Volume 4, Issue 1

This article presents the results of an interdisciplinary study combining archaeology, osteology, and stable isotope analyses. The geological conditions and richness of megalithic graves in Falbygden is suitable for studies of Neolithic human remains. Nevertheless, the Late Neolithic period (2350-1700 BC) is poorly investigated. This paper explores new knowledge of the Late Neolithic megalithic population in Falbygden. In-depth osteological and archaeological studies focusing on a single gallery grave (Falkoping stad 5) were conducted. Radiocarbon dating and carbon, nitrogen, and strontium isotope analyses of teeth from twenty-one individuals revealed the time of the grave’s use, as well as the subsistence and mobility practices of the buried individuals. The grave was already in use during the first part of the Late Neolithic and used into the second part of the period by individuals of different origin. Furthermore, the results indicated changing population dynamics in the Late Neolithic Falbygden, with increased human mobility, variability in subsistence strategies, and growing population density.

Research in the Andes has yielded evidence for a complex association between settlement sites and mortuary monuments, tied to concepts of death, ancestor veneration and water. The Huaylas-Inca and later Spanish colonial site of Kipia in the Cordillera Negra of the Ancash Highlands, North-Central Andes is a multi-faceted site, that contains a small settlement core, and a cosmological centre which includes carved rocks (huancas), niches and offerings. This, in turn backs onto a necropolis composed of a series of subterranean tombs (pukullo). In association, these features directly reference the surrounding agro-pastoralist landscape. In particular they evoke neighbouring lakes as possible foci of ethnogenesis or pacarinas. The relation between ceremonial sites and cemeteries is crucial to understanding Andean concepts of death and renewal. In this article, alongside a detailed description of the site, we provide a preliminary analysis of the contents of one of the pukullo. In turn, these results are placed within their landscape context to discuss issues related to sacrality, water and death.

Archaeology and material cultural heritage enjoys a particular status as a form of heritage that, capturing the public imagination, has become the locus for the expression and negotiation of regional, national, and intra-national cultural identities. One important question is: why and how do contemporary people engage with archaeological heritage objects, artefacts, information or knowledge outside the realm of an professional, academically-based archaeology? This question is investigated here from the perspective of theoretical considerations based on Yuri Lotman’s semiosphere theory, which helps to describe the connections between the centre and peripheries of professional archaeology as sign structures. The centre may be defined according to prevalent scientific paradigms, while periphery in the space of creolisation in which, through interactions with other culturally more distant sign structures, archaeology-related nonprofessional communities emerge. On the basis of these considerations, we use collocation analysis on representative English language corpora to outline the structure of the field of archaeology-related nonprofessional communities, identify salient creolised peripheral spaces and archaeology-related practices, and develop a framework for further investigation of archaeological knowledge production and reuse in the context of global archaeology.

During the Early Bronze Age in northern Europe, tree-like features appear in henges, burials, and rock art in ways that differ from earlier periods. Rather than investigating this phenomenon in symbolic or metaphorical terms, a concept of tree-ness is explored that focuses on the real constitution of trees and what trees actually do. It is suggested that the accentuation of tree-ness in Early Bronze Age ritual contexts can be related to an ontological shift in conjunction with emerging bronze technology in which different entities can merge or take advantage of each other’s generative properties.

This work aims to identify attributes or features related to endemic amphibians in modeled and painted pottery from central-southern Chile and north-western Argentina. From this work, we were able to identify four species of amphibians represented in certain types of modeled and painted pottery, and we also complemented this data with modern references and ethnohistorical chronicles of the potential use given to this pottery in particular. This contribution postulates that some elements of the black-onred pottery of the Early Ceramic Period of Araucanía in central-southern Chile and of Patagonia in northwestern Argentina, seek to highlight amphibiomorphic characteristics such as exophthalmia (protruding eyes) and aposematism (brilliant coloring and brightness of the vessel by using an engobe decoration). Based on the ethnohistorical data of the area, it is also proposed that these vessels could be linked to the exclusive use of highly toxic substances. Finally, the results allowed us to explore the close ecological interaction between human groups and woodlands.

