Two sides of the same coin—rocks, bones and site function of Picareiro Cave, central Portugal

The issue of site function rarely has been a main focus in the study of Portuguese Upper Paleolithic. This fact may be related to a lack of interest in this research area. More likely, however, it is due to the fact that there are relatively few Paleolithic sites with data that allow a serious study of site function. At Picareiro Cave, central Portugal, there are various data sets from level F/G dated to the latter Magdalenian that are adequate for this type of research. These are habitat structures, lithic artifacts, macro- and mesofauna, as well as 3D location of all artifacts and fauna larger than 1 cm. Based on the interpretation of the analytical results of each data set, it is possible to reconstruct site function of this particular level of Picareiro Cave. The morphology of one of the hearths, being very large in size, with the base prepared and a pavement surrounding it, as well as the condition and diversity of fauna, indicates that it was used for processing the meat of rabbits, red deer, and wild boar, probably through smoking and grilling. All of the evidence from the different types of data (lithic artifacts, habitat structures, use of space, and fauna) indicate that Layers F/G of Picareiro Cave are the result of a specific task, that of processing animal carcasses of rabbits, red deer, and wild boar.     

Malaria,in second place,sees fewer victims,but greater difficulty of control. With climate,including global warming,as complications

This is an article on malarial risks and prevention. Malaria is the deadliest tropical parasitic disease and one of the leading causes of death. The risk for this disease has been linked with changes in land use related to road building, mining, logging, and agricultural and irrigation projects. Global climatic change, disintegration of health services, armed conflicts, and mass movements of refugees also contribute to the increasing risk for malaria. Disease prevention includes a variety of measures that may protect against infection. They may be directed against the mosquito vector or against the development of disease in infected individuals. The WHO stresses the curability of malaria in spite of the occurrence of drug resistance. If the antimalarial drugs are used properly and targeted to those at risk, malarial disease and death can be reduced. Vaccines are also in development; an effective one could be available within the next 7-15 years.     

Present Problems in Theoretical Geography

The need for a distinctive discipline of theoretical geography is enhanced by three current research trends in geography related to the scientific and technical revolution. They are remote sensing, resource use and economic location. Theoretical geography is concerned with the automated processing of the growing body of geographical data, the study of complex geosystems and their multidimensional geospaces and the development of a set of geographical axioms. The development of theoretical geography is closely related to the growing use of mathematical methods in geography by formulating geographical problems in a form amenable to mathematical analysis. Theoretical geography helps to formalize geographical concepts and facilitates the building of models in geography. Models, in turn, provide a better understanding of a system than can be expressed in words.     

Enhancing fieldwork learning with technology: practitioner's perspectives

This research paper reports the findings from an international survey of fieldwork practitioners on their use of technology to enhance fieldwork teaching and learning. It was found that there was high information technology usage before and after time in the field, but some were also using portable devices such as smartphones and global positioning system whilst out in the field. The main pedagogic reasons cited for the use of technology were the need for efficient data processing and to develop students' technological skills. The influencing factors and barriers to the use of technology as well as the importance of emerging technologies are discussed.     

现代测绘技术在古建烫样数字化项目中的应用

烫样是研究清代皇家建筑的珍贵文物,为配合文物信息数字化工作的开展,针对烫样数据的采集和处理方法进行了深入研究。在综合考虑多种数据采集方法的特点及烫样数字化记录的难点后,选择使用手持式三维扫描仪与多视角三维重建技术相结合的方式来进行烫样的基础数据采集,并通过实践总结出了一套完整的数据采集和处理工作流程。与此同时,针对成果可能的应用方式做了些许尝试,且为数据的后期维护与进一步利用拟定了数据管理系统的建设方案。     

Animal Bodies and Ontological Discourse in the Greek Neolithic

The present article tries to assess the ways that animal bodies were represented in the Neolithic of Northern Greece. Contending that representations always have a material presence (be they spoken, depicted or anything else), an attempt is made to sort out how the specificity of this presence constitutes a frame of reference for the deployment of social action. Animal representations seem to be particularly related with certain materials, especially clay, and certain objects, mostly clay vessels. It is suggested that these objects allow animals to be incorporated in social action in a very specific manner, one that is further defined by the contexts of their use.     

