Pigments from the Zuiddorp (Zuytdorp) ship sculpture: red,white and blue?

SUMMARY: The Dutch East India Company ship Zuiddorp (also known as Zuytdorp) met its demise in 1712 at the base of steep cliffs along the Western Australian coast. Material from the shipwreck includes an extraordinary example of a caryatid herm from the ship’s stern counter. A recent study of this sculpture and the pigments found on its surface demonstrates Zuiddorp’s archaic stern construction and adornment, which is more of a late 17th-century, than an early 18th-century, Dutch Indiaman. This paper discusses the results of this study and emphasizes how the smallest pieces of evidence can broaden our understanding of contemporaneous regional Dutch East India Company shipbuilding practices.     

Calcium oxalate AMS C dating and chronology of post-Palaeolithic rock paintings in the Iberian Peninsula. Two dates from Abrigo de los Oculados (Henarejos,Cuenca, Spain)

Since 2005 we have been utilizing accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴C dating in research on calcium oxalate crusts associated with open air rock art of the Iberian Peninsula. In this paper we present two dates linked with three eye-idol pictographs at Abrigo de los Oculados (Henarejos, Cuenca, Spain). Radiocarbon ages for these motifs agree with the expected iconography-based archaeological chronology. Such oxalate dates could provide an independent basis for evaluating chronological theories for post-Palaeolithic sites, designated in the UNESCO World Heritage List as Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula.     

The Macro‐Regional Scale of Silver Production in Iberia During the First Millennium BC in the Context of Mediterranean Contacts

The extraction of silver has traditionally been considered as one of the main incentives for the Phoenician expansion throughout the Mediterranean and their settlement in Iberia. In this paper, we approach the organization of silver production in Iberia during the Early Iron Age through the study of the evidence of production currently available and the development of Lead Isotope Analysis (LIA). Previous results (Hunt 2003; Stos Gale 2001; Kassianidou 1992) are considered in the light of new data. The extraction of silver from complex minerals noticeably intensifies in south‐west Iberia. Imports of exogenous lead, needed for the extraction of silver from these complex minerals, are evident. Supplies of lead come in from other regions of Iberia, such as Gádor, Cartagena/Mazarrón, Linares or even the mining district of Molar‐Belmunt‐Falset (MBF) in Catalonia. This picture reveals that the organization of silver production was much more complex than initially thought, with the articulation of an exchange network of raw materials at a macro‐territorial scale embracing almost all Iberia. The socioeconomic implications that control of these networks of lead distribution could have had are also discussed.     

Intra-skeletal variability in trace elemental content of Precolumbian Chupicuaro human bones: the record of post-mortem alteration and a tool for palaeodietary reconstruction

This study applies an intra-skeletal sampling strategy to examine post-mortem alteration of archaeological human bone from west Mexico, and to reconstruct ancient diet. Human bone from the Chupicuaro culture (Mexico, Preclassic period) constitutes an ideal material with which to examine subsistence strategies because the specific hydrothermal environment in which the population lived would have provided certain food components (hydrothermal waters and carbonates) with distinct signature in Ca, Mg, F, Li, Sr, Mn, V and U values. Four to ten samples were taken from the long bones of six skeletons. Bone trace element content (Ca, P, F, Mn, Mg, Na, Li, V, Zn, Rb, Sr, Ba, Y, La, Ce, Nd, Th, U) and bone alteration parameters (crystallinity, organic matter and secondary calcite content) were analysed at the intra-skeletal level. Stable isotopic signatures (bone δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O_carbonate) and histological analyses were also performed on a single bone from each individual. Results indicate that all of the skeletons were affected by post-mortem mineralogical, structural and geochemical transformations. Biological bone δ¹³C values seem preserved for most of the individuals but an increase in crystallinity accompanies depletion in bone δ¹⁸O values. The combination of bone alteration parameters with bone elemental content shows that in this very specific context, a widespread dissolution-recrystallisation is unlikely. Of the hydrothermal tracers, Sr, F and Li were of particular interest because their retention in living tissues is related to the amount ingested. The intra-skeletal Li content does not reveal any pattern but Li depletion is not excluded. In contrast, Sr and F show a progressive intra-skeletal diagenetic enrichment likely due to gradual diffusion–adsorption processes. The bones with the lowest concentrations in these elements are assumed to yield the best representative ante-mortem values. The signal extracted from each skeleton, a very unusually high bone Sr, F and Li content, is interpreted as reflecting the consumption of the local hydrothermal products, which are also enriched in these elements.     

Testing for Spatial Independence Using Similarity Relations

In this article, we construct new, simple, and nonparametric tests for spatial independence using symbolic analysis. An important aspect is that the tests are free of a priori assumptions about the functional form of dependence, making them especially suitable in situations where the dependence is nonlinear. We define the concept of a similarity relation, which is used to keep track of similarity between neighboring observations. This similarity count is used to construct new statistical tests based on both random permutation simulations and derived asymptotic distributions. We include a Monte Carlo study to better illustrate the properties and the behavior of the new tests under several synthetically generated processes. Apart from being competitive compared with other nonparametric and parametric tests, results underline the outstanding power of the new tests for nonlinear‐dependent spatial processes.     

Archaeological implications of human-derived manganese coatings: a study of blackened bones in El Mirón Cave,Cantabrian Spain

The main interest in the study of taphonomic processes lies, from the archaeological point of view, in being able to draw conclusions about human behaviour from them. This paper analyzes the causes of a specific taphonomic alteration: the differential appearance across levels and among site areas of a black stain on bones from the Magdalenian levels in El Mirón Cave. From an understanding of these taphonomic agents, we aim to achieve a better comprehension of aspects of human use of the cave toward the end of the Late Glacial period. By determining the processes that stained many of the bones with manganese in the rear part of the cave vestibule, we are able to suggest some characteristics of the human occupation of the cave and its possible seasonal use.