Cave occupations in Southeastern Arabia in the second millennium BCE: Excavation at Mugharat al-Kahf,North-Central Oman

This paper reports the results of excavation at Mugharat al-Kahf (WTN01) in Wādī Tanūf, North-central Oman. It also provides information on the nonmortuary and nonsedentary activities in central Oman during the Wādī Sūq period (2000–1600 BCE), as the subsistence and social arrangements of this period are the subject of much debate. Previous surveys had discovered a substantial amount of Wādī Sūq pottery at the site. This project took forward the excavation for further exploration. The excavation at Test Pit 1 identified Layers Ia and Ib, wherein pottery sherds, charred date stones and other samples for radiocarbon dating were discovered. These prove the cave's occupation during the early third millennium BCE, early second millennium BCE and the Islamic period. The analysis of artefacts and floral remains provided insights into the sojourn, storage and consumption of dates in the cave, and the mobile lifestyle in central Oman.     

The PalaeoEnvironments and ARchaeological Landscapes (PEARL) project: Recent findings from Neolithic sites in Northern Oman

The PalaeoEnvironments and ARchaeological Landscapes (PEARL) research project is a joint German–British project with the principal objective of developing a framework of past human occupation and landscape change in south-eastern Arabia. Fieldwork during 2018 and 2019 involved the systematic survey and excavation of sites in the Rustaq and Ibri regions of Northern Oman, with the aim of establishing the nature and timing of human occupation and landscape change during the Early Holocene period (c. 10,000–7,000 years BP). Further to the findings previously reported, results from recent excavations of the site Hayy al-Sarh in Rustaq revealed the presence of animal remains, stone and shell beads and stone structures, indicating a large Neolithic settlement with burial areas. In addition, preliminary excavations at a rock shelter site near Ibri have revealed stratified archaeological remains, including a Fasad-type assemblage. Future fieldwork will further develop archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records to help build a framework for studying cultural and natural developments in Northern Oman.     

河南三门峡刚玉砂厂唐墓发掘简报

2020年10月至2021年3月,为配合三门峡市刚玉砂厂棚户区改造工程的实施,河南省文物考古研究院联合三门峡市文物考古研究所对该地进行了考古发掘,其中编号为M003的唐代墓葬形制完整,出土物丰富。根据墓志志文,判定墓葬年代为盛唐时期。该墓的发现为进一步研究三门峡地区唐代丧葬习俗提供了详实的实物资料。     

Mortuary practices: Their social,philosophical-religious,circumstantial, and physical determinants

Recent, mainstream, American mortuary archaeology, in its paradigmatic outlook, middle-range theory, analytic methodology, and case studies, has emphasized social organization as the primary factor that determines mortuary practices. Broader anthropological and social science traditions have recognized philosophical-religious beliefs as additional, important determinants. The historical roots of mortuary archaeology's focus on the social, and the consequence of this on theory development, is reviewed. Then, through a Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) cross-cultural survey, the kinds of philosophical-religious, social organizational, circumstantial, and physical factors that affect specific kinds of mortuary practices, and the relative importance of these factors, are documented. The data are also used to test basic premises that mortuary archaeologists routinely use today to reconstruct social organization. A balanced, more holistic, and multidisciplinary approach, which considers many kinds of causes beyond social ones, is found necessary to interpret mortuary remains and to reconstruct the past from them.     

Defining the Early Bronze Age landscape: a remote sensing‐based analysis of Hafit tomb distribution in Wadi Andam,Sultanate of Oman

High‐resolution, freely available Google Earth software was successfully utilised in a remote‐sensing survey to locate and map thousands of Hafit tombs in a study area centring on Wadi Andam in the Sultanate of Oman. This dataset was refined for reliability with ground‐based fieldwork, and was analysed in the landscape using GIS software. The tombs are not randomly distributed across the study area; rather, the hydrology of the area appears to have been a dominant determining factor in the location of the graves. The structures were constructed in elevated, highly visible locations, possibly in an attempt to mark ownership of the landscape. The distribution of Hafit tombs is likely to provide some insight into the utilisation of the landscape in this period, with the evidence from Wadi Andam tentatively suggesting the presence of a nomadic pastoralist population. The development of this rapid, accurate and cost‐effective methodology has the potential to greatly facilitate the survey and analysis of Hafit tombs across the Oman peninsula.     

