Yes / Iron Age chariot burials in the UK are rare and restricted in their distribution. Historically it has been suggested that their Arras culture affinities with Continental Europe, particularly with the Paris basin in France, may be indicative of migration. The majority of them are found on chalk and the putative source region is also chalk. This has meant that a study using only strontium isotopes to identify mobile individuals is problematic. Here we present a range of isotope ratio data (strontium, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and sulphur) for seven chariot burials from Wetwang, Garton Station and Kirkburn. The majority of them are of men and women who were born and lived locally, although the individual from Kirkburn is likely to have spent his childhood elsewhere. They do, however, differ quite subtly from others in the local population, probably in their relationship to a local land-use pattern operating between two distinct biospheres. / The British Academy provided funding (SG-51722)

Yes / It has been argued that no fishing occurred during the British Iron Age. However, sites in the Northern Isles have been producing large assemblages of small fish bones, complicating the picture. This project reconsiders this argument by investigating fish bone assemblages excavated from the site of Swandro on Rousay, Orkney. Multiple analytical methods were applied to the assemblages in order to determine the range of species present, the method of capture and treatment of the fish, and their influence on diet. Preliminary work consisted of identifying each individual bone to element and species. Due to the size of the average specimen, scanning electron microscopy was employed to examine samples for any indication of butchery, charring, or digestion. Light isotope analysis was also utilised to determine the effects of fish on the diets of the inhabitants of Iron Age Swandro. Results from these analytical approaches indicated the occurrence of low intensity fishing activity and consumption that had no significant effect on diet. However, intensification in fishing would begin to occur during the Later Iron Age, as evident by a shift in the composition of fish bone assemblages. This project can be considered a pilot study in the successful application of analytical methods to faunal assemblages in order to develop a more detailed interpretation of the environmental aspects of a site.

This thesis studies the evidence related to warfare and warriors in the Early Iron Age of Greece, from the eleventh to the early seventh century B.C.E. It argues that "warrior" identity, as expressed through burial with weapons or depictions of armed men and combat in pictorial painting and literature, is connected to violent action in order to create, maintain, and reinforce the relationship between authority and violent action. The forms that this violent action took were variable, from interregional conflict to overseas raids. This is outlined in Chapter 1, which is followed by two chapters summarizing the palatial (Chapter 2) and postpalatial (Chapter 3) background to the Early Iron Age. Chapters 4 to 7 present the evidence. In order to provide a more thorough analysis the focus is limited to the regions of Attica, central Euboea, the Argolid, and Knossos. The study of warfare in this period has been dominated by the study of weapons; in this thesis the approach focuses on the contexts in which these weapons are found, burials (Chapter 4), sanctuaries (Chapter 5), and occasionally settlements (Chapter 6). In these chapters the particular treatment and emphasis on weapons and armour is considered based on an understanding of these contexts in the period. In Chapter 7, representations and the treatment of warriors and warfare in Early Iron Age pictorial pottery is considered, as is briefly the literary evidence from the end of this period, which form the means by which contemporary people came to understand warfare. Chapter 8 discusses the evidence, while Chapter 9 summarizes the conclusions. This thesis shows that while warrior identity and the practice of war are closely related, in these areas of Early Iron Age Greece there are variations in the identification of men as warriors and in the intensity with which war is fought. Throughout the period, these regions express warrior identity in broadly similar ways, but with variations in duration, accessibility, and meaning. The eighth century is particularly a period of change with the intensification of warfare manifest in the destruction of settlements, but these changes are not restricted to this century, and are in many ways similar to the preceding centuries on a larger scale.

