Neolithic Figurines Manufactured from Phalanges of Equids from Dja'de el Mughara,Syria

Abstract

Worked specimens of proximal phalanges of Equus have been discovered in the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B levels (8700–8200 CAL. B.C.) at Dja'de el Mughara, a tell site in the Middle Euphrates Valley in northern Syria. Prior to the present study, one was published as a human figurine (Coqueugniot 2000: 70). Similar objects, dated to the Khiamian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A periods (10,000–8700 CAL. B.C.), have been recognized at Tell Mureybet in the same region. Analysis of 22 specimens from Dja'de el Mughara reveals morphological variability and different styles of shaping within the sample.

Anthropomorphic figurines in the prehistoric Near East have been approached as a distinct group of representations, often considered in terms of symbolism. Rarely are the raw materials (mainly clay and stone), technology of manufacture, and variations in fashion considered. Here, the major steps of figurine manufacture from whole proximal phalanges of equids at Dja'de el Mughara are described and a classification system based on technological and morphological criteria is proposed. It is hoped that this presentation of the Dja'de el Mughara bone figurine sample will stimulate recognition of analogous finds at other prehistoric sites in the Near East.     

西安市南郊马腾空唐墓发掘简报

2001年4月至10月间,我们在西安市南郊马腾空清理了15座唐代墓葬。所有墓葬皆为南北向,单室墓室,墓道在南,墓室居北。墓葬形制可分为A、B、C三型。可以看清的几例葬具、葬式皆为单棺单人,仰身直肢。随葬品以陶俑最为丰富,计有镇墓俑、男俑、女俑、动物俑等,其中男俑、女俑的中的半身俑时代特征明显,女俑的发式新颖奇特,造型生动,在隋唐考古中较为少见。加之又出土了四盒墓志,具有明确的纪年,可以作为判断其年代的标形器。这批墓葬的发掘为关中地区唐墓谱系的建立增加了新资料,同时对其它地区唐墓的研究也有借鉴作用。     

Articulate Bodies: Forms and Figures at Çatalhöyük

This paper examines the materializing practices of bodies at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük. We focus on the clay and stone figurine corpus (over 1,800 total, with over 1,000 of those being diagnostic), but also consider other media such as wall paintings and sculptured features, as well as the skeletal evidence. This paper is the first attempt to analyze particular bodily characteristics in the Çatalhöyük figurine repertoire from a perspective that investigates, rather than assumes, a priori the representational priorities of their makers. Within a wide range of anthropomorphic and abbreviated figurines, we find that specific areas such as the stomach and buttocks were often clearly delineated and emphasized, whereas demarcation of primary sexual characteristics was typically downplayed. These traits and their material “prominence” might underscore specific bodily areas that have generally been overlooked as potential sites of articulation and attention. Our work challenges older assumptions that figurines were always engaged in projects of either deification or self-making. Instead, we suggest that these body types might mediate other kinds of social concerns and practices.     

郑州新天地唐墓(M6)发掘简报

2008年,郑州市文物考古研究院为配合郑州市基本建设,发掘清理了一批唐代墓葬,其中M6出土了陶俑、墓志等14件遗物,其中的两匹扬蹄白陶马为郑洛地区所少见,殊为珍贵,为唐墓研究提供了新资料。     

The Women of Brassempouy: A Century of Research and Interpretation

  The discovery of female figurines at Brassempouy in the 1890's would launch more than a century of debate and interpretation concerning Paleolithic representations of women. The figurines emerged from the ground into a colonial intellectual and socio-political context nearly obsessed with matters of race. This early racial interpretive frame would only be replaced in the mid 20th century, when prehistorians turned to questions such as fertility and womanhood. The first figurines were discovered in 1892 under rather tortured circumstances in which their very ownership was the subject of a heated dispute between Edouard Piette and Emile Cartailhac. Their toxic relationship would lead Piette, in his subsequent excavations, to be extremely precise about issues of stratigraphic and spatial provenience. Piette's publications and archives enabled Henri Delporte to confirm the Gravettian attribution of the figurines and have allowed the present author to create a map of their spatial distribution within the site. Technological and microscopic analysis of the Brassempouy figurines resolves some lingering questions about the sex of certain of the figurines and suggests an original context of figurine fabrication and the abandonment of unsuccessful sculpting attempts.

