• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Bronze Age Discoveries & Findings

There was a great find of a cist burial a couple of years back in the Central Lowlands - this is the University of Glasgow web pages and you can clik through to get to the weaponry

http://tiny.cc/shg5mx

It so good when something like this gets a modern excavation rather than getting treasure hunted 100 years ago. Although I do think that in a century's time we'll be being criticised in exactly the same way :)

I especially like the carving being on the underside of the cap stone. :shock:
 
Welcome back, Frideswide!
 
Why thank you Mytho sir! How nice :yeay:
 
Greek Bronze Age ended 100 years earlier than thought, new evidence suggests

Conventional estimates for the collapse of the Aegean civilization may be incorrect by up to a century, according to new radiocarbon analyses.

While historical chronologies traditionally place the end of the Greek Bronze Age at around 1025 BCE, this latest research suggests a date 70 to 100 years earlier.

Archaeologists from the University of Birmingham selected 60 samples of animal bones, plant remains and building timbers, excavated at Assiros in northern Greece, to be radiocarbon dated and correlated with 95.4% accuracy using Bayesian statistical methodology at the University of Oxford and the Akademie der Wissenschaften Heidelberg, Germany. ...

The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.

http://phys.org/news/2014-10-greek-bron ... er.html#ms
 
Bronze age palace and grave goods discovered at the archaeological site of La Almoloya in Pliego, Murcia

Archaeologists from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have discovered a palatial construction with an audience hall which makes up the first specifically political precincts built in continental Europe. A prince's tomb in the subsoil contains the largest amount of grave goods from the Bronze Age existing in the Iberian Peninsula. Some of the most outstanding items include a silver diadem of great scientific and patrimonial value, the only one conserved from that era in Spain, as well as four golden and silver ear dilators.

Excavations conducted in August by the researchers of the UAB's Department of Prehistory Vicente Lull, Cristina Huete, Rafael Micó y Roberto Risch have made evident the unique archaeological wealth of La Almoloya site, located in Pliego, Murcia. The site was the cradle of the "El Argar" civilisation which lived in the south-eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula during the Bronze Age. ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 101410.htm
 
Scientists have found that climate change could not, as commonly assumed, be responsible for a huge population collapse in Europe at the end of the Bronze Age.

Archaeologists and environmental scientists from UCC, the University of Bradford, University of Leeds, and Queen’s University Belfast have shown that the changes in climate that scientists believed coincided with the fall in population in fact occurred at least two generations later.

Their results, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show human activity started to decline after 900BC, and fell rapidly after 800BC, indicating a population collapse. However, the climate records show colder, wetter conditions didn’t occur until about two generations later.

Fluctuations in levels of human activity are reflected by the numbers of radiocarbon dates for a given period. The team used new statistical techniques to analyse 2,000 radiocarbon dates, taken from hundreds of archaeological sites in Ireland, to pinpoint the precise dates Europe’s Bronze Age population collapse occurred. ...

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/br ... 98267.html
 
According to Search, nothing has been posted this year including the words "Bronze Age"!
I'm pretty sure that's wrong, but until such time as an appropriate thread reappears, I'll post this here:

Chichester skeleton: Racton Man 'was warrior chief killed in battle'
_79737105_ractonman1.jpg
Racton Man was discovered during a dig in 1989 near Westbourne, West Sussex

A 4,000-year-old skeleton found on farmland in West Sussex was probably a warrior chief who was killed in battle, scientists have revealed.
Tests on the Bronze Age skeleton showed he was over 45 when he died, probably grew up in southern Britain around what is now West Sussex, and was 6ft tall.
The skeleton was found in 1989 during a dig near Westbourne led by archaeologist James Kenny.
It is now on display at The Novium Museum in Chichester.

