Avian Remains from Late Pre-colonial Amerindian sites on Islands of the Venezuelan Caribbean

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of the analyses of 3793 bird remains archaeologically recovered from seven late pre-Hispanic sites (～AD 1000–1500) on islands of the Venezuelan Caribbean. In order to address subsistence and manufacturing uses of bird bones, we first discuss the recovery process of this unique sample. We proceed to investigate the bones' archaeological contexts as well as the taphonomy in play and analyze diverse bone categories. We found that indigenous peoples consistently targeted several families of birds for food or feathers or both, and that avian bones were used for fashioning tools and adornments. We also discuss possible signatures of island campsite seasonal occupancy as inferred from the bio-ecology of the identified bird taxa. The data suggest that the differentiation of nesting grounds between the Red-footed and Brown Booby in the Southeastern Caribbean may be a result of anthropogenically-induced adaptation. The findings discussed in this paper open challenging avenues for assessing long-term changes in bird communities including the dynamics of resident and wintering bird populations.     

Edward Kelley’s Danish treasure hoax and Elizabethan antiquarianism

ABSTRACT

In 1583, Edward Kelley claimed to have made a number of archaeological discoveries on Northwick Hill in Worcestershire, including a forged document, the “Northwick scroll”, purportedly giving the location of treasure hidden by the Danes. The scroll was subsequently deciphered by Kelley’s employer, John Dee. Kelley’s hoax, which had to fool one of the country’s most learned men, was carefully constructed and drew on recent antiquarian work. However, Kelley also relied on older traditions of magical treasure hunting, thereby combining two apparently antithetical approaches to the past. The article uses the example of Kelley’s hoax to argue that hoaxes served a useful and illuminating function in the early development of archaeology by testing the boundaries of plausibility. Furthermore, Kelley’s synthesis of learned antiquarianism and treasure hunting challenges the view that Elizabethan antiquaries were unwilling to excavate. Kelley’s methodologies in constructing the hoax echoed those of William Camden and others by linking excavated objects with chronicles and landscape features to create an integrated account of an imagined past. However, the hoax’s success also rested on Dee’s willingness to become a treasure hunter, demonstrating that elite learned antiquarian endeavours were not always distant from the aims of traditional “hill diggers”.     

From conflict archaeology to archaeologies of conflict: remote survey in Kandahar,Afghanistan

ABSTRACT

Emerging from research with the Afghan Heritage Mapping Partnership, a multi-year project using satellite imagery to detect, record and manage archaeological heritage, this paper examines the potentials of remote-sensing to not only monitor archaeological material culture, but also contemporary materiality as it is violently (re)assembled through conflict. Through systematic remote-sensed archaeological survey using diachronic imagery in Kandahar, Afghanistan, this work expands archaeological understanding of an under-surveyed region while exploring the impact of the region’s expansive military infrastructural footprint on cultural heritage. Further, this research considers the long history of landscapes of control and successive military occupations. Remote survey allows for continued generation of archaeological data during conflict, thereby enabling more thorough heritage management. Finally, this survey demonstrates that, although remote aerial technologies have been criticized as tools of violence, surveillance and control, satellite imagery can be used analytically to generate new understandings of and challenges to military infrastructural reach.     

Catalytic Environments

ABSTRACT

The metaphor of catalytic environments adequately accentuates the key role of natural factors in social change without superseding the significance of human agency. In this approach, natural resources are integrated into social practices and strategies while avoiding an environmentally deterministic perspective. The case study of MC-6, Middle Caicos, Turks & Caicos Islands, demonstrates how the natural availability of salt, fish, and cotton affected processes of social change, including settlement practices, food procurement strategies, and long-distance exchange. The inhabitants of MC-6 chose these resources within a social framework of historic practices and regional interaction, while simultaneously depending on local natural conditions and environmental factors. Although environmental diversity in the Caribbean highlights the relevance of catalytic environments, this approach is a tool to examine the dialectic interaction between humans and environments at a global scale.     

