Journal of Field Archaeology

This study combines functional theories of architectural design with concepts from engineering to devise a method for ranking the effort invested in house construction. Investment in construction is in turn linked with the intensity of site use. Analyses show that from A.C. 200 through A.C. 1000, Upland Mogollon pithouse dwellers invested ever greater effort in building long-lasting, maintainable houses. The implications for models of land use and agricultural dependence are discussed. It is suggested that the architectural trends are consistent with models that characterize Upland Mogollon pithouse dwellers as increasingly sedentary and increasingly dependent on agriculture after A.C. 550.

Recent investigations at the site of Teotepec in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas in southern Veracruz, Mexico explored Middle Formative through Late Classic (1000 B.C.–A.D. 1000) socioeconomic conditions. A central focus was the form and function of the site's distinctive architectural configuration, the Long Plaza Group. During the 2007 and 2008 field seasons, a systematic geophysical survey of Teotepec obtained initial information on the layout, orientation, and possible function of the site's central architectural core. Results from the survey allow for a clear definition of the site's Long Plaza Group in addition to the identification of a possible ball court along its eastern edge. It is also clear that Teotepecans incorporated natural features into their architectural core by placing a pyramid atop a volcanic landform and modifying a natural basalt flow in order to create a level plaza. Finally, the geophysical data indicate significant time depth in architectural construction by suggesting diffirent mound construction techniques, thus underscoring the importance of Teotepec as a persistent place in a region marked by significant population fluctuations in the Formative and Classic periods.

The Iron Age archaeology of the northern Lowveld of South Africa is notable for the abundance of mining, metal working, and salt production sites recorded in the region. We report the results of scientific studies of the metallurgical remains recovered from 1965 to 1978 by Nikolaas J. van der Merwe, David Killick, and colleagues in various campaigns of survey and excavation in the Phalaborwa region, a major center of precolonial metallurgy. Both iron and copper ores occur in a carbonatite complex at Phalaborwa and were smelted in low-shaft furnaces of two different designs. Two radiocarbon dates of ca. 1000 b.p. are available for the mines themselves, which have now been completely destroyed. All other radiocarbon dates for the archaeological sequence at Phalaborwa fall in two groups, the first from the 10th to 13th centuries A.D., the second from the 17th through the 20th centuries A.D. Both iron and copper were smelted in both periods; tin-bronze and brass appeared towards the end of the earlier period.

Excavations at the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village (A.D. 1000–1150), an Initial Middle Missouri period Plains earthen lodge village site in eastern South Dakota, revealed new data regarding the lifeways and cultural systems of its prehistoric inhabitants. While extensive excavations had been conducted at the site and at a large number of other Middle Missouri sites prior to the present project, our open-area approach revealed new and significantly different information. New features in the areas between the dwellings were uncovered, features that are rarely studied in the context of the Middle Missouri cultural tradition. Other finds included Mississippian-influenced ceramics, Avonlea projectile points, and ceremonial goods that indicate long-distance cultural interaction. The discovery of large, complex features in the interdwelling areas of the site changes our understanding of Middle Missouri lifeways and settlement structure.

Investigations carried out in 1996 and 2000 –2002 at the Pumapunku Temple Complex at Tiwanaku, Bolivia (A.D. 500–950) combined historical research, data recovered from previously unpublished excavations, strategically-placed small-scale trenches, and three dimensional architectural and stratigraphic recordings. The construction, use, and subsequent modifications, substantial and ephemeral to the Temple Complex span 500 years. This period the apogee of the Tiwanaku phenomenon provides a theoretical case study of the role monumentality can play in the development of an archaic state. The Pumapunku Temple Complex facilitated movement of large throngs of pilgrims it served both as a ritual gateway to the city and as a theater for projecting a redundant and widely comprehensible message to arriving visitors through the use of facades and intentional alignments of sacred features.

The history of coastal settlement in Peru beginning ca. 12,000 years ago provides insight into maritime adaptations and regional specialization. We document the Late Paleoindian to Archaic occupational history along the Osmore River coastal plain near Ilo with 95 radiocarbon dates from eight sites. Site distribution suggests that settlement shifted linearly along the coast, possibly in relation to the productivity of coastal springs. Marine foods, raw materials, and freshwater were sufficient to sustain coastal foragers for over 12 millennia. Despite climatic changes at the end of the Pleistocene and during the Middle Holocene, we found no evidence for a hiatus in coastal occupation, in contrast to parts of highland northern Chile and areas of coastal Peru for the same time period. Coastal abandonment was a localized phenomenon rather than one that occurred across vast areas of the South Central Andean littoral. Our finds suggest that regional adaptation to specific habitats began with initial colonization and endured through time.

