bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age landscape of interior western Sicily
Authors: Kolb Michael J. , Tusa Sebastiano
Published: January 2015

The archaeology of complex societies in western Sicily has traditionally focused upon Greek and Phoenician colonization rather than the development of the indigenous peoples of the interior. The Salemi regional survey project in western Sicily was conceived as a means to track long-term landscape change of this interior ‘indigenous’ landscape. From 1998 to 2000, this survey has conducted an extensive survey of 150 sq. km of the Salemi region, an intensive survey of 8 sq. km around a nearby Late Bronze Age (LBA) hilltop settlement of Mokarta (Mannino & Spatafora 1995; Spatafora & Mannino 1992; Tusa 1992), and an intensive survey of 25 sq. km around the Early Iron Age (EIA) hilltop settlement of Monte Polizzo (FIGURE 1). Survey work is part ofthe Sicilian–Scandinavian archaeological project (Morris et al. in press; http://dig.anthro.niu.edu/sicily), an international team of scholars who are undertaking large-scale excavations at Monte Polizzo (FIGURE 2). Preliminary survey results reveal that these LBA and EIA peoples relied on an intricate valley hinterland around their hilltop residences. Moreover, marked differences exist between the LBA and EIA valley hinterlands.
A contextual study of the ‘fossilized’ prehispanic canal systems of the Tehuacan Valley, Puebla, Mexico
Authors: Neely James A.
Published: January 2015

Nearly three decades ago, Woodbury & Neely (1972) published the first analysis of the extensive and complex system of Prehispanic Canals found in the northern portion of the Tehuacan Valley of Puebla, Mexico. These springfed canals, functioning to supply waters for irrigation and domestic uses, were uniquely preserved in near entirety by natural processes. The canals have been ‘fossilized’ in place through a process of mineral deposition. They are clearly visible on the landscape for many kilometres and have aggraded in height, now standing 2 to 3 m high in several places. Time, funding and the archaeological methodology of the mid 1960s limited Woodbury & Neely’s fieldwork, and therefore the study did not fully investigate the system. Although a basic description and discussion of the technology and functioning of the system was accomplished, a detailed analysis of these aspects remained to be done. A schematic mapping of the system was accomplished, but an accurate mapping of the canals and associated habitation and administrative sites was lacking. The chronological placement of these canals was attempted by means of the cross-dating of ceramics on archaeological sites found bordering the channels, but an accurate chronological sequence of the system’s development was not attainable. A general climatic reconstruction of the valley was generated, but since the emphasis placed by the Tehuacan Archaeological and Botanical Project was on the earlier periods of habitation that focused on the development of maize domestication, the climatic contexts into which the canals were later constructed was not known.
The Water Island Archaeological Project: archaeology and history in the eastern Caribbean
Authors: Anderson David G. , Kidd R. Steven , Yates Emily M.
Published: January 2015

In 1998 extensive investigations were undertaken on Water Island, US Virgin Islands, by a research team from the Southeast Archeological Center, National Park Service. The US government is relinquishing ownership of the island, an action that would affect cultural resources. Earlier surveys had located a number of sites, including the remains of three 18th- and l9th-century plantations, historic wells, prehistoric shell middens and an extensive World War II fortification complex (Wild & Anderson 1992; Knight 2001; Anderson et al. in preparation).

Water Island, located off St Thomas, encompasses about one square mile, and is characterized by steep rocky slopes, a pronounced central ridgeline and a highly indented coastline with numerous bays and beaches (FIGURE 1). Fresh water comes from rainfall, and in small brackish ponds. Vegetation ranges from dry tropical thorn scrub to mangrove/salt ponds.
‘Fish-tail’ projectile points and megamammals: new evidence from Paso Otero 5 (Argentina)
Authors: Martínez Gustavo A.
Published: January 2015

The Paso Otero 5 site is located in the middle basin of the Quequén Grande river (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina). This site is the first recorded Pleistocene-Holocene archaeological context in the grasslands of the Interserrana Bonaerense Area at which extinct megamammals and a ‘fish-tail’ projectile point have been recovered in association from buried soil dated to c. 10,200–10,450 BP.
Rameses II and the tobacco beetle
Authors: Buckland P. C. , Panagiotakopulu E.
Published: January 2015

The use of a wide range of narcotic drugs in antiquity has been widely documented, although archaeologists have sometimes been too credulous of apparently scientific data, and have failed to appreciate the post-excavation histories of artefacts, including mummies. This paper examines the discovery of tobacco in the mummy of Rameses II, provides an alternative model for its origin, as a 19th-century insecticide used in conservation, and throws doubt upon the evidence for both cannabis and cocaine in ancient Egypt.
The dynamics of wealth and poverty in the Transegalitarian societies of Southeast Asia
Authors: Hayden Brian
Published: January 2015

Understanding how differential wealth develops between households in villages is one key to understanding how socioeconomic inequalities develop; a key theoretical issue for archaeologists. An ethnoarchaeological perspective in Southeast Asia gains major insights into how socioeconomic inequalities emerged and were maintained, with numerous implications for other cereal and stock based prehistoric cultures, such as those of Neolithic Europe.
More time please
Authors: Lawson Andrew J.
Published: January 2015

