Description of a Curious Leaden Font in the Church of Brookland,Kent

Data collected from fieldwalking have traditionally been used to identify ‘sites’ (high-density pottery concentrations) and to distinguish crudely between arable and non-arable zones on the basis of the presence or absence of low-density pottery scatters. A deeper analysis of ceramic manure scatters has been undertaken here using material collected from an extensive survey of fields in north Buckinghamshire and south-west Northamptonshire. This has revealed changes in medieval manuring strategies over time and between different arable farming regimes. These systems, such as infield/outfield cultivation, open-field farming, demesne blocks, and assarts can all be characterized by the manuring strategies they deployed and identified from the signatures these have left in the ground. The plotting of ceramic manure scatters thus permits the detailed mapping of each component of the medieval arable zone, leading to a more comprehensive reconstruction of the medieval rural landscape than has previously been attempted. Importantly, it is argued, the study of ceramic manure scatters may provide a new archaeological indicator of the origins and development of the open-field system.     

长株潭地区聚落空间演化及其与耕地的空间关系研究

对2000年、2005年及2010年的遥感影像图进行解译,得到3个时期的土地利用分类图,运用景观指数法和空间分析法等方法,对长株潭地区聚落的空间演化特征及动因进行分析,并分析了聚落与耕地之间的空间关系。结果表明:长株潭地区聚落的面积、数量规模和分布密度加速扩大,集中分布在高程200 m以下;聚落空间演化的自然动因是低地平原指向,而社会动因是人口规模的变化;提出耕地与聚落面积比指数(K)概念,根据K值的大小可以将耕地与聚落的空间组合关系分为3类地区:耕地资源紧缺区、耕地资源平衡区、耕地资源盈余区;聚落与耕地的空间转移关系可以分为两大类:持续稳定型和动态变化型;长沙市周边耕地转为聚落的趋势十分明显;聚落空间扩张对耕地的影响存在一个空间临界点,城市化速度越快,临界点的位置距离聚落越远。     

基于GIS的蔚县乡村聚落空间格局演化与驱动机制分析

以蔚州志和蔚县地名资料汇编为数据源,借助GIS核密度估计方法研究了蔚县乡村聚落商周时期至清朝3000多年间的空间格局演化特点。总体演化过程呈现由集中分布趋向随机分布的特征;演化过程中形成了四个不同阶段的区域空间格局:"缓慢增长的壶流河一侧‘一’字形‘双核’分布模式"、"普遍增长的壶流河下游‘多核’分布模式"、"快速增长的壶流河两侧大范围增长带的空间扩展模式"、"稳定增长的壶流河两侧带状‘多核’空间分布模式"。根据演化特点和历史文化资料分析,总结了蔚县乡村聚落演化的自然条件、军事历史条件、人口迁移和经济贸易发展四个方面驱动因素。研究表明核密度估计法可以较好的表现聚落空间格局,方便历史聚落演化不同阶段的对比分析。     

An Umm an‐Nar culture stone bas‐relief from Al‐Qutainah,Sultanate of Oman

The Al‐Qutainah stone with its bas‐relief decoration was found in a secondary position, reused through time. The object is clearly a facing stone, originally part of an Umm an‐Nar period tomb, and was subsequently repeatedly reused for making new engravings. While working out the sequence of images it became clear that the very first image was a pair of human figures. This artwork is associated to grave architecture and therefore dates to the Umm an‐Nar period. Two models of interpretation can be suggested, the image of a human pair or the image of a supplicant and deity. Changes in the original meaning of the image indicate conceptual changes in subsequent periods, most probably alterations in the underlying social structure. The importance of the Qutainah stone is not solely due to rare monumental human figurative expression of the period in Oman; furthermore, the find spot in the Adam region is at a distance from the central location of Umm an‐Nar culture that has so far emerged.     

Archaeobotanical and GIS-based approaches to prehistoric agriculture in the upper Ying valley,Henan, China

Archaeobotanical survey has sampled a series of late Neolithic to early Bronze Age settlements in the upper Ying valley (part of the central plain of China) and provided useful data for understanding prehistoric arable ecology and farming during a period of increasing local social complexity. A combination of the modelling functions offered by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the data reduction possibilities offered by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) allow us to explore possible relationships between local arable ecology, crop-processing strategies and the natural environment. The results should be treated cautiously given the size of the analytical sample but suggest that differences in the natural environment around each site may explain varying patterns of wild food collection, while social and cultural factors may better explain variation in farming practice and crop-processing at different sites.     

