Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Megalithic Sites

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Megalithic Sites Feb 4th 2012, 11:09 As destinations go, megalithic sites are among the most ancient and mysterious places to visit. Places like Stonehenge and the temples at Malta are so ancient that we have no idea what the builders were thinking, what their societies were like, what their religions dictated. That's why they are so interesting! 1. The Morbihan Coast, France Andy Hay The 3000 Neolithic menhirs, dolmens, passage graves and stone rows near the town of Carnac in the Bretagne region of France are among the oldest, if not the oldest of the megalithic known in the European World. Yet, they are only one of numerous such sites on the Morbihan Coast of France. Therefore, we name Carnac and the Morbihan Coast as the #1 Megalithic Destination to visit. 2. Orkney Neolithic Heartland, Scotland chatirygirl On the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland can be found the Standing Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar and the Neolithic ruins of the Barnhouse Settlement and Skara Brae, make the Orkney Heartland our #2 spot for the top five megalithic sites in the world. 3. Megalithic Tombs of Malta and Gozo Glen Bowman # 3 on our list of all-time great Megalithic sites to visit is the Mediterranean Islands of Malta and Gozo, colonized by the Neolithic farmers around 4000 BC. 4. Boyne Valley, Ireland Dylerpillar The Brugh na Bóinne (Boyne Valley) of Ireland has several large megalithic tomb sites, including Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth, and Four Knocks; together they rate #4 on our all-time greatest megalithic sites to visit. 5. Stonehenge, England Sarah Casha The quintessential megalithic site for the western world, and #5 on our countdown of the world's greatest megalithic sites, is Stonehenge, where every solstice, modern day druids still celebrate the end of winter.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: What Controversy?

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What Controversy? Feb 4th 2012, 11:09 Kennewick Man Table of Contents | Part 1: What is the Kennewick Man Controversy About? | Part 2: What is a Caucasoid? The Kennewick Man news story is one of the most important archaeology stories of modern times. The discovery of Kennewick Man, the vast amount of public confusion over what he represents, the Federal government's attempt to settle the case out of court, the suit pressed by scientists, the objections raised by the Native American community, the rulings of the court and, eventually, the analysis of the remains; all of these issues have affected how scientists, Native Americans, and the Federal governmental bodies conduct work and how that work is scrutinized by the public. This series was begun in 1998, after the news program Sixty Minutes broke the story in a 12 minute segment. Normally, twelve minutes is generous for an archaeology story, but this is not a 'normal' archaeology story. The Discovery of Kennewick Man In 1996, there was a boat race on the Columbia River, near Kennewick, in Washington State, in the extreme northwestern United States. Two fans pulled ashore to get a good viewpoint of the race, and, in the shallow water at the edge of the bank, they found a human skull. They took the skull to the county coroner, who passed it to archaeologist James Chatters. Chatters and others went to the Columbia and retrieved a nearly complete human skeleton, with a long, narrow face suggestive of a person of European descent. But the skeleton was confusing to Chatters; he noticed that the teeth had no cavities and for a 40-50 year old man (the most recent studies suggest he was in his thirties), the teeth were extremely ground down. Cavities are the result of a corn-based (or sugar-enhanced) diet; grinding damage usually results from grit in the diet. Most modern people don't have grit in their food, but do consume sugar in some form and so do have cavities. And Chatters spotted a projectile point embedded in his right pelvis, a Cascade point, normally dated between 5,000 and 9,000 years before the present. It was clear that the point had been there while the individual was alive; the lesion in the bone had partially healed. Chatters sent off a bit of the bone to be radiocarbon dated. Imagine his astonishment when he received the radiocarbon date as over 9,000 years ago. That stretch of the Columbia River is maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers; that same stretch of the river is considered by the Umatilla tribe (and five others) as part of their traditional homeland. According to the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act, signed into law by President George H. W. Bush in 1990, if human remains are found on federal lands and their cultural affiliation can be established, the bones must be returned to the affiliated tribe. The Umatillas made a formal claim to the bones; the Army Corps agreed with their claim and began the process of repatriation. Unresolved Qustions But the Kennewick man problem isn't that simple; he represents a part of a problem which archaeologists have yet to solve. For the past thirty years or so, we've believed that the peopling of the American continent took place around 12,000 years ago, in three separate waves, from three separate parts of the world. But recent evidence has begun to indicate a vastly more complicated settlement pattern, a steady influx of small groups from different parts of the world, and probably somewhat earlier than we had assumed. Some of these groups lived, some may have died out. We just don't know; and Kennewick Man was considered too important a piece of the puzzle for archaeologists to let him go unanalyzed without a fight. Eight scientists sued for the right to study the Kennewick materials prior to their reburial. In September 1998, a judgment was reached, and the bones were sent to a Seattle museum on Friday, October 30th, to be studied. That wasn't the end of it of course. It took a protracted legal debate until researchers were allowed access to the Kennewick Man materials in 2005, and results finally began to reach the public in 2006. The political battles over the Kennewick man were framed in a large part by people who want to know to what "race" he belongs. Yet, the evidence reflected in the Kennewick materials is further proof that race is not what we think it is. The Kennewick man, and most of the Paleo-Indian and archaic human skeletal materials that we've found to date are not "Indian," nor are they "European." They don't fit into ANY category that we define as a "race." Those terms are meaningless in prehistory as long ago as 9,000 years--and in fact, if you want to know the truth, there are NO clearcut scientific definitions of "race." Kennewick Man Table of Contents | Part 1: What is the Kennewick Man Controversy About? | Part 2: What is a Caucasoid?

