Sea bird fowling in southern Patagonia: a contribution to understanding the nomadic round of the Canoeros Indians

As well as providing data on meat yield, avian remains can be expected to give information on seasonality, an important parameter for understanding prehistoric hunting economies. An archaeological survey conducted in the Skyring Sea (Province of Magellan, Chile) between 1992 and 1994 provided bird bone assemblages that have been analysed with this aim in mind, of which 12 are discussed here. Cormorants and steamer ducks constitute 97 per cent of the specimens identified. The proportions of avian remains are compared with the mammals remains, and mostly show a predominance of the former. The status and seasonal distribution of animal resources are discussed in order to understand the motivation for such a specialization on bird hunting, when mammals (Artiodactyls and Pinnipeds) can bring a much higher yield of meat. This nomadic marine economy can best be understood when comparisons are made with other sites from the same cultural area. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lithopedion as an archaic occurrence

Identification of a 3100-year-BP lithopedion in the Archaic Southwest antedates its first clinical notation by 2100 years. It was only the ‘autopsy’ of time (excavation of the site) that allowed its presence to be brought to light.     

From the Archives: Pacific Research Archives

The Pacific Research Archives (PRA) is one of three national collections held in the archives at the Australian National University (ANU). This paper describes the origins of and relationships among the three core archival collections: the Noel Butlin Archives Centre, the ANU University Archives and the Pacific Research Archives. The entire ANU Archives boasts over 20 kilometres of records, largely held in the ‘Acton Tunnel’, an underground car park redeveloped as a repository. Established in 2007, the Pacific Research Archives includes over 150 collections created by scholars, missionaries, colonial administrators, organisations and individuals who were working, or had interests, in the Pacific Islands in the politico-cultural regions of Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia. This paper traces the origins of the university’s role as a leader in Pacific studies, the context in which the Pacific Research Archives was created in 2007 and its current method of operation in a collaborative and digital world.     

Increasing Behavioral Flexibility? An Integrative Macro-Scale Approach to Understanding the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa represents a period during which anatomically modern humans adopted a series of diverse cultural innovations. Researchers generally attribute these behavioral changes to environmental, neurological, or demographic causes, but none of these alone offers a satisfactory explanation. Even as patterns at site level come into focus, large-scale trends in cultural expansions remain poorly understood. This paper presents different ways to view diachronic datasets from localities in southern Africa and specifically tests hypotheses of environmental and cultural causality. We employ an array of analyses in an attempt to understand large-scale variability observed during the MSA. We evaluated the diversity of stone tool assemblages to model site use, examined transport distances of lithic raw materials to understand patterns of movement, assessed the cultural capacities required to manufacture and use different sets of tools, applied stochastic models to examine the geographic distribution of sites, and reconstructed biome classes and climatic constraints. Our large-scale analysis allowed the research team to integrate different types of information and examine diachronic trends during the MSA. Based on our results, the range of cultural capacity expanded during the MSA. We define cultural capacity as the behavioral potential of a group expressed through the problem-solution distance required to manufacture and use tools. Our dataset also indicates that the actual behavior exhibited by MSA people, their cultural performance as expressed in the archaeological record, is not equivalent to their cultural capacity. Instead we observe that the main signature of the southern African MSA is its overall variability, as demonstrated by changing sets of cultural performances. Finally, at the scale of resolution considered here, our results suggest that climate is not the most significant factor driving human activities during the MSA. Instead, we postulate that behavioral flexibility itself became the key adaptation.     

The Opening of the Coconut Curtain: Pacific Influence on the World Council of Churches through the Campaign for a Nuclear-Free Pacific, 1961 to 2000

This paper investigates the influence of Pacific Church leaders within the wider forum of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and their promotion of Pacific concerns – primarily the campaign for a nuclear free Pacific and other ecological concerns. The 1975 WCC Assembly held in Nairobi marked the move of the WCC from a predominantly North Atlantic body to a fully global one, with an emphasis on African issues and with Pacific church leaders elected to the WCC Central Committee. From 1975 the Pacific presence increased within the WCC, with a Pacific President from 1991. In an interesting example of the interaction of local and international activism, Pacific church leaders both used links with the ecumenical body to educate themselves on theology, science and campaigning skills, and used the platform of WCC Assemblies to bring their concerns to a worldwide audience.     

A little souvenir: the Marquess and the Mycenaean columns

This is a study of change over time, both in attitudes to objects, and in the manner of their collection. The example of a pair of columns from a Mycenaean tholos tomb, the so-called 'Treasury of Atreus' at Mycenae, serves as a point of departure for discussion of the value of material culture in the context of archaeology's emergence as a discipline.