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The book review discusses "Encounters at Sea: Paper, Objects and Sentiments in Motion across the Mediterranean," which explores the cultural and sensory experiences of movements and connections at sea. The authors use an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating history, literature, archaeology, and the science of the book to examine the cultural significance of maritime travel. The review highlights the role of emotions and materiality in Mediterranean circulations and emphasizes the importance of considering the practical and emotional dimensions of sea journeys. The book also explores the role of objects in connecting peoples and cultures, as well as the transfer of knowledge through texts and images. The review praises the rich iconographic apparatus in the book, including maps, manuscripts, and drawings, which enhance the reader's understanding of the subject matter. Overall, the review suggests that maritime historians should consider the emotional and material aspects of sea travel when conducting research in related fields. [Extracted from the article]

This paper examines the hypothesis that Waun Mawn in West Wales provided the bluestone monoliths that were used at Stonehenge. Some archaeologists believe that the site supports the last remains of a giant stone circle or 'Proto Stonehenge' which was dismantled and transported to Salisbury Plain around 5000 years ago. It was claimed, after three excavation seasons at Waun Mawn in 2017, 2018 and 2021, that there is firm evidence of some standing stones which were later removed or broken up, but it has still not been demonstrated that there ever was a small stone circle here, let alone a 'giant' one. Furthermore, there have been no control studies in the neighbourhood which might demonstrate that the speculative feature has any unique characteristics. There is nothing at Waun Mawn to link this site in any way to Stonehenge, and this is confirmed by recent cited research. No evidence has been brought forward in support of the claim that 'this was one of the great religious and political centres of Neolithic Britain'. It is concluded that at Waun Mawn and elsewhere in West Wales there has been substantial 'interpretative inflation' driven by the desire to demonstrate a Stonehenge connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to explore the ways solidity and fluidity have been articulated in relation to understandings of time and the archaeological record. It reflects on the paradox that led the 17th-century Danish scholar Nicholas Steno to write one of the first discourses on stratigraphy: how can solid objects (such as fossils) occur within other solid objects (rock)? His dissertation (De solido intra solidum naturalitur contento, 1669) offered the simple solution: the containing solid was once a fluid. However, such a solution came at a cost which still haunts contemporary understanding of the archaeological record: a bifurcation of time into past and present expressed through the ideas of archaeological statics and dynamics. In addressing the way 'solid fluids' are entangled with time and archaeological stratigraphy, this paper attempts to draw novel perspectives on all three. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature and extent of past indigenous transformations in the Amazon basin is an actively debated topic, and one that has important implications for both conservation policy and the cultural heritage of its indigenous and traditional populations. The use of charcoal and phytoliths to measure past human impacts in non-lacustrine settings has become especially influential in this debate but has also generated disagreement among scholars regarding the possible limits of these proxies for detecting ancient land-use. To contribute empirical data to this issue, our paper presents the first attempt to study charcoal and phytolith signals from areas of modern indigenous land-use, in the Xingu Indigenous Territory, southern Amazonia. Our findings show that, while charcoal and early successional herb phytoliths are good indicators of land-use intensity, certain types of land-use leave subtler traces in the phytolith record that can hinder their detection. We demonstrate how using finer sampling resolution and comparing local proxy data on their own terms are necessary steps in order to identify trends in human land-use across time and space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) and related ecosystem is an icon of the southeastern United States (US). Once covering an estimated 37 million ha from Texas to Florida to Virginia, the near-extirpation of, and subsequent restoration efforts for, the species has been well-documented over the past ca. 100 years. Although longleaf pine is one of the longest-lived tree species in the southeastern US—with documented ages of over 400 years—its use has not been reviewed in the field of dendrochronology. In this paper, we review the utility of longleaf pine tree-ring data within the applications of four primary, topical research areas: climatology and paleoclimate reconstruction, fire history, ecology, and archeology/cultural studies. Further, we highlight knowledge gaps in these topical areas, for which we introduce the Longleaf Tree-Ring Network (LTRN). The overarching purpose of the LTRN is to coalesce partners and data to expand the scientific use of longleaf pine tree-ring data across the southeastern US. As a first example of LTRN analytics, we show that the development of seasonwood chronologies (earlywood width, latewood width, and total width) enhances the utility of longleaf pine tree-ring data, indicating the value of these seasonwood metrics for future studies. We find that at 21 sites distributed across the species' range, latewood width chronologies outperform both their earlywood and total width counterparts in mean correlation coefficient (RBAR = 0.55, 0.46, 0.52, respectively). Strategic plans for increasing the utility of longleaf pine dendrochronology in the southeastern US include [1] saving remnant material (e.g., stumps, logs, and building construction timbers) from decay, extraction, and fire consumption to help extend tree-ring records, and [2] developing new chronologies in LTRN spatial gaps to facilitate broad-scale analyses of longleaf pine ecosystems within the context of the topical groups presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the role and agency of British archaeologists in the discussions surrounding Egypt's construction of the Aswan High Dam beginning in the late 1950s. The dam was conceived as a grand engineering project that would create new farmland and make Egypt self-sufficient in terms of its energy needs, but flooding caused by the dam threatened to destroy numerous archaeological sites along the Nile River on the border