Stylistic variability of stemmed obsidian tools (mata’a), frequency seriation,and the scale of social interaction on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, has been the focus of much research and speculation, particularly with reference to the island’s hundreds of giant, enigmatic statues and the set of conditions that supported their construction and transportation. In this paper, we analyze an abundant class of lithic artifacts, mata’a, to study of patterns of cultural transmission with implications for the evolution of groups, competition, and scale of socio-political organization among this island population. While these kinds of studies often draw upon assemblages of decorated ceramics, here we show how analysis of variability unconstrained by performance allows us to measure aspects of inheritance related to the manufacture of these artifacts. In the case of mata’a from Rapa Nui, we demonstrate that it is possible to reach falsifiable conclusions about the evolutionary dynamics that shaped the remarkable archaeological record on Rapa Nui.     

从黏土到人工制品:非洲早期铁器时代制铁技术的资源选择

在漫长的人类史中,铁器时代占有重要的地位,而早期铁器时代的炼铁技术则更值得研究和探索。本文是麻省理工学院的S.特里·乔尔兹写于上世纪80年代的一篇实验性研究文章。其中阐述了对于东非坦桑尼亚卡盖拉地区早期铁器时代炼铁所选用黏土的实验过程以及研究结果。作者长期在卡盖拉地区进行考察,并通过田野采集、实验分析和测试焙烧的方法对该地区早期铁器时代炼铁熔炉的材质选择进行了研究。结果表明,卡盖拉地区的史前炼铁工人对于建炉材质有着自己的认识,他们会选择耐火性较高的黏土来建造可能会承受极高温度的部分,如焙烧中心、风口末端,并且已经掌握了通过向黏土添加瘠性掺合料,从而提高黏土的耐火性并防止其在极端高温中膨胀、破裂、剥落。同时,他们在材料黏土的耐火性、稳定性和可获得性方面进行了权衡。他们并不完全依赖从远处沼泽地区采集的高品质黏土,而是更多地选择居住环境周围容易获得的沙质黏土和白蚁冢。通过向其中添加掺合料,这些材料同样在建炉过程中取得了良好的效果。本文的研究揭示出非洲早期铁器时代的炼铁工人对材料黏土的选择方式和依据,说明了他们非常重视综合考量,权衡技术控制、劳动效率和材料可获得性等诸方面因素,从而对于制铁资源做出了合理的折衷选择。     

Oxygen isotope seasonality in a temperate estuarine shell midden: a case study from CA-ALA-17 on the San Francisco Bay,California

Seasonality determination using stable oxygen isotope (δ¹⁸O) analyses in archaeological mollusk shell has been largely limited to aquatic settings where one of the two factors that control shell δ¹⁸O – water δ¹⁸O (or salinity) and temperature – is assumed to be constant. Open coastal marine environments reflect the former situation, and tropical estuaries constitute the latter. In an effort to expand stable isotope seasonality to an ecological setting where neither variable remains constant, we present a model of annual shell δ¹⁸O cycle of aragonite deposition derived from instrumental data on salinity and temperature from San Francisco Bay, California. The predicted range of modeled shell δ¹⁸O is consistent with observed δ¹⁸O values in prehistoric and modern shells when local conditions are considered. Measurements of δ¹⁸O taken at 0 mm and 2 mm from the terminal growth margin were made on 36 archaeological specimens of Macoma nasuta from a late Holocene hunter-gatherer site CA-ALA-17, and season of collection was inferred using the shell δ¹⁸O model. We conclude that shellfish exploitation occurred through the year with the exception of fall, which may indicate scheduling conflicts with acorn harvesting or other seasonally abundant resources elsewhere. The model supports the feasibility of stable isotope seasonality studies in temperate estuaries, provided that instrumental records are available to quantify the relevant water conditions at appropriate spatial and temporal scales.     

Imaginary Worlds,Real Stories

St Edmund, King and Martyr survived the Reformation as a hero and emblem of East Anglian regional identity. This article traces the development of the post-Reformation Edmund in ‘popular’ sources, including his continuing presence in the landscape and the influence of the nineteenth-century ‘cult of commemoration’ on perceptions of the saint.     

Daisies Rise to Become Oaks. The Politics of Early Folktale Collection in Northern Europe

It is well known that the first collections of folktales played a key role in the “creation” of national identity in many nations in the mid-nineteenth century. This wider political role is often most apparent in the introductions written to accompany these early volumes, which give readers guidance as to how the material contained in the volumes should be understood. This article compares several such introductions from Northern Europe, namely those written to accompany Norske Folkeeventyr (Jørgen Moe, 1852), Popular Tales from the Norse (Sir George Dasent, 1859) and Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri (Guðbrandur Vigfússon and Jón Árnason, 1862–64), noting not only the differing functions that the authors of these introductions saw their work as having, but also the complex web of academic relationships and influences that lie behind the genesis of these works.     

The effect of charring and burial on the biochemical composition of cereal grains: investigating the integrity of archaeological plant material

Stable isotope analysis of charred archaeobotanical cereal grains has the potential to provide direct evidence of crop growing conditions in the past and to refine palaeodietary predictions. If isotope values of archaeobotanical material are to be considered robust, it is necessary to characterise the compositional changes associated with their charring and burial. This study used a suite of analytical techniques, including FT-IR and solid state ¹³C NMR, to characterise changes in the biochemical composition of modern einkorn grains with heating at 230 °C for 2 h, 4 h, 8 h and 24 h, encompassing conditions that replicate their undistorted ancient counterparts. The biochemical composition of archaeobotanical charred einkorn grains was also investigated by FT-IR and solid state ¹³C NMR in order to assess the changes in composition which occur during burial. Results of FT-IR and solid-state ¹³C NMR show that heating of modern einkorn grains resulted in Maillard reactions between cereal proteins and starch, forming high molecular weight melanoidins, which contain both alkyl and aromatic carbon. Loss of low molecular weight carbon and nitrogen-containing volatiles resulted in a slight but non-systematic increase in the δ¹³C values and a systematic increase of 0.8‰ in the δ¹⁵N values of the charred einkorn grains. Solid-state ¹³C NMR shows that the ancient charred einkorn grains consisted entirely of aromatic carbon and retained a similar proportion of nitrogen to their modern 24 h charred counterparts, despite a significantly lower concentration of amino acids. This indicates that the amino acid nitrogen in the ancient charred grains was retained in the stable melanoidins whose polymeric structure makes them resistant to subsequent degradation.     

‘Working of the Train Gang’: Alienation,Liminality and Communitas in the UK Preserved Railway Sector

The article initially draws upon the notion of non‐alienated labour to explain the motivations of volunteers who offer their time and expertise freely to the running of steam and diesel locomotives within UK preserved railways. It suggests that in this instance the concept is flawed in that volunteers operate outside the cash nexus. In drawing upon the anthropological concepts of liminality and communitas it aims to develop the notion of non‐alienated labour by adding a subjective dimension. It argues that volunteers working on preserved railways are modern‐day pilgrims through their moving in and out of different identities as they seek solace in the certainty of operating and working in complex and highly satisfying workplaces.