Black Yanks in the Pacific: race in the making of American military empire after World War II. By Michael Cullen Green

Tahiti métisse: By Michel Panoff. Paris, Denoël, 1989. 291 pp, maps, illus., glossary, appendices, chronological table, bibliog., index. 140 F.     

Evaluating the Reliability of Fluoride Dating at Two Prehistoric Mound Sites in Mississippi

Abstract

Ion-selective electrode fluoride dating is used to address chronological problems at two mound sites located in Mississippi. At the Mississippian period (A.D. 900–1520) Lyon's Bluff site, 220K520, the fluoride content of deer and human bone is compared with radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic levels to evaluate the reliability of the fluoride dating method for understanding relative burial chronology. At a second site, Pocahontas Mound A (22HI500), fluoride content of deer bone is used to corroborate radiocarbon dates and to establish the proper chronology of levels associated with two distinct occupations (Archaic and Coles Creek/Plaquemine) identified in a large midden area. Fluoride analysis also is used to date a second midden area at this site. For Lyon's Bluff; fluoride dates did not correspond with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)-dated burials and midden strata. In contrast, fluoride dating proved very useful in determining chronological placement of midden levels and dating other areas at Pocahontas Mound A. Sample age, site location, soil, and bone preservation are considered as possible causes for the negative results at Lyon's Bluff.     

House‐type chronology in SW Jutland

In recent years Esbjerg Museum carried out excavations on several large Late Iron or Early Viking Age settlements, including Skonager near Varde, Præstestien north of Esbjerg and Stagh?j, Billund. The occurrence of sequences of houses on some of the farmsteads enabled the establishment of a chronological framework for the settlements, based primarily on the shapes of walls and gables and the position of the roof‐bearing posts, and a study of the ceramic pots in the houses. A study of the ceramics, based on the house‐type chronology, showed that the shape of the rims of the vessels could be used as a chronological indicator.     

Recent Major Themes and Research Areas in the Study of Human-Environment Interaction in Prehistory

ABSTRACT

We report a study in which we systematically reviewed the recent literature dealing with human-environment interaction in prehistory. We first identified the 165 most highly cited papers published between 2005 and 2015. We then identified the major research themes covered in the sample of papers and assessed whether the themes fall into clusters and/or vary greatly in popularity. Subsequently, we identified potentially important lacunae. Our review identified dozens of themes and four major clusters: 1) improving our reconstructions of past environments; 2) the impact of climate change on past human societies; 3) human adaptation to past environmental conditions; and 4) human impacts on past environments. We also identified several gaps that led us to make a number of suggestions for future work. One is to pay more attention to the epistemology of causality. A second is to take into account nonlinearity when considering causal relationships. A third is to study the impact of chronological uncertainty on analyses. Lastly, our review revealed that there are differences between the aspects of human-environment interaction in prehistory that interest scholars and those that interest policy-makers and the general public. This needs to be addressed for obvious reasons.     

Late Upper Palaeolithic fishing in the Fucino Basin,central Italy,a detailed analysis of the remains from Grotta di Pozzo

Abstract

Fish remains have been recovered from seven Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Fucino Basin, central Italy. Analyses of fish remains from one of these sites, Grotta di Pozzo, are presented here and discussed in relation to previous research on fish remains from other Fucino Basin sites. It is recognised that in previous studies little consideration has been given to identifying, or confirming accumulation agent(s) for fish remains. Three potential non-human accumulation agents are identified and considered in detail, but these do not explain the element representation patterns for fish remains recovered at Grotta di Pozzo. As such, it is likely that the fish bones from this site do represent the remains of human activity. Given this interpretation, the assemblage characteristics suggest that Grotta di Pozzo represents a site used for exploitation and processing of fish for transportation for later consumption, most likely on a seasonal basis. Further work on the fish from other Fucino Basin sites is needed to reliably rule out non-human deposition and increase understanding of fishing strategies in the Fucino Basin during the late Glacial period.     

Reviews

Bente Magnus: Krosshaugfunnet. Et fors?k på kronologisk og stilhistorisk plassering i 5. årh. (The Krosshaug find. An attempt at a chronological and stylistic placing within the 5th century). Stavanger Museums Skrifter 9. Stavanger 1975. 159 Pages, 68 Figs. English summary.     

