1st Millennium BC (Archaeology)

The period between 8th–6th centuries B.C. in Anatolia was marked by the emergence of the Phrygian and Lydian kingdoms. Their material culture included not only items produced in local traditions (furniture, textiles) but also artifacts showing exotic tastes of the elites, following “oriental” examples (such as bronzes and ivories). In this paper, I examine some artistic tendencies of Phrygia and Lydia in the framework of today’s debates about the phenomenon of “orientalization”.

The term “orientalization” was initially introduced to describe the style of objects with “oriental” motifs created according to the prototypes imported into the art of Greece. Subsequently, however, many other Hellenic phenomena of artistry, culture and social life became to be considered as “orientalization.” During the last decades, the term has been often discussed and reviewed. The scope of analysis was extended to the entire Mediterranean region throughout the 8th–7th centuries B.C., focusing on long-range elite interactions: a horizon of “orientalizing” material culture, stretching “from Assyria to Iberia.”

However, the place and role of the cultures of Anatolia (mainly Phrygia and Lydia) in this system need to be defined in more detail. The Anatolian royals and elites maintained their own channels of connections with the core sources of “orientalizing” objects (North Syrian artistic centers and the Assyrian Empire). The tastes of Phrygian and Lydian elites were selective, so local artisans not only reproduced but also reinterpreted the prototypes they had had access to. In this paper, I aim to show how, on the one hand, the kingdoms of Anatolia were integrated into the elite networks of the 1st millennium B.C., while, on the other hand, displaying their own version of the “orientalizing” phenomenon.

The seasons of archaeological excavations carried out in 2014 and 2015 in the Cerro del Castillo (Medellín, Extremadura) supply a significant quantity of Greek pottery dated on the 5th and 4th centuries BC. This evidence is added to those what was already known about this kind of imports in this site. Almost all these new finds are out of context, since they came from Roman and later strata. However, both because of their quantity and the quality of some items, they serve to highlight the importance of this site throughout all the Iron Age. As a complement, an Egyptian scarab found in the same archaeological conditions is presented too.

Olive trees (Olea europaea L.) in Bshaaleh region are millennium ones. In order to safeguard their local genetic resources, this study proposed to establish a culture initiation from axillary buds in vivo conditions. Fifteen shoots were collected during 3 seasons spring, summer and autumn and for 2 consecutive years (2009 and 2010). The Lebanese cultivar Souri was used in 2010 as control. The healthy shoots were treated with a mixture of fungicides and cut into segments with 4 to 6 nodes. The obtained cuttings were then dipped in a talc formulation of NAA for 30 minutes and planted in pots and left for 2 months in the greenhouse under controlled conditions. Several parameters were studied. The highest rate of proliferated buds (88%) was recorded in spring 2010.The highest percentage of newly developed leaves (11.2%), of callus formations (36%) and of rooting ability (10.67%) in Bshaaleh cuttings occurred during autumn 2010. Positive correlation was showed between length of cuttings and number of newly developed leaves.

From the end of the 1990’s a set of Iron Age bronzes is conserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Lisbon. They are qualified as unknown origin although they come wide probably from the Low Guadiana region. The set consists of more than one hundred objects, highlighting the components of carriage and horse harness, but there are also some remains of vessels, a spit and ornament elements. Some of the most outstanding pieces have been presented or referred to in a preliminary way, but the bulk of the set remained still unpublished. A detailed study including its contextualisation in the Iron Age of the South Portugal waited to be done. In this paper we face this approach because we believe that is one of the Post-Orientalising bronze sets more complete and more important in the Southwestern Iberian peninsula.

Wasser ist eine überlebenswichtige Ressource. Daher spielte es auch in Biesdorf spätestens seit der ersten dauerhaften Nutzung des Platzes als Siedlungsareal für die hier lebenden Menschen eine wichtige Rolle. Zu diesem Zweck wurden im Verlauf der Besiedlungsgeschichte über 100 Brunnen gegraben, die Wasser für unterschiedlichste Anwendungsbereiche liefern sollten.

