archaeology magazine - may.june 2012 (gnv64)

July/August 2009www.archaeology.org A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America May/June 2012

Donner Party: The Native American Perspective

Mapping

Titanic

PLUS:Dogtooth Handbag, German Ax Hoard, First Zodiac, Greengrocer Curse Tablet

Galilee’s Cultural Crossroads

Bronze AgeSocial Network

Ancient MexicanBoard Games

The New Frontier of Underwater Archaeology

24 Excavating Tel KedeshMore than a decade after they began working at an enormous mound in Israel’s Upper Galilee region, two archaeologists reflect on their work

BY ANDREA BERLIN AND SHARON HERBERT

30 Ancient Germany’s Metal TradersA post-Cold War construction boom is exposing evidence of a powerful Bronze Age culture

BY ANDREW CURRY

34 Archaeology of TitanicOne hundred years after it sank, the wreck of Titanic has finally become what it was always meant to be: an archaeological site

BY JAMES P. DELGADO

42 Rethinking the Th undering Hordes

How pastoralist nomads carried civilization across Central Asia more than 4,000 years ago

BY ANDREW LAWLER

48 Games Ancient People PlayedAn intriguing discovery in a Mexican swamp provides evidence of the earliest form of amusement in the Americas

BY BARBARA VOORHIES

CONTENTSMAY/JUNE 2012

VOLUME 65, NUMBER 3

features

42 Archaeologists are searching Central Asia’s vast landscape for evidence of ancient nomadic trade networks.

1

Cover: A map of the bow of Titanic made

using multi-beam and side-scan sonar

AP PHOTO/RMS TITANIC INC.

departments

12

4 Editor’s Letter

6 From the President

14

18

12

■ More from this Issue To read our previous coverage on Titanic, go to www.archaeology.org/titanic

■ Interactive Digs Read about the latest discoveries at the Minoan site of Zominthos in central Crete; at Johnson’s Island, a Civil War site in Ohio; and at El Carrizal; in Veracruz.

■ Archaeological News from around the world—updated by 1 p.m. ET every weekday. And sign up for our e-Update so you don’t miss a thing.

■ Stay in Touch Visit Facebook to like ARCHAEOLOGY or follow us on Twitter at

@archaeologymag

8 Letters The number of deaths on the Trail of Tears, why

700-year-old artifacts persist on New Mexico’s surface,

and how tall is the Lion Man?

9 From the Trenches The “Resurrection Ossuary” and the risks of interpretation,

the world’s oldest handbag, CT scans uncover artifacts

within artifacts, the disease that killed two ancient

Albanians, and did drought doom Angkor Wat?

22 World Roundup Excavating a Mormon tabernacle, cursing the

local greengrocer, the world’s earliest popcorn,

and did Bantu-speaking farmers reshape central

Africa’s landscape?

53 Letter from California A new look at the notorious Donner Party

68 Artifact A Roman fi gurine is the fi rst depiction in bronze of an

African child charioteer ever found

on the webwww.archaeology.org

®

Clear your mind in Texas. To plan your own Texas adventure or to order your FREE Texas State Travel Guide, Accommodations Guide and Texas Map, visit Travel Tex.com.

A Life’s Work

What sometimes gets overlooked in our coverage of archaeology is the nature of the connection that archaeologists can have to their areas of study , especially as that relationship evolves over the years they devote to particular sites.

In “Archaeology of Titanic” (page 34), underwater archaeologist James P. Delgado, who fi rst dived the wreck and subsequently wrote about it for us more than a dozen years ago, speaks of revisiting the ship as part of a new expedition in 2010, and details the considerable changes, since then, in underwater archaeology. He also shares his view that Titanic, at last, can become an archaeological site in the truest sense.

In “Excavating Tel Kedesh” (page 24), archaeologists Andrea Berlin and Sharon Herbert recount their more than 10 years of work at a tell in the

rural interior of Israel’s Upper Galilee region. This site, which lies along the Israeli-Lebanese border, yielded a richer story than they ever could have imagined.

Julie M. Schablitsky, in “Letter from California: A New Look at the Donner Party” (page 53), reveals the ways in which archaeology is allowing a clearer interpretation of the situation that these doomed migrants faced. She also refl ects on the ways in which it brought her own practice of

archaeology into sharper focus.Also in this issue you will fi nd the latest analysis of Central

Asia’s more than 4,000-year-old nomadic culture. “Rethinking The Thundering Hordes” (page 42), by contributing editor

Andrew Lawler, challenges the long-held view that the peoples who lived in the areas covered by modern countries including Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan were destroyers of civilization. Rather, they may have helped to advance it.

Contributing editor Andrew Curry, in “Ancient Germany’s Metal Traders” (page 30), writes of an astonishing fi nd made during the course of building a highway on-ramp in Dermsdorf, Germany: a jar fi lled with 100 bronze ax heads. This hoard, and the remains of Bronze Age structures, settlements, and burial sites discovered in the area, add up to signifi cant evidence of a culture that maintained trade networks with places as far-fl ung as Denmark, Poland, and Scotland some 3,000 years ago.

Of course, even millennia ago, people knew that all work and no play was no way to live. In “Games Ancient People Played” (page 48), Barbara Voorhies examines the discovery of circular patterns of holes in a clay fl oor in Mexico, and how archaeology may have determined that they are some of the earliest evidence of game-playing in the Americas.

And don’t miss “From the Trenches,” “World Roundup,” and “Artifact,” where you’ll fi nd our very own blend of everything that archaeological discovery has to off er.

ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 20124

EDITOR’S LETTER

Editor in Chief

Claudia Valentino

Executive Editor Deputy Editor

Jarrett A. Lobell Samir S. Patel

Senior Editors

Nikhil SwaminathanZach Zorich

Editorial Assistant Intern

Malin Grunberg Banyasz Aldo Foe

Creative Director

Richard Bleiweiss

Contributing Editors

Roger Atwood, Paul Bahn, Bob Brier, Andrew Curry, Blake Edgar, Brian Fagan,

David Freidel, Tom Gidwitz, Andrew LawlerStephen H. Lekson, Jerald T. Milanich,

Jennifer Pinkowski, Heather Pringle, Angela M. H. Schuster, Neil Asher Silberman

Correspondents

Athens: Yannis N. StavrakakisBangkok: Karen Coates

Islamabad: Massoud AnsariIsrael: Mati Milstein

Naples: Marco MerolaParis: Bernadette ArnaudRome: Roberto Bartoloni,

Giovanni LattanziWashington, D.C.: Sandra Scham

Publisher

Peter Herdrich Associate Publisher

Kevin Quinlan Director of Circulation and Fulfi llment

Kevin MullenVice President of Sales and Marketing

Meegan DalyDirector of Integrated Sales

Gerry MossInside Sales Representative

Karina CasinesWest Coast Account Manager

Cynthia LapporteOak Media Group

[email protected]

Circulation Consultant

Greg Wolfe, Circulation Specialists, Inc.Newsstand Consultant

T.J. Montilli, Publishers Newstand Outsource, LLC

Offi ce Manager

Malin Grunberg BanyaszFor production questions,

contact [email protected]

Editorial Advisory Board

James P. Delgado, Ellen Herscher, Ronald Hicks, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Mark Lehner, Roderick J. McIntosh,

Susan Pollock, Jeremy A. Sabloff , Kenneth B. Tankersley

Subscription questions and address changes should be sent to Archaeology,

Subscription Services, P.O. Box 433091 Palm Coast, FL 32164 toll free (877) ARKY-SUB (275-9782),

or [email protected]

ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE

36-36 33rd Street, Long Island City, NY 11106tel 718-472-3050 • fax 718-472-3051

Claudia Valentino

Editor in Chief

Herberrura

lieth

Lwtre

ar

AsiThe

Andrew

*Bose payment plan available on orders of $299-$1500 paid by major credit card. Separate financing offers may be available for select products. See website for details. Down payment is 1/12 the product price plus applicable tax and shipping charges, charged when your order is shipped. Then, your credit card will be billed for 11 equal monthly installments beginning approximately one month from the date your order is shipped, with 0% APR and no interest charges from Bose. Credit card rules and interest may apply. U.S. residents only. Limit one active financing program per customer. ©2012 Bose Corporation. The distinctive design of the Acoustic Wave® music system II is a registered trademark of Bose Corporation. Financing and savings offers not to be combined with other offers or applied to previous purchases, and subject to change without notice. Offers are limited to purchases made from Bose and participating authorized dealers. Offers valid 4/1/12-5/31/12. Risk-free refers to 30-day trial only, requires product purchase and does not include return shipping. Delivery is subject to product availability. iPad and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Quotes reprinted with permission: Sound & Vision, 3/85; Wayne Thompson, Oregonian, 9/10/96.

When we introduced the original Acoustic Wave® music system, Sound & Vision said it delivered “possibly the best-reproduced sound many people have ever heard.” And the Oregonian reported it had “changed the way many Americans listen to music.”

Today, the improved Acoustic Wave® music system II builds on our more than 40 years of industry-leading innovation to deliver even better sound. This is the best- performing all-in-one music system we’ve ever made, with sound that rivals large and complicated stereos. There’s no stack of equipment. No tangle of wires. Just all-in-one convenience and lifelike sound.

Even better sound than its award-winning predecessor.With recently developed Bose® technologies, our engineers were able to make the acclaimed sound even more natural. We believe you’ll appreciate the quality even at volume levels approaching that of a live performance.

This small system fits almost anywhere. You can move it from room to room, or take it outside. It has what you need to enjoy your music, including a built-in CD player and digital FM/AM tuner. You also can easily connect additional sources like your iPod,® iPad® or TV.

Use our 30-day, risk-free trial to try it in your home. When you call, ask about adding the optional 5-CD Changer to play your music for hours – the same slim remote operates both system and changer. Also, ask about using your own major credit card to make

with no interest charges from Bose.* Order now and save $100 on the Acoustic Wave® music system II. Compare the performance with large, multi-component stereos costing much more. And discover why Bose is the most respected name in sound.

Name________________________________________________________

Address______________________________________________________

City_________________________________State_____Zip____________

Phone_________________ E-mail (Optional)_________________________Mail to: SST, Bose Corporation, P.O. Box 9168, Framingham, MA 01701-9168

Presenting the ®

Shown in Graphite Gray with optional 5-CD Changer.

SAVE $100e®

12.

Several bills currently making their way through Congress are causing considerable concern in the archaeological and broader scientific community. The

Federal Research Public Access Act of 2012 was introduced in both houses of Congress on February 9 of this year.

The legislation would require that publishers of academic and scholarly journals provide the government with final peer-reviewed and edited manuscripts, and, six months after their publication, those manuscripts would be made available to the public, on the Internet, for no charge. The House bill states, “The Federal Government funds basic and applied research with

the expectation that new ideas and discoveries that result from the research, if shared and effectively disseminated, will advance science and improve the lives and welfare of people of the United States and around the world.”

We at the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), along with our colleagues at the American Anthropological Association and other learned societies, have taken a stand against open access. Here at the AIA, we particularly object to having such a scheme imposed on us from the outside when, in fact, during the AIA’s more than 130-year history, we have energetically supported the broad dissemination of knowledge, and do so through our extensive program of events and lectures for the general public and through our publications. Our mission statement explicitly says, “Believing that greater understanding of the past enhances our shared sense of humanity and enriches our existence, the AIA seeks to educate people of all ages about the significance of archaeological discovery.” We have long practiced “open access.”

While it may be true that the government finances research, it does not fund the arduous peer-review process that lies at the heart of journal and scholarly publication, nor the considerable effort beyond that step that goes into preparing articles for publication. Those efforts are not without cost. When an archaeologist publishes his or her work, the final product has typically been significantly improved by the contributions of other professionals such as peer reviewers, editors, copywriters, photo editors, and designers. This is the context in which the work should appear. (Almost all scholarly books and many articles lead off with a lengthy list that acknowledges these individuals.)

We fear that this legislation would prove damaging to the traditional venues in which scientific information is presented by offering, for no cost, something that has considerable costs associated with producing it. It would undermine, and ultimately dismantle, by offering for no charge, what subscribers actually support financially—a rigorous publication process that does serve the public, because it results in superior work.


FROM THE PRESIDENT

Elizabeth Bartman

President, Archaeological Institute of America

Archaeological Institute of America

Located at Boston University

OFFICERSPresident

Elizabeth Bartman

First Vice President

Andrew Moore

Vice President for Outreach and Education

Pamela Russell

Vice President for Professional Responsibilities

Laetitia LaFollette

Vice President for Publications

John Younger

Vice President for Societies

Thomas Morton

Treasurer

Brian J. Heidtke

Chief Executive Officer

Peter Herdrich

Chief Operating Officer

Kevin Quinlan

GOVERNING BOARDSusan Alcock

Michael AmblerCarla Antonaccio

Cathleen AschBarbara BarlettaDavid Boochever

Julie Herzig DesnickMichael GalatyGreg Goggin

Ronald Greenberg Michael Hoff Jeffrey Lamia

Lynne LancasterDeborah Lehr

Robert LittmanElizabeth Macaulay-Lewis

Heather McKillop Shilpi Mehta

Naomi Norman, ex officioMaria Papaioannou

Eleanor PowersPaul Rissman

Glenn SchwartzDavid Seigle Chen Shen

Charles Steinmetz Douglas Tilden

Claudia Valentino, ex officio Shelley Wachsmann

Ashley WhiteJohn J. Yarmick

Past President

C. Brian Rose

Trustees Emeriti

Norma KershawCharles S. LaFollette

Legal Counsel

Mitchell Eitel, Esq.Sullivan & Cromwell, LLP

Archaeological Institute of America656 Beacon Street • Boston, MA 02215-2006

www.archaeological.org

Open Access

““Well, I finally did it. I finally decided to enter the digital age and get a cell phone. My kids have been bugging me, my bookgroup made fun of me, and the last straw was when my car brokedown, and I was stuck by the highway for an hour beforesomeone stopped to help. But when I went to the cellphone store, I almost changed my mind. The phones areso small I can’t see the numbers, much less push theright one. They all have cameras, computers and a“global-positioning” something or other that’s supposed to spot me from space. Goodness, all I wantto do is to be able to talk to my grandkids! The people at the store weren’t much help. They couldn’tunderstand why someone wouldn’t want a phone thesize of a postage stamp. And the rate plans! They werecomplicated, confusing, and expensive…and thecontract lasted for two years! I’d almost given up untila friend told me about her new Jitterbug® phone.Now, I have the convenience and safety of beingable to stay in touch…with a phone I can actuallyuse.”

Sometimes I think the people who designed thisphone and the rate plans had me in mind. Thephone fits easily into my pocket, and flipsopen to reach from my mouth to my ear.The display is large and backlit, so I can actually see who is calling. With a push of a button I can amplify the volume,and if I don’t know a number, I can simply push “0” for a friendly, helpfuloperator that will look it up and even dial it for me. The Jitterbug also reducesbackground noise, making the soundloud and clear. There’s even a dial tone,so I know the phone is ready to use.

Affordable plans that I can understand – and no contract tosign! Unlike other cell phones, Jitterbug has plans that make sense.Why should I pay for minutes I’m never going to use? And if I do

talk more than I plan, I won’t find myself with no minuteslike my friend who has a prepaid phone. Best of all, there

is no contract to sign – so I’m not locked in for years at

a time or subject to termination fees. TheU.S. Based customer service is secondto none, and the phone gets servicevirtually anywhere in the country.

Call now and get a FREE giftwhen you order. Try Jitterbug for 30 days and if you don't love it, just return it1. Why wait, the Jitterbug comes ready to use rightout of the box. If you aren’t as happy with it as I am, you canreturn it for a refund of the purchase price. Call now, the Jitterbug product experts are ready

to answer your questions.

IMPORTANT CONSUMER INFORMATION: Jitterbug is owned by GreatCall, Inc. Your invoices will come from GreatCall. All rate plans and services require the purchase of a Jitterbug phone and a one-time set up fee of $35. Coverage and service is not available everywhere. Other chargesand restrictions may apply. Screen images simulated. There are no additional fees to call Jitterbug’s 24-hour U.S. Based Customer Service. However, for calls to an Operator in which a service is completed, minutes will be deducted from your monthly balance equal to the length of the calland any call connected by the Operator, plus an additional 5 minutes. Monthly rate plans do not include government taxes or assessment surcharges. Prices and fees subject to change. 1We will refund the full price of the Jitterbug phone if it is returned within 30 days of purchase in like-new condition. We will also refund your first monthly service charge if you have less than 30 minutes of usage. If you have more than 30 minutes of usage, a per minute charge of 35 cents will apply for each minute over 30 minutes. The activation fee and shipping charges are not refundable. Jitterbug is a registered trademark of GreatCall, Inc. Samsung is a registered trademark of Samsung Electronics America, Inc. and/or its related entities. Copyright © 2012 GreatCall, Inc. Copyright © 2012 by firstSTREET for Boomers and Beyond, Inc. All rights reserved.

Monthly RateOperator Assistance

911 AccessLong Distance Calls

Voice DialNationwide Coverage

Friendly Return Policy

$14.9924/7

FREENo add’l charge

FREEYes

30 days

$19.9924/7

FREENo add’l charge

FREEYes

30 days

50 100Monthly Minutes

1

Finally, a cell phone that’s… a phone

with rates as low as $3.75 per week!

We proudly accept the following credit cards.

4752

6Available in

Graphite and Red.

More minute plans available. Ask your Jitterbug expert for details.

Jitterbug Cell PhoneCall today to get your own Jitterbug phone.Please mention promotional code 44484.

1-888-862-0337 www.jitterbugdirect.com

Call now and receive a FREE giftjust for ordering. Hurry…this is a limited time offer. Call now!

No

Contra

ctPrice

ReducedBy $48


LETTERSWhy Are Coronado’s Artifacts Still on the Surface?I don’t understand the logic in “Coro-nado’s Deadly Siege” (March/April 2012). The pueblo is buried such that archaeolo-gists can’t dig to its foundations or even to the top of the ruined structures, yet the artifacts are at ground level? Logically, shouldn’t those artifacts be at the same level as the pueblo foundations?

Flo Samuels

Hayward, CA

Archaeologist Matt Schmader responds:The buried wall outlines were detected by instruments at a depth of 18 inches, but are even shallower (and sometimes even visible at the surface). The average depth of the sixteenth-century metal is two to four inches. It is common to find artifacts even thousands of years old lying on the surface in New Mexico. Essentially, Piedras Marcadas is at a zero point where there is little deposition or erosion, but more like a bal-ance between the two. That’s why 500,000 pieces of pottery dating 400 to 700 years ago are right there, lying on the surface.

Full Scope of the Trail of TearsThe Trail of Tears involved not only the Cherokee, but over 40 other groups and tribes. Your story (“Return to the Trail of Tears,” March/April 2012) con-tains several historical inaccuracies. For example, the Cherokee moved themselves in 13 separate contingents. Further, while many of the Cherokee were interned at the beginning of Removal, they were on their own on the trail. Troops did not accompany the Indians, prodding them on their way. Also, the figure of 4,000 deaths is considered by most scholars to be on the high side.

James W. Parins

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Little Rock, AR

ARCHAEOLOGY welcomes mail from readers. Please address your comments to ARCHAEOLOGY, 36-36 33rd Street, Long Island City, NY 11106, fax 718-472-3051, or e-mail letters@arch a eology.org. The editors reserve the right to edit submitted material. Vol ume precludes our acknowledging individual letters.

Author Marion Blackburn responds: For this feature we focused tightly on the events associated with Fort Armistead, which is believed to be one of the best-preserved forts within the former Cherokee Nation associated with Removal. Its story is indeed part of a much larger event. When describing deaths along the Trail of Tears, the number cited most often is 4,000, though there are estimates as high as 6,000. The deaths before, during, and after the forced emigration, as well as the deaths of children and the elderly, loss of fertility and miscarriages, combined with the ongo-ing increased mortality, would support the 4,000 number.

Lion Man LamentI am dismayed at the stubborn insis-tence that the intended sex of this magnificent ivory carving (“New Life for the Lion Man,” March/April 2012) is indeterminate. It is clear that there is a pubic triangle between the legs of this image, a familiar feminine symbol found in many painted caves. For all known primary hunting cultures living in and dependent upon the world of nature, the pubic triangle is a powerful symbol of that unseen energy which gives birth to and nurtures all forms, and so is, properly and universally, depicted as female. The lion would not become symbolic of masculine royal authority for another 30,000 years.

T.D. Austin

Palm Springs, CA

Maybe I missed something, but it does not appear that anywhere in your article do you give the size of the statue/figure.

Frank Simon

Greenacres, FL

Executive Editor Jarrett A. Lobell responds:The Lion Man, as currently composed, is roughly a foot tall, though archaeologists expect it to gain an inch or two when the fragments of the neck are added to the figure. As for the figurine’s gender, that’s been hotly debated for many years. The new pieces, however, could eventually put that argu-ment to rest.

CROW CANYONARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTERDiscover the Past, Share the Adventure

CS

T 2

05

93

47

-50

800.422.8975 www.crowcanyon.org/travel

Excavate alongside professional archaeologists and

study artifacts in the lab.

ARCHAEOLOGYResearch Program

Sessions inJune, July, August, & October, 2012

Save 20% on a combination ticket to both museums.

An adventure of historic proportion is waiting for you—at two living-history museums that explore America’s beginnings. Board replicas of colonial ships. Grind corn in a Powhatan Indian village. Try on English armor inside a palisaded fort. Then, join Continental Army soldiers at their encampment for a firsthand look at the Revolution’s end. Don’t forget your camera. Because the history here is life size. And your memories will be even bigger!

Make Room for the Memories.

LATE-BREAKING NEWS AND NOTES FROM THE WORLD OF ARCHAEOLOGY

Scholars often arrive at dif-ferent interpretations of the same evidence. But few

archaeological artifacts in recent memory have produced interpre-tations as radically divergent as those advanced in connection with two first-century A.D. ossuaries (boxes containing skeletal remains) in Jerusalem. Their discovery was announced in February, and when filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici and James Tabor, professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, released their book The Jesus Dis-covery that same day, it ignited a heated debate in the fields of archaeology, theology, linguistics, and biblical scholarship.

The ossuaries are unremarkable. More than 2,000 of similar date and appearance have been found in Israel. Although the tomb in which they and five others were found was originally explored in 1981, it was not until Jacobovici and Tabor returned in 2010 that the ossuar-ies could be photographed on all sides inside the tomb.

In 1981, Orthodox religious leaders had chased away archae-ologists trying to excavate the tomb, saying that they were dis-turbing the dead. Jacobovici and Tabor negotiated with the leaders and the owners of the apartment that sits on top of the tomb, and received permission to bore a hole through the tomb’s roof and “excavate” it with a robotic arm that held a camera. Jacobovici and Tabor had chosen the tomb because of its proximity to what Jacobovici had identified four years earlier as “The Jesus Family Tomb” 200 feet away (“Hype in the Holy Land,” May/June 2007).

He and Tabor wanted to know if there was a relationship between the two tombs that would lend credence to their theory that this section of Jerusalem, known as Talpiyot, contains a cemetery filled with the burials of Jesus, his family, and his followers.

When Jacobovici, Tabor, and project archaeologist Rami Arav of the University of Nebraska at Omaha looked closely at one of the ossuaries, they immediately interpreted the image on it as a fish spitting out a man—repre-sented by a stick figure—and therefore concluded that it was a depiction of the story of Jonah and the whale. On a second ossuary in the tomb, they read a dual-language Greek and Hebrew inscription in several ways, includ-ing “O Divine Jehovah, raise up, raise up.” Taking the image on one ossuary and the inscription on the other, they developed an interpretation of what the collec-tion of ossuaries represents.

