Section A case studies

• 7th century Anglo-Saxon king- most likley Raedwald (Presence of Christian objects in a Pagan context matches Bede's account of him having syncretized Pagan and Christian practices).
• Helmet- made from tinned copper alloy
• Buckle- Scandanavian design and Mediteranean jewels
• Ship burial with chamber built especially to accomodate a coffin and treasures
• 37 Merovingian coins
• Trade and Specialism: Helmet and Shield- made in Sweden or by the Swedish due to design and the Swedish dyes, moulds and other equiptment needed to make them.
• Scandanavian influences (ship burial, jewlery design ect.) indicates migration from Scandanavia. 

• Mesolothic Yorkshire
• Red deer antler headresses
• Barbed points, flint, shale beads, amber and early timber platforms
• Area of land has been extensively drained and used as farmland; peat is deteriorating, leading to the deteriation of artefacts and evidence.
• Site has been re-excavated to save artefacts.
• Fish bones have been found through wet-sieving.

• Early Bronze Age burial (near Stonehenge)
• Gold 'earings'- oldest type of gold object made in Britain.
• Cushion Stone- metal worker's tool.
• Beakers, boars' tusks, an antler spatula for flint working, copper knives, flints, 15 arrowheads.
• Sandstone wrist guard- he used a bow and arrow.
• 35-45 years old; had an infection of the bone and a tooth abscess.
• Isotopic analysis of his teeth- comes from central Europe.
• Chemical analysis of copper knife- the metal came from Spain.

• 5th century BC- buried in a permafrost enviroment
• 6 Horses sacrifice- Fly larve shows they were buried in Spring (Ice Maiden died in winter- village waited until Spring to burry her).
• Silk from Asia
• Portable table
• Headdress- wooden, 3 meters tall (coffin had to be 8 meters long because of this)
• Red deer tattoos on her shoulder, wrist and thumb.
• Tomb was built with wood, re-used from buildings in the village (dendrochronology).

• Copper Age/ Chalkolithic
• Traces of arsenic found in his hair- Earliest Metalurgist found
• Suffered a head injury from a blow to the head before death (protein analyses of brain tissue)
• Died as a result of being shot in the back with an arrow.
• First Aid kit- 2 spheres of botanical material.
• Oldest tattoos in the world- over joints (could be acupuncture treatments).
• Copper bladed axe- shows he was high status
• Flint dagger, bow and a quiver with two arrows.
• Tools kept on a calf-leather belt.
• Found in the Alps betweem Italy and Austria- tensions surrounding which country he belongs to.

• Staus- Pillow of Bay leaves, glass phials, gold thread, silk, 3 textiles, jet 
• Prestige- Buried on raised ground; could be seen by passers-by.
• -Decorated Sarcophogus and lead coffin                                                      
• Spanish origins- Isotopic Analysis
• Wealthy family from Roman Empire.

• Undisturded burial chamber; roof collapsed.
• Hallstatt culture West/central Europe- hillforts, trading.
• Royal elites- contact with Ancient Greece- influence
• Chieftan burial-trading economy?
• Grave goods- Banqueting equiptment, 9 decorated drinking horns, cauldron decorated with bronze lions (from Greece/Italy) and had mead in it (residue analysis), Bronze couch decorated with repouse scenes depicting warriors and wagons.
• Laid on pillow with badger fur clothes, on the bronze couch.

• Neolithic- Linearbandkearmic (LBK) culture-potter and pattern of longhouses.
• Arable farming- soil sampling and wet sieving= little variation in distrubution, Chaff and charred spikelets of emmr and eikorn wheat- each house processed it's own food, Opium poppy (only in one area of site)- used for oil or as a drug? Analysis of crop weeds- some farmed close to settlement, some further away.
• Pastoral farming- LBK pigs rearred in settlement; isotope radio= sheep and cattle raised in Black Forest uplands- Tanshunicance economy. Pigs predominent. Age and sex of cattle= rearred for meat. 15% faunal remains= wild animals.
• Livestock and land- wealth and social differentation; 'In-field' soil was more productive- expensive (higher crop yield).

• Mesolithic to Neolithic Hill settlement in Syria.
• Forager Phase- circular pit houses (made of timber and reeds), hunting gazelles, c.100,000BP- cultivated grains, population 200-300 (tribe).
• Farming/ Neolithic Phase- re-built multi-room houses (continuity and stability), population 500, domestication of 8 crops, some hunting; replaced with domestic sheep and goats.
• Needles and Arrowheads, weaving plant/ animal textiles, site abandone c.7000BP due to soil erosion.
• Many lived to 50- early Neolithic egalitarianism, Tooth damage less in later burials; use of pottery to soak grains, Meditteranean shell beads-trade, context, transfer and flow of knowledge. 

• Diachronic or gradual change- assembleges of animal bones.
• lithic tools from preseved deposites in rock shelters.
• Ibex and chamios bone assemblages at rock shelter site- selected joints of meat brought by the hunters.
• Bone assembleges- resources from woods and river valley- Lithics changed in order to kill forest animals.
• Bone and lithic data- bands of hunters operating over wide areas.
• Pollen evidence- trees colonated high pastures- evidence from valley rock shelters- switch to broad spectrum foraging with limited territory.

