Maize, Matrilocality, Migration, and Northern Iroquoian Evolution

The co-occurrence of matrilocality and maize-based agriculture among historical northern Iroquoian groups of New York and southern Ontario has long been of interest to anthropologists and archaeologists. The traditional explanation of this association is that gradual evolution of maize-based agriculture through female labor enhanced female status in families, which resulted in matrilocality. Dean Snow (1995a) recently challenged this in situ hypothesis of matrilocality by arguing that the sudden appearance of maize-based agriculture and matrilocality can only be explained by the migration of ancestral Iroquoian agriculturists into areas already inhabited by other people. Matrilocality arose because it allowed a focus on external warfare by men against the hostile original inhabitants. In contrast, and based on a general model of maize agriculture evolution and the effects of postmarital residence patterns on that model, I argue that neither in situ development hypothesis nor Snow's migration hypothesis affect the coevolution of matrilocality and maize agriculture, and that their sudden appearance cannot be used as evidence in support of either hypothesis. I also show that current archaeological evidence for maize agriculture and matrilocality support a gradual coevolution of maize agriculture and matrilocality rather than the sudden appearance argued by Snow.     

百年来甲骨文材料统计

甲骨文自1899年发现以来已有百余年,那么甲骨文材料究竟有多少?以往统计主要有两种说法:一种认为有10万片,另一种认为有15万片。统计数字的不同源于统计方法和认识上的不同,因此必须采取较科学的统计方法,才能得出较科学的统计结果。本文以国内外公私机构现藏甲骨实际数量为统计对象,在胡厚宣先生的统计基础上,结合最近发表的各种著作文章,最后统计出百年来甲骨文材料有13万片左右。     

From Frontier to Border Along the Iroquois Southern Door

The Upper Susquehanna drainage in New York assumed increasingly greater prominence as a borderland during the eighteenth century. Contrary to the idea that geopolitical boundaries were Colonial impositions, the creation of this borderland ensued from long-term strategies on the part of Native American as well as Euro-American powers. Reacting to Colonial encroachments from south and east, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) populated the valley with multi-ethnic towns consisting of both refugee tribes from the Atlantic seaboard and Iroquois representatives. These actions created a distinctive zone of creolized communities, and reflected the Haudenosaunee ability to play off English notions of demarcating the landscape.     

甲骨新缀四组

殷墟甲骨新缀四组,它们是:《合集》34572+《屯南》1295、《合集》33064+《屯南》2915、《屯南》880+989+1010、《屯南》2181+4301.其中第三组的前两版系萧楠先生所缀,我们加缀的是末一版.     

‘Old wood’ effect in radiocarbon dating of prehistoric cremated bones?

Numerous reports of successful radiocarbon dating of cremated bones have emerged during the last decade. The success of radiocarbon dating cremated bones depends on the temperature during burning and the degree of recrystallisation of the inorganic bone matrix. During cremation bones undergo major morphological and mineralogical changes which have raised some interesting questions and discussion on the origin of the carbon source in archaeologically cremated bones. Recent laboratory experiments reveal that the properties of the combustion atmosphere play a significant role regarding the source carbon in cremated bones. Thus radiocarbon dating cremated bones is potentially dating the wood used for the cremation fire. Here we compare a high precision radiocarbon dated human bone with an associated dendrochronological age from an oak coffin. We find that the age discrepancy between the dendrochronological age and the cremated bone of 73 ± 26 ¹⁴C yr is best accounted for by the so called ‘old wood’ effect.     

Understanding the built environment at the Seneca Iroquois White Springs Site using large-scale,multi-instrument archaeogeophysical surveys

A landscape-scale conception of the circa 1688–1715 CE Seneca occupation at the White Springs Site (NYSM 1952; RMSC Plp-018), located in Geneva, NY, is important for understanding their built environment during a period of residential upheaval. This paper reports on approximately five hectares of high-resolution, multi-instrument archaeogeophysical surveys. These surveys allowed engagement with layered, temporal contexts and the gathering of otherwise inaccessible information. In combination with excavation, surface survey, and historic research, archaeogeophysical techniques provided expanded access to the site, a settlement size estimate of 1.42–2.75 ha, and tentative evidence for a palisade at the White Springs Site. The interplay between archaeogeophysics and other techniques was critical to this undertaking.     

《小屯南地甲骨》缀合拾遗

本文试缀了三例《屯南》甲骨,并作了释文。     

The Precontact Iroquoian Occupation of Southern Ontario

Iroquoians become recognizable in the archaeological record of southern Ontario about A.D. 500, with the appearance of Princess Point sites and maize agriculture in the lower Grand River valley. After A.D. 1000, Iroquoians lived in longhouse villages situated in the interior, north of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River. This synthesis of the Iroquoian occupation of southern Ontario prior to European contact focuses on origins, settlement patterns, demography, subsistence, and sociopolitical organization. It highlights the significant contributions to Iroquoian archaeology that have been made by government and private consulting archaeologists over the last two decades.     

The identification of extant european bird remains: a review of the literature

This paper reviews the literature on the identification of bird bones found in European sites. Such a review is useful both to Quaternary palaeontologists and to zooarchaeologists attempting to identify bird bones. The publications are considered systematically. We stress that the published works should not be used for identification in isolation, but that a comparative collection is essential. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new calibration of the XRD technique for the study of archaeological burned human remains

A new calibration of human bones as a function of programmed temperature (200–1000 °C) and time (0, 18 and 60 min) is presented and discussed in order to investigate the issues related to the study of cremated bone remains by using the powder X-ray diffraction approach. The experimental results confirm the growth of hydroxylapatite crystallites as a function of the applied temperature, with a sigmoid behaviour that has been parameterized to the experimental data points. Particularly, it was observed that the thermal treatments for 60 min anticipate of about 100 °C the effects that are otherwise observed after the treatments for 0 min. The developed procedure was subsequently applied to cremated remains of various archaeological sites of Spain and supplied precise information not only about the temperature reached during the funerary rites, but also on the presumed duration for the cremation.     

甲骨缀合拾遗(十一组)

甲骨缀合是甲骨学中的基础工作。学者们已做了很多缀合的工作,但仍有甲骨需要缀合。本文即是对作者新缀十一组甲骨的介绍。     

关于象胛骨卜辞

研究发现,殷墟卜骨中,除了大部分为牛肩胛骨外,也有象胛骨.作者曾在北京图书馆看到一片卜骨,骨质特厚,据分析很可能也属于象胛骨.