This paper argues that the origins of language can be detected one million years ago, if not earlier, in the archaeological record of
Homo erectus
. This controversial claim is based on a broad ...theoretical and evidential foundation with language defined as communication based on symbols rather than grammar. Peirce’s theory of signs (semiotics) underpins our analysis with its progression of signs (icon, index and symbol) used to identify artefact forms operating at the level of symbols. We draw on generalisations about the multiple social roles of technology in pre-industrial societies and on the contexts tool-use among non-human primates to argue for a deep evolutionary foundation for hominin symbol use. We conclude that symbol-based language is expressed materially in arbitrary social conventions that permeate the technologies of
Homo erectus
and its descendants, and in the extended planning involved in the caching of tools and in the early settlement of island Southeast Asia.
This paper will consider the process of archaeological reconstruction from the initial discovery of the Bronze Age Ferriby boats, their original dating and environmental context through the ...re-evaluation of the discoveries by their original finder Ted Wright between 1937 and 1963, and up to the recent re-dating and the current reconstruction project. This research represents in excess of sixty-four years of study on the part of Ted Wright, who passed away in 2001. As such this paper is presented as a tribute to this work and as a precursor to the development of a full-scale reconstruction project for the Ferriby boats.
The history of aboriginal whaling is by necessity incomplete, and will be told differently from different perspectives, such as by USA (American), Norway, Canada, Japan, Russia, and other peoples and ...nations. This one is Euro-centric, with the best possible recollections of the past. While there was important traditional (historical) whaling by Norway, Denmark, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the USA (and others), the perspective here is largely from probably the most important traditional premodern whaling perspective, that of the USA.
L'implantation des premiers établissements humains sur l'île de Chypre, et surtout l'introduction concomitante de cinq espèces d'ongulés et de trois carnivores avant la fin du IXe millénaire sont ...analysées à la lumière des connaissances de la paléontologie et de la biologie. Elles apportent ainsi un éclairage indirect sur l'histoire de la navigation méditerranéenne au Proche-Orient entre le XI e et le VIIIe millénaires, période pour laquelle on ne dispose d'aucune découverte archéologique de restes de navires. Capacités de portage des embarcations et intensité du flux maritime entre le continent et l'île sont discutés. L'histoire de la colonisation de Chypre par la souris grise, récemment élucidée, permet de préciser ce dernier paramètre. The first human settlements on the island of Cyprus, and the contemporary introduction of five ungulate and three carnivore species before the end of the 9 th millennium BC are discussed in the light of paleontological and biological knowledge. They provide indirect information about the history of Mediterranean sea-faring in the Near East between the 11th and the 8th millennia BC-a period during which archaeological evidence for remains of ships is absent. The carrying capacities of boats and the intensity of sailings between the mainland and the island are discussed. The recently elucidated history of the colonisation of Cyprus by the house mouse provides further information about this fascinating event.
The continuous domination of the Mediterranean by the great thalassocracies - Phoenicia, Greece and Rome - left only limited "maritime space" for neighboring peoples such as the Jews. Jewish presence ...in the port- cities around the Mediterranean during the Greco-Roman era mode, nevertheless, the practice of navigation indispensable for survival and for contacts between communities. This situation is reflected in the ambivalent approach ofJudaism to navigation on the one hand, and the adoption of maritime symbols in the Bible, in the literature and in the iconography of Palestine, on the other. Jewish authors inspired by Greco-Roman culture show the attraction of rulers like Simon Maccabaeus and Herod to the sea in a particular historical context. The ship, however, can become a rhetorical means, which sometimes reflects the personal expérience of the author himself, such as in the case of Josephus Flavius's sea travels. The perception of the ship and the balance between reality and metaphor are strongly expressed in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs in the Apocrypha, that combine the allegorical style of the Biblical tradition with the maritime developments of Hellenistic and Roman times.
La domination de la Méditerranée par les grandes thalassocraties - la Phénicie, la Grèce et Rome - a laissé peu "d'espace maritime" aux peuples avôisinants comme le peuple juif. La dispersion juive dans les villes portuaires autour de la Méditerranée à l'époque gréco-romaine a, d'autre part, rendu la pratique de la navigation indispensable à la survie et aux relations entre les communautés. Cette situation peut expliquer l'attitude ambivalente du judaïsme à l'égard de la navigation, ainsi que l'emprunt des symboles maritimes dans la Bible, la littérature et l'iconographie en Palestine. Les auteurs juifs de culture gréco-romaine mettent en valeur l 'attirance des souverains comme Simon Maccabée ou Hérode pour la mer dans un contexte historique défini ; Il existe, d'autre part, une représentation du navire comme un moyen rhétorique ou littéraire, qui reflète parfois l'expérience personnelle de l'auteur, comme chez Flavius Josèphe. La perception du navire et le jeu entre le réel et l'imaginaire sont fortement exprimés dans les Testaments des Douzes Patriarches, textes des Apocryphes qui combinent le style allégorique de la tradition biblique avec les réalités maritimes de la période hellénistique et romaine.
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