Four Stone Hearth: Special Edition

Boa’s Blog was originally scheduled to host Four Stone Hearth today, but due to unforeseen circumstances, I’m going to substitute as host today.

Edit: As it happens, Boa’s Blog did have the Four Stone Hearth up, so let me extend my apologies for overstepping. Kambiz and I were online last night and realized that there hadn’t been any posts in a while at Boa’s Blog and were worried after midnight that it might not get published, so we went with plan B. I’d like to point everyone to his blog for the 9th issue of Four Stone Hearth.

Archaeology

Viking Period Amber Gaming Pieces, by Martin Rundkvist at Aardvarchaeology.
Martin describes the finds from a boat grave excavation in Östergötland, a province in the south of Sweden. He’s included photos of the spherical amber gaming pieces and a bit of discussion about the dating involved as well as how the game, hnefatafl, was probably played. Be sure to look through the comments, as there is a link by one of the commenters to a modern version of what the game may have looked like.

Apologetics Archaeology? Round Two. Christopher O’Brien has some very interesting remarks about Syro-Palestinian archeology and raises some valid question regarding agenda-driven research. There’s been some back-and-forth among blogs that deal with so-called “Biblical Archaeology” with regard to biblical-minimalists versus biblical-“maximumists” and Chris discusses some of it here and links to sites elsewhere that continue the discussions.

Cahokia Mounds circa 1989 by afarensis. He includes a brief discussion and some photos of the Cahokia Mounds in Collinsville, IL -just across the river from St. Louis (the Mississippi River, that is).

Cultural Anthropology and Ethnographic Studies

An Evolutionary View of Humans 1: Introduction. Greg Laden offers a first post in a series on the evolutionary perspective of human culture. In his own words, “an evolutionary view of what we are … what human beings are all about … is best framed in the context of a hunting and gathering way of life” Greg also has some interesting discussion going on in the comments section and has invited readers to suggest related topics for him to cover. As always, Greg’s blog is a good read! Go there! Tell him I sent you.

Linguistics

African Lingua Francas, by Christopher Green at Chris’s Linguistics Blog. Interesting insight and overview of the Lingua Franca of various regions in Africa that goes beyond the obvious languages of former colonial empires.

Physical Anthropology

Chimpanzee Archaeology – stone tools used by chimps from 4,300 years ago, presented by Primatology.org, a blog run by a group of volunteers interested in the research, preservation, and conservation of primates. They’ve posted a discussion about the recent news of prehistoric chimpanzee tools discovered in West Africa’s Ivory Coast and dating to around 4,300 years ago. They’ve also included a second, related post: Video of nut cracking behavior of Chimpanzees, which you just have to see if you have any interest at all in primates.

Bones Of Contention Go Home, by Tim Jones at Remote Central. Tim posts a very interesting discussion of debate between Native Americans and archaeology with regard to repatriation of remains and artifacts to Native Tribes according to the the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, (NAGPRA). Not only is the discussion lively, but the links alone are worth the visit. Tell him I sent ya.

And the Valentine’s Day Special Entry:

Mantua, Italy’s Neolithic lovers locked in eternal embrace by Kambiz Kamrani. I’m sure everyone in the anthro/archaeo circles have seen this story by now, but Kambiz has a few good photos linked as well as some quotes from the original story. And if you haven’t seen it… you’re in for a treat. Is it just me, or do the two skeletons even create the shape of a heart?

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