The Nineteenth-Century Colonial Archaeology of Suakin,Sudan

This paper seeks to examine the role of the built environment as a tool of nineteenth-century British colonial expression within the Red Sea island town of Suakin, Sudan. Within Suakin and its environs, four major European focal points were examined through the use of archaeological survey and excavation. These were; (1) waterfront development (2) centers of colonial management, (3) terrestrial and maritime communication and (4) defense. The central argument of the paper is that economic and social control was maintained through the creation of new urban morphologies and European domination of existing urban space.     

Household Archaeology, Lifecycles and Status in a Nineteenth-Century Australian Coastal Community

The analysis of a ceramic assemblage from a late nineteenth-century site in a coastal town near Melbourne, Australia, is used to explore issues relating to household cycles and comparative status. Acquisition of household goods closely matches the stages of growth and decline in family size and the nature of the assemblage has directed further research into the relative status of the family.     

Toward the Historical Archaeology of Levuka, a South Pacific Port of Call

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Fijian port of Levuka alternately passed through incarnations as a beachcomber community, boisterous port of call, commercial entrepôt, and colonial capital. Initial investigations in this town in 2000 provide a data set through which archaeology's potential for a meaningful dialogue on Levuka's past can be explored. These data reflect upon an increasingly segregated European community structure, through which social transformations in alcohol use, landscape alterations, and material culture consumption patterns are examined.     

The Only Girl in Amoy: Gender and American Patriotism in a Nineteenth-Century Treaty Port

In 1861, twenty-year-old Ruth Bradford accompanied her father to the Chinese treaty port of Amoy where he was to serve as American consul. Bradford recorded this trip in a diary kept from her departure from New York until her 1863 return. Drawing upon her diary, this paper explores how Bradford, as the only American woman in Amoy, refined her sense-of-self through interracial and cross-cultural encounters with the settlement's Chinese and British inhabitants. The paper argues that through critical comparison with these communities, Bradford, like other nineteenth-century American women in China, consolidated and articulated her gendered, racial and burgeoning patriotic national identity.     

Corona Remotely-Sensed Imagery in Dryland Archaeology: The Islamic City of al-Raqqa,Syria

Abstract

Satellite remote sensing has seen some use in archaeological research, although its effectiveness has been restricted by the low spatial resolution and the high cost of available imagery. In 1995 the United States declassified 860,000 high-resolution Corona satellite photographs, acquired for intelligence purposes between 1960 and 1972. Corona offers global coverage with an emphasis on areas of strategic significance to the United States. The imagery has been released into the public domain at low cost of acquisition. In this paper we explore the potential of Corona imagery in archaeological investigations using as an example the topography and cultural landscape of the early Islamic city of al-Raqqa in northern Syria.     

Archaeology, the Activist Community, and the Redistribution of Power in New York City

Two New York City projects, one world renown, the other struggling for recognition, exemplify the various ways in which the public defines its engagement with its archaeological past. At African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan and at Duffield Street in Brooklyn, the public battled with local, state, and federal entities in an effort to preserve the resources. As different as the sites are in context, scope and circumstances, public reactions and activism bind them together.     

Water for the City,Ruins for the Country: Archaeology of the New York City Watershed

Two New York City institutions, the Board of Water Supply (BWS) and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), have shaped rural regions far outside city boundaries. The BWS depopulated places selected for reservoir construction. Residents were evicted and towns were demolished then submerged. Those who remained struggled to reorganize their lives amid the landscape clearance. Once the reservoirs were complete, the DEP replaced the BWS as the institution in charge of ensuring the city’s water supply. The DEP Police patrols around the reservoirs and enforces land-use regulations. Archaeological survey of city-owned watershed lands reveals a scarred landscape of ongoing colonial conflict.     

