Classifications of Sacred Space: A New Understanding of Mass Rock Sites in Ireland

As locations of a distinctively Catholic faith, Mass Rocks are important historical, ritual and counter-cultural sites that present a tangible connection to Ireland’s rich heritage for contemporary society. Recent authors have begun to fill a gap in published literature yet few go beyond traditional assumptions. This paper offers a more contemporary approach to the study of Mass Rocks based on extensive field research in county Cork. It argues for the introduction of new and innovative classifications that expand the accepted archaeological definition and proposes a set of criteria for the more robust verification of potential sites.     

A Contemporary Archaeology of Cultural Change in Rural North-Western Spain: From Traditional Domesticity to Postmodern Individualisation

This paper explores the built environment in two rural areas of Northwest Spain that were historically inhabited by two of the so-called “cursed peoples.” Combining contemporary archaeology and material culture studies, we analyze the role played by the house in processes of socio-economic and cultural change, and in the reproduction of internal hegemony within villages. To do so, we study the tensions and connections existing between the transformations undergone by the built environment during the last century and different socio-economic processes, including the depopulation of the rural areas, their conversion into tourist attractions, and the current process of individualisation of subjectivity in line with the transformations taking place in the postmodern era.     

A Context for Concealment: The Historical Archaeology of Folk Ritual and Superstition in Australia

Are there traditions of folk ritual practice in Australian historical contexts, and are they observable in the archaeological record? Studies from the US and UK have documented a range of practices suggesting the persistence of British and European traditions of folk magic well into the twentieth century and previous historical work has identified numerous examples of ritual concealments in Australian buildings. In examining over 4,500 Australian historical archaeological sources, however, we found very few examples of possible folk ritual practices. This raises the question of why such practices are not being captured by current archaeological recording methods. As counterpoint, a general model is constructed from US, UK and Australian work that raises intriguing possibilities for the situating of superstitious behavior in Australian historical archaeology, including the contexts in which people might be more prone to practise such behaviors and how they might be materially identifiable.     

Zooarchaeology and Changing Food Practices at Carrizales,Peru Following the Spanish Invasion

Through analysis of zooarchaeological remains from two occupations at the site of Carrizales, we examine how an indigenous Peruvian maritime community responded to imperial interventions in their daily lives in the late sixteenth century. Following their forced resettlement into a planned reducción village, and amidst demographic decline and tribute extraction, Carrizales’s residents significantly changed how they put food on the table, pursuing less time-intensive strategies of food collection and incorporating Eurasian animals into their diets. These results illustrate the dynamism of relations between imperial political economies and domestic life and the efficacy of indigenous survival strategies.     

The Structural and Functional Complexity of Hunter-Gatherer Technology

The complexity of hunter-gatherer technology has been measured by counting artifact parts or production steps. There are a variety of alternative approaches to the measurement of artifact or system complexity. If technological complexity is assumed to reflect the complexity of the problem (or amount of entropy reduction) that the artifact is designed to address, the most appropriate measure of technological complexity is functional design complexity, which entails application of the entropy formula from information theory to the making and using of an artifact and the results obtained by its use. Functional complexity is related to structural or hierarchical complexity, because the entropy formula can be represented as a hierarchy (or step-by-step reduction of entropy) and the functional differentiation is related to the structural differentiation of an artifact. Another approach to hunter-gatherer technological complexity entails definition of a class of “complex artifacts” on the basis of general design characteristics (e.g., incorporation of moving parts). The most structurally and functionally complex artifacts are those that possess multiple states, either through changes in the physical relationship between parts (or sub-parts) during use or through structural differentiation. Although functional complexity is difficult to measure, structural or hierarchical complexity may be measured—and multiple-state artifacts may be counted—with adequate ethnographic and archaeological data on hunter-gatherer technology.     

Tin‐Rich Surface Decoration of Chinese Bronzes: A Case Study of the British Museum Collection

In this paper six bronze artefacts of the Eastern Zhou period to Han dynasty (770 BC ‐ 220 AD) with tin‐rich surface decoration in the British Museum collection were studied using a variety of analytical techniques. The decoration patterns include trellis patterns (菱形纹) on two swords of the Yue state, tiger's striped patterns (hu‐ban‐wen, 虎斑纹) on two swords from the Ba‐Shu region, a hexagonal star pattern (六角星纹) on a spearhead of the Wu state, and a cloud‐like pattern on a garment hook. The tin‐rich decorations on those objects were produced by deliberate tinning processes; at least three different tinning techniques were used, including the use of tin‐rich pastes for the trellis pattern of a Yue state sword and for the mottling decoration on the Ba‐Shu swords, amalgam tinning for the hexagonal star pattern on the spearhead of the Yue state, and hot tinning for the cloud‐like pattern of the garment hook. Different tinning techniques could have been applied to produce similar tin‐rich decoration patterns, and vice versa, a single tinning technique could have been used to produce different tin‐rich patterns on different objects.     

