游客量对炳灵寺第128窟微环境影响初步研究

通过对炳灵寺石窟第128窟连续一年的微环境监测数据分析,结合游客参观统计,探究了游客量对炳灵寺第128窟微环境的影响;其中CO₂浓度与游客量呈正相关,窟内外温差越大,其衰减越快。洞窟温度升高与游客量呈一定程度正相关,温度增量主要为正值,负值与气象条件相关,温度的衰减与温度增量及窟内外温差正相关。窟内相对湿度变化较为复杂,监测期间游客参观对相对湿度影响在-5%～10%范围内,以降低窟内相对湿度为主。研究结果表明,目前的开放模式有助于CO₂浓度衰减,可适当扩大每批次参观人数至10人左右,以应对大客流状况;注重旅游旺季特别是5月、9月下旬至10月中旬时间段洞窟内相对湿度变化的监测,做好游客管理和洞窟相对湿度控制应对措施。本研究对于炳灵寺石窟第128窟及其他相似洞窟的旅游开放管理具有一定指导意义。     

The Cave Who Never Was: Outsider Archaeology and Failed Collaboration in the USA

Abstract

The alleged 1982 discovery of a phantasmagorical Late-Antique necropolis in southern Illinois has largely escaped the attention of professional archaeologists, despite thousands of artefacts having been sold to naive collectors and would-be revolutionary scholars for more than a quarter of a century. The site (named Burrows Cave after its notorious finder) is a staple of outsider archaeology, like 10,000-year-old pyramids and ancient astronauts. Burrows Cave flourishes in the extra-disciplinary realm of hyperdiffusionist archaeology, terra incognita outside the bounds of the traditional science and thus not considered worthy of examination by scholars. This essay explores the significance of US archaeologists’ failure to critically yet respectfully engage with a public who is extremely interested in archaeological discoveries but sceptical of scholarly elitism. Professionals’ disinterest has resulted in a dismissal of outsider archaeology en masse, leaving the worst abuses unchecked. This leaves the public with few clues to distinguish the impossible from the improbable, unorthodox, or iconoclastic. Audacious enterprises such as Burrows’ are left to flourish, driving wedges between archaeologists and the interested public, preventing effective collaboration and dialogue. Burrows Cave is a lesson for aspiring archaeologists: proof of what happens when professionals turn up their noses at opportunities for engagement with community interests.     

Cave sediments,upper pleistocene stratigraphy and mousterian facies in Cantabrian Spain

Archaeological sediments are analysed from karst cave columns in Cantabrian Spain: Cueva Morín, El Pendo, the Castillo cave complex (including La Flecha, Las Chimeneas, La Pasiega, Las Monedas), Hornos de la Peña and Cobalejos. External sediment influx, including loess, is calibrated by an index of cave and slope run-off energy, while other features (slope and roof rubble, chemical precipitates, cryoturbations, fine soil derivatives, and cultural components) are discussed. The key sequences (Morín, El Pendo, Castillo) are each interpreted in local terms and then combined into a regional climatostratigraphy that includes 40 environmental phases within deep-sea isotope stages 2–5. Trends in run-off energy (reflecting slope stability), temperature, and summer-moisture are rarely in phase, indicating complex environmental change. Mid-Pleistocene and older deposits exist but have largely been destroyed, explaining the apparent absence of Acheulian settlement. Mousterian occupation is verified by isotope stage 5b, and two or three Mousterian facies that span 25–50,000 years are coeval in several caves, regardless of the direction of climatic oscillations. This suggests the flexible lithic technology of a single population, maintaining an adaptive steady state despite repeated environmental changes. By contrast, the distinct upper palaeolithic industries each span only a few millennia, but in part overlap temporally within the region between 35,000 and 9500 bp.     

3D model of the Can Sadurní cave

Graphic and metric information about the site and its environment and about the different structures and artefacts located are indispensable for the optimal management of an archaeological excavation. A Geographic Information System (GIS) proves useful in managing and analysing information and data obtained from different sources. Two techniques of data capture, Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) and close range photogrammetry, are used to generate accurate and high-resolution 3D models of a cave, the silos and a combustion structure at the Can Sadurní site (Begues, NE Spain). This site is especially noteworthy on account of its complete stratigraphy of the Catalonian Holocene. The capture and processing of the photogrammetric and TLS data used to generate 3D models are discussed in detail. These models cannot be obtained by classic archaeological techniques since the record is made layer by layer, approximately one decimetre apart, with the result that the information between the layers is lost. Our findings highlight the potential of these techniques for obtaining accurate and photorealistic models that facilitate a complete analysis of the available information at an archaeological site.     

