What’s in a Name? Beyond The Mary Watson Stories to a Historical Archaeology of Lizard Island

Preliminary historical archaeological research on Lizard Island in far north Queensland is enabling the Queensland Government to develop more effective management strategies for on-site interpretation of the historical precinct of Watsons Bay. Although popularly associated with the north Queensland colonial heroine Mary Watson, the Bay can now be understood as a large multilayered cultural landscape with meaning to a wide variety of groups. The common aspects of the three known beche-de-mer operations that occupied the Bay between 1860 and 1881 and the nature of the emerging archaeological record afford many opportunities for scaled archaeological research. It further highlights aspects of historical archaeological theory and the relationship between the discipline and the historical record.     

Modelling small-arms projectile distribution on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century battlefield sites

The application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies to archaeological investigations continues to provide new perspectives on historical events. Applied to battlefield archaeology, GIS analysis offers an efficient means of predicting potential artefact distribution across a conflict landscape. The approach proposed in this piece allows a user to test historical engagement scenarios within a desktop computing environment utilizing a customized GIS application. The study was intended to develop a framework that allowed for the input of quantifiable parameters in order to illustrate potential artefact patterning. The framework consists of two components, the trajectory model and the methodology for implementing it. Using this coarse-grained approach, it is our contention that small-arms projectile distribution can be estimated for a single engagement, and in doing so provide a more comprehensive view of potential artefact patterning than using KOCOA (Key Terrain, Observation and Fields of Fire, Concealment and Cover, Obstacles, Avenues of Approach/Withdrawal) terrain analysis or historic research alone. As an initial example to illustrate the efficacy of our model, this study uses data and parameters from the 1777 Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut landscape as a test case.     

Archaeology without gravity: Postmodernism and the past

Interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the past and the present have become commonplace: anthropologists now situate cultures in their historical contexts, while historians pursue particularistic ends within politicoeconomic or ideational structures. Archaeologists have cast their nets even more widely, not only toward anthropology and history, but to fields ranging from molecular biology to hermeneutics. Postmodernist approaches maintain that archaeologists should be looking at the past from multiple perspectives and listening to its multivocality. Archaeologists, in fact, not only develop different ways of understanding the past, but actually develop alternative pasts. This paper argues that multiple paths to alternative pasts enhance archaeological understanding and, at the same time, stimulate the development of archaeological theory.     

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.     

Theoretical Perspectives on Labor and Colonialism: Reconsidering the California Missions

Many recognize that labor was a central feature of colonialism, especially in the Americas, but few have considered the anthropological implications of labor for interpreting colonialism. A new theoretical perspective involves conceptualizing labor as practice and as a social, rather than simply an economic, phenomenon. Building on theories of practice, labor can be defined as a colonial imposition and attempt at social control and as a medium of agency and resistance for those laboring. Although historical documents provide solid information on the structure and implementation of labor from the top down, archaeological research is often required to access the native experience of labor from the bottom up. To develop the labor-as-practice approach, I present a case study of the 18th- and 19th-century California missions that integrates historical data on regional mission labor organization with archaeological data from the specific site of Mission San Antonio de Padua in southcentral California. The results provide new insights into the interpretation of Mission San Antonio's archaeological record, fresh perspectives on the complexity of material culture in colonial and pluralistic settings, and increased appreciation for the role of colonial labor in structuring the spatial and material aspects of culture contact, colonialism, and daily life in the past.     

Household Archaeology in Polynesia: Historical Context and New Directions

This review highlights archaeological investigations of precontact and historic house sites in Polynesia, a region noted for its diversity of chiefdoms in terms of scale and elaboration. Anthropological and historical perceptions of the Polynesian household have shifted over time, influencing the ways in which the household has been defined in archaeology. Early research emphasized houses as a unit of study within settlement pattern archaeology and as a means of delineating formal variability between sites and communities. Current studies stress a more holistic view of the household as a nexus of economic, social, and ritual activities. Diverse theoretical perspectives, such as the analytical concept of house societies, feminist archaeologies, landscape approaches, and agent-based models, have led to new archaeological approaches engaged with both the material and the nonmaterial aspects of the house and, in particular, how social relations structure the household. Current prominent themes include functional identification of house sites, understanding social variability, articulation of the household with the community, and comparative analyses of social complexity.     

