Archaeological Publications Research Articles

A \u2018Fine Specimen of Neronian Brickwork\u2019 in Victorian London: How the STRAND Lane Cold Bath Became Roman

This paper addresses the myth of the Strand Lane cold bath’s Roman origins: it explains how this dream of Rome first emerged in the 1830s and became consolidated in the 1840s, and documents the means by which it was propagated, and the extent to which it was debated, between then and the 1890s. It is suggested that the origins of the idea were heavily indebted to popular awareness of the baths of Pompeii, spread both by archaeological publication and by Bulwer-Lytton’s Last Days and its offshoots; that the consolidation was the work of Charles Knight and Charles Dickens; and that the vigorous survival of the mirage for the remainder of the century was down in part to the absence of any other large-scale standing Roman structure in the capital, and in part to the lack of any plausible alternative story of the bath’s real origins. The auxiliary myth of the ‘Essex’ bath is also discussed, and the whole argument illuminates not only the history of the monument itself, but also Victorian engagement with the Roman past and the historical fabric of London more generally.

African-European Contacts in the Kongo Kingdom (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries): New Archaeological Insights from Ngongo Mbata (Lower Congo, DRC)

Ngongo Mbata, the main and most affluent center of the Kongo kingdom’s Mbata province in the seventeenth century, is well known from the historical sources, but virtually unexplored in archaeological publications. Ngongo Mbata is unique in that it hosted a monumental stone building about which the historical record remains silent. This makes it particularly challenging from the point of view of historical archaeology. In this paper historical data, unpublished excavation results from the 1930s and our own fieldwork undertaken in 2012–13 are brought together, to tell a new story of early African-European contacts in the interior of West Central Africa.

THE ACCURACY REQUIREMENTS AND SOURCES FOR 3D RECONSTRUCTIONS OF THE PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES: THE CASE OF AGIOS ANTONIOS CHOMATAS (CRETE)

Abstract. The use of 3D sophisticated visualizations and reconstructions of any preserved architectural remains is becoming more frequent in the modern archaeology. However, it is still not common during the process of reconstruction or recreation of the appearance of any preserved architecture of prehistoric (Bronze Age) Crete. The bad condition of prehistoric sites (the bad preservation of the masonry) or structure is probably the main reason for this state. But let’s look at this problem from the other point of view: what is really necessary for the creation of an ideal 3D reconstruction of such sites, which complies with the up-to-date state of the archaeological and architectural knowledge and uses the modern software? In accordance with our experience and findings we think that for the creation of really good and up-to-date 3D reconstruction only the plan of the site (at least the schematic one), enough of general and detailed photos of the site (but not necessary the photogrammetric model) and architectural features, some photos of the site’s surroundings incl. the Google Earth image and some photos of similar sites and/or structures/architectural features (type of masonry, entrances etc.) are necessary. In case of accepting our findings and principles by the wider academic audience (especially by the archaeologists and architects) the creation of 3D reconstruction could be – as we hope – more commonly used or even become a standard of archaeological publications.

Ceramics, Polity, and Comics

AbstractFormal archaeological publication is unimaginative in its use of images, and often the images used do not best serve the text. The result is that text and image poorly relate. But graphic formats that establish an interrelationship between text and image can be used to create new layers of richness. One such example is the use of comics. In order to illustrate how the visualization principles of comics can be used to re-shape formal archaeological publication, the author presents an adaptation of the first three pages of “Ceramics and Polity” by Michael Whalen and Paul Minnis, originally published in American Antiquity. The use of similar visualization principles opens up the possibility of new kinds of professional, interdisciplinary, and peer-to-peer narratives. The article is in the form of a 10-page comic.

Is Every Sherd Sacred? Moving Beyond the Cult of Object-Centered Authenticity

Is Every Sherd Sacred? Moving Beyond the Cult of Object-Centered Authenticity

Investigations of burial practices and the concept of the afterlife in the archaeology of Lithuania. Historiographical aspect

