scholarly journals Revisiting the Norse on the Western Isles from a Landscape Perspective

Viking ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Thomas Ryder
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Analysis ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Place Names ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Archaeological Landscape

Historically the research on the relationship between the Norse and Pictish period population of the Western Isles has largely focused on place-name evidence, due to the prevalence of Old Norse place names over Pictish period ones and a scant archaeological record. Placename scholars, as well as archaeologists have traditionally split into two schools of interpretation: a ‘war school’ and a ‘peace school’. The war school argues that the archaeological and place-name material contains proof of a Norse genocide against the Pictish period inhabitants, while the peace school has advocated assimilation or acculturation. In the last few decades excavations and surveys have given a better understanding of the Norse presence on the islands. This article approaches the question of whether the Pictish period population survived, through an archaeological landscape analysis that incorporates settlement sites and uses place-name data. It argues that the landscape displays proof of a surviving Pictish period culture within a dominant Norse society, though this survival as probably asymmetrical and regional.

scholarly journals Weaving the Common Threads of Simulation and Formation studies in Archaeology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Davies
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Surface Erosion ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Material Record

Computer simulation is a tool increasingly used by archaeologists to build theories about past human activity; however, simulation has had a limited role theorising about the relationship between past behaviours and the formation of observed patterning in the material record. This paper visits the argument for using simulation as a means of addressing the gap that exists between archaeological interpretations of past behaviours and their physical residues. It is argued that simulation is used for much the same reason that archaeologists use ethnographic or experimental studies, and that computational models can help to address some of the practical limitations of these approaches to record formation. A case study from arid Australia, examining the effects of episodic surface erosion on the visibility of the record, shows how simple, generative simulations, grounded in formational logic, can be used to compare different explanatory mechanisms and suggest tests of the archaeological record itself.

Smudge Pits and Hide Smoking: The Use of Analogy in Archaeological Reasoning

1967 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lewis R. Binford
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Behavioral Context ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractIt is argued that as a scientist one does not justifiably employ analogies to ethnographic observations for the "interpretation" of archaeological data. Instead, analogies should be documented and used as the basis for offering a postulate as to the relationship between archaeological forms and their behavioral context in the past. Such a postulate should then serve as the foundation of a series of deductively drawn hypotheses which, on testing, can refute or tend to confirm the postulate offered. Analogy should serve to provoke new questions about order in the archaeological record and should serve to prompt more searching investigations rather than being viewed as a means for offering "interpretations" which then serve as the "data" for synthesis. This argument is made demonstratively through the presentation of formal data on a class of archaeological features, "smudge pits," and the documentation of their positive analogy with pits as facilities used in smoking hides.

Surface collection and offsite studies at Tell Hamoukar, 1999

Iraq ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 15-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason A. Ur
Keyword(s):  
Initial Step ◽  
Urbanization Process ◽  
Regional Settlement ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Archaeological Landscape

The new program of excavations of the Syrian-American Expedition to Tell Hamoukar, Hassake province, northeastern Syria, began with an initial season in Fall 1999. The project includes among its goals the study of the expansion and contraction of settlement on the site, as well as the relationship of the urbanization process on Hamoukar to regional settlement trends. Our initial step was to document the chronology and scale of this process through a controlled surface collection on Tell Hamoukar itself. In addition, we made some initial attempts at documenting the archaeological landscape near the site by recording traces of ancient roads (hollow ways) and making controlled collection of field scatters.

ESTIMATION OF SOIL EROSION AND DEPOSITION BY A LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE ON CLAY SOILS IN SOUTHWESTERN SASKATCHEWAN

1983 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 727-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. MERMUT ◽  
D. F. ACTON ◽  
W. D. EILERS
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Landscape Analysis ◽  
Clay Soils ◽  
Erosion And Deposition ◽  
Swelling Clay ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
Native Grassland ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Organic Matter Loss ◽  
The Relationship

The thicknesses of self-mulching A horizons were studied in native grassland and cultivated glaciolacustrine clay soils in southwestern Saskatchewan to estimate the extent of erosion and evaluate the relationship between slope characteristics, erosion and sedimentation. It has been shown that under similar gradient, the thickness of the A horizon, in the erosional portion of slopes, is less under cultivated than native grassland conditions; whereas, in the depositional portion the thickness of the A horizon is greater under cultivation. Erosion equations were developed which indicated 7.4 kg∙m−2∙yr−1 or 0.57 cm/yr for a 7.5% backslope and 2.1 kg∙m−2∙yr−1 or 0.16 cm/yr for 2% backslope. Calculated losses of organic matter from the most severely eroded slopes amounted to 650 kg∙ha−1∙yr−1. Comparable losses of nitrogen were 65 kg∙ha−1∙yr−1. This represents a 41% and 35% loss in organic matter and nitrogen, respectively, under nearly 70 yr of cultivation. The very close relationship shown in this study between various slope attributes and erosion clearly indicates the importance of slope considerations in all erosion studies. Key words: Erosion, deposition, swelling clay soils, landscape analysis, organic matter loss

