Rapid,in-stride soil phosphate measurement in archaeological survey: a new method tested in Loudoun County,Virginia

We report the development and field test of a modified method for soil phosphate analysis for survey archaeology. Consideration of relative, rather than absolute, phosphate levels permits the abbreviation of standard extraction techniques, while two-color spectral monitoring provides reliable values without the need for the typical 40–60 min development period. Using this technique, a soil sample may be fully analyzed for phosphate in as little as 6 min. The technique was used in the field simultaneously with a standard woodland shovel-testing survey in an effort to locate a now lost historic farmstead in northwest Loudoun County, Virginia.     

Nazi camps on British soil: the excavation of Lager Wick forced labour camp in Jersey,Channel Islands

Abstract

The forced labour camp of Lager Wick in Jersey, built during the German occupation of the Channel Islands in 1942, is the first Nazi camp to be excavated on British soil. This paper presents the findings from three seasons of fieldwork (2014–16), and includes an analysis of the architecture of internment and the signposts it leaves for that which does not survive. It also draws into sharp relief the link between archaeology and oral testimony and the way that archaeology can both back up and disprove the historical record. Finally, this paper examines the important role that archaeology can play in uncovering and helping to normalize ‘taboo heritage’.     

遥感考古——探索人类文化遗产的新手段

遥感考古与传统田野考古相比具有诸多优势,且应用广泛,为考古学研究提供了科技新手段,将考古学研究推向一个崭新的平台。     

Soil phosphate analysis as a tool in archaeology

The theory underlying the use of soil phosphate analysis in archaeology is discussed. After describing the field and laboratory methods used at Stavanger Museum, the method is illustrated by several examples. In all cases the results showed good agreement with the archaeological evidence, and generally provided useful supplementary information. The method may be used as a guide to the functions carried out in different parts of a site and to the intensity of occupation. Although no hidden sites were found in a reconnaissance survey, the results indicate that the method has considerable scope in locating sites in areas destined for town development, etc.     

应用酶联免疫吸附法(ELISA)初探古代墓葬壁画胶结材料中的狗胶原蛋白

古代墓葬壁画颜料中的胶结材料成分研究是国内外考古界研究的热点方向之一。本研究针对我国北方公元5世纪墓葬壁画中红色、黑色和黄色壁画颜料样品,利用酶联免疫吸附法(ELISA),对样品中的狗胶原蛋白浓度进行了分析测定。结果发现,红色干燥壁画颜料中含有狗胶原蛋白,含量为7.328mg/L,而黑色、黄色和红色湿润壁画颜料中均未检测到狗胶原蛋白成分。利用ELISA成功检测出我国古代壁画颜料中胶结材料成分。该检测方法可以直接、快速检测古代壁画胶结材料中动物胶原蛋白的种类。     

汉晋变迁考古学研究的地域意义——以安徽马鞍山地区吴晋墓葬为材料

分区是考古学研究常用的方法,在历史考古学研究中,因文献记载的详细、考古材料的连续、集中,使具体地点的考古学分区研究有了进一步细化的可能。安徽马鞍山地区吴晋墓葬在孙吴和东晋两个时期有着显著的区域特征,这与该地特殊的区位有着很大的关联,而这些规律的总结正体现出汉晋变迁考古学研究的地域意义,从而对历史考古学研究的方法进行有意探讨。     

The Dynamics of Inclusion at the Dynamics of Inclusion in Public Archaeology Workshop Public Event

This paper describes, analyzes and critiques a public archaeology event created to demonstrate the methodologies of a dialogic archaeology. Collaboratively produced by the Wenner-Gren-sponsored Dynamics of Inclusion in Public Archaeology Workshop and the African Burial Ground National Monument, this event drew a capacity crowd representing diverse communities from the New York City region for a program dedicated to exploring public archaeology as it is, and has been, practiced in New York City. The on the ground actions involved in designing the event are explored here for insight into how communities form in, around, and with archaeology, while participant observation data gathered during the event is used to demonstrate the facilitating role archaeology and archaeologists play when a community uses the past for needs in the present. Feedback from several of the audiences attending the event, including the Workshop participants and other archaeological colleagues who were present, provide reflection on the aims and goals of public archaeology.     

