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Abstract: Abstract One of the most interesting aspects of the Late Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant (c. 4500–3900 cal BC), a period marking notable societal transformations and developments in economy, craft and cult, was the appearance of ivory objects. Ivory, originating from the tusks of elephants and hippopotamuses, suddenly appeared in this period in low quantities and only at a few sites, restricted mainly to the northern Negev, Judean Desert and the central Mediterranean coastal plain. The current paper discusses the Late Chalcolithic ivory objects found in the southern Levant and suggests that we should not merely view these finds as artistic objects charged with symbolic value, but rather, we should acknowledge the role of the specific raw material from which they were made, for its social and economic values based on the likely non-local origin of the ivory and the inherent difficulty in its acquisition. These factors bestowed the ivory items with special significance and prestige value that differentiated them from other more common bone tools. Moreover, we suggest that although these findings reflect contacts, albeit limited between the southern Levant and Predynastic Egypt. PubDate: 2024-12-01 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-024-09187-9
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Abstract: Abstract Longbohe is a newly discovered copper mining, smelting and production site located strategically beside the Red River on the China–Vietnam border in Southeast Yunnan, China. Recent excavations have dated it from the second half of the second millennium to the end of the first millennium BC, making it the earliest copper mining and processing site in Upland Southwest China and Southeast Asia. The metallurgical production tradition in Upland Southwest China and Southeast Asia is recognized and detailed with reference to the chaîne opératoire revealed at the Longbohe site. The location of Longbohe provides evidence for a route along which metallurgy was introduced from Southwest China into Southeast Asia. Current evidence further suggests that metallurgy probably arrived on the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau along the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau corridors, and then entered Southeast Asia along south-flowing rivers. The Longbohe site is thus a most significant find in the southward dissemination of metallurgical technological systems into Southwest China and Southeast Asia in the later second millennium BC. PubDate: 2024-09-01 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-024-09186-w
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Abstract: Abstract This paper explores the strategies implemented by hunter-gatherer groups in Southern Patagonia during the Late Holocene in relation to the circulation of goods and information. Previous archaeological investigations have revealed important changes in human mobility and land-use patterns during this period, associated with increasingly dry environmental conditions. In this context, we undertake a broad spatial scale analysis of the circulation of goods and information through the integrated examination of two lines of evidence: rock art and lithic raw materials. Specifically, we consider the distribution of engravings and black obsidian artefacts assigned to the Late Holocene. The former can offer certain insights into the circulation of information, and the latter are indicative of the circulation of goods. Our analysis suggests that during this period different strategies were developed by hunter-gatherer groups to face the changing environment. Several implications concerning social interaction and the movement of people during this period in Southern Patagonia are discussed. PubDate: 2024-08-03 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-024-09185-x
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Abstract: Abstract The Douzlākh salt deposit (region: Māhneshān, Zanjān Province, Iran) is unique for its pure and crystal rock salt and was an important supplier of culinary (‘table’) salt in Achaemenid, Sassanid and Middle Islamic times. At the same time, the site was of central importance to the economic life of the rural populations in the Talkherud Basin. This article focuses on the question of which strategies were decisive for the exploitation of the salt mountain and how a potential supra-regional interest in the culinary salt was perhaps reciprocally connected with a rural hinterland. This hinterland was recently investigated in greater detail by our ongoing research. Did a resource-scape based on salt develop with specific economic and social strategies and practices around the Douzlākh' And was this development triggered by state or imperial control and demand' These questions are being pursued from a perspective utilising a variety of subjects and methods in archaeology, archaeobiology, archaeometry and geoarchaeology. In addition to a detailed on-site artefact study, several on- and off-site datasets have been collected and analysed within a multidisciplinary framework. This article synthesises the results of a major 12-year project to identify the organisational principles and daily practices within this specific salt-scape. The sensational finds of the Douzlākh salt mummies, along with the generally outstanding preservation of organic ecofacts and artefacts, allow insights into antique lifeworlds that are otherwise hard to come by. The multidisciplinary study of on- and off-site data allows far-reaching insights into interdisciplinary topics, such as the social system, supply and logistics, or the presence of non-local or non-indigenous populations. PubDate: 2024-06-17 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-024-09183-z
