An Assessment of the Status and Condition of Archaeological Remains Preserved In Situ in the Medieval Town of Trondheim Based on Archeochemical Investigations Conducted During the Period 2007–2010

Abstract

In recent years systematic archeochemical investigations in the medieval town of Trondheim have provided the heritage management authorities with a rich and complex set of data concerning the status and condition of the cultural deposits in the anthropogenic material. The collected data raises important questions for the long-time management of in situ preservation for archaeological material in non-saturated zones. In this paper we present the standardized scientific methods used in these archeochemical investiga- tions. We examine the results from several sites in the town and discuss the challenges facing modern heritage management in its efforts to protect a complex body of archaeological material in the non-saturated zone. We show that sediments with a thickness of 1–2 m have low levels of moisture and organic matter, and most of the inorganic parameters analysed are found in oxidized form with low preservations. The 2–3 m thick anthropogenic sediments showed better preservation conditions.     

Organic Loss in Drained Wetland Monuments: Managing the Carbon Footprint

Abstract

The recent installation of land drains at Star Carr, Yorkshire, UK, has been linked with loss of preservation quality in this important Mesolithic buried landscape, challenging the PARIS principle. Historically captured organic carbon, including organic artefacts, is being converted to soluble organic compounds and less soluble carbon gases. At the same time sulphur and nitrogen compounds are oxidized to species that are chemically destructive of artefacts and ecofacts. Two of the carbon products, CO₂ and methane, are ‘greenhouse gases’ whose environmental impact can be costed in terms of carbon equivalents, which can be set against an assessment of the gain in agricultural productivity of the land arising from drainage, at Star Carr being the improved cereal crop. Wetland studies elsewhere suggest that such decay processes could be slowed by restoring the historic soil environment, and even reversed to create carbon capture, enabling the farmer to claim carbon credits.     

OBJECTS OF HISTORY: THE PAST MATERIALIZED1

What is the role of material culture in understanding the past? This review essay explores two principal approaches—the history of museums and antiquities and environmental history—to reflect on their shared investment in historical materialism. It reviews Timothy LeCain's The Matter of History and Peter Miller's History and Its Objects, discussing their perspectives on objects and the writing of history. One important part of this history concerns the relationship of academic historians to the idea of a history museum, curatorial practices, and public history. What kinds of history can we do in a museum, with things, that might not occur without the presence of objects? Why were nineteenth- and early twentieth-century efforts to encourage a close relationship between historical research and the history museum largely abandoned in favor of a document-driven approach? The second dimension of current interest in historical materialism concerns new approaches to environmental history. It draws inspiration from Deep History as well as recent work in archaeology and STS (Science and Technology Studies) to argue for a more integrated history of humans and nature that demonstrates how things have made us. The history of successive efforts to remake the environment in different parts of the world and their consequences offers crucial object lessons in how humans have responded to nature's own creativity. Both approaches to historical materialism highlight the virtues of a more interdisciplinary approach to historical scholarship, in the museum or in the field, but most important, in our own sensibilities about what it means to think historically with artifacts and to treat them as compelling evidence of a shared history of humanity and nature.     

Aboriginal Performance on Standardized Tests: Evidence and Analysis from Provincial Schools in British Columbia

Many indigenous populations are experiencing rural-to-urban migration. In making this transition, indigenous peoples are entering industrial societies where most income derives from wages or salaries, and formal educational achievement is crucial in determining economic prospects. This research analyzes the gap in test score results between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in public schools in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It finds a strong effect of school quality, as measured by non-Aboriginal achievement, on Aboriginal achievement. It also finds a nonlinear negative relationship between Aboriginal achievement and the number of Aboriginal students in a school over the empirically observed range. It thus suggests a possible trade-off and dilemma between, on the one hand, policies that enable Aboriginal students to concentrate in a few schools able to provide a culturally sensitive curriculum and, on the other, policies to maximize Aboriginal academic achievement.     

