The Development of Ancient States in the Northern Horn of Africa,c. 3000 BC–AD 1000: An Archaeological Outline

Beginning in the 3rd millennium BC, complex societies and states arose in the northern Horn of Africa. This process culminated with the development of the Kingdom of Aksum in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea in the 1st millennium AD. The development of these polities can be outlined in principle on the basis of the archaeological evidence. The process consisted of at least two distinct trajectories to social complexity, indirectly related to each other in the Eritrean–Sudanese lowlands and the Eritrean–Ethiopian highlands, respectively, with a shift in the location of complex societies from the lowlands to the highlands in the early 1st millennium BC. This shift was due to changes in the general pattern of interregional contacts between the regions facing the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean along the Nile Valley, Red Sea and western Arabia from the 4th millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD.     

Matter Out of Time: The Paradox of the “Contemporary Past”

Contemporary archaeology, with its focus on the present and the very recent past, challenges the conventional definitions of archaeology that emphasize the temporal distance between the archaeologist and the subject matter being investigated. Contemporary archaeology requires different methods, forges novel interdisciplinary collaborations, and inspires new questions. In particular, contemporary archaeology reminds us that all social actors, both in the present and in the past, were uncertain of the future and could not know the outcomes of their actions.     

茶叶和鸦片在早期经济全球化中的作用——观察19世纪中国危机的一个视角

Alongside military conquest which characterized great part of globalization during the 19^th century, the globalization of markets no doubt was its main manifestation. Addictive consumption goods played a leading role during this process, as observed in the case of China, tea and the opium trade had the largest impact. Owing to the importance of Britain’s growing demand for tea and its concomitant tax revenue, Anglo-Chinese trade became the dominant trade that Britain had in the East. To make up the trade deficit with China, Britain took advantage of its Indian colony and did its best in expanding its opium trade. Within this triangular trade scheme, Britain was the master, India was the instrument, and China was the ultimate victim. Confronted by the irresistible trend of globalization, China was ill prepared when facing this challenge leading to a complete failure in both military and commercial warfare and later on to an overall crisis in the 19^th century.     

"随嫁田"与宋代富家妇女的经济地位

Prosperous families in the Song Dynasty maintained the custom that a daughter went to her husband’s household with a piece of land to ensure her economic position. During the Song Dynasty, the economic status of women from wealthy families was maintained at a high level. Neo-Confucian doctrines attempted to change the situation largely but they failed, even though during the Southern Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism gradually rose to stand as the national ideology. Some people clamored for the Southern Song Dynasty regime to eliminate or to limit the custom of bridal dowry land in private, but the majority still favored the judicial practice in the protection of the wife’s right to her property.     

Worker Housing in the Vermont Copper Belt: Improving Life and Industry Through Paternalism and Resistance

During the mid-nineteenth century, east-central Vermont supported two major copper mines and their associated villages. In order to wrest thousands of tons of copper from the earth these mines, the Elizabeth and Ely mines, hired and housed thousands of miners, laborers, and their families. Both mines pursued the same resource in the same environment during the same period, but the Ely Mine developed a centralized village, while the Elizabeth Mine housed its workers in isolated housing clusters. The causes of these differences in worker housing can be traced to differences in scale, setting, and managerial philosophy, and can be analyzed within the larger historical context of Improvement and the larger ethnographic context of paternalism in mining communities.     

The genetic signature of a shrunken head

The making of ritual shrunken heads, or tsantsas, was a common practice among the Jivaro-Shuar tribes of Ecuador and Peru during the post-Columbian period. The raising interest in the tsantsas in the late nineteenth through the twentieth century caused an increase in manufacturing of forged shrunken heads for profit. In the current study, we examined the authenticity and possible cultural provenance of the shrunken head displayed at the “Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv” using macro- and microscopic criteria together with DNA analyses. DNA analyses have revealed that the shrunken head represents a human male individual with a genetic profile compatible with an African ancestry and resembling that of modern South American populations.     

The Archaeology of Native Societies in the Chesapeake: New Investigations and Interpretations

Archaeological studies of Native American societies in the Chesapeake have recently incorporated a broader range of interpretive frames, including those that emphasize historical contingency and social interaction rather than cultural ecology and cultural materialism. New evidence of Woodland-period population movements, persistent places, and cycles of social ranking has prompted historically oriented interpretations that foreground particular configurations of ideology, tradition, ritual, and agency. Contact-period studies have demonstrated that native strategies of the colonial period were rooted in precontact social landscapes. Contemporary American Indians are also reclaiming their pasts in ways that challenge archaeological practices and further broaden perspectives on the Chesapeake past.     

Phytolith assaying using a micron-scale electrokinetic sorting ring

A particularly useful indicator of past vegetation are phytoliths, glassy products of plant metabolism which have distinctive size and morphology based on the plant taxa which produced them; however, their analysis is a time-consuming task. Building on investigations into mobilizing and sorting of synthetic polystyrene microspheres using a closed loop rectangular microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) electrokinetic array, we investigate these devices’ utility for sorting natural microparticles. Using phytolith samples extracted from archaeological sediment, we show that closed loop MEMS can separate the glassy bodies from both mineral contaminants and each other. Also, small differences in polarization between the phytoliths cause lateral segregation between particles of different sizes and shapes. This process facilitates manual analysis by providing a motive force to the phytoliths that translates and rotates them, showing different configurations as they are propelled by the MEMS array. The organization of the phytoliths into streams also opens the door to automated analysis using image processing. Phytolith assaying is therefore feasible using a MEMS electrokinetic ring and merits additional research to explore the potential of this innovative approach.     

The Contribution of Behavioral Archaeology and the Research of Michael B. Schiffer to the Discipline

I evaluate the impact of Behavioral Archaeology within the discipline, focusing particularly on the contributions of Mike Schiffer who originally proposed the approach and has continued to be the primary advocate. I suggest that Behavioral Archaeology has made several key contributions over the last four decades. However, to answer most of the broad range of questions of interest to the discipline, a variety of complementary methodological and theoretical approaches must be employed.     

Flush with the Past: An Insight into Late Nineteenth-Century Hungate and its Role in Providing a Better Understanding of Urban Development

The discovery in 2007 of the remains of a late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century communal toilet block within the Block E excavations at Hungate, York, has delivered an important insight into the development of the Hungate area across this period. Re-contextualizing this discovery, from the local to the global and back again, challenges the official historical narratives of Hungate and the dissimilar archaeologies of the modern city.