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The aim of this paper is to present the first record of engraved stone plaquettes recovered at the Laguna Azul site (LA-P3) located in the Somuncurá plateau (Río Negro, Argentina). The stone plaquettes record is wide and varied in Argentina and especially in the North Patagonia region; however, it mostly consists of surface finds. The four plaquettes from LA-P3 are associated with Late Holocene dates (c.1906–1756 years BP) and in this paper the authors describe their designs and motifs, as complementary studies using different microscopy techniques. LA-P3's plaquettes displayed red residues which were analysed by SEM-EDX and allowed identification of iron and titanium on their surfaces. This study contributes to the stone plaquette register of North Patagonia, and provides novel information related to their production techniques (mostly incision) and their motifs identified (non-figurative). The low frequency of similar motifs between the sets analysed allows us to propose a certain regionalization of their production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction problematizes the use of the term protohistory across a wide range of cultures and periods. The methodological issues surrounding periodization and the integrated use of different, multiple evidence streams is discussed, especially the difficulties of combining material and textual data, and how we as archaeologists can best construct narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We advocate a Process Archaeology (P-Arch) which explores modes of becoming rather than being. We advance three theoretical postulates we feel will be useful in understanding the process of becoming. And then six temporal propositions, with the latter arranged from the briefest to the longest timescale. We lay down the basic conceptual foundation of our approach using the example of pottery making and we follow the process of creativity in between the hand of the potter and the affordances of clay. This specific creative entanglement of flow and form on a fast bodily timescale provides our grounding metaphor for an archaeology of becoming over the long term. Subsequent propositions provide the basis for exploring issues of longer-term material engagement and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even if archaeological explanations and theoretical interests have shied away from migration with the advent of the New, Processual and Post-Processual archaeologies, the reality remains that migration was in all likelihood as common, recurrent and widespread a phenomenon in the ancient and distant past as it is today and has been recorded historically in recent periods. By way of introduction to this thematic issue on Mobility & Migration, this paper offers a brief survey of intellectual developments and signals recent trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital data constitute a rapidly increasing body of archaeological evidence, used on widely varying scales to capture and represent an equally wide range of subjects. Introducing an issue that presents recent digital applications in archaeology, this article considers particularly the challenges and prospects for analysis of digital models of stone tools, and surveys some of them in workflow sequence (acquisition, modeling, analysis, archiving). Using geomorphometric methods, lithic analysts now can characterize, measure and analyze stone tools in ways scarcely imaginable even a few years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-dimensional object scanning for both diagnostic and collection management has become more accepted within archaeological research over the last few years. However, the ability to scan vast numbers of cultural artefacts effectively has been stunted by the lack of technical expertise, cost of both hardware and software tools, and access to full collections. This article examines the issues related to mass scanning techniques and their potential effectiveness to enable research on and access to extensive archaeological collections. It attempts to lay the groundwork for sustainable and effective scanning methodologies within multiple contexts of practice, including cultural resource management and collections management facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relatively recent availability of terrestrial lidar for mapping archaeological subjects has allowed for great advances in representation and reconstruction but the analytic potential of this technology remains under-developed in archaeology. This paper provides an overview of the analytical directions we are taking with point cloud data generated through ground-based laser scanning at the imperial Inca site of Caranqui in northern Ecuador. Our approach to data analysis employs insights and ideas from the domains of GIScience, remote sensing, cartography, computer vision and hydrology. While creating a comprehensive visual record of the site was an important project goal, we also sought to develop improved methods of feature extraction and surface calibration to better understand water manipulation and flows at the site. Here we highlight some of the preliminary results of our analyses as well as the challenges and benefits of employing terrestrial lidar to investigate a mid-sized archaeological site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-dimensional (3D) digital models have been used globally to investigate archaeological carvings on natural surfaces. However, the associated capital costs and technical requirements can discourage the uptake of digital modelling for primary field analysis. One solution is to employ lightweight handheld laser scanners to generate basic 3D models of selected object areas for visual examination and immediate feedback. This targeted approach is illustrated in the investigation of a novel, threatened type of archaeological art form: carvings indented into live trees by Moriori people of the southern Polynesian Chatham Islands. In this investigation, variously lighted and rotated 3D models and paired photographs of Moriori tree carvings are examined to address research questions and assist in conservation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary scientific archaeology has an array of methodological approaches at its disposal. In addition to a multitude of specialist techniques, this endeavour may, more generally, draw upon data from field survey and excavation, experimental approaches and mathematical modelling. However, the