PRIMERA CARACTERIZACIÓN ARQUEOMÉTICA DE LADRILLOS TARDORROMANOS DE LA CUENCA DEL RÍO DNIÉSTER Y COMPARACIÓN CON EL MATERIAL ALTOMEDIEVAL

The paper presents the results on archaeometric characterization of a test sample of building materials from the settlements of the Late Roman period Komariv and Buzovytsia-1 in the middle course of the Dniester river. The parameters of raw material and technology of bricks from the two sites are compared and the first reconstruction of features of operational chains are offered. Also, the first comparison of the Late Roman period materials with same-function artifacts of the Middle Ages (Old Rus’ Culture) has been made. The development of petrographic and geochemical classification of archaeological building ceramics from the sites of the Central and South-West Ukraine was started.El artículo presenta los resultados de la caracterización arqueométrica de una muestra preliminar de materiales de construcción de los asentamientos de la época romana de Komariv y Buzovytsia-1 en el curso medio del río Dniéster. Se comparan los parámetros de la materia prima y la tecnología del zócalo de los dos sitios y se ofrece la primera reconstrucción de las características de las cadenas operativas. También se ha realizado la primera comparación de los materiales del periodo romano tardío con los artefactos de la misma función de la Edad Media (la antigua cultura de la Rus). Se inició el desarrollo de la clasificación petrográfica y geoquímica de la cerámica de construcción arqueológica de los monumentos del centro y suroeste de Ucrania

Walruses on the Dnieper: new evidence for the intercontinental trade of Greenlandic ivory in the Middle Ages.

Peer reviewed: TrueFunder: McDonald Institute for Archaeological ResearchMediaeval walrus hunting in Iceland and Greenland-driven by Western European demand for ivory and walrus hide ropes-has been identified as an important pre-modern example of ecological globalization. By contrast, the main origin of walrus ivory destined for eastern European markets, and then onward trade to Asia, is assumed to have been Arctic Russia. Here, we investigate the geographical origin of nine twelfth-century CE walrus specimens discovered in Kyiv, Ukraine-combining archaeological typology (based on chaîne opératoire assessment), ancient DNA (aDNA) and stable isotope analysis. We show that five of seven specimens tested using aDNA can be genetically assigned to a western Greenland origin. Moreover, six of the Kyiv rostra had been sculpted in a way typical of Greenlandic imports to Western Europe, and seven are tentatively consistent with a Greenland origin based on stable isotope analysis. Our results suggest that demand for the products of Norse Greenland's walrus hunt stretched not only to Western Europe but included Ukraine and, by implication given linked trade routes, also Russia, Byzantium and Asia. These observations illuminate the surprising scale of mediaeval ecological globalization and help explain the pressure this process exerted on distant wildlife populations and those who harvested them