Social Change and Hunting during the Pueblo III to Pueblo IV Transition,East-Central Arizona

Abstract

The transition from the Pueblo III to the Pueblo IV period (A.D. 1100–1400) in the American Southwest involved marked population aggregation. Diverse economic, political, and religious factors must have played a role in the integration of these populations. Bailey Ruin, Bryant Ranch, and Pottery Hill, three sites in the Silver Creek drainage of east-central Arizona, show increased hunting of large mammals during this transition. This trend has elsewhere been attributed to hunting specialization due to local resource depletion and perhaps the need for a seasonal supplement to maize-based diets, but these factors do not adequately explain the data here. In fact, the regional reliance on rabbit protein suggests that hunting larger game was not necessary to meet dietary needs in an environment where small game is a reliable food source and artiodactyls are rare. Rather, the increased proportion of large mammals in the Silver Creek area faunal assemblages seems to reflect larger issues of social reorganization. Rituals aimed at community integration and individual attempts to gain authority and prestige were focused on communal hunts, feasts, and the production of ritual paraphernalia through large-game hunting.     

Domestic Faunal Assemblages from the Classic Period Valley of Oaxaca,Mexico: A Perspective on the Subsistence and Craft Economies

During the Classic period (ad 200–800), urban Monte Albán in the Valley of Oaxaca was one of the most monumental cities in Mesoamerica. Yet relatively little is known about the Classic-period economy that sustained this prehispanic centre. In this paper, we compare the faunal assemblages at two outlying Classic-period sites located in the central valleys of Oaxaca—Ejutla and El Palmillo. This analytical comparison provides a new empirical perspective on two important aspects of the ancient Oaxacan economy, subsistence strategies and household craft manufacture. Although Ejutla and El Palmillo have rather distinct environmental settings, the faunal component of the diet at the sites is found to be similar with some subtle differences. More marked distinctions between the sites are noted in the use of bone as a raw material for tools and ornaments. When the findings from the faunal comparison are situated within the context of other domestic remains from Classic-period Ejutla and El Palmillo, intraregional variation in household strategies of production and exchange is evidenced, providing a preliminary vantage on the complex economy that underlay this prehispanic polity.     

Foodways and community at the Late Mississippian site of Parchman Place

ABSTRACT

Communal eating events or feasts were important activities associated with the founding and maintenance of Mississippian communities in the southeastern United States. More often than not, however, archaeological deposits of food refuse are interpreted along a spectrum, with household-level consumption at one end and community-wide feasting at the other. Here, we draw attention to the important ways that domestic food practices contributed to social events and processes at the community level. We examine ceramic, botanical, and faunal assemblages from two fourteenth-century contexts at Parchman Place (22CO511), a Late Mississippi period site in the northern Yazoo Basin. For the earlier deposit, everyday ceramics and plant foods combined with high-utility deer portions and exotic birds suggest potluck-style feasting meant to bring people together in the context of establishing a community in place. We interpret the later deposit, with its pure ash matrix, focus on serving wares, and purposeful disposal of edible maize and animal remains, as the result of activities related to maize harvest ceremonialism. Both practices suggest that household contributions in general and disposal of domestic food refuse in particular are critical yet underappreciated venues for creating and maintaining community ties in the Mississippian Southeast.     

'.. Slaying oxen and Killing Sheep,Eating Flesh and Drinking Wine ..': Feasting in Late Bronze Age Hazor

Abstract

Communal feasts, events of ritual activity that involve shared food and drink consumption and display in religious and secular elite contexts, received considerable attention in anthropological and archaeological literature in recent years. In those studies, the focus was on the identification of feasting in the material record of ancient societies, and an attempt was made to decipher the complex social and political meanings inherent in such contexts. In this study, the aim is to identify and interpret traces of feasting activities in the context of Canaanite society of the 14th–13th century BCE. The site of Hazor, the largest Canaanite kingdom, serves as a case study for this discussion. Archaeological correlates of commensal feasts, uncovered in the extensive excavations of the site, are presented and discussed within the general picture of the Canaanite palatial system.     