According to Jacobovici and Tabor, the “Jonah” ossuary bears the earliest Christian symbols ever discovered, the first Chris-tian symbol found in Jerusalem, and the earliest representation in Jewish art of a Biblical tale. Furthermore, they believe that the other ossuary’s inscription is

the earliest record of a teaching or saying of Jesus—perhaps recorded by someone who heard him say it.

Immediately following the annoucement, scholars began presenting different interpretations, as well as harsh criti-cism of Jacobovici and Tabor’s claims. The critics pointed out possible errors in the transcription and its translation.

Th e Perils of Interpretation

www.archaeology.org 9

A camera on a robotic arm took this picture of an inscribed image on one of two ossuaries. Interpretation of the image has sparked controversy in the scholarly community.

FROM THE TRENCHES


In the winter of 1897–1898, word spread like wildfire that gold had been discovered along the Klondike River in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Men and women from all over the world converged on the area, and two small settlements, Skagway and Dyea (both in Alaska), became competing boomtowns, each claiming it had

the easier path to the gold fields. The route of choice for many “stampeders” was the 33-mile-long Chilkoot Trail that began at Dyea and bypassed—so its boosters claimed—the crime of Skagway and the “gridlock” of its White Pass Trail. Some 25,000 to 30,000 people passed through Dyea and traveled the Chilkoot, portions of which were so narrow that sleds and pack animals were almost useless. The worst part of the trail was known as the “Golden Stairs”—1,500 steep steps carved out of ice and snow (right). The trail became littered

with goods, the bones of pack animals, and other detritus. Though today Skagway is a historic town of about 800, Dyea is a ghost town. Karl Gurcke, historian and archaeologist of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, and his colleague Theresa Thibault say that Dyea is a major archaeological resource and the Chilkoot Trail

constitutes one of the world’s “longest” museums.

The siteOriginally occupied by Tlingit natives, Dyea was home to approximately 5,000 to 8,000 people at its peak. The historic

townsite is just over a mile and a half long and a little less than a half-mile wide, and boasted a post offi ce, a hospital, a school, a church, 49 hotels, 47 restaurants, 39 saloons, and four cemeteries. Today one can see ruins

and artifacts all over the site and up and down the trail, including the remains of buildings, aerial tramway towers, telephone lines, wharf pilings, and boilers that powered tramways (left). Archaeologists from the National Park Service and Parks Canada have spent 30 years documenting features and artifacts. The trail now attracts thousands each year to experience the scenery and history. Some items have been taken over the years, but much remains and can be seen right on the surface in Dyea and along the trail. Care must be taken when viewing the fragile artifacts.

While you’re thereWhereas Dyea is a ghost town, Skagway is very much alive. Its historic downtown has a visitor center for the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, where

one can arrange tours of Dyea by foot, bicycle, or horse, or backcountry excursions along the Chilkoot Trail. The downtown area has many restaurants, hotels, and museums, including the Skagway Museum in City Hall, with many gold rush artifacts on display. The White Pass

and Yukon Route Railroad offers beautiful sightseeing trips as well, following the path that many hopeful prospectors once toiled along—though you can do it in total comfort.

—MALIN GRUNBERG BANYASZ

They also questioned the similarity of what Jacobovici and Tabor had identi-fied as a fish to both depictions, and actual remains, of a funerary marker called a nephesh. Others referred to the image’s strong resemblance to etched glass amphorae and ointment jars, both of which were commonly buried with the dead. A harsher reaction came from those who condemned not only Jaco-bovici and Tabor’s interpretations, but also their motives. Chief among them was Eric Meyers, professor of religion at Duke University, who decried Jacobovici

and Tabor’s interpretation as “much ado about nothing and a sensationalist

presentation of data that are familiar to anyone with knowledge of first-century Jerusalem.” Meyers went on to say, “We may regard this book as yet another in a long list of presentations that misuse not only the Bible, but also archaeol-ogy.” Interpretation in archaeology is about finding meaning in the past. And especially when archaeology and the worlds of religion and the Bible intersect, one thing is certain—the meanings scholars find in the artifacts will rarely, if ever, be the same.

—JARRETT A. LOBELL

ooboeC

t it i j t e ile d h lf

d

and Yukon Rou

The inscription on one of the ossuaries

SPECIAL MARKET OPPORTUNITYYour Expert Guide to the World’s Finest Coins

®

1-888-201-705714101 Southcross Drive W., Burnsville, Minnesota 55337

It wasn’t more than ten years ago that we met with former U.S. MintDirector Donna Pope. She spoke with pride about what she consideredto be her greatest achievement as Director under President Reagan:Creation of the American Eagle silver and gold bullion coin programs,the first of their kind in our nation’s history.

The purpose of these coins was to give people the opportunity to ownphysical silver and gold in a form certified for weight and purity by the U.S. Mint. While the bullion coin program was a signal success,nobody took into account the profound effect it would have on thecollector market.

Silver Eagles = Today’s Morgan Dollars In the 1800s and early 1900s, the U.S. Morgan Silver Dollar wasstruck year upon year at various mints and circulated at face value.Their core value was in their precious metal content. However, in top grades, Morgan Silver Dollars can sell today for tens and evenhundreds of thousands of dollars each!

For the same reason, many collectors today see the Silver Eagle seriesas a literal “ground floor” opportunity to acquire the top-grade coinsas they are released. They started submitting Silver Eagles to theleading independent coin grading services, such as NumismaticGuaranty Corporation (NGC), praying that the coins would comeback with the highest possible grade: MS70 (all Uncirculated coinsare graded on a point system from a low of 60 to a high of 70, with 70representing flawless perfection). Of all the Silver Eagles produced bythe U.S. Mint in 2011, less than one out of every 788 earned the NGCMS70 grade!

MS70 = $$$$$!In the rarified atmosphere of MS70, Silver Eagles have soared tomarket prices that I can only characterize as surreal. Consider this:MS70 Silver Eagles have been selling for truly stratospheric prices.Here are just a few eye-popping examples:

1996 MS70 Silver Eagle $5,3401988 MS70 Silver Eagle $2,6601991 MS70 Silver Eagle $3,9101994 MS70 Silver Eagle $1,660

It Just Keeps Getting Better I was thrilled to lock up a guaranteed supply of Perfect Gem MS70 2012Silver Eagles from a primary distributor who gets them directly from theU.S. Mint. (This is a coin you cannot buy directly from the U.S. Mint).Moreover, every coin is certified and encapsulated by NGC, one of the

top two firms for grading coins. Butbetter yet, because we received thevery first coins released from themint, they all have the value-enhancing “First Releases”designation.

What Does “FirstReleases” Mean? NGC designatesonly those coins itcertifies as havingbeen releasedduring the first 30 days of issue as First Releases.Collectors place apremium on thesecoins because they arestruck from freshly madedies, which is thought toimpart superior quality. Only aminiscule number of the mintagegets the First Releases pedigree - so it canturbo charge the value of an already valuable MS70 coin.

BUY RISK FREE—AND SAVE $30 OVER LAST YEAR’S COINBecause of our industry-leading status, you can take advantage of our “bolt of lightning” deal on these Perfect Gem MS70 2012 SilverEagles at an incredible price $30 lower than the 2011s: just $99 each(plus s&h)

To avoid disappointment I urge you to call immediately. Hurry! This is a first-come-first-served offer. Call 1-888-201-7057 to find our how to qualify for free shipping. Mention offer code: SEM157

Call First Federal Toll-FREE today

1-888-201-7057to Reserve Your 2012 Silver Eagle MS70 First Release!

Offer Code SEM157Please mention this code when you call.

American Numismatic AssociationNicholas BruyerLife Member 4489

Past performance is not an indicator of future performance. Prices subject to change without notice. Note: First Federal Coin is a private distributor of government and private coin and medallic issues and isnot affiliated with the United States government. Facts and figures were deemed accurate as of January 2012. ©First Federal Coin, 2012.

Nicholas J. Bruyer, Chairman & Founder, First Federal CoinANA Life Member Since 1974

Actual size is 40.6 mm

$5,340 for an Ounce of Silver Bullion? Impossible!

10 years ago I’d have called you crazy to make such a prediction. Yet today it’s a fact. Now our deal with a $4 billion precious metals wholesaler

nets you a great deal for America’s hottest ounce of silver!


Using a technique for analyzing friction in industrial equipment, a group of French and Turkish

scientists have unraveled the process that was used approximately 10,000

years ago to make a highly polished obsidian bracelet. The team examined a bracelet fragment from Aşıklı Höyük in Turkey at diff erent levels of magnifi ca-

tion and saw evidence of three stages of production—pecking, grinding, and polishing. Striations on the bracelet indicate that a mechanical device may have been used to achieve its regularized shape and glossy fi nish. It is the earliest evidence of such a sophisticated stone-working technique.

—ZACH ZORICH

Th e Neolithic Grind

After three years of cleaning and reassembling ceramic drinking vessels from a 2,000-year-old

Illyrian-Hellenistic sanctuary deep in a Croatian cave, archaeologist Stašo Forenbaher turned his attention to the 30 ivory fragments he also found there. “When I started putting the fragments together,” he says, “I soon realized that I was looking at signs of the zodiac.” Forenba-her consulted with experts in ancient Greek astrology, who were stunned. When arranged in a circle, the ivory fragments com-pose what may be the world’s oldest astrologer’s board. Although some of the inscribed signs (high-lighted at right) are too fragmentary to name, the Cancer, Pisces, and Gemini segments (top to bottom) are clearly identifi able. The tiles would have originally been fi xed to a fl at surface. The fragments were found with the drinking vessels in front of a large stalagmite, which was clearly a focus of worship. It is impos-sible to tell if the board was an off ering itself, or if it had been used there to provide horoscopes to visitors.


Nothing New Under the Sun

FROM THE TRENCHES

Dogtooth Is the New Black

German researchers have uncov-ered what may be the remains of the world’s oldest handbag,

according to Sachsen-Anhalt State Archaeology and Preservation Offi ce archaeologist Susanne Friederich. Though the bag itself, probably made of leather or linen, rotted away long ago, the form of the bag’s outer fl ap—made of more than 100 dog teeth, all sharp canines—was preserved. The remains were discovered in a surface coal mine not far from Leipzig, next to the body of a woman buried at the end of the Stone Age, between 4,200 and 4,500

years ago. Dog teeth are often found in graves from the period, usually as necklaces or hair ornaments. “But every woman would argue that a handbag should count as jewelry too,” says Fried-erich. Further analysis may reveal more about the dozens of dogs whose teeth decorated the bag.

—ANDREW CURRY

-

ne

m-her’s of gh-too the

Scientifi cally Engineered to Defy Gravity

Defy Pain, Defy Aging, Defy Fatigue

EXCLUSIVE ONLINE OFFERTRY THEM FREE* – PAY IN 30 DAYS Take advantage of this exclusive offer at www.GravityDefyer.com/MQ8EDC3 or by phone, dial (800) 429-0039 and mention the promotional code below. Promotional Code:*Offer not available in stores. Shipping & Handling not included.

Semi-Rigid Heel Stabilizing Cage

Removable Comfort-Fit™ InsoleAccommodates most orthotics

VersoShock™ Trampoline Shock-Absorbing Membrane Heel

Resilient High Grade Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA) MidsoleRocker construction protects metatarsal bones and aids fluid stepping motions

Smart Memory™ Master SpringPropels you forward and reduces fatigue

AVS3 Ventilation™ PortCools & Reduces Microbial Growth

Twin Stabilizers

Rugged Polymer Sole

This is my storyI used to be more active. I used to run, play basketball, tennis, football… I was more than a weekend warrior. I woke up every day fi lled with life! But now, in my late 30’s, I spend most of my day in the offi ce or sacked out in front of the TV. I rarely get to the gym – not that I don’t like working out, it’s the nagging pain in my knees and ankles. Low energy and laziness has

got me down. My energy has fi zzled and I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve grown a spare

tire (I’m sure it’s hurting my love life). Nowadays I rarely walk. For some reason it’s just harder now. Gravity has done a job on me.

Wear them and you’ll knowThat’s what my doctor recommended. He said, “Gravity Defyer shoes are pain-relieving shoes.” He promised they would change my life–like they were a fountain of youth. “They ease the force of gravity, relieving stress on your heels, ankles, knees and back. They boost your energy by

propelling you forward.” The longer he talked, the more sense it made. He was even wearing a pair himself!

Excitement swept through my body like a drug I received my package from GravityDefyer.com and rushed to tear it open like a kid at Christmas. Inside I found the most amazing shoes I had ever seen – different than most running shoes. Sturdy construction. Cool colors. Nice lines… I was holding a miracle of technology. This was the real thing.

GDefy Benefi tsRelieve painEase joint & spinal pressureReduce fatigue & tirednessBe more activeHave more energyAppear tallerJump higher, walk and run fasterHave instant comfortCool your feet & reduce foot odorElevate your performance

I put them on and all I could say was, “WOW!” In minutes I was out the door. I was invincible; tireless in my new Gravity Defyer shoes. It was as if my legs had been replaced with super-powered bionics. What

the doctor promised was all correct. No more knee pain. I started

to lose weight. At last, I was pain free and fi lled with energy! I was back in the game. Gravity had no power over me!

Nothing to lose: 30 Day Free Trial*So, my friend, get back on your feet like I did. Try Gravity Defyer for yourself. You have nothing to lose but your pain.

Tell us your story! Login at Gravitydefyer.com

and share your experience.

M Q 8 E D C 3

Customer SatisfactionSpeaks for Itself!

4 out of 5 customers purchase a 2nd pair within 3 months. ABSORB SHOCK

Eliminate pain from every step.

REBOUND PROPELS YOU FORWARD

Reduce fatigue. Be more active

A+ Ankle & foot pain

gone

Exercise20% longer

w/ nofatigue

4 out of 5

purchaseanother

pairwithin 3 months.

Most comfortableshoe ever

owned

Gravity DefyerCustomer Survey Results

$129.95 MEN (Shown above)TB902MBL sizes 7 - 13Med/Wide and ExtraWide/XXWide Widths WOMEN (Black on Black)TB902FBL sizes 5 - 11Med/Wide and ExtraWide/XXWide Widths

FROM THE TRENCHES


X-rays and computed tomography (CT ) scans of artifacts and mummies have been conducted for years now, but the unusual insights from

these techniques keep coming.—SAMIR S. PATEL

Seeing Inside

Scientists have re-created an ancient royal garden on a hilltop between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, at a site known as Ramat Rahel. Using archaeologi-

cal evidence and intact pollen grains discovered in the plaster lining of the 2,500-year-old garden’s sophisticat-ed irrigation system, researchers from Tel Aviv Universi-ty reconstituted both the garden’s layout and its unique collection of both local and imported vegetation, includ-ing willow, poplar, birch, myrtle, water lilies, grape vines, fi gs, olives, Lebanese cedars, Persian walnuts—and cit-ron, which fi rst appeared in the Middle East at this site. “The whole garden is an enigma—no one really knows who built it,” project leader Yuval Gadot says. He adds that this Iron Age palace, which perhaps represented the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian imperial presence in Jerusalem, is the only such structure uncovered in Ju-dea, and that, so far, the Ramat Rahel site is the only garden to have been excavated in the Levant.

—MATI MILSTEIN

Israel’s Garden Spot

Curators from Amsterdam’s Rijkmuseum transported their twelfth-century South Indian sculpture of Shiva (above) to the most powerful X-ray tunnel at the Rotterdam customs authority. They found, as they had suspected, that it was cast in solid bronze.

CT imaging was used to look inside a mummified ibis (above) from ancient Egypt (300 B.C.–A.D. 30), and showed that the bird had been packed with food, such as snails, for the afterlife.

German and Italian scientists used CT technology, with 3-D software, to study heads that were mummified in

the nineteenth century for use as anatomical specimens (right). This

image reveals remains of brain tissue and a braided cord that had

been inserted to deposit toxic preservatives inside the skull.

Designed to meet the demand for lifelong learning, The Great Courses is a highly popular series of audio and video lectures led by top professors and experts. Each of our more than 350 courses is an intellectually engaging experience that will change how you think about the world. Since 1990, over 10 million courses have been sold.

LIMITED TIME OFFER

70%off

ORDER BY JULY 9

From Jesus to Constantine: A History of Early Christianity Taught by Bart D. Ehrmanthe university of north carolina at chapel hill

lecture titles

1. The Birth of Christianity 2. The Religious World of Early Christianity 3. The Historical Jesus 4. Oral and Written Traditions about Jesus 5. The Apostle Paul 6. The Beginning of Jewish-Christian Relations 7. The Anti-Jewish Use of the Old Testament 8. The Rise of Christian Anti-Judaism 9. The Early Christian Mission 10. The Christianization of the Roman Empire 11. The Early Persecutions of the State 12. The Causes of Christian Persecution 13. Christian Reactions to Persecution 14. The Early Christian Apologists 15. The Diversity of Early

Christian Communities 16. Christianities of the Second Century 17. The Role of Pseudepigrapha 18. The Victory of the Proto-Orthodox 19. The New Testament Canon 20. The Development of Church Offi ces 21. The Rise of Christian Liturgy 22. The Beginnings of Normative Theology 23. The Doctrine of the Trinity 24. Christianity and the Conquest of Empire

What Is the Real Story behind Christianity’s Formative Years? Explore the surprising development of early Christianity as it transformed from the religion of Jesus to a religion about Jesus. From Jesus to Constantine: A History of Early Christianity shows you how the form of Christianity we know today emerged only after many years of transition and confl ict. In 24 engaging lectures that will increase your understanding of Christianity, you discover how a single group from among many “lost Christianities” won the struggle for dominance, established its beliefs as central to the faith, rewrote the history of Christianity’s internal confl icts, and produced a canon of sacred texts—the New Testament—to support its own views.

Bestselling author and award-winning Professor Bart D. Ehrman, Chair of the Department of Religion at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, offers you a scholar’s perspective on the origins of what he calls the most important institution in Western civilization.

Off er expires 07/09/121-800-832-2412www.thegreatcourses.com/4ar

From Jesus to Constantine: A History of Early ChristianityCourse no. 6577 | 24 lectures (30 minutes/lecture)

SAVE UP TO $185

DVD $254.95�NOW $69.95CD $179.95�NOW $49.95+$10 Shipping & HandlingPriority Code: 65888


FROM THE TRENCHES

16

The skeletal remains of two adolescent males found at Butrint, a Roman colony in

Albania, indicate that both suff ered from fatal cases of brucellosis. The chronic respiratory disease, which is typically contracted from contami-nated meat or dairy products, today aff ects roughly 500,000 people per year worldwide.

Initially researchers be-lieved that the teens died of tuberculosis (TB). Pea-sized holes found on their 800-year-old spi-nal columns are indica-

tive of an infection secondary to the re-

spiratory illness and seemed to confi rm that view. However, DNA samples held no genetic markers

of TB. Brucellosis can cause similar bone degradation, and a search for genes asso-

ciated with brucellosis came up positive.

“If you look at the World Health Organization data, Albania has one of the higher brucellosis rates in the world today,” says David Foran, a forensic scientist at Michigan State. “It’s there now and it was obviously there many hundreds of years ago—and most likely throughout the centuries.”

—NIKHIL SWAMINATHAN

Th e Persistence of Brucellosis

Initilievedof tubsizedtheirnal

tivse

sstDn

ofcadse

cia

BORA ÖZKÖK / Cultural Folk Tours’ 34th year

For a free brochure & DVD CALL:Website: www.culturalfolktours.com

1-800-935-8875E-mail: [email protected]

We will visit the World’s oldest city and World’s oldest temple on our Turkey tours. ALL TOURS WILL STAY AT BORA’S CAPPADOCIA CAVE SUITES!

WWW.CAPPADOCIACAVESUITES.COMCA Reg # 2011417-40

PLUS CENTRAL ASIA / SILK ROAD TOURSOffering quality tours with great food, photo

opps., the best guides, excellent hotels, buses and many “people-to-people” events. Our focus is on culture, history, music, folklore, architecture and archaeology.

TURKEY

A most unique, luxurious boutique hotel in Turkey! [email protected]

WOW…A Computer Designed For YOU,Not Your Grandchildren!

NEW …It’s easy to read. It’s easy to see. It’s even easier to understand and use!Just plug it in!!!

NEWTouch Screen

Technology

Technology Simplified

designed for SENIORS®

Big Bright ScreenOne-touch “zoom” magnification

No bulky tower

Have you ever said to yourself “I’d love to get a computer, if only I could figure out howto use it.” Well, you’re not alone. Computerswere supposed to make our lives simpler, butthey’ve gotten so complicated that they are notworth the trouble. With all of the “pointingand clicking” and “dragging and dropping”you’re lucky if you can figure out where you are. Plus, you are constantlyworrying about viruses, spamand freeze-ups. If this sounds familiar, we have great news foryou. There is finally a computerthat’s designed for simplicity and ease of use. It’s the WOWComputer, and it was designedwith you in mind.

This computer is easy-to-use,worry-free and literally puts theworld at your fingertips. Fromthe moment you open the box,you’ll realize how different theWOW Computer is. The components are allconnected; all you do is plug it into an outletand your high-speed Internet connection.

Then you’ll see the screen. This is a completely new operating system, without the cluttered look of the normal computer screen. The “buttons” on the screenare easy to see and easy to understand. All you do is touch one of them, from the Web, E-mail, Calendar to Games– you name it…and a new screen opens up. It’s so easy to

use you won’t have to ask your children orgrandchildren for help.

Until now the verypeople who could benefit most from E-mail, and the Internet are the onesthat have had thehardest time accessingit. Now, thanks to the WOW Computer,countless older Amer-icans are discovering

the wonderful world of the Internet everyday. Isn’t it time you took part? Call now, and a patient, knowledgeable product expert

will tell you how you can try it in your homefor 30 days. If you are not totally satisfied,simply return it within 30 days for a refundof the product purchase price. Call today.

8033

2C

opyr

ight

© 2

012

by fi

rstS

TR

EE

T fo

r B

oom

ers

and

Bey

ond,

Inc.

All

right

s re

serv

ed.

Call now for our special introductory price!

Please mention promotional code 44483.

1-877-718-2607

Simple navigation,

so you neverget lost!

Simple navigation,

so you neverget lost!

…send and receive emails, and video chatKeep up with family and friends.

…”surf” the internetGet current weather & news.

…play games onlinehundreds to choose from!

I just wanted to tell firstSTREET that I am having a great time on my WOW computer. I am learningsomething new everyday. I am 79years old and cannot believe that I am typing and sending e-mails to allmy friends now. My daughter andgranddaughter are so excited nowthat I have a computer. They usecomputers on their jobs everyday,but they cannot believe what you can do on this computer. It iswonderful... Thanks.

– Johnnie E., Ellijay, Ga


The famed Confederate subma-rine H.L. Hunley, the fi rst sub-marine ever to sink an enemy

ship, has fi nally been unveiled in its entirety. Discovered in 1995 and raised in 2000, the 40-foot-long wreck had been supported by a steel framework while archaeologists and conservators studied and stabilized it. The sub was fi nally rotated so the structure was no

longer needed to support it. This is the fi rst time it has been seen by anyone, complete and unobstructed, since it mysteriously went down with its eight-man crew in 1864, just minutes after sinking the USS Housatonic in Charles-ton Bay. The next step is a special bath that will remove the salts and concre-tions that still cover the vessel.

