moved because of a technical issues

This is BLOG's New Address,
because of a technical issues


http://celeres84.wordpress.com/



http://celeres84.wordpress.com/


http://celeres84.wordpress.com/

PREHISTORIC MACEDONIAN FIGURINES

Organizer: Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, Zagreb;
Museum of Macedonia, Skopje

Venue: The Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, Trg Nikole Subic Zrinskog 19

Time period: November - December 2007.

Author of the concept: Irena Kolištrkoska-Nasta

Project Coordinator: Jacqueline Balen



The international cooperation – Meeting of archaeologists-prehistoric from the Balkans and Japan in Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, the United Kingdom, in Sainsbury Institute (www.sainsbury-institute.org), on the topic Prehistoric Figurines; Irena Kolistrkoska Nasteva, archaeologist, expert in prehistoric figurines, was the participant from the Republic of Macedonia.

The subject Prehistoric Figurines gathered at a recent archaeological assembly archaeologists from the Balkans (Macedonia, Albania, and Kosovo), as well as their colleagues from Japan and Great Britain. It was exactly from 19 to 23 December 2006 that in the United Kingdom, in the small town of Norwich, this idea came true in the organization of Dr. Simon Kaner and Professor Richard Hodges. Archaeologist Irena Kolistrkoska-Nasteva, author of the extraordinary exposition “Prehistoric Ladies from Macedonia” in 2005 in the Macedonian Museum, was the representative of the Republic of Macedonia. This exhibition had inspired eminent archaeologists from the United Kingdom to organize this scientific assembly. 95 female figurines originating from several sites throughout Macedonia were collected and presented at the exhibition. It was accompanied by a rich color catalogue in Macedonian and English, and following its distribution around the world, interests and desires for contacts with the author (Irena Kolistrkoska-Nasteva -archaeologist) followed, with the aim of presenting the exhibition in other parts of Europe and the world.

After becoming familiar with the “Prehistoric Ladies” from Macedonia, the Sainsbury Institute from the UK expressed the wish to see them in a Balkan-Japanese presentation of prehistoric figurines that is to be organized in 2009. In this way, a segment from the Macedonian prehistoric archaeology will be once again presented in order to sense the rich spiritual life of our ancestors. World’s archaeological eminent persons will have the opportunity to evaluate chronologically and stylistically these artifacts in a broader context of this archaeological discovery. The basic idea of the organizers to join, on one spot in the world, which is in the case Norwich, a part of the Balkan and a part of the Japanese prehistoric archaeology, proved to be very successful. It is interesting for the archaeologists to trace the similarities and the differences in the presented artifacts, taking into consideration the distance that was insurmountable five thousand years B. C. However, in spite of that, the development of prehistory is evident, and also similar on the two far ends of the Planet. The purpose is to link a part of the prehistoric figurines from the Balkans (Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania) and from Japan and to show them in a joint exhibition that would start in the UK, Norwich, in the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, which would continue in museums in the Balkans and end-up in the Sainsbury Centre in Japan, Tokyo, in 2009. In the meantime, this task is developing into a Project for the realization of the international exhibition “Prehistoric figurines from the Balkans and Jomon figurines from Japan”. The ambitious project in which the Republic of Macedonia is also taking part will include a number of researchers and archaeologists, museum experts, and theoreticians. The entire museum approach of a conglomerate of prehistoric artifacts from diametrically different parts of the Earth will be presented.

The abundance of terracotta figurines depicting the woman from prehistory, more precisely from the Neolithic and Eneolithic eras, which were discovered in the Republic of Macedonia, have imposed the idea of jointly presenting archaeological artifacts that are inter-related merely by one concept – the woman. The purpose is to elucidate a segment of the rich spiritual life of the prehistoric populace settling the territory of present day Macedonia from the sixth till the third millennia BC.

This collection has been compiled in excavations carried out throughout the sixty years of Macedonian archaeology.

Analogies, chronological and cultural framework

Analogies to the figurines are being found, above all, by analysis of the overall discovered archaeological material, including both the architecture (houses, structures, dug-outs, etc.) and the movable material excavated at particular sites. These observations and accomplishments are being compared with the features of the nearest and most closely associated cultural groups in the region and at large. In this way the discovered archaeological material is assigned within a certain chronological framework.
Throughout the decades of archaeological excavations, researches and reconnaissance activities that have been rather intense in the past thirty years, about four hundred prehistoric sites have been identified on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia dating from the Neolithic and Eneolithic periods. Archaeological excavations have been carried out only at some of them, having resulted so far with a pretty clear picture of the prehistoric chronological development. Having been correlated with the analysis of the overall archaeological material, figurines have been ascribed to a certain chronological framework. They have also been attributed with specific features and traits of the designated period.
By C 14 analysis carried out in Macedonia and in the neighboring countries, and also by comparative analyses, the chronological framework of the Neolithic era has been set from 6500 till 4800 BC and of the Eneolithic from 4800 till 2500 BC.
Concerning the Neolithic period on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia the basic widely accepted cultural groups are the Anzabegovo - Vrsnik, i.e.(st)., Zelenikovo culture and Velusina - Porodin culture. On the grounds of an overall chronological analysis three stages have been identified in the Neolithic, classified as Early, Middle and Late Neolithic Ages. They correlate with the cultural compounds in the Balkans at large, above all with the Balkan-Anatolian compound, rather than with the Starcevo, i.e., Vinca-Tordos compound, Zelenikovo; and the compounds Karanovo; Proto-Sesklo, Sesklo and Dimini. Each of the mentioned cultural compounds has been classified into sub-groups according to specific stylistic features and chronological definitions.
As to the Eneolithic, the basic cultural group in the Republic of Macedonia is Suplevec – Bakarno Gumno, which corresponds to the wider cultural compound in the region of Bubanj – Salkutca – Krivodol. The Eneolithic has also been assigned a more detailed chronology, having been classified as Early, Middle and Late Eneolithic Ages with a further division into sub-groups.

