OBSIDIAN IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE NEAR EAST: A PROVENANCING SUCCESS STORY

Obsidian provenancing studies comprise one of the most productive and successful research programmes of archaeological science. Obsidian characterization has been successful because workable obsidian is homogeneous on a small scale, analysable by a large number of methods, and is restricted to a small number of mainly readily distinguishable geological sources. Analytical, dating, source, and trade studies within the western Mediterranean, central and eastern Europe, the Aegean, and Anatolia and the Near East during the last 30 years or so are reviewed. Research has shown that distributions are mainly separate in the four regions examined, and that obsidian was traded up to 900km in the prehistoric period. Publications on obsidian in the areas under review reached a peak of frequency in the later 1970s and 1980s, but have now decreased in number. This may reflect changing fashions in archaeometric studies, and a current lack of routine application of the provenancing methods developed.     

Allegories of Absence: Richard Weiner and Karel Čapek

Abstract

Examining the relationship between two of the most significant Czech writers of the early twentieth century, Richard Weiner (1884–1937) and Karel ?apek (1890–1938), this article sets their divergent developmental paths into the context of broader issues within European Modernism as a whole. The re-emergence of ‘allegory’ as privileged aesthetic category — represented prominently by Walter Benjamin’s work in the 1920s — characterizes a cultural phenomenon that can be termed ‘melancholy Modernism’. Weiner and ?apek’s contrasting responses to this melancholy allegorical impulse trace a fundamental fault line within the philosophical and historical development of Modernism.     

NEW CHRONOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE MIDDLE TO UPPER PALAEOLITHIC TRANSITION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA: NEW OPTICALLY STIMULATED LUMINESCENCE DATING RESULTS

We report new optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates from the Central European sites of K?lna, Stránská skála, Bohunice, Vedrovice V, Vedrovice Ia, Moravský Krumlov IV and Dzeravá skala, which date to the Middle–Upper Palaeolithic transition period. There are important unresolved questions surrounding the timing of archaeological events during this crucial period in European prehistory. Archaeological layers from this time period are at the limits of the ¹⁴C method and most of these sites lack good chronology. The results of this dating project suggest that some parts of the current chronological framework may need to be revised. Although in many cases our OSL results are broadly consistent with previous dates obtained by ¹⁴C, in other cases they reveal unexpected surprises. One OSL result from K?lna opens up the possibility that Neanderthals may have survived in this part of Europe past the 30 ka bp mark as has been argued for several Neanderthal sites in southern Europe. The large Szeletian assemblage recovered from Vedrovice V may be significantly older than previously thought, which undermines the idea that the Szeletian culture is exclusively an Early Upper Palaeolithic industry. More dating research is needed to confirm the more controversial results of this research.     

Inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy and Postclassic Petén slipped pottery: an examination of pottery wares,social identity and trade*

ICP–ES analysis of the clay pastes of Postclassic (c. ad 850–1524) slipped pottery from the central Petén lakes region establishes chemical composition groups that provide information concerning manufacturing traditions and trading patterns. These data demonstrate that manufacturing traditions and trading patterns change throughout the Postclassic period, reflecting possible socio‐political alliances as different ethnic groups migrated to and from the Yucatán peninsula into the central Petén lakes region. The chemical composition groups also demonstrate that some manufacturing traditions imitate those from the Late Classic period and that some clay sources were used throughout the Postclassic period for multiple ceramic groups.     

COLOURED OPAQUE GLASS BEADS OF THE MEROVINGIANS*

Monochrome coloured opaque glass beads of the Merovingians have been examined by different analytical methods. A large number of mostly unprepared beads have been measured by X‐ray fluorescence analysis. X‐ray diffraction was used for the identification of the crystalline colouring and opacifying pigments, and electron probe micro‐analysis as well as scanning electron microscopy were applied to study the composition and the microstructure of a white, brown, green, orange and yellow glass bead. After subtracting the content of colouring oxides of the glass beads and normalizing the residual values to 100% an identical soda‐lime‐glass matrix was obtained. The origin of the colouring metal oxides is discussed.     

Plant economy of the northern Alpine lake dwellings — 3500–2400 cal. BC

Abstract

Considerable changes are observed in the abundance of cultivated plants in the northern Alpine foreland between 3500 and 2400 cal. BC. The importance of tetraploid naked wheat (Triticum durum Desf./turgidum L.) and opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) declines whereas that of glume wheat (mainly emmer, Triticum dicoccum Schübl.) and flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) increases progressively. The hypothesis presented here is that these developments are mainly due to changing cultural spheres of influence. Many of these changes are, however, not fully traceable due to the very heterogeneous and, in part, very poor state of research in this area.     

PROVENANCE DETERMINATION OF LAVA FLAGSTONES FROM THE ROMAN ‘VIA CONSOLARE FLAMINIA’PAVEMENT (CENTRAL ITALY) USING PETROLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS*

Trachyte lava flagstones from the northernmost stretch of the Roman ‘Via Consolare Flaminia’pavement and trachyte lavas from the most exploited quarries in Roman times were compared from a petrological point of view. ‘Via Consolare Flaminia’was the most important route used by the Romans to reach northern Italy and all the northern provinces of the Empire. A provenance for the flagstones as coming from the trachyte quarries of the Euganean Hills (Veneto region, northern Italy) is suggested by the similarity of both the fundamental mineral assemblage and the major trace element geochemistry. The location of the quarries of the Euganean Hills next to the harbours of the northern Adriatic Sea strongly supports the hypothesis that the Romans carried the flagstones by ship towards the coasts of the central Adriatic Sea.