Browsing by Subject "Archaeology"

Now showing 1 - 14 of 14

Archaeomagnetic dating of bronze age pottery from Tell Mozan, Syria
(2013-04) Stillinger, Michele D.
The ancient city-state of Urkesh, located at Tell Mozan, Syria, was the political and religious center of the Hurrians, a unique culture that inhabited the northern Syro-Mesopotamian region during the 3rd millennium BCE. The chronology of Urkesh has been divided into seven primary occupational phases, dating from the Early Dynastic II period (2800-2500 BCE) to the Middle Babylonian/ Mitanni Period (1500-1300 BCE). The site has provided an abundance of distinguishing ceramics, seals, seal impressions, and cuneiform tablets, which serve as the foundation for the Urkesh chronology. Working under the assumption that the archaeologically derived chronology at Mozan was reliable, this research tested the accuracy of archaeomagnetic dating using pottery samples from six successive occupational phases. Samples underwent a suite of magnetic mineral characterization tests and archaeointensity measurements using the Thellier-style absolute paleointensity technique of Tauxe and Staudigel (2004). Archaeointensity experiments displayed an 88% success rate and 80% of the samples correlated well with their archaeologically determined dates. A small subset of samples appeared to indicate a possible intensity spike occurring around 2000 BCE. The final results refine the archaeointensity curve for Syria between 2350 and 1200 BCE.
Archaeomagnetism as a Geochronological Tool: Dating a Levantine Iron Age Conflagration
(2018-06) Stillinger, Michele D.
Meaningful interpretation of past human culture requires an accurate chronology that can be correlated with our modern calendar. The timing of seminal events during the Levantine Iron Age (~ 1200 to 600 BCE) is hotly debated because conventional dating methods are fraught with subjective interpretations and analytical inaccuracies. This research uses archaeomagnetism, a subfield of paleomagnetism, as an alternative geochronological dating technique. Utilizing traditional archaeomagnetic materials (e.g. pottery) and testing new geologically based materials (ancient bread ovens called tabuns), a new Near East Archaeomagnetic Dating Curve (NEAC) was constructed to date four occupational deposits and a large conflagration at the Iron Age village of Khirbet Summeily, Israel. The results indicate that the destruction was likely associated with the 925 BCE Egyptian military campaign of Sheshonq I (22nd Dynasty). In addition, a new high in geomagnetic field intensity was measured that confirms the recently identified 8th Century BCE intensity spike for the region. This research provides new data that will enable geophysical researchers to improve models of geomagnetic field variability and core processes for the first three millennia BCE.
An Assessment of the Limitations of Macroscopic Lithic Raw Material Identification and Parent Nodule Assignment within Archaeological Contexts in Minnesota and an Analysis of Lithic Raw Material Utilization at 21LN2
(2013-05) Doperalski, Mark
The objective of this study was twofold; one, test the limitations of macroscopic lithic raw material identification and parent nodule assignment with regard to materials commonly identified within prehistoric contexts in Minnesota (the secondary study); and two, assess the lithic raw material utilization at 21LN2 (the primary study). The initial results of the secondary study indicate that macroscopic observation can be an effective method with regard to differentiating and identifying lithic raw material types commonly encountered at archaeological sites in Minnesota. The results also suggest that Minimum Analytical Nodule Analysis should be quite applicable to most lithic assemblages identified at archaeological sites in Minnesota. The results of the primary study demonstrate that the prehistoric inhabitants of 21LN2 operated within a vast sphere of interaction and relied heavily upon local and non-local lithic resources. Indications are that the Law of Least Effort does not adequately describe the procurement pattern found at 21LN2. Non-locally procured raw materials tend to exhibit a higher degree of curation and retooling appears to have been an important aspect of the lithic industry at the site. The results of the study also demonstrate that high quality raw materials of non-local provenience were, in general, reduced more efficiently and retouched with greater intensity than other raw material types identified at the site.
Christians of the Western Desert in Late Antiquity: the fourth-century church complex of Ain el-Gedida, Upper Egypt.
