Prehistoric Europe (Archaeology)

Vrbjanska Čuka is a tell site in the region of Pelagonia (Macedonia) established 8000 years ago by the Neolithic communities. Later it was used as an agricultural unit during the Roman era and the Middle Ages when it was also employed as a burial area. The excavations performed in the 1980s and during the last five years indicate a Neolithic farming society that constructed large buildings made of daub in a settlement enclosed by a circular ditch. The buildings had many clay structures, such as ovens, granaries, bins and grinding areas for processing cereals and bread production. The Neolithic communities used sophisticated fine pottery and modeled figurines and altars, while the stone tools were mainly used for cutting trees, harvesting and grinding. Apart from the cereal-based food (einkorn wheat, emmer wheat or barley), the inhabitants of Vrbjanska Čuka consumed lentils, peas and a variety of gathered wild fruits, while cattle, caprovine, mussels, fish and wild game meat was also...

SUMMARY: Chapter 6, in Renfrew & Bahn's textbook (Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice), covers past environments, including looking at past global environment (e.g., winds; coastlines), past landscapes (e.g., glaciers; rivers; buried/submerged landscapes), past plant environments, past animal environments, and past human environments.  In my view, this is one of the best college textbooks available, and is invaluable for students, archaeologists, and the public in general, to obtain a top notch overview of approaching and interpreting the archaeological record. REVISED: May 2023.

The topic of “innovation transfer” has gained major significance in the past decades. The present study explores conditions, mechanisms and patterns of the distribution of such processes, which are compiled by means of three examples, namely the technical innovation of copper metallurgy in Europe, the economic innovation of food production in northern Europe, and the spiritual-ritual innovation of Middle Neolithic circular earthworks. The examples demonstrate that some innovations came to a limited halt at “temporal boundary zones”. With regard to history of research, there are two approaches, a neo-evolutionary one with a focus on long-term development and supra-regional processes and another one starting from social and cultural factors and stressing the individual. The book demonstrates the significance of social networks and the importance of the transformation potential of an innovation as well as the presence of recurrent patterns. On the one hand, economic and social conditions on either side of a border tend to assimilate to each other, on the other hand expansion was always connected to phases of growth, diversity, flexibility, and high resilience .

ABSTRACTTollund Man is one of the most famous Iron Age bog bodies due to his well-preserved head. Since he was unearthed in 1950 in Bjældskovdal, Denmark, he has been subjected to several scientific investigations, but until now no attempts to reconstruct his general diet through isotope analyses have been conducted. Furthermore, previous radiocarbon (14C) analyses have only been able to date him broadly to the 3rd–4th century BC. In this study, stable isotope measurements (δ13C, δ15N) on bone collagen from Tollund Man’s femur and rib showed that the diet of Tollund Man was terrestrial-based and that the crops he ate probably were grown on manured fields. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dates were obtained on both the <30kDa and >30kDa fractions of ultrafiltered collagen. Results showed that the ultrafiltration removed contamination from older substances from the burial environment. The femur was dated to 2330±23 BP, the rib to 2322±30 BP. These dates statistically agr...

Країна таврів Зараз ми називаємо давній Крим Тавридою, країною таврів. Почалася ця історія ще за Гомера. Іфігенію, доньку грецького царя і наречену героя Ахілла, греки принесли в жертву богу Посейдону під час плавання до Іліону, відомого ще як Троя. Ті події, що відбулися близько 1200 р. до н.е., відомі нам як Троянська війна, оспівані аедом, співцем давньої історії Еллади Гомером у гімнах "Іліади". За легендою богиня Артеміда викрала дівчину з-під жертовного ножа, поставивши замість неї білу лань. Дівчину ж богиня перенесла до свого святилища у Тавриді-землі таврів, де вона решту життя приносила в жертву усіх греків, що потрапляли в ці землі. Ахілл довго шукав свою наречену, але так і не знайшов, отримавши від богів у володіння острів Левке і безсмертя. Згодом брати Іфігенії Орест і Пілад викрали її у таврів разом із ідолом Артеміди і привезли до Авліди, що у Елладі, де жриця Артеміди доживала свого віку. Довга піщана коса на узбережжі Понта Евксинського, яке зараз має назву Чорне море, називалася Ахиллів Біг. На думку давньогрецьких картографів саме по ній біг Ахілл, намагаючись наздогнати свою наречену. Сучасна її назва-Тендрівська коса, що в Миколаївській області. Острів Левке (з давньогрецької-Білий), дарований богами Ахіллу після смерті, зараз називається Зміїним, що в Одеській області. «...Він називається також Ахіловими Бігом (Білий берег), оскільки в той час як Ахілл сватався за Іфігенію і вона була привезена заради нього в Авліду, внаслідок лиха, що трапилося для плавання еллінам до Іліону, захотіли принести її в жертву за успішне плавання, але Артеміда вхопила її і принесла до Скіфської місцевосці до таврів, а закоханий Ахілл ішов за нею і супроводжував до того острова, що називається Білим» [Схолії до Піндара (VІ-Vст.до н. е.) Schol. ad Pind,. Nem ,. ІV, 79 (49)].