This further comment on Geoffrey Wainwright's retrospective ‘Time please’ (ANTIQUITY 74: (2000): 909–43) is written from the perspective of someone who has been actively involved in professional archaeology since the creation of the first county ‘units’ in 1973, who helped to promote a professional institute and its codes of contractual behaviour, and who has directed an independent Trust through the transition from state funding to private funding.
A new dating sequence for Çatalhöyük
Authors: Cessford Craig
Published: January 2015

A recent series of accelerator mass spectrometry dates from the earliest excavated deposits at Çatalhöyük has allowed the origins of the site to be more precisely dated. These dates also provide a reliable basis for the construction of an overall intra-site chronological sequence.
Roman vineyards in Britain: stratigraphic and palynological data from Wollaston in the Nene Valley, England
Authors: Brown A. G. , Meadows I. , Turner S. D. , Mattingly D. J.
Published: January 2015

Stratigraphic and palynological evidence from trenches at Wollaston, Northamptonshire, suggest viticulture was extensively practised at this Roman site. It is argued that the apparent lack of viticultural tools and wine presses in the archaeological record in Britain is not reliable evidence for the absence of viticulture at that time.
Restless corpses: ‘secondary burial’ in the Babenberg and Habsburg dynasties
Authors: Weiss-Krejci Estella
Published: January 2015

The historically documented burial samples of the Babenberg and Habsburg dynasties allow a detailed analysis of the circumstances that led to dismemberment, evisceration, disturbance, exhumation and reburial over a millennium. The results may provide deeper and more broadly applicable insights into relevant cultural formation processes of élite burials.
Why digital enhancement of rock paintings works: rescaling and saturating colours
Authors: David Bruno , Brayer John , McNiven Ian J. , Watchman Alan
Published: January 2015

With the advent of relatively inexpensive image-handling computer programmes, digital image enhancement is more readily available to archaeologists. This paper describes the principles behind image enhancement and its application to rock-art in particular. Its use at a site in Torres Strait shows how it can be used successfully to reveal faded rock paintings.
By donkey train to Kufra?—How Mr Meri went west
Authors: Kuper Rudolph
Published: January 2015

In 1990, about 30 km southwest of Dakhla oasis, the most remote settlement in Egypt’s Western Desert, a hieroglyphic rock inscription was discovered that turned out to be the first clear evidence of an Ancient Egyptian presence so far into the Sahara (Burkard 1997). The short text states that a higher official named Meri went out to meet (?) oasis dwellers. Details of translation, interpretation and palaeographic dating of the text are a matter of discussion among Egyptologists, but it clearly seems to be of Old or Early Middle Kingdom origin. The home of the ‘oasis dwellers’ can reasonably be inferred as lying further west or southwest. However, the nearest places with permanent water in these directions are the Kufra Oasis in Libya and the wells of Djebel Uweinat, which lie, respectively, some 600 km and 500 lan away. How was it possible to master such distances under the then already prevailing hyperarid conditions by the only available means of transportation, a train of donkeys that have to drink at least every three days?
Radiocarbon dating at the British Museum — the end of an era
Authors: Bowman Sheridan
Published: January 2015

For nearly half a century, the Radiocarbon Lab at the British Museum was at the forefront of helping to develop and in applying this fundamental dating method. Thousands of samples were processed, and innumerable sites and objects dated. Now the lab has closed, and Sheridan Bowman, the Keeper of the Department of Scientific Research, assesses the lab's contributions.
Burnt animal sacrifice at the Mycenaean ‘Palace of Nestor’, Pylos
Authors: Isaakidou Valasia , Halstead Paul , Davis Jack , Stocker Sharon
Published: January 2015

The burnt sacrifice of bare (defleshed) bones, described in Homer's Odyssey and well documented from Archaic and Classical Greece, is now clearly attested by burnt faunal remains from the ‘Palace of Nestor’ at Mycenaean Pylos. This evidance is of great importance for understanding both the historical role of sacrifice in Greek religion and the significance of fensting in Mycenaean palatial society.
The visual in archaeology: photographic representation of archaeological practice in British India
Authors: Guha Sudeshna
Published: January 2015

Photographs produced during archaeological fieldwork can be employed in shaping the nature of archaeological discourse in different parts of the world. Such photographs are material objects that at times show what written texts fail to say. The focus of this paper is on the photographs produced during archaeological surveys and excavations in British India between the last quarter of the 19th and middle of the 20th centuries.
On the international roots of prehistory
Authors: Kaeser Marc-Antoine
Published: January 2015

Introduction

In recent years, considerable attention has been dedicated to the involvement of archaeology (and most notably prehistory) with nationalism. The probable causes of this recent fashion1 need not concern 11s here, but the movement itself is ccrtninly welcome, testifying to the reflection of archaeologists on their own practices and those of their predecessors. For historians, this trend is quite welcome insofar as it contributes to a general renaissance of interest in the past of the discipline. However, a more careful examination of this historiography leads us to some caution about its significance.
Archaeological arguments in national debates in late 19th-century France: Gabriel de Mortillet's La Formation de la nation française (1897)
Authors: Richard Nathalie
Published: January 2015

