scholarly journals THE ORIGINS OF TRADESCANT’S ‘INDIA OCCIDENTALI’ WOODEN CLUBS:14C DATING, MATERIAL IDENTIFICATION AND STRONTIUM ISOTOPE STUDIES

2018 ◽  
Vol 98 ◽  
pp. 187-218
Author(s):  
Joanna Ostapkowicz ◽  
Alison Roberts ◽  
Jevon Thistlewood ◽  
Fiona Brock ◽  
Alex C Wiedenhoeft ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
French Guiana ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Wood Identification ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
14C Dating ◽  
Isotope Studies ◽  
Isotope Analyses ◽  
Material Study

This paper focuses on the material study (radiocarbon dating, wood identification and strontium isotope analyses) of four large ‘India occidentali’ clubs, part of the founding collections of the Ashmolean Museum, in Oxford, and originally part of John Tradescant’s ‘Ark’, in Lambeth (1656). During the seventeenth century, the term ‘India occidentali/occidentales’ referred not only to the ‘West Indies’ (its literal translation), but to the Americas as a whole; hence, the Ashmolean clubs and, indeed, thecforty examples of similarly large, decorated clubs known in international museum collections had no firm provenance and lacked even the most basic information. Previous attempts at attribution, based on stylistic comparisons with nineteenth- to twentieth-century Brazilian and Guyanese clubs, have proved inconclusive given the unique features of this club style, raising the intriguing possibility that these may be exceptionally rare examples of ‘Island Carib’ (Kalinago) material culture, particularly as images of such clubs appear in seventeenth-century ethnographic accounts from the Lesser Antilles. This paper provides new data for these poorly known objects from early collections, revealing not only the type of wood from which they were carved (Platymisciumsp. andBrosimumcfguianense) and their probable dates of manufacture (c AD1300–1640), but also their possible provenance (strontium results are consistent with a possible range from Trinidad south to French Guiana).

scholarly journals East-central Florida pre-Columbian wood sculpture: Radiocarbon dating, wood identification and strontium isotope studies

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 595-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Ostapkowicz ◽  
Rick J. Schulting ◽  
Ryan Wheeler ◽  
Lee Newsom ◽  
Fiona Brock ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Wood Identification ◽  
East Central ◽  
Central Florida ◽  
Isotope Studies ◽  
Wood Sculpture

scholarly journals Desert Habitation History by 14C Dating of Soil Layers in Rural Building Structures (Negev, Israel): Preliminary Results from Horvat Haluqim

Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 391-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik J Bruins ◽  
Johannes van der Plicht ◽  
Mordechai Haiman
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Negev Desert ◽  
Building Structures ◽  
Building Structure ◽  
Relative Probability ◽  
14C Dating ◽  
Undisturbed Soil ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Human Habitation

Traditional archaeological approaches in the central Negev Desert used to employ excavation techniques in post-prehistoric periods in which stratigraphy is based on architecture, while material culture forms the basis for dating assessment and chronology. Such an approach was understandable, as it focused on the most visible remains of past human habitation. However, the detailed habitation record is in the soil rather than in the walls. Moreover, ceramics and stone tools in desert cultures often have limited time resolution in terms of absolute chronology. The rural desert site of Horvat Haluqim in the central Negev yielded 2 habitation periods with the traditional methodology: (1) Roman period, 2nd–3rd centuries CE; (2) Iron Age IIA, 10th century BCE. We have conducted at Horvat Haluqim initial excavations in small building remains that were never excavated before. Our excavation methodology focuses on detailed examination of the archaeological soil in building structures, coupled with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating for chronology, and micromorphology of undisturbed soil samples to study stratigraphy and soil contents at the microscopic scale. Here, we report preliminary results, concentrating on the 14C dates. These suggest a much longer habitation history at the site during the Iron Age. The 14C dates obtained so far from these building remains cover Iron Age I, II, III, and the Persian period. The oldest calibrated date (charred C4 plants) in a rectangular building structure (L100) is 1129–971 BCE (60.5%, highest relative probability). The youngest calibrated date in a round building structure (L700) is 540–411 BCE (57.9%, highest relative probability). This excavation methodology provides additional “eyes” to look at past human habitation in the Negev Desert, seeing more periods and more detail than was possible with traditional schemes and ceramic dating.

