Terrestrial Archaeology Research Articles

Micro-regional approaches for submerged site archaeology

Some of the most pivotal questions in human prehistory hinge on archaeological sites that are now under water. While the discovery of submerged sites presents numerous technological challenges, they offer unique potentials for investigating time periods, cultures, and adaptations that are only poorly known on land. Yet despite this potential, the results from underwater research have, to date, had relatively limited impact. One reason is that underwater research rarely produces the systematic coverage of space and material culture that is needed to conduct anthropologically relevant research. The investigation of micro-regions as a means to elucidate economic and social relations in the past has been widely adopted in terrestrial archaeology, and yet is arguably even better suited to submerged settings. By defining specific and comparable localities as the target for intensive search, a micro-regional approach can provide the framework for generating a rigorous systematic coverage of space and material, while still operating within the physical and financial constraints of underwater research. This paper illustrates how a micro-regional approach to submerged landscapes can be operationalized as represented by survey efforts on the Late Paleoindian occupation of the Alpena-Amberley Ridge beneath modern Lake Huron.

Astral Sciences in Early Imperial China: Observation, Sagehood and the Individual by Daniel Patrick Morgan

Reviewed by: Astral Sciences in Early Imperial China: Observation, Sagehood and the Individual by Daniel Patrick Morgan Nathan Sivin Astral Sciences in Early Imperial China: Observation, Sagehood and the Individual by Daniel Patrick Morgan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Pp. xii + 257. $105.00 cloth, $84.00 e-book. This book packs quite a wallop. As the author puts it, “the subject of this book is not ‘empiricism’, ‘progress’ or ‘science’ but the legend that these and similar ideas have inspired. The question as concerns legend, the history of religion should teach us, is not whether it is true, but how it is told, how it is acted upon, and how it is reimagined, renegotiated and [End Page 549] repeated” (p. 220). Morgan uses the word “legend” in a sense introduced by Philip Kitcher, a philosopher of science and other topics.1 By “Legend” (with a capital “L”), Kitcher means the convictions with which “successive generations of scientists have filled in more and more parts of the COMPLETE TRUE STORY OF THE WORLD” (emphasis in original, p. 3). Morgan sees its utility for other times and for places beyond Europe and America. The result is a book that analyzes old and new sources in a refreshing way to yield a rich crop of insights. Morgan writes, “it is only when we let go of modern assumptions about ethics, power, gender, reason, and daily tasks that the grunt work of textual and terrestrial archaeology can reveal something of the other beyond the [investigator’s] self” (p. 6). And “[we] must disabuse ourselves of... the very notion of a transhistorical entity called ‘Chinese astronomy’ [and] work instead to substantiate the textual, mythical, conceptual, historical, institutional, social and epistemological framework within which a given community is performing a given activity, and we should do so century by century as we move. The point . . . is not, then, to answer questions about ‘what the Chinese thought’ about heaven; it is to . . . watch what plays out as conflicting elements collide” (p. 49). Morgan pulls off a convincing first approximation to the goal of letting go of modern assumptions and gives many examples of how to work toward it. He has read everything worth reading in European and Asian languages, and he draws on important recent findings. A few of Morgan’s strikingly phrased insights include “‘Heavenly patterns’ are more than just patterns in space (constellations) and time (periodicities); they are the very germ and blueprint of civilisation” (p. 15); “Sagecraft is a joint endeavour, and it is li [曆, calendar] men [that is, practitioners of mathematical astronomy] like Cai [Yong 蔡邕 (33–192)] and Liu [Hong 劉洪 (fl. 167–206)]—Cai and Liu remind us—to whom the burden of sagesse [Fr., wisdom] falls. It is they who apprehend the substance, principle, past and future of the cosmos, and it is they who shall usher mankind into peace and prosperity by this knowledge. All that is required of the emperor is the silence and fixity of a distant star” (emphases in original, p. 19); and “[astronomical] reform [End Page 550] history tends to lodge with the emperor more historical agency than those authoring and executing the policies that he approves, thus placing the cart before the horse” (p. 31). The book argues that, despite the narrative of an astronomy unified by its imperial origin, which has been the norm in ancient and modern times, astronomy is actually a saga of discontinuities and conflicts over the centuries. In addition to its normal duty of preparing and distributing the annual almanac, the Grand Clerk’s office dealt with proposals for change. Proposals that claimed superior methods were deliberated upon by the Three Excellencies (Sangong 三公) or in a “public” debate open to a variety of officials (p. 41). The fate of the proposal was then “settled by popular vote” (p. 139). The debates could be quite technical, but experts on astronomy were widely scattered through the bureaucracy. (Less than a third of named officials who took part in such debates between 206 BCE and 420 CE belonged to the Grand Clerk’s office.) Credibility depended on “an idiom of myth, values, etiquette and cultural tradition that marked [experts] as members of the...

