Stone Platform Research Articles

New Observations on the Dionysian Scene Mosaic Panels in the House of the Triumph of Dionysus in Daphne-Antiocheia: Iconographic Description of the Periaktos System in the Decorative Architecture of the Theatre Stage Building

and French teams between 1932 and 1940 uncovered Roman ruins such as a theatre, church and villa. In the publications on the mosaic, the objects on either side of the actors and masks in the L-shaped panels of the Dionysian centre panel in the Dionysian Victory House have been interpreted as boxes and drawers. With this study, it has been seen that the mosaic panel of the Roman villa called “The House of the Triumph of Dionysus”, where a theatrical theme related to the god Dionysos is processed, is the first known iconographic expression of the wooden, prismatic rotating decor system periaktos found in the theatre stage building. We know about the periaktos from the accounts of Vitruvius. Since this decor system was made of wood, it was not possible to find archaeological remains of it. The only archaeological data on the periaktos system is the stone platform on which the periaktos system sits in the stage building of the Kaunos theatre discovered by Prof. Varkıvanç. With this study, the pictorial expression of the stage decor system on mosaics, which we know from Vitruvius’ reports, has also been identified.

장소만들기 관점에서 본 김해 구산동 묘역지석묘의 공간구현 전략

The dolmen with surrounding stone platform of Gusan-dong, Gimhae, was a megalithic monument built to realize political purposes. This was the creation of a new landscape and the result of creating a kind of place with added social function and symbolic mean-ing. In making such a place, spatial implementation strategies that considered the physical environment of the time, the activities of local residents, and symbolic aspects were used. First, a strategy was used to form a central image by dramatically highlighting the characteristics of the construction space of the dolmen. The dolmen with surrounding stone platform in Gusan-dong was in a path that controlled movement throughout the Gimhae Basin, and occupied a node that could exert influence and play a role as a central point of the region. In addition, it had a spatial status that connected the physical and psychological boundaries divided by the Haebancheon River and wetlands, and integrated the location and foreign culture. Above all, the dolmen was a landmark representing visibility and sym-bolism, forming the central image of the local community and acting as a place with a spe-cial meaning. The second place-making strategy was the creation of space sequences and activity spaces that induced the repetitive experiences of the dolmen. The dolmen was built at the intersection of the axis of the Gimhae Basin, which formed a circular structure that induced a dynamic physical experience. In addition, the platform of the dolmen formed a segment through changes in the shape, height difference, and material of the structure and had the effect of inducing a strong visual experience. The visibility of the dolmen also induced con-tinuous visual experiences to local residents moving along the axis. On the other hand, it is highly likely that the platform was used as a space for repetitive ritual activities, and this seems to have influenced the formation of the placeness of the dolmen. The third strategy was the realization of a symbolic place that implies historicality. At that time, the Gimhae Basin was creating a politically meaningful place by adopting the dolmens with surrounding stone platforms as seen at 294 Daeseong-dong. It was the Gu-san-dong dolmen that expanded and reproduced these traditional tombs. This was a politi-cal act emphasizing the symbolism of the dolmen through the spatial expansion and visual-ization of the traditional order, and the symbolic landscape at the local level was converted to the regional level of the Gimhae Basin.

EXCAVATION OF THE BURIAL MOUNDS ON THE LEFT BANK OF THE PSENAFA RIVER NEAR MAYKOP

In 2019 and 2020, 5 km north of the city of Maykop in the Republic of Adygea, security and rescue excavations of mounds were carried out in connection with the construction of a highway bypassing the city of Maykop. Seven burial mounds were investigated, six of which were located compactly as part of the burial mound on the low, left bank of the upper Psenafa River, and one mound was located 1.5 km from the burial mound, but culturally and chronologically related to the studied mounds. During the work in three mounds, stone structures were identified under the mounds, which may represent ritual stone platforms used for memorial purposes. The ceramic fragments found here also made it possible to date this group of monuments. Four mounds contained burials, which made it possible to conduct a sex and age analysis, and the findings obtained – to date these burials. Based on the results of the work, it was concluded that the kurgan field was used twice – by the tribes of the Maykop-Novosvobodnenskaya community and the Meots. The purpose of the article is to introduce into scientific circulation the materials obtained in the course of the work, a preliminary analysis of the findings and interpretation of the buried structures.

