Deciphering archeological contexts from the magnetic map: Determination of daub distribution and mass of Chalcolithic house remains

Pickartz, Natalie; Hofmann, Robert; Dreibrodt, Stefan; Rassmann, Knut; Shatilo, Liudmyla; Ohlrau, René; Wilken, Dennis; Rabbel, Wolfgang

doi:10.1177/0959683619857238

Cited by 16 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Within the mega-structure, daub was not equally distributed, corresponding with the high and low magnetised areas visible in the magnetic plan (Figs 7 and 8) [46]. In some parts of the exterior walls and in the north-western half of the building, concentrations in quantities of between 10 and 50 kg/m 2 were found.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This evaluation was based on the field documentation which included excavations plans, photos, and the recording of location and masses of daub and movable finds either with point coordinates or in a grid of 1 x 1 m cell size. During excavation, daub was systematically documented to reconstruct both architectural attributes and wood resources [37, 45, 46]. This documentation included the mapping of daub fragments and a typological classification of daub pieces based on their material attributes and on the direction and dimension of imprints of structural (wooden) elements.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Governing Tripolye: Integrative architecture in Tripolye settlements

et al. 2019

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Recently, high-resolution magnetometry surveys have led to the discovery of a special category of buildings–so-called ‘mega-structures’–situated in highly visible positions in the public space of Tripolye giant-settlements of the late 5th and first half of the 4th millennium BCE. In this paper we explore what these buildings actually are and how they can contribute to the understanding of the development of social space in Tripolye giant-settlements. For this investigation, we linked newly obtained excavation data from the giant-settlement Maidanetske, Ukraine, with a much larger sample of such buildings from magnetic plans obtained in the region between the Carpathian foothills and the Dnieper River. Accordingly, Tripolye mega-structures represent a particular kind of integrative building documented in many non-ranked ethnographic contexts. Based on our results we are interpreting that these buildings were used for various ritual and non-ritual activities, joint decision-making, and the storage and consumption of surplus. In Tripolye giant-settlements at least three different categories of mega-structures could be identified which most likely represent different levels of socio-political integration and decision-making. The emergence of this hierarchical system of high-level integrative buildings for the whole community and different low-level integrative architectures for certain segments of local communities was related to the rise of Tripolye mega-sites. The presence of different integrative levels most likely reflects the fusion of different previously independent communities in the giant-settlements. Later in the mega-site development, we observe how low-level integrative buildings increasingly lose their importance indicated by shrinking size and, finally, their disappearance. This observation might indicate that the power which was previously distributed across the community was transferred to a central institution. It is argued that the non-acceptance of this concentration of power and the decline of lower decision-making levels might be a crucial factor for the disintegration of Tripolye giant-settlements around 3600 BCE.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing Tripolye: Integrative architecture in Tripolye settlements

et al. 2019

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“…1). The close by archaeological site of Madanestske is a giant settlement of the Tripyllia C1-period (Müller et al, 2013, Hofmann et al, 2019. Archaeological sites of this type are unique because of their extremely large dimensions.…”

Section: The Research Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Archaeological sites of this type are unique because of their extremely large dimensions. At Maidanetske, on an area of 200 ha approximately 3,000 houses arranged in a series of oval structures around an unbuilt central space were inhabited approximately from 3,990 to 3,640 BCE (Müller et al, 2016, Ohlrau, 2018, Pickartz et al, 2019. Surveys of the many potshards present on the recent surface, magnetic surveys, excavations and exhaustive dating campaigns revealed a maximum number of ca.…”

Section: The Research Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Surveys of the many potshards present on the recent surface, magnetic surveys, excavations and exhaustive dating campaigns revealed a maximum number of ca. 1,500 houses was inhabited contemporaneously by probably more than 10,000 people (Ohlrau, 2018, Pickartz et al, 2019. The climate in the region is humid continental (Dfb) today, with hot summers and cold wet winters.…”