性别考古学研究综述——以中国考古学为中心

中国考古学理论与方法渐趋多元化,而性别考古学却未引起足够的重视。本文梳理了性别考古学产生以来所走过的的历程,尤其对中国考古学中的性别研究进行了较为详细的梳理。本文将中国考古学中的性别研究划分了三个阶段,即20世纪30年代至建国、建国之后至20世纪90年代、90年代至今。其中在第三个阶段,后现代视角的性别考古学真正在中国出现。本文并对中国后现代视角下的性别考古学进行了反思,希冀能够引起学者的注意。     

Archaeology at the micro-scale: micromorphology and phytoliths at a Swahili stonetown

Geoarchaeological and archaeobotanical techniques are increasingly applied to the study of urban and domestic space. However, they are seldom performed as part of an integrative approach, where the soil and botanical micro-records are used together. This paper presents the preliminary results of ongoing research at Songo Mnara in Tanzania that combines customised intra-site soil macro- and micromorphological analyses, chemical analysis and the study of phytoliths. The research is part of a multidisciplinary project on the use of urban space in Swahili stonetowns. By eliciting multiple datasets from Songo Mnara, this paper illustrates the potential of integrating geoarchaeology and archaeobotany to investigate the use of space in urban contexts. The approach is a novelty within the context of Swahili archaeology and an emerging one in Africa.     

Phosphate Analysis of Anthropic Soils

Abstract

The use of phosphate analysis in archaeology is possible because past human occupation and activities increased the amount of soil phosphorus in the areas occupied. The accumulated phosphorus in archaeological deposits tends to remain constant through time and is measurable through soil sampling and chemical analysis, thereby providing archaeology with a valuable tool, applicable to a wide variety of research situations. Phosphate analysis is especially useful in surveying large areas to locate and delimit sites.     

Animal DNA in PCR reagents plagues ancient DNA research

Molecular archaeology brings the tools of molecular biology to bear on fundamental questions in archaeology, anthropology, evolution, and ecology. Ancient DNA research is becoming widespread as evolutionary biologists and archaeologists discover the power of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA from ancient plant and animal remains. However, the extraordinary susceptibility of PCR to contamination by extraneous DNA is not widely appreciated. We report the independent observation of DNA from domestic animals in PCR reagents and ancient samples in four separate laboratories. Since PCR conditions used in ancient DNA analyses are extremely sensitive, very low concentrations of contaminating DNA can cause false positives. Previously unidentified animal DNA in reagents can confound ancient DNA research on certain domestic animals, especially cows, pigs, and chickens.     

Recent carbon isotope research and its implications for African archaeology

A number of new developments in the carbon isotope field are reviewed, some of these having immediate and others potential application to African archaeology. Mass spectrometric analysis of¹³C/¹²C ratios in human and animal bone collagen makes it possible to reconstruct prehistoric foodwebs and to draw conclusions about dietary adaptations. Alternatively, where dietary behaviour is known, analysis of the bone of certain animal species allows for reconstruction of past environments. Ratio mass spectrometers are widely available in research institutions, and provided that the proper techniques for sample preparation are followed, this method of analysis should be of immediate use to most Africanists. It is already making an impact on African archaeology. The development of accelerator-based or high energy mass spectrometry (HEMS) radiocarbon dating provides the potential for extending the method back to 100,000 years, particularly in the case of bone samples. Practical applications, however, are still a few years off. In the immediate future HEMS dating is likely to be applied to small samples of ages less than 50,000 years. In competition with HEMS is the use of mini-counters for conventional radiocarbon dating of small samples. This procedure is available in a few laboratories with more under development. Dating of small samples has potential applications in many areas, specifically in the direct age measurement of critical specimens as opposed to the dating of associated materials.     

Scottish Historical Archaeology: International Agendas and Local Politics

Historical archaeology as practiced in Scotland is divergent from the mainstream tradition of historical archaeology/post-medieval archaeology that dominates North America and the English-speaking world. Cultural and historical forces have shaped an historical archaeology with a deeper time depth, which extends back into the Middle Ages. It also focuses on different subjects reflecting the political concerns associated with Scottish national identity. Examples drawn from Glasgow’s history are used to illustrate the distinctiveness of the Scottish tradition and how it is evolving. I argue that one of its strengths of Scottish historical archaeology is that it provides a corrective contrast to the subjects and approaches which dominate historical archaeology in the English-speaking world.     