北方地区史前时期石城聚落墙体建造技术研究

在新石器时代和青铜时代中国北方地区发现大量防御性的石城聚落,其石砌技术作为北方地区独特的建筑方式,具有区域性、传承性和多元性等特征。归纳起来有石砌矮墙、护坡式石墙、直立式石墙、石砌包台、堑山砌石和分段砌筑等技术。其形成的原因与不同区域出现的年代差异、石材资源的构成和地形地貌等方面有关。     

Three Deserted Medieval Settlements on Dartmoor: A Report on the late E. Marie Minter's Excavations

HOUNDTOR, HUTHOLES AND DINNA CLERKS are three deserted medieval settlements on the granite uplands towards the eastern side of Dartmoor Forest, Devon. Houndtor and Hutholes were small villages comprising eleven and six buildings respectively; Dinna Clerks was an isolated homestead. Extensive excavation at these sites by the late Mrs E. Marie Minter revealed a long sequence o f superimposed houses, divisible into two periods. Those of the first were built of turf. Although their remains were few, and in some places confusing, they provided much information on the construction of this type of building in the South- West of England. During the second period commencing in the middle of the 11th century, the houses of turf were gradually replaced by those of stone. The excavation of the well-preserved remains of the long-houses and their associated barns and corn-driers and the recording of the gardens and some of the open fields have given a clear insight into the ecology of a community dependent upon mixed farming at altitudes between 1100 and 1300 ft above sea level. The excavation of these settlements has also demonstrated how the deterioration of the climate in the late 14th and early 14th centuries led to their eventual desertion.     

A Neolithic innovation in eastern Arabia: haematite axes and adzes

Well before metallurgy, Neolithic societies in the Gulf were engaging in a very peculiar form of metal object production, particularly of axes and adzes made from haematite. In the heart of the Neolithic Middle East, this innovation was specific to Arabian shores between the Musandam and Qatar peninsulas. Quite infrequent among Neolithic lithic assemblages from Arabia, axes and adzes were mostly collected on the surface of domestic settlements. One is often dealing with objects to which the most focus has been given, apart from arrowheads and projectile points. Several sites or outcrops are present on the Emirati coastline and Gulf islands. Inland mountain ranges also include some of these. From Ra’s al-Khaimah to Qatar, only 500 km separate the most distant Neolithic domestic settlements which possess haematite axes or hoes, a distance that is quite small when one considers the circulation of polished stone blades in other societies of the same period. Within the Middle East, south-eastern Arabia during the Neolithic engaged in a very original means of production of metal objects, as the latter did not focus on copper, a very malleable and much more available material, but on haematite, which was much harder.     

Chalcolithic settlement of Bahra 1 and its possible functions

Excavations of the Kuwaiti–Polish Archaeological Mission at the site of Bahra 1 in Kuwait uncovered the remains of a large settlement from the sixth millennium BC, associated with the Mesopotamian Ubaid culture. This connection is made clear by the presence of Ubaid Ware from the Ubaid 2/3 phase that appears alongside Red Coarse Ware typical for the Arabian Neolithic. Architecture of the settlement resembled the Ubaid one with orthogonal, multi-chambered houses. In one part of the site they form a dense block with traits that indicate some degree of spatial planning. This type of spatial arrangement is absent in Arabian Neolithic settlements and is also unknown from Ubaid settlements in Mesopotamia. One of the buildings discovered at Bahra 1 has a ground plan reminiscent of a sanctuary from Eridu XVI and was probably associated with cultic activities, as was a circular stone enclosure (Unit 6), representing local building traditions. The character of Bahra 1 architecture and the presence of cultic buildings at the site suggest that the settlements served as a local ceremonial and/or cultic centre.     

The transition from polis to kastron in the Balkans (III-VII cc.): general and regional perspectives

Abstract

Much of the evidence for the changes which scholars perceive in the Late Roman-to-Early Byzantine periods (the ‘Late Antique era’) and in the ‘Dark Age’-to-Middle Byzantine periods in the eastern empire, that is, changes occurring between the mid third and the eighth-to-ninth centuries, whether this evidence is textual, archaeological, or topographical, concerns in one way or another what might be called the upper levels of the settlement-system. These levels consist of settlements or sites distinguishable at various times from the undefended rural majority (or what in most areas forms the majority) of settlements by status (i.e., civic, that of a polis), form, size, situation, or associated functions. They may for present purposes be simply categorised as civic urban settlements, non-civic urban settlements, and non-civic nonurban fortifications or fortified settlements. To study the fate of such places, as settlements and as communities, is to confront the cultural, economic, and internal political history of the period in all its complexity, a task which in most respects is inconceivable without recourse to archaeology and topography. The following observations concern the need to rectify some imbalances in the emphases of research which distort some general analyses of the history of Late Antique and also Middle Byzantine settlements, and so distort our view of cultural, economic, and political change in the periods named.     

