bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prospects: archaeological research and practice in Peru
Authors: Lane Kevin
Published: January 2015

The following comments reflect on the present state of Peruvian-led research archaeology and its prospects for the future, from the viewpoint of a friend, colleague but notably as an outsider. As such this piece is informed by both personal experience and the informed opinions of local Peruvian investigators who, for reasons that will become apparent, have opted for anonymity. The essential premise here is that the intellectual and financial basis of archaeology in Peru is at a critical stage, and a major part of this article is to see how the next generation can negotiate this quagmire; and believe me for all the myriad problems there are important rays of light that could significantly and positively alter the state of Peruvian archaeology. With this in mind, in this brief essay I consider the research environment, the theoretical basis, and the means by which research projects and resource mitigation are carried out, and summarise some of the challenges that archaeologists living and working in Peru now face. A recent, thorough treatise of the history and state of Peruvian archaeology can be found in Shimada and Vega-Centeno (2011).
Towards a prehistory of primates
Authors: Haslam Michael
Published: January 2015

Using the behaviour of related primates to provide analogies for early humans has a long tradition in archaeology. But these primates too have a past, and experienced particular contexts for the adoption of tool-using. In this pioneering review, the author explores distinctions among chimpanzees in ecology, diet and innovation, sets a wider agenda for a prehistory of primates and explains how archaeology could serve it.
Bronze Age textile evidence in ceramic impressions: weaving and pottery technology among mobile pastoralists of central Eurasia
Authors: Doumani Paula N. , Frachetti Michael D.
Published: January 2015

Textiles are powerful indicators of technology and contact, as the authors show for the peoples of the Bronze Age central Asian steppes. In this case the textiles are mainly missing, but have left their imprints on the surface of the inside of pots, captured when otherwise redundant cloths were used to paddle or jacket the clay before hardening and firing. A good supply of old cloths seems to have been part of a potters' equipment and some were used several times. The authors analyse and date the fibres and weaves to give an indication of changing cultural context through the Bronze Age.
Megalithic monumentality in Africa: from graves to stone circles at Wanar, Senegal
Authors: Laporte L. , Bocoum H. , Cros J-P. , Delvoye A. , Bernard R. , Diallo M. , Diop M. , Kane A. , Dartois V. , Lejay M. , Bertin F. , Quesnel L.
Published: January 2015

The World Heritage Site of Wanar in Senegal features 21 stone circles, remarkable not least because they were erected in the twelfth and thirteenth century AD, when Islam ruled the Indian Ocean and Europe was in its Middle Ages. The state of preservation has benefited the exemplary investigation currently carried out by a French-Senegalese team, which we are pleased to report here. The site began as a burial ground to which monumental stones were added, perhaps echoing the form of original funerary houses. Found in a neighbouring field were scoops left from the cutting out of the cylindrical monoliths from surface rock. While the origins of Wanar lie in a period of state formation, the monuments are shown to have had a long ritual use. The investigation not only provides a new context for one of the most important sites in West Africa but the precise determination of the sequence and techniques used at Wanar offers key pointers for the understanding of megalithic structures everywhere.
Complexities of collapse: the evidence of Maya obsidian as revealed by social network graphical analysis
Authors: Golitko Mark , Meierhoff James , Feinman Gary M. , Williams Patrick Ryan
Published: January 2015

The authors use a social network analysis to map the changing patterns of obsidian supply among the Maya during the period of Classic to Postclassic transition. The quantity of obsidian received from different sources was calculated for 121 sites and the network analysis showed how the relative abundance of material from different sources shifted over time. A shift from inland to coastal supply routes appears to have contributed to the collapse of inland Maya urban centres. The methods employed clearly have a high potential to reveal changing economic networks in cases of major societal transitions elsewhere in the world.
Argentinian archaeology: status and prospects
Authors: Ramundo Paola Silvia
Published: January 2015

The many centuries of Argentinian archaeology have been studied by a number of scholars (e.g. Fern´andez 1982;Crivelli 1990; Politis 1995, 2003, 2007; Nastri 1999, 2004; Ramundo 2007a, 2008a, 2008c; Borrazzoet al.2009). Although the analysis of current topics in the discipline and a tentative view on its future will be the aim of this critical appraisal, it does not pretend to be exhaustive, but the starting point for enriching the discussion. Amongst the topics briefly addressed are the plurality of theoretical frameworks, the variety of areas of specialisation, the protection of archaeological heritage, ethical aspects of the discipline, an analysis of academic training and the relationship between archaeology and local and/or aboriginal communities.
Cherchez la femme—a Palaeolithic preoccupation
Authors: James N.
Published: January 2015

The cave paintings in France and Spain are the Magdalenian’s most famous feature. The exhibition, Mille et une femmes de la fin des temps glaciaires (“1001 women from the end of the Ice Age”) explored the proposition that, more than just an archaeological culture, the Magdalenian was inspired, through most of its history, by common symbolism across the Great European Plain all the way from the Pyrenees to Poland; and that, although the landscape varied, this vast region was integrated by common techniques and imagery from 20 000 to 15 000 years ago. The “Lalinde-G¨onnersdorf style” figurines of women, was the suggestion, were particularly characteristic. Assembled from some 20 collections in France, Switzerland, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, the exhibition was shown at the Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies from June to September last year. The compact presentation was in two parts.
An Early Epipalaeolithic sitting burial from the Azraq Oasis, Jordan
Authors: Richter T. , Stock Jay T. , Maher L. , Hebron C.
Published: January 2015

