Showing papers in "Antiquity in 1988"
TL;DR: Pleistocene dates from a rockshelter on Buka Island at the northern end of the Solomons Chain demonstrate human settlement by 28,000 b.p., some 25,000 years earlier than previously reported for this island group as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Pleistocene dates from a rockshelter on Buka Island at the northern end of the Solomons Chain demonstrate human settlement by 28,000 b.p., some 25,000 years earlier than previously reported for this island group.
166 citations
TL;DR: The fundamental aims of archaeology, and the methods that are to achieve them, lie more in the nature of history, the history of the Pacific itself, and its history of its study.
Abstract: Twenty years' debate in English and Americanist circles about the fundamental aims of archaeology, and the methods that are to achieve them, has mostly been conducted in a framework of named schools – ‘new’, ‘processual’, and now also ‘postprocessual’ and ‘contextual’ – and in terms of their philosophical good standing (or lack of it). This paper addresses the fundamentals as they declare themselves in a different region, the Pacific, and sees that the heart of the matter lies more in the nature of history, the history of the Pacific itself, and the history of its study.
123 citations
TL;DR: For the last half-century, the story of very early hominids and their stone industries has been almost exclusively ‘in Africa' as mentioned in this paper, and their stories have been mostly focused on Africa, but the first report of a very early industry takes the story out of Africa and into the Indian sub-continent, in a geographical direction towards the early industries of eastern Asia.
Abstract: For the last half-century, the story of very early hominids, and their stone industries, has been almost exclusively ‘in Africa’. This first report of a very early industry takes the story ‘out of Africa’ and into the Indian sub-continent – that is, in a geographical direction towards the early industries of eastern Asia.
99 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the methods of field-survey return from the countryside to look at the cities, where the classical authors are conspicuously reticent about the countryside, providing a rural picture, as well as the settlement patterns of prehistory.
Abstract: The Mediterranean, and especially Greece, provides fine conditions for field-survey – long and intense human occupation, good surface exposure, and distinctive, diagnostic ceramics. Where the Classical authors are conspicuously reticent about the countryside, field-survey can provide a rural picture, as well as the settlement patterns of prehistory. Here, the methods of field-survey return from the countryside to look at the cities, formerly the preserve of the excavator.
85 citations
TL;DR: AmBROSE et al. as mentioned in this paper proposed a new lexicostatistical classification and some problems of diffusion for the languages of Ethiopia using the archaeological and linguistic evidence of African history.
Abstract: References AMBROSE, S. 1982. Historical linguistic reconstructions in East Africa: the archaeological evidence, in C. Ehret & M. Posnansky (ed.), The archaeological and lnguistic reconstruction of African history: Berkeley: University of California Press. BENDER, M.L. 1971. The languages of Ethiopia: a new lexicostatistical classification and some problems of diffusion, Anthropological Linguistics 13(5):
73 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the superiority of archery over the throwing of spears was demonstrated with replica bows and projectiles of a variety of types, and a hierarchy of increasing efficiency in the main classes of archers was shown.
Abstract: Experimental study with replica bows and projectiles of a variety of types indicates the superiority of archery over the throwing of spears, and makes it possible to indicate a hierarchy of increasing efficiency in the main classes of bows.
69 citations
TL;DR: Forgotton beside the well-known and well-studied collections of metalwork from the river Thames is a remarkable collection of human skulls; this new study dates some skulls and finds important order in their pattern of dates as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Forgotton beside the well-known and well-studied collections of metalwork from the river Thames is a remarkable collection of human skulls; this new study dates some skulls and finds important order in their pattern of dates.
68 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a survey showed a place for glass in the European Bronze Age, and a knowledge of pyrotechnology -the skills of creating and working with high temperatures - attested for later prehistoric Europe first by refined ceramics in the Neolithic, then by copper and bronze metallurgy.
Abstract: A knowledge of pyrotechnology - the skills of creating and working with high temperatures - attested for later prehistoric Europe first by refined ceramics in the Neolithic, then by copper and bronze metallurgy. But what about the third aspect of pyrotechnology – faience, glass and other vitreous materials? New work reported in this survey shows a place for glass in the European Bronze Age.