extent to which these different strands of enquiry are adopted may vary widely from researcher to researcher. Lip service is often paid to the notion of ‘integrating’ different approaches but whether this is genuinely achieved is debatable, while some may ignore one or more particular approach entirely. The study of Levallois artefacts (e.g. flakes and cores) has been an important topic within Palaeolithic archaeology for more than a century. Studies of these artefacts have been implicated in major debates concerning cognitive and behavioural aspects of evolution in hominins. Here, we discuss something of the history of investigation into Levallois, and consider whether insights that have been gained by applying data from artefactual studies, experiment and mathematical modelling might point toward ways in which such alternative approaches might be integrated more closely. Key to this, we argue, is exploitation of the concepts of ‘internal validity’ versus ‘external validity’, which are possessed by these contrasting data sources to varying degrees. By emphasizing both the strengths, but also the weaknesses of these different avenues of enquiry, these validity concepts may enable a better sense of how the links between them can be strengthened in archaeological enquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction to the journals is presented in which the authors discuss topics addressed in the issue related to the use of stable isotope analysis in bioarchaeology, which include the analysis of bone apatite and enamel, chariot burials, and human migration patterns.

Archaeological research is increasingly based on computational methods and software. This development has profound economical and epistemological implications that must be critically reviewed and understood with respect to financial barriers to reproducible research and the ‘black box’ effect that proprietary software introduces into archaeological research. Free and open source software (FOSS) offers an alternative model of software development that is better aligned with both the economics of project-based research and the demands of good scientific practice. FOSS is not a new concept but reflects the original idea of software as part of the public research domain – an idea that is concordant with the nature of the internet and globally connected research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction to the paper is presented in which the author discusses topics addressed in the issue dealing with the impact of information technology on archaeological practices, including archaeology and open access publishing, open source software, and social media use.

This review paper begins with a discussion of the extent to which the expansion of the web has caused fundamental changes in the ways that communities are engaging with participatory events and of how technological developments are providing new platforms for communication. Accompanying these developments there have also been rapid changes in the make-up of communities, which in turn requires that we think differently about the nature of the community itself. This paper argues that the established methodological approaches of community archaeology must be reconsidered from the perspective of the web, so that we can better integrate online communication with current forms of community engagement. It focuses on the impact of open data on community archaeology's current methods for working with communities and concludes that the project-based approach to community archaeology and the traditional hierarchical structures of archaeological practice are no longer appropriate in the face of the open approaches to knowledge fostered by the web. The paper also discusses important issues that arise when integrating open data into community archaeology, including Open Data Commons licensing, the reuse of data and the re-contextualisation of legacy data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The power and the promise of digital technology provides the opportunity to revolutionise the way we think about and do archaeology. This opportunity has been seized by a few enterprising archaeologists, but can only be fully realised when a culture of participation and sharing is fostered in both academic and professional realms. Digital literacy and critical digital media object creation cannot be the realm of only a few heritage professionals, but should be cultivated and rewarded as we create new publication standards throughout archaeology. We present the background of digital participatory culture, the current entanglement of open source, open access, and for-profit technology in archaeology, and offer a challenge: to create a more ubiquitous, reflexive, open and participatory archaeology on both the institutional and the individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By unblocking knowledge bottle-necks and enhancing collaborative and creative input ‘open’ approaches have the potential to revolutionize science, humanities and arts. ‘Open’ has captured the Zeitgeist, but what is it all about? Is it about providing clear and transparent access to knowledge objects: data, theories and knowledge (open access, open data, open methods, open knowledge)? Is it about providing similar access to knowledge acquisition processes (open science)? Obviously it is; however, this is not the whole story. Open approaches require active engagement. This is not just engagement from the ‘usual suspects’ but engagement from a broader societal base. For example, primary data creators need the appropriate incentives to provide access to Open Data – these incentives will vary between different groups: contract archaeologists, curatorial archaeologists and research archaeologists all have different drivers. Equally important is that open approaches raise a number of issues about data access and downstream data reuse. This paper will discuss these issues in relation to the current situation in the UK and in the context of the DART project: an Open Science research project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the impact of exciting new approaches to open data sharing, collaborative web tools and social media on the sustainability of archaeological data. The archiving, reuse and re-analysis of data is often considered intrinsic to archaeological practice, not least because of the destructive nature of excavation. The idea that the pace of adoption of new digital technologies can outstrip the development of the