This thesis presents the results of compositional and statistical analyses of Iron Age ironworking residues from sites in Scotland, England, Wales and France. As no framework for ferrous archaeometallurgy previously existed in the main research area of Scotland, a catalog of sites was compiled to determine where targeted scientific analyses could be of most use in creating a regional metallurgical profile. Fieldwork carried out at the site of Meunet Planches in France provided the non- British research component, as extant analyses matching this study’s temporal criteria were not available. A total of 80 new SEM-EDS samples were generated (58 from Scotland and 22 from France), and used together with existing site- and regional-level compositional studies to explore chemical behavior following the procedures laid out by Charlton (2007) and others. These included a range of multivariate statistical techniques such as Hierarchical Clustering Analysis (HCA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Discriminant Analysis (DA). These approaches were considered within the wider discussion of smelting “systems” as defined by Dillmann and L’Heritier (2007), in an effort to visualize the relationship between compositional groups and parent geographic regions. Results indicate overall chemical homogeneity within and between the study regions, suggesting that the systems producing the slag were broadly similar in terms of their operation and reduction “efficiency”. This trend remains stable even when accounting for resource-based influence; implying that appreciable similarities existed between system operations (and therefore potentially human decisions) regardless of the size, age, or complexity of manufacturing industries. Deviation from this main compositional group, exhibited by only a handful of sites, seems to be similarly unrelated to temporal or geographic factors. Rather, it appears to follow the diffusion of slag between the two slag Optima identified by Rehren et al (2007), and on several of the outlier sites relates to the production of hypereutectoid steel.

Since the 1980's, few have included sub-Saharan African in worldwide comparative discussion of complex societies. This exclusion is at the expense of challenging embedded notions of the development of complexity. The trading polity Bosutswe (700-1700 AD) at the eastern edge of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and its surrounding region provide a perfect example of why this is important. In the Bosutswe region, complexity was not be driven by external factors, elites, or the core, but arose from local actors and out of localized contexts. During its occupation, Bosutswe became increasingly involved with long-distance trade in the Indian Ocean exchange network, linking trade from the African coast to the interior. At Bosutswe, glass beads associated with long-distance trade and local ostrich eggshell beads attest to a strong local economy supported by cattle herding, subsistence farming, and iron and bronze manufacture. This trade with Bosutswe peaked from 1200-1450 AD, when social stratification at Bosutswe became spatially and materially evident. This dissertation focuses on Bosutswe's trajectory through the point of view of two nearby settlements, Khubu la Dintša (1220-1420 AD) and Mmadipudi Hill (~550-1200 AD), to reconstruct the local economy and landscape. Expanding the concept of the polity to one situated in a landscape of human and environmental interchange provides a key comparative insight to other studies of complex societies and variable trajectories of societal development. The Bosutswe landscape and by extension Iron Age southern Africa can be conceptualized as a patchwork of landmark hilltop polity centers on a scrub desert landscape of agropastoral activity surrounded by smaller hilltop and ground sites. The local dynamic may have involved strategies by Bosutswe to mitigate environmental characteristics of low rainfall, opportunistic hunting and herding opportunities for the surrounding communities, and alliances between these communities for security in a politically unstable era. Everyday life would have involved issues about land use, as over time herders and farmers exhausted pastures, soil fertility, and firewood. Treating these early polities as landscapes of human, animal, and environmental relationships will help revise the way early complex societies are conceptualized: not as individual sites, but as local landscapes of power. / text

No description available.

No description available.

