安徽马鞍山寺门口东吴墓发掘简报

马鞍山寺门口东吴墓,墓葬形制为“十字形”多室墓,反映了与长江中游东吴墓葬形制上的承接关系,该墓葬未经扰乱,出土的一些陶瓷器和精美的铜镜,为研究长江下游地区东吴时期的墓葬埋葬习俗,提供了重要的实物资料。     

从"伊拉克门"到"情报门"——美国对萨达姆政权政策探析

美国当代有两次所谓"伊拉克门"丑闻:一次发生在海湾战前,以美国纵容伊拉克发展大规模杀伤性武器借以改善美伊关系为特征;另一次又称"情报门",发生在2003年伊拉克战争前,以美国政府夸大伊拉克大规模杀伤性武器的威胁度和紧迫性,为发动伊战寻求借口为特征。两次"伊拉克门"特征迥异,却都与大规模杀伤性武器紧密相关。大规模杀伤性武器成为美国处理对伊关系、制定对伊政策的核心因素。两次"伊拉克门"期间,随着国际环境以及战略重心的改变,美国的伊拉克政策也发生了巨大的转变,美国对伊外交政策的务实主义本质在两次"伊拉克门"丑闻中得到了充分的体现。     

新干大洋洲商代鱼镖形器探析

新干大洋洲出土的青铜器中,有一批名为“镖形器”和“镞”的器物。分析它们的形制,并与新石器时代的渔猎工具比较,细察器物的遗痕,参照相关史料等综合研究,认为它们是可用于渔猎的工具。     

Technological examination of Neolithic-Bronze Age pottery from central and southeast Europe and from the Near East

Scanning electron microscopy is used to examine sequences of pottery sherds from central and southeast Europe, Greece and the Near East spanning the period from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, in order to obtain information on the ceramic technologies employed in antiquity. On the basis of the vitrification observed and the chemical composition, the types of clay and firing procedures (temperature and atmosphere) employed in the manufacture of the pottery are defined. Two under-lying trends in the associated ceramic technologies are thus identified. The first is based on the use of non-calcareous or “unstable” calcareous clays fired in a reducing atmosphere at temperatures below 800 °C and the second on the use of “stable” calcareous clays fired in an oxidizing atmosphere at temperatures in excess of 800 °C.     

Lambs to the Slaughter: A Zooarchaeological Investigation of Stone Circles in Mongolia

Stone circles are a common monumental feature of the Mongolian Bronze Age (c. 1500–800BC), frequently occurring in association with other monument types, especially khirigsuurs. Until now the content of the stone circles has not been identified, a fact which has hampered our understanding not only of khirigsuurs and their related cosmology but also of the contemporary economy, owing to a research paradigm that was monument‐focused until very recently. The identification of domestic bovids in these features thus has profound implications for our approach to studying the society of this period and region. These implications, including a well‐developed cosmology and economy which included the ritual sacrifice of at least three different kinds of livestock, are introduced here. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Specialization and social inequality in Bronze Age SE Arabia: analyzing the development of production strategies and economic networks using agent-based modeling

This paper investigates the role of specialized production strategies in the development of socio-economic inequalities in Bronze Age south-eastern (SE) Arabia, and particularly, the ways in which a localized, internal exchange economy may have produced stress and instability in the SE Arabian socio-economic system. While archaeological research has established that the communities of SE Arabia participated in a widespread Bronze Age exchange system that included areas of the ancient Near East, South Asia, and Central Asia, it is unclear to what degree this interaction fostered the broad-scale socio-economic changes seen in the Early Bronze Age of SE Arabia. Here we present the results of an agent-based model that suggest the nature of the internal exchange economy in SE Arabia itself may have precipitated the social conditions necessary for change by allowing individuals to profit disproportionately. We thus emphasize the importance of local production strategies in generating socio-economic change, in addition to the well-established economic and cultural contacts with the wider Bronze Age world.     

Ancient DNA analysis of desiccated wheat grains excavated from a Bronze Age cemetery in Xinjiang

Wheat has been one of the most important crop in Eurasia since the Neolithic period. Understanding the spread of wheat cultivation is crucial to understanding the spread of agriculture as a whole and the interactions between prehistoric populations across the Eurasian continent. However, the routes by which wheat cultivation spread eastwards have been poorly understood to date, due to the scarcity of plant remains recovered from archaeological sites. Desiccated wheat grains excavated from the Xiaohe cemetery in Xinjiang, and dated to the early Bronze Age, show excellent DNA preservation. Here we present an ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis of wheat (Triticum sp.) grains excavated from Xiaohe and provide the first definitive evidence for bread wheat in China during the Bronze Age. The nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS1 and ITS2) and the intergenic spacer region (IGS) were amplified. The IGS region within the D genome of wheat has a 71 bp insertion that is absent from corresponding regions in the A and B genomes. The results showed that the Xiaohe wheat showed most sequence similarity to hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), including the characteristic insertion into the D genome. The presence of bread wheat at the Xiaohe cemetery is discussed in relation to it having spread into Xinjiang by the Bronze Age, providing new insight into the origins of bread wheat in East Asia.     

An archaeological signature of multi-level social systems: The case of the Irish Bronze Age

Recent research suggests that contemporary human social groups are structured according to principles of fission and fusion that are also observed in some of our primate relatives, raising the possibility that such social systems have been a feature of hominin society throughout prehistory. The current paper examines the possibility of identifying archaeological signatures of multi-level social structures through the examination of site size distributions. Data on the sizes of Irish Bronze Age stone circles and predictions for the size of aggregations they could accommodate are compared with simulations parameterized using data on modern human groups. The results suggest that the presence of hierarchically inclusive, multi-level social structures provides a better explanation for the data than more traditional archaeological accounts based on the rank-size rule and related inferences concerning the emergence of political elites.     

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。     

辽宁西丰县东沟遗址及墓葬发掘简报

2009年辽宁省文物考古研究所对西丰县东沟遗址和墓葬进行了发掘,共清理灰坑25个、灰沟4条、墓葬11座。遗址出土遗物有陶器、石器和铁器,其年代为战国至西汉初期。墓葬出土遗物有陶器和石器,依据墓葬形制及随葬器物组合等,推测其年代为春秋末至战国初。