The Patronage of Rembrandt's Passion Series: Art,Politics, and Princely Display at the Court of Orange in the Seventeenth Century

This article sets out a new reading of a neglected poem by Sir Robert Howard, The Duell of the Stags (1668). It places the poem in the political context of the fall of Clarendon and rise of Howard’s friend and ally the Duke of Buckingham, and of Howard’s concurrent falling-out with his brother-in-law John Dryden. It explores the influence of Thomas Hobbes’ political theory on Howard’s poem, especially refracted through Sir William Davenant’s Hobbesian epic Gondibert (1651). The author argues that Howard’s poem implicitly attacked Dryden’s mode of panegyric for the Restoration regime by offering a radically alternative reading of Hobbes, casting royal power as fragile and contingent.     

曹操霸府述论

汉末建安年间,曹操“挟天子而令诸侯”,建立起霸府统治,并由这种统治逐步孕育催生出新的皇权。曹操霸府的组织系统通常由两三个部分构成,其分支机构亦不局限于一个处所;霸府的机构设置和职能发挥,则采取了一套军政合一、灵活处理的办法。曹操对霸府统治所进行的一系列目的明确的运作,同他对待皇权的态度是表里一致的;他未能废汉自立的根本原因,是受制于现实的政治条件或政治实力,而不是司马光所说“畏名义而自抑”。曹操开创的霸府政治模式,有着自身的政治内涵和行政特点,并对后世产生了影响。     

Feasting landscapes and political economy at the Early Horizon center of Huambacho, Nepeña Valley, Peru

The present contribution examines feasting practices at Huambacho (800–200 cal. B.C.), an Early Horizon elite center of the Nepeña Valley, Department of Ancash, Peru. Feasts are approached as long-term strategies essential to the political economy of human societies. Drawing upon data from public architecture, material culture and food remains, the study closely considers feasts as political actions and investigates the organization and social meaning of these special events. At Huambacho, I contend that the diacritical aspects of feasting practices, such as the use of exclusive spaces and special paraphernalia, contributed to the dual celebration of communal identity and prosperity, and the creation and reproduction of social inequalities. The research highlights the dual centripetal and centrifugal dynamics of Early Horizon feasts and demonstrates the role of the Huambacho center in advertising the success of the local community based on new forms of production and innovative rules of commensal hospitality.     

In Memoriam: Philip Mainwaring Johnston,F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A.

Abstract

It is increasingly recognised that religion was the mainspring of pre-Reformation domestic ritual in royal as well as episcopal and archiepiscopal households. This article sets out to examine the architectural consequences of this. It argues that from the mid-15th century a small group of high-status residential buildings was planned around the need for lavish liturgical display, particularly the introduction of a cloister. The patrons of such buildings were churchmen of the highest rank such as Henry Beaufort and Thomas Wolsey who, it is argued, had special requirements for their principal residences. These requirements subsequently went on to influence the plans of early Tudor royal palaces, culminating in the reconstruction of Whitehall Palace by Henry VIII in the 1540s.     

Stable isotopes and diet at Ancient Kerma,Upper Nubia (Sudan)

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values were measured from bone collagen extracted from archaeological Nubian human (n = 54) and faunal (n = 61) populations from the site of Kerma, Sudan. Collagen suitable for isotopic analysis was extracted from 22 faunal and 48 human samples from the Eastern cemetery site, dated to the Middle Kerma (c. 2050–1750 BC) and Classic Kerma (c. 1750–1500 BC) periods respectively. The isotopic data indicate that the human dietary regimen included a mix of C₃ and C₄ plant-derived components, with a larger C₄ component than previously reported in archaeological Egyptian Nile Valley populations. Elevated δ¹⁵N values are attributed to consumption of dietary resources from a ¹⁵N-enriched terrestrial ecosystem. The faunal isotope data also indicate the consumption of C₃ and C₄ plants. The large range of δ¹³C values measured in both the human and faunal samples supports previous work suggesting that a significant portion of the populations buried at Kerma may have originated elsewhere, further confirming the Nile Valley as a major corridor for population movement in the region.     

