Archaeology prides itself on its long timescales. Despite the disadvantages of missing, fragmenta... more Archaeology prides itself on its long timescales. Despite the disadvantages of missing, fragmentary and dispersed evidence, archaeology has the one great advan- tage of looking at the longest of all longue duree, potentially spanning the last six million years. However, as we well know scale is context dependent - nothing is inherently big or small, but only by comparison to something else. Lying behind archaeology's claim to long timescales is an implicit and unexamined set of assumptions concerning what constitutes a general view of duration in other disciplines, which, when compared with archaeology, makes our timescales look big. What we might call short duration disciplines, such as anthropology or soci- ology, investigate sets of events or take a biographical view spanning a person's life time. History explores a range of timescales, overlapping at the micro end of the scale with anthropology, to the long durations of Braudel as people's relationships with land and sea unfolded over centuries and even millennia. By any of these standards, archaeological timescales appear generous, although of course we cannot compete with the geologists or palaeontologists, even though neither of these is worried about humans and their effects. Of the disciplines concerned with human action the span of millennia and millions of years available to archaeology dwarfs all others, allowing us to pose the big questions of what it means to be human, to get lost in the vastness of time at our disposal or dive into minute details of people's lives where these are preserved.
This essay explores the geographical extent of the world system and dates its cyclical ups and do... more This essay explores the geographical extent of the world system and dates its cyclical ups and downs during the Bronze Age and, in a preliminary way, the early Iron Age. The scope of these twin tasks is exceptionally wide and deep: wide in exploring a single world system that encompasses much of Afro-Eurasia, deep in identifying systemwide economic and political cycles since more than 5,000 years ago.
Variability in material culture at Lapita pottery sites has long been recognised, but is rarely d... more Variability in material culture at Lapita pottery sites has long been recognised, but is rarely discussed. Here we explore differences between two Lapita sites on Apugi Island near Kandrian and two in the Arawe Islands on the south side of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. In the Arawes, the Apalo and Makekur sites have rich assemblages with shell fishhooks, and coral and shell discs similar to those found in Lapita and later contexts across Oceania. In contrast, the less rich assemblages of the Rapie/Iangpun and Auraruo sites on Apugi Island lack similar fishhooks or discs. Three possible explanations for these differences are discussed: sample bias, environmental constraints, and cultural factors. While each may have contributed to some degree, we propose two scenarios involving cultural choices for further consideration: the selective uptake and transfer of new ideas between communities, and contrasting site functions between central places for ritual or trading activities (Arawes) ...
The Lapita questionThe prehistory of the western Pacific has, for the last 30 years, been dominat... more The Lapita questionThe prehistory of the western Pacific has, for the last 30 years, been dominated by the problem of the origins of the present Polynesian and Melanesian cultures (Terrell 1988). In 1961 Golson drew attention to the distribution of highly decorated Lapita pottery, now known to date from between 3500 BP and 2000 BP, which crossed the present-day division between Melanesia and Polynesia. Furthermore, sites with Lapita pottery represented the first evidence of occupation on Tonga and Samoa, the most westerly Polynesian islands from which it was thought that the rest of Polynesia was colonized. Lapita pottery came to be associated with a movement of people from Melanesia to Polynesia and was seen to represent the founding group ancestral to later Polynesian groups.
In 1989-1990, part of a wooden artefact with an incised criss-cross design was recovered from the... more In 1989-1990, part of a wooden artefact with an incised criss-cross design was recovered from the pre-Lapita pottery level of the U-L-T area of the Apalo site in the Arawe Islands of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. The artefact was made from a Ficus tree species, and has been dated by AMS to 4043-3848 calBP (95.4%). This makes it the oldest directly dated ornamented object in the New Guinea region, though zoomorphic stone figurines and pestles and decorated stone mortars of the region are probably of similar antiquity. The artefact adds to the growing body of information about people in the Papua New Guinea Islands prior to the appearance of Lapita pottery, though the simplicity of the design and its widespread distribution in time and space caution against seeing it as a precursor to the Lapita design system. The nature of the original artefact is uncertain.
‘In the beginning—African origins and global movements’ outlines the history of human ancestors, ... more ‘In the beginning—African origins and global movements’ outlines the history of human ancestors, who split off from the other great apes in the late Miocene (c.7 mya (million years ago)). The most accepted direct ancestors to modern humans are the Australopethicines, appearing c.4 mya. From c.2.4 mya, the first members of the early Homo genus appear in east Africa. The first hominin to leave Africa was probably Homo erectus c.1.8 mya. It is thought today’s world population descends from a common ancestral group in Africa, spreading just under 100,000 years ago into the Middle East and then Europe, Asia, and beyond. Tool and fire use is also discussed.
