Bronze Age upland settlement decline in southwest England: testing the climate change hypothesis

The division of land on Dartmoor during the Bronze Age by the construction of moor-wide boundaries known as reaves represents a significant development in agricultural practice and land tenure. Previous research relating to the Dartmoor reaves suggests this way of life may have continued for no longer than 200–400 years. It has been suggested that their abandonment occurred as the result of a deteriorating climate, although there are no published palaeoclimatic reconstructions from the area. We therefore test the hypothesis that on Dartmoor, a marked climatic deterioration occurred in the late Bronze Age that can be linked to the abandonment of the reaves. A palaeoclimatic reconstruction derived from testate amoebae and peat humification analyses is presented from Tor Royal Bog, central Dartmoor, the first such record from southwest England. A major shift to a cooler and/or wetter climate is inferred from ca. 1395 to 1155 cal BC that is coincident with the period hypothesised as encompassing the abandonment. This climatic deterioration is replicated in sites in northern Britain, suggesting it was a widespread event. It is concluded that while the evidence supports a climatically forced retreat, there are a range of other socio-economic factors that must also be taken into consideration.     

Stable isotope evidence for salt-marsh grazing in the Bronze Age Severn Estuary,UK: implications for palaeodietary analysis at coastal sites

Stable isotope analyses of modern coastal and salt-marsh plant species (‘salt-loving’ plants or halophytes) have demonstrated that these are significantly enriched in ¹⁵N compared to other terrestrial plants. Coastal salt-marshes were far more extensive in the past than they are today. They represented a vast and much-exploited resource in many areas of the UK and north-western Europe and were considered to be prime land for the grazing of animal stock.     

Exchange patterns,boundary formation,and sociopolitical change in Late Bronze Age Southern Caucasia: preliminary results from a pottery provenance study in northwestern Armenia

In the South Caucasus—roughly the territory of today's Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan—the transition from the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) to the Late Bronze Age (LBA) is equated with fundamental shifts in settlement patterns, subsistence economy, and political strategies. During the mid-2nd millennium BC, nomadic pastoral societies that had dominated the region began to settle down and construct stone fortresses along the foothills of the Lesser Caucasus; these fortifications largely replaced the expansive and often opulently adorned kurgan burials as the most prominent expression of political dominance on the landscape. After a decade of intensive archaeological study at various fortifications, very little remains known about the political and economic relationships among fortresses on a regional scale that might improve our understanding of the roots of these sociopolitical transformations. In this paper, we highlight the results of a recent neutron activation analysis (NAA) of ceramics from elite and non-elite contexts at a selection of LBA fortresses on the Tsaghkahovit Plain in northwestern Armenia, and offer some preliminary interpretations about political and economic organization and boundary formation. Most strikingly, the NAA data suggest that the fortresses on the Tsaghkahovit Plain appear to have isolated themselves economically from surrounding valleys, perhaps in an attempt to forge boundaries and legitimating ideologies attendant to new political formations that were quite distinct from their nomadic predecessors in the MBA.     

南京发现的明代铸钟遗迹及相关问题

本文介绍了南京鼓楼西侧发现的一处特殊古代建筑遗迹,认为它与明初京师钟楼铸钟活动有关。并结合文献探讨了这处铸钟遗迹发现的重要意义及与南京钟楼相关的其他问题。     

秦始皇帝陵K0007号陪葬坑23号青铜鹤保护修复

秦陵博物院于2000年对位于秦始皇帝陵园外城垣东北角的K0007号陪葬坑进行了抢救性发掘,该坑共出土原大青铜水禽46件。据考古发掘报告,"铜禽坑"在坍塌前曾遭受水淹以及焚烧等人为破坏,加之长期处于高温多湿的埋藏环境,因而青铜水禽出土时腐蚀、矿化、粉化情况十分严重,有的甚至仅剩残块,无法辨识原貌。在这些青铜水禽中,编号为23号的水禽铜鹤尤其造型优美,形态逼真。为了对这件青铜鹤进行保护修复,从其保存现状出发,收集信息资料,检测分析病害原因,并制定保护修复方案,开展了具体实施的步骤。经过修复,达到了最终的展示效果。     

昆明羊甫头墓地出土青铜器的分析研究

为了对羊甫头出土青铜器的保存状况、锈蚀结构有全面的了解,同时对出土青铜器的原料配比、冶金技术、制作工艺进行研究。从不同的器物及残片上采集了32个青铜样品,应用扫描电镜、面探测器X射线衍射仪等方法对样品进行了合金成分分析及锈蚀产物检测。分析结果表明,羊甫头墓地青铜器物是用多种金属制作而成,器物主要是Cu-Sn合金,其次是红铜、Cu-Sn-Pb、Cu-Pb-Sb等合金;锈蚀产物主要以孔雀石、锡石、石英、赤铜矿等为主。     

应用电位活化理论研究青铜器的腐蚀与保护(二)——关于多孔氧电极的加速腐蚀机理研究

为了探讨铜盐等腐蚀产物对青铜器腐蚀的影响,采用腐蚀膏试验和微电极测试腐蚀电流的方法研究了氯化亚铜、碱式氯化铜、碱式碳酸铜等对青铜试片和铜电极腐蚀的影响,得出氯化亚铜是加速青铜器腐蚀的最有害物质的结论。红外光谱分析表明,以苯骈三氮唑为主钝化剂的高效防护剂同时改变了氯化亚铜的结构,起到了有效抑制青铜器腐蚀的作用。应用电位活化理论阐述了青铜器粉状锈小孔腐蚀的电化学行为,提出了氯化亚铜加速青铜器腐蚀的多孔氧电极催化模型。     

Fortifications and Enclosures in European Prehistory: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

This article reviews recent research into the archaeological interpretation and investigation of fortifications and enclosures during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Europe. Recent methodological, technological, and cultural developments have expanded our understanding of the temporal, spatial, and formal variability of these features on the landscape. Interpretations of this variability also have varied with different theoretical trends in the discipline. We advocate a cross-cultural approach that focuses on the occurrence of enclosures and fortifications over the long term at the continental scale. Such a macroscalar approach complements interpretive frameworks at the regional and microregional scales. The geographic and temporal distribution of these features indicates that social institutions associated with principles of segmentation and substitutability became formalized and tethered to the landscape during the Neolithic.     

殷墟孝民屯东南地出土陶范年代的再认识及相关问题

孝民屯东南地铸铜遗址是近年殷墟发掘工作的一项重要收获,对研究殷墟铜器铸造工艺和殷墟布局具有重要意义[1]。伴随殷墟晚期陶器出土的大量陶范为殷墟铜器分期和商末周初铜器断代提供了难得的材料,引起学者们的广泛关注。     

三年奅令戈考

2005年5月,安徽省文物考古研究所在霍邱县洪集镇唐畈村发现一座小墓[1],根据该墓的形制和出土陶器的组合特征,判断其年代为战国晚期至西汉初年。该墓出土的1件青铜戈,编号为M21∶1。狭援内刃式,援长而狭,前锋弧形,无脊;长胡,上有三穿;长方形内,上有一穿,后段略收窄,三面有刃。具有典型的战国晚期特征。