of Egypt and Sudan. With the blessing of the Egyptian and Sudanese governments, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched a complex rescue operation in 1960 with the goal of surveying the affected sites, in some cases removing entire structures to safe locations. Despite Britain's initial reluctance—four years after the Suez crisis—to participate in a program that would benefit an avowedly hostile regime, British scientific expertise and private fundraising soon came to play an important role in UNESCO's 'Campaign for Nubia'. Using diplomatic papers and the records of various scientific bodies, I will argue that British participation in the UNESCO archaeological program was a crucial avenue for Anglo-Egyptian rapprochement during the 1960s and 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transdisciplinary project groups are promoted as a way for coping with the growing complexity of research environments. In the context of archaeology and conservation, the knowhow of practitioner-researchers in crafts has potential in supporting the reconstruction of past events as well as the material and technical background factors. As education in the arts and crafts have gradually moved from the workshops into academic institutions, artisans enter higher education and can pursue research careers. In cases where an artisan with longitudinal craft experience conducts research training in a related area, such as archaeology or conservation, we can speak of T-shaped practitioners. In this article, we will present three examples of research conducted by Scandinavian practitioner-researchers who are professional crafts practitioners in wood, but also archaeologists / conservators. We discuss the potentials of practitioner-researchers in craft for facilitating experiential knowledge transfer between project members of different disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The period from the late third millennium BC to the start of the first millennium AD witnesses the first steps towards food globalization in which a significant number of important crops and animals, independently domesticated within China, India, Africa and West Asia, traversed Central Asia greatly increasing Eurasian agricultural diversity. This paper utilizes an archaeobotanical database (AsCAD), to explore evidence for these crop translocations along southern and northern routes of interaction between east and west. To begin, crop translocations from the Near East across India and Central Asia are examined for wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) from the eighth to the second millennia BC when they reach China. The case of pulses and flax (Linum usitatissimum) that only complete this journey in Han times (206 BC–AD 220), often never fully adopted, is also addressed. The discussion then turns to the Chinese millets, Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica, peaches (Amygdalus persica) and apricots (Armeniaca vulgaris), tracing their movement from the fifth millennium to the second millennium BC when the Panicum miliaceum reaches Europe and Setaria italica Northern India, with peaches and apricots present in Kashmir and Swat. Finally, the translocation of japonica rice from China to India that gave rise to indica rice is considered, possibly dating to the second millennium BC. The routes these crops travelled include those to the north via the Inner Asia Mountain Corridor, across Middle Asia, where there is good evidence for wheat, barley and the Chinese millets. The case for japonica rice, apricots and peaches is less clear, and the northern route is contrasted with that through northeast India, Tibet and west China. Not all these journeys were synchronous, and this paper highlights the selective long-distance transport of crops as an alternative to demic-diffusion of farmers with a defined crop package. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first millennium AD was a transformative period when many of the medieval kingdoms of Europe began to take shape, but despite recent advances in palaeoecological and archaeological research there remains a shortage of interdisciplinary collaborative research targeting this period. For some regions we know relatively little about the societies who lived during this formative period. This current investigation focusses on an early medieval elite centre near to Rhynie in NE Scotland; an important power-centre during the fourth–seventh centuries AD as evidenced by a remarkable series of Class I Pictish symbol stones, fortified enclosures at Cairn more, Tap o' Noth and the Craw-Stane, as well as high status metal-working and a range of continental imports from the Craw-Stane enclosure. However, by the end of the seventh century AD, elite focus appears to have shifted elsewhere with the Craw-Stane and Cairn More enclosures all being abandoned. By combining paleoenvironmental analysis with available historical and archaeological archives this paper provides new insights into societal change during the first Millennium AD, with focus on the economic, social and environmental impacts caused by the rise and subsequent abandonment of elite nodes of power. A calibrated age of AD 260–415, near the base of the core, coincides with the earliest dates for the Craw-Stane complex and pre-dates the construction of the nearby Cairn More enclosure. The results provide a rare snapshot of the Late Roman Iron Age to Medieval environment of Northeast Scotland. This centre appears to have been supported by a rich agricultural landscape, with evidence of pastoral and arable farming, and potential metal working. One of the most significant findings of this study has revealed that despite abandonment of these elite enclosed sites by the seventh century AD, people continued to utilise the surrounding landscape and available resources right through until modern times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maya archaeology continues to be defined by a schism between ‘politic/s and state’ and ‘everyday life and ordinary people.’ Using feminist theory, this paper deconstructs this dichotomy by considering the intellectual history and theoretical perspectives that continue to reify these boundaries and its connections to modern neoliberal discourses. How we conceive of the state – of what it is, and how it interacts with the rest of society – is at the heart of neo-evolutionary models of state formation; these impact our understanding of how ancient Maya society operated and the ways in which power, politics and class function. Archaeological fascination with elites and rulers, both in scholarly and public circles, creates a narrative focused on individual achievement, and a quest for wealth and material access; values lauded by the neoliberal state. Alternative readings of complexity illustrate that everyday life of ordinary people is nuanced, intentional, and inherently political. Such work forces us to reconsider this dichotomy and recognize it as a dialectical and mutually constitutive process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper explores long-term trends in human population and vegetation change in the Levant from the early to the late Holocene in order to assess when and how human impact has shaped the region's landscapes over the millennia. To do so, we employed multiple proxies and compared archaeological, pollen and palaeoclimate data within a multi-scalar approach in order to assess how Holocene landscape dynamics change at different geographical scales. We based our analysis on 14 fossil pollen sequences and applied a hierarchical agglomerative clustering and community classification in order to define groups of vegetation types (e.g. grassland, wetland, woodland, etc.). Human impact on the landscape has been assessed by the analysis of pollen indicator groups. Archaeological settlement data and Summed Probability Distribution (SPD) of radiocarbon dates have been used to reconstruct long-term demographic trends. In this study, for the first time, the evolution of the human population is estimated statistically and compared with environmental proxies for assessing the interplay of biotic and abiotic factors in shaping the Holocene landscapes in the Levant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a special issue on The Changing Face of the Mediterranean: Land Cover, Demography, and Environmental Change, which brings together up-to-date regional or thematic perspectives on major long-term trends in Mediterranean human–environment relations. Particularly, important insights are provided by palynology to reconstruct past vegetation and land cover, and archaeology to establish long-term demographic trends, but with further significant input from palaeoclimatology, palaeofire research and geomorphology. Here, we introduce the rationale behind this pan-Mediterranean research initiative, outline its major sources of evidence and method, and describe how individual submissions work to complement one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a comparative study of land use and demographic development in northern and southern Greece from the Neolithic to the Byzantine period. Results from summed probability densities (SPD) of archaeological radiocarbon dates and settlement numbers derived from archaeological site surveys are combined with results from cluster-based analysis of published pollen core assemblages to offer an integrated view of human pressure on the Greek landscape through time. We demonstrate that SPDs offer a useful approach to outline differences between regions and a useful complement to archaeological site surveys, evaluated here especially for the onset of the Neolithic and for the Final Neolithic (FN)/Early Bronze Age (EBA) transition. Pollen analysis highlight differences in vegetation between the two sub-regions, but also several parallel changes. The comparison of land cover dynamics between two sub-regions of Greece further demonstrates the significance of the bioclimatic conditions of core locations and that apparent oppositions between regions may in fact be two sides of the same coin in terms of socio-ecological trajectories. We also assess the balance between anthropogenic and climate-related impacts on vegetation and suggest that climatic variability was as an important factor for vegetation regrowth. Finally, our evidence suggests that the impact of humans on land cover is amplified from the Late Bronze Age (LBA) onwards as more extensive herding and agricultural practices are introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human societies have been reshaping the geomorphology of landscapes for thousands of years, producing anthropogenic geomorphic features ranging from earthworks and reservoirs to settlements, roads, canals, ditches and plough furrows that have distinct characteristics compared with landforms produced by natural processes. Physical geographers have long recognized the widespread importance of these features in altering landforms and geomorphic processes, including hydrologic flows and stores, to processes of soil erosion and deposition. In many of the same landscapes, archaeologists have also utilized anthropogenic geomorphic features to detect and analyse human societal activities, including symbolic formations, agricultural systems, settlement patterns and trade networks. This paper provides a general framework aimed at integrating geophysical and archaeological approaches to observing, identifying and interpreting the full range of anthropogenic geomorphic features based on their structure and functioning, both individually and as components of landscape-scale management strategies by different societies, or "sociocultural fingerprints". We then couple this framework with new algorithms developed to detect anthropogenic geomorphic features using precisely detailed three-dimensional reconstructions of landscape surface structure derived from LiDAR and computer vision photogrammetry. Human societies are now transforming the geomorphology of landscapes at increasing rates and scales across the globe. To understand the causes and consequences of these transformations and contribute to building sustainable futures, the science of physical geography must advance towards empirical and theoretical frameworks that integrate the natural and sociocultural forces that are now the main shapers of Earth's surface processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high proportion of archaeological sites are located on the world’s shorelines and recent research has documented the vulnerability of these sites to coastal processes and climate change. However, archaeological landscapes on many temperate coasts have already been degraded as a result of changes in dune dynamics related to changes in dune vegetation. These changes have produced marked spatial and temporal variations in patterns of burial and erosion in transgressive dune systems. This paper examines the modification and conservation of archaeological landscapes from a biogeomorphic perspective, using the example of marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) invasion of dune systems in southern New Zealand. The impact of marram grass on dune system dynamics and the underlying archaeological landscape are complex. Full invasion may result in the general burial and protection of these landscapes, but the risk of degradation of sites is high during the invasion process. In southern New Zealand, marram invasion has resulted in the formation of stable foredunes, often associated with coastal progradation. Archaeological sites located close to the shoreline can be subject to either burial or erosion, or both, as marram grass establishes