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。     

A Study of the Potential of Deciduous Incisor Wear as an Indicator of Weaning Using a Human Skeletal Population

The aim of this work is to investigate the potential of wear on the earliest erupting teeth, the deciduous central incisors, for studying weaning in human skeletal populations. The study group is from mediaeval Wharram Percy, where existing δ¹⁵N data indicate cessation of breastfeeding occurred by about 24 months post‐partum. The hypothesis tested is that there should be an increase in dental wear as breast milk is replaced with solid foods during weaning. Incisor wear is monitored using crown heights, measured from photographs using image analysis. Results provide little evidence for alteration in incisor wear rates with the attenuation of breastfeeding, perhaps because abrasive foods were used as supplements well before breastfeeding declined. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Embarrassment of Riches: Rationalising Faunal Assemblages from Large Urban Sites

Museums and other curatorial bodies face the significant challenge of storing large volumes of material recovered from decades of archaeological excavation, amongst which are very large collections of animal bones. As stores fill up, there is pressure to reconsider curation policies, to the point of refusing further deposition and disposal of existing material. Faced with this situation, York Archaeological Trust looked to develop and implement a strategy to reduce the curated research resource of animal bones, accepting that some excavated assemblages are of low research potential. Applying this strategy to animal bones from the Hungate excavation resulted in a substantial reduction in the volume of material regarded as of significant future research value. The strategy also generated a digital record, including images, that provides the justification for those retention decisions as well as a useful survey that facilitates the location of suitable material for further research. This pilot study shows that it is possible to rationalise what would otherwise be a substantial store of bone assemblages to give a smaller, better‐documented and more research‐relevant archive of material. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beads from a mediaeval pilgrim centre: Chemical composition and provenance of glass from Banganarti,Nubia, Sudan

Christian Nubia was a region with intensive transcultural connections that are visible through the understudied overseas glass bead imports found there. This paper presents the results of an analysis of 20 glass beads from Banganarti, a Christian pilgrim site active during the Makuria kingdom (mid-sixth to 14th centuries CE). Compositional analyses using laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) have identified glass belonging to a number of broad compositional groups. Two beads were made of mineral soda-lime glass, dated before the mid-ninth century CE. Numerous beads were made from plant ash-soda-lime glass associated with “Mesopotamian” production dated between the eighth and 10th centuries CE. Lead-soda-silica glass has parallels in the ninth–10th centuries glass found in Africa and Europe. One plant ash-soda-lime bead was of eastern Mediterranean origin dated after the 10th century CE. Results of this study provide new evidence for provenance and chronology of glass beads available in the mediaeval Northeast Africa as well as contribute new data to the research on the pilgrim and/or trade routes of that time.     

Do environmental disturbances of an individual's growth and development influence the later bone involution processes? A study of two mediaeval populations

Age‐dependent cortical bone loss was studied in two mediaeval Polish populations differing with regard to socio‐economic status, as well as the intensity of the occurrence of skeletal indicators of living conditions in the early stages of ontogenesis (compression of the skull base and the narrowing of the lumbar vertebral canal). Cortical bone loss was analysed on the basis of the radiographs of the second metacarpal. Cedynia population (better living conditions) is characterized by higher arithmetic means for the height of the skull base in comparison with Słaboszewo group (low socio‐economic status). In the case of the vertebral canal index, significant interpopulation differences apply only to men. Similar patterns of difference between groups under study regarding bone loss was also found. It turned out that males from Cedynia had more bone mass in adultus and maturus age categories; in females, these differences concern only adultus category. The study involved an analysis of a relationship between the characteristics measuring reactions to environmental stress in early stages of growth and the intensity of bone loss in adult life. We believe that the results presented justify a conclusion that both phenomena may be interrelated to a considerable degree. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial autocorrelation of ABO serotypes in mediaeval cemeteries as an indicator of ethnic and familial structure

Hungarian cemeteries in an effort to detect familial structure. Different ethnic groups buried in separate areas dominated the spatial pattern in two cemeteries, leaving insufficient power to test for familial patterns. In a third, ethnically homogeneous cemetery, no evidence of familial structure was found. A simulation showed that familial structure could readily be detected by the methods applied when it exists in an ethnically homogeneous population. The spatial autocorrelation methods employed would have detected the ethnic diversity in the two cemeteries containing graves from different populations, even in the absence of archaeological information to that effect. A restricted randomization procedure was developed to test two alternative hypotheses concerning the ethnic designations of the occupants of the cemetery at Szentendre. As a result of this test, the hypothesis that graves located in a rough circle (putative Lombards) differ serologically from those located at the periphery (putative nonLombards) is strongly preferred over a second hypothesis based on grave goods which would imply spatially random placement of the graves of the two ethnic units.