Working on Rock Art in the Dakhleh Oasis: Some Thoughts on Threats to Petroglyphs and Possibilities of Research in the Western Desert,Egypt

The rock art in Dakhleh, despite being known for more than a century, has been thoroughly investigated only since the late 1980s, and remains far from being well known especially outside of Egypt. At the same time, the consecutive seasons of fieldwork conducted by the Petroglylph Unit (part of the international Dakhleh Oasis Project) have produced a great number of findings and substantially enhanced our knowledge of the petroglyphs of this area. Here, rather than focusing on interpretive aspects of the research, I wish to discuss the threats endangering the petroglyphs in the Oasis. Dakhleh has developed very intensively in the last 100 years. It is, however, the twenty-first century which seems to pose some serious threats to archaeological heritage. Hence, in this paper I wish to report on what has been done so far to document rock art in the Oasis, and try to establish the priorities for potential future work. The agricultural and infrastructural development in the area, and the uncertain political climate in the country, heavily influence the state of rock art preservation and the possibilities of research. The need for documentation and preservation of rock art is larger than ever before, because many changes in the local landscape cannot be stopped. The time is pressing, because more and more rock art is disappearing due to the reasons discussed in this paper. Threats to Egyptian rock art in general will form a background for considerations concerning petroglyphs from the Western Desert.     

浙江仙居岩画的微腐蚀断代

微腐蚀测年通过观测矿物晶体上的"石亏"来获知岩画的制作年代,是一种无损的"直接断代法"。仙居岩画的测年工作主要在送龙山和小方岩两处地点开展,经过观测,研究人员从岩画刻槽中取得了十一组石亏微腐蚀数据,以及两组来自吴芾墓附属石刻的校准数据。由校准后的年代计算结果可知,小方岩岩画的制作开始于东吴末年,贯穿了两晋及南北朝时期,一直延续至唐初,而送龙山岩画则为唐代作品。     

Rock art on Socotra,Yemen: the discovery of a petroglyph site on the island's south coast.

Recent fieldwork on the south coast of the island of Socotra, Yemen, has revealed a hitherto unknown petroglyph site. This site represents the first rock art to have been recorded on the south coast, an area generally regarded as being unpopulated up until the recent past. The corpus of recorded petroglyphs includes feet, cupules, anthropomorphic figures and geometric motifs, whose designs parallel those from known rock‐art sites on the north coast. The importance of this site is that it provides us with the first glimpse into the religious and socio‐political lives of the inhabitants of the previously unknown southern half of Socotra. Placing these petroglyphs within the broader context of rock‐art studies on the island of Socotra has also allowed us to begin to disentangle the skewed view of Socotra's inhabitants.     

Socioreligious context and rock art in east-central California

Interpretations of rock art typically focus on the symbolic meaning of the art, treating the paintings and engravings implicitly as passive iconographic texts. Rock art, however, is the product of active ritual and ceremony. As such it played an important role in the socioreligious lives of its creators and users. Here I provide a study of the socioreligious contexts of the pictographs and petroglyphs of eastern California, North America, emphasizing the painted art of the Tubatulabal and Coso Shoshone territories and the petroglyphs of the Coso region and using only archaeological data. This requires, first, establishing the chronological placement of this art. Based on a variety of lines of evidence the pictographs and some of the petroglyphs are argued to be historic in age. An ethnography of communications model is then used to provide a conceptual basis for investigating socioreligious contexts and ritual functions of the art. Message content is studied using a factor analysis of painted motif types and an examination of the distribution of sites predominated by certain factors. Two motif complexes, or message content groups, are identified: a Tubatulabal ritual community, employing geometric designs, and a Coso Shoshone community, exhibiting a predominance of representational pictographs. Analysis of message form, channels, settings, and inferred ritual participants suggests that Tubatulabal art resulted from community rituals, in which all the inhabitants of a hamlet would have directly or indirectly participated. Knowledge of the rules for creating and interpreting the parietal art would have been common to all in the community. In contrast, pictographs of the Coso Shoshone were the result of private rituals, with limited numbers of participants and witnesses. The message communicated in the ritual and the painted art would have necessarily been arcane, and few in the community at large may have even known of the creation of this rock art. The Coso petroglyphs, also created by the Coso Shoshone but apparently by a different ritual community within the population, had a different set of rules for ritual actions and symbolic interpretation. The ceremonies creating the engravings were commonplace, yet logically were conducted in private or with few participants, suggesting that the knowledge concerning the means for undertaking and interpreting this type of ritual was widely known throughout the population.     

