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XIV/1/2023
INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA
NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY
homepage: http://www.iansa.eu
Editorial IANSA 1/2023
IANSA in the Time of Global Changes
Lenka Lisá, Ondřej Mlejnek
The past year 2022 was a year full of intense changes for us,
and not only geopolitical ones. Unfortunately, we had to say
goodbye forever to our dear friend, a great archaeologist and
member of the IANSA Editorial Board, associate professor
Ladislav Šmejda, who died after a long illness at the end of
November 2022. We honour his memory and miss our dear
friend.
At the end of 2021, the IANSA Editorial and Advisory
Boards were merged. We would like to expand the current
merged international Editorial Board and adjust its personal
composition in such a manner that its members will cover
the topics published in our journal in the best possible way
and ensure the highest-quality. Currently each article now
has its own responsible editor whose task is to suggest
the external peer-reviewers to the executive editor and to
supervise the editorial process. All these changes have led
to archaeobotanist Michaela Ptáková from the University
of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, archaeologist Jan
Turek from the Center for Theoretical Studies in Prague,
geochemist Lukáš Kučera from Palacký University in
Olomouc and anthropologist Miroslav Králík from Masaryk
University in Brno becoming new members of the Editorial
Board. We would like to thank outgoing editors Peter
Poschlod and Petr Meduna for their valuable work for this
journal.
Our journal was given the opportunity to become a co-
organiser of the International Conference of Environmental
Archaeology (CEA) for the next years. This year will be the
seventeenth year of this conference and it will take place at
Masaryk University in Brno at the end of January 2023. The
theme of the conference is the application of environmental
research and archaeometry in rescue archaeological research.
In addition to the IANSA journal represented by its executive
editor Ondřej Mlejnek, the organisation is being undertaken
by the Institute of Archaeology and Museology of the
Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University (Michal Vágner),
and the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Hradec
Králové (Richard Thér and Jan Horák), to whom we hereby
give our thanks.
Regarding the current geopolitical situation, we would
like to assure the authors and readers that we essentially
condemn any military aggression, including the ongoing
Russian attack on Ukraine. At the same time, however,
our intention is primarily to publish high-quality research,
regardless of nationality of authors. For this reason, we
will continue to publish scientifc articles with the research
results of our Russian and Belarusian colleagues. We have
not published articles with obvious political undertones in
the past, and neither shall we will do it in the future.
The content of this general issue is quite rich regarding the
number of published papers as well as the issues presented.
In the frst paper, Roman Křivánek and Jan Tirpák present
the results of geophysical research performed at eight
assorted archaeological sites located in the Czech and Slovak
Republics dated from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages. On
the example of these sites the authors explain changes in the
use of cultural landscape in Central Europe across history.
The second article by Maria Grazia Melis deals with
an issue of radiocarbon dating on the prehistoric site of
Monte d´Accoddi in Sardinia. The shrine excavated at this
site is a unique fnd in the context of the Mediterranean
Neolithic. This building originally consisted of a terrace
with an access ramp and later it was englobed by a second
much larger building, similar to the frst one, with a central,
possibly stepped, core. The presented radiocarbon dates
help to defne the construction and occupation phases of this
monument, which can be considered as a prehistoric temple,
as well as the settlement that grew around it in the fourth and
third millenniums BC.
In the third submission, written by Saša Kovačević
et al.
,
results of the analysis of pigments from decorated bone
and antler artefacts from the Early Iron Age burial mounds
in Croatian Jalžabet are presented. These artefacts were
found in two princely burial mounds, which belong to the
Eastern Hallstatt culture and date back to the 6
th
century
BC. The motifs on the artifacts were incised and afterwards
flled with black pigment. There are also faint traces of
red pigment visible on the surface. Using methods for
colourant analysis, the authors have successfully proven
the deliberate application of black paint based on carbon
Volume XIV ● Issue 1/2023 ● Pages 3–5
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Lenka Lisá, Ondřej Mlejnek: IANSA in the Time of Global Changes
4
black as a pigment, probably in combination with terpenoid
resin. The red pigment on the fnds has been identifed as
hematite. It is highly probable that the red surfaces were also
deliberately painted decoration. The archaeological analysis
of the fnds supports the idea of the use of various types of
decorated plates as inlays, probably on furniture or other
luxury everyday items. Smaller fnds could have been used
as utilitarian objects, parts of attire and jewellery.
