More than Meets the Eye: A Preliminary Report on Artifacts from the Sediment of Site 31CR314, Queen Anne's Revenge,An Eighteenth-century Shipwreck Off Beaufort Inlet,North Carolina

The excavation of 31CR314, an eighteenth-century shipwreck identified by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources as Queen Anne's Revenge, off Beaufort, North Carolina, produced innumerable small artifacts from the sediment. In addition to objects of metal, glass, lithics, wood, and bone, thousands of microartifacts were recovered from the dredge spoil using a sluice and screen system. These microartifacts provide another layer of evidence, corroborating the current hypotheses regarding site formation processes, namely that the site represents a grounded vessel exposed to repeated periods of scour and reburial over nearly 300 years. The evidence provides a model for the formation of shipwreck sites in similar dynamic sand bar environments, where such sites would be exposed to the filtering of light artifacts, and the potential downward migration of artifacts into the substrate. Work at the site has shown that the extricating microartifacts from the sediment, although time-consuming, can make a significant contribution to understanding site formation processes.     

The correlation of surface and subsurface artifacts: A test case from Late and Terminal Classic Popola,Yucatan, Mexico

Abstract

Surface collections are commonly used by archaeologists to sample artifact assemblages, but the correlation of surface and subsurface artifacts is not fully understood. Cultural, taphonomic, and research-design factors that can affect the relationship of surface and subsurface deposits are reviewed and the correlation of surface and subsurface deposits is tested statistically with data from the site of Popola, Yucatan, Mexico, a Late and Terminal Classic period (a.d. 600–1100) village in the northern Maya lowlands. This study suggests that surface artifact density is not correlated with subsurface artifact density. Large-scale surface collections can characterize the overall assemblage of a site, but not any small area in particular. In shallow bioturbated soils there is no significant variation between surface and subsurface assemblages at any depth. Surface artifacts may be used to identify the presence of subsurface artifacts, but should not be used to suggest their absence.     

CULTURAL HERITAGE BETWEEN CENTRALISATION AND DECENTRALISATION

Management of Italy's heritage has been in increasing turmoil since 1993. This paper identifies and reviews significant reform attempts, including outsourcing, devolution, managerialism and privatisation. The authors propose a framework for improved understanding of the various solutions examined – distinguishing between professional and organisational centralisation. It is argued that while decentralised organisational management can have positive effects, effective protection of heritage in Italy over the centuries has depended on a complex set of rules concerning stewardship and protection, relying upon centralised professional control. This still has positive value and needs to be preserved through the reform process.     

The great plains of the Central United States

Preliminary results from the Tanzanian census of 1988 are examined against the background of two decades of policies attempting to influence the distribution of population within the country. The overall rate of population increase has slowed down, as has the rate of urban population growth. However, the latter is very powerfully influenced by a significant reduction in the rate of growth in Dar es Salaam. Elsewhere, urban areas continue to grow very rapidly. Along with this pattern of population concentration, a degree of population dispersal is also evident, as a number of formerly lightly populated areas have recorded large percentage increases in population. A major cause for concern is that many of these areas have demonstrated various aspects of environmental degradation for some time. It is concluded that spatial planning policies have had only a limited impact upon the regional distribution of population in Tanzania in the 1978–88 period, and that ‘spontaneous’ processes have been far more significant.     

Mano size,stable carbon isotope ratios,and macrobotanical remains as multiple lines of evidence of maize dependence in the American southwest

While the level of agricultural dependence affects many aspects of human adaptation, estimating levels of dependence on maize through traditional archaeological techniques is problematic. Here we compare various measurements of manos (e.g., grinding surface area), macrobotanical evidence of maize use, and human collagen stable carbon isotope values from six regions of the American Southwest, encompassing 16 phases, as a means of assessing the power and limits of each approach for considering agricultural dependence. The analysis of each data class is considered separately, taking into account formation processes and arguments linking data and inferences. Correlations among the three data classes suggest that mano area and maize ubiquity can be considered ordinal measures of agricultural dependence, but Southwestern stable carbon isotope data have the analytical potential only to discriminate between little or no maize use and substantial maize use. The formation processes and linking arguments associated with each method must be considered when multiple lines of evidence are integrated in order to make sound behavioral inferences. Our results suggest that there were at least three patterns in the adoption of farming in the Southwest: early substantial use followed by continuous increasing maize dependence, initial intensive dependence with little change in later periods, and a long period of minor use followed by substantial dependence.     

The accumulation of stochastic copying errors causes drift in culturally transmitted technologies: Quantifying Clovis evolutionary dynamics

The archaeological record is the empirical record of human cultural evolution. By measuring rates of change in archaeological data through time and space it is possible to estimate both the various evolutionary mechanisms that contribute to the generation of archaeological variation, and the social learning rules involved in the transmission of cultural information. Here we show that the recently proposed accumulated copying error model [Eerkens, J.W., Lipo, C.P., 2005. Cultural transmission, copying errors, and the generation of variation in material culture and the archaeological record. Journal of Anthropology archaeology 24, 316–334.] provides a rich, quantitative framework with which to model the cultural transmission of quantitative data. Using analytical arguments, we find that the accumulated copying error model predicts negative drift in quantitative data due to the proportional nature of compounded copying errors (i.e., neutral mutations), and the multiplicative process of cultural transmission. Further, we find that the theoretically predicted rate of drift in long-lived technologies is remarkably close to the observed reduction of Clovis projectile point size through time and space across North America.     

New Dating and Contextual Evidence for the Fragmentary Timber Remains Located in the Dor D Site, Israel

The laboratory report for a wood-sample taken from one of the ship-timbers discovered at the Dor D site for C14 analysis is completed. This dating result indicates a potential revision for the group of timbers in this deposit and, consequently, new chronological contexts for their construction characteristics. Subsequent excavation and survey in the lagoon has resulted in a revised interpretation for the components of the Dor D deposit. Taken together, this new dating and contextual evidence helps to clarify what these timbers can and cannot contribute to the understanding of trends in ship construction.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

Archaeology of a Naval Battlefield: H. L. Hunley and USS Housatonic

The American Civil War shipwrecks H. L. Hunley and USS Housatonic have been the focus of intensive archaeological investigations since the discovery of Hunley in 1995. H. L. Hunley , the world's first successful combat submarine, sank the Union blockader USS Housatonic in 1864, but sank immediately afterwards. In work done prior to the recovery of Hunley in 2000, site-formation processes for both vessels were a primary research focus—a necessary precursor to identifying battlefield behaviour. This paper presents research on the Hunley / Housatonic Naval Engagement Site, where both wrecks are treated as complementary components of a single battlefield site.
© 2006 The Authors     

Using foraminifera to distinguish between natural and cultural shell deposits in coastal eastern Australia

Foraminifera are single cell protozoa that are ubiquitous in marine environments. Although the hard casings, or tests, of foraminifera are routinely studied in the earth sciences, they have been little studied by archaeologists, despite their potential to contribute to understandings of coastal site formation processes and palaeoenvironments. In this study techniques and methods of foraminiferal analysis are developed and applied to the problem of distinguishing between natural and cultural marine shell deposits, using the Mort Creek Site Complex, central Queensland, Australia, as a case study. Results allow separation of natural and cultural deposits based on foraminiferal density. Natural deposits were found to have >1000 foraminifera per 100 g of sediment, while cultural deposits exhibited <50 foraminifera per 100 g of sediment. Results allow us to better understand site formation processes at the Mort Creek Site Complex and highlight the potential of foraminiferal analyses in the interpretation of terrestrial marine deposits.