Social and Economic Development of a Specialized Community in Chengue, Parque Tairona, Colombia.

The primary intention of this research has been to establish how the specialized Tairona community of Chengue was formed and how social inequality plays a role in socio-economic change from 200BC to 1650AD. The main questions are organized around two opposing scenarios designed to test top-down and bottom-up processes for community formation. In the top-down scenario the community would be the result of an external agent that had sufficient authority to "create" a community with the intention to extract a highly concentrated resource, marine salt. In the alternative scenario, the bottom-up process, the community would become specialized as a result of a slower process in which the changes that led to specialization are the product of decisions of the individuals who resided in Chengue and natural environmental changes. Consequently specialization would have been the role of individual agents (individuals and households) at a very small scale. Although the observed sequence had components from both scenarios, the bottom-up process appears to be the primary force in the formation of a specialized community and the production of surplus that led to social inequality.Study of soils, lagoon and coastal sediments, flora and fauna allowed the climatic reconstruction the last 2500 years. During this long span of time communal units larger than households but smaller than villages had great stability and appear to have been the motors of socio-economic change. The evidence from Chengue suggests that progressive specialization in the context of environmental limitations produced a group of people less well-off than others. Elites do not; however, appear to have had much range of political action during most of the sequence

Annotation-based storage and retrieval of models and simulation descriptions in computational biology

This work aimed at enhancing reuse of computational biology models by identifying and formalizing relevant meta-information. One type of meta-information investigated in this thesis is experiment-related meta-information attached to a model, which is necessary to accurately recreate simulations. The main results are: a detailed concept for model annotation, a proposed format for the encoding of simulation experiment setups, a storage solution for standardized model representations and the development of a retrieval concept.Die vorliegende Arbeit widmete sich der besseren Wiederverwendung biologischer Simulationsmodelle. Ziele waren die Identifikation und Formalisierung relevanter Modell-Meta-Informationen, sowie die Entwicklung geeigneter Modellspeicherungs- und Modellretrieval-Konzepte. Wichtigste Ergebnisse der Arbeit sind ein detailliertes Modellannotationskonzept, ein Formatvorschlag für standardisierte Kodierung von Simulationsexperimenten in XML, eine Speicherlösung für Modellrepräsentationen sowie ein Retrieval-Konzept

Life and afterlife in the Nordic Bronze Age : Proceedings of the 15th Nordic Bronze Age Symposium held in Lund, Sweden, June 11-15, 2019

Life and afterlife in the Nordic Bronze Age contains some of the papers presented at the 15th Nordic Bronze Age Symposium, June 2019. Over these five days approximately 100 researchers of the Bronze Age gathered to present papers and discuss traditional research questions as well as current topics that have been brought about by the breakthrough of the third scientific revolution of archaeology over the last 20 years

Pots, people, and politics: a reconsideration of the role of ceramics in reconstructions of the Iron Age Northern Levant

This thesis aims to reconsider current reconstructions of the Iron Age Northern Levant and the role that ceramics studies have played in these interpretations. This study begins with an assessment of the use of the historical narrative in current interpretations. This historical interpretative framework has produced a broad perspective on Iron Age society, at the expense of localised behaviours. For this reason, the present study attempts to engage with Iron Age material culture, more specifically pottery, and consider its role within past societies beyond the broad socio-political histories depicted in texts. This study presents a regional ceramic typology for the Iron Age (including the Persian period) and undertakes an analysis of the distribution patterns of this typology across the Northern Levant. An alternative interpretation of the ceramic data is offered, before being compared with the current historical model. This alternative reconstruction focuses on theories of practice, and foodways, whilst appreciating the dynamic manner by which material culture is used to constantly negotiate and consolidate social structures. This thesis will determine the compatibility of archaeology and text, and make some final recommendations for their correlation

Alternative Pathways to Complexity

"[T]he volume represents an important contribution to the examination of issues for which Blanton has furthered scholarship, organized as three sections with cases from Mesoamerica, the Old World, and cross-cultural studies." —American Antiquity. Alternative Pathways to Complexity focuses on the themes of architecture, economics, and power in the evolution of complex societies. Case studies from Mesoamerica, Asia, Africa, and Europe examine the relationship between political structures and economic configurations of ancient chiefdoms and states through a framework of comparative archaeology

The Valley of the Kings? Social Complexity of Inland Thrace during the First Millennium BC.