infrastructure required for sustainable access to its outputs, ultimately leading to the loss of data, is sometimes referred to as the ‘Digital Dark Age’ problem. While strenuous efforts have been made to address this issue, the recent rapid uptake of a new wave of tools to enhance access, promote wider dialogue and gather data has the potential to recreate this problem. This is particularly true because of the volatile technical, legal and commercial contexts in which much of this work takes place. This paper explores these problems, discusses potential changes in the nature of archaeological dialogue and information sharing, and posits solutions that might mitigate a second ‘Digital Dark Age’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rise of the World Wide Web represents one of the most significant transitions in communications since the printing press or even since the origins of writing. To Open Access and Open Data advocates, the web offers great opportunity for expanding the accessibility, scale, diversity and quality of archaeological communications. Nevertheless, Open Access and Open Data face steep adoption barriers. Critics wrongly see Open Access as a threat to peer review. Others see data transparency as naively technocratic and lacking in an appreciation of archaeology's social and professional incentive structure. However, as argued in this paper, the Open Access and Open Data movements do not gloss over sustainability, quality and professional incentive concerns. Rather, these reform movements offer much needed and trenchant critiques of the academy's many dysfunctions. These dysfunctions, ranging from the expectations of tenure and review committees to the structure of the academic publishing industry, go largely unknown and unremarked by most archaeologists. At a time of cutting fiscal austerity, Open Access and Open Data offer desperately needed ways to expand research opportunities, reduce costs and expand the equity and effectiveness of archaeological communication. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is concerned with the development of new cyberinfrastructures which are being constructed on the foundations of Web 2.0 looking forward to Web 3.0, employing semantic techniques for modelling archaeological information in order to enhance the location, retrieval and use of data. It argues that, as these techniques emerge, it is important to consider their origins, their underlying models and their consequent effects on the subject. Representations of archaeological information are predicated upon new and existing data standards and constitute additional layering or nesting of standards within each other. The paper identifies the need for an ethnographic study of the creation of these new technologies since they present the potential for radical change within the subject but presently lack proper evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Emerging out of Web 2.0 there have been almost breath-taking technological advances in the geospatial web spurred on by developments in neogeography and the inter-connectivity provided by published open-source application programming interfaces. In addition, the greater availability of location-intelligent devices, social media technologies and the advent of volunteered geographic information promises to further revolutionize traditionally conceived geospatial technologies and empower a world of spatially aware citizen sensors. Together, these new Web 2.0 geospatial platforms and citizen-generated geotagged media pose significant opportunities and challenges to the traditional geospatial framework of GIS and standards-based spatial databases, and to archaeology. The new Web 2.0 geospatial capabilities enable communities of stakeholders and interest groups to contribute, participate, and draw upon spatial data and mapping services formerly in the domain of expert geospatial and archaeological communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dates as early as 1500 bc now can be confirmed for first human settlement of the remote Mariana Islands, more than 2000km from any contemporary populated area. These findings bear directly on comprehending long-distance human migration, and they alter orthodox views of how people first colonised the Pacific Islands. Remote Oceanic settlement has previously been understood as the legacy of Lapita pottery makers entering the Bismarck Archipelago about 1500–1350 bc, spreading into the remote islands of Southern Melanesia and West Polynesia after 1200 bc. This outline is strongly evidenced, but now it can be modified to account for Marianas colonisation at an earlier date and over a longer migration distance. Early Marianas site-dating is reviewed here comprehensively for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Landscape has emerged as a significant site for archaeological practice: for our explorations of the past, our contributions to heritage conservation, management and planning and our interventions in the lives of others. Given this, it is imperative that we – archaeological researchers and practitioners, heritage managers and professionals – engage in an ongoing ethical discourse concerning our landscape work. In this article, I aim to contribute to that process. I present a thematic review of developments in theory, ethics and practice across the landscape disciplines and provide a selective analysis of archaeological positions on these matters. From there, and drawing in particular on work in the recently emerged field of ‘landscape ethics’, I develop principles for a relational ethics of archaeological landscape practice. I suggest that these principles provide an explicit ethical platform for engaging with the circumstances of archaeological practice as they are emerging in the twenty-first century, not least as defined by widely relevant supranational landscape policies. More than that, these principles provide a basis for archaeologists to contribute, through their work, to the attainment of landscape justice, i.e. fairness and due reward in relation to landscape matters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is a comment on previous papers in World Archaeology by Spriggs (2008) and Roscoe (2009) on the use of Pacific analogies in archaeology. It is argued that the discussion needs to be put into a context of the general use of analogy, as Pacific analogies are just as analogical as any other analogy. Furthermore, the concern with analogy outlined by Spriggs and Roscoe is bound up in a dated