Taphonomy and zooarchaeology of a high-altitude Upper Pleistocene faunal sequence from Hovk-1 Cave,Armenia

The Caucasus is a key region for the study of hominid evolution and Neanderthal ecology. Taphonomic and zooarchaeological studies of sites from this region are few and only focused on sites at low-to-mid altitude zones with evidence of relatively intensive hominid occupation. This study focused on the taphonomic and zooarchaeological characteristics of a high-altitude site from the Upper Pleistocene – Hovk-1 Cave – looking at diachronic change in both natural and cultural processes which shaped the faunal assemblage. Results best fit a model in which the bones of most large mammals, mainly ungulates (wild goat, Capra aegagrus and red deer, Cervus elaphus) and cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) accumulated naturally through pitfalls, with minimal input from human or carnivore activity. This accumulation is characterized by a high frequency of complete ungulate and carnivore bones, a bear assemblage which is dominated by young-adults and a wild goat assemblage that includes juvenile and young-adult individuals. Our taphonomic reconstruction serves as a point of reference for comparative studies of palaeoenvironments and human subsistence patterns of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Caucasus and broadens our perspective on hominid occupation and ecological adaptation in other high-altitude world regions.     

Eco-cultural niches of the Badegoulian: Unraveling links between cultural adaptation and ecology during the Last Glacial Maximum in France

This study details an application of eco-cultural niche modeling (ECNM) using two modeling architectures—a genetic algorithm (GARP) and maximum entropy (Maxent)—aimed at examining the ecological context of sites with archaeological remains attributed to the culture termed the Badegoulian (ca. 22–20 k cal BP), which dates to the middle part of the Last Glacial Maximum (ca. 23–19 k cal BP). We reconstructed the ecological niche of the Badegoulian and assessed whether eco-cultural niche variability existed within this technocomplex. We identified two broad but distinct spatial entities in the distribution of Badegoulian sites based on lithic raw material sources and circulation, and found that these spatial units share a similar ecological niche. We discuss the implications of territorial differentiation within this niche in light of research on land use by culturally affiliated groups within a broad cultural entity. We propose that Badegoulian circulation networks reflect distinct social territories associated with particular conditions within a single ecological niche. This study illustrates the utility of combining ecological niche reconstructions with archaeological data to identify and evaluate diachronic trends in cultural continuity for situations where such patterns may be missed when the focus of study is restricted solely to lithic technology and typology.     

Boats and meaning: A study of change and continuity in the Alta fjord,arctic Norway,from 4200 to 500 years B.C.

This paper is an analysis of socioeconomic and symbolic meaning associated with rock carvings of boats which were carved on rock surfaces between 4200 and 500 calendric years B.C. in the Alta fjord, arctic Norway. The carvings, which are divided into four diachronic phases, change in form and partly in content, approximately contemporaneous with the general archaeological record. The analysis of the human figures associated with the boats indicates that there were functional and possibly status differences, in the real as well as in the mythological world. There are also diachronic changes in the activities in which the boats are depicted. The changes in the carvings might be associated with other cultural transformations such as in material culture and socioeconomic and religious systems, among northern hunters and fishers. Some of the changes could be influenced by ideologies associated with Neolithic and Bronze Age socioeconomic systems further south in Scandinavia.     

海岛文化研究进展及展望

海岛型区域文化是有别于大陆区域文化的一种区域文化形式和类型。有关海岛文化的研究在国外始于20世纪70年代,近十多年来在我国也逐渐得到重视。本文通过对国内外相关文献的分析整理,试图对国内外海岛文化研究进展进行系统的述评,并探讨其研究视角、研究内容及研究方法方面的异同,以期对国内文化地理学的研究有所裨益。     

CHARACTERIZING THE EVOLUTION OF VISUAL LANDSCAPES IN THE LATE PREHISTORY OF SOUTH-WEST MORBIHAN (BRITTANY, FRANCE)

Summary.   In the context of territorial analyses in archaeology, the visual attributes of sites play a key role in the definition of location strategies. This paper studies the Neolithic evidence from the south-western Morbihan area in Brittany (France) from a visual point of view, integrating the previous Mesolithic and the later Bronze Age occupation of the region in order to understand the diachronic evolution of the visual settlement patterns. The role played by the sea seems to be significant throughout the entire occupation of the area, but differences in both intervisibility of sites and the extension of visual areas allow us to make particular observations regarding different cultural uses of the landscape through time.     