Mapping Qijiaping: New Work on the Type-Site of the Qijia Culture (2300–1500 B.C.) in Gansu Province,China

Recent work at the Qijia Culture type-site of Qijiaping in the Tao River valley of Gansu Province, China, has shed light on the complex nature of this early Bronze Age site. Situated at the intersection between the mixed pastoralists of eastern central Asia and the agriculturalists of China’s northern Central Plain, Qijia peoples absorbed, evolved, and transmitted products and technologies that shaped cultural developments in both directions. The Tao River Archaeological Project (TRAP) used a combination of surface survey, geophysics, digital mapping, and targeted excavation to expand our understanding of the multicomponent nature of Qijiaping. This included identifying potential habitation, mortuary, and production locales; examining site-wide ceramic use; mapping anomalies through geophysics; and further exploring these through targeted excavations. The results have expanded our knowledge of the site structure of Qijiaping and its place in the wider Qijia interaction sphere, while also confirming the usefulness of this methodology.     

Mortuary patterns in burial caves on Mangaia,Cook Islands

The behavioural, cultural, and political implications of archaeological human remains in non‐mortuary, possibly culinary, contexts requires that we understand the range of mortuary practices in a particular region. Although several rockshelter sites on Mangaia, Cook Islands have yielded burned, fragmentary human bones in earth ovens that seem to support archaeological models and ethnohistoric accounts of ritual sacrifice and cannibalism, the absence of data on the range of Mangaian mortuary patterns obscures these interpretations. We describe burial patterns based on 40 above‐ground interments representing at least 92 individuals in caves of Mangaia, Cook Islands, in order to begin to develop an island‐wide perspective on mortuary patterns. Sampling both pre‐ and post‐European contact sites we found that multiple interments dominate probable pre‐contact burials (73%, 19 of 26) and single interments dominate post‐contact contexts (80%, eight of ten burials), probably reflecting the influence of Christianity on mortuary ritual. Subadults were more frequent in all post‐contact contexts suggesting alternative burial places, probably church cemeteries, for adults. Burial cave remains are broadly consistent with ethnohistoric accounts of interment in caves, however, they also illustrate additional burial practices and differences between time periods, such as primary body position and the role of multiple‐individual interments, which are not discussed ethnohistorically. The mortuary practices in Mangaian burial caves differ from burials associated with marae and seem completely unrelated to the presence of highly fragmentary and burnt human remains in pre‐contact rockshelter middens elsewhere on the island. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Submerged Mesolithic Landscape Investigation,Eleven Ballyboes,Republic of Ireland

This paper reports on the first systematic attempt to conduct archaeological survey and excavation for submerged prehistory on the island of Ireland. Fieldwork was conducted in two small bays where Early Mesolithic flint artefacts washed ashore hinted at the presence of a submerged assemblage. Methods employed include non‐intrusive survey, hand coring and excavation. Together, these allowed identification of the artefact source, albeit reworked, in one bay and an early Holocene peat in the other. Though the subtidal assemblage is reworked and relatively small, it is significant in an Irish context and more widely illustrates the potential preservation of prehistoric sites and palaeo‐landscapes in high‐energy settings.     

From limestone caves to concrete graves: 3000 years of mortuary practice in the Palauan archipelago,Micronesia

Human skeletal remains have been discovered from a variety of contexts in the Palauan archipelago of western Micronesia. These include caves, rockshelters, earthen mounds, stone platforms, midden burials, crypts, sarcophagi, and historic period gravesites. Recent excavation of a prehistoric cemetery in a rockshelter on Orrak Island dating from ca 1000 BC–AD 200, combined with nearly contemporaneous surface finds in caves on both Orrak and other nearby islands, shed light on the earliest known burial practices in Palau. Interment in limestone caves and rockshelters was then replaced in succession by burial in earthwork terraces, beneath stone platforms, in middens, within limestone slab crypts and at least one known stone sarcophagus, and finally in Western or Asian‐style gravesites with headstones. Here we present the first major synthesis of mortuary patterns in Palau from the earliest periods of known settlement (ca. 1000 BC) to modern times. Understanding how these burial practices change over time provides valuable insight into changing sociocultural practices within Palauan society, including how contact with outsiders during the historical period drastically altered traditional mortuary behaviours. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mortuary behaviour reconstruction through palaeoentomology: a case study from Chachapoya,Perú