Regional exchange, consisting primarily of transactions among groups that are not adjacent or in regular contact, is described here for the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, during the period A.C. 1200–1550. The Gulf of Nicoya area was the center of an active regional exchange system, which has been detected archaeologically through research on the gulf islands. This system is described in terms of its role in relation to local and long-distance exchange, both in providing goods and in establishing and maintaining social relations over some distance. Regional trade, rather than either intersite exchange among neighboring settlements or long-distance trade in exotic items, is seen as the network that supplied the inhabitants of a site with the majority of needed goods, from food to tools and sumptuary items.

The formation of ceramic analytical groups based on compositional, technological, and stylistic analyses enables us to begin modeling the conditions of production and exchange that affected Hopi potters between A.C. 1300 and 1600. The present study indicates that intervillage and intravillage production units can be isolated for pueblos located on adjacent mesas in NE Arizona. Exchange of vessels between sites on and off the Hopi mesas suggests directionality, but there is little direct evidence that bears on hypothesized intervillage alliances of either potters' groups, kin groups, or elites.

The spatial thresholds of ceramic spheres and interaction networks are delineated in the Yoruba-Edo region SW Nigeria, between the 13th and 19th centuries A.C. in order to understand the relationships between the regional periphery of Ilare district and the major political centers and the events that originated from them. This study assumes that the intersocietal movement of commodities reflects regional interaction systems. Integrating the distribution of ceramics with local settlement history demonstrates that ceramic styles in Ilare district were configured by regional migrations, sociopolitical growth and decline, and economic links. What is more, changes in the structure of regional socioeconomic and political networks are more likely to appear earlier in the regional peripheries than in the metropolises.

Research on the Agöerito site of the Middle Orinoco, Venezuela, has served to broaden knowledge about ceramics-bearing groups of the area and to help solve chronological problems of this strategic region. The combined use of thermoluminescence (TL) and C-14 dating techniques has permitted us to confirm the placement of the Ronquin and posterior phases between 200 A.C. and 1500 A.C. Detailed analysis of pottery from the site has allowed us to define four components, each apparently representing the remains of distinct social entities. Two of these had not been distinguished as separate components by previous authors. The multiplicity of groups revealed by the Agöerito research agrees well with the ethnohistorical accounts for the area, which emphasize social and economic interaction among numerous ethnic groups.

This study presents a revision of Dean E. Arnold's (1985, 1993) Exploitable Threshold Model, which attempts to explain the selection of raw materials for pottery production. Arnold's model posits that potters' preferences for materials are largely determined by the linear distance to individual resources. We argue, however, that potters' choices are, at least in part, determined by spatial relationships among the necessary resources rather than the distances to them. This study of 14th century pottery production on Perry Mesa, Arizona demonstrates that potters selected materials based on the co-occurrence of readily available sources of temper, clay, and fuel. Lack of water and fuel sources on the mesa top compelled local residents to eschew the use of readily available basaltic sands to temper their plainware pottery. Instead, Perry Mesa potters selected granitic sands from the river valley nearly 300 vertical meters below their settlements.

Archaeological survey in 1999–2000 in the northern part of Pemba Island, Tanzania, has revealed the role of rural settlements in the development of Swahili towns from A.D. 750 to 1500. The survey investigated the regions directly surrounding three towns to explore the political, economic, and religious relations between towns and surrounding villages. Results of the survey suggest that the growth of Pemban towns, although economically influenced by their increasing links to overseas trade, were dependent on population movements from rural to urban areas. These shifts may be best described as a “synoecism,” a process in which a town is formed through the union of smaller, rural settlements. The data indicate a dramatic reorganization of the settlement pattern during the 11th century when new towns with monumental mosques made of coral were founded and/or populated by migrants from the countryside, leaving a sparsely populated region with only a few villages that were loosely tied to the center. The construction of Swahili towns on Pemba was as much an effort to construct a cohesive community as it was a practical measure in a burgeoning Indian Ocean economy.

In the past decade, the Calico site (SBCM 1500A) in southern California has presented a challenge to archeologists of North America. If the fractured lithics from this site are tools, then man has inhabited this continent for a much greater period than previously recognized—possibly more than 50,000 years. By analyzing these lithics it should be possible to determine their true nature. This paper reports the results of a statistical analysis of the lithics. The results indicate that man did not produce these lithics but, rather, that they were created naturally.

