Biological continuity between the A- and C-groups in lower Nubia: Evidence from cranial non-metric traits

Data are presented on 45 cranial non-metric traits in skeletal samples of the Lower Nubian A-Group (ca. 3100–2500 BC) and C-Group (ca. 2000–1500 BC) cultural periods. Results, based on the mean measure of divergence statistic, reveal biological continuity, consistent with interpretations of in situ evolution as opposed to models of discontinuity resulting from gene flow. Any differences between the A-and C-Group cultural phases that may be evident in the archaeological record are therefore more likely the result of local cultural evolution, rather than the introduction of new ideas, customs, and materials through the migration of a new population into this area. The problem of small samples necessitates that our results be accepted cautiously.     

Dental disease evidence for agricultural intensification in the Nubian C-Group

The results of this study reveal significantly greater frequencies of caries, periapical abscesses and ante-mortem tooth loss in the Lower Nubian C-Group (ca. 2000–1500 BC) compared with the preceding Classic/Terminal A-Group (ca. 3100–2500 BC). More severe tooth wear in the C-Group, which traditionally would be interpreted as consistent with a hunting-gathering subsistence base, can instead be attributed to grit in the diet resulting from the processing of agricultural produce with sandstone and quartzite mortars and grinding stones, and perhaps also to the intentional addition of grit to grain in order to facilitate grinding. The results of this study, when evaluated in the context of complementary archaeological and osteological evidence, indicate that both groups practised a mixed economy but that the C-Group relied more heavily on cereal cultivation.     

Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis in Late Jomon Hokkaido,Japan

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the evidence for diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) in samples of human skeletal material recovered from Late Jomon (ca. 1500–300 BCE) and Okhotsk (CE 500–900) cultural period sites, northwestern Hokkaido, Japan. Two individuals from the Jomon period assemblage (n = 14) exhibited lesions consistent with DISH, while the larger Okhotsk sample (n = 39) was free of this condition. The aetiology of this condition is reviewed with reference to the clinical and bioarchaeological literature, in addition to behavioural and environmental considerations specific to this region and these time periods. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Changing histories and ethnicities in a Sámi and Norse borderland

Hedmark County is a large inland district in southeast Norway that represents the southern part of the Sámi settlement area, and a Sámi–Norse borderland. Centred on the municipalities Rendalen and Engerdal, the study investigates the long-term cultural and social processes involved in the construction and maintenance of a borderland using theories of ethnicity and cultural tradition. Over time, different groups of people have used the diverse landscapes, and two periods are highlighted: the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age (2350–500 BC), and the Iron Age and the Middle Ages (500 BC–AD 1500). The focus is on how different groups of people used the landscapes as seen through variation in settlement, subsistence, borders and contact networks with neighbouring and distant regions.     

Geoarchaeology of Ancient Aulis (Boeotia,Central Greece): human occupation and Holocene landscape changes

This article presents the results of a coring operation which brought to light new evidence for the evolution of the coastal plain of Aulis (Boeotia, Central Greece) in the Holocene. Thanks to Homer, Aulis is best known as the gathering point of the Achaean fleet before it sailed to Troy and a sanctuary of the goddess Artemis. Ancient sources and archaeological evidence suggest the presence of an ancient marine bay, potentially used as a harbor. In the course of investigation, we drilled two cores, to a maximum depth of 4.20 m in the marshy lowlands and performed mollusc and micro-paleontological identifications, laser grain size analyses, and magnetic susceptibility measurements in order to reveal the facies evolution of the area. We obtained a chronostratigraphy sequence through a series of seven AMS ¹⁴C radiocarbon dates. Our study shows that the area was affected by a shallow marine incursion from the first half of the 6th millennium BC and gradually turned into a succession of shallow marine/lagoon environments from ca. 5000 cal. BC to the 2nd Century AD, and into a confined lagoon environment during the Roman and Byzantine periods.     