The skeleton, known as Racton Man because of where he was found, was discovered with one of the earliest known bronze daggers in the UK, leading scientists to believe he was a tribal chief.
Experts said that wounds to his upper arm made around the time of his death which had never healed suggested he had died during a fight.
Mr Kenny, Chichester District Council's archaeologist, described the results as "staggering".
"The fact that this man had a bronze dagger would have been phenomenally rare then, let alone now," he said.
_79737110_excavation2r.jpg

A dig was carried out after a metal detector user found bone and metal fragments
_79737111_theburialsiter.jpg

The skeleton was found in a crouched position with a dagger in its hands
Specialists from England, Wales and Scotland analysed the skeleton's teeth, bones and weapon to learn about the man.
Some of the details learnt about Racton Man:
  • He was over the age of 45 when he died
  • He was buried with one the earliest bronze daggers ever found in the country
  • He suffered from a number of conditions including spinal degeneration, a chronic sinus infection and tooth decay
  • He grew up in southern Britain, possibly around modern-day West Sussex
  • He died between 2300BC and 2150BC
Dr Stuart Needham, a Bronze Age specialist who took part in the study, said Racton Man would have been "someone of great seniority".
"We don't understand the social structure of this time, but he would have been a very prominent member of society," Dr Needham said.
Isotope analysis on the skeleton's teeth revealed where he had grown up while radiocarbon dating showed he lived during the Bronze Age.
_79737112_daggerfoundwithractonman.jpg

The dagger handle was made of horn or bone but has now disappeared

_79738157_racton3.jpg

The dagger is one of only seven ornate rivet-studded daggers ever discovered in the UK

Racton Man was also found to be displaying signs of spinal degeneration, thought to be due to his age, and had suffered from a chronic sinus infection as well as an abscess and tooth decay.
While the skeleton was found in the 1980s, tests have only now been carried out after funding was made available by Chichester District Council.
Councillor Myles Cullen, a cabinet member for the council, said: "To think that we can discover such detail about a man who died more than 4,000 years ago, while learning more about the country's history, is just incredible."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-30478544
 
Y
According to Search, nothing has been posted this year including the words "Bronze Age"!
I'm pretty sure that's wrong, but until such time as an appropriate thread reappears, I'll post this here:

Chichester skeleton: Racton Man 'was warrior chief killed in battle'
_79737105_ractonman1.jpg
Racton Man was discovered during a dig in 1989 near Westbourne, West Sussex

A 4,000-year-old skeleton found on farmland in West Sussex was probably a warrior chief who was killed in battle, scientists have revealed.
Tests on the Bronze Age skeleton showed he was over 45 when he died, probably grew up in southern Britain around what is now West Sussex, and was 6ft tall.
The skeleton was found in 1989 during a dig near Westbourne led by archaeologist James Kenny.
It is now on display at The Novium Museum in Chichester.

The skeleton, known as Racton Man because of where he was found, was discovered with one of the earliest known bronze daggers in the UK, leading scientists to believe he was a tribal chief.
Experts said that wounds to his upper arm made around the time of his death which had never healed suggested he had died during a fight.
Mr Kenny, Chichester District Council's archaeologist, described the results as "staggering".
"The fact that this man had a bronze dagger would have been phenomenally rare then, let alone now," he said.
_79737110_excavation2r.jpg

A dig was carried out after a metal detector user found bone and metal fragments
_79737111_theburialsiter.jpg

The skeleton was found in a crouched position with a dagger in its hands
Specialists from England, Wales and Scotland analysed the skeleton's teeth, bones and weapon to learn about the man.
Some of the details learnt about Racton Man:
  • He was over the age of 45 when he died
  • He was buried with one the earliest bronze daggers ever found in the country
  • He suffered from a number of conditions including spinal degeneration, a chronic sinus infection and tooth decay
  • He grew up in southern Britain, possibly around modern-day West Sussex
  • He died between 2300BC and 2150BC
Dr Stuart Needham, a Bronze Age specialist who took part in the study, said Racton Man would have been "someone of great seniority".
"We don't understand the social structure of this time, but he would have been a very prominent member of society," Dr Needham said.
Isotope analysis on the skeleton's teeth revealed where he had grown up while radiocarbon dating showed he lived during the Bronze Age.
_79737112_daggerfoundwithractonman.jpg

The dagger handle was made of horn or bone but has now disappeared

_79738157_racton3.jpg

The dagger is one of only seven ornate rivet-studded daggers ever discovered in the UK

Racton Man was also found to be displaying signs of spinal degeneration, thought to be due to his age, and had suffered from a chronic sinus infection as well as an abscess and tooth decay.
While the skeleton was found in the 1980s, tests have only now been carried out after funding was made available by Chichester District Council.
Councillor Myles Cullen, a cabinet member for the council, said: "To think that we can discover such detail about a man who died more than 4,000 years ago, while learning more about the country's history, is just incredible."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-30478544
You could try over in the other Earth Mysteries forum, historical and classical cases.
 
