Deciphering the inorganic chemical record of ancient human activity using ICP-MS: a reconnaissance study of late Classic soil floors at Cancuén,Guatemala

Inorganic chemical analysis of soil floors using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was undertaken to provide information on the nature and location of past human activity in the ancient Maya city of Cancuén, Guatemala. The use of ICP-MS to detect trace and ultra-trace elemental enrichment of two excavated soil floors from the late Classic period is the first study of its kind in Mesoamerican archaeology. Geochemical background of the site was established by the analysis of palaeosols and nearby undisturbed ‘off-site’ soil profiles. Robust statistical methods used in the study clearly distinguished the level of anthropogenic enrichment across the former floors. Many elements measured showed only minor departures (10–20%) from the site's background soil chemistry. The greatest levels of elemental enrichment were detected in the rare earth elements, mercury, and gold. The latter is of particular interest considering the consensus that gold was absent from the world of the Classic-period Maya. Comparisons of the spatial pattern of mercury enrichment with lithic and archaeological data show strong linkages to past industrial and ritual activities. Elevated rare earth element concentrations were recorded broadly across both soil floors and are considered to be related to concentrated human occupation in antiquity.     

Osteological applications of high-resolution computed tomography: a prehistoric arrow injury

In comparison to conventional computed tomography (CT) and radiography, high-resolution CT is a superior means of visualizing and quantifying fine structures in a wide range of materials. Here the shape and size of a chert arrowhead lodged in a 700-year-old tibia from Norris Farms #36, Illinois, are identified, as are the bony response and the arrow's probable trajectory through the bone. The use of high-resolution CT – in this instance, to identify structures down to the level of individual trabeculae – can be used in other archaeological applications when fine details are important and specimens cannot be damaged by invasive (i.e., destructive) procedures.     

A rediscovery of caddo heritage

El propósito de este artículo es mostrar la importancia de la colaboracción entre los gobiernos indígenas y los/as arqueólogos/as. Un aspecto de la colaboración es la investigación de las denuncias amparadas bajo el acto de la Protección de las Tumbas de los Indígenas Nativos Norteamericanos y la Repatriación (NAGPRA). Para los Caddo, el trabajar con la comunidad de arqueólogos/as puede fortalecer las denuncias que ellos pueden hacer sobre restos humanos y los objetos funerarios sean adjuntos o no, u objectos sagrados o artefactos de patrimonio cultural que han sido identificados por el NAGPRA.

---

Résumé Notre objectif est de montrer l'importance de la collaboration entre les représentants tribaux et les archéologues dans l'étude des revendications du Native American Protection et du Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Dans le cas des Caddo, travailler ensemble avec la communauté archéologique peut seulement renforcer toute demande qu'ils peuvent formuler pour le rapatriement de restes humains et d'objects funéraires associés ou non, d'objets sacrés et tout objet faisant partie du patrimoine culturel défini par le NAGPRA.

     

Going Outside Together: Good Practice with Respect to the Inclusion of Disabled Children in Primary School Playgrounds

This paper reports some of the findings of research which has investigated the inclusion of disabled children in six primary school playgrounds in Yorkshire, in England. Initially the paper sets the policy context before moving on to discuss the importance of play for children, especially in a primary school setting and particularly for disabled children in such a setting. The inclusion of disabled children is discussed with respect to a series of social and organisational issues and the good practice identified relating to these issues. The social issues include the relationships the disabled children have with their peers and with the staff. The organisational issues relate to the individual routines, moving to a new school, the benefit of staff experience and training, encouraging activity in physical education lessons which can be translated in to the playground and the benefits of extra time outside for some disabled children. All these aspects can influence whether all the children can go outside together—an important underlying factor for the inclusion of disabled children in primary school playgrounds.     

Agency in a Postmold? Physicality and the Archaeology of Culture-Making

Architecture embodies human agency in all of its dimensions and effective scales. Specifically, the wooden posts of Mississippian peoples in the American mid-continent were simultaneously spatial, material, and corporeal dimensions of the process of cultural construction and contestation. Our reconsideration of the lowly postmold is based on the principle of physicality that, in turn, alters the ways in which we pose research questions and interpret archaeological data. A historical-processual methodology involves three procedural fundamentals: identifying practical variability, comparing genealogies of practices, and tacking between lines of evidence at multiple scales of analysis.     

