A multi-analytical approach to characterize an Early Bronze Age cosmetic material from Müslümantepe,Southeastern Anatolia

The present paper reports the chemical and mineralogical composition of a black pigment material contained in a Syrian Bottle-shaped vessel excavated on an Early Bronze Age grave in Müslümantepe, a site located at the right bank of the Tigris River in Southeastern Anatolia. A combination of different analytical tools like state-of-the-art non-destructive μ-XRD², μ-XRF and μ-Raman spectroscopy compared to classical powder XRD was used to characterize the content of the bottle. The results attest the presence of a manganese mineral (pyrolusite) most probably used for cosmetic purposes. This is the first evidence, which is scientifically tested, of the earliest use of cosmetics in the Upper Tigris of Southeastern Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age period, c. 2700–2550 bc.     

The Origins of the Bronze Age of Southeast Asia

White and Hamilton (J World Prehist 22: 357–97, 2009) have proposed a model for the origin of the Southeast Asian Bronze Age founded on seven AMS radiocarbon determinations from the Northeast Thai site of Ban Chiang, which would date the initial Bronze Age there to about 2000 BC. Since this date is too early for the derivation of a bronze industry from the documented exchange that linked Southeast Asia with Chinese states during the 2nd millennium BC, they have identified the Seima-Turbino 3rd millennium BC forest-steppe technology of the area between the Urals and the Altai as the source of the Southeast Asian Bronze Age. We challenge this model by presenting a new chronological framework for Ban Chiang, which supports our model that the knowledge of bronze metallurgy reached Southeast Asia only in the late 2nd millennium BC, through contact with the states of the Yellow and Yangtze valleys.     

The Archaeology of Native Societies in the Chesapeake: New Investigations and Interpretations

Archaeological studies of Native American societies in the Chesapeake have recently incorporated a broader range of interpretive frames, including those that emphasize historical contingency and social interaction rather than cultural ecology and cultural materialism. New evidence of Woodland-period population movements, persistent places, and cycles of social ranking has prompted historically oriented interpretations that foreground particular configurations of ideology, tradition, ritual, and agency. Contact-period studies have demonstrated that native strategies of the colonial period were rooted in precontact social landscapes. Contemporary American Indians are also reclaiming their pasts in ways that challenge archaeological practices and further broaden perspectives on the Chesapeake past.     

The Contribution of Behavioral Archaeology and the Research of Michael B. Schiffer to the Discipline

I evaluate the impact of Behavioral Archaeology within the discipline, focusing particularly on the contributions of Mike Schiffer who originally proposed the approach and has continued to be the primary advocate. I suggest that Behavioral Archaeology has made several key contributions over the last four decades. However, to answer most of the broad range of questions of interest to the discipline, a variety of complementary methodological and theoretical approaches must be employed.     

Just Methodology? A Review of Archaeology’s Debts to Michael Schiffer

Michael Schiffer’s Behavioral Archaeology is one of several moves in mid- to late twentieth century archaeology toward actualistically based, detailed materials analysis with the aim of developing uniformitarian principles to apply to archaeological cases. Substantial parallels exists between Schiffer’s agenda and its products and those of at least some zooarchaeologists and taphonomists, including use of chaîne opératoire or behavioral chain approaches and experimentation, as well as other materials analysis agendas. Differences as well as similarities are explored, as are continued impediments to development of archaeology as a systematic science.     

Empirical Urban Theory for Archaeologists

I review several bodies of empirical urban theory relevant to the archaeological analysis of ancient cities. Empirical theory is a type of “middle-range theory” (following Robert Merton): sets of concepts and methods that are less abstract, and have greater empirical content, than high-level social theory. The categories of theory reviewed here include environment-behavior theory, architectural communication theory, space syntax, urban morphology, reception theory, generative planning theory, normative theory, and city size theory. Most of these approaches originated in the fields of architecture, planning, and geography, and they directly link the urban-built environment to the actions of people within cities.     

The Nineteenth-Century Colonial Archaeology of Suakin,Sudan

This paper seeks to examine the role of the built environment as a tool of nineteenth-century British colonial expression within the Red Sea island town of Suakin, Sudan. Within Suakin and its environs, four major European focal points were examined through the use of archaeological survey and excavation. These were; (1) waterfront development (2) centers of colonial management, (3) terrestrial and maritime communication and (4) defense. The central argument of the paper is that economic and social control was maintained through the creation of new urban morphologies and European domination of existing urban space.