NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS OF AD 1660–1930 EUROPEAN COPPER-COLOURED BLUE GLASS TRADE BEADS FROM ONTARIO,CANADA

Blue glass trade beads from well-dated late seventeenth- to early twentieth-century sites and collections have been analysed non-destructively by instrumental neutron activation analysis. The beads display enough variations in their elemental contents to allow us to characterize the different chemistries. The implication of these results is that similar chemical analyses of blue beads from undated archaeological sites may be used to help date the sites, since each bead chemistry has a specific earliest period.     

Amino-acid analysis of the contents of a vial excavated at Axum, Ethiopia

This report describes in some detail both the chemical technique of ultra-micro amino-acid analysis and some of its applications to archaeology. The technique itself consists of heating a sample of protein weighing less than 1 μg in hydrochloric acid, separating the amino-acids by ion-exchange chromatography, colorimetrically determining the amount of each which is present, and quantifying the results. As an example of the application of this technique to archaeological problems, a seemingly inorganic calcitic concretion found in the bottom of a glass vial excavated at Axum was analysed. The vial was found with associated artifacts which suggested that it had been manufactured around or after about AD 600. Approximately 4% of amino-acids were detected in the concretion. The resulting data suggested the presence of skin and hair. These analytical results were coupled with observations concerning the present day distribution of civet cats in Africa, and lead to the conclusion that the vial originally contained civet cat gland exudate, which has a musky odor. In other words, the vial was probably used originally as a perfume bottle.     

Chemical characterisation and manufacturing technology of late Roman to early Byzantine glass from Beit Ras/Capitolias,Northern Jordan

The finding of considerable collections of glass artefacts, together with considerable lumps of glass chunks, fuel ash slag and kiln fragments related to glass processing strongly suggests a local secondary production (working) of glass at the Beit Ras/Capitolias archaeological site in northern Jordan from the late Roman to the early Byzantine period. The chemical analysis of ancient glasses can provide important information regarding the manufacturing technology of the glass made during a specific period. The aim of this study is to characterise the chemical and technological aspects of late Roman to early Byzantine glasses excavated from this main archaeological site. Furthermore, the present paper aims to provide incontrovertible evidence that this site must be considered as a major centre for the secondary production of glass during a period between the 3rd and the 6th centuries. For this purpose, a considerable group of raw glass chunks and vessel fragments of different colours and typologies were collected. The results of chemical analyses indicated that the glass did not show a clear difference in chemical composition between late Roman and early Byzantine times. All the glasses (artefacts and chunks) are of the soda-lime-silica type and correspond to the previously defined Levantine I glass group. The chemical composition of the glass chunks, identical to that of contemporary glass of the same colour, strongly suggests that these chunks were used for the manufacture of late Roman to early Byzantine glass at Beit Ras. The observation of technological features indicates that glass chunks were produced in massive tank furnaces in other primary production centres elsewhere, and were meant for local reworking. According to the microscopic examination, it can also be observed that mould-blowing was the main technique used for forming glass.     

