Archaeological Survey Research Articles

Ice Patches and Obsidian Quarries: Integrating Research Through Collaborative Archaeology in Tahltan Territory

ABSTRACT This article presents the results of archaeological survey of ice patches in the vicinity of the vast obsidian quarries and artifact scatters found near Goat Mountain and the Kitsu Plateau in Mount Edziza Provincial Park, Tahltan Territory. During the survey, over 50 perishable artifacts were found, including stitched birch bark containers, wooden walking staffs, carved and beveled sticks, an atlatl dart foreshaft, and a stitched hide boot. Radiocarbon ages on 13 of the perishable artifacts reveal that they span the last 7000 years. These finds were made against a massive and stunning backdrop of scattered obsidian artifacts: bifaces, cores, flakes, and raw material nodules. This project collaborated with the Obsidian Discoveries Tahltan Tene Mehodihi Youth Group Hike and the “Our Ancestors’ Trail” museum exhibition. This collaboration resulted in connections between the archaeological results presented here, community learning, and artistic inspiration.

Cavity detection using a pseudo-3D electric resistivity tomography at the Palaeolithic/Neolithic site of Scaloria Cave, Apulia, Italy: integrated assessment of synthetic and field data sets

A pseudo-3D electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) survey has been carried out to detect cavities at the Neolithic/Palaeolithic site of Grotta Scaloria, close to Manfredonia, Apulia, Italy. Scaloria Cave has a rich history of archaeological research of more than 80 years and is one of the most important Neolithic complexes in the Mediterranean. Synthetic data modelling allowed to check the adequacy of the geophysical method and to develop a proper experimental setup at the survey design stage. Indeed, the results of the field data inversion revealed high resistivity anomalies which can be related to cavities and provided a good definition of the main geological structures and boundaries. Moreover, the results suggest that unknown and speleological unexplored cavities are still present at the Scaloria Cave study site. These findings may provide further insights on pseudo-3D ERT applicability, particularly for cavity detection. Furthermore, the approach used in this study yields fruitful information for further archaeological survey design and for the interpretation of ERT investigations targeting similar geological features and structures.

Statistical Approaches to Small Site Diversity

Over the past fifty years, intensive Mediterranean archaeological surveys have yielded abundant and diachronic archaeological data. Although field methods have been continually debated and refined, the interpretation of survey results has focused primarily on site numbers and site size, with particular interest in reconstructing settlement hierarchies and in tracking episodes of nucleation and dispersal across the landscape. Artifact assemblages are largely used to date sites, while less attention has been devoted to assemblage diversity and site function. This study demonstrates the potential of legacy survey data to frame and answer new research questions via an analysis of 250 small rural sites of the first millennium BC recovered by intensive surveys on Crete from the 1970s through the early 2000s. I show that diachronic patterns of rural settlement in Crete depart strongly from those observed in mainland Greece and also differ between regions. I also reveal pronounced variation in the assemblages present at small sites across the island within Cretan regions and periods. This suggests that we cannot simply interpret all small sites as homogeneous farmsteads. Finally, I discuss the challenges and potential of using diversity measures as an exploratory tool for analyzing legacy survey data. Methods outlined here could be productively applied in other Mediterranean regions.

CRITICAL CONFABULATIONS – Corresponding Practices and Mappings

This exposition is based on an archaeological survey in the landscapes around Kilmartin Glen, Argyll and Bute, western Scotland, and references digital datasets – archaeological reference points –alongside the acts (enactments) of field walking, photography, drawing and poetry – experiences and representational discourses – to consider how land and landscapes may be read as dynamic palimpsestic and multi-dimensional fields of entanglement. Digital datasets were used by the survey to garner fruitful material to aid identification and to analyse (subtle) surface archaeological remains in the inhospitable terrain on the hills bordering Kilmartin Glen. By analysing, categorising and archiving such information, through naming and cataloguing, archaeological methodology effectively orders and tames such wildernesses. We, by contrast, are seeking to draw art and archaeological practices into dialogue with one another in order to assert the importance of recording experiences and random acts as a part of field research and, thereby, to both re-vivify and re-wild our encounters with landscape. Our exposition, and shared practices, intentionally encourage nuances of reading and interpretation that are found at the dialogic intersection between an artist/poet encountering archaeological landscape survey, and an archaeologist experiencing artistic, poetic and linguistic readings of land: reflecting in the process upon contemporary methodologies and underlying theoretical discourses. As such this research sits within the wider contemporary turn towards interdisciplinary practice, and seeks to establish a dialogue across disciplines; between humans and landscapes, practice and matter, that provides emerging approaches and hopes to remind us of the wild experience.

