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Copyright of Historia Contemporanea is the property of Historia Contemporania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many individuals practicing field-based research are subjected to sexual harassment and assault. This fact holds true for people engaged in archaeological field research and may be true for students who are just learning field methods while enrolled in an archaeological field school. We review some of our current research on the means of reducing and preventing sexual harassment and assault at archaeological field schools, as well as ways to create safer, more inclusive learning spaces. Additionally, we suggest that for the discipline to advance field school teaching and learning, we, as field directors, must situate ourselves as active and advocacy anthropologists: an approach that puts our students as a central focus when developing field-based pedagogy. As the authors of this work, we review our identities and positionality in conducting this research and in making meaning from the data we have collected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological field schools have long played an instrumental role in the early development of many professional archaeologists' careers, sometimes becoming the deciding factor in entering the field. The 1971 joint Nebraska/Minnesota archaeological field school was no exception. It played a pivotal role in my development as a professional archaeologist as it did for a number of my fellow students, as well as providing a unique opportunity for all of us to work and live together as a functioning coherent group. With the help of class notes, letters home, field photographs, classmates' recollections, and my memory, this paper documents my unique experiences during the field school and memorializes the activities of that event which played an important role in many of our lives. These experiences are placed within the larger context of other field schools and how they promote authentic learning environments. The idea for writing this paper in 2021 was inspired by its 50th anniversary and the numerous papers written in recent years by archaeologists involved with the Interagency Archeological Salvage Program, including the Smithsonian Institution River Basin Surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘Giant’s Grave’, formally known as Slochd Measach, Nereabolls (SM3927), is located on the Isle of Islay, Argyll & Bute, in western Scotland and is one of seven confirmed Clyde cairns on the island. We describe the standing remains and the excavations between 2015 and 2017 intended to address the origin, architecture and use of this monument. We found that the cairn was most likely constructed between 3620 and 3360 cal bc in one continuous effort. It was modified and reused on at least four occasions during the Early and Late Bronze Age, and extensively robbed during the Iron Age. This post-Neolithic activity left a small collection of ceramic vessels that may have been used for funerary purposes or votive offerings. We compare the architecture of the Giant’s Grave with that of other cairns on Islay and in the wider region [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the background to and prospects for a new initiative in archaeological field survey and database integration. The Roman Hinterland Project combines data from the Tiber Valley Project, Roman Suburbium Project, and the Pontine Region Project into a single database, which the authors believe to be one of the most complete repositories of data for the hinterland of a major ancient metropolis, covering nearly 2000 years of history. The logic of combining these databases in the context of studying the Roman landscape is explained and illustrated with analyses that show their capacity to contribute to major debates in Roman economy, demography, and the longue durée of the human condition in a globalizing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recovering the agency, skill and innovation of archaeological field assistants from historical encounters is essential to interrogating processes of knowledge production, but is often hampered by access to appropriate archival sources and methods. We detail a field project from early twentieth-century Basutoland (modern-day Lesotho) that is unique both for its aim to salvage details of rock-art production as a dying craft and for its archive chronicling the project's intellectual journey from experiment to draft manuscripts to published work over more than three decades. We argue that critical historiographic attention to this archive offers a guide for examining the intimate dynamics of fieldwork and the effects of these micropolitics on the archaeological canon. We demonstrate how sustained attention to long processes of knowledge production can pinpoint multiple instances in which the usability of field assistants' scientific knowledge is qualified, validated, or rejected, and in this case how an African assistant is transformed into an ethnographic interlocutor. For rock-art studies especially, this represents a need for interrogating the epistemic cultures—not just the content—of foundational historical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, we would like to discuss results of a preliminary field research in the vicinity of the chocolate flint outcrops in Iłża, Site 3, “Krzemieniec I” (Kielce Upland, southeastern Poland), including the discovered lithic finds – debitage products (flakes and blades), cores, and formal tools, such as bifacial knives. We made an attempt to infer the chronology of