Geoarchaeological tsunami deposits at Palaikastro (Crete) and the Late Minoan IA eruption of Santorini

The explosive eruption at Santorini in the Aegean Sea during the second millennium BCE was the largest Holocene volcanic upheaval in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The eruption was disastrous for the Minoan settlements at Santorini, but the effect on human society in the neighbouring islands and regions is still clouded in uncertainty. Tsunami generation was suggested, but comparatively little evidence was found. The lack of firm tsunami traces is particularly puzzling in Crete with its coastal settlements of the Late Minoan IA period, during which the Santorini eruption occurred. Here, we report the discovery of extensive geoarchaeological tsunami deposits at Palaikastro in north-eastern Crete. These deposits are characterized by a mixture of geological materials, including volcanic Santorini ash, and archaeological settlement debris. Various tsunami signatures were identified: (1) erosional contact with the underlying strata, (2) volcanic ash intraclasts in the lower part of the deposit, (3) reworked building stone material in the lower part of the deposit, (4) individual marine shells, (5) marine micro-fauna, (6) imbrication of rounded beach pebbles, settlement debris, ceramic sherds and even bones, (7) multi-modal chaotic composition. Late Minoan human settlement activities at Palaikastro provided architectural and stratigraphic frameworks in space and time that recorded and preserved tsunami evidence as geoarchaeological deposits. Such stratigraphic resolution and preservation may not occur in the natural landscape. Volcanic ash transported by wind from Santorini south-east to Crete preceded the tsunami. Geological, archaeological and radiocarbon dating criteria all converge, indicating that the tsunami deposits are coeval with the Minoan Santorini eruption. Field evidence suggests that tsunami waves at Palaikastro were at least 9 m high. Inverse tsunami modeling was attempted, based on these newly discovered tsunamigenic deposits. The initial wave in the generation region at Santorini that best fits the stratigraphic data is a wave with +35 to −15 m initial amplitude and a crest length of about 15 km.     

关于地层堆积和灰坑的几个问题

本文详细探讨了地层堆积、灰坑和界面等遗迹现象的概念、形成过程、方式、年代,以及相应的考古发掘清理和记录方法。     

河南三门峡市后川战国车马坑发掘简报

2002年秋,三门峡市文物考古研究所配合城市基本建设在市区北部,原后川村西侧发掘出一座车马坑,发 现8马3车。根据车马坑形制及木车结构特征推测,该坑年代为战国早、中期。     

江苏镇江大港龙泉村西汉墓地发掘简报

2012年,镇江博物馆在镇江市大港镇龙泉村清理汉代土坑竖穴墓10座,出土器物类型以罐、盒、鼎、壶、瓿为主。从墓葬形制和随葬器物推测,墓葬时代应属于西汉中期。从墓葬的分布规律推测,该墓地应为一处家族墓地,家族内部又分为不同的家庭单位,墓葬之间的区别可能与墓主生活时代和社会地位的不同有关。这批墓葬的科学发掘,为研究镇江地区汉代丧葬制度提供了丰富的实物资料。     

六件宋代温州漆器成分结构及工艺剖析

为用现代化学分析手段来揭示古代漆器的髹漆工艺,对六件宋代温州漆器残片成分和髹漆工艺进行了分析。在利用现代化学分析方法,借助扫描电子显微镜、X-射线能谱仪、激光共聚焦拉曼光谱、红外光谱、X-射线粉末衍射、体视显微镜等对漆器残片漆膜成分展开分析。结果表明,红色漆膜的主要成分是朱砂(硫化汞),黑色漆膜的主要显色成分可能是炭黑;漆膜结构劣化降解明显,存在多种微缺陷;漆膜中成膜成分是生漆;截面分层明显;银扣漆器中的扣体成分是锡和二氧化锡的混合物而不是金属银,应命名为锡扣漆器;戗金和描金残片漆灰部分的X射线粉末衍射的分析结果表明漆灰层中有添加动物灰的做法。     

