‘The debatable territory where geology and archaeology meet’: reassessing the early archaeobotanical work of Clement Reid and Arthur Lyell at Roman Silchester

The first large-scale archaeobotanical study in Britain, conducted from 1899 to 1909 by Clement Reid and Arthur Lyell at Silchester, provided the first evidence for the introduction of Roman plant foods to Britain, yet the findings have thus far remained unverified. This paper presents a reassessment of these archaeobotanical remains, now stored as part of the Silchester Collection in Reading Museum. The documentary evidence for the Silchester study is summarised, before the results are presented for over a 1000 plant remains including an assessment of preservation, identification and modern contamination. The dataset includes both evidence for the presence of nationally rare plant foods, such as medlar, and several archaeophytes. The methodologies and original interpretations of Reid and Lyell's study are reassessed in light of current archaeobotanical knowledge. Spatial and contextual patterns in the distribution of plant foods and ornamental taxa are also explored. Finally, the legacy of the study for the development of archaeobotany in the 20th century is evaluated.     

Protocol for lapis lazuli provenance determination: evidence for an Afghan origin of the stones used for ancient carved artefacts kept at the Egyptian Museum of Florence (Italy)

Despite that the Badakhshan Province (Afghanistan) remains the most plausible hypothesis for the lapis lazuli used in antiquity, alternatives proposed in literature are worth to study to confirm or disprove their historical reliability. In this work, a protocol for determining the provenance of lapis lazuli rocks used for carved artefacts is described. Markers for the univocal attribution of the raw material to a source were identified analysing 45 rocks of known provenance (among which 15 georeferenced) from 4 quarry districts. To the best of our knowledge, this reference database is the widest in provenance studies on lapis lazuli. All the markers are recognisable by means of Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) techniques, in particular micro-proton-induced x-ray emission (PIXE) and micro-ionoluminescence (IL). These techniques are non-invasive and applicable in air, allowing to analyse artworks and rocks of practically any shape and dimension without sample preparation.The protocol was applied to determine the provenance of raw material used for carved lapis lazuli artefacts kept at the Egyptian Museum of Florence, the second most important Egyptian museum in Italy, second only to the museum of Turin. The collection in Florence has a great historical value and includes several lapis lazuli pendants, scarabs, small statuettes and amulets ascribable mainly to the first millennium BC. Following the protocol, 11 of these artefacts were analysed by means of IBA techniques. Results ascribe the raw material to the Afghan quarry district.     

Transitions in Palaeoecology and Technology: Hunter-Gatherers and Early Herders in the Gobi Desert

The desert and arid steppes of Mongolia and northern China were geographically central to the spread of pastoralism and the rise of pastoralist states, but research on the organizational strategies of pre-pastoralist hunter-gatherers and the spread of herding has been extremely limited. Until recently, catalogues of sites collected by Westerners in the 1920s and 1930s comprised the body of English-language publications on Gobi Desert prehistory. This article introduces a wealth of new site-specific and interpretive data, drawing on English-language sources as well as Russian- and Mongolian-language publications to create a synthesis for the prehistory of the Gobi Desert from the end of the Last Glacial Maximum to the adoption of herding. Special emphasis is placed on the relationship between a major shift in desert ecosystems, comparable to the ‘greening of the Sahara’, the establishment of an oasis-based broad-spectrum foraging strategy, and progressive desertification and deforestation after 2000 BC. We conclude that an oasis-based adaptation was contemporaneous with the expansion of forests and wetlands and persisted throughout the early stages of herding. A major decline in these economies occurs after 1000 BC, in conjunction with continuing trends towards heightened aridity and major societal changes across Northeast Asia. The persistent co-existence of Bronze Age burials and microblade-based habitation sites around oases, as well as similarities in material culture, suggest that these groups overlapped geographically or were the same entity.     

The Early Iron Age at Troy Reconsidered

Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of Protogeometric ceramics at Troy supports a revision of our understanding of the site in the Protogeometric period. Previous interpretations of this period at Troy emphasized the importance of either Greek migration or Greek trade networks. A category of amphoras previously thought to be imports appears to have been made locally. NAA also indicates local production of a new class of handmade cooking pots, as well as more traditional Gray ware vessels. Analysis reveals a high degree of cultural continuity at Iron Age Troy, with inhabitants adopting and adapting a wider vocabulary of Protogeometric vessel types in the Aegean while integrating them with established local pottery traditions and resource use. The combinations of local and non‐local components seen at Troy are more consistent with long‐term dynamic Aegean interaction spheres than with more tenuous models of Aeolian migration or Euboian expansion.     

MtDNA origins of an enslaved labor force from the 18th century Schuyler Flatts Burial Ground in colonial Albany,NY: Africans,Native Americans,and Malagasy?

A burial ground located in the Town of Colonie, NY along the Hudson River revealed fourteen individuals dated from the 17th through the early 19th centuries. Bioarchaeological analysis suggested some of these individuals were of African ancestry who had worked and died on the property owned by the prominent Schuyler family. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis was carried out on skeletal remains of seven adults using restriction fragment length polymorphism typing and direct sequencing of the control region to infer their origins and relatedness. Results show that none of the individuals were maternally related, with four individuals identified as African haplogroup L, one identified as Native American haplogroup X, and two identified as haplogroup M and M7. Individuals of African ancestry correlate with published mtDNA data on African Americans and their geographical origins corroborate with the various exit points during the African slave trade to New York State. Individuals identified as haplogroup M7 and M resemble lineages found in Madagascar. Historical documents suggest several hundred people were imported from Madagascar through illegal trading to New York by the end of the 17th century. This study highlights the diverse origins of the enslaved labor force in colonial New York and contributes to our understanding of African American history in the northeast.     

Dating North Asian surface assemblages with ostrich eggshell: implications for palaeoecology and extirpation

East Asian ostrich (Struthio anderssoni Lowe) was thought to have become extinct sometime in the Late Pleistocene. Petroglyphs portray ostrich with Pleistocene animals, and ostrich eggshell (OES) fragments and ornaments from Holocene sites were considered to be older fossils. Here we summarize previous radiometric dates for ostrich eggshell (OES) and present 15 new calibrated accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates, indicating that ostrich survived in Mongolia and northern China until at least 8.9 ka BP. The dates in our sample population suggest a correlation between Struthio and warm steppe environments, with extirpation probably related to essential changes in Holocene steppe ecosystems including human expansion. This study assesses the usefulness of Asian OES for archaeological dating by AMS, constrains the date of Asian ostrich extirpation, and investigates palaeoenvironmental implications of ostrich survival and extinction.     

"Give the ladies a chance": gender and partisanship in the Prohibition Party, 1869-1912

In the nineteenth-century Prohibition Party, American women ascribed new gendered meanings to party work traditionally performed by male partisans, and also drew upon their gendered roles as women, mothers, and wives to create new partisan strategies. This article investigates the political culture that sustained a remarkable departure from traditional Democratic and Republican practices, and further explores why women's contributions to the Prohibition Party declined in the early-twentieth century. In so doing, it traces how gender and gender roles shaped the meaning of party and politics, and elucidates the interplay between institutions, constituencies, and policy during one of America's most tumultuous political eras.