(2009-06) Aravecchia, Nicola
This dissertation examines the fourth-century church complex excavated, between 2006 and 2008, at Ain el-Gedida, in the Dakhla Oasis of Upper Egypt (project directed by Professor Roger Bagnall). The church and the set of interconnected rooms that form the complex are one of the earliest examples discovered in Egypt thus far. Therefore, they provide valuable information on the development of Christian public architecture, not only in the region of the Western Desert but also throughout Egypt. Furthermore, the uncommon layout of the church itself, its location within a cluster of rooms serving more utilitarian functions, and the evidence of different phases of substantial architectural alterations make the complex a particularly significant case study. One goal of this dissertation is not to discuss the church complex as an isolated building, but to contextualize it within the topographical framework of the settlement. The archaeological evidence from the complex is not presented in the form of a standard report; rather, it is used to approach more general issues, regarding the chronology of the site, its abandonment, and the nature of the settlement, particularly the social structure of its inhabitants. This work first examines the architectural history of the complex and sheds light on its different phases, thanks to the study of the evidence gathered in the field. Furthermore, it discusses the results of comparative analysis between the church of Ain el-Gedida and other examples of Early Christian architecture inside and outside Egypt. In particular, it emphasizes the considerable typological similarities shared with the Small East Church at the nearby site of Ismant el-Kharab (ancient Kellis). The investigation of the typological origins of the church of Ain el-Gedida includes comparisons with the earliest known examples of Christian architecture, even from relatively distant regions, such as Dura Europos and its well-known domus ecclesiae. Furthermore, methods of spatial analysis, in particular access analysis, are applied to the church complex and its immediate surroundings, with the aim of investigating patterns of access control and use of space at the site in Late Antiquity. The results are offered as a valuable ingredient in typological analysis, integrating the available archaeological evidence. In its last section, this dissertation examines issues of chronology, both relative and absolute, in relation to the church complex. It also takes into consideration the highly debated question concerning the nature of the complex and, more in general, of the site of Ain el-Gedida, with the goal of shedding light on its people and their social identity. In addition to the monastery/village readings, originally brought forth by scholars, further interpretations are proposed, analyzing the available evidence in favor or against any of them.
Community and aggregation in the Upper Mississippi River Valley: the Red Wing Locality.
(2009-06) Fleming, Edward Paul
The Red Wing Locality is a cluster of Late Precontact villages located in the Upper Mississippi valley of the Midwestern United States. It has long been interpreted as a monolithic presence within the broad regional context of Late Precontact times. While these studies place Red Wing into a broader context relative to a presumed dominant, Mississippian culture and other cultural entities, they have been at the expense of addressing cultural relationships within the Red Wing region itself. The research presented in this dissertation is a community-based, inside-out approach to understanding how the Red Wing Locality functioned for the populations it served. The core focus is the nature of the relationship of Red Wing Locality villages to one another and to their hinterlands. For decades, scholars have recognized the Red Wing Locality as a locale of intense social interaction, and the processes of social aggregation at central places provide an explanatory model for this phenomenon. A diverse range of materials are examined that highlight similarities and differences among villages in the Red Wing Locality. These data demonstrate that contemporary villages on opposite sides of the river had different hinterland contacts and access to resources. One conclusion of this research is that interactions and mobility patterns into and out of the Locality were structured by the Mississippi River. Finally, the Red Wing Locality is examined in the light of a three-tiered non-hierarchical community conceptual framework that at once separated individual settlements, combines the settlement cluster, and ties individual settlements to a broader region that included supporting hinterland populations that aggregated at Red Wing villages. A major contribution of this research is that it provides a new, holistic perspective of the archaeology of the Red Wing Locality and the Upper Mississippi River valley.
