A Brief Prehistory of Double Descent

In their thought-provoking paper [1], Belkin et al. illustrate and discuss the shape of risk curves in the context of modern high-complexity learners. Given a fixed training sample size $n$, such curves show the risk of a learner as a function of some (approximate) measure of its complexity $N$. With $N$ the number of features, these curves are also referred to as feature curves. A salient observation in [1] is that these curves can display, what they call, double descent: with increasing $N$, the risk initially decreases, attains a minimum, and then increases until $N$ equals $n$, where the training data is fitted perfectly. Increasing $N$ even further, the risk decreases a second and final time, creating a peak at $N=n$. This twofold descent may come as a surprise, but as opposed to what [1] reports, it has not been overlooked historically. Our letter draws attention to some original, earlier findings, of interest to contemporary machine learning

Transitivizing-detransitivizing typology and language family history

Peer reviewe

The Snake Goddess Dethroned: Deconstructing the Work and Legacy of Sir Arthur Evans

While the Minoan Snake Goddess is one of the most reproduced and familiar images in the art historical canon, her function—and indeed, her very essence—continues to be shaped by the man who coined the term Minoan and discovered the site in which she and her sisters lay for generations undisturbed. When Sir Arthur Evans concluded that these statuettes were evidence of Minoan worship of a single great Mother Goddess in 1903, he finally fulfilled his aim discover a prehistoric European civilization to rival that of the ancient Near East. However, Evans did not simply discover these statuettes (and on a broader scale, the ruins themselves)—he meticulously restored and reconstituted them in order to fit his own narrative concerning Minoan religion. Evans’s finds at Knossos have proven to be a watershed moment in the field of Mediterranean archaeology and as such, his interpretations of the Snake Goddess, although unsubstantiated, continue to shape modern perceptions of Minoan art and culture. In an attempt to understand how Evans came to the conclusion that the Snake Goddess was one manifestation of the Great Mother Goddess, this thesis takes on a historiographical lens by critically examining and deconstructing the scholarly traditions and popular anthropological paradigms that Evans worked within in order to determine the degree to which preconceived notions of prehistory influenced Evans’s reconstruction and interpretation of the Snake Goddess figurines

Genealogy, Ontogeny, and the Narrative Arc of Origins

Histor

Argaric Sociology : Sex and Death

The detailed, rich and diverse Argaric funerary record offers an opportunity to explore social dimensions that usually remain elusive for prehistoric research, such us social rules on kinship rights and obligations, sexual tolerance and the role of funerary practices in preserving the economic and political organization. This paper addresses these topics through an analysis of the social meaning of Argaric double tombs by looking at body treatment and composition of grave goods assemblages according to gender and class affiliation. The Argaric seems to have been a conservative society, scarcely tolerant regarding homosexuality, and willing to celebrate ancestry associated to certain places as a means of asserting residence and property rights.La variedad, abundancia y detalle del registro funerario argárico permite explorar aspectos por lo general vedados a la investigación de las sociedades prehistóricas. Las normas sociales sobre la distribución de obligaciones y derechos según el parentesco, la permisividad respecto a las relaciones sexuales y el papel de las prácticas funerarias en el mantenimiento de la organización económico-política son algunos de dichos aspectos. En este artículo se propone un acercamiento a los mismos mediante un análisis del significado social de las tumbas dobles argáricas, la composición de los ajuares según el sexo y la clase social del individuo inhumado, así como el tratamiento y disposición de los cadáveres. Las conclusiones dibujan una sociedad conservadora, poco tolerante respecto la homosexualidad y que celebra positivamente los vínculos genealógicos asociados a ciertos espacios, afirmando así derechos de permanencia y propiedad

Book Reviews

Review of Prehistory, by Derek Roe; Aspects of Prehistory, by Grahame Clark; World Prehistory, by Grahame Clark; Introductory Readings in Archaeology, by Brian M. Fagan, ed.; The Origins of Civilization, by Carroll L. Riley; The Archaeology of Early Man, by J. M. Coles and E. S. Higgs; Shipwrecks and Archaeology, by Peter Throckmorton; A History of Dyed Textiles, by Stuart Robinson; Food in Antiquity, by Don and Patricia Brothwell; World Archaeology, Vol. 1, nos. 1, 2, 3, by Roy Hodson and Colin Platt, eds.; The Structure and Growth of Australia's Aboriginal Population, by F. Lancaster Jones; Attitudes and Social Conditions, by Ronald Taft, John L. M. Dawson, and Pamela Beasley; Aboriginal Settlements, by J. P. M. Long; The Destruction of Aboriginal Society, by C. D. Rowley; Aboriginal Advancement to Integration, by H. P. Schapper

Ancient Hunters and Their Modern Representatives: William Sollas's (1849-1936) Anthropology from Disappointed Bridge to Trunkless Tree and the Instrumentalisation of Racial Conflict

During the first decades of the 20th century, many anthropologists who had previously adhered to a linear view of human evolution, from an ape via Pithecanthropus erectus(today Homo erectus) and Neanderthal to modern humans, began to change their outlook. A shift towards a branching model of human evolution began to take hold. Among the scientific factors motivating this trend was the insight that mammalian evolution in general was best represented by a branching tree, rather than by a straight line, and that several new fossil hominids were discovered that differed significantly in their morphology but seemed to date from about the same period. The ideological and practical implications of imperialism and WWI have also been identified as formative of the new evolutionary scenarios in which racial conflict played a crucial role. The paper will illustrate this general shift in anthropological theory for one particular scientist, William Sollas (1849-1936). Sollas achieved a synthesis of human morphological and cultural evolution in what I will refer to as an imperialist model. In this theoretical framework, migration, conflict, and replacement became the main mechanisms for progress spurred by ‘ ȁ8nature's tyrant,' natural selectio

The Chanka: Archaeological Research in Andahuaylas (Apurimac), Peru

In AD 1438 a battle took place outside the city of Cuzco that changed the course of South American history. The Chanka, a powerful ethnic group from the Andahuaylas region, had begun an aggressive program of expansion. Conquering a host of smaller polities, their army had advanced well inside the territory of their traditional rival, the Inca. In a series of unusual maneuvers, the Inca defeated the invading Chanka forces and became the most powerful people in the Andes. Many scholars believe that the defeat of the Chanka represents a defining moment in the history of South America as the Inca then continued to expand and establish the largest empire of the Americas. Despite its critical position in South American history, until recently the Chanka heartland remained unexplored and the cultural processes that led to their rapid development and subsequent defeat by the Inca had not been investigated. From 2001 to 2004, Brian Bauer conducted an archaeological survey of the Andahuaylas region. This project represents an unparalleled opportunity to examine theoretical issues concerning the history and cultural development of late-prehistoric societies in this area of the Andes. The resulting book includes an archaeological analysis on the development of the Chanka and examines their ultimate defeat by the Inca. Series: Monographs 6