Mounds,Towns, and their Surrounds: An Archaeological,Historical, and Geophysical Approach to Burial Mounds,Residential Space,and Cultural Landscapes of the Late Woodland Springwells Site (a.d. 800–1400) at Historic Fort Wayne,Detroit

Historic Fort Wayne is located on the Detroit River in a landscape of heavy industry and marginalized urban neighborhoods (figure 1). Geophysical survey south of the Fort Wayne Mound—a Late Woodland Period burial mound enclosed by the Fort—indicates that pre-contact residential structures may be preserved at the site. Residential sites with mortuary monuments are uncommon in southeastern Michigan and represent an opportunity to better understand variation in Late Woodland settlement. Our approach combines existing archaeological research, historical records, and non-invasive geophysical survey in a culturally sensitive Native American site context presently unavailable for conventional archaeological excavation. We examine archaeological and historical records from Springwells and Late Woodland period settlements in the region to contextualize geophysical evidence from the site. The research prioritizes protection of Native American heritage sites in urban contexts together with ongoing archaeological interpretation of the Late Woodland cultural Landscape.     

西津渡历史文脉及文化价值探析

西津渡是古代长江下游的重要渡口,相关史料主要涉及历史事件、渡口建设和官设机构等方面.西津渡遗址考古发掘揭示了千年古渡的历史面貌和演变轨迹,其文化价值体现在对我国交通史的重要性、遗址时空的完整性以及文化景观的独特性等三方面.     

Paleochannel Studies in Archaeology: The Case of The Vychegda River,Northeastern European Russia

Geological and geomorphological settings are often taken into account when choosing strategy in archaeological studies. In the Vychegda River valley (Archangelsk Province, Komi Republic), at the end of the Late Pleistocene and in the Holocene, lateral channel migrations were the dominant process of riverine landscape changes and hence directly influenced human occupation of the valley. Therefore, to assess the physical settings of archaeological sites we employed paleochannel analysis, a geomorphological technique aimed at reconstructing river channel transformations in the historical and geological past. The potential application of paleochannel analysis in archaeology includes designing archaeological surveys and predicting destructive river actions at archaeological sites located in river valleys.     

Models of settlement hierarchy based on partial evidence

The modelling of past settlement and landscape structure from incomplete evidence is a well-established archaeological agenda. This paper highlights a model of spatial interaction and settlement evolution that has long been popular in urban geography and which was first applied to model historical settlement hierarchies some twenty-five years ago, but whose use since then for archaeological purposes has been very limited. Via a case study from Bronze Age Crete, we extend the analytical range of this model by suggesting ways in which it can (a) remain effective in the presence of missing data, (b) be given a stronger grounding in the physical landscape, and/or (c) be used to consider the evolutionary trajectory of settlements and physical routes over time.     

The Archaeology of Regions: From Discrete Analytical Toolkit to Ubiquitous Spatial Perspective

In the 1970s and 1980s, regional analysis was an influential part of archaeological research, providing a discrete set of geographical tools inspired by a processual epistemological and interpretive perspective. With the advent of new technologies, new methods, and new paradigms, archaeological research on regional space has undergone significant changes. This article reviews the state of regional archaeology, beginning with a consideration of its history and a discussion of the fundamental issues facing regional investigations before focusing on developments over the last several years. On one hand, the diversification of archaeological theory has created new paradigms for thinking about human relationships with one another and with the physical environment across regional space; in this regard, historical ecology, landscape archaeology, and evolutionary theory have been particularly influential in recent years. This has led to a corresponding diversification of the traditional methods of regional analysis. Most notably, the advent of powerful digital technologies has introduced new tools, especially those from the geographic information sciences, that build on the quantitative methods of past approaches. The investigation of regional data is no longer based on a discrete toolkit of simple mathematical and graphical procedures for representing spatial relationships. Instead, regional archaeology has matured into a diversity of multiscalar spatial and geostatistical techniques that inform many areas of archaeological inquiry.     