Detailed analysis of the anatomy and taphonomic process of a burial in Jordan shows that the body was originally bound in a sitting position and placed in marshland, where it collapsed into the splayed tableau eventually recovered by excavation. The authors succeed in reconstructing a burial rite from one of the most elusive of mortuary phases: the Early Epipalaeolithic in south-west Asia.
Administrators' bread: an experiment-based re-assessment of the functional and cultural role of the Uruk bevel-rim bowl
Authors: Goulder Jill
Published: January 2015

Well-designed experimental archaeology combined with ingenious social argument show that a type of coarse-ware pottery, the BRB, performed a key role in early Mesopotamian governance. Its thick walls and conical shape produce a fine loaf of risen bread, supplied perhaps as tasty recompense to those undertaking the newly-proliferating public administrative duties.
Radiocarbon dating the Iron Age in the Levant: a Bayesian model for six ceramic phases and six transitions
Authors: Finkelstein Israel , Piasetzky Eli
Published: January 2015

The Bayesian model presented in this article is the first attempt to produce a chronological framework for the Iron Age in the Levant, using radiocarbon dating alone. The model derives from 339 determinations on 142 samples taken from 38 strata at 18 sites. The framework proposes six ceramic phases and six transitions which cover c. 400 years, between the late twelfth and mid eighth centuries BC. It furnishes us with a new scientific backbone for the history of Iron Age Levant.

The article is supported by an online supplement which can be found in at http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/finkelstein324
Still water, hidden depths: the deposition of Bronze Age metalwork in the English Fenland
Authors: Yates David , Bradley Richard
Published: January 2015

Finds of metalwork always raise the question of why they were deposited: a smith's collection, a concealed hoard or a votive offering? Findspots in water suggest offerings, since they would be awkward to retrieve. But understanding the context of deposition means knowing the prehistoric environment. The Fenland area of England has many Bronze Age sites, and deposits of metalwork and a well-mapped ancient environment too. Putting all three together the authors begin to assemble a grammar of deposition: swords and rapiers in rivers, some mixed collections placed in still water and others on once-dry land with burnt mounds.
The fall of Phaethon: a Greco-Roman geomyth preserves the memory of a meteorite impact in Bavaria (south-east Germany)
Authors: Rappenglück Barbara , Rappenglück Michael A. , Ernstson Kord , Mayer Werner , Neumair Andreas , Sudhaus Dirk , Liritzis Ioannis
Published: January 2015

Arguing from a critical reading of the text, and scientific evidence on the ground, the authors show that the myth of Phaethon – the delinquent celestial charioteer – remembers the impact of a massive meteorite that hit the Chiemgau region in Bavaria between 2000 and 428 BC.
Kumako: a place of convergence for Maroons and Amerindians in Suriname, SA
Authors: White Cheryl
Published: January 2015

The author is exploring the site of Kumako in Suriname, a destination for Maroons escaping from plantations in coastal Suriname between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She finds evidence for a structured settlement, distinctive pottery and local ritual practices, raising new questions about the degree of interaction and acculturation between Maroons and indigenous people.
Social change at the Harappan settlement of Gola Dhoro: a reading from animal bones
Authors: Chase Brad
Published: January 2015

Detailed analysis of the animal bone assemblage at Gola Dhoro here throws light on the expansion of the Indus civilisation into Gujarat. A square fort, imposed on a settlement of livestock herders in the later third millennium BC, was shown to have contained people who introduced a broader diet of meat and seafood, and new ways of preparing it. These social and dietary changes were coincident with a surge in craft and trade.
Huaquerosand remote sensing imagery: assessing looting damage in the Virú Valley, Peru
Authors: Contreras Daniel A.
Published: January 2015

This article presents a new initiative in combating looting from the air, building on previous work in Iraq and Jordan. Looted sites in the Virú Valley, Peru, are visible as pit clusters on dated versions of Google Earth. Compare these with earlier air photographs and Gordon Willey's famous survey of the 1940s, and we have a dated chronicle of looting events. This makes it possible to demonstrate that modern looting is certainly taking place and linked to an upsurge in the antiquities trade. As well as being a new instrument for managing heritage, the author shows that the looting survey offers an important research dividend: the location of cemeteries not previously systematically documented, with potential for more thorough investigation even of already looted areas.
Early Holocene coca chewing in northern Peru
Authors: Dillehay Tom D. , Rossen Jack , Ugent Donald , Karathanasis Anathasios , Vásquez Víctor , Netherly Patricia J.
Published: January 2015

Chewing coca in South America began by at least 8000 cal BP: our authors found and identified coca leaves of that date in house floors in the Nanchoc Valley, Peru. There were also pieces of calcite — which is used by chewers to bring out the alkaloids from the leaves. Excavation and chemical analysis at a group of neighbouring sites suggests that specialists were beginning to extract and supply lime or calcite, and by association coca, as a community activity at about the same time as systematic farming was taking off in the region.
Walls, ramps and pits: the construction of the Samar Desert kites, southern Negev, Israel
Authors: Nadel Dani , Bar-Oz Guy , Avner Uzi , Boaretto Elisabetta , Malkinson Dan
Published: January 2015

