Latest Research In Archaeology

Research No-1

Modifying Soil Chemistry to Enhance Heathland Recreation: A Use for Sulphur Captured During Oil Refining

The overall aim of this paper is to evaluate potential new modifications to methods for re-creating heathland habitats. Heathlands need acidic soils so the specific objectives are to evaluate the effectiveness of a new method for heathland re-creation by soil acidification using a sulphur soil amendment and to explore the benefits for re-creation of applying a soil stripping treatment in conjunction with soil acidification. A new source of sulphur was recovered from oil refinery towers and applied over agricultural sites covering a total of 13 ha on Trehill Farm, Marloes, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK in 2004. In the summer of 2011 we compared soil chemistry and plant communities on sites subjected to different sulphur treatments (sulphur applied to the existing soil surface and sulphur applied after top soil had been stripped) with those on an adjacent untreated control and on a nearby established heathland. Each of the four treatment sites and the control and heath site was surveyed using 10 random locations measuring 4 m x 4 m. The total above ground % cover was measured for each plant species and a bulk soil sample was taken in a ‘W’ shape from within each 4 m x 4 m quadrat. pH and all chemical parameters of the soil showed highly significant differences amongst the sampled sites (P>0.01 in all cases) and produced even greater abundance of ericaceous species on some of the treated sites than occurred in the established heath. However, soil stripping had no significant additional effect on either edaphic factors or plant species abundances. Sulphur recovered from oil refinery is a potentially useful tool in heathland re-creation, but soil stripping prior to sulphur amendment did not enhance success. We propose that sulphur application drives success through increasing H⁺ toxicity reducing the availability of base cations and creating Fe-induced Mn deficiency in plants.

Research No-2

Factors Affecting the Investment of Tourism in Jordan

Across years numerous Arab regions have made substantial investments in different tourist amenity packages. These investments were made to either capture a portion of the growing tourism market or establish an image that attracted the human capital needed to advance economic development. This study analyze the factors affecting the investment of tourism in Jordan on the different dimensions of the study.

Data have been processed and analyzed through the use of “SPSS” program in order to obtain means, standard deviations, and percentages for the demographic characteristics of the sample. Moreover, analysis of variance (ANOVA) is conducted to test if there are any statistical evidences of the existence of difference between participants to the independent variables.

The subject of this study was selected for its theoretical and practical importance in the field of tourism management in general and investment of tourism in particular.

This importance arises from the factors affecting the investment of tourism in Jordan which have great effects on individual performance.

The study revealed that there are strong statistical evidences that differences exist between employees according to their qualification of the hotel managers, hotel Location, years of experience in the hotel, number of training programs attended by the manager. However, the results show that there is statistical evidence that a difference exists between. The study provided a number of recommendations to help dealing with factors affecting the investment of tourism in Jordan.

Research No-3

Urban Tourism in Jordan: Challenges and Opportunities Case Study: Amman

This paper examines the challenges and opportunities of urban tourism in Jordan with a case study from Amman the capital city of Jordan. Jordan has tourism of sites not tourism of cities and towns, but lately Jordan paid a good attention on this subject and began to rehabilitate many cities especially in the Jordanian capital Amman.  

The definition of urban tourism has initially been discussed, particularly because the definitions of urban tourism range from the downright abstruse to the straightforward. From all the definitions it is concluded that urban areas are very important for this type of tourism because they are: Destinations in their own right, gateways for tourist entry, centres for accommodation, and ideal bases for excursions bringing the tourists along interesting cultural as well as natural itineraries. The discussion then evaluates the aspects of urban tourism through identifying trends, developments and challenges within the tourism sector in Jordan.

The paper discussed also the key elements that can enhance the visitor-friendliness in urban areas. It also considers new sector opportunities and acknowledges the difficulties and challenges associated with the development of the city of Amman as a centre for urban tourism. 

Bibliographic documentation and descriptive-analytic method were used as a methodology for this paper to improve and deepen the knowledge to understand thoroughly the concept of urban tourism. From the main results of this research is that the country has a number of attributes that will likely contribute to the continuing growth of its urban tourism sector, including an enormous array of cultural-heritage destinations, a well developed transportation infrastructure and a hospitality sector that can accommodate budget-minded tourists as well as the needs of the most discriminating affluent travelers.

Finally, the paper indicates the suggestions that Amman require to become a true destination city in the region.

Research No-4

The organization of stingless beekeeping (Meliponiculture) at Mayapán, Yucatan, Mexico

This article presents evidence for the importance of traditional stingless beekeeping (meliponiculture) at the Postclassic period (CE 1150–1450) Maya political capital of Mayapán, Yucatan, Mexico, with a particular focus on the domestic and public contexts of this practice and its association with metallurgy and balché production. The spatial and social distribution of beekeeping activities throughout the city refines scholarly understanding of an integrated and functionally complex Maya agro-urban cityscape. Beekeeping activities are identified through the distribution of small limestone disks, interpreted as the covers for traditional hollow log hives, which were widely distributed throughout the Mayapán’s urban landscape. High concentrations of limestone disks at the outlying ceremonial/administrative center of Itzmal Ch’en and also at an elite palace group, may indicate concentrated honey production for crafting fermented honey wine, balché. Limestone disks are also widely distributed at other contexts such as temples and halls of the site’s monumental center as well as secondary elite and commoner house groups. Limestone disks are regularly recovered (although not exclusively) in association with metallurgical ceramics, suggesting that meliponiculture and lost-wax metallurgy were often practiced by the same households. Honey and wax production was a complex undertaking, involving by-products essential for other industries that were not solely produced for commercial exchange. Instead, these activities were frequently embedded into symbolically charged consumption spheres and specialized artisanal practices.

Research No-5

Defining the ‘generalist specialist’ niche for Pleistocene Homo sapiens

Definitions of our species as unique within the hominin clade have tended to focus on differences in capacities for symbolism, language, social networking, technological competence and cognitive development. More recently, however, attention has been turned towards humans’ unique ecological plasticity. Here, we critically review the growing archaeological and palaeoenvironmental datasets relating to the Middle–Late Pleistocene (300–12 thousand years ago) dispersal of our species within and beyond Africa. We argue, based on comparison with the available information for other members of the genus Homo, that our species developed a new ecological niche, that of the ‘generalist specialist’. Not only did it occupy and utilize a diversity of environments, but it also specialized in its adaptation to some of these environmental extremes. Understanding this ecological niche provides a framework for discussing what it means to be human and how our species became the last surviving hominin on the planet.