Clothing Hygiene of the Nomads of the Great Steppe in the 13th–16th Centuries

This article considers the clothing hygiene of the nomads who lived in the Eurasian steppes during the 13th to 16th centuries. The analysis is based on the written sources from various epochs describing the life of the nomads in the Great Steppe, as well as on the data from archaeological surveys, ethnographic materials, and certain areas of medicine. The objective and subjective factors that determined the hygienic practices of the nomads in caring for their clothes are identified. The nomadic costume was designed to meet the needs of the nomadic life: it was practical and comfortable. Most garments were made of natural materials of animal origin and were therefore difficult to wash. For this and some other reasons, the nomads wore their clothes until they were completely worn out and cleaned them using drying, airing, shaking out, and freezing. The clothing hygiene of the noble nomads differed from that of the ordinary ones, mainly in how often they changed garments. Spiritual and ideological factors (prohibitions, superstitions, and omens) also played a certain role, but this needs to be explored in more detail. Since little is known about personal hygiene habits of the nomads, some of the conclusions made here may be controversial, which in turn will fuel further research on the traditional culture of life support among the nomads of the Eurasian steppes.

A multi-method approach with machine learning to evaluating the distribution and intensity of prehistoric land use in Eastern Iberia

The present study seeks to better understand the coupling of social and biophysical systems during the late Pleistocene and Holocene, a period characterized by changing interglacial conditions as well as human population expansion and intensified ecosystem management. The approach consists of a combination of patch-based archaeological survey methods, sediment column sampling for paleoenvironmental data, geospatial analysis, and machine learning for chronological unmixing, allowing the systematic evaluation of the distribution and intensity of prehistoric land use in the study area of eastern Mediterranean Iberia. Occupational and Land Use Intensity maps developed from continuous distributions of surface artifacts as well as a summed probability density curve developed from 14C dates indicate low but steady human presence in the study area during the Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic with a marked decrease of human presence across the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary. The Early (and Middle) Neolithic saw the most ubiquitous and intensive occupation of the study area followed by a significant decline during the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic. The charcoal analysis also supports this pattern. Early Neolithic farming strategies may not have been damaging initially during the climatic regime of the Early Holocene but exacerbated the impacts of higher temperatures and summer droughts, with a loss of the most productive farmland, seen at the onset of the Late Neolithic. Similar boom-bust population trends have been documented throughout Europe during these same time spans and may indicate a recursive interaction or “coupling” between global and regional climate events and human land use strategies.

Approaching Interaction in Iron Age Sardinia: Multi-Scalar Survey Evidence from the Sinis Archaeological Project and the Progetto S’Urachi

Abstract Using west-central Sardinia as a case study, this article explores how multi-scalar survey archaeology can be used to address questions of the intensity, nature, and scale of interaction in the Iron Age central Mediterranean. This large island played an important role in Mediterranean trade networks and was frequented and settled by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans, among others over the course of the first millennium BCE. These foreign groups interacted with local Nuragic people through trade, the exchange of ideas, and genetic admixing, which led to increasing connectivity over time. Large excavations at major colonial sites and genetic studies have reinforced the perception that interactions were felt most strongly in coastal regions, while inland communities remained more isolated. Our multi-scalar survey data, drawn from site-based survey at the inland nuraghe S’Urachi and regional survey in its surrounding territory (the Sinis Archaeological Project), supply information concerning how Iron Age interactions impacted inland rural communities. These data show how interaction transformed over time, as trade increased and agriculture intensified in response to external demands. Ultimately, we suggest that survey archaeology is an important tool for illuminating multi-scalar interaction in Sardinia and elsewhere.

