Temporal nature and recycling of Upper Paleolithic artifacts: the burned tools from the Molí del Salt site (Vimbodí i Poblet,northeastern Spain)

Recent research in Paleolithic archeology has stressed the importance of temporal issues in assemblage interpretation. Archeological assemblages are temporal constructs, formed by the addition of an unknown number of depositional events. This temporal dimension is also evident at the artifactual level, since single artifacts may undergo different events of modification and/or uses over time. The recycling of previously discarded blanks for tool production is one of the best examples of the temporal nature of artifacts. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the importance of recycling in a Late Upper Paleolithic site, examining a type of artifact – burned tools – that has up to now been little used to approach this issue. Our results suggest that recycling was probably a significant component of Upper Paleolithic provisioning behavior, with important implications in site formation processes and the typological variability of assemblages. The expedient or curated character of recycling is also discussed.     

KNOWLEDGE MATTERS: THE LONG‐RUN DETERMINANTS OF STATE INCOME GROWTH*

ABSTRACT State per capita income differences narrowed considerably between 1939 and 1976. However, this convergence has been incomplete. We examined the sources of relative per capita income growth using an augmented growth model and a panel of the 48 contiguous states from 1939 to 2004. We explored the effect of tax burdens, public infrastructure, size of private financial markets, rates of business failure, industry structure, climate, educational attainment, and technology production. Our results show that a state's technology and its college attainment rates are the main factors that allow some state's per capita income to remain above those of other states.     

Persistence of the cultural landscape in Campania (Southern Italy) before the AD 472 Vesuvius eruption: archaeoenvironmental data

Cultural landscapes were prominent during the Early Roman period when agronomic knowledge allowed the spread of intensive land exploitation in most of the available land. The aim of this contribution is to explore whether for the Campania region (Southern Italy) archaeoenvironmental data would support continuity or change in the cultural landscape of Roman tradition in the 4th and 5th centuries. To do so, new data from two sites located on the northern slopes of the Vesuvius, both buried by the AD 472 eruption have been investigated. Charcoal analysis, ¹⁴C dating, and chemical analysis of organic residues were carried out in order to study the landscape and the food production at these sites. The results suggest the persistence of the Roman cultural landscape until the 4th and 5th centuries in this area. The landscape is in fact strongly marked both in agriculture and woodland exploitation and management, being characterized by managed chestnut forests as well as valuable cultivations of walnut, large vineyards, olive groves, and probably orchards and crops. The integrated approach with archaeobotanical and archaeometric analyses proves to be a powerful method for the study of the past landscapes, providing a good insight into the environment. Furthermore, this study provided the most ancient evidence of chestnut silviculture for wood.     

pXRF: a study of inter-instrument performance

Integrating portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) instrumentation into archaeological investigations has generated as much interest as skepticism because several characteristics of the technique limit analytical accuracy and precision. This paper seeks to explore inter-instrument performance in order to assess the potential pXRF instrumentation has in examining the elemental composition of lithic raw materials. Two pXRF instruments, Delta and Omega models both manufactured by Olympus Innov-X Systems, were utilized to obtain the trace element signatures of five fine-grained volcanic sources and four obsidian sources in the Great Basin. We compared the two portable instruments to a wavelength-dispersive instrument extensively calibrated with geologic standards and to a commercial benchtop energy-dispersive system. Our results suggest that the relationships between the data produced by these different instruments are complex, and as we look to the future of pXRF use in archaeological analysis we argue that that the same strict protocols applied in laboratory-based XRF analyses, involving instrument calibration, evaluation of inter-instrument performance, and comparison to accepted geologic standards, need to be applied in pXRF analysis.     

Geomorphological setting and Native American acquisition of buff-firing ceramic clays in the Lower and Middle Gila River Valley, Arizona

This study addresses buff-firing clay sources in dynamic alluvial settings along Arizona’s Gila River in the U.S. Southwest. We establish clay resource distribution relative to the geomorphic histories of the Lower and Middle Gila River based on 38 clay samples and ethnographic data from two US Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) projects. Buff-firing clayey alluvium, deposited in the Gila River floodplain 800 to 1,500 or more years ago, was a surficial ceramic raw material source for prehistoric Hohokam and lowland Patayan potters. This geomorphic unit was later removed in some places and buried by up to 3-4 m of sediment in others, reducing the availability of buff-firing clays in the Hohokam Classic period and requiring historic Pee Posh and Akimel O’odham potters to dig pits to access it. Sources were further destroyed in catastrophic floods in the late 19th and early 20th century, affecting ceramic manufacture patterns and ultimately contributing to the decline of pottery production by the O’odham living in the Gila River Valley. Our results contribute to regional ceramic ecology and should also be of interest to others investigating alluvial clay use in general or buff-firing alluvial clays in particular. The study also illustrates the value of combining geomorphic and ethnographic data to examine major changes in resource distribution and use.     

THE COLOURED TESSERAE DECORATING THE VAULTS OF THE FARAGOLA BALNEUM (ASCOLI SATRIANO,FOGGIA, SOUTHERN ITALY)

Twenty‐six tesserae (red, orange, yellow, light amber, green, blue and white) from the balneum of the villa at Faragola (Ascoli Satriano, Foggia) have been examined by colorimetry, ICP–MS, ICP–OES and SEM–EDS. Different types of calcareous sands have been used as the source of silica (network former), also providing the stabilizing agent. A natron‐type soda source served as the network modifier; however, the use of a sodium‐rich plant ash and the recycling process have been hypothesized for the production of two tesserae (FT 1 red and FT 3 orange). The colouring and opacifying agents were Cu oxide (cuprite, orange), metallic copper (red), Pb antimonates (yellow), Ca antimonates (white), a mixture of copper (Cu²⁺) and Pb antimonates (green), a mixture of cobalt (Co²⁺) or copper (Cu²⁺) and Ca antimonates (blue). The light amber tesserae should owe their colour to iron (Fe³⁺) alone or associated with sulphide (S^2?) and Ca antimonates. It is likely that the Faragola tesserae were locally produced in a secondary glass workshop.