Transitions Online_Around the Bloc-Kyrgyz Culture Minister Victim of Mummy’s Curse
Self-professed psychics claimed the spirit world demanded the return of the centuries-old woman’s preserved remains.
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Self-professed psychics claimed the spirit world demanded the return of the centuries-old woman’s preserved remains.
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The influence of Constantinople in almost every aspect of life in the provincial capitals located in its hinterland is undisputable. Thus, it is not surprisingly to find out that some initiatives that were established and carried out in the city of Constantine, and especially those of imperial importance were copied in these cities. The archaeological study in Philippopolis, the capital of Late antique province of Thrace, reveals among the examples known, one many note the case with the Theodosian Golden Gate. Unlike the Constantinopolitan prototype the Gate in Philippopolis is known in the literary sources as ‘Eastern Gate’, i.e. on the road coming from East, i.e. Constantinople. So, in this article are discussed the transformations that were carried out in the Gate-complex in Philippopolis according the nature and ideology of Porta aurea which in fact changed entirely the original complex.
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The work presnts a Byzantine lead seal discovered in the course of archaeological exacavation in Serdica in 2016. Obverse: The Virgin standing holding a medallion with the figure of Infant Jesus before her chest. In field left and right cross and star. Reverse: Cruciform monogram – Πρίσκου. The lead seal belonging to the military commander Priscos, who served the Byzantine emperors Maurice Tiberius (582–602) and Phocas (602–610) and guided the military operations of the Byzantine army against the invasions of Khazars and Slavs on the Lower Danube, is also dated back to the late 6th century. Serdica is the westernmost point of the distributi on of the seals of this military commander, which indicates the significance of the city to the superior commander. The historical value of molivdovul is excepti onal because it is related to events that took place in 599, when the Byzantine army headed by Priscos crossed the Danube at Viminacium, fought against the Avars for ten days and whilst pursuing them invaded the territory of the Avar Khanate in Pannonia. The complicated military situati on was accompanied by a terrible plague epidemic in Thrace. It probably prompted the military commander Priscos to send a lett er with orders to Serdica, which he sealed with the seal discovered at Sveta Nedelya Square excavati ons. The recipient remains unknown, but it is certain that he had a high positi on in the civil or military authoriti es and as such, he had to implement the orders of the commander of the Byzantine army. It seems quite possible that the official in question has resided in the excavated public building.
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Substance detected on Neolithic pottery found near Tbilisi could be the world’s oldest wine, archeologists believe.
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Les découvertes archéologiques de tout l’espace géographique compris entre la Tissa et le Dniestr démontrent l’intensité d’habitat des communautés humaines, à partir du Paléolithique inférieur et jusqu’à l’Epipaléolithique –Mésolithique. Du point de vue strictement statistique et à partir des données chronologiques–culturelles, le Paléolithique moyen est représenté, entre le Prut et le Dniestr par 11 sites (dont certains pluristratifiés), alors qu’à travers l’espace compris entre la Tissa et le Prut on a découvert et étudié par des fouilles systématiques 29 sites, dont certaines à plusieurs niveaux d’habitat moustérien ou appartenant au Paléolithique moyen. Pour la période du Paléolithique supérieur ancien (y compris pour la période de transition entre le Paléolithique moyen et le Paléolithique supérieur), on a enregistré 8 sites dans la zone délimitée par le Dniestr et le Prut et 41 sites entre le Prut et la Tissa, dont certaines pluristratifiées. Le Paléolithique supérieur récent (le Gravettien) est représenté par pas moins de 9 sites ou niveaux d’habitat entre le Dniestr et le Prut, et autres 53 sites entre le Prut et la Tissa. Pendant toutes les périodes et à travers tout l’espace compris entre la Tissa et le Dniestr il existe des habitats humains situés dans des grottes et d’autres, situés habituellement sur les terrasses des rivières. On ne peut exclure de cette présentation, même sommaire, des habitats humains de la période Epipaléolithique –Mésolithique, ce que nous avons nommé l’épisode swidérien, comme entité culturelle – technologique et ethnique, ce groupe arrivant par migration dans les Carpates Orientaux à éléments techniques – typologiques basés sur la présence des pointes pédonculées, identifiées aussi dans la zone du Dniestr (Molodova), du Răut (Selişte) etc., et dont l’origine semblese situer dans la Plaine nord-européenne.
