Why so many wings? A re-examination of avian skeletal part representation in the south-central Northwest Coast,USA

Ten years ago, I summarized hypotheses for the abundance of bird wing elements in archaeological sites and rejected the hypothesis that differential preservation caused this pattern in the Pacific Northwest Coast (Bovy, 2002). I also noted that distal wing elements (relative to proximal wings) dominated several assemblages in the Gulf of Georgia sub-region. I re-examine this issue, focusing on behavioral hypotheses for the abundance of distal wings. Ethnographic evidence is used to formulate predictions for the cultural explanations, which are tested using data from the late Holocene Watmough Bay (45SJ280) site, where distal wings comprise 98% of the large duck assemblage (n = 4195). Diving ducks, dabbling ducks, geese, loons and grebes all have more distal wing bones than expected, and were likely caught using submerged nets. The most plausible explanation for the prevalence of distal wing bones is either that only the distal wings were transported back to the sites (perhaps attached to skins) and/or the distal wings were discarded separately during cooking.     

郑若曾《筹海图编》的史学价值

郑若曾《筹海图编》是明代海防著述的典范之作。该书在编撰过程中参考了大量官方文牍,同时也吸收了众多有识之士及民间亲历者的意见。作者郑若曾对相关素材更是旁搜远索,务求有体有用。是书内容详核,见解精到,具有极高的经世价值。《筹海图编》在明嘉靖以后至清鸦片战争之前,影响广泛,不少海防图籍以及日本相关之论著,皆不同程度的受其影响。至于今日,《筹海图编》的史学价值益加彰显,其中包含丰富的明代海防史、中日交通史、历史地理学、科技史等宝贵资料,郑若曾的海防战略思想也蕴在其中,值得予以深入研究。     

A Needle Assemblage from a Roman Shipwreck off the Israeli Coast

Underwater excavation of a shipwreck‐site off Hof Carmel, south of Haifa, Israel, yielded numerous artefacts associated with a ship and cargo dated to the 3rd century AD. Among them were eight sewing needles: six of bronze, one of copper and one of brass. This article describes the needles including their chemical composition, discusses comparable finds from nautical and domestic contexts, and their possible uses and roles aboard a Roman ship.     

Environment and integration on the edge of Europe

While European integration has predominantly been addressed in terms of its common market and through questions of European identity, this article explores alternate perspectives of environment in peripheral landscapes as a practice through which European center-periphery relations are negotiated. Drawing on two case studies, namely the Bulgarian Black Sea coast and the arid regions of Almeria in southeast Spain, we highlight how these landscapes have been variously framed as explicitly European spaces through either developmental narratives or environmental activism and advocacy. We argue that European integration is realized and contested through the discursive and material transformation of landscapes. With this, we contribute to an understanding of environmentalism and the politics of the environment as instrumental in addressing broader and parallel political concerns. Combining southern and eastern European perspectives on the political geography of the environment, we show that the landscape functions as an intrinsically political arena that materializes and discursively frames the different meanings and interests of European integration at stake.     

Report on Underwater Excavation at the Phoenician Harbour,Atlit, Israel

Atlit is a small Phoenician settlement on the Carmel coast, with an artificial harbour, built during Iron Age II, before the Assyrian occupation, and used until the end of the Persian era. There are no remains of any later construction, in contrast to other Phoenician ports such as Sidon and Tyre. The study of Atlit harbour has therefore provided invaluable information on the positioning, planning and construction of Phoenician harbours in the Levant. This article is a summary of the most recent underwater excavation seasons at the harbour, and presents our conclusions on construction techniques and their historical implications. © 2009 The Author     

东西部区域发展差异实证分析

我国东西部发展差距不断扩大的问题仍未得到有效地解决,有些方面还在进一步拉大,有些问题甚至更加突出。本文从经济、社会、科技和对外开放等几个角度对此进行了分析。     

Pinniped behavior, foraging theory, and the depression of metapopulations and nondepression of a local population on the southern Northwest Coast of North America

Models derived from foraging theory suggest that high-value prey will be depressed (encounter rates will decrease) relative to low-value prey as human predation intensifies. Numerous case studies in ethnographic and zooarchaeological settings indicate depression of prey is very common. Exceptions to depression are few and have been cited as evidence of conservation and resource management. Reanalysis of pinniped and ungulate data from sites on the Oregon coast indicates that the metapopulation (entire population in the region) of otariids was depressed but a single local population of Steller sea lions exploited over a span of 600 years reached an equilibrium with human predation and was not subsequently depressed. This local population was not historically documented, and thus must have been extirpated by commercial sealing in the late nineteenth century. This singular case of prehistoric epiphenomenal conservation was an unintentional result of human predation that took advantage of the lack of escape behaviors among breeding male Steller sea lions.     

