The site of Bakr Awa is situated in north-eastern Iraq, in the Plain of Shahrizor. Excavations were undertaken in 1960/61by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and 2010/11 by the University of Heidelberg/Germany. Occupation layers from the beginning of the Early Bronze Age tothe Ottoman period were uncoveredin the lower city and on the citadel. Archaeological evidence from the secondmillennium B.C. shows the most intensive settlement activities and apparent prosperity at Bakr Awa. Several forms of pottery, small finds and architecture reflect dynamic processes of cultural and political transformation at this site located in an area of transition between northern and southern Mesopotamia and western Iran.
This project aims to reconstruct the settlement patterns and palaeoenvironment of the Saspów Valley in the Polish Jura by combining unpublished archaeological fieldwork with results of recent excavations at 13 cave sites.
Cave burials are generally absent from historical periods in Europe. Consequently, the discovery of a post-medieval inhumation of a child buried with at least one bird head placed in the mouth in Tunel Wielki Cave (southern Poland) is an exceptional find. The aim of this paper is to discuss this unique burial based on multiproxy analyses conducted on the human and avian remains, including genetic and isotopic analyses as well as CT scans, radiocarbon dating, and anthropological and paleontological assessment. The results reveal the burial was that of a 10–12 year old girl of likely Fennoscandian or Baltic genetic ancestry, who died in the post-medieval period and was buried in the cave with the placement of one, and possibly two, bird heads in the mouth of the deceased. We propose that the girl is associated with Finno-Karelian troops of a Swedish garrison stationed at the adjacent Ojców Castle during King Carl Gustav’s invasion of Poland in 1655–1657.
The Middle Ages in the Polish Plain saw an increase in fish consumption as it substituted meat during Lent and other meatless days, approximately one third of the year, due to religious restrictions. Demand for fish stimulated the market. Fish trade and distribution can be easily reconstructed regarding marine species; however, freshwater taxa evade such reconstructions. Modern analytical tools, such as stable isotope analysis, can distinguish freshwater fish inhabiting brackish water typical of estuaries from individuals occupying inland water reservoirs. In this study, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis was conducted for fish remains excavated from mid‐13th to 14th century residential complex from Wysoka Górka at Chełm, modern Poland. Samples of 16 individuals representing nine taxa met the collagen quality criteria. Half of the individuals expressed δ13C values typical of marine environment: four sturgeons (Acipenser oxyrinchus), two catfishes (Silurus glanis), a pike (Esox lucius) and a bream (Abramis brama). Such values are expected for sturgeon, an anadromous fish, but not typical for freshwater taxa from the sites deep inland, like Chełm. The results are discussed whether freshwater fish are of local origin, migrated in the area of Chełm, or were item of trade, probably from the Baltic coast (approximately 450 km); however, the presence of carp (Cyprinus carpio) may indicate the basin of the Black Sea.
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