Prehistoric Objects Research Articles

Les vertébrés du Kimméridgien supérieur de Fumel (Lot-et-Garonne, France) dans la collection Jacques-Ludomir Combes (1824-1892)

The vertebrates from the Upper Kimmeridgian of Fumel (Lot-et-Garonne department, France) in the collection of Jacques-Ludomir Combes (1824-1892). This article presents the history of the collection of Jacques-Ludomir Combes (1824-1892), a pharmacist living in Fumel, who built up the most important collection of fossils and prehistoric objects from the Lotet-Garonne department of his time. In 1880, Combes sold his collection to the Museum of Agen, where an entire room was devoted to its exhibition. Among the most remarkable specimens were numerous vertebrate remains from the Upper Kimmeridgian of Fumel and its surroundings, whose discoveries were closely linked to the intensive exploitation of the region's cement quarries. These specimens were studied in the early 1900s by Henri-Émile Sauvage (1842-1917), who published a study on them in 1902. After the museum was restructured and renamed the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Agen, the natural history collections were relegated to storage. Long considered lost, dispersed, or even destroyed, many Kimmeridgian vertebrates of Fumel from the Combes collection have been rediscovered and are presented here for the first time since the work of Sauvage. This vertebrate assemblage, the richest known today in the Upper Jurassic of southwestern France, highlights a fauna composed of chondrichthyans (Hybodontiformes, Holocephali), actinopterygians (Pycnodontiformes, Ginglymodi, Halecomorphi, Pachycormiformes), turtles (Thalassochelydia), ichthyosaurs (Ophthalmosauridae), plesiosaurs (Cryptoclididae) and thalattosuchians (Teleosauroidea, Metriorhynchoidea).

Applying Gamification Technique and Virtual Reality for Prehistoric Learning toward the Metaverse

Technological development provides many benefits in learning process, such as the development of the learning method, media, strategy, and design. Based on the observation had been done at History department, UNDIKSHA showed that the students had problems in learning process especially in Indonesian Prehistory Course. The lecturer still focused on teacher-centered method and book only without using technological development. That is why, students’ interest, motivation, and understanding towards the learning process could be categorized as low. This research aimed to describe the implementation of gamification technique and virtual reality in developing an educational game to help students in recognizing the prehistoric objects, increasing the students’ motivation and activeness, and giving immersive experience learning toward the metaverse. This research used ADDIE Model method and was analyzed by using descriptive quantitative and qualitative. The subjects were 20 students of the History department at UNDIKSHA. The result showed that the average response of the 20 users was 91.81% which could be categorized as very positive. The effect score was 0.80 which could be categorized as very effective. It was counted by using N-Gain Score. So, gamification based on virtual reality could increase the students’ activeness, interest, motivation, and understanding toward the prehistoric objects.

Image communication and contemporary visualisation in the popularisation of archaeology

In modern society where images begin to play a dominant role in the cognitive process, the use of visualisation as a carrier of information about archaeological research becomes more and more important. The main aim of this article is to consider visualisation as a method of education and protection of cultural heritage, as well as the role of image communication in popularising archaeology. These issues will be subject to a critical discussion in terms of advantages, possibilities and challenges resulting from the use of 3D reconstruction of prehistoric objects in museology, the Internet and popular science publications. In order to understand the idea of image communication in popularising the archaeological heritage better, an example of visualisations comprising a graphic part of museum exhibitions will be presented.

Late Roman and Early Byzantine Solidi of the Stiernstedt Ancient Coin Collection

This is a study of 33 Late Roman and Early Byzantine solidi from the period 394-565 that are kept in the Stiernstedt Ancient Coin Collection. The solidi were acquired in the late nineteenth century by the co-founding president of the Swedish Numismatic the Stiernstedt Ancient Coin Collection (Heilborn 1882). The entire collection was acquired at a sale from the Bukowski auction house in Stockholm by the Swedish-Texan antebellum cattle baron and gilded age banker Swante Magnus Swenson the same year. Together with many other coins and various prehistoric objects acquired in Sweden, the Stiernstedt Ancient Coin Collection was donated by Swenson in 1891 to the State of Texas under the name of the Swenson Collection. The Stiernstedt Ancient Coin Collection is currentlykept at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. The study concludes with a catalogue of the 33 solidi. In the commentary, I have tried to identify and recontextualize the solidi by comparing them to recorded hoards from Scandinavia and the European Continent as well as unprovenanced solidi in Swedish and European collections.

