New Fathoms in Scientific Exploration: The DeepWrecks Project

Modern technology lends itself to holistic exploration and widely accessible outreach. New technology allows scientists studying our planet either from space or deep under the seas, to explore and reveal both natural and cultural resources that have previously escaped our scrutiny. However, the use of these new technologies is expensive and often the exclusive tool of industrial research. Yet, these new technologies can lead the way to greater collaboration, better science and more public access. In 2003 and 2004, a landmark project, combining government agencies, industrial technology and outreach set new standards in collaborative scientific exploration. The project focused on six shipwrecks at depth in the Gulf of Mexico. The questions posed by the project illuminate how science and industry can collaborate to produce remarkable results. The papers presented in this issue form a model for deepwater exploration.     

Archaeology of the Border Fort Achiras,Córdoba (1832–1869)

During the nineteenth century, the existence of a southern border in the Córdoba province resulted from a complex situation where an expanding national state was inserted into a global economic system and into an environment occupied by various Indian groups. This situation created a mixed society on the borderlands. The military line was defended by forts, with one of them being the Achiras Fort (1832–1869). The fort was situated at the end of the mountain range of Comechingones. This paper considers the archaeological investigation of this fort. The most important and consistent part of the archaeological record is the Command. The Command was formed by two rooms. This work also presents the results of the excavations into the fort and describes the archaeological remains found. Finally, a general model for archaeology in the South Córdoba Border is presented.     

Beneath the Rising Sun: “Frenchness” and the Archaeology of Desire

This article takes the case of “rouge pot” fragments found in an archaeological context in New Orleans’ French Quarter associated with the circa 1822 Rising Sun Hotel and investigates the discourses and desires that shape our interpretations of artifacts. We argue that archaeological, historiographic, and public desires overlap and inform one another in a complex web of relations. In New Orleans, the particular web into which the archaeology of cosmetic jars and hotel sites can fall is spun by the ways in which the former French colonial capital is sexualized in both textbooks and folk songs.     

Looking over the Archaeologists’ Shoulders: Web-based Public Outreach in the Deep Wrecks Project

This article presents a case study of how the PAST Foundation partnered with other agencies and organizations to develop a successful public outreach website focusing on the Gulf of Mexico “Deep Wrecks” project in the late summer of 2004.     

Animate Objects: Shell Trumpets and Ritual Networks in the Greater Southwest

For over a millennium, shell trumpets have been an important part of Southwestern US ritual practice. We investigate the distribution of Southwestern shell trumpets, arguing that they are objects that are accorded animacy and can be used to track the history of different social networks. Using ethnohistoric and ethnographic documentation, at least two traditions of historically linked ritual practices are identified: one associated with serpent iconography and the other with curing, warfare, and sorcery. These two traditions represent enduring dispositions that link various regions of the Southwest through the introduction and adoption of ritual practices associated with migration and the transformation of late prehistoric societies.     

A Science Journalist’s Perspective

A critique of papers in the session on Archaeology and War.

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Résumé  Une critique d’articles concernant la session portant sur l’archéologie et la guerre.

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Resumen  Una crítica sobre los trabajos de la jornada sobre arqueología y guerra.

     

Animal electricity at the end of the eighteenth century: the many facets of a great scientific controversy

In the 1790s, Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta were the main protagonists of a lively debate on the role of electricity in animal organisms. Significant developments originated from this debate, leading to the foundation of two new disciplines, electrodynamics and electrophysiology, that were to play a crucial role in the scientific and technological progress of the last two centuries. The Galvani-Volta controversy has been repeatedly reconstructed, sometimes in an attempt to identify the merits and the errors of one or the other of the two protagonists, sometimes with the aim of demonstrating that the theories elaborated by the two Italian scholars were irreconcilable, reflecting completely different ways of looking at phenomena and conceiving of scientific research. In this article a different interpretation is offered, based on a discussion of the scientific issues that were central to Galvani's and Volta's research, and with reference to the context of science and society of the eighteenth century.     

Age of the final Middle Palaeolithic and Uluzzian levels at Fumane Cave,Northern Italy,using C,ESR, U/Th and thermoluminescence methods

This article presents and discusses the chronological layout of the final Mousterian and Uluzzian levels of Fumane Cave in northern Italy using ¹⁴C, ESR and TL methods. Given its complex sedimentary and cultural succession, Fumane is a key site to assess the Middle–Upper Palaeolithic transition in Southern Europe and to explore Neanderthal behaviour and to compare it with the first Aurignacians. Large ranges defined by the ESR and TL dates cover the radiocarbon ages for units from A11 to A4, respectively, from 42.8 to 32.5 ka BP become progressively younger in agreement with the stratigraphy, despite high dispersions within the same unit. Our estimates using chronometric data seem to support the hypothesis that the sequence may cover almost 10,000 radiocarbon yr and that from comparison with the sedimentological and palaeoecological data, the late Middle Palaeolithic and the early Upper Palaeolithic at Fumane occur in sediments formed under moderately cool to mild climatic conditions correlated to the Hengelo-Interstadial, shifting towards cooler and drier conditions. Finally, comparisons between the Fumane data set and other sites in the North-Adriatic region are discussed.