Investigations of burial practices in Lithuania started in the middle of the 19th century. Since then, concepts of burial, death and the afterlife were brought up in studies (popu­lar and scientific articles, publications and monographs) of many antique lovers, self-educated relic collectors and re­searchers of prehistoric and historical burial practices. The first attempts to estimate and interpret burial prac­tices originated from the fieldwork practice, although they lacked a broader theoretical base and preparation. A materi­alistic concept of the developing archaeology, concentration in collecting and filing of artefacts found at burial sites in­fluenced a superficial and often poorly based interpretation of the past society. The only exception was a study by Jonas Basanavičius (1998, pp. 13–91) in the early 1900s. This was one of the first scientific works that examined the concept of the afterlife of ancient Lithuanians. In the study, however, folklore and mythological sources were weakly associated with the archaeological material.First thorough studies of burial practices, death and the afterlife were published in the 1940s by Marija Alseikaitė- Gimbutienė (1942; 1942 š; 1943 a; 1943 b; 1946 š), known as Marija Gimbutas in the West. A broad researcher’s ap­proach of archaeology was formed, influenced by her pro­fessors, a linguist Antanas Salys and an archaeologist Jonas Puzinas, also, by works of J. Basanavičius (Fig. 1–2). For the first time, M. Alseikaitė-Gimbutienė investigated burial practices, the concept of the afterlife and the relationship between the living and the dead through the interdiscipli­nary context of history, folklore and ethnology. Archaeology was brought to light as a national science, part of a broader Lithuanian philology.In the 2nd half of the 20th century, due to the Soviet occupa­tion of Lithuania, followed by cultural and academic isolation, imposed censorship and the “iron curtain”, the archaeology of Lithuania was cut off from Western archaeological de­velopmental processes. The interpretation of burial practices remained within the frame of Marxist-Leninist ideology. Al­though extensive archaeological investigations of burial sites were performed and a lot of empirical data were collected dur­ing that period, archaeological publications lacked a broader assessment and reasoned interpretation of burial practices.At the beginning of the 21st century, transformation took place in interpreting burial practices. Various aspects of death, burial practices and the afterlife were investigated in studies. That included a broad perspective of archaeology, ethno-logy, folklore, mythology and comparative religion, the lat­est hypotheses and research data by Lithuanian and foreign researchers. Investigations of burial practices were gradually becoming an object of broad interdisciplinary studies.Burial practices, a custom of burying the dead with grave goods, relationship between the living, the dead, dei­ties and the environment – all had its own place, meaning and explanation. Therefore, in the investigations of death, burial practices and the concept of the afterlife it is essential to analyze the behaviour and the ideology of the past soci­ety, to search links among archaeology, mythology, folklore and other disciplines. Broad interdisciplinary studies are an objective of every researcher of burial practices.Translated by the author, the translation revised by Danguolė Vertelka

Les ouvrages hydrauliques souterrains de « Mazeran » et du « Garissou » (Béziers, 34) : des qanàts romains en Gaule Narbonnaise

In 2009, the excavation of a Roman shaft in the northeast of the town of Béziers (34) resulted in an underground tunnel dug in the Miocene molasses. The whole reception a perched water table and harvested percolation fine droplets contained in the sandstone aquifer. In 2011, two new Roman shafts were excavated a few hundred meters further north. Again, the archaeological work shows a similar pattern of operation. Already observed in the last century in some archaeological publications Biterroises this operating technique of groundwater wells gallery knows many similarities with the structures identified in Roman pole and larger scale throughout the Mediterranean. These millennia-hydraulic systems are grouped under the generic term «qanat » .

Frank Moore Cross and Archaeology

This paper studies the contributions of Frank Moore Cross to the field of archaeology in the southern Levant. It looks at his archaeological publications and editorial activities; the interest he m...

Representation and Structure Conflict in the Digital Age

AbstractDigital imaging technologies have enhanced archaeological research and profoundly expanded the scale of the discipline’s potentialities. As illustrators and archaeologists move away from using hand-drawn images (of hand-held, real-life objects) to depict artifacts and other archaeological information, certain capabilities of the traditional illustrative process are lost. One such loss is the ability to present a complete and informed representation of an artifact free of the distortions and visual limitations that single-perspective (i.e., digital or photographic) imagery produces. This is accomplished by the illustrator through the unification of multiple views of the artifact from various perspectives into a single two-dimensional image that communicates to the viewer important attributes of the artifact, free of distortion and remaining true to the measured, analytical conventions of the illustrative process. Liberation from the single-viewpoint perspective was one of the fundamental elements of the Cubist movement. Traditional archaeological illustrators utilize Cubist principles to communicate visually to the viewer a complete, accurate, and undistorted package of information about an artifact. The supplanting of hand-drawn illustrations by digital images in today’s archaeological publications threatens to revert the visual representation of data back to uninformed, surficial “snapshots” of incomplete objects.

