Geoarchaeology and taphonomy of plant remains in early urban environments in the Ancient Near East

A number of recent articles emphasize the fundamental importance of taphonomy and formation processes to interpretation of plant remains assemblages, as well as the value of interdisciplinary approaches to studies of environmental change and ecological and social practices. This paper examines ways in which micromorphology can contribute to integrating geoarchaeology and archaeobotany in analysis of the taphonomy and context of plant remains and ecological and social practices. Micromorphology enables simultaneous in situ study of diverse plant materials and thereby traces of a range of depositional pathways and histories. In addition to charred plant remains, also often preserved in semi-arid environments are plant impressions, phytoliths and calcitic ashes. These diverse plant remains are often routinely separated and extracted from their depositional context or lost using other analytical techniques, thereby losing crucial evidence on taphonomy, formation processes and contextual associations, which are fundamental to all subsequent interpretations. Although micromorphological samples are small in comparison to bulk flotation samples of charred plant remains, their size is similar to phytolith and pollen samples. In this paper, key taphonomic issues are examined in the study of: fuel; animal dung, animal management and penning; building materials; and specific activities, including food storage and preparation and ritual, using selected case-studies from early urban settlements in the Ancient Near East. Microarchaeological residues and experimental archaeology are also briefly examined.

The domestication of water: water management in the ancient world and its prehistoric origins in the Jordan Valley

The ancient civilizations were dependent upon sophisticated systems of water management. The hydraulic engineering works found in ancient Angkor (ninth to thirteenth century AD), the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan (thirteenth to fifteenth century AD), Byzantine Constantinople (fourth to sixth century AD) and Nabatean Petra (sixth century BC to AD 106) are particularly striking because each of these is in localities of the world that are once again facing a water crisis. Without water management, such ancient cities would never have emerged, nor would the urban communities and towns from which they developed. Indeed, the ‘domestication’ of water marked a key turning point in the cultural trajectory of each region of the world where state societies developed. This is illustrated by examining the prehistory of water management in the Jordan Valley, identifying the later Neolithic (approx. 8300–6500 years ago) as a key period when significant investment in water management occurred, laying the foundation for the development of the first urban communities of the Early Bronze Age.

'Youth language' in ancient Rome

This article presents some of the findings of a UROP project, collecting the evidence for youth language phenomena in the ancient world (with a focus on the Roman Empire).

Military competition and the emergence of nationalism: putting the logic of political survival into historical context

This essay aims to make a contribution to the conversation between IR and nationalism literatures by considering a particular question: What is the relationship between interstate military competition and the emergence of nationalism as a potent force in world politics? The conventional wisdom among international security scholars, especially neorealists, holds that nationalism can be more or less treated like a “technology” that allowed states to extract significant resources as well as manpower from their respective populations. This paper underlines some of the problems involved with this perspective and pushes forward an interpretation that is based on the logic of political survival. I argue that nationalism’s emergence as a powerful force in world politics followed from the “mutation” and absorption of the universalistic/cosmopolitan republican ideas that gained temporary primacy in Europe during the eighteenth century into particularistic nationalist ideologies. This transformation, in turn, can be best explained by the French Revolution’s dramatic impacts on rulers’ political survival calculi vis-à-vis both interstate and domestic political challenges. The analysis offered in this essay contributes to our understanding of the relationship between IR and nationalism while also highlighting the potential value of the political survival framework for exploring macrohistorical puzzles.

The ancient Greek address system and some proposed sociolinguistic universals

This article summarizes the results of a longer study of address forms in Ancient Greek, based on 11,891 address tokens from a variety of sources. It argues that the Greek evidence appears to contradict two tendencies, found in address forms in other languages, which have been claimed as possible sociolinguistic universals: the tendency toward T/V distinctions, and the principle that “What is new is polite.” It is suggested that these alleged universals should perhaps be re-examined in light of the Greek evidence, and that ancient languages in general have more to contribute to sociolinguistics than is sometimes realized. (Address, Ancient Greek, T/V distinctions)

Analysis of DNA polymorphism in ancient barley herbarium material: validation of the KASP SNP genotyping platform

The availability of crop specimens archived in herbaria and old seed collections represent valuable resources for the analysis of plant genetic diversity and crop domestication. The ability to extract ancient DNA (aDNA) from such samples has recently allowed molecular genetic investigations to be undertaken in ancient materials. While analyses of aDNA initially focused on the use of markers which occur in multiple copies such as the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) within ribosomal DNA and those requiring amplification of short DNA regions of variable length such as simple sequence repeats (SSRs), emphasis is now moving towards the genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), traditionally undertaken in aDNA by Sanger sequencing. Here, using a panel of barley aDNA samples previously surveyed by Sanger sequencing for putative causative SNPs within the flowering-time gene PPD-H1, we assess the utility of the Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) genotyping platform for aDNA analysis. We find KASP to out-perform Sanger sequencing in the genotyping of aDNA samples (78% versus 61% success, respectively), as well as being robust to contamination. The small template size (≥46 bp) and one-step, closed-tube amplification/genotyping process make this platform ideally suited to the genotypic analysis of aDNA, a process which is often hampered by template DNA degradation and sample cross-contamination. Such attributes, as well as its flexibility of use and relatively low cost, make KASP particularly relevant to the genetic analysis of aDNA samples. Furthermore, KASP provides a common platform for the genotyping and analysis of corresponding SNPs in ancient, landrace and modern plant materials. The extended haplotype analysis of PPD-H1 undertaken here (allelic variation at which is thought to be important for the spread of domestication and local adaptation) provides further resolution to the previously identified geographic cline of flowering-time allele distribution, illustrating how KASP can be used to aid genetic analyses of aDNA from plant species. We further demonstrate the utility of KASP by genotyping ten additional genetic markers diagnostic for morphological traits in barley, shedding light on the phenotypic traits, alleles and allele combinations present in these unviable ancient specimens, as well as their geographic distributions.