Rooms and room use in Norwich housing, 1580–1730

Abstract

The search for ‘total history’, combined with improvements in flexible computer techniques, has focused fresh analytical attention upon multiform documentary records relating to everyday living and working conditions. Prominent among such sources, for the early modern period of English history, are probate inventories. Their richly detailed and intricate contents are now under renewed scrutiny for many purposes. This survey looks briefly at the general problems highlighted by one batch of urban inventories; and analyses detailed evidence relating to rooms and their use, in the housing of the city of Norwich, 1580–1730. Investigation of 871 surviving inventories yields information about the number of rooms per house (and their heating), plus a survey of room use, as inferred from location of furnishings. These findings illuminate conditions of urban housing, suggest a developing specialisation in room use, and illustrate the manifold complexities of room nomenclature. The study was undertaken for the Norwich Survey, to collate the documentary with the archaeological record. Although it did not prove possible to match inventories directly with surviving seventeenth-century buildings in Norwich, the general picture confirmed the archaeological evidence—especially in showing considerable reorganisation and subdivision of housing in the later seventeenth century.¹ The research upon which this article is based was carried out for the Norwich Survey, at the University of East Anglia. The computer scheme was devised by Ursula Priestley and Helen Sutermeister, who was still working on the project, with great stoicism, right up until her untimely death in May 1979. Subsequently, the project has been undertaken by Ursula Priestley; and the text drafted and edited jointly with P. J. Corfield—with an introductory note (P.J.C.), comments on the problems inherent in the source data (P.J.C. and U.P.) and analysis of rooms and room use (U.P.). Special thanks are due to Alan Jenyon at the University of East Anglia Computing Centre, for his interest and invaluable help; to Dr. J. F. Pound for advice on sources; to all the staff of the Norwich Survey, for the production of drawings and data; to Philip Judge for his original drawing of housing on Timberhill; and particularly to Alan Carter, the Survey Director, for his unfailing encouragement and good advice. Copyright to Figures 1 and 10 is retained by the Norwich Survey.     

Archaeological material and ethnic identification. A study of Lappish material from Varanger,Norway

The term Lappish Iron Age has been established in Scandinavian archaeology but the ethnic affiliation of the body of archaeological material labelled so has never been discussed in detail. In this article two questions arc discussed: Is it possible from archaeological material to verify a hypothesis about a specific ethnic affiliation? And is it appropriate to refer to this archaeological material as iron age finds? A general discussion about problems involved in identifying ethnic groups is given, after a brief presentation of the empirical material. Attention is drawn to Barth's analysis, where he shows that the cultural content seems to be of two orders: (i) overt signs and signals, and (ii) basic value orientations. The discussion is carried out in accordance with these two orders. It is argued that this analysis cannot provide us with information about a specific ethnic affiliation; although it cannot tell us which group, it can verify that the material in question does represent one specific ethnic group. If we want to identify one specific ethnic group we have to use other sources besides the archaeological record. The use of sources like written documents, linguistics, place names and physical anthropology is discussed. The conclusion is drawn that by the use of various sources we can trace the identity of one specific ethnic group.     

Examining Land-Use through GIS-Based Kernel Density Estimation: A Re-Evaluation of Legacy Data from the Berbati-Limnes Survey

The use of archaeological survey data for evaluation of landscape dynamics has commonly been concerned with the distribution of settlements and changes in number of recorded sites over time. Here we present a new quantitative approach to survey-based legacy data, which allows further assessments of the spatial configuration of possible land-use areas. Utilizing data from an intensive archaeological survey in the Berbati-Limnes area, Greece, we demonstrate how GIS-based kernel density estimations (KDE) can be used to produce cluster-based density surfaces that may be linked to past land-use strategies. By relating density surfaces to elevation and slope, it is also possible to quantify shifts in the use of specific environments on a regional scale, allowing us to model and visualize land-use dynamics over time. In this respect, the approach provides more multifaceted information to be drawn from archaeological legacy data, providing an extended platform for research on human-environment interactions.     

New Data on the Exploitation of Obsidian in the Southern Caucasus (Armenia,Georgia) and Eastern Turkey,Part 1: Source Characterization

A large analytical programme involving both obsidian source characterization and obsidian artefact sourcing was initiated recently within the framework of the French archaeological mission ‘Caucasus’. The results will be presented in two parts: the first part, this paper, deals with the presentation and characterization of obsidian outcrops in the southern Caucasus, while the second presents some results obtained from a selection of artefacts originating from different Armenian sites dated to between the Upper Palaeolithic and the Late Bronze Age. The same analytical method, LA–ICP–MS (laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry), has been used to characterize all the studied samples (both geological and archaeological). This method is more and more widely used to determine the elemental composition of obsidian artefacts, as it causes minimal damage to the studied objects. We present in this first part new geochemical analyses on geological obsidians originating from the southern Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia) and eastern Turkey. These data enhance our knowledge of the obsidian sources in these regions. A simple methodology, based on the use of three diagrams, is proposed to easily differentiate the deposits and to study the early exploitation of this material in the southern Caucasus.     

