From the sublime to the Druidical: changing perceptions of prehistoric monuments in southern Anglesey in the post-medieval period

Abstract

The prehistoric monuments of southern Anglesey have been interpreted in various ways over the past three centuries, as an examination of the work of antiquarians, artists, landscape designers and other contemporary commentators reveals. During the post-medieval period, the meanings of these monuments shifted, as perceptions of the pre-Roman era changed. As embodiments of the past, megalithic monuments were embraced by Welsh historians, antiquarians and artists in the movement to formulate a Welsh national identity. Moreover, their incorporation into landscape gardens was indicative of the extent to which they captured the contemporary imagination. Local communities, meanwhile, reacted in differing ways to the megaliths, influenced concurrently by superstition and agrarian pragmatism.     

The use of ‘statbilized earth’ in the conservation of megalithic monuments

Abstract

The main features of the megalithic monuments in Sardinia, Italy, dated to the Middle-Late Bronze Age, are described. These constructions are in a poor state of preservation, especially those built with stones particularly vulnerable to weathering. To impede water ingress into the masonry structure of these archaeological ruins, it is proposed to use a stabilized earth-based mortar that acts as an effective substrate for a water-repellent polymer.     

Local Colour: Megalithic Architecture and Colour Symbolism in Neolithic Arran

Recent approaches to megalithic architecture have emphasised the importance of considering monuments in relation to the experience of place. Such approaches have taken two forms: emphasizing the relationship between experience and the internal architecture of the monument, or the nature of the experience evoked by the presence of the monument within the landscape. This paper argues that the importance of stone colour in relation to the construction of megalithic monuments contributes to an understanding of place and landscape as well as providing evidence of the symbolic and aesthetic aspects of colour in the past.     

The Stone Tidal Fish Weirs of the Molène Archipelago,Iroise Sea,Brittany, Western France: a long‐term tradition with early megalithic origins

This reports on a project that combined evidence gleaned from aerial photographs, place‐names, interviews, topography, LIDAR data, and sonar bathymetry to locate stone tidal fish weirs in the Molène Archipelago. The results were verified by diver and pedestrian visual surveys. Models of Holocene sea‐level change allowed a group of possibly Late Mesolithic–Early Neolithic weirs to be recognized, with a second group broadly dated to the later Neolithic–Early Bronze Age. The construction of these long megalithic structures is compared to the funerary monuments for which the Molène Archipelago is well known, in terms of technique, cost, and societal organization.     

A longitudinal study of tooth growth in a single individual based on long- and short-period incremental markings in dentine and enamel

Ground sections of teeth from a single individual revealed approximately 30 fluorescent lines in the dentine resulting from successive courses of tetracycline antibiotics given over a period of approximately 12 years. In addition, many teeth showed long-period incremental markings in the dentine. Short-period daily cross-striations in the enamel were used to calculate the periodicity of the long-period incremental lines in both enamel and dentine. The incremental markings in the dentine were then used to calibrate the time of administration of each of the courses of tetracycline antibiotics. Enlarged micrographs of the teeth, constructed using fluorescence microscopy, were used to measure the increase in height of different teeth throughout the growth period on each occasion the tetracycline antibiotics were given. The times of initial mineralization of the teeth and the duration of crown formation were also determined for each tooth section. Line plots of tooth height against age were computed and used to calculate the rate of increase in tooth height during crown and root formation for one example of each tooth type. Initial rates of increase in height during enamel apposition and coronal dentine formation were fast, between 10 μm and 14 μm per day. During the latter phase of crown formation and during early root formation, tooth height increased at a slower rate of between 4 μm and 6 μm per day. Rates of increase in tooth height then rose to between 13 μm and 26 μm per day during the second half of root formation before falling off to a rate of approximately 4 μm per day during root completion (as the root apex formed). The times of initial crown mineralization and the total crown formation times estimated in this individual were all within the range known for modern humans but there was comparatively early mineralization of the third permanent molar. These findings are discussed in the context of other studies on human dental development.     

Bear dentine aspartic acid racemization analysis: a proxy for the dating of Pleistocene cave infills

A high correlation between chronometric determinations based on aspartic acid racemization ratios and radioactive dating methods is described from samples of cave bear (Ursus deningeri and Ursus spelaeus) dentine. For samples from a very restrictive environment, as deep cave bear sites are (in view of their highly stable geochemical and thermal history), an age calculation algorithm was obtained. It has been found that there is a very close relationship between collagen preservation, from total aspartic acid in the > 3500 D fraction, and the amino acid racemization.     