During the first half of the 8th century, people from the Phoenician Levant came to southern Iberia and founded a chain of settlements along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, as well as the city of Gadir (modern Cadiz) on the Atlantic seaboard. It is generally agreed that these colonisers came to the region to exploit the rich deposits of precious metals. Oriental style objects, which indicate the exchange between the Phoenician settlers and indigenous communities, can be found in almost all indigenous early Iron Age sites in the region. Initially, the purpose of this study had been to detect the elements of Greek and Phoenician influence in the material culture of the early Iron Age (the 8th century until around 600 BC), but as work progressed it became increasingly clear that this undertaking was far more complex than it had been assumed. The Phoenicians turned out to be only one factor in a complex process of transformation from the late Bronze Age way of life to the development of the early Iberian states after 600 BC. While the examination of the interaction between the indigenous communities and the eastern Mediterranean colonisers remained an important part of the study, my investigation now attempts to generate a more general picture of the early Iron Age in modern Andalusia, including the analysis of the social and economic processes which transformed society throughout the period. The investigation is organised on the basis of three major parts: An introduction: including the geography and climate of the region, as well as the history and archaeology of the Pheonician colonisation (with a certain emphasis on Gadir, and the excellently excavated site of Castillo Doña Blanca); as well as the indigenous Bronze Age background, and a number of theoretical considerations. The central part introduces the archaeological evidence, organised in two sections: a topographical section, describing the settlement and cemetery evidence; and a second section, discussing a selection of artefacts which, in my opinion, are particularly useful for a reconstruction of the social processes. Finally, the synthesis attempts to reconstruct various aspects of the early Iron Age culture in the region: such as the economic organisation, social development, ritual practice, and significance of the Phoenician presence for the development of the local cultures, as well as to introduce a regional division of the area under discussion.

I Gamla Uppsala har det förekommit arkeologiska utgrävningar i omgångar i flera år och decennier då platsen är känd för att ha varit bebodd så långt bak i tiden som järnåldern. Den senaste utgrävningen utfördes i samband med bygget av en järnvägstunnel som är en del av Ostkustbanan. Arkeologiska utgrävningar har delvis syftet att ta reda på hur folk har levt på en plats dvs. vilka grödor som odlades, vilka redskap som användes osv. För att få fram information från förhistoriska boplatser använder arkeologerna sig av olika metoder. En av dessa metoder är makrofossilanalys. Makrofossilanalys går ut på att fröer av bland annat sädesslag och ogräs extraheras, kvantifieras och artbestäms. Denna metod har legat till grund för detta projekt i syfte att funktionsbestämma tre hus från en järnåldersboplats i Gamla Uppsala. Metoden visade sig vara väldigt användbar i detta projekt då resultatet i viss utsträckning har kunnat användas för funktionsbestämning men det blev uppenbart att metoden enbart ger antydningar och fungerar bäst i kombination med andra metoder exempelvis fosfatanalys i en kombination med en tolkning av det övriga arkeologiska materialet. / There have been several excavations in Old Uppsala over the years and decades since the area has been inhabited since the Iron Age. The most recent excavation took place in connection with the construction of a railway tunnel, which is a part of the East Link project. The object of an archaeological excavation is to obtain information about the way in which previous civilizations lived in a specific location, what kind of crops were cultivated, what kind of tool were being used, and so forth. In order to obtain information about prehistoric settlements, archaeologists use a variety of different methods. One of these methods is called macrofossil analysis. By using macrofossil analysis, seeds and cereals, in the shape of macrofossils, can be extracted from soil samples. By analysing macrofossils, it is possible to obtain information about buildings and thereby establishing their purposes, for instance residence, barn, and so forth. In this thesis work, macrofossil analysis was used as a way to establish the different functions of three buildings from an Iron Age settlement in Old Uppsala.

Calabrese (2005) identified two distinct ceramics styles in the Shashe- Limpopo basin at the same time – Leokwe and K2. This is the first record of ethnicity in the Iron Age of southern Africa. With this identification come new avenues for research. How these groups interacted, and their relative status through time is the focus of my research. According to Calabrese, some Leokwe groups maintained a higher, or at least equal status on initial contact with K2, before K2 became the dominant political group. He bases this claim on the identification of what he terms ‘Elite Symbolic Objects’ at sites, such as Castle Rock. Using GIS, it is clear that the locale of sites differ within the landscape. Specifically, locations vary through time on the escarpment and floodplain and their relationship to primary and secondary resources. This variation suggests that access to resources was controlled, and this implication influences ones assessment of the relative status of K2 and Leokwe groups. Additionally, new excavations at Castle Rock call into question the validity of ‘elite symbolic objects’ in determining status.