Potyomkina Tamila. Arrangement of Sacred Space in the Burial Area of the Bronze Age Dashti Kozy Cemetery (Central Asia) // Archaeoastronomy: Journal of Astronomy in Culture. Volume XX. University of Texas Press, 2006. Pp. 70-96 (original) (raw)
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Alekseev A.Yu., Bokovenko N.A., Boltrik Yu, ChugunovK.A., Cook G., Dergachev V.A., Kovaliukh N., Possnert G., van der Plicht J., Scott E.M., Sementsov A., Skripkin V., Vasiliev S., Zaitseva G. Some problems in the study of the chronology of the ancient nomads cultures (9th –3rd centuries BC) // ..., 2002
This research is focused on the chronological investigations of ancient nomads belonging to the Scythian cultures which occupied the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eurasia during the 9 th-3 rd centuries BC. The 14 C dates for the pre-scythian and early scythian time in both Europe and Asia are presented and compared to their chronological position based on archaeological evidence. The first 14 C dates have been produced for the Scythian time monuments located in the Lower Volga River basin, Urals and Transurals regions. Their chronological positions are compared with the position of the monuments of Southern Siberia and Central Asia. It was shown that the nomadic cultures belonging to the Scythian culture began to exist over the wide territory of Eurasia from the 9 th-8 th centuries cal BC and there are some monuments which may be synchronous to the Arzhan royal barrow (the oldest monument known). A list of new 14 C dates and a map of the monuments are presented.
In this article, on the basis of excavated materials from ritual places [sanctuaries] of the Eneolithic (Savin 1, Slobodchiki 1, Velizhany 2) and the Bronze Age (Suzgun 2, Chudsky Mountain), consideration is given to astronomical knowledge and cosmological representations by ancient populations inhabiting forest-steppe and southern taiga biomes within the Tobol and Irtysh river basins. The sources for this reconstruction are found in features of the organization of sacred spaces, associated with the landscape-bound layout and architecture of sanctuaries as whole sites, and by their individual archaeological objects -in the character of their function, the specificity of cult-ceremonial activities, the semantics conveyed by distinctive objects of ritual purpose, and in the territorial and cultural attributes of the investigated monuments. Using available archaeological evidence integrated into a unified system promulgated to serve for comparison between data from archaeoastronomy and ethnology, the author attempts to reveal relationships, established during the course of research, that bind a set of common features present at places of cult practice by these ancient populations with concrete representations of the Universe. According to reported data, the basis of astronomical knowledge and related cosmological ideas was shaped at the end of Neolithic-Eneolithic by a tripartite model of the world in its horizontal and vertical projections. Leading forms of worship by local cults are concomitant with collective sacrifices closely connected with calendar ceremonialism. According to astronomical correlations, the greatest sacrifices were made during the autumnal equinox, at the time mass hunting for ungulates was conducted. The observed association of high ceremonies with sunrise and to lunar cycles attests to the existence of solar and lunar cults. The basic schema and elements that comprise the given model of the Universe and its display in ritual-ceremonial practice were retained by the local aboriginal population of the territory under consideration (Mansi, Khanty) into the ethnographic present. This diachronic similarity attests to the continuity of cultural traditions and to the affinity within the ethnic composition of the population, conditioned by specific habitation in a forested Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2014, 2(1), 50-89 (English translation) 2 zone.
In this article, on the basis of excavated materials from ritual places [sanctuaries] of the Eneolithic (Savin 1, Slobodchiki 1, Velizhany 2) and the Bronze Age (Suzgun 2, Chudsky Mountain), consideration is given to astronomical knowledge and cosmological representations by ancient populations inhabiting forest-steppe and southern taiga biomes within the Tobol and Irtysh river basins. The sources for this reconstruction are found in features of the organization of sacred spaces, associated with the landscape-bound layout and architecture of sanctuaries as whole sites, and by their individual archaeological objects-in the character of their function, the specificity of cult-ceremonial activities, the semantics conveyed by distinctive objects of ritual purpose, and in the territorial and cultural attributes of the investigated monuments. Using available archaeological evidence integrated into a unified system promulgated to serve for comparison between data from archaeoastronomy and ethnology, the author attempts to reveal relationships, established during the course of research, that bind a set of common features present at places of cult practice by these ancient populations with concrete representations of the Universe. According to reported data, the basis of astronomical knowledge and related cosmological ideas was shaped at the end of Neolithic-Eneolithic by a tripartite model of the world in its horizontal and vertical projections. Leading forms of worship by local cults are concomitant with collective sacrifices closely connected with calendar ceremonialism. According to astronomical correlations, the greatest sacrifices were made during the autumnal equinox, at the time mass hunting for ungulates was conducted. The observed association of high ceremonies with sunrise and to lunar cycles attests to the existence of solar and lunar cults. The basic schema and elements that comprise the given model of the Universe and its display in ritual-ceremonial practice were retained by the local aboriginal population of the territory under consideration (Mansi, Khanty) into the ethnographic present. This diachronic similarity attests to the continuity of cultural traditions and to the affinity within the ethnic composition of the population, conditioned by specific habitation in a forested
Case stdies of archaeoastronomy in Romania
Archaeoastronomy is the discipline which studies celestial phenomena looking from the viewpoint of our ancestors (how they understood and used celestial phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultures). Archaeoastronomy uses different methods, derived from archaeology, anthropology, astronomy, statistics, and probability, in order to determine the thoughts of the ancient civilizations. Because these methods are heterogeneous and use data coming from different sources, the collecting and processing require considerable time. In this article two archaeoastronomical case studies in Romania are presented. First, we show a mathematical method used in order to study the astronomical orientation of the skeletons from the Neolithic necropolis of Cernica. We created a detailed data bank for the Cernica necropolis and, using our program written in MATLAB, we obtained interesting results, mostly from an astronomical point of view. Secondly, we provide an astronomical explanation about the ten radiuses on the top of the Andesite Stone from Sarmizegetusa Regia.
