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Maize stem sculptures, produced during the 16th and 17th centuries in New Spain (today, Mexico) are a clear example of the convergence of the artistic traditions from the American indigenous populations and European influence. This typology of sculptures is not limited to the Americas, as the examples found in European countries have shown. Therefore, a detailed technological investigation is required to correctly classify them. This work presents the interdisciplinary and multianalytical investigation of a 16th-century sculpture made with a maize stem preserved in Guadalajara city, Mexico. We used a set of techniques, such as CT, SEM-EDX, μ-FTIR, and μ-Raman, to study, from a macro to a micro level, the structure, the polychromy, and the modification of the sculpture. The results showed the use of maize stems, paper, and wood in the construction of the sculpture and the use of the traditional polychromy, as well as the numerous modifications that changed its appearance considerably resulting in its misclassification. We were able to associate the statue with the Cortés workshop (Mexico City region), probably produced in the decade of 1580, and track its liturgical use and historical development through the centuries.

The Traces in a Lost Landscape: Aboriginal archaeological sites, Dyarubbin/Nepean River Project uses geospatial recording and analysis to recover, integrate, and map data from published and unpublished reports on Aboriginal archaeological sites on Dyarubbin/the Nepean River in New South Wales, Australia. This dataset consists of Australian Aboriginal archaeological locations of interest in the greater Nepean River area in New South Wales, Australia.

The present review article reports the most innovative methods to detect proteins in historical and archeological samples as well as to characterize proteins used as binders in artworks. Difficulties to ascribe proteins to a certain animal species are often due to post-translational modifications originated by chemical or microbial deterioration during aging. Combining different techniques such as peptide mass fingerprinting and tandem mass spectrometry can solve some of these problems and also allow discrimination between taxonomically related species like sheep and goat. The most studied proteins in bones and textile samples are osteocalcin, collagen and keratin, whereas egg yolk and white proteins, casein and collagen are the most relevant for binders used in old paintings. With the suitable approaches (immune-based methods, DOT-blot, etc…) it is also possible to obtain in situ characterization or analyze the samples directly in the museum laboratories, with the advantage of avoiding artwork damage and expensive external commitments. Recent cutting-edge strategies allowed detection of proteinaceous infection markers that, for instance, were used to establish the cause of death of old Inca mummies and also proved the presence of Yersinia pestis in old documents dating from the period in 17th century in which the plague ravaged Europe.

This paper describes the faunal record from a late Holocene archaeological site located on the freshwater wetlands of the South Alligator River and compares it with that from the Adelaide River, in the Northern Territory. The information characterizes freshwater wetland resources and their use by Aboriginal people, providing a snapshot of life on the floodplains immediately prior to European contact. Although the two wetland systems appear similar, and extractive technology in the form of bone points is also similar, the faunal assemblages show that Aboriginal hunting strategies differed between the two areas. These differences can be explained by variations in regional topography and seasonality of site use.

The article is devoted to Russian-Ottoman interaction at the concrete historical period (1792—1828). In this time the fortress Anapa was the center of Ottoman domain at the North-Western Caucasus. The communication occasions and reasons, actors and cases of the oral and writings, texts of messages are explored. The authors analyzed forms of interaction (correspondence, oral communications, diplomatic negotiations) between Russian regional officials and the Anapa’s Pasha and his administration. The few dozens of various messages were revealed and analyzed. Languages of these communications (Ottoman Turkish, Russian, Armenian, Greek, and French), the interpreters’ personalities, actors of oral messages, mediators and couriers were in research focus. Besides, the documents structures (different forms) were investigated. The authors made the conclusions about system interaction between the two opposite sides for over 30 years in this region.

The Maeshowe digital archive (Smith et al. 2018) comprises the processed outputs and original source images from a series of Highlight-RTIs captured between the 21st–25th July 2016 in the Maeshowe chambered cairn in Stenness, Orkney. Each RTI file, accompanying assembly files, and the source images from which the final .ptm file is derived are stored in a single folder within the archive. The content of each RTI and its location within the cairn is described in the body of the paper.