人文地理学视角下的国外饮食文化研究进展

随着人文地理学的文化转向,以及跨学科的研究趋势,有关饮食、饮食文化体系和饮食活动的研究成为了地理学的研究对象之一。人文地理学视角下国外饮食文化研究主要集中在饮食的象征意义、饮食的文化经济、饮食的文化政治以及饮食与认同的相关研究四个方面。而国外的饮食文化研究趋势主要表现在(1)强调饮食全球化和跨国现象及其带来的影响;(2)关注饮食的意义以及人、饮食、物质环境和社会之间关系的探讨;(3)从探讨饮食和饮食文化本身的地理学研究,转向对饮食空间问题的探讨。在此基础上,从人地关系、跨地方以及文化政治三个方面对人文地理学视角下国内饮食文化研究提出了展望。     

From conflict archaeology to archaeologies of conflict: remote survey in Kandahar,Afghanistan

ABSTRACT

Emerging from research with the Afghan Heritage Mapping Partnership, a multi-year project using satellite imagery to detect, record and manage archaeological heritage, this paper examines the potentials of remote-sensing to not only monitor archaeological material culture, but also contemporary materiality as it is violently (re)assembled through conflict. Through systematic remote-sensed archaeological survey using diachronic imagery in Kandahar, Afghanistan, this work expands archaeological understanding of an under-surveyed region while exploring the impact of the region’s expansive military infrastructural footprint on cultural heritage. Further, this research considers the long history of landscapes of control and successive military occupations. Remote survey allows for continued generation of archaeological data during conflict, thereby enabling more thorough heritage management. Finally, this survey demonstrates that, although remote aerial technologies have been criticized as tools of violence, surveillance and control, satellite imagery can be used analytically to generate new understandings of and challenges to military infrastructural reach.     

DEFINING HISTORICAL MATERIAL TRENDS AND CONSUMPTION GROUPS THROUGH ARTIFACT DENSITY

Artifact density is a useful yet overlooked analysis variable in archaeology. Drawing upon a sample of sites in the middle Savannah River valley, artifact density is used to identify diachronic consumption trends between the 1700s and 1900s. Analysis results illustrate the development of consumerism over time in the study area indicated by increasing material deposition at archaeological sites. Artifact density is also used to define consumption groups for different time periods. Within cultural resource management studies, the methods discussed in this article could be used to aid in site evaluation and serve as a systematic framework to guide archaeological testing and excavation.     

跨境流动背景下族裔社区研究进展及启示

随着全球化的不断推进,跨境流动成为一种常见的地理空间现象,塑造着城市空间和景观,同时作用于族裔社区及族裔经济等,由此带来的多元文化协商进而成为城市发展和城市治理的重要话题。本文通过梳理国内外关于跨境流动和跨国族裔社区的相关研究,发现:(1)国内外关于移民族裔的人文地理学研究仍较倾向于关注跨国空间的特征、演变以及脉络;(2)西方人文地理学界的移民或是跨国族裔研究已展现出较为鲜明的"文化转向"印迹,而国内的相关研究仍处于起步阶段;(3)中国城市族裔空间的研究仍以具体的描述性和解释性研究居多,多尺度、多地方的对比研究较为缺乏。研究立足于国内外移民研究进展,以期更多的跨境流动研究为城市综合治理提出"中国经验"。     

Does Culture Evolve?

