Full-text resources of CEJSH and other databases are now available in the new Library of Science.
Visit https://bibliotekanauki.pl

Results found: 24

first rewind previous Page / 2 next fast forward last

Search results

Search:
in the keywords:  LUSATIAN CULTURE
help Sort By:

help Limit search:
first rewind previous Page / 2 next fast forward last
Archeologia Polski
|
2008
|
vol. 53
|
issue 2
339-350
EN
Research on glass products from Lusatian Culture sites is hardly satisfactory despite a recent flow of published studies devoted solely to this object category. Most archaeologists pay little attention to glass products, limiting their description of these objects to overall shape, color of the glass and dimensions. The more inquiring among researchers encounter difficulties that they are no always equipped to deal with. A good case in point is a study by J.T. Matysiak and T. Prokop (2005), presenting a single glass bead from a burial ground of the Lusatian Culture in Zakrzówek Szlachecki (Radomsko district). The authors went beyond a traditional description of formal traits to attempt a determination of technique, which they identified as 'winding' or the so-called 'drop' technique. They failed, however, to present the grounds for this determination - whether it was observation of evidence of technical processing (e.g. ellipsoid gas bubbles or glass trails) or merely intuition. The biggest doubts are raised by a consideration of the results of glass chemical composition analysis presented by the authors. Matysiak and Prokop did not give any of the information essential in studies of this kind: the method of analysis, number of analyses and source of samples (whether external surface or glass from inside the bead). Finally, the said bead has been presented by Matysiak and Prokop in two views (but no section drawing) with shading to enhance its appearance. Nothing of the inner structure and the inclusions and gas bubbles in the glass has been shown in the drawings. The proper description and interpretation of results of glass chemical composition analyses, not to mention a good drawing of an object, is not an easy task, as this brief look at Matysiak and Prokop's work has demonstrated. Researchers would do well to follow the principles of description of historic glass (Dekówna and Olczak - Principes... 2002), comprising the fullest set of data available on a given piece. According to these principles, the description starts with information about the find context. This is followed by an examination of the first the object's external characteristics and then specific characteristics informing about technique and production technology. Bibliographic data are included at the end. It follows from this order of description that the object's observable and macroscopically examined features: state of preservation, shape of body and ornament, and dimensions, are considered first. Next come characteristics seen in part with the naked eye and in part with the use of a magnifying glass and/or microscope: this includes evidence of technical processing, technique of execution of the body and ornament, state of preservation of the glass, faults in the glass mass. The last stage is constituted by physico-chemical analyses of certain characteristics: glass chemical composition, colorants, decolorizers, opacifiers, melting temperature. An essential addition to the object description is a drawing, showing not only the body shape and the ornament, but also all faults noted in the glass mass, such as gas bubbles for example. Photographs can be informative, if they show the form of the bead and the photographs under a microscope are a source of important information about the inner structure of the glass, as well as its state of preservation. 2 Figures, 2 Tables.
EN
The collection of artefacts presented in the paper allows for a few conclusions which are important for the reconstruction of the Lusatian settlement times, stretching along the river of Topornica (Wieprzec), although it contains only items which were found out of context. The first important observation concerns the determination of the beginnings of settlement at this territory. It seems that the earlier phase -Trzciniec culture was replaced by the Lusatian culture already at the end of the middle period of the Bronze Age. It also appears that the period of the most intensive development of the region took place in the younger and later Bronze Age. The presence of some bronze artefacts of eastern provenance signals the possibility that this direction of connections could have been of crucial importance for the area under study. It seems that initially, the local societies had contacts with the people from the Wysocko culture, and next with societies inhabiting the territory of forest and steppe which were under the rule of the Scythians. These could be brought about by the inflowing people from the east, a movement which can be traced on the basis of Scythian findings: small weaponry, jewellery, and parts of horse harness. It appears that the best conditions for migration of people and things were in the river valleys of the West-Volhynian Upland and Zamosc Padol. The Lusatian region on the Topornica was on the way and in the way of this migration.
