Intensive El Niño and the Iron Age of South-eastern Africa

Burnt daga structures in Iron Age villages serve as proxies for severe drought on the plateau of southern Africa. The distribution of burnt daga remains in two other rainfall areas, KwaZulu-Natal and the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone over Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, establishes a sequence of simultaneous burnings that parallels the severe droughts recorded for the interior plateau. These widespread correspondences suggest a common cause. Another correspondence with natural proxy data from South America indicates that intensive El Niño events most likely caused the droughts.     

Reconstructing late Holocene palaeoenvironments in Bangladesh: phytolith analysis of archaeological soils from Somapura Mahavihara site in the Paharpur area,Badalgacchi Upazila,Naogaon District,Bangladesh

Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction based on phytolith analysis of late Holocene-aged soils in and around the Somapura Mahavihara archaeological monastery site in the Paharpur area, Badalgacchi Upazila of Naogaon District in northwestern Bangladesh was undertaken. Results indicate five climate zones marked by alternatively cool and temperate events. The phytolith assemblages of Zones 1, 3 and 5 are clearly characterized by a higher proportion of Pooideae phytoliths. The climate indices for these zones are all greater than 50, indicating cooler climatic conditions. In contrast, the phytolith assemblages of Zones 2 and 4 are typified by a higher proportion of Panicoideae phytoliths; their climate indices are 42 and 44, respectively, indicating the presence of a warmer, more temperate climate. In general, the dominance of grasses over broad- leaved trees throughout the sequences suggests that generally cool to temperate and dry conditions with some cyclical variability persisted around Paharpur and the surrounding region throughout the Pala Dynasty from AD 730 to 1080. The question of whether these shifts in vegetation might be linked with El Niño Southern Oscillation events, and whether these might in turn have cultural responses, is raised.     

The little ice age in the Scottish Highlands and Islands: Documenting its human impact

This paper examines the Little Ice Age in the Scottish Highlands and Islands and uses documentary evidence to show its impact on the farm economy. It has three sections. The first examines how Highland climate may have changed during the Little Ice Age, and notes that increased storminess was probably as much a factor as lower annual mean temperatures. The second takes the most severe phase of the Little Ice Age, the Maunder Minimum, 1645–1715, and uses rests or eases of rent to show how it stressed the farm economy. The third examines evidence for the abandonment of land during the Maunder Minimum. As well as arguing that we need to see abandonment in its social as well as physical setting, it highlights the role played by the temporary abandonment of land and suggests that such abandonment along the western seaboard probably indicates the impact of increased storminess.     

Paleoenvironmental catastrophies on the Peruvian coast revealed in lagoon sediment cores from Pachacamac

Paleoenvironmental reconstruction combining data from diatom, pollen, macrophytic, and archaeological analyses had not been attempted previously for coastal Peru. We analyzed two radiocarbon-dated sediment cores extracted from the “sacred” Urpi Kocha Lagoon at the pre-Hispanic religious center of Pachacamac (ca. AD 350-1533), near Lima, to characterize the paleoenvironment of the site. The data reveal an environmental history characterized by alternating periods of severe drought and catastrophic flood. Recurrent pulses with distinctive sediment, diatom, pollen, and macrophytic characteristics reflecting variations in water depth, substrate, turbidity and salinity, usually contain a thick basal sandy storm deposit overlain by thin organic accumulations of peat, gyttja, and snails. The most intense of these disturbance pulses, when correlated with pollen, plant macrofossils, radiocarbon dates, and regional proxy data, provide local evidence of four major floods associated with sustained, catastrophic El Niño events, tsunamis and/or severe storms in the Andean highlands over the last 2000 years.     

The Garden and Beyond: the Dry Season,the Ok Tedi Shutdown,and the Footprint of the 2015 El Niño Drought

This paper offers a snapshot of the 2015 El Niño drought among Min people in Papua New Guinea's West Sepik and Western Provinces. Local assessments of food, water, and health show variation between locations, but with an overall tendency for the drought's effects to spread from lower to higher elevations as the drought progresses. This zone is in the hinterland of the Ok Tedi Mine, and the drought's regional impact was intensified by Ok Tedi's abrupt closure when low water in the Fly River stopped shipments of concentrate and cut off fuel and food supplies. The decision to close the mine was accompanied by the mandatory ‘repatriation’ of workers and their families to ‘home’ communities in the drought‐stricken hinterland. This, combined with deteriorating regional links, has eroded the capacity of Min communities to weather the drought, suggesting that we must look beyond the garden when calculating El Niño's costs.     

