Late-Holocene Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) harvest at an Oregon coast estuary

Coastal peoples worldwide harvested and consumed a wide variety of shellfish. Most archaeological analyses of shellfish remains tend to focus on bivalves such as clams and mussels while other shellfish such as gastropods, barnacles, and crabs have received much less attention. Here we examine the use of Dungeness crabs (Cancer magister) at a late-Holocene village on Netarts Bay, northern Oregon Coast. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric records suggest that crabs were both individually hunted as well as gathered, often en masse. We employ allometric scaling of Dungeness claws (propal fingers) recovered from several household middens to estimate crab body size and age. These data indicate that while a wide age range of crabs were collected, most harvesting efforts focused on juveniles and young adults. This suggests that most Dungeness crabs at the site were gathered (not individually hunted) in Netarts Bay, most likely in shallow subtidal areas where cockles (Clinocardium nuttalli) were also being regularly taken. As such, Dungeness crabs were part of a foraging strategy that involved the efficient mass harvest of small prey using minimal technology.     

Obsidian types from Holocene sites around Lake Turkana,and other localities in northern Kenya

Obsidian has been widely used by early Holocene hunter-gatherers and succeeding Pastoral Neolithic peoples in northern Kenya. Here we report the results of over 2000 electron microprobe analyses of artifactual and non-artifactual obsidian from the greater Lake Turkana region. Of the 15 compositional types of obsidian observed, a preponderant type is widespread across the region from the Barrier in the south to Ileret in the north and east as far as Kargi. This obsidian is the principal type at Lowasera and most Pastoral Neolithic sites, including the Jarigole Pillar site and Dongodien (GaJi4). The source of this obsidian is not known, but based on its distribution the source may be located on the Barrier or in the Suguta Valley immediately to the south of Lake Turkana. Although there are several possible sources of local obsidian identified for minor types, in stark contrast to the central part of the Kenyan Rift, major sources of obsidian available for artifact manufacture are not known in the Lake Turkana region. The lack of obsidian from demonstrable Ethiopian Rift and central Kenyan Rift sources, and the absence of obsidian with compositions found at the Turkana area sites in assemblages in the central part of the Kenyan Rift suggests that the earlier Pastoral Neolithic peoples around Lake Turkana interacted with each other, but perhaps not as strongly with people farther south along the Rift Valley, even as herding practices were expanding to the southward into central Kenya.     

Archaeobotanical remains from the mid-first millennium AD site of Kaerdong in western Tibet

In this study, we present the preliminary result of archaeobotanical investigation at Kaerdong in western Tibet. The result shows that agropastoralism with combined strategies of foraging, hunting and fishing was in practice at the location between approximately 455 and 700 cal. AD. Our results also show that herding animals grazed at meadows above 4300 m above sea level (masl), and dung was used as fuel. The presence of a rice grain together with spikelet bases indicates that rice was a component of food resources possibly as a result of a trade and exchange system. In addition, tatary buckwheat grains were also recovered at the site.     

The Buffalo Nations/Luxton Museum: Tourism,Regional Forces and Problematising Cultural Representations of Aboriginal Peoples in Banff,Canada

This paper examines the cultural representations of Aboriginal peoples at the Buffalo Nations/Luxton Museum in Banff, Canada. The museum has been part of the cultural landscape of the tourism industry in Banff since 1952. Using interviews, newspaper articles and analyses of the exhibits, I problematise the museum's representations of Aboriginal peoples by focusing on the challenges associated with navigating regional power relations while participating in forms of capitalist exchange. My findings suggest that the museum's representations engender complex readings of Aboriginal peoples that need to be interpreted considering the processes of production, but also the broader conditions that are embedded in this history. This paper puts cultural representations of Aboriginal peoples into socio‐economic, political, cultural and historical contexts in ways that may interest scholars and practitioners from diverse disciplines and specific fields such as museum, recreation, tourism, heritage and Indigenous studies.     