Time, memory and alterity in prehistoric lithic technology: Synthesis and perspectives of the French technogenetic approach

The technogenetic approach in the field of prehistoric lithic technology studies originated in the late 1980s. Traditional approaches, such as typology and production technology, have tended to approach prehistoric lithic objects through their socio-cultural and economic dimensions, without really considering the existence of a technogenesis prior to these contingencies. The apprehension of this technogenetic dimension in prehistory will call upon both the philosophy and the anthropology of techniques to lead to a double approach of the artefacts: a technogenetic approach of the lithic object according to the technical criteria of its genesis; and a psychosocial approach of the object according to the criteria proper to its artisanal production within a major technical system. The objective of this article is to identify two fundamental existences constituting the technical object, one internal (technogenetic) with technical lineages and the other external (psychosocial) with technical trajectories. The spatio-temporal distribution of prehistoric technical otherness on different continents has logically led to new questions, findings and new criteria of analysis. On this basis, our approach will aim to revisit the main conceptual axes of the foundations of the technological approach, to clarify old questions while developing new expertise. Through the application of key concepts such as time, memory and otherness, an overall methodology will also be discussed and will help proposing its epistemological line.

A spatial statistical study of the distribution of Sardinian nuraghes

ABSTRACT The spatial distribution of nuraghes throughout the Island of Sardinia still raises many questions. In this paper, we apply spatial statistical methods to investigate their relations with topographical features and with related objects nearby. We use the non-stationary G- and J-functions. To model interactions with topographic variables we use the non-stationary Poisson model. We find that the elevation of the nuraghes show a uniform distribution between 0 and 400 m, and with a peak in distances to holy wells of approximately 5 km. As expected, we found a clustered pattern, with clustering occurring in the mid-west, the centre and the south west of the Island. We further observed a very strong interaction with domus de janas, and a strong spatial interaction for distances in the range between 0 and 1000 m with the pre-Nuragic dolmens and menhirs, and the collective funerary structures, the so-called Nuragic giants’ tombs. We conclude that the study is useful to quantify spatial patterns of pre-historic sites, in particular if these occur in a great abundancy and provides new insight into the spatial relations of the different pre-historic objects and buildings.

A ROMAN TEMPLE FROM SOUTHERN BRITAIN: RELIGIOUS PRACTICE IN LANDSCAPE CONTEXTS

Traditionally, Roman temples and shrines in Britain have been contextualised in relation to wider ‘Roman’ religious practices. Until recently, considerations of architectural form and named deities have dominated discussions. The wider turn in archaeological discourse recognising ritual in everyday contexts has highlighted the importance of lived experience and landscape practice in shaping belief. Here we reflect on the implications of such ideas when approaching ritual practice at Roman temples, using a recently excavated example from Wiltshire, southern Britain, as a case study. The exceptional artefactual assemblages from the site demonstrate the importance of local and regional landscape practices and belief in shaping ritual practice in a sacred space. In addition, geophysical survey and analysis of Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) finds suggests that those occupying the landscape had long-term access to wealth. Deposition in the temple itself indicates the continuing importance attached to prehistoric objects in the Roman period, but also to the adoption of new votive practices of miniaturisation, mutilation and sacrifice. These rituals, although part of wider grammars of religious behaviour, had their roots in specific local contexts. Our detailed analyses provide a picture of a temple dedicated to a previously unknown local god, Bregneus, framed against that of an active community involved in farming, iron processing, quarrying, hunting and woodland management.

Surface analysis of an eagle talon from Krapina

The Krapina white-tailed eagle talons represent a kind of jewelry worn by Krapina Neandertals some 130,000 years ago. New inspection of one Krapina talon (386.1) revealed a fiber, sealed by a thin silicate coating, adhering to the surface within a wide cut mark, as well as concentrated traces of occasional spots of red and yellow pigment and some black stains. We analyzed the fiber and small portions of pigmented areas by non-invasive, infrared synchrotron beam. Different areas were targeted, revealing the protein nature of the fiber, identified as of animal origin. Targeted areas revealed intra- and inter-strand aggregation indicating the fiber to be collagen losing its original triple α-helix conformation, further confirming the diagenetic decay of the original collagen structure and the antiquity of the fiber. It is possible that the fiber is a remnant of the leather or sinew string binding the talons together. Spectroscopic analysis of the pigments in two isolated areas confirmed two types of ochre and that the dark spots are charcoal remnants. Applying novel non-invasive technologies provides new possibilities to further test the hypothesis of using prehistoric objects for symbolic purposes.