—SAMIR S. PATEL

FROM THE TRENCHES

Hunley Revealed

Neanderthals in Color

In 1981, when Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University was beginning his archaeological career, he ran

across some red stains in the grayish sediments on the fl oodplain of the Maas River where his team was excavating. The site, called Maastricht-Belvédère, in The Netherlands, was occupied by Neanderthals at least 200,000

years ago. Roebroeks collected and stored samples of the red stains, and 30 years later he received funding to analyze them. It became apparent that he and his team had discovered the earliest evi-dence of hominins using the mineral

iron oxide, also known as ocher. Until now, the use of ocher—as a red pigment in rock paintings, an ingredient in glue, and for tanning hides, among other things—was thought to be a hallmark of modern human behavior. While the manner in which the mineral was used at Maastricht-Belvédère is some-thing of a mystery, the fi nd has had an

impact on the question of whether ocher use represents modern

behavior. “This whole debate is now to some degree a non-debate,” Roebroeks says, “because Neanderthals were already doing this 200,000

years ago.”—ZACH ZORICH

ARC

00,000

s

ng came

his teamrliest evi-g the mineral

thing of a mimpac

ochbeisn“baly

Andrew Robinson$17.95 paper | 168 pages | 40+ illus.

Bill Manley$16.95 paper | 160 pages | 47 illus.

Sam Moorhead & David Stuttard$34.95 | 288 pages | 73 illus.

thamesandhudsonusa.comAvailable wherever books are sold

New fromThames & Hudson


Angkor Wat, the seat of the powerful Khmer Empire from the ninth to fi fteenth centu-

ries, is famous for its haunting ruins situated in Cambodia’s dense jungle. The enigmatic nature of the empire’s collapse has inspired researchers to dig deep into Angkor’s remains for new insights. In its heyday, Angkor relied on an intricate engineered system of canals, moats, embankments, and res-ervoirs. The largest reservoir, the West Baray (below, at left), has recently pro-

vided a clearer understanding of the de-cline of the city. According to a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a sediment core taken from the West Baray reveals evidence of an extended drought in the fourteenth and fi fteenth centuries.

“We see that water levels from the Baray dropped. We also see sediments in

Drought Doomed Angkor?

the region being more weathered dur-ing Angkorian times due to people us-ing the land for intensive agriculture,” says Mary-Beth Day of Cambridge Uni-versity, lead author of the study.

It is believed that Angkor, already suff ering from deforestation and con-fl ict with other kingdoms, overtaxed its

hydraulic system, which increased the eff ects of the drought and precipitated the city’s decline. The study concludes that the Khmer water management system is an example of a sophisticated technology that failed in the face of ex-treme environmental conditions.

—ALDO FOE

JOURney into the heart of History

EGYPT and Rome in ENGLAND

June 15 - 24, 2012

OASES OF EGYPTNovember 1 - 17, 2012

F E A T U R E D J O U R N E Y S

w i t h

PROFESSOR BOB BRIER

1-800-552-4575 • www.farhorizons.com

Since 1983, Far Horizons has been designing unique itineraries led by renownedscholars for small groups ofsophisticated travelers whodesire a deeper knowledge ofboth past and living cultures.

GREECEWith Professor Jennifer Tobin

May 12 - 27, 2012

CYPRUS & MALTAWith Professor Brett Whalen

June 3 - 15, 2012

BOLIVIAWith Professor John Janusek

June 5 - 20, 2012

PERUCaral, Chanquillo, ChanChan

With Dr. Bill SappJune 23 - July 8, 2012

CHINA’S SILK ROADWith Professor Dru Gladney

August 18 - September 3, 2012

HIKE THE INKA TRAIL

With Professor Anita CookAugust 10 - 22, 2012

EASTERN TURKEYWith Professor John France

September 8 - 23, 2012

TURKISH TREASURES

With Professor Garrett FaganSeptember 15 - 30, 2012

PUB CRAWL OFGREAT BRITIANWith Dr. James Bruhn

September 16 - 28, 2012

…and much more!India • Cambodia & Laos • Bali • Scotland • Myanmar • Mongolia • EthiopiaMaya World • Sri Lanka • American Southwest • Central Asia • Easter Island


Archaeologists have uncovered a Viking cem-etery dating to the turn of the eleventh century A.D. near the central Polish town of Bodzia. The

graveyard holds close to 50 people—warriors and their families—and consists of neatly arranged plots enclosed by wooden fences, each containing up to three burials in wooden caskets with iron fi xtures.

Men were buried with weap-ons, including Viking langsax(single-edged swords). Wom-en’s graves contained jewelry made from glass, gold foil, precious stones, and silver. Other fi nds included silver kaptogora (amulet containers, left), glass ornaments, coins

from throughout Western Europe, and the remains of silk from the Far East.

“We suppose the individuals buried in Bodzia belonged to a small but high-status community,” says project leader Andrzej Buko, director of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology. In addition, he says, “Many of them probably came from abroad.”

Evidence suggests the warriors emigrated from a near-by state in what is now Ukraine, though Buko concludes from the quality of the weaponry and other characteristics of the burials that the deceased had been absorbed into the elite of the early Piast Dynasty. The Piasts ruled in Poland from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries.

The fi nds support chronicles by Gallus Anonymous, Po-land’s fi rst historian, who described a military stronghold near Bodzia with elite foreign warriors—perhaps these Vikings.

—NOAH WEINER

Italian archaeologists working at the sanctuary of Tas-Silg on Malta have discovered an agate fragment with a Middle Babylonian cuneiform inscription dating to

the thirteenth or fourteenth century B.C. Found more than 1,500 miles from Mesopotamia, where cu-

neiform was used, it is the westernmost example of the script ever found.

The fragment, which was originally part of a crescent-

shaped votive object mount-ed on a pole or hung on a rope,

mentions the religious center of Nippur, the moon god “Sin,” and

the names of at least fi ve people. Ac-cording to project director Alberto Ca-

zzella, it’s diffi cult to know how and when the artifact arrived in Malta. He believes it

was probably plundered during a war, taken to Greece, and then perhaps traded between the Mycenaean Greeks and the Cypriot world, which at the time included Malta.


An Elite Viking Community

Written on AgateFROM THE TRENCHES

The transition from hunting and gathering in the Pa-leolithic period to sedentary agricultural lifestyles in the Neolithic may have been a long process,

according to a research team working at Kharaneh IV, a 20,000-year-old site in Jordan. There, archaeologists un-covered the remains of two huts and plant and animal re-mains that show the site was occupied continually across a thousand-year time span—but only for several months at a

time. The landscape is arid today, but back then it was grassland that provided stable food sources, includ-ing herds of gazelle, wild cereal grains and other plants, and small stands of trees that provided more food

and hut-building materials. The study builds on evidence from other sites in Jordan and Israel. “We can actually say now, with evidence, that there was a widespread pattern of people stay-ing put in larger groups, and starting to build the environment around them,” says Lisa Maher of the University of California, Berkeley, one of the lead archaeologists on the project.

—ZACH ZORICH

Huts for Hunters

f th h t W t E

1,500 miles from neiform was u

example oTo

shed on

mentionNippur, t

the names ocording to pro

zzella, it’s difficuthe artifact arrive

CHOOSE LONG OR SQUARE COUPON FROM LAYERS AND DELETE YELLOW BOXYES. Please reserve the XXX PRODUCT NAME XXX for

me as described in this announcement. Limit: one per order. Please Respond Promptly

*Plus $4.99 shipping and service. Limited-edition presentation restricted to 95 fi ring days. Please allow 4-8 weeks after initial payment for shipment. Sales subject to product avail-ability and order acceptance.

Signature

Mrs. Mr. Ms. Name (Please Print Clearly)

Address

City

State Zip 01-00000-001-00000

© 2011 Licensor Copyright here©2011 BGE 01-00000-001-BI

9345 Mi lwaukee Avenue · Ni les, IL 60714-1393

RESERVATION APPLICATION SEND NO MONEY NOW

www.bradfordexchange.com

Honor the spirit of America’s WestLong a collector’s favorite, the classic obverse design of the Indian Head Nickel was chosen to honor the proud Native American heritage and spiri t of America’s West . Expertly crafted with 24K gold plating and turquoise enameling, the Indian Head Nickel Ring features a genuine—and increasingly scarce—U.S. Indian Head Nickel as its centerpiece. Because each coin has its own unique characteristics, each ring is a true one-of-a-kind! Engraved inside is the inscription: “Indian Head Nickel: Honoring the American West.”

A hand-crafted jewelry exclusive ... and a superb value

Act now, and this genuine piece of American history can be yours for just $129, payable in three convenient installments of $43 each. To reserve your ring, backed by our unconditional, 120-day guarantee, send no money now. Just return the Reservation Certificate. But hurry—this is a limited time offer!

YES. Please reserve the Indian Head Nickel Ring for me as described in this announcement. Limit: one per order. Please Respond Promptly

$9.00 shipping and service per item. Please allow 4-6 weeks after initial payment for shipment. Sales subject to product availability and order acceptance.

Mrs. Mr. Ms. Name (Please Print Clearly)

Address

City

State Zip

17-00176-001-E98091

©2011 BGE 17-00176-001-BIBM

Mint

��

the

9307 Mi lwaukee Avenue · Ni les, IL 60714-1393

PRIORITY RESERVATION CERTIFICATE

An exclusive, heirloom-quality ring featuring a genuine U.S. Indian Head Nickel

An exclussiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiivve heirloom quality ring featuringOwn a piece of the Wild West

CENTERPIECE IS A GENUINE U.S. INDIAN HEAD NICKEL

◆OUR COIN RING IS A STRICT LIMITED EDITION

DUE TO THE SCARCITY OF INDIAN HEAD NICKELS

◆A BRADFORD EXCHANGE MINT EXCLUSIVE—NOT AVAILABLE ANYWHERE ELSE ... AND ONLY

FOR A LIMITED TIME!

To assure a proper fi t, a ring sizer will be sent to you after your

reservation has been accepted.

Your Complete Satisfaction Guaranteed

LIMITED TIME OFFER

www.bradfordexchange.com/ihr

Actual Size

ACT NOW!SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED.

✦

CRAFTED WITH

24K GOLD PLATING AND TURQUOISE ENAMELING

Sides feature a

dramatic buffalo

portrait recalling the

Indian Head Nickel’s

reverse design

Comes in a handsome

presentation case

oomemememem ssssssss ininininin aaaaaaa hhhhhhanananaandsdsdsdsdsomomomomom

WORLD ROUNDUP


PERU: At two mounds dating to

between 4,000 and 6,500 years ago,

archaeologists have determined how ancient

Peruvians liked their corn—popped and ground into

flour. Among the finds were starch grains, husks,

kernels, stalks, tassels, and cobs of species that leant

themselves to either popping or grinding. Before this

find, little if anything was

known about how

corn was used in

these early years of

its cultivation.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO:

About 3,000 years ago, much of central

Africa changed from rain forest to

savanna, and it’s long been thought that

natural climate change was the cause.

Marine sediment cores from the mouth of

the Congo River suggest, however, that

forest clearance, intensive land use, and

increased soil erosion occurred at the

same time—implicating Bantu-speaking

farmers, who began to spread across the

region at this time. Their forest clearing

for agriculture and iron smelting might

have contributed to the widespread shift

in central Africa’s environment.

MEXICO: Today we expect

labels on containers to

tell us what is inside.

Perhaps the ancient Maya

did as well. In a two-inch-

tall, 1,300-year-old flask

decorated with glyphs

reading “the home of his/

her/its tobacco,” chemical

analysis identified residue

from the breakdown of

nicotine. It is the first

physical evidence of Maya

tobacco, and the second

known example of Maya

“truth-in-packaging,”

after a cacao vessel that

underwent the same

analysis.

PERU: At tw

between 4,000 a

archaeologists have dete

find, li

kn

c

t

its

UTAH: The

2010 blaze that

gutted the Provo

Tabernacle, a

meeting place

for members

of the Mormon

Church, created

an opportunity

to excavate the remains of the

city’s first such building. The

“old meetinghouse,” which was

torn down on the site in 1919,

would have been the center of

religious and cultural life for the

pioneers who founded the city.

Finds include parts of the stone

foundation and stone frames that

held stained glass above the door.

SCOTLAND: A project led by the

Royal Commission on the Ancient

and Historical Monuments of

Scotland asked residents of the

Outer Hebrides to report previously

unidentified archaeological remains—

resulting in the possible discoveries

of a medieval village, a complex of

fish traps, and Neolithic pottery.

An aerial survey team currently is

following up on the reports, relying

on the low winter sun to highlight

remote archaeological features.

TURKEY: Getting a

bad piece of fruit is

frustrating—it’s not like

you can return it—but few

would hire a magician to

curse the man who sold

it to you. In a well in the ancient

city of Antioch was a lead tablet

inscribed with a curse directed

at a greengrocer named Babylas,

according to the first published

translation. The curse, which may

actually have been authored by a

business rival almost 2,000 years

ago, insults his mother’s “polluted

womb” and calls for the gods to

“drown and chill” his soul.

T

b

f

y

w

c

23

By Samir S. Patel

www.archaeology.org

PAPUA NEW GUINEA:

A mysterious two-inch-

long tool had scientists

baffled. The 3,300-year-

old gouge, made of a

rare form of jade called

jadeite, was found on

Emirau Island. Its jadeite

is different from any

geologists had ever seen, with the

closest match being from distant

Mexico. A possible solution came

from an unpublished manuscript

by a German scientist who found

some strange rocks on the Irian

Jaya mainland (the Indonesian half

of New Guinea) 100 years ago.

Analysis is ongoing, but the finds

appear to be a close match.

AUSTRALIA: Marine archaeologists have

discovered the wreck of Royal Charlotte, a convict

and troop ship that wrecked on a reef in 1825. The

75 soldiers aboard, along with officers and family,

built up and huddled on a sandy cay for six weeks

while waiting for rescue. Researchers expect the

teak timbers, anchor, cannon, and other goods

found will help them better understand trade

between New South Wales, where the ship had

departed, and India, where it was headed before

returning to England.

PA

A

lo

b

o

r

ja

E

is

EGYPT: At the necropolis

of Qubbet el-Hawa in

Aswan, archaeologists

have uncovered hundreds

of mummies and a tomb

dating to the 12th Dynasty,

around 1830 B.C. Many of the

mummies and coffins come

from later reoccupations of

the older tomb, including

this delicately featured

and wonderfully preserved

wooden sarcophagus,

thought to contain someone

of high rank from the 18th

Dynasty (ca. 1550–1292 B.C.).

RUSSIA: A genetic study of the native

people of the Altai region of Siberia—where

Kazakhstan, China, and Mongolia meet—

shows an affinity between the people of the

region and Native

Americans, who

crossed from Asia

to North America

via land bridge as

early as 16,000

years ago. Study

of Y chromosomes suggest that Altaians and

Native Americans share a common ancestor

from not long before that time.

SPRING - FALL 2012MEDITERRANEAN, AEGEAN, ADRIATIC & BLACK SEAS

WINTER 2012- 2013INDIA & SOUTHEAST ASIA

Unique itineraries start from $3,795 include:

SHORE EXCURSIONS PRE/POST-CRUISE 4 &5 STAR HOTEL STAYS

LAND EXTENSIONS IN ASIAWINE WITH DINNER ON BOARD

EXPERT LECTURE PROGRAMON BOARD GRATUITIES

LOW COST ROUNDTRIP AIR & TRANSFERS SPECIAL SINGLE PRICING

FROM THE CLASSICAL CIVILIZATIONS OF

EUROPE...

TO THE MYSTERIES OF THE

ORIENT

Price is per person, double occupancy, cat N for Mediterranean. Low Cost round-trip air (and transfers) applicable with cruise-tour purchase only and includes all

government taxes, fees and airline fuel surcharges, which may change at any time. Special single pricing applicable to select categories and not available on all sailings.

All offers are subject to availability, capacity controlled and may be withdrawn at any time.Ship’s Registry: Malta.

FOR BROCHURE & RESERVATIONS CALL

1-877-398-1460

VOYAGES TOANTIQUITYVisit www.voyagestoantiquity.com

Or contact your travel professional

��

CRUISES TO

THE ORIENTWINTER 2012/13

� � ��

VOYAGES TOANTIQUITY

0758/05.11

CRUISES TO

CLASSICALCIVILIZATIONS

2012

D I S C OV E R T H E H I S TO RY, A RT A N D C U LT U R E S O F

T H E A N C I E N T WO R L D

VOYAGES TOANTIQUITY

��

CRUISES TO

THE ORIENTWINTER 2012/13

� � ��

VOYAGES TOANTIQUITY

BOOKEARLY &

SAVE

0758/05.11

CRUISES TO

CLASSICALCIVILIZATIONS

2012

D I S C OV E R T H E H I S TO RY, A RT A N D C U LT U R E S O F

T H E A N C I E N T WO R L D

VOYAGES TOANTIQUITY


An aerial view shows the immense administrative building constructed around 500 B.C. and used until the 2nd century A.D. as it appeared after more than 10 years of excavation. Early 2nd-century red-

slipped dishes, part of a set found in the building’s courtyard, were imported from coastal Syria.


In 1997, archaeologists Sharon Herbert and Andrea Berlin began an excavation project at Tel Kedesh, an enormous mound located in the rural interior of Israel’s Upper Galilee region. More than a decade later, they have completed the fi rst phase of their work and refl ect on how the site brought them a story far diff erent from the one they had gone looking for.

NORTHERN ISRAEL, a region with multiple border zones, has seen its share of modern confl ict. But a picture of what life was like on this border in antiquity, especially dur-ing the period from Alexander the Great through the revolt against Rome (ca.

330 B.C.–A.D. 70), also years of political and religious unrest, remained undrawn. In the mid-1990s, as we were each fi nish-ing long-term projects in Israel, we realized that Tel Kedesh was the perfect place to investigate this question. Ancient sources repeatedly describe it as a border site—between Canaanites and Israelites in biblical times and between Phoe-nicians and Jews in the classical period. Today it lies along the Israeli-Lebanese border, a location that saw several dramatic battles during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Tel Kedesh is enormous—more than half a mile north to south. It is a double mound, with an upper tell occupied since

the Early Bronze Age (3150–2300 B.C.) and a plateau-like lower tell likely constructed in the Middle

Bronze Age (2300–1550 B.C.). Since our research interests focused on a relatively short period in the site’s long history, we hoped to devise a strategy that would allow us to reach those levels rapidly. In 1997, we began by surveying the entirety of the lower tell along two broad north-south and east-west tran-

sects. Next we excavated two small test trenches to discover the

by Andrea Berlin and Sharon Herbert

Excavating Tel Kedesh

eology.org

south. It is a double mound, withthe Early Bronze Age (3150(( –2–

lower tell likely Bronze Age (

research inteshort periohoped to dallow us tIn 1997, entirety obroad nort

sects. Ntest

The story of a site and a project


room next to the northwestern corner had a plastered fl oor, several wine jars from the Greek island of Rhodes, and 14 huge jars, almost fi ve feet tall each, leaning against the walls. With permission from the Israel Antiquities Authority, we took the broken bottoms of two jars back to the United States for residue analysis and discovered phytoliths—mineral secretions left by plants after they decay—of Triticum aestivum (bread wheat). It was clear that this building had been a storeroom for wine and grain—lots of grain. Each jar held almost 25 gal-lons, which, once ground into fl our, would produce about 150

loaves of bread. Additional surprises came to light around the corner where

we found more than 40 amphoriskoi (small, two-handled fl asks) and about 1,500 tiny stamped clay lumps, or bullae. The bullae carry images including those of Greek deities, Seleucid kings, and animals and symbols. They have string holes through the sides and the neat linear impressions of papyrus on the back, both indications that they originally sealed rolled-up papyrus documents. The quantity of bullae in the room indicated that it once housed a sizeable archive. While none of the docu-

ments survive, the bullae themselves provide clues about who sent the texts and who offi cially approved them.

Archaeologists joke that the most important discoveries occur on the last days of an excavation season, and that’s exactly what happened: We found the bullae with less than a week to

go in 1999. There was no time to clean them all or fi n-ish excavating the room in which they’d been found, so these were the top priori-

site’s uppermost geological profi le, as well as the depth and preservation of Hellenistic remains. The nature of what we found—which we expected to be largely soil or a random array of rocks—would help determine which type of remote sensing technique would be most eff ective.

To our surprise, less than three feet below the surface, we found ourselves in a room with more than 20 intact vessels and household objects scattered on the fl oor. The pots dated to the second century B.C., the heart of the Hellenistic period. There must have been a particular reason why so many com-plete items had been abandoned, but based on the evidence available at the time, the remains in the room could not be related to a specifi c historical event.

The test trenches also revealed intact limestone walls of exactly the type that would show up best in a magnetometric survey, which we carried out on the lower tell in February 1998. The resulting map showed something wholly unex-pected—an approximately 20,000-square-foot outline at the tell’s southeastern corner, just to the east of the room we’d uncovered the year before. A single structure of this size ought to be palatial or administrative, but no ancient historical source mentions Kedesh as a place of such importance.

IN 1999, KNOWING THAT we needed to explore that huge outline and determine if it were one building

or groups of smaller structures, we began our fi rst full excavation season. Digging in the opposing southeastern and northwestern corners revealed that it was one enormous complex. The

ARCH

documents. The quantity of bullae it once housed a sizeable archive.

ments survive, the bullae themwho sent the texts and who

rchaeologiimportant dilast days of athat’s exactly wthe bullae w

gotimiswth

er, just to the east of the roomfore. A single structure of l or administrative, but nontions Kedesh as a place

T we needed line and

building es, we

ation sing tern s

A magnetometric map (below) completed in 1998 showed the

building’s outline and helped determine where to dig the following year. A panoramic view of the tell in 2010

(right) shows the completely excavated complex. Artifacts including juglets

and loom weights (bottom) were found on the floor of one of the main rooms

during the excavation’s first season.


abandoned remains found throughout the building are a result of that battle.

THE SECOND INTIFADA, a period of intensifi ed Palestin-ian-Israeli violence that began in September 2000 and ended in 2005, derailed excavation plans for 2001. In

fact, we were unable to return to the site for fi ve years. Begin-ning again in 2006, we had four productive excavation seasons that produced many incredible fi nds and advanced our under-standing of the building. In 1999 and 2000, we had found broken column shafts from an earlier structure incorporated into the walls of the Hellenistic building. Further excavation

almost 10 years later in the structure’s eastern half uncov-ered two long foundations with circles lightly incised on

the stones. These were, in eff ect,“setting marks” for placing the columns, allowing us to reconstruct a colonnaded entry court that belonged to that ear-lier building phase. Associated pottery and small fi nds date to the Achaemenid Persian period (ca. 540–332 B.C.). Thus we renamed the structure the Persian-Hellenistic Administrative Building and dated its initial construction to 500 B.C., when

the Persian king Cyrus permitted exiled Judeans in Babylon to return to Jerusa-

lem, as told in Ezra 1. Several special fi nds refl ect the

character of the culture that inhabited the region at the time. These include

a beautifully carved green jasper scarab with a helmeted oriental head (right); two

small conical glass stamp seals, both likely worn

ties when we returned the next summer. By the end of the season, the total number of excavated bullae was more than 2,000. We christened this the Hellenistic Administrative Building, on the basis of the granary and the archive, both administrative features.

