Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2022.2092689
Christoph Nitsche, G. Schreurs, V. Serneels
ABSTRACT The production of lathe-turned tripod vessels made from softstone is one of the major features of the so-called Rasikajy population that inhabited northern Madagascar from the ca. 8th to the late 15th century a.d. The raw material for the vessels was quarried in the hinterland, and over 30 quarries have recently been visited, documented and sampled. The quarry of Bobalila is the first to ever be excavated, and a large sample suite was taken for petrological analysis. The results reveal significant mineralogical and chemical variation that is almost as large as the variation between all other quarries in northern Madagascar. The underlying processes could affect other softstones and should be considered in provenance attempts. Nonetheless, the petrographic study has permitted us to understand and characterize the type of material that was sought-after by Rasikajy workers, which can now be easily distinguished from other softstone vessels in the Indian Ocean trade network.
{"title":"The Enigmatic Softstone Vessels of Northern Madagascar: Petrological Investigations of a Medieval Quarry","authors":"Christoph Nitsche, G. Schreurs, V. Serneels","doi":"10.1080/00934690.2022.2092689","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2022.2092689","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The production of lathe-turned tripod vessels made from softstone is one of the major features of the so-called Rasikajy population that inhabited northern Madagascar from the ca. 8th to the late 15th century a.d. The raw material for the vessels was quarried in the hinterland, and over 30 quarries have recently been visited, documented and sampled. The quarry of Bobalila is the first to ever be excavated, and a large sample suite was taken for petrological analysis. The results reveal significant mineralogical and chemical variation that is almost as large as the variation between all other quarries in northern Madagascar. The underlying processes could affect other softstones and should be considered in provenance attempts. Nonetheless, the petrographic study has permitted us to understand and characterize the type of material that was sought-after by Rasikajy workers, which can now be easily distinguished from other softstone vessels in the Indian Ocean trade network.","PeriodicalId":47452,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43132770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2022.2092265
Abay Namen, P. Schmidt, Aristeidis Varis, Z. Taimagambetov, Radu Iovita
ABSTRACT Only a handful of stratified sites are known in loess, spring, and river contexts in the northern piedmonts of the Tian Shan, and the majority are dated to the Upper Palaeolithic. These sites have been studied from a geoarchaeological perspective; however, lithic procurement activities remain unknown. To address this deficiency, we present the results of the extensive field surveys aimed at locating prehistoric raw material sources in the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor of Kazakhstan. We also provide a detailed petrographic description of the lithologies exploited during the Palaeolithic of Kazakhstan. Based on the field survey results, combined with petrographic data, we conclude that the direct procurement strategy was the most common at the stratified sites. However, evidence of both direct and embedded procurement is found in the northern piedmonts of the Ili Alatau range at the site of Maibulaq. Additionally, we highlight the variation of chert lithologies within the larger Qaratau region, laying a foundation for future provenance studies.
{"title":"Preference for Porphyry: Petrographic Insights into Lithic Raw Material Procurement from Palaeolithic Kazakhstan","authors":"Abay Namen, P. Schmidt, Aristeidis Varis, Z. Taimagambetov, Radu Iovita","doi":"10.1080/00934690.2022.2092265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2022.2092265","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Only a handful of stratified sites are known in loess, spring, and river contexts in the northern piedmonts of the Tian Shan, and the majority are dated to the Upper Palaeolithic. These sites have been studied from a geoarchaeological perspective; however, lithic procurement activities remain unknown. To address this deficiency, we present the results of the extensive field surveys aimed at locating prehistoric raw material sources in the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor of Kazakhstan. We also provide a detailed petrographic description of the lithologies exploited during the Palaeolithic of Kazakhstan. Based on the field survey results, combined with petrographic data, we conclude that the direct procurement strategy was the most common at the stratified sites. However, evidence of both direct and embedded procurement is found in the northern piedmonts of the Ili Alatau range at the site of Maibulaq. Additionally, we highlight the variation of chert lithologies within the larger Qaratau region, laying a foundation for future provenance studies.","PeriodicalId":47452,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47471302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-29DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2022.2090747
G. Waselkov, D. A. Beebe, Howard J. Cyr, E. Chamberlain, J. Mehta, E. Nelson
ABSTRACT Local lore has long identified an entrenched feature crossing Fort Morgan peninsula on Alabama’s Gulf of Mexico coast (USA) as an ancient canoe canal, a folk identification now confirmed by archival, artifactual, geochronological, geoarchaeological, and hydrological evidence. A 1.39 km canal (site 1BA709) linked two estuaries, Oyster Bay and Little Lagoon, connecting Mobile Bay to the Gulf of Mexico late in the Middle Woodland period, ca. a.d. 600. Construction of such a large hydraulic engineering feature by a non-agricultural, non-hierarchical society seems unusual but not inconsistent with the sorts of monumental landscape alterations accomplished more routinely by other Woodland populations in eastern North America. Although such canals certainly expedited local travel, communication, and transport, their construction and use had broader social ramifications.