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Kapova cave is located in the Southern Urals, Russia. The cave is a system of halls, galleries and corridors, located at three hypsometric levels, the lower of which is occupied by the river Podzemny Shulgan. The cultural layer has been radiocarbon-dated from 13930±300 (GIN-4853) to 16010±100 (KN-5023). The aim of this paper is to present the results of spectroscopic and uXRF analyses of the paint remains of cherry color, which were found in 2014 by the expedition from Moscow State University between two stones in the Chamber of Chaos. Application of a wide range of microanalytical methods, as well as multispectral and reflection transformation imaging and colour analysis was useful for the determination of the paint recipe. Morphological analysis of the haematite particles using polarized light microscopy helps us find a relationship between paint remains and some paintings in the Chamber of Chaos.
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The paper considers the problems associated with the interpretation of the Anosovo-Mezin type dwellings and the question of their origins. The data from Milovice 1, Khotylevo 2, and Pushkari I are used to trace the development of a particular tradition of Eastern Epigravettian, the final stage of which is characterized by big constructions made of mammoth bones. The taphonomy of mammoth bones and features of their spatial distribution in the considered objects are analyzed. The results of the comparative analysis made us doubt that these constructions were dwellings. In the author’s view, there are grounds to suggest a connection between the Anosovo-Mezin constructions and religious ideas that existed in the Upper Palaeolithic communities of Central and Eastern Europe.
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Processing of mammoth ivory is recognized widely as one of the most important characteristics of the material culture of the ancient man. In fact, the production of ivory tools is the most important innovation of the Upper Palaeolithic. The Yana site materials provide exceptionally rich and complete data set for understanding of the ivory technologies. Technological operations have been tightly connected with the size and shape of the desirable product, but also were determined by the raw material properties. Several technological cycles are recognized, including production of long ivory shafts by exfoliation with the use of wedging. Similar technologies were widely spread across Upper Palaeolithic of Northern Eurasia.
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The article presents the results of the complex archaeological study of the Late Palaeolithic open-air site of Pokrovka II (the Derbina Bay, the Krasnoyarsk reservoir). For the time being Pokrovka II is the only site in East Siberia which yielded human bones dated to the end of the Kargin period (some 27 thousand years ago). In its typological composition the blade industry of Pokrovka II belongs to the group of the earliest sites from the Derbina Bay. Furthermore, it has many features in common with the Ust’-Karakol assemblage of South Siberia. The industry of this group of sites is characterized by big blades produced of single- and double-platform cores with one or two working surfaces. The toolset includes endscrapers, points, cutting and scraping tools on blades, chisel-like tools, perforators on flakes, and a bifacially worked object.
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The paper presents the results of a complex research aimed at the reconstruction of blade production technology in the industry of layer 19 of the site of Listvenka on the Middle Yenisei. The site is dated within the period from 17 to 10 kya. The assemblage belongs to the so called small blade industry characteristic of the middle stage of the Late Palaeolithic of Siberia. It includes more than 7 thousand of stone and bone objects. Thanks to the combination of experimental, technological and typological studies supplemented with refitting it became possible to reconstruct and describe in detail the principal techniques of small blade and bladelet production used by the ancient tool makers and to establish cause-and-effect links between different methods of knapping and the character of technical flakes and blanks.
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Some Late Bronze Age finds (Noua culture) from Poieneşti, Vaslui County are discussed in the present article. A few finds of an Early Hallstatt type from the Cucuteni settlement at Scânteia, Iaşi County, are also briefly discussed. The finds from Poieneşti come exclusively from the cultural layer. The scarce pottery bowls and pots that can be reconstructed have analogies in other settlements of the Noua culture. Other pieces typical of this group are flint sickles (Krummesser) and notched shoulder blades of bovids. The most interesting find is an antler side-piece of a bridle, showing a markedly narrowed end with small knobs and with so-called Danubian-Mycenaean incised decoration. It may be included in the Spiš type. That type was latest treated by H.-G. Hüttel, who dated most of the examples from the Carpathian Basin to the end of the Early Bronze Age/beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (FD III/MD I). A review of the old and new material by N. Boroffka allowed a distinction among several variants, of which variant b may be divided into 5 subvariants. The distribution now shows a new concentration east of the Carpathian Mountains and the chronology for the whole group has been revised. Most pieces belong to the Late Bronze Age and may be connected to the last stages of the Otomani culture and the Noua – Sabatinovka cultural complex. The bronze sickles found at Poieneşti may have been part of a destroyed hoard. They belong to an eastern type (Ibrakaevo, according to Dergačev and Bočkarev), which may be connected to the Noua settlement and which indicate the known eastern influence on that culture. Some sherds from Scânteia, Iaşi County, probably belong to the Early Hallstatt Corlăteni group, although they preserve features of the Noua culture. Also from Scânteia is a bone pine with a pot-like head. It may be the most easterly example of this type of pin; it is widely datable to the period Bz. D – Ha. C, and it clearly shows western influence.