Viewing Urban Development from the Evolution of the Social Environment

Although place-marketing and image-enhancement are increasingly common elements of Western urban policy, when applied to specific locales, these abstract theories have to negotiate local conditions and contexts. This paper discusses the ways attempts to place-market the city of Hull, England, prompted debates surrounding questions of place, memory and heritage. Despite being Britain's leading fishing port in the 20th century, Hull's place-marketing strategy elided this past in favour of a sanitised vision of a modern, post-industrial city. These debates crystallised around a 1999 planning inquiry over the proposed redevelopment of the erstwhile fishing dock. While the proposals contained some reference to the dock's role as a site of place-memory, this was deemed insufficient by local protest groups and politicians who argued for a more appropriate memorial to Hull's fishing community. Eventually, the redevelopment proposals were accepted, but not before attendant debates exposed both the depth of local sentiments over place-memories and fishing heritage, and also the difficulties of negotiating inclusive and plural heritage landscapes.     

IRON AGE DIET AT GLASTONBURY LAKE VILLAGE: THE ISOTOPIC EVIDENCE FOR NEGLIGIBLE AQUATIC RESOURCE CONSUMPTION

Summary.   The British Iron Age site at Glastonbury Lake Village in Somerset is well known for the extensive and prolonged excavations, the comprehensive publications and the superb preservation of organic remains. The environmental material recovered has led to detailed discussion about the nature of the inhabitants' diet. In particular, the recovery of fish and bird bone has led to speculation about the consumption of foods from the wetlands. Previous carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of British Iron Age skeletal material has failed to detect significant levels of aquatic resources in the diet during this period, even where sites are located directly on the coast or close to river systems. There is also very little archaeological evidence to suggest that fishing was a major subsistence strategy. The isotopic analysis of skeletal material from Glastonbury Lake Village was undertaken with the hypothesis that if aquatic resources were to be found at significant levels in the diet of a British Iron Age community, this was a site which might reveal it. The results suggest that such consumption is not visible isotopically and was negligible.     

Plant microfossils in prehistoric archaeological deposits from Yuku rock shelter,Western Highlands,Papua New Guinea

Plant microfossil analysis was carried out on anthropogenic deposits from Yuku rock shelter, possibly occupied from before 14,200 cal. BP to recent times, in the Papua New Guinea Highlands. Elaeocarpus pollen has extremely high percentages throughout. Starch residues of lesser yam (Dioscorea esculenta) and one or more, undifferentiated Dioscorea species were identified, suggesting processing of these taxa since first use of the site. The latter include Dioscorea alata, Dioscorea bulbifera, Dioscorea nummularia and Dioscorea pentaphylla. Pollen and phytoliths of banana (Musa) appear 5200 cal. BP. We cannot differentiate between naturally growing and cultivated yams and bananas. Putative truffle (hypogeous Ascomycotina) spores in the deposits suggest foraging of truffles.     

On the pharyngeal tooth remains of crucian and common carp from the neolithic Tianluoshan site,Zhejiang Province,China, with remarks on the relationship between freshwater fishing and rice cultivation in the Neolithic Age

The pharyngeal tooth remains of crucian and common carp from the Tinaluoshan site of the Hemudu Cultural Stage, Zhejiang Province, China, were analysed. The body‐lengths (BLs) of the fish were estimated from tooth size and plotted as bar diagrams. Based on these, we infer that Neolithic dwellers used gill nets to efficiently catch fish of a specific size during the breeding season. The BL distribution of common carp there is similar to those from Jomon sites in Japan, and we therefore infer that the technology for controlling water for rice cultivation in paddy fields had not yet been developed. The abundance of tooth remains of crucian carp unearthed at the Tianluoshan site is reminiscent of similar finds in Western Japan, and we thus infer that the culture trait of utilizing crucian carp as a major protein resource was distributed from the Yangtze River basin to Western Japan. Analysis of pharyngeal tooth remains of carp at various Japanese archaeological sites shows that freshwater fishing was conducted quite differently before and after the establishment of paddy fields. With this fact in mind, one of the present authors tried to model the development of freshwater fishing, with reference to the relation of fishing to rice cultivation (Nakajima, 2010 ). In Phase I, artisanal fishing became an active and technically developed endeavour, and people began to cultivate rice at fishing site. In Phase II, people began to cultivate rice purposefully in irrigated paddy fields while also fishing there. Comparing the present results of the pharyngeal tooth remains from the Tianluoshan site with those from the Jomon Period, we see that the Tianluoshan site was in the same stage as the end of Phase I in Japan, which rice cultivation was done as a supplementary activity at fishing site. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The antiquity of Olivella shell beads at CA-ORA-64: AMS radiocarbon dated between 9420 and 7780 cal BP

