Comments on immigration in archaeological contexts

VESTNORDISK BYGGESKIKK GJENNOM TO TUSEN ÅR. Tradisjon og forandring fra romertid til det 19. århundre. (West Nordic building customs from the Roman Period to the 19^th century). Editors: Bj?rn Myhre, Bjarne Stoklund and Per Gjaerder. Arkeologisk museum i Stavanger—skrifter vol. 7. Stavanger 1982. 287 pages. 264 figures and 5 tables. Summaries in English.     

Archaeological material and ethnic identification. A study of Lappish material from Varanger,Norway

The term Lappish Iron Age has been established in Scandinavian archaeology but the ethnic affiliation of the body of archaeological material labelled so has never been discussed in detail. In this article two questions arc discussed: Is it possible from archaeological material to verify a hypothesis about a specific ethnic affiliation? And is it appropriate to refer to this archaeological material as iron age finds? A general discussion about problems involved in identifying ethnic groups is given, after a brief presentation of the empirical material. Attention is drawn to Barth's analysis, where he shows that the cultural content seems to be of two orders: (i) overt signs and signals, and (ii) basic value orientations. The discussion is carried out in accordance with these two orders. It is argued that this analysis cannot provide us with information about a specific ethnic affiliation; although it cannot tell us which group, it can verify that the material in question does represent one specific ethnic group. If we want to identify one specific ethnic group we have to use other sources besides the archaeological record. The use of sources like written documents, linguistics, place names and physical anthropology is discussed. The conclusion is drawn that by the use of various sources we can trace the identity of one specific ethnic group.     

Otosclerosis and stapedial footplate fixation in archaeological material

A total of 1164 temporal bones from various cemetery sites in England were examined using a fibre optic endoscope. Eight bones were found to have evidence of otosclerosis in which proliferative new bone fixes the footplate of the stapes into the oval window, causing deafness. A prevalence of 0.9 per cent in this study is comparable with the incidence found in modern white populations and with that found in a study of 2760 Lithuanian temporal bones of various periods.     

饱水木质文物的细菌病害及其诊断技术的进展

为了促进微生物学理论与技术在我国文物保护领域中的应用,使我国的文物保护与国际先进水平接轨,本文通过对国内外有关文物保护微生物学研究进展的综述,阐述了饱水木质文物细菌性病害的成因和机理.侵蚀细菌、钻管细菌和空化细菌是饱水木质文物细菌性病害的病原体,但它们的作用方式有一定的区别.在饱水木质文物细菌性病害诊断上,国外已较为普遍地使用了光镜技术、电镜技术、细菌培养技术以及多种分子生物学技术.根据众多样本分析的结果,国外学者已建立评价饱水木质文物腐蚀状态的定性指标体系.文中还结合目前我国有关饱水木质文物保护的现状,阐述了文物保护微生物学在我国饱水木质文物保护中的应用前景,并建议尽快开展相关的研究工作.     

New archaeological and epigraphical material from Qana (South Arabia)

Excavations at Qana, the ancient port of the Hadramawt on the Indian Ocean, have been carried out systematically by a Soviet-Yemeni Expedition since 1985. Several houses, a storeroom, and probably a religious building have been excavated in the "Lower City". A rich collection of archaeological material has been obtained, including several hundred bronze coins; painted and inscribed fragments of texts in Greek datable to the fourth century AD; African and Mediterranean pottery. For the first time it is possible to reconstruct the history of a large South Arabian port belonging to the kingdom of Hadramawt. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that Qana existed until the beginning of the Islamic era.     

The identification of charred archaeological remains of vegetative parenchymous tissue

The biased way in which some inferences may be drawn from archaeobotanical assemblages, due to problems in identification, is briefly discussed. A potentially important class of plant remains, vegetative parenchymous organs, commonly sources of food, are indicated as being such a class rarely identified from archaeological contexts. Their identification based on characters of the plants' anatomy and morphology together with an understanding of the way in which tissues degrade on preservation by charring is suggested. Characters of the charred tissues that make up vegetative parenchymous organs are described in detail. The processes of sorting and identification are then briefly discussed.     