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Abstract: Abstract This paper reviews archaeological research on the transmission of writing knowledge between literate and pre-literate societies. It proposes the use of productive approaches, such as cultural epidemiology and cultural attraction theory (CAT). The case study focuses on East-Central Europe and discusses the role of writing in the construction of social group identity and the transition from local communities with a prehistoric mindset to a historically acting society during the first millennium AD. The study collects relevant archaeological records of Early Mediaeval writing and explains them using reflective archaeology. It is shown that interactions between literate and pre-literate societies are highly complex social processes that function not only at the cultural and cognitive levels of individuals but also among larger groups of people. By combining cultural attraction theory with empirical archaeological data, this study formulates a conclusive explanation for the introduction of writing among Europe’s Slavic-speaking population. PubDate: 2024-05-22 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-024-09184-y
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Abstract: Abstract This research combines Strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and Oxygen (δ18O) isotope analysis to challenge the prevailing interpretation of patrilocal exogamic practices among eastern European Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) communities. Patrilocality has been considered the key factor influencing the mobility patterns of central Europe’s first farmers (c. 5500–4900 cal. BC), especially in the south-eastern Moravian region (Czech Republic). Focusing our attention on both male and female tooth enamel samples from cemeteries, settlement graves and small clusters of graves, this paper reassesses the correlation between mobility, biological sex, and funerary practices. This task is accomplished by establishing a new isotopic footprint using new 87Sr/86Sr data, as well as significantly increasing the number of sampled individuals for 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O. The outcome of this research contributes to a better understanding of the mobility patterns among early farmers in central Europe, challenging existing theories and providing new insights into their social and cultural dynamics. PubDate: 2024-04-20 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-024-09181-1
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Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: Abstract Europe is characterized by an uneven record of Middle Paleolithic occupations. Specifically, large parts of southeastern Europe display markedly lower site densities and less intensive evidence of human presence than is found elsewhere; this has often resulted in the exclusion of the Balkans from debates related to Pleistocene human adaptation. The discrepancy stems either from the lower population densities of southeastern Europe or an imbalance in research across Europe. Additionally, our understanding of Balkan Middle Paleolithic stone tool industries suffers from the use of Mousterian labels defined when Bordian typology was the chief method of lithic analysis. Industrial facies then defined and still in use include Balkan Charentian, Levallois Mousterian, Micromousterian, Denticulate Mousterian; their relation with the rest of the Eurasian record was and remains unclear. This paper sets aside the issue of scarcity of Pleistocene occupations and tries to address Neanderthal biogeography, and variations in Neanderthal technological behavior and subsistence, based on the available record. It reviews the current Middle Paleolithic record in the Balkans, presents the apparent temporal and spatial trends, and presents the provisional biogeography of hominins, including scenarios for the demise of Neanderthals at or soon after the arrival of modern humans in Europe. The paper ends with a discussion of perspectives for future research arising from this analysis of the available record and proposes some hypotheses regarding the role of the Balkans in the overall context of the occupational history of western Eurasia in the Middle/Late Pleistocene. PubDate: 2023-12-17 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-023-09179-1
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Abstract: Abstract Funerary monuments appeared shortly after the arrival of the first farmers along the Atlantic Coast of continental Europe, during the first half of the fifth millennium. These enormous constructions, belonging to the ‘Passy’ phenomenon, can measure over 350 m in length and were erected to commemorate high-status individuals. No funerary evidence from the previous period hints at the emergence of these monuments. They do not exhibit any geographical continuity, originating from different cultural substrates. Nevertheless, these structures are characterized by the repetition of specific traits, including their layout and their spatial articulation, as well as a high degree of gender segregation and a focus on hunting or archery. This convergence reflects a well-established social structure and ideology, shared between communities. Moreover, it implies that the descendants of the two main cultures responsible for the spread of agriculture in Europe, the Linearbandkeramik and the Impresso-Cardial, which met at the end of the continent and which absorbed the descendants of the last hunter-gatherers, generated a new value system, and likely a new religious universe. While the funerary monumentality that appeared alongside the Passy phenomenon continued in the form of megaliths, the system eventually collapsed after a few centuries—which was to be expected, given its extreme character. PubDate: 2023-12-16 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-023-09180-8
