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Abstract: A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-020-00583-3 PubDate: 2022-06-01
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Abstract: Control over the production and consumption of tej (honeywine) and the honey to produce it, was part of the political economy of the Abyssinian kingdom/Ethiopian empire (1270-1974 CE) and possibly earlier polities in the northern Ethiopian highlands. Unlike other Indigenous and imported alcohol, tej became diacritica used to constitute social inequality by creating exclusive consumption-communities based on social rank and class. Those with imperial permission consumed tej with specific drinking vessels, which added to the drama of ranked performance in politically charged feasts. Honey for elite tej production was demanded as tax and tribute by the state from every land holder, and while honey was widely available, commoners were forbidden to make and drink tej. The study concludes that exclusive rights over the use of honey for making and drinking tej, an abundant resource in the northern highlands, was a more effective political strategy in legitimating state power and authority than the consumption of rare exotica, including imported alcohol, that was irrelevant to most peoples’ lives. The study contributes to recent archaeological literature that focuses on how power and authority were locally legitimated within the political praxis of precolonial African states. The long-term political importance of honey and tej in northern Ethiopia, continues to shape the value of these products in contemporary commensal politics and in the political economy. PubDate: 2022-06-01
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Abstract: The location, size, and structure of the farmlands and hydraulic systems built by the Indigenous inhabitants of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain, remain unknown. This hampers our ability to understand how they organized agricultural production and how European settlers transformed local landscapes to build commercial plantations in the late fifteenth century. This paper combines an analysis of archival sources with the study of agricultural landscapes and practices to identify and describe the fields that were employed by the first colonists of Agüimes and Temisas, and to derive information about the location, design, and management of the pre-Hispanic farmlands. PubDate: 2022-06-01
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Abstract: Archaeologists working from a postcolonial framework are increasingly examining how the politics of Indigenous societies in North America structured European colonialism on the continent. Understanding the cultural landscapes of Indigenous societies is one part of this process, and the logics of colonial attempts to organize and control this space is a necessary counterpoint in the dialectic of colonial encounters. Social network analysis (SNA) can be applied to both Indigenous and colonial social organizations to understand how network organization influenced colonial encounters. As a case study, we compare the imagined colonial organization of early seventeenth-century Spanish missionization among the Pueblos of New Mexico with eighteenth-century missionization in the Pimería Alta of Arizona and Sonora. Network analysis is applied to documentary evidence to evaluate the idealized structure of Spanish mission systems in both regions as missionaries imagined it. The network qualities of missionary orders proved extremely resilient. Basic network qualities remained, enduring revolts and bureaucratic changeover. The results highlight how a simple and replicable structure was an adaptation to the unpredictable colonial borderlands. These case studies offer a template for the study of cultural landscapes through SNA and modeling the hidden mechanisms of colonialism. PubDate: 2022-06-01
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Abstract: This paper is about Death Valley – a site of mass killings orchestrated by Nazi Germany that took place on the outskirts of Chojnice during the Second World War. I begin by referring to some examples of conflict archaeology that persuasively demonstrate how what has so far been the domain of history is transforming into archaeology. I then present historical information concerning Death Valley. Following this, the paper presents the results of archaeological investigations into material traces of mass killings in Death Valley. Finally, I present an ethnography of Death Valley, scrutinizing the contemporary role of the site among local communities. PubDate: 2022-06-01
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Abstract: Due to the existence of wares that were produced both within and outside Spanish-tradition workshop in Panamá Viejo, this site offers an apt opportunity to study how coexisting but seemingly distinct potting communities organized their craft in a colonial context. To this end, a sample of two locally produced wares—one characterized by high-fired, wheel-thrown, and tin-glazed vessels known as Panamanian Majolica and the other by low-fired, handmade, and coarse-textured utilitarian vessels known as Criolla—were analyzed. The findings of the macroscopic and microscopic characterizations revealed that highly divergent potting communities, whose productions practices and craft organization varied drastically, coexisted at the site. PubDate: 2022-06-01
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Abstract: This paper describes the archaeology of one family’s tolerance to the stressors associated with the settlement of a new place. Artifacts associated with the maintenance of clothing suggest that a British family newly arrived at the Swan River colony in the southwest of Australia had the ability to remain composed during a period of reduced resources and psychological strain. The family’s ability to resist stress was probably the result of the social knowledge gained during previous experiences with internal migration in the British Isles during a time of high social dislocation. PubDate: 2022-06-01
