The Prehistory of NW Argentina: the Calchaquí Valley Project, 1977–1981

Abstract

The late pre-Hispanic populations of the Calchaquí Valley of NW Argentina may be seen as typical of the native culture of the south Andes. The developmental sequence for these sedentary village societies, however, has only recently begun to be detailed. Field and lab results pertaining to a survey of 24 sites are summarized, including one of the first ceramic seriations to include the full range of pottery types; ceramic wares and their significance are also identified. Findings further include the first recognition of what are believed to be Middle Period sites for the valley, thus filling an important gap in our understanding of the region's prehistory.     

Tell el-‘Ajjul palaces I and II: Context and function

ABSTRACT

Traditional views on Middle Bronze Age (MBA) palatial function have been challenged by recent work at Tel Kabri, where the excavators have argued against the common identification of southern Levantine palaces as redistributive centres staffed with literate administrators. These innovative ideas surrounding palace function were first developed by Flinders Petrie during excavations at Tell el-‘Ajjul in 1931–32. Here he uncovered a series of elaborately constructed elite residences that he identified as ‘palaces’. However, when reconsidering Petrie's finds, the results from Ajjul are largely supportive of the Kabri observations. A lack of evidence for key functional attributes of palaces—large-scale storage, administrative paraphernalia and redistributive function - is comparable to that reported at Kabri. A short consideration of similar MBA ‘palaces’ elsewhere in the southern Levant is supportive of the aforementioned trend, and therefore calls into question the traditionally held views on the function of these elaborate architectural complexes. Either the function generally attributed to these structures is incorrect, or administration and rulership in MBA Canaan leaves no unambiguous residues in the archaeological record.     

The Late Saxon Town of Thetford: An Interim Report on the 1964–6 Excavations

Abstract

Reigate stone was one of the most important building stones used in London and along the Thames littoral in the Middle Ages but, despite this, its use has been largely ignored by archaeologists. This introductory essay attempts to look at both the geology and documented history of the stone quarries, and at the Battersea and other Thames-side sites from which the stone was distributed.     

Filling a Gap in the Ife–Benin Interaction Field (Thirteenth–Sixteenth Centuries AD): Excavations in Iloyi Settlement, Ijesaland

Previous archaeological studies have indicated that the Yoruba polity of Ile–Ife and the Edo polity of Benin, both in southwest Nigeria, belonged to the same sphere of sociocultural interactions before the nineteenth century AD. The spatial and temporal dimensions of this interaction sphere have not, however, been understood, because the archaeological sequences of the areas between the two polities are largely unknown. One of these intervening areas is Ijesaland. The excavations conducted in Iloyi settlement, northern Ijesaland, provide a new set of data that not only fills a gap in the Ife–Benin interaction sphere but also offers new perspectives on the process of material culture homogenization in the Yoruba–Edo region during the first half of the second millennium. Calibrated radiocarbon dates show that Iloyi was occupied during the thirteenth–sixteenth centuries AD. Using the stylistic and iconographic characteristics of ceramics and the patterns of burial and sacrificial rituals as evidence, it is demonstrated that Iloyi was a sociopolitical and cultural frontier of Ile–Ife, and that Ijesaland was part of the Ife–Benin cultural corridor. The paper strengthens the earlier suggestions that the development of a kingship institution at Ile–Ife helped to widen the interaction networks in the region, an historical process that culminated in the trend toward regional cultural homogenization between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries.Des études archéologiques antérieures ont indiqué que l'état Yoruba de Ile-Ife et l'état Edo du Benin, les deux dans le sud ouest du Nigeria, appartenaient à la même sphére socio-culturelle avant le dix-neuvième siècle après J.-C. Pourtant, les dimensions spacio-temporelles de cette interaction n'ont pas encore été entièrement comprises, car les séquences archéologiques des régions entre les deux états restent à découvrir. L'une de ces régions est Ijesaland. Les fouilles entreprises à Iloyi, situé au nord de Ijesaland, ont divulgué l'information nouvelle sur la sphére d'interaction entre Ife et Benin ainsi que révélé des nouvelles interprétations du développement de l'homogéneisation de la culture matérielle dans la région de Yoruba-Edo durant la premiére partie du deuxiéme millénaire. Sur la base de tests de carbone, on sait que Iloyi fut occupé de treizième au seizième siècle AD. Les caractéristiques stylistiques et iconographiques de la céramique ainsi que les procédés d'enterrement et les rites de sacrifices laissent à penser que Iloyi était situé à la frontiére socio-politique et culturelle de Ile-Ife et que Ijesaland faisait partie de la zone culturelle de Ife-Benin. Ceci renforce l'hypothése que le développement d'une institution royaliste à Ile-Ife à étendu les réseaux d'interaction de cette région—un processus historique qui culmina avec la tendance à l'homogéneisation régionale culturelle du treizième au seizième siécles.     