Archaeology on both sides of the iron bars

La conmemoración anual de la llegada de Colón a América como se experimenta en Argentina proporciona un foco para la definición de preguntas acerca de la comprensión de la arqueología como conocimiento. Para los grupos Indígenas es el aniversario del último día de la independencia de las poblaciones aborígenes. Los arqueólogos deben cuestionarse su posición cuando estudian el mundo y los objetos indígenas. Las interpretaciones de los “pioneros” arqueólogos argentinos son discutidas junto con el concepto de “la ruptura metafísica” sobre la que la arqueología construye su objeto, esa ruptura entre el mundo indígena subjetive y el mundo del conocimiento arqueológico. En el siglo XXI quedan preguntas pendientes acerca de la arqueología que, si es vista como una práctica descolonizadora, debe implicar su propio proceso de descolonización. Proporciona la Arqueología de Un Mundo el contexto para continuar esta tarea descolonizadora?

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Résumé La commémoration annuelle de l'arrivé de Christophe Colomb en Amérique, comme c'est le cas en Argentine, donne l'occasion de se concentrer sur des questions de définition concernant la compréhension de l'archéologie comme source de connaissance. Pour les groupes autochtones, cette journée est la dernière de leur indépendance. Les archéologues devraient se demander comment ils se positionnent quand ils étudient le monde et les objets autochtones. Les interprétations des “pionniers” argentins de l'archéologie sont discutées en lien avec le concept de “d'écart métaphysique” sur lequel l'archéologie construit son objet: cet espace entre la réalité du monde des autochtones et des archéologues qui revendiquent la connaissance à travers la méthode scientifique. Au 21ième siècle, il y a encore des questions à demander concernant l'archéologie, qui même si elle est per?ue comme une pratique décolonisatrice, doit inclure le processus de décolonisation d'elle-même. One World Archaeology procure une contexte pour continuer cette tache de décolonisation?

     

Looking ahead

La coeditora K. Anne Pyburn felicita a Nick Shepherd por el primer número de la revista y propone como tema para el segundo número el tema “Ense?ando Arqueología como un Acto Revolucionario”, que ella misma editará.

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Résumé La coéditrice, K. Anne Pyburn, félicite Nick Shepard pour le premier numéro et présente le thème du prochain numéro qu'elle éditera: Enseigner l'archéologie comme un acte révolutionnaire.

     

Make-Believe rituals: Reflections on the relationship between archaeology and education through the perspective of a group of children in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil

Este ensayo reporta sobre investigaciones entre un grupo de ni?os escolares brasile?os que fueron entrevistados para ver como ellos consideraban la arqueología, como su conocimiento del pasado afecta su comprensión del presente, y como su experiencia del presente les informa su vista del pasado.

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Résumé Ce papier présente des recherches menées parmi un groupe d'écoliers brésiliens afin de savoir comment ils voient l'archéologie, comment leur connaissance du passé affecte leur compréhension du présent et comment leur expérience du présent renseigne leurs vues du passé.

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[T]he miracle that we would hope for from the bottom of our hearts, the school as a preserved universe, island of purity—in which all disparities and social struggles would come to a stop, this miracle does not exist: the school is part of the world. (Snyders 1977:18)     

Religion,politics and socio-cultural change in twentieth-century ireland

The Catholic Church assumed vast power and influence in early twentieth century Ireland based on political, social and religious developments in the course of the nineteenth century. The first Irish governments under Costello and de Valera were deferential in relation to the power and place of the Catholic Church in Irish life. The 1950s represented the final phase of the dominance of the Catholic Church. Since then, a wide variety of influences from emigration to the mass media to issues related to family planning have undermined the social framework of Church dominance in Irish life. By highlighting the ideas and arguments of priests and prelates, this article summarizes the remarkable changes that have come to Ireland undermining the status and privilege of the Church in Irish politics and society.