Early Woodland Upland Encampments of Central Ohio

Abstract

Most published studies of the Early Woodland period (1000 B.C.–200 B.C.) in Ohio have traditionally focused on the mortuary/ceremonial aspects (e.g. mounds) of the latter half of this time period. Less energy, however, has been devoted to nonmortuary sites, such as those that appear in the uplands as surface lithic scatters. In the past decade archaeological studies in central Ohio have yielded a rapidly growing amount of information concerning upland Early Woodland sites. In this article we compare and contrast variability in site structure, flint acquisition and stone tool production, diet, ceramic attributes, and radiocarbon dates from three central Ohio upland sites: President’s Club, 33LI183, and McCauley. Together, these data reveal an emerging pattern of upland site use during the Early Woodland period in central Ohio.     

CONTRASTING SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES IN THE EARLY IRON AGE? – NEW RESULTS FROM THE ALFÖLD PLAIN,HUNGARY, AND THE THRACIAN PLAIN,BULGARIA

Summary. What can students of the past do to establish the predominant land‐use and settlement practices of populations who leave little or no artefactual discard as a testament to their lifeways? The traditional answer, especially in Eastern Europe, is to invoke often exogenous nomadic pastoralists whose dwelling in perpetuo mobile was based on yurts, minimal local ceramic production and high curation levels of wooden and metal containers. Such a lacuna of understanding settlement structure and environmental impacts typifies Early Iron Age (henceforth ‘EIA’) settlements in both Bulgaria and eastern Hungary – a period when the inception of the use of iron in Central and South‐East Europe has a profound effect on the flourishing regional bronze industries of the Late Bronze Age (henceforth ‘LBA’). The methodological proposal in this paper is the high value of palynological research for subsistence strategies and human impacts in any area with a poor settlement record. This proposal is illustrated by two new lowland pollen diagrams – Ezero, south‐east Bulgaria, and Sarló‐hát, north‐east Hungary – which provide new insights into this research question. In the Thracian valley, there is a disjunction between an area of high arable potential, the small size and short‐lived nature of most LBA and EIA settlements and the strong human impact from the LBA and EIA periods in the Ezero diagram. In the Hungarian Plain, the pollen record suggests that, during the LBA–EIA, extensive grazing meadows were established in the alluvial plain, with the inception of woodland clearance on a massive scale from c.800 cal BC, that contradicts the apparent decline in human population in this area. An attempted explanation of these results comprises the exploration of three general positions – the indigenist thesis, the exogenous thesis and the interactionist thesis. Neither of these results fits well with the traditional view of EIA populations as incoming steppe nomadic pastoralists. Instead, this study seeks to explore the tensions between local productivity and the wider exchange networks in which they are entangled.     

新郑唐户新石器时代遗址调查

新郑唐户新石器时代遗址的仰韶文化内涵丰富,依据采集的大量陶器的器物特征,可分为早、中、晚三期,这对于解决遗址性质、区分区域类型、排列文化谱系以及今后这一带新石器时代的考古发掘与研究,都具有重要的参考价值.众多文献记载,新郑是传说中的黄帝故里,该遗址的南部传为"黄帝口",其仰韶文化遗存又十分丰富,这可能与传说时代黄帝氏族的重要中心聚落有关.     

Chipped Stone Debitage,Material Selection,and Expedient Tool Production in Southeast Michigan

Abstract

This article summarizes the results of exploratory analyses on material sources and debitage attributes from chipped stone artifacts at sites identified and sampled by the Eastern Michigan University Field School along the Huron River Valley in southeast Michigan. Several hypotheses are tested with chipped stone debitage assemblages from 35 prehistoric sites to better understand material selection, expedient versus formal tool manufacturing, and the influence of material availability and mobility in chipped stone processing within the region. The distribution of debitage attributes (reduction stage, technology, condition, and size) are first compared by material source and quality. Then, the distributions of materials and debitage attributes are compared among small limited-use sites and two early Late Woodland small settlements. The results indicate a heavy reliance on poorer quality local cherts, and a focus on expedient tool manufacturing with both the local poorer quality and the nonlocal higher quality sources. There were no major differences in debitage assemblages between the limited use sites and the settlements.     

