Clay‐shoveler's fracture: an uncommon diagnosis in palaeopathology

An archaeological case of clay‐shoveler's fracture was observed in an adult male exhumed from a Roman necropolis dated to the 1st–3rd century AD and located in the city of Barcelona, Spain. Clay‐shoveler's fracture is a breakage of a lower cervical or upper thoracic spinous process as a result of mechanical stress. Different mechanisms have been related to this injury, generally in labour‐related contexts. This paper reviews the literature concerning this uncommon finding, focusing especially on its mechanism and on activity‐related lesions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

内蒙古扎鲁特旗南宝力皋吐新石器时代墓地C地点发掘简报

C地点共清理墓葬37座,为圆角长方形土坑竖穴墓,多数墓葬为单人仰身直肢葬。随葬品主要是陶器,器物组合以筒形罐和壶为主,还出土石器、骨器、玉器等。C地点墓葬的文化内涵与此前发掘的A、B两地点新石器时代墓葬应属同一种文化,可暂称为南宝力皋吐类型。     

GIS在北京延庆大庄科辽代冶铁遗址群景观考古研究中的初步应用

以北京延庆县大庄科乡冶铁遗址群为例,对空间结构及其与资源、环境间的关系通过GIS工具进行分析。根据对冶炼活动有显著关系的影响因子,建立遗址分布之间的定量关系,进而模拟小区域范围内的遗址预测。研究发现,该区冶铁遗址群对地理位置中的坡度和高程因素展现出较强的依赖性,主要表现为遗址的坡度(7°以下)和高程(650m以下)数值均相对较小;遗址与水系间联系明显,冶铁遗址主要集中在河流交汇处,方便冶炼过程及相关活动水源的供应;而随着冶炉容积(即冶铁产量)的增加,小范围内的冶铁遗址选择,并未以铁矿资源距离就近为最佳选取原则,表明了人类生产活动中对资源的依赖程度有所减低。     

海洋出水木质文物保护中的硫铁化合物问题

海洋出水的木质文物中通常会沉积硫铁化合物。打捞出水后,硫铁化合物遇到空气和水分后会发生氧化,生成硫酸以及各种硫酸盐,并引起有机质的降解。近年来,硫铁化合物对海洋出水木质文物的危害已引起广泛关注。为此,本工作阐述了硫铁化合物相关问题的研究现状,就硫铁化合物的产生原因、危害以及目前控制方法的研究进展进行了总结,同时评述了针对硫铁化合物的处理方法。     

From stone to metal: New perspectives on the later prehistory of West Africa

Earlier views saw West Africa as culturally stagnant through much of the Holocene until stimulus or intervention from north of the Sahara transformed Iron Age societies. Evidence accumulating over the past 15 years suggests that stone-using societies from 10,000 to 3000 B.P. were far more diverse than previously thought. Against an increasingly detailed record of Holocene climate change, the complexity of local adaptation and change is becoming better understood. Although a strong case currently exists for the introduction of copper and iron to West Africa from the north in the mid-first millennium B.C., the subsequent development of metallurgy was strongly innovative in different parts of the subcontinent. Soon after the advent of metals, a dramatic increase in archaeological evidence for social stratification and hierarchical political structures indicates the emergence of societies markedly more complex than anything currently documented in the Late Stone Age. The best-documented examples come from the Middle Niger region and the Nigerian forest. In these areas, earlier diffusionist models in which complexity originated outside West Africa have yielded to evidence that indigenous processes were instrumental in this transformation. Trade, ideology, climate shifts, and indirect influences from North Africa, including the introduction of the domesticated horse to the Sahelian grasslands, are identified as factors essential to an understanding of these processes.     

The Middle Stone Age of East Africa and the beginnings of regional identity

The history of research into the Middle Stone Age of East Africa and the present state of knowledge of this time period is examined for the region as a whole, with special reference to paleoenvironments. The known MSA sites and occurrences are discussed region by region and attempts are made to fit them into a more precise chronological framework and to assess their cultural affinities. The conclusion is reached that the Middle Stone Age lasted for some 150,000 years but considerably more systematic and in-depth research is needed into this time period, which is now perceived as of great significance since it appears to span the time of the evolution of anatomically Modern humans in the continent, perhaps in East Africa.     

From Traditional Farming in Morocco to Early Urban Agroecology in Northern Mesopotamia: Combining Present-day Arable Weed Surveys and Crop Isotope Analysis to Reconstruct Past Agrosystems in (Semi-)arid Regions

ABSTRACT

We integrate functional weed ecology with crop stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to assess their combined potential for inferring arable land management practices in (semi-)arid regions from archaeobotanical assemblages. Weed and GIS survey of 60 cereal and pulse fields in Morocco are combined with crop sampling for stable isotope analysis to frame assessment of agricultural labour intensity in terms of manuring, irrigation, tillage and hand-weeding. Under low management intensity weed variation primarily reflects geographical differences, whereas under high management intensity fields in disparate regions have similar weed flora. Manured and irrigated oasis barley fields are clearly discriminated from less intensively manured rain-fed barley terraces in southern Morocco; when fields in northern and southern Morocco are considered together, climatic differences are superimposed on the agronomic intensity gradient. Barley δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values clearly distinguish among the Moroccan regimes. An integrated approach combines crop isotope values with weed ecological discrimination of low- and high-intensity regimes across multiple studies (in southern Morocco and southern Europe). Analysis of archaeobotanical samples from EBA Tell Brak, Syria suggests that this early city was sustained through extensive (low-intensity, large-scale) cereal farming.     

Cultivation of Naked Barley by Early Iron Age Agro-pastoralists in Xinjiang,China

ABSTRACT

We report an archaeobotanical analysis of flotation samples taken from Shirenzigou, an Early Iron Age agro-pastoralist site dated between the fourth and first century BC, located on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang, China. The charred macro-botanical assemblage is dominated by naked barley grains with a few broomcorn and foxtail millet grains. In the context of Trans-Eurasian exchange of cereal crops, southwest Asian crops (wheat and barley) and two Asian millets (broomcorn and foxtail) were introduced to Xinjiang a few centuries to a millennium before Shirenzigou was occupied. The choice of barley cultivation in preference to wheat and millet may have been possibly driven by the relatively extreme local environment and the scheduling requirements of mobile pastoralism. Barley is well suited to this environment, and the choice of naked barley in preference to hulled barley may have been driven by the whole grain tradition prevailing in East Asia.     

Animal Exploitation in the Early Prehistory of the Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands were the last large islands in the Mediterranean to be settled, with colonization not occurring until the third millennium cal BC. The richest assemblages of zooarchaeological data for reconstructing patterns of animal exploitation and management come from Mallorca, Menorca, and Formentera and date to the late third and second millennia cal BC. In this article, I consider these exploitation and management strategies from the perspective of human ecodynamics. In general, the early settlers of the Balearic Islands adopted economic strategies which remained very conservative throughout the Early and Mid Bronze Age (i.e., 2500/2300–1200 cal BC). On Mallorca and Menorca, animal resources were derived mainly from domesticated fauna, with the evidence supporting a mixed-farming model wherein cultivation is complemented by small-scale and relatively unspecialized animal husbandry. In contrast, on Formentera there is a diversification of the faunal economy, with fish and wild birds providing an important contribution to the diet; this probably relates to the extreme marginality of the Formenteran environment. This case of initial human settlement and flexible adaptation to the Balearics highlights one of the core aspects of human ecodynamics: the ability for colonizing populations to both uniquely respond to and affect ecological conditions in island environments.