VELIM Y LA VIOLENCIA

The Bronze Age site of Velim, Czech Republic, saw the deposition of much skeletal material, mostly disarticulated and dumped in disorder in pits and ditches. A number of explanations have been advanced for this (cult, defence, normal burial, warfare followed by massacre). The paper considers the evidence for each explanation, and attempts a reinterpretation in the light of recent work on comparable sites, notably in the Tollense valley in north-east Germany, and Cliffs End Farm, south-east England.En el yacimiento de la Edad del Bronce de Velim, República Checa, tuvo lugar la deposición de una gran cantidad de esqueletos, sobre todo desarticulados y arrojados desordenadamente en pozos y fosos. Se han ofrecido varias explicaciones para este fenómeno (culto, defensa, práctica de enterramiento habitual, guerra seguida por masacre). Este artículo considera la evidencia usada para cada explicación e intenta una reinterpretación a la luz de los trabajos recientes en yacimientos similares, especialmente en el valle Tollense en el nordeste de Alemania, y Cliffs End Farm, en el sudeste de Inglaterra

Salt exploitation in the later prehistory of the Carpathian Basin

Salt is a necessity for humans and animals, today as in the ancient past. The ways in which salt was produced in ancient times vary from area to area, and could use briquetage, deep mining (as at Hallstatt), or the technique specific to Transylvania, based on wooden troughs, perforated in the base. How these troughs functioned is still uncertain. In the Iron Age a different technique was employed, involving deep shafts dug down to the rock salt surface. As well as technological considerations, it is crucial to understand the social and economic importance of salt in the ancient world.Tako kot sol potrebujemo danes, so jo potrebovali ljudje in živali tudi v preteklosti. Pridobivanje soli se je v preteklosti med regijami razlikovalo. Lahko je vključevalo tehniko briketiranja, rudarjenje (kot v Halštatu) ali pa posebno tehniko, značilno za Transilvanijo, ki je temeljila na lesenih, na dnu perforiranih koritih. Še vedno ni jasno, kako so ta korita delovala. V železni dobi je bila uporabljena drugačna tehnologija. Vključevala je kopanje globokih jaškov do plasti kamene soli. Poleg poznavanja tehnologij pridobivanja soli, je potrebno tudi razumevanje družbenega in gospodarskega pomena soli v preteklosti

Bronze Age Lives

This book provides a personal view of the European Bronze Age by one of its long-standing scholars. It takes the period as a series of “lives”: of people, objects, places and societies, as well as of the Bronze Age itself, and provides an overview of research on the period, covering the latest work as well as fundamental studies from the past. While not intended as a systematic overview, it places up-to-date scholarship before a wider public

The regime of Isabella and Mortimer 1326 - 1330

The rule of the Despensers was brought to an end in 1326 by a coalition of magnates, churchmen and Londoners, drawn together by the invasion of Isabella and Mortimer. A carefully orchestrated demand for the removal of Edward II led to his deposition and ultimately to his murder at Mortimer's direction. Power was centralised in the hands of Isabella and Mortimer who took no steps to broaden the basis of their government. While returning confiscated lands to their supporters, they offered them little else in the way of reward but accumulated land to their own use, Crown land in the case of Isabella and an empire on the Welsh March in the case of Mortimer. Disillusioned by this and by their exclusion from government, the constituent parts of the coalition fell apart. Active opposition which had begun in Edward II's lifetime culminated in Lancaster's abortive rebellion of 1328-29. The effective suppression of this meant that opposition was stifled by the imposition of recognisances and because several barons fled abroad. This success merely served to increase Mortimer's arrogance and in 1330 he successfully engineered the downfall of Edward III's uncle, the earl of Kent. In foreign affairs, the failure of the Weardale campaign against the Scots and the unpopular peace of Northampton, coupled with a temporising and indecisive policy towards France over the questions of Gascony and homage, increased hostility towards the government. At home violent unrest continued and an improvident and irresponsible attitude to national finance involved heavy borrowing at a time when Mortimer lived in extravagant state. Faced by this misgovernment and fearing that Mortimer now aimed at royal power, Edward III built his own supporting group around him. When the opportunity came he struck swiftly at Mortimer, sending him to execution and Isabella into retirement

Assessing Poverty and Inequality at a Detailed Regional Level: New Advances in Spatial Microsimulation

poverty, inequality, measurement, Australia

Living on the lake in the Iron Age: new results from aerial photographs, geophysical survey and dendrochronology on sites of Biskupin type

© 2010 Antiquity PublicationsThe article publishes new photographs and geophysical survey plans of a series of sites of the Early Iron Age in Poland, and provides new dating evidence from dendrochronology. The island site of Biskupin with its densely planned interior bears an uncanny resemblance to a prison camp. Is it typical of the Iron Age in Northern Europe? The authors here explore neighbouring sites around Poznań using aerial photographs, geophysical survey and dendrochronology – to stunning effect. These low impact methods have given high impact results: dated street plans, some similar and others different from Biskupin, but within the same time frame: almost a repertoire of early urbanism. The authors must also be congratulated on the identification of a new type of Iron Age feature, the ‘open area for spouse avoidance’ defined at Sobiejuchy.British Academy; Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Science

Evidence for Prehistoric Salt Extraction Rediscovered in the Hungarian Central Mining Museum

© The Society of Antiquaries of London, 2011This paper describes a group of wooden objects (a trough, ladder, mallet and other pieces) found in 1817 in a salt mine in north-eastern Austria-Hungary, now Ukraine, which have recently come to light in the Hungarian Central Mining Museum in Sopron. It presents new radiocarbon dates indicating that the objects date to the Bronze Age, except for one that belongs to the early medieval period. Their function is briefly considered in the context of recent excavation and survey work in Romania, and specifically the remarkable discoveries from Ba˘ ile Figa near Beclean, northern Transylvania, where several similar troughs and other objects have been found. Taken together, the finds shed light on the scale of salt exploitation in central and eastern Europe in prehistoric times.Society of Antiquarie

Rastko Vasić: some personal reflections

first met RastkoVasić at the 8th Congress of the Union International des Sciences Pré- et Protohistoriques (UISPP) in Belgrade in 1971. He was very friendly and helpful to me as a young student who was still finding his way in archaeology, including trying to understand the Bronze Age archaeology of what was then Yugoslavia, and its relationship to the Bronze Age cultures of the Aegean. For a student, attending a large conference for the first time, in the presence of dozens of important and influential scholars (Milutin Garašanin, Vladimir Milojčić, Marija Gimbutas, Colin Renfrew, to name but a few), this was potentially a terrifying experience; but Rastko helped me navigate these difficult waters and put me at my ease