Alternative Complexities: The Archaeology of Pastoral Nomadic States

Almost a century of systematic anthropological research on pastoral nomads has produced significant data and theory for understanding these mobile societies. Substantially less attention has been devoted to complex sociopolitical organization among pastoral nomadic groups and, in particular, to the large-scale polities referred to as nomadic confederations, states, or sometimes empires. This article reviews established ideas for how and why complex organization emerged among nomadic groups and then considers these ideas in the context of recent archaeological theory on statehood and new material evidence for pastoral nomadic prehistory. Revised conceptions of both the state and the nomad suggest that pastoral nomadic polities represent alternative forms of complex organization that were different from classic Old World states but still quite complex in unexpected ways. These organizational differences resulted from the mobile and flexible politics practiced among herding peoples and gave rise to regional polities based on spatial networking, distributed authority, and innovations in transport and exchange.     

An Overview of Historical Archaeology in Queensland, Australia

The ability of historical archaeology to make a significant contribution to our understanding of Queensland’s recent past is hindered by factors including few practitioners, limited publications about historical archaeological research and a need to establish its relevance beyond the archaeological community. There exists great opportunities in Queensland for researchers to explore a diverse range of research topics of which only some are beginning to be investigated through historical archaeological enquiry. This paper investigates the current state of the discipline in Queensland, the challenges practitioners face today and into the future, and the avenues down which historical archaeologists may make significant contributions to our understanding of Queensland’s recent past.     

维多利亚时代中期英国中产阶级中上层的家庭意识探究

维多利亚时代中期 ,英国中上层中产阶级形成了颇具特色的家庭意识。在理念上 ,他们坚持公共生活领域和私人生活领域的分离 ,推崇贤妻良母型的“家庭天使” ,营造温和的家庭亲子关系。在现实中 ,却处处体现出性别的不平等和女性的不自由 ,因而有悖于自由平等的时代精神。当时 ,很多妇女屈从于现实的安排 ,但仍有少数知识女性觉醒 ,在争取自由平等的过程中对妇女解放有了理性的认识。对这一问题的探讨 ,有助于我们更好地理解英国家庭与社会现代化的曲折历程。     

The Consumptive Ruins Archaeology of Consuming Past in the Middle East

After the collapse of Ottoman Empire and division of old Iran, the new geography of Middle East needed new identities. The ancient mythical past could not respond the new idea of identity anymore; because of that, the archaeological past replaced the mythical ones. All over the Middle East, the heaven of archaeologists, was excavated; ancient ruins were recovered and redefined. In such a context, the archaeological evidences remained in the hands of Middle Easterner governments. During mid-1960–1970s, Pan Arabism and Pan Aryanism both raised in the region. In both Iran and Syria, the governments celebrated ancient empires. Such festivals have been known responsible for further fundamental thoughts relevant to archaeological past. The world witnessed the demolish of Palmyra ancient ruins by ISIS. Such an action is the other site of propagandist abuse of ancient ruins by governments. Both consume the past, and both try to redefine it: one in form of demolishing and the other in form of propaganda. In this article, the authors endorsed on various forms of consuming the past in the Middle East by opposition groups and by governments.     

Bladud of Bath: The Archaeology of a Legend

Based on recent Central European research concerning the history of storytelling, this article explores the transformation of apparition stories in Scandinavia and Germany from the late Middle Ages through the Reformation to about 1700. A number of motifs were kept alive throughout the entire period but the stories as a whole changed considerably. This was not only due to a changing social and religious context but also to the specific transmission conditions of these stories.     

Battlefield Casualty: The Archaeology of a Captured Gun

Abstract

Many artefacts in museums lack adequate information about the context from which they were collected. Not surprisingly, this often applies to artefacts recovered from battlefields, where chaotic conditions can result in uncertainty about their origins. This paper examines the case of a Second World War German 88 mm gun preserved in an Australian museum. The museum had little contextual information for this weapon, except that the Australian Army captured it in North Africa in 1942, probably after the Second Battle of El Alamein. However, an archaeological analysis of the gun, particularly of damage incurred during battle, can link it to photographs taken after the battle and re-establish its historical context and the circumstances of its acquisition. In this way, a museum artefact can become more than a mere exhibit: it can be made to document its own past.     

Landscapes of Power: Middle Class and Lower Class Power Dynamics in a New York Charitable Institution

Archaeological and historical research at Sailors’ Snug Harbor uncovered material on this landscape of power. Sailors’ Snug Harbor, located in New York City, was established in 1831 as a private institution for retired and injured seamen who were economically impoverished. In the nineteenth century, between 400 and 800 seamen lived at Snug Harbor, supported by a director (called the governor), an assistant director (the steward), a doctor, a chaplain, and a large support staff. There were rivalries between the middle class administrators of institution especially during the reign of Thomas Melville (1867–84). Because over twenty percent of the retired seamen were former ship captains, in addition to numerous officers such as first mates, there were intense power dynamics between Melville (a former clipper ship captain) and the retired seamen (inmates). The design of the buildings and grounds, the archaeological material, and the primary source documents reveal middle class and lower class power dynamics that existed in this closed community.     

Peleliu 1944: The Archaeology of a South Pacific D-Day

Abstract

In September 1944, US Marines invaded the tiny Micronesian island of Peleliu in the Palau group, held by the Japanese. It would become one of the worst battles of the Pacific War, but the struggle for Peleliu was afterwards largely overlooked in the public consciousness in favour of the better- known conflicts on Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. Tourist impact on the island, with its community of only six hundred native Palauans, poses acute issues of heritage management relating not only to the integrity of the sites but also to the hazards of unexploded ordnance that is present in massive quantities. This paper presents the preliminary results of an archaeological investigation of the best-preserved battlefield of the Pacific theatre.     

Medieval English Martinmesse : The Archaeology of a Forgotten Festival

Beginning with Elizabethan literary references to a carnivalesque celebration of Martinmas, the present article surveys the St Martin cult in England in order to isolate features of the medieval celebration of the Christian feast and determine the feast's relationship to seasonal activities of early November. Martinmas is seen as both the last harvest festival and a curtain raiser for the extended winter revelling season, in effect a "Carnival" in late autumn.     

中间阶层意识的日本文化内涵

据1993年总理府宣传室所进行的《关于国民生活的民意调查》,如按上、中上、中中、中下、下五个等级区分社会阶层的话,现今日本大众社会中人,自觉所属阶层的百分比分别为：1．2％、11．1％、54．6％、24．3％和5．6％;不明确者则为3．2％。     

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

African Archaeological Review -