The development of the longbow in late medieval England and ‘technological determinism’

Traditional understandings of the development of the medieval English longbow and its role in the fourteenth-century ‘infantry revolution’ have recently been challenged by historians. This article responds to the revisionists, arguing based on archaeological, iconographic and textual evidence that the proper longbow was a weapon of extraordinary power, and was qualitatively different from – and more effective than – the shorter self-bows that were the norm in England (and western Europe generally) before the fourteenth century. It is further argued that acknowledging the importance of the weapon as a necessary element of any credible explanation of English military successes in the era of the Hundred Years War does not constitute ‘technological determinism’.     

How flakes shatter: a critical evaluation of quartz fracture analysis

Despite its worldwide use as a stone tool raw material, quartz is known to be a difficult material for archaeologists. The main reason for this is the tendency of quartz flakes to fragment during detachment, which complicates the use of traditional lithic analyses. In this article we present an experimental study of quartz flake fragmentation. We evaluate the method called fracture analysis that has been developed and used explicitly for the study of quartz assemblages. The method assumes high predictability of quartz flake fragmentation, but our experiments show that there is significant variation in fragmentation that fracture analysis does not take into account. Our results indicate that this variation is partly explained by indenter hardness, the relative thickness of the detached flake, as well as individual knapper-related factors. These results undermine the applicability of quartz fracture analysis in its current form. In addition, we discuss the effects of flake fragmentation on the technological organisation of prehistoric quartz users and suggest that it has affected reduction strategies as well as blank and tool dimensions. We also suggest that there should be mobility-related differences in archaeological assemblages in terms of the quality of the quartz raw material and that the curation of quartz should be low in relation to better quality raw materials used parallel with it.     

Clovis,Folsom, and Midland components at the Debra L. Friedkin site,Texas: context,chronology, and assemblages

The archaeological transition from Clovis to Folsom and Midland in the North American Great Plains coincides with the end of the Pleistocene and onset of the Younger Dryas. Comparisons exploring the adaptive changes that took place during this period frequently employ regional-scale approaches. The focus on regional-scale analyses largely results from the dearth of sites repeatedly visited by multiple early Paleoindian groups. However, regional-scale comparisons have the potential to overlook smaller-scale differences. The Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas offers an opportunity to study Midland, Folsom, and Clovis technology and site-use at a single site. This paper presents the context and chronology of the Midland, Folsom, and Clovis assemblages and a site-scale analysis of lithics from the Friedkin site. It is argued that point production and late-stage reduction were primary activities, and the use of bifacial cores for flake tools was important throughout these occupation periods. Site use at Friedkin differs from early Paleoindian occupation at the nearby Gault site and expands our understanding of settlement and technological organization in the region.     

Anticipated mobility and its archaeological signature: A case study of Folsom retooling strategies

This essay highlights the value of anticipated mobility for untangling variability in prehistoric stone tool manufacture. To do so, it explores the organization of weaponry production at a series of Folsom campsites via the highly visible archaeological signature of Folsom fluting. A model of weaponry replacement based on deep planning and anticipation of needs is proposed, according to which Folsom hunters commonly replace their projectile points as they wear down, break or are lost, but on fewer occasions engage in the mass production of fluted points. This technological organization is consistent with a highly mobile way of life in which advanced planning buffers the risk associated with limited or stochastic access to good quality lithic raw materials. The model is then put to the test at the Lindenmeier site in northern Colorado. The spatial patterning of fluting activities in two discrete areas of the site demonstrates contrasting strategies of point manufacture: conservation versus gearing up (creation of a surplus). It is argued that these patterns represent distinct facets of a single technological organization.     