Digital Roman Carthage - Version I
(2024-08-26) Saladin, Christopher; saladin@rowan.edu; Saladin, Christopher
The Digital Roman Carthage project maps the archaeological history of the Roman colony at Carthage from its foundation in the late 1st century BCE to its destruction and abandonment in the late 7th century CE. The data presented here was gathered from nearly two centuries worth of archaeological excavations to reflect the most up to date consensus on each of Carthage's many Roman era features. This version of the project was created as a companion to the dissertation, "Resurrecting Carthage" (Chris Saladin, University of Minnesota, 2023). https://hdl.handle.net/11299/259650 The data can be downloaded here as ZIP file of map shapefiles, viewed in a table format in the dissertation, or viewed in the linked ArcGIS web application.
Dynamics of Religious Ritual: Migration and Adaptation in Early Medieval Britain
(2019-08) Creager, Brooke
How do migrations impact religious practice? In early Anglo-Saxon England, the practice of post-Roman Christianity adapted after the Anglo-Saxon migration. The contemporary texts all agree that Christianity continued to be practiced into the fifth and sixth centuries but the archaeological record reflects a predominantly Anglo-Saxon culture. My research compiles the evidence for post-Roman Christian practice on the east coast of England from cemeteries and Roman churches to determine the extent of religious change after the migration. Using the case study of post-Roman religion, the themes religion, migration, and the role of the individual are used to determine how a minority religion is practiced during periods of change within a new culturally dominant society.
Lithic Analysis and Spatial Patterning at the Bremer Site (21DK06), Dakota County, Minnesota
(2015-05) Taft, Mara
The purpose of this study was to conduct a lithic and spatial analysis of the Bremer Site (21DK06), Dakota County, Minnesota in order to better understand how lithic tools and raw materials were curated at the site, what lithic activities took place at the site, what raw materials were present, and if these raw materials were differentially used. Providing answers to these questions will greatly increase our understanding of the Bremer site, its inhabitants, and their role in the region. These questions are addressed by many different analyses. The results of the chipping debris analysis demonstrate the differential use of raw materials by locality and quality at the Bremer site. Locally available Prairie du Chien chert was the primary material used at the site, yet non-local materials had a large presence there, as well, indicating trade of raw materials throughout the region. Additionally, materials were preferentially chosen based on quality and texture. This indicates a non-random selection of materials based on quality for bifacial tool creation. Two distinctive cultural horizons were identified through the vertical stratigraphy of artifacts within Block 1 with observable differentiations in raw material availability and use. These results indicate cultural differences through time represented in the lithic artifacts and an increase in trade and cultural contact over time at the same site. The horizontal artifact distributions and activity areas at the site were identified through a spatial analysis of the site. This analysis also indicated a division of knapping events by raw material type and by artifact type over space. These studies and results increase our knowledge of the inhabitants of the Bremer site, their lifeways and site occupation, and their relationship to the larger region in which they lived.
Lithic Collection from the Early Upper Paleolithic Site of Tvarožná X, Czech Republic
(2019-04-08) Tostevin, Gilbert; Škrdla, Petr; Monnier, Gilliane; Golubiewski-Davis, Kristina; Porter, Samantha, T; toste003@umn.edu; Tostevin, Gilbert; Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota
This dataset is composed of the artifact inventory data and 3D models of the lithic artifact collection from the Early Upper Paleolithic open-air site of Tvarožná-Za školou, also known as Tvarožná X, at roughly 49°11’22.0”N by 16°46’19.6”E, near the modern city of Brno in the Czech Republic. The 3D models represent all of the retouched tools, complete flakes, and cores recovered during the 2008 and 2015 excavation seasons conducted by Dr. Gilbert Tostevin and Dr. Gilliane Monnier of the Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, in collaboration with Dr. Petr Škrdla of the Institute of Archaeology, Czech Academy of Science, Brno, Czech Republic. The lithic technology of this assemblage reflects a Bohunician core technology with a large diversity of raw material types, relative to other assemblages attributed to that Early Upper Paleolithic industrial type. The 3D collection is composed of 187 models out of the 645 artifacts (over 2.0 cm in maximal dimension) recovered from the piece-plotting and wet-sieving (through 3x3mm mesh) of the 39.75 square meter excavated portion of this site.
Methods to Incorporate Historic Surface Hydrology Layer in Mn/Model [Phase 4] Using Existing Geographic Information System Data
(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2008-05) Stark, Stacey L.; Farrell, Patrice M.; Mulholland, Susan C.
