scholarly journals The earliest transverse grooved stones of Eurasia: Near Eastern distribution, types and chronology

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Usacheva
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Northern Eurasia ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Western Asia

Transverse grooved stones (TGS) believed to be used as shaft straighteners, first made their appearance at Epipalaeolithic sites in the Near East from where they spread to the Mediterranean coasts of Africa and Europe, but mostly to Northern Eurasia (the steppe, forest-steppe, and semi-desert zones). It has been discovered that the spread of TGA has been carried out along different paths.  Moreover, grooved stones along each of these transmission routes can be distinguished by their unique decorative and morphological characteristics. The aim of this paper is to clarify the circumstances and the date of appearance of the first TGS, localization of their initial areas, and identification of their respective decorative and morphological features. This is a necessary condition for identifying the starting points of the subsequent transit carriers of TGS' tradition and tracing the directions of interaction in Eurasia during the end of the Pleistocene – the first half of the Holocene period using TGS as markers. The initial database was formed on the basis of the scientific publications on the Near East. The following is a presentation of the analytical review of at least 200 grooved stones and 80 sites in their starting area in south-western Asia. The analysis used a systematic approach with emphasis on chronology, environment, petrography, morphology, functional-typological data where such were available, and TGS’ decor.  But first of all, the study pays attention to the distribution of TGS and their cultural and chronological boundaries in this region.  For this purpose, it was performed the mapping of findings in two chronological levels – up to 8000 thousand BCE and after, with the marking of decorated products. The results enabled us to detect that the geographical spread of grooved artefacts of this type is limited in the Near East to the area of central Anatolia and Fertile Crescent, with a boundary along the desert-steppes. At least three concentrations can be clearly distinguished: the Levant, Zagros Mountains, and Upper Mesopotamia - central Anatolia, where the products are characterized by specific features of decorative and morphological design and in one case (Levant) an additional observed petrographic specificity. Currently, the earliest cases are recorded in Early Natufian contexts in the Levant and in Epipalaeolithic contexts of the Anatolian plateau since the 13th millennium cal BCE. Thus, one can confidently state that the introduction of TGS in the Middle East is generally linked to the Epipalaeolithic sites (Natufian, Harifian, and Western Zarzian) and is definitely associated with hunter-gatherers. The heyday of TGS falls on the PPNA and lasts to the beginning of the early Bronze Age, when they finally disappear.

scholarly journals 14C Chronology of Burial Grounds of the Andronovo Period (Middle Bronze Age) in Baraba Forest Steppe, Western Siberia

Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 737-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
V I Molodin ◽  
Z V Marchenko ◽  
Y V Kuzmin ◽  
A E Grishin ◽  
M van Strydonck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Western Siberia ◽  
Northern Eurasia ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Cultural Complex ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Grounds

This paper focuses on the chronology of Middle Bronze Age complexes in the Baraba forest steppe (western Siberia). Three sites were radiocarbon dated, Stary Tartas 4, Sopka 2, and Tartas 1. The Late Krotovo culture was dated to the 18–19th centuries BC, the Andronovo complex (Fedorovo stage) to the 15–18th centuries BC, and the Mixed Andronovo complex dated to the 15–17th centuries BC. These values are some 300–500 yr older than previously thought, and the new results are consistent with14C dates of the Andronovo cultural complex in northern Eurasia. Based on these data, the 15th century BC is the upper chronological limit of the Andronovo period.

A Mycenaean sword from Boğazköy–Hattusa found in 1991

1994 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 213-215
Author(s):  
O. Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Repair Work ◽  
Trojan War ◽  
Western Asia

This paper deals with a bronze sword found during repair work on a road close to the Hittite capital of Hattusas in central Anatolia. It carries an Akkadian inscription stating that it was taken as booty by the Hittite king Tuthaliyas II during his campaign in the Assuwa country of western Asia Minor, c.1430 BC. The content of the inscription may be evidence of Ahhiyawan-Mycenaean Greek warfare in western Asia Minor in the Late Bronze Age, and/or of a historical background for the Trojan war.

scholarly journals NEW DATA ON THE DENTAL CHARACTERISTICS EXHIBITED BY THE POPULATION OF THE KULAYKA CULTURE IN THE NOVOSIBIRSK OB AREA