EXCAVATION OF THE BURIAL MOUNDS ON THE LEFT BANK OF THE PSENAFA RIVER NEAR MAYKOP

In 2019 and 2020, 5 km north of the city of Maykop in the Republic of Adygea, security and rescue excavations of mounds were carried out in connection with the construction of a highway bypassing the city of Maykop. Seven burial mounds were investigated, six of which were located compactly as part of the burial mound on the low, left bank of the upper Psenafa River, and one mound was located 1.5 km from the burial mound, but culturally and chronologically related to the studied mounds. During the work in three mounds, stone structures were identified under the mounds, which may represent ritual stone platforms used for memorial purposes. The ceramic fragments found here also made it possible to date this group of monuments. Four mounds contained burials, which made it possible to conduct a sex and age analysis, and the findings obtained – to date these burials. Based on the results of the work, it was concluded that the kurgan field was used twice – by the tribes of the Maykop-Novosvobodnenskaya community and the Meots. The purpose of the article is to introduce into scientific circulation the materials obtained in the course of the work, a preliminary analysis of the findings and interpretation of the buried structures.

Deliberate Destruction of Artifacts and Funeral Rituals at Dolmens with Surrounding Stone Platforms

Deliberate Destruction of Artifacts and Funeral Rituals at Dolmens with Surrounding Stone Platforms

New Evidence for Rural Anglian-Era and Early Medieval Settlement in the Lothians, at Burdiehouse, Edinburgh

The results from archaeological fieldwork between 2014 and 2016 at Burdiehouse, Edinburgh, have revealed evidence of structures, pits and enclosures related to rural settlement and activity ranging across the Early Medieval period from the 7th century AD up to the 12th century AD. A suite of features included a truncated stone platform, remains of a small post-built building with a hearth and numerous pits, postholes and curvilinear ditches. In addition, a circular clay-lined kiln was recorded. Radiocarbon dating indicates that while the building and hearth, the stone platform and numerous of the pits, postholes and linear features related to activity between the 7th and 10th centuries AD, the kiln was a later feature, dated to the 12th century AD. The evidence for rural Early Medieval settlement sites as identified at Burdiehouse is limited but recent work has emphasised how important they are for understanding everyday activity in this period.

The En-Gedi Spring Site and the Judahite Expansion into the Judaean Desert in the Late Iron Age

This article discusses the results of the excavations conducted in the Iron II site near the En-Gedi Spring in 1961–1962 and 2019. The site, consisting of a prominent stone platform documented as early as the 19th century and other recently discovered structural remains, is interpreted as a Judahite outpost built in a strategic location within the oasis of En-Gedi. On the basis of the ceramic assemblage, it is suggested that this site was founded during the early 7th century BCE and was abandoned before the end of that century—making it the earliest Iron Age occupation in the oasis. Combined with historical considerations and a regional analysis, the En-Gedi Spring site enhances our understanding of the Judahite expansion into the Judaean Desert during the late Iron Age.

