Tracing the Source of the Elephant and Hippopotamus Ivory from the 14Th Century B.C
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The Uluburun Shipwreck – a Dendrochronological Scandal
The Uluburun Shipwreck – a Dendrochronological Scandal During the Late Bronze Age a trading ship was wrecked off the promontory of Kaş, near Uluburun, in southwestern Turkey. Work on its excavation began in 1984 and the wreck has proved to be a gift to archaeologists. Its cargo included Mycenaean and Cypriot pottery, Canaanite storage jars filled with resin, copper and tin ingots, tools, fishing equipment, weapons, stone artefacts, gold and silver jewellery and a unique gold scarab bearing the name of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti. For more details, photographs and bibliography see online articles by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology on the “Bronze Age Shipwreck Excavation at Uluburun” and “Continuing Study of the Uluburun Shipwreck Artifacts”. As all their contents sank together, shipwrecks like this are veritable “time- capsules”. Excepting occasional problems involving antiques or possible antiques, rich multi-cultural cargoes like that of Uluburun provide invaluable evidence for refining the relative archaeological chronologies of neighbouring regions. Shipwrecks also hold the promise of offering absolute dates for their cargoes, if timbers from the ship can be reliably cross-dated with a well established dendrochronology. In 1996 Peter Kuniholm, Director of the Aegean Dendrochronology Project at Cornell University announced (in preliminary form) a result for Uluburun, in a article published in the prestigious journal Nature (Kuniholm et al. 1996, 782): Wood found as part of the cargo on Kaş/Uluburun shipwreck has a last preserved ring at 1316 BC; other finds include Mycenaean pottery from Greece (the most recent material present is early Late Helladic IIIB; J. B. Rutter, personal communication), and a unique gold scarab of Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten, pharaoh of Egypt. -
The and Uluburun Shipwreck La T E B R 0 N Z E a G E T Ra
THE ULUBURUN SHIPWRECK AND LA T E B R 0 N Z E A G E T RA D E CEMAL PULAK pwreck dating to the Late Bronze Age was exca several dozen ingots, still arranged in four discernible rows. ted off Uluburun-or Grand Cape 1-approxi- Their shape was reminiscent of copper ingots recovered from mately 9 kilometers southeast of Ka~, in southern the Cape Gelidonya shipwreck two decades earlier and termed Turkey, between 1984 and 1994.2 It was discovered "oxhide" for their rectangular, four-handled appearance. It had by a sponge diver during the summer of 1982 and brought been assumed that each ingot represented the shape of an to the attention of archaeologists at the Institute of Nautical oxhide, possibly as a means of assigning value for trade, Archaeology (INA) conducting annual shipwreck surveys although this hypothesis has since been disproved. The form along the coast.3 The original allure of the site was its cargo of the oxhide ingots and other artifacts from the wreck allowed of copper ingots. Similar ingots had been discovered during us to propose a rough date of about 1300 B.C.5 With this the 1960 excavation of a seafaring merchant ship of around estimated date in mind, excavations began in the hope of the twelfth-century B.C. off Cape Gelidonya, just 65.5 kilome uncovering items that would illuminate aspects of Late Bronze ters east of Uluburun. Analyses of finds from the Cape Age trade. Gelidonya shipwreck had allowed George Bass to hypothesize Because of the depth of the site-42 to 61 meters6- the about the central role of Near Eastern seafarers in Late Bronze cargo had been spared from salvage or pillage. -
Direct Evidence of Primary Glass Production in Late Bronze Age Amarna, Egypt*
Archaeometry 53, 1 (2011) 58–80 doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2010.00521.x DIRECT EVIDENCE OF PRIMARY GLASS PRODUCTION IN LATE BRONZE AGE AMARNA, EGYPT* M. SMIRNIOU Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG and TH. REHREN Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY This paper presents direct archaeological evidence for the primary production of glass at the LBA site of Tell el-Amarna, in the form of numerous finds of semi-finished glass. The diagnostic microstructural and chemical composition of these finds is presented alongside macroscopi- cally similar finds, of shapeless lumps of finished white glass. The semi-finished glass was found to contain numerous inclusions of residual quartz and newly formed lime-rich crystal phases, but no added colorant. However, several samples of semi-finished glass have antimony oxide levels comparable to those of finished white glass, suggesting that the opacifier was added to the initial glass-making batch. The results are discussed in comparison with the evidence for glass-making from Qantir – Pi-Ramesse, identifying some close technical simi- larities, which indicate that the same technological processes were used at both sites for the production of glass. KEYWORDS: GLASS, GLASS-MAKING, EGYPT, LATE BRONZE AGE, AMARNA, ELECTRON MICROPROBE ANALYSIS INTRODUCTION Glass and glass workshops in the LBA Near East and Egypt There is abundant evidence that glass was being produced and worked during the Late Bronze Age (LBA), as attested by the numerous glass artefacts that have been found in Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean. -
