The social role of food in the Natufian cemetery of Raqefet Cave,Mount Carmel,Israel

The archaeology of mortuary practices and related foodways in the Late Natufian (LN; ca. 14,000/13,500–11,700 BP) sheds light on the communal activities of the last hunter–gatherers in the Mediterranean Levant. We present a detailed analysis of the fauna from the LN cemetery of Raqefet Cave (Mount Carmel, Israel). Taphonomic evidence indicates that the animal bones are butchery and consumption leftovers. While the patterns of animal exploitation are reminiscent of Natufian habitation sites, the remains do not reflect the typical recurring post-discard damage resulting from continuous or repeating habitations in those sites. Hence the fauna is interpreted as the leftovers of punctuated, short-term events, rather than ‘ordinary’ Natufian household trash. Taking into account the special depositional context and site characteristics, we interpret the fauna as the intentionally-gathered and buried remains of simple funerary feasts. Elaborate mortuary behavior and symbolic role of food refuse were recently suggested at the contemporaneous cave of Hilazon Tachtit (Israel). The new data from Raqefet Cave probably reflect a somewhat different type of communal meals, adding to the diversity and complexity of pre-agricultural life-ways in the Levant.     

Mapping social relationships: geophysical survey of a nineteenth-century American slave cemetery

The goal of this project is to identify unmarked burials inside the known limits of a historic cemetery and unmarked slave burials adjacent to the cemetery to answer questions regarding variability in treatment of slaves by slave owners. This project used three geophysical prospection methods (electromagnetic induction/conductivity, ground penetrating radar, and magnetic susceptibility) to image the subsurface and locate unmarked graves. The results indicate that up to 21 possible unmarked graves exist at the Prior Cemetery. The survey detected 17 with two or more geophysical techniques and four with a single technique. Nine possible unmarked graves were tested with a metal probe. Every tested anomaly revealed less compact soils indicative of an unmarked grave.     

少陵原墓地的墓向“同轴对立”现象

墓向是社会丧葬观念的重要标志,往往被视作基地研究中的重要考察因素。通过对少陵原西周墓地的梳理,发现在该基地中大量存在一种墓向的"同轴对立"现象。这一现象的形成,应当与一定的丧葬习俗和特定的人类行为有关。同时,通过对墓向"同轴对立"现象的分析,可以扩展我们西周时期墓地研究的维度,并对已有的一些发现和认识产生新的思考。     

The modern cemetery: a design for life

In discussing the importance of public health anxieties within the birth of modern forms of governmentality, Foucault frequently mentions, but does not develop, the questions that arose about the appropriate disposal of the dead. In this paper, I explore the spatial rationalities of the modern cemetery in England in the mid-nineteenth century. As an illustrative example, I provide a detailed analysis of John Claudius Loudon's proposals for cemeteries. Loudon, a horticultural writer and designer who campaigned vigorously for cemetery reform, became crucial in the reconfiguration of the cemetery. I use Loudon's ideas as a dispositif, a material space that also provides a method of analysis for illuminating the operation of various inter-related governmental spatialisations and techniques. Specifically, I illustrate how the cemetery captures the diversification and widening of dispositional techniques of institutions and, at the same time, integrates hygienic imperatives, aesthetic-moral registers and an array of educational-civic functions. I argue that the cemetery, in real and ideal terms, manifests and intensifies a variety of rural and urban spaces and, paradoxically, generates a model milieu for the living.     

Osteoarthritis in a Black Death cemetery in London

Age-specific prevalence rates were determined in a group of skeletons recovered from a Black Death plague pit in London. The disease showed the expected increase in prevalence with age but these rates were lower than those in the contemporary population and the disease was more frequent in men than in women. In the majority of cases the disease affected one joint only and there were no cases of generalized osteoarthritis. The sites most commonly affected were the facet joints of the spine, the acromioclavicular joint and the hands; there were relatively few cases in which the large joints were affected but the knee was slightly more frequently affected than the hip.     