Early Neolithic Sites at Brześć Kujawski,Poland: Preliminary Report on the 1976–1979 Excavations

Abstract

Since 1976, excavations have been conducted on two neighboring Early Neolithic sites at Brze?? Kujawski, Wloclawek district, Poland. The aim of this research is to improve the understanding of the developmental sequence of Early Neolithic cultures on the Polish lowlands as well as to recover palaeobotanical and archaeozoological materials to study the changes in subsistence patterns over time. There are three components of Early Neolithic settlement at Brze?? Kujawski: the Linear Pottery, Early Lengyel, and Late Lengyel cultures, which span the period between 4300 and 3000 radiocarbon years B.C. Large amounts of animal bones indicate a shift from cattle-centered stockbreeding in the Linear Pottery component to a very diverse pattern of animal exploitation in the Late Lengyel component. Early Neolithic house remains, storage pits, flint industries, and copper artifacts are also discussed.     

Provinciality and the art world: the Midland Group 1961–1977

This paper takes as its focus the Midland Group Gallery in order to, first, make a case for the consideration of the geographies of art galleries; second, highlight the importance of galleries in the context of cultural geographies of the 1960s and third, discuss the role of provinciality in the operation of art worlds. In doing so, it explicates one set of geographies surrounding the gallery—those of the local, regional and international networks that are connected to produce art works and art space. It reveals how the interactions between places and practices outside of metropolitan and regional hierarchies provide a more nuanced insight into how art worlds operated during the 1960s, a period of growing internationalism of art, and how contested definitions of the provincial played an integral role in this. The paper charts the operations of the Midland Group Gallery and the spaces that it occupied to demonstrate how it was representative of a post-war discourse of provincialism and a corresponding re-evaluation of regional cultural activity.     

Excavations at Opovo, 1985–1987: Socioeconomic Change in the Balkan Neolithic

Abstract

This is the second preliminary report of excavations and analyses of Opovo-Ugar Bajbuk, a Neolithic settlement of the Vin?a-Plo?nik culture located in the lower Tami? river valley, NE Yugoslavia. The Opovo Archaeological Project began in the summer of 1983; this report coversthe 1985–1987 field seasons. Work at Opovo has continued to reveal more about the unusual reliance placed by the site’s inhabitants on wild food resources, the apparent lack of long-term settlement occupation, and the social organization of production and consumption. An unexpected find of the 1987 season was a fragment of linen, the earliest direct evidence for textile production in European prehistory. Detailed examination of methods of house construction and house destruction—part of an effort to investigate the role of households at the site—led to the discovery of the first two-story dwelling ever encountered at a Vin?a site. The site of Opovo-Ugar Bajbuk is providing new light on previously unknown dimensions of variation within the Vin?a culture.     

Sherborne Old Castle,Dorset. Archaeological Excavations 1930–90

Abstract

THIS is an account of both the history and the recent findings of the Mosfell Archaeological Project. Excavation is part of an interdisciplinary research approach that uses archaeology, history, anthropology, forensics, environmental sciences and saga studies to construct a picture of human habitation, power relationships, religious and mortuary practices, and environmental change in the region of Mosfellssveit in south-western Iceland. The valley system with surrounding highlands and lowland coastal areas has interlocking natural and cultural components which developed from the 9th-century settlement of Iceland into a Viking Age chieftaincy dominated by the family at Mosfell/Hrísbrú. Excavations of both pagan and Christian sites are providing significant information on the changing periods of occupation, with implications for the larger study of Viking North Atlantic. During the Viking Age, Mosfell was a self-contained social and economic unit connected to the rest of Iceland through a network of roads, including a major E.–W. route to the nearby assembly place for the yearly Althing. With its ship's landing or port at Leirvogur, in the bay at the valley's mouth, the region was in commercial and cultural contact with the larger Scandinavian and European worlds.