Showing papers in "Antiquity in 1991"
TL;DR: New Zealand was the last substantial landmass to be colonized by prehistoric people as discussed by the authors. But much depends on the precise antiquity of human colonization and this, following a long period of consensus, is now a matter of sharp debate.
Abstract: New Zealand was the last substantial landmass to be colonized by prehistoric people. Even within Oceania, where there are much smaller and more remote islands, such as Pitcairn and Easter Island, New Zealand stands out as the last-settled archipelago. Its prehistory promises, therefore, better archaeological evidence concerning prehistoric colonization of pristine land-masses than is the case anywhere else, as is apparent in the extinction of megafauna (Anderson 1989a). But much depends on the precise antiquity of human colonization and this, following a long period of consensus, is now a matter of sharp debate.
291 citations
TL;DR: Improved ability of the radiocarbon laboratories to provide results combining precision with accuracy is accompanied by increasing recognition that the information must be expressed on the calendar, rather than on the radiOCarbon, time-scale.
Abstract: A recent and significant improvement in radiocarbon dating has been the increased ability of the radiocarbon laboratories to provide results combining precision with accuracy. This improvement has been accompanied by increasing recognition that the information must be expressed on the calendar, rather than on the radiocarbon, time-scale. Despite the attempts of Ottaway (1987) and Pearson (1987), archaeologists are not sufficiently aware of the statistical problems involved in the transformation from one scale to the other: ‘Some of the trouble lies in the ignorance of radiocarbon consumers; the many attempts to educate them can have only limited success when radiocarbon study depends on statistical concepts and methods far beyond the average archaeologist’s innumerate grasp’ (Chippindale 1990: 203).
276 citations
TL;DR: The long lithic tradition of central northern Australia permits a rare insight into another kind of prehistoric art, the meaning and aesthetic order that may lie behind a lithic industry.
Abstract: For want of other secure evidence, the study of art in prehistoric societies normally amounts to looking at pictures, though there must have also been sound, and surely music. The long lithic tradition of central northern Australia permits a rare insight into another kind of prehistoric art, the meaning and aesthetic order that may lie behind a lithic industry.
214 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, osteological data was used to evaluate theories about the rise of chiefdoms in southern California, and they examined skeletal evidence for changes in diet, disease and violence in Santa Barbara Channel area populations.
Abstract: In this paper we use osteological data to evaluate theories about the rise of chiefdoms in southern California. To do this, we examine skeletal evidence for changes in diet, disease and violence in Santa Barbara Channel area populations. These collections date from before and after the development of large, sedentary coastal villages and a political system that facilitated inter-village economic interaction. Our data show that the health consequences of the development of these chiefdoms are comparable to those seen with the development of complex agricultural societies. They also provide insights into the causes of social complexity in non-agricultural societies.
129 citations
TL;DR: When did a human presence reach Crete, largest of the Aegean islands, and invitingly joined to the mainland by intervening stepping-stones? Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, or only in the Neolithic, when the deep sequence of occupations under the site of the later palace at Knossos began.
Abstract: When did a human presence reach Crete, largest of the Aegean islands, and invitingly joined to the mainland by intervening stepping-stones? Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, or only in the Neolithic, when the deep sequence of occupations under the site of the later palace at Knossos began. How many sailed to Crete? What did they bring with them?
124 citations
TL;DR: A new approach, using gas chromatography and GC/mass spectrometry, has been adopted to detect the presence of preserved epicuticular leaf wax components absorbed in potsherds, and can serve as chemotaxonomic indicators of the vegetables prepared in vessels during their usage.
Abstract: The determination of the leafy vegetable constituents of the diets of early societies is notoriously difficult using traditional archaeobotanical techniques. In an effort to provide a solution to this problem, a new approach, using gas chromatography (GC) and GC/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), has been adopted to detect the presence of preserved epicuticular leaf wax components absorbed in potsherds. The characteristic compounds identified can serve as chemotaxonomic indicators of the vegetables prepared in vessels during their usage.
117 citations
TL;DR: Identification de la patate douce dans la prehistoire de Polynesie vers 1, 000 A.D. as mentioned in this paper has been studied in the field of archeology.
