Workshop Site Research Articles

The Excavation of the Asuka'ike Workshop Site and its Significance

The Excavation of the Asuka'ike Workshop Site and its Significance

The loneliness of an obsidian source in southwest Manus

AbstractOf two obsidian source areas in the Admiralty Islands (Manus Province, Papua New Guinea), only the Lou‐Pam Islands source has a well‐established place in archaeological distributions both local and regional. From the other source area in southwest Manus Island, many sites have been recorded following their exposure by bulldozers. These sites contain retouched obsidian point fragments like those from the Emsin workshop site excavated on Lou Island. Comparison of the two sets confirms the close similarity. The evidence suggests that manufacture and use are both represented in the southwest Manus collection and, since the only point fragment so far analysed derives from Lou, that material from both sources was being used. A review of the ethnographic evidence suggests that the regional integrative network in the past might not have distinguished obsidian by source as strongly as in the period of ethnographic description.

The Trang Kenh jewellery workshop site: an experimental and microwear study

The Trang Kenh jewellery workshop site: an experimental and microwear study

Workshop on mobile computing systems and applications, December 1994

The goal of this two-day meeting was to foster interaction between active workers in mobile computing, with a view toward cross-fertilization of ideas. Given the youth of the field, such interactions could have substantial impact on its future direction. In keeping with this goal, the conference organizers chose to have a small, informal workshop rather than a larger and more formal conference. The workshop was sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Operating Systems, in cooperation with ACM SIGOPS and USENIX.The workshop was held on Thursday and Friday December 8-9 1994 at the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz. The weather was beautiful and the oceanside locale spectacular --- alas, it is not clear whether these helped or hindered the workshop, since many longing looks were evident on the faces of participants as they gazed out of the windows! The General Chair, Darrell Long, had done an excellent job of selecting the workshop site and setting the stage for the workshop. He was assisted in local arrangements by two student volunteers, Jim Cummiskey and Chane Fullmer.What follows is a summary of the discussions that took place during the workshop. It is based on notes taken by four student volunteers (Peter Grillo, C.K. Toh, Adrian Friday, and N. Asokan). They did an excellent job of taking detailed and complete notes. Any errors or omissions in this document are certainly my responsibility, not theirs.This digest is intended to be a supplement to the papers in the proceedings, not a substitute. Rather than producing a verbatim transcript, I've tried to focus on those interactions that seemed most insightful, controversial or evoked most response from the audience. Such a report must, by its very nature, be subjective. I've tried to be as objective as possible, but I'm sure there are places where my personal biases show through. My apologies in advance if you attended the workshop and your favorite comment, question or discussion isn't mentioned here.

Llano del Jicaro

AbstractLlano del Jícaro, Veracruz, is a workshop site where Olmec monuments were carved from exposed boulders of Cerro Cintepec basalt. The site, which lies in the hinterland of the major Olmec center of Laguna de los Cerros, was discovered in 1960 by Alfonso Medellín Zenil, who moved one of its unfinished monuments to the Museum of Anthropology in Jalapa. In 1991 more intensive archaeological investigations at Llano del Jícaro located nine additional boulders, including a tabletop altar, with evidence of carving. Excavations around four of these monoliths uncovered debitage and hammerstones from the manufacturing process. Survey also located the remains of the probable residences of the stonecarvers.

Obsidian as Jewelry: Lapidary Production in Aztec Otumba, Mexico

AbstractResearch carried out during the last three decades at the Late Postclassic city-state of Otumba, Mexico, has identified a wide variety of craft-production specializations. Data derived from excavations and surface collections made at the workshop site of one of Otumba's specialties—lapidary jewelry production—have revealed much of the process for the production of such jewelry, including ear spools, lip plugs, and beads, along with some possible secondary products, such as sequins and disks, all primarily made from obsidian. Besides the lapidary products themselves, many of the tools employed in production—made of obsidian, chert, and basalt—were found. The materials recovered enhance and expand upon the information available from colonial documentary sources, providing greater insight into this complicated and intriguing process.

Transfer of staff training from workshops to group homes: A failure to generalize across settings

Two experiments were conducted to assess acquisition and generalization of skills acquired in a workshop by trainees who were primary caregivers on the staffs of group homes for developmentally disabled clients. In study 1, 31 staff trainees received an intensive, 1-week workshop in behavioral theory and treatment techniques. When assessed at the workshop site, these staff trainees showed increased treatment skills, relative to 18 staff trainees who did not participate in the workshop. In Study 2, pre- and postworkshop observations were taken on 53 developmentally disabled clients in group homes where the staff trainees worked. These observations provided no evidence that the workshop had any effect on group home client functioning. Future training programs for caregivers may be more successful if they occur in the group home, involve clients in the home, and enlist the support of supervisory staff, rather than focusing only on primary caregivers.

Colorants used in ancient Egyptian glassmaking: Specialized studies using PIXE spectrometry

Abstract Proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) spectrometry has several practical advantages over other analytical techniques currently used in the study of ancient glass. It is nondestructive, it can conveniently determine a glassmaking recipe (i.e. the primary constituents used) within a single X-ray spectrum, it has superior detection limits for the minor and trace elements that are most influential in glass coloration, and, when run in a microbeam mode (with an analysis area as small as 10−2 mm2), it can provide valuable spatial resolution in the study of individual regions of decoration on multicolored vessels and jewelry. This paper discusses the current operation of the Bartol PIXE facility, with emphasis on the use of customized selective filters which allow high-sensitive measurements for trace elements in glass matrices complicated by the presence of high levels of copper, iron and lead. PIXE data recently obtained for artifacts and manufacturing debris from the New Kingdom workshop site at El-Amarna provides a practical application of these concepts.