Molecular history of tuberculosis from ancient mummies and skeletons

The origin and evolution of the infectious disease tuberculosis (TB) and its pathogens is still not fully understood. An important effort for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of TB evolution lies within the investigation of skeletal and mummified material dating back several thousand of years. In this work, molecular data from mummified and skeletal material from different time periods of the Old World are compared, and the current status of ancient mycobacterial DNA analysis in ancient human remains is discussed, with particular reference to the genetic evolution of human TB. The molecular analysis of material from southern Germany (1400–1800 AD), Hungary (600–1700 AD) and Egypt (3500–500 BC) revealed high frequencies of TB in all time periods. In several individuals from ancient Egypt the mycobacterial DNA could be further characterised by spoligotyping. Thereby, evidence for ancestral M. tuberculosis strains was found in the pre‐ to early dynastic material from Abydos (3500–2650 BC), while typical M. africanum signatures were detected in the Middle Kingdom tomb in Thebes‐West (2050–1650 BC). Samples from the New Kingdom to Late Period tombs (1500–500 BC) were characterised as modern M. tuberculosis strains. In concordance with other studies on ancient skeletal and mummified samples, no evidence for the presence of M. bovis was found. These results contradict the theory that M. tuberculosis evolved from M. bovis during domestication, but supports the new scenario that M. tuberculosis probably derived from an ancestral progenitor strain. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Palaeoenvironmental significance of grain-size distribution of river flood deposits: a study of the archaeological sites of the Apengjiang River Drainage,upper Yangtze region,Chongqing, China

The grain-size distribution (based on cumulative probability curves) in the sediments produced by potential palaeofloods at the Shiniusi archaeological site is similar to that of modern flood sediments from the Wujiang River Drainage in the upper Yangtze River. There is an obvious pattern in the curves, with two segments, and the mean grain size (Mz), standard deviations (σ1), skewness, and kurtosis are all similar. Combined with the AMS¹⁴C dating data and the ages judged based on the presence of cultural remains, our data suggests frequent palaeoflood events within the Wujiang River Drainage. We hypothesize the existence of seven high flood possibility layers in the QST4 unit from Shiniusi archaeological site: during the periods of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD) to the Qing Dynasty (1616–1911 AD), and the end of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 BC–256 BC) to the Shang Dynasty (1600–1100 BC). We also hypothesize ten high flood probability layers in the QST2 unit from Shiniusi archaeological site: during the periods of the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the periods of Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD) to the Yuan Dynasty (1206–1368 AD), as well as during the Han Dynasty (207 BC–220 AD) to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 BC–256 BC). These results are consistent with palaeoflood events inferred from pollen and spore analysis and from historical records in other rivers.     

An Examination of the Spatial–Temporal Isolation Model in a Nilotic Population: Variation across Space and Time in Nubians Using Cranial Discrete Traits

Nubian biological evolution has come under much scrutiny in preceding years with strong opinions dividing scholars' beliefs as to how it occurred. A new approach is necessary to elucidate subtleties of their population structure in order to shed light on the complex subject. This study employs a spatial–temporal model in an effort to test if in situ biological evolution was the mechanism for biological change. Biological distance was calculated from the phenotype using 20 cranial discrete traits observed in Nubian samples from the sites of Semna South, Kerma, and the islands of Hesa and Biga. The periods represented at Semna South are Meroitic, X‐Group and Christian, whereas the Kerma site yielded skeletal material from the Kerma period, and the islands of Hesa and Biga date to the Christian period. Mahalanobis D² with a tetrachoric matrix was used to calculate biological distances among the samples, and three‐way Mantel tests were applied to the distance, spatial and temporal matrices. Time was not significantly correlated with biological distance. However, an inverse relationship of time and biological distance is expected under the spatial–temporal model. A lack of significant geographic correlations, as found here, is unusual in most populations, but given the spatial construct of the sites along the Nile, this relationship is not completely unexpected. The lack of significant correlation among time, space and biological distance does not support the in situ hypothesis. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Holocene fluvial history of the Tremithos river (south central Cyprus) and its linkage to archaeological records

This study aims to reconstruct the Holocene fluvial history of the Tremithos river, south central Cyprus and examine linkages to regional and local archaeological records. Three stratigraphic profiles (Sp1, Sp2 and Sp3) located in the lower valley have been investigated using sedimentology and magnetic parameters. The ¹⁴C dating of 10 samples reveals mid-Holocene ages for Sp1 and Sp2, while the upper most part of Sp3 can be attributed to the early to mid-Holocene. Two main phases of vertical accretion have been recognised: the first, recorded in the lower most part of Sp3, could not be dated but might relate to the late Glacial period. It is not associated with any archaeological artefacts. The second, recorded in all profiles, dating from ca. 5000 to ca. cal 2800 BC, spans the Late Neolithic Sotira (cal 4800/4000 BC) and Late Chalcolithic (cal 2900–2500 BC) cultures. The sediments of Sp1 and Sp2 are up to 8–10 m thick and mainly composed of fine material. However, an intercalated phase of coarse sediment has been identified at the beginning of the third millennium BC, indicating a sudden change in river dynamics, potentially associated with the 5.2 ka rapid climate change regional event. Typical mid-Chalcolithic (ca. cal 3300–3050 BC) ceramics found in a palaeosol in Sp2 indicate for the first time human occupation of the Tremithos river terraces. Two other palaeosols have also been recognised in Sp3 and radiocarbon dated to ca. cal 5600–4100 BC and ca. cal 2900–2600 BC, respectively. These results make it possible to propose a palaeogeographic reconstruction of the Holocene evolution in the Tremithos valley and to make a preliminary assessment of the relative roles of tectonics, climate and anthropogenic forcing.     