Abstract: Identification de la patate douce dans la prehistoire de Polynesie vers 1 000 A.D. Importance de cette decouverte (les restes de plantes a tubercules sont peu visibles dans les niveaux archeologiques) qui souleve en outre le probleme de relations avec l'Amerique du Sud d'ou cette plante est originaire
110 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the origins of horse-riding are identified by defining and detecting microscopic bit wear on equid teeth, using comparative samples from 4 countries and 25,000 years of prehistory.
Abstract: The horse is ridden by means of the bit, and the bit leaves its trace on the horse's teeth. The beginnings of horse-riding are here identified by defining and detecting microscopic bit wear on equid teeth, using comparative samples from 4 countries and 25,000 years of prehistory. Scanning electron microscope analysis demonstrates that bit wear is clearly distinguishable from other tooth damage. It first occurs in the Ukraine, USSR, at about 4000 BC. Soon thereafter, mobility became a cultural advantage that transformed Eurasian societies. Riding now appears to be the first major innovation in land transport, pre-dating the wheel.
103 citations
TL;DR: This paper found that language is a feature to distinguish the human from the animal that has seemed a more enduring diagnostic character than some. But how is the breath of words to be made visible in the stony traces of the Pleistocene?
Abstract: Language is a feature to distinguish the ‘human’ from the ‘animal’ that has seemed a more enduring diagnostic character than some. But how is the breath of words to be made visible in the stony traces of the Pleistocene?
103 citations
TL;DR: Archaeology, like many of the sciences, works to a masculine metaphor, the male archaeologist as hero explores and tames the mysteries of his (female) subject.
Abstract: Archaeology, like many of the sciences, works to a masculine metaphor, the (male) archaeologist as hero explores and tames the mysteries of his (female) subject. Feminist theory has made important criticism of positivist science on these grounds, drawing on much the same postmodern theory as ‘post-processual’ archaeology. How do the ‘post-processuals’ appear, seen in the feminist light?
85 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a series of finds from Bali, in the Indonesian archipelago, gives the elusive direct connection of Indian traders to that farther East, despite its name, the Mediterranean was not the centre of the known world.
Abstract: In Classical times, the Indian continent was central to a trading network that ran west to the Mediterranean world revolving round Rome: despite its name, the Mediterranean was not the centre of the known world. Another world opened eastwards from India, and there are many obscure references to its eastern fringes, Now a series of finds from Bali, in the Indonesian archipelago, gives the elusive direct connection of Indian traders to that farther East.
TL;DR: Kadero, in the central Sudan, offers new discoveries pertinent to the old and valuable question of early domesticates - both plant and animal - in the Middle and Upper Nile region as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Kadero, in the central Sudan, offers new discoveries pertinent to the old and valuable question of early domesticates - both plant and animal - in the Middle and Upper Nile region.
TL;DR: The emphasis on temporal and geographic scale of the French Annales school of history (cf. Braudel 1980; Baker 1984; Lewthwaite 1988) is the inspiration for this paper as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The emphasis on temporal and geographic scale of the French Annales school of history (cf. Braudel 1980; Baker 1984; Lewthwaite 1988) is the inspiration for this paper. Braudel (1980) divides time into three durations: short term events (days, weeks, months, a few years), medium length conjunctures (years, decades, even major portions of centuries), and longterm structures (which may last centuries, even millennia). This last duration is the longue duree. Basic to Annales’ thought – and the longue duree – is the idea that to understand historical developments, to explain their causes and dynamics, one must know their temporal and their geographic scale; one must know what happened at their edges and their centre, why they developed and why they passed away; and how they changed during their span. To do this, since we cannot assume we know the scales relevant to the phenomena which interest us (Braudel 1980), we must continually play different temporal and geographic scales off against each other.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore several aspects that lie within the phrase "women's archaeology" and explore the technical question of how gender relations are recoverable from archaeological context.
Abstract: Women's issues are deservedly a growing concern in archaeology, with concerns that run from the power (im)balance between the sexes in the present practice of archaeology to the technical question of how gender-relations are, or are not, recoverable from archaeological context. The several aspects that lie within the phrase ‘women's archaeology’are explored.