2019 ◽  
pp. 140-151
Author(s):  
M.S. Kishkurno ◽  
A.V. Sleptsova
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Standard Procedure ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Dental Morphology ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Intergroup Comparison ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article covers the results of a study on the odontological series from the Kamenny Mys burial ground (3rd–2nd centuries BC). In this work, we set out to study the genesis of the Kulay population of the Early Iron Age in the Novosibirsk Ob area. The main relations of the population with the groups of adjacent territories, as well as the nature of their interaction with the local groups, were determined. The odontological series from the Kamenny Mys burial ground includes the teeth of 24 individuals: 12 males, 6 females and 10 adult individuals whose gender could not be determined. The anthropological materials were examined according to a standard procedure, which involves the description of the tooth crown morphology considering the archaic features of the dental morphology. Also, an intergroup comparative analysis was performed via the method of the principal component analysis using the program STATISTICA version 10.0. It was established that the dental characteristics exhibited by the Kulayka population reveal signs of mixed European-Mongoloid formation with a significant predominance of the Eastern component. We compared the morphological characteristics of the sample with data obtained for the populations of the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The intergroup comparison revealed the closest connection between the Bolshaya Rechka culture and the Kulayka group. The studied material provides anthropological confirmation of the interaction between Kulayka (taiga) and Bolshaya Rechka traditions (steppe), drawing on the data about the burial rite and ceramic complexes. The comparison of the Kulayka series with Bronze Age samples suggests that the forest-steppe populations occupying the territories of the Novosibirsk and Tomsk Ob and the Ob-Irtysh areas had no effect on the genesis of the Kulayka population. We suppose that the origins of the Kulayka population in the Novosibirsk Ob area should be traced to the populations from the West Siberian taiga of the Bronze Age, which is significantly complicated by the lack of sufficiently complete and representative series dating back to the specified period from the territory of the Middle Ob area. Further accumulation of anthropological material from the Middle Ob area will provide the opportunity to trace the genesis of taiga populations of the Early Iron Age.

scholarly journals The Origins and Development of Textile Culture in the Late Bronze Age in the Southern Urals

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-57
Author(s):  
Ankusheva P.
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Northern Eurasia ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
Cattle Breeding ◽  
Textile Technology ◽  
Comparison Criteria

At the turn of the 3rd / 2nd millennium BC textile artifacts (fabric impressions on ceramics and organic samples) were widespread in the Southern Urals. The paper is devoted to identifying the possible origins of the Sintashta and Alakul textile technologies by comparing them with the data about the products from adjacent territorial and chronological frames. The comparison criteria are the components of the textile culture (raw materials, technology, decoration and application), according to which the sources of the Trans-Ural Eneolithic, Yamnaya, Catacomb, Andronovo communities are systematized. Such innovative technologies as weaving, woolen threads, madder dyeing were first noted in the South Trans-Urals in the Sintashta materials and find their closest parallels in the catacomb materials. The Sintashta, Petrovka and Alakul antiquities demonstrate a single textile technology, organically integrated into the Srubno-Andronovo “world” of steppe and forest-steppe cattle-breeding cultures of Northern Eurasia.

scholarly journals Hittite Cuisine: fire installations, cooking pottery and foodways in central Anatolia of the Late Bronze Age

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Casucci
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Cooking Methods ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Cooking Practices ◽  
Domestic Economies

Food and cooking methods are crucial in defining group identity and social relations and in examining the domestic economies. The Poster aims to study, from a functional and typological point of view, the fire installations and the contextual kitchen pottery in the Central Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age (1650-1200 B.C.). In particular, the archaeological contexts of the main Hittite sites of Anatolian Plateau, subjects of major interest in recent years, will be examined. The analysis and the comparison of the cooking tools (fireplaces, ovens, pots and baking plates) will allow to obtain some conclusions on the “Hittite Cuisine”, namely on the cooking techniques and the types of food consumed in the heart of Hittite kingdom. Archaeobotanical and archaeozoological data will also be integrated with the aim of a better comprehension of diets and cooking methods. In addition, some ethnographic observations will be discussed, in order to compare ancient and modern cooking practices in Anatolia.

