略论商周时期青铜卣的起源问题——以罐形卣为例

青铜卣是商周青铜礼器中比较重要的盛酒器之一,常出土于规格比较高的墓葬之中。它的分布范围比较广,东北到辽宁,西北至甘肃,西南达广西,都能看到它的踪影;形制变化多样,腹部     

Red ochre decorations in Spanish Neolithic ceramics: a mineralogical and technological study

Some Neolithic ceramics from south-eastern Spain have red to brown external decorations called “almagras” (red ochre). The pigment layer is essentially composed of a mixture of clay and iron oxides: haematite (red) and maghemite (brown). It is suggested that maghemite was formed during the firing process of ceramic in a reducing atmosphere. Several laboratory tests have been carried out to obtain maghemite by adding charcoal or pinewood sawdust to similar ceramic pastes. In fact, maghemite was formed, even when the piece was simply covered with pinewood sawdust before firing. The diverse original red colours are due to variations in iron oxide (or calcite) content and to redox conditions in the firing procedure. Brown- coloured ceramics owe their colour to maghemite and must be considered as a “fabrication defect”, due to the position of the ceramic piece in a zone where a reducing atmosphere prevailed in the course of firing.     

Small prey hunting technology and zooarchaeological measures of taxonomic diversity and abundance: Ethnoarchaeological evidence from Central African forest foragers

Archaeological analyses of faunal assemblages often rely on rationale derived from the prey choice model to explain temporal and spatial changes in taxonomic measures of diversity and/or abundances. In this paper, we present analyses of ethnoarchaeological observations and bone assemblages created by Central African Bofi and Aka forest foragers which show that different small prey hunting technologies target specific suites of prey and that hunters vary their technological choice depending on their foraging goals. Analysis of ethnoarchaeological bone assemblages produced by the Bofi and Aka shows that variability in target prey can create spatially distinct, but contemporaneous, faunal assemblages with different diversity values and abundance indices. These data reveal important variation in how individuals within a contemporary human population rank prey and challenge current assumptions about the meaning of diversity and abundances measures in archaeological contexts. We argue that the use of diversity and abundance indices can obscure important intrasite variability in prehistoric foraging effort and suggest strategies that might enhance current techniques.     

Petrographic and geochemical analysis on the provenance of the Middle Bronze and Late Bronze/Early Iron Age ceramics from Didi Gora and Udabno I, Eastern Georgia

We report thin section petrographic and geochemical analysis of a total of 20 Middle Bronze, Late Bronze/Early Iron Age ceramics excavated from Didi Gora and Udabno I located in the Eastern part of the Republic of Georgia and 31 clay samples from eight different regions in the surrounding areas of the sites. The major and trace element compositions of the ceramics and clays were determined using a wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence technique. The results indicate that the ceramics were manufactured from local clays in Eastern Georgia, mainly from two local clays without any preference of one of the sources during the Middle Bronze, Late Bronze/Early Iron Age.     

Technology,chronology and the role of crucible steel as inferred from iron objects of the ancient site at Junnar,India

Ordinary iron objects from an ancient habitation site at Junnar in India, dating to the 2nd BC to AD 2nd century, were examined for their microstructure, chemical composition and age. The objects were mostly made of high carbon steel with a homogeneous microstructure consisting of fine spherical particles of carbide in the ferrite background, free of non-metallic inclusions. Their carbon concentration ranged from 0.7% to over 1.6% with one exception at 0.2%. Some of them contained trace amounts of silicon, manganese and sulfur while one object retained cavities due to volume contraction during solidification reactions. These features indicate that the objects examined constitute an early example of Indian steel making in crucibles. Evidence was found that basic techniques needed for the success of crucible steel technology were mostly available at Junnar at the time. The radiocarbon measurement on carbon samples extracted from one of the iron objects placed its date between 176 BC and AD 20, in agreement with the radiocarbon dates of three charcoal samples from the same site. The forgoing results support that crucible steel was produced in India at a much earlier date than previously supposed, to serve as a material for specific needs arising in daily life.     