Archeologia Polski
|
2004
|
vol. 49
|
issue 1-2
106-124
EN
Inspired by Bogdan Balcer's comments, published in 'Archeologia Polski', I would like to address the issues concerning my work brought up in this publication. In the Polish literature, the possibility and potential scale of the use of flint tools by post-Neolithic communities has been argued ever since the 1930s. A summary of the discussion was contributed by J. Lech, among others. The accretion of new sources and verification of extant collections have put into an entirely new light the issue of how Bronze-Age populations, not only in the eastern territories of Poland, made use of siliceous rocks. Balcer's view that the issue of 'Early Bronze Age' flint working should be perceived in a spectrum much broader than that proposed by the present author - that is, through the prism of four conventional tools: knives, sickle inserts, bifacial points and arrowheads - merits full support. The original conception was to limit the selection to bifacial 'sickles' and 'daggers points'. I have treated Balcer's suggestion to include axes in the source base as a research postulate. Their classification would demand analyses exceeding the assumed priority of bifaciality. Extremely variegated morphological and metrical features of these products used in the Lesser Poland (Malopolska) region from the Middle Neolithic onward enjoin a verification of the classification accepted to date (including similar tools, like chisels, primitive axes, primitive axe-shaped and hoes for mining). In a consideration of the chronology of the smallish four-sided axes, one needs merely to keep in mind the parallel 'corded Ware Culture' forms of type Id and II after J. Machnik (1966), as well as the 'Funnel Beaker Culture' variant C after B. Balcer (1975), the small 'Globular Amphorae Culture' pieces and the Zlota Culture type 'b' after Z. Krzak (1961), in order to be persuaded regarding the imperfections of such divisions. Returning to the polemics, it is impossible to accept Balcer's opinion that the bifacial tools I had analyzed were removed from the context of contemporary products. It should be emphasized that the two most numerous of the analyzed forms, that is, bifacial points and sickle-shaped knives, are deprived of this context in over 93% and close to 96% of the cases respectively. In the remaining cases, an analysis of non-flint material was essential for a determination of this context. Balcer's further views concerning this context are equally difficult to accept, for he is inclined to include a variety of flint tools from the Early Bronze Age, as well as later ones, independently of the nature of the finds. The listing clearly indicates that a number of 'Early Bronze' elements do not find continuation in the flint tool production of the Trzciniec and Lusatian cultures (J. Libera, in print). Balcer's postulate regarding a comprehensive study of Early Bronze Age flint working is a definitely premature undertaking in my opinion. It should be preceded by comprehensive monographic presentations of sites of key significance for the issues brought up here, as well as regional summaries that will permit trends to be discerned in this highly specific 'terminal' flint working throughout the Bronze and Early Iron Ages. The spotty record of publications, on flint working in particular, concerning the Corded Ware Culture, makes it very difficult to understand the stylistic changes that began in the terminal Neolithic and which were construed as a 'technological breakthrough'. In my study, I had deliberately avoided any issues connected with this breakthrough, as well as with the distinctive 'Mierzanowice industry', specifically because the analysis had covered only four elements. To recapitulate, despite considerable progress in fieldwork and studies of Bronze Age (and Early Iron Age) flint working, many of Balcer's postulates from more than thirty years ago on the state and quality of sources on flint tool manufacture for this period remain in force. Despite greatly improved perception and specialist studies on this group of artifacts, many issues, frequently of key significance, still await a satisfactory explanation.
