On the intrinsic accuracy and precision of luminescence dating techniques for fired ceramics

Luminescence dating techniques have been used extensively for archaeological and geological samples. Such techniques are based on thermally or optically stimulated signals. This paper presents simulations of several luminescence techniques for equivalent dose (ED) estimation for ceramic materials containing quartz. The simulations are carried out using a recently published comprehensive kinetic model for quartz, consisting of 11 electron and hole traps and centers. The complete sequence of the experimental protocols for several thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques are simulated using the same set of kinetic parameters. The specific simulated protocols are: additive dose TL protocol, predose technique (both additive and multiple activation versions), phototransfer protocol, single aliquot regenerative optically stimulated luminescence (SAR-OSL) protocol, and SAR thermoluminescence protocol (SAR-TL). One hundred random variants of the natural samples were generated by keeping the transition probabilities between energy levels fixed, while allowing simultaneous random variations of the concentrations of the 11 energy levels. The relative intrinsic accuracy and precision of the protocols are simulated by calculating the equivalent dose (ED) within the model, for a given natural burial dose of the sample. The intrinsic accuracy of these techniques is estimated by simulating natural irradiation of the samples with a known burial dose, followed by simulation of the luminescence method used to recover the estimated dose ED. The percent difference between the burial dose and the ED value represents the simulated accuracy of the luminescence technique. The relative intrinsic precision of these techniques is estimated by fitting Gaussian probability functions to the ED values obtained with the 100 model variants. It is found that the various techniques can reproduce natural paleodoses in the range 10 mGy–10 Gy with a typical intrinsic accuracy of +1 to 10%. Techniques based on single aliquot protocols were found in general to be more precise than techniques requiring the use of multiple aliquots. In addition, techniques based on interpolation of experimental data were found to be consistently both more precise and accurate than those based on extrapolation of experimental data.     

上海青龙镇遗址出土瓷器和砖瓦样品热释光特性研究

利用热释光测定年代技术对青龙镇出土样品的烧造年代进行检测分析,以求帮助了解不同历史时期青龙镇瓷器贸易的发展状况。为此,本工作以青龙镇遗址出土瓷器中的67件瓷片及4件砖瓦样品为研究对象,用热释光前剂量饱和指数法测定瓷片样品古剂量;用热释光高温细颗粒技术测定砖瓦样品古剂量;用厚源α粒子计数法和X射线荧光光谱技术测量样品年剂量。瓷片样品热释光年代结果从唐代至南宋不等,砖瓦样品年代结果为北宋时期烧造,与文献记载中隆平寺塔的始建时间相符。     

The glass of Nogara (Verona): a “window” on production technology of mid-Medieval times in Northern Italy

The site of Nogara (province of Verona, Italy) provides valuable insights into the complexities of the glass industry in mid-Medieval times, due to its timing, which ranges mainly between the 10th and 11th centuries AD, and to the great quantity of glass findings, mainly tableware. In the present paper, the combination of archaeological, chemical and textural data allows us to identify production technologies in a time-interval perceived to be a period of technological transition for glass. In particular, the frequent occurrence of recycled natron glass and only a few glass samples made with soda plant ash indicate that recycling of earlier glass was common in inland Northern Italy in the 10th–11th centuries AD. In addition, blue and reticello decorations were obtained by recycling earlier glass mosaic tesserae, as shown by much Co, Cu, Sn, Sb and Pb and the presence of crystallised calcium antimonates. A few glass samples with chemical compositions intermediate between natron and soda plant ash glass were also identified, suggesting a gradual change in glass composition from natron-based towards soda ash-based production technology, which prevailed in the 13th-14th centuries. In conclusion, the difficulty in describing mid-Medieval glass as a well-defined entity, due to the great propensity for recycling earlier glass samples which causes variability in chemical compositions, particularly those of trace elements, is clearly documented here. In any case, this paper contributes to a new type of chrono-typological scanning and to more detailed knowledge of glass production technology during mid-Medieval times in Northern Italy, little found in the literature until now.     

