Ancient Maya wood selection and forest exploitation: a view from the Paynes Creek salt works,Belize

Ancient building construction wood preserved in a peat bog below the seafloor in a shallow mangrove lagoon in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize, provides an exceptional record of Classic Maya wood use. Identifications of construction wood at Early Classic Chan B'i, and Late Classic Atz'aam Na, are reported and discussed to assess forest exploitation and species selection over time. Black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) dominates the Early Classic assemblage. The Late Classic assemblage is characterized by greater variability and an absence of mangrove species. When considered in the environmental context, identified species conform to principles of optimal foraging. The change in the wood assemblage over time suggests overexploitation of forest resources, resulting in deforestation of the local landscape and subsequent adaptation of foraging behavior. Deforestation is linked to the wider social context in which growing inland populations created demand for salt, putting greater pressure on the forest resources exploited by the Paynes Creek salt works for fuel and timber.     

The 13th century polynesian colonization of Hawai’i Island

We assess 926 radiocarbon dates from Hawai’i Island, the largest assemblage of dates compiled from a single island in Oceania. Based on a classificatory approach that arranges the dates based on their reliability, accuracy, and precision, our results indicate that the most reliable estimate for the initial Polynesian colonization of Hawai’i Island is AD 1220–1261, ∼250 to 450 years later than the current consensus. This conclusion is strikingly convergent with recent estimates for the colonization of remote East Polynesia. Our analysis highlights the need for wood charcoal identification to insure selection of short-lived plants/plant parts for radiocarbon dating, and that a reliance on dating unidentified wood charcoal is a waste of resources that only serves to retard progress in refining the settlement chronology of Hawai’i Island and other locations.     

A Paleolithic Cache at Tolbor (Northern Mongolia)*

This study presents analyses of a unique assemblage of lithic artifacts, 57 large flakes, discovered in the Ikh Tulberiin Gol River valley of Northern Mongolia. The assemblage represents the first Paleolithic cache ever discovered in Mongolia and is an isolated find, not directly associated with a habitation or logistic activity site. Results of use-wear analysis suggest most of the flakes were unused, with only a few minimally used for processing wood. GIS analyses of the local landscape indicate that the placement of the artifacts was likely symbolic, rather than utilitarian or for storage, lying in an east-west linear viewshed of the primary mountain pass to an adjacent river basin. Based on the context of the discovery as an isolated find and technical-typological features of the artifacts, the assemblage is interpreted as a cache of tool blanks that was purposefully and symbolically positioned on the landscape relative to the primary mountain pass by Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers.     

建水指林寺大殿木构件材种鉴定及配置研究

木材树种的鉴定是古木结构建筑维修和保护的基础性工作。为配合建水县指林寺大殿修缮保护的需要,为修缮树种选用提供依据,了解木文化的特点。本研究对建水指林寺大殿古建筑主要木构件进行了树种鉴定及对材种配置调查分析。采用切片、显微镜拍照、宏观和微观特征分析等方法,对700个试样进行了树种鉴定。结果表明建水指林寺大殿的木构件共有4个树种,分别是硬木松(Pinus sp.)、白青冈(Cyclobalanopsis sp.)、格木(Erythrophleum sp.)和荷木(Schima sp.)。通过材种配置分析可得指林寺大殿木构件在选材方面达到很高水平,不仅反应了建造年代,而且体现修缮的特性。     

Flake selection and scraper retouch probability: an alternative model for explaining Middle Paleolithic assemblage retouch variability

It has been proposed that the relative abundance of retouched objects in Paleolithic assemblages can serve as a measure for artifact transport and by extension a proxy for site occupation duration. This approach is based on the assumption that retouch represents curatory effort for extending the service time of transported artifacts when raw material access is uncertain or limited, a condition that could arise when groups move frequently over long distances across the landscape. This paper proposes an alternative model that explains retouch as a probabilistic outcome of an expedient, on-site flake selection process. A simulation illustrates that the model is capable of producing assemblage retouch configurations akin to those commonly observed in Paleolithic settings. The simulation also indicates that the threshold applied by past individuals for selecting particular artifacts is an important parameter for explaining assemblage retouch variability. Using artifact weight as a proxy for flake selection criteria, several Middle Paleolithic assemblages exhibit patterns that support predictions made from the model simulation. Findings suggest that variation in scraper frequency among the studied assemblages can be accounted for by an interaction between the abundance of artifact production events and shifting artifact selection criteria, without appealing to higher-level behaviors of technological and mobility strategies.     