EN
In the Wicina microregion many unfortified sites and cemeteries belonging to the Bialowice Group of the Lusatian Culture were discovered, but attention was focused on the stronghold settled in the Hallstatt C and D phases (7- 6th century BC), destroyed probably by invaders of Scythian origin. A huge quantity of different objects, including some 900 glass beads, was discovered there and physico-chemical examination of 284 beads and melted lumps is presented. The glass objects were discovered mostly in cultural levels; glass-bead necklaces with the skeletons of victims, and in a treasure. Most of the beads were of various shades of blue, some displaying a white wavy ornament. Greenish beads of transparent glass constituted the next largest group, while the remaining objects were: black, yellow, white, reddish-brown. Under the microscope the sampled glass was unclear, containing many bubbles. The batch appeared not fully fused, the glass containing unmelted sand grains. Obviously, the fusion temperature could not have been high. Glass density was determined hydrostatically. Softening temperature was between 500 and 600 cents, shrinking temperature between 600 and 740 cents and melting temperature between 860 and 900 cents. Powder X-ray studies revealed the presence of unreacted calcium carbonate in some of the samples. Glass composition was determined both qualitatively and quantitatively. Flame photometry was also used to determine the Na, K and Ca content. The results are presented as percentages of respective oxides in the examined samples. Relevant distribution of the most important oxides (after averaging results from different analyses) are presented in histograms. It was concluded that the glass used to produce some of the beads had been melted using plant ash, while for others the glass used had been manufactured with soda. 26 Figures and 6 Tables.
EN
The inhumation grave from the biritual cemetery, dated to Bronze Age and beginnings of the Iron Age, at Manasterz on the San river is presented on the background of burial ritual of the Tarnobrzeg group. The authors offer description of the grave inventory, anthropological and metallographical analyses of bones and metal objects, radiocarbon dating, and then comparative analysis of the whole inventory on the background of all known inhumation graves from the Tarnobrzeg group cemeteries. Described grave represents the oldest horizon among all analyzed assemblages (HA1 or even BD). Seriation analysis of grave furniture allowed to distinguish 3 groups of inhumation graves, in which metal ornaments made of bronze bars, wire and band were deposited. It is possible that this division corresponds to the chronological sequence of the inhumation graves. Inhumation burial ritual belongs to the most interesting phenomena in the Tarnobrzeg group. Rich equipment of inhumation graves (not recorded in cremation graves) allows to look for wide-spread, contemporary analogies and connections to the older Trzciniec culture.
EN
In autumn of 2005 in the area of and archival grave-field at Stabłowice site 1 in Wrocław (Figs. 1-3) new graves of Lusatian Culture were discovered, in Tatrzańska street, during a rescue excavation run due to renovation of the road. The site was discovered during the 19th century and partly investigated in early 20th century. From this fieldwork we now have only a part of the site documentation held by the city archive. Two graves discovered during the rescue excavation were urned burials with a number of accessory vessels (Figs. 6-7). Analysis of the bone remains identified one of the burials as an adult of undetermined identified gender. Analysis of the ceramic vessels, on the other hand, confirmed that the spot was used as a burial site during a later segment of the Bronze Age and during the Early Iron Age.
EN
The article deals with a report and a drawing of Julius Neudeck. They are in the legacy of Friedrich Kenner in Vienna. Neudeck had reported about a burial-ground in the vicinity of Podtureň (county Liptov). His drawing shows a pottery urn, bronze tools and a map of the cemetery. Neudeck (1835 – 1909) was an amateur archaeologist of Austrian origin. He lived after his military service in Podtureň, but after the 1890s he was an Engineer in Serbia and later a consular clerk in Sofia. His report for Kenner is an important source about the cemetery of Podtureň. Thanks to his drawings, it was possible to evaluate the finds. They belong to the pre-Lusatian culture and the early phase of the Lusatian culture.
Študijné zvesti
|
2021
|
vol. 68
|
issue 2
261 - 281
EN
The aim of this study is present primarily the results of archaeobotanical analysis from a late bronze urn burial cemetery site Trenčianske Teplice-Kaňová. Despite the extensive finds of the urns from urn-field burials in the whole Carpathian Basin region, the application of the archeobotanical methods and research is still marginalized. In the light of this situation, we would like to point out the interpretation possibilities of archaeobotanical material as it is (was) common in the settlement sites. Thanks to the interdisciplinary approach on this site, we were able to examine the relationships between carbonized botanical material (including seeds from the cultivated crops, wild species and charcoals) and the burial practices in (certain) concrete time and in given (certain) burial ground. From the results of the detailed analyses, we were able to identify and demonstrate the specific features of the funeral rite that are associated with the occurrence of charred plant macro-remains from the graves.