THE HUNDREDS OF useful objects that were left behind in the building, including more than 20 Rhodian wine jars, continued to confi rm our fi rst impression, from

1997, that it had been abandoned very quickly. The wine vessels have handles stamped with the names of offi cials, each of whose tenures can be dated with great accuracy. The latest jars date to 144 or 143 B.C.According to 1 Maccabees 11:63–73, at that time there was a battle in the valley below the Kedesh plateau between the Hasmonean leader Jonathan (the Hasmoneans were a family of high priests and kings who ruled the Jewish state of Judea between 167 and 37 B.C.) and the Seleucid king Demetrius. Jonathan’s forces pursued the Seleucids to Kedesh, killed many, and camped there for several days before leaving for Jerusalem. It appears that the hastily

stabroin

wine cials, t

h,re ly

almost ered tw

thpclifi 5

than

theJud

lemSe

charathe re

a beau

Artifacts of Administration

AMONG THE MORE THAN 2,000 bullae found in the archive room at Tel Kedesh, there were many identifi -able imprinted seals, both offi cial and personal. These

include seals belonging to kings Antiochus III (324–261 B.C.) and Antiochus IV (ca. 215–164 B.C.), who ruled a vast empire founded by Seleucus I, one of Alexander the Great’s gener-als, that stretched from Anatolia (modern Turkey) to central

Asia. Seals of the city council of Tyre, a Phoenician city on the southwestern coast of modern Lebanon, as well as several seals belonging to both male and female private citizens and possibly the Phoenician governor of the region, were among the fi nds. A seal belonging to the city of Kedesh itself, with an image of a cluster of grapes and a shaft of wheat and the city’s Greek name, Kudissos, was excavated as well.

Student Scott Thompson (left) excavates in a storeroom containing huge grain jars. In the adjacent room, dozens of small two-handled flasks (above) and about 1,500 stamped clay lumps, or bullae (below), used to seal documents, were found.

xiled sa-

n

28

archive complex. South of the courtyard are utility and cooking areas. Several rooms here contain plastered bins of various shapes and sizes, perhaps for collecting and measuring agricultural products. East and north of the courtyard, three rooms form an impressive reception and dining area. Two of these have monochromatic mosaic fl oors, the earliest fi rmly dated mosaic fl oors yet found in Israel. The fl oor of the third and largest room was removed in antiquity, but we think it, too,

was probably mosaic. The rooms’ walls have carefully molded and brightly colored painted plaster. We also found sets of red- and black-slipped dishes that petrographic and chemical analyses indicate were imports from the area around Antioch, the Seleucid capital far to the north.

When taken all together, the archive where the bullae were found, the granary, and the collection bins all suggest the pres-ence of imperial offi cials with administrative responsibilities, such as tax collecting. Taxation was an ever-present fact of life under the Hellenistic monarchies, but it’s rare to fi nd the actual location where the offi cials worked and collection occurred. The building’s traffi c patterns, which we have been able to reconstruct, show limited access between working areas and the reception rooms. In the former we found mostly plain pottery for cooking, food preparation, and storage, while in the latter we uncovered beautiful dishes and decorated lamps to adorn dining tables. Visiting offi cials may have carried docu-ments to Kedesh and then enjoyed a fi ne meal before going on their way.

AFTER SIX YEARS OF excavation, we thought we knew the site completely, and yet, the last day of our last fi eld season still had one incredible surprise in store. While

we were preparing for aerial photography, a student spotted a large, perfectly round disk in some soil that had accumulated on the eastern wall of the granary. Although the disk was cov-ered in dirt, a bright glint along one of its edges caught his eye.

Upon picking up the artifact, he knew immediately from its heft that he was hold-ing a solid gold coin. When he brought the coin to our attention, we were able to identify it as a mnaieion (a one-mina coin, equivalent to 100 silver drachmas, or a mina of silver) of the Egyp-tian ruler Ptolemy V, struck in the year 191–190 B.C. at the imperial mint of Kition on Cyprus. The mnaieion is the largest gold coin ever found in Israel and only the second example of this issue found anywhere.

as amulets, each with a version of the Master of Animals motif long popular in the Near East; and, fi nally, a clay bulla that had been stamped by a seal whose Neo-Babylonian style and design appear on many seals in a late fi fth-century B.C. commercial archive discovered in the Mesopotamian city of Nippur in 1893. Our current hypothesis is that the Persian-period build-ing belonged to well-connected offi cials from Tyre and that it functioned as both an agricultural depot and an impressive marker of territory. The discovery of a substantial Phoenician foothold in inland Upper Galilee provides a rare opportunity to consider native life under imperial Persian rule. It also has implications for understanding the biblical authors of this era, especially the work of the Chronicler, a writer who lived in the fi fth century B.C. In his retelling of the history of the Jewish people, the Chronicler also frequently reframed relationships, especially those between the kings of Judah and the kings of Phoenicia, always to the advantage of Judah. He may have been trying to imagine away the presence of this enormous, Phoenician-administered building deep within territory that earlier biblical texts identify as Israelite.

THE PERSIAN-HELLENISTIC Administrative Building seems to have been briefl y abandoned in the late fourth century B.C., when Alexander the Great began

his march down the Phoenician coast. But after a short period of time, perhaps no more than 10 or 15 years, it was reoccu-pied by offi cials of the newly empowered empire of Ptolemaic Egypt. From this point on, from approximately 300

B.C. until the battle between Jonathan and Demetrius in 144 or 143 B.C., the building was continuously occupied and often remodeled to suit its various inhabitants. By the end of our 2010 sea-son, about 75 percent of these Hellenistic levels had been excavated and we were able to identify what went on in the building’s various sectors. A large open-air courtyard dominates the western half. To the north and west lie the granary and

A blue glass stamp seal, left to right: seen from the side; the stamp itself; the stamp’s impression in plasticine; an artist’s rendering of the stamp’s image.


By the end of 2010, the team was able to identify the activities that took place in each of the building’s sectors.


simply too large in value. It might have belonged to a high-ranking Ptol-emaic official, who

would have traveled to Kedesh to meet with one

of his Seleucid counterparts and brought the coin as a

diplomatic gift. The fi ndspot within a wall of the granary sug-

gests that it had been stolen and hidden, likely by somebody who

worked in this part of the complex.

WE ORIGINALLY CAME TO Tel Kedesh to investigate life on the border more than 2,000

years ago. No ancient author recorded an offi cial presence here and it occupied an area and a time outside the pages of history. Tel Kedesh, until 1997, remained unexcavated and the surrounding region largely unexplored. Our curiosity about this border area led to the discovery of a building of enormous size and complex-ity, and its expensive decoration and the

variety and quantity of artifacts uncovered have revealed a dominating administrative presence in the Kedesh valley and the Upper Galilee lasting nearly 350 years. Now that the excavation phase of the project is at an end and we work through the thousands of objects we discovered, we are asking questions that only archaeological evidence can answer: How did provincial elites and the workers who

catered to them live? What was the relationship between this offi cial collection complex and nearby settlements? Did

status items and the cosmopolitan culture they represent trickle out, or did local offi cials live in a kind of elite bubble, with their own supplies of specialty goods? And perhaps most interesting, how do the social, economic, and cultural conditions refl ected in the architecture and artifacts relate to periods of political calm and turmoil? As we turn from the excitement of excavation to the necessity of fi nal report writ-ing, we must now shift our focus from looking for artifacts to looking for answers. ■

Andrea Berlin is a professor of archaeology at Boston University;

at the time of the Tel Kedesh field seasons she was at the University

of Minnesota. Sharon Herbert is a professor of archaeology at the

University of Michigan.

This room (left, top) contained large bins for collecting and measuring agricultural products. An official reception space (left, below), featured walls covered in painted plaster (inset). A gold coin (left, bottom)was found near the wall of one of the grain storage rooms.

The appearance of this coin at Kedesh is a refl ection of the period’s power politics. By the time of its issue, the Seleucid kings controlled this portion of the southern Levant, hav-ing won it after a series of wars against the Ptolemies, the Macedonian kings of Egypt who ruled from 305 to 30 B.C.Nonetheless, for approximately the fi rst 20 years of their rule, the Seleucids maintained the region as a Ptolemaic monetary zone, probably as a kind of diplomatic courtesy. Their actions may also have been intended to maintain market confi dence, communicating that despite the change in ruling regimes, the older currency would still be honored. The gold mnaieion was certainly not a coin used as regular currency—it was

varidoatwaa

cathi

stattric

simItte

woKed

of hisand br

diplomatwithin a w

gests that ithidden, likely

worked in this

E ORIGI

ON THE MORNING OF May 11, 2011, Mario Küssner looked on as a bulldozer shaved a layer of soil a few inches deep from a road-side fi eld near the eastern German village of Dermsdorf. Küssner, a staff archaeologist for the state of Thuringia, was brought in

before the scheduled construction of a highway on-ramp would begin. He knew that his team of archaeologists was working atop a medieval site, but the bulldozer uncovered something even more surprising—a handful of dull green ax heads lying in the soil. For the rest of that day, the bulldozer was banished as the archaeologists meticulously dug the site by hand. Their careful work revealed a clay jar standing a foot-and-a-half tall packed with 100 bronze ax heads dating to the Bronze Age—more than 3,000 years ago. The ax heads would have represented a tremendous amount of wealth at a time when bronze was in high


A post–Cold War construction boom is exposing evidence of a powerful Bronze Age culture

by Andrew Curry

demand for weapons and tools. What they were doing buried outside of Dermsdorf became the question.

“We had had signs of a settlement from the Middle Ages, but we had no clue there were Bronze Age fi nds,” says Küssner. Before uncovering the ax heads, the only things the team had turned up were post molds—dark stains in the soil that show where wooden posts had once been planted as a frame for a house. With the discovery of the axes, Küssner and his team began taking a harder look at the surrounding area. Soon they found more post molds, dozens of them, enough to trace where the walls of a structure 35 feet wide and nearly 150 feet long had been. Based on the width of the walls and the spacing of the posts, Küssner estimates that the roof ’s peak would have been nearly 30 feet above the ground. Inside the walls, a double row of posts ran the length of the building, creating a central chamber. Altogether, the structure covered 5,000 square feet,

Ancient Germany’s Metal Traders

Weapon hoards dating to around 3,000 years ago, such asthese bronze ax heads uncovered by a bulldozer near the German town of Dermsdorf, have been discovered throughout Central Europe. The hoards indicate that the metal trade was a major source of wealth and power in the area during the Bronze Age.


making it the biggest Bronze Age structure discovered north of the Alps. The ax heads were buried at the southern end of the house, where the front door might once have been.

The Dermsdorf house is similar to another building that was discovered about 60 miles away in 1996 by Saxon Archaeo-logical Heritage Offi ce researcher Harald Stäeuble. That site, in Zwenkau, near Leipzig, contained the remains of more than 40 houses between 60 and 90 feet long—and one massive building rivaling the Dermsdorf house in length, if not width. Stäeuble says the appearance of a second structure of that size shows that huge houses of this sort may have been an important feature in Bronze Age villages across the region. “They’re very rare. Surely they were functionally diff erent from the other, smaller structures, but it’s hard to know exactly how,” Stäeuble says.

As the summer wore on, the team found evidence that the Dermsdorf house was the center of a settlement that stretched

for miles. A few hundred yards away was a cemetery with doz-ens of burials. At least two other Bronze Age villages were also found within a mile of Dermsdorf as part of the rescue exca-vations for the highway construction. The villages and burial sites all date to within a century of each other and are part of what has proven to be a densely settled Bronze Age landscape.

BY THE LATTER HALF of the twentieth century, histori-cal circumstances had brought research on Germany’s prehistory to a halt. In the 1930s, some impressive fi nds

at sites dating to the Bronze Age and earlier became part of the Nazi propaganda narrative. The Nazis claimed that the archaeological sites were proof of a prehistoric German nation stretching across most of Europe. “The Nazis tried to prove all culture was from Germany, which was a joke,” Küssner says.

Researchers of the time went so far as to measure the skel-


heads pointed south,” Küssner says. “That way they’re look-ing toward the rising sun.” Únětice-style ceramic vessels with concave sides were also found at the site.

The Únětice culture was fi rst identifi ed at a site near Prague in the 1870s. Since then, Únětice artifacts have turned up at sites in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland. The Únětice people were adept metal workers, producing distinc-tive styles of ax heads, daggers, and a type of spearhead called a halberd, which could be used for both stabbing and slashing. The Únětice people controlled the area around the only known source of tin on the continent. Tin is an important ingredient in manufacturing bronze, which put the Únětice people in a good position to control a large part of the European metal trade. “Únětice dominates the routes from north to south,” says Harald Meller, head of the State Museum of Prehistory in the nearby town of Halle. “In the Bronze Age, you needed copper and tin, the same way you need lithium for the battery of your iPhone.”

Grave goods recovered from Únětice sites show the extent of their trade networks. Amber, fi nely worked fl int knives, and reindeer antler connect archaeological sites in the region to Denmark, northern Poland, and Sweden. Metal axes similar to those found in what is now Hungary and Romania are also found in Únětice graves. Broad-bladed bronze axes, shaped in a style best known from Scotland and Ireland, have also turned up. All of the trade moving through their territory made the Únětice people wealthy, especially their rulers.

TWO MILES FROM the Dermsdorf house and cemetery is a saddle-shaped burial mound fi rst excavated in 1877. Named for the nearby town of Leubingen, the 30-foot-

tall mound, perched on a windy hill, was the fi nal resting place of a wealthy chieftain. Tree ring analysis puts the date of the burial at 1942 B.C.

The chieftain was one of the Bronze Age super-rich. A trove of gold artifacts and bronze axes and swords surrounded his body. One of the gold arm rings found in the grave weighed

etons found in Bronze Age graves to show that the people had been “Nordic,” in an eff ort to prove an ancestral link to modern Germans. Nazi propaganda claimed European culture origi-nated in Germany, then spread south, Küssner says. “German archaeology is for me…indigenous, blood-bound Germanic and Indo-Germanic prehistory,” wrote Hans Reinerth, the Reich Deputy of German Prehistory. “Our spadework has the pre-eminent goal…of illuminating our hitherto neglected indigenous prehistory,” he continued. After the war, German archaeologists stayed away from studying sites in their own nation in order to avoid being associated with the Nazis and their dubious science. “They ruined it for another 50 years,” Küssner adds.

After the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989, infrastructure investment poured into the former East Germany. Since then, construction of new highways, train tracks, gas pipelines, and power lines has been preceded by archaeological surveys and digs intended to recover parts of the past before construction erases them forever. The study of the German Bronze Age has boomed once again, thanks in part to rescue excavations like the one at Dermsdorf.

Carbon dating, ceramics analysis, and burial practices suggest that the Dermsdorf sites belonged to the Únětice culture, which dated from 2300 to about 1600 B.C. As soon as the Dermsdorf graves were opened Küssner could see the people had been buried in the Únětice style. “They’re buried in a fetal position, always lying on their right sides with their

One of the wealthiest Únetice culture graves was a 30–foot-tall burial mound excavated in 1877 near Leubingen, Germany, which held the remains of a chieftain.

This collection of bronze artifacts found in Germany in 1904 includes neck rings and weapons that are typical of the Únetice culture.ˇ

ˇ


mendous amount of metal, especially in an age when just one bronze tool was a rarity. “Bronze was still new and very valuable in these societies,” says Stäeuble.

Küssner believes that the hoard was left where it was on purpose, not hidden for safekeeping and then forgotten. The pot was buried where the lack of post molds suggests an opening in the house’s wall or a doorway. The vessel’s central location means everyone who went through the door had to pass over it. The hatchets might have been buried ceremonially or perhaps covered up and then revealed on ceremonial occasions. Meller thinks they might have been a sacri-fi ce. Some archaeologists speculate that the abundance and uniformity of the hundreds of early Bronze Age hoards spread through-out central Europe—all axes in some places, all daggers in others—point to deliberate ritual. Tilmann Vachta, an expert in Bronze Age hoards at the German Archaeological Institute, says, “If you placed a dot for each hoard on the map of this region, it would be black with them.” Meller observes, “They’re not building temples, they’re not building holy places. Instead they’re sacrifi cing mas-sive amounts of metal to the gods.”

Burying the axes in such a heavily traf-fi cked area probably held some signifi cance for the people of Dermsdorf. “Everyone would have known the bronze was there,” Küssner says. “The question is: why was it left?” Because the pot was buried essentially under the house’s front doorstep, Küssner argues that the house may have been some sort of ritual center for the surrounding settlements. “The number of axes may have held some kind of meaning,” he says, but so far it is unclear what that meaning might have been.

Küssner hopes to continue working at Dermsdorf. He wants to scan the soil around Dermsdorf to fi nd the outlines of the settlement and, based on those results, perhaps dig some test trenches. A fragment of antler found at the Dermsdorf house is being carbon-dated to establish the build-ing’s age as closely as possible. For now, there are no further excavations planned—

though new results could change that, Küssner says. In the meantime, construction work continues. One way or another, the house will soon disappear beneath asphalt, and cars may be driving over the site by the summer of 2013. ■

Andrew Curry is a contributing editor at Archaeology.

more than a pound. The Leubingen chief-tain and the people who built the Derms-dorf house all lived within a few generations of each other. Küssner says the men and women buried in the Dermsdorf cemetery could have been the grandparents or parents of the people who erected the Leubingen burial mound.

There are only a handful of similar grave mounds in the area, suggesting that the Únětice culture had a defi nite hierarchy. “We know it was a stratifi ed society,” Küss-ner says. “People with political or religious power had a better life.” In contrast to the occupant of the burial mound, the people buried at the Dermsdorf cemetery had much simpler graves than the chieftain’s. “They were buried with some ceramic pots, shell beads, maybe some small bronze pieces—a pin, a ring,” Küssner says. “But nothing like the immense riches we found in the house or in the grave mound.”

IN A BRIGHTLY LIT LAB on the fi rst fl oor of the Thuringian State Preservation Offi ce in Weimar, Küssner arranges

drawer after drawer of the ax heads from Dermsdorf on a table. Before removing the axes from the clay pot, authorities had the pot scanned at a lab in Berlin using computed tomography. The scan produced a three-dimensional image of the contents’ exact placement inside the vessel.

On a nearby screen, Küssner calls up an image of the scan (below). Outlined in green and black are the 100 bronze ax heads, neat-

ly arranged with smaller pieces toward the bottom and larger ones on top. The ax heads—most palm-sized and designed to fi t through a hole drilled in a piece of wood or antler—were the all-purpose weapons and tools of the day. “You could fell a tree with one of these, and just as easily crack a skull,” he says, hefting one. Each weighs about half a pound. It is a tre-

w

w

pb

M

A

hb

h

w

lu

h

h

p

b

Under Bronze Age Heavens

GERMANY’S BEST KNOWN Bronze Age artifact might have been made by

the grandchildren of the people who built the Dermsdorf house. Barely a foot across, the “Nebra sky disc” was discovered in 2000. The fi ve-pound disc bears images of the sun, moon, and 32 stars, all embossed in gold leaf. A cluster of seven stars—representing the Ple-iades constellation, which appears in the sky in the Northern Hemi-sphere around the autumnal equinox and signals the arrival of harvest season—is the oldest astronomical representation ever discovered.

The disc, which is displayed in a dedicated hall in Halle’s State Museum of Prehistory, was uncov-ered by treasure hunters near the eastern German town of Nebra and put up for sale on the black market. To get it back, Swiss police set up an elaborate sting operation together with local archaeologist Harald Meller. “It’s the fi rst realistic depiction of the heavens ever,” Meller says, “and such a thing isn’t seen again till the days of Kepler and Galileo.”

The Nebra Sky Disc

35

AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ocean, centuries pass with little occurring in the way of incident. But on April 15, 1912, deep in the Atlantic,

375 miles southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, that changed. A massive steel structure, after falling for more than two miles, hit the silt and drove into thick clay beneath. Silt bloomed as the sound of the impact reverberated in the darkness. Other pieces of the world’s largest passenger steamship fol-lowed like a heavy rain. The bow came in fast, nose fi rst, plowing a deep fur-row into the clay. Over the next several hours, fragments of the hull, dishes, machinery, and linoleum tiles—and the remains of people—settled across miles of seabed. What had once been a fl oat-ing city was fragmented and scattered two and a half miles down. More than 1,500 people lost their lives.

Slowly but inexorably, the processes of the deep sea went to work. Marine organisms and acidic clay consumed wood and other organic material, includ-ing human remains. Bacteria colonized and began to eat away at the steel, leav-ing behind tendrils and puddles of red,

orange, and yellow byproducts. The ship’s crisp angles blurred and the proud name on the bow, Titanic, dissolved. Silt slowly accumulated on intact paneling, doors still on their hinges, and a metal bed frame with a nightgown draped over it. In 1912, Thomas Hardy imagined, in a poem lamenting Titanic, “Over the mirrors meant/To glass the opulent/The sea-worm crawls—grotesque, slimed, dumb, indiff erent.” Intact compart-ments and cabins that had once been fi lled with air, light, and passengers were full of water pressurized to 6,000 pounds per square inch and seem-ingly alien life. Over decades, the wreck became a haven for deep-sea creatures such as ghost crabs, crinoids, and worms—a series of “reefs” in what had once been a deep-sea desert.

Seventy-three years after the sinking, in the early morning of September 1, 1985, Argo, an unmanned deep-sea vehi-cle, disturbed the darkness for the fi rst time. Argo, carrying video cameras and sonar, was towed at the end of miles of coaxial cable by the Woods Hole Ocean-ographic Institution (WHOI) ship Knorr. Argo sent back to the ship grainy, real-time images from the deep—the fi rst the world had seen of Titanic since

It has been 100 years since it sank, and 27 years since it was rediscovered. Now the wreck

of Titanic has fi nally become what it was always meant to be: an archaeological site.

by James P. Delgado

Archaeology of Titanic

Inside a laboratory of the oceanographic vessel Jean Charcot,

an array of screens display sonar images

of the wreck of Titanic, part of the

effort to create the first comprehensive

archaeological map of the site.


leagues whether “proper” archaeology could be done underwater, Bass said that archaeol-ogy was archaeology, regardless of where it was performed. Since then, thousands of underwater archaeological sites, from ship-wrecks to prehistoric sites to submerged cities, have been located, documented, and excavated. And advanced diving, especially mixed-gas technology, has allowed divers to go deeper and stay longer, without the muddling eff ects of pressurized air on the brain. However, deep sites still lay beyond the reach of divers.

Ironically, the fi rst steps in expanding underwater archaeology to the depths were propelled by the Titanic disaster itself, as the fi rst sonar systems were developed and tested after the sinking to

locate and avoid icebergs. This technology improved through the two world wars and into the Cold War, moving into deeper waters, until its most dramatic discovery to date—Titanic. But even in 1985, the idea that Titanic could be explored, photo-graphed, and mapped like an archaeological site seemed like the stuff of science fi ction.

The introduction of the global positioning system (GPS) was the next big step, providing a platform on which to inte-grate sonar data with increasingly sophisticated maps and satellite imagery. Better robotic systems also evolved, as well as manned submersibles that could travel even deeper than Titanic. But the submersibles are hardly the same as diving on a site. They are built on Cold War technology, with tiny crew compartments surrounded by life support, thrusters, batteries, lights, cameras, and sonar systems. Lying face down, neck craned upward in the cold, dark capsules, scientists peer through small portholes and rely on deployed instruments and mechanical arms to interact with the environment outside.