民居建筑的文化理念

民居又称住宅,是出现最早的建筑;其数量之多。分布之广．与其他建筑相比;都是首届一指的。它又是最基本的建筑类型,是各类建筑的总根。其他建筑都是从这里分化生发出来的。“住”字原有居、停、留的意义;“宅“字上面的宝盖像屋顶,下面的“乇”字,音义都与“托相通,意思是托身之所。住、宅二字连用,就是指人们日常生活起居的地方。除了王府,中下阶层的住宅古时又常称为“民居”、“民宅”或“民家”。“民居”一词最早甚至可见于三代,《周礼》疏就有“相视民居,使之得所”,一语,这里的“民居”,就是住宅。民居就是”家”的所…     

荥阳小胡村墓地出土部分铜器的科学分析

小胡村墓地为殷墟晚期"舌"氏家族墓地,为探讨其出土铜器的腐蚀特征,揭示其所蕴含制作技术和相应考古学信息,从而为器物保护修复提供科学依据,采用金相显微镜和扫描电镜及能谱仪对墓地出土12件铜器进行基体锈层结构和制作技术分析研究。研究表明,相较纯铜、铜锡和铜锡铅合金,铜铅合金耐腐蚀能力较弱,腐蚀严重;铜器经冷热加工处理易造成内部组织结构不均内应力残存,间接加速铜器腐蚀;12件铜器材质:纯铜2件、铜铅合金4件、铜锡合金3件和铜锡铅合金3件;仅2件兵器(刀M28:1、戈M38:1)经有意铸后热锻和冷加工,其余皆直接铸造成型。M21墓4件铜器皆为铜铅合金明器,小胡村墓地作为殷墟周边商文化系统,趋同商文化中心区,亦呈现部分中小贵族随葬铜器明器化现象。研究结果可为器物修复保护提供科学依据。     

Patterns of trauma in a unique medieval parish cemetery

The church and cemetery of St Margaret Fyebridgegate, Norwich were in use from AD 1245 to 1468. The cemetery was used to bury both the parishioners and hanged felons. On excavation, 52 group burials of various sizes were encountered, some containing prone individuals. Four hundred and thirteen inhumations have been examined, of which one-third had evidence of episodes of trauma. Comparison is made of the types of trauma present with evidence from the sites of the Blackfriars, Ipswich and the Mary Rose. Evidence is presented for some possible activity-related trauma at two of the sites.     

新疆帕米尔吉尔赞喀勒拜火教墓地出土纺织品分析检测

受中国社会科学院考古所新疆考古队委托,纺织品文物保护国家文物局重点科研基地(中国丝绸博物馆)对新疆帕米尔吉尔赞喀勒拜火教墓地出土纺织品进行分析检测。采用形貌观测、高效液相色谱质谱联用技术、组织结构观测等方法对样本进行了纤维鉴别、染料测试、组织结构分析,从中发现的纤维品种包括桑蚕丝、毛,染料品种包括西茜草、靛青、黄檗等,织物品种包括毛罽、编织物、绢等。结合历史考古资料对上述分析检测结果进行解读,大量的毛纺织品表明在距今2500年前的帕米尔高原,纺织品具有明显的西域当地性,而具有典型汉文化特色的桑蚕丝和黄檗体现了与中原地区的文化和技术交流。     

基于社会三元结构的中国企业社会责任

企业利益与社会利益矛盾的日益凸显和社会期望的提升,使中国企业的社会责任问题越来越引起全社会的关注,然而在现实中,它的推行却出现了困境。在社会三元结构视角下,地方政府基于GDP的压力易与追求利润最大化的企业达成合谋,而我国公民社会发育不成熟,很难形成三方的有效制衡。促进企业自觉履行合理的社会责任,要加强中央政府对地方政府的监管,使地方政府自身运作规范,并充分理解和重视企业在我国社会中的角色和处境,企业应具有企业公民的意识,并大力培育和发展非政府组织。只有通过政府、企业、社会三方的互动合作,才能促进中国企业社会责任建设,实现共赢。     

虢国墓地出土部分青铜器微量元素的分析

将微量元素示踪法与铅同位素比值法结合起来对青铜器矿料的溯源会起到相得益彰的效果。先前对虢国墓地青铜器的铅同位素比值测定表明,其青铜器铅同位素与山西中条山和长江中下游地区都有重合。本次微量元素分析结果显示,虢国墓地青铜器与山西中条山古矿冶遗址微量元素特征不同,而与长江中下游地区的湖北铜绿山古矿冶遗址铜锭的微量元素特征相似,推测长江中下游地区可能为虢国墓地青铜器提供了大量的铜料。此外,微量元素与铅同位素都表明虢国墓地不同墓葬的青铜器基本具有一致的矿料来源。     