In A.D. 1680, the Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest united in a revolt that drove Spanish colonists out of Pueblo lands for more than a decade. Dramatic changes in the architecture, spatial organization, and settlement patterns of Pueblo villages occurred during this era as Pueblo leaders sought to revive traditional beliefs and practices. Semiotic and space syntax analyses of 10 Pueblo Revolt-era (1680–1696) villages reveal evidence for an ideology of cultural revitalization, as well as changing patterns of leadership and social interaction. Villages built early in this period exhibit planned communal construction and evidence of strong centralized leadership that resulted in highly structured social interaction. In contrast, later villages are characterized by less centralized leadership and a dispersed layout that facilitated the informal interactions necessary for communal integration in a time of increased migration. The social changes reflected in and shaped by Revolt-era architecture were crucial in the formation of modern Pueblo culture, influencing village alliances and spatial organization down to the present day.

Contour mapping and sub-surface testing undertaken at Puerto Real, Haiti, provide information on the spatial distributions of cultural materials at that 16th-century Spanish community. The topographic mapping was useful in distinguishing major relief; it was found, however, that masonry construction materials were the only cultural remains accurately reflected through changes in elevation. The systematic sub-surface testing proved to be a fast and efficient probabilistic method for delineating distributions of cultural materials. Town boundaries and locations of masonry structural remains were revealed, and distributions of food-bone refuse as well as ceramic and non-ceramic cultural by-products were quantified. Variability in these spatial distributions appears to reflect occupational, functional, and social affiliations by reference to earlier test excavations at Puerto Real and other Spanish colonial sites.

Our research along the Georgia coast of the southeastern United States explores the role that small islands played in Native American economies over some 4000 years (ca. 2500 B.C.–A.D. 1700). Most archaeological research in the region has concentrated on large barrier islands that front the Atlantic Ocean. Less understood are the much smaller back-barrier islands, also called marsh islands, located in the inter-tidal environment. Our survey of four of these islands, Little Sapelo Island, Pumpkin Hammock, Mary Hammock, and Patterson Island, indicates that such landforms were important for most of the prehistoric and early historical Native American occupations of the coast. These landforms were key components in subsistence systems that relied heavily on estuarine resources. We discuss the implications of our study regarding method and theory in archaeology, and consider long-standing debates as to the productivity of coastal and maritime resources and the notion of insularity in island archaeology. Specifically, we suggest that, for some regions, small islands facilitate connectivity between areas. Further, the methodological implications of our study suggest that many small islands should be investigated as sites. That is, the nature of activity over the entire landform should be the focus of investigations.

Hopes were raised during the foundation excavations of the World Trade Center complex in downtown Manhattan (New York) that the major part of the burned 17th century Dutch ship, “Tiger,” would be recovered. These hopes were pinned on the fact that the forward part of the ship's remains had been accidentally exhumed in the adjacent subway cut in 1916. No remains were found, and we are left with the question of what became of her hulk.

Museum collections of documented but unpublished archaeological material often constitute excellent sources of primary archaeological data. The Duchess of Mecklenburg excavated extensively at Iron Age cemeteries in Slovenia, in what is now part of Yugoslavia, just before the First World War. Her collection, which is now being published, provides hundreds of well-documented grave groups for study. This article considers her work at the site of Sti?na and is concerned particularly with the graves containing weapons excavated at that site.

Creighton Gabel, Editor of the Journal of Field Archaeology from 1986 to 1995 and co-founder of the Department of Archaeology at Boston University, died February 22, 2004, in Vero Beach, Florida, after an extended battle with cancer. He was 72.

The Elamite civilization of SW Iran represents one of the earliest geographically diverse literate empires in the world. During the 2nd millennium B.C. that part of the Elamite civilization situated in and around the ancient city of Susa (the Susiana plain) experienced a growth of population to unprecedented levels, as well as significant political and economic change. Tepe Sharafabad, already an ancient prehistoric mound, was the site of one of the new settlements founded during this period of growth. At first it was no more than an ordinary small village. Sometime near the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. it was transformed into a rural estate. The study of such small sites may be critical to the understanding of the achievements of this important civilization, and of the evolution of early empires in general.

