Maritime Trade and Deerskin in Iron Age Central Taiwan: A Zooarchaeological Perspective.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017

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

Archaeological Investigations between Cayenne Island and the Maroni River

Stratigraphic archaeological research in French Guiana is barely 50 years old and has been conducted primarily in the coastal zone, stretching approximately between 5 and 50 kilometres from the Atlantic coast to the Precambrian Shield. This bias, mainly caused by means of modern infrastructure, has sketched an archaeological record concerning pre-Columbian French Guiana focussing on the Late Ceramic Age (AD 900-1500) of Cayenne Island as well as the western Holocene coastal plains. The present study contains the results of six archaeological investigations, conducted from a compliance archaeological perspective, in order to enhance our knowledge of the afore-mentioned coastal area. It not only presents us with fresh archaeological data on the (Late) Archaic and Early Ceramic Age, a hiatus that is now partially filled up, but also sheds new light on the Late Ceramic Age of this specific region concerning funerary rites, ceramic series and subsistence economy. Martijn van den Bel studied History and Archaeology of Indigenous America at Leiden University and graduated in 1995 with an ethnoarchaeological study on the Palikur potters of French Guiana. Currently he works as a project leader for Inrap in French Guiana. He carries out compliance archaeological research in the French Guiana and the French Lesser Antilles. Next to archaeology, Martijn is interested in the early history of the Guianas and the Lesser Antilles, notably the encounter between Amerindians and Europeans during the 16th and 17th century, resulting in various publications

Investigating the Heart of a Community: Archaeological Excavations at the African Meeting House, Boston, Massachusetts

In collaboration with the Museum of African American History, an archaeological research team from the University of Massachusetts Boston carried out a data recovery excavation at the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill. The African Meeting House was a powerful social institution for 19thcentury Boston’s free black community. The site played an important role in the abolition movement, the creation of educational opportunity, and other community action for social and political equality. The Meeting House was originally built in 1806, and renovations in preparation for the 2006 bi-centennial celebration prompted an investigation of areas of the property to be impacted by the proposed construction. Archaeological fieldwork, conducted under Massachusetts Historical Commission Permit Number 2750, was spread over seven weeks in May through July 2005. The field team opened and explored about 19 m2 of the site in the backlot south of the Meeting House and alley to the west. These excavations recorded information about a series of significant features and deposits, and collected over 38,000 artifacts and a series of soil samples for a detailed archaeobiological research program. These excavations met the requirements of the data recovery program as outlined in 950 CMR 70.00 and in the Memorandum of Agreement for the project, and the proposed renovation work proceeded with a finding of no adverse effect (36 CFR 800.5(b)). The depositional history and the nature of the archaeological record allow us to separate the overall excavation into three sub-areas: 1) the west alley between the AMH and 2 Smith Court; 2) the historic Meeting House backlot; and 3) the south yard, which originally belonged to the 44 Joy Street property. In terms of significant features and deposits, the west alley was almost entirely a series of builders’ trenches reflecting the historic sequence of construction and remodeling of the Meeting House and adjacent buildings to the west. In the backlot, the units against the south wall of the Meeting House contained similar builders’ trenches. The backlot also contained a series of stone and brick drains and a trash-rich midden layer. The vast majority of artifacts in the Meeting House backlot date from about 1806–1840. The ceramics assemblage is particularly large, and reflects both community meals at the Meeting House and business of Domingo Williams, a caterer who rented a basement apartment. Finally, only one feature was studied in the south yard, a privy (outhouse) that was for the 44 Joy Street property. The bottommost layer of the privy was an artifact rich nightsoil layer, dating to about 1811–1838, and containing the trash of African American tenants living at 44 Joy Street. Together, the archaeological deposits in the backlot provide a variety of insights into living conditions, economic opportunity, foodways, health, and daily life for 19th-century Boston’s free black community. These results thus provide information to help further the research, interpretation, and public education goals of the Museum of African American History

The House of Oduduwa: An Archaeological Study of Economy and Kingship in the Savè Hills of West Africa.

