Woodland Pottery Function,Cooking, and Diet in the Upper Great Lakes of North America

A multidimensional approach to functional analysis was employed to examine pottery use, cooking, and subsistence in pre-European North American contexts. A variety of analytic techniques were applied to ceramic assemblages from two sites on the south shore of Lake Superior: the Middle Woodland Naomikong Point site and the Late Woodland Sand Point site. The analyses of both technical attributes and use-alteration traces suggest that a majority of pottery vessels from these sites were used for cooking throughout the Woodland period. Lipid residue analysis corroborates traditional subsistence information but specifies which foods were cooked in pottery vessels. Vessel size varies according to context rather than by time or by function, with larger vessels associated with ritual areas and smaller vessels originating from domestic spheres, a trend potentially related to feasting behavior. Interior carbonization patterns change in frequency between the Middle and Late Woodland periods, suggesting a shift in cooking and possibly subsistence practices.     

江陵地区东周墓葬日用陶器年代序列

本通过大量已发表的资料,运用考古类型学方法,对学界中存在争议的江陵地区东周墓葬出土的日用陶器进行了年代排序。由于该地区东周墓葬中铜礼器和仿铜陶礼器的年代序列较为清楚且多取得共识,章选取铜礼器、仿铜陶礼器和日用陶器共存的墓葬为典型墓例和讨论的基础。作为一项基础性工作,本的研究成果将有助于楚化的深入探索。     

二里头文化陶礼器造型艺术研究

二里头文化陶礼器的造型艺术表现为简洁质朴的艺术风格,这与夏代礼制文化中"尚质"的审美倾向十分吻合。陶礼器的造型艺术由黄金比例、纹饰和仿生三种设计方法以体现陶器造型和装饰的简洁与抽象性,而三至四期动物造型装饰的增多则为商代青铜礼器的艺术形式奠定了基础。酒器和食器的器物造型构成了礼仪中行为与时间的观念,以及动与静的礼仪活动的日常行为规范。而高等级墓葬中的稀有陶器斗笠形器,其造型与古人对天的描述相同,它不仅代表了所葬之人的身份与职能,还是上层社会对天祭祀权力的象征。     

新郑铁岭墓地M1404、M1405发掘简报

新郑铁岭墓地M1404、M1405为东西向大墓,南北相距2米,均出土成套青铜礼器与陶器。铜器墓紧临,这在铁岭墓地还是首次出现。周围大中型墓葬,也多出土有成套的陶器。其北、其西40米开外的墓葬极少随葬器物,说明这一带可能为一个家族墓地。     

Unified Theory of Cosmogram Decorations on Potteries of the Upper Midwest: Part I. Early Woodland Period

Early Woodland Liverpool (Black Sand variant) pottery decorations consist of belts, rectilinear panels, and/or punctates encircling the vessel. Vertically arranged thematic motifs reflect the structure of the cosmos in its simplest form: Below realm, Earth’s disk, Above realm. This article postulates that the Early Woodland decorative tradition was an enduring symbolic system shared by women making pottery in the upper Midwest. Cosmograms in pottery motifs trace three universal metaphors of the Woodland era belief system: (1) Cooking vessels were feminine spirit-beings; (2) the Woodland culinary vessel shaped like the female form represented her biological destiny as the reproductive vessel for humankind and cooking was a ritual action (“prayer”), a metaphor for the creation of new members of society; (3) the cooking pot was a mandala of cosmograms expressing daily life, ritual practice, and cosmology. These themes carry through subsequent studies on Middle Woodland Havanoid and Late Woodland corded or trailed pottery in an upcoming book.     

THERMOLUMINESCENT DATING OF COLOMBIAN POTTERY IN THE YOTOCO STYLE

Two contexts from the Colombian sites, Yotoco Ferry and Moralba, had been linked by archaeological similarities in pottery style, and dated by association with ware from other sites at circaa.d. 1000. However, radiocarbon dating of those contexts set Moralba at circa 800 b.c. , some 2000 yr older than Yotoco Ferry. Thermoluminescent dating of pottery from Yotoco Ferry dated it at circaa.d. 900, and pottery from Moralba was dated at circaa.d. 870. In addition a metal-smelting pottery crucible, thought to be prehispanic, was studied by thermoluminescence and dated, on the contrary, at less than 120 yr old.     

太湖流域史前社会的礼器与礼制

史前太湖流域,礼器出现在社会初步分化的崧泽文化时期;良渚文化时期已经是一个分层的复杂社会,社会成员分化成为不同的等级、阶层,与此相适应,太湖流域史前社会出现了陶质、石质和玉质三种不同质地的礼器,并有着比较严格的使用制度,太湖流域史前社会的礼仪制度初步形成。     

湖南衡阳县赤石天门山西汉墓发掘简报

该墓是带墓道长方形土坑竖穴墓,出土随葬器物54件,其中有5套陶礼器鼎盒壶钫完整组合,出土30件日常生活陶器,还伴出大量泥郢称、泥半两.随葬器物从侧面反映了楚国故地衡阳在西汉早期,一方面承袭战国晚期楚国的礼制习俗,另一方面又开启西汉中晚期的封建田园经济生活新风尚.     

