THERMOLUMINESCENT DATING OF BAKED CLAY BALLS OF THE POVERTY POINT CULTURE

Seven sites in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas have been dated. For six sites (Terral Lewis, Poverty Point, Jaketown, Teoc Creek, Shoe Bayou, and Claiborne) the results are not inconsistent with contemporaneity; excluding Claiborne the average date is 1000 b.c. , with an error limit in absolute terms of ± 200 years. The seventh site (Loggy Bayou), in which sherds and balls were found in association, gave a date some fifteen hundred years more recent.     

NEOLITHIC AXES FROM ROMAN SITES IN BRITAIN

Finds of Neolithic axes are usually regarded primarily as evidence for Neolithic occupation in the area of the findspot. Neolithic axes from Roman contexts are also usually regarded in this way, often being classed as residual material. However, a study of axes from Roman sites in Britain has shown that they may well have been deliberately collected, in the Roman period, for religious or superstitious reasons. Many have been found on sites of a religious nature (an aspect well documented for temple sites on the Continent) and the beliefs associated with such axes may have been widespread.     

HONEY AND DRIPPING: NEOLITHIC FOOD RESIDUES FROM RUNNYMEDE BRIDGE

Summary. This paper illustrates the prospects for a fuller understanding of ancient foodstuffs by applying a range of analytical techniques to charred food residues on pottery. The relevant techniques of organic chemistry are briefly described. First results on Neolithic material from Runnymede stand amongst few for prehistoric Europe. They demonstrate the potential importance of such analyses both in redressing imbalances present at the site level and in opening wider issues, such as the functions attached to particular pot forms. The identification of beeswax in a British Neolithic context prompts an enquiry into the nature of early bee management and the suggestion that 'forest beekeeping'may have been widespread in temperate Neolithic Europe.     

THERMOLUMINESCENT DATING OF NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC POTTERY FROM SITES IN CENTRAL PORTUGAL

Samples of Neolithic and Chalcolithic pottery from nine sites in the Upper Alentejo and Estremadura regions of Portugal have been dated by the thermoluminescence method (quartz inclusion technique). The project was designed to help establish an absolute chronology for the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in this area, and to try to elucidate the chronological relationships between settlement sites and burial sites (‘dolmens’) in the same area. Portugal was confirmed, together with Brittany, as being one of the earliest foci of megalith builders.     

NEOLITHIC ZOOMORPHIC VESSELS FROM EASTERN MACEDONIA,GREECE: ISSUES OF FUNCTION*

Five fragments of Late Neolithic clay zoomorphic vessels from northern Greece have been analysed for organic residues by gas chromatography – mass spectrometry. The results showed that the containers had been used in connection with a number of substances, in particular lower terpenoids, an oil or fat, possibly fossil fuel and in one case possibly beeswax. The paper considers likely interpretations of such combinations of materials in relation to possible functions of these symbolically enhanced artefacts. It appears that substances may have been used in the vessels because of their aromatic and/or medicinal and combustible properties, possibly in order to produce light, fragrance and/or smoke.     

本真视角的少数民族旅游文化符号舞台化研究

本文以Cohen主客二维动态真实性与舞台化关系模型为基础,在符号的表达和内容层面对少数民族旅游文化符号进行剖析,以旅游文化符号的能指与所指作为符号维度,以旅游文化的真实性与舞台化作为本真维度,建构出旅游文化符号化的四种关系类型,即意指性旅游文化符号(signification)、象征性旅游文化符号(symbol)、隐喻性旅游文化符号(metaphor)及指示性旅游文化符号(instructions),深入分析少数民族旅游目的地文化符号的结构分层状况,从跨学科的角度了解人文地理本真性景观与舞台化景观的建构互动过程,推动本真性理论的进一步发展。     

FROM PRECOCITY TO INVOLUTION: THE NEOLITHIC OF CORSICA IN ITS WEST MEDITERRANEAN AND FRENCH CONTEXTS

The cultural and economic development of neolithic Corsica falls into two periods. Until the early fourth millennium be the rate of innovation is rapid and the range of contacts extensive but thereafter involution sets in. This paradox cannot be explained in terms of static geographic factors. The author suggests a possible solution: the island acted as a transmitter of cultural and economic innovations which were in the long run better adapted to other regions of the Mediterranean. The postglacial paucity of terrestrial resources would have stimulated maritime activity and the selective adoption of the pastoral sector at the inception of the Neolithic but the typically late neolithic pattern of mixed-farming villages failed to become established: exploitation of the mature deciduous forest of the climatic optimum appears to have been more important.     