Neolithic diet at the Brochtorff Circle, Malta

2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.P. Richards ◽  
R.E.M. Hedges ◽  
I. Walton ◽  
S. Stoddart ◽  
C. Malone
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Analysis ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Marine Resources ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Resource Stress ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometer ◽  
Agricultural Potential ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
Isotope Analyses ◽  
Marine Protein

From Neolithic Malta, there is evidence of increasing population size accompanied by increasingly elaborate material culture, including the famous megalithic architecture. Stoddart et al. (1993) argued that social tensions and controls increased as food resources diminished. One important requirement of this argument is that the Neolithic inhabitants of Malta depended entirely on domesticated plants and animals for subsistence and therefore, with increased population sizes, the poor agricultural potential of these islands was stretched. However, it is possible that the consumption of wild foods, particularly marine resources, in the Neolithic would make up any shortfall in the agricultural foods. A direct way of measuring the amounts of marine protein in human diets is through chemical analysis of human bone. Stable isotope analyses undertaken on seven Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon dated humans from the Neolithic at the Brochtorff Circle indicated that there is no evidence for the significant use of marine foods by these Neolithic individuals. These new data indicate that agricultural foods were the dietary staple for this sample of the Maltese Neolithic population and therefore support the argument that increasing population during the Neolithic could have resulted in increasing resource stress.

Material Culture and Healing Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-290
Author(s):  
Anna Elizabeth Winterbottom
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Art History ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Medical Culture ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Practice Of Medicine ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Abstract The practice of medicine and healing is always accompanied by a range of paraphernalia, from pillboxes to instruments to clothing. Yet such things have rarely attracted the attention of historians of medicine. Here, I draw on perspectives from art history and religious studies to ask how these objects relate, in practical and symbolic terms, to practices of healing. In other words, what is the connection between medical culture and material culture? I focus on craft objects relating to medicine and healing in Lanka during the Kandyan period (ca. 1595–1815) in museum collections in Canada and Sri Lanka. I ask what the objects can tell us, first, about early modern Lankan medicine and healing and, second, about late nineteenth- and twentieth-century efforts to reconstruct tradition. Finally, I explore what studying these objects might add to current debates about early modern globalization in the context of both material culture and medicine.

Re- visiting the Roman Iron Age Hoby chieftain burial after 100 years of its discovery - adding the strontium isotopic perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Margarita Frei ◽  
Susanne Klingenberg
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Environmental Samples ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
The North ◽  
Isotope Analyses ◽  
Shed Light

In 1920 on the island of Lolland, in southern Denmark the remains of one of northern Europe’s richest graves came to light, the Hoby chieftain burial. It revealed a large number of luxurious Roman goods, including two silver drinking cups decorated with Greek-inspired scenes from Homer’s Iliad. The burial dates to the beginning of the Roman Iron Age (1CE -200CE), and represents a key point in time when the Roman Empire failed to expand towards the north and changed its strategy towards a more political and diplomatic type of relationship with northern Europe. Hence, the Hoby burial is considered to be a key example of this type of relationship. We revisited the burial and present the first strontium isotope analyses of the human remains of the Hoby individual from three of his teeth and 10 additional environmental samples to shed light on his provenance. We discussed these results in light of the new insights provided by recent excavations of a contemporary nearby settlement. Our results indicate that the Hoby individual was most probably of local origin, corroborating previous interpretations. Furthermore, the associated settlement seems to confirm the central role of Hoby in the Early Roman Iron Age society.

The Archaeological Remains of Early Modern Spanish Colonialism on Guam and Their Implications

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boyd Dixon ◽  
Andrea Jalandoni ◽  
Cacilie Craft
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Contact Period ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Spanish Colonialism ◽  
Low Level

Using a late seventeenth century map of Jesuit religious structures and native Chamorro communities on Guam, this chapter explores the possible impacts of early Spanish colonialism, in the period just prior to La Reduccion, on the island as reflected in the rather sparse record of Contact Period archaeological remains at these same communities. Is this a manifestation of the low level of colonial investment from Spain in Guam, the amalgamation of Chamorro and Spanish material culture, or the lack of archaeological attention to these possible sites?

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