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The article offers information on an archaeological hematite based pipe artifact. The topic addressed include information on the characteristics of the pipe comprising polishing of a chocolate colored hematite with a great flaring rim, constricted neck, expanded bulge at stem-hole, pointed lower end along with details on its dimensions.

From its inception, archaeology was perceived as the domain of expert practitioners of the scientific method. The history of disjuncture between archaeological site research and local community development springs from the myths of Western scientific superior knowledge. The archaeologist-scientist-expert came armed with scientific method to excavate samples and take his reports back to Europe/America for fellow scholars. The early stereotype of the negative relationship between archaeology and community was passed on from the colonial period to the era of nationalization. The new national antiquities authorities inherited the disconnection between archaeology and local communities as the status quo. Though treated in a global context, this paper focuses on the history of this stereotype in the Levant, but gives an optimistic view of the present and future trend towards greater inclusion, using the Umm el-Jimal Project as a case in point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological parks have enjoyed considerable success in both presenting excavation results to the public and, often, in benefiting local communities. While many such parks focus on large and visually impressive sites, smaller sites also can benefit from this approach to archaeological presentation. Here, we present the results of a modest park at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Ghwair I in the remote Wadi Faynan of southern Jordan. The park was constructed after several excavation seasons, and consists priamarily of a simple series of trails and signage, accompanied by a brochure in both Arabic and English. This article addresses how Ghwair I fits into broader eco-tourism of the Wadi Faynan area and examines some of the pragmatic issues that were faced, including funding and maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 25 years, an interest in 'informal economies' has grown across the social sciences, encompassing economic activities not (successfully) regulated by government. Archaeology has paralleled this interest primarily through studies of household and craft production; much of this work presumes rather than proves state control over quotidian exchanges. The smaller number of works on the riskier endeavors of piracy, smuggling, and prostitution, which we review here, underscores how weak the formal/informal duality is in application over the longue durée: Most markets are gray, not black or white. Instead of discussing the problematic category of the informal economy, we focus on illegal and illicit economies while demonstrating that the relationship between government and economy is highly variable, politically volatile, and socially embedded. We identify emerging trends in archaeology and address the hesitation to read archaeological deposits for clandestine activities by eliciting the distinct forensic patterns they leave in the material record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been intense debate over the ‘meaning’ of Lower Palaeolithic handaxe form. Handaxes date from about 1.7 million years onwards, and many show attention to elements of form such as symmetry and a conformity to the ‘golden ratio’ which go beyond immediate function. Our challenge in interpreting such patterning is that we cannot assume a ‘modern’ cognition to the makers of Acheulian handaxes nor capacities to negotiate concepts such as status or symbolism. Existing interpretations of handaxe form have been dominated by the seminal ‘sexy handaxe theory’ (Kohn and Mithen, Antiquity, 1999, 73: 518–26), which envisaged the production of handaxes as driven by sexual selection processes common to all mammal species. By contrast, it is argued here that an emerging concern with reputation building seen amongst higher primates developed within highly collaborative Acheulian societies into a concern with ‘trustworthiness’ and the expression of ‘gestures of goodwill’ to others via handaxe form. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For the most part, religiously-motivated actors become interested in archaeological findings when these findings appear to support their religious assumptions, though a small but notable minority seek clues to the ideologies and practices of their presumptive religious ancestors in the archaeological record. This involvement in archaeology can vary tremendously in depth, from trained LDS archaeologists seeking support for The Book of Mormon at Mesoamerican excavation sites, to casual references about Atlantis by ordinary participants in New Age spiritual groups. In many cases, religious appeals to the authority of archaeology to support a specific issue become inextricably bound up with appeals to the authority of tradition, in part because archaeology is brought to bear on past events that are already a part of a given tradition's sacred narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life during the first Gilded Age in the United States (1865-1925) was a time of considerable social differentiation between rich and poor. Newly arrived immigrants with little money were often relegated to substandard housing in American cities. In this study, I argue that some nonwealthy immigrants were racialized as poor, and I investigate whether this racial categorization created homogeneity in housing and material culture. I use the Five Points district in New York City as my point of investigation, confining my analysis to the late 19th century. My findings are that both tenement housing and artifact possession were generally homogeneous when the analysis is performed at the societal scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study of Pai-wan slate house settlements in Southern Taiwan. The article discusses information that can be gathered by archaeologists from studying housing structures including social rules and constraints, the flow of resources and social practices of inhabitants. The article goes on to discuss characterizations of social systems including social differentiation, centralization of power and hierarchical organization.

The article discusses the implications of scholarly research into the archaeology and history of Bokoni and neighboring regions for the study of precolonial past in southern Africa. It relates the productive potential of interdisciplinary partnerships between archaeologist Alex Schoeman and historian Peter Delius in research into the late precolonial era. It states that precolonial historians have been unpacking the histories of ethnic labels to designate historical groupings of black Africans.

In recent times critical approaches to educational policy studies have been subject to increasing interrogation over methodological issues, often by critical policy researchers themselves. In the main, their reflexive posturings have been informed by critique which proceeds that beyond brief descriptions of research logistics and a general commitment to the methodologies of a critical orientation, critical policy analyses offer few explicit accounts of the connections between the stories they tell about policy and the data used to tell them. As a way of addressing these silences, this paper proposes three methodological approaches within which to explore and explain matters of policy, each generating its own particular view of the (policy) issues worth looking for, where they can be found and how to look for them. Drawing on research into the production of Australian higher education policy during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the paper illustrates the characteristics of these approaches, referring to them as policy historiography, policy genealogy and policy archaeology. Without claiming absolute distinctions between their interests, the paper couples policy historiography with the substantive issues of policy at particular hegemonic moments, policy genealogy with social actors' engagement with policy, and policy archaeology with conditions that regulate policy formations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a response to the article "Bataille Looking," by Carrie Noland, presented in the January 1, 2004 issue of "Modernism/Modernity," commenting on the author's treatment of paleolithic archaeology through the study of the Lascaux cave paintings in France. He addresses the implications for personal agency as evidenced by the cave paintings, Noland's discussion of French intellectual Georges Bataille's, and the connection between the Lascaux cave paintings and modernist aesthetics. It particularly notes the scholarship of art's relationship to anthropology.

The article offers the authors' insights regarding the most important scientific challenges in archaeology which were composed of their own proposed challenges and from the results of the survey they conduct in the U.S. Topics discussed include challenges such as mobility, societal transformation, and personal identity, dynamics of cultural processes, and coupled natural and human systems. Also mentioned are the project steering committee, web-based survey, and synthetic research.

An introduction to the September 2013 issue of "Near East Archaeology" is presented, commenting on research presented in the issue including public outreach in archaeology, creating connections with the local community around sites in Jordan, and issues of archaeological tourism.