Hoewel Myceense terracotta goden- beeldjes veel aandacht hebben gekregen in de wetenschappelijke literatuur, hebben specialis- ten zich nauwelijks uitgelaten over de rol van grotere beelden. Toch... Show moreHoewel Myceense terracotta goden- beeldjes veel aandacht hebben gekregen in de wetenschappelijke literatuur, hebben specialis- ten zich nauwelijks uitgelaten over de rol van grotere beelden. Toch kan men aan de hand van de archeologie, en contemporaine beschrijvingen van cultus-beelden de verschijning van en een aantal rituelen rondom Myceense godenbeelden reconstrueren. Dit artikel geeft hiervan een voorbeeld. Show less
Wat is de oorsprong van de vaak zo klassiek ogende Gandharakunst uit het oude India? Dit artikel biedt een historisch overzicht, benoemt recente archeologische onderzoeksresultaten, en beschouwt... Show moreWat is de oorsprong van de vaak zo klassiek ogende Gandharakunst uit het oude India? Dit artikel biedt een historisch overzicht, benoemt recente archeologische onderzoeksresultaten, en beschouwt tot slot de implicaties voor het erfgoed- en museumbeleid aangaande deze sculpturen. Show less
Amarasinghe, Kalaycı, and van Aerde study the Silk Road network as an object of political infrastructure. Their aim is to shed light on the modern “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) project led by... Show moreAmarasinghe, Kalaycı, and van Aerde study the Silk Road network as an object of political infrastructure. Their aim is to shed light on the modern “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) project led by China. The authors begin their investigation by highlighting the Silk Road’s intricate history, composed of multiple agents ranging from individuals to empires. They scrutinize the normative historiography of the Silk Road and pinpoint the problematic areas in the narrative. Their focus is mainly to identify the Chinese contributions to this Eurasian project, as well as how the current narrative is selectively exploited by the BRI project as a proxy for China’s ambition to achieve global governance. Show less
The dissertation is focused on three interrelated aspects: 1) the development of a decolonial theoretical framework and collaborative research methodology with the Kamëntšá people centred on the... Show moreThe dissertation is focused on three interrelated aspects: 1) the development of a decolonial theoretical framework and collaborative research methodology with the Kamëntšá people centred on the respect for Kamëntšá ethics, principles and social norms, and the consequent reconstruction, revitalization and dignification of Kamëntšá knowledge, arts, spirituality and notions of time and space; 2) the history and colonization processes of the Kamëntšá people and Uaman Tabanok, its ancestral lands, with a specific emphasis on the work of the Capuchin missionaries, particularly their concept of enculturation and how it transformed and resignified Kamëntšá culture and religion using its own arts, narratives and rituals which were in harmony with Christianity; and 3) the concept of “cultural heritage” and the role of academic disciplines, research practices, government institutions and cultural policies in the perpetuation of colonialism through the appropriation, interpretation, control and resignification of the objects, monuments and cultures of Indigenous peoples, and their consequent contribution to maintaining inequality, racism and historical social injustices. Show less
Games and other forms of play are core human activities, as vitally constitutive of cultural and social practices in the past as they are today. Consequently, play, games and fun should be central... Show moreGames and other forms of play are core human activities, as vitally constitutive of cultural and social practices in the past as they are today. Consequently, play, games and fun should be central in archaeological theory, but our review shows they are anything but. Instead, very few studies deal with these concepts at all, and most of those that do focus on how the affordances play offers link it to ritual, power or other ‘more serious’ phenomena. Here, we offer an explanation as to why play has taken such a backseat in archaeological thought and practice, relating it to the ambivalent aesthetics of having fun with the past in our own discipline. Building on our own playful practices and those of other scholars in the ancient board gaming and archaeogaming communities, we propose a move towards a more playful archaeology, which can provide us with a new window into the past as well as into our own professional practices. Show less
Sykora, T.; De Lima, R.; De Meyer, M.J.C.; Vergauwen, M.; Willems, H. 2023
With the interdisciplinary project “Puzzling Tombs,” a team of Egyptologists and engineers of KU Leuven aims to document and reconstruct the architecture and iconography of the Middle Kingdom elite... Show moreWith the interdisciplinary project “Puzzling Tombs,” a team of Egyptologists and engineers of KU Leuven aims to document and reconstruct the architecture and iconography of the Middle Kingdom elite cemetery at Dayr al-Barsha in a virtual environment. Such a tool allows the manipulation of the thousands of tomb fragments, and virtually solve the puzzle they represent. Structured light technology is used to accurately record the fragments, while the remaining standing architecture is documented by terrestrial laser scanning. The resulting 3D meshes are processed on a game engine which allows for coping with the dense polygonal structures that compose the digital models. In combination with this virtual reconstruction, digital epigraphy following the Chicago House method is carried out in the well-known tomb of the Twelfth Dynasty governor Djehutihotep. This detailed documentation will be integrated as an additional layer in the virtual environment. Show less
