Microscopic Egyptian Blue (Synthetic Cuprorivaite) from Sediments at Two Archaeological Sites in West Central England

We report here on two microscopic finds of Egyptian blue in west-central England. The fragments came from heavy mineral separates and micromorphological slides from Roman and Saxon sediments respectively, and were compared with laboratory made cuprorivaite. The strong blue colouration, morphology, optics, EDXRA and XRD results are consistent across the range of archaeological and experimental examples. Further issues of origin, manufacturing and taphonomy are also discussed.     

An X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) investigation in human and animal fossil bones from Holocene to Middle Triassic

We examined by Rietveld refinement of X-ray Diffraction patterns a series of 61 human and animal fossil bones in an age range from present time to Middle Triassic (around 245 Ma). This approach, supplemented by elemental analysis according to X-ray Fluorescence, has permitted to obtain a quantitative evaluation of the mineralogical phases in the specimens, thus allowing to reconstruct the mineralization process involved. Concerning the apatite phase, after adopting a monoclinic geometry for the unit cell, the method permits to determine with fair degree of precision the unit cell volume, which is found to decrease in relatively short geological times as a function of the fluorine substitution process for the hydroxyl group –OH. After excluding the role of a high-temperature fire treatment to the bones, it is found that a certain linear correlation may exist over the geological time scale involved between the age of the specimen and the average crystallite size. This observation permits to use the XRD pattern as an evaluation of the age of the fossil, although the stratigraphic observations, where available, remain as the main reliable source for dating such biomaterials. The uncertainty related to this age estimation may be hardly better than 15–20% in absolute, because of various assumptions involved in the XRD methodology used and in the variability of the burial environment that may be subjected to discontinuous changes over the very long time of deposition.     

The Freedom of Archaeological Research: Archaeological Heritage Protection and Civil Rights in Austria (and Beyond)

Archaeologists like to think that heritage protection laws serve the purpose of protecting all archaeology from damage. Thus, provisions like that of §11 (1) Austrian Denkmalschutzgesetz or Art. 3 i-ii of the Valletta Convention are interpreted as a blanket ban on archaeological fieldwork ‘unauthorized’ by national heritage agencies, and a general prohibition against archaeological field research by non-professionals. The Austrian National Heritage Agency, the Bundesdenkmalamt, interprets the Austrian law in this way. Using the Austrian example as a case study, this paper demonstrates that this interpretation must be wrong, since, if it were true, it would revoke a fundamental civil right enshrined both in the Austrian constitution and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: the unconditional freedom of research, which applies to archaeological field research as to any other kind of academic research, and extends equally to every citizen.     

A Reconsideration of Rwandan Archaeological Ceramics and their Political Significance in a Post-Genocide Era

This paper reviews Rwandan ceramic typologies and integrates these with recent regional ones through the consideration of four new ceramic assemblages dating to three distinct phases across the past 2,000 years. In addition to providing a synthesis of ceramic approaches as a research resource, it also suggests that ceramics previously termed type C might now better be understood as a transitional form of Urewe. In so doing, it both describes how previous accounts of Rwanda's archaeological ceramics reproduced a contested ethno-racial colonial construction of Rwandan society and suggests the replacement of these with non-ethno-racial explanations of material culture change proposed elsewhere for comparable circumstances in Great Lakes Africa. Finally, as the government seeks to reintroduce secondary school history teaching using archaeological narratives, it discusses the contemporary political significance of this and other research in post-genocide Rwanda, arguing that archaeology, whether framed in technical language or not, has contemporary political reference.     

考古研究的经验主义与理性主义

<正>在中国,考古学被认为是历史学的一个分支,可以用来证经补史。梁启超的两重证据法体现了早期中国学界对考古学的认识和价值期望,至今仍被认为是中国考古学的特色。在欧美,考古学被认为     

Three-dimensional Distribution of Minerals in the Sediments of Hayonim Cave,Israel: Diagenetic Processes and Archaeological Implications

