Mapping Qijiaping: New Work on the Type-Site of the Qijia Culture (2300–1500 B.C.) in Gansu Province,China

Recent work at the Qijia Culture type-site of Qijiaping in the Tao River valley of Gansu Province, China, has shed light on the complex nature of this early Bronze Age site. Situated at the intersection between the mixed pastoralists of eastern central Asia and the agriculturalists of China’s northern Central Plain, Qijia peoples absorbed, evolved, and transmitted products and technologies that shaped cultural developments in both directions. The Tao River Archaeological Project (TRAP) used a combination of surface survey, geophysics, digital mapping, and targeted excavation to expand our understanding of the multicomponent nature of Qijiaping. This included identifying potential habitation, mortuary, and production locales; examining site-wide ceramic use; mapping anomalies through geophysics; and further exploring these through targeted excavations. The results have expanded our knowledge of the site structure of Qijiaping and its place in the wider Qijia interaction sphere, while also confirming the usefulness of this methodology.     

了解观众 服务观众——浙江省博物馆武林馆区观众问卷调查分析报告

为了贴近观众的多元需求,改善博物馆的服务质量和服务水平,浙江省博物馆在武林馆区通过为期一个月的问卷调查来收集观众的反馈意见。问卷设计有两种:其一是《浙江省博物馆武林馆区和浙江革命历史纪念馆观众问卷调查》,侧重调研观众的身份、信息来源、参观需求;另一种是《"越地长歌——浙江历史文化陈列"问卷调查》,侧重调研博物馆陈列展览的品质和观众参观时的状况。这次问卷调查获取的信息比较准确、科学,有助于博物馆工作者从中找出博物馆工作改进完善的目标,更加密切博物馆与公众的关系。     

山东诸城市六吉庄子新石器时代遗址调查

2001年,山东省文物考古研究所和诸城市博物馆等单位对该遗址进行了考古调查和勘探。发现房址和灰坑等遗迹,采集或征集到陶釜、盆、钵,石斧、磨盘、磨棒等遗物。陶器绝大部分为夹砂红褐陶,不见泥质陶。该遗址的发现,有助于鲁东南地区考古学文化谱系的完善和后李文化的深入研究。     

Two Late Roman Wrecks from Southern Cyprus

Two scattered Late Roman shipwrecks were discovered in the course of underwater survey at Cape Zevgari and Avdimou Bay off the southern coast of Cyprus. Each was transporting a primary cargo contained in amphoras, in one case either local or from nearby Syria or Cilicia, and the other certainly from the southern Levantine coast. The two wrecks offer insight into regional maritime exchange networks within the socio-economic context of late antique commerce around the island. Both sites also contribute to a greater understanding of the utility of systematic shallow-water survey to shipwreck archaeology.
© 2007 The Author     

A method for finding stratified sites: Early Upper Palaeolithic sites in southern Moravia

There are several hundred recorded Early Upper Palaeolithic sites in Moravia, most of which are surface sites. The majority were exposed by agricultural plowing and subsequently discovered by pedestrian surveys whereas most of the stratified sites were found accidentally. Numerous unsystematic attempts in the past to find stratified remnants of sites disturbed by plowing have been unsuccessful. Here we present a methodology for locating stratified Early Upper Palaeolithic cultural contexts based on distribution of surface scatters. This involves pedestrian surveys guided by background research. All Palaeolithic artifacts were recorded using a handheld GPS with particular attention to calcium carbonate crust on artifact surfaces, which can be indicators of nearby stratified deposits. Exploratory test pits were then excavated followed by systematic excavations if the potential for stratified cultural deposits was deemed high.

Using this technique, we have discovered 11 new stratified Early Upper Palaeolithic sites.     

Communities and archaeology under the Soufrière Hills Volcano on Montserrat,West Indies

Abstract

The volcanically devastated landscape of Montserrat and its social fabric comprise what Maria calls a “traumascape”—a site of tragedy and catastrophe that is also a place of coping and resilience. How Montserratians engage with trauma is evident in how they remember their recent and historical pasts, and in how they are reinventing aspects of their heritage in order to sustain a distinctly Montserratian identity for the future. Such a process of coping presents challenges for conducting archaeology in collaboration with the community. In this article, we describe the experiences of a recently established project on the island (Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat) and discuss the potential for, and the obstacles involved in, developing longer-term, sustainable forms of collaboration between archaeologists and local Montserratian communities when facing the unusual circumstances of volcanic disaster and hazard.     

Gendered Inuinnait (Copper Inuit) landscapes of Banks Island’s northern interior,Arctic Canada, 17th–20th centuries a.d.

Abstract

Archaeological survey data from the northern interior of Banks Island in Canada’s western Arctic builds upon traditional interpretations of past land use to explore the ways in which this landscape was perceived by different groups. The data confirm earlier archaeological, ethnographic, and oral history work which suggest that the area was occupied primarily in the summer months at two separate times in the past: the Palaeoeskimo period and the Inuinnait (Copper Inuit) period. The earlier occupation was less intensive than the latter and both were focused on muskox hunting. Drawing on ethnographic studies of the Inuit in both the early and late 20th centuries, and on the distribution of archaeological camp sites versus hunting sites, a reconstruction is made of the different ways in which men and women experienced and understood the survey area during Inuinnait times. It suggests that the main drainages formed important travel routes, and that while women’s knowledge of the region was concentrated along these corridors and in favorite camping places, men’s knowledge extended into hunting areas beyond their peripheries.     

From charting to mapping: Russian military mapping of Corfu in the early nineteenth century

Abstract

This paper concludes the overview of the Russian Navy's chart making published in Imago Mundi, Volume 52 (2000). In the present paper attention is drawn to the way the emphasis shifted in the early years of the nineteenth century from charting by naval surveyors to land mapping by the Army. The need for specialized military topographical education had led to the founding of the Map Depot in 1797 in St Petersburg. The first major survey undertaken by the Depot was of the island of Corfu (1804–1806), in anticipation of further Russo‐Turkish hostilities (the Third Russo‐Turkish war, 1806–1812).     

Martin Waldseemüller's Death Date

ABSTRACT

The subject of this article is the first extant topographical engraving of Meteora, the second largest monastic complex in Greece and one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world. This late eighteenth-century print combined cartographic principles with techniques traditionally used in Byzantine painting, which situates it within a broader vernacular Greek cartographic tradition. It can also be considered a mental map of the region as envisaged by eighteenth century monks, as well as a tool for advertising the region and its monasteries at a time of political and financial distress. As with any map, the engraving simultaneously concealed and revealed, masking difficult terrestrial conditions while showing pathways to heaven.