Portable EDXRF analysis of a mud brick necropolis enclosure: evidence of work organization,El Hibeh,Middle Egypt

The geochemical and sedimentological compositions of mud brick from a feature called the Square Enclosure in the eastern desert necropolis of the ancient town site of El Hibeh, Egypt, were investigated along with surface sediments from the local Nile floodplain for the purpose of establishing possible sources of the mud brick. Geochemical examination was undertaken with a portable EDXRF spectrometer; a field portable sedimentological laboratory was used to collect grain size, mineralogy, and strength analysis data. Results of the analyses produced evidence of work organization relating to the construction of the Square Enclosure. This discovery is the first archaeological evidence of work organization from the mud brick of ancient Egyptian structures and provides a valuable contribution to our knowledge of ancient Egyptian work organizational practices.     

Comparing the Old and New: Traditional Building Materials and the Uch Monument Complex,Pakistan

Abstract

The supposition that modern traditionally produced building materials are inherently similar to original building fabric is common in Pakistan. Laboratory analysis on historic and modern samples of fired brick, mud brick, and mud mortars was undertaken for the first time in the region to investigate similarities in basic physical properties and composition of the materials. Simple analytical techniques were used to determine porosity, density, particle size distribution, plastic limit and other properties, as well as chemical composition of the samples. Further analytical methods were used to confirm the results of simpler analyses and further characterize materials. Results indicate that modern locally produced materials were in many ways comparable to their historic counterparts and may be used as intervention materials within the buildings of the Uch Monument Complex. This information will inform the choice and manufacture of proposed intervention materials, while providing preliminary quantitative evidence for continuing traditions.     

Where are the roofs? A geo-ethnoarchaeological study of mud brick structures and their collapse processes,focusing on the identification of roofs

Unlike floors that have been given a lot of attention in archaeological research, the study of roofs is long neglected. Here, we present a study of modern abandoned and burnt mud brick structures, conducted in southern Israel and northern Greece. Using macroscopic observations and interviews together with micromorphology, mineralogical, phytolith, and phosphate analyses, we show that roofs should be sought in close proximity to floors. We show that roofs practically seal activity remains on floors; thus, the importance of identifying roofs in the archaeological record lies mainly with the ability to estimate the integrity of floors and floor assemblages. While human behavior and maintenance practices are major factors in the deposition of primary activity remains on floors, the timing of roof collapse determines how well activity remains will be preserved. In addition, we show that the roof plays a major role in the degradation process of mud structures as wall degradation is enhanced after the collapse of the roof resulting in accumulation of mud brick degradation material on top of the collapsed roof. As most roofs in antiquity seem to have been composed of degradable vegetal materials, we found that not only they leave little evidence for their presence, but they also mix with vegetal activity remains. We therefore use the accumulation of mud brick debris as an indicator for the location of degraded roofs. Using microstratigraphy for the identification of both floors and roofs is significant in order to locate activity remains in the archaeological sedimentary sequence and to evaluate their state of preservation.     

Degradation of mud brick houses in an arid environment: a geoarchaeological model

A common assumption in Near Eastern tell archaeology is that the majority of sediments originate from degraded mud bricks. Little is known about the mechanism of mud brick wall degradation. Here we present a detailed macro- and microscopic ethnoarchaeological study of the degradation of a mud brick house and propose a comprehensive mechanism for tell formation processes in arid environments. The study took place in southern Israel by trenching a ca. 60 year old abandoned mud brick house, followed by extensive sediment sampling. Macroscopic observations showed that mud brick walls degrade by collapse of single bricks and/or collapse of intact wall parts, either inwards or outwards. In addition, infill sediments within the house and outside it, in close proximity to its walls, form alternating sedimentary layers of various colors and textures. The degraded mud brick material lost its distinctive macroscopic structure, which makes it impossible to accurately identify this material by field observations alone. Mineralogical and elemental analyses established the sources of the house infill sediments, namely mud bricks and wind blown sediments. Alternating layers mostly originate from mixing between degraded mud brick material and wind blown sediments. Micromorphological observations revealed microscopic mechanisms of mud brick degradation and include processes of mud slurry gravity flows, sediment coatings and infillings, wind abrasion of walls, small-scale puddling, and bioturbation. This study provides a working scheme for site formation of abandoned mud brick structures in arid environments. It provides a set of criteria by which it is possible to differentiate floors from post-abandonment sedimentary features and thus improves the reliability of activity area research.     

