Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory最新文献

{"title":"Using Archaeological Road Data to Evaluate Limits of Topography on Road Location: Roman Roads in the Near East as a Test Case","authors":"Adam Pažout","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09766-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09766-4","url":null,"abstract":"The article presents a new methodological approach to understanding (post-dicting) the location of ancient roads based on an inductive topographic analysis of existing road remains. The research is focused on the analysis of a spatially highly precise dataset of Roman roads in the Near East, using selected topographic variables (maximum slope, topographic position index, vector ruggedness measure). The identified limits of the topographic variables are used to create an isotropic (direction-independent) model of ‘natural corridors of movement’ using an adapted ‘from everywhere to everywhere’ (FETE) method. The modelled movement corridors are then overlaid by the known Roman road network in the Near East, and their overlap is calculated. The overlap between the modelled corridors and Roman roads is around ~ 25%, suggesting that the selected topographic variables and slope categories have limited explanatory power in understanding the layout of the Roman road network as a whole. The performance of the isotropic model is compared to four selected slope-based anisotropic functions (Tobler, Naismith, Herzog, Llobera-Sluckin). It is shown that the isotropic model incorporating a limited number of topographic variables better explains the location of Roman roads than the selected functions. It is argued that these results suggest that additional anthropic, cultural variables have a stronger influence on the layout of the Roman road network, and an alternative approach on how to incorporate topographic and anthropic variables is proposed.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146153522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Developing Geo-Ethnoarchaeological Methods for Studying Archaeological Pastoral Sites: the CAMP project","authors":"Stefano Biagetti, Abel Ruiz-Giralt, Keelie S. Rix, Antonios Koutroumpas, Jordi Ibañez-Insa, Carla Lancelotti, Nuria Garcia-Tuset, Celine Emmanuelle Kerfant, Katherine M. Grillo, Elisabeth A. Hildebrand, John Lonyala, Malebogo Mvimi, Stefania Merlo, Giulio Lucarini, Silvia Lischi, Marco Madella","doi":"10.1007/s10816-025-09759-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-025-09759-9","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents the aims, methods, and some initial results of the project ‘(Re)Constructing the Archaeology of Mobile Pastoralism (CAMP)’, a multi-disciplinary investigation into anthropogenic deposits from pastoral contexts in dryland regions. Ethnoarchaeology has played a pivotal role in transforming the study of pastoralism, particularly in environments where material traces are often ephemeral and underrepresented in the archaeological record. By linking contemporary practices with their material signatures, ethnoarchaeology has reshaped both the interpretation of pastoralist material remains and broader understandings of pastoral societies, revealing them as adaptive and innovative actors in highly variable environments. Building on recent theoretical and methodological advances—especially in geo-ethnoarchaeology—CAMP seeks to develop a robust interpretive framework for identifying chemical proxies that can be linked to specific human activities. Research in the first stage has focused on three ecologically and culturally distinct regions: Maitengwe (Tutume Dist., Botswana), Khor Rori (Dhofar, Oman), and Loreamatet (Turkana, Kenya), with supplementary test areas to evaluate the broader applicability of the developed protocol. Fieldwork has targeted three site categories: inhabited campsites, to document the relationship between activities and their anthropic markers; abandoned campsites, to assess post-depositional and diagenetic transformations; and key archaeological pastoral sites, to reinterpret ancient deposits using models derived from present-day contexts. Preliminary results presented in this paper highlight significant differences in the composition of chemical elements across activity areas within settlements, underscoring the potential of these proxies to distinguish activity-specific signatures. By integrating ethnoarchaeology, geoarchaeology, and geochemistry, the project advances methods for detecting and interpreting pastoral signatures in the archaeological record, while contributing to the repositioning of drylands as dynamic centers of resilience and innovation.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146153523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Validating Pottery Seriation with Radiocarbon Dates: Relative and Absolute Chronology of the Early Bronze Age Necropolis in Mokrin","authors":"Marko Porčić, Mihailo Radinović, Marija Krečković Gavrilović","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09762-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09762-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"103 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146070234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Buffer Zones, Population, Ecology, and Conflict: Ethnological Modeling and Archaeological Implications","authors":"Mark Golitko, David M. Grogan","doi":"10.1007/s10816-025-09760-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-025-09760-2","url":null,"abstract":"Buffer zones, areas unoccupied due to conflict between social collectives, have been theorized to indicate the existence of population pressure as a motivator for conflict in small-scale subsistence economies. Using a database of ethnographic and historical buffer zones, we show that buffer zone width is primarily influenced by population density and not by ecology or subsistence mode, suggesting that security concerns primarily account for buffer zone dynamics. Buffer zones may still contribute to resource imbalances, however. Buffer zones appear to be most effective in the context of inter-community raiding but may also be used more deliberately by states to monitor the movement of people or defend against internal or other non-state actors. Archaeologists should therefore expect them to exist under certain conditions of ancient conflict. However, identifying buffer zones in the archaeological record is challenging. We review a variety of approaches to examining ancient buffer zones, including using population estimates to model the plausible size of ancient buffer zones.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"397 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146048475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pilgrimage Centers as Persistent Places: Spiritual Magnetism, Affects, and Atmospheres","authors":"B. Jacob Skousen","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09763-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09763-7","url":null,"abstract":"Pilgrimage centers are persistent places due in part to spiritual magnetism, defined as the power of a place of pilgrimage to attract devotees. In most studies, scholars claim that humans confer spiritual magnetism on pilgrimage centers based on events or cultural, social, or historical factors associated with a center. Here I contend that spiritual magnetism comes from the atmospheres that emerge at a center due to assemblages of humans, places, materials, objects, substances, and more. To demonstrate this, I explore how the intersection of the natural landscape, water, and human bodies at the Marian pilgrimage center at Lourdes, France, generates affects and atmospheres that have and continue to attract pilgrims. From this perspective, spiritual magnetism can be studied archaeologically and can help archaeologists better grasp the importance of pilgrimage centers throughout history. To show how archaeologists might examine spiritual magnetism at ancient pilgrimage centers, I conclude by discussing spiritual magnetism at the Emerald Acropolis, a precontact Native American pilgrimage center associated with the eleventh century city of Cahokia.