Caribbean archaeology is home to a variety of unsolved mysteries that still need to be solved. One of these mysteries concerns the subject of pre-Columbian ceramic stamps, better known as ‘body...Show moreCaribbean archaeology is home to a variety of unsolved mysteries that still need to be solved. One of these mysteries concerns the subject of pre-Columbian ceramic stamps, better known as ‘body stamps’, which have been primarily related to body painting in previous works. Archaeological and anthropological investigations dealing with the tropical lowlands of South America and the Caribbean have been carried out since the early 1900s. What has come to my attention is the lack of research that has been carried out on the topic of body painting and ceramic stamps. This thesis aims to enhance our general knowledge about the relationship between ceramic stamps in the Caribbean and the practice of body painting among contemporary Amerindian societies in the tropical lowlands of South America. Methods used in this thesis to reach this aim consist of: (1) gathering of as many photographs of stamps as possible for comparative reasons, (2) analyzing the available ethnographical and ethno-historical information to support the archaeological data, and (3) using the South American Lowland traditions to make an analogy for the practice of body painting in the Caribbean. The use of these methods brings us to several conclusions concerning the relationship between ceramic stamps and body painting. Firstly, ethno-historical sources confirm the practice of body painting in the Caribbean. Secondly, ethnographical research carried out by Kaplan and Overing (1980), brings forward the contemporary use of wooden stamps among the Piaroa, which can be used to make a hypothesis about the function of ceramic stamps in the Caribbean. Thirdly, by analyzing the stylistic traits and their chronological context, we can determine that the ceramic stamps of the Caribbean were presumably related to the roller stamps of the Middle Orinoco belonging to the Arauquinoid pottery tradition. Lastly, by analyzing the stamp motifs and their relation to Amerindian mythology described by early ethnographers, we can determine whether these stamps played a role in the Amerindian worldview.Show less
The Iron Age-Roman Period transition is a much discussed subject. Key to this discussion is the process of Romanization. This term has had different definitions through time and several...Show moreThe Iron Age-Roman Period transition is a much discussed subject. Key to this discussion is the process of Romanization. This term has had different definitions through time and several alternatives exist. I have chosen to define Romanization as the processes involved in transitioning to the Roman Period. Central to these processes should be the possibility to use and manipulate Roman culture in ambiguous ways, creating new identities but also maintaining aspects of pre-Roman beliefs and practices. Using this as a theoretical framework several sites and aspects of the archaeological record of the micro-region Oss were discussed, comparing the data of the second half of the Late Iron Age with the data of the Early Roman Period. The main focus was put on indications of change and continuity. This descriptive and interpretative research resulted in an overview of the constants and changes around the beginning of the Roman Period. It became apparent that developments in settlements, housing, material culture and religious practices showed a lot of continuity. Change was detected, but most of the changes can be related to the ongoing long-term developments related to habitation become more nucleated and location bound. As such these so-called changes are more indicative of continuity. In my opinion, they may serve as indication of a growing need to structure space. This need shows no apparent link to the arrival of Roman troops in the southern parts of the Netherlands, nor does it seem to be related to the arrival of a Chatti sub-tribe from the Middle Rhine-region into the area. This does not mean that the Roman presence in the region had no effect on the local communities at all. These effects will have been mainly felt in the political and economical spheres of society. This can also be seen in the material culture of the four sites, with the ceasing circulation of La Tène glass and the rise of wheel-thrown pottery like terra sigillata. These results subscribe to the notion that Rome was not undertaking a civilizing mission, but rather seduced other groups of people with their culture instead of obliging them to accept it. So we can characterize this first phase of Romanization in the micro-region Oss as mainly influencing politics and economy, whilst the basics of everyday life remained relatively unaffected. This view has to be further supplemented for the period under discussion, but also for the succeeding Middle and Late Roman Period.Show less