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Abstract: Abstract Any approach to the economic organization of a society depends on our knowledge of the productive forces and relations of production involved. In archaeology, this line of research requires an analysis of the technical quality and quantity of the means of production, as well as their spatial distribution and contextualisation. Macrolithic artefacts constituted the means of production in many of the productive processes of past communities, from the Neolithic period to the end of prehistory. This article seeks to utilize macrolithic data to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the economic organisation of the Chalcolithic communities in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula between c. 3100 and 2200 cal BC. These communities produced one of the most outstanding, but at the same time puzzling archaeological records known in later prehistory. The main aim of this exploratory approach, the first of its kind, is to determine if the different forms of occupation of the Chalcolithic, namely monumental, ditched enclosures, fortified and unfortified hill-top settlements, and simple, open settlements were distinguished by specific modes of production. This issue is crucial to the on-going debate about the meaning and relevance of the notion of social complexity in the context of Chalcolithic societies and their political organisation. Our study describes the productive forces of the Chalcolithic settlements as highly variable, both in the type of productive tasks performed and in their intensity, and such variability is not explained by aspects like geographic location, form of occupation, or monumentality. The observed wealth and productive diversity, without signs of marked social hierarchies, emerge as a characteristic feature of what can be defined as cooperative affluent societies. PubDate: 2023-10-10 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-023-09178-2
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Abstract: Abstract This article sets out to broaden our knowledge of the sociopolitical dynamics of Santarém (AD 1000–1600), a regional society in the Lower Amazon, by synthesizing the existing archaeological data relating to settlement patterns, ritual ceramics, prestige goods and chronology, as well as exploring aspects linked to the technology of ceramic production at the Carapanari site, a small-scale community located in the region during the late precolonial period. Using an integrated approach, the research combines a techno-functional analysis of a sample basically composed of ceramic fragments, providing information on the original forms and possible uses, with microscopy and compositional analyses of fragments based on instrumental neutron activation analysis. This enables the identification of technological choices, processes of innovation and behavioral changes, also present at other sites in the region that are expressed over time. The set of information presented here engages with recent debates on the emergence of complex societies, providing some insight into the historical development of this polity in Amazonia during the late precolonial period. PubDate: 2023-10-08 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-023-09177-3
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Abstract: Abstract The enhancement of crop yields through manuring has been attested since early farming prehistory in many parts of the world. This article reviews the history of research into the potential archaeological evidence for this practice in Europe, the Mediterranean lands and the Near East. The focus is on the interpretation of ceramic data recovered in surface field surveys conducted since 1950 and what sorts of activities may be plausibly inferred from them. The article examines the origins of the model, objections to it, and recent analyses which again strengthen it. A particular case-study analyses the evidence for the protohistoric and early historic periods in Greece. The methodological and empirical arguments tend to strongly reaffirm the importance of artificial manuring in agrarian regimes of all periods, and its significance in furthering understandings of economic and demographic history and prehistory. PubDate: 2023-05-26 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-023-09176-4
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Abstract: Abstract Situla Art is an Iron Age artisanal tradition dated to c. 660/650–275 BC, corresponding to the Hallstatt C2 to the La Tène B2 phases. It is characterised by striking sheet-bronze objects with embossed and/or incised decoration in Orientalising taste with animals, plants and/or human figures generally distributed in friezes. Situla Art is documented between the Apennines and the eastern Alps, and Este is suggested as its key centre. This paper provides a long overdue literature review, a working definition for Situla Art and an updated catalogue with 306 objects. It also (re-)investigates the influences which may have led to the emergence of Situla Art, its development and decline. Hats and earrings depicted in Situla Art are investigated to highlight their identity valencies, and to provide socio-political insights on the Iron Age elite who used Situla Art as a non-linguistic symbol-based system to acquire, exhibit and legitimate power over time in the area of its distribution. PubDate: 2023-05-09 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-023-09174-6