X射线显微CT成像技术在金属文物制作工艺研究与腐蚀状态评估中的应用

金属腐蚀过程不仅受环境等外部因素的影响,制作工艺、合金组成及缺陷等内部因素同样起着重要作用。为实现金属文物制作工艺和内部腐蚀状态的可视化研究,运用X射线显微CT对铜镜文物碎片以及出土、海洋出水铁质文物样品进行扫描探测,并结合X射线荧光、X射线衍射等检测手段,开展金属文物材质、工艺及矿化程度的综合分析。结果表明,在显微CT影像重建基础上,通过设定不同的阈值,可实现文物内部缺陷、腐蚀矿化程度等内部信息的测量统计。该方法可为金属文物材质、制作工艺研究和腐蚀状态评估提供无损的研究手段。     

Mixed results of seven methods for organic residue analysis applied to one vessel with the residue of a known foodstuff

Several methods of archaeological organic residue analysis were applied to a single unglazed and unseasoned ceramic vessel that had absorbed residues of heated camel milk. Sections of the wall of this vessel were sent to eleven archaeological laboratories. Seven reported their results before the identity of the residue was revealed, during the 70th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Methods included stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio analysis, protein analysis and lipid analysis. These laboratory techniques provide a biochemical analysis of the residue in a ceramic matrix, the archaeological interpretation of which can be rather difficult. The exact source of the residue was not identified by any laboratory, but it is evident that residue analysis can provide valuable information, especially when combined with additional archaeological and historical data. We therefore support a close cooperation of those working in this field to develop it to its full potential.     

陇山地区宋金砖室墓述议

宋金时期陇山地区流行仿木结构砖室墓,墓室砖雕内容有孝子故事、家居活动与动植物等,在墓葬形制、砖雕装饰与丧葬习俗方面与其他地区既有相似性,又有地域特点。部分砖雕的异域风格表现了宋金时期陇山地区居民在墓葬文化上的兼容并包。陇山地区的宋金砖墓为研究本地区宋金时期丧葬文化特点与周边地区的关系、地域文化特征提供了重要的考古资料。     

Augmenting the landscape scene: students as participatory evaluators of mobile geospatial technologies

This paper provides a two-phase study to compare alternative techniques for augmenting landscape scenes on geography fieldtrips. The techniques were: a pre-prepared acetate overlay; a custom-designed mobile field guide; a locative media app on a smartphone; a virtual globe on a tablet PC; a head-mounted virtual reality display, and a geo-wand style mobile app. In one field exercise the first five techniques were compared through analysis of interviews and student video diaries, combined with direct observation. This identified a particular challenge of how to direct user attention correctly to relevant information in the field of view. To explore this issue in more detail, a second field exercise deployed “Zapp”, a bespoke geo-wand-style app capable of retrieving information about distant landscape features. This was evaluated using first-person video and spatial logging of in-field interactions. This paper reflects upon the relative merits of these approaches and highlights particular challenges of using technology to mimic a human field guide in pointing out specific aspects of the landscape scene. We also explore the role of students acting as design informants and research co-participants, which can be mutually beneficial in promoting a critical appreciation of the role of technology to support learning about the landscape.     

The Archaeology of Regions: From Discrete Analytical Toolkit to Ubiquitous Spatial Perspective

In the 1970s and 1980s, regional analysis was an influential part of archaeological research, providing a discrete set of geographical tools inspired by a processual epistemological and interpretive perspective. With the advent of new technologies, new methods, and new paradigms, archaeological research on regional space has undergone significant changes. This article reviews the state of regional archaeology, beginning with a consideration of its history and a discussion of the fundamental issues facing regional investigations before focusing on developments over the last several years. On one hand, the diversification of archaeological theory has created new paradigms for thinking about human relationships with one another and with the physical environment across regional space; in this regard, historical ecology, landscape archaeology, and evolutionary theory have been particularly influential in recent years. This has led to a corresponding diversification of the traditional methods of regional analysis. Most notably, the advent of powerful digital technologies has introduced new tools, especially those from the geographic information sciences, that build on the quantitative methods of past approaches. The investigation of regional data is no longer based on a discrete toolkit of simple mathematical and graphical procedures for representing spatial relationships. Instead, regional archaeology has matured into a diversity of multiscalar spatial and geostatistical techniques that inform many areas of archaeological inquiry.     

