Use-wear analysis of an Amudian laminar assemblage from the Acheuleo-Yabrudian of Qesem Cave,Israel

In this paper the results of use-wear analysis of an Amudian lithic assemblage recently discovered at Qesem Cave, Israel, are presented. Although very old, this assemblage maintains well-preserved traces of use that indicate that butchering activities and plants collecting were carried out at the site. Cut marks on faunal remains confirm the observations obtained by use-wear analysis.     

Technological organization and sedentism in the Epipalaeolithic of Dakhleh Oasis,Egypt

At Dakhleh Oasis in south-central Egypt, a group of Epipalaeolithic or Masara sites featuring stone-built structures suggests a degree of sedentism that was unusual for the Eastern Sahara in early Holocene times. The paper investigates this apparent increased sedentism by focusing on the organization of lithic technology within the three Masara units defined in the oasis, including that with which the stone structures are associated. Information on three aspects of technological organization — the acquisition of raw material, core reduction sequences, and the portability of the resulting toolkits — when combined with evidence on other artifact categories and on site features and locations, points to a dramatic dichotomy within the Masara between small, highly mobile groups that ranged far beyond the oasis (Masara A), and a more sedentary element (Masara C), consisting of groups confined for at least part of the year to a particularly favoured locale in south-eastern Dakhleh.

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Résumé A l'oasis de Dakhleh, en Egypte Sud-Centrale, un groupe de sites Epipaléolithiques ou Masara a livré des structures en pierre qui suggèrent un degré de sédentarisation peu courant pour l'Est du Sahara au début de l'Holocène. Cet article étudie l'accroissement apparent de la sédentarisation en se concentrant sur l'organisation de la technologie lithique au sein des trois unités Masara définies dans l'oasis, y compris celle associée aux cercles de pierre. L'acquisition de la matière première, les séquences de réduction des nucleus, et le transport des outils qui en résultent sont des informations sur trois aspects de l'organisation technologique qui une fois combinées avec les données obtenues à partir d'autres catégories d'artefacts lithiques, de la configuration et de la situation du site, mettent en évidence une dichotomie très claire au sein du Masara entre des groupes petits et très mobiles qui se déplacaient bien au delà du périmeètre de l'oasis (Masara A) et un elément beaucoup plus sédentaire (Masara C) consistant en des groupes confinés pour au moins une partie de l'année dans un site particulièrement apprécié de la partie sud-est de Dakhleh.

     

Political Learning During Reformasi

This paper is a case study examination of the orientation of adolescents in West Sumatra towards the New Order Pancasila, Indonesia's state ideology, before and during the transition from the New Order regime. Pancasila in the New Order affirmed an integralist identity of interest between the state and the citizen, and between citizens at all levels of society. Integralism runs counter to the differentiated interests, institutions and identities of political community in liberalism. The concern of the paper is what effect a schooling in integralism had on students' receptivity to the prospect of an alternative, liberal model of politics; and whether that receptivity could be ascribed to political learning from the transition. The study found that students at elite schools shifted away from Pancasila and integralism in the year of Suharto's fall, while those at poorer schools did not; and that high levels of expressed support for Pancasila were good predictors of integralistic views on a series of attitudinal variables.     

Determining the Provenance of native copper artifacts from Northeastern North America: evidence from instrumental neutron activation analysis

The emergence of archaeological interest in native copper in the mid-1800s developed in concert with explanations that privileged the Lake Superior area over other potential sources of copper. Most scholars have thus assumed that when copper artifacts first appeared in Northeastern North America, they arrived as finished implements or were locally made from Lake Superior raw materials. Procurement models that point to Lake Superior as the sole source of native copper have been widely accepted in the absence of systematic large-scale testing. This article evaluates the dominant model for native copper procurement and presents trace element data derived from instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) to determine whether hunter-gatherers in the Northeast utilized one dominant source of copper or in fact exploited a number of geological deposits. I specifically report on the chemical characterization of copper from 13 discrete geological deposits and 18 archaeological sites dating to the Late Archaic (ca. 5000–3000 B.P.) and Early Woodland (ca. 3000–2000 B.P.) periods to suggest that the dominant model for native copper procurement is oversimplified.