A Study on the Stone Wooden Chamber Tombs with Stone Mounds

적석목곽묘는 목곽·적석·봉토·호석을 기본 구성요소로 하는 신라의 특징적인 묘제로, 그 구조와 기원, 편년 등에 대 한 많은 연구가 집적되어 있다. 하지만 매장주체부의 한 축을 이루는 석단시설에 대해서는 많은 사례가 있다고 보는 연 구자와 황남대총 등 극히 일부에만 설치되었다고 보는 연구자 사이의 간극이 좁혀지지 않아 조사 및 연구에 적지 않은 걸림돌로 작용하고 있다. 본고에서는 지금까지 조사된 주요 적석목곽묘의 석단시설 및 이중곽 구조에 대해 검토하였으며, 그 결과 석단은 기 존에 알려진 황남대총 남분·북분, 천마총뿐만 아니라 금관총, 금령총, 서봉총, 쪽샘 41·44호분 등의 중·대형분을 비롯해 황남동 120-2호 등 일부 소형분에도 채용되었음이 확인되었다. 석단은 곽과 곽 사이 채움석 상면에 자갈을 깐 채움식(充塡式)이 대부분을 차지하며, 목관 주위에 석재를 쌓아 만든 쌓음식(石築式)이 일부 확인된다. 석단의 기원과 관련해서는 일각에서 제기되는 목곽묘와는 직접적인 관련이 없으며, 고분의 고대화(高大化)에 따른 상부 및 측면의 막대한 하중을 견디기 위해 발생한 구조로 파악되었다. 여기에 석단 상 면이 순장자와 유물 부장공간으로 활용되고, 제의 및 고분의 품계를 높이는 기능이 더해짐으로서 온전한 석단의 구조 와 기능이 확립된 것이다.Wooden chamber tombs with stone mounds are a characteristic grave system of the Silla period, which consist of the following basic components, including a wooden burial chamber; a cairn of stones which surrounds the wooden burial chamber; an earthen mound that covers the cairn of stones; and a row of protective stones established around the perimeter of the earthen mound. Many studies on the structure, origin, and history have been conducted and accumulated. However, there still exists different opinions regarding the stone platform that formed part of the capstone of the burial chamber. In this study, investigations of the stone platform and double-chamber structure of the main wooden chamber tombs with stone mounds that have been conducted previously were reviewed. As a result, it was confirmed that stone platforms were employed in medium- and large-sized tombs such as in the southern and northern tombs of Hwangnamdaechong, Cheonmachong, Geumgwanchong, Geumryeongchong, Seobongchong, and Tomb no. 44 in Jjoksaem, as well as in some small tombs such as Tomb no. 120-2 in Hwangnam-dong. Most of the stone platforms are of a type that have gravel piled on the upper surface of the filled stones between the double wooden chamber, and some were characterized by a stoneembankment built around the wooden burial chamber. It was found that the origins of stone platforms were not directly related to wooden chamber tombs, but they were structures that were made to withstand the enormous loads applied to the top and sides of wooden chambers as the tombs grew taller and larger. In addition, the upper surface of the stone platform was used as a space for persons buried alive with the dead and for tomb relics, and the completed structure and function of stone platforms were established by adding the function to enhance the dignity of ancestral rites and tombs based on the official rank of the deceased persons buried.

Cannibalism and developments to socio-political systems from 540 BP in the Massim Islands of south-east Papua New Guinea. In From Field to Museum—Studies from Melanesia in Honour of Robin Torrence, ed. Jim Specht, Val Attenbrow, and Jim Allen

The consumption of human flesh, popularly defined as cannibalism, has arguably occurred throughout much of human history. In New Guinea, it has been associated ethnographically with warfare, mortuary rites and nutrition. However, it often evades detection in the archaeological record because of difficulties in distinguishing it from other social practices. Here we disentangle colonial myths associated with the consumption of human flesh and report disarticulated, burnt and cut human skeletal remains from two coastal sites spanning the past 540 years in the Massim island region of southeast Papua New Guinea. These sites, Wule and Morpa, both occur on Rossel Island. The skeletal evidence is contemporary with the construction of large stone platforms where human victims were often killed and consumed, and inland villages which were established in response to a well-attested period of conflict on Rossel and throughout the region. Within an ethnoarchaeological framework, we argue that cannibalism became increasingly prevalent in association with feasting as a means of maintaining social relationships and personal power. The findings are placed first within an island, then a regional model of emerging pressures on existing socio-political systems.