Microstructures of Building Materials from Huaca De La Luna,Peru

ABSTRACT

The microstructures of building materials from the archaeological complex of Huaca de la Luna on the northern coast of Peru is assessed for the first time by a multiscale approach. The multiscale microstructural characterization used laboratory techniques including optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray microtomography, and both gas and powder pycnometry. Optical microscopy revealed the presence of organic matter and shell fragments and X-ray microtomography showed differences in the sizes and connectivity of pores. The BET (N₂ gas adsorption) specific surface areas showed greater presence of clayey matrix in the mortars. No significant differences among mortars and brick fragments mineralogy were detected by X-ray diffraction, so the larger amount of fine binding matrix in the mortars suggests that they were produced blending raw material with different grain sizes. The aim of this study is to provide data that can be used for a better understanding of the Moche culture, its construction techniques, and to support conservation strategies of the archaeological heritage.     

鹿邑太清宫长子口墓出土玉器的材料属性与制作工艺研究

为了解河南鹿邑太清宫长子口墓出土的部分典型玉器的材料属性与制作工艺,用多种无损科技分析技术对其进行了现场分析,获取了玉器材质矿物组成、纹饰微观形貌、穿孔孔径及内部微痕特征、表面琢磨微痕等综合物理化学信息。基于科技分析结果,确定了玉器的材质属性以及玉器表面纹饰、钻孔、琢磨等制作工艺相关信息。结合考古学背景资料信息,探讨了长子口墓地出土玉器在材质、器形、功能与工艺之间存在的关系。     

Archaeological Visualization: Towards an Archaeological Information Science (AISc)

This paper reviews and evaluates the potential use of modern visualization techniques in archaeology. It suggests the need to apply and develop such techniques as a central part of any modern archaeological investigation. The use of these methods is associated with wider questions about data representations, in particular, their integration with archaeological theory and their role in facilitating analysis and shaping interpretation. Concern for these questions and with the overall potential that information systems provide to capture, represent, analyze, and model archaeological information suggests the need for a new interdisciplinary focus, Archaeological Information Science. For such a focus to prosper, archaeologists need to develop additional skills that go beyond mere technical ones. They need to become more active in the design and creation of future information archaeological systems. To this end, archaeologists are urged to view this task as a way to extend archaeology in new directions and to recognize that the digital representation and treatment of archaeological information can generate new forms of doing archaeology.     

Notice of Inscriptions and Antiquities,Discovered at Caerleon

This paper presents some of the background information considered necessary to expand the archaeological uses of aerial photography. Some problems encountered recording archaeological features from the air are discussed but the paper concentrates on the subsequent use of aerial photographs and covers the interpretation and plotting of archaeological features, use of different map scales, and outlines two schemes for the presentation of completed drawings which show air photograph evidence. The uses and potential of morphological analysis are included, as are comments on the relevance of fieldwork to air photograph interpretation.

An appendix considers the application of geophysical techniques to air photograph sites, and the deductions that may be derived from these non-destructive methods.     

NO STONE UNBURNED: A COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS OF OBSIDIAN MICRODEBITAGE BY LASER ABLATION TOF–ICP–MS

Obsidian is an effective material for the study of prehistoric raw material use and exchange, due to the high degree of homogeneity and redundancy of obsidian materials and manufactured objects in the archaeological record. The destructive nature of many analytical techniques often impedes compositional research because of the damage that may occur to priceless archaeological artefacts. The combination of time‐of‐flight (TOF) ICP–MS with a laser ablation sample introduction system provides a highly efficient means of chemically characterizing obsidian. This study shows that sample size limit capabilities of TOF–ICP–MS analysis of obsidian can reach less than 100 μm. Sampling and analysis of microartefacts enables researchers to overcome problems of sampling bias with very little damage to the valuable existing materials within the archaeological record and expands the potential for chemical compositional analyses in archaeology.     

MINERALOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF MEDIEVAL BRICK SAMPLES FROM BÉKÉS COUNTY (SE HUNGARY)

Brick samples from nine archaeological sites representing seven contemporary medieval settlements in Békés County (SE Hungary) were analysed by quantitative X‐ray powder diffraction, optical microscopic, scanning electron microscopic and coupled thermal analytical – evolved gas analytical methods. The aims of this study were to give a mineralogical–petrographical characterization of the brick samples, to gain possible information on the raw clay and the admixed materials, and to determine the firing techniques applied in medieval southeastern Hungary. The mineralogical composition of the samples suggests that the locally extracted clay was mixed with fluvial sand and wheat (Triticum monococcum L.) chaff. The moulded bricks were fired in clamps. The different degrees of calcite consumption suggest that the firing temperature ranged from ～750°C to ～950°C. Moreover, the well‐developed reaction coronas on calcite grains indicate long firing times, lasting perhaps several days.     