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Uluburun

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Uluburun Feb 4th 2012, 11:09 Uluburun is the name of a Late Bronze Age ship, wrecked off the coast of Turkey near Kas in the 14th century BC, six miles from the coast and 50 meters below the water's surface. Archaeologists believe the ship originated in coastal Syria-Palestine, based on the crew's belonging, and may in fact have come from Ugarit, the largest coastal port in Syria of the day. Uluburun (not its original name) was a trade ship, carrying both raw materials and finished merchandise including glass, copper and tin ingots, elephant tusks, Egyptian ebony, hippopotamus teeth, terebinth resin, and ostrich eggs; dendrochronology pins the construction date to 1306 BC. Artifacts on board are from nearly every Mediterranean civilization of the time, including Canaanite jars and jewelry, Egyptian scarabs and faience, Mycenaean beads, Cypriot pottery, Mesopotamian shell rings. Food stuffs on board included olives, almonds, safflower, grapes, figs, pomegranates, wheat and barley. Also included in the wreck were raw glass ingots from the flourishing glass trade. A recent study of mouse bones found on board the wreck supports earlier contentions that one of Uluburun's last stops before sinking was the port city of Ugarit (Minet el Beida) in Syria. Excavations at the wreck were conducted beginning in 1984 by a research team led by Texas A&M's Institute of Nautical Archaeology, and directed by Cemal Pulak and George F. Bass. Sources The Uluburun website is excellent. Bachhuber, Christoph 2006 Aegean Interest on the Uluburun Ship. American Journal of Archaeology 110(3):345-364. Cucchi, T. 2008 Uluburun shipwreck stowaway house mouse: molar shape analysis and indirect clues about the vessel’s last journey. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(11):2953-2959. Evrin, V., et al. 2002 Stone anchors from the Mediterranean coasts of Anatolia, Turkey: underwater surveys and archaeometrical investigations. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 31(2):254-267. Pulak, Cemal 1998 The Uluburun shipwreck: an overview. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 27(3):188-224. Stern, B. et al. 2008 New investigations into the Uluburun resin cargo. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(8):2188-2203. Ward, Cheryl 2003 Pomegranates in Eastern Mediterranean Contexts during the Late Bronze Age. World Archaeology 34(3):529-541.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Waking the Baby Mammoth

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Waking the Baby Mammoth Feb 4th 2012, 11:09 After her discovery, Lyuba was transferred to the city of Salekhard in Russia and stored at the Salekhard museum of natural history and ethnology. She was temporarily shipped to Japan where a computed tomography scan (CT Scan) was conducted by Dr. Naoki Suzuki at the Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo Japan. The CT scan was conducted ahead of any other investigation, so that researchers could plan a partial autopsy with as little disturbance of Lyuba's body as possible. The CT Scan revealed that Lyuba was in good health when she died, but that there were large amounts of mud in her trunk, mouth and trachea, suggesting that she may have suffocated in soft mud. She had an intact "fat hump", a feature used by camelsâ€"and not a part of modern elephant anatomy. Researchers believe the hump regulated heat in her body. Additional Sources Waking the Baby Mammoth: A Video Review Domestication of Reindeer Mammoths and Mastodons National Geographic: Waking the Baby Mammoth Domestication of Reindeer Oxana Kharuchi's Nenets Page

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Scenes from Paradise

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Scenes from Paradise Feb 4th 2012, 11:09 Image 05.18. Mosaic of Lion, 3rd century-5th century A.D. Unknown Roman artist, found in Tunis, Tunisia. 28 7/16 x 6 13/16 in. (72.2 x 17.3 cm). Museum Collection Fund, Brooklyn Museum This photo essay is from the 2006 exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, which included a collection of Roman mosaics recovered from the 3rd century AD Jewish synagogue at Naro, Tunisia. The mosaics, showing natural, religious and personal images, exemplify a little-known way of life, that of wealthy Jewish citizens of the late Roman empire in Africa. Tree of Paradise at the Brooklyn Museum Carthage

