Showing papers in "Antiquity in 1992"
TL;DR: Wickler and Spriggs as mentioned in this paper reported the earliest direct evidence for the prehistoric use of root vegetables, in the form of starch grains and crystalline raphides identifiable to genus.
Abstract: The excavation of Kilu Cave and the discovery of a Pleistocene prehistory for the Solomon Islands have already been reported in ANTIQUITY by Wickler & Spriggs (62: 703–6). Residue analysis of stone artefacts from the site now provides the earliest direct evidence for the prehistoric use of root vegetables, in the form of starch grains and crystalline raphides identifiable to genus. The direct microscopic identification of starch grains opens new avenues for the study of the plant component of human diets in the distant past.
267 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply well tried techniques to the analysis of complex high-status medieval buildings and demonstrate their superiority in terms of data (especially when used in parallel) on social function and status over subjective analysis based on notions of symbolic or functional characterization.
Abstract: Spatial analysis has enjoyed a considerable vogue in archaeological studies over the past two decades, though usually applied in prehistoric contexts. The paper applies well tried techniques to the analysis of complex high-status medieval buildings and demonstrates their superiority in terms of data (especially when used in parallel) on social function and status over subjective analysis based on notions of symbolic or functional characterization.
82 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, two notable reconstructions of Neanderthal individuals are analysed in this perceptive study of the role of visual reconstructions in archaeological debate, and they conclude that such images are more than popular by-products of academic discussion, and play a crucial role in the construction of archaeological arguments.
Abstract: Two notable reconstructions of Neanderthal individuals are analysed in this perceptive study of the role of visual reconstructions in archaeological debate. The author concludes that such images are more than popular by-products of academic discussion, and play a crucial role in the construction of archaeological arguments.
74 citations
TL;DR: On ten stone tools from Tabun Cave, Israel, excavated from a layer dated to 90,000 years old, the presence of organic tool-use residues has been detected and red blood cells, collagen, resin and hair fragments identified by microscopy and biochemical analyses are identified.
Abstract: On ten stone tools from Tabun Cave, Israel, excavated from a layer dated to 90,000 years old, the presence of organic tool-use residues has been detected. Among them are red blood cells, collagen, resin and hair fragments identified by microscopy and biochemical analyses.
70 citations
TL;DR: Out of molecular biology – the revolution of past decades in biological science – there now begins to come molecular archaeology, the study of DNA in ancient plants, animals and people to address questions of history as well as biology.
Abstract: Out of molecular biology – the revolution of past decades in biological science – there now begins to come molecular archaeology, the study of DNA in ancient plants, animals and people to address questions of history as well as biology. Here is set out what molecular archaeology is about, how it works and what it has begun to do.
65 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present evidence from the west of Scotland suggests that despite a rich and varied resource base similar in many ways to that in southern Scandinavia, a very different process of change occurs, with selected parts of the farming socio-economy being adopted at varying rates.
Abstract: The quantity and quality of material from the late Mesolithic/early Neolithic in southern Scandinavia has dominated the study of this important period in northwest Europe. Recent evidence from the west of Scotland suggests that, despite a rich and varied resource base similar in many ways to that in southern Scandinavia, a very different process of change occurs. The evidence suggests a very gradual transformation, with selected parts of the farming socio-economy being being adopted at varying rates. This situation is compared with that in various parts of Europe and is considered to fit in well with a pattern of great regional diversity in the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic.
56 citations
TL;DR: Kerma is an ancient city on the Nile in Middle Nubia, long known and the subject of renewed recent exploration as mentioned in this paper, and its position, at the southern limit of Egyptian control, sets it strategically on the routes to the African interior.
Abstract: Kerma is an ancient city on the Nile in Middle Nubia, long known and the subject of renewed recent exploration. Its position, at the southern limit of Egyptian control, sets it strategically on the routes to the African interior. Its environment in the arid desert results in remarkable preservation of organic remains.
