scholarly journals A tentative attempt to estimate the systemic number of the Late Neolithic Vinča culture figurines

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 729-741
Author(s):  
Marko Porčić
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Procedure ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Generation Length ◽  
Starting Point

In this paper an attempt is made to estimate the number of figurines which were in "use" in households of the Late Neolithic Vin!a culture. The number of accumulated figurines and houses is used as a starting point. Given the complexities of the settlement dynamic, figurine use and the formation processes of the archaeological record, the ratio of the number of accumulated of figurines to the number of accumulated houses is only an indirect reflection of the systemic number of figurines. Different figurine use scenarios are evaluated in order to see what the result would be. Keeping in mind that the entire analytical procedure is highly speculative and the range of tested models is far from exhaustive, the results suggest that scenarios resting on the assumption that there was a single figurine per household and that the average use-life of the figurine was equal to the average human generation length predict outcomes that are comparable to the actual archaeological situation.

scholarly journals Genome diversity in the Neolithic Globular Amphorae culture and the spread of Indo-European languages

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1867) ◽  
pp. 20171540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Tassi ◽  
Stefania Vai ◽  
Silvia Ghirotto ◽  
Martina Lari ◽  
Alessandra Modi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Approximate Bayesian Computation ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Genome Diversity ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Demographic Models ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Complete Sequences ◽  
Approximate Bayesian

It is unclear whether Indo-European languages in Europe spread from the Pontic steppes in the late Neolithic, or from Anatolia in the Early Neolithic. Under the former hypothesis, people of the Globular Amphorae culture (GAC) would be descended from Eastern ancestors, likely representing the Yamnaya culture. However, nuclear (six individuals typed for 597 573 SNPs) and mitochondrial (11 complete sequences) DNA from the GAC appear closer to those of earlier Neolithic groups than to the DNA of all other populations related to the Pontic steppe migration. Explicit comparisons of alternative demographic models via approximate Bayesian computation confirmed this pattern. These results are not in contrast to Late Neolithic gene flow from the Pontic steppes into Central Europe. However, they add nuance to this model, showing that the eastern affinities of the GAC in the archaeological record reflect cultural influences from other groups from the East, rather than the movement of people.

On Whallon's Use of Dimensional Analysis of Variance at Guila Naquitz

1974 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 490-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael B. Schiffer
Keyword(s):  
Dimensional Analysis ◽  
Analysis Of Variance ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Cultural Formation ◽  
Cultural Formation Processes

AbstractWhallon claims to have made a rigorous application of dimensional analysis of variance to the delineation of spatial artifact patterning at the site of Guila Naquitz. Questions are raised here pertaining to replicability and to the cultural formation processes of the archaeological record. These unresolved questions suggest that Whallon's optimistic claims for the utility of dimensional analysis of variance cannot be adequately evaluated at present.

Combining Forms and Affixoids in Morphology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dany Amiot ◽  
Edwige Dugas
Keyword(s):  
Major Part ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Good Criterion ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The One

Word-formation encompasses a wide range of processes, among which we find derivation and compounding, two processes yielding productive patterns which enable the speaker to understand and to coin new lexemes. This article draws a distinction between two types of constituents (suffixes, combining forms, splinters, affixoids, etc.) on the one hand and word-formation processes (derivation, compounding, blending, etc.) on the other hand but also shows that a given constituent can appear in different word-formation processes. First, it describes prototypical derivation and compounding in terms of word-formation processes and of their constituents: Prototypical derivation involves a base lexeme, that is, a free lexical elements belonging to a major part-of-speech category (noun, verb, or adjective) and, very often, an affix (e.g., Fr. laverV ‘to wash’ > lavableA ‘washable’), while prototypical compounding involves two lexemes (e.g., Eng. rainN + fallV > rainfallN). The description of these prototypical phenomena provides a starting point for the description of other types of constituents and word-formation processes. There are indeed at least two phenomena which do not meet this description, namely, combining forms (henceforth CFs) and affixoids, and which therefore pose an interesting challenge to linguistic description, be it synchronic or diachronic. The distinction between combining forms and affixoids is not easy to establish and the definitions are often confusing, but productivity is a good criterion to distinguish them from each other, even if it does not answer all the questions raised by bound forms. In the literature, the notions of CF and affixoid are not unanimously agreed upon, especially that of affixoid. Yet this article stresses that they enable us to highlight, and even conceptualize, the gradual nature of linguistic phenomena, whether from a synchronic or a diachronic point of view.

Parallel Computation in Word Formation

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis López
Keyword(s):  
Parallel Computation ◽  
Parallel Computations ◽  
Event Structure ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Distributed Morphology ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Testing Ground ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Morphology Model ◽  
The Way

Taking the Distributed Morphology model as a starting point, this article presents and develops the hypothesis that parallel computations drive some word formation processes. Along the way, some Distributed Morphology assumptions, particularly those concerning contextual allomorphy, are revised. It is argued that event structure is a syntactic head independent of the presence of a vP. Nominalizations in Spanish, which often exhibit verbal thematic vowels between the root and the nominalizing affix, turn out to be an ideal testing ground for theoretical hypotheses.