Prehistoric nearshore and littoral fishing in the eastern Tropical Pacific: An ichthyological evaluation

Marine fish bones are abundant components of human food remains at prehistoric sites in the eastern Tropical Pacific. Their quantification and interpretation in terms of human procurement strategies have been hampered by the use of large-meshed sieves and by the obstacles presented to faunal experts by fish taxonomic diversity. Since many important food fish families are speciose, this paper emphasizes the importance of species-level identifications. Making extensive use of Spanish-language articles on fish distribution and ecology, and the commercial and artisanal fisheries literature, it identifies groups of nearshore and littoral fish species that show greater and lesser tolerance for hard substrates (reefs and rocks), estuaries and coastal lagoons, and deeper clearer waters farther offshore. Most of the regional archaeological sites were located near estuarine habitats. The drab-colored fish they attract are generally poorly known. Hence, a particularly detailed analysis is offered of fish behavior within low salinity coastal inlets. Fourteen archaeofaunal fish samples from Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador are evaluated in the light of the environmental information generated by the biological and fisheries surveys. It is concluded that most sites have a broadly estuarine orientation and that the input of hard substrates is everywhere <10%. Two sites, Salango, in Ecuador, and Vidor, in Costa Rica, exploited epipelagic fish that swim in large shoals and deep water demersal predators. Sites situated more than 10 km from the coast exploited a wide variety of marine fish. In Parita Bay, Panama, a comparison of fish faunas from Cerro Mangote (6000 B.P.) and Sitio Sierra (1800 B.P.) elicits the hypothesis that regional fishing strategies shifted between these dates from a shore-based, netless strategy to a more complex one that incorporated fine-meshed gill-nets and watercraft.     

Prehistory in the northwest tropical Pacific: The Caroline,Mariana, and Marshall Islands

The earliest identified settlement is in the Marianas, dated to about 3500 B.P., while the other islands in the region appear to be settled from about 2000 B.P. onward. The archaeological remains reveal diverse approaches to island living. While Nan Madol and Leluh in the eastern Carolines are major architectural achievements, a discussion of these sites does not detract, for example, from the terrace systems of Palau or the lattestone groups of the southern Marianas. Of equal interest is the settlement of atolls and their recently recognized potential for preservation of stratified deposits. As information allows, each island or group is considered on an individual basis in order to allow for each specific island context to be assessed. This is described within the broader themes of architecture, chronology, environment, material culture, settlement pattern, social organization, and subsistence. In conclusion, the current standing of prehistory in the region is outlined in relation to early settlement, environment, social organization, chronology, settlement pattern studies, portable material culture, subsistence, and atolls. Finally, suggestions for the future are made.     

An 8000-year history of landscape,climate, and copper exploitation in the Middle East: the Wadi Faynan and the Wadi Dana National Reserve in southern Jordan

Investigations of geomorphology, geoarchaeology, pollen, palynofacies, and charcoal indicate the comparative scales and significance of palaeoenvironmental changes throughout the Holocene at the junction between the hyper-arid hot Wadi 'Arabah desert and the front of the Mediterranean-belt Mountains of Edom in southern Jordan through a series of climatic changes and episodes of intense mining and smelting of copper ores. Early Holocene alluviation followed the impact of Neolithic grazers but climate drove fluvial geomorphic change in the Late Holocene, with a major arid episode corresponding chronologically with the ‘Little Ice Age’ causing widespread alluviation. The harvesting of wood for charcoal may have been sufficiently intense and widespread to affect the capacity of intensively harvested tree species to respond to a period of greater precipitation deduced for the Roman–Byzantine period – a property that affects both taphonomic and biogeographical bases for the interpretation of palynological evidence from arid-lands with substantial industrial histories. Studies of palynofacies have provided a record of human and climatic causes of soil erosion, and the changing intensity of the use of fire over time. The patterns of vegetational, climatic change and geomorphic changes are set out for this area for the last 8000 years.     

Funerary practices and kinship in an Early Bronze Age society: a Bayesian approach applied to the radiocarbon dating of Argaric double tombs

The main aim of this paper is to test the hypothesis on kinship relations (affinity/marriage vs descent/consanguinity, and matrilocality) expressed in the funerary record of the El Argar Bronze Age society (South-east Iberia, 2200–1550 cal BCE), taking into account the absolute chronological dimension of double adult tombs. A set of 23 double tombs having radiocarbon dates for both skeletons were selected, and radiocarbon calibration and Bayesian probability analysis was conducted. The results support the ‘descent’ hypothesis, since for most of the cases the chronological distance between individuals buried together was larger than two decades. Finally, several guidelines for future research are suggested in order to overcome shortages in current chronological and archaeological data.     