55 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a cautionary tale based on the excavation of a sandstone shelter site in Queensland, showing that this precise stratigraphic and chronological resolution can no longer be taken for granted.
Abstract: It is a common assumption that archaeological deposits with well-defined bands of ‘undisturbed’ sediments possess absolute stratigraphic integrity and hence that discrete cultural events are sealed within them This cautionary tale, based on the excavation of a sandstone shelter site in Queensland, shows that this precise stratigraphic and chronological resolution can no longer be taken for granted Conjoin sets (stone flakes struck from the same core) demonstrate substantial vertical artefact migration between layers, with consequent implications for interpretation
46 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an exhaustive and critical re-examination of radiocarbon dates from a number of key sites in the region using the technique of probabilistic computer archaeological wiggle matching is presented.
Abstract: The conventional chronology of the Aegean Late Bronze Age was challenged by P.J. James and his co-workers in Centuries of darkness (1991). The present paper is an exhaustive and critical re-examination of radiocarbon dates from a number of key sites in the region using the technique of probabilistic computer archaeological wiggle matching which concludes that the conventional arhcaeological chronology still holds good (whatever the flaws in its original construction) on the basis of the independent radiocarbon evidence.
45 citations
TL;DR: A suite of radiocarbon dates for a regional group of the earlier Bronze Age in Hungary provides a valuable underpinning to the absolute chronology of a key region and period as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: A suite of radiocarbon dates for a regional group of the earlier Bronze Age in Hungary provides a valuable underpinning to the absolute chronology of a key region and period.
41 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conducted archaeological investigations at several early sites, occupied from late preceramic through early ceramic times (4150-2950b.p.), in the Casma Valley, Peru and found increasing societal complexity over time as reflected in the exponential growth of monumental architecture, the acquisition of irrigation agriculture, the rise of two complex polities within the valley and the separation of religious and secular power within the ruling elite.
Abstract: Since 1980 intensive archaeological investigations have been carried out at several early sites, occupied from late preceramic through early ceramic times (4150–2950b.p.), in the Casma Valley, Peru. Preliminary results document increasing societal complexity over time as reflected in the exponential growth of monumental architecture, the acquisition of irrigation agriculture, the rise of two complex polities within the valley and the separation of religious and secular power within the ruling elite.
TL;DR: In 873, the Viking Great Army took winter quarters at the Anglo-Saxon monastery of Repton in the heart of Mercia, and the evidence for the Vikings at Repton is described in this paper.
Abstract: In 873 the Viking Great Army took winter quarters at the Anglo-Saxon monastery of Repton in the heart of Mercia. Excavations 1974–88 found their D-shaped earthwork on the river bank, incorporated in the stone church. Burials of Viking type were made at the east end of the church, and an existing building was cut down and converted into the chamber of a burial mound containing at least 249 individuals. Here is a first account of the evidence for the Vikings at Repton in and after the campaigning season of 873-4.
TL;DR: The modern plan of the west Midlands city of Worcester, like so many in England, hides a series of ancient towns under the standing streets, and the old topography that shows itself in modern plots and street lines, make possible the recovery of the early pattern as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The modern plan of the west Midlands city of Worcester, like so many in England, hides a series of ancient towns under the standing streets. Archaeological and historical exploration, and the old topography that shows itself in modern plots and street lines, make possible the recovery of the early pattern.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present Lo villa du Likgeaud et ses peintures: 10 Croisille-sur-Briance (HauteVienne).