Archaeological survey near Tsabong, Kgalagadi District, southwestern Botswana

ABSTRACT The importance of the arid interior of southern Africa for human evolution has come into focus in recent years. However, the current distribution of archaeological sites is limited to the southern margin of the Kalahari sediments in South Africa and to the northern part of Botswana. Surface scatters of archaeological artefacts in other parts of the Kalahari have not been studied systematically despite their potential to test human adaptation to marginal environments in the past. We developed a mobile Geographical Information System (GIS) set-up that allows us to record the archaeological potential of Botswana’s southwestern Kgalagadi district in a rapid and standardised manner. This paper describes five archaeological sites identified through our survey in the wider area around the town of Tsabong. Four of these sites, as well as the majority of identified surface archaeology, belong to the Middle Stone Age based on a first assessment of their lithic typology. A pattern is emerging of particular concentration of these sites on or near quartzite outcrops that are located next to pans. Additionally, six test pits confirmed the high potential for further archaeological investigations in this area using a landscape approach.

Типология и генезис циркульных знаков петроглифов Кайракколь и Аксу

Петроглифы Кайракколь и Аксу входят в группу памятников археологического комплекса Таусамалы, расположенного в Аксуском районе Жетысуской области. В составе комплекса зафиксированы три могильника и поселение раннего железного века, одиночные и небольшие группы курганов, которые предварительно датированы эпохой Средневековья, и скопления разновременных петроглифов. Памятники занимают территорию от окраин поселка Таусамалы и восточных склонов гор Каракунгей довосточной оконечности плато Суук в горах Кайракколь. Исследование комплекса началось в 2019 году с аварийных раскопок сотрудниками ТОО «Археологическая экспедиция» на кургане, содержащем погребение пазырыкского типа, впоследствии включенном в состав крупного могильника Таусамалы. Уникальные материалы, полученные в ходе этой работы, позволили продолжить изучение памятника.С 2020 года ТОО «Археологическая экспедиция» и Жетысуское областное управление по охране и использованию историко-культурного наследия проводят совместные и планомерные исследования на вновь обнаруженном могильнике и в его окрестностях. В 2022 году на археологическом комплексе приступил к работе таусамальский отряд Института археологии им. А.Х. Маргулана. В результате проведенной археологической разведки выявлены новые памятники, скопления петроглифов, среди которых отмечается коллекция циркульных знаков. Полученные в 2022 году данные позволили успешно выполнить первоначальную попытку их систематизации. Публикуемая коллекция включает 25 циркульных знаков с пяти крупных скоплений петроглифов. В работе учтены характеристики как самих изображений, так и их пространственное и топографическое положение. На основе выделенных параметров построена первичная типология и осуществлена попытка анализа генезиса циркульных изображений. Составлены визуализированные комбинации исходных и производных групп изображений. В результате проведенного исследования знаки разделены на два основных вида — собственно циркульные и очковидные наскальные изображения. Каждый вид изображений с учетом фиксируемых характеристик разбит на три группы. В список выделенных циркульных знаков входят изображения зам

The Jabal al‐Yamh and Ḥattā Valley survey (Emirate of Dubai, UAE): GIS tools applied to archaeological survey and research

