Site Structure of the Orbit Inn: An Application of Ethnoarchaeology

1990 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 797-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven R. Simms ◽  
Kathleen M. Heath
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Site Structure ◽  
Assemblage Composition ◽  
The Past ◽  
Open Site ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Site Function ◽  
Activity Areas

One goal of ethnoarchaeology is to strengthen archaeological inferences about the past. A fifteenth-century hunter-gatherer, open site in Utah is used to examine ethnoarchaeological contributions toward determining the use of space, duration of occupation, assemblage composition, and site function. Comparisons between macrorefuse and microrefuse patterning suggest that (1) the distribution of macrorefuse can help identify locations of ephemeral structures and household activity areas; (2) the distribution of microrefuse in this intermittently occupied open site is useful for assessing assemblage composition; (3) determining the characteristics of macro- and microrefuse improves hypotheses about duration of occupation; and (4) interpretation of plant remains can be improved by considering site-formation processes. The study points to the need for a closer linkage between ethnoarchaeology and the archaeology of the past.

The Archaeological Record

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manjil Hazarika
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Site Structure ◽  
Reserve Forest ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Ways Of Life

This chapter elaborates the data and results of the explorations conducted in the Garbhanga Reserve Forest. The area has been intensively surveyed for the location of potential archaeological sites and the collection of ethnographic data in order to draw direct historical analogies. An ‘area-approach’ study has been conducted in order to formulate a general model for archaeological site structure, locations, geomorphic situations, and site formation processes that can be used for archaeological study in the hilly landscape of Northeast India. Present-day agricultural implements have been analysed and compared with Neolithic implements in order to reconstruct ancient farming culture by way of undertaking systematic study of modern peasant ways of life in the study area. The ideological significance of stone artefacts as ‘thunderstone’ in Northeast India and among the Karbis has also been discussed.

Quantifying the threat to archaeological sites from the erosion of cultivated soil

Antiquity ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (309) ◽  
pp. 658-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Wilkinson ◽  
Andrew Tyler ◽  
Donald Davidson ◽  
Ian Grieve
Keyword(s):  
World Wide ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nuclear Weapons Testing ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Soil Movements

Ploughing is probably the greatest agent of attrition to archaeological sites world-wide. In every country, every year, a bit more is shaved off buried strata and a bit more of the past becomes unreadable. On the other hand, people must eat and crops must be planted. How can the fields be best managed to get the best of both worlds? Perhaps the most pressing need for resource managers is to know how quickly a particular field is eroding: negotiation and protection is then possible. Up to now that has been difficult to measure.The new procedure presented here, which draws on the unexpected benefits of nuclear weapons testing, shows how variation in the concentration of the radioisotope 137Cs can be used to monitor soil movements over the last 40 years. The measurements allow a site's ‘life expectancy’ to be calculated, and there are some promising dividends for tracking site formation processes.

Monitoring the transformation of historic features in Antarctica and Svalbard: local processes and regional contexts

Polar Record ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Roura
Keyword(s):  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Time Capsule ◽  
Historical Sites ◽  
Present Site ◽  
Site Types

ABSTRACTHistorical sites in Antarctica and Svalbard contain the material remains of past activities of exploration and exploitation of these regions. These sites have been subject to transformation by cultural and non-cultural (natural) processes since their abandonment to the present. For research and management purposes it is important to monitor and explain these changes. This article focuses on the transformation of historic features in Antarctica and Svalbard as assessed through repeat photography. Seven historical features were selected representing a range of site types and past and present site functions. Data collection was based on the opportunistic reproduction of photographs of historic features taken up to 20+ years previously. Data analysis was performed using the concepts of site formation processes developed by M.B. Schiffer (1983, 1987). Time-serial changes were observed in the seven photo-couples examined in the present instance. No feature degraded significantly during the monitoring period; rather, several features were restored in different ways. Changes were interpreted to result from a range of cultural processes (including conservation, research, and tourism) and natural processes (mainly wind action). Local changes take place in the context of broader regional developments in Antarctica and Svalbard. Despite the ‘time capsule’ narratives about some sites, historical sites in the polar regions are dynamic entities that not only reflect the past as it once was but are also a window onto the present.

