Prehistoric Archaeology Research Articles

Cronistas, arqueólogos e seu distanciamento desnecessário

Desde a chegada dos primeiros europeus ao continente americano a vida dos habitantes primeiros destas terras vem sofrendo as conseqüências deste contato forçado. Felizmente alguns destes europeus se dedicaram a descrever as sociedades e os modos de vida dos povos que aqui encontraram, bem como alguns dos nascidos na terra o fizeram posteriormente.

Another Dating Revolution for Prehistoric Archaeology?

Transitions to the Howiesons Poort Industry and other early modern human cultural phases have conventionally been explained as direct or indirect responses to major climatic and ecological fluctuations. Advances in optically stimulated luminescence dating have now provided the time resolution necessary to refute these explanations. However, for improvements in dating methods to have a revolutionary impact on the archaeology of early modern human evolution, the correction of these flawed narratives can only be regarded as a first step. What is more important is that the discipline now embraces the opportunity to analyse cultural entities in terms of their internal temporal structure, and hence to realign praxis with contemporary evolutionary theory.

Changing the prehistory of Sindh and Las Bela coast: twenty-five years of Italian contribution

This paper discusses the prehistory of Sindh and Las Bela coast (Balochistan) before and after partition, and the role played by the Italian archaeologists since the 1980s. Until a few years ago the prehistory of Sindh was known mainly from the impressive urban remains of the Indus civilization and the discovery of Palaeolithic assemblages in the desert landscapes close to India, while very little was known of the remains of other periods, their radiocarbon dating and the importance of the coastal zone. Our knowledge of the prehistory of the country has improved greatly during the last twenty-five years, thanks to systematic surveys and excavations in unexplored landscapes, which radically transformed our knowledge of the prehistoric archaeology of this important region of the Indian subcontinent.

A tribute to the late Felder brothers – pioneers of Limburg geology and prehistoric archaeology; introduction

AbstractAll contributions in the current memorial volume are briefly commented upon, with the emphasis on how these issues touched upon, or were linked to, the long and productive professional careers of the late Felder brothers, in the fields of geology, palaeontology and human prehistory. Pertinent literature references are added, some of which are covered in the various papers, while others illustrate their wide range of interests and prolific publishing lives.

Migration Concepts in Central Eurasian Archaeology

Theories of migration hold a pervasive position in prehistoric archaeology of Central Eurasia. International research on Eurasia today reflects the juxtaposition of archaeological theory and practice from distinct epistemological traditions, and migration is at the crux of current debates. Migration was employed paradigmatically during the Soviet era to explain the geography and materiality of prehistoric ethnogenesis, whereas in the west it was harshly criticized in prehistoric applications, especially in the 1970s. Since the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), migration has resurfaced as an important, yet polemical, explanation in both academic arenas. Short- and long-distance population movements are seen as fundamental mechanisms for the formation and distribution of regional archaeological cultures from the Paleolithic to historical periods and as a primary social response to environmental, demographic, and political pressures. Critics view the archaeological record of Eurasia as a product of complex local and regional interaction, exchange, and innovation, reinvigorating essential debates around migration, diffusion, and autochthonous change in Eurasian prehistory.

Radiocarbon-dated archaeological record of early first millennium B.C. mounted pastoralists in the Kunlun Mountains, China

Pastoral nomadism, as a successful economic and social system drawing on mobile herding, long-distance trade, and cavalry warfare, affected all polities of the Eurasian continent. The role that arid Inner Asia, particularly the areas of northwestern China, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia, played in the emergence of this phenomenon remains a fundamental and still challenging question in prehistoric archaeology of the Eurasian steppes. The cemetery of Liushiu (Xinjiang, China) reveals burial features, bronze bridle bits, weaponry, adornment, horse skulls, and sheep/goat bones, which, together with paleopathological changes in human skeletons, indicate the presence of mobile pastoralists and their flocks at summer pastures in the Kunlun Mountains, ∼2,850 m above sea level. Radiocarbon dates place the onset of the burial activity between 1108 and 893 B.C. (95% probability range) or most likely between 1017 and 926 B.C. (68%). These data from the Kunlun Mountains show a wider frontier within the diversity of mobile pastoral economies of Inner Asia and support the concept of multiregional transitions toward Iron Age complex pastoralism and mounted warfare.

