Early Cultures of the South Anatolian Plateau

1961 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 159-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Mellaart
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Alluvial Soil ◽  
Aegean Sea ◽  
List Type ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
The South ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Distinct Unit ◽  
Neolithic Cultures

The purpose of this article is to describe here some of the material found during our survey of the Konya Plain in 1958. In two previous articles pottery of the 2nd millennium and the Iron Age found here have already been published. That of the Early Bronze Age, the most prosperous period in this area, will be described at a later date, and the present article will only describe the pottery of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, under the following headings:I.Neolithic cultures of the South Anatolian Plateau.II.The Early Chalcolithic in the Konya Plain.III.The Late Chalcolithic in the Konya Plain.The importance of the Konya Plain in Anatolian prehistory is obvious. It is the largest single plain on the whole of the Anatolian Plateau with alluvial soil, and as such it is the granary of Turkey. No other region on the plateau shows such numbers of ancient mounds, or so many mounds of great size. The survey of this region, geographically as well as archaeologically a distinct unit, has at last linked the western plateau with Cilicia, and the results have shown that there is now a cultural continuum from the borders of Syria to the Aegean Sea since the Neolithic period.

Bronze Age Barrows on Charmy Down and Lansdown, Somerset

1950 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 34-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey Williams
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The South ◽  
Stream Flows ◽  
North East ◽  
The North

Charmy Down is a plateau three miles north-east of Bath (fig. 1, 1), east of the Bath-Tetbury road. About a square mile in extent it has a general height of well over 600 ft. To the north the scarp falls swiftly, on the east more gently, to the wooded valley of St. Catherine's Brook, a tributary of the Bristol Avon and the modern Somerset–Gloucester boundary. At the foot of the steep western scarp a second stream flows south to the Avon. On the south Chilcombe Bottom separates Charmy Down from Solsbury Hill, distinguished by its Iron Age earthwork. The underlying rock is oolite, a southward continuation of the Cotswold formation.

CERAMICS OF THE PESTRYAKOVO LAKE SETTLEMENT (SOUTH OF WESTERN SIBERIA)

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 205-212
Author(s):  
KIRYUSHIN K. ◽  
◽  
KIRYUSHIN Yu. ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Western Siberia ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
Animal Hair ◽  
The Middle Ages

The article is devoted to the publication of finds of fragments of ceramic dishes discovered at the settlement of Pestryakovo Lake (Zavyalovsky district of Altai Territory). A group of ceramics which belongs to the early Iron Age and the Middle Ages, is pointed out. Single fragments find analogies in the materials of the sites of the Early and Late Bronze Age. The ceramic collection of the Pestryakovo Lake settlement includes groups of ceramics that belong to the Neolithic or Eneolithic. These are fragments of vessels ornamented with prints of a “string”, pricks, imprints of a short comb stamp, a dingle-dingle stamping. Linear-pricked and receding-pricked ceramics are quite informative. On the outer and inner surfaces, as well as in the fractures, traces of burnt-out organic matter (animal hair) are recorded. Such ceramics are widely represented in the south of Western Siberia and are associated with various settlement and burial complexes from the Ob to the Irtysh and various cultural formations of the Neolithic and Eneolithic. Keywords: settlement, ceramics, ornamentation technique, comparative typological analysis, neolithic, eneolithic

The Bronze and Iron Ages in Jerusalem

2018 ◽  
pp. 11-62
Author(s):  
Kay Prag
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
Iron Age I ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Pastoral Economy ◽  
The Bronze Age

Most evidence for the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Post-Exilic settlement of Jerusalem came from Site A on the south-east ridge, and Kenyon unearthed and dated material of almost all these periods, but very little of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age I. This settlement pattern is reflected to a lesser extent on other sites, but elsewhere occupation of the region appears to continue, in a more dispersed fashion, perhaps partly related to diversification of the inhabitants to a more pastoral economy. Whether the centrality of Jerusalem is linked to its being an ancient place of burial is considered. Other evidence from the archive relates to the reigns of David, Solomon and Nehemiah. Specific issues are addressed, such as the location of the principal administrative buildings and fortifications, the use of volute capitals, the importance of water supply and drainage, and the problem of residuality affecting archaeological dating in Iron Age Jerusalem, which places the emphasis on C14 dating.