Inundation: Contemporary Art and Climate Change in the Pacific

Reviewed by: Inundation: Contemporary Art and Climate Change in the Pacific Maggie Wander Inundation: Contemporary Art and Climate Change in the Pacific. Exhibition, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Art Gallery, Honolulu, 19 January–28 February 2020. Exhibition catalog available at inundation.org. Inundation: Contemporary Art and Climate Change in the Pacific opened in January 2020 at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (uhm) Art Gallery. Curated by Jaimey Hamilton Faris, uhm associate professor of art history and affiliate faculty of the uhm Center for Pacific Islands Studies, the exhibition featured the work of Mary Babcock, Kaili Chun, DAKOgamay, Joy Lehuanani Enomoto, James Jack, Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner, Charles Lim, and Angela Tiatia. It also featured multimedia excerpts from Christina Gerhardt’s upcoming book project and a robust program of artist talks, symposia, and a local iteration of the community-based art project High-WaterLine, initiated by Gerhardt and co-organized with Adele Balderston of 88 Block Walks. A climate justice perspective drove the exhibition, which focused on rising sea levels in the Pacific Ocean as a result of global anthropogenic climate change. The opening wall label explained that the exhibition reimagined the ocean not (only) as a threat but as an “immersive, powerful, energetic, and undulating space of sensation and connection.” This was the aim of Tiatia’s video works Lick and Holding On (2015), which greeted viewers as they entered the gallery. In Lick, Tiatia lies down on a stone platform that protrudes into the ocean, waves splashing onto the artist’s prone form as the tide gets higher. This intimate interaction between the artist’s body and the water reflects the centuries-long relationship Pacific Islander communities have had with the ocean—a relationship built on trust and partnership rather than one that only leads to catastrophe. In a small room around the corner from Tiatia’s films was Sounding (2020) by Jetn̄il-Kijiner and Enomoto. To enter the room, viewers had to weave their way through a curtain of pandanus baskets hanging from the ceiling. In the center of the space hung a sounding line, a long piece of cord with a metal weight at the end, which was historically used to determine the depth of the ocean floor by measuring sonic waves. Today, the sounding line has been replaced by sonar technologies used by the US military and mining companies. The resulting sound pollution has devastating effects on marine life, an issue addressed on the far side of the small room, where a large depiction of a humpback whale stretched across the wall. The whale’s body was constructed out of paper cutouts from official reports on the impact of military activity and sound pollution on whale populations in the Pacific Ocean. To counteract the sound of militarism and mineral extraction, a recording of Jetn̄il-Kijiner’s voice filled the room as she recited “Beached,” a new poem written for this piece. James Jack also engaged with the impact of US militarism on oceanic environments in Sea Birth Three, Spirits of Ōura and Home for Pīdama (2020). The third iteration of a long-term series, the piece included an ink mural depicting a panoramic view of Henoko-Oura Bay in Okinawa, [End Page 268] the site of a US Marine Corps base. Adjacent to the mural, the film Sea Birth Three (2020) explored various perspectives on the army base project, from those of activists to that of an endangered sea turtle. Territorial expansion, whether through military activity, resource extraction, or otherwise, was a recurring theme throughout the exhibition. Charles Lim’s SEA STATE 9: proclamation (2017), for example, focused on a legislative act in Singapore—a remnant of British colonial rule—that lays claim to new territory built through land reclamation off the coast. Mary Babcock similarly engaged with territorial claims to oceanic space in Lotic Sea (2020), in which the artist delicately stitched the outlines of Exclusive Economic Zones (eezs) onto a large curtain of wax paper that acted as a map of the Pacific. eezs are areas around a coastline to which a state has exclusive rights, and in this work, Babcock materialized the way Oceania, a...

Marking the sacral landscape of a north Arabian oasis: a sixth-millennium BC monumental stone platform and surrounding burials

AbstractPrehistoric stone structures are prominent and well-studied in the Levantine desert margins. In northern Arabia, however, such structures have received less attention. This article presents the results of investigations of a 35m-long stone platform, first constructed in the mid sixth millennium BC, overlooking the oasis of Dûmat al-Jandal in northern Saudi Arabia. Excavation of the platform has yielded bioarchaeological and cultural remains, along with evidence for several phases of construction and intermittent use down to the first millennium BC. Analysis of the platform and nearby tombs highlights the persistent funerary and ritual use of this area over millennia, illuminating nomadic pastoralist lifeways in prehistoric Arabia.