Project SAMPHIRE: Crowd Sourcing Maritime Archaeology data off Scotland's West Coast

ABSTRACTPerhaps the greatest barrier to effective management of underwater cultural heritage is the lack of data on the nature and location of offshore archaeological resources. This is a problem shared with terrestrial archaeology, but is particularly acute due to the limitations of survey techniques in the underwater environment. In Scotland <15% of known ship losses from the last 200 years have been located and the record is far less comprehensive for earlier periods, verging on a near total data gap. Most known archaeological sites in Scottish waters have been discovered through large-scale sonar survey of relatively low resolution and a considerable bias has been introduced in the archaeological record; this has favored the discovery and documentation of larger and more recent, often upstanding, metal shipwrecks. This article presents the methods and results from a three-year project designed to reduce this bias by demonstrating large-scale prospecting for maritime archaeology through a community-based crowd-sourcing approach. Project SAMPHIRE (the Scottish Atlantic Maritime Past: Heritage, Investigation, Research and Education Project) was geographically focused on the west coast of the Scottish mainland and was undertaken between 2013 and 2015, resulting in a large number of new archaeological discoveries, including shipwrecks, aircraft, and other material of a much more varied nature than what is typically found through large-scale hydrographic surveys.

UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAMMETRY METHODS FOR A PECULIAR CASE-STUDY: SAN DOMENICO (PRATO-ITALY)

Abstract. San Domenico Church (Prato, Tuscan, Italy) is a very peculiar case of terrestrial archaeology surveyed with underwater archaeological photogrammetric approach. The vault of the choir was completely filled by a very important numbers of potteries, which is very interesting building technique. To document this technique a complete photogrammetric survey was realized, layer by layer, following underwater archaeology system. It is interesting to note that in underwater archaeology such a case is quite rare, in fact or the wreck is in shallow water and the digging can be made (but this case is now unrealistic because in shallow water all the wreck have been stolen – or already excavated by archaeologist – !) or we are in deep water, with well conserved wreck but the depth doesn’t allow the excavation. In the last case only a surface survey is possible. Also for these reasons this particular case- study is very interesting in order to test underwater methods on real case. This experimentation is a good opportunity to develop and check methods, algorithm and software to obtain a relevant model of the site merging 3D measure and knowledge about the artefact as typology, theoretical model, spatial relationship between them. Even if this work started in 2006, with now obsolete digital camera and with a photographic campaign which not respect always the current constraints for building a dense cloud of point in photogrammetry,it is now used as a case-study for developing a relevant approach for underwater archaeology survey.

Daljinskom interpretacijom do arheoloških spoznaja o ponekim nalazištima na istočnojadranskom arhipelagu i priobalju

Humanističko polje arheologije u svim njezinim granama, prapovijesnoj, antičkoj, srednjovjekovnoj i novovjekovnoj, u pravom je smislu znanost koja je izraženom interdisciplinarnošću i u svim dimenzijama djelovanja okrenuta tisućljetnom prodiranju čovjeka u prostor te raznim oblicima njegove organizacije. Arheologija je, možemo slobodno reći, prekrila svijet svojim trodimenzionalnim djelovanjem. Osim terestričke, tj. uobičajene poljske, postoji podvodna arheologija (more, jezera, vodotoci) i, napokon, arheologija utemeljena na spoznajama pribavljenim daljinskom interpretacijom, tj. odgovarajućim snimkama iz svemira i zraka. Toj trećoj dimenziji arheologije okrenuti smo u našem radu i predočujemo primjere arheoloških nalazišta od sjevera arhipelaga (Krk), uz istočnojadransku obalu i zaobalje, do Pelješca (Ston).