EN
Thye author provides a brief summary of the historical development of the Lusatian settlement in Slovakia. Following from the published results of archaeological investigations and surveys of settlements and burial grounds of the Lusatian culture, he uses information related to the burial rite, economic background and material expressions of social relations to suggest division of the development of individual stages. In the second part of the article, he specifies the material content of suggested individual stages of historical development using elements typical for the relevant period. The beginnings of the Lusatian settlement have been discussed by experts for decades. Analysing the cultural base from which it was created, the author has come to a conclusion that the origin of the studied culture in Slovakia can be dated back as early as the Middle Bronze Age. He does not doubt the importance of the Tumulus culture in crystallization of the Lusatian culture. However, he points to the fact, that it was only one of the elements in this process in the north of Slovakia. He monitors gradual territorial expansion of the Lusatian culture, its relations to the neighbouring cultures. He deals only marginally with the generally accepted significant status of the Lusatian culture in production of bronze artefacts in its prime period in the Later and Final Bronze ages in Slovakia. For chronological conclusions, he uses the shapes and decorative motifs on pottery more frequently. In his article, the author presents his opinion of gradual extinction of the Lusatian settlement in Slovakia in the Hallstatt period. He deals with the causes of this development and its possible regional results, without an attempt to provide a detailed analysis of its expressions. More exact conclusions regarding development of the Lusatian culture in individual Slovak regions in the Hallstatt period require extensive, mainly field, archaeological investigation.
10
70%
EN
The present paper is dedicated to the analysis of archaeological situations, settlement features and archaeological material from Trenčín-Zlatovce site, which were archaeologically excavated in 2017. The emphasis is on a detailed examination of the pottery, which includes wheel-made pottery in addition to the usual hand-formed vessels. Ceramics with an admixture of graphite are also represented. The assemblage thus represents rather exceptional evidence of the material culture from the Late Hallstatt period (HaD2 – HaD3). Therefore, it provides, on the one hand, evidence of the survival of older cultural traditions of the Lusatian culture and, on the other hand, indications of the diffusion of new or foreign technological elements in this period.
EN
The paper deals with the problem of the knives from the middle, younger and late Bronze Age. It includes all the published as well as unpublished bronze knives, including their fragments, as well as the features incorrectly interpreted in the past as finds of knives, or knives without a more detailed description and visual documentation. During their typological classification, several basic framework groups, marked according to characteristic forms of the handles, were determined: 1 – the early knives with flat full handle, 2 – the early knives with short flat handle, 3 – the knives with tongue handle, 4 – the knives with oval frame handle, 5 – the knives with full handle of circular or oval section, 6 – the older knives with thorn handle, 7 – the younger knives with short flat handle, 8 – the younger knives with thorn handle, 9 – the knives with quiver-shaped handle. In Slovakia there are also a small number of knives with ornitomorphous ending of the handle, as well as secondary artefacts – tools re-forged from the fragments of sickle into the form of a small knife. In addition to knives, the paper discusses also casting forms (moulds) for the production of knives. The excavated feature proves that a Lusatian-culture settlement was situated in the close vicinity of the burial ground. The preserved construction details helped creating the dwelling space reconstruction.
EN
The multi-seasonal archaeological investigation of the Lusatian hillfort and its catchment area on the hilltop and slopes of Veľký and Malý Lysec has brought interesting results in the recent years. They are mainly related to the study of material culture, identification of several settlement areas as well as the course of fortification. However, in non-destructive terrain research (i. e. identification, documenting and mapping) of immovable monuments in the forest environment and in the interpretation, using methods of remote landscape survey is almost inevitable. Airborne laser scanning and its further processing by means of an innovative method using Proxima technology is one of such methods; it has brought new knowledge in identification and interpretation of terrain relics on the studied hillfort. Comparing and evaluation of the main results of terrain prospecting and airborne laser scanning using Proxima technology is the basic aim of our article.
