Age determination of Petra's engineered landscape – optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon ages of runoff terrace systems in the Eastern Highlands of Jordan

The unfavourable mountainous environment of the Petra region in southern Jordan was modified by ancient engineers to supply the Nabataean/Roman city of Petra with food and water. The area was reclaimed by installing extended runoff terrace systems and hydraulic structures. The agricultural terrace systems have so far been dated based on surface pottery, and the chronology of the systems is under debate. In this study, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating techniques were successfully applied to date these terrace systems. Samples were taken from the fills of agricultural terraces and underneath their walls to determine the chronology of the construction, use and abandonment of the agricultural terraces. The results suggest that runoff farming in the Petra region started around the beginning of the Common Era, and construction, use and maintenance lasted at least until 800 AD.     

Agricultural slope management and soil erosion at La Laguna,Tlaxcala, Mexico

Several superimposed systems of agricultural terracing are preserved at the archaeological site of La Laguna in central Mexico. Excavations uncovered complex stratigraphic sequences of terrace fills and colluvial deposits. Their chronology was established by radiocarbon, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), and the presence of diagnostic features and artifacts. The Formative occupations of the site (ca. 600–400 BC and 100 BC–AD 100) resulted in severe erosion and exposure of indurated subsoil horizons. In the Middle to Late Postclassic (AD 1150–1520) stone-walled terraces were built to recover the degraded slopes for cultivation. Renewed reclamation works have been undertaken since the Colonial period, eventually taking the form of sloping-field terraces with berms planted in maguey. The reconstructed sequence of local land use underscores the risks of dating agricultural features by association with sherd scatters, as well as the complexity of the relationships between demographic variables, agricultural intensity and terracing.     

Archaeomagnetic data from four Roman sites in Tunisia

Archaeomagnetic analyses on bricks and slag fragments from kilns have been undertaken. The initial aim of the paper was to constraint the age of four Roman sites in Tunisia (Neapolis, Pheradi Majus, Leptiminus and Sullecthum) using either archaeodirections or archaeointensities. However, the archaeomagnetic models appeared to be only proficient using directions. It has been established that the Neapolis' studied kiln was probably active until the early 6th century AD, whereas the kilns investigated in Pheradi Majus were probably active until the middle 5th century AD. Measured archaeointensities point to higher values than those predicted by the models during the whole range of possible ages for the studied sites.     

Archaeomagnetic data from three Punic sites in Tunisia

Archaeomagnetic analyses on bricks and slag fragments from kilns have been undertaken. Four new archaeomagnetic directions and two new archaeomagnetic intensities have been reported for three Punic sites in Tunisia. The SCHA.DIF.3K archaeomagnetic model gives the most consistent age estimates, in agreement with the archaeological ages for three of the four analyzed kilns. The archaeomagnetic models appeared to be surprisingly proficient both using archaeodirections and intensities for El Maklouba. The existence of kilns from different chronological archaeological phases (4th–3th century BC and 2nd–3rd century AD) has been confirmed for this site. The archaeological hypothesis that associates the kiln in El Gaala with the neighboring Punic necropolis is compatible with the archaeomagnetic data obtained from the kiln, though a modern use or remagnetisation of the kiln cannot be excluded.     

考古地层的三维建模方法在秦始皇帝陵考古勘探中应用尝试

为了更清楚地展示秦始皇帝陵地区考古地层的三维空间关系,并为后期考古工作中空间数据挖掘做准备,借鉴三维地质建模技术,提出了考古地层三维建模方法。基于探孔数据构建了考古地层三维模型。该模型清楚地展示了秦始皇帝陵地区考古地层的三维空间关系,为田野考古数字化工作提供一种新思路、新方法。     

我国科技考古研究的新进展

根据第九届全国科技考古学术讨论会上所报告和收到的103篇论文的内容,对我国科技考古的进展作一简要介绍.内容涉及生物考古和农业考古、年代测定、陶瓷考古、冶金考古、玉器及玻璃器的产地和结构分析以及环境考古、遥感考古和文物保护等.这些论文的内容充分展示了近些年来我国科技考古研究的最新成果和动态,全面反映了我国科技考古研究的发展方向.     

Can the Subaltern Woman Run? Gender,race and agency in colonial missionary texts

This article challenges the contention that it is not feasible to trace the agency of subaltern female subjects in colonial documents without at the same time distorting and even violating that very agency. Taking as its prism a letter written by a male Danish missionary chronicling a young Pariah woman’s escape from missionary control in early 20th-century South India, it argues that while a search for authentic, autonomous agency is a highly dubious endeavour, relinquishing attempts to recover the acts and interventions of persons at the bottom of social hierarchies is equally problematic. Suggesting a reading ‘along as well as against the grain’, the article tracks the ways in which the subaltern woman’s agency has been simultaneously recorded and denied, and argues for the necessity of probing both the possibilities and impossibilities presented by this type of a source.     

Settlement patterns,social complexity and agricultural strategies during the Chalcolithic period in the Northern Negev,Israel

Previous studies have reported a Chalcolithic site distribution pattern in the Northern Negev as clustered, exhibiting a number of characteristics that imply a chiefdom level of organization. However, a recent spatial analysis suggests that in some areas of the Northern Negev, settlement patterns were essentially random and that there is no evidence for regional chiefdom organization. We examine this controversy by closely inspecting the methods of spatial analyses employed by previous researchers, by introducing an additional multiscalar spatial technique, namely Ripley's K-function, and by using updated and modified data. Our results indicate that settlement distributions were essentially clustered, even in small areas along the wadis. Examining the relation between these spatial-dependent distributions and the landscape surroundings revealed that particular physiographic characteristics of the wadis contribute to increscent in site clusters. Furthermore, a general linear model analysis suggests that the distribution of Chalcolithic sites is determined primarily by environmental factors rather than factors related to political organization.     

Assessing China’s response to the South China Sea arbitration ruling

Many international legal experts believe that the Philippines v. China arbitration award of 12 July 2016 represents a game changer for South China Sea dispute settlements because the award has brought a breathtaking legal clarity to the complex disputes. This article argues that the sweeping nature of the award had a very paradoxical effect on Chinese policy. The arbitration ruling has led to the hardening of China’s claims, but it has also raised a new readiness among Chinese policymakers to renew negotiations. The sweepingness of the award makes it hard for the Philippines to reach a negotiated compromise with China on the basis of the award, but it also presents a surprising political opportunity in regional politics for the major actors involved to lower tensions and recalibrate policies. Although China’s new readiness to negotiate is welcome, the overall impact of the three-and-a-half-year-long arbitration is likely to create a deadlock in negotiations in the near future. Paradoxically, this may raise the importance of political and power-centred approaches to regional dispute settlements, as the legal approach embodied by arbitration continues to meet Chinese defiance.     

MODELING IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH PRACTICE AND METHODOLOGY: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM POLAND1

This selection of texts (mostly translations from Polish) should interest those who study analytical philosophy of history, methodology of history, and historical sociology. It contains contributions by Polish historians and philosophers since 1931, with pride of place given to the work of the Poznań school in the philosophy of science and humanities. With Jerzy Kmita, Leszek Nowak, and Jerzy Topolski as its leaders, it emerged in late 1960s as a synthesis of Marxism and the Polish brand of logical positivism known as the Lwow‐Warsaw school. Most papers discuss or exemplify various forms of idealization in historical research. Although the papers demonstrate the usefulness of modeling in historical sociology and nonnarrative history, the collection as a whole does not provide realistic examples to substantiate the Poznań school's stronger claim of the decomposability of historical narratives into separate strips related to hierarchically ordered “essential factors.”