Settlements and dwellings

As we know, the Neolithic settlements were relatively small, consisting of twenty to thirty houses and located on mounds in plains. In their vicinity there were regularly clear drinking water, fertile soil for cultivating grain, natural resources of salty earth for the cattle, and other necessities. Houses were built of vertical support beams with wattle-and-daub between them. They were coated with mud mixed with cattle manure as binding material. Walls built in this way were covered with thatched roof of light structure, presumably of a pitched type. The interior space was often parted with parapet walls. The width of the houses was normally five to six meters, their length measuring up to ten meters. The Eneolithic settlements were smaller, with a less number of houses, situated on higher spots with strategic positions. The houses were more-or-less the same as the Neolithic dwellings.

Places of discovery of ladies

Prehistoric ladies were discovered almost regularly in houses, at places which where, in some way, marked as cult points, where they were laid on pedestal altars. Some times there are assumptions that the entire structure was used as a shrine for performing certain ritual activities.

Typological classification

Regarding the Neolithic typological analyses, there have been classified figurines as: 1. free-style figurines expressing postures from everyday life, standing and seated 2. free style figurines showing stylization, often column-shaped with emphasized feminine features, and 3. cylinder-figurines, lay on top of house models. Most of the depicted women were adorned with bracelets, armbands, necklaces, and diverse hairdos..

The Eneolithic period lacked the type of cylinder-figurine on the house model, whereas production continued of: 1. free-style realistic, standing and seated figurines, often adorned with engraved decorations on the body, resembling tattoo (bodies were presumably painted on occasion of some festivities or to express some beliefs) 2. free - style figurines stylization, standing and seated, and also slightly stylized, with emphasized feminine attributes, jewelry, coiffure, and pieces of garment.

It should be added that certain differences can be perceived in the execution: Neolithic figurines were often depicted nude or partly dressed, whereas garment was rendered on most of the Eneolithic ones. There are no essential differences between the two periods in the concept of representing the woman, apart from the ones stated above.

Some artifacts of different nature should be singled out, such as utilitarian objects – vases depicting woman, which are considered by some scholars to have played a certain role in performing cult ceremonies.

Very unusual and so far unique is the totem from Madzari, which arouses a sense of admiration, respect, and protection by its voluminousness.

Production

The figurines were made by hand, almost regularly of well purified clay. After being modeled, they were baked at high temperature from 900oC to 1000oC. Larger figurines or altars were molded on wooden pole, which served as a carrier for holding the heavy clay applied. These poles must have been burnt in the process of baking, but there are visible imprints of them on the inside of these figurines. Decorations on the bodies were made either by applying ornaments of clay, or by carving with sharp bone tools.

The figurines have been executed with a high sense of creativity. Every figurine is unique, although they often resemble each other, according to the stylistic- typological analyses carried out. Such is the case with the Great Mother Goddess, whose image has been discovered in the regions of Skopje, Tetovo, Kumanovo and Ovce Pole, as well as in Pelagonija. This should certainly be taken into consideration, since it indicates mutual contacts of the population from these areas, showing also that they worshiped the same gods and shared the same beliefs. These goddess-figurines were confined to a specific area. Namely, they have so far been discovered merely in the Republic of Macedonia. In some of the neighboring countries fragments have been discovered, which could not be confirmed with certainty to have belonged to the same altar type. This is an argument in favor of certain local beliefs and features distinctive only to this territory.

Anyway, a question has arisen of who made these ladies, a man or a woman? In that sense, interesting information has been obtained from analyses of fingerprints preserved on the clay. In some cases, the fingers were thinner, which leads to an assumption that they were sometimes created by woman’s hands. However, not always have obvious traces of fingers been preserved, so that we cannot state with certainty the above mentioned presumption. The question shall certainly remain without an answer. The fact is that they were always designed by skillful hands of an artisan showing concern for accurate depicting. In cases where the image showed stylized expression, the creator made efforts to emphasize the feminine attributes. The abundance and diversity of coiffures and jewelry point to realistic examples from everyday life.

Beliefs

Following the data acquired from archaeological excavations, we could conclude that figurines have been discovered inside the houses, within the homes of our ancestors. These images were laid in areas designed especially for that purpose, forming podiums, pedestals, altar tables, identified as cult places.

