Excavations at Bishop's Street Without: 17th Century Conflict Archaeology in Derry City

Abstract

Excavations on this site, undertaken by Paul Logue for EHS: Built Heritage DOE: NI, produced evidence for at least two phases of occupation outside Bishop's Gate, Londonderry during the 17th century. This occupation came to an end with a phase of activity dated to the commencement of the Jacobite siege in A.D. 1689. Further evidence of that siege was uncovered in the form of a ravelin ditch 2.8 m wide and 0.57 m in depth, constructed in early 1689 to front Bishop's Gate. The extant remains of a sally port interrupted the ditch. A nearby larger ditch, scarped from the sloping ground outside Double Bastion, measured a maximum of 8.4 m in width and 1.4 m in depth. This larger ditch may have been part of efforts to improve the City defences in the wake of the 1641 rebellion. Further evidence of conflict archaeology was recovered in the form of lead shot, weapon furniture and flint gunspalls.     

Excavations at E1 Remolino: Household Archaeology in the San Lorenzo Olmec Region

Abstract

Studies on the Olmec frequently focus on large centers and monumental works of art, often ignoring the important role of peripheral sites in regional hierarchies. Recent investigations at the Early Formative period (900–1500 b.c., uncorrected radiocarbon years) site of El Remolino help balance this “elite centered” focus by collecting household and community level data at a habitation area away from the regional center of San Lorenzo. Subsurface testing and extensive excavations produced evidence of living surfaces, features, and refuse disposal patterns, which together with phytolith data improve our understanding of a lower order Olmec site. El Remolino was established in the San Lorenzo phase as a permanent settlement whose inhabitants pursued fishing, hunting, gathering, and plant cultivation. The degree to which this site was politically or economically dependent on the elite center of San Lorenzo is unknown.     

2008年陕西省考古研究院考古调查发掘新收获

2008年,陕西省考古研究院全年共对221个项目进行了考古调查、勘探和发掘,发掘各个时期墓葬400余座,累计发掘面积1.3万平方米,整理出版发掘报告、专著9部,发表简报、论文等100余篇,全面完成了年初制定的各项目标责任.现对考古调查发掘方面的新收获先行介绍如下.     

The Archaeology of High Culture and ItsDiscontents

Alexander, R. D. The Biology of Moral Systems. New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1987. xx + 301 pp. including bibliography, name index, and subject index. $34.95 cloth, $16.95 paper.

Ingold, Tim. Evolution and Social Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. xv + 431 pp. including notes, bibliography, name index, and subject index. $54.50 cloth, $15.95 paper.     

On Disciplinary Culture: Archaeology as Fieldwork and Its Gendered Associations

This paper discusses the disciplinary culture of archaeology, focusing in particular on the role of fieldwork in shaping the sense of identity for the profession. Based on the examination of the professionalisation of Australian archaeology, it is argued that there is a distinctive suite of attributes relating to the activity of fieldwork, which are central to the organizational culture of the discipline. These attributes can be seen to have a gendered dimension, revealing the extent to which archaeology is shaped by different gender regimes.     

Domesticating Barbie: An Archaeology of Barbie Material Culture and Domestic Ideology

A systematic examination of Barbie fashions, accessories, and playsets produced since 1959 reveals several distinct phases in the domestic symbolism associated with Barbie. Today, Barbie grocery shops, cleans house, cares for her young siblings, and assumes careers which fill nurturing and protective roles like those championed in traditional domestic ideology. Yet in the late 1950s, Barbie was conceived and marketed as a single career girl who did not do rough housework. This paper examines the range of clothing and accessories marketed alongside Barbie as a mechanism to trace the changes in Barbie's domestic image over nearly 40 years.     

Archaeology, History, and Material Culture: Grounding Abstractions and Other Imponderables

United States national programs for historic preservation have a great influence on public memory and commemoration. Decisions about what may be listed in the National Register of Historic Places or designated a National Historic Landmark may commemorate or silence parts of the past. Historians invoke the concept of integrity as a gatekeeper to control access to these lists. Archaeologists have the opportunity to contest some of the imposed silences and make these lists more inclusive of underrepresented groups.     

