Late pleistocene human adaptations in eastern North America

Eastern North America in late Pleistocene times was characterized by two major environmental regions: a periglacial tundra or open spruce parkland and an extensive complex boreal/deciduous forest in the unglaciated, lower latitudes. These environments selected for different adaptive strategies on the part of human foraging groups—known archaeologically as Paleoindians. Those in the tundra and tundra-forest region were highly mobile, possibly specialized hunters, exploiting caribou; those in the forest were generalists, exploiting a variety of subsistence resources with a less mobile settlement system. There is little evidence in either area for hunting of Pleistocene megafauna. These differences in adaptive strategies are reflected in the record of sites and isolated fluted points scattered throughout the region, as well as aspects of tool technology, function, and patterns of stone use.     

胡人发型:中古“剪头胡雏”艺术形象试解

古人发型是文化界长期关注的一个重要现象。发型不仅是时代的特征与时尚的符号,也是各个族群的辨识标志。从北朝到隋唐的中古社会,"剪头胡雏"的文物图像屡屡出现,一般来说,此类胡人形象是剪发而不是束发,在当时以"高髻为尚"的社会习俗中,"剪头胡雏"发型是有着"阶级感"的存在,是有关底层胡人的直观艺术产物。也说明当时入华胡人还没有彻底"汉化",仍然保留着本族群的发型特征。该发式是胡人与汉人的区别,也是其身份归属的象征。     

Evidence for local,regional and interregional exchange networks on Failaka: Some remarks on late Islamic pottery from Kharaib al-Dasht

The site of Kharaib al-Dasht, located on the northern coast of Failaka, is a late Islamic settlement with an extensive fishing infrastructure. It has been excavated since 2013 by the Kuwaiti-Polish Archaeological Mission. The ceramic assemblage collected so far exceeds 18,000 fragments. The sherds underwent technological and typological analyses, which demonstrated a wide diversity of local common kitchen wares, consistent with the needs of households specialised in fishing. A considerable percentage of imported vessels was brought to Failaka from the Arabian Gulf and Persia, though Far Eastern luxury tableware was also attested. This paper demonstrates the socioeconomic role of Kharaib al-Dasht in the context of trade exchange on the microregional (Kuwait) and macroregional (the Gulf, South and Eastern Asia) scales in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.     

Cattle Slaughter Industry in Qing China: State Ban,Muslim Dominance,and the Western Diet

Cattle slaughter and beef consumption are barely mentioned in the literature on Chinese economic, food, or animal history. This is possibly due to the widely held popular and scholarly assumption that beef was avoided and even considered taboo in the daily diet of Chinese people in premodern times. This article investigates the tangible regulation and practice of cattle slaughter in Qing China—the period when the beef taboo was argued to be formally subsumed into Chinese morality. I ask the following questions: To what extent did the Qing state ban cattle slaughter? How was the ban enforced in the localities? Did Chinese people slaughter cattle for consumption? Were there lawful beef markets in Qing China proper? How did increasing beef-eating Western sojourners since the mid-19th century impact this sector? Accordingly, I demonstrate that with the leeway provided by the state, the cattle slaughter industry developed in many regions of China proper, especially large cities. In this sector, Chinese Muslim merchants played a dominant role, even though the Han merchants could outnumber them. Their efforts have prepared the state and Chinese merchants to better cope with new circumstances since the mid-19th century. Broadly, this paper sheds light on how different religious, ethnic, and national groups affected the economy and the practice of law in the Qing dynasty.     

明清丝绸之路哈密—吐鲁番段“沙尔湖路”研究

明清丝绸之路哈密—吐鲁番段存在一条自哈密西南沙尔湖转西北至鄯善进而抵达吐鲁番的“沙尔湖路”,它与“黑风川道”“小南路”等传统路线均不同。利用《蒙古山水地图》等文献,可对沙尔湖路具体行经进行考证复原。该路沿线地形平坦,有泉水与植被,在明廷与吐鲁番、清廷与准噶尔在哈密的政治和军事对峙阶段曾广泛使用,后因泉湖干涸、气候炎热而中断。     

HISTORY MAKING AND ETHICS—AN INTEGRAL RELATIONSHIP?