There is a considerable number of images of pregnant women and they were probably adored, above all as bearers of the new life, of the generations to come. Due to the fact that figurines were frequently found in fragments, they are considered to have been ritually broken during performance of certain rites, conveying wishes for fertility, easy birth without losses of the mother-to-be and invoking regeneration for the Mother Earth. According to the semantics and the stylistic features of the figurines, as well as the issues that inspired the creative spirit of prehistoric artisans, the woman was sometimes captured as a symbol of beauty. Some figurines reflect woman’s concern for the hearth and home, house and family. An example of this are the altars with the image of the Great Mother (Mother Goddess, Magna Mater) embracing the cosmogony symbol, the relation between the Mother-Earth and the universe. This is presumably the reason why these images have holes on the top of the cylinder-heads and, occasionally, on the floor of the house model. They are to facilitate the communication of the earth-house-mother-fertility-cosmos forces.

The woman epitomizing a symbol, modeled into a figurine and multiplied in diverse varieties, implies that she was highly esteemed in the prehistoric community.

From the present view, the social status of the woman has more-or-less the same characteristics, at least on these territories, so, we find no difficulties in interpreting the symbolic elements encountered with some figurines.

The worship, adoration and respect for women in the prehistory were confirmed in almost every house. There was hardly any of the researched Neolithic and Eneolithic houses that did not contain an idol of a woman.

Through these figurines, one can feel the skilful hands of our ancestor showing a sense of beauty, harmony and, at some points, an irresistible urge for stylization, always with the sole purpose of depicting her - the highly respected and widely worshiped prehistoric Lady. The woman was adored intensively and modeled in clay in the Neolithic and Eneolithic Ages. However, towards the end of the Eneolithic Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age the precedence was taken by the newly discovered metal (copper and bronze) and the creative potentials of artisans were focused on it. Designing figurines of clay gradually died out. New trends emerged in making details as cult objects, including pendants, buttons, buckles, pins, belts, etc., inspiring a new breath in the spirit of the prehistoric populace.


Part I

Part II

Oxford Very Short Introductions: Druids

For the past decade, Oxford University Press has been printing volumes in the book series called "Very Short Introductions". Each of the 268 volumes are in 6x4 inch paperback format, about 40,000 words in length and priced at $11.95 each. And as the subtitle suggests, the books provide "stimulating ways into new subjects"; brief, intensive, well-presented short courses on particular subjects, written by experts in the various fields. Titles include philosophy, religion, politics and science, including a handful of archaeology and archaeology-related topics. I chose the Druids, because I know, or rather knew, nothing about them.

Druids: A Very Short Introduction was written by Barry Cunliffe, and was published this month by OUP. The book doesn't start off with a definition of Druids, which this total newbie to the subject found a bit difficult to process: I resolved that by peeking into the final chapter. There, I discovered Cunliffe's main point. You see, there have been at least four or five versions of the ideas of Druids, and the most popular one is the supposed builders of Stonehenge: that I knew was a fantasy. But, the reason Druids are still so prominently featured in the national character of Britain has to do with classical Greek and Roman fascination with them.

Essentially, for people as new to the subject as I was (think of this as a micro-introduction), the Druids visited by Greek and Roman travelers between about 325-50 BC were a caste of shamans, religious specialists serving the Iron Age Celtic peoples who tracked astronomical events, discussed philosophy and taught students. They were fascinating to the Iron Age Greeks, I would guess, because the Greeks thought they had cornered the market on philosophy and were startled to find such discussions among the "barbarians" of Atlantic Europe. Cunliffe argues that the caste probably long predated the Iron Age, basing his assumption on the presence of the knowledge base of the Druids--astronomy--in evidence within Atlantic Europe for at least a couple of thousand years prior to Greek visits in the fourth century BC.

Druids: A Very Short Introduction is directly comparable to a short course. The book crams a huge amount of information into a very brief package, and then sets you free for the rest of the summer. As a ridiculously uninformed person about ancient history, I was pleasantly surprised to find ample information about the various Greek and Roman writers and travelers to fill me in on that background. There is a substantial section on the archaeology of Britain, which Cunliffe argues is problematic, because you can't find clear one-to-one archaeological analogues to Druids. And there is also quite a bit on the vernacular Irish and Welsh tales that provide the meat of the current stories about Druids.

There is also a terrific picture of Winston Churchill that made me laugh out loud. But I digress.

Druids are odd, as shamans go, not for what they did--sacrifices, ceremonies, astronomical observations are pretty much part and parcel of most prehistoric shamans all over the world--but for the wealth of documentary and ethnographic evidence supporting their existence. That's pretty interesting, and should also be useful to people studying shamans wherever and whenever they are documented. And I have to thank Druids: A Very Short Introduction for igniting that interest in me.

Cunliffe, Barry. 2010. Druids: A Very Short Introduction. 136 pages, a brief bibliography and an index. ISBN 978-0-19-953940-6. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

History of the Acropolis

Geography

The Acropolis rock is part of a Late Cretaceous limestone ridge (Higgins) that cuts through the Attica plateau in the northeast to the southwest axis and includes the Likavitos hill, the Philopappos (Museum) hill, the hill of the Nymphs, and the Pnyx.

The rock rises from the basin about 70 meters and levels to a flat top 300 meters long by 150 meters wide. Its flat top is due to the numerous landfills that have accommodated construction of fortifications and temples since the Mycenaean era. With its many shallow caves, the abundant percolating water springs and steep slopes, the Acropolis was a prime location for habitation and worship location for Neolithic man.

