scholarly journals Faunal Remains From Diang Mahang In Kalimantan: Taxonomic Identification And Their Archaeological Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-154
Author(s):  
Vida Pervaya Rusianti Kusmartono ◽  
Ni Luh Gde Dyah Mega Hafsari

Faunal remains, both vertebrates and invertebrates, are important discoveries in archaeological research. Such proxy may provide information on the identity of animal species which may associate with human at a site. This research aims to understand the existence of faunal remains in the rockshelter of Diang Mahang to further comprehend the interaction of humans and their environment in the past. No research involving animal remains in this region has been conducted before. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out a taxonomic identification of the faunal remains related to human activities in the past in Diang Mahang. This study applies a qualitative-analytic method with inductive reasoning. The analysis was performed by observing the diagnostic characteristics of a bone to determine its taxonomic identity. Results of diagnostic characteristics showed that vertebrate remains comprise three main classes, i.e., Mammals, Reptiles, and Pisces. The remains of the invertebrate consist of Molluscs and Arthropods. Marine Cypraeid also existed but was not of the edible variety. Contextually, faunal remains are associated with lithics and pottery, indicating a micro-scale activity in Diang Mahang related to humans’ daily life in the rockshelter.

Koedoe ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Plug

Faunal remains obtained from archaeological sites in the Kruger National Park, provide valuable information on the distributions of animal species in the past. The relative abundances of some species are compared with animal population statistics of the present. The study of the faunal samples, which date from nearly 7 000 years before present until the nineteenth century, also provides insight into climatic conditions during prehistoric times.


2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Hambleton

This study expands perceptions of ritual behaviour in the British Iron Age, which conventionally focus on the deposition and burial of objects. Classification of animal bones as special deposits in Iron Age Britain, and interpretation of the ritual activities they may represent, has tended to concentrate on the significance of their burial location and composition and/or the cultural perception of the particular animal species deposited. Other than for consumption and sacrifice, little consideration has been given to the complex, dynamic histories (biographies) and cultural significance of animal remains in the period between death and burial. Detailed examination of the taphonomic and pre-depositional histories of animal deposits, are one means by which it is possible to explore the activities that occurred above ground in the past. Zooarchaeological investigations of a group of cattle and horse skulls from Battlesbury Bowl, Hampshire, provide an excellent example of a ‘special deposit’ where it was the objects themselves, as much as their species, location or structured burial that held special significance for the Iron Age community. By taking a biographical approach, we can create detailed narratives of archaeological animal bones and their treatment, thereby expanding the view of activities that fall under the ‘ritual’ umbrella.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. e26471
Author(s):  
Laura Brenskelle ◽  
Michelle LeFebvre ◽  
Rob Guralnick ◽  
Kitty Emery ◽  
John Wieczorek ◽  
...  

Zooarchaeological specimens are the remains of animals, including vertebrate and invertebrate taxa, recovered from, or in association with, archaeological contexts of deposition or surrounding landscapes. The physical scope of zooarchaeological specimens is diverse and includes macro- and micro-zooarchaeological specimens composed of archaeologically preserved bone, shell, exoskeletons, teeth, hair or fur, scales, horns or antlers, as well as geochemical (e.g., isotopes) and biochemical (e.g., ancient DNA) signatures derived from faunal remains. Artifacts and objects created from animal remains, such as bone pins, shell beads, preserved animal hides, are also zooarchaeological specimens. Here we present recent work to utilize identifiers for archaeological samples in new data publishing routines, focusing on key challenges. One critical challenge is that archaeological samples are often composited into different units depending on managers of collections and analysts. Thus, in some cases, when migrating datasets for publication, identifiers can refer to different sets of units, even within the same dataset. Another key challenge is assuring that different repositories can share sample identifiers. We show how Open Context, a site-based archaeology-focused repository that also manages objects such as zooarchaeological material, and VertNet, a specimen-oriented biodiversity repository, have collaborated to share sample identifiers. While this illustrates a success story of linking data across repositories, we discuss the complexity of how “occurrence identifiers,” but not true sample identifiers, in VertNet are propagated to another system where the identifiers point to a similar record called “Animal Bone” in Open Context.