Abstract: FRANCOISE DUMASY-MATHIEU. Lo villa du Likgeaud et ses peintures: 10 Croisille-sur-Briance (HauteVienne). (Documents d’Arch6ologie FranCaise 31). 192 pages, 8 colour plates, 123 figures. 1991. Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de 1’Homme; ISSN 0769-010X; ISBN 2-7351-0392-7 paperback 290FF. JOHN W. HAYES. Ancient metal axes and other tools in the Royal Ontario Museum: European and Mediterranean types. xiii + 105 pages, numerous photographs. 1991. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum; ISBN 0-88854-393-X paperback Can$50. RAYMOND H. HAYtiS. North-east Yorkshire studies: archaeological papers. ix + 144 pages, 113 figures, 38 plates. 1988. Leeds: Roman Antiquities Section, Yorkshire Archaeological Society; ISBN 0-90212254-1 paperback €15 + €1.50 postage & packing. MIcHAlx HUGHES (ed.). Archaeology in Hampshire: annual report for 1990. 86 pages, 20 figures. 1991. Hampshire County Planning Department. ANTHONY E. MARKS & ABBAS MOHAMMED-ALI (eds.). The late prehistory of the Eastern Sahel: the Mesolithic and Neolithic of Shaqadud, Sudan. viii + 292 pages, 89 figures, 63 tables. 1991. Dallas (TX): South Methodist University Press; ISBN 0-87074-310-4 paperback $29.95. JUDITH MCKENzlll. The architecture ofPetro. (British Academy Monographs in Archaeology 1). xxii + 209 pages, 245 b&w plates, 9 maps. 1990. Oxford: Oxford University Press; ISBN 0-19-727000-X €65. RICHARD H. MEADOW. Harappa excavations 19 86-1 990: a multidisciplinary approach to third millennium urbanism. (Monographs in World Archaeology 3). X + 262 pages, 136 illustrations, 37 tables. 1991. Madison (WI): Prehistory Press; ISSN 10552316; ISBN 0-9629110-1-1 paperback $33. STUART P. NEEDHAM. Excavation and salvage at Runnymede Bridge, 1978: the late Bronze Age Waterfront site. 388 pages, 78 b&w plates, 138 figures, 69 tables. 1991. London: British Museum Press; ISBN 0-7141-13972 hardback €45. W. DOUGLAS SIMPSON. Dunollie, Oban, Argyll: Dunollie Castle and the Brooch of Lorne. vii + 118 pages. 1991. Aberdeen: Centre for Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen; ISBN 0-906265-14-2 paperback €3.95. TIMOTHY TAYLOR
TL;DR: It would appear that the surviving races which represent the vanished palaeolithic hunters have succeeded one another over Europe in the order of their intelligence as discussed by the authors... From what is now the focus of civilization they have one by one been expelled and driven to the uttermost parts of the earth: the Mousterians survive in the remotely related Australians at the Antipodes, the Solutrians are represented by the Bushmen of the southern extremity of Africa.
Abstract: It would appear that the surviving races which represent the vanished palaeolithic hunters have succeeded one another over Europe in the order of their intelligence . . . From what is now the focus of civilization they have one by one been expelled and driven to the uttermost parts of the earth: the Mousterians survive in the remotely related Australians at the Antipodes, the Solutrians are represented by the Bushmen of the southern extremity of Africa. . . . Justice belongs to the strong, and has been meted out to each race according to its strength; each has received as much justice as it deserved. SOLLAS 1911: 382-3
TL;DR: In this article, the authors study the adaptive mechanisms and responses of subsis-tence economies to littoral environments in the context of archaeological research, and propose a more general approach within archaeological research to expand and contrast the ethnographic record.
Abstract: Since the 16th century, contact with people looking and living very differently to themselves has provided Europeans with a sort of mirror. The image reflected in it serves to illustrate at any moment current philosophical ideas about the nature and evolution of mankind. Europeans were not therefore really concerned with explanations for what they saw but instead limited themselves to ethnological speculations (). Nowadays, ethnographic field work is no longer possible (ethnological analysis must seek new insights in old writings) and archaeological research is justified for three reasons: 1 From the point of view of people living in those territories today it is important to know the past and therefore to recover the history of the aboriginal groups who inhabited their present countries. The aim is to study their process of adaptation and through archaeology to expand and contrast the ethnographic record. 2 From a more general approach within archaeological research it is important also to analyse and understand the adaptive mechanisms and responses of subsis-tence economies to littoral environments. 3 Finally, for European archaeologists, the archaeological study of recent hunters could usefully throw light on their own research which lacks an ethnographic dimension.