My fi rst submersible dive was in 2000, in a Russian Mir-class sub, to assess the wreck and cultural tourism at the Titanic site. I was struck by both the extreme conditions and the incredible skill that these unsung pilots need to safely launch, dive, navigate, and ascend. As submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeloet of the salvage and exhibition company RMS Titanic Inc. noted, those missions to Titanic were merely glimpses through a “keyhole.” I spent my submersible dive with my forehead pressed for hours against the cold steel of a Mir hull to stare through four-inch-thick Plexiglas—I know exactly what he means. Each of those dives added incremen-tally to our knowledge of Titanic, but the ability to do a basic detailed survey, map with accuracy, and measure—let alone impose the archaeological discipline of a grid and units, as one would on a divable underwater site—remained elusive.

black-and-white photographs depicted it depart-

ing the Irish coast in 1912. Humans fi rst visited the wreck the following year in the research submersible Alvin, peering out of small portholes. In 1987, another submersible, Nautile, glided over the site, and with a robotic arm carefully picked up the fi rst of 1,800 artifacts it would recover from the mud during that expedition.

Since then, a new era has dawned in our quest to study the past that lies at the bottom of the ocean. In 2010 two highly sophisticated robotic vehicles systematically crisscrossed the seabed on their own, with high-resolution sonar and camera systems, creating the fi rst comprehensive map of the Titanicsite. Another robot, at the end of a fi ber-optic cable, sent to the surface live, full-color, 3-D images, allowing scientists to virtually walk the decks of the ship. This latest research eff ort, of which I was a part, represents a paradigm shift in underwa-ter archaeology. For the fi rst time, Titanic can be treated and explored like any other underwater site—even extreme depth is no longer an obstacle to archaeology. Thanks to rapid tech-nological advances and interdisciplinary work, archaeologists have a whole new perspective on sites such as Titanic, and new questions to ask, questions we never could have dreamed of when underwater archaeology began just 50 years ago.

AROUND THE TIME THAT deep-sea technology was fi rst developing, so was underwater archaeology. Its spe-cifi c techniques and methods began to emerge in the

late 1950s, through pioneers such as Jacques Yves Cousteau, Frederic Dumas, Peter Throckmorton, Honor Frost, and George Bass. Their work culminated in Bass’ fi rst complete underwater excavation of a shipwreck—a Bronze Age vessel at Cape Gelidonya, Turkey—in 1960. When asked by col-

Titanic departs Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, five days before the ship struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic.

leagbe dogywaunwrcitexmtombt

u

locate and avoid icebthe two world wars an

black-and-white photographs depicted it depart-

TitaniAprilan ic


squared off in the pages of USA Today: “Salvaging Artifacts Is an Insult to the Dead” versus “Salvaging Artifacts Brings the Legend to Life.” Public opinion remains divided. While news-paper columnists, cartoonists, and archaeologists decried the practice, countless people have lined up to visit RMS Titanic Inc.’s touring artifact exhibitions.

The furor over the recovery of artifacts from Titanic is understandable. The greater concerns for archaeology, how-ever, are how and why the artifacts were removed, and what would become of them. Were they being appropriately con-served, cataloged, and researched? Would they ultimately go under the hammer at auction, artifact by artifact? The legal history of Titanic and RMS Titanic Inc. is long and complex. The U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, which for two decades has overseen the salvage company’s activities under admiralty law, decided a number of these questions. Rulings by the court have limited recovery to artifacts scattered outside the intact bow and stern sections. At one stage, RMS Titanic Inc. sued the Departments of State and Commerce unsuc-cessfully to stop publication of the International Agreement on Titanic guidelines. Most recently the court awarded RMS Titanic Inc. title to the 5,000 artifacts, with the stipulation that the company follow international standards for conserva-tion, treatment, and display of the collection. Furthermore, any sale of the artifacts would be subject to review by the court, and allowed only if the collection stays together and is main-tained for public display and study. (As ARCHAEOLOGY went to press, the results of a sealed-bid auction were scheduled to be announced on April 11, 2012, days before the 100th anni-versary of the sinking.)

Amid the years of legal battles and publicity, in 1997 I participated in an independent review of the work that had been done on the Titanic site for the International Congress of Maritime Museums. The review was prompted by concerns of the international museum and archaeological communities over the impending display of recovered Titanic artifacts at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. Larry Murphy of the National Park Service, Roger Knight of the National Maritime Museum, and I were surprised to learn that though RMS Titanic Inc.’s artifact recoveries had been selec-tive—for iconic, intact, and, at times, random artifacts—they had been conducted with great skill. The recoveries had been documented by video, and additional data existed, we were told, to create a map of where the artifacts had come from.

RMS Titanic Inc. had also conducted studies in 1996 of the wreck and its environment, such as a sonar survey through the mud to assess now-buried damage to the hull that may be from the iceberg impact, and an ongoing assessment of the biological corrosion by microbiologist Roy Cullimore and his colleagues to determine how long Titanic would remain intact. Ballard and NOAA also jointly examined the site and the remains of the bow and stern, and fi lm director James Cameron explored the interior, revealing much about the ship and what happened inside it the evening that it sank.

Much data had been gathered since Titanic’s rediscovery, but the scope of the entire site remained largely unknown—we

After my 2000 visit to Titanic, I wrote in ARCHAEOLOGY magazine:

We see scoop marks that show where selected pieces have been plucked from clusters of artifacts—no grids, no scientifi c sampling—simply for their display or monetary value. What is happening here, two-and-one-half miles down and out of sight of much of the world, is not archaeology. . . . In short, other than the well-known intact bow section and the stern and the sub pilots’ recollections, no detailed “road map,” let alone a highly detailed archaeological site plan, exists.Photos of Titanic had been taken and artifacts collected, but

none of these activities refl ected the process by which we apply scientifi c methods to the study of the past. To actually study the wreck, and the lives of the people on the ship, we would need a detailed site map that we could visit again and again, with ever-more sophisticated questions. Could such a map be created not only for the largest features—the bow and stern sections—but also for artifacts ranging from boilers and hull sections, down to a teacup, bottle, or button? Could we catalog the site’s smallest constituents in a nondestructive way? Could we discern the site formation process—determine exactly how the pieces of the ship and its contents came to their resting places? And did the salvage of artifacts from the site compro-mise its archaeological integrity and render archaeological technique and method moot? The 2010 Titanic expedition, led by David Gallo of WHOI, set out to answer these ques-tions and establish that archaeological science beyond mere observation could be conducted at crushing depths.

FOLLOWING THE DISCOVERY OF the wreck in 1985, there were opposing views on what should be done with it. In the United States, Congress passed the RMS

Titanic Memorial Act at the urging of oceanographer Robert Ballard, who led the expedition that discovered the wreck. It recommended that the site be left untouched as a memo-rial. But because Titanic rests in international waters, it was under no nation’s jurisdiction—under admiralty law, Titanic was open to anyone with the right equipment and technical expertise to reach it. The act also gave the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), working with the Department of State, the task of negotiating an international agreement on Titanic and developing guidelines for appropriate activities on the site, a process that took a decade and a half.

As this discussion was taking place, beginning in 1987, a private American company formed by investors and known as Titanic Ventures Limited Partnership (now Premier Exhi-bitions, with the Titanic artifacts handled by subsidiary RMS Titanic Inc.), began diving to the wreck with codiscoverers IFREMER, France’s deep-sea agency, to recover artifacts and photograph the ship. Working from submersibles, over seven expeditions between 1987 and 2004, RMS Titanic Inc. ulti-mately raised some 5,000 artifacts, with the aim of displaying them for profi t. Their activities were controversial. In 1987, the London Daily Express called the recovery dives “Vandalism for Profi t.” A 1988 editorial in Discover magazine was titled, “We All Loot in a Yellow Submarine.” Guest columnists


were deployed on another mission, classifi ed at the time: the successful location of the wreckage of Air France fl ight 447 in the South Atlantic.)

The other robot was an ROV, Remora, a refrigerator-sized frame covered with crush-proof foam, cables, thrusters, deep-sea lights, and high-defi nition cameras from WHOI’s Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory (AIVL). Rated to dive to 20,000 feet, Remora, operated by Tim Weller and Bradley Gil-lis of Phoenix International, was tethered to the ship by more than 12,400 feet of fi ber-optic cable and driven by joystick. Two levels above the main deck of Jean Charcot, in a darkened compartment of the ship’s laboratory, the AIVL team conducted systematic sonar and digital imaging of the bow, stern, and other major sections of Titanic. Wearing bulky black plastic glasses, we watched large screens and saw Titanic, brightly lit and in 3-D, and relayed directions to the ROV’s pilot—stop, a little to port, turn 10 degrees—for hours. I was struck by how much more insight—digitally documented in high defi nition, with remarkable precision and clarity—we were gaining compared with being down there in a manned submersible. The lights, literally and fi guratively, were on for the fi rst time. Previously, the results of work on the wreck had to be carefully pieced together, at times by hand, to provide glimpses of certain artifacts and features. Now, the entire wreck site became accessible, down to a teacup or wine bottle or crabs crawling along the hull.

Our data acquisition complete, the processing of this information is ongoing. AIVL’s William Lange (a member of the original Titanic discovery team) and his visualization team, including 3-D specialist Evan Kovacs, are merging all this opti-cal and sonar data together into a detailed, comprehensive baseline map of the wreck, built on a GIS database developed by the National Park Service’s David Conlin, co-principal archaeologist on the expedition (with me). Science begins with measurement. Understanding the relationships between features and objects on the seafl oor is key to deciphering how the site was created on April 15, 1912.

With the new site map, we are able to virtually “fl y in” on the wreck, dropping into the water anywhere in a roughly three-by-fi ve-mile area that encompasses the full extent of the wreck, and get a view of anything, from the large intact portions of the ship down to the most current-scattered pieces of coal, dishes, and deck tiles. Digitally, we can move in closer to any portion of Titanic—now sectioned into grid units like a proper archaeological site—including a small area that holds the greatest concentration of features. There, close to the intact but mangled stern, is a collection of pieces of hull, machinery, superstructure, and other artifacts known for decades as the “debris fi eld.” We have now started referring to it as the “artifact fi eld”—more than 60 major features and tens of thousands of artifacts in a non-random pattern—where we are both plotting relationships between objects and studying the features on a pair of shoes.

We have begun the task of identifying features, artifacts, and their contexts, especially with the help of Titanic expert Bill Sauder. I have known of Sauder’s scholarship for years, so I was not surprised by the depth of his knowledge. But

had no detailed knowledge of the whole, and didn’t even know how large it was. The “keyhole” views of the wreck had not described or defi ned the scattered fi eld of artifacts, for exam-ple. Understanding Titanic from these eff orts was like driving through a city at night, in a rainstorm, peering through a por-tion of the windshield, and trying to piece together in your mind’s eye what the headlights revealed around each corner. But by 2010, with the latest technology and the right team, a comprehensive, fi nely detailed site map was fi nally in reach. A decade after my fi rst visit to Titanic in 2000, I returned with the best-equipped and most experienced group of scientists and technicians ever assembled for such a project.

The result was a multiagency expedition, including WHOI, the Waitt Institute, Phoenix International, NOAA, and the National Park Service, that would develop a detailed archaeological site plan and report. The new eff ort also includes a Titanic Advisory Council to review proposals to work on the site in accordance with UNESCO and U.S. his-toric preservation law and practice. Other recommendations include a voluntary exclusion zone around the wreck site where ships would not discharge waste of any sort (modern garbage is indeed present on the site) and designated areas where submersibles visiting the wreck would enter and exit the archaeological area. This last point is important—25 years of dives have littered the wreck site with the dive weights each sub drops to ascend to the surface.

RMS Titanic Inc. paid for the expedition, which included many staunch critics (some directly involved in the litigation) of the prior handling of the Titanic wreck—myself among them. Such a collaboration was simply unimaginable to many people right up until the mission’s launch in the research ship Jean Charcot from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in August 2010.

RATHER THAN PEERING at Titanic as if through a rain-splattered windshield at night, we now have an elevated view of the “city,” with the clarity and detail of a slow,

low-altitude fl ight at noon. This is possible because of the lat-est robotic technology, deployed in the 2010 expedition—two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and a remotely oper-ated vehicle (ROV). The AUV team, including Mike Dessner and Andy Sherrell of the Waitt Institute, and Greg Packard, Mike Purcell, and Jim Partan of WHOI, operated and main-tained the AUVs. At 12.5 feet long and 28 inches in diameter, they look like fat, yellow torpedoes. Weighing one ton and costing nearly three million dollars each, they can dive to almost 20,000 feet and run for up to 22 hours autonomously at depth, following preprogrammed courses at speeds of up to fi ve knots. They carry a variety of instruments, including high-resolution multi-beam profi ling sonar; dual-frequency side-scan sonar; sub-bottom profi ling sonar; an automatic digi-tal camera with strobe; conductivity, depth, and temperature sensors; and collision avoidance software. One of the scientists on the expedition joked that if you are not there to pick the AUVs up when they surface, they have the ability to call your cellphone to ask for a ride. Once retrieved, they provide tera-bytes of data from the ocean fl oor. (After our expedition, they


boilers. We can delineate where heavier objects landed and blew away silt, and at the bow we can see how the hull dug in, fl exed, and sprang back, leaving a knife-sharp edge in the mud even a century later. We have also plotted pairs of shoes, laced and tied, next to disturbed mud—places where victims came to rest.

Some of the site formation processes were known or sur-mised before. As early as 1986, Lange, with Ballard and Al Uchupi of WHOI, worked with images from Argo to begin to map around Titanic’s stern and hypothesize about patterns of the fallen artifacts. Others, including a 2005 television docu-mentary crew working with experts, developed new theories on how Titanic came apart. And Cameron’s expeditions sent small robots deep into the bow that yielded detailed informa-tion on the sinking and the exceptional levels of preservation inside the wreck. A variety of further expeditions, including two by NOAA in 2003–2004, had surveyed, generated partial photomosaics, and continued to assess the bacteriological consumption of Titanic’s steel.

The 2010 expedition brought these eff orts together with a new base of solid data, a grid, assigned units, and feature numbers, providing a new perspective on how Titanic went from ship to shipwreck, and how it continues to change over

I was amazed all the same when he meticulously explained how a battered feature on the seabed was one of the revolv-ing doors from Titanic’s fi rst-class smoking room, and as he identifi ed the half-intact oval domed skylight from one of the ship’s two grand staircases.

Returning virtually to the wreck again and again like this is critical to any scientifi c approach. Rather than seeing Titanic through a keyhole, we can interrogate the entire thing and ask fresh questions of it.

The archaeological methods now being applied to Titanic have given us clear insights into the site formation process, specifi cally how Titanic broke apart and fell, and how the bow plowed into the mud at an angle. We can see how the stern sank, along with broken sections of the hull, including a cluster of

A portion of the first-ever comprehensive map of the Titanic wreck site (above), created with automated underwater vehicles (left), shows the ship’s mangled stern and the “artifact field,” including portions of the hull, boilers, and machinery. This sonar map was only the first step toward a finely detailed archaeological site map.

WHERE IS EVERYTHING ELSE? Still inside. Cameron’s explorations of the bow interior revealed cabins

complete with furniture, cupboards stacked with dishes, painted wooden paneling, and hanging light fi xtures. Cargo and luggage, including the packed bags of passengers, remain in the hold, and the mailroom, visible through a hole that opened in the hull when it fl exed and broke on impact with the seabed, has stacks of mailbags. We believe that, while badly mangled, the stern also retains intact cabins. Titanic was a fl oating microcosm of society, a city short-lived and dramatically terminated that carried both the rich traveling for pleasure and immi-grants seeking new lives in the United States or Canada. Each cabin, trunk, suitcase, valise, grip, and mailbag is itself both archive and memorial.

RMS Titanic Inc. recovered a few scattered bags from the ship, and the clothing, correspon-dence, and personal eff ects inside them demon-strated exceptional levels of preservation. These bags speak evocatively about the people who packed them, many of whom are known only as initials and a last name on a manifest. By the time this story hits newsstands and mailboxes, the bags, the rest of RMS Titanic Inc.’s collec-tion, and the company’s documentation on the site will have, pending court approval, a new steward. Hopefully further study of this collec-tion will continue to tell the story of what we now know to be one of the great human migra-tions, the nineteenth- and twentieth-century maritime trail from Europe to America.

It is clear that Titanic, though well-studied, has so much more to teach us. We have yet to conduct detailed oceano-graphic studies to assess the wreck’s eff ects on the surrounding deep-sea environment, and what currents, oxygen levels, tem-perature, and marine organisms are precisely doing to Titanic. Those processes are as important to the future of Titanic as is our dedication to preserving and learning from the site. Titanic still awaits a solid, comprehensive research and management plan, as well as what I see as the most appropriate home for its salvaged artifacts, a public Titanic museum. There are no plans for such an initiative at the moment, but those artifacts are as close as we will ever get to the people who were caught up in that night’s events a century ago. Ultimately, archaeology’s role in Titanic’s story will be to move beyond April 15, 1912, and deeper into the society that produced Titanic, populated its cabins, and looked to the ship as a voyage to the future. Answers will be elusive, but we’re now better equipped than ever before to ask those questions. ■

James P. Delgado is the Director of Maritime Heritage for the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of

National Marine Sanctuaries.

time. The new map revealed to us that the scattered features and artifacts do not represent everything that once lay inside or on the ship. Rather than streaming like comet tails from the bow and stern as the ship sank, most contents of the arti-fact fi eld come from the full disintegration of a section of the ship—some 70 feet of Titanic’s 882-foot length that branched up and out between two of the deck funnels. Broken pieces of the hull from that section were accompanied by two of the reciprocating engine cylinders, the fi ve boilers from the num-ber one boiler room, 51 tons of coal (of 1,000 or more tons on board), and four tons of coke. This segment also included the contents of the Verandah Café, the Palm Court, the aft end of the First Class Lounge, and a group of fi rst-, second-, and third-class cabins, as well as the galleys and pantries, sculleries, wine room, barber shop, smoking room, hospital, cold storage rooms, silverware locker, and baker’s shop. Among these items on the seafl oor are also pieces swept from the deck, such as the funnels, the davits used to launch lifeboats, and the remains of the bridge. There is a lot of material down there and refl ected on the site map, but it represents just a tiny fraction of the presumed millions of artifacts. The artifacts salvaged between 1987 and 2004 do not represent even 1 percent of that total.

A suitcase from one of Titanic’s passengers (top), portholes from near the stern of Titanic (above), and the ship’s iconic bow (opposite). Images like these are being integrated into the comprehensive map.


VAST STRETCHES OF CENTRAL ASIA feel eerily uninhabited. Fly at 30,000 feet over the southern part of the former Soviet Union—Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan—and there are long moments when no town or road or fi eld is visible from your window.

The landscape of stark desert, trackless steppe, and rugged mountains seems to swallow up anything human. It is little surprise, then, that this region remains largely terra incognita to most archaeologists.

Wandering bands and tribes roamed this immense area for 5,000 years, herding goat, sheep, cattle, and horses across immense steppes, through narrow valleys, and over high snowy passes. They left occasional tombs that survived the ages, and on rare occasions settled down and built towns or even cities. But for the most part, these peoples left behind few physical traces of their origins, beliefs, or ways of life.

How herding nomads created the network that carried civilization across Central Asia more than 4,000 years ago

by Andrew Lawler

What we know of these nomadic pastoralists comes mainly from their periodic forays into India, the Middle East, and China, where they often wreaked havoc and earned a fear-some reputation as enemies of urban life.

As early as the fi fth century B.C., the Greek historian Herodotus warned of a barbaric and warlike pastoralist people called the Scythians who lived north of the Caucuses and drank human blood from skulls. The hardy Xiongnu from the Sibe-rian steppes raided Chinese towns in the second century B.C., prompting construction of the Great Wall. And troops from Mongolia led by Genghis Khan’s grandson Hulagu Khan laid waste to the rich metropolis of Baghdad in A.D. 1258, ending one of Islam’s most glorious periods.

In the past century, scholars have continued where the ancient writers left off , criticizing these people as destructive, dismissing them as marginal, or, at best, casting them as a harsh tonic for restoring vigor to decaying and soft agricul-

RETHINKING THE THUNDERING

tural societies from ancient Mesopotamia to Imperial Rome to Han China. “Nomadic people are generally the invincible opponents of civilization,” wrote sociologist Jerome Dowd in 1907. A half-century later, British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler blamed the aggressive, chariot-driving Aryans who swept in from the steppes for the demise of the peaceful Indus River civilization after 1800 B.C., though later archae-ologists dismissed that claim.

But Michael Frachetti, a young archaeologist at Washington University in St. Louis, takes the radical view that Central Asians were early midwives in the birth of civilization rather than a destructive force bent on its extirpation. Frachetti argues that ancient pastoralists living in the third millennium B.C., at the time of the fi rst great cities of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus, created a network stretching across thousands of miles that passed along goods, technologies, and ideas cen-tral to urban life. He believes they helped create civilization

Archaeologists are uncovering Bronze Age settlements where modern Uzbek and Tajik pastoralists today drive their flocks through the same landscape as their ancient forebears.

rather than hindering it. “This isn’t the pastoralism of Genghis Khan and his thundering hordes,” says Frachetti, who is dig-ging in both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. “These people aren’t living on the fringe of society,” he says, adding, “They actually are dictating the region’s politics and the economy.”

Most archaeological work in Central Asia during the past century has focused on the open and rolling plains that stretch from the Black Sea to Manchuria. These steppes only came to life after 2000 B.C., when horse domestication and riding suddenly turned a forbidding landscape for pedestrians into a natural highway of grass. Drawing on linguistic research, tex-tual evidence, and remains from steppe tombs, archaeologists and historians have long argued that these peoples migrated en masse from west to east, taking with them fast horses, chariots, metal weapons, and a pantheon of sky gods.

By contrast, the areas to the south of the steppes—a con-fused welter of mountain chains and harsh deserts—have long

HORDES


Covering nearly 500 square miles, this region lies between the Tian Shan and Altai mountain ranges, and boasts sharp peaks topping 12,000 feet, as well as harsh desert. At a site near a village called Begash, on a fl at terrace enclosed by steep canyon walls alongside a small stream, the team uncovered the foundations of simple stone structures along with an array of potsherds and bronze and stone artifacts in stone-lined oval and rectangular tombs. The earliest layers at Begash date to at least as early as 2500 B.C., based on alpha magnetic spectrometry dating of organic remains, says Frachetti. One woman was laid to rest with a bell-shaped hooked bronze earring around 1700 B.C., according to electron spin reso-nance dating. Similar earrings are only found several centuries later some 600 miles to the north on the Siberian steppes, hinting at styles that moved north over time.

More surprisingly, the excava-tors found wheat, which was fi rst

domesticated in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, and broomcorn millet that was fi rst widely grown in northern China. The grains were used ritually in a burial, and radio-carbon dating of the remains dates them to about 2200

B.C., making them the oldest known domesticated grains in Central Asia. The people of Begash may not have grown either grain—there are no grinding stones, the telltale sign of grain preparation—but instead received it via trade networks stretching from the Near East to China.

Dorian Fuller, a leading expert in ancient grains based at University College London, calls the fi nds “important and well dated.” He adds that Chinese crops such as millet began to appear in southwest Asia around 1900 B.C., a few centuries after they reached Begash, which could mean the passage through the mountain regions was a means of gradual transmission from east to west. Frachetti speculates that the grains may have been acquired from other tribes and used for ritual purposes, and then perhaps were passed on in turn to other pastoral peoples.

