Archaeology and Inka Origins

The recent proliferation of Andean archaeological research presents new interpretive opportunities for reconstructing different aspects of Inka origins. Early colonial historiography reveals that “Inka origins” refers to multiple aspects of the past, including the first appearance of Andean people, Inca ancestors, and the imperial title. The intellectual history of Inka archaeology demonstrates the lasting influence of Spanish colonial interpretive values, even with the gradual introduction of new scientific methods during the 20th century. Since 1970, significant advances in the archaeology of Cuzco, the Inka capital region, and other parts of the Andes have established an independent database that highlights the long-term and regional aspect of Inka origins, as well as areas where interpretive questions remain. The shift from colonial chronicles to archaeological data improves the accuracy of reconstructions of Inka origins, but it also raises some epistemological questions for the future relationships between history and archaeology in the study of ancient empires.     

式论古巴比伦时期西帕尔地区的女祭司

在古巴比伦时期,由于特定的社会和经济条件,社会上兴起了一个特殊的妇女阶层,即女祭司.她们享有很高的社会地位,在经济领域和宗教领域发挥了重要的作用.对女祭司这一特殊群体的研究,有助于进一步的了解古巴比伦社会状况.本文从社会地位、经济地位、宗教地位以及婚姻等多个视角对古巴比伦时期西帕尔地区的女祭司进行了论述.     

Some Recent Trends in the Archaeology of Predynastic Egypt

The traditional explanation of the origin of Egypt credits the legendary Menes with founding the state through the conquest of the Delta region, but this is more of a political legend than explanation. Anthropological archaeologists and Egyptologists are bringing new methods and questions to their search for an adequate explanation for the development of one of the world's first territorial states. Early investigations of cemetery sites in Upper Egypt and settlements in the Delta have been supplemented by the excavation of more Upper Egyptian settlement sites, while cemeteries and other important settlements are now being uncovered in the Delta. Three trends are particularly important for the development of social complexity in ancient Egypt: (1) a growing appreciation of regional differences in Predynastic culture; (2) chronological refinements; and (3) an emphasis on group social and political developments, and trade. A consensus appears to be developing that stresses the gradual development of complex society in Egypt, in which a number of small polities coalesced into three or four larger entities during the late Predynastic, followed by the assimilation of the northwestern Delta by the Thinite rulers. The effort to control trade with the southern Levant and Mesopotamia seems to have encouraged expansion of Upper Egyptian cultural and political influence northward.     

古巴比伦时期西帕尔地区女祭司的经济活动研究

古巴比伦时期,女祭司在土地和房屋等不动产的买卖和租赁中发挥了主体作用,在动产的租赁中,他们也经常以债权人的身份出现.古巴比伦时期的社会经济中,女祭司阶层发挥了重要的经济作用.     

From Babylon to Christianity: William Foxwell Albright on Myth,Folklore, and Christian Origins

The American Orientalist William F. Albright (1891–1971) is remembered as a leading voice of twentieth‐century “biblical archaeology,” a field that aimed to demonstrate empirically the Hebrew Bible's substantial historicity. Less well known is Albright's research on Christian backgrounds, which by contrast reflected modernist theology's scepticism about the gospel narratives' literal truth. Drawing ideas from the “Pan‐Babylonian” school of biblical criticism, Albright invoked the influence of ancient Near Eastern myth and folklore on the Christ story, this being the culminating theme of his magnum opus From the Stone Age to Christianity (1940). Originally Albright believed that this mythological interpretation would reestablish Christianity's intellectual credibility in the twentieth century and thus help revive New Testament theology. Yet in the latter part of his career he omitted the mythological thesis from his writings, apparently having concluded that it was harmful to orthodox Christian faith.     

Caring practices: the connection between logics of state and domestic violence in Cairo,Egypt

This article analyzes the multiscalar relationship between state violence and domestic violence among low-income residents of Cairo, Egypt. To do so, I look at the concept of care and how notions of care are intimately linked with interpretations of violence within daily life. In the accounts of research participants, acts of violence are instances that are understood as lacking regard for the other’s well-being. Violence is juxtaposed against ‘discipline’ and is generally understood as an act of care meant to correct inappropriate behavior. Here, discipline can encompass acts of physical force. Finally, findings show that for low-income Egyptians, the violence of the state not only shapes but also happens simultaneously to violence in the home.     

