A possible case of treponemal disease from England dating to the 11th–12th century AD

This short report describes a human skeleton from an archaeological site in England showing signs of treponemal disease. A radiocarbon determination indicates that it is firmly pre‐Columbian in date. The implications for recent debates concerning the origin of treponemal disease in Europe are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ria de Aveiro A: a shipwreck from Portugal dating to the mid-15th century; a preliminary report

The remains of a coasting vessel were found in a lagoon close to the coast. Four radiocarbon determinations provided a date in the mid-15th century and it has been the subject of several seasons of excavation of CNANS. The excavation strategy is described, as are its surviving constructional details which are analysed with reference to early sources for Portuguese naval architecture. This coaster has constructional features found in ocean-going ships of the Iberian-Atlantic tradition. Its cargo of pottery is one of the most extensive and closely dated from the Age of Discovery and includes 18 forms.     

A new method for identifying sherd refits: A case study from the Neolithic of Northumbria,U.K.

Abstract

Here we present a flexible, quantitative methodology for refitting handmade ceramics. Rather than analyzing the physical joins between sherds, we assess the likelihood that non-adjoining sherds of similar appearance are from the same vessel. The customary disregard of non-adjoining sherds in refitting experiments prompts us to address this issue. Using the Neolithic ceramic assemblage from Thirlings (Northumberland, U.K.) as a case study, we test several scoring systems for assessing the probability of two sherds pertaining to the same vessel. The utility of this approach is supported by the comparison of a set of percentage scores statistically verified using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. We conclude with a discussion of the contribution of the new method to post-excavation ceramic analyses, and its applicability to other assemblages.     

Cranial trauma and treatment: a case study from the medieval cemetery of St. Mary Spital,London

Excavation of the cemetery of the medieval priory of St. Mary‐without‐Bishopsgate, Spitalfields, London from 1998–2001, recovered the remains of over 10,000 individuals. Following initial assessment, skeleton 19893 was found to have suffered three cranial injuries caused by a sharp edged implement. The remains were those of a middle aged adult male of around 172.4 cm in stature, truncated at the hips by a later feature. The remaining elements were well preserved. The cranial injuries were well healed, suggestive of some degree of post‐traumatic care. Evidence of possible surgery was also found. Soft tissue complications would undoubtedly have followed the assault. Battle related trauma was considered, together with evidence of treatment. Whilst the demographic profile of the individual fitted a plausible one for a professional fighter of the medieval period, no firm evidence of occupation could be provided. The case study indicates both the ability of medieval people to survive major trauma and the wealth of information full analysis of the Spitalfields assemblage will provide the osteological community. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The development of animal husbandry from the Late Iron Age to the end of the Roman period: a case study from South-East Britain

In this paper zooarchaeological evidence from Iron Age and Roman sites in South-East Britain is presented and the results are applied to the continuing debate over culture contact and change following the Roman invasion. Evidence from Heybridge in Essex indicates that there were two stages of livestock development. These may reflect the import of new breeding stock into Britain. Differences between the rate of livestock development at this rural site and the nearby urban centre of Colchester indicate differing mechanisms of animal supply between the two sites. The appearance of very large cattle in Late Roman contexts at Boreham in Essex suggests that improvement of animals continued throughout the Roman occupation and was not merely an initial response to new economic and administrative demands. The biometrical evidence from these three sites is compared with evidence from elsewhere in Europe and the development of livestock during the Roman Period is shown to be complex and varied. The impetus and ideology behind the changes in animal husbandry following the Roman invasion in Britain are explored.     

Last meals inferred from the possible gut contents of a mummy: A case study from Astana Cemetery,Xinjiang, China*

The gut contents of ancient humans have been proven to be the most direct evidence for palaeodietary study. In the Xinjiang region of north-west China, large numbers of mummies are well preserved owing to the extremely dry environment to be found there. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) combined with multi-archaeobotanical methods, including macrofossil examination, starch grain analysis, phytolith analysis and bran fragments analysis, were applied to investigate the possible gut contents (c.1300 bp by ¹⁴C dating) of a person unearthed at tomb 75TAM601 in Astana Cemetery, which were the public graveyards of the ancient Gaochang people (residents of Turpan, dating from about the third to the ninth centuries ce ), in Turpan, Xinjiang. The result of the FTIR analysis showed that the matrix of the possible gut contents consisted of protein and starch and was characterized as undigested food residue. The white mineral fragments of this sample were from the decomposition products of the skeleton. The microfossil analysis demonstrated that Setaria italica, Panicum miliaceum and Triticum aestivum were the main cereal resources for the last meals eaten by the deceased. Moreover, direct macrofossil evidence also advocates for the importance of the three aforementioned cereal crops and fruits of Cucumis melo and Vitis vinifera in the person's diet.     