Rice chaff in ceramics from the archaeological site of Sumhuram (Dhofar,Southern Oman)

The identification of the chaff used as temper in ancient ceramics represents a possible source of information about the area of origin of the pottery. This paper studies the occurrence of rice (Oryza sp.) chaff in potsherds from the archaeological site of Sumhuram (Dhofar, Sultanate of Oman). The information gathered at the site offers insight into commerce routes and networks to which the town belonged in the first centuries AD. The analysis of the plant material in the pottery and potsherds can also furnish interesting data on the ancient technologies of pottery production.     

Potentially stylistic differences between backed artefacts from two nearby sites occupied 60,000 years before present in South Africa

Archaeologists are commonly interested in material signatures that can be used to identify past population groups. In the Palaeolithic such population groups are often identified at large spatial scales, yet the material expressions of smaller groups comparable to those documented ethnographically have proved more difficult to isolate. The present paper considers differences in silcrete backed artefacts recovered from two nearby sites. These sites, both of which were occupied during the Howiesons Poort period, are situated in different ecological contexts with variable access to stone resources. Site context does not, however, explain observed differences in technology, nor do potential differences in tool function. Variation is instead inferred to be stylistic, or at least to be adaptively neutral. The results imply occupation of the study area by two different groups maintaining different technological traditions some time around 60,000 years before present.     

Art in time. Diachronic rates of change in the decoration of bone artefacts from the Beagle Channel region (Tierra del Fuego, Southern South America)

This paper explores the differential rates of diachronic change developed by diverse features of portable art in southern Tierra del Fuego. It is argued that decorative designs and techniques, which simultaneously constitute each decorated artefact, had asynchronic rates of change throughout the archaeological sequence. Results indicate that: (I) decorated harpoon points (1) had a broader and more complex design repertoire which entailed a higher labour investment and showed a faster rate of change than beads, due to a greater individual input in their decoration, (2) were richly decorated in spite of their high risk of loss/fracture, yet their decoration was concentrated in the early period of the archaeological sequence and then decreased in time due: a) to such loss/fracture risk, which jeopardised the labour invested in their decoration, (b) to a relative decrease in pinniped hunting which might have reduced the socio-economic and symbolic value of harpoons; (II) decorated beads (1) had a simpler and more standardised design repetoire which entailed a lower labour investment and showed a slower rate of change than harpoons, due to a stricter process of teaching/learning or imitation during their production and a collective way of ornamentation during their display, (2) increased with time and have been decorated during the three periods of the archaeological sequence due to: (a) their lower risk of loss/fracture, which did not endanger the labour invested in their decoration, (b) their social function as a shared form of ornamentation; (III) decorative techniques had a slower rate of change than decorative designs throughout the archaeological sequence due to their differential instrinsic variability potentials.     

The technology and significance of the Acheulian giant cores of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov,Israel

The presence of very large lithic artifacts at the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov is one of the site’s most distinctive and enlightening features. Basalt giant cores and their products, modified by a variety of core methods and found in association with different hominin activities, occur throughout the stratigraphic sequence of the site.     

空间信息技术在茶马古道遗产保护管理中的应用初探

空间信息技术近年来在文化遗产保护领域发挥了巨大的作用,在大遗址、运河遗产、长城资源等文化遗产调查、保护和管理中得到了广泛的应用.茶马古道作为特殊的线性文化遗产,所经之处受自然环境和地理条件的影响,对其保护和调查都存在很大的难度.而空间信息技术由于其全天时、全天候、覆盖范围广、信息化程度高、不需要人亲临现场的特点,在文化资源调查和管理中发挥巨大的作用,可以适应这一特殊要求.本文通过对茶马古道在保护和规划中对空间信息技术的需求进行了分析,探讨了空间信息技术在茶马古道文化遗产资源的调查、保护、规划及管理中的应用.