What makes the Begash discoveries so important is that previously this region was assumed to have been a land of scattered foragers until steppe peoples trickled down into the area’s valleys and mountain ranges after 2000 B.C. But it is becoming evident that the people of Begash were not simple foragers, but sophisticated pastoralists who tended their fl ocks, much as people in the area still do today. They built small encampments, favored sheep and goat over cattle, and ate few wild animals. The inhabitants did not begin to

been dismissed as backwaters of history. In the past, these southern mountains and deserts were considered too remote, rugged, and inhospitable to have played a role in early migra-tions or the emergence of urban life. The Karakum Desert, where it might rain once in a decade, covers nearly two-thirds of today’s Turkmenistan, while the perpetually snow-covered Tian Shan Mountains of western China and eastern Kyrgyzstan soar 24,000 feet into the thin air. It is there that Frachetti and a new generation of archaeologists from the United States and Central Asian nations are discovering evidence of a network of pastoralists who thrived centuries before hooves resounded on the steppes to the north. These forgotten peoples may have carried such markers of civilization as ceramics and grains across thousands of miles, two millennia before the Silk Road linked the Roman Empire with Han China. Frachetti argues that the new data emerging from the region force archaeolo-gists to rethink their ideas about trade across Eurasia during the Bronze Age, when the fi rst civilizations were taking form to the east, south, and west.

FRACHETTI,WHO HAS STUDIED modern-day pastoralists in such unforgiving landscapes as the Sahara and Scandi-navia, was drawn to the southern region of Central Asia

for its environmental diversity of desert, grassland, and alpine meadows. Instead of a wasteland, he saw an ideal landscape for enterprising herders who wanted to pasture their animals in all seasons. Together with his Kazakh colleagues, Frachetti began digging a decade ago in the Dzhungar Mountains of Kazakhstan.

Ancient pastoralists built this dwelling at Begash in Kazakhstan in around 2500 B.C. In a nearby grave, archaeologists found these tiny grains of millet and wheat, the oldest domesticated grains yet found in Central Asia.


SEEKING MORE EVIDENCE, Frachetti and his colleagues in recent years turned to an area 400 miles southwest of Begash in today’s Uzbekistan. Frachetti and Farhad

Maksudov of the Uzbek Archaeology Institute chose a region north of Samarkand, the ancient Silk Road city, because of its proximity to another, even more ancient, town called Sarazm (Sogdian for “where the land begins”). Founded in the fourth millennium B.C., Sarazm—just over the modern border in Tajikistan—fl ourished for a thousand years and is the oldest large-scale settlement in Central Asia, what scholars call a “proto-urban center.” It also marks, at least prior to the fi nds at Begash, the northeastern frontier of the Fertile Crescent’s reach. Sarazm, discovered accidentally by a villager in 1976 and excavated in the 1980s by Soviet archaeologists, was once a pros-perous center of trade for goods such as turquoise, agate, wool, and leather. It was connected through trade networks to the

fl ourishing civilizations of Mesopotamia, Iran, and the Indus, as well as with traders as far north as Siberia and as far east as Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush Mountains. As with cities from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus River, Sarazm’s economy was based on wheat, barley, sheep, and goats. The people produced fi ne pottery and had a taste for luxury items imported from afar.

use horses until well into the second millennium B.C., and the varieties of sheep and goat found here today appear to be related to the varieties fi rst domesticated thousands of years before in western Iran, near ancient Mesopotamia. This indi-cates that Begash was “at the crossroads of extremely wide networks among Eurasian communities by the third millen-nium B.C.,” asserts Frachetti. That doesn’t mean that traders traversed thousands of miles in this early period. Instead, the archaeologist envisions pastoralists taking their fl ocks to higher pastures in the summer, where they encountered neighbors from other valleys doing the same. Thus, ideas and technologies might have passed gradually through the mountain corridors of southern Central Asia. This corridor, Frachetti believes, may have been a key conduit for Bronze Age developments farther into East Asia and Mongolia. Fra-chetti’s team is now busy analyzing both human and animal

bone and tooth samples in order to garner isotopic, DNA, and health data. This sort of digging requires stamina and patience, as well as a sense of adventure. “It’s a lot of work for a few artifacts in places that are hard to fi nd,” says David Anthony, an archaeologist at Hartwick College and a long-time critic of Frachetti’s theory. He acknowledges, however, the importance of the discovery. “Begash is one candle shin-ing in this vast dark region,” he says. “Anything dating to 2000 B.C. or earlier is incredibly important.” However, he adds that there is still not enough evidence that the people of Begash were anything other than an anomaly.

Archaeologist Michael Frachetti is focusing his research on the role of Bronze Age nomadic pastoralists in spreading civilization across Central Asia and into China on several sites, including Begash in Uzbekistan and sites near Sarazm in Kazakhstan.


Frachetti and Maksudov’s goal was to understand how pastoralists may have interact-ed with their neighbors, with Sarazm, and with more distant places during the third and second millennia B.C. One of the questions they asked was whether the area’s ancient pas-toralists indeed guided their herds as high up as alpine meadows, as Frachetti specu-lated. If so, then they might easily encounter pastoralists from other valleys who had made the same trip. Such seasonal meetings might have forged networks that explain the diff usion of goods and technologies without the need for mass migration. No evidence of such interaction, however, had been found. But in June of 2011, surveying a pasture more than 6,000 feet above sea level, in an area of 3.5 acres, Frachetti and Maksudov uncovered evidence of at least fi fteen ancient dwellings on a mound, as well as more than 1,000 pieces of ceramic. Though some are from medieval times, others appear to be from the Bronze Age. The team hopes to begin excavating the site this sum-mer to gather more data.

Based on ethnographic research, knowledge of the local geography, and a measure of intuition, Frachetti and Maksudov also sought out likely Bronze Age settlement spots in the steep

valleys below the alpine meadows. At one site dubbed “the eagle’s nest” after the resident bird of prey’s massive home, they found pottery and charcoal amid the remains of a small settlement. Preliminary radiocarbon dates place the site at roughly 2000 B.C., in the middle of the Bronze Age, and long before steppe pastoralists from the north might have migrated here. Other sites, including one in a protected ravine, yielded medieval Islamic pottery, Iron Age potsherds, and what appear to be remains of Bronze Age pots, which are still under analy-sis. “Even if the settlement only dates to 1200 B.C., it will add 3,000 years to the pastoral record of Uzbekistan,” Frachetti says. Though not permanent, these sites appear to have been repeatedly used for millennia, and they appear to be scattered over vast areas. “If you consider there are thousands of valleys in this region, and if there were fi ve to 15 villages per valley,

then you have an incredible force for civiliza-tion,” Frachetti says.

The combined fi nds in Uzbekistan and at Begash suggest to Frachetti that the people living in Central Asia around 2000 B.C. were part of the rapidly urbanizing world, when the great cities of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus were at their fi rst peak, and just as Chinese urbanization was beginning. Though these pastoralists may never have traveled more than a few dozen miles from plain to valley to alpine meadow, Frachetti maintains they had access to the wider world. And, by

Working in the Uzbek hills north of Samarkand, Farhad Maksudov (left) and Frachetti (right) examine a trench for organic material that will help them date the sparse remains left by ancient pastoralists.

These hilly mountainsides in northern Uzbekistan offered

plentiful protected grazing land for the flocks of Bronze Age pastoralists in winter. In

summer, they would take their sheep and goats to the cooler

pastures at higher altitudes.

get things from southwest Asia through those mountain passes is not convincing,” says Victor Mair of the University of Penn-sylvania. He sees the debate as an old one, pitting those who view the dominance of Mesopotamia and Iran to the south against those who are focused on the steppe societies to the west and north. Anthony suggests that in the end, researchers may well discover that both sides are right, and that Central Asian pastoralists had links with both western steppe peoples as well as the civilizations to the south. But the key role that Central Asian pastoralists played in the emergence of civiliza-tion across the vast continent may no longer be at issue.

For the moment, all agree that more fi eldwork in places long ignored is necessary. For example, one of Frachetti’s students is now digging in the Altai, far to the north of Begash, to explore possible southern connections through the mountain corridor. Researchers also hope that genetic and isotopic analysis of both human and animal bones may help resolve the controversy. Analyses of modern sheep in the area point to an Iranian origin, strengthening Frachetti’s argument that Begash and other Central Asian sites were connected with peoples to the south and west.

Whatever the outcome, the image of the nomad as solely a bloodthirsty marauder may fi nally be laid to rest. Whether through small networks, mass migrations, or some combina-tion, pastoralists in fact served as the connective tissue as civilization expanded across the Asian continent, funneling goods, ideas, and innovative technologies. Frachetti is eager to add to slowly mounting data that are certain to revamp our ideas about their role. “We’re going to fi nd many Begashes,” he predicts. “We don’t have to worry—they are out there.” ■

Andrew Lawler is a contributing editor at Archaeology.

passing along important innovations such as grains and other goods, they had a hand in connecting far-fl ung civilizations. This movement from south to north took place centuries before the horse-riding pastoralists moved across the Eurasian steppes from west to east.

Some archaeologists champion that view as groundbreaking research while others dismiss it as unconvincing theorizing. “Frachetti’s ideas will upset a few apple carts, but so be it,” says Dan Rogers, a Smithsonian Institution anthropologist who works in Mongolia. Philip Kohl, an archaeologist at Wellesley College who has dug extensively in Central Asia, fi nds Frach-etti’s methods valuable and his thesis intriguing. He too prefers the concept of chains of networks to mass migrations. “There just isn’t evidence for waves of warriors running from one end of the steppes to another,” Kohl says. But he is taking a wait-and-see approach until Frachetti can provide more data. “I wouldn’t call it a robust body of evidence,” he adds.

According to David Anthony, the dominant view is still that pastoralists went from west to east, rather than north through the southern Central Asian terrain. He believes that it is not surprising that the Uzbek sites appear to have had contact with Iran to the south, given their proximity to Sarazm. However, he’s skeptical that infl uence extended much beyond Begash, or that it was strong. “The idea that pastoralists from Iran brought domesticated animals and plants as far as Begash is interesting,” says Anthony, “but with just one site it is diffi cult to interpret.” He also questions the idea that millet might have come from as far away as China, and suggests instead it might have reached Europe via the steppes then circled back north.

Other scholars remain adamantly opposed to Frachetti’s concept of pastoralist networks as a means of transmission of ideas, technology, and raw materials. “The idea that you could


Frachetti and Maksudov plan to continue their search for evidence of Bronze Age pastoralists in the mountains of Uzbekistan and beyond.

Professor Emerita Barbara Voorhies of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has spent much of her career investigating Mesoamerica’s Archaic period, the time when people were on the verge of practicing agriculture and settling in permanent villages. Over a span of nearly 35years, she has excavated on several occasions at the 5,000-year-old site of Tlacuachero in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

THE SITE OF TLACUACHERO in southern Mexico is an island in a mangrove swamp made up almost entirely of clamshells. Material recovered from the site shows

that it was a place where people harvested shellfi sh and fi sh between 5,050 and 4,230 years ago—long before the great civilizations of Mesoamerica would build their city-states. Over the years, the island grew as clams were harvested from the swamp and the shells were discarded there. While the shell


mound was accumulating, the early people at Tlacuachero built several superimposed clay fl oors at the island center to create smooth surfaces that were easier to walk and work on. Nothing resembling the remains of houses has been found at the site, which probably indicates that the place was used only for processing the food that people gathered from the swamp.

Excavations begun in 1973 revealed holes where sturdy wooden posts had been driven into the fl oors. The pattern of the postholes marks places where racks for drying fi sh may

Games Ancient People PlayedAn intriguing discovery in a Mexican swamp provides evidence of the earliest form of amusement in the Americas

Oval arrangements of small holes (above) found at the site of Tlacuachero (right), may have been used to play an early type of “board game.” Clay disks, with markings on one side (inset), might have been thrown like dice but date to hundreds of years later than the game boards.

by Barbara Voorhies


vised arrangements of small stones. In places where stones were not easily available, people made their game boards by digging small holes. The Hualapai people of Arizona used a type of game board closely resembling the oval features at Tlacuachero.

In the Hualapai board game, an example of a race game, the board is a circle of stones roughly four feet in diameter with a gap in it where the players could sit. In place of dice, the Hualapai used short pieces of wood that are fl at on one side and rounded on the other. The players would throw three of these sticks onto a large “striking stone” in the center of the circle and move their counters according to the number of sticks that landed with the fl at side facing up. The winner was the fi rst player to move his or her counter to a large stone at the far side of the board.

Arizona is a long way from Tlacuachero. But people throughout Mesoamerica had similar gaming traditions. Game boards as old as 1,200 years have been found etched in stone and scratched in stucco at ancient cities from Teotihuacán near modern-day Mexico City to Copán in northern Honduras. Some modern-day Maya still play a “war” dice game called Bul to celebrate the beginning of the planting season. The

have stood. Also on the fl oors were groups of tiny holes in oval patterns. These oval features are clustered only in one area of the fl oors, but why they were made has been a mystery ever since the fi rst one was found. Features like these are often interpreted by archaeologists as being either purely utilitarian or purely ritualistic, which leaves out a whole range of human activities that has nothing to do with religion or making a liv-ing. But an answer to the question of what the oval features were used for may have been provided by an unlikely source—a book titled Games of the North American Indians, published in 1907, by Stewart Culin. Were the oval features used to play a game? Historical, ethnographic, and archaeological evidence supports this idea.

Culin’s book pulled together ethnographic accounts show-ing that board games were played by societies across the area that is now Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Nearly all of the board games Culin compiled were variations on one of two themes: wars and races. In war games, the object is to capture your opponent’s pieces, as in checkers. In race games, the winner is the fi rst player to move his or her pieces to a goal—Candyland and Snakes and Ladders are modern versions of race games. The “boards” themselves were usually impro-

This 16th-century image shows Aztecs playing a game called patolli, next to Macuilxochitl, the god of games, whom gamblers prayed to for luck. His name translates as “Five Flower,” shown here by the flower he holds and five circles.

a person who had what we would consider a gambling addiction, but instead, he attributes the person’s prob-lem to his having been born on an inauspicious day: “He wagered everything which was in his home. He used up everything in patolli and tlachtli [a

type of ballgame].” The friars disapproved of the gambling and that the gamblers

often invoked Macuilxochitl, the god of games, for luck. Macuilxochitl also appears in documents from neighboring societies, such as the Eastern Nahuas and Mixtecs, indicat-ing that this gaming culture was widespread.

If the oval features at Tlacuachero are indeed game boards, they are the earliest evidence of people playing games in Meso-america. Parts of more than 10 of these ovals have been found at the site. One of the most telling details is that as the clay fl oors were repaired and remade, so were the oval features. For the fi sherfolk of Tlacuachero, game playing had apparently become one of the necessities of life. ■

Barbara Voorhies is a professor emerita of the University of

game board is a line of 20 maize kernels. A player or team of players starts at each end. Each team gets fi ve game pieces, usually small twigs, leaf stems, or blades of grass. For dice, they hollow out one side of a fl at maize kernel and blacken it with charcoal. They throw four of these ker-nels, count the number that land with the black side facing up, and move their pieces accordingly. The object of the game is to land your piece in the same space as your opponent’s, thereby capturing it. Next you have to move the captured piece back to your end of the board and avoid having it recaptured on the way.

Historical accounts written by Span-ish friars in the sixteenth century provide another line of evidence about the oval features at Tlacuachero. Friar Diego Durán described a game that was played in Tenochtitlán, the ancient Aztec capital. The players used split reeds for dice, and a game board pecked into a building’s fl oor:

“Small cavities were carved out of a stucco fl oor in the manner of a lottery board. Facing each other, one (player) took ten pebbles, and the other (also took) ten. The fi rst placed his pebbles on his side, and the other on his. Then they cast split reeds on the ground. These jumped, and those that fell with the hollow side facing upward indicated that a man could move his pebbles that many squares.”

Other historical accounts written by Spanish friars describe Aztec versions of bowling, checkers, and a second dice game called patolli. In place of dice, players used large patol beans that were marked on one side with a white dot or small hole. Four or fi ve of these beans were used for each throw, and their confi guration determined the score of the throw. The players used pebbles as counters and moved them around a board that consisted of two long rows of squares in the form of an X painted on a woven mat.

According to the friars’ accounts, Aztec games were often played on feast days, when people from diff erent territories came together, allowing players to gamble for exotic goods. In this way, playing games may have served an economic purpose as a means of distributing wealth. According to the Spanish accounts, there was often heavy betting by both players and onlookers. The betting gave rise to a group of itinerant professional gamblers, but the games also came with serious costs for some. Consequences for not being able to pay gambling debts were often dire and could include death by hanging. Friar Bernardino Sahagún wrote about


Archaeological evidence of game playing is widespread in Mesoamerica. A game board carved into a stone (above) was found at Piedras Negras in Guatemala. This statue of the Aztec god Macuilxochitl (left) dates to the 15th or 16th century.

a pwoadatleo“wH

typedisapproved of the gamblin

f i k d M il hi l h

eds

byof

me ed

oner orrow, corees as

that h f f X

Archaegame Mesoacarvewas fGuatAzte(leftor 16

Over the years, technology hasmade the way we live easier, safer and more convenient. Inmany cases, it’s even made many products more affordable… (remember how much the firstVCRs used to cost?). Unfortunately,the cost of hearing aids neverseemed to come down. Now, a newalternative has been invented… it’scalled Perfect Choice HD™.

Perfect Choice HD is NOT ahearing aid. Hearing aids can only be sold by an audiologist. Inorder to get a hearing aid, youhad to go to thedoctor’s office for abattery of tests andnumerous fittinga p p o i n t m e n t s .Once they had youtested and fitted,you would have to pay as much as$5000 for the product. Now,

thanks to the efforts of the doctorwho leads a renowned hearing institute, there is Perfect Choice HD.It’s designed to accurately amplifysounds and deliver them to yourear. Because we’ve developed an efficient production process, wecan make a great product at an affordable price. The unit has been designed to have an easily accessible battery, but it is small and lightweight enough to hide behind your ear… only you’ll knowyou have it on. It’s comfortable andwon’t make you feel like you have

something stuck in your ear. Itprovides high quality audio sosounds and conversations will beeasier to hear and understand.

Try it for yourself with our exclusive home trial. Some peopleneed hearing aids but many justneed the extra boost in volume thata PSAP gives them. We want you tobe happy with Perfect Choice HD,so we are offering to let you try itfor yourself. If you are not totally

satisfied with this product, simplyreturn it within 60 days for a refundof the full product purchase price.Don’t wait… don’t miss out on another conversation… call now!

Are you or a loved one frustrated

in these situations?• Restaurants • Dinner parties

• Outdoor conversations • Lectures • Sermons

• Meetings …and other times where youneed to turn up the volume

New Personal Sound Amplification Product is an affordable alternative

The invention of the year is great news for your earsPerfect Choice HD™ is easy to use, hard to see and costs far less than hearing aids… it’s like reading glasses for your ears™!

Affordable, Simple to use, Virtually impossible to see

Perfect Choice HD is not a hearing aid. If you believe you need a hearing aid,

please consult a physician.

Call now for the lowest price ever.

Please mention promotional code44485.

1-888-654-0584

8032

6

Perfect Choice HD vs Traditional Hearing AidsPerfect Choice HD

YES

YES

YES

NO

YES

YES

Traditional Hearing Aids

Some

Few

Few

Yes

as much as $5000

rarely

Lightweight andInconspicuousEasy ToggleSwitch AdjustmentIntelligent SettingMemoryTests and FittingsRequired

Affordable

Friendly Return Policy

“Reading glasses for your ears”

NEWNow with morepower and clarity!

In late October 1846, an early snowstorm stranded 22 men, women, and children in Alder

Creek meadow in California’s Sierra Nevada. The squall came on so fierce-ly and suddenly that the pioneers had just enough time to erect sleeping tents and a small structure of pine trees covered with branches, quilts, and the rubber coats off their backs. Living conditions were crowded, and their wool and flannel clothes were useless against leaks and the damp ground. As time passed, seasoned wood became so hard to find that the stranded pioneers, known as the Donner Party, were often without fire for days. Huddled under makeshift shelters, the migrants ate charred bone and boiled hides until they turned to more desperate measures to survive. Today the people of the

Donner Party are remembered for cannibalizing their dead in a last-ditch effort to survive.

Almost 10 years ago, I arrived at Alder Creek meadow, a few miles out-side of Truckee, California, with my excavation codirector Kelly Dixon, of the University of Montana, and a team of colleagues to search for archaeological evidence of that miserable winter. The story of the Donner Party is a familiar tale, well known from the accounts of survivors and rescuers. But, as in many cases, archaeology provided a differ-ent perspective and forced us to reevaluate what we thought we knew about this dark chap-ter in Western history.

The Donner Party was a wagon train of about 80 pioneers who set

out for California from Springfield, Missouri, in 1846. Hoping to make the Sacramento Valley by autumn, they fell behind schedule after tak-ing an untried shortcut through the Great Salt Lake Desert. When an October snowstorm hit, the party was just 100 miles from their destination.

Most of the migrants sought shelter in cabins near Truckee Lake (now Donner Lake), while the families of brothers George and Jacob Donner, their teamsters, and trail widow Doris Wolfinger made

A New Look at the Donner PartyThe Native American perspective on a notorious chapter in American

history is being revealed by the excavation and study of a pioneer campsite

by Julie M. Schablitsky

LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA


In Alder Creek meadow (top), archaeologists excavated many bones, such as this horse bone with chop marks (left), that attest to the desperation of the hungry pioneers.

gonset

just 100 mMoshLawhGthw

I(eschatt


ter in the otherwise heroic tale of pio-neers who settled the American West. I pictured hundreds of wagons, packed full of provisions, with calico-clad children bouncing along the Oregon Trail to a better life. Not unexpectedly, Van Pelt saw the story of the Don-ners—and all westward expansion, for that matter—as a self-serving expedi-tion for land and wealth. To him, their troubles were symptomatic of greed rather than bad luck.

Van Pelt urged me to seek out the wel mel ti, or the tribe now known as the northern Washoe, to ask what their oral history says of the Donners. “They were there, and probably saw them,” he said. Van Pelt also warned me against the negative energy that lingers in such places of suffering. He removed from his neck an elaborately carved shell pendant given to him by a Florida shaman. On it, two animal spirits, called spílya (“coyote” in the Sahaptin language), danced, actively creating order from chaos. It would protect me through the turmoil of the Alder Creek dig, Van Pelt said.

Months before arriving in California, I studied maps, historical narratives, and

the notes from earlier archaeological investigations. Hardesty had found the eastern edge of the site, but not its western extent, so we planned to move from the known to the unknown. The first shovelfuls of dry soil were sterile, but inches below, we began to find glass shards, once part of beverage and sauce bottles, mixed with fragments of decorated and blue shell-edge teaware. We also discovered a particularly rivet-ing artifact—a small piece of writing slate, possibly used by the Donner chil-

1980s and early 1990s. Using metal detectors, he found a mid-nineteenth-century site there, but was cautious about declaring it the Donner camp in the absence of human bones or any remains of a campfire. Building off his work, my research focused on the layout of the camp, close study of the pioneers’ fragmented belongings, and identifying evidence of cannibalism. One can imagine the morbid appeal of discovering human bones with butchery marks among other, more genteel artifacts such as floral deco-rated teacups, but I felt uncomfort-able and even guilty about consider-ing the grim possibilities.

Part of this anxiety comes from being a Generation X archaeolo-gist trained in the age of NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act), a federal law that protects Native American graves. Both the government and my men-tors taught me to avoid burial sites. Though I understood the legal and logistical reasons for this, only when I began to work as a professional archaeologist did I appreciate the Native American perspective. My work with Pacific Northwest tribes taught me a respect for their culture that changed my approach to human remains, regardless of ancestry. So before digging at Alder Creek, I turned to the person who taught me the most about Native American cul-ture, Jeff Van Pelt, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon.