Three-Dimensional Alternatives to Lithic Illustration

AbstractAlthough alternatives have become available, pen and ink drawings of stone tools dominate archaeological publications. Despite the existence of a conventional illustration framework, the work produced by illustrators can be inconsistent and hinges on skill level and time commitment. Discussions going back to the 1880s critically question the use of illustrations for the purpose of scientific publication. Alternatives, such as laser scanning and photogrammetric modeling, are now available for displaying lithics. These alternatives can remove the subjectivity involved in artistic rendering, creating replicable results, regardless of who is collecting the data. In addition to creating more regularized and objective representations, there are a significant number of analytical and other benefits to adopting novel imaging techniques to depict stone tools in publications. A set of three-dimensional (3D) models are presented here to demonstrate the capabilities of laser scanning and, potentially, photogrammetric modeling as replacements for lithic illustration.

Palaeolithic Personal Ornaments: Historical Development and Epistemological Challenges

Since the 1990s, archaeological publications concerned with Palaeolithic personal ornaments have diversified. This proliferation has resulted in an intense exploration of the multiple roles, whether symbolic, cultural or social, that these items might have played in prehistoric groups. As a result of this process, there is now a broad consensus that these body adornments are important for exploring the origins of cognitive, artistic and symbolic behavior from an evolutionary perspective. This view contrasts with the conceptualization of Palaeolithic ornaments prevalent during the greater part of the twentieth century. At that time, these objects were rarely considered in debates concerning human evolution, art and symbolism. To explain this shift in the understanding of beads, pendants and other similar artifacts, we explore in this paper the history and the epistemology of the concept of ‘ornament’ in the field of Palaeolithic archaeology. In particular, we analyse the factors underlying why the same kinds of objects have been historically described in very diverse ways. We conclude by pointing out some of the epistemological challenges posed by the current revalorization of personal ornaments.

Animals between Nature and Culture: The Story of Archaeozoology

The paper aims to tell the story of archaeozoology and utilize it to point out changes in the perception of nature and culture, the perception of animals as organisms that belong entirely to the domain of nature (unlike people who ‘build’ culture onto their nature), as well as display how these perceptions shaped the discipline of archaeozoology and influenced its position within archaeology. Animal remains, almost as a rule, represent some of the most common findings at archaeological sites; however, the attention which has been given to them in archaeological analysis and interpretation was largely dependent on the dominant paradigms in science. With the appearance of the ‘new’ or processual paradigm in archaeology and the concurrent development of archaeozoology, findings like these became the object of study and an important ‘key’ for understanding questions of sustenance, economy and strategies of survival in the past. The strict divide between the natural sciences and humanities (which is a consequence of the wider modernist narrative about the dichotomy of nature and culture), meant that only specialized experts could study animal remains, and that animal remains should be viewed, studied and published on separately from studies on architecture, sculptures and figurines, tools and other artifacts. Thus, archaeozoological reports long represented merely a kind of ‘addition’ to archaeological publications and rarely figured significantly in interpretations. With the paradigm shift brought on by post-processual archaeology, the research focus shifted from economic and functionalist explanations of social phenomena to the study of the influence of culture on shaping human behavior and values. Social theories of cultural constructivism indicate that concepts of ‘humanity’ and ‘animality’ are culturally shaped and a product of discourse, but they often ignore osteological analyses of human and animal remains in the process. Even though at first glance it may seem that constructivist studies and the positivist scientific method on which osteology is based are mutually exclusive in contemporary archaeology, their integration can provide a more detailed picture of how animals shape the way in which humans experience the world, of meanings ascribed to animals, as well as of the very nature of boundaries between people and animals in different cultural contexts.

Archaeological publications: rates and media

La valorisation des resultats de la recherche archeologique pose une serie de problemes tout a fait specifiques. Cette specificite tient, d’une part, au cout des operations de terrain et des analyses de materiel qui justifie les exigences des bailleurs de fonds en matiere de divulgation des donnees obtenues ; elle se manifeste, d’autre part, par la lourdeur des programmes, qui impliquent un nombre eleve de collaborateurs dont il est difficile de faire converger les efforts en vue d’une publication commune. Ces tensions ne sont pas nouvelles mais dans un contexte marque, a la fois, par une evolution profonde des modes de financement de la recherche, aux depens des dotations recurrentes, et par l’emergence de nouveaux supports d’edition, tout ou partie dematerialises, il est apparu necessaire de rouvrir le debat sur les publications archeologiques, leurs rythmes et leurs vecteurs, dans une perspective largement internationale.

Publishing archaeological research

Debates about the form and future of archaeological publications have been more or less regular events over the past decade, variously motivated by factors such as the professional concern of archaeologists to reduce the backlog of unpublished fieldwork, the potential of new media, and the concerns of an increasingly globalised publishing industry. Yet two aspects in particular distinguished the round-table presented in this volume. The first is the leading role played by the national network...