{"title":"History and Hydrology: Engineering Canoe Canals in the Estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico","authors":"G. Waselkov, D. A. Beebe, Howard J. Cyr, E. Chamberlain, J. Mehta, E. Nelson","doi":"10.1080/00934690.2022.2090747","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2022.2090747","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Local lore has long identified an entrenched feature crossing Fort Morgan peninsula on Alabama’s Gulf of Mexico coast (USA) as an ancient canoe canal, a folk identification now confirmed by archival, artifactual, geochronological, geoarchaeological, and hydrological evidence. A 1.39 km canal (site 1BA709) linked two estuaries, Oyster Bay and Little Lagoon, connecting Mobile Bay to the Gulf of Mexico late in the Middle Woodland period, ca. a.d. 600. Construction of such a large hydraulic engineering feature by a non-agricultural, non-hierarchical society seems unusual but not inconsistent with the sorts of monumental landscape alterations accomplished more routinely by other Woodland populations in eastern North America. Although such canals certainly expedited local travel, communication, and transport, their construction and use had broader social ramifications.","PeriodicalId":47452,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49161787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-20DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2022.2087993
George F. Lau, M. L. Dávila, Jacob L. Bongers, D. Chicoine
ABSTRACT This article examines the rise of native, segmentary lordships in the highlands of north-central Peru. It reports on new excavations and mapping at the seat of a prehispanic polity, Pashash (Recuay culture), a large hilltop center that developed after the collapse of Chavín civilization. Fieldwork revealed monumental constructions and two special activity contexts radiocarbon-dated to ca. a.d. 200–400: an offering area in a large palatial compound and a room-complex with chambers closed off and sealed with feasting refuse. Multiple lines of evidence help reconstruct a regional picture for the establishment of wealthy local elites. Cultural innovations explicitly link new leaders to roles in defense and warfare, economic production, and early burial cult within a high-status compound. The current data underscore a major break from earlier systems of authority and elite material culture, comprising an organizational pattern that was a precursor to the ethnic polities that predominated in later Andean prehistory.
{"title":"The Rise of Native Lordships at Pashash, a.d. 200–600, North Highlands of Ancash, Peru","authors":"George F. Lau, M. L. Dávila, Jacob L. Bongers, D. Chicoine","doi":"10.1080/00934690.2022.2087993","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2022.2087993","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines the rise of native, segmentary lordships in the highlands of north-central Peru. It reports on new excavations and mapping at the seat of a prehispanic polity, Pashash (Recuay culture), a large hilltop center that developed after the collapse of Chavín civilization. Fieldwork revealed monumental constructions and two special activity contexts radiocarbon-dated to ca. a.d. 200–400: an offering area in a large palatial compound and a room-complex with chambers closed off and sealed with feasting refuse. Multiple lines of evidence help reconstruct a regional picture for the establishment of wealthy local elites. Cultural innovations explicitly link new leaders to roles in defense and warfare, economic production, and early burial cult within a high-status compound. The current data underscore a major break from earlier systems of authority and elite material culture, comprising an organizational pattern that was a precursor to the ethnic polities that predominated in later Andean prehistory.","PeriodicalId":47452,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41914366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-16DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2022.2087024
Elisabeth Holmqvist, K. Ilves
ABSTRACT We present geochemical data of soils sampled from two Late Iron Age (a.d. 550–1050) buildings at Bartsgårda on the Åland Islands, Finland. The houses had different constructions and use-patterns, one being an intensively used dwelling house, rich in finds, whereas the other, scarce in finds, had a more specialized character, linked to ceremonial rather than domestic activities. Systematic and targeted feature sampling was carried out to analyze 190 samples using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (ED-XRF) to 1) identify floor/activity levels in the houses based on vertical and horizontal geochemical anomalies; 2) compare the anthropogenic activity signals of the buildings; and, 3) test a rapid and cost-efficient ex situ analytical strategy for geochemical characterization of archaeological soils. Although the long-term use of the site as a livestock paddock introduced some complexities, based on the geochemical and micromorphological data, the houses had several activity levels and markedly different anthropogenic profiles.