Archaeological investigations of ‘desert kites’ in south Israel show them to have been animal traps of considerable sophistication and capacity, constructed in the Early Bronze Age or earlier. Extensive stone-wall arms gather in gazelles from their habitual trails and canalise them into a sunken enclosure, cunningly hidden from view of the galloping herd until it was too late…
Revisiting Indian Rouletted Ware and the impact of Indian Ocean trade in Early Historic south Asia
Authors: Magee Peter
Published: January 2015

Indian Rouletted Ware pottery is the iconic marker of the overseas reach of the subcontinent at the turn of the first millennium AD. In the mid twentieth century this was naturally seen as prompted by the contemporary Roman Empire, while the later post-colonial discourse has emphasised the independence and long life of Indian initiatives. In this new analysis the author demonstrates a more complex socio-economic situation. While Greyware is distributed long term over south India, Rouletted ware is made in at least two regional centres for coastal communities using a new ceramic language, one appropriate to an emerging international merchant class.
An early medieval symbol carved on a tree trunk: pathfinder or territorial marker?
Authors: Dreslerová Dagmar , Mikuláš Radek
Published: January 2015

The chance discovery of a carved symbol on a waterlogged tree of the six–ninth century AD may be the earliest mark on a living tree that has so far come to light. Given its rarity, an obvious interpretation remains elusive, but the authors review a wide range of possibilities from analogies ancient and modern. Symbols on trees have been used to mark trails, the ownership of land and resources, and all manner of votive moments from superstitious sign-making, worship of a god, thanks for a successful hunt or the memory of a loving tryst.
The missing femur at the Mitla Fortress and its implications
Authors: Feinman Gary M. , Nicholas Linda M. , Baker Lindsey C.
Published: January 2015

The authors explore the practice of extracting the thighbone from burials in Mesoamerica, making use of a newly excavated Classic period Zapotec burial at the Mitla Fortress, where the femur had been carefully removed and the interment resealed. They conclude that the femur acted as an ancestral emblem and could be used by families of relatively low social rank. This function contrasts with the Aztec, where the large bones could also be used as war trophies. Archaeological readers studying ancestor worship and the cult of relics in other continents will find much of value here.
Gordon Childe: memories and affirmation
Authors: Gathercole Peter
Published: January 2015

Thirty years after Childe's death we reviewed his persisting relevance (Gathercole 1987). Twenty-two more years have since passed, and we are pleased to see that his achievements have been reviewed again – in a special monograph (Saville 2009). Here Peter Gathercole admires the continuing modernity and ethical strength of his mentor's ideas, seasoning his reflections with some personal memories. Readers are invited to send us their own memories and tributes of Peter himself, who died on 11 October 2010 and will be much missed.
Early Holocene pottery in the Western Desert of Egypt: new data from Nabta Playa
Authors: Jórdeczka Maciej , Królik Halina , Masojć Mirosław , Schild Romuald
Published: January 2015

Dated and stratified potsherds excavated at Nabta Playa belong to the earliest phase of pottery-making in the Sahara – relatively sophisticated bowls decorated with a toothed wheel. The authors explore the origins of post-Pleistocene settlers in the Sahara and the Nile Valley and discuss what prompted them to make pottery.
Horses for the dead: funerary foodways in Bronze Age Kazakhstan
Authors: Outram Alan K. , Stear Natalie A. , Kasparov Alexei , Usmanova Emma , Varfolomeev Victor , Evershed Richard P.
Published: January 2015

The authors examine the role of horses as expressed in assemblages from settlement sites and cemeteries between the Eneolithic and the Bronze Age in Kazakhstan. In this land, known for its rich association with horses, the skeletal evidence appears to indicate a fading of ritual interest. But that's not the whole story, and once again micro-archaeology reveals the true balance. The horses are present at the funeral, but now as meat for the pot, detected in bone fragments and lipids in the pot walls.
Paul Jacobsthal'sEarly Celtic Art, his anonymous co-author, and National Socialism: new evidence from the archives
Authors: Crawford Sally , Ulmschneider Katharina
Published: January 2015

Colleagues who find the current climate inhibiting to pure scholarship and authors eager to see their name in print should read this: an ultimately uplifting account of Jacobsthal's struggle to establish one of the foundations of European archaeology at a time of grave political persecution. Not the least of the achievements of this paper is the definitive rehabilitation of the lost co-author ofEarly Celtic Art, Eduard Neuffer, whose name never appeared on the cover and whose contribution was perforce unrecognised.
Tlaxcallan: the archaeology of an ancient republic in the New World
Authors: Fargher Lane F. , Blanton Richard E. , Espinoza Verenice Y. Heredia , Millhauser John , Xiuhtecutli Nezahualcoyotl , Overholtzer Lisa
Published: January 2015

Arguing from the overall settlement plan and the form of buildings, the authors present a persuasive case that the Late Postclassic city of Tlaxcallan and its near neighbour Tizatlan constitute the central elements of a republican state. This is an unusual political prescription, not only in Mesoamerica but further afield.
An archaeology of salt production in Fiji
Authors: Burley David V. , Taché Karine , Purser Margaret , Balenaivalu Ratu Jone
Published: January 2015