Section: The Research Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

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Dreibrodt et al.- Holocene erosion history in central Ukraine

Dreibrodt¹,

Hofmann²,

Sípos³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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The younger Quaternary erosion history was reconstructed in a catchment close to the Chalcolithic giant settlement Maidanetske, central Ukraine based on dated sediment sequences. Four trenches and a long percussion drill-core were analyzed in a valley grading from a Loess covered plateau towards the Talianky River. The sediments were dated via a combination of radiocarbon dating, optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) and embedded artefacts. A suspicious non-coincidence between phases of soil erosion and the settlement history at the site over long periods of the Holocene is noticeable and suggests a climatically driven erosion at the site. The detected phases of erosion during the past >20,000 years coincide with global (cal 27.6 +/- 1.3 kyrs BP, 12.0 +/- 0.4 kyrs BP), northern hemispheric (cal 8.5 ± 0.3 kyrs BP), Mediterranean (cal 3.93 ± 0.1 kyrs BP) as well as western to central European (2,700 to 2,000 cal BP) climate anomalies. For these anomalies, characterized by colder than usual conditions in western and central Europe and dry conditions in the eastern Mediterranean and the research area, a common trigger process seems possible. Increased occurrences of heavy precipitation events, probably during phases of a weakened vegetation cover, could explain the observed record. A comparison of the Ukrainian record with other European erosion records raises the question again about the contribution of climate variability on Holocene erosion processes. Whereas climatic influence might be easier detectable in Eastern Europe, with a comparatively late onset of intensive agricultural land use, in southern, central and western Europe the impact of climate variability might be masked to a part according to the long history of intensive agricultural land use. The composition of the sediments implies changes of the slope-channel connectivity during the deposition history. Whereas the periglacial to early Holocene sediments were derived from the whole catchment area, since the mid-Holocene a tendency to lower slope storage of colluvial material and valley incision is noticeable.

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On‐site non‐destructive determination of the remanent magnetization of archaeological finds using field magnetometers

Wunderlich

Kahn

Nowaczyk

et al. 2021

Archaeological Prospection

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The determination of the natural remanent magnetization (NRM) of archaeological features can be used for magnetic modelling, joining of shards, archaeomagnetic dating or the investigation of the firing-cooling-collapsing order of ancient buildings.The measurement of NRM is normally conducted on cylindrical or cubic samples in the laboratory. Nevertheless, archaeological finds should preferably not be destroyed, and laboratory instruments are high in costs. Therefore, we propose a lightweight and portable measurement set-up including already available field magnetometers (preferably caesium magnetometers) in which the archaeological sample of arbitrary shape, in our case a piece of daub, is mounted inside a gimbal to be rotated in all directions. The magnetic field of the sample is measured at a large number of rotational positions with the magnetometer kept at fixed position. In these measurements, the unknown direction of the NRM vector of the sample is rotated, whereas the average magnetic susceptibility of the sample and the ambient magnetic field are constant and known. Hence, the vector of NRM can be determined through leastsquares inversion. For the inversion computation, the sample volume is discretized either as voxel model or approximated as an equivalent sphere. Under certain conditions depending on sample-sensor distance, dipole moment and radius of the sample, the approximation by a sphere is valid without effect on the accuracy of results.Empirically determined functions quantifying these conditions for different sensor sensitivities and noise levels are provided. Validation with laboratory measurements on palaeomagnetic subsamples from the destroyed daub samples indicate that the NRM can be determined by our proposed method with a maximum error in

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Deciphering archeological contexts from the magnetic map: Determination of daub distribution and mass of Chalcolithic house remains

Cited by 16 publications

References 28 publications

Governing Tripolye: Integrative architecture in Tripolye settlements

Governing Tripolye: Integrative architecture in Tripolye settlements

Dreibrodt et al.- Holocene erosion history in central Ukraine

On‐site non‐destructive determination of the remanent magnetization of archaeological finds using field magnetometers

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