Intensification revisited: assessing resource specialization at Crystal River (8CI1) and Roberts Island (8CI41), Florida

ABSTRACT

Archaeologists typically associate resource intensification with population expansion, environmental change, and political strategizing. Many Late Woodland and Mississippian societies of the Southeast eschewed dietary diversity in favor of harvesting fewer types of resources that could meet the subsistence demands of incipient aggregation. Foods such as maize and shellfish can provide humans with predictable caloric yields and are amenable to control by individuals or corporate groups. However, some archaeologists have identified scenarios in which small-scale societies intensified resources in the absence of population growth and social inequality. Ritual economies can periodically place high demands on the materials used for gatherings and ceremonies. These events then may leave material residues of economic intensification, which archaeologists might easily mistake as evidence for population expansion or social evolution. We use diversity and equitability estimates of zooarchaeological deposits from Crystal River (8CI1) and Roberts Island (8CI41), Florida, to demonstrate that some Woodland period societies periodically intensified their use of resources amidst population decline and heightened ritual activity. We suggest that the inhabitants of the area harvested shellfish at increasingly high rates to provide the material basis for a series of ritual interventions that aimed to circumvent the effects of rapid social and ecological change.     

Kites of AlUla County and the Ḥarrat ʿUwayriḍ, Saudi Arabia

A comprehensive remote sensing survey of AlUla County in north-west Saudi Arabia has revealed 32 examples of the ancient, stone-built animal traps known as ‘kites’. Noting that most (27) are located on the Ḥarrat ʿ Uwayriḍ, a satellite survey of parts of that lavafield outside of AlUla County was undertaken, identifying a further 175 kites. These show commonalities with ‘V-shaped’ kites previously identified in mountainous areas along the western extents of the Arabian Shield in the Sinai Peninsula, Negev Desert and south-west Saudi Arabia. A study of the form and placement of these kites in their ecological and geological contexts suggests that they are representative of a distinct complex, exhibiting sophisticated morphological adaptations to target specific games over similar terrain.     

Survey and excavations at Solomon’s Pools,Palestine: 2018 preliminary report

This article provides an initial archaeological and historical overview of the Lower Pool at the Pools of Solomon south of Bethlehem, Palestine.     

Balancing the Trade: Roman Cargo Shipments to India

There has been a continuing debate about the extent to which the Roman Empire suffered an economic imbalance in its trade with India (and more broadly the East), that is to say whether in volume or value the Roman Empire imported more than it exported. This imbalance is often thought to be manifested in the export of Roman gold and silver to India and the connected notion that other goods from the Roman Empire were seen as merely items of ballast. It is the intention of this article to place this debate in a practical context by demonstrating not only the physical need for mixed cargoes on ships sailing to India, but also the negligible amount of space taken up by the gold and silver. It is argued that in terms of volume (if not value) goods in kind were far more significant.     

The Palace of Westminster: Another Window of Opportunity?

The Palace of Westminster is in need of urgent, substantial repairs. This provides a ‘window of opportunity’ for change. This essay traces the restoration and transformation (or lack of) that the Palace of Westminster has seen in the last half a century, before assessing its current state, and considering whether parliament is fit for purpose. It provides a ‘long‐view’ understanding of previous missed ‘windows of opportunity’. The essay focuses on drawing insights from history in order to add a depth of understanding to the contemporary issue. An understanding of the preceding renewal and restoration projects enables us, potentially, to avoid some of the problems that have been previously experienced, and finally seize this opportunity to build a parliament which is fit for purpose.     

ATTENTION AND THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL POLITICS OF LANDSCAPE

This article argues that the inherent directedness of attention is a central and pervasive condition of politics across a wide range of social fields. The subfield of landscape geography serves as an occasion to illustrate what can be gained by attending to attention. The argument begins by reflexively placing the problematic of attention within a brief genealogy of constructions of modern perception. Within this frame, the article takes a closer look at the ambivalent and hesitant response to the problem of attention in phenomenology. This field is best positioned to give a foundational account of the political character of attention and to explain the sense in which its relevance transcends the era in which it was first clearly formulated. However, a strong upsurge of phenomenological interest in attention has only appeared in recent years. A review of this work, particularly in the writings of Bernhard Waldenfels, shows how attending to attention can deepen critical analyses of capitalism and spectacle offered by Benjamin, Debord, Rancière and Beller. The final section of the article illustrates key points by staging an imaginary trip through the corporate agricultural landscapes of California.