Archaeology in the Lettered City

The ‘lettered creole’ Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora is widely seen as an antiquarian who collected textual materials associated with the indigenous past. But Sigüenza's historical interest exceeded both the textual and the indigenous. Following a popular insurrection in 1692, which left the viceroy's palace in ruins, Sigüenza was asked to present a proposal for segregating Mexico City into distinct Spanish and Indian zones. He framed his project not as an attempt to trace a new line but as the recuperation of an old one, ‘excavating’ the original plan laid out by Hernán Cortés. Drawing on recent work in the field of archaeology and proposing a revisionist history of Mexican archaeology, this essay reads Sigüenza's interventions in the wake of the uprising as articulating an ‘archaeology of the colonial present’ whose modalities include both digging and ‘walking in the city.’ This operation renders the Spanish city a colonial ruin to be curated by a creole administrative apparatus. For the first time, the Spanish present has become the colonial past.     

西方关于中国和埃及文明起源研究的启示

本文是笔者在访问英国伦敦期间收集、阅读西方学者有关文明起源方面论著的心得体会,包括介绍Robert J.Wenke、John H.Bodley、Gina L.Barnes、Stephan Seidlmayer和Sarah Allan等学者的论著,并结合我国学者的研究认为,西方关于中国和埃及文明起源研究以及我国青铜器研究的一些观点对于国内相关问题的研究有重要的借鉴和推动作用,也在很大程度上开阔了相关研究领域的视野.     

Underwater Archaeology in Egypt and the Protection of its Underwater Cultural Heritage

After many years of individual attempts to explore the underwater cultural heritage (UCH) of Egypt, the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA) established a department specializing in the field during the last decade of the twentieth century. The collaboration between this department and foreign missions led to the discoveries of a number of underwater sites and projects focusing on their protection, including mitigation work. This article presents the most important discoveries and displays the efforts of the SCA in the management of the UCH.     

The Archaeology of Burning Man: The Rise and Fall of Black Rock City

Historical Archaeology -     

Funeral Archaeology and Avar Culture: Old Excavations Yield Serial Data

Abstract

Cemeteries of the Avar Period (567-829) in Hungaryedited by I. Kovrig. Vol. I: E. Garam, I. Kovrig, J. Gy. Szabó, Gy. Török, Avar Finds in the Hungarian National Museum (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1975) 368 pp. with 152 Figures and 37 Plates. Vol. II: A. Kiss, Avar Cemeteries in County Baranya (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1977) 174 pp. with 71 Figures and 92 Plates. The volumes are published by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest V. Alkotmány utca 21, Budapest, Hungary, and distributed by Kultura, H-1389, Budapest, P.O.B. 149, Hungary.

The Avars occupied the lands surrounding the Carpathian Basin (the old Roman province of Pannonia) from 567 A.C. until the early 9th century, but they are little known historically. To their literate Christian neighbors they figured only as dangerous enemies and Charlemagne destroyed them as such. Only within this century has their material culture been identified and archaeological research has set about trying to reconstruct their civilization. Hungarian scholars have advanced strong arguments that much information relating to the social structure as well as to the religious mentality is “coded” in the cemeteries. A new corpus of volumes, the first two of which are reviewed here, are intended to provide a systematic presentation of the excavation of thousands of tombs since the 1930s. This series promises to provide a quantitatively significant body of data on a given funeral horizon, as well as a coherent point of view on the material culture of the Avars, of great interest to students of the early Middle Ages in Europe in its interrelations with the world of the steppes.     

Leire Olabarria: Kinship and Family in Ancient Egypt: Archaeology and Anthropology in Dialogue

African Archaeological Review -     

The Archaeology of Poverty and the Poverty of Archaeology

In this Editor’s Introduction to this Special Contribution, I explore some central issues surrounding the archaeology of poverty and ponder why it has taken historical archaeologists so long to “discover” poverty as a research topic.