ground stone tools

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Hamon
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Tool Manufacture ◽  
Caucasus Region ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Southern Caucasus

In the Southern Caucasus, the evolution of the Neolithic to Bronze age (6th-3rd millenia BCE) economies is often investigated through the prism of adaptation to constrasted landscapes and environments (arid plain, high moutains, subtropical western coasts) and strategies of natural resource exploitation. This overview of the main technological and functional characteristics of ground stone tools from about 20 sites in the Kura Valley (Georgia, Azerbaijan) contributes to the discussion surrounding these questions. After an overview of the evolution of the grinding equipment and stone tool manufacture within a long term perspective, from the Late Neoliothic to the Early Bronze Age, several issues are adressed. The composition of the macrolithic toolkit is a key issue when discussing the importance of agriculture versus pastoralism in the economy of these populations, which evolved in different regional and environmental contexts. Its management also contributes to our understanding of the degree of sedentarity versus mobility of the populations. Finally, we discuss how the technical evolution of the macrolithic toolkit reflects the principal global changes occurring during this long period of time (neolithisation, emergence of metallurgy, and the mining phenomenon) and their cultural meaning. Our initial results underline the significance of some implements as cultural markers, and also contribute to defining the common cultural background and regional specificities within the South Caucasus region.

scholarly journals Mongolian “Neolithic” and Early Bronze Age ground stone tools from the northern edge of the Gobi Desert

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan S. Schneider ◽  
Tserendagva Yadmaa ◽  
Thomas C. Hart ◽  
Arlene M. Rosen ◽  
Annelise Spiro
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Gobi Desert ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Northern Edge

Food-processing ground stone tools in the Greek Neolithic and Bronze Age. A synthesis of the published data

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tasos Bekiaris ◽  
Danai Chondrou ◽  
Ismini Ninou ◽  
Soultana-Maria Valamoti
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Food Processing ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Ground Stone

scholarly journals How Rocks Die: Changing Patterns of Discard and Re-Use of Ground Stone Tools in Middle Bronze Age Cyprus

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 8869
Author(s):  
Andrew McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

Cultural objects are thought to have a lifespan. From selection, through construction, use, destruction, and discard, materials do not normally last forever, transforming through stages of life, eventually leading to their death. The materiality of stone objects, however, can defy the inevitable demise of an object, especially durable ground stone tools that can outlive generations of human lifespans. How groups of people deal with the relative permanence of stone tools depends on their own relationship with the past, and whether they venerate it or reject its influence on the present. A case study from the long-lived site of Prasteio-Mesorotsos in Cyprus demonstrates a shifting attitude toward ground stone objects, from the socially conservative habit of ritually killing of objects and burying them, to one of more casual re-use and reinterpretation of ground stone. This shift in attitude coincides with a socio-political change that eventually led to the ultimate rejection of the past: complete abandonment of the settlement.

scholarly journals Dietary practices, cultural and social identity in the Early Bronze Age southern Caucasus

Paléorient ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 151-174
Author(s):  
Estelle Herrscher ◽  
Modwene Poulmarc’h ◽  
Giulio Palumbi ◽  
Sarit Paz ◽  
Elena Rova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Dietary Practices ◽  
Southern Caucasus

Levallois

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Chazan
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
General Level ◽  
Significant Component ◽  
Tool Manufacture ◽  
Core Technology ◽  
Artifact Analysis ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

Levallois refers to a way of making stone tools that is a significant component of the technological adaptations of both Neanderthals and early modern humans. Although distinctive Levallois artifacts were identified already in the 19th century, a consensus on the definition of the Levallois and clear criteria for distinguishing Levallois from non-Levallois artifacts remain elusive. At a general level, Levallois is one variant on prepared core technology. In a prepared core approach to stone tool manufacture, the worked material (the core) is configured and maintained to allow for the production of detached pieces (flakes) whose morphology is constrained by the production process. The difficulty for archaeologists is that Levallois refers to a particular process of manufacture rather than a discrete finality. The study of Levallois exposes limitations of typological approaches to artifact analysis and forces a consideration of the challenges in creating a solid empirical basis for characterizing technological processes.

Prehistoric Copper Extraction in Britain: Ecton Hill, Staffordshire

2013 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 159-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Timberlake
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Mining Activity ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Copper Extraction ◽  
Mine Shaft ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Prehistoric Mining ◽  
The Hill

Major investigations were undertaken of the Ecton Copper Mines, Staffordshire, following the discovery of hammerstones and a red deer antler tool dating to the Early Bronze Age during surface and underground exploration in the 1990s. Ecton Hill was surveyed, the distribution of hammerstone tools examined, and two identified sites of potential prehistoric mining close to the summit of the hill excavated in 2008 & 2009. Excavations at Stone Quarry Mine revealed noin situprehistoric mining activity, but hammerstones and Early Bronze Age bone mining tools from upcast suggest that an historic mine shaft had intersected Bronze Age workings at around 10–25 m depth. On The Lumb one trench revealed evidence for medieval lead mining, while another examined the lowest of four primitive mines associated with cave-like mine entrances along the base of a small cliff. Evidence for prehistoric mining was recorded within a shallow opencut formed by during extraction of malachite from a layer of mineralised dolomite. Traces of the imprint of at least 18 bone and stone tools could be seen and seven different types of working were identified. Most prehistoric mining debris appears to have been cleared out during the course of later, medieval–post-medieval prospection; some bone and stone tools were recovered from this spoil. The tip of a worn and worked (cut) antler tine point was the only such mining tool foundin situat this site but nine tools were radiocarbon dated toc.1880–1640 calbc. Bayesian modelling of the dates from both sites probably indicates mining over a much briefer period (perhaps 20–50 years) at 1800–1700 calbc, with mining at Stone Quarry possibly beginning earlier and lasting longer than on The Lumb. A single date from The Lumb suggests possible renewed mining activity (or prospection?) during the Middle Bronze Age. The dating of this mining activity is consistent with the idea that mining and prospection moved eastwards from Ireland to Wales, then to central England, at the beginning of the 2nd millenniumbc. At Ecton the extraction of secondary ores may have produced only a very small tonnage of copper metal. The mine workers may have been Early Bronze Age farmers who occupied this part of the Peak District seasonally in a transhumant or sustained way

scholarly journals Palaeoethnobotanical Data from the High Mountainous Early Bronze Age Settlement of Tsaghkasar-1 (Mt. Aragats, Armenia)

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 58-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Hovsepyan
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Bread Wheat ◽  
Cereal Grains ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Tetraploid Wheats ◽  
Southern Caucasus

Palaeoethnobotanical investigations suggest that at least part of the Early Bronze Age population of Tsaghkasar was settled and practiced agriculture in the high mountainous zone. People there appear to have cultivated hexa‐ and tetraploid wheats (probably bread wheat and emmer) and barley (possibly hulled). Bronze Age agriculture in the Southern Caucasus differs from earlier and later period when cultivation of pulses, oil‐producing plants, and other plants was common. This emphasis on the cultivation and use of certain cereal grains at Early Bronze sites such as Tsaghkasar can tentatively be added to a constellation of practices associated with the Kura‐Araxes culture in the South Caucasus.

scholarly journals An experimental approach to ground stone tool manufacture

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Squitieri ◽  
David Eitam
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Tool Manufacture ◽  
Ground Stone
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