Van Pelt knows the story of the Donners, but he held a different view-point than I did. From my European-American perspective, the Donners were an unfortunate, hard-luck chap-

the decision to winter at Alder Creek. By the time the pioneers were

found in late February 1847, half the members of the Donner Party had died. Both survivor and rescue party accounts note human bodies disar-ticulated and butchered. Survivor Jean Baptiste Trudeau, George Donner’s hired hand, admitted to eating the remains of his employer’s four-year-old nephew. Even before the last survivor made it out of the mountains, the Cali-fornia Star newspaper wrote, “A woman sat by the body of her husband, who had just died, eating out his tongue; the heart she had already taken out, broiled, and eat [sic]!” But as with many tales of the Wild West, there are deeper and more complex truths to be found in the four months the Don-ners spent trapped. Our archaeological investigations revealed the nuances of daily life, the party’s mounting des-peration, and, surprisingly, that these unfortunate migrants were not alone in the mountains.

The approximate location of the Donner Party encamp-ment at Alder Creek has been

known since the late nineteenth cen-tury, but the precise camp spot had never been pinpointed. Don Hard-esty, an archaeologist and professor emeritus at the University of Nevada, Reno, searched for the site in the

George Donner Jr. (far left), son of Jacob Donner, survived the winter of 1846–47, when he was just 10 years old. The Donners might have fared better had they accepted the help of the Washoe tribe, pictured here in 1866.

the decision to winter at Alder Creek

Spectacular Treasure from

Mount St. Helens

The Beauty inthe BeastFor almost a hundred years it lay dormant. Silently

building strength. At 10,000 feet high, it was truly asleeping giant, a vision of peaceful power. Until every-thing changed in one cataclysmic moment. On May 18,1980, the once-slumbering beast awoke with violentforce and revealed its greatest secret.

It was one of nature’s most impressive displays ofpower. Mount St. Helens erupted, sending a column ofash and smoke 80,000 feet into the atmosphere. Fromthat chaos, something beautiful emerged… our spectac-ular Helenite Necklace. Produced from the heated vol-canic rock dust of Mount St. Helens, this brilliant greencreation has captured the attention of jewelry designersworldwide. Today you can wear this 6½-carat stunnerfor the exclusive price of only $129!

Your satisfaction is guaranteed. Our HeleniteNecklace puts the gorgeous green stone center stage,with a faceted pear-cut set in gold-layered .925 sterling silver. The explosive origins of the stone areechoed in the flashes of light that radiate as the pieceswings gracefully from its 18" gold-plated sterling silverchain. Today the volcano sits quiet, but this unique

piece of natural history con-tinues to erupt with gorgeousgreen fire.

Your satisfaction is guar-anteed. Bring home theHelenite Necklace and see foryourself. If you are not com-pletely blown away by the rarebeauty of this exceptionalstone, simply return the neck-lace within 30 days for a fullrefund of your purchase price.

Smar t Luxur ies—Surpr is ing Pr ices14101 Southcross Drive W., Dept. HEL141-01, Burnsville, Minnesota 55337 www.stauer.comStauer®

JEWELRY SPECS:- 6 ½ ctw Helenite in gold over sterling silver setting- 18" gold-fused chain

Limite

d

to the

first

2500

resp

onde

nts

Stauer has aBetter

Business Bureau Rating of A+

Helenite Necklace (6 ½ ctw)—$249 $129Helenite Earrings (3 ctw)—$249 $129Helenite Set (necklace & earrings)—$498 $199 Save $299Call now to take advantage of this extremely limited offer.

1-800-859-1979Promotional Code HEL141-01Please mention this code when you call.

Add the 3-carat earrings!

“When it comes to color andsparkle, this gorgeous green stonegives the world’s finest emeralds

a run for their money!”

– James FentCertified Gem Guru

In addition to delicate ceramics—seemingly out of place in the wilder-ness, but right in line with a Donner campsite—the assemblage included wagon hardware, even horseshoe nails and oxen shoes, clear evidence that the animals that pulled the pioneers into the meadow never left it. At last, we had found our long-term pioneer campsite, but we were still looking for evidence of starvation and despera-tion. So we turned to the most abun-dant artifact on the site, bone.

The dig crew picked out thousands of tiny, calcined (burned) bone frag-ments from the site. Whenever we found a “big” bone—a piece at least the size of a thumbnail—I handed it over to our faunal analyst, Guy Tasa of the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preserva-tion. I waited for each of his verdicts as he turned the bones around in his hand a few times, but all he ever said was, “Medium to large mammal.” This frustratingly broad category includes everything from goats to buffalo, but in this region and context more likely represents cow, horse, deer, elk, bear …and human. We know from survi-vor accounts that the Alder Creek pioneers consumed the animals they brought with them, including cattle, horses, and perhaps even their faith-ful dog, Uno. When the last of the meat was gone, they turned to boiling animal hides and charring bone so they could eat the pieces by crunch-ing them between their teeth.

Back at the laboratory, with his collection of comparative bone sam-

dren or adults in camp to make notes, figure math problems, practice letters, or just doodle. This nineteenth-century notepad may have helped the children pass the time, and perhaps even made their situation feel a little more normal. Deeper in the soil, just below these more recently discarded objects, we found Native American stone tools—large basalt flakes and bifaces that reminded us who was there first.

The soil that held pioneer-era arti-facts contained occasional pockets of ash and charcoal that gave me hope that an elusive Donner hearth might be near. As our team pushed south through the site, the soil became more ashy, and larger pebbles and pieces of lead shot appeared. My trowel followed the edge of a dark charcoal stain with a thin layer of ash: the hearth. Shannon Novak of Syracuse University, one of the team’s bioarchaeologists, knelt beside me with a whisk broom, further delineat-ing the feature. She exposed bone fragments that appeared larger than any we had seen before, and some exhibited cut, saw, and chop marks. As my trowel continued to scrape the edge of the charcoal, I discov-ered a large ceramic plate sherd, face down. Everyone gathered around as I picked up the fragment from the exact place it was broken by one of the Donners. A “hooray” rang out as I turned the artifact over to reveal a scalloped edge rimmed with a vibrant cobalt-blue glaze. The hearth feature, approximately two by two-and-a-half feet, anchored our collection of artifacts that fanned out to the east.


(continued on page 62)

The archaeological team, co-led by the author (right), located the hearth the Donners had used that notorious winter.

STOP!

We have had complaints from subscribers who have received fraudulent renewal notices, sub-

scription offers, and invoices from companies who are NOT authorized agents or

representatives of ARCHAEOLOGY magazine or the Archaeological

Institute of America.

Your renewals should only be sent to our offi ces in Palm Coast, FL or Boston, MA. You can verify

your subscription status by calling 1-877-ARKY-SUB (1-877-275-9782)

or checking online at www.archaeology.org/subscribe

The publishers of ARCHAEOLOGY and many other popular maga-zines are working together to

stop our subscribers from being harassed by these notices. For updates please go to

www.archaeology.org/fraud

Discover the Past, Share the Adventure CS

T 2

05

93

47

-50

800.422.8975 www.crowcanyon.org/travel

Explore the archaeology, history, and cultures of the northern Rio

Grande valley of New Mexico.

A THOUSAND YEARS OF TAOS HISTORY

September 25–October 1, 2012

Create your own work of beaded art. Learn how history has shaped Ute artistic expression.

UTE CULTURE & BEADING WORKSHOPWith Rebecca Hammond

August 5–11, 2012

What To Look Forin a Walk-In Tub:

Five major considerations to help make an informed decision

before buying a Walk-In Tub:

➻ Quality - A walk-in tub is amajor investment. You want to find a quality tub that willlast for decades. Look for one that’s 100% leakproof, mold-resistant, full metal frame construction and onethat’s American made.

➻ Warranty - Ask for a lifetime“no leak guarantee” The besttubs offer a lifetime warrantyon both the tub and the operating system.

➻ Pain Relieving Therapy - Find a tub that has both water andair jet therapy to soak awayyour aches and pains preferablywith a perfectly balanced waterto air mix.

➻ Comfort - Insist on ergonomicdesign, easy-to-reach controls.

➻ Endorsements - Only considertubs that are ETL or UL listed.Also look for a tub tested toIAPMO (Internat’l Assoc. ofPlumbing and MechanicalOfficials) standards and that’sUSPC (Universal Spa PlumbingCode) Certified.

Technology Breakthrough Safe, comfortable bathing from Jacuzzi®➻

Enjoy A Bath Again… Safely and Affordably

The Designed for SeniorsTM Walk-In tub is luxurious, feature-packed and affordable

• Low Threshold Step

• Jacuzzi®

PointProTM

Jet System

8040

1

Designed For SeniorsTM

Walk-In TubFor information call:

1-877-516-6819Call now Toll-Free and mention your

special promotion code 45020. Third-party financing available with approved credit.

Not Available in Hawaii and Alaska

All rights reserved. © 2011 firstSTREET®, Inc. For Boomers and Beyond®

SEE THE JACUZZI DIFFERENCELaboratory tests clearly show how Jacuzzi®

outperforms other manufacturers’ jet systems, producing a deeper and widerplume of revitalizing bubbles. Best of all, it doesn’t cost you a penny more!

There is nothing like the simple pleasure of taking a warm bath. The cares of the day seem to fade

away, along with the aches and pains of everyday life. Unfortunately for many agingAmericans with mobility issues, slipping into a bath can result in slipping onto thefloor. The fear of falling has made the simpleact of bathing and its therapeutic benefits athing of the past… until now. firstSTREET,the leader in products Designed for Seniors™has partnered with Jacuzzi®, the companythat perfected hydrotherapy. Together, they’ve created a walk-in tub that offers more than just safe bathing, peace-of-mindand independence, it can actually help youfeel better.

Unlike traditional bathtubs, our Designedfor Seniors™ Walk-In Tub features a leakproofdoor that allows you to simply step into thetub rather than stepping precariously over

the side. It features a state-of-the-art acrylicsurface, a raised seat, and the controls arewithin easy reach. No other Walk-In Tub features the patented Jacuzzi® PointProTM jetsystem. These high-volume, low-pressurepumps feature a perfectly balanced water toair ratio to massage thoroughly yet gently.Some swirl, some spiral, some deliver largevolumes of water and others target specificpressure points. They are all arranged in precise locations designed to deliver a therapeutic massage, yet they are fullyadjustable so that your bathing experiencecan be completely unique.

Why spend another day wishing you couldenjoy the luxury and pain-relieving benefitsof a safe, comfortable bath. Call now andyou’ll get an unsurpassed limited lifetimewarranty. Knowledgeable product experts are standing by to help you learn more aboutthis product. Call Today!

New!

CLASSIFIEDS

TRAVEL & TOURS

AMAZING ARCHAEOLOGY, expert guides, comfortable hotels, beautiful scenery, relaxing, informative, wonderful holidays: Orkney Islands, Scotland: www.orkneyarchaeologytours.com; [email protected]

ARCHAEOLOGICAL TOURS: Spring 2012: Yampa River – Visit remote archaeological sites on downriver adventure. Northern Plains – Explore Double Ditch, Huff Indian Village, Fort Union and more. Peru – Visit Machu Picchu, Moche tombs, Cuzco and more. Fall 2012: French and Indian War Tour – Visit Ganondagan, Fort Ticonderoga and more. Best of the Southwest – Explore Acoma, Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde and more. Oaxaca – Experience Day of the Dead, visit Mitla, Motne Albán and more. www.archaeologicalconservancy.org Archaeological Conservancy, Albuquerque, NM, (505) 266-1540, [email protected]

MACHU PICCHU & CUZCO: Explorations since 1992! Inca archaeology, Spanish colonial history, Quechua culture, Andean ecology. Amazon, Nazca, Titikaka extensions. (800)446-9660. www.GoExploring.com

Maya 2012: Examine the myths and truths of the Mayan calendar with Prof. David S. Anderson. Travel the Yucatan, study astronomy, mathematics, creation myths and Maya historical record. Aug. 11-18; Mayan Cuisine: Yucatan/Campeche, Discover Mayan flavors and culinary traditions. Join this delicious trip with cooking and tastings! Nov.28-Dec. 7 [email protected] 734-769-7839

UNBELIEVABLE ARCHAEOLOGICAL TOURS - Custom Design, Hassle free, Private tours - Leptis Magna, Cyrene, ancient rock art. BEST SITES in North Africa. Discover NEW LIBYA www.libyatravelandtours.com/discover [email protected]

BOOKS

RAVEN’S BLOOD. A supernatural, archaeological thriller by Deborah Cannon. He dreamed the dreams of his ancestors. Now his next foray into the realm of Raven may be his last. Read also: THE RAVEN’S POOL, WHITE RAVEN, RAVENSTONE. Available at amazon.com. Also on Kindle.

FIELD SCHOOLS

OF INTEREST TO ALL

“AN INCREDIBLY REFRESHING CHANGE” — member of Science Connection, the singles group for science-philes. Join and see for yourself! SciConnect.com


For a FREE Guide, call 800-650-7888, ext.ARC5

www.morrispublishing.com

We offer:

• low prices and many options

• production time of 20 days

• low minimum of 100 books

• assistance from start to finish

We print all kinds of books!

Join our 2012 MAYA excavation team!Belize – Spring and Summer 2012p gCall 817-831-9011 or visitwww.mayaresearchprogram.org

maya

CUNEIFORM BY MAIL

Learn one of the world’s oldest writing systems in the

newest correspondence course offered by the

University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute.

[email protected]

http://oi.uchicago.edu

Register by May 14, 2012.

Affordable Vacations $995 - $1395 + tax & fees. 8 days U.S. National Parks 8 days Grand Canyon, Zion 8 days California & Yosemite 10 days Canada - Nova Scotia 9 days Canada - Rockies 10 days Guatemala 8 days Panama: Canal Cruise Beaches, Panama City

TM

Keel Billed Toucans are very

social creatures

Costa Rica 10 DAYS $1095 + tax, fees

Rainforests, Beaches,Volcanoes Caravan makes it easy to travel. Free 24 page brochure.

Caravan com

®

Guided Vacations for 60 Years!

Discover the New Armenia

www.culturalcache.com Call: (773) 799-0880

Small Groups Personal Service

Classified Ad Rates$5.75 per word.

$115, 20-word minimum.

Contact:Karina Casines, Account Manager

[email protected]

(718) 472-3050 ext. 4905

Materials for the July/August 2012 issue are due May 8, 2012.

ARCHAEOLOGY’SSPECIAL COLLECTOR’S EDITION:

Order your copy now for just $5.00plus $3.00 shipping and handling.

Visit www.archaeology.org/classicalworldOr call 1-800-345-2785

**This collector’s issue is not included as part of your regular subscription to ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine.

17%OFF

the newsstand price of $5.99

This special newsstand only

collector’s edition of ARCHAEOLOGY

magazine presents the magnifi cent

world of the Greeks and Romans.

Stunning photography and vivid

storytelling uncover life in these

great Mediterranean empires — from

evidence of a Sicilian naval battle,

to a Roman household only recently

uncovered, to Pompeii, then and now.

Don’t miss it!

Th

co

m

w

S

s

g

e

t


Photo Credits

COVER—AP Photo/RMS Titanic Inc.; 1—Courtesy Michael Frachetti; 2—Courtesy Stašo Forenbaher , Courtesy Tel Aviv University, Courtesy Friends of the Hunley; 4— Courtesy Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority; 9—Courtesy Associated Producers, Ltd.; 10—Courtesy Associated Producers, Ltd., Wikimedia Commons; Candy Waugaman Collection Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Library SS-126-8831; 12—Courtesy Stašo Forenbaher, Peter Endig/DPA/Landov, Courtesy Obsidian Use Project; 14— Courtesy Tel Aviv University, Courtesy Rijksmuseum, Courtesy Andrew Wade and the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, Division of Anthropology, ANT.006924.004., Courtesy Stephanie Panzer, Trauma Center Murnau; 16—G.L. Kohuth, Michigan State University; 18—Courtesy Friends of the Hunley, Courtesy Wil Roebroeks; 19—Wikimedia Commons (2); 20—Courtesy Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2), Courtesy Alberto Cazzella, Courtesy EFAP Archive; 22—(clockwise from top left): Courtesy Richard Talbot, Office of Public Archaeology, Brigham Young University; Courtesy Outer Hebrides Coastal Community Marine Archaeology Pilot Project, J. Benjamin, WA Coastal & Marine; Wikimedia Commons; Courtesy Alexander Hollmann, University of Washington; Courtesy Tom Dillehay, Vanderbilt University; Courtesy Jennifer Loughmiller-Newman, University at Albany–SUNY; 23—(clockwise from top left): Courtesy Alejandro Jiménez Serrano, University of Jaén; Wikimedia Commons; Courtesy Glenn Summerhayes, University of Otago, Photo: Les O’Neill; Courtesy Kieran Hosty, Australian National Maritime Museum, Photo: Xanthe Rivett; 24-25—Courtesy Pascal Partouche, Skyview Photography, Ltd., Courtesy Ze’ev Radovan; 26—Courtesy Lew Somers, GeoScan, Courtesy Pascal Partouche, Skyview Photography, Ltd., Courtesy Sylvia Horowitz; 27—Courtesy Andrea Berlin, Courtesy Sharon Herbert, Courtesy Baruch Bandl, Israel Antiquities Authority, Bullae Courtesy Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority; 28—Glass stamp seal Courtesy Baruch Bandl, Israel Antiquities Authority, Plan Courtesy Lindy Lindorfer, Andrea Berlin, Sharon Herbert; 29—Courtesy Sharon Herbert, Courtesy Susan Webb, Courtesy Sharon Herbert, Courtesy Donald Ariel, Israel Antiquities Authority; 30-31—Courtesy Thuringian State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology (2); 32—Courtesy State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt, photographer Juraj Lipták (2); 33—Nebra sky disk Courtesy State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt, photographer Juraj Lipták, Axes Courtesy Thuringian State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology; 34-35—Courtesy Waitt Institute/Robert Sitrick; 36—AP Photo; 39—AP Photo/RMS Titanic Inc.; Courtesy Waitt Institute/Robert Sitrick; 40—Courtesy Institute for Exploration/Center for Ocean Exploration at the University of Rhode Island/NOAA Office of Exploration and Research (2); 41—Courtesy NOAA and the Russian Academy of Sciences; 42-43—Courtesy Michael Frachetti; 44—Courtesy Michael Frachetti (2); 46—Courtesy Michael Frachetti, Courtesy Mahan Kalpa Khalsa; 47—Courtesy Michael Frachetti; 48-49—Courtesy of Barbara Voorhies (3); 50—Scala / Art Resource, NY; 51—Justin Kerr, Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY; 53— Courtesy Julie Schablitsky, University of Oregon (2); 54—Courtesy Julie Schablitsky, University of Oregon, Legends of America Photo Prints; 56—Courtesy Julie Schablitsky, University of Oregon (2); 62—Courtesy Julie Schablitsky, University of Oregon; 68—Courtesy MNHA Luxembourg/T. Lucas


Tourist Boards

1. Cyprus Tourism Organization 10,000 years of History and Civilization. The island is an open air museum, visit Neolithic settlements, Greek Temples, Crusader Castles, Venetian Fortresses, Byzantine Churches and more. Several of our sites are on the UNESCO list. www.visitcyprus.com Inside Front Cover, Brochures, Free

2. The Great State of Texas Texas vacations are filled with possibilities. Explore them all with your FREE Texas State Travel Guide. www.TravelTex.com p.2, 3 & 16

Travel and Tours

3. AIA Tours Join distinguished lecturers at the greatest archaeological sites with the Archaeological Institute of America’s Tour Program. Visit www.archaeological.org for more information. p.67 4. Caravan Tours Fully Escorted Tours $995, Costa Rica, Mexico, Guatemala, USA, and Canada. 60 years, since 1952. 800-Caravan, www.CaravanTours.com p.58, 28- Page Color Brochure, Free

5. Cultural Cache Tours Professional academic guides lead archaeological tours for small and private groups to the Ancient Near East, including Turkey and Armenia. www.culturalcache.com p.58, Tour Itineraries, Exclusive Offers

6. Maya Research Program Excavate Maya ruins in Blue Creek, Belize, with a professional team that needs volunteer help. No experience necessary. Please include your email address for more information. p.58, Brochure, Free

7. Jamestown Yorktown Foundation Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center. Explore America’s colonial beginnings through museum gallery exhibits and living history depicting 17th- and 18th-century Virginia. p.8, Brochures, Free

8. Tara Tours Inc. Since 1980 selling quality tour programs to Central & South America. p.59, Brochures, Free

9. Voyages to Antiquity Voyages to Antiquity cruises to classical civilizations INCLUDE shore excursions, gratuities, pre- and/or post-cruise hotel stays. Far East journeys also include land extensions. For information and reservations, call 877-398-1460. p.23, Brochures, Free

10. Wilderness Travel Wilderness Travel offers extraordinary cultural, wildlife, and archaeological adventures throughout the world. Request a free catalog or Maya program brochure. p.59, Catalog and Program Brochure, Free

11. World Heritage Tours Small group journeys concentrating on culture, history and World Heritage sites to over 85 countries in Asia, Middle East,

Log on to www.archaeology.org and click on “Free Info” for products and services featured by our advertisers. You can also get this information by filling out and mailing the attached card,

or by faxing the card to the number provided.

Free Information Service

ARCHAEOLOGY (ISSN 0003-8113) is published bimonthly for $23.95 by the Archaeological Institute of America, 36-36 33rd Street, Long Island City, NY 11106. Periodicals postage paid at Long Island City, NY, and additional mailing offi ces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Archaeology, P.O. 433091, Palm Coast, FL 32164.

Subscriptions should be addressed to Archaeology, Subscription Services, P.O. 433091, Palm Coast, FL 32164, toll-free (877) ARKY-SUB (275-9782), [email protected]. $23.95 per volume. Single numbers, $4.99. Foreign and

Canadian subscriptions, $38.95; includes all government taxes (130277692-RT). Canadian Publication Agreement #1373161. Allow six weeks for processing new subscriptions. Send manuscripts and books for review to 36-36 33rd Street, Long Island City, NY 11106 or [email protected]. All manuscripts are reviewed by experts. Advertisements should be sent to the Advertising Director, 36-36 33rd Street, Long Island City, NY 11106, (718) 472-3050, [email protected]. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. For subscrip-tion problems please call (877) 275-9782; AIA members with subscription problems should call the membership offi ce at (617) 353-8706. All rights reserved. Printed in USA. Th e views and opinions expressed do not necessarily refl ect the policy of the AIA or Archaeology.

©2012 Th e Archaeological Institute of America

Eastern Europe & Africa. Offering published and customised tours. p.59, Tour Itineraries, Free

Of Interest to All

12. Oriental Institute The Oriental Institute is a research and museum institution focusing on the history, art, and archaeology of the ancient Near and Middle East. oi.uchicago.edu p.58, Membership, Events, Travel Brochures, Gallery/Museum Materials and Info, Free

Publishing

13. Morris Publishing Publish your book! Our free guide to self-publishing gives you all the features and prices up-front. p.58, Guide to Self-publishing, Free

Field School

14. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center Looking for a learning vacation? Crow Canyon offers archaeology, cultural, and adventure travel programs in the Southwest and beyond for adults, teens, and families. p.8 & 56, Brochures, Catalogs, Prospectuses, Free

AIA

15. Archaeological Institute of America Join the oldest and largest society devoted to the study and preservation of the record of the human past. www.archaeological.org p.64

WORLD’S FIRST $100SILVER PROOF

Limited Mintage Striking...

