Vein quartz in lithic traditions: an analysis based on experimental archaeology

Worldwide, vein quartz was a commonly used raw material for stone tools but this material has proved difficult for archaeologists to analyse because many quartz assemblages appear to be comprised of amorphous pieces, not easily recognised as humanly modified or forming ‘tools’. This paper discusses the analysis of the debitage – focusing on the debitage fragmentation rate, the debitage, break, and fragment types, and the quantitative analysis of the complete flakes – resulting from experimental knapping of quartz, which formed part of a project which investigated the use of quartz in Irish prehistoric lithic traditions. The results have highlighted the complexity involved in analysing quartz assemblages, and the significant differences between the debitage products of quartz and chert knapping assemblages. While bipolar knapping is generally easy to differentiate from direct percussion, it is harder to differentiate between soft and hard hammer percussion.     

When do Citizens Demand Punishment of Corruption?

Under what conditions do citizens demand punishment of corrupt government officials or actions? Citizens' demands complement and motivate government actions. Studies suggest, however, that citizens' demands are weak and not credible. This paper considers that credible demands are the outcomes of strategic interaction between citizen groups. The results from experimental surveys in Australia and the United States show citizens' demands are credible across various conditions, including size of participants or groups, and regardless of whether they suffer losses from corruption, or whether other participants suffer losses from corruption. This paper makes three contributions. Firstly, it delineates a theoretical model that predicts concerted action. This is a useful alternative to extant treatments that generally report outcomes where coordination problems and free-ridership undermine citizens' concerted action and credibility. Secondly, experimental results clarify several conditions under which citizens' demands are credible, that is, when citizens act in concert to demand punishment. Thirdly, the consistent results across Australia and the US where individualism is high provide useful baselines for further studies.

公民们在什么情况下会要求惩治腐败的政府官员和腐败行为？研究证明,公民的要求虚弱而不可靠。本文认为可靠的要求来自公民群体间的战略互动。澳大利亚和美国的实验调查表明,公民的要求可靠与否取决于诸如参与者或群体规模等条件,而不论他们是否从腐败中受损,或别人是否从腐败中受损。本文有以下三点贡献。第一,勾画了预测腐败的模型。目前的方法报告了协调问题和免费搭车消弱公民协调行动和工信度的结果。该模型可为替代方法。第二,实验结果表明在一些情况下公民的要求是可靠的,那就是,当公民协调一致要求惩治腐败的时候。第三,个人主义发达的澳大利亚和美国的调查结果可以成为进一步研究的基点。     

Morphometric Analysis of Camelid Remains from the Alero Deodoro Roca (ADR) Site (Córdoba,Argentina). An Attempt to Characterise Body‐Size Variability in Sierras Pampeanas Australes Region

This paper focuses in the morphometric analyses of Lama guanicoe remains recovered from the hunter–gatherer archaeological site Alero Deodoro Roca, located at Sierras Pampeanas Australes region (Córdoba Argentina), an area that has little information on the body‐size variability of these artiodactyls. Because of the sparse osteometric data in the region, we focused on determining inter‐intraspecific differentiation of wild camelids through corroborated osteometric techniques and multivariate statistical analyses of proximal phalanges. Our results showed a clear interspecific differentiation between modern vicuñas and archaeological specimens. We could also distinguish at least three guanaco size groups (small, medium and large) with the archaeological remains from the late Holocene (3000–3600 bp ) of the site, presenting medium‐size characteristics. Finally this paper aims at establishing a first approach in the characterisation of guanaco body size in the mountainous region of Córdoba. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Natron as a flux in the early vitreous materials industry: sources,beginnings and reasons for decline

Natron deposits, the best known of which being those at Wadi Natrun in Egypt, have been used as the flux in the production of vitreous materials from the early 4th millennium BC onwards. In the present paper, the history of the use of natron as a flux is traced from its beginnings in the glaze of Badarian steatite beads, through its use in glass production starting in the 1st millennium BC, until its apparent shortage during the 7th to 9th centuries AD, and its subsequent replacement by plant ash during the 9th century AD. Documentary evidence for possible natron sources in Egypt, including the Wadi Natrun, and around the eastern Mediterranean is summarised, and the results of recent fieldwork at the Wadi Natrun and at al-Barnuj in the Western Nile Delta are presented. The possible reasons for the apparent shortage of natron from 7th to 9th centuries AD and its subsequent replacement by plant ash as the flux used in glass production during the 9th century AD are then considered. These include the possibility that, because of the massive scale of glass production, the demand for natron exceeded its supply; the possible effect of climatic changes; and the potentially disruptive role of political events in the Wadi Natrun–Delta region.     

Non-ferrous metallurgy from the Phoenician site of La Fonteta (Alicante, Spain): a study of provenance

The lead isotope composition of 22 samples from the excavation of the Phoenician site of La Fonteta (Guardamar del Segura, Alicante, Spain) has been analysed in a preliminary study of their provenance. These materials span chronologically from the first half of the 8th century BC to the middle of the 6th century BC.The samples have been selected to include materials used in lead and silver production, as well as in copper-based metallurgy. Therefore, lead droplets, galena nodules and fragments of litharge have been analysed, together with a fragment of a copper ingot, an object, a melting waste composed of a Cu–Pb alloy, and two fragments of a material that we have provisionally labelled ‘Pb–Cu cupellation debris’.All these materials have been initially analysed by X-Ray Fluorescence-Spectrometry to identify their bulk compositions. Some of them have been also analysed by SEM–EDX and ICP–OES. Subsequently, lead isotope analyses (LIA) have been performed using Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (TIMS). The new LIA data obtained has been compared with published lead isotope data from the Mediterranean area. The identification of different groups suggests a significant complexity of the internal and external trade routes during the Orientalising period. For this reason, the provenance study of these materials is especially important in shedding light on the commercial dynamics that the Phoenicians established with native people to control the raw materials and to commercialise finished products.     

