Stable Isotope Analysis of Human and Animal Remains at the Qijiaping Site in Middle Gansu,China

Intercontinental exchanges between communities living in different parts of Eurasia during the late prehistoric period have become increasingly popular as a topic of archaeological research. The Qijia culture, found in northwest China, is one of the key archaeological cultures that can shed light on trans‐Eurasian exchange because a variety of imports are found in this cultural context. These imports include new cereals and animals, which suggest that human diets may also have changed compared with previous periods. To understand human and animal diets of the Qijia culture, carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from human and animal skeletal remains were analysed from the type site of the Qijia culture at Qijiaping. The results demonstrate that human diet at the site mainly consisted of millet and animals fed on millet. C₃ cereals, such as wheat and barley, did not contribute significantly to human diet, and no isotopic differences were found between adult and subadult diets. Furthermore, three outlying human results raise the possibility of exogenous individuals, perhaps in relation to the parallel movement of animals, crops and goods. This study provides human and animal dietary information for evaluating the nature of exchange and diffusion in eastern Eurasia at this time. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Applying forensic techniques to interpret cranial fracture patterns in an archaeological specimen

This paper presents some of the basic principles of bone fracture physics and outlines characteristics used by forensic anthropologists to distinguish gunshot trauma from blunt trauma. The fracture pattern of a cranium from a historic cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee provides an example of how the mechanism of trauma could be misinterpreted. The pattern of the perimortem fractures is indicative of gunshot trauma with a bullet entering one side of the vault and impacting the opposite side. Identification of radiating fractures, concentric heaving fractures, and observation of the direction of bevel on the fractured surfaces are essential for interpretation of the mechanism that produced the injury.     

Colgi, Cajal and the Neuron Doctrine

Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramon y Cajal shared the Nobel Prize in 1906 for their work on the histology of the nerve cell, but both held diametrically opposed views about the Neuron Doctrine which emphasizes the structural, functional and developmental singularity of the nerve cell. Golgi's reticularist views remained entrenched and his work on the nervous system did not venture greatly into new territories after its original flowering, which had greater impact than is now commonly credited. Cajal, by contrast, by the time he was awarded the Nobel Prize, was already breaking new ground with a new staining technique in the field of peripheral nerve regeneration, seeing the reconstruction of a severed nerve by sprouting from the proximal stump as another manifestation of the Neuron Doctrine. Paradoxically, identical studies were going on simultaneously in Golgi's laboratory in the hands of Aldo Perroncito, but the findings did not seem to influence Golgi's thinking on the Neuron Doctrine.     

Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic Research in Reunified Germany

During the past decade research into the German Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic has experienced an important revival. One clear sign of this renewed interest in the periods are the annual meetings of the Arbeitsgruppe Mesolithikum (Mesolithic Working Group) which have taken place every spring since 1992. At these meetings, which take place at changing venues, topical themes of Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic interest are presented by informal lectures and it is also possible to study regional collections (artifacts, raw materials) at first hand. Numerous contributions were subsequently published together in one volume (Conard and Kind (1998) Aktuelle Forschungen zum Mesolithikum/Current Mesolithic Research, Mo Vince, Tübingen). The present paper intends to complement that collection of papers with a synthesis of developments and perspectives and to present recent research highlights in the German Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic, together with a comprehensive bibliography, to a wider international audience.     

SLAVES IN BRONZE AGE SOUTHERN SCANDINAVIA?

The article proposes that unfree labour was an integral part of Bronze Age society. The presence of the unfree (thralls or even slaves) in prehistoric societies has rarely been discussed and never in the light of archaeological evidence. The article is based on empirical material from 333 fully excavated house remains from 120 sites in the Viborg area in northwest Jutland, Denmark. Based on the reconstructed size of these longhouses, the location of fireplaces, entrances and the subdivision of space, it is suggested that farmsteads, in general, had two, often clearly separated habitation units. In the Early Bronze Age, a longhouse was usually subdivided into two parts, and during the Late Bronze Age, this subdivision manifested in the construction of two longhouses. After a thorough analysis of the archaeological record, it is suggested that the owner of the land had occupied one habitation unit, while the other was reserved for the unfree.     

Neolithic and Bronze Age ungulate footprint-tracks of the Severn Estuary: Species,age, identification and the interpretation of husbandry practices

Ungulate footprint-tracks provide information regarding the species and age of animals. Combined with other datasets, this contributes to interpretation of seasonal husbandry patterns in the Severn Estuary, focusing on Bronze Age intertidal footprint-tracks at Redwick and Goldcliff East and the Late Neolithic site of Oldbury. Metric dimensions and morphology of modern contemporary ungulate footprint-tracks are used as analogues to help understand the species and age of prehistoric ungulates. Findings indicate that Dexter cattle and Soay sheep are metrically similar to British prehistoric ungulates. The prehistoric sites have a concentration of neonatal and juvenile individuals. Along with evidence provided by environmental data, faunal skeletal assemblages and lipid and isotopic analysis, this leads to the conclusion that the presence of younger animals and evidence at Brean Down for dairying is consistent with saltmarsh grazing activity in spring and summer.     

Khirbat al‐Mana‘iyya: an early Islamic‐period copper‐smelting site in south‐eastern Wadi ‘Araba,Jordan

Recent excavations in south‐eastern Wadi ‘Araba in Jordan have revealed the first early Islamic‐period copper‐smelting site known in the eastern side of the valley, which extends south of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of ‘Aqaba. Five test pits were excavated in 2012 at Khirbat al–Mana‘iyya, a prominent copper‐smelting camp in south‐eastern Wadi ‘Araba, Jordan. The results of these excavations demonstrate that the site was primarily active in the seventh–ninth century AD. Its distance from the copper sources of south‐west ‘Araba suggests that its location was chosen based on proximity to wood and water resources, rather than copper ore deposits. The discovery that the site dates to the early Islamic period has implications for previous and future work in south‐east ‘Araba. In particular, it challenges the common—until now—view of the region as virtually devoid of settlement during this period.     

The story of Comanche: horsepower,heroism and the conquest of the American West

Marked by the Census Bureau’s closure of the frontier; the symbolic end of American Indian resistance at Wounded Knee and powerful articulations on the ‘winning of the West’ from Frederick Jackson Turner and Buffalo Bill Cody, the early 1890s was a critical moment in the history of the American West. It also saw the death of one of the region’s most famous cavalry horses, Comanche, who succumbed to colic in 1891 aged twenty-nine. Famously billed as ‘the only living thing to survive the Battle of the Little Bighorn’, this article uses Comanche as a locus around which to examine the history of warhorses in the military culture of the American West, and, more broadly, to point towards a growing scholarship on war and the environment that emphasises the usefulness of such themes as spatiality and inter-species exchange in embellishing our understanding of the experience, impact and cultural memory of war. Not only does Comanche’s lifespan (c.1862–1891) usefully coincide with the federal government’s final conquest of the West but his equine biography serves as valuable testament to the use of horses in the US military as both practical and symbolic agents of American expansionism.