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Copán

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Copán Feb 3rd 2012, 11:08 Copán, called Xukpi by its residents, rises out of the mist of western Honduras, in a pocket of alluvial soil amid rugged topography. It is arguably one of the most important royal sites of the Maya civilization. Occupied between AD 400 and 800, Copán covers over 50 acres of temples, altars, stelae, ball courts, several plazas and the magnificent Hieroglyphic Stairway. The culture of Copán was rich in written documentation, today including detailed sculptural inscriptions, which is very rare in precolumbian sites. Sadly, many of the books--and there were books written by the Maya, called codices--were destroyed by the priests of the Spanish invasion. Explorers of Copán The reason we know so much of the inhabitants of the site of Copán is the result of five hundred years of exploration and study, beginning with Diego García de Palacio who visited the site in 1576. During the late 1830s, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood explored Copán, and their descriptions, and particularly Catherwood's illustrations, are still used today to better study the ruins. Stephens was a 30-year-old attorney and politician when a doctor suggested he take some time off to rest his voice from speech making. He made good use of his vacation, touring around the globe and writing books about his travels. One of his books, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, was published in 1843 with detailed drawings of the ruins at Copán, made by Catherwood with a camera lucida. These drawings captured the imaginations of scholars the world over; in the 1880s, Alfred Maudslay started the first excavations there, funded by Harvard's Peabody Museum. Since that time, many of the best archaeologists of our time have worked at Copán, including Sylvanus Morley, Gordon Willey, William Sanders and David Webster, William and Barbara Fash, and many others. Translating Copan Work by Linda Schele and others has concentrated on translating the written language, which efforts have resulted in the recreation of the dynastic history of the site. Sixteen rulers ran Copán between 426 and 820 AD. Probably the most well-known of the rulers at Copán was 18 Rabbit, the 13th ruler, under whom Copán reached its height. While the level of control held by the rulers of Copán over the surrounding regions is debated among Mayanists, there can be no doubt that the people were aware of the populations at Teotihuacan, over 1,200 kilometers away. Trade items found at the site include jade, marine shell, pottery, sting-ray spines and some small amounts of gold, brought from as far away as Costa Rica or perhaps even Colombia. Obsidian from Ixtepeque quarries in eastern Guatemala is abundant; and some argument has been made for the importance of Copán as a result of its location, on the far eastern frontier of Maya society. Daily Life at Copan Like all of the Maya, the people of Copán were agriculturalists, growing seed crops such as beans and corn, and root crops such as manioc and xanthosoma. Maya villages consisted of multiple buildings around a common plaza, and in the early centuries of the Maya civilizations these villages were self-supporting with a relatively high standard of living. Some researchers argue that the addition of the elite class, as at Copán, resulted in the impoverishment of the commoners. Copán and the Maya Collapse Much has been made of the so-called "Maya collapse," which occurred in the 9th century AD and resulted in the abandonment of the big central cities like Copán. But, recent research has shown that as Copán was being depopulated, sites in the Puuc Region such as Uxmal and Labina, as well as Chichen Itza were gaining population. David Webster argues that the "collapse" was merely a collapse of the ruling elites, probably as a reuslt of internal conflict, and that only the elite residences were abandoned, and not the entire city. Good, intensive archaeological work continues at Copán, and as a result, we have a rich history of the people and their times. Sources This glossary entry is part of the Guide to the Maya Civilization and the Dictionary of Archaeology. A brief bibliography has been assembled and a page detailing the Rulers of Copán is also available.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Kerma (Sudan)

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Kerma (Sudan) Feb 3rd 2012, 11:08 Kerma is the name of a kingdom and cultural group in the Sudanese Nubia, known as Kush or Kushite to the Egyptians. Kerma grew out of the A-Group culture (or pre-Kerma) during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (ca 2000-1600 BC). More on the Kushite Kingdom Egypt Timeline The City of Kerma The capital of Kerma was one of the first African urban centers, located in the Northern Dongola Reach of northern Sudan above the 3rd cataract of the Nile. Kerma was occupied between about 2500-1500 BC. Kerma was both a political and religious capital. A large necropolis with approximately 30,000 burials is located four kilometers east of the city, including four massive royal tombs where rulers and their retainers were often buried together. These tombs are large mounds of earth and stone, called defuffas, two of which are associated with temples. Politically, Kerma allied itself against the Egyptians with the Hyksos, and were a powerful group to be contended with. Kerma Civilization The Kerma culture, called Kush or Kushite by the Egyptians, was the first Nubian state, situated between the fourth and fifth cataracts of the Nile River in what is now the Sudan, between 2500 and 1500 BC. Early Kerma society was agricultural in nature and had round hut dwellings with distinctive circular tombs. Later Kerma developed into a foreign trade-based society with mud-brick architecture, dealing in ivory, diorate, and gold. Archaeologists traditionally recognize three phases to Kerma, particularly when referring to the differences between burials. Ancient Kerma, 2500-2050 BC Middle Kerma, 2050-1750 BC Classic Kerma 1750-1500 BC Archaeological Research at Kerma British archaeologist George Reisner excavated at Kerma in the first decade of the twentieth century. Recent excavations have been conducted at Kerma by the Swiss Archaeological Mission in Nubia. Recent investigations by A.H. Thompson et al. have included stable isotope analysis of the individuals excavated from the cemetery by Reisner. These investigations have identified some evidence for status differentiation, and also suggest that Kerma was cosmopolitan, with a population made up of people from many different places. Sources This glossary entry is a part of the guide to Kushite Kingdom, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Bonnet, Charles. 1995. Archaeological Excavations at Kerma (Soudan): Preliminary report for 1993-1994 and 1994-1995 campaigns. Les fouilles archeologiques de Kerma, Extrait de Genava (new series) XLIII: I-X. Gillis R, Chaix L, and Vigne J-D. 2011. An assessment of morphological criteria for discriminating sheep and goat mandibles on a large prehistoric archaeological assemblage (Kerma, Sudan). Journal of Archaeological Science 38(9):2324-2339. Thompson, A. H., L. Chaix, and M. P. Richards. in press. Stable isotopes and diet at Ancient Kerma, Upper Nubia (Sudan). Journal of Archaeological Science.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Taliban vs the Buddha

