Archives

Publication date: October 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 86 Author(s): Haifeng Liu, Wei Qian, Jianli Chen, Hongli Chen, Matthew L. Chastain, Michael R. NotisField investigation was carried out to study ancient cast iron smelting furnaces at 15 sites from Imperial China. Petrographic analyses were performed on furnace materials to study the development of metallurgical ceramics used on these furnaces. The results show that furnace materials developed from simple clay material to a composite structure made of stone and clay. During the period from the 4th C. BCE to the 3rd C. CE, rammed clay or stacked clay bricks were used to build the furnaces; from the 7th to the 13th C. CE, furnaces were predominantly made with a durable outer wall constructed from stone, while the refractory material that lined the inner surface of the stone wall was composed of clay, sand and gravel-sized rock fragments. In addition, this paper discusses some aspects of governmental organization, furnace and smelting technology, economics which might influence this development, and examines the relationship between ceramic technology and metallurgy in Imperial China.

Publication date: October 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 86 Author(s): Fadi Hajj, Anne Poszwa, Julien Bouchez, François GuéroldDifferent approaches are used to study wood provenance, but most of them are based on tracers in wood that are generally controlled by climatic factors. The strontium isotopic ratio 87Sr/86Sr in trees and soils is related to the signature of the local bedrock. Despite being used in diverse archaeological studies, Sr isotopes have rarely been used to trace the provenance of archaeological wood and especially wood from shipwrecks. In addition, recent analytical advances have allowed the detection of mass-dependent fractionation of Sr isotopes during biogeochemical processes, as reflected in the variation of δ88/86Sr values between different environmental materials. The δ88/86Sr values could be used in conjunction with the 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratio to improve constraints on the sources of Sr in the archaeological materials being studied. This paper discusses the potential and limitations of using both of these Sr isotope ratios to trace the provenance of wood from shipwrecks. We review the 87Sr/86Sr and δ88/86Sr variations in rocks, waters, soils, plants and other living organisms and discuss how to determine the local Sr isotopic signature of potential sites. We also compile a list of known wood post mortem modifications in seawater. Possible implications in terms of the modification of the original Sr isotope ratios of wood during storage in seawater are illustrated through preliminary observations. This paper points out some limitations and perspectives for using Sr isotopes in provenancing wood from shipwrecks, and suggests future research to test and apply this approach for tracing the origin of archaeological wood.

Publication date: October 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 86 Author(s): Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, Palmira Saladié, Isabel Cáceres, Rosa Huguet, José Yravedra, Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Patricia Martín, Antonio Pineda, Juan Marín, Clara Gené, Julia Aramendi, Lucia Cobo-SánchezA series of experimental cut marks have been analyzed by eleven taphonomists with the goal of assessing if they could identify similarly 14 selected microscopic variables which would identify those marks as cut marks. The main objective was to test if variable identification could be made scientifically; that is, different researchers using the same method and criteria making the same assessment of each variable. This experiment shows that even in researchers trained in the same laboratories and following the same protocols divergences in the perception of each variable are significant. This indicates that mark perception and interpretation is a highly subjective process. If this basic analytical stage is subjective, subjectivity permeates to a greater degree the higher inferential stages leading from mark identification to reconstruction of butchering behaviors based on mark frequencies, mark anatomical distribution, actor-effector-trace processes, and statistical interpretations of the stochastic mark-imparting butchering processes. Here, we emphasize that the use of bone surface modifications for behavioral interpretations remains a non-scientific endeavor because of lack of independent replicability of criteria and processes, divergences in how variables are selected and used and epistemologically flawed analogs. This constitutes a major call to taphonomy to engage in more scientific (i.e., objective) approaches to the study of bone surface modifications for taphonomic inference elaboration.