Chauvinist reactions were rife in late 19th-century France, following the 1870 defeat to Prussia, the unification of Germany and the annexation of Alsace and part of Lorraine to the new empire. Besides their political manifestations, as in the creation of the Ligue des patriotes in 1882, these reactions also received intellectual expression. For most of the cultivated elites, the revelation of Prussian militarism came to negate the prevailing image of Germany as the cosmopolitan heartland of philosophy and of amodel university system. The French military defeat was interpreted as a sign of the political and moral weakness of the regime of Napoleon I11 (Renan 18711, but also as a wider symptom of intellectual inferiority, itself due to the inadequacies of the French educational and university structure. There ensued in intellectual circles a veritable ‘German crisis of French thought’ (Digeon 1959).
The history of Iberian archaeology: one archaeology for two Spains
Authors: Ruiz Arturo , Sánchez Alberto , Bellón Juan P.
Published: January 2015

Introduction

In this article we set out to analyse, from an archaeological point of view, a political problem which, as demonstrated by current debate, including acts of violence, goes well beyond archaeology. Throughout the 19th century, and especially in its latter half, a centralist political model for Spain was developed in which a political balance could not be found between the State and [lie autonomous traditions of the varions regions of the Iherian Peninsula. As a result of this failure, legitimation programmes began to be constructed towards the end of 19th century, based on the history of the peoples of these regions. This led to a search in protohistorical archaeology [Iberians, Celts, Tartessians, etc.) for a possible solution to the political problems caused by a lack of institutional agreement between states and regions.
German archaeology during the Third Reich, 1933–45: a case study based on archival evidence
Authors: Maischberger Martin
Published: January 2015

The history of the archaeological disciplines in Germany during the Nazi era can be considered as a locus classicus of nationalist interpretation and misuse of the past. For some time now, various efforts have been made to enhance our understanding of this period, including several aspects related to archaeology and cultural politics. Most studies have been carried on by modern historians, but also archaeologists have engaged in historiographical research on their own discipline. Some freqiiently cited works like Bollmus (1970) Kater (1974) and Losemann (1977) are still fundamental for our understanding of important aspects of Nazi cultural politics as well as the involvement of traditional institutions into the dictatorial system.
A Late Mesolithic kill site of aurochs at Jardinga, Netherlands
Authors: Prummel Wietske , Niekus Marcel J.L. Th. , van Gijn Annelou L. , Cappers René T.J.
Published: January 2015

A site beside the river Tjonger near Jardinga in the northern Netherlands is shown to be a rare Late Mesolithic kill and primary butchering site. Finds consist mainly of bones from aurochs and red deer, with a few flint artefacts. Radiocarbon evidence shows that there must have been two phases of use: the first around 5400 cal BC; the second, main phase around 5250–5050 cal BC.
The Irish Heritage Council
Authors: Mount Charles
Published: January 2015

Introduction

The Heritage Act 1995 established An Chomhairle Oidhreachta, the Irish Heritage Council, as a statutory body with responsibility to propose policies and priorities for the identification, protection, preservation and enhancement of the Irish national heritage. The Heritage Act defines heritage as including both cultural and natural heritage and specifically refers to: monuments, archaeological objects, heritage objects, architectural heritage, flora, fauna, wildlife habitats, landscapes, seascapes, wrecks, geology, heritage gardens and parks and inland waterways.
A Neolithic ceremonial timber complex at Ballynahatty, Co. Down
Authors: Hartwell Barrie
Published: January 2015

Introduction

Belfast Lough is a deep indent of the Irish Sea into the coastline of Northern Ireland. Its southwestern continuation is the Lagan Valley, which separates the steep scarp ofthe Antrim Plateau (height c. 300 m) from the hills of Co Down (c. 120 m) to the southeast. The River Lagan flows along this broad, undulating valley floor through thick deposits of glacial sands and gravels before emptying into the Lough at Belfast. Eight kilometres southwest of Belfast, the river passes the townland of Ballynahatty, a sandy plateau 100 ha in extent. This was the site in the 4th millenium BC of a small passage tomb, orientated to the northwest (Collins 1954: 48; Lawlor 1918: 16–19). Though now denuded of its covering mound, it provided the subsequent focus for a series of atypical passage tombs utilizing ever smaller settings of stone (Hartwell 1998: 33–6). Shortly after 3000 BC this was followed by a complex of large and elaborate east-facing timber structures (Ballynahatty 5 and 6). These in turn were eventually replaced by the earth and stone hengiform enclosure of the Giant's Ring, built around the original passage tomb.
Out of the blue: assessing military aircraft crash sites in England, 1912–45
Authors: Holyoak Vince
Published: January 2015

Military aircraft crash sites are currently being reviewed by English Heritage's Monument Protection Programme. The aims are reviewed in a paper that shows the increasing interest in modern archaeology.
Social integration of religion and ritual in prehistoric China
Authors: Lee Yun Kuen , Zhu Naicheng
Published: January 2015

