Throughout history and prehistory, Sicily has played a key role for maritime trade in the Mediterranean. Interactions with Sicily are attested to in research for various societies throughout the Mediterranean as early as the Neolithic. However, much of this research paints Sicilian societies as passive, focusing primarily on external groups of people in a given period and their influence on the island. By ignoring the importance of the indigenous population, current research lacks a balanced approach to investigations and subsequent conclusions. This is most evident in literature pertaining to Mycenaean interactions with Sicily during the Bronze Age. Ceramic evidence and archaeometric studies can be used to reveal the impetus and scope of these interactions. This research addresses the nature of exchange in Bronze Age Sicily prior to Mycenaean influence. In addition, my research addresses apprehensions regarding the precision of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis on archaeological ceramics. Samples of Bronze Age ceramics from eight archaeological sites in southern Sicily were analyzed using non-destructive pXRF spectrometry. Multiple single spot and multi-spot analyses were conducted to assess the precision of the device and the non-destructive application of the technology on potentially heterogeneous materials. Findings show no significant difference in trace element composition levels with either method. Regional signatures of ceramic trace element compositions may be developed and used to assess existing exchange patterns in Bronze Age Sicily. Comparison of ceramic exchange patterns between the Early and Middle Bronze Age suggests that Sicilian populations had a strong local identity and were noticeably inter-connected prior to Aegean influence.

This masters essay studies the stone cist phenomenon during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age on the island of Gotland. The aim of the study is to understand the importance of the stone cist in society during this period, as well as attempting to categorize the stone cists located on the island. It can be argued that society during this period was a agricultural, highly hierarchical society with indications of a power center at the west northwestern parts of the island. Stone cists can be seen having different contexts involving number of individuals, location and features connected to the cist.An osteological study has also been performed on the skeletal material from the stone cist Alskog 48:1, with the aim of getting further knowledge regarding number of individuals and the age and sex distribution of those individuals. As well as questions regarding the stone cist construction and dating. The bone material presented 26 individuals, contrary to the 15 individuals which was initially identified during the excavation. These 26 individuals were of all ages, both male and female, with a slight majority of males. The stone cist which is a natural roofless cave, a natural cist, can according to the criteria defining a stone cist, be regarded as a stone cist and not another construction. / Denna magisteruppsats behandlar hällkistor under senneolitikum och äldre bronsålder på Gotland. Frågeställningar kring hällkistans betydelse i samhället under denna tid diskuteras, samt om det är möjligt att producera en kategorisering av hällkistor. Hällkistan har varit en viktig del i det senneolitiska - äldre bronsålders samhället, utifrån dessa går det identifiera ett agrikulturellt starkt hierarkiskt samhälle med indikationer på ett maktcenter i väst nordvästra kustregionen av ön. Kategorisering av hällkistor har visat olika särdrag hos hällkistor, vilka involverar individantal, lokalisering samt ytterligare anläggningar anslutna till hällkistan.En osteologisk analys har även utförts på skelettmaterialet hällkistan, Alskog 48:1 med frågor kring individantal, kön och ålderfördelning. Samt frågor kring datering på hällkistan och dess konstruktion. Benmaterialet presenterade 26 individer, i motsats till de 15 individer som initialt antagits funnits, av dessa fanns individer i alla åldrar. Både män och kvinnor identifierades, med en liten majoritet av män. Hällkistan i fråga som är en naturlig taklös grotta, naturlig kista, enligt de kriterier som använts kan denna konstruktion anses vara en hällkista och ingen annan typ av konstruktion.

ikiztepe is the largest excavated mound type settlement of prehistoric times in the Black Sea region in Turkey. It is located ca. 55 km northwest of Samsun, 7 km northwest of Bafra and is within the boundary of the present day village of Ikiztepe. The carbonised seeds and fruits secured from the occupation levels of ikiztepe houses dating from Chalcolithic to the Transition period are used to identify the crop processing activities conducted within the domestic units. Areas of fine sieving activity and the storage areas could be detected by the help of the analysis of the archaeobotanical materials. A comparison of the crop processing habits of the occupants of ikiztepe and other Early Bronze Age settlements in Anatolia is also made.