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Taliban vs the Buddha Feb 3rd 2012, 11:08 In March 2001, six months before the September 11th bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City, the Taliban destroyed two ancient statues of the Buddha called Bamiyan in an attempt to cleanse the country of Afghanistan of what they perceived as Hindu heresy. An Old Story To be perfectly blunt, this is an old story. New landowners of a country move in and do their best to obliterate all traces of the conquered and now minority population. Former cultural monuments, particularly if they are of a religious nature, are pulled down, and monuments for the new group built, frequently right on the top of the foundations of the old. The old languages are forbidden or limited, along with other cultural phenomena such as marriage customs, rites of initiation, even food taboos. The reasons the conquerors give for this trashing of the old ways and structures are varied, and include everything from modernization to saving the souls of the recently conquered. But the purpose is the same: to destroy the remnants of a culture which represents a threat to the new dominance. It happened in 16th century AD in the New World civilizations; it happened in Caesar's Rome; it happened in the dynasties of Egypt and China. It's what we as humans do when we are afraid. Destroy things. An Ominous Warning So, it shouldn't have been as shocking as it was, to see the Taliban in Afghanistan blast two enormous 3rd and 5th century AD statues of Buddha to powder with anti-aircraft guns. "We are not against culture but we don't believe in these things. They are against Islam," the Taliban's Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil is reported to have said. The Taliban has never been known for a generosity of spirit or interest in cultural diversity, and as I say, the erasure of the past to protect the present is an old story. As archaeologists, we’ve seen evidence of it hundreds, maybe a thousand times. But the Taliban's destruction of the two Bamiyan Buddha statues was still painful to watch; and today it is recognized as an ominous forewarning of the Taliban's distaste of anything other than their own set of extremist Islamic values.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Mammoths

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Mammoths Feb 3rd 2012, 11:08 Definition: Mammoths (Mammuthus primogenus) were a species of ancient extinct elephant. Mammoth adults were about 10 feet tall at the shoulder, with long tusks and a coat of long reddish or yellowish hair--which is why you'll sometimes see them described as woolly mammoths. They roamed Northern Europe and, eventually, North America. Mastodons (Mammut americanum) were also ancient, enormous elephants, slightly smaller (6-10 feet tall), no hair, and restricted to the North America continent. Both of these megafauna died out at the end of the Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, as part of the great megafaunal extinction. They were hunted by people, and various archaeological sites have been found around the world where the animals were killed and/or butchered. Mammoths and mastodons were exploited for meat, hide, bones, and sinew for food and other purposes, including house construction. Mammoth kill sites Murray Springs (USA), Naco site (USA) Sources Review of NatGeo documentary Waking the Baby Mammoth Photo Essay Lyuba, the Baby Mammoth Mammoth Bone Huts Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions Megafaunal Extinctions Trivia Quiz Haynes, Gary 2002 The catastrophic extinction of North American mammoths and mastodonts. World Archaeology 33(3):391-416. Kunz, Michael L., Daniel H. Mann, Paul E. Matheus, and Pamela Groves 1999 The life and times of Paleoindians in arctic Alaska. Arctic Research of the United States 13(Spring/Summer):33-39. Wojtal, Piotr and Krzysztof Sobczyk 2005 Man and woolly mammoth at the Kraków Spadzista Street (B) â€" Taphonomy of the site. Journal of Archaeological Science 32(2):193-206. This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst. Examples: Naco site, Arizona; Manis site, Washington; many many others.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Out of Africa Hypothesis

