1,721,156 research outputs found
THE FIGURINES FROM THE EARLY NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT OF MAVROPIGI (WESTERN GREEK MACEDONIA) AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE IN THE NEOLITHIZATION PROCESS OF GREECE
No full textThe rescue excavations at the Early Neolithic settlement of Mavropigi-Fyllotsaïri (Kozani prefecture, Western Macedonia) carried out in 2005-2006 by the Archaeological Museum of Aiani-30th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, revealed the presence of a fully farming community in northern Greece dating before the middle of the 7th millennium cal BC. Two preliminary reports have been already published in a previous issue of Eurasian Prehistory, presenting the settlement outline and its chronological framework (Karamitrou-Mentessidi and Efstratiou, 2015), and the chipped stone assemblage (Kaczanowska and Kozłowski, 2015). In this paper which can be considered as the third part of the preliminary report on the sites’ excavation, the author presents the results of the study of 187 figurines. They are mostly anthropomorphic and made of fired clay, though some are zoomorphic and a few were made on stone. They represent one of the largest collections ever found within a welldated
Early Neolithic archaeological context in Greece. This paper provides a first full insight as regards various aspects of those findings and their implications
Indus Civilization
No full textThe Indus Civilization, otherwise called Harappan or Indus-Sarasvati, is one of the world’s earliest urban civilizations that flourished during the entire third millennium cal BC in a few regions of South Asia. Its distribution area covers part of present-day Pakistan, broadly corresponding to the Great Indus Valley, the Gujarat, north-western India, and part of Afghanistan. Archaeologists and philologists have identified this territory with the country called Meluhha in the ancient Mesopotamian texts. Besides impressive urban centers, the Indus Civilization is characterized by a developed agricultural system based on irrigation, a highly specialized handicraft activity, including the production of luxury items, and the transoceanic maritime trade of various goods. Moreover, its standardized weighting and measure systems followed both binary and decimal arrangements. Last, but not least, another hallmark of this civilization is its still undeciphered “script.” The Indus Civilization has been considered for long a sort of poorer relative of those that developed in Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley, which started to flourish ca 1000 years before. Moreover, since it has not left behind either a richly decorated monumental architecture comparable to the pyramids, temples, and royal palaces, or largesized sculptures, or products of great artistic value, it is not surprising that until recently it did not attract that much attention or was considered by archaeologists simply a later derivation of ancient Mesopotamian influence.
At present, the Indus Civilization is consi dered to represent quite an independent phenomenon whose development was very little influenced by any other culture. Furthermore, this civilization is of major interest for the study of the origin of complex human societies, since apparently it led to a distribution of wealth in a way much more equitable than those of other more or less contemporary Bronze Age civilizations
Le Riparo Mochi (Balzi Rossi, Ventimiglia, Italie) : les nouvelles fouilles
Full text linkGrimaldi Stefano, Santaniello Fabio, Starnini Elisabetta. Le Riparo Mochi (Balzi Rossi, Ventimiglia, Italie) : les nouvelles fouilles. In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, tome 114, n°1, 2017. pp. 169-172
Prehistoric polished stone artefacts in Italy: A petrographic and archaeological assessment
No full textThe paper illustrates the results of an archaeometric project on the raw material characterization of some collections of prehistoric polished stone tools, dated from the Early Neolithic to the Bronze Age, from sites located in Northern Italy. The petrographic analyses (surface and thin-section microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive spectrometry, X-ray fluorescence, atomic absorption spectrometry) revealed a raw material circulation network involving the whole of Northern Italy. Here occur the outcrops of high-pressure (HP) meta-ophiolites, which were widely utilized from the Early Neolithic onwards for the manufacture of polished cutting-edged tools, which are represented by axes, adzes and chisels. Other raw materials, such as serpentinites, seem to have been preferred for the production of other types of artefacts, including stone rings used as bracelets. The analyses revealed that the prehistoric polished stone artefacts were made from uncommon lithologies such as Alpine eclogites, jades and other HP meta-ophiolites. These rocks were exploited from primary and secondary sources, mainly located in Piedmont, the Aosta Valley and Liguria. During the Neolithic these lithologies are the dominant raw material for the polished stone tools in Northern Italy and southeastern France. In the same period, in other European countries the same lithologies occur less frequently as axe or adze blades; in NW Europe they were frequently used for manufacturing long ceremonial axes, which have a typology that does not appear to belong to the Italian tradition. © The Geological Society of London 2006
