Copper production at Baratti (Populonia,southern Tuscany) in the early Etruscan period (9th–8th centuries BC)

Populonia is commonly regarded as one of the most important iron working centres in Europe in the 1st millennium BC. However, multiple layers of copper slags have been recently discovered at the bottom of the slag deposit occurring along the shoreline of the underlying Baratti Gulf. Copper slag layers have been radiocarbon dated to the 9th–8th centuries BC, i.e. to an early metallurgical stage predating the later large-scale iron production. The overall features of copper slags indicate a single-step smelting process of copper-rich ores containing variable amounts of Zn and Pb. Chemical and textural features of copper slags indicate an optimised, high-efficiency metallurgical process.     

The public life of the Swahili stonehouse, 14th–15th centuries AD

Houses are an important subject of archaeological research, normally explored through the households they contain. This has established a deliberately social agenda for the archaeology of houses, yet has had the unintended consequence of creating bounded worlds for study. Although household archaeologies explore the ways that households contributed to broader social and economic realms, it is rare to think through the public role of houses for non-residents and the larger population of the settlement. This paper seeks to explore this more public aspect of houses using the data from archaeology at Songo Mnara, a 14th–15th century Swahili town on the southern Tanzanian coast. This was a time when stone-built domestic architecture was first emerging in this region. The archaeology of the houses provides data for a series of ways that the house was at the heart of the economic and political life of the town, as well as demonstrating a spatial continuity between indoor and outdoor spaces. It is therefore suggested that the domestic and residential functions of the house for a particular household should be balanced with an appreciation of the broader world of the house itself.     

Archaeological human hair in a burial context: Microscopical evaluation of samples from Iași,Romania (18th–19th centuries)

Owing to its resistance to degradation, hair is an important bio-sample with unique properties used to study post mortem decompositional changes. The present paper is a microscopical approach to preserved human scalp hair discovered at the 18th–19th-century archaeological site of Iași, Romania. The hair fibre alterations were assessed using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, image analysis and hair histological scores. External alterations showed a statistically significant heterogeneous degradation. Image analysis results of the internal degradation of hairs were correlated to external lesions. The results consider the implication of intrinsic biological factors in the post mortem degradation of human hair preserved in graves with comparable environmental conditions.     

Medieval (9th–13th Century) Combs from Northwestern Siberia

Medieval (9th–13th century) wooden and bone combs from archaeological sites in the Middle and Lower Ob basin are described. Those from Strelka and Bukhta Nakhodka are published for the ?rst time. The shape of the combs and the meaning of certain decorative patterns are discussed and comparative data is used. Until the 13th century, the native peoples of Northwestern Siberia used mostly unilateral combs made of a single piece of wood or bone. Later they were gradually replaced by imported bilateral combs of the Old Russian type or their local replicas. Apparently, medieval unilateral combs were used not only as hygiene items but also as elements of coiffure and amulets     

Gendered Inuinnait (Copper Inuit) landscapes of Banks Island’s northern interior,Arctic Canada, 17th–20th centuries a.d.

Abstract

Archaeological survey data from the northern interior of Banks Island in Canada’s western Arctic builds upon traditional interpretations of past land use to explore the ways in which this landscape was perceived by different groups. The data confirm earlier archaeological, ethnographic, and oral history work which suggest that the area was occupied primarily in the summer months at two separate times in the past: the Palaeoeskimo period and the Inuinnait (Copper Inuit) period. The earlier occupation was less intensive than the latter and both were focused on muskox hunting. Drawing on ethnographic studies of the Inuit in both the early and late 20th centuries, and on the distribution of archaeological camp sites versus hunting sites, a reconstruction is made of the different ways in which men and women experienced and understood the survey area during Inuinnait times. It suggests that the main drainages formed important travel routes, and that while women’s knowledge of the region was concentrated along these corridors and in favorite camping places, men’s knowledge extended into hunting areas beyond their peripheries.     

Ritual practices and collective consumption of animal products at the Iron Age rural settlement of Mas Castellar de Pontós (Girona,Spain) (5th–4th centuries BC)

Abstract

Animals have played an important role in certain ceremonies or rites in the past. During such activities, animals may have been alive, dead or been used as raw material. The disposal of detritus from these practices can lead to the formation of faunal assemblages with a particular taxonomic and anatomic composition. At the Iron Age ‘Mas Castellar de Pontós’ site (Girona, Spain), associations of archaeological materials excavated from Pit feature FS362 were suggestive of deposits arising from collective ceremonial consumption. Analysis of the 1309 mammal remains recovered from this feature is used to determine the nature and dynamics of the ceremony. At the same time, the relationship of these faunal remains with the other archaeological materials recovered in the pit will allow light to be shed on the significance and importance of these ceremonies in the framework of the social and political relations that governed the life of the inhabitants of this settlement.     