DEMOGRAPHIC PROXIES FOR THE NEOLITHIC: WITH EMPHASIS ON THE LANGELAND REGION,DENMARK

The article discusses the use of summed probability distribution as a demographic proxy, and highlights several issues with this method, especially during periods of change in the exploitation of the landscape or during social transformation. With a case study from the Langeland region in Denmark an alternative and corrective approach is applied, were number of settlements and size of settlement is included. With this approach a very different development can be described.     

2002年度香港西贡沙下遗址C02区和DⅡ02区考古发掘简报

20 0 2年 ,香港古物古迹办事处和河南省文物考古研究所联合在香港发掘西贡沙下遗址 ,发掘面积达 70 0平方米。发现有新石器时代晚期、青铜时代和宋元代的遗存。遗迹中属新石器时代晚期有房址、灰坑等 ,青铜时代有房址、灰坑、石器制造场、灰沟等 ,宋元代有灰坑。遗物中有不同时代的石器、陶器、硬陶器、瓷器、釉陶器等。     

Settlement networks and the organization of lithic tool production in the Late Prehistoric period (a.d. 1000–1780), Lower Nueces River Valley,South Texas

Abstract

Evidence from one of several Late Prehistoric settlement networks in the Lower Nueces River Valley in Texas demonstrates that base camps were surrounded by smaller-sized temporary camps. Local groups utilized nearby stone quarries, moved raw material to their settlements and reduced cores, preforms, and bifaces into tools for domestic use and portable toolkits. The Lower Nueces River Valley settlement organization and tool production during this period suggest restricted mobility, base camp sedentism, and abundant resource supply. This organizational structure promoted a complex foraging economy and perhaps the emergence of territorial clustering.     

The development of the agrarian landscape on gotland during the early iron age

The author discusses the investigations on prehistoric agrarian landscape recently started on the island of Gotland. Main attention is focused on traces of deserted (fossilised) fields. Systematic reconnaissance in 1972–73 all over the island has brought forth a quite new material with ‘Celtic fields’ of a very great size and regional extent. The reconnaissance and regional mapping are mainly carried out by aerial photography.

Through the field work, which started in 1973 at Uggårde‐Vinarve in Rone parish, it has been possible to demonstrate a continuous field system to a total extent of about 130 hectares (325 acres). This field pattern is superimposed by a new agrarian landscape structure with building remains and stone wall fencing systems as the dominating features. The two stratigraphically separated structures of agrarian landscape put into an agrarian economic context indicate a development from extensive farming with long fallow periods to intensive farming with established land‐use (arable, meadow, and grazing) on smaller areas than formerly. A rough dating of the two structures gives 500 — 100 B. C. and 100 B. C. ‐ A. D. 500 respectively.

The investigations carried on by geographers and archaeologists in collaboration with Quaternary geologists are included in a research project by the Swedish Council for Social Science Research.     

Putting Porter into Practice? Practices of Regional Cluster Building: Evidence from Sweden

In the last decade there has been an increased interest in the cluster approach as a tool for boosting regional competitiveness. In this article practices and processes of regional cluster building in Sweden are examined in order to better understand the key traits that seem to be common to successful regional cluster initiatives. It is argued that regional cluster building may be formed through long running policy processes that are crucially constituted by public and private actors' collective vision of what cluster policy involves and what a cluster can look like. Results from a study of 13 cluster initiatives in Sweden are presented. Out of these, four key examples are presented in detail to illustrate four distinct 'models' of cluster approaches that emerged: (a) industry-led initiatives to build competitiveness and competence within an existing base; (b) top-down public policy exercises in brand-building; (c) visionary projects to produce an industry cluster from 'thin air'; (d) small scale, geographically dispersed, natural resource based, temporal clusters that link or dip into global rather than national systems, sources of innovation and competitive advantage. The article closes with the presentation of a checklist of some common elements that successful cluster initiatives in Sweden have shared. It is hoped that they may trigger further research or be useful to policy-makers working in the area. It is concluded that though many questions and problems persist over the use of the cluster-approach it can be a useful tool for regional development.     

试论江西出土宋代石室墓的形制与意义

考古发现的江西地区宋代石室墓可分为四型,大多数属于北宋中晚期,其总的变化趋势是:北宋初到北宋中期,石室墓的规模趋大,结构趋于复杂,北宋晚期以后,规模又逐渐变小,结构也趋于简单。石室墓一般为当时社会的中上层人士所使用,但随葬品并不繁多和贵重,可能与宋代江西地区浓厚的人文氛围及两宋政府提倡薄葬有关。宋代江西地区广泛流行的买地券在该地区石室墓中并不多见,且越是规模大、等级高的墓葬中就越发罕有买地券出土,但流行使用墓志。浇浆墓的形式有从中上层向中下层普及的趋势。