Abu Salem: Type Site of the Harifian Industry of the Southern Levant

Abstract

Abu Salem in the Central Negev, Israel, is the type site for the newly recognized Harifian Industry. Abu Salem is a sizable village with substantial architecture dated by C-14 to the last quarter of the 9th millennium B.C. The associated lithic industry is not directly related to the Natufian or the Pre-Pottery of Palestine, but the inferred adaptive patterns parallel those of the Natufian. Presently known Harifian site distribution indicates that it is restricted to the semi-arid zone of the southern Levant and, in spite of having the technological prerequisites, the Harifian failed to become truly Neolithic. As such, it represents an example of a late Levantine Epipaleolithic cultural development outside the core Mediterranean zone.     

Towards a typology of stone beads in the Neolithic Levant

Abstract

This study is an attempt to develop a comprehensive typology of the earliest stone bead assemblages in the southern Levant from Late Natufian and Neolithic sites. I propose this typology as a tool for studying stone beads almost a century after Horace Beck published his monumental bead typology. Beads are often neglected artifacts in archaeological excavations, but a bead typology can contribute to definitions of relative chronology and to a broader understanding of social and economic aspects of certain prehistoric societies.     

The correlation of surface and subsurface artifacts: A test case from Late and Terminal Classic Popola,Yucatan, Mexico

Abstract

Surface collections are commonly used by archaeologists to sample artifact assemblages, but the correlation of surface and subsurface artifacts is not fully understood. Cultural, taphonomic, and research-design factors that can affect the relationship of surface and subsurface deposits are reviewed and the correlation of surface and subsurface deposits is tested statistically with data from the site of Popola, Yucatan, Mexico, a Late and Terminal Classic period (a.d. 600–1100) village in the northern Maya lowlands. This study suggests that surface artifact density is not correlated with subsurface artifact density. Large-scale surface collections can characterize the overall assemblage of a site, but not any small area in particular. In shallow bioturbated soils there is no significant variation between surface and subsurface assemblages at any depth. Surface artifacts may be used to identify the presence of subsurface artifacts, but should not be used to suggest their absence.     

Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Late Natufian at 'Iraq ed-Dubb,Jordan

Abstract

Excavations at the cave of Traq ed-Dubb, Jordan, help clarify our understanding of the transition from foraging to farming in the Near East. The people who occupied the site in the Late Natufian period (13,500–11,500 B.P) were a relatively mobile group who used the cave as a temporary base camp for local foraging and hunting. In contrast, the occupants in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period (11,500–10,500 B.P) constructed at least two stone residences, with food processing features, inside the cave. This study provides a detailed consideration of the timing of the earliest sedentary farmers at Traq ed-Dubb, and elucidates the nature of differences in architecture between these periods, reflecting upon the implications of the transition to food production, which appears to have taken place less rapidly than previously assumed.     

NATUFIAN INTERACTIONS ALONG THE JORDAN VALLEY

Abstract

Building on recent observations made by Belfer-Cohen and Goring-Morris, this study proposes that a zone of intensive interaction existed between communities in the Jordan Valley during much of the Early Natufian period (c. 12,500–11,000 cal bc). Recently published data demonstrate distinctive and even unique links between open-air Jordan Valley sites. Whereas some models have utilised specific types of material culture (e.g. bone artefacts or art items) to identify cultural provinces in the Natufian, this enquiry uses multiple categories of evidence (site types, shared artefact types, artefacts with close stylistic similarities, embodied behavioural practices, and raw material movements) to propose a Natufian sub-region in the Jordan Valley. The likely existence of a post-Lisan “Damya Lake” is suggested as a rationale for extensive north–south contexts south along the Rift Valley, especially for the transport of heavy materials such as basaltic rock. In the future, scientific techniques such as the isotopic analysis of human skeletal remains, elemental characterisation of raw material source, and reliable dating of excavated sites will prove to be decisive in evaluating the model.     

The Excavation of Hayonim Terrace: An Interim Report

Abstract

The site of Hayonim Terrace contains occupations of two Epipaleolithic complexes: the Natufian and the Geometric Kebaran. The prehistoric occupations of the terrace appear to span a period of transition between hunting/ collecting and food-producing economies. Excavation of the terrace has provided considerable information on the environmental setting and prehistoric adaptive strategies of this period.     