those lithic specimens which were found during the surface survey or in trenches without preserved stratigraphy. Based on their spatial distribution, as well as typological and technological analysis, we distinguished the oldest traces of occupational activities of prehistoric societies in the vicinity of Iłża related to the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. Additionally, we conducted a microscopic analysis of the state of preservation of characteristic lithic artefacts. This showed possibilities of linking specific states of preservation of flint surfaces with a generalised chronology of the Stone Age and Bronze Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is very rare for African archaeologists to have chances to work in different African countries in archaeological fieldworks. Such opportunities have occurred to many non-Africans due to funding resources available to them. I have had such chances under the auspices of the African Archaeology Network between 2001 and 2010. In some of the fieldworks, I experienced difficult and threatening conditions, with some being tantamount to fatality. Glimpses of those experiences are provided here. They include those of Madagascar, Comoros, Tanzania and Nigeria. Archaeologists are used to reporting about the academic part of fieldworks with rare mentioning of other aspects of archaeological experiences. In presenting about my fatal archaeology, academic aspects that led to those threatening experiences are provided, also with work results and publications. In my first time in Madagascar, my life threat was that of cholera; and in the other, it was high blood pressure caused partly by the lack of flight to catch up with my home return flight via Nairobi. This caused me to travel by a hired minibus on a long road of dangerous state in a very high blood pressure condition. In the Comoros, the problem was that of sailing across a deep sea in a time of enormous winds and waves in a small boat of only three people. In Nigeria, the problem was that of being attacked by people with machetes and spears. In Tanzania, at Mgongo in Kilwa, the problem was of a game guard shooting a hippo carelessly in a situation that he could have killed one of us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeology field schools provide unique opportunities for firsthand exposure, team-based learning, and pre-professional experience. A participant's decision to pursue a career in archaeology may reflect initial fieldwork group experiences and individual interactions with field school leaders and staff. Today, safety, security, and equity policies along with staff and operational procedures that support them are essential for instructing and inspiring all who wish to experience archaeological fieldwork. Drawing on three decades of field school participation and administration, the author describes specific examples of fieldwork learning contexts as well as insights into operating a safe, secure, and welcoming field school. Conclusions include general guidelines that are applicable and desirable for short-term, season-long, or special skills field schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This gazette presents to the reader outside Rome news of recent archaeological activity (June 2019 – June 2020) gleaned from public lectures, conferences, exhibitions, and newspaper reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the contemporary condition in Greece as far as brownfield management is concerned. The analysis of the key-obstacles is illustrated through the case of Piraeus. Research includes literature review and field work. Major Piraeus' brownfield sites are classified according to international categorizations. Research findings are depicted in thematic maps, using as key-categories the former use, the current use, the system of ownership, the presense of monuments of industrial architectural heritage, the presence of archaealogical sites. This cartographic depiction functions as a necessary tool for policy making on urban regeneration. The conclusions derived from field work provide useful information for further investigation. The ultimate purpose of the article is to highlight the current challenges and potentialities, making the appropriate connections with the international experience on the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of my favourite photos of my son is him as an over-tired, dishevelled and very disgruntled five-year-old. He stands, holding out two globs of unidentifiable rusted metal, and looks at the camera (at me), with an accusing, penetrating glare (Fig. 1). As a distracted, overextended parent trying to run an archaeological field project (the Rising Sun Hotel in New Orleans), I had sent him to play in the dirt—the back dirt of our discard pile. I thought that's where he couldn't get into any trouble. I didn't imagine that it would get me into trouble. He was mad because we had overlooked these obvious artefacts (he had already grasped the subtle nature/culture distinction of the archaeological sorting process). We had disregarded them. We had attempted to make them unworthy of notice. What my son, in his innocence, was enunciating is the intentionality of ignoring something—and with intentionality, there is always a potential politics. That is what I would like to focus on here: how can we approach Beiläufigkeit —the incidental and taken-for-granted—as indexical of politics? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a long time, the emergence of Aegean states was explained in terms of general evolutionist models based on evidence from a handful of major palatial sites. Recently, however, a growing emphasis on regional diversity has demonstrated the importance of specific models for understanding the multiple pathways to social complexity. It is becoming increasingly clear that static neoevolutionary types do not reflect the fluid and dynamic character of human societies and that top-down explanatory models based on top-tier centers are biased and incomplete. In this article, a detailed historical modeling of the Mycenaean state of Pylos based on new data from the systematic excavation of Iklaina tests the current model and proposes that the Pylian state, as it is known to us from Linear B tablets, was not integrated until an advanced phase of the Late Helladic IIIB period. This analysis suggests that for most of the Mycenaean period both Iklaina and Ano Englianos were primary centers following parallel trajectories and functioning as capitals of independent micropolities. A late date for the unification of the Pylian state could account for its partly decentralized character, the duplication of administrative structures, and the instability that may have contributed to its collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mouseion is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Drawing on more than twenty years of research and long-term in-depth field experience in the Neotropics, this article argues for an indigenous methodology for predicting the arrival of hurricanes in the Caribbean. The archaeological site under study is Anse à la Gourde on Guadeloupe (French West Indies), here discussed in conjunction with a theoretical underpinning in Indigenous Amazonian cosmologies and ethnoastronomy. The conceptualisation for this study goes back to an experience that the author had during archaeological field school in 1995, and it is through a paradigm-shifting "dwelling perspective" that the author has been able to make sense of his original perceptions. During the further development of this innovative hypothesis on hurricane prediction by the Indigenous Peoples of the Caribbean prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus emerged an alternative hypothesis for a momentous dividing moment in Caribbean archaeology, namely the end of the Saladoid around AD 800. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thirteenth season of fieldwork in the ancient necropolis of Asyut (Gebel Asyut al-gharbi) focused on Tomb I, V and the Coptic hermit's cell J11.3. In Tomb I, the hitherto unknown decorated burial chamber was reached in the main shaft. In addition, the tomb of the nomarch Mesehti was relocated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Heritage site of Bhamala is located on the right bank of the Haro River. This important Buddhist establishment was for the first time excavated by Sir John Marshall in 1930-31. Field investigations at the site were resumed in 2012-13 by the Department of Archaeology, Hazara University (Mansehra), in collaboration with the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (hereafter KP) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA). The said institutions continued their field work till 2016 with financial support of the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of KP. Preliminary reports of the work of the first two seasons (i.e. 2012-13 and 2014-15) have been published in Frontier Archaeology (volumes 9 and 10) (Samad et al. 2017a, b). The present report focuses on the discoveries made during the field work of 2015-16 season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present the results of experiments which allowed us to propose up-to-date method of 3D visual representation of explored archaeological layers. Considering the destructive nature of excavations, the correct documentation of an exploration, which offers an insight both into the decision-making process taking place on site, and into the most faithful representation of the examined material, presents a fundamental challenge for a field archaeologist. The aim of the experiments presented here was to test three methods of creating 3D models of successive archaeological layers (contexts) recorded during an exploration. The presented findings show that the method of editing point clouds using open-source software prior to importing the model of the reconstruction of the explored layer into GIS software, is the best solution from the point of view of both the effort and time required, and it can definitely be suggested as the standard procedure of creating the graphical bases for an archaeological database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes to use CIDOC CRM and its extensions CRMsci and CRMdig to document the scientific experiments involved in archaeological investigations. The nature of such experiments is analysed and ways to document their important aspects are provided using existing classes and properties from the CRM or from the above-mentioned schemas, together with newly defined ones, forming an extension of the CRM called CRMas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including archaeological fieldwork on Talgar society of the Iron Age in Asia; adaptive strategies among the Rabari pastoralists in India; and review of nomadism in Anatolia.

Copyright of Mouseion is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Mouseion is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article offers information about several seminars including the 2016 University of North Florida (UNF), University of Florida's St. Johns Archaeological Field School 2016 and University of West Florida 2016 Campus Summer Field School Summary.