This paper reviews the contribution of Professor Christopher Hawkes, FSA, to the development of B... more This paper reviews the contribution of Professor Christopher Hawkes, FSA, to the development of Bronze and Iron Age studies in the decades before and-more especially-after World War II. It also provides an overview and analysis of the Hawkes Papers, kept in the Bodleian Library, and particularly of the general correspondence section, with a view to assessing the potential of this documentation for the study of the development of British prehistoric archaeology within its European context. Examination of the first thirty-one boxes of the archive situates Hawkes at the interface between several networks of individuals and communities of interest, including amateurs, professional archaeologists and his own students.
We think of globalization as a new process, but long-distance connections are basic to being huma... more We think of globalization as a new process, but long-distance connections are basic to being human. ‘Continental fusion—connections across Europe, Asia, and Africa’ sketches regional histories, considering the Neolithic history of metallurgy, pottery, burial practices, the prehistory of languages, and art styles. It is now possible to see the depth and importance of connections across this huge region from the Neolithic onwards. Materials, such as bronze, and complex art styles linked to shared cosmologies and practices helped set up and maintain connections that all areas participated in and benefitted from. Connections did not produce similarities of culture, however, and regional differences increase from the Bronze Age onwards.
This chapter challenges prevailing paradigms which have structured discussion of trade and exchan... more This chapter challenges prevailing paradigms which have structured discussion of trade and exchange in Iron Age Europe around the dichotomies of gifts vs commodities, or socially generated exchanges in the earlier Iron Age vs production for profit in the later Iron Age. It begins by reviewing the debate on markets and gifts, and what is still useful, and goes on to suggest new directions for research, focusing more on what brought people together as much as the items exchanged. Early Iron Age links between the Mediterranean and Europe north of the Alps are reconsidered in the light of recent work, with a focus on the Heuneburg and Massalia. For the later period, the role of oppida is considered; evidence of production for profit is absent from many areas, and the long-distance exchanges evident at oppida were part of broader European links connected to changes in power and identity.
Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania, Oct 1, 1996
This article explores the relationship between archaeological evidence and writings on anthropolo... more This article explores the relationship between archaeological evidence and writings on anthropological history in Hawaii. The work of Sahlins has caused a renewed interest in history and this has focused on structures of meaning and how these can be put at risk through unforeseen events. Meaning is not often accessible to the prehistorian, but through considering patterns of practice as they unfold over long periods of time we can look at the landscapes within which meanings were generated. A brief consideration of the some aspects of the archaeology of Hawaii aims to show how patterns of practice were increasingly formalised and channelled, laying the basis for social divisions and their symbolic systems which are seen from the early historic period. By combining evidence from archaeology and history it is possible to consider how thought and action are mutually influential, as well as look at the differing timescales on which these two elements of human life operate.
Romanization is a term that people currently love to hate. Few these days approve of the view tha... more Romanization is a term that people currently love to hate. Few these days approve of the view that Romanization was about bringing an inherently superior Roman civilization to the natives. Many would go further and attempt to replace the term altogether — the most successful of these attempts being Woolf's focus on what it meant to become Roman. The heart of Woolf's argument is that being Roman was not a static quality that people embraced or rejected, but rather a set of cultural forms always in the process of ‘becoming’ and that all within the Empire participated in its creation. ‘Gauls were not “assimilated” to a pre-existing social order, but participated in the creation of a new one’. Roman culture was an entity created anew in different parts of the Empire at different times, through the actions of all groups, and it was not just native peoples who were being Romanized through the expansion of Empire, but also the Romans themselves. The view of mutual creation is one we find attractive. However, there is one element of the argument that we would like to qualify and that is that the process is seen as primarily happening through the élites and the new urban centres created within the Empire — ‘A symbolic system did exist in the Roman cultural system, but it was not located in any one place or region but rather in the set of manners, tastes, sensibilities and ideals that were the common property of an aristocracy that was increasingly dispersed across the empire’.
