Internet Archaeology 4

A known quantity of fish bone was placed within a designated area and left for five weeks. The area was trowelled and the soil was collected and sieved to recover the fish bone. The bone elements recovered show that less than 1% of the material laid out survived. Various factors affecting dispersal of fish bone are briefly discussed.

A picture of the past lifestyle of a people gained through the study of ethnographic documentation may be significantly different from one based only upon the interpretation of archaeological data. This paper examines that assertion by comparing the results of an analysis of fish remains from a coastal-midden site on Mabuiag Island, Torres Strait, with European descriptions of Islander fishing practices recorded in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

The significance of aquatic resources to past human groups is not adequately reflected in the published literature - a deficiency which is gradually being acknowledged by the archaeological community world-wide. The publication of the following three papers goes some way to redress this problem.Originally presented at an International Council of Archaeozoology (ICAZ) Fish Remains Working Group meeting in York, U.K. in 1987, these papers offer clear evidence of the range of interest in ancient fish remains across the world. Further papers from the York meeting were published in Internet Archaeology 3 in 1997.Takács and Bartosiewicz survey the archaeological literature of Hungary for records of fishes and by so doing, highlight the long acknowledged difficulties of recovering interpretable assemblages of small and fragile fish remains from archaeological sediments and soils. This archaeoichthyological audit is an invaluable benchmark for further work in the area.Ghaleb rises to the challenge of integrating ethnographic evidence gathered by one of the pioneers of anthropology, A.C. Haddon, with fish bones recovered from middens in the Torres Straits. From the anthropological evidence, we are able to gain insights into the division of labour, the diverse fishing methods and the variety of fishes contributing to the economy of the Torres Straits islanders at the end of the nineteenth century. The bones recovered from middens, lifeless fragments of once colourful animals hauled from sparkling tropical seas, bring into stark relief the nature of the challenge that faces every archaeologist.Bullock and Jones provide some evidence of why the archaeological record is so often a pale reflection of life. Their simple experiment monitoring what happened to the remains of 20 herring and 5 mackerel discarded by a campsite in temperate rural Wales, clearly shows that most of the fish hard parts discarded by humans are of great interest to other organisms in the food web. Scavengers and decomposers physically move and presumably ingest and digest fish bones, thus scattering them and removing them from the record.The limitations of traditional print publication are no longer a concern. The publication of these papers in this attractive format opens up innumerable possibilities for debate that were not available to us in 1987 and we actively seek your engagement with the issues raised. Further papers from the ICAZ workshop will be published in Internet Archaeology in the future.

La contribution vise à présenter les premiers résultats d'un projet de recherche dont les buts sont situés sur deux plans:l'élaboration d'un corpus aussi complet que possible de toutes les traces archéologiques de tombes individuelles et de nécropoles gallo-romaines, y compris les monuments et les inscriptions funérairesl'analyse archéologique proprement dite des structures et des objets (typologie, chronologie etc.) ainsi que l'étude des phénomènes religieux, culturels et sociaux qui transparaissent à travers ceux-ci.Le cadre géographique choisi est celui du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg actuel, qui représente une partie importante de l'ancienne civitas treverorum. D'un point de vue chronologique, toutes les découvertes archéologiques datables entre la deuxième moitié du 1er siècle ap. J.-C et le 5e siècle ap.- J.-C. sont pris en compte.Après un aperçu sur l'histoire de la recherche archéologique funéraire gallo-romaine au Luxembourg, l'état actuel du corpus contenant un total de 300 sites différents est présenté à l'aide de cartes et d'une banque de données. Sont ensuite présentés les premiers résultats de l'enquête relatifs àla répartition géographique des nécropolesles relations entre l'habitat rural, les nécropoles et les monuments funérairesl' organisation spatio-temporelle des nécropoles ruralesles pratiques dépositionnelles et la hiérarchisation sociale au sein des nécropolesles différents modes cinéraires et les rapports entre incinération et inhumation

This electronic article has a structure adapted to the possibilities of this interactive medium. The issues and solutions that have governed our archaeological investigation in the south-east of the Netherlands will be discussed three times. You will have the opportunity to select in how much detail you want to follow our arguments. The three story lines, covering the same subject in parallel, are:an extensive summarya short article with the major methodological and archaeological points.a comprehensive article with detailed descriptions of this regional investigation, many arguments and considerations for using certain methods and more differentiated archaeological conclusions.You may change levels at any time, using the hyperlinks less details and more details about. Within a level you may jump to the next or previous page with the Internet Archaeology toolbar at the top and bottom of each page. Another starting point is the Table of Contents.Regional archaeological investigations may provide important information, supplementing excavation data. The research area of the Meuse Valley Project is archaeologically very rich. However, the wealth of surface sites sharply contrasts with the interpretational possibilities of these data. How to handle these strongly distorted regional data was methodologically the main challenge of the Meuse Valley Project. How should we adapt our data and analytical techniques, in order to obtain a meaningful insight into the course of the Neolithization process in an area at the very edge of the loess and the North-European plain. Which economic and social processes occur in that transition area, after the ever so crucial introduction of agriculture on the Central European loess area by the Bandkeramic communities?

Review of Review of Poggio Colla. The 1995 Season Sampler [CD-ROM], published by the University of Pennsylvania Museum and Southern Methodist University, regarding the excavation of an Etruscan settlement in Tuscany.