AbstractThe survey of extensive and topographically irregular landscapes is not easy. Survey teams often must be creative to cover the largest area possible, in a short time, with limited budgets, without losing quality and effectiveness in their work. The use of techniques employing geographic information system (GIS) tools has tremendously improved the efficiency and quality of the surveys. Such techniques were employed in the Jabal al‐Yamh and Ḥattā Valley (Emirate of Dubai, UAE), and their methodology, implementation and effectiveness are discussed in this paper. The Jabal al‐Yamh Research Project, which began in 2018 to survey, excavate, restore and research the prehistoric tombs in the Jabal al‐Yamh and the surrounding Ḥattā Valley, thus used primarily GIS tools employing remote sensing and probabilistic analysis to identify a large number of tombs in this rugged topography, delimitating areas more likely to contain tombs. On the other hand, identifying tomb distribution and orientation patterns through GIS data queries also allowed us to answer several sociocultural questions posed during the development of this project. This paper will thus discuss two primary purposes of this project's survey: methods for identifying new tombs for further excavation and protection, on the one hand, and the interpretation of those same tombs' emplacement, attending to their distribution and orientation pattern, on the other, thus developing a theoretical and predictive model of the distribution of prehistoric tombs in the area.

Open-Access Archaeological Predictive Modeling Using Zonal Statistics: A Case Study from Zanzibar, Tanzania

This paper presents a case study using zonal statistical analysis for archaeological predictive modeling with open-access software and free geospatial datasets. The method is applied to the rural landscapes of Zanzibar, Tanzania on the Swahili Coast. This study used QGIS (version 3.28) to perform zonal statistical analyses of environmental datasets weighted by settlement classes digitized from a 1907 historical map, to create predictive models for settlement across the island. These models were compared against the locations of major precolonial archaeological sites on the island and site data from a random stratified archaeological survey in an environmentally diverse region of northern Zanzibar. The results show strong correspondences between larger permanent site locations and areas of high likelihood for site detection in the predictive model. Additionally, there were correspondences between areas of lower likelihood for site detection and smaller, ephemeral sites related to agricultural production in swidden field plots. These results attest to Swahili rural complexity and enable an understanding of the specific environmental affordances that structured settlement and land use over the last millennium, in ways that shaped colonial contact in rural areas and altered the sociopolitical development of Zanzibar and the East African coast. The methods described here may be applicable for researchers and heritage managers in Africa and the Global South, where funding for large-scale field projects, expensive satellite imagery, or software licensing is limited.

Book review:] Beljaev L. Byzantine Jericho: Excavations after a Century. Ed. by Acad. N. A. Makarov. Moscow: Indrik, 2016. 500 p., ill.

The book of L. A. Beljaev “Byzantine Jericho” publishes four seasons of the first modern Russian archaeological mission in the Southern Levant. This is, however, not just a usual archaeological report, but a review of history of research of Russian archaeologists and Biblical scholars in the region from its beginning in the end of the 19th century through nowadays. Due to the multidisciplinary approach of the author the publication is provided with the survey of archaeology and topography of the Jericho Oasis as well as with the report on conservation of the site.

Searching for New Globular Clusters in M31 with Gaia EDR3

We have found 50 new globular cluster (GC) candidates around M31 with Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3), with the help of Pan-STARRS1 DR1 magnitudes and Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PAndAS) images. Based on the latest Revised Bologna Catalog and simbad, we trained two random forest (RF) classifiers, the first one to distinguish extended sources from point sources and the second one to further select GCs from extended sources. From 1.85 million sources of 16 m < g < 19.5 m and within a large area of ∼392 deg2 around M31, we selected 20,658 extended sources and 1934 initial GC candidates. After visual inspection of the PAndAS images, to eliminate the contamination from noncluster sources, particularly galaxies, we finally got 50 candidates. These candidates are divided into three types (a, b, and c), according to their projected distance D to the center of M31 and their probability of being a true GC, P GC, which is calculated by our second RF classifier. Among these candidates, 14 are found to be associated (in projection) with the large-scale structures within the halo of M31. We also provide several simple parameter criteria for selecting extended sources effectively from Gaia EDR3, which can reach a completeness of 92.1% with a contamination fraction lower than 10%.

