Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences最新文献

The translocation of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) is an enticing subject of archaeological investigation. While the species was rapidly dispersed across Eurasia during prehistory, its adoption appears to have been inconsistent, with evidence for its sudden and gradual adoption, as well as its rejection, observed within and between contemporary communities and cultures. The translocation of P. miliaceum may be better understood through the identification of its role and significance as a foodstuff among past populations. This study employs molecular investigation and bulk and compound-specific isotope analysis to study organic residues produced during culinary activities at Bruszczewo, Poland, during the Early Bronze Age (EBA) and Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age (LBA/EIA). The analysis of ceramic-absorbed and charred ‘foodcrust’ residues enabled a comprehensive examination of vessel use-life and the production of individual meals. This study strongly suggests that P. miliaceum was not present at Bruszczewo during the EBA, conforming to its established translocation chronology, while highlighting its extensive use during the LBA/EIA. The cereal was incorporated into a variety of culinary activities, constituting both a minor and major ingredient of many meals, while being absent in others. Finally, the observation of apparently unrestricted use of P. miliaceum at Bruszczewo provided further insight into the role and significance of this cereal relative to contemporary LBA/EIA evidence for its use across the region.

The prehistoric settlement of Mikró Vouní lies on the southwestern coast of the island of Samothrace in the northeastern Aegean. The site’s stratigraphic sequence spans from the beginning of the Late Neolithic to the end of the Middle Bronze Age. Its importance has been emphasized due to the finding of Minoan pottery and clay mini-documents with Linear A inscriptions, indicative of the active links the settlement held with a Cretan palace (Knossos) in the 18^th century BCE. The excavation yielded important finds related to Bronze Age metallurgy, namely furnaces, moulds, tuyères, crucibles and pieces of slag deriving from several contexts of different chronological periods, spanning from EBA II to MBA III. Notably the metallurgical finds of the MBA II-III periods derive from contexts with Minoan or Minoanising pottery and clay mini-documents suggesting a Minoan administration at the site. Recording of all relevant finds was followed by sampling of crucibles and slags that were subjected to laboratory analysis. The current article focuses on an investigation of metal production with the application of optical microscopy and SEM/EDS analysis aiming to reconstruct the prevalent processes that took place at the site during the Early and Middle Bronze Age. The results are significant as they provide crucial information on the technical intricacies of arsenical copper production in the early stages and the introduction of tin bronze technology most probably associated with the Minoan interaction on site. Evidence for cementation and co-smelting of Cu and Sn ores represent the earliest examples so far reported for the north Aegean. As the iconography of the Minoan clay documents’ seal impressions indicates, religious ideology of the Minoan palatial administration appears as an arena for encouraging metal manufacturing and trading in the north Aegean and beyond. In this context, Samothrace appears well incorporated into long-distance exchange networks for the procurement of tin to sustain bronze working practices, as the findings from Mikró Vouní suggest. Metallurgical technology seems to resonate in mythic accounts of the well-known smith deities, the Kabeiroi, who were essentially the same divinities as the Great Gods of Samothrace.

The bipolar technique has been widely used across a wide range of prehistoric contexts, from the Lower Pleistocene to the Metal Ages, and is a defining feature of the Uluzzian technocomplex, evident in the Early Upper Palaeolithic of Italy and Greece. The objective of this paper is to examine whether the use of the bipolar technique within the Uluzzian extends beyond its conventional definition as a mere technique. To address this question, we conducted goal-orientated experimental flaking, focusing on the industries found at key Uluzzian sites in Italy: Broion, La Fabbrica, and Castelcivita. A comprehensive review of archaeological and ethnographic evidence further supplemented our study on the application of the bipolar technique. While bipolar reduction typically involves less procedural control, resulting in a diverse range of blanks, our research shows that adhering to certain discernible principles can indeed exert control over specific morphological features of the resulting products. Factors such as blank selection and configuration, along with the management of volumes and edges, contribute to high productivity, the generation of elongated products, and miniaturization as distinctive characteristics. These findings collectively establish the bipolar reduction on an anvil in the Uluzzian as a systematic method of debitage.

