scholarly journals Changes in Wood Utilization Due to Iron Age Jade Mining in the Western Hexi Corridor: Wood Charcoal Investigations

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fengwen Liu ◽  
Yishi Yang ◽  
Guoke Chen ◽  
Shanjia Zhang ◽  
Hucai Zhang

Charcoal remains from archeological sites are used not only to reconstruct the historical composition of local woodlands but also to examine the history of the human use of wood. Nevertheless, key questions such as how and why people may have selected particular woody taxa from locations long distances from their habitat have rarely been addressed. In the present study, we analyze charcoal remains from the ancient Jingbaoer (JBR) jade mine in the Mazong Mountains (Mazong Shan) of Northwest China to explore patterns in the collection and use of wood by Iron Age people. Factors affecting the choice of wood collected at the JBR site are discussed by combining the results of pollen records and charcoal analysis. Our results suggest that tamarisk (Tamarix L.), a shrub dominant in the local area, was the main source of wood for JBR miners and was used as firewood depending upon its local availability. The miners may also have used wood from species sourced further away, such as Pinus L. and Picea L., because of the local scarcity of these trees in such a dry environment. The agropastoralist subsistence system practiced by the JBR miners supports the hypothesis of the collection of wood from distant locales. This study highlights diverse patterns of wood collection in an area scarce in woody plants and provides new evidence for understanding how Iron Age people adapted to extremely arid environments.

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 095968362094113
Author(s):  
Lele Ren ◽  
Ying Yang ◽  
Qianqian Wang ◽  
Shanjia Zhang ◽  
Tingting Chen ◽  
...  

The Gansu–Qinghai region lies in the key position for trans-Eurasian cultural exchange, and hence investigations of the history of agricultural development in this region are significant for understanding the spatiotemporal evolution of prehistoric crop dispersal in Eurasia. However, systematic archaeobotanical studies concerning the history of the development of prehistoric agriculture in this area are scarce. Here, based on archaeobotanical analysis and radiocarbon dating at the Jinchankou site, we investigated the history of agricultural development in the Datong River valley during the Qijia culture. Combined with previous archaeobotanical studies of the Gansu–Qinghai region, we explored the diachronic changes in the cropping patterns from the Late Neolithic to the Early Iron Age. The results suggest that millet remained the most important subsistence plant during 4100–3700 BP, while barley and wheat were first cultivated around 3900 BP at the Jinchankou site. Humans only cultivated foxtail and broomcorn millet in the Gansu–Qinghai region with a high level of agricultural management during 5900–4000 BP. Barley and wheat were added to the agricultural system in the area during 4000–3600 BP, although they played a subsidiary role compared with millet. During 3600–2100 BP, barley played an increasingly important role in the Gansu–Qinghai region but with evident differences among geomorphic units, and there was an obvious decrease in agricultural management level. It is likely that the transformation of cropping patterns and agricultural management levels in the Gansu–Qinghai region from 5900 to 2100 BP was primarily promoted by prehistoric trans-continental cultural exchange and secondly by climate change in the area.


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Sterner ◽  
Nicholas David

The publication, largely by ethnoarchaeologists, of new data on the tamper and concave anvil technique of pot-forming (TCA) permits a reassessment of this uniquely African technique, its toolkit, and its culture history. A survey, inspired by the technologie culturelle school, of its varied expressions in the southern Saharan, Sahelian and northern Sudan zones from Mali to Sudan and extending north into Egypt emphasises the potential of the technique for the efficient production of spherical water jars of high volume to weight ratio, much appreciated in arid environments. The technique is demanding and therefore practised for the most part by specialists. The origins and diffusion of the technique are assessed in the light of the ethnological, archaeological, linguistic, and historical evidence, and a four stage historical development is sketched.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 5426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiren J. Patel ◽  
Vaishnavi P. Parikh

The pharmaceutical industry has faced several marked challenges in order to bring new chemical entities (NCEs) into the market over the past few decades. Various novel drug delivery approaches have been used as a part of life cycle management from which Osmotic drug delivery systems look the most promising one. After discussing the history of osmotic pump development, this article looks at the principles, advantages and disadvantages of osmotic drug delivery systems. Then, the basic components of osmotic pump and factors affecting the design of oral osmotic drug delivery systems are discussed in detail. In the later part of the manuscript, various types of osmotic pumps available in the market and evaluation methods for osmotic drug delivery systems are discussed in detail.


