Ushnus of the Inca provincial region: An analysis of two ceremonial platforms from Inca sites in Catamarca (Argentina)

The Inca polity deployed a variety of strategies in the establishment of imperial relations with the local communities of the southern provinces. These strategies included the translation of symbols materialized in architectural structures. In this sense, the ceremonial platforms denominated ushnus were spaces with particular significance and high hierarchy.     

More than acorns and small seeds: A diachronic analysis of mortuary associated ground stone from the south San Francisco Bay area

The archaeological record of central California contains a rich variety of ground stone milling tools—from highly expedient cobble tools to large ornate mortars and finely finished pestles more than half a meter in length. Historical trends in research objectives, along with assumptions about the entirely mundane character of ground stone tools, have caused much of the variability and many “extra-utilitarian” aspects of these artifacts to be overlooked. This study analyzed grave-associated ground stone from the southern San Francisco Bay Area and employed use-wear analysis (macroscopic and microscopic) and morphological comparisons to investigate potential distinctions in form, manufacturing effort, use, and association over approximately 6000 years of prehistory. Ground stone morphologies, patterns of use-wear, and the way that ground stone was interred with people changed between the earliest and the latest periods analyzed in this study. During the Late Holocene, ground stone underwent a diversification of form and perhaps purpose. An overtly symbolic dimension associated with mortars and pestles seems to emerge with the addition of highly formalized and expensive flower-pot mortars, very long shaped pestles, and additional embellishments such as shell bead appliqué and painted designs. Large, costly, highly formalized, and embellished mortars exist alongside smaller, less costly, less formalized milling tools. Archaeological and ethnographic evidence supports the inferred association of certain mortars with feasting and ritual activities. Differences in the representation of some of these forms in male and female graves may reflect changes in the roles of women and men in community ritual and politics.     

Understanding Rituals: A Critique of Representationalism

The explanations of ritual practices observed in archaeological contexts often proceed on the representationalist basis that the human mind contains the social constituted ideas or representations that underpin the practice of rituals. Such a view remains widespread and, despite the often proclaimed rejection in contemporary theory of the Cartesian mind-body and other dualisms, it perpetuates the Enlightenment representationalist heritage according to which mental contents represent social reality and, as such, drive ritual practices and human action more generally. This article illustrates the meaning and value of rejecting such a representationalist view of human (ritual) action in favour of what we call an institutional view. In such a view, a ritual can be conceived as a form of recurring activity involving temporally and geographically dispersed actors active in differing roles and hence also with differing interests and levels of knowledge of the ritual and the associated belief system.     

The Mediterranean Group II: analyses of vessels from Etruscan contexts in northern Italy

A large number of Mediterranean Group vessels were recovered at the Etruscan site of Spina in northern Italy and dated from the 6th to the 3rd century BC. In this work a number of vessels belonging to the so-called “Group II” were analysed. The samples are mainly Alabastra, Oinochoai, Amphoriskoi, and Hydriai, in general opaque and deeply coloured. The aims of this study are: 1) to characterize these samples since there is a lack of data in literature regarding Mediterranean Group II; and 2) to compare the data obtained with that of glass for previous centuries (Mediterranean Group I) recovered at the same site in order to establish whether they could have the same origin. The chemical analyses of major and minor elements were carried out by electron microprobe and the nature of the opacifying and colouring agents was determined by X-ray diffraction. The sample set is relatively homogeneous and most of the samples can be classified as Low Magnesium Glass produced with natron and a calcareous silicatic sand. The XRD analyses proved the use of lead antimonates in the manufacture of yellow decorations and of calcium antimonates in the white and light blue decorations. The consistency of the chemical compositions of Mediterranean Groups I and II samples makes it possible to hypothesize a common origin.     

康熙天坛祈雨的历史书写与史实考析——兼论康熙雍正灾异观念演变及其影响

康熙早年虔信精诚格天,分别于十年、十七年、十八年、十九年、二十六年五次亲诣天坛祈雨,二十六年底为孝庄祈寿未果后,对"天道"认知发生显著变化,停止亲诣天坛祈雨,在荒政方面更侧重防灾备灾与人事赈救。《清圣祖实录》纂修者基于雍正的灾异观念,篡改康熙十七年、十九年降雨时间,删削康熙对停止亲诣天坛祈雨的解释,从而维护康熙敬天的"圣君"形象和上天的"灵验"形象。康熙不言祥瑞,对灾异持务实态度。雍正的灾异观念虽然有助于他加强君主集权,提升统治效能,但很大程度上也造成官僚系统灾情呈报的讳匿风习,对民生吏治与国家治理产生负面影响。     