四川达成铁路南充东站考古发掘报告

配合达成铁路基本建设的考古工地,发掘时间一年半,发掘和勘探面积约2万平方米,墓葬41座,墓葬均为砖室墓,时代是汉－唐宋时期,为研究南充地区历史提供了实物资料。     

Integrating Stable Isotope and Zooarchaeological Analyses in Historical Archaeology: A Case Study from the Urban Nineteenth-Century Commonwealth Block Site,Melbourne, Australia

This paper presents the first use of bone collagen stable isotope analyses for the purpose of reconstructing historical animal husbandry and trade practices in Australia. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of 51 domesticate and commensal specimens demonstrate that meats consumed at the mid to late nineteenth-century Commonwealth Block site in Melbourne derived from animals with a diverse range of isotopic signatures. Potential factors contributing to this diversity including animal trade and variability in local animal husbandry practices are discussed. From these results we suggest that stable isotope-based paleodietary reconstructions have significant potential to illuminate a variety of human-animal relations in Australia’s historical period as well as other New World contexts.     

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。     

渤海上京城考古的四个阶段

主要概括了渤海上京城自20世纪30年代至21世纪初的70年考古工作,将其划为四个不同阶段,并总结了各阶段工作概况、新发现和意义,同时,指出了各阶段的局限、特别是日本人盗掘中的草率行为和误识.其次简要回顾了对上京城的发现和认定研究过程,充分肯定了近年来对上京城主体格局及建筑渊源、序列研究的重大成果.     

Aviation Archaeology Offshore: The Recovery of a Rare Ju88 Aircraft Wreck during Work for the New London Gateway Port

Abstract

During dredging works for the new London Gateway Port in 2011, fragments of a German Ju 88 bomber were recovered from the Thames Estuary. Subsequent archaeological investigation by Wessex Archaeology, using geophysical survey and divers, resulted in the location of the wreck site and its subsequent recovery under licence in 2012. Post-recovery analysis has enabled it to be identified as a very rare prototype Ju 88T. The aircraft, flown by men of the secretive Luftwaffe special operations unit VOdL, was lost during a reconnaissance mission to record bomb damage at Chelmsford in 1943. The Norwegian fighter ace who shot it down, Marius Eriksen, subsequently achieved fame as a Norwegian skiing champion and actor. The recovery was unusual in that it was carried out as a staged archaeological investigation and in the context of offshore development, where ‘avoidance’ is the usual strategy.     

Iron Smelting in Sudan: Experimental Archaeology at The Royal City of Meroe

The Royal City of Meroe, ca. 200?km north of Khartoum in the modern-day Republic of the Sudan, was an ancient capital of the Kingdom of Kush. From the 3rd century b.c. to the 4th century a.d., Kushite rulers controlled significant territory from the banks of the Nile at Meroe, in part through their ability to ensure the production of significant quantities of iron. The extensive archaeological remains of Meroitic iron production have been investigated over decades, and recently a series of experimental iron smelts in a replica Meroitic furnace has shed new light on the archaeometallurgical evidence. The data generated during the smelting campaigns has provided an understanding of the type of iron ore used, the construction and operating parameters of the furnace, and the workshop space created by the ancient iron smelters during the later and post-Meroitic times.     

Exploring the Archaeology of the Modern City: Issues of Scale,Integration and Complexity

Historical archaeologists have advocated the need to explore the archaeology of the modern city using several different scales or frames of reference—the household and the district being the most common. In this paper, we discuss the value of comparisons at larger scales, for example between cities or countries, as a basis for understanding archaeology of the modern western city. We argue that patterns of similarity and dissimilarity detected at these larger scales can (and should) become part of our interpretive and explanatory armoury, when it comes to understanding patterns and processes at smaller scales. However, we also believe that these larger scale enquiries do not by any means exhaust (or diminish the importance of) the site- or household-specific questions that continue to demand adequate answers. By reporting some of the thinking behind the work that has been done in Melbourne, Sydney and shortly to begin in London, we seek to more clearly establish the value of this broader comparative agenda in urban historical archaeology.