太平洋战争爆发后伪满的金融统制

太平洋战争爆发后,中国东北地区成为日本战争经济所需的重要战略物资的供给基地。为满足日本的战争需要,伪满政权采取了一系列金融管制措施,使得日伪在中国东北地区的金融统制较此前更加严酷。本文从统一汇兑巩固“元元等价”、统制资金促进战争产业发展、强制储蓄直接剥夺劳动收入、管制利率强迫共同融资削弱金融机构经营自主权、改革《满洲中央银行法》消除央行独立性等角度全面分析太平洋战争爆发后日伪如何强化对中国东北地区的金融统制。     

胡适与太平洋国际学会——兼论现代中国自由主义的两难处境

中国太平洋国际学会从1925年成立到1950年解散前后存在了25年.它是太平洋国际学会在中国的分会,同时又有一定的独立性.胡适曾于1931-1938,1946-1950年间两度出任中国太平洋国际学会执行委员会委员长,是中国太平洋国际学会的灵魂人物.在他的影响下,一批自由主义知识分子加入了学会,使中国太平洋国际学会从一个松散的、具有基督教色彩的组织转变为一个具有强烈自由主义色彩的知识分子团体.胡适在太平洋国际学会中的言论、思想和行动典型地反映了现代中国自由主义知识分子在面对民族危机时所遭遇的两难选择.     

Resource Intensification and Resource Depression in the Pacific Northwest of North America: A Zooarchaeological Review

In the Pacific Northwest of North America, researchers routinely suggest changes in human use of animals explain hunter-gatherer organizational changes and development of cultural complexity. For example, most models developed to explain developing cultural complexity invoke salmon in some fashion. Yet until recently, fish remains were not carefully studied and more generally, zooarchaeological evidence has not been systematically used to test models of culture change. This study reviews the 10,000-year-old faunal record in the Pacific Northwest to test predictions drawn from models of resource intensification, resource depression and hunter-gatherer organizational strategies. The records from two subareas, the South-Central Northwest Coast (Puget Sound/Gulf of Georgia) and the Northern Columbia Plateau, are examined in detail, representing 63 archaeological sites. While minor changes in animal use are evident, the overall record is characterized by stability rather than change.     

Geophysical and Archaeological Investigation of the Survivor‐Camp of the Antelope (1783) in the Palau Islands,Western Pacific

Survivor‐camps were an unavoidable and particular category of terrestrial shore‐camp when European scientific, mercantile and imperial interests began to impinge significantly on the islands of the Pacific Ocean. In 1783 the packet Antelope was wrecked in the Palau Islands and the account of the ‘new’ archipelago, first published in 1788, was, after Cook's voyages, the most popular Pacific text in the late‐18th century. The results of archaeological and geophysical research at the camp reported here contribute to a nuanced account of early culture contact and of survivor‐camp behaviour, demonstrating the significance of shore‐camp remains for understanding maritime societies. © 2010 The Authors     

留英学生与五四新文化运动——以《太平洋》杂志为中心

五四时期留英学生的思想活动鲜见论者讨论.本文以留英学生1917年初创刊于上海的<太平洋>杂志为中心,讨论其同人群体及其文化思想和教育主张.作为留英学界的一股知识力量,<太平洋>同人所提供的新思想观念,对于五四新文化运动具有积极推动和引导作用,这与以<新青年>作为运动的指导力量并无二致.但<太平洋>的思想背景有着浓厚的英伦调和主义色彩.     

Technological change in the Earlier and Middle Stone Age of Kalambo Falls (Zambia)

This paper reviews data on technological change in the manufacture of stone tools from the Earlier Stone Age (ESA) to Middle Stone Age (MSA including Sangoan) deposits at Site A, Kalambo Falls, Zambia. Data on flake and tool morphology, dimensions, and raw material are discussed It is concluded that there is little change, at this site, in the basic techniques of blank production or the attributes of the blanks produced from the ESA to the MSA. The only marked change to occur is the loss of large cutting tools (hand axes, cleavers) and their replacement by heavy-duty forms (core axes, picks). It is hypothesized that this change marks a decline in portability as a factor in the design of large edge tools.

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Résumé Cet article donne un compte rendu des donnés sur la change technologique dans la fabrication des outils lithiques en les dépôts du Earlier Stone Age (ESA) jusqu'a la Middle Stone Age (MSA, qui comprit la Sangoan) au gisement A, Kalambo Falls, Zambia. Des donnés sur la morphologie, les dimensions et les matériaux des éclats et des outils sont examinées. Il est inféré qu'il y a peu de changement, à ce gisement, dans le techniques élémentaires de la fabrication des supports ou dans les attributs des supports taillés du ESA jusqu'a MSA. Le seule change qui se présent ç'est la perte des gros outils pour couper (bifaces, hachereaux) et leur remplacement par des formes plus substantiels (core axes, pics). On fait l'hypothèse que ce changement indique une déclin de portabilité comme facteur dans le dessein des outils avec des grands tranchants.