河南孟津县上店村唐代壁画墓

2010年4~5月,洛阳市文物工作队在孟津县上店村清理了1座唐代土洞墓。墓葬由墓道、过洞、天井、壁龛、甬道、墓门、墓室等组成。壁龛内出有较多盛唐时期的彩绘骑马俑、立俑和陶猪、狗、马、牛、鸡、羊等遗物。该墓葬的发掘,为研究洛阳地区盛唐时期大型墓葬的形制、出土器物组合、制陶工艺等提供了实物资料。     

Middle Pleistocene bird consumption at Level XI of Bolomor Cave (Valencia, Spain)

The consumption of small prey dates back to the Plio-Pleistocene chronologies in some African sites. However, the systematic acquisition and consumption of small prey in the pre-Upper Palaeolithic times is still a highly debated topic in Europe. Although the utilization of leporids has been recorded in several pre-Late Pleistocene European sites, the evidence of bird consumption is not as common for these periods. Nevertheless, Level XI (MIS 6) of Bolomor Cave has clear diagnostic elements to document the acquisition and use of birds (Aythya sp.) for food in the form of: (1) cutmarks on bones of both the front and hind limb; (2) presence of burning patterns on the extremities of the bones (areas of the skeleton with less meat); and (3) human toothmarks on limb bones. The capture of birds is classified as quick-flying game in the archaeological sites. The acquiring of fast-running (mostly lagomorphs) and quick-flying small prey requires a sophisticated technology and involves obtaining and processing ways different from those used for large- and medium-sized animals. From this perspective, the aim of this paper is to examine possible patterns in the processing sequence of birds from Level XI of Bolomor Cave and to improve the data on their butchery and human consumption in the Middle Pleistocene of Iberian Peninsula.     

Prehistoric hand stencils at Fern Cave, North Queensland (Australia): environmental and chronological implications of Raman spectroscopy and FT-IR imaging results

Raman spectroscopy and FT-IR imaging analyses of cave wall pigment samples from north Queensland (Australia) indicate that some hand stencils were undertaken during a dry environmental phase indicating late Holocene age. Other, earlier painting episodes also took place during dry environmental periods of the terminal Pleistocene and/or early Holocene. These results represent a rare opportunity to attain chronological information for rock art in conditions where insufficient carbon is present for radiocarbon dating.     

梁“中大通二年”纪年摩崖的发现——栖霞寺千佛岩61号佛龛南梁纪年题名石刻

2000年在栖霞寺千佛岩窟区61号佛龛门楣上寻访到纪年题名石刻,此次发现提供了开凿于齐梁间的千佛岩石窟的准确竣工年代,纠正了过去石窟竣工于梁天监十年的说法,并为鉴定同类时代的佛龛提供了重要依据。     

Preliminary U-series and Thermoluminescence dating of excavated deposits in Liang Bua sub-chamber,Flores, Indonesia

We report the results of a test excavation of deposits in a limestone cave sub-chamber located beneath the main chamber of Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia; the discovery site of the small hominin species, Homo floresiensis. Well-preserved remains of extinct Pleistocene fauna and stone artefacts have previously been identified on the surface of a sediment cone within the sub-chamber. Our excavation of the deposits, at the base of the sediment cone in the sub-chamber (to 130 cm depth) yielded only a few fragmentary bones of extant fauna. Uranium/Thorium (U-series or U/Th) dating of soda straw stalactites excavated from 20 to 130 cm in depth demonstrates that the excavated sediments were deposited during the Holocene. Red Thermoluminescence (TL) dating of the sediments at the base of the excavation (130 cm depth) indicates these sediments were last exposed to sunlight at 84 ± 15 ka (thousand years), similar to red TL ages of cave sediments from the main chamber. Together, these results indicate that the surface faunal remains, which are morphologically analogous to Pleistocene finds from the main chamber excavations, were transported to the sub-chamber relatively recently from the main chamber of Liang Bua and probably originated from conglomerate deposits at the rear of the cave and from deposits around the front entrance. There is no evidence for hominin occupation of the sub-chamber, instead it seems to have acted as a sink for cultural materials and fossil remains transported from the surface via sinkholes. Despite the small number of finds from the test excavation, it is possible that more extensive excavations may yield additional transported cultural and faunal evidence at greater depths.