Middle Bronze Age

Matić, Uroš. 2010. Dupljajska kolica i tela koja nešto znače. Genero: časopis za feminističku teoriju 14 (2010): 129-159.

by Uroš Matić

http://www.zenskestudie.edu.rs/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=17&Itemid=37&lang=english

Organizzazione sociale e pratiche comunitarie. Analisi per una ricostruzione del quadro sociale delle comunità eoliane nella Media età del Bronzo

by Gianmarco Alberti

(Social Organization and Community Practices. Analysis for a reconstruction of the social framework of the Aeolian communities during the Middle Bronze Age)

PhD dissertation-2012
University of Udine
Department of History and Preservation of the Cultural Heritage

This study deals with the archaeological evidence from the Middle Bronze Age (ca 1460-1250 BC) settlements on the... more This study deals with the archaeological evidence from the Middle Bronze Age (ca 1460-1250 BC) settlements on the Acropolis of Lipari, on the Montagnola di Capo Graziano (Filicudi), at Punta Milazzese (Panarea), and Portella (Salina). The work is aimed at the reconstruction of forms of social organization, and is based on the data provided by previous researches carried on those sites. Thanks to those researches, a large amount of data has been made available to scholars interested in a number of different archaeological issues connected to the documentation of the Archipelago. In different points in time studies have been published dealing with the Aegean and Apennine ceramic imports, or with facets of local architecture, or with the problem of the connections between the Aeolian Islands and different parts of Mediterranean shores.

The reasons that pushed me to approach the subject of this study can be outlined as follows. While, on the one hand, previous literature has provided important insights into important archaeological issues, on the other hand, a study directed to the social organization of MBA Aeolian communities was still lacking.

It seemed important to this author to understand:
a) how the Aeolian MBA communities were organized in the past;
b) how material culture was used during daily activities;
c) how these are recognizable in the archaeological record;
d) where they were performed;
e) what relationship existed between those activities and the place where they were performed;
f) by what means and for what purposes those activities took place;
g) to what extent material culture was used in social relations;
h) in more general terms, how and why the material culture could have been expression of the ways in which communities organized themselves, their own life, and their social relations.
In this perspective, special interest lies in the possibility to understand how the acquisition and use of exotic goods relates to local practices and indigenous social dynamics.

To address these questions, I used a bottom-up approach, which rests on a broad body of evidences of various kind, in a perspective in which the archaeological evidence is analyzed in detail, with attention paid to both the findings and their spatial correlates, to both local and foreign artifacts. The starting point of the research is a small-scale bottom-up analysis, aimed to understand the on-site distribution and associations of objects, and to pinpoint activity areas at the on-site level.
In a broader perspective, the analysis is aimed to understand how factors like objects distribution, proportion, occurrence in specific structures, association with other kind of materials, and their occurrence in special areas, can provide insight on the kind and aim of activities performed by past communities. Ultimately, moving to a higher level of interpretation, this may help us understand how life, and the human and social relations, were organized in ancient times.

