Exploring a Relationship Between Aggregate and Individual Levels Spatial Data Through Semivariogram Models

Analysis of social data is frequently done using aggregate-level data. There may not be a direct interest in spatial relationships in the data, but the presence of spatial interdependence may still need to be taken into account. This article explores the aggregation effect from a spatial perspective by assuming nonzero covariance for individual data from two different groups. We investigate the bias associated with aggregate-level data for semivariogram analysis. We show that the bias mainly arises from the average of the semivariogram within the groups. It is also shown how aggregated-level data may be used to estimate parameters of an individual-level semivariogram model. A nonlinear regression method is proposed to carry out this estimation procedure and a simulation is done to clarify the results.     

Exploring Roman Ritual Behaviours Through Plant Remains from Pannonia Inferior

The recovery of new plant remains from eastern Croatia are discussed here in order to determine their ritual significance and how this evidence may fit into chronological and regional observations on ritual plant offerings in the Roman world. Samples collected from inhumations, cremations and an altar dedicated to Silvanus Domesticus, dating from the 2nd to 4th centuries AD, are presented and show that a range of more ‘common’ plant remains, such as cereals and pulses, were an important part of ritual life. These results are also compared to the growing archaeobotanical data collected from shrine and cremation burials across Europe. Although the archaeobotanical data from the Croatian sites are limited, the increasing evidence of ritual plant use allows observations regarding the wider context of Roman social and religious change.     

Spatial Autocorrelation Statistics of Areal Prevalence Rates under High Uncertainty in Denominator Data

We propose a new estimator of spatial autocorrelation of areal incidence or prevalence rates in small areas, such as crime and health indicators, for correcting spatially heterogeneous sampling errors in denominator data. The approach is dubbed the heteroscedasticity‐consistent empirical Bayes (HC‐EB) method. As American Community Survey (ACS) data have been released to the public for small census geographies, small‐area estimates now form the demographic landscape of neighborhoods. Meanwhile, there is growing awareness of the diminished statistical validity of global and local Moran’s I when such small‐area estimates are used in denominator data. Using teen birth rates by census tracts in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, we present comparisons of conventional and new HC‐EB estimates of Global and Local Moran’s I statistics created on ACS data, along with estimates on ground truth values from the 2010 decennial census. Results show that the new adjustment method dramatically enhances the statistical validity of global and local spatial autocorrelation statistics.     

Seasonality and paleodiet in the Chiribaya polity of southern Peru

In the Andes, the complex Chiribaya polity, or señorío, was composed of economically specialized groups. Previous carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of archaeological human bone from Chiribaya-affiliated sites have effectively demonstrated socioeconomic specialization and variability in paleodiet among different Chiribaya-affiliated sites. The present study complements earlier paleodietary analyses of Chiribaya populations by supplementing them with carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of archaeological human hair from the two Chiribaya-affiliated sites of Chiribaya Alta and El Yaral. These new data demonstrate that seasonal variability in the consumption of marine products and C₄ plants such as maize was quite high for some individuals buried at Chiribaya-affiliated sites. In addition to elucidating the complex patterns of Chiribaya seasonality, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge of archaeological analyses of human hair for paleodiet.     

Microcredit and Women's Empowerment: Through the Lens of Time‐Use Data from Rural India

This study examines the impact of microcredit on male and female time use, and draws on this analysis to explore the linkages between credit and women's empowerment. A study of time use can help understand these linkages, because if credit is intended to improve women's livelihoods, it can also be expected to influence the way women allocate their time. Its other advantages are that it does not suffer from much time lag and can be objectively measured. Using household survey data from rural India, the findings show that while microcredit has little impact on women's time use, it helps their husbands move away from wage work (associated with bad pay and low status) to self‐employment. This is because women's loans are typically used to enhance male ownership of the household's productive assets. Further, it is found that it is only women who use loans in self‐managed enterprises who are able to allocate more time to self‐employment. If credit is intended to increase the value of women's work time, it follows that it is not access to loans but use of loans that matters. Ensuring women's control over loan‐created assets must therefore be a critical policy objective.     

考古学次生堆积的研究与探索

一、问题的提出 随着当代考古学的目标从器物描述扩展到对人类行为的信息提炼,对考古遗址中文化堆积改造和遗址形成过程的了解,便成为田野工作的一项重要方面。虽然,对过去社会文化和人类活动的了解取决于考古学家对遗址的仔细发掘和采样,但是发掘和采样在多大程度上反映了历史的真实面貌,则是一个很大的未知数。因为,考古遗址从形成开始,不但受到人类活动的改造,而且在使用时和废弃后的漫长岁月里,还会被堆积后的自然和人类动力破坏得面目全非。所以,如果要科学地认识考古学文化,仔细分辨人类和自然对考古遗址的改造和扰动就必…     

Shell Middens, Ships and Seeds: Exploring Coastal Subsistence, Maritime Trade and the Dispersal of Domesticates in and Around the Ancient Arabian Peninsula

The Arabian Peninsula occupies a critical position at the intersect of several major Old World landmasses. Inland aridity and a major coastal perimeter have long made maritime activities critical to Arabia’s cultural trajectory. A wealth of recent studies, not previously synthesised, suggest not only that the peninsular littoral offered a rich resource base for thousands of years of human occupation in the region, but also that Arabia witnessed some of the world’s earliest seafaring and maritime exchange activities, and played a role in Bronze Age maritime trade that has often been underestimated. Maritime activities were closely linked to developments in agriculture, which not only fuelled trade and exchange, but were also impacted on by the dispersal of domesticates along early maritime corridors. While regional specialisation has to some degree prevented consideration of the maritime prehistory of the peninsula as a whole, it is clear that there are interesting parallels, as well as important differences, between cultural trajectories in different parts of the peninsula.     

