Mesolithic Site Formation and Palaeoenvironment Along the White Nile (Central Sudan)

The Mesolithic period represents a key stage in the human history of Sudan, but its complexity is not yet fully understood. Since the beginning of prehistoric research in this region, efforts were made to understand Mesolithic site formation processes and post-depositional disturbances. Responsibility for the destruction of most Mesolithic sites’ deposits rests mainly on later use of the ancient mound-like settlements as burial places by Meroitic and post-Meroitic people. Excavations at several sites in the El Salha and Al Khiday areas (White Nile, south of Omdurman) have provided recent progress in our knowledge of Mesolithic living structures in their palaeoenvironmental contexts. Detailed stratigraphic and geoarchaeological investigations enabled us to distinguish, within the sequences identified at excavated mounds, the existence of basal archaeological strata still in situ that had remained unaffected by subsequent anthropogenic disturbances and to understand the functional aspects of several archaeological features associated with Mesolithic living floors. This offers the opportunity to reassess the Mesolithic cultural sequence in the region and reconsider some statements on the economic and social aspects of Mesolithic life and landscape exploitation strategies.     

Shifting social networks along the Nile: Middle Holocene ceramic assemblages from Sai Island, Sudan

During the middle Holocene, profound changes in environment, economy, and social relations laid the foundations for the emergence of Africa’s earliest polities: the Egyptian Old Kingdom and the Kerma state. Regional shifts in economy and society may be reflected in local changes in patterning of ceramic production and exchange. Analysis of two pottery assemblages from Sai Island, north Sudan, reveals dramatic shifts in the scale of cultural spheres and the nature of cross-cultural interaction between 5000 BC (Khartoum Variant) and 2600 BC (Pre-Kerma). Near-sedentary Khartoum Variant hunter–gatherers at site 8-B-10C participated in a longstanding cultural sphere that extended far into the Sahara, but were beginning to focus more tightly on resources by the Nile. By Pre-Kerma times, Sai occupants familiar with animal husbandry started to use southwest Asian plant domesticates; they began to experiment with large-scale storage facilities and engage in long-distance trade along the Nile, outside of their own cultural boundaries. Beyond a shift in axes for contact from east–west to north–south, these changes signal progressive geographic and temporal compression of cultural entities, amidst accelerating processes of economic innovation and social change that finally culminated in the polities of Egypt and Kerma.     

Seventy Years of Pottery Studies in the Archaeology of Mesolithic and Neolithic Sudan

African Archaeological Review - This review article examines seventy years of research and methodological approaches to the analysis of Mesolithic and Neolithic pottery in Sudan. It begins with the...     

Seventeenth-century Pottery from Ash,Surrey

Abstract

About 2,000 sherds, mainly in white fabric, were found on a site at Ash which was one of several producing similar wares on the West Surrey and Hampshire borders. Some of the sherds were medieval, but the remainder were 17th century and are analysed in an attempt to assess the forms and characteristics of the post-medieval pottery made at Ash. Documentary evidence discloses the presence of potters in Ash in the 17th and 18th centuries, although there is no direct link with the site, and also indicates possible sources for the potters’ clay.     

涿州出土的汉代陶楼

近年来,涿州陆续出土了20多件汉代陶楼,按使用功能可分为居住仓储合用陶楼、居住用陶楼和仓储用陶楼三类,现均收藏在涿州博物馆。这些陶楼为研究汉代北京周边地区建筑形态、风格特点及建筑技术提供了珍贵的实物标本。     

Late 17th-century stoneware waste from the Tower Harratz Pottery,Bristol

Abstract

Large-scale redevelopment has taken place over the last seven years in the area now known as Temple Quay which lies between Temple Way and the Floating Harbour in Bristol (Fig. 1). Bristol and Region Archaeological Services have carried out excavations, evaluations and watching briefs on the various phases of this redevelopment. These have mainly been concerned with the Portwall, a defensive structure built during the mid 13th century, which ran from north to south through the development area. In 1994 the archaeological work included the total excavation of the medieval Tower Harratz (sometimes known as Tower Harris) and a Civil War gun battery or redoubt built infront of the tower. This note deals with the discovery of a group of late 17th-century stoneware waste during the archaeological work at Tower Harratz and its association with a pottery known from documents to have been established there in about 1695.     

Pottery and Other Finds from the Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Sandy,Bedfordshire

INTENSIVE museum research and examination of documentary records of the discovery in the 18th and 19th centuries of Anglo-Saxon urns and other finds at Sandy (Beds.) reveals a series of 5th- to early 6th-century cremation urns and other pottery from the site. These are published together for the first time and their significance is discussed. A metal find of importance, a silver bracelet, is given extended treatment.     