Chapter 1 presents the state of the archaeological researches in the Middle Bronze Age Aeolian horizons. It provides an history of the researches and a description of the various aspects of material culture.
Chapter 2 aims to set the archaeological evidence in the broader context of the Sicilian MBA.
Chapter 3 reviews the previous literature dealing with the archaeological evidence of the Aeolian Middle Bronze Age.
Chapter 4 provides the theoretical framework of this study. It outlines a series of "archeologically significant" questions that are relevant for this study’s sake and that the subsequent sections of the analysis seeks to address.
Chapter 5 examines the stratigraphies of the contexts being studied, with the aim to isolate, among the bulk of the published findings, only those that can be linked to the huts’ (final) use. Another topic addressed in this chapter is the quantification of artifacts and their functional classification, the latter to be used for the detection and recognition of activities carried out within the villages.
Chapters 6-9 present an in-deep analysis of findings and stratigraphies from each village structure (huts and open areas).
Chapter 10 analyzes the distribution of findings and functional classes of objects within and between the structures of each settlement. On the basis of analytical results derived from previous Chapters 6-9, the analysis is able to take into consideration cluster of objects from layers which may be considered relative to the last phase of use of each structure. The on-site distribution of findings and functional classes of objects is put in relation to other kind of data and evidences, such as the size of the structures, dimensional features of the objects, the distribution of certain decorative schemes on specific ceramic forms. For Lipari, the analysis seeks to integrate the faunal evidence with data relative to other classes of materials (ceramic, lithic). For each settlement, a final paragraph provides a sinthesis of the main achivements stemming from the analysis.
Chapter 11 discusses the achievements of the preceding sections, and try to read them in the light of the theorethical background provided in Chapter 4. On these basis, a reconstruction and interpretation of forms of community organization is proposed.
Chapter 12 provides a summary of the main achievements of the work. Building on the analysis object of Chapters 10-11, a number of aspects relevant to the social organisation of the Aeolian MBA communities are higlighted. To quote just a few:
-localisation of specific activity areas; distinction bewteen domestic and utilitarian huts;
-identification of the spatial and material correlates of both types of structures;
-identification of practices for the promotion of social solidarity by means of feasting activities and the use of a shared decorative symbolism;
-individuation of forms and loci of social integration between autonomous nuclear families with the aim to mitigate the forms of social tension;
-reconstruction of a social framework allowing to give a sounder explanation of why and in which way exotica [both of Aegean and Apennine type] were integrated and recontextualizated by local communities in local social-oriented practices.

Finally, Appendix 1 aims to clarify the basis of the dimensional classification of the Milazzese huts used in the analytical sections of the work.
Appendix 2 provides a primer on the Correspondence Analysis, an explorative statistical technique used in Chapter 10 to identify similarities and differences between the structures of the various settlements, on the basis of the proportion of artifacts that make up the huts’ inventories.

"Ashmounds" of the Noua culture, as places for work and feast

by Laura Dietrich

This artikel offers a new view on the so called ashmounds oft he late bronze age Noua-culture (Romania, Moldawia and... more This artikel offers a new view on the so called ashmounds oft he late bronze age Noua-culture (Romania, Moldawia and west Russia). Ashmounds are round heaps with a diameter of 25-30 m formed of grayish sediments. They were believed to be burnt houses or waste dumps.
These remarks are based on excavation, which took place between 2005-2009 in a bronze age settlement at Rotbav, south-eastern Transsylvania (Romania). Here, an ashmound dating in the 14th century calBC was excavated.
The ashmound is a special, colectively used place at the boundary of the settlement. Chemical analysis proofs that the sediment it is constituted of is no ash, but a mixture of earth and burnt lime (CaO). A mixture of burnt lime and water ist historically and ethnographically known to have been used used for the tanning of leather. Further, numerous crenated scapulas, objects known from ethnographic contexts as tools for the scraping of leather, have been found numerously in the ashmound, while they lack in the settlement. A multitude of animals bones indicates that the ashmound was also the place for killing animals. In the ashmound, only bones of old animals were found, the younger individuals being present in the settlement near the houses. Obviously older, full grown animals with a maximum size of hides, were selected for killing. In proximity of the ashmound many needles of bone were discovered, indicating it as the place, where leather was manufactured to clothes.
The ashmound of Rotbav seems to have been also a place for feasting. Utilitarian pottery found here in high numbers was probably used for the preparation of meals for feasting. Special vessels like the kantharoi (lacking from the settlement, but being a common grave good) hint at the aspect of festive drinking. The special role oft he ashmounds is further enhanced by the appearance of depositions of animal skulls or metal objects occurring on some sites.

Grey ware(s) from the Bronze Age settlement of Koukonisi on Lemnos: First presentation

by Vassilis Petrakis

Co-authored with Panagiotis Moutzouridis
A. Philippa-Touchais, G. Touchais, S. Voutsaki and J. Wright (eds.) MESOHELLADIKA. La Grèce Continentale au Bronze Moyen. Actes du Colloque International Organisé par l’École Française d’Athènes, en Collaboration avec l’American School of Classical Studies at Athens et le Netherlands Institute in Athens, Athènes, 8-12 mars 2006 [Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique Supplément 52], Paris: de Boccard 2010, pp. 909-917.