Site 12Bo39: A Lithic Workshop in Central Indiana

AbstractArchaeologicai reaearch at a large lithic workshop site, 41Bo39, in Boone County, Indiana is describecL The site is located near a chert source at which two beds of chert are exposed. A general model is set forth, describing the lithic reduction sequence at the site.

East Scandinavian Style I—A Review

IN THE LAST decade knowledge of Salin's Style I Ornament in East Scandinavia has increased through the studies of Era-Esko and through the remarkable finds at a workshop site at Helgo in Uppland. A characteristic feature of East Scandinavian Style I is the frequent use of small ornamental fields bordered by high ridges. In this article it is suggested that the ridges served to canalize the heat of the melted bronze during casting, and so prevent the mould from cracking. This was specially important in East Scandinavia where high-tempered bronze seems chiefly to have been used. That the fragility of the moulds was a real problem is hinted at by the relative numbers found at Helgo. The majority are for casting relief-brooches—which are comparatively rarely found cast. There are fewer moulds for the more frequently found cast bronzes, such as clasp-buttons; because the moulds for these were smaller, they were probably less prone, to damage during casting.Because of the small size of their ornamental fields a...

Clovis Fluted Points from Sonora, Mexico

ABSTRACTEight Clovis fluted points were recovered recently in a camp and lithic workshop site approximately 35.5 km. north of Carbo, Sonora. These, along with seven others from various parts of the same state, serve to increase our knowledge of the distribution of Clovis material.

Two Late Paleo-Indian Sites in Southwestern New Mexico

Two Late Paleo-Indian sites in Southwestern New Mexico produced similar styles of projectile points, but dissimilar tool assemblages. Since these sites are in two distinct environmental zones it is possible that they represent different stages of the yearly economic cycle. One site, located in an area of transition from semi-desert brush to open grassland today, may be a small camp site while the second site, located in an oak-pinyon upland area, can be interpreted as a workshop site where both flintworking and woodworking took place.

The Pre-Columbian Obsidian Industry of El Chayal, Guatemala

AbstractEl Chayal is an extensive obsidian workshop site in an area of major obsidian deposits northeast of Guatemala City. Surface collections include a great number of elongated, unretouched flakes that were probably used as blanks, stemmed projectile points resembling the Wells type, shouldered knives, very large discoidal scrapers, a heavy chopper, bifacial utility implements, and large unretouched blades similar to that found with the Iztapan mammoth in Mexico. Pre-Columbian pottery does not occur. On the basis of this absence, and from a comparison of the artifacts with stone tools from other regions in Mesoamerica, it is believed that the El Chayal industry can be dated to the middle and late Archaic period, roughly from 5000 to 1500 B.C.

A Workshop Site of Early Man in Dinwiddie County, Virginia

David I. Bushnell, Jr., first aroused wide interest in the fluted points found in Virginia. He accomplished this primarily by an article in the June 9, 1934 issue of the Literary Digest, in which he announced the discovery of “two Folsom points” in Virginia. This article and subsequent references to these two “points of recognized Folsom type” (Bushnell, 1935, pp. 35-6, 56) called special attention to the importance and possibilities of such finds in the East. In 1934, only one collector of Virginia projectile points, Arthur Robertson of Chase City, Virginia, could claim “five or more” of these fluted points (Wells, 1935, pp. 1, 14). However, the intense interest which Bushnell created stimulated a search in Virginia for this rare type of point, with the result that shortly after Bushnell's 1934 announcement, sporadic finds of fluted points having a resemblance to both the Folsom Fluted and the Clovis Fluted began to be noted in various parts of the State. Their occurrence seemed to indicate that there actually was a paleo-Indian in Virginia.

On an Early Palæolithic Workshop Site at Stonecross, Luton, Chatham

It is more than twenty years since my father, Mr. S. K. Turner discovered evidence of the presence of man in the Luton valley. Stimulated by his early successes he was led to continue his search, and the result of his labours, coupled, in more recent years with my own, has been that the collections of museums both at home and abroad have been enriched.

A Workshop Site of Primitive Culture at Two-Mile-Bottom, Thetford

I think all agree that arrow tips would first have been made of (a) hard wood or bone ground to a sharp point (as used to-day in East Africa), later by (b) sharp-pointed unworked splinters or flakes of stone or flint, followed by (c) flakes worked diagonally at one end to a sharp point, and the other end inserted in the arrow shaft.As the worker's skill improved, these worked flake arrow tips would be superseded by (d) the beautifully flaked barbed and leaf arrows of the Neolithic and Bronze periods.The whole prehistoric world would obviously not have been at any one time in the same stage of culture. At all periods, and in all districts, tribes would have existed side by side in various stages of culture, the work of the “᾽prentice” hand alongside that of the “master worker.”It is therefore highly dangerous to assign an age to a worked flint solely by roughness of workmanship.This communication is to record a prehistoric workshop site at Two-Mile-Bottom Common, near Thetford, Norfolk, containing worked flake tools of a very definite culture.