Analiza in arheološka interpretacija lidarskih podatkov zavarovanega območja spomenika Kazlje – gradišče Vahta (EŠD 7283) z okolico.
Strokovno poročilo o delu in rezultatih

Za arheološko interpretacijo obravnavanega območja v Kazljah (občina Sežana) smo procesirali 41,3 miljonov točk lidarskih podatkov in arheološko interpretirali površino 4 km2.
Dokumentirali smo 320 potencialnih arheoloških sledi, od tega 268 prazgodovinskih, 1 rimsko in 5 arheoloških sledi iz 1. svetovne vojne. Izpostavi

Tollund Man is one of the most famous Iron Age bog bodies due to his well-preserved head. Since he was unearthed in 1950 in Bjældskovdal, Denmark, he has been subjected to several scientific investigations, but until now no attempts to reconstruct his general diet through isotope analyses have been conducted. Furthermore, previous radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) analyses have only been able to date him broadly to the 3rd–4th century BC. In this study, stable isotope measurements (δ ¹³ C, δ ¹⁵ N) on bone collagen from Tollund Man’s femur and rib showed that the diet of Tollund Man was terrestrial-based and that the crops he ate probably were grown on manured fields. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴ C dates were obtained on both the <30kDa and >30kDa fractions of ultrafiltered collagen. Results showed that the ultrafiltration removed contamination from older substances from the burial environment. The femur was dated to 2330±23 BP, the rib to 2322±30 BP. These dates statistically agree with a previously published AMS ¹⁴ C age on skin. By combining the new dates with the previous date of his skin it was possible to narrow down the age of Tollund Man to the period 405–380 cal BC (95.4% confidence interval).

The discovery of prehistoric cave paintings in the nineteenth century led to the shocking realisation that humans have been creating art for over 30,000 years. Episode two reveals how the very first pictures were created, and how images may have triggered the greatest change in human history.

To discover the first two dimensional paintings we need to look at the art created in caves such as Altamira, Chauvet and Lascaux; these were created roughly 35,000 years, the time Archeologists identify with a ‘creative explosion’.

The first of these cave paintings were discovered in Altemira by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, and his 8yr old daughter Maria, in 1879. The paintings they discovered on the walls of the caves were of animals such as aurochs, a long extinct relative of the bison. As these matched similar stone-age images he had seen, Sautuola concluded they were prehistoric. When the caves were opened to the public, however, they were considered a hoax, and unfortunately despite trying to clear his name, his discovery was not scientifically accepted until long after his death. Following this the caves of Lascaux and Chauvet came to light, and it is said that when Picasso saw images of the caves he declared “we have learned nothing”.

Today artists create images of every aspect of life, but back then the images were almost exclusively of animals,  in particular horses, bison and reindeer. The expert Henri Breuil believed the paintings to be linked to rituals that increased the chances of a successful hunt, however more recent archeology has shown that the animals depicted were not those eaten by the people of the time. In addition some of the paintings were in very hard to reach areas of the caves and featured dots and lines. However, it is easy to take a modern view such as this and miss the point completely, that being how did we learn to project our 3D world into 2D.

There are very similar paintings to be found in the Drakensburg Mountains of South Africa, however unlike their European cousins, these were not produced thousands of years ago, but much more recently. These images were produced by the San “bush men” and although they do not produce paintings like this today, Professor David Lewis Williams discovered papers from the late nineteenth century by a German settler that documented the life and rituals of the San people. It became clear to Williams that their religion was based around traveling in a trance state to a spirit world and that they documented in these pictures their experiences of the trance. Often these transitory states involved animals, and the animals depicted were normally large or powerful, such as the Eland, that were respected by the San people. Williams also noticed another similarity with their European counterparts, that of the dots and lines.