Viking Age Settlement and Medieval Walrus Ivory Trade in Iceland and Greenland
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research Hunter College 2015 Was it for walrus? Viking Age settlement and medieval walrus ivory trade in Iceland and Greenland Karen M. Frei National Museum of Denmark Ashley N. Coutu University of Cape Town Konrad Smiarowski CUNY Graduate Center Ramona Harrison CUNY Hunter College Christian K. Madsen National Museum of Denmark See next page for additional authors How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_pubs/637 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Authors Karen M. Frei, Ashley N. Coutu, Konrad Smiarowski, Ramona Harrison, Christian K. Madsen, Jette Arneborg, Robert Frei, Gardar Guðmundsson, Søren M. Sindbækg, James Woollett, Steven Hartman, Megan Hicks, and Thomas McGovern This article is available at CUNY Academic Works: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_pubs/637 Was it for walrus? Viking Age settlement and medieval walrus ivory trade in Iceland and Greenland Karin M. Frei, Ashley N. Coutu, Konrad Smiarowski, Ramona Harrison, Christian K. Madsen, Jette Arneborg, Robert Frei, Gardar Guðmundsson, Søren M. Sindbæk, James Woollett, Steven Hartman, Megan Hicks and Thomas H. McGovern Abstract Walrus-tusk ivory and walrus-hide rope were highly desired goods in Viking Age north-west Europe. New finds of walrus bone and ivory in early Viking Age contexts in Iceland are concentrated in the south-west, and suggest extensive exploitation of nearby walrus for meat, hide and ivory during the first century of settlement. -
Before the Pyramids Oi.Uchicago.Edu
oi.uchicago.edu Before the pyramids oi.uchicago.edu before the pyramids baked clay, squat, round-bottomed, ledge rim jar. 12.3 x 14.9 cm. Naqada iiC. oim e26239 (photo by anna ressman) 2 oi.uchicago.edu Before the pyramids the origins of egyptian civilization edited by emily teeter oriental institute museum puBlications 33 the oriental institute of the university of chicago oi.uchicago.edu Library of Congress Control Number: 2011922920 ISBN-10: 1-885923-82-1 ISBN-13: 978-1-885923-82-0 © 2011 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Published 2011. Printed in the United States of America. The Oriental Institute, Chicago This volume has been published in conjunction with the exhibition Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization March 28–December 31, 2011 Oriental Institute Museum Publications 33 Series Editors Leslie Schramer and Thomas G. Urban Rebecca Cain and Michael Lavoie assisted in the production of this volume. Published by The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago 1155 East 58th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 USA oi.uchicago.edu For Tom and Linda Illustration Credits Front cover illustration: Painted vessel (Catalog No. 2). Cover design by Brian Zimerle Catalog Nos. 1–79, 82–129: Photos by Anna Ressman Catalog Nos. 80–81: Courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Printed by M&G Graphics, Chicago, Illinois. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Service — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984 ∞ oi.uchicago.edu book title TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword. Gil J. -
Us Vs. Them: Dualism and the Frontier in History
University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2004 Us vs. them: Dualism and the frontier in history. Jonathan Joseph Wlasiuk The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Wlasiuk, Jonathan Joseph, "Us vs. them: Dualism and the frontier in history." (2004). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 5242. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/5242 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Maureen and Mike MANSFIELD LIBRARY The University of Montana Permission is granted by the author to reproduce this material in its entirety, provided that this material is used for scholarly purposes and is properly cited in published works and reports. **Please check "Yes” or "No" and provide signature** Yes, I grant permission No, I do not grant permission Author’s Signature: Any copying for commercial purposes or financial gain may be undertaken only with the author’s explicit consent. 8/98 US VS. THEM: DUALISM AND THE FRONTIER IN HISTORY by Jonathan Joseph Wlasiuk B.A. The Ohio State University, 2002 presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The University of Montana April 2004 Approved by: lairperson Dean, Graduate School Date UMI Number: EP40706 AH rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. -
Uluburun – the Discovery and Excavation of the World’S Oldest Known Shipwreck