The Origins and Ethics of Maritime Archaeology – Part I

Abstract

For archaeologists, the principal value of prehistoric figurines is that they offer a means – however limited – into the cultures and lives of prehistoric peoples. There is a long tradition of archaeologists assuming that the figurines they unearth had a religious significance for the people who created them (since anthropomorphic figurines have a religious use in many cultures with which we are familiar). However, just as archaeologists began questioning their attribution of divine status to prehistoric figurines in the 1960s, practitioners of neopagan and goddess spiritualities – particularly those in the feminist spirituality movement – were adopting it. Moreover, in addition to describing prehistoric figurines as images of a Great Goddess who dominated prehistoric religious life, these contemporary feminist neopagans use reproductions of prehistoric figurines to inspire and enact their own spirituality. Feminist neopagan appropriation of prehistoric figurines has been problematic for many archaeologists, who quarrel – legitimately – with the conclusions feminist neopagans make about prehistory based on these artefacts. Yet, as this article argues, the contemporary religious use of prehistoric figurines should not be a matter for archaeologists to decide.     

Functional,symbolic or ritual?

Tools for determining the value of metal appear as symbols among grave goods in prehistoric and early medieval Europe and the Near East. Also, five boat burials excavated in eponymous Vendel contained touchstones. This article presents the results of chemical microanalyses of metal traces preserved on them and discusses the linear streaks of zinc in light of extraordinary ore deposits in central Sweden, exploited as early as the Early Middle Ages. In addition, forging tools found in four boat burials in Vendel are interpreted as symbols belonging to the funerary assemblages of ancient leaders. However, although both forging tools and tools for determining the value of metal were used in the treatment of metal, it would be misleading to search for their functional connection. They are linked in prehistoric and early medieval graves exclusively by their function as a symbol, one which they share with other objects, regardless whether exclusive or common.     

太湖流域史前社会的礼器与礼制

史前太湖流域,礼器出现在社会初步分化的崧泽文化时期;良渚文化时期已经是一个分层的复杂社会,社会成员分化成为不同的等级、阶层,与此相适应,太湖流域史前社会出现了陶质、石质和玉质三种不同质地的礼器,并有着比较严格的使用制度,太湖流域史前社会的礼仪制度初步形成。     

X-ray and spectrographic analyses of terracotta figurines from myrina: an attempt to characterize workshops

Physico-chemical techniques of analysis have been applied to a series of Hellenistic terracotta figurines found at Myrina on the coast of Asia Minor to explore the feasibility of using chemical and mineralogical composition as parameters in the identification of figurine workshops. The results suggest that there is a tentative basis for the correlation between composition and stylistic criteria among the figurines. The difficulties associated with this approach are discussed, and account is taken of an earlier enquiry that was carried out on similar lines.     

基于力矩平衡原理的秦兵马俑重心测量及临界地震加速度计算

随着近年来地震灾害的频发,分析浮放于俑坑中的秦兵马俑在地震波影响下的运动方式是秦俑地震灾害防御研究中的首要环节。本研究利用力矩平衡的原理测量秦兵马俑的重心位置,进而初步计算得到陶俑的临界地震加速度,依据陶俑的形体特征计算出每类陶俑的抗倾倒极限地震加速度,验证了测量结果的可靠性,为制定秦俑的地震设防等级和防震保护工作提供了基础数据。     

