PREHISTORIC FLINT MINES AND THEIR IDENTIFICATION AS SOURCES OF RAW MATERIAL

This paper is a statistical and geological study of the results of analysis of flint from British and West European flint mines, carried out by emission and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Groups of flint specimens were studied from each geographically separate flint mining area. Flints were analysed for a group of easily measured trace elements shown by previous work to be generally present. The ratios between the trace elements form a consistent pattern for each flint mine and statistically valid differences of pattern can be recognized between different flint mines. A geological investigation shows that the measured trace elements may be derived from clay minerals and explains geographical and statistical variation in the composition of flint in terms of its mode of origin in the chalk. An advanced statistical technique allows individual flint specimens of unknown origin to be attributed by their composition to one or other of the identified flint sources. The archaeological implications of this study are discussed.     

THE USE OF NON-DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVATION ANALYSIS AND PATTERN RECOGNITION IN THE STUDY OF FLINT ARTEFACTS

A method is described for the identification of the origin of flint artefacts. The method is based on the variation in the trace element concentrations for different origins. The trace element concentrations were determined by non-destructive neutron activation analysis. The identification was obtained from a pattern recognition analysis.     

CHARACTERIZING THE EVOLUTION OF VISUAL LANDSCAPES IN THE LATE PREHISTORY OF SOUTH-WEST MORBIHAN (BRITTANY, FRANCE)

Summary.   In the context of territorial analyses in archaeology, the visual attributes of sites play a key role in the definition of location strategies. This paper studies the Neolithic evidence from the south-western Morbihan area in Brittany (France) from a visual point of view, integrating the previous Mesolithic and the later Bronze Age occupation of the region in order to understand the diachronic evolution of the visual settlement patterns. The role played by the sea seems to be significant throughout the entire occupation of the area, but differences in both intervisibility of sites and the extension of visual areas allow us to make particular observations regarding different cultural uses of the landscape through time.     

Art and the brain: the influence of art on Roger Shepard's studies of mental rotation

This paper explores the influence of visual sources on Roger N. Shepard's 1971 mental rotation experiments and the centrality of ambiguity as one of his experimental and artistic concerns. Sources include Shepard's statements about ambiguity as expressed in the book, Mind Sights, and a recent interview. Parallel investigations of ambiguity by the contemporary artists Al Held and Robert Smithson are considered. Shepard utilized a wide range of visual sources while formulating his experimental design, namely Necker cube illusions, hypnopompic images, René Magritte, and M.C. Escher. In addition, he drew upon key art historical theses of the time, such as Ernst Gombrich's theories about schemas. For Shepard as for Gombrich, the world of appearances is a world of ambiguity.     

Hunger in the land of plenty: The complex humanitarian crisis in Venezuela

Oil-rich Venezuela is being hit by the largest crisis in living memory. Now, more than 4.8 million Venezuelans have fled the country in search of food and safety. News about migration and humanitarian aid dominate. Yet, many Venezuelans stay and seek alternative strategies to cope with scarcity and insecurity. Ad hoc solutions mainly depend on alternative economies in the borderlands that do not always fit within frameworks of human rights and rule of law, but do provide relief and produce opportunities along with new inequalities that (un)willingly sustain the crisis. Amid collapsing state infrastructures, these transborder economies tie into the global trade of basic supplies, narcotics, drugs, natural resources and human trafficking that operate in the interface of the legal and the illegal. The complex humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is as much about poverty and scarcity as it is about wealth and abundance benefiting only a very few. An ‘anthropology of abundance’ allows us to grasp these underlying socio-economic dynamics that turn crisis management into crisis maintenance.     

Khirbat al‐Mana‘iyya: an early Islamic‐period copper‐smelting site in south‐eastern Wadi ‘Araba,Jordan

Recent excavations in south‐eastern Wadi ‘Araba in Jordan have revealed the first early Islamic‐period copper‐smelting site known in the eastern side of the valley, which extends south of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of ‘Aqaba. Five test pits were excavated in 2012 at Khirbat al–Mana‘iyya, a prominent copper‐smelting camp in south‐eastern Wadi ‘Araba, Jordan. The results of these excavations demonstrate that the site was primarily active in the seventh–ninth century AD. Its distance from the copper sources of south‐west ‘Araba suggests that its location was chosen based on proximity to wood and water resources, rather than copper ore deposits. The discovery that the site dates to the early Islamic period has implications for previous and future work in south‐east ‘Araba. In particular, it challenges the common—until now—view of the region as virtually devoid of settlement during this period.