The authors employ examples from Chinese prehistory to demonstrate that religion could maintain and reinforce order in various aspects of social lives.
Cultural landscapes on Garua Island, Papua New Guinea
Authors: Torrence Robin
Published: January 2015

Important new insights about long-term changes in human behaviour are gained when cultural landscapes rather than focal points or ‘sites’ are studied. The abundance of obsidian artefacts preserved on easily recognized, well-defined and short-lived ground surfaces makes Garua Island an excellent setting for monitoring the changing patterns of human behaviour through time and within cultural landscapes. The results raise questions about traditional interpretations of settlement and land use in Near Oceania, particularly during the time of Lapita pottery.
4D archaeology
Authors: Ashmore Patrick
Published: January 2015

Introduction

By far the commonest absolute date estimates come from radiocarbon ages converted to dates by comparing them with the ages of tree rings of known date. There are still many problems with the technique. The quoted errors attached to most of the dates obtained between 1950 and around 1982 have to be increased by factors between 1.4 and 4 (Baillie 1990; Ashmore et al. 2000). There are plateaux in the calibration curve which mean that some ages correspond to an unacceptably wide range of calendar dates. Many archaeological sites contain pieces of charcoal much older than the main period of activity on them. Many charcoal dates obtained before about 1999 were from bulk samples and some demonstrably reflect mixing of charcoal of very different age, providing a meaningless date somewhere in between (Ashmore 1999a). There is now fairly abundant evidence that dates from poorly preserved bone, whether buried or cremated, can be centuries out. The marine effect, which has been assumed to make all Scottish shell dates 405 years too old, may fluctuate (Harkness 1983; Cook & Dugmore pers. comm.). The bones of people who ate food from marine sources show the marine effect and calculation of the required change to an age measured by a laboratory depends on a measurement of the strength of the marine effect at the time the person lived (Barrett et al. 2000). Some dates from residues on pots seem to represent accurately the time they formed; others for unknown reasons do not.
Sound foundations: archaeology in Scotland's towns and cities and the role of the Scottish Burgh Survey
Authors: Owen Olwyn
Published: January 2015

We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time.T.S. ELIOT

Introduction

Think of Scotland. The chances are that what springs to mind is a picture of mountains, lochs, glens and coasts — an outstanding natural heritage which uplifts the spirit and overflows the pages of the tourist brochures. Paradoxically, though, modern Scotland has an urban heart, with its people, the lifeblood of its economy and its cultural centres all concentrated in the towns and cities. Scotland is fortunate in the quantity and quality of its historic towns, with a preponderance of small and medium-sized towns, many of which escaped the insensitive 1960s and 1970s redevelopment so eloquently lamented elsewhere. Even Scotland’s cities are small by English standards; the population of Glasgow, our largest city, was about 650,000 in the 1991 census, and Dundee, the smallest (before Inverness’s elevation), only about 165,000. Today some 80% of the total population of around 5,000,000 live and work in towns and cities.
Artefacts and the Iron Age of Atlantic Scotland: past, present and future
Authors: Smith Andrea N.
Published: January 2015

Introduction

This paper is concerned with the Iron Age of Atlantic Scotland, a period running from approximately 600 BC until the onset of Viking colonization and influence around AD 800. The definition of Atlantic Scotland for the purposes of this paper is taken to include the north and west of Scotland and its coastline and archipelagos including Shetland, Orkney and the Inner and Outer Hebrides. This area is also defined by the distribution of a particular kind of drystone monumental architecture, variously termed brochs, duns or more recently Atlantic roundhouses (Armit & Ralston 1997: 183–7). These structures are often well preserved, in the case of some standing as towers 10 m in height, and are thus highly visible in the landscape. In Orkney and Shetland brochs and other Iron Age houses often form only one part of a large and complex settlement mound, with both earlier and later settlement and activity dating over millennia on the same site, as at Howe and Pool (Uallin Smith 1994; Hunter et al. 1993).
Zones of interaction: Roman and native in Scotland
Authors: Hanson W.S.
Published: January 2015

Northern Britain is one of the best known and most extensively resoarched frontier regions in the Roman Empire. The fluctuations of Roman occupation in the late 1st, mid 2nd and early 3rd centuries AD are quite well understood and emphasize the peripheral character of the area, which never completely succumbed to Roman conquest. It also offers the opportunity to study the processes of interaction between Rome and indigenous peoples at the limits of empire. Too often, however, these have been seen as incidental to the main action, as if the local people were only the supporting cast for the foreign stars. If separately considered at all, the indigenous population has tended to he relegated to discussion of the native background, but over the last decade or so research has moved them more strongly into the foreground.
The stone circles of northeast Scotland in the light of excavation
Authors: Bradley Richard , Ball Chris , Croft Sharon , Phillips Tim
Published: January 2015

The stone circles of northeast Scotland (Figure 1) take a most distinctive form. On one level, they are made up of structural elements that are widely distributed in Britain: they are built from raw materials that had been selected for their colour and texture; the monoliths are graded in height towards the southwest and may have been aligned on the moon (Burl 2000). On another level, they have a character all of their own. They are known as ‘recumbent’ stone circles because their most massive component is a large flat block which is bracketed by two tall pillars or ‘flankers’ (Burl 2000: 215–33).
Bronze Age fuel: the oldest direct evidence for deep peat cutting and stack construction?
Authors: Branigan Keith , Edwards Kevin J. , Merrony Colin
Published: January 2015