The Priests’Quarter is a housing quarter located within the sanctuary of Amun in Karnak, to the east of the Sacred Lake. For almost all of the first millennium BC, it
was occupied by priests performing their cultic service. The history and evolution of this quarter, as well as the identity, material culture, daily life and diet of its inhabitants, have been established through multidisciplinary collaboration during excavation and post-excavation studies. This paper examines its early phases, during the Third Intermediate and Late periods, and explores how this settlement fits into the larger
context of the temple, particularly its direct religious and architectural environment on the southern bank on the Sacred Lake.

The second millennium swift into its early millennial from emergence of the first millennium of the years in 1000 years, or kilo year, as it waves into time archeology in year 1999 to year 2000. The second millennium is propagated from the Gregorian calendar computed as 100 centi-seconds to a second and 60 seconds to a minutes and 60 minutes to an hour, 24 hours to a day, thirty days to a month, and twelve months to a year or/and 365.5 days to a year, 10 years to decade and 100 years to century, and 1000 years to a millennium.

Tophet narratives have monopolised the study of infants and children in Phoenician communities, overshadowing fresh approaches to this topic that developed during the last decades. Notwithstanding the lack of textual and epigraphic data, Motya provides a wide range of resources for examining this theme: alleged child-specific artefacts, iconographic sources and skeletal remains. This chapter offers an overall review of the published evidence from Motya connected to infancy and childhood and represents a first attempt to introduce a fresh anthropology-based perspective.

L’uso di maschere ha una lunga tradizione nel Mediterraneo orientale, dove gli esemplari più antichi risalgono al Neolitico e un loro impiego senza soluzione di continuità è documentato dalla fine del Bronzo Medio all’età Persiana. Durante l’età del Ferro, questa tradizione viene proseguita dai Fenici, che rinnovano il repertorio delle maschere, creando nuove tipologie e giungendo ad una resa più naturalistica del volto umano e delle sue espressioni. Nel corso dei loro spostamenti e stanziamenti attraverso il Mediterraneo, i Fenici mantennero questa pratica fino all’emergere delle maschere teatrali e al declino di Cartagine intorno alla metà del II sec. a.C. Questo articolo offre una panoramica sintetica e diacronica del corpus di maschere fenicie e puniche e dei loro antecedenti, illustrando la varietà di tipi, contesti e possibili usi, a testimonianza del ruolo centrale assolto dai Fenici nello sviluppo delle maschere e dei rituali ad esse intimamente connessi.

This paper presents three new bronce western Phoenician incense burners conserved in the Collection Cervera (Barcelona). Two lids and a tripod are studied corresponding to three different thymiateria which, from their features, can be related with the western Phoenician workshops working at the 7th century BC in Iberian Peninsula. The lids show some important novelties in their iconografical elements, as the incorporation of snakes fighting with deers that are absent in the Phoenician repertories recorded untin now. From these new pieces old finding coming from Castulo can be intended as similar bronce incense burner lids. The tripod shows the tipical round flowers in the vertical axle, but also presents some originality as is proper of this kind of luxury productions.

Archaeological fieldwork on the orientalizing cemetery of La Joya (Huelva) recovered the only complete Iron Age chariot found on the Iberian Peninsula to date. It was part of the funerary equipment of Tomb 17, the richest burial at the site. More than 10 kg of bronze were found belonging to the traction section, box, wheels and the control and harnessing systems. Most of this material, still unpublished, is kept at the Huelva Museum, next to other well-known elements such as the lion’s head axle caps or the openwork bands decorated with Phoenician motifs. This paper discloses a first general survey for all these findings and it presents a first hypothetical reconstruction for them. The vehicle has been identified as a two-wheeled light chariot mainly used for ceremonial and representative purposes and it can be dated back to around 700 BC. This carriage is highlighted by its extraordinary originality, despite its clear connections with other ancient vehicles from Near Eastern, European and Mediterranean civilizations.

This paper, included in a commemorative edition of the 150th anniversary of the Archaeological Museum of Badajoz, approaches a critical survey of the studies about the Orientalizing and Post-Orientalizing periods in the province of Badajoz during  the last 100 years.