The Odrysian kingdom of Thrace is claimed to be a well-defined state, a solid political unit that exercised a strong influence on political events in the Aegean world during 5th and 4th centuries BC (Archibald 1998). Greek historical sources are used to support this claim, yet their interpretation is problematic. Ancient authors remain indirect and highly ambiguous, infusing personal agendas and Graeco-centric perceptions into their observations. Archaeological evidence seems to offer much more robust support for the claim of a powerful Thracian state with its overwhelming number of sumptuous burial assemblages that attest to intense social stratification and wealth inequality among the Thracian population during the Classical and post-Classical periods (Kitov 2008, Fol and Marazov 1977). The interpretations, based principally on the mortuary data, have indeed been compelling and intuitively satisfying, yet they have failed to incorporate other classes of evidence that are inconsistent with the “state” model, such as divergent historical accounts, absence of urban centers, and lack of administrative and ideological manifestations of the alleged state. My study corrects this mortuary based bias in the study of the Odrysian kingdom by introducing settlement pattern data based on original research in the Thracian interior, specifically the Tundzha River watershed, an alleged homeland of the Odrysians. The existing regional legacy data will be contextualized and contrasted with the surface survey evidence, and explanation will be sought for divergence among them. My dissertation produces a definition of Thracian socio-political form(s) during the Classical period, drawing on the results of surface survey, its integration with several different classes of the archaeological record and complemented by critical use of anthropological neo-evolutionary theory. On the basis of the data acquired by the Tundzha Regional Archaeological Project, I argue that the Thracian polity does not approach the state-level of organization until the 4th century BC, when a major stimulus is delivered to the indigenous communities by the Macedonian conquest. The state institutions take root and only become manifest in the regional archaeological record after further delay - during the Roman period.Ph.D.Classical Art & ArchaeologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91457/1/adelas_1.pd

No. 4, Archaeological Investigations at Three Sites Near Arlington, State Route 385 (Paul Barrett Parkway), Shelby County, Tennessee

https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/govpubs-tn-dept-environment-conservation-tdot-archaeology-publications/1002/thumbnail.jp

Multimetal smithing : An urban craft in rural settings?

Multimetal smithing should be defined as the use of more than one metal and/or different metalworking techniques within thesame crafts-milieu. This complex metalworking has long been linked to centrality, central places and urbanity in Scandinavia.It has been extensively argued that fine casting and smithing, as well as manufacture utilizing precious metals was exclusivelyundertaken within early urban settings or the “central places” pre-dating these. Furthermore, the presence of complex metalcraftsmanship has been used as a driving indicator of the political, social and economic superiority of certain sites, therebyenhancing their identity as “centralities”.Recent research has come to challenge the universality of this link between urbanity, centrality and complex metalworkingas sites in rural settings with evidence of multimetal smithing are being identified. This shows that the relationship between thecraft and centrality (urbanity) must be nuanced and that perhaps multimetal craftsmanship should be reconsidered as an urbanindicator.The thesis project “From Crucible and onto Anvil” started in 2015 and focuses on sites housing remains of multimetalcraftsmanship dating primarily from 500-1000 AD. Within the project a comprehensive survey of sites will be used to evaluate thepresence of multimetal craftsmanship in the landscape. Sites in selected target areas will also be subject to intra-site analysisfocusing on workshop organisation, production output, metalworking techniques and chronological variances.A key aim in the project is to elucidate the conceptual aspects of complex metalworking. The term multimetality is used toanalytically frame all the societal and economic aspects of multimetal craftsmanship. Through this inclusive perspective both thecraftsmanship and the metalworkers behind it are positioned within the overall socioeconomic framework. The metalworkers,their skills and competences as well as the products of their labour are viewed as dynamic actors in the landscape and on thearenas of political economy of the Late Iron Age.The survey has already revealed interesting aspects concerning multimetal smithing and urbanity. Although the multimetalsites do cluster against areas of early urban development there are also other patterns emerging. Multimetal craftsmanship – both as practice and concept – was well represented in both rural peripheral settings and urban crafts-milieus. This means that therole of multimetality as part of an “urban conceptual package” is crucial to investigate. Such an approach will have the dual endsof properly understanding the craft and its societal implications, but also further the knowledge of the phenomenon of urbanityas a whole. Was multimetal smithing part of an “urban package” that spread into the rural landscape? Did the multimetality differbetween urban and rural crafts-milieus? How does early urbanity relate to the chronology of multimetal craftsmanship?This paper aims to counter these questions using examples from the survey of multimetal sites conducted within the thesisproject. A comparison between selected sites will be presented. The purpose of this is to evaluate the role of multimetality withinthe “urban package” and discuss the role of complex metalworking in the establishment of urban arenas of interaction in LateIron Age Scandinavia