Archaeogenetics: Advent of Genetics in Field of Archaeology

In order to prove the archaeological hypotheses, other fields of science such as Anthropology, Botany, Zoology and Chemistry are required. The applications of molecular genetics in answering questions concerning the primitive populations have been clarified. Therefore, pre-historic archaeologists with co-operating of Human evolutionary geneticists and Molecular Anthropologist are forming a new field of study called Archaeogenetics. As one of the applications of this field of study in pre-historic Archaeology of Europe, specific demographic models are provided for the elaborate chronological patterning of agriculture across Europe at the beginning of Neolithic period. In molecular archaeology, genetic materials are used; Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is used for maternal lineages and Y chromosome DNA is used for paternal lineages of pre-historic populations. Through appearing of the advanced techniques of molecular biology, the study of human genetics has faced new revolution. These techniques are increasingly used for discovery and use of genes in anthropology, medicine and forensic genetics. Every person, in his genomes, carries a genetic record of his ancestors. The investigation of the living populations' diversity provides some pieces of information on the evolutionary process, population dispersion and emigration in the past. Therefore, it's time to apply this technology in zonal studies for considering the questions of a specific section of history.

Social construction and deconstruction of a ‘theocracy’

Archaeology aims at imagining past societies, using physical data together with, if available, historical documentation. But this imaginative process is bound by factors widely discussed in social epistemology, including unequal social relations among researchers. Such unequal geopolitics in knowledge has been explored by the present author and others (Goonatilake 1982, 1984, 1999, 2001; Clough 2001). The present exercise aims to investigate and question the social and intellectual context in which Anuradhapura, the first capital in Sri Lanka, has been interpreted as belonging to a ‘theocracy’ (Coninghamet al.2007). Prehistoric archaeology has dated the site to around the ninth century BC at which time it was one of the largest cities in South Asia. A continuous set of chronicles, authenticated by physical remains, document the continuation of the city from at least the fourth/third century BC up to the eleventh century AD, when it was sacked by south Indian invaders. The written evidence includes Sinhalese chronicles (written in Pali), descriptions of the city by foreign travellers and a large number of inscriptions dating back to the third century BC.

The Dvaravati Gap - Linking Prehistory and History in Early Thailand

The author’s principal research has mainly been in the field of Southeast Asian prehistoric archaeology rather than art history but one topic that has preoccupied me since I first excavated between 1980–1985 at the site of Ban Don Ta Phet in west-central Thailand is the relationships between the late prehistoric Iron Age cultures of Southeast Asia and the Indian influenced Buddhist and Hindu civilizations of the early first millennium of the present era and especially the Dvaravati Civilization of Central Thailand which occupied the same region as the late prehistoric Iron Age communities– albeit after an interval of several hundred years.

Did the 73 ka Toba super-eruption have an enduring effect? Insights from genetics, prehistoric archaeology, pollen analysis, stable isotope geochemistry, geomorphology, ice cores, and climate models

The potential impact of the ∼73 ka Toba super-eruption upon global and regional climate, terrestrial ecosystems and prehistoric human populations remains unclear. Evidence from genetics, prehistoric archaeology, pollen analysis, stable isotope geochemistry, geomorphology, ice cores, and climate models has provided some useful working hypotheses. Further progress requires a substantial improvement in the accuracy, precision and resolution of the chronologies of each of the marine and terrestrial proxy records used to reconstruct the environmental impact of this extreme event.

Post-War Identity and Scholarship: The Correspondence of Paul Jacobsthal and Gero von Merhart at the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford

Archives form a valuable but under-researched resource for mapping the development of prehistoric archaeology as a discipline in post-war Europe. New work on the previously un-catalogued archives of Professor Paul Jacobsthal at the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford, exemplify the opportunities offered by archival research. Here, we focus on the correspondence between Professor Jacobsthal of Marburg University, who sought refuge in Oxford before the war, and his colleague, Professor Merhart, who remained in Germany. The surviving personal correspondence between Germany and Oxford from 1936 to 1957 illustrates the complexities, uncertainties, and challenges to personal and academic identities in the aftermath of the war, and show how the individual responses of archaeologists to their personal experiences impacted on the directions taken by archaeological scholarship in Europe and beyond after the war.