TL;DR: The Spanish conquest of the Americas was one of the most dramatic cultural and biological transformations in the history of the world as discussed by the authors, and small groups of conquistadores toppled enormous empires.
Abstract: The Spanish conquest of the Americas was one of the most dramatic cultural and biological transformations in the history of the world. Small groups of conquistadores toppled enormous empires. Millions of Native Americans died from epidemic disease. Old World animals and plants revolutionized Native American societies, while New World crops fundamentally altered the diet and land-tenure of peasants across Europe. In the words of historian Alfred Crosby (1972: 3), The two worlds, which God had cast asunder, were reunited, and the two worlds, which were so very different, began on that day [I1 October 14921 to become alike.
TL;DR: One strand of a radical archaeology's approach to learning is discussed, and its main methodological challenge identified as mentioned in this paper, which is the development of middle-range frameworks for recognizing what Binford and others term "ambiguity".
Abstract: Methodologies for learning about the past are currently at issue within archaeology. This paper considers learning from the standpoint of a ‘radical’ archaeology. One strand of a radical archaeology's approach to learning–a Marxist strand–is discussed, and its main methodological challenge identified. This challenge is the development of middle-range frameworks for recognizing what Binford and others term ‘ambiguity’ – unexpected variation in the archaeological record from which fresh insights about the past can be produced. Concepts and ideas for constructing appropriate middle-ranges for a radical archaeology are discussed.
TL;DR: Aborigines were used to illustrate and justify theories about primordial man's relations with nature, with his fellows, and with divinity, traced through an imagined course of universal development as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: ed documents of general human history or testimonies to the variety of human social and cultural forms, required more than a recognition that Aboriginal society had been constructed for the benefit of others. He also needed to demonstrate the pernicious consequences of construction. Speaking of Tylor (and of his like) Stanner observed (1963: xv) that they had also fostered the fallacy that primitive peoples, ancient and contemporary were directly comparable. Hence, even at the end of the century, it was still assumed that the native Australians were representative of the childhood of all humanity. Their ideas and customs, true or supposed, were used to illustrate and justify theories about primordial man’s relations with nature, with his fellows, and with divinity, traced through an imagined course of universal development. Such facts as were known were used to vindicate historicist fabrications, not to illumine a way of life seen as having interest and importance in
TL;DR: In this paper, an examination of a late Neolithic culture on the southeastern coast finds jade in early contexts that give a new perspective to the traditional and later importance jade bears in the dynastic northern sequence.
Abstract: From the beginning, the culture-history of the Chinese archaeological sequence has had its own character. And in a country and a civilization so vast, regional variation can also be on a grand scale. An examination of a late Neolithic culture on the southeastern coast finds jade in early contexts that give a new perspective to the traditional – and later – importance jade bears in the dynastic northern sequence.
TL;DR: This article showed that the traditional view that the earliest copper metallurgy in the British Isles was based on the exploitation of primary minerals deriving from the southwest of Ireland is fallacious.
Abstract: Studies of prehistoric extractive and fabrication techniques suggest that the traditional view, that the earliest copper metallurgy in the British Isles was based on the exploitation of primary minerals deriving from the southwest of Ireland, is fallacious. Elaborate mineral selection and process control is not needed to produce copper of the composition reported for the Early Bronze Age, and so ore deposits in Britain were probably being exploited from a very early period.
TL;DR: In this paper, a joint multidisciplinary project between the University of Sheffield and the Musee d'Art et d'Archeologie in Antananarivo focused on the investigation of the social and economic significance of the tombs.
Abstract: This note reports the initial results of a joint multidisciplinary project between the University of Sheffield and the Musee d'Art et d'Archeologie in Antananarivo, which has concentrated on the investigation of the social and economic significance of the tombs that are an outstanding landscape feature in an area of southern Madagascar.
