The existence of open areas during the Mesolithic: evidence from aeolian sediments in the Elbe–Jeetzel area,northern Germany

Traditionally Mesolithic hunter–gatherer cultures are supposed to have lived in a primeval forest environment with a closed vegetation cover during the Early and Mid-Holocene. It is not until the onset of subsequent Neolithic agricultural societies that the development of more expansive open areas is assumed. Therefore our perception of the Mesolithic economy in the European lowlands is highly affected by the idaea of adaptation to dense forest environments and a very stable system of resource exploitation. However, recent palaeoenvironmental studies provide evidence that areas of open landscapes must have existed at least temporarily during the Mesolithic and evoke the question whether human impact may be accountable for this.     

Chronology of the Khartoum ‘Mesolithic’ and ‘Neolithic’ and related sites in the Sudan: statistical analysis and comparisons with Egypt

Assessment of radiocarbon measurements from the central Sudan provides the following calendrical age estimates:Early Khartoum >7000-ca 5000 BC.Early Neolithic Groupca 4900-4450 BCMiddle Neolithic Groupca 4400-3800 BCLate Neolithic Groupca 3500-2700 BCThese estimates indicate that the early Neolithic settlements in the central Sudan were established at about the same time as those at Merimda Beni Salama in the Nile Delta and the Fayum. The Predynastic sites of Upper Egypt are later in age. The Badarian at Hemamieh is probably coeval with Shaheinab. Available dates on the Badarian are younger than those for some Khartoum Neolithic sites, but the Badarian is poorly dated.

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Résumé L'evaluation de datations au radiocarbone du Soudan Central a fourni les âges absolus suivants:Early Khartoum >7000 c. 5000 BCGroupe du Néolithique inférieur c. 4900-4450 BCGroupe du Néolithique moyen c. 4400-3800 BCGroupe du Néolithique supérieur c. 3500-2700 BCCes résultats indiquent que les habitations néolithiques au Soudan Central furent établies à peu près à la même époque que celles à Merimda Beni Salama dans le Delta du Nil et au Fayoum. Les gisements prédynastiques de la Haute Egypte sont plus récents. Le Badarien à Hemamieh est probablement contemporain de Shaheinab. Les datations disponibles pour le Badarien sont plus récentes que celles de certains gisements néolithiques de Khartoum, mais le Badarien est mal daté.

     

Farming and/or foraging? New environmental data to the life and economic transformation of Late Neolithic tell communities (Tisza Culture) in SE Hungary

The turn of the 6th and 5th millennia BC witnessed probably the largest economic and cultural transformation of SE Europe giving rise to a new techno-complex occupying the alluvial plains of the Tisza River and its tributaries in the southern parts of the Carpathian Basin. Representatives of the Tisza Culture were engaged in intensive farming complemented with foraging creating a complex system of hierarchical multi-layered settlements (tells). The favorable endowments of the sites with a large variety of multiple ecotones ideal for multifocal subsistence, as well as the introduction of new farming techniques ensured the establishment of long-term sedentary lifeways. However, according to the archeology, a major shift in subsistence happened toward the end of the Late Neolithic marking the terminal part of the evolution of the culture. Traditional crop cultivation was increasingly complemented with hunting, animal husbandry gaining importance. Other second-line resources like fish and shellfish followed the same pattern. Finally, tells were disintegrated and a new cultural group of the Copper Age emerged. The exact background of these transformations is still unknown. In order to see whether or not potential transformations in the local riparian environment had some role in shaping human behavior, a multiproxy paleoecological analysis was implemented on mollusk material of one of the largest tell sites of SE Hungary. Freshwater mollusks collected by humans in themselves characterize the quality of the water body from which they derive. They are also an excellent marker of socioeconomic response to environmental stress. According to our findings the emergence of new settlement phases and the intensified foraging could have been correlated with alteration of stream properties yielding successively higher floods. This was initially beneficial creating lush pasturelands for large bodied prey infiltrating the area during the referred period like aurochs, red-deer. But ultimately it might have reduced areas suitable for agriculture and living most likely leading to social disruption besides other cultural, social processes.     