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Abstract: Abstract In Bronze Age Ireland, the settlement record almost exclusively comprises individual, isolated farmsteads dotted throughout the island (Ginn in Emania, 21: 47–58, 2013; Ginn, Mapping society: Settlement structures in Later Bronze Age Ireland, Archaeopress, 2016). Recent studies have shown that these are incredibly homogeneous, with the nearly 700 excavated examples showing no signs of significant variation in terms of size or density and little in the way of high-status material culture. This conflicts with other evidence from this period, which points to an elite culture inferred from extensive long-distance trading, the manufacture of high-status goods and the construction of massive communal monuments such as hillforts. The latter comprise some of Europe’s largest and most impressive monuments and are often recognised as regional centres of power and authority. Until recently, these monuments have received little attention in Ireland and have rarely been integrated into the broader study of Irish Bronze Age settlement patterns. Indeed, it is at hillforts, which might be regarded as the permanent settlement of an elite and a central space for a disparate community, that we should find larger structures and more nuanced evidence for settlement hierarchies if they exist. This paper aims to collate the settlement evidence within Irish hillforts and other unenclosed upland settlements, integrating this within the broader narrative of the contemporary settlement pattern. It is argued that a clear hierarchy of settlement is apparent at some of the densely settled Irish hillforts, and that these formed central spaces for a disparate community where architecture formed the main arena for the display of status and group identity. PubDate: 2023-04-13 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-023-09172-8
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Abstract: Abstract Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) was first domesticated in China and dispersed westward via Central Asia in the 3rd millennium BC, reaching Europe in the 2nd millennium BC. North of the Black Sea, the North Pontic steppe and forest-steppe areas are key regions for understanding the westward dispersal of millet, as evidenced by the earliest direct radiocarbon dates on European millet grains, which we present here. Examining various lines of evidence relevant to crop cultivation, animal husbandry, contacts and lifestyles, we explore the regional dynamics of the adoption of millet, broadening knowledge about past subsistence strategies related to the ‘millet farmers/consumers’ who inhabited the northern Black Sea region during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Our re-evaluation of crop evidence contributes to ongoing discussions on the mobility of prehistoric communities in the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe—for instance, on whether millet was linked to full-time mobile pastoralists, who occasionally grew or only consumed it, or whether it was linked to sedentary farmers and cattle herders who regularly cultivated millet, among other crops. From the Bronze Age to the Late Antique, this crop is attested under different socio-cultural conditions that suggest it was adaptable to stockbreeding and the natural environment and consumed since the mid 2nd millennium BC in the northern Black Sea region. PubDate: 2022-12-20 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-022-09171-1
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Abstract: Abstract Over the last two decades, red ochre has played a pivotal role in discussions about the cognitive and cultural evolution of early modern humans during the African Middle Stone Age. Given the importance of ochre for the scholarly debate about the emergence of ‘behavioral modernity’, the lack of long-term spatio-temporal analyses spanning large geographical areas represents a significant gap in knowledge. Here we take a continent-wide approach, rather than focusing on specific sites, regions or technocomplexes. We report the most comprehensive meta-analysis of ochre use to date, spanning Africa between 500 and 40 thousand years ago, to examine data from more than a hundred archaeological sites. Using methods based on time averaging, we identified three distinct phases of ochre use: the initial phase occurred from 500,000 to 330,000; the emergent phase from 330,000 to 160,000; and the habitual phase from 160,000 to 40,000 years ago. The number of sites with ochre increased with each subsequent phase. More importantly, the ratio of sites with ochre compared to those with only stone artifacts also followed this trend, indicating the increasing intensity of ochre use during the Middle Stone Age. While the geographical distribution expanded with time, the absolute number of ochre finds grew significantly as well, underlining the intensification of ochre use. We determine that ochre use established itself as a habitual cultural practice in southern, eastern and northern Africa starting about 160,000 years ago, when a third of archaeological sites contain ochre. We argue that this pattern is a likely material manifestation of intensifying ritual activity in early populations of Homo sapiens. Such ritual behavior may have facilitated the demographic expansion of early modern humans, first within and eventually beyond the African continent. We discuss the implications of our findings on two models of ritual evolution, the Female Cosmetic Coalitions Hypothesis and the Ecological Stress Hypothesis, as well as a model about the emergence of complex cultural capacities, the Eight-Grade Model for the Evolution and Expansion of Cultural Capacities. PubDate: 2022-12-14 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-022-09170-2