The Management of Submerged Terrestrial Archaeology: An Assessment of Current Awareness of the Seabed Resource Around Scotland

This paper assesses the provision of cultural heritage information relating to offshore submerged archaeology for Environmental Impact Assessments as part of the management of the seabed around Scotland. Over the past millennia areas of the seabed around Scotland have at times been dry land. This means that they were available for human settlement and are likely to preserve the remains of ancient habitation and other activity. Elsewhere in the UK and in Europe work on submerged archaeology has confirmed the existence of an extensive and often well-preserved resource stretching back to the last Ice Age and beyond. This paper is concerned solely with sites that once comprised terrestrial archaeological sites; it does not cover wreck archaeology. The submerged terrestrial archaeological resource is fragile, and little understood. In Scotland it has been ignored until the inception of a research project in 2006, The Rising Tide, which is investigating past sea-level change and submerged archaeology around Orkney. Up to now, general management has been carried out through a system of benign neglect despite increasing threat to the resource from the development of the seabed. The Marine (Scotland) Act enshrines the need to protect and manage submerged sites and landscapes, through the implementation of marine planning, licensing, and Marine Protected Areas. One of the principal relevant measures for environmental protection through which this is carried out is the inclusion of archaeological information as a critical resource for Environmental Impact Assessments on the seabed. This is enshrined in EC Directives (and applies equally to sites on land). However, good management is hampered by a lack of baseline data on the resource and by a lack of awareness among those responsible. Responses to a questionnaire on the awareness of submerged archaeology and the need to consider it as part of the seabed planning process highlighted a number of serious weaknesses in the current system, not least a lack of awareness, of Scottish-based guidelines, and relevant skills.

Underwater Archaeology

Previous articleNext article FreeCurrent ApplicationsUnderwater ArchaeologyR. G. CarperR. G. Carper Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreExploring the Submerged Continental ShelfInsights into unanswered questions of human prehistory surely lie beyond the water’s edge. Yet submerged archaeological sites, even ones tantalizingly close to shore, remain largely unexplored because of prohibitive costs and underdeveloped techniques. Archaeologist Daryl Fedje of Parks Canada, Western Canada Service Centre, in collaboration with a number of Canadian institutions and First Nations heritage specialists, has breached this watery frontier. Specifically, Fedje and his colleagues have developed a research program that incorporates seafloor mapping, settlement modeling, and underwater technologies to investigate the earliest peopling of the Americas, a subject that has been debated for many decades.Scholars have been unable to reach consensus regarding two main aspects of initial colonization: the timing of the first arrivals and the route by which people came. Traditional explanations of the route of entry have centered on a terrestrial migration across a landmass exposed when past sea levels were lowered by glacier formation. As glaciers melted during the terminal Pleistocene, archaeological sites present either on the land bridge or along the coast would have been inundated. So while some evidence of overland travel, collected from sites on either side of what is now the Bering Strait, remains controversial, determining whether early migrants traveled along the coast instead, perhaps by boat, is difficult to test because much of the Pleistocene coastline is now submerged beneath as much as 150 meters of water.For more than a decade, Fedje has been investigating ancient shorelines for evidence of prehistoric human activity, working closely with the Geological Survey of Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Haida Nation, and academics at the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University. One such collaboration involved mapping the continental shelf in Hecate Strait, between Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) and mainland British Columbia. Using seismic reflection mapping, piston coring, and floral, faunal, and radiocarbon analyses, the team is reconstructing ancient landscapes and previous sea‐level positions in parts of the strait. Their expeditions have also incorporated high‐resolution sonar, remotely operated underwater vehicles, and manned submersibles to produce more detailed images of inundated landforms. Guided by models frequently used in terrestrial archaeology to anticipate site locations, Fedje and his colleagues located what they believe to be a submerged archaeological site along a paleo‐river channel off Haida Gwaii.Crew lowers Daryl Fedje (Parks Canada) and Heiner Josenhans (Geological Survey of Canada) as they prepare to descend to 145 meters below the surface to explore drowned beaches off the coast of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. (Photo Quentin Mackie)View Large ImageDownload PowerPointThe research team has recently redoubled its efforts to locate additional sites along the Northwest Coast. A multiyear project led by Fedje and Jonathan Moore of Parks Canada’s underwater archaeology section will focus on detailed modeling of a drowned pre‐Holocene lake terrace using remote tools and intensive scuba excavations. The information gathered by these methods will become part of Canada’s cultural heritage and will be made available to both the academic community and the public through publications and other media. Underwater research programs such as Fedje's multidisciplinary investigation of ancient ecologies and early coastal adaptations along the Northwest Coast bring us closer to understanding not only when and by what route or routes the first migrants came to the Americas but also how prehistoric people made a living in a dynamic postglacial environment. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 48, Number 6December 2007 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/521536 Views: 282Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Terrestrial implications for the maritime geoarchaeological resource: A view from the Lower Palaeolithic