Research into altered states, such as the trances of the San people, show that on entering these states, visual disturbances similar to migraine aura that involved lines and dots occur. Furthermore, these images can also be produced through sensory deprivation, for example from being placed deep in a cave for a long time. Prehistoric people, it appears, had hallucinations , which took the form of things that were close to them, such as the horses, bison and aurochs. These hallucinations were remembered and prehistoric people then recreated them on the walls of their caves.

Returning to the European palaeolithic caves, it seems that 12,000 years ago people stopped painting. We don’t know why, but the discovery of Göbekli Tepe, in Southern Turkey may hold the answer.  When excavated the site revealed monolithic pillars built around 12,000 years ago, dated to just the time that the paintings in caves seem to stop. These stone pillars feature carvings of animals such as those in the caves. The effort in creating these stone pillars would have required considerable  labour and organisation, the workers for example, all needed feeding. Recent research has shown that modern wheat can be traced to wild wheat that grows within 20 miles of this site, which has lead scholars to speculate that this was the birthplace of agricultural farming and, in turn, complex society,'civilisation', itself.

I recently had the opportunity to review Alex Gibson’s thought provoking volume, 'Enclosing the Neolithic: Recent studies in Britain and Europe'. That review, to which the reader is directed for further commentary, identified as a weakness the uneven spread of regional case studies, and in particular the omission of studies from the West Country, Wales and North West England, which are so important in understanding the Irish Sea Zone. The aim of this paper is to address this with regard to the material from the North West of England, and in particular Cumbria. This paper is therefore meant to be read in conjunction with Gibson’s edited volume.

A metalwork hoard dated to the Wilburton phase of the later Bronze Age, found at Barway close to the Isle of Ely in the Cambridgeshire Fens, is reported. Consideration of the hoard, in the context of later prehistoric hoarding in the local landscape, reveals that particular sorts of artefacts were associated with particular places in the landscape. In particular a strong association between later Bronze Age hoards and causeways connecting the Isle of Ely to the outside world is identified, and an interpretation suggested. This study demonstrates the potential of a detailed contextual approach for providing a more nuanced understanding of later Bronze Age metalwork deposition that moves away from a simplistic wet-dry dichotomy.

Cupules have been subjected to interpretation attempts for as long as they have been investigated, and thousands of such attempts have been recorded over the past two centuries. Most of them were presented without any credible supporting evidence and are essentially ethnocentric constructs arrived at by unsophisticated contemplation. They are devoid of any cultural or taphonomic considerations, knowledge of antiquity or technological appreciation, and they are not susceptible to refutation attempts; hence they are not scientifically relevant. Only a minute number of sound ethnographic interpretations are available, and they are always site-specific or culture-specific; therefore no form of generic explanation for cupules can be offered. Such form of interpretation can only be attempted after a massive improvement in the currently very inadequate database we posses of cupules, much of which is distorted by futile interpretation endeavours.

Archaeologically monitored topsoil stripping of the site of a waste water treatment works at Ballywilliam, Donaghadee, Co Down, led to the identification and excavation of a burnt mound and a number of associated pits. Some are interpreted as troughs, and one preserved evidence of having been wood-lined. Radiocarbon determinations indicate use in the Early Bronze Age.

Since petrological work in the 1930s enabled some Neolithic stone axe heads to be defined as distinctive Groups which could be associated with their rock sources, it has been assumed that there were discrete ‘axe factories’ which could be pin pointed on the ground for each Group. In some parts of Britain fieldwork and excavation has confirmed the presence of axe production sites but, the source sites of the Cornish greenstone axe rock Groups have remained elusive. This is surprising as a large number of Groups have been assigned a Cornish origin with pin-point source locations provided. Recent work, however, on potential Group 1 sources and at an axe production site in West Penwith, has indicated that the picture is very much more complex than previously thought.
In this paper aspects of the smaller Group XVI, prominent in the tor enclosure of Carn Brea, are considered. A small inland greenstone site at Viaduct Farm, near Camborne, was focussed upon to see if a discrete source could be identified. Outcrops in one valley were sampled and examined against thin sections attributed to Group XVI to see if this material really was the source of Group XVI.
The results suggest that caution should be used in attributing specific source sites for Cornish axe rock groups and that a range of sources may have been used for the production of axe heads in each of these Groups.