Science versus Archaeology? The Case of the Bernstorf Fakes.

Although scientific methods are frequently applied in archaeology and are often considered as indispensable, their results do not always agree with archaeological expectations. This can usually be resolved by detailed discussions and by acknowledging the potentials and limitations of the different approaches. To do this it is necessary to accept the competence and experience of each other and, foremost, accept and understand the different methodologies. Here a case is presented, in which such a conundrum could in principle be solved but archaeological arguments are given a priori more weight and discomforting scientific results are thus suppressed. The case deals with a number of decorated gold foils and pieces of amber that were found near a Late Bronze Age structure at the hamlet of Bernstorf near the small town of Kranzberg, Lkr. Freising, in Bavaria. They were interpreted as clear evidence for contacts between Mycenae and Bavaria in the Late Bronze Age and it was suggested that the gold derives from Egypt. It was also maintained that this find would corroborate the widely accepted hypothesis of an “amber road” and a link between the Mediterranean cultures and Central Europe. Analyses of the Bernstorf gold showed it to be exceptionally pure which is not only unknown in natural gold but also in all prehistoric gold objects hitherto analyzed. It was therefore concluded that the finds from Bernstorf were made from modern gold foil, which is supported by radiocarbon dates of soil intentionally enveloping an amber “seal” containing gold foil of similar composition. However, this unavoidable conclusion is dismissed by some archaeologist, claiming that “mere chemical analysis” and “a chemist” cannot decide on the authenticity of an object and that archaeological reasoning has to be given priority.

Attitudes towards prehistoric objects in Romanian folk culture (19th-20th century)

In the present study we intend to reconstruct the attitudes of Romanian peasants towards the vestiges of prehistoric material culture. They have been in contact with a diversity of prehistoric artefacts: polished and perforated stone axes, silex arrow tips, chisels, scrapers, spindle whorls, jewellery, etc. We try to find answers to the following questions: What people thought about the origin of prehistoric artefacts? What meanings were associated with such artefacts? What was their place in the collective imaginary? Which were the uses of these objects?

Marqueur d’identification à micro-échelle de l’ivoire de mammouth dans les objets préhistoriques

This paper illustrates the importance of the material identification in order to be able to answer archaeological questions and describes the definition of new markers based on the chemical analysis and the study of the inner micro-morphology of the objects. The challenge for the identification of mammoth ivory is highlighted amongst prehistoric objects, which were heavily worked and used. The applied analytical approach is non-invasive to preserve the integrity of the rare and precious prehistoric objects. The objects are studied by means of Proton Induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and micro X-ray tomography (microCT). Examples of the study of objects dating back to the Upper Palaeolithic nicely illustrate the informative potential of this kind of investigations.

Materialisierte Übersetzungen in der Prähistorie

So far, 'translation' has only played a minor role as a concept for the analysis of prehistoric objects. Novel approaches have instead focused on alternative terms like appropriation, entanglement, hybridity and transculturality. The common association of translation with language, text and writing might have been a major obstacle for the acceptance of this term as neither language nor written sources are available as primary sources for Prehistorian Archaeologists. We base our argument in the ongoing debate about translation in Cultural and Social Anthropology and ask if and to what extent this concept can be used for Prehistoric Archaeology. We focus on intercultural translations and their transformative power, as this can help to better conceptualize cultural change. In order to translate translation for the epistemological frame and potential of Prehistoric Archaeology, we confront this concept with other and more frequently used concepts. In a final case study, we demonstrate the potential of translation by applying the concept to the interpretation of vessels made out of gold foil of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC in southern Central Europe. These vessels can be understood as materialized translations, which resulted from the transmission and appropriation of innovations.