Author(s):  
LeeAnna Schniebs

The excavation of the Hardin A site (41GG69), a late 14th to early 15th century A.D. period Caddo site in Gregg County, Texas, yielded 495 faunal specimens. This sum includes all bone fragments, and pieces of antler and turtle shell. Total weight of the assemblage is 266.6 grams. Faunal material was recovered from 15 levels in a single 1 x 2 m unit comprised of a midden deposit and feature fill. The remainder of the article discuss the methods employed in the faunal analysis, results of taxonomic identification and quantification, and the distribution of these remains.


Starinar ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 239-255
Author(s):  
Vujadin Ivanisevic ◽  
Ivan Bugarski

Roman Margum and Mediaeval town of Morava, situated on the Orasje site in Dubravica at the confluence of the Velika Morava and the Danube, could not have been analysed more thoroughly in the past because of the damage caused by the river bed displacements and soil erosion on the one hand, and dense vegetation growing on such a moist terrain on the other. Archaeological research has so far failed to produce even a site plan. Available data on this important site are contradictory to a considerable extent, so the information one could obtain from the written and cartographic sources needed to be confronted with the archaeological ones and, especially, those derived from the recent LiDAR scanning of the terrain, conducted within the scope of the Archaeo-Landscapes Europe Project. Among the most important plans of the confluence area are those left by Marsigli in the 18th and Kanitz in the 19th century. Felix Kanitz, the famous Balkan traveler, also provided us with a textual description of his visit to the site in 1887. Our analyses of the two plans have revealed a number of inaccuracies. Through analyses of the obtaineded LiDAR scans, however, the preserved area of the two settlements has been clearly demarcated, measuring 7-8 hectares, and the eastern edge of the Roman agglomeration - presumed already in the course of the 2011 excavations - was confirmed. Most probably it was the eastern rampart of the Roman fortification. Apart from this, the purpose of a canal stretching along the whole plateau, and mentioned by Kanitz, has been established. Given that to the east of the canal there was the presumably Roman rampart, and to the west of it there were recently excavated ruins of Roman buildings, the canal itself must have been of a more recent date. Bearing in mind the established vertical stratigraphy of the site, we conclude that it was in fact a Mediaeval defence trench. The topography of the nearby fort Kulic has been studied as well. It is often believed that this fortification was originally built in Roman times, but the analyses of DTM have shown the fort erected on an embankment, round in shape, i.e. on the more elevated terrain in comparsion to the largest part of the confluence area, where most of Roman Margum and Mediaeval Morava has been wiped out by water. So the Kulic fortification could have been originally erected only afterwords, i.e. in Turkish times. There are some data from the written sources to corroborate such a date, and we also know of two later accounts describing the 17th century settlement in front of it. There has been no field confirmation so far, but thanks to the results of LiDAR scanning one may observe the traces of a small settlement south of the fortification, protected by a trench.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 77-96
Author(s):  
Sujit Sivasundaram

AbstractThe Pacific has often been invisible in global histories written in the UK. Yet it has consistently been a site for contemplating the past and the future, even among Britons cast on its shores. In this lecture, I reconsider a critical moment of globalisation and empire, the ‘age of revolutions’ at the end of the eighteenth century and the start of the nineteenth century, by journeying with European voyagers to the Pacific Ocean. The lecture will point to what this age meant for Pacific islanders, in social, political and cultural terms. It works with a definition of the Pacific's age of revolutions as a surge of indigeneity met by a counter-revolutionary imperialism. What was involved in undertaking a European voyage changed in this era, even as one important expedition was interrupted by news from revolutionary Europe. Yet more fundamentally vocabularies and practices of monarchy were consolidated by islanders across the Pacific. This was followed by the outworkings of counter-revolutionary imperialism through agreements of alliance and alleged cessation. Such an argument allows me, for instance, to place the 1806 wreck of the Port-au-Prince within the Pacific's age of revolutions. This was an English ship used to raid French and Spanish targets in the Pacific, but which was stripped of its guns, iron, gunpowder and carronades by Tongans. To chart the trajectory from revolution and islander agency on to violence and empire is to appreciate the unsettled paths that gave rise to our modern world. This view foregrounds people who inhabited and travelled through the earth's oceanic frontiers. It is a global history from a specific place in the oceanic south, on the opposite side of the planet to Europe.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvie Loufouma Mbouaka ◽  
Michelle Gamble ◽  
Christina Wurst ◽  
Heidi Yoko Jäger ◽  
Frank Maixner ◽  
...  

