PROFESSOR V. GORDON GHILDE, who died in the Blue Mountains of his native Australia in 1957 soon after retiring from the Directorship of the London University Institute of Archaeology, was one of the great pre-historians of the world. More perhaps than any other man he showed how by using the data won by archaeologists and natural scientists it was possible to gain a new view of what constituted human history. Inevitably some of the books in which he summarized, with brilliant mastery of detail, the current situation in different fields of prehistoric archaeology have begun to lose something of their value for modern students. The general works in which he opened up new and often vast perspectives on the other hand are in many cases classics that repay constant re-reading and are likely to retain their value for a long time to come. Of these one of the most important is the present volume, originally published in 1941 and last revised in 1954.
This paper presents the results of the quantitative and taphonomic study of the archaeofaunal materials belonging to the Mammalia Class, coming from the Isla El Disparito site (Iberá System, Corrientes). The study area is dated to 1000 years BP. The taphonomic characteristics observed indicate that various natural variables acted on the bone complex, but do not allow us to infer that they were responsible for its accumulation, unlike anthropic agents. Furthermore, a greater proportion of the recorded variables linked to the dynamics of the markedly hydrophilic depositional environment in which the materials were deposited. The results also indicate that species dependent on the fluvial environment, especially those of small to medium size (-i.e. rodents), would have been the most exploited during the late Holocene by the hunter-gatherer-fisher groups settled in the sector under study. Among them, the presence of specimens corresponding to Myocastor coypus (Molina, 1782) was highlighted.
Seyyed Kamal Asadi Ojaei, Rahmat Abbasnejad Seresti, Christopher Thornton
et al.
The timing and process of Neolithisation in Eastern Mazandaran have been a topic of debate amongarchaeologists, as the Southern Caspian littoral is regarded as a likely route for the spread of Neolithic culture toCentral Asia. Until recently, there was no reliable evidence connecting this region to the Pottery Neolithic (PN)sites of Central Asia (Djeitun Culture). However, an archaeological field survey conducted in 2021 at the site ofTappeh Fakhi has provided direct evidence of Djeitun pottery in this region. Since the processes of endogenousor exogenous Neolithisation and domestication in Eastern Mazandaran remain controversial, sites such as TappehFakhi can shed light on the issues we are facing. When compared to adjacent regions such as the Central Plateau,Shahrud Plain, Gorgan Plain, Khorasan Region, and Western Central Asia, the Neolithic sherds found at TappehFakhi suggest a chronology beginning in the final 7th millennium BCE. In contrast, the Chalcolithic sherds indicatethat the site continued to be occupied until the end of the 5th millennium BCE. During the field survey, two potentialpaths for the introduction of the Djeitun culture to Eastern Mazandaran were considered: one from the southernslopes (Shahrud region) to the northern part of the Alborz mountains, and another through the Gorgan plain. Giventhe location of Tappeh Fakhi, it appears to be a significant site that connects the two cultures, i.e. the Djeitun andCaspian Neolithic Software, likely through the Gorgan Plain. This paper will summarise the known aspects of thePN in Eastern Mazandaran and its inter-regional interactions.
: Este estudio se orienta a las interpretaciones del modo de vida de los pobladores de la localidad de Sierra Chica, partido de Olavarría, en el período comprendido desde 1850 y fines del siglo XIX, sumado al relevamiento arqueológico y al análisis del material cultural producto de sus múltiples actividades. En la campaña arqueológica de 2013 se produce el hallazgo en estratigrafía de una estructura de piedra como posible acueducto o estructura hidráulica y su relación con la distribución de diversos muros de piedra, canteras, líneas de postes, en el sitio Gregorini 1 (SG1), en el paraje “combate de Sierra Chica de 1855” y los sitios Sierra Chica (SCH), Sierra Chica A (SCHA, Sierra Chica B (SCHB) y Molino Viejo (SMV). Esto permite reforzar propuestas del ámbito de la denominada arqueología en momentos históricos: las huellas del trabajo en diversas rocas, su relación en el paisaje con las canteras, la minería local, la explotación de los recursos naturales, especialmente las fuentes de agua y los asentamientos en antiguos canales del arroyo. Todo esto nos aproximó a proponer la prospección arqueológica de posibles sitios de aprovisionamiento de materias primas líticas en un lugar monumentalizado como “Combate de Sierra Chica de 1855”. La propuesta analiza diversos temas desde una mirada macro de los modos de actividad de los pobladores relacionados con los aportes de la arqueología de la arquitectura, del paisaje y de la etnohistoria, centrados en momentos de la consolidación del Estado Nación a finales del Siglo XIX, en la (“frontera del desierto” y de la inmigración eurocriolla, marco ambiental en el cual tuvieron lugar diversas tácticas y estrategias humanas.