The Reuse of ‘Antiques’ in Conversion Period Cemeteries

BETWEEN 2005 AND 2007, a large Anglo-Saxon cemetery was excavated at Street House, near Loftus in Cleveland in north-eastern England. The site was discovered during a programme of research into late-prehistoric settlement in the area and hosts a range of monuments dating from 3000 bc to ad 650. In the context of the conversion period, the Anglo-Saxon cemetery is of significant interest due to a range of reused prehistoric and Romano-British objects found as gravegoods. By ad 650, when some of the objects were buried, they were already antiques, and some may have been at least 250 years old when deposited. During the conversion period, furnished burial was a diminishing rite and the placement of objects within the grave may therefore have held a greater significance. This study considers reused artefacts recovered from conversion -period cemeteries. At a time when a number of cemeteries were being founded in relation to earlier monuments, some contained burials that reused artefacts and jewellery of prehistoric and Romano-British date. There is a compelling pattern for this practice at Street House, but this phenomenon also occurred at other sites of a similar date.

Regional provenance of dolerite prehistoric objects through mineral analysis

A methodology based on the mineral analysis determination has been developed to identify the origin of dolerite stone outcrops collected to fabricate lithic objects during the Prehistoric period. The method is based on the use of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to analyse rare earth elements (REE) and trace elements. Additionally a no destructive geochemical analysis based on X-ray fluorescence (XRF) was employed for major elements analysis. The aforementioned methodologies were applied to samples from different archaeological fields or natural outcrops located in the Mediterranean area of Spain, between Valencia and Alicante.Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to interpret the dolerite geological provenance. These preliminary results show that statistical analysis permits to distinguish stone sample origins according to their REE profile at regional level and that Ti/Fe major element relation perhaps shows just coarse differences between samples collected on the extreme north and south of the studied region. The proposed method could be useful to discriminate the regional origin of lithic objects belonging to dolerite rocks and to interpret the primary material transport and exchange of lithic materials in Valencian Prehistory.

A Hematite Cone from Smith County, Texas

Hematite (Fe2O3) is a mineral, its most important usage being iron ore. In the United States, hematite occurs over a large region with a major concentration in the central part of the country. Hematite has varying degrees of hardness and colors. Hematite gives rocks their red color and characteristic “red-streak.” Soft, earthy (red ocher) forms were prized as paints. Hard, compact forms with considerable iron content were valued as tools, because of their strength as well as susceptibility to a high and beautiful polish. Certain forms of hematite are used in making jewelry. During prehistoric times, hematite was fashioned and used in a wide variety of forms including celts, axes, pendants, plummets, pestles, discoidals, cup stones (nutting stones), manos, and cones. The high degree of workmanship on some of these tools, and the absence of use-damage, suggest that some of them may have had uses that were other than merely functional. This study concerns a hematite cone that was found in eastern Smith County, Texas along Prairie Creek (41SM449). I also discuss a possible unfinished hematite cone found at the Brieger Point site (41CP42) at Lake Bob Sandlin. Prehistoric hematite objects are not uncommon in East Texas, the most common forms being grooved axes, celts, nutting stones, and manos. More uncommon are objects such as pendants and plummets. The hematite cone from the Prairie Creek site and the possible hematite cone from the Lake Bob Sandlin area are the only examples of hematite cones that I am aware of from the East Texas area. Hematite cones are more plentiful in the Ohio valley. Their function is unknown, although it has been surmised that they may have been gaming pieces or talismans.

Qué hacer con un modelo arqueológico virtual. Aplicaciones de la inteligencia artificial en visualización científica.

<p>For years, artists have collaborated with archaeologists in order to “reconstruct” all those ancient things not preserved in the archaeological record, and they have provided archaeologists with artistic depictions of the past. Regrettably, modern “computer visualizations” do not modify this attitude. There are thousands of “computer reconstructions” of ancient monuments and prehistoric objects available today, but most of them are absolutely useless. Alternatively, we propose a different approach where computer visualization is defined as the automatic logical deduction of visual properties of three-dimensional objects instrumentally acquired. A general framework inspired in modern artificial intelligence is here proponed.</p>

Synchrotron radiation and laboratory micro X-ray computed tomography—useful tools for the material identification of prehistoric objects made of ivory, bone or antler

