Archaeology in Oceania最新文献

{"title":"The New Zealand bracken fern rhizome, Pteridium esculentum (G.Forst): a toxic food plant of pre-European Māori","authors":"Foss Leach,&nbsp;Janet Davidson,&nbsp;Michael Burtenshaw,&nbsp;Graham Harris,&nbsp;Tony Tomlin,&nbsp;Paul Davis","doi":"10.1002/arco.5285","DOIUrl":"10.1002/arco.5285","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The two species of bracken fern, <i>Pteridium esculentum</i> and <i>Pteridium aquilinum</i>, are well known to produce neoplastic lesions and thiamine deficiency when consumed by mammals, with severe consequences to health. New Zealand Pre-European Māori are known to have consumed rhizomes of <i>P. esculentum</i> as food with little or no recorded consequences to health. Processing methods by Māori prior to consumption may have helped to detoxify this food. We carried out LDH toxicity tests on rhizomes that had been pre-processed before simulated digestion to test this possibility. We tested rhizomes harvested each month of the year, different components of the rhizome, both raw and roasted rhizomes, rhizomes stored for up to 12 months, and rhizomes leached for up to 24 hours. All specimens remained equally toxic within experimental error. We carried out a detailed analysis of nutrients in bracken rhizome and compared this with kūmara, <i>Ipomoea batatas</i>, another important food plant for pre-European Māori, and found that bracken rhizome has c. 70% of the caloric value of kūmara. A cost/benefit analysis of the two plants suggested that the reward for effort is greatest for kūmara by a modest amount. Analysis of historic ethnographic observations relating to bracken rhizome from AD 1769 to the 1840s provides complex and contradictory evidence of the role of bracken rhizome in the Māori economic system. Although there is clear evidence that Māori greatly favoured chewing rhizomes, this fondness may result from the presence of one or more plant secondary metabolites (PSM), such as ecdysone, which are known to be addictive. Our analysis of the evidence favours the plant being essentially a famine food, filling in the period between planting and harvest of kūmara, known as the ‘hungry gap’ between October and April in the southern hemisphere. However, it would also have provided an important source of food for travellers, as fern-lands are widespread. Our analysis of archaeological information did not produce unequivocal direct evidence of bracken rhizome consumption. However, the presence of extreme tooth wear and a unique pattern of first molar dislocation, attributed to the use of teeth to strip starch from rhizomes, has been shown to be present at all periods of New Zealand prehistory. This is contrary to the finding of some other researchers.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":46465,"journal":{"name":"Archaeology in Oceania","volume":"58 2","pages":"135-171"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49554054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The sacred stone from the sea. Archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on the ritual value of coral across the Pacific","authors":"Guillaume Molle,&nbsp;Jean-Marie Wadrawane,&nbsp;Louis Lagarde,&nbsp;Duncan Wright","doi":"10.1002/arco.5284","DOIUrl":"10.1002/arco.5284","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Pacific Islands offer a variety of marine environments providing peoples in the present and past with abundant coral materials, a “stone from the sea”. Archaeologists have long recognised the importance of coral in ancient contexts, whether as gravel, natural branches, squared blocks or cut-and-dress slabs. Coral was also used to manufacture tools such as files or pounders and incorporated in monumental ceremonial architecture as a favoured construction material and foundation offerings. However, Pacific Islanders also employed coral material for other ritual applications that remain overlooked in the literature. In this article, we consider the multiple uses of coral in the archaeological and ethnographic records of three Pacific regions: Central-East Polynesia (CEP), New Caledonia and the Torres Strait Islands. This includes offering of coral branches, sometimes associated with cairns, paraphernalia and magic stones, also production of coral lime for body ornamentation. Using these case studies, we consider material selection, modes of deposition, archaeological and ethnographic contexts, associations with other features and artefacts, before interrogating the potential significance of these unrealised datasets. By doing so, we shed new light on the ritual value of coral and reflect on the symbolic nature and function of this material.</p>","PeriodicalId":46465,"journal":{"name":"Archaeology in Oceania","volume":"58 1","pages":"40-55"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/arco.5284","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45781579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stones in Motion: monuments and chiefly title histories in central Vanuatu","authors":"Chris Ballard","doi":"10.1002/arco.5283","DOIUrl":"10.1002/arco.5283","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper addresses the ways in which stones have anchored stories and people in central Vanuatu. Three different sets of stones, and stories about those stones, cast light from different angles on the history of the distinctive chiefly title system of this region. The first set revolves around the fulcrum of Wotanimanu, a pillar of stone that rises from the sea between Efate and the Shepherd Islands. This is the figure of a chief who arrived on Efate by sea, accompanied by his “stones” or people. Senior chiefly titles of this region, which draw on lengthy histories of migration, ground their narrative and genealogical claims in the proof of a second set of stones, including grave markers, magic stones, and arrangements of stones in series that stand for successive holders of each title. The third set of stones and stories was initiated by the first resident Presbyterian missionary in the Shepherd Islands, Oscar Michelsen, who acknowledged the importance attached locally to history by setting up a series of stelae to commemorate the conversion of individual chiefs. The paper concludes with thoughts on the agency and mobility of stone in the Shepherd Islands, and the ways in which stones give substance to chiefly power.