in the foredune zone. The spatial relationship between cultural sites and the shoreline may be lost as the coast progrades. The impact of marram invasion can extend throughout the hinterland dune system as a result of (i) dune mobility triggered by marram grass invasion and (ii) the development of a negative sand budget, which prevents or reduces beach-foredune-dune system sand exchange. The risk of degradation of the archaeological landscape can be significantly heighted by marram invasion, which can have profound implications for the preservation and interpretation of archaeological sites and materials. Paradoxically, dune system restoration may lead to the re-exposure of these sites, but the principal outcome of dune system restoration is expected to be a decline erosion (manifest as in deflation surfaces) and reburial of the archaeological landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although grateful that Berge, Edelman, Guillaume, and Rossi have engaged my essay, 'The Question of Provenance and the Economics of Deuteronomy', their critique, which speaks against my conclusions, fails to account for essential archaeological, ethnographic, and linguistic data illuminating the economic profile of the Book of Deuteronomy. The most significant lacuna is their failure to address the economic realities of the Persian period. That data, and more, is summarized here. The present essay moves past literary and historiographic presuppositions regarding the provenance of Urdeuteronomium in order to engage the economic and numismatic realia that is recoverable from Israel's world and offer an important avenue forward in deuteronomic researcḥ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In discussions of human-environmental dynamics and climate change, treatments of water usually focus on the problem of drought. Monsoon environments constitute a different set of parameters for landscape interactions because of seasonal episodes of water abundance. In this paper, we evaluate the microscale management of routine and anticipated high-water events for the ancient Indian subcontinent, where people used the monsoon cycle to engage in rice farming that in turn supported the growth of cities. Rice production would have encompassed two fluctuating inputs: rural labor, which may have become scarce when villagers left farmlands to become city dwellers; and water, the quantity of which varies dramatically on both a seasonal basis because of the monsoon and on an occasional basis because of tropical cyclones. The abundance of water (even with its risks of overabundance) encompassed numerous logistical challenges but also permitted high productivity within short distances of urban centers. The case study of the ancient city of Sisupalgarh in eastern India illustrates that high levels of productivity per land area enabled city residents to engage in short-distance economies for food production, while maintaining regional contacts through durable-goods trade to mitigate occasional episodes of crop failure in times of major flooding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying evidence for hunter-gatherers in the palaeoenvironmental record is far from simple. Despite decades of research, few studies have demonstrated unambiguous palynological evidence of hunter-gatherers. This paper presents the results of high-resolution palaeoecological analyses of a peat sequence located within the vicinity of the pre-historic Yup’ik village of Nunalleq in southwestern Alaska. The aim of this research was to examine whether there are any discernible palaeoenvironmental impacts associated with the 15th–17th century occupation of the site. Presuming an ephemeral character to any palaeoecological signal, this study selected a sampling location approximately 30 m east of the limit of archaeological remains. Pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and microscopic charcoal analysis were then used to generate a highly resolved (contiguous 1 cm) environmental history for the site. The results are striking and indicate that the activities of prehistoric Yup’ik hunter-gatherers at Nunalleq did leave a clear material trace in the palaeoenvironmental record. Through the application of high-resolution Pb210 and C14 dating and Bayesian modelling, these impacts were found to be concurrent with the occupation of the archaeological site. These findings suggest that not only can circumpolar hunter-gatherers leave a material palaeoenvironmental trace but that these traces may be used to accurately date such site activity in lieu of excavation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southwest Asia saw the emergence of large settlements in the Early Holocene, and the world’s first urban communities around 6000 years ago, with cities a feature of the region ever since. These developed in diverse environmental settings, including the dry-farming plains of Northern Mesopotamia, the irrigated alluvium of Southern Mesopotamia and the more variegated landscapes of the Levant. In this paper we use a dataset of several hundred sites dating from the earliest large sites around 12,000 years ago to the Classical period (2000 BP), to examine trends in settlement sustainability through time. We use persistence of occupation as a proxy for sustainability and compare settlement trajectories in different land use zones. Comparing cities and settlements at these spatial and temporal scales allows us to address a key question in the New Urban Agendas framework: how urban development can best be supported by sustainable use of land. We find that the highest levels of persistence were not uniformly associated with high agricultural productivity regions, and some of the longest-lived settlements are located in marginal environments, likely at critical points in transport networks. We also find that persistence is enhanced in landscapes which do not require large-scale capital investment or specific forms of economic and social organisation to maintain high levels of agricultural productivity, and that sustainability is inversely correlated with social complexity. Our results show that the millennial timescales available through archaeology can enable us to identify the political, social and ecological conditions required for large centres to persist through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have, during the Latin American spring, studied the material traces of state oppression and social movements in Temuco, Chile, and the transformation of the urban landscape with archaeological surveys. Our results demonstrate alterations in the urban landscape related to both police presence and protesters. Large amounts of teargas-projectiles and rubber bullets indicate strong police presence and repression of different social movements. We have also identified protection and resistance