Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory最新文献

{"title":"Additive Partitioning of Shannon Diversity in Palaeolithic Zooarchaeology: A Case Study from Qesem Cave","authors":"Arnaud Barat, Andreu Sansó, Maite Arilla, Ruth Blasco, Gabriel Cifuentes-Alcobendas, Rubén Llorente-Pérez, Daniel Vivar-Ríos, Ella Assaf, Ran Barkai, Avi Gopher, Jordi Rosell Ardèvol","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09802-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09802-3","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding how faunal diversity is internally organized remains a central but still underdeveloped issue in Palaeolithic zooarchaeology. This paper proposes additive partitioning of Shannon diversity to the published faunal datasets from Qesem Cave (Israel) to determine whether assemblage diversity is structured mainly by contrasts among predefined analytical groups or by heterogeneity retained within them. In practical terms, total Shannon diversity is separated into a between-group (interclass) component and a within-group (intraclass) component: the former describes how remains are distributed among analytical classes, whereas the latter describes the diversity preserved inside those classes. The results show that taxonomic <bold>diversity</bold> at Qesem is consistently dominated by the interclass component, indicating that contrasts among prey-size classes structure the assemblages more strongly than taxonomic heterogeneity within those classes. However, the intraclass contribution varies among horizons: SCW represents the most strongly interclass-structured assemblage, whereas SW Yab shows the highest intraclass contribution. This pattern is maintained under both NISP and MNI, although MNI makes intraclass taxonomic heterogeneity more visible and reduces the sharpness of some contrasts. Fragment integration increases total Shannon diversity unevenly across the sequence, showing that the fragmented but size-class-attributed fraction affects not only the magnitude of diversity but also its internal partitioning among prey-size classes. Anatomical diversity follows a different pattern: when each assemblage is considered a whole, anatomical profiles are comparatively homogeneous and slightly intraclass-dominated, while clearer contrasts emerge within size classes, especially among medium-sized prey, where diversity is strongly structured around proximal limb elements rather than evenly distributed across anatomical regions. Taken together, these results suggest that additive partitioning captures differences in how faunal assemblages were structured, accumulated, or segmented through time, rather than simply recording changes in prey spectrum. The approach is therefore best understood as a reproducible descriptive framework that formalizes assemblage structure and gains archaeological meaning when read alongside independent taphonomic, anatomical, and contextual evidence.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148355655","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":"Scales, Sources, and Simulations: Reviewing Studies on Human–Environment Interactions in the Mediterranean from 1000 BCE to 1000 CE","authors":"Anastasia Nikulina, Helen Foxhall Forbes, Dan Lawrence","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09805-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09805-0","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding long-term human–environment dynamics is essential for contemporary debates on resilience and sustainability. This paper reviews approaches to studying humans and their environments in the Mediterranean between 1000 <sc>BCE</sc> and 1000 <sc>CE</sc>, with particular emphasis on the role of agent-based modelling (ABM). The region is strongly shaped by human activity, richly documented by archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, and historical written sources, and characterised by complex socio-ecological dynamics throughout the study period. We first synthesise how different sources/archives of evidence have been used to reconstruct past human–environmental links, assessing spatial and temporal resolutions and the methodological challenges of combining different evidence. We then review ABMs that focus on human–environment relationships in the study period and region, examining how they incorporate different datasets, how explicit models are, and to what extent qualitative historical information is translated into formal computational frameworks. Despite the region’s relatively exceptional research history, few ABMs directly engage with socio-ecological dynamics, and even fewer exploit the potential of historical texts as structured inputs to simulations. Our review identifies key methodological gaps at the intersection of archaeology, history, environmental science, and modelling practice. We argue that ABM remains underutilised for moving beyond correlational reasoning: it can be used to test proposed causal mechanisms, explore emergent socio-ecological patterns, and link processes operating at multiple scales. We conclude by outlining directions for future ABM research on the Mediterranean that could better integrate diverse sources of evidence and contribute more effectively to debates on long-term resilience and sustainability.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148355689","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":"Thinking Through Change: Combining the Adaptive Cycle and Assemblage Theory to Assess Urban Change in Later Medieval Northern England","authors":"Ben Jervis","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09803-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09803-2","url":null,"abstract":"The potential for combining elements of the adaptive cycle and assemblage thought to develop a novel approach to change in historical urban contexts is developed. It is proposed that the “adaptive cycle” model common in studies of resilience provides a valuable comparative tool for understanding change, but is limited by its conceptualization of the system as a homogeneous whole and its linear approach to temporality. This is particularly problematic given the fragmentary nature of archaeological data. To address these issues, the model is drawn into dialog with assemblage theory, an approach well attuned to these kinds of incoherent data. It is argued that correlating stages in the “adaptive cycle” with phases of assemblage formation and dissolution provides a means to engage with change as multitemporal and to better understand the material relations through which continuity and change emerge. The argument is developed through reference to evidence for boundary features, building materials and cultivation in 5 towns in Northwest England (Carlisle, Cockermouth, Kendal, Appleby, and Penrith) between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, a period characterized by multiple crises.