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It is widely known that bronze and, generally, metal artifacts contribute much to the clarification of lesser known aspects in the evolution of human communities. The authors of this note present four bronze objects, namely two safety pins (fibulae) and two garment accessories; pieces of those kinds are rare not only in Dobrudja (the northeastern side of the Roman province Moesia Inferior), but also in other areas, their rarity being the reason why we have chosen to publish them together. Their archaeological context is unknown, but their discovery place lies in south of Dobrudja, in the area of the villages Pecineaga and Izvoarele- Pîrjoaia, Constanţa County. They belonged to a private collection, but at present they are exhibited at the Archaeological Museum of Constanţa. Of the two pins, one belongs to a Near East (Neo-Assyrian) type dated to the 8th –6th centuries BCE – the Elbow type (No. 1); the other is a well-known type of fibula belonging to the Roman provincial zoomorphic class – the Panther type (No. 2). The last artifacts (Nos. 3 and 4) discussed in the note are clasp-brackets with S-shaped hooks dated to the first half of the 5th century CE; they are considered, on the basis of analogies, to be products of Ostrogothic workshops.
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The paper considers the unique materials of archaeological research on a Bulgarian settlement near the village of Rechnoe in Alekseevskii district of Tatarstan (Ostolopovo Settlement). These are fragments of glazed ceramics, glass ornaments, ornamental stones, fragments of artistic metal bowls, and coins. All these items were carried to the settlement from the eastern countries (Iran, Central Asia, Egypt, and Syria). The findings were precisely dated, mostly within the limits of the 11th century. Such artefacts as a piece of the Egyptian perfume bottle dated to the 11th century, a set of iron plates from an amour of the same time are of particular interest. They are similar to other findings from Central Asia, being either very rare in the Bulgarian antiquities or found for the first time. These artefacts were brought to the settlement from Bilär, the great medieval city.
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The article discusses a new Late Neolithic burial investigated in the Upper Neman region in 2014. A flat grave in the Corded Ware culture’s range was found at the multi-period Drazdy 12 site in Western Belarus. e special features of the burial and grave goods correspond to the characteristics of the local ‘corded’ groups as well as the Middle Dnieper culture. Some characteristics could have originated in the Globular Amphora culture’s traditions. Based on the typological criteria, the burial was dated to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC.
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2015 m. birželio 9–13 d. Švedijoje, Geteborgo universitete, įvyko 13-asis Šiaurės Europos bronzos amžiaus simpoziumas (13th Nordic Bronze Age Symposium). Kas trejus metus (12-asis – Orhuse, 11-asis – Helsinkyje, 10-asis – Tronheime) organizuojamas renginys pastaraisiais metais išsiplėtė ir tapo viena ryškiausių Baltijos jūros regiono bronzos amžiaus tyrinėjimams skirtų konferencijų. Be to, šis simpoziumas tapo puikia moksline erdve vyraujančioms temoms, taikomiems metodams bei dabartinei archeologijos mokslo raidai palyginti.
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2016 m. rugpjūčio 31 – rugsėjo 4 dienomis Vilniuje vyko iki šiol didžiausias archeologijos mokslo renginys – 22-asis Europos archeologų asociacijos (European Association of Archaeologists – EAA) susitikimas. Ši kasmetinė konferencija aplankė jau 20 Europos valstybių, o rytinėje Baltijos jūros pakrantėje vyko trečią kartą (1996 m. EAA susitikimas surengtas Rygoje, 2012 m. – Helsinkyje). Lietuvoje tik antrą kartą priimtas tokio masto „keliaujantis“ archeologijos renginys – pirmasis buvo dar 1893 m. Vilniuje surengtas IX Rusijos archeologų suvažiavimas. Žinoma, pastarasis buvo visai kitoks tiek politinėmis aplinkybėmis, tiek dalyvių skaičiumi ir geogra5ja, tiek archeologijos mokslo supratimu ir vietos archeologų bendruomenės pajėgumais, tačiau lėmė kokybinį šuolį Lietuvos archeologijoje, bent jau tuometinės Rusijos imperijos mokslo lygio ribose. Šie du daugiau nei šimtmečio skiriami renginiai ateityje neabejotinai dar ne kartą bus lyginami mokslo istorikų, ir reikia tikėtis, kad Lietuvos archeologijos žingsnis pirmyn bus pagrindinis šių palyginimų motyvas.
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