Obsidian from Pulo di Molfetta (Bari,Southern Italy): provenance from Lipari and first recognition of a Neolithic sample from Monte Arci (Sardinia)

Twenty-four obsidian artefacts of the Neolithic Age were found at the large karstic doline of Molfetta (near Bari) along the Southern Italian Adriatic coast. Non-destructive chemical analyses of the glass, by SEM-EDS, allowed their source rock regions to be determined. Twenty-three of the studied artefacts had been traded from the island of Lipari. Only one sample had a glass composition and microphenocrysts (biotite, pyroxene and feldspar) that indicate provenance from the Monte Arci area of Sardinia, in particular from the Perdas Urias (SC) outcrops. The attribution of this artefact to Sardinia enlarges the geographical pattern of Monte Arci obsidian exploitation and distribution from island to Southern Italy during the Middle to Late Neolithic.     

Bulk stable carbon and deuterium isotope analyses of bitumen artifacts from Hacinebi Tepe, Turkey: reconstructing broad economic patterns of the Uruk expansion

This research addresses issue of inter-regional trade for the world's first colonial trading system, the economic expansion of state societies from southern Mesopotamia into southwest Iran and southeast Anatolia, through the use of stable carbon and deuterium isotope analyses of bitumen artifacts. The key goal of the project was to get beyond simply the identification of trade (Schwartz, M., Hollander, D., Stein, G., 1999. Paléorient 25 (1), 67–82) and examine broad regional patterns in the exchange system. To this end, the methodological approach of this research was focused on the reconstruction of general exchange patterns using a large sample set. The results of these analyses suggest the utility of bulk isotopic analyses in the identification of broad regional patterns, serving as a complement to detailed isotopic and molecular work on asphaltene extractions of bitumen (Connan, J., Nishiaki, Y., 2003. Vol. II: Chalcolithic Technology and Subsistence. The University Museum – The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, pp. 283–306). Some of the data indicate changes in the organization of trade at the site of Hacinebi in southeast Turkey and suggest large economic changes in Anatolia associated with the Uruk expansion.     

French Decorative Ceramics Mass‐Produced During and After the 17th Century: Chemical Analyses of the Glazes

Chemical analyses of a group of Pb silicate–glazed decorative objets d'art showing scenes of the French royal family (Louis XIII and Henri IV), and biblical and classical figures, have been analysed and compared with other similar heritage ceramics and with the rustiques figulines of Bernard Palissy (1510–90) and his followers and imitators. In particular, non‐destructive ion‐beam chemical analyses (PIXE and PIGE) have been performed on 11 ceramic artefacts from the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) and a like number from several French museums; results for 13 objects are described in detail in this paper. SEM–EDX has been performed on chips (‘microsamples’) taken from small unobtrusive defective regions on the CMA ceramics. The results of the ion‐beam and SEM–EDX techniques are in good agreement. All the decorative ceramics included uniform non‐opacified glazes. None of these objects can be of 16th century production; all must date from the 17th to the 19th centuries.     

Neolithic fish remains from the freshwater shell midden Riņņukalns in northern Latvia

The Neolithic site Ri??ukalns in the Lake Burtnieks/River Salaca area in northern Latvia is the only freshwater shell midden in the eastern Baltic Sea area. An excavation carried out in 2011 revealed an intact stratigraphy with alternating layers of unburnt and burnt mussel shells and yielded various kinds of archaeological finds, among them several thousand fish remains. To gain an understanding of the fish species and specimens caught by the Neolithic settlers, and to discern any temporal development in the fish species composition, we analysed fish remains from different sections and layers. Results from both the archaeozoological and stable isotope data, give evidence for a change in the relevance of fish species during the period of use, and they also provide information for reconstructing the former river and lake hydrology in the vicinity of the midden. The Stone Age landscape seems to have been very similar to the present situation, so that the study area has been an extraordinarily stable ecosystem for more than 5000 years. Comparisons with the results of recent monitoring programmes, long-term changes since Medieval times, and written sources from the 18th century, show that the fish species community is almost unchanged since the Stone Age. This underlines the importance of the region in nature conservation.     

Ceramic Technology And Resource Use During The Early Neolithic In Central‐Southern Portugal

Petrographic analysis of 49 sediments and 63 Neolithic ceramics from eight sites of Estremadura and six sites of the Algarve of central and southern Portugal, respectively, discerned distinct production technologies for each area. Raw materials available near archaeological sites were utilized. Fabrics that do not correspond to regionally available materials, however, indicate imports or migration. This suggests the existence of bidirectional maritime routes rather than south–north only, as predicted in current models of the neolithization of coastal Portugal. Seven ceramics and seven sediments were selected for elemental analysis. The results supported the patterns in the petrographic analysis.