Guy De Mulder

The chronology of the Balearic lime burials has been under debate for many years. It has been unclear for a long time when the interments in lime burials came in use during the Iron Age also called the Talayotic period on the Balearic Islands. Different opinions exist, some archaeologists define the entire Iron Age as the Talayotic period, some include also the late Bronze Age in this cultural period. Still others call the middle and Late Iron Age the Post-Talayotic period. In spite of the Hallstatt plateau in the calibration curve the radiocarbon dates of the Son Pellisser lime burial have demonstrated very clearly that the lime burial started around 780 BCE and before 550 BCE, rejecting the hypothesis of a Late Iron Age phenomenon.

Because hardly any charcoal is found in the lime burial of Cova de sa Prior as well as in many other lime burials on the Balearic islands, the question was raised if the cremation ritual was performed on site or not . Samples of the lime conglomerate and lime lumps were compared with limestone from the cave itself as well as from the area around the cave. Thin-section petrography of the lime conglomerate and lumps gave no relevant information about the provenance of the limestone used for the cremation rite, but preserved structures of the source rock found in an incompletely burned limestone fragment showed that most probably the limestone comes from the direct vicinity of the cave or even from within the cave itself.

The chronology of the Balearic lime burials has been under debate for many years. It has been unclear for a long time when the interments in lime burials came in use during the Iron Age also called the Talayotic period on the Balearic Islands. Different opinions exist, some archaeologists define the entire Iron Age as the Talayotic period, some include also the late Bronze Age in this cultural period. Still others call the middle and Late Iron Age the Post-Talayotic period. In spite of the Hallstatt plateau in the calibration curve the radiocarbon dates of the Son Pellisser lime burial have demonstrated very clearly that the lime burial started most probably around 780 BCE and at least before 550 BCE, rejecting the hypothesis of a Late Iron Age phenomenon. Furthermore, the analysis of the bones confirmed the earlier observations that the Balearic lime burials were the result of a special type of cremation involving the use of fine crushed limestone during the Iron Age.

The Balearic quicklime burials of the Iron Age have been radiocarbon dated. Because the bones found are unsuitable for dating, lime was dated using the titration method, with results indicating that in some samples there is still fossil limestone carbonate present, while other samples suffered from recarbonation. Nevertheless, 14 C dates on lime and organic matter agree when both are present. The titration method allows calculating a consensus value.

The perception of and interaction with ancient relics in past societies has been intensively debated in the
archaeology of north-western Europe. This paper aims to make a contribution to this debate by reconstructing
the long-term history of late prehistoric barrows and urnfields in Flanders (Belgium). The period between the
Late Bronze Age and High Middle Ages (c. 1100 cal BC–AD 1300) is centred on. Contrary to Germany,
Scandinavia and especially Britain, data from the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands) have so far
barely played a role in wider international and theoretical discussions on the role of the past in the past. Previous
studies on reuse practices in the Low Countries mainly focused on the Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region of the
southern Netherlands and north-eastern Belgium, which partly overlaps Flanders. These studies are combined
and summarised. Their main outcomes are tested by means of a detailed inventory of reused late prehistoric
cemeteries in Flanders. This study differs methodologically from most others in that it both offers an evidence-based overview of regional diachronic trends (documented at 62 barrow cemeteries and 13 urnfields) and discusses the developments at six sites yielding high resolution data. The observed reuse practices and site
biographies appear to be remarkably dynamic and more diverse than previously suggested.

The possibility of radiocarbon dating on cremated bones stimulated a systematic 14C dating project investigating
the chronology of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age urnfield cemeteries in Belgium. The growing amount of 14C dates
on these cremated remains led to new insights into the chronology, development, and disappearance of the urnfield phenomenon.
Consequently, ideas about cultural and historical processes need to be modified. Also, the internal chronology of the
cemeteries is much more complex than previously thought, stimulating the need for techniques to analyze and visualize the
internal development of an individual burial site. The application of centrographic methods like the mean center, standard distance
circle, and standard deviational ellipse illustrates the possibilities for analyzing the internal chronology of the cemeteries
based on the available 14C dates.

On n’a pas tous les jours vingt ans ! Depuis sa création en 1999, l’Association pour la Promotion des Recherches sur l’Âge du Bronze (APRAB) s’emploie à structurer les activités et à réunir les chercheurs travaillant sur cette période, en France comme en Europe occidentale. Un colloque anniversaire qui se déroulera du 19 au 22 juin  2019 sera l’occasion de revenir à Bayeux, lieu de sa création, et de proposer une rétrospective des actions de l’association, mais également de porter un regard sur l’évolution qu’a connue la discipline durant cet intervalle. Comment se sont renouvelées les méthodes et les pratiques ? Quelle perception avons-nous aujourd’hui de l’âge du Bronze et quels problématiques et enjeux doivent être envisagés pour demain ?

Ces questionnements seront déclinés en plusieurs sessions thématiques couvrant l’ensemble des domaines de recherches emblématiques de la période. Les communications de synthèse s’attachant à dresser un bilan des évolutions perçues ces vingt dernières années seront privilégiées (20 minutes de présentation). Des contributions plus spécifiques (par exemple sur un site de référence ou une thématique précise) sont également attendues sous la forme de posters qui feront l’objet de courtes présentations orales (5 diapositives en 5 minutes).
-------
You’re not 20 every day!  Since its creation in 1999, the Association for the Promotion of Research on the Bronze Age (APRAB) has worked to co-ordinate activity and to bring together researchers working on this period in France and the rest of western Europe.  An anniversary conference to be held from 19 to 22 June 2019 will provide an opportunity to return to Bayeux, where APRAB was founded, and to review the activities of the Association, but also to take a look at the evolution of the discipline over this time.  How have its methods and practices been developed?  What perception do we have of the Bronze Age today, and what problems and issues should we foresee tomorrow?

These issues will be addressed in several thematic sessions covering aspects of research relevant to the period.  Preference will be given to synthetic presentations that take stock of developments over the past twenty years (20 minutes per presentation).  More specific contributions (for example, on an  important site or a particular theme) are also invited in the form of posters, which will be the subject of short oral presentations (5 slides in 5 minutes).