{"title":"Social Buildings: Soil Geochemistry and Anthropogenic Patterns from Late Iron Age Finland","authors":"Elisabeth Holmqvist, K. Ilves","doi":"10.1080/00934690.2022.2087024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2022.2087024","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT We present geochemical data of soils sampled from two Late Iron Age (a.d. 550–1050) buildings at Bartsgårda on the Åland Islands, Finland. The houses had different constructions and use-patterns, one being an intensively used dwelling house, rich in finds, whereas the other, scarce in finds, had a more specialized character, linked to ceremonial rather than domestic activities. Systematic and targeted feature sampling was carried out to analyze 190 samples using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (ED-XRF) to 1) identify floor/activity levels in the houses based on vertical and horizontal geochemical anomalies; 2) compare the anthropogenic activity signals of the buildings; and, 3) test a rapid and cost-efficient ex situ analytical strategy for geochemical characterization of archaeological soils. Although the long-term use of the site as a livestock paddock introduced some complexities, based on the geochemical and micromorphological data, the houses had several activity levels and markedly different anthropogenic profiles.","PeriodicalId":47452,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45311267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-16DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2022.2085916
S. Reichert, N. Erdene-Ochir, S. Linzen, L. Munkhbayar, J. Bemmann
ABSTRACT Cities in the Eurasian steppes, a core of nomadic empires, are rare. Erecting a city from scratch is even less typical. However, Khar Khul Khaany Balgas, situated north of the Khangai Mountains in central Mongolia, is such an exceptional example, never built over by subsequent settlements. Overlooked until now because researchers dated its latest settlement phase into the 17th century a.d., the first radiocarbon dates and material culture prove its existence during the Mongol empire only. During the past years, we conducted comprehensive geophysical and topographic mapping of the site, as well as a pedestrian survey, including its hinterland, and excavated a kiln. The layout of the city resembles that of the capital, Karakorum. Both cities together reveal that the Mongol Khans had a specific idea about the organization of a city. They were dependent on Chinese craftsmen to erect the buildings but not on Chinese city planning and ideology.
{"title":"Overlooked—Enigmatic—Underrated: The City Khar Khul Khaany Balgas in the Heartland of the Mongol World Empire","authors":"S. Reichert, N. Erdene-Ochir, S. Linzen, L. Munkhbayar, J. Bemmann","doi":"10.1080/00934690.2022.2085916","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2022.2085916","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Cities in the Eurasian steppes, a core of nomadic empires, are rare. Erecting a city from scratch is even less typical. However, Khar Khul Khaany Balgas, situated north of the Khangai Mountains in central Mongolia, is such an exceptional example, never built over by subsequent settlements. Overlooked until now because researchers dated its latest settlement phase into the 17th century a.d., the first radiocarbon dates and material culture prove its existence during the Mongol empire only. During the past years, we conducted comprehensive geophysical and topographic mapping of the site, as well as a pedestrian survey, including its hinterland, and excavated a kiln. The layout of the city resembles that of the capital, Karakorum. Both cities together reveal that the Mongol Khans had a specific idea about the organization of a city. They were dependent on Chinese craftsmen to erect the buildings but not on Chinese city planning and ideology.","PeriodicalId":47452,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44059015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-16DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2022.2087017
Morgan Ritchie, Jesse Morin, Jerram B. Ritchie, N. Waber, Michael Blake, R. McMillan
ABSTRACT A biface workspace dating to ca. cal a.d. 100–400 was identified during recent excavation at the Sts’ailes-Coast Salish village of YāçkEtEl, on the Harrison River on the Northwest Coast of North America. Based on a range of analyses, we suggest that a specialist crafted large bifaces produced as prestigious objects for exchange within a ceremonial interaction sphere and smaller, more functional bifaces for household and local purposes. The workspace was a shed-like structure adjacent to their house, and the toolstone was acquired nearby from previously undocumented quarries within the territory. This is the only documented evidence for the manufacture of large prestigious bifaces in the region and consequently provides insights into the social relations of lithic acquisition, production, exchange, and consumption. In particular, we examine the social and economic roles and contributions of lithic specialists embedded within households.