DEVELOPMENT OF ANTIQUE COLONY CITIES OF THE BLACK SEA IN THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD

a brief description of the origins of historical and architectural education and the development of Greek colonial cities on the shores of the Black Sea (Pontus of Euxinus), who lived during the Hellenistic period. The analysis of the phenomena that influenced the formation of ancient colonial cities is carried out. This is due to the geological work of the sea changing the contours of the coast, as well as the influence of the Black Sea currents. This influenced the features of trade and economic relationsof the colonial cities. Thus the shortest sea path was routed from Tauric Chersonesos to Kallatis and Hercules, which shortened the sea route by several times due to the associated current. The presence of deep bays created favorable conditions for sailors, which attracted Greek immigrants. Architecture was an important factor of influence and a means of spreading Greek culture in policies and subordinate local areas. Urban development was similar to the construction of the Mediterranean ancient states, sculpture was widely used in the design of cities-policies, the order system of construction was used, the streets were clearly planned, the cities had a water supply and drainage system.To select the area for founding the city, following necessary factorswere taken into account: a bay convenient for the port; trade routes and deep fairways; fertile land and the availability of sources of drinking water; elevated place, taking into account defensive capabilities; the availability of building material; natural resources.The Greeks in the metropolis laid the foundation for many important branches of science. They laid the foundations of geometry, mechanics and statics, which created the basis for the development of engineering science in the construction of harbors, cities, bridges, dams and other structures.The Bosporan cities have never reached the level of large cities of Ancient Hellas in architectural decoration and urban planning; they were much smaller and poorer. Nevertheless, the local residents sought to immediately show that they were following the general Greek traditions both in religion and in the arrangement of cities.In the construction of public and residential buildings, wall or post-beam systems were used. For the construction of buildings, immigrants used local building material: clay, raw brick and stone-shell rock. Burnt brick was used mainly for decorating the building. For the construction of galleries and porticoes, wooden structures were widely used. The main decoration of the buildings was considered the classic Doric order. The ceiling was formed with the help of crossbeams -architraves supported by columns. At the end of the architraves, other beams were laid, at the ends of which triglyphs could be formed, at the top of which another crossbar was placed.Roofs were usually gable, sometimes pent. The supporting elements were the beams on which the ridge beam and the supporting rafters rested. For roofing, marble or ceramic tiles were used.Urban development was similar to the construction of the Mediterranean ancient states, sculpture was widely used in the design of cities-policies, the order system of construction was used, the streets were clearly planned, the cities had a water supply and drainage system. The cities were surrounded by ramparts of raw brick or natural stone with battle towers and fortified gates.City temples (dwellings of the gods) were located on the heights of the city or in its central part. They were built on a three-stage stone platform, the front door was high double-winged, always strictly oriented to the east. Architecture was an important factor of influence and a means of spreading Greek culture in policies and in subordinate local areas.Keywords: Pont Evksinsky, city-polis, architectural structures, antique construction.

Combustion structures between the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Eastern Sicily

The paper deals with the study of firing structures of different sites present in the territory between Etna and the Catania Plain. We have analyzed both sites with a prevalent ritual character and settlements and we have presented different types of structures: hearths, firing pits, burning plates, stone platforms and ovens. In the case of settlements, for each type of structure, we tried to define, where possible, the function and the relationship with the other structures of the settlement.

The Transformation of Hierarchy Following Christian Conversion in Vanuatu

ABSTRACTIn this paper, I use pig-killings as an entry for understanding the transformation that has taken place with respect to hierarchy and egalitarianism in Vanuatu. In the early twentieth century accounts by John Layard there is a thorough description of the cosmological and spiritual meaning of pig-killings in the manly hierarchy of these islands. The entire society was consumed in a sacrificial cycle that each lasted for six years and involved the killing of many hundreds of pigs, the most valuable acting as substitutes for human beings. At the peak of the ritual, the greatest of men stood up on a stone platform and announced their increased status and thereby joined the ranks of the society of ancestors. Comparing this with the situation today, there is absolutely no build-up of super-human status in ceremonies. On the contrary, I argue that today, pigs are being killed, cows are being butchered and cooked, yams and taro are displayed and distributed in great quantities, and huge sums of money figure in bride price and ceremonial payments, but not for the purpose of gaining spiritual power. They instead express bilateral connections, and form a redistributive system of production. In a development linked to the introduction of Christianity, monetary value and colonial labour regimes, ceremonial life has made an almost unnoticeable turn against the former hierarchical order.

El último urbanismo de Antonio Bonet: el poblado SOS (1970)

<p><em>The SOS Children’s Village at Sant Feliu de Codines in Barcelona (1970), the Hifrensa village (completed), and the Prat I and II urban development plans (not completed) were the final major urban complexes designed by Antonio Bonet (not counting his projects for the tourist sector). At SOS, Bonet designed a residential ensemble for orphaned children comprising communal educational and sporting facilities, by recreating, on a human scale, the atmosphere of the villages depicted in the photographs published in issue 18 (1935) of the GATEPAC magazine </em>AC Documentos de Actividad Contemporánea<em>, which was dedicated to popular architecture. Whitewashed pavilions, vaults, porches, patios, walls and stone platforms arranged like agricultural terraces were the features by which he constructed the landscape of a modern village but with old-fashioned forms. In this paper we analyse this unprecedented work, which, although it was never constructed, expresses the architect’s singular interpretation of the countryside and habitability conditions for orphans. Moreover, this work concentrates the architect’s experience as an experienced urbanist who in the 1970s challenged his fundamental theoretical creed, the Athens Charter, from a historical perspective.</em></p>

