From Pleistocene Mariners to Complex Hunter-Gatherers: The Archaeology of the California Channel Islands

California’s Channel Islands were home to some of the most distinctive Native American peoples along the Pacific Coast. Never connected to the mainland during the Quaternary, the Channel Islands have an impoverished terrestrial flora and fauna, but some of the richest and most productive marine environments in the Americas, including diverse kelp forest, intertidal, and offshore marine habitats. Native Americans occupied the Channel Islands for roughly 13,000 calendar years until the early nineteenth century, providing one of the longest and best preserved records of maritime hunter-gatherers in the Americas. We provide an overview and analysis of Channel Islands archaeology, from the relatively mobile peoples who colonized the islands during the Late Pleistocene to the complex hunter-gatherers documented by early Spanish explorers. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of Channel Islands archaeology for enhancing knowledge on a number of broad anthropological issues, including coastal and aquatic adaptations, seafaring, cultural complexity, trade and exchange, and ancient human impacts on the environment.     

Archaeology and British television

Abstract

The years at the turn of the millennium were a period of high synergy between archaeology and British television, as terrestrial broadcasters struggled to maintain their identity in a more competitive, multi-channel environment. Responding to the public's growing appetite for both history and science, these channels, notably BBC2 and Channel4, rebranded the image of their factual output by investing heavily in archaeological programmes, building on the success of mid-1990s series that had established a healthy core audience for TV archaeology. The broadcasting of archaeological documentaries was to increase threefold between 1998 and 2002, with over 650 transmissions in five years. An analysis of the locations, time periods, subjects and styles of presentation of 590 of these demonstrates that the archaeology that was being presented was largely UK-based, but wide-ranging in periods and subject matter, and that the formats most used were ones that focused on the process of archaeological work. The study concludes that, seen as a whole, TV's portrayal of archaeology in these years was less sensationalized than has previously been acknowledged.     

“巨文岛事件”与英国东北亚政策

"甲申政变"之后,辅佐谁来保护朝鲜,是英国制定东北亚外交政策的焦点。朝鲜"背清亲俄"、日本不断挑战中朝宗藩关系、《天津条约》的撤兵造成朝鲜半岛即将出现政权、军事真空局面,导致中国在政治、军事两方面掌控朝鲜的力度空前薄弱,加剧了域内域外国家对朝鲜主导权的争夺。为了防止朝鲜半岛的动荡局势向着于己国不利的方向演变,维护在远东地区的战略格局,1885年3月,英国精心策划了一个"由中国保护朝鲜"和"有一打算"的外交计策,并于1885年4月在防御"英俄战争"的大义名分下,占领了巨文岛。由此,开始了近两年的辅佐"中国保护朝鲜"的外交活动,最后如愿获得了一个在中国宗主权掌控下的相对稳固的东北亚局势。可以说,巨文岛事件是在英国军事力量支持下,中英联手巩固东亚宗藩体制的外交事件,英国是这一事件的最大赢家,中国是最大的受益者。而英国高调渲染占领巨文岛的大义名分和辅佐"中国保护朝鲜"的真实用意,如同一枚硬币的两面,反映了巨文岛事件的复杂性、多面性。1885年以后,在强化宗藩体制的过程中,以遏制日本和朝鲜进一步破坏中国宗主权为目的的英国外交活动发挥了关键作用,巨文岛事件是其中的重要历史拐点。     

The Archaeology of the Kelp Industry in the Northern Islands of Ireland

The manufacture of kelp in Ireland from the 17th to early 20th centuries provided soda and later iodine for contemporary industries. It was an immensely important element of coastal economies, and notably for island communities, often impoverished and with limited agricultural means. This paper traces the origins and development of the industry in Ireland and examines the evidence for production in the islands off the northern coast. The results of a recent survey of surviving kelp monuments are presented. The form of the monuments, in particular kilns, is considered as well as the role of the industry in island economies.
© 2006 The Author     

The Archaeology of German and British Colonial Entanglements in Kpando-Ghana

In talking about the cultural diversity of Africa’s past, the archaeological assessment of West African sites with mangled tangible and intangible fragments of German and British and/or French colonial encounters should not be ignored but rather discussed. This research explores how specific daily material cultural practices of German and British colonizers and Kpando indigenes in the Volta Region of Ghana were enmeshed in a medley of geopolitical, ideological and exchange connections. Through the use of archaeological, archival and ethnographic sources, this paper examines how daily practices of the people of Kpando were impacted by pre-colonial and dual colonial political economic pressures from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. This paper archaeologically explores how colonial officials maintained and renegotiated the norms of domesticity/gentility/Europeaness in their encounter with Akpini domestic technology, foodways and cultural practices.     

The palaeogeography and Neolithic archaeology of Herm in the Channel Islands

Abstract

The small Channel Island of Herm combines several distinct habitats ranging from steep rocky coasts and a rolling upland plateau in the south to a dune-fringed sandy lowland in the north. Where upland and lowland meet, a line of megalithic tombs constitutes the island’s most striking archaeological feature. Four seasons of fieldwork (2008–2011) have sought to determine the environmental history of northern Herm since the last glacial period and to place the tombs within the broader context of Neolithic activity. A series of trenches and boreholes has revealed the changing morphology of the prehistoric land surface that lies buried beneath the extensive deposits of aeolian sand that cover this part of the island. Results indicate that much of the lowland plain was initially occupied by a shallow marine inlet that was cut off from the sea and progressively infilled starting in the 4th millennium b.c. Pollen and soil sequences reveal how the wooded early Holocene landscape around the edges of this inlet was steadily degraded by human impact and climate. Traces of settlement and cultivation (plowmarks) suggest the megalithic tombs were situated within an agricultural landscape. This finding has relevance for theories that have proposed that islands were favored places for burial by communities visiting from the neighboring mainland. Herm was a locus for settlement and farming as well as for burial during the Neolithic period.     