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: NEW RECORDINGS OF MEGALITHIC ART IN NORTH‐WEST IRELAND

In this paper new and previously known passage tomb art in north‐west Ireland is recorded using an innovative recording technique. The use of this method, which involves vector drawing from digital photographs taken with oblique lighting (VeDPOL), has clarified and increased the instances of megalithic carving in the north‐west of Ireland. At two monuments – Listoghil and Heapstown Cairn – the new recordings have allowed us to contextualize the art within the broader corpus of passage tomb motifs. Additionally, it is proposed that one of the carvings from Listoghil is of later prehistoric origin and not Neolithic as previously believed. Finally, and most importantly, this paper highlights a group of motifs recently found at Cairn B in the Carrowkeel‐Keashcorran complex. This discovery demonstrates for the first time that megalithic art was a feature of all four major passage tomb complexes in Ireland.     

Intra‐individual variation in stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes in mandibles of modern caribou of Qamanirjuaq (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) and Banks Island (Rangifer tarandus pearyi): Implications for tracing seasonal and temporal changes in diet

Intra‐individual variations in carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope measurements of dentine collagen in ungulate teeth can be related to diet and environmental changes at different periods during the life of the animal. A protocol of serial sampling of first, second and third molar roots was applied to modern caribou (17–27 months old) of the Qamanirjuaq herd (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus), Canada. Based on a previous study, we predicted that M2 would reflect winter, M3 summer and M1 a complete year in terms of the isotopic record. Relatively high δ¹⁵N values (ca. 6 to 8‰), previously attributed to winter stress, were found in different molars of different specimens, reflecting a period of growth between April 1966 to April 1967. Previous results on other teeth from the same population confirmed that a high δ¹⁵N_coll value signal corresponded to the winter of 1966/67. This temporary increase in δ¹⁵N value was probably linked to diet and/or environmental change. Collagen from M1 reflects the first winter whereas M2 and M3 reflect the second winter of life of young caribou. A longer time record including summer is represented by the bone collagen of the mandible. Results obtained on molar roots and mandible bone of the modern caribou of Banks Island herd (Rangifer tarandus pearyi) confirmed this seasonal record. Such collagen isotopic analysis on M1, M2 and M3 roots and jawbone can be applied to reindeer found in archaeological sites. Mandibles retaining deciduous premolars are preferable to avoid the possible loss of the winter tooth signal observed in animals older than 2 years. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unpicking the Chronology of Carrowmore

This paper reports 25 dates on pin fragments from two monuments within the Carrowmore passage tomb complex, Co. Sligo, Ireland. This is the first occasion that a core artefact from the Irish passage tomb assemblage has been systematically dated. Methodological issues with previous dating programmes at Carrowmore, including the general problem of using charcoal to date megalithic monuments, are considered. The implications of the results are discussed, with a focus on their impact on former interpretations of the chronology of Carrowmore and the beginnings of the passage tomb tradition in north‐west Ireland.     

APPROACHING THE LANDSCAPE DIMENSION OF THE MEGALITHIC PHENOMENON IN SOUTHERN SPAIN

Although the megalithic phenomenon in southern Iberia has received attention since the mid‐nineteenth century, there has been very little attention paid to the role that megalithic structures played in the organization of prehistoric landscapes. Just as in other areas of Europe, however, southern Iberian megalithic structures must have played complex roles in the social organization of landscapes that go far beyond their use as funerary containers. Using examples from our work in southern Iberia, we employ GIS‐based spatial analysis to explore for the first time various aspects of the landscape dimension of these monuments. We discuss three case‐studies for which fresh field data have been recently made available. In the first (Almadén de la Plata) we find patterns of association between medieval transhumance routes and megaliths, and we use cost‐surface modelling to suggest that medieval routes may reflect earlier, prehistoric patterns of movement which in turn suggest that megalithic structures functioned in this area as waypoints within an emerging mobility system for people and livestock. In the second case (Aroche) we show correlations between the locations of megaliths and theoretical territories defined by isochrones and contrast this pattern with the distribution of non‐megalithic funerary sites of the Early Bronze Age, concluding that the spatial distribution of megaliths in this region may relate to their role as landmarks. Lastly we describe a far more specific relationship which we have encountered in the Antequera region, where we believe we have identified a relationship between the orientation of the megalithic structure of Menga, a prominent natural feature and several newly discovered prehistoric sites. Together, these three examples suggest that the current focus on typology, chronology and contents in the study of Iberian megaliths needs to be matched with efforts to identify and interpret the often highly complex structure of the prehistoric landscapes of which they form an integral part.     