modes in the form of shields, paint bombs, and protective masks, often associated with graffiti's, barricades, and other alterations of the public space. Material vestiges combined with interviews have shown how state institutions have tried to cover up the traces of violence. We argue that archaeology can play a central role in this process and in recording the materiality of these events with the aim to hand over the information to human right associations to prevent state oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a defense of the concept of materiality in the face of Tim Ingold's critique of the concept as part of his "efforts to restore anthropology to life" in Being Alive and elsewhere. While acknowledging the forcefulness of Ingold's stress on the "liveliness" of materials, and doctrine of perception "as action" (not representation), it critiques the way he neuters the perceiving subject, abstracts the senses, disregards the sensuous pleasures of making, and elides the sensori-social life of things. Three case studies are presented by way of illustration: the sensorial archaeology of perception, the "exuberant materiality" of the Byzantine bas-relief metal icon, and the tactility of "ladies' craftwork" in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. In place of Ingold's ideal-typical figures – the rootless wayfarer, the skilled craftsman – this article brings out the situatedness of the human subject within a particular tradition, or sensory and social regime, and how this mediates their construction and perception of things and other persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Special Issue provides a deep-time interdisciplinary perspective on the Anthropocene and signals the importance of the Anthropocene concept in past, present, and future human–environmental relationships. This concluding article recognizes that various approaches – scientific, postmodern, catastrophist, and ecomarxist – can contribute to understanding the Anthropocene as a process and that contributions have been made by several disciplines, including Anthropology, Archaeology, Geography, History, and Politics. The critical importance of weaving together social science perspectives with those of the natural sciences is emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against a remarkable hardware oblivion in discussions of algorithmic intelligence, this article insists that algorithmic thought, or abstract computation, cannot be separated from its technological implementation. It requires a material medium for an abstract mechanism to become a procedural event. Temporality is both the condition and the limiting (and irritating) factor in the computational function. 'Radical' media archaeology is proposed as a method for such an analysis, and the neologism of techno lógos to describe some aspects of algorithmic reason which only unfold in the moment of its techno-processual coming-into-being. Some core operations, such as the time-discrete rhythm of actual computing algorithms, are discussed, where the 'tempoReal' flashes up in computing. In a wider sense, the time-discreteness of digital computing is related to an aesthetics of existence which acknowledges the machine element within human reasoning itself, while at the same time re-actualizing previous cultural techniques of non-narrative chronology. Turing the 'man' himself, in the sense of the Turing machine, can be addressed 'itself', in its archival sense as a sequence of expressions by symbols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the term 'empty tomb' is endemic in contemporary literature, it is never used in the earliest Christian materials. The term makes little sense in the light of first-century Jerusalem tombs, which always housed multiple people. One absent body would not leave the tomb empty. The gospel narratives presuppose a large, elite tomb, with multiple loculi, and a heavy rolling stone to allow repeated access for multiple burials. The gospels therefore give precise directions about where Jesus' body lay in this large tomb. Apologetic anxiety leads to the characterization of the tomb as 'new' (Matthew and John), 'in which no one had been laid' (Luke and John), but it is possible that the appearance of Mark's young man 'on the right' is significant. The anachronistic question 'Was the tomb empty?' should be replaced by the accurate question, 'How empty was the tomb?' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of archives has been a key facet of the archaeological discipline since its inception, critical in the production of knowledge from the destructive excavation that occurs in the field. The ongoing 'archival shift' within the humanities from archives as mere sources of secondary information to primary topics of research has presented new potential for the study of historic archaeological archives. This article explores the personal archives of two great scholars of Iron Age Celtic art, Paul Jacobsthal and EM Jope, held at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. Shedding new light on their engagement and interaction with the objects that they studied, the author explores the archive's power to illuminate the ways in which the scholars' methods, experiences and encounters shaped the knowledge that they produced about the past. Through presenting the archives as both primary sources of historical information and vibrant material entities, worthy of 'excavation' in their own right, the article advocates an assemblage-based archaeological approach to archival engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much writing on, first, analogue and, later, digital archives has focused on related power-dynamics and the structuring effects of archives and their technologies on discursive freedom and cultural dynamics. In recent years, however, work within the media archaeology domain, especially by Wolfgang Ernst, has addressed how the specific materialities of digital archives, and the nature of their algorithms and particular functions, could be seen to facilitate dynamics in cultures. This article sets this work in dialogue with the cultural semiotics of Juri Lotman, whose late work focused on how communicative processes between and within different subsystems of culture facilitate their dynamic change and the production of new forms and cultural systems. The article suggests further interdisciplinary dialogue between media archaeology and cultural semiotics in order to understand the role of archives in facilitating communicative processes and interlinking in culture and the emergence of novelties – that is, for understanding the 'creativity' of archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An archaeological site is a palimpsest in which the evidence of the depositional episodes is destroyed through the excavation processes; all that remains