Dia Shoma (Mali), a medieval cemetery in the inner Niger delta

The aim of this paper is to compare burial typology from Dia Shoma medieval cemetery (Mali) with previously documented funerary practices of the inner Niger delta in order to expand our knowledge of the mortuary rituals once practised in this region. Considering archaeological resources from an anthropological viewpoint provides us with new information about human migration, settlement, cultural affiliation and way of life. From this point of view, especially for the period between 800 and 1000 AD, Dia Shoma offers much insight into the history of this cultural melting pot. Dia Shoma is of particular interest in regards to migration in the Western Sahara region. The burials of Dia Shoma have been characterized by morphometrical features as well as associated funeral practices. The different types of burials that coexist at Dia Shoma indicate a region of cultural diversity. Along with the existence of different kinds of tombs, an increase in various archaeological remains lends evidence towards a community co‐occupied by herders, fishermen and farmers. The change in the association of funerary practices around 1000 AD could be interpreted as an indirect disturbance to the former socio‐economic trade and cultural exchange, possibly triggered by the fall of the Empire of Ghana under the influence of the Almoravides. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

阎府家训中的儒教色彩

1931年,阎锡山亲自编写了《阎氏家庭自治规章》,其中18条镌刻在阎锡山故居东、西花园内的墙上。综观这些家训,都带有浓厚的儒教色彩。     

From site formation to social structure in prehistoric Thailand

Abstract

The archaeological record in mainland Southeast Asia from ca. 2000 b.c. to the formation of early states in the mid-first millennium a.d. is built on excavations in mounded settlements that incorporate habitation, industrial, and mortuary remains. For most sites, formation processes are not readily identified. have presented a new view of the social organization of the Southeast Asian “metal age” based on a reinterpretation of mortuary and settlement data, founded on their premise that the dead were interred in, under, or in conjunction with domestic residences rather than dedicated cemeteries. They argue that such house societies were instruments for remarkably long-term occupation of individual settlements by heterarchic, non-violent supravillage affiliative social groupings. A detailed examination of the evidence for such residential burial suggests a lack of convincing evidence until the Iron Age. Moreover, new dating programs have shortened the prehistoric sequence, leading to more rapid and intense social changes than hitherto suspected.     

DNA in cremated bones from an early bronze age cemetery cairn

The discovery of polymeric DNA in charred wheat grains and other burnt plant remains prompted us to examine a set of cremated bones for the presence of ancient DNA. Extracts of cremated bones from an early Bronze Age cemetery cairn were analysed by hybridization probing and the polymerase chain reaction. Hybridization with two probes targeting human DNA resulted in strong positive signals. Polymerase chain reactions directed at a multicopy sequence in human nuclear DNA were successful, extracts of five burials giving amplification products of the expected size. Exploitation of ancient DNA in cremated bones could be of great value in archaeology as it may enable information pertaining to sex and kinship to be obtained from fragmented material.     

Dietary patterns and social structures in medieval Sigtuna, Sweden, as reflected in stable isotope values in human skeletal remains

Stable isotopes (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N) have been studied in human burials from the medieval town Sigtuna in Sweden. Dietary patterns of 80 adult individuals were analyzed on three cemeteries representing the phases of establishment, prosperity and decline of the town. All analyzed individuals were radiocarbon dated. One of the cemeteries, Church 1, represents a population of higher social status than those at the other two cemeteries.The δ¹³C values are homogenous and showed that the protein intake was mainly of terrestrial origin in the whole population. δ¹⁵N values varies more and they may indicate a higher input of vegetables in the diet at one of the cemeteries, the Nunnan block.Already in the initial phases of Sigtuna a social hierarchy had been established which is reflected in dietary patterns. Apparently more animal protein was consumed among the high status population of the town. Furthermore, differences in dietary patterns between the sexes were noted. In all phases the females show more clustered values indicating a more homogeneous diet than that of the males.