Provisioning Inka feasts at Tiwanaku, Bolivia: the geographic origins of camelids in the Pumapunku complex

While political integration can be achieved by many means, here we focus on the use of feasting and statecraft in the Inka Empire of the Andean Late Horizon (c. AD 1400-1532) in South America. In order to examine Inka political integration of the Lake Titicaca Basin of Bolivia, we examine paleomobility and paleodiet through radiogenic strontium and stable oxygen and carbon isotope data in archaeological camelid remains from the site of Tiwanaku. Mean radiogenic strontium isotope values from all archaeological camelid enamel and bone samples is ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr = 0.70998 ± 0.00179 (1σ, n = 48), mean stable oxygen isotope values from a sub-set of archaeological camelid enamel and bone samples is δ¹⁸O_{carbonate (VPDB)} = −10.0‰ ± 2.6‰ (1σ, n = 18) and mean stable carbon isotope values from a sub-set of archaeological camelid enamel and bone samples is δ¹³C_{carbonate (VPDB)} = −9.0‰ ± 1.7‰ (1σ, n = 18). While many camelids consumed in these feasting events were likely local to the Lake Titicaca Basin, others came from a variety of different geologic zones, elucidating our understanding of Inka statecraft and the role of feasting in political integration in empires in the past.     

Identification of psychoactive alkaloids in ancient Andean human hair by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Various ethnographic sources have demonstrated the symbolic and ritualistic importance of psychoactive plants in Native American societies. The social milieu of these mind- altering plants appears to be ancient. Archaeological evidence during the Tiwanaku empire expansion along the Atacama Desert of Chile, circa 500–1000 A.D., shows the presence of highly decorated snuffing tablets and tubes as grave goods. The preservation of mummified human bodies in the Azapa Valley, northern Chile, provided an opportunity to test the exact nature of the psychoactive plants used in this region. Using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC–MS), here we show that ancient Andean populations from northern Chile consumed Banisteriopsis, a vine that contains harmine. This is the first direct archaeological evidence of hallucinogenic and medicinal ethnographic practices. Interestingly enough, this rainforest plant does not grow along the Atacama coast, thus our findings suggest extensive plant trade networks in antiquity as far as the Amazon.     

Earthquakes and archaeology

This article examines the use of archaeological evidence for the assessment of historical earthquakes in the Eastern Mediterranean region and Middle East, long before the advent of modern seismology. We ask the questions when and where have large earthquakes happened in the past? How can this evidence contribute to our scientific understanding of earthquake activity? Is it possible on literary and archaeological grounds to distinguish between earthquake damage and damage from other causes? It is found that archaeological evidence for an earthquake is not always clear or unambiguous and that there is a need for collaboration between archaeologists, historians, geologists, engineering seismologists and workers in other disciplines, to evaluate the traces of earthquakes in excavations, both for understanding their effects at the site and for the information they can provide about the nature of the earthquake implicated.     

Tiwanaku and Its Precursors: Recent Research and Emerging Perspectives

The Lake Titicaca Basin provides a fascinating case study for examining the prehistoric rise of complexity and archaic state development. The development of the Tiwanaku state and preceding polities involved conjunctions of regional environmental, socioeconomic, and ideological transformations. Significant social, economic, and ideological diversity characterized each major phase, indicating that the creation of inclusive domains of shared values, practices, and identities was critical to the formation of polities in the region. Tiwanaku and its precursors were, in great part, incorporative sociopolitical phenomena in which social diversity remained vital throughout their histories.     

Shifting social networks along the Nile: Middle Holocene ceramic assemblages from Sai Island, Sudan

During the middle Holocene, profound changes in environment, economy, and social relations laid the foundations for the emergence of Africa’s earliest polities: the Egyptian Old Kingdom and the Kerma state. Regional shifts in economy and society may be reflected in local changes in patterning of ceramic production and exchange. Analysis of two pottery assemblages from Sai Island, north Sudan, reveals dramatic shifts in the scale of cultural spheres and the nature of cross-cultural interaction between 5000 BC (Khartoum Variant) and 2600 BC (Pre-Kerma). Near-sedentary Khartoum Variant hunter–gatherers at site 8-B-10C participated in a longstanding cultural sphere that extended far into the Sahara, but were beginning to focus more tightly on resources by the Nile. By Pre-Kerma times, Sai occupants familiar with animal husbandry started to use southwest Asian plant domesticates; they began to experiment with large-scale storage facilities and engage in long-distance trade along the Nile, outside of their own cultural boundaries. Beyond a shift in axes for contact from east–west to north–south, these changes signal progressive geographic and temporal compression of cultural entities, amidst accelerating processes of economic innovation and social change that finally culminated in the polities of Egypt and Kerma.     

New radiocarbon dating of the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic in Kebara Cave,Israel

The Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition (MP-UP transition) is considered a major technological and cultural threshold, at the time when modern humans spread “out of Africa”, expanded from the Levant into Europe and possibly into central and northern Asia. The dating of this techno-cultural transition has proved to be extremely difficult because it occurred sometime before 40,000 radiocarbon years before present (¹⁴C years BP), which is close to the end of the effective dating range of radiocarbon. Other dating methods such as Thermoluminescence (TL) or Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) are not sufficiently precise to date the recorded archaeological MP-UP transition in the Levant. Here we report a consistent set of stratified radiocarbon ages on freshly excavated charcoal from Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel (Israel), that span the late Middle Paleolithic (MP) and Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) This study applied novel strategies to improve sample preparation techniques and data analysis to obtain high-resolution radiocarbon models. From this study it is proposed that the MP-UP transition for this site can be placed immediately after 45,200 ± 700 ¹⁴C years BP and before 43,600 ± 600 ¹⁴C years BP or from 49/48 to 47/46 radiocarbon calibrated years before present (years Cal BP).     

