Geochemical impacts to prehistoric iron-rich siliceous artifacts in the nearshore coastal zone

In the Middle Atlantic region of the United States, landscapes drowned by sea level rise contain scores of prehistoric archaeological sites. These sites provide archaeologists with a rare opportunity to investigate various geologic processes. During the transition from a terrestrial to an offshore setting, the materials associated with an archaeological site are exposed to a series of geochemical processes inherent to the formation of tidal marsh. The duration of the geochemical exposure to tidal marsh is largely dependent on the rate of marine transgression. Here we describe the stages associated with the sulfidization and sulfuricization scheme and the impact to iron-rich lithic artifacts from naturally drowned archaeological sites. Sulfidization and sulfuricization should also impact buried archaeological materials as a result of anthropogenic dredge spoil dumping and the creation of man-made tidal marshes along modern coastlines. Our results indicate that the surfaces of an iron-rich artifact, as well as its interior are visually and geochemically altered by prolonged exposure to the anaerobic conditions of a tidal marsh. Not only should researchers be cautious about making lithic material identification on artifacts found within coastal tidal marsh areas, but museum curators should be aware of the damaging impact of long-term aerobic storage. The geochemical tidal marsh scheme that has altered or corroded iron-rich lithic artifacts in the nearshore zone is an expression of a process that has impacted numerous earlier prehistoric sites currently located on the continental shelf or beneath the coastal estuaries around the world.     

Human activity and its impact on the landscape at the Xishanping site in the western Loess Plateau during 4800–4300 cal yr BP based on the fossil charcoal record

The taxonomic identification of fossil charcoal can be a useful archaeobotanical tool, as it can reveal information about prehistoric humans' use of plant resources and other factors. In this study, we quantify the fossil charcoal in a cultural sequence from Xishanping in the western Loess Plateau of China representing 4800–4300 cal yr BP to consider aspects of humans' impact on this landscape. The fossil charcoal assemblages reveal that the relative abundances of Picea, Betula, Acer, Ulmus and Quercus decreased markedly after 4600 cal yr BP. This suggests a marked decline in the mixed coniferous-broadleaved forest after this time. Concurrently, an increasing abundance of Bambusoideae charcoal has been suggested to reflect the expansion of the bamboo forest. The marked changes in the vegetation after 4600 cal yr BP were not obviously influenced by climate; they may be a better reflection of the results of human activity. Furthermore, other genera that provide important resources to humans also increased after 4600 cal yr BP, including Castanea, Cerasus, Padus and Diospyros. It is nearly certain that nuts and berries were an important food resource and that fruit trees were managed by prehistoric humans in the late Neolithic. This work suggests that the scale of prehistoric human impact on the western Loess Plateau landscape during the late Neolithic was much greater than was previously believed.     

坑儒一事真伪辨——与李开元先生商榷

《史记·秦始皇本纪》有关坑儒一事的记载,是可靠的。坑儒一事是真实的历史事件,起于方士讥议,秦始皇因此意识到士人非议时政之风颇盛,遂从非议时政者中选出四百六十余人,集中将其杀害,以警示天下人不可非议时政、诽谤皇帝。由于立场不客观,东汉儒生对坑儒一事有不少误解和夸张,误认为是秦始皇为了彻底灭绝《诗》、《书》,遂活埋儒生,甚至是活埋了所有儒生。东汉儒生对坑儒一事的认识,尽管严重偏离了历史事实,但仍然属于历史认识,与故意伪造的谎言有质的区别。     

《史记·五帝本纪》中黄帝形象的知识考古

司马迁在《史记·五帝本纪》中所塑造的黄帝形象,包括政治、经济和宗教三个主要方面。政治上,黄帝实现了"统一",并为巩固"统一"做出重要贡献;经济上,黄帝重视发展种植农业及家畜养殖业,在推动农业科技发展方面也取得重要成就;宗教上,黄帝具有突出的神巫特征,是集宗教神权与政治权力于一身的远古帝王。《史记·五帝本纪》中的黄帝,实是司马迁兼采先秦、秦汉不同时期的史实和思想家们的社会政治理想而塑造的形象,是中华文明早期发展阶段在不同方面所取得成就的集中体现。     

甘肃岷县占旗寺洼文化遗址发掘简报

岷县占旗遗址是甘肃岷县洮河沿岸新发现的一处寺洼文化遗址,该遗址共发现各类墓葬66座,以及房址、灶坑、灰坑、祭祀遗存等遗迹近20处。出土器物包括陶器、铜器、石器、骨器和装饰品等。占旗遗址墓葬层位清晰,时代序列鲜明,出土器物丰富多样,特别是铜器,制作精美,形制独特。岷县占旗遗址的发现,对于进一步认识寺洼文化的特点具有重要意义。     

骆驼墩文化遗存与太湖西部史前文化(下)

2011年10月28～30日",骆驼墩文化论坛——骆驼墩文化遗存与太湖西部史前文化"学术研讨会在宜兴召开。会议围绕"骆驼墩文化命名"问题展开讨论,对骆驼墩遗址的发现,骆驼墩文化遗存的性质及内涵、学术意义、价值定位、文化交流、保护利用进行了界定,提出建议;并就考古学文化的命名、划分及其标准,考古学文化的谱系研究,考古学文化研究的方法和途径等问题进行了研讨。     

上海市青浦区青龙镇遗址2010年发掘简报

青龙镇遗址位于上海市青浦区,是唐宋时期上海重要的对外贸易港口。2010年上海博物馆考古研究部首次对青龙镇遗址进行了考古调查与发掘,发现了唐宋时期的房基、瓷片堆、水井、灰坑等遗迹及大量的遗物,为今后的工作奠定了基础。     

考古研究的园地 学术活动的摇篮——《华夏考古》出版百期纪念

《华夏考古》创刊于1987年,到2012年已走过25年的历程,2012年第2期为出版的第100期。本刊长期以来坚持集考古资料性和学术性为一体的传统,秉承百花齐放、百家争鸣的方针,成为国内外考古文物界发表研究成果的重要园地和学术活动的摇篮。     

Historicism and constructionism: rival ideas of historical change

ABSTRACT

A seemingly unitary appeal to history might evoke today two incompatible operations of historicization that yield contradictory results. This article attempts to understand two co-existing senses of historicity as conflicting ideas of historical change and rival practices of temporal comparison: historicism and constructionism. At their respective births, both claimed to make sense of the world and ourselves as changing over time. Historicism, dominating nineteenth-century Western thought and overseeing the professionalization of historical studies, advocated an understanding of the present condition of the human world as developing out of past conditions. Constructionism, dominating the second half of the twentieth century, understood the present condition as the recent invention of certain ‘historical’ environments, without prior existence. As competing ideas of historical change, they both entail a comparison between past and present conditions of their investigated subjects, but their practices of temporal comparison are irreconcilable and represent two distinct ways of historicization.     

Statistical tool for dating and interpreting archaeological contexts using pottery

Analyzing chronological patterns is one of the major issues in archaeology. How can the date of a specific context be estimated? Is it possible to identify residual and intrusive material in it at the same time? Numerous statistical methodological approaches have been developed and implemented to estimate dates but have less often addressed the issue of socio-economic area or the functional interpretation of contexts. This article deals with the construction and analysis of two different probability estimate density curves of context dates using pottery. By contrasting the two curves we can define the boundaries of the socio-economic area and make a chrono-functional interpretation of a context. This statistical tool allows the archaeologist to visualize and analyze chronological patterns easily. The method is applied to the analysis of contexts in the town of Tours in particular and more generally in the centre-west of France, based on collected pottery finds.