are the artefacts and their documentary evidence manifested in registers, datasets, dig diaries and reports. While the reports may represent the end product of a specific excavation, the archaeological record tells a story; it is interpretative and dynamic, with later excavations adding new knowledge and narratives. Museums preserve the artefacts but unless the documentary evidence is preserved in standard formats, it cannot be easily re-used by the archaeology community to create that knowledge; nor can museums provide the narratives for the general public whose cultural heritage it is. This article presents a case study from the Ness of Brodgar excavations that examines possibilities for reconciling one part of the data of an archaeological dig, the small finds register (SFR) and its sparse amount of descriptive metadata, with the potentiality of data re-use and with the requirements of a museum that may have custody of the artefacts. It maps and enriches messy domain-specific ontologies to standard archaeological and cultural heritage ontologies and taxonomies using simple natural language processing, linked open data and the museum CIDOC conceptual reference model (CRM). This research, in examining the application of ontology mapping tools, explores common practices and processes that are useful in any discipline within the cultural heritage domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss of context is a challenge, if not the bane, of the ritual archaeologist’s craft. Those who research ritual frequently encounter difficulties in the interpretation of its often tantalizingly incomplete material record. Careful analysis of material remains may afford us glimpses into past ritual activity, but our often vast chronological separation from the ritual practitioners themselves prevent us from seeing the whole picture. The archaeologist engaging with structured deposits, for instance, is often forced to study ritual assemblages post-accumulation. Many nuances of its formation, therefore, may be lost in interpretation. This article considers what insights an archaeologist could gain into the place, people, pace and purpose of deposition by recording an accumulation of structured deposits during its formation, rather than after. To answer this, the article focuses on a contemporary depositional practice: the love-lock. This custom involves the inscribing of names/initials onto a padlock, its attachment to a bridge or other public structure, and the deposition of the corresponding key into the water below; a ritual often enacted by a couple as a statement of their romantic commitment. Drawing on empirical data from a three-year diachronic site-specific investigation into a love-lock bridge in Manchester, UK, the author demonstrates the value of contemporary archaeology in engaging with the often enigmatic material culture of ritual accumulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fields of archaeology, art history and history, spolia have traditionally been studied as phenomena of the past. Today, the reuse of salvaged construction components and materials is primarily justified by its economic and ecological benefits, while its architectural and experiential qualities are much less discussed, if at all. Therefore, this article has two focuses, one more conceptual, and the other, more practical. Firstly, the article suggests extending the concept of spolia to contemporary architecture and discusses the usefulness of the concept in evaluating experiential values in contemporary constructions that make use of reclaimed parts. Secondly, it evaluates the potential of spoliation as a modern design tool in search of a more complex and historicity-based architectural expression. This potential is examined by defining the requirements for the extended concept and through analyzing examples of contemporary design. Although the main focus of this article is on contemporary architecture based on old building components, the topic also has obvious implications for heritage management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of a rock art site in 2008 by an amateur archaeologist spurred a wave of public interest in archaeology in Maragatería, Spain. As new discoveries took place, alternative archaeological discourses thrived facing the inaction of institutional and academic archaeologists. A long-term study of Maragatería carried out by the author serves to explore the construction of archaeological epistemic authority in a context where various social actors compete for dominance. Gieryn’s notion of ‘boundary-work’ serves to analyse the different strategies employed by academic and institutional archaeologists, amateurs and pseudoarchaeologists to build epistemic authority. This article draws on Latour’s affirmation that the legitimisation of scientific objectivity should rely on ‘trust’ rather than on ‘certainty’. Ethnographic research showed that the more archaeologists attempted to legitimise their authority by reclaiming certainty, the more pseudoarchaeology proliferated. In contrast, the work of amateurs restrained the growth of pseudoarchaeology by creating networks of trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the meaning of archaeology which is the study of the past and has to do with lighting. This is because of revelant papers in search for archeology words in the world of literature related to lighting. The author believes that before start exploring of the past, it must be needed to know where to look.

This article presents ‘the phenomenon of the phantom place’ and its occurrences. This phenomenon finds its equivalent in Merleau-Ponty’s analysis of the phantom limb, and manifests itself when a past place acquires such representational value in absentia that determines our perception of the present, tangible place. To demonstrate its occurrences and assess its importance, archaeological writing and practices are examined. First, through an examination of archaeological texts on shipwrecks, it is shown how the excavation site can be perceived as a spatiotemporal fusion of material remains (presences) and the absent functional place (the phantom) these represent. Second, the value of phantom places is shown through the investigation of a (re)constructed place; specifically a trireme. The latter case study demonstrates how the experience of places replicating past spatialities is largely affected by the obsolete functions these places served in the past. The case studies employed centre around a single spatiality, the ship. This phenomenon, however, is neither restricted to archaeologists nor specific places; it is integral to the way we perceive place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study provides a fine-grained analysis of evidence for sustained pre-Columbian human occupation and socio-ecological interaction within