Pub Date : 2024-11-03DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101631
Zachary McKeeby , Chisanga Charlton , Hellen Mwansa , Constance Mulenga , William Mundiku , Samuel Namunji Namunji , Richard Mbewe
The Machile River and its surrounding tributaries in Western Zambia formed a significant locus of Iron Age life in Zambia and served as a conduit for the localized movements of people, things, and ideas in south-central Africa over much of the last two millennia. Within this dynamic corridor, the early 2nd-millennium CE Kanono site represents a short-lived but well defined Middle/Late Iron Age farming community that integrated local crafting practices with global and regional orientations, during a period of dramatic political and economic changes across southern, central, and eastern Africa. Combining high-resolution geophysical survey and the results of targeted excavations at Kanono, we trace the emergence, growth, and abandonment of the village between the mid-thirteenth and early fifteenth centuries CE. We argue that changes seen in the village relate to the formation of a bounded co-residential community built around unilineal descent, which may have leveraged prestige in iron working into other forms of prestige – namely wealth in people and access to exotic goods. Approaching the archaeological record at Kanono from the perspective of household archaeology and daily life allows for an evocative ‘peopling’ of south-central African political economies.
{"title":"Households, Community, and Crafting at Kanono: The archaeology of a 2nd millennium village in Western Zambia","authors":"Zachary McKeeby , Chisanga Charlton , Hellen Mwansa , Constance Mulenga , William Mundiku , Samuel Namunji Namunji , Richard Mbewe","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101631","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101631","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Machile River and its surrounding tributaries in Western Zambia formed a significant locus of Iron Age life in Zambia and served as a conduit for the localized movements of people, things, and ideas in south-central Africa over much of the last two millennia. Within this dynamic corridor, the early 2nd-millennium CE Kanono site represents a short-lived but well defined Middle/Late Iron Age farming community that integrated local crafting practices with global and regional orientations, during a period of dramatic political and economic changes across southern, central, and eastern Africa. Combining high-resolution geophysical survey and the results of targeted excavations at Kanono, we trace the emergence, growth, and abandonment of the village between the mid-thirteenth and early fifteenth centuries CE. We argue that changes seen in the village relate to the formation of a bounded co-residential community built around unilineal descent, which may have leveraged prestige in iron working into other forms of prestige – namely wealth in people and access to exotic goods. Approaching the archaeological record at Kanono from the perspective of household archaeology and daily life allows for an evocative ‘peopling’ of south-central African political economies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101631"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142572302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-24DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101629
Jozef Chajbullin Koštial
The article has two informative levels: (a) describes the construction, distribution and use of tandyr cores as a traditional product of the bread-baking culture in southern Kyrgyzstan; compares these processes with the well-documented phenomenon of tandyrs in the Middle East and (b) tries to define the implications for potential archaeological research of tandyrs in this area, where (despite their claimed general distribution and use) these products have not been archaeologically identified to date. The basic method of the work is the direct collection of ethnographic data at four production locations and dozens of consumption locations through direct observation and formalized questionnaires.
{"title":"“We always remember for whom we make a tandyr”. Ethnoarchaeological research on tandyrs in southern Kyrgyzstan","authors":"Jozef Chajbullin Koštial","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101629","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101629","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The article has two informative levels: (a) describes the construction, distribution and use of tandyr cores as a traditional product of the bread-baking culture in southern Kyrgyzstan; compares these processes with the well-documented phenomenon of tandyrs in the Middle East and (b) tries to define the implications for potential archaeological research of tandyrs in this area, where (despite their claimed general distribution and use) these products have not been archaeologically identified to date. The basic method of the work is the direct collection of ethnographic data at four production locations and dozens of consumption locations through direct observation and formalized questionnaires.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101629"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142535028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-16DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101622
Attila Gyucha , Danielle J. Riebe , Orsolya Viktorik , László Máté , Attila Kreiter
This paper explores how technology can be used to discern socio-cultural variations and how technological analyses can contribute to a better understanding of the origins and aftermaths of fundamental socio-political changes in prehistoric societies. To study pottery technology, we carried out petrographic analysis on ceramics from six Late Neolithic (ca. 5000–4500 BCE) and Early Copper Age (ca. 4500–4000 BCE) sites located within a single microregion in the Körös Basin on the Great Hungarian Plain. The communities representing two Late Neolithic cultural units (i.e., the Tisza and the Herpály) applied distinct ceramic decorations and sustained a strongly enforced socio-cultural boundary. By the Early Copper Age, dramatic changes unfolded, including the abandonment of Neolithic centers, a departure from Late Neolithic symbolic systems, and the emergence of an overall homogeneity in material culture. The petrographic analysis, however, revealed a high degree of similarity in ceramic manufacturing between the Tisza and Herpály that persisted into the Copper Age. To understand these patterns, we apply the concepts of communities and constellation of practice, alongside technological investment theory. We argue that a potting constellation of practice explains the similarities between Tisza and Herpály manufacturing practices. In addition, the ceramic technological continuity into the Copper Age, despite major socio-political turbulence, illustrates that potters continued to interact with the landscape, technology, and each other in similar ways, even as other, social aspects of the craft changed. The persistence of technological traditions suggests that internal developments rather than external factors were responsible for the profound socio-cultural transformations that occurred during the transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain.
{"title":"Potters’ technological choices in turbulent times: Exploring the transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain through communities of practice and technological investment theories","authors":"Attila Gyucha , Danielle J. Riebe , Orsolya Viktorik , László Máté , Attila Kreiter","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101622","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101622","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores how technology can be used to discern socio-cultural variations and how technological analyses can contribute to a better understanding of the origins and aftermaths of fundamental socio-political changes in prehistoric societies. To study pottery technology, we carried out petrographic analysis on ceramics from six Late Neolithic (ca. 5000–4500 BCE) and Early Copper Age (ca. 4500–4000 BCE) sites located within a single microregion in the Körös Basin on the Great Hungarian Plain. The communities representing two Late Neolithic cultural units (i.e., the Tisza and the Herpály) applied distinct ceramic decorations and sustained a strongly enforced socio-cultural boundary. By the Early Copper Age, dramatic changes unfolded, including the abandonment of Neolithic centers, a departure from Late Neolithic symbolic systems, and the emergence of an overall homogeneity in material culture. The petrographic analysis, however, revealed a high degree of similarity in ceramic manufacturing between the Tisza and Herpály that persisted into the Copper Age. To understand these patterns, we apply the concepts of communities and constellation of practice, alongside technological investment theory. We argue that a potting constellation of practice explains the similarities between Tisza and Herpály manufacturing practices. In addition, the ceramic technological continuity into the Copper Age, despite major socio-political turbulence, illustrates that potters continued to interact with the landscape, technology, and each other in similar ways, even as other, social aspects of the craft changed. The persistence of technological traditions suggests that internal developments rather than external factors were responsible for the profound socio-cultural transformations that occurred during the transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101622"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142441958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-08DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101628
Sebastian Fajardo , Pedro Argüello
Several prehistoric societies did not develop robust hierarchical systems even after centuries of population clustering and advancements in constructing structural earthworks and crafting materials like ceramics and alloys. What social dynamics characterized these non-state complex societies and how did they influence technological production? Here we analyze population clustering and hierarchical structures through two regional settlement studies in the northeastern Andes of Colombia. Employing both a traditional Inverse Distance Weighting interpolation (IDW) approach and an unsupervised machine learning method, Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN), we identify settlement clusters within the pre-Columbian sedentary settlement sequence. Analyzing rank-size distribution and A-coefficients based on identified clusters, we discern differences in hierarchical systems between the two regions. Results reveal that these early sedentary communities did not establish strong settlement hierarchies over centuries of clustering. Our findings suggest that the lack of robust hierarchical systems in Muisca societies may be attributed to slow and non-linear settlement clustering and limited site specialization. We compare this with evidence for technologies in the Muisca area, arguing that the emergence of strong and permanent settlement clustering is a threshold for early communities before developing information-storage technologies, such as standardized representations for counting or writing.