中国古代采矿工程技术史研究的几个问题

采用矿山考古、模拟实验等方法,对中国古代采矿技术的起源与发展进行系统论证后,得出三个论点：一是关于中国古代采矿工程技术的历史进程,可分为萌芽期(史前时期)、形成期(商代中期)、初步发展期(西周时期)、创新期(春秋至战国中期)、充实提高期(秦汉至元代)、全面发展期(明清时期)这六个发展阶段。二是中国古代采矿工程技术有着浓重的中国特色并具独特的发展体系,其多种技术的配合,在很大程度上基于中国古代各种社会要素的综合。三是中国古代采矿技术观是一种有机的、整体和综合的“和”的技术观,“和”明白地表述了采矿技术观的本质特征。     

Defining Jamaica Sloops: A Preliminary Model for Identifying an Abstract Concept

Jamaica sloops were vernacular watercraft designed, built, and utilized by Caribbean colonists beginning in the late-17th century. Despite their popularity, no design or construction records or even a specific definition of their form survive, and many sources simply describe them as an early version of the Bermuda sloop. Vernacular Jamaica sloops were a unique adaptation by English colonists to combat the effects of piracy, and their design was specific to the economic, geographic, and political circumstances of colonial Jamaica. This article proposes a set of characteristics that can be used to define vernacular Jamaica sloops, firstly to distinguish them from the eighteenth-century naval Jamaica-class sloops but also to better understand them as a social response to external stimuli within the complex relationship between maritime economy, piracy and colonial control executed through the navy.     

田螺山遗址古菱角埋藏环境调查与保护对策的初步研究

本文运用多种化学分析方法分析了浙江省田螺山遗址的地层土壤和地下水环境,得出了不同地层中主要元素的分布规律：再对古菱角外壳遗存和现代菱角外壳进行扫描电镜和元素分析,总结古菱角经长期埋藏后,外壳结构和化学元素的变化规律：最后初步探索古菱角类植物遗存的科技保护时策。     

Book reviews

James E. McClellen III and Harold Dorn. Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins Press, 1999.404 pages + illustrations + maps + graphs + bibliography + index. $55.00 (hardcover), $18.95 (paperback).

Arnold Pacey. Meaning in Technology (Cambridge, Mass and London, England: MIT Press, 1999), pp. viii+264.     

What a difference a skidder makes: The role of technology in the origins of the industrialization of tree harvesting systems

We examine in this paper the concurrent appearance of the first two woods machines--the skidder and forwarder. By replacing the horse they initiated the industrial revolution in tree harvesting. We describe their invention and technological development. We then assess their diffusion in the woods, revealing the greater success of the skidder. We demonstrate that this cannot be accounted for solely in terms of their respective technologies. Instead, we argue that the interaction of technology with the social organization of their respective harvesting systems must be analyzed. By doing so, we find that the skidder altered that social organization whereas the forwarder did not. This paper, contributing to the understanding of an important area of economic activity which has been seriously understudied, illustrates concretely that comprehending technology requires locating it in the social organization of work.     

The Still Bay points of Blombos Cave (South Africa)

We present the results of a technological and morphometric analysis of all the Still Bay points (n = 371) recovered from the 1993 to 2004 excavations at Blombos Cave. We have been able to reconstruct the manufacturing sequence of the bifacial points from initial shaping, by direct internal percussion, to finished morphology, by direct marginal percussion. Identifications of impact fractures and manufacturing breaks are based on comparisons with experimental and archaeological bifacial points of verified function, i.e. Paleoindian points from bison kill sites, replicates of Solutrean points mounted as spear-heads or arrowheads and shot into adult cattle, and experimental replication on local raw materials. Our analysis shows that: (a) only a minority of the points are finished forms, and that a large number of pieces are production failures, a situation known at bifacial point production sites of later ages; (b) morphometric and impact scar analyses should take into account this process and distinguish finished points from preforms and unfinished points; (c) there were at least three different kinds of raw material sources and that there is a marked increase in the frequencies of silcrete with respect to the M2 and M3 phases at Blombos; (d) three kinds of evidence prove that some of the points were hafted axially and used as spear tips; (e) production of bifacial points was a primary activity at the site but the hypothesis of intergroup exchange of Still Bay points cannot be sustained on the basis of present evidence; and (f) the Still Bay phase appears to initiate a trend to relatively rapid changes in specialized hunting weaponry and that this innovation is congruent with other innovations such as bone tools, shell beads and engraved ochre of the M1 and M2 phases at Blombos.