El artículo busca exponer los principales rasgos de la concepción de antigüedad contenidos en la Introduction à l´histoire universelle creada por Jules Michelet en el siglo XIX, para lo cual se utiliza principalmente una metodología analítica aplicada al texto, complementada por una de carácter sistémico que permite ubicarla en el contexto de la época en que fue escrita. La búsqueda de aquel objetivo hizo posible que las siguientes páginas estén divididas en dos partes dedicadas, la primera, a establecer los aspectos básicos del autor y su obra; y la segunda, a señalar tres asuntos: primero, la noción de historia antigua contenida en aquella obra del sabio francés; segundo, la manera en que éste desarrolló sus ideas sobre cada pueblo tratado en sus líneas sobre la antigüedad; y tercero, las frecuentes alusiones a hechos de esta época contenidas en su explicación de las posteriores etapas de la historia universal.
Prezentowany szkic stanowi głos w dyskusji na temat dwóch drewnianych masek z Opola, będących w ostatnim czasie przedmiotem zainteresowania Kamila Kajkowskiego (2021). Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przede wszystkim zwrócenie uwagi na sposoby badania i budowania interpretacji źródeł archeologicznych w kontekście poznania przedchrześcijańskich wierzeń tradycyjnych oraz rekonstruowania elementów obrzędowych związanych z tym systemem. Zostały również ukazane wątpliwości dotyczące sposobów badania przeszłego sacrum, z perspektywy kultury nowożytnej oraz dzisiejszej racjonalności.
Auxiliary sciences of history, Prehistoric archaeology
Martin Vojtas, Jakub Těsnohlídek, Michaela Prišťáková
et al.
On the Slovak side of the Carpathian mountains, the archaeology of the First World War had long been completely outside the scope of research interest. At the same time, conflicts in this region had played a very important role in the initial phase of the war. Here, the Austro-Hungarian army blocked the invasion of the Russian army into Hungary with all its might. This lack of attention changed in the last decade with surveys conducted by our team from Masaryk University. In this short overview we describe and evaluate our main research conclusions so far based on surveys conducted at sites bearing the names of the hills of Staviská, Kobyla, Cingov and Wertyszów. Each of the sites is a place where various military events took place, so we have applied different, mostly non-destructive, methods to their study. Our results are mostly an introduction to the state of research and a review of a decade of expeditions to this unique field of conflict, where the armies learned how to fight in mountainous areas.
This research embarks on an archaeological investigation of the sixty-eight fresh documented unexcavated Neolithic and Megalithic sites scattered throughout Kashmir Valley, India. Focused on three key aspects - landscape, settlement patterns, and material culture, the study aims to unveil the hidden historical treasures of this region. By employing advanced archaeological techniques and methodologies, the research seeks to shed light on the enigmatic past of Neolithic and Megalithic cultures that once thrived in this diverse geographical area. Through the analysis of artifacts, and geographical data, the study endeavours to reconstruct the ancient lifestyle, social and technological dynamics, and cultural exchanges that shaped the valley as a significant cultural crossroads between South and Central Asia. The findings of this investigation have the potential to deepen our understanding of the historical interconnections from prehistoric times of the region and contribute to the broader knowledge of human history and cultural evolution in the Indian subcontinent. In essence, this study analyses the archaeological material culture related to the designation of locations as human habitations during Neolithic and Megalithic cultures, their distribution over the Kashmir Valley topography, and the contextualisation of this knowledge within Kashmir and neighbouring archaeology. The main goal of the current study is to offer first-hand information of the sites reported during the new survey to get a general understanding of site types and to document their physical characteristics based on the comparison of material culture. This study has tried to use the knowledge to gain a deeper understanding of how people settled in the Valley throughout history, with particular reference to the Neolithic and Megalithic Periods. Only three out of sixty-eight Neolithic sites are excavated, and this study is a comparative analysis of the material culture, Landscape and Settlement pattern documented from these unexplored and unexcavated Neolithic sites across the Valley of Kashmir.
María Juana López Medina, Francisco Pérez Martinez
En el presente artículo analizamos la presencia de terra sigillata hispánica tardía meridional (TSHTM) en los yacimientos del Valle Alto del río Almanzora (Almería) durante la Antigüedad Tardía (ss. IV-VIII) a partir de los datos del proyecto de prospección “Estudio del proceso histórico durante la Prehistoria y la Antigüedad en la cuenca del Alto Almanzora”. Para ello se tiene en cuenta la relación de estas vajillas finas regionales con la estructura del poblamiento, sus canales de distribución y la importación de cerámicas finas procedentes del Norte de África, especialmente la terra sigillata africana C y D. Su comparación estadística marca unas tendencias similares a contextos de excavaciones en el Sureste peninsular.