</p>","PeriodicalId":46465,"journal":{"name":"Archaeology in Oceania","volume":"58 1","pages":"20-32"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/arco.5283","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46934473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cosmo-political landscapes of Torres Strait adhi and misœri stones: Closing the gap between Islander and non-indigenous perspectives","authors":"Rod Mitchell,&nbsp;Friedrich von Gnielinski,&nbsp;Josh Willsher,&nbsp;McRose Elu,&nbsp;Duncan Wright","doi":"10.1002/arco.5281","DOIUrl":"10.1002/arco.5281","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Torres Strait (TS), on Australia's north-east border, has a long history of research on <i>pœrapœral kulal</i>: powerful stones. <i>Pœrapœral kulal</i> contain vital power from site-of-origin and therefore their movement across the Coral-Arafura Sea corridor provides important information about past and present human relationships (Elu 2004). With few exceptions Western models draw on anthropological, linguistic and site origin research collated by a Cambridge University field team over 100 years ago, with little detailed reassessment of stone raw material and distribution or geological and archaeological surveys conducted within the intervening period. It is also unclear how TS Islanders engage with this literature, particularly the many communities poorly represented by 19th-century studies. In this paper, we test several assumptions influencing recent literature from contemporary islander and non-indigenous perspectives. This includes assessing whether: (a) western scholarship models oversimplify terminology and discussion; (b) early geological assessments of substantive movement of stones is correct; and (c) movement of exotic stones was a common feature across TS. Finally, using detailed cultural, archaeology, geology, and language data sets we reinterpret the regionally-varying role and antiquity of <i>pœrapœral kulal</i> within this animate cosmo-political land and seascape.</p>","PeriodicalId":46465,"journal":{"name":"Archaeology in Oceania","volume":"58 1","pages":"56-73"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/arco.5281","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45907604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Uncovering Pacific Pasts: Histories of Archaeology in Oceania by Hilary Howes, Tristen Jones, and Matthew Spriggs. ANU Press, Canberra, 2022. ISBN 9781760464868 (Paperback). Pp. xv + 578. AU $100.","authors":"PATRICK V KIRCH","doi":"10.1002/arco.5280","DOIUrl":"10.1002/arco.5280","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46465,"journal":{"name":"Archaeology in Oceania","volume":"58 1","pages":"131-132"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47334686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Indigenous fish traps and fish weirs on the Darling (Baaka) River, south-eastern Australia, and their influence on the ecology and morphology of the river and floodplains","authors":"Sarah Martin,&nbsp;Hubert Chanson,&nbsp;Badger Bates,&nbsp;Duncan Keenan-Jones,&nbsp;Michael C. Westaway","doi":"10.1002/arco.5279","DOIUrl":"10.1002/arco.5279","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Fish traps and fish weirs built by Indigenous people in the Barwon-Darling River system of the Murray Darling Basin (MDB), south-eastern Australia, are an important component of their traditional social, spiritual and economic systems. The celebrated Brewarrina stone fish traps (<i>Ngunnhu</i>) on the Barwon River are the largest and best documented stone fish traps in the Basin. However, there has been minimal research on the many other stone fish traps in this system. This paper focusses on the in-stream stone fish traps downstream of Brewarrina along the Darling (Baaka) River, some still partly extant, remembered, or documented in historical material. Wooden and earthen bank fish traps and weirs, while not as enduring and archaeologically visible as stone fish traps, were frequently used on the Darling (Baaka) floodplain lakes, swamps and billabongs. Archaeological evidence, traditional cultural knowledge and historical materials are utilised to document the complex social processes and modification of landscapes associated with fish traps and weirs. By demonstrating that Barkandji were active and successful managers of the river and its ecology prior to colonisation, and that much of this cultural knowledge is retained by current generations, the authors make a case for them to renew their custodianship and a decision-making role in water management.</p>","PeriodicalId":46465,"journal":{"name":"Archaeology in Oceania","volume":"58 1","pages":"91-114"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/arco.5279","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42922052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Archaeobotanical futures in the Indo-Pacific","authors":"Tim Denham,&nbsp;Alison Crowther,&nbsp;Aleese Barron","doi":"10.1002/arco.5278","DOIUrl":"10.1002/arco.5278","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper introduces several archaeobotanical papers published in the same issue of <i>Archaeology in Oceania</i> and presents strongly argued reasons why archaeobotany should become an important subdiscipline within archaeological research in the Indo-Pacific.