Le médiéviste,le lignage et l'effet de réel

This paper tries to understand how «lineage» became a key-notion by medievalists when dealing with the field of kinship about the medieval aristocracy, although it is quite an unsuitable notion. Beside the role given to medieval kinship by the social and scientific imagination which prevailed when the historical sciences were formed in the XIX^th century, an important part is played by the creation of a discourse on «lineage» in late medieval aristocracy, linked to a redefinition of the modes of reproduction of seigniorial power, a vector of which must be found by means of representation portraying a durable kin-group, especially through the formation and transmission of «family archives». Historians submitted to the reality-effect of documentary bodies, which were transmitted and were but a historical social construction, did not pay enough attention to the genuine meaning of the archivistic structure. They believed they had found the «reality» of a social organization while they had merely perceived its ideational aspect- and thus, they contributed to the social construction of «lineage».     

Early Neolithic Agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula

The spread of agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula is documented from at least ca. 5600–5500BC, although botanical data are absent or very limited for large areas. Archaeobotanical information shows from the beginning an imported agrarian system with a great diversity of crops: hulled and naked wheats and barleys, legumes such as pea, lentil, fava bean, vetches and grass peas, flax and poppy. This diversity of plants with different requirements, processing and uses, implies that the first farmers quickly imported or acquired a wide range of agrarian knowledge. Regional and inter-site agrarian differences are discussed in relation to factors like ecology, culture, use of the cultivated plants and management of the risk of crop failure. The adoption of farming resulted in significant ecological, economic, dietary, and social changes for the Neolithic people of Iberia.     

Analysis of Plant Microfossils in Early European Latrine Fills from Russell,Northern New Zealand

Microfossil analysis of latrine fills from the early European (1830s) settlement of Russell, northern New Zealand, provides direct evidence for diet. Microfossils identified include pollen of maize (Zea mays), Brassicaceae (e.g., mustard, broccoli), Allium type (e.g., onion) and mint (Mentha), and starch grains of maize and potato (Solanum tuberosum). Wetland microfossils (pollen and algal spores) provide clues to source and quality of drinking water.     

The Consumptive Ruins Archaeology of Consuming Past in the Middle East

After the collapse of Ottoman Empire and division of old Iran, the new geography of Middle East needed new identities. The ancient mythical past could not respond the new idea of identity anymore; because of that, the archaeological past replaced the mythical ones. All over the Middle East, the heaven of archaeologists, was excavated; ancient ruins were recovered and redefined. In such a context, the archaeological evidences remained in the hands of Middle Easterner governments. During mid-1960–1970s, Pan Arabism and Pan Aryanism both raised in the region. In both Iran and Syria, the governments celebrated ancient empires. Such festivals have been known responsible for further fundamental thoughts relevant to archaeological past. The world witnessed the demolish of Palmyra ancient ruins by ISIS. Such an action is the other site of propagandist abuse of ancient ruins by governments. Both consume the past, and both try to redefine it: one in form of demolishing and the other in form of propaganda. In this article, the authors endorsed on various forms of consuming the past in the Middle East by opposition groups and by governments.     

The Epipaleolithic (Iberomaurusian) from Grotte des Contrebandiers,Morocco

First identified 100 years ago, the Iberomaurusian is an Epipaleolithic industry that was described from a number of sites across western North Africa. One of these is Grotte des Contrebandiers (Smugglers’ Cave) in Morocco, where Abbé Jean Roche recovered Iberomaurusian materials in excavations in the late 1950s. Although the lithics were published in the early 1960s, subsequent changes in methods and in assessing the interpretive potential of lithic assemblages necessitated a restudy of these collections from Contrebandiers. This study led to a better understanding of the lithic types present and of the use of particular stone raw materials. Iberomaurusians emphasized lithic strategies that maximized use of fine-grained stone to the extent that pièces esquillées should be, among others, a defining criterion for this lithic industry.     

Prehistory of Native Americans on the Central American Land Bridge: Colonization,Dispersal, and Divergence

The Central American land bridge has served as a passageway for animals and humans moving between North and South America. Nevertheless, after the first waves of human immigration at the end of the Pleistocene, contact between the native peoples who remained on this isthmus and other peoples living in continental areas where civilization ultimately developed, is characterized, according to the field record, by the transfer of crops, technologies, and goods, until ca.1400 BP when speakers of Mesoamerican languages occupied the northwestern edge (Gran Nicoya). The ancestors of modern-day speakers of Chibchan and Chocoan languages underwent social and cultural diversification mostly within the confines of the land bridge. Some Precolumbian residents altered vegetation immediately after first arrival at least 11,000 years ago, and began to add domesticated crops to their subsistence inventory between 9000 and 7000 BP. Maize and manioc (or cassava), domesticated outside the land bridge, were introduced in Preceramic times, early in the period between 7000 and 4500 BP, and gradually dominated regional agriculture as they became more productive, and as human populations increased and spread into virgin areas. Diversity in material culture is visible ca. 6000 BP, and becomes more apparent after the introduction of pottery ca. 4500 BP. By 2000 BP culture areas with distinctive artifact inventories are discernible. Between 2500 and 1300 BP hierarchies among regions, sites, social groups, and individuals point to the establishment of chiefdoms whose elite members came to demand large numbers of costume and sumptuary goods. A few special centers with stone sculptures and low-scale architecture served a social universe larger than the chiefdom, such as clusters of recently fissioned social groups with memories of a common heritage. Social interactions on the land bridge, endowed with productive bottomlands, highland valleys, and coastal habitats, appear always to have been strongest among neighboring groups.     

European Regional Studies: A Coming of Age?

This article reviews current developments in European regional studies. A brief history of settlement archaeology as practiced in Europe is followed by a discussion of new approaches to regional analysis and surface survey. I argue that recent, steady investments in the technology, methods, and theory of regional archaeological analysis and surface survey have stimulated advances in the study of settlement patterns and settlement pattern change through time in many parts of Europe. When innovative technologies (e.g., remote sensing, GPS, GIS), methods (e.g., geoarchaeology, “siteless” survey), and new theoretical frameworks (both processual and postprocessual) have been combined, breakthroughs in our understanding of European settlement have resulted. In the last half of the article, I describe some of these breakthroughs in a broad discussion of European settlement history, beginning with the earliest prehistory of Europe through the Middle Ages. Shifts in perspective are particularly apparent for phases of transition: from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic, Paleolithic to Mesolithic to Neolithic, and with the rise and expansion of states.     

Reassessing the Emergence of Village Life in the Near East

This article reassesses the timing, context, and impetus for the onset of sedentary, complex hunter-gatherers, food production, and village life in the Near East during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Drawing on recent paleoclimatic and archaeological results, I argue that sedentism and then village life were rapid rather than gradual events that occurred during optimal climatic conditions and took place in resource-rich settings. These two social milestones included fundamental changes in economic strategies, social interaction, and ideology. Only by understanding the interplay between preexisting social institutions and human agency within communities prior to and during these periods of major social change will we be able to understand how and why food production began.