Archaeology
Neolithic coastal settlements were resilient in the face of climate change
A study of the submerged site of Habonim North indicates that Neolithic coastal settlements were resilient in the face of climate change.
Habonim North is located 200 metres south of Tel Nami in Israel’s Carmel Coast. It was first identified between 2015 and 2017 at a depth of 2.5 to 3.0 metres, and then rediscovered in 2018 during an underwater survey.
Excavations by the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Haifa have uncovered a series of walls and two round-stone installations, both constructed of a single course of stone.
The removal of sediment layers has revealed numerous objects, including pottery, lithics, bone and botanical assemblages (mainly seeds), which according to the study authors provide information about the extent of the site and the intensity of its occupation.
The pottery and ceramics include light-coloured ware with coarse temper, the knob handle from a storage jar. and the painted rim of a hole-mouth jar. Based on the style and form, the pottery can be associated with Yarmukian and Jericho IX sites, where similar examples have previously been found.
Image Credit : Antiquity
A radiocarbon analysis of charred botanical remains indicates that Habonim North dates from between the 6th to 7th millennium BC, also corresponding with the range of the Yarmukian and Jericho IX phases during the Early Pottery Neolithic (EPN).
Around this time, coastal settlements collapsed in the wake of the 8.2-kiloyear event, a climatic drop in global temperatures around 6,200 BC.
However, postdating the 8.2ka climatic event, Habonim North demonstrates a resilient, sedentary site, with a complex and diverse economic system that included local production and long-distance exchange.
According to the study authors: “Diversification is evident in the addition of non-local raw materials and goods, which likely arrived through exchange. This is seen in the basalt finds, made of a material that is not found along the Carmel Coast, which have typological parallels from inland sites.”
The zooarchaeological assemblage also demonstrates how the community used domestic and wild animals, supplemented by a diet of fish from the coast.
“These results indicate that early Neolithic societies were resilient and sustainable, providing the foundation for the later social and economic changes that lead to the development of urbanism.”
Header Image Credit : Antiquity
Sources : Antiquity | Nickelsberg R, Levy TE, Shahack-Gross R, et al. Continuity and climate change: the Neolithic coastal settlement of Habonim North, Israel. Antiquity. 2024;98(398):343-362. doi:10.15184/aqy.2024.32
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been excavating a burial ground associated with the Finnic Muromians.
The Finnic Muromians were groups of settlers that lived within the vicinity of the Volga and Oka rivers. They spoke Muromian, an Uralic language that became extinct following their assimilation by the Slavs.
The burial ground, which dates from the early 10th century AD, was discovered on the eastern bank of the Oka river, located in the Nizhny Novgorod Region of Russia.
A total of seventeen burial pits have been identified, nine of which have been severely damaged through looting.
The surviving 8 burials contain the remains of four children, two women, and two men.
The men were accompanied with an ornate collection of grave goods, including arrowheads, knives, bronze bracelets, iron plates, a bronze buckle, and a whetstone.
At the bottom of one of the pits is a heavily corroded axe, along with a flint that has traces of iron-coated embossed leather and textile threads.
The burials containing women were also accompanied with high status funerary goods, such as a necklace of red-brown prismatic and dark blue berry-shaped beads of Byzantine origin, signet ring-shaped pendants, plate bracelets, a bronze spiral, and a silver ring.
Traces of wood within the pit fillings suggest that they originally contained a wooden structure, similar to a log house made of thin beams and covered with birch bark.
According to the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “The culmination of the discoveries at the site were two clay vessels, testifying to direct and close contacts between the right-bank Muromians and the Old Russian population.”
Header Image Credit : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Sources : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt are currently excavating the site of a former gallows in Quedlinburg, Germany.
Gallows are usually wooden structures made of two vertical posts, a horizontal crossbeam, and a hanging noose. They have been used for executing criminals by hanging, a prevalent form of capital punishment in Europe since the Middle Ages.
Archaeologists are currently excavating a gallows site on Galgenberg, or ‘Gallows Hill,’ which was used for public executions by the courts in Quedlinburg from 1662 to 1809.
Excavations have revealed complete and partial burials in the area, along with bone pits containing multiple bundled burials, likely the result of mass executions carried out in a short period.
Image Credit : LDA
According to the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt, “these discoveries provide unique insights into penal practices from the Middle Ages and early modern times.”
A burial unrelated to the gallows has also been unearthed, featuring a wooden coffin containing the skeletal remains of an individual buried with a rosary chain.
Archaeologists propose that the burial’s characteristics suggest that the individual was likely a suicide victim, denied burial in consecrated ground so was placed in the cemetery near the gallows.
Also discovered is a so-called ‘revenant grave’, where the skeletal remains of a man was found placed on his back with several large stones placed across his chest.
According to the researchers, the stones were likely placed to prevent the individual from rising as a revenant, which are described as animated corpses in the verbal traditions and lore of many European ethnic groups.
In medieval times, those inflicted with the revenant condition were generally suicide victims, witches, corpses possessed by a malevolent spirit, or the victim of a vampiric attack.
Header Image Credit : LDA
Sources : State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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