Archaeological wells in southern France: Late Neolithic to Roman plant remains from Mas de Vignoles IX (Gard) and their implications for the study of settlement,economy and environment

Abstract

A study of plant remains from seven archaeological wells at Mas de Vignoles IX, near Nîmes, southern France, was used to shed light on a current gap in the archaeological record caused by erosion and modern agriculture. The analysis also explored the reliability of these sources for palaeoenvironmental and palaeoeconomical information. Significant results on the spatial organization of human habitation, economic activities, and on the environment and its exploitation were obtained for the Middle Neolithic to Roman periods. Furthermore, the Neolithic wells also provided the first early finds of fig seeds in France. The abundance of weed and ruderal plants up to the Iron Age is consistent with data from other studies and their dramatic decrease during the Roman period may have resulted from radical changes in land management. The study marks the first time, in southern France, that a group of wells from a single site have provided a complete record throughout the later prehistoric and Roman periods.     

Sasanian glass from Veh Ardašīr investigated by strontium and neodymium isotopic analysis

A collection of 31 glass fragments, dated to the 3rd to 7th century AD and excavated in Veh Ardašīr, (modern Iraq), were analysed for their Sr and Nd isotopic compositions with the aim of deepening our knowledge on glass circulating within central Mesopotamia during Sasanian times and to highlight the merits of isotope ratios for the definition of the production scenery. Based on the elemental composition of the samples, two groups related to the exploitation of different plant ashes were previously distinguished, and also a change in the silica source in the course of the 4th century AD emerged. The determination of isotopic distributions of Sr and Nd offers a deeper insight. The ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr isotope ratio, together with the Sr elemental concentration, confirms this use of different plant ashes, and permits one to distinguish distinct glass batches, although the isotopic Sr signature does not allow us to highlight evidences of different provenances for the samples of different composition. Moreover, the ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd isotope ratio suggests the use of sands belonging to a common geological area, and also allows the identification of a set of samples that were possibly produced exploiting a further different sand source. As a whole, Sr and Nd isotope ratio values for the samples considered, i.e. ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr = 0.70833 to 0.70916 and ?Nd = −8.69 to −4.98, differ from the published isotopic data on middle Eastern glass samples and can therefore define a characteristic Sr–Nd signature for plant-ash Sasanian glass excavated in Veh Ardašīr.     

The Bronze Age landscape of the Bjäre peninsula,southern Sweden,and its relationship to burial mounds

Palaeoecological analyses from a small fen deposit, combined with pollen analysis from buried soil profiles under prehistoric burial mounds, have been used to investigate the timing and vegetation change associated with the Holocene development of a cultural landscape in southern Sweden. Traditional pollen analysis is complemented with plant macrofossil analysis and soil pollen analysis from within and in close proximity to the burial mounds in the coastal Bjäre peninsula, well known for its high density of well-preserved Bronze Age monuments. The vegetation development is linked to the construction of the burial mounds. A marked increase of cultural impact on the landscape is recorded during the Neolithic–Bronze Age transition and estimates of landscape openness suggest that by the onset of the Bronze Age, forest cover was only 20–40%, falling to 10% in the immediate vicinity of the burial mounds themselves. The coastal strip appears to have been affected by human activity to a greater extent and at an earlier date than sites from further inland in southern Sweden and the Bronze Age burial mounds were most likely designed to be visible in a largely deforested landscape.     

古代织品染料的分析

从染草中提取出各种植物染料,然后进行古样品的模拟染色。以薄层色谱法为主要测试手段,并结合化学分析以及高效液相色谱。紫外光谱等近代方法对染料进行分析与鉴定,建立起一套行之有效的天然植物染料分析和鉴定的方法,并成功地用于古代样品的分析,揭示了三千年前古样品染料色素的成分。     

苏南传统铸造技术调查与启示

传统技术是活的文物,应该加以整理、保护与研究,传统技术所包含的古代科技信息对古代技术研究有极大的启示。传统泥型铸造技术为研究中国古代陶范铸造技术提供了重要信息;植物硅酸体测试结果表明,传统泥型铸造技术与古代陶范铸造技术有着密切的关系。     