Food production in the Early Woodland: macrobotanical remains as evidence for farming along the riverbank in eastern Tennessee

ABSTRACT

Open riverbanks and disturbed floodplains are targeted by archaeologists as optimal habitats for the growth of many of the weedy indigenous seed crops in eastern North America, but there is still little evidence for garden locations in the archaeological record. This article combines macrobotanical and geoarchaeological analyses from the Birdwell site (40GN228), located on the Nolichucky River, to give insight into where cultigens were planted and how they were managed in eastern Tennessee during the Early Woodland period. The recovery of uncharacteristic amounts of edible seeds and wood charcoal from the lower terrace of this site suggests that inhabitants were actively managing cultigens along the floodplain of this settlement. The presence of these remains in a non-midden context is evidence that precontact farmers in the Tennessee foothills took advantage of the newly created floodplains of the Early Woodland by implementing a burning regime, an early agricultural strategy aimed at increasing soil productivity and encouraging the growth of weedy annuals on the riverbank. In absence of lines of evidence such as preserved paleosols that can be examined for soil micromorphology, pollen, and phytoliths, integrated paleoethnobotanical and geomorphological analyses can be used to reconstruct land use and archaeologically identify prehistoric cultivated fields.     

Review of the 6th PGCA conference

ABSTRACT

This is a review of the 6th Postgraduate Conflict Archaeology conference held in Glasgow in October of 2019. It summarizes the presentations and keynotes delivered at the two-day conference, and reflects on the benefit of postgraduate and ECR specific conferences, the gender disparity within the field of conflict archaeology, and the importance of a supportive network of colleagues.     

The funding of the PEF in its early years,associated issues and responses

ABSTRACT

The PEF was founded as a charity, relying almost entirely on public generosity for its funding. Its insecure financial basis was at odds with its ambitious programme of surveys and excavations, which required sizeable and stable funding for periods of years. This dichotomy precipitated financial crises which occasionally brought the organisation almost to its knees. Yet, despite all the odds, it managed to chalk up impressive achievements. The financial shortcomings and the ways in which they were addressed, as well as the special factors responsible for the ultimate success of early PEF endeavours, are examined and discussed.     

Experimental and Analytical Investigation on the Corner Failure in Masonry Buildings: Interaction between Rocking-Sliding and Horizontal Flexure

ABSTRACT

The failure mechanism of corners in masonry buildings has frequently been observed in seismic scenarios, but only a few works and no experimental investigations devoted to it are available in the literature. In this aritcle, the experimental behavior of a simple masonry corner is first analyzed, by simulating the seismic horizontal actions through a progressive tilting of the supporting base. Then, the conditions of the onset of two possible failure modes are analytically formulated: they are the rocking-sliding and the horizontal flexure mechanism. A three-dimensional macro-block model with frictional joints is used to analyze these mechanisms, while the crack patterns and the load factors are derived through the kinematic approach of the limit analysis. The evaluation of the in-plane frictional resistances involved by the rocking-sliding mechanism is performed by applying a reliable criterion previously proposed, while for the torsion strength involved in the horizontal flexure mechanism, simplified yield conditions are adopted and a possible criterion is also introduced to take into account the actual reduction of the contact surfaces. Last, the experimental findings are compared and critically interpreted in light of the analytical results and the influence of the main parameters on the prevailing mechanism is highlighted.     

The Lock-Keepers of Hawley's Lock,Regent's Canal,Camden

In 2015–16 Compass Archaeology had the opportunity to carry out an archaeological investigation on a site adjacent to Hawley’s Lock on the Regent’s Canal, Camden. The fieldwork followed the recommendations of Historic England, which were made due to the apparent existence of a lock-keepers' cottage at Hawley’s Lock, represented principally on historic maps. The excavations unearthed the well-preserved remains of the cottage from which a floor plan was established. The history and evolution of the building suggested three stages of construction. The original cottage was built c.1820, contemporary with the construction of the first phase of the canal. It was extended to the west and north by 1850 and separated into two probable dwellings, with a third structure added to the west between 1850 and 1870. This third building was associated with the neighbouring sawmill and was the least well preserved of the three. The remains of the steam-pumping house at Kentish Town Lock were also encountered and are discussed herein.

This article attempts to place the lock-keepers' cottage within a social context and therefore considers the residents of the building and what their day-to-day lives might have looked like. This topic has been overlooked until now, with canal archaeology focused on engineering and industrial aspects of the waterway rather than the anthropology. An attempt has been made to rectify this throughout the project, and it is hoped that more attention might be paid in the future to the everyday people and workings of the canals of Britain.