Added
June 22, 2000. Updated December 9, 2000.
International
Symposium
Comparative
Archaeology:
Old and New
World Prehistory at the Crossroads
Friday afternoon, April 20, 2001
At the 66th ANNUAL MEETING
Of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA)
New Orleans Marriott
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
April 18 to 22, 2001
(With an
overnight excursion to Watson Brake and Poverty Point, April 22)
Organized by
Max Baldia
The Comparative Archaeology WEB,
The Czech-American Research Program (CARPRO),
Institute for the Study of Earth and Man
Southern Methodist
University
|
Mailing Address: Maximilian
O. Baldia |
Symposium Deadlines and Instructions
This meeting is organized in conjunction with the International Colloquium on Comparative Archaeology, Columbus, Ohio, April 23 – 28, 2001 to provide greater in-depth presentation and discussion.
Symposium Abstract
The large accumulation of regional data in the Old and New World, the world’s political climate, and modern communication technology place archaeology at the cross roads. Choosing the traditional path of analyzing individual regions in a vacuum will cause it to fission if not wither. Making comparative research on a global basis the focus of the 21st century will promote detailed comparisons between large cultural regions. This path allows us to ascertain the causes for the similarities and differences in cultural development. We bring together burgeoning research, dealing with a fascinating array of comparisons, yielding unprecedented insights into the similarities and differences in the social, economic and religious constellations of Old and New World societies.
Abstracts
Dirk Raetzel-Fabian
Hessisches Landesmuseum, Kassel
Mailing
Address:
Herkulesstrasse 69
D-34119 Kassel
Germany
dirk.fabian@online.de
Vacant Center -
Vacant Periphery: Spatial Distribution of Monumental Enclosures
Abstract
Can the Hopewell "Vacant Center Model" by O. H. Prufer (1964)
serve as a reasonable concept for the interpretation of monumental enclosures
in Central Europe? The discussion of the use and function of earthworks has its
roots in the 19th century, and arguments developed parallel in both parts of
the world without an observable exchange of ideas and concepts. The high
density distribution pattern of monumental enclosures on the northern fringe of
the highland regions of Germany now raises questions similar to those in the
Hopewell core region of Southern Ohio: which models are applied best to explain
the distribution pattern against the background of social as well as spatial
organization, communication and ritual?
Douglas
S. Frink
Archaeology Consulting Team, Inc.
57 River Road, Suite 1020
Essex, VT 05452
USA
DSFrink@aol.com
and
Ronald
I. Dorn
Arizona State University
Main Campus
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Department of Geography
PO Box 870104
Tempe, AZ 85287-0104
USA
atrid@IMAP1.ASU.EDU
Beyond Taphonomy: Pedogenic Transformations of the Archaeological Record in Monumental Earthworks.
Abstract
Mesolithic and later peoples acted as aggradational and erosional geomorphic
agents -- producing monumental earthworks including enclosures, mounds, and
earth figures in temperate and arid environments. Taphonomic laws governing
geologic processes underlie conventional interpretations of artifacts
associated with monumental earthworks. Taphonomic explanations, without
consideration for temporal and spatial scale, and ecological settings can
render misleading conclusions for aggradational earthworks. Aerobic soils
and rock surfaces are dynamic autopoetic systems whose metabolic processes
affect the organization of associated artifacts. Studies from Texas,
Louisiana, California, and the Czech Republic exemplify pathways by which
pedogenic and weathering processes define spatial and temporal contexts.
Jennifer Mathews
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Trinity University
715 Stadium Drive
San Antonio, TX 78212 U.S.A.
jmathews@trinity.edu
The Road less Traveled:
Evidence for an Ancient Maya Causeway in Quintana Roo, Mexico
Abstract
Contact-period documents speak of road networks that cris-crossed the Yucatán
Peninsula, yet very little evidence of these features have been found in the
state of Quintana Roo. Research by the Yalahau Regional Human Ecology Project
has turned up strong evidence for an ancient road system that headed from the
eastern coast toward inland sites. Survey, the use of G.P.S., excavation,
archival research, and ethnographic interviews with locals in the area, support
the hypothesis of a long-distance road that may have traversed to the state of
Yucatán.
J.
McKim (Kim) Malville
Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences
University of Colorado at Boulder
USA
Kim.Malville@Colorado.EDU
Self-organization of Ritual
Landscapes and Monumental Architecture
Abstract
A useful concept for Comparative Archaeology is that of self-organization,
which is a characteristic of natural landscapes and spontaneous human behavior.