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145961872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bow and Arrow Technology in North America","authors":"Raven Garvey, Ian Beggen, Rocky Brockway, Christopher Morgan, Shannon Tushingham, Robert Bettinger","doi":"10.1007/s10816-025-09756-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-025-09756-y","url":null,"abstract":"The adoption and spread of bow and arrow technology in North America reflect a complex interplay of ecological and social factors: While environmental variables such as wood availability and prey diversity/behavior were surely important, demographic and cultural variables—including population size, density, and connectivity; cultural transmission processes; and social dynamics—were equally or more influential. Parsing the relative effects of these factors and understanding interactions among them requires a clear view of the timing and nature of bow use across North America’s diverse geography. This paper makes two primary contributions to our understanding of the bow’s adoption in North America. Firstly, we present evidence for the bow’s earliest appearance, use in conjunction with other projectile technologies, and effects on economic and other systems in the North American Arctic, Pacific Northwest and Plateau, California and the Great Basin, Southwest, and Southeast. Secondly, we present a novel model of technological investment (uptake) that considers the effects of transmission agents’ social roles: Whether agents are craft specialists or do-it-yourself tool producers–users affects rates of adoption, a finding with global implications demonstrated here through regional case studies. We conclude that adoption depends not just on the bow’s inherent utility but on how tools are produced, shared, used, and valued in different economic systems.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145770646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Differential Taphonomic Behavior of Flint Types: Experimental Insights and Implications for the Middle Stone Age Assemblages of Wadi Lazalim in the Northern Sahara (Kebili, Tunisia)","authors":"Olivier Scancarello, Cristina Lemorini, Alain Queffelec, Tarek Ben Fraj, Héla Mekki, Andrea Zupancich, Nabiha Aouadi, Emanuele Cancellieri","doi":"10.1007/s10816-025-09757-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-025-09757-x","url":null,"abstract":"Several syn and post-depositional processes are responsible for different degrees of site and assemblage formation and disturbance. Understanding the processes that lead to archaeological site formation is essential for interpreting past human activities, settlement patterns, and occupation dynamics. Among these processes, water flow is commonly recognized as a major factor influencing site and assemblage formation and integrity. Lithic taphonomy can add valuable information to the understanding of these natural processes. To better evaluate how different flint types react to both mechanical and chemical stresses, we carried out controlled and sequential experiments on knapped flint artifact replicas. These were realized on two different flint varieties, recognized in the archaeological assemblage of a Middle Stone Age open-air site located at Wadi Lazalim (Southern Tunisia). Our methodological framework is based on a sequential tumbling experiment that simulates the remobilization of artifacts by water. The resulting post-depositional surface modifications (PDSM) were observed and recorded. In addition, a sample of flint replicas underwent chemical alteration in a controlled environment, allowing us to document and measure both patina formation and changes in surface roughness. These experimental results were then compared with a sample of archaeological materials, providing the basis for a preliminary and exploratory hypothesis concerning the taphonomic processes at the site. Here, we observed that most of the alterations appear to be linked to patina formation, whose variable degree and kind are more strongly correlated with differences in raw material texture rather than to the co-occurrence of artefacts from different chronological spans.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145759569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Comparative Study of Hierarchical Significance Based on the Size and Terrain Elevation of Dolmens and Network Centrality: Focusing on Dolmens in Asan-myeon, Gochang County (Korea)","authors":"Younghee Noh, Seok Kim","doi":"10.1007/s10816-025-09751-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-025-09751-3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145717872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the “Microburin Blow”: An Insight into the Variability of the Microburin Blow Method for the Production of Sauveterrian Geometrics in the Site of Mondeval de Sora (N-E, Italy)","authors":"Nicolò Fasser, Federica Fontana","doi":"10.1007/s10816-025-09755-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-025-09755-z","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the microburin blow method and its impact on geometric microliths production during the Early Mesolithic. Through experimentation, a novel analytical framework was developed, combining a high- and a low-magnification analysis of a large sample of microburins. This approach enabled both the identification and description of combinations of micro-, meso-, and macroscopic features diagnostic of diverse microburin blow techniques and provided valuable insight into the variability of production modalities of Sauveterrian geometrics, <jats:italic>i.e.</jats:italic> the number of microliths and microburins obtainable from a single blank. Furthermore, this research extends beyond the experimental realm, examining an assemblage of microburins from SU 8 of Mondeval de Sora (San Vito, N-E Italy), for which two new radiocarbon dates are reported here, providing a more precise chrono-cultural attribution of its occupation. Such an analysis revealed the application of one specific microburin blow technique applied by the Sauveterrian inhabitants of the site. At the same time, a meticulous technological study of a representative sample of geometrics was performed, enhancing our understanding of the <jats:italic>chaîne opératoire</jats:italic> involving their production. The results of this study represent a major advance for the interpretation of the microburin blow method and its role in Mesolithic armatures production, contributing to a richer characterisation of the Sauveterrian technical traditions.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"134 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145703864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Processing Into the Past: The Chaco South Road as a Multi-Century Religious Corridor","authors":"Robert S. Weiner","doi":"10.1007/s10816-025-09753-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-025-09753-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145697000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}