The application of ancient DNA analysis to identify neolithic caprinae: a case study from the site of Hatoula,Israel

The evidence for wild sheep (Ovis orientalis) in archaeological sites from the southern Levant is examined through the application of ancient DNA analysis to specimens from the Pre‐Pottery Neolithic A (8300–7500 uncal. BC) site of Hatoula, Israel. The results indicate that at least one of the bones from this site, previously identified as sheep, is in fact goat. To date this is the earliest faunal sample to have yielded DNA in the region. This study highlights the problems in applying morphological criteria to distinguish between caprine species, and illustrates how ancient DNA analysis can serve as a powerful tool in resolving questions of species attribution. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Skeletal markers of occupational stress in the Fur Trade: A case study from a Hudson's Bay Company Fur Trade post

The Seafort Burial Site (FcPr100) is a Fur Trade Period cemetery located near the town of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. The results of recent analysis of skeletons recovered during salvage excavations between 1969 and 1971 suggest that three males in this sample were voyageurs in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. Vertebral osteophytosis and osteoarthritis, Schmorl's nodes, muscle origin robusticity and new bone formation at entheses and syndesmoses, and osteoarthritis at the elbow and shoulder joints provide evidence for carrying, lifting, and paddling or rowing. The presence of accessory sacral facets also may be stress-related. In addition, the development of accessory articular facets on the metatarsals and proximal pedal phalanges may indicate activity-induced stress from hyperdorsiflexion of the toes in habitual kneeling, such as when river canoeing.     

A GIS method for assessing the zone of human-environmental impact around archaeological sites: a test case from the Late Neolithic of Wadi Ziqlâb,Jordan

Assessing the impact of prehistoric sites on their local environment is difficult to accomplish with standard archaeological methods. Simulation modeling offers a solution to this issue, but it is first necessary to delimit a site catchment, or “zone of impact”, around archaeological sites in which to carry out human–environment interaction modeling. To that end, I have developed a new method for GIS-based catchment reconstruction and distilled it into a custom module (r.catchment) for GRASS GIS, which calculates catchments of a given area based on anisotropic travel costs from a point of origin. One method of applying this new module in exploratory catchment modeling is discussed using the pastoral economy of the Late Neolithic period in Wadi Ziqlâb, Northern Jordan as a test case. A model of Late Neolithic herding economy and ecology is constructed, which combines data from archaeology, phytogeography, range science, agronomy, and ethnohistory. Four sizes of pastoral catchments are then derived using r.catchment, and the herd ecology model is used to estimate the stocking-rate (carrying capacity) of mixed goat and sheep herds for each catchment. The human populations these herd numbers could support (between 3 and 630 people in the Wadi) are then compared with human population estimates derived from household architectural analyses (between 18 and 54 people in the Wadi) to determine the most probable catchment configurations. The results indicate that the most probable zone of impact around the known Late Neolithic sites in Wadi Ziqlâb was somewhere between 9 and 20 square kilometers, delineated by 3 and 4.5 km pasture radii respectively.     

Watch out for the neighborhood trap! A case study on parental perceptions of and strategies to counter risks for children in a disadvantaged neighborhood

Neighborhood is seen as one of the many social contexts that shape children's cognitive, emotional and social development. However, the neighborhood context does not simply ‘imprint’ itself on children, but can be mediated or moderated by other social contexts, in particular the family context through parenting practices. Based on a case study in a low income neighborhood in The Hague, The Netherlands, this paper addresses the question of how living in a disadvantaged neighborhood context constitutes a risk for children and which strategies parents develop in response to the perceived negative neighborhood influences.     