Evidence for a Neolithic Age fire-irrigation paddy cultivation system in the lower Yangtze River Delta,China

Establishing stable cropping systems was vital in antiquity, assuring certain yields and enabling ancient people to settle, thus possibly causing various modern food habits and culture to form around the world, especially in cereal-cultivation-dominated countries. China, one of the most famous ancient agricultural countries, has a long history of rice planting, and the fire-irrigation paddy cultivation system is prevalent in the lower Yangtze region, which is considered a rice domestication center. However, its origin and cultivation pattern remain unclear. We studied a famous agricultural vestige, the Chuodun site, involved in rice planting in the lower Yangtze River Delta in eastern China, during the Neolithic Age. Clear evidence from archaeology, paleobiology, pedology and biogeochemistry suggest both that the rice fire-irrigation cultivation system formed during the Neolithic Age and that ancient peoples lived there steadily. Under this extensive cultivation system, soil structures and properties changed significantly; in particular, it left more black carbon in the soil and increased the organic carbon soil stability, which can be used to reconstruct prehistoric environments. Meanwhile, the prevalent fire-irrigation paddy cultivation system used by farmers in this area, though for a different purpose than ancient people, may be inherited from the Neolithic Age.     

Analogy in Danish prehistoric studies

Ethnographic analogy has invariably been used in archaeology at a subconscious level for understanding artefacts. Alison Wylie's analysis, transferring the logical discussion of analogy from philosophy to archaeology, has, though not uncritically, been accepted by the present author as a method of assessing the strength of analogical reasoning. First, Wylie's analysis is presented and discussed. Secondly, her framework serves as a standard of reference for the Danish historical development of analogical reasoning over the past 170 years. Lastly, a contextual approach that does not entirely depart from Sophus Müller's terminology is suggested.     

Archaeology from below

Abstract

This paper identifies and discusses two contrasting approaches to field archaeology in contemporary Britain. The dominant approach is that of ‘official archaeology’ rooted in professional rescue (or contract) work and represented by bodies such as English Heritage, county archaeology units and the Institute of Field Archaeologists. This ‘archaeology from above’ threatens alternative approaches to fieldwork, since state legislation and other bureaucratic controls are being used to restrict access to archaeology to an elite of self-accredited practitioners, and a persuasive and sophisticated ideology of heritage ‘protection’ and professional ‘standards’ is being deployed to legitimize this policy. This attempt to universalize the practices of professional rescue archaeology is academically incoherent and politically undemocratic. An alternative ‘archaeology from below’ is proposed in which fieldwork is rooted in the community, open to volunteer contributions, organised in a non-exclusive, non-hierarchical way, and dedicated to a research agenda in which material, methods and interpretation are allowed to interact. These points are illustrated with detailed references to the experience of ‘democratic archaeology’ on the author's project at Sedgeford in northwest Norfolk in 1996–98.     

Visualization of lidar-derived relief models for detection of archaeological features

This paper presents visualisation techniques of high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) for visual detection of archaeological features. The methods commonly used in archaeology are reviewed and improvements are suggested. One straightforward technique that has so far not been used in archaeology – the shift method – is presented. The main purpose of this article is to compare and evaluate different visualisation methods. Two conclusions have been reached. Where a single method must be chosen – for printing or producing digital images for non-professionals – the use of sky view factor or slope gradient is endorsed, both presented in greyscale. Otherwise interpreters should choose different techniques on different terrain types: shift on flat terrain, sky view factor on mixed terrain, slope gradient on sloped terrain and sky view factor (preferably as a composite image with slope gradient) on rugged terrain.     

Prologue to a contextual archaeology

The thesis of this essay is that a gap presently exists between the research interests of modern scientific archaeology and the research methodology which structures archaeological investigation. It is argued that this is a function of the traditional objectives of archaeology, and that a methodology justified by a distinctive set of goals is necessary to produce studies more closely related to present archaeological concerns. The traditional goals of archaeology are here characterized as the historical result of prior interests, reinforced by the character of formal programmes of graduate study. The set of distinctive goals identified in the essay derives from assessment of the significance of methodologies appropriate to the investigation of palaeoenvironments in modelling prehistoric cultural systems and subsystems.The proposed methodology is substantively, as well as substantially, different from methodologies in present use. I have called it Contextual Archaeology in recognition of its debt to the statement of an archaeologically-significant method Butzer (1978) has advanced under the name Contextual Approach. It is argued here that contextual archaeology, despite practical problems, is both a productive and an implementable alternative.     

关于胶东半岛贝丘遗址环境考古学研究的几点思考

中国社会科学院考古研究所胶东半岛贝丘遗址研究课题组自１９９４年到１９９７年在胶东半岛进行环境考古学研究［１］。我们的研究目的是通过环境考古学的调查和发掘,用考古学、地学和生物学的资料阐述这个地区的自然环境演变是如何制约古代人类生存的,而古代人类又是如...     

考古对象对考古学研究的影响——考古学反思之一

考古学与人类学、社会学、历史学等社会科学或人文科学一样,其总的研究对象都是人类社会。所不同的是,考古学研究的起点是古人活动遗留下来的遗迹和遗物(总称...