Department Of Prehistory Research Articles

Human Activity in the Silvretta Massif and Climatic Developments throughout the Holocene

The Silvretta Massif is a mountain range on the Swiss-Austrian border. Apart from a few well known Bronze and Iron Age sites1 in the Lower Engadin valley, the Silvretta has been more or less a kind of ‘archaeological terra incognita’, especially in the (high) alpine zones. Hence a multidisciplinary study named “Ruckwege” was initiated by the Department of Prehistory at the University of Zurich (Th. Reitmaier) in 2007. The project’s main goal is to explore alpine dairy farming, in particular its beginnings.2 Alpine regions like the Silvretta Massif are highly sensitive to climatic variations that affect alpine land-use and economy. Therefore at the end of 2010 another research program, entitled “CCA—Climatic Change in the Alps: 10,000 years of climatic and human impact in the Sivretta Massif between the Paznaun Valley (Austria) and the Lower Engadin (Switzerland)”, was initiated. This project, which consists of an archaeological (K. Lambers, University of Bamberg) and a palaeoecological part (J.N. Haas, University of Innsbruck), is focusing on the reconstruction of the environmental and the settlement history of the Silvretta from the end of the last ice age until the 20th century, with particular regard to human-climate interactions. To understand these processes a wellfounded, wide data base is indispensable. In 2011 a complementary field survey was therefore undertaken between Val Lavinuoz and Val Sinestra in the Swiss part of the research area, and Montafon valley and Fimber valley in the Austrian part. We recorded around 200 hitherto unknown sites covering the whole Holocene (Fig. 1). The climatic influence on human activity and its impact on settlement behaviour within the study area shall here be discussed using the examples of the Bronze Age, the Roman period and the late Middle Ages or Modern Period.

Relations between climatic changes and prehistoric human migrations during Holocene between Gissar Range, Pamir, Hindu Kush and Kashmir: The archaeological and ecological data

In the beginning of the Holocene, hunter–gatherer populations settled in the Pamir plateau, especially in the tectonic depression of Markansu near the Kara Kul Lake (Osh Kona site, 4100 m, 9580 BP and 7145 BP). These populations were well adapted to high altitude life conditions in summer. They were using stone tools related to a cobble tool tradition that Ranov considered as the local continuation of an Asian Middle Palaeolithic (Ferghana, Darwaz or Punjab). However, they disappeared during the second half of the Holocene. As well, hunters–gatherers characterised by a tradition close to Markansu Culture, namely Hissar Culture, appeared during the Holocene in the northern mountains of the Tajik–Afghan depression (Amu Darya upper basin) occupying the middle altitude valleys (Gissar Range) when Neolithic populations began to develop at lower altitudes. For Ranov, origin and destiny of both Markansu and Hissar cultures were the most important questions to solve in this region. The Department of Prehistory, National Museum of Natural History (Paris) conducted field work in collaboration with the University of Peshawar between 1996 and 1998 in the northernmost valley of the Indus basin giving access to the Wakhan corridor. The upper Yarkhun valley (Chitral district, Pakistan), accessible only by foot, was surveyed from 2500 to 4000 m altitude. This allowed the discovery of 6 sites yielding lithic artefacts, among which half are cobble tools. They attest to human activity later than 5500 BP, suggesting population movements between the Amu Darya and Indus basins. The consequences of the Quaternary climate oscillations between South Asian monsoon and Northern hemisphere influences on the one hand, and the impact on biotopes of the increasing pastoral activity on the other hand, are discussed as probable causes for the disappearance of the mountainous nomadic hunters of Central Asia.

Nuevos métodos para viejas tecnologías: análisis y documentación de los materiales arqueológicos mediante la aplicación de sistemas Láser-scanner 3D

<p>This research work, aims to contribute to the increasing application of new technologies (3D laser-scanner) in the archaeological discipline, with the aim of developing new avenues of study related documentation, analysis, dissemination, conservation and value of the archaeological register. To tackle this project successfully, we considered essential to implement a multidisciplinary working environment (Department of Prehistory and Archeology of the UAM and research group, Department of Photogrammetry DAVAP of UVA), strategy that will enable us in a joint and evaluate the many possibilities it offers us the register of archaeological materials in 3D Laser-Scanner, with the aim of advancing scientific results more informative and complete and consistent with the current development of our society</p>

Hunters and Horticulturalists: A Preliminary Report of the 1972-4 Excavations in the Manim Valley, Papua New Guinea

Ole Christensen, a PhD scholar in the Department of Prehistory in the Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University, was killed in a car accident on his way to work on 16 December last year. Ole was a Canadian citizen of Danish birth, whose parents settled in rural Alberta. He took his BA(Hons) in 1970 and his MA in 1972, both in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Calgary. His MA thesis, ‘Banff Prehistory: prehistoric subsistence and settlement in Banff National Park, Alberta’, is evidence of an early interest in economically and ecologically oriented archaeology, which he furthered by taking courses and laboratory work in pollen analysis. A visit to South America in 1970 with an archaeological team investigating early farming settlements in the Cauca Valley, Colombia, combined with a long standing interest in Polynesian anthropology to encourage him to seek to do graduate work on tropical agricultural systems somewhere in the Pacific. When he subsequently applied for the ANU scholarship which he took up in early 1972, he seemed a highly suitable person to work in association with the Department of Prehistory's project into New Guinea Highlands' agricultural history then about to start at Kuk in the upper Wahgi valley (see Mankind, 3:177–83). The proposition put to Ole was that he should undertake a study of the hydraulic technology and agrarian organization of one of the large scale agricultural systems operating in drained swamp that still flourish in Irian Jaya at the Paniai (Wissel) Lakes and in the Baliem valley, to supplement the archaeological work in the Wahgi where such systems had once but no longer existed. He felt, however, that his ethnographic background was too slim and he chose instead to do work for which he was better trained, the study of resource utilization over time in a side valley off the Wahgi close to the site of the Department's swamp excavations. The beautifully designed project that he carried out is described in the following article by him. It is based on a seminar he gave at ANU shortly before his death. I should like to make two points about this project that the article does not stress. One is the wealth of plant materials recovered from the excavations by wet sieving every ounce of excavated soil, when the nearest water source was sometimes some hundreds of precipitous yards away. The abundant pandanus seeds found in all levels of the excavated sites and their change over time from thick-walled, allegedly wild, to thin-walled, allegedly cultivated, varieties may hold important evidence for the chronology of horticulture in New Guinea and the question of whether an independent development of plant domestication took place there. The second point I want to make is that against his expectations he found himself to be a born and insatiable ethnographic fieldworker. With his Wurup friends he surveyed and recorded all the resource zones in terms of which his selection of sites for excavation was made and took part in all the activities of food procurement and processing that were responsible for the archaeological evidence that he set out to recover and interpret. A practical man of quiet and simple tastes, he was as settled in his bush house at Wurup as in his rural retreat near Canberra. He was unassertive, tolerant and deeply sympathetic and made undemanding and unobtrusive friendships with people in both homes. He is a loss to them and to his profession. His colleagues at the University of Calgary are establishing an academic prize in his memory. To his colleagues at ANU falls the responsibility of ensuring that the important work of this promising young scholar is brought to completion.

‘Marks of Natives Everywhere’1

MankindVolume 8, Issue 3 p. 230-232 ‘Marks of Natives Everywhere’1 J. V. S. Megaw, J. V. S. MegawSearch for more papers by this author J. V. S. Megaw, J. V. S. MegawSearch for more papers by this author First published: June 1972 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1835-9310.1972.tb00441.x 1 This paper is a review of Burrill Lake and Currarong: coastal sites in Southern New South Wales: Terra Australis I by R. J. Lampert. Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, 1971, pp. ix + 86, 26 tables, 18 figs, 3 black-and-white plates, $4.30 (including postage). AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume8, Issue3June 1972Pages 230-232 RelatedInformation