Stobi is an ancient city ca. 150 km. north of Thessalonica in what is now Yugoslavian Macedonia. It lies in the juncture of two important rivers, the Erigon and the Axius, which are known today as the Crna and the Vardar. Excavations since 1970 by the joint American-Yugoslav Stobi Excavation Project have contributed significantly to our understanding of living conditions, social organization, arts, crafts, and religion in Stobi. The excavations have also increased our knowledge of the physical environment, of the external political, commercial, military, and religious relations, and generally of the history of Stobi from the 3rd century B.C. to the late 6th century A.C. Its growth can now be traced from a relatively small but strategic Paeonian and later Macedonian community during the Hellenistic era, to a large and prosperous municipium during the early centuries of the Roman Empire and finally to a provincial capital and episcopal see of the later Empire.

Starting in 1973, excavation was conducted at the Kraku'lu Yordan site, a metallurgical complex in NE Serbia, Yugoslavia. Artifactual data indicate the site was in use primarily during the 4th century A.C., a period of Roman imperialism and colonialism within this province of Upper Moesia. This report describes three Yugoslav trial excavation seasons of 1973–75 and the beginning of joint Yugoslav-United States research in 1976. Architectural data and material culture indicate a surprisingly low degree of indigenous acculturation to Roman culture.

During the winter of 1973–74 preliminary excavations were conducted at the ancient coastal site of Balakot in Sanmiani Bay, Pakistan. Two periods are represented at the site. Period B, capping the mound, represents the Mature Indus (Harappan) period, the earliest urban period of South Asia. Balakot is one of five known coastal sites of the Indus Civilization. It is hoped that evidence will be discovered in subsequent seasons bearing on the question of the assumed sea trade contacts between the Indus and the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia in the centuries just before and after 2000 B.C.Period A at Balakot is designated as Early Indus. The more than 6 m. of occupational debris resting on sterile soil represent the developmental stages leading directly into the earliest civilization of South Asia. The Early Indus sequence at Balakot contains ceramic elements related to many of the so-called “painted pottery cultures” of Baluchistan and the southern Indus Valley. The proposed series of extensive excavations at the site should provide a sound chronological and cultural framework within which any of these presently isolated cultural traditions can be studied.This report describes the location and potential importance of the site. The most significant findings of the first season's work are presented.

Paros is one of the most important islands of the Aegean sea, known best because of its white translucent marble. The island developed a very important school of sculpture from the Archaic to Roman times. An investigation of the island started in 1969, with the support of the Greek Archaeological Service, is centered on the ancient capital of Paros, which survives in the ruins of its ancient walls and an Archaic Ionic temple, and in the northern part of the island, where recent surveys and excavations have brought to light a significant number of sites, some of which go back to the Bronze and the Dark Ages of Greece.

This is a preliminary report on the UCLA excavations of 1973 and 1974 at A chilleion, Greece, that were conducted in cooperation with Greek authorities. A chilleion lies in the heart of Thessaly and is a stratified neolithic mound which yielded a cultural sequence supported by radiocarbon dates and stratigraphy from ca. 6500 to 5500 B.C. The excavations have revealed vital information on the environment, economy, architecture, ceramics industry, and religion of the Sesklo civilization.

Excavations at the ancient Maya center of Lamanai, Belize, were begun in 1974 and are expected to continue through 1983. Selected because the presence of a 16th-century Spanish church indicated occupation in late pre-Conquest times, the site is now known to have been occupied continuously for more than two millennia. Excavations have revealed the presence of late Pre-Classic (300 B.C. or earlier) ceremonial and residential construction north of the central ceremonial precinct. The precinct itself, which is laid out in strip form along the western shore of New River Lagoon, has yielded extensive evidence of ceremonial activity, including a 33 m. high structure that is the largest securely dated Pre-Classic building in the Maya Area.While the site center was largely abandoned by the end of the Late Classic (9th–10th centuries A.C.), major ceremonial construction was still being undertaken at that time in its southern part, the area which became the focus of a rich Post-Classic development. Post-Classic structures have yielded a very large number of burials and a massive amount of ceramics, with indications that decorative motifs developed here before the mid-12th century were later adopted at Mayapan. The site has also produced evidence from post-Conquest times, in the form of the church cemetery and 17th-century occupation debris from the desecrated church, which illuminates the final chapter in the longest known occupation span in the Central Maya Lowlands.

Five individual projects that spanned a period of five months in 1974 describe the contribution being made to field archaeology by new systems of photography variously combined for search, survey, and recording.