This paper explores the contribution that applied forensic entomology can make to our understanding of prehistoric mortuary behaviour. Samples of insect remains were recovered from a mummy bundle that has been attributed to the Chachapoya people who occupied the northern highlands of Perú from ca. AD 800 to ca. AD 1532. The insects were identified to the family level and used to create a hypothetical timeline of post‐mortem interval before the construction of the mummy bundle. The individual in question suffered from a number of blunt force insults to the head, followed by two and possibly three trepanation events. We speculate the initial insect colonisation to have taken place almost immediately following injury and subsequent surgery, occurring before the individual's death. Insect succession patterns and timing estimates for the appearance of periosteal reactive bone suggest that the individual was wrapped shortly following death. The application of such modern forensic techniques holds vast promise for addressing issues concerning Chachapoya mortuary behaviour and, further, these results can expand our understanding of mummy studies in general. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

重庆市云阳县大凼子墓群2014、2015年度发掘简报

大凼子墓群位于重庆市云阳县青龙街道复兴社区4组,重庆市文化遗产研究院等于2014年、2015年对该墓群进行了抢救性考古发掘,发掘面积共计805平方米,清理汉墓7座、隋墓1座、明墓3座,出土陶器、铜器、瓷器等近百件。此次发掘属三峡工程消落区发掘项目,是三峡工程文物保护工作的补充和完善。发现的东汉中晚期墓葬分布较为密集,疑似家族墓地。通过对这批墓葬的发掘为探讨这一地区东汉时期墓地选择、墓葬排列及在此基础上开展的人口规模、社会政治、经济发展状况等方面提供重要实物资料,另外墓葬中出土了完整的筒形排水管,为汉代墓葬排水系统研究提供重要实物资料。     

A Late Iron Age settlement in Wādī Banī Ḫālid: First season of the joint Omani-Italian archaeological project

This paper introduces the first results of the joint Omani-Italian archaeological project at Wādī Banī Ḫālid (northern Šarqiyyah governorate, eastern al-Ḥaǧar), where a dense Iron Age and ancient Islamic occupation was detected. The aim of the project is the definition of the Iron Age settlement patterns along the eastern al-Ḥaǧar landscape and its relationship with both the coastal areas and the al-Ḥaǧar inner piedmont sites of central Oman. In fact, this project follows previous studies of the coastal environment between Muscat and Raʾs al-Ḥadd, where several seasonal fishermen villages were investigated, and their connections with inner permanent sites, such as Lizq, recognised during the Early Iron Age II (1300–600 BCE). Therefore, Wādī Banī Ḫālid stands as a peculiar case of an Iron Age territorial unit, a natural scenario made of a narrow alluvial valley which provided natural conditions for the development of a complex culture. Moreover, the material culture emerged after a first excavation campaign proved that the main occupational phase of the imposing fortified settlement WBK1 is the Late Iron Age (late first millennium BCE to third–fourth centuries CE), thus hopefully allowing new questions to be posed for the definition of Late Iron Age cultures and the chronology in central Oman, which is mostly known based on the excavation of funerary evidence. For this reason, the first part of the paper focuses on the results of the first season in Wādī Banī Ḫālid, and the second part discusses the links between Wādī Banī Ḫālid and the south-eastern Arabia general framework during the Late Iron Age.     

