The Mediterranean as a carceral seascape

In May 2019, 75 distressed migrants fleeing Libya were rescued by the merchant vessel Maridive 601 in the central Mediterranean Sea. With Italy, Malta, and Tunisia denying permission to disembark, the merchant vessel turned from a floating refuge into an offshore carceral space, leaving the migrants stranded near the Tunisian coast for 19 days. This article traces the migratory trajectories of the Maridive 75, as I will collectively refer to them, in order to show how EUrope's desire to deter, capture, and contain migrant mobilities has transformed the Mediterranean Sea into a carceral seascape. While offshore carcerality is not specific to EUrope's southern maritime border and also not a novel phenomenon, increasingly restrictive migration policies have dramatically reshaped the Mediterranean borderzone over recent years, multiplying infrastructures, technologies, and spaces of confinement. Interrogating the Mediterranean Sea as a carceral space generates insights into an ever-growing panoply of carceral but mobile forms of governance seeking to discipline and police unauthorised and precarious human movements, both at sea and on land. At the same time, as this article demonstrates, unruly migrant mobilities and struggles at sea continue to expose the often-conflictual processes at work in the production of the Mediterranean carceral seascape.     

Contextualizing Kuruçay Höyük: Assessing the Unexplored Late Chalcolithic Landscape Near the Beginning of Early Social Complexity in SW Turkey

Kuruçay Höyük can be considered a key site for our understanding of Late Prehistory in southwest Turkey and above all, the poorly known Late Chalcolithic (4200–3100 b.c.). Until now, limited research has been conducted on the relationship between the excavated site and its surrounding. This article discusses the Late Chalcolithic results of an integrated survey in the vicinity of Kuruçay Höyük in the Burdur Plain. Drawing upon these results, this paper illustrates that the site was far from an isolated feature during the 4th millennium b.c. The picture that emerges is one of a differentiated settlement system consisting of both larger höyük/tell settlements (like Kuruçay Höyük) and smaller sized, possibly short-lived, flat settlements. These results are further contextualized within the developments that took place in the region during the Chalcolithic, which seem to have opened the door for communities to become more complex during the Early Bronze Age.     

Social Analysis of Mortuary Evidence in German Protohistoric Archaeology

German early historical archaeology has witnessed since the 1960s an intensive debate on the social analysis of mortuary remains. It started out with the question of archaeological criteria for the inference of social status in early medieval cemeteries. In the 1970s, attention shifted from quantitative to qualitative analyses of grave goods and to the use of data on labor investment and skeletal data. In the last decade or so, younger colleagues have tried to overcome the weaknesses of traditional inferences from grave goods (status, religion, ethnic affiliation) by looking at the implications of ritual, and new methods of analyzing biological kinship have been applied to identify families in prehistoric and early medieval cemeteries. The German debate shows similarities to as well as differences from the Anglophone debate. It is suggested that we may learn from these parallel developments, but we should also learn from the fact that two scholarly debates on the same subject could ignore each other for 3 decades.     

Variable Ovicaprid Diet and Faecal Spherulite Production at Amara West,Sudan

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of integrated geoarchaeological and archaeobotanical analyses of desiccated and charred ovicaprid dung pellets from the New Kingdom pharaonic settlement of Amara West (Sudan). These analyses reveal diagnostic phytolithic evidence for considerable variations in plant diet amongst the site’s ovicaprid population. These data shed light on aspects of ancient animal husbandry practice, the settlement’s subsistence economy and residents’ exploitation of natural resources. We also observe that specific phytolith types correlate with the presence (and quantity) or absence of calcium carbonate faecal spherulites in analysed dung pellets. This evidence, augmented by experimental analysis of analogous modern plant material, suggests that dietary Ca intake is implicated in faecal spherulite crystallization within the ovicaprid digestive system.     

