Chronological Problems of the Middle Bronze Age in Southern Italy (original) (raw)
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This paper deals with radiocarbon determinations from the Middle Bronze Age site of Portella on the island of Salina (Aeolian Archipelago, Italy). The available 14C evidence is taken into account, in a simple Bayesian model, in order to explore the issue of the absolute chronology of both the settlement and the stage of the local cultural sequence to which Portella belongs. A high date is proposed for the start of the Aeolian (and Sicilian) Middle Bronze Age: 1556–1422 cal BC (95.4% confidence), with a a most likely (modal) date of about 1450 cal BC. Further, the analysis suggests that the Portella phase is likely to have been a very short one, with a span of 0–65 yr (68.2%) or 0–131 yr (95.4%). The archaeological implications are explored. The relation of these results to the evidence of ceramic phasing is also considered. Since Aegean datable ceramic imports are documented in Aeolian/Sicilian Middle Bronze Age contexts, the connection between Portella’s chronology and the absolute dating of one of the Aegean phases (namely, Late Helladic IIIA1) is also investigated.
Quaternary International, 2019
Recently, G. Leonardi and colleagues have discussed in detail the transition of CA/EBA in northern Italy (Leonardi et al., 2015). After an initial assessment of the current (relative) typochronology, they run a simple Bayesian model using a previously selected database of radiocarbon dates ranging between 4100 and 3500 BP from central northern Italy (the regions of Lombardy, Trentino, central-western Veneto and the plain of Emilia-Romagna). The phases, which in their model were designed to allow partial overlap, were grouped and ordered in Late Copper Age, Bell-Beaker Culture, Early Bronze Age and Polada Culture. The latter has been traditionally considered to coincide with the EBA in northern Italy (Peroni, 1971; Carancini et al., 1996; Bietti Sestieri, 2010). The model showed a partial overlap between the end of the CA (2438-2187 calBC) and the start of the EBA (2253-2146 calBC). Moreover, the start and end of the Bell Beaker phase were determined at respectively 2810-2475 calBC and 1981-1628 calBC (Fig. 3). These results led the authors to place the boundary between CA and EBA around 2200 and to hypothesise a possible partial coexistence between Bell Beaker and Polada settlements, especially before the spread of the pile-dwelling phenomenon which can be dated from 2070 to 2030 BCE calBC ± 10 y (first felling dates in the regional tree ring sequence
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2021
Decorated Italo-Mycenaean (IM) pottery, a high-status class found and made over three centuries from the Italian Late Middle Bronze Age onwards, was the subject of a large archaeological and archaeometric enquiry published by the present authors in 2014. The present paper focuses on identifying IM’s centres of production. The results of chemical analysis of IM using mainly ICP-ES make a strong case for regional production, irrespective of findspots in several parts of Italy. This accords well with the relative stylistic individuality of IM observed among the finds of IM across many parts of Italy, suggesting that IM is a powerful archaeological indicator of the way local communities were constructing and negotiating their identities at this crucial time of social and economic change at the end of the Bronze Age. A picture of more dispersed intra-regional production emerges from the combined chemical and petrographic analysis of two other pottery classes displaying Aegean influence: ...
This article focuses on the Early–Middle Bronze Age (MBA) transition in Sicily and southern Italy from a Bayesian radiocarbon perspective. The aims are to: (i) estimate the beginning of the MBA (i.e. Thapsos– Milazzese culture in Sicily; Apennine culture in southern Italy) at four key-sites; (ii) assess the existence of a site- wide variability; and (iii) understand if an offset is likely to have existed between the beginning of the MBA and the Aegean Late Helladic (LH) IIIA phase, which currently marks the start of the MBA. The study indicates that the MBA probably started earlier at Portella (95.4% range 1541–1430, mode 1465 BC) and Roca Vecchia (1706–1394, mode 1460 BC) than at Coppa Nevigata (1527–1292, mode 1410 BC; or 1490–1265, mode 1380 BC) and Ustica (1609–1261, mode 1405 BC). Also, the beginning of the MBA at Portella and Roca Vecchia is probably earlier than that of the LH IIIA. This suggests that the current synchronization between MBA and LH IIIA, based on historical grounds, needs revision as radiocarbon evidence points to an earlier start of the MBA at two of the four sites. Overall, by means of scientific dating methods and Bayesian modelling, the study allows us to set in a different perspective the chronology proposed in the current literature based on historical synchronizations
Punta di Zambrone (Calabria, Italy) and the Recent Bronze Age in the Southern Tyrrhenian Region
ISBN, 2021
This contribution focuses on the impasto production of the Recent Bronze Age site of Punta di Zambrone (Calabria), with the aim of defining the cultural processes taking place in the southern Tyrrhenian region between the 13 th and 12 th centuries BC. This very large set of new findings has been the object of a typological classification, together with other materials from the geographical area of the site (Lipari, southern Tyrrhenian Calabria, northeastern Sicily). Some of the most peculiar Subapennine ceramic classes are described in this paper, namely: bowls and cups within the open shapes; typical Subapennine handle projections, amphorae, jars and large storage containers within the closed shapes and, finally, spindle whorls and loom weights among the terracotta artefacts. Although Punta di Zambrone is substantially a single-phase Recent Bronze Age 2 site, there are a few fragments dating back to Middle Bronze Age 3 (Apennine/Thapsos-Milazzese facies) and to Recent Bronze Age 1. The presence of those more ancient sherds raises some questions about the chronology of the site and of the 'Ausonian' invasion in the southern Tyrrhenian region of Italy .