Terminológiai alapfogalmak régészeti korú üvegtárgyak elemzéséhez

This study aims at creating a Hungarian glossary of terms, which the Hungarian archaeological publications are short of. To describe the glass objects accurately an all-embracing terminology must be used. Forms of the objects do not provide enough information to their analysis, hence their process of manufacture, the parts of the vessels, the decoration methods, the analysis of the colours and qualities are essential features. The current names of the process, tools and equipment used in modern glass production should be compared with the ones used in ancient times and terms which reflect the ancient methods and devices should be preferred. As some of the ancient manufacture techniques did not have Hungarian name, foreign expressions were applied. In the first part of the article the most frequent equipment and devices are listed. In the second part the principal constituents and the additives of glassmaking are discussed. The third part is an outline of the main glassmaking process. These parts also contribute to the depiction of the objects. The fourth part includes decorating techniques, the fith and the sixth sections deal with the variety of colours and the transparency of objects. The last part represents the characteristic features of glass vessels including the methods of finishing the rims, bases and handles, which were formed at different temperatures.

Wharram Percy 2013: the final whistle?

Stuart Wrathmell (ed.) A History of Wharram Percy and its Neighbours (2012), Wharram, A Study of Settlement on the Yorkshire Wolds, Vol XIII (York University Archaeological Publications 15). xiv + ...

Saxon Obsequies: the Early Medieval Archaeology of Richard Cornwallis Neville

This paper investigates the origins of British Anglo-Saxon archaeology by focusing on the work of one early Victorian archaeologist: Richard Cornwallis Neville. The seemingly descriptive and parochial nature of Neville’s archaeological pursuits, together with the attention he afforded to Romano-British remains, has impeded due recognition, and critical scrutiny, of his contributions to the development of early Medieval burial archaeology. Using his archaeological publications as source material, I will show how Neville’s interpretations of Saxon graves were a form of memory work, defining his personal, familial and martial identity in relation to the landscape and locality of his aristocratic home at Audley End, near Saffron Walden, Essex. Subsequently, I argue that Neville’s prehistoric and Romano-British discoveries reveal his repeated concern with the end of Roman Britain and its barbarian successors. Finally, embodied within Neville’s descriptions of early Medieval graves and their location we can identify a pervasive Anglo-Saxonism. Together these strands of argument combine to reveal how, for Neville, Saxon graves constituted a hitherto unwritten first chapter of English history that could be elucidated through material culture and landscape.

A Transzcendens megnyilvánulása: kultusztárgyak Balatonőszöd-Temetői dűlő Boleráz/badeni településen

in the large settlement of Boleráz-Baden culture at Balatonőszöd-Temetői dűlő site we excavated many finds described as cultic objects in the archaeological publications. The exact describitions and complex analyses of the finds and theirs features, circumstances give new informations for the sacral life of the Late Copper Age.

Bioarchaeology: a synthetic approach

When one reads archaeological publications on funerary remains, one might think that the deceased was sacrificed to accompany the burial of a pot [34]. One could easily blame archaeologists for this predicament, but it also has its roots in a research tradition within biological anthropology that tends to provide biological data to the archaeologist who provides the social and cultural meaning. Due to empirical divergence this approach encourages archaeologists and anthropologists tend to address parallel rather than synthetic questions. Burials are often only used to develop a notion of time-successive funerary traditions that support a chronological framework. This means that the event represented in the burial is left underdeveloped or erroneously identified as a tradition. Bioarchaeology addresses archaeological questions through a contextual approach combining the biological identity of the deceased with their cultural and archaeological context. It therefore aims to synthesise the biological and cultural aspects of the funerary record to address archaeological questions and better place burials in their cultural, social, and political context. The goal of this treatment is to introduce bioarchaeology, its origin and purpose, and to attempt to place such studies within French archaeological and anthropological scholarship.

Book Review of La Gaule narbonnaise: De la conquête romaine au III siécle apr. J.-C., by Pierre Gros

This lavishly produced book, part of the Picard series of archaeological publications, presents a concise overview of the state of research on the Narbonne region of southern France during the time of the Romans. The author is a much-published expert in the field and has clearly kept himself up-to-date on recent discoveries, which he often cites. Since there are no references within the text, however, it is necessary to turn to the back of the book for further information. Fortunately, extensive bibliographies are provided, with some limitations, as discussed below.