The authors report the first exposure of prehistoric salt-working in the Pacific, one that used solar evaporation of sea water on large flanged clay dishes. This short-lived industry of the seventh century AD disappeared beneath the dunes, but its documented nineteenth- and twentieth-century successors offer it many useful analogies: the salt, now extracted by boiling brine, was supplied to inland communities upriver, where it functioned as a prime commodity for prestige and trade and an agent of social change.
The Staffordshire (Ogley Hay) hoard: recovery of a treasure
Authors: Leahy Kevin , Bland Roger , Hooke Della , Jones Alex , Okasha Elisabeth
Published: January 2015

The Staffordshire (Ogley Hay) hoard was found on the 5–10 July 2009 by Mr Terry Herbert while metal-detecting on arable land at a site in south Staffordshire in the English Midlands (Figure 1).Mr Herbert contacted Duncan Slarke, the Portable Antiquities Scheme's Finds Liaison Officer for Staffordshire and the West Midlands, who visited the finder at his home and prepared an initial list of 244 bags of finds. These were then taken to Birmingham Museum and HM Coroner was informed. Duncan Slarke also contacted the relevant archaeological authorities including English Heritage, the Staffordshire Historic Environment Record, the Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Portable Antiquities & Treasure Department at the British Museum. A meeting was held in Birmingham on 21 July at which it was agreed that the controlled recovery of the remaining objects of the hoard and an archaeological investigation of the findspot was a priority. It was also agreed that one of the Portable Antiquities Scheme's National Advisors, Dr Kevin Leahy, should compile a hand-list of finds in preparation for the Coroner's Inquest.
Application of sky-view factor for the visualisation of historic landscape features in lidar-derived relief models
Authors: Kokalj Žiga , Zakšek Klemen , Oštir Krištof
Published: January 2015

Aerial mapping and remote sensing takes another step forward with this method of modelling lidar data. The usual form of presentation, hill shade, uses a point source to show up surface features. Sky-view factor simulates diffuse light by computing how much of the sky is visible from each point. The result is a greatly improved visibility — as shown here by its use on a test site of known topography in Slovenia.
Reply to Doppler et al. ‘Response to “The fall of Phaethon: a Greco-Roman geomyth preserves the memory of a meteorite impact in Bavaria (south-east Germany) (Antiquity 84)”’
Authors: Rappenglück Barbara , Rappenglück Michael A. , Ernstson Kord , Mayer Werner , Neumair Andreas , Sudhaus Dirk , Liritzis Ioannis
Published: January 2015

We acknowledge the observations of Doppler et al. on our paper and we are grateful to Antiquity's editor for this opportunity to reply to their objections.

Firstly, it should be noted that we have not claimed that the Chiemsee once included the Tüttensee. We agree that the region in which both lakes lie was glacially formed. But while Lake Chiemsee is the result of the last Ice Age the Tüttensee basin originates from a much later Holocene meteorite impact. We do not use the myth of Phaeton to date this event that is known as the Chiemgau impact. On the contrary we estimate from archaeological evidence and OSL dating that the event occurred between 2200 and 800 BC, i.e. the Bronze Age (Rappenglück et al. 2010: 436).We go on to discuss parallels between the independent dating of the Chiemgau impact and the possible time frame of the myth (Rappenglück et al. 2010: 435–37).
Maya milestone
Authors: James N.
Published: January 2015

Fiery pool: the Maya and the mythic sea is a travelling exhibition of nearly 100 finds that, together, imply a specific concept of the environment, physical and spiritual, for the Maya of Mesoamerica. As usual, the majority are from ‘public’ contexts, more or less aristocratic; but the exhibition generalises about Maya culture. Most of the exhibits are of the Classic period (c. AD 250–900), predominantly Late Classic, but there are some earlier pieces and several of the Postclassic (to the Spanish Conquest). Some are well known and there are striking new finds too. Curated by Daniel Finamore & Stephen Houston, Fiery pool draws from more than 40 collections in the USA, Mexico, Central America and further afield. It was shown at the Peabody Essex Museum, in Salem, Massachusetts, in 2010, and the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, in 2010–11. It is now in Missouri, at the St Louis Art Museum, where its tour finishes on 8 May 2011.
David Lewis-Williams. Conceiving God: the cognitive origin and evolution of religion. 320 pages, 50 illustrations. 2010. London: Thames & Hudson; 978-0-500-051641 hardback £18.95.
Authors: Insoll Timothy
Published: January 2015

We acknowledge the observations of Doppler et al. on our paper and we are grateful to Antiquity s editor for this opportunity to reply to their objections. Firstly it should be noted that we have not claimed that the Chiemsee once included the Tuttensee. We agree that the region in which both lakes lie was glacially formed. But while Lake Chiemsee is the result of the last Ice Age, the Tuttensee basin originates from a much later Holocene meteorite impact. We do not use the myth of Phaeton to date this event that is known as the Chiemgau impact. On the contrary, we estimate from archaeological evidence and OSL dating that the event occurred between 2200 and 800 BC i.e. the Bronze Age (Rappengluck et al. 2010: 436).We go on to discuss parallels between the independent dating of the Chiemgau impact and the possible time frame of the myth (Rappengluck et al. 2010: 435–37).
Glacial cycles and Palaeolithic adaptive variability on China's Western Loess Plateau
Authors: Morgan Christopher , Barton Loukas , Bettinger Robert , Chen Fahu , Dongju Zhang
Published: January 2015