The replication of objects lies at the heart of material culture research in archaeology. In particular, replication plays a key role in a number of core activities in our discipline including teaching, research, and public engagement. Despite its being fundamental to the archaeological process, however, replication comes across as an under-theorised field of artefact research. The problem is compounded by the recent development of digital technologies, which add a new layer of challenges as well as opportunities to the long-established practice of making and using physical copies of objects. The paper discusses a number of issues with artefact replication including aims, design, and methodology, from the standpoint of two research projects currently coordinated by the authors: the Bronze Age Combat project, which explores prehistoric fighting techniques through field experiments and wear analysis (Dolfini); and the NU Digital Heritage project, which centres upon the digital capture and modelling of Roman material culture from Hadrian’s Wall (Collins). Both projects have actively created replicas in physical or digital media, and direct comparison of the two projects provide a number of useful lessons regarding the role, uses, and limits of artefact replication in archaeology. Bronze Age Combat project: http://research.ncl.ac.uk/cias/research/bronzeagecombat/ NU Digital Heritage project: http://research.ncl.ac.uk/cias/research/nudigitalheritage/

The largest corpus of clay figurines from the Cretan Bronze Age comes from ritual mountain sites known as peak sanctuaries. In this paper, we explore how the ‛Figures in 3D’ project contributes to our understanding of these figurines, aiding in the study of the technologies of figurine construction and the typological analysis of distinctive styles. We discuss how the project has, more unexpectedly, begun to create new dialogues and opportunities for moving between the material and the digital by taking a multifaceted approach that combines the data from 3D models and 3D prints with experimental work in clay.

The project Pottery Goes Public explores the potential of 3D analytical tools to assess to what extent they can provide us with new interpretations and insights into the technological aspects of ancient pottery manufacturing. However, developing innovative 3D imaging techniques for ceramic analysis is not the only aim of the project. Since its inception, Pottery Goes Public has been designed to involve a wider audience not only into the study of ancient potting techniques, but also into the very process of carrying out the research. As advocated by the proponents of a reflexive approach to archaeology, in order to make the past relevant to contemporary society it is imperative for the archaeologist to include all interested parties into every stage of the analysis, from the formulation of the research questions to the dissemination of outputs. In this sense, the deployment of modern 3D technologies proved to be an indisputably powerful medium of communication and interaction with the public at large. Performing live archaeological research with cutting edge tools is a key step towards opening up academic research to multiple actors and actively engaging them with the archaeological interpretative process.

Southern Scandinavia is Europe’s richest region in terms of figurative rock art. It is imperative to document this cultural heritage for future generations. To achieve this, researchers need to use the most objective recording methods available in order to eliminate human error and bias in the documentation. The ability to collect more data is better, not only for documentation, but also for research purposes. Recent years have seen the wider introduction of image based 2.5D and 3D modelling of rock art surfaces. These methods are Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), Structure from Motion (SfM), and Optical Laser Scanning (OLS). Importantly, these approaches record depth difference and the structure of engraved lines. Therefore, they have clear advantages over older methods such as frottage (rubbings) and tracing. Based on a number of short case studies, this paper argues that 2.5D and 3D methods should be used as a standard documentation techniques, but not in an exclusionary manner. The best documentation, enabling preservation and high-quality research, should employ all methods. Approaching rock art with all the research tools available we can re-appraise older documentation as well as investigate individual action and the transformation of rock art.

The role of 3D modelling in archaeology is increasing exponentially, from fieldwork to architecture to material culture studies. For the study of archaeological objects the roles of digital and print models for public engagement has been much considered in recent literature. For model makers, focus has typically been placed on exceptional and visually striking objects with inherent appeal. In contrast, this paper explores some of the potential roles for 3D digital models for routine artefact research and publication. Particular emphasis is placed on the challenges this technology raises for archaeological theory and practice. Following a consideration of how 3D models relate to established illustration and photographic traditions, the paper evaluates some of the unique features of 3D models, focussing on both positive and negative aspects of these. This is followed by a discussion of the role of potential research connections between digital and craft models in experimental research. Our overall objective is to emphasise a need to engage with the ways in which this gradual development has begun to change aspects of longestablished workflows. In turn, the increasing use of this technology is argued to have wider ramifications for the development of archaeology, and material culture studies in particular, as a discipline that requires reflection.

3D scanning and photogrammetry of archaeological objects are now becoming commonplace. Virtual 3D scans are in many cases replacing the drawn record and are leading to objects being more easily accessed, shared and analysed. However, the wholesale production of 3D virtual replicas of artefacts is not always supported by adequate information regarding the multi-sensory nature of artefacts. The visual and geometric aspects are well represented, but the sounds and smells of the artefacts are lost. This paper explores the possible consequences of this and provides some indications of how we may remedy the situation, before our 3D archives become senseless.

This case study uses 3D scans of Central European Bronze Age swords (~1400-800BC) to recreate community networks of knowledge. 3D scans of 111 bronze swords were analyzed, from which measurements including blade profile, hilt profile, and decorative shape data were collected. The data were analyzed using a variety of statistical methods. Cluster analysis was used to create links between the nodes of networks that were modelled. A community detection algorithm was run on the networks to examine potential communities of bronze smiths based on theorized manufacturing decisions. These analyses suggest there were four distinct areas within which craft workers were sharing knowledge.