Issues on the Diversity and Emergence of Middle-Range Societies of the Ancient Caribbean: A Critique

Caribbean archaeology traditionally has focused on culture history and migrations while social and political issues have been mostly ignored. Recent studies, however, have begun to overcome these deficiencies by paying more attention to some of the intangible aspects of prehistoric groups and by improving field methodology to gather the appropriate data. In general, sociopolitical organizations in the pre-Hispanic Caribbean were both spatially and temporally diverse. Nevertheless, despite advancements in data collection, analyses have been hindered by the use of improper analytical units and scales of analysis, as well as our overreliance on historical data for the reconstruction of social and political organizations. These methodological problems have (1) hidden the variability present in the archaeological record and (2) limited our explanatory potential and understanding of past societies in the Caribbean.     

ASSESSING WHAT LIES BENEATH THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF A ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD: THE USE OF GIS AND SPATIAL CORRELATIONS AT EL MIRÓN CAVE (SPAIN)*

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are being incorporated into archaeology as a technique to improve the understanding of spatial organization and the relationships among finds within specific areas. Although their use as a basic tool in predicting the location of archaeological sites or in assessing the extent of their catchment areas is relatively common, in general, they have less often been applied to the study of the spatial distribution of archaeological remains within individual deposits, and in particular to faunal assemblages. Despite this, they can prove essential to understanding dispersion and grouping patterns within deposits fully, and, together with various correlation analytical techniques, they provide valuable information about the economic organization of settlements and inhabitant lifeways. To demonstrate the potential of this methodology, a zooarchaeological GIS has been prepared for the Middle and Late Magdalenian and Azilian layers in El Mirón Cave (eastern Cantabria, Spain), and the spatial distribution patterns of various attributes of the archaeological record have been analysed. Significant conclusions in terms of type and duration of human occupation have been drawn.     

Thinking Through Networks: A Review of Formal Network Methods in Archaeology

This review aims to expose the potential of formal network methods for archaeology by tracing the origins of the academic traditions, network models, and techniques that have been most influential to archaeologists. A brief discussion of graph theoretic applications in archaeology reveals how graph visualization and analysis was used since the 1960s in a very similar way to later network analysis applications, but did not seem to have influenced the more widespread adoption of network techniques over the past decade. These recent archaeological applications have been strongly influenced by two academic traditions, social network analysis and sociophysics. The most influential and promising techniques and models adopted from these traditions are critically discussed. This review reveals some general trends which are considered to be the result of two critical issues that will need to be addressed in future archaeological network analysis: (1) a general unawareness of the historicity and diversity of formal network methods both within and outside the archaeological discipline has resulted in a very limited methodological scope; (2) the adoption or development of network methods has very rarely been driven by specific archaeological research questions and is dominated by a few popular models and techniques, which has in some cases resulted in a routinized explanatory process. This review illustrates, however, the great potential of formal network methods for archaeology and argues that, if this potential is to be applied in a critical way, a broad multidisciplinary scope is necessary and specific archaeological research contexts should dominate applications.     

RAW MATERIALS OF GLASS FROM AMARNA AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ORIGINS OF EGYPTIAN GLASS*

Analysis has been conducted on 19 blue glasses from Amarna in Middle Egypt dated to around 1350 BC. The results suggest that these glasses fall into two distinct types: cobalt coloured glasses with a natron based alkali made from local Egyptian materials, and copper coloured glasses with a plant ash alkali, which follow a Mesopotamian tradition of glass making. It is suggested that at least some of this copper/plant ash glass is imported into Egypt during the Amarna period despite extensive local production of cobalt/natron glass. Existing analyses (Lilyquist and Brill 1995) of the earliest glass from the reign of Tuthmosis III (c. 1450 BC) suggest that during this period the same two types of glass are present. Local Egyptian cobalt and natron in these early glasses implies that, despite the lack of archaeological evidence for production sites, glass was produced from its raw materials in Egypt as early as the reign of Tuthmosis III.     