Local Ceramics from the Islamic Trade Center of Harlaa,Eastern Ethiopia: Markers of Chronology and Contacts

Locally made ceramics from Islamic sites in Ethiopia have been neglected in most archaeological studies, which tend to privilege imported Middle Eastern and Chinese/Southeast Asian ceramics. An assemblage of the local ceramics from the important trading site of Harlaa, in eastern Ethiopia (mid-sixth and fifteenth centuries AD), is the subject of this article. The study emphasizes the value of these ceramics as chronological markers, and for understanding regional and long-distance contacts, cultural innovations, processes of Islamization, and foodways.

     

酋邦的演化

在文明与早期国家探源的战略性课题中,酋邦理论具有十分重要的意义。酋邦作为对19世纪摩尔根社会进化理论的发展和20世纪新进化论的重要概念,赋予了平等的部落社会与作为阶级社会象征的国家之间这个过渡阶段以明确的科学定义,使这方面的探索有了一个有用的分析工具。至于这个概念的具体内涵和分析视野,则是始终处于发展之中的。酋邦概念最早是20世纪50年代奥博格在对南美印第安人的研究中提出的,60年代塞维斯根据夏威夷群岛原始文化的资料提出了相对比较系统的酋邦理论。此后酋邦问题引起学术界越来越多的重视和关注,很多学者参与到这方面的研究和讨论之中,使研究深度和广度都达到了很高的水平。本文是美洲研究学会1988年1月举行的一个酋邦研讨会的纪要,曾发表在1989年2月号的《当代人类学》(Current Anthropology)上,稍作修改后又收入厄尔主编的《酋邦:权力、经济和意识形态》(Chiefdoms:Power,Economy,andIdeology)(1991年出版)一书中。这个研讨会是该领域一流学者们的一次集会,对酋邦问题进行了非常深入全面的探讨。会上所提出的一些问题,不仅仅是对当时酋邦研究成果的一次总结,而且对于后来包括今天在内的国家文明起源研究都有十分重要的意义。会议不仅探讨了酋邦的概念,更着重探讨了酋邦产生和存在的动力机制。首先,酋邦被认为具有极大的多样性。从规模上可分为简单酋邦和复杂酋邦;从财政基础而言,根据支付媒介的特点,可以区分为产品经济型酋邦和财富经济型酋邦;从结构上,酋邦可以分为集体型酋邦和个体型酋邦。其次,伴随对当时盛行的人口压力是社会演变主要原因学说的反思,学者们全面探讨了酋邦权力起源可能存在的所有动力,主要从三个方面(对经济、战争和意识形态的控制)总结为十项策略。与会者的一种共识是,权力的三个组成部分某种程度体现了不同的策略,而有效的统治似乎有赖于多种不同策略结合使用,以便集中权力并克服单一权力来源的局限性,这是各地案例中较为普遍的现象。另外,会议还讨论了环境在酋邦发展中的作用、酋邦的规模与层次、以及酋邦的轮回等等其它一些重要问题。酋邦概念在1980年代引入中国后也引起了我国学界的关注和讨论,然而由于对国外文献理解上的不足,一些介绍酋邦的文章难免传递一些误导性的观点。本文作为酋邦专题讨论的纪要或综述,体现了当今国际学界对酋邦概念的认识和研究,为我们了解酋邦探究的意义提供一个比较准确和全面的认识。     

FIRM SIZES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: ESTIMATING LONG‐TERM EFFECTS ON U.S. COUNTY GROWTH, 1990–2000

This paper investigates the role of the business size distribution on income and employment growth in U.S. counties from 1990 to 2000. We measure the business size distribution as the share of employees across nine establishment size categories that range from microfirms (one to four employees) to large firms (1,000+ employees) and using three indices similar to a Gini coefficient. Results show that the business size distribution has a significant impact on county‐level growth patterns. Employment shares in small firms increase employment growth, but decrease income growth. One possible conclusion suggests policies emphasizing small firms and entrepreneurship during times of high unemployment.