Assigning Context to Artifacts in Burned-Rock Middens

Abstract

Accumulations office-cracked rock and carbon-stained sediment in pits mark locations of past cooking and heating facilities around the world. While the specific functions of these features may vary, the use of stones as heating elements in earth ovens is common. After repeated use, debris in the form of fire-cracked stones, charcoal, ash, sediment, carbonized plant fragments, and other materials accumulates to form low mounds known in the U.S. Southern Plains and the Southwest as burned-rock middens. The middens may include artifacts some introduced inadvertently with sediment used to form an earthen cap to seal the pit oven. The sediment and included artifacts for this insulating cap may be borrowed from other parts of the site. After the cooking is complete, the earthen cap is peeled open and all materials redistributed by trampling and slope wash. Artifacts and other materials in burned-rock middens, therefore, may not represent discrete events or periods directly associated with use of the ovens.     

Building and tanning in the 18th and 19th centuries: an analysis of cattle horncores from Greenwich High Road (London)

SUMMARY: The assemblage from Greenwich High Road has interesting implications for our understanding of 18th- and early 19th-century tanneries and also of the use of bones as building material. The study of the age at death of the animals revealed that the horncores are mostly from fully adult individuals, probably culled draught animals. This hypothesis is supported by biometrical analysis. The comparison of the Greenwich horncores with modern data and archaeological evidence suggests that the Greenwich assemblage is predominantly composed of oxen. The horncores were used to line a drain on the site and are likely to represent waste material resulting from the activities that took place in the nearby tannery. Skins and horns were removed for craft purposes, while the bony cores, with no economic value, were simply used as cheap and ready material to help the construction of the drain.     

Early Maya Ritual Practices and Craft Production: Late Middle Preclassic Ritual Deposits Containing Obsidian Artifacts at Ceibal,Guatemala

This article examines Preclassic Maya ritual practices and craft production by means of a study of ritual deposits containing obsidian artifacts dated mostly to the late Middle Preclassic period (700–350 b.c.) at Ceibal, Guatemala. New ritual practices developed at Ceibal during this period, possibly through political interactions and negotiation involving emerging elites and other diverse community members. Common objects in ritual deposits in the public plaza shifted from greenstone celt caches to other artifacts, including those made of obsidian. The inhabitants of Ceibal engaged in various kinds of craft production, including the manufacture of obsidian prismatic blades. They also conducted public rituals in the Central Plaza, depositing exhausted polyhedral obsidian cores and other artifacts with symbolic significance in caches and as offerings in incipient elite burials and interments of sacrificed individuals. These cores clearly demonstrate the use of a sophisticated blade technology. Like greenstone objects, exhausted polyhedral obsidian cores deposited in cruciform arrangements along the east–west axis of the central E-Group plaza were used as symbols and markers of the center and four cardinal directions within the Maya cosmos. Public rituals were important for creating collective identities and for processes of political negotiation within the community. Emerging elites likely came to play an increasingly important role in public rituals as principal performers and organizers, setting the stage for later public events centered on rulers.     

The DaVincis of dirt: Geoarchaeological perspectives on Native American mound building in the Mississippi River basin

The complexity of mound construction, as revealed through geoarchaeological analyses, indicates the cultural significance of mounds may be as well reflected in the earthen construction materials and their arrangement, as it is in the artifacts abandoned on their summits. We use geoarchaeological examples from three sites in the Mississippi River basin, Shiloh Mounds, Cahokia, and Poverty Point, to advocate a geoarchaeological approach that considers multiple scales from the regional soils and geomorphology, field observation of lithostratigraphic units, to the micro-scale identification of the mineralogy and soil development in order to decipher the source and processing of the soils and sediments. We focus on the use of five types of construction referred to here as: sod blocks, soil blocks, loaded fills, zoned fills and veneers. Also we address the selection and transportation of soils and sediments used in mound building and what these types of deposits reveal about the methods used to build mounds. These data can be used to evaluate and understand organization of labor, pace of construction, and mound appearance. We hold there is a considerable (although unquantified) difference between earth moving and mound building and that the construction of these important monuments required considerable knowledge, skill, planning, hard work, and attention to symbolic and ritual meaning.     