The southern Netherlands is a highly discussed and intensely investigated area in the archaeology of the Netherlands. Large projects like Someren, Weert and Oss provide large amounts of information...Show moreThe southern Netherlands is a highly discussed and intensely investigated area in the archaeology of the Netherlands. Large projects like Someren, Weert and Oss provide large amounts of information. This fuels the discussion about prehistoric habitation in the area, like the Iron Age which is a crucial period of changes. A few subjects concerning this discussion are the decline of ‘wandering farmsteads’, the increase of diversity and the change towards a settled or nucleated habitation. In order to add a useful contribution to the discussion, two main research questions were constructed for this study and thesis. How are Iron Age ‘settlements’ characterised throughout the Iron Age in the southern Netherlands? Is the nucleation of habitation an abrupt change at the end of the Iron Age or is it a gradual process throughout the Iron Age? With critical notes on every step of the research, the main case study is done for the site of Oss-Horzak. The results of five other sites are incorporated in the thesis for a more broad view and comparison in the area of the southern Netherlands. These sites are: Oss-Schalkskamp, Oss-Almstein, Oss-Ussen, Weert-Molenakker, Someren-Waterdael and the four coversand ridges in Breda-west. Basically, the Early and Middle Iron Age settlements can be described as dispersed, or ‘open’. More than one farmyard on one coversand ridge might have wandered, but they could have lived as ‘open communities’. Some sites proved to have a decline of habitation in the Middle Iron Age. Oss-Horzak seems to fit in this picture, although there was a continuous habitation during the Iron Age. This, however, is not typical for the entire Oss region as Oss-Ussen proves otherwise with a gradual increase of population. The habitation in the Horzak is reinstituted before the Roman period, probably in the beginning of the Late Iron Age, considering the presence of contemporary large Iron Age ditch structure. Apart from Breda, all case study sites seem to have proof for a gradual, pre-Roman, process towards a nucleated settlement. In these cases, the term nucleation is not only based on spatial terms, but also on the cultural aspects of its meaning. Jointly features like ditch structures or enclosures have influence on the arrangements of settlements and the cultural landscape. The choice of constructing such features is probably done by leading organs, and constructed by more than one household. This suggests nucleation in a way, or at least a local community and a sense of cohesion.Show less
This thesis concerns a low-tech fabric analysis on two types of fabrics found in Dutch archaeological context. This early-medieval pottery has been made in the German Rhine valley, close to Cologne...Show moreThis thesis concerns a low-tech fabric analysis on two types of fabrics found in Dutch archaeological context. This early-medieval pottery has been made in the German Rhine valley, close to Cologne, called „Vorgebirge‟. In this region, several potteries produced pottery with the same raw materials, which makes it hard to know their provenance. Two small villages, Badorf and Walberberg, are known to have produced a lot of pottery. The fabrics of these typical pots are light-coloured, mostly tempered with fine sand and baked at high temperatures. The produced forms are for instance relief-band amphorae, large vessels and cooking pots, but smaller forms also occur. The pottery was exported and traded by river (Rhine, lower Rhine, Meuse, IJssel) to early-medieval settlements in the lower countries and from there exported overseas. In Dutch archaeology, this typical pottery has been found at large-scale trade centres like Dorestad, but also on small sites related to big trade routes. The large quantity of sherds archaeologically found at Dorestad has been used to make a typology based on forms and fabrics. This typology is still used as a reference in processing sherds. The problem is that these sherds are examined on characteristics like colour and hardness, but those are problematic because of factors like baking atmosphere and post-deposition. However, with the low-tech fabric analysis it is possible to get a better notion in these fabrics. In this method a sample of a sherd is used, to get a fresh break. After preparation, this sample is re-baked at 900 °C to get disposed of sample-differences like moistness and to be able to reconstruct the original firing of the pots. Afterwards, the fresh breaks of these samples are all microscopically tested on several factors like calcite, colour and hardness subsequently, and their fabrics are described on porosity by looking at pores as well as on the main tempering and texture. By doing this, a distinction between the fabrics and a comparison with the results with other analyses can be made. The present low-tech fabric analysis on the Walberberg and Badorf fabrics sets a clear example of how useful this method is. It clarifies that several specified sherds should be determined differently.Show less
This thesis deals with the use-wear analysis conducted on a selection of the assemblage found at the Hamburg site of Stroe. Use-wear analysis revealed the functions of most analysed tools. These...Show moreThis thesis deals with the use-wear analysis conducted on a selection of the assemblage found at the Hamburg site of Stroe. Use-wear analysis revealed the functions of most analysed tools. These functions often were different from what would be expected based on the typology. Therefore, use-wear analysis is very important; it can reveal “hidden identities” of tools as it were. At the site of Stroe, many post-depositional processes were recognised but nevertheless the assemblage seemed representative enough to investigate matters such as the completeness of the variety of tools, type site and subsistence strategies. The site yielded many scrapers that were mostly used on hide. A large amount of tools was hafted, amongst which also many scrapers. Also the tips of Zinken tools and borers were hafted and not used for drilling or piercing. The site therefore seems to have been used for scraping hides mostly. However, it seems odd that a special activity site was set up for the purpose of hide working. Therefore, a number of hypotheses are presented that could explain this observation. The site of Stroe lies in the southernmost part of the area where the Hamburg tradition is believed to have occurred. Therefore the site is of big interest, because it can clarify questions concerning the „border‟ of the Hamburg tradition. However, it seems that influences of other cultures are not reflected in the material culture and if they were, they would probably not be recognised, because the Hamburg culture is quite similar to other more or less contemporaneous cultures.Show less
In Guyana wordt een bepaald soort sjamanisme toegepast. Deze vorm van sjamanisme heeft als kenmerk dat hij samengaat met veel geweld. De sjamaan (in de plaatselijke taal Kanaima genoemd)...Show moreIn Guyana wordt een bepaald soort sjamanisme toegepast. Deze vorm van sjamanisme heeft als kenmerk dat hij samengaat met veel geweld. De sjamaan (in de plaatselijke taal Kanaima genoemd) achtervolgt het slachtoffer om hem of haar na een bepaalde tijd ritueel te doden. Om er achter te komen wat er allemaal komt kijken bij dit soort gedrag, moeten we ingaan op een aantal psychologische kenmerken. Aan de hand van vijf onderwerpen (te weten morele overweging, sociale motivatie, het doelwit, de uitvoerende en de herkomst van de magische kracht) wordt een beeld geschetst van deze vorm van sjamanisme. Het model wordt ten eerste toegepast op twee relevante studies ter vergelijking. Hierdoor kunnen we het model in werking zien. Hierna wordt het model toegepast op Kanaima. Als laatste worden de verschillen en overeenkomsten tussen Kanaima en de twee andere studies naast elkaar gehouden om eventuele blinde vlekken in te vullen die bij zullen dragen aan beantwoording van de vragen “ Wat is Kanaima?”, “Wie is Kanaima” en “Waarom bestaat Kanaima?”.Show less
This thesis is about an early medieval well, made of sods, from a Roman and medieval site in Naaldwijk, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands. All the wood from this well, including part of a wooden wheel,...Show moreThis thesis is about an early medieval well, made of sods, from a Roman and medieval site in Naaldwijk, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands. All the wood from this well, including part of a wooden wheel, was examined together with soil samples, one from the bottom filling of the well and one from the sods, for the presence of seeds. The main research question was: “How did the local vegetation look like at the time of the well, based on the examined wood and seeds?” A second complementary question was: “What was the character of the use of wood?” In the well wood of alder, oak, ash, willow, buckthorn and elder was found, possibly all of these have grown in the area near the settlement. Most of the found wood was of poor quality and together with the findings of branches of most of the taxa suggest the use of local wood and therefore the availability was the main factor in the choice of wood. Research of the seeds from the soil sample that was taken from the sods showed that the sods probably came from a clayey environment that given the amount of foraminifera in the sample, has possibly been under the influence of the sea. The discovered taxa in this sample seem to indicate a moist to wet, moderately