Shallow geophysical survey at the archaeological site of San Miguel Tocuila,Basin of Mexico

A combined near surface geophysical survey conducted in San Miguel Tocuila show that geophysical methods offer the possibility to characterize and reconstruct the geometry of subsurface structures without destroying the deposits, providing a way to find solutions to the questions of archaeological or engineering significance. The survey consisted of the application magnetometry, seismic refraction tomography (SRT) and ground penetrating radar (GPR) within a depth range of 10 m. Before Spanier conquest San Miguel Tocuila was a very prominent suburb of the main Aztec ceremonial complex located on the eastern margin of Lake Texcoco, central Mexico, where several mounds known as Tlateles in Nahuatl language have been identified. Nowadays, the rapid expansion of Mexico City's metropolitan area within the last four decades has strongly influenced Tocuila's environment and has compromised several of its archaeological and ancient human settlements. This study shows how the high resolution imagining of non-invasive geophysical methodologies in addition with surface archaeological studies [Parsons, J.R., 1971. Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Texcoco Region, Mexico. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 3] provide different kinds of information that characterize the subsoil and a buried structure. Based on the history of the ancient settlements in the zone and considering the characteristics of shape and height of the structure, we interpreted that the subsurface images obtained depict a buried Tlatel which corresponds to a ceremonial–civic center of Late Aztec times.     

Spatial and temporal variety of prehistoric human settlement and its influencing factors in the upper Yellow River valley,Qinghai Province,China

We report an investigation of forty-two prehistoric sites in the upper Yellow River valley located in Guide, Jianzha, Hualong, Xunha and Minhe, Qinghai Province, China, including forty-four new radiocarbon dates from twenty-four sites, review published archaeological surveys and radiocarbon dates, analyze landform features and discuss the reasons for spatial and temporal variety of regional prehistoric human settlement. Our results suggest that people occupied the upper Yellow River valley during the early Holocene, but a continuous archaeological record begins only after about 5500 Cal yr BP. Thereafter, the intensity of prehistoric human settlement in the area is varied. Neolithic human settlement spread northwestward to high altitude areas of the upper Yellow River valley during early-mid Majiayao and Qijia periods, but moved southeastward to lower locations in the area during late Majiayao period. During the Bronze period, two coeval archaeological cultures, the Kayue and Xindian, occupied the upper Yellow River Region. Kayue archaeological sites are numerous and widely distributed in the high areas of the upper Yellow River, while Xindian sites are restricted to the lowest basin of the region. Variation in site density and location are likely the result of changing paleoclimate and technology.     

长城保护工程勘察设计工作回顾性分析

本文通过对2000年以来长城保护方案及有关批复意见的系统梳理,重点从勘测、勘察、设计定位与保护原则、工程技术手段及设计文本与图纸等方面对目前勘察设计中存在的共性问题进行了系统分析;同时,根据不同结构类型的长城,还对现存主要病害和技术措施进行了抽样分析.在此基础上,本文从保护规划体系、立项审核、保护维修工作原则、勘察设计要求及项目实施与管理等方面提出了建议.     

The Civic Survey of Greater London: social mapping,planners and urban space in the early twentieth century

This paper examines work conducted between 1915 and 1919 by a group of architects and planners based at the Royal Institute of British Architects. The project, called the Civic Survey of Greater London, and the substantial collection of maps and diagrams that resulted from it are currently unknown in histories of mapping and planning, thus this paper offers a preliminary account and analysis of the work. The paper begins by assessing the development of surveying and mapping techniques in the nineteenth century with the aim of situating the Survey within broader historical trajectories. The following section of the paper examines the immediate context for the Survey, in particular the place of Patrick Geddes and his ideas. The third part of the paper focuses on the work of the Survey itself. The fourth part draws out key analytical threads in dialogue with a number of the maps of the Survey. The emphasis placed here is on exploring lines of continuity between the Civic Survey of Greater London and earlier techniques of representation and governmentality. The concluding section reflects briefly on the reasons for the Survey's subsequent relative obscurity and the importance of the project for later traditions of surveying.     

Petrographic and geochemical analysis on the provenance of the Middle Bronze and Late Bronze/Early Iron Age ceramics from Didi Gora and Udabno I, Eastern Georgia

We report thin section petrographic and geochemical analysis of a total of 20 Middle Bronze, Late Bronze/Early Iron Age ceramics excavated from Didi Gora and Udabno I located in the Eastern part of the Republic of Georgia and 31 clay samples from eight different regions in the surrounding areas of the sites. The major and trace element compositions of the ceramics and clays were determined using a wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence technique. The results indicate that the ceramics were manufactured from local clays in Eastern Georgia, mainly from two local clays without any preference of one of the sources during the Middle Bronze, Late Bronze/Early Iron Age.     

A note on the dating of the clay smoking pipes collected in the course of two archaeological surveys conducted in Saudi Arabia: the Comprehensive Survey of Saudi Arabia (1976–1981) and Michael Gilmore’s survey of the Darb al‐Hajj

Several clay smoking pipes (chibouks) were recovered during the course of two archaeological surveys conducted during the late 1970s and early 1980s in Saudi Arabia. At the time these projects took place, no published clay tobacco pipe typologies existed, forcing the participants to assign a cursory date of ‘Ottoman period’ to the pipes. Since then, considerable archaeological research has been done on the Ottoman clay pipe. The following concerns the refining of the dates of these tobacco pipes in light of new studies.