江西仙人洞遗址两万年前陶器的年代研究

陶器的出现使得人类生存和社会行为发生了重要转变。我们对江西万年仙人洞遗址出土陶器进行了年代研究、对陶片和碳十四测年样品层位关系开展地层显微结构分析,结果显示遗址出土最早的陶片年代为距今19,000～20,000年,比东亚和其他地区的陶器早了2000～3000年。洞穴内遗存证明这些陶器是在末次冰盛期由采集狩猎者所制造,可能被用做炊煮器。说明陶器在农业出现以前一万年甚至更早就被制造和使用了。     

COULD YOU TAKE A PICTURE OF MY BOAT,PLEASE? THE USE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF MEDITERRANEAN SHIP REPRESENTATIONS

Representations of ships, sailors and seafarers are common in many ancient societies. They were carved, drawn or painted on a great variety of raw materials – stone, wood, metal, textiles and pottery – and can be found in settings such as caves, tombs or royal palaces. Their presence at these sites raises the possibility that these images of maritime life have symbolic or ritual connotations. This paper presents examples of representations of Phoenician and Punic ships from the first millennium BC, in an attempt to understand the role of both their creators and their audiences. These images are subsequently analysed in more detail, focusing on their technical features and their historical contexts. This paper concludes with a consideration of the social and religious aspects of ancient Mediterranean navigation.     

THE DISCOVERY OF ANOMALOUSLY HIGH SILVER ABUNDANCES IN POTTERY FROM EARLY ROMAN EXCAVATION CONTEXTS IN JERUSALEM*

This is the first study on the differential distribution and concentrations of silver in ceramics recovered from archaeological excavations. The chemical compositions of 1174 pottery vessels from 38 Roman‐period sites in Israel have been determined. Unusually high and variable abundances of silver were discovered in pottery samples of all vessel types and chemical compositions from four distinct archaeological contexts dating to late first century bce to 70 ce Jerusalem. The large majority of the Jerusalem vessels could be distinguished by their silver abundances from all analysed pottery pieces recovered at rural sites outside Jerusalem, even when the pottery types and chemical compositions, except for silver, of pottery found within and outside Jerusalem were indistinguishable. The evidence is suggestive of a human origin for the high and variable silver abundances, and dispersion of the silver by aqueous transport. The differential silver concentrations found in excavated pottery from Jerusalem and other urban and rural sites suggest that attention to the distribution of silver in pottery from excavated contexts may be helpful for evaluating the nature and function of archaeological remains and patterns of urban contamination.     

淮河流域史前陶鼓的研究

淮河是介于黄河与长江之间的重要河流,淮河流域新石器时代的考古学化在我国新石器时代占有重要的地位。本对淮河流域新石器时代考古学化进行了重新界定,对淮河流域出土的史前陶鼓进行了定性与定名、器形分类、发展与传播、使用与作用等方面的综合研究,并探讨了陶鼓与原始礼乐的关系及东夷集团在华夏明化进程中所起的作用。     

中国礼乐文明之源——以史前乐舞遗存为例

前仰韶时期的乐舞遗存仅作为日常生活用品,至仰韶时代晚期陶鼓乐器已为少数权力阶层拥有,龙山时代以鼓磬为组合特征的乐舞遗存标志中国礼乐明的基本形成。     

The Nature and Function of Astragalus Bones from Archaeological Contexts in the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean

Worked and unworked astragalus bones from a variety of different animals have been excavated throughout the eastern Mediterranean and Near East in several different contexts. This paper examines the nature and function of astragali and their modifications, and concludes that they were most often used as gamepieces, but also served a ritual function in cultic and funerary contexts. The frequent use of astragali in ritual contexts is due to the manner in which animals were skinned, and as a result of cultural diffusion. The frequent occurrence of worked astragali in cultic and funerary contexts allows them to serve as potential indicators of ritual activity in archaeological excavations.     

Case Studies in Dual Classification as Process: Childbirth,Headhunting and Circumcision in West Timor

The diverse societies of eastern Indonesia have, for some time, been recognised as important contexts for the study of dual classification. In this region the practice of dual classification is evident in a multitude of social forms. It is found in the range of conventional expressions for category distinctions as well as in the formal organisation of ceremonial contexts and structural patterns of society. This paper examines the expression of certain dual classificatory forms as they appear in three types of ritual processes in West Timorese society. My purpose is to show how this type of classification provides a vital conceptual means to both protect the well-being of participants in the conduct of the ritual processes, and at the same time, to effect symbolic and celebratory affirmations of life. I argue that in the manipulation and interaction of the dual categories it is possible to recognise a striking commonality of purpose.     