In this review essay, I examine the arguments made by Marnie Hughes-Warrington, with Anne Martin, in Big and Little Histories: Sizing Up Ethics in Historiography. While I find much to praise in this history, I also ask critical questions about the impact of non-Western ethics on historical writing, the role of ethics in historical writing generally, the need to further investigate the everyday lifeworlds of history makers in order to fully understand their ethical dispositions, and the relationship between the ethics of history making and engaged forms of historical writing. I conclude this review essay by offering some reflections on the interrelationship between history and memory and the ethics involved in both.     

The Transition from Prehistory to the Historic Period in the Upper Mun Valley

The Early Historic Period in the Mun Valley occupies a critical three centuries, from A.D. 500 to A.D. 800, a period often known as that of Zhenla, a name derived from early Chinese accounts. This article first describes early findings of fieldwork designed to illuminate the prehistory of the upper Mun Valley, a period which covers approximately two millennia, with initial settlement now dated between 1500 and 1000 B.C. It then considers the nature of the transition to the complex polities of Zhenla. This involves a combination of archaeological and documentary evidence. Sources for the latter are rare for the Mun Valley, but by broadening the area considered, it is possible to integrate archaeological and historical sources in order to portray the intensifying social changes which characterize the Early Historic Period. It is suggested that most of the Mun Valley was occupied by Khmer speakers during the Iron Age, people responsible for the transition to increasingly centralized polities of the Early Historic Period. In the upper reaches of the Mun catchment, and in the Chi Valley to the north, the late prehistoric inhabitants spoke Mon. They had close affinities with the Dvaravati polities of Central Thailand. If confirmed, this hypothesis would indicate a series of local trends towards increasing social complexity which we can recognize in the early epigraphic record.     

The Enisei River of Central Siberia in the Late Pleistocene

Recent Paleolithic work along the middle Enisei River of central Siberia has revealed a long history of occupation that almost certainly begins in the Middle Pleistocene. Although the evidence for the Lower Paleolithic is somewhat tentative, there is good reason to believe that hunter-gatherers had periodically occupied the middle Enisei before the last interglacial. The steppe environment of the region during the Upper Pleistocene was relatively bountiful; more than 200 Upper Paleolithic sites, both before and after the Last Glacial Maximum, have been located. The region appears to have been abandoned during the Last Glacial Maximum. Most of Soviet and Russian archaeological work has been guided by a cultural–historical orientation, but recently there has been increased interest in developing adaptationist and ecological research strategies. The middle Enisei and the wider central Siberian region are key to understanding early adaptations to the north and the dimensions of Paleolithic population movements.     

Cohabitants,Captives, or Trade: The Early Late Woodland Non-Weaver Ceramic Assemblage at the Marseton #2 Weaver Village in Mercer County,Illinois

The Marseton #2 site is a Weaver ring midden in the Mississippi Valley of Mercer County, Illinois, that was buried by a catastrophic flood event a few centuries after the site had been abandoned. Analysis of the more than 740,000 ceramic items from the village provides insights as to Weaver interactions with other non-Weaver early Late Woodland groups of the region. While the presence of non-Weaver ceramics at the village might represent trade items, or vessels manufactured by potters peacefully or forcibly brought to the site, it is suggested that a non-Weaver household producing Levsen-like ceramics was coexisting at Marseton #2 alongside multiple Weaver households.     

Chronicle of an early demise,surname extinction in the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries

It has been amply demonstrated that individuals' reproductive capability is the key explanatory phenomenon for understanding onomastic disappearance during the early modern period. This article analyzes the evolution and consequences of surname extinction in a specific population: Catalonia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this article two aspects are examined. First, the observed disappearance of surnames is estimated through historical data collected in the Llibres d'Esposalles (Marriage Books) from 1481 to 1600 at Barcelona Cathedral. Second, the estimated natural extinction of those surnames registered in 1481 is forecast by applying a statistical branching process.