War and Place: Landscapes of Conflict and Destruction in Prehistory

Abstract

The concept of place has rarely been applied to the archaeological study of warfare. Given that cultural landscapes embody meaning, however, the idea that places can be the focus of competition makes it evident that they can also shape associated conflict. As archaeologists move toward a more nuanced study of conflict in the past, such considerations will take on increasing importance, although as of yet most such studies are heavily reliant on textual sources and overtly symbolic material culture. This paper presents a case study from Burnt Corn Pueblo, in the Galisteo Basin, New Mexico, USA, and argues that evidence for conflict there at the beginning of the 13th century CE can be usefully interpreted through Ancestral Pueblo concepts of place.     

Destruction and the Rhetoric of Excavation

In this paper a recurrent perception of archaeological excavation as destruction is addressed. By examining this rhetoric in discourses about fieldwork in the UK, the theoretical issues implicit in its use are examined, issues that affect not only Britain but also other European countries and beyond. Tying it into notions of the archaeological record and the archaeological resource, the traditional model of the archaeological process is found to be problematic and an alternative perspective is presented which characterizes fieldwork in a radically different way, through the concept of displacement. Considered as a materializing practice, the processes of excavation and archiving are examined in new ways.     

弱群心声：“出洋子弟勿相配”——珠三角侨乡歌谣中的出洋传统与家庭意识

随着鸦片战争后的出洋倾向,珠三角地区成为北美华人的祖籍家乡。北美六十多年的排华移民政策同时助长了当年珠三角侨乡的经济繁荣。然而,侨乡金山家庭物质富裕的表面,也掩盖了家庭分离中出洋者的谋生血泪和留守家里的金山妇的精神痛苦,对此华侨研究历史书上甚少记载或研究,却不加掩饰地生动地反映和保存在当年的妇孺民歌童谣里。本文以所收集到的新中国成立前的珠三角地区的妇孺民歌童谣为据,结合同时代在北美旧金山华人社区流传的粤讴体裁的＂金山歌＂作品,分析探讨了当年侨乡地方歌谣文化所反映的出洋传统、婚姻价值取向和留守家园的侨眷（妇孺）的生活形态、家庭意识及其不平则鸣的抗争声音。     

Bronze Age Barrows: Factors Influencing Their Survival and Destruction

This paper analyses the influences on the survival of Bronze Age round barrows in two regions of southern Britain, the Upper Thames Valley and the Stonehenge Environs. It is clear that persistent arable farming in the medieval period had a highly destructive effect on these burial mounds. This can be seen despite later agricultural activity. Other factors such as the type of barrows can also be important factors in the survival and destruction of these burial mounds. Nevertheless, when analysing the distribution of these Bronze Age monuments, later historic land use must be considered as well as the contemporary prehistoric landscape.     

Beyond the Anthropocene: Defining the Age of Destruction

The question of the Anthropocene has gained increased notoriety among archaeologists recently. Precisely because of that, it is in need of thorough critique. The aim of this article is not to rule out the concept of Anthropocene, but to point out some of its problems: the relationship of Anthropocenic discourses with the emergence of an all-embracing biopolitical science; the inadequacies of the term, which blames all humans equally for a specific effect of modernity and capitalism; its failure to accept a diversity of origins (but also the problem of accepting overly deep origins), and the shortcomings of adopting a geological framework for archaeology. I thus suggest that the discipline has to define its own eras – also for the contemporary period – and that the Age of Destruction could be an apt archaeological counterpart for the Anthropocene. One of the benefits of outlining an archaeological era is that it brings modernity and capitalism back to the fore, and with them issues of power and conflict that have been largely lost in recent post-anthropocentric debates.     

汉代对《左传》的发覆与研究

对汉代的经今古文之争。人们常常作出简单化、绝对化的评判。以《春秋》三传为例,所谓师法家法只是表面上的水火不容。实际上却互相渗透,《左氏》也并非绝对不用《公羊》、《谷梁》之义。由于受时代的政治要求和思维定势的支配,古文学派使用的观点方法仍没有离开今文学家深求圣人“微言大义”的传统。而对于《左传》开启中国历史文化和道德精神的深远意义。汉代学者并未给以更多注意。     

The Age of Clay: The Social Dynamics of House Destruction

This study provides some fresh insight into Neolithic domestic architecture through the analysis of architectural technology and the control over the practice of house construction and destruction. Examined on a regional or local level, architecture of the Neolithic is often presented as a fairly homogenous social practice over the large area of Southeast Europe. In viewing the Neolithic houses as homogenous and uncontroversial material culture, archaeologists have overlooked not only the possible variation and multimeaning of the Neolithic houses but also their striking and extensive means of destruction. The role of house conflagration, a practice that lasted during the entire Neolithic of Southeast Europe, has not been addressed in archaeological investigations. Indeed the phenomenon of burned houses has been treated as a series of lucky accidents during the Neolithic, which are primarily responsible for the preservation of Neolithic sites. Contrary this view, I argue that it is unlikely that the houses were burned as a result of a series of accidents or for any structural and technological reasons but rather that they were destroyed by deliberate burning and most likely for reasons of a symbolic nature. The causes for the practice of house firing and house abandonment as observed through the architectural evidence at the site of Opovo are believed to have been related to the need for house replacement and securing its postutilitarian visibility in order to show social and material continuity of the Neolithic society. In my view, a struggle for social and material continuity might have been a leading mobilizing force in creating and maintaining social practices and beliefs in the Neolithic society.     

The Army and Chemical Weapons Destruction: Implementation in a Changing Context

In 1985, Congress directed the Army to destroy the nation's stockpile of chemical weapons. The estimate was that this task could be accomplished by 1994 at a cost of $1.7 billion. By 1998, only a portion of the stockpile has been destroyed, the deadline extended to 2007 and the estimated cost had risen to approximately $16 billion. This paper discusses the factors underlying cost escalation and missed deadlines. It examines the diffusion of control over the implementation process surrounding the chemical weapons demilitarization (Chem Demil) program in the United States. Focusing on the role of the Army and its difficulties in adjusting strategies in the face of political change from the Cold War to the post-Cold War setting, it analyzes the course of implementation through three converging "streams of political activity." What differentiates the federal, intergovernmental, and international stream are the nature an number of actors, and the type of pressures with which the Army must deal.