EN
The study evaluates the bronze hoard, found in the cadastre of village Ilija, dist. Banská Štiavnica at the Lusatian culture hill-fort in Sitno. It was discovered during the excavation in 1986 under the floor of a dwelling in the trench I/86. It is a closed find that contained, in addition to the organic remains, a bronze belt with chased decoration, eight spiral bracelets, three twisted torcs, a spiral ring, hair trimmings, a pin, a leather belt closure with bronze patches, closed cast iron eyelets and with an application in the shape of a spectacle pendant, a sand-glass shape pendant and two fragments of torcs (?) ending with eyelets. The hoard is dated back to the turn of the stages HA 2/HB 1, most likely up to the stage HB 1. The study is divided into eight chapters. They include the history of the research, details about state of research at Sitno and archaeological context of the bronze hoard in the trench I/86, in depth 160 cm. The chapters dedicated to the results of the analyses of organic materials, preserved in the hoard, as well as paleobotanical results bring surprising findings, illustrating the technological processes of the production of the leather belt closure and the nature of the economic activity of the contemporary Sitno’s inhabitants, as well as the natural environment of the micro-region. The hill-fort at Sitno itself is presented as a centre of administrative, production, comercial and cultic centre of a supraregional character. The hill-fort’s inhabitants did not live in isolation, but kept extensive business contacts even with distant areas east and west. Evidence of these contacts is found in the pottery of the Čaka and Gáva cultures within the earlier stage of settlement, since the turn of the stages HA /HB a strong interference from the area of the Kyjatice culture is being noticed, as well as the influence of the Podolí culture.
14
Content available remote

POHREBISKÁ LUŽICKEJ KULTÚRY V JASENICI A SEDMEROVCI

61%
EN
Burial grounds of the Lusatian culture in Jasenica and Sedmerovec were researched almost 50 years ago. Detailed analyses of the burial ritual (urn graves, pit graves, cenotaphic graves) and the material culture (pottery, bronze, stone, iron, clay and glass artefacts) date the burials to the stages BD-HB in Jasenica and BD/HA 1-HB in Sedmerovec. The results of processing these burial grounds partially supplement our knowledge about the development of the Lusatian culture in the middle Váh basin and its contacts with other areas in the Early and Late Bronze Age. In addition, they document a shared East-Moravian-Slovak art.
EN
Chronology of finds from Liptovsky Trnovec corresponds to the oldest period of burying at the necropolis in Martin, which is synchronous with the BB2 (C1) phase. This dating was proved by a find of bronze bracelet from the Object 1 at Liptovsky Trnovec, with its shape and production manner typical of older phases of the Tumulus culture spread out on the territories of the Palatinate, Swabian Alps and Bohemia. Longer duration of the Tumulus-Post-Otomani tradition within the area under study is documented also by simultaneous occurrence (in the Object 55) of an amphora made in this style and decorated with lines of incisions and thin-walled vessels representing by its style the tradition of the Lusatian culture early phase. They are beakers decorated with big shallow imprints. The early Lusatian pottery in the upper Vah basin is dated to the BD-HA1 phase. Finds from the Spis region prove the style was spreading eastward with the incipient HA stage. The last stylistic tradition, which can be identified on pottery finds from Liptovsky Trnovec, is that applied on a vessel from the Object 68. Technological qualities (black outside surface and red insides) and way of decoration classify this vessel into the stylistic group that occurred in cultures with cannelured pottery in the Carpathian basin (e. g. the Gava and Kyjatice cultures). This vessel has been dated into the HA stage or a bit later. The settlement at the Ravence position in Liptovsky Trnovec was probably continuously settled during a longer time interval (the 16th - 11th centuries BC). During this period the style of pottery decoration on the settlement was gradually changing.
