Young people's lived experience of the ‘street’ in North Lakes master planned estate

This article explores young people's lived experience of the ‘street’, defined as outdoor public/private spaces, such as streets, shopping centres, corner stores within a Master Planned Estate in Australia. A strong market-based planning rationale has significantly constrained young people's access to, and use of, public space and the public realm. Young people are often left with little option but to occupy spaces through paths of least resistance or subversive use of space. Private developers require stronger regulatory oversight and a shared vision with planning authorities for the creation of appropriate spaces for young people.     

Providing Cultural Context for ‘Sacrifice of the Social Outcasts’

In ‘Sacrifice of the Social Outcasts’, C.L. Kieffer proposes that the disabled formed a socially marginal group that might have been preferentially targeted for human sacrifice in ancient Maya society. Extensive ethnohistoric and iconographic evidence exists that the disabled and deformed held high status in pre‐contact Mesoamerica precisely because of their physical disabilities and played well‐defined social roles. Several incidences of the sacrifice of these individuals are produced, but they are associated with extraordinary events. The actual cultural context suggests that the sacrifice of a disabled individual may have larger social implications. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Paleoclimates and the emergence of fortifications in the tropical Pacific islands

Paleoclimatic data from the tropical Pacific islands are compared to archaeological evidence for fortification construction in the Holocene. The results suggest that in some regions, people constructed more fortifications during periods that match the chronology for the Little Ice Age (AD 1450–1850) in the Northern Hemisphere. Periods of storminess and drought associated with the El Niño Southern Oscillation have less temporal correlation with the emergence of fortifications in the Pacific, but significant spatial correlation with the most severe conditions associated with this cycle. These temporal and spatial correlations require additional study to investigate possible causal relationships.     

Assessing the effects of conservation treatments on short sequences of DNA in vitro

Little is known about what effects conservation treatments used to preserve human and animal hard and soft tissues have on DNA preservation. We have developed a method to assess quantitatively the extent of lesions or strand breakage caused by conservation treatments on short sequences of DNA in vitro. The method developed enables the determination of the percentage of DNA preserved following exposure to a conservation treatment solution relative to control samples, thereby allowing the direct comparison of treatments based upon their preserving/damaging effects on a DNA sequence. Forty-three chemicals commonly used in the preparation and/or conservation of human and/or animal remains were examined. We found that the majority were damaging, in particular and as expected, acidic treatments and treatments carried out at elevated temperatures. A few, primarily organic solvents, were not damaging. The approach we have adopted can be applied to screen other treatments either used in the past or for future conservation applications as they are developed to assess their effects on DNA. How these results should be interpreted in terms of conservation and sampling is also discussed.     

Metallurgical findings from a Viking Age chieftain’s farm in Iceland

The metalworking, metal import, and use of metal in medieval Iceland is still little understood. When the Scandinavian settlers colonized Iceland in the 9th c. AD, the island was found to contain no useful metal deposits save for bog iron, and the deforestation that followed the settlement resulted in a scarcity of wood. Only in the last decades have archaeological excavations begun to unravel how the first Icelanders dealt with this lack of resources. This paper presents the metallurgical findings from a Viking Age chieftain's farmstead at Hrísbrú in the Mosfell valley, located just outside Iceland’s present-day capital Reykjavik. The excavated metal objects had all been crafted with good workmanship employing technology similar to that used in mainland Scandinavia. However, most excavated metal finds show evidence of re-use, which together with the second-grade metal in some of the objects indicates a shortage of raw material that prompted the Icelandic colonizers to improvise and make do with whatever material was at hand.     

Introductory Remarks

The author introduces the articles in this special issue of the journal, which draw on historical and architectural data to interpret the past and focus on French identity in the New World. The introduction stresses the importance of interdisciplinary studies to historical archaeological interpretation.