The Neolithic Macro-(R)evolution: Macroevolutionary Theory and the Study of Culture Change

The macroevolutionary approach in archaeology represents the most recent example in a long tradition of applying principles of biological evolution to the study of culture change. Archaeologists working within this paradigm see macroevolutionary theory as an effective response to the shortcomings of neo-Darwinian biological evolution for studying cultural evolution. Rather than operating at the level of individual traits, macroevolutionary archaeologists emphasize the role of hierarchical processes in culture change. While neo-Darwinian archaeologists disavow any element of human intent in culture change, to macroevolutionary archaeologists human agency is a key component of cultural evolution that allows cultures to respond to pressures more quickly and with greater degree of flexibility and directedness than found in biological evolution. Major culture change, when it happens, is likely to be rapid, even revolutionary, with periods of rapid change separated by periods of relative stasis of actively maintained stability. The emergence of Neolithic cultures has long been recognized as one of two periods of major revolutionary culture change in human prehistory. Here I examine the record for the Near East, tracing the empirical record for the origin of agriculture in this region, as well as other demographic, social, and ideological components of Neolithic emergence. While the empirical record from the Near East subscribes in a general way to basic principles of macroevolutionary theory, cultural evolution cannot be understood through appeal to principles of biological evolution alone, whether based in macroevolutionary theory or neo-Darwinianism. Instead, the key role of human agency in culture change distinguishes cultural evolution from biological evolution and requires a more pluralistic and less doctrinaire appeal to multiple models of change based in both the biological and social sciences.     

Economic Change in the Prehistoric Hexi Corridor (4800–2200 bp), North‐West China

It is widely known that the Hexi Corridor in North‐West China lies at a hub of trans‐Eurasian cultural exchange. Its role became increasingly important during the late prehistoric period, particularly as the ancient Silk Road began to be used. While the profound transformation of local cultural characteristics in the late Neolithic and the Bronze Age is well documented, the detailed economic dynamics of cultural evolution have not yet been clearly illustrated. In this paper, we report on significant new zooarchaeological and faunal isotopic data from the Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in the Hexi Corridor. The primary objective is to systematically reconstruct the prehistoric economic context of this area by combining these new data with previous archaeological studies and radiocarbon dates. We argue that the primary economic activities of local inhabitants changed dramatically in the prehistoric Hexi Corridor. This was marked by agricultural production at c.4800–4000 bp , agro‐pastoral production at c.4000–3000 bp and animal husbandry at c.3000–2200 bp , respectively. The major subsistence strategies of these three periods show considerable variation. It is very likely that these transformations of economic patterns in the prehistoric Hexi Corridor were primarily triggered by transcontinental cultural exchange and, to a lesser extent, by climate change.     

Local diversity in settlement,demography and subsistence across the southern Indian Neolithic-Iron Age transition: site growth and abandonment at Sanganakallu-Kupgal

The Southern Indian Neolithic-Iron Age transition demonstrates considerable regional variability in settlement location, density, and size. While researchers have shown that the region around the Tungabhadra and Krishna River basins displays significant subsistence and demographic continuity, and intensification, from the Neolithic into the Iron Age ca. 1200 cal. BC, archaeological and chronometric records in the Sanganakallu region point to hilltop village expansion during the Late Neolithic and ‘Megalithic’ transition period (ca. 1400–1200 cal. BC) prior to apparent abandonment ca. 1200 cal. BC, with little evidence for the introduction of iron technology into the region. We suggest that the difference in these settlement histories is a result of differential access to stable water resources during a period of weakening and fluctuating monsoon across a generally arid landscape. Here, we describe well-dated, integrated chronological, archaeobotanical, archaeozoological and archaeological survey datasets from the Sanganakallu-Kupgal site complex that together demonstrate an intensification of settlement, subsistence and craft production on local hilltops prior to almost complete abandonment ca. 1200 cal. BC. Although the southern Deccan region as a whole may have witnessed demographic increase, as well as subsistence and cultural continuity, at this time, this broader pattern of continuity and resilience is punctuated by local examples of abandonment and mobility driven by an increasing practical and political concern with water.     