陕西宝鸡苟家岭西汉墓葬发掘简报

为配合国道主干线连霍高速宝鸡至牛背梁段高速公路建设,陕西省考古研究院与宝鸡市考古研究所对宝鸡市西郊的苟家岭村西汉墓葬进行了抢救性考古发掘。共发掘清理出10座墓葬,其中部分墓葬保存完整,随葬器物丰富。这也是首次在该地发掘的西汉时期墓葬,为进一步研究关中西部西汉时期聚落分布及丧葬制度增添了新的考古资料。     

Between rocks and a hard place: prehistoric funerary practices at Wādī Ḍebayʿān,northern Qatar

Archaeological survey by the Qatar National Historic Environment Record Project (QNHER) in 2009, led to the discovery of a Neolithic flint scatter, a settlement and an ancient, raised shoreline associated with higher, mid‐Holocene sea levels at Wādī ?ebay?ān, north‐western Qatar (Al‐Naimi et al. 2010, 2011; Cuttler, Tetlow & Al‐Naimi 2011). The QNHER project is a collaboration between Qatar Museums and the University of Birmingham, which over the past five years has developed a national geospatial database for the recording of archaeological sites and historic monuments in Qatar. A significant aspect of the project involved archaeological survey and excavation in advance of major construction projects. Between 2012 and 2014 excavations at Wādī ?ebay?ān revealed a burial of a typology previously unknown in Qatar, the unmarked graves (Cuttler, Al‐Naimi & Tetlow 2013).     

Recent archaeological research at Saruq al‐Hadid,Dubai, UAE

In September 2014, the University of New England (UNE), Australia, began a three‐year programme of archaeological fieldwork and post‐excavation analyses focused on the site of Saruq al‐Hadid. In this paper, we present the initial results of our current field and laboratory research particularly related to site stratigraphy and formation processes, relative and absolute chronology, and the preliminary results of various programmes of post‐excavation analyses including archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, ceramic and archaeometallurgical studies. These studies provide new data to build into the archaeological understanding of Saruq al‐Hadid that has, to date, focused largely on intensive excavation.     

Large Kombewa flake production in north Oman

In this paper we present the results of surveys carried out in February 2016 along a palaeo‐drainage system near the village of Bisyah. We report first on the geological prospection, which was our main goal, and then present our discovery of the only known localities in north Oman of large Kombewa flake production (>10 cm up to 20 cm). Among the scatter of artefacts, we found cores and large Kombewa flakes with two opposed bulbs of percussion, a technology that had not been known in this region until now. In spite of the local features, the typo‐technological traits of the artefacts suggest that at least part of them resemble in some way the Acheulean techno‐complex, but there are still many questions remaining on the age of these artefacts.     

The Great Hall of the Bishop's Palace at Hereford

Abstract

In the Summer of 2005 the authors directed the excavation of a flat stone setting with a boat-shaped central depression at Skamby, Kuddby parish, Östergötland, Sweden. The stone setting covered a small and poorly preserved boat inhumation, dated by the artefacts recovered to the early Viking period (9th century AD). This is the first excavation of a boat inhumation in the province of Östergötland. The paper reports on the excavations including the discovery of an exceptional collection of 23 amber gaming pieces, which provide a new perspective on Viking-period gaming. The data from this boat grave are considered in relation to the rest of the Skamby cemetery, which remains to be investigated. Judging from a topographical survey of the ridge surrounding the excavated area, and from metal-detector finds recovered from the surrounding fields, the Skamby cemetery appears to be a high-status burial ground divided into two zones, one comprised of boat inhumation graves, the other of circular stone settings likely to cover cremation graves. The results of the excavation lead to a revised picture of boat burial as an élite mortuary rite in southern Sweden during the late 1st millennium AD.     

Rescue excavation of a third‐millennium BC tomb at Al‐Khubayb,Sultanate of Oman

A third‐millennium BC tomb was subject to a rescue excavation in connection with the construction of a new road near the village of Al‐Khubayb in the Sultanate of Oman. It yielded a small number of finds, especially small metal objects that belonged to a later reuse of the tomb in the Samad period. As all diagnostic finds from the tomb date to the reuse, its architectural elements were the only indicator for the construction date of the tomb. Besides its small size and large wall thickness, which might suggest that the tomb is a transitional type between the Hafit and the Umm an‐Nar periods, its separation into two chambers and its facade made of white, dressed stones, can be seen as a clue for a construction date of the tomb in the Umm an‐Nar period.