An Early Historic Assemblage Offshore of Godawaya,Sri Lanka: Evidence for Early Regional Seafaring in South Asia

Investigations in 2010 by an international team of maritime archaeologists yielded a concentration of artefacts identified here by the authors as the remains of a shipwreck off the southern coastal village of Godawaya, Sri Lanka. The major findings from this site include many quern stones, various types of ceramics, and glass ingots. The comparative study of the artefacts from the Godawaya site and terrestrial sites of Sri Lanka and India suggest that the ship might have originated from the southern part of the Indian subcontinent. Based on analysis of the artefacts and radiocarbon dating of wood fragments from the site, a broad date of 2nd BCE to 2nd centuries CE is assigned to the assemblage, placing it within the early historical period. Thus, this is the earliest known and as-yet investigated shipwreck in South Asia. The survey findings are discussed and the assemblage is contextualised within the present lack of evidence for early vessels and seafaring in the region.     

Dendrochronological analysis of bowed and plucked instruments from the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory,Naples

The Museo Storico Musicale of the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory of Music in Naples owns a collection of over 200 musical instruments of considerable historical importance. Within the collection, 30 bowed and plucked instruments representative of the Neapolitan violin-making tradition were analysed dendrochronologically to date them, estimate the provenance of the wood and investigate the instruments’ construction characteristics. The values of the statistical cross-dating tests were generally high and allowed 26 instruments to be dated. In all but one case, the dates were consistent with those of the catalogue. From the perspective of wood selection, we noted an unusual use of very old spruce wood, well beyond simple seasoning. The construction technique of the soundboard and other characteristics show good similarities with instruments analysed in other Italian collections. Thus, even in Neapolitan instruments, the growth rings are smaller in small instruments and larger in cellos or double basses. In conclusion, the Neapolitan violin-making school has shown great care in the choice of wood, most coming from regions as far away as Germany or Switzerland, thus confirming the existence of an active large-scale trade in wood for the production of musical instruments.     

Worked Human Femur from Gohar Tepe,Iran

A simple tool made from a gracile human femoral shaft was retrieved from a small animal bone assemblage found in a Late Bronze Age stratum at Gohar Tepe, Iran. The specimen has been identified as a chisel or gouge for which no analogous examples are known in the Near East. Studies examining similar tools from other regions suggest that such a tool may have been used for wood processing or pottery smoothing. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prehistoric Whale Bone Technology in Southern New Zealand

Whale bone was used by Māori throughout New Zealand prehistory as an industrial resource for the manufacture of a range of artefacts. However, the selection of bone and the methods used to process it are poorly understood. This paper details the analysis of a southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) bone working floor that was excavated from a fifteenth‐century coastal fishing camp at Kahukura, on the southeast coast of New Zealand. The whale bone working floor assemblage, comprising a large quantity of debitage fragments, was used to reconstruct reduction methods and to determine the products being made at the site. Rib bones were the main element being worked, and were reduced longitudinally using a chipping technique. The intensive bone working assemblage at Kahukura represents the by‐products from primary processing. This stage focused on reducing the bones into workable portions so that they could be easily transported to another location, where they were likely further reduced into artefacts. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The potential of chironomid (Insecta: Diptera) larvae in archaeological investigations of floodplain and lake settlements

The head capsules of chironomids (Insecta: Diptera) are well preserved in sediments and can be recognised to a high taxonomic level, usually genus and sometimes species. Work on lake sediments has shown that they can be accurate indicators of water temperature, oxygen regimes, and nutrient status (particularly total phosphorus and chlorophyll-a), as well as heavy metal pollution. No systematic chironomid analyses, however, have previously been undertaken on archaeological deposits. In order to address this we assessed the use of chironomids in three types of archaeological deposit; firstly, a lake core at the edge of a lake settlement (crannog), secondly, a palaeochannel infill adjacent to a multi-period settlement site and lastly, a Roman well deposit from a floodplain environment. The chironomid assemblages are shown to vary significantly both between and within the sites and reflect the immediate environment and the adjacent area. The lake sediment assemblage reflects the construction of the crannog through elevated levels of organic detritus, wood and woody debris. The palaeochannel assemblage reveals changing natural conditions and nutrient enrichment probably associated with settlement during the Saxon period. The well assemblage is taxonomically restricted and indicative of organic debris, dead plant material, animal dung and possibly human effluent deposited after abandonment of the well. Dry storage of the palaeochannel and well sediments for several years did not appear to affect the concentration or state of preservation of the head capsules. The chironomid reconstructions are shown to provide an additional indicator of human activity which has the potential to provide quantitative data on the character of aquatic environments associated with archaeological sites.     