definition of analogy which emphasizes similarities and assumes static societies. A better definition of analogy emphasizing not only similarities but differences and relevance is proposed. This definition makes it possible to modify analogies when confronted with refined archaeological data. Thus, we need not abolish the use of analogy, only use it in a more case-specific way, allowing for the ethnographic and archaeological record to modify the analogy and including the progress already reached through the study of analogy over the last sixty years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine the recent popularity of notions of fragmentation and enchainment in archaeology and aim to further the debate of these important approaches. Although we applaud the aims, and recognize the seductive power of these concepts, we suggest that there are a number of problems with the terms as they are currently used. By unpacking these expressions, we suggest these issues can be addressed and the vocabulary can continue to develop as a powerful tool for understanding materiality, exchange and personhood in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today studies of lithic technology almost invariably employ models of the reduction process, and often models of the extent of reduction that specimens and classes of tools have undergone. Debates about the explanation of lithic assemblage variability are based upon methods for inferring the nature and extent of reduction. In this paper, we construct a conceptual framework for evaluating the competing reduction indices for estimating the extent of flake retouching. With this framework we offer a new synthesis of reduction indices and the debates that have surrounded their use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that archaeologists contribute most to the contemporary 'experience society' when they tell stories. Such stories well told may be either about what happened in the past or about how archaeology proceeds. Far more significant, however, are the meta-stories of archaeology. These are defined as stories of archaeology in which contemporary audiences themselves feature as characters, engulfed in a plot about archaeology or the past that gives meaning and perspective to their present-day lives. Such meta-stories may draw on metaphorical meanings that resonate in the practices of professional archaeology. In this paper, however, the emphasis is put on another type of meta-story that explores, in relation to the past, what it means to be human, who we are as members of a particular human group and how we might be living under different circumstances. I argue that archaeologists need to get better at understanding and critically appreciating the overarching meta-stories they evoke. For archaeology matters when its meta-stories matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) provides a methodology for engaging descendent and local communities as partners in archaeological research. This article, based on a five-year comparative research project that examines CBPR's application to archaeology, demonstrates a collaborative model that involves reciprocity, is action based and aims to build community capacity while engaging communities in the process of archaeological research and heritage management. Included are details of what community-based participatory research is, the main principles involved in its practice and a demonstration of how it is being effectively applied 'on-the-ground' at Catalhoyuk, Turkey. Two components of the Catalhoyuk CBPR project are highlighted: the community internship program and the archaeological community theatre project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking as its starting point Slavoj Zizek's (1997) The Plague of Fantasies, this paper considers how the electronic mediascape and its contagious practices have come to dominate all areas of contemporary reportage and history-making. It suggests that Web 2.0's reliance on 'mob thinking' and 'wiki-histories' can lead to a rapid and widespread erasure of alternative accounts and non-dominant narratives. Against this background, the paper explores the urgency of developing an 'archaeology of now' which could provide a stimulus for the exploration of marginal and subaltern viewpoints and alternative contemporary histories. Such an archaeology might involve not only a focus on contemporary material evidence, but also the analysis of virtual material culture and the excavation of virtual media to reveal the power structures and micro-histories of the World Wide Web's dominant narratives. The paper is intentionally provocative, and aims to stimulate a broader engagement with an archaeology of the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With easy access to satellite imagery through free applications such as Google Earth, it is now financially feasible for archaeologists to undertake remote survey in areas that are difficult or impossible to access in person. But there are ethical concerns inherent in the use of remotely sensed images, as Google Earth might be seen as a panoptic viewing technology that leaves no voice to those being viewed. Through a virtual investigation of the Camp Delta prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, I discuss methodological and theoretical aspects of the use of Google Earth in archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How far can there be such a thing as a 'European archaeology'? Is this a matter of geography and recent history or does it rather reflect different discourses that take place in different parts of Europe? The contrast between a western ('Anglo-American') and central or eastern ('mitteleuropaisch') European archaeology is considered, along with recent discussions of similarities and differences across the continent. The role of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) in bringing scholars and practitioners together is seen as a positive force, which a common language (English) is helping to promote. Recent developments include the 'Discovering the Archaeologists of Europe' project, and changes in the licensing and registering system in different countries; here the example of Romania shows a progressive official attitude to preventive archaeology, coupled with a very traditional approach to the study and teaching of archaeology. The opportunities presented by the creation of the European Research Council should be exploited by the profession with a view to creating large-scale projects that can