Cultural Modification of the Dentition in Prehistoric Cambodia

Intentional dental modification, in the form of ablation and filing, is reported for the first time from Cambodia in two late prehistoric sites (Phum Snay and Phum Sophy, c. 2500 to 1500 bp ). Bioarchaeological research is relatively new for this region, and this study significantly adds to our reconstruction of past behaviours in mainland Southeast Asia. The skeletal samples combine both excavated material and large looted collections in the form of ossuaries. People from Phum Sophy and Phum Snay had similar rates of anterior maxillary dental ablation, 60 and 47%, respectively, and 21.4 and 7.7%, respectively, in the mandible. Patterns of ablation most commonly involve the removal of the maxillary lateral incisors. Intentional filing was less common than ablation but affected Phum Snay and Phum Sophy individuals to a similar level (4–7%). Filing was also restricted to the anterior dentition, and a range of patterns were evident, many involving filing of the mesial and distal aspects of the crown of the upper and lower incisors and canines to give a pointed appearance. Patterns of ablation or filing were not strongly associated with a particular sex or age group. However, a limited number of ablation and filing patterns were exclusive to each site. The significance of this practice in relation to rites of passage, status, community and family relationships, and trauma is discussed. It is also shown that the modifications show distinct differences in prevalence and pattern, particularly that of filing, to nearby temporal neighbours in southern Cambodia and northeast Thailand, suggesting a unique cultural behaviour for this region. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fugela Feđerum in Archaeological Perspective – Eider Down as a Trade Commodity in Prehistoric Northern Europe

Abstract

Eider duck down is a raw material used in northern coastal areas. In Norway the resource has been of special importance in the archipelago of Helgeland, where there is a specialized production developed and managed by women. There, the eider duck is seen as part of the livestock. The local people build houses for them, tend their nests and look after them during brooding. The down left in the nests by the birds is gathered, dried and cleaned in a very demanding, labour-intensive process. The eiderdown is then used in down quilts and pillows. Down is known from written sources as an important trade item, particularly from the end of the Middle Ages. The increasing bourgeoisie wanted the light and warm down quilts for their beds. Already around AD 890 Othere from Hålogaland (North Norway) told King Alfred in England that the Saami paid him fugela fe?erum (feathers or/and down) in tax. However, the use of down as a raw commodity used in trade must have started earlier, something the archaeological record might reveal. In any case, pillows and quilts of feathers or down are known from high-rank burials from Late Iron Age Scandinavia and Western Europe.     

Preservation Status and Priorities for In Situ Monitoring of the Weapon Sacrifice in Illerup Ådal,Denmark

Abstract

Excavations of the southern part of a very rich sacri?cial bog in Illerup Ådal, Denmark between 1950 and 1985 recovered approximately 15,000 Iron Age artefacts. At the time, 60 per cent of the area was left unexcavated and thousands of objects are now preserved in situ, but the present preservation status has not been investigated for approximately twenty-?ve years. Extensive in situ monitoring was carried out for one year in order to present a prioritized plan for further monitoring of the unexcavated areas, producing documentation of groundwater table variations, water quality and vegetation in the area. Results show that the remaining artefacts are generally well preserved in a waterlogged and anaerobic environment. However, in the north-eastern part of the bog, the groundwater table is too low even in a year when net precipitation and hydrological conditions were near normal. In the centre of the bog elevated salt concentrations have been measured in the groundwater.     

Ceramic production and provenience at Gordion, Central Anatolia

Phrygian Gordion was the political center of an influential Iron Age polity that extended across west central Anatolia during the first half of the 1st millennium BC. Though the borders of this polity remain vague a characteristic of the Phrygian “footprint” is the distribution of highly distinctive ceramics. The extent to which Gordion potters were the originators of these wares remains uncertain. In this paper we use Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) to establish the local signature of predominantly Iron Age ceramics for this site by combining samples from several decades of excavation with an extensive regional sediment sequence. We also compare previous NAA work at Gordion to suggest that the formative stages of the Phrygian state appears to have involved a more extensive network of non-local specialist producers than previously thought.     

