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.     

Settlement and social change in central Europe, 3500–1500 BC

The chronology of the period is briefly considered in the light of the dendrochronological results which have appeared in recent years. Patterns of settlement history in different parts of the area are then examined, and it is suggested that in some of them the late fourth millennium was a period of population decline which was not reversed until the Early Bronze Age, 1000 years later. Detailed information about specific local occupation patterns is provided by recent work on the circum-Alpine lake villages. Changes in cultural patterns during the period, especially the appearance of the Corded Ware, are discussed and explanations of them reviewed. It is argued that changing patterns of gender relations were a major feature of the period, linked to processes which eventually led to the development of small-scale chiefdoms. The development of copper and bronze metallurgy and its connection to these processes are discussed.     

The culture history of Madagascar

Madagascar's culture is a unique fusion of elements drawn from the western, northern, and eastern shores of the Indian Ocean, and its past has fascinated many scholars, yet systematic archaeological research is relatively recent on the island. The oldest traces of visitors are from the first century AD. Coastal settlements, with clear evidence of ties to the western Indian Ocean trading network, were established in several places over the next millennium. Important environmental changes of both plant and animal communities are documented over this period, including the extinctions of almost all large animal species. Urban life in Madagascar began with the establishment of the entrepôt of Mahilaka on the northwest coast of the island in the twelfth century. At about the same time, communities with ties to the trade network were established around the island's coasts. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, social hierarchies developed in several regions of the island. During the succeeding two centuries, Madagascar saw the development of state polities.     

史前先民的头饰习俗

依据考古发掘和文献资料,认为史前先民对头部的装饰手法多种多样,这在一定程度上反映了早期人类审美意识及淳朴的原始宗教信仰的多样化,同时也说明了古人对美的追求并非有了丰厚的物质条件才萌生的。     

The Archaeology of El Niño Events and Other “Natural” Disasters

Archaeological research on disasters has increased substantially since Sheets's 1980 review of the topic, and with heightened media coverage and funding for the study of such events, archaeological interest will continue to grow. This paper examines how prehistorians have incorporated disasters into their research since 1980, using the literature on El Niño as an illustrative case, and assesses this work in relation to geographical approaches to disaster as well as concepts that have been developed within the new ecologies.     

Prehistoric Whale Bone Technology in Southern New Zealand

Whale bone was used by Māori throughout New Zealand prehistory as an industrial resource for the manufacture of a range of artefacts. However, the selection of bone and the methods used to process it are poorly understood. This paper details the analysis of a southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) bone working floor that was excavated from a fifteenth‐century coastal fishing camp at Kahukura, on the southeast coast of New Zealand. The whale bone working floor assemblage, comprising a large quantity of debitage fragments, was used to reconstruct reduction methods and to determine the products being made at the site. Rib bones were the main element being worked, and were reduced longitudinally using a chipping technique. The intensive bone working assemblage at Kahukura represents the by‐products from primary processing. This stage focused on reducing the bones into workable portions so that they could be easily transported to another location, where they were likely further reduced into artefacts. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

POSTCOLONIALITY AND THE TWO SITES OF HISTORICITY

This essay examines the two sites of historicity, namely history‐writing and historical agency, and their interrelationship. I borrow the idea of “sites of historicity” from historian Michel‐Rolph Trouillot's Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995). For the purpose of analyzing how the relationship between the two sites changes with time and context, using Trouillot's theoretical lens, I examine the philosophies of history of Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel. By citing instances from these two philosophers, I claim that with the rise of nineteenth‐century colonialism, the two sites of historicity became discursively related in a specific way, whereby historical agency came to be predicated on history‐writing. Hence, in contrast to Kant's work, in Hegel's philosophy of history the relationship between the two sites of historicity acquired a decidedly colonialist form. As a result of this predication of historical agency on history‐writing, the alleged lack of historiography of certain cultures began to be considered as a token of their lack of political ability. The essay ends with the suggestion that the postcolonial thinkers and commentators who deal with historiography should challenge the foregoing predication, as it continues to inform contemporary thought concerning historiography.     

The Archaeology of California

Stimulated by several important, recent empirical advances, California archaeologists are engaged in a series of lively debates. These advances include new discoveries about the early peopling of western North America and sustained occupation of the California coasts as early as 12–13,000 BP. There also have been significant new developments in the role of paleoenvironmental change in cultural evolution, the emergence of long-distance interaction spheres, the presence of intensive craft specializations, and the appearance of sociopolitically complex hunter–gatherers. This article addresses these issues—and several others—with a view to the general interests of scholars worldwide. The exceptional heterogeneity of California ecosystems (from deserts to dense redwood forests to bountiful offshore islands) and the remarkable cultural diversity exhibited by the dozens of major groups who made these lands their home combine to produce a complex indigenous sociopolitical picture. Current understandings reveal myriad trajectories of cultural change across nine major subregions of the state.     

渭水流域史前陶窑分期初探

渭水流域的史前陶窑可分为老官台文化、仰韶文化半坡期、庙底沟期、西王村期和龙山时代五个时期.从形制上来看,渭水上游地区的陶窑均为横穴式,接近于渭水中下游地区的仰韶文化半坡和庙底沟期陶窑.渭水上游地区始终保持着以红陶为主的文化传统,而渭水中下游地区仰韶文化之后的庙底沟二期文化和客省庄二期文化,却一改红陶作风而大兴灰陶.陶窑结构和技术的改变可能是导致渭水上游和中下游地区自龙山时代开始陶器颜色发生变化的根本原因.     

燕山南北地区发现的史前石容器及相关问题

石容器作为我国史前考古的一种重要遗存,集中发现于燕山南北地区.本文认为,燕山南北地区舍石容器的考古遗存基本属于筒形罐文化系统;石容器不是一般的器皿,应该是祭祀或行巫术的辅助工具;我国石容器的出现,并不晚于陶器,探索其起源与文化传承,将有助于燕山南北地区史前考古的分期研究.