Archaeologia Austriaca, Band 101/2017

This study presents the history and the activities of the Prehistoric Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences during the years 1918 to 1938 and therefore deals with a time period that was characterised by historical-political upheavals and economic hardships. During this time, the ‘Commission for the promotion of prehistoric research and excavations on Austrian territory’, installed in 1878 at the initiative of Ferdinand von Hochstetter, was confronted with completely changed circumstances. Through the dissolution of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy and the loss of the crown lands, the Prehistoric Commission was drastically reduced in its sphere of activities, which subsequently, paired with enormous financial difficulties, led to a considerable decline of research activities. While the Prehistoric Commission was able to finance about 110 excavations from own funds during the first four decades of its existence, only about one tenth of these were achieved in the inter-war period, and mostly only in combination with several subsidies and institutions. Even if this result seems meagre, the activities of the Prehistoric Commission nevertheless proved to be fruitful during these years. Following a short introductory review of the founding and the early years of the Prehistoric Commission, the development, characterised by new ways and sustainability, will be traced through so far unpublished archive material mainly from the inventories of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, but also from various museums, the archive of the University of Vienna and the Austrian State Archive. The main focus lies on the research activities of the Prehistoric Commission and its members, among which were not only renowned prehistorians such as Josef Szombathy or Walter Schmid, but also a new generation represented by Herbert Mitscha-Märheim, Leonhard Franz, and Richard Pittioni. In addition, the underlying questions of the organisation, personnel structure and financing of the commission's activities are dealt with. The study concludes with the nomination of Oswald Menghin as chairman of the Commission, which at the same time reveals an outlook on the future of the Prehistoric Commission that was overshadowed by National Socialism.

Schlagworte: Prehistoric Commission, research on early history, Settlement archaeology, mining archaeology, Austrian Academy of Sciences.

In the course of the project The Final Neolithic in the Lower Traisen Valley, 13 reproductions of Final Neolithic artefacts were produced by Wolfgang Lobisser and his team, in order to gain insights into Final Neolithic manufacturing techniques and the usage of the objects. For this, both authors macroscopically examined artefacts made of bone, antler, animal teeth and shell from 37 graves of the Corded Ware Culture and three Bell Beaker graves from the Traisen Valley in regard to manufacturing specifications and traces of usage. Tools, parts of clothes as well as two objects that are interpreted as a doll and a signaling whistle were reproduced. In the Late Neolithic crushing, splitting, grating, scraping, and grinding were the basic techniques for the processing of bone, antler, teeth, and shell material. The manufacturing of the reproductions shows that compared to flint drills, copper awls provide much better results for fine drillings in hard materials such as bone or antler. Some bone artefacts are characterised by notable glossy areas, indicating an intense usage. In some graves of men, bone artifacts such as chisels and pegs are associated with stone axes, fire stone tools, or copper blades. The combination of the equipment suggests that those buried in the graves had been skilled and experienced tradesmen.

Schlagworte: Experimental archaeology, bone tools, animal raw materials, Final Neolithic, Corded Ware, Bell Beaker, Lower Austria, Lower Traisen Valley.

The ongoing excavations at Ayios Vasileios have revealed one of the most important Mycenaean palatial centres in the Peloponnese. The following study aims to establish the sequence of pottery phases of the site from the early Mycenaean period up to the conflagration that destroyed the palace at the end of the 14th or at the beginning of the 13th century BC. One of the main tasks has been the detailed analysis of well stratified material, which will clarify the development of the local pottery styles including evidence for continuity or discontinuity in the commonest pottery types and fabrics from the site. Based on the preliminary results from this study the developments and changes in the pottery tradition have been compared to those known from other centres in Laconia and beyond. An attempt has also been made to date the most important building horizons represented in the palace and to correlate them with those from the other known major sites of the region, the Menelaion in the north and Ayios Stephanos to the south.

Schlagworte: Ayios Vasileios, Menelaion, Laconia, Greece, Mycenaean palaces, Late Helladic, pottery sequence, destruction horizons.