FROM VAGUE SYMBOLS TO CONTESTED CONCEPTS: PEIRCE,W. B. GALLIE,AND HISTORY

This article explores Walter Bryce Gallie's notion of “essentially contested concepts” from a viewpoint that has hitherto been neglected, namely its relation to the philosophy of Charles S. Peirce. As a matter of fact, Gallie was an authoritative reader of the American philosopher. All areas of his work are influenced by his attempt to take up and further articulate a major insight of Peirce's semiotics, namely the idea that symbols are inherently vague, and that their meaning is in a state of perpetual growth. At the same time, Gallie rejected another crucial tenet of Peirce's philosophy, that is, the idea that the growth of signs is regulated by the possibility of a final agreement among sign‐users. Examining this ambivalent relation between the two authors will help us shed light on a question that was of crucial importance for Gallie: to what extent should we let our appreciation of concepts or beliefs depend on a historical examination of their meaning?     

HUMAN MOBILITY AT THE EARLY NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT OF VAIHINGEN,GERMANY: EVIDENCE FROM STRONTIUM ISOTOPE ANALYSIS*

As evidence concerning human mobility during the transition to agriculture in central Europe, we present the results of strontium isotope analysis of human skeletons from the Neolithic village of Vaihingen, Germany. We find significantly more ‘non‐local’⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values from humans buried in a Neolithic ditch surrounding Vaihingen than from those buried within the settlement. These results fit with previous studies showing a correlation between burial circumstances and strontium isotope signatures from LBK cemeteries of southwestern Germany ( Price et al. 2001 ; Bentley et al. 2002 ). A pilot study of Neolithic animal teeth from Vaihingen suggests that either ‘local’⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr signatures were more variable than the analysed human bones suggest, or that these domestic animals themselves were mobile, perhaps ranged by mobile pastoralists.     

ASSESSING NATURAL CLAY COMPOSITION IN THE VALLEY OF OAXACA AS A BASIS FOR CERAMIC PROVENANCE STUDIES

The Oaxaca Clay Survey was initiated to provide baseline data on clay composition within the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, to assist in provenance determination of prehistoric ceramics. Natural clays were sampled from 135 locations throughout the valley, and analysed using INAA in combination with ceramic petrography. Observed geographical trends in trace‐element and mineralogical composition confirm that while parent material (surficial geology) strongly affects clay composition, a continuum of variation exists within the valley. The study develops and tests a continuous spatial model of clay composition that provides greater resolution in ceramic sourcing than bedrock alone. By establishing a regional framework for Oaxaca Valley clays, the survey will support significant advances in our understanding of pottery production and exchange within the valley, and provide a more robust means for monitoring exchange between the valley and neighbouring regions.     

THE HIGHLANDS of ABOBOREIRA (NORTH-WEST PORTUGAL): ECOLOGICAL CONDITIONS FROM MIDDLE/LATE NEOLITHIC to EARLY BRONZE AGE. EVIDENCE FROM CHARCOAL ANALYSIS

Summary: Charcoal analysis data from 15 megalithic monuments in the highlands of Serra da Aboboreira, north-west Portugal, are presented and discussed. the results, interpreted only in terms of presence/absence of taxa, give us important information concerning the vegetal cover of this area and the relationships with man, from the Middle/Late Neolithic until the Early Bronze Age.     

THE DATE AND SEQUENCE OF USE OF NEOLITHIC FUNERARY MONUMENTS: NEW AMS DATING EVIDENCE FROM THE COTSWOLD-SEVERN REGION

Summary.   In this paper we discuss 26 new Neolithic AMS dates obtained from human and animal bone from four previously undated funerary monuments in the Cotswold-Severn region. By strategically targeting particular portions of these skeletal assemblages, a number of valuable inferences are made concerning the extent of variation in apparently co-existing burial practices both within and between monuments. Of particular interest is the observation that variations in the extent to which interments have become disarticulated cannot necessarily be equated with chronological relationships regarding their deposition. This project has also obtained dates from cremated bone, which establish that the range of funerary treatments in practice during the earlier Neolithic also included cremation. Additionally it is observed that whilst some, apparently primary, deposits may in fact be later insertions, other material in apparently secondary contexts may actually return earlier Neolithic dates.