Cooking Pots as Burial Urns

Abstract

Large ceramic vessels used as burial urns occasionally have been found in Late Mississippian/protohistoric contexts in Alabama and Mississippi. Ethnohistorical documents suggest that large vessels were used for cooking in a domestic context. A systematic examination of three urns from east-central Mississippi shows multiple uses prior to their final deposition with burials. Vessel size analysis of a temporal sequence of sherds from midden contexts used sherd thickness and curvature data to show that large vessels became more common. Three explanations are examined to better understand the use of large vessels during this time: bet hedging, costly signaling, and changing technology. The results confirm the use of burial urns in domestic contexts before their final use as interment containers, making technological change the most viable of the three hypotheses.     

近世浙江丧葬习俗的区域特征及地域差异

本文以历代地方志及现代民俗学调查报告为基础,并结合其它相关历史文献资料,对近世时期流行于浙江地区的土葬、火葬、二次葬、潮魂葬等丧葬习俗的区域特征及地域差异,作了简要的介绍及总结,在此基础上对制约浙江地区丧葬习俗地域差异的因素进行了分析、阐述。     

Warfare and mortality at Koger's Island,Alabama

Koger's Island, a late prehistoric agricultural community in the southeastern USA, is the site of a cemetery containing four mass graves of individuals with perimortem trauma and scalping cutmarks. Although the site as a whole has a demographic profile typical for a society of this kind (with high infant mortality), the mass graves contain relatively few infants or children, and an abundance of adult males. It is suggested that the skeletons found in the multiple burials represent the victims of raiding or warfare. The disproportionate number of males in the mass graves may be related to the fact that relatively few males at the site are older than 50 years, presumably because they are dying at an early age from violence.     

Evidence of Prehistoric Scalping at Vosberg,Central Arizona

Four crania recovered during the 1970 Arizona State University field school season at a prehistoric site in Vosberg, Arizona show parallel clusters of cut marks characteristic of scalping with a stone knife. These victims were identified during a general survey of the Vosberg skeletons for evidence of trauma and pathology. The discovery of these four victims in the same atypical burial context provides clues to the nature of the scalping custom in the American Southwest prior to European contact and brings the total number of prehistoric scalping victims reported from the Southwest to 15 individuals. Perimortem depressed fractures in two of the crania, and the presence of a stone arrow point within the chest of one of the skeletons, indicates that the scalping of these individuals was the result of violence rather than medicinal or ritual treatment.     

Emergence of complex society in prehistoric Korea

A highly stratified society had emerged in the Korean peninsula by the beginning of the Christian era. It was expressed symbolically by ownership of valued goods and status burials. Four factors are basic to understanding the emergence of stratification in prehistoric Korea, around 2300–1700 B.P.: autonomous sociocultural evolution within the peninsula since early Chulmun Period, external pressures from more advanced culture spheres in Manchuria and northern China, the existence of elites able to facilitate integrative process, and warfare and conflict. The external pressures, in particular, resulted in a sociocultural process characterized as a secondary formation. For the evidence of emerging social complexity and stratification, the authors examine various archaeological data, with a special focus on differentiated mortuary architecture and its associated objects. Ancient Chinese accounts are considered as complementary evidence.     

拊葬墓与古代家庭

在以血缘为纽带的社会组织中,其成员死后的埋葬方式直接与家庭、家族和宗族相联系。“袝葬”现象揭示了以家庭为核心的生产关系和生活方式。拊葬墓是以一人为主,其他人从属,多人共用一墓的墓葬。考古学研究中墓室的多少常常与墓主人的身份、等级联系在一起。但袝葬现象直接表现在墓葬形制特征上,是墓葬类型的一种特殊形式,因袝葬需要出现的多室墓并非是墓主人身份的象征,不能作为判别墓葬等级的标准。汉代的袝葬墓一般不改变流行的墓葬形制,而是改变某些空间的功能,西晋以后袝葬墓影响到墓葬形制的改变。拊葬墓的流行,是因为社会组织中血缘关系密切的家庭的地位增强,土地所有制、生产经营和财产关系发生了变化。     

两周葬玉及葬玉制度之考古学研究

两周,尤其西周时期是两汉时期成熟葬玉制度的肇始,也是中国葬玉制度发展最为重要的时期之一.多元化的葬玉制度在战国时期逐渐走向统一,为两汉葬玉制度莫定了坚实的基础.本文即从两周出土的葬玉种类及玉器出土位置等情况入手,分析总结这一时期葬玉与葬玉制度情况.     