60 citations
TL;DR: The controversy surrounding the recent repainting of Wandjina figures on the rocks of the western Kimberley, northwest Australia was reported in the last issue of ANTIQUITY (62: 517-23) as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Sandra Bowdler reported in the last issue of ANTIQUITY (62: 517–23) on the controversy surrounding the recent repainting of Wandjina figures on the rocks of the western Kimberley, northwest Australia. Here is an Aboriginal Australian's view of the repainting project and its significance, along with an explication and further discussion of implications.
53 citations
TL;DR: The fascicules of the final report on Franchthi Cave in the Argolid, the key Aegean sequence for the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, are starting to appear, along with the publications of the Stanford survey of the region as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The fascicules of the final report on Franchthi Cave in the Argolid, the key Aegean sequence for the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition, are starting to appear, along with the publications of the Stanford survey of the region. Here, those reports prompt a wider review of existing explanations for the emergence of Greek social complexity, and the identifying of a new and major impetus as the basis for a revised model.
51 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the common renaissance analogy has limited value, and that the 8thcentury Greeks created a past narrowly focussed on the persons of powerful ancient beings, from whom they could draw authority in the social upheavals which came about as the loose, aristocratic societies of the ‘Dark Age' (c. 1200-750 BC) were challenged.
Abstract: Greek society was changing rapidly in the 8th century BC. The archaeological record reveals population growth, increasing political complexity, artistic experiments and a strong interest in the past. Because these processes resemble those at work in early modern Italy, the period has often been referred to as the ‘Greek renaissance’ (e.g. Ure 1922; Hagg 1983a; cf. Burke 1986). This paper is about the glorification of the past in the 8th century, and its relationship to the rise of the polis, the Greek city state. I concentrate on one particular phenomenon, the spread of cults at tombs dating to the Mycenaean period (c. 1600-1200 BC). I argue that the common renaissance analogy has limited value, and that the 8thcentury Greeks created a past narrowly focussed on the persons of powerful ancient beings, from whom they could draw authority in the social upheavals which came about as the loose, aristocratic societies of the ‘Dark Age’ (c. 1200-750 BC) were challenged. Tomb cults go back at least to 950 BC, but after 750 they were redefined and used as a source of power in new ways. I have adapted my subtitle from Maurice Bloch’s well-known paper ‘The past and the present in the present’ (1977), where he argues that rituals bring the past into the present to form a system of cognition mystifying nature and preserving the social order. The argument here is slightly different. I stress the variety of the cults and the range of meanings they must have had, making their recipients highly ambiguous figures. The same cults could simultaneously evoke the new, relatively egalitarian ideology of the polis and the older ideals of heroic aristocrats who protected the grateful and defenceless lower orders, while standing far above them. Bloch's paper borrowed Malinowski’s idea of culture as a ‘long conversation’; developing the analogy, I look at the multiple meanings which any statement in such a conversation may have for the different actors.
TL;DR: In this article, a recently-discovered vessel from Rio Azul, Guatemala is used as an illustration to show that such questions can be addressed using combined data from different analytical approaches.
Abstract: Despite decades of extensive study of ancient Maya ceramics, a few basic questions still vex the archaeologist: What were the actual uses of the distinct types of Maya vessels? How can we determine the precise function of some pottery forms? How can we understand the classification the Maya themselves had for their pots? This brief note, using a recently-discovered vessel from Rio Azul, Guatemala, as an illustration, will show that such questions can be addressed using combined data from different analytical approaches. Here I also wish to emphasize the notion that some of the most important sources of information on these issues are the hieroglyphic texts painted or carved on numerous Maya ceramics.
TL;DR: The current campaign to return to Athens the Parthenon sculptures that have been in the British Museum since the early 19th century highlights the profoundly dual nature of Greek architectural and sculptural heritage, as emblems of both Greek and global attachment.
Abstract: The current campaign to return to Athens the Parthenon sculptures that have been in the British Museum since the early 19th century highlights the profoundly dual nature of Greek architectural and sculptural heritage, as emblems of both Greek and global attachment. Classical relics in particular have become symbols of Greek attachment to the homeland; underscoring links between past and present, they confirm and celebrate Greek national identity. Other elements of Greek heritage – language, literature, religion, folklore – likewise lend strength to this identity, but material remnants of past glories, notably temples and sculptures from the times of Phidias and Praxiteles, assume an increasingly important symbolic role (Cook 1984; Hitchens 1987).
