Chalcolithic Themiclesia

The Chalcolithic era in Themiclesia lasted from around 2500 BCE to 500 BCE and was centred upon multiple related cultures amongst which copper-working technology gradually disseminated. Copper was initially cold-worked into tools and ornaments until smelting became the dominant methodology around 1750 BCE. The Chalcolithic era lasted an unusually long time due to absence of tin, the metal alloyed with copper to create bronze, until an adequate supply was discovered in S.rum-l′jun prefecture around 800 BCE, probably by Meng merchants or settlers.

Cultures

Sarcophagus culture

The Sarcophagus culture appeared in Themiclesian steppes around 2000 BCE and was strongly influenced and possibly preceded by the earlier neolithic Tripod culture. It was named for its heavy, stone-hewn sarcophagi that functioned as place-markers in the course of its periodic migration in the steppes. Sites associated with the culture gradually shifted east into northern Maverica and western Dzhugnestan around 1500 BCE, permitting contact with the Proto-Chikai and Achahan states. Possibly due to a change in climate, the Sarcophagus culture declined across the Themiclesian steppes and disappeared around 500 BCE.

The people of the Sarcophagus culture were primarily animal herders who consistently moved between higher and lower altitudes between seasons, and for longer distances from year to year. Remains of their secular structures are difficult to locate because they apparently did not erect permanent buildings, and only clay vessels serve to identify their temporary settlements. Their migratory patterns are often fixed, permitting a single pasture in relatively arid land to recover fully before being used again. There is strong evidence of trading with the Crown culture to the north and the third form of the Lithophone culture to the west; contact with Proto-Maverican cultures to the south is highly probable.

The eponymous sarcophagi were characterized by flat but painted faces in the earlier period, but evidently assisted by the improvement of tools, elaborate carvings appeared around the middle of the Chalcolithic. Early motifs were predominantly geometric, but subsequently human figures and animals came to fill the undecorated regions on sarcophagi. Anthropologists believe that the sarcophagi were not permanent burial places, but rather vessels into which the deceased was deposited and retrieved for secondary burial after a given interval. Permanent burials associated with the Sarcophagus culture appear to be relatively plain and unadored, and the elaborate stone sarcophagi were apparently communal amongst at least several kinship groups. The period between initial and secondary burial typically encompasses at least one migratory period, or around seven years.

As the sarcophagi functioned as fixed places of both practical and spiritual significance to a migratory people, many artifacts interpreted as votive objects or grave goods have been discovered around them. Some of these goods were imported from as far away as the Achahan heartland, a fact taken to demonstrate the importance of these sites to the Sarcophagus culture.

Lithophone culture

The Lithophone culture appeared in Themiclesia before 5000 BCE and has spawned numerous subtypes over a very broad area. Chronologically, archaeologists divide the culture into three stages, which show considerable differences in practice but are unified by their use of lithophone instruments. The Lithophone culture was primarily agrarian but kept domesticated dogs. The cultivation of millet was associated with the Lithophone culture, whose members lived in small settlements usually no larger than 50 or so houses.

See also

• Themiclesia