EN
Clothing is a very good measure of cultural level in a specific period. The costume of prehistoric cultures represents not only textile parts of clothes. Its parts are also clothing fittings and ornaments, including jewels decorating different parts of the body by which the cultures and groups vary from each other. Because there are not well-preserved any organic parts of the prehistoric clothing in our geological-soil conditions, even we do not have any iconographical or written evidence from that time, we can use only inorganic clothing fittings and personal ornaments for reconstruction of the womenfolk costume of the Lusatian culture. People of the Slovak branch of the Lusatian culture used only cremation, so it is hard to say how they wore the personal ornaments or clothing fittings, not as in case of the inhumation graves. Providing that person had these objects with him on the funeral pyre, many times the objects had been damaged so much that it was impossible to define not only number but also original appearance of the objects. For this reason the hoards of the bronze ornaments on the area of the Lusatian culture are important help for creating idea about kinds of the things completing mainly ceremonial costumes. Only few graves were anthropologically determined, so first we had to determine the graves where women were buried. We compared objects which had been found not only in the graves of Lusatian culture with anthropological analyses in Slovakia and other countries (Moravia, Poland), but also in the graves of current cultures. We tried to find out, if the objects had been used by women. Upon them we determined individual graves as female graves. To determine which personal ornaments and clothing fittings from hoards had been component parts of the womenfolk costume we used results acquired by comparing the objects from graves.
EN
In almost thousand-year lasting development of the Lusatian culture there may be defined two cultural landscapes: the older one without fortified hill forts and the younger one for which the fortified hill forts are typical. On one hande the Lusatian culture folk fluently continue with its organisation and distribution of lowland settlements the previous development of the Early Bronze Age (Northern part of the Middle Ponitrie), whereas on the other hand it expands southwards and occupies the space, which was populated by the Čaka culture folk (Southern part of the Middle Ponitrie), and became the dominant element influencing the cultural landscape formation. By the digitalization of the registered localities and their display on a thematic topographic map in the scale 1:10 000 it was possible to define two distinctive agglomerations or models of settlement complexes: the first model related to the concentration of the hill forts Krnča-Tábor, Klátova Nová Ves-Šiance, Kovarce-Veľký Tribeč and the second one concentrated around the line of the hill forts Štitáre-Žibrica, Nitra-Zobor and hill fort Dražovce-Kostolík. On the example of two models of the settlement complexes it has tried, with the help of the basic GIS-analyses (“view shed” and “pathway”) on one hand to point out the possible process of hierarchy of the fortified hill forts and on the other hand to define from the spatial aspect the zones of their direct influence. The analyses have been based on the hypothetic model situation, that all of the fortified settlements existed in simultaneously in the same time period. Considering the research state, we aware of the fact that the presented results are mostly in a hypothetic level and it will be necessary to execute the intensive terrain survey in order to prove or disprove them.
EN
In the year 2013 and 2014 there was carried out an archaeological excavation for scientific and documentation purposes in Čierne Kľačany, location Pri mlyne. The area of the settlement was identified by geophysical measurement, according to which there were selected, and after that excavated, houses foundations belonging to the Lengyel culture located in the south-western part of the settlement. There was collected vast and variable pottery from different time periods during the both working seasons. Except of the Stone Age settlement pits and foundations of Lengyel culture houses with the channels for poles, some objects from the Late Bronze Age and Early Hallstatt Period were also found. There was excavated also a part of Linear culture object: ditch or a moat, 2 m wide and 60 cm deep, with flat bottom indicating, that it’s construction was not finished. Beside the huge amount of Lusatian culture finds, pottery material from the area of Central Danubian and probably also south-eastern Urnfield cultures was identified. Even the poor number of Urnfield cultures settlement pits found in this area, the potsherds was easily differentiated and was dated in the chronological phases HB – HC.
