scholarly journals New insights into the spatial organization, stratigraphy and human occupations of the Aceramic Neolithic at Ganj Dareh, Iran

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0251318
Author(s):  
Julien Riel-Salvatore ◽  
Andrew Lythe ◽  
Alejandra Uribe Albornoz
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Depositional History ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Technological Organization ◽  
Lithic Technological Organization ◽  
Level Sequence ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Aceramic Neolithic

The Aceramic Neolithic site of Ganj Dareh (Kermanshah, Iran) is arguably one of the most significant sites for enhancing our understanding of goat domestication and the onset of sedentism. Despite its central importance, it has proven difficult to obtain contextually reliable data from it and integrate the site in regional syntheses because it was never published in full after excavations ceased in 1974. This paper presents the Ganj Dareh archive at Université de Montréal and shows how the documentation and artifacts it comprises still offer a great deal of useful information about the site. In particular, we 1) present the first stratigraphic profile for the site, which reveals a more complex depositional history than Smith’s five-level sequence; 2) reveal the presence of two possible pre-agricultural levels (H-01 and P-01); 3) explore the spatial organization of different levels; 4) explain possible discrepancies in the radiocarbon dates from the site; 5) show some differences in lithic technological organization in levels H-01 and P-01 suggestive of higher degrees of residential mobility than subsequent phases of occupation at the site; and 6) reanalyze the burial data to broaden our understanding of Aceramic Neolithic mortuary practices in the Zagros. These data help refine our understanding of Ganj Dareh’s depositional and occupational history and recenter it as a key site to improve our understanding the Neolithization process in the Middle East.

scholarly journals Book review: The prehistoric apprentice: Investigating apprenticeship, know-how and expertise in prehistoric technologies; L’apprenti préhistorique: Appréhender l’apprentissage, les savoir-faire et l’expertise à travers les productions techniques des soci

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manek Kolhatkar
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Technological Organization ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
French And English ◽  
Culture Variability

Describing cultural change and variability and inferring sociocultural dynamics about past people and communities may be among archaeology’s main goals as a field of practice. In this regard, the concept of skill has proved its usefulness to, time and again, expand the breath of archaeologists and lithic technologists’ analyses. It covers a wide range of applications, from apprenticeship, cognition, paleo-sociology, spatial organization. It is one of the main causes for material culture variability, up there with raw material constraints, design, technological organization or cultural norms. Yet, while skill has certainly been the focus of some research in the last decades, it remains quite peripheral, when considering how central the concept should be to technological inquiries. Whatever the reasons may be, this book, edited by Laurent Klaric and fully bilingual (French and English), aims at changing that, and argues for skill to become a central concern in lithic technology. Its chapters do so strongly and the end-result is a book that should become a reference for lithic technologists, whatever their research interests or schools of thought may be.

Lithic Technological Organization and Hafting in Early Villages

2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 708-727
Author(s):  
Colin P. Quinn ◽  
Nathan Goodale ◽  
William Andrefsky ◽  
Ian Kuijt ◽  
Bill Finlayson
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Food Storage ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Social Strategies ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Technological Organization ◽  
Lithic Technological Organization ◽  
Economic Decision Making

Hafting is an important part of lithic technology that can increase our understanding of socioeconomic behavior in the past. In this article, we develop a holistic approach to studying hafting by using the concept of curation within a broader assessment of lithic technological organization in early villages. Early villages were loci of socioeconomic transformation as part of the shift from mobile foraging to more sedentary cultivation lifeways. We suggest that an examination of hafting can provide new insights into how early villagers negotiated technological requirements, economic decision making, and social interactions in these novel contexts. As a case study, we develop a curation index and apply it to an archaeological context of hafted and unhafted pointed tools from the early Neolithic village of Dhra’, Jordan. This curation index allows for a discussion of the technological, economic, and social dimensions of hafting strategies at Dhra’. The presence of multiple hafting traditions within early Neolithic villages of Southwest Asia is evidence of persistent social segmentation despite food storage and ritual practices that emphasized communal integration. Through the lens of lithic technological organization, we demonstrate that hafting and curation patterns can increase our understanding of technological, economic, and social strategies in early villages.

Mad for Her Country: Melinda’s Insanity, the Puszta, and Nationalist Dramaturgy in Ferenc Erkel’s Bánk bán Act 3

2011 ◽  
Vol 52 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 47-64
Author(s):  
David Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Bel Canto ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
National Anthem ◽  
Tisza River ◽  
Mad Scene ◽  
The One ◽  
National Significance ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Hungarian Plain

Framed by Béla Bartók’s criticism of Ferenc Erkel’s nationally inappropriate style in his polemic “On Hungarian Music,” this article examines, on the one hand, the overlap between the conventions of the bel canto Italian mad scene and the structure of verbunkos in Act 3, scene 1 of Erkel’s Bánk bán, and, on the other, the dramaturgical and national significance of Erkel’s particular mixture of such international and Hungarian traditions. In particular, I consider the seeming incongruence between the typically celebratory mood of the csárdás and its function as the cabaletta of Melinda’s mad scene as an expression of Hungarian national preoccupation with victimhood (propagated by such foundational national texts as Mihály Vörösmarty’s 1836 Szózat, which has served as Hungary’s “second national anthem”). Melinda’s mad scene takes place on the banks of the Tisza River on the Great Hungarian Plain, a location of central importance to Hungarian national identity. This environment, which Erkel and his librettist invented for the mad scene, reinforces Melinda’s tragic role as a symbol of the nation. With eye and ear attuned to Hungarian traditions on several different levels, a close reading of this scene demonstrates that even when Erkel works within well-worn traditions of the international opera stage, he does so in a manner specifically suited to the spirit of nineteenth-century Hungarian nationalism.

scholarly journals Interdisciplinary Research into the Legacy of the Medieval Metropolis of Soba in a Modern Khartoum Suburb

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariusz Drzewiecki ◽  
Maciej Kurcz ◽  
Joanna Ciesielska ◽  
Tomasz Michalik ◽  
Ewa Czyżewska-Zalewska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ground Penetrating Radar ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequence ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Archaeological Heritage ◽  
The Past ◽  
Intangible Heritage ◽  
Ground Penetrating

AbstractRecent research at Soba focuses on the tangible and intangible heritage of the medieval capital of Alwa kingdom, whose remains cover approximately 275 ha. About 222 ha of this area has been built up or transformed into agricultural land in the past 30 years. An ethnographic survey was also carried out in the built-up area to understand how the residents engage with the archaeological heritage and material remains. The undeveloped area of the capital (53 ha) was the focus of interdisciplinary archaeological fieldwork conducted in 2019 and 2020. A large-scale geophysical survey, using a fluxgate gradiometer and ground-penetrating radar, was initiated in the undeveloped area, and excavation trenches were opened to verify distinctive magnetic anomalies. Along with the ethnographic and geophysical data, the study of the pottery, burials, and stratigraphic sequence (supplemented with radiocarbon dates) provides new insights into the spatial organization of the medieval capital.

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