一些史前社会并没有发展出强大的等级制度，即使经过数百年的人口集聚，以及在建造结构性土方工程和制作陶瓷及合金等工艺材料方面的进步。这些非国家复杂社会的特点是什么，它们又是如何影响技术生产的？在此，我们通过对哥伦比亚安第斯山脉东北部两个地区的聚落研究，对人口聚居和等级结构进行分析。我们采用传统的反距离加权插值（IDW）方法和无监督机器学习方法--基于密度的噪声空间聚类应用（DBSCAN）--识别前哥伦布定居序列中的聚落群。通过分析基于已识别聚类的等级大小分布和 A 系数，我们发现了两个地区在等级系统方面的差异。结果显示，这些早期定居群落在数百年的聚落过程中并未建立起强大的定居等级体系。我们的研究结果表明，穆伊斯卡社会缺乏强大的等级制度可能是由于缓慢和非线性的聚落集群以及有限的地点专业化。我们将这一点与穆伊斯卡地区的技术证据进行了比较，认为强大而永久的聚落集群的出现是早期社区发展信息存储技术（如标准化的计数或书写表示法）之前的一个门槛。
{"title":"Sociopolitical evolution, population clustering, and technology among early sedentary communities in northeastern Andes, Colombia","authors":"Sebastian Fajardo , Pedro Argüello","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101628","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101628","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Several prehistoric societies did not develop robust hierarchical systems even after centuries of population clustering and advancements in constructing structural earthworks and crafting materials like ceramics and alloys. What social dynamics characterized these non-state complex societies and how did they influence technological production? Here we analyze population clustering and hierarchical structures through two regional settlement studies in the northeastern Andes of Colombia. Employing both a traditional Inverse Distance Weighting interpolation (IDW) approach and an unsupervised machine learning method, Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN), we identify settlement clusters within the pre-Columbian sedentary settlement sequence. Analyzing rank-size distribution and <em>A</em>-coefficients based on identified clusters, we discern differences in hierarchical systems between the two regions. Results reveal that these early sedentary communities did not establish strong settlement hierarchies over centuries of clustering. Our findings suggest that the lack of robust hierarchical systems in Muisca societies may be attributed to slow and non-linear settlement clustering and limited site specialization. We compare this with evidence for technologies in the Muisca area, arguing that the emergence of strong and permanent settlement clustering is a threshold for early communities before developing information-storage technologies, such as standardized representations for counting or writing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101628"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142422199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-05DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101626
Alfonso Alday , Ander Rodríguez-Lejarza , Adriana Soto , Lourdes Montes
In this paper we adopt a new perspective on the chronology and settlement strategies of the last Mesolithic societies of the Ebro basin. For this purpose, we applied concepts from population biology (carrying capacity) and redefined the catchment area of the sites using GIS analysis tools. We concluded that the last hunter-gatherer groups lived below their means, so that physical and cultural reproduction was guaranteed. Therefore, the changes that the societies underwent—from Notches and Denticulate Mesolithic to Geometric Mesolithic, and from there to Neolithic—were not motivated by external factors, but rather were social decisions. The chronology suggests a rapid assumption of the new technological norms—in either of the technological transitions, although the process of experimentation with the production economy must have been slower, so that the Mesolithic territorial strategy remained in force during the first three centuries of the Neolithic. Throughout this process, the efficient Mesolithic networks allowed the transmission of objects, ideas and people.