Prehistoric Era

While the area around Attica was inhabited during the Upper Paleolithic period (30000 – 10000 BCE), archaeological evidence suggests that the small caves around the Acropolis rock and the Klepsythra spring were in use during the Neolithic Period (3000-2800 BCE).

Mycenaean Period

The chronicle of the Acropolis of Athens is lost in prehistory, to a time even before the plane of Attica began to be cultivated. In Mycenaean times small towns developed around a fortified citadel where the king resided and controlled the surrounding area.

Acropolis in Greek literally means “the highest point of the town”. While virtually every city had an Acropolis, like Mycenae and Tyrins, the Athenian citadel became synonymous with the word in the minds of most people during the last two millennia. The Mycenaean civilization established many important centers, one of which was Athens. The first inhabitants we can trace to the Acropolis of Athens were Mycenaean Kings who fortified the rock with massive eight-meter tall walls, and built their palaces there in the 14th century BCE. Very little remains from these buildings today, but the most obvious evidence of this era is still visible at the southwest end of the Acropolis, right behind the later Temple of Athena Nike, next to the Propylaia, in the form of a cyclopean wall that was built as part of the fortifications. According to Dontas, Mycenaean kings built a palace at the north end of the rock “where the Archaic temple of Athena was later built, or a little further east on the summit of the hill” (The Acropolis and its Museum, 6). Besides a fort and a place of royal residence, the Acropolis functioned as a place of worship for the Goddess of fertility and nature, and for her companion male god Erechtheus.

Just like Mycenae and Tyrins, the Acropolis of Athens had its own underground water supply in the form of a deep well, dug at the north end of the rock, which could be used by the defenders during a siege.

The city of Athens

Athens was a thriving Mycenaean center that very early in its existence became the center of a “synoikismos”, an alliance and peaceful coexistence of all the adjacent towns. According to legend, king Theseus united the towns into one administrative entity, and this synoikismos appears to be instrumental in the city’s survival when all other Mycenaean centers were destroyed around 1200 BCE by invading hordes from mainland Greece, or due to a possible invasion of tribes from the North (what many refer to as the Doric invasion). While all other Mycenaean centers, including mighty Mycenae, were deserted during this period, Athens was the only town to remain inhabited and active. According to tradition, the city owes its survival to the heroic personal sacrifice of king Kordos.

In subsequent years Athens was ruled not by one king but by a group of men, the Aristocrats. Administrative functions moved away from the Acropolis towards other parts of the city where later the Agora developed. The Acropolis then became exclusively a place of worship and never hosted another ruler, partly because the new realities of city administration made it inconvenient, and partly because the Athenians wanted to eliminate all references to a monarchy.

Earliest known apiary

Throughout the bible, Israel is described as “the land of milk and honey.” A few documents and paintings hint that beekeeping may have occurred during biblical times, there has been no physical evidence – until now.

Archaeologists discovered the remains of the oldest earliest known apiary during an excavation of Tel Rehov, an important city during the Israeli monarchy located in northern Israel. The ancient bee colony dates to around 3,000 years ago.

The structure consists of three rows of clay cylinders -- which researchers believe are man-made bee hives -- situated within a courtyard. Some thirty hives were unearthed, but researchers expect up to 100 hives once existed.

“The exceptional preservation of these remains provides unequivocal identification of the clay cylinders as the most ancient beehives yet found,” the scientists wrote in a study recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Each ceramic hive was fashioned with two holes. On one end was a small hole that acted as a door for the bees. On the opposite end was a clay lid beekeepers used to access the golden goods -- honey and wax.

Despite its antiquity, this was no small mom and pop operation. Researcher think the hives produced up to a half a ton of honey each year.

The architecture of the ancient hives is similar to bee farms found in modern-day Israel. But bee remains found at the site are from a variety of bee native to Turkey, not Israel.

Turns out the Syrian bees native to Israel are aggressive and hard to manage. Turkish bees, on the other hand, are calmer, making them more desirable for urban farms such as the one found in Tel Rehov.

Israelis most likely imported the bees from Turkey. According to the researchers, this indicates that, “beekeeping already was an elaborate agricultural process in Israel 3,000 years ago.”

Hallan çemi neolithic transition in southeastern Turkey

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Hallan çemi neolithic transition in southeastern Turkey

View more documents from sime.

Upper paleolithic. ppt

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Upper paleolithic. ppt

View more presentations from sime.

ITALIAN UPPER PALEOLITHIC FIGURINES

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

ITALIAN UPPER PALEOLITHIC FIGURINES

View more presentations from sime.

Stone Tool Assemblage Richness during the Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic in France

Regression-based analysis of 164 French Mousterian, Chatelperronian and Aurignacian stone tool assemblages reveals that most of the perceived difference in typological richness between the Mousterian and Aurignacian is associated with differences in assemblage size. Within the framework of the classification systems involved, this discovery diminishes the importance of stone tool kit richness as a character that distinguishes between the Mousterian and Aurignacian. It also heightens the importance of explaining why assemblage sizes differ between these two industries. Even given that distinct classification systems are used to analyse Chatelperronian and Mousterian lithic assemblages, the Chatelperronian shows distinct similarities in richness to the Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition, the Mousterian facies that has often been argued to be its most likely immediate ancestor.