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"76 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148355653","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":"Comparative Spatial Analysis Reveals Important Structural Similarities Between Ancient Angkor and Late Anglo-Saxon Hampshire","authors":"W. Christopher Carleton, Sarah Klassen, John T. Murphy, Patrick Roberts","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09798-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09798-w","url":null,"abstract":"Angkor (800–1435 <sc>CE</sc>) is considered the type site for “low-density agrarian urbanism”, a loosely defined archaeological label used to describe settlements with urban traits but dispersed spatial structure. Angkor’s abandonment from the fifteenth century has fueled concerns that low-density cities, now common globally, may be inherently unstable. The spatial distinctiveness of Angkor relative to other premodern rural–urban systems, however, has never been quantitatively tested. Using ChronoCluster, a Python package for novel spatiotemporal archaeological analysis, we compared Angkor’s spatial structure to that of Anglo-Saxon Hampshire as recorded in the Domesday survey (mid-eleventh century CE), a rural–urban system not described as low-density agrarian urbanism. Surprisingly, both cases showed similar multiscale spatial clustering. Despite their different appearances, they may reflect scaled variants of the same underlying urban–rural dynamics. This targeted comparison between the “low-density” type site and a non-low-density comparator challenges the idea that low-density cities like Angkor form a distinct type, raises questions about what drives variation in urban form across time and space, and opens new questions about the impact of spatial structure on urban sustainability.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148355656","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":"The Tang as a Technical Solution: A Morphometric and Techno-Structural View from the Tabelbala MSA Corpus","authors":"Nassim Zejly, Amir Beshkani, Stéphanie Bonilauri, David Pleurdeau","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09801-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09801-4","url":null,"abstract":"By the end of the Middle Pleistocene and into the early Late Pleistocene, the North African Middle Stone Age (NAMSA) saw the emergence and spread of tanging technology from the Atlantic seaboard to the Nile Valley, alongside the continued use of non-tanged artefacts. This paper examines the significance of tang production through a two-tier analysis of the César Tabelbala collection (<italic>Institut de Paléontologie Humaine</italic>, Paris), combining corpus-wide morphometrics with a techno-structural study of convergent tools. The results show that tanged artefacts occupy a narrower morphometric range and tend to be less elongated than non-tanged ones. At the organisational level, tangs are strongly associated with adjacent relations between prehensive and transformative units, whereas non-tanged artefacts are more often arranged in opposed configurations. This pattern is closely linked to elongation, while width and thickness remain comparatively stable. Tang production is therefore interpreted not as a fixed typological marker, but as one technical solution among others for reorganising the proximal part of the tool.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148286283","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":"Tracing Technological Traditions Through Personal Ornaments: Steatite Ornament Production in Neolithic and Copper Age Italy","authors":"Cristiana Petrinelli Pannocchia, Alice Vassanelli","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09806-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09806-z","url":null,"abstract":"Personal ornaments constitute one of the most informative forms of archaeological evidence for investigating identity, social interaction and how technical knowledge was learned, transmitted and transformed within prehistoric communities. Previous research has demonstrated their value for reconstructing cultural affiliations, exchange networks, technological choices and practices of use. However, identifying technological traditions and forms of craft organisation from ornament assemblages remains methodologically challenging, because formal recurrence, manufacturing traces and use-wear evidence do not in themselves demonstrate shared technical practice unless assessed in relation to operational sequences and archaeological context. This paper addresses this issue through the integrated analysis of 383 steatite ornaments and production-related artefacts from Neolithic and Copper Age contexts in central-northern Italy. By combining techno-typometric analysis, traceology, experimental replication and non-destructive archaeometric characterisation within a <italic>chaîne opératoire</italic> framework, the study formalises an integrated and transferable analytical approach to evaluate technical convergence and divergence, and to identify learning processes through manufacturing errors and variability in technical execution. The results show that steatite ornament production relied on multiple coexisting <italic>chaînes opératoires</italic> rather than on a single linear trajectory of standardisation or diversification. Comparable morphologies were produced through different operational sequences, while the integration of compositional and technological data highlights the limits of provenance attribution based solely on raw-material characterisation. Manufacturing anomalies, such as incomplete perforations, repeated drilling attempts and reworked fractures, indicate the coexistence of different levels of skill, from exploratory or learning-related gestures to highly controlled procedures. Together with the distribution of preforms, production waste and unfinished artefacts, this evidence suggests a polycentric organisation of production in which shared technical principles coexisted with local routines and community-specific practices. The case study contributes to broader archaeological discussions on standardisation, communities of practice, craft organisation and the transmission of technical knowledge.