Violence and Society in the Deep Human Past

The past two decades have seen important changes in the ways in which archaeologists perceive interpersonal violence in the past. Prehistoric archaeology in particular provides a unique long-term perspective on the development and institutionalization of violence in human societies, adding a further dimension to the work of cultural anthropologists studying more recent non-state societies. Evidence can be drawn from a range of sources, including material culture, settlement patterning, iconography and (crucially) patterns of trauma in human remains. The interpretation of such evidence remains inseparable from wider contextual understandings of prehistoric social forms and practices. This paper considers the specific role of archaeological evidence in establishing a broader historical context for the study of violence.

Studies of technology in prehistoric archaeology

Technology studies have always been the most important focus of archaeology, as a science which analyzes human past through the study of material culture. To say that something is technological in archaeology, means to put the concept of technology in the centre of theoretical studies, and to study not only the form of the object, but also the entire sequence of technological factors, from raw material choice, mode of use, up to the reasons for abandonment. The concept of technology in anthropology and archaeology is based on the original meaning of the word ????? in ancient Greek, meaning the skill, i. e., to study how something is being done. Such a concept of technology as a skill or mode of doing something was for the first time outlined by the French anthropologist Marcel Mauss, whose starting point was that every technological statement was at the same time social or cultural statement and that technological choices have social foundations. Pierre Lemonnier further developed the anthropology of technology, focusing on the question of technological choices, as well as numerous other anthropologists. In archaeology, the most important contribution to the study of technology was the work of Andr? Leroi-Gourhan, who created the concept of cha?ne op?ratoire, as an analytical tool for studying the mode of creating, using and discarding an artefact, starting with raw material acquisition, mode of manufacture, final form, use (including caching, breaking and repairing) up to the final discarding. It is not only about reconstructing the algorithmic sequence of operations in creating one object, but it is a complex analysis of operational chain within one society which includes the analysis of technological choices. The analyses of technologies today include a variety of different approaches, most of them with emphasis on the cultural and social aspects of technology. The analysis of bone industry in the Early and Middle Neolithic in central Balkans (Starcevo culture), which included not only final objects, but also manufacture debris and semi-finished products, revealed a well developed industry, with a high level of technological knowledge on the properties of raw materials, skillful manufacture, well organized production, as well as possibility of a certain degree of specialization on the micro and macro level (within one settlement and within a group of settlements). Both raw material choices and manufacturing techniques, as well as the final forms, demonstrated a high standardization level. Also certain symbolic value was attributed to some raw materials, and there is a possibility that skill itself was valued. Further analyses of multiple technologies will help in reconstructing the organization of production, social and economic aspects in Neolithic societies, as well as the role of technology in everyday and ritual life.

Deep nation: Australia’s acquisition of an indigenous past

Prehistoric archaeology has done little to debunk the idea of the timeless/traditional Aborigine because the virtual merging of the discourses of archaeology and heritage locked Australian archaeology into a form of essentialism. Various means were being used to decrease the visibility of living Aboriginal people in the landscape and various other means were being employed to enhance the visibility of the archaeological remains that were replacing them there.

Post-War Identity and Scholarship: The Correspondence of Paul Jacobsthal and Gero von Merhart at the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford

Archives form a valuable but under-researched resource for mapping the development of prehistoric archaeology as a discipline in post-war Europe. New work on the previously un-catalogued archives of Professor Paul Jacobsthal at the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford, exemplify the opportunities offered by archival research. Here, we focus on the correspondence between Professor Jacobsthal of Marburg University, who sought refuge in Oxford before the war, and his colleague, Professor Merhart, who remained in Germany. The surviving personal correspondence between Germany and Oxford from 1936 to 1957 illustrates the complexities, uncertainties, and challenges to personal and academic identities in the aftermath of the war, and show how the individual responses of archaeologists to their personal experiences impacted on the directions taken by archaeological scholarship in Europe and beyond after the war.