Fuelling the Fires: The Contribution of Wood Charcoal Analysis to a Landscape Scale Project at and Around Pre-Conquest Iron Age Silchester and a Reflection on Its Wider Implications

ABSTRACT

The contribution of targeted wood charcoal analysis (anthracology) to understanding of the 1st millennium BC Pre-Conquest Late Iron Age oppidum and transition to Early Roman town life at Silchester and nearby late prehistoric hinterland sites investigated by the Silchester Environs project is considered. Attention is given to whether substantive differences in charcoal assemblages of varying size and origin are discernible through time and space, and to their value in elucidating landscape, environment, woodland structure, taphonomy, site function and lifestyles. This paper aims to take stock of the work so far and reflect on what lessons can be learned within and beyond the project. Site-level data are summarised and contrasted for the reader, while full context-level interpretation is published elsewhere [Barnett Forthcoming a. “The Early Roman Wood Charcoal and Waterlogged Wood at Silchester.” In Silchester Insula IX: The Claudio-Neronian occupation of the Iron Age Oppidum. Britannia Monograph Series, edited by M. G. Fulford, A. Clarke, E. Durham, and N. Pankhurst. London: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies; and Barnett Forthcoming c Barnett, C. Forthcoming c. “Overview of the Archaeobotanical Evidence.” In Silchester Environs: the Landscape Context of Iron Age Calleva, edited by C. Barnett and M. G. Fulford. Oxford: Oxbow Books monograph due 2020. [Google Scholar]. “Overview of the Archaeobotanical Evidence.” In Silchester Environs: The Landscape Context of Iron Age Calleva, edited by C. Barnett, and M. G. Fulford. Oxford: Oxbow Books monograph].     

The Rolt Memorial Lecture 2017: Conserving the Waterways Heritage

ABSTRACT

This article describes the work of the Canal & River Trust in managing and conserving the heritage assets and the wider historic environment of the Trust's waterways in England and Wales. Various types of heritage assets are described, and the ways in which these assets are managed, including via archaeological recording, along with conservation-led repairs to historic engineering structures and other historic waterway-related buildings, are considered. New directions that offer effective and efficient ways of dealing with heritage assets are examined.     

Settlement and Subsistence in the Remote Western Pacific: Archaeological and Radiocarbon Data from Alamagan,Northern Mariana Islands

Small, remote islands were marginal environments for prehistoric human populations. We report archaeological and radiocarbon data from Alamagan, a small and isolated island in the northern part of the Mariana Islands archipelago. Challenging environmental conditions, including rugged terrain, active or recent volcanism, and uncertain freshwater availability posed significant challenges for permanent settlement throughout the Northern Islands. The Alamagan archaeological investigations documented 14 megalithic domestic structures, or latte sets, as well as isolated and non-portable Latte Period artifacts, and one historical site. Test excavations were undertaken at two of the latte features. These investigations add to a growing body of data suggesting colonization of the Northern Islands during the middle part of the Latte Period (probably during the late a.d. 1200s or early 1300s). We consider the implications of these data for the study of human adaptations to marginal insular environments in the Pacific.     

Forty years of Industrial Archaeology Review: A Personal View

ABSTRACT

This article presents a personal view of the origins and development of Industrial Archaeology Review in the 40th volume of its publication. This is preceded by an account of the earlier journals to publish articles on industrial archaeology, as well as a brief account of such articles in the sister journal, Post-Medieval Archaeology. A short history of Industrial Archaeology Review is included for future reference purposes. The range of authors contributing to the journal is considered, from the volunteers in local industrial archaeology societies to the professional archaeologists of the later period. Attention is given to the importance of the publication of the annual Rolt Memorial Lectures, as well as the occasional themed issues where articles on specific topics have been grouped together. Finally, the article suggests how best use can be made, in this article and in the journal generally, of the advantages of digitisation.     

Public archaeology at Baynard-Zion: bringing life back to an antebellum cemetery

ABSTRACT

Heritage tourism is a driving economic force in much of the coastal southeastern United States, including on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, one of the most popular destinations for vacationers in the country. Working with local community members in developing a diverse and multipronged public archaeology program, we helped facilitate research and develop programing at the Baynard Mausoleum and Zion Chapel of Ease and Cemetery (Baynard-Zion). Built and used during the late eighteenth through mid-nineteenth centuries, Baynard-Zion includes some of the oldest marked graves on the island as well as its oldest standing architecture. Using a constellation of techniques, including geophysical surveys, genetic testing of human remains, and limited excavations, research conducted at Baynard-Zion provides an opportunity to enhance public perception and understanding of pivotal historic events and people on the island while also assisting in development plans that promote heritage tourism.     

瞭望中国考古学的黄金时代——读《中国文明起源新探》

文章高度概括和总结了苏秉琦教授的学术道路和学术贡献，并对苏秉琦先生《中国文明起源新探》一书的学术价值及其召示意义作了充分的肯定。