Regional and Local Schools of Metalwork in Early Bronze Age Anatolia Part II

1985 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 25-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jak Yakar
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Rural Settlements ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Local Schools ◽  
Natural Catastrophes ◽  
History Of ◽  
City States

This is one of the most eventful periods in the early history of preliterate Anatolia. Urban and rural settlements in western Anatolia, in the central Anatolian plateau including the Pontus region and in the eastern highlands show signs of conflagration. Archaeological surveys carried out in north-central Anatolia and in the Konya plain suggest that in some cases permanent settlements were abandoned at different phases of the EB III. These destructions were no doubt caused by unrecorded events such as inter-regional rivalry between city-states, intruding pastoralists, incursions by foreign armies (e.g. from Mesopotamia/N. Syria), invasions by nomadic hordes and natural catastrophes (Yakar 1981a: 106–7). On the basis of field surveys and a few excavations of limited scope alone one cannot establish a pattern of destructions which could be attributed to one particular factor described above. I prefer to refer to this period as “emerging dynasties” because monumental architecture in some of the major sites points to centrally located administrative complexes (palaces?) which, taken together with unprecedented mortuary practices (e.g. Alacahöyük Royal Tombs), may confirm the existence of ruling aristocracies in Anatolia.

Patterns of metal procurement, manufacture and exchange in Early Bronze Age northwestern Anatolia: Demircihüyük and beyond

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 51-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Massa ◽  
Orlene McIlfatrick ◽  
Erkan Fidan
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Composition Analysis ◽  
Central Plateau ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Chemical Composition Analysis ◽  
Prehistoric Mining ◽  
Manufacturing Techniques ◽  
Mould Casting

AbstractThis paper adds a new interpretive layer to the already extremely well-investigated site of Demircihüyük, a small Early Bronze Age settlement at the northwestern fringes of the central Anatolian plateau. It presents a reassessment of the evidence for prehistoric mining in the region, as well as a new programme of chemical composition analysis integrated with an object functional and technological typology of the site's metal assemblages. The results reveal complex manufacturing techniques (such as bivalve mould casting, plating and lost wax) and the co-occurrence of several alloying types, including the earliest tin bronzes in the region. Object typology further indicates that the Demircihüyük community was at the intersection of two distinct metallurgical networks: one centred on the western Anatolian highlands, the other spanning the northern part of the central plateau. Additionally, several strands of evidence suggest that the beginning of interregional exchanges, linking central Anatolia to northern Levantine and Mesopotamian societies, may have started at an earlier date than the commonly assumed ca 3000–2800 BC.

Early Bronze Age burial customs on the central Anatolian plateau: a view from Demircihöyük-Sarıket

2014 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 73-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Massa
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Burial Customs ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThis paper focuses on the analysis of the cemetery of Demircihöyük-Sarıket, for which exists one of the largest Early Bronze Age funerary datasets published to date in Anatolia. The size and quality of the sample allow the dataset to be approached quantitatively, to determine both normative and anomalous funerary practices, and to detect distinct patterns of burial treatment for different segments of the population represented in the cemetery. Despite the small size of the community (ca 100–130 people), the results suggest a rather complex picture, in which the choice of specific burial containers, the relative wealth of grave assemblages and the selection of particular sets of items were dependent on differences in the age, gender, occupation and achieved status of the deceased. Comparison with other contemporary funerary assemblages helps to place Demircihöyük-Sarıket and these community-scale observations within their wider cultural context in central Anatolia.

Revisiting prehistoric sites in the Göksu valley: a GIS and social network approach

2012 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 35-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Bikoulis
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Mediterranean Coast ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
The Past ◽  
South Central ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Mountain Chain

AbstractUsing a variety of quantitative approaches, interactions between prehistoric sites in the Göksu valley and south-central Anatolia are modelled within their wider multi-regional and diachronic socio-economic networks to assess the prominence and influence of communities in south-central Anatolia from the Late Chalcolithic to the end of the Early Bronze Age (c. 4200–2000 BC). Since the 1950s, some have understood the valley as significant in terms of movement and communication through the Taurus mountain chain that divides the southern Anatolian plateau from the Mediterranean coast. This view is called in to question through the application of geospatial and computational methods, namely least cost pathway and social network analyses. Archaeologists use least cost pathway analysis to model movement in the past. Similarly, social network analysis is used to model contact and interaction in the past. The approach adopted in this paper seeks to combine the two methods to investigate social structure and the nature of interaction in late prehistoric south-central Anatolia. The results suggest that views of the Göksu valley as the primary or a prominent means of connecting the southern Anatolian plateau and the Mediterranean coast may need to be reassessed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document