PANTELLERIA. THE SESE DI FRESCO EXCAVATION AND FINDS
FROM DESTROYED SESES AT MURSIA. - The sese Di Fresco I  excavations, an emispheric tomb with four chamber which one, found still closed, is a tholos dome, suggest for the first time the pantellerian megalithism ritual. Each chamber contained one or two burials amongst the so-called Sicilian “banchetto funebre” typical equipment: seashells, Ovis vel capra bones, beads, flint and obsidian implements, ware. The pottery from this sese and from other seses, now destroyed, dated in Early and Middle Bronze age, suggest links with RTV, Capo Graziano, Thapsos - Milazzese, Tarxien cemetery and Borg in-Nadur pottery styles. The Mursia surviving seses also prove the existence of an unknown megalithic cemetery. The monuments seem to line up with an ancient route, now ruined but once going to a spring and then to the village.

In later prehistory horse ownership was a manifestation of wealth and physical prowess, and demonstrated access to distant lands. Because of the expense and restricted availability of horses, they are often reduced to indicators of status without more nuanced considerations of how lived human-horse interactions enmeshed them in these status displays. To complicate the simple horse/status object equivalence, this article presents a specific case for the symbolic and social significance of horses in Early Iron Age south-eastern Slovenia through the lens of equine iconography, and argues that horses and particularly equestrianism were essential to embodying elite masculine identity. Broadly, this article seeks to move beyond equating high-status goods with high-status people by discussing how particular events, bodily abilities and human-animal relationships were all intertwined in the materialization of social distinction for a particular group.

During the months of June, July and August of 2015, our fieldschool staff and students excavated a wedge tomb on Roughan Hill. The tomb in question was CL017-180002, a very dilapidated wedge tomb missing its capstone and one of its side-stones. The excavation aimed to address questions and theories set out in a paper by this author, our academic director and Thor McVeigh (Jones et al. 2015).
Prior to the excavation, relatively little was visible. The site had only been discovered during an intensive survey in the 1990s (Jones et al. 1996, Site E). A surrounding mound and some possible kerb remnant were also noted during that survey.
Removal of the sod revealed a substantial circular stone cairn, approximately 7 m in diameter, surrounding the chamber (Fig. 1). Where surviving, the outer edge was neatly kerbed with large slabs up to 1 m in length. A second inner kerb-line, most obvious to the rear of the chamber and around 4 m in diameter, was concealed within the cairn (Fig. 2). In terms of sequence, the chamber must have been built first and then the cairn would seem to have been added in two stages; however, it is not clear how much time, if any, there was between these stages.
The chamber was approximately 2 m long and 1 m wide and orientated to the west-southwest. While one side-stone was missing, judging from the front blocking stone and the size of rear of the chamber, the tomb was wider to the front than the rear. The alignment of a possible pinning stone, for the missing side-stone and similar to the stone pinning the extant side-stone, would support this supposition. It would appear that, internally, the chamber was c. 0.9 m wide at the rear and c. 1.1 m wide at the front. The extant side-stone and the front blocking-stone were carefully knapped into shape and the side-stone rose noticeably toward the front of the chamber (Fig 3); at the rear it was c. 0.5 m high and at the front 0.75 m high.
The entire contents of the chamber, the area to the front of the chamber and a section through the cairn, to the northeast of the chamber, were excavated. A substantial amount of cremated and unburnt human bone was retrieved. The majority of the bone came from within the chamber, where it was retrieved from within a layer of soil underlying a layer of stone. There were few notable concentrations that could be interpreted as individual
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deposits; rather, the bone appeared mixed throughout the layer of soil. The bone is currently being analysed by Osteoarchaeologist Dr Linda Lynch and Zooarchaeologist Dr Fiona Beglane.
There were no obvious grave goods within the chamber; however, some partially articulated sheep/goat bones, retrieved from under the front of the sidestone, may represent the remains of an offering.
An unburnt, and at least partially articulated, adult was uncovered within the stones stacked up against the north-northwestern outside of the chamber. It sat largely within the voids among the stones; however, some elements that had fallen to the base of the cairn were suspended within soil.
Several lithics were retrieved from and around the cairn. These were mostly debitage and cannot be stratigraphically tied to the burial depositions within the tomb. The assemblage does include one particularly fine flint blade and several other stuck lithics that are not of a local geology. These are being analysed by lithics specialist Dr Killian Driscoll.
Once, the osteological and zooarchaeological analyses are complete a comprehensive program of radiocarbon dating, aDNA and isotope analyses are planned. Two petrous bones have already been forwarded for aDNA analyses and the initial results are promising. The aDNA work is being carried out by Lara Cassidy and Professor Dan Bradley at Trinity College Dublin, and the isotope analysis is being carried out by Dr Rick Schulting’s team at the School of Archaeology, Oxford University. It is intended to get all radiocarbon dates through Queen’s University Belfast.