Reflections from Mega
Great Block 28
Sziasztok* anthropology nerds! (*hi in Hungarian; pronounced si-os-tawk)
The 2013 Bronze Age Körös Off-Tell Archaeology project
(BAKOTA) field season just ended…which means I finally have some time to sit
down and tell everyone about what we have been up to for the last six weeks!
This summer I spent six weeks in eastern Hungary, excavating a
Bronze Age cemetery with two Quinnipiac students (Lauren Tosti and Justine
Tynan) and a large international team of researchers. We had a phenomenal
team this season and found 39 graves!
The BAKOTA project is a collaborative archaeological research
team that explores social organization, trade, and mobility during the Bronze
Age of Eastern Hungary. The team, headed by Dr. Paul Duffy (University of
Toronto) and Györgyi Parditka (National Centre for Cultural Heritage, Hungary),
brings together specialists and students from around the world who are
interesting in reconstructing various aspects of prehistoric human behavior.
Topics of study this season include:
- Human osteology (the study of morphological characteristics of the human skeletal system – age, sex, pathologies, etc.)
- Isotope analysis (the analysis of the chemical composition of human and animal teeth and bones to reconstruct ancient dietary and mobility patterns)
- Ancient DNA (the analysis of ancient DNA preserved in bone to explore population dynamics – i.e., gene flow, genetic drift)
- Soil chemistry (the analysis of the chemical composition of soil samples to characterize activity areas, such as trash dumps, animal pens and/or funerary pyres)
- Residue analysis (the identification and analysis of plant and animal residues preserved in ceramics)
- Ceramic analysis (petrography: determining the type, quantity, and source of the materials used to make ceramics)
- Photogrammetry (3-D modeling of graves)
- Remote sensing (geophysical techniques used to identify anomalies in the soil such as grave pits or house structures)
To learn more about how the project got started check out
Dr. Duffy’s webpage.
The focus of excavation this season was on a site called
“Békés 103.” The Békés 103 site is located on farmland in southeastern Hungary
that is used to grow crops like sunflower (background picture for this blog) and corn. We happen to time our
season just right to catch the blooming of the poppies (and various other wild
flowers that line the roads and fields in Békés county).
Systematic walking surveys conducted by Hungarian
archaeologists identified prehistoric material in the region several years ago;
however, in 2004 modern agricultural activity (ploughing) started to pull large
clusters of burnt human bone and ceramics to the surface indicating that this
area was probably used as a cemetery. A majority of the ceramics
identified on the surface were related to the Middle Bronze Age (called Gyulavarsánd)
which spans a time period from 1,700 to 1,400 B.C. (so roughly 3,700 – 3,400
years ago). This time period is known for pottery that is decorated with knobs,
channeling and spiral designs. Below is a small vessel that we found this
season. It was buried next to a larger urn that was used to hold cremated human
bone.
This was an exciting discovery because there are currently
no known cemeteries for the Middle Bronze Age for this region of southeastern
Hungary (called the Körös region). The BAKOTA team decided that this would be
an important site to explore regional variability in mortuary customs during
the European Bronze Age. This work is also critical because this material is
being destroyed by modern human activities. The Bronze Age time period in
Europe, in general, is associated with advances in metallurgy techniques,
complex trade networks and the first evidence for social inequalities; however,
at the regional scale it is not clear how pervasive these themes really were.
In 2011, the BAKOTA project tested out the potential/preservation
of the site using a variety of archaeological techniques, including systematic
surface collection, remote sensing and test excavation. Six burials were
discovered: five cremation urn burials and one inhumation.
This season, with financial support from the National Science
Foundation, we returned and opened up two large areas (“blocks”) as well as
several smaller blocks. I was in charge
of Block 28 (fondly named “Mega Great Block 28”), an area that was 20 meters
long and 4 meters wide. We decided to
open up a large block in this area because data collected from the 2011 season
(surface collection, remotes sensing and test excavations) indicated that there
was a high density of cremation urn burials that were being destroyed by modern
activity.