Neolithic Pottery Traditions from the Islands, the Coast and the Interior of East Africa

Scholars have attributed the spread of agriculture and pottery technology to the larger part of eastern and southern Africa to Bantu speakers. However, the spread of similar aspects to the Kenya and Tanzania Rift Valley as far south as Eyasi Basin and as far east as Mount Kilimanjaro has been attributed to Cushitic speakers. Whereas the spread of these innovations to the Rift Valley region can be dated back to 3000 BC, the remaining part of eastern and southern Africa is alleged to have received similar innovations only after the BC/AD changeover, when iron technology was introduced. These theories can no longer be sustained. The coast of Tanzania, its immediate hinterland, and the deep sea islands of Zanzibar and Mafia were settled by people who had knowledge of agriculture and pottery making probably from 3000 BC. These innovations are also found to have spread to southern Africa in the last millennium BC. The introduction of iron technology and beveled/fluted pottery, associated with Bantu speakers, was just another stage in the cultural evolution of the people of eastern and southern Africa, but not the beginning of settled, farming/domesticating communities.La diffusion de l'agriculture et la technologie de poterie à la région plus grande de l'Afrique orientale et méridional ont était attribué au parleurs des langues bantou. Cependant, la diffusion des aspects semblables au Rift Valley de Kenya et Tanzania, sud au Bassin d'Eyasi et est au Mont Kilimanjaro ont était attribué au parleurs des langues Cushitic. Tandis qu'on peut dater la diffusion de ces innovations à la région du Rift Valley à 3000 BC, il est prétendu que la région restante d'Afrique orientale et méridional ont reçu les innovations similaires seulement après le changement de BC/AD, au temps que la technologie de fer était indroduit. Il n'est pas possible maintenant à sustenir ces théories. La côte de Tanzania, son hinterland immédiat/les regions près de la mer, et les îles de Zanzibar et Mafia, ont étaient colonisé par les personnes qui avait la connaissance de l'agriculture et de la poterie probablement à partir de 3000 BC. On peut trouver aussi que ces innovations ont diffusé à l'Afrique méridional pendant la dernier millénaire avant J. -C. L'introduction de la technologie du fer et la poterie avec le biseau, liée avec les parleurs des langues bantoues, était seulement un autre étape dans l'évolution culturelle du peuple de l'Afrique orientale et méridional. Il n'était pas le commencement des communautés établis qui ont pratiqué l'agricole et la domestication.     

山东寿光市北部沿海环境考古报告

2001年,山东大学考古系等在山东寿光市沿海进行了一次环境考古调查和试掘,本次工作预设两个目的,即解决当地先秦时期考古文化的发展序列,以及探索遗址分布与中全新世海岸线变迁的关系。结果表明,寿光沿海地带的先秦文化序列为大汶口-龙山-商周时期文化,年代约在公元前4000～221年间。再根据考古和自然学科资料,寿光沿海的中全新世海侵在公元前4500～前3000年达到最大范围,之后海面开始下降进入海退期,并在公元前2300年前后和公元前1400年间有过两次停顿期。这对山东北部沿海今后的环境考古将有重要学术意义。     

长江口咸淡水混合水域腐蚀性细菌的筛选及其对文物的腐蚀作用

近年来,针对文物在海水中的细菌性腐蚀研究主要集中于海域沉积,但关于咸淡水混合水域的腐蚀性细菌研究鲜有报道。河口及近海岸水域是水下文物较为丰富的区域,咸淡水交互作用影响水下文物的埋藏环境和文物遗存。本研究采集长江口北港拦门沙Ⅱ号沉船附近海底不同层次的海泥,通过非定向富集培养基培养,分离纯化得到18株菌,经16S rDNA鉴定出4种具有腐蚀性的细菌：哈夫尼希瓦氏菌(Shewanella hafniensis)、越南芽孢杆菌(Bacillus wiedmannii)、金橙微小杆菌(Exiguobacterium aquaticum)和微小杆菌(Exiguobacterium indicum)。将分离得到的细菌作用于瓷质、陶质和木质等常见文物材料,置于30℃摇床220 r/min转速下培养7 d,喷金干燥,扫描电镜下观察,均可见在材料表面上产生生物膜。生物膜与微生物腐蚀的发生密切相关,除了已报道具有腐蚀性的菌株外,还发现了2株先前并未报道但也在材料表面产生生物膜的菌类：萘醌对希瓦氏菌(Shewanella xiamenensis)和嗜水气单胞菌(Aeromonas hydrophila)。实验...