If the social dynamic has been natural and not planned or imposed, monumental
architecture and settlement patterns should display the geometrical
characteristics of self-organized systems. Comparisons of spontaneous versus
planned landscapes are provided by the megalithic ceremonial center at Nabta in
southern Egypt, the royal city of Vijayanagara, patterns of pilgrimage in Chaco
and Varanasi, and the spatial organization of shrines and temples of the
Kathmandu valley. A number of these sites display features of both
spontaneous and controlled behavior.
Markus
Vosteen
Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Belfortstr. 22
D-79098 Freiburg im Br.
Germany
Mailing Address:
Schillerstr. 20
D-79102 Freiburg
Germany
mvosteen@gmx.de or vosteen@uni-freiburg.de
Sacred or Profane: Earthworks from a religious point of view
Abstract
Different kinds of Earthworks are known in the Old and the New World. All share
just one common characteristic: the circumvallation with rampart and/or ditch.
These circumvallations played an important role for the archaeological
interpretation: either as a profane attribute with characteristics of a
fortification, or simply as a border of a sacred area. All these interpretations
are made by archaeologists. A more complex interpretation based on the history
of religion is presented, focusing on the common phenomena of the sacred area
and the associated sacred way. Their specific meanings are explored and
expanded through a view from the outside.
Otto Braasch
Aerial Reconnaissance
Matthias-Hoesl-Strasse 6
D-84034 Landshut
Germany
otto.braasch@landshut.org
Does
Aerial Survey Explore Archaeological Landscapes in Europe?
Abstract
Aerial survey provides essential information for research at archaeological
landscapes on the continent earning equal support as information derived from
excavations and historical sources. The method however is not applied evenly
across Europe and with some countries failing to use it completely, a
comparative view on archaeological landscapes remains superficial. Locked away
photo archives, jealous copyright advocates and restrictive aviation
bureaucracy with lacking funds at former Communist countries leave
archaeologists blindfolded at studies of phenomena like monumental earthworks
across borders. To open skies, minds and archives an international political
effort is required.
Ronald Hicks
Anthropology Dept.
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
USA
ronhicks@yahoo.com
It
Would Look Right at Home in Wessex: New World-Old World Parallels in
Early Agricultural Sacred Landscapes.
Though separated by over 3000 miles in space and 2000 years in time, early
agricultural societies in two midlatitude mixed forest environments--southern
Britain and the Ohio River drainage in North America--developed some remarkable
parallels in manmade features of the landscape that appear to have been of a
sacred or ritual nature. In both we find burial mounds and circular
enclosures, the latter often with internal ditches and astronomical
orientations. There are other parallels between these societies as
well. This paper will compare these in some detail and offer possible
explanations.
John Staeck
College of DuPage
425 22nd Street
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137-6599
USA
staeck@cdnet.cod.edu
Rethinking the US
Woodland/Mississippian and the Central European Neolithic/Copper Age.
The Neolithic in Central Europe and the Eastern Woodlands of the US are described and characterized in many, sometimes contradictory ways. The archaeology of the Woodland and Mississippian periods, as well as the TRB (Funnel Beaker) manifestations in Central and Northern Europe are subject to disparate interpretive schemes that portray the people as everything from egalitarian farmers to expansionist traders. Cross-cultural perspectives on independent sociopolitical developments are examined for both cases, taking into consideration new evidence from excavations in Moravia, Czech Republic.
Richard W. Yerkes
Anthropology Dept.
The Ohio State University
244 Lord Hall, 124 W. 17th Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210-1364
Attila Gyucha
Munkácsy Mihály Múzeum, Békéscsaba
Széchenyi 9
5600 Hungary
William A Parkinson
Anthropology Dept.
The Ohio State University
244 Lord Hall, 124 W. 17th Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210-1364
Tribal “Cycling”: A Comparison of Long-Term Social Processes in the Copper Age of Central Europe and the Woodland Period of the Midwestern United States.
Abstract
This paper explores the utility of a comparative analysis for understanding
long-term patterns of social change in “middle-range” or “tribal” societies
living during the Middle and Late Woodland periods in the Ohio Valley and
during the Neolithic and Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain. These societies inhabited relatively
similar temperate floodplain environments and exhibited comparable levels of
political and economic organization.
Despite the fact that the social trajectory of each region was affected
by its own historical factors, similar patterns of integration and interaction
suggest cross-cultural similarities in the nature of social organization in
tribal societies.