Investigations in the 1960s and 1970s showed the Irvine site (CA-ORA-64) to be among the oldest shell middens known from the Pacific Coast of North America. The site chronology, based on conventional analysis of mixed shell samples collected from heavily bioturbated soils, extended back to ca. 8440 RYBP. Recent work at the site provided an opportunity to refine the CA-ORA-64 chronology via AMS ¹⁴C dating of single shell fragments, including 14 Olivella beads. Long considered to be one of the earliest ornament types made by Pacific Coast peoples, such spire-removed Olivella beads were used through much of the Holocene and generally are not good chronological indicators. AMS analysis of the CA-ORA-64 specimens, however, produced a consistent series of Early Holocene dates that includes some of the oldest securely dated shell beads in North America. Along with obsidian from interior sources, Olivella beads played an important role in early exchange networks between coastal and interior peoples. Methodologically, our research demonstrates the utility of AMS ¹⁴C dating in determining the age of key artifact types found in multicomponent sites with assemblages affected by stratigraphic mixing.     

The use of a high-resolution 3D Chirp sub-bottom profiler for the reconstruction of the shallow water archaeological site of the Grace Dieu (1439), River Hamble,UK

The remains of Henry V's flagship, the Grace Dieu, currently lie buried within the inter-tidal sediments of the River Hamble (S. England). Previous archaeological investigations have been hindered by difficult excavation conditions resulting in a poor understanding of the dimensions, shape and degradation state of the hull's deeper structure. This study therefore aimed to image, characterize and reconstruct the buried remains of this vessel using a high-resolution 3D acoustic sub-bottom Chirp system with RTK-GPS positioning capability. The accurate navigation and high-resolution data that were acquired enabled the construction of a full 3D image of the site that not only identified the remains of the wooden hull, but also features buried within it. In addition, the degradation state of these buried wooden remains were investigated by calculating reflection coefficients while a hypothetical larger reconstruction of the Grace Dieu's hull was achieved, through the use of the ShipShape ship design software package.     

Fish and Birds in the Trypillya Economy and Culture (5.4–2.7 kya BC): Evidence from Ukraine

The paper deals with the role of fish and birds in the Trypillya culture, which was one of the greatest Eneolithic cultures within Europe. Analysis of the osteological material (authors' own determination and literature data), as well as auxiliary material – fish and bird images in the Trypillya art – were used for this purpose. As in the case of mammals, the role of different fish and bird species varied greatly among the regions and cultures. Bones of sturgeon, roach, carp, catfish, pike, perch and other freshwater fish species were observed with different frequencies. Analysis of the skeletal remains and data on fishing gear from the archaeological literature indicates that the Trypillya fishing focused on large‐sized fish. The main birds hunted by the Trypillya people were waterfowl (ducks, geese and coot), large Galliformes (capercaillie and black grouse), grey crane and bustard. A characteristic feature of the Trypillya settlements was a large proportion of birds of prey and owls. Remains of domestic chicken from the Gorods'k settlement (late Trypillya or Gorods'k‐Usatove culture), dated as 3212 ± 100 CalBC , were the most ancient remains of domestic chicken found in Ukraine, and probably in Europe. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Connectivity and Restructuring: Identity and gender relations in a fishing community

Until very recently, fishing communities have sustained themselves through their reliance upon the sea, in the context of cultures that have resisted outside forces of change. With the increasing impacts of environmental degradation and globalisation, these communities are undergoing rapid change, not only in terms of economic restructuring, but fundamentally in areas of social and spatial relations. Focussing on the concepts of connectivity and proximity within a framework of Mead's (1934) social interactionism, this article shows how histories of migration, mobility and communication underpin the consequences of these changing realities for gender relations in a small island fishing community on Canada's east coast. It highlights the contradictions and paradoxes intrinsic to the choices women are having to make, and argues that understanding historical context, both as affecting mobility and as a source of rootedness, is crucial in the illumination of this process of change. Based on interviews over 5 years, the article looks specifically at the roles of in- and out-migration, tourism, technologies and external relations associated with aquaculture, the mass media, and new communications technologies, as agents of change.     

Epipaleolithic/early Neolithic settlements at Qinghai Lake,western China

Transitions from terminal Pleistocene Upper Paleolithic foraging to Holocene Neolithic farming and pastoralist economic orientations in the northern Tibetan Plateau are examined from the perspective of Epipaleolithic sites located near Qinghai Lake, Qinghai Province, western China. Jiangxigou 2 is an artifact-rich, multicomponent midden site with the main period of occupation dating ca. 9000–5000 cal yr BP, containing abundant flaked stone artifacts including a substantial proportion of microlithic tools, abundant faunal remains including gazelle, deer, and sheep, and a small number of ceramics, including the oldest known on the Tibetan Plateau. Heimahe 3, on the other hand, is a brief hunter's camp dating ca. 8450 cal yr BP, with evident affinities to late Upper Paleolithic camps in the same region that date several thousand years older. The two distinctively different sites are probably nodes within a single Epipaleolithic foraging system that developed on the margins of the high Tibetan Plateau during the early Holocene, and that served as a basis for colonization of the high-altitude Plateau at that time. Jiangxigou 2 appears to be connected to early Neolithic agricultural settlements along the upper Yellow River (Huang He) drainage during the middle Holocene, and may provide insights into forager–agriculturalist interactions that lead to the development of pastoralist systems in the region.     

MOUND BUILDING AT LAKE JACKSON (8LE1), TALLAHASSEE,FLORIDA: NEW INSIGHTS FROM GROUND PENETRATING RADAR

Abstract

The Lake Jackson Mounds site (8LE1), located near Tallahassee, Florida, has long been considered to be a frontier Mississippian center. This assertion is primarily based on elaborate burial goods recovered during salvage excavations in the 1970s. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) on the two largest intact mounds at Lake Jackson revealed new information about their morphology and construction histories. These findings demonstrate that mound-building practices at the site were distinct from earlier, local Woodland mound-building traditions, and more similar to those of other Mississippian centers, such as Etowah and Moundville. Lake Jackson revitalized mound building in the Tallahassee area under the influence of external connections with groups in the Mississippian interaction network. These findings show how mound building was an integral practice for expressing and expanding Mississippian ideologies and rituals. This work also shows the utility of GPR in exploring mounds' morphologies and construction histories.     

Managing Meaning at an Ancient Site in the 21st Century: the Gummingurru Aboriginal Stone Arrangement on the Darling Downs,Southern Queensland

ABSTRACT Aboriginal stone arrangements occur throughout Australia and are of ritual importance to Aboriginal peoples. Stone arrangements are part of the dynamic context within which Aboriginal peoples lived in the late Holocene, where constant renegotiation of social alliances required an increasing reliance on ceremonial places with ritual importance. This is the past social context for the Gummingurru Aboriginal stone arrangement site complex on the Darling Downs, Queensland. In the late 19th century Gummingurru was a highly significant men's initiation site but by the early 20th century most of the traditional custodians of the site had been removed to the government‐run Aboriginal mission of Cherbourg. Since 2000, traditional custodians have returned to the site and have given the place and its cultural landscape a new meaning. No longer used for initiation, Gummingurru now has contemporary value as a site of learning and reconciliation for all Australians. Today Gummingurru has been given a new meaning and occupies a new place in Aboriginal society and political networking.     

The Mediterranean Group II: analyses of vessels from Etruscan contexts in northern Italy

A large number of Mediterranean Group vessels were recovered at the Etruscan site of Spina in northern Italy and dated from the 6th to the 3rd century BC. In this work a number of vessels belonging to the so-called “Group II” were analysed. The samples are mainly Alabastra, Oinochoai, Amphoriskoi, and Hydriai, in general opaque and deeply coloured. The aims of this study are: 1) to characterize these samples since there is a lack of data in literature regarding Mediterranean Group II; and 2) to compare the data obtained with that of glass for previous centuries (Mediterranean Group I) recovered at the same site in order to establish whether they could have the same origin. The chemical analyses of major and minor elements were carried out by electron microprobe and the nature of the opacifying and colouring agents was determined by X-ray diffraction. The sample set is relatively homogeneous and most of the samples can be classified as Low Magnesium Glass produced with natron and a calcareous silicatic sand. The XRD analyses proved the use of lead antimonates in the manufacture of yellow decorations and of calcium antimonates in the white and light blue decorations. The consistency of the chemical compositions of Mediterranean Groups I and II samples makes it possible to hypothesize a common origin.     

