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The Great Basin of Western North America is one of the. legendary deserts of the world. This rugged, wide open, and apparently harsh landscape has long served as a backdrop for human drama. Gold seekers and immigrants of the 19th century immortalized the rigors of travelling across the Great Basin on their way to greener grass in California and Oregon. But archaeological research has shown that human occupation of the Great Basin dates back for thousands of years, and ethnographic accounts of Native Americans who lived in this desert have played an important role in the development of concepts of hunter-gatherer subsistence and settlement patterns. It is the Indians of the Great Basin that Julian Steward (1938) studied for his well-known model of sodo-political organiza­tion and evolution (Steward 1955; also see Service 1975), Jesse Jennings (1957) later used Steward's model in his development of the Desert Culture concept, which was widely adapted to other North America deserts.

The papers of the nineteenth century antiquary and surgeon Thomas Pettigrew are of considerable interest in the histories of science, medicine and archaeology. The letters presented here were received by Pettigrew between 1817 and 1859, and form part of the Pettigrew Papers held at Yale University. They were transcribed during research into Pettigrew’s life and work, focusing in particular on his contributions to archaeology and Egyptology, and are presented in the form of texts. They are likely to be of interest and use to scholars of early nineteenth century intellectual history, and historians of archaeology in particular.

The Burdale digital archive (Richards and Roskams 2013) comprises a broad range of primary and secondary data derived from fieldwork and post-excavation analysis. It complements the summary report published as Richards and Roskams (2012). Full stratigraphic reports are downloadable for each season of excavation and can be related to the sequence of CAD plans also available. These can, in turn, be set within the wider site map derived from aerial photography and geophysical survey. Final reports are available for the pottery, spindlewhorls, and worked bone and antler (Ashby 2013). Other finds are simply listed in the finds databases, split by excavation year, with some preliminary notes on the ironwork included in the investigative conservation reports. The non-ferrous finds assemblage was largely missing, apart from a small number of topsoil finds recovered during metal detector surveys. Given the alleged wealth of the site, and the interest in it from 'nighthawks' we have to assume that unfortunately, most of the coinage and copper alloy metalwork has been collected from the ploughsoil over many years and is in private hands or has been sold for profit. In common with other Yorkshire sites Burdale produced very little early medieval pottery but this is likely to be a real absence rather than a product of recovery bias. The animal bone assemblage (Richardson 2010) is one of the most important elements of the archive. Over 300 images are also presented, split by year of excavation. The file downloads are organised in 3 groups: those relating to the whole project and those specifically related to excavations in 2006 (BUR06) or 2007 (BUR07). Referee statement by Gabor Thomas

Archaeological reports and monographs tend to follow a fairly formal style and it is the. rare author who includes recollections of life in the field, budget cuts, or such problems as finding enough workspace in the museum or department. Also, a significant amount of fieldwork never gets reported, although the Current Research section (and Notes and News before it) in Amercan Antiquity pro­vided a great deal of valuable information not available elsewhere, until it was killed off by the editor in 1994.

The disinfection of deteriogenic microorganisms and the removal of induced chromatic alterations in artworks are still open challenges in the field of conservation. For this purpose, a new alcoholic hydrogel was tested to remove an extensive fungal attack from a multimaterial collage by the artist Alessandro Kokocinski and to mitigate chromatic changes caused by the contamination of its poster paper and plywood support layers. A Gellan gum-based hydrogel was used, which was modified by adding a high concentration of alcohol (66.7% ethanol), to give the system an effective disinfecting agent in addition to the detergent capacity of the gel for water-sensitive works of art. It was successfully tested on samples mimicking the complex stratigraphy of the artwork under study. To create replica mock-ups, the artwork materials and stratigraphy were investigated through diagnostic and laboratory techniques such as multispectral imaging, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and pyrolysis coupled with gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry. The treatment was shown to have a disinfecting effect on the test samples and did not alter their structure, allowing us to apply the method to the artwork. Here, the hydrogel successfully removed and inhibited fungal proliferation in addition to mitigating the color changes caused by fungi.

