How to Make an Unfired Clay Cooking Pot: Understanding the Technological Choices Made by Arctic Potters

Between about 500 a.d. and the late nineteenth century, clay cooking pots associated with the Thule culture were produced in the Arctic region. Ethnographic and archaeological records indicate that these vessels were typically underfired (often even unfired), highly porous, and easily broken. Despite these characteristics, the evidence indicates that they were used to heat water over open fires. In this paper, we examine how Arctic potters were able to produce unsintered vessels capable of holding liquids without disintegrating. We conclude that the application of seal oil and seal blood to the pot’s surface was the key to their success.

Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser,

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Geoarchaeological tsunami deposits at Palaikastro (Crete) and the Late Minoan IA eruption of Santorini

The explosive eruption at Santorini in the Aegean Sea during the second millennium BCE was the largest Holocene volcanic upheaval in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The eruption was disastrous for the Minoan settlements at Santorini, but the effect on human society in the neighbouring islands and regions is still clouded in uncertainty. Tsunami generation was suggested, but comparatively little evidence was found. The lack of firm tsunami traces is particularly puzzling in Crete with its coastal settlements of the Late Minoan IA period, during which the Santorini eruption occurred. Here, we report the discovery of extensive geoarchaeological tsunami deposits at Palaikastro in north-eastern Crete. These deposits are characterized by a mixture of geological materials, including volcanic Santorini ash, and archaeological settlement debris. Various tsunami signatures were identified: (1) erosional contact with the underlying strata, (2) volcanic ash intraclasts in the lower part of the deposit, (3) reworked building stone material in the lower part of the deposit, (4) individual marine shells, (5) marine micro-fauna, (6) imbrication of rounded beach pebbles, settlement debris, ceramic sherds and even bones, (7) multi-modal chaotic composition. Late Minoan human settlement activities at Palaikastro provided architectural and stratigraphic frameworks in space and time that recorded and preserved tsunami evidence as geoarchaeological deposits. Such stratigraphic resolution and preservation may not occur in the natural landscape. Volcanic ash transported by wind from Santorini south-east to Crete preceded the tsunami. Geological, archaeological and radiocarbon dating criteria all converge, indicating that the tsunami deposits are coeval with the Minoan Santorini eruption. Field evidence suggests that tsunami waves at Palaikastro were at least 9 m high. Inverse tsunami modeling was attempted, based on these newly discovered tsunamigenic deposits. The initial wave in the generation region at Santorini that best fits the stratigraphic data is a wave with +35 to −15 m initial amplitude and a crest length of about 15 km.     

A Vital Monastic Centre of the Jonang Tradition： The Grand Lamasery of Dzamthang

The entire Ngolok-Seta country between what is present-day＇s Ngolok （mgo-log）prefecture （Chin. Guoluo） in China＇s Qinghai province, Serta county in Kandse （dkar-mdzes）prefecture and the northwestern parts of modern Ngawa（rnga-ba） prefecture （Chin. Aba） in Sichuan was a white spot on the Ti-bet map until the mid-20th century. Particularly the districts defined by the present Ngawa and Dzamthang （Chin. Rangtang） counties were inaccessible for any foreign traveller in historic time. Ngawa already constituted an isolated Ti-betan cultural realm, yet Dzamthang to its west was a true hidden land. The latter is reached by a 18o km drive from the Ngawa prefecture＇s seat, Barkham （Chin. Ma＇erkang）, in less than half a day.     

Evaluating communicative planning: A revised design for performance research

This paper adds to the literature on the ‘performance’ rather than the ‘conformance’ of plans, relating the arguments to an issue that is under‐researched: the evaluation of communicative planning. With the ‘IOR‐School’, it argues that the purpose of planning is to improve the quality of decisions. To establish how plans can do that, the paper looks at the interaction between the maker of a plan and those responsible for subsequent decisions as a process of communication. Drawing inspiration from literature according an inalienable role to the reader of a text in interpreting it, the paper proposes a modified design for performance research.     

Fjord fishing in Mesolithic Western Norway

Recent excavations at two rockshelters (Olsteinhelleren and Sævarhelleren) on the Hardanger fjord in Western Norway have provided an unparalleled opportunity to examine the Mesolithic subsistence economy of this region. Thousands of fish remains (as well as numerous mammal and bird bones) have been analysed from these assemblages. Results show that the fishery was dominated by gadids, but labrids and salmonids were also important. Many other fish were present in small quantities, including the first specimen of sturgeon from the Stone Age of Norway. The transition to a more specialised fishery at the younger site, Olsteinhelleren, may be a reflection of a switch to the use of this locality as a logistic camp for the targeting of gadid fish.     

Sørenga 7: the reconstruction of a 17th‐century boat from Oslo harbour

In 2006, during the Immersed Tunnel Project in the harbour of Oslo, Norway, a c.9.4 m‐long boat was discovered. The boat was found in the area historically known as Sørenga, and was named Sørenga 7, following six other finds in the area excavated from the early 1970s to the 1990s. The boat was documented digitally piece by piece, and a scale model was made in cardboard and polyamide. The deposition of the boat in the transition between the 17th and 18th centuries focuses attention on life in the early modern harbour of Christiania (Oslo).