Stone tool assemblage richness during the middle and early upper paleolithic in france

View more documents from sime.

Alpium Illyricarum studia Vo.l - English summary

Alpium illyricarum studia vo.l i.pdf povijest u kršu

View more documents from sime.

Unexplored area of the Croatian karst, especially the mountainous massifs (Mala and Velika Kapela, Velebit, Dinara, mountain, etc.) as well as staples - not separators - the Adriatic coast and the interior and center of intense life from ancient times until today, deserve the attention of scientists of all disciplines especially historians and archaeologists. The first collection of papers in the series Alpium Illyricarum Studio, vol I. History of animal life. Proceedings of the project "Cities and communication in the context of the relationship of the Adriatic coast and the interior of the prehistoric and ancient times" is the result of long and laborious task of all who participated in its creation. All authors are active field researchers and can not be easily "pin" for the office desk and computer. However, despite the field, administrative and teaching duties, we were able to complete this volume. He is just a small part of all our activities under the aforementioned project. The rest is in the field notes, documents, scientific papers, books, a very large part of the city is still in the stage of processing and is awaiting publication of the continuation of a series of monographs Alpium Illyricarum Studio. Proceedings we wanted to analyze the problem of a multidisciplinary research area that connected the Mediterranean world of Adriatic coastline with its natural hinterland. Space in which people lived and died thousands of years, shaped it and changed it, 'but also themselves were shaped and altered, in an intense interactive interpenetration with the environment in which they lasted. Thus, various aspects of human life in space (and space itself) are first-rate historians.
The proceedings are sought to the problem of theoretical reflection and conceptualization of space, since the Croatian science hardly any discussion about the theoretical and terminological aspects of the research space in time. However, theoretical explore would not be complete without practical fieldwork. Therefore, most papers reported on the specific field research in the mentioned area and trying to draw attention to some unknown or so far neglected aspects of human life in the karst environment. I hope that this research by historians in the creation of different models of the reconstruction of historical reality in a particular area of the Croatian karst, in different time periods.
In the end, I was glad that I can say that the project activities, and finally in the work of staff involved in proceedings that bind ties of friendship, forged in the interplay of long-collegiate cooperation.
Proceedings would not be without the help and effort of those who use this opportunity to sincerely thank: Dr. reviewers. Effossiones-Makvić, red. prof. and PhD. Ivor Gioia, Assoc., FF leader-press dipl. archaeologist Boris Buijo, Marini Trpčić and Nevena Suica, on the development of fractures and technical documentation, Zeljko Miklošević the English translations of abstracts, prof. Tomislav Bosnjak Botica on editing and proofreading the text and the professor. Joseph Prgomet the treatment and classification of articles.

First Direct Evidence of Chalcolithic Footwear from the Near Eastern Highlands

Reported today in the open access journal PLoS One is the news of a 5500-year-old shoe, discovered in the Chalcolithic age deposits at Areni-1, a dry cave in in Vayots Dzor province of Armenia. The dry conditions of the cave have led to fabulous preservation, and the cave includes well-preserved occupations between the Neolithic and late Middle Ages.

Journal.pone.0010984

View more documents from sime.

Palaeolithic cave art at creswell crags in european context

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Cave art is a subject of perennial interest among archaeologists. Until recently it was assumed that it was largely restricted to southern France and northern Iberia, although in recent years new discoveries have demonstrated that it originally had a much wider distribution. The discovery in 2003 of the UK's first examples of cave art, in two caves at Creswell Crags on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border, was the most surprising illustration of this. The discoverers (the editors of the book) brought together in 2004 a number of Palaeolithic archaeologists and rock art specialists from across the world to study the Creswell art and debate its significance, and its similarities and contrasts with contemporary Late Pleistocene ('Ice Age') art on the Continent. This comprehensively illustrated book presents the Creswell art itself, the archaeology of the caves and the region, and the wider context of the Upper Palaeolithic era in Britain, as well as a number of up-to-date studies of Palaeolithic cave art in Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy which serve to contextualize the British examples.

Palaeolithic cave art at creswell crags in european context

View more documents from sime.

“Mind the Gap” Caves, Radiocarbon Sequences, and the Mesolithic Neolithic Transition in Europe

“Mind the Gap” Caves, Radiocarbon Sequences, and the Mesolithic Neolithic Transition in Europe

Radiocarbon sequences from some northern Mediterranean cave sites show a temporal gap between Mesolithic and Neolithic occupations. Some authors regard this as a regional phenomenon and have sought to explain it in terms of a general population decline in the late Mesolithic, which facilitated the replacement of indigenous foragers by immigrant farmers. New evidence from the rockshelter site of Mala Triglavca, in Slovenia, leads us to question this view. We describe the deposits in the rockshelter and discuss the results of AMS radiocarbon dating of bone samples recovered in excavations in the 1980s. New archaeological investigations and associated soil/sediment analyses show that in the central part of the rockshelter a well-defined stratigraphic sequence can be established, despite post-depositional modification by soil forming processes. There is also evidence of substantial post-depositional disturbance of the cave sediments by human agency and geomorphological processes, which have created “temporal gaps” and “inversions” in the radiocarbon sequence. The relatively large series of radiocarbon dates obtained enables some of the post-depositional processes to be identified.