serve to address questions on a pan-European scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous discussion article, 'Do we need “the archaeology of Europe”?' (Kristiansen 2008), I argued that, although a European archaeology is being promoted by both the European Association of Archaeologists and the European conventions, such as the Valletta Convention of 1992 and the European Landscape Convention of 2000, there are still more divergences than commonalities, due to the strong national organization of archaeology in Europe. I especially considered archaeological heritage terminology, the language of references in books and journals, and the structure of archaeological journals which all pointed to an increasing national focus of archaeological research and publications. In this article I take a closer look at the structure of developer-funded excavations, or contract archaeology, in Europe. I argue that contract archaeology represents a laboratory for the testing of different principles of organization, control and quality assessments. Although the Valletta Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage stipulates the basic principles of developer-funded rescue archaeology, its implementation since 1992 among the European nations, and indeed also among the regions within nations, such as the federal states (landes) in Germany, varies dramatically. By analysing a few 'model countries' I demonstrate that this variation comes down to, and originates from, two basically different political principles: that of 'socialism' and that of 'capitalism' (following Willems and van den Dries 2007b). As they have different implications for quality control and research the choice of one or the other has far-reaching consequences for the future of archaeology in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relations between European archaeologies and those elsewhere in the world are manifold and complex. They involve issues in archaeological research, in dealing with archaeological heritage resources, and in the archaeological profession, that are also influenced by the dominant use of English. This paper explores some of those issues that were also presented at a debate during the World Archaeological Congress in Dublin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how researchers perceive key research developments in their fields is not straightforward. This paper reports on a project focusing on perceptions of key developments in the adoption of agriculture (Mesolithic-Neolithic transition) in Ireland. The project involved over sixty interviews with active researchers, generating qualitative data that provide an overview of these perceptions. Despite much diversity, several areas emerge as having been particularly important, including methodologies and wider developments in archaeological practice. Variation between Ireland and other areas of north-west Europe is suggested by some aspects of the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeology in 2009 is being adversely affected by a global economic crisis. This has followed a period of successful expansion of practice in many countries, and is now leading to reductions in budgets and job losses. Countries that have adopted a market-facing, commercial system to deliver archaeological management have been more seriously affected than those where the state has retained control over this process. In many states, capital expenditure by governments on infrastructure projects is supporting some archaeological practice. Government commitment to funding archaeological practice is likely to be unsustainable in the long-term, and post-crisis a return to private-sector funding of flexible commercial archaeological practice can be expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay scrutinizes the special status of indigenous archaeologies in contemporary world archaeology. My aim is to contribute to the future development of indigenous archaeologies by giving them the critical attention they deserve and have earned themselves. A contemporary European perspective not only shows that national heritage is no longer able to unite increasingly diverse populations but also that indigenous perspectives on the cultural heritage must not be privileged over others. What challenges and changes the role of heritage management in Europe in our age is not oppression by immigrants of indigenous minorities but, if anything, an oppression of immigrants by indigenous majorities. We should not surrender the important principles of equality and equal opportunities that modern democracies proudly embrace. Immigrants' claims and responses to the common cultural heritage are as valid and significant as those of any other residents. As the old European nations gradually become episodes of the past, it appears that the future of heritage is wide open. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Archaeology volume 'The Cultural Biography of Objects' (Marshall and Gosden 1999) retains its currency ten years after its publication and the ideas highlighted in it continue to be developed. However, the relative success of biographical studies which rely on anthropological or historical information compared with biographical studies of prehistoric objects is evident. Through the example of a British Iron Age mirror this paper explores ways of redressing the difficulties of applying a biographical approach to prehistoric objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this journal, Spriggs has recently criticized the use of anthropological ethnographies from New Guinea as a source of analogy for the archaeology of the European Neolithic, arguing that they fail to reckon with how radically colonialism had changed New Guinea's communities by the time anthropological fieldwork got under way. Old World archaeologists looking to the Pacific for analogical inspiration, he suggests, would do better to look to its archaeological record. There is much to what Spriggs claims. However, he exaggerates or misinterprets the scale of contact-induced change on New Guinea; his broader case against Melanesian ethnographic analogy unfairly dismisses a substantial corpus of anthropological ethnography; it ignores a massive archive of relevant historical documentation; and it adopts an unnecessarily restrictive view of the uses to which ethnographic analogies can be put. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the March 2008 issue, highlighting the central topic of experimental archaeological methodologies.