CULTURAL EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL METABOLISM

The emergence of culture and cultural evolution is the result of an evolutionary process, evident also in non‐human species. What is specifically human is the dominance of cultural evolution. This does not mean that cultural evolution has replaced organic evolution, but rather that both have merged into one coevolutionary complex. Through niche construction, organic modern humans are the product of cultural evolution. This cannot be explained by adaptation to natural environment or by sexual selection. Cultural evolution with its coevolved organic traits did not so much enhance competence towards the natural environment as it did competence to develop and maintain cooperation. In the process, culture became a “system” with its own imperatives and integrating forces, differentiating into several autopoietic subsystems: the symbolic‐cognitive subsystem, the economic subsystem and the political subsystem. There are however social‐metabolic constraints that put limits on their evolutionary degrees of freedom. Culture's autopoietic reach has adaptive boundaries. The concept of social metabolism attempts to capture the unity of “persons” in a physical‐biological sense and “culture” in a symbolic sense, the decisive point being that culture must be understood as an autopoietic system sui generis. The social‐metabolic system of relations and interactions between nature, human population and culture is inherently coevolutionary. The history of social metabolism is the history of the coevolution of two autopoietic systems – an open and blind non‐orthogenetic evolutionary process.     

Isotopic palaeodiet studies of Ancient Egyptian fauna and humans

We report here stable carbon and nitrogen isotope results from human and faunal bone collagen from samples taken from sites in the Egyptian Nile Valley and surrounding region, dating from the Predynastic (c. 5500 BC) through to the Dynastic (c. 343 BC) periods. Isotopic values for the human population cluster together across this broad time range, with high δ¹⁵N ratios, and δ¹³C values indicating a largely C₃ based diet. The human data is not easily explained through comparison with our associated faunal data, and so may be explained by the consumption of protein from an ecosystem we did not adequately sample, such as freshwater fish or plants and fauna with unusually high δ¹⁵N values due to the extreme aridity of this region. The faunal isotopic data we did produce shows a great range in values between and within species, especially in cattle, and reflects the close proximity of three ecozones across a relatively narrow geographical area; the river, the immediate flood-plain area around the Nile and the desert surroundings.     

Temporal changes in diet: a stable isotope analysis of late Iron Age and Roman Dorset,Britain

This study investigates the relationship between diet and cultural change in late Iron Age and Romano-British populations from Dorset, England (1st century BC to the early 5th century AD). Dorset was the only region in Britain to exhibit continuity in inhumation burial rites through these periods and a wide array of environmental, archaeological and material culture evidence is available there. A sample of N = 77 human adult and N = 17 faunal rib samples were utilized for carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis to test the hypothesis that Romanization of the diet would result in greater dietary variation.     

Cultural evolution: a basic concept for human and historical geography

The concept of cultural evolution profoundly affected the objectives and methods employed in the social sciences in the earlier part of this century but it has largely been ignored by geographers. In recent years a number of American cultural anthropologists have re-examined the concept of cultural evolution, including Sahlins and Service, who consider that cultural evolution is analogous to biological evolution involving the diversification of cultural forms through adaptive modification and the progress of culture through successive levels of development. They have called these two processes specific evolution and general evolution respectively and from these two perspectives on cultural evolution they have developed the Law of Cultural Dominance. Certain operational problems exist in the application of the concept of cultural evolution, but once they have been surmounted it promises to constitute a valuable mode of explanation in the analysis of cultures and cultural change.     

Body Part Representation,Fragmentation and Patterns of Ertebølle Deer Exploitation in Northwest Zealand,Denmark

The faunal assemblages from Asnæs Havnemark, Fårevejle and Trustrup, located in northwest Zealand, Denmark, yielded extensive yet substantially fragmented bone material dating predominantly to the late Mesolithic Ertebølle culture, ca. 5400–3950 cal BC . This paper presents a combined assessment of skeletal part representation of red deer (Cervus elaphus) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) from these three sites in conjunction with quantification of overall fragmentation data for the assemblages. These data indicate that the observed pattern of skeletal part abundance is most consistent with a pattern of density‐mediated skeletal attrition, and therefore the whole carcasses were initially deposited. Deer were not part of a logistic exploitation strategy at these sites. This indicates variability during the Ertebølle period not only in which resources were exploited, but in how these resources were processed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pollen analytical investigations at Crosby Warren, Lincolnshire, in the Vicinity of the iron age and Romano-British settlement of Dragonby

Open-cast ironstone mining at Crosby Warren, near Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire exposed an extensive section through “cover sand” deposits. revealing buried podzol soils and peat layers. Stratigