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Aerial Archaeology: Approaches to the Interpretation of Sites and Landscapes

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Convenor: Robert Bewley

papers:
Author 1 Author 2 Title
Bewley Aerial Archaeology – Approached to Interpreting Archaeological Sites and Landscapes
Darling Africa’s Socio-economic experience down the ages: Linking arial archaeology data to today’s ‘suffering and smilling’ (to be confirmed)
Godja A complex project on the study of prehistoric settlement patterns in Bohemia: the contribution of Arial archaeology
Kennedy AERIAL ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN, 1918-1998. AND BEYOND?
Raçkowski Absence – Real or Apparent?: Aerial Archaeology towardsPostprocessual Thinking
Rothaus Integrated remote sensing and GIS for archaeological modelling and prospection.
Song Installation of Arial Archaeology in China

New approaches to skeletal analysis

Alan Morris
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
University of Cape Town

papers:
Author 1 Author 2 Title
Blau “Morti Vivos Docent”- the dead teach the living: what can we learn from the archaeological Human Skeletal remains from the United Arab Emirates
Catalana Musca Fresh data concerning the Necropolises, burial areas and population of suburban Rome between the late republican age and early imperial times
Gernaey et al Mycobacterial lipids- biomarkers for ancient tuberculosis-testing the methods
Hummel et al Identifying sex and kinship from skeletal remains by ancient DNA.
Morris Constant The Cobern Street Cemetery: Using cranial variation to reconstruct the biological diversity of the common people of 18th century Cape Town.
Peckman Burials from an Historic Hudson’s Bay Cemetery at Fort Frances, Ontario: a case study in applied forensic osteology

Theory and Practice in Isotopic Dietary Studies – TAPIDS

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Tamsin C. O’Connell
Suzanne M. M. Young

This symposium is designed to be a forum for discussion of recent work in the field of palaeodietary isotopic studies, as well as review of the present state of the field.

The primary analytical techniques that will be discussed are carbon, nitrogen, and strontium isotopic analysis of consumer tissues.

The symposium, covering both theory and practice, has three main themes:

experimental work on dietary theory (feeding experiments and field observations);

new laboratory developments (particularly utilising small samples and new materials);

applications to African and world archaeology.

After the papers have been presented, there will be a discussion session, in a workshop format. We will be discussing theoretical developments in our understanding of palaeodiet, and in particular, how results from feeding experiments and field observations that have been published recently and presented during this symposium add to the theoretical framework of this field. We hope that participants will raise any points or queries from the presentation of the symposium’s papers, and consider what specific questions must now be addressed by researchers in this field, in order to ‘fill in the gaps’ in our current understanding.

Participants, whether presenting a paper or not, are encouraged to bring data and results to show as overheads in this forum, if they feel that they will contribute to the discussion.

Papers:
Author 1 Author 2 Title
Ambrose African Human Diet Reconstruction with Stable Isotopes of Collagen and Apatite
Balasse The record process of a dietary change in hypsodont teeth: an isotopic study on bovine molars.
Bell et al Isotopic analysis of dietary change: A new approach using bone density fractionation
Cockshutt Smith Rooting our Family Tree: C4 Plants, Wetland Habitats and Early Hominid Evolution
Lee-Thorpe et al Dietary and seasonal variability from isotopic ratios in small enamel samples of wild and domestic fauna
O’Connell Hedges Chicken and egg: Laboratory testing of the effects of carnivory and herbivory on collagen, carbonate and related tissue isotopic values
Price Strontium Isotopes: A new tool for the study of human migration
Tuross Fogel Biochemical Basis of delta 13C in Bone Collagen and the Interpretations of Ancient Diets
Young et al How are you what you eat?: Amino acids and dietary tracing by stable isotopes analysis of consumer tissues.

Provinance Studies

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Convenor: Leon Jacobsont

papers:
Author 1 Author 2 Title
Escola Identification of archaeological Obsidian Sources in southern Puna (Argentina)
Ingo et al Lead and tin ingots from Domu de S’Orku (south-western Sardinia, Italy)
Stuurman van der Merwe Isotopic and Mineralogical Source tracing of 18th Century French marble sculptures
Tucci Morbidelli Archaeometric Study on the Four Heads Capitel (The Cloisters Collection) Stored at the Metropolitan Museum, N. Y.
Wandibba Petrological investigations of Neolithic Pottery in Kenya

WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY OF GOLD

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Duncan Miller and Paul Craddock

The contributions are more clearly defined in topic in that all are concerned with various aspects of the technical history and scientific study of gold production and goldworking. Included, there are two papers on gold mining, two on the refining of gold, two on goldworking and one each on the more general and diverse topics of the technical considerations of the aesthetics of goldwork and on the fingerprinting of gold sources by trace element analysis. The latter paper should prove especially important as the research represents one of the more important breakthroughs in the provenancing of metals in antiquity generally.