Ecology and economy of the Late Neolithic Jevišovice culture in Austria. An interdisciplinary working program

Abstract

This paper presents the working program for a research project in progress at the Institute of Pre- and Early History at the University in Vienna, Austria: 'Copper Age Man and the Environment in the Middle Danubian Region. Ecological, economic and sociological sources relating to the Late Neolithic Jevi?ovice Culture'. The programme offers archaeological research the opportunity to gain a completely new source base for the area of the Upper and Middle Danube. This has been developed in recent years and when placed in a scientific context it will provide completely new data relating to the ecological, economic and sociological conditions of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC.

Investigations since 1999 have adopted a targeted approach aimed at improving the research status for this period. Through the application of new and innovative methods, the study of well-documented and finely-stratified features, and the early involvement of interdisciplinary research partners, an outstanding new source base been created. The application of scientific disciplines has led to new advances and a completely new insight into the life during the Copper Age — one of the most innovative epochs in prehistory. It has also proved possible to open up a completely new source base for related scientific disciplines, providing them with new research opportunities. This is due to very favourable conditions of preservation, both quantitative and qualitative, allowing the application of a great diversity of innovative methods.     

The Spatial Organization of Bone Crafting During the Middle and Late Mesolithic at Ringsjöholm and Strandvägen in Sweden

This paper focuses on the spatial distribution of bone tool production waste from two Mesolithic sites in Sweden, Ringsjöholm and Strandvägen, with well-preserved faunal remains including bone and antler artifacts. Local production on both sites has generated a variety of identifiable waste products deriving from complete chains of production, including unmodified bones, debitage and finished products. Identified categories include: blanks, removed epiphyses, bone flakes, and preforms. Identification of species shows that antler and bone from red deer were the preferred raw materials. Spatial statistical analyses confirm that different stages of bone tool production were organized within separate areas of the sites and that larger items were discarded in the water along the shorelines. Interestingly, blanks and preforms seem to have been stored under water for future use and demarcated clusters of bone flakes in association with dwellings represent “bone knapping floors” where production was more intense than in other areas.     

Radiocarbon chronology and the correlation of hunter–gatherer sociocultural change with abrupt palaeoclimate change: the Middle Mesolithic in the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt area of northwest Europe

Recent refinements in radiocarbon sampling procedures have enabled a more robust absolute chronology for the Mesolithic in the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt area of northwest Europe. These refinements have allowed for a new chronological sub-division of the Early and Middle Mesolithic periods. Results of this research have indicated that the Middle Mesolithic period was bound by two Early Holocene cooling events, one at 9300 cal. BP and the other at 8200 cal. BP. These results enable a critical evaluation of the role of chronological precision in the investigation of contemporaneity between abrupt climate change and hunter–gatherer sociocultural change. In this paper we focus on the variable chronological resolution of the Early to Middle and Middle to Late Mesolithic transitions in the RMS area, and the role of this variable resolution in our ability to investigate the contemporaneity of these two transitions with different Early Holocene abrupt cooling events. This paper highlights two central challenges facing archaeological investigations of the relationships between climate and culture change: first, the requirement of tight chronological overlap between climate and culture change events and consideration of leads and lags in ecosystem and subsequent human responses to climate change; second, the equifinality problem and the separation of the impact of gradual from punctuated environmental change on human societies.     

Population change in an urban system — the examples of the republic of Ireland and Scotland

State of the Scottish Environment 1991. By T.C.D. Dargie and D.J. Briggs, 296 × 210 mm, 73 pp, Scottish Wildlife and Countryside Link, Perth, 1992, pbk, ISBN 0–9518582–0–3, £5.00.

Ice Age Earth. By Alastair G. Dawson, 233 × 155 mm, xx + 293 pp, Routledge, London and New York, 1991, pbk, ISBN 0–415–01567–7, £17.99.

