Chemical Aspects of the Conservation of Archaeological Materials

1978 ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. S. BAER
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Materials

The importance of stock herding and dairying in the Neolithic Balkans and the subsistence diversity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darko Stojanovski ◽  
Ivana Živaljević ◽  
Vesna Dimitrijević ◽  
Julie Dunne ◽  
Richard Evershed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Milk Proteins ◽  
Domestic Animal ◽  
Dental Calculus ◽  
Isotopic Study ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
New Information ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Ceramic Vessels

The application of biomolecular techniques to archaeological materials from the Balkans is providing valuable new information on the prehistory of the region. This is especially relevant for the study of the neolithisation process in SE Europe, which gradually affected the rest of the continent. Here, to answer questions regarding diet and subsistence practices in early farming societies, we combine organic residue analyses of archaeological pottery, taxonomic and isotopic study of domestic animal remains and biomolecular analyses of human dental calculus. The results from the analyses of the lipid residues from pottery suggest that milk was processed in ceramic vessels. Dairy products were shown to be part of the subsistence strategies of the earliest Neolithic communities in the region but were of varying importance in different areas of the Balkan. On the other hand, we did not confidently detect any milk proteins within the dental calculus. The molecular and isotopic identification of meat, dairy, plants and beeswax in the pottery lipids also provided insights into the diversity of diet in these early Neolithic communities. We also present the first compound-specific radiocarbon dates for the region, obtained directly on absorbed organic residues extracted from pottery, identified as dairy lipids.

Conservation of Archaeological Collections

1981 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Morris
Keyword(s):  
Data Base ◽  
The Past ◽  
Archaeological Collections ◽  
Archaeological Materials

The conservation of archaeological materials should be considered part of any archaeological recovery analysis or storage operation. In the past two decades, conservation has begun to emerge as a profession. With this advent should come an increased awareness on the part of archaeologists that specialized techniques and practices used by conservators can prolong the life and usefulness of irreplaceable data base collections. With a few notable exceptions, professional conservation for collections has been ignored in the past. The result of neglect has been lost or badly damaged artifacts. This situation can and should be rectified.

Archaeology and the Letters of Paul

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Salah Nasrallah
Keyword(s):  
Judith Butler ◽  
First Century ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Apostle Paul ◽  
The Social ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Feminist Historiography ◽  
The Many ◽  
Political Economic

Through case studies of archaeological materials from local contexts, Archaeology and the Letters of Paul illuminates the social, political, economic, and religious lives of those whom the apostle Paul addressed. Roman Ephesos, a likely setting for the household of Philemon, provides evidence of the slave trade. An inscription from Galatia seeks to restrain traveling Roman officials, illuminating how the travels of Paul, Cephas, and others may have disrupted communities. At Philippi, a donation list from a Silvanus cult provides evidence of abundant giving amid economic limitations, paralleling practices of local Christ followers. In Corinth, a landscape of grief includes monuments and bones, a context that illumines Corinthian practices of baptism on behalf of the dead and the provocative idea that one could live “as if not” mourning. Rome and the Letter to the Romans are the grounds to investigate ideas of time and race not only in the first century, when we find an Egyptian obelisk inserted as a timepiece into Augustus’s mausoleum complex, but also of Mussolini’s new Rome. Thessalonikē demonstrates how letters, legend, and cult are invented out of a love for Paul, after his death. The book articulates a method for bringing together biblical texts with archaeological remains in order to reconstruct the lives of the many adelphoi—brothers and sisters—whom Paul and his co-writers address. It is informed by feminist historiography and gains inspiration from thinkers like Claudia Rankine, Judith Butler, Giorgio Agamben, Wendy Brown, and Katie Lofton.

scholarly journals Predicting wildfire impacts on the prehistoric archaeological record of the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, USA

Fire Ecology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan M. Friggens ◽  
Rachel A. Loehman ◽  
Connie I. Constan ◽  
Rebekah R. Kneifel
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Jemez Mountains ◽  
Archaeological Materials