{"title":"The land of the last hunter-gatherer groups in the Ebro basin: Forgers of their own destiny","authors":"Alfonso Alday , Ander Rodríguez-Lejarza , Adriana Soto , Lourdes Montes","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101626","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101626","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper we adopt a new perspective on the chronology and settlement strategies of the last Mesolithic societies of the Ebro basin. For this purpose, we applied concepts from population biology (carrying capacity) and redefined the catchment area of the sites using GIS analysis tools. We concluded that the last hunter-gatherer groups lived below their means, so that physical and cultural reproduction was guaranteed. Therefore, the changes that the societies underwent—from Notches and Denticulate Mesolithic to Geometric Mesolithic, and from there to Neolithic—were not motivated by external factors, but rather were social decisions. The chronology suggests a rapid assumption of the new technological norms—in either of the technological transitions, although the process of experimentation with the production economy must have been slower, so that the Mesolithic territorial strategy remained in force during the first three centuries of the Neolithic. Throughout this process, the efficient Mesolithic networks allowed the transmission of objects, ideas and people.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101626"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142422198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-25DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101624
Lisa Janz
Diet is fundamental and closely interconnected with land-use, technology, and economy. When societies undergo major diet shifts, the entire human niche shifts, including all interrelated aspects of social organization. As such, larger patterns in social organization can inform us about diet in the absence of direct evidence. This study focuses specifically on patterns of land-use in the Gobi Desert of China and Mongolia, a place where direct evidence of diet is scanty due to the poor preservation of organics. The purpose is to explore diachronic changes in the spatial distribution of sites and variation in intensity of site use in order to explore proposed changes in subsistence economies. Here, a reorganization of technology, raw material use, and settlement that began in the early to middle Holocene (“Oasis 2”) supports the idea of diet breadth expansion between the Palaeolithic and Bronze Age. Strategies of land-use during all three periods are considered. The findings offer a foundation from which to build testable hypotheses about local land-use and subsistence, but also a model for exploring such transitions in other regions where direct evidence is scanty (e.g., forest landscapes, many arid regions and the very deep past).
{"title":"Hunting, Herding, and diet breadth. A landscape based approach to niche shifting in subsistence economies (Gobi Desert)","authors":"Lisa Janz","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101624","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101624","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Diet is fundamental and closely interconnected with land-use, technology, and economy. When societies undergo major diet shifts, the entire human niche shifts, including all interrelated aspects of social organization. As such, larger patterns in social organization can inform us about diet in the absence of direct evidence. This study focuses specifically on patterns of land-use in the Gobi Desert of China and Mongolia, a place where direct evidence of diet is scanty due to the poor preservation of organics. The purpose is to explore diachronic changes in the spatial distribution of sites and variation in intensity of site use in order to explore proposed changes in subsistence economies. Here, a reorganization of technology, raw material use, and settlement that began in the early to middle Holocene (“Oasis 2”) supports the idea of diet breadth expansion between the Palaeolithic and Bronze Age. Strategies of land-use during all three periods are considered. The findings offer a foundation from which to build testable hypotheses about local land-use and subsistence, but also a model for exploring such transitions in other regions where direct evidence is scanty (e.g., forest landscapes, many arid regions and the very deep past).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101624"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142314806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-25DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101623
Beau Murphy , Diego Salazar , Frances M. Hayashida , Andrés Troncoso , Pastor Fábrega-Álvarez
Political aspects of imperial architecture are usually evaluated in terms of the symbolism of specific buildings as opposed to overall site planning and layout. This reflects a shortcoming in our understanding of imperial tactics, as provincial site layouts were likely politically calculated. Here we present an architectural study of the Inka provincial capital of Turi, a well-preserved local population center in northern Chile co-opted for Inka imperial administration of the Atacama Desert area. We reevaluate layout planning at the site using concepts of building coordination and inter-site standardization to identify potentially planned features, and add to this a chronological study of surface architecture based upon wall-abutments and radiocarbon dates associated with a sample of building events. Results indicate significant Inka-era remodeling took the pre-existing site’s layout in a more coordinated and monumental direction, serving to increase site symmetry, reference political ideas through inter-site standardization, and focus greater attention upon Inka political buildings. Political buildings themselves grew more formalized and monumental over the course of the imperial occupation, culminating in the construction of a large kallanka state building near the end of the 15th century. Overall, we argue that layout remodeling was used to form increasingly strong architectural pronouncements of state legitimacy over time, and that moving past a ‘planned’ versus ‘unplanned’ conceptual binary will aid in gleaning more information from imperial sites in future research.