Everglades National Park. Utilizing archaeological data on dietary and cultural patterns recovered from recent excavations at a prehistoric tree island site, we argue the role of ancient human populations in the formation or augmentation of tree islands should be incorporated into environmental models of the tree island lifecycle. High phosphorus levels in human waste, especially the largely organic waste of prehistoric populations, as well as other anthropogenic factors have not been adequately factored into current environmental models of tree island formation or the ecological evolution of the Everglades. More broadly, while socio-ecological modeling is at the core of current scholarly and restoration paradigms, expanded collaboration between environmental scientists and archaeologists will lead to more accurate identification of anthropogenic environmental impacts over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeologists make inferences about past human behaviour based on patterned material residues in various depositional contexts, including existing landsurfaces. These deposits are generated by processes that may obscure patterns at some observational scales while highlighting others, and interpretive differences can arise from a lack of explicit models of deposit formation. Here, an exploratory agent-based model based on the concept of the palimpsest is used to examine the effects of episodic sediment transport on the visibility and preservation of surface archaeological deposits in a fluvial context. Outcomes from the model indicate that the compound influences of preservation and visibility are capable of transforming a static radiocarbon record into one of increasing intensity towards the present, while simultaneously displaying periodic chronological gaps – features that have been used in our Australian study area to argue for demographic change driven by social or environmental factors. To differentiate between interpretations, expectations derived from the model are assessed against a second proxy from the same study area: Optically Stimulated Luminescence dates from hearth stones in surface contexts. Results indicate that patterns in the chronometric proxies from the study area are more consistent with episodic geomorphic change than explanations invoking changes in the local organization of human activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnographic and archaeological data from the Mapungubwe landscape show that rainmaking deposits on hilltops, along with burnt grain bins in ordinary villages, represent cultural responses to severe drought by Iron Age agricultural communities. In ordinary villages, burnt granaries were the result of cleansing rituals, rather than violence or natural causes. A total of 13 episodes of severe droughts were previously documented in hilltop and village deposits. New climate proxy data from baobab trees provide a 1000-year-long regional record that helps to refine this drought sequence. Based on carbon isotope values, the baobab record documents additional episodes and confirms an early 14th-century drought associated with the abandonment of Mapungubwe. This abandonment, however, owed as much to cultural factors as to environmental pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Michoacán–Guanajuato Volcanic Field is the largest subduction-related monogenetic volcanic field in the world and includes more than 1000 scoria cones and a few hundred medium-sized volcanoes. Although medium-sized volcanoes (domes and shields) are less abundant, hazards associated with the renewal of this type of activity should not be neglected. Here, we focus on El Metate volcano, the morphologically youngest shield of the field. This volcano has a minimum volume of ~9.2 km3 DRE, and its viscous lava flows were emplaced during a single eruption over a period of ~30 years covering an area of 103 km2. El Metate is thus best labeled as a monogenetic andesite shield. This eruption had a significant impact on the environment (modification of the hydrological network, forest fires, etc.), and hence, nearby human populations probably had to migrate. New C14 dates for the eruption yield a young age (~AD 1250), which briefly precedes the initial rise of the Tarascan Empire (AD 1350–1521) in this region. By volume, this is certainly the largest eruption during the Holocene in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, and it is the largest andesitic effusive eruption known worldwide for this period. Such a large volume erupted in a relatively short time bears important implications for evaluating future hazards in the Michoacán–Guanajuato Volcanic Field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite evidence for the protracted presence of humans in the Amazon Basin, its vast interfluvial habitats are frequently depicted as having survived until recently as ‘wild’ landscapes with neither human settlement nor substantial human land use. Related research interests of paleoecology and archaeology share parallel histories in the development of explanatory paradigms for understanding processes contributing to neotropical ecology, as both emerged from earlier periods dominated by models based on stability and equilibrium to a contemporary advocacy of dynamic stability and change. Recent paradigms accommodate humans as keystone species and implicate their role in past and present landscape management. This is particularly important in the neotropics where it is argued that an extensive and ancient indigenous agroforestry employed intermediate disturbance in the management of interfluvial landscapes. This is contrasted with a critical discussion of recent paleoecological research in central and western Amazonia, which argues that interfluvial landscapes were devoid of pre-Columbian populations and survived as relatively pristine relic landscapes throughout most of the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature and extent of pre-Columbian (pre-AD 1492) human impact in Amazonia is a contentious issue. The Bolivian Amazon has yielded some of the most impressive evidence for large and complex pre-Columbian societies in the Amazon basin, yet there remains relatively little data concerning the land use of these societies over time. Palaeoecology, when integrated with archaeological data, has the potential to fill these gaps in our knowledge. We present a 6000-year record of anthropogenic burning, agriculture and vegetation change, from an oxbow lake located adjacent to a pre-Columbian ring ditch in north-east Bolivia (13°15′44″S, 63°42′37″W). Human occupation around the lake site is inferred from pollen and phytoliths of maize (Zea mays L.) and macroscopic charcoal evidence of anthropogenic burning. First occupation around the lake was radiocarbon dated to ~2500 calibrated years before present (BP). The persistence