Terrestrial laser scanning and close range photogrammetry for 3D archaeological documentation: the Upper Palaeolithic Cave of Parpalló as a case study

Graphic and metric archaeological documentation is an activity that requires the capture of information from different sources, accurate processing and comprehensive analysis. If monitoring of the state of conservation is required, this task has to be performed before intervention, during and after the completion of the works in a repetitive way.This paper presents the use of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) in order to effectively produce, prior to intervention, accurate and high-resolution 3D models of a cave with engravings dating back to the Upper Palaeolithic era. The processing of the TLS data is discussed in detail in order to create digital surface models. The complexity of the cave required the integration of two techniques, TLS and close range photogrammetry to yield not only traditional drawings such as sections and elevations, but also photo-realistic perspective views and visual navigation worlds fully operational in 3D environments. This paper demonstrates the potential of integrating TLS and close range photogrammetry to provide both accurate digital surface models and photo-realistic outputs. This processed data can be used to systematically improve archaeological understanding of complex caves and relief panels of prehistoric art with tiny engravings.     

Scottish Historical Archaeology: International Agendas and Local Politics

Historical archaeology as practiced in Scotland is divergent from the mainstream tradition of historical archaeology/post-medieval archaeology that dominates North America and the English-speaking world. Cultural and historical forces have shaped an historical archaeology with a deeper time depth, which extends back into the Middle Ages. It also focuses on different subjects reflecting the political concerns associated with Scottish national identity. Examples drawn from Glasgow’s history are used to illustrate the distinctiveness of the Scottish tradition and how it is evolving. I argue that one of its strengths of Scottish historical archaeology is that it provides a corrective contrast to the subjects and approaches which dominate historical archaeology in the English-speaking world.     

Domains and the Intercultural: Understanding Aboriginal and Missionary Engagement at the Mornington Island Mission,Gulf of Carpentaria,Australia from 1914 to 1942

The Mornington Island Mission in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia, was a site of historical engagement between Aboriginal people and missionaries. In this paper, we apply the theoretical concepts of “domains” and the “intercultural” to the investigation of this engagement between 1914 and 1942, when the mission was overseen by the Reverend Robert Wilson. Through the examination of the removal of Aboriginal children, the establishment of a mission compound and Aboriginal camp and the inclusion of Aboriginal adults into the mission compound through production and economy, we show how mutually constituted domains operated. At the same time, the interaction between Aboriginal adults and children with missionaries within these domains was increasingly intercultural in nature. Thus, both “domains” and the “intercultural” are shown to have relevance to the historical case study.     

Prey Choice During the South African Middle Stone Age: Avoiding Dangerous Prey or Maximising Returns?

Scrutinising prey choice allows the testing of hypotheses on whether the hunting capabilities of Middle Stone Age (MSA) people were as sophisticated as those of Later Stone Age hunter–gatherers. I apply an optimal foraging perspective to investigate whether MSA prey choice was constrained by the danger associated with hunting certain species. Here, I study the relative importance of elands, buffalo and suids. Eland was the most attractive prey to hunter–gatherers because it is large and docile. Buffalo and suids are more aggressive. When additional species to eland needed to be exploited, we would expect unsophisticated hunters to prefer the smaller suids over buffalo. If hunting prowess was sufficient to deal with both buffalo and suids, buffalo should be preferred. Due to their size, exploitation of buffalo would be more profitable than exploitation of suids. I show that, taking environmental circumstances into account, buffalo were preferred to suids, suggesting that MSA people were capable, sophisticated hunters.     

First archaeobotanical approach to plant use among Selknam hunter-gatherers (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina)

Diverse hunter-gatherer groups inhabited Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) from the end of the last glaciation until recent dates. Sadly, the contact with European settlers was fatal for them, and a series of different causes led to their disappearance. Among these groups, Selknam inhabited the central and northern part of the Isla Grande (Tierra del Fuego) until the first decades of twentieth century. Although many travellers and ethnographers described this society, the recorded information related to vegetal resources management and plant exploitation strategies was quite scarce. As a consequence, a picture was created in which plants, and especially plant food, had a very poor role in the everyday life of these people. In this work, we present the results of the first archaeobotanical analyses carried out on an excavated site related to the Selknam hunter-gatherers. The information presented here, along with future studies, will enlarge the knowledge and enrich the image that we have of Selknam’s plant use, economy and social relations.     

