An Exploratory Geophysical Survey at the Pyramid Complex of Senwosret III at Dahshur, Egypt, in Search of Boats

A geophysical survey at the pyramid complex of Senwosret III at Dahshur sought to determine the suitability of magnetometry and electromagnetic induction (EMI, or conductivity) for mapping the area where several ancient boat-burials were found in the 1890s. At least one boat reported at the time of excavation remains unaccounted for. Tests demonstrated that magnetometry does detect subsurface structures of stone, fired brick, and unfired brick under current site conditions. Data indicated areas of geological activity as well as unexcavated archaeological remains, though no definitive traces of boat burials. No excavation was undertaken but another survey season is planned.
© 2009 The Authors     

Opportunities and constraints for intensive agriculture in the Hawaiian archipelago prior to European contact

Intensive agricultural systems interact strongly and reciprocally with features of the lands they occupy, and with features of the societies that they support. We modeled the distribution of two forms of pre-European contact intensive agriculture – irrigated pondfields and rain-fed dryland systems – across the Hawaiian archipelago using a GIS approach based on climate, hydrology, topography, substrate age, and soil fertility. Model results closely match the archaeological evidence in defined locations. On a broader scale, we calculate that the youngest island, Hawai'i, could have supported 572 km² of intensive agriculture, 97% as rain-fed dryland field systems, while Kaua'i, the oldest island, could have supported 58 km², all as irrigated wetland systems. Irrigated systems have higher, more reliable yields and lower labor requirements than rain-fed dryland systems, so the total potential yield from Kaua'i (49k metric tons) was almost half that of Hawai'i (97k metric tons), although Kaua'i systems required only 0.05 of the agricultural labor (8400 workers, versus 165,000 on Hawai'i) to produce the crops. We conclude that environmental constraints to intensive agriculture across the archipelago created asymmetric production efficiencies, and therefore varying potentials for agricultural surplus. The implications both for the emergence of complex sociopolitical formations and for anthropogenic transformation of Hawaiian ecosystems are substantial.     

Gold Fibula,Found at Odiham,Hampshire

A cropmark complex of ring-ditches and square-plan ditches in the Vale of Clwyd, North Wales has been partially excavated. Mesolithic activity is represented predominantly by lithic waste in local cherts. A small bronze age cemetery, dated to between about 1660–1400 b.c., comprises a large and small ring-ditch and a ‘flat cemetery’ associated with Beaker inhumation burials, and by cremation burials, of which some were found with Food Vessel Urns. The larger ring-ditch was superseded by an undated rectangular enclosure with causeways at the centre of each side. An early medieval inhumation cemêtery, with associated dates of about a.d. 510 and a.d. 860, was established to one side of the larger ring-ditch. A small proportion of the graves are enclosed by square-plan ditches, two of which had a causeway at the centre of the eastern side. Generalized parallels are drawn with other sites in eastern and northern Britain and within Wales itself.     

General Meeting,March 10th, 1848

Abstract

The tiled pavement in the nave of Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire, has been partly exposed twice in the last hundred years. Although no decoration appears to survive in situ, a few decorated tiles in the loose collection may derive from this floor. The most significant of these, a roundel fragment, carries the design of a tonsured monk with a crozier. Although this design and the whole mosaic arrangement of the in situ tiles are unique, a comparison can be drawn with the pavement donated by Abbot Nicholas at Halesowen. The arrangement of roundels and frame tiles and the subject matter of the decorated roundels are sufficiently similar to posit a direct connection. There are no close dates for the Haughmond floor, but it is suggested that the Halesowen pavement, dated 1290–98, was the prototype.