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Abstract: Abstract Analysis of the spatial and temporal structure of global island colonization allows us to frame the extent of insular human cultural diversity, model the impact of common environmental factors cross-culturally, and understand the contribution of island maritime societies to big historical processes. No such analysis has, however, been undertaken since the 1980s. In this paper we review and update global patterns in island colonization, synthesizing data from all the major island groups and theaters and undertaking quantitative and qualitative analysis of these data. We demonstrate the continued relevance of certain biogeographic and environmental factors in structuring how humans colonized islands during the Holocene. Our analysis also suggests the importance of other factors, some previously anticipated—such as culturally ingrained seafaring traditions and technological enhancement of dispersal capacity—but some not, such as the relationship between demographic growth and connectivity, differing trophic limitations impinging on colonizing farmers versus hunter-gatherer-foragers, and the constraining effects of latitude. We also connect colonization with continental dynamics: both the horizontal transmission of farming lifestyles earlier in the Holocene, and subsequent centrifugal processes associated with early state formation later in the Holocene. PubDate: 2022-10-05 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-022-09168-w
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Abstract: Abstract This paper analyses the importance of the South Central Andean High Puna megapatch, above 4000 masl, in the history of late Pleistocene exploration and colonization of the Atacama Desert, including the contrasting habitats that exist towards the hyperarid Pacific Ocean coast or the ecosystems bordering the tropical forests, on the western and eastern sides of the Andes, respectively. These ecosystems, which were firmly established by the end of the Pleistocene, are examined as key factors in the history of human peopling. The social, demographic and climate conditions associated with the peopling processes are discussed in relation to the appropriate technological, subsistence and settlement strategies developed by pioneer populations, who for their initial settlement selected highly productive patches where water and fauna converged. Based on concepts derived from metapopulation theory, all relevant archaeological paleoecological data from both sides of the Andean Cordillera are presented and discussed. It is concluded that the pioneer occupation of the high Puna megapatch was a gradual process, related to an emergent Andean human mobility system that connected a wide range of altitudinally staggered habitats. Moreover, we suggest that divergent cultural trajectories evolved since the early Holocene, affecting highland, lowland and coastal habitats. PubDate: 2022-07-23 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-022-09167-x
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Abstract: Abstract It is now widely accepted that agriculture and settled village life arrived in Europe as a cultural package, carried by people migrating from Anatolia and the Aegean Basin. The putative fisher-forager site of Lepenski Vir in Serbia has long been acknowledged as an exception to this model. Here, the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition—possibly inspired by interaction with the new arrivals—was thought to have taken place autochthonously on site. Our reinterpretation, based on ancient genomes, as well as archaeological and isotopic evidence, indicates that here, too, house construction, early village society and agriculture were primarily associated with Europe’s first farmers, thus challenging the long-held view of Lepenski Vir as a Mesolithic community that adopted Neolithic practices. Although aspects of the site's occupation, such as the trapezoidal houses, were inspired by local Mesolithic traditions, it is far from certain that the village was founded by Iron Gates foragers. A detailed timeline of population changes at the site suggests that Aegean incomers did not simply integrate into an established Mesolithic society, but rather founded new lineages and households. Iron Gates foragers and their admixed descendants largely appear to have been buried separately, on the fringes of the settlement. The diet of those buried outside in pits shows no major shift from aquatic to terrestrial food resources. PubDate: 2022-06-01 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-022-09169-9
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Abstract: Abstract For almost a century there has been debate on the functional interpretation of desert kites. These archaeological structures have been interpreted as constructions for animal hunting or domestication purposes, sometimes for both, but with little conclusive evidence. Here, we present new evidence from a large-scale research programme. This unprecedented programme of archaeological excavations and geomatics explorations shows the unequivocal and probably exclusive function of kites as hunting traps. Considering their gigantic size, as well as the significant energy and organization required to build them, these types of traps are called mega-traps. Our research is based on five different field studies in Armenia, Jordan, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia, as well as on satellite imagery interpretation across the global distribution area of kites throughout the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia. This hunting interpretation raises questions about the transformation of the landscape by human groups and the consequent anthropogenic impacts on local ecological equilibrium during different periods of the Holocene. Finally, the role of trapping in the hunting strategies of prehistoric, protohistoric and historic human groups is addressed. PubDate: 2022-03-01 DOI: 10.1007/s10963-022-09165-z
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