{"title":"The politics of provincial site planning and the architectural evolution of the Inka administrative center of Turi, northern Chile","authors":"Beau Murphy , Diego Salazar , Frances M. Hayashida , Andrés Troncoso , Pastor Fábrega-Álvarez","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101623","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101623","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Political aspects of imperial architecture are usually evaluated in terms of the symbolism of specific buildings as opposed to overall site planning and layout. This reflects a shortcoming in our understanding of imperial tactics, as provincial site layouts were likely politically calculated. Here we present an architectural study of the Inka provincial capital of Turi, a well-preserved local population center in northern Chile co-opted for Inka imperial administration of the Atacama Desert area. We reevaluate layout planning at the site using concepts of building coordination and inter-site standardization to identify potentially planned features, and add to this a chronological study of surface architecture based upon wall-abutments and radiocarbon dates associated with a sample of building events. Results indicate significant Inka-era remodeling took the pre-existing site’s layout in a more coordinated and monumental direction, serving to increase site symmetry, reference political ideas through inter-site standardization, and focus greater attention upon Inka political buildings. Political buildings themselves grew more formalized and monumental over the course of the imperial occupation, culminating in the construction of a large <em>kallanka</em> state building near the end of the 15th century. Overall, we argue that layout remodeling was used to form increasingly strong architectural pronouncements of state legitimacy over time, and that moving past a ‘planned’ versus ‘unplanned’ conceptual binary will aid in gleaning more information from imperial sites in future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101623"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142319545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-24DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101625
Matthew Susnow
This paper investigates temple-building traditions using concepts of space and place, exploring various perspectives of temple placemaking in archaeological, textual and ethnographic data. The study first looks at temple-building practices in Mesopotamia and South Asia, before exploring the nature of temple-building traditions in the 2nd and 1st millennium BCE southern Levant. From Mesopotamia, a unique temple foundation ritual from the 1st millennium BCE is analyzed in order to provide one perspective on how a space is turned into sacred place. The study then focuses on the role that sacred models (mandalas) play in building and conceptualizing temples in South Asian traditions, as well as how ritual dances generate demarcated ritual places. Using and applying various ideas encountered in the first two case studies, the article then investigates the Bronze and Iron Age archaeological data of the Levant for traces of sacred placemaking. Amongst the various observations on how Levantine temples were conceptualized as places, the study identifies a fundamental distinction between institutionalized and non-institutionalized temple-building traditions.
{"title":"From space to Place: The making of temples","authors":"Matthew Susnow","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101625","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101625","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates temple-building traditions using concepts of space and place, exploring various perspectives of temple placemaking in archaeological, textual and ethnographic data. The study first looks at temple-building practices in Mesopotamia and South Asia, before exploring the nature of temple-building traditions in the 2nd and 1st millennium BCE southern Levant. From Mesopotamia, a unique temple foundation ritual from the 1st millennium BCE is analyzed in order to provide one perspective on how a space is turned into sacred place. The study then focuses on the role that sacred models (mandalas) play in building and conceptualizing temples in South Asian traditions, as well as how ritual dances generate demarcated ritual places. Using and applying various ideas encountered in the first two case studies, the article then investigates the Bronze and Iron Age archaeological data of the Levant for traces of sacred placemaking. Amongst the various observations on how Levantine temples were conceptualized as places, the study identifies a fundamental distinction between institutionalized and non-institutionalized temple-building traditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101625"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142314805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101610
Marilyn A. Masson , Timothy S. Hare , Carlos Peraza Lope , Douglas J. Kennett , Walter R.T. Witschey , Bradley W. Russell , Stanley Serafin , Richard James George , Luis Flores Cobá , Pedro Delgado Kú , Bárbara Escamilla Ojeda , Wilberth Cruz Alvarado
This article addresses Postclassic Maya population recovery in the aftermath of the collapse of Terminal Classic period political centers by 1100 CE in northern Yucatan, Mexico. While much has been written about the collapse of northern lowland Classic period Maya civilization by the eleventh century CE, we focus here on longer-term outcomes from a demographic perspective, during the Postclassic period (1150-1500 CE). We analyze survey data from the adjacent and sequential archaeological sites of Tichac and Mayapán to support three arguments. First, rural zones were populous prior to the northern collapse. Second, inhabitants of rural zones persisted during the cycle of political collapse and recovery. Third the ubiquity of Postclassic Maya settlements after the twelfth century CE suggests resiliency in the region marked by a rapid rate of sociopolitical regeneration and substantial (if partial) demographic recovery. We frame findings from our study area with broader evidence from regional archaeological settlement studies and early Colonial documents attesting to robust northern Maya populations at the time of European contact. We consider the important role of rural localities in fostering recovery by storing cultural knowledge, providing destinations for outmigration, and serving as hubs for long-term, cyclical regeneration of state society.
