Peopling the past

The author discusses the importance of studying past populations in order to more fully understand the present. The focus is on regional patterns of population growth and internal migration and their impact on urban social structure in nineteenth-century Great Britain. Aspects considered include patterns of movement, occupation and mobility, the labor and housing markets, dimensions of community, residential mobility, individual experience, and education and social change.     

A Tale of Two Migrations: Reconciling Recent Biological and Archaeological Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas

This article synthesizes the 2000s-era “peopling of the Americas” data drawn from molecular biology, osteology, and archaeology. Collectively, they suggest that colonization proceeded in two pulses, both originating in western Beringia, and before that, south-central and southeastern Siberia. The first pulse occurred circa 16 k–15 k cal. B.P. by watercraft along the coast of Beringia and western North and South America. The second took place 1,000 years later and involved proto-Clovis hunter-gatherers who used the ice-free corridor as a conduit south. At least eight North American sites dating as far back as the Last Glacial Maximum suggest that the peopling picture may eventually need to change to accommodate an earlier than previously thought migration through the ice-free corridor. For now, the data are not strong enough to support this scenario, but they are tantalizingly close.     

Lithic Artefacts as a Source of Cultural,Social and Economic Information: the evidence from Aksum,Ethiopia

Extended research covering an area of approximately 300 sq km centered on the ancient metropolis of Aksum has revealed a coherent sequence of development in stone tool production and use spanning most of the last millennium BC and the first millennium AD. It has provided new evidence of the presence of multiple independent lithic traditions in the Pre-Aksumite period, and of Aksumite social and economic organization. This paper summarizes the results of the detailed study of a large corpus of excavated and surface-collected lithics, emphasizing their functional characteristics.

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Résumé  De vastes recherches couvrant sur une superficie d’environ 300 kilomètres carrés et concentrées sur l’ancienne métropole d’Aksoum ont mis à jour une série cohérente de développements dans la production et l’utilisation d’outils de pierre au cours du dernier millénaire avant J.C. et du premier millénaire après J.C. Ces recherches ont fourni de nouvelles informations sur la présence de multiples traditions lithiques indépendantes durant la période pré-aksoumite, et sur l’organisation sociale et économique des Aksoumites. Cet article présente les résultats d’une étude détailée portant sur un large répertoire de vestiges lithiques recueillis au cours de fouilles et collectes de surface, et met en exergue leurs caractéristiques fonctionnelles.

     

The Peopling of the New World: Present Evidence, New Theories, and Future Directions

The prevailing archaeological consensus on Paleoindian origins and colonization of the Americas has been shaken by recent wide acknowledgment of pre-Clovis occupation at Monte Verde, Chile, and by claims that ostensibly non-Mongoloid skeletal remains might represent a precursor population. Recent mitochondrial DNA studies have been interpreted by some as indicating an earlier and more complex peopling of the continent. This paper reviews the current archaeological and biological evidence, in America and northern Asia, for the origins of Native Americans, assesses models of the colonization process in the light of new data and a revised chronology, and suggests avenues for future research.     

The Peopling of Iceland

In recent years intensive archaeological research on the Viking Age in Iceland has produced much new evidence supporting a late 9th century colonization of the country. It can now be stated not only that people had arrived in Iceland before AD 870 but also that comprehensive occupation only took place after that date. The increased temporal resolution of the new archaeological data not only allows the characterization of different phases of the colonization but also supports assessments of the scale and rate of the immigration. In this paper we report the results of fieldwork in Mývatnssveit, NE-Iceland, where more than 30 sites have been investigated, ranging from small test trenches to large-scale open area excavations. We argue, based on the Mývatnssveit data, that a minimum of 24,000 people must have been transported to Iceland in less than 20 years to account for the dates and density of the Mývatn sites. In the absence, so far, of comparable data from other parts of the country these conclusions must remain hypothetical but if supported by further work they will have significant implications for our understanding of first peopling of Holocene farming populations in general and of Viking Age migrations in particular.     

Human Technical Behavior in the African Middle Stone Age: The Lithic Assemblage of Porc-Epic Cave (Dire Dawa,Ethiopia)

The African origin of modern humans is the center of a large debate. Discoveries of anatomically modern human fossils in Sub-Saharan Africa correlated to lithic and faunal artifacts show that a “modern Behavior” is associated with the emergence of Homo sapiens. Even though the traits to define this modernity are sometimes difficult to apprehend, the study of the Middle Stone Age cultural phase is important for understanding the origin and evolution of the cognitive capacity of modern humans. Porc-Epic Cave in Ethiopia has a long sequence of Upper Pleistocene occupation. Several thousand bone and lithic artifacts were excavated during three major field excavations (1933, 1974, 1975–76). The lithic assemblage reveals that the relationship between humans and their environment is well organized and that the African terminology is sometimes difficult to apply. This paper proposes a synthesis of all the data, studies and conclusions I have made from the analysis of lithic materials from the 1933 and 1975–76 excavations in order to integrate Porc-Epic into the current debate of MSA and modern human Behavior.L'origine de l'Homme moderne en Afrique fait l'objet actuellement d'un large débat. Les décourvertes de fossiles d'Homo sapiens en Afrique sub-saharienne associés à des industries lithiques montrent que, en parallèle à l'émergence de cette nouvelle espèce humaine, un comportement dit moderne s'est développé. Le Middle Stone Age est donc une période culturelle charnière dans l'évolution comportementale de l'homme. La grotte du Porc-épic, en éthiopie, est un témoignage de cette ère avec un remplissage pléistocène supérieur contenant des dizaines de milliers de restes fauniques et lithiques. L'étude de son important assemblage lithique révèle que le rapport de l'homme à la matière et à son environnement est très organisé et que le terminologie culturelle africaine est parfois difficile à utiliser.     

