Ceramic Analysis (Archaeology)

The indigenous experience of contact and colonialism in the Southeast has been traditionally demonstrated archaeologically through the discussion of new European-sourced materials and new settlement patterns, and historically through the interpretation and transcriptions of documents. Indigenous ceramic materials should be considered an additional key component to discussing contact and colonialism in the Southeast. This paper re-frames the ceramic analysis of contact period materials within the concepts of communities of practice and chaine operatoire to illustrate how indigenous people navigated colonialism and changed their material culture in the process.

This paper is dedicated to the principles and method of conducting experiments in the study of ancient ceramics. Various kinds of experiments are described, along with scienti􀏐ic framework and set-up. The historical-and-cultural approach to scienti􀏐ic experiments is highlighted as an important tool in deducing new data on ancient ceramics. Case studies discussed include experiments in raw materials, pottery paste, molding and firing, vessel shapes and textile prints on surfaces.
Keywords: experiment, ceramics, technology of potter’s production, historical and cultural approach, methodology

This poster presents preliminary data on burial offerings from the Epiclassic site of Los Mogotes (ZU-ET-12) in Central Mexico. The offerings demonstrate ties to both the West-Northwest, and to the Gulf Coast. Burials are generally similar to those from other Epiclassic sites in the Northern Basin of Mexico and Southern Hidalgo.

O uso do tabaco foi prática quase ubíqua entre os luso-brasileiros, desde a implantação da colônia no século XVI. Hábito adquirido dos nativos e ressignificado ao longo dos séculos, ele podia ser mastigado, aspirado como rapé, ou inalado em cachimbos, cigarros, e, posteriormente, charutos. A iconografia histórica e os relatos dos cronistas ilustram vários desses momentos cotidianos. Neles o fumo aparece como coadjuvante e em segundo plano, mas recorrente. Nesta tese, procuro trazer o fumo e os cachimbos arqueológicos, em especial os de caulim, para um primeiro plano, valendo-me de ambas as fontes de informação: históricas e arqueológicas. Esses cachimbos, pouco estudados no Brasil, são o foco material principal desse trabalho, sobre os quais está sintetizada aqui a principal bibliografia internacional de análise, para futuras referências. Apresenta-se também uma distribuição amostral de tipos de cachimbo no registro arqueológico brasileiro, a partir de informações secundárias compiladas sobre vários sítios arqueológicos. Para trabalhar em escala mais local e aproximar contextos pontuais de consumo e uso de tabaco, são então expostas as análises realizadas em seis coleções arqueológicas de cachimbos de caulim. São elas a do Forte Orange e a do Recife Antigo, PE; a da Sé Primacial de Salvador, BA; as da Zona Portuária do Rio de Janeiro – Etapas 1 e 2, RJ; e a da Praça Cel. Osório, Pelotas, RS. A partir desses dados arqueológicos, do seu padrão de dispersão e dos períodos a que se referem, ficou evidente que os maiores acervos de cachimbos de caulim no Brasil se referem principalmente a duas conjunturas históricas: às investidas e ocupações holandesas seiscentistas e à abertura dos portos e a modernização do Império do Brasil que se seguiu. Os cachimbos da ocupação batava do século XVII foram discutidos aqui como símbolos militar-nacionalistas de um elemento exógeno, que nunca se integraria de fato à sociedade brasileira. Já os do século XIX, evidenciam uma tentativa de pouco sucesso de penetração desse item no território. Entre essas duas amplas conjunturas, intercalaram-se outros cachimbos, também identificados em regiões litorâneas e portuárias, onde circulavam marinheiros, mercadores, soldados, estivadores e outros trabalhadores do mar. Considerando os contextos de identificação dos acervos robustos de cachimbos de caulim, penso que eles recorrentemente estão associados a grupo estrangeiros ou a luso-brasileiros em contato frequente e direto com eles: em um primeiro momento, os holandeses, e num segundo, comerciantes e trabalhadores do mar.

We present the scientific analyses conducted on the ongoing excavation of the late Criș settlement at Tăşnad-‘Sere’, Satu Mare county. The excavation aims to understand the relationship between the occupation layer and sub-surface features. We seek to achieve constant feedback between the scientific analysis and the excavation, adapting our excavation methods as needed. The ultimate aim is to develop methods that can also be applied to more conventional excavations. Soil analysis (XRF) revealed a good correspondence between sulphur, inorganic phosphorus, potassium and calcium and the archaeological features. Lipolythic microorganisms and thermophilic bacteria were identified both around and within a pit. Petrographic thin section analysis showed that a very similar fabric with fine organic inclusions was used in all areas analysed.

New Directions in Cypriot Archaeology highlights current scholarship that employs a range of new techniques, methods, and theoretical approaches to questions related to the archaeology of the prehistoric and protohistoric periods on the island of Cyprus. From revolutions in radiocarbon dating, to the compositional analysis of ceramic remains, to the digital applications used to study landscape histories at broad scales, to rethinking human-environment/climate interrelationships, the last few decades of research on Cyprus invite inquiry into the implications of these novel archaeological methods for the field and its future directions.

This edited volume gathers together a new generation of scholars who offer a revealing exploration of these insights as well as challenges to big questions in Cypriot archaeology, such as the rise of social complexity, urban settlement histories, and changes in culture and identity. These enduring topics provide the foundation for investigating the benefits and challenges of twenty-first-century methods and conceptual frameworks. Divided into three main sections related to critical chronological transitions, from earliest prehistory to the development of autonomous kingdoms during the Iron Age, each contribution exposes and engages with a different advance in studies of material culture, absolute dating, paleoenvironmental analysis, and spatial studies using geographic information systems.

From rethinking the chronological transitions of the Early Bronze Age, to exploring regional craft production regimes of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, to locating Iron Age cemeteries through archival topographic maps, these exciting and pioneering authors provide innovative ways of thinking about Cypriot archaeology and its relationship to the wider discipline.

Contributors: Georgia Marina Andreou, Brown University; Stella Diakou, Trinity College and University of Cyprus; Maria Dikomitou-Eliadou, University of Cyprus; David Frankel, La Trobe University; Catherine Kearns, University of Chicago; Sturt W. Manning, Cornell University; Eilís Monahan, Cornell University; Charalambos Paraskeva, University of Cyprus; Anna Satraki, Department of Antiquities of Cyprus; Matthew Spigelman, Acme Heritage Consultants

The main set of questions discussed in the thesis within historical aspects focuses on the 5th-century settlement network on the Great Hungarian Plain and on its chronological changes. Regarding the settlements, the number of distinctive chronological horizons is smaller than of the historical phases. These chronological horizons are usually defined as late Sarmatian–Hunnic and Gepidic. These horizons inevitably give broader archaeological frames including the end of the Sarmatian period, the Hunnic period and the Gepidic Kingdom, lasting altogether from the late 4th until the mid-6th century.