Necropoli of Pill'e Matta Quartucciu (Cagliari,Sardinia): wild bee and solitary wasp activity and bone diagenetic factors

During the excavation at the necropolis and the laboratory studies, a variety of damage was found in the human bone remains. This damage included round holes, irregular bone destruction and irregular etching. This can be found especially in the skulls and in the long bones, and sometimes in the vertebrae and on the hands and feet. The exceptionality of this demanded meticulous study in order to define whether it was a diagenetic phenomenon of biological origin. Further studies revealed that the damage to the bones was produced by three kinds of Hymenoptera that build galleries: one of these belongs to the Sphecidae family, the other two to the Halictidae family. During the excavation of a grave it had been observed that a Halictidae had invaded the burial context and consequently contributed to the taphonomic and diagenetic process. The laboratory activities were directed towards the measurement of the damage to the human bone remains in 45 tombs. A histogram shows that the holes are not the result of accidental lesions, and the more frequent percentage values show similarities with the dimensions of holes built by the insects. The observations and the results of the study at the archaeological site enabled me to establish how significant the role of the insects had been, in particular of the Hymenoptera, in modifying the condition of the bone remains. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Food for eternity? The analysis of a date offering from a 3rd millennium BC grave at Hili N,Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)

Ever since the early 3rd millennium BC the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) has played an important role in eastern Arabia where its remains, in the form of seeds, fruits and stem fragments, are preserved on numerous archaeological sites. The recent discovery of a carbonised mass of pitted dates in a collective burial pit from the end of the Umm an-Nar period (ca. 2200–2000 BC) at Hili (United Arab Emirates) constitutes the earliest example of a food preparation involving this species. The present paper describes the discovery and identification of this unique offering before addressing the question of its significance in a funeral context in Bronze Age Arabia.     

The decline of Magan and the rise of Dilmun: Umm an-Nar ceramics from the burial mounds of Bahrain, c.2250–2000 BC

This article outlines some general aspects of the Magan and Dilmun trade and goes on to examine the Umm an-Nar pottery discovered in the tombs of the Early Dilmun burial mounds of Bahrain. These ceramics are of particular interest because they indirectly testify to Dilmun's contact with Magan in the late third millennium. In this article, thirty vessels of seven morphological types are singled out. By comparison with the material published from the Oman peninsula the Bahrain collection is tentatively dated to c. 2250–2000 BC. The location of the Umm an-Nar pottery within the distribution of burial mounds reveals that its import was strongly associated with the scattered mounds of Early Type. It is demonstrated that the frequency of Umm an-Nar pottery declined just as the ten compact cemeteries emerged c. 2050 BC. The observed patterns are seen as a response to the decline of Magan and the rise of Dilmun.     

灵井遗址动物群埋藏学研究方法与思路

灵井遗址是国内首次发掘的以泉水湖泊沉积为中心的旧石器时代遗址,从2005年至今一直进行野外发掘,出土有大量旧石器时代的动物化石和石制品,本文的内容是遗址动物群埋藏学研究的方法和思路,并通过本文模式的研究,以期待能够在静态的物质遗存中发现动态的人类行为的线索,从人与环境的相互关系中,认识人类进化和行为演化乃至技术进步的动因.     

The Tune Viking Ship Reconsidered

The Tune Viking ship has been a riddle for more than 150 years, since being found within a burial in the Oslo fjord area in 1867. It was long thought that the ship's freeboard was too low for it to have crossed the North Sea. Advances in documentation methods and a detailed study of the preserved parts of the ship have provided new data, and this article outlines a new proposal for how the ship looked when it was built in the early 10th century AD. The Tune ship is reinterpreted as a seagoing vessel, in no way inferior to the Oseberg or Gokstad Viking ships.     

