PALMETTES ON THE CUIRASS FROMDLBOKI

The Dlboki cuirass was unearthed from a Thracian grave of the fifth century BC over a hundred years ago but only recently has close inspection revealed the presence of three palmette designs traced on its surface. The chronology of this type of cuirass is re-assessed.     

西周金文中的“dui”和西周的军事功能区

西周金所见“师”,是了解西周王朝权力实现方式的重要视角。西周“师”组织的基本编制、驻扎地域、职事管理系统、土地构成要素及权力来源等一般特征表明：西周之“师”既是军事组织,也是承担特殊职能的具备独立行政能力的地域组织。其此种复合的特征,可以用“军事功能区”这一概念来表述。     

Potentially stylistic differences between backed artefacts from two nearby sites occupied 60,000 years before present in South Africa

Archaeologists are commonly interested in material signatures that can be used to identify past population groups. In the Palaeolithic such population groups are often identified at large spatial scales, yet the material expressions of smaller groups comparable to those documented ethnographically have proved more difficult to isolate. The present paper considers differences in silcrete backed artefacts recovered from two nearby sites. These sites, both of which were occupied during the Howiesons Poort period, are situated in different ecological contexts with variable access to stone resources. Site context does not, however, explain observed differences in technology, nor do potential differences in tool function. Variation is instead inferred to be stylistic, or at least to be adaptively neutral. The results imply occupation of the study area by two different groups maintaining different technological traditions some time around 60,000 years before present.     

Occupation humaine et environnement au 5e et au 4e millénaire sur la côte Sharjah-Umm al-Qaiwain (U.A.E.)

Three contributions in this issue are concerned with sites along the west coast of the United Arab Emirates which pre-date the Bronze Age. In this paper we shall attempt to view these sites in the broader geographical context of the southern Gulf coast; and thereafter to consider (1) the lithic material attested in the Arabian peninsula and dated to between the late 6th and early 4th millennium B.C.; (2) the painted pottery comparable to Mesopotamian Ubaid wares; and (3) a dozen CI4 dates (1) run on shell which all range around 6000-4500 BR The material utilized here comes from a series of expeditions conducted by the French Missions to Sharjah and Umm al-Qaiwain between 1985 and 1990 (2). The objectives of our geomorphological and archaeological inquiries were to observe, within a restricted area, the remains and evolution of human occupation in a changing environment.