MORE THAN ONE WAY TO STUDY A BUILDING: APPROACHES TO PREHISTORIC HOUSEHOLD AND SETTLEMENT SPACE

Summary.   This article reviews a number of research methodologies used to record household and settlement architecture and assesses their value in the investigation of the human use of prehistoric built space. It exemplifies, through case studies, five broad approaches to, and research techniques associated with, the investigation of such architecture. These approaches are: architectural form; the spatial distribution of activities; continuity and standardization; the relationship between built and non-built space; and human patterns of movement. Then, drawing mainly on Near Eastern, and particularly Anatolian, material, it shows how a sixth approach, the use of ethnographic observation and analogy, provides insights into functional and seasonal variations in spatial use, patterns of movement and social organization. It identifies seven categories of data collection and nine observations drawn from the ethnographic material which together provide an investigative and interpretative framework for the study of early farming communities in the Near East and elsewhere.     

ON THE INTENT TO MAKE CRAMP: AN INTERPRETATION OF VITREOUS SEAWEED CREMATION 'WASTE' FROM PREHISTORIC BURIAL SITES IN ORKNEY, SCOTLAND

Summary.   Vitreous slag-like material, known as 'cramp', from prehistoric cremation burial sites in Orkney is, apart from cremated bone, one of the recurrent remains found within or around Bronze Age burials. Although the suggestion that cramp was formed by the fusing of sand attached to dry seaweed while it was being burnt was first proposed in the 1930s, there has never been a consideration of seaweed's contribution to cremation other than as a potential fuel. Scientific analyses presented in this paper corroborate the use of seaweed. It is suggested that cramp may have been deliberately produced to act as an efficient collector of shattered bone which otherwise could have been lost during the cremation. Far from being a 'waste', cramp could well have been another form of 'human-remains' in its own right.     

AN EARLY CELTIC POTTERY WORKSHOP IN NORTH WESTERN HUNGARY: SOME ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

Summary. Excavations at the settlement site of Krautacker in the outskirts of Sopron (NW Hungary) have produced evidence of pottery manufacture from LT B to LT C. Three kilns of updraught type were discovered. Their technology is discussed. Stamp-decorated wheel-turned ware was produced throughout. The contexts and distribution of these vessels are considered.     

LOCAL CHALLENGES TO GLOBAL AGENDAS: CONSERVATION,ECONOMIC LIBERALIZATION AND THE PASTORALISTS' RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN TANZANIA

Since the mid-1980s, “democratization” and structural adjustment, have been transforming domestic political economies throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In Tanzania, these processes could significantly alter the terrain in the conflict between local land rights and state wildlife conservation. The situation has become increasingly complex as the parties involved - land-holders, state and international conservation agencies - are joined by land rights political organizations, domestic conservation groups and foreign capital. The paper focuses on struggles over land and resource rights, specifically on new forms of grassroots political action which has emerged on the question of wildlife conservation in national parks. At the same time, tourism is expanding with an influx of foreign capital. The paper explores the implications of the interactions between these forces.     

FROM VIOLENCE TO RECONSTRUCTION: THE MAKING, DISINTEGRATION AND REMAKING OF AN APARTHEID CITY

This article analyzes the relationship between violence and the racial city. It examines Durban's construction and disintegration in the context of unsuccessful apartheid reform, and traces corresponding distinct but overlapping stages of violence. Internecine violence of the latter 1980s constituted a racially displaced confrontation over political control and resources of the society transformed into internecine conflict within black residential areas, especially the urban peripheries. The violence was rooted in spatial and material differentiation reinforced by township and shantytown power structures, which clandestine state intervention accentuated. The article concludes by analyzing the new spatial and racial city forms, suggesting alternative urban reconstruction paths to redress the deeper causes of violence.     

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON MISSISSIPPIAN OCCUPATIONS IN WESTERN TENNESSEE AND NORTHWESTERN MISSISSIPPI: RECENT CHRONOLOGICAL AND GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT CHUCALISSA (40SY1), SHELBY COUNTY,TENNESSEE

Abstract

Investigations at Chucalissa (40SY1) in Shelby County, Tennessee, have been instrumental in establishing Mississippian period chronology for southwestern Tennessee and much of the surrounding region. Excavations conducted in 2003 produced a suite of new radiocarbon dates that has provided a refined developmental lineage of occupations in West Tennessee and northwestern Mississippi, while geophysical investigations in 2011 have clarified our understanding of the late prehistoric occupation of the site and validated suggestions of distinctive mound architecture in a region extending over a large portion of the Southeast.     

CALCULATING THE COST OF TRANSFERRING STUDENTS FROM PAROCHIAL TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS: AN EXAMINATION AND CRITIQUE

Public sector aid to K-12 parochial schools is often justified on the basis that providing assistance is cheaper than having to absorb all those students into public school systems. But is it? The cost of transferring students from parochial to public K-12 schools has never been satisfactorily calculated. This article points to the weaknesses in previous efforts and outlines the elements that must be present in a comprehensive estimate of transfer costs.     