Variability in single smelting episodes – a pilot study using iron slag from Uganda

Most archaeometallurgical studies of iron smelting are based on the analyses of slag fragments randomly selected from slag deposits, and assume that these samples are representative of the typical smelting conditions of the given context. However, little archaeometallurgical research has been published to explore the variability in slag composition within a single smelt, or between individual smelts at the same production site. The material used in this pilot study originates from two iron smelting sites identified in the Buganda Kingdom, Uganda, dated to the 18th and 19th centuries AD. The remains represent evidence of the industrial scale iron production that supported the growth and power of the kingdom. The slag survives in large clusters of complete blocks, in some cases weighing over 100 kg, each resulting from a single smelting episode in a pit furnace. A multi-sample analytical approach has allowed an insight into the compositional diversity within the slag from single smelting events, reflecting changing parameters in the smelting systems. The internal variation of the slag blocks is subsequently compared within and between sites, to address issues of standardisation and to differentiate two technological traditions that would appear very similar at the macroscopic level. On this basis, some sampling recommendations are made for future slag block studies.     

Subsistence practices in an arid environment: a geoarchaeological investigation in an Iron Age site,the Negev Highlands,Israel

The Negev Highlands (southern Israel) is an arid zone characterized by settlement oscillations. One settlement peak occurred in the early Iron Age IIA (late 10th and early 9th centuries BC). The most conspicuous structure in many sites of this period is an oval compound comprised of an internal courtyard surrounded by rooms. Two hypotheses for the function of these oval compounds are that they served as Israelite fortresses which guarded the southern border and routes of the Solomonic kingdom, or that they represent local agro-pastoral groups. In order to gather more information regarding the subsistence practices conducted in these oval compounds, we carried out a small-scale excavation at the site of Atar Haroa. We focused on sediment sampling and used several geoarchaeological, as well as isotopic, techniques in order to identify macroscopic and microscopic remains related to animal husbandry and crop agriculture. The remains identified from the archaeological sediments were compared with modern reference materials collected from abandoned Bedouin camps. The excavation included two half rooms and several test pits in the courtyard of the oval compound, featuring one Iron Age occupation level composed of gray sediments and relatively small amounts of pottery, bones and macro-botanical charred remains. Micromorphological, mineralogical, dung spherulite and isotopic analyses carried out on the gray occupational sediments from the rooms show that they originate from wood ash and dung, both used as fuel. Similar analyses of the gray sediments in the courtyard show that they originate only from degraded livestock dung. Phytolith analyses show that the gray anthropogenic sediments have similar concentrations of phytoliths as in control (yellowish) sediments and in the dung of winter free-grazing desert livestock and lichen-grazing black dwarf Bedouin goats. Phytoliths indicative of cereal crops are completely absent in the archaeological dung remains, indicating that cereal crops were not processed by the site inhabitants. Based on ethnographic and archaeological parallels, and on the presence of grinding stones and absence of sickle blades in the excavated rooms, we infer that the inhabitants at the oval compound at Atar Haroa subsisted on livestock herding and bought or exchanged cereal grains. Our results support the hypothesis that the inhabitants at the oval compound at Atar Haroa were desert-adapted pastoralists, rather than garrisoned soldiers.     

秦汉铁器锈蚀机理探讨及保护方法研究

为了搞清铁器的锈蚀机理,为铁器文物保存提供最佳条件,通过对秦汉两代几件铁器不同部位腐蚀产物分析及不同条件下铁器锈蚀情况实验来研究古代铁器锈蚀机理及保护方法,结果发现,铁器锈蚀成分不仅十分复杂,而且同一锈蚀产物中α、β、γ三种构型的FeO.OH共存,实属罕见,同时采用新的保护方法,使铁器处于一个干燥,无氧,无盐,无水,无有害气体的最佳保护状态。     

出土铁器文物的脱盐清洗研究

测试了铁在含不同浓度Cl~-、SO4~(2-)水溶液中的腐蚀速度和电化学极化曲线。结果表明,在通空气的情况下,Cl~-和SO4~(2-)浓度的增大能加速铁的腐蚀,而在密闭情况下就没有这种影响,说明铁器在地下不通空气的环境中相对较稳定。但出土铁器在大气环境中会受到Cl~-和SO4~(2-)的加速腐蚀,只有及时地排除这些有害物质,才有可能减缓铁器在大气环境中的腐蚀。根据铁在水溶液中腐蚀行为的电位-pH图判断,在pH=9－13的碱性水溶液中铁的腐蚀较小,因而可用添加有缓蚀剂、表面活性剂和多种助洗剂成分的复配碱性脱盐清洗液来处理出土铁器。它比铁在蒸馏水中的腐蚀速度小四十多倍,且去污和脱盐效率高。这对恢复出土铁器的面貌及进一步化学稳定转化铁器表面的锈层都具有重要的作用。     