Criminalization of Homicide in Early Modern Denmark (16th–17th Centuries)

This article explores the criminalization of homicide in early modern Denmark, 16th–17th centuries. Criminalization is here defined, primarily, as the harshening of penalties for homicide in law and practice. The article shows that a process of criminalization took place that contributed to a pacification of the population (demonstrated by a decrease in homicides) but also engendered practices of resistance and evasion which were reminiscent of a medieval feud culture. The attitude towards homicide was for a long time ambivalent, not just among the lower classes but at all levels of society. Criminalization and pacification were mainly products of state-building through harsher punishment and the formation of a more reliable legal system. This top-down process meshed with the broader population’s demands for justice and security.     

Indigenous migrants negotiating belonging: Peticiones de cambio de fuero in Cajamarca,Peru, 17th–18th centuries

Prehispanic corporate social units in northern Peru, the pachacas or ayllus and the guarangas, continued to structure social life in Cajamarca throughout the Spanish colonial period. They were restructured by Spanish rule, as they had been by the Inca conquest before. Spanish rule also reshaped indigenous migration and the social categorization of the migrants, which was closely intertwined with the regime of land tenure. This article takes a look at the integration of new and old migrants and their descendants into the local social structure and examines how they negotiated their belonging in petitions to change or defend their fuero. The petitioners successfully argued on the basis of their ancestry, whether legitimate or not, and activated personal networks on their behalf. In that, they paralleled mestizo and mulatto petitioners who, like migrants, benefited from fiscal prerogatives, which were however challenged during the course of the 18^th century, leading to a partial re-categorization. The redistribution of land was an important motive in these late colonial re-categorizations, but also earlier in the colonial period the absence of bonds to the land was an essential characteristic of being categorized as a ‘migrant.’     

Heating the house. An archaeological and archaeometrical investigation into the tile-stoves of late-medieval Flanders,Belgium (14–17th centuries)

SUMMARY: Tile stoves arise in the Low Countries from the 14th century onwards. Although they have been well documented in northern and central Europe, they have remained an almost forgotten aspect of the material culture of the historic county of Flanders (Belgium). In recent years the amount of stove tiles found in archaeological excavations has increased considerably, raising questions concerning their production and origin. Micro X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy was used to determine the elemental composition of these tiles to see if they could be divided into groups and what these groups could tell us about the distribution of workshops, resources and finished products.     

Nursing mothers and feeding bottles: reconstructing breastfeeding and weaning patterns in Greek Byzantine populations (6th–15th centuries AD) using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios

Traditionally, documentary evidence (mainly medical works and the vitae and miracles of saints) served as the primary source of information for perinatal nutrition in the Byzantine era. In the last decade, however, stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio analysis has also been applied for the reconstruction of Byzantine breastfeeding and weaning practices. This paper reviews the documentary evidence for Byzantine weaning and compares it to isotopic data for eight Greek Byzantine skeletal samples from the sites of Eleutherna, Kastella, Messene, Sourtara, Stylos, Nemea, Petras and Servia (6th–15th centuries AD). The documentary evidence suggests that Byzantine children were weaned at a relatively late age. The age patterning of the stable isotope data is not as clear as normally seen at single sites. However, the presence of a higher proportion of elevated values in juveniles aged three years or less suggests that weaning was completed by the fourth year—a pattern consistent with the written sources. The data available from this study allow us to make some tentative suggestions about cultural and temporal differences in weaning, and to recommend directions for further research. A comparison of the Byzantine data presented here to data published for Roman-era sites from the Mediterranean and Western Europe suggests that the Byzantines maintained a Roman-era practice of relatively late weaning. In contrast, medieval data for Western Europe and the few measurements made on post-Byzantine Greek material suggest more variation, with some groups weaning late and others weaning earlier, by two years of age.     

Monetary Practices in Early Medieval Western Scandinavia (5th–10th Centuries ad)

A SOCIAL APPROACH TO MONETISATION shifts the attention from the classic money media — gold and silver — to the dissemination of two social practices: valuing and paying. When these two monetary practices first became widespread in western Scandinavia during the gold rich migration period (in the 5th to 6th centuries ad), they were not introduced in the sphere of trade, but instead were features of traditional or customary payments, such as weregeld (atonements for murder or offences against the person) or marriage dowries. By the Viking Age, in the late 8th to 10th centuries ad, despite flourishing commodity production, precious metals were used as payment in trade solely in towns. Even in towns, this commercial use seems to have been adopted late, and was employed only occasionally. This paper reviews the changing approaches to money and monetisation, and draws attention to the potential for regarding monetisation as the spread of a set of social practices.     