Rice chaff in ceramics from the archaeological site of Sumhuram (Dhofar,Southern Oman)

The identification of the chaff used as temper in ancient ceramics represents a possible source of information about the area of origin of the pottery. This paper studies the occurrence of rice (Oryza sp.) chaff in potsherds from the archaeological site of Sumhuram (Dhofar, Sultanate of Oman). The information gathered at the site offers insight into commerce routes and networks to which the town belonged in the first centuries AD. The analysis of the plant material in the pottery and potsherds can also furnish interesting data on the ancient technologies of pottery production.     

Rethinking the Polis: Implications of Heidegger's questioning the political

Heidegger's thought has, in recent years, been relentlessly examined for glimpses of the political. This paper approaches that debate by looking at one of themes of Heidegger's lectures during the Nazi years: one which explicitly questions the notion of the political itself. This questioning, through a rethinking of the Greek word πóλις [polis], is a result of Heidegger's retreat from his own political involvement. Heidegger's active political career was theoretically underpinned by his interpretation of Plato's call for philosopher-kings: his rethinking is important in understanding his turn away from Nazism. In his rethinking Heidegger suggests that looking at the polis with our modern, political, eyes does not give us fundamental insights into the meaning of this word. Heidegger looks to the choral ode in Sophocles' Antigone, and focuses on a line which begins “hypsipolis apolis”. Through a detailed reading, Heidegger suggests that polis should be understood not as “city” or “state” but as “site”, the historical site of being. We cannot use our modern understanding of politics to understand the polis, but we can use our understanding of polis to rethink the notion of the political. The political, means relating to the site of abode of human history, and is therefore primarily spatial, or better, platial. Such an understanding allows us to understand Heidegger's work on technology from a better position; to distance ourselves from the modern, Schmittian notion of the political; and to rethink the principle concepts of politics with due attendance to the role of space, or place.     

The colourless glass of Iulia Felix

The present paper focuses on 85 colourless glass samples selected among the recycling cullet found in the Roman ship Iulia Felix, wrecked off the town of Grado (province of Udine, North Italy) in the first half of the 3rd century AD, with the aim of examining their chemical composition, investigating similarities within and between the three established group types (cups, plates, bottles), and comparing the chemical compositions of the Iulia Felix glass samples with groups reported in the literature for colourless glasses. Chemical analyses, performed by X-ray fluorescence and electron microprobe, indicate that the samples were all soda-lime–silica in composition, with natron as flux, according to typical Roman production technologies. Chemical data are treated by multivariate statistical tools, such as cluster analysis and the NPC test. Statistical analyses allow us to conclude that the Iulia Felix colourless glasses were produced by at least two different production technologies related to group type, confirming the trend recently identified in the literature. In addition, the trace element patterns (particularly those of Sr, Zr and Ba) suggest that beach sand with differing amounts of alkali feldspars was predominantly used as raw material, like those specifically mentioned by Pliny for glass production.     

PROJECTIONS OF RACE,NATURE, AND ETHNOGRAPHIC CHILDHOOD IN EARLY EDUCATIONAL CINEMA AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CANADA

In this article, we examine depictions of race, nature, and childhood in Harlan Ingersoll Smith's early ethnographic films at the National Museum of Canada. Created in the 1920s for a children's education programme, Smith's films construct ethnographic portraits of different Indigenous peoples in Western Canada. We demonstrate how museum education appropriated Indigeneity as a discursive resource to immerse viewing children in particular narratives of Canadian national heritage and development. The films worked through a complex double movement, bringing children in the Ottawa museum audience into association with Indigenous children based on shared experience as children while simultaneously differentiating Indigenous peoples as Other. The films inculcated white youth at the museum in a romanticized connection to Canada's prehistory through knowledge of the nation's Indigenous peoples as well as nature. In the films, the position of Indigeneity within the future remained ambiguous (traditional practices sometimes disappearing, sometimes enduring). Yet, despite Smith's uncertainty about colonial beliefs in the disappearance of Indigeneity, his films nonetheless presented the teleological development of the settler nation as certain. Our article highlights how thinking about children, as audience for and thematic focus of these films, extends discussions of the geographies of film, of children, and of settler colonial nationalism.