DISPLAY, DISCLOSURE AND CONCEALMENT: THE ORGANIZATION OF RAW MATERIALS IN THE CHAMBERED TOMBS OF BOHUSLÄN

Summary.   The Neolithic chambered tombs of Bohuslän on the west coast of Sweden were built out of locally occurring raw materials. These exhibit a wide variety of colours, textures and mineral inclusions, and all were used to contrive a series of striking visual effects. Certain of these would have been apparent to the casual observer but others would only have been apparent to someone inside the passage or the burial chamber. There is no evidence that the materials were organized according to a single scheme. Rather, they permitted a series of improvisations, so that no two monuments were exactly alike. The effects that they created are compared with those found in megalithic art where the design elements were painted or carved, but in Bohuslän all the designs were created using the natural properties of the rock.     

MEGALITH SIZE AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR OUR UNDERSTANDING OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY,WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO CUMBRIA,NORTH‐WEST ENGLAND

The possibility that a comparison of the size of all stones in megalithic monuments might contribute to an understanding of the societies which built them is explored. Although a number of interpretational problems are recognized, the results appear meaningful. They show that there is no simple relationship between the diameter of a stone circle and the numbers of people involved in its construction, and that larger numbers contributed to the erection of some individual standing stones. Previous suggestions that individual families consisted of four to five active adults are supported.     

THE HIGHLANDS of ABOBOREIRA (NORTH-WEST PORTUGAL): ECOLOGICAL CONDITIONS FROM MIDDLE/LATE NEOLITHIC to EARLY BRONZE AGE. EVIDENCE FROM CHARCOAL ANALYSIS

Summary: Charcoal analysis data from 15 megalithic monuments in the highlands of Serra da Aboboreira, north-west Portugal, are presented and discussed. the results, interpreted only in terms of presence/absence of taxa, give us important information concerning the vegetal cover of this area and the relationships with man, from the Middle/Late Neolithic until the Early Bronze Age.     

THE HIGH-WATER MARK: THE SITING OF MEGALITHIC TOMBS ON THE SWEDISH ISLAND OF TJÖRN

Summary. In 1977 Grahame Clark suggested that the siting of megalithic tombs along the west coast of Scandinavia reflected the distribution of productive fishing grounds. Unlike the situation in other parts of Europe, these monuments were not associated with agriculture. Opinions have varied over the last quarter century, but enough is now known about changes of sea-level for his interpretation to be investigated on the ground. There seems to have been considerable diversity. On the large island of Örust some of the tombs located near to the sea appear to be associated with small natural enclosures defined by rock outcrops and may have been associated with grazing land. On the neighbouring island of Tjörn, however, the tombs were associated with small islands and important sea channels. During the Bronze Age the same areas included carvings of ships. Recent fieldwork in western Norway suggests that such locations were especially important in a maritime economy.     

Harnessing the waves: Monuments and ceremonial complexes in Orkney and beyond

Utilising recent observations by Phillips (2003) on the location of chambered cairns in Orkney in relation to the sea this paper attempts to explain why megalithic monuments cluster in particular locations. In the past, the distribution of cairns has been related to the levels of survival in marginal locations. However, monument locations, from across Scotland, demonstrate that clustering was a feature of monumental distribution in the past. From a maritime perspective it becomes easier to understand these groupings in Orkney as the product of interactions between widely dispersed island communities. Utilising a long-term perspective it is possible to use the relative patterning of monuments of different ages to suggest the changing audiences to whom these monuments were addressed. For example, the clustering of Earlier Neolithic monuments in Orkney, in places that form important linking locales, suggests a role for these monuments involving establishing and maintaining links between island groups within the Orkney archipelago. The location of later Neolithic monumental complexes, on the other hand, suggests the importance of inter-regional maritime contact at precisely the time when such contacts are strikingly evident in the archaeological record. It is argued that a closer integration of our approaches to land and sea is needed if we are to understand the nature of long distance contacts in the past.