Author(s):  
Matthew Suriano

The history of the Judahite bench tomb provides important insight into the meaning of mortuary practices, and by extension, death in the Hebrew Bible. The bench tomb appeared in Judah during Iron Age II. Although it included certain burial features that appear earlier in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, such as burial benches, and the use of caves for extramural burials, the Judahite bench tomb uniquely incorporated these features into a specific plan that emulated domestic structures and facilitated multigenerational burials. During the seventh century, and continuing into the sixth, the bench tombs become popular in Jerusalem. The history of this type of burial shows a gradual development of cultural practices that were meant to control death and contain the dead. It is possible to observe within these cultural practices the tomb as a means of constructing identity for both the dead and the living.


Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts

Religious Architecture in Latium and Etruria, c. 900-500 BC presents the first comprehensive treatment of cult buildings in western central Italy from the Iron Age to the Archaic Period. By analysing the archaeological evidence for the form of early religious buildings and their role in ancient communities, it reconstructs a detailed history of early Latial and Etruscan religious architecture that brings together the buildings and the people who used them. The first part of the study examines the processes by which religious buildings changed from huts and shrines to monumental temples, and explores apparent differences between these processes in Latium and Etruria. The second part analyses the broader architectural, religious, and topographical contexts of the first Etrusco-Italic temples alongside possible rationales for their introduction. The result is a new and extensive account of when, where, and why monumental cult buildings became features of early central Italic society.


Author(s):  
Richard Bradley ◽  
Colin Haselgrove ◽  
Marc Vander Linden ◽  
Leo Webley

The Later Prehistory of North-West Europe provides a unique, up-to-date, and easily accessible synthesis of the later prehistoric archaeology of north-west Europe, transcending political and language barriers that can hinder understanding. By surveying changes in social forms, landscape organization, monument types, and ritual practices over six millennia, the volume reassesses the prehistory of north-west Europe from the late Mesolithic to the end of the pre-Roman Iron Age. It explores how far common patterns of social development are apparent across north-west Europe, and whether there were periods when local differences were emphasized instead. In relation to this, it also examines changes through time in the main axes of contact between the various regions of continental Europe, Britain, and Ireland. Key to the volume's broad scope is its focus on the vast mass of new evidence provided by recent development-led excavations. The authors collate data that has been gathered on thousands of sites across Britain, Ireland, northern France, the Low Countries, western Germany, and Denmark, using sources including unpublished 'grey literature' reports. The results challenge many aspects of previous narratives of later prehistory, allowing the volume to present a distinctively fresh perspective.


Author(s):  
Sabine Fourrier

This chapter concentrates on the Phoenician presence in the island of Cyprus in the Iron Age (from the eleventh until the end of the fourth century bce). After a brief overview, it addresses the question of identification of the Cypriot Qarthadasht and the issue of a supposed Phoenician colonization in Cyprus. The political and cultural history of the Cypro-Phoenician kingdom of Kition also receives particular attention. At the same time, the widespread and multifaceted aspects of Phoenician presences on the island are underlined: Phoenician presence was not confined to Kition and Phoenician influence did not exclusively spread in the island from Kition.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Vallance

Abstract Historians of the trial of Charles I will be familiar with the two copies of the manuscript journals kept in The National Archives of the U.K. and the U.K. Parliamentary Archives. Besides these manuscripts, two further copies of the trial proceedings are held in the Beinecke Library, Yale, and in the British Library. This article compares these versions to propose a tentative document history of the journals, suggesting that these manuscripts were produced for different purposes: what began as the basis for an authoritative public account of the trial later became a text intended for a more select legal audience.


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