ОБ ОМСКОЙ ШКОЛЕ АРХЕОЛОГИИ (К 95-ЛЕТИЮ СО ДНЯ РОЖДЕНИЯ В. И. МАТЮЩЕНКО)

The article considers the pedagogical activity of V.I. Matyushchenko at Omsk State University in 1976–2005. Arriving in Omsk as an already established venerable scientist, he began his work virtually from scratch. There were no archaeologists in Omsk, and the territory of the region was explored very poorly. Having experience of work at Tomsk University, V.I. Matyushchenko began to work in several directions. In science, he continued his studies on topics that he had begun in Tomsk. Then he began to train young personnel, whom he attracted to archaeology, and whom he instructed to carry out the primary archaeological survey of the territories of the region. Finally, he launched extensive work on individual sites (Ekaterinovka-I, Novotroitskoye-I, Ermak-IV, Sidorovka and others), entrusting the work to young archaeologists. For many years he himself studied the objects near the village of Okunevo, where almost all his students were trained. As a result, researchers are still actively working in Omsk and other cities, who studied with V.I. Matyushchenko, which allows us to talk about his school.

Mining under the canopy: Unveiling the archaeo-mining record in the Colline Metallifere with LiDAR analysis and multidisciplinary studies

The study of ancient disused mining contexts in the Mediterranean region is particularly challenging due to the impact of modern reclamation works and the presence of dense vegetation, which impede the application of conventional archaeological research methods.Pivoting on the multidisciplinary approach driven by the ERC nEU-Med project to the study of historical landscapes, and thanks to a new LiDAR survey promoted by the project in 2019, new investigations were carried out in ancient and modern mining contexts in the territory of Colline Metallifere (southern Tuscany, Italy). The district is renowned for its important metal deposits characterized by copper, lead, zinc and silver vein bodies that have been mined since the Bronze Age, with a particularly intense phase of exploitation during the Medieval period. The primary objective of the LiDAR DTM analysis was to map features and delineate the characteristics of the archaeo-mining landscape in five densely vegetated contexts. The analysis revealed numerous novel evidence related to mining activities (574 within the five territorial samples analyzed in this contribution), of which 72% were also inspected through fieldwalking surveys. These features have been interpreted by means of archaeological surveys, documentary research and statistical and spatial analysis. A particular focus was placed on the study of the most prevalent type of feature, which is the mining shaft. The development of reliable parameters of interpretation, including the dimensional aspects of each individual mining shaft (area, diameter and depth of the basin), the distances between shafts, and presence or absence of dumps, played a crucial role in disentangling the complex topography of the mining sites. The favourable results achieved through this study will enable the application of the method on a larger scale to other nearby mining contexts, overcoming the constraints of accessibility and visibility that have so far significantly influenced the analysis of mining territories.

Study of Pottery Technology in Kura-Araxes Culture of Astanakroud 2 Site of Kojur County Using Petrographic Method

The pottery samples under investigation in this study include the findings of the Astankroud 2 Site in the Kojur region of western Mazandaran Province. The site was uncovered during an archaeological survey of the region in 2010 and has been thus far the easternmost site of Kura-Araxes. Considering the importance of discussions concerning the characteristics of this culture and the reasons for its spread in a vast geographic area extending from the southern coast of the Caspian Sea to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, 15 pottery pieces of Kura-Araxes were subject to petrographic study in order to determine the mineralogy structure of the pottery recovered from Astanakroud Site. The experiments on these pieces were conducted using a polarizing microscope (James Swift) at the Petrographic Laboratory of the Institute for Protection and Restoration of Works affiliated with Cultural Heritage Research. According to the results of experiments, it was revealed that all the pottery had been locally produced. A petrographic study of Astanakroud pottery reveals that the pottery has been produced using soil resulting from erosion of geological structure in the northern part of the Kojur region (with volcanic structure) that has been washed up by natural currents traversing the valleys of Nimvar, Avil, and Kouhpar to the foot of the site.