Introduction

Peat has been used as a fuel and as an additive to arable fields to aid fertility since prehistoric times in many parts of northern Europe (e.g. Fenton 1986; Whittle et al. 1986). The cutting of deep peat and the construction of peat stacks as part of the drying process has been documented from Medieval times, but the antiquity of such activities is unknown. Peat stacks are ephemeral structures whose purpose is to aid the drying of hard-won, wet peat in areas where other fuels such as wood and coal are expensive or unobtainable. They are typically cleared within a few months of construction and leave no traces of their former presence. Here we report the unprecedented discovery of a ‘fossil’ pyramidal peat stack dating to the 2nd millennium BC, from the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Individual turves contained finger and thumb impressions and pollen analysis reveals environmental conditions at around the time of cutting. The method of extracting and stacking the peat used some 3500 years ago may be similar to that used today.
Archaeology and ‘QAA subject review’: what did we learn?
Authors: Harding Anthony , Johnson Matthew
Published: January 2015

The authors recount their personal experience of the recent assessment of archaeology teaching in the United Kingdom.
The non-fraud of the Middle Bronze Age stone goddess from Ustica: a reverse Piltdown hoax
Authors: Lukesh Susan S. , Holloway R. Ross
Published: January 2015

The authors examine claims that the sole surviving example of relief sculpture from the Middle Bronze of Italy or Sicily, discovered in the excavations on the island of Ustica in 1991, is a forgery that was deliberately planted on the site. Their refutation is based on examination of the photographic evidence that has been published in support of these claims.
A catastrophe remembered: a meteorite impact of the fifth century AD in the Abruzzo, central Italy
Authors: Santilli Roberto , Ormö Jens , Rossi Angelo P. , Komatsu Goro
Published: January 2015

A meteorite impact crater in the Sirente mountains, central Abruzzo has recently been dated to the four/fifth century AD. The author shows that this catastrophic event can be equated with a locally preserved legend which describes how local people saw a new star fall to earth during a pagan festival. Their conversion to Christianity was expeditiously effected … .
A future for Dark Earth?
Authors: Macphail Richard I. , Galinié Henri , Verhaeghe Frans
Published: January 2015

A recent workshop on ‘dark earth’, the homogeneous soil layer that often separates Roman from Early Medieval and Medieval strata in towns, prompted the authors to show how this concept, which developed in England, became altered when employed in mainland Europe. They present new research on what is actually a widespread phenomenon, and warn that uncritical assumptions about such layers made on the ground are losing important information.
Corridors of power: a case study in access analysis from medieval England
Authors: Richardson Amanda
Published: January 2015

One of the most important techniques to be applied in medieval archaeology is access analysis, in which the spaces inside a structure are categorised by their relative ease of access and interpreted in terms of privilege and privacy. The author demonstrates the method, taking buildings from Salisbury town and Cathedral Close as a case study.
An Iron Age chariot burial from Scotland
Authors: Carter Stephen , Hunter Fraser
Published: January 2015

The chance discovery of a chariot burial shows Iron Age Scotland to be in direct contact with the European continent.
Prehistoric stone monuments in the northern region of the Kula Ring
Authors: Bickler Simon H.
Published: January 2015

The system of exchange known as the Kula ring practised in recent times by the Trobriand Islanders has provided a powerful model for anthropology, but its roots in prehistory have remained elusive. Focusing on the island of Woodlark, the author and his team have surveyed the stone monuments which characterise the region and here assign them a date and social context. In them, they see evidence for prehistoric chiefdoms anticipating those studied by Malinowski.
Variation in porotic hyperostosis in the Royal Cemetery complex at Abydos, Upper Egypt: a social interpretation
Authors: Keita S.O.Y. , Boyce A.J.
Published: January 2015

Variation in the frequency and severity of porotic hyperostosis [porous defects], seen in the skulls of individuals buried at two First Dynasty cemeteries at Abydos, suggested differences in health and social conditions. Those buried near the kings had suffered from childhood deficiencies, while those associated with funerary enclosures in a second cemetery further to the north seemed to have benefited from occupational or social advantages. The author speculates on the possible factors which gave rise to this difference.
Colonials, merchants and alabaster vases: the western Phoenician aristocracy
Authors: Castro José Luis López
Published: January 2015

Long characterised as merchants in pursuit of metals, the Phoenician settlers on the Iberian peninsula are here given an alternative profile. The author shows that a new aristocracy, visible in the archaeology of both cemeteries and settlements, was engaged in winning a social advancement denied it at home in the east. In particular, the Egyptian alabaster vases found in Spain, far from being the products of pillage or trade, were appreciated as prestige objects which often ended their days as receptacles for high status cremations.
Freud and Volkan: Psychoanalysis, group identities and archaeology
Authors: Russell Ian
Published: January 2015