Intensive research on China's Western Loess Plateau has located 63 Palaeolithic deposits, which together allow the authors to present a general model of hominin occupation from 80 000 to 18 000 years ago. Tools, subsistence and settlement correlate nicely with the climate: the warm wet MIS3 seeing expansion and more organised acquisition of quartz, and the Late Glacial Maximum that followed, a reduction in human presence but possibly an increase in ingenuity.
The recent rock drawings of the Lenggong Valley, Perak, Malaysia
Authors: Saidin Mokhtar , Taçon Paul S.C.
Published: January 2015

The authors present and interpret rock drawings found in caves in the Lenggong Valley, Perak, Malaysia. The drawings, which begin by depicting ritually important patterned mats, and continue with images of cars, bicycles and figures with their hands on their hips, provide rare and precious insights into how the indigenous people of the area came to terms with changes that occurred as the result of the arrival of Europeans in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Who was in Harold Bluetooth's army? Strontium isotope investigation of the cemetery at the Viking Age fortress at Trelleborg, Denmark
Authors: Price T. Douglas , Frei Karin Margarita , Dobat Andres Siegfried , Lynnerup Niels , Bennike Pia
Published: January 2015

The circular fortress of Trelleborg on Zealand in Denmark is well known as a military camp with a key role in the formation of the Danish state under Harald Bluetooth in the tenth century AD. Taking a sample of 48 burials from the fort, strontium isotope analysis once again demonstrates its ability to eavesdrop on a community: at Trelleborg, the young men in its cemetery were largely recruited from outside Denmark, perhaps from Norway or the Slavic regions. Even persons buried together proved to have different origins, and the three females sampled were all from overseas, including a wealthy woman with a silver casket. Trelleborg, home of Harald Bluetooth's army, was a fortress of foreigners with vivid implications for the nature of his political mission.
Archaeology and the Austronesian expansion: where are we now?
Authors: Spriggs Matthew
Published: January 2015

For many years the author has been tracking the spread of the Neolithic of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and its extension eastwards into the western Pacific, as a proxy for dating the spread of the Austronesian (AN) languages across that same vast area. Here he recalls the evidence, updates the hypothesis and poses some new questions.
Iron and cloth across the Bay of Bengal: new data from Tha Kae, central Thailand
Authors: Cameron Judith
Published: January 2015

An important group of spindle whorls found at Tha Kae in Thailand carries traces suggesting the use of iron spindles, and includes an unusual type of whorl shaped like a door knob. The author explores the implied contacts reaching into south China, but is also able to add a probable link with India in the early first millennium AD, well in advance of the better known Dvaravati period (sixth–thirteenth centuries AD).
Soft targets and no-win dilemmas: response to Dimitris Plantzos
Authors: Snodgrass Anthony
Published: January 2015

Most of the opposition directed at the new AcropolisMuseum (herafter NAM), both beforeand since its opening in June 2009, has turned out to be politically motivated, mainly from the Left in Greece, mainly from the Right in Britain (the Daily Telegraph called it 'a hideous visitor centre in modern Athens'before it was even built [Wilson 2006]). Dimitris Plantzos comes at the museum from a different angle, but he too is determinedly on the attack. A first sign of this is his total silence about the protection and exhibition of the archaeological site underlying the museum, one of its major positive (and innovatory) features.
On the origin and significance of microburins: an experimental approach
Authors: De Wilde David , De Bie Marc
Published: January 2015

The authors used knapping experiments to study the way that microburins are produced. Once thought of as signature pieces of the Mesolithic, these experiments suggest that they were by-products of a gradual technological development by knappers trying to make arrowheads that had no bulb of percussion — and were thus easier to haft. They make a case for an evolution already present in the late Palaeolithic and determined by practical, rather than cultural, social or environmental imperatives.
The Neolithic burial sequence at Flintbek LA 3, north Germany, and its cart tracks: a precise chronology
Authors: Mischka Doris
Published: January 2015

Radiocarbon dating of 32 stratigraphic samples aided by Bayesian analysis has allowed the author to produce a high precision chronology for the construction and development of a continental Neolithic long barrow for the first time. She shows when and how quickly people living on the shore of the Baltic adopted pit graves, megalithic chambers and long barrows. Better than that, she provides a date for the famous cart tracks beneath the final barrow to 3420–3385 cal BC. Although other parts of the package — ploughing and pottery — are late arrivals, her analysis of the global evidence shows that Flintbek remains among the earliest sightings of the wheel in northern Europe.
Harvesting cereals and other plants in Neolithic Iberia: the assemblage from the lake settlement at La Draga
Authors: Palomo Antoni , Gibaja Juan F. , Piqué Raquel , Bosch Angel , Chinchilla Julia , Tarrús Josep
Published: January 2015