Makers of the Early Aurignacian of Europe Steven E. Churchill i Fred H. Smith

Makers of the Early Aurignacian of Europe Steven E. Churchill i Fred H. Smith

Despite intensive study and a number of remarkable discoveries in the last two decades of the 20th century, our understanding of the cultural and biological processes that resulted in the emergence of the Upper Paleolithic and the establishment of modern humans in Interpleniglacial Europe remains far from complete. There is active debate concerning the timing and location of the origins of the Aurignacian, the nature of the origins of Initial Upper Paleolithic industries (whether by autochthonous development or through acculturation by Aurignacian peoples), the timing of the appearance of early modern humans and the disappearance of the Neandertals, and the relationship of archeologically defined cultures to these different types of hominids. Frustrating our attempts to address these latter two questions is a general paucity of taxonomically diagnostic human fossil material from early Upper Paleolithic contexts. We undertake here a review of the human fossil record of Interpleniglacial Europe, and its archeological and chronological context, to clarify to the extent possible the nature of the relationship between hominid groups and the earliest Upper Paleolithic artifact industries, particularly the early Aurignacian. Although substantial difficulties involved in interpreting the fossil, archeological, and geochronological records of this time period prohibit making any definitive statements, a number of observations are suggested by the current data: 1) the Middle Paleolithic of Europe appears to have been made exclusively by Neandertals; 2) Initial Upper Paleolithic industries (with the exception of the Bachokirian) appear to have their roots in the late Middle Paleolithic industries of their respective regions; 3) all of the human fossils yet recovered from Initial Upper Paleolithic (except the Bachokirian) contexts for which any diagnostic morphology is present have their greatest morphological affinities with Neandertals and not early modern humans; 4) modern humans were almost certainly established in Europe by ca. 32 ky BP, with a strong possibility that they were there by ca. 36 ky BP. Claims for an appearance before 36 ky BP cannot be substantiated with currently available evidence; 5) the hypothesis that modern humans are uniquely associated with the Aurignacian cannot yet be refuted. Aurignacian-associated human fossils (including those from the Bachokirian) for which any diagnostic morphology is present have their greatest affinities with early modern Europeans and not Neandertals; and 6) Neandertals and modern humans coexisted in Europe for at least 2,000-4,000 years, and perhaps for 8,000-10,000 years or longer. The overall picture is one of an extended period of cultural contact, involving some degree of genetic exchange, between Neandertals and early modern Europeans.

Scars from lion bite suggest headless Romans found in York were gladiators

Evidence from tests on 80 skeletons of young men found in Yorkshire gardens points to world's best-preserved gladiator graveyard, archaeologists say.

The haunting mystery of Britain's headless Romans may have been solved at last, thanks to scars from a lion's bite and hammer marks on decapitated skulls.

The results of forensic work, announced today, on more than 80 skeletons of well-built young men, gradually exhumed from the gardens of a York terrace over a decade, suggests that the world's best-preserved gladiator graveyard has been found.

Many of the 1,800-year-old remains indicate much stronger muscles in the right arm, a condition noted by Roman writers in slaves trained from their teens to fight in the arena. Advanced mineral testing of tooth enamel also links the men to a wide variety of Roman provinces, including North Africa, which was another a feature of gladiator recruitment.

The conclusions are consistent with York's importance in the Roman world as a provincial capital and major military base for years of campaigning north of Hadrian's Wall. Many senior generals and politicians held posts in the city and Constantine appointed himself emperor there in 306AD. Such distinguished residents would have required a high standard of social life, according to the York Archaeological Trust, which has supervised the excavations in Driffield Terrace.

Field officer Kurt Hunter-Mann said the accumulation of evidence now pointed to a gladiator graveyard rather than to a military suppression of aristocratic rebels by Caracalla, another emperor who visited York, as suggested by earlier theories.

Signs of respect accorded to the remains, including piles of grave goods for use in the afterlife, had appeared to support the earlier notion. The initial finds of some 60 skeletons also turned up evidence suggesting lavish funeral feasts, with beef, pork and horsemeat on the menu.

But accounts of gladiator burials make it clear that similar pomp accompanied the rites for many long-serving gladiators, who were comparable to modern football stars apart from their often bloody end. Decapitation was a regular conclusion to bouts and the coup-de-grace often came with a hammer blow to the head.

Other theories about the grave have included a pagan rite involving decapitation, or a pogrom against a minority group such as Christians, but evidence for either is lacking. Gladiators were brought into the debate in earnest three years ago, when the discovery of burials of arena combatants at Ephesus in Turkey revealed a similar combination of hammer blows to the skull and decapitation as at York.

The animal bite has also tilted the balance of the evidence, after a further 23 skeletons were found during excavation for a resident's patio. Hunter-Mann said: "It is one of the most significant items of the evidence accumulated. A large carnivore bite – probably a lion's but possibly from a tiger or bear – must have been sustained in an arena. The great majority of the skeletons are also male, very robust and mostly average height, which is telling along with the arm muscle asymmetry."

York appears to have held major arena events until as late as the fourth century AD, avoiding the decline into the spectacle known as Venatio, or the hunt, which saw cash-starved provincial governors provide deer and even rabbits in place of the exotic beasts associated with gladiator spectaculars.