The problem is the Search function. People used to moan about the old one, but at least that accepted 3-letter words as inputs. This hi-falutin' little darling gets sniffy if you try to search on 5 or 6 letter words! :mad:
 
Why were his teeth so bad if he was eating unprocessed food with no added sugar?
Honey was available.
So was bread, roughly ground and complete with husks and bits of sand. Tooth-crackingly good! :)
 
According to Search, nothing has been posted this year including the words "Bronze Age"!
I'm pretty sure that's wrong, but until such time as an appropriate thread reappears, I'll post this here:

Chichester skeleton: Racton Man 'was warrior chief killed in battle'
_79737105_ractonman1.jpg
Racton Man was discovered during a dig in 1989 near Westbourne, West Sussex

A 4,000-year-old skeleton found on farmland in West Sussex was probably a warrior chief who was killed in battle, scientists have revealed.
Tests on the Bronze Age skeleton showed he was over 45 when he died, probably grew up in southern Britain around what is now West Sussex, and was 6ft tall.
The skeleton was found in 1989 during a dig near Westbourne led by archaeologist James Kenny.
It is now on display at The Novium Museum in Chichester.

The skeleton, known as Racton Man because of where he was found, was discovered with one of the earliest known bronze daggers in the UK, leading scientists to believe he was a tribal chief.
Experts said that wounds to his upper arm made around the time of his death which had never healed suggested he had died during a fight.
Mr Kenny, Chichester District Council's archaeologist, described the results as "staggering".
"The fact that this man had a bronze dagger would have been phenomenally rare then, let alone now," he said.
_79737110_excavation2r.jpg

A dig was carried out after a metal detector user found bone and metal fragments
_79737111_theburialsiter.jpg

The skeleton was found in a crouched position with a dagger in its hands
Specialists from England, Wales and Scotland analysed the skeleton's teeth, bones and weapon to learn about the man.
Some of the details learnt about Racton Man:
  • He was over the age of 45 when he died
  • He was buried with one the earliest bronze daggers ever found in the country
  • He suffered from a number of conditions including spinal degeneration, a chronic sinus infection and tooth decay
  • He grew up in southern Britain, possibly around modern-day West Sussex
  • He died between 2300BC and 2150BC
Dr Stuart Needham, a Bronze Age specialist who took part in the study, said Racton Man would have been "someone of great seniority".
"We don't understand the social structure of this time, but he would have been a very prominent member of society," Dr Needham said.
Isotope analysis on the skeleton's teeth revealed where he had grown up while radiocarbon dating showed he lived during the Bronze Age.
_79737112_daggerfoundwithractonman.jpg

The dagger handle was made of horn or bone but has now disappeared

_79738157_racton3.jpg

The dagger is one of only seven ornate rivet-studded daggers ever discovered in the UK

Racton Man was also found to be displaying signs of spinal degeneration, thought to be due to his age, and had suffered from a chronic sinus infection as well as an abscess and tooth decay.
While the skeleton was found in the 1980s, tests have only now been carried out after funding was made available by Chichester District Council.
Councillor Myles Cullen, a cabinet member for the council, said: "To think that we can discover such detail about a man who died more than 4,000 years ago, while learning more about the country's history, is just incredible."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-30478544
 
Jeez chronic sinusitis, an abscess and a bad back. Wouldn't fancy meeting him on a battlefield he must have been in a foul mood.
 
A retired garda is likely to have “removed and disturbed human remains” when he damaged a Bronze Age burial mound in County Wicklow, a court has heard. Tony (also known as Thomas) Hand, aged 69, had denied interfering with the national monument at Carrig, Blessington, by taking stones from the protected site on the night of May 4, 2011.

