1,721,073 research outputs found
Oltre ciò che appare, oltre le facies archeologiche. Cosa possono fare aDNA e isotopi per la protostoria italiana?
No full textDespite the last decades’ reassessments of the concept of culture as a dynamic phenomenon and an entity in constant transformation, the essentialist logic still permeates prehistoric archaeology. On the one hand, archaeological cultures and facies are drawn using the distribution of objects; on the other hand, they respond to the need to describe
the actions of the ‘subjects’, namely human groups. The sharing of material culture can be one aspect of (social and/or ethnic) group identity, but on a subordinate level compared to language, territoriality, socio-political organization, juridical-normative system, tradition, cosmology, religion, and mythology. These are indeed essential traits of culture and ethnicity, although less immediately visible in the archaeological record.
For these reasons, the conceptual leap from archaeological culture to ethnos risks becoming an inertial tendency, intrinsically ‘structural’ to the traditional methodologies of research.
Recent developments in biogeochemistry (strontium and oxygen isotope analysis) and archaeogenetics (aDNA), allow us to investigate the mobility of single individuals or groups of individuals, the permeability of society to newcomers, migrations, the degree of genetic variability of a population, or among different populations. Thanks to what has been defined as “the third science revolution in archaeology” (Kristiansen), we are becoming therefore able to integrate what we know about the mobility of things with the mobility of people, as well as to test historical and archaeological theories.
Starting from ethnohistorical and biodemographic data, which provide an exemplar framework of the relationship between culture, socio-economic structures and population dynamics, as well as from the synthesis of the recent advances in archaeogenetics and biogeochgemistry, we emphasise the potential of a new interdisciplinary approach towards the study of the Italian Bronze Age, in a perspective of overcoming the intrinsic aporia of the concepts of facies and “archaeological culture”
I resti umani della necropoli. Indagini bioarcheologiche - Schede antropologiche
No full textIn questo contributo vengono presentati i risultati delle indagini bioarcheologiche su un campione di sepolture a inumazione e a cremazione dalla necropoli dell'età del bronzo di Scalvinetto. Vengono inoltre illustrati i risultati delle analisi isotopiche riguardanti gli aspetti della dieta e della mobilità degli individui. Il quadro che ne emerge è assai articolato: i membri della comunità si caratterizzano per un ampio spettro di rituali, di provenienze e di abitudini alimentari
The Bioarchaeology of Social Stratification in Bronze Age Italy
No full textSocial stratification among Bronze Age communities
has been traditionally analysed from the point of view of material
evidence, especially in funerary contexts, where disparities in tomb
architecture or in the articulation of grave goods may indicate the
presence of groups characterised by different access to resources
and social status. Recently, advances in the field of bioarchaeology
(osteology, isotopes, aDNA) have provided new insights into the
theme of inequalities and their relationship with kinship, diet, and
mobility. In our paper, we integrate the archaeological evidence
of social stratification with bioarchaeological data from four
Bronze Age key-sites in Italy, namely Olmo di Nogara, Casinalbo
(Po Plain), Trinitapoli-Ipogeo dei Bronzi, and Toppo Daguzzo
(south-eastern Italy). The aim is to analyse the variability of health
conditions, diet, mobility, and demographic parameters within
each of these cemeteries and compare the different dynamics of
the emergence of the elite group during the central centuries of the
second millennium BC.
Our overview shows that Bronze Age societies in general converged
towards a general model in which stratification and competition
were common structural traits across the whole peninsula. The
amplitude of inequalities, however, varies from site to site, as
well as from region to region, as a consequence of different socioeconomic
backgrounds and cultural manifestations of social
hierarchies. In conclusion, we underline the role of kinship as a
factor in securing internal stability for the emerging élite and the
importance of establishing interorganisational alliances and a
common ethos with other nodes of the network
Resti umani e rituali nelle grotte emiliano-romagnole fra terzo e secondo millennio a.C.
No full textDall’800 ad oggi le grotte emiliano-romagnole sono state oggetto di esplorazioni speleologiche e archeologiche
che hanno portato alla luce una grande quantità di resti umani, insieme a materiale archeologico databile all’età
del rame e all’antica età del bronzo. Le ossa erano spesso disarticolate, manipolate, risistemate, in seguito a una
complessa serie di rituali. Uno degli esempi più noti è quello della Grotta del Re Tiberio, ma non si tratta certo di
un caso isolato. Il grande interesse che questi contesti suscitano non è solo relativo alla ricostruzione dei riti e culti
ctoni. È anche la loro collocazione cronologica. Proprio durante il terzo millennio a.C. e gli inizi del secondo, si
innesca una serie di trasformazioni culturali e sociali che investe molte aree d’Europa e che potrebbe interessare
anche le comunità insediate ai piedi dell’appennino
Le sepolture di infanti nelle necropoli e negli abitati bolognesi tra IX e VIII sec. a.C.
