Life on a Pixel: Challenges in the Development of Digital Methods Within an “Interpretive” Landscape Archaeology Framework

This paper provides a personal account of the challenges of developing digital methods within an interpretive landscape archaeology framework. It reviews current criticisms leveled against the use of model-based tools, e.g., GIS-based, within this framework. Currently, the absence of, or distance between, methods and theory is considered to be an important limitation when adopting such orientation. This gap is largely due to the particular nature of the theoretical sources informing this framework. This paper suggests the need for middle ground/bridging concepts, i.e., concepts that enable the instantiation within concrete archaeological contexts of various aspects discussed within an interpretative framework, as a way to shorten this gap. It also highlights the importance of the nature of representations when applying digital methods and their key role when producing new archaeological information. Finally, it attempts to elevate the role that model-based methods and simulations can play within an interpretive landscape framework, and to insist on the development of new middle ground solutions (methods and concepts) when existing tools do not meet our theoretical challenges.     

Late Miocene continental birds from the Cerro Azul Formation in the Pampean region (central-southern Argentina)

Cenizo, M.M., Tambussi, C.P. & Montalvo, C.I., iFirst Article. Late Miocene continental birds from the Cerro Azul Formation in the Pampean region (central-southern Argentina). Alcheringa, 1–22. ISSN 0311-5518.

The oldest known birds from the Cerro Azul Formation are described, including the oldest records for the genera Eudromia and Nothura (Tinamidae), Milvago (Falconidae), Pterocnemia (Rheidae) and an undetermined Tyrannidae. The first remains of Phorusrhacidae for this formation are reported and a specimen previously referred to the giant teratorn Argentavis magnificens is reassigned to this family. We outline and update the current knowledge of the groups studied herein. The palaeornithological record from the Cerro Azul Formation is congruent with palaeoenvironmental inferences previously drawn from mammalian assemblages recovered from this unit, which point to the existence of open environments, possibly xerophyllous shrubby steppes, perhaps with some trees. These records are the first indications of a typically Pampean bird fauna at the end of the late Miocene in central-southern Argentina.     

Book reviews

Abraham Ben‐Zvi, Decade of Transition: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Origins of the American‐Israeli Alliance. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Pp. 218, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 0 23111 262 9 HB, 0 23111 263 7 PB.

Kenneth W. Stein, Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin, and the Quest for Arab‐Israeli Peace. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. Pp. xix + 324, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 041592 154 6 HB.

Antonio Donno (ed.), Ombre di guerra fredda. Gli Stati Uniti nel Medio Oriente durante gli anni di Eisenhower, 1953–1961. Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1998. Pp. 754, bibliography, notes. ISBN 8 88114 584 7 HB.

Raanan Rein, In the Shadow of the Holocaust and the Inquisition: Israel's Relations with Francoist Spain. Trans. Martha Grenzebach. London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1997. Pp. 278, Notes, sources, bibliography, index. ISBN 0 71464 796 9 HB, 0 71464 351 3 PB.

Alan Dowty, The Jewish State: A Century Later. Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 2001. Pp. xiv + 337, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 0 52020 941 9 PB.

Daniel Gavron, The Kibbutz: Awakening from Utopia. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Pp xvi + 295, glossary, selected bibliography, index. ISBN 0 84769 526 3 HB.

Nahum Karlinsky, Citrus Blossoms: Jewish Entrepreneurship in Palestine, 1890–1939. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2000. Pp. 1 + 315, bibliography, indices. ISBN 9 65493 089 7 HB.

Yaacov N. Goldstein, From Fighters to Soldiers: How the Israeli Defense Forces Began. Brighton, UK, and Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 1998. Pp. ix + 302, forward by Yoav Gelber, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 1 90221 001 8 HB, 1 90221 002 6 PB.     

Pastoralist iron production on the Laikipia Plateau, Kenya: wider implications for archaeometallurgical studies

Recent research conducted on the Laikipia Plateau in Kenya highlighted several shortfalls in the existing models for understanding and interpreting past iron production technologies. The research was undertaken in order to assess variability in past pastoralist iron production techniques – the first such archaeometallurgical exploration in the region. In all, seven furnaces and one iron production refuse area were excavated across two discrete sites separated by only 3 km: Mili Sita and Cattle Dip, both dating to the second half of the second millennium AD. The recovered archaeometallurgical materials – slag, furnace wall, and tuyères – were analysed using a combination of optical microscopy, SEM-EDS and ED-XRF.The results revealed that the technologies in question were complex and sophisticated, and their reconstruction and interpretation required some special considerations. The exploitation of titania-rich black sand was observed to bear a major influence on the resulting slag compositions at both sites, and use of these specific materials resulted in consistently efficient smelting episodes, demonstrating the technical competence and skill of the past smelters. However, although the slag compositions and microstructures of all the samples were markedly similar between the two sites, striking stylistic variation was apparent in the furnace design. This raised questions not only about the organisation and identity of the smelters who were working in this area at this time, but also of the reliability of assuming that similar slag compositions – peculiar as these might be – reflect similar technological (or sociotechnical) systems (cf. Pfaffenberger, 1992). A further problem encountered was that the consequently ulvite-rich slag was comprised of five, not three, major constituents – titania and lime in addition to iron oxide, alumina and silica. This meant that the operating parameters of these smelting episodes could not be easily interpreted using the usual models, which tend to be based around the assumption of fayalitic slag.As such, this paper will discuss to what extent consistency in technological style, in a broad, sociocultural sense, can be inferred through slag analysis, as well as the need for the formulation of wider reaching models that encompass the full scope of technical variation in iron production.     