The goal of this research was to develop methods for identifying indicators of historic and prehistoric surface hydrologic features in available Geographic Information System (GIS) data to create a GIS layer representing relict hydrography for inclusion in Mn/Model, Mn/DOT’s statewide archaeological predictive model. This research addresses the limitation imposed on the current predictive model by the absence of historic and prehistoric surface water features, such as drained lakes and wetlands. Because several important variables are derived from surface hydrography in Mn/Model, the use of historic/prehistoric hydrologic features, instead of strictly modern features, will greatly improve its predictive accuracy. This research resulted in an automated tool, developed using ArcGIS ModelBuilder and based on ESRI ArcGIS ArcInfo 9.2 (ESRI 2005), that can be used on any county in the state where the input data are available. 17.
Points and Pits: Archaeological Investigations in Minnesota’s Region 9, the Lake Superior Shore, Carlton, Cook, Lake, and St. Louis Counties, Minnesota
(2011) Mulholland, Susan C; Mulholland, Stephen L; Hamilton, Jennifer R; Stark, Stacey
This report is essentially an archeological survey of northeastern Minnesota’s coastal region, for which little is known about prehistoric human occupation. The authors first conducted a literature review, then carried out field investigations at 34 sites in 2010. Most of the sites were already known, and only four new sites suggesting historic use or habitation were found, all in Jay Cooke State Park. The study focused on sites that were not far from water. The report describes archeological and GIS methods used to select and explore the sites. The authors conclude that some progress has been made in contributing to a historical database for the region, but that much more remains to be discovered about prehistoric occupation on the Lake Superior shoreline. Key sections of the report are extracted and reproduced below. Summary: "This project was designed to add to our knowledge of Region 9, which was poorly known as a result of relatively few previously recorded. Four objectives were stated for the project to be conducted in three tasks. A summary of what is currently known about the prehistoric occupation of the region was the first task. Both literature and collections review were specifically included as sources. Updating the State Archaeologist site files for known sites and locating new sites was the second task, including both checking on sites reported by private collectors and new survey. The fourth objective was to develop a narrative predictive model of prehistoric site location for agency managers prehistoric archaeological sites (a total of 34). The field survey for new sites, most of which had to be conducted in fall 2010 before the ground froze, focused on a GIS compilation of several environmental factors previously thought to be important predictors of prehistoric site locations: distance to water (50 and 100 m) and slope (5%, 7%, 10%). Where possible, information on shoreline features from glacial lakes was also incorporated. Factors of access and land ownership (public lands preferable) were also compiled. Specific locations were then selected by the field archaeologist, drawing on decades of experience. Survey followed standard procedures, mainly shovel testing but pedestrian walkover where possible. Only four new archaeological sites were located, all in Jay Cooke State Park and all initially found by surface finds in Park trails. “Most of the areas selected for survey (County and City lands in St. Louis County, Split Rock Lighthouse State Park in Lake County, Judge Magney State Park in Cook County) were either negative or untestable. Concurrently with preparation for new survey, informant reports of new sites were recorded and, where possible, field verified in fall 2010. The response from members of the local archaeological society was overwhelming; over three dozen leads were given, about half for prehistoric sites and half for historic sites that might have prehistoric components. Additional site leads were supplied from members of the general public who heard of the project from media releases or by word of mouth. Although some site leads were either natural items or outside the Region 9 boundary, several prehistoric sites were recorded from this source. The data from both sources suggest that sites in Region 9 do tend to correlate to water, both past and present; however, specific numerical values for environmental variables are not as productive as viewing topography in the field. Areas of low slope are also high potential but not all flat area near water have site materials. Areas of low to no potential would include areas of steep slope (but not all area greater than 10% slope), water saturation (both permanent and seasonal), and/or areas at far distances from water (although quantitative measures are not firm). Much more research needs to be conducted to understand the pre-Contact occupation of the region, as well as develop a better predictive model of site location."
