A Review of Swahili Archaeology

The Swahili people have been viewed as of Persian/Arabic or Cushitic-speaking origin. Scholars have used historical and archaeological data to support this hypothesis. However, linguistic and recent archaeological data suggest that the Swahili culture had its origin in the early first centuries AD. It was the early farming people who settled on the coast in the last centuries BC who first adopted iron technology and sailing techniques and founded the coastal settlements. The culture of the iron-using people spread to the rest of the coast of East Africa, its center changing from one place to another. Involvement in transoceanic trade from the early centuries AD contributed to the prosperity of the coastal communities as evidenced by coastal monuments. More than 1500 years of cultural continuity was offset by the arrival of European and Arab colonizers in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries AD. Le peuple Swahili a souvent été consideré comme un peuple dont la langue avait pour origine le Perse/Arabe ou le Cushite. Les chercheurs ont utilisé des donées historiques et archéologiques afin de supporter cette hypothese. Cependant l'étude linguistique de cette langue, ainsi que de nouvelles découvertes archéologiques suggérent que la culture Swahili trouve son origine au début de l'ère chrétienne. Ils furent les premiers fermiers à s'installer le long du littoral, fondant des villages côtiers, vers les premiers siécles de notre ère, les premiers aussi à adopter les techniques du fer et les techniques de navigation. La culture du fer s'étendit rapidement au reste des côtes d'Afrique de l'Est, son centre se déplaçant d'un endroit à un autre. Leur implication dans le commerce océanique contrbua à la prosperité de leur communautés côtières, mise en évidence notamment par les monuments le long du littoral. Plus de 1500 ans de continuité culturelle pris fin à l'arrivé des colonisateurs Européens et Arabes de dixseptième et dixhuitième siècles.     

Hopewell Archaeology: A View from the Northern Woodlands

A tremendous amount of research on Hopewellian societies in the Northern Woodlands of the United States has been conducted within the last decade. This article summarizes the main themes and directions of that current research and presents a general model of Hopewellian societies. Local communities appear to have been small in size and relatively sedentary; sets of these communities shared a greater sense of cultural identity within a lineage and possibly clan organization, with each riverine drainage system occupied by a mosaic of lineages. Each in turn was spatially centered on specific clusters of religious, nonresidential public architecture. Alliances were based on a number of historically shifting variables, including religion, kinship, politics, and economics. It is suggested that future research continue existing methodologies and analyses and consider new ecological, genetic, and ideological research as a means of adding greater local historic nuance to this general model of Hopewellian societies.     

豫北冀中南地区新石器时代考古回顾与展望

豫北冀中南地区是我国新石器时代一个相对独立且具有紧密联系的文化区域,大体上南起黄河,北至拒马河,并以沿太行山东麓及其附近宽约100公里左右的狭长地带为中心范围。半个多世纪以来,经几代考古工作者的不懈努力,该区已发现数百处新石器时代遗址,并有数十处遗址经过了规模不等的试掘或发掘,获得了丰富的实物资料,取得了一大批重要的研究成果,使我们对该区主要考古学文化的面貌与特征、分期与编年、谱系与     

魏晋北朝考古

<正>魏晋北朝时期是中国历史大发展、大变革,民族大融合的阶段。这一时期各种文化空前交汇杂糅,形成了"自由开放,兼容并蓄"的社会风气,创造出精彩纷呈的物质文化,改变了秦汉以来中国汉文化传统,为隋唐大一统盛世的形成奠定了坚实基础,在中国历史上处于承上启下的重要地位。邺城遗址及其周边的北朝墓群是这一时期河北地区最典型、最具代表性的文化遗存,该地区是曹魏至北朝时期黄河流域东部地区政治、经济、军事、文化、宗教中心,这些遗存的发现对于魏     

A Newly Discovered Acheulean Assemblage in the Mbulu Plateau,Northern Tanzania

African Archaeological Review - This article reports a newly discovered Acheulean assemblage in Tanzania’s Northern Mbulu Plateau. Recent investigations in the region have documented surface...     

Archaeology and the Bible Revisited: A Review Article

David and Solomon, a new book by Israel Finkelstein and Niels Asher Silberman, through their discussion of Palestinian archaeology's current understanding, proposes to provide evidence to prove the accuracy of Frank Cross's more than 30 year old revision of Martin Noth's theory of a “Deuteronomistic History.” The authors attempt to confirm the history of the redaction of the biblical narratives about Saul, David and Solomon, involving seven distinct oral and four written strata of tradition. Their argument moreover claims the warrant to assert the historicity of each of these legendary kings of Israel. The present article argues to the contrary that the “archaeological evidence” proposed does not support such a redaction history nor establish the historicity of either the biblical figures or their stories, but that the harmony of biblical and archaeological issues is circular and illegitimate by the standards of historical research. It argues, moreover, that the claim of an oral tradition, reflecting original memories of an historical David or Saul is an entirely unnecessary and unlikely explanation for the origins of both the figures and their tales in the stories of 1-2 Samuel and 1 Kings. It moreover argues that the hypothesis of a redaction history in a succession of four cumulative revisions, beginning in the eighth century and completed in the sixth to fourth century, BCE—lacking as it does reference to a readable text—is neither critical nor falsifiable. Finally, Finkelstein and Silberman's book is judged as an unsuccessful attempt to return to the methods of “biblical archaeology” that were legitimately impeached in the mid-1970s.     

