The Construction Process of the Angkor Monuments Elucidated by the Magnetic Susceptibility of Sandstone*

The Angkor monuments in Cambodia are mainly constructed of grey to yellowish‐brown sandstones. No differences in the constituent minerals and in the chemical composition of the sandstones have been confirmed among the monuments. However, we have found their magnetic susceptibility a useful parameter by which to distinguish them. The principal monuments of Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Preah Khan, Banteay Kdei and Bayon, constructed from the Angkor Wat period to the Bayon period (from the beginning of the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th century ad ), were investigated in detail using a portable magnetic susceptibility meter. We succeeded in dividing the periods of construction into stages. This elucidated the enlargement process of the monuments and correlated their construction stages.     

MAPPING THE UNDISCOVERED RUINS OF POMPEII (NAPLES,ITALY) USING GROUND PENETRATING RADAR*

The ground penetrating radar (GPR) technique was tested in Pompeii, in an unexplored area where the Roman ruins are partially buried in the volcanic deposits. The method was also combined with time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements to estimate the dielectric properties of the different volcanic units. In spite of the total thickness of the covering materials and the high signal attenuation measured in some layers, the radar was able to show a detailed image of the volcanic sediments and to locate the manmade structures hidden in the ash deposits. Moreover, the present study shows that the integrated use of GPR and TDR techniques could be successfully employed to evaluate the performance of the radar in specific terrains covering archaeological sites. Since it is unlikely that a large part of Pompeii will ever be excavated, GPR could be successfully used to produce detailed maps of the ruins still hidden in the subsurface, giving archaeologists the possibility of reconstructing the entire urban development of this unique ancient city.     

Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction at an oxbow lake situated at the lower Nottawasaga River,southern Ontario,Canada

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation at the lower Nottawasaga River in southern Ontario, Canada, was to reconstruct the impact of base level on fluvial stability and human occupation during the Holocene in a topographically confined section, where the river cuts through the Edenvale Moraine. Three cores were extracted from an oxbow lake (Doran Lake) and a ground-penetrating radar survey was executed in its vicinity to study wider subsurface alluvial architecture. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the Nottawasaga River became entrenched in the Edenvale Moraine early in the Holocene, with base-level lowering in the Lake Huron basin, and that Doran Lake formed towards the middle Holocene as a meander cutoff when water levels in the Lake Huron basin increased, leading to a period of fluvial instability, enhanced flow and floodplain aggradation. Fluctuating lake levels would have affected human settlement as well as the preservation and visibility of archaeological remains predominantly through vertical accretion.     

Charcoal analysis of industrial fuelwood from medieval and early modern iron-working sites in Bilsdale and Rievaulx,North Yorkshire,UK: evidence for species selection and woodland management

Abstract

This paper presents the results of species diversity and dendrological analyses of archaeological charcoal excavated from medieval and early modern iron production sites in Bilsdale, and at Rievaulx in the neighbouring valley of Ryedale, North Yorkshire, UK. Standard methods of quantification are used to assess species diversity, sampling sufficiency and taxa presence. The assessment of dendrological features provides additional evidence for growth trends and cutting cycles analogous with cyclical woodland management, as well as environmental and growing conditions. Analysis of archaeological charcoal from four medieval bloomery furnace sites in Bilsdale, and from the site of the hammersmithy and blast furnace at the early modern iron works at Rievaulx, provide comparable data-sets which indicate a change in cutting practise and dominant species selection for industrial fuelwood occurred between the 12th- and mid-16th centuries AD. Results show that dominant species presence changed from an admixture of predominantly birch (Betula sp.) and hazel (Corylus avellana) sourced from small calibre branchwood and stemwood used in the medieval bloomery furnaces, to a dominant oak (Quercus sp.) presence from standard sources used at the Rievaulx iron works by the mid-16th century. Whilst it is uncertain whether this change in dominant species composition and the source of industrial fuelwood is related to changes in local availability, or the result of the technological transition to blast furnace processing which occurred at this time, estate records reveal a woodland management campaign was instigated to supply and maintain fuelwood supplies to the iron works at Rievaulx which coincides with the introduction of Tudor arboricultural legislation in the 1540s.     

Contexts for Conflict: Conceptual Tools for Interpreting Archaeological Reflections of Warfare

Abstract

There has been a long history of interest in the material remains of conflict, but in the last two and a half decades archaeologists have made strides in the study of war and warfare. Techniques have been developed, refined, and borrowed to expose the material record of combat. Sites associated with other military undertakings have been discovered and the material culture of conflict has been documented. This growth has expanded an understanding of past conflicts and challenged previously held ideas about warfare. Although archaeologists do not currently have interpretive frameworks to link the diverse sites and objects that form the archaeological record of war, modern military planners have developed such models. This paper uses sites from the North American Great Plains to suggest that military models of conflict analysis can contribute to a synthetic archaeological interpretation of conflict.     