辽西地区新石器-青铜时代耕作业的兴衰与环境变化的关系

本通过分析辽西地区新石器时代至青铜时代考古化特征和耕作业的兴衰与环境变化的关系,揭示了该地区新石器时期以来化发展受耕作业的兴衰影响出现了多次倒退的现象。并认为环境条件特别是气候条件是影响辽西地区早期化发展的本质因素。气候温暖期,定居的农业化昌盛;气候寒冷期,农业经济解体,只能维持低水平的简单畜牧经济。造成新石器时代-青铜时代本区耕作业衰落和化倒退的直接原因是5000aB．P．-4000aB．P．降温事件及铁器冷期寒冷气候的作用。环境因素的剧烈波动过程,阻碍了本区化与生产经济形态的正常演进与发展。     

ESTIMATION OF THE BULK COMPOSITION OF FINE-GRAINED MEDIA FROM MICROCHEMICAL AND BACKSCATTER-IMAGE ANALYSIS: APPLICATION TO BISCUIT WASTERS FROM THE BOW FACTORY SITE,LONDON*

Microprobe and digitized electron-backscatter image data reveal that eighteenth-century Bow porcelain consists of a silica polymorph(s) (25–43 vol. %), a calcium phosphate phase (42–55%) with homogeneous and stippled textural variants, and a silicon-, aluminium-, and calcium-rich, former melt phase represented by discrete domains (14–20%) and micron-scale blebs that occupy 20–70% of the stippled calcium phosphate. Bulk compositions calculated from these data are deficient in calcium phosphate components and more siliceous than those determined by microprobe analysis of fused powders of the same samples. This reflects difficulties in determining representative values for the composition and volume of the melt phase, and underscores the limitations of the method where applied to media containing compositionally- or texturally-heterogeneous phases.     

FROM PRECOCITY TO INVOLUTION: THE NEOLITHIC OF CORSICA IN ITS WEST MEDITERRANEAN AND FRENCH CONTEXTS

The cultural and economic development of neolithic Corsica falls into two periods. Until the early fourth millennium be the rate of innovation is rapid and the range of contacts extensive but thereafter involution sets in. This paradox cannot be explained in terms of static geographic factors. The author suggests a possible solution: the island acted as a transmitter of cultural and economic innovations which were in the long run better adapted to other regions of the Mediterranean. The postglacial paucity of terrestrial resources would have stimulated maritime activity and the selective adoption of the pastoral sector at the inception of the Neolithic but the typically late neolithic pattern of mixed-farming villages failed to become established: exploitation of the mature deciduous forest of the climatic optimum appears to have been more important.     

FROM SUSA TO ANURADHAPURA: RECONSTRUCTING ASPECTS OF TRADE AND EXCHANGE IN BITUMEN‐COATED CERAMIC VESSELS BETWEEN IRAN AND SRI LANKA FROM THE THIRD TO THE NINTH CENTURIES AD*

In contrast with artefactual studies of long‐distance trade and exchange in South Asia during the Prehistoric and Early Historic periods ( Ardika et al. 1993 ; Gogte 1997 ; Krishnan and Coningham 1997 ; Tomber 2000 ; Gupta et al. 2001 ; Ford et al. 2005 ), few scientifically orientated analyses have focused on artefacts from the region's Historic period. During excavations at the ancient city of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, a number of buff ware ceramics with a putative organic coating on the interior were recovered ( Coningham 2006 ). Dated stylistically to between the third and ninth centuries ad , analysis of the coatings using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and stable isotope analysis (carbon and deuterium) confirmed that the coatings are bitumen—an organic product associated with petroleum deposits. There are no known bitumen sources in Sri Lanka, and biomarker distributions and isotopic signatures suggest that the majority of the samples appear to have come from a single bitumen source near Susa in Iran. The relationship between the bitumen coatings and the vessels is discussed, and it is suggested that the coatings were used to seal permeable ceramic containers to allow them to transport liquid commodities. This study enhances our knowledge of networks of trade and exchange between Sri Lanka and western Asia during Historic times.     

FROM RAW IRON TO SEMI‐PRODUCT: QUALITY AND CIRCULATION OF MATERIALS DURING THE IRON AGE IN FRANCE*

Iron raw materials provide a privileged source of information for the reconstruction of metallurgical techniques and the circulation of iron products. An interdisciplinary approach, combining archaeological and archaeometrical studies of the exemplars known from the French Iron Age, has been undertaken. This enables a new typological classification to be produced that demonstrates a correlation between morphological and structural properties. Through comparison with chronological data, it is possible to propose a reconstruction of the organization of production according to three main periods, which are characterized by the circulation of different qualities of iron and by diverse levels of artisanal specialization.     

FROM THE FIRM GROUND OF RESULT AND FACT TO THE TOSSING SEA OF CAUSE AND THEORY: THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT*

Are government policies of any real significance in shaping the pattern of development in metropolitan regions? This essay summarizes the widely-held view that ‘economic forces’ determine the distribution of jobs and residences in urban areas, and argues that this conclusion involves serious conceptual difficulties. The essay then shows how the theory of political influence and related concepts can be used to clarify the issue of causation in urban development, and summarizes the authors' own substantive conclusions—that under certain specifiable conditions government activities do have a highly significant role in shaping metropolitan growth.