Seventeenth-century Pottery from Ash,Surrey

Abstract

About 2,000 sherds, mainly in white fabric, were found on a site at Ash which was one of several producing similar wares on the West Surrey and Hampshire borders. Some of the sherds were medieval, but the remainder were 17th century and are analysed in an attempt to assess the forms and characteristics of the post-medieval pottery made at Ash. Documentary evidence discloses the presence of potters in Ash in the 17th and 18th centuries, although there is no direct link with the site, and also indicates possible sources for the potters’ clay.     

The earliest evidence of domesticated wheat in the Crimea at Chalcolithic Ardych-Burun

Abstract

This paper reports the discovery of the earliest evidence of domesticated wheat in the Crimean peninsula from the Ardych-Burun shell midden site, Ukraine. The Ardych-Burun site dates to middle of the 4th millennium cal b.c. For the first time, the chronology of a Ukrainian Chalcolithic period site has been established through direct radiocarbon dating of cereal grains retrieved from it. This discovery allows for a wider discussion of the chronology and geographical origins of domesticated plant species in Ukraine and the role the Caucasian corridor may have played in the spread of agriculture into eastern Europe. The presence of cereal crops in the southern Crimea enriches our understanding of the subsistence strategies of the coastal population, which was previously linked only with pastoralism, hunting, and the exploitation of marine resources.     

Platform cache encampments: Implications for mobility strategies and the earliest ancestral Apaches

Abstract

The Hormiguero site is a large mountainside Apache residential site in the Peloncillo Mountains of southern Arizona that lies in the heart of historically documented Chiricahua Apache territory. It represents an encampment at an important caching location, a category of residential site that has not been previously described archaeologically. Ethnographic data are enlisted to understand this unique type of Apache residential site and a previously unknown cache form—the platform cache. Archaeological evidence is combined from a number of sites with caches like those at Hormiguero to interpret aspects of cultural identity and chronology including the presence of ancestral Apaches in southern Arizona as early as the 14th century a.d.     

Observations on the Ancient City Walls of Rochester

Abstract

A recent survey of the floor-tiles of Cleeve Abbey has revealed a much larger range of designs and fabric groups than had previously been assumed. The style of the earliest pavements derive from those laid at Clarendon Palace in the first half of the 13th century, and may have been made on site. In the late 13th century tiles of high quality were imported from the Gloucester region to pave the frater. The next group of tiles came from a Somerset tilery operating at the same time or just after the Gloucestershire tilery. By c. 1330 the entire church was paved along with the sacristy and chapterhouse, using tiles made by a local industry. There was no revival of tile-making after the mid-14th century.     

Investigating absence: Assessing the cumulative effects of casual collecting at a 19th century Bahamian plantation

Abstract

Recent archaeological work at Prospect Hill, a 19th century plantation in the Bahamas, revealed artifact patterns that are inconsistent with expectations for a plantation site. The quantity and quality of artifacts in residential areas associated with the planter family and the enslaved population were inverted and suggest significant post abandonment changes. The site of Prospect Hill has been a destination for tourists and student groups since the mid-20th century, and the areas of the site most accessible to these visitors are also those with surprisingly low artifact counts. I investigated the possibility that regular visitation involved casual collecting using historical data as well as artifact assemblages from archaeological work at Prospect Hill. My analysis suggests that the archaeological record has been altered significantly through casual, opportunistic collecting, and it offers insights for identifying casual collecting elsewhere.     

A Buff Coat of circa 1645

Abstract

Rescue excavations on part of the site of Richmond Palace, Surrey (NGR, TQ174748), revealed a revetment wall, part of a large moat, and other structures; the finds indicate a construction date in the first half of the 17th century, during a rebuilding of the Palace outworks.     

YNYSPENLLWCH: THREE CENTURIES OF TIN MAKING IN SOUTH WALES

Abstract

This paper reviews three centuries of tin making at Ynyspenllwch. As the first tin works in Glamorgan, established in the 17th century, and one of the oldest in South Wales, the development of the site from 1647 down to its closure in the early 20th century is an instructive example of the power requirements and output for this type of metalworking complex. The study takes the form of a landscape and historical assessment of the site, supported by detailed analysis of the main wheel pit.     

Medieval Architecture Illustrated from Illuminated Manuscripts

Abstract

Following examination of a number of post-medieval perceptions of Peak, or Peveril, Castle in Derbyshire, the topographical setting of the castle is discussed. It is suggested that late-12th-century literature can give clues as to the way in those who built and used the castle in the 12th and 13th centuries might have appreciated the site.     

The ruins of the Abbey Disibodenberg near Mainz,Germany: Excavation,conservation and development of the site

Abstract

Disibodenberg, until recently a forgotten monastic ruin in the Rhineland Palatinate, was for 40 years the home of Hildegard of Bingen, the 900th anniversary of whose birth was celebrated in 1998. By a combined programme of excavation, conservation, development and tourist management the site has become a place of greater importance and interest for scientists, visitors and even pilgrims.     

A Survey of Shipwreck Sites Off the Southwestern Coast of Turkey

Abstract

Using a combination of remote sensing techniques (side-scan sonar and underwater television), and visual inspection by SCUBA-diving, 18 wrecks ranging in age from preclassical to 19th century A.C. were located between Bodrum and Cape Gelidonya. The majority of wreck sites were known to local sponge divers. All except one site have been looted; nevertheless, eight sites are judged worthy of further investigation.     

Polesworth: a north Warwickshire country pottery

Abstract

In 1986 excavations for house foundations at Polesworth in northern Warwickshire (SK 263 980) uncovered a pottery waster dump. Fine wares, lead glazed and unglazed coarsewares, including a number a horticultural vessels, were recovered, together with kiln furniture. An archaeological excavation adjacent to the construction site revealed stratigraphy relating to the backfilling of a clay pit with potting waste early in the 18th century. Documentary and other evidence shows that the pottery was in production from the late 17th to early 19th centuries.     