{"title":"Embedded Household Specialization: The Bifaces from YāçkEtEl on the Northwest Coast","authors":"Morgan Ritchie, Jesse Morin, Jerram B. Ritchie, N. Waber, Michael Blake, R. McMillan","doi":"10.1080/00934690.2022.2087017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2022.2087017","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT A biface workspace dating to ca. cal a.d. 100–400 was identified during recent excavation at the Sts’ailes-Coast Salish village of YāçkEtEl, on the Harrison River on the Northwest Coast of North America. Based on a range of analyses, we suggest that a specialist crafted large bifaces produced as prestigious objects for exchange within a ceremonial interaction sphere and smaller, more functional bifaces for household and local purposes. The workspace was a shed-like structure adjacent to their house, and the toolstone was acquired nearby from previously undocumented quarries within the territory. This is the only documented evidence for the manufacture of large prestigious bifaces in the region and consequently provides insights into the social relations of lithic acquisition, production, exchange, and consumption. In particular, we examine the social and economic roles and contributions of lithic specialists embedded within households.","PeriodicalId":47452,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41964763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-16DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2022.2086346
Jesper B. Pedersen, M. E. Poulsen, F. Riede
ABSTRACT The Late Upper Palaeolithic Hamburgian tradition reflects the earliest known human presence in northern Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum. We report here on the open-air site of Jels 3 (Denmark) and its associated stone tool assemblage, which can be unambiguously attributed to this period. Along with only a handful of other sites, Jels 3 represents the northernmost limits of human expansion in Europe at this time. We conduct a technological analysis of the lithic material from Jels 3 and other relevant sites to shed new light on the behavioral processes that likely underwrote this expansion. Given that sites dating to this initial dispersal remain few, are restricted to certain geographic regions, and represent an overall lack of a well-developed settlement hierarchy, we suggest that this dispersal process is most commensurable with the earlier stages of a leap-frogging colonization targeting specific landscape elements and that it was quite possibly very short-lived.
{"title":"Jels 3, a New Late Palaeolithic Open-Air Site in Denmark, Sheds Light on the Pioneer Colonization of Northern Europe","authors":"Jesper B. Pedersen, M. E. Poulsen, F. Riede","doi":"10.1080/00934690.2022.2086346","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2022.2086346","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Late Upper Palaeolithic Hamburgian tradition reflects the earliest known human presence in northern Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum. We report here on the open-air site of Jels 3 (Denmark) and its associated stone tool assemblage, which can be unambiguously attributed to this period. Along with only a handful of other sites, Jels 3 represents the northernmost limits of human expansion in Europe at this time. We conduct a technological analysis of the lithic material from Jels 3 and other relevant sites to shed new light on the behavioral processes that likely underwrote this expansion. Given that sites dating to this initial dispersal remain few, are restricted to certain geographic regions, and represent an overall lack of a well-developed settlement hierarchy, we suggest that this dispersal process is most commensurable with the earlier stages of a leap-frogging colonization targeting specific landscape elements and that it was quite possibly very short-lived.","PeriodicalId":47452,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46383528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-31DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2022.2076189
Harun Özdaş, Justin Leidwanger, James Gross, Nilhan Kızıldağ
ABSTRACT This study offers a methodology for field survey and analysis of artifact-rich contexts in near-shore waters. Faced with mixed deposition of fragmentary ceramics and other materials along the tectonically active southern Turkish coast at Kekova Adası, we combined rapid artifact counts, in situ object documentation, large-area photogrammetry, and selective artifact sampling. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of published shipwrecks and anchorages, as well as onshore port assemblages throughout the area, facilitate comparison with these mixed maritime remains at Kekova Adası, allowing signatures to be distinguished among different depositional contexts, from transshipment and anchoring to harbor tasks and local consumption. The approach provides a framework to evaluate more systematically the underwater survey finds from complex and disturbed contexts and to analyze a broader range of often-overlooked archaeological data in the study of the many maritime activities and interactions that marked the coastal waters of the ancient Mediterranean.