http://akroterion.journals.ac.za ULUBURUN – THE DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION OF THE WORLD’S OLDEST KNOWN SHIPWRECK N Fawcett & J C Zietsman (University of Stellenbosch) The oldest and most exciting shipwreck ever discovered is that of a 15 metre Syro- Palestinian trading vessel whose cargo was sighted on the sea-bed by a sponge diver off a promontory called Uluburun, near Kas, on the south Turkish coast. The ship dates from about 1300 BC. According to Wachsmann (1998:xi) “The Uluburun shipwreck is without doubt the single most significant key to understanding Bronze Age seafaring”, and Bass (1998:49) adds that “few if any Bronze Age excavations in the past 50 years have been more important than the Uluburun shipwreck.” 1. Background The mainstream of nautical development that was to flow throughout ancient history arose not in the river-oriented civilisations of Mesopotamia or Egypt but in the open waters of the Eastern Mediterranean around the beginning of the second millennium BC (Casson 1971:30). Men had ventured beyond the shelter of their shores long before this date, in log rafts, perhaps, or some form of reed bundle boat, followed by dugouts with planks added on both sides to give a bigger freeboard (Johnstone 1980:58). By the third millennium the Egyptians had learned to build craft with edge-joined planks sewn together with twine, as has been shown by the discovery of 12 wooden boats buried beside the funerary enclosures of the earliest kings of Egypt at Abydos, dating to c. 3000 – 2700 BC (Haldane 1992:12), and the famous Cheops ship of c. -
Making, Remaking and Unmaking Early 'Writing'
“It Is Written”?: Making, remaking and unmaking early ‘writing’ in the lower Nile Valley Kathryn E. Piquette Freie Universität Berlin Introduction Analysis and interpretation of inscribed objects often focus on their written meanings and thus their status as products of completed action. Attention is less commonly directed to the ways in which past actors intermingled and transformed material substances via particular tools and embodied behaviours — the material practices which give rise to graphical expres- sion and anchor subsequent acts of symbolic meaning (re-)construction. Building on research into the materiality of early writing and related image making (see Piquette 2007; 2008), this chapter focusses on one aspect of written object ‘life histories’ — the processes of remaking and unmaking. I explore below the dynamic unfolding and reformulation of ‘writing’ and related imagery as artefact within the context of a selection of early inscribed objects from the lower Nile Valley (Figure 1). The more portable writing surfaces include over 4000 objects, including small labels, ceramic and stone vessels, stelae, seals and seal impressions, imple- ments, and personal items (Regulski 2010: 6, 242). The geographically- and temporally-related marks on fixed stone surfaces (variously referred to as ‘petroglyphs’, ‘rock art’, ‘rock inscrip- tions’ or ‘graffiti’, e.g. Redford and Redford 1989; Storemyr 2009) also constitute a crucial dataset for questions of early writing and image-making practices in north-east Africa, but fall outside the scope of this chapter. For its basis, this inquiry examines comparatively three inscribed find types: small perforated plaques or ‘labels’ of bone, ivory and wood; stone ves- sels; and stone stelae. -
Ivory Identification: Introduction ______
Ivory identification: Introduction _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 2 WHAT IS IVORY? 3 THE IVORIES 9 Elephant and Mammoth 9 Walrus 13 Sperm Whale and Killer Whale 15 Narwhal 17 Hippopotamus 19 Wart Hog 21 IVORY SUBSTITUTES 23 NATURAL IVORY SUBSTITUTES 25 Bone 25 Shell 25 Helmeted Hornbill 26 Vegetable Ivory 27 MANUFACTURED IVORY SUBSTITUTES 29 APPENDIX 1 Procedure for the Preliminary Identification 31 of Ivory and Ivory Substitutes APPENDIX 2 List of Supplies and Equipment for Use in the 31 Preliminary Identification of Ivory and Ivory Substitutes GLOSSARY 33 SELECTED REFERENCES 35 COVER: An enhanced photocopy of the Schreger pattern in a cross-section of extant elephant ivory. A concave angle and a convex angle have been marked and the angle measurements are shown. For an explanation of the Schreger pattern and the method for measuring and interpreting Schreger angles, see pages 9 – 10. INTRODUCTION _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ivory identification: Introduction Reprinted: 1999 Ivory identification: Introduction 3 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ The methods, data and background information on ivory identification compiled in this handbook are the result of forensic research conducted by the United States National Fish & Wildlife Forensics Laboratory, located in Ashland, Oregon. The goal of the research -
The Late Bronze Age Uluburun Shipwreck As a Case Study Less Than 10% of the Time and Resources Spent in a Shipwreck Project Is Spent on the Fieldwork