Countermapping the Past: Reenvisioning Ancient Maya Spaces at Say Kah,Belize

This paper explores possibilities for recognizing and analytically using culturally-specific understandings of artefacts and spaces at an ancient Maya archaeological site. In the case study that we present, we use Classic Maya material categories – derived from hieroglyphic texts – to re-envision our representations of artefactual distributions and accompanying interpretations. We take inspiration from countermapping as an approach that recognizes the positionality of spatial representations and makes space for multiple/alternative spatial perspectives. We present spatial analyses based on our work at the Classic Maya archaeological site of Say Kah, Belize, juxtaposing modern modes of visualizing the results of multiple seasons of excavations with visualizations that instead draw upon reconstructed elements of ancient inhabitants’ perspectives on the site, its spaces, and usages (based on information drawn from Classic Maya textual ‘property qualifiers’). We argue that even incomplete information, such as that available for archaeological contexts, allows us to reimagine past spatial perspectives and experiences. Furthermore, doing so represents a move towards inclusion that changes our understanding of sites in terms of ancient experience and usage. The outcome is a shifted perspective on the spaces of the site that decentres the modern, archaeological vision, accompanied by a more reflexive awareness of the processes we use to construct our interpretations. We end with larger reflections useful for archaeologists curious about translating these ideas to other cultural settings.     

The Archaeology of Native Societies in the Chesapeake: New Investigations and Interpretations

Archaeological studies of Native American societies in the Chesapeake have recently incorporated a broader range of interpretive frames, including those that emphasize historical contingency and social interaction rather than cultural ecology and cultural materialism. New evidence of Woodland-period population movements, persistent places, and cycles of social ranking has prompted historically oriented interpretations that foreground particular configurations of ideology, tradition, ritual, and agency. Contact-period studies have demonstrated that native strategies of the colonial period were rooted in precontact social landscapes. Contemporary American Indians are also reclaiming their pasts in ways that challenge archaeological practices and further broaden perspectives on the Chesapeake past.     

The ethnoarchaeology of firewood management in the Fang villages of Equatorial Guinea, central Africa: Implications for the interpretation of wood fuel remains from archaeological sites

In archaeological literature, the study of trees and wood remains is a topic of relatively marginal interest, especially compared to texts on crops and human–animal relations. However, charcoal is the most frequent botanical remain found in archaeological sites. Charcoal analysis can therefore play a major role in the development of studies in both landscape and palaeoethnobotanical reconstruction. The majority of the archaeological charcoal assemblages reflect the exploitation of wood as an energy source (fuel). The archaeological study of firewood selection has been predominantly developed from “eco-utilitarian” or “subsistence economy” perspectives, but has not yet considered fuel collection and use as one of the most enduring categories of human–environment interactions, nor has archaeology looked into its potential as a source of empirical information on past perceptions of, and interactions with, ancient landscapes. The aim of this paper is to expand previous archaeological work on the interpretation of charcoal macro-remains through the study of firewood collection as a historically constituted, socially mediated and archaeologically observable landscape practice. In order to achieve this, we present an ethnoarchaeological case study from the Fang society of Equatorial Guinea (central Africa) aimed at gaining a better understanding of the complex interactions between cultural, ecological and economic variables in firewood collection strategies.     

Archaeology,conservation and the late twentieth-century village landscape: With particular reference to Westmorland and North Lancashire in northwest England

Abstract

This paper argues that the present landscape and village is of archaeological significance and is needed both to understand and to preserve a representative sample of the past. It explores the relationship between archaeological data and monument types, and landscape character. Landscape assessment, including attribute analysis, is advocated as an essential archaeological method separate from the process of value judgement and selectivity. It concludes that function and process are as important as period in determining conservation strategies, and the potential role of sustainable development is discussed. The importance of village plan forms, vernacular architecture, field and landholding patterns is stressed, together with the need to recognize the historical importance of industrial villages.     