Shifts in the world science centre:space–time characteristics and disciplinary analysis

Abstract

Based on 4087 data records derived from two chronological tables relating to the history of science and technology, this paper explores geographical and chronological characteristics of shifts in the centre of world scientific activity (‘world science centre’). We then go on to compare the timing of shifts in world discipline centres with shifts in the world science centre, analyse the relationship through time between dominant disciplines in Italy, Britain, France, Germany, and the USA on the one hand and ‘excavation worthy’ disciplines on the other, and attempt to discover an internal mechanism governing shifts in the world science centre related to states of development of individual scientific disciplines.     

THE STAMPED AMPHORA HANDLES FROM TEL JEZREEL

Abstract

The eighteen stamped amphora handles found at Tel Jezreel include sixteen of the Rhodian class, one of the Knidian class, and one unclassified. They are valuable as evidence for the Hellenistic occupation at the site. Their half-century span roughly corresponds to the profile of the 310 stamps from nearby Tel I??abbah (Hellenistic Nysa-Scythopolis), and suggests a similar chronological terminus related to the campaign of John Hyrcanus I through the region.     

WILLIAM HERON, ‘HAMMER OF THE POOR,PERSECUTOR OF THE RELIGIOUS’, SHERIFF OF NORTHUMBERLAND, 1246–58

Abstract

In 1895 Richard Holmes identified Paulinus of Leeds, the late-twelfth-century vicar of Leeds and master of St Leonard's Hospital in York, with Master Paulinus, a son of Ralph Nowell, Bishop of Orkney, who was consecrated in 1110 × 1114. Holmes' identification, though dubious on chronological grounds, has generally been accepted. But a recently published charter of Hugh du Puiset, Bishop of Durham, shows that Paulinus son of the Bishop was dead in 1184, so cannot have been the same man as Paulinus of Leeds, who was still living in 1201. The careers of these two men, and others named Paulinus, are here disentangled, and the suggestion is made that Paulinus of Leeds may have been a member of a family of hereditary priests of Leeds. The much misunderstood life of Adam of Birkin, who seems to have been a relative of Paulinus of Leeds, is also re-examined.     

Fishing: Evidence for Seasonality and Processing of Fish for Preservation in the Northern Isles of Scotland During the Iron Age and Norse Times

Abstract

Evidence from fish remains recovered from two sites in the Northern Isles of Scotland is compared to modern data on fish ecology and ethnographic evidence to assess seasonality in terms of resource availability and its implications for economic activities.     

Big fish and great auks: Exploitation of birds and fish on the Isle of Portland,Dorset, during the Romano-British period

Abstract

The paper considers the assemblage of bird and fish bones from a Romano-British settlement on the Isle of Portland, on the southern coast of England. Compared with contemporary sites, the assemblage includes an unusually large number of fish bones from a wide range of marine species, including large cod, other Gadidae, several species of seabream, scad and bass. The bird assemblage includes bones of a butchered great auk. This provides the first evidence that this extinct species was nesting off the shores of central southern England and being exploited for food in this period. Other seabirds identified included razorbill, great northern diver and gannet. The species represented are discussed in relation to other Romano-British sites, particularly the Roman town of Dorchester, situated 15 km away. Many of the species have been discovered on only a few contemporary sites and the presence of the seabream in particular indicates that seawater temperatures may have been warmer than until very recently. Possible cultural changes in diet and food procurement in the Roman period are also considered.     

Demetrius the Chronographer and 141 BCE

We only have six fragments from a book written by Demetrius the Chronographer. Scholars claim he lived and worked in Alexandria about 225-200 BCE and he is an early witness for the date of the LXX. However, the few chronological details we have indicate that he used the year 141 BCE as the base year for his chronology. There are no early witnesses for the LXX and there are no reliable obstacles for lowering the date for the LXX to 130 B.C. or even lower.     

Nicosia and its municipal administration during the very early years of British rule in Cyprus

Abstract

In recent years, the trauma concept has been applied to fiction in several literary studies. This article discusses the narrative mediation of traumatic experiences in selected Civil War novels, using narratological tools and focusing on the complex relationship between trauma, memory and narration. The authors use innovative narrative and representational strategies, such as a disrupted chronological order or intertextual references, to illustrate the paradoxical character of remembering and narrating trauma. These works highlight diverse aspects of the Greek Civil War, depart from conventional narrative modes and share common characteristics with so-called 'trauma fiction'.     

