Interaction and Exchange

We have calculated the exchange-energy contribution to the total energy of quasi-two-dimensional hole systems realized by a hard-wall quantum-well confinement of valence-band states in typical semiconductors. The magnitude of the exchange energy turns out to be suppressed from the value expected for analogous conduction-band systems whenever the mixing between heavy-hole and lighthole components is strong. Our results are obtained using a very general formalism for calculating the exchange energy of many-particle systems where single-particle states are spinors. We have applied this formalism to obtain analytical results for spin-3/2 hole systems in limiting cases.

This paper presents results from Trench 4 of salvage excavations undertaken at the Aboriginal place ‘Toolern Creek 17’ (VAHR 7822–3883) in Melton South, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, as part of compliance works. It focuses on analyses of materials recovered from a layer beneath what was initially interpreted as sterile basal deposit. This deep, lower horizon (Stratigraphic Unit 5) contained rich archaeological evidence of early occupation dated to the transition between the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene, c. 13,240–11,270 cal BP. Some finds appear to date from even earlier occupation, most likely c. 17,300–17,110 cal BP. Over 2,000 mainly quartz and quartzite lithic artefacts were recovered, including a variety of tools—such as grinding stones and possibly hafted, adze-like forms—and substantial evidence for the early use and possible exchange of tachylite. This layer also yielded remarkably well-preserved fragments of burnt marsupial bone, including kangaroo. Toolern Creek 17 provides important new data for understanding a relatively poorly documented
period in both Victoria and southeastern Australia. It also highlights the archaeological potential beneath apparently ‘culturally sterile’ strata on alluvial terraces.

Pedro Rojas's 1961 excavation of numerous stone vessels at the Huayurco site has led scholars to suspect that the Jaén region of the northeastern Peruvian Andes was an important center of early ceremonial stone bowl production. This discovery not only provided clear evidence of an independent craft technology within the ceja de selva, or eastern Andean tropical montane forest, but the similarity of these stone vessels to examples found at coastal and highland Andean sites also suggested that the Jaén region produced these vessels as a means of participating within early interregional exchange networks. Because empirical evidence of tropical forest exchange items within coastal and highland sites is difficult to obtain because of these items’ suspected perishable nature, the stone vessels represented an alternative means for understanding early Andean–Amazonian relations. Despite the importance of this discovery, little follow-up investigation has been conducted. In this article, I define the Jaén stone vessel tradition on the basis of form, design, and technology. I then review the archaeological literature on early Andean stone vessels to show how these vessels help articulate Jaén's participation within Andean interaction spheres between 2500 and 800 BC.

El hallazgo de un entierro en Huayurco con numerosas vasijas de piedra, realizado por Pedro Rojas en 1961, ha llevado a los estudiosos a reconocer la región de Jaén en los Andes Nororientales peruanos como un importante centro de producción de cuencos ceremoniales de piedra. Este descubrimiento no solo proporcionó evidencia clara de una tecnología artesanal independiente dentro de la ceja de selva, sino también la similitud de estas vasijas de piedra con ejemplos encontrados en sitios andinos de la costa y sierra sugieren que la región de Jaén producía estas vasijas como medio para participar en las primeras redes de intercambio interregional. Debido a que la evidencia empírica de elementos de intercambio de los bosques tropicales en los sitios costeros y de las tierras altas es difícil de identificar por su presunta naturaleza perecedera, las vasijas de piedra representan un medio alternativo para comprender las primeras relaciones andino–amazónicas. A pesar de la importancia de este descubrimiento, se ha realizado muy poca investigación de seguimiento. En este artículo, defino la tradición de las vasijas de piedra de Jaén basado en la forma, el diseño y la tecnología. Luego, reviso la literatura arqueológica sobre las vasijas de piedra andinas tempranas con el fin de mostrar cómo estas vasijas ayudaron a articular la participación de Jaén en las diferentes esferas de interacción andina entre 2500 y 800 aC.

This volume brings together archaeologists working in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia to construct a new prehistory of the Upper Amazon, outlining cultural developments from the late third millennium B.C. to the Inca Empire of the sixteenth century A.D. Encompassing the forested tropical slopes of the eastern Andes as well as Andean drainage systems that connect to the Amazon River basin, this vast region has been unevenly studied due to the restrictions of national borders, remote site locations, and limited interpretive models.

The Archaeology of the Upper Amazon unites and builds on recent field investigations that have found evidence of extensive interaction networks along the major rivers—Santiago, Marañon, Huallaga, and Ucayali. Chapters detail how these rivers facilitated the movement of people, resources, and ideas between the Andean highlands and the Amazonian lowlands. Contributors demonstrate that the Upper Amazon was not a peripheral zone but a locus for complex societal developments. Reaching across geographical, cultural, and political boundaries, this volume shows that the trajectory of Andean civilization cannot be fully understood without a nuanced perspective on the region’s diverse patterns of interaction with the Upper Amazon.

Waal M.S. de (2003), Pre-Columbian Site Patterns in the Eastern Guadeloupe Area. An Archaeological Survey of La Désirade, Petite Terre and Pointe des Châteaux (1998-2000). In: Proceedings of the XXth International Congress for Caribbean Archaeology no. 20. 75-84.

A PhD study (1997-2003) focusing on socio-political, economic and ritual organisation and interaction on La Désirade, Petite Terre, and Pointe des Châteaux (Guadeloupe, F.W.I.) is currently being carried out at Leiden University (The Netherlands). It aims to obtain information on pre-Columbian organisation and interaction through the analysis of archaeological sites and their assemblages, as well as diachronic site patterns. At the start of this study no reliable site inventories, prerequisites for the investigation of pre-Columbian site patterns, were available for the research area. Therefore, a survey method, consisting of systematic and intensive field-walking procedures and small-scale sub-surface tests, was designed in order to provide fast, detailed, and systematically made micro-regional site inventories. The required fieldwork was carried out from 1998 to 2000. This paper focuses on the aims, methodology, accuracy and results of the fieldwork campaigns and the diachronic pre-Columbian site patterns that were identified.