新密古城寨龙山文化大型建筑基址研究

古城寨龙山文化大型建筑基址,具备了四合院式建筑之雏形;其建筑形制和规模,具备了早期宫殿的基本特征,标志当时社会跨入了文明时代。     

Raw material quality and Oldowan hominin toolstone preferences: evidence from Kanjera South,Kenya

The role of raw material quality in Oldowan technology has not been fully explored. There are numerous studies suggesting Oldowan hominins preferred certain types of stone for artifact manufacture. Previous studies of the artifact assemblage from the early Pliocene Oldowan locality of Kanjera South (South Rachuonyo District, Kenya) show that raw material selection and transport was an important aspect of Late Pliocene hominin adaptations. Yet the exact properties of stones that hominins were selecting remain enigmatic. Two potentially important features of artifact raw material are durability and fracture predictability. We investigate fracture predictability through mechanical tests of stone and investigations of the affect of stone properties on fracture patterns in archaeological collections. We investigate stone durability with actualistic studies of edge attrition combined with further mechanical tests of various lithologies. Oldowan hominins at Kanjera appear to have selected raw materials based on their durability. The ability for a stone to fracture consistently does not appear to be as important in hominin toolstone preference as previously assumed. Hominins that produced the assemblages at Kanjera South appear to have incorporated an extensive understanding of various attributes of raw material in the transport and production of stone artifacts. When combined with previous research on the transport patterns at Kanjera, the results of this study provide evidence for a more complex raw material acquisition strategy than has previously been suggested for Late Pliocene Oldowan hominins.     

A method for estimating edge length from flake dimensions: use and implications for technological change in the southern African MSA

This paper presents a method for estimating edge length from flake dimensions. Comparison of estimated values with data from measured flake edges demonstrates the robusticity of the method. Building on the work of Braun (Braun, D.R., 2005. Examining flake production strategies: examples from the Middle Paleolithic of Southwest Asia. Lithic Technology 30, 107–125; Braun, D.R., Harris, J.W.K., 2003. Technological developments in the Oldowan of Koobi Fora: innovative techniques of artifact analysis and new interpretations of Oldowan behavior, in Mora, R., de la Torre, I. (Eds.), Oldowan: Rather More than Smashing Stones. Treballs d’ Arqueologia 9, pp. 132–144) this estimate is used to generate an edge length to mass value for complete flakes—taken to be a proxy for flaking efficiency. It is shown that this value is useful in tracking the onset, variability and decline of a well known technological phase—the Howiesons Poort of South Africa. The results suggest that the Howiesons Poort was a time in which flaking efficiency was emphasised. Furthermore, comparison of upper limits of edge to mass values for different raw materials may provide an insight into changes in raw material selection.     

Pliny the Elder and Sr–Nd isotopes: tracing the provenance of raw materials for Roman glass production

In Roman and Byzantine times, natron glass was traded throughout the known world in the form of chunks. Production centers of such raw glass, active from the 4th to 8th century AD, were identified in Egypt and Syro-Palestine. However, early Roman primary glass units remain unknown from excavation or scientific analysis. The ancient author Pliny described in 70 AD that besides Egyptian and Levantine resources, also raw materials from Italy and the Gallic and Spanish provinces were used in glass making. In this study, the primary provenance of 1st–3rd century AD natron vessel glass is investigated. The use of combined Sr and Nd isotopic analysis allows the distinguishing and characterizing of different sand raw materials used for primary glass production. The isotope data obtained from the glass samples are compared to the signatures of primary glass from known production centers in the eastern Mediterranean and a number of sand samples from the regions described by Pliny the Elder as possible sources of primary glass. Eastern Mediterranean primary glass has a Nile dominated Mediterranean Nd signature (higher than −6.0 ? Nd), while glass with a primary production location in the western Mediterranean or north-western Europe should have a different Nd signature (lower than −7.0 ? Nd). Most Roman glass has a homogeneous ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr signature close to the modern sea water composition, likely caused by the (intentional) use of shell as glass raw material. In this way, strontium and neodymium isotopes now prove that Pliny's writings were correct: primary glass production was not exclusive to the Levant or Egypt in early Roman days, and factories of raw glass in the Western Roman Empire will have been at play.     

构建中国特色、中国风格和中国气派的中国口述史学--关于口述史料与口述史学的若干问题

口述史料主要指经过口传或为后人记录成为史料的民间传说、社会歌谣、历史人物讲话、录音录像以及访问调查的原始资料,对这些资料的发掘和整理被称作口述史学.在西方,现代意义上的口述史学建立于20世纪30～40年代前后,与这些国家相比我国至今仍充其量只有一些口述史的实践,其发展受到多方面的限制.建议成立有关组织,召开研讨会,构建相关规范,制定相关规划,形成和发展中国特色、中国风格和中国气派的口述史学.