This extraordinary piece of pure silver bullion has a surface area that ex-ceeds 30 square inches...and it containsone Troy ounce of pure silver bullion!

And now, during a limited strike period, the very first Year 2012 $100Silver Proof is available at a specialdiscount price—only $99!

EXQUISITE DETAILThe historic First Year 2012 $100

Silver Proof is an exquisite adaptation of theUnited States Treasury’s $100 Federal Reserve Note—onlythe second new $100 bill design in 70 years. It is a trueartistic masterpiece that will always be treasured.

.999 SILVER Best of all, this stunning Silver Proof is even more

beautiful than the original, because it’s struck in precioussilver bullion!

It is a landmark in proof minting, combining unprece-dented weight with extraordinary dimension. The specifi-cations for this colossal medallic proof are unparalleled.

Each one:• Is Individually Struck from Pure .999 Silver Bullion.• Weighs one Troy ounce.• Has a Surface Area That Exceeds 30 Square Inches.• Contains 31.10 Grams (480 Grains) of Pure Silver.• Is Individually Registered and Comes With a

Numbered Certificate of Authenticity.• Is Fully Encapsulated to Protect Its Mirror-Finish.• Includes a Deluxe Presentation Case.

ADVANCE STRIKE DISCOUNTThe price for the 2012 One-Ounce Silver Proof will be set

at $129 per proof.However, if you place your order now, you can

acquire this giant silver proof at the special advance strikediscount price—only $99.

NOTE TO COLLECTORS: If you place your order for the$100 silver proof within the next 10 days, it will beprocessed immediately, and the earliest orders will receive the lowest registration numbers.

ADDITIONAL DISCOUNTSSubstantial additional discounts are available for serious

collectors who wish to acquire more than one of these exquisite silver proofs.

You can order:ONE Year 2012 $100 Silver Proof for just $99 + s/hFIVE Year 2012 $100 Silver Proofs for just $95 + s/hTEN Year 2012 $100 Silver Proofs for just $89 + s/h

There is a limit of twenty $100 Silver Proofs per order,and all orders are subject to acceptance by New York Mint.

ONLY 9999 AVAILABLENew York Mint will strike only 9999 One-Ounce Silver

Proofs for the year 2012, so oversubscription is a virtualcertainty.

Telephone orders only will be accepted on a strict first-come, first-served basis according to the time and date ofthe order.

Call Today to Order Your $100 Silver Proof!

1-888-201-7060Offer Code: NSP132

Please mention this code when you call.

A major credit card is necessary to secure your reser-vation, and New York Mint guarantees satisfaction with amoney-back policy for a full 30 days.

New York Mint

First-year2012 date

Larger Franklinportrait

Minted in one Troy ounceof pure silver bullion

Mirrored proofbackground

Shown larger than actual size of 6" x 21⁄2"Liberty Bell, quill pen

& July 4th date

Prices and availability subject to change without notice. Past performance is not a predictor of future performance. New York Mint is a private distributor of worldwidegovernment coin issues and is not affiliated with the United States government. Facts and figures were deemed accurate as of January 2012. © 2012 New York Mint

Visit our web site at www.newyorkmint.com

New York Mint Announces the Limited MintageStriking of an Extraordinary Silver Proof

—the New United States $100 Bill Struck in Pure Silver Bullion. Discount Price $99


ther contact. These stories, and the archaeological evidence that appears to support them, certain-ly complicated my interpretation of the Donner Party event. The migrants at Alder Creek were

not surviving in the mountains alone—the northern Washoe were

there, and they had tried to help. Historical archaeologists combine

anthropology, history, and science to reconcile the human experience with archives, oral history, and physical evi-dence. More often than not, there are contradictions in these data, reminding us that we can never truly know the past. But when the pieces fit together, we are provided with possible sce-narios of what may have taken place hundreds of years ago. In this case, the absence of cannibalized bone forced us to give up trying to answer who was butchered and how it was done. Instead, we had to find answers to questions about life in camp from the crumbs of domestic debris and animal bone. Our intense desire for informa-tion drove us to seek out cutting-edge technology and reach out to a group of people who I thought played only a peripheral role in this pioneer trag-edy. When I considered the subtle archaeological findings within their proper cultural landscape, an unex-pected narrative was born. This new perspective is one that I believe gives us a better understanding of what the Donners experienced and whom they met in the mountains during that notorious winter. ■

Julie M. Schablitsky is a senior research

archaeologist at the University of Oregon,

chief archaeologist at the Maryland

State Highway Administration, and an

editor and contributing author of An

Archaeology of Desperation: Exploring

the Donner Party’s Alder Creek Camp

(University of Oklahoma Press, 2011).

snow, or their aim was off, how could they have ended up eating these animals?

After the dig I returned home to Oregon, but

there was one thing left to do. We still needed to check in with the wel mel ti, the northern Washoe, to learn if their ancestors passed down stories about the Donner Party. The wel mel ti are thought to have lived in that region for centuries, and Alder Creek was just miles from one of their vil-lages. Although they usually wintered in lower elevations, living off food stores gathered throughout the year, it would not have been unusual for a wel mel ti to strap on a pair of round snowshoes, or shumélli, and go ice fishing or hunting on higher ground. We asked ethnographer Penny Rucks, who has more than twenty years of experience with the local tribes, to ask the wel mel ti if the pioneer trag-edy had survived in their tribal nar-rative. Rucks reached out to Jo Ann Nevers and Lana Hicks, who agreed to share the wel mel ti story, with the understanding that they did so to honor their ancestors.

Until now the Native American perspective has been left out of the telling of the Donner tragedy, not because the wel mel ti did not remem-ber the pioneers, but because they were never asked, or perhaps were not ready to share. Their oral tradi-tion recalls the starving strangers who camped in an area that was unsuitable for that time of year. Taking pity on the pioneers, the northern Washoe attempted to feed them, leaving rab-bit meat and wild potatoes near the camps. Another account states that they tried to bring the Donner Party a deer carcass, but were shot at as they approached. Later, some wel mel ti observed the migrants eating human remains. Fearing for their lives, the area’s native inhabitants continued to watch the strangers but avoided fur-

ples at hand, Tasa listed the cuisine on the Donner Party desperation menu: small rodent, rabbit-sized animal, canine, cow, and deer. But no human. Only a very small percentage of the bone could be visually identified. Out of 16,204 bone fragments (5.03

pounds), over 13,000 pieces remained unidentified. Because I knew the faunal analysis would be a challenge, I sacrificed a few bone fragments to a DNA laboratory in California, but the results were inconclusive. The bone had been cooked and boiled before it spent over 150 years in acid-ic soil, degrading the DNA beyond detection even by twenty-first-century forensic technology. Tasa had another idea. Gwen Robbins Schug, an anthropologist at Appalachian State University, can identify animal species by observing bone struc-ture. It is not a common method for archaeologists, but was worth a try.

Using an optical microscope to observe osteons, or the fundamental structural units of bone, Schug found 85 bone fragments that belonged to cow, deer, horse, and dog. But again, there were no human bones. This, of course, does not mean that the Don-ners did not practice cannibalism. Our excavations might have missed the human remains, or if the Donners ate only organs and flesh, leaving the bone unprocessed and unburned, the skeletons may have decomposed in the acidic soil. A third possibility is that the human bone simply remains undetected in our collection. Although the absence of identifiable human bone was an interesting problem, I was much more intrigued by what we did find: None of the survivor accounts from Alder Creek mention success-fully hunting and killing rabbit or deer. We also found lead shot and sprue from lead casting, suggesting the pio-neers had attempted to make ammuni-tion for their guns. Perhaps one of the Donner Party members or rescuers had been successful at hunting wild game. But if the Donners found them-selves too weak to hunt in the deep

(continued from page 56) A fragment of a writing slate may have been used by the children and adults of the Donner Party for lessons, notes, and speaks, perhaps, to their desire to maintain a sense of normalcy.

thethaplyom

notalone—

as off,

I me but left

ed to el mel ti,

oe, to learn if ed down stories arty The wel mel

A fraghavandforperma

BEST-SELLING PRODUCTSf o r S e n i o r s i n 2 0 1 2

Thanks to its revolutionary design, the Talking Atomic Watch gives you accuracy to withina billionth of a second. It gets its signal from the US Atomic Clock, the standard for time keeping worldwide. Plus, all you have to do is push a button, and the watch will “tell” you the time in a clear, easy-to-understand voice. It will even tell you the day and date. Travelling? Touch a button to switch it to any time zone. It’s lightweight and attractive… and it’s always accurate. The Talking Atomic Watch was . . . $89.95. Now $49.95 + S&H.Call today. 1-888-420-8768. Please mention Promotional Code 44486.

The wristwatch you neverhave to set… or even see.

“Ten-ten AM, Thursday, April 12th,

2012”

Our Lighted Full-Page Magnifier is hands-free and huge!

Our one-of-a-kind magnifying floor lamp combines powerful FULL-PAGE magnification with flexibleadjustability and clear, even Balanced Spectrum light. Twelve high-powered LEDs provide ample lightfor close work and reading. The super-large lens provides 2.5X-plus variable magnification, to easilycover an entire page without glare or hot spots. The ultra-flexible gooseneck positions the lens exactlywhere you need it. And unlike that magnifier in the drawer, you’ll always know where this one is. Magnifying lens dimensions are a whopping 7.375” x 10”. AC operated. Lighted Full Page Magnifierwas . . . $99.95. Now $79.95 + S&H Call today. 1-877-731-2089. Please mention Promotional Code 44487.

Are you in love with your home, but afraid of your staircase?

If you or someone you love lives in a home with more than one floor, the staircase can be more thanan inconvenience, it can be a health threat. Whether it's due to mobility issues or cardiac concerns,why risk your life climbing stairs when an easy solution is only a phone call away? You’ll be surprisedhow easy, simple, and affordable the Easy ClimberTM is. It features a reliable, aircraft-grade cable drivethat’s been tested over 30,000 cycles. It’s also designed for basements and outdoors. It’s simple enoughfor most people to install on either side of the stairs, a snap to use, and comes with an exclusive lifetime warranty on the drive train. Call our toll-free number now, and a friendly, knowledgeableproduct expert can answer all of your questions and help you get on the road to independence andsafety in the home. Call today. 1-888-691-7192. Please mention Promotional Code 44489.

A floor lamp that spreads sunshine all over a room.

The Balanced Spectrum’s 27-watt compact bulb is brighter than a 100-watt ordinary light bulb. With the lamp’s sharp visibility, you will see with more clarity and enjoyment in close tasks such as reading, writing, sewing, and needlepoint. It is especially helpful for aging eyes.

Experience sunshine indoors at the touch of a switch. This amazing lamp is not only easy on the eyes,it is easy on the hands as well, featuring a special “soft-touch, flicker-free” rocker switch that is easierto use than traditional toggle or twist switches. And its flexible gooseneck design enables you to getlight exactly where you need it. The high-tech electronics, the user-friendly design, and a bulb thatlasts 10 times longer than an ordinary bulb–all these features make the Balanced Spectrum® floor lampa must-have. Balanced Spectrum® floor lamp Only $59.95 each + S&H or buy two lamps for $99 + S&H.Call today. 1-877-721-9046. Please mention Promotional Code 44488.

WWW.ARCHAEOLOGICAL.ORG/SITEPRESERVATION


SITE PRESERVATION

Photos of 4 AIA Site Preservation Grant Funded Sites: Assos, Turkey: AIA/Assos Project; Kissonerga, Cyprus: AIA; Easter Island, Chile: Charles Steinmetz; Umm el Jimal, Jordan: AIA/Open Hand Studios and Umm el Jimal Project;

SAVE A SITE! Donate at

The AIA Preservation Program safeguards the worlds archaeological heritagefor future generations through direct preservation, raising awarness of threatsto sites, education, outreadch, and by facilitating the spread of best practices.

The AIA currently supports projects on five continents. Your generous donationwill help preserve more archaeological sites in need.

The eruption of the Soufrière Hills Volcano on Montserrat covered the south-

ern two-thirds of the Caribbean island under pyroclastic fl ow and volcanic ash. Th e eruption destroyed Montserrat’s capital, Plymouth, and a signifi cant portion of the island’s prehistoric and historic settlements. Th e island’s populace was forced to relocate to the northern part of the island and a new capital was estab-lished in the town of Little Bay.

Subsequent to the tragic destruc-tion of most of the island’s historical sites, the Montserrat National Trust (MNT) initiated a program to pre-serve and study the William Carr Estate, one of the earliest and few remaining European settlements on Montserrat. Despite the histori-

cal importance of the site, the Carr Estate—located in the center of Little Bay—is under constant threat from encroaching development and Mont-serrat is in danger of losing an impor-tant part of its early history.

Th e Carr Estate may have been established as early as 1639. Th ere are

a few early documentary mentions of the site, and its location is noted on a map of the settlement dating to 1675. Apart from this, not much was known about the plantation. Th e Carr Estate is currently being studied by Jessica Striebel MacLean of Bos-ton University. MacLean, director of the Carr Plantation Archaeology and Heritage Project, is working in con-junction with the MNT to excavate, interpret, and preserve the site.

Excavations at the Carr Estate have uncovered artifacts connected to the daily life of eighteenth-century Montserratian planters and exposed a previously unknown nineteenth- to early-twentieth century component of the site. Th e continuous occupation of the plantation provides research-ers with the unique opportunity to understand the nature of European occupation of Montserrat from initial settlement to the present.

In 2012, the AIA awarded a Site Preservation Grant to the Carr Plan-tation Archaeology and Heritage Project. Th e grant will be used to protect the site from urban develop-ment and increase local community involvement in its protection and preservation. MacLean will create an archaeology-focused program at local secondary schools in which students will be trained in basic archaeological fi eld and lab techniques, install inter-pretive signage around the site, devel-op a guided walking tour of the site to be used in conjunction with the interpretive signs, and erect protective fencing with gate access around the perimeter of the site.

EXCAVATE, EDUCATE, ADVOCATE www.archaeological.org

Site Preservation Grant awarded to Carr Plantation Archaeology Project on Montserrat

65

66

Disp

atch

es fr

om th

e AIA

■

E

xcav

ate,

Educ

ate,

Advo

cate

There are currently 108 AIA Local Societies actively involved in promoting archaeological learning and raising awareness of archaeo-logical issues in their local areas. Joining an AIA Local Society is a

great opportunity to get involved with archaeology enthusiasts in your community. Societies provide people with chances to connect with both professional archaeologists and fellow community members who simply enjoy learning about the discipline.

Societies orga-nize and host events throughout the year. An important component of soci-ety programming is the AIA Lecture Program. Each year, the AIA sends world-renowned archaeologists to our Societies to share their latest research and discoveries.

Societies supplement these lectures with their own events, such as dinners with archaeologists, study groups, fi eld trips, and more.

Th e AIA provides funding to Societies that organize archaeological out-reach programs for their communities through the Society Outreach Grant program. Recent Society Outreach Grant awardees have given presentations at local schools, worked with museums to provide outreach components to archaeologically themed traveling exhibits, organized archaeology fairs, and even re-created a Roman spectacle!

Most Societies participate in National Archaeology Day celebrations because it is a great opportunity for them to promote their programs and activities on a national level.

Join a Local Society today and get involved! Visit www.archaeological.org/membership/join. Cannot fi nd an AIA Society near you? Contact [email protected] for more information on how you can start one.

Th e work supported by the AIA at the Carr Estate combines preser-vation eff orts with public outreach designed to raise local awareness of the site. Th is holistic approach to site preservation exemplifi es the AIA Site

Preservation Program’s approach to tackling the issue of protecting and preserving our invaluable archaeologi-cal resources and reiterates the idea that long-term preservation is pos-sible only when local communities

are committed to protecting sites. To learn more about the AIA Site Pres-ervation Program and to read about the other projects we support, please visit www.archaeological.org/ sitepreservation

National Archaeology Day, October 20, 2012

The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is pleased to announce that National Archae-

ology Day will be held on October 20, 2012. National Archaeology Day is a celebration of archaeology and an opportunity for the AIA and other like-minded organizations and individuals to raise awareness of the discipline across the United States, Canada, and abroad. In 2011, National Archaeology Day was offi -cially recognized by Congress and more than 14,000 people participated in over 100 events held throughout the month of October. To follow this year’s program and to fi nd out about events in your area, visit www.nationalarchaeologyday.org. In addition to events that you can attend, the AIA will organize a series of online opportunities that will allow you to participate in the event from the com-fort of your home. Last year’s virtual participation opportunities included a global scavenger hunt and the coopera-tive creation of a Google Earth layer showing popular archaeological sites across the United States and Canada.

An important part of last year’s

successful celebration of National Archaeology Day was the cooperation we received from other organizations committed to archaeology. Th ese organizations hosted events and pub-licized National Archaeology Day to their membership. We are currently seeking organizations that are will-

ing to host events and/or promote National Archaeology Day 2012 to their membership. For information on how your group can become a Collaborating Organization and for sponsorship details, please visit www.archaeological.org/NAD/ CollaboratingOrganizationInfo

NATIONALARCHAEOLOGY

DAY

O C TO B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 2


www.nationalarchaeologyday.org

AIA Societies promote local community involvement

Travel & Learn with the AIA

India • China • Greece • Turkey • Egypt • Tunisia

Italy • France • Spain • Georgia • Armenia • Scotland

Ireland • Guatemala • Mexico • & more

Fascinating Itineraries Expert Lecturers

call: 800-748-6262 • web site: www.aiatours.org • email: [email protected]

ARTIFACT

68 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2012

Chariot racing was ancient Rome’s favorite pastime. It attracted millions of

spectators to stadiums across the empire, inspired fi erce fan loyalty,

and provided its stars a chance to earn spectacular sums—a successful

charioteer’s single-day winnings could equal a teacher’s annual salary. It is

perhaps surprising, then, to learn from epigraphic evidence that most charioteers were

slaves who began racing as children, and many were foreigners, who came to the sport

to earn fame and fortune. But until the discovery of this

fi gurine, according to archaeologists Sinclair Bell

and Franziska Dövener, no representation of an

African child charioteer had ever been found. Bronze

fi gurines of Roman charioteers are rare—there

are fewer than ten—particularly in comparison

to those depicting other entertainers, including

gladiators and actors. Bell and Dövener are certain that

this statuette represents a charioteer on the basis of his

distinctive costume—his upper abdomen and

chest are corseted by three wide leather belts

called fasciae, part of a charioteer’s basic

uniform, worn to protect the chest. That

the fi gurine represents a child is clear from

his enlarged head, large eyes, fl eshy cheeks, and

youthful expression. The curly hair, fl at nose,

thick lips, and bulging eyes are features typical

of Roman depictions of Africans. The archaeologists

are, however, less certain of the statuette’s function.

It was found near what may have been a sanctuary

to mother goddesses, but it is impossible to say

whether it was a votive off ering or a toy.

WHAT IS IT?

Statuette of an auriga (charioteer)

DATE

2nd century A.D.MATERIAL

BronzeDISCOVERED

2005, Altrier, Luxembourg

SIZE

1.8 inches highCURRENTLY LOCATED

Musée national d’histoire et d’art

Luxembourg

very of this

Bell

an

Bronze

re

n

ng

rtain that

basis of his

nd

al

ologists

nction.

tuary

ay

LuxembouSIZE

1.8 inches hCURRENTLY LO

Musée natiod’histoire et

Luxembou

Peru (17 days)Discover the intriguing empires of the Inca,Lambayeque, Mochica, and Chimú peopleswith Prof. Gregory Zaro, U. of Maine.Touring includes visits to Lima’s museums,the Moche tombs of Sipán, Trujillo, Túcume,Chan Chan, the largest adobe city in theworld, as well as Cuzco and the sacredUrubamba Valley. Tour highlightsinclude Cerro Sechín, renowned for its unique stone carvings, the early temple-fortress of Chankillo and amazingCaral, the oldest city in the Americas,plus two days at Machu Picchu.

Journey back in time with us. We’ve been taking curious travelers on fascinating historical study tours for the past 36 years. Each tour is led by a noted scholar whose knowledge and enthusiasm brings history to life and adds

a memorable perspective to your journey. Every one of our 37 tours features superb itineraries, unsurpassed service andour time-tested commitment to excellence. No wonder so many of our clients choose to travel with us again and again.

For more information, please visit www.archaeologicaltrs.com, e-mail [email protected], call 212-986-3054, toll-free 866-740-5130. Or write to Archaeological Tours, 271 Madison Avenue, Suite 904, New York, NY 10016.

And see history our way.

2012 tours: Eastern Turkey • Khmer Kingdoms • Oman • Sicily & So. Italy • Morocco • Egypt • Viking Age ScandinaviaChina: Silk Road • Lebanon • Ethiopia • Chile & Easter Island • Gujarat India • Sri Lanka • Caves & Castles...and more

Ancient Cities of Maritime Turkey (18 days)Never far from the sea, Prof Robert Stieglitz,Rutgers U., will guide us from Izmir andEphesus along the Mediterranean andAegean coasts to the ancient cities in Karia,Lycia and Pamphylia. We will sail by privategulet to Kekova and make day trips to theGreek islands of Samos and Kos. We willvisit two of the Seven Wonders of the AncientWorld as well as Cnidus, renowned in antiquity for its statue of Aphrodite. The tourends with the Hellenistic cities of Perge andAspendos and two days in Istanbul.

Israel (17 days)with an optional 5-day Jordan extensionDiscover Israel’s layers of ancient history with archaeologist Dr. MattanyahZohar. After six days in Jerusalem and a reception at the W.F. Albright

Institute of ArchaeologicalResearch, we visit the fortresses

built by King Herod at Herodion andMasada. We continue to Qumran andthe sites around the Sea of Galileeincluding the Roman/Byzantine city atBet She’an, Tel Dan and Solomonic

Hazor in the Golan and Megiddo, aswell as the great Roman/Crusader port atCaesarea and vibrant Tel Aviv.

Ethiopia: Ancient Kingdoms andLegends (18 days)Explore the historic sites associated with theKingdom of Axum, one of the oldest empiresof Africa with Dr. Jacke Phillips, U. ofLondon, SOAS. Beginning in Addis Ababa we travel north to visit the churches ofTigray, ancient Axum, medieval Gondar, theorigin of the Blue Nile in Bahir Dar and thefamous rock-cut churches of Lalibela. Duringthis wonderful adventure we will experienceEthiopia’s intriguing pageantry and its diversity of peoples and traditions.

archaeological toursLED BY NOTED SCHOLARS

superb itineraries, unsurpassed service

Southern Spain (15 days)Megaliths, Moors & Conquistadors Spain evokes lovely white towns and thescent of oranges, but it is also a treasury of ancient remains including the cities leftby the Greeks, Romans and Arabs. As wetravel south from Madrid with Prof.Ronald Messier, Middle Tennessee StateU., to historic Toledo, Roman Mérida andinto Andalucia, we explore historicalmonuments, Moorish architecture,Córdoba’s great cathedral, the splendor ofthe Alcazar in Seville and end our tour inGranada with the opulent Alhambra.

Archaeological Toursled by noted scholars

Invites You to Journey Back in Time

© 2012 United Air Lines, Inc. All rights reserved.

Includes destinations served by United Air Lines, Inc.and United Express.

Wherever you’re going...we’re there.Over 370 destinationsthroughout the world.

And there. And there. And there. The truth is, with over 370 destinations throughoutthe world, chances are good that no matter where you’re headed, we can take you.For information and reservations, go to united.com.

archaeology magazine - may.june 2012 (gnv64)

Documents