Archaeologies-Journal of the World Archaeological Congress最新文献

Contrary to the claim that the twenty-first century archaeological ontology, which centers on materiality, is non-historical, this article argues that materiality can be examined critically in order to uncover its political implications. My argument is based on my former and recent studies of the mortuary practices of a community of halakhically non-Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel in the 1990s from the former FUS in result of the historical events, and continue to come to this day. My study involves a ‘deep description ‘of the materiality and its ontological perspectives, which provides a critical view point. Firstly, it reveals what is permissible and what is not in the funerary practices of the community in contrary to the Jewish-Israeli conventions. Secondly, the materiality unveils what is covered up by official history, namely the counter-policy of the religious orthodoxy to the idiosyncrasies of the community.

This paper introduces the concept of conspicuous consumption into the study of Western Zhou material culture. It reveals that a select group of high-ranking elites, relative to their peers, engaged in this practice with extravagant use of bronze vessels in their tombs. Such behavior was driven by social and political factors unique to the individuals or their lineages. The paper argues that conspicuous consumption offers a valuable analytical lens for examining the wide variability in burial data and for revealing the complexity of funerary practices that extend beyond the constraints of the sumptuary regulations during the Western Zhou period.

This paper reviews the archaeological and paleographic evidence for salt in the political economy of the Western Zhou state. In so doing, it proposes that models of the Western Zhou political economy must move away from bronze-centric, elite-redistributive views and instead adopt a more holistic perspective that also considers the complexities of local and regional networks in which different types of goods and commodities were exchanged.

This paper provides a diachronic context for the discussion of the Western Zhou economy by focusing on the period immediately before it and raising the question of how the Western Zhou political economy fits into the larger developmental trends of the Chinese Bronze Age. This paper deconstructs some aspects of the elite-redistributive model of the Shang economy, specifically the idea that Central Plains Bronze Age political economies of the 2nd millennium BCE were centralized and uncommercialized. Beginning from the assertion that historically specific institutions and their multi-scalar diachronic changes are entangled with the agency and practice of political economic actors, this paper rejects simplistically derived evolutionary stages and insists on tracing the multi-scalar processual and institutional causes and impacts of historical change.

This article reviews new archaeological evidence of copper mining in Hubei province and its importance to the Western Zhou economy. It focuses on the social dimensions of copper production, showing that the local societies in southeastern Hubei shared distinctive material culture and technological knowledge and participated in well-organized local and interregional economic networks. This often-neglected social perspective broadens our understanding of the Bronze Age economies in China.

In this article, we suggest that archaeologists should recognise the limitations of the term “artefact”, because it does not capture the many ways that diverse groups think about and interact with such objects. There are two important reasons for doing this. First, as we show through numerous examples, archaeologists’ conception of portable material objects as “artefacts” is narrow and unlikely to align with the conceptions by the people who left them behind. Second, like the terms “prehistory” and “human remains”, “artefact” is a settler-colonialist construct that elevates Western scientific jargon above terminology that other stakeholders may see as more respectful or appropriate. As an alternative to the term “artefact”, this article explores “belongings” as a way to open up understandings of the many different meanings associated with archaeological objects and to refer more inclusively to them in diverse contexts.

This paper introduces a novel, quantitative approach to examining how early modern Portuguese ceramics reflect multisensory experiences, impacting their value and desirability. Our method combines archaeological and historical evidence to define a framework for classifying and quantifying the sensory appeal of artefacts, focussing on ceramics that engage smell, taste, touch, sight, and occasionally sound. Using a representative sample of sixteenth–eighteenth century Portuguese ceramics—primarily drinking vessels and plates—we developed a four-step methodology: identifying samples, gathering sensory responses from users, quantifying these responses, and validating results against historical prices. Through this process, we explored how sensory appeal contributed to the objects’ cultural and economic significance. Findings show that ceramics evoking stronger sensory responses, especially those stimulating smell and taste, had higher market values and prestige, suggesting sensory richness as a force of economic and social desirability. This study provides a replicable methodology for sensory archaeology, opening pathways for further investigation of sensory experiences in material culture.

This article aims to contribute to an ethical and post-disciplinary reflection in indigenous and postcolonial archaeologies. Adopting the relational perspective of political ontology unravels the complexities behind the seemingly superficial conflicts over the interpretation of a piece of rock art and the failed implementation of the solar energy project in the Indigenous Community Amaicha del Valle. The juxtaposition of state-authorised and place-based narratives and political actions brings to the fore conflicting perspectives of heritage, rights and indigeneity. Through ethnohistorical and early archaeological accounts from the Calchaquí Valleys, the research reveals the epistemic disavowal of Indigenous histories and lifeworlds as the Argentine state established its national sovereignty and development models between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The case study also draws on archaeological ethnography to highlight generative spaces of knowledge and articulation across divergence and materiality, and that conflicting heritage ontologies can generate new cultural-political forms that diverge from the established consensus.

The Pochury tribe of Nagaland, India, boasts a rich cultural heritage where tradition thrives. This study explores the ethnoarchaeological aspects of the Lüruri community, one of the sub-groups of the Pochury tribe, which is known for their traditional pot-making craft, practiced only by the womenfolk. The study discusses potential strategies for preserving and promoting this invaluable cultural heritage, ensuring its continued existence for future generations. By exploring the Pochury tribe's pot-making tradition, this paper aims to contribute to a broader understanding of the rich cultural heritage of Nagaland. It also highlights the cultural, social, and economic significance, and the need to study traditional pot making to understand its cultural heritage, technological patterns, and practices, as well as the changes it underwent over time due to modernization and globalization. This study contributes towards preserving Indigenous knowledge systems and the impact of socio-economic transformations on traditional crafts.