Bronze Age (Other Keyword)
26-50 (333 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Pushing the Envelope, Chasing Stone Age Sailors and Early Agriculture: Papers in Honor of the Career of Alan H. Simmons" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Work on Cypriot identity has a long history, beginning with the identification of the first Cypriots during the Neolithic. This presentation continues on in the direction begun by Alan Simmons at Ais Giorkis of examining physical remains to understand what it meant to...
Beyond Research Design: Digital Resource Management for the Next Generation (2018)
Digital technologies in the field of archaeology have often been promoted as a tool enhancing productivity and efficiency, usually implying that the immediate digital recording of data would allow for the excavation of greater volumes and covering larger areas. Moreover, the strength of Paperless Archaeology comes with the enabling of immediate dissemination of observable data while breaking up the ‘sealed’ relationship between the raw data and the First Interpreter. What remains less...
Beyond the Final Frontier: Time and Materiality in the Peripheralization of Bronze Age Eurasian Steppe Pastoral Societies (2018)
Archaeologists studying prehistoric Eurasian steppe pastoral lifeways often seek inclusion into comparative research of urbanism, craft production, and complexity. Even as these studies contribute valuable information, they also reify their place in the intellectual periphery of archaeological inquiry. This peripheralization is due to several factors. First, the Eurasian steppe is perhaps unwittingly conceptualized as a relatively timeless socio-geographical periphery to "state-level" social...
Bioarchaeological Analysis of Bronze Age Populations in Xiaohe Cemetery Using Dental Nonmetric Traits (2016)
The archaeological site of Xiaohe cemetery (Cal. 3980 to 3540 years BP), one of the earliest sites in Lop Nur Desert of Xinjiang, China has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to its well-preserved organic materials, such as mummified human remains. However, questions of the regional diversity of populations are still not well understood, as few detailed researches have been undertaken. This study utilizes 17 dental morphological traits to assess the phenetic relationships...
A Bioarchaeological Approach to Contested Mountain Landscapes in Transylvania’s Golden Quadrangle (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Living and Dying in Mountain and Highland Landscapes" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, we introduce the agenda for the session Living and Dying in Mountain and Highland Landscapes. Mountains and high altitude areas are ideal spaces where archaeologists can examine the relationship between social action and the environment. As this session will show, the study of human remains must be situated with a...
A Bioarcheological Study of a Trepanation Case with Special Reference to the Medical Care System during the Western Zhou Dynasty China (1045–771 BCE) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Therapeutic craniotomy is a kind of artificial trepanation used for treating head injuries. In this study, a skull with signs of trauma and trepanation from a young adult female who lived 3,000 years ago was assessed in the context of medical care systems and a policy of benevolence during the time. A blunt force assault on the left temporal bone induced a...
The Black Sea as a Fluid Frontier: Connectivity, Integration, and Disarticulation from the Fourth to First Millennium BCE (2017)
Recent years have witnessed increasing scholarly attention to the Black Sea, a region often considered peripheral to better known "cores" of cultural activity, such as the Mediterranean, Europe, the Near East, and even the Caucasus. Challenging conventional views of the Black Sea as largely disarticulated prior to the arrival of Greek colonists in the 7th Century BCE, this paper argues that ongoing, informal networks of interaction existed across the region during the previous millennia,...
Bone calcination of different age groups in cremations from Bronze Age Hungary (2017)
Bronze Age Hungary saw the advancement of trade which may have been a cause of the movement from egalitarian societies to more complex societies with increasing social inequality. Social inequality between regions in Hungary may be reflected in variation among funeral customs. Excavations from Békés 103, a Bronze Age cemetery in south-eastern Hungary, have uncovered 68 burials, most of which are cremations. This study focuses on color analysis (identified by Munsell Soil Color Charts) of the...
Borderland Processes and the Question of BMAC in NE Iran (2018)
How frontiers and borders are conceptualized in archaeology is critically influenced by the approaches and perspectives in culture contact research. Absence of written documents from Bronze Age Central Asia severely limits the application of such theories. The nature of the Bronze Age civilization of Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) in Central Asia, and its dispersion to neighboring NE Iran has been a long-lasting question in study of Prehistoric Western Asia. This paper aims to...
Bronze Age Crucibles in China: A Unique Technological Tradition and its Cultural Implications (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Craft and Technology: Knowledge of the Ancient Chinese Artisans" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Most studies of early metallurgy in China have focused on style, manufacturing techniques and alloy compositions of bronze artefacts. In rare circumstances, other sections of the bronze production Chaîne opératoire such mining, smelting and metal processing are considered. This research concentrates on early bronze...
Bronze Age Economy and Rituals at Krasnosamarskoe in the Russian Steppes (2017)
The final report of the Samara Valley Project (SVP), a U.S.-Russian archaeological investigation conducted between 1995 and 2002 in the Samara Oblast in central Russia, was published in June 2016. The SVP explored the changing organization and subsistence resources of pastoral steppe economies from the Eneolithic (4500BC) through the Late Bronze Age (1900-1200BC) across the steppe and river valley landscape in the middle Volga region. Particular attention focuses on the role of agriculture...
Bronze Age Transitions in Their Own Words: Central Asian Interfaces (2023)
This is an abstract from the "From the Altai to the Arctic: New Results and New Directions in the Archaeology of North and Inner Asia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Loanword analysis is a unique contribution of historical linguistics to our understanding of prehistoric cultural interfaces. As language reflects the lives of its speakers, the substantiation of loanwords draws on the composite evidence from linguistic as well as archaeology and...
The Bronze and Iron Age Sites Saridjar and Karim Berdy, Tajikistan (2017)
The Late Bronze Age site of Saridjar was discovered during a survey of the northern Yakhsu valley in 2010. Excavations in 2012, in 2013, 2015 and in 2016 prove that we are dealing with a 200 x 200 m large settlement with at least three construction phases. The proportion of the hand-made ceramics in all levels varies between 80 and 90%. Only occasionally wheel-made ware appears. Andronovo pottery of the Federovo phase is present in small numbers. At Karimberdy nearly all the pottery was...
Bronzes, Mortuary Ritual and the Rise of Political Power in the NE Frontier of Ancient China: A case study of Upper Xiajiadian Burials (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Research on Early Chinese Borderland Cultures and Archaeological Materials" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study focuses on manipulation of bronzes of different styles, and mortuary rituals overall, during in the emergence of political power in the northeastern frontier of ancient China. Data are presented on three richly furnished burials M101 at Nanshan’gen and M8501 and M9601 at Xiaoheishigou of the...
Building Bronze Age Populations of the South Caucasus: Preliminary Bioarchaeological Results from the Kasakh Valley Archaeological Survey (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The South Caucasus Region: Crossroads of Societies & Polities. An Assessment of Research Perspectives in Post-Soviet Times" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bioarchaeological analysis of human remains excavated by Project ArAGATS in the Tsaghkahovit Plain, Armenia has allowed for a unique view onto Bronze Age life and has offered a glimpse into the lived experience of populations constituting early complex polities....
Burning questions about preservation: an investigation of cremated bone crystallinity in a Bronze Age cemetery (2017)
The elemental and isotopic analysis of human skeletal remains has greatly added to our understanding of diet, mobility, and social variability in prehistoric societies. For studies of this nature, it is critical to evaluate the preservation of the skeletal material prior to analysis to make sure that taphonomic processes have not affected the original chemical signatures. Calcined bone (usually produced from cremation burial practices) is generally avoided for chemical analysis due to heat...
Can You Predict the Pot? Using Morphometric Variability to Predict Potting Techniques (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While geometric morphometrics (GMM) roots are in biology, there has been an increase of studies applying GMM to archaeological material in recent years. Archaeologists have utilized morphometrics to determine the level of craft specialization at prehistoric sites, test the symmetry of stone tools, classify ceramic sherds, examine the level of...