These data were used to build an object detection model to locate Relict Charcoal Hearths (RCH) as described in the paper “When Computers Dream of Charcoal: Using Deep Learning, Open Tools and Open Data to Identify Relict Charcoal Hearths in and around State Game Lands in Pennsylvania” [1]. This is the second grouping of data for the paper above. The first grouping is also available in this journal, see “Geospatial and image data from the “When Computers Dream of Charcoal: Using Deep Learning, Open Tools and Open Data to Identify Relict Charcoal Hearths in and around State Game Lands in Pennsylvania” paper” [2]. These files consist of: JPEGs representing tiles of larger Slope TIFF files derived from LiDAR for the State Game Lands (SGL) of Pennsylvania, United States [3456]. A subset of these tiles was used to train the model. A Shapefile of points of known relict charcoal hearths (RCH). XML files representing the pixel points of known RCHs on JPEG files used for training. Jupyter notebooks of programs used to prepare data and train a Mask R-CNN model. The Mask R-CNN model H5 file. Shapefile and GeoJSON of object detection results from the model showing locations of possible RCH in all SGLs. XML files representing the pixel points of predicted RCH on JPEG files used for predictions. GeoJSON of results using cluster analysis. These data are stored onzenodo.org. The programs are stored on Github.com.

These data were used to build an object detection model to locate Relict Charcoal Hearths (RCH) as described in the paper “When Computers Dream of Charcoal: Using Deep Learning, Open Tools and Open Data to Identify Relict Charcoal Hearths in and around State Game Lands in Pennsylvania” [1]. This is the first grouping of data for the paper above. The second grouping is also available in this journal, see “Object detection model, image data and results from the “When Computers Dream of Charcoal: Using Deep Learning, Open Tools and Open Data to Identify Relict Charcoal Hearths in and around State Game Lands in Pennsylvania” paper”. These files consist of georeferenced Digital Elevation Model, Hillshade and Slope files derived from LiDAR for the State Game Lands (SGL). Included is a Shapefile and GeoJSON of State Game Land borders as well as the program used for downloading the LiDAR files. These data are stored on 'Zenodo.org'.

This paper analyzes the southeastern Connecticut Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation’s battle with cultural erasure and resistance through education. Indigenous education programs are gradual yet the most effective method of resisting Western cultural erasure from the United States government, because they peacefully invite both Natives and non-Natives to learn about Native American history outside of European colonizer textbooks. The Tribe battles the erasure that can result from external parties’ ability to grant state or federal titles recognizing tribal authority (known as recognition titles) to determine who receives the powerful stamp of Indigeneity and the right to self- govern. My case study focuses on the Eastern Pequots Archaeology Field School project in collaboration with University of Massachusetts, Boston. I evaluate how the Eastern Pequots use a collaborative archaeology education program with their Tribal members and non-Native individuals to resist erasure by decolonizing Western pedagogy. The Field School has gathered over 99,000 artifacts over 15 seasons that dismantle common misconceptions of how Native Americans lived during the beginning of the United States’ history and redefine modern beliefs about how Natives survived European colonization. The Field School contributes to expanding brief descriptions of Native history into a more complicated and dynamic story that elaborates on Native struggle, survival and resistance.

Old manuscripts are among the most important elements of the cultural and historical heritage of ancient knowledge. Unfortunately, many of them suffer from degradation, mostly those written with iron gall inks. In the present work, a study using non-destructive techniques was designed with the aim of analyzing the elemental composition and structural characteristics of iron gall inks, reproduced in laboratory, paper and their interaction when the ink is deposited on paper, inducing the paper degradation. Proton induced X-ray emission, X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy provided the elemental and structural information, and photography under infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) light allowed the differentiation between manufactured inks. Results show that the first step of inked paper deterioration is due to acid-hydrolysis of the cellulose and the presence of reactive Fe(II) species by reducing the crystallinity index of the paper, which is affected depending on the ink recipe and the starting raw materials. These results will be useful to future studies on ancient documents written with iron gall inks, which suffer deterioration due to ink corrosion, and to differentiate between the different paper degradation mechanisms.