Glass gilding process in medieval Syria and Egypt (13th–14th century)

Twelve gilded and enamelled Islamic glass fragments, produced in Syria or Egypt during the Ayyubid or Mamluk period, were provided by the Louvre museum for complete non-destructive analysis. The enamelling process of similar objects has been extensively studied in the last decades, but the gilding process has never been investigated in details. This paper focuses on the understanding of both the gilding process and the gold/glass adhesion mechanism. The structure, composition and thickness of the gold flakes forming the gilding decoration are measured. The complete process combining gilding and enamelling is described and the local mechanism of adhesion of gold flakes on the glass body is discussed.     

Composition of white paste inlay on the pottery from sites of the 10th–8th centuries bce in the northern Pontic region

For the first time, the mineralogical–geochemical compositions of the white paste inlay found on vessels from sites (10th–8th centuries bce ) in the northern Pontic region are investigated. Samples of the white paste on vessels from settlements, burials of sedentary groups and graves of early nomads were analysed by means of scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. Between the 10th and eighth centuries bce , various innovations occurred in the working area. Iron processing technology and the manufacture of iron products also appeared. Other innovations were changes in the manufacturing technology of ceramics. A high-quality, polished/burnished surface and ornaments with white paste inlay are characteristic of this pottery. When collating white paste mixtures of different European sites, similarities in the preparation of white paste recipes for vessels from the Balkan and northern Pontic regions are evident. During the Early Iron Age, further changes in the manufacture of the white paste were discovered in the northern Pontic region, namely the application of high-temperature firing to obtain more resistant synthesized material such as calcium alumosilicates and silicates (wollastonite). The development of iron metallurgy in this period could provide a basis for the elaboration of new techniques in ceramic manufacture.     

Birds in the medieval culture and economy of the East Slavs in the 10–13th centuries AD

The paper is devoted to a re-examination of the bird remains from the numerous East Slavic settlements (10–13th centuries AD). Species diversity suggests that medieval people in the Eastern Europe used birds for food, falconry, in ritual and, possibly, for aviary specimens and pets. Furthermore, bird feathers were used for preparing arrows. The most popular bird of prey was goshawk. Primary game birds were ducks, geese, swans, common crane and corvids along with black grouse and capercaillie in forest zones. The archaeological data present evidence for the use of wild birds (e.g., hooded crow) in funeral ceremonies for the first time. The majority of the identified birds have not changed their distribution, but in recent times some of these taxa have become rarer. Red-breasted goose is now extant in the area but its remains were found in the medieval layers, although this species could have been an occasional visitor in the Ukraine. Archaeological data and historical sources prove that white stork has lived in the territory of Ukraine since the Middle Ages or even earlier. The most common domestic poultry for the East Slavs was chicken. Domestic ducks and geese were much rarer. Historical documents were also consulted in this study and these also contribute to our understanding of the role of birds in the life of the East Slavs.     

An age of transition? Castles and the Scottish Highland estate in the 16th and 17th centuries

Abstract

In the archaeology of post-medieval rural Scotland, research traditions have inhibited understanding of social change prior to the 18th century as the emphasis has been on the dramatic overturn of 'traditional' society with Improvement and the Clearances. This contrasts with the situation for England and, indeed other parts of Europe, where there is an established concern for the much earlier 'Age of Transition' from medieval to modern. Here I explore the ancestry of Improvement by considering the genesis of the landed estate in the 16th and earlier 17th centuries, and this is primarily achieved through an analysis of the architecture and geography of castles in one area of the Highlands. This case study concerns the castles of the Glenorchy Campbells, a lineage emerging in the earlier 15th century and proceeding to become one of the most significant of Scottish, and British, landed families. In no small part through a changing approach to castle building, their rise was predicated on the transformation of clan territory into landed estate in the period after 1550. The usefulness of the 'Age of Transition' construct, in this specific context and in general, is appraised. In concluding, I argue for the alternative of the dialectical Marxist concept of contradiction. This places the focus on tension, fluidity, and lack of resolution in society, running counter to the idea of transition from one state to another. With contradiction, modern society as a simply definable entity is never established and cannot be delineated in a straightforward way. It is an itinerant process, constantly emerging and changing.