The Wavy Line and the Dotted Wavy Line Pottery in the Prehistory of the Central Nile and the Sahara-Sahel Belt

The two type-sites of the Khartoum Mesolithic and Khartoum Neolithic (Khartoum Hospital and Shaheinab), in Central Sudan, were excavated at the end of the 1950s. The ceramics recovered from these sites, characterized by wavy line and dotted wavy line decoration, formed a cornerstone for identifying Mesolithic–Neolithic components along the Central Nile and across the Sahara-Sahel Belt. Moreover, they formed a model for an evolutionary sequence, and suggested a level of cultural uniformity for the Nilo-Sahara-Sahel Belt from the eighth to the fourth millennia BC. This paper examines these and other related issues.L'hôpital de Khartoum et Shaheinab, qui se situe au centre du Soudan, sont les deux sites archéologiques principaux de la civilisation mésolithique et néolithique. Ces deux sites furent découverts et excavés au cours des années 1950s. Les céramiques découvertes dans ces deux sites se caractérisent par leurs lignes continues et ondoyantes, et d'autres ondoyantes mais discontinues. Ces céramiques représentent la pierre angulaire pour les caractéristiques de la période mésolithiqueet néolithique dans le centre de la vallée du Nile et á travers la zone du Sahara-Sahel. De plus, elles ont constitué un modèle pour l'évolution et ont suggéré une certaine uniformité culturelle entre la vallée du Nile, le Sahara et le Sahel de huitième au quatrième millénaires avant J.-C. Cette recherche traite donc de ces points et d'autres aspects s'y rapportant.     

Neolithic Pottery Traditions from the Islands, the Coast and the Interior of East Africa

Scholars have attributed the spread of agriculture and pottery technology to the larger part of eastern and southern Africa to Bantu speakers. However, the spread of similar aspects to the Kenya and Tanzania Rift Valley as far south as Eyasi Basin and as far east as Mount Kilimanjaro has been attributed to Cushitic speakers. Whereas the spread of these innovations to the Rift Valley region can be dated back to 3000 BC, the remaining part of eastern and southern Africa is alleged to have received similar innovations only after the BC/AD changeover, when iron technology was introduced. These theories can no longer be sustained. The coast of Tanzania, its immediate hinterland, and the deep sea islands of Zanzibar and Mafia were settled by people who had knowledge of agriculture and pottery making probably from 3000 BC. These innovations are also found to have spread to southern Africa in the last millennium BC. The introduction of iron technology and beveled/fluted pottery, associated with Bantu speakers, was just another stage in the cultural evolution of the people of eastern and southern Africa, but not the beginning of settled, farming/domesticating communities.La diffusion de l'agriculture et la technologie de poterie à la région plus grande de l'Afrique orientale et méridional ont était attribué au parleurs des langues bantou. Cependant, la diffusion des aspects semblables au Rift Valley de Kenya et Tanzania, sud au Bassin d'Eyasi et est au Mont Kilimanjaro ont était attribué au parleurs des langues Cushitic. Tandis qu'on peut dater la diffusion de ces innovations à la région du Rift Valley à 3000 BC, il est prétendu que la région restante d'Afrique orientale et méridional ont reçu les innovations similaires seulement après le changement de BC/AD, au temps que la technologie de fer était indroduit. Il n'est pas possible maintenant à sustenir ces théories. La côte de Tanzania, son hinterland immédiat/les regions près de la mer, et les îles de Zanzibar et Mafia, ont étaient colonisé par les personnes qui avait la connaissance de l'agriculture et de la poterie probablement à partir de 3000 BC. On peut trouver aussi que ces innovations ont diffusé à l'Afrique méridional pendant la dernier millénaire avant J. -C. L'introduction de la technologie du fer et la poterie avec le biseau, liée avec les parleurs des langues bantoues, était seulement un autre étape dans l'évolution culturelle du peuple de l'Afrique orientale et méridional. Il n'était pas le commencement des communautés établis qui ont pratiqué l'agricole et la domestication.     

辉县孙村遗址发现的陶器文字

2006年7～10月,为了配合"南水北调"中线工程建设,郑州大学历史学院考古系对辉县孙村遗址进行了抢救性发掘,发现了一批商代和战国的陶器文字或刻画符号,为认识辉县地区在当时的社会文化面貌提供了重要的考古材料。     

Mid eighteenth-century tin-glazed earthenwares from the Delftfield Pottery,Glasgow: Excavation at the Broomielaw, 1975

Abstract

This report describes an excavation on the Broomielaw quayside opposite the site of the Delftfield Company’s works, which recovered kiln-wasters from an early phase of production. Appendix I covers all ceramic exports from Port Glasgow, 1742 to 1773, and some from Greenock. Appendix II contains notes on the family and other connections of some of the original potters who were recruited from Lambeth and elsewhere in 1748.     