Diagnostic criteria for identification of seashell as a trephination implement

Scanning electron microscopy has been applied to experimentally cut bone samples and an ethnographical example of trephination on a human skull in order to produce diagnostic criteria for the identification of mollusc shells as cutting implements used in trephination. Shell scrapes are identifiable by parallel striations in the direction of cut, crossed at 90° by chatter marks caused by uneven movement of the fragile shell-edge across the bone surface.     

A Case of Osteosarcoma in a Late Medieval–Early Modern Skull from Kyjov (Czech Republic)

After the reconstruction of the original parish church of the Moravian town of Kyjov in the latter part of the seventeenth century, human skeletal remains from the disturbed graves of the surrounding cemetery were gathered in a vault which was partially excavated in 1994. Among disarticulated bones of at least 106 individuals, a fragmented skull of a young male was found, with a massive outgrowth of bone on the right parietal, originally continuing fluently on the non-preserved frontal scale, on edges lifting the outer lamina. The inner lamina was covered less intensively by the bony growth. Radiography and CT scans showed a non-homogeneous structure, the inside being irregular and the outside granulated or radially striated. A metastatic lytic focus was detected in the same bone. Histology and SEM examination showed an uneven mineralization of the bone tissue, consisting of rough, thickened and irregularly spaced trabeculae, with cellular remains or mineralized matrix on the surface. The differential diagnosis took meningioma into consideration but the most probable diagnosis was osteogenic sarcoma, which is still infrequent in the palaeopathological record from the Old World and its localization in the cranial vault is very rare. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identification of a chrysocolla amulet in an Early Dynastic child mummy

Two pyriform formations were identified within a bundle of linen bandages wrapping a 15–18 months old Early Dynastic mummy. The upper one was taken out of the bandages and examined to ascertain its nature.     

新疆扎滚鲁克、山普拉墓群出土(西周至东汉)毛织品的鉴定

为对一批出土的西周至东汉毛织品进行羊毛品种及编织方法进行研究,以鉴定羊毛品种和确定相关产地,应用扫描电镜分析羊毛毛纤维的组织结构、形态、纤维类型、细度,鉴定了羊毛品种。检验说明,扎滚鲁克和山普拉墓地出土毛织物主要是用新疆羊的羊毛织制的。     

Ancient bacterial DNA (aDNA) in dental calculus from archaeological human remains

The purpose of this study was to identify reactive bacterial aDNA in archaeological human dental calculus. Dental calculus was collected from a middle/late Neolithic human skull from Hulbjerg passage grave, Langeland, Denmark and prepared for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) or gold-labeled antibody TEM. TEM showed calcified, as well as non-calcified bacteria. Immunogold labeling occurred over the cytoplasmic portions of the sectioned bacteria. The result demonstrated that it is possible to identify aDNA sequences from bacteria in archaeological material of considerable age by this technique.     

论西安北周粟特人墓和罽宾人墓的葬制和葬俗

2000～2005年,在西安市北郊发掘了北周时期的安伽墓、史君墓、康业墓和李诞墓。前3座为粟特人的墓葬,后1座为厨宾国婆罗门后裔。这表明,西安市北郊一带不仅是北周粟特人的墓地,而且也是包括厨宾人在内的旅居中国的外来人的墓地。其葬制与葬俗对于中西文化交流与丝绸之路的研究,具有重要意义。     

西汉诸侯王墓敛葬玉衣及相关问题

西汉诸侯王死后使用玉衣敛葬是其身份地位的体现,也反映出保护尸身,以求不朽和追求升仙的丧葬思想.综合考察,西汉诸侯王墓的敛葬玉衣具有继承和发展特点,并日趋完善.西汉诸侯王墓使用敛葬玉衣具有相对严格的制度,异姓诸侯王及谋反的同姓王一般不用玉衣敛葬,而使用者的分级制度也在西汉中期逐渐确立,这与以往的认识有所不同.与敛葬玉衣相配套,西汉诸侯王墓还使用其他一些敛葬用玉,但基本是以玉衣为主,其他为辅的使用原则.     

A possible case of renal osteodystrophy in a skeleton from medieval Wharram Percy,England

The skeletal remains of a child aged 13–15 years, recovered from Wharram Percy, England, and dating from AD 960–1700, were examined using gross observation, radiography and scanning electron microscopy. Lesions suggestive of renal osteodystrophy were found. Palaeopathological recognition of renal disease has hitherto relied upon the identification of soft tissue lesions or the presence of urinary calculi. This appears to be the first palaeopathological identification of renal insufficiency on the basis of skeletal changes alone. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.