An Archaeology of Multisited Communities

Bernbeck, Reinhard

doi:10.2307/j.ctvdjrq8t.5

Cited by 25 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…They are usually interpreted as spindle whorls and so attest to wool manufacturing, but their exact function is debated (Rooijakkers 2012). Bernbeck and Kielt-Costello have instead suggested that the re-used sherds were jetons, mnemonic devices associated with techniques of managing livestock (Bernbeck 2008;Kielt-Costello 2000, 2002. Such discs have been found in situ in a potter's workshop at the post-Ubaid site of Kosak Shamali on the Syrian Euphrates, where they were used for shaping pottery vessels (Nishiaki and Matsutani 2001).…”

Section: The Prehistoric Small Findsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting Tell Begum: A Prehistoric Site in the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan

Nieuwenhuyse¹,

Odaka²,

Kaneda³

et al. 2016

Iraq

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Tell Begum was previously explored by Iraqi archaeologists in the 1960s when excavations revealed a multi-period site. Among the key finds were Halaf period remains that are relatively rare in the region of the Shahrizor plain and included polychrome ceramics suggesting a local variation of the Halaf culture. Recent investigations and excavations in 2011 and 2013 revealed a 5 hectare site inhabited during the Halaf, Ubaid, Late Chalcolithic, and medieval periods. The Halaf site may have had an area of about 3 hectares, making it a relatively large settlement for that period, although its full extent is unclear. Offsite work revealed the area to have been well watered in the past, with likely neighbouring regions of woodland and abundant shrubs. The heavy sedimentation in the region has partially obscured archaeological remains, including possibly Tell Begum's lower mound. The site, nevertheless, shows continuity of settlement, indicating relative stability in settlement over long timespans.

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Section: The Prehistoric Small Findsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting Tell Begum: A Prehistoric Site in the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan

Nieuwenhuyse¹,

Odaka²,

Kaneda³

et al. 2016

Iraq

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“…Although these propositions are plausible and testable, they rely on the settlement pattern postulated by McAndrews (1998McAndrews ( , 2005a, which the Iroco results suggest is an artifact of survey intensity. Most of the previously identified Wankarani "villages," I argue, were actually residential bases, which, due to their specific location, tended to be reoccupied more frequently than other sites (see Bernbeck 2008). Based on the collected data, it seems unlikely that the Wankarani cultural complex settlement system corresponded to a village system.…”

Section: Capriles] Mobile Communities and Pastoralist Landscapes In Tmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Ethnographically and ethnoarchaeologically documented modern pastoralist settlement systems in the Andes and elsewhere in the world are characterized by residential bases located near highquality grazing areas and complemented by a complex set of temporal and seasonally occupied logistical herding camps (e.g., Bernbeck 2008;Cribb 1991;Flores 1979;Kuznar 1990Kuznar , 1995Tomka 1994Tomka , 2001Vining 2011;Wendrich and Barnard 2008). In contrast to this expectation, Formative period Wankarani cultural complex sites have been described previously as stratigraphically complex mounds and interpreted as permanently occupied agricultural villages (Bermann and Estevez 1995;Fox 2007McAndrews 1998McAndrews , 2005aPonce 1970;Rose 2001aRose , 2001b.…”

Section: Pastoralist Landscapes Mobility and Wankarani Villagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile Communities and Pastoralist Landscapes During the Formative Period in the Central Altiplano of Bolivia

Capriles¹

2014

Latin Am. antiq.

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The domestication of llamas and alpacas was fundamental for the cultural and economic development of Andean societies, but the origins of camelid pastoralism as a distinct mode of socioeconomic organization remain little understood. Whereas most archaeological interpretations of prehispanic highland societies emphasize the transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture as a process marked by the establishment of agricultural sedentary villages, other subsistence and mobility strategies have been for the most part overlooked. A case in point is the Wankarani cultural complex from the Central Altiplano of Bolivia, which has been interpreted as an example of an early village-based sedentary society. Here, I argue that a model of mobile pastoralism based on ethnoarchaeological research better explains the Central Altiplano's Formative period archaeological record. Recently collected data support this proposition. Settlement patterns consisted of multiple dispersed camps attached to residential bases occupied recurrently. Horizontal excavations from a residential base revealed structures and features analogous to pastoralist landscapes documented around the world. Faunal identification confirmed the preponderance of domesticated camelids. Based on this evidence, I argue that we need better explanatory frameworks for approaching the origins, organization, and variability associated with early food producing societies such as mobile camelid pastoralists.

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“…Finally, there has been a tendency among many archaeologists, and among modern settled people in general, to see sedentization as inevitable and irreversible-indeed desirable-a necessary step on the road to civilization (Rafferty 1985;Bernbeck 2008). However sedentism, as suggested above, is never absolute.…”

Section: Causes and Consequences Of Sedentismmentioning

confidence: 88%

Increased Sedentism in the Central Oases of the Egyptian Western Desert in the Early to Mid-Holocene: Evidence from the Peripheries

McDonald

2009

Afr Archaeol Rev

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Two locations adjacent to the great central oases of the Egyptian Western Desert experienced an unusual period of sedentism in the early to mid-Holocene. Around the Southeast Basin near Dakhleh Oasis and in the Wadi el-Midauwara above Kharga, areas sharing close cultural ties, groups of slab structure sites attest to increased sedentism spanning 2,500 years. Kharga seems to have been settled fairly continuously through the two and a half millennia, but little is known of subsistence practices in this location. Dakhleh experienced two episodes of increased sedentism. Early Holocene Masara groups occupied a well-watered location within a generally dry desert. In the wetter mid-Holocene, Bashendi settlers in large stone-built sites hunted, collected wild cereals, and may have kept herds. As the desert dried after 5300 BC, the settlers switched to a life of mobile forager-herders.

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An Archaeology of Multisited Communities

Cited by 25 publications

References 0 publications

Revisiting Tell Begum: A Prehistoric Site in the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan

Revisiting Tell Begum: A Prehistoric Site in the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan

Mobile Communities and Pastoralist Landscapes During the Formative Period in the Central Altiplano of Bolivia

Increased Sedentism in the Central Oases of the Egyptian Western Desert in the Early to Mid-Holocene: Evidence from the Peripheries

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