Abu Salem: Type Site of the Harifian Industry of the Southern Levant

Abstract

Abu Salem in the Central Negev, Israel, is the type site for the newly recognized Harifian Industry. Abu Salem is a sizable village with substantial architecture dated by C-14 to the last quarter of the 9th millennium B.C. The associated lithic industry is not directly related to the Natufian or the Pre-Pottery of Palestine, but the inferred adaptive patterns parallel those of the Natufian. Presently known Harifian site distribution indicates that it is restricted to the semi-arid zone of the southern Levant and, in spite of having the technological prerequisites, the Harifian failed to become truly Neolithic. As such, it represents an example of a late Levantine Epipaleolithic cultural development outside the core Mediterranean zone.     

Excavations at Rockley Smithies,a water-powered bloomery of the 16th and 17th Centuries

Abstract

Between about 1500 and 1640 iron was smelted by the direct, bloomery, process on the lands of the Rockley family at (N.G.R.) SE/340023, to the south-west of Barnsley, Yorkshire, using charcoal and ore from the well-wooded outcrops of the Tankersley ironstone, adjacent to the site. Evidence for operation early in the 16th century was limited to accumulations of hearth-cinder and of debris from ore-roasting, minor structures and traces of a dam. About 1600 a major rebuilding involved the construction of a bloom-hearth and probably two stringhearths, with bellows powered by waterwheels, and an unpowered hammer. Minor rebuilding took place early in the 17th century, and archaeological and documentary evidence combine to place abandonment at about 1640. Demolition and stone-robbing could well have provided material for the blast-furnace built a short distance away in 1652. The bloomery site was abandoned to pasture and perhaps a cottage, and at some time early in the 19th century was occupied by two houses and a workshop for an adjacent colliery tramway. It was covered by a road embankment in 1966.

Evidence was found of techniques at a comparatively advanced bloomery, in operation at a time when English ironmasters were, however, increasingly favouring the use of the blast furnace.     

'.. 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.     

Between archives and the site: the 19th-century iron and steel industry in the Monklands,Central Scotland

Abstract

A case is made that attention should shift from the archaeology of process, guided largely by the archival evidence, to the archaeology of practice by scrutinizing the material record. Holistic Context Analysis applied to the industrial soils and finds at Moffat Upper Steam Forge has led to a more coherent and realistic picture of construction and demolition at the site, as well as of its puddling industry, than could be learned from the historical narrative of the iron and steel industry in the Monklands, the most industrialized part of Scotland in the 19th century.     

Archaeobotanical investigation of two Scythian-Sarmatian period pits in eastern Ukraine: Implications for floodplain cereal cultivation

Abstract

Two Scythian-Sarmatian period pits dated to the 5th–1st centuries b.c. were discovered while excavating the Chalcolithic site of Zanovskoe, located on a floodplain of the Donets River in the steppe region of eastern Ukraine, Lugansk oblast. No contemporaneous settlement sites are known in the region. Archaeobotanical analysis was conducted on charred plant macrofossils recovered from pits at the site. The crop assemblage consisted of hulled barley and broomcorn millet, from which AMS radiocarbon dates were obtained. Other identified plant species mostly constituted arable weeds and wetland plants. The archaeobotanical assemblage implies floodplain cereal cultivation strategies among the steppe inhabitants during this period.     

Dental microwear study of pigs from the classical site of Sagalassos (SW Turkey) as an aid for the reconstruction of husbandry practices in ancient times

Abstract

Microwear analysis of pig teeth from the classical site of Sagalassos (SW Turkey) is undertaken to obtain insight into pig management strategies in this region from the 1st to 7th centuries AD. Earlier research on modern pigs revealed significant differences in microwear patterns between stall-fed and free-ranging, rooting individuals. A comparison of the microwear data of the Sagalassos pig with those from archaeological and modern pigs with a known or presumed type of management shows that the microwear of the Sagalassos pigs is very different. It is suggested that the Sagalassos pigs had a very soft, non-abrasive diet, that in the first instance cannot be attributed to either management type. Therefore, the nature of the substrate on which the animals were foraging and its impact on microwear are considered and the microwear data are compared with the results of previous archaeozoological research carried out at the site. Further, diachronic changes in microwear patterns are investigated.     

A survey of the charcoal-fuelled ironworking industries of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire

Abstract

A project carried out in 2001 recorded the most important surviving remains of charcoal-fuelled blast furnaces and forges in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, and reviewed the documentary evidence relating to them. The earliest sites date to the end of the 16th and the early 17th century. The furnaces at Ponthenri (Carmarthenshire) and Blackpool (Pembrokeshire) and the forges at Llandyfan (Carmarthenshire) were surveyed. One furnace site (either Ponthenri or Pontiets) may retain below-ground evidence for experiments in coke smelting by Hugh Grundy in 1620, giving it considerable national importance. These monuments are little known; attention is drawn to their steadily deteriorating condition.     

A local response to a wider situation: the archaeology of the clan stronghold of Dùn Èistean,Isle of Lewis

Abstract

Dùn Èistean stands at the end of a long tradition of clan strongholds seen in the MacLeod lordship of the western seaboard of north-west Scotland in the medieval and early post-medieval periods. Excavations on the site have shown that it was in repeated use for refuge in times of trouble in the 16th and early 17th centuries, acting as a power centre caught up in the wider political scene. The inhabitants of Dùn Èistean were a people with a strong local identity, using their traditional building techniques, adapting to available raw materials and drawing on the resources of the surrounding environment to support and defend the inhabitants in the face of incoming attack.