Isotopic values of diet of Blastocerus dichotomus (marsh deer) in Paraná Basin,South America

The marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus, Illiger, 1815) is the largest contemporary South American deer, and its habitat includes the floodplains and wetlands of eastern South America. Throughout the Holocene these deer were widely used by indigenous societies, from the southern banks of the Amazon River to the Río de la Plata River, and from the Andean foothills to the Atlantic Ocean. However, despite the enormous ecological and archaeological importance of this ungulate in the region, our knowledge of the isotopic values of their diet is almost nonexistent. This paper is the first systematic approach to the study of the isotopic values of this mammal's diet, using archaeological and present-day samples from interconnected watersheds of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers in east-central Argentina. The results obtained from 24 measurements indicate an average value of ?21.09 ± 1.46‰ in δ¹³C collagen, with a low coefficient of variation (6.92%). The data indicate a marked preference for consumption of plants with a C₃ photosynthetic pathway. Most of the observed variability in the isotopic values corresponds to the period 900–1430 ¹⁴C years BP, a time range during which the values show higher consumption of C₄ plants. This it could be related with a period where temperature and associated humidity increased, synchronous in the area with the Medieval Climate Anomaly.     

From the Opposite Corner: A Bibliometric Analysis of Research on American Archaeology in European Publications

We see what we are prepared to see. Scientific research aims at breaking down this situation, analysing its subjects/objects of study from different points of view. Although multiple meanings can be derived from every question and a myriad of positions can be adopted, some are bound to be silenced by traditional criteria of authenticity. Archaeology is not an exception to this: the prevailing agenda severely impacts on our perception of what archaeological practice consists. In turn, its ethos is recreated as part of our own identity processes through our productions, whether by passively accepting monolithic standards or by dynamically proposing alternative positions in response. The study of the prehistoric and colonial periods in America can be a good test bed for surveying the influence of academic background upon the analysis of human history. Here we review two Spanish journals of American studies to discuss the different orientations of the authors according to their provenance. Plotted against the country represented by the authors, we consider his/her research as regards the object of study (ie. artefacts/written sources), its origin, chronology and, finally, the aim of the paper. We found interesting orientations in relation to focus on particular subjects, most probably conditioned by the ontology of the researchers. Although the selection is quite taxative, it may usefully complement studies carried out in the Americas.     

Auf gute Nachbarschaft!

Companies' community involvement turns out to be spatially relevant and–in many cases–to be focused on the near surroundings of the place of business. Some companies strategically align their involvement in order to systematically address local challenges. The essay at hand addresses the subject of corporate social responsibility from a local development perspective. Using the example of two family-owned enterprises based in Duisburg, Haniel and Grillo, it illustrates how socially committed companies can get involved with their local community by acting as good neighbours. Furthermore, it argues that socially committed companies can function as producers of space concerning matters of urban and local development. The specific local settings as well as the economic conditions of the local community serve as an explanatory background of the companies' involvement. The cases presented in this paper prove the firms' specific knowledge of local development needs and possibilities. This makes them qualified partners for local government actors and civil society actors. Thus, in the future, it is worth addressing corporate local responsibility from a governance point of view both in theory and in practice.     

Epistemologías transculturales: prácticas y producción de conocimientos en zonas de contacto colonial en los Andes y Paraguay

It is proposed that there is an iconographic and epistemological relationship between some drawings in Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala’s Nueva corónica y buen gobierno and the images recorded in several colonial wood vessels (qeros) which circulated widely during the time that Guaman Poma was writing his letter to the King of Spain. This connection shows that the work of Guaman Poma was not an isolated or singular act in the colonial context and that both communicative and creative processes, that of the Nueva corónica and that of the qeros, formed part of a process of shared colonial semiosis through which Andean societies maintained a certain autonomy in the production and circulation of their own discourses. Secondly, the article discusses the epistemological tension that results from the coexistence of different narratives (European and Andean) that used their own temporal and spatial categories to account for new colonial conditions.