The elusive role of scientific medicine in mortality decline: diphtheria in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Philadelphia

The designation of the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus as the cause of diphtheria in the early 1890s and the subsequent development of the antitoxin treatment in the years immediately following were at the time and continue to be viewed as triumphs of scientific medicine. I focus on these two developments to illustrate the problems that arise in attempting to answer the questions regarding the role that changes in medical practice--in this case, the use of antitoxin as a cure--played in lowering death rates at the time. Changes in diagnostic techniques, the selection of cases to be included, and ultimately the agendas of the persons constructing them affected the numerators and denominators of these rates. The data suggest that the antitoxin had some effect on already declining diphtheria death rates, but because of changes in understandings of the disease and contemporaries' presentation of the data, the size of that effect and its role in mortality decline more generally elude us. Our analysis of the past depends on numbers that reflect not only changing treatments but also changing understandings of disease at the end of the nineteenth century.     

Assessing Post‐traumatic Time Interval in Human Dry Bone

The post‐traumatic status of antemortem fractures in human dry bone remains is currently defined as being either ‘healing’ or ‘healed’. However, detailed ‘dating’ of the related post‐traumatic time interval would be desirable, since it would aid in assessing individual medical status and care at the time of death. Within forensic pathology practice, fresh tissue healing phases are routinely used as an intrinsic parameter for the length of the post‐traumatic time interval. Unfortunately, the direct application of such a method is hampered when applied to dry bone skeletal material. This study explores the possibility of applying a fracture dating system, drawn forth from the traditional forensic pathology method, on dry bone remains. More specifically, the aim is to establish the extent to which various histomorphological features indicative of specific time intervals of healing are consistently detectable. Human dry bones with fractures and amputations in various phases of healing were studied. Results show that the complementary use of radiological and histological investigation techniques improves the differentiation between various healing phases and thus allow for a more detailed dating of lesions. For future use, healing features that have proven to be consistently detectable and their related post traumatic time intervals are listed. The system aids in demarcating a considerably more ‘narrow’ post‐traumatic time interval than usual. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

20世纪30年代城市居民的疾病与死亡——以南京、北平、广州为中心

本文根据国民政府主计处统计局编印的《统计期讯—卫生》,围绕着死亡疾病类型和死亡者的身份属性、职业背景以及生理年龄,考察20世纪30年代的南京、北平和广州城市居民的疾病与死亡问题。文章认为从死亡疾病分析,20世纪30年代南京、北平和广州居民的死亡疾病涉及到传染性疾病、消化系统、呼吸系统、心脏系统以及神经系统等诸种疾病,其中一些非传染性疾病或者非法定传染性疾病的威胁较大。从死亡年龄与职业分析,南京、广州和北平三地居民死亡年龄分布情况虽然存在地域性差异,但是死亡年龄主要集中在0—1岁、1—4岁、40—60岁和60岁以上的年龄段,不同年龄段所染患疾病也表现出一定年龄特征;职业差异对城市居民健康的影响也不容忽视。文章认为,这些事实逻辑实际上是提醒我们要谨慎对待目前这一领域的某些认识规范。     

An experimental ethnoarchaeological approach to understanding the development of use wear associated with the processing of river cane for split-cane technology

Southeastern Indians have been using cane (Arundinaria spp.) for basketry and matting for thousands of years. Unfortunately, it is only under extraordinary preservation conditions that such items survive archaeologically. Inferring the production of split-cane technology requires an understanding of prehistoric manufacturing and processing techniques. It is hypothesized that stone tools were once used to process cane for use in split-cane technologies. In the Southeast, it is not uncommon to find stone tools with traces of plant use; however attributing wear to specific plants has been problematic. Pilot experiments, grounded on ethnoarchaeological observations, were conducted with river cane (Arundinaria gigantea) in collaboration with expert basket weavers in the Cherokee Nation. The experimental ethnoarchaeological program was designed to test the efficiency of stone tools in cane processing and document use wear through microscopic observations. The results found that non-retouched flakes were efficient for processing river cane and that the different stages of splint preparation resulted in the differential development of use-related wear. Additional experimentation with river cane is necessary to better define use wear and establish criteria for identification in archaeological contexts. Nonetheless, the collaborative and experimental approach undertaken demonstrated the utility of combining traditional archaeological methods with experimentation, ethnoarchaeology, and tribal knowledge.     

