Interactions In Space For Archaeological Models

In this article we examine a variety of quantitative models for describing archaeological networks, with particular emphasis on the maritime networks of the Aegean Middle Bronze Age. In particular, we discriminate between those gravitational networks that are most likely (maximum entropy) and most efficient (best cost/benefit outcomes).Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables. Contribution to special issue of Advances in Complex Systems from the conference `Cultural Evolution in Spatially Structured Populations', UCL, London, September 2010. To appear in Advances in Complex System

Provenance evidence for Roman lead artefacts of distinct chronology from Portuguese archaeological sites

A set of 24 glandes plumbeae found at Alto dos Cacos, a Roman Republican military camp located in the Tagus valley, Portugal, was analysed by a quadrupole based ICP-MS to determine the tin (Sn) content and lead (Pb) isotope ratios. Results were compared with similar data previously obtained for fistulae plumbeae aquariae from Conimbriga, an important Lusitanian Roman centre during the Empire. Low Sn contents (≤0.01 wt%) were observed in 25% of glandes plumbeae indicating that were probably made with non-recycled lead. A similar situation was perceived for the set of fistulae aquariae, although most of the remaining fistulae present systematically higher Sn concentrations than those of glandes suggesting that lead recycling increased during the Empire. Pb isotope ratios distribution differentiated the analysed samples into two distinct groups: one composed by most of glandes plumbeae (15) and the other by the remaining glandes plumbeae (9) and all fistulae aquariae. The comparison with Pb isotope ratios of the published data for several lead ore deposits, exploited by the Roman in Iberian Peninsula, suggests that lead used in the manufacture of most of the glandes plumbeae would come from Linares-La Carolina, Alcudia Valley and Ossa Morena Zone. Also, some glandes could have been made using these ores, probably mixed with lead ores from Gallia Narbonensis (Southern France) or from Sardinia in the Mediterranean region. On the other hand, lead used in most fistulae aquariae came from Iberian mines, namely from Sierra Morena (Alcudia Valley and Linares-La Carolina mines) and Ossa Morena mining district, although in some cases, probably mixed with lead from the Iberian Pyrite Belt.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

CONNECTING THE DOTS: TOWARDS ARCHAEOLOGICAL NETWORK ANALYSIS

In recent years network analysis has been applied in archaeological research to examine the structure of archaeological relationships of whatever sort. However, these archaeological applications share a number of issues concerning 1) the role of archaeological data in networks; 2) the diversity of network structures, their consequences and their interpretation; 3) the critical use of quantitative tools; and 4) the influence of other disciplines, especially sociology. This article concerns a deconstruction of past archaeological methods for examining networks. Through a case study of Roman table wares in the eastern Mediterranean, the article highlights a number of issues with network analysis as a method for archaeology. It urges caution regarding the uncritical application of network analysis methods developed in other disciplines and applied to archaeology. However, it stresses the potential benefits of network analysis for the archaeological discipline and acknowledges the need for specifically archaeological network analysis, which should be based on relational thinking and can be expanded with an archaeological toolset for quantitative analysi

From Craft to Nature: The Emergence of Natural Teleology

A teleological explanation is an explanation in terms of an end or a purpose. So saying that ‘X came about for the sake of Y’ is a teleological account of X. It is a striking feature of ancient Greek philosophy that many thinkers accepted that the world should be explained in this way. However, before Aristotle, teleological explanations of the cosmos were generally based on the idea that it had been created by a divine intelligence. If an intelligent power made the world, then it makes sense that it did so with a purpose in mind, so grasping this purpose will help us understand the world. This is the pattern of teleological explanation that we find in the Presocratics and in Plato. However, with Aristotle teleology underwent a change: instead of thinking that the ends were explanatory because a mind had sought to bring them about, Aristotle took the ends to operate in natural beings independently of the efforts of any creative intelligence. Indeed, he thought that his predecessors had failed to understand what was distinctive of nature, namely, that its ends work from the inside of natural beings themselves

Aristotle on the Matter for Birth, Life, and the Elements

This essay considers three case studies of Aristotle’s use of matter, drawn from three different scientific contexts: menstrual fluid as the matter of animal generation in the Generation of Animals, the living body as matter of an organism in Aristotle’s On the Soul (De Anima), and the matter of elemental transformation in Generation and Corruption. I argue that Aristotle conceives of matter differently in these treatises (1) because of the different sorts of changes under consideration, and (2) because sometimes he is considering the matter for one specific change, and sometimes the matter for all of a thing’s natural changes. My account allows me to explain some of the strange features that Aristotle ascribes to the matter for elemental transformation in Generation and Corruption II. These features were interpreted by later commentators as general features of all matter. I argue that they are a result of the specific way that Aristotle thinks about the transmutation of the elements

Synoikism : people, power and poleis

The thesis is an investigation into the transformation of Greek societies from the Dark Age to the Archaic Period. That transformation included large-scale expansion overseas; the institutionalisation of slavery; population rise; the advent of literacy and literature, of laws and lawcodes; the development of trade, markets and coinage, of public spaces and public buildings; urbanisation; the emergence of the state. All are essentially interdisciplinary topics, coming within the ambit of several disciplines: anthropology, archaeology, geography, history and sociology in particular. Therefore the thesis aims at synthesis as well as analysis; synoikism is intended to refer to the union of disciplinary perspectives as well as the union of communities which gave rise to the poleis. From this synthesis several hypotheses emerge, of which the three principal are: (i) Greek societies in the Dark Age were essentially egalitarian. One implication of this hypothesis is the argument that there was no 'aristocratic stage' in early Greek history. (ii) The role of violence (particularly acquisition by violence) in early Greek history (especially the 'colonising' process) was considerable. War and plunder are argued to have been the most important sources of income. (iii) The consequences of the expansion and intensification of slavery were qualitatively far greater than commonly allowed. Historical literature usually fails to take proper cognizance of the fact of Greek slavery, and in particular that most slaves were foreigners, whilst sociological and anthropological literature on exogenous influences and their consequences rarely considers genuine slave societies, yet they are those in which such influences were particularly acute. This framework is explicated through a thematic history of early Greece, covering all the aspects noted above

Lead slingshot (glandes)

Previous studies of these artefacts have usually passed over in silence many methodological problems and issues that attend them. Typically they have proposed generalizations based on small or very small samples, and these ill-founded generalizations then find their way into the wider literature and enthusiast websites. This paper explains the problems with such an approach. It is based on study of over 1400 published and unpublished specimens. It then argues that glandes were produced as catapult ammunition

Classical Athens

Slaves accompanied ancient Athenians from cradle to grave. They worked in the home, agriculture, the market, the mines, workshops, construction sites, on the battlefield, and at sea. The ease with which someone might move from free to slave status, and the relative ease with which they might move from slave back to free if they had saleable skills in one domain or another, impacted strongly on the Greek psyche. They became very sensitive to what needed defending to preserve or to deserve liberty, and philosophized about power relations between individuals and communities. Others developed advanced management skills that could be applied to the free as well as the enslaved