Historic landscape management: a validation of quantitative soil thin-section analyses

The archaeological interpretation of past land management practices can be greatly enhanced through examination of soil thin sections. Features relating to manuring practice are among those key to interpreting agricultural practices. The sources and the processes leading to the distribution of these manure materials may further improve knowledge of the past landscape utilisation. The use of quantitative analyses to examine soil thin sections opens the possibility of considering these relationships between manured areas in greater detail and to extract more subtle spatial and temporal changes in past management. In this study the validation of this methodology has been tested with quantitative image analysis methods used to examine manure inputs to a well-documented historical landscape of Papa Stour, Shetland, where intensive manuring has been practised until the 1960s. By using both historic and ethnographic evidence to validate the image analysis protocol, differences in spatial and temporal distribution are examined for the practices of manuring with both fuel residues and with turf. The validation of the hypotheses expected from ethnographic and historical data that quantitative soils-based evidence allows the definition of variations in manuring strategies and provides a more secure basis from which to interpret manuring management strategies in archaeological landscapes.     

The use and origin of antimonate colorants in early Egyptian glass*

The origin of the colorants in Egyptian glass of the second millennium BC has been the subject of much research and debate. Several colorants including lead antimonate yellow and calcium antimonate white appear in the archaeological record apparently concurrently with the introduction of glass, and it is possible that their origins are in some way linked. This paper examines the use of the antimonate colorants and uses analytical and experimental techniques to deduce possible technologies of production. Trace element data derived from a pilot study by LA‐ICPMS gives additional indications of a possible source in the Caucasus for the antimony of these glasses.     

Glassmaking using natron from el-Barnugi (Egypt); Pliny and the Roman glass industry

Pliny the Elder describes the discovery of a process for making natron glass, which was widely used for much of the first millennium bc and ad. His account of glassmaking with natron has since been corroborated by analyses of archaeological glass and the discovery of large-scale glass production sites where natron glass was made and then exported. Analyses of Egyptian natron have shown it to be a complex mixture of different sodium compounds, and previous experiments to make glass with Egyptian natron have been unsuccessful. Here, natron from el-Barnugi in the Egyptian Nile delta, a site which also probably supplied Roman glassmakers, is used to produce glass. The experiments show that high-quality glass, free of unreacted batch or bubbles, could have been produced from natron in its unprocessed form in a single stage, that larger quantities of natron would be required than has previously been anticipated, that the presence of different sodium-containing compounds in the deposit aided melting, and that negligible waste is produced. The implications for the identification of glass production sites, for the organisation of trade and for the supply of natron within and outside Egypt are discussed in the light of Pliny’s accounts.     

Fought under the walls of Bergida: KOCOA analysis of the Roman attack on the Cantabrian oppidum of Monte Bernorio (Spain)

As conflict archaeology has matured as a discipline, there have been calls for more unified analytical techniques. Several researchers advocate the adoption of codified analytical and planning concepts used by the United States Army. One of these concepts, KOCOA Terrain Analysis, shows promise as a locational and analytical aid in archaeological contexts. Defining terrain features are identified and categorized according to well-defined terminology, allowing for a detailed analysis of the effects of terrain on military operations. KOCOA’s structure and codification render the concept transferable between researchers and diachronically across different site types. KOCOA has only rarely been utilized outside the United States and only on historical battlefields. The ongoing archaeological research at the Monte Bernorio oppidum (Palencia, Spain) provides an opportunity to utilize KOCOA in a classical, proto-historical archaeological context.     

