Modern plant δN values reflect ancient human activity

We have observed circumstances in which the ancient human activities that formed archaeological sites have left a strong imprint on the stable nitrogen isotopic ratio of the plants currently growing there. There is apparent meter-scale spatial variability and the effect can persist for at least several centuries. To our knowledge, this isotopic effect has not previously been reported. Here, we introduce this phenomenon and begin to consider its potential as an analytical tool in archaeological reconstruction.     

Understanding Abandonments in the North American Southwest

The North American Southwest is renowned for its rich archaeological record. Thousands of prehistoric houses and ceremonial centers remain partially standing or form mounds that mark prehistoric villages that were once actively occupied and remain important to the descendants. The visibility of archaeological remains has sparked interest in questions of abandonment among archaeologists and the lay public. We explore reasons for this interest, how it is manifest in archaeological research, and how perception of that research influences popular views of the past and of native people. Our focus is on explanations for the causes of site and regional abandonment as well as on explications of the processes by which abandonments occur. Essential to our perspective is the view that abandonment is a process that involves decisions to move, which may be promoted by dire circumstances, but which are most often settlement strategies. The process of moving requires economic, social, and political decisions about the places from which people move and to which they move.     

Evaluating the use of IKONOS satellite imagery in lowland Maya settlement archaeology

This article presents an extensive evaluation, in several contiguous or near-contiguous areas, of the viability of IKONOS satellite imagery in detecting sub-canopy Maya settlement in Peten, Guatemala. Initial research in and around San Bartolo, Guatemala, led to the conclusion that IKONOS imagery could be highly effective in detecting and predicting Maya settlement of the Preclassic and Classic periods, in zones of dense occupation near swampy lowlands known as bajos. The pioneering methods at San Bartolo are applied here to other regions in the Maya lowlands, but with mixed or unpromising results. Preliminary evaluation indicates that local climate, geology, hydrology, topography, pedology, and vegetation differ dramatically in these other regions, with consequences for wider application of the settlement signature discerned at San Bartolo. Possible reasons for these difficulties are offered in this paper, along with ways to strengthen the use of multispectral imagery in archaeological survey of tropical forests.     

Who speaks for Islam?: ‘authenticity’ and the interpretation of Islamic law in America's war on terror

Recognising that America's response to the events of 11 September would do well to maintain a sharp distinction between the ‘war on terror’ and a war ‘against Islam’, this article argues that American diplomatic rhetoric would benefit from an explicit effort to engage ‘frameworks of legitimacy’ within Islam, including the terms of Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic legal debate. The article examines the merits of such an approach in the context of several recent diplomatic dilemmas, including the Jyllens-Posten cartoon controversy. It concludes with an assessment of the American (domestic) political environment within which this approach tends to encounter its most ardent critics.     

Patterns of plant δN values on a Greenland Norse farm

In a further empirical study of the impact of past human activities on modern plant δ¹⁵N values, plants were collected in each of two growing seasons from several defined contexts of an inland Norse farm in southwest Greenland. The δ¹⁵N measures of the plants show a clear distinction between areas with definite evidence of past human activity and those without. The data for the plants on this farm's infield indicates that it was purposely fertilized. The intriguing intra- and inter-variations in the ¹⁵N values of plants from several structures are not easily explained, but the differences appear to reflect the different functions of the various farm structures. The findings of this study suggest practical applications for future use of plant δ¹⁵N values in archaeology.     

Bill Clinton and Welfare Reform: A Perspective from Oral History

Complicating the conventional wisdom, President Bill Clinton did not sign welfare reform legislation in 1996 for entirely short-term political reasons. Oral history interviews with administration officials demonstrate that his support for welfare reform was rooted in longstanding policy concerns and in his long-term desire to restore the Democratic Party to competitive viability.     

792 or 793? Charlemagne’s canal project: craft,nature and memory

In autumn 793, Charlemagne visited the fossatum magnum (the ‘big ditch’ or canal) between the Rhine and Danube. Excavations, dendrochronology and a re‐reading of Carolingian Annals shed new light on the chronology and setting of this canal, which was planned in 792, initiated in 793, and abandoned later that year. The abandonment is attested by both written and archaeological evidence. The different versions of the annals offer a unique opportunity for comparison with the archaeological record. Evidence that works of Vitruvius circulated in the Carolingian court suggests that Charlemagne’s advisers were drawing on classical tradition when they pitched the idea of digging the canal.     

‘Barons’ Wars,under Other Names’: Feudalism,Royalism and the American Founding

SUMMARY

The Machiavellian Moment was largely responsible for establishing what remains the dominant understanding of American Revolutionary ideology. Patriots, on this account, were radical whigs; their great preoccupation was a terror of crown power and executive corruption. This essay proposes to test the whig reading of patriot political thought in a manner suggested by Professor Pocock's pioneering first book, The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law. The whig tradition, as he taught us, located in the remote Saxon past an ‘ancient constitution’ of liberty, in which elected monarchs merely executed laws approved by their free subjects in a primeval parliament. This republican idyll, whigs believed, was then tragically interrupted by the Norman Conquest of 1066, which introduced feudal tenures and monarchical tyranny. Did patriot theorists accept this narrative? The answer, I shall argue, is strikingly mixed. By the early 1770s, appeals to the ‘ancient constitution’ had become less common in patriot writing. And by the end of the 1770s, many patriots had absorbed a completely different understanding of the feudal past—one pioneered by Royalist historians of the seventeenth century and then adapted by Scottish historians of the eighteenth. This shift reflects a broader transformation in patriot political and constitutional theory.     

北美西南部废弃行为研究

考古学家发掘的大多是废弃的遗址,我们过去在发掘和研究一处遗址或聚落时,可能很少有人关心它们废弃的原因,除非像庞贝古城这种极其特殊的灾难性案例。近来对环境考古的重视,这种关注开始出现,比如对齐家文化喇家遗址的灾难性事件和对萧山跨湖桥文化因海侵而消失的关注。本文提供了一种研究遗址废弃行为的范例,对我们的遗址发掘和聚落形态变迁研究颇具启发性。过去的研究往往将废弃看作是一种文化消亡或社会崩溃的结果,而现在则从环境、生计、人口、健康与疾病、营养条件、冲突、意识形态等原因所造成的推力和拉力来了解先民移动的生存策略。美国西南部以丰富的考古遗存而闻名。成千上万的史前房屋以及祭祀建筑仍旧有一部分保留下来,有些还形成了土墩,标志着这里曾分布着活动频繁的史前聚落。这些考古遗存激起了考古学家和普通民众对其废弃原因的兴趣。文章着重探讨了考古学家如何探究废弃的过程及原因。作者认为,废弃也是迁徙的过程。无论是狩猎采集社会还是早期农耕社会,环境波动和社会压力都会导致迁居移动(residentialmobility),而在大部分情况下迁徙是一种生存策略。迁徙过程通常也是个人、家庭和社群的一种决策过程,决定人们在何时迁往何地,并是否期望回来。突发灾难性事件以及不同决策的搬迁,都会在遗址中留下不同特点的物质遗存和遗迹。作者还根据西南部考古学研究成果,总结了四条有助于从考古物质遗存来判断废弃行为的经验标准。这也要求考古田野工作更加仔细地发掘和收集遗址中各种器物和迹象,分辨它们形成的原因和弃置形态,然后从生态环境、生计、社会结构和意识形态来探讨废弃过程,从而动态地重建个别遗址和区域聚落形态的变迁和兴衰。以本文的标准来判断三星堆祭祀坑的废弃方式,也许可以将其看作是当地遗址(聚落)废弃过程的终结性祭祀实践。