对大型土遗址的植物病害研究——以西安阿房宫遗址为例

在植物对土遗址作用的研究中,鲜有就真实的遗址来展开调查,以及讨论植物给土遗址带来的负作用及其机理。为此,本研究选取西安地区大型土遗址秦阿房宫为研究对象,利用现场调查结合样带法、图像分析法并采集土样,开展对遗址区植物分布、根系产生的裂隙和土壤环境的研究。结果表明:造成土遗址病害现象的主要原因为植物根系作用,加之雨蚀、风化作用及人为破坏的叠加作用,使遗址保存面临严重威胁;其中酸枣、臭椿等萌生树种所产生的根劈裂隙及植物根系对土壤环境的影响十分明显。现存土遗址由植物以及风雨作用而引发的主要病害,其类型包含了边缘夯土的基础掏蚀、洞穴遗存、开裂坍塌、冲沟发育、表面剥蚀,这些是阿房宫遗址面临的主要威胁,也是半干旱地区土遗址存在的特有问题。研究结果既有助于揭示植被对土遗址的作用机理,又能为土遗址保护的植物选择提供理论依据和技术支撑。     

Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Plant Movements in Southern Kyushu, Japan

From the late Pleistocene to early Holocene in Japan, subtropical and temperate forest elements moved northwards. This affected human choices and access to food sources. More settled patterns of living spread northwards gradually, and northern hunting-gathering-fishing people began cultivating vegetables and cereal crops. This poster reports the presence of ancient starch residues on stone artefacts in Kagoshima Prefecture, southern Kyushu. The oldest residues recovered are dated by context to about 30,000 ¹⁴C yr BP. If such residues can be identified, it may be possible to detect a hypothesized early phase of tropical plant movement northwards during warmer climate peaks in the late terminal Pleistocene, as well as during the long period of Holocene warming that followed. As an initial step towards identification, the morphological characteristics and condition of the starch granules are described and compared to those of other sites in early Japan.     

Stable isotope analysis of prehistoric populations from the cemeteries of the Middle and Lower Dnieper Basin,Ukraine

This paper presents the results of new stable isotopes (carbon and nitrogen) analysis of human, faunal and fish remains from thirteen cemeteries from the Middle and Lower Dnieper Basin, Ukraine. The results are integrated with earlier analyses, undertaken solely on human samples, in order to provide a comprehensive overview of subsistence across the Upper Palaeolithic through to Eneolithic periods in this region. This is the first time that a combined sample of human, faunal and fish remains has been studied in order to interpret subsistence strategies across these periods in Ukraine. The total dataset comprises 113 samples of human, faunal and fish remains, 59 of which include new analyses of faunal and fish remains that have not previously been made available for study (Table 1). The analysis of the faunal and fish remains allows for a consideration of trophic levels which indicates that the consumption of freshwater fish occurs from the Epipalaeolithic period onwards. Whilst the majority of the cemeteries and the individuals therein cluster in relatively tight groups, there is a significant offset between the human and faunal samples due to the consumption of freshwater resources. The fish samples analysed in the study appear to exhibit a relatively random distribution when compared to the other samples analysed. In general, freshwater resources remain significant through until the end of the Neolithic period and into the Eneolithic period at the sites investigated.     

‘Why did they take him away?’ The theft of Neddy Larkin

Neddy Larkin, a Bundjalung man from New South Wales, Australia, was stolen from his grave and in 1891 sold to the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, MA. This paper uses the methodology and concepts outlined in Latour’s An Inquiry into Modes of Existence to chart Neddy Larkin’s transitions from kinsman to scientific data.     

Truth as historical recapitulation: the dead of Cape Town’s District One

In this essay, I reflect on the massive and dramatic re-emergence of the dead of Cape Town’s District One in 2003, and its aftermath. I discuss how the resurfacing of these ancestors helps us understand how heritage discourses operate in Cape Town, and how their agency forces us to consider what it means to live in the city during post-apartheid urban renewal. I argue that the agency of the District One dead hinges on their exposure of the internal workings of discourse and the associated disciplinary practices through which we experience Cape Town and its heritage. This story ends ambiguously. I discuss how, following the storage of the District One dead in the Prestwich Ossuary, the gaze on Cape Town was redirected away from the city’s past and towards its future; I explore how their reinterment foreclosed a series of discussions regarding the reconciliation of past events with the present realities of Cape Town. I argue, finally, that truth at District One can be understood as a form of historical recapitulation.