Fundamentals of Weather and Climate. By Robin McIlveen, 246 × 190 mm, 497 pp, Chapman and Hall, London, 1992, pbk, ISBN 0–442–31476–0, £19.95.

Environmental Hazards: Assessing Risk and Reducing Disaster. By Keith Smith, 233 × 155 mm, xx + 324 pp, Routledge, London and New York, 1991, pbk, ISBN 0–415–01217, £16.99.

Global Shift: the Internationalization of Economic Activity (Second edition). By Peter Dicken, 244 × 172 mm, xv + 492 pp, Paul Chapman, London, 1992, pbk, ISBN 1–85396–142–6, £15.95.

Geographic Information Systems: Developments and Applications. Edited by L. Worrall, 238 × 155 mm, 244pp, London, Belhaven, 1991, hbk, ISBN 1–85293–1620, £45.00.

Grieve on Geddes. By Robert Grieve, 208 × 148 mm, iv + 53 pp, Sir Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust, Edinburgh, 1992, pbk, no ISBN, £5.00.

The Changing Scottish Landscape 1500–1800. By Ian and Kathleen Whyte, 233 × 155 mm, 251 pp, Routledge, London, 1991, hbk, ISBN 0–415–02992–9, £40.00.     

The Neolithic site of Maddalena di Muccia (Umbria–Marche Apennine,Italy): a tip to reconstruct the geomorphological evolution and human occupation during the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene

The geomorphological evolution of the upper Chienti river basin, during the late Pleistocene and the Holocene, was characterized mainly by numerous landslides, strongly affecting the river dynamics, that produced falls, deviations and in some cases total obstructions with the formation of lakes sometimes extending for some kilometres. Moreover, particularly during the Holocene, phytoclastic and phytohermal travertine deposits were deposited in correspondence of steps along the river bed; one of these deposits, by means of radiocarbon dating, has been dated between 8260 ± 100 yr BP and 7740 ± 80 yr BP. Stromatolithic travertine is also present at the base of Holocene channels, slightly incised on the top of the upper Pleistocene alluvial plain.     

Making a significant place: excavations at the Late Mesolithic site of Langley’s Lane,Midsomer Norton,Bath and North-East Somerset

Excavations at the site of Langley’s Lane, Bath and North-East Somerset, have revealed an important sequence of Late Mesolithic activity focused around an active tufa spring. The sequence of activity starts off as an aurochs kill and primary butchery site. Culturally appropriate depositional practices occur through the placement of a selection of bone in the wetland of the spring and the digging of pits around the spring margins. The spring at Langley’s Lane continued to be visited and more animal bone and lithic material was placed in the wetland. Finally, visits to the site involved yet more formalized activity in the form of pit digging and the creation of a stone surface. Activities such as these are difficult to locate in the archaeological record and Mesolithic ritual activity rare, making this a site of some significance to studies of Mesolithic NW Europe.     

New AMS Dates from the Lambourn Long Barrow and the Question of the Earliest Neolithic in Sourthern England: Repacking the Neolithic Package?

This paper reassesses the chronological status of the Lambourn long barrow, which has provided one of the earliest dates from a mortuary monument in Britain. Three new AMS dates on short-lived material indicate that the construction and primary use phase of the monument lies within the period 3760–3645 cal BC, and that the earlier estimate obtained on charcoal (4555–3780 cal BC) is likely subject to the old wood effect, or is residual. This is followed by a consideration of the implications of the new dates in the context of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, the timing of which remains poorly understood. It is argued that the evidence is increasingly pointing to a more rapid neolithization process, and that this had implications for the mechanisms involved.     

Cycling towards the nation:the use of the bicycle in Germany and the Netherlands, 1880–1940

This article explores the role of commodities in the construction of identities by examining the use of the bicycle in the Netherlands in comparison with and contrast to Germany. It argues that cyclists in Germany and the Netherlands used the bicycle to construct and display a certain identity and to express certain views of themselves as well as of the society in which they lived. The popularity of the bicycle in Dutch society can thus be explained by its particular meaning in that society. The vehicle became an important object in Dutch national identification, whereas in Germany, despite its widespread use especially among the working class, the bicycle was viewed as outdated and inferior technology by the 1920s.     

Early Iron Age and Late Mediaeval malt finds from Germany—attempts at reconstruction of early Celtic brewing and the taste of Celtic beer

In this paper, we discuss specialised ditch structure from the early Iron Age settlement of Eberdingen–Hochdorf (early La Tène Period, fifth–fourth century BC), that contained large numbers of evenly germinated hulled barley grains. This malt appears to be the result of deliberate germination, given the purity of the finds and the associated unusual archaeological structure, which may have been used for germination and/or as a drying kiln for roasting the malt. The Hochdorf malt most probably was produced for the purpose of beer brewing. To learn more about the morphology of malt and the effects of carbonisation on it, experiments on modern barley grains were undertaken. Their results are compared to the ancient Hochdorf malt. Based on the excavated findings and finds as well as theoretical reflections on the early Iron Age brewing process, attempts at reconstructing the possible taste of early Celtic beer are presented. Additionally, a malt find from late mediaeval Berlin in northeast Germany is presented. A mixture of deliberately sprouted hulled barley as well as rye and oat grains, which were not germinated, was found. The three different cereals could have been used for brewing a typical mediaeval/early modern beer since the use of mixed crops for producing beer has been quite common. Because of a lack of further evidence, it remains unclear whether or not the half-timbered house in the late mediaeval town was a trading place and storehouse for malt or the brewery itself, where the malt was processed to make beer.     

Buried soils in the context of geoarchaeological research—two examples from Germany and Ethiopia

Pedology is a discipline with a wide range of applications in geology, geomorphology, archaeology, geoarchaeology and geography. Especially paleopedology aims are to answer questions about climatic changes, rates of pedogenic processes, pedostratigraphy, suitability of former surface soils and human occupation. In combination to other disciplines, pedology aims to advance geoscientific methods at different scales, and during the last decades, (paleo)pedological research increasingly touched archaeological fields whereby soil research was mostly somehow included in geoarchaeology. When the term ‘archaeopedology’ was introduced in the 1940s, researchers were already aware of the importance of the subject ‘soil’ as being a key figure when answering questions of site formation history, cultural chronology and environmental change. The present paper aims to reintroduce this term to the scientific community and to accentuate the importance of buried soils within geoarchaeological research. Shown by two different studies, one from Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Ueckermünder Heide/Germany and one from ancient Yeha/Ethiopia the archaeopedological approach highlights the importance of pedological research on- and off-site excavations by clearly bridging a gap between archaeology, geoarchaeology and (paleo)pedology.     

Opencast mines in South Brandenburg (Germany)—archives of Late Quaternary landscape development and human-induced land use changes

This study outlines the opportunities for geoarchaeological research in active opencast lignite mines in southern Brandenburg (Germany). Studies on extensive outcrops that address both archaeology and soil geomorphology, combined with a geographical information system (GIS) approach, provide unique insights into human-induced environmental changes in Lower Lusatia and generally improve our understanding of landscape dynamics. We present the most recent results from three case studies and review important findings from the last several years. Studies conducted in opencast mines of Cottbus-Nord and Jänschwalde focus on (i) Late Quaternary geomorphodynamics and soil development and (ii) past land use and the legacy of agriculture and woodland use. Our results are similar to those in other regions in Central Europe, but we also observe regional differences caused by the local setting, e.g. intensification of soil erosion coinciding with the expansion of farming of cultivated lands in the Slavic Middle Ages. Our research reveals the largest archaeologically investigated area of historical charcoal production in the Northern European Lowland (NEL). We are clearly only beginning to understand the massive dimensions of charcoal production in the region.