The drive to describe cultural history as an evolutionary process has two sources. One from within social theory is part of the impetus to convert social studies into "social sciences" providing them with the status accorded to the natural sciences. The other comes from within biology and biological anthropology in the belief that the theory of evolution must be universal in its application to all functions of all living organisms. The social--scientific theory of cultura evolution is pre-Darwinian, employing a developmental model of unfolding characterized by intrinsic directionality, by definable stages that succeed each other, and by some criterion of progress. It is arbitrary in its definitions of progress, and has had the political problem that a diachronic claim of cultural progress implies a synchronic differential valuation of present-day cultures. The biological scheme creates an isomorphism between the Darwinian mechanism of evolution and cultural history, postulating rules of cultural "mutation," cultural inheritance and some mechanism of natural selection among cultural alternatives. It uses simplistic ad hoc notions of individual acculturation and of the differential survival and reproduction of cultural elements. It is unclear what useful work is done by substituting the metaphor of evolution for history.     

Commodity Cultures: The Traffic in Things

Focusing on the commodification of various forms of cultural difference, this paper reviews recent work within the 'globalization' and 'creolization' paradigms, outlining an agenda for future research. Rather than condemning commodification as an unwarranted threat to the 'authenticity' of local cultures, the paper argues for a more complex understanding of people's relationship with the world of goods. Using a variety of examples, it is argued that the 'traffic in things' is associated with a wide range of meanings and a diversity of responses. Informed by recent debates in anthropology and material culture studies, it is suggested that geographical metaphors (such as distance and displacement) provide a more productive way of engaging with contemporary commodity cultures than do visual metaphors (such as unveiling or unmasking). Other means of transcending the distinction between cultural and economic geographies are also discussed.     

Socio-economic status and religious identity in medieval Iberia: The zooarchaeological evidence

This paper synthesises faunal data from medieval archaeological sites in the Iberian Peninsula, aiming to identify zooarchaeological evidence that can improve our understanding of socio-economic status and cultural identities. The main zooarchaeological indicators for social differentiation are explored: food procurement and cuisine (taking into account different types of sites – high status, urban and rural), and different socio-political systems (Islamic and Christian regions), from a diachronic perspective.     

War and Place: Landscapes of Conflict and Destruction in Prehistory

Abstract

The concept of place has rarely been applied to the archaeological study of warfare. Given that cultural landscapes embody meaning, however, the idea that places can be the focus of competition makes it evident that they can also shape associated conflict. As archaeologists move toward a more nuanced study of conflict in the past, such considerations will take on increasing importance, although as of yet most such studies are heavily reliant on textual sources and overtly symbolic material culture. This paper presents a case study from Burnt Corn Pueblo, in the Galisteo Basin, New Mexico, USA, and argues that evidence for conflict there at the beginning of the 13th century CE can be usefully interpreted through Ancestral Pueblo concepts of place.     

Material Movement in the Near Eastern Epipalaeolithic: Implications of the Shell and Stone Beads of Direkli Cave,Turkey

Direkli Cave is an Epipalaeolithic site in the central Taurus mountain range in southeastern Turkey that was used by mobile hunter-gatherer communities. The assemblage of beads from the cave, made primarily from shell (marine and freshwater) and stone, shows new evidence both that bead materials were brought to the site from the shores of the Mediterranean and that the material culture of the site has relationships to the Levant, northern Mesopotamia, and inner Anatolia. This article questions how such a bead assemblage should be interpreted in the light of existing evidence for the Near Eastern and Anatolian Epipalaeolithic and what it adds to our understanding of the better known contemporary Natufian culture of the Levant. It considers the long-distance movement of materials, interregional material cultural influences, and the way the Epipalaeolithic period is conceptualized more broadly.     

