Interpreting the “documents of language”: Linguistic reconstruction as an approach to prehistoric culture

2018 ◽  
Vol 69-70 ◽  
pp. 85-98
Author(s):  
Jeremy K. Lin
Keyword(s):  
Prehistoric Culture

Prehistoric pigment production on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), c. AD 1200–1650: New insights from Vaipú and Poike based on phytoliths, diatoms and 14C dating

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 095968362098167
Author(s):  
Welmoed A Out ◽  
Andreas Mieth ◽  
Sergi Pla-Rabés ◽  
Marco Madella ◽  
Svetlana Khamnueva-Wendt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Extraction Process ◽  
Thin Layers ◽  
Pigment Production ◽  
Cultural Continuity ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Rapa Nui ◽  
14C Dating ◽  
Crucial Information ◽  
Prehistoric Culture ◽  
And Storage

Although Rapa Nui has been proposed as a classic example of cultural collapse, this hypothesis has been repeatedly questioned. This paper investigates cultural continuity on Rapa Nui following the onset of deforestation through a study of red ochre pits. Red ochre pigments are well-known from various contexts on Rapa Nui, but until recently its origin and the extraction process involved in their production were not precisely understood. New excavations have revealed the presence of multiple pits used for pigment production and storage by the island’s prehistoric culture. Previous geoarchaeological studies, including geomorphological, pedological, geochemical and micromorphological analyses, have shown that the pits contain fine layers of reddish iron oxides (ochre), which result from repeated intentional burning. The oxide layers alternate with thin layers of phytoliths, interpreted as the remains of plant material used as fuel, and diatoms. This paper presents new phytolith and diatom data from the previously described site of Vaipú East, complemented with data from similar pits at the new sites of Vaipú West and Poike. New 14C dates are also presented from these sites. The phytolith and diatom data provide crucial information about the chaîne opératoire of the ochre production and the formation processes associated with the pits. The evidence of pigment production and storage at Vaipú East shows that labour-intensive ochre production took place on Rapa Nui during at least two separate phases after deforestation, while the pits discovered at other sites indicate that Vaipú East did not stand alone. This provides a further line of evidence in favour of cultural continuity rather than collapse following deforestation in the island’s late prehistory.

scholarly journals Ceramic Types from Late Prehistoric Sites along the East Fork of the Trinity River

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilson Crook ◽  
Mark Houghston
Keyword(s):  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Red River ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Ceramic Assemblage ◽  
Trinity River ◽  
Late Prehistoric Period ◽  
Prehistoric Culture ◽  
The Trinity

Ceramics are one of the key diagnostic artifacts that define the Late Prehistoric culture of the peoples that lived along the East Fork of the Trinity and its tributaries. We are completing a 42 year re evaluation of the Late Prehistoric period of the area and have st udied nearly 32,000 artifacts, of which over 10,200 are ceramic sherds. From this study, 20 distinct ceramic types have been recognized. Plain ware, both shell tempered and sandy paste/grog tempered, are the predominant ceramic types present, comprising ov er 90 percent of the total ceramic assemblage. While there is little direct evidence for indigenous manufacture, the abundance of these types suggests they were produced locally. Lesser quantities of decorated ware of distinct Caddo ceramic types from the Red River and East Texas suggest they are likely the product of exchange. There is also a small amount of Puebloan material indicative of a longer distance exchange.

Comments on Archaeological Data Requirements and Research strategy

1971 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Struever
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Archeological Evidence ◽  
Prehistoric Culture ◽  
The One ◽  
Data Requirements

AbstractThe attempt to delineate the processes underlying cultural evolution has become a central problem for archaeology today. Yet, present attempts to explain prehistoric culture change are based on exceedingly fragmentary archeological evidence, a fact resulting partly from inappropriate research strategies and partly from the “one-man scholar” basis on which archaeological research has been traditionally organized.This paper shows that certain long-held assumptions about the nature of culture which have governed excavation strategy and methods limit the value of currently existing data for attacking processual questions. The paper also examines both the quality of archaeological data required for discovering evolutionary process and the research strategies necessary for recovering these data. It argues that these research strategies cannot be put into effect unless the scale of archaeological staff, facilities, and funding increases greatly, and equally important, unless the concept of how research is organized changes.

THE MANY FACES OF FIGURINES

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Begun
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Prehistoric Culture ◽  
Early Classic Period ◽  
The Many ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Cultural Structures ◽  
Ethnic Origins

AbstractFigurines offer archaeologists intriguing insights into many aspects of prehistoric culture. Beyond their utility as chronological markers, figurines offer information regarding the social and cultural structures of a society. This paper will demonstrate how the figurines of Michoacan can be used as markers of ethnic identity and ethnic continuity in the Lake Patzcauro Basin. The high degree of continuity in decorative and production styles throughout much of the sequence serves as evidence for ethnic continuity and the identity of the people who made the artifacts. A preliminary typology for the Michoacan figurines is presented to support the idea that a distinctly Michoacan style of figurine exists. The application of this figurine typology reveals a high degree of continuity in the figurine record. This supports the hypothesis that the ethnic origins of the Michoacan people may reach back as far as the Late Preclassic/Early Classic period.

scholarly journals The Oδυνήφατα Φάρμακα of Iliad V. 900, and their Bearing on the Prehistoric Culture of Old Servia

1915 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-71
Author(s):  
Grace Harriet Macurdy
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Balkan Area ◽  
Prehistoric Culture

The passage about Paeon's treatment of the wound of Ares in Iliad V. 899–904 has been neglected or misunderstood by the majority of commentators, and no one, so far as I know, has pointed out its significance for pre-Homeric culture in that part of the Balkan area in which archaeological research has shown a connection with and influence on the culture of North Greece. I refer to that part known as Old Servia, extending from Naissus, the modern Nish, at present the temporary capital of Servia, and below Skopi, modern Uskub, into northern Macedonia.

Horned Owl Cave, Wyoming

1964 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 360-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gebhard ◽  
George A. Agogino ◽  
Vance Haynes
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Northern Great Plains ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Bone Tools ◽  
Disturbed Condition ◽  
Late Prehistoric Period ◽  
Prehistoric Culture ◽  
Figure Drawings ◽  
Late Series

AbstractHorned Owl Cave in the northern Laramie Mountains of Wyoming has provided a wide array of normally perishable artifacts in association with pictographs. Material objects recovered from the cave include fragments of atlatls, darts, shaft feathers, arrowshafts, blunt arrows, bark, weaving, bone tools, pottery, and lithic objects. The disturbed condition of the fill of the cave prevented a controlled stratigraphy, but typologically the material falls within the Late Middle culture and the Late Prehistoric culture phases of the northern Great Plains. The pictographs have been divided into three styles: an early red-figure style, a shield-figure style, and a final and probably late series of black-figure drawings. It is suggested that the red-figure drawings were a product of the last phases of the Late Middle culture, or perhaps the early phase of the Late Prehistoric culture. The shield style and the black-figure style would seem to belong to the Late Prehistoric period.

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