Isotopic Determination of Seasonality in Diet and Death from Nubian Mummy Hair

Sections of human hair from naturally desiccated Sudanese Nubian mummies representing X-Group (AD 350-550) and Christian (AD 550-1300) periods in the Wadi Halfa area have been analysed for their isotope ratios. Because the carbon in hair represents food intake over the growth period of this tissue, analysis comparing segments taken next to the scalp with those further along the shaft can indicate diet just prior to death as well as any recent shift in food consumption. Modern populations in this area practise seasonal crop scheduling which involves the cultivation of C₃ plants (wheat, barley and most fruits and vegetables) in the winter and the hardier C₄ plants (sorghum and millet) in the summer. Shifting isotopic values along the length of hair strands of the ancient inhabitants of this area demonstrate that this practice has its roots at least as far back as the Initial Phase of Intensive Agriculture. The most common season of death appears to have been summer, the time of greatest climatic, nutritional and physiological stress for both ancient and modern inhabitants.     

Seasonality of human site occupation based on stable oxygen isotope ratios of cod otoliths

Oxygen isotope ratios (δ¹⁸O) were measured in micromilled samples of cod otoliths recovered from two Stone Age sites, one from Skoklefald, southeastern Norway and five from Skipshelleren, southwestern Norway. Discrete samples of otolith material were milled from the edge of the otolith towards the centre, each sample representing 3–4 weeks of growth. The δ¹⁸O values showed seasonal signals, covering a period 1–2 years prior to the time of capture. Isotope ratios at the edge of the otoliths, which is the material deposited at the time of fish capture, corresponded to the coldest seasonal water temperatures, in late winter or early spring. These data provide independent evidence for the season of use of the Skoklefald and Skipshelleren sites.     

英国巨石阵探秘

在古老的英国,有两个古老、神秘、风景相当优美又令人非常神往的地方。这就是“尼斯湖”(LOCHNESS)和“巨石阵(”STONEHENGE),前者被评为世界自然遗产,后者被评为世界文化遗产,都是世界级的景区。它们各据英国的南北“,尼斯湖”在英格兰最北部地区,之所以闻名天下,是从公元7世纪开始就传说该湖有体形庞大的“湖怪”出现,并详细记录有各种类型的目击者,但就是无法拍到清晰的照片及科学工作者探测的证实,使其增加了十分神秘的色彩并越来越闻名于世界;另一个神秘的境地是位于英国西南部的“巨石阵”,这是在方圆数百平方公里范围几乎是…     

地租征收率的再探讨

本篇主要目的是要探讨土地制度史研究中“地租率”这一个老大难问题。过去的研究 ,多是根据土地租约的字面规定去理解 ,以为地主说多少就能收多少似的。近年来学者们通过地主地租簿的研究 ,已经发现地租实收数量与租约规定的租额之间 ,有着一个颇大的差距 ,即地主收租通常只能收到租额的七八成左右 ,而且还在不断下降之中。因此 ,研究地租率 ,应从“实收率”入手。本文就是这样的一个尝试 ,是笔者关于“农民、地主和地租”研究的一个部分。     

Seasonality and age structure in an archaeological assemblage of Sika deer (Cervus nippon)

Sika deer (Cervus nippon) was one of the major terrestrial mammals hunted in Japan throughout the Jomon period, which extends from the end of the Palaeolithic until the arrival of rice agriculture in the first millennium bc . Mandibular analysis of hunted deer is believed to be more useful in determining the season of death than antlers in archaeological contexts. This paper aims to present a new method of estimating an occupational season of a Jomon site by using sika deer mandibles. This method consists of two stages. First, two measurements on a mandible should be taken. If the distribution shows any gaps among young juveniles, this strongly suggests that the sika was hunted in a specific season. Second, tooth eruption and attrition stage should be observed; this may suggest the season in which hunting took place. This method was utilized to analyse sika deer remains from Awashimadai in eastern Kanto. The result of the analysis shows that deer were hunted only from spring to summer at Awashimadai. Putting these results together with the estimate of seasonality deduced from other species strongly suggests that the site was occupied only from April to July. This paper also examines how the tooth attrition stages of sika deer progress. The preliminary comparison with red deer (Cervus elaphus) in England suggests that molar wear progresses more quickly in sika than in red deer. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

探索博物馆产业化之路

博物馆建设走产业化的道路,是我国社会主义市场经济下文博事业发展的新途径。它代表了博物馆自身发展的要求,反映了市场经济条件下博物馆建设应具备的客观条件与发展动力。     

The Accumulation of Silica in Lakes

On the basis of available data on recent and fossil lake sediments with a high content of authigenic silica—diatomite—an attempt is made to identify those factors in the surrounding landscape and in the lake environment that account for the formation of these siliceous sediments. The presence of cause-and-effect relationships and the wide distribution of siliceous lake sediments, both at present and in the geological past, suggest that diatomite lakes can be treated as a distinctive lake type in a lake typology and limnological regionalization previously proposed by the author.