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Abstract: Previous studies suggest that tropical storms and hurricanes are among the leading causes of shipwrecks in the Caribbean Sea since 1492. This paper will explore the relationship between shipwrecks and hurricanes in the Western Caribbean, particularly Roncador Cay, a place with complex environmental conditions that have made this area a trap for ships, but has up until now, been without rigorous shipwreck analysis. This study covers the period 1492 to 1920 with search results of 23 shipwrecks and 37 tropical cyclones compiled in databases, reviewing seven wrecks already documented and revealing new information on 16, previously not recorded. The sources provide detailed shipwrecks, demonstrating that most accidents occurred by unspecific causes and no direct relationship with hurricanes but were influenced by environmental conditions, such as geomorphology, cold fronts, or currents. There is also a reflection on the sociocultural changes and the influence of power in the region. The study includes a suggested tool for future research, protecting the wreck site and emphasizing the importance of the underwater cultural heritage as an indicator of the active maritime past. PubDate: 2022-06-01
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Abstract: It has been argued that laundry blue (whitener) was introduced into western Arnhem Land in the second half of the 1920s by missionaries, where it was used by Aboriginal people in rock art and on a variety of objects. Recent examination of museum collections acquired from the Northern Territory Native Industrial Mission at Kapalga in today’s Kakadu National Park, shows that the introduction of laundry blue into local Aboriginal artistic practices was earlier, around 1900. We discuss two examples of objects painted with laundry blue, a fibre basket and a bark belt, as well as broader ethnographic evidence relating to the significance of the color blue. We argue that the use of laundry blue is not only the result of access to an exotic new color but also has links to existing cultural beliefs. PubDate: 2022-06-01
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Abstract: This article summarizes the progress and current state of underwater archaeology in Colombia over the past three decades. It also presents the limitations for the scientific community imposed by the Submerged Cultural Heritage Law 1675 of 2013, implemented for the commercial salvage project of the Spanish galleon San José, sunk in 1708. This new legislation opposes basic archaeological principles as well as the 2001 UNESCO Convention. Finally, this paper proposes some considerations about the risks and uncertainty for the future development of underwater archaeology in Colombia. PubDate: 2022-06-01
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Abstract: European empires heavily relied on maritime connections for their expansion and operations. In the Andean region, where Spanish colonialism had a distinct urban character, maritime connections were emplaced in a tripartite arrangement or city-port axes. In this article, I show that the city of Arequipa, in southwestern Peru, differed from this pattern. There emerged instead a capillary arrangement of semi-specialized maritime links between the city and the Pacific Ocean. I also explore the conditions that favored this arrangement, including the positioning of Arequipa within southern trade networks, the city’s unique location, and the presence of an important port at Arica. PubDate: 2022-06-01
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Abstract: This paper describes features of secular buildings, mostly houses, shops, and warehouses, standing in the City of London in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; buildings in some cases constructed after the Great Fire of September 1666, and in other cases buildings from before the fire which stood in the zone outside it until the nineteenth century. Some prevalent types of smaller house in the rebuilt city are described; and, to compare with them, some houses in the area outside the fire which are known from historic plans and antiquarian drawings. Briefly some archaeological aspects are outlined: prospects for reconstructing the interiors of houses, London’s incipient involvement in slavery, and the houses of some prominent seventeenth-century citizens who financed slavery. Other matters raised are criticism of scholars who have habitually described the city after the fire as totally rebuilt in brick, which it was not; and the statement, also often made, that after the fire London became a modern city. This is questioned. PubDate: 2022-06-01
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Abstract: This study uses isotopic analyses to explore how new railroad transportation systems influenced Chinese diaspora meat sourcing and animal husbandry in the nineteenth-century American West. Isotopic compositions of animal bone collagen (n=224) demonstrate tremendous dietary diversity for pigs and chickens, across both C3-to-C4 and omnivory continuums, reflecting variable reliance on local (C3) plants versus use of imported maize (C4) feed and maize-fed and/or finished animals from the Midwest. We argue that these results highlight both the cultural importance of Chinese chicken husbandry and the widespread impact that the Transcontinental Railroad had on food supply across the American West. PubDate: 2022-05-11