Since at least the late first millennium CE, West African societies have participated in long-distance trade networks that linked the region with the rest of Africa and beyond. Over the past half century, archaeological research has documented how African elites actively manipulated these networks to create powerful states. This work has led to an understanding of the intersections between trade, centralization and political economy. Comparatively little attention has been given to the local economies of centralized states: practices such as agriculture, craft production, and labor organization that formed the basis of economic life and underwrote participation in long-distance exchange. Even less is known about the economies and organization of polities not engaged in long-distance exchange. This dissertation presents the first systematic archaeological research of the Shabe kingdom of the central Republic of Bénin. Shabe was and continues to be affiliated with the Ife dynastic field—a network of loosely integrated polities borrowing political symbols and concepts of kingship from Ile-Ife. Research combined reconnaissance survey, intensive transect survey, and test excavations to establish a settlement chronology spanning from Shabe’s foundation around 1600 CE to the end of French colonial rule in 1960. Archaeological evidence is linked to oral histories to produce a model of political, economic, material culture, and landscape change across this period. Shabe political legitimacy was achieved both through appeals to external power structures and control of local economic resources. In both realms, legitimacy was fragile. There is little evidence that Shabe was directly ruled by any non-local polity. There is more evidence for interactions between Shabe elites and distant polities, but even this is limited. Similarly, there is little evidence that Shabe’s rulers exerted centralized control over the local economy. Instead, the Shabe economy in all periods is typical of a frontier economy, in which migrants replicate and adapt the practices of the nearby mature economies that they emigrated from. This finding supports the hypothesis that pre-colonial Shabe political institutions exercised power creatively rather than instrumentally.. Shabe elites were able to control labor and resources through consensus-building, rather than coercion, force, or exclusive access to wealth.PhDAnthropologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111593/1/gurst_1.pd

No. 9, Forth Southwest Point Archaeological Site, Kingston, Tennessee, A Multidisciplinary Interpretation

https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/govpubs-tn-dept-environment-conservation-archaeology-research-series/1008/thumbnail.jp

An archaeological study of farming communities on the Northern Shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza, Uganda

The goal of this study was to explore the archaeology of farming communities on the northern shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza, Uganda. The study explored the process of transition to farming, and the settlement history and subsistence structures of communities of both the Late Stone Age (LSA) and the Early Iron Age (EIA). Further, the study explored the LSA–EIA relationship and compared the archaeology of the northern shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza with the archaeology, as it is widely understood, of the lake’s eastern and western shores. The study used survey, excavation, flotation, and dating methods to collect data from the Busia and Namayingo districts. It also performed ceramics, lithics, bone point, stable isotope, osteoarchaeological, faunal, and botanical analyses. The study identified 24 new archaeological sites of which five were excavated—three were Kansyore LSA sites, one was an LSA–EIA site, and one was a Late Iron Age (LIA) site. Well-preserved LSA and EIA burials dating from 6634 to 6479 BC and from AD 339 to 437 were excavated systematically for the very first time in Uganda. Further, the study identified a new Kansyore phase, namely, the Middle Kansyore phase, dating from 3465 to 3495 BC. This study was the first of its kind to confirm the presence of ceramic hunter-gatherers and EIA farmers in the study area and to indicate that there was no evidence of contact between the Kansyore LSA communities and the later EIA communities. Further, the study offered insights into the lifeways of each group and clearly indicated that the transition to farming resulted from a combination of factors such as population movements and the environment. The outcomes of this study contributed directly to the big debate on the regional and global understanding of the transition to farming. The study concluded that the northern shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza had been occupied by Pre-ceramic hunter-gatherers, Kansyore LSA and EIA to LIA farming communities who had had no contact with their predecessors. Although information on this area has the potential to provide answers to many future questions about the lifeways of past communities, this potential may be thwarted by the activities of harvesters who operate in the area and depend on the harvesting of sand and shells to make a living. This study recommends that the government should emphasise the importance of cultural impact assessments to be conducted by companies involved in mining or any other development that is likely to hinder the survival of cultural sites. This study had to make use of purposive survey approaches because of limited funds and time, as a result of which most of the sites in the area under study remained unknown archaeologically; therefore, future researchers should conduct surveys in this area. Finally, sensitisation of the locals about the importance of preserving their culture and heritage should be part and parcel of every future project to avoid site destruction by local people.Thesis (PhD (Archaeology))--University of Pretoria, 2021.Anthropology and ArchaeologyPhD (Archaeology)Unrestricte

Exploring Written Artefacts

This collection, presented to Michael Friedrich in honour of his academic career at of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, traces key concepts that scholars associated with the Centre have developed and refined for the systematic study of manuscript cultures. At the same time, the contributions showcase the possibilities of expanding the traditional subject of ‘manuscripts’ to the larger perspective of ‘written artefacts’

Exploring Written Artefacts

This collection, presented to Michael Friedrich in honour of his academic career at of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, traces key concepts that scholars associated with the Centre have developed and refined for the systematic study of manuscript cultures. At the same time, the contributions showcase the possibilities of expanding the traditional subject of ‘manuscripts’ to the larger perspective of ‘written artefacts’

Dynamics of Religion

RGVV(History of Religion: Essays and Preliminary Studies) brings together the mutually constitutive aspects of the study of religion(s)—contextualized data, theory, and disciplinary positioning—and engages them from a critical historical perspective. The series publishes monographs and thematically focused edited volumes on specific topics and cases as well as comparative work across historical periods from the ancient world to the modern era