Assessing Surface Correspondence and Trade of Maya Figurines and Moulds Using Multi‐Stripe Laser Technology and Metrology*

One of the most intriguing questions for archaeologists studying clay artefacts concerns technologies employed in their manufacture and whether standardization can be demonstrated through traditional ceramic analysis. Visual comparisons and mechanical measurements have been used to determine correlations and infer standardization. Using a laser multi‐line scanner and software developed to quantify Hausdorff distances between vertices in 3D surfaces, we analysed sample collections of figurines and moulds from Belize, Mexico and Honduras. The results indicated that this procedure was a more precise indicator of common source and standardization in moulded clay artefacts. This method provided data relevant to assessing the scope of ancient trade networks and the nature of social and economic relationships that existed among the ancient inhabitants of Mesoamerica.     

从桃花山唐墓出土的青瓷俑看唐初的服饰和音乐制度

本通过对湖南桃花山唐墓出土的54件青瓷俑的分析,结合已有考古发掘成果与历史献相互印证,反映了唐代初年在民族大融合的前提下,各种化兼收并蓄,社会习俗发生了急剧变化,服饰和音乐制度亦在承袭前代基础上得到空前发展,形成了唐初特有的开放浪漫风格：衣着开放,胡服盛行,女着男装,并出现汉胡服饰相互结合的新的服饰款式一窄袖短襦下束宽大博广的长裙,农服上开始以钮扣装饰;汉胡乐器在乐队中同时出现,且数量上相互抗衡。墓中出土的伎乐俑是一支演奏“龟兹乐”的官府乐队俑,属坐部伎范畴,是唐代初年“燕乐”发展与繁荣的实物见证。     

秦俑陶片的偏光显微分析研究

为了预防性保护和修复秦俑,必须掌握秦俑残片显微结构及其烧制环境、破损方式,从而为改善秦俑修复工艺、筛选修复材料提供基础,运用偏光显微镜对秦兵马俑残片中的一些矿物质(石英、长石、云母等)颗粒的分布形态和含量来分析陶土的成分结构、制作工艺、烧成气氛及原料来源等信息。结果表明,秦俑陶片主要成分为少量砂屑及大量粘土,而粘土为岩土矿风化的产物,秦俑残片裂痕较多的部位风化、酥粉痕迹明显。秦俑制作工艺以模为主,模、塑结合,并在粘土中添加了细砂,多于还原气氛中烧制而成。     

Exploration of Basel Mission Company shipwreck remains at St George's Reef off Goa, West Coast of India: impact of the Basel Mission Co. on society and culture

A systematic exploration of shipwrecks has been carried out in Goa waters since 1997. Exploration off St George's Reef has brought to light the remains of a shipwreck at a depth of 15 m, containing various types of terracotta artefacts intended for house construction. Basel Mission Tile Works 1865' is impressed on bricks, roof and floor tiles. Study shows that the company was active in manufacturing terracotta and exported it to Africa, Australia, Borneo, Sumatra, and other countries. It has been renamed 'Comtrust', and is still producing terracotta using the same techniques. The impact of the Basel Mission Co. on society and culture is discussed. A study of finds of wrecks in the Mangalore and Calicut areas was undertaken.     

The Women of Brassempouy: A Century of Research and Interpretation

  The discovery of female figurines at Brassempouy in the 1890's would launch more than a century of debate and interpretation concerning Paleolithic representations of women. The figurines emerged from the ground into a colonial intellectual and socio-political context nearly obsessed with matters of race. This early racial interpretive frame would only be replaced in the mid 20th century, when prehistorians turned to questions such as fertility and womanhood. The first figurines were discovered in 1892 under rather tortured circumstances in which their very ownership was the subject of a heated dispute between Edouard Piette and Emile Cartailhac. Their toxic relationship would lead Piette, in his subsequent excavations, to be extremely precise about issues of stratigraphic and spatial provenience. Piette's publications and archives enabled Henri Delporte to confirm the Gravettian attribution of the figurines and have allowed the present author to create a map of their spatial distribution within the site. Technological and microscopic analysis of the Brassempouy figurines resolves some lingering questions about the sex of certain of the figurines and suggests an original context of figurine fabrication and the abandonment of unsuccessful sculpting attempts.

Other ways to examine the finances behind the birth of Classical Greece

Although the birth of Classical Greece is often attributed to the constitutional reforms of Cleisthenes (508/507 BCE), the achievement of an economically minded government under the Peisistratid tyrant Hippias (527–510 BCE) potentially paved the way by advancing Athenian silver for exportation in international trade. It is proposed here that new silver technology, which initiated the transition from acquiring silver from ‘dry’ silver ores to silver-bearing lead ores, was introduced to Greece during the time of the Peisistratids (561–510 BCE). Massive exploitation of silver-bearing lead ores at Laurion in Attica, which later financed the construction of a war navy, appears evident in the lead pollution records of Greenland ice, lead isotopic analyses of sixth-century BCE Attic silver coins and late Iron Age Levantine hacksilver, and is reflected in the numbers of lead votive figurines at sanctuaries in Sparta. Against the backdrop of the threat of war with Persia and an imminent Spartan invasion which resulted in the overthrow of Hippias (510 BCE), it is considered that a political transition occurred because Greece was both geologically and politically disposed to adopt this labour-intensive silver technology which helped to initiate, fund and protect the radical social experiment that became known as Classical Greece.     

Scientific investigation of the paint and adhesive materials used in the Western Han dynasty polychromy terracotta army,Qingzhou, China

A royal tomb of early period of the Western Han dynasty (206 B.C–8 A.D) was excavated by archaeologists in Qingzhou County, Shandong Province in 2006. Over 2000 polychromy terracotta soldiers, horses, chariots, servants etc. were unearthed from the tomb. All the terracotta figures are one quarter or one sixth as large as the livings, most of them were painted with well designed patterns. In order to gain complete information about the materials and techniques used for the polychromy on the terracotta army, five samples from the painted areas were taken. In addition, one sample from the area to adhere one leg to the ploychromy horse body was also obtained. The analytical techniques applied include XRF, FTIR, Py-GC/MS and GC/MS. Chinese purple, cinnabar, lead red and ochre were used as pigments, while animal glue was identified as binding medium and adhesive in the polychromy terracotta army in the Han Dynasty. The results definitely will provide new evidence about the materials and technologies used in Han Dynasty. Especially, the binding medium identified is different in comparison with Qin Shihuang's terracotta army (259–210 BC).     

A neolithic case of down syndrome?*

Abstract

The aim of the study is to draw attention to the existence of a Neolithic figurine from Greece with characteristics compatible with Down syndrome. We have reviewed the relevant medical and archaeological literature, and we have compared photographs of the figurine with photographs of a patient with typical Down syndrome (DS). From the above data we conclude that the 7000 years old artefact may well be the most ancient representation of the disease in Western civilisation.     

山东青州香山西汉墓彩绘陶俑胶接材料研究

本文利用x射线荧光、红外光谱、热裂解气相色谱质谱（Vy-GC-MS）和气相色谱质谱（GC-MS）,对山东青州香山西汉墓出土彩绘陶俑紫色、红色和褐色彩绘层中使用的胶接材料,以及取自马腿与马身粘接处的胶接物进行了分析。分析结果显示彩绘颜料以及马腿粘接物中的有机物均为动物胶。此研究结果为同一时期此类陶质彩绘文物的胶接材料研究提供了很好的借鉴。