We started by systematically sampling from the “ploughzone”
using shovel tests. The ploughzone is the top layer of soil that has been
completely disturbed by modern agricultural activity. This layer includes a
mixed combination of modern material (metal, plastic, bone, roof tiles, etc) as
well as prehistoric artifacts (bone, ceramics, lithics, daub). So even though prehistoric material is found
in this layer – the context has been destroyed.
We then removed the ploughzone using a bobcat.
Directly underneath the ploughzone we identified several
features. These included modern things like trenches/ditches (probably related
to agricultural activity) as well as several cremation urn burials. We mapped, took photos and elevations for
these features, and then started to excavate!
First we excavated the modern features that cut into the
prehistoric cultural layer. You can see some of the parallel trenches in these pictures. The plastic covers indicate possible burials that would be
excavated after the modern features were removed.
Once the modern features had been excavated and documented,
we started to excavate the cremation urn burials from the Middle Bronze Age. In general, these burials included a large ceramic vessel
(an urn) that included burned human bone. Sometimes these urns were also buried
with one or more small vessels.
Once the urns had been pedestalled, mapped, and photo’d they
were carefully removed for micro-excavation and sampling in the lab.
Bobcats in Action!
This was a special year for
me because it was the first time that I brought students with me to the field.
Lauren Tosti and Jusine Tynan
were both students in my course “Dirt, Artifacts, and Ideas: Introduction to
Archaeology” in the Fall 2012 semester. They were excellent students and
expressed interest in archaeological research so I invited them to come to
Hungary this summer to participate in the BAKOTA field season. During the Spring 2013 semester we prepared
for the field season by meeting once a week in the Center for Anthropological Research at Quinnipiac to discuss readings related to
European prehistory and mortuary analysis.
Both Lauren and Justine received funding from Quinnipiac University to participate in this project. Lauren's travel to Hungary was generously supported by QU's Central European Institute. Justine's research was supported by a Student Research Support Grant provided by the College of Arts and Sciences.
Lauren and Justine arrived in Hungary in May after the school year ended (and Lauren graduated – Yay!). They got right to work on excavation and various types of lab work. Eveyone contributes to excavation, documenation, and lab work on a daily basis but Justine and Lauren also took on specific responsabilities that were crucial to the completion of the project.
Lauren
Lauren learned how to use a
Total Station to measure the location and elevation of points during excavation. She also
became the “photogrammety master” which was a big job. This required taking
X,Y,Z points (using the total station)
and hundreds of pictures of each grave that will later be reconstructed into
digital 3-D models of the cemetery.
Most importantly, Lauren was designated as the official archaeological dance move creator, which includes BAKOTA classics such as “bailing water out of the trenches” and “focusing the total station optics.”
Justine
Justine took on the all important role of lab manager. This is a crucial job for any archaeological project and requires super human organizational skills and levels of patience. Justine took on this job “like a boss.” I am not sure what the final numbers are, but she weighed, counted and entered thousands of artifacts this season.
Justine was always an upbeat member of the team – whether playing with our adopted site dogs “Pamacs” and “Benji” – or laughing along with her favorite shows (Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Golden Girls) while entering data on the project computer (named Marmite Cat).
To sum up...
Viszontlátásra! (see you soon/again in
Hungarian; pronounced vi-sawnt-laa-taash-ro)
-Prof. Giblin
What a great post. Wonderful description. I love where you write "we then removed the ploughzone using a bobcat" and I thought, which one, Justine or Lauren? Congratulations to both women for surviving and thriving on their first of what will be many archaeological field seasons to come :)
ReplyDeleteHe he he- I didn't think about that! We have a few different types of "bobcats" at the site:)
ReplyDeleteSounds like you all had a wonderful time. It's so amazing to read about people I had class with doing something like this. I wish the best for all of you as you look into the past for your futures. MRO
ReplyDelete