Late Devonian gastropods from the Canning Basin,Western Australia

Over 50 identifications of Tertiary pollen are reviewed. The pollen assemblages indicate rain-forest through most of the Tertiary, but the requisites for pollen preservation are biased towards the wetter climates.

The present day geographical affinities of the botanical groups are largely with taxa of the tropical zone and Australia-wide taxa. There is geographic variation in the fossil pollen assemblages when southeastern Australia is compared with Central Australia and Queensland.

The major changes in the fossil floras coincide with climatic change, indicating the influence of climate on the evolution of plant assemblages. The older phytogeographic concepts are inappropriate for the fossil record, especially when considered in conjunction with palaeoclimates and palaeogeography.

It is unfortunate that palynology has given little information of the evolution of floras in drier climatic regimes, or of the evolution of the eucalypts.     

Isotopic Evidence for Camelid Husbandry During the Formative Period at the Pacopampa Site,Peru

ABSTRACT

Camelids were domesticated in the Andean highlands, such as in the puna habitat, and dispersed into lowland areas and the northern Central Andes. As camelids domesticated in a particular region would have had a greater economic benefit than visiting- or hunted wild camelids, it is important to reconstruct the dispersal of camelid husbandry from its initial site throughout the ancient Andean civilisation. We carried out multi-isotope analyses of animal remains recovered from the Pacopampa site to investigate the nature of camelid pastoralism and utilisation. Strontium and oxygen isotope ratios from tooth enamel suggested that camelids in the early Late Formative Period (800–500 BC) were born near the site and remained in the same habitat for up to three years. Although corresponding data for the Middle Formative Period (1200–800 BC) were not available, carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios were statistically different from those of the Late Formative Period, supporting the possibility that the camelids inhabited the highland plateau like puna. It is inferred that in the northern highlands camelids were initially rare and regarded as either tribute or ritual animals, or they were used as pack animals. Camelid husbandry using maize as fodder began during the Late Formative Period at Pacopampa.     

Grar: A Chalcolithic Site in the Northern Negev,Israel

Abstract

Grar is one of the largest Chalcolithic sites in southern Israel. The first part of this article presents an overview of the results of excavations carried out on the site during 1981–1987. The site of Grar is a cluster of occupational units once inhabited by sedentary farmers growing cereals and raising sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle. Grar is similar to other sites in the northern Negev previously considered as ephemeral. This suggests that the role of pastoralism and semi-nomadism in the Chalcolithic period has been overemphasized. Grar and other sites of the Chalcolithic period are, in fact, the earliest versions of villages of the Near Eastern fellahin, or peasants.

A comparative study of Grar and other northern Negev sites follows. Although the area in question is small, it is suggested that during the Chalcolithic period the northern Negev was settled by two groups, or “tribes,” with the same cultural background but different modes of lift.     

Ochre,Ground Stone,and Wrapping the Dead in the Late Epipalaeolithic (Natufian) Levant: Revealing the Funerary Practices at Shubayqa 1, Jordan

The appearance of rich and diverse funerary practices is one of the hallmarks of the Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian in the Levant. Numerous burials at a number of sites excavated mostly in the Mediterranean zone of the southern Levant have fed into the interpretation of the Natufian as a sedentary society of complex hunter-gatherers. Here, we report on the human remains recovered from Shubayqa 1, a well-dated early to late Natufian site in northeast Jordan. The majority of the minimum of 23 individuals that are represented are perinates and infants, which represents an atypical population profile. Ground stone artifacts and traces of colorants are associated with some of these individuals, providing a rare insight into funerary treatment of subadults in Natufian contexts. We interpret the Shubayqa 1 evidence in the light of current and ongoing debates concerning Natufian burial practices and the issue of social complexity.     

Lake levels,mobility and lithic raw material selection and reduction strategies: A Great Lakes case study

Abstract

It has recently been proposed that lowered lake levels after 4250 BP broadened opportunities for mobility and interaction patterns among hunter-gatherer populations in the Saginaw drainage and in Michigan more broadly (; ). Here, data are presented on chipped stone reduction strategies as reflected in two site assemblages in Bay City, Michigan (20BY28, 20BY387) that bridge this key point in time. The earliest Late Archaic components of these sites, occupied during the higher than modern post Nipissing recession ca. 3200 BP, are typified by on-site reduction of local cherts, often utilising a bipolar reduction strategy. Subsequent uses of the area largely shifted to lower elevations. The more recent site components contain both more diverse projectile styles, many of which can be linked with Ontario types, and higher occurrences of non-local raw materials, specifically Onondaga chert apparently arriving at the site as preforms. The last use of these sites occurred during the Late Woodland, also during lower water levels approaching modern, and reflecting the highest use of Onondaga chert. We suggest that these changes resulted from shifting mobility and exchange patterns, facilitated in part by lowered post Nipissing water levels.     

The Natufian economy at el-Wad Terrace with special reference to gazelle exploitation patterns

We carried out a detailed taphonomic and zooarchaeological analysis of the faunal remains from the new excavation of the Late Natufian layers of el-Wad Terrace. We focused on gazelle exploitation patterns and examined them within the context of the established Epipalaeolithic sequence from the coastal plain of Israel. Mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella) is the most heavily exploited species. The taphonomic history of the assemblage suggests minor loss of bones caused by post-depositional processes and indicates that bone destruction occurred during occupation. Cut marks from all stages of activities, absence of selective transport, and body part representation suggest that gazelle were butchered at the site. Analysis of gazelle sex composition shows male overrepresentation during the Natufian. Size trends show an increase of gazelle body-size during the Natufian in comparison to previous periods. The patterns of body-size increase show the same tendency in proximal and distal limb-bones. The trends in gazelle body-size from the Epipalaeolithic of the coastal plain do not demonstrate any sign of morphological dwarfism, increased variation, or allometric changes in the morphology of Natufian gazelles and thus do not support the previously suggested hypothesis of “proto-domestication”.     

A Taphonomic Approach to Late Classic Maya Mortuary Practices at Xuenkal,Yucatán,Mexico

Abstract

Following a brief introduction to mortuary practices in Prehispanic Maya society, we outline the analytical procedures followed during the excavation and laboratory investigation of five burial assemblages from the Late Classic period site of Xuenkal, Yucatán, Mexico. A detailed account of a sequence of primary and secondary interments is provided with a focus on taphonomic and biovital information, emphasizing the importance of an interdisciplinary approach, especially human taphonomy, for the reconstruction of complex Maya mortuary treatments. Our results show that bodies of the dead or their parts followed surprisingly long and complex funerary paths.     

Iron production in scandinavian archaeology

Several sites of the historic and prehistoric periods exist at the vicarage of Borg on Vestvåg?y, North Norway. The settlement site Borg I, which is at present being investigated within the framework of a Scandinavian research project, is believed to be a Late Iron Age chieftain's residence.     

The Middle Stone Age of West Turkana,Kenya

Abstract

Research on the origins of Homo sapiens and the development of our species’ unique behavior is focused on the Middle Stone Age (MSA) period in Africa (in comparison with the European Upper Palaeolithic). Although archaeological and paleontological fieldwork in the Turkana Basin in northwestern Kenya has contributed greatly to our understanding of human evolution in Africa, the Basin's MSA archaeological record remains poorly known. We report on a reconnaissance of MSA sites in West Turkana, Kenya, which included known archaeological/paleoanthropological localities at Eliye Springs and Kabua Waterhole (Kadokorinyang). A newly-discovered site, Nakechichok 1 (GdJh 5), preserves MSA tools stratified beneath Late Stone Age assemblages. The MSA lithic artifacts from Nakechichok 1 differ from those known from other MSA localities in nearby regions, and, they expand the known scope of MSA variability in the Turkana Basin, demonstrating that the MSA is not “missing” in this region, but just hard to find.     

