Reflections on North American Pacific Coast prehistory

The Pacific Coast of North America was occupied by many distinctive groups of coastal hunter-gatherers at the times of early contacts with Europeans. Despite significant cultural diversity, Pacific Coast peoples shared lifeways oriented toward generally similar marine, nearshore, littoral, and estuarine habitats. In this paper, we examine some major issues that guide much of the archaeology done along the Pacific Coast, then discuss some of the theoretical and methodological problems that limit the efficacy of archaeological reconstructions. Most archaeological research conducted on North America's Pacific Coast has been oriented toward the search for the origins and development of a variety of cultural patterns. A comparative review of California and Northwest Coast sequences provides interesting parallels and discrepancies in the approaches taken in studying some of the major issues in Pacific Coast prehistory.     

Birkarlar and Sámi – inter-cultural contacts beyond state control: reconsidering the standing of external tradesmen (birkarlar) in medieval Sámi societies

It is not until the fourteenth century that written records offer a glimpse into the coastal societies of Northern Sweden. Records include references to a social stratum referred to as the birkarlar, who were tradesmen engaged in trading with the Sámi. The origin of the birkarlar, their prominent status and the meaning of the term, is an enigma that has been much disputed among scholars although there is consensus about the economic and fiscal supremacy of birkarlar vis-á-vis the Sámi. However, the paradox of tradesmen employing force against their most important circle of suppliers and customers remains a puzzle. The birkarla institution is analyzed by means of alternative reading of historical records from the perspective of the indigenous Sámi and coastal farming communities. The postulated animosity between Sámi and the birkarlar is critically examined in light of the social and economic context of interior and coastal communities during the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval period, and in relation to historically known Sámi kinship relationships and marriage traditions. Data are analyzed with regard to demography and social structure, and from a landscape perspective including the logistics and practicalities of inter-cultural contact. Analyses corroborate that birkarlar were deeply rooted in the coastal communities and fully involved in the regular subsistence activities. They were representatives given a commission of trust and contacts between the birkarlar and the Sámi were characterized by mutuality and inter-dependence.     

开埠初期闽浙沿海的海盗活动初探

海盗作为沿海地区一种常见的历史现象,在不同的历史时期往往呈现不同的表现形式,其产生原因和发展过程亦因历史条件的变化而各异.本文主要集中于目前史学界较少涉猎的开埠初期的海盗活动,力图复原历史原貌,探究本期海盗活动的特点和成因,提出鸦片走私贸易是海盗行为盛行的直接诱因,中外双方的联合和先进船只的运用在对海盗的搜剿中起了重要作用.     

环渤海地区的早期新石器文化与海岸变迁──环渤海环境考古之二

从世界范围看,人类历史进入新石器时代是伴随距今１２０００年前后全球气候变暖全新世到来之际才发生的,而在环渤海地区,这一过程还伴随着渤海从陆地到海洋的剧烈环境变迁。如果说渤海的这一沧桑巨变过去离我们还非常洪荒遥远的话,那么在环渤海地区不断发现早期新石器文化遗址的今天,它已越来越走近我们的视野了②。９０年代以来,相关考古资料进一步增加并趋细化系统化,使深入考察环渤海地区早期新石器文化的发展与海岸变迁的互动关系成为可能并日显迫切。笔者不揣浅陋,拟在前人基础上从分析兴隆洼文化与小珠山下层文化的关系入手,…     

二十世纪一二十年代沿海城市社会文化观念变动评析

20世纪一二十年代沿海地区,随着清王朝的覆灭、民国的建立,尤其是新化运动的兴起,城市知识群体和市民阶层的社会价值观念发生了变革;以性别平等观念和妇女解放为标志,平等自由的精神开始渗入到社会伦理观念之中;在生活习俗方面,社会风俗观念发生明显变化;反映市民阶层需求的大众化逐步形成。     

Nami's Middle Bronze Age Suburb: The Coastal Settlement at Site 104–106

This study presents a late 19th to early 18th cent. BCE, MBIIA settlement in the immediate vicinity of Tel Nami on the Carmel Coast of Israel. Site 104–106 has been all but destroyed by modern agricultural activity as well as quarrying, but a large number of ceramics and small finds were salvaged during a 1985–6 survey of Tel Nami?'s hinterland as well as subsequent geoarchaeological research of the area. Little of the site remains, and the current study functionally amounts to a salvage project for an MBIIA coastal site, which was mentioned in an earlier survey. Geomorphology reveals how the sandstone kurkar ridges in this area of the coast governed the dynamic relationship between Tel Nami and its hinterland. Comparable ceramic chronology for Site 104–106 presented derives from Aphek-Antipatris, Megiddo, Kabri, Tel Ifshar, Tel Nami itself, and other MBIIA coastal sites of the Southern Levant. The ceramics include well-produced local wares as well as imports from coastal Lebanon, Syria, and Cyprus confirmed by petrographic analyses. Finds suggest a small agro-industrial site in the immediate periphery of the coastal Tel Nami.