Investigating the role of food processing in human evolution: a niche construction approach

While it is generally agreed that food processing has had a role in human evolution, the specific ways that is has affected our evolution are not well understood. Using a Niche Construction Theory (NCT) perspective, coupled with methodologies borrowed from “post-harvest” research in the plant sciences, this paper investigates the means and mechanism by which food processing is of evolutionary consequence. The central tenet of NCT is that organisms have an active role in their own evolution through reciprocal interactions with their environments; niche construction is understood to occur when organisms initiate long-term changes to their environments that modify the selection pressures on themselves and their descendants (and on other organisms in the environment). Humans and our hominin ancestors are considered to be the ultimate niche constructors due to our ability to modify selection pressures through diverse culturally generated and transmitted cultural means, i.e. cultural niche construction. In this paper, post-harvest methods are used to identify how food processing could feasibly have permitted hominins to modify their evolutionary selection pressures. Food processing is shown to facilitate access to increasing amounts of digestible nutrients and energy (kilocalories/kilojoules) as well as promoting increased dietary breadth and making possible the production of safer and more stable foods. It is argued that these advancements catalysed related technological and ecological skills and knowledge, which together with the nutritional benefits, further triggered changes in hominin brain and body and locomotory adaptations and increased longevity, disease prevention and juvenile survival rates.     

A Neolithic Case of Mesomelic Dysplasia from Northern Switzerland

Paleopathological cases of skeletal dysplasias (SD) are particularly interesting from a biological as well as biocultural perspective. Evidence of SD is relevant when discussing the antiquity of specific mutations, as well as the social perception of disease in the past. Here we propose a differential diagnosis for a Neolithic case of SD and discuss the possible social correlates of the observed condition. The subject of this study, a child with an age at death of about 12 years from the Late Neolithic site of Schweizersbild (Northern Switzerland), presents a bilateral shortening of the forearm and lower leg, with no further modifications affecting the cranial and postcranial skeleton. Morphological, metric, as well as radiographic analyses point to a diagnosis of Léri Weill dyschondrosteosis (LWD), making the present case the earliest known paleopathological example of this condition. From a biocultural perspective, the skeletal changes affecting the child, together with her/his relatively advanced age, suggest active support from the community, providing new data to inform the debate on the cultural dimensions of disease in prehistory. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What Explains the Carcass Field Processing and Transport Decisions of Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers? Measures of Economic Anatomy and Zooarchaeological Skeletal Part Representation

This paper uses rationale derived from central place foraging models to explore the factors that guide the carcass processing and transport decisions of modern hunters. Using data derived from butchering experiments, I test different economic indices that purportedly reflect the field processing and transport decisions of contemporary African Hadza hunter-gatherers. The results show that no single index predicts part processing and transport for the species examined in this analysis. Processing and transport decisions are, however, patterned in ways that are consistent with theoretical predictions. While similar processes likely guide carcass treatment and transport decisions among all hunter-gatherers, different ecological, social, and historical constraints define the range of solutions to problems involving carcass treatment. In this specific example, intertaxonomic differences in carcass size and bone properties constrain how the trade-offs between field processing and transport costs are resolved. I conclude by suggesting ways in which analysts might make use of central place foraging rationale and models to explain variation in skeletal representation and abundances across time and space.