</p>","PeriodicalId":46465,"journal":{"name":"Archaeology in Oceania","volume":"57 3","pages":"155-159"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48367558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identifying archaeological parenchyma in three dimensions: Diagnostic assessment of five important food plant species in the Indo-Pacific region","authors":"Aleese Barron,&nbsp;Jeni Pritchard,&nbsp;Tim Denham","doi":"10.1002/arco.5276","DOIUrl":"10.1002/arco.5276","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Archaeobotanical evidence for the exploitation of vegetatively propagated underground storage organs (USOs) in the tropical regions of Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific is currently limited. Although there have been several key studies of archaeological parenchyma published in the past two decades, systematic application of identification methods for vegetatively propagated crop species utilising charred, desiccated or waterlogged remains of parenchymatous tissue is not undertaken on a regular basis. Here, microCT imaging technology is used to compile a three-dimensional virtual reference collection of parenchymatous tissues for five key USO species known to have been extensively cultivated by people in these regions. The five species are <i>Dioscorea alata</i>, <i>Dioscorea esculenta</i>, <i>Colocasia esculenta</i>, <i>Alocasia macrorrhiza</i> and <i>Ipomoea batatas</i>. These reference samples are used to illustrate the character of the virtual, microCT derived reference collection, and they also capture inter-species differentiation and intra-species morphological variation characteristic of many tuberous root crops.</p>","PeriodicalId":46465,"journal":{"name":"Archaeology in Oceania","volume":"57 3","pages":"189-213"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/arco.5276","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45188581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Star anise from a fifteenth century Indonesian shipwreck","authors":"Cristina Cobo Castillo,&nbsp;Brian Fahy,&nbsp;Dorian Q. Fuller","doi":"10.1002/arco.5275","DOIUrl":"10.1002/arco.5275","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Maritime trade routes in Southeast Asia date to at least the last millennium BC evidenced by excavations of port-cities, entrepôts and early coastal polities in Peninsular Thailand, the Mekong Delta and Island Southeast Asia. This trade network intensified over the next millennium and by the fifteenth century, the number of trade goods throughout Medieval Southeast Asia was prolific. The bulk of studied material comprises trade ceramics, particularly in archaeological investigations of shipwreck cargoes which provide information on regional trading patterns. Although ceramic assemblages constitute the bulk of shipwreck cargo, other types of material have also been found, including the spice star anise. In this paper, we focus on the organic contents from two jars found in the Bakau shipwreck dating to the early fifteenth century AD. The finds are significant as this spice (star anise, <i>Illicium verum</i>) is being transported together with items of high value for trade.</p>","PeriodicalId":46465,"journal":{"name":"Archaeology in Oceania","volume":"57 3","pages":"214-222"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45688637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Archaeological identification of fragmented nuts and fruits from key Asia-Pacific economic tree species using anatomical criteria: Comparative analysis of Canarium, Pandanus and Terminalia","authors":"Andrew S. Fairbairn,&nbsp;S. Anna Florin","doi":"10.1002/arco.5273","DOIUrl":"10.1002/arco.5273","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The fats, protein and carbohydrates afforded by tree nuts and fruits are key resources for communities from Southeast Asia, through Melanesia, Australia and across Oceania. They are important in long-distance marine trade networks, large-scale ceremonial gatherings, and are core resources in a wide range of subsistence economies, including foraging systems, horticulture and swidden agriculture. Recent archaeobotanical evidence has also shown their deep-time importance, being amongst the earliest foods used in the colonisation of novel environments in Australia and New Guinea, as well as the later colonisation of Near and Remote Oceania. The archaeobotanical methods used to identify fruit and nut-derived plant macrofossils have been largely limited to use of morphological characters of near whole or exceptionally preserved remains, most commonly endocarps, the hard, nutshell-like interior layer of the fruit protecting the seed. Here we detail how anatomical characteristics of endocarps, visible in light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), can be used with surviving morphological features to identify confidently the use of key Asia-Pacific economic trees, in this case, <i>Canarium, Pandanus and Terminalia</i>. Systematic anatomical description allows the identification of these important economic taxa, and separation from the remains of others such as <i>Aleurites</i> and <i>Cocos</i>, when found in a range of archaeological assemblages. This includes the often highly fragmented charred assemblages that can be recovered routinely from most sites with appropriate fine-sieving and flotation methods. These methods provide the basis for a more representative and nuanced understanding of ancient plant use, economy and social systems operating in the region and, being particularly useful in tropical regions, will broaden the archaeobotanical database on ancient foods globally.</p>","PeriodicalId":46465,"journal":{"name":"Archaeology in Oceania","volume":"57 3","pages":"160-188"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/arco.5273","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46680372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}