Strontium isotope evidence of migration and diet in relation to ritual tooth ablation: a case study from the Inariyama Jomon site,Japan

Ritual tooth ablation was extensively practiced among Jomon (Japanese Neolithic) societies in their final phase (ca. 3000-2300 BP). This tradition includes two different tooth ablation patterns, type 4I and type 2C, referring to extraction of the mandibular incisors and canines, respectively. However, the reason for this difference is unclear. Previous carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of human remains from the Inariyama shell mound revealed that type 4I individuals were more dependent on terrestrial resources and type 2C individuals on marine resources. To test this hypothesis, we performed strontium (Sr) isotope (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) analyses on the same skeletal remains and on modern plants around the site. Because Sr isotope ratios of plants differ according to the local geology and seawater has a consistent Sr isotope ratio, the Sr isotope ratios of tooth enamel can reveal both migration and diet. Comparing Sr isotope ratios in plants and seawater with those of tooth enamel, we identified four possible immigrants. Type 4I locals had significantly higher Sr isotope ratios than type 2C locals. The ratios of the type 4I and type 2C locals were close to those of terrestrial plants and seawater, respectively, suggesting that type 4I locals had incorporated much Sr from terrestrial resources and type 2C locals from marine resources. These results support the hypothesis that ritual tooth ablation reflects dietary differences throughout an individual’s life, and they suggest possible occupational differentiation among the Jomon people.     

3D reality-based artefact models for the management of archaeological sites using 3D Gis: a framework starting from the case study of the Pompeii Archaeological area

This work describes the procedures, the different techniques and the pipeline used for creating a digital framework that should assist the Superintendence of Pompeii in the digital reconstruction, classification, management and visualisation of archaeological finds inside an advanced 3D web-based repository of reality-based data. Specific topics have been focused on the quality assessment procedures adopted to ensure consistency and reliability of data throughout the whole 3D models acquisition and pipeline creation, as well as on the particular semantic reality-based structure adopted to develop an information system into a knowledge one. The main purposes of our framework have been the usage of 3D digital models as a restitution of the real object and as a metaphor for navigating through the data; 3D models were used as archaeological cognitive systems and developed as a collection of structured objects, identified through a precise terminology that allows to easily extend the concept of 2D GIS to 3D GIS. In addition, the system was developed as a scalable application that allows the use of the same database by different users, simply filtering the data according to the specific requirements, and can operate both as standalone and web-based application.     

基于拉曼光谱半定量分析的铁质文物锈层“保护能力指数”评估——以“南海Ⅰ号”沉船出水铁条为例

铁质文物锈蚀产物的稳定性对文物本体的保存与保护具有较大影响,对锈层稳定性的判断是评估铁质文物整体保存状况的关键步骤。“保护能力指数”(PAI)是锈蚀稳定相与不稳定相的含量比值,可用于评估铁质文物的锈蚀程度及腐蚀趋势。近来拉曼光谱越来越多地被用作一种半定量方法,可用于计算混合铁质文物锈蚀产物的各组分含量,因此,可利用该方法计算铁锈的PAI值。本研究利用激光拉曼光谱方法,并结合大幅面X射线荧光成像等多种方法手段,以“南海Ⅰ号”出水一件铁条文物为例,对其锈蚀产物进行半定量分析,并计算出锈蚀PAI值。结果表明,铁条主要包含α-FeOOH、γ-FeOOH、β-FeOOH及Fe₃O₄四种锈蚀产物,不同种类的锈蚀在内外层的分布规律有一定差异。铁条锈蚀PAI值波动范围较大,最低为0.34,最高为20.38,PAI值主要分布于1～10之间。内外锈层的PAI值不同：外层锈蚀PAI值相对较高,说明锈蚀较为稳定;层状剥离面锈蚀PAI值<1,表明锈蚀非常不稳定;内层锈蚀PAI值最低为0.73,说明存在不稳定锈蚀。铁质文物锈蚀产物PAI值为科学评估文物的保存状况提...     

Detection of chloride from pottery as a marker for salt: A new analytical method validated using simulated salt-making pottery and applied to Japanese ceramics

Salt is an essential mineral in the human diet, and ancient peoples obtained salt either directly from rock salt, from salt lakes, or by concentrating saline waters from salt springs or seawater in pottery vessels. However, because sodium chloride, the major component of salt, is soluble in water, it has been thought unlikely that any trace of salt would remain in the pottery after a long period of time. A new methodology for retrieval of water-insoluble (retainable) chloride ion trapped within a pottery matrix is presented as a method for detecting previous use of the pottery for salt making. Simulated salt-making pottery was used to make salt by repeatedly boiling seawater over a fire. After chloride had been extracted with distilled water, to mimic the removal of chloride by natural waters such as rainwater and groundwater, an aqueous ammonium fluoride solution was shown to be capable of extracting chloride ions remaining in the pottery. A chloride-selective electrode was used to quantify the amount of extracted chloride in the presence of fluoride. This method was then successfully applied to excavated Japanese pottery vessels suspected of having been used for making salt. Identification of retainable chloride in pottery can offer insights into salt trading networks, which reflect the growth and affluence of an ancient society.     