Social groupings create material cultures and material objects reflect and maintain group identities. The author explores the role of psychoanalysis in examining and explaining the origins and the need for these identities — and their material symbols — in the mind. He then shows that modern archaeology itself needs psychoanalysing: as a purveyor of culture, it is in the business of creating or reinforcing modern identities.
Between the Mediterranean and the Sahara: geoarchaeological reconnaissance in the Jebel Gharbi, Libya
Authors: Barich Barbara E. , Garcea Elena A.A. , Giraudi Carlo
Published: January 2015

Intensive survey and three sample sections at Jebel Gharbi in north-west Libya offer a new dated sequence of the environment, and the human presence within it, from the Middle Stone Age to the early Holocene. Hunter-gatherers were continuously active, including during the hitherto elusive Later Stone Age.
King's monuments: identifying ‘formlings’ in southern African San rock paintings
Authors: Mguni Siyakha
Published: January 2015

The author demonstrates that the complex images of rock art known as formlings depict or evoke the equally complex architecture of ant-hills. Presented in cutaway and full of metaphorical references, they go beyond the image into the imagination.
Quantifying the threat to archaeological sites from the erosion of cultivated soil
Authors: Wilkinson Keith , Tyler Andrew , Davidson Donald , Grieve Ian
Published: January 2015

Ploughing is probably the greatest agent of attrition to archaeological sites world-wide. In every country, every year, a bit more is shaved off buried strata and a bit more of the past becomes unreadable. On the other hand, people must eat and crops must be planted. How can the fields be best managed to get the best of both worlds? Perhaps the most pressing need for resource managers is to know how quickly a particular field is eroding: negotiation and protection is then possible. Up to now that has been difficult to measure.

The new procedure presented here, which draws on the unexpected benefits of nuclear weapons testing, shows how variation in the concentration of the radioisotope 137Cs can be used to monitor soil movements over the last 40 years. The measurements allow a site's ‘life expectancy’ to be calculated, and there are some promising dividends for tracking site formation processes.
Shell beads and social behaviour in Pleistocene Australia
Authors: Balme Jane , Morse Kate
Published: January 2015

Why did Palaeolithic people wear shells, and why was the practice so widespread in the world? The authors' own researches in Western Australia show that specific marine shells were targeted, subject to special processes of manufacture into beads and that some had travelled hundreds of kilometres from their source. Whether they were brought in land by the manufacturers, or by specially ornamented people, these beads provided a symbolic language that somehow kept the early peoples of Australia in touch with the sea.
The Teouma Lapita site and the early human settlement of the Pacific Islands
Authors: Bedford Stuart , Spriggs Matthew , Regenvanu Ralph
Published: January 2015

The Teouma site, on Efate in central Vanuatu, was uncovered during quarrying in 2003 and has proved to be one of the most significant discoveries to date for the colonisation of Remote Oceania. Not only did it bring to light a fine assemblage of the famously diagnostic Lapita ceramics, but a cemetery of more than 25 individuals along with the pots. The skeletons offer an opportunity to investigate the origins of the ‘Lapita people’ who first appeared in the Bismarck archipelago around 3300 years ago and rapidly moved through island Melanesia and Western Polynesia over the next few centuries.
An island decides: megalithic burial rites on Menorca
Authors: Gili Sylvia , Lull Vicente , Micó Rafael , Rihuete Cristina , Risch Roberto
Published: January 2015

Recent research including 781 radiocarbon dates and the excavation of Ses Arenes de Baix, has allowed a new review of the sequence of megalithic burial practice on Menorca. Rock-cut tombs, dolmens, caves with entrance-works and the famous boat-shaped houses and tombs (navetes) are placed in overlapping chronological order. The authors suggest that, while aware of contemporary developments on the continent, the Bronze Age islanders absorbed immigrants and made their own local choices of memorial architecture.
The king and his cult: the axe-hammer from Sutton Hoo and its implications for the concept of sacral leadership in early medieval Europe
Authors: Dobat Andres Siegfried
Published: January 2015

The iron-axe hammer from the Mound 1 ship-burial at Sutton Hoo is reinterpreted as an instrument for sacrificing animals by pole-axing. As such it is a symbol of the leader-as-priest who was a feature of both Germanic and Roman pre-Christian society. (The editor is most impressed with this interesting suggestion).
An essay on energetics: the construction of the Aztec chinampa system
Authors: Arco Lee J. , Abrams Elliot M.
Published: January 2015

The authors describe an ingenious Aztec form of irrigated field system and assess its costs and benefits. Swamps were reclaimed by digging channels by hand and the excavated soil used to construct embanked fields (chinampas). The banks were anchored by planted trees and the trees, the crops and the water channels created a sheltered space which itself raised the temperature and increased productivity. The construction of the whole system took 25 million person-days spread over 40 years. In their study of the energetics of construction, the authors show that this project, forced on the local community, was within their capacity and comparable to the labour expended on the production of cloth.
Archaeology, e-publication and the Semantic Web
Authors: Richards Julian D.
Published: January 2015