谈河北易县八佛洼辽代三彩陶罗汉

<正> 旧藏于河北省易县白玉山峨嵋寺八佛洼山洞中的多尊三彩陶罗汉,在民国初年(1913年)被旅居北京的日本人寺泽鹿之助首次发现,后又为欧人贝尔契斯基所注意。古董商勾结村民将陶罗汉运至北京售与外国人,此举为易县官衙所制止。但为时已晚,陶罗汉已大部分被窃走,一时未运出的也因村民的争夺而被打碎,现场狼藉不堪,剩余的残躯碎片被运到易县官衙后院,以后便下落不明了。据日本考古学家原田淑人所记,现分散于欧美及日本,有确切下落的罗汉计为:     

Animal Exploitation and Behaviour of the Latest Middle Stone Age Societies in the Middle Nile Valley: Archaeozoological and Taphonomic Analysis of Late Pleistocene Fauna from the Affad Basin,Sudan

With the research on the issue in its initial phases, the behaviour and hunting strategies of MSA communities inhabiting the Nile Valley in the Late and Terminal Pleistocene have been fragmentarily recognised thus far. Osteological materials from the area of the Affad Basin in the Middle Nile Valley, recorded in archaeological contexts and dated to the sixteenth millennium BP using OSL methods, have significantly enhanced our knowledge in this regard. It is the first time that an opportunity has occurred to construct a reliable model of the environment exploitation and the behaviour of human groups producing lithic tools using Levallois methods in the Terminal Pleistocene. Archaeozoological analyses have allowed the identification of taxa, species and anatomical origin of remains and enabled the establishment of a database of osteometric measurements. The animals hunted in the Sudanese Nile Valley during the Terminal Pleistocene have been classified with a view to refer the data to the results of analogous studies on MSA in South Africa. The behaviour of the communities occupying the Affad Basin 15,000 years ago was connected to the environment of the tree-covered, swampy savannah and extensive backwaters. Medium-sized antelope (kobus) was hunted most often. People hunted also, albeit less frequently, for large ruminants (buffalo), guenons and large rodents. Remains of fish and mega-fauna (hippopotamus and elephant) have been found in isolated concentrations, away from the camp sites. Remains of molluscs or ostrich eggs have not been registered. The condition of the osteological materials, notably their anatomical distribution, is shown to have been largely affected by wetland environment, rich in iron and manganese.     

以陶器为视角的双房文化分期研究

分布于东北辽东地区的双房文化,以往又被称为"双房类型"①或"双房遗存"②.大连岗上墓地揭示的层位关系表明,这种文化晚于辽东半岛地区属于商代晚期的双砣子三期文化③,但是从地域上看,它的分布范围远比双砣子三期文化有所扩大,除了辽东南部以外,还覆盖了辽东的北部地区和辽西平原地区的东缘.     

安徽怀宁孙家城遗址夹植物陶器初步研究

本文分别采用微观结构观察、成分分析和吸水率-密度测定等方法,对比共出的夹砂陶和泥质陶,对孙家城遗址较为典型的夹植物陶进行分析。陶器坯体微观结构显示夹植物陶疏松多孔,植物类孱和料呈现的形式主要有植物碎屑、炭化颗粒、植物印痕等,应与夹炭陶相区别。成分分析表明夹砂陶、泥质陶和夹植物陶所用的制陶原料存在差异性且一定程度上有重合,后两者在制作工艺上有相似之处且有别于夹砂陶,而且夹植物陶鼎的口沿、腹部、足部的原料和制作工艺也不同。陶器胎体断面元素含量的变化可能是制陶过程中有意为之,也或与烧制过程和器表施加陶衣相关。吸水率-密度分析显示夹植物陶的质地最为疏松多孔,质量最轻,而且吸水饱和后更为脆弱易碎。     

内蒙古林西县元代陶瓷器窖藏

2003年8月26日,内蒙古林西县下场乡代家窝铺村农民苏有来等人在哈什吐井子村韩凤林家后菜园子挖自来水沟时,在距地表1.3米的一个长方形土坑内发现42件元代陶瓷器。县文物管理所得知消息后,立即派王刚、李瑞丰与公安部门对该窖藏进行调查清理。土坑南壁已被韩凤林家盖房打墙取土时全部破坏,北壁长1.9米,东壁残宽0.6米,面壁残宽0.95米,深1.3米。42件陶、瓷器除一件瓷瓮和一个瓷罐外,其余39件均摆放在瓷缸里。出土的42件陶、瓷器已被林西县文物管理所征集收藏。一、地理位置及周围情况窖藏位于下场乡哈什吐村哈什吐井子自然村北,东西两边为连绵…