Defining the Canon of Funerary Archaeology in the Ancient Near East

In archaeology, funerary practices are a quintessential element in the process of interpreting ancient societies because of the widespread presence in the archaeological record of remains associated with mortuary depositions. For this reason, throughout the twentieth century, archaeologists have debated both methodologically and theoretically what value to assign to the remains of funerary rituals enacted by ancient communities in relationship to other social and cultural domains. The aim of this chapter is to define the canon of ancient Near Eastern funerary practices through a detailed interpretation of the relationship between funerary practices, socioeconomic organization, and religious beliefs. With the use of a diachronic perspective, transformation in one of these domains is shown to have had a direct impact on the others. Case studies test how specific aspects of mortuary and funerary practices among prehistoric through first-millennium BCE Near Eastern communities have become canonical.

Conceptual Notes on the Internal Business Environment Analysis and the Stra.Tech.Man Synthesis

This paper examines the theoretical contributions on the firm’s resources and the articulation of competitive advantages, the firm’s value chain analysis, and the comprehension of the “intangible nature” of the firm in the discipline of the internal organizational environment analysis. The aim is to synthesize these approaches from a critical perspective and attempt to enrich them conceptually based on the “biological perception” and “physiology” of the firm. To this end, the Stra.Tech.Man approach, which exploits interpretatively a synthesis of the evolutionary spheres of strategy, technology, and management for the “living” socioeconomic organization, seems capable of unifying the previous approaches analytically and enrich them.

Modeling Relationships Between Space, Movement, and Lithic Geometric Attributes

Evidence for changes in human mobility is fundamental to interpretations of transitions in human socioeconomic organization. Showing changes in mobility requires both archaeological proxies that are sensitive to movement and a clear understanding of how different mobility configurations influence their patterning. This study uses computer simulation to explore how different combinations of reduction, selection, transport, and discard of stone artifacts generate patterning in the “cortex ratio,” a geometric proxy used to demonstrate movement at the assemblage level. A case study from western New South Wales, Australia, shows how cortex ratios are used to make inferences about movement. Results of the exploratory simulation show that redundancy in movement between discards reduces variability in cortex ratios, while mean assemblage values can be attributed to the relative proportions of artifacts carried into and out of the assemblages. These results suggest that raw material availability is a potentially crucial factor in determining what kinds of mobility are visible in assemblages, whereby different access to raw material can shift the balance of import and export of stone in an otherwise undirected movement configuration. These findings are used to contextualize distributions of cortex ratios from the raw material–rich study area, prompting suggestions for further fieldwork.

MODELING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SPACE, MOVEMENT, AND LITHIC GEOMETRIC ATTRIBUTES

Evidence for changes in human mobility is fundamental to interpretations of transitions in human socioeconomic organization. Showing changes in mobility requires both archaeological proxies that are sensitive to movement and a clear understanding of how different mobility configurations influence their patterning. This study uses computer simulation to explore how different combinations of reduction, selection, transport, and discard of stone artifacts generate patterning in the “cortex ratio,” a geometric proxy used to demonstrate movement at the assemblage level. A case study from western New South Wales, Australia, shows how cortex ratios are used to make inferences about movement. Results of the exploratory simulation show that redundancy in movement between discards reduces variability in cortex ratios, while mean assemblage values can be attributed to the relative proportions of artifacts carried into and out of the assemblages. These results suggest that raw material availability is a potentially crucial factor in determining what kinds of mobility are visible in assemblages, whereby different access to raw material can shift the balance of import and export of stone in an otherwise undirected movement configuration. These findings are used to contextualize distributions of cortex ratios from the raw material–rich study area, prompting suggestions for further fieldwork.

USING MULTIPLE LINES OF EVIDENCE TO IDENTIFY PREHISPANIC MAYA BURNT-LIME KILNS IN THE NORTHERN YUCATÁN PENINSULA

This study discusses the investigation of a series of pit-kilns in and around the prehispanic site of Kiuic in the Puuc region of the northern Maya lowlands and presents the multiple lines of evidence that identify these structures as lime production features. The study reports the results of systematic excavations, archaeometric analyses, archaeological experiments, ethnographic inquiries, and spatial analyses. Burnt lime has been used for architectural, dietary, hygienic, and other purposes by the Maya for at least three millennia and yet its importance in prehispanic Maya society is belied by the lack of lime production features identified in the archaeological record. The identification of these structures as lime production features has implications for understanding subregional differences in socioeconomic organization and resource management practices among the prehispanic Maya. This report provides a model for using multiple methods and analyses to investigate and identify lime production kilns that can be applied to societies and landscapes throughout the Maya area and the broader premodern world.