A botanical approach to the planning of archaeological,parks in Italy

Abstract

The positive role of plants in archaeological areas, as well as the enegative action of their roots in causing structural damage, are summarized in this paper. The traditional approach to the planning of vegetation in Italian archaeological areas is briefly described. A general philosophy for botanical projects in these sites is proposed, taking into account ecological, historical and conservation parameters. The principal aims of the suggested approach are: protection of the naturalistic, historical and landscape features of the existing site, in so far as they are compatible with the archaeological structures; and the introduction of new elements, in keeping with the original landscape, which exploit shelter effects or improve microclimatic and soil characteristics, and are also ‘ornamental’. The criteria for evaluating the characteristics of the site from the naturalistic and from the historical and landscaping points of view are explained. Also briefly. discussed, are congruity with the history and character of the site, overall compatibility with archaeological structures, usefulness for reconstructing specific environments, conservation Value for the site and aesthetic and economic criteria for the selection of species to introduce.     

Ancient Maritime Fish-Traps of Brittany (France): A Reappraisal of the Relationship Between Human and Coastal Environment During the Holocene

The present-day maritime landscape of Western France forms the geographical framework for a recent research project dedicated to the archaeological study of ancient fish-traps, combining regional-scale and site-scale investigations. Based on the compilation and exploitation of a large unpublished dataset including more than 550 sites, a preliminary synthetic study allows us to present some examples of synchronic and thematic approaches, and propose a morphological classification of the weirs. These encouraging first results open up new perspectives on fish-trap chronology closely linked to wider studies on Holocene sea-level changes.     

Twenty-First-Century Historical Archaeology

The practice of historical archaeology has exploded over the past two decades, and especially since 2000. Methodological advances and new theoretical insights mean that archaeological research requires periodic evaluation, and this overview builds on the work of three earlier assessors of the discipline. Here, I concentrate on four areas of research currently being pursued by historical archaeologists: analytical scale, capitalism, social inequality, and heritage and memory. I conclude that historical archaeologists have made major strides in understanding the modern world and that future research promises to offer diverse perspectives that will deepen our appreciation for how the past influences the present.     

Authorisation and the Process of Power: The View from African Archaeology

African prehistory has a unique contribution to make to our understandings of the ways that power and authority were constituted and enacted in the past; a combination of anthropological, historical and archaeological approaches to the issue provide a powerful heuristic for thinking through the ways that authority was legitimised. In this introductory paper we focus on the divide between power and authority, and argue that a process-based approach is necessary to understanding the ways that each was created in societies of the past. Such an approach, we argue, can offer a mediation between practice-based perspectives on social power, and those that focus on the operations of the state. We make a fundamental distinction between twin aspects of the exercise of power, imposition and composition, and demonstrate how the incorporation of the latter into our understandings of prehistory can allow archaeologists to consider the materials with which they work as residues of the performance of power. The African archaeological record has a key role to play in our understandings of the operation of power, the creation of legitimacy and the exercise of authority.     

LEGACIES OF CHANGE: THE SHAPING OF CULTURAL LANDSCAPES IN A MARGINAL MEDITERRANEAN MOUNTAIN RANGE,THE GARRAF MASSIF,NORTH‐EASTERN SPAIN

Human conceptions of landscape have influenced the shaping of landscapes as much as landscape configurations have modelled human perceptions. In this article a new theoretical approach to long‐term cumulative landscape change is tested on the Garraf Massif (Baix Llobregat, north‐eastern Spain). Thanks to its ancient occupation, physical character and location near to the city of Barcelona, the area provides a good illustration of how human‐induced landscape change has shaped new, and sometimes conflicting, landscape perceptions. These perceptions then play an equally active role in altering the previously ‘inherited landscape’ in a long‐term cyclical process that can be studied through the combined use of historical, palaeoenvironmental and archaeological records.