• Early phase of construction (c.4,000-3,000BC)- Long barrows:

-Chalklands of Wessex- soild suitabke for farming.

-Clusters of burial mounds with causewayed enclosures- social landscape.

-Each mound- territorial focaus for group of farmers- segmented society.

• Later Phase- causewayed enclosures replaced by henge monuments

- scale indicates centralised organisation- chiefdom society?

• Analysis of scale of monuments- Labour hours needed for construction= emergence of hierarchy; may mirror developments in social relations ans emergence of a ranked society.

• Bronze Age, Iraqui desert (damaged during war)
• Clay cylinders covered in cruniform writing- founded in c.2000BC by King of Larsa (Mesopotamian city).
• Construction of a trade canal between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers- controlled trade of wood, stone and metal.
• Divided into zones- manufacture, administrative and living area.
• Mixed residentual areas- different sized houses grouped together.
• Canals also used for transport (240 boats) and irrigation allowed growth of agriculture.

• 500,000BP- Homo Heidelbergensis
• Acheulea flint tools and faunal remains.
• Some bones have cut marks and tools have wear traces indicative of cutting meat.
• Evidence of hunting is tentative- horse shoulderblade with semicurcular hole which may be a speamark, however no obvious hunting equiptment.
• Shin bone- both ends show signs of gnawing- hominids could have been prey to other animals.
• 2 incisor teeth- predontal disease and tool cut marks.

• 1/2 the population died by the age of 25.
• Aristocratic family of 6th century- less than 30 burried on high ground at the northern end of the cemetery, and burials are richley furnished; swords, spears, brooches, belt buckles. Burried under barrows.
• Aristocratic family left c.560BC; later people were less rich and leading family was less socially prestigous.
• Aristocratic family origins- 5th century Jutish origins, Frankish connections to Kentish cultural independance by c.560.

• Neolithic to Bronze Age, Sailsbury Plain, Wiltshire.
• River Avon 2KM away, Durrington Wall (processional route?)
• Phases:

-Mesolithic- 3 pits to hold up pine posts

-Early Neolithic- causewayed enclosures, long barrows and 2 cursus.

-3100BC- large sandstones from Marlborough Dwons (30KM away), small bluestones from Preseli Mountains south-west Wales (1st phase stone setting-2600BC).

• Bronze carvings on some sandstones (daggers).

• +1000 people in densley packed, one room rectangular houses.
• Form of social segregation (chief's hall); specialism, agriculture.
• Pallisade and battle axes=  centre of warrior chieftom?
• Signs of social differences (burial deposites, distrubution of copper artefacts).
• Danube food plain- grazing for cattle. Faunal remains of water bird and fish.
• Deer skins and antlers- used for tools, hooks and harpoons, 1 horse (exotic animal).
• Spondylus bracelets- exchange with Aegean.
• Metallurgy specialism and ceramics- compound at Gradac= 5 furnaces, clay moulds and manufacture debris.

• Chaulcolithic- Gumelnita culture; c.4900-4400BC.
• 294 graves excavated- +3,000 gold artefacts; 6Kg

-Earliest examples of gold metalworking.

• Tools- oversized flint blades/copper woodworking tools (unused).
• Local dentallium and white spondylus shells (Meditteranean) worked into bracelets- personal items.
• Richest grave goods found in male burials and cenotaphs (43 cenotaphs).
• Prestige goods- significant social change- emergence of ranked society?

• 7 plank- built 'halls' and 69 'Grubenhouser' (rebuilt)
• 7 farms (3 to 4 in use at one time).
• Pottery typology- North German styles from AD450
• Cereal crops e.g. spelt wheat- Romano-British (continuation).
• Inhabitants descended from Germanic mercinary group brought over to defend Roman estate at Ichlingham.
• May have been Romano-British people who adopted continental styles.

• No invasion? Bronze Age to 8th cenury AD= No distinct break in settlement stratigraphy/ patterns.
• Burials:

-Sampling strategy- c.25 burials; only 4 Germanic.

-Gradual dominence of Germanic styles.

-Oxygen isotopic analysis- all 4 Germanics are female and found in poorly furnished graves. (Invaders would be more elite).

• More than 3,5oo items- martial/ warlike.
• 7th/8th century- Kingdom of Mercia.
• Craftsmenship- best that Anglo-Saxon metalworkers could do- belonged to the elite.
• Gold and silver items deliberatley torn from objects.
• Mostly sword pommels- Proof of a battle with Welsh in 7th century, recorded in 7th century poem 'Battle of Britains'?
• Tribute to Pagan gods? OR sharing wealth?

• Professor Renfrew- studied the workings of Neolithic society to examine fresh variables that emerged in the Bronze Age.
• 3rd millenium BCE- cultivation of vine and olives- onland not suitable for arable farming led to increase in agricultural yields which stimulated population growth- demand for specialised crafts and services.
• Demand for metalwork stimulated specialisation- competition for prestigious/useful crafts and control of producers led to emergence of cheiftain. 
• Organisational demands- developed methods of measurment and recording culminated the emergence of writing.