Children’s Burial Grounds in Ireland (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cilliní</Emphasis>) and Parental Emotions Toward Infant Death

Cilliní—or children’s burial grounds—were the designated resting places for unbaptized infants and other members of Irish society who were considered unsuitable by the Roman Catholic Church for burial in consecrated ground. The sites appear to have proliferated from the seventeenth century onwards in the wake of the Counter-Reformation. While a number of previous studies have attempted to relate their apparently marginal characteristics to the liminality of Limbo, evidence drawn from the archaeological record and oral history accounts suggests that it was only the Roman Catholic Church that considered cilliní, and those interred within, to be marginal. In contrast, the evidence suggests that the families of the dead regarded the cemeteries as important places of burial and treated them in a similar manner to consecrated burial grounds.     

Geoarchaeological studies on Roman time harbour sediments in Cologne — comparison of different OSL dating techniques

Due to the construction of a new North-South subway in Cologne, Roman time harbour sediments were exposed and were sampled for luminescence dating. A very good independent age control was given by the precise knowledge of the chronology of Roman activity and by radiocarbon ages of charcoal samples. Hence, different methodological approaches within luminescence dating were applied for Holocene heterogeneously bleached fluvial samples and were compared to the known ages. For one sample, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating was applied to coarse-grained quartz using a single aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR) protocol. After D_e-measurements, different statistical approaches were tested (i.e. arithmetic mean, median, minimum age model, finite mixture model, leading edge method and the Fuchs and Lang approach). It is demonstrated that the Fuchs and Lang approach along with the leading edge method yielded the best matching OSL ages with respect to the known ages.     

Taxonomic characterisation of fresh Dipterocarpaceae resins by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS): providing clues for identification of unknown archaeological resins

Plant and particularly non-wood forest products have played an important role in the evolution of human cultures all over the world, as source of food but also of raw substances fulfilling material, spiritual, and medicinal requirements. Plant exudates and particularly dammar resins (Dipterocarpaceae family) were widely used in the past in Asia notably as waterproofing and caulking materials. This study focuses on the GC–MS chemical characterisation of freshly collected dammars and establishes new molecular parameters enabling discrimination between dammars and other types of plant resin, whatever their botanical origin. Such analyses provide clues for a precise identification (taxonomy, occurrence of other material in addition to the resin, alteration state) of unknown resinous material discovered in archaeological contexts. The value of our approach is illustrated by the taxonomic characterisation of two samples collected in jars from the Brunei wreck and a Chinese junk lost more than 40 km off the Sultanate of Brunei during the end of the fifteenth century or the early beginning of the sixteenth century.     

Stimulated Variation and Cascades: Two Processes in the Evolution of Complex Technological Systems

Michael Schiffer’s theoretical and methodological contributions to archaeology are substantial. For the last two decades, Schiffer has become increasingly interested in the history of electrical technology, including portable radios, electric automobiles, eighteenth-century electrostatic technology, and, most recently, nineteenth-century electric light and power systems. Schiffer has long held a behavioral view, which focuses analytical attention on interactions between humans and material things, including complex technological systems (CTSs). For Schiffer, two key aspects of the evolution of CTSs are stimulated variation, defined as an increase in invention resulting from changing selective conditions, and cascading, defined as sequential spurts of invention that occur through the recognition of emergent performance problems in a CTS. To attain maximum usefulness, these concepts should be placed in a modern evolutionary framework that correctly identifies, and does not oversell, the role played by cultural selection. Research on individual and social learning provides the critical link between Schiffer’s stimulated variation and cascade models and the diffusion of CTSs.     

Dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating of subfossil wood from the Morava River basin

The paper deals with dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating of subfossil trunks found in the basin of the Morava River. The research into subfossil trunks had been conducted in the Czech Republic in the past but the research stopped in 2001. 160 records of measurements of subfossil, predominantly oak trunk samples, are preserved from that time. Three years ago the research was reopened and again the most trunks were found in the basin of the Morava River. 92 samples of oak trunks and 7 samples of other tree species (poplar, elm, maple, beech) were taken from selected sites. The samples were processed in compliance with the standard dendrochronological methodology. To date the samples, Czech, Austrian, Polish and German standard chronologies were used. In cases when the dendrochronological dating was unsuccessful, the samples were sent for radiocarbon dating. In total, 35 samples were dated, mainly by the radiocarbon method. Subfossil trunks from gravel pit Tovačov were dated and classified into 4 different periods, the oldest being from 2780–2190 BC. In Osek nad Bečvou, the samples were taken from two sites. Whereas from the 4 trunks taken in the river channel each was from a different period, the trunks from the gravel pit come from 981–1015 AD. The trunks found in the Morava River basin near Strážnice were dated to the 10^th–15^th century. In the future, we expect to extend the amount of the acquired samples with the aim to create a link to the existing standard chronology or to create a long floating average treering curve.     

