Neolithic nomadism in south‐east Arabia — strontium and oxygen isotope ratios in human tooth enamel from al‐Buhais 18 and Umm al‐Quwain 2 in the Emirates of Sharjah and Umm al‐Quwain (UAE)

Human skeletal remains from the Neolithic sites BHS18 in the interior of the Sharjah Emirate and the Neolithic shell midden UAQ2 (Umm al‐Quwain) on the coast of the Persian Gulf (United Arab Emirates, UAE) were analysed for their isotope ratios of strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) and oxygen (¹⁸O/¹⁶O). The results are not in agreement with earlier assumptions about a Neolithic nomadism between inland regions and the south‐eastern coast of the Persian Gulf. Existing evidence of nomadic movements of the people from BHS18 most possibly refers to transhumance within the mountains in the hinterland. The strontium isotope measurements on human skeletons from UAQ2 on the contrary indicate uninterrupted residence of this population on the coast. Nevertheless, evidence was found of individual mobility between inland regions and the coast.     

A possible case of ‘poll‐evil’ in an early Scythian horse skull from Arzhan 1, Tuva Republic,Central Asia

Occipital bone lesions on an Iron Age horse cranium from the burial mound of Arzhan 1, Tuva, Central Asia, are described and interpreted. Cavitations around the nuchal ligament attachment site on the skull are interpreted as foci of inflammation and necrosis following local infection. It is suggested that the pathology represents a case of ‘poll‐evil’, most likely due to a bacterial infection. The significance of such an interpretation is discussed, including its implications for disease ecology and the possible infection risks to contiguous animal and human communities of the first millennium BC in Central Asia. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“Where can we put our homes?” Gypsies and Travelers in the English Green Belt

For the past few centuries, anti-nomadic legislation has attempted to settle nomads who traveled throughout England and elsewhere in Europe, as their mobilities challenged the sedentarist goals of modern nation states. As recently as 1994, the nomadic way of life was effectively criminalized in England and Wales, revealing the unbalanced power relations between Gypsies and Travelers and the state. This article will examine and highlight the agency and spatialities of resistance of nomadic Gypsy and Traveler groups in England who are struggling for the recognition of their right to legally inhabit caravan sites in areas such as Green Belt land. The selection of places in the Green Belt for their homes offers another contested landscape that runs counter to the typical understanding of Gypsies and Travelers residing in marginalized places due to discrimination or wanting to remain unnoticed. By drawing from Gypsies and Travelers' own narratives, this article documents how they navigate through policies designed to constrain them.     

Contested landscapes of Soviet Central Asia: an ethnoarchaeological case study from Kazakhstan

A group of rectangular and circular enclosures in southwest Kazakhstan, originally thought to be prehistoric or early historical, has turned out to date from the 1950s and 1960s. They were built as livestock pens (kora) to protect rice paddies from free-grazing cattle. Rice cultivation had been introduced to the region east of the Aral Sea by deported ethnic Koreans from the Soviet Far East after the native pastoral nomadism had been destroyed by forced collectivisation in the early 1930s. This had resulted in the Great Famine of 1931–33, evidence for which is provided by refugees’ burials found on archaeological sites in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The case study illustrates an approach to the study of twentieth century contested landscapes using evidence from archaeology, ethnography, and oral history.     

Nomads of the Desert West: A shifting continuum in prehistory

The Desert West, a term first employed by Jesse D. Jennings to describe the geographic region where Desert culture evolved, is used to frame a discussion of adaptive diversity that focuses on the time period 1250 to 750 B.P. Variable pathways into and out of sedentism are explored and subsistence intensification, exchange, ideology, and warfare are discussed in relation to an adaptive mosaic of nomads and agriculturalists. I argue that a conjoint prehistory of the Great Basin and the Southwest is both possible and desirable and is needed to illuminate general social processes and major episodes of culture change affecting groups in the Desert West.     

Mobile Domiciles of the Eurasian Steppe: Archaeological Evidence of Possible Dwelling Space during the Early Iron Age

Very little precedent exists in Mongolia for excavating an ephemeral habitation site of prehistoric mobile pastoralists. This is due to an assumption that the kinds of nonpermanent structures constructed from perishable materials by mobile pastoralists (e.g., yurts) would be virtually undetectable in the archaeological record. Working in the Tarvagatai Valley of north-central Mongolia, the goal of the current research is to test the viability of methodological and analytical techniques used in the investigation of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer habitations for the purpose of identifying a mobile pastoralist domicile of the Early Iron Age. The following study presents an overview of the methodology implemented during the excavation and the analysis used to identify what appear to be indications of one of the earliest mobile structures so far identified in the Mongolian steppe.     

The Early Development of Pastoralism in the Central Zagros Mountains

This paper explores the changes in early forms of pastoralism in the West Central Zagros Mountains from village-based herding in the Neolithic period to initial stages in the formation of full-fledged nomadic pastoralism by the Late Chalcolithic period. It has been argued that the initial development of pastoralism in the Central Zagros Mountains should be viewed as an adaptive strategy to a highland environment with limited and dispersed resources in order to supplement a primarily agricultural village-based economy. With expansion of the agricultural regime, the distance to be traveled to pastures by herders became greater, and as a consequence, the organization of labor involved in herding had to be modified to meet the more complex task of moving sizable herds over larger areas. The empirical evidence for the assessment of hypotheses proposed in this paper comes from archaeological fieldwork in the Islamabad Plain in the Zagros Mountains in western Iran, as well as previous archaeological and ethnographic research in the region.