Tracing Teams,Texts, and Topics: Applying Social Network Analysis to Understand Archaeological Knowledge Production at Çatalhöyük

Social network analysis (SNA) is an analytical technique rapidly gaining popularity within archaeology for its applicability to a wide variety of issues relating to past communities. Using the 20-year project at Çatalhöyük, Turkey, as a case study, I demonstrate how SNA can be helpfully used to understand knowledge production in archaeology. Balancing network visualization and computation with contextual knowledge, combining SNA with topic modeling, and concentrating on social structures all work to provide a diachronic view of how information flows between disparate research teams at Çatalhöyük as well as the social structures and specific individuals promoting this flow. SNA has the undeniable potential to provide new perspectives on how dispersed datasets are assembled to produce archaeological knowledge, illustrating the value of retaining focus on the social conditions of scientific practice even as significant insights are being derived from instead investigating objects and ontology.     

ARCHAEOMETRY AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: CHARACTERIZATION OF SAMOAN BASALTS

The Elemental Analysis Laboratory provides research support for campus users and service analyses for the University, other state and governmental agencies and private industry. The laboratory's primary concern is the application of unique methodology to a wide range of analytical problems that arise in the course of efforts by University researchers. For the past decade or so, compositional analysis by neutron activation analysis of archaeological artefacts for the purpose of studying provenance, trade or cultural patterns of prehistoric populations has become an area of focus. The present communication will discuss the laboratory in general and the scope and significance of the archaeology work done within the organization. A brief example of a current project involving the study of geologic samples from prehistoric stone tool quarries from American Samoa is presented as an illustration.     

Demography and the Palaeolithic Archaeological Record

Demographic change has recently re-emerged as a key explanation for socio-cultural changes documented in the prehistoric archaeological record. While the majority of studies of Pleistocene demography have been conducted by geneticists, the archaeological records of the Palaeolithic should not be ignored as a source of data on past population trends. This paper forms both a comprehensive synthesis and the first critical review of current archaeological research into Palaeolithic demography. Within prevailing archaeological frameworks of dual inheritance theory and human behavioural ecology, I review the ways in which demographic change has been used as an explanatory concept within Palaeolithic archaeology. I identify and discuss three main research areas which have benefitted from a demographic approach to socio-cultural change: (1) technological stasis in the Lower Palaeolithic, (2) the Neanderthal-Homo sapiens transition in Europe and (3) the emergence of behavioural modernity. I then address the ways in which palaeodemographic methods have been applied to Palaeolithic datasets, considering both general methodological concerns and the challenges specific to this time period. Finally, I discuss the ability of ethnographic analogy to aid research into Palaeolithic demography.     

ARCHAEOLOGICAL VOLCANIC GLASS FROM THE SITE OF ROCCHICELLA (SICILY,ITALY)*

The site of Rocchicella, near Catania, in eastern Sicily, has yielded important archaeological evidence from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages. Extensive archaeological investigations of cultural layers dating from the Palaeo‐Mesolithic to the Copper Age have recently been undertaken, and volcanic glass, mainly obsidian, has been collected in the course of excavation. To determine the provenance of this volcanic glass, a non‐destructive elemental analysis was carried out to measure the concentration of characteristic trace elements. The analysis was carried out using a new XRF spectrometer equipped with a beam stability controller and a quantitative method developed at the LANDIS laboratory of the INFN–CNR Institutes of Catania. In addition to the obsidian, it was demonstrated for the first time that a local vitreous material similar to obsidian, but displaying a completely different composition, was used during all the investigated periods. This material was identified as a basaltic glass, characterized by a superficial product of devitrification called palagonite. Analysis of the obsidians has led to the identification of the island of Lipari as the provenance source. High‐ and low‐power microscopic use‐wear analysis on obsidian and basaltic glass artefacts indicated that soft wood and plant matter might have been processed at the site.