The Lake Krasnoe obsidian source in Chukotka (Northeastern Siberia): geological and geochemical frameworks for provenance studies in Beringia

Basic data on the geology and geochemistry of obsidian from the Lake Krasnoe source in Chukotka (Northeastern Siberia) are reported for the first time. The data are based on 2009 fieldwork and analytical studies of igneous rock samples. The lake shore and surrounding parts of the Rarytkin Range were thoroughly examined. Two geochemical types of rhyolitic obsidian were recognized for the first time: (1) metaluminous obsidian related to the fine-grained crystalline rocks and (2) peralkaline obsidian corresponding to ignimbrite ash-flows or lapilli-tuffs composition. Both types are related to the final phase of acidic volcanism in the Western Kamchatkan-Koryak Volcanic Belt. Based on the results obtained, we conclude that accumulation of obsidian pebbles in the lake’s modern beach deposits is related to silicic melts that erupted during the late Eocene-early Oligocene in the form of extrusive domes or pyroclastic flows, which are now either covered by Quaternary sediments or located below the water level. The Lake Krasnoe obsidian was intensively used by the ancient populations of Chukotka as a raw material for making stone tools. It was also occasionally transported to Alaska across the Bering Strait in later prehistory. The distances between source and utilization sites are up to 700–1100 km. Geochemical data for Lake Krasnoe obsidian, based on neutron activation analysis and X-ray fluorescence that are presented here, can now be used for provenance studies in the Northeastern Siberia and adjacent regions of northern North America.     

Carnivores as zoonotic parasite reservoirs in ancient times: the case of the Epullán Chica archaeological cave (Late Holocene,northwestern Patagonia,Argentina)

Zoonoses are currently considered as one of the most important threats for Public Health worldwide. Numerous zoonoses known today have occurred since antiquity. Carnivores act as definitive hosts for many intestinal parasites; some of them are responsible for several zoonotic diseases. The aim of this work was to study the parasite remains found in coprolites assigned to carnivores from the archaeological site Epullán Chica (ECh) and to discuss the results from a zoonotic point of view. ECh is located in northwestern Patagonia, Argentina and was occupied since the end of the Late Holocene (～2200 years B.P.). Nine coprolites were examined for parasites. Samples were processed by rehydration in a 0.5 % water solution of trissodium phosphate, followed by homogenization, filtered and processed by spontaneous sedimentation. The macroscopic remains were separated and dried at room temperature and were examined for diet analysis. Six out of 9 coprolites examined were positive for parasites. Representatives of at least 10 parasite taxa were registered. Results are in line with the reconstruction of the scenario of zoonoses in the past and the diseases that the human populations and animals from Patagonia could be exposed. The present study provides the first palaeoparasitological report of carnivore coprolites recovered from the archaeological site Ech and reflects contamination of the cave used by hunter-gatherers with different parasites causative of zoonotic diseases.     

Weak Ties and Expertise: Crossing Technological Boundaries

In this article, we question how new technological traits can penetrate cohesive social groups and spread. Based on ethnographic narratives and following studies in sociology, the hypothesis is that not only weak ties are important for linking otherwise unconnected groups and introducing new techniques but also that expertise is required. In order to test this hypothesis, we carried out a set of field experiments in northern India where the kiln has been adopted recently. Our goal was to measure the degree of expertise of the potters distributed between early and late adopters of the kiln. Our results are discussed in the light of oral interviews. Our conclusions suggest that expertise is a necessary, albeit not sufficient, condition for weak ties to act as bridges and thereby for new techniques to spread. As an example, they explain how turntables could have been adopted by potters from the northern Levant during the third millennium BC.     

“This is Proof”? Forensic Evidence and Ambiguous Material Culture at Treblinka Extermination Camp

In recent years, a forensic archaeological project at Treblinka extermination camp has uncovered significant evidence relating to the mass murder that took place there. A number of questions emerged regarding the provenance and origins of objects discovered as part of this work, and why they had remained undiscovered for over 70 years. These discoveries led to an opportunity to confirm and challenge the history of the extermination camp, and demands (from the public) to view the objects. This paper will outline how archaeologists and artists came together to reflect on these issues, whilst simultaneously providing access to the new findings.     