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Out of Africa Hypothesis Feb 2nd 2012, 11:08 Definition: The Out of Africa or African Replacement Hypothesis argues that every living human being is descended from a small group in Africa, who then dispersed into the wider world displacing earlier forms such as Neanderthal. Major proponents of this theory are led by Chris Stringer. The Out-of-Africa theory was bolstered in the early 1990s by research on mitochondrial DNA studies by Allan Wilson and Rebecca Cann which suggest that all humans ultimately descended from one female: the Mitochondrial Eve. Leaving Africa: Three Theories Multiregional Theory Out of Africa Theory Southern Dispersal Route Sources Gabunia, Leo, et al. 2001 Dmanisi and dispersal. Evolutionary Anthropology 10:158-170. Klein, Richard G. 2008 Out of Africa and the Evolution of Human Behavior. Evolutionary Anthropology 17:267-281. Rightmire, G. P. 2000 Middle Pleistocene humans from Africa. Human Evolution 15(1-2):63-74. Rose, Jeffrey I. 2004 The Question of Upper Pleistocene Connections between East Africa and South Arabia. Current Anthropology 45(4):551-555. Straus, Lawrence G. 1999 Iberia: Bridge or cul-de-sac? Implications of the Iberian record for the debate on the middle to upper paleolithic transition. Human Evolution 14(1-2):139-149. Also Known As: African Replacement Hypothesis

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Faience

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Faience Feb 2nd 2012, 11:08 The term faience comes from a kind of brightly-colored glazed earthenware developed during the Renaissance in France and Italy. The word is derived from Faenza, a town in Italy, where factories making the tin-glazed earthenware called majolica (also spelled maiolica) were prevalent. Majolica itself derived from North African Islamic tradition ceramics, and is thought to have developed, oddly enough, from the region of Mesopotamia in the 9th century AD. Faience-glazed tiles decorate many buildings of the middle ages, including those of the Islamic civilization, such as the Bibi Jawindi tomb in Pakistan, built in the 15th century AD, or the Timuid dynasty (1370-1526) Shah-i-Zinda necropolis in Uzbekistan, which you can see if you click on the hippo illustration. Ancient Faience Ancient or Egyptian faience, on the other hand, is a completely manufactured material created perhaps to imitate the bright colors and gloss of hard-to-get gems and precious stones. Called the "first high-tech ceramic", faience is a siliceous vitrified and glost ceramic, made of a body of fine ground quartz or sand, coated with an alkaline-lime-silica glaze. It was used in jewelry throughout Egypt and the Near East beginning about 3500 BC. Forms of faience are found throughout the Bronze Age Mediterranean, and faience objects have been recovered from archaeological sites of the Indus, Mesopotamian, Minoan, and Egyptian civilizations. Scholars suggest, but are not completely united, that faience was invented in Mesopotamia in the late 5th millennium BC and then imported to Egypt. Evidence for the 4th millennium BC production of faience has been found at the Mesopotamian sites of Hamoukar and Tell Brak. Faience objects have also been discovered at predynastic Badarian (5000-3900 BC) sites in Egypt. Faience was an important trade item during the Bronze Age; the Uluburun shipwreck of 1300 BC had over 75,000 faience beads in its cargo. Faience continued as a production method throughout the Roman period into the first century BC. Ancient Faience Manufacturing Practices Types of objects formed out of ancient faience include amulets, beads, rings, scarabs, and even some bowls. Faience is considered one of the earliest forms of glass making. Recent investigations of Egyptian faience technology indicate that recipes changed over time and from place to place. Some of the changes involved using soda-rich plant ashes as flux additives--flux helps the materials fuse together at high temperature heating. Basically, component materials in glass melt at different temperatures, and to get faience to hang together you need to moderate the melting points. However, Rehren has argued that the differences in glasses (including but not limited to faience) may have to do more with the specific mechanical processes used to create them, rather than varying specific admixture of plant products. The original colors of faience were created by adding copper (to get a turquoise color) or manganese (to get black). Around the beginning of glass production, about 1500 BC, additional colors were created including cobalt blue, manganese purple and lead antimonate yellow. Glazing Faience Three different techniques for producing faience's glazes have been identified to date: application, efflorescence, and cementation. In the application method, the potter applies a thick slurry of water and glazing ingredients (glass, quartz, colorant, flux and lime) to an object, such as a tile or pot. The slurry can be poured or painted on the object, and it is recognized by the presence of brush marks, drips and irregularities in thickness. The efflorescence method involves grinding quartz or sand crystals and mixing them with various levels of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and/or copper oxide. This mixture is formed into shapes such as beads or amulets, and then the shapes are exposed to heat. During heating, the formed shapes create their own glazes, essentially a thin hard layer of various bright colors, depending on the particular recipe. These objects are identified by stand marks where the pieces were placed during the drying process and variations in glaze thickness. The cementation method or Qom technique (named after the city in Iran where the method is still used), involves forming the object and burying it in a glazing mixture consisting of alkalis, copper compounds, calcium oxide or hydroxide, quartz and charcoal. The object and glazing mixture are fired at ~1000 degrees Centigrade, and a glaze layer forms on the surface. After firing, the left-over mixture is crumbled away. This method leaves a uniform glass thickness, but it is only appropriate for small objects such as beads. Replication experiments reported in 2012 (Matin and Matin) reproduced the cementation method, and identified calcium hydroxide, potassium nitrate, and alkali chlorides are essential pieces of the Qom method. Sources This glossary entry is a part of the guide to Glass Making, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Charrié-Duhaut A, Connan J, Rouquette N, Adam P, Barbotin C, de Rozières M-F, Tchapla A, and Albrecht P. 2007. The canopic jars of Rameses II: real use revealed by molecular study of organic residues. Journal of Archaeological Science 34:957-967. De Ferri L, Bersani D, Lorenzi A, Lottici PP, Vezzalini G, and Simon G. 2012. Structural and vibrational characterization of medieval like glass samples. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 358(4):814-819. Matin M, and Matin M. 2012. Egyptian faience glazing by the cementation method part 1: an investigation of the glazing powder composition and glazing mechanism. Journal of Archaeological Science 39(3):763-776. Olin JS, Blackman MJ, Mitchem JE, and Waselkov GA. 2002. Compositional Analysis of Glazed Earthenwares from Eighteenth-Century Sites on the Northern Gulf Coast. Historical Archaeology 36(1):79-96. Rehren T. 2008. A review of factors affecting the composition of early Egyptian glasses and faience: alkali and alkali earth oxides. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(5):1345-1354. Shortland A, Schachner L, Freestone I, and Tite M. 2006. Natron as a flux in the early vitreous materials industry: sources, beginnings and reasons for decline. Journal of Archaeological Science 33(4):521-530. Tite MS, Manti P, and Shortland AJ. 2007. A technological study of ancient faience from Egypt. Journal of Archaeological Science 34:1568-1583. Tite MS, Shortland A, Maniatis Y, Kavoussanaki D, and Harris SA. 2006. The composition of the soda-rich and mixed alkali plant ashes used in the production of glass. Journal of Archaeological Science 33:1284-1292. Walthall JA. 1991. Faience in French colonial Illinois. Historical Archaeology 25(1):80-105. Waselkov GA, and Walthall JA. 2002. Faience Styles in French Colonial North America: A Revised Classification. Historical Archaeology 36(1):62-78.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Ropes and Cables found at Wadi Murabba'at