This article is the first attempt to summarize the results of the research of the burial complexes of Bronze Age in the Northern Angara region. We use the materials of 29 burials of 13 locations, where 17 graves have the different destruction's traces in the result of influence of human or natural factors. We gave the general characteristic of the funeral ceremony. We raised some problems of accessibility and publication of the burials materials. We identified 5 types of burials from the position of the skeletons in the grave pits: writhed on the left side, stretched on his back, on the right / left side with bent legs, secondary burial and cremation. We raised an issue about their correct dating into the chronological period of the Bronze age in the Northern Angara region. We determined the cultural and historical similar features of the burials materials of Northern Angara region and Glazkovo funerary traditions of the Baikal region, thus we found a striking difference – the predominance in the funeral inventory of hunting tools. We set a chronological period of the Bronze Age in Northern Angara region 4500–2800 BP.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports , 2019
Bronze and Iron Age fortresses in South Caucasia have long been interpreted as evidence for the region's first territorial polities with complex bureaucracies, but it has only been through recent intensive survey and examination of settlements beside fortresses that archaeologists have developed a better understanding of the inhabitants of fortress-polities and their landscapes. Near-surface geophysical prospection near two hillforts overlooking the Arpaçay river valley, Naxçıvan Autonomous Republic, Azerbaijan, evaluated previously published hypotheses about Bronze and Iron Age fortresses. These two forts, Oğlanqala, a 12-hectare hilltop fortress inhabited in the Iron Age, and Qızqala 1, a 2-hectare fort with Middle Bronze Age and Iron Age pottery, were previously documented through survey and excavations as part of the Naxçıvan Archaeological Project (NAP). Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetic gradiometry surveys focused on areas of potential significance identified in the NAP. Magnetic gradiometry survey in the plain between Oğlanqala and Qızqala located a fortification wall segment that connects to previously recorded surface features argued to date to the Middle Iron Age; the path of this wall lends support to the hypothesis that it enclosed least 324 ha surrounding Oğlanqala and Qızqala and limited access to a narrow mountain pass and fertile lands in the river valley. Geophysical prospection at a settlement site on a bedrock shelf near Qızqala 1 suggests that architectural remains are preserved within part of the large enclosure. Geophysical prospection elsewhere in the alluvial plain did not reveal evidence for preserved architecture within or outside of the hypothesized enclosure, though this could be a result of soil conditions. Magnetic gradiometry of a Middle Bronze Age kurgan field outside of the enclosure identified the potential locations of burials that were not identified during surface survey. New sources of historical satellite imagery aided interpretation of geophysics results from highly-disturbed alluvial areas.
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Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia, 2021
The article reconsiders two major sites of the 1st millennium BC in southern Uzbekistan, Kyzyltepa and Kurganzol. It contests their recent dating – exclusively the Achaemenid and transitional Hellenistic period for the first one, and the end of the 4th c. BC for the second one – mainly based upon dendrochronological analyses relating the samples to the time of Alexander the Great’s conquest or slightly before, and ruling out the other dates given to these sites in previous publications. Our argumentation is based upon (1) various archaeological arguments and (2) scientific criteria that question the dendrochronological data and the supposed aging of the 14C results due to “old waters” from glaciers.
Astronomical orientations at the Cernica Neolithic Necropolis
2010
The paper presents some considerations about the astronomical orientation from the Neolithic Cernica necropolis. Up to date, on the Muntenia territory, this is the greatest necropolis in the Neolithic age, discovered and investigated by Dr Gh. Cantacuzino. This necropolis was found accidentally in 1961 on the occasion of the systematical excavation from Cernica in the Cȃldȃraru village, on the western bank of the Cernica Lake. In the graves from the Cernica cemetery were discovered pearls made of copper ore, the oldest in our country and also in Europe. Astronomically, we calculate the azimuth of the Sun (the angles are measured from the North to East) at the summer and at the winter solstice for Cernica (geographical latitude 44 • 25). We know that the points of sunrise and sunset differ from the years 4600-4200 BC, when the Cernica necropolis is dated. The result of the computer program written in Matlab language is that the Sun describes a solar arc in one year: from 235 • (Winter Solstice) to 304 • (Summer Solstice) for 4400 BC. Using these mathematical results we can say that at the given period of time, in Cernica there was a practice of a solar-magic: sunrise and sunset were observed within the limits of a burial ritual. From measured skeletons, rates of 90% are