In southern Africa, heat treatment of silcrete is documented by ~ 164 ka and is considered an important technological innovation, allowing knappers to improve the flaking properties of rocks for lithic blank production. Previous research has explored structural, mechanical, and geochemical changes in silcrete during heat treatment, but most studies have not explored the implications of those transformations for the blanks produced. Experiments that have examined the effects of heat treatment on blank production tend to rely on replicative flintknapping, where small changes in the way a blank is removed can create “noise.” In this study, we provide quantitative data to understand the effects of silcrete source and heating temperature on blank production using a flaking machine to isolate the effects of heat treatment on blank morphology. Our results show changes in absolute blank dimensions, and in the frequency of abrupt terminations as a result of heat treatment. However, the benefits of heat treatment may only occur within a limited temperature range and are heavily source dependent. This suggests that we should reconsider broad generalizations about the role of heat treatment in lithic technology and its supposed benefits and focus more on silcrete source and source-based effects on blank production.

The early medieval times in Cyprus are signified, conventionally, by the Arab invasions of the mid-seventh century (649/650CE). Past research viewed those events as the catalyst which led to a transformation from a prosperous province to a marginal territory balancing between two antagonising empires. Recently, studies have shifted their focus on reassessing this period’s scant -yet present- material culture. In pottery studies, despite the advances in typological and distribution aspects, few have explored technological issues of early medieval ceramic production through instrumental analysis. This study focuses on the compositional and technological characterisation of cooking vessels through ceramic petrography (TL-OM), found in relevant contexts in Cyprus, representing both wheel-thrown and handmade traditions. Sherds coming from five major early-medieval sites of the island (sites of Kophinou, Kalavasos-Kopetra, Akrotiri, Yeroskipou-Ayioi Pente and Dhiorios), outlined a picture of two parallel trends transversing across sites, i.e., an inter-regional shared sense of shape uniformity smoothening the local variances and a strong regionalism in terms of raw material procurement. Wheel-thrown cookware -found in every site and strongly represented by the Dhiorios workshop- showed the survival of Late Antique shapes well into the Early Middle Ages, in fabrics related mainly to the broader area of Dhiorios. In addition, handmade vessels of a "shared repertoire" showed a variety of local clays for their manufacture. When integrated into their archaeological context in Cyprus, the results support the idea of a ceramic koine persisting through the beginning of the Byzantine Early Middle Ages on an intra and inter-regional level.

Barbed projectile points, produced from osseous raw materials, are considered to be a major advancement in the hunting techniques of prehistoric communities. They appear in Eurasia in the Upper Palaeolithic period, and were rather common during the Magdalenian technocomplex and later, among the Mesolithic communities in northern parts of Europe. When it comes to the Adriatic area and the Balkan hinterlands, barbed projectiles were rather scarce and mainly from the Early Holocene period – relatively large assemblage comes from the site of Odmut in Montenegro, and few were found in the Iron Gates region. Recent excavations at the site of Vlakno, situated on the Dugi Otok island in Dalmatia, yielded two almost complete barbed points, from the layers dated into ca. 15,000 calBP, thus showing that these types of weapons were used in the area earlier than previously thought and had wider geographical range. Their techno-typological traits will be discussed in this paper, as well as their possible mode of use.

Local types of coinage testify to the emerging use of silver in the Balkan interior, possibly related to abundant ore deposits in the region. Here, we present Pb isotope data for silver coins minted by local tribes and settlements (anepigraphic coins attributed to the Derrones/Laeaei, Damastion, Pelagia, Kings of Paeonia) between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE. For comparison, we analysed coinage of the potential Greek emporia Dyrrhachium and Apollonia for their main element and Pb-Ag isotope compositions. Statistical data evaluation demonstrates close material connections between coins from the Balkan interior and identify a predominantly local raw material provenance. The majority of Damastion’s issues defines a tight cluster fitting Strabo’s (VII.7.8) account that the settlement possessed nearby silver mines in the Balkan interior. Novobërdë/Novo Brdo (Kosovo) can be plausibly hypothesised among the available reference data to have been one of the main ore districts supplying the mint. Mixing is evident for coins from the Kings of Paeonia and coinage attributed to the Derrones/Laeaei. Virtually identical end-members suggest that Paeonian regal coinage recycled tribal issues with contribution of metal obtained from Damastion’s hypothesised mines. Contemporaneous coinage struck by Dyrrhachium as well as end-members calculated for Thasos and the Macedon kingdom (Albarede et al. in Bullion mixtures in silver coinage from ancient Greece and Egypt, J Archaeol Sci 162:105918, 2024a) signal metal sourced from the Balkans, presumably the Macedonian/Paeonian border area. Comparison of data from Greek city-states and coinage issued by Apollonia and Dyrrhachium for the Romans demonstrates a change in the type and origin of raw materials and bullion composition, indicating a shift in monetary customs and possibly metal production technology.