This paper offers the first presentation and analysis of Late Bronze Age/Urnfield period finds from Tarsdorf in Upper Austria. In 2010, several bronze artefacts came to light during construction work, leading to an archaeological excavation in 2012. These investigations unearthed further bronze objects as well as the remnants of three Late Bronze Age burials. The material includes finds that can be interpreted as construction elements of a wagon, several weapons (swords and spears), and arm rings. As the wagon bronzes were all encountered without context, it is unclear whether they derive from a destroyed wagon grave or a non-funerary structure. In either case the assemblage needs to be discussed in the context of Late Bronze Age wagons like those of the so-called Hart an der Alz-group. A comparable find made nearby at Staudach in 1924 shows, among other sites, that such finds are not unexpected in this region. In fact, the finds from Tarsdorf and other sites indicate the participation of this region in the large scale networks and exchange patterns of the Late Bronze Age. The renewed intensification of archaeological work in western Upper Austria will hopefully lead to this long-neglected region playing its due role in the wider discussions of such phenomena.

Schlagworte: Urnfield period, Upper Austria, Tarsdorf, wagon bronzes, weapons, burials, Hart an der Alz-group.

From 2009–2015 on the Ada Tepe hill (495 m), south of the modern town of Krumovgrad in the Rhodope Mountains (southern Bulgaria), the remains of a Late Bronze Age gold mine with its adjacent settlement complexes and traces of later habitation were uncovered during rescue excavations. One of the most important questions about Ada Tepe gold mining concerns the origin of the exploitation and the type of organisation of the human presence on the hill. Different types of archaeological structures investigated during the excavations as well as the principles of their organisation provide us with a possibility for more detailed conclusions about the social structure, the inner organisation and the specialisation of the society, which subsisted on gold mining during the Late Bronze Age. This paper focuses on the northern quarter of the Ada Tepe, where remains of a settlement and workshops were documented, which were connected with the initial mining activities and extraction of the gold ore. The analysis of the features of the excavated structures and their stratigraphic position plays an important role in the chronological and functional interpretation of the site.

Schlagworte: Ada Tepe, East Rhodopes Mountain, south Bulgaria, Late Bronze Age, gold mining, colonisation, habitation, settlement and mining archaeology, social structure, work organisation.

This study represents the first publication of a complete find assemblage from a Late Bronze Age house at Ada Tepe. The inventory of House 7 offers a preliminary insight into the everyday life of the Ada Tepe gold-mining society in the 15th century BC. Detailed study of the pottery shapes and fabrics shows that there was a homogeneous spectrum of nearly standardised types and wares. Their functional and contextual evaluation demonstrates that House 7 was used principally for storage and to a lesser degree for consumption. The shapes that clearly dominate the material, amphorae and narrow-mouthed jars, seem to have been used mainly for the storage of food and liquids. The less common table ware, belonging to a set of shallow bowls, deep bowls, cups or beakers and kantharoi, probably relates directly to the consumption of food and drink inside the storage building, in which various household activities are also attested, such as grinding, cutting and sawing. On the basis of these analyses, House 7 can be interpreted as a separate space for storage and craftwork which allows us to assume that the gold miners organised their supply and storage systems. This assessment of the pottery assemblage in a regional and supra-regional setting indicates a society that was principally embedded in the local culture of the Rhodope mountains, but has recognisable links to the regions of central and north Bulgaria and also, to the south, with the north Aegean.

Schlagworte: Ada Tepe, Late Bronze Age, settlement, Pottery, contextual analysis, everyday-life.

This contribution is dealing with Mycenaean pottery from the settlement sites of Dragoyna in the Rhodopes and Koprivlen in the Mesta Valley. The production regions of that pottery could be established by means of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA), and we compare the earlier results of Dragoyna with the new ones from Koprivlen. These results give us the opportunity to re-evaluate the development of contacts between the eastern Balkans, the northern Aegean and Mycenaean Greece. Two economic-historical periods can be discerned. The earlier one comprises the phases LH IIB and IIIA1 and is characterised by the importation of Mycenaean pottery and Mycenaean weapons from the regions of the rising and expanding Mycenaean palace state in the framework of directional exchange of products. This could have been linked to gold mining in the Rhodopes. The later period lasted from approximately LH IIIB to LH IIIC Early. During that time Mycenaean pottery from different production regions reached the eastern Balkans, some from northern Aegean workshops, some from the Mycenaean south. In contrast, imports or imitations of late palatial or post-palatial weapons are not attested.

Schlagworte: Bronze Age, Dragoyna, Koprivlen, Rhodopes, Mesta Valley, Bulgaria, eastern Balkans, northern Aegean, Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean pottery, Neutron Activation Analysis.