Ancient Occupation Research Articles

LEGACIES OF CHANGE: THE SHAPING OF CULTURAL LANDSCAPES IN A MARGINAL MEDITERRANEAN MOUNTAIN RANGE, THE GARRAF MASSIF, NORTH‐EASTERN SPAIN

SummaryHuman conceptions of landscape have influenced the shaping of landscapes as much as landscape configurations have modelled human perceptions. In this article a new theoretical approach to long‐term cumulative landscape change is tested on the Garraf Massif (Baix Llobregat, north‐eastern Spain). Thanks to its ancient occupation, physical character and location near to the city of Barcelona, the area provides a good illustration of how human‐induced landscape change has shaped new, and sometimes conflicting, landscape perceptions. These perceptions then play an equally active role in altering the previously ‘inherited landscape’ in a long‐term cyclical process that can be studied through the combined use of historical, palaeoenvironmental and archaeological records.

Phosphate fractionation and spatial patterning in ancient ruins: A case study from Yucatan

Abstract As time passes, phosphorus (P) in soils tends to become more tightly bound with minerals. Phosphate fractionation enables the measurement of loosely versus tightly bound P. Archaeologists have used P fractionation as a chronometric technique: older soils should have greater proportions of P tightly bound with minerals. Research at Chunchucmil, a large Maya ruin in Yucatan, Mexico, has used extractable P concentrations and other lines of evidence to investigate ancient uses of space. Because contemporary Maya villagers use the land among the Chunchucmil ruins in a number of ways, and because the ancient land surfaces are neither sealed nor deeply buried, we used P fractionation to determine whether geochemical signatures of activities such as gardening resulted from ancient or modern inhabitants. The fractionation results at Chunchucmil are unusual in comparison to studies from other sites. Furthermore, there are strong correlations between the sum of P fractions and carbonate. We discuss potential explanations for these patterns in P fractionation data. These explanations consider local pedology, differential length of ancient occupation, and localized dumping of the byproducts of maize processing. To examine the chemical signatures of maize processing, specifically soaking maize in lime water, contemporary samples of sediments and residues from this activity were analyzed. Our results suggest that dumping water from maize soaking provides a potential explanation for the ancient P patterns.

Molecular phylogeny and diversification history of Prosopis (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae)

The genus Prosopis is an important member of arid and semiarid environments around the world. To study Prosopis diversification and evolution, a combined approach including molecular phylogeny, molecular dating, and character optimization analysis was applied. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred from five different molecular markers (matK-trnK, trnL-trnF, trnS-psbC, G3pdh, NIA). Taxon sampling involved a total of 30 Prosopis species that represented all Sections and Series and the complete geographical range of the genus. The results suggest that Prosopis is not a natural group. Molecular dating analysis indicates that the divergence between Section Strombocarpa and Section Algarobia plus Section Monilicarpa occurred in the Oligocene, contrasting with a much recent diversification (Late Miocene) within each of these groups. The diversification of the group formed by species of Series Chilenses, Pallidae, and Ruscifoliae is inferred to have started in the Pliocene, showing a high diversification rate. The moment of diversification within the major lineages of American species of Prosopis is coincident with the spreading of arid areas in the Americas, suggesting a climatic control for diversification of the group. Optimization of habitat parameters suggests an ancient occupation of arid environments by Prosopis species. © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 93, 621–640.

Um estudo de Arqueologia Regional no médio curso do rio Tocantins, TO, Planalto Central brasileiro

Este artigo apresenta alguns dos resultados da pesquisa realizada na bacia do córrego Água Fria, médio curso do rio Tocantins, TO, Brasil. Teve como objetivo identificar os sistemas de assentamento dos grupos sociais que ocuparam a área ao longo do tempo e a forma como esses grupos organizaram o espaço interno de suas áreas de habitação e de atividades. Isso implicou na realização de levantamentos sistemáticos em âmbito regional e intervenções nos 38 sítios arqueológicos identificados. Como resultado elaboramos um modelo interpretativo de organização e uso deste espaço desde há 12.000, quando inicia a ocupação da área por grupos de caçadores e coletores, até o advento dos grupos ceramistas agricultores. Suas conclusões contribuem para as discussões sobre as rotas de povoamento antigo e o surgimento, deslocamentos e crescente complexidade sociopolítica que teria ocorrido entre as sociedades de ceramistas agricultores do Brasil Central e das regiões vizinhas.