In 1996 ‘Internet Archaeology’, the first peer-reviewed e-journal for Archaeology, published its first edition (Heyworth et al. 1997). Later the same year the Archaeology Data Service, the first digital archive for archaeology, was established (Richards 1997). Ten years on, this paper examines the rapid changes which have taken place in electronic publication and looks forward to the next ten years. It examines the pressures on traditional journal publication, and discusses the potential impact on Archaeology of the next Internet revolution, the Semantic Web.
Late Magdalenian feminine flint plaquettes from Poland
Authors: Fiedorczuk Jan , Bratlund Bodil , Kolstrup Else , Schild Romuald
Published: January 2015

The remains of a hunting site dated to 15000 years ago, captured in an ice wedge, included woolly rhinoceros, horse and arctic fox. Also present were 30 flint plaquettes with curvy feminine outlines. The authors show that these unworn flint profiles can be assigned to a canon of Magdalenian art that extends over much of northern Europe.
A hierarchy of servitude: ceramics at Lake Innes Estate, New South Wales
Authors: Brooks Alasdair , Connah Graham
Published: January 2015

A British colonial estate in eastern Australia, built by 1830 and abandoned 20 years later, survives as the ruins of the Big House surrounded by stables, a farm and servants' quarters. The authors recovered pottery assemblages from a number of different servants' dwellings and here show that they differed from each other, revealing a ‘hierarchy of servitude’. It is natural to think that such a situation would provide helpful analogies for earlier empires, like the Roman, but historical archaeology has its own framework, varying even from country to country.
Regional groups in the European Middle Gravettian: a reconsideration of theRayssiantechnology
Authors: Klaric Laurent
Published: January 2015

TheGravettianis considered one of the first pan-European cultures of the Upper Palaeolithic, spreading from Portugal to Russia between 28-20000 years BP and characterised by backed blades and points. TheNoaillianis a local variant in southern Europe (Northern Spain, Southern France and Italy). In France Noaillian is supposedly evolving into theRayssianwhich is replaced later by recentGravettian. By reconsidering the formation processes of some key stratigraphic sequences, the author demonstrates that the Rayssian is an idiosyncratic culture that does not have abrupt-backed bladelets, and that runs chronologically in parallel with the others. A case study, based on new work at the site of La Picardie (Indre-et-Loire), suggests that we should expect to define different contemporary regional groups during this long period.
Materiality and memory: an archaeological perspective on the popular adoption of linear time in Britain
Authors: Mytum Harold
Published: January 2015

Archaeologists increasingly realise that prehistoric peoples had their own ideas about time. The concept of linear, measurable time emerged in learned Europe largely in the first millennium. Here the author tracks how, with the broadening of literacy in sixteenth-century Britain, dates start appearing on numerous items of popular culture. The dated objects in turn feed back into the way that people of all social levels began to see themselves and their place in history.
Stones in the snow: a Norse fur traders' road into Sami country
Authors: Bergman Ingela , Östlund Lars , Zackrisson Olle , Liedgren Lars
Published: January 2015

High in the mountains between Norway and Sweden, archaeological survey has brought to light a trail marked by standing stones at regular intervals and tall enough to show above the winter snows. In the absence of any cultural material, the erection of the stones was dated by the diameter of the lichen spreads upon them, and corroborated by a study of the documents and radiocarbon dates. The authors argue that this was not an indigenous trail but one constructed by a Norse chieftain probably around the ninth century AD to gain safe access to the fur-trading Sami.
Determining style in Palaeolithic cave art: a new method derived from horse images
Authors: Pigeaud Romain
Published: January 2015

How can we explain the variations and similarities of Palaeolithic art? Are we to suppose that European artists conformed to one great evolutionary sequence over 20 millennia? Or is the variation geographical, ideological or social? The author begins to address these big questions by deconstructing over 900 images of the horse, the animal most commonly depicted in European caves. He finds it possible to distinguish variations due to differences in live animals and due to differences in methods of representation – allowing the isolation of those few differences due to style. Applying this to a case study at Parpalló in Spain, he notes that the local sequence of horse images correlates with other cultural changes. Here is a method of great potential for revealing conservative and innovative trends.
A weapon of choice – experiments with a replica Irish Early Bronze Age halberd
Authors: O'Flaherty Ronan
Published: January 2015

The halberd – a famous weapon of prehistoric Europe – is thought by some to have had a symbolic rather than a functional purpose. To find out if, and how, it might have worked as a weapon, the author tested a replica on a number of sheep's heads, finding it highly effective in administering killer blows. Studies taking off from these experiments show that the halberd probably performed both in fighting and ritual, and in ritualised fighting, during its predominance in the Early Bronze Age.
Archaeology at St Petersburg University (from 1724 until today)
Authors: Tikhonov Igor
Published: January 2015

We owe Professor Tikhonov warmest thanks for this brief history of academic archaeology at St Petersburg. As well as applauding the department's many achievements, readers of our Debate section will no doubt take note of a bleak period in its eventful history, one marked by a tendency to ‘substitute socio-political subjects for specialist courses’ and ‘the growing disparagement of highly skilled researchers and teachers’. If suitably candid authors can be found, we look forward to receiving similarly instructive intellectual biographies of archaeology departments and institutes from around the world.
Resisting the cold in ice age Tasmania: thermal environment and settlement strategies
Authors: Gilligan Ian
Published: January 2015