Uncrowned kings: rituals and ritual objects in eighteenth–nineteenth century Portuguese royal acclamation ceremonies

ABSTRACT

This article examines the royal acclamation ceremonies of the Portuguese crown in order to grasp the responsiveness of the institution of the monarchy and regime to the challenges of modernity throughout the delicate watershed period of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Portuguese Catholic and absolutist monarchy of the ancien régime had a strict protocol and a set of insignia of power that acted together at the moment of the acclamation and legitimation of each new king. The purpose of this research is to assess the adaptation and reinvention of these insignia and rituals according to the revolutionary demands of social change and secularization brought about by the turbulent period of the beginning of the nineteenth century: the French military invasions (1807–11); the departure of the royal family, court and administration to Brazil (1807); the liberal constitutional revolution (1820); and the civil war pitting liberals against absolutists (1832–34). The new constitutional monarchy that came out of this revolutionary flow faced many challenges of legitimacy, including the test of its capacity to create a modern royal imaginary updated to the cultural mindset of national and secular societies, and capable of bonding rulers with their people. The authors believe that the study of the acclamation ceremonies in the Portuguese constitutional monarchy can give us an accurate perspective on the quality of the symbolic image of the crown, therefore assessing the political efficiency of rituals as one of the structural aspects for institutional legitimization.     

Sheep,Cattle, and Specialization: New Zooarchaeological Perspectives on the Taosi Longshan

In this paper, we present a zooarchaeological analysis of the Longshan period sites of Taosi and Zhoujiazhuang (ca. 2300–1900 cal. BC) in southern Shanxi Province, China. We compare the faunal record at both sites in terms of the proportions of wild and domestic taxa; the slaughter patterns for the main domesticates; the types of bones used to produce utilitarian and decorative bone artifacts; and the types of bones used for ritual oracle bone divination. Differences in the faunal records at Taosi and Zhoujiazhuang provide insights into the connections between specialization and early urbanism. Our research also provides clues about how sheep and cattle pastoralism was initially adopted in the Yellow River Valley during the late 3^rd millennium BC. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“Measure for measure”: a taphonomic reconsideration of the Kebaran site of Ein Gev I,Israel

We present the results of a detailed taphonomic study of the faunal remains from Ein Gev I, a Kebaran open-air site near the Sea of Galilee, Israel. In an earlier study faunal remains were assigned to bone element and species using a rapid method technique based on the identification of teeth and epiphyses only (Davis, 1974). In this study we identified the maximum number of skeletal elements, including fragments of long bone shafts. We also employed a series of taphonomic analyses to reconstruct the depositional history of the bone assemblage and to investigate subsistence, meat procurement and bone processing strategies. We compared the results obtained by a complete bone sampling method with those derived using a rapid method. The bone assemblage is dominated by mountain gazelle (Gazella gazelle), Mesopotamian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) and bezoar goat (Capra aegagrus). The assemblage is characterized by significant density-mediated biases, caused by both human bone processing behaviours and in situ post-burial bone attrition. Our attempts to compare species abundance derived from the two different identification protocols revealed no significant difference between the two sampling methods, both in terms of species diversity (richness and evenness) and skeletal element abundance (SEA). These comparisons contrast previous studies that expected to find ubiquitous head-and-foot dominated SEA profiles in zooarchaeological studies that were based on the incomplete identification of faunal remains.     

Legends of the Beauchamps' ancestors: the use of baronial propaganda in medieval England

From the early part of the eleventh century, legendary propaganda was generated by the Tosny family. The Warwickshire branch of the Beaumonts did likewise from the late twelfth century, their efforts culminating in the popular romance Guy of Warwick. Such material was designed to romanticize those activities of the families which had led to their acquiring landed power, and to reinforce a widespread acceptance of the status which they endeavoured to retain in face both of the growing powers of the monarchy, and of economic pressures. By contrast, the families of Beauchamp and Mauduit relied on growing royal power to enhance their position. Beauchamp dominance of Worcestershire through the hereditary enjoyment of the post of sheriff, and Manduit enjoyment of court influence through exercise of the hereditary office of chamberlain, obviated the need to generate a popular image, although both families attracted unfavourable notice in contemporary literature, generated by territorial or professional rivals. When the estates of all four families merged, at the end of the thirteenth century, to form the late medieval earldom of Warwick, the Guy image was consciously revived. John Rous, composing the Rous Roll in 1483, in order to glorify the lords of Warwick, suppressed unfavourable elements, both in this literature and in modern political history, while elaborating on others, reworking the material with the help of current literary themes.     

Late Classic Maya lithic production and exchange at Rio Bec and Calakmul,Mexico

Abstract

The organization of production and exchange of everyday lithic items is important in defining Classic period lowland Maya economic organization, but the current debate relies on the study of a few lithic workshops, whereas little is known about the consumers’ quotidian acquisition of everyday tools. I suggest looking at the problem from the point of view of the household and distinguishing local from nonlocal production by comparing experimental and quantitative data. Examination of the chert collections from households at Rio Bec and Calakmul enabled me to distinguish two different types of chert biface production and distribution during the Late Classic period (a.d. 650–800), namely by means of markets and itinerant craftsmen. Both sites had very different political organizations, but households from both cities acquired lithics through similar networks, showing that this particular aspect of the domestic economy probably had little to do with political power and centralization in the region.     