The first extensive survey of the underwater remains at Pyrgi (Santa Severa) has been completed and it yields new information concerning the design of the Etruscan and Roman harbors and the shape of the Roman castrum. A series of natural shoals, previously unknown, supporting the rubble-mound jetties suggest that a semi-protected natural harbor may have attracted the original Etruscan settlement at the site. Wooden forms were found preserved around the concrete structure on the west jetty and a new wall or quay excavated at the base of the east jetty. Aerial photographs revealed that the tumbled remains of the seaward castrum wall did not complete a rectangular design, but responded to the oblique angle of the coast. Survey work was begun in the submerged area in front of the temples.

Since 1966, Canadian excavations, currently sponsored by the University of British Columbia, have been conducted at Anemurium (modern Eski Anamur), an ancient city of Rough Cilicia, situated on Cape Anamur, ca. 260 km. east of Antalya. The necropolis, composed of approximately 350 individual tomb-structures dating from the first to the fourth century A.C., remains the most striking feature of the site. Although work in recent years has concentrated primarily on the public buildings of the city itself, the restoration of four tombs in the necropolis and the cleaning and conservation of the considerable amount of painted wall-plaster that survives in each have been undertaken. This project, begun in 1974 and continued in 1975, is still far from complete, but the removal of deposits of salts and organic incrustations from the surface of the plaster has already exposed figured scenes hitherto invisible, as well as fresh details in those previously known. Excavations carried out in conjunction with the restorations have also yielded significant results, especially in one multi-chamber tomb where structures belonging to an earlier phase in the building's development were discovered. As a result the various stages in the building's history have been clarified and the chronological relationship of the two styles of painting represented in the decorated chamber confirmed.

This paper describes a survey of rural sites located around the Roman colony of Cosa (founded 273 B.C.). One hundred and thirty-two sites were mapped and for the most part dated; the results allow a reconstruction of the settlement history of rural Cosa. The area apparently had sparse habitation before the Roman period, a steady population during the Republic, and a decline under the Empire which left a sparse population by the 4th century A.C. The categorizing of the sites by size shows a concentration of the largest sites in the shore area and medium and small sites elsewhere. The results are compared with those of other comparable surveys undertaken in Italy.

Excavations organised by P. Périn of the École Pratique des Hautes Études (lVe Section), Paris, have been underway since 1975 in the Jardin du Calvaire which adjoins the Church of Saint-Pierre in Montmartre. Yarious traditions and 19th century public works suggested a religious use of the site in the Roman and early Medieval periods. Excavation shows that these levels were badly disturbed by the great Benedictine abbey (fl. 1147–1790). The evolution of the cloister area and the part of the church adjacent to it is being clarified, and the excavation of Medieval and early modern tombs throws new light on burial practises.

Preliminary results of the second Smithsonian field season in Nain, Labrador are described. The area surveyed lies at the boundary between arctic and subarctic environments on the central Labrador coast and has been occupied intermittently by Indians for more than 6,000 years and by Inuit (Eskimo) for the past 4,000 years. Six major cultural groups, some with several chronological subdivisions, have been recognized, and new geographic limits of certain Indian and Inuit groups are suggested. Each of the major complexes is discussed in terms of tool inventories, and preliminary conclusions regarding site typology and settlement patterns are advanced. Other aspects of the 1975 fieldwork include surveys of the coast south of Nain and excavations of a 4,000 year old Maritime Archaic cemetery at Rattlers Bight in Hamilton Inlet.

The Foundation put two teams in the field in 1975 to meet requests from archaeological directors for detailed aerial photographic coverage by balloon over four major sites in Greece. Field procedures are described including the important roles played by the archaeological directors themselves. New systems being tested for the 1976 season are also described.

Since 1976, excavations have been conducted on two neighboring Early Neolithic sites at Brze?? Kujawski, Wloclawek district, Poland. The aim of this research is to improve the understanding of the developmental sequence of Early Neolithic cultures on the Polish lowlands as well as to recover palaeobotanical and archaeozoological materials to study the changes in subsistence patterns over time. There are three components of Early Neolithic settlement at Brze?? Kujawski: the Linear Pottery, Early Lengyel, and Late Lengyel cultures, which span the period between 4300 and 3000 radiocarbon years B.C. Large amounts of animal bones indicate a shift from cattle-centered stockbreeding in the Linear Pottery component to a very diverse pattern of animal exploitation in the Late Lengyel component. Early Neolithic house remains, storage pits, flint industries, and copper artifacts are also discussed.

A survey of publications in Maya archaeology in the quinquennium 1976–1980 shows a high rate of production of both monographs and papers, embodying radical changes in knowledge of ancient Maya subsistence, settlements, social structure, and intellectual superstructure. Traditional monographs as well as extensive interim reports convey detailed information on surveys and excavations, while specialized seminars have joined periodic congresses and continuing journal publication as vehicles for topical papers. The review examines major publications by geographical area, and then analyzes current knowledge of several key topics in Maya archaeology.

