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Taking as its starting‐point papers by Dayton, and Muhly and Wertime, this paper tries to show that at least two sources of tin, one in Armenia and one near Bukhara, are known, and attempts to discover whether either of them could have been the source used by the Sumerians. The evidence is inconclusive but the indications are that Bukhara is a more likely source of supply in the third millennium. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The first part of this paper describes a relatively rich series of bone awls and bone points from Upper Palaeolithic layers at Ksar Akil, Lebanon. The raw materials, techniques of manufacture, and formal variation of these bone tools are considered. The second part of the paper concerns experiments in making bone tools, using flint tools similar to those from the relevant layers at Ksar Akil, as well as a grindstone. Traces of manufacture on bone tools and traces of wear on stone tools are described, and it is concluded that the traces of manufacture observed on the Ksar Akil bone tools can be replicated by scraping with any of a number of flint tools, but not by grinding. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While ethnographic accounts of material culture are important to the archaeologist, quantitative studies approached from the perspectives most appropriate for archaeological site analysis are rare. This paper introduces one such study and examines the material culture of the Turkana, a pastoral tribe of northern Kenya. The study is based on an inventory of the contents of an inhabited compound. It compares the contents of the inhabited dwelling with a series of abandoned settlements. Results indicate (1) 63% of the items in the inhabited compound were, in archaeological terms, perishable objects, (2) 48% of the entire material culture in the modern compound consisted of containers, (3) very little, if any, evidence of the artefacts present in the inventory would be found within a year after abandonment of the settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1972 the authors inaugurated the Cozumel Archaeological Project to study the material structure of a port‐of‐trade in order to better understand the nature of its behaviour as a total system. This paper presents a model which relates the internal structure of ports‐of‐trade to the centralization of resource control among the site‐level components which use its facilities. This dynamic model provides a framework upon which to view the process of culture change on the island of Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico, and to organize the collection and presentation of data from the 1972 and 1973 field seasons. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Trade between resource‐poor Mesopotamia and the resource‐rich Iranian highlands played an important role in the rise and maintenance of the earliest civilizations in the Tigris‐Euphrates valley. This paper examines the development of that trade from the perspective of the Iranian resource areas. A methodology for the study of trade development is discussed, emphasizing the importance of knowing source areas. Iranian sources for alabaster, marble, obsidian, steatite (chlorite), carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise and copper are noted. Evidence for the development of trade between 4500 and 3000 B.C. at the site of Tepe Yahya is examined in detail. A developmental typology of trade is presented, and some possible causal factors ‐ such as the by‐pass phenomenon ‐ are suggested for this development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is an attempt to isolate and to evaluate the archaeological criteria for pastoral farming in Neolithic and Bronze Age England. As an alternative to intuitive approaches to the problem, some lines of argument are set alongside the environmental evidence for patterns of early land use in the English Lake District, and the relationship between this interpretation and the distribution of some contemporary artefacts and field monuments is briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fine metal‐work of La Tène Ia/A1–2 date, mainly associated with early Fürstengräber, is examined in an attempt to establish individual ‘schools’ or workshop traditions, particular emphasis being placed on non‐representational motifs of ultimately classical origin. Two general groups of gold‐work are postulated, and consideration is given to related objects exhibiting complex engraved designs. A final section discusses the possible conclusions to be drawn from the distributions of individual classes of objects. Although this paper is not strictly concerned with the non‐Celtic artistic origins of individual styles and motifs, the importance of Italy is emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper is restricted to three topics: the way the Maya ruling class used iconography and writing to establish its credentials; the way they contrasted conqueror and conquered; and the way realism was employed to distinguish the ruler and the ruled. Comparisons are made with the Zapotec centre of Monte Albán which emphasize that other archaic Mesoamerican states displayed themes of militarism and power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses prehistoric man‐environment relationships in the Southern Cape, defined as Africa south of 32°S. lat. Although the area was occupied in the early Pleistocene and perhaps earlier, archaeological evidence only becomes substantial in mid‐Pleistocene contexts. Local mid‐Pleistocene peoples (Acheulean) seem to have been widespread, but reconstruction of their environment and subsistence remains a goal of future research. Detailed archeological knowledge is so far restricted to the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene, but even here major questions go unanswered. Chief among these is the nature of the replacement of the Middle Stone Age (MSA), some 30–40,000 years ago. In all known Southern Cape sites, the MSA is followed by a gap in occupation, varying from 15,000 to 25,000 years. This gap alone suggests that the immediate successors to MSA peoples may have been characterized by significantly different settlements and subsistence patterns from those of their predecessors. Additionally, the fact that MSA peoples in a coastal habitat utilized marine resources less intensively, and probably less effectively, than later Albany and Wilton (terminal Pleistocene and Holocene) peoples raises the possibility that