of maize in the record from ~1850 BP suggests that it was an important crop grown in the ring-ditch region in pre-Columbian times, and abundant macroscopic charcoal suggests that pre-Columbian land management entailed more extensive burning of the landscape than the slash-and-burn agriculture practised around the site today. The site was occupied continuously until near-modern times, although there is evidence for a decline in agricultural intensity or change in land-use strategy, and possible population decline, from ~600–500 BP. The long and continuous occupation, which predates the establishment of rainforest in the region, suggests that pre-Columbian land use may have had a significant influence on ecosystem development at this site over the last ~2000 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The connection between climatic change and social response is complex because change articulates a number of inter-related factors. Human decisions are filtered by social buffers – including social memory, risk perception, and cultural priorities – and the rate and scale of climate change is usually much larger than the scale of human decision-making. In this article, we provide information on climate change based on precisely dated speleothems with the response evident in archaeological sites that have radiocarbon date ranges within the same time frame. A stalagmite recovered from within the catchment area for aquifer recharge of the Pre-Arawak site of Angostura in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, shows that a significant wet period occurred between 3.9 and 3.1 ka (primarily centered at 3.5 ka). We investigate the effect that this increase in precipitation had on the earliest occupations on the island in the context of palaeoenvironmental, geoarchaeological, and archaeological records from Angostura, Maruca, and Paso del Indio. Our analysis suggests the presence of two different adaptation strategies: settlement relocation and microlandscape modification. Our study concludes that the social response to change cannot be seen as monolithic given that human behavior, even within the same period, addresses the needs of individual groups with different priorities. This multiplicity of responses can indeed enhance resilience as social support can continue through alliances and exchanges, strengthening social bonds that can help buffer catastrophes. The results can help shed light on the range of adaptation strategies to change encompassed within the manifestations of social resilience or vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Isle Royale, in Lake Superior, contains evidence of indigenous copper mining; however, the timing and geographical extent of mining activity is poorly known. We analyzed metal, carbon, nitrogen, and organic matter concentrations to document past mining pollution in sediment cores recovered from McCargoe Cove; a long, narrow inlet of Lake Superior on Isle Royale that receives drainage from a watershed that contains numerous ancient copper mines. At McCargoe Cove, concentrations of lead, copper, and potassium increase in the sediments after ad 1860 and between 6500 and 5400 years before ad 1950 (yr BP). Metal pollution increases at McCargoe Cove exceed natural (or background) levels and coincide with radiocarbon dates associated with copper artifacts and existing lead pollution reconstructions from lakes on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Interestingly, a coherent cessation of lead emissions at multiple study sites after ~5400 yr BP coincides with the onset of dry conditions found in regional paleoclimate proxy records. After ~5000 yr BP, lead concentrations on both Isle Royale and the Keweenaw Peninsula remain at background levels until the onset of modern lead pollution ~ad 1860. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This progress report reviews and assesses recent developments in the analysis and interpretation of palaeoecological proxies that have led to important advances in our understanding of past Quaternary environments that emerge as crucial elements of more robust and reliable predictions of future climates and their ecological implications. Recently discovered archives, or technological advances associated with the biological proxies they contain, are leading to higher resolution and more detailed reconstructions of environments in a wide range of geographical circumstances. There are also important emerging palaeoecological methodologies that enable scientists to reconstruct past environments in greater detail and to apply chronologies that are more precise and accurate. Given these developments, a variety of applications, some of which are more obviously aimed at resolving practical problems in, for example, conservation science and even archaeology, are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although archaeological analysis emphasizes the importance of climatic events as a driver of historical processes, we use a variety of environmental and archaeological data to show that human modification of the environment was a significant factor in shaping the early history of the Yellow River region of North China. Humans began to modify site-specific and local-level environments in the Early Holocene (~11,500–7000 BP). By the Mid-Holocene (~7000–5000 BP), the effects of humans on the environment become much larger and are witnessed at regional and tributary river basin scales. Land clearance and agriculture, as well as related land use, are dominant determinants of these changes. By the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age (~5000–3500 BP), population growth and intensification of agricultural production expanded the human footprint across the Yellow River region. By the Mid to Late Bronze Age (~3600–2200 BP), larger populations armed with better technology and propelled by more centralized governments were altering lands throughout the Yellow River region, gradually bringing the environment under human control. By the Early Dynastic period (221 bc–ad 220), the Yellow River region was an increasingly anthropogenic environment wherein human land management practices were, in many instances, as consequential as natural forces. Throughout the Holocene history of the Middle and Lower Yellow River, anthropogenic, climatic, and natural environmental processes were acting to shape human history and behavior, making it difficult, if not impossible, to say whether human or climate processes were more consequential. There is a complex relationship in China’s early history between natural and human forcing much like there is today. The Early Anthropocene concept is useful here because it recognizes that when natural and cultural forces become so intertwined, it no longer makes sense to separate the two. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]