brackish to brackish environment. The soil sample from the bottom filling of the well showed many arable weeds that seem to indicate the presence of lime-free, nitrogen-rich and moderate to rich farmland or vegetable gardens. There are indications for frequently entered environments with a rich soil, such as yards and roadsides. Also ample evidence was found of rarely entered brushwood with a reworked rich, humous, lime-free, dry soil, such as waste land and pastures. Some of these taxa are indicators for nitrogen and also occur in fields and can point to manuring of the soil. There are also many indications for the presence of grasslands and/ or pastures with a highly variable humidity and a moderately brackish to brackish soil, such as dune grasslands. However, determining the presence or absence of forests and the degree of openness of the landscape can only be done with additional pollen analysis.Show less
De opgraving Brandwijk- het Kerkhof is uitgevoerd 1991 door M Verbruggen en is onderdeel van het donkenproject in de Alblasserwaard. In deze scriptie zijn de werktuigen van been en gewei, afkomstig...Show moreDe opgraving Brandwijk- het Kerkhof is uitgevoerd 1991 door M Verbruggen en is onderdeel van het donkenproject in de Alblasserwaard. In deze scriptie zijn de werktuigen van been en gewei, afkomstig van deze opgraving, microscopisch bekeken op zoek naar gebruikssporen. De resultaten zijn vervolgens vergeleken met de opgravingen Hardinxveld-Giessendam Polderweg en de Bruin, Schipluiden en Ypenburg. De belangrijkste vondsten van de site Polderweg stammen uit het Laat-Mesolithicum, de Bruin valt net als Brandwijk onder de Swifterbant-cultuur, Schipluiden en Ypenburg stammen uit het Midden-Neolithicum en worden gerekend tot de Hazendonk-groep. Op de site Brandwijk zijn 10 werktuigen, 3 mogelijk werktuig en 2 stukken productieafval gevonden van bot en gewei. De werktuigen zijn opgedeeld in 3 priemen, 3 platte priemen of spatels, en 4 beitels. De werktuigen lijken, zover microscopisch zichtbaar, voornamelijk gebruikt te zijn op plantaardige materialen zoals, gras, bast, twijgen en hout. Werktuigen voor het bewerken van huiden en grote bijlen voor het bewerken van hout zijn niet gevonden op deze opgraving in tegenstelling tot de andere opgravingen. Dit zou kunnen duiden op een seizoensmatige bewoning met specifieke activiteiten maar hier kunnen geen harde uitspraken over gedaan worden zolang het vuursteen materiaal nog niet functioneel onderzocht is. De belangrijkste bewerkingstechniek in deze periode is de metapodiumtechniek. Deze techniek word van het mesolithicum tot ver in het neolithicum gebruikt. Ook op de site Brandwijk is gebruik gemaakt van deze techniek. Echter is er vaker gekozen voor een vergelijkbare techniek waarbij andere langbeenderen gebruikt worden in plaats van de metapodia. Dit kan wijzen op een schaarste aan grondstoffen of een andere voorkeur van de maker. Bij de keuze van gewei is er overeenstemming met de ander opgravingen, er zijn voornamelijk afgeworpen geweien gebruikt. Alleen bij Ypenburg is dit niet het geval.Show less
Martiality, elites and burials are important topics in current Bronze Age studies. Instead of swords, spears and axes, this thesis focuses on Bronze Age archery, and examines one of the most...Show moreMartiality, elites and burials are important topics in current Bronze Age studies. Instead of swords, spears and axes, this thesis focuses on Bronze Age archery, and examines one of the most durable material components of this practice: bronze arrowheads. Despite its durability, only 25 arrowheads make up the entire corpus of bronze arrowheads found in the Netherlands. All except one of those was found in burial mounds. This raises the question of how these objects were usually employed outside a funerary context. This thesis tries to move towards an answer to this question by first collecting and interpreting the knowledge on bronze age arrowheads, putting these objects in a wider framework. It then introduces some theories on the use of bows during the Bronze Age. Functional analysis was applied to the arrowheads of Hijken, Geldermalsen-Eigenblok and Sleen. This lead to some conclusions on the production and use of these objects. It appeared they were cast, and not cut out of sheet bronze, and after slight hammering were polished. No convincing traces of use were found. This, together with the data on the context of the arrowheads, lead to the conclusion that these objects were indeed weapons, and shared their function, efficient implements of killing as well as objects for show, with other weapons.Show less