The village of Qleiaat, in the Mount Lebanon, has recently been the centre of archaeological activities aimed at studying late prehistoric and Early Bronze Age vestiges. But from the very beginning this research has also tried to investigate with purely archaeological means the remains of the recent past of the village, especially the pithoi used in the 19th-20th centuries for food storage, and the ruins left by violent clashes that took place in Qleiaat at the end of the Lebanese civil war. Through a reflection on the possibility of reconstructing physical frontiers starting from the archaeology of fossil techniques, this paper applies to a recent case-study an approach used until now only for prehistoric material culture. The aim is to recognize the frontier between the militias having clashed in Qleiaat in 1988-1990 on the basis of the chaînes opératoires of the pithoi.
This paper identifies a significant interpretive issue for prehistoric archaeology: distinguishing adult ritual actions from the activities of children in the archaeological record. Through examining ethnographic accounts of recent hunter-gatherer children and reconsidering archaeological patterns and assemblages in light of these data, we explore how the results of children’s play can be—and likely have been—misinterpreted by archaeologists as evidence for adult ritual behavior in prehistoric contexts. Given that children were a significant component of past hunter-gatherer (and other) societies, the fact that the material components of their activities overlap tremendously with items used in adult rituals must be routinely considered by archaeologists if we are to reconstruct robust understandings of past peoples all over the globe.
M. Murillo-Barroso, E. Peñalver, Primitiva Bueno
et al.
Provenancing exotic raw materials and reconstructing the nature and routes of exchange is a major concern of prehistoric archaeology. Amber has long been recognised as a key commodity of prehistoric exchange networks in Europe. However, most science-based studies so far have been localised and based on few samples, hence making it difficult to observe broad geographic and chronological trends. This paper concentrates on the nature, distribution and circulation of amber in prehistoric Iberia. We present new standardised FTIR analyses of 22 archaeological and geological samples from a large number of contexts across Iberia, as well as a wide scale review of all the legacy data available. On the basis of a considerable body of data, we can confirm the use of local amber resources in the Northern area of the Iberian Peninsula from the Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age; we push back the arrival of Sicilian amber to at least the 4th Millennium BC, and we trace the appearance of Baltic amber since the last quarter of the 2nd Millennium BC, progressively replacing Sicilian simetite. Integrating these data with other bodies of archaeological information, we suggest that the arrival of Baltic amber was part of broader Mediterranean exchange networks, and not necessarily the result of direct trade with the North. From a methodological perspective, thanks to the analyses carried out on both the vitreous core and the weathered surfaces of objects made of Sicilian simetite, we define the characteristic FTIR bands that allow the identification of Sicilian amber even in highly deteriorated archaeological samples.
Se presentan los primeros resultados específicos del análisis de la práctica alfarera del valle de Anfama durante el primer milenio de la era partir de análisis morfo-estilísticos, petrográficos y de DRX. La presencia de dos ocupaciones diacrónicas superpuestas en el sitio El Sunchal, una primera datada entre 2000 AP y 1600 AP, y otra de 1100 AP aproximadamente permiten el abordaje de los materiales desde una perspectiva comparativa. Las indagaciones de carácter macro y microscópico permitieron identificar aspectos tecnológicos que variaron temporalmente y otros que se mantuvieron relativamente estables. A partir de los resultados obtenidos y en función de la tensión entre continuidad e innovación que se observa en los habitus prácticos, se amplía el concepto de tradición tal como fue planteado en trabajos antecedentes para la alfarería de la región Sudcalchaquí.
Hearths were constructed and used at Paleolithic cave and rockshelter sites in Africa, Europe and Asia as early as the late Lower Paleolithic period. The advantages of the use of fire have been widely researched for the last decades. However, only a few studies have focused on the possible negative impact of the use of fire within closed spaces, such as caves. One of the major negative fire products is smoke, which has an immediate, as well as long-term, effect on humans and may even prevent cave occupation after a short period. In this study we propose a basic air circulation model based on thermodynamics to represent smoke ventilation in caves. We employ this model to shed light on the relationship between smoke dispersal and cave structure, opening dimensions, hearth characteristics, and seasonal temperature fluctuations. We further show that hearth location was crucial in allowing humans to occupy prehistoric caves while using fire on a regular basis. We present preliminary insights from specific case studies, demonstrating the potential of understanding smoke ventilation in reconstructing the hearth season of use and location within the cave.