This work was carried out for a master’s degree thesis concerning the conservation of a contemporary artwork made by the surrealist artist Roberto Sebastian Matta. The artwork is a large (one central panel 180.3 × 405.1 cm; two side panels 179.1 × 150.6 cm) triptych created in 1974 with pastels on tracing paper adhered onto canvas as a secondary support. After thoroughly studying the execution technique and conservation status of the artwork, several issues arose, including a strong acid hydrolysis of both the paper and canvas supports. We focused our intervention on deacidification treatments by comparing either traditional substances, such as calcium propionate in an alcoholic solution, or more innovative methods, such as a nanostructured calcium hydroxide in isopropyl alcoholic solution. Acid hydrolysis degradation was the most difficult issue to address because of the size of the artwork and for the different sensitivities to aqueous methods of the materials used to make the artwork. For the first time to our knowledge, we used an innovative deacidification method consisting of nanostructured calcium hydroxide particles. This intervention would allow the homogeneous atomization of the deacidifying agent in alcoholic solvents to be safe and effective for the work as a whole.

The Ceramics and Society dataset (Wynne-Jones and Fleisher 2013) includes a database that documents the analysis of over 2,000 potsherds of the Early Tana Tradition (ETT), a 7th-10th century ceramic tradition found along the eastern African coastline and hinterland. The dataset contains 40 variables for each sherd, including those related to vessel shape, materials, decoration and finishing and production attributes. Referee statement by Paul Lane

Microbial contamination control in indoor environments, such as libraries and archives, represents a challenge. Essential oils (EOs), well-known for their antimicrobial properties, have been applied in pharmaceutical and food industry from many years. In the present study, Thymus vulgaris and Origanum vulgare EO antimicrobial efficacy on paper-born microorganisms, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Alternaria alternata, was investigated to protect water-damaged paper documents and to control indoor air quality for operator’s health safety. T. vulgaris EO was the most effective: Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) values obtained for S. epidermidis and R. mucilaginosa, with a broth macro-dilution method, were 7.5 µg/mL and 5.63 µg/mL, respectively. T. vulgaris EO (0.75% v/v), nebulized immediately after the inoculation on agar plates or paper sheets, showed a high inhibition effect against the three biodeteriogenic microorganisms, also when lyophilized on paper sheets; in this last case, the EO has a higher efficacy when applied immediately after the freeze drying. Regarding the EO effect against A. alternata, the inhibition percentage of the mycelial growth, MGI, (81.4%), observed for nonsporulated mycelium, was higher than that for the sporulated one (51.4%). Finally, T. vulgaris EO (0.75% v/v) was effectively applied on a real contaminated book cover by means of EO impregnated contact sheets. Obtained results demonstrated that tested EOs were able to delay or completely inhibit paper-born microorganism growth for both flood-independent or -dependent contamination.

Objectives: Our objective was to identify the relationship between biocultural factors of sex-gender and age and patterns of femoral cross-sectional geometry with historical evidence about labor and activity from an archeological skeletal sample excavated from the rural Medieval site Pieve di Pava., Materials and Methods: The study site, Pieve di Pava, was a rural parish cemetery in Tuscany with osteoarcheological remains from the 7th to 12th centuries. Cross-sectional geometric analysis of femora from 110 individuals dated to the 10th-12th centuries were used to examine trends in bone quantity, shape, and bending strength between age and sex groups, as well as in clusters identified through Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA)., Results: Overall, our study sample showed remarkable heterogeneity and our cluster analysis revealed a complex underlying structure, indicating that divisions of labor did not follow a strict gender binary in our sample. We found high levels of bilateral asymmetry in our sample in multiple cross-sectional areas for a significant proportion of the population. We found minimal differences between age groups or sex., Discussion: Our results suggest that males and females had varied experiences of labor and work during their lives that did not reflect the strict binary gender roles sometimes documented for medieval Europe. One important axis of difference is the direction and magnitude of bilateral asymmetry observed in our femur sample, which is associated with divergent trends in section moduli and bone area measures., (© 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Abstract: Archaeology has always been a multimedia discipline in terms of teaching and publication. From the earliest days of archaeology as an academic subject, archaeologists have used museum collections, slides, and actual site visits as well as 'chalk and talk' for teaching. Archaeological publications are almost always illustrated. The Sphakia Survey is an interdisciplinary archaeological project whose main objective is to reconstruct the sequence of human activity in a remote and rugged part of Crete (Greece), from ca 3000 BC to AD 1900. In addition to preliminary reports, we have published specialised articles on paper, and part of the final publication will also be in hard copy. But in order to reach other, broader audiences, we have used two other modes of publication... This paper examines the impact of video and the Internet on the work of the Survey. It concludes that these new technologies add new opportunities, though not always those that one might expect; and that they make it possible to do things better, in connection with research, teaching, and dissemination of results, both to academic and to general audiences. Editors: Stuart Lee. Interactive demonstrations: Links to external web sites.