Stone tools and faunal remains have been recovered from the English Channel and the North Sea through trawling, dredging for aggregates, channel clearance, and coring. These finds highlight the potential for a maritime Lower Palaeolithic archaeological resource. It is proposed here that any Lower Palaeolithic artefacts, faunal remains, and sediments deposited in the maritime zone during dry, low-stand phases were once (and may still be) contextually similar to their counterparts in the terrestrial Lower Palaeolithic records of north-western Europe. Given these similarities, can interpretive models and analytical frameworks developed for terrestrial archaeology be profitably applied to an assessment of the potential value of any maritime resource? The terrestrial geoarchaeological resource for the Lower Palaeolithic is dominated by artefacts and ecofacts that have been fluvially reworked. The spatio-temporal resolution of these data varies from entire river valleys and marine isotope stages to river channel gravel bar surfaces and decadal timescales, thus supporting a variety of questions and approaches. However, the structure of the terrestrial resource also highlights two fundamental limitations in current maritime knowledge that can restrict the application of terrestrial approaches to any potential maritime resource: (i) how have the repetitive transgressions and regressions of the Middle and Late Pleistocene modified the terrace landforms and sediments associated with the river systems of the English Channel and southern North Sea basins?; and (ii) do the surviving submerged terrace landforms and fluvial sedimentary deposits support robust geochronological models, as is the case with the classical terrestrial terrace sequences? This paper highlights potential approaches to these questions, and concludes that the fluvial palaeogeography, Pleistocene fossils, and potential Lower Palaeolithic artefacts of the maritime geoarchaeological resource can be profitably investigated in future as derived, low-resolution data sets, facilitating questions of colonisation, occupation, demography, and material culture.

Types of explanation in maritime archaeology: The case of the SS XANTHO

The central aim of this paper is to open up debate about different theoretical approaches which can be used to provide explanations in maritime archaeology (see recent papers in Underwater Archaeology 1996, 1997). We use the example of the wreck of the iron steamship SS Xantho (1848-72) to explore the utility of processual and post-processual approaches, as commonly used in terrestrial archaeology (cf. Lamberg-Karlovsky 1989; Shanks and Tilley 1992), to provide 'explanations' in maritime archaeology. While fully acknowledging the need for, and role of, historical particularist perspectives in any form of archaeology (e.g. Bass 1983), in this paper we argue that maritime archaeology may be well served by research which aims to create both general and predictive models about nautical behaviour (i.e. the functional/systemic processual approach) and to characterise the motivation and meaning behind strategies adopted by maritime societies and individuals (i.e. a critical/deconstructionist post-processual approach) (cf. Carrell 1990; Gould 1983a, 1983b; Hodder 1991 ; Trigger 1991; Watson 1983).