Ancient Town and City Sites: A View from the Microscope

1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 564-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlene Miller Rosen
Keyword(s):  
Grain Size ◽  
Size Distribution ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Food Preparation ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Activity Areas

Archaeological studies concerned with reconstructing activity areas, room functions, and site-formation processes can benefit greatly from analyses of the microartifacts found on and within occupation surfaces. These remains are often primary refuse directly related to activities, and can be used to identify such locations as food-preparation areas, flint-knapping stations, and storage facilities. In addition, certain microartifacts are informative about site-formation processes. For example, the grain-size distribution of charcoal may be indicative of primary vs. secondary refuse, high percentages of corroded and crushed bone from scavenger feces may indicate locations of secondary refuse, and many small sherds could point to heavily trampled areas. A case study from the Iron Age city site of Tel Miqne-Ekron in central Israel demonstrates the use of microarchaeology at a complex sedentary site.

Ethnographic text formation processes

1998 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Cronk
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Detailed Understanding ◽  
The Past ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
Text Formation ◽  
Further Development

Although the textualist critique of ethnography has challenged the possibility of science in cultural anthropology, insights provided by that critique are crucial for the further development of a scientific approach in the discipline. The value of the textualist critique of ethnography for the development of scientific ethnology can best be seen through an analogy with archaeology. Just as archaeologists' ability to reconstruct the past has been enhanced, not undermined, by a detailed understanding of archaeological site formation processes, so can ethnologists' ability to understand patterns within and among human societies be enhanced through a better understanding of ethnographic text formation processes. Key elements of the textualist critique of ethnography, including an emphasis on reflexivity, multivocality, and the process of writing ethnography, are great aids in the elucidation of ethnographic text formation processes.

A Prehistoric Ford near Rough Castle, Falkirk

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-103
Author(s):  
JAMIE HAMILTON ◽  
CIARA CLARKE ◽  
ANDREW DUNWELL ◽  
RICHARD TIPPING
Keyword(s):  
Coal Mining ◽  
Pollen Analysis ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Small Stream ◽  
Mining Project ◽  
First Millennium

This report presents the results of the excavation of a stone ford laid across the base of a small stream valley near Rough Castle, Falkirk. It was discovered during an opencast coal mining project. Radiocarbon dates and pollen analysis of deposits overlying the ford combine to indicate a date for its construction no later than the early first millennium cal BC. Interpreting this evidence was not straightforward and the report raises significant issues about site formation processes and the interpretation of radiocarbon and pollen evidence. The importance of these issues extends beyond the rarely investigated features such as fords and deserve a larger place in the archaeological literature.

Painting the Page in the Age of Print: Central European Manuscript Illumination of the Fifteenth Century, ed. Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Robert Suckale, and Gude Suckale-Redlefsen, trans. David Sánchez Text · Image · Context: Studies in Medieval Manuscript Illumination, 4 Studies and Texts 208. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2018, pp. XXXIII, 329.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 450-452
Author(s):  
John M. Jeep
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Manuscript Illumination ◽  
Uniform Size ◽  
Medieval Manuscript ◽  
The Past ◽  
Comprehensive Collection ◽  
Printed Books ◽  
Black Art ◽  
Image Context

Under the somewhat different, certainly intentionally punning title, Unter Druck: Mitteleuropäische Buchmalerei im Zeitalter Gutenbergs / Under Pressure / Printing […] in the Age of Gutenberg, this volume first appeared in German (Lucerne: Quaternio, 2015) to accompany a series of twelve different exhibitions of largely fifteenth-century book illumination across Central Europe. The exhibitions in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland were held, in part overlapping, from September 2015 – March 2017. They were bookended by exhibits in Vienna and Munich (for the latter, see Bilderwelten. Buchmalerei zwischen Mittelalter und Neuzeit. Katalogband zu den Ausstellungen in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek vom 13. April 2016 bis 24. Februar 2017, ed. Jeffrey F. Hamburger et al. Buchmalerei des 15. Jahrhunderts in Mitteleuropa, 3 (Lucerne: Quaternio, 2016). For each of ten somewhat smaller exhibitions a catalogue of uniform size and format was produced; they are, according to the publisher, already out of print. The three editors of the more comprehensive collection, Painting the Page, penned contributions that complement Eberhard König’s study, “Colour for the Black Art,” which traces <?page nr="451"?>the development of ornamentation to the Gutenberg and following printed Bibles. Early printed Bibles, in Latin or in the vernacular, tended only to provide space for initial and marginal, as opposed to full page illumination. These admittedly limited artistic accomplishments often allow for more precise localization of incunabula than other available resources. At the same time, differences and even misunderstandings – such as failure to follow instructions to the illuminator – on occasion lead to fruitful cultural analysis. Finally, printed copies that were never adorned were sometimes in the past thought to be superior, untouched, as it were, by the artistry of the ‘old’ manuscript world. König argues that the study of early printed books, and especially the illuminations they contain, should be celebrated not only as ancillary scholarship, but also as a discipline in its own right.

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