Slaves to Sailors: the archaeology of traditional Caribbean shore whaling c.1850–2000. A case study from Barbados and Bequia (St Vincent Grenadines)

The archaeology of the post‐Emancipation Caribbean remains relatively understudied. The collapse of the industrial‐scale sugar plantation systems of the islands in the early 19th century saw a radical re‐organization of socio‐economic life. A new corpus of consumers was created, eking out a living on the margins of island society, but never quite liberated. This period sees the emergence of an Afro‐Caribbean maritime culture focused upon shipbuilding, fishing, turtling and whaling, the latter a particular feature of the eastern Caribbean (Windward Islands). The archaeology of whaling communities, is relatively well understood from the perspective of North America, Australasia and Europe, but less so in the Caribbean. Using two case studies based upon recent excavation and survey work, this paper sheds light on a distinctive maritime cultural response in the post‐emancipation Eastern Caribbean world.     

The use of SEM-EDS,PIXE and EDXRF for obsidian provenance studies in the Near East: a case study from Neolithic Çatalhöyük (central Anatolia)

In this paper we evaluate the relative analytical capabilities of SEM-EDS, PIXE and EDXRF for characterizing archaeologically significant Anatolian obsidians on the basis of their elemental compositions. The study involves 54 geological samples from various sources, together with an archaeological case study involving 100 artifacts from Neolithic Çatalhöyük (central Anatolia). With each technique the artifacts formed two compositional groups that correlated with the East Göllü Da? and Nenezi Da? sources. The non-destructive capabilities of these methods are emphasized (albeit with certain analytical limitations in the case of SEM-EDS), suggesting important new techniques for Near Eastern obsidian provenance studies.     

Stable isotope dietary analysis of prehistoric populations from the Minusinsk Basin,Southern Siberia,Russia: a new chronological framework for the introduction of millet to the eastern Eurasian steppe

We report the results of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of 354 human and faunal samples from five archaeological cultures of the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia – Afanasyevo, Okunevo, Andronovo, Karasuk and Tagar (ca. 2700–1 BC) – a key location in Eurasia due to its position on a northern corridor linking China and central Eurasia. The results indicate that the diet of Eneolithic to Middle Bronze Age (Afanasyevo to Andronovo) populations was primarily C₃-based, with C₄ plants only becoming an important component of the diet in the Late Bronze Age Karasuk and Early Iron Age Tagar cultures. Freshwater fish seems to have been an important constituent of the diets in all groups. The findings constitute the earliest concrete evidence for the substantial use of millet in the eastern Eurasian steppe. We propose that it was probably introduced from Northwestern China during the Karasuk culture at the start of the Late Bronze Age, ca. 1500 BC. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for the nature of pastoralist economies on the steppes.     

建国初期社会救助体系的构建与评析--以1949～1953年的广州市为个案

建国初期,中共在广州构建了一个过渡性的社会救助体系,在短短的4年内,广州市通过它救助了大量的失业者和城市贫民,基本上遏制了由于新旧转轨带来的社会危机,为新政权即将展开的社会主义各项建设奠定了基础.在救助理念和救助过程上,它体现了以往社会救助的一些特点,同时也反映了我党的诸多特色,诸如鲜明的意识形态性、广泛的群众参与性和严格的组织纪律性,隐隐约约闪烁着以统一调配为主要特征的计划时代社会政策的影子.     

A Multi‐disciplinary Approach to the Archaeological Investigation of a Bedrock‐Dominated Shallow‐Marine Landscape: an example from the Bay of Firth,Orkney, UK

Investigation of shallow‐marine environments for submerged prehistoric archaeology can be hampered in many localities by extensive bedrock exposure and thus limited preservation potential. Using the concept of ‘seamless archaeology’ where land‐based archaeology is integrated across the intertidal zone through to the offshore, a multi‐disciplinary approach is essential. This approach taken in the Bay of Firth, Orkney uses geophysics, historical archive and ethno‐archaeology, coastal geomorphology, palaeo‐environmental analyses and sea‐level science, and allows a clearer understanding of the landscape in which prehistoric settlers lived. While acknowledging the limitations of the preserved environment, we are successful in identifying areas of archaeological potential on the sea‐bed for both upstanding structural elements as well as sediment preservation that contains evidence for human occupation. This has wider implications beyond Orkney's World Heritage sites to provide a blueprint for similar studies elsewhere in the coastal zone. © 2012 The Authors