Using event-history analysis to examine the causes of semi-sedentism among shifting cultivators: a case study of the Haudenosaunee,AD 1500–1700

Event-history analysis is often used in the social sciences to study the occurrence of particular events over the lifespan of individuals and the impact of various factors on the rate at which those events occur. Like individuals, settlements can be analyzed and important events, such as founding or abandonment, can be studied using this method. Thus, as Richard Paine (1992) has noted, the technique can be useful in archaeological investigations of settlement processes. In this research we use it to explore the causes of settlement abandonment among a temperate shifting cultivators in an attempt to better understand the ecology of this adaptation and in order to evaluate the merits of the method. The sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) of northeastern North America present an interesting case study for applying event-history analysis to archaeological settlement dynamics because of the wealth of archaeological settlement data and detailed historic record that allows us to parse out historical factors and analyze the remaining ecological factors. We use event-history analysis as an alternative means for evaluating the relative and absolute effects of several variables that may have been predictive of the lifespan of settlements and the timing of their removal. The results suggest that the decision to move from a village was a complex process in which the population size of a village may have been the single most important, but not the only, determinant of settlement duration.     

水乡寻镇 江南织梦——《清代江南市镇与农村关系的空间透视》述评

本述评围绕吴滔新著《清代江南市镇与农村关系的空间透视》的主要思路和问题脉络,尝试对江南市镇研究及区域历史地理研究提出若干探索方向。评述者讲述其与吴滔近十年在江南共同开展实地调查的真实经历,从而阐释书中有关水乡聚落环境、市镇型塑机制、市镇空间生产等重要分析框架的缘起和旨趣,进而提出尚待商榷和推进的若干课题。     

河南灵宝市五帝遗址考古勘探报告

2018年11月~12月,为从聚落层面对灵宝盆地仰韶文化时期大型遗址开展研究,河南省文物考古研究院等单位对灵宝五帝遗址进行了系统调查与勘探。结果表明,该遗址主体是一处仰韶文化中期大型聚落,南部有一条南壕沟,并发现一定数量的房址、灰坑,总面积约75万平方米。在遗址东北部还发现有庙底沟二期文化时期遗存。另外,调查发现该遗址附近有古湖相沉积,对研究该区域古环境变迁具有重要价值。     

Transportation corridors and political evolution in highland Mesoamerica: Settlement analyses incorporating GIS for northern Tlaxcala, Mexico

Investigations of the functional utility and social elaboration of natural transportation corridors contribute to generating more comprehensive understandings of complex macroregional phenomena such as political evolution. In this article, highland central Mexican transportation corridors are analyzed through GIS applications and a reconsideration of settlement data from an important corridor in northern Tlaxcala. The location of the study region, within the corridor connected to the northeastern Basin of Mexico, makes it particularly relevant for examining interregional exchanges and the transformation of a more rural landscape adjacent to core areas of urbanization and state political expansion. Conclusions drawn from the study are largely complementary to the interpretations made by the surveyors [Merino Carrión, B.L., 1989. La Cultura Tlaxco. Serie Arqueológica, Colección Científica 174, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City], but provide an updated assessment of prehispanic political evolution ca. 900 BC–AD 1519. Specifically, the study tracks the evolution of early ceremonial centers, Teotihuacan’s territorial expansion through the region, political balkanization following the collapse of Teotihuacan, and the establishment of small, independent polities encountered by the Spanish. New contributions include quantitative measures relevant to assessing the systemic integration of the region and the social value of the corridor during different chronological phases, elucidating the differing expansionary trajectories of Teotihuacan and the Aztec Empire.     