{"title":"Toward Systematic Underwater Survey of Mediterranean Maritime Activity along the Southern Turkish Coast","authors":"Harun Özdaş, Justin Leidwanger, James Gross, Nilhan Kızıldağ","doi":"10.1080/00934690.2022.2076189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2022.2076189","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study offers a methodology for field survey and analysis of artifact-rich contexts in near-shore waters. Faced with mixed deposition of fragmentary ceramics and other materials along the tectonically active southern Turkish coast at Kekova Adası, we combined rapid artifact counts, in situ object documentation, large-area photogrammetry, and selective artifact sampling. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of published shipwrecks and anchorages, as well as onshore port assemblages throughout the area, facilitate comparison with these mixed maritime remains at Kekova Adası, allowing signatures to be distinguished among different depositional contexts, from transshipment and anchoring to harbor tasks and local consumption. The approach provides a framework to evaluate more systematically the underwater survey finds from complex and disturbed contexts and to analyze a broader range of often-overlooked archaeological data in the study of the many maritime activities and interactions that marked the coastal waters of the ancient Mediterranean.","PeriodicalId":47452,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42712141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-20DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2022.2074647
N. Erb-Satullo, Dimitri Jachvliani
ABSTRACT Fortresses are defining features of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age landscape in the South Caucasus, with hundreds of sites recorded in archaeological surveys in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and northeastern Turkey. Yet, research on how these communities functioned is dominated by evidence from the small fraction of these sites that have been excavated, and regional variability remains underexplored. This paper discusses excavations at two such fortresses in the Lesser Caucasus borderlands and contextualizes them within global discussions about fortresses and their associated communities. Analysis of architecture, ceramics, and small finds identified evidence for a diverse range of activities within these compounds, including both craft production and ritual activity. While the size and construction of the two fortresses differ, the evidence for significant occupation at both suggests that these fortresses were durable communities, not temporary refugia. Further work is necessary, however, to assess whether these fortresses were highly ordered institutions centralized under elite rule or heterarchical communities joined by common interest.
{"title":"Fortified Communities in the South Caucasus: Insights from Mtsvane Gora and Dmanisis Gora","authors":"N. Erb-Satullo, Dimitri Jachvliani","doi":"10.1080/00934690.2022.2074647","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2022.2074647","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Fortresses are defining features of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age landscape in the South Caucasus, with hundreds of sites recorded in archaeological surveys in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and northeastern Turkey. Yet, research on how these communities functioned is dominated by evidence from the small fraction of these sites that have been excavated, and regional variability remains underexplored. This paper discusses excavations at two such fortresses in the Lesser Caucasus borderlands and contextualizes them within global discussions about fortresses and their associated communities. Analysis of architecture, ceramics, and small finds identified evidence for a diverse range of activities within these compounds, including both craft production and ritual activity. While the size and construction of the two fortresses differ, the evidence for significant occupation at both suggests that these fortresses were durable communities, not temporary refugia. Further work is necessary, however, to assess whether these fortresses were highly ordered institutions centralized under elite rule or heterarchical communities joined by common interest.","PeriodicalId":47452,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42037362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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