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Ropes and Cables found at Wadi Murabba'at Feb 2nd 2012, 11:08 The archaeological site of Wadi Murabba'at is located about 11 miles from Qumran, also in the northern Judean desert near the shores of the Dead Sea. In three caves at Murabba'at were discovered more scrolls, including letters which report the events related to the Bar Kokhba revolt, and mention the leader of the uprising, Shimon Ben Kosiba. This revolt, also called the Second Jewish Revolt against the Romans, took place CE 132-35. Additional scrolls dating to the first centuries BCE and CE have been found at Masada (which was famously stormed by the Romans early in CE 74) and the Cave of the Letters, which include the personal documents of a young woman named Babatha, who hid them from the Romans in CE 132. Primary Source Jodi Magness, 2002. The Archaeology of the Dead Sea Scrolls. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, Michigan. For More Information Archaeology of the Dead Sea Scrolls Pacific Science Center Exhibition: The Dead Sea Scrolls The Israeli Antiquities Authority Cave of Letters: Ancient Refuge in the Holy Land, from NOVA

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Archaeology: Most Popular Articles: Dog Domestication

Archaeology: Most Popular Articles These articles are the most popular over the last month. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Dog Domestication Feb 2nd 2012, 11:47 Dog history is really the history of the partnership between dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and humans. That partnership is based on human needs for help with herding and hunting, an early alarm system, and a source of food in addition to the companionship many of us today know and love. Dogs get companionship, protection and shelter, and a reliable food source out of the deal. But when this partnership first occurred is at the moment under some controversy. Dog history has been studied recently using mitochondrial DNA, which suggests that wolves and dogs split into different species around 100,000 years ago: but whether humans had anything to do with that, no one really knows. Recent mtDNA analysis (Boyko et al.), suggests that the origin and location of dog domestication, long thought to be in east Asia, is in some doubt. European Paleolithic Dogs Over the past few years, scholars investigating new excavations and old collections from several Upper Paleolithic sites in Europe and Eurasia have continued to find canid skulls which appear to have some aspects related to domestic dogs, while still retaining some wolf-like characteristics. In some of the literature, these are referred to as European Paleolithic dogs, even though they include some in Eurasia, and they tend to date to just before the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum in Europe, ca 26,500-19,000 calendar years BP (cal BP). The oldest dog skull discovered to date is from Goyet Cave, Belgium. The Goyet cave collections (the site was excavated in the mid-19th century) were examined recently (Germonpré and colleagues, 2009) and a fossil canid skull was discovered among them. Although there is some confusion as to which level the skull came from, it has been direct-dated by AMS at 31,700 BP. The skull most closely represents prehistoric dogs, rather than wolves. The study examining the Goyet cave also identified what appears to be prehistoric dogs at Chauvet Cave (~26,000 bp) and Mezhirich in the Ukraine (ca 15,000 years BP), among others. In 2012, the same scholars (Germonpré and colleagues 2012) reported on collections from the Gravettian Predmostí cave in the Czech Republic, which contained two more EP dogs between 24,000-27,000 BP. One EP dog reported in 2011 (Ovodov and colleagues) was from Razboinichya Cave, or Bandit's Cave, in the Altai mountains of Siberia. This site has problematic dates: the same excavation layer returned radiocarbon dates ranging between 15,000-50,000 years. The skull itself has elements of both wolf and dog, and, say scholars, similarities to Goyet, but its dating too is problematic, with AMS dating no more precise than "older than 20,000 years". Debate continues in the literature whether these early skulls represent "domesticated dogs", or rather a wolf in transition to a dog, and that the physical changes seen in the skulls (consisting primarily of the shortening of the snout) may have been driven by changes in diet, rather than specific selection of traits by humans. That transition in diet could well have been partly due to the beginnings of a relationship between humans and dogs, although the relationship might have been as tenuous as animals following human hunters to scavenge, rather like the behavior that is believed to have existed between humans and cats. You could argue that cats never have been domesticated, they just take advantage of the mice we attract. Evidence of a Certain Domestication Partnership A burial site in Germany called Bonn-Oberkassel has joint human and dog interments dated to 14,000 years ago. The earliest "nobody-argues-about-it" domesticated dog was found in China at the early Neolithic (7000-5800 BC) Jiahu site in Henan Province. European Mesolithic sites like Skateholm (5250-3700 BC) in Sweden have dog burials, proving the value of the furry beasts to hunter-gatherer settlements. Danger Cave in Utah is currently the earliest case of dog burial in the Americas, at about 11,000 years ago. Dogs as Persons A reanalysis (Losey and colleagues 2011) of dog burials dated to the Late Mesolithic-Early Neolithic Kitoi period in the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia suggests that in some cases, dogs were awarded "person-hood" and treated equal to fellow humans. A dog burial at the Shamanaka site was of a male, middle-aged dog (probably a husky) which had suffered injuries to its spine, injuries from which it recovered. The burial, radiocarbon dated to ~6200 years ago (cal BP), was interred in a formal cemetery, and in a similar manner to