     

Identity and Material Culture in the Later Prehistory of Central Europe

Examination of the archaeological evidence for the expression of identity in later European prehistory provides a new and promising approach to understanding change in this period. New views of the role of material culture in the communication of meanings, of the nature of identity, and of agency in the past provide a useful framework for approaching the evidence. Analysis of patterns of sameness and difference in style and decoration of manufactured objects indicates how people used their material culture to structure and to communicate their identities—on the level of the individual, of groups such as families and residential communities, and of larger entities commonly referred to as ethnic groups. This approach offers insights that complement social and economic models of change in later prehistory.     

Modeling ground slate knife production and implications for the study of household labor contributions to salmon fishing on the Pacific Northwest Coast

Despite longstanding anthropological concerns with the origins of intensive delayed-return subsistence economies and the timing of the development of increasingly complex political systems on the Northwest Coast, the use and production of slate knives—one of the most archaeologically visible tools used to process seasonally available salmon—has received little attention in the archaeological literature. This can be attributed, in part, to the persistence of artifact typologies that have failed to generate behavioral implications for variability in slate artifact assemblages. In this article, I use data derived from ethnographic, experimental, and actualistic research to develop an approach to the classification of slate artifacts expected of knife-production activities. Emphasis is placed on framing slate knife production as a temporally emergent and situated activity, but also as an operational sequence that can be modeled due to regularity in the decisions and motions expected of tool makers producing functionally specific tools. Using slate assemblages recovered during the partial excavation of seven Late and Contact period Coast Salish houses in southern British Columbia, I then evaluate and demonstrate the utility of this approach by considering variability in household labor contributions to salmon fishing.     

New research on the Holocene settlement and environment of the Chad Basin in Nigeria

Recent investigations of three archaeological sites in the Nigerian part of the Chad Basin during the Holocene reveal key stages in the cultural development and environmental history of that region. At Dufuna, a dugout boat was dated to around 6000 BC, making it the oldest known boat in Africa and one of the oldest in the world. Boats may thus have contributed to the mobility of the population of the southern edge of the Sahara 8000 years ago and, thereby, to the cultural homogeneity of this period. The pottery site at Konduga is around a thousand years younger than Dufuna but still belongs to the time of Mega-Chad. The site is on the Bama Ridge, an old shoreline. Its pottery, decorated in the Saharan tradition, belongs to the earliest ceramic phase of the West African Later Stone Age, long before the beginnings of food production. Although this site was probably settled by pioneers advancing into a largely flooded landscape along the slightly raised shoreline, the human occupation of the area previously covered by Mega-Chad began along a broad front around 2000 BC. Archaeological and palaeoecological finds from two settlement mounds at Gajiganna are described as case studies for this phase, which predates the well-known site of Daima.

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Résumé Les résultats présentés proviennent de recherches récentes sur trois sites archéologiques, dont chacun représente un épisode clé du développement culturel et de l'histoire environnementale du Bassin nigérian du Tchad au cours de l'Holocène. A Dufuna, la découverte d'une pirogue monoxyle, datée d'environ 6000 ans BC, constitue le témoignage le plus ancien d'une embarcation en Afrique et l'un des plus ancien dans le monde. Ce moyen de transport indique la mobilité des populations de la marge sud du Sahara à l'Holocène inférieur et moyen; ce qui a dû contribuer à l'homogénéité culturelle de cette période. Le site à poterie de Konduga est le plus jeune d'un millénaire que Dufuna, mais appartient à l'époque du Méga-Tchad. Le site est installé sur une ancienne ligne de rivage, la Bama Ridge. Sa poterie, décorée selon la tradition saharienne, appartient à la plus ancienne phase à céramique du Later Stone Age ouest-africain, bien avant le début d'une production alimentaire. Vu que ce site ne devait étre occupé que par des pionniers aventurés dans un paysage largement amphibie à la faveur d'un mince cordon émergé, la colonisation de l'espace antérieurement couvert par le Méga-Tchad, débute le long d'un large front vers 2000 ans BC.Les trouvailles archéologiques et paléoécologiques de deux tertres anthropiques à Gajiganna sont décrites commes études de cas illustrant cette phase, qui précède celle du célèbre site de Daima.

     

Seascapes and Landscapes—the Siting of the Ferriby Boat Finds in the Context of Prehistoric Pilotage

The foreshore of North Ferriby, within the Humber estuary, is the site of the earliest sewn plank boats known outside Egypt. Despite a large corpus of research relating to their construction and function, there has, as yet, been no consideration of their location. This paper examines the contemporary environment and sailing conditions of the Humber during the Bronze Age, and assesses pilotage in relation to natural features that might help to explain why North Ferriby was such a significant focus for Bronze Age mariners.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society