Skill Matters

Skill is a challenging topic for archeologists because it requires balancing the biases of cultural relativity with the commonsense understanding that some humans are more able than others. Using the content and results model of technology, this paper identifies skill as a variable of technological knowledge with recognizable material results. Late Paleolithic Japanese blade and microblade assemblages suggest that skill differentials exist on the cognitive, operational, and motor levels. These examples, together with ethnoarcheological consideration of modern potters suggest material reflections of technical skill. These include regularity in performance and product, skilled tools, and obvious signs of practice.     

清代川东道的辖区与职能演变——兼论地方行政制度中道的性质

川东道是解读清代地方行政制度的典型范本。通过考察,再次证明了道由一种临时性的藩臬二司派出机构,逐渐演变成有固定辖区和治所的府以上省以下的地方行政区划和机构。因应时变、灵活性和敏感性,使得川东道在晚清被附加了很多原本不相关的职能。尽管它本身不是一个完全近代化的职官,但由于府以上省以下的空隙过大,这种中层地方机构,在中国历史上始终是需要的。     

Integrating archaeology,archaeometry and geology: local production technology and imports at Paola (Cosenza,Southern Italy)

This paper documents a comprehensive study of coarse wares for table use, serving, washing and cooking, found at the archaeological site of Paola (Cosenza, southern Italy). Major aims of the study were to group local products and imports and to determine technological features of local products. Results were obtained through a combination of archaeological (stratigraphy and ceramic typology), chemical and mineralogical–petrographical techniques (ICP-OES, ICP-MS, INAA, XRF, OM, SEM-EDS and EMPA). Data integration revealed that the coarse wares found at Paola were produced locally or imported over short (Calabria region), medium (Campania, Pantelleria, Sicily) and long distances (Greece and Africa). The local production focused on basins, stewpots, pitchers, bowls, pans, casseroles and lids, sometimes imitating African, or Pompei (Campania) or San Foca (Puglia) typical shapes. The production technology of local ceramics used a sandy–clayey blend of materials collected in the immediate vicinity of the archaeological site, fired at intermediate (about 800 °C) to low (around 650–750 °C) temperatures and used a Fe-rich clayey compound as a red ceramic coating. From a technological perspective, the Paola example arise new questions about table wares produced with clay bodies typical of cooking wares.     

Pliny the Elder and Sr–Nd isotopes: tracing the provenance of raw materials for Roman glass production

In Roman and Byzantine times, natron glass was traded throughout the known world in the form of chunks. Production centers of such raw glass, active from the 4th to 8th century AD, were identified in Egypt and Syro-Palestine. However, early Roman primary glass units remain unknown from excavation or scientific analysis. The ancient author Pliny described in 70 AD that besides Egyptian and Levantine resources, also raw materials from Italy and the Gallic and Spanish provinces were used in glass making. In this study, the primary provenance of 1st–3rd century AD natron vessel glass is investigated. The use of combined Sr and Nd isotopic analysis allows the distinguishing and characterizing of different sand raw materials used for primary glass production. The isotope data obtained from the glass samples are compared to the signatures of primary glass from known production centers in the eastern Mediterranean and a number of sand samples from the regions described by Pliny the Elder as possible sources of primary glass. Eastern Mediterranean primary glass has a Nile dominated Mediterranean Nd signature (higher than −6.0 ? Nd), while glass with a primary production location in the western Mediterranean or north-western Europe should have a different Nd signature (lower than −7.0 ? Nd). Most Roman glass has a homogeneous ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr signature close to the modern sea water composition, likely caused by the (intentional) use of shell as glass raw material. In this way, strontium and neodymium isotopes now prove that Pliny's writings were correct: primary glass production was not exclusive to the Levant or Egypt in early Roman days, and factories of raw glass in the Western Roman Empire will have been at play.     

