Raw Material and Technological Changes in Ceramic Productions at Sai Island,Northern Sudan,from the Seventh to the Third Millennium BC

This study presents the results of integrated mineralogical, petrographic and chemical analyses of different ceramic assemblages and local sediments from Sai Island, northern Sudan, dating to between the seventh and the third millennium bc , and highlights a significant variability in the raw materials and technology of these productions. Although archaeometric analyses of ceramics are widely employed in many parts of the world, a lamentable scientific gap exists for African pottery, which this paper aims to bridge with new and compelling results.     

The implications of water storage for human settlement in Mediterranean waterless islands: The example of Pantelleria

Abstract

Consistent water supply is a common issue in the history of Mediterranean civilizations, where hydraulic solutions, such as cisterns, wells, reservoirs and aqueducts, were adopted for private and public supply. In this context, the island of Pantelleria, where surface freshwater is virtually non-existent, represents a unique case for understanding human–environment interaction in waterless environments. Here, in historical times, year-round water supply was only possible through the storage of rainwater in underground cisterns. An intensive field survey carried out across the island led to the discovery of hundreds of cisterns dated from the Punic and Roman periods to the present day. The study of the spatial distribution of the cisterns was compared with archaeological data on the island to gain new insights on historical settlement and demographic patterns. The present work focusses on a semi-quantitative assessment of water storage on the island of Pantelleria based on the evaluation of potential volumes of stored water for different periods. Data available for cisterns in Pantelleria have been analysed and compared with those from coeval Mediterranean regions. Calculations on the seasonal fluctuation between water demand and supply have been estimated to evaluate the efficiency of such system for sustaining human population and subsistence activities through time.     

留美学生的“保钓运动”与祖国和平统一

20世纪70年代初由旅美中国留学生发起的“保钓运动”有高潮迭起的发展过程;有由单纯的爱国保土运动向“中国统一运动”转变的深刻原因;起到了维护中国领土主权、谴责美El侵略、唤起国人民族意识的作用,是留美学生和学人关心祖国前途、促进祖国和平统一的发端;中国政府对留美学生发起的“保钓运动”给予了积极肯定;“保钓运动”寻求国家统一的探索,对祖国和平统一事业有积极影响。     

从古代中日两国的交流看宗像·冲之岛的祭祀遗址

在日本冲之岛发现23个祭祀遗址,可分岩上、岩阴、半岩阴半露天、露天4类型,年代约为4世纪中叶至9世纪后期。祭祀由当时日本的中央政权主持,当地豪族宗像氏参与,目的在于向统管此海域的女神祈求航海的平安。古代日本与中国交往频繁,这在冲之岛祭祀遗址出土的许多供品上都有反映。     

A double dog burial from San Nicolas Island, California, USA: osteology, context, and significance

Recent archaeological excavations on San Nicolas Island, located off the coast of southern California, revealed the remains of a double dog burial interred sometime during the 13th and 14th centuries. Two carefully laid to rest and possibly sacrificed juvenile, female domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) between the ages of 1 and 6 months were found within a Native American village. Digestive tract residues include burned and unburned fish and marine mammal bone that suggest scavenging behavior or direct feeding by humans. Breed classifications place it between the Short-Nosed Indian dog and the Plains-Indian dog, likely representing a cross between those and other varieties of North American dogs. Comparisons with other dog burials from archaeological sites across southern California suggest commonalities and possible cultural linkages.     

Recent Excavation Results at Sa’ida Village,Failaka Island

One of the least known, yet extremely important, archaeological sites in Failaka Island, off Kuwait, is Sa’ida village. A joint Gulf mission started excavation in Sa’ida in 2001. The excavations on Hill 1 then exposed the first Friday mosque discovered on Failaka and in the State of Kuwait. The material data revealed that the village dates to the late Islamic period, specifically to the end of the seventeenth century until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the village was abandoned due to the plague epidemic that swept the region. Since 2016, four fieldwork campaign indicated that the village was inhabited in the early Islamic era in the seventh–eighth centuries and continued until the beginning of the twentieth century, with a few but long gaps. The six campaigns revealed religious and domestic buildings and were sufficient to reassess the chronology of occupation and abandonment of Sa’ida. They provided a valuable insight into the organisation of the site and the lifestyle of the population, with large courtyard houses and small one-room buildings.     

Navigating the binaries of island independence and dependence in Greenland: Decolonisation,political culture,and strategic services

Over the past decades, islands and archipelagos undergoing decolonisation have opted not to pursue independence. Many have instead become autonomous subnational island jurisdictions (SNIJs), maintaining links with their former colonisers in order to gain economic, social, and political benefits. The age of island independence movements has largely ceased. One exception is Greenland, an SNIJ in which the public overwhelmingly favours independence from Denmark. This desire for independence is linked to a binary understanding of Greenlandic identity and Danish identity as well as a binary understanding of independence and dependence. Greenland's colonial experience has trapped it in a Denmark-oriented conceptualisation of Greenlandic identity, which prevents the pursuit of potential political and economic futures, for example gaining economic benefits through the provision of strategic services to a patron state. This study demonstrates how island status and centre-periphery relations can influence political culture and, by considering the exceptional case of a present-day island independence movement, sheds light on the dynamics of island-mainland relations more generally.     

Drawing,toponymy, and linguistic pilgrimage

This article scrutinises an ongoing concern with how the naming of landscape is informed by micro personal and macro cultural narratives. The author takes the position of a toponymist and linguistic pilgrim. The perspectives identify ways of understanding the meanings of place ascribed through language and placenames, the role of intention in language documentation, and relationships between the affect of place and belonging. Drawing is melded with processes of placenaming, specifically a single fishing ground placename recorded during linguistic fieldwork in February 2008 with an elderly man on Norfolk Island, South Pacific. The argument uses drawing as a method to reveal how elicited stories can reveal the meanings of placenames and the histories of observations that inform them. The view taken questions whether the discipline of toponymy could incorporate a more involved and evolved aesthetic dimension. New ways to contextualise observations about placenaming and documentation within relevant interdisciplinary contexts such as drawing research and cartography are offered.     

Material Culture from the Al Hallaniyah Island Early 16th‐Century Portuguese Indiaman Wreck‐site

Excavation of an underwater site on Al Hallaniyah Island, Oman, conducted from 2013 to 2015, confirmed the presence of at least one early 16th‐century shipwreck. The location is believed to be where Vincente and Brás de Sodré’s Esmeralda and the São Pedro, both part of Vasco de Gama's second voyage to India, were wrecked in 1503. This article describes the ceramic and other domestic material assemblage. It is a study of the objects used by sailors on board in their daily lives. The non‐European ceramics also give indications of supplies, cargoes, and plunder acquired during the voyage. These aspects of the assemblage provide two different perspectives on the new era of maritime global trade.