PROCEDURES FOR COMPARING AND COMBINING RADIOCARBON AGE DETERMINATIONS: A CRITIQUE

Archaeologists, along with other Quaternary researchers, seldom rely upon a single radiocarbon determination to provide an estimate of the age of the phenomenon which is the object of their study. There is an evident need for an explicitly formulated procedure for comparing sets of radiocarbon determinations from the same and from adjacent strata or sites, and for combining these where statistical and archaeological criteria indicate that this combination is warranted. The present contribution provides explicit modelling for a series of recommended procedures, a critique of previous methods, and paradigms for application of the recommended procedures.     

THE RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY OF THE NEOLITHIC AND COPPER AGE OF NORTHERN ITALY

Summary. Until twenty years ago the chronology of the Neolithic and Copper Age settlement of Northern Italy was almost exclusively based on the stratigraphical sequence of the Arene Candide cave in Liguria. The research carried out since the sixties has strongly increased our knowledge of the earliest farming communities and the first copper using people who inhabited the country between the end of the seventh and the beginning of the fourth millennium BP. This article considers the available evidence for this period which is now supported by a good set of radiocarbon dates.     

CHARIOTS AND CONTEXT: NEW RADIOCARBON DATES FROM WETWANG AND THE CHRONOLOGY OF IRON AGE BURIALS AND BROOCHES IN EAST YORKSHIRE

This paper presents 21 new radiocarbon dates for Iron Age burials excavated at Wetwang Slack, East Yorkshire, including three chariot burials. The dates are analysed using a Bayesian approach, along with previous dates from the cemetery and from other chariot burials in the region. The model suggests that regular burial at Wetwang spanned the third and earlier second centuries cal BC, a shorter period than once thought, whilst the chariot burials all belong to a short‐lived horizon centred on 200 cal BC. The dating of brooch types present in the burials is also reassessed. Our results imply that brooches of La Tène D form appeared in Britain in the later second century cal BC, in line with Continental evidence, but reinforcing the void in the later Iron Age sequence revealed in a recent study of decorated metalwork. Both this apparent gap and the end of the classic East Yorkshire mortuary tradition may well be manifestations of the more general changes that swept across Europe at this period, ushering in the new forms of political organization and social practices that define the Late Iron Age.     

TEXTURAL ANALYSIS OF CERAMIC THIN SECTIONS: EVALUATION OF GRAIN SAMPLING PROCEDURES

‘Textural analysis’ is being increasingly used for the characterisation of pottery fabrics. In this study we have investigated some of the effects on the observed size distribution data of applying a number of different grain selection procedures (principally various point-counting and ribbon-counting procedures). The results indicate that significant differences may arise from the application of the various techniques of grain selection and it is important that appropriate procedures be rigorously applied.     

DATING THE AEGEAN LATE BRONZE AGE WITH RADIOCARBON: ADDENDUM

Additional comment on the new high-precision calibration curves and tables published after this article (Archaeometry 29 (1), 1987, 45–49) was in press.     

PORE-SIZE DISTRIBUTION DETERMINATIONS IN NEOLITHIC,IRON AGE,ROMAN AND OTHER POTTERY

A method of evaluating the pore-size distribution of pottery is described and results obtained from a number of samples ranging from Neolithic to modern pottery shown graphically. The method may serve to distinguish between similar-looking sherds if no other means of identification exists, but further work is needed before a series of determining curves can be established.     

RESEARCH NOTES AND APPLICATION REPORTS DATING THE AEGEAN LATE BRONZE AGE WITH RADIOCARBON*

The beginning of the Late Bronze Age in the Aegean has usually been thought to coincide with the start of the Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt, and radiocarbon dates (which consistently suggest an earlier chronology) have been rejected by Aegean specialists because they do not agree with this view. Evidence from pottery is used to re-examine the links between the Aegean and Egypt, with the conclusion that the Aegean Late Bronze Age began during the Hyksos period.     

PROBLEMS OF THE RADIOCARBON CALENDAR AND ITS CALIBRATION

Both the growing body of literature on the tree-ring calibration of radiocarbon dates, and the variety of statistical approaches used, make it appropriate to review the basic principles involved in the construction of a calibration curve. While its ultimate validity is in part a geophysical problem, the appropriate form for the calibration function, given a specific body of data, is a statistical question centering upon the analysis of the measurement errors involved. The relationship between the calibration function and the inverse calibration function is examined, and the shortcomings of the available published calibration curves considered in the light of this examination. It is concluded that there is no reason to doubt the general principles on which the calibration is based, but a need exists for a more critical handling of the measurement data with a statistical treatment of the errors involved. The quality of the data could itself be improved by the use of replicate samples for inter-laboratory projects specifically designed to investigate the magnitude of measurement error.     

