The stone circle sites of Komaland,northern Ghana,in West African archaeology

An Iron Age complex which flourished around the fifteenth to the seventeenth century AD is currently under investigation in Komaland, northern Ghana. The complex is known chiefly from its numerous burial sites characterized by stone circles and earth mound superstructures, and containing human and animal burials, domestic pottery, milling stones, metal implements and cast figures, together with ubiquitous and distinctive terracotta sculptures. This paper discusses the findings from the first season's excavation and their significance in West African archaeology.

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Résumé Des recherches actuellement en cours portent sur un complexe de l'Age du Fer, qui a prospéré entre le 15e et le 17e siècle après J.C., en Komaland, au nord du Ghana. Le complexe est connu surtout par ses nombreux sépultures caractérisées par des cercles de pierres, avec comme superstructures des tumulus de terre où se trouvent des inhumations de humains et d'animaux, de la céramique domestique, des molettes, des outils en métal, et des figures coulées, avec des sculptures en terre cuite ubiquistes et distinctives. Cet article présente des résultats de la première saison de fouilles, et discute de leur signification dans l'archéologie de l'Afrique Occidentale.

     

Glacial Stratigraphy of the Upper Mersey Valley,Tasmania

The upper Mersey Valley was glaciated on three occasions during the Pleistocene. The youngest, Rowallan Claciation, probably commenced after 28000 years B.P. The maximum ice limit was attained before 13500 years B.P., and retreat occurred before 10000years B.P. Deposits associated with Rowallan Glaciation are weakly weathered chemically. They overlie moderately weathered deposits that were formed during the Arm Glaciation, which is inferred from relative dating data to have occurred before the Last Interglacial Stage. North of the deposits and ice limits of the Arm Glaciation extremely weathered tills and rhythmites occur. They were formed by ice of the Croesus Glaciation which is inferred to be of Early Pleistocene age or older.     

Tin Mining and Sediment Supply to the Ringarooma River,Tasmania, 1875–1979

Tin mining, based largely on alluvial tin deposited along the line of the ancestral Ringarooma, began in 1875 and reached a peak in the period 1905-9. Output declined thereafter and, following a brief recovery during the Second World War, had virtually ceased by 1981. Neither the methods, location nor level of production remained constant during the mining era. The widespread use of hydraulic sluicing and the proximity of many mines to the main river were major factors contributing to the high rate of sediment supply, with the Briseis mine at Derby being the dominant source. Based on data from published and unpublished papers, and mine records, the variable nature of that supply was estimated using a procedure which takes account of the effects of storage and changing practices. Many input points supplied material but the overall pattern is one in which downstream reaches made later starts and reached later peaks, suggesting that they will continue to experience the effects of an increased sediment load for some time.     

Hunter-gatherer adaptations and assemblage structure

There is a growing tendency to conceive of hunter-gatherer adaptations as points on a yardstick, with foragers at one end and collectors on the other. Such a view limits our perspective and may trap anthropologists into seeing these categories as steps in an evolutionary progression. It is more productive to think of human adaptation as an N-dimensional space, with individual cases occurring at the intersections of the various dimensions. When this viewpoint is taken, it becomes clear that a search for a single dimension in archaeological data that can be used to characterize all prehistoric adaptations is unlikely to be fruitful. This paper explores the multidimensionality of hunter-gatherer adaptive behavior and reviews those archaeological manifestations that are empirically or logically linked with various dimensions of three components of adaptation: mobility, predation, and technology. Those manifestations with the greatest potential for characterizing prehistoric hunter-gatherer adaptive strategies are identified as measures of mobility type, frequency, stability, scheduling, demography, and range; predation mode, breadth, and scheduling; and the time budgeting and storage dimensions of technology. A subset of these measures is evaluated by comparing assemblages from the late prehistoric Columbia Plateau with expectations derived from ethnographies written on the same local area.     

The logic of the herd: A computer simulation of archaeological herd structure

The advent of new techniques of dental ageing has permitted inferences about the age-structures of ancient animal populations on the basis of faunal remains. Unfortunately, inference from archaeological populations of faunal elements to the age-structure of ancient herds is fraught with both sampling problems and logical difficulties. The relationship between a living herd—a dynamic system characterized by growth—and a static archaeological population is more complex than that assumed by current models based on kill-off patterns and survivorship curves. Using a computer simulation, these logical relationships are explored, and the effects of herd growth on the composition of live and death populations are evaluated. By employing the simulation within a deductive framework, constrained by ethnographically derived criteria for reproduction, mortality, and economic viability in the Near East, it is possible to determine whether certain archaeological kill-off patterns could represent viable herding systems. Examples were found to vary widely in terms of both demographic plausibility and economic viability. Some implications for the possible course of ova-caprine domestication in the Near East are discussed.