{"title":"Postclassic Maya population recovery and rural resilience in the aftermath of collapse in northern Yucatan","authors":"Marilyn A. Masson , Timothy S. Hare , Carlos Peraza Lope , Douglas J. Kennett , Walter R.T. Witschey , Bradley W. Russell , Stanley Serafin , Richard James George , Luis Flores Cobá , Pedro Delgado Kú , Bárbara Escamilla Ojeda , Wilberth Cruz Alvarado","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101610","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101610","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This article addresses Postclassic Maya population recovery in the aftermath of the collapse of Terminal Classic period political centers by 1100 CE in northern Yucatan, Mexico. While much has been written about the collapse of northern lowland Classic period Maya civilization by the eleventh century CE, we focus here on longer-term outcomes from a demographic perspective, during the Postclassic period (1150-1500 CE). We analyze survey data from the adjacent and sequential archaeological sites of Tichac and Mayapán to support three arguments. First, rural zones were populous prior to the northern collapse. Second, inhabitants of rural zones persisted during the cycle of political collapse and recovery. Third the ubiquity of Postclassic Maya settlements after the twelfth century CE suggests resiliency in the region marked by a rapid rate of sociopolitical regeneration and substantial (if partial) demographic recovery. We frame findings from our study area with broader evidence from regional archaeological settlement studies and early Colonial documents attesting to robust northern Maya populations at the time of European contact. We consider the important role of rural localities in fostering recovery by storing cultural knowledge, providing destinations for outmigration, and serving as hubs for long-term, cyclical regeneration of state society.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101610"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278416524000412/pdfft?md5=18840418b7862ff82804d6ed2feaa475&pid=1-s2.0-S0278416524000412-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142043757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101614
Fiona Hook , Sean Ulm , Kim Akerman , Richard Fullagar , Peter Veth
We investigate archaeological evidence for the early production of Melo (or commonly named ‘baler’) shell knives recovered from Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene deposits in Boodie Cave, Barrow Island. The site is in the Country of Thalanyji people in northwestern Western Australia. The oldest shell knife fragments were recovered from units dated to 46.2–42.6 ka, making this one of the oldest Homo sapiens sapiens shell tool technologies currently described. We situate this early and ongoing tradition of shell tool manufacture within recent discussions of the early development of shell industries from both Island Southeast Asia and globally. Although shell knives have been previously reported from Pilbara and Gulf of Carpentaria surface middens in northern Australia, systematic analysis of the manufacturing process and associated debris, and especially from pre-Holocene contexts, has not been previously conducted. This research explores the shell knife chaîne opératoire through the integration of three data sets derived from archaeology, ethnography, and experimental archaeology. This study highlights the significance of shell tool industries in the northwest of Australia, and globally, from the Pleistocene and into the Late Holocene in areas with limited access to hard rock geology where shell reduction represents a unique technological strategy.
我们调查了从巴罗岛 Boodie 洞穴晚更新世和全新世早期沉积物中发现的早期制作贝壳刀（俗称 "打包刀"）的考古证据。该遗址位于西澳大利亚西北部的塔兰吉人居住区。最古老的贝壳刀碎片是从年代为 46.2-42.6 ka 的单元中发掘出来的，这使得贝壳刀成为目前所描述的最古老的贝壳工具技术之一。我们将这一早期和持续的贝壳工具制造传统置于最近关于东南亚岛屿和全球贝壳工业早期发展的讨论之中。尽管之前有报道称澳大利亚北部的皮尔巴拉和卡奔塔利亚湾地表掘塚出土过贝壳刀具，但对其制造过程和相关残片，特别是全新世以前的情况，还没有进行过系统的分析。本研究通过整合考古学、人种学和实验考古学的三组数据，对贝壳刀具进行了探索。这项研究强调了贝壳工具工业在澳大利亚西北部以及全球范围内的重要性，从更新世到全新世晚期，在这些地区，硬岩地质条件有限，贝壳切割代表了一种独特的技术策略。
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