TL;DR: Among the most complex and specialized hunter-gatherer-fisher societies in the New World, the peoples of the Santa Barbara Channel region of California were considered exceptional by early explorers because of their intense interest in valuables, beads and trade as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Among the most complex and specialized hunter-gatherer-fisher societies in the New World, the peoples of the Santa Barbara Channel region of California were considered exceptional by early explorers because of their intense interest in valuables, beads and trade. During the last several centuries before European contact, sedentary populations on the offshore islands and mainland coast participated in an intensive regional exchange network that emerged from important earlier developments in transportation, craft specialization and labour organization. Especially significant in the sociopolitical evolution of this region were changes in the manipulation of domestic labour by a rising elite, expressed through increasing control over the production and distribution of status-rich valuables and critical resources. At historic contact, the Chumash who occupied the mainland coast and the northern Channel Islands (FIGURE 1) were probably organized into several interlinked small chiefdoms.
TL;DR: The Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian of this region share a rich ethnographic history that reveals hereditary social ranking, sedentary villages, intensive warfare, part-time craft specialization and dense populations.
Abstract: The northern Northwest Coast supported some of the most socially complex hunting and gathering societies on the Pacific Coast. The Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian of this region share a rich ethnographic history that reveals hereditary social ranking, sedentary villages, intensive warfare, part-time craft specialization and dense populations. Models developed to explain the origins of social and political complexity among these groups have covered the gamut of theories presented for the rise of complexity in state level societies. As will be demonstrated, not only have archaeologists failed to present a theory that explains the rangeof variability in the data, but on the northern Northwest Coast, the actual timing of the origins of political complexity is suspect.
TL;DR: The central portion of the California culture area is a microcosm of the larger California province, which is a patchwork of landforms, microclimates and hydraulic regimes as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The central portion of the California ‘culture area’ is a microcosm of the larger California province, which is a patchwork of landforms, microclimates and hydraulic regimes There are large coastal bays, rugged scrubby foothills, broad intermontane valleys with massive river systems and extensive deltaic wetlands (FIGURE 1)
TL;DR: The Kow Swamp collection of Pleistocene human remains from southeast Australia is perhaps the largest skeletal collection ever recovered from a single Pleistorean context and it was ‘returned’ for re-burial last year as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Kow Swamp collection of Pleistocene human remains from southeast Australia is perhaps the largest skeletal collection ever recovered from a single Pleistocene context. It was ‘returned’ for re-burial last year. John Mulvaney, a senior Australian prehistorian, reports on a situation in which the issues concerning the bones of ancient people are at their most acute.
TL;DR: New finds of astonishing splendour have come to light at Snettisham (Norfolk, England), a place which already holds a special, if enigmatic, place in Iron Age studies.
Abstract: New finds of astonishing splendour have come to light at Snettisham (Norfolk, England), a place which already holds a special, if enigmatic, place in Iron Age studies. Discoveries there first put British gold torques on the map; the magnificent great torque not only gave its name to an art-style but held a coin that helped to date it, and the very wealth of the place has provoked endless speculation.
TL;DR: The role played by humans in the extinction of late Pleistocene vertebrate fauna is a controversial topic (Diamond 1989; Grayson 1989; Martin & Klein 1984), and actual archaeological data for a human factor are quite rare as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The role played by humans in the extinction of late Pleistocene vertebrate fauna is a controversial topic (Diamond 1989; Grayson 1989; Martin & Klein 1984), and actual archaeological data for a human factor are quite rare. Recent multidisciplinary excavations in Cyprus, however, suggest that people were at least partially responsible for the extinction of local endemics, primarily pygmy hippopotamus (Phanourios minutus).
TL;DR: The meaning of the post-modernist agenda which dominated the most recent TAG conference was discussed in this paper, where the authors reported the course of TAG (Theoretical Archaeology Group) and its annual conferences over several years.
Abstract: We reported last year on the course of TAG (Theoretical Archaeology Group) and its annual conferences over several years. This further report reads the meaning of the post-modernist agenda which dominated the most recent TAG conference.