However following a week-long trial at Bray Circuit Court, he was convicted yesterday of criminal damage to the prehistoric stone circle. It took the jury just over three hours to return a majority guilty verdict of 10 to 2. Judge Gerard Griffin remanded Hand, with an address at Carrig, Blessington, on bail for sentencing on Friday, February 20.

Archeologist Chris Corlett told the court he visited the site on May 6, 2011, and noticed obvious disturbances within the burial chamber and that stones had been recently dislodged and moved.

“There is a strong likelihood that human remains had been removed and disturbed and that artifacts may have been removed. The whole understanding of the monument was compromised.”

He told Paul Murray, prosecuting, that he had visited the 4,000-year-old site over 20 times in the last decade. He said there was evidence of at least one burial chamber or compartment which would have contained urns of the cremated remains of local people buried over thousands of years and their accompanying “grave goods”. ...

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/former-garda-damaged-bronze-age-burial-mound-309816.html
 
A retired garda has been given an 18-month suspended sentence and fined €10,000 after he “flagrantly and blatantly” damaged a prehistoric burial mound in Co Wicklow.

Witnesses described seeing Tony Hand (69) swinging a pick-axe and removing large stones in a wheelbarrow from the Bronze Age site at Carrig, Blessington on the night of May 4th, 2011.

Passing sentence at Bray Circuit Court, Judge Gerard Griffin said Hand knew there was a 2005 Preservation Order protecting the national monument on his land....

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crim...ce-for-damaging-bronze-age-monument-1.2111239
 
Via Past Horizons
3,500 year-old bronze artefacts (sic) inside upturned pot found in south-east Poland
A ceramic vessel containing 3,500 year old bronze artefacts was recently discovered at Rzepedź in the Bieszczady Mountains (south-east Poland) after a walker noticed an ice axe sticking out of the ground.
/snip
All the objects are made of bronze. The treasure contains a pickaxe, dozens of fragments of a spiral necklace and a bracelet ” – said Piotr Kotowicz, an archaeologist at the Historical Museum in Sanok.

For me, as an archaeologist it is very important that after finding one object the discoverer did not explore the place further himself, but reported the discovery and waited for specialists. This approach is commendable, and from the point of view of archaeology, it means preserving a lot of information that would otherwise be unrecoverable” – said Kotowicz
 
"It really was a crapshoot, with very high stakes for sovereign rulers in a turbulent time," says Cornell archaeologist Adam T. Smith, interpreting evidence from 3,300-year-old Bronze Age shrines, ensconced within a hilltop fortress on the Tsaghkahovit Plain of central Armenia. Smith, a professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences, studies the role that the material world – everyday objects, representational media, natural and built landscapes – plays in the political lives of ancient and modern-day people.

Dice-like knucklebones used for osteomancy and colored stones used for lithomancy (divination with bones and stones, respectively) were found deep within the ruins of the fallen citadel of Gegharot. Aleuromancy (divination with freshly ground flour) is a likely explanation for implements found in one of three shrines, Smith and Cornell Ph.D. candidate Jeffrey F. Leon report in their October 2014 American Journal of Archaeology article, "Divination and Sovereignty: The Late Bronze Age Shrines at Gegharot, Armenia." ...

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-03-bronze-age-bones-evidence-political.html#jCp

 
Archaeologists are mystified by nearly 2,000 tiny golden spirals dug up in a field in eastern Denmark.

The coils, made from thin filaments about 3cm (1in) long, date from between 900BC and 700BC, according to Flemming Kaul of the National Museum in Copenhagen. But he and his colleagues aren't quite sure what they have found. "The fact is we don't know what they were for, although I'm inclined to think they were part of a priest-king's robes, perhaps a fringe on a head-piece or parasol, or maybe woven into cloth," he says on the museum's website. The gold spirals will go on display at Skaelskor City Museum next week.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-33463497
 
no way... obviously shearing from the Golden Fleece :)
Ha! You beat me to it!
Yes, it looks like that.
Could also be swarf left over from turning gold on a lathe, and whoever had it sneaked it away from the workshop...
 