TL;DR: In recent years, much emphasis has been placed upon the effects of literacy in the transformation of the Mediterranean World between 800 and 400 BC as mentioned in this paper, and Murray (1980: 96) is typical in his view that ‘Archaic Greece was a literate society in the modern sense.
Abstract: In recent years much emphasis has been placed upon the effects of literacy in the transformation of the Mediterranean World between 800 and 400 BC. Alphabetic scripts have been seen by many, archaeologists and classicists alike, as one of the key factors that made many of the achievements of Mediterranean, particularly Greek, thought and culture possible. Alphabetic scripts encouraged widespread literacy, and widespread literacy was the necessary condition for what remains distinctive in Ancient Greek culture, namely the development of History, Philosophy and speculative Natural Science. Murray (1980: 96) is typical in his view that ‘Archaic Greece was a literate society in the modern sense.’ The work of Goody & Watt (1963) has done much to advance the view that many of the achievements of Mediterranean Society can be ascribed to, if not entirely explained by, this ‘technology of the intellect’. Their ‘autonomous model’ however, as Cartledge (1978: 37) has observed, comes dangerously close to technological determinism.
TL;DR: In this paper, the issue of the repainting of Australian rock pictures has been raised again, this time concerning the re-painting of rock pictures and the question of when a living culture ceases, where and when does archaeology begin.
Abstract: Where and when does a living culture cease, where and when does archaeology begin? The issue has been raised again, this time concerning the repainting of Australian rock pictures.
TL;DR: Desert varnish, the distinctive coating on exposed rock surfaces in arid regions, can be dated by cation ratios, providing a rare means directly to date petroglyphs as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Desert varnish, the distinctive coating on exposed rock surfaces in arid regions, can be dated by cation ratios, providing a rare means directly to date petroglyphs. A first application of the method, much used in north America, is here reported from Australia, where it indicates minimum ages up to 30,000 years old. And it also shows that the style of figures, so often taken as a measure of chronology, is in this instance largely independent of age.
TL;DR: The Middle-Saxon settlement of Hockwold Fenland is described in this paper as a complete settlement with buildings, industrial area, church and attendant cemeteries all concentrated within a readily defined island.
Abstract: Introduction This interim statement covers eight seasons’ work on the continuing excavation of the Middle-Saxon settlement. The essential features of the site are: it is a complete settlement with buildings, industrial area, church and attendant cemeteries all concentrated within a readily defined island; the occupation of the bulk of the site is restricted to the Middle-Saxon period this not only eases the problems of artefact dating, but also removes the complication of damage by subsequent occupation; the high quality and quantity of artefacts indicate a site of high social status with strong ecclesiastical ties. The settlement sits beside a 1 km wide arm of the Fenland which follows the valley of the Little Ouse river c. 6 km inland from Hockwold Fen; Brandon was probably the lowest crossing point of the river Ouse until recent times. The site occupies a sand ridge surrounded by peat, and stands as an island in time of flood [FIGURE 1). The river is some 50 m north of the ‘island’ while the southern margin of the peat deposits (i.e. the edge of the flood plain) is c. 80 m to the south. The island is c. 350 rn east-west by 150 m north-south at its widest point with an area of some 4.75 ha; of this c. 1.5 ha at the west end appears to have been unoccupied and a further c. 1.25 ha at the east end of the island has been scheduled as an Ancient Monument. There are two significant earthworks: a rectangular enclosure (c. 70 x 40 m ) and a raised causeway linking the island to the edge of the flood plain on the south (FIGURE 2) Prior to our work on the site, gravel-digging in the 19th century uncovered several hundred skeletons. Trial trenching in 1979 uncovered signs of a small medieval chapel within the enclosure which is taken to be the focus for these burials. We believe the enclosure earthwork is Medieval in its last phase, hut that the chapel and its graveyard represent a continued use of the focus of the Saxon settlement. Rescue excavation began in 1980 when planning permission was granted to level the sand ridge for use as a playingfield. By 1982 the areas for 2 football pitches had been excavated (c. 7500 sq. m) on a ‘rescue’ footing. From 1982 to 1987 afurther c. 4700 sq. m have been excavated [FIGURE 1).