This has provided a very balanced framework within which it should be possible to generate debate on a wide range of topics connected with gold. Thus the potential is there to attract an audience with a diverse interests to discuss these topics both generally and more specifically applied to the history of gold mining and working within southern Africa.

papers:
Author 1 Author 2 Title
Armbruster Traditional gold mining and gold working in Mali (West Africa)
Armbruster Relations between Bronze Age and Early Iron Age gold work from the Iberian Peninsula and Halstatt gold: reflections on the gold torc from the tomb of a Celtic “princess” (Vix, Burgundy, France)
Baines The laboratory reconstruction of some Etruscan and Greek goldworks
Cauuet Exploitation of gold in the Iron Age of France
Craddock Meeks The surface enhancement and refitting of gold by cementation: an overview
Dube Some aspects of history and metallurgy of gold in Ancient India
Falchetti The Transformation of the seed: an approach to the symbolism of gold, ritual offerings and trade among the Uwa of central Colombia and related communities.
Merkel The development of Pre-Inca metal production and traditions based upon technical studies of excavated objects from the North Coast of Peru
Miller et al The Ancient Gold of Southern Africa Meets Modern Science: Trace element study by LA-ICP-MS of gold from southern African archaeological sites
Perez The influence of central Andean metallurgy in Highlands of southern Columbia
Rehren Young Melting and refining of gold in Egypt and beyond
Samper Early manifestations of Tairona goldwork
Schorsh Gold and silver in Ancient Egypt: aesthetic considerations

Archaeometallurgy

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Paul Craddock

papers:
Author 1 Author 2 Title
Bitlyong Pre-mechanical Tin Smelting in the Nok Region, Nigeria
Ingo et al Michrochemical studies of Aes Rude from Terrasebis
Ingo et al Leads Anchors And Ingots From Is Piscinas
Najjar Archaeometallurgy in Southern Levant. Faynan/Jordan. Study case.
Zhao Tang Analysis of artefacts from Anyang site during the Bronze Age

Ceramics

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Convenor: Maria de Conçeicão Rodrigues

papers:
Author 1 Author 2 Title
de Conçeicão Rodrigues Contribution to the study of African Iron Age pottery of the North of Mozambique
Djordjevic-Bogdanovic Ethno-archaeological research into the pottery of the Central Balkans
Levi Social organisation of pottery production in protohistoric Italy
Liu Analysis of the decline of Cizou Kiln in Guantai
Qin An archaeological research on origins of using fuel in ceramic industry in Northen China
Rahman Muhamed Prehistoric earthenware in peninsula Malaysia
Smirnov Iteration of steppen and wooded populations of the Russian plain in the Neolithic age

Technological Choice in Ceramic Production

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Convenor

Michael Tite
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art
Oxford

Technological choice in ceramic production involves the choice of clay and temper, forming method, surface treatment and firing procedures. The choices made are determined by the overall context in which the pottery is produced; that is, environmental and technological constraints, the economic and subsistence base, the social and political organisation, and religious and belief systems of the people under consideration. These contextual parameters influence the technological choice either directly, or by determining the uses to which the pottery is put and hence its required performance characteristics.

Technological choice is clearly, in part, an adaptive strategy, either to practical problems arising directly from the environmental, technological and economic context, or to performance characteristics required by the practical uses to which pottery is to be put. For example, technological choice can be determined by the available raw materials or the extent of technological knowledge (eg wheel throwing, kiln firing). Alternatively, it can be determined by the need to achieve the permeability, strength, toughness and thermal shock resistance required in the use of the pottery for transport, storage, cooking, and serving.

However, there are likely to be several technological solutions to these practical requirements, the choice among these possible solutions being made on the basis of socio-cultural considerations. Alternatively, it is possible that socio-cultural considerations take precedence over practical considerations in determining technological choice; that is, it is not nature but culture that is the main constraint on technology. For example, the concepts of “technological style” and “socio-technical system” have been introduced to provide a direct link between the socio-cultural context and technological choice. Alternatively, the socio-cultural uses to which the pottery is to be put (eg gift exchange, feasting, ritual) can influence technological choice through the need to achieve the required visual and tactile performance characteristics. In addition, technological choice can itself serve a socio-cultural function by conveying information on, for example, social status and group identity.

A fundamental difference between explanations of technological choice based on practical considerations and those arising from the socio-cultural context is that the former links can be investigated by means of experiments and, once established, are generally valid. In contrast, the links between the socio-cultural context and technological choice are less amenable to experimental investigation and tend to be specific to a particular situation. Therefore, they can be applied more generally, only with very great caution.