Marvellous preservation of organic materials at the Neolithic site of La Draga in north-east Iberia include a range of wooden harvesting tools. The authors examine the wood and flint to describe a range of the earliest harvesting techniques and their diverse applications.
Ritual and remembrance at a prehistoric ceremonial complex in central Scotland: excavations at Forteviot, Perth and Kinross
Authors: Noble Gordon , Brophy Kenneth
Published: January 2015

Aerial photography and excavations have brought to notice a major prehistoric ceremonial complex in central Scotland comparable to Stonehenge, although largely built in earth and timber. Beginning, like Stonehenge, as a cremation cemetery, it launched its monumentality by means of an immense circle of tree trunks, and developed it with smaller circles of posts and an earth bank (henge). A change of political mood in the Early Bronze Age is marked by one of Scotland's best preserved dagger-burials in a stone cist with an engraved lid. The perishable (or reusable) materials meant that this great centre lay for millennia under ploughed fields, until it was adopted, by design or by chance, as a centre of the Pictish kings.
Prehistoric and historic networks on the Atacama Desert coast (northern Chile)
Authors: Ballester Benjamin , Gallardo Francisco
Published: January 2015

Comparing the records of fishing communities made in the sixteenth to twentieth centuries to the archaeological evidence of the sixth millennium BP, the authors propose a sophisticated prehistoric network for the coastal people of northern Chile. Residential seashore settlements link both along the coast to temporary production sites for fish, and inland to oasis-based providers of products from the uplands and salt flats. Sharing values and kinsfolk, the coastal communities must have travelled extensively in boats which, like their modern counterparts, made use of floats of inflated sealskin.
In the path of the Maize God: a royal tomb at Nakum, Petén, Guatemala
Authors: Źrałka Jarosław , Koszkul Wiesław , Martin Simon , Hermes Bernard
Published: January 2015

The authors describe the excavation and interpretation of an intact seventh-century high status burial at the Maya site of Nakum. The dead person wore an incised pectoral with an eventful biography, having started out as an Olmec heirloom 1000 years before. No less impressive was the series of votive rituals found to have been enacted at the tomb for another 100 years or more. The beautiful objects, their architectural setting and the long story they recount, offer a heart-breaking indictment of the multiple losses due to looting.
‘Treasures… of black wood, brilliantly polished’: five examples of Taíno sculpture from the tenth–sixteenth century Caribbean
Authors: Ostapkowicz Joanna , Wiedenhoeft Alex , Ramsey Christopher Bronk , Ribechini Erika , Wilson Samuel , Brock Fiona , Higham Tom
Published: January 2015

Five wooden sculptures from the pre-contact Caribbean, long held in museum collections, are here dated and given a context for the first time. The examples studied were made from dense Guaiacum wood, carved, polished and inlaid with shell fastened with resin. Dating the heartwood, sapwood and resins takes key examples of ‘Classic’ Taíno art back to the tenth century AD, and suggests that some objects were treasured and refurbished over centuries. The authors discuss the symbolic properties of the wood and the long-lived biographies of some iconic sculptures.
At the edge: High Arctic Walrus hunters during the Little Ice Age
Authors: Grønnow Bjarne , Gulløv Hans Christian , Jakobsen Bjarne Holm , Gotfredsen Anne Birgitte , Kauffmann Laura Hauch , Kroon Aart , Pedersen Jørn Bjarke Torp , Sørensen Mikkel
Published: January 2015

A multi-disciplinary study of settlement in north-east Greenland found that life in this High Arctic zone was actually favoured by the climate brought in by the Little Ice Age (fifteenth–nineteenth century). Extensive ice cover meant high mobility, and the rare polynyas — small patches of permanently open coastal water — provided destinations, like oases, where huge numbers of migrating marine mammals and birds congregated. One such place was Walrus Island on Sirius Water, a veritable processing plant for walrus, where every spring Thule people stocked up meat supplies that would get the rest of the region through the winter. It was a further drop in the temperature in the mid nineteenth century that led to the region being abandoned.
Talking leaves and rocks that teach: the archaeological discovery of Sequoyah's oldest written record
Authors: Weeks Rex , Tankersley Ken
Published: January 2015

The authors investigate the origins of the earliest script of the Cherokees, using inscriptions in the Red Bird River Shelter. Their analysis suggests that the engravings in the cave show the experimental creation of a syllabary (alphabet of signs). This in turn offers support for the historical notion that this writing system was not an ancestral practice preserved through missionaries, but an invention of the early nineteenth century; one that should be credited to the Native American pioneer scholar, Sequoyah.
Soviet inspiration in Chinese archaeology
Authors: Liangren Zhang
Published: January 2015

On the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of China's Institute of Archaeology, the author looks back to its origins, and recalls a short period, now almost forgotten, of dynamic and fruitful collaboration with the archaeologists of Soviet Russia. Soviet intellectual aims in the 1950s had a profound and lasting influence on the development of Chinese archaeology, including the design of its institutions, its theoretical basis, its research agenda and its field methods. The new emphasis on ancient life beyond the elite and the study of social and economic process seems to pre-echo some of the themes of Anglo-American processual archaeology that was to follow a decade later.
Social construction and deconstruction of a ‘theocracy’
Authors: Goonatilake Susantha
Published: January 2015