From Stadium to Harbor: Reinterpreting the Curved Ashlar Structure in Roman Tiberias

A salvage excavation in the modern city of Tiberias in 2002 exposed the remnants of a wide, curved ashlar structure. Based on its curved shape, its construction date, and its location, various scholars have identified this structure as the foundation wall of the Roman stadium mentioned by Josephus in relation to the First Jewish Revolt (66–67 C.E.). However, neither Josephus nor the later rabbinic sources imply the presence of a stone-built monumental stadium at the location of this site, nor does all of the exposed evidence related to the structure fit with the stadium theory. Therefore, a different interpretation for this structure is proposed. Based on the presence of a mooring stone projecting outward from the structure's waterside and the complex's strong similarities in structural characteristics and in elevation to the nearby late Hellenistic to Roman harbor of Magdala, it is argued that the remains should be identified as those of a quay, a stone platform built along the lakeshore to accommodate t...

월지 조성 목적의 중의성(重意性) 고찰

본 연구는 월지의 조성목적이 단순히 정원을 조성하기 위해서라는 기존의 이론에 대한 문제제기로부터 시작되었다. 본 연구에서는 월지조성에 대한 기존의 이론에 대하여 논의한 후, 월지조성의 또 다른 목적을 저류지로 상정하고 이것에 대하여 검증하였다. 연구결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 월지조성에 대하여 제기한 두 가지 의문에 대하여 논의한 결과 월지가 처음부터 정원으로 만들어졌을 가능성 보다는 저류지로서 조성하였을 것이라는 가능성을 진단하였다. 둘째, 위치와 지형적 측면으로 볼 때, 월지는 북천으로부터 유입된 물이나, 범람한 물, 또는 용출수가 형성하는 지천이나 수로가 자연스럽게 월지 쪽으로 흐르도록 지형적 조건이 형성되어 있으며, 월지는 이렇게 형성된 물이 남천으로 유입되는 유로의 종점에 위치하고 있어 물을 저류한 후 유출하기에 유리한 조건을 갖추고 있다는 것을 확인하였다. 셋째, 수리적 측면에서 볼 때, 북천은 제방이 축조되기 이전에는 범람이 일어날 가능성이 상존하였으며, 이러한 홍수피해는 구황동원지에서 한번, 다시 월지에서 한번 잡아주어 왕경중심부로 피해가 확산되지 않도록 하였던 것으로 보인다. 넷째, 도시계획적 측면에서 볼 때, 월지가 조성되기 이전에 월지일대는 도시기능이 들어서지 않았다는 것을 확인하였으며, 월지가 조성되고 난 이후에 도로 등의 개설을 통해 도시계획이 완성되었다는 것을 확인하였다. 다섯째, 월지의 입수장치와 출수장치 그리고 월지 서측의 수직석단은 월지가 저류지로서의 기능을 충분히 할 수 있도록 한 시설이었다는 것을 확인하였다. 여섯째, 저류용량으로 볼 때, 월지는 당시로서는 엄청난 량의 물을 저류할 수 있는 시설이었다는 것을 확인하였다. This study was initiated from question raised on existing study achievement that purpose for Wolji construction simply was to build gardens. In this research, after raising a question on existing theory about the Wolji construction, another purpose of Wolji construction is investigated. Study result is as follows. First, two questions raised on Wolji construction are "Was Wolji constructed as a garden from the beginning?" and "Was Wolji region available land as now at time of creation?" However, it was verified that the purpose of Wolji construction was to use not as a garden but as a detention pond, and the land of such region was unserviceable at time of Wolji construction. Second, in terms of locations and Topography, it was confirmed that Wolji has a favorable condition for undercurrent function as it is positioned at the end point of flow path formed by gushout water spurting from the water flooded from Bukcheon, or low and wetland. Third, from hydraulic point of view, Bukcheon always has a possibility of flooding occurrence before completing river bank build up, and such flooding damage was curved at Guhwangdongwonji, and at Wolji once again in order to prevent the damage spread into the center of Wanggyeong. Fourth, from urban planning point of view, it was confirmed that urban functions were not established in Wolji region before Wolji construction, and urban planning was completed through the opening of roads and others, after Wolji construction. Fifth, it was confirmed that inflow and outflow device of Wolji, and vertical stone platform at western side of Wolji were the facilities to provide sufficient functions as detention ponds.