内蒙古塔尔梁五代墓葬壁画材料和制作工艺研究

塔尔梁墓葬壁画墓位于内蒙古呼和浩特市南部的清水河县。为了解该壁画的材料和制作工艺,通过显微镜、扫描电镜及能谱仪(SEM-EDS)、X射线衍射仪(XRD)和拉曼分光光谱仪对揭取时脱落的5个试料的颜料层、白灰层和地仗层的材料进行了分析。结果表明,红色颜料的主要成分为三氧化二铁,黄色为水合氧化铁,黑色与灰色中包含石墨构造碳黑;白灰层的主要成分为碳酸钙。地仗层主要成分为石英、方解石以及长石等粘土矿物,且在地仗中发现石灰籽粒,由此推测地仗制作时加入了石灰。地仗出土时多空洞,并发现了植物硅酸体,根据形态综合判断制作地仗时拌入了麦草与麦壳。根据材质分析结果,壁画的制作工艺为:加入了石灰的拌草泥层地仗上涂抹较薄的石灰浆,之后在上面作画。研究结果可为内蒙古五代墓葬壁画制作工艺的研究提供科学依据和同类科学分析提供参考。     

Studies on amerindian dogs, 1: Carbon isotopes in relation to maize in the diet of domestic dogs from early Peru and Ecuador

Work initiated purely as a dating project in support of a craniometric and morphological investigation of domestic dogs from early Peru has proved to have much wider implications. The stable carbon isotoperatios (¹³C/¹²C) of hair samples from ten dogs show that maize formed a significant part of their diet. Radiocarbon dates for these remains have confirmed that they belong to the period well after the cultivation of maize was first established. Stable carbon isotope measurements can thus be used to test for the presence of maize as a dietary constituent at earlier sites even where there is otherwise only indirect evidence for its cultivation. Collagen from animal or human bone is a suitable alternative to hair for this purpose and the method has been successfully applied to collagen dating to c. 3000 BC from the Valdivia culture site of Real Alto, Ecuador, as well as to a series of early Peruvian dogs.     

The phytolith archaeological record: strengths and weaknesses evaluated based on a quantitative modern reference collection from Greece

The phytolith record from archaeological strata is a powerful tool for reconstructing aspects of past human behaviour and ecology. Considerable insights into the problems and potentials of this record can be obtained by studying phytoliths in modern plants. We prepared a phytolith reference collection of modern plants mostly from northern Greece that includes quantitative information on phytolith concentrations (number of phytoliths per gram dry organic material) and morphological assemblages. Here we analyse this reference collection with the aim of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the archaeological phytolith record. The reference collection comprises 62 different plant taxa. Of them, 28 are trees, 1 conifer, 10 shrubs and 1 herb, 3 domesticated annual legumes and 19 monocotyledons. We demonstrate quantitatively the extent to which woody species, legumes and fruits of dicots contribute only small amounts of phytoliths to the sediments per unit tissue dry weight, while leaves of trees and shrubs produce significant amounts of phytoliths and grasses are prolific phytolith producers. We compare the data of this reference collection with a similar reference collection from another Mediterranean ecosystem (Israel). The comparison indicates that some aspects of phytolith production are probably genetically controlled, whereas others are environmentally controlled. We note that despite the fact that woody species produce few phytoliths per gram of tissue, their record can be most informative when taking into account other properties of the sediments. We also note that jigsaw puzzle-shaped phytoliths normally form in plants that grow in humid conditions, but may form in arid environments when the plants are irrigated. This study clearly shows the extent to which some plants can be under-represented and others over-represented in the phytolith record. Knowing the extent of this bias can greatly improve our interpretation of the phytolith record.     

克孜尔石窟出土蓝色颜料研究

克孜尔石窟是蜚声中外的佛教艺术宝库,其丰富的历史文化遗存,是研究丝绸之路文化交流与融合的重要实物资料。为了解克孜尔石窟第189窟前发现的蓝色颜料,采用X射线衍射(XRD)对其成分进行分析,采用拉曼、扫描电镜能谱仪(SEM-EDS)将其与第189窟壁画蓝色样品的元素组成及物相进行对比,采用酶联免疫吸附测定(ELISA)、透射傅立叶红外光谱(FTIR)对其可能含有的胶结材料进行分析。结果表明,该出土蓝色颜料样品为青金石,胶结材料为植物胶。研究表明,通过多种分析手段联合使用,可以更全面、客观地了解分析对象的各种信息,为今后克孜尔石窟壁画制作材料及制作工艺的分析提供经验和借鉴。     

Defining an indicator package to allow identification of ‘cesspits’ in the archaeological record

This paper summarises the insect, plant macrofossil and other environmental evidence from a large number of deposits, thought to be cesspits, at a range of archaeological sites. A potential ‘indicator package’ (sensu Kenward and Hall, 1997), consisting of a range of biological materials and archaeological artefacts, is outlined which should allow a more accurate identification of cesspits in the archaeological record enhancing further studies of the rich evidence often preserved in them.