A statistical approach to the archaeological identification of crop processing

Since the processing of crops has a direct effect on the composition of archaeobotanical samples, variation due to crop processing must be filtered out before using samples for the study of crop economy and husbandry. As the archaeological context of plant material does not often provide a reliable basis for the identification of crop processing products and byproducts, this paper presents a method based on the statistical comparison of archaeological samples with ethnographically collected material and on an internal statistical analysis of the archaeological samples themselves. These analyses make use of differences in the categories of weed seeds extracted at each stage of the crop processing sequence and are thus more reliable and more widely applicable than simple calculations of the relative quantities of grain, chaff and weed. Ethnographic and archaeological material from Greece is used to illustrate the method and some of the wider implications of the results are discussed.     

Report of three fused primary human teeth in an archaeological material

Fusion of deciduous teeth can appear in several ways, usually involving two teeth but occasionally three. The frequency of this anomaly is reported to be low and few cases have been described in the scientific literature. Fused teeth in the archaeological record are rare because of the destructive taphonomic processes to which bones and teeth are subjected. Previous research in this field has only dealt with cases of two fused deciduous teeth. To our knowledge, there have been no reports of three fused teeth in the anthropological literature. The present paper presents a case of three fused primary teeth and a succedaneous supernumerary permanent tooth in a 5‐year‐old child discovered in a late medieval cemetery in northern Italy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modeling skeletal traits and functions of the upper body: Comparing archaeological and anthropological material

The aim of this study is to look at upper body functional modifications caused by mechanical loading. We look at 4th lumbar vertebra as well as fibrous humeral musculoskeletal stress markers (MSMs). This study uses information provided by magnetic resonance images of living individuals from the University of Oulu Hospital data banks (N = 91), archaeological skeletons from Sweden (N = 54) and England (N = 61), and autopsied skeletal collection of early 20th century Finns in Natural History Museum, University of Helsinki (N = 48). The lumbar vertebrae and MSM are subjected to mechanical loading caused by the upper body weight and loads lifted and/or carried. We hypothesized that the vertebral size reflect body size, habitual mechanical loading and the overall skeletal robusticity as mechanical competence to withstand mechanical loading standardized to body size, which has decreased over millennia. For Helsinki material occupation, age and sex is known and the material was used in Niinimäki (2011). In the study by Niinimäki (2011) MSM were found to be affected by the intensity of muscular action as well as body size and age. This study is reviewed here in light of re-analysis of the data to follow the current anatomical understanding of the entheses as well as viewing MSMs as a part of upper body functional complex. Only fibrous entheses were included in the re-analysis. Furthermore, due to small number of females where activity intensity could be assessed, females were dropped from the re-analysis.     

New methods for the identification of evidence for bitting on horse remains from archaeological sites

This article describes alterations to equid lower second premolars and diastemata from a series of known life history equids and a number of archaeological horse specimens from the British Iron Age. Two new methods for recording bit wear are proposed involving the analysis of the extent and morphology of enamel/dentine exposure on the anterior edge of LP2s and analysis of the extent of new bone formation and bone loss to the diastema of the mandible. It is suggested that when a bit is used on a horse it acts more frequently on the anterior margin of the LP2 than has previously been thought and that repeated contact between the bit and the LP2s and diastemata results in recognisable damage to these areas of the mouth.     

Species identification of archaeological dung remains: A critical review of potential methods

Abstract

Dung, macroscopically recognisable as such or not, can more commonly be found in archaeological contexts than is perhaps realised. Up to now, identification of dung to the species which produced it is usually either tenuous, or is not possible. However, species identification can be very informative and is necessary before any further studies can be conducted on the dung, for example on health and hygiene in the past and palaeoecology. This study presents a review of potential methods by which species identifications of archaeological dung can be undertaken. Criteria for identification can be divided into three broad categories: morphometric features of the dung; the content of dung and contextual evidence. Overall, the chances of a precise identification are high; however, a combination of different criteria and techniques will often be necessary to establish a secure identification. Moreover, preservation issues may exclude the application of some criteria while several criteria require more research and the expansion of reference collections of recent material. The overall aim is to move towards standardised methods for species identification of archaeological dung.