ROCK ART SITES IN JAMAICA AND THEIR ETHNOGRAPHIC INTERPRETATION

26 sites with Pre‐Columbian (Taíno) rock art are known in Jamaica, most with petroglyphs only, but there are four with painted images, and three of these are discussed: Mountain River Cave, Potoo Hole, and Spot Valley Cave. In addition, an account is given of the Warminster rock shelter, which has petroglyphs described as among the best remaining in Jamaica. Spot Valley Cave was newly surveyed in 2005, with the help of the Jamaican Caves Organization, and in the same year a rescue operation to restore the Warminster petroglyphs was carried out, in cooperation with Dr Johannes Loubser. Comparisons are made, where appropriate, to Taíno artefacts in different materials, and also to Pre‐Columbian images on other islands in the Caribbean, notably Puerto Rico. The interpretation of the Taíno images, in Jamaica and elsewhere, relies to a considerable extent on the “Account of the Antiquities of the Indians”, compiled by Fray Ramón Pané in 1494–1498, on the express instructions of Columbus. Whatever the shortcomings of a narrative compiled by an outsider, we would be much worse off without it.     

Rock art survey in the ancient oasis of Salūt (northern Sultanate of Oman): a variegated iconographic record

The systematic survey of petroglyphs in the area of the ancient oasis of Salūt, in central Oman, highlighted a rich repertoire of representations that are here discussed against the background of Arabian rock art in general. The region displays an extremely rich number of engravings along the slopes of the Jabal Hammah, north of the main site of Salūt. The majority of the petroglyphs find abundant fitting comparisons in the region. The notable exception of the motif of the “man with halberd” is presented, as it appears to be significantly rare and underlines interpretative issues concerning the so-called T-shaped signs, ubiquitous in Arabian rock art. One of its occurrences was radiocarbon dated to before the mid-first millennium BCE. This and other, relative hints for reconstructing the chronological context of the petroglyphs are discussed, indicating that engravings can be broadly dated from the second millennium BCE onwards.     

Multiple inventories and divided archaeology in the West Bank: An assessment of databases in the Etzion Bloc

This paper presents and discusses an assessment of the scope, priorities, and coverage of existing archaeological datasets, via database comparison and on-the-ground re-survey of all accessible known sites in one region of the West Bank, the Etzion Bloc. The main goal of this survey was to assess the current inventories listing archaeological sites in the Etzion Bloc, an area that brings together an interesting range of archaeological and geographical issues that result directly from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This database assessment and review of listed archaeological sites included the verification of site existence and the examination of sites’ modern context, accessibility, current condition, potential threats, and the accuracy of their recorded location. The results of this fieldwork demonstrate the importance of keeping data up-do-date, provide suggestions on how to enhance the structure and contents of current inventories, and help prioritize and inform plans for further archaeological fieldwork in this region.     

Spatial and temporal variety of prehistoric human settlement and its influencing factors in the upper Yellow River valley,Qinghai Province,China

We report an investigation of forty-two prehistoric sites in the upper Yellow River valley located in Guide, Jianzha, Hualong, Xunha and Minhe, Qinghai Province, China, including forty-four new radiocarbon dates from twenty-four sites, review published archaeological surveys and radiocarbon dates, analyze landform features and discuss the reasons for spatial and temporal variety of regional prehistoric human settlement. Our results suggest that people occupied the upper Yellow River valley during the early Holocene, but a continuous archaeological record begins only after about 5500 Cal yr BP. Thereafter, the intensity of prehistoric human settlement in the area is varied. Neolithic human settlement spread northwestward to high altitude areas of the upper Yellow River valley during early-mid Majiayao and Qijia periods, but moved southeastward to lower locations in the area during late Majiayao period. During the Bronze period, two coeval archaeological cultures, the Kayue and Xindian, occupied the upper Yellow River Region. Kayue archaeological sites are numerous and widely distributed in the high areas of the upper Yellow River, while Xindian sites are restricted to the lowest basin of the region. Variation in site density and location are likely the result of changing paleoclimate and technology.     

Airborne LiDAR application to karstic areas: the example of Trieste province (north-eastern Italy) from prehistoric sites to Roman forts

The Trieste Karst, at the northernmost shore of the Adriatic Sea, is rich in prehistoric caves and protohistoric hill forts. Most of these archaeological sites were already identified in the second half of the 19th century when large parts of the area were almost without vegetation coverage for the effect of sheep breeding and exploitation of wood resources. Only a few open-air archaeological sites have been discovered in recent years due to the lack of systematic archaeological surveys and reforestation.     

Native grasslands and the stabilization of earthwork archaeological sites on the middle Missouri River,North Dakota

Abstract

Site condition and management practices at six Missouri River archaeological sites are reviewed and the condition of the sites compared between observations in 1993 and 1998. Earthwork sites in a cover of prairie or pasture grasses that have been mown for interpretation purposes have become more infested with ground squirrels. Tall prairie or shrubland obscures site features but these animals are less numerous on sites with such cover. One mown site in an urban area had no ground squirrels, suggesting that the animals had been removed by local urban dwellers or their cats and had no chance to re-invade. The long-term stability of archaeological sites can best be achieved by allowing native prairie grasses to grow tall, leaving only small samples of the site area open, or by control of ground squirrel numbers.     