This study is a conclusion of radiocarbon datings which are depend on evaluations of archaeologists or scholars who publishes these datings. So it is very attached to observations of those scholars especially for determining sub-phases of samples which are dated. According to these datings, the radiocarbon story of Anatolian Early Bronze Age starts with a dating from Troia from 3760 cal. BC and ends with a dating from &Ccedil / adirh&ouml / y&uuml / k in 1630 cal. BC. Of course these dates are the lower and higher borders of the 68% probability band. As a result of assessments of all datings it can be said that the beginning of Early Broze Age in Anatolia is started equally more or less in every region at the same time interval that corresponds 3700/3400 BC and continued 800 years approximately. Although error deviation bands overlap onto each other, it is possible to say that the EB2 period of Anatolia ruled between 2800-2400 BC roughly. In this work it can be observed that the ending of the Early Bronze Age in Anatolia generally not ocured simultaneously. Sos H&ouml / y&uuml / k for example in the East Anatolia for example, drawing a very special profile with an ending date 2300 BC for the Early Bronze Age. Some other sites giving results as late as nearly in 18th. and 17th. century BC. For the timing of the end of Early Bronze Age in Anatolia, it can be said that, inequality among the sites are more likely other than regions.

This thesis focuses on late Early Bronze Age metal objects from funeral context from the site Kalinkaya-Toptastepe, dated to the late 4th and 3rd millennium BCE. The site yielded a large number of metal objects from EBA necropolis of the southern slope of Toptastepe, offering an ideal closed assemblage for an archaeometrical analysis to reveal the metalworking technologies of an early small rural community of Central Anatolia. First archaeometrical analysis applied on these objects, however, revealed unexpectedly high amounts of Zinc, which turned out to be not an intentional alloy, but modern contamination due to the electrochemical cleaning, carried out in the 1970s. A second analysis has carried out after cleaning the metal objects with micro-sandblasting technique, to remove the artificial Zn contamination. The accumulated data provided us with important insights into the metal consumption and alloying traditions of a late EBA village community in Central Anatolia, showing the earliest conscious alloys were being applied in small hamlets of the EBA as well. It has been apparent that any pre-Iron Age metal object, revealing Zn in its chemical composition can not be considered as early brass, but clearly a result of modern, ill-advised cleaning application.

Located in today’s southern Israel, Tell el Hesi provides archaeologists with important clues to political and social changes in the ancient Near East. Zooarchaeological and stable isotopic analyses were conducted to evaluate shifts in animal husbandry practices during changing socioeconomic and sociopolitical conditions in the southern Levant. During the Early Bronze Age, Tell el Hesi thrived as an agricultural grain producing center for the southern Levant. The acropolis served as both a storage and redistribution center for the inhabitants of Tell el Hesi. Coinciding with the collapse of the southern Levant, Tell el Hesi was abandoned throughout the Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age. Socioeconomic relations collapsed between the southern and northern Levant as foreign cultures swept into the region. The Iron Age and Persian Period represented constant sociopolitical change as Assyrian and Persian armies battled against Egypt for territory and natural resources, using Tell el Hesi as a military outpost and storage facility for soldiers and equipment. Unsystematic excavations at the site make it difficult to interpret how animals were used at Tell el Hesi over time. Zooarchaeological analysis suggests, however, that amidst constant societal changes at Tell el Hesi, the inhabitants of the site used animals in similar ways throughout time. Statistically, there seems to be little difference in the quantity of animal species represented during the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Persian Period. This suggests that the once common specialized pastoralism found in the Early Bronze Age survived into the Persian Period at Tell el Hesi and was an effective herd management strategy for small populations living in ever changing societies. Future excavation and analysis would be able to further assess this hypothesis. The stable isotope results suggest that domesticated animals at Tell el Hesi were consuming both C3 domesticated grain along with C4 wild grasses. Economically significant animals appear to have been foddered within the city boundaries of Tell el Hesi but predominantly grazed in the surrounding foothill area. Wild animals such as deer, gazelle and antelope share similar δ13C values with the domesticated animals at the site.

A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely anchored in history. This research team shows how.

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’Pygmy’, ‘incense’, ‘accessory’ or ‘funerary’ cups are small Early Bronze Age vessels, almost all from mortuary contexts, united by their diminutive size. Although several small-scale and regional studies have previously been undertaken, until recently there has been little attempt to consider such vessels as a whole. The vessels from the north of England were recently examined in detail by Hallam (2015), and the present study of the southern English vessels will complement Hallam’s work with the ultimate goal of producing a national corpus. Details of over three hundred and fifty vessels, from thirty counties, are presented together with a comprehensive literature review. Analysis demonstrates how the form and depositional contexts of such vessels probably arose within Beaker ceramic and funerary traditions. Many have complex biographies, some being deposited ‘fresh’ whilst others are fragmented or otherwise damaged. Perforations, long seen as a key feature of the tradition, appear to be restricted to certain forms only, and it is suggested that fenestration may be a development of this practice. Regional links and networks may be discerned through the distribution of attributes and similar vessel types and probably reflect trade networks. It is suggested that the cups had a primary role within Early Bronze Age funerary rituals associated only with certain individuals, perhaps marked out by the nature of their deaths / The full text will be available at the end of the embargo period: 21st Feb 2023

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