Exploring the ancient occupation of a high altitude site (Lake Lauzon, France): Comparison between pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs

Next to Lus-la-Croix-Haute (Southern Alps, Drôme, France), Lake Lauzon is located in a small basin 1980 m above sea level, 500 m above the actual timberline, in the middle of typical sub-alpine grasslands. A drilling for samples in the wetland area bordering the lake made it possible to obtain a core of clayey fine sediments with a high organic matter content, in which pollen as well as many micro-organisms had been particularly well preserved. The pollen analysis and the non-pollen palynomorhs analysis both cover a period from ca. 8000 cal. BP to sub-recent time. The pollen analysis reveals the presence of a thriving forest vegetation dominated by Abies, and the first signs of human activity near the lake and its nearby basins in the Atlantic period. These signs become more pronounced during the Sub-boreal period from 5450 cal. BP on, with the clear presence of cereal and weed pollen. This evolution is totally confirmed by the non-pollen palynomorphs. Since the Neolithic, every time pollen analysis points to clearings or cultivation, the non-pollen palynomorphs indicate that man has burnt the vegetation to obtain openings (occurrence of Chaetomium sp.). Increased erosion during the Sub-atlantic period is revealed by the occurrence of Glomus cf. fasciculatum. Furthermore, non-pollen palynomorphs give information on eutrophication of the lake which may be explained by more nutrient-rich habitats around the lake due to grazing and possibly agriculture. The combination of both types of analysis makes it possible to prove that this elevated site has been occupied and cleared at an early stage by man to obtain pasture lands and possibly arable land. This led to deforestation, which increased during the Sub-atlantic period, and has led to the present grasslands.

The Spell of Oral History: A Case Study from Northern Igboland

My case study is taken from the northern Igbo of Nigeria and focuses on the village-group of Ihuwe, which name is today rendered as Ihube— thanks to its Anglicization during the period of colonial rule. This not-withstanding, the people still call themselves “Ihuwe,” the form I use in this paper. The Northern Igbo area, especially the area around Awka, Orlu, and Okigwe, is commonly regarded as the heartland of Igbo culture and civilization. Ihuwe, in that portion of old Okigwe Division known today as Okigwe Local Government Area (LGA), lies in a region of southern Nigeria that has been identified as having witnessed human activity from very early times, at least from the period of Acheulean culture. It also lies on the geographically and historically prominent Nsukka-Udi-Okigwe cuesta, which archeology tells us entered the Iron Age quite early in African history, no later than about the eighth century BCE. We are thus dealing with one of the areas of ancient human occupation, as well as an area known for its dense demographic profile. It is these features–early human settlement and occupation with its attendant consequence of severely attenuated oral history, dense demographic profile, and being the cradle land of Igbo culture—that help to define the Northern Igbo and mark them out from the Western, Eastern, Southern, and North-Eastern Igbo, believed to be relatively more recent descendants from them.Perhaps another feature that calls for mention here is their political culture. Although, like their other Igbo kinsmen, they could boast of having evolved only micro-, and therefore weak, states (what social anthropologists of the colonial period refused to refer to as states), they had their own special model of these micro-states.