Humans had reached Tasmania by 35 000 years bp and were in residence at the peak of the last ice age. Curiously, the settlements in the coldest period are concentrated in the highest and most southerly places, and the colder the weather became, the more sites were occupied. The author deduces that early people specially sought out the rock shelters of the highlands to combat wind chill.
Rock art and artisans in the Lemro Valley, Arakan, Myanmar
Authors: Gutman Pamela , Hudson Bob , Htin Kyaw Minn , Aung Kyaw Tun
Published: January 2015

This is a story that will appeal to all scholars involved with the interpretation of rock art. Figures depicted on rock surfaces in jungle terrain patrolled by soldier ants were thought in the nineteenth century to record an otherwise unknown early episode of invasion and resistance – and were widely published as such. A recent survey by a Myanmar-Australian team has made more correct records of the earlier forms and now offers fresh interpretations: the carvings are due to fifteenth-nineteenth century artisans working at quarries producing objects for the town of Mrauk-U, and they evoke local creatures and architectural echoes of the town and temples on which they worked.
Digital infra-red photography for recording painted rock art
Authors: Fredlund Glen , Sundstrom Linea
Published: January 2015

Here is a new application of infra-red photography with a digital camera to record rock art. The need to make full and accurate records of the images, without touching (and thus degrading) the rock, requires a method of remote mapping. Trials with digital IR reported here are very promising and especially useful for painted rock art.
Dating the Neolithic of South India: new radiometric evidence for key economic, social and ritual transformations
Authors: Fuller Dorian Q , Boivin Nicole , Korisettar Ravi
Published: January 2015

The Neolithic period in South India is known for its ashmounds, superseded (in its Iron Age) by megalith builders with craft specialisation. Thanks to a major radiocarbon dating programme and Bayesian analysis of the dates, the authors have placed this sequence in a new chronological framework: the ashmounds, formed by burning cattle dung, are created by a few generations of people. In many cases the mounds are then succeeded by villages, for which they may have acted as founding rituals. The new tightly dated sequence also chronicles the cultivation of particular crops, some indigenous and some introduced from Africa.
Grinding flour in Upper Palaeolithic Europe (25000 years bp)
Authors: Aranguren Biancamaria , Becattini Roberto , Mariotti Lippi Marta , Revedin Anna
Published: January 2015

The authors have identified starch grains belonging to wild plants on the surface of a stone from the Gravettian hunter-gatherer campsite of Bilancino (Florence, Italy), dated to around 25000bp. The stone can be seen as a grindstone and the starch has been extracted from locally growing edible plants. This evidence can be claimed as implying the making of flour – and presumably some kind of bread – some 15 millennia before the local ‘agricultural revolution’.
The first archaeological evidence for death by spearing in Australia
Authors: McDonald Josephine J. , Donlon Denise , Field Judith H. , Fullagar Richard L.K. , Coltrain Joan Brenner , Mitchell Peter , Rawson Mark
Published: January 2015

An Aboriginal man done to death on the dunes 4000 years ago was recently discovered during excavations beneath a bus shelter in Narrabeen on Sydney's northern beaches. The presence of backed microliths and the evidence for trauma in the bones showed that he had been killed with stone-tipped spears. Now we know how these backed points were used. A punishment ritual is implied by analogies with contact-period observations made in the eighteenth century AD.
Plant offerings from the classical necropolis of Limenas, Thasos, northern Greece
Authors: Mégaloudi F. , Papadopoulos S. , Sgourou M.
Published: January 2015

Funeral pyres identified at a fourth-century BC cemetery on Thasos have produced a range of plants. The authors show that strongly represented among them are pomegranate, garlic and grape, as well as bread – foodstuffs for funeral feasts and with significance for religious practice.
Economic and ideological roles of copper ingots in prehistoric Zimbabwe
Authors: Swan Lorraine M.
Published: January 2015

As well as being modes of supplying metal, cross-shaped copper ingots in Zimbabwe are shown to be emblems of currency and status. The author dates them to the first half of the second millennium AD and connects the appearance of ingots to increased social stratification.
Moving on: the contribution of isotope studies to the early Neolithic of Central Europe
Authors: Bickle Penny , Hofmann Daniela
Published: January 2015

Stable isotope analysis is a new, not-so-secret weapon which promises much in mapping population movement on a regional and local scale. Lining up these movements with certain economic strategies, such as farming or foraging, with social strategies such as exogamy or with ethnicity and ranking constitutes forgivable temptation. Here our astute authors urge caution. Taking the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in south-west Germany as their example, they show that caution does not inhibit interpretation, but opens the door to more subtle, more human possibilities.
A traitor's death? The identity of a drawn, hanged and quartered man from Hulton Abbey, Staffordshire
Authors: Lewis Mary E.
Published: January 2015

Analysis of a set of bones redeposited in a medieval abbey graveyard showed that the individual had been beheaded and chopped up, and this in turn suggested one of England's more gruesome execution practices. Since quartering was generally reserved for the infamous, the author attempts to track down the victim and proposes him to be Hugh Despenser, the lover of King Edward II.