New Insights on the Palaeo-archaeological Potential of the Niokolo-Koba National Park,Senegal

The study of the Palaeolithic in Senegal has made considerable progress in the last decade and has provided a renewed vision of the behavioral evolution of prehistoric populations in West Africa. The cultural trajectories within the region seem to be highly variable and bear witness to strong behavioral dynamics, the mechanisms of which still need to be better understood. However, the number of reliable, dated, and stratified sites, as well as the palaeoenvironmental data providing a context for populations in their palaeolandscapes, is still scarce. In order to provide new and solid data, we conducted new archaeological survey in the Niokolo-Koba National Park in south-central Senegal, aiming at a preliminary identification of Pleistocene and early Holocene sedimentary deposits. Here, we report an overview of the newly discovered industries found in different contexts. Most of the 27 identified sites show surface and out-of-context assemblages, but other sites are stratified and have all the criteria to justify the development of a long-term archaeological, geochronological, geomorphological, and palaeobotanical project. The Niokolo-Koba National Park, through which the Gambia River flows, is characterized by an abundance of sources of knappable material and by well-preserved sedimentary sequences. Therefore, archaeological research in the Niokolo-Koba National Park has the potential to provide major milestones in our understanding of the evolutionary dynamics at work in West Africa during the early periods of occupation of the region.

     

New Boundaries of Influence in Highland Papua: ‘Culture’, Mining and Ritual Conversions

This article considers the new boundaries of influence among Fuyuge speakers in the Udabe Valley (Central Province, Papua New Guinea [PNG]). These new boundaries have arisen through the conjunction of epochal shifts implicating the PNG State, and local forms of ritual. On the one hand the PNG State's particular advocacy of widespread resource extraction is coupled with its need to comply to signed agreements of international bodies such as the World Trade Organization. Both have consequences for the way boundaries are newly conceived with respect to the ‘land’ (‘landowners’) and with respect to ‘culture’ (‘cultural property’). On the other hand, peoples such as the Fuyuge create and recreate local boundaries of influence through the performance of ritual conversions ‐ as regards persons, place names, or collective names. At the same time a local Fuyuge perspective on ‘culture’ suggests that its boundaries be delineated, analogous to the definitions of boundaries for ‘landowners’ compelled by mining operations. The article highlights connections between these local changes and the current concerns of PNG academic scholars to mandate the protection of localised PNG cultural property, an outgrowth of current epochal alterations.     

The Battīl and Zārūqah of Musandam,Oman

Most of the traditional boats still in use in Musandam, Oman, are essentially batātīl or zawārīq. Both types of vessel are described and compared in detail and placed within the larger context of boat types found in the surrounding region. This article attempts to establish a classification based primarily on shape, construction and decorative features, and provides names of individual components in both in Arabic and Kumzari.     

The Pottery Informatics Query Database: A New Method for Mathematic and Quantitative Analyses of Large Regional Ceramic Datasets

There is an increasing demand within the humanities and social sciences to use computers to analyze material culture and discover patterns of historical and anthropological significance. Using southern Levantine Iron Age (ca. 1200–500 BCE) ceramics as a test case, the Pottery Informatics Query Database (PIQD) provides a novel solution for constructing regional ceramic typologies. Beyond digitally archiving 2D/3D-scanned ceramics, the PIQD encodes ceramic profiles as mathematical representations. This method of digital preservation enables rapid queries to be conducted in a mathematically grounded approach. In this sense, the queries are similar to online Basic Local Alignment Search Tool searches developed in the field of genetics by rapidly associating large quantities of digital vessel profiles to each other based on similar morphological traits. The PIQD is an open-source online tool that enables scholars and students to test humanities-related hypotheses against ceramic data in ways that conventional publications or other databases cannot provide. Regional spatial patterning of the ceramic data is delivered over a Google Earth-based user interface. In this paper, we present the PIQD as an objective method for developing a comprehensive ceramic typology of an entire region of archaeological study and provide an arena to conduct novel scientific research. We then demonstrate through a case study its analytical capabilities to handle large datasets of 3D scans and digitized 2D ceramic profiles and generate cultural inferences with the ceramic assemblages of the Iron Age II “Edomite” region located in modern southern Jordan. PIQD adds an important methodological tool to the post-excavation cyber-archaeology tool box.