The fourth scientifc paper written by Claudia Moricca,
Alessio De Cristofaro and Laura Ambrosini concerns the
archaeobotanical analysis of soil samples and vase fllings
from Etruscan tombs from the Necropolis of “Valle Santa
nell’Agro Veientano” near Rome in Italy. The excavated
vestibule tombs are dated back from the sixth to the fourth
centuries BC. Analyses of plant macro-remains reveal the
presence of food plants comprised of cereals, pulses and
fruits. Furthermore, charcoal analyses give indications
concerning the past forest vegetation with a prevalence of
deciduous and semi-deciduous oaks accompanied by other
taxa such as evergreen oaks, hornbeam and ash, which is
in accordance with the present-day vegetation of northern
Latium. Remains of synanthropic weeds suggest a heavily
anthropized environment. This study represents a step
forward in the understanding of human-plant interactions of
Etruscans.
Another paper by Martina Fojtová and Zdeněk Vytlačil
deals with the topic of the Early Medieval Great Moravian
graves. The authors try to answer the question of whether we
could explain the north-south orientation of several graves,
which deviate from prevailing east-west orientation, by
indicating the possible foreign origin of individuals buried in
these graves. To answer this question, two individuals buried
in 9
th
century in north-south oriented graves on the burial
site “Na Valách” in Staré Město (Moravia, Czech Republic)
were subjected to a mobility analysis using strontium
isotopes. According to their analysis it is not possible to
confrm a foreign origin for these individuals. However,
the fnal rejection or confrmation of the hypothesis (a non-
local origin for the people buried in graves with a north-
south orientation) will require further analyses performed on
a much larger sample.
The article by Hana Brzobohatá, Jan Frolík and Filip
Velímský will move readers to Kutná Hora in central
Bohemia, which was in the 14
th
century one of the most
important silver mining centres in Europe. The authors have
analysed human bones of at least 1785 individuals buried in
mass graves in a suburb of this city. A notable surplus of males
among the people buried in these graves has been identifed.
After considering the factors potentially infuencing this
imbalance, the authors suggest that the fgure likely mirrors
the original population composition as a consequence of
the infow of men migrating to Kutná Hora for labour and
economic opportunities.
Another geophysical paper written by Pavel Drnovský
deals with the possibilities and results of magnetometer
surveys of Medieval small-sized fortifcations. A total
of sixteen manorial residences located in East Bohemia
(Czech Republic), dated back to fourteenth and ffteenth
centuries, were surveyed with the use of this method. In
most cases these fortifcations were partly or completely
abandoned sites. According to the author, the chosen
method proved to be suitable for detecting most parts of the
residences of the petty nobility, particularly in regions with
prevailing earthen and wooden architecture. However, the
results of such a survey need to be supplemented by other
methods of geophysical and archaeological research.
In the last scientifc article of this issue, written by Olga
Druzhinina, Dario Hruševar
et al.
, results of phytolith and
non-pollen palynomorph analyses performed on sediment
samples from an archaeologically-excavated farmyard in
Graft (the Netherlands) are presented. The obtained data
have provided an important insight into the archaeological
Figure 1.
The last IANSA Editorial Board
meeting took place in Dambořice in South
Moravia from 10
th
to 11
th
November 2022.
Local wine degustation. Photo by Pavel
Lisý.
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Lenka Lisá, Ondřej Mlejnek: IANSA in the Time of Global Changes
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interpretation of cultural layers within the farmyard.
In addition, more information was gained on the local
environmental dynamics and the phases of economic activity
at the farmyard from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century.
The Backstory section consists of two articles. Firstly,
a paper by Jaromír Beneš and his research team describes
the achievements and development of the Laboratory of
Archaeobotany and Palaeoecology (LAPE) at the Faculty
of Science of the University of South Bohemia in České
Budějovice during the last decade. The second article
belongs to the saddest of categories: it is the obituary of our
colleague and IANSA editor Ladislav Šmejda, who left us
prematurely at the end of last year (2022).
Dear readers, this general issue ranks among the largest
ones as regards the number of published papers, as well as the
variety of diferent subdisciplines and topics. We therefore
hope that almost everyone interested in the cooperation
between archaeology and natural sciences will be able to fnd
something useful and interesting here from their own feld of
study. We wish you a pleasant scientifc experience with this
publication.
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