北魏墓室所见孝子画像与“东园”探考

本文主要就北魏墓室所见孝子画像与“东园”及“东园秘器”的关系作了探究。“东园”是北魏沿袭汉晋传统设立的专司皇室及贵族丧葬事宜的最高机构,由其制作的秘器称“东园秘器”,北魏时期对之多有赏赐,见诸文献者共计36件。“东园”对平城与洛阳两地的丧葬观念及葬具制作具有重要影响。司马金龙漆围屏是平城“东园”的遗物,元谧石棺、洛阳古代艺术馆藏升仙石棺为洛地“东园”的遗品,宁懋石室、固原漆棺的制作与图像刻画则受到了“东园”的影响,卢氏石围屏及其他几件刻画有孝子图的葬具也可能出自“东园”或与之存在联系。“东园”在北魏迁洛后续纳晋及南朝早期绘画传统,同时融汇部分佛教与袄教内容,在平城“东园”传统的基础上发展出包蕴多种文化因素的葬具图像,其中既有传统的升仙题材,也有儒家的孝子及佛教的摩尼宝珠等。在众多画像题材中,孝子仅为其中的一部分,它或者相对独立,或者与其他画像组合,形成两种不同的图像形式,且并不因墓主身份的贵贱而有高下之别或专属某一社会阶层。     

Between rocks and a hard place: prehistoric funerary practices at Wādī Ḍebayʿān,northern Qatar

Archaeological survey by the Qatar National Historic Environment Record Project (QNHER) in 2009, led to the discovery of a Neolithic flint scatter, a settlement and an ancient, raised shoreline associated with higher, mid‐Holocene sea levels at Wādī ?ebay?ān, north‐western Qatar (Al‐Naimi et al. 2010, 2011; Cuttler, Tetlow & Al‐Naimi 2011). The QNHER project is a collaboration between Qatar Museums and the University of Birmingham, which over the past five years has developed a national geospatial database for the recording of archaeological sites and historic monuments in Qatar. A significant aspect of the project involved archaeological survey and excavation in advance of major construction projects. Between 2012 and 2014 excavations at Wādī ?ebay?ān revealed a burial of a typology previously unknown in Qatar, the unmarked graves (Cuttler, Al‐Naimi & Tetlow 2013).     

A Royal Boat Burial and Watercraft Tableau of Egypt's 12th Dynasty (c.1850 BCE) at South Abydos

Excavations at Abydos, Egypt, during 2014–2016 have revealed the remains of a boat burial dating to the reign of Senwosret III (c.1850 BCE). The boat burial occurred inside a specially prepared, subterranean vaulted building. Surviving elements of planking appear to derive from a nearly 20 m‐long boat that was buried intact but later dismantled for reuse of the wood. The vessel may belong to a group of royal funerary boats associated with the nearby tomb of Senwosret III. Incised on to the interior walls of the boat building is an extensive tableau including 120 surviving drawings of pharaonic watercraft. A unique deposit of pottery vessels was found associated with the ceremonial burial of this royal boat.     

HISTORY AND ITS DEAD

Thomas Laqueur has brought together half a century of research on modern European mortuary culture into an impressive narrative of how the Christian churchyard was replaced by the modern cemetery, how interment was partly replaced by the technology of cremation, and how writing and preserving the names of the dead coincided with democratization and social reform. Beyond the grand narrative of the history of modern burial, he also shows how the modern culture of history and memory is intertwined with the transformation of mortuary practices. On a deeper level, he points toward new ways of conceptualizing the relation between the living and the dead, leading up toward, if not fully confronting, the challenge that propels his own endeavor, namely the existential‐ontological predicament of living after those who have been and the nature of spectrality.     

湖北荆门十里铺土公台西汉墓发掘简报

土公台墓地位于荆门市沙洋县十里铺镇王场村八组一南北向的岗地上。为配合襄荆高速公路建设,湖北省文物考古研究所会同荆门市博物馆,在此共发掘西汉中晚期墓葬21座,出土了一批西汉时期文物,为研究该地区的汉代墓葬提供了新材料。