邯郸考古世纪回眸与前瞻

本文对20世纪邯郸考古工作做了全面梳理与回顾,总结了邯郸现代考古出现以来经历的三个阶段,概述了20世纪邯郸考古的主要发现及重要研究成果,并就21世纪邯郸考古所面临的主要任务、重要课题及发展方向作了综论及展望。     

Forty years of Industrial Archaeology Review: A Personal View

ABSTRACT

This article presents a personal view of the origins and development of Industrial Archaeology Review in the 40th volume of its publication. This is preceded by an account of the earlier journals to publish articles on industrial archaeology, as well as a brief account of such articles in the sister journal, Post-Medieval Archaeology. A short history of Industrial Archaeology Review is included for future reference purposes. The range of authors contributing to the journal is considered, from the volunteers in local industrial archaeology societies to the professional archaeologists of the later period. Attention is given to the importance of the publication of the annual Rolt Memorial Lectures, as well as the occasional themed issues where articles on specific topics have been grouped together. Finally, the article suggests how best use can be made, in this article and in the journal generally, of the advantages of digitisation.     

文博考古学科类属关系梳理

目前,在教育部学科分类体系和国家标准学科分类标准中,文博考古学科类属关系不统一。文物学始终没有获得科学界正式承认,给高校学科建设造成一定影响;考古学新升为一级学科,意味着"考古学与博物馆学"研究生专业名称面临调整,由此将出现"文化遗产与博物馆学"的二级学科;而将本科专业名称"博物馆学"改为"文物与博物馆学",又将使其与"文化遗产"学科分类不相同步。因此,文博考古学科类属关系需要统一,相关的专业名称与学科名称也应该一致。     

当代西方考古学研究范式述评

托马斯.库恩认为范式是指科学共同体的信念,这种共同的信念建立在某种公认并成为传统的重大科学成就(如牛顿的万有引力说、达尔文的进化论等等)基础上,为共同体成员提供把握研究对象的概念框架、一套理论和方法论信条,一个可供仿效的解题范例,它规定了一定时期中这门科学的发展     

Quantitative Methods in Archaeology: A Review of Recent Trends and Developments

This paper reviews recent developments in the application of quantitative methods to archaeological research and focuses upon three major themes: the development of so-called designer methods, which are quantitative methods created to solve specific problems; the resurgence of whole-society modeling through a variety of formal and mathematical approaches; and trends in the the teaching of quantitative methods at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Not surprisingly, different subfields have had greater success than others in the development of useful methods, and the causes of this are explored. Finally, suggestions for improving training in the use of these methods are offered.     

A Review of the International Academic Symposium on Tibetan Archaeology and Art

To date at least two aspects of Tibetan studies have become prominent. One is Tibetan archaeology which has grown from a base of ever-enriching fieldwork, and the other is Tibetan art studies which is dominated by Tibetan Buddhist art. In western humanity disciplines,archaeology and art history have always been regarded     

山东寿光市北部沿海环境考古报告

2001年,山东大学考古系等在山东寿光市沿海进行了一次环境考古调查和试掘,本次工作预设两个目的,即解决当地先秦时期考古文化的发展序列,以及探索遗址分布与中全新世海岸线变迁的关系。结果表明,寿光沿海地带的先秦文化序列为大汶口-龙山-商周时期文化,年代约在公元前4000～221年间。再根据考古和自然学科资料,寿光沿海的中全新世海侵在公元前4500～前3000年达到最大范围,之后海面开始下降进入海退期,并在公元前2300年前后和公元前1400年间有过两次停顿期。这对山东北部沿海今后的环境考古将有重要学术意义。     

Economic and Land-Use Implications of Prehistoric Fire-Cracked-Rock Piles,Northern Arizona

Abstract

Intensive archaeological survey of 14.5 sq km of the Upper Basin, an area located near the Grand Canyon's eastern South Rim in northern Arizona, has discovered 126 fire-cracked-rock piles that are surrounded by artifact scatters of varying size and assemblage composition. Because these phenomena are unprecedented in upland conifer ecosystems of the American Southwest, several hypotheses are explored regarding their formation histories. Analyses of artifact assemblages, botanical remains, pollen, and faunal remains recovered from four excavated sites indicate that they result from flaked-stone artifact production, ground-stone artifact reuse and recycling, ceramic-vessel-fragment recycling, and animal and plant processing. In addition, radiocarbon dates and temporally diagnostic projectile-points and ceramics imply that the sites differ in terms of frequency, intensity, and patterns of use, and with respect to the groups of people who formed them (Anasazi, Cohonina, Havasupai, or Hopi). Byproducts of a little-known, long-term land-use pattern in Southwestern prehistory (ca. A.D. 417–1650), these sites represent a key source of information for understanding how different sources of variability come to be expressed in archaeological landscapes.     

Sustainable Management and Conservation of Heritage Assets: A Case Study of the Lake Eyasi Basin,Northern Tanzania

African Archaeological Review - The Lake Eyasi Basin in northern Tanzania is among the few key regions in Africa that offer important information about human origins and peopling of the world....