Placing social interaction: An integrative approach to analyzing past built environments

A growing recognition of the vital role that built space plays in social reproduction has created a need for analytical methods and interpretive frameworks with which to investigate this relationship in archaeological datasets. I address this by developing an integrative approach that emphasizes the role of the built environment as the context for interactions through which social structures are created, transformed and reproduced. This approach uses access analysis to examine how buildings structure patterns of movement and encounter that allow social actors to engage in or avoid particular forms of interaction. With its focus on the topological properties of built space, however, access analysis does not take adequate account of a building’s symbolic aspects, especially architectural characteristics and furnishings that social actors mobilize in the creation of meaningful contexts for interaction. I therefore integrate access analysis with an examination of how built environments encode meanings and nonverbally communicate them to inhabitants and visitors, potentially influencing their actions and interactions. The integrative approach allows determination of probable contexts for various types of social interactions during which social identities could be displayed, negotiated and reified. I conclude by demonstrating the potential of this approach with an analysis of the monumental Ashlar Building from the Late Bronze Age (c. 1650–1100 BC) site of Enkomi, Cyprus.     

Evidence for the trade of Mesopotamian and Egyptian glass to Mycenaean Greece

The origins of raw glass used to fashion Mycenaean beads were explored using trace elements analyzed by laser ablation ICP-TOFMS. The use of this minimally destructive technique for the in-situ analysis of these beads was ideal given that the material is exceedingly rare and thus too sensitive to make use of traditional micro-sampling (e.g., by scalpel). A wide range of trace elements were measured to compare these Greek glasses to other Late Bronze Age glass coming from Egypt and Mesopotamia. Of the eleven beads analyzed, four blue glasses colored with cobalt and two blue/green glasses colored with copper have trace element compositions consistent with an Egyptian origin of manufacture. The other five of the glasses, all colored with copper, were found to conform to the composition of Mesopotamian glass. These data are the first to demonstrate direct and clear evidence for the trade of raw glass to the Mycenaean states.     

The production of speiss (iron arsenide) during the Early Bronze Age in Iran

In this paper, analyses of some unusual slag samples from the prehistoric site of Tepe Hissar in northeastern Iran are presented. These slags are the remains of a five-thousand-year-old pyrotechnological process that produced speiss, a quasi-metallic material usually formed as an accidental by-product of copper or lead smelting. We argue that the “speiss slags” from Tepe Hissar suggest the intentional production of iron–arsenic alloy (“speiss”) in prehistory. Why the Tepe Hissar metalworkers produced speiss is a question that requires further investigation, but our preliminary assessment suggests that it was to provide arsenic as an alloying component for arsenical copper, the preferred copper alloy during much of the Early Bronze Age in Iran, and widely used across the ancient world. This recognition significantly advances our understanding of the early stages of metallurgy in the Old World.     

Preliminary neutron diffraction study of two fenestrated axes from the ‘Enot Shuni' Bronze Age cemetery (Israel)

Neutron diffraction (ND) analyses of ancient metals show that this method is capable of detecting differences in the inner composition and microstructure of ancient metal objects. Here, ND measurements were conducted on two ‘eye shaped’ axes from the end of the 3rd-beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The objects were excavated from the ancient cemetery of ‘Enot Shuni' Israel; one is made of bronze and the other of silver. Both artefacts are rare finds, with the silver axe unique in the archaeology of Israel, and therefore had to be analysed locally. For that purpose, a newly assembled diffractometer (KARL) at the IRR-1 of the Nuclear Research Centre (Soreq, Israel) was used. ND measurement on the bronze axe revealed the existence of an α-phase with a range of Cu/Sn ratios (Cu–Sn solid solutions) and some amount of a δ-phase (intermetallic compound of Cu and Sn). The silver axe ND pattern shows the existence of an α-phase (Ag–Cu solid solution) and some amount of copper metal. Our ND data are discussed in comparison with XRF surface measurements and thermal neutron radiography. The results are shedding more light on the in-depth material composition profile, as well as on the objects’ structural and compositional affinities, and help to better understand the production processes and assist in conservation decisions.     

乙二醛脱水加固定型曾侯乙墓和包山楚墓彩漆主棺

采用湖北省博物馆陈中行研究员发明的乙二醛复合液法脱水加固定型曾侯乙墓和包山楚墓出土的彩绘漆棺,漆棺脱水处理后色泽正常,保持了脱水前的色彩,未发生开裂变形,强度与脱水前相比有大幅提高。     

九连墩墓地1、2号墓出土青铜器上锈蚀产物分析

采用XRD、XRF和显微照相等方法,测试分析了九连墩1、2墓中出土青铜器锈蚀产物的成分和物相组成,发现该产物的物相主要为氧化亚铜.结合埋藏环境土壤的理化分析,探讨了这些锈蚀产物的形成原因,以及其对青铜文物的影响.同时使用XRD分析方法研究了这批青铜器在大气中的腐蚀情况,发现了一部分文物已经滋生了"粉状锈".     

“曾侯卿相种，才业固邦彦”——曾怀事迹论略

靖康之变后,北宋的世家大族大多因战争衰落,而晋江曾氏家族则在南宋迅速复兴。曾怀是曾氏家族在南宋复兴的关键人物。长期从事基层理财工作的实践为其积累了大量经验,在宋孝宗朝其理财能力得到充分展示。而曾怀个人的努力,使其家族声誉在南宋得到充分彰显。     

Opacifiers in Late Bronze Age glasses: the use of ToF-SIMS to identify raw ingredients and production techniques

Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is applied to the study of four samples of opaque glass of Late Bronze Age date. The technique is uniquely capable of identifying compositional heterogeneity at a sub-micron resolution within the crystalline opacifiers dispersed through homogeneous glass matrices. It is shown that this provides crucial information on the possible raw ingredients of the opacifying inclusions used, and has the potential for highlighting regional variations in the production technology involved in creating different colours of opaque glass.     

湖北随州市叶家山西周墓地

在叶家山西周墓地共发现墓葬65座和马坑1座。出土铜器、陶器、原始瓷器和玉器等遗物700余件套,其中部分铜器上有"曾"、"侯"、"曾侯"和"曾侯谏"等铭文。据器物形制和铜器铭文,该墓地是西周早期曾侯的家族墓地。这对研究汉东西周早期曾鄂、曾楚关系具有重要的学术价值。     

云南滇池地区聚落遗址2008年调查简报

经国家文物局批准,云南省文物考古研究所与美国密歇根大学人类学系签订为期3年的合作协议,进行"滇池区域史前聚落形态考古调查"项目,目的是通过开展全面的区域系统调查,寻找并确认与石寨山文化(亦称滇文化,时代约从春秋时期至西汉末期)有关的遗址和聚落[1],揭示这些聚落的