replacement of the MSA was accompanied by a major advance in modes of resource exploitation. This and other problems are the focus of on‐going research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper reviews the results of recent excavations at Bagor, a late mesolithic settlement in south Rajasthan which was occupied regularly for a period of five millennia immediately before Christ. The earliest settlers at the site had a highly evolved geometric microlithic industry and an economy based on hunting and stock‐raising. About the middle of the third millennium B.c. they acquired the knowledge of copper or bronze tools and of making hand‐made pottery. At this stage contacts developed with the earliest village farming cultures in Mewar and Malwa and with the urban Harappa Culture of north‐west India. Finally in the middle of the first millennium b.c. iron and wheel‐made pottery were introduced. Although stone tools continued in use their place in technology declined, as did the role of hunting in favour of animal husbandry. Bagor provides important evidence of the process whereby primitive hunting and stone‐using cultures were slowly incorporated into metal‐using and food producing economies through acculturation. It is yet the most prolific and most extensively excavated site of its type in India. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Polynesian colonizers of Pacific islands took with them a variety of plants and animals which altered, and in some cases were altered by, the environments of their new homes. In the past, more attention has been given to the role of food plants than to domesticated fauna and this paper documents aspects of the Maori's exploitation of the Polynesian dog from the evidence from excavated sites in Fiordland, South Island, New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes how the study of animal bones from archaeological sites ('osteo‐archaeology') may contribute to our reconstruction of cultural and economic history. Methods of identification, quantification and sex and age determination are critically reviewed. The basic problem of relating bone debris at archaeological sites to a prehistoric animal population is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reaffirms that population levels in hunter/gatherers are closely tied to resource levels, although density is characteristically maintained at a fraction of carrying capacity. This is shown to be a function of physiological and cultural controls acting within the framework of natural selection between groups. Apparent differences between cultural population control mechanisms in apes and hunter/gatherers are noted, and a limited reconstruction of probable control mechanisms in Australopithecus is made. The maintenance of population control vis‐à‐vis resources is shown to be a dominant factor in natural selection. It is argued that among early hominids, at a time when pressures keeping individuals in large groups were being annulled, social traits such as extended kinship roles, ritual obligations, strict sexual division of labour, and warfare, were of selective advantage to groups adopting or elaborating them because: (a) they maintained large‐group population control mechanisms; and (b) because population control mechanisms were ineffective in early hominid nuclear family groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent work has suggested that pastoralism, nomadic or otherwise, became increasingly important in the British Isles in the second and first millennia B.C. This paper is concerned with explaining this development. It sketches a typology of land use models, pointing out that the pollen records suggest two types of early clearance ‐ large scale and small scale. Estimates are made of potential animal densities in forest feeding situations and in clearings of limited size which are being used for growing cereal crops. It is concluded that specialized pastoralism would have been impossible at an early stage in the typology of forest clearance. Only when open country had become established (a process which may have taken some 500–1,000 years in parts of Britain) would there have been both motive and opportunity for the development of pastoralism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses aspects of the functional variation, construction, and chronology of ten Linear (Danubian I or Linear Pottery) culture longhouses from Olszanica BI, Poland. In addition, a test was designed to determine if the primary function of the pits alongside the longhouses could have been to supply dirt for the wattle and daub walls. This test involved estimating the volume of dirt that the pits could have supplied and calculating the quantity of dirt needed for various thicknesses of the walls. Population estimates were made for the ten longhouses using Naroll's and Soudský's methods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper estimates numbers of inhabitants for 36 sites of the Chassey‐Cortaillod‐Lagozza cultures, from a variety of data, of which house size is felt to be the most useful. A majority of the sites were probably occupied by 10 to 250 persons. Faunal remains are used both to calculate possible population size and to give information about the economy. The importance of domesticated animals is most marked in the Chasséen area, with either sheep or cattle being most abundant. Cortaillod sites give the richest information about cereals and plants used. The variety of economic responses and the relatively small populations suggest that pre‐tribal and tribal types of social organization may have been present in Southern France, Switzerland and North Italy from about 3800 to 2500 B.C. (radiocarbon dating). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the methods and materials used by the author to reproduce flint handaxes of late Acheulian ‐ Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition type, using flaking tools and techniques available to palaeolithic man. Stages in the manufacture of handaxes are defined first subjectively then quantitatively by counting and weighing waste flakes in the order of their removal. Two main observations emerge from these experiments, both relevant to palaeolithic studies. One is the very large number of waste flakes and chips produced in making finely finished flint handaxes. The other is that it is possible to define stages in handaxe manufacture from a study of the waste flakes alone. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses economic change in northern Italy in the 5th to 2nd millennium B.C. as a basis for reconsidering the nature and importance of Neolithic culture evidence. Neolithic artefacts are seldom good indicators of economic behaviour, and the advent of pottery‐bearing cultures may not have great economic significance. Mesolithic communities may have practised animal husbandry at an earlier date, and the full impact of the modern domesticated animals and cereals was not felt until long after the appearance of Neolithic cultures. In this situation the term ‘Neolithic’ is best used in a purely technological sense to describe sites possessing certain artefacts and attributes, without any inherent implications concerning economic status. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper brings together previously published material and the writer's analysis of recently excavated material from Spirit Cave, northern Thailand, in order to synthesize a chronology and a more detailed reconstruction of Hoabinhian exploitative patterns during the late Pleistocene/ early Recent periods in Southeast Asia. Hoabinhian subsistence patterns are described as the broad spectrum exploitation of both plants and animals. The transition from hunting and gathering to early plant domestication and a concomitant shift in population densities from upland to lowland bases in Southeast Asia is discussed and compared with similar early developments towards domestication in the Near East. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper discusses the impact made by the introduction of farming on the indigenous hunter‐gatherers of southern Italy. The indigenous communities were forced to adapt their traditional economy to the changing environment created by the farmers. The author studies the development of these communities after the arrival of the neolithic settlers and divides it into four phases. The first phase is characterized by specialized food‐collection; in the second phase some elements of the farming economy were adopted ; while during the third and fourth phases there was a steady development towards a mixed farming economy. In the final phase, which belongs to the very end of the neolithic, the economy was similar to that of the intrusive farming communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper traces the development of an ecological approach in prehistoric archaeology, relating it to other major theoretical developments. A distinction is drawn between a deterministic and an open‐system approach to ecology in current archaeology. The merits of these two approaches are evaluated and an attempt is made to forecast the implications that the open‐system approach will have upon future relations between archaeology and ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper stresses that analysis should be designed to solve specific problems, and that a flexibility of attitude should be maintained which allows for the evolution of analytical techniques. The author considers functional and cultural interpretations of assemblage variation and expresses a preference for the latter. A breakdown system of stone artefact analysis is proposed, with a literal notation, and three new metrical indices. The validity of the Clactonian and Acheulian assemblage‐types is tested in the light of the theoretical discussion, and using a system of specific artefact‐types, as well as the quantitative features and metrical indices specially developed. A remarkable similarity between the Central and Western European Clactonian assemblages is suggested by this analysis. Finally the possibility of establishing a series of stages in the culture traditions, and the potential benefits from such a system, are briefly reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines some of the difficulties encountered in attempting to interpret stone‐tool assemblages in terms of ‘functional variability’ — i.e. by reference to variations in the economic and technological activities undertaken by a single human group. An exclusively ‘functional’ interpretation of Mousterian industries in South‐West France would be open to serious objections from several points of view — chronological, typological, economic and others. Recent studies of Mousterian assemblages in the Near East and northern Spain by means of ‘factor analysis’ are interesting from a methodological viewpoint, but provide little positive support for the functional interpretations of these industries which are offered. It is suggested that evidence for functional variability in Palaeolithic and Mesolithic industries may in fact be much less conspicuous than some writers have imagined. Finally, attention is drawn to the difficulty of adequately ‘testing’ hypotheses concerning this kind of patterning against existing archaeological data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent field work in the Moche Valley, Peru, has focused attention on the socio‐economic organization of the valley during the Chimu occupation of the prehistoric city of Chan Chan (Late Intermediate Period, A.D. 1000–1476). Three Chimu rural administrative centres are described and a functional interpretation presented. An analysis of architectural and ecological factors suggests that these centres represented ‘state presence’ in non‐metropolitan areas of the valley and had as their primary function the maintenance of state control over land, water and labour resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is suggested that a formula which attempts to estimate the population of a dwelling from floor area must be restricted to homogeneous dwelling types. The population of a multifamily dwelling can be estimated as one‐sixth the floor area as measured in square metres. This is only a rough approximation, since the important factor for determining population density is the amount of sensory stimulation, not the amount of space. Unfortunately we do not know enough about the proxemic systems of various populations to utilize sensory stimulation as a predicting variable in estimating population size. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite abundant data on preconquest sites and population in the Valley of Mexico, recent surveys yielded little information on post‐conquest settlement, sites being classified as either Aztec or modern on the basis of pottery. Through an integrated research project involving surface survey, documentary data (including especially dated site occupation), and studies of recent and modern pottery in the area, sites have now been identified for the whole period 1400–1969. Detailed seriation to establish phases is not yet completed, and absolute population estimates will depend on this. But three main periods can be identified already, and relative population shifts recognized. Contrary to general assumption hitherto, Aztec pottery styles can now be seen to continue well into the seventeenth century: thus the first period, 1400–1650, appears to be one of gradual rather than dramatic population decline. Between 1650 and 1800 ‘modern’ ceramics appear and become increasingly common. During this time, population reached its lowest point, and began to rise again. From 1800 to the present, population has continued to rise, with minor fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Changes in population pressure, resulting from increased or decreased population density in relation to land and resources, can be usefully considered as a causal factor in producing many of the phenomena studied by archaeologists. This seems to be true in both food‐extracting and food‐producing societies, and is linked to land use and labour input. A number of possible cases are suggested here, and the implications for archaeological interpretation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It seems possible that one effect of competitive commerce is that the distributions of traded artefacts may tend to avoid one another and to seek areas of potential monopoly. Possible examples of this pattern in archaeological contexts are briefly discussed and the dangers of attributing economic effects of this kind to cultural divisions are emphasized. In this light the importance of characterizing artefacts and the need to use realistic models in considering a cultural assemblage are both emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Discriminant and canonical variate techniques are used in the analysis of design and form attributes of Tanque Verde Red‐on‐brown vessels from five Hohokam Classic period sites in the Tucson Basin, Arizona. Patterns suggested by the analysis are interpreted in terms of stylistic change between the Tanque Verde phase (A.D. 1200–1350) and Tucson phase (A.D. 1350‐c.1500), stylistic microtraditions during the Tanque Verde phase, and a relocation of people in an upstream direction along the Santa Cruz river and Rillito Creek between the Tanque Verde and Tucson phases. As a working hypothesis it is suggested that population movements were brought about by environmental deterioration similar to that documented elsewhere in the south‐west. Further research in order to check the hypothesis is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A detailed study of the processes of deterioration of mud walls and of the physical evolution and devolution of a contemporary West African village is seen to facilitate the location of decayed mud structures at a nearby archaeological site. Various climatic and pedological conditions at the site make it unlikely that such walls will be discerned. The archaeologist wishing to obtain the fullest and least biased picture of the settlement configuration of the ancient community should therefore heed all the inferential lessons to be had from a focused ethnographic investigation. Given similar climatic situations and practices of house construction, taphonomy and ethnographic analogies may both be necessary for a valid reconstruction of an archaeological settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A number of archaeological artefact distributions are studied as measures of contact or interaction with a production, marketing or service centre. The fall‐off in interaction with distance is examined with a regression model. The parameters of this model are found to vary in an interesting fashion. The use of the gravity model for predicting service areas around nodes of contact is also shown to be possible in archaeological contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Several regional styles of decoration on Middle Cypriot White Painted Pottery can be defined. The relative popularity of motifs is here used to calculate the similarity of sites, and the results of various cluster analyses are compared. Besides a general pattern of highest similarity between nearest neighbours, other links across the island are revealed. These can be associated with copper production, and a general model to explain the distribution of motifs and other aspects of pottery is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In a recent issue of World Archaeology, Charles Morgan criticized our book, Explanation in Archaeology. We find much of his discussion to be not only unfair but wrong because: (1) He attacks us as though we were advocating the adoption of a formalist version of the Covering Law (CL) model by archaeologists, which we are not. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this brief note an attempt is made to point out some of the errors and confusions in the reply by Watson, LeBlanc and Redman to the author's previous critique. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A broad range of data concerning political systems is embedded in the archaeological record. The present survey is general in nature but suggests that demographic, cultural, societal, geographical and iconographic approaches, especially when employed in combination, will further an understanding of the political organization of text‐free archaeological societies. This in turn ought to facilitate the use of archaeological data for testing more general theories of cultural evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A thorough understanding of the Shang political system is the key to any productive discussion of the beginning of urbanization and civilization in China. The earliest cities were loci of the royal lineages, which were the apex of the newly created class structure. The basic exploitative technology underwent little change from the Neolithic to the Shang, and the emergence of the great Shang civilization was based on a reorganized distribution of wealth, which enabled the concentration of society's resources in the hands of the ruling class. Ironically, while much of the greatest material achievement in Shang civilization — or perhaps any civilization ‐ is wasteful in terms of human needs, in posterity such achievements honour all the people they represent, the ruler and the ruled. Is greatness possible only in such terms, or are the archaeologist's criteria for greatness cockeyed in the first place? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]