Repatriation of archival materials holds great potential for decolonizing archaeological archives. This paper argues that while repatriation of human remains and cultural objects is required by law under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), traditional manuscript archives can and should be subject to the same standards for repatriation. The entirety of the archaeological archive can therefore be repatriated to descendant communities. In fact, many museums and other institutions have adopted the practice of digital repatriation of both documents and artifacts. By repatriating a facsimile of an important cultural item, institutions may actually perpetuate the colonial perspective that the original item's proper place is with the institution instead of with its community of origin. This paper addresses situations in which it is both appropriate and inappropriate to repatriate a digital copy instead of the original object.

This paper presents the limitations and potential of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy applied to the study of cellulosic textile collections. The technique helps to differentiate natural fibres according to the content of lignin, pectin, hemicellulose, and wax, although some problematic issues should be considered. The spectral differences derived from the environmental humidity uptake and the plant composition are reviewed and discussed in the light of new experimental data. Diagnostic bands are proposed that can discriminate between different fibres from different plants. The contribution of ageing is also considered, demonstrating that sometimes aged fibres cannot be reliably recognised. In contrast, the potential of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy to discriminate between natural and modified fibres is discussed and proven. The best results were obtained when microinvasive ATR-FTIR spectroscopy was coupled with SEM observations. The proposed protocol was tested on microsamples of various cellulosic materials from traditional Japanese samurai armours dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries (Morigi Collection, Museo delle Culture, Lugano, Switzerland). The results facilitated a complete characterisation of the materials and demonstrated that the protocol can be used to study a wide variety of cellulosic materials, including both natural and man-modified fibres, and paper.

Many artefacts important to the history of dentistry have disappeared from collections. The missing artefacts represent dental techniques of many cultures and all historical eras. The artifact collections include those of major first world institutions and private collections. Many of the artefacts were collected in the early days of scientific archaeology and museum curation and hopefully are simply lying unforgotten in storage. As if to compensate for the disappointment of such failures, hope lies in literary texts that speak of artefacts that may yet be discovered., (Copyright 2020 © American Academy of the History of Dentistry.)

The conservation of contemporary art often offers unique occasions to study complex multi-material artworks and understand their creative process and esteem degradation distress. The recent diagnostic campaign on the surrealist artwork Perché le vittime vincano (For the victims to win) (1974–75) by the artist Roberto Sebastian Matta allowed us to characterize the original painting materials (pastels on spolvero paper), never investigated and completely unknown, in order to support the imminent restoration. Due to the great dimensions of the artwork and its conservative issues, non-invasive multispectral imaging (HMI) analyses were done to investigate the whole painted surface, mapping and differentiating original materials and possible degradation patterns. Imaging data supported analytical characterization analyses run through elemental (portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive spectroscopy) and molecular spectroscopy (Fourier transform infrared and portable µ-Raman spectroscopy) to identify the original artist’s materials and to support the restoration operations. The analysis revealed that the painting materials used by Matta are pastels characterized by modern pigments and dyes, such as Cu-phthalocyanines, chrome orange, titanium and zinc whites, compacted with kaolin without any organic binder or with a possible minuscule amount of gum.

Archaeology is often argued to provide a unique long-term perspective on humans that can be utilised for effective policy-making, for example, in discussions of resilience and sustainability. However, the specific archaeological evidence for resilient/sustainable systems is rarely explored, with these terms often used simply to describe a community that survived a particular shock. In this study, a set of 74 case studies of papers discussing archaeological evidence for resilience/sustainability are identified and analysed using bibliometric methods. Variables from the papers are also quantified to assess patterns and provide a review of current knowledge. A great variety of scales of analysis, case study locations, stressors, resilient/sustainable characteristics, and archaeological evidence types are present. Climate change was the most cited stressor (n = 40) and strategies relating to natural resources were common across case studies, especially subsistence adaptations (n = 35), other solutions to subsistence deficiencies (n = 23), and water management (n = 23). Resilient/sustainable characteristics were often in direct contrast to one-another, suggesting the combination of factors is more important than each factor taken individually. Further quantification of well-defined variables within a formally-produced framework is required to extract greater value from archaeological case studies of resilience/sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]