Creative planning in Ireland: the role of culture‐led development in Irish planning

This paper attempts to close specific gaps in our understanding of practice and policy concerning culture, planning and development in Ireland. This is a nation in which the development and planning impacts of cultural policy are of increasing importance, yet the state of knowledge of policy and infrastructure remains underdeveloped. The paper begins by charting the evolution of culture‐led development in Western Europe over the last few decades, highlighting the emergence of culture as a central element in both economic and social development strategies. The paper then focuses upon Ireland, reviewing the nation's rich cultural and especially musical heritage, and the direct economic impacts of this. Detailing the successful mobilization of this heritage in search of tourism, the recent incorporation of culture into strategic planning and development initiatives, and the links between culture and development in Dublin, Cork and Galway, the paper concludes that Ireland is in a strong position to avail itself of the positive social and economic impacts of planning for culture and creativity.     

Dental morphological evidence for biological continuity between the A-group and C-group periods in lower Nubia

Data are presented on non-metric dental morphological traits in skeletal samples from the Lower Nubian A-Group (ca. 3100–2500 BC) and C-Group (ca. 2000–1500 BC) cultural periods. In order to examine possible biological differentiation between these two periods, their trait frequencies were analysed using the mean measure of divergence statistic. Results indicate biological continuity, consistent with in situ evolution, although the problem of small samples requires that these results be accepted with caution. Although the diffusion of ideas or material culture into the area through military and trade contacts is likely, any archaeologically observable cultural differences between these two phases are more consistent with local cultural evolution than with the importation of a new cultural system through the migration of a foreign population into the area. The timing of a population replacement in ancient Nubia that has been identified by other scholars should now be sought either before the A-Group period or after the C-Group.     

Reconstructing Nineteenth-Century Midwest Foodways: Ceramic and Zooarchaeological Information from the Moore-Youse House and Huddleston Farmstead

Settled by families from the South and the Northeast, during the 1800s Indiana was a cultural crossroads. Ceramic and faunal data recovered from excavations conducted at the Moore-Youse house and Huddleston farmstead in east central Indiana provide a relevant archaeological example of midwestern foodways during the nineteenth century. Vertebrate faunal material from the two sites reveals early use of wild resources followed by greater reliance on beef and pork after the 1850s. Stratigraphic analysis results of zooarchaeological information are also presented to illustrate diachronic trends in faunal use at the two residences.     

The end of cultural policy?1

ABSTRACT

The article discusses whether we are approaching the end of public cultural policy in Western democracies, because contemporary cultural policy is not adapted to major transformation processes in contemporary societies. I discuss seven different challenges/scenarios that public cultural policy has to confront today: (1) It appears to be very difficult to democratise culture. (2) Public authorities consistently continue to support cultural institutions that may be obsolete. (3) Professional artists are still poor, despite public support schemes. (4) Public cultural policy is still predominantly national, despite the globalisation of cultural production and distribution. (5) Public authorities increasingly justify subsidies to culture with reference to the beneficial effects that art and culture could have outside the cultural field. Therefore, one might argue that other public bodies could take better care of cultural affairs. (6) A specific public cultural sector may appear to ‘imprison’ culture in a bureaucratic ‘iron cage’. (7) Finally, one might argue that a public cultural policy has no sense in a period of stagnating public finances. In addition, I discuss several counterarguments to these challenges, without coming to a definite conclusion. I have based the analysis on available comparative research about the public cultural policies of Western democracies, predominantly Norwegian cultural policy.     

新砦聚落考古的回顾与展望——纪念新砦遗址发掘30周年

经过30年来的发掘和研究,新砦遗址在文化谱系研究、聚落形态研究、多学科合作研究等方面取得了一定成绩。二里头文化第一期不会是夏文化的上限,新砦期也不会是最早的夏文化。如果要追寻早期夏文化就必须到比新砦二期文化更早的龙山时代遗存中去寻找。在新砦遗址找到了城墙、护城河、内壕、外壕以及大型建筑。新砦遗址所在的溱洧流域自旧石器时代已经有人类居住,裴李岗文化时期已经出现较发达的农业,仰韶文化前期,聚落得到较快的发展,仰韶文化后期,聚落分化明显加剧,到了龙山时代开始出现城址,至新砦二期终于出现了都邑性质的原始城堡,二里头文化时期中心聚落似乎迁往它处,至东周时期再度繁荣。