桐柏县几处古文化遗址调查简报

孤峰山遗址地处桐柏县西部,属汉水流域,是一处商周至汉代的遗址,其周代遗存以灰陶为主,文化面貌与随枣走廊和鄂东北地区较为接近,和襄樊地区同期遗存相比则有一定差异.古台寺遗址地处桐柏县东部,属淮河流域,是一处东周遗址,距月河养国墓地不远,可能与春秋时期的养国有关.     

Identifying Threshing Floors in the Archaeological Record: A Test Case at Iron Age Tel Megiddo,Israel

Abstract

The identification of activity areas in archaeological sites is an important part of archaeological research contributing to the reconstruction of past ways of life. The threshing floor is an activity area that relates to subsistence practices in agricultural societies, yet identifying threshing floors in the archaeological record is difficult. We present a geoarchaeological study conducted at an Iron Age layered feature unearthed in 1998 at Tel Megiddo, Israel, in which we tested a previous assumption that it represents the remains of a threshing floor. Using micromorphology, mineralogy, elemental analysis, phytoliths, and dung spherulites, we show that the materials comprising the bulk of the layers in the Megiddo feature include large amounts of wood ash and the inorganic remains of livestock dung. Based on these results, coupled with ethnographic data on threshing floors and observations on the macroscopic traits of the feature under consideration, we conclude that the layered feature at Megiddo does not represent a threshing floor but a single-household trash heap. We suggest that the interpretation of similar features at other archaeological sites as threshing floors be reevaluated.     

Early Magdalenian Variability: New Evidence from El Mirón Cave,Cantabria, Spain

Abstract

Sediments in and in the area of archaeological sites provide an invaluable source of information on palaeoenvironments and past human activities. Examination of the composition, texture, and structure of sediments has been used successfully in many sites of different kinds to reconstruct palaeoclimates. Sediment analysis has also been used in recognizing activity areas and in interpreting the processes involved in the formation and destruction of archaeological sites. In addition, sediment analysis can be applied to elucidate the relationship between changes in subsistence-settlement systems and environmental change. The methods of sediment analysis in archaeology includes, in addition to the standard sedimentological methods, special microarchaeological analyses.     

潮湿土遗址隔水防潮技术对比研究

潮湿土遗址的破坏,很大程度上是受水的影响,目前国内几个潮湿土遗址经常使用的防水隔水措施主要有:挡水墙、隔水廊道、拱券法和抽水法。经过对几种方法进行总结评价,可看出拱券法是最有效的方法。     

MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NEOLITHIC SITES AND THE RIVERS IN XI’AN (SHAANXI PROVINCE,CHINA)*

Based on analyses of the ecological environments of the Neolithic sites along the Chan and Ba Rivers in the Xi’an area (Shaanxi Province, China), it was found that the characteristic factors of the sites had a very close relationship with the nearby river. The characteristic factors of Neolithic sites have been analysed and defined as mathematical parameters by statistical methods. A mathematical model of the human–land relationship between Neolithic sites and rivers has been established using the stepwise regression procedure REGRESS in SPSS^®. The mathematical model is Y = 496.153 – 4.833X₁ + 113.692X3 + 725.097X₅ – 27.683X₃X₄. It shows that the distance (Y) from a site to a river has a marked relationship with the site area (X₁), the river flux (X₃), the site location (X₅) and river ratio drop (X₄). The model shows that the relationship between the sites and the river is in accordance with the conclusions of archaeological research. The mathematical model not only offers theoretical guidance for the archaeological excavation of Neolithic sites in Xi’an, but also contributes to the archaeological environmental research of Xi’an Neolithic sites.      

Deep Impact: What Happens When Archaeological Sites are Built on?

Abstract

Increasingly, developers and archaeologists search for ways to build on archaeological sites, while at the same time preserving the remains underneath. However, deciding which effects of construction on archaeological sites are acceptable and which are not is hampered by the lack of knowledge on the impacts of construction on archaeological sites. This paper provides an update on some of the effects of building on archaeological sites. Recent research had shown that displacement piles cause less disturbance in soft soils than previously thought. Moreover, replacement piles may be less benign that assumed up till now. Effects of loading on archaeological sites are described, and gaps in the knowledge on these effects are indicated. More research is needed in this field, especially on predicting soil disturbance and damage to weak materials. Impermeable surfaces and constructions on top of sites may affect the visibility of soil features due to decreased rainwater infiltration. Finally, a series of non-physical effects are mentioned that will have to be taken into account when deciding on allowing building on archaeological sites.     

A FIELD METHOD FOR INVESTIGATING the DISTRIBUTION of ROCK ART

Summary: Recent studies of prehistoric rock art have analysed its position in the landscape and have suggested that it played an important role in a mobile pattern of settlement. But the distribution of petroglyphs is usually taken as given, with the result that it is difficult to assess the significance of this kind of patterning. We argue that such evidence should be compared with the distribution of uncarved rocks across the surrounding area, and illustrate this procedure by two case studies from northern England. In these examples rock carvings were carefully sited at viewpoints and may have overlooked important routes across the landscape.