The pectoral fin spines of European catfish Siluris glanis; cultural artifacts or food remains?

The urban archaeological site of Nicopolis ad Istrum in north central Bulgaria, which has multiple periods of use and abandonment, has produced a large and varied ichthyofauna. A number of bones of the European catfish Siluris glanis have been identified and have been interpreted as both food remains and bone artifacts. It was found that a percentage bias in the distribution of S. glanis bones from the Roman period of occupation called for further analysis. The investigation attempts to identify the reason or reasons for the apparent overrepresentation of the pectoral fin spines of this species. Taphonomic factors are considered along with butchery and an actualistic study of butchery on modern S. glanis material. Studies from north Africa are used to illustrate the possible function of the spines. The conclusions drawn are that a high proportion of the pectoral fin spines were brought into the site, possibly as personal artifacts. Their use is open to debate; no clear functional use can be determined from the archaeological material, although it cannot be ruled out that they were used for medicinal purposes or as charms.     

人类早期文明中的自然铜

自然铜是人类使用最早使用的金属之一,它与人类早期文明存在重要联系。本文介绍了自然铜的属性、地质与世界分布,并结合考古证据和相关文献对人类早期自然铜的认识、利用、开采、加工及其社会价值进行了分析,对自然铜与早期金属文明之间的关系进行了探讨。     

The Potential Relationship Between Archaeological Artifact Exposure and Surface Geomorphic Processes: Northeastern Peloponnese,Greece

Complex interactions between topography, near-surface geology, active tectonics, climate, and human activity shape a landscape, conditioning archaeological deposits and making sediment deposits from surface erosion important archives. There is a potential relationship between the intensity of geomorphic processes and surface artifact distribution. This study assesses the potential relationship between soil erosion by water and the spatial distribution of archaeological surface artifacts in the Inachos River watershed, Greece. The mountainous, semi-arid Mediterranean region is particularly vulnerable to soil loss. Soil erosion is quantified by applying the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation in a GIS framework. Estimates of soil loss vary spatially compared to surface artifact finds of the pedestrian survey of the Western Argolid Regional Project. A statistically significant relationship is identified between surface erosion rates and artifact density. Preferential topography for occupation suggests this is an associative rather than causative relationship. Knowledgeable interpretation of artifact distribution enables accurate reconstruction of human settlement history.     

X射线显微CT成像技术在金属文物制作工艺研究与腐蚀状态评估中的应用

金属腐蚀过程不仅受环境等外部因素的影响,制作工艺、合金组成及缺陷等内部因素同样起着重要作用。为实现金属文物制作工艺和内部腐蚀状态的可视化研究,运用X射线显微CT对铜镜文物碎片以及出土、海洋出水铁质文物样品进行扫描探测,并结合X射线荧光、X射线衍射等检测手段,开展金属文物材质、工艺及矿化程度的综合分析。结果表明,在显微CT影像重建基础上,通过设定不同的阈值,可实现文物内部缺陷、腐蚀矿化程度等内部信息的测量统计。该方法可为金属文物材质、制作工艺研究和腐蚀状态评估提供无损的研究手段。     

A History of Normative Theory in Americanist Archaeology

Efforts in the 1960s to demonstrate the value of the new archaeology involved showing that the competing culture-history paradigm was inferior. One allegedly weak plank in that paradigm had to do with how culture historians viewed culture—as a set of ideas transmitted in the form of ideal norms or mental templates. Lewis Binford referred to this view as normative theory. In archaeology that view was manifest in the equation of artifact types with prehistoric norms—an equation that, according to Binford, the culture historians had made so that they could track the flow of ideas through time and thus write culture history. Culture historians regularly subscribed to cultural transmission as the theoretical backdrop for their artifact-based chronometers such as seriation and the direct historical approach, but with few exceptions they perceived only a weak relationship between norms and artifact types. It was not until 1960, in a paper by James Gifford, that what Binford labeled as normative theory appeared in anything approaching a complete form. Ironically, the first applications of normative theory were products of the new archaeologists, not the culture historians.     

Where are the witches of prehistory?

Why are certain common classes of ritually destroyed objects (persons, artifacts, or architecture), such as persecuted witches, so difficult to identify in the archaeological record? Although a common topic in cultural anthropology, witches seldom receive the attention of archaeologists. The difficulties archaeologists face in the study of religion derive, in part, from the lack of correlates linking ritual activities to the formation of archaeological deposits. This paper defines ritual as a technology and employs an object life history approach that draws upon ethnographic, archaeological, and experimental research to begin building such linkages—including those describing the presecution and deposition of witches, sorcerers, and other victims of ritual violence. These new directions are illustrated through a case study of anomalous deposits of human skeletal remains from the North American Southwest     

出土、出水饱水木质文物冷冻干燥研究进展

冷冻干燥是稳定出土、出水饱水木质文物的主要方法之一。该方法基于水由固态直接成为气态的升华过程不产生表面张力的原理,可避免饱水木材脱水时受到干燥应力的破坏。数十年来,经过实验实践和不断完善,冷冻干燥在出土、出水降解木材的稳定中取得了很好的效果,在大型、厚重木质文物的保护方面得到成功应用。本研究基于在出土、出水含盐饱水木质文物保护方面的多年实践,对国内外在脱盐、抗菌、热浸、预冻和升华干燥工艺等方面的进展进行了回顾,并提出了解决一些现有问题的技术设想。     

X射线成像技术在文物保护与制作工艺研究中的应用

X射线成像技术在科技考古和文物保护研究领域的应用越来越广泛,可提供肉眼和其他分析仪器无法提供的信息。本文主要以金属文物和铸铜陶范为例,解析了X射线成像技术在实验室微发掘、文物状况研究以及文物制作工艺研究中所发挥的作用。研究结果揭示了大英博物馆收藏的一些重要中国青铜器(包括著名的康侯簋、邢侯簋、赵孟壶)不为人知的修复历史和现状以及复杂器物不同部件的制作工序和连接方式等,并首次披露了侯马陶范的复杂结构。X射线成像技术包括X射线探伤和工业X射线计算机断层扫描(X-CT),是科技考古和文物保护研究的一个重要手段,可为文物保护和保存提供建设性建议,为文物制作技术的解析提供重要的科学数据,为深入研究文物提供指导。     

Computed tomography study of snuff trays from San Pedro de Atacama (Northern Chile)

Wooden snuff trays from San Pedro de Atacama (SPA) in northern Chile are objects of particular museological value. Computed tomography (CT), a non-destructive analytical technique useful in the analysis of archaeological objects in which physical tampering is not desirable, was used to study provenience of wood, quality of craftmanship, taphonomic processes and nature of gemstone inlays in a group of snuff trays. While wood used in the manufacture of trays was mostly exogenous to SPA, gemstones used in inlays were likely of local origin. These findings support the active exchange of goods proposed for the south-central Andes region. Several features revealed in the trays support the view that craftsmen producing them were skillful artisans.