AbstractAlthough malaria is one of the oldest and most widely distributed diseases affecting humans, identifying and characterizing its presence in ancient human remains continue to challenge researchers. We attempted to establish a reliable approach to detecting malaria in human skeletons using multiple avenues of analysis: macroscopic observations, rapid diagnostic tests, and shotgun-capture sequencing techniques, to identify pathological changes, Plasmodium antigens, and Plasmodium DNA, respectively. Bone and tooth samples from ten individuals who displayed skeletal lesions associated with anaemia, from a site in southern Egypt (third to sixth centuries AD), were selected. Plasmodium antigens were detected in five of the ten bone samples, and traces of Plasmodium aDNA were detected in six of the twenty bone and tooth samples. There was relatively good synchronicity between the biomolecular findings, despite not being able to authenticate the results. This study highlights the complexity and limitations in the conclusive identification of the Plasmodium parasite in ancient human skeletons. Limitations regarding antigen and aDNA preservation and the importance of sample selection are at the forefront of the search for malaria in the past. We confirm that, currently, palaeopathological changes such as cribra orbitalia are not enough to be certain of the presence of malaria. While biomolecular methods are likely the best chance for conclusive identification, we were unable to obtain results which correspond to the current authentication criteria of biomolecules. This study represents an important contribution in the refinement of biomolecular techniques used; also, it raises new insight regarding the consistency of combining several approaches in the identification of malaria in past populations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136248062110078
Author(s):  
Katja Franko

The Southern Mediterranean border has in the past decade become one of the most deeply contested political spaces in Europe and has been described as a site of the border spectacle. Drawing on textual and visual analysis of Twitter messages by two of the most prominent actors in the field, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, and the humanitarian and medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières, the article examines the split nature of the Mediterranean border which is, among others, visible in radically different narratives about migrants’ journeys, border deaths and living conditions. The findings challenge previous scholarship about convergence of humanitarianism and policing. The two actors are waging a fierce media battle for moral authority, where they use widely diverging strategies of claiming authority, each of which carries a particular set of ethical dilemmas.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110335
Author(s):  
Tingting Hu ◽  
Tianru Guan

Through an in-depth analysis of gender representation in the box office record-breaking Chinese movie Wolf Warrior II, this study interrogates how the male body is used as a site for the projection of Chinese national power. Furthermore, it illustrates a revival of patriotic pride in China through a contemporary reading of cross-genre action-military films. Developing Shuqin Cui’s notion of “woman-as-nation,” which understands on-screen female victimization in Chinese films as signifying the past suffering of the nation, this study proposes the new concept of “man-as-nation” to explain how the masculine virtues of male protagonists in Chinese films signify the nation’s rejuvenation and strength. Framing male virtue into the paradigms of wu (武), as martial valor, and wen (文), as cultural attainment, this article argues that masculinity has come to symbolize China’s enhanced comprehensive power and to embody its ideological orientation in both global and domestic domains.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 1215-1221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Levy Figuti ◽  
Cláudia R Plens ◽  
Paulo DeBlasis

Sambaquis, famous Brazilian coastal shellmounds, represent a successful and long archaeological cultural tradition, with hundreds of sites spread over 2000 km of the Brazilian south-southeast coastline. These sites have many burials within a sequence of layers comprising a mix of faunal remains, charcoal, ashes, and sand, thus resulting in very complex stratigraphic structures. Several radiocarbon samples exhibit ages between 8000 and 1000 cal yr BP. In the Brazilian southeastern coastal hinterland, at the Ribeira de Iguape basin, 36 small mounds similar to the sambaquis were found, composed mostly of landsnail shells, bone remains of terrestrial fauna, lithic and osteodontological artifacts, and quite a few burials. Through the last decade an archaeological research project has accomplished extensive surveys and systematic 14C sampling, together with excavations in selected sites. A sequence of ages has been obtained from different samples (16 on shell, 10 on human bone, and 6 on charcoal) representing 19 sites. These dates range from 10,000 to 1000 cal yr BP, highlighting around 9000 yr of cultural continuity, contemporary to both the Paleoindian record over the hinterland plateau, and older than their coastal counterparts, the sambaquis. By presenting the 14C distribution and an overview of the archaeological features of these sites, we discuss briefly the dispersion and settlement processes of early peopling in this area of Brazil.


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