the humans within that cemetery. Losey and colleagues believe the dog may have lived with its human family at Shamanaka. A wolf burial at the Lokomotiv-Raisovet cemetery (~7300 cal BP) was also an older adult male. The wolf's diet (from stable isotope analysis) was ungulates, and although its teeth were worn, there is no direct evidence that this wolf was part of the community. Nevertheless, it too was buried in a formal cemetery. These burials are exceptions, but not that rare: there are others, but there is also is evidence that people of the Kitoi culture (late Mesolithic fisher-hunters in Baikal) consumed dogs and wolves, as their burned and fragmented bones appear in refuse pits. Losey and associates suggest that these are indications that Kitoi hunter-gatherers considered that at least these individual dogs were "persons". Haplotypes and Grey Wolves A recent study led by Robert Wayne (vonHoldt et al., below) at UCLA and appearing in Nature in March 2010 reported that dogs appear to have a higher proportion of wolf haplotypes from grey wolves native to the Middle East. That suggests, contrary to earlier studies, that the middle east was the original location of domestication. What also showed up in this report was evidence for either a second Asian domestication or a later admixture with Chinese wolves. Dog History: When Were Dogs Domesticated? It seems clear that dog domestication was a long process, which started far longer ago than was believed even as recently as 2008. Based on evidence from Goyet Cave in Belgium, Chauvet cave in France, and Predmosti in Czech Republic, the dog domestication process probably began as long ago as 35,000 years, although the oldest evidence for a broader relationship, a working relationship, is at the Bonn-Oberkassel site, 14,000 years ago. The story of dog domestication is still in transition itself. Evidence for the appearance of breed variation is found in several European Upper Paleolithic sites. Medium-sized dogs (with wither heights between 45-60 cm) have been identified in Natufian sites in the Near East (Tell Mureybet in Syria, Hayonim Terrace and Ein Mallaha in Israel, and Pelagawra Cave in Iraq) dated to ~15,500-11,000 cal BP). Medium to large dogs (wither heights above 60 cm) have been identified in Germany (Kniegrotte), Russia (Eliseevichi I) and Ukraine (Mezin), ~17,000-13,000 cal BP). Small dogs (wither heights under 45 cm) have been identified in Germany (Oberkassel, Teufelsbrucke and Oelknitz), Switzerland (Hauterive-Champreveyres), France (Saint-Thibaud-de-Couz, Pont d'Ambon) and Spain (Erralia) between ~15,000-12,300 cal BP. See Pionnier-Capitan et al for more information. Sources Thanks to researchers Bonnie Shirley and Jeremiah Degenhardt for fruitful discussions about dogs and dog history. This article is part of the Guide to the History of Animal Domestication. Akey JM, Ruhe AL, Akey DT, Wong AK, Connelly CF, Madeoy J, Nicholas TJ, and Neff MW. 2010. Tracking footprints of artificial selection in the dog genome. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(3):1160-1165. Boyko AR, Boyko RH, Boyko CM, Parker HG, Castelhano M, Corey L, Degenhardt J, Auton A, Hedimbi M, Kityo R et al. 2009. Complex population structure in African village dogs and its implications for inferring dog domestication history. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Early Edition). Bozell JR. 1988. Changes in the role of the dog in Proto-historic Pawnee culture. Plains Anthropologist 33(119):95-111. Germonpré M, Láznicková-Galetová M, and Sablin MV. 2012. Palaeolithic dog skulls at the Gravettian Predmostí site, the Czech Republic. Journal of Archaeological Science 39(1):184-202. Germonpré M, Sablin MV, Stevens RE, Hedges REM, Hofreiter M, Stiller M, and Despré VR. 2009. Fossil dogs and wolves from Palaeolithic sites in Belgium, the Ukraine and Russia: osteometry, ancient DNA and stable isotopes. Journal of Archaeological Science 36(2):473-490. Losey RJ, Bazaliiskii VI, Garvie-Lok S, Germonpré M, Leonard JA, Allen AL, Anne Katzenberg M, and Sablin MV. 2011. Canids as persons: Early Neolithic dog and wolf burials, Cis-Baikal, Siberia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30(2):174-189. Morey DF. 2006. Burying key evidence: the social bond between dogs and people. Journal of Archaeological Science 33:158-175. Morey DF, and Wiant MD. 1992. Early holocene domestic dog burials from the North AmericanMidwest. Current Anthropology 33(2):225-229. Ovodov ND, Crockford SJ, Kuzmin YV, Higham TFG, Hodgins GWL, and van der Plicht J. 2011. A 33,000-Year-Old Incipient Dog from the Altai Mountains of Siberia: Evidence of the Earliest Domestication Disrupted by the Last Glacial Maximum. PLoS ONE 6(7):e22821. Open Access Pionnier-Capitan M, Bemilli C, Bodu P, Célérier G, Ferrié J-G, Fosse P, Garcià M, and Vigne J-D. 2011. New evidence for Upper Palaeolithic small domestic dogs in South-Western Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(9):2123-2140. Pluskowski A. 2006. Where are the Wolves? Investigating the Scarcity of European Grey Wolf (Canis lupus lupus) Remains in Medieval Archaeological Contexts and its Implications. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 16:279â€"295. Snyder LM. 1991. Barking mutton: Ethnohistoric, ethnographic, archaeological, and nutritional evidence pertaining to the dog as a native American food resource on the Plains. In: Purdue JR, Klippel WE, and Styles BW, editors. Beamers, Bobwhites, and Blue-Points: Tributes to the Career of Paul W Parmalee. Springfield: Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers Vol. 23. p 359-378. White CD, Pohl MED, Schwarcz HP, and Longstaffe FJ. 2005. Isotopic Evidence for Maya Patterns of Deer and Dog Use at Preclassic Colha. Journal of Archaeological Science 28(1):89-107. vonHoldt BM, Pollinger JP, Lohmueller KE, Han E, Parker HG, Quignon P, Degenhardt JD, Boyko AR, Earl DA, Auton A et al. 2010. Genome-wide SNP and haplotype analyses reveal a rich history underlying dog domestication. Nature 464(7290):898-902.