THE EXPLOITATION OF THE HIGHLAND ZONES: THE EARLIEST MESOLITHIC HUNTERS OF THE CENTRAL ALPINE ARC
No full textThis paper presents a case study of the high-altitude peopling in the Italian central Alpine arc. The results of ten years of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research in the south-central Alps led to a preliminary reconstruction of the models of human exploitation of this part of the Alpine chain. Traces of Mesolithic activity and hunting camps were discovered mainly around the shores of small basins of glacial origin, often located close to passes of easy access along important transalpine routes. The research described in this paper involved not only systematic and repeated surveys, but also the pollen coring of a few peat-bogs, radiocarbon dating and theexcavation of a few sites. In particular, the results achieved from the excavation of two Preboreal Sauveterrian sites at Valmaione in Val Camonica (central Lombard Alps) are briefly illustrated. The sites have been attributed to the beginning of the Holocene thanks to the characteristics of the chipped stone assemblage retrieved during excavation and radiocarbon datin
P. Biagi, E. Starnini - THE EXPLOITATION OF THE HIGHLAND ZONES:\ud THE EARLIEST MESOLITHIC HUNTERS OF THE CENTRAL ALPINE ARC
No full textThis paper presents a case study of the high-altitude peopling in the Italian central Alpine arc. The results of ten years of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research in the south-central Alps led to a preliminary reconstruction of the models of human exploitation of this part of the Alpine chain. Traces of Mesolithic activity and hunting camps were discovered mainly around the shores of small basins of glacial origin, often located close to passes of easy access along important transalpine routes. The research described in this paper involved not only systematic and repeated surveys, but also the pollen coring of a few peat-bogs, radiocarbon dating and theexcavation of a few sites. In particular, the results achieved from the excavation of two Preboreal Sauveterrian sites at Valmaione in Val Camonica (central Lombard Alps) are briefly illustrated. The sites have been attributed to the beginning of the Holocene thanks to the characteristics of the chipped stone assemblage retrieved during excavation and radiocarbon datin
Human Settlement and Environmental Exploitation of Valcamonica-Valtrompia Watershed from the Beginning of the Holocene to the Middle Ages
Full text linkAbstract - This paper discusses some aspects of the highaltitude peopling of Valcamonica-Valtrompia watershed within the general pattern of the prehistoric and historic exploitation of the Central Alpine arc of northern Italy. Research carried out during the last 30 years has shown extensive evidence of humanoccupation starting from the end of the Late Palaeolithic. Moreinformation is available for the beginning of the Holocene, witnessing the ascent of the watershed by groups of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers as soon as the alpine pastures had been freed from the ice sheet. The highland zone was exploited againduring the Bronze Age, as shown by the recovery of flintarrowheads from present-day footpaths, and a good set of radiocarbon dates. More recent, though sporadic occupations are documented during the Iron Age and the early Medieval period
The Palaeolithic sequence of the Arma dell’Aquila (Finale Ligure, Savona, North-western Italy)
No full textThe excavations carried out in the rock-shelter of Arma dell’Aquila by C. Richard in 1938 and 1940 led to the discovery of a thick stratigraphy, the lowermost deposit of which yielded evidence of different periods of Upper Palaeolithic occupation. The recent re-examination of the knapped stone assemblages, and the radiocarbon dating of two Palaeolithic layers, have shown that the site was briefly occupied most probably during the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic and the Early Epigravettian OIS-2 cold stage.Cercetările arheologice desfășurate în adăpostul sub stâncă de la Arma dell’Aquila de C. Richard în 1939 și 1940 au pus în evidență o secvență stratigrafică adâncă, din care stratul cel mai de jos a adus dovezi din perioade diferite de locuire atribuite Paleoliticului superior. Reexaminarea recentă a industriei litice cioplite și datarea cu radiocarbon a două niveluri paleolitice indică mai degrabă o scurtă ocupare a adăpostului la începutul Paleoliticului superior și pe durata episodului rece OIS-2 a Epigravetianului timpuriu.Biagi Paolo, Starnini Elisabetta. The Palaeolithic sequence of the Arma dell’Aquila (Finale Ligure, Savona, North-western Italy). In: Materiale şi cercetãri arheologice (Serie nouã), H-S 2021. pp. 217-228
The Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Settlement of Northern Italy: Recent Considerations
No full textA synthesis of the Early Neolithic sett,ent of northern Italy from Liguria, in the west, to the Trieste Karst, in the eas
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