Australian Archaeologists In The Pacific, 1974-1994: A Guide For Non-Specialists

The story of Australian archaeologists in the Pacific over the last 20 years is one set almost entirely in Papua New Guinea (PNG). There are important exceptions, of course. Matthew Spriggs's work in Vanuatu springs immediately to mind, as do studies such as those by David Roe in the Solomons, Dirk Spennemann in Tonga and Peter Bellwood in the Cook Islands, Marquesas and elsewhere. By and large, though, the rest of us have concentrated our attention on eastern New Guinea and adjacent archipelagoes, and so it is on that region that this paper will focus. The names of certain individuals loom large - Jim Allen, Wal Ambrose, Jack Golson, Jim Specht and Peter White, in particular - as does that of the (then) Department of Prehistory in The Australian National University's (then) Research School of Pacific Studies, but there are archaeologists now based from Perth to Townsville and beyond who have braved rain, malaria, and navy biscuits and tin pis to gain insight into PNG's human past. I have not the space to treat more than a few of them individually, but I hope I do justice to everyone's efforts in a way that informs the uninitiated without boring those who were there.

Review

Report of the Lapita Homeland Project. Edited by Jim Allen and Chris Gosden. Occasional Papers in Prehistory, No. 20, Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, 1991. ISBN 0 7315 1299 5. Pp. viii + 268. $A29.50

Rich Heritage - The Transformation Of Archaeological Knowledge Of The Human Past In Oceania

Friday 7 May saw many of Australia's community of archaeologists gathered in the Coombs Building at The Australian National University to honour Jack Golson's pioneering contribution to the study of Pacific prehistory. They were also honouring his leadership as foundation Professor in the Department of Prehistory in the Research School of Pacific Studies. The occasion was marked by the presentation of a special volume, 'A Community of Culture: The People and Prehistory of the Pacific, written as a tribute from his colleagues.

Review

Lapita design, form and composition. Proceedings of the Lapita Design Workshop, Canberra, Australia – December 1988. Edited by Matthew Spriggs. Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT, 1990. ISBN 0 7315 1150 6. Pp. 142. $18.00

Review

Archaeology with Ethnography: an Australian Perspective. Edited by Betty Meehan and Rhys Jones. Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, 1988. Pp ix + 285. ISBN 0‐7315‐0283‐3. Price $A21, plus postage.

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY: Department of Prehistory and Anthropology The Faculties

"AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY: Department of Prehistory and Anthropology The Faculties." Australian Archaeology, 22(1), pp. 173–174

Oppida: earliest towns north of the Alps. By Collis J. R.. 254 pp., 150 figs. Sheffield, University of Sheffield, Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, 1984. Price £15.00.

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Review

Between Plateau and Plain. Flexible responses to varied environments in Southwestern Australia. By June Anderson. Australian National University, Department of Prehistory, Occasional Papers 4, 1984. Pp. 44. Price $5.30 ISBN O 86784 402 7

Chiefs without chiefdoms? Comments on prehistoric sociopolitical organization in western Melanesia

Brookfield, H. and Brown, P. 1963. Struggle for Land. Melbourne University Press. Burton, J. 1984. Axe makers of the Wahgi. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Australian National University. Golson, J. 1982. The Ipomean revolution revisited: Society and the sweet potato in the upper Wahgi valley. In A. Strathern (ed.), Inequality in New Guinea Highlands Societies, pp. 109-136. Cambridge University Press. Gorecki, P. P. 1982. Ethnoarchaeology at Kuk: problems in site formation processes. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sydney. Hayden, B. and Cannon, Α. 1984. The structure of material systems: ethnoarchaeology in the Maya highlands. Society for American Archaeology, SAA Papers 3. Hughes, I. M. 1977. New Guinea stone age trade. Terra Australia 3. Lampe rt, R. J. 1972. Hagen Axes. Manuscript, Department of Prehistory, Australian National University. Lightfoot, K. G. and Feinman, G. M. 1982. Social differentiation and leadership development in early pithouse villages in the Mogollon region of the American Southwest. American Antiquity 47, 64-86. Modjeska, C. N. 1977. Production among the Duna. Unpublished PhD thesis, Australian National University. Modjeska, C. N. 1982. Production and inequality: perspectives from central New Guinea. In A. J. Strathern (ed.), Inequality in New Guinea Highlands Societies, pp. 50-108. Cambridge University Press. Strathern, A. J. 1969. Finance and production: two strategies in New Guinea highland exchange systems. Oceania 40, 42-67. Waddell,E. 1972. The Mound Builders. University of Washington Press. White, J. P. and Modjeska, C. N. 1978a. Where do all the stone tools go? In I. Hodder (ed.), The spatial organisation of culture, pp. 25-38. Duckworth, London. White, J. P. and Modjeska, C. N. 1978b. Acquirers, users, finders, losers: the use axe blades make of the Duna. Mankind 11, 276-287. Yoffee, N. 1979. The decline and rise of Mesopotamian civilization: an ethnoarchaeological perspective on the evolution of social complexity. American Antiquity 44, 5-35.

