The meals in a Tuscan building yard during the Middle Age. Characterization of organic residues in ceramic potsherds

The characterization of organic residues found in ceramics objects coming from the Carmine Convent in Siena (Central Italy), probably built in the second half of the 13th century, is described. The nine objects analyzed in this study are pots, casseroles, and lids and they were used as filling material of the vault of one room of the convent.     

Identifying wine markers in ceramics and plasters using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Experimental and archaeological materials

The identification of the organic residues preserved in archaeological materials yields good insights into understanding food production, trade and consumption. Wine is one of the most important beverages produced, traded and consumed in the Mediterranean area. Consequently, it is important to identify its presence in ancient materials. Nevertheless, the identification of wine markers is still an object of discussion. We present here the results obtained from analysing different materials using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), which allowed for the identification of tartaric acid and other markers of wine. The method was first tested on experimental and traditional materials that have been used until recently to store and/or produce wine and was then used for investigating archaeological materials. The experiments also involved the degradation of wine through cooking, drastic heating and burial for seven years. The results from the analysis of ceramic and plaster materials are discussed.     

Integrated Analytical Techniques for the Study of Colouring Materials from Two Megalithic Barrows

We have determined the composition of rock art pigments from two megalithic barrows located in the north of Portugal. The use of XRD, SEM–EDS and FT–IR spectroscopy confirmed the presence of hematite and kaolinite in the red pigments from the Eireira barrow, and kaolinite in the white pigment from the Leira das Mamas barrow. The organic composition of the pigments was studied by GC–MS, suggesting that the red sinuous lines and dots from the Eireira barrow were prepared with cooked or heated algae and/or aquatic plants, with egg as binder, while the white pigment from the Leira das Mamas barrow revealed a mixture of vegetable oils for kaolinite moulding, which could be stabilized by temporary exposure to high temperatures. The multi‐analytical approach used on this study of megalithic pigments allowed the recovery of important data about north‐western prehistoric communities, namely the way in which they exploited existing resources and their ability to transform them.     

关于商代青铜面具的几个问题

本文对商代青铜面具的起源、文化内涵、传播等问题进行了探讨。认为青铜面具起源于石器时代,青铜面具的源地在北方,青铜面具的使用与巫术有关,墓葬中的青铜面具反映了死者的身份等级。     

谈二里头遗址出土的铜牌饰

本文介绍了二里头遗址出土的3件镶嵌绿松石铜牌饰,并与其他铜牌饰进行简单比较,认为其兽面纹开创了商周青铜器上兽面纹的先河.     

Molecular evidence of bitumen in the Mousterian lithic assemblage of Hummal (Central Syria)

Evidence for bitumen use in Middle Palaeolithic sites is an exception in Pleistocene archaeology. This paper presents the discovery of three tar-bearing Levallois artefacts found in the Mousterian sequence in Hummal (Central Syria). The organic residues were submitted to geochemical study. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analyses of saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons and isotopic data show the presence of bitumen. The most likely location of natural asphalt provisioning is the Shaaf outcrop in the Bichri desert. The bitumen-bearing stone tools add further important data to the growing knowledge about bitumen processing in the Middle Palaeolithic spring sites of El Kowm. Identification of the provisioning place for natural asphalt enables a more precise assumption about the site's catchment area. From a technological point of view, the tar-bearing specimens provide information on the range of tool forms selected for hafting. Ballistic features arguably indicate that the pointed Levallois blanks seem to be spear points that were fitted to a wooden handle. In at least one case, this technical procedure was seemingly executed during a brief episode of occupation and replacement of worn out implements. This small, bracketed window of detailed insight into Mousterian technology is linked with the more general relationship between Levallois technology and stone tool hafting.     

Identification of psychoactive alkaloids in ancient Andean human hair by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Various ethnographic sources have demonstrated the symbolic and ritualistic importance of psychoactive plants in Native American societies. The social milieu of these mind- altering plants appears to be ancient. Archaeological evidence during the Tiwanaku empire expansion along the Atacama Desert of Chile, circa 500–1000 A.D., shows the presence of highly decorated snuffing tablets and tubes as grave goods. The preservation of mummified human bodies in the Azapa Valley, northern Chile, provided an opportunity to test the exact nature of the psychoactive plants used in this region. Using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC–MS), here we show that ancient Andean populations from northern Chile consumed Banisteriopsis, a vine that contains harmine. This is the first direct archaeological evidence of hallucinogenic and medicinal ethnographic practices. Interestingly enough, this rainforest plant does not grow along the Atacama coast, thus our findings suggest extensive plant trade networks in antiquity as far as the Amazon.     

隋唐时期的镇墓神物

隋唐时期是我国兴起墓中随葬镇墓神物的第二个高峰。本文根据各地隋唐墓葬出土的各类镇墓神物,较详细地分析了当时镇墓神物在随葬俑群中的地位、发展演变、艺术特征以及晚唐时期渐趋消失的社会因素。     

The chemical identification of baltic amber at the Celtic oppidum Staré Hradisko in Moravia

The Celtic oppidum Staré Hradisko north of Brno in Moravia, SSR, has long been noted for its wealth of archaeological amber artifacts. Since there are several substantial deposits of fossil resins in the immediate vicinity of the site, it has been an open question whether the settlement was a centre of exploitation and exportation of these local raw materials, or whether it was an entrepôt of Baltic amber on its way to southern and southeastern Europe.Because of extensive weathering, many of the amber finds at Staré Hradisko cannot be identified by infra-red spectroscopy. A new analytical method, which determines the amount of succinic acid by means of gas chromatography, has been developed to show that the amber of Staré Hradisko is, in fact, of the Baltic variety called succinite.     

Microstructural,chemical and isotopic evidence for the origin of late neolithic leather recovered from an ice field in the Swiss Alps

Archaeological leather samples recovered from the ice field at the Schnidejoch Pass (altitude 2756 m amsl) in the western Swiss Alps were studied using optical, chemical molecular and isotopic (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N of the bulk leather, and compound-specific δ¹³C analyses of the organic-solvent extracted fatty acids) methods to obtain insight into the origin of the leather and ancient tanning procedures. For comparison, leathers from modern native animals in alpine environment (red deer, goat, sheep, chamois, and calf/cow) were analyzed using the same approach. Optical and electron microscopically comparisons of Schnidejoch and modern leathers showed that the gross structure (pattern of collagen fibrils and intra-fibrils material) of archaeological leather had survived essentially intact for five millennia. The SEM studies of the hairs from the most important archaeological find, a Neolithic leather legging, show a wave structure of the hair cuticle, which is a diagnostic feature for goatskins. The variations of the bulk δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values, and δ¹³C values of the main fatty acids are within the range expected for pre-industrial temperate C₃ environment. The archaeological leather samples contain a mixture of indigenous (from the animal) and exogenous plant/animal lipids. An important amount of waxy n-alkanes, n-alkan-1-ols and phytosterols (β-sitosterol, sitostanol) in all samples, and abundant biomarker of conifers (nonacosan-10-ol) in the legging leathers clearly indicate that the Neolithic people were active in a subalpine coniferous forest, and that they used an aqueous extract of diverse plant material for tanning leather.