СОСТАВ И КОМПОЗИЦИЯ СООРУЖЕНИЙ РИТУАЛЬНОГО КОМПЛЕКСА С ОЛЕННЫМИ КАМНЯМИ УШКИЙН-УВЭР (ПО РЕЗУЛЬТАТАМ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ 2013 ГОДА)

Composition and construction history of a ritual complex with deer stones at Uushigiin uvur, Hovsgol aimag, Mongolia, are inferred from fi ndings of large-scale excavations in 2013. The earliest elements of the complex were six catacombs fi lled with stones, and ritual pits. Possible placement of known deer stones was discovered, and lower parts of fi ve new ones were found in situ. The excavated part of the complex included two ensembles similar in composition and consisting of rows of deer stones. Each ensemble rested on two stone platforms, one curved (oriented in a north-south direction), the other rectangular (oriented in an east-west direction and accompanied by stone stelae). Deer stones were placed along the western edge of the curved platforms. East, north, and south of the ensembles, altars with buried horse bones were discovered. These objects did not overlap one another, which suggests a single compositional structure of the work. Further north, two more rows of deer stones were situated. On the eastern side of those, there were similar altars, and on the western side, stone rings with fragments of calcined animal bones. In terms of structure and composition, all ensembles (platforms with stelae, an arc of altars with horse remains from the east, stone rings with calcined animal bones from the west) are similar to ritual constructions around funerary mounds—the khereksurs of Central Mongolia, supporting the idea that deer stones had replaced actual burials.

New insights into the marine contribution to ancient Easter Islanders' diet

Easter Island (or Rapa Nui), internationally renowned for its megalithic statues, is the most isolated inhabited island of the Pacific. Archaeological surveys undertaken from the end of the 19th century led to the discovery of the remains of several hundred human individuals. The majority were buried in monuments (funerary stone platform called ahu) or in caves. This paper presents a study of the ancient Easter Islanders' diet through carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of human tooth and bone collagen and, more particularly, evaluates the impact of gender, age, social status and location of burials. The 125 studied individuals are from 16 sites, which date mainly from the 17th to the 19th centuries. This anthropological material is housed at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural sciences and the Father Sebastián Englert Anthropological Museum of Easter Island. One hundred and seven individuals showed well-preserved collagen. The stable isotope data provide new information on ancient Easter Islander dietary habits. They demonstrate gender disparity in access to food resources and show that children were breastfed until 3years of age. Furthermore, the isotopic signatures cluster according to the place of burial (ahu) indicating family dietary specificities. Finally, our study reveals influences of social status on food intake: individuals from Ahu Nau Nau, which is said to be the royal ahu, display the highest nitrogen and carbon isotope values. A greater consumption of marine products may explain this distinction.

Art as Distraction: Rocking the Farm

Monumental architecture, massive statuary, and other art forms fascinate Westerners and tend to inspire positive judgments about past cultural virtuosity and sophistication. Like the pyramids of Egypt or the stone masonry of Machu Picchu, the moai (the statues) and ahu (stone platforms supporting moai) of Rapa Nui (a.k.a. Easter Island) have impressed, mystified, and preoccupied the Western cultural imagination since their encounter by Europeans. Explorers, archaeologists, anthropologists, and tourists are drawn to the monumental like moths to light—which is understandable—but that light also blinds. Here a case is made that for Rapa Nui the obsession for the monumental has led to a certain inability to perceive past Rapanui culture in a holistic fashion. For example, we contend that the labor to sculpt and move the moai has tended to be massively overestimated, in comparison with the enormous energy invested in constructing the more homely horticultural infrastructure that involved billions of rocks. We argue that the loss of the palms did not cause the culture to crash because moai could no longer be transported or because the soils eroded away, as many claim, but rather that the palms became part of that more humble but enduring subsurface realm as amendment for planting pit soil. We also argue that the Western narrative of Rapanui cultural collapse, which hinges in large part on the cessation of moai production, is not based so much on empirical data but on a ubiquitous Western mythic story form of apocalypse, here a secular, Malthusian version. The preoccupation with monumental art and the apocalyptic story model shape the perceived outcomes: cultural Armageddon, collapse, and ecocide. The collapse story tells more about us than about them.