TL;DR: In this article, electron spin resonance (ESR) provides a dated sequence for a classic site in a classic Palaeolithic region, a sequence that covers that difficult period for absolute dating which has often proved too old for radiocarbon and too young for other radiometric methods.
Abstract: Electron spin resonance (ESR) provides a dated sequence for a classic site in a classic Palaeolithic region, a sequence that covers that difficult period for absolute dating which has often proved too old for radiocarbon and too young for other radiometric methods.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the cation-ratio method for absolute dating of cliff faces in the desert USA, in the Great Basin and the Southwest of the USA, where they were covered by desert varnish.
Abstract: Pecked figures – seeming to depict humans, animals, objects and ‘abstract’ shapes - are an important and recalcitrant aspect to the archaeology of the desert USA, in the Great Basin and the Southwest. Where they are covered by desert varnish, they provide an opportunity for an absolute dating by cation-ratio method. Here - as they did not for a similar study in South Australia reported in an earlier Antiquity - the cation-ratio dates do seem to run alongside the chronological pattern inferred by conventional means.
TL;DR: In this article, the salt-making village of Kibiro, on the Ugandan shore of Lake Albert in East Africa, has been found to be occupied by people with northern affinities, possibly from the upper Nile region or further west.
Abstract: Excavations at the salt-making village of Kibiro, on the Ugandan shore of Lake Albert in East Africa, suggest that an important part of the economy of the Kingdom of Bunyoro originated early in the present millennium. The predominance of roulette-decorated pottery, in particular the use of carved roulettes, indicates that Kibiro was first occupied by people with northern affinities, possibly from the upper Nile region or further west. Collectively, these findings provide important clues concerning the origins of the Kingdom of Bunyoro.
TL;DR: The first part of the gap between the fact of a radiocarbon determination and the archaeological answer to the question to which it relates is addressed by calibration, that turns a measure of 14 C activity into an estimate of a calendar date as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: There is a large gap between the fact of a radiocarbon determination and the archaeological answer to the question to which it relates. The first part of the gap is addressed by calibration, that turns a measure of 14 C activity into an estimate of a calendar date. Here is a contribution to the second part, by which a set of calibrated dates is made to provide a calendar range for the archaeological events under study. This note follows ANTIQUITY's usual convention, under which uncalibrated determinations are given in lower-case, b.p., and calibrated dates in small capitals, BP, BC or AD.
TL;DR: The site of Bronocice provides a valuable chance to explore aspects of economic changes in the later Neolithic of central Europe, thanks to its large sample of animal bones, and to a remarkable trace of haulage on a horn-core.
Abstract: The site of Bronocice provides a valuable chance to explore aspects of economic changes in the later Neolithic of central Europe, thanks to its large sample of animal bones, and to a remarkable trace of haulage on a horn-core.
TL;DR: A new look at the old collections from Jebel Moya, the site in the southern Sudan excavated by the Wellcome expedition early in the century, sets the site into the light of modern understanding of the Nile and Sahara sequences.
Abstract: A new look at the old collections from Jebel Moya, the site in the southern Sudan excavated by the Wellcome expedition early in the century, sets Jebel Moya in the light of modern understanding of the Nile and Sahara sequences.
TL;DR: The fact that the archaeological records seem to suggest spatial continuity in some regions is mostly due to our inability to classify the finds in accordance with a sufficiently fine chronological scheme as discussed by the authors, and it becomes clear that the seeming spatial continuity of the record is a consequence of projecting many discontinuous patterns into one plane.
Abstract: In most periods of European prehistory population was organized into local segments which can be called communities irrespective of what meaning is ascribed to this concept. The reality of prehistoric communities is best born out by the discontinuous distribution of both cemeteries and habitation sites in the country. The fact that the archaeological records seem to suggest spatial continuity in some regions is mostly due to our inability to classify the finds in accordance with a sufficiently fine chronological scheme. In cases where fine chronology can be applied – and Bohemia is one of the possible examples – it becomes clear that the seeming spatial continuity of the record is a consequence of our projecting many discontinuous patterns into one plane – the landsc ipe of today as archaeologists perceive it.