“汉代城市和聚落考古与汉文化国际学术研讨会”纪要

城市是一个国家或地区的政治、文化中心和经济管理、军事指挥中心,是人类文明的集中体现,对古代城址进行发掘和研究历来是考古学的基本内容及重要任务之一。聚落一般指人们聚居的地方,是生产、生活等各种活动的空间及场所。广义的聚落包括城市,     

国内外农民工空间回流及其区位研究进展

农民工空间回流正在改变我国农民工流动的空间格局,而回流区位决定了空间回流的具体流向和回流者的空间分布。通过对国内外相关文献的梳理和分析,发现相关研究多集中于经济学、人口学和社会学等学科。在研究内容上,国外主要集中于空间回流动因的理论阐释、空间回流影响因素、空间回流评价和区域影响等方面,而国内主要关注到了空间回流动因与机制、回流地及回流意愿地空间特征、空间回流的区域影响等领域。农民工空间回流的产生是宏观因素、中观因素和微观因素综合作用的结果,实际回流区位多以农民工源地附近的县城和小城镇为主,而回流意愿地多为大中城市,意愿与现实矛盾突出。农民工空间回流对务工城市和来源地农村均产生了重要影响,但这种影响可能为正面影响,也可能为负面影响。今后应加强回流区位的研究,尤其是理论研究,通过对典型案例的剖析,归纳总结回流区位的一般规律,同时,在研究方法上应加强模型分析、定量分析、空间分析等方法的应用。     

Trajectories of Development: International Heritage Management of Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa

Archaeology and material heritage are increasingly being used for development projects aimed at producing economic growth and reducing poverty. I am interested in how these projects construct particular ‘developmental’ visions of heritage, orienting and circumscribing relationships both with the past and contemporary social contexts. Here I address these processes as developmental technologies that produce poverty as a ‘local’ affair, in need of intervention, set in contrast to the traveling and translational abilities of international expertise in heritage management and development. I trace the expansion of this expertise across the Middle East and North Africa region, in a variety of contexts where material heritage is mobilized to reduce poverty. Importantly, the question of the economic value of heritage is necessarily placed center-stage in such projects. I argue that as archaeologists we need to engage with the economic value of material heritage, in order to start examining how exactly material heritage works in the world: to what ends and results, in what contexts, who gains to profit, and who suffers.     

Highly qualified rural youth: why do young graduates return to their home region?

This paper addresses the motivations underlying migration decision-making in the case of young university graduates returning to their rural home region in Switzerland. Empirical results show the joint role of social ties, living environment, and job opportunities, although the weight given to each of these factors varies between graduates. Some strategies used by the graduates to cope with a limited labour market are furthermore identified. I argue that internal migrations are far from being the sole consequence of labour market conditions and that a greater appreciation of non-economic issues is needed.     

Reconstructing Middle Horizon mobility patterns on the coast of Peru through strontium isotope analysis

The pre-Columbian coastal site of Ancón, Peru frequently has been interpreted as an important outpost of the highland Wari Empire, inhabited by individuals from the sierra and the coast. In order to test this hypothesis, bone–tooth pairs from 35 Middle Horizon (550 AD–1000 AD) Ancón skeletons were analyzed for strontium isotopes, which vary by geologic provenance. Results indicate that 34 of the 35 individuals have ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr enamel and bone values higher than Ancón's biologically available strontium isotope range. Nitrogen and carbon isotope data from a subset of the Ancón skeletons suggest that the higher than expected ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values among the Ancón sample likely reflects a diet rich in marine resources rather than migratory activity, and highlight the need to use multiple lines of evidence to track residence change at sites where individuals relied on resources other than locally grown terrestrial foods. The one remaining individual, a young female of elite status, has an enamel strontium isotope signature much lower than the available data for local fauna and soil indicating that she was not raised locally. Her enamel ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio fits well within the range of strontium isotope values established for the inland Wari site of Conchopata [Tung, T.A., Knudson, K.J. Social identities and geographical origins of Wari trophy heads from Conchopata, Peru. Current Anthropology, in press.], and suggests that highland, Wari immigrants may have been present at Ancón during the Middle Horizon.     

考古学与性别

本文节译自英国杜伦大学(DurhamUniversity)考古学教授马太·约翰逊(MatthewJohnson)1999年出版的《考古学理论:导言》(ArchaeologicalTheory:AnIntroduction)一书的第八章“考古学与性别”(“ArchaeologyandGender”)。本章节通过对其中几个最流行主题的归纳综述了近二十年来性别考古学的概况,并且介绍了一例典型个案,最后还以答问形式阐述了作者本人对此领域较混淆的若干问题的看法。     

Violence in the Atacama Desert during the Tiwanaku period: social tension?

Tiwanaku influence significantly affected the lifestyle of the prehistoric peoples of the Atacama Desert as it represented an important period of social and economic change. Such intense changes as social stratification and new religious and ideological influences have always been characterized as peaceful ones. Palaeopathological studies based on the violence‐induced traumatic lesions of 64 well‐preserved human skeletons from an excavated funerary site named Solcor‐3 have facilitated a comparison between Pre‐Tiwanaku and Tiwanaku periods. Results show an increase in violence between males represented by low‐intensity skull traumas, arrow wounds and a high mortality rate between 20 and 30 years of age during the Tiwanaku period. The interpretation of this data is contrary to the model of peaceful acceptance of the changes that followed the Tiwanaku influence into the Atacama. At least for Solcor‐3, economic and political factors should be re‐considered in order to explain the emergence of social tension during the Tiwanaku period. In the future, more detailed studies will probably help to clarify if conflicts had also extended to other sites in San Pedro de Atacama under Tiwanaku influence. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.