DATING THE CONSTRUCTION OF EARLY LATE WOODLAND EARTHEN MONUMENTS AT THE JACKSON LANDING SITE IN COASTAL MISSISSIPPI

Abstract

Middle Woodland and early Late Woodland monuments generally have been interpreted as ceremonial spaces that integrated communities both within and among regions. This article presents information on the early Late Woodland component at the Jackson Landing site, a large site with a platform mound and semicircular earthwork, located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Earlier research is synthesized with more recent investigations of the mound to argue that the site’s monuments were built during the early Late Woodland period between approximately A.D. 400 to 700. Determining when Jackson Landing’s monuments were built is important because their construction provides a temporal baseline for regional and, perhaps, interregional social integration along the central Gulf Coast.     

The social role of food in the Natufian cemetery of Raqefet Cave,Mount Carmel,Israel

The archaeology of mortuary practices and related foodways in the Late Natufian (LN; ca. 14,000/13,500–11,700 BP) sheds light on the communal activities of the last hunter–gatherers in the Mediterranean Levant. We present a detailed analysis of the fauna from the LN cemetery of Raqefet Cave (Mount Carmel, Israel). Taphonomic evidence indicates that the animal bones are butchery and consumption leftovers. While the patterns of animal exploitation are reminiscent of Natufian habitation sites, the remains do not reflect the typical recurring post-discard damage resulting from continuous or repeating habitations in those sites. Hence the fauna is interpreted as the leftovers of punctuated, short-term events, rather than ‘ordinary’ Natufian household trash. Taking into account the special depositional context and site characteristics, we interpret the fauna as the intentionally-gathered and buried remains of simple funerary feasts. Elaborate mortuary behavior and symbolic role of food refuse were recently suggested at the contemporaneous cave of Hilazon Tachtit (Israel). The new data from Raqefet Cave probably reflect a somewhat different type of communal meals, adding to the diversity and complexity of pre-agricultural life-ways in the Levant.     

Foodways and community at the Late Mississippian site of Parchman Place

ABSTRACT

Communal eating events or feasts were important activities associated with the founding and maintenance of Mississippian communities in the southeastern United States. More often than not, however, archaeological deposits of food refuse are interpreted along a spectrum, with household-level consumption at one end and community-wide feasting at the other. Here, we draw attention to the important ways that domestic food practices contributed to social events and processes at the community level. We examine ceramic, botanical, and faunal assemblages from two fourteenth-century contexts at Parchman Place (22CO511), a Late Mississippi period site in the northern Yazoo Basin. For the earlier deposit, everyday ceramics and plant foods combined with high-utility deer portions and exotic birds suggest potluck-style feasting meant to bring people together in the context of establishing a community in place. We interpret the later deposit, with its pure ash matrix, focus on serving wares, and purposeful disposal of edible maize and animal remains, as the result of activities related to maize harvest ceremonialism. Both practices suggest that household contributions in general and disposal of domestic food refuse in particular are critical yet underappreciated venues for creating and maintaining community ties in the Mississippian Southeast.     

A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF MISSISSIPPIAN CERAMIC VESSELS FROM TOWN CREEK

Abstract

Vessel shape, size, and use-alterations are used to identify vessel types and vessel functions among Mississippian ceramics from the Town Creek site in central North Carolina. Possible functions are discussed for vessel types, and broad distinctions are made regarding vessels that possibly were used for cooking, serving and eating, or storage. The composition of the overall vessel assemblage at Town Creek indicates that it is generally comparable with other Mississippian assemblages. A consideration of the distribution of vessel types by context allows some insights into the association of different activities with different parts of the Mississippian community at Town Creek, namely, that the mound area was associated with distinctive vessel assemblages.     

‘Marineness’, the Underwater Seascape and Variability in Maritime Adaptations in the Late Ceramic Age Northern Lesser Antilles

ABSTRACT

To investigate potential variation between the fishing practices of contemporaneous Late Ceramic Age villages in the northern Lesser Antilles, we model expectations for each site based on local marine habitat and bathymetry and compare them to observed differences in zooarchaeological assemblages. The predictive model approximates which taxa were the most likely to have been targeted by fishers from each site, assuming that the majority of fishing likely occurred within short distances from each settlement. A comparison of expectations and archaeological observations is used to expose potential differences between sites in preferred fishing areas and techniques, preferred foods, or social distinctions. This variability is argued to reflect a fishing community’s ‘marineness’, or the interrelationship members have with the unique composition of marine resources and underwater seascape adjacent to their villages.