PREHISTORIC SITES WITH POTTERY known as Lapita have been the focus of archaeological attention in... more PREHISTORIC SITES WITH POTTERY known as Lapita have been the focus of archaeological attention in the western Pacific for more than thirty years. For much of this time the main concern has been with the relationship between Lapita pottery and the origin and spread of people who were the ancestors of the Polynesians. Whereas in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea Lapita pottery appears in the archaeological record many millennia after the first human entry into the region, in Western Polynesia-and possibly also in New Caledonia and Vanuatu-the carriers and users of Lapita pottery appear to have been the first humans to colonize these island groups. For Kirch and Hunt (1988a:161), this expansion of Lapita pottery-using people from Papua New Guinea to Samoa "may be among the most rapid dispersal events in human prehistory." As Spriggs (1990: 17) has noted, this claim warrants further assessment. The reliable dating of Lapita pottery is thus important because changes in its chronology may affect interpretations of the nature and speed of its dispersal throughout the southwestern Pacific. Kirch and Hunt (1988a) accept a date of cal. 3550 B.P. for the appearance of Lapita pottery and propose that it spread extremely rapidly from the Bismarck Archipelago in Papua New Guinea to Western Polynesia, with no statistically significant time difference between northern and southern sites. Spriggs (1990) prefers a slightly later starting date of cal. 3450 B.P. and sees the northern sites as slightly earlier than those to the south, thus allowing time for Anson's (1986) "Far Western Lapita" developmental stage of the decorative system in the Bismarck Archipelago. The difference between these two interpretations derives primarily from Spriggs's critical assessment of the dated samples. He rejects several because of undemonstrated or doubtful association between the samples and the pottery occupations, in particular five of the earliest samples on which Kirch and Hunt base their chronology. Both papers, however, are concerned with the chronology of the pottery throughout its distribution and do not examine closely anyone area. This paper addresses issues of dating for sites in the Bismarck Archipelago (Fig. 1), widely regarded as the "homeland" of Lapita pottery, whence the
... Page 2. 56 Chris Gosden Figure 1 The islands of the Western Pacific. ... The yam-taro complex... more ... Page 2. 56 Chris Gosden Figure 1 The islands of the Western Pacific. ... The yam-taro complex supplied the basic staples, supplemented by a variety of tree crops (breadfruit, Canariumn sago, etc.) cultivated in differing intensity from area to area. ...
Archaeology prides itself on its long timescales. Despite the disadvantages of missing, fragmenta... more Archaeology prides itself on its long timescales. Despite the disadvantages of missing, fragmentary and dispersed evidence, archaeology has the one great advan- tage of looking at the longest of all longue duree, potentially spanning the last six million years. However, as we well know scale is context dependent - nothing is inherently big or small, but only by comparison to something else. Lying behind archaeology's claim to long timescales is an implicit and unexamined set of assumptions concerning what constitutes a general view of duration in other disciplines, which, when compared with archaeology, makes our timescales look big. What we might call short duration disciplines, such as anthropology or soci- ology, investigate sets of events or take a biographical view spanning a person's life time. History explores a range of timescales, overlapping at the micro end of the scale with anthropology, to the long durations of Braudel as people's relationships with land and sea unfolded over centuries and even millennia. By any of these standards, archaeological timescales appear generous, although of course we cannot compete with the geologists or palaeontologists, even though neither of these is worried about humans and their effects. Of the disciplines concerned with human action the span of millennia and millions of years available to archaeology dwarfs all others, allowing us to pose the big questions of what it means to be human, to get lost in the vastness of time at our disposal or dive into minute details of people's lives where these are preserved.
This essay explores the geographical extent of the world system and dates its cyclical ups and do... more This essay explores the geographical extent of the world system and dates its cyclical ups and downs during the Bronze Age and, in a preliminary way, the early Iron Age. The scope of these twin tasks is exceptionally wide and deep: wide in exploring a single world system that encompasses much of Afro-Eurasia, deep in identifying systemwide economic and political cycles since more than 5,000 years ago.
Variability in material culture at Lapita pottery sites has long been recognised, but is rarely d... more Variability in material culture at Lapita pottery sites has long been recognised, but is rarely discussed. Here we explore differences between two Lapita sites on Apugi Island near Kandrian and two in the Arawe Islands on the south side of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. In the Arawes, the Apalo and Makekur sites have rich assemblages with shell fishhooks, and coral and shell discs similar to those found in Lapita and later contexts across Oceania. In contrast, the less rich assemblages of the Rapie/Iangpun and Auraruo sites on Apugi Island lack similar fishhooks or discs. Three possible explanations for these differences are discussed: sample bias, environmental constraints, and cultural factors. While each may have contributed to some degree, we propose two scenarios involving cultural choices for further consideration: the selective uptake and transfer of new ideas between communities, and contrasting site functions between central places for ritual or trading activities (Arawes) ...
