Lec 18? Flashcards
(16 cards)
What is sourcing?
-determining origin of materials used in artifacts to understand resource procurement, mobility, and exchange
What is Resource Procurement, Mobility, Exchange?
- Where mats. are obtained, can show community’s territory reach + resource management strategies
- Can indicate movement of ppls + diffusion of cultural practices
- Can show ancient trade routes + econ relationships
Mobility + Migration?
Technological Style + Social Boundaries?
Territoriality + Resource Control?
Digital Provenance + Big Data?
- Strontium + o2 isotope analysis for teeth & bones reveals childhood mobility - shows how individuals or groups moved b/t regions
- materials like obsidian + ceramics can show cultural affiliation, identity signaling, or inter-group boundaries
- Location of mats. extraction + access was regulated can show patterns of territoriality + sociopolitical complexity.
- Advances in digital Arky + large databases = broader regional comparisons + reproducibility of results
Lithic Raw Materials?
- Obsidian, flint, chert, quartzite
- Indicates mobility, quarry control, technological choices
- Methods: XRF, NAA, visual macroscopic + petrographic analysis
- ex. obsidian exchange near East + East Africa
Why Obsidian?
- Volcanic glass, has unique chemical compositions depending on geological origin
- Even flows from same area can be distinguishable
Ideal b/c:
1.widely used in prehistory for tools + weapons
2. traded over long distances
3. preserves well + easily analyzed with XRF + NAA
Ceramics?
- Pots, storage jars, ceremonial vessels
- reflects cultural practices, household econ, and trade
sourcing:
- petrography, INAA, portable XRF
Petrography in sourcing?
- can show if ceramics are locally or non-locally based on mineralogical profile of clays + tempers
- reveals technology choices (ex. intentional tempering w/ sand, grog)
- groups ceramics by workshop, region, production center
- can infer standardization, specialization, etc
XRF?
- quick identification in: obsidian, flint, ceramics, metals, glass, pigments
- matches artifacts to geological sources by comparing elemental profiles
- portable units (pXRF) allow in-field analysis w/ minimal sample prep
- ideal for large-scale studies (ex. obsidian exchange networks, ceramic workshops)
Compositional fingerprinting? (NAA)
- technique used to trace element composition of archaeological materials
- involves bombarding sample w/ neutrons in reactor to cause elemental radioactive reaction
- long distance comparisons
- up to 30+ elements data
- valuable for ceramics, obsidian, metals, soil samples
- enables interregional comparison of materials at very fine scales
Isotopic Analysis (Strontium) + Strontium Isoscape?
- Strontium + o2 isotopes in teeth, bone, shell reflect geology + water composition of region where organism lived
- reconstruct individual mobility or provenance of materials (ex. ivory from specific elephants)
- geospatial model that maps spatial variation in the Sr87/86 ratio
- maps are used to match biological samples (ex. tooth enamel, bone, plants) to specific regions
- can study human + animal mobility, trade, land use
Joman culture/Obsidian trade?
- mapping tools
- sites are nodes in a network graph
- connections (Edges) represent interactions (trade, migration, comms)
- nodes + flows create a diagram of exchange intensity that can be quantified
African Trade Networks?
- indian ocean connection since the Early Holocene
- linked coastal E. Africa to Arabia, India, SE. Asia, showing flow of goods, people, ideas
- Early Holocene exchanges (~10k-6kBP) reflect enviro shifts, maritime innovation, emergent social complexity in Africa
Periods w/ respective developments?
Early Holocene (10k-6kBP): coastal adaptations, shell middens, proto-seafaring
Mid Holocene (6k-3kBP): evidence of early Red Sea traffic; neolithic exchange
Later Holocene(3kBP-onward): indian ocean sailing; iron, ivory, incense trade
Early Holocene Coastal Activity?
(10k-6kBP)
- Rising sea levels = ecologies that supported shellfish collecting, fishing, + marine-oriented settlements (ex. shell middens at Kilwa, Pemba, Eritrean coast)
-shell bead trade + obsidian sourcing = regional exchange from 9th millennium BP (ex. Lamu Archipelago, Red Sea sites)
- evidence from Horn of Africa + S. Arabia = proto-maritime contact (canoes, logboats) showing inter-coastal + red sea crossings
Long distance exchange in the Holocene?
- Marine shell beads from E. Africa coastal sites found inland (eg. Lake Victoria Basin, Rift Highlands) suggest exchange over 500+km
- obsidian tools @ coastal + highland sites (eg. Manda Island) reflect long-range material networks
- ceramics w/ affinities to S. Arabia + the Horn = early transmarine stylistic influences
Indian Ocean Integration?
From 3kBP-onwards
- S. Arabia: frankincense, obsidian, copper)
- S. Asia: beads, metalwork, cloth
- SE. Asia: Spices
- E. Africa: ivory, iron