Timber exploitation during the 5th–3rd millennia BCE at Arslantepe (Malatya,Turkey): environmental constraints and cultural choices

A considerable amount of charcoal remains from the archaeological site of Arslantepe (Eastern Anatolia) has been analysed. The anthracological assemblage comes from seven archaeological periods, ranging from the Late Chalcolithic 1–2 (mid-5th millennium BCE) to the Early Bronze Age III (late 3rd millennium BCE). The woody taxa exploited by the local communities appeared to have only minor changes throughout the investigated periods. For the evaluation of wood use practices, charcoal was chronologically grouped according to depositional context. The categories of depositional context identified differentiate between the uses of wood for structural parts of buildings, object manufacture, fuel, refuse, and wood found in outdoor areas or in burial contexts. Communities at Arslantepe, characterized by different cultural and socio-economic traits, appeared overall to select timber depending on its use: hydrophilous plants prevail in building material, with the exception of the 2900–2500 BCE period when environmental constraints probably motivate the dominance of woodland-steppe plants. The differential occurrence of taxa in the diverse depositional contexts highlighted cases of under/overestimation of remains, in particular in relation to the woods for construction. Finally, taxa have been attributed to different ecological groups. The interpretation of results and the comparison with other available palaeoenvironmental data point out that climatic factors play only a secondary role in the choice of wood exploitation in the area. Human choice may vary even with constant environmental records.     

The use of wood in funerary pyres: random gathering or special selection of species? Case study of three necropolises from Poland

In this study, the analysis of charcoal remains from three prehistoric necropolises is presented. This botanical material formed part of funerary pyres and thus represents purposely gathered wood used for cremation ceremonies. Therefore, its anthracological analysis may indicate a special selection of wood, which may be a source of palaeoethnographic information about past rituals. However, a question remains as to whether or not the charcoal assemblages that originated from graves may also provide some palaeoecological information. In order to test both hypotheses, analysis of three Polish necropolises dating to the Bronze and the Iron Age were performed. In all charcoal assemblages, a taxonomic diversity among charcoals was detected, which may suggest that the wood was collected based on availability. This may also be inferred after observing that the presence of the most ubiquitous and frequently found taxa may be strongly correlated with present-day vegetation growing in the vicinity of the necropolises.     

Detecting the effects of selection and stochastic forces in archaeological assemblages

Detecting and diagnosing the causes of change through time in archaeological assemblages is a core enterprise of archaeology. Evolutionary approaches to this problem typically cast the causes of culture change as being either stochastic in origin, or arising from selection. Stochastic sources of change include random innovations, copying errors, drift and founder effects among dispersing groups. Selection is driven by differences in payoffs between cultural variants. Most efforts to identify these evolutionary forces in the archaeological record have relied on assessing how well the predictions from a neutral-stochastic model of cultural transmission fit a data set. Selection is inferred when the neutral-stochastic model fits poorly. A problem with this approach is that it does not test directly for the presence selection. Moreover, it does not account for the fact that both neutral-stochastic and selective forces can act at the same time on the same cultural variants. A different approach based on the Price Equation allows for the simultaneous measurement of selective and stochastic forces. This paper extends use of the Price Equation to the analysis of selective and stochastic forces operating on multiple artifact types within an assemblage. Ceramic data presented by Steele et al. (2010, Vol. 37(6): 1348–1358) from the Late Bronze Age Hittite site of Bo?azköy-Hattusa, Turkey, provide an opportunity to evaluate the efficacy of this model. The results suggest that selection is a dominant process driving the frequency evolution of different bowl rim types within the assemblage and that stochastic forces played little or no role. It is also clear, however, that we should be attentive to combinations of direct and indirect selective effects within assemblages consisting of multiple artifact types.     

Insights into early Middle Palaeolithic tool use and hafting in Western Europe. The functional analysis of level IIa of the early Middle Palaeolithic site of Biache-Saint-Vaast (France)

Results are presented from the functional analysis of a large selection of tools from level IIa of the early Middle Palaeolithic site of Biache-St-Vaast (France). Results indicate that the site represents a hunting stand with a strong focus on hunting and animal processing activities, next to a maintenance component that appears to concern retooling and repair activities in preparation of the hunting episode(s). In spite of the site's age, a large part of the tool assemblage proves to have been used while hafted. Expertise in hafting was even quite elaborate in the sense that it includes tools for which hafting is not essential. It confirms the importance of hafting studies for improving insights into assemblage variability and past human behaviour.     