In the northern sector of Roman Carthage, east of the cardo maximus (the main N-S axis of the city), the defensive wall of ca. 425 A.C. (the so-called Theodosian Wall) has been shown to lie along the foot of the winding escarpment known as the Teurf el-Sour. This escarpment was wholly or largely created by urban buildup of the Roman period, and its line is determined by that of the Wall, not vice versa. What earlier excavators took to be an earth rampart of the Arab period proves to be a roadway running along behind the Wall.The street grid of the Augustan colony extends into this sector, though with significant irregularities. The built-up area extends north of decumanus VI, although this was theoretically the limit of the city. It is not yet possible to date the first occupation of the area, but it was flourishing by the late 4th century. The 6th century was a period of decline, with some at least of the buildings abandoned, but the area was redeveloped in the 7th century, though with a much lower standard of living.

The Projects in Field Archaeology program of Michigan State University in 1977 conducted five missions in Greece and Italy to provide low-altitude aerial imagery at Archaeological sites. Sites in the Cycladic Islands include those on Melos, Kea, and Paros; in the Peloponnese, the Sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea; and in Italy, the Roman Villa of Oplontis at Torre Annunziata. A newly designed pressurized aerodynamic kite-balloon proved a marked improvement over models used in Mediterranean research on earlier missions. A discussion of the pioneer balloon work of P. L. O. Guy in 1930 furnishes an introduction to the report.

The ancient city of Stobi has been the site of archaeological investigations and conservation by a joint American-Yugoslav staff since 1970. The site is located in Yugoslavian Macedonia at the juncture of the Vardar and Crna rivers, ca. 150 km. north of Thessaloniki, Greece. The Stobi Project is an interdisciplinary undertaking concerned with problems relating to the natural and man-made environments of the people who lived at Stobi and in the vicinity from the 3rd century B.C. to the late 6th century A.C. The 1977 and 1978 field seasons concentrated on excavations in the Central Basilica/Synagogue Complex and the Episcopal Basilica. In addition, programs of study, conservation, and restoration of architectural features were continued.

The late pre-Hispanic populations of the Calchaquí Valley of NW Argentina may be seen as typical of the native culture of the south Andes. The developmental sequence for these sedentary village societies, however, has only recently begun to be detailed. Field and lab results pertaining to a survey of 24 sites are summarized, including one of the first ceramic seriations to include the full range of pottery types; ceramic wares and their significance are also identified. Findings further include the first recognition of what are believed to be Middle Period sites for the valley, thus filling an important gap in our understanding of the region's prehistory.

Results of a season of site survey in the Lower Morava Valley, Yugoslavia, followed by a season of excavation of one of the large, open-field Bronze/Iron Age sites of the region, have shed new light on the later prehistory of this corridor between the Aegean and European worlds. Materials recovered range from the later Eneolithic through Medieval periods.

We have defined a region extending at least 2,000 km. from central Yugoslavia and NW Greece to eastern Turkey and south to Cyprus, within which the annual growth rings of pines and oaks are so similar that they may be compared for hundreds of years at a time. Within this region, we have established a North Greek Oak Master Chronology extending 864 years back from 1979 to 1116 A.C. linking oak samples from 33 standing churches, mosques, and houses in absolute chronological relation to one another and to sequences from forest trees. It also synchronizes with our 700-year long sequences from pines in both Greece and Turkey. For a given oak tree used as structural timber we are now able to determine the felling year at any time since the middle of the 12th century by comparing its ring patterns to the master sequences and can thereby offer precise dates for hitherto undated standing or excavated buildings. We are continuing to add to the list of absolutely dated sites while at the same time attempting to extend the length and geographical scope of the absolute master chronology. Ultimately, it may be possible to link our absolute sequence to the floating 806-year Iron Age tree-ring sequence from Gordion and the 364-year Middle Bronze Age sequence from Acemhüyük.

