This paper discusses the discoveries of early donkey and the earliest mule remains in Central Anatolia from the site Derekutuğun. This site represents the remains of a village dating back to the Early Bronze Age and Assyrian Trade Colonies period, associated with mining. The archaeofaunal assemblage was studied by the author and his team using classical archaeozoological methods. The dental remains of the Equidae found at Derekutuğun have been re-examined and are described in this article. The dental evidence indicates that donkeys, and possibly the earliest mules ever found in Central Anatolia, were kept at this site. Although the paper is based on the archaeozoological remains, written sources from the period also support the faunal identification. Derekutuğun was a small settlement that specialized in processing copper ore, and which was an important hub for a trade network because of its extensive mining and extraction operations.
Pedro-C. Carvalho, Adolfo Fernández-Fernández, Alessandra Pecci
et al.
En este artículo se aborda la cuestión de la producción, comercialización y consumo de vino en el Noroeste peninsular, en particular en la región portuguesa de Trás-os-Montes, inscrita en el sur del conventus Asturum (antigua provincia de la Gallaecia). A pesar de la total ausencia de ánforas en el yacimiento romano de Castro de Avelãs (Bragança) y en su entorno inmediato, es posible que este producto, tan importante en época romana, se haya consumido y quizás hasta producido y distribuido en la zona usando contenedores diferentes. En par ticular se propone que un tipo de tinajas se hayan usado para el almacenamiento, transpor te y quizás hasta para la producción de vino.
Esta hipótesis se refuerza con los análisis realizados mediante cromatografia de gases/espectometría de masas sobre tres de estos recipientes cerámicos recuperados en el yacimiento, registrando marcadores compatibles con el vino. Ante estos datos, se ha abierto la discusión sobre el consumo y la producción de vino (y de otros productos) en este territorio del sureste de la Gallaecia.
Jennifer Swerida, Eli N. Dollarhide, Eric Fouache
et al.
The Bat landscape of northwestern Oman is one of intermittent archaeological remains and varied ecological conditions. The site has been a center for human activity since the Neolithic, most famously attested by the Early Bronze Age tombs, towers, and settlement of the UNESCO World Heritage zone. This paper presents recent research conducted by the Bat Archaeological Project in reconstructing the site’s third millennium BC cultural landscape and the human-environment interactions that led to its creation and long-term occupation. Three of Bat’s Early Bronze Age environs: the Settlement Slope, al-Khutm, and Rakhat al-Madrh are discussed in view of their ecological, geomorphological, and archaeological contexts. New archaeobotanical and 14C results are presented. These discoveries suggest Bat’s ancient inhabitants sought out and utilized diverse environments in order to establish cultural and ecological resilience within a localized area. Ultimately, we propose an expansion to the traditional oasis model of settlement and agricultural development in southeast Arabia, arguing for a systems-based approach that incorporates roles played by environs beyond the oasis.
Abstract Recent critiques of ancient DNA (aDNA) studies in archaeology have called into question the problematic conflation of genetics with ethnic, cultural and racial identity. As yet, however, there has been little discussion of the increasing use of aDNA to reconstruct prehistoric kinship systems. This article draws on anthropological research to argue that kinship relations are not determined by biogenetic links, but are generated through social practice. A variety of archaeological evidence can be employed to explore how enduring affective relationships are created with both human and non-human others. These points require us to challenge androcentric and heteronormative interpretations of aDNA data in the Bronze Age and more widely.
<p>The ʽaccidentalʼ discovery of archaeological material represents an ordinary fact in today’s archaeology. Unfortunately, most of these discoveries have no archaeological context, thwarting the possibility of integrating the objects in more complex studies. In this context, based on the type of data that the archaeometric study of metal objects provides (information regarding prehistoric metallurgy, especially the used alloys and technologies), we propose for analysis two metal pieces (a socketed axe and a sickle) fortuitously found in Dobrovăt (Iași County), in order to see how much information can we gather for two fragmentary objects, without archaeological context. The methods used are optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM-EDX) and micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (μFTIR) and our aim is represented by the obtainment of important information about patina and corrosion products, the metals used and how these objects were manufactured and utilised. As a result, the before mentioned methods illustrated a number of special features regarding the metallurgical practice of the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Carpathian area, contributing to the expansion of the database in this chronological and geographical area.</p>
En el presente trabajo, abordaremos la representación iconográfica de la mujer hispanorromana en el conventus Caesaraugustanus a par tir de aquellos vestigios escultóricos hallados en el territorio. Con todo ello, analizaremos la iconografía femenina como una imagen y proyección de la mujer en los espacios públicos de las ciudades hispanorromanas, centrándonos en aquellas representaciones destinadas al culto imperial y religioso con el objeto de descodificar un conjunto de valores asociados a la imagen de la perfectissima femina.
The article concerns the absolute dating of the Funnel Beaker culture over the upper Bug and the upper Dniester (Polish-Ukrainian borderland and western Ukraine). Also discussed are the relations of the community of this culture from the eastern zone of the south-eastern group with the Tripolye culture.