A Quantitative Analysis of an Orphaned Set of Chipped Stone Tools in an Archaeology Teaching Collection
(2019-12-03) Jones, Jennifer E; Atkinson, Keara M; Conklin, Josh; Dixon, Eliot; Gross, Denaya; Gulan, Slade; Ippolite, Dominick D; Lochen, Michaela; Lockhart, Grace; Majkrzak, Hannah N; Mayo, Sofia; Resnikoff, Christopher; Schoettle, Jonathan; Trahan, Katherine; Warneke, Kaci; Weiss, Antonia; Yordy, Elizabeth
This report is the result of a semester-long project in Archaeological Method and Theory (ANTH 4620) at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). Carried out in the Fall of 2019 as the laboratory component of a class with mostly junior and senior level anthropology or history majors, the intent of the project was to teach students data collection, analysis, and dissemination through hands-on work.
Shifting shapes and shaping self: social identity, animal art, and mortuary ritual in early medieval Northwest Europe.
(2011-05) Flowers, Heather Marie
In the centuries following the decline of the Roman Empire, the maintenance and manipulation of identity became ever more crucial as new power structures emerged throughout Europe. During this period, a zoomorphic art style now called Style I animal art developed in northern Europe. Originating in southern Scandinavia in the late fifth century AD and continuing in use until the seventh century AD, the art style incorporated representations of disembodied heads, animal-men, and ambiguous creatures. These motifs were primarily rendered on personal ornaments such as brooches--objects that were ideal media for communicating messages to others. The creation and development of this style can be seen as active processes through which material culture was used as a social strategy to create and renegotiate personal and group identities. This dissertation is an analysis of the ways in which brooches and other objects decorated with this style were used to express identities in social contexts, particularly in mortuary contexts, where such objects survive. The analysis of over 1500 inhumations in eleven Anglo-Saxon cemeteries provides a contextualized view of how Style I decorative motifs were actively used in local contexts. My research examines the nature of pre-Christian human-animal relationships as depicted on personal ornaments and the ways in which these relationships visually expressed social identity, religious ideology, and the culture of transformation in Early Medieval Europe. I suggest that Style I animal art reflected the cultural fragmentation, mingling, and hybridity that occurred in the early medieval period. This analysis contributes to current early medieval archaeological studies by utilizing a contextual approach that considers the intersection of symbolic communication, art, and social expression.
Threads of identity: the persistence and change of expressed memetic variants of the Suebi and Alamanni in Southwest Germany, the first century BC through the sixth century AD.
(2010-05) Bangs, Eric William
Frontiers are contact zones between cultures. The upper Rhine river valley was just such a contact zone when the Romans arrived in the first century BC. Over the next 500 years the Romans engaged in a complex cultural interaction with the non-Roman inhabitants that eventually resulted in a creolized frontier society. A model derived from Roman authors suggests that this society was replaced by the arrival of the Alamanni in the late third century AD who, in turn, were replaced by the Merovingians in the sixth century. The replacement model of cultural interaction in the upper Rhine is tested using a methodology based in Darwinian and meme theory. Seriations were created of stylistic elements from ceramic vessel assemblages from 14 archaeological sites in southwest Germany. The seriations suggest that non-Roman inhabitants in the first century AD did adopt aspects of Roman culture but only in the realm of emotionally charged ritual. For their day-to-day existence, the artifacts they used appear to have changed little and they maintained an identity adopted centuries before. In evolutionary terms, these practices had a high fitness relative to the cost of learning new ceramic manufacturing techniques. In the third and fourth Centuries, the Alamanni arrived and in the archaeological record, we see a proliferation of new style elements and forms. Now it appears that peoples readily adopted new means of expressing identity overturning the old forms. However, no one element had fitness great enough to invade and dominate as Kammstrich had in the first century. With the infiltration of people from central Europe and the continued presence of a Mediterranean culture on the Rhine the dynamism of this frontier context increased on a grand scale. Finally, with the arrival of the Merovingians in the sixth and seventh centuries, the number of style elements is almost too great to count and, while reflecting a reduction of overall fitness of the memes, the means to express identity expanded.

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