Excavations at Techiman, Brong-Ahafo Region, Ghana

GHANA STUDIES / Volume 8 ISSN 1536-5514 / E-ISSN 2333-7168© 2007 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 39 EXCAVATIONS AT TECHIMAN, BRONG-AHAFO REGION, GHANA J. BOACHIE-ANSAH Background and Introduction In September, 2005, Raymond A. Silverman, the Director of the Museum Studies Programme, University of Michigan, informed me of an urgent need to undertake rescue excavations at the Nsamankwa Forest (Figs. 1 and 2), a sacred grove in the northern suburb of the Techiman metropolis . The Techiman Traditional Council and the Metropolitan Assembly have plans to build a cultural village on the site. The objectives of the Cultural Village Project are the preservation and conservation of Bono artistic and cultural heritage; the promotion of cultural tourism and scientific research on Bono culture, and the education of school children, students and the general public on the culture of the present day inhabitants of the Techiman Traditional Area through cultural performances, seminars, symposia and exhibitions. To this end, the Cultural Village Project aims at building a conference hall, a documentation centre and archives, a museum, an open air theatre, an artisan’s village, an arboretum, a commercial centre and a folkloric village, all within the confines of the Nsamankwa Forest. The site, originally covered with indigenous forest species, was planted with teak after trespassers had exploited and destroyed the original forest vegetation. Houses have also been built on a large portion of the grove which now covers an area of 1,006m2 . The site was also bulldozed in preparation for the erection of buildings, part of which has now been constructed on the western portion. A comprehensive architectural plan is being jointly drawn by the Department of Architecture, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, and the Department of Architecture, University of Michigan. It was feared that the building construction, likely to 40 Ghana Studies • volume 8 • 2005 begin as soon as the architectural drawings were completed, would destroy archaeological remains on the site. It was hoped that finds from the rescue excavations would be exhibited in the proposed museum. The name Nsamankwa appears to be a shortened form of the word “nsamankwae ē” meaning the “forest of the ancestors” (see Verlet, 2005:5). Traditional history of Techiman claims that it was the settlement of the Figure 1. Map of Ghana showing excavated sites. Boachie-Ansah • Excavations at Techiman, Brong-Ahafo Region, Ghana 41 three ancestors of the Fante, Obunumankoma, Odapagya and Osono who migrated from the Techiman area to Mankesim during a succession dispute in the Bono State (personal communication with the Adontenhene of Techiman, Nana Baffour Asare Twi Brempong II, November 2005; see also Effah-Gyamfi, 1974:5 1; 1975:23). The site is also said to have been settled by immigrants from Denkyira (Verlet, 2005:5). It is interesting to note that one of the leaders of later migrants who joined Obunumankoma, Odapagya and Osono just before the Bono-Asante war of 1722/3 was Nsamankwa , the same name as that of the sacred grove. (see Effah-Gyamfi, 1974:51; 1975:23). The association of the grove with an ancient settlement prompted me to visit the site on Friday 11th, and Saturday 12th November 2005. I was led to the site by the Paramount Chief of the Techiman Traditional Area, Nana Oseadeēyo-Akumfi Ameyaw IV and some of his sub-chiefs including the Barimhene, Nana Apenteng Fosu Gyeabour II, the Kyidomhene, Nana Asa Akompanyin II, and Nana Owusu Agyare II, the Akwamuhene. A two-day reconnaissance survey undertaken on the site revealed no evidence of ancient occupation. A few potsherds consisting of broken pieces of bowls (locally called apōtōyewa) for grinding vegetables and characterised by circumferential grooves achieved by raking the interior of the vessels with a multi-tooth object to create furrows to facilitate grinding were picked from the surface. These are remnants of discarded pottery from the surrounding houses in the vicinity of the grove. Between 3rd and 12th January 2006, 45 final year undergraduate students of the Department of Archaeology, University of Ghana, Legon, were taken to Techiman to undertake excavations at the Nsamankwa Forest as part of their training. Seven test pits, each measuring 1m2...