EN
Results, obtained during the rescue excavations in 2008 caused by a shopping centre construction in the area of former military quarters in Dolný Kubín are presented in the study. The researched area is situated on the river Orava left bank terrace at the Ožnica position, which is in 300 m distance of the present-day river flow. Since the 1930s the cremation burial ground dated to the Late Bronze Age has been known in professional literature already under the name of Dolný Kubín I. New excavations at this locality were realized at the positions of Kapustnée hrady and Kukučínova Street. Six cremation burials and two settlement objects of the Lusatian culture were found there. The graves were considerably damaged by previous building activities. Some graves were represented by clusters of fragments of several vessels, which contained only small number of charred human bones; there were sandstone fragments found among the potsherds, which probably were remains of covering or underlying plates. The other burials were pit graves with stone facing. Considering the shape and decoration of the pottery fragments, the necropolis can be dated to the Late Bronze Age generally. Revealing of a sunken feature – dwelling of 9 x 6 m in size – was an extraordinary significant find. Inner sunken sides of the walls were faced with the rectangular sandstone plates. Two amphorae were found under the floor level in the north-eastern corner. Another vessel was situated on the floor level in the centre. The find of a bronze pin with globular head and moulded neck together with dagger fragments are dating the dwelling into the BD stage. The excavated feature proves a Lusatian-culture settlement was situated in the close vicinity of the burial ground. The preserved construction details helped creating the dwelling space reconstruction.
Archeologia Polski
|
2008
|
vol. 53
|
issue 1
7-24
EN
Studies of techniques used for the manufacture of glass beads discovered at Lusatian sites are not much advanced. To date, it has been established solely that some of the beads from several sites were produced by the winding technique. Some beads from Wicina underwent additional treatment. Not all Hallstatt period beads bear evidence of the manufacturing technique. The glass is usually poorly transparent or of such good quality that no faults can be seen in the glass mass to suggest the character of these techniques. The forming in the case of these beads is commendable for its quality and it is clear that additional treatment had in most cases removed all traces of technical processes of manufacture. An effort was made to see whether the petrographic method can be of use in determining the production techniques. The method calls for examining thin sections cut from a given object in order to observe its internal structure under a microscope. Five beads (of HaD period) from Wicina stronghold were examiined. Three of these were of clearly transparent and the other two of poorly transparent glass. Three had the canal opening surfaces smoothened. Eight thin sections were cut: a transverse one, positioned perpendicularly to the long axis of the canal opening, for all five beads, and another longitudinal one, parallel to this axis, for three of them. The thin sections were then examined under a polarizing microscope. Nothing but a few small, mostly round gas bubbles could be observed in the sections of bead no. 5. Also the transverse section of bead no.19 revealed just single round gas bubbles. As for bead no. 29, both thin sections demonstrated many round gas bubbles of different size. The horizontal section also showed concentric trails around the canal opening, telltale signs of the winding technique used in its production. Bead no. 45 was made by a similar technique; the transverse section displayed many round gas bubbles accompanied by a few that were slightly ellipsoid in shape, arranged perpendicularly or at an oblique angle toward the canal axis. Both sections of bead no. 61 presented primarily very numerous round gas bubbles of different size. A magnified view of the same section revealed fine trails laid concentrically around the canal opening, as well as single slightly ellipsoid bubbles arranged obliquely, again proof of the winding technique in operation. In the case of this bead, the flat canal opening surfaces should be noted, evidently cut off and smoothened by the beadmaker. The results of the examination of petrographic thin sections of five glass beads from the Wicina have demonstrated the usefulness of the method in determining bead-making techniques attributed to the Halstatt period. In three cases, innumerous ellipsoid gas bubbles and trails betrayed the use of a winding technique - winding the glass mass on a rod - for the manufacture. In the other two cases, there were no features that could be interpreted but the glass of these beads, clearly transparent and greenish in color, was of very high quality (well melted and cleared) and the objects had undergone additional treatment, like cutting off, smoothening and grinding away any surface evidence of manufacturing technique. 13 Figures, 1 Table.
first rewind previous Page / 2 next fast forward last
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.