Features of Representation of Color Names in Kazakh and English Toponyms

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (118) ◽  
pp. 202-214
Author(s):  
A.K. Meırbekov ◽  
◽  
A.E. Smatova ◽  
B.M. Tіleýberdıev ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
External World ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Orientation Function ◽  
The World ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Land Water ◽  
Color Components ◽  
Made In

This article deals with the study of toponyms of Kazakh and English toponymy in the context of cognitive linguistics and the mechanism of interpretation of representation and perception of color names in toponyms and the principles of construction of these mechanisms. Toponyms are analyzed as a speech expression processed in the consciousness of the linguistic image of the world-the relationship of man and the environment. The modern stage of place names in cognitive research includes the consideration of language as one of the cognitive subsystems and onomastic vocabulary in the formulation of surrounding truths. The composition of the national toponymic picture of the world determines the motivation of the land-water names made in relation to the color names. Studying the combination of onym appellation, nominated from the attributes of the colors used in both languages. The color designation in toponyms is considered in connection with the peculiarities of geographical objects and their perception by human visual organs. Due to the fact that the external world is transmitted to different peoples in the form of specific idioethnic patterns, in place names of different ethnic groups, color symbols are recognized by new facets. The article discusses the color characteristics of the space in the names earth-water, given as a sample. Various approaches to the nature of the color components of geographical names are analyzed, and the possibility of symbolic and orientational interpretation of color is shown. The fact that the color in toponyms can serve as an orientation function, and not just as an indicator of the horizon side, also does not go unnoticed. The toponyms also present the results of research related to the nature of the object in which the symbolism of color orientation is nominated.

Beyond Hadrian’s Wall

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fraser Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
Hadrian's Wall ◽  
The Relationship

Britannia’s northern frontier varied considerably over the Roman period, stabilizing only in the early third century. This variation leads to a fascinating archaeological record of the changing Roman military presence and its relation to the local population. This chapter examines the local Iron Age societies, considers military aspects of the invasion, and presents a wider view of life on the frontier. It then turns to the relationship between the indigenous population and Rome over four centuries. Historical sources for conflict indicate an uneasy relationship, but archaeological evidence uncovers other aspects: Roman material culture found varied uses in Iron Age societies, while the long and often difficult relationship had a series of unexpected consequences on both sides.

Colony on Main: history and the ruins of imperialism in Vancouver’s restaurant frontier

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-609
Author(s):  
Jonathan Peyton ◽  
Matt Dyce
Keyword(s):  
Historical Geography ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

Vancouver’s ‘revitalization’ has been characterized by the influx of upper-end restaurants and bars into parts of the city home to marginalized communities. We argue that some of these establishments code Vancouver’s complex racial and colonial present as a benevolent remembrance of things past. We employ and compare three modes of analysis to underscore the relationship between the historical geography of colonialism/imperialism and its modern guise in Vancouver. First, critical toponymy looks at the connection between place names and meaning. We then take a postmodern framework to explore the production of authenticity and heritage in bars emphasizing a colonial era decor. Finally, we draw from Stoler’s notion of ‘imperial debris’ to argue that these places are literally the detritus of empire revitalized as the material markings of nostalgia. In each part of the article, we demonstrate the critique offered by a different means of historical analysis. We conclude that the deployment of historical markers in the gentrification of Vancouver ultimately demonstrates the use of history as a claim to locality.

scholarly journals The Emergence and Transformation of Medieval Cumbria

2014 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-216
Author(s):  
Fiona Edmonds
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Large Area ◽  
New Name ◽  
Late Ninth Century ◽  
Administrative Units ◽  
The Relationship

There has long been uncertainty about the relationship between the polities known as Strathclyde and Cumbria. Did medieval writers apply these terms to the same kingdom, or were Strathclyde and Cumbria separate entities? This debate has significant implications for our understanding of the politics of northern Britain during the period from the late ninth century to the twelfth. In this article I analyse the terminology in Latin, Old English, Old Norse, Welsh and Irish texts. I argue that Strathclyde developed into Cumbria: the expansion of the kingdom of Strathclyde beyond the limits of the Clyde valley necessitated the use of a new name. This process occurred during the early tenth century and created a Cumbrian kingdom that stretched from the Clyde to the south of the Solway Firth. The kingdom met its demise in the mid-eleventh century and Cumbrian terminology was subsequently appropriated for smaller ecclesiastical and administrative units. Yet these later usages should not be confused with the tenth-century kingdom, which encompassed a large area that straddled the modern Anglo-Scottish border.

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