Domestic economies and regional transition: Household multicrafting and lake exploitation in pre-Aztec Central Mexico

This article takes a micro-archaeology approach to investigating household production strategies using data derived from Early to Middle Postclassic (A.D. 900–1350) houses from Xaltocan, Mexico, an island capital in the northern Basin of Mexico. I examine household production strategies by integrating multiple lines of evidence including microartifacts, soil chemistry, and macroartifact remains to document a diversity of household production activities, including the manufacture of goods that are typically invisible archaeologically such as foods and perishable goods. Next, I consider changes in subsistence practices through time in order to understand household scheduling and labor allocation strategies. The results indicate that households in pre-Aztec Xaltocan not only pursued diverse economic strategies, but also engaged in multiple types of production activities, including the manufacture of food products and other utilitarian goods derived from lake resources. I conclude that households were fundamental to economic development in ancient political economies and were enmeshed in broader systems of power and networks of exchange.     

中华远古稻作始于水稻

通过对水陆稻形态和生理特征的比较观察,对古稻作文物资料、稻作遗址历史年代的比较分析,证明陆稻由水稻演化而来,先人的驯稻皆由水稻开始,并由平原洼地逐渐向山区高原迁移。进一步论证和肯定了丁颖先生关于水稻是基本型,陆稻是变异型的论断。     

重庆、鄂西地区商周时期甲骨的类型学研究

本文对重庆、鄂西地区出土商周时期甲骨钻凿形态做了类型学分析,并与其周边地区甲骨做了比较研究,探讨了该地区在占卜上的地方特色,从而区别出了中原地区与长江流域两种不同的占卜传统.     

Were Olduvai Hominins making butchering tools or battering tools? Analysis of a recently excavated lithic assemblage from BK (Bed II,Olduvai Gorge,Tanzania)

A new interpretation of early stone-tool use by hominins at Olduvai depicts them as involved in battering activities (using pounding tools) rather than making cutting butchering tools as is commonly inferred in most other Plio-Pleistocene sites where lithics appear associated to faunal remains. The bulk of this interpretation is based on the recognition of the stigma of percussion activities in anvils and detached by-products. Renewed excavations at BK after more than half a century of the beginning of the digging at the site by M. Leakey have produced a new and unbiased lithic assemblage. The taphonomic study of the faunal assemblage has shown that BK is an anthropogenic site where carcass butchery practices were repeatedly performed over a vast amount of time. The present analysis of the lithic artefacts supports this interpretation by showing that the obtainment of flakes was the principal aim in stone knapping. We argue that a number of technical traits observed in the lithic collection of BK can be best interpreted as the result of bipolar loading rather than the by-products of battering activities. Since BK has provided the second largest collection of hominid-modified bones from Olduvai, it is concluded that detached pieces produced in the course of bipolar reduction might have played an active role in bone modification and that active rather than passive percussion behaviors might have been responsible for the formation of the lithic assemblage. The functionality of the Oldowan stone tools are discussed under the light of the new study.     

新石器时期中原地区谷物加工技术初探

本文从考古发现的石磨盘、石磨棒中的石磨棒的形制入手,讨论了石磨棒的使用方式,指出滚压是史前粟脱壳加工的有效方式,揭示了中国先民7000年前就已经熟练运用滚压技术的事实。     

吴越细绳纹类青铜礼器成形技术研究

吴越青铜器发展到春秋中晚期,出现了一批极富地域文化特色的青铜器,器表饰有细绳纹和细薄而峻深的纹饰,或在纹饰间布满细芒刺突起的棘刺纹。本工作通过对吴越青铜器陶范铸造技术的探索和吴越细绳纹类青铜礼器的复原试验,以期揭示出这类细绳纹类青铜礼器的成形技术。实验过程是以绳索为模,在湿陶范内埋入绳索,当陶范入窑焙烧时,绳索焚烧后形成绳索状凹槽,浇注青铜液后则成为具有突起状绳纹装饰的青铜器。焚烧绳索形成纹饰,是一种在平面上形成三维纹饰的技艺,能在青铜器表面形成规整的绳纹,可能为东周时期吴越地区古代工匠铸造细绳纹类青铜礼器的一种方法。     

A comparative study of wall paintings at the Cypriot monastery of Christ Antiphonitis: one artist or two?

The central church of the monastery of Christ Antiphonitis near Kalogrea, within the district of Kyrenia in Cyprus, is decorated with wall paintings that date from the last decades of fifteenth century. Two large and elaborate scenes, the Last Judgement and the Root of Jesse, had been preserved in the church until the Turkish invasion (1974) after which they were cut into tetragonal pieces, separated, and sent by looters to Germany for selling at illicit markets. The German Police returned thirty-two of the pieces to the Archbishop Makarios Foundation in Nicosia.