Europe (Geographic Keyword)
1,076-1,100 (1,158 Records)
Sicily has long been a hotbed of archaeological activity. During the Late Iron Age, Greek, Roman, Punic, and indigenous Elymi groups were involved in a complex network of trade and exchange. At the site of Salemi in western Sicily, there is evidence of participation in a widespread Mediterranean sphere of exchange. For this research, sourcing studies were conducted on transport amphorae to measure the degree of foreign influence on the local economy of Salemi. Preliminary data collected in the...
Understanding damage due to sea level rise in Orkney: the results of recent work (2016)
Orkney is a Scottish archipelago, with a maritime cultural landscape spanning some 6,000 years. The archaeological evidence related to this long habitation is amongst the most complete in Northwest Europe. Three-dimensional stone architecture and frequently benign soil conditions contribute to very good preservation of individual sites in their landscapes and the UNESCO inscription of The Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site recognizes this. A few sites were protected in the last...
Understanding Interactions Between Iron Age Polities in Cyprus through the Microscopic Lens (2017)
This paper will address economic and political interactions of two Cypriot polities during the Iron Age prior to political transitions in about 450 BCE. Idalion is a polity in the interior, near the copper-bearing Troodos Mountains and Kition is a port town on the southern coast. These polities are separate by 20km of rolling hills and plains. By 450 BCE, Kition had obtained political control of Idalion, but there has been little research about these two urban areas interactions prior to this...
Understanding the Neolithic Transition: Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Analysis of Subneolithic and Neolithic Animals and Inhabitants of the SE Baltic Coast (3200-2500 cal BC) (2016)
The Neolithic transition in the boreal zone of the Baltic region deviated significantly from the “classic” European model, and in 2014-2015 a multidisciplinary research project targeting why this occurred was undertaken. Twenty-one 14C AMS dates were obtained for 11 Late Mesolithic– Early Bronze Age (7000-1000 cal B.C.) graves and for 6 human bones found in settlements or refuse layers. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes analyses of bone collagen were conducted for 40 human bones and teeth from...
Understanding the Short-term Occupations of the Lateglacial and Early Mesolithic Groups in Western Europe (2017)
Prehistoric archaeology is now focusing on past hunter-gatherers societies behaviors and relationships with their environments. In Western France, the Late glacial and the Early Holocene were the stage of an important research dynamic. The chrono-cultural organization has been revised relying in particular on the excavation of new key sites. This research shed greater light on the human territories and paleo-economic behaviors. Understanding human mobility depends on our control of time linked...
united in blood! Rituals of violence and warfare in Iron Age britain (2017)
Discussions of ritual in society often focus on how ritual is used to bring individuals, communities, and larger social groups together. The role of ritual in violent interactions and warfare is less often considered and often what discussion there is focuses on the use of warfare to procure captives for public rituals, such as execution. Virtually ignored in this discussion is the role ritual plays in routinizing violence and warfare and how this ultimately impacts individuals and societies....
Unlocking the data behind the Chora of Metaponto publication series: "on-the-fly" solutions for sharing and archiving an evolving collection
As archaeological research moves from the traditional model of print publication (as the definitive word), to a larger continuum of interpretation and reinterpretation, access to the supporting data is crucial. To do so, however, adds extra burden on academic units with large legacy collections, publication backlogs, and dwindling budgets. Digital repositories provide a home for static collections, but are not ideal for dynamic collections generated and evolving throughout the research...
Unraveling a Neanderthal Palimpsest from a Zooarcheological and Lithic Perspective: Abrigo de la Quebrada level IV (Valencia, Spain) (2017)
Excavations at Abrigo de la Quebrada (Chelva, Valencia) have revealed 9 archaeological levels belonging to Neanderthal occupations. Level IV, characterised by a high density of lithic (>18,000) and bone (>100,000) remains, has been dated with AMS between 43,930±750 BP (Beta-244002) and >50.8 ka BP (OxA-24855). Human presence in the shelter has been favoured by its location, giving rise to a kind of natural trap where hunting animals would be feasible. The immediate environment is varied (abrupt...
The Upper Paleolithic beginnings of the domestication of the dog (2017)
With this contribution, we would like to present our ideas concerning the first steps in the domestication process of the dog. Two main hypotheses on the origin of the dog have been proposed: 1)"Self-domestication" by wolves: Some wolves were following Paleolithic hunter-gatherers to scavenge on the remains of prey left by the prehistoric people at the human settlements. Generation after generation, these wandering wolves adapted themselves to the human dominated environment. 2)"Social...
Upper Paleolithic Use of Space at Riparo Bombrini (Balzi Rossi, Italy) (2015)
We present an analysis of the spatial distribution of various features (hearths, dripline, etc.) and of four broad artifact classes (lithics, fauna, ochre, shell) in the proto-Aurignacian levels of Riparo Bombrini. The site is a collapsed rockshelter in the Balzi Rossi site complex and is interesting in part for having yielded very late Mousterian and very early proto-Aurignacian levels. The site thus offers an ideal setting in which to study behavioral differences between late Neanderthals and...
Upper Paleolithic-However It Got Here, It's Here (Can the Middle Paleolithic Be Far Behind?) (1952)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Upper Pleistocene Prehistory of Western Eurasia (1988)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Urban micromorphology at Bronze Age Palaikastro, Crete: Evidence of transitions (2017)
Sequences at Bronze Age Cretan settlement sites are defined by destructive events, natural or anthropogenic, that capture cultural material in a particular time and space. The traditional approach of studying urban archaeological contexts based on these snapshots of material culture is not completely suitable for analyzing transitional phases that occur between these events. However, detailed micromorphological examination of the sediments present in these transitional stratigraphic sequences...