南唐陶俑之美

公元907年,唐朝藩镇将领朱温废掉唐昭宣帝,自立为帝,改国号为梁,唐朝灭亡,中国历史进入五代十国时期。五代自后梁开平元年（907年）至南唐交泰元年（958年）约50年时间,仍延续着唐末藩镇割据的局面,战乱不断。937年,李异灭吴,建立了南唐,把地盘扩大到江东、江西、湖北以及浙江和湖南的一部分地区。李异注重发展农业、蚕桑业,     

Pollen studies of textile material from an Iron Age grave at Hammerum,Denmark

This article presents the methods employed and the results obtained in pollen studies of a prehistoric grave, identifying a fascinating and productive context for pollen analyses: prehistoric textiles. The methods involved direct sampling from the grave during excavation and various measures aimed at minimizing the risk of contamination, thereby maximising the information gained about various aspects of contemporary prehistoric life. The example used was an Iron Age grave from Hammerum, Denmark which was found to contain very well preserved clothing. The clothing and surrounding sediment were block excavated, providing a unique opportunity to collect samples for pollen analysis from both the textile material and from the underlying grave sediment. This allowed comparison of pollen assemblages from different components within the grave and an assessment of the method itself. The effort involved was rewarded with a set of results which permitted detailed interpretation. Large amounts of pollen of crops and associated anthropogenic plants in the textile sample suggest that agricultural work was the primary source of the pollen embedded in the clothing. In contrast, the pollen assemblages from the sediment samples very clearly reflected the surrounding local vegetation.     

DOMESTICITY BY DEFAULT. RITUAL, RITUALIZATION AND CAVE-USE IN THE NEOLITHIC AEGEAN

Summary.   Neolithic caves in the Aegean are conventionally understood in domestic terms, principally as temporary homes for farmers or pastoralists. This paper challenges the theoretical and empirical foundations of this orthodoxy and develops an alternative model grounded in an understanding of Neolithic ritual and how through ritualization the everyday is referenced and transformed. This model is explored with reference to the corpus of well-published cave-sites. Although further testing remains a priority, facilitated by the development of new ways of studying cave assemblages, ritual explanations are considered to provide a more credible explanation for Neolithic cave-use in all its aspects, from the selection of caves as locales for activity to the complexity and diversity of their material records. In this way the Aegean may be seen to fit within a broader pattern of ritual cave-use in the Mediterranean during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic.     

馆藏唐代彩绘人物俑颜料分析与修复保护

为确定深圳博物馆藏唐代彩绘人物俑颜料的矿物成分,利用X射线荧光能谱仪、X-射线衍射仪等对这批俑的颜料成分进行了分析,结果表明:红色颜料为铅丹、朱砂;黑色颜料为无定形碳黑;白色颜料为铅白和高岭土等.同时,将其与陕西省内相关地区的彩绘陶俑或壁画颜料进行了对比,得知其所使用的颜料与后者基本一致.在此基础上,针对这批人物俑的保存现状,遵循最小干预等文物保护的基本原则,对其实施了表面附着物清理、拼对、粘接、修复补全等保护修复技术措施,使其恢复了原有面貌,取得了较为理想的保护效果.     

从顾家坡墓地的发掘看史前时代文化交叉地带的部落冲突

顾家坡墓地是湖北省第一次完整揭露的一处史前时代的墓地 ,共发现墓葬 2 37座 ,时代为大溪文化晚期到屈家岭文化时期 (距今约 5 30 0年～ 4 6 0 0年 )。通过研究作者注意到 :一定数量的多人二次合葬墓 ;6 0 %左右的男性随葬有石钺 ,有的还同时随葬有骨镞 ,却没有见到石质生产工具用于随葬的情形 ;有的人可能是弓箭的受害者 ;可能存在猎头的现象。综合以上现象 ,以及与周围地区大致同时代的墓地的对比 ,作者认为 ,部落冲突的现象在史前时代是确实存在的 ,而文化交叉地带的部落冲突又远远激烈于文化中心地带。     

Allochthonous red pigments used in burial practices at the Copper Age site of Valencina de la Concepción (Sevilla,Spain): characterisation and social dimension