Współautorzy:Maciej Balcer, Jerzy T. Bąbel, Maria Deka, Tomasz Herbich, Jacek Lech,Jan Machnik, Anna Dzieduszycka-Machnikowa, Witold Migal,Alina Nowak-Wągrodzka, Dominik K. Płaza, Mira Pyżuk,Barbara Sałacińska, Sławomir Sałaciński, Teresa Stawiarska,Stanisław Suchodolski, Stanisław Tabaczyński, Paweł Valde-Nowak,Dariusz Wach, Anna Zakościelna, Marek Zalewski, Marta Żylonis
Auxiliary sciences of history, Prehistoric archaeology
Estudiamos en este artículo una pequeña terracota procedente de la antigua ciudad de Caura, hoy Coria del Río (provincia de Sevilla). Aunque no se conserva completa, representa una figura femenina en estado de gestación. La imagen se apoya sobre una base troncocónica hueca que exhibe en su parte delantera un símbolo astral. Es posible que dispusiera inicialmente de brazos abiertos en actitud orante. Estos rasgos sugieren interpretar la figurilla como ofrenda o exvoto (¿a Dea Caelestis?), y en cualquier caso como producto de un acto piadoso para propiciar la maternidad. La pieza puede fecharse, sin mayor precisión de momento, en época romana. La dispersión del tipo refleja un importante arraigo en zonas con un marcado sustrato púnico.
Since 2010 a new field project drawn from major UK institutions including the UCL Institute of Archaeology, has focused research on the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic record of the Channel Island of Jersey. In this retrospective of five years of research the history of the project to date, its focus on the Middle Palaeolithic site of La Cotte de St Brelade and its growth into an international research team is charted. The formation of the La Manche Prehistorique research network in 2015 marks a new chapter in the development of this project. With its wider focus, but continued commitment to research in the Channel Islands, the research group are working towards a unified early prehistoric research framework for the English Channel region.
La costa rionegrina del golfo San Matías se divide en dos sectores (norte y oeste), con diferentes
características geológicas y geomorfológicas. Estas diferencias se traducen en una disponibilidad diferencial
de recursos, lo que habría dado lugar a un uso del espacio diferente por parte de los cazadoresrecolectores
que ocuparon la costa durante el Holoceno medio y tardío (Favier Dubois y Borella
2011). Esto se vería expresado, entre otros indicadores, en la tecnología lítica manufacturada, usada y
descartada en los sitios. En este trabajo se caracterizan los conjuntos líticos provenientes de concheros
en diferentes localidades arqueológicas del golfo San Matías. Los resultados indican que la tecnología
descartada en estos concheros es de tipo expeditiva, con un uso de rocas localmente disponibles en
ambos sectores de la costa. La mayor parte de la muestra no presenta alteraciones postdepositacionales
y la carbonatación está presente en un mayor porcentaje que la corrasión, lo que podría indicar un
rápido enterramiento de estos conjuntos dentro de los concheros.
Jesús F. Jordá Pardo, Pilar Carral López, Sergio Ripoll López
et al.
La Cueva de Ambrosio (Vélez-Blanco, Almería, España) es un yacimiento situado en el extremo SE de la Península Ibérica que presenta una secuencia estratigráfica en la que se han excavado tres unidades sedimentarias con materiales del Solutrense. En este trabajo estudiamos la secuencia desde la perspectiva geoarqueológica y cronoestratigráfica. El estudio geoarqueológico ha permitido distinguir dos unidades litoestratigráficas con diferente significado, una inferior generada por una colada de fango y otra superior formada por procesos de gelifracción que contiene las ocupaciones solutrenses. Las últimas dataciones radiocarbónicas obtenidas permiten clarificar la posición de la secuencia en la escala cronoestratigráfica del Pleistoceno superior. La calibración de las nuevas fechas 14C del nivel IV (Solutrense superior) y del nivel II (Solutrense superior evolucionado) permiten situar estos momentos entre el final del GS 3 (final del OIS 3) y el final del GI 2, con una importante ocupación (nivel II) al final del evento H-2, coincidiendo con el interestadial que precede al último Máximo Glacial (GS 2).
La Cueva de Ambrosio (Vélez-Blanco, Almería, Spain) is located in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is a karstic cavity with rock shelter morphology that contains a stratigraphic sequence composed of three sedimentary units with Solutrean materials. In this work we study the sequence from the geoarchaeological and chronostratigraphical perspective. The geoarchaeological study has allowed us to distinguish two litostratigraphic units, the lower generated by a mud flow and the upper formed by gelifraction processes which contains the Solutrean occupations. The last radiocarbon dates from the Solutrean of La Cueva de Ambrosio allow the clarification of its position in the Upper Pleistocene chronostratigraphic scale. The calibration of the new 14C dates from the level IV (Upper Solutrean) and the level II (Upper Evolved Solutrean), can place these moments between the end of GS 3 (end of OIS 3) and the end of GI 2, with an important occupation event (level II) in the aftermath of the Heinrich Event H-2, coinciding with the interstadial that preceding the Last Glacial Maximum (GS 2).
Prehistoric archaeology, Auxiliary sciences of history