Dr Michael Wysocki, senior lecturer in forensic anthropology andarchaeology at the University of Central Lancashire, who has carried out recent tests, said: "We don't have any other potential gladiator cemeteries with this level of preservation anywhere else in the world. It is a unique Roman burial assemblage. Anthropologically speaking, the material is particularly significant because it includes such a broad spectrum of healed and unhealed injuries associated with violence.

"Nothing like the bite marks has ever been identified before on a Roman skeleton. It would seem highly unlikely that this individual was attacked by a lion or tiger as he was walking home from the pub in York 2,000 years ago."

Work is continuing on the remains and at the dig, which will be featured in a Channel 4 documentary, Gladiators: Back From The Dead next Monday (14 June). The discoveries add to the formidable Roman reputation of York, which has the remains of walls, tombs and a large civil settlement, plus a ghostly cohort of soldiers whose tramp through the cellars of the Treasurer's House by York Minster is the subject of centuries of claimed sightings.

Free BAR 2037 !!! Notice

For those whose were not able to download the book.

I put file (BAR 2037) in a private folder, and you were not able to download it.

I am very sorry, it will not happen again.

Now it works just fine.

If you find any error, of any kind - contact me, so I can react.

Free BAR 2037 !!!

I am very happy that I can share this title with you.

You will not find this title anywhere on the web for download, and it brings some very good articles - after all it's BAR :)

Abstract:

Researchers have long realized that the Adriatic Sea was a medium of communication rather than a barrier in prehistory. Hemmed in between the Balkans and peninsular Italy, with its head in the Alpine foothills and its foot pointing towards the Aegean, the Adriatic touches different worlds.

Archaeological records frequently show that the coastal zones on both sides of the Adriatic had more in common with each other than with their hinterlands. Whilst the Adriatic is a relatively small and enclosed sea, travelling across its waters still presented serious hazards and took skill and knowledge. This has been addressed by recent work, both above and below the waterline, challenging our time­honoured notions of when, how and why the people living on the Adriatic shores, took to the sea.

This session aims to cover the period from the earliest evidence for navigation to the end of prehistory as signalled by Greek colonization. During this period, the region witnessed several episodes of radical transformation, including a switch from foraging to farming and the emergence of social elites. This session aims to question the role that maritime communication played in these momentous events.

Other themes that we would like to broach in this session include:

· How geography, weather patterns and climatic change influenced the early Adriatic navigators.

· How prehistoric maritime travellers may have viewed the comparative roles of the mainland and the islands.

· What the social, economic and technological underpinnings of maritime travel were, and the knowledge which was involved.· Who was travelling across the Adriatic and why they initially decided to travel across water.

· How distributions of raw materials and pottery styles may inform us about maritime travel and how this changed over time resulting in the cultural diversity and coherence that characterized this region throughout most of prehistory.

· Finally, how the situation in the prehistoric Adriatic compares to other parts of the Mediterranean, and to other inner seas elsewhere.

Participants will offer new insights relevant to some of these questions, augmented by the

results of recent fieldwork and current theoretical developments.

I will not keep you any more, download the:

A CONNECTING SEA: MARITIME INTERACTION IN ADRIATIC PREHISTORY

Edited by: Stašo Forenbaher

BAR International Series 2037

2009

I hope you'll find it usefull !

Free (paleolithic) Book & ppt.

I have uploaded for you

Early Modern Humans at the Moravian Gate: The Mladec Caves and Their Remains

by M. Nicola-teschler

The Upper Paleolithic fossils of the Mladec caves, South Moravia, excavated at the end of the 19th century, hold a key position inthe current discussion on modern human emergence within Europe and the fate of the Neanderthals. Although undoubtedly early modern humans - recently radio carbon dated to 31.000 years BP - their morphological variability and the presence of archaic features are indicative to some degree of regional Neanderthal ancestry. The beautifully illustrated monograph addresses - for thefirst time - the complete assemblage of the finds, including the human cranial, post cranial, teeth and jaw fragments of several individuals (most of them stored at the Natural History Museum Vienna) as well as the faunal remains and the archaeological objects. Leading scientists present their results, obtained with innovative techniques such as DNA analysis, 3D-morphometry and isotope analysis, which are of great importance for further discussions on both human evolution and archaeological issues.

Second upload is ppt.

Language and art: From paleolithic art to writing
Four lectures

12th Early Fall School of Semiotics “Semiotics of Genre”

September 10-20, 2006

Sozopol (Bulgaria)

lThere is a line which leads continuously from artifact-industries already presupposing the semantics and pragmatics of a natural language to art, writing and mathematics.

lThe basic principles which organize these levels of semiotic evolution should be formulated in a common language.

lSuch a scientific language must have geometrical and combinatorial powers.