The first direct evidence of pre-columbian sources of palygorskite for Maya Blue

Maya Blue, a nano-structured clay–organic complex of palygorskite and indigo, was used predominantly before the Spanish Conquest. It has fascinated chemists, material scientists, archaeologists and art historians for decades because it is resistant to the effect of acids, alkalis, and other reagents, and its rich color has persisted for centuries in the harsh tropical climate of southern Mesoamerica. One of its components, palygorskite, is part of modern Maya indigenous knowledge, and ethnohistoric and archaeological data suggest that its modern sources were probably utilized in Prehispanic times. Yet no direct evidence verifies that palygorskite was actually mined from these sources to make Maya Blue. Here we characterize these sources compositionally, and compare our analyses to those of Maya Blue from Chichén Itzá and Palenque. We demonstrate that the palygorskite in most of these samples came from modern mines, providing the first direct evidence for the use of these sources for making Maya Blue. These findings reveal that modern Maya indigenous knowledge about palygorskite, its mining, and its source locations, is at least seven centuries old.     

The Dilmun temple on Failaka,Kuwait

The Kuwaiti‐Danish 2009 excavations on Failaka produced new evidence for the dating of the Dilmun temple in Tell F6. The affinities of this temple to the Barbar temples in Bahrain are emphasised, whereas the hypothesis of a Syrian‐inspired temple tower is questioned.     

“The Place of Solemne Prayer”: Intrasettlement Post-and-Trench Mortuary-Ritual Structures in the Precontact Era of Northern Ohio

ABSTRACT

Most traditional archaeological interpretations of life within late precontact period village sites in the Eastern Woodlands focus primarily on the domestic sphere or ritual activities associated solely with burial features. Yet, ethnohistorical studies reveal that both the domestic and ritual-ceremonial realms were tightly entangled in the lives of indigenous actors during the contact period. A recent reanalysis of a small enclosure and burial precinct at the White Fort site in northern Ohio presents new evidence of ceremonial use and reuse within a large habitation site during the late precontact period (ca. AD 1250–1400). Excavation data reveal how human interment, artifact caching, and layering of colored soils were incorporated in six pit burials arranged around a C-shaped post-and-ditch enclosure. The sequencing of interments and enclosure construction that composed this distinct area show that it served as a hub for burial and ritual behavior over multiple generations of seasonal village occupation.     

六朝武昌城试掘简报

六朝武昌城位于湖北省鄂州市区中部,长江南岸。2000年,为配合古城遗址保护规划的实施,我们对古城遗址的南城垣进行了首次发掘,同时发掘清理北宋墓葬10座,六朝早期古水井1座。通过此次发掘,弄清了城墙的结构和建筑方法。墓葬中出土了陶瓷器、铜器、银器和铜钱30余件(枚);古水井中出土遗物丰富,以陶瓷器为主,数量达100多件。古墓葬和古水井的发现,为了解研究六朝武昌城的发展历史,提供了新的实物资料。     

The composition of the soda-rich and mixed alkali plant ashes used in the production of glass

Soda-rich plant ashes have been used in the Near East and Egypt in the production of glass and faience from the 4th millennium BC onwards, and mixed alkali plant ashes have been similarly used in western Europe during the 2nd and first half of the 1st millennia BC. In the production of these ashes, the plants of interest are salt resistant, halophytic plants of the Chenopodiaceae family, growing in coastal, salt marsh and desert regions. A primary criterion in selecting ashes for glass and faience production is that the alkalis are predominantly in the form of carbonates, bicarbonates and hydroxides rather than either chlorides or sulphates. In the current paper, previously published data for such ashes are brought together and re-assessed, and new analytical data are presented for ashes produced from plants collected in Egypt, Greece and the UK. For the ashes produced from Salsola kali plants collected from Greece and the UK, the soda to potash ratios (0.3–1.8) do not show any systematic differences between the regions in which the plant was growing, but instead reflect the fact that this species favours the accumulation of K⁺ over Na⁺ ions. Further, the results suggest that S. kali could have been the source of the mixed alkali ashes used in western Europe, if the ashes had first been treated in some way in order to reduce their lime-plus-magnesia contents.