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors look at some fundamental questions of classification, believing that classification is too important a practical matter to be left to the theoreticians, and propose a method to answer them.
Abstract: Classification is fundamental to all artefactual archaeology, and no one who works with artefacts can be unaware of the doubts that surround many classifications. How similar are the similar things that belong together? How different are the different things that belong apart? What do the classes of similar things actually amount to? This paper looks at some fundamental questions of classification, believing that classification is too important a practical matter to be left to the theoreticians.
Abstract: References BALDWIN, J . 1869. Pre-historic nations. New York: Harper. CiiiLm, V.G. 1926. The Aryans: a study of Indo-European origins. London: Kegan Paul, 'Trench 8~ Trubner. 1929. The Danube in prehistory. Oxford: Clarendon. EHRET, C. &M. POSNANSKY [ed.). 1982. The archaeological and linguistic reconstruction of African history. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press. LAN(;, A. 1882. Primitive belief and savage metaphysics, Fraser's Magazine (new series) 25: 7 3 4 4 4 . WILSON, D. 1862. Prehistoric man: researches into the origin of civilisation in the Old and New World. Camhri dge: Macmillan.
TL;DR: The first tabular bronze artefact was recovered from an occupation layer sealed beneath volcanic ash on Lou Island in Papua New Guinea as discussed by the authors, where it was found in a dated context, well outside the range of the normal occurrence of bronze in southeast Asia.
Abstract: This small tabular bronze artefact, recovered from an occupation layer sealed beneath volcanic ash on Lou Island, is the first bronze artefact found in a dated context in Papua New Guinea, well outside the range of the normal occurrence of bronze in southeast Asia.
TL;DR: This note reports a horse parasite, and draws attention to preservation of valuable material in deposits much less promising in nature.
Abstract: The preservation of organic remains and environmental indicators in those soft, damp and colourful deposits that visually indicate ancient excreta is familiar. This note reports a horse parasite, and draws attention to preservation of valuable material in deposits much less promising in nature.
TL;DR: The written sources are overwhelming for that great historical event, the conquest of the world by Europeans between the 15th and the 19th centuries as discussed by the authors, but what was it like to receive Europeans on your shore, what was the like to be dispossesed?
Abstract: The written sources are overwhelming for that great historical event, the conquest of the world by Europeans between the 15th and the 19th centuries. Historical archaeology, especially in north America, now provides an important source of evidence of a different character. But what was it like to receive Europeans on your shore, what was it like to be dispossesed? Here is a report specifically concerned with relations between native and newcomer at the Cape, one of those African regions which first felt the European impact.
TL;DR: A review of the Irish evidence is presented in this article, and issue is taken with Barfield & Hodder's diagnosis, published in ANTIQUITY last year, that the primary function of the burnt mounds was as bathing places.
Abstract: Burnt mounds, found across northern Europe, are especially frequent in Ireland. Here a new review of the Irish evidence is presented, and issue is taken with Barfield & Hodder's diagnosis, published in ANTIQUITY last year, that the primary function of the burnt mounds was as bathing places.
TL;DR: A new look at one of the more famous puzzles in prehistoric art, and the derivation of a scene at Lascaux from shamanistic practice.
Abstract: A new look at one of the more famous puzzles in prehistoric art, and the derivation of a scene at Lascaux from shamanistic practice.
TL;DR: The Etruscan city states flourished in westcentral Italy from the late 8th century BC until their conquest and absorption by the emergent state ofRome in the 4th centuryBC as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The Etruscan city states flourished in westcentral Italy from the late 8th century BC until their conquest and absorption by the emergent state ofRome in the 4th century BC. In 1985 Italy celebrated the century or so of work on its oldest civilization with a series of major exhibitions under the slogan, ‘Buongiorno Etruschi’ (‘Good morning, Etruscansi!’). There were eight major exhibitions in Tuscany displaying over 5000 objects from all the major collections in the region, designed to cover most aspects of Etruscan culture – settlement systems, domestic and religious architecture, religion, everyday life, crafts, and artistic achievement. As the sponsors FIAT wrote in their preface to the splendid catalogues produced for the project (e.g. Camporeale 1985; Carandini 1985; Cristofani 1985; Stopponi 1985), the intention of this massive undertaking was to convey to the Italian public that the Etruscans were not just a dead civilization known above all for the way of death of its elite, but ‘a lively culture of ordinary people, merchants, and craftsmen’.