The Structure of Archaeological Theory

1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael B. Schiffer
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Archaeological Theory ◽  
Low Level ◽  
High Level ◽  
Theory Reconstruction

Contradictory programmatic statements have increased uncertainty about the nature and roles of theory in archaeology. However, a framework can be constructed that ties together diverse kinds of theory that archaeologists use-and often create. Three overarching realms of theory can be recognized, each consisting of one or more functionally defined domains: social theory, reconstruction theory (the domains are material-culture dynamics and cultural and noncultural formation processes of the archaeological record), and methodological theory (the domains are recovery, analysis, and inference). Within each domain are high-level, mid-level, and low-level theories. Previous investigators often have overlooked the richness and complexity of archaeological theory, sometimes generalizing from a very narrow perspective.

scholarly journals Drenovac: a Neolithic settlement in the Middle Morava Valley, Serbia

Antiquity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (357) ◽  
Author(s):  
Slaviša Perić
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Social Organisation ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Geomagnetic Survey

The Late Neolithic houses excavated at Drenovac, Serbia, rank amongst the best-preserved in Europe. In particular, the preservation of collapsed second-storey floors offers unique insights into household and social organisation. The site of Slatina-Turska česma, Drenovac, is located in the Middle Morava Valley of central Serbia (Figure 1). It is a deeply stratified site, with cultural deposits up to 6.5m thick, that spans two main periods of occupation (separated by a hiatus of approximately 700 years): the Early Neolithic Starčevo Culture (6100–5900 BC) and the Late Neolithic Vinča Culture (5300–4700/4500 BC). The site was first recorded in 1966, and the first large-scale excavations undertaken between 1968 and 1971 (Vetnić 1974: 125–39; Perić 2004). In 2004, the Archaeological Institute in Belgrade conducted further excavations to improve understanding of the site's chronology, stratigraphy, formation processes and occupation dynamics (Perić 2009; Perić & Perić 2014). Geomagnetic surveys were carried out in parallel with further excavations undertaken between 2008 and 2011 in cooperation with the Romano–Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute (Perićet al. 2016) and, between 2012 and 2013, with the Viminacium Centre for New Technologies. An extensive geomagnetic survey here offers extraordinary insights into the layout and extent of the Late Neolithic settlement, and has enabled targeted excavations (Figure 1).

scholarly journals Late Neolithic and Late Bronze Age lithic assemblages associated with a cairn and other prehistoric features at Stoneyhill Farm, Longhaven, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, 2002-03

2011 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torben Ballin ◽  
Ian Suddaby ◽  
M Cressey ◽  
M Hastie ◽  
A Jackson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Lithic Technology ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Lithic Assemblage ◽  
Lithic Assemblages

Prehistoric remains were recorded by CFA Archaeology Ltd (CFA) in 2002-03 during a programme of fieldwork at the landfill site within the boundaries of Stoneyhill Farm, which lies 7km to the southwest of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire. These included a clearance cairn with a Late Bronze Age lithic assemblage and a burial cairn, with Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age lithics and Beaker ceramics. Other lithic scatters of similar date had no certain associations, although pits containing near-contemporary Impressed Wares were nearby. Additional lithic assemblages included material dated to the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic. What may be proto-Unstan Wares in an isolated pit were associated with radiocarbon dates (barley) of the first half of the fourth millennium bc. These findings represent a substantial addition to the local area's archaeological record and form an important contribution to the understanding of lithic technology and ceramics in earlier prehistoric Scotland.This paper is dedicated to the memory of Ian Shepherd, whose site visits enlightened this and other projects undertaken by one of the authors (IS).

scholarly journals Preliminary Report on the first season of fieldwork in Berettyóújfalu-Szilhalom

2015 ◽  
pp. 377-403
Author(s):  
Daniel Neumann ◽  
Zsuzsa Siklósi ◽  
Roman Scholz ◽  
Márton Szilágyi
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Report ◽  
Copper Age ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Frankfurt Am Main ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
Joint Project ◽  
First Results ◽  
Archaeological Sciences ◽  
Detailed Picture

This study aims to present the first results of fieldwork conducted by the teams of the Römisch-Germanische Kommission (Frankfurt am Main) and the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest) in the scope of a joint project. The investigated tell site, Berettyóújfalu-Szilhalom is well known by prehistoric archaeology due to earlier excavations. The main goals of the project were to gain a better understanding of Late Neolithic tell formation processes, to investigate the relations of a tell and its adjacent horizontal settlement and to get a more detailed picture on the Late Neolithic–Early Copper Age transition. Therefore we re-opened the refilled trench of the excavation carried out in 1976, collected bone, soil and micromorphological samples for further examinations, performed geomagnetic prospections, made drillings and field surveys.

scholarly journals Theory into practice: basic connections and stylistic affiliations of the Late Neolithic settlement at Pusztataskony-Ledence 1

2019 ◽  
pp. 147-178
Author(s):  
Katalin Sebők ◽  
Norbert Faragó
Keyword(s):  
Ceramic Material ◽  
Stylistic Analysis ◽  
Population Movement ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Research Development ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Resource Analysis ◽  
Symbolic Communication ◽  
First Results ◽  
Cultural Traits

Despite being positioned in the western fringes of the Tisza culture’s occupation area, the Late Neolithic settlement at Pusztataskony-Ledence 1 is seemingly well separated from the communities of the Lengyel complex. The character of its archaeological record however, together with recent results in the research of connections between the two cultural complexes raises the possibility of an amalgamation of these traditions at some point. In 2016, a grant of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office allowed us to start a threeyear-long project, aimed to process the data gained at Pusztataskony over three seasons in order to reveal foreign cognitive elements in the archaeological record of the site other than the ones observed in the burials. To match possible population movement with the appearance of Lengyel type cultural traits and understand the situation observed here classical archaeological and bioarchaeological analyses had been carried out. The current study surveys the first results of the investigations focusing on the archaeological record from one of the house clusters in the settlement. The examinations include a basic typological and resource analysis of the lithics and a stylistic analysis of the ceramic material. The interpretation focuses on the site’s contact system as outlined by the archaeological record, on the ceramic inventory as a medium of everyday symbolic communication here, as well as on our recent understanding of the character of contacts between the Tisza and Lengyel populations in the Middle and Upper Tisza Region.

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