DEATH, DECAY, AND RITUAL RECONSTRUCTION: ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF CADAVERIC SPASM

Summary. Archaeologists often joke that patterning which cannot be explained in socio-economic terms is likely to be of ritual significance. This view has contributed to both reticence about and a rather impressionistic approach to potential ritual patterning in the archaeological record. The application of interpretations derived from the forensic sciences to such contexts may help to exclude natural or taphonomic processes that can mimic these patterns and elucidate aspects of ritual behaviour. In this contribution, we review some recent advances made in the application of such understanding to human remains and provide two examples of another — cadaveric spasm — a condition that has, at times, been interpreted as relating to 'live' burial. From these examples, it is clear that the relationship between well-analysed human remains and their context is the key to differentiating natural from ritual processes associated with interment.     

Fort Ancient-Mississippian Interaction and Shell-Tempered Pottery at SunWatch Village,Ohio

Abstract

The use of mussel shell for tempering pottery vessels by Fort Ancient societies is poorly understood. Suggestions have included both diffusion from neighboring Mississippian social groups and local developments, although no studies have investigated whether shell-tempered pottery is non-local or associated with Mississippian features and artifact types within Fort Ancient sites. This study begins to remedy this deficiency by examining the social and temporal contexts and petrographic composition of shell-tempered pottery at the Sun Watch site, a Fort Ancient village located in sw Ohio that was occupied during the height of neighboring Mississippian developments (ca.A.D. 1150–1450). Our findings indicate that shell tempered pottery was not produced locally and is linked with a village leader and Mississippian-inspired architecture.     

Socioreligious context and rock art in east-central California

Interpretations of rock art typically focus on the symbolic meaning of the art, treating the paintings and engravings implicitly as passive iconographic texts. Rock art, however, is the product of active ritual and ceremony. As such it played an important role in the socioreligious lives of its creators and users. Here I provide a study of the socioreligious contexts of the pictographs and petroglyphs of eastern California, North America, emphasizing the painted art of the Tubatulabal and Coso Shoshone territories and the petroglyphs of the Coso region and using only archaeological data. This requires, first, establishing the chronological placement of this art. Based on a variety of lines of evidence the pictographs and some of the petroglyphs are argued to be historic in age. An ethnography of communications model is then used to provide a conceptual basis for investigating socioreligious contexts and ritual functions of the art. Message content is studied using a factor analysis of painted motif types and an examination of the distribution of sites predominated by certain factors. Two motif complexes, or message content groups, are identified: a Tubatulabal ritual community, employing geometric designs, and a Coso Shoshone community, exhibiting a predominance of representational pictographs. Analysis of message form, channels, settings, and inferred ritual participants suggests that Tubatulabal art resulted from community rituals, in which all the inhabitants of a hamlet would have directly or indirectly participated. Knowledge of the rules for creating and interpreting the parietal art would have been common to all in the community. In contrast, pictographs of the Coso Shoshone were the result of private rituals, with limited numbers of participants and witnesses. The message communicated in the ritual and the painted art would have necessarily been arcane, and few in the community at large may have even known of the creation of this rock art. The Coso petroglyphs, also created by the Coso Shoshone but apparently by a different ritual community within the population, had a different set of rules for ritual actions and symbolic interpretation. The ceremonies creating the engravings were commonplace, yet logically were conducted in private or with few participants, suggesting that the knowledge concerning the means for undertaking and interpreting this type of ritual was widely known throughout the population.     

AMPHIBIAN AND REPTILIAN IMAGERY IN CADDO ART

Abstract

Although Caddo pottery is most recognized for its nonrepresentative decorative patterns, artists also incorporated zoomorphic figural components into their designs. Amphibian and reptilian depictions occur not only on pottery vessels but also on pipes, figurines, and pendants. Five modes of depiction occurred in the Caddo archaeological area, spanning the period from ca. A.D. 1100 to 1700. These depictions represent local expressions of the Beneath World creatures that were recognized by people across the Eastern Woodlands. These expressions embodied the power of the Beneath World and played a role in mediating with that power in regards to agriculture, travel, death, and political processes. The Caddo people integrated these zoomorphic representations into their distinctive tradition of pottery design, creating a unique cultural expression of a broader cosmological theme that was present throughout the Mississippian tradition.     

A Context for Concealment: The Historical Archaeology of Folk Ritual and Superstition in Australia

Are there traditions of folk ritual practice in Australian historical contexts, and are they observable in the archaeological record? Studies from the US and UK have documented a range of practices suggesting the persistence of British and European traditions of folk magic well into the twentieth century and previous historical work has identified numerous examples of ritual concealments in Australian buildings. In examining over 4,500 Australian historical archaeological sources, however, we found very few examples of possible folk ritual practices. This raises the question of why such practices are not being captured by current archaeological recording methods. As counterpoint, a general model is constructed from US, UK and Australian work that raises intriguing possibilities for the situating of superstitious behavior in Australian historical archaeology, including the contexts in which people might be more prone to practise such behaviors and how they might be materially identifiable.