Recent archaeological fieldwork on Isla de Mona in the Caribbean has led to the discovery of a substantial corpus of early colonial inscriptions inside the darkzone of one of the 200 cave systems on the island. Cave 18, like multiple others on Isla de Mona, was a well-established indigenous spiritual realm in the centuries leading up to European colonization. Christian symbols, individual names, written dates, and Spanish and Latin religious commentaries are located in direct association with preexisting indigenous iconography and activities. This paper applies paleographic (handwriting) analysis to establish the authenticity, authorship, and chronology of the inscriptions and to interpret the nature of this early spiritual encounter. We conclude that these sixteenth-century inscriptions represent visits to the cave by first-generation Europeans, including Spanish royal officials in Puerto Rico, and reflect their reactions to native religious landscapes. The inscriptions on Isla de Mona capture personal, face-to-face encounters with native religion and represent Christian commentaries and reactions to indigenous spaces and worldview in the early colonial period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the highlights of archaeological fieldwork and studies involving medieval Britain and Ireland conducted in 2015. Topics explored include the discovery of 11th century land reclamation deposits from the excavation in Poets' Corner Yard of Westminster Abbey in London, England, unusual characteristics of the lead coffins found within the main excavation region, and brief historical background of the construction and structure of St. Mary's Abbey located in York, England.

Techniques were implemented to extract anthropogenic features in the desert region of North Sinai using data from the first- and second-generation Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR-1 and 2). To obtain a synoptic view over the study area, a mosaic of average, multitemporal (De Grandi) filtered PALSAR-1 σ° backscatter of North Sinai was produced. Two subset regions were selected for further analysis. The first included an area of abundant linear features of high relative backscatter in a strategic, but sparsely developed area between the Wadi Tumilat and Gebel Maghara. The second included an area of low backscatter anomaly features in a coastal sabkha around the archaeological sites of Tell el-Farama, Tell el-Mahzan, and Tell el-Kanais. Over the subset region between the Wadi Tumilat and Gebel Maghara, algorithms were developed to extract linear features and convert them to vector format to facilitate interpretation. The algorithms were based on mathematical morphology, but to distinguish apparent man-made features from sand dune ridges, several techniques were applied. The first technique took as input the average σ° backscatter and used a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) derived Local Incidence Angle (LAI) mask to exclude sand dune ridges. The second technique, which proved more effective, used the average interferometric coherence as input. Extracted features were compared with other available information layers and in some cases revealed partially buried roads. Over the coastal subset region a time series of PALSAR-2 spotlight data were processed. The coefficient of variation (CoV) of De Grandi filtered imagery clearly revealed anomaly features of low CoV. These were compared with the results of an archaeological field walking survey carried out previously. The features generally correspond with isolated areas identified in the field survey as having a higher density of archaeological finds, and interpreted as possible islands of dry land, which may have been surrounded by lagoons, rivers, and swamplands in antiquity. It is suggested that these surrounding areas may still have a higher water content, sufficient to be detected in processed Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, archaeological research in Amazonia is revealing complex precolonial occupation in areas around riverine confluences. In 2014, the first site-based archaeological investigations were undertaken in Gurupa, Para, Brazil, a municipality that spans the region of the Xingu-Amazon confluence. The Portuguese controlled access to Amazonia from 1623 onward through a network of settlements organized around Gurupa. Results from extensive excavations of terra preta sites, landscape archaeology, and analysis of ceramic evidence suggest that this was also a precolonial crossroads. Carrazedo, once a booming historical town (Arapijo), sits atop a significantly larger terra preta site. Excavations in historical and precolonial sectors of Carrazedo found well-preserved remains, including a precolonial house terrace complex. The extent of terra preta and earthworks at Carrazedo indicate that the precolonial occupation was more intensive than the colonial-historical period occupation. Regional survey revealed colonial-historical period sites consistently overlying expansive precolonial sites, the density and extent of which suggest a major precolonial center at the Xingu-Amazon confluence. Overall, ecological and landscape modifications appear to have been more intense in the precolonial past than during later periods. Short- and long-distance settlement networks also differed during the two periods. This as-of-yet understudied region promises to shed new light on deep-time human-environment interactions