Hope you'll enjoy and find it usefull

Female Figurines of the Upper Paleolithic

Those depictions of the human female figure found in association with Upper

Paleolithic cultures commonly called “Venus figurines” are an extremely varied class of

artifacts. Hundreds of these figurines have been found across the Eurasian continent from

France to Siberia and have been dated to around 25,000 B.C.E. Generally the Venus

figurines are thought to be small, stone sculptures of nude women with pronounced sexual

characteristics who are either voluptuous or pregnant with no face, arms, or legs. Although

some of the figurines can be stereotyped this way, there are numerous overlooked examples

with drastically different features. The overwhelming variety and diversity among the

figurines themselves is reflected in the theories that have developed about them. Since the

late nineteenth century, the meaning and purpose of these Venus figurines have been

interpreted over and over again. Some of the theories directly reflect the biased thoughts of

their time, some are religious and symbolic, and still others have a narrowed scientific focus

and rely upon detailed technological analysis. The variety of both the figurines themselves

and their interpretations has been overlooked as an important part of understanding these

very old and widespread carvings of women.

Across the Eurasian landmass, hundreds of depictions of the human figure crafted

by the artisans of various Upper Paleolithic cultures -- especially the Gravettian -- have been

unearthed at sites spanning from the French Pyrenees to Lake Baikal in Siberia. This

extremely heterogeneous body of artifacts has remained a controversial subject in

anthropology since the discovery of the first few in the late nineteenth century. In addition

to the shear range of locales at which they have been found, the individual artifacts vary

widely in height, from three to forty centimeters or more. An assortment of raw materials

have been employed to create both portable and fixed images portraying not only the female

form, but also the male body, anthropomorphic characters, and androgynous people. Of the

figurines that render the female form, subject matter extends the full scope of womanhood,

with representations ranging from pre-pubescent girls to matronly women in various stages

of pregnancy to much older, post-menopausal women.

These images are often only briefly mentioned in texts, among an array of Upper

Paleolithic art images, and the a small selection of pieces that have come to be more or less

popularized limits the accurate study of their true origin and meaning. Commonly, although

inaccurately, known as “Venus figurines.” the female images comprise only a small portion

of early human art that developed during the period of the last Ice Age. With their initial

discovery, many by amateur archaeologists, these feminine representations sparked heated

debate that has yet to wane over their origin, use, and meaning. Much of the essential

information about many of the images will never be definite because so many of them were

uncovered by people before the development of methods for standardizing the

documentation of stratigraphic and spatial provenance. In recent years, though, there has

been a drive to focus more closely on these figurines with the aid of newly developed

analytical and dating techniques. Archaeologists are now looking at the original discovery of

individual figurines and studying the relationships between geographic location, raw material,

fabrication technique, morphological appearance, and style. New interpretations are being

developed for these figurines as a result of their treatment as separate entities rather than

simply a part of a single, homogeneous phenomenon.

The terms used in this paper refer to the earth’s last glacial period, the Pleistocene,

which extends from about 1.8 million years ago to about 10 thousand years ago. Known

also as the Stone Age and the Paleolithic, this period has been divided into Lower, Middle,

and Upper, the Lower and Middle Paleolithic being associated with Acheulean and

Mousterian tool industries, respectively. The figurines under scrutiny here date back to the

Upper Paleolithic, which spanned from about 30,000 to 10,000 years ago. This period can

generally be broken down further into five periods of overlapping industries: the

Chatelperronian, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian. Each

industry is defined by a specific tool-type; however, for the purposes of this paper, these will

not be outlined here. Although most of the carved representations on record are credited

to the Gravettian industry, a comparatively small number have been associated with the

other industries.

In any given collection of artifacts from the Upper Paleolithic, the majority is made

up tools and items related to subsistence. What the figurines represent most significantly is

the initial cognitive movement toward what we now call art. Ice Age art ranges in type and

style from cave paintings and rock-carvings to portable sculptures and figurines to decorate

tools and clothing items. Artifacts that fall into our modern category of Art are

commonplace in the excavations of Gravettian and Magdalenian industry sites all across

Europe and Asia. Most of the earliest art consists of the instantly recognizable portrayal of

animals, but some images are human representations and of these, most are wome

. Because the precise gender – or creature – depicted in many of the artifacts

remains unclear, I will be restricting this discussion, and my use of the general phrase

“Venus figurines,” to those which scholars are relatively certain – or generally concede – to

be female. Although the hundreds of female figurines that have been found since the 1890s

are by no means the identical – a point to be emphasized – important stylistic similarities

unite them as a group and provide points of comparison and contrast for discussion. For

the purposes of this paper, I will be excluding abstract images attributed to the Aurignacian

– those “so-called ‘vulvae’ and forms resembling an elongated ‘S’ or upside-down ‘P’”

– and those hundreds of fragments that are rough and undefined or too small

for one to ascertain what they originally represented. What I will refer to as “Venus

figurines” are those specimens classified with the most certainty as portrayals of the female

form, itself a controversial task.

According to Marcia-Anne Dobres, “most explanatory theories treat the Venus

figurines as a homogeneous class of data and collapse together more than 20,000 years of

varied productions” (. The question of their racial origin dominated

intellectual discourse about them from the time of their initial discovery in the 1890s, but by

the mid-twentieth century, questions of womanhood, fertility, and religion replaced the

earliest racial fixation. Interpretations of these Paleolithic images of women continue to

develop, with more recent emphasis shifting toward the study of individual figurines

separately, as opposed to as a group. With new tools and methods, researchers are trying to

combat the earliest generalizing stereotypes by investigating the relationship between an

individual figure and the location in which it was found (including its context within the site)

as well as the diverse raw materials, creation techniques, and styles implemented in its

manufacture .