Tyragetia

7-25

Authors: Olivier Weller

Based on the analysis of data about the structure of wheels from the royal necropolis of Ur - a fragment of stone tile, mosaic “Standard” and wagon wheels from burials, as well as artifacts discovered in the other monuments, the author concludes that in the Ancient Middle East three-wheeled wagons with central lentoid plank went out of use before the turn of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. When actual wagons already used three-partite wheels, whose central section had parallel An updated synthesis of available information in the field about the origin of salt production (Neolithic and Chalcolithic), insisting on the types of artifacts (structures, coal, tools mining ...), manufacturing techniques and production control methods. Based on a ethno-archaeological study from New Guinea (Indonesia), we attempt at understanding better how these operations are integrated in particular social contexts in which the salt – specifically loaves of salt – besides its real role in food, sometimes appears as a product with high exchange value, as a form of sustainable storage of wealth. If salt was a strong economic stake in certain periods, we must now study the operation and underlying social laws.

45-51

Authors: Vitalie Burlacu

The paper presents preliminary results of the archaeological survey carried out during 2007-2009 field seasons near Răuţel village, Făleşti District. Two assemblages of stone artifacts have been collected, which technical-typologically belong to the Late Mesolithic.

65-72

Authors: Elena Izbitser

Some notes on The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: how the Bronze-Age Riders Shaped the Modern World by David W. Anthony. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.

91-109

Authors: Mariana Sîrbu

In the settlements of the Noua-Sabatinovka type investigated in the Carpathian-Dniester area since 1950s to the present there have been found 255 objects made of clay. Most of these products, which were usually made of clay paste of poor quality, were toys or votive elements (balls, rings, wheels, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figurines, flat cakes) and only two categories have been identified as working tools (spindle whorls, spoons for pouring molten metal). The vast number of votive objects indicates the developed spirituality of the communities of Noua-Sabatinovka type and the clay working tools present two of their basic crafts: metal working and weaving. This article presents the categories of clay objects, their technological process and attribution.

185-188

Authors: Alexandr Moshinskiy

A fragment of a vessel with a partially preserved image of a chariot and a horse was found at the Gaston Uota burial ground of the Late Koban period (Digora Gorge, North Ossetia). The image was carved on the vessel before its baking. It depicts a wheel with four spokes and the rear part of a horse’s body. Parallels to this scene among the materials of the Late Koban period are not known. It is possible that the picture bore an astral meaning, and the vessel originally was made for use in religious rites.

207-224

Authors: Boris Raev

In 2005-09, three pottery kilns were unearthed at the Maeothian settlements of the first centuries AD in the Kuban River region. Together with 20 kilns excavated in the 1970s they formed a typologically compact group of pottery kilns in the region. All kilns are two-storey structures and differ only in size and design of the heating chambers. The diameters of kilns range from 0,9 to 2,6 m, with ca. 2,0 m on average. The roof of the heating chamber was supported by the partitions long-trapezoidal in shape. The openings for fire are mainly facing the east or northeast, for the western and southwest winds in summer did not cool the kilns. It allows us to suggest the seasonal use of these kilns, mainly for the summer. The kilns dated to the 2nd-1st centuries BC at the Elizavetinsky settlement located in the same region had served as prototypes for the kilns in study. The kilns of the similar design are known neither from the Greek or Roman pottery workshops, nor was it in use by the craftsmen of Central Asia. Some features makes parallel the Maeotian kilns of the Kuban region with kilns found in the Northwest Black Sea and Transcarpathian regions, the areas connected to the Celtic traditions. These traditions could be adopted by the Meothian craftsmen from the Celts lived in Asia Minor. The potters of the Kuban region, re-settled by the nomads to the Lower Don area in the 1st century AD had reproduced there their customary type of the pottery kilns. It explains the complete identity in the construction of kilns in both regions. The medieval pottery kilns in the Northeast Caucasian region did not continue the tradition. These were more primitive in design and easier to make.

245-258

Authors: Robin Brigand

Cette contribution porte sur la dynamique des centuriations d’origine romaine de la plaine centrale de Venise, limitée par la lagune et les Alpes d’une part, les fleuves Brenta et Piave de l’autre. Il s’agit d’évaluer la nature des interactions entre les morphologies agraires héritées de l’arpentage antique et les sociétés historiques, médiévales et modernes, qui intègrent, en le transformant, l’héritage antique.

269-280

Authors: Svetlana Reabţeva

The article considers the findings of belts made in the traditions of European Gothic art in the complexes of XIII- XVI centuries in the Carpathian-Balkan region. The unique belt decorated with the image of St. George was found in the Republic of Moldova. The belts ornamented with vegetable and geometrical patterns dominate in the Romanian hoards. A few number of belts decorated with zoomorphic patterns were found in the Romanian treasures as well. The belts with images of animals (lizards, dragons, lions) were typical for the territory of Bulgaria. The examples with engraved vegetable ornament or anthropomorphic images were known also. In the Carpathian-Danube region the “Gothic belts” were the accessories of male dress mainly, in spite of Western Europe where these belts were typical both male and female.

329-345

Authors: Vadim E. Kulikov, Elena Yu. Mednikova, Yulia I. Elikhina, Sergey S. Miniaev

In this paper are presented the results of analysis by the method of polypolarization of the so-called “wool-weil” from the burial mound No. 6 of the Hunn cemetery of Noin-Ula in Northern Mongolia. The “veil” is a wide cloth sewn of pieces of various fabrics. Samples of cloth and ornament threads of the “veil” fabric were compared with reference samples from the wool of various animals (sheep, horse, camel) and fibers of plant origin. The results of the polarization analysis allow us to conclude the following: most samples of threads in the polypolarization are closest to the standard samples of camel wool. This conclusion is drawn for monochrome and polychrome fabrics, to threads in the embroideries and to threads used for sewing the pieces of the “veil” together.