The strange case of Apigliano: early ‘fossilization’ of medieval bone in southern Italy

The preservation of the osteological material at the medieval site of Apigliano, in southern Italy, is characterized by bones with highly crystalline, and altered, mineral phases. In addition to this, some material retains perfect histological preservation, with the exception of small microfissures present throughout this structure. Diagenetic porosity is indicative of collagen loss via chemical degradation. The levels of residual collagen in these bones are much lower than is predicted from simple models of gelatinization, and thus a more complex explanation for the state of preservation must be sought. Possible explanations for the rapid loss of bone collagen are considered, including a high–temperature event, the acceleration of hydrolysis due to liming and extreme wetting and drying cycles.     

Daily rates of dentine formation in macaque tooth roots

When tetracycline antibiotics are administered either orally or by injection they bind at the forming mineral front of the dentine and become incorporated into teeth as a permanent label. In this study, oxytetracycline was used as a label in order to investigate the growth of root dentine in macaques. There are no good data available in the literature for daily rates of root dentine formation over a prolonged period of time in either humans or macaques. Records of ten doses of oxytetracycline administered orally at irregular intervals (but at the same time of day) over a period of 10 months to a young rhesus macaque monkey (Macaca mulatta) were used to calculate the rate of dentine formation in tooth roots. Rates of dentine formation in the first portion of third permanent molar root formation, and in the apical portion of permanent canine and premolar root formation, were consistently between 3 μm and 4 μm per day. There was no evidence in this study of a gradual decrease in daily dentine formation rate from the crown to the root, or along the length of a dentine tubule through the bulk of the dentine, as has been implied previously. With the exception of faster rates recorded in cusps or slower rates recorded at the very beginning or very end of primary dentine secretion in other studies, the results of the present study suggest a consistent rate of dentine formation in permanent macaque teeth. What data there are for human dentine formation rates suggests that it is likely this finding can be extended to human dentine as well.     

Dietary life histories in Stone Age Northern Europe

We present here a framework for using stable isotope analysis of bone and teeth to study individual life history. A sampling strategy and analytical approach for stable carbon and nitrogen analysis of bone and dentine collagen optimised for intra-individual purposes is put forward. The rationale behind this strategy, various requirements and constrains, and recommendations on how to modify it according to variations in material and analytical instrumentation, are discussed and explained in detail. Based on intra-individual data for 131 human individuals from Mesolithic and Neolithic sites in Northern Europe, we consider the sources and various kinds of variation one is likely to find, and how the data can be explained and transformed into an archaeologically meaningful interpretation. It is concluded that the use of stable isotope analysis to trace individual life history is not limited to carefully excavated, neatly preserved, single burials with articulate skeletal remains. Even collective burials, disturbed graves, disarticulated human remains in cultural layers, or other depositions that deviate from what is often considered as a “proper burial”, offer the possibility to look at individual life biographies.     

Inscribing nature: Archaeological metaphors and the formation of new sciences

Abstract

Ghanaian authorities restored Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle as memorials to the transatlantic slave trade in order to draw African Americans to Ghana. While this was a positive development for a travel industry that rarely caters to diaspora African needs, the Ghanaian initiative has evoked strong criticisms from concerned African Americans who feel that the restoration has erased the monuments' associated images of slavery and has removed the desired experiential effect. I focus on the complex interplay of these concerns, African Americans' previous attempts to preserve some of these monuments and the history of structural changes to the monuments. These complex issues require several layers of analysis. I situate my discussion within the debate of whether there is any such thing as original monuments and whether there is a necessary correlation between monuments per se and the experience of historical reality. For African Americans, such a strong relationship can be established. The preservation of these monuments, of global significance, calls for an international dialogue based on respect, tolerance and sensitivity.     

Defying God and the king: A 17th-century gold rush for ‘megalithic treasure’

Abstract

At the beginning of the 17th century, the priest Vázquez de Orjas received from the Spanish King Philip III a franchise that allowed him to excavate the mámoas or megalithic barrows of Galicia (northwest Iberian Peninsula). His task would be to recover for the Royal Treasury all the gold supposedly held in them. However, the priest's activities and claims gave rise to a widespread gold rush that resulted in hundreds of looted monuments and ended in a long series of trials. This paper is based on the legal case file resulting from that lawsuit and presents the translation of several fragments. The origins and development of the event are explained, together with discussion of the human and legal aspects regarding ownership and management of this heritage. In addition, the symbolic role played by the monuments at this time is explored: as hidden places for treasures, the megaliths represented salvation for many people. This gave rise to episodes involving mythical creatures and to resorting to the help of magic and religion, as reported in the interrogations. Finally, archaeologists are encouraged to pay attention to this stage of the life histories of the monuments when undertaking excavations.