Radial route systems and agro-pastoral strategies in the Fertile Crescent: New discoveries from western Syria and southwestern Iran

Radial systems of spoke-like pathways, often termed “hollow ways,” are frequently found surrounding mounded tell sites in northern Mesopotamia and have been explained as the product of a particular set of land use practices involving dry-farming agriculture and intensive ovicaprid pastoralism. Yet while similar subsistence strategies were very common across the Near East throughout much of the Holocene, classic hollow ways have only been previously documented in a small region and articulate almost exclusively with sites of the third millennium BC. This paper presents newly discovered hollow ways in western Syria and southwestern Iran, made possible through analysis of an online database of declassified, Cold War-era CORONA satellite imagery. The association of these previously undocumented ancient roads with archaeological sites dating to the Iron Age, Roman/late Roman and early medieval periods, suggests that the land use practices which produced radial route systems may have been quite widespread. Taking into account the wide geographic and temporal distribution of hollow ways, analysis explores various aspects of the agro-pastoral systems that disparate communities may have shared. Results confirm some aspects existing models of hollow way formation, while offering some refinements in terms of the roles that settlement organization, agricultural land use and pastoral strategies play.     

Evaluation of carnivory in inland Jomon hunter–gatherers based on nitrogen isotopic compositions of individual amino acids in bone collagen

Archaeological studies including stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of bone collagen from human remains have suggested their heavy dependence on terrestrial foods during the Jomon period in the inland central region in Japan. However, it is not easy to quantitatively evaluate the extent of carnivory for archaeological human remains based on the bulk collagen chemistry, because of variable ¹⁵N-enrichment factor along the trophic step and background isotopic variations in ecosystems. In order to overcome these problems and more precisely evaluate diets of prehistoric humans who strongly adapted to terrestrial environment, in this study we applied nitrogen isotope analysis of individual amino acids in bone collagen to two inland human populations in the Jomon period. Our results suggest that the two populations were predominantly dependent on the C₃-plant-based terrestrial ecosystem and consumed little aquatic resources. Furthermore, their mean trophic positions (2.7 for both cases) are closer to that of the fox (2.8–3.0) rather than those of pure herbivores (2.0–2.2), and show little change over time. These results are the first evidence that inland Jomon populations may have had more carnivorous diets than is traditionally considered.     

Lidar mapping and surface survey of the Izapa state on the tropical piedmont of Chiapas,Mexico

Recent lidar and pedestrian surface surveys have remapped the well-known Mesoamerican site of Izapa and the surrounding Soconusco piedmont. These data document: 1) occupation from the surrounding piedmont environment, 2) significantly larger estimates of the site's size during both the Formative and Classic periods as well as 3) new architectural features from the monumental site core. Methodological issues are outlined for combining high precision lidar mapping with ground truthing and pedestrian survey that focuses on surface collection of temporally diagnostic artifacts. Results are presented for 670 mounds documented in an area of 43.1 sq km in and around the ancient capital of Izapa.     

Genetic sexing to determine the optimal discriminant functions for the analysis of archaeological remains from El Hierro (Canary Islands)

A correct sex assignment of a given bone or bone fragment is of paramount importance for the archaeologist, anthropologist and in forensic medicine. Discriminant functions, combining several anthropometric measurements obtained from individuals with known sex are useful tools for this purpose, but it is essential to know exactly the sex from which the measures are obtained. This is an easy task in modern populations, but it is problematic in ancient ones, since even when the entire skeleton is available, diagnosis of sex is not 100% accurate. Sexing by genetic methods by amplifying the first intron of the amelogenin gene constitutes a much more accurate method for sexing bones and may be the gold standard for further elaboration of discriminant functions which may serve for sexing new bones dug up in future excavations. With this aim we have genetically sexed 52 (out of 59) tibiae belonging to the prehispanic population of El Hierro, in the Canary Islands, identifying 18 women and 34 men, and then, performed discriminant functions combining several anthropometric variables. These functions show a high accuracy in sex diagnosis (94.2%; area under ROC curve = 0.954 with the best of the functions), so that they allow correct sexing of tibiae or tibiae fragments (only proximal third, distal third or midshaft). Thus, genetic sexing obviates the problem of finding an accurate gold standard for the elaboration of discriminant functions for ancient bones. This method could be applied to other populations of different antiquity and different ethnicity.     

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.     

郑绷王守仁表彰《古本大学》的表彰

郑珍《古本〈大学说〉序》描述了这样一个过程《大学》如何从古本到二程改本,到朱子章句,再到后世诸改本“纷纷益不可胜记”,以至成为笑柄。然见邻水甘秩斋《大学说》,不仅赞叹,以为虽“又一新异本”,实与王守仁《大学古本序》“大义复不相乖忤”。郑珍遂表彰王守仁“复古之功不可没”。守仁复古本之思萌自龙场,经多年思考和反复论证,于正德十三年刻《古本大学序》,正式公布了他表彰古本正当性的观点。     

徽派版画中的名作《古歙山川图》作者考

本文对徽派版画中的《古歙山川图》的作者做了比较详尽的考证。     

安徽省南陵县江木冲古铜矿冶炼遗物自然科学研究及意义

本通过对江木冲冶炼遗址古铜矿、古炼渣、古铜锭及青铜器的对比研究,利用矿床学、冶金学等理论,探索利用自然科学手段解决其输出路线问题,提出了判别其产物(铜锭)的特征微量元素和其它综合判别标志,同时也为青铜器其它矿料来源(尤其锡矿)难题的解决进行了技术路线探索和方法研究。     

佛光寺东大殿实测数据解读

结合山西省古建筑保护研究所2004年、清华大学2005—2006年对五台山佛光寺东大殿的手工测绘和三维激光扫描测量,本文借鉴前辈学者对于佛光寺东大殿原始设计尺寸权衡的论述,在今天毫米级精度的测量数据的基础上,得出以下结论:东大殿所用营造尺长298毫米,中五间开间1丈7尺,标准柱高同之;斗拱材宽7寸;斗拱下昂斜度等于总举斜度,基本斜度可描述成“平出47分~(?),抬高21分~(?)”,总举为此基本斜度的11倍,稍间、进深各间尺寸因此定为1丈4尺8寸;中平槫到柱头的高度等于总举高。通过上述的分析与结论,本文强调提高古建筑测绘数据全面性和精度的重要意义及深远的科研前景。     

考古学与中国上古史重建

中国近代考古学建立之初,不免材料不足并有先天局限,但随着考古学的发展和壮大,其对中国上古史之重建的作用日益显现。以顾颉刚为代表的古史辨派对旧古史系统进行了摧毁性的批判,傅斯年、李济等人继之而起,开辟了重建之路。傅斯年为重建中国古史提供了体制保证并指明方向,李济则在理论和方法上提出了系统的方案。然而,李济等人限于当时条件,具体实践工作并不理想,而中国大陆考古学者们则做出了切实的贡献。经过60年的发展,中国田野考古学取得极大的成就,苏秉琦等学者据此提出考古学文化"区系类型理论"和中国文明"多元一体格局说",中国上古史重建已进入切实展开的时期。