Bradley Lepper
Ohio_Historical_Society
1982 Velma Ave.
Columbus, OH 43211
USA
blepper@ohiohistory.org
The
Serpent and the Alligator: Ohio's Effigy Mounds in Context
Abstract
Efforts to understand Ohio's effigy mounds have been hampered by the lack
of an objective chronology. Serpent Mound has been attributed to the
Adena culture based on its proximity to Adena burial mounds. Alligator
Mound has been attributed to the Hopewell culture based on its nearness to the
Newark Earthworks. New data indicate both effigies are the work of the
Fort Ancient culture and are approximately contemporaneous with the Effigy
Mound culture of the upper Midwest. In this context, I interpret them as
representations of the two principal inhabitants of the traditional Algonquian
underworld: the serpent and the underwater panther.
Lennart S.
Madsen
Haderslev Museum
Dalgade 7
DK-6100 Haderslev
Denmark
Phone: (+45) 74 52 75 66
The Role of Earthworks in Establishing the Danish Kingdom - 2nd to 13th Century AD.
Abstract
Earthworks play an important role in the development of the Scandinavian
kingdoms. The reasons for earthwork construction change through time, ranging
from boundary markers between tribal territories to the protection of state
boundaries; from the exercise of political and social control by the emerging
central kingdoms based in fortified sites to the construction of private
strongholds of noblemen, clergy and royalty alike in the final phases of state
formation. The earthwork’s changing political and military role, geographic
distribution, architecture and the underlying foreign inspiration will be
discussed, using the area of Slesvig as primary example.
Frauke Witte
Archäologisches Landesamt Schleswig-Holstein
Brockdorff-Rantzaus-Strasse 70
D-24837 Schleswig
Germany
Phone: (+49) 04621 387 0
Fax: (+49) 04621 387 55
The Production and Spread of Locally Produced Pottery in Northern Europe 16th – 19th Century: The Archeological Evidence.
Abstract
Following the black and little decorated local pottery of medieval northern
Europe, pottery production in the research area changed during the 16th
- 19th century. The change was due to the increased supply of food,
the resulting change of table manners and local attempts to produce a cheap
alternative to polychrome wares such as Fayence and Majolica. Archeological
finds of this locally produced pottery from northwestern Europe show a
development in forms and decorations which through analysis of special forms,
fashion of motives, colors etc. uncover production centers and local
traditions, which through international inspiration and trade routes spread
across northern Europe and even to America.
Christel
Baldia
Amish Cancer Project
The Ohio State University
A. James Cancer Hospital & R. J. Solove Research Institute
Human Cancer Genetics
300 West 10th St.
Suite 519
Columbus, OH 4321-1240
USA
giesdorf@surfree.com, Chandle-1.@medctr.osu.edu, Baldia.1@osu.edu
Cultures at the Cross Roads: A Comparative Study of Native American, African and European Symbolism during the Early Colonial Period of the Southeastern US.
Abstract
During the early colonial days, West African,
European and Native American peoples met in the Southeast of this country. They
share similar social structure and iconography, although the assigned symbolic
meaning may have been different. This created the basis for intense
interaction between these peoples. Many of the symbols used found their way
onto textiles, such as clothing, early slave quilts, or other body decorations.
They can be traced back to West Africa, Europe or the Mississippian period in
North America. Even today, the uniquely pieced costumes of the Seminole in
Florida continue to use some of these symbols.
Maximilian
O. Baldia
Institute for the Study of Earth and Man
Heroy Science Hall
Southern Methodist University
3225 Daniel Avenue
Dallas, Texas 75275-0274
USA.
mobaldia@earthlink.net
Monuments at the Crossroads: Comparative Archaeology of North American and European Monuments.
Abstract
Archaeologists on both
sides of the Atlantic raise the controversial question of prehistoric roads in
“middle-range” societies. Spatial analysis of 5000 European Neolithic/Copper
Age (megalithic) tombs indicates that they were built along major communication
lines. Tombs mass near enclosures, which are often located near streams in
elevated positions. This juxtaposition suggests that overland and water routs
meet near them. While enclosures function as nodes in the prehistoric
communication network, evidence for road construction remains elusive. Applying
the model to American monuments of the Ohio/Mississippi drainage and the US
Southwest provides evidence for (“graded”) ways, implying that many societies
at similar technological stages of development adapt similar communication
strategies.
Please send comments or questions to Max
Baldia