The mineral components of the sediments that accumulate in an archaeological site constitute a potentially rich source of information on the diagenesis, and in turn the archaeology of the site. This detailed three-dimensional study of the mineral assemblages in mainly the Mousterian sediments of Hayonim Cave incorporates more than 2100 infrared analyses performed on-site during the excavation, as well as diverse analyses in the laboratory. Three major mineral assemblages are identified: the calcite-dahllite (CD) assemblage, the assemblage comprising mainly montgomeryite, leucophosphite and siliceous aggregates (LMVS), and a highly altered sediment in which the clays have broken down and silica was released. The boundaries between these assemblages were mapped in detail. The overall picture is one of extreme heterogeneity with sharp variations occurring over distances of a few centimetres. The relation between the CD and LMVS assemblages shows that it is a product of post-depositional diagenesis, whereas the altered clay assemblage formed beneath an erosional unconformity. The CD and LMVS assemblages were derived primarily from an accumulation several metres thick of ash deposits produced by humans. Ash is thus shown to be a major component of the sediments of this cave. The distribution of the CD assemblage reflects to a large extent the locations of two active springs/seepages in the cave. The distribution of the CD assemblage also faithfully maps the distribution of bones in the cave, showing that their distribution is a function of preservational conditions and not human activities (Stineret al ., 2001). The conditions that produced the erosional unconformity, also resulted in severe alteration of the clays and other mineral components of these sediments. The erosion process and the fact that the thickness of this altered zone decreases towards the centre of the cave, indicates that the diagenetic driving force was probably climatic. The three-dimensional distributions of the mineral assemblages have a direct bearing on the dating of the cave by thermoluminescence and electron spin resonance.     

Founding of a Monumentenwacht for Archaeological Heritage in Flanders (Belgium)

Abstract

In August 2009, Monumentenwacht Vlaanderen set out to develop a new service and monitoring system for archaeological heritage in Flanders. Such an initiative takes time, for it needs to be done thoroughly, and there are many questions that need to be addressed. The answers can be found partly in examples in other countries, but must also be evolved in practice within the Flemish context, where a policy on in situ preservation of archaeological heritage is still in its infancy. This paper explains how this new service has been set up.     

景德镇葫芦窑技术源流的考古学观察

葫芦窑是景德镇窑炉技术发展承上启下的重要阶段,梳理葫芦窑的技术源流对厘清景德镇窑炉技术发展的过程有重要意义.以往学界认为景德镇葫芦窑是龙窑与马蹄窑技术结合的产物,但通过分析葫芦窑的结构特征,并将其与龙窑、马蹄窑比较分析,可知景德镇葫芦窑是对景德镇宋元龙窑及其改良技术的继承,并未吸收马蹄窑半倒焰的核心技术.     

When a Local Legend Is (Mis)Appropriated in the Interpretation of an Archaeological Site

Context permitting, should public archaeologists allow “archaeologically incorrect” accounts of the past? In this paper I discuss this question through a case study based on the experience of myself and my colleagues at the excavation of the Villa of Augustus in Somma Vesuviana, Italy. In 2003 and 2004, we became aware that some visitors to the excavation interpreted the site by reference to a legend of the tunnel of Queen Giovanna, which had existed in Somma Vesuviana over the centuries. Although initially interested in this phenomenon, we soon realised that we needed to make certain judgements as to how to respond to local people asking whether the tunnel had been discovered in the excavation. We presented two different ways of interpreting the site, one based on archaeology and the other on the legend, and both as equally meaningful, while at the same time stressing what we as archaeologists believed, based on what we had found. In this process we decided to adhere to the principles of archaeology, even in embracing the multivocality of material remains.     

东周燕文化与周边考古学文化的关系研究(下)

东周时期燕国的考古学文化,发展出具有其自身特色的文化内涵。东周燕文化的存在和发展,与其周边诸考古学文化息息相关,既有时周边考古学文化的文化因素吸收,也从不同程度上对周边考古学文化产生了影响。     

The Identification and Modification of Greater Adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius) Bones in the Holocene Archaeological Record of Northern Vietnam

