Analysis of faunal remains from the Kretuonas lake settlement

The Middle (Kretuonas 1B), Late Neolithic (Zemaitiške 1 and Zemaitiške 2) and Old Bronze Age (Kretuonas 1C) settlements near Kretuonas Lake (Svencioneliai district, Reskutenai village) yielded many artefacts of bone, antler, horn and teeth (750 in total). In the Kretuonas 1B assemblage, deer bones accounted for 50.5 per cent, elk bones 19.7 per cent and boar bones for 27.7 per cent of the total. In the Zemaitiške 1 and 2 settlements the respective portions were 27.7 and 62.0 per cent deer, 6.8 and 20.0 per cent elk and 10.1 per cent boar. In Kretuonas 1C the proportions were 10.9, 36.0 and 7.5 per cent respectively. In the Kretuonas 1B settlement 32 artefacts were identified, 16 from deer bone, four from elk and four from boar. In the Zemaitiške 2 settlement there were 114 artefacts of which 57 were identified to species. Of these, 39 were from deer, eight from elk and four from boar. Finally, in the Kretuonas 1C settlement, of the 531 artefacts found, 120 were identified to species and of these 49 were from deer, 44 from elk, nine from boar and nine from bear.     

考古学所见长江三峡夏商周时期的渔业生产

本通过对考古发现的长江三峡渔具和鱼类遗骸的统计分析,将该区域内夏商周时期的渔业生产分为东、西两大区域,并对两区的鱼具及鱼类进行归纳、分析和比较,指出研究先秦渔业,对认识三峡古代化、中国渔业史和鱼类生态,具有重要的意义。     

Soanian cores and core-tools from Toka,Northern India: Towards a new typo-technological organization

Since the initial ‘discovery’ and explanation of the Soanian industry by H. de Terra and T.T. Paterson in the 1930s, multiple interpretations have been offered by various investigators on its chronology, geographical distribution, relationship with the Acheulian, and technological progression. In most cases, the presence of explicit tool-types and the absence of Acheulian bifaces were the distinguishing features utilized to recognize the industry as well as delineate its technological development through time and space. However, in light of recent intra-regional geoarchaeological investigations and the analyses of a large surface assemblage by the author, the existing framework for Soanian typology is in need of judicious revision. In this paper, some of the methodological and interpretative problems are briefly discussed from a historical perspective and the technological organization of cores and core-based tools from Toka, a rich factory site, is described. Essentially, the Toka assemblage comprises a dynamic range of non-biface tool-types on quartzite, which possess varying patterns of core reduction techniques, edge retouch, and associated use-wear. The study also introduces a modified typological classification of specific chopper morphologies, which may be broadly applicable in global context.     

Relative frequency of butchering cutmarks produced by obsidian and flint: an experimental approach

An experimental approach was used to determine how stone tool materials affect the frequency of observed cutmarks. Five whitetail deer were butchered by an expert butcher using flint and obsidian tools and the skeletons were prepared and analyzed. The authors found that the deer butchered with obsidian tools generally displayed fewer incidents of cutmarks than their flint-butchered counterparts. Consideration of this variable may prove to be important to archaeologists attempting to answer questions of specialization or when making comparisons of cutmark data between sites.     

新空间 新网络 新角色——博客对海外新移民与中国互动的影响

以新兴的网络传播手段——博客作为切入点,分析了海外华人新移民博客社区的种类和组织形态;阐述了海外华人新移民通过博客与中国社会互动的意义、方式及影响。通过博客这一新的互动工具和平台,海外新移民可更加直接而生动地了解中国变化,了解中国人的最新思维、心态和社会变迁;拓宽自身更大的社会交往空间、话语渠道、传播途径和社会影响;与中国原住地的原有关系保持思想上的无边界的联系,甚至参与中国的改变进程。     

An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Hafting and Stone Tool Diversity among the Gamo of Ethiopia

The significance of flaked stone tool variation has been a source of great archaeological debate for over 100 years. Even though evidence for stone tool hafting exists as far back as the Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age, there is a dearth of information concerning how hafting affects stone tool technology. This ethnoarchaeological study of hafted stone scrapers among the Gamo of southern Ethiopia examines why a single cultural group utilizes two different hafts, which generate different lithic morphologies, technologies, and spatial distributions. The relationships between history, environment, and social group membership are explored to demonstrate how these associations create variation in technological practices.

The technology of Stone Age colonization: an empirical,regional-scale examination of Clovis unifacial stone tool reduction,allometry, and edge angle from the North American Lower Great Lakes region

There is now broad consensus that the appearance of Clovis in Northeastern North America (Great Lakes, New England) represents a colonization pulse into recently deglaciated landscapes. Due to the increased resource uncertainty that comes with colonizing unfamiliar landscapes, it was hypothesized that the majority tool component of Clovis assemblages, unifacial stone tools, should have been knapped on tool blanks possessing the design properties of longevity and functional flexibility to facilitate exploration mobility and guard against the absence of toolstone sources in the new landscape. These properties are optimized by large, flat flakes, possessing large surface area relative to flake thickness. Since discarded and, at times, exhausted unifacial stone tools do not preserve the original dimensions of the blank upon which they were created – necessary items for a true test of blank morphology selection – this study presents a set of predictions for inferring whether Clovis unifacial stone tool blanks were selected for the properties of longevity and functional flexibility based on evidence that Clovis people actually capitalized on those properties. Due to the nature of Clovis unifacial stone tools, tool size was of necessity used as a proxy for tool reduction, on the grounds that smaller tools are more likely to have been resharpened than larger tools, at least in the case of unifacial flake tools. The results showed that less resharpened tools possessed flatter, less spherical shapes than the more resharpened tools, which possessed more globular, spherical shapes, suggesting Clovis foragers exploited the retouch potential afforded by the larger, flatter blanks. Edge angles showed no relationship with tool reduction, suggesting that Clovis foragers exploited the functional flexibility afforded by flatter blanks by adjusting the edge angle to be either higher or lower as needed. These results are consistent with the notion that human colonizers, who did not know the abundance or location of stone outcrops prior to settling an unfamiliar territory, not only “geared up” before leaving a stone source, but geared up as efficiently as possible by carefully selecting the blanks they chose to carry. Broader implications for such careful unifacial stone tool blank selection are discussed.