Parchment Production in the First Millennium BC at Seglamen, Northern Ethiopia

Traditional Ethiopian and European processes of parchment manufacture and their associated tools are described and compared with artefacts recovered from an important pre-Aksumite site at Seglamen, in the highlands of northern Ethiopia. Many close similarities of tools used at Seglamen in both the earlier and later phases of the pre-Aksumite, from about 800 BC, to implements used by present-day Ethiopian scribes attest to the systematic production of parchment at Seglamen and to cultural continuity over a period of almost three millennia.     

Ethnoarchaeology and the Organization of Lithic Technology

Although the modern production and use of stone tools is rare, ethnoarchaeological research on this subject has provided important perspectives on methodological approaches to archaeological lithic analysis. Recent ethnoarchaeological research on lithics frequently takes the form of “cautionary tales,” warning against the primacy of functional variables most commonly invoked by lithic analysts. I argue that lithic ethnoarchaeology would benefit from a comparative organizational framework for explaining variation in patterns of stone tool use that takes into account the predictability and redundancy of the location and timing of technological activities. Understanding the underlying causes of modern patterns of stone tool use, in turn, offers a framework for exploring sources of lithic technological variation in the archaeological record. I also argue that technological analytical perspectives, such as the cha?ne opératoire and sequence of reduction approaches, can benefit from the insights gained through lithic ethnoarchaeological research, helping us define important analytical concepts and identify appropriate units of analysis.     

The Pleistocene Peopling of the North: Paleolithic Milestones and Thresholds Horizons in Northern Eurasia: Part I: Lower Paleolithic Antecedents

Human occupation of northern Eurasia high latitudes entailed coping with severe bioclimatic circumstances and Ice Age cycle fluctuations. Resolving this “adaptability paradox” required depending on cultural, rather than biological means. Paleolithic evidence indicates culture historical developments of considerable time depth, long-term adaptive stages, and thresholds in the “peopling of the North.” It began with Lower Paleolithic populations expanding into temperate and continental Eurasia, becoming fully actualized during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. The Middle Paleolithic formative stage constituted a human biogeographic realm overlapping significantly with the Mammoth-Steppe Biome faunal complex. Part I identifies issues, time perspectivism, culture, foraging adaptation, and human biogeography concepts. Lower Paleolithic occurrences, initial occupation episodes are surveyed and discussed.     

Evidence of Prehistoric Irrigation in Northern Ecuador

Abstract

Field evidence for the existence of irrigation at a late pre-Inca site in northern Ecuador is examined. The implications of irrigation agriculture are examined with respect to the probable level of socio-political complexity. It is concluded that the pre-Inca societies of northern Ecuador were more stable and more clearly stratified than had been suspected previously. They were, therefore, an attractive addition to the Inca Empire which was unwilling or unable to conquer the jungle tribes only a few kilometers from its capital.     

The Fractal Dimensions of Lithic Reduction

The fractal distribution is the best statistical model for the size-frequency distributions that result from some lithic reduction processes. Fractals are a large class of complex, self-similar sets that can be described using power-law relations. Fractal statistical distributions are characterized by an exponent, D, called the fractal dimension. I show how to determine whether the size-frequency distribution of a sample of debitage is fractal by plotting the power-law relation on a log-log graph. I also show how to estimate the fractal dimension for any particular distribution. Using debitage size data from experimental replications of lithic tools, I demonstrate a fundamental relationship between the fractal dimension and stage of reduction. I also present archaeological case studies that illustrate the simplicity and utility of the method.     

Sherds of a Kingdom: Historical Pottery of the Lake Tana Region (Northern Ethiopia)

Although the Gondärine period of Ethiopian history is relatively well-known due to local and foreign historical texts, and the architectural remains of the Solomonic dynasty, little is known about the material culture of the communities who inhabited the core area of this kingdom between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. This paper deals with the historical pottery documented in the Lake Tana region, summarizing the results of a nine-year project in the area of Gondär and linking it with materials from nearby areas. A comprehensive study of the ceramic remains has been undertaken with a combination of ethnographic, written, and archaeological sources, providing a first chronological and typological framework for this pottery, and some hints about the reasons for the changes detected throughout time related to the consolidation of a centralized Ethiopian monarchy in the mid-sixteenth century.     

The Pre-Columbian Peopling and Population Dispersals of South America

Journal of Archaeological Research - This paper summarizes the current archaeological, physiographic, demographic, molecular, and bioarchaeological understanding of the initial peopling and...     

Tej Consumption and Production in the Commensal Politics and Political Economy of States in Northern Highland Ethiopia

International Journal of Historical Archaeology - Control over the production and consumption of tej (honeywine) and the honey to produce it, was part of the political economy of the Abyssinian...     

史前石制品的热处理研究

民族学和考古学研究显示,人类对石制品有意识的热处理现象自史前时代开始就普遍存在于世界各地,主要被用来改善石料的破裂性能,改变石料的外观,并且附加一定的文化价值与社会意义。有关热处理原理、方法和表现特征的实验研究,为辨别考古材料提供了对比依据。目前为止,中国关于热处理的考古学发现和研究很少,希望本文能够引起国内史前考古学界对这一主题的兴趣和关注。