论吴越丧葬文化的改革与对策--以浙江省为例

吴越丧葬习俗既是中华民族丧葬文化的重要组成部分,又是具有自己地方特色的具体存在.在长期的历史发展过程中,不管是墓葬的形制、葬法葬式、仪式过程,还是通过墓葬或仪式表达出来的信仰形态和内容,或者是融入了自身环境形态的风水观念,都与其他区域存在着巨大的差异.正是这种差异,使我们感受到丧葬文化的区域性,感受到中华民族文化的多元一体化,也使我们深刻地认识到,吴越丧葬习俗的改变在国家殡葬改革大趋势前提下,必须针对这一地区存在的具体文化形态,否则,将事倍功半或失去意义.……     

Problems in Data Recovery and Measurement in Settlement Archaeology

Abstract

The importance of demographic information for our understanding of the evolution of society has established the need for intensive settlement reconnaissance at the regional level. In many instances, however, the validity of techniques currently being used to generate population estimates has not been established through rigorous archaeological testing. This study presents empirical evidence for the effect of different types of surface disturbance on the recoverability of cultural debris.     

Culture Wars, Old and New

Book reviewed in this article:
Volker Berghahn, America and the Intellectual Cold Wars in Europe: Shepard Stone between Philanthropy, Academy, and Diplomacy     

Joined-Up Archaeology at Old Scatness,Shetland: Thin Section Analysis of the Site and Hinterland

Abstract

Excavations on the multi-period settlement at Old Scatness, Shetland have uncovered a number of Iron Age structures with compacted, floor-like layers. Thin section analysis was undertaken in order to investigate and compare the characteristics of these layers. The investigation also draws on earlier analyses of the Iron Age agricultural soil around the settlement and the midden deposits that accumulated within the settlement, to create a 'joined-up' analysis which considers the way material from the settlement was used and then recycled as fertiliser for the fields. Peat was collected from the nearby uplands and was used for fuel and possibly also for flooring. It is suggested that organic-rich floors from the structures were periodically removed and the material was spread onto the fields as fertilisers. More organic-rich material may have been used selectively for fertiliser, while the less organic peat ash was allowed to accumulate in middens. Several of the structures may have functioned as byres, which suggests a prehistoric plaggen system.     

Early West African Metallurgies: New Data and Old Orthodoxy

The debate on West African metallurgies cannot be properly understood without reference to the colonial template that featured Africa as the receiving partner in all crucial social, economic, and technological development. The interesting debate that took place in West Africa during the Colonial Period was more meta-theoretical than factual. These conflicting glosses, despite their lack of empirical foundations, have constrained the nature of archaeological research and oversimplified the dynamics of the many facets of technological innovation. The relative boom in archaeological research that took place from the 1960s onwards resulted in an exponential growth of factual information. Challenging evidence has emerged from Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Togo, and Senegal. The picture that emerges from this survey calls for more sophisticated explanations for the origins of West African metallurgies away from the single non-African source hypothesis.     

关于毁尸葬、毁器葬、焚物葬的文化思考

我国古代存在毁尸葬、毁器葬与焚物葬三种葬俗葬仪,它们表现为在文化形态上的多样性,文化内涵上的复杂性与神秘性.这些葬俗具有世界性,表现了古代人类对生命与死亡的认识与信仰.     

The Old Kinchega Homestead: Doing Household Archaeology in Outback New South Wales, Australia

The Kinchega Pastoral Station in western New South Wales, Australia, was one of the earliest and largest in the area. A study of one of the station's homestead is demonstrating how the integration and negotiation of material and documentary evidence produces information on domestic behavior in rural Australia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and highlights the activities of women and children in an environment whose history has been dominated by the exploits of men.