Transformations: Post-Battle Processes on the Hürtgenwald Battlefield

Abstract

This paper uses the 1944 Hürtgenwald battlefield on the German-Belgian border as a case study to reflect upon two issues: what contributions to an understanding of post-battle transformations are made by an analysis of Second World War battlefields; and how an archaeological approach can help understand the Hürtgenwald battlefield. The analysis presented here discusses what actually happens with a modern battlefield after the killing is over and how such post-battle processes alter the way such a site is interpreted. In this respect, a battlefield from World War II reveals the transformations to which battlefields are subjected and provides a well-documented model case to study the effect of post-battle processes on conflict landscapes.     

EVALUATION OF THE APPLICABILITY OF CONVENTIONAL METHODS FOR THE CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF WATERLOGGED ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD

A series of 112 waterlogged archaeological wood samples of different provenances, wood species, burial times and states of preservation were analysed with the aim of assessing the validity (in terms of limits and reliability) of procedures conventionally used in the pulp and paper industry, to evaluate the state of preservation of decayed wood. In particular, the extent of any damage wrought on decayed wood tissue by the repetitive cycles that characterize these procedures was evaluated as a function of the degradation of the samples. The results indicated that standard methodologies give reliable measurements regardless of the extent of wood decay. However, it is essential to compare these data with those of non‐decayed wood that has been measured using the same procedures to take account of the errors that are inherent in these methodologies and that affect measurements.     

Crema Ware and Elite Power at Monte Albán: Ceramic Production and Iconography in the Oaxaca Valley,Mexico

Abstract

During the Terminal Formative, or Monte Albán II period (ca. 100 B.C.-A.D. 200), the Zapotec state was centered in the Oaxaca Valley, Mexico. Reassessment of ceramic data from excavations at the Zapotec capital of Monte Albán, in conjunction with data acquired from recent investigations at a secondary center (Cerro Tilcajete) and a tertiary center (Yaasuchi) in the Oaxaca Valley, sheds light on the production and distribution of elaborately decorated crema- (cream-) paste ceramics. This analysis suggests that such ceramics were produced at Monte Albán as prestige goods and distributed to local elites residing at administrative sites throughout the valley. The distribution of decorated crema vessels—and in particular, bowls bearing incised lightning motifs associated with the preeminent Zapotec deity, Cociyo—via gift-giving networks represented an attempt by elites at the capital to control local elites and integrate them into the regional sociopolitical hierarchy. Data from Cerro Tilcajete and Yaasuchi indicate that local elites at these centers acquired and used some crema vessels. These vessels were fewer in number and less varied than the cremas enjoyed by elites at the capital. Elites at Cerro Tilcajete and Yaasuchi apparently sponsored the local production of ceramics intended to imitate crema vessels. By supplementing the flow of true crema ceramics from Monte Albán, the production of local imitations would have subverted attempts by elites at the capital to control both the distribution of prestigious ceramics and the subordinate elites who desired them. This regional study of ceramics in the Oaxaca Valley illustrates the intersection of economy and ideology in state society, as well as the role that prestige goods can play in the creation and legitimization of—as well as resistance to—institutionalized sociopolitical difftrences.     

STAINING OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL GLASS FROM MANGANESE‐RICH ENVIRONMENTS*

It has been suggested that both internal and external sources of manganese may produce the black or brown staining that often occurs in buried archaeological glass. Modern potash glass of a manganese‐free medieval composition was scratched, etched and immersed in an aqueous solution containing dissolved manganese. After several weeks, immersion samples were sectioned and examined by SEM–EDX. Manganese was shown to be present in fissures and cracks within in the glass, where alkali had been depleted. Manganese from an external source is capable of blackening buried medieval potash glass.     

NEW EVIDENCE FOR EARLY SILK IN THE INDUS CIVILIZATION*

Silk is an important economic fibre, and is generally considered to have been the exclusive cultural heritage of China. Silk weaving is evident from the Shang period c. 1600–1045 bc , though the earliest evidence for silk textiles in ancient China may date to as much as a millennium earlier. Recent microscopic analysis of archaeological thread fragments found inside copper‐alloy ornaments from Harappa and steatite beads from Chanhu‐daro, two important Indus sites, have yielded silk fibres, dating to c. 2450–2000 bc . This study offers the earliest evidence in the world for any silk outside China, and is roughly contemporaneous with the earliest Chinese evidence for silk. This important new finding brings into question the traditional historical notion of sericulture as being an exclusively Chinese invention.