The data in the related digital archive was collected to examine the archaeological and historical evidence for material culture in English medieval rural households, with the aim of gaining a fuller picture than what might be attainable by looking only at objects or documents in isolation. The digital archive provides a starting point for anyone wishing to research aspects of medieval rural settlement.

The discipline of archaeology is uniquely positioned to allow for inclusion of culturally appropriate curricula to be incorporated into student learning objectives as mentioned in the 94 Calls to Action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015). In this paper the authors discuss the creation, implementation, and qualitative feedback of a community-directed and curriculum-based education program developed by graduate students that uses archaeology to mediate student learning and meet curriculum goals in both classroom and land-based environments. This experiential learning initiative involves graduate and undergraduate students, and students from a local Indigenous community and the surrounding area. Feedback from educators and student participants, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous found that the experience fostered a deeper understanding of longstanding histories of the land and increased cultural appreciation. The paper outlines program development, curriculum connections, community engagement, as well as educator and student feedback. This programming can be used as a framework, and the creation of local and place-based education initiatives is encouraged within other disciplines to facilitate pedagogy for reconciliation. [Articles in this journal were presented at the University of Calgary Conference on Postsecondary Learning and Teaching.]

During a conservation project of a luso-oriental altar ivory cross from the 17th century, 59 paper fragments were found on its four level step base, between some of the low relief ivory plates and its wooden sockets of the four level base, and behind some cabochons of the decoration. Some fragments present a watermark and hand writing. These elements, together with the observation of the stains, dimension of fragments and their perforations, lead us to formulate the hypothesis of their having occurred three mountings, in different time periods. The paper characteristics and the history of other materials used in those mountings permit to pinpoint time periods for their occurrence.

The dataset contains the spatial data needed to build the network of least cost camel paths between archaeological sites and watering places in the Egyptian Eastern Desert during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. It includes the sites to be linked, the travel factors (topography, navigation and terrain surface), the modern traveler routes used for training and model validation, and the outputs. Data processing models, made on ArcGIS 10.5, are available. Data and analyses for model calibration and validation to assess its quality are also provided. The objective of this dataset is to be able to reproduce the network created in the Egyptian Eastern Desert and facilitate the application of the approach to other study areas. Although the input data is based on the Egyptian Eastern Desert, the method is nevertheless reproducible using the data processing models developed. Paper linked with the data: Manière, L., Crépy, M., Redon, B. (2021) Building a Model to reconstruct the Hellenistic and Roman Road Networks of the Eastern Desert of Egypt, a Semi-Empirical Approach Based on Modern Travelers’ Itineraries. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology. In review.

El paper dels ausetans a la Segona Guerra Púnica havia estat sempre acceptat i corroborat per les fonts i l’arqueologia. Ara bé, la citació de Livi «Ausetanos prope Hiberum» ha portat a suposar l’existència d’uns altres ausetans a l’Ebre i a fer-los protagonistes dels fets atribuïts pels clàssics. Volem demostrar que les terres del Ter mitjà van ser importants en el conflicte i en les revoltes posteriors, i que és aquest el territori ausetà a què les fonts fan referència, tal com ho demostren els esdeveniments històrics posteriors que culminen amb la fundació d’Auso.

How are particular material culture traditions passed from one generation to the next? This digital archive supports "Technology as Human Social Tradition: Cultural Transmission among Hunter-Gatherers" (Jordan 2015) published by University of California Press. The archive consists of 15 Excel files which were used to conduct in-depth analysis of the factors driving diversity and change in material culture traditions. Each file contains a high-resolution survey of the design features of one material tradition practised by groups living in a geographic region. Three regions are investigated: Northwest Siberia (storage platforms, shrines, skis); Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada (houses, canoes, basketry-matting); Northern California (basketry, houses, ceremonial dress).