The first religious buildings: ‘sacred huts’

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Hot Springs ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Religious Activity ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
The Bronze Age

The votive assemblages that form the primary archaeological evidence for non-funerary cult in the Neolithic, Bronze, and early Iron Ages in central Italy indicate that there is a long tradition of religious activity in Latium and Etruria in which buildings played no discernible role. Data on votive deposits in western central Italy is admittedly uneven: although many early votive assemblages from Latium have been widely studied and published, there are few Etruscan comparanda; of the more than two hundred Etruscan votive assemblages currently known from all periods, relatively few date prior to the fourth century BC, while those in museum collections are often no longer entire and suffer from a lack of detailed provenance as well as an absence of excavations in the vicinity of the original find. Nevertheless, it is possible to recognize broad patterns in the form and location of cult sites prior to the Iron Age, and thus to sketch the broader context of prehistoric rituals that pre-dated the construction of the first religious buildings. In the Neolithic period (c.6000–3500 BC), funerary and non-funerary rituals appear to have been observed in underground spaces such as caves, crevices, and rock shelters, and there are also signs that cults developed around ‘abnormal water’ like stalagmites, stalactites, hot springs, and pools of still water. These characteristics remain visible in the evidence from the middle Bronze Age (c.1700–1300 BC). Finds from this period at the Sventatoio cave in Latium include vases containing traces of wheat, barley seed cakes, and parts of young animals including pigs, sheep, and oxen, as well as burned remains of at least three children. The openair veneration of underground phenomena is also implied by the discovery of ceramic fragments from all phases of the Bronze Age around a sulphurous spring near the Colonelle Lake at Tivoli. Other evidence of cult activities at prominent points in the landscape, such as mountain tops and rivers, suggests that rituals began to lose an underground orientation during the middle Bronze Age. By the late Bronze Age (c.1300–900 BC) natural caves no longer seem to have served ritual or funerary functions.

Early Cultures of the South Anatolian Plateau, II

1963 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 199-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Mellaart
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Late Chalcolithic ◽  
Chalcolithic Period

The end of the Çatal Hüyük West culture is shrouded in mystery. Both Çatal and Kara Hüyük South were apparently deserted and never reoccupied and it is only at Can Hasan Hüyük east of Karaman that later deposits have been recognised overlying remains of the early Chalcolithic culture. Elsewhere the evidence lies buried in the cores of the numerous city mounds of the Early Bronze Age period. Late Chalcolithic remains are fairly common in the Konya Plain, but they were in nearly every case found on sites where no earlier or later remains were encountered. This might suggest a shift in the settlement pattern of the plain after the end of the Early Chalcolithic period (see map, Fig. 1).

Tranchet Axe Manufacture from Cliffe, Kent

1988 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 315-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Ashton
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Discrete Group ◽  
British Museum ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
Small Trial

In the summer of 1978 pottery and flintwork were noticed in the sections to the south of Cliffe Village during the laying of a pipeline by British Gas (TQ 734744) (fig. 1). This led to the excavation of a series of small trial trenches by Mr David Thomson with the help of local volunteers in the same year. The retrieval of a Beaker and Collared Urn suggested an early Bronze Age site, and excavations by Dr Ian Kinnes for the British Museum were done in September 1979. Although the excavated features contained mainly Iron Age pottery and metalwork, both seasons' work also produced a large quantity of flint artefacts ranging from Mesolithic to Bronze Age in date. The following report is an analysis of the Mesolithic tranchet axe manufacturing debitage which could be distinguished as a discrete group from the other flintwork. It is not intended to present a comprehensive flint report for Cliffe, but to provide a framework for analysis at other sites where tranchet axe production has been shown to take place (Wymer 1962; Parfitt and Halliwell 1982).

The Eastern Baltic

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valter Lang
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Entire Region ◽  
Baltic Region ◽  
The South ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
South West ◽  
The Baltic

This chapter examines Iron Age funerary and domestic archaeological sites, and economic and cultural developments from c.500 BC–AD 550/600, in the east Baltic region (present day Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). While the early pre-Roman Iron Age was to some extent a continuation of the late Bronze Age in material culture terms, many changes took place in the late pre-Roman Iron Age. At the change of era, new cultural trends spread over the east Baltic region, from the south-eastern shore of the Baltic to south-west Finland, which produced a remarkable unification of material culture over this entire region up to the Migration period. Differences in burial practices and ceramics, however, indicate the existence of two distinct ethnic groups, Proto-Finnic in the northern part of the region and Proto-Baltic to the south. Subsistence was based principally on agriculture and stock rearing, with minor variations in the economic orientation of different areas.