Archaeology aims at imagining past societies, using physical data together with, if available, historical documentation. But this imaginative process is bound by factors widely discussed in social epistemology, including unequal social relations among researchers. Such unequal geopolitics in knowledge has been explored by the present author and others (Goonatilake 1982, 1984, 1999, 2001; Clough 2001). The present exercise aims to investigate and question the social and intellectual context in which Anuradhapura, the first capital in Sri Lanka, has been interpreted as belonging to a ‘theocracy’ (Coninghamet al.2007). Prehistoric archaeology has dated the site to around the ninth century BC at which time it was one of the largest cities in South Asia. A continuous set of chronicles, authenticated by physical remains, document the continuation of the city from at least the fourth/third century BC up to the eleventh century AD, when it was sacked by south Indian invaders. The written evidence includes Sinhalese chronicles (written in Pali), descriptions of the city by foreign travellers and a large number of inscriptions dating back to the third century BC.
Do-Ashkaft: a recently discovered Mousterian cave site in the Kermanshah Plain, Iran
Authors: Biglari Fereidoun , Heydari Saman
Published: January 2015

Since Dorothy Garrod’s pioneering work at the Mousterian site of Hazar Merd on the western slopes of the Zagros Mountains in 1928, a number of Middle Palaeolithic sites in the area have been discovered, sampled and, in some cases, partially excavated. Some of these sites are located in the Kermanshah Plain, Central Western Zagros Mountains. These sites include the Hunter’s Cave and Gha-e Khar in Bisotun (Coon 1951: Young & Smith 1966), Kobeh and Warwasi in Tang-e Kenesht (Braidwood 1960), and two sites near Harsin (Smith 1986). All but the last two are among a large number of Palaeolithic localities on the south face of a series of calcareous mountain ranges (Kuh-e Parau/ Bisotun massif) on the northeastern rim of Qara Su basin in the Kermanshah Plain (FIGURE 1).

Following a hiatus in archaeological research after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, an independent series of surveys in the area by the authors led to the discovery of three Mousterian sites at Bisotun in 1986 (Biglari in press). During recent years, we located two more Mousterian sites, including Do-Ashkaft, the subject of this note.
Carnelian mines in Gujarat
Authors: Insoll Timothy , Bhan Kuldeep
Published: January 2015

In June–July 2000 a sample collection programme was completed in the extant carnelian mines of Jhagadia Taluka, Broach District, Gujarat, Western India (FIGURE 1). The predominant rationale behind the fieldwork is an Africanist one. Namely, to obtain modern comparative material which could be elementally analysed and compared with samples of carnelian beads from archaeological contexts in West and West-Central Africa. For besides local production of carnelian beads in West Africa, it seems that certain examples were also imported via trans-Saharan trade routes, probably from India (Insoll 2000). However, at present such an attribution remains purely hypothetical, based as it is upon the colour, workmanship, and shapes, resembling the carnelian bead production of Western India. Beads known to have been extensively exported in the medieval period, the focus here, and of course before (Theunissenet al. 2000). Thus it is hoped that the geochemical analysis of the carnelian samples from Gujarat will either prove or disprove a trade to West Africa. Following a successful pilot study at the NERC LA-ICP-MS facility at Kingston University, the full programme of analysis will now be completed in co-operation with Dr Dave Polya in the new LA-ICP-MS facility at the School of Earth Sciences, University of Manchester.
Cut not smashed: a new type of evidence for nut exploitation from Sulawesi
Authors: Paz Victor
Published: January 2015

In archaeology the recovery of ‘nuts’ means the recovery of any hard-shelled fruit or seeds, further qualified as those eaten by people. Recent analysis of environmental samples from Leang Burung-1 in the Maros district of Sulawesi (FIGURE 1) led to the recovery of a charred, almost intact nut, in deposits with an age range of 1430±600 BC (ANU-390) (Bulbeck 1997; Mulvaney & Soejono 1970).

The nut has a clear cut mark starting from the tapered end, running along the long axis. The cut was established as an incision and not a taphonomic feature based on observations under light microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy, where the cut could be seen scraping the outer tissue (FIGURE 2). The cut was probably made before charring, using a sharp tool to cut deep enough for the instrunent to pry open one of the locules to get to one of three kernels. Based on the associated materials recovered from the site, the cut probably was made using one of several flaked tool types recovered from the area, such as a levallois point — part of the Maros region blade assemblage (FIGURE 3).
The Early Christian bema churches of Syria revisited
Authors: Loosley Emma
Published: January 2015

The Limestone Massif of northwest Syria has the largest concentration of late antique churches in the world. All date from between the second half of the 4th century and the first decade of the 7th century and are remarkably consistent in their conformity to a recognizably ‘Syrian’ architectural style. Almost without exception they are apsed basilicas varying only in terms of size and the quality of decoration.