The aims of the proposed symposium are to assess:

the extent to which the links between the various practical considerations and technological choice are now understood;
the value of establishng such links in view of the fact that they are only a part, and not necessarily a major part, of the explanation of technological choice;
the feasibility of identifying and validating the various links between the socio-cultural context and technological choice, and of establishing whether such links can ever provide more than mere cautionary tales.

papers:
Author 1 Author 2 Title
Colomer Defining Cultural Traditions through the technology and the morphology of prehistoric pottery
Cumberpatch The Transformation of tradition; the end of the medieval ceramic tradition in Yorkshire
Feathers Understanding the transition to shell tempered pottery during the Late Woodland Period
Gosselain Pottery coating in sub-Saharan Africa: technique, meaning and identification
Lindahl Ceramics in south-eastern Zimbabwe since ca 1400AD, an ethnoarchaeological study
Livingstone Smith Pottery technology in sub-Saharan Africa: tradition and innovation
Loney Choosing a pot for tomorrow: a model of the social motivation for technological change in pottery production in prehistoric central Italy
Pool Why a kiln?- Firing technology in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico
Roux Technological choice in chalcolithic ceramics of southern Levant s088rxx1
Sillar Dung by preference- the choice of fuel as an example of how Andean pottery production is embedded within wider technical, social and economic practices
Stilborg Forming a tradition
Tite The role of strength; toughness and thermal shock resistance in determining the choice of temper in ceramics- an overview
van As In search of technological choice in the production of some ceramic assemblages of the ancient Near East
Vandiver Forming Pottery: choise, continuity and constraint

Mindscapes

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Convenor

Sven Ouzman

The term `mindscape’ is partially encapsulated within the general body of theory known as `cognitive’ archaeology. The term is constructed so that an emphasis is placed on present and archaeologically observed thought. Though all material culture/objects has the potential to contain such cognitive information, certain objects are more amenable to such a study than others. For example, rock art imagery is often theoretically informed, Middle Stone Age lithics is often theoretically recondite. Webster (1996) points out that archaeologists often tend to over-interpret objects, many of which were probably just mundane with little symbolic significance. `Mindscape’ archaeology endeavours to select objects, sites and so forth that were firmly entrenched within the realm of conscious, planned, symbolic activity. Thus, like the closely allied discourse of `landscape’ archaeology, mindscape studies may offer us the opportunity to cross-cut intra-disciplinary boundaries and grant more insightful perspectives on known, received knowledge. One has to be very careful of becoming hyper-relativist (cf. Bernstein 1983) – not all interpretations are equally valid, in fact, very few interpretations are considered authoritative in practise. The WAC4 mindscape session is not intended as a catch-all for all `symbolic’ papers but as a session in which symbolic meanings in the past may be understood by reference to firm, empirical data. It will also be task of the mindscape of the session to investigate the term `symbolic’ and what is meant by this often vague, seldom precise term.

References Bernstein, R.J. 1983. Beyond objectivism and relativism: science, hermeneutics and praxis. Oxford: Blackwell.

Webster, G.S. 1996. Social archaeology and the irrational. Current Anthropology 37:609-627.

papers:
Author 1 Author 2 Title
Callegari Gonaldi Pattern and petroglyphs: their meaning within the landscape
Drew Rock Art and Ancestral Dreaming
Durand The discovery of a possible abacus near a Khami site on the Limpopo
Solomon Pattern, enigma and the quest for “mind” via San rock art

Echoes from Eco: Authorising readings of art in the Past

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Bob Layton and Margarita Diaz-Andreu

In recent years challenges to earlier readings of art have enriched our perspective of art potential as an informative source for our understanding of the past. However, we think that a critical assessment of the achievements in archaeology and anthropology is needed in order to refine the scope for future work. We feel that a reflection on the extent to what all readings are authorised is required, and we propose to do this through a deliberation on the limits of interpretation (cf. Eco 1990) of the art of past and present societies.

Eco’s arguments refer to litery texts. However we invite contributors to explore the applications of his ideas to art. As he says (Eco 1992:23) unlimited semiosis does not mean that there are no criteria for interpretation. There are reasons to think that some readings of a text are more authorised than others. These which are not authorised can be called overinterpretations. Eco proposes that it be possible to prove that some meanings are overinterpretations, even without necessarily having to know which is the right interpretation. The reader, the interpreter, cannot therefore engage in an infinite range of readings. Moreover, Eco proposes that to claim a particular reading is an overinterpretaiton is not the ‘authoritarian’ attitude. Eco distinguishes between the intention of the author, the intention of the interpreter and the intention of the text (Eco 1992:25) and argues that an “authorised” reading is one which could reasonably be expected to occur to members of the intended audience.

We would like contributors to suggest answers to the following questions in their contributions:
Are there any patterns in the distribution of art in the landscape, or contemporary variations in style which suggest different messages were appropriate to different contexts, thus limiting authorised readings.
How reliable is the method and evidence archaeologists use to justify the validity of their own particular ‘reading’ of art, particularly with regards to ambiguous figures.
Why does the contributor find another archaeologists’ or anthropologists’ readings of art less persuasive?
Limits of interpretation. Where should archaeologists/anthropologists stop?
Are there changes in the distribution and content of art over time, suggesting that later (or modern indigenous readings of earlier work) might not be ‘authorised’ by the text.

papers:
Author 1 Author 2 Title
Hitchcock SPACE 1999 (B)CE: Post-Processual Approaches to Minoan Architecture
Lenssen-Erz The contribution of space to the meaning of rock art – a framework for a textual analysis of rock art sites.
Ouzman Places, Paths and peripheries: the hunter gatherer landscape as mindscape
Smith Style in body art: discerning social strategies across cultures.
Tilley Environmental art and the re-presentation of the past.