An experimental approach to cut-mark investigation has proved particularly successful and should arguably be a prerequisite for individuals interested in developing standard methods to study butchery data. This paper offers a brief review of the criteria used to investigate cut marks and subsequently outlines recent research that has integrated results from replication studies of archaeological tools and cut marks with written resources to study historic butchery practices. The case is made for a degree of standardization to be incorporated into the recording of butchery data and for the integration of evidence from the analysis of cut marks and tool signatures. While the call for standardization is not without precedent the process would benefit from a suitable model: one is proposed herein based in large part on experimental replication and personal vocational experience gained in the modern butchery trade. Furthermore, the paper identifies issues that need to be kept at the forefront of an experimental approach to butchery investigation and places emphasis on the use of modern analogy and cultural theory as a means of improving our interpretation of cut-mark data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental archaeology embodies a large array of conceptual approaches. In the present work, it is argued that only those methodological approaches maximizing comparability between experiments and case-specific archaeological problems are heuristically scientific. This reduces the range of analogies that can be applied to the past. The adequateness of analogies depends on how the conceptual premises of experiments are designed. A practical example of this is provided through the comparison of referential frameworks created to understand the utility of cut marks to reconstruct butchering behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop irrigation has long been recognized as having been important for the evolution of social complexity in several parts of the world. Structural evidence for water management, as in the form of wells, ditches and dams, is often difficult to interpret and may be a poor indicator of past irrigation that may have had no need for such constructions. It would be of considerable value, therefore, to be able to infer past irrigation directly from archaeo-botanical remains, and especially the type of archaeo-botanical remains that are relatively abundant in the archaeological record, such as phytoliths. Building on the pioneering work of Rosen and Wiener (1994), this paper describes a crop-growing experiment designed to explore the impact of irrigation on the formation of phytoliths within cereals. If it can be shown that a systemic and consistent relationship exists between phytolith size, structure and the intensity of irrigation, and if various taphonomic and palaeoenvironmental processes can be controlled for, then the presence of past irrigation can feasibly be inferred from the phytoliths recovered from the archaeological record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All scientific investigations require experimentation to test hypotheses and support interpretations. Thus, experimental studies are an indispensable aspect of investigations of organic residues from archaeological ceramics. Experimental methods have been applied to provide insights into factors relating to vessels use and burial. Studies relating to vessel use have used replica vessels, ceramic chips and powder to investigate both physical and chemical phenomena relating to organic residue deposition and transformations. Ethnographic vessels are employed to bridge a practical gap, providing insights into the impacts of long-term vessel use that would be impossible to address in laboratory experiments. By combining such studies we have provided important insights into the chemical compositions observed and prompted searches for novel marker compounds that might otherwise have been overlooked. Potsherds impregnated with organic residues provide substrates for investigating the impacts of burial on chemical and stable isotopic compositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objects are a key aspect of archaeological evidence and theories about them should contribute to interdisciplinary debates on materiality and material culture. Despite the primacy of this evidence there is considerable scope for further debate about the role of materials in concepts of materiality and the social construction of sensory perception. This is as true for a past society as it is for our own but the two world views may be ill-matched and archaeology can miss important sensory issues in the societies it studies. The way in which archaeology deals with objects is deconstructed to offer some criticism of present practice, and some ideas for new ways of thinking about the role of sensory perception in constructing concepts of materiality for past societies by a focus on attention. Further exploration of the role of the senses in the modern craft of finds analysis is advocated, in order to elucidate the passing on of such skills and the way in which material experiences colour modern perceptions and interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sketches the project of a symmetrical archaeology in brief. At a point when archaeology has arguably never been more relevant, it finds itself in a climate of necessary plurality where incommensurability is routinely shrugged off as a symptom of diversity; it finds itself in a state where seemingly incompatible differences proliferate on either side of the divide between the humanities and the sciences; it finds itself perplexed by divides between ideas and things, past and present, and so on. A symmetrical archaeology holds that these divides are of our own making. Without