and spatial organization in the humid tropics of Amazonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the conclusion of even the most recent fieldwork at Merimde Beni Salama (MBS) in the 1990s, new theoretical and methodological approaches in archaeology and anthropology mean that it is possible once again to look at the issues surrounding the emergence of the Neolithic in the Nile Delta, from a new perspective. This contribution focusses on the application of methods, including geophysical survey, to the region through a new fieldwork project in the area of MBS, ‘The Imbaba Prehistoric Survey’ which began in 2013 with the aim of surveying the western Delta hinterland around the Neolithic settlement. The survey aims to recreate the local environment to determine its impact upon the ‘transition’ to a more sedentary way of life, the relationship between the Neolithic and the preceding Epipalaeolithic, and the wider exploitation and movement across the landscape throughout prehistory. This contribution discusses some preliminary results of the project, including the discovery that the settlement of MBS, or perhaps settlements, covered a much larger area than previously realised. MBS provides a great case study which also aids in interpretation and understanding of other sites in the region, and farther afield. The results of the first faunal analysis from new excavation trenches are discussed together with an overview of the survey on the Wadi el-Gamal terraces, including some preliminary remarks on the varied types of activity across the landscape during the Neolithic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussion concerning the origins of the Egyptian Neolithic is often framed in terms of a Neolithic package or ‘Neolithisation’ that appears late in Egypt via diffusion from southwest Asia. Here we propose an alternative approach using the results of new fieldwork in the Fayum north shore. We summarise a detailed study of the Fayum archaeological landscape interpretable at different temporal and spatial scales using an expanded version of low-level food production to organise observations concerning palaeoenvironment, socioeconomy, settlement, and mobility. While domestic plants and animals were introduced to the Fayum from elsewhere, when a number of aspects of the archaeological record are compared, a settlement system is suggested that has no obvious analogues with the Neolithic in southwest Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the archeological exploration of the historic Pandora shipwreck conducted by the Queensland Museum (QM) located north-west of Moulter Cay and adjacent to the Coral Sea, outlining the phases of the project, exploration and excavation plans, and funding.

The article focuses on the fieldwork related to the exploration of the historic Pandora shipwreck located in the north-west of Moulter Cay adjacent to the Coral Sea, it outlines discoveries and the aspects of related operations including excavation, diving, and registration of findings.

Copyright of Mouseion is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the location and context of archaeological investigations in England between 1938 and 1945. The analysis of sources, including national inventories and contemporary journals, dispels any notion that archaeological practice was suspended during World War II, despite the absence of some leading practitioners, and reveals that a surprising amount of salvage and research fieldwork took place. Fieldwork was primarily in the south of the country; it reflects pre-war investigative trends, contemporary knowledge, opinion of the archaeological resource, and the increased threat of war-related construction work, but also the impact of immediate post-war concerns such as housing and infrastructure. Although primarily undertaken by established excavators employed by the Ministry of Works, a substantial amount of rescue work was carried out by small groups, local societies, and individuals often outside State funding, which reflects an independent culture of fieldwork that continues to the present day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Menthol, a natural organic compound from plant extract, due to its unique aromatic smell and cooling effect, has wide applications in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. By taking advantage of its volatile ability at room temperature, this compound has the potential to be used as a temporary consolidant in the field of art conservation. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of menthol as a temporary consolidant for urgent conservation in archaeological field, in this paper, laboratory investigations, such as menthol's penetration, consolidation efficacy and morphological changes during sublimation, are carried out on two kinds of organic and inorganic materials respectively, representing four types of fragile archaeological artifacts. In particular, the morphological changes of consolidated substrates during menthol sublimation process are systematically observed. The result shows that menthol's consolidation efficacy is strongly affected by the inherent nature of substrate to be treated. Menthol whisker growth on these substrates surfaces is observed, and a weak intermolecular hydrogen bond is formed between menthol and substrate, which is confirmed by the shift of hydroxyl group stretching bond in the IR spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]