Archaeological bone, ivory and antler, as well as objects manufactured from them, are largely studied to extract as much information as possible from these materials. Among others, one key question in archaeology is the exact identification of the material. Even if the identification of different kinds of osseous material seems to be trivial in many cases, it can be a difficult issue when small, heavily carved and more or less altered ancient objects are concerned. This study was focused on the determination of parameters allowing the distinction of archaeological ivory, bone and antler in order to identify the raw material used for the manufacture of prehistoric objects. The high performance of synchrotron radiation (SR) and laboratory-based micro X-ray computed tomography (microCT), providing highly resolved three-dimensional information on the micromorphology, permitted the establishment of such distinctive features of modern references of ivory, antler, land mammal and whale bones: ivory shows characteristic tubular pores with a diameter of about 1 to 2 μm, bone and antler show typical osteon structures. In our measured references, antler shows on average larger and more elongated shaped pores of the osteons compared to terrestrial mammal bone. This feature however depends very much on the original localization of the studied sample within the antler. Whale bones can be distinguished from the other osseous materials by a cancellous, osteoporotic-like structure with irregularly distributed rounded porosities with diameters reaching up to 500 μm. These characteristics have also been tested on determined Palaeolithic fragments, as diagenetic changes during burial have to be considered and may lead to the modification of the parameters established on the basis of modern bone references. In general, the chemical composition of bone objects can change drastically over time while micromorphological features, as evidenced by microCT, seem to be less susceptible to such alterations. In addition, microCT enables the comparison of inner and possibly less altered parts of the objects, and can be considered as completely non-destructive for small mineralised prehistoric objects. In this study, specific morphological features allowing the distinction of ivory and of whale bone from other bone and antler material were determined, even for altered materials dating back to Palaeolithic periods. Thus, we provide, in addition to archaeozoological, chemical and isotopic markers, a new non-destructive tool to identify some raw materials used for the fabrication of osseous objects ranging from recent to prehistoric periods.

A study on gold and copper provenance for Romanian prehistoric objects using micro-SR XRF

This study intends to clarify the metal provenance of gold archaeological items using the variation of the Au–Ag ratio and the presence of trace elements as Sn, Sb, Te, and Pb, concentrating on gold Dacian Koson coins, recovered recently. It also extends the area of our investigations to the copper provenance of Bronze Age artifacts—axes, sickles, and celts—found on Romanian territory. The experiments were performed by micro-SR XRF at BESSY Berlin, at the BAM-line facility. Two types of coins (Koson, with and without monogram) were analysed. The conclusions we reached were that most of the monogram coins are made from refined gold (3–5% Ag, less than 0.5% Cu), while the without monogram coins are made from native Transylvanian gold (9–20% Ag, 0.5–2% Cu), of alluvial origin, proved by the presence of Sn, Sb and Te embedded in the gold. The problem of provenance for prehistoric Romanian copper and bronze objects consists in linking their elemental compositional patterns to the ones of the Bronze Age regional mines from Bulgaria, Serbia or Transylvania, most likely used as ore sources for their manufacture. The studied samples present relevant traces of As, Ag, Sb, and Co, suggesting the most probable use of copper from Serbia or northern Bulgaria for their manufacture.

Reinvigorating object biography: reproducing the drama of object lives

The World Archaeology volume ‘The Cultural Biography of Objects’ (Marshall and Gosden 1999) retains its currency ten years after its publication and the ideas highlighted in it continue to be developed. However, the relative success of biographical studies which rely on anthropological or historical information compared with biographical studies of prehistoric objects is evident. Through the example of a British Iron Age mirror this paper explores ways of redressing the difficulties of applying a biographical approach to prehistoric objects.

Uncovering Visitor Conceptions of Fossils and the Fossil Record

ABSTRACT One of the common features of any natural history museum is its fossil collection. A visitor's prior knowledge of and experience with these prehistoric objects is expected to greatly influence how visitors make sense of these iconic displays. For this study, over 150 visitors to two natural history museums in Southern California were interviewed to find out what they knew about fossils and the fossil record. Findings showed that visitors referenced a wide range or breadth of salient characteristics when defining fossils and that almost two-thirds mentioned some sort of process for the formation of fossils. When asked to interpret a diagram of geological strata and fossil placement within the strata, most visitors recognized that older fossils were found in lower layers (suggesting an understanding of the principle of superposition), although this was age-dependent. Also, many visitors explained fossil distribution in terms of some sort of change process—either related to the organism or the environment. In addition, several potential misconceptions related to fossils and superposition also emerged from the analysis. Implications for supporting visitor understanding are discussed.