During the summer of 1977 a second season of excavation and field survey was undertaken in the Vasilikos valley area of Larnaca District in southern Cyprus. Excavations at the aceramic and ceramic Neolithic site of Kalavasos-Tenta revealed an extensive curvilinear stone architectural complex on the top of the site consisting of a central circular house with two parallel outer ring walls. To the east of this complex, remains of well-preserved oval mud-brick buildings on stone foundations were encountered over an extensive area. On the southern slopes of the site other circular stone houses were excavated. Excavation also showed that the most extensive wall excavated by P. Dikaios is preserved to a much greater height than was thought in 1976. A trench in the ceramic area of the site revealed only a water-laid deposit of very friable, heavily encrusted sherds. The aceramic artifactual yield continues to resemble that of the nearby site of Khirokitia with a few clear differences. A small number of obsidian blades provides evidence of contact with the Anatolian mainland. 14C determinations suggest the dating of the aceramic phase of the site to the second half of the 6th millennium B.C., but two 7th millennium dates (earlier than any previously obtained in Cyprus) remain to be explained.The field survey of the valley in which Tenta is located has revealed extensive occupation in most phases of Cypriote prehistory and history. The lack of later Chalcolithic and earlier Early Bronze Age material remains to be investigated. The Middle Bronze Age seems to mark the apogee of prehistoric settlement. Sites of all periods through the Mediaeval are being recorded in order to compile data on the settlement system of the valley throughout the various phases of its occupation.Preliminary specialist studies are included concerning ceramics, lithics, flora, fauna, geographical, geologic, and ethnographic aspects of the project.

The most recent preliminary report on excavations at the early village-farming community site of Çayönü in SE Turkey covered the field season of 1972. What was learned in the next two field seasons, 1978 and 1979, summarized here, supports a somewhat unhappy proposition. The more that exposures on a site are enlarged and deepened, the more that earlier suggestions and interpretations must be revised. This is unfortunate because the earlier suggestions have already passed on into secondary literature where they have become uneradicable fossils. Nonetheless, the game is worth playing if fullness of understanding is the hoped for goal. The two seasons' work summarized here were those when our German architectural colleagues joined ill the effort, markedly increasing the expedition's potential for understanding the archaeological record of this early village community.

The excavation project at Hascherkeller is part of a research strategy for investigation of the economics of an Early Iron Age settlement in central Europe, with special emphasis on study of the circulation and use of raw materials, finished products, and subsistence goods. The entire settlement will be excavated and both field and analytical techniques will emphasize determination of the character, locations, and associations of materials that bear on the economic activities of its inhabitants. Source areas from which materials came will be investigated. Analysis of locations within the settlement at which various substances are found will provide insight into the organization of resource management, trade, manufacturing, storage, and possible exportation of materials. The aim of this research is to gain a better understanding of the provisioning of Early Iron Age settlements with materials and foodstuffs and of the nature of interactions between communities in central Europe at the time.

During the third season of the Vasilikos Valley Project in the Larnaca District of southern Cyprus, excavations were continued at the A ceramic and Ceramic Neolithic site of Kalavasos-Tenta. An extensive architectural group of curvilinear mud-brick buildings was uncovered on the top of the site in association with the previously reported stone complex. On the lower south slope of the site, excavation revealed the continuation of the main outer settlement wall at both ends and additional circular stone houses. Investigations were made elsewhere on the site in ceramic deposits.A brief test excavation was undertaken at Kalavasos-Ayious, a Late Neolithic/ Early Chalcolithic site opposite Tenta on the east side of the valley. Much of this site will be destroyed by the proposed new Nicosia-Limassol road, and extensive work there is planned for 1979. The test revealed the presence of a deep pit cut in the natural soil, containing pottery and stone artifacts in situ on several surfaces. Similar pits were found by Dikaios at nearby Pamboules and Kokkinoyia. Rescue excavation was also carried out in Kalavasos village of 13 Middle Bronze Age tombs brought to light accidentally by building operations. The dead were richly endowed in their rock-cut tombs with pottery, metal artifacts, and other gifts. The field survey of the valley also continued to make good progress; the most interesting discovery was the location of a second A ceramic Neolithic site SE of Mari upon which a fine decorated stone-bowl fragment and an enigmatic figurine of a quadruped were found. The report contains a list of addenda to previously published sites, a list of sites discovered during the past season, and notes on two sites in the Pendaskinos valley, including an A ceramic Neolithic settlement. A chronological outline of prehistoric Cyprus is provided in Table 1. Specialist reports on geographical, botanical, lithic, and anthropological studies are also included.The material in this article is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. BNS78-15883.

