Joseph Maran

The spreading of objects and ideas in the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean: Two case examples from the Argolid of the 13th and 12th centuries B.C.

New evidence from Tiryns is presented, suggesting that two object groups of eastern derivation-namely, wall brackets and armor scales-correspond not only in their form, but also in the contexts of their use, to oriental prototypes. The major importance of the wall brackets in Tiryns lies in the local manufacture of a foreign object with likely cultic connotation. While this new element in the Argolid was seemingly not introduced into public cults, it is likely to have been employed in domestic and workshop cults. The few bronze armor scales known from Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Greece are interpreted as evidence of an adoption not of a new type of weaponry, but rather of rituals using such objects either as pars pro toto dedications or as devices with apotropaic significance. It is argued that the potential for change brought about by such transmissions depended on whether society at large was willing to integrate the foreign traits into their world view.

Eastern Mediterranean Mobility in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages: Inferences from Ancient DNA of Pigs and Cattle

The Late Bronze of the Eastern Mediterranean (1550–1150 BCE) was a period of strong commercial relations and great prosperity, which ended in collapse and migration of groups to the Levant. Here we aim at studying the translocation of cattle and pigs during this period. We sequenced the first ancient mitochondrial and Y chromosome DNA of cattle from Greece and Israel and compared the results with morphometric analysis of the metacarpal in cattle. We also increased previous ancient pig DNA datasets from Israel and extracted the first mitochondrial DNA for samples from Greece. We found that pigs underwent a complex translocation history, with links between Anatolia with southeastern Europe in the Bronze Age, and movement from southeastern Europe to the Levant in the Iron I (ca. 1150–950 BCE). Our genetic data did not indicate movement of cattle between the Aegean region and the southern Levant. We detected the earliest evidence for crossbreeding between taurine and zebu cattle in the Iron IIA (ca. 900 BCE). In light of archaeological and historical evidence on Egyptian imperial domination in the region in the Late Bronze Age, we suggest that Egypt attempted to expand dry farming in the region in a period of severe droughts.

Mit den Methoden der Gegenwart in die Vergangenheit — Archäologie und Naturwissenschaften

Es war genau vor 30 Jahren, als im Wintersemester 1976/77 im Kollegiengebaude am Heidelberger Marstallhof das Kolloquium „Naturwissenschaftliche Methoden in der Archaologie“ stattfand, das Mitarbeiter der Archaometrie-Gruppe am Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik sowie Naturwissenschaftler und Altertumswissenschaftler der Universitat Heidelberg zusammenfuhrte. Fur mich, der ich just in jenem Semester das Studium der Ur- und Fruhgeschichte in Heidelberg aufgenommen hatte, war diese Veranstaltung ein unvergessliches Erlebnis. Die Kontroverse um die absolute Datierung der jungeren Urgeschichte Europas war in vollem Gange und der Hauptexponent der „niedrigen Chronologie“, Vladimir Milojcic, traf auf Naturwissenschaftler, die sich entschieden fur die Richtigkeit der durch die 14C-Methode nahe gelegten „hohen Chronologie“ aussprachen. Die Unterschiede zwischen den beiden Chronologiesystemen waren betrachtlich und beliefen sich, was z.B. die Einschatzung des Beginns des Neolithikums in Mitteleuropa anbelangte, auf mehr als zwei Jahrtausende! Zu einem Dialog kam es im Hinblick auf die umstrittene Chronologiefrage nicht, wohl aber zum Streit, denn man versuchte sich gegenseitig davon zu uberzeugen, dass nur die jeweils eigene Methode zum Ziel fuhren konne.

Neutron Activation Analysis of Mycenaean and Related Pottery from the Greek Mainland

Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) is applied to determine different production series and the places of the corresponding potter’s workshops of Mycenaean ceramics by their chemical patterns. Until now, more than 1500 samples have been analysed and about 80 different patterns were detected, but, at present, only 6 of them can be assigned to specific regions of production. However, first archaeological results concerning e. g. amphoroid craters with chariot scenes have been obtained.

Reconciling material cultures in archaeology with genetic data: The nomenclature of clusters emerging from archaeogenomic analysis

Genome-wide ancient DNA analysis of skeletons retrieved from archaeological excavations has provided a powerful new tool for the investigation of past populations and migrations. An important objective for the coming years is to properly integrate ancient genomics into archaeological research. This article aims to contribute to developing a better understanding and cooperation between the two disciplines and beyond. It focuses on the question of how best to name clusters encountered when analysing the genetic makeup of past human populations. Recent studies have frequently borrowed archaeological cultural designations to name these genetic groups, while neglecting the historically problematic nature of the concept of cultures in archaeology. After reviewing current practices in naming genetic clusters, we introduce three possible nomenclature systems (‘numeric system’, ‘mixed system (a)’, ‘geographic-temporal system’) along with their advantages and challenges.

One World Is Not Enough: The Transformative Potential of Intercultural Exchange in Prehistoric Societies

The field of prehistory and early history has an extraordinary potential for widening the scope of our understanding of the effects of interculturality, since it deals with the material remains of societies that were characterized by a true universe of differing systems of value and forms of social space. It is argued that the concept of cultural hybridity raises too many problems to be useful for a better understanding of interculturality, since, in spite of its promise to overcome outdated obsessions with purity and origins, the application of this concept bears the danger of these very aspects sneaking in through the back door. Moreover, if the concept of cultural hybridity is thought to be generally applicable, it is far too unspecific to be of any explanatory value. In dealing with the appearance of foreign traits, the focus of attention must be placed on clarifying the ways of appropriation on a local level and on how, in the course of their integration into existing practices, new cultural forms were created. Such an investigation of the appropriation of objects coming from the outside necessitates, however, radically questioning our presuppositions about the factors guiding pre-modern intercultural exchange. While this is quite clear in the case of the assumption of a general applicability of “rational” economic behaviour, it is much less obvious that our concept of the “world” cannot be assumed to apply universally. Based on differing social imaginaries, societies have conceived the shape of the surrounding world in very different ways, which in turn must have had an immediate bearing on the changing attitudes towards goods and ideas coming from the outside.