This issue of the journal developed from interest generated around a conference held in Cambridge entitled Art and the Brain, which examined how human neurophysiological capacities are exemplified by early art. This is a theme of great interest today, with attention focused on the ability to produce art as one of the defining characteristics of fully modern human beings, since their emergence in Africa 100,000 years ago, and the desire to understand the role of art in the story of human evolution.

The Native inhabitants of South Central California produced rock art containing red, orange, black, white, green and blue colours using a range of mineral and organic materials. Many of these same colours were used on material culture and body painting. This paper focuses on a sub-group of the Chumash, called the Emigdiano, who produced an enigmatic blue colour used in the creation of rock art. Here, we focus on the blue pigment at the rock shelter site of Three Springs in the Wind Wolves Preserve in South Central California. The composition of blue pigments has previously been the focus of discussion with suggestions that they were produced either using European pigments taken from Spanish missions, or that azurite from a local quarry was the source. Previous experimental work had demonstrated that it was possible for the blue to be produced from locally available azurite. Here we present the in situ analyses of these enigmatic blue pigments using handheld X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF). Results from pXRF analysis of rock art, quarried azurite samples and experimental rock art reconstructions showed that the Emigdiano Blue at Three Springs were not azurite based and was composed of optical blue (a mixture of black and white or grey materials which mimic the appearance of blue). This paper discusses the surprising implications of the use, given the availability of a ‘true’ blue pigment, and the wider ontological importance of combining multiple colours to produce the effect of blue in a rock art panel.

Color in ancient Egypt has been examined through linguistics, anthropological theory and archaeological science. In recent years, attention has focused on the application of art historical theories of reception and perception to ancient Egyptian art, but seldom on color itself. This article will examine aspects of color choice and visual perception, particularly focusing on use of the pigments yellow ochre and orpiment. Building on a growing body of art historical and archaeometric scholarship, it will demonstrate the contributions that experimental archaeology can make to the analysis and understanding of ancient Egyptian painting. Specifically, this study will examine why the Egyptian artist chose specific color combinations by taking into account the original space and lighting conditions of these paintings.

While the earliest evidence for ochre use is very sparse, the habitual use of ochre by hominins appeared about 140,000 years ago and accompanied them ever since. Here, we present an overview of archaeological sites in southwestern Germany, which yielded remains of ochre. We focus on the artifacts belonging exclusively to anatomically modern humans who were the inhabitants of the cave sites in the Swabian Jura during the Upper Paleolithic. The painted limestones from the Magdalenian layers of Hohle Fels Cave are a particular focus. We present these artifacts in detail and argue that they represent the beginning of a tradition of painting in Central Europe.

The invention of lacquer technology is significant in history as the first evidence of the use of an organic substance in creating durable coloured objects. By focusing on the evidence from the Jomon Period, Japan, this article clarifies the nature of complex technology and knowledge required for lacquer production, presents how lacquer technology enhanced our creative ability, and discusses its significance in human history. Lacquer technology was invented in the course of increasing human-plant interaction in the warming climate of the early Holocene. Personal ornaments coated with red lacquer are the most conspicuous throughout the Jomon Period from the beginning of lacquer technology. Strong attention to colour and intensive application on personal ornaments indicate that the creation of symbolic artefacts in social context was at the core of Jomon lacquer technology.

This paper presents acts of fluting as tangible expressions of activities performed by Palaeolithic communities of practice, in which situated learning was part of the social transmission of knowledge and communities of practice include children, men and women. To identify individual members of the communities of practice who were involved in the creation of parietal art in the Franco-Cantabrian region we have analysed the age and the sex of the people who ‘decorated’ the caves. Secondly, by following the analysis of lines created by flutings by different members of the community of practice, we suggest that children under the age of seven, who had no the cognitive abilities to comprehend the meaning of images, were active and prolific fluters and performed acts of decorating cave walls by themselves or with the support of other community members. This approach allows us to consider parietal art as community art where visual contributions were created by community members of all age and sexes.

In this paper, we have explored the possibility of assigning the humanthemed engravings from La Marche to their authors, according to the method outlined by J.M. Apellaniz in the 1980s. The method employed here follows the first of the three stages postulated by Apellaniz: macroscopic observation, microscopic analysis and experimental protocol. From our study emerged a pattern of five groups and sixteen hands at work in this site. We believe, therefore, that it is possible to speak of La Marche as an “art workshop”, where portable art was produced and taught.