Samos

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clyde E. Fant ◽  
Mitchell G. Reddish
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Aegean Sea ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Western Turkey ◽  
Naval Power ◽  
The North

The island of Samos, one of the most pleasant of all the Greek islands, played an important role in both Greek and Roman history. The significance of Samos was due to its strategic location and its fame from three sources: the Great Temple to Hera, one of the most renowned in the ancient world; the Tunnel of Eupalinus, one of the great engineering feats of antiquity; and two of its most famous citizens, the moralist Aesop and the mathematician Pythagoras, of Pythagorean theorem fame. Samos is located only 1 mile from the shore of western Turkey. It received its name, according to Herodotus, because of its mountainous terrain. Samos means “high land” and seems to have been derived either from the Phoenician word sama or from the Ionian word samo, both of which have the same meaning. (Another island to the north has a similar name, Samothrace, which means the samos of nearby Thrace.) This relatively small island, 14 miles wide and 27 miles long, shows evidence of occupation at least as early as the 4th millennium B.C.E. Later, abundant evidence attests to further occupation in the Early Bronze Age by the Mycenaeans. Likewise, the Ionians established colonies on the island during the early Iron Age and it subsequently became a great naval power. Sometime during the 8th century B.C.E., Samos obtained land on the opposite coast of Asia Minor, which led to ongoing conflict with neighboring Priene. The most famous, and infamous, ruler of Samos was Polycrates, the tyrant who ruled from approximately 550 B.C.E. until 522 B.C.E., when he was lured to Asia Minor and subsequently crucified by the Persians. During his reign, according to Strabo, the naval fleet of Samos became the first to rule the Aegean Sea since the days of the Minoan civilization. Polycrates established a cultured court, encouraged fine arts, and invited the famous hydraulics engineer Eupalinus of Megara to construct the great water tunnel that became known as the Tunnel of Eupalinus. Other public works projects included the construction of great walls around the city.

scholarly journals Neolithic to Bronze Age (4850–3450 cal. BP) fire management of the Alpine Lower Engadine landscape (Switzerland) to establish pastures and cereal fields

The Holocene ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Dietre ◽  
Christoph Walser ◽  
Werner Kofler ◽  
Katja Kothieringer ◽  
Irka Hajdas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Continuous Cultivation ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Coprophilous Fungi

Agro-pastoral activities in the past act as environmental legacy and have shaped the current cultural landscape in the European Alps. This study reports about prehistoric fire incidents and their impact on the flora and vegetation near the village of Ardez in the Lower Engadine Valley (Switzerland) since the Late Neolithic Period. Pollen, charcoal particles and non-pollen palynomorphs preserved in the Saglias and Cutüra peat bog stratigraphies were quantified and the results compared with the regional archaeological evidence. Anthropogenic deforestation using fire started around 4850 cal. BP at Saglias and aimed at establishing first cultivated crop fields (e.g. cereals) and small pastoral areas as implied by the positive correlation coefficients between charcoal particles and cultural and pastoral pollen indicators, as well as spores of coprophilous fungi. Pressure on the natural environment by humans and livestock continued until 3650 cal. BP and was followed by reforestation processes until 3400 cal. BP because of climatic deterioration. Thereafter, a new, continuous cultivation/pastoral phase was recorded for the Middle to Late Bronze Age (3400–2800 cal. BP). After rather minor human impact during the Iron Age and Roman Period, intensive agriculture was recorded for the Medieval Period. The area around Ardez was used for crop cultivation from about 1000 cal. BP until the start of the ‘Little Ice Age’ (600 cal. BP). Despite a land-use reorganisation, the following gradual decrease in agricultural activities led to the extant mixture of a cultivated, grazed and forested landscape in the Lower Engadine. In addition, this study demonstrates the excellent value of the fungus Gelasinospora as a highly local marker of past and today’s fire incidents, as well as of the use of micro-charcoals from pollen slides and macro-charcoals (>150 µm) from pollen sample residues for the reconstruction of short- and long-term fire histories.

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