Ceramic Production at the Stone-Walled Citadel of Shimao: Initial Results of Petrographic Analysis (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Scaling Potting Networks: Recent Contributions from Ceramic Petrography " session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the last 10 years, excavations at the early Bronze Age site of Shimao (2300–1800 BC), in northern Shaanxi Province, have transformed our understanding of the archaeology of early China. What was previously seen as an area that was peripheral to the development of early dynastic centers is now being heralded by...
Ceramics production and trade across the Great Hungarian Plain: Chemical analysis of Bronze Age ceramics from Békés 103 in Eastern Hungary (2016)
The Bronze Age in Europe is noted for an increase in foreign interaction and trade, yet some areas show few signs of receiving non-local goods. Using chemical analysis of Bronze Age ceramic pastes from the cemetery of Békés 103 and nearby clay sources, this poster seeks to investigate trade networks and exchange between the people of the site and other areas of the Great Hungarian Plain. Using LA-ICP-MS, we examine the extent of trade and the degree to which the community participated in the...
Ceramics production and trade in Western Anatolia: A reexamination of the ceramic mould-making process at Seyitömer Höyük in Kütahya, Turkey (2017)
During the Early Bronze Age at Seyitömer Höyük, ceramics began to be standardized in their shape and size through the use of a mould-making process. Evidence from the archaeological record suggests that this innovative technique was incorporated at the site due to the increase in trade and demand for ceramics from other settlements in Anatolia, from nearby Küllüoba to faraway Troy. The early use of a mould-making process established Seyitömer Höyük’s pivotal role as a ceramic hub and trading...
Ceramics provenience: chemical analysis of ceramics and clays in Eastern Hungary via LA-ICP-MS (2017)
This project explores the provenience of ceramics found at the Bronze Age Békés 103 cemetery. By answering the question of where these ceramics came from, it is possible to hypothesize which Bronze Age communities used the cemetery. To do this, clays were collected throughout Eastern Hungary for chemical analysis. Clay is often found along river banks, but many modern rivers may have been polluted. Instead, paleo-meanders of modern rivers were chosen as collection sites; these were identified...
Changing Landscapes: Settlement Strategies, Cultural Dynamics, and Material Evidence on Kos, Dodecanese, during the Final Neolithic and the Bronze Age (2018)
Landscape as a concept incorporates not simply the geographic and environmental characteristics of an area, but also the cultural and symbolic value vested in places. Understanding the relationship of these factors, which are often closely linked, to past societies remains a challenge in archaeology. In this paper, we attempt to reconstruct the Final Neolithic (FN) through Bronze Age landscape on the island of Kos, Dodecanese, and investigate its cultural meaning to the prehistoric peoples. We...
Changing Social Spatiality in Mounded Funerary Landscapes (2017)
Funerary landscapes, as places where all fractions of society meet to honour the rituals of social and identity-building importance, can be used to attain an insight into group-specific attitudes towards spatiality. These attitudes allowed for people's engagement with various elements of their environment as a means of deliberate creation of lasting ritual landscapes. However, social spatiality in funerary contexts is not static, but subject to changes in the group's perception of both their...
Chronology and Social Process in Bronze Age Spain (2017)
This research presents an evaluation of the use of morphometrics of ceramic vessels for organizing site chronologies and social interaction. The object of morphometric analysis is to study how changes in artifact shape covary with time and space. This particular method is tested against Bronze Age ceramics from the Valencian region in Spain along the Western Mediterranean. The characteristic stylistic homogeneity of these ceramics has proven especially resistant to chronological fine-tuning...
Cities, Towns, and Villages in the Diverse Environments of the Indus Civilization (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. The urban phase of South Asia’s Indus Civilization (ca. 2600–1900 BC) does not offer simple parallels to other contemporary complex societies. This paper will present new insights into Indus settlement networks and the diversity of Indus urbanism. There were apparently only four large-scale (80+ ha) Indus settlements, which were...