Prehistoric copper production and technological reproduction in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of Central Thailand

This paper concerns the identification and explanation of change in prehistoric extractive metallurgical behaviour in the Iron Age Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand. This metallurgical complex is amongst the largest in Eurasia and constitutes Southeast Asia's only documented pre-modern copper-smelting evidence. The two Iron Age smelting sites investigated, Non Pa Wai (NPW) and Nil Kham Haeng (NKH), provide a sequence of metallurgical consumption and production evidence from c. 500 BCE to c. 500 CE. The enormous quantity of industrial waste at these sites suggests they were probably major copper supply nodes within ancient Southeast Asian metal exchange networks. Seventy-six excavated samples of mineral, technical ceramic and slag from NPW and NKH were analysed in hand specimen, microstructurally by reflected-light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy and chemically by polarising energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The analytical data were used to generate detailed technological reconstructions of copper-smelting behaviour at the two sites, which were refined by a programme of field experimentation. Results indicate an approximately 1,000-year trend of Valley copper smelters' improving technical proficiency from what may be an experimental phase of production in the mid-first millennium BCE. This amelioration in production was accompanied by a substantial increase in the human effort of copper extraction. This shift in local ‘metallurgical ethos’ is interpreted as a response to rising regional demand for copper in late prehistory.     

Attempts at an Arab‐Jewish agreement in Palestine during the thirties

The article argues that a central aspect of Israeli-Polish relations before 1967 was their tripartite nature, involving the two states and Polish Jewry. The main goal of Israeli diplomacy in Poland, to which it subordinated a variety of interests, even those that were central to Israel's foreign policy, was the immigration to Israel of Polish Jewry. The three elements of the triangular relations (Israel, Poland, and Polish Jewry) influenced one another through their policy and behavior, monitored each other, interpreted each other's actions, and reacted accordingly. The aliyah from Poland engendered a new dynamic in the relations. Israel was able to implement its nation-building policy through the immigration of a desired element, and the Polish authorities, by allowing emigration of an unassimilable ethnonational minority, homogenized the nationalizing Polish state. After the massive emigration of the Jews, another element connecting and reshaping the three sides of the triangle emerged: the competition to represent the memory of Polish Jewry, conceived, too, as an instrument in the nation-building process of both states.     

Large carnivore attacks on hominins during the Pleistocene: a forensic approach with a Neanderthal example

Interaction between hominins and carnivores has been common and constant through human evolution and generated mutual pressures similar to those present in worldwide modern human-carnivore conflicts. This current interaction is sometimes violent and can be reflected in permanent skeletal pathologies and other bone modifications. In the present paper, we carry out a survey of 124 forensic cases of dangerous human-carnivore encounters. The objective is to infer direct hominin-carnivore confrontation during the Pleistocene, which is important to understand behavioral changes during human evolution. In addition, the case of Neanderthals is analyzed in order to find evidence of past attacks using forensic observations. The results obtained pose that Neanderthals could potentially have been involved in dangerous encounters during the Pleistocene, validating our methodology to approach past attacks from a forensic perspective.     

Metals,microanalysis and meaning: a study of metal objects excavated from the indigenous cemetery of El Chorro de Maíta,Cuba

This is the first publication reporting systematic analytical research conducted on archaeological metals from Cuba. The main focus of the study consists of beads and small metal objects excavated at the cemetery of El Chorro de Maíta, which comprises some of the richest funerary deposits so far recovered on the island. Some comparative samples from the nearby site of Alcalá were also investigated, with an emphasis made on the manufacture, composition and origins of the different alloys. The resulting picture is that members of the social elite of the indigenous Taíno peoples were buried with beads made of placer gold exploited locally, gold–copper–silver pendants brought from continental South America and, above all, brass lacetags from European clothing that were perceived as sacred metals. The archaeometallurgical approach offers fresh insight into the relationships between Europeans and Taínos, and the impact of colonization on the indigenous customs, values and social structures.     

The Lower Palaeolithic on the northern plateau of the Iberian Peninsula (Sierra de Atapuerca,Ambrona and La Maya I): a technological analysis of the cutting edge and weight of artefacts. Developing an hypothetical model

This article analyses the relationship between the weight and cutting edge of lithic artefacts from the main Lower Palaeolithic sites on the northern plateau (Meseta) of the Iberian Peninsula. The weight and cutting edge of a tool determine its cutting ability and the amount of force it is capable of, making them extremely important aspects of study to further our understanding of the potential capacity for human intervention in the environment. However, the analysis of these features has not received much attention in the ongoing debate on the Palaeolithic era in Europe. This study argues that the quantitative and qualitative technological analysis of these two aspects is of fundamental importance in determining the potential of lithic assemblages.