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148355583","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":"Evaluating Kill-Camp Organization in a Terminal Pleistocene Lithic Scatter: Computational Spatial Analysis of the Reddin Folsom Site, San Luis Valley, USA","authors":"Kelton A. Meyer","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09808-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09808-x","url":null,"abstract":"Models of terminal Pleistocene (Early Paleoindian) land-use in North America explore the interplay of residential and logistical mobility. Researchers often structure interpretations using simple site categories, like <italic>residential camp</italic> or <italic>kill site</italic>. Excavations in several components reveal terminal Pleistocene groups occasionally tethered residential and logistical choices, forming <italic>kill-camp</italic> sites characterized by hunting activities, animal butchery, and residential downtime. A popular rule-of-thumb method for distinguishing camping from hunting activities involves comparing the types and quantities of projectile point fragments between localities. Researchers have classified entire sites as <italic>camps</italic>, <italic>kills</italic>, or <italic>kill-camps</italic> using this metric. However, much of the Early Paleoindian record is dominated by surface scatters which exhibit continuous and diffuse artifact distributions, lacking discrete localities. Some lithic scatters far exceed the normal sizes of single component sites and better reflect a lithic landscape, making it difficult to define site categories or analyze spatial relationships between artifacts. In this paper, I first define a spatially explicit framework for projectile point fragment discard in kills and camps, addressing behavioral inferences for discrete occupations and surface scatters. I then use computational techniques to characterize the spatial covariance of projectile fragments at the Reddin site, which is the largest Folsom lithic scatter in North America. I address a long-standing hypothesis which suggests Folsom groups segregated hunting activities away from campsites on the landscape. Results of the analysis do not support this hypothesis, but suggest Folsom groups formed kill-camp deposits across the site surface.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"10861 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148355657","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 Life Proper to Matter’: Re-Animating Museum Collections Through New Materialism and Microwear","authors":"Oliver J. T. Harris, Christina Tsoraki, Christopher D. Standish, Rachel J. Crellin","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09786-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09786-0","url":null,"abstract":"This paper combines microwear analysis with new materialism to invigorate our understanding of past material worlds at multiple scales of analysis. Just as the development of new biomolecular approaches at scale has revealed an archive for research, so a combination of critical theoretical approaches and specific empirical analyses can do the same for objects, including those that would be considered to lack traditional ideas of ‘good context’. Through the development of concepts of multiplicity, event and assemblage and their application to the study of 431 copper-alloy, ground stone and flint objects from Later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain, we open new ways of understanding the stories objects can tell us about the role they played in past worlds. In turn, this allows us to develop an understanding of the animate properties of things, or what can be termed a life proper to matter.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148286312","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":"Distinguishing Between the Conditional Effects of Material Wealth Inequality and “Projected” Household Size on the House Floor Area Distribution in Early Agriculturalists: A Probabilistic Model","authors":"Alexander Iksanov, Aleksandr Diachenko, Oleh Iksanov","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09781-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09781-5","url":null,"abstract":"House size in early agricultural societies is assumed to be mutually conditioned by the “projected” maximal size of a household and its material wealth. This paper presents a probabilistic model distinguishing the impact of these factors on Gini-index inequality estimates derived from the distribution of house floor areas in early agriculturalist groups characterized by a periodic relocation to a new place(s), available construction space within a settlement, and individual houses inhabited by nuclear families. Accordingly, the model is a step towards a large-scale comparative framework with reliable indices of material wealth inequality. In addition, we analyze the impact of population size and settlement span on the variation in house floor areas during three phases of a settlement’s life: formative, developmental, and terminal. The results reveal that during the formative phase of settlement, population <italic>structure</italic> rather than the population <italic>size</italic> of the initial settlers is the primary driver of the “projected household size” component of Gini estimates for the analyzed subset of early agriculturalists. Population structure also impacts these estimates in combination with site span in the developmental and terminal phases. The application of the model to a dataset from the Cucuteni-Trypillia mega-site Nebelivka in present-day Ukraine approximates the overwhelming impact of the “projected household size” component on Nebelivka’s time-averaged Gini index.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148286313","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":"Reframing Interpretation of the Juvenility Index","authors":"Scott G. Ortman, George P. Maher, Joshua Watts","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09790-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09790-4","url":null,"abstract":"One of the most important ways that archaeology can contribute to the knowledge base for navigating contemporary concerns is by assessing the large-scale and long-term consequences of various social arrangements. The most straightforward and objective way of measuring these consequences is through their effects on demographic rates and population health. Paleo-demographers have converged on the Juvenility Index—the probability of dying between the ages of 5 and 20, given survival to age 5—as a relevant measure that can be estimated reliably and consistently from archaeological skeletal assemblages. However, interpretations of the index in the literature have been contradictory and lead to opposing conclusions concerning mortality, fertility, and population growth rates. In this paper, we propose a method for resolving this inconsistency. We treat the Juvenility Index as an age-specific mortality indicator, translate it into measures of life expectancy and the probability of survival to reproductive age through correspondences with model life tables, and then combine these with intrinsic population growth rates derived from settlement evidence to estimate fertility measures. We apply this method in a case study in the US Southwest, obtaining results that are consistent with other lines of evidence in suggesting that changes in the social arrangements of Ancestral Pueblo society did in fact lead to increased life expectancy, increased levels of human capital, and reduced childbearing burdens in the centuries prior to Spanish contact. Based on these results, further application of the method appears promising.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148286322","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}