over-simplifying the world with an impoverished vocabulary of contradictory bifurcations, a symmetrical archaeology offers a profitable suite of perspectives and practices for recognizing the impact of things and our fellow creatures, ordinarily denied a stake in modernist myths of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symmetry is an epistemological and ethical principle developed in the social study of scientific practice. This essay connects a symmetrical archaeology to major trends in the discipline since the 1960s and to key components of archaeological practice - relational ontologies, mixtures of past and present, people and things, biology and culture, individual and society. Symmetrical archaeology is a culmination of effort in archaeology to undercut these modernist dualities and to recognize the vitality of the present past. Symmetry adds new force to the claim that archaeologists have a unique perspective on human engagements with things, on social agency and constructions of contemporary identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ammerman and Noller (2005) question several aspects of investigations at the early Holocene site of Akrotiri Aetokremnos in Cyprus. Here we address their criticisms, paying particular attention to three ambiguities that they noted. We also suggest that their claim to having discovered contemporary sites may be premature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the principle of symmetry for archaeology in light of the discipline's theoretical legacy. At the core, this principle involves a reconfiguration of how the relationship between humans and things is characterized. Advocating the recognition of mixtures of what are routinely parsed into categories of nature and society, a symmetrical archaeology centres itself upon the equitable study of the discipline's defining ingredients. It is argued that such symmetry of humans and things undercuts many pesky dualisms exhibited throughout the recent history of archaeological theory and practice. The article summarizes the salient formulations of this relationship in archaeological thinking and suggests that a symmetrical focus on ontological mixtures removes the reliance upon multiplying epistemological settlements that fragment the discipline. An example is given of how heritage might be rethought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses why things have become marginalized in the social sciences and addresses some major intellectual traditions considered the main suspects for this deportation. It also explores what is claimed to be a crucial link between those very philosophies and central approaches in recent material culture studies. The paradoxical outcome of this effective history is that the ontology responsible for the displacement of things also to a large extent grounds the programs of repatriation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to be clear as to whether a theory such as evolutionary archaeology pertains to biological evolution, in which acquired change is obliterated at the end of each generation, or cultural change, in which acquired change is retained. In evolutionary archaeology, (1) the population is said to consist of artifacts, yet (2) artifacts are said to be phenotypic. Neither (1) nor (2) is necessarily problematic in and of itself, but the two are inconsistent, as the first pertains to cultural change whereas the second to the biological evolution of humans. A first step to avoiding this problem is to recognize that there is a need for a theory of change specific to human culture. Referring to ongoing work using a related approach to cultural change, it is suggested that the inconsistencies in evolutionary archaeology, though problematic, are not insurmountable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While interdisciplinarity may be an admirable goal many still doubt its benefits. The paper seeks to articulate the methods used to work across disciplines and considers the obstacles that stand in the way of inter- rather than multi-disciplinarity. Sauer's volume is used as a starting point to highlight key concerns in integrating archaeology and ancient history: the assumption that disciplines are determined by evidence type; the encouragement of specialisms to be discipline specific; the lack of differentiation between Mode One and Mode Two collaborative projects. Briefly tracing the development of the two subjects, suggestions are made as to why history is associated with text and archaeology with object. This is followed by proposals for two key areas of integration beyond concerns of evidence type: the struggle of the two disciplines to deal with accessing the past while being products of the present, and explaining patterns of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rich prehistoric archaeological record in Andean South America has obscured the importance of post-conquest historic sites in the region. Archaeologists researching the former Spanish colonies have long turned to the US ‘Borderlands’ and the Caribbean for models defining the archaeology of Spanish colonialism. Recently, however, Andean archaeologists have begun to create new emphases on the archaeology of colonialism and archaeologies of the later Andean republics. This region was a core area of Spanish overseas expansion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with much of the precious metal wealth of the empire produced in Andean mines. Today archaeologists in the Andean republics of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, and the foreign researchers who also work in the region, are overcoming geographic, financial and linguistic barriers to create a unified Andean historical archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]