Cornwall was scene of prehistoric gold rush, says new research
David Keys Archaeology Correspondent
Thursday 04 June 201

New archaeological research is revealing that south-west Britain was the scene of a prehistoric gold rush.
A detailed analysis of some of Western Europe’s most beautiful gold artefacts suggests that Cornwall was a miniature Klondyke in the Early Bronze Age.
Geological estimates now indicate that up to 200 kilos of gold, worth in modern terms almost £5 million, was extracted in the Early Bronze Age from Cornwall and West Devon’s rivers – mainly between the 22nd and 17th centuries BC.

New archaeological and metallurgical research suggests that substantial amounts were exported to Ireland, with smaller quantities probably also going to France. It also suggests that the elites of Stonehenge almost certainly likewise obtained their gold from the south-west peninsula, as may the rulers of north-west Wales, who took to wearing capes made of solid gold.

The archaeologist who has carried out the metallurgical research, Dr Chris Standish of Southampton University, believes that although Cornwall’s prehistoric gold production was of considerable cultural and potentially political significance, it was, for the most part, merely a by-product of an even more important industry – tin extraction.
“The available evidence strongly suggests that in Bronze Age Cornwall and West Devon, tin wasn’t obtained through mining, but was instead extracted from the areas’ rivers, probably through panning or sophisticated damming and sluicing systems,” said Dr Standish.

Cornish tin was crucial to the development of the Bronze Age in Western Europe, Britain and Ireland – because in order to make bronze, the prehistoric metalworkers had to combine copper with tin.
Local rivers eroded out both tin and gold from the south-west peninsula’s exposed granite and other hard rock landscapes – from west to east, areas like Land’s End, Carnmenellis, St. Austell, Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor.

“But, as well as finding tin in the sand and gravels of the streams and rivers, they also found gold,” he added.
Indeed, fine woolly sheepskins may well have been used to ‘catch’ the tiny grains of both tin and gold – in a technique similar to that which, in ancient Greek mythology, probably gave rise to the concept of the Golden Fleece.
The ratio of gold to tin in the upper reaches of many of those rivers in the Early Bronze Age was potentially as high as 1:5000 – so, combining archaeological and geological evidence, it is likely that up to 200 kilos of gold were extracted during that period.

etc...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...ric-gold-rush-says-new-research-10298343.html
 
Why were his teeth so bad if he was eating unprocessed food with no added sugar?


Interesting point about tooth decay. Rare evidence of tooth decay in hunter gatherers teeth, whereas tooth decay is more prevalent in agrarian societies - could be from grit as a by product of the grinding process, or carbohydrates which are metabolised by bacteria to form acids. A diet with no carbohydrate (or highly acidic foods) will prevent tooth decay completely.
 
Fruit has acid in it, though, so if you cut that out of your diet the scurvy would dispose of your gnashers pretty swiftly, wouldn't it?
 
Fruit has acid in it, though, so if you cut that out of your diet the scurvy would dispose of your gnashers pretty swiftly, wouldn't it?

True GNC, but plants of the brassica genus and peppers and chillies are generally higher in vitamin c than citrus.
 
Isn't there acid in peppers and chillies though? They play havoc with my delicate stomach when I eat them.
 
The pH of chillies hovers around 5, so yes, they are acid rather than base, but lemons have a pH of 2.
 
That's weird because I can eat dishes with lemon juice in them fine, but give me some peppers and my insides start making some very strange sensations.
 
Interesting point about tooth decay. Rare evidence of tooth decay in hunter gatherers teeth, whereas tooth decay is more prevalent in agrarian societies - could be from grit as a by product of the grinding process, or carbohydrates which are metabolised by bacteria to form acids. A diet with no carbohydrate (or highly acidic foods) will prevent tooth decay completely.

Nuts, seeds and grains contain phytic acid, which leaches the minerals out of teeth and bones. IIRC, it also changes the chemical makeup of saliva in a way that's not good for the teeth. (Corn is one of the worst.)

The few paleoindian remains found where I live show terrible condition of the teeth, probably due to their diet of nuts, seeds and roots.
 
Back
Top