A Preliminary Examination of Quantitative Methods for Classifying Small Triangular Points From late Prehistoric Sites: A Case Study From the Ohio River Valley

Abstract

Several classification methods have been proposed for allowing tighter chronological control of small triangular points recovered from Late Prehistoric sites in the Ohio River Valley. In this paper, we expand on these by introducing quantitative methods for metric measurements of small triangular points. The use of quantitative methods allows for a less subjective means of classifying the points. The proposed method is applied to specimens recovered from several Fort Ancient sites in the outer Bluegrass and Appalachian Foothills Regions of Kentucky. The methods used here can be applied to determine the relative temporal placement of small triangular points and reduce some of the subjective element inherent in earlier studies.     

A Multi-regional Analysis of AMS and Radiometric Dates from Carbonized Food Residues

Abstract

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is increasingly employed to date encrusted carbonized food residues on prehistoric pottery sherds, particularly in regions where other datable material is absent or scarce, or where such materials lack good association with objects of chronological interest. The accuracy of AMS dating of residues has recently been questioned in Europe and North America, with skepticism directly or indirectly attributed to the presence of carbonate rich bedrock, a freshwater carbonate reservoir resulting from association with such bedrock, or the cooking of aquatic resources such as mollusk or fish engaged in the uptake of older carbonates. It is argued that carbonized food residues from such contexts or resources are expected to display older apparent ages than dates on other materials. We evaluate this proposition through hypotheses assessing the accuracy and internal consistency of a broad range of data from the northeastern and midwestern United States. We statistically assess dates from 25 site components where either both dates on residue and context dates on other materials have been obtained. Of the 70 dates on residue tested, only 5.7 percent are considered inconsistent with their respective context dates. We also test for consistency 46 dates on residues from 14 site components lacking context dates. Of these, only 4.5 percent are considered internally inconsistent with expectations at the site or regional level. At present, we conclude that AMS dating of residues provides results consistent with those of other datable materials.     

Fish and fishing in colonial New South Wales: new evidence from the Quadrant site in Sydney

Abstract

Excavations at the Quadrant site in Sydney uncovered remains of 19th-century working-class houses and industrial areas including a collection of fish remains. The spatial distribution of bones of northern hemisphere ling and salmonids across house lots suggests these fish were commonly eaten. Little previous research on fish remains from post-1788 Australian sites has been reported and the study has wider research significance to Australasian archaeozoology. Documents indicate that some 19th-century British settlers preferred fish imported from Europe to local species. This study provides new insights into diet, economy and class in early colonial Sydney.     

A Russian Before and After the Revolution: P. P. Efimenko,a Pioneer of Levantine Prehistoric Research

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a reappraisal of the Levantine prehistoric chronological sequence constructed by Pyotr Petrovich Efimenko (1884–1969). As a young Russian prehistorian, Efimenko visited Palestine in 1913, collected material from several sites and, in 1915, published a synthesis in which he compared the prehistory of Europe with that of the Near East. This was part of his comprehensive monograph on the Prehistory of Eurasia which was also based on his work at the sites of Mezin and Kostenki and the Palaeolithic of Russia. The current paper also attempts to evaluate the career of Efimenko particularly in light of the unfamiliarity of his work among prehistorians working in the southern Levant.     

Early Copper Age Settlements in the Körös Region of the Great Hungarian Plain

Abstract

This article discusses research carried out by the Körös Regional Archaeological Project from 2000 to 2006 at Early Copper Age Tiszapolgár Culture sites on the Great Hungarian Plain. To build a model of social organization for the period, we incorporated information from regional geomorphological studies, soil chemistry analysis, archaeological surface surveys, remote sensing, and systematic excavations at Early Copper Age sites in the Körös Valley of southeastern Hungary. Previous models characterized the transition from the Neolithic period to the Copper Age as an abrupt shift from a tell-based, sedentary, agricultural lifeway to one based on mobile cattle herding. By studying the transition between these periods on multiple geographic and temporal scales, we have identified a more gradual process with widespread regional variation in cultural patterns. Similar social processes characterize the transition between chronological periods and cultural phases in other parts of the world, and we suggest that a multiscalar approach is effective for building comparative archaeological models of long-term social change.