No full textThis paper focuses on the different characters assumed by the burials of children in the early Iron Age (late X-VIII century BC) in the territory surrounding the Etruscan city of Felsina, found both in the necropolis and in the inhabited areas. The new data found during the excavation of the necropolis of Borgo Panigale show us that in this period infants were included in the funeral ritual from birth, with a type of funeral ritual similar to that of adults. Some elements of a female character, like spindle whorls, are also visible in few tombs of girls, while in those of boys there are never any grave goods. It is hypothesized that this difference is due to a different conception of the role assumed by the children in the community, which perhaps took place in girls at an earlier age, while in boys it became evident only after the transition to an older age. In addition to these elements, there are also some indicators of high status found in few tombs of infants, like armillae, fibulae or necklaces, which we can interpret as a sign of the inheritance of the family's rank.
This paper focuses also on some ritual burials of human fetuses found in the village of Castenaso, a few kilometers away from Bologna, dating from the mid-9th to the 8th century B.C. The skeletal remains were found inside large cavities dug in the ground, in which fires were lit. Around the human remains were found objects related to the female sphere, such as spindle whorls, loom weights and spools, but also parts of sacrificed animals. It is therefore hypothesized that these depositions are linked to the cult of a female and chthonic divinity, comparable with those discovered at Civita di Tarquinia and at Veio - Piazza d’Armi
Analisi antropologica dei resti cremati
No full textLo studio affronta le cremazioni della necropoli dal punto di vista bioarcheologic
Aspetti rituali, sociali e paleodemografici di alcune necropoli protostoriche a cremazione dell’Italia Settentrionale
No full textThis study concerns five cremation cemeteries from Bronze Age (Middle, Recent and Final BA) to Early Iron Age (Villanovian culture) in Northern Italy (XVI-IX c. BC). 842 burials have been analyzed from Casinalbo (MBA-RBA), Montata (MBA-RBA), Scalvinetto (MBA-RBA), Narde (FBA), Brogo Panigale (EIA) in an anthropological point of view.
Analysis on “cremains” are not so frequent, especially in the story of Italian anthropological studies, because of the fragmentation and transformation of bones, due to the pyre bruning.
In consequence of a very large sample, many observations have been done, in terms of ritual practices, demographic structure, and social organization.
Bones have been collected from the inside of the urns with a “stratigraphic” method (Casinalbo and Borgo Panigale), in order to recognize depoisitional sequences of anatomical parts. Observation on Minimum Number of Inividual, sex/age at death of the individuals, temperatures of cremation, fragmentation patterns, total weights, weights of skeletrical districts have been lead out.
The funerary ritual shows a very articulated set of different actions and behaviours, each of them representing a specific simbolic meaning. It seems to develop from the Middle Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age towards a progressively simplified ceremony.
The composition of the cemetries in terms of sex/age class frequencies also changes through the time. In the Terramare culture (MBA-RBA) new-born infants or younger than 1-2 years old were not inlcuded in the burial area, and neither in Narde (FBA). They were not cremated but were buried elsewhere (sometimes in settlements), maybe because they were not completely integrated in the community.
The younger infants seem to be re-included in the funerary space during the EIA. The percentage of 0-6 years old children, in fact, is douoble in Borgo Panigale compared to earlier cemeteries. Among the Villanovian cremation burials many 0-1 years old children were found: this evidence shows a different conception of social structure, which also include very young infants.
A specific topographic distribution of burials has been observed in Casinalbo, where separated groups are clearly identifiable. The most logic intrpretation is that the groups represent families. In the groups it is possible to notice an inner separation between categories of individuals based on sex/age class. In the largest group (K), in which burials seems to be spread along a wide chronological range, the adult males occupy the center and the adult females and subadults the periphery. This could be interpreted as a strong intention of underline the adult males (warriors?) status and hegemony
Aspetti del rituale crematorio nella necropoli dell’età del Ferro di Borgo Panigale. Ossilegi differenziati
No full textAnalisi antropologiche sui resti cremati della necropoli del Bronzo medio e recente di Scalvinetto di Legnago (Verona)
No full textSi presentano i primi risultati dello studio su 51 sepolture a cremazione dalla necropoli di Scalvinetto (Legnago, Verona), uno dei più importanti complessi funerari birituali del BM e BR in Italia settentrionale (705 tombe). Oltre alla presentazione dei risultati salienti, sono stati approfonditi gli aspetti relativi alla diagnosi del sesso su base osteologica
Vicofertile (PR) - Area 212 / cantiere TEC
No full textTre sondaggi e uno scavo più ampio hanno
esplorato una stratigrafia databile al Neolitico e all’età del Bronzo. Al Neolitico medio è attribuibile una superficie
di frequentazione priva di elementi strutturali, marginale ad un insediamento. Più significativa l’occupazione
dell’età del Bronzo, a cui si riferisce tra l’altro una superficie d’uso con due fasi di buche di palo
e canaline pertinenti ad un grande edificio. La fase di abbandono è collocabile alla fine del BR, periodo a cui
appartiene anche un’area con dispersione di ossa umane e ceramica individuata in uno dei sondaggi
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