Allochthonous red pigments used in burial practices at the Copper Age site of Valencina de la Concepción (Sevilla,Spain): characterisation and social dimension

The use of red pigments linked to burial practices is widely documented in the Iberian prehistoric record and very often it has been traditionally interpreted as a ritual practice entailing the utilisation of local raw materials (iron oxides). Some research works, nevertheless, have also detected the use of red pigments which can only be interpreted as allochthonous. The red pigments spread over a single inhumation in a monumental Megalithic tomb surrounding Valencina de la Concepción Copper Age settlement was studied by means of X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray microfluorescence, micro-Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies. This approach allowed characterising the red pigments as cinnabar, mixed with tiny amounts of iron oxides. The presence of cinnabar, a product that was necessarily imported, in a context of an exceptional set of grave goods, suggests that the use of cinnabar was linked not only to ritual but also to practices related to the display of social status.     

Taphonomy of Corumbella werneri from the Ediacaran of Brazil: sinotubulitid tube or conulariid test?

Walde, D.H.-G., Weber, B., Erdtmann, B.-D. & Steiner, M. 20 June 2019. Taphonomy of Corumbella werneri from the Ediacaran of Brazil: sinotubulitid tube or conulariid test? Alcheringa 43, 335–350. ISSN 0311-5518

The problematic late Ediacaran tubular fossil Corumbella werneri is revised based on two-dimensional compressions, and new three-dimensionally preserved specimens from the Tamengo Formation of the Corumbá Region in Mato Grosso do Sul, west-central Brazil. These fossils represent some of the oldest skeletonized metazoans and were originally described from diagenetically compacted tubes that prompted conflicting interpretations as either Ediacaran coronate scyphozoan exoskeletons, or conulariid tests. Our new material from Corumbá permits a morphological and taphonomic revision of C. werneri, which we suggest was probably a calcareous sinotubulitid. Corumbella werneri closely resembles the late Ediacaran Sinotubulites from South China, as well as the Silurian worm tube Eoalvinellodes, which has similar exterior ornamentation. Ultrastructurally, the tubes of C. werneri exhibit a coarse sparitic microtexture, which we attribute to diagenetic alteration. Partial flexibility also supports interpretation as an originally weakly calcified, or entirely organic exoskeleton. We therefore reject placement of C. werneri as a conulariid scyphozoan, and instead, advocate possible relationships with marine annelids.

Detlef Hans-Gert Walde [walde.detlef@gmail.com], University of Brasília, Institute of Geosciences, Brasília-DF, Brazil; Bernd Weber [bweber@zedat.fu-berlin.de], Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften, Malteserstr. 74–100, D-12249 Berlin, Germany; Bernd-D. Erdtmann [berni1739@gmail.com], 1165 N Mountain View Road, Apache Junction, AZ 85119, USA; *Michael Steiner [Michael.Steiner@FU-Berlin.de], Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften (Haus D), Malteserstr. 74–100, D-12249 Berlin, Germany.     

Recent Trends in Theorizing Prehispanic Mesoamerican Economies

Theoretical frames for modeling prehispanic Mesoamerican economies have been informed mostly by political economy or agency approaches. Political economy models examine the ways in which power is constructed and exercised through the manipulation of material transfers, mainly production and distribution. Research along these lines emphasizes regional redistribution, wealth and staple finance, debt and reciprocity, and regional integration through core/periphery relations. Agency models, on the other hand, explore the social aspects of manufacture, circulation, and consumption to infer the processes by which power is negotiated and contested. Work using this framework focuses on the manner by which meaning and value are assigned to, and become fixed in, social valuables, as well as the moral and emotional dimensions of allocation and consumption. Political economy and agency approaches are converging in Mesoamerican research to forge a new, hybrid theoretical construct, “ritual economy,” which strikes a balance between formalist and substantivist views by considering the ways that belief systems articulate with economic systems in the management of meanings and the shaping of interpretations.     

论嵇康与嵇喜的赠答送别组诗

嵇康与嵇喜赠答送别组诗既体现了兄弟的手足情深,也表达了二人志向迥异的哲思。名为送别,实乃言志。亲情难以愈合分离,说明了魏晋之际两条思想路线斗争的激烈。     

从青铜器铭文看周代的赐"膰"礼

一、关于赐膰礼的争论在周代,天子、诸侯祭后有赐胙的习俗。如《左传》载庄公二十三年,楚成王贡献于周惠王,天子赐胙。僖公九年,王使宰孔赐齐侯胙。