El Dorado Offerings in Lake Guatavita: A Muisca Ritual Archaeological Site

AbstractArchaeological and ethnohistorical investigations in the south of the Colombian Plateau, in the Eastern Highlands, suggest that before European contact Guatavita was an important Muisca chiefdom—largely because of the prestige conferred by the presence of ceremonial centers in their territories, especially around the lakes in the hills surrounding the Guatavita-Guasca Valley. The fame of Lake Guatavita as the most important Muisca shrine was fueled by Spanish chronicles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which described it as the core of mass offering ceremonies or of lavish rituals for the chief's investiture, which fed both the story and the myth of El Dorado. This article presents the results of the archaeological survey done around the lake. The type and distribution of the material culture suggest that there was a shrine where small-scale ritual offerings took place, rather than conspicuous celebrations.

New opportunities for archaeological research in the Greater Ghingan Range, China: Application of UAV LiDAR in the archaeological survey of the Shenshan Mountain

The Greater Khingan Range, located in northeastern China, has long been argued by historians as the birthplace of many ancient nomadic people, such as Xianbei, Khitan, and Mongols, who had a profound impact on the historical course of China and Eurasian. However, till now, only a few archaeological traces of their past activities have been discovered and reported in the region, mainly because lush forest obscures most of the land and seriously impedes its archaeological survey and mapping. To account for the adverse effect of the forest, archaeologists have been applying LiDAR technology in other forested areas worldwide. Nevertheless, there has been a paucity of similar studies in China, particularly in the Greater Khingan Range—a region with great archaeological significance. This paper presents the first integrated application of UAV LiDAR and photogrammetry to detect and map the ancient sites hidden beneath the forest canopy in Shenshan Mountain, located southeast of the Greater Khingan Range. In conjunction with a detailed field survey, the UAV missions successfully revealed, with exceptional clarity, the extent and complexity of the archaeological structures under the forest as well as their topographic context, and thus delivered, for the first time, a holistic picture of the archaeological sites in the area, allowing defining a probable ancient ritual or worship landscape that may date back to the Liao period (907–1125). The successful application of UAV LiDAR in the study has further expanded the ‘world map’ of current global LiDAR archaeology, and has demonstrated for the first time the immense promise of UAV LiDAR for archaeological surveys and landscape archaeology in the area, highlighting new opportunities for archaeological research in the Greater Khingan Range.

The colonisation of rainfed land in al-Andalus: an unknown aspect of the eleventh-century economic expansion

ABSTRACT Since the 1980s, there have been significant advancements in the study of the development of rural Andalusi settlement linked to irrigated agriculture, both in relation to large suburban green belts and to the small hydraulic systems of rural communities in mountainous regions. However, recent investigations in several dry areas and, in particular, the intensive archaeological survey that we have been carrying out in the eastern sector of La Mancha, reveal a densely populated rural region that responds to a hitherto unknown pattern. It consists of small villages on the plain, devoid of community defence elements and inhabited by peasants who made the best of the only existing natural resources that have traditionally oriented the region's economy towards cattle ranching and rainfed agriculture. Most of the villages seem to have developed from the beginning of the eleventh century, disappearing at the end of the same century due to the increase in insecurity after the Christian conquest of Toledo in 1085. Their existence would be associated with a general context of population growth that intensified the competition between urban elites and peasants for the privileged agricultural areas and, as a result, the colonisation of less favourable production areas.

Achaemenid Settlement in Shiraz Plain: Tol-e Sefid Sadra

Shiraz plain is one of the most important plains adjacent to Persepolis. Tirazziš place have been mentioned in the Persepolis Archives many times. For further research on the place name of modern Shiraz with what is mentioned in the Achaemenid’s Archives, it was necessary to carried out an archeological survey in this plain. Objective and methodical archeological researches had not been carried out in the Shiraz plain until 2008. In the process of this new methodical archaeological survey, one of the most important ancient sites of the Achaemenid and Post-Achaemenid periods was identified in the Shiraz plain. According to the ceramic documents, this site was inhabited in the Achaemenid and Post-Achaemenid periods. Shiraz is mentioned in the Persepolis Archives under the Elamite form Tirazziš. This site attests to the situation of the Shiraz plain in the Achaemenid and Post-Achaemenid periods. The introduction of this ancient site provides a new perspective to understand the relationship between the Shiraz plain in the Achaemenid period and its connection with Persepolis.