When Bereaved of Everything: Objects from the Concentration Camp of Ravensbrück as Expressions of Resistance,Memory, and Identity

When survivors from the Ravensbrück concentration camp arrived in Sweden in spring 1945, some of the objects they brought with them from the camp were collected and preserved. These are modest in appearance, but were – as oral testimonies show – invaluable in camp. The concentration camp context of obliteration stretches the limits of interpretation of material culture to its extreme. In this article the objects are discussed as expressions of resistance, memory, and identity. These immaterial values were among the most vital coping strategies used by the prisoners against the dehumanization laid upon them by the camp administration. The material culture was central in enabling, upholding, and realizing these.     

The Small Things of Life and Death: An Exploration of Value and Meaning in the Material Culture of Nazi Camps

The theft of mundane items of material culture from the ground of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2015 by English schoolboys raises a number of questions about the value of similar items at this and other Nazi camps. This paper explores questions of value, interpretation, and the categorization of objects from such camps, before examining the case study of Lager Wick, a forced labor camp in Jersey. Here, the value of such objects was perceived locally according to criteria very different to those which are commonly applied by archaeologists and people who work in the sphere of heritage and Holocaust education.     

The Knife’s Edge of the Present: Archaeology in Turkey from the Nineteenth Century to the 1940s

This paper investigates how archaeology functioned in Turkey from the nineteenth century until the end of the 1940s. In the nineteenth-century Ottoman world, an awareness was raised to acknowledge the power of patrimony. Amidst intense reforms to Westernize the empire, archaeological artifacts were used as a means of Europeanness. The Greek, Roman, and Byzantine pasts of the Ottoman lands were the focus of this era. The foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 marked the start of a new project to create a modern nation-state out of a centuries’ old Islamic dynasty. This project rewrote the history of Turkish nation in relation to prehistoric civilizations such as the Hittites and the Sumerians. Archaeology became the primary tool of the Republic to validate the renewed history.     

Heads or Tails? Modified Ceramic Gaming Pieces from Colonial California

Modified ceramic disks have been recovered from historic-era sites across the Americas. Small unperforated disks are commonly interpreted as gaming pieces and larger perforated disks are often classified as spindle whorls. Here, we examine these interpretations in light of collections from three colonial-era sites in central California: Mission San Antonio de Padua, Mission San José, and the Rancho San Andrés Castro Adobe. We argue that the small unperforated disks from our study sites were two-sided dice. These gaming pieces facilitated the social cohesion of Native people living in the large, multiethnic Indigenous communities that formed around Spanish colonial missions and later Mexican-era ranchos.     

How Pre-modern State Rulers Used Marriage to Reduce the Risk of Losing at War: A Comparison of Eight States

Approaching warfare in pre-modern states from the perspective of risk reduction, we see that royal marriage was one strategy rulers used to reduce the probability that they would lose a war. Judicious marriage exchanges intensified and prolonged patron-client relations between rulers or between rulers and societal elites. Clientelism could affect the size and composition of their armies. The more warriors and troops one could field, the greater the chance of not losing a war (Otterbein 2004; LeBlanc 2006). Examination of eight pre-modern states suggests that their rulers used the same patterns of wife exchange even though most states developed independently. Marriage secured long-term patron-client relationships, which they used to support their military efforts. When rulers married their kin or married them to rulers outside the system (“foreigners”), they did not gain military support. Analysis of these marriage-military patterns reveals several characteristics of pre-modern states. First, marriage alliances helped rulers form networks of support that helped them win wars. Therefore, marriage—and by extension, royal women—is a key component to the study of warfare and a critical mechanism of network formation, as Blanton et al. (1996) write. Second, alliances were based on a different organizing principle from Levi-Strauss’ tribal societies, for rulers selected main wives (for themselves or their kin) based on relative rank rather than particular kinship ties. Third, marriage alliance reveals an important difference between alliance and patron-client relationships, a distinction that is often blurred in the archaeological literature.