This region was extensively surveyed in the 1950s by Georges Tchalenko, whose monumental three-volume study Villages antiques de la Syrie du nord remains the definitive work on the area. Of the many ecclesiastical buildings included in this survey Tchalenko identified a group of approximately 45 churches possessing a bema. The bema is a horseshoe-shaped structure in the nave that mirrors the curve of the apse. Entered via steps at the east end, it provided benches for the clergy and a pulpit at the west end that was used for scriptural expositions and homilies.
Early preserved Polynesian kumara cultivations in New Zealand
Authors: Higham T. F. G. , Gumbley W. J
Published: January 2015

Archaeological evidence for prehistoric gardening practices in Polynesia includes stone boundary walls, storage pits and structures, drainage systems and evidence for the modification of soil, but often the remains of horticultural practise are ephemeral. Maori developed a range of novel modifications to their traditional horticultural methods which enabled the successful introduction of the range of Polynesian cultigens into the temperate New Zealand environment, the furthest southwards these crops were introduced. They modified the soil by adding charcoal, shell and alluvial gravels to change the friability and temperature retention, and stored tubers in semi-subterannean pits for the next growing season (Jones 1991: 14–8; Challis 1976). Here, we report what we believe is the first direct archaeological evidence for the actual layout of prehistoric kumara gardens in New Zealand. Our interpretation receives support from the accounts of early Europeans in New Zealand, including Joseph Banks and William Colenso.
Ringing the changes: when terminology matters
Authors: Varndell Gillian
Published: January 2015

Under the old Treasure Trove laws, small, single items of precious metal were frequently dismissed by Coroners as casual losses (although they still had to be reported). This meant that numbers of small items never went to inquest, as one of the criteria for Treasure was that in all likelihood objects had been buried with the intention to recover them (the animus revertendi). This criterion was removed when the new Act was passed some five years ago. The extension of the law to cover such items has thrown up at least one problem of definition.

A later Bronze Age gold penannular ring was recently found not to be treasure at inquest, because the piece was held to be a coin. Single, stray finds of coins are not counted as treasure, whereas any ornament of precious metal at least 300 years old, small or large, is now eligible under the 1996 Treasure Act. This raises two issues. The first concerns the definition of ‘coin’ as explained in the Code of Practice; the second is about terminology, and specifically the use of the term ‘ring-money’ to describe such objects.
The Donghulin Woman from western Beijing: 14C age and an associated compound shell necklace
Authors: Hao Shou-Gang , Ma Xue-Ping , Yuan Si-Xun , Southon John
Published: January 2015

A female skeleton, whose 14C age is about 8540 BP (c. 7500 cal BC), from the basal part of the Holocene loess at Fenpo Gully, west of the village of Donghulin, Mentougou district of Beijing, was associated with a shell necklace restored from 68 gastropod shells. This unprecedented find also contributes new environmental information.
Remembering, forgetting and the invention of tradition: burial and natural places in the English Early Bronze Age
Authors: Mullin David
Published: January 2015

The author looks at construction and subsequent use-pattern of round barrows in the Cheshire Basin. He argues that the use of natural mounds for burial during the Early Bronze Age may be the result of mistaken identity, indicating a forgetting of the past.
African archaeology today
Authors: Lane Paul
Published: January 2015

For most archaeologists across the globe, mention of Africa in the context of archaeological research will probably bring to mind the important discoveries of early stone tools and hominid remains in eastern and southern Africa, the spectacular stone-walled enclosures and other structures at Great Zimbabwe, and images of ‘tribal’ culture, subsistence practices, artefacts and housing that, to some Western eyes at least, can seem reminiscent of a more distant non-African past. For some, the architectural and artistic splendours of Egyptian civilization may also form part of this image of archaeology on the continent, although for complex geopolitical, historical and academic reasons the study of Egyptian archaeology, in all but a few instances, continues to be regarded as distinct from that of the rest of Africa. While accepting that the preceding sentences are something of a caricature of the non-Africanist’s understanding and perception of the work of archaeologists on the continent, and that general introductory texts on archaeological methods and theory nowadays give wider coverage of African case-studies than was the case even a decade ago (e.g. Renfrew & Bahn 1991; Fagan 1995), the level of awareness of the breadth of African archaeology, current discoveries and research issues, as well as the many problems that practitioners and managers face on a daily basis, remains abysmally low.
Ulster and the Indian Ocean? Recent maritime archaeological research on the East African coast
Authors: Breen Colin , Forsythe Wes , Lane Paul , McErlean Tom , McConkey Rosemary , Omar Athman Lali , Quinn Rory , Williams Brian
Published: January 2015

In January 2001, a team of researchers from the University of Ulster (Northern Ireland) conducted an innovative maritime archaeology project on the East African coast in partnership with the British Institute in Eastern Africa and the National Museums of Kenya. Its focus was Mombasa Island on the southern Kenyan coast, a historical settlement and port for nearly 2000 years (Berg 1968; Sassoon 1980; 1982). The East African seaboard, stretching from Somalia in the north to Madagascar and Mozambique in the south, was culturally dynamic throughout the historical period. This area, traditionally known as the Swahili coast, is culturally defined as a maritime zone extending 2000 km from north to south, but reaching a mere 15 hi inland. The origins of ‘Swahili’ cultural identity originated during the middle of the 1st millennium AD, following consolidation of earlier farming and metalusing Bantu-speaking communities along the coast and emergence of a distinctive ‘maritime’ orientation and set of cultural traditions (eg Allen 1993; Chami 1998; Helm 2000; Horton & Middelton 2000). Previous research produced evidence of exploitation of marine resources for food and an early engagement in longdistance exchange networks, linking parts ofthis coast with the Classical world by at least the BC/AD transition.