TL;DR: The first encounter with metallurgy, Science 146: 1257-67. as mentioned in this paper The reduction of arsenic trioxide by carbon and carbon monoxide, Metallurgia 36: 3-6.
Abstract: TYLECOTE, R.F. 1980. Summary of results of experimental work on early copper smelting, in Oddy (ed.): 5-12. TYLECOTE, R.F., H.A. GHAZNAVI & P.J. BOYOELL. 1977. Partitioning of trace elements between ores, fluxes, slags and metal during the smelting of copper, Journal of Archaeological Science 4: 305-33 54: 329-33. VICKERY, R.C. & R.W. EDWARDS. 1947. The reduction of arsenic trioxide by carbon and carbon monoxide, Metallurgia 36: 3-6. WERTIME, T.A. 1964. Man’s first encounter with metallurgy, Science 146: 1257-67. ZWICKER, U. 1980. Investigations on the extractive metallurgy of CuiSblAs ore and excavated smelting products from Norsum-Tepe (Keban) on the Upper Euphrates (3500-2800 RC), in Oddy (ed.): 13-26.
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative analysis of three groups of Scandinavian bronze and gold artefacts, including statuettes of ‘goddesses with necklets, golden ‘oath rings’ and Fardrup bronze axes, suggests that there were one or more standard weight systems in use in Bronze Age Scandinavia.
Abstract: The current received view is that the economy of the Bronze Age of northern Europe was based on gift exchange rather than trade. This paper, based on a comparative analysis of three groups of Scandinavian bronze and gold artefacts – bronze statuettes of ‘goddesses with necklets’, golden ‘oath rings’ and Fardrup bronze axes – suggest that there were one or more standard weight systems in use in Bronze Age Scandinavia. The author uses these data to state a case for a trade economy, reminiscent of the Mycenaean world.
TL;DR: In this article, four separate finds of human skeletal remains from the Norfolk Fens have been 14C-dated to the Early Bronze Age and it is suggested that they are a facet of the far more extensive deposition of bodies and artefacts in wet places.
Abstract: Four separate finds of human skeletal remains from the Norfolk Fens have been 14C-dated to the Early Bronze Age. It is suggested that they are a facet of the far more extensive deposition of bodies and artefacts in wet places.
TL;DR: Two organizers of the TAG meeting at Lampeter, December 1991, take issue with Bintliff's view of their intellectual position, starting with the label "post-modern".
Abstract: Two organizers of the TAG meeting at Lampeter, December 1991, take issue with Bintliff's view of their intellectual position, starting with the label ‘post-modern’.
TL;DR: In the case of Cuello, one of the 14 burials was associated with rich grave-goods, suggesting that it was of a leading member of the Cuello community in the 5th century BC.
Abstract: Work in 1992 has significantly added to understanding of this important Maya site in the Middle Formative or Preclassic period (1000–450 BC). The known settled area now extends to 1.62 sq. km. One of the 14 burials was associated with rich grave-goods, suggesting that it was of a leading member of the Cuello community in the 5th century BC.
TL;DR: In this article, the results of pipeline excavations and radiocarbon dates are used to show that early settlement in Ireland need not always be associated with monument or artefact types belonging to narrow chronological horizons.
Abstract: In this paper the Professor of Archaeology at University College Cork has undertaken a radical re-evaluation of the traditional paradigms of Irish prehistory, which were formed in the 1940s. He makes full use of the results of recent pipeline excavations and radiocarbon dates to show that early settlement in Ireland need not always be associated with monument or artefact types belonging to narrow chronological horizons.
TL;DR: The Sventoji site in western Lithuania is of considerable importance in understanding prehistoric settlement in the east Baltic area, not least because of the exceptional preservation conditions present as discussed by the authors, and the data obtained show that prehistoric populations in the area were remarkably stable over a considerable period.
Abstract: The Sventoji site in western Lithuania is of considerable importance in understanding prehistoric settlement in the east Baltic area, not least because of the exceptional preservation conditions present. The data obtained show that prehistoric populations in the area were remarkably stable over a considerable period.