The Historical Development of Italian Prehistoric Archaeology: A Brief Outline

<p class="article-text">Twenty-five years ago Marcel Desittere, a Belgian prehistorian who works and lives in northern Italy, published the first important monograph about the origins of Italian prehistoric archaeology (Desittere 1985). Beginning with the history of one of the main prehistory museums, Reggio Emilia, created in the second half of the nineteenth century, Desittere tried to reconstruct a socio-political and intellectual biography of the pioneers of the discipline. <p class="article-text">Over the following years since 1985, many scholars have dedicated monographs, articles, papers in congress proceedings and exhibition catalogues, to the subject of the history of Italian prehistoric archaeology (see, among others: Bernabò and Mutti 1994; Cuomo Di Caprio 1986; Desittere 1988, 1996; Del Lucchese <em> </em> 2008; Guidi 1987, 1988, 1996a, 1996b, 2000, 2008, forthcoming; Peroni 1992; Skeates 2000; Tarantini 1998–2000, 2000, 2000–2001, 2002a, 2002b, 2004, 2005). All of these works contributed to the profile of a discipline that, in our country, comprises some peculiar characteristics.

Series in Progress: Antiquities of Nature, Numismatics and Stone Implements in the Emergence of Prehistoric Archaeology

Series in Progress: Antiquities of Nature, Numismatics and Stone Implements in the Emergence of Prehistoric Archaeology

TVA archaeology: seventy-five years of prehistoric site research

Since its inception in 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority has played a dual role as federal agency and steward of the Tennessee River Valley. While known to most people today as an energy provider, the agency is also charged with managing and protecting the nation's fifth-largest river system, the Tennessee River, and vast tracts of land and resources encompassing Tennessee and portions of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia. Included in TVA's mandate is the preservation of the archaeological record of the valley's prehistoric peoples-a record that would have been forever lost beneath floodwaters had TVA not demonstrated a commitment to minimize its impact on the valley and sought to protect its archaeological resources. In TVA Archaeology, fourteen contributors who have worked with TVA in its conservation effort discuss prehistoric excavations conducted at Tellico, Normandy, Jonathan's Creek, and many other sites. They explore TVA's role in the excavations and how the agency facilitated prehistoric investigations along proposed dam sites. They also delve into the history of TVA as it grew from a New Deal program to a federal corporation and reveal how, during the agency's formative years, the TVA board responded to prodding from archaeologists David DeJarnette and William Webb and molded TVA into the steward of a region it is today. TVA remains a mainstay of progress and conservation within an important region of the United States, and its safeguarding of the valley's prehistory cements its legacy as more than just an energy supplier. Students and researchers interested in prehistoric archaeology, the Tennessee Valley, and the history of TVA will find this volume an invaluable contribution to the study of the region. Erin E. Pritchard is an archaeologist with the Tennessee Valley Authority. Her work includes multiple archaeological site investigations, most notably Dust Cave in northern Alabama, and she has authored and coauthored numerous site reports for TVA.

Three Prehistories Reviewed: Writing the Present into the Past

These three volumes published by Blackwell are all con cerned with the interpretation of prehistoric archaeology from Europe. Prehistoric Britain and Prehistoric Europe do so directly, providing state-of-the-art overviews of their subjects from a variety of leading academics, while Creating Prehistory addresses how the nascent discipline of archaeology formed both itself and its interpretations in the process. They are also linked by the concept of the narrative?specifically, how histories are formed and presented and the manner in which social and political contexts shape the nature of interpreta tion. This is not always made explicit, but tensions between the narrative aims of the works and the contexts of their au

Rocks of Ages: Tempo and Time in Megalithic Monuments

Chronology remains a problematic area in prehistoric archaeology but the increasing number and precision of radiometric dates begin to suggest patterns that can be resolved down to the scale of individual lifetimes. The study of megalithic monuments has benefited from these developments but remains hampered by the indirect relationship between the materials that are dated and the structures themselves. Drawing on evidence from France, Scandinavia, and Iberia, it is nonetheless arguable that available patterns of dates suggest an event-like tempo to the construction of megalithic monuments, with large numbers being built within relatively short periods of time. This has implications for typological models and for the social context in which such monuments were designed and built.