This book is the first comprehensive monographic treatment of the New Kingdom (1539–1078 BCE) necropolis at Saqqara, the burial ground of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, and addresses... Show moreThis book is the first comprehensive monographic treatment of the New Kingdom (1539–1078 BCE) necropolis at Saqqara, the burial ground of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, and addresses questions fundamental to understanding the site’s development through time. For example, why were certain areas of the necropolis selected for burial in certain time periods; what were the tombs’ spatial relations to contemporaneous and older monuments; and what effect did earlier structures have on the positioning of tombs and structuring of the necropolis in later times? This study adopts landscape biography as a conceptual tool to study the long-time interaction between people and landscapes. Show less
Navratilova, H.; Gertzen, T.L.; De Meyer, M.J.C.; Dodson, A.; Bednarski, A. 2023
The volume is dedicated to the ‘supporting characters’ in the history of Egyptology who are not often in the limelight. This is not intended to work to the detriment of the lead actors, nor is the... Show moreThe volume is dedicated to the ‘supporting characters’ in the history of Egyptology who are not often in the limelight. This is not intended to work to the detriment of the lead actors, nor is the intention to politicize disciplinary history. Rather, it is meant as an appreciation and recognition of the range of agents involved, and relationships within their networks. Rendering disciplinary history more inclusive is a long process. The case-studies assembled in this volume do not aspire to represent the complete range of possible stakeholders. Instead, it is intended to open-out the discourse, and to demonstrate various modes in which individuals have advanced research into ancient Egypt. To cite but two ‘marginalized’ groups, women have often been presented as subservient spirits, assisting their Egyptologist-husbands, with perhaps the concession that ‘behind every great man there has to be a great woman’. For a long time all-but-excluded from academia, such individuals’ contributions have been disregarded. Second, exclusion from academia was also the fate of most early Egyptian Egyptologists. Within the frame of post-colonial studies, they have only recently garnered serious attention. Yet, even then, the paradigm of ‘Western’ disciplinary history has been replicated, concentrating on the outstanding figures and lead players in the field, often to the detriment of lesser-known scholars, officials, and local actors such as the Quftis and workmen. This volume is thus not meant to criticise previous endeavours in the recent development of disciplinary history but, rather, as a constructive contribution or complement to these. We cannot make amends for past implicit slights, or restore a person’s role in the history of Egyptology to its ‘rightful place’, but the aim is to broaden the perspective of the history of Egyptology, while at the same time paying more attention to its diversity. Show less
The Late Medieval and Early Modern periods in the Netherlands are marked by an upsurge in the production, use and repurposing of casks in cities. This is inextricably linked with the growing marine... Show moreThe Late Medieval and Early Modern periods in the Netherlands are marked by an upsurge in the production, use and repurposing of casks in cities. This is inextricably linked with the growing marine and riverine trade markets and the increase in artisan production. Casks have been found on shipwrecks, where they were used as containers for merchandise (primary purpose) and in urban areas, where they were repurposed as shafts for wells or cesspits (secondary purpose). As a result, the initial production phase of the lifecycle of casks often remained undetected. This study aims to generate an overview of the dendrochronological studies conducted in the past decades by Dutch dendrochronologists on casks from Dutch archaeological context, in which the felling year of the wood used to construct the casks can be dated from the 12th to 18th centuries, to gain insight into their production by coopers. The first objective is to better understand the diverse provenance areas detected in the coopers’ timber, after which the diachronic developments in the use of the timber from specific provenance areas can be addressed. The main objective is to assess whether it is possible to distinguish locally produced casks from casks used to import merchandise, which was successful in some cases. In addition to the dendrochronological and archaeological data, archival sources were used to contextualize and substantiate the analyses and interpretations. Show less