Good for glaciers,bad for people? Archaeologically relevant climate models developed from reconstructions of glacier mass balance

We present a new climate and vegetation model, and discuss applications with a study of medieval land degradation and settlement abandonment in þórsmörk, Iceland. Existing meteorological data are used as the starting point for modelling glacier snowlines (equilibrium lines), and this is developed to model seasonal snowcover, potential vegetation and growing season. The current status and past fluctuations of glaciers across Iceland provide independent spatial and temporal constraints to the model. In þórsmörk, there was extensive landscape degradation and settlement abandonment in the late Medieval period, with an unclear role for climate change. Modelling of the landscape impacts of a 1 °C fall in temperatures shows that climatically induced degradation through reduced vegetation, growing season, and increased snowcover had limited effects on the once settled area, highlighting the importance of anthropogenically driven change. High resolution modelling offers a significant potential for assessing ‘what if’ questions, and identifying key empirical tests.     

The Fluted Point tradition and the Arctic Small Tool tradition: What’s the connection?

This paper presents a comparative study of two colonizing populations in the Americas: the Fluted Point tradition (FPt) and the early Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt) with the aim of understanding the role of lithic technologies in the colonization process. The FPt and ASTt are seen as residentially mobile groups with comparatively little reliance on food storage and minimal transportation aids. At the same time they also produced very similar flaked stone technologies that differed greatly from all later groups, being characterized by standardized core reduction, excellence in manufacture, production of a wide range of often hafted tools, use of the highest quality toolstones and a reliance on flaked stone, as opposed to ground stone, tools. The main advantage of these technologies is that they are not only flexible but can be rapidly produced. It is suggested that the key variable accounting for these choices is the lack of efficient transportation aids. In colonizing situations, the limited transport capabilities force populations to: (a) rely more on less predictable search and encounter methods of resource procurement and in turn, residential mobility to position people with regard to resources and (b) place a high premium on efficient time allocation to meet the excessive demands needed to maintain social contacts and mating networks amongst very low density populations.     

崧泽文化聚落形态分析

通过对典型聚落或墓地的内部布局和空间结构分析,崧泽文化早期的社会处在由平等社会向不平等社会过渡的阶段。中晚期家族私有化进一步发展,聚落之间的分化呈现出不断向等级化发展的趋势。     

山东地区商文化聚落形态演变初探

本文考察了山东地区商文化的聚落形态演变过程及其历史背景。商文化聚落形态在山东地区经历了四个阶段的变化:早商时期仅济南大辛庄一处遗址;中商时期遗址数量增加并在泰沂山脉两侧形成了规模较大的聚落群;晚商早期遗址数量保持稳定但等级较高的遗址处于衰落状态;晚商晚期不但遗址总数而且等级较高的遗址数量都明显增加,还出现了像苏埠屯这样的高规格墓地。这一聚落形态的演变反映了商文化在山东地区东扩的连续性与阶段性。     

城乡一体化过程中聚落选址和布局的演变

城乡一体化是区域经济发展到一定阶段的产物,它在客观上表现为聚落选址和布局的演变:即在发达地区表现为居民聚集区由点状分布趋向面状分布,在欠发达地区表现为由点状分布趋向线状分布。这种聚落选址和布局的演变是城乡一体化过程中经济发展的必然结果,受着影响经济发展的因素的制约;然而,聚落选址和布局演变又是影响经济发展的一个重要因素,制约着区域经济的发展。在城乡一体化过程中,现代交通取向,现代市场取向、现代工业取向和现代人口取向是聚落演变的重要推动力,影响聚落选址和布局的基本格局。不同的聚落选址和布局对区域经济的发展有着加速或延缓的作用。     

河南灵宝市北阳平遗址考古勘探报告

为深入认识豫西灵宝盆地仰韶文化时期大型遗址的聚落内部情况,2018年3~5月,河南省文物考古研究院等单位对河南灵宝北阳平遗址进行了系统性考古勘探。本次工作明确这是一处以仰韶文化为主体的大型聚落遗址,发现的遗迹主要有房址、壕沟等,基本搞清了聚落范围、面积、重要遗迹分布、聚落布局和功能分区等,取得了重要成果。