Technological,Functional and Contextual Aspects of the K2 and Mapungubwe Worked Bone Industries

Mapungubwe (AD 1220–1290) is generally regarded as the first urban centre in southern Africa, functioning as the seat of power for an extensive but short-lived polity. More than 80 years of excavations here, and at its nearby predecessor K2 (c. AD 1000–1220), resulted in a substantial assemblage of material remains from elite and commoner contexts. This assemblage includes a large collection of worked bone objects, such as needles, awls, tubes and objects of personal adornment. Of particular interest are the bone arrowheads and link-shafts, of which a significant number of specimens were found complete and intact. Such quantities of well-preserved worked bone objects are unique in the archaeological record of the region. The worked bone assemblages from these two sites provide a rare opportunity to study multiple components of the production process as well as the use context of bone objects. In this paper, we characterise the K2 and Mapungubwe worked bone industries through various morphological, technological, use-trace and contextual approaches and discuss the significance of these aspects in terms of raw material selection and manufacture and archaeological use context. In particular, this study shows the complexity of these worked bone industries over time.     

Devonian operculate corals (Calceolidae,Cnidaria) from the Massif Armoricain,France

Wright, A.J., Plusquellec, Y. &; Gourvennec, R., February 2016. Devonian operculate corals (Calceolidae, Cnidaria) from the Massif Armoricain, France. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

The operculate coral Calceola gervillei Bayle, 1878 Bayle, E., 1878. Fossiles principaux des terrains de la France. Explication de la Carte Géologique de France 4(1), 1–158. [Google Scholar] is described for the first time on the basis of the type material from the Cotentin region of Normandy (North Armorican Domain), from Early Devonian (likely upper Lochkovian to lower Pragian) strata, and is chosen as the type species of the monotypic new genus Gerviphyllum. The new genus is also present in the l’Armorique Formation (lower Pragian) of the Plougastel Peninsula (Central Armorican Domain) as Gerviphyllum sp. cf. G. gervillei. One locality in the upper Emsian (Polygnathus serotinus Conodont Zone) Le Fret Formation, on the northern coast of the Crozon Peninsula, has yielded operculate coral specimens described here as ?Chakeola sp., the first (tentative) record of the genus outside eastern Australia, south China and Vietnam. The operculate coral Calceola collini sp. nov. is described from six localities in the early Middle Devonian (Eifelian: Polygnathus costatus Conodont Zone) Saint-Fiacre Formation of the Plougastel and Crozon Peninsulas (Central Armorican Domain), despite the fact that knowledge of the internal characters, especially of the operculum, of the type species Calceola sandalina is very limited. From an extensive review of published references to Calceola from France, we conclude that only the record of Collin (1929 Collin, L., 1929. Un nouveau gisement à calcéoles dans le Dévonien de la Presqu’île de Crozon (Finistère). Bulletin de la Société Géologique et Minéralogique de Bretagne 7(3/4), 201–208. [Google Scholar]) is valid.

Anthony Wright (tony.wright@optusnet.com.au), GeoQuEST Research Centre, School of Earth &; Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia; Yves Plusquellec (yves.plusquellec@univ-brest.fr) and Rémy Gourvennec (remy.gourvennec@univ-brest.fr), Université de Bretagne Occidentale, CNRS-UMR 6538 ‘Domaines océaniques’, Laboratoire de Paléontologie, UFR Sciences et Techniques, 6 avenue Le Gorgeu, CS 98837, F-29283, Brest, France. Received 1.10.2015; revised 8.12.2015; accepted 14.12.2015.     

‘Always like never before’: learning from the lumitopia of Tivoli Gardens

Drawing on a detailed analysis of the historical and current development of lighting in Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens, this article addresses how this site of extraordinarily diverse illumination exemplifies a carefully orchestrated balance between (1) muted and more vivid forms of lighting, (2) curation of historical styles and promotion of contemporary innovations in illumination and (3) artistic luminaires and those more aligned with popular tastes. Through these themes, we argue that the current strategies towards urban lighting that predominantly promote energy conservation, security, commercial imperatives and place-branding may be supplemented by place-specific design strategies that implement multiplicity, connect past and present, and accommodate diverse desires, dreams and realities. These attributes contribute to the ongoing emergence of what we call a ‘lumitopia’, a space in which an intensified attention to illumination is integral to the particularity of a place or landscape. In the case of Tivoli, this offers a lens to manage nocturnal space so that it becomes more aesthetically complex, inclusive and convivial.     

Chronostratigraphy of an Eroding Complex Atlantic Round House,Baile Sear,Scotland

A high-resolution chronostratigraphy has been established for an eroding Atlantic round house at Sloc Sàbhaidh (North Uist, Scotland), combining detailed OSL profiling and dating of sediments encompassing the main bracketing events associated with the monument, radiocarbon AMS dates on bone recovered from excavated features and fills within it, and TL dates on pottery and burnt clay. Concordant OSL and radiocarbon evidence place construction of the wheelhouse in the first to second centuries AD, contemporary with dates from the primary occupation. Beneath the wheelhouse, clay deposits containing burnt material, attest to cultural activity in vicinity to the monument in the preceding second to first centuries BC. At a later date, the southern wall collapsed, was rebuilt, and the interior spaces to the monument re-structured. The chronology for the later horizons identified from the sediment luminescence dates extends to the second half of the first millennium AD, which goes beyond the range of the radiocarbon dates obtained. The data from ceramics encompass both periods. The juxtaposition of the dating evidence is discussed relative to short and longer chronologies for this Iron Age monument. Corollaries of this research are the implications that based on the long chronology, some of the ecofacts (bone) appear to be residual, and that the temporal duration of Hebridean Coarse Ware may extend into the second half of the first millennium AD.     

The Pluralities of Black Geographies

This paper seeks to spur conversations around the inherent pluralities found within Black Geographies. While analyses of Black Geographies have provided important reflections on the spatial imaginaries and practices of Black populations, less attention has been paid to the differences found among Black geographical expressions. This piece therefore seeks to draw out the ways in which Black people uniquely conceive of space by highlighting the distinctions present within different Black social movements. The authors explore the spatial politics of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the Black Panther Party for Self‐Defense, and the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika to argue that while these three movements all attempted to create spaces of Black self‐determination, they did so with distinct spatial aspirations and concrete politics. The authors argue that recognising and accounting for the pluralities of Black spatial creation is necessary for realising more just geographies.