The use of red pigments linked to burial practices is widely documented in the Iberian prehistoric record and very often it has been traditionally interpreted as a ritual practice entailing the utilisation of local raw materials (iron oxides). Some research works, nevertheless, have also detected the use of red pigments which can only be interpreted as allochthonous. The red pigments spread over a single inhumation in a monumental Megalithic tomb surrounding Valencina de la Concepción Copper Age settlement was studied by means of X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray microfluorescence, micro-Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies. This approach allowed characterising the red pigments as cinnabar, mixed with tiny amounts of iron oxides. The presence of cinnabar, a product that was necessarily imported, in a context of an exceptional set of grave goods, suggests that the use of cinnabar was linked not only to ritual but also to practices related to the display of social status.     

Immensity and Miniaturism: The Interplay of Scale and Sensory Experience in the Late Neolithic of the Maltese Islands

At first glance, the Late Neolithic (3600–2500 BC) of the Maltese Island archipelago in the central Mediterranean is a landscape of immensity dominated by megalithic stone structures. To the modern viewer, the Neolithic is materialized as magnitude across time and space. Archaeologically, it is denoted as the Temple Period, after the numerous megalithic structures found across the islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino. Although these structures elicit notions of dominance, they also obscure multiple scales of materiality within and between their assemblages, particularly the not insignificant corpus of figurines and models. This paper looks at the two extreme ends of scale, immensity and miniaturism, and their role in shaping sensory experience and social relations.     

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTION: A NEW INTERPRETATION OF THE FEMALE TERRACOTTA FIGURINES OF HELLENISTIC BABYLON

Summary.   In the study of the Hellenistic period in Babylon, cross-cultural interactions between Greeks and native Babylonians have been primarily interpreted using colonialist theories of Hellenisation, domination, and cultural isolation. This paper finds, however, that such theories cannot adequately explain the types of cross-cultural combinations seen in the archaeological record of female Hellenistic Babylonian terracotta figurines. The forms and functions of these terracotta figurines were substantially altered and combined throughout the Hellenistic period, resulting in Greek-Babylonian multicultural figurines as well as figurines that exhibited new features used exclusively in Hellenistic Babylonia. In order to facilitate a greater understanding of the full complexity of these Greek–Babylonian interactions, a new interpretation of cross–cultural interaction in Hellenistic Babylon is developed in this paper. This Social Networks model provides an alternative framework for approaching both how a hybrid material culture of terracotta figurines was developed and how Hellenistic Babylon became a multicultural society.     

The signs of the sacred: Identifying shamans using archaeological evidence

Anthropologists have determined that shamanism is a robust cross-cultural pattern, but they still have many methodological and theoretical issues to resolve. Central to archaeological religious studies is the need to develop a general and rigorous methodology for identifying the presence and structure of shamanism. This discussion begins by discussing shamans as a polythetic class and proposes that shamans and priests as they are commonly defined do not represent dichotomous religious structures, but rather reflect two ends of a continuum. The paper then presents a methodology for identifying and studying shamanism based on cross-cultural regularities in shamanic tools (sacra) and shamanic experiences. The methodology is then applied to the Casas Grandes region and Pottery Mound, both from the North American Southwest, and indicates that shamanic ritual was likely present during the late prehistoric occupation of the region.     

The terracotta figurines from ed-Dur (Umm al-Qaiwain, U.A.E.): the human representations

The present article proposes an examination of the human terracotta figurines found during the course of eight archaeological seasons carried out by a Belgian team at the coastal site of ed-Dur in the Emirate of Umm-al-Qaiwain. Since most fragments lack a secure archaeological context, the figurines will be studied mainly in comparison with similar data occurring at other contemporary sites throughout the Gulf and Mesopotamia. We shall see that the ed-Dur figurines appear mostly to be isolated cases coming from abroad instead of objects playing a prominent part in local religious or ritual beliefs.