Archaeology in the Pacific Islands: An appraisal of recent research

The Pacific Islands or Oceania, typically subdivided into Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, have witnessed a virtual explosion of archaeological research, as indicated by this review of the past 5 years' literature. Most recent work centers on one or more of six major themes. Two themes are concerned with the movement of people into the Pacific region: the discovery of Pleistocene-age sites in island Melanesia and the search for early assemblages evidencing Austronesian dispersals. Substantial efforts have also focused on reconstructing prehistoric economic behavior and on assessing the impacts that colonizing human populations had on isolated and fragile island ecosystems. In the realm of social archaeology, Oceanic studies have contributed to understanding the long-term dimensions of interisland exchange and to the rise of complex, hierarchical sociopolitical systems, especially chiefdoms.     

On the Primeval Antiquities of the Channel Islands

Bishop's Waltham Palace, one of the most important residences of the bishopric of Winchester, was transformed by two of the most powerful of its later medieval bishops, Wykeham and Beaufort (1367–1447). The exceptional quality of the bishopric records enables us to trace the chronology of the progress of work with considerable accuracy and requires revision of the conventional dating of the buildings. The records also provide a great deal of information about the craftsmen and architects involved and about the building materials and their sources. Beaufort's new lodgings range still possesses much of the original timber framing of its eastern chambers, and this together with its accurate dating has warranted separate treatment.

Note on dating The accounting year ran from Michaelmas to Michaelmas (29 September), and I have dated work by the year in which this closed. Most of the building season would therefore be recorded in the account for the same calendar year, but any late autumn work would be found in the following year's account.     

19世纪英国妇女选举权运动与自由主义

自由平等是19世纪女权主义和自由主义共同的理想。女性主义借用自由主义的自由平等观念解释妇女选举权及其他权利,从女性的立场重构公共领域和私人领域、国与家等概念,丰富和发展了传统自由主义理论。实践上,她们走出私人领域的禁区,忘我地投入到政治生活中去,挑战传统社会与两性关系,逐步把局限于男性的政治、经济权利扩大到女性阶层,为建立以女性为中心的政治化作出贡献,为妇女政治平等权的实现打下基础。     

英国考古的政策、管理和操作

(编者按 :中山大学人类学系为庆祝该系于 2 0 0 1年复办 2 0周年 ,举行了系列学术讲座。 2 0 0 1年 6月 6日 ,香港古物古迹办事处考古学家李浪林先生应邀作了题为“英国考古的政策、管理和操作”的演讲 ,演讲之后回答了该系师生的提问。李浪林先生早年就读于伦敦大学考古学院 ,获硕士学位 ,最近又受香港政府的派遣 ,到英国伦敦博物馆、肯特郡政府和英格兰文物局等机构进修和考察 ,系统地了解了英国最新的考古政策、管理 ,田野考古发掘的方法和技术。今将李浪林先生演讲和回答问题的内容整理出来 ,以飨读者 ,相信该文对国内的考古政策、发掘管理和研究 ,都会有一定的借鉴意义。因该文未经本人审阅 ,疏漏由整理者负责。)     

加勒比海维京岛考古

加勒比海诸岛保存着许多史前遗址,本次考古发掘的巴芒特遗址位于英属维京岛之托特拉岛的西端,在遗址中出土大量石器、陶器和蚌器等,这些遗址和器物对认识加勒比海诸岛历史、土著印第安人及其文化有重要意义.     

Observations on the Primeval Antiquities of the Channel Islands

This article presents a combined architectural and archaeological account of a recently demolished sixteenth-century upland hallhouse, probably representative of a once-numerous class of peasant dwellings. Tyddyn Llwydion was a cruck-framed peasant hallhouse of longhouse type, that is, a dwelling distinguished by the small size of its open hall (a single bay), the absence of decoration, and the presence of a cow-house in the lower part of the range.     

The Archaeology of Poverty and the Poverty of Archaeology

In this Editor’s Introduction to this Special Contribution, I explore some central issues surrounding the archaeology of poverty and ponder why it has taken historical archaeologists so long to “discover” poverty as a research topic.     

A Fluid Sea in the Mariana Islands: Community Archaeology and Mapping the Seascape of Saipan

This paper applies both a community archaeology and seascape approach to the investigation of the sea and its importance to the Indigenous community on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands in western Oceania. It examines data collected during a community project including archaeological sites, oral histories, lived experiences and contemporary understandings of both tangible and intangible maritime heritage to explore Indigenous connections with the sea and better define the seascape. What the seascape of Saipan conveys in the larger sense is the true fluidity of the sea. In this instance fluidity has more than one connotation; it refers to the sea as both a substance and an idea that permeates and flows into all aspects of Indigenous life. Chamorro and Carolinian people of Saipan identify themselves as having an ancestral connection with the sea that they continue to maintain to this day as they engage in daily activities within their seascape.