3. THE PUBLIC RELEVANCE OF HISTORICAL STUDIES: A REJOINDER TO HAYDEN WHITE1

Hayden White wants history to serve life by having it inspire an ethical consciousness, by which he means that in facing the existential questions of life, death, trauma, and suffering posed by human history, people are moved to formulate answers to them rather than to feel that they have no power to choose how they live. The ethical historian should craft narratives that inspire people to live meaningfully rather than try to provide explanations or reconstructions of past events that make them feel as if they cannot control their destiny. This Nietzschean‐inspired vision of history is inadequate because it cannot gainsay that a genocidal vision of history is immoral. White may be right that cultural relativism results in cultural pluralism and toleration, but what if most people are not cultural relativists, and believe fervently in their right to specific lands at the expense of other peoples? White does not think historiography or perhaps any moral system can provide an answer. Is he right? This rejoinder argues that the communicative rationality implicit in the human sciences does provide norms about the moral use of history because it institutionalizes an intersubjectivity in which the use of the past is governed by norms of impartiality and fair‐mindedness, and protocols of evidence based on honest research. Max Weber, equally influenced by Nietzsche, developed an alternative vision of teaching and research that is still relevant today.     

Rates for the job. Measures of disease frequency in palaeopathology

Measures of disease frequency are discussed and their use in palaeopathology illustrated with examples, both hypothetical and real. It is shown that prevalence rates are the appropriate rates to use when calculating the frequency of diseases in skeletal populations. The extent to which prevalence rates accurately reflect those in the living population from which the skeletons were derived is also considered and it is suggested that they are a reasonable approximation for diseases that do not shorten life span, but not for those that do. Finally, suggestions are made for dealing with missing data.     

遗址资料整理点滴（一）——关于陶器统计表

本文结合自身的整理工作实践．在认识陶器统计意义的基础上．提出一些构想：陶器统计的核心是器形;它在排队和分期中,占有重要的地位。而质地、个体数量、纹饰等不同的侧面属性在统计中尽可能的与器形建立联系,是资料整理和相关研究中要面对的问题。作为遗物．那些侧面的属性本身就是依附于器形存在的,因此．统计既是某些侧面属性的分析．也应当是一种综合,这样有利于读者和研究者比较全面的使用陶器统计资料。本文尝试提出了一种既可拆分有可综合的陶器统计表方案;此外,对于不同时期的遗址陶器资料,由于各自特点不同,在条件许可的情况下,还提出了设计一些反映陶器群个性的统计表设想。     

Early Neolithic Agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula

The spread of agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula is documented from at least ca. 5600–5500BC, although botanical data are absent or very limited for large areas. Archaeobotanical information shows from the beginning an imported agrarian system with a great diversity of crops: hulled and naked wheats and barleys, legumes such as pea, lentil, fava bean, vetches and grass peas, flax and poppy. This diversity of plants with different requirements, processing and uses, implies that the first farmers quickly imported or acquired a wide range of agrarian knowledge. Regional and inter-site agrarian differences are discussed in relation to factors like ecology, culture, use of the cultivated plants and management of the risk of crop failure. The adoption of farming resulted in significant ecological, economic, dietary, and social changes for the Neolithic people of Iberia.     

基于土地利用数据和夜间灯光数据的人口空间化模型对比分析——以黄河三角洲高效生态经济区为例

人口统计数据空间化是解决统计数据与自然要素数据融合分析的有效途径。随着RS和GIS技术的发展,人口空间化方法推陈出新,但不同的方法各有优缺点,方法选择和精度保证是两个重要的问题。本文以黄河三角洲高效生态经济区2010年县(市、区)单元人口统计信息为案例,分别基于土地利用数据和夜间灯光数据建立1km栅格的人口空间化模型,再分别以县(市、区)和乡(镇、街道办)为验证单元,比较两种方法模拟人口分布的优缺点。结果表明,基于土地利用数据的人口空间化模型整体优于基于夜间灯光数据的人口空间化模型,且前者更适合于模拟人口总数居中的县(市、区),后者在人口密度梯度较大的城镇边缘有更好的模拟效果,在人口较少的地区二者的模拟效果均不太理想。本研究能够为获取高精度的区域人口空间化模型提供参考。     

Pigs,piglets and determining the season of slaughtering

The procedure for determining the season of slaughtering of pigs on the basis of age at the time of death is discussed. The starting points of this procedure, the frequency and time of birth, are contested on the basis of biological and historical data. The factors that determine the frequency and time of birth of pigs, that must be known for the correct use of this procedure are described.