Hayonim Cave: a TL-based chronology for this Levantine Mousterian sequence

The thermoluminescence dating method was applied to 77 heated flints from the Mousterian layers of Hayonim Cave in order to provide a precise TL-based chronology for this important Levantine sequence. A detailed dosimetric study was performed by using 76 dosimeter capsules and revealed strong spatial dose-rate variations. In parallel, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry enabled the identification of various mineral assemblages in the sediments of the cave and to localize the boundaries of these assemblages. By comparing these two data sets, it is shown that low dose-rate values (∼500 μGy/a) are systematically recorded in areas where the calcite-dahllite (CD) assemblage is preserved, whereas higher values (up to 1300 μGy/a) are associated with the leucophosphite, montgomeryite, variscite and siliceous aggregates (LMVS) assemblage. The dosimetric and mineralogical information was combined in order to assess, where possible, the dose-rate experienced by each flint during its burial. Some of the flint samples analyzed were too close to mineral assemblage boundaries and were therefore discarded. This rigorous selection led to TL ages ranging from 230 to 140 ka for the lower part of the Mousterian sequence (layers F and Lower E), which contains lithic industries characterized by blade production using the laminar method.     

饱水木质文物的蔗糖保护法

本文概述了用蔗糖处理饱水木质文物的发展历史,并对蔗糖的脱水机理、防虫防霉处理、渗透效果等进行了阐００指出在饱水木质文物的保护方面,蔗糖是一种比较理想的保护材料。     

Integrated archaeobotanical analysis: Human impact at the Dutch Neolithic wetland site the Hazendonk

This study presents an integrated archaeobotanical analysis of human impact at the Dutch Neolithic wetland site the Hazendonk (4000–1800 cal BC). The analysis included pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and macroremains from on-site sample columns and macroremains and wood from refuse layers. The various remains provide evidence of disturbance of both dryland and wetland vegetation, information on crop cultivation and food plants, and indications of selection of wood for artefacts. The integrated approach provides results that would not have been obtained by the analysis of one of the sources alone.     

Chaco Canyon reburial programme

Abstract

Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico contains a wealth of archaeological resources, including 150 large earth and masonry structures under active management and preservation. In response to loss of original fabric from exposure over the last 100 years and more, as well as from continuous cycles of maintenance and repair, an extensive and long-term reburial programme was embarked upon in the late 1980s. The overall context of the site and the decision to undertake reburial as a principal conservation strategy is described in Part I of this paper. Part II provides a summary of the results of partial reburial at Chetro Ked, one of the ‘great houses’ of the canyon, in which protection of original timber was the main objective. Most of the wood at Chetro Ked could be covered only by a shallow overburden of soil, necessitating a specialized reburial design and materials to exclude moisture. Recent evaluation of the efficacy of the wood reburial was undertaken. Problems and shortcomings that were identified have led to re-design of part of the reburial and more careful attention to quality control during the intervention, as well as to selection of more appropriate geosynthetic materials. Additional monitoring techniques have been developed to allow direct withdrawal of samples of wood for assessment of deterioration.     

Technological,Functional and Contextual Aspects of the K2 and Mapungubwe Worked Bone Industries

Mapungubwe (AD 1220–1290) is generally regarded as the first urban centre in southern Africa, functioning as the seat of power for an extensive but short-lived polity. More than 80 years of excavations here, and at its nearby predecessor K2 (c. AD 1000–1220), resulted in a substantial assemblage of material remains from elite and commoner contexts. This assemblage includes a large collection of worked bone objects, such as needles, awls, tubes and objects of personal adornment. Of particular interest are the bone arrowheads and link-shafts, of which a significant number of specimens were found complete and intact. Such quantities of well-preserved worked bone objects are unique in the archaeological record of the region. The worked bone assemblages from these two sites provide a rare opportunity to study multiple components of the production process as well as the use context of bone objects. In this paper, we characterise the K2 and Mapungubwe worked bone industries through various morphological, technological, use-trace and contextual approaches and discuss the significance of these aspects in terms of raw material selection and manufacture and archaeological use context. In particular, this study shows the complexity of these worked bone industries over time.     

明代两件加彩木雕坐像的保护处理——以馆藏明代加彩木雕坐像的保护处理为例

针对深圳博物馆收藏两件明代加彩木雕坐像存在的虫蛀、糟朽、彩绘脱落、开裂、残损等病害,急需进行保护处理的情况。本工作在前期调研和分析检测的基础上,即分别采集了木雕坐像的胎木、加彩层、污染物等样品,利用红外光谱、拉曼、扫描电镜等分析方法对其材质组成、制作工艺及病害进行了综合分析基础上,建立了坐像保护处理工艺步骤:原始档案建立、表面清理、菌虫防治处理、木质朽蚀部位和彩绘层渗透加固、破损及残缺部位修复补全、建立保护修复档案等。选择Primal SF-016作为两件木雕坐像的渗透加固材料,选择无水乙醇作为溶剂,采用较低浓度多次渗透的方法,保证了最佳的加固和防腐防虫效果;修补材料选择聚醋酸乙烯乳液和锯木屑调和补配。处理后的木雕文物器形完整,形态稳定,色泽协调,达到了理想的保护效果。这是对传世彩绘木质文物保护技术的有益探索,对日后同类文物的加固处理有借鉴意义。