Chapple, R. M. 2011 'Review: Past Times, Changing Fortunes: Proceedings of a Public Seminar on Archaeological Discoveries on National Road Schemes, August 2010' Blogspot post

by Robert M Chapple

Ι. Μόσχος, Αχαΐα. Ιστορικό και Αρχαιολογικό περίγραμμα. Προϊστορικοί χρόνοι, στο Α. Βλαχόπουλος (επιμ.), Αρχαιολογία - Πελοπόννησος, Εκδόσεις Μέλισσα, Αθήνα 2012, 300-307.

by Ioannis Moschos

Rituais funerários e comensalidade no Bronze do Sudoeste da Península Ibérica: novos dados a partir de uma intervenção arqueológica no sítio da Torre Velha 3 (serpa)

by Miguel Serra

Co-auttored with Eduardo Porfírio.
Published in Estudos do Quaternário, 6, APEQ, Braga, 2010, pp 49 - 66

Chapple, R. M. 2012 'Corrstown: A Coastal Community. Excavations of a Bronze Age village in Northern Ireland: Review' Blogspot post

by Robert M Chapple

Chapple, R. M. 2011 'Review: Creative Minds: Proceedings of a Public Seminar on Archaeological Discoveries on National Road Schemes, August 2009' Blogspot post

by Robert M Chapple

The Hābūr Region in the Late Third and Early Second Millennium BC

by Lauren Ristvet

Ristvet, L. and H. Weiss 2005" The Hābūr Region in the Late Third and Early Second Millennium BC," in Winfried Orthmann, ed., The History and Archaeology …

Le détroit de Bunifaziu et les rapports corso-sardes du Bronze ancien au début de l’âge du Fer

by Kewin Peche-Quilichini

Ethno-web 2010

Tendances chrono-évolutives des caractères morphométriques des vaisselles de l'âge du Bronze et de l'âge du Fer de Corse méridionale

by Kewin Peche-Quilichini

Bulletin d'Archéologie et d'Histoire de la Corse, 4

Scavi 1996 a Grotta di Carli (Ischia di Castro - Viterbo - Italy)

by Carlo Persiani

Title: La Grotta di Carli (Ischia di Castro-VT): rapporto preliminare sulla campagna del 1996", published in Preistoria e Protostoria in Etruria IV, Milano 2000.

In Summer 1996, the Soprintendenza Archeologica per l'Etruria Meridionale carried out the first research campaign... more In Summer 1996, the Soprintendenza Archeologica per l'Etruria Meridionale carried out the first research campaign inside the cave called Grotta di Carli, near Ischia di Castro, province of Viterbo, near the Tuscan boundary. The cave is made of two partly overlapping  chambers with a connecting passage, opened inside the thick Fiora river travertines by some ancient subterranean stream. Unfortunately, the cave was discovered after a widespread looting of its archaeological deposits. The research comprised the geological study, the detailed mapping of both chambers, the systematical collection of any artifacts and three test soundings. In the upper chamber a floor came to light, made of clay, tiny pebbles and Middle Bronze Age pottery sherds. Traces of at least a hearth were also detected. In the lower chamber two small test soundings were carried out near the eastern and western walls (Niche N). In an intermediate spot the skeleton of a young male in secondary deposition was found near some early Middle Bronze Age pottery sherds. Niche N was closed by a short drystone wall, but only mixed strata were dug there. Pottery from this place comprises Neolithic, Aeneolithic, Early and Middle Bronze Age sherds.   

Legal and archaeological territories of the second millennium BC in northern Mesopotamia

by Lauren Ristvet

Ristvet, L., “Legal and archaeological territories of the second millennium BC in northern Mesopotamia,” Antiquity 82: 585-599, “15 pages”

O noua cultura de la inceputul epocii bronzului pe teritoriul istro-pontic

by Peuce Journal

G. Simion in Peuce 10, 1991

Aproximación a la problemática del bronce tardío y final a través de la cerámica.

by Enric Flors

Published in Monografies de Prehistòria i Arqueologia Castellonenques, 8. SIAP. Diputació de Castelló, pp. 300-322. Castelló de la Plana.
Co-authored with Daniel Sanfeliu

Presentamos los tipos básicos recuperados en las estructuras del bronce tardío y final de Costamar, destacando por su... more Presentamos los tipos básicos recuperados en las estructuras del bronce tardío y final de Costamar, destacando por su importancia numérica los documentados en la unidad habitacional GE 108. Este marco nos ha permitido realizar un estado de la cuestión sobre el bronce tardío valenciano al norte del alto Vinalopó y enmarcar el asentamiento de Costamar dentro del área septentrional levantina.