The use of fire is considered to be one of the most important cultural innovations in human evolution. Understanding the taphonomy of fire remains is an important prerequisite for valid... Show moreThe use of fire is considered to be one of the most important cultural innovations in human evolution. Understanding the taphonomy of fire remains is an important prerequisite for valid interpretations of hominin fire-related behaviour. Presented here are the results of a series of laboratory-based experiments testing the effect of different pH conditions (acidic, neutral, alkaline) on the physical and chemical properties of heated bone (charred and combusted). By taking a fundamental-research approach the study gives insight into the specific effect of pH exposure and its underlying chemical processes, and provides data that can be applied to heated bone from any context and time period. Results show that diagenesis has a significant impact on the preservation potential of heated bones, as well as on the reliability of the analytical techniques used to reconstruct past heating conditions. The study provides reference data and a toolkit for the analysis of heated bone, that explicitly takes diagenesis into account, and in doing so offers a significant improvement to the accuracy with which we can reconstruct heating conditions and fire-related human behaviour in the past. Show less
We live in the digital era, and archaeologists are increasingly engaging with 'big' data. A recent project at Oxford sought new answers about the landscapes of early medieval England from the... Show moreWe live in the digital era, and archaeologists are increasingly engaging with 'big' data. A recent project at Oxford sought new answers about the landscapes of early medieval England from the longue durée. Show less
From an Ancient Egyptian plague to the Black Death and Spanish flu, epidemics have often spurred societal transformations. Understanding why can help us create a better world after covid-19
The oral cavity is a heterogeneous environment, varying in factors such as pH, oxygen levels, and salivary flow. These factors affect the microbial community composition and distribution of species... Show moreThe oral cavity is a heterogeneous environment, varying in factors such as pH, oxygen levels, and salivary flow. These factors affect the microbial community composition and distribution of species in dental plaque, but it is not known how well these patterns are reflected in archaeological dental calculus. In most archaeological studies, a single sample of dental calculus is studied per individual and is assumed to represent the entire oral cavity. However, it is not known if this sampling strategy introduces biases into studies of the ancient oral microbiome. Here, we present the results of a shotgun metagenomic study of a dense sampling of dental calculus from four Chalcolithic individuals from the southeast Iberian peninsula (ca. 4500–5000 BP). Interindividual differences in microbial composition are found to be much larger than intraindividual differences, indicating that a single sample can indeed represent an individual in most cases. However, there are minor spatial patterns in species distribution within the oral cavity that should be taken into account when designing a study or interpreting results. Finally, we show that plant DNA identified in the samples is likely of postmortem origin, demonstrating the importance of including environmental controls or additional lines of biomolecular evidence in dietary interpretations. Show less
This paper presents the initial report of our “Karakorum Rescue Project 2020-21” in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. The petroglyphs of the Karakorum Mountains are very important as it was... Show moreThis paper presents the initial report of our “Karakorum Rescue Project 2020-21” in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. The petroglyphs of the Karakorum Mountains are very important as it was crucial crossroads throughout ancient times and different routes were used by a wide diversity of merchants, travellers, caravans and pilgrims for thousands of years. These rock art sites in the region are in danger due to the construction of dam, destruction and vandalism of especially the Buddhist rock art continue to threaten the existence of these historical petroglyphs, including many that have as yet never been documented before. For the preservation and documentation of this heritage, we initiated this project with the support of the Prince Claus Heritage Emergency Grant and the Aliph Alliance. This helps us to outline the academic and fieldwork strategies we used and how we combined a (non-invasive) archaeological photographical rescue campaign with an active and inclusive outreach to the local communities of the research region. Show less
The importance and character of exchange in the Carolingian period has long been a subject of academic debate. There is much discussion on the relative importance of local, regional and... Show moreThe importance and character of exchange in the Carolingian period has long been a subject of academic debate. There is much discussion on the relative importance of local, regional and international exchange, the role of various groups of actors, and the nature of exchange. What is largely lacking is a consideration of non-elite rural dwellers as constitutive elements in the economy. The present study focusses on the role of rural communities in the development of exchange systems during the Carolingian period. To what extent did the consumptive preferences of rural communities influence the flow of goods at a regional and interregional level? This is examined by cataloguing the finds from Carolingian sites in the Netherlands and comparing their distributions between regions. It can be demonstrated that rural dwellers indeed played a part in developments in the production and distribution of goods. At the same time the conducted analyses do not allow the establishment of a single model of how rural dwellers participated in exchange networks of the period. In fact, this study contends that there is little meaning in determining the relative importance of different groups in society for the establishment and maintenance of exchange networks at any one time. Show less