Uit diverse opgravingen komen cosmeticadoosjes in de vorm van een eend aan het licht. Dit soort doosjes of bakjes worden over het algemeen gedateerd in de bronstijd en gesitueerd in het mediterrane...Show moreUit diverse opgravingen komen cosmeticadoosjes in de vorm van een eend aan het licht. Dit soort doosjes of bakjes worden over het algemeen gedateerd in de bronstijd en gesitueerd in het mediterrane gebied. Over de achtergrond van deze eenden is veel te vertellen maar tegelijkertijd veel onduidelijk. In dit essay onderzoek ik onder andere de herkomst van de zogenaamde “cosmetica eend”. Daartoe behandel ik enkele sites die als voorbeeld genomen kunnen worden. De sites die ik bespreek vertegenwoordigen diverse culturen en typen eenden. Hiermee schets ik een beeld rondom de objecten waarbij de materiaalkeuze centraal staat.Show less
In 1983 building plans were made by the municipality of Hoorn for the expansion of the public library at the Gravenstraat in Hoorn, together with the building of a new primary school next to the...Show moreIn 1983 building plans were made by the municipality of Hoorn for the expansion of the public library at the Gravenstraat in Hoorn, together with the building of a new primary school next to the public library. In order to save the present archaeological remains, an excavation was planned. The excavation started on 7 November 1983 and ended on 9 January 1984. From the start of the excavation the foundations a the monastery was found, but on December 6, a large number of bones suddenly appeared. It turned out that the archaeologists had found part of the graveyard of the Agnates convent. Because the graveyard was part of the Agnates convent, it is expected that the deceased nuns of the Agnates convent were buried at their own graveyard. The purpose of this research is to discover the identity of the individuals buried at the Agnates graveyard. To be able to determine the demography and health status of the individuals that were buried at the Agnates graveyard, it is necessary to analyze gender, age at death, stature and pathology of the deceased. The physical anthropological research has shown the following results: [tabel] Due to the distribution of the gender (12% males and 72% females) and the age at death of the non-adults (except one individual all the non-adults were above the 12 years old, so they were allowed to enter the monastery) it is concluded that the individuals buried at the Agnates graveyard were the inhabitants of the Agnates convent. When the stature and the pathology are added to the conclusion, it becomes clear that the inhabitants of the Agnates monastery were most certain part of the higher social class. To be able to see the Agnates convent in a greater context, these conclusions were compared with a contemporary monastery in Hoorn: the Bethlehem convent and two contemporary civil populations from the city of Delft and the city of Dordrecht. The population of the city of Dordrecht was most certain the most prospering population based on the comparisons. The individuals performed a great amount of heavy labor, but also knew the best health care and had most certain access to the most food resources. After the population of Dordrecht, the population of the Agnates convent was most certain the most prospering. The inhabitants had access to enough food resources and knew reasonably good health care. The inhabitants performed little labor (also compared to the Bethlehem convent) and also knew health care and had access to enough food resources during growth, which indicates that these individuals had a relative well-to-do social life. The population of the city of Delft also had access to sufficient food resources, and knew health care, but these individuals also had to perform heavy labor. The population of the city of Dordrecht had to perform heavier labor, but they had also access to better food resources and better health care than the population of Delft. The population of the Bethlehem convent was the worst prospering population based on the comparisons. The population of the Bethlehem convent had to perform heavy labor, while the population consisted mainly out of females, knew little health care and had access to insufficient food resources. Based on the comparisons it may be concluded that the inhabitants of the Agnates convent were quite prosperous and had a relative well-to-do social life. Most of the individuals that were entering the Agnates convent had a higher social position and were still quite young when they started living in the monastery. Apart from the nuns also some priests have lived in the monastery. The inhabitants had to perform labor, but these tasks existed mainly out of simple and light tasks possibly like gardening and handwork. Food and hygiene were average to good and most certain the nuns took care of each other when someone got ill. The graveyard on the terrain of the Agnates convent was most certain for the inhabitants of the monastery only and therefore existed out of mainly females and just a few males (though it has to be taken into account that not the entire graveyard has been excavated).Show less