Excavations at Carthage: The British Mission, Volume I.2, The Avenue du President Habib Bourgiba, Salammbo: The Pottery and Other Ceramic Objects from the Site. By M. G. Fulford and D. P. S. Peacock. 284 pages, 96 figures, 6 plates. Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Sheffield, 1984. Price £55 (for volume I, 1 and 2).

Excavations at Carthage: The British Mission, Volume I.2, The Avenue du President Habib Bourgiba, Salammbo: The Pottery and Other Ceramic Objects from the Site. By M. G. Fulford and D. P. S. Peacock. 284 pages, 96 figures, 6 plates. Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Sheffield, 1984. Price £55 (for volume I, 1 and 2).

Catalogue of Greek and Roman Glass in the British Museum, 1. Core- and Rod-Formed Vessels and Pendants and Mycenaean Cast Objects. By Donald B. Harden.

text. It gives clear explanations of 16 different testing methods, ranging from simple tests to atomic absorption analysis and electron microscopy. Each method is described with its advantages, disadvantages and typical usage. Scientific methods available for dating, with their limited usefulness for glass, are also described. "The Conservation of Glass" provides sensible advice to the archaeologist faced with fragile glass objects on the site, and helpful references for later treatment. The author notes further on that the variable durability of glass may result in a distorted statistical picture, since only the most stable objects produced tend to survive. The remaining chapters deal with glassmaking history from the beginnings to the present, "Glass and Glassmaking Sites in Britain," "Glass and its Place in Archaeology" and "Searching for Information on Glass." The chapter on the history of glassmaking is fairly accurate, although abbreviated. Most of the general works cited in the bibliography for this chapter are helpful. For ancient glass, however, it is surprising that the 1968 British Museum Masterpieces of Glass is mentioned but not D.B. Harden's authoritative

The Chester Gladiator Rediscovered

The stone relief (PL. XI, FIG. I) which forms the subject of this paper was submitted to the British Museum (Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities) for identification. The relief had been added to the collections of the Saffron Walden Museum in 1836, (reg. no. 1836. no LXXIX). Though it was rumoured to have come from York or Chester, the register entries give the provenance as variously Herculaneum and Pompeii.

D. N. Riley: Early landscape from the air. Studies of cropmarks in South Yorkshire & North Nottinghamshire. Sheffield: University of Sheffield, Department of Prehistory, 1980. 161 pp., 16 pls., 14 figs., 34 maps. £7.50 in the UK. Obtainable from Miss Anne Hill, Department of Prehistory & Archaeology, University of Sheffield. Cheques should be made payable to ‘J. R. Collis: re

D. N. Riley: Early landscape from the air. Studies of cropmarks in South Yorkshire & North Nottinghamshire. Sheffield: University of Sheffield, Department of Prehistory, 1980. 161 pp., 16 pls., 14 figs., 34 maps. £7.50 in the UK. Obtainable from Miss Anne Hill, Department of Prehistory & Archaeology, University of Sheffield. Cheques should be made payable to ‘J. R. Collis: re publication’. - Volume 55 Issue 214

Review

Holier Than Thou Edited by I. Johnson. Department of Prehistory, Australian National University, Canberra, 1980. Pp. 176, $10.

Review

Recent Prehistory in Southeast Papua. By Brian Egloff. Terra Australis, No. 4, 1979. Department of Prehistory, Australian National University, Canberra. $7.00.