Traits in Upper Palaeolithic art which are also seen in the work of talented artists with autism, including most obviously an exceptional realism, remain to be explained. However any association between the famously evocative animal depictions created in the European Upper Palaeolithic and what is commonly seen as a ‘disorder’ has always been contentious. Debate over these similarities has been heated, with explanations ranging from famous works of Upper Palaeolithic art having been created by individuals with autism spectrum conditions, to being influenced by such individuals, to being a product of the use of psychotropic drugs. Here we argue that ‘autistic traits’ in art, such as extreme realism, have been created by individuals with a cognitive extreme of local processing bias, or detail focus. The significance of local processing bias, which is found both as a feature of autism spectrum conditions and in artists with exceptional talent at realistic depiction who aren’t autistic, has implications for our understanding of Upper Palaeolithic society in general, as well as of the roles played by individuals with autism spectrum conditions.

Bringing together apparently opposing modern and post-modern approaches to interpretation is one of the challenges that lie ahead for rock-art studies. This endeavour may help to surmount ‘no interpretation is possible’ stances (see Bednarik, 2014) and to value rock-art as a diverse and complex phenomenon where precise significance is concealed within multiple meaning-carrying conveyors. The idea that different rock-art traditions (as with any other art form) made use of a given set of symbols (also) aiming to enforce an ‘imagined’ order is instrumental to the present paper. Ancient imagery, despite precise production contexts, materializes the need to resort to visual symbols in order to help maintain social concord, regardless of exact meaning. However, this is a dynamic process; whenever there is an effort to uphold a certain set of moral and social complying principles, there are also nonconformist and subversive attempts to challenge and mutate that same collection of rules.

In his paper ‘Quantitative analysis of open-source data on metal detecting for cultural property’, Samuel Hardy suggested that permissive policy is ineffective in minimizing the damage done to cultural heritage by non-professional metal detecting. This response paper contests the basic assumptions upon which this analysis is based. While Hardy‘s comparative, quantitative approach is laudable, it is founded in a biased and simplistic outlook on the metal detecting phenomenon.

The paper publishes an amphora with dipinti from the sixth century AD, found in the military camp of Trimammium on the Lower Danube limes (the Late Antique province of Moesia Secunda). A six-line dipinto on the one side includes invocations and information about the content of the amphora. The dipinti on the other side are abbreviations, possibly for a personal name and for the name of Trimammium, where the amphora had been exported to. The amphora originated from the Eastern provinces and contained oil, which was possibly used during church services.

This paper deals with the hypothesis of why Nicopolis ad Haemum, a town established to glorify the victory of Trajan over the Dacians and their Sarmatian allies south of the Danube, was renamed at the beginning of Hadrian’s rule as Nicopolis ad Istrum. The author believes the change happened in 118/119 AD after a victory of the emperor near the Danube over either Roxolani or Iazyges, with a preference for the latter. This, along with the unfortunate fate of the main person responsible, Q. Marcius Turbo, predetermined the confusion in later historical narratives and the connection of this battle to the Trajanic Dacian Wars, although no such victory is ever attested.

The author is dealing with the tile-stamps found in the Roman auxiliary fort at Porolissum attempting to establish which of the many units recorded on tile-stamps stayed in garrison at Porolissum. The author of the present article is arguing his own hypothesis on the subject, based on his own excavations at Porolissum and on all the data gathered from the scientific literature. He finally proposes two tables and a graph that correlate all the information on the troops known from the tile-stamps and stone inscriptions, establishing which of them were in garrison at Porolissum and which were only temporarily attached for building activity. At the same time he sets in chronological order the tile-stamps, demonstrating that the three units which built the headquarters building and the gates of the fort (coh III, L VII GF, L III G) were brought to the Porolissum area late in Hadrian‘s reign, to build in stone the fort and other military facilities in the limes area of Porolissum. The permanent garrison of the fort was composed during the 2nd century AD of two infantry auxiliary units, cohors I Brittonum and cohors V Lingonum, while a third one, numerus Palmyrenorum was probably lodged in a smaller fort situated 500 m away, on the Citera Hill. In the third century, cohors V Lingonum was still there, cohors I Brittonum also for Caracalla‘s time (even not recorded by any later inscription, but, at the same time, not attested in another fort), while the smaller Citera Hill fort was out of use and the numerus Palmyrenorum Porolissensium was moved inside the big fort from Pomet Hill. The author is concluding that the garrison of the military site Porolissum was not changed during the Roman rule in Dacia, all the other tile-stamps found belonging to units brought mainly during the 2nd century to built the military facilities of this strengthened sector of the frontier.

The Roman road from Singidunum to Ratiaria connected the different fortifications and civil settlements along the limes in Upper Moesia. Aquae (Prahovo) had a favorable strategic position near the mouth of the Timok River that flowed into the Danube and a peculiar character in the military and civil context. It was built at the same time as a Danubian port center which had, without doubt, a large military importance in connection with the conquest of Dacia and commercial significance in relation to mining activities.