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.     

Crucibles of power: Forging copper and forging subjects at the Moche Ceremonial Center of Huaca Colorada,Peru

An analysis of copper production, architectural construction, and feasting rites as interrelated ritual activities at the Late Moche site of Huaca Colorada suggests that power asymmetries were embedded in a distinctive relational ontology and sacrificial worldview. Power was exercised not by alienating communities from their means of production or excluding the majority lower class from the diacritical symbols of power. Rather, the manufacture of copper items enabled subjects to directly contribute to Moche rites of regeneration and social reproduction; the skilled metamorphosis of copper into finished objects paralleled and symbolically reinforced the ritual re-formation of bodies and political subjectivities at Huaca Colorada. Ultimately, an examination of copper production at Huaca Colorada as a ritual of bodily transformation sheds light on the culturally specific structures of power characterizing the greater Jequetepeque region during the Late Moche Period.     

论《新安志补》的价值

明代方信撰修的《新安志补》,是一部特殊形态的方志,在方志史上有一定的地位。它收集保存了大量有用资料,并在资料剪裁、体例安排、建构类目等方面比较严谨,还有史料史实的钩沉考辨以及浓厚鲜明的修志观念,都决定了这部志补具有较高的学术和实用价值,反映出明代方志观念和体例上的新变化。     

隋唐舍利瘞埋制度的形成原因及特点

隋唐舍利瘞埋制度的形成原因:一是初唐以来释迦牟尼作为历史上真实存在过的圣者而被广为崇信,佛骨舍利建立了唐土信者和佛祖之间的直接联系;二是通过奉迎和供奉、瘗埋舍利表明帝王与佛陀之间的继承关系;三是唐代从对舍利塔的礼拜变为对舍利真身和舍利塔的双重礼拜。以法门寺舍利为中心的供奉活动由开启、供奉、瘞埋三个环节组成。舍利供奉高级化、公开化和制度化的特征导致了隋唐舍利瘞埋制度的形成。舍利瘞埋主要依据涅槃类经典,在瘞埋空间中体现释迦牟尼涅槃后遗体到舍利的过程和佛教的宇宙图像。瘞埋舍利时在地宫内外有僧俗信众参加的各种仪式。     

淮安楚州翔宇花园明清墓葬群发掘简报

淮安楚州翔宇花园明清墓葬群是一处大型的古代墓地,墓葬时代早晚不一,墓地中出现了排列有序、长幼关系清楚的明代家族墓。此批墓葬随葬器物丰富精美,时代特征明显,文化因素较为复杂,这对研究明清时期丧葬礼俗及淮安地方历史文化特别是明清时期历史具有重要的价值。     

楚文化中的动物符号和前宗教问题

张光直先生指出中国先秦化的基本框架属于“亚-美化连续体”。楚化中的巫术或仪式属“亚美-化连续体”中的萨满教范畴。本从动物符号与神话、动物符号与巫术和动物符号与萨满教三个方面论述楚化中没有图腾崇拜,楚人社会的萨满教只是一种世界性的普遍存在的前宗教现象。     

Ritual Brotherhood Across Frontiers in the Eastern Adriatic Hinterland,Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries

Ritual brotherhood, or pobratimstvo, is attested by a range of sources dealing with the Adriatic hinterland between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Read one way, pobratimstvo shows us a border society characterized by cohesion and tolerance, where Christian and Muslim frontiersmen find ways to overcome religious and political boundaries, recognizing their common interests and shared values. Read another way, however, the same institution (and sometimes even the same documents) also offers an insight into the persistence of frontier conflict and the pervasiveness of its violence, drawing attention to other, no less bloody divisions between predators and victims. In teasing out some of the possible meanings and uses of ritual sworn brotherhood on this early modern frontier, I attempt to give due weight to the complexities of a specific place and culture. But the problems highlighted by the institution of pobratimstvo are more widespread: the troubling ambiguities of friendship, with its quality of simultaneously including and excluding; the boundaries between affection and interest, or between camaraderie and desire; the obligations (and the potential resentment) conferred by gifts; the moral dilemmas posed by cross-cutting obligations.     

Construction,labor organization,and feasting during the Late Archaic Period in the Central Andes

Recent data from the site of Cerro Lampay, a Late Archaic Period compound in central Peru, sheds light on the role of ritual and architectural construction in the emergence of social complexity in the Central Andes. Excavations at this site have provided a detailed documentation of the building process that ended in the entombment of architectural compounds, including a remarkable sequence of construction events preceded by the processing and consumption of foodstuffs. There was not a single, large-scale construction event, but several small-scale events that were accompanied by consumption activities. This pattern strongly suggests a permanent reinforcement of ties and commitments through feasting, which was required in order to finish the construction process. This scenario supports the idea of emerging leadership capable of mobilizing labor for the construction requirements. Nevertheless, the reliance on feasting as ritual practices, and the small scale of these events, suggests a limited power capacity and a weakly formalized authority, which needed to be constantly reinforced through the inferred ritual practices.     

关于《新唐书》的书法问题

北宋中期,《新唐书》在宋祁、欧阳修的主持下,历十七年终于修成。然而人们对《新唐书》的批评很多,集中在书法问题上,包括史料的取舍、语言的采用、褒贬体例等。《新唐书》之所以在书法上出现这些问题,主要原因是修书组织存在重大缺陷,而且修史官员对春秋笔法理解方面有较大的差异,文人修史存在着如修史者的态度、主观好恶、修史风格等许多弊病。     

新邑考

作洛为周初大事 ,学者对这一重大史实的讨论至今尚未结束。《尚书》中的“周”即成周 ,作洛时成周业已存在 ,而周初的作洛 ,实际上是营建王城。周初殷民的迁徙实际上有前后两次 ,第一次是在成王三年践奄之后 ,第二次是在新邑即王城建成之时。