News and Short Contributions

Abstract

A Controlled Archaeological Test Site (CATS) facility has been constructed in Champaign, Illinois, by the Cultural Resources Research Center at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, with funding provided by the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. The test site will be utilized for research and training with geophysical applications in archaeology. The CATS facility replicates a range of archaeological features commonly encountered in North American archaeological sites and offers a controlled environment for the application of non-destructive investigative techniques. The site provides the opportunity for geophysicists and archaeologists to work with features of known geophysical attributes in a controlled geomorphological setting. In addition to providing a controlled “test bed” for training students in the use of geophysical techniques, the CATS facility will be available for research in a broad range of problems associated with archaeogeophysics, such as the effects of environmental conditions on geophysical expression, sensor type and configuration, data sample density, image processing and pattern recognition, operator variation, and feature variability. This research will contribute to our ability to interpret geophysical data and refine field methods for application in archaeological investigations.     

A new approach to recording and monitoring wet-preserved archaeological wood using three-dimensional laser scanning

The analysis and preservation of organic materials preserved within wetland environments represents one of the most costly parts of any post-excavation strategy. This paper outlines the application of high-resolution terrestrial laser scanning to one class of preserved material, worked archaeological wood. Scanning allowed the recording of the artefacts in three dimensions and the identification of features such as toolmarks. Features can be measured and volumetrically modelled within the digital environment, which may not always be possible for these often fragile materials using conventional techniques. Repeat scanning of the artefacts provided an opportunity to use comparative analysis software to investigate changes in the morphology of artefacts under contrasting conditions of short-term storage. The results suggest that immersion in water results in the least deterioration, whereas both freezing and air-drying caused distortion and degradation. This paper demonstrates that laser scanning provides a viable alternative post-excavation method for the recording, analysis and long-term ‘virtual archiving’ of organic archaeological materials, which may be more cost-effective in some instances than other methods of preservation.     

Surfaces from the Visual Past: Recovering High<Emphasis Type="Bold">-</Emphasis>Resolution Terrain Data from Historic Aerial Imagery for Multitemporal Landscape Analysis

Historic aerial images are invaluable sources of aid to archaeological research. Often collected with large-format photogrammetric quality cameras, these images are potential archives of multidimensional data that can be used to recover information about historic landscapes that have been lost to modern development. However, a lack of camera information for many historic images coupled with physical degradation of their media has often made it difficult to compute geometrically rigorous 3D content from such imagery. While advances in photogrammetry and computer vision over the last two decades have made possible the extraction of accurate and detailed 3D topographical data from high-quality digital images emanating from uncalibrated or unknown cameras, the target source material for these algorithms is normally digital content and thus not negatively affected by the passage of time. In this paper, we present refinements to a computer vision-based workflow for the extraction of 3D data from historic aerial imagery, using readily available software, specific image preprocessing techniques and in-field measurement observations to mitigate some shortcomings of archival imagery and improve extraction of historical digital elevation models (hDEMs) for use in landscape archaeological research. We apply the developed method to a series of historic image sets and modern topographic data covering a period of over 70 years in western Sicily (Italy) and evaluate the outcome. The resulting series of hDEMs form a temporal data stack which is compared with modern high-resolution terrain data using a geomorphic change detection approach, providing a quantification of landscape change through time in extent and depth, and the impact of this change on archaeological resources.     

A Case of Congenital Radioulnar Synostosis from Prehispanic Peru

A rare example of congenital radioulnar synostosis was observed in a sample of 160 male, female, and juvenile Lambayeque (Sicán) skeletons excavated from Huaca Cao Viejo, a mud brick platform mound built during the Early Intermediate Period and later utilized by a Late Intermediate Period Lambayeque population (ca. AD 950–1250) for interments. The affected individual was a young female, estimated to be 16–18 years of age at the time of death. To date, this is the first case of congenital radioulnar synostosis to be described from an archaeological context in South America, and one of 13 reported archaeological cases worldwide. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.