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Abstract: Recent excavations at Mission La Purísima Concepción identified social divisions linked to status hierarchies within the Native village,’ Amuwu. The recovery of an earthen floor under a roof tile collapse represented a single room in an adobe structure where a Chumash family lived. In the backyard, a dense midden deposit exposed a dumping and activity area for residents of the building. Further north of the structure, in an area not associated with the adobe building, archaeological investigations uncovered an expansive concentration of refuse, suggesting it is the likely area where traditional tule-thatched houses once stood. Materials from the northernmost and southernmost sections of the rancheria indicate differences linked to social stratification, including distinctions in the shell bead money economy, food preparation and consumption practices, and the display of wealth. However, status was not determined by those who displayed more or less "Spanish" or "Native" traits. Instead, ranked positions were integrated with traditional Chumash practices and were later reinterpreted in innovative ways. PubDate: 2022-05-05
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Abstract: Diversification of standards of living in modern societies is one of the main research topics for economists and sociologists. Usually, economic inequalities are considered to be a natural phenomenon which trigger further progress and, in moderate amounts, are socially acceptable. However, deep inequalities are unjust and destructive and lead to conflicts. The research of contemporary inequalities in living standards mainly focuses on defining their source and their social and economic implications. The issue of social inequalities in pre-industrial societies is researched in a similar way, but requires different methods and data sources. The purpose of this paper is to determine the usefulness of archaeology in the research of diversification of living standards in Central-European cities at the end of Middle Ages and in the Early Modern era. As a case study we discuss the consumption strategies of Late Medieval and Early Modern dress accessories from different burgher plots in Prague (modern Czech Republic) and Wrocław (modern Poland) as an introduction for broader research. PubDate: 2022-05-04
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Abstract: Abstract The early modern history of the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire has to a large extent been influenced by its most valuable resource: solar salt. Through a multidisciplinary approach combining a landscape study, underwater and terrestrial archaeological surveys, and documentary research, the maritime cultural landscape of Bonaire’s southernmost saltpan is analyzed holistically, revealing new aspects of the lives of the people who lived and toiled there. PubDate: 2022-05-03
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Abstract: Abstract This paper examines traces of Sámi habitation in southern and central Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, addressing the late medieval period to the end of the nineteenth century. It begins with Swedish judicial policy against Sámi nomadism in central Sweden, followed by a discussion of medieval Sámi material culture in southern Scandinavia. Further analysis addresses so-called Parish-Lapp indenture, which allowed nomadic Sámi to escape eviction to the far north (as decreed in 1671) by serving the parish. Yet, Sámi groups maintained and developed ritual practices, foodways, and language in a society parallel to the majority society and in resistance to it. PubDate: 2022-04-04
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Abstract: Abstract This paper presents the first investigation of animal remains unearthed from the Late Ottoman occupation at Mardin fortress, a military stronghold in Anatolian–Syrian frontier under Ottoman rule. The analysis produced 4234 specimens and carried out taxonomic identification, species diversity, kill-off patterns, and nature of bone modification, including those of taphonomic and cultural marks. Being the first zooarchaeological study of an Ottoman occupation in southeastern Anatolia, the results add vital information to the paucity of archaeological knowledge of life and dietary habits of regional Ottoman elite soldiers, and offer a glimpse into the local pastoralism and wildlife of that time. PubDate: 2022-03-15
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Abstract: Abstract Recent work undertaken by the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project in the territorial waters of Bulgaria, uncovered 37 Ottoman-Period shipwrecks, demonstrating the high density of seafaring activities in the Black Sea. Though the finds are important in understanding Ottoman seafaring technology, they provide little information about life on board. The Kitten shipwreck remains the sole fully excavated nautical site of this period in the Black Sea. This article discusses artifacts found on board this late eighteenth- early nineteenth-century shipwreck, excavated on the southern Bulgarian coast. The finds offer insights into shipboard life, the religious background of the crew, and support historical references to the family nature of seafaring ventures. PubDate: 2022-03-12
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Abstract: Abstract Walking is frequently taken for granted as something that all people do in the same way. However, walking is a biocultural phenomenon that is structured by individual biology, cultural practices, and beliefs. This is exemplified in the walking patterns of children at the Syracuse State School for “idiots,” where children’s own bodies pushed back against their education of walking. Through an analysis of shoe repair receipts billed to the school, I assess the ways children moved their feet as they traversed the school compound. While the school’s attempt to control and discipline bodily movements play into wider discussions regarding governmental discipline of the disabled body and disability history and strengthens our understanding of curative violence. PubDate: 2022-03-07 DOI: 10.1007/s10761-022-00655-6
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