Urban Networks in Early Iron Age Europe: Nucleation and Dispersal (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Urbanization is a social process, rather than a final destination. More important than debating whether one specific settlement within a system should be classified as "urban," "proto-urban," or "nonurban" is to analyze the wider processes of settlement nucleation and centralization that take place within the larger landscape,...
Urbanisation and Animal Husbandry in Ancient Western Europe: How Territoriality Affects Negatively Husbandry Productivity (2016)
Mobility is key to the survival and adaptation of human and animal populations. In all cases, having the ‘right of way’ is necessary to move across territories. How was it in the past? How humans decided about mobility in the context of demographic growth and increase of social complexity that occurred in Europe in the first millennium BC? Strontium isotopic ratios are a powerful tool for investigating mobility in the past. This paper offers a review of strontium isotopic ratios for Western...
Urns, Mounds, Pyres, and Pits: The Many Pathways of Middle Bronze Age Bodies in Transylvania (2016)
Communities of the Wietenberg Culture in Middle Bronze Age Transylvania (2000-1500 BC) participated in diverse and dynamic social, economic, political, and ideological institutions. Traditional approaches to the mortuary practices of this period, however, have obscured diversity in the archaeological record in favor of a more homogeneous characterization of burial practices as cremation and burial in urn cemeteries. This paper traces the many different pathways that Middle Bronze Age...
The use of fish vertebrae and otoliths for sclerochronological analysis of a Mesolithic Shell midden: advantages and limitations. (2016)
The onset of the Holocene in the Iberian Atlantic coast is associated with the appearance of the Mesolithic shell middens, which reflected new subsistence patterns that have been commonly characterized by the intensification of aquatic resources exploitation. Recently, sclerochronological analysis of shell midden faunal remains has been seen as fundamental to infer climatic and environmental changes, human settlement, resource exploitation and seasonal occupation. However, fish bone and...
Use of Raw Energy Data in the Estimation of the 'Cost' of Building Iron Age Brochs in Scotland (2016)
Iron Age brochs, drystone-built towers unique to Scotland, are typically 18m in external diameter, 9m internally, and 12m to 14m high. Calculation of the volume of stone required for the construction is relatively simple. Calculation of its standard bulk density, only marginally more difficult so that the mass of stone involved can be calculated with confidence. The calculation of the number of kWhs of energy required to quarry, lift move, horizontally and vertically and place into the monument...
The Use of Space: Settlement Pattern during the Late Prehistory in the Lake of Small Prespa (Southeast Albania) (2016)
The question of settlement pattern during the Late Prehistory (Late Bronze and Early Iron Age 1300 – 900 BC) in Albania comprises an unresolved topic constantly discussed over during the last few decades. The high presence of the tumuli mounds and the lack of the contemporary data from a settlement context complicated increasingly the understanding of the way these communities conceptualized their space and exploited the environment. However, recent excavation campaigns in the cave of Tren and...
Using ABM to Evaluate the Impact of Topography and Climate Change on Social Networks (2017)
Anthropological research suggests that climate and environmental resources influence the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers. My research uses an agent-based model to generate test expectations related to the impact of different geographical and social environments on the social networks formed therein. It focuses on Magdalenian social networks created in the Cantabrian and Dordogne region, and visible through similarities of portable art representations. The regional resources and climate of the...
Using computer models and art stylistic similarities to evaluate the impacts of geography and social processes on Magdalenian social networks (2015)
Anthropological research has demonstrated the influence of climate and environmental resources on the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers. While most previous work has focused on environmental influences on hunter-gatherer economic and ecological behaviors, this research will evaluate the impact of different geographical and social environments on the social networks formed therein. This project will use an agent-based model to generate test expectations related to the processes that shaped the social...
Using cremain weight from a Bronze Age cemetery in Eastern Hungary as an indicator of sex (2016)
In well-preserved osteoarchaeological samples, traditional anthropological methods are employed to determine age at death, biological sex, differences in diet, activity level, pathologies, and genetics. Determining sex based on classical anthropological methods such as examining morphological and metric traits is often difficult or impossible with cremains due to fragmentation and post-depositional damage. A previous study conducted by Van Deest et al. in 2013 showed a correlation between...
Using Multiple Isotopic Analyses to Infer Population Mobility in Iron Age Britain (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster presents the ongoing results on isotopic research on Middle Iron Age (~400–200 cal BC) populations in Wessex and East Yorkshire. The multi-isotopic approach has been employed to infer population mobility for both the inhumed human population at a series of sites and the faunal assemblages from either the associated settlements or directly recovered...
Using multiple techniques to assess the crop marks of early medieval barrow cemeteries in Scotland (2017)
This paper will show how using multiple techniques will refresh our understanding of cropmark sites, which is imperative for their protection and preservation. This work comes out of a research project looking at barrow cemeteries in north and east Scotland, the wealth of aerial archive was reviewed and explored through multiple methods. Rectifying and transcribing the aerial APs was one aspect, but ground survey picked up newly identified upstanding barrows at multiple sites. The results extend...
Using oral health indicators as evidence of environmental instability and subsistence shifts in the Late Upper Paleolithic of Western Eurasia (2015)
Oral pathology prevalence can be used to make inferences about the behavioral and environmental factors that contribute to individual and population health. Late Upper Paleolithic Western Eurasian human groups were expanding geographically as well as increasing in density, and the major climatic oscillations that define this period stressed these pioneering humans. Evidence of this strain includes temporal differences in oral pathology prevalence, namely caries, periodontal disease, tooth loss,...