Abstract Background Wildfires of uncharacteristic severity, a consequence of climate changes and accumulated fuels, can cause amplified or novel impacts to archaeological resources. The archaeological record includes physical features associated with human activity; these exist within ecological landscapes and provide a unique long-term perspective on human–environment interactions. The potential for fire-caused damage to archaeological materials is of major concern because these resources are irreplaceable and non-renewable, have social or religious significance for living peoples, and are protected by an extensive body of legislation. Although previous studies have modeled ecological burn severity as a function of environmental setting and climate, the fidelity of these variables as predictors of archaeological fire effects has not been evaluated. This study, focused on prehistoric archaeological sites in a fire-prone and archaeologically rich landscape in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico, USA, identified the environmental and climate variables that best predict observed fire severity and fire effects to archaeological features and artifacts. Results Machine learning models (Random Forest) indicate that topography and variables related to pre-fire weather and fuel condition are important predictors of fire effects and severity at archaeological sites. Fire effects were more likely to be present when fire-season weather was warmer and drier than average and within sites located in sloped, treed settings. Topographic predictors were highly important for distinguishing unburned, moderate, and high site burn severity as classified in post-fire archaeological assessments. High-severity impacts were more likely at archaeological sites with southern orientation or on warmer, steeper, slopes with less accumulated surface moisture, likely associated with lower fuel moistures and high potential for spreading fire. Conclusions Models for predicting where and when fires may negatively affect the archaeological record can be used to prioritize fuel treatments, inform fire management plans, and guide post-fire rehabilitation efforts, thus aiding in cultural resource preservation.

On human blood, rock art and calcium oxalate: further studies on organic carbon content and radiocarbon age of materials relating to Australian rock art

Antiquity ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 71 (272) ◽  
pp. 430-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Calcium Oxalate ◽  
Human Blood ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Organic Carbon Content ◽  
Radiocarbon Age ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Supplementary Report

Minute biological traces, with their prospect of recovering even ancient DNA, are the most attractive of archaeological materials to work with. This supplementary report on field studies of rock-art first published in ANTIQUITY further explores how these studies may in truth be carried out.

scholarly journals Reconstructing Late Pleistocene paleoclimate at the scale of human behavior: an example from the Neandertal occupation of La Ferrassie (France)

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Pederzani ◽  
Vera Aldeias ◽  
Harold L. Dibble ◽  
Paul Goldberg ◽  
Jean-Jacques Hublin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Human Scale ◽  
Winter Temperatures ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Climatic Records

AbstractExploring the role of changing climates in human evolution is currently impeded by a scarcity of climatic information at the same temporal scale as the human behaviors documented in archaeological sites. This is mainly caused by high uncertainties in the chronometric dates used to correlate long-term climatic records with archaeological deposits. One solution is to generate climatic data directly from archaeological materials representing human behavior. Here we use oxygen isotope measurements of Bos/Bison tooth enamel to reconstruct summer and winter temperatures in the Late Pleistocene when Neandertals were using the site of La Ferrassie. Our results indicate that, despite the generally cold conditions of the broader period and despite direct evidence for cold features in certain sediments at the site, Neandertals used the site predominantly when climatic conditions were mild, similar to conditions in modern day France. We suggest that due to millennial scale climate variability, the periods of human activity and their climatic characteristics may not be representative of average conditions inferred from chronological correlations with long-term climatic records. These results highlight the importance of using direct routes, such as the high-resolution archives in tooth enamel from anthropogenically accumulated faunal assemblages, to establish climatic conditions at a human scale.

Archaeological Materials of Eneolithic Settlements in Forest-Steppe Zone of the Volga Region: A Source for Diet and Chronology

Radiocarbon ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 1587-1596
Author(s):  
A Korolev ◽  
M Kulkova M ◽  
V Platonov ◽  
N Roslyakova ◽  
A Shalapinin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Area ◽  
Steppe Zone ◽  
Volga Region ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Domestic Species ◽  
Animal Bones ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Settlement Site ◽  
First Time ◽  
Comprehensive Studies

ABSTRACTThe study the diet of Eneolithic populations is of great interest to archaeologists. However, the studies undertaken in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Volga region in Russia have left many issues unsolved. Data collected recently through the comprehensive studies of Lebyazhinka VI settlement enable us to change this situation. Of particular importance at this settlement site is good preservation of animal bones, bone fishing tools, and ceramics of the same type with food crusts and connected to a large house pit. For the first time in this geographical area, bones of domestic animals were found in the fill of a dwelling. The aim of this paper is to present the results obtained through comprehensive studies of diet and economy in the Eneolithic based on the materials from Lebyazhinka III and Lebyazhinka VI settlement sites. The main results of the archaeozoological analysis— determinations of species, age and size of the animals—provide the necessary data for studying the diet. We conclude that there are differences between Lebyazhinka III and Lebyazhinka VI settlements. Lebyazhinka III settlement included bones of only wild species, however, Lebyazhinka VI settlement consists of wild and domestic species.

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