Tracing the source of Late Neolithic Spondylus shell ornaments by stable isotope geochemistry and cathodoluminescence microscopy

Determination of the source of Spondylus objects is essential for the interpretation of Late Neolithic exchange systems and the social role of shell ornaments. We performed stable isotope analysis combined with cathodoluminescence microscopy study on ornaments (beads, bracelets) made of Spondylus shells excavated at the Aszód-Papi földek archaeological site in Hungary, to define their origin. For comparison Spondylus finds from Neolithic sites of Greece, modern Spondylus shells from the Aegean and the Adriatic, as well as fossil Spondylus and Ostrea shells from the Carpathian Basin were also examined. Oxygen isotope composition of Spondylus finds from Aszód ranges between ?1.9 and 2.1‰ and overlaps with the oxygen isotope range of shell objects from other Neolithic sites. Modern Spondylus shells from the Aegean and the Adriatic show overlapping δ¹⁸O values with one another and with the Neolithic objects; while recent shells of the Black Sea clearly are separate isotopically from the Mediterranean ones and most of archaeological artefacts. Spondylus shells from the Aszód site have Mediterranean origin; their source can be the Aegean or the Adriatic. Based on a former strontium isotope study the use of fossil Spondylus shells is excluded as raw material used for ornaments, however, in recent years the use of fossil shells was reintroduced. The shell ornaments from Aszód-Papi földek and the fossil oyster shells collected from the Carpathian Basin exhibit some overlapping oxygen isotope values; however, cathodoluminescence microscopy indicates that the Spondylus objects retained their original aragonite material. Diagenetic calcite, which occurs typically in the fossil shells, was not detected in the ornaments suggesting that the studied objects were made of recent shells. Calcitic parts observed in some Spondylus objects are not related to fossilisation.     

Mapping languages from inside: Notes on perceptual dialectology

Language maps can represent many aspects of the linguistic situation in a certain territory. They usually draw particular views of the language setting as seen from outside, i.e. by linguists or scholars in general. However, maps can also be used to show the geographical distribution of the perception of language variation from the point of view of the speakers. The starting point for every kind of language map is the language border (and its definition): thus a perceptual language map needs a definition of border from the point of view of the speaker. To do that it is necessary to analyse 'perceptual data', that is to study the opinion the speaker has of the language diversities and compare the different kinds of perception. Points of interest can be, for example: the influence of the perceived ethnic diversity on the language variation—or vice versa, the fact that perceived ethnic borders do not match with perceived language borders; or moreover that perceived language borders do not necessarily match with the perceived comprehensibility of other language varieties (symbolic versus communicative function of language). Hence a possible linguistic borderline on perceptual language maps could be the limit among social language behaviours. From this point of view, sociolinguistic studies can be a good tool to draw perceptual language maps, since quantitative sociolinguistic researches provide the diatopic/diasthratic variation of the data, whilst qualitative research provides the perception of the variation. The paper discusses some field research case studies, coming from the Eastern and Western Alps in Italy, to better introduce this kind of perceptual geolinguistic explanation.     

NEARCHOS. Networked Archaeological Open Science: Advances in Archaeology Through Field Analytics and Scientific Community Sharing

The full release and circulation of excavation results often takes decades, thus slowing down progress in archaeology to a degree not in keeping with other scientific fields. The nonconformity of released data for digital processing also requires vast and costly data input and adaptation. Archaeology should face the cognitive challenges posed by digital environments, changing in scope and rhythm. We advocate the adoption of a synergy between recording techniques, field analytics, and a collaborative approach to create a new epistemological perspective, one in which research questions are constantly redefined through real-time, collaborative analysis of data as they are collected and/or searched for in an excavation. Since new questions are defined in science discourse after previous results have been disseminated and discussed within the scientific community, sharing evidence in remote with colleagues, both in the process of field collection and subsequent study, will be a key innovative feature, allowing a complex and real-time distant interaction with the scholarly community and leading to more rapid improvements in research agendas and queries.