New Perspectives on Early Regional Interaction Networks of East African Trade: A View from Tsavo National Park,Kenya

Archaeologists are interested in understanding whether cross-cultural contact catalyzed by exchange of commodities is a means for people to acquire new technology and cultural ideas. This paper reports the results and analysis of archaeological investigations in Tsavo National Park, Kenya in 2001 and 2004 that have recovered evidence of indirect contact between late pastoral neolithic (PN) herders and early iron working (EIW) communities. Analysis of stylistic motifs on ceramics used by both PN and EIW people show that socially constructed notions of aesthetics are similar, implying that a strong cultural connection between the two groups may be possible. New lexico-statistical analyses and archaeological data from Tanzania corroborate that the prehistoric East African milieu was more complex than previously believed. However, pastoralists in Tsavo show no evidence of utilizing iron technology or altering their subsistence strategies among the > 10,000 artifacts spanning 4,000+ years of prehistory recovered in the 2001 field season. Thus, long-distance and long-term contact between socially connected groups possessing different technological and subsistence foundations does not necessarily lead to a diffusion of new survival strategies.Les archéologues sont intéressés à comprendre la diffusion technologique et culturelle préhistorique [Les archeologues se sont interestesa comprendre la diffusion prehistorique de la technologie et de la culture]. Le contact entre les cultures catalysées par l'échange des produits est des moyens pour que les personnes acquièrent la nouvelle technologie et les idées culturelles. Cependant, le point auquel certaines idées sont acceptées ou rejetées demeure irrésolu. [Quand le contact contre-culturelle s'allie avec l'exchange de produits, les deux fournissent les nouvelles idees culturelles et technologiques aux gens. Mais, le point d D'autres données sont nécessaires pour augmenter nos compréhension de l'échange des idées entre les groupes de personnes et comment des changements de technologie. Les investigations archéologiques en parc national de Tsavo, Kenya dans 2001 ont récupéré l'évidence du contact indirect entre les bouviers néolithiques pastoraux (PN) en retard et les premières communautés du fondre de fer (EIW). L'analyse des motifs stylistiques sur la céramique utiliser par des personnes de PN et d'EIW prouvent que les notions socialement construites de l'esthétique sont semblables, impliquant qu'un raccordement culturel fort entre les deux groupes peut être possible. Les nouvelles analyses lexico-statistiques et les données archéologiques de Tanzanie corroborent que le milieu africain est préhistorique était plus complexe que précédemment cru. Cependant, les bouviers préhistorique dans Tsavo ne montrent aucune évidence d'utiliser la technologie de fer ou de changer leurs stratégies de subsistance parmi les > 10.000 objets façonnés enjambant les années 4.000+ de la préhistoire récupérées dans la saison de 2001 champs. Ainsi, contact à longue distance et long terme entre les groupes socialement reliés possédant différentes bases technologiques et de subsistance ne mène pas nécessairement à une diffusion de nouvelles strategies de survival.     

The iron age in Mediterranean France: Colonial encounters, entanglements, and transformations

During the last seven centuries of the first millennium BC, the indigenous societies of Mediterranean France underwent a series of gradual social and cultural transformations that are linked in complex ways to their encounter and increasing entanglement with the broader Mediterranean world. This article presents a synthesis of current knowledge of this issue and explores some of the main themes guiding research. New evidence concerning the alien colonial agents (Etruscan, Greek, Punic/Iberian, and Roman), and the contrasting nature of their presence and power in the region, is discussed, as is evidence concerning forms of indigenous engagement with colonial states and paths of social and cultural change. The consumption of alien goods (wine, ceramics) and the adoption of foreign techniques and practices (ceramic production methods, coinage, writing) are examined in terms of the locally situated logic of demand and the ramifications for entanglement and change. Transformations in settlements, ritual spaces, funerary practices, and the agrarian landscape are discussed.