Building Power in Rural Hinterlands: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Vernacular Architecture in Tigray,Ethiopia

In Tigray, Ethiopia highland farmers and noblemen used a common vernacular architecture to build places of political authority and power during the last century of Ethiopia's feudal economy. This study contributes to the perspective that domestic houses are active political locales integrated into the larger political landscape. In addition, it is argued that vernacular architectural style generates hierarchical power in part by manipulating building strategies usually attributed to monumental construction. The study concludes that vernacular architecture is actively engaged in rendering a political aesthetic that reproduces state authority in rural hinterlands.     

The hunted hunter: the capture of a lion (Panthera leo fossilis) at the Gran Dolina site,Sierra de Atapuerca,Spain

Many Pleistocene caves and rock shelters contain evidence of carnivore and human activities. For this reason, it is common to recover at these sites faunal remains left by both biological agents. In order to explain the role that carnivores play at the archaeological sites it is necessary to analyse several elements, such as the taxonomical and skeletal representation, the age profiles, the ratio of NISP to MNI, the anthropogenic processing marks on the carcasses (location and purpose of cutmarks and burning and bone breakage patterns), carnivore damage (digested bones, location and frequencies of toothmarks and bone breakage), length of the long bones, frequencies of coprolites and vertical distribution of the faunal remains, inter alia. From this, the documentation of carnivores in a faunal assemblage with a clear anthropogenic component can be understood from three main phenomena: (1) the carnivores as accumulators and the use of the site as a den; (2) carnivores as scavengers of hominid refuse and; (3) carnivores as hominids’ prey. Of these three phenomena, the last one is the least documented at the Middle Pleistocene sites. From this perspective, here we present the case of the anthropogenic use of a lion (Panthera leo fossilis) from level TD10-1 of Gran Dolina (MIS 9, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). The lion bone remains show signs of direct interaction between this big cat and human groups that occupied Gran Dolina in these chronologies. From this perspective, the aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of the role developed by large carnivores in the anthropogenic contexts and to provide data on human use of these predators at the European Middle Pleistocene sites.     

Contesting Chivalry: James II and the control of chivalric culture in the 1450s

This article focuses on the reign of James II of Scotland (1437–1460) and argues that the Scottish king deliberately attempted to gain a monopoly over chivalry as part of his assertion of royal power. In seeking to integrate the historiographies of state-building and chivalric culture in fifteenth-century Scotland, what is offered here is an account of the principal strategies employed by James II to establish royal authority throughout Scotland, and an assessment of the various means in which chivalry was being patronised and promoted by the Scottish nobility and the political challenge inherent in this activity. James's response to this challenge is examined through a series of incidents in the 1450s and, in this manner, seeks to rethink the role of chivalry in late medieval Scotland. Far from being a peripheral cultural practice, this article argues that it should be seen as an integral part of James II's state-building agenda.     

A kingdom without a capital? Itineration and spaces of royal power in Castile,c.1252–1350

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Castilian kings were constantly in motion, travelling through their kingdom, an activity which has traditionally been linked with the absence of a single capital in Castile. This paper re-examines the role played by royal itineration in this period and the reasons which inhibited the consolidation of an undisputed capital in the kingdom. In doing so, the changing importance and functions of the main cities of the realm, Toledo, Seville, Burgos and Valladolid – the spaces of royal power – will also be discussed. The main factor which precluded the rise of a single capital was the kingdom's specific territorial configuration, not bureaucratic under-development. The Reconquista led to the creation of a ‘composite kingdom’, in which kingship was exercised differently in some regions compared to others.     

Canidae volume bone mineral density values: an application to sites in western Canada

We present volume bone mineral density values from five different canid species: domestic dog (Canis familiaris), wolf (Canis lupus), coyote (Canis latrans), red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and swift fox (Vulpes velox). We use these density values to investigate Canidae remains from four archaeological sites in western Canada and show the importance of explicitly stating assumptions made about the original composition of the deposited faunal assemblage as this influences whether correlations are found between density and percent survivorship (%MAU).