Middens,Construction Fill,and Offerings: Evidence for the Organization of Classic Period Craft Production at Tikal,Guatemala

Abstract

The production of artifacts of stone, shell, and bone at Tikal, an important center in the Southern Maya Lowlands, created quantities of durable waste, referred to as debitage. Yet debitage is not a reliable indicator of production area because of the spatially flexible nature of Prehispanic technology and site-maintenance activities that shifted manufacturing debris into secondary contexts. Nevertheless, debitage, even in secondary context, provides important information on the organization of craft production at Tikal, particularly during the Classic Period (ca. A.C. 250–850). Most crafts were organized as household industries, carried on by independent, part-time specialists living in the central area that surrounded the monumental core of the city. The elite probably supported some full-time production to satisfy their demands for status goods and tools for construction projects. Expedient production by nonspecialists, using locally available materials such as chert and bone, occurred at all times.

Production waste was recovered from the construction fill of public and residential architecture and from household middens, mixed with domestic trash. The largest concentrations, however, were found exterior to elite chamber burials and within cached offerings. The delayed identification of debitage from ritual contexts exemplifies the reflexive nature of the way archaeologists classify material culture and their interpretations of the contexts from which it is recovered.     

Hematite sources and archaeological ochres from Hohokam and O’odham sites in central Arizona: an experiment in type identification and characterization

The use of ochre is a defining characteristic of populations living in the Sonoran Desert of the American Southwest. Red pigments and paints were used for craft production, bodily adornment, rock art, and in mortuary contexts. Hematite and other iron-oxides are common components of this pigment that frequently appear in the archaeological record in a variety of forms and in various stages of production. Beyond this, very little is known about these materials. This paper describes the collection of potential geological sources of ochre in the Phoenix Basin and presents a methodology for the identification of processed paints. Geological sources samples are characterized using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and compared to raw materials recovered archaeologically from the Gila River Indian Community reservation. This preliminary study indicates that iron-oxide sources can be distinguished from each other and that artifacts can be matched to these sources, revealing local procurement along the Gila River by Hohokam and O’odham artisans and continuity in use of one source from the prehistoric period to the present.     

IDENTIFYING THE PLANT ORIGIN OF ARTISTS' YELLOW LAKE PIGMENTS BY ELECTROSPRAY MASS SPECTROMETRY

Dyes containing flavonoids are found in yellow lake pigments used as artists' materials. Pre‐treating a sample of a flavonoid‐based lake pigment with an acidic ion exchange resin followed by reversed‐phase HPLC electrospray mass spectrometry enables the identification of key diagnostic yellow compounds, even when the pigment is bound in paint media. Reference raw plant materials of weld and buckthorn berries were also treated similarly for comparison with the lake pigments derived from these plants. This method is suitable for microsamples and thus suitable for analysis of samples that can be ethically removed from works of art in the course of their conservation. The flavonoid content is analysed and plant origins are suggested for yellow lake samples taken from Reclining Tiger by Jean‐Baptiste Oudry and the 1893 version of The Scream by Edvard Munch.     

AN ALTERNATIVE ONTOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF POTTERY PUNCTATION IN SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION PREHISTORY

Abstract

Implements used in punctation and incising of prehistoric ceramic artifacts were potentially as meaningful as the designs they imparted. Their use may have been prescribed by a perceived relationship between the tool or its source and the vessel in production or its intended function. Replicative experiments reveal use of various styli, but especially feather quills, by native potters of the Appalachian Summit region in applying punctations and incisions to wet clay. Feathers of various birds may have been used because of their roles in the beliefs, rituals, and medicine of Southeastern Indians. Results of this study may benefit typological refinements, studies of vessel function, and traditional craft revitalization and inquiries into prehistoric animism.     

Reconstruction of the Late Glacial and Early Holocene landscape and human presence in Lubrza,Western Poland,on the basis of multidisciplinary analyses

This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary study that combines archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research to examine the relationship between environment and human activities in Western Poland during the Late Glacial and Early Holocene. The study area lying within the young moraine landscape produced several Late Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic sites, varied in terms of size and function. Analyses of pollen, plant macro-remains and molluscs accompanied by geomorphological investigations and supported by series of radiocarbon dates have enabled a detailed reconstruction of environment. It has shown that despite climatic fluctuations during the Allerød and Younger Dryas, the studied area provided favourable conditions for hunter-gatherer occupation. The presence of micro- and macroscopic charcoal, charred particles of herbaceous plants and charred mosses in peat deposits of former water bodies evidence various activities carried out by Federmesser and Swiderian groups, for example setting up camp-fires and deliberate burning of the local marsh vegetation. Usewear analyses of flint implements have revealed further traces of diversified human activities undertaken at examined sites. Most importantly, this article focuses on plant-based craft activities undertaken by hunter-gatherers, about which little has hitherto been known.     