Maritime Archaeology as Interdisciplinary Research: the Late Bronze Age Uluburun shipwreck as a case study Less than 10% of the time and resources spent in a shipwreck project is spent on the fieldwork 1. generating the data (fieldwork and conservation) 2. generating/contextualizing the data: relative and absolute dating, provenience (material analyses, typological studies) 3. contextualizing the data from external sources (iconography, texts) 4. interpreting the data (including through reconstructions) 5. disseminating the data, reconstructions, interpretations Generating the data through archaeological fieldwork and conservation 11 seasons of fieldwork: 22,500 dives (1984-1994) Archaeological conservation: all materials from the Uluburun shipwreck (not on display in museums) are being stored and conserved in Bodrum, Turkey Material culture recovered from underwater contexts requires more urgent conservation than material culture from any other kind of ‘terrestrial’ context Contextualizing the data by generating more data: materials analysis to determine absolute dates and provenience of materials ‘Hard’ dates Dendrochronological dates recovered from logs on the Uluburun ship date to ca. 1300 BCE Radiocarbon (C14) dates from organic materials recovered from the Uluburun shipwreck (ca. 1300 BCE) Contextualizing the data by generating more data: materials analysis to determine absolute dates and provenience of materials Provenience studies on Uluburun material Petrographic analysis on Canaanite Jars X Uluburun Lead Isotope analysis on copper ingots Contextualizing the shipwreck through typological/chronological studies of pottery Trajectory Determining ‘relative dates’ and the likely trajectory of the ship 19 (chronologically precise) Uluburun X 149 Canaanite Jars Aegean Stirrup Jars shipwreck 9 Cypriot pithoi Contextualizing and interpreting the shipwreck with external sources (source material that does not share comparanda with material from the shipwreck: i.e. -
Title:Vitreous Beads from the Uluburun Shipwreck Pages: 225-246
Title:Vitreous beads from the Uluburun shipwreck Author(s): Rebecca S. Ingram Journal: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 23/2, Special Studies: Beyond ornamentation. Jewelry as an Aspect of Material Culture in the Ancient Near East, edited by A. Golani , Z. Wygnańska Year: 2014 Pages: 225-246 ISSN 1234–5415 (Print), ISSN 2083–537X (Online) Publisher: Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw (PCMA UW), Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego (WUW) www.pcma.uw.edu.pl – www.wuw.pl Vitreous beads from the Uluburun shipwreck ANATOLIA VITREOUS BEADS from THE ULUBURUN shIPwrECK Rebecca S. Ingram Nautical Archaeology Program, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University Abstract: The Late Bronze Age shipwreck at Uluburun (late 14th century BC) was discovered off the southwest coast of Turkey in 1982. Thousands of beads of vitreous material were found at the site, including approximately 75,000 faience beads and 9,500 glass beads. This paper offers an intro- duction to the faience and wound glass beads found at Uluburun, with an emphasis on manufac- ture and their role aboard the ship. Bead forms and styles represented at Uluburun were relatively simple and quite common at archaeological sites throughout the Late Bronze Age Levant. There is evidence that several of the simpler types of the faience and glass beads were carried on the ship as items of trade. More complex forms, in contrast, probably represent the personal belongings of the crew or passengers aboard the ship. Keywords: Uluburun, glass, faience, beads, Late Bronze Age In 1982, a Late Bronze Age shipwreck The Uluburun shipwreck also yielded was discovered off the southwestern tens of thousands of beads. -
Life Histories of Juvenile Woolly Mammoths from Siberia: Stable Isotope and Elemental Analyses of Tooth Dentin
Life Histories of Juvenile Woolly Mammoths from Siberia: Stable Isotope and Elemental Analyses of Tooth Dentin by Adam Nicholas Rountrey A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Geology) in The University of Michigan 2009 Doctoral Committee: Professor Daniel C. Fisher, Chair Professor Philip D. Gingerich Professor Kyger C. Lohmann Associate Professor Daniel J. Chiego Jr. © Adam Nicholas Rountrey 2009 Acknowledgements I am most grateful to my advisor, Daniel C. Fisher, for his encouragement, dedication, and passion for all things dental and proboscidean. I thank him for his willingness to hear, discuss, and help develop many fledgling ideas over the years. I would also like to thank my other committee members, Philip D. Gingerich, Kyger C. Lohmann, and Daniel J. Chiego Jr., for their thoughtful criticisms, encouragement, and assistance in technical aspects of this work. This research would not have been possible without access to the elephant and mammoth specimens. Robert Allen , Gennady Boeskorov and Pyotr Lazarev (Mammoth Museum, Institute of Applied Ecology of the North, Yakutia, Russian Federation), Bernard Buigues (International Mammoth Committee, Saint Mandé, France), Sergey Grishin (Shemanovsky Museum, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russian Federation), Gary Haynes (University of Nevada, Reno), Dick Mol (Natural History Museum Rotterdam, The Netherlands), Alexei Tikhonov (Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation), and Sergey Vartanyan (Geographical Institute, Saint Petersburg State University, Russian Federation) donated, collected, or facilitated access to specimens. I thank David Fox, Lora Wingate, James Gleason, and Ted Huston for my education in the arts of isotopic and elemental analysis.