TL;DR: Ashmore et al. as mentioned in this paper combine the archaeological record with the studies of inscriptions and politico-religious symbolism, to build a more complete and incisive reconstruction of the past.
Abstract: The revelations in the study of the Ancient Maya made possible by the revolution in hieroglyphic decipherment have not occurred in isolation. Archaeological investigations within the last three decades have produced a much broader vision of Maya society during the Classic Period than previously possible. Particularly, the study of settlement patterns in conjunction with environmental studies has opened new vistas onto the size and organization of the populations which supported the rulers in their civic-ceremonial centres (Ashmore 1981; Culbert & Rice n.d.). The challenge for the present, and future, is to combine the archaeological record with the studies of inscriptions and politico-religious symbolism, to build a more complete and incisive reconstruction of the past. Where the two records are particularly clear and abundant, we may also aspire to explaining the past.
TL;DR: The authors investigated the establishment of fenor wetland-specific communities in this region in the 1st millennium BC and found evidence of a distinctly wetland economy, but rather the extension or expression of broad, extra-regional "cultures" into its very low-lying, but often relatively dry, landscape.
Abstract: A recent paper (Evans 1988a), which questions whether there actually exists a distinctly ‘Fenland archaeology’ for much of later prehistory, argues that many of the concepts associated with the Fenlands as a regionalitopographic: entity relate essentially to its historic predrainage land-use. Unlike the Somerset Levels, for much of later Fenland prehistory we do not seem to find evidence of a distinctly wetland economy, but rather the extension or ‘expression’ of broad, extra-regional ‘cultures’ into its very low-lying, but often relatively dry, landscape. This, for example, is apparent in the faunal assemblages from ‘Fenland’ sites of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, which, dominated by cattle and pig, would not be out of place in the Midlands or even the chalk downlands. This paper will, therefore, consider the opposite side of this issue, in that it will investigate the establishment of fenor wetland-specific communities in this region in the 1st millennium BC. For while such Neolithic sites as the Haddenham long barrow (Hodcler & Shand 1988; above, pages 349-53) and causewayed enclosure (Evans 1988b), in terms of either their faunal assemblages or formal attributes, are not unique to a strictly Fenland context, a peat-fast Later Bronze Age settlement like Flag Fen (Pryor el al. 1986), or the fen-edge Iron Age sites discussed within this paper, certainly are. As the complexities of the Fenland sequence begin to be unravelled (Waller 1988; above, pages 33643) and specifically as we know there is not only a single major episode of marine flooding (the famed fen clay), but rather an extended marine transgression sequence, it is becoming apparent that for much of later prehistory the fen margin was locally drier than previously thought (Evans 1988a). The extreme southwestern edge of these marine clays (now called the Barroway Drove beds (Hall 1987: figure 4)) in the Haddenham Level would now seem to date to the later 2nd millennia BC. The recent discovery, moreover, of Fengate wares and Rusticated Beaker pottery sealed beneath this marine horizon on the Foulmire Fen terrace in Haddenham parish indicates that this clay here represents a much later incursion than the Later Neolithic fen clay at Peacock’s Farm (Clark et al. 1935; Clark & Godwin 1962); so far the dates for the onset of peat formation in the Haddenham Level all fall within the late Zndi earlier 1st millennia BC. The deteriorating environmental conditions of this time could have resulted in major upheavals in land-use and settlement along the (geological) fen-edge, and was presumably largely responsible for the extraordinary preservation and the thus-far unique ‘in-fen’ situation of the Flag Fen complex. While Later Bronze Age hoards and stray finds have been recovered from the South Level (Fox 1923: plates IX and X), and a Later Bronze Age timber causeway found at Little Thetford (Lethbridge 1935), in the course of
TL;DR: Cunliffe et al. as discussed by the authors argued for the development of complex societies, characterized by the appearance of centralized political entities with urban or at least urbanizing communities in non-Mediterranean Gaul after c. 200 BC.
