Millet and sauce: The uses and functions of querns among the Minyanka (Mali)

The central role of grinding activities in the dietary practices of traditional agricultural populations can be approached from an ethnoarchaeological point of view. The comparison of ethnographic references raises the question whether the function and the socioeconomic context in which grinding slabs are used allow to assess issues related to conclusions drawn from archaeological contexts. Our discussion is based on the analysis of the manufacturing of grinding slabs, their use cycles and their social status in several Minyanka villages (Mali), providing useful references when examining the way in which archaeologists explain and interpret technological, functional and spatial observations. The typological and technical evolution and variability of querns results from a combination of several factors determined by the available raw materials, the skill of shaping techniques, the organisation of manufacturing and the transference of the function of grinding tools. But these factors alone cannot explain the encountered range of variation. Our study thus emphasises the very role of cultural aspects within these temporal and regional developments, and the impossibility of dissociating the use of a quern from its socio-economic context.     

Satellite imagery and archaeology: the example of CORONA in the Altai Mountains

Satellite imagery, and specifically CORONA, is now of common use in archaeology. CORONA, as it produces two images of the same spot (afterward and forward), allows for stereoscopic view and is a perfect tool for the production of maps, especially in remote areas, where maps are not reliable of even absent.     

Pottery production at Tell es-Safi/Gath: a Longue Durée perspective

The development of pottery production during the Bronze and Iron Ages at Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel, is examined based on the analysis of 224 pottery vessels representing most periods within this ca. 1700 years time frame. The main tools employed were visual examination of manufacturing techniques and petrographic thin section analysis, all of which was conducted on the entire group. This was combined with a chronological, functional, typological, and cultural characterization of the samples. The results indicate a tendency of a diachronic shift from the use of calcareous-based clays to non-calcareous clays, from the Bronze Age towards the late Iron Age, although the primary shaping techniques do not change. Intentional tempering, when relevant, is mostly type- or function-dependent. It is suggested that this trend, possibly evident at other sites in the southern Levant as well, may be related to the employment of higher firing temperatures by the potters. This phenomenon may also be related to the decrease in the relative amount of decorated pottery that is seen during the late Iron Age.     

Recovery of a lost wall painting at the Etruscan Tomb of the Blue Demons in Tarquinia (Viterbo,Italy) by multispectral reflectometry and UV fluorescence imaging

This paper presents the results of a multispectral reflectometry and ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence study on the entrance wall of the Tomb of the Blue Demons in the Necropolis of Monterozzi (450–430 bc ) in Tarquinia (Viterbo, Italy), which is a UNESCO site. The technique is based on the acquisition of a multispectral set ranging from 10 to 25 images, acquired at wavelengths between 370 and 1120 nm, with a spectral width of 50 nm per image, using both halogen lamps for visible and infrared images and high‐purity UV diodes for fluorescence. Blind‐source separation algorithms were then applied to the whole image set to extract from the resulting images the details not otherwise visible in the single spectral images. The multispectral technique presented was tested and improved upon over the last decade on ancient Etruscan and Roman wall paintings and, because of its quickness and cost‐effectiveness, it can now be proposed as a powerful tool for the study of poorly conserved archaeological wall paintings and a preliminary diagnostic survey before any future conservation intervention on them.     

玉带板初探

玉带板始兴于唐代,终于明代。它作为皇帝和官僚贵族革带上的佩饰,是等级和地位的象征。本文对各个时期玉带板的形制、纹饰和雕琢技法进行了具体地分析。     

长沙铜官窑谭家坡遗迹馆内优势病害真菌的分子鉴定

针对长沙铜官窑谭家坡遗迹馆内大肆爆发的微生物病害,为确定造成考古遗迹污染的优势真菌类型,项目组开展了病害真菌的现状调查和快速检测鉴定工作。利用无菌手术刀收集考古遗迹表面典型病害微生物的菌体样品,通过提取样品基因组总DNA、真菌ITS区PCR扩增、构建克隆文库、序列测定和系统发生关系分析等技术完成了病害菌的分子生物学鉴定和类群组成特点分析。结果表明,遗迹馆内考古遗迹表面爆发的主要病害菌为尖孢镰刀菌(Fusarium oxysporum)、白腐菌(Phlebia brevispora)、荷叶离褶伞(Lyophyllum decastes),它们分别隶属于丛赤壳科(Nectriaceae)、伏革菌科(Corticiaceae)、离褶伞科(Lyophyllaceae),均为营腐生真菌,与土壤中木质材料的降解密切相关。考古现场大量的根系残留为病害菌的大肆繁殖提供了重要的营养源,而高的温度和相对湿度是促进病害菌快速生长扩散的主要环境因素。建议人工清除病害菌和根系残留,并对遗迹馆进行适当的环境控制。     

The application of LiDAR-based DEMs on WWII conflict sites in the Netherlands

Airborne Laser Scanning or Light Detecting And Ranging (LiDAR) is quite a new technique for most archaeologists. Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), derived from the LiDAR-data, can be very useful to map archaeological sites in order to get a better overview of what is left and how these remains should be protected and researched further. LiDAR-based DEMs can be extremely useful to conflict archaeologists, especially in the Netherlands where excavation of the remains of World War II (WWII) is often problematic. Using DEMs it is possible to make both an indication of the archaeological and the heritage value of a conflict site. The use of DEMs will improve the prospection, mapping and monitoring of archaeological sites.     

科技研究为官哥等窑的时空定位提供新思路

本工作结合古代文献和现代科学方法,讨论和研究了宋室南迁后建立的老虎洞窑和《坦斋笔衡》中所提到的内窑、修内司官窑之间的关系;老虎洞窑对汝窑及郊坛下窑所起的承前启后的作用;越窑、龙泉窑和南宋官窑所烧制青釉瓷在技术上的相互影响以及老虎洞窑宋元两个地层所出土的瓷片与南宋官窑瓷和传世哥窑瓷的时空定位。     

汉代铸钱过程的计算机模拟试验

平板范竖式浇铸和叠铸是汉代铸钱的两种方法,由于钱币的铸造过程受到诸多因素的影响,计算机数值模拟技术可以达到改变其中的某一个参数以研究该参数对钱币铸造过程的影响。为了比较不同材质的铸型、比较平板范竖式浇铸和叠铸两种工艺在相同材质的铸型中充型性能的变化,进行平板范竖式浇铸工艺和叠铸工艺铸钱过程的计算机模拟研究。结果表明:1)在相同材质的铸型(陶范)条件下叠铸在重力铸造成形上优于平板范竖式浇铸,叠铸的成品率高于平板范竖式浇铸。2)铸型的物性参数显著影响充型结果,保温性好,预热温度高的铸型在充型上较为有利,以陶范的充型结果为最好,金属范优于石范,金属范与陶范的组合优于金属范与金属范的组合。     

唐代金银平脱工艺浅析

金银平脱是一种将髹漆与金属镶嵌相结合的工艺技术,是我国古代著名的器物装饰技法。考古发掘资料表明,金银平脱技术是由最早出现于商代的金银箔贴花技术发展而来,经由战国、汉代较长时期的发展,到了唐代,这一工艺已得到创造性的运用,成为极具时代特点的器物装饰技法,对后周边国家和地区以及后世相关装饰工艺产生了很大影响。