Microbiology of Concretions, Sediments and Mechanisms Influencing the Preservation of Submerged Archaeological Artifacts

Research conducted at deep-ocean ship wreck sites in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and in the Gulf of Mexico have revealed that microorganisms play a significant role in both the preservation and loss of submerged artifacts. Research to be reported concentrates on the influence of microbiologically induced concretions on the survival of maritime artifacts. Rusticles, a common form of concretion, have been found to provide valuable information to archeology (Garzke et al. 1997, Proceedings of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers). The role of rusticles in the preservation of recalcitrant materials such as coal and glass fragments that become embedded within these growths, as well as forensic chemical analysis can be used to determine the nature of goods or munitions being carried by the ship at the time of its sinking, and will form examples.     

Polarized light microscopy casts new light on plants used to make tapa

Information about plant materials of construction in artefacts advances knowledge about human history, agriculture, trade, migration and adaptation to new environments. Typically, materials identification in artefacts made from plants is problematic, since processing, age, dirt and surface treatments can mask identifying features, while ethical considerations relating to sampling limit the use of some analytical techniques. The study tests the usefulness of polarized light microscopy for identifying the New Zealand and Pacific plant species used to make tapa, indicating birefringent and morphological characteristics that can be used to differentiate fibres at the level Moraceae (Pacific; from genera Artocarpus, Broussonetia and Ficus) and Malvaceae (New Zealand; from genera Hoheria and Plangianthus).     

APPLICATION OF LEAD ISOTOPE ANALYSIS TO A WIDE RANGE OF LATE BRONZE AGE EGYPTIAN MATERIALS*

Lead isotope analysis was applied to Egyptian materials from the Late Bronze Age in order to investigate the relationship between these different materials, many of which have lead as a significant component. The galena kohls analysed can be provenanced to Gebel Zeit, a large mining site known to have been active during the period. However, the source of lead metal is different and seems to be outside Egypt, along with the source of copper. Lead‐based pigments such as lead antimonate that were used in glass and glazes seem mostly to come from Egypt, although they may well contain a component of ‘Mesopotamian’ lead. In the Predynastic period, galena from many sources is being exploited for use as kohl. However, by the Middle Kingdom (2055–1650 bc ), extraction has concentrated on one source, Gebel Zeit, perhaps reflecting increasingly centralized control and/or the use of large‐scale exploitation. It therefore appears that a complex pattern of trade in lead‐based materials was evident, with lead metal and galena being separate commodities from separate sources and treated as such.     

Evaluating the usefulness of phytoliths and starch grains found on survey artifacts

Archaeologists use survey artifacts to study any number of interesting topics. The focus of this study is to test the usefulness of starch grains and phytoliths found on artifacts recovered during archaeological survey. Phytolith and starch grain analysis was used to determine the level of environmental contamination on three types of medieval ceramics collected during survey work from plowed fields in the parish of Wicken, Northamptonshire, England. The plant residues found on these artifacts were compared with their surrounding soil and with contemporaneous excavated artifacts recovered from under the floorboards of a medieval house in nearby Wyton, Cambridgeshire, England. Through the use of the “piggyback” approach pioneered by Chandler-Ezell and Pearsall, phytoliths and starch grains were systematically removed from the artifacts surface. Residues associated with contamination were removed from the outermost layer of the artifact surface while potentially uncontaminated residues were removed from the innermost layer of the artifact surface. Matching phytoliths and starch grains were found on the outermost surface of the survey artifacts and in the surrounding soils. No phytoliths and starch grains were found on the innermost surface of the survey artifacts suggesting that residues from the surrounding soils did not penetrate into the pores and crevices of the artifacts. The overall results suggest that, although they are preliminary, there is potential for plant residue analysis of survey artifacts.     

NEW DATA ON THE TECHNOLOGY OF FAIENCE PRODUCTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE

New data on faience production technologies in central Europe come from an analysis of 12 faience beads from an Early Bronze Age cemetery in Poland. The beads were tested with the EPMA method. Altogether 65 measurements were made. In terms of morphology, the artifacts are all the same, but they differ in microstructure and chemical composition. For some a mixed alkali flux was used, for others soda-rich plant ashes. Even so, all of the beads seem to have been made from local raw materials in central Europe (soda-rich plant ashes could have come from plants growing near one of the mainland salt sources, which are frequent, for example, in south-eastern Poland).     