We report on the first prehistoric identifications of the Greater Adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius ) in the prehistoric archaeological record of Vietnam, the earliest known example of this species in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA). The two bone fragments, a proximal tarsometatarsus and a distal tibiotarsus, were found in the hunter–gatherer midden/cemetery site of Con Co Ngua in Thanh Hoa Province, and date to c. 6000 – 5500 BP. The tarsometatarsus has been modified into an edge ground implement similar to artefacts recorded at other archaeological sites in the region. Modifications to the functional end suggest that the implement is consistent with the manipulation and/or manufacture of plant‐based fibres. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Archaeological evidence of an early Islamic monastery in the centre of al-Qusur (Failaka Island,Kuwait)

The history of Christianity in the Gulf is still largely unknown since both archaeological and written sources are sparse. Many questions remain about the development and disappearance of Christian communities, as well as their form. A few sites were identified as Christian because of the discovery of churches or crosses. A church was excavated at al-Qusur (Failaka Island, Kuwait) by the French Mission to Kuwait in 1988–1989. Since 2011, a new French–Kuwaiti Archaeological Mission in Failaka (MAFKF) has aimed to better understand the site’s phasing and organisation. The discovery of a large refectory and a small tripartite building that is most probably a monk’s cell, as well as the reinterpretation of a church-like building as a structure perhaps dedicated to the spiritual education of monks has demonstrated that at least the central part was a monastery, making it the second Christian settlement in the Gulf to be proven to be a monastery.     

The Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus ) as an Accumulator of Archaeological Bones. Late Glacial Assemblages and Present-day Reference Data in Corsica (Western Mediterranean)

Assemblages of 751 bone remains of an endemic Corsican deer (Megaloceros cazioti) from Late Glacial layers at Luri- Grı̀tulu cave (Northern Corsica) show an uncommon taphonomic pattern, mainly characterized by high dominance of third phalanxes and high rate of digestion marks. The authors demonstrate that this pattern cannot result from accumulation by human beings or by large mammal carnivores. The bearded vulture, which is able to accumulate large mammal bones in its nest and the presence of which is attested in the faunal remains at Grı́tulu, is the principal putative accumulator. In order to test this hypothesis, bone contents from 11 nests of modern Corsican bearded vultures (871 bone remains, i.e., more than 105 individual carcasses) are analysed from a taphonomic point of view. They are mainly characterized by overwhelming quantities of third phalanxes from middle-size ruminants, abundance and location of digestion marks around proximal articulations, and few bone flakes. A comparison of the Grı́tulu cave assemblages with these new present-day reference data leads to the conclusion that they have actually been accumulated by Late Glacial bearded vultures. Small discrepancies can, however, be explained by differences in food availability between the Late Glacial and modern times.     

Palynological and Archaeological Evidence for Ritual Use of Wine in the Kura-Araxes Period at Aradetis Orgora (Georgia,Caucasus)

Pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs from two zoomorphic Kura-Araxes vessels (ca. 3000 b.c.) from Aradetis Orgora suggest they were utilized for the ritual consumption of wine and likely represent the beginning of the enduring tradition of animal-shaped wine-drinking containers in Georgia. This hypothesis is supported by archaeological and geoarchaeological data: they resemble later wine-containing vessels from Georgia and elsewhere and were found in a building whose context is suggestive of a small shrine. Their palynological spectra match those of present-day wine and wine containers of other periods. One of them was intact, with only a small access hole; consequently, its palynological spectrum can be utilized as a standard for determining the presence of wine in other archaeological vessels. Palynological analyses from different contexts of the Aradetis Orgora settlement and its cemetery (Doghlauri) yielded other significant results regarding the practice of viticulture and the cultural relevance of wine during the Kura-Araxes period.     

Using portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) analysis for on-site study of ceramic sherds at El Hibeh,Egypt

As part of its geoarchaeological research program, the El Hibeh Project of the University of California, Berkeley field-tested at the site of El Hibeh, northern Middle Egypt, the utility of a portable EDXRF unit for obtaining geochemical analyses of pottery suitable for provenance and other ceramic classification studies. When the geochemical ceramic data from the field test are combined with basic petrographic analysis for the pottery sample set, compelling results are generated. In particular, a triangular scattergram using elemental iron, strontium and rubidium data, in parts per million, provides excellent temporal and spatial separation of ceramic fabrics type, origin and date. The geochemical behavior of iron, strontium and rubidium is discussed in relation to geological source materials utilized for pottery manufacture.