The Lapita questionThe prehistory of the western Pacific has, for the last 30 years, been dominat... more The Lapita questionThe prehistory of the western Pacific has, for the last 30 years, been dominated by the problem of the origins of the present Polynesian and Melanesian cultures (Terrell 1988). In 1961 Golson drew attention to the distribution of highly decorated Lapita pottery, now known to date from between 3500 BP and 2000 BP, which crossed the present-day division between Melanesia and Polynesia. Furthermore, sites with Lapita pottery represented the first evidence of occupation on Tonga and Samoa, the most westerly Polynesian islands from which it was thought that the rest of Polynesia was colonized. Lapita pottery came to be associated with a movement of people from Melanesia to Polynesia and was seen to represent the founding group ancestral to later Polynesian groups.
In 1989-1990, part of a wooden artefact with an incised criss-cross design was recovered from the... more In 1989-1990, part of a wooden artefact with an incised criss-cross design was recovered from the pre-Lapita pottery level of the U-L-T area of the Apalo site in the Arawe Islands of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. The artefact was made from a Ficus tree species, and has been dated by AMS to 4043-3848 calBP (95.4%). This makes it the oldest directly dated ornamented object in the New Guinea region, though zoomorphic stone figurines and pestles and decorated stone mortars of the region are probably of similar antiquity. The artefact adds to the growing body of information about people in the Papua New Guinea Islands prior to the appearance of Lapita pottery, though the simplicity of the design and its widespread distribution in time and space caution against seeing it as a precursor to the Lapita design system. The nature of the original artefact is uncertain.
‘In the beginning—African origins and global movements’ outlines the history of human ancestors, ... more ‘In the beginning—African origins and global movements’ outlines the history of human ancestors, who split off from the other great apes in the late Miocene (c.7 mya (million years ago)). The most accepted direct ancestors to modern humans are the Australopethicines, appearing c.4 mya. From c.2.4 mya, the first members of the early Homo genus appear in east Africa. The first hominin to leave Africa was probably Homo erectus c.1.8 mya. It is thought today’s world population descends from a common ancestral group in Africa, spreading just under 100,000 years ago into the Middle East and then Europe, Asia, and beyond. Tool and fire use is also discussed.
This paper reviews the contribution of Professor Christopher Hawkes, FSA, to the development of B... more This paper reviews the contribution of Professor Christopher Hawkes, FSA, to the development of Bronze and Iron Age studies in the decades before and-more especially-after World War II. It also provides an overview and analysis of the Hawkes Papers, kept in the Bodleian Library, and particularly of the general correspondence section, with a view to assessing the potential of this documentation for the study of the development of British prehistoric archaeology within its European context. Examination of the first thirty-one boxes of the archive situates Hawkes at the interface between several networks of individuals and communities of interest, including amateurs, professional archaeologists and his own students.
We think of globalization as a new process, but long-distance connections are basic to being huma... more We think of globalization as a new process, but long-distance connections are basic to being human. ‘Continental fusion—connections across Europe, Asia, and Africa’ sketches regional histories, considering the Neolithic history of metallurgy, pottery, burial practices, the prehistory of languages, and art styles. It is now possible to see the depth and importance of connections across this huge region from the Neolithic onwards. Materials, such as bronze, and complex art styles linked to shared cosmologies and practices helped set up and maintain connections that all areas participated in and benefitted from. Connections did not produce similarities of culture, however, and regional differences increase from the Bronze Age onwards.
This chapter challenges prevailing paradigms which have structured discussion of trade and exchan... more This chapter challenges prevailing paradigms which have structured discussion of trade and exchange in Iron Age Europe around the dichotomies of gifts vs commodities, or socially generated exchanges in the earlier Iron Age vs production for profit in the later Iron Age. It begins by reviewing the debate on markets and gifts, and what is still useful, and goes on to suggest new directions for research, focusing more on what brought people together as much as the items exchanged. Early Iron Age links between the Mediterranean and Europe north of the Alps are reconsidered in the light of recent work, with a focus on the Heuneburg and Massalia. For the later period, the role of oppida is considered; evidence of production for profit is absent from many areas, and the long-distance exchanges evident at oppida were part of broader European links connected to changes in power and identity.
Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania, Oct 1, 1996
This article explores the relationship between archaeological evidence and writings on anthropolo... more This article explores the relationship between archaeological evidence and writings on anthropological history in Hawaii. The work of Sahlins has caused a renewed interest in history and this has focused on structures of meaning and how these can be put at risk through unforeseen events. Meaning is not often accessible to the prehistorian, but through considering patterns of practice as they unfold over long periods of time we can look at the landscapes within which meanings were generated. A brief consideration of the some aspects of the archaeology of Hawaii aims to show how patterns of practice were increasingly formalised and channelled, laying the basis for social divisions and their symbolic systems which are seen from the early historic period. By combining evidence from archaeology and history it is possible to consider how thought and action are mutually influential, as well as look at the differing timescales on which these two elements of human life operate.
Romanization is a term that people currently love to hate. Few these days approve of the view tha... more Romanization is a term that people currently love to hate. Few these days approve of the view that Romanization was about bringing an inherently superior Roman civilization to the natives. Many would go further and attempt to replace the term altogether — the most successful of these attempts being Woolf's focus on what it meant to become Roman. The heart of Woolf's argument is that being Roman was not a static quality that people embraced or rejected, but rather a set of cultural forms always in the process of ‘becoming’ and that all within the Empire participated in its creation. ‘Gauls were not “assimilated” to a pre-existing social order, but participated in the creation of a new one’. Roman culture was an entity created anew in different parts of the Empire at different times, through the actions of all groups, and it was not just native peoples who were being Romanized through the expansion of Empire, but also the Romans themselves. The view of mutual creation is one we find attractive. However, there is one element of the argument that we would like to qualify and that is that the process is seen as primarily happening through the élites and the new urban centres created within the Empire — ‘A symbolic system did exist in the Roman cultural system, but it was not located in any one place or region but rather in the set of manners, tastes, sensibilities and ideals that were the common property of an aristocracy that was increasingly dispersed across the empire’.
PREHISTORIC SITES WITH POTTERY known as Lapita have been the focus of archaeological attention in... more PREHISTORIC SITES WITH POTTERY known as Lapita have been the focus of archaeological attention in the western Pacific for more than thirty years. For much of this time the main concern has been with the relationship between Lapita pottery and the origin and spread of people who were the ancestors of the Polynesians. Whereas in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea Lapita pottery appears in the archaeological record many millennia after the first human entry into the region, in Western Polynesia-and possibly also in New Caledonia and Vanuatu-the carriers and users of Lapita pottery appear to have been the first humans to colonize these island groups. For Kirch and Hunt (1988a:161), this expansion of Lapita pottery-using people from Papua New Guinea to Samoa "may be among the most rapid dispersal events in human prehistory." As Spriggs (1990: 17) has noted, this claim warrants further assessment. The reliable dating of Lapita pottery is thus important because changes in its chronology may affect interpretations of the nature and speed of its dispersal throughout the southwestern Pacific. Kirch and Hunt (1988a) accept a date of cal. 3550 B.P. for the appearance of Lapita pottery and propose that it spread extremely rapidly from the Bismarck Archipelago in Papua New Guinea to Western Polynesia, with no statistically significant time difference between northern and southern sites. Spriggs (1990) prefers a slightly later starting date of cal. 3450 B.P. and sees the northern sites as slightly earlier than those to the south, thus allowing time for Anson's (1986) "Far Western Lapita" developmental stage of the decorative system in the Bismarck Archipelago. The difference between these two interpretations derives primarily from Spriggs's critical assessment of the dated samples. He rejects several because of undemonstrated or doubtful association between the samples and the pottery occupations, in particular five of the earliest samples on which Kirch and Hunt base their chronology. Both papers, however, are concerned with the chronology of the pottery throughout its distribution and do not examine closely anyone area. This paper addresses issues of dating for sites in the Bismarck Archipelago (Fig. 1), widely regarded as the "homeland" of Lapita pottery, whence the
... Page 2. 56 Chris Gosden Figure 1 The islands of the Western Pacific. ... The yam-taro complex... more ... Page 2. 56 Chris Gosden Figure 1 The islands of the Western Pacific. ... The yam-taro complex supplied the basic staples, supplemented by a variety of tree crops (breadfruit, Canariumn sago, etc.) cultivated in differing intensity from area to area. ...
Uploads
Papers by Chris Gosden