In the summer of 2013 and 2014 the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University has carried out archaeological fieldwork in a rather exceptional environment. Where since the implementation of the... Show moreIn the summer of 2013 and 2014 the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University has carried out archaeological fieldwork in a rather exceptional environment. Where since the implementation of the Valetta Treaty most excavations are aimed at ex-situ preservation of archaeological sites threatened by building activities, the site that was under investigation in 2013 and 2014 found itself in a nature reserve. As nature reserves are aimed at the very purpose of preservation, why then investigate an archaeological site that could easily profit from such a protected status? The recent access to high resolution LIDAR data for the entire surface of the present day Netherlands is only just beginning to reveal the richness of archaeological sites hidden beneath the foliage and undergrowth of the forests and heaths crammed in between the vast field systems of the Dutch countryside. From late prehistoric barrow landscapes and celtic fields to Medieval cart tracks, all these features still find themselves at the very surface in these nature reserves. These sites of various age can provide a unique glimpse into the past but their location at the very surface also makes these sites vulnerable and, as is becoming more clear in recent years, are threatened by nature itself. Tree roots, burrowing animals and ongoing podzolization are all examples of natural processes that gradually obscure these sites from sight. To map both the state as well as the research potential of such an archaeological ‘palimpsest’ an archaeological field experiment was carried out in one of the largest nature reserves of the Netherlands at a site called ‘Apeldoorn – Uddeler Heegde’. This article reports on the most important new insights of the fieldwork in the form of a landscape biography. Show less
One of the biggest challenges for students of the European Bronze Age is to understand the reason behind the massive deposition of large amounts of recyclable metal in non‐metalliferous regions....Show moreOne of the biggest challenges for students of the European Bronze Age is to understand the reason behind the massive deposition of large amounts of recyclable metal in non‐metalliferous regions. Such depositions are particularly puzzling when material was buried in a manner which directly seems to denote trade itself, in so‐called ‘trade hoards’. Based on observations on a recent find of such a hoard, in Hoogeloon (NL), we move to an overview of Bronze Age metalwork economy in general and the deposition of trade stock in particular. We argue that Middle Bronze Age metalwork circulation in North‐west Europe may be understood as an aes formatum system, with the serially produced axes in hoards displaying a koiné having a particular social evaluation: a ‘brand’. We suggest that objects were selected by brands for their deposition in the landscape and that this ‘ritual’ act was integral to the ‘practical’ economy of circulation . Show less
Satellite imagery has had limited application in the analysis of pre-colonial settlement archaeology in the Caribbean; visible evidence of wooden structures perishes quickly in tropical climates.... Show moreSatellite imagery has had limited application in the analysis of pre-colonial settlement archaeology in the Caribbean; visible evidence of wooden structures perishes quickly in tropical climates. Only slight topographic modifications remain, typically associated with middens. Nonetheless, surface scatters, as well as the soil characteristics they produce, can serve as quantifiable indicators of an archaeological site, detectable by analyzing remote sensing imagery. A variety of pre-processed, very diverse data sets went through a process of image registration, with the intention to combine multispectral bands to feed two different semi-automatic direct detection algorithms: a posterior probability, and a frequentist approach. Two 5 × 5 km2 areas in the northwestern Dominican Republic with diverse environments, having sufficient imagery coverage, and a representative number of known indigenous site locations, served each for one approach. Buffers around the locations of known sites, as well as areas with no likely archaeological evidence were used as samples. The resulting maps offer quantifiable statistical outcomes of locations with similar pixel value combinations as the identified sites, indicating higher probability of archaeological evidence. These still very experimental and rather unvalidated trials, as they have not been subsequently groundtruthed, show variable potential of this method in diverse environments. Show less
