Recently added articles from Antiquity:
Editorial.(Editorial)
Dec 01, 2008; ... * Talk of world recession brings fears for a commercial archaeology just getting into its stride, and inevitably reminds some of us of job creation schemes. Not all the memories are bad. The initiatives in USA and Europe between the wars threw open hectares of archaeology, gave a meaning ...
A middle Palaeolithic bone tool from Crimea (Ukraine).(Research)
Dec 01, 2008; ... A fragment of equid tibia found with a Mousterian assemblage in a rockshelter in the Crimean peninsula is carefully examined. The authors show that it has been knapped like flint to produce a tool probably at a time when stone resources were becoming exhausted. This tool is thus the ...
Middle Palaeolithic bitumen use at Umm el Tlel around 70 000 BP.(Research)
Dec 01, 2008; ... The authors identify natural bitumen on stone implements dating to 70 000 BP. Ir u proposed that this represents residue from hafting, taking the practice back a further 30 000 years from the date previously noted and published in Nature. The bitumen was tracked to a source 40km away, ...
New finds of art objects from the Upper Palaeolithic site of Zaraysk, Russia.
Dec 01, 2008; ... The new art objects from Zaraysk show an extraordinary repertoire of incised carving on mammoth ivory plaques and carving in the round, including representations of women and large mammals, and geometric decoration on bone utensils. The authors show that while belonging to the broad family ...
Tanged points, microblades and Late Palaeolithic hunting in Korea.(Research)
Dec 01, 2008; ... The present study examines the stone weapons available in Late Palaeolithic Korea, showing how the change in lithics signals a change in hunting strategy. In advance of the Late Glacial Maximum, a tanged spear tip flourished, reflecting the hunting of large mammals associated with the ...
Eastern arrivals in post-glacial Lapland: the Sujala site 10 000 cal BP.(Research)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction In the 1920s, Norwegian geologist Anders Nummedal discovered several coastal sites representing a chipped-stone industry in Finnmark, northern Norway. Dubbing this Stone Age culture 'Komsa' after a small fell near Alta, Nummedal, like several of his contemporaries, ...
Eastern Anatolian obsidians at Catalhoyuk and the reconfiguration of regional interaction in the Early Ceramic Neolithic.
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction Studies over the past 40 years have demonstrated that the inhabitants of Neolithic Catalh6yuk relied almost entirely on obsidian from its nearest sources in Cappadocia (some 200 linear km to the north-east; Figure 1), primarily East Gollu Dag and Nenezi Dag. This ...
The orientation of rondels of the Neolithic Lengyel culture in Central Europe.
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction With minor differences, the late Neolithic earthworks called rondels (Petrasch 1990:418-9; Trnka 2005), are contemporary and share a common plan: circular with entrance causeways (Trnka 1991). They appear in several archaeological cultures of the early fifth ...
The golden leaves of Ur.
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction Ever since Sir Leonard Woolley and his team discovered and excavated the exceptionally rich third-millennium BC Royal Cemetery at Ur in the 1920s, speculation as to the status and origin of the people buried in the so-called 'royal tombs' has been rife (Reade 2001; ...
Sweeter than wine? The use of the grape in early western Asia.
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction Evidence for the origin and spread of the grape (Vitis vinifera) in western Asia comes from a variety of sources, on- and off-site: pollen cores, residue analysis, archaeological seeds, stems, and fruit remains as well as charred wood of the vine. This paper is an ...
Monumental burials and memorial feasting: an example from the southern Brazilian highlands.(Research)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction Anthropologists and archaeologists studying the Neolithic in the Old World and Formative periods in the Americas have long been concerned with the study of the relationships between the living and the dead and in particular with the social and ideological roles of ...
An update on Teotihuacan.(Research)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction Teotihuacan is a great ancient city, located 2250m above sea level in the cool and semi-arid uplands of Central Mexico (Figure 1). It flourished between about 100/1 BC and AD 550/650, long predating the Aztecs. During much of that time it covered 20[km.sup.2], with ...
Inside and outside the dry stone walls: revisiting the material culture of Great Zimbabwe.
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction Great Zimbabwe (Figure 1) is one of more than 200 sites in southern Africa (Garlake 1970; Beach 1998) which display the architectural tradition of those monumental but mortarless walls that have continued to attract archaeologists and the public alike (Ndoro 2001; ...
Monumentality and the development of the Tongan maritime chiefdom.
Dec 01, 2008; ... On Tongatapu the central place of the rising kingdom of Tonga developed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries AD. Marked out as a monumental area with a rock-cut water-carrying ditch, it soon developed as the site of a sequence of megalithic tombs, in parallel with the documented ...
Modelling maritime interaction in the Aegean Bronze Age.(Method)
Dec 01, 2008; ... The authors raise spatial analysis to a new level of sophistication--and insight--in proposing a mathematical model of 'imperfect optimisation' to describe maritime networks. This model encodes, metaphorically, the notion of gravitational attraction between objects in space. The space ...
Where the wild things are: aurochs and cattle in England.
Dec 01, 2008; ... The aurochs was a type of wild cattle not extinct in Europe until the mid-second millennium BC--so they must have co-existed for centuries with the domestic cattle which were to supplant it. Here the authors use stable isotope analysis to show what form that co-existence took: the domestic ...
Archaeological resource modelling in temperate river valleys: a case study from the Trent Valley, UK.
Dec 01, 2008; ... Methods for mapping and determining the condition of archaeological resources while they are still underground have been in development for nearly half a century. The authors here offer an example from the frontiers of the art: the application of a package of remote sensing procedures not ...
Airborne lidar and historic environment records.(Method)
Dec 01, 2008; ... The authors assess the potential contribution of lidar surveys to national inventories of archaeological resources ('Historic Environment Records), and compare the relative costs and sensitivity of lidar and aerial photography. Keywords: England, aerial survey, lidar, aerial ...
The cart ruts of Malta: an applied geomorphology approach.(Method)
Dec 01, 2008; ... The mysterious rock-cut cart ruts of Malta are here examined by geomorphologists. They find that the ruts could be caused by two-wheeled carts with a gauge of l. 40m carrying moderate loads. In wet weather the carts would gradually cut into the limestone and reach their ground clearance of ...
The archaeology of Islam in Britain: recognition and potential.(Debate)
Dec 01, 2008; ... What did the British know about Islam before the modern period? The author reviews evidence which shows that there was contact with, and appreciation of, Muslim culture from almost the time of the Hegira iri the seventh century. This appreciation varied and was reflected in different ...