Abstract: Several recent reconstructions of the social and economic development of non-Mediterranean Gaul after c. 200 BC have argued for the development of complex societies, characterized by the appearance of centralized political entities with urban – or at least urbanizing – communities. The emergence of such ‘Archaic States’ is often considered as having been restricted to a broad zone running eastward from the Atlantic facade through the northern Massif Central to the Swiss plateau. Five certain such states are usually claimed: Bituriges cubi, Aedui, Arverni, Sequani, Helvetii; and three probable: Pictones, Lemovices and Lingones. The constitutents of this zone were originally recognized by Dr Daphne Nash (1976; 1978a; 1978b; 1981), and her view has since been adopted in Britain by Champion and his collaborators (1984), Bintliff (1984) and, most recently, Cunliffe (1988: figure 38). Essential to the formulation of this hypothesis was a wide-ranging consideration of three domains of protohistoric evidence on Gaul: literary, most conspicuously Julius Caesar’s de Bello Gallico; numismatics; and the settlement record of the late La Tene and its more shadowy antecedents. Among more recent commentators, a primary interest in the ‘core–periphery’ relationship (Cunliffe 1988; Rowlands et al. 1987) which existed between the Mediterranean world and Central Gaul is manifest. In a minimal view, this interaction may be envisaged in terms of the consequences of long-distance trade and subsequent military conquest spurring socio-political change. The unspoken by-product of this perspective is that differential development within non-Mediterranean Gaul is simplistically presented in terms of distance-decay from the Mediterranean littoral, with little attention being paid to the effects of physiographic diversity across this landmass.
TL;DR: Hall et al. as mentioned in this paper found a long barrow, exposed through peat shrinkage, at Foulmire Fen, Haddenham, which offered the chance of excavating evidence of burial rituals which could he compared with the causewayed enclosure.
Abstract: Excavation and survey in the Haddenham area since 1981 have uncovered a wide range of sites from the Mesolithic to the late Roman period (Evans & Hodder 1985; 1986; Evans, Shand & Hodder 1987). A central focus of the work has been a causewayed enclosure with little evidence of internal occupation but with placed deposits, including human remains, in the encircling ditches, which also contain decorated Mildenhall Ware. The discovery by David Hall of a long barrow, exposed through peat shrinkage, at Foulmire Fen, Haddenham, offered the chance of excavating evidence of burial rituals which could he compared with the causewayed enclosure. In addition, the potential for preservation of organic materials within the mound was good, since the prehistoric ground surface was lower here than in many other occupied parts of the Haddenham area and was early covered by peat and clay deposits. The barrow and its mortuary structure are situated on a small rise in the gravel terraces which flank the prehistoric River Ouse, 3 km north of the Upper Delphs 'promontory' on which lies the causewayed enclosure (Hall et al. 1987: figures 113, 117). The long barrow also provides the focus for the major HaddenhamOver barrowfield, located 15 km north of Cambridge at a point where the River Ouse entered the Fen basin. lnitial work on the barrow was cautious, avoiding the wider and higher eastern end, but examining the plough destruction of the tcip of the mound as well as obtaining sections through ;he mound and surrounding ditches. Some evidence of internal divisions was found in the main body of the mound, but i t was not until work extended to the eastern end that a wooden mortuary structure was recovered. Apart from recent ploughing of its top the long harrow is well preserved owing to its early burial beneath alluvial and fen deposits. This process began soon after the construction of the mound with a primary clay marl filling of the ditch, a secondary filling of the fen carr material and a subsequent covering of the mound with woody peat and alluvial deposits. While carbonization and mineralization are clearly important elements in the history of the timber survival, it may well be that the initial burial of the structures under clay silts in anaerobic conditions played a significant and formative part in these processes. Given the outstanding preservation of the site, it is hoped to obtain not only a clear understanding of the nature and development of this barrow but also to contribute significantly to some of the major problems of earlier Neolithic mortuary practices. At this preliminary stage, however, we will confine ourselves to a summary of the major features of the site.