Μεγάλη Βελανιδιά 2001 – 2003. Οικόπεδα Αλέξανδρου και Αναστασίας Καμπύλη

by KONSTANTINOS VOUZAXAKIS

Αρχαιολογικό Δελτίο, τ. 56-59, Χρονικά B2 (2001-2004), Αθήνα 2011, σελ. 490-492.
Archaeologiko Deltio, v. 56-59, Chronika B2 (2001-2004), Athens 2011, pp. 490-492.

Small scale excavations at Megali Velanidia, a small penisnsula about 10km southern from Volos. Houses' walls and... more Small scale excavations at Megali Velanidia, a small penisnsula about 10km southern from Volos. Houses' walls and several ceramic and stone objects have been found, proving that an ancient settlement was placed there. The earliest finds belong to Middle and Late Bronze Age period, and the latest to the Geometric era and the ArchaIc Period.

La edad del bronce. ¿Nuevas estrategias de subsistencia?

by Enric Flors

Published in Monografies de Prehistòria i Arqueologia Castellonenques, 8. SIAP. Diputació de Castelló, pp. 495-499. Castelló de la Plana.

Si bien es verdad que en otras áreas peninsulares se constata para esta fase una expansión de la agricultura... more Si bien es verdad que en otras áreas peninsulares se constata para esta fase una expansión de la agricultura cerealista, que implicará la deforestación de amplios sectores cercanos a las áreas de hábitat para su puesta en explotación, en las comarcas castellonenses, los estudios publicados parecen reflejar unos sistemas productivos en los que priman los recursos cinegéticos y pastoriles; así, las ocupaciones, detectadas hasta hoy sobre todo en cuevas y abrigos, parecen confirmar paradas estacionales relacionadas con la caza y el pastoreo, con una relativa pobreza en cuanto a la cultura material se refiere, si bien esta visión puede verse mediatizada por el propio desarrollo de la investigación.

Milka: From cemeteries to societies. The study of the Middle Helladic (2000-1500 BC) burials from the Argolid, southern Greece

by Sofia Voutsaki

(2006) Milka E. From cemeteries to societies. The study of the Middle Helladic (2000-1500 BC) burials from the Argolid, southern Greece. Symposium voor Onderzoek door Jonge Archeologen (SOJA) Bundel 2005. Leiden.

Milka: Burials upon the ruins of abandoned houses in the MH Argolid

by Sofia Voutsaki

(2010) Milka, E. Burials upon the ruins of abandoned houses in the MH Argolid. In: A. Philippa-Touchais, G. Touchais, S. Voutsaki & J. Wright, eds. MESOHELLADIKA: The Greek Mainland in the Middle Bronze Age. Supplément, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique.

The MH burials found in the Argolid are usually divided into two broad categories:
A. intramural burials more The MH burials found in the Argolid are usually divided into two broad categories:
A. intramural burials
B. extramural burials
However, many graves were neither extramural nor contemporary with the houses in which they were dug. They were rather placed upon ruined houses. The most characteristic example is the cemetery at Barbouna in Asine, where the pre-existing extramural cemetery expanded towards the houses after the houses were abandoned. In Lerna on the other hand, a different pattern observed; graves were opened upon ruins of earlier houses and these graves were later overbuilt by new houses. Thus, successive episodes of house construction, house destruction and abandonment, and construction of graves existed in Lerna.
It becomes thus obvious that the dual distinction between intramural and extramural graves is insufficient to describe the various locations the MH people chose in order to bury their dead. In this paper I shall look more closely at the context of the graves and their relation to houses, and I shall examine how many of the MH burials in the Argolid were really contemporary with the houses in which they were dug.