During the fourth season of the Vasilikos Valley Project in the Larnaca District of southern Cyprus, excavations were continued at the Aceramic and Ceramic Neolithic site of Kalavasos-Tenta. Excavation on the west side of the top of the site revealed more of the plan of the earliest curvilinear building that underlies the stone complex. Elsewhere on the top of the site, further mud-brick and stone structures were uncovered, and a unique wall painting was found on the central pier of one building. Excavations in the Lower South Slope area confirmed the existence of a deep ditch outside the outer settlement wall. Five Aceramic phase burials were excavated in different parts of the site. Investigation of the Ceramic phase deposits on the eastern flanks of the site revealed a series of pits, but no standing architectural remains.Excavations at the Chalcolithic site of Kalavasos-Ayious on the east side of the valley were also continued. A series of pits of widely varying size was brought to light in several different areas of the site. The largest pits contained numerous artifacts, sometimes in situ on distinct surfaces. At the north end of the site three pits were found connected by subterranean tunnels.Rescue excavations, lasting from July 1979 through February 1980. were also undertaken at the Late Bronze Age site of A. Dhimitrios, a short distance to the south of Tenta. An extensive architectural complex of finely built stone structures was uncovered within the line of the new Nicosia-Limassol highway. The quality of the building, and the clear degree of planning that underlies the whole architectural layout, betoken a site of considerable importance. The architectural levels on the site may be dated to a late phase of Late Cypriote II, but one of the tombs also contains material of Late Cypriote I or early Late Cypriote II date.A systematic field survey of the southern half of the Vasilikos valley, employing a regularly spaced series of transects, revealed a number of additional sites of varying type and period. A chronological outline of prehistoric Cyprus is provided in Table 1. Specialist reports on geographical, fluvial geomorphological, faunal, and conservation studies are also included.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant no. BNS77–07685 A02.

Results of two seasons of excavation at Hascherkeller, aided by a magnetometer survey of the site, provide a detailed view of the structure of the settlement. It consists of three contiguous enclosures bounded by double ditches, a pattern unique among excavated settlements of this period in central Europe. The evidence recovered in the first two seasons of fieldwork yields much information about a variety of economic activities at the site, including subsistence, manufacturing, and trade. Especially significant is the recovery of a mold for the casting of bronze rings. This discovery is important for our understanding of the organization of metallurgy during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages; the find demonstrates that this relatively small community at Hascherkeller was manufacturing its own luxury goods of bronze, the constituents of which had to be imported from other parts of Europe.

During the second field season (1980) of the Canadian Palaipaphos Survey Project in the Paphos District of SW Cyprus, an archaeological survey was continued within the assumed boundaries of the Iron Age kingdom of Paphos. The survey, based on a stratified random sampling strategy, was confined to the Ezousas and Xeros river drainages, and resulted in the discovery of 102 sites ranging from Aceramic Neolithic to recent times. The Ezousas drainage shows a more extensive pattern of settlement both in terms of time and space than does the Xeros.Research conducted in 1980 and 1982 sought to identify the chert sources of the lithic artifacts from the region, and to locate evidence of copper: mining and smelting/refining. Analysis of the lithic material, macroscopic use-wear analysis of the tool edges, and ethnographic interviews with elderly knappers of dhoukani, or threshing-sledge, flints have enabled us to develop a functional classification system for lithic artifacts for the region. The ceramic and technological evidence relating to the copper exploitation indicates that it occurred during the 3rd through 7th centuries A.C.A preliminary geological reconnaissance identified and delimited the igneous and volcanic rocks of the Troodos Ophiolite zone, the Mamonia Complex, and the Mesozoic sedimentary formations. Rock specimens were collected from each lithologic unit examined and catalogued for further reference. A soil survey resulted in the description and classification of 12 major genetic soil units. The soils were characterized physically, chemically, and mineralogically, and a data base was established for the assessment of soil fertility.

Since 1976, excavations have been conducted on two neighboring Early Neolithic sites at Brze?? Kujawski, Poland. The original goals of this research, to obtain a radiocarbon-supported sequence of Early Neolithic cultures of the Polish Lowlands and to recover paleobotanical and faunal remains, have been expanded to include the investigation of household activities and regional settlement distribution. Further analysis of faunal and botanical remains has improved our understanding of the prehistoric economy. Finally, a series of human skeletons has yielded the first paleopathological data for this site.

Underwater and shoreline survey and excavation at the Herodian harbor of Sebastos, the port of Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast of Israel, have provided important new information on Roman harbor design and construction. Local and imported materials were carefully selected and used to construct two immense breakwaters that framed outer and inner basins. Hydraulic concrete was used in a sophisticated manner, and ingenious sluice gates and a subsidiary breakwater provided protection against siltation and storm damage.