THE TRUE FACE OF MOUNT LU: ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PERSPECTIVES AND PARADIGMS1

From a hermeneutic point of view, understanding is always conditioned by one's own horizon and perspective. as the great poet Su Shi remarks, we do not know the “true face of Mount Lu” because what we see constantly changes as we move high or low, far off or up close. But the point of the “hermeneutic circle” is not to legitimize the circularity or subjectivity of one's understanding, but to make us conscious of the challenge. How do we understand China, its history and culture? What should be the appropriate paradigm or perspective for China studies? More than twenty years ago, Paul Cohen argued for a “China‐centered” approach to understanding Chinese history, but to assume an insider's perspective does not guarantee adequate understanding any more than does an outsider's position guarantee emancipation from an insider's myopia or blindness. By discussing several exemplary cases in China studies, this essay argues that neither insiders nor outsiders have monopolistic or privileged access to knowledge, and that integration of different perspectives and their dynamic interaction beyond the isolation of native Chinese scholarship and Western Sinology may lead us to a better understanding of China and its history.     

PARADIGMS BEHIND (AND BEFORE) THE MODERN CONCEPT OF RELIGION

This essay identifies five paradigms that are basic to understanding the historical emergence and uses of the generic idea of “religion” in the Christian cultures of Europe and America. The spread of this concept has been sufficiently thorough in recent centuries as to make religion appear to be a “social fact,” to use Durkheim's phrase, rather than so many cultural expressions and different social practices. The supremacy of Euro‐American culture—and an academy still saturated with Christian ideas—has enjoined other cultures and forms of religiosity to conform to this idea of religion; for these cultures contentment with the status quo can vie with the anxieties of influence, including “modernization.” The key paradigms discussed are the following: Christianity as the prototype; religion as the opposite of reason; the modern formulation of “world religions”; the cultural necessity of religion; and critical analysis of the Western “construction” of religion. These paradigms demonstrate the limits on theoretical variety in the field, the difficulty in making real changes in set ways of thinking, and productive foci for interdisciplinary methods of study.     

ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS OF ADAPTIVE AND NON-ADAPTIVE FORCE-BASED PUSHOVER PROCEDURES

The recent drive for use of performance based methodologies in design and assessment of structures in seismic areas has significantly increased the demand for the development of reliable nonlinear inelastic static pushover analysis tools. As a result, the recent years have witnessed the introduction of the so-called adaptive pushover methods, which, unlike their conventional pushover counterparts, feature the ability to account for the effect that higher modes of vibration and progressive stiffness degradation might have on the distribution of seismic storey forces. In this paper, the accuracy of these force-based adaptive pushover methods in predicting the horizontal capacity of reinforced concrete buildings is explored, through comparison with results from a large number of nonlinear time-history dynamic analyses. It is concluded that, despite its apparent conceptual superiority, current force-based adaptive pushover features a relatively minor advantage over its traditional non-adaptive equivalent, particularly in what concerns the estimation of deformation patterns of buildings, which are poorly predicted by both types of analysis.     

PLASTER AND MORTAR RADIOCARBON DATING OF NABATEAN AND ISLAMIC STRUCTURES,SOUTH JORDAN*

The study aims to use lime mortars and plasters to radiocarbon date Nabatean and Islamic structures from Petra and Udruh, south Jordan. Fifteen samples from seven structures were characterized by thin‐section, scanning electron and cathodoluminescence microscopy. The lime binders of all the samples and the organic inclusions from nine samples were AMS radiocarbon dated. The dates and the historical data of the samples were compared with each other. The results showed an agreement between the radiocarbon dates of the lime binders and the organic inclusions and the historical data for most of the samples. The radiocarbon dates of the lime binders supported by the radiocarbon dates of the organic inclusions and the archaeological data were helpful in reconstructing a rather precise chronology of the studied structures.     

FROM BRONZE AGE HILLFORT TO CAPITAL CITY NEW RADIOCARBON DATES AND THE FIRST ARCHAEOBOTANICAL INVESTIGATION AT THE VILNIUS CASTLE HILL

The ‘Castle Hill’ represents the core territory of Vilnius, around which gravitated urban development, eventually culminating in the foundation of the capital of Lithuania. However, we know very little about the earliest occupation on Castle Hill - how it developed over time, and what the activities were of the people that inhabited the site. While the study of plant remains can provide a crucial insight into human staple foods, agricultural activities and the palaeoenvironment, previous attempts of archaeobotanical investigations of such an important cultural heritage site was cut short due to the outbreak of World War II. Here is presented the first archaeobotanical analyses from the territory of Castle Hill together with new radiocarbon dates stretching from the 8^th century BC until the 14^th century AD. The primary archaeobotanical analyses in combination with published datasets from adjacent regions around Castle Hill show that the diversification of crops and the introduction of various crop rotation practises during the 8-13^th centuries AD. Here, for the first time, attention is drawn to the agricultural strategies in medieval Vilnius that likely played a pivotal role in the formation and development of the city.     

GILDINGS AND FALSE GILDINGS OF THE BAROQUE AGE: CHARACTERIZATION AND CONSERVATION PROBLEMS

This work investigates the decayed decoration of the ‘Vergine del Carmelo’ chapel, with a particular interest in the residual gildings. Samples of the finishing layers were examined by VIS‐UV optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy coupled with EDX spectrometry, in order to evaluate the unusual degradation phenomena. Mineralogical composition of the stucco substrate was characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and FTIR spectroscopy. The results showed the unexpected presence of a thick layer of brass flakes, applied without any binder, used as a substitute for the damaged original gold leaf, and highlighting a very uncommon selective corrosion process of the brass.