How the Olmec used bitumen in ancient Mesoamerica

Bitumen, found in abundance in Mesoamerica’s southern Gulf Coast region in natural seeps and in many archeological contexts, is an important economic resource and exchange item that has received little consideration in Mesoamerica. Analyses of archeological, ethnoarcheological, and experimental data provide insights on the organization of bitumen processing activities, and the end product (archeological bitumen), which the Olmec (1200–400 BC) used in the production of many items. Archeological data are derived from investigations at El Remolino and Paso los Ortices— two Early Formative period levee sites in the San Lorenzo Olmec region. Our findings suggest that among the Olmec, bitumen processing was organized as a specialized activity, involving multiple production stages, but not necessarily elite involvement or control.     

试述汉代官营手工业中的商品生产

汉代官营手工业主要是统治为满足自身需要而组织的生产形式,由于商品经济的影响,官营手工业也部分从事商品性生产。两汉官营手工业中的商品性生产,是商品生产的一种畸形化,严重阻碍了商品经济的发展。     

Recent Research on Chaco: Changing Views on Economy, Ritual, and Society

Current research on Chaco Canyon and its surrounding outlier communities is at an important juncture. Rather than trying to argue for the presence or absence of complexity, archaeologists working in the area are asking different questions, especially how Chacoan political, economic, ritual, and social organization were structured. These lines of inquiry do not attempt to pigeonhole Chaco into traditional neoevolutionary types, but instead seek to understand the historical trajectory that led to the construction of monumental architecture in Chaco Canyon and a large part of the northern Southwest in the 10th through 12th centuries. This review discusses the conclusions of current research at Chaco including definitions of the Chaco region, recent fieldwork, histories of Chaco archaeology, chronology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, demography, political organization, outlier communities, economic organization, social organization, ritual, violence, and the post-Chacoan reorganization. Although many issues are hotly debated, there is a growing concensus that power was not based in a centralized political organization and that ritual organization was a key factor in the replication of Chacoan architecture across a vast regional landscape. Exactly how ritual, social, and political organization intersected is a central question for Chaco scholars. The resolution of this problem will prove to be of interest to all archaeologists working with intermediate societies across the globe.     

从若干项文物科技成果看我国文物保护技术的发展

20世纪末,我国的物保护科学技术基本形成了具有中国特色的完整的科学体系。在石质物、金属物、纸张物、竹木漆器物、壁画物、石窟物等的保护技术方面取得了多项科研成果,并且达到或接近世界先进水平,使我国许多珍贵的化遗产得到了抢救和有效地保护。     

宋代审计三论

宋代发明并使用了审计一词,但在审计实践中使用最为广泛的则是与审计密切相关的审磨、磨勘、点检等词语,这说明宋代对审计的界定既较为科学,又不够彻底。宋代在中央和地方设立了较为专门而具体的审计机构。这是审计发展的重要标志。但缺乏真正独立的审计机构及其体系。宋代通过不断的审计实践和立法,逐步形成和完善了审计的反应、制约、奖惩机制,一定程度上保证了审汁机构的正常运行,但其作用在不同的时期又是有所区别的。     

城镇化对农业农村的多维度影响——基于省际面板数据实证研究

基于面板数据，从综合系统-子系统-要素等三方面定量测度省域人口、土地与产业城镇化对农业农村发展的影响程度，深入剖析城镇化不同要素对农业与农村系统发展的作用机理。研究结果表明：①人口城镇化与产业城镇化对农业农村的影响更加明显，对农村生活系统影响的弹性系数大于1的地区比重分别为58.06%和64.52%；土地与产业城镇化对农业生产系统产生负向影响较为明显，弹性系数小于0的地区比重分别为29.03%和38.71%；②城镇化率、产业结构和建成区比重对人均耕地面积、乡村劳动力比重和人均粮食产量呈显著负相关，与农民人均纯收入、人均农业产值和单位面积机械动力呈显著正相关；③通过深入分析近30年省域城镇化对各地区农业农村发展的作用机理，对于新时期新型城镇化、农业农村转型发展等战略的贯彻落实具有重大的现实意义。