Nodes and edges: A network approach to hierarchisation and state formation in Japan

This paper argues that the centralised hierarchy that emerged at the beginning of the Kofun (mounded tomb) period in Japan can be explained by the locations that the polities to be hierarchised occupy and the differences in the topological potentials that these locations generate. Previous attempts of explaining the phenomenon by attributing its cause to factors such as differential access to resources and control over their distribution have been proven not to fit with the available body of evidence. The application of social network analysis-derived concepts and methods reveals that the topological locations that polities occupied generated different centralities, i.e. different degrees of connectedness to other polities and of mediating interactions between polities, which led to the hierarchisation and centralisation of their relationships. The paper concludes that the topological structure of a social network itself can be a significant cause of its own hierarchisation, and it compares the finding with the manner in which the concepts of agency and power are applied to the explanation of social hierarchisation and centralisation.     

Determining Olmec maize use through bulk stable carbon isotope analysis

Bulk stable carbon isotope analysis on absorbed organic residues in ceramics can be an effective method for discerning patterns of maize use when the ceramics come from relatively uniform archaeological contexts. The bulk stable carbon isotope method is faster and less costly than the more commonly used compound-specific stable carbon isotope analysis. Moreover, the bulk stable carbon isotope method can determine the presence of C4 plant carbon in samples in which organic compounds have degraded. Bulk stable carbon isotope analysis was used to discern patterns of maize (Zea mays mays) use among a sample of 24 ceramic sherds from an Early Franco Period feasting deposit (ca. cal 650 B.C.) at the Olmec site of San Andrés, La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico. A comparison of the δ 13C results of different categories of ceramics showed that proportionally more maize was used in luxury beverage service wares than in utilitarian vessels, suggesting that maize-based beverages were prominent in this probable elite feasting episode.     

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.     

Non-ferrous metallurgy from the Phoenician site of La Fonteta (Alicante, Spain): a study of provenance

The lead isotope composition of 22 samples from the excavation of the Phoenician site of La Fonteta (Guardamar del Segura, Alicante, Spain) has been analysed in a preliminary study of their provenance. These materials span chronologically from the first half of the 8th century BC to the middle of the 6th century BC.The samples have been selected to include materials used in lead and silver production, as well as in copper-based metallurgy. Therefore, lead droplets, galena nodules and fragments of litharge have been analysed, together with a fragment of a copper ingot, an object, a melting waste composed of a Cu–Pb alloy, and two fragments of a material that we have provisionally labelled ‘Pb–Cu cupellation debris’.All these materials have been initially analysed by X-Ray Fluorescence-Spectrometry to identify their bulk compositions. Some of them have been also analysed by SEM–EDX and ICP–OES. Subsequently, lead isotope analyses (LIA) have been performed using Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (TIMS). The new LIA data obtained has been compared with published lead isotope data from the Mediterranean area. The identification of different groups suggests a significant complexity of the internal and external trade routes during the Orientalising period. For this reason, the provenance study of these materials is especially important in shedding light on the commercial dynamics that the Phoenicians established with native people to control the raw materials and to commercialise finished products.     

汉“元朔五年弩”鐖郭铭文述疑

中国古代使用年号纪年的起始时间,历史文献记载十分模糊,作者推测是在汉武帝太初元年;此前武帝建元至元封诸年号,都应出于事后追记,主要用于史官记述往事。这一点也许还需要进一步检验,但《史记·封禅书》清楚记载中国历史上首次用年号来追记以往的史事,系首倡于汉武帝元鼎三年,武帝初年建元、元光、元朔、元狩这几个年号,即拟定于此时。因此,后代流通的带有上述年号的器物,均应出自赝造。本文即基于上述认识,对近年出现的所谓汉元朔五年弩鐖郭铭文加以辨析,逐一指证其荒谬。     

The role of black Barbudans in the establishment of open-range cattle herding in the colonial Caribbean and South Carolina

Some significant problems remain in understanding the establishment of open-range cattle herding in the Caribbean and North America, especially regarding the role of blacks in that process. Research to date has identified the Greater Antilles, especially Spanish Cuba and British Jamaica, as the sole Caribbean sources of settlers who established the herding systems of, respectively, Mexico and South Carolina. Yet an open-range cattle herding system also occurred in the British Lesser Antilles, which provided many of the settlers for the South Carolina colony. Archival and field research in Antigua and Barbuda provide the basis for comprehensive reconstruction of that system's material culture and herding ecology, demonstration of the role of blacks in its operation, and comparison with other relevant systems to consider whether the British Lesser Antilles might also have been involved in the process through which open-range cattle herders established themselves in South Carolina during the late seventeenth century.     

班固“周室观”的形成及其表现

班固的“周室观”,是在两汉之际汉之德属之争的背景下形成的。班固有选择地接受了刘歆五行相生的德运观念,将汉的建立看作是对周的代嬗,从而形成了尊崇周室并将之看作是汉室兴盛标准的“周室观”。班固的”周室观”不仅表现在《汉书》的写作中,而且是《两都赋》中坚持东都的一个思想资源。     

重庆奉节赵家湾墓地2004年发掘简报

2004年重庆奉节赵家湾墓地共发掘墓葬20座,出土各类文物300余件.其中东汉墓葬15座,包括砖室墓和崖墓,随葬品以陶器和"五铢"钱为主,年代不早于东汉中期:蜀汉砖室墓1座,延续了东汉晚期墓葬风格;东晋砖室墓1座,出土大量精美青瓷器,文化面貌与同时期长江中下游地区趋同;明代墓葬3座,均为土坑墓.该墓地时间序列完整,出土文物丰富,为我们研究峡江地区考古文化的发展,提供了重要的实物证据.     

南京上坊孙吴大墓墓主身份的蠡测——兼论孙吴时期的宗室墓

因富春侯孙峻遭斲棺毁墓的下场,且根据墓中出土的青瓷堆塑罐的分析,南京上坊中下村孙吴大墓的时代可进一步推定为孙皓晚期,因而墓主不可能是五凤三年(256年)卒亡的孙峻,而可能是孙皓晚期的一位宗室之王和他的两位王妃。迄今发现的可推定墓主身份的孙吴宗室墓形可分3个类型,分别相当于宗室墓中的陵墓、王墓和侯墓。     

明初察罕脑儿卫置废考

察罕脑儿卫是明初设立的蒙古军卫,应位于鄂尔多斯高原南缘的旧察罕脑儿城(即今陕西靖边县北与内蒙交界处的白城子——统万城遗址)。它与官山卫(今内蒙古卓资县北灰腾梁)一样都是洪武朝为安置降明的蒙古人而设立的羁縻军卫。本文对其建置沿革、与官山卫的关系、废置原因进行了考证,进而明确了明人在洪武朝对河套地区实施控制的主要方式。这对理解明初河套地区明蒙古关系以及当时的北边边防措施不无裨益。