Idols in exile. making sense of prehistoric human pottery figurines from Dos Mosquises Island, Los Roques archipelago, Venezuela

This dissertation examines the `social reality' of the prehistoric figurines recovered on the tiny coral island of Dos Mosquises, located off the Venezuelan coast. There, over three hundred figurine specimens altogether with numerous other items of material culture were recovered by the author during systematic excavations. The site was interpreted as a temporary camp where Queen Conch (Strombus gigas), turtle, fish, birds and salt were processed/consumed, between ad. 1300 and 1500. The vast majority of the artefacts, including figurines, were not local products, but related to the Valencia culture from the north-central Venezuela mainland. In South America and the Caribbean, prehistoric figurines are traditionally approached as objects of ancient art or cult, or as typological devices. I reject both the a priori assumptions of figurine meaning/function that neglect the particular socio-historical contexts of their creation/use, and the epiphenomenological approach to these artefacts. Drawing from Social Theory, Material Culture Studies, Contextual Archaeology, Sociology of Knowledge and some traditional procedures of artefact analysis, I generate an `integrative' approach that combines analyses of the form (the object and its image), context (archaeological and social) and content (subject matter and signifying practice). In the analytical framework used in this dissertation, the figurine is regarded not as a mute product of a past culture, but as an `actor' that participated in the negotiation of complex social strategies in late prehistoric north Venezuela. The fact that the island figurines were produced on the mainland has direct influence on the structure of this research, demanding analysis of all available mainland material and its contexts. In consequence, `bricks' for the construction of the social reality of the Dos Mosquises figurines have been sought on the mainland. I interpret mainland specimens as metaphors of the social control of elder women over their younger female kin, as a strategy used in alliance building. The (re)constructed social context of the Dos Mosquises site suggests that it was largely occupied by adult and adolescent males. The confrontation of the archaeological and social contexts, types and images of mainland and island specimens, resulted in the disclosure of the polyvalent, context-dependent roles of the Valencioid figurines. Some of the island specimens indicate use in ritual activities and as burial furniture. Their social roles were essential to sustaining everyday life at the DM site by suppressing the threats of supernatural powers related to the marine environment and its creatures. Although specific interpretations are discussed in this study, its primary contribution lies rather in the methods developed to address questions regarding the social reality of prehistoric figurines. The emphasis is put on systematic and controlled ways of working `between or around data and theory', so that diverse sources of data can be put together to explore the meaningful connections that may link them within the overall humanistic approach. It is anticipated that the open-ended nature of this research will indicate paths for further inquiry and stimulate future research on the figurines and other material culture in north-central Venezuela

Alternative Pathways to Complexity

"[T]he volume represents an important contribution to the examination of issues for which Blanton has furthered scholarship, organized as three sections with cases from Mesoamerica, the Old World, and cross-cultural studies." —American Antiquity. Alternative Pathways to Complexity focuses on the themes of architecture, economics, and power in the evolution of complex societies. Case studies from Mesoamerica, Asia, Africa, and Europe examine the relationship between political structures and economic configurations of ancient chiefdoms and states through a framework of comparative archaeology