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Archaeology: Upper Paleolithic Site of Abri Pataud

Archaeology Get the latest headlines from the Archaeology GuideSite. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Upper Paleolithic Site of Abri Pataud Feb 1st 2012, 10:21 Abri Pataud is an important Upper Paleolithic cave site located at the base of a bluff in the Dordogne valley of south central France, one of several sites in this part of France that can be seen by visitors. Abri Pataud excavations. Photo by Semhur Pataud (the "abri" just means "cave") has fourteen occupations dated between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago, including crucial Gravettian and Aurignacian occupations with lots of evidence for Upper Paleolithic art work--drawings, paintings, carvings, personal ornaments, even a venus figurine. Best of all, it was excavated by Hallam Movius in the 1950s and 1960s. By all accounts, Movius did a stellar piece of excavation and recording, particularly for his era, and although his notes are as yet unpublished, they are extensive enough to be used to support modern scholarly research sixty years later. Read my summary of research at Abri Pataud Plan your visit to the museum

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Archaeology Quiz: The Tomb of Shi Huangdi

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Archaeology Quiz: The Tomb of Shi Huangdi Jan 31st 2012, 11:08 Archaeology Quiz Stumped? The answers can be found here: The Tomb of Shi Huangdi For More Games, Visit About Archaeology's Puzzles and Games [an error occurred while processing this directive]

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