新石器时代广西地区橄榄属植物研究现状

新石器时代先民对植物资源利用一直是学界研究的热点问题。橄榄属植物是广西地区重要植物资源,然而有关橄榄属的系统研究十分缺乏。本文系统综述了国内外所发现的橄榄属遗存及其研究方法,进一步强调了拓宽识别方法对橄榄属遗存研究的重要性。本文对橄榄属遗存及其研究方法的梳理,不仅有助于理解新石器时代广西地区先民对橄榄属植物的利用情况,也为解读橄榄属植物在这一地区的驯化史、环境史提供重要信息。     

Movement of Garden Plants from Market to Bushland: Gardeners' Plant Procurement and Garden‐Related Behaviour

In Australia, the largest importer of exotic plant species is the gardening industry, and most major environmental weeds originally derive from domestic gardens or nurseries. To provide strategies for weed management, this study aims to clarify two key points on the pathway along which garden plants flow from the market to the natural environment with the help of human activities. These are local residents' procurement of garden plants, and local residents' garden‐related behaviour (e.g. leaving organic materials in reserves). We draw on a survey (382 respondents) among Wollongong (New South Wales, Australia) residents whose property has at least one boundary adjacent to bushland. Frequency analysis and ordinal regression were used. The results indicated that most respondents obtained garden plants, and relevant information, from nurseries but perceived that there was insufficient plant origin information (that is, whether introduced from abroad, native to Australia or local to the Illawarra) to help them make choices. It also indicated that a minority of respondents frequently left organic materials (such as lawn clippings) in reserves neighbouring their garden, and many of these respondents saw some benefits in doing so. This study confirms the significant role of nurseries in gardeners' plant choice, and raises questions about the significance of dumping garden waste.     

Morgawr: an experimental Bronze Age‐type sewn‐plank craft based on the Ferriby boats

This paper reports on the construction of a full‐scale Bronze Age‐type sewn‐plank boat based on the Ferriby boats. The boat, which was named Morgawr, was constructed in the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth, England, during 2012 and the first months of 2013, as part of a larger exhibition in the museum. This paper provides the background and context of the project, describes the process of building the craft, and reflects in particular on differences between Morgawr and the ‘hypothetical reconstruction of a complete sewn‐plank boat’ published in 1990 by Ted Wright and John Coates which formed the basis for this project.     

Understanding ceramic variability: an archaeometrical interpretation of the Classical and Hellenistic ceramics at Düzen Tepe and Sagalassos (Southwest Turkey)

Within the aim of contributing to the artisanal craft history at Sagalassos (SW-Turkey), an archaeometric programme including thin section analysis, ICP-MS and multivariate statistics was developed to define the variability on a provenance and/or technological scale of the Classical/Hellenistic ceramic assemblage of Sagalassos and Düzen Tepe. The obtained data were used to evaluate the extent and variation of local pottery production. Petrographic and geochemical analysis as a grouping technique proves to be conditional for documenting the variation in ceramic wares present on both archaeological sites. Elemental evidence supports local production activities between Classical and Hellenistic times, documenting a deliberate change in treatment of raw materials during the Late Hellenistic period in function of ware groups.     

The pectoral fin spines of European catfish Siluris glanis; cultural artifacts or food remains?

The urban archaeological site of Nicopolis ad Istrum in north central Bulgaria, which has multiple periods of use and abandonment, has produced a large and varied ichthyofauna. A number of bones of the European catfish Siluris glanis have been identified and have been interpreted as both food remains and bone artifacts. It was found that a percentage bias in the distribution of S. glanis bones from the Roman period of occupation called for further analysis. The investigation attempts to identify the reason or reasons for the apparent overrepresentation of the pectoral fin spines of this species. Taphonomic factors are considered along with butchery and an actualistic study of butchery on modern S. glanis material. Studies from north Africa are used to illustrate the possible function of the spines. The conclusions drawn are that a high proportion of the pectoral fin spines were brought into the site, possibly as personal artifacts. Their use is open to debate; no clear functional use can be determined from the archaeological material, although it cannot be ruled out that they were used for medicinal purposes or as charms.