Hellenistic and Roman pottery deposits from the ‘Saranda Kolones’ castle site at Paphos

The Crusader castle (now called ‘Saranda Kolones’) on the ancient site of Paphos was built and occupied c. AD 1192–1222. It overlies and partly truncates a series of ancient features (tombs, cisterns, wells, church remains, etc.). The layers associated with these, excavated at various times between 1957 and 1985, contain rich deposits spanning a period from the 4th century BC to the 8th/9th centuries AD.Some 410 pottery items from the pre-Castle phases are presented here, mostly in a series of 16 selected deposits arranged in chronological order. These range from early tomb-groups to stratified well fills and an important destruction deposit of c. AD 650. The final ancient occupation (8th–9th centuries) is marked by the appearance of some lead-glazed wares and some imports from the Umayyad orbit.Individual items of interest from other layers are appended. Some Hellenistic and Roman imports from Phoenicia and elsewhere are here documented in Cyprus for the first time. The later (Medieval) pottery from the site is reserved for publication in the main report on the castle (forthcoming).

Organized crime and American power: a history

Organized crime, understood in a literal sense as systematic illegal activity for money or power, is as old as the first systems of law and government and as international as trade. Piracy, banditry, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, fraud, and trading in stolen or illegal goods and services are all ancient occupations that have often involved the active participation of landowners, merchants, and government officials. Many people today, however, follow the lead of the US government and American commentators and understand organized crime as being virtually synonymous with super-criminal 'Mafia-type' organizations. These are usually seen as separate entities, distinct from legitimate society but possessing almost unlimited regional, national, and even international power. As background to this understanding of organized crime there exists a consensus among most commentators that suggests that the United States has had the most experience and success in dealing with the problem. In Organized Crime and American Power: A History, Michael Woodiwiss argues that organized criminal activity has never been a serious threat to established economic and political power structures in the United States but more often a fluid, variable, and open-ended phenomenon that has, in fact, complemented those structures. Conventional histories of the problem tend to focus on outlaws in peripheral feudal societies, most commonly Sicily, for their antecedents. Woodiwiss by contrast finds his antecedents in the systematic criminal activity of the powerful and respectable in those ancient and early modern societies that we usually understand to be at the centre of 'civilized' development and continues to emphasize the crimes of the powerful throughout his wide ranging overview. He surveys the organization of crime in the Southern states after the American Civil War; the organized crimes of American business interests; the causes and corrupt consequences of the US campaign to prohibit alcohol and other 'vices'; the elaboration of the Mafia conspiracy interpretation of organized crime and the consequent 'dumbing of discourse' about the problem, not just nationally but internationally. Emphasizing the importance of collaboration, as much as confrontation, between government and criminals, Woodiwiss illustrates how crime control policies based on the Mafia paradigm have not only failed to address much organized criminal behaviour, but have, in many ways, proved counterproductive and damaging to individual rights and social stability.

Dépôts fossilifères du karst de atapuerca, premiers 20 ans

Fossiliferous Karst Deposits of Atapuerca. First 20 years of research. The conception of a multidisciplinary research project on the ancient occupants of Spain and Europe, and the ecological contexts of their evolution derived in 1976 from the incidental find of 16 human fossils in a deep pit, SH, well into the ‘Cueva Mayor’ of Sierra de Atapuerca (Ibeas de Juarros, Burgos, Spain), and after visiting several outcrops of deep, well stratified karst deposits in an abandoned railway cut, not far. The human fossils from SH were assigned to the European group of preneandertalians (Aguirre 1976; Aguirre & de Lumley, 1977), and classified as Homo sapiens heidelbergensis (Aguirre & Rosas, 1985). A ‘mosaic’ evolution was then recognized on the morphological traits of human mandibles in Middle Pleistocene, also an African origin of the pre-neandertalians, and the ancestorship of the latter relate to neandertalians. Different approaches led by 1987 to estimate the age of SH hominines c. 300/320 Ka. BP. Paleopathological and taphonomical studies allowed inferring good health overall; cultural factors were suggested for several common deficiencies. In 1990 the SH site was finally cleaned and human bones in situ exposed after removing more than 6 Tm of a mass of accumulated stones, mud and bone fragments removed by searchers of bear teeth. All that overburden washed and shifted yielded thousands of bear fossils and more then 250 human pieces of a MNI = 11. Excavation of untouched deposit between 1990 and 1999 produced more than 2 400 human fossils belonging to a MNI = 27. Studies of paleodemography are published, based on the assumption that the corpses were deposited as death occurred along time and as a behavioural pattern; present author thinks that the simultaneous death of a group taking refuge in a cave under heavy rain, and land-slide following, is more consistent with observed evidences. Two sites on the railway cut were sampled: the Gran Dolina (TD), 18.5 m deep, and Galeria (TG) with a connected vertical shaft (TN) in the ‘Complejo Tres Simas’, yielding abundant microvertebrate fossils and continuous or dicontinuous pollen record. Extension excavation started in both TD and TG sites over c. 24 m 2 in each met successive horizons with mammal assemblages known in European sites of the upper third of Middle Pleistocene and evidences of human occupation. Basal beds of TD also were excavated in a talus: these yielded a paleofauna known as Upper Bhiharian, or Early Cromerian. The extreme ages obtained for TD are c. 900 and c. 150 Ka. Lithic assemblages, analysed from the operational viewpoint, belong to Mode 1 in TD6, to a particularly evolved Mode 2 in TG, to early Mode 3 in upper TD beds. Microwear traces were studied on rodent and amphibian fossils to identify consumers, and on tools in search of traces of use. Differences were found in meat consumption and on use and permanence in various cavities. A slit open cut in TD started in 1992 yielded fossil humans with abundant lithic and faunal context in upper Bed TD6 well below the B/M magnetic reversal. Presently debated interpretations are indicated, and future potentials suggested.

Evidence for a Late Fort Ancient Fall/Winter Occupation in Southwestern Ohio

The Driving Range Site (33Ha586) represents a multicomponent occupation located in southwestern Ohio on a low terrace overlooking the Little Miami River floodplain. This article focuses on the Late Fort Ancient occupation (post-AD 1400) and has three purposes: 1) to provide a detailed descriptive account of the artifact assemblage and site structure; 2) to present evidence that the site represents the remains of a late fall through early winter occupation; and 3) to discuss the significance of the site in relation to Fort Ancient settlement dynamics in the Middle Ohio Valley.

Évolution d'une zone d'habitat rural du Ier s. av. J.-C. au IIIe s. ap. J.-C. : Chassieu-Genas L'Épine (Rhône)

Excavations carried out before the improvement of the roads east of Lyons yielded quite a few ancient deposits at the northern outskirts of the Narbonnaise; Chassieu L'Epine is one of them. This site spreading more than four hectares allowed the study of a settlement dating back from the first century B. C. to the third century A.D. The cleaning brought to the fore a large site whose ancient occupations are not in-keeping with rural world schemes: the huge space observed cannot be compared either to a villa or to a secondary urban area. The first century B. C. could fit with a «native farm» scheme. But beginning with the Augustean age, two settlements at least are placed side by side; they include light material, kilns, boardings and enclosures; two metal workshops are added to the set. While during the second third of the first century A.D. the occupation of the site suddenly declined a few isolated signs bear witness that it lasted until the third century.

Willandra Lakes revisited: environmental framework for human occupation

AbstractThe story of the Willandra Lakes is also the story of those ancient people who lived there. The landforms, sediments and soils provide the environmental framework within which the patterns of human occupation must be interpreted. The original stratigraphic system involved just two units, the Mungo and Zanci. Two additional units are now defined; one incorporating complexities between Mungo and Zanci, the Arumpo Unit, and a second to acknowledge the reality of a lake full phase near 18ka cal., postdating Zanci aridity of the last glacial maximum. This new unit is defined from Lake Mulurulu as the Mulurulu Unit.Improved facies analysis from data involving lake sediments, freshwater quartz beach sands (QBSs) and lake‐dry pelletal clay dunes (PCDs) helps refine the sequence of environmental changes. Revision of radiocarbon chronologies with conversion to calendar years, and additional dates (radiocarbon, luminescence, amino acid racemisation) permit new age definitions of major environmental changes and human‐land interactions.Following a lake‐full phase (Lower Mungo time) from before about 55ka cal., a phase of PCD accumulation is dated to near 40ka cal. defining an early stage of hydrologic stress. Progressive water level oscillations continued (Arumpo time) culminating in major drying with deflation and extension of regional dune building over large areas of the Murray Basin near 20ka cal. (Zanci time). Freshwater returned temporarily to the Willandra lakes about 18–19ka cal.Throughout the period 25–19ka cal. spanning the glacial maximum, the apparent absence of fish and unionid mussels may reflect major temperature depression corresponding also to the period of maximum aridity. The ecological stress experienced at this time had an immense impact on the landscape, plants and especially larger animals, requiring new adaptive responses from human occupants. Early grinding techniques, pre‐dating evidence of seed grinding, are suggested.Reconstruction of the sedimentary sequence at the main archaeological site at Joulni reveals a pre‐Mungo unit deep in the sequence of a system developed by barrier construction isolating the Joulni Plain from the main lake. Analogous conditions at Lake Victoria today mirror development of the Joulni archaeological site. Oldest artefacts occurring within this un‐named unit are dated beyond 45ka cal.Human occupation on the lakeshore barrier system at Lake Mungo involved aquatic harvesting (fish and shellfish) associated with human burials before the onset of PCD deposition, pre‐40ka‐cal. The association here of the complex burial ritual (Mungo III) involving anointing with ochre at this time presents one of the dramatic mysteries of ancient human cultural development. In death, the story of that person illuminates our understanding of those ancient occupants and the Ice Age environments that supported them.

Aboriginal Groups Warm to Studies of Early Australians

[ Elizabeth Finkel ][1] LAKE MUNGO, NEW SOUTH WALES-- Nearly 30 years ago, Australia was brought into the front ranks of research on human prehistory with the discovery here of a bone from a 26,000-year-old female skull; further digging over the next decade yielded the richest record yet of ancient human occupation in Australia. That period of discovery, however, was brought to a halt by a rising Aboriginal rights movement that spawned numerous state and federal heritage laws and led to the cancellation of digs and the return of scientifically valuable material; it also coincided with a sharp downturn in support for academic archaeology ([see sidebar][2]). But although relationships between archaeologists and Australia's indigenous population can still be frosty, there has been a slow thawing that could revive science and help answer questions that intrigue researchers around the world. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/280/5368/1342#finkel [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/280/5368/1343

THE KALAHARI KHOISAN

SUMMARY A large number of Khoisan peoples are associated with a Kalahari environment one which they have occupied for many thousands of years. This ancient human occupation is reflected in the diversity of Khoisan languages, typical of so-called residual areas in the world, which are characterised by isolation and enormous time depths. The Khoisan are the essential human face of the Kalahari landscape and they have evolved practical systems to exploit its resources through foraging and hunting and to adapt to changing economic and social circumstances; they have also filled it with rich symbolic and spiritual systems to explain it all.

Recherches archéologiques aux îles Torres

The Torres islands which are located at the far north of the New Hebrides island arc, between the Banks islands and the Santa Cruz, had so far never been investigated archaeologically. Results obtained during several surveys from 1996 to 1998 are presented. They show that the most ancient occupation to date is characterised, as in Tikopia, by plain ware with notched rims. Lapita pottery has not been found there. These preliminary observations are then discussed in the context of the initial settlement strategies of the area.

La marge occidentale du désert de Thar (Cholistan) : occupation humaine ancienne et transformations du milieu. L’apport de l’imagerie satellitaire

This geoarchaeological research concerned the western arid margin of Thar desert. The objective was to understand relationships between the ancient occupation of the region and its environment. A strong human establishments density has characterized this margin during Antiquity before to disappear. The question is to understand reasons and the duration of these settlement. The question is also to explain reasons of the generalized desertion of the region and to estimate the importance of the various natural or social factors involved in this decline. Satellite imagery can be used to identify and delimit which in the past determine land-use potentials. We can obtain, from a sequence of image processing that includes an image segmentation by recurrent classification and a discriminant analysis, a good reconstitution of the ancient environment. By this means, we can also determine its functioning.

In the Land of Nagar: a survey around Tell Brak

During the campaign at Tell Brak in the spring of 1988 the present authors conducted a survey of tells in the vicinity of the site. Although comprehensive, the work was primarily intended to supplement the 1978 survey by K. Fielden, who investigated the sites surrounding the main tell at Brak itself and those on the lower Jaghjagh between the junction with the Wadi Radd and the modern town of Hassake, with a particular view to fourth and third millennium settlement (Fielden 1978/9).Within a rectangle of c. 170 km covered by the survey almost all the ancient settlements are found in a roughly triangular area half this size (its base being the lower Jaghjagh/Radd to the south and its apex immediately south of Tell Barri). Identifying this area as the “hinterland” of Brak is merely a locally suitable generalization, as Brak belongs to several systems, one being the macro-system of large urban centres scattered across the Habur Plains and adjacent areas, and another the micro-system of smaller settlements in the immediate vicinity of Brak itself. Brak was an important centre from prehistoric times until the late second millennium B.C., but its role necessarily changed through time, and the concomitant changes in the extent of the area economically and politically dependent upon it remain difficult to recognize. In this sense the area covered by our survey can be seen as partly arbitrary, partly reflecting some real limits. To the south, the French 1: 200,000 maps indicate further small sites on the southern fringe of the area visited, and further west on the lower Jaghjagh, beyond the area investigated by us, are numerous sites clustering along the banks of the wadi and its small affluents, many fairly large and with material of late fourth millennium and third millennium date. This area is relevant when studying the Brak hinterland, but it cannot be evaluated before the publication of the evidence collected by K. Fielden. The area to the north certainly overlaps, at least for certain periods, the hinterland of Tell Barri. Directly west and east of Brak, the cartographic gaps within and beyond the present survey are real or nearly so. To the west/northwest the modern village may obscure evidence, but apart from sites on the first affluent of the lower Jaghjagh there seems to be a fairly wide area here with little ancient occupation. Finally, to the east our area meets that surveyed by Meijer, and his map shows only two additional tells (Meijer 1986, Fig. 1, Nos. 269a and 269b), both Islamic. The two neighbouring sites (our Nos. 33 and 34) appear to be geomorphological features and not tells. The area covered should thus include most of the sites belonging to the micro-system of settlement around Tell Brak.

Agriculture irriguée et art bouddhique ancien au cœur du Taklamakan (Karadong, Xinjiang, IIe-IVe siècles) [Premiers résultats de l'expédition franco-chinoise de la Keriya

The Sino-French Archaeological Expedition in Keriya has been settled in the frame of an official program of field cooperation signed between the UPR n° 315 in CNRS (France) and the Institute of Archaeology in Xinjiang. In a first stage, the program is focussed on the exploration of the Keriya valley in Southern Xinjiang (Khotan region). The aim is to find remains of an ancient human occupation along the ancient dry courses and deltas of the river, to date this occupation, and to study it in relation with the moves of the river in an environment turning into a desert. A first survey has been conducted in 1991. New sites has been discovered which are the vestiges of an ancient oasis approximatively dated between the 2nd and the 4th centuries A.D., with Karadong as the center of it. In 1993, a joint excavation has been carried out at Karadong (the first joint excavation undertaken in China since 1949). New archaeological remains has been discovered, including houses, craft areas, irrigation canals, traces of fields and orchards, ceramics showing contacts with the Kushan world and Central Asia, objects in metal, wood and glass, fragments of fabrics, etc. We also excavated a small square Buddhist temple with many fragments of wall paintings of an original style, one of the most ancient ever discovered in Xinjiang.

Study of the occupation site for the ancient iron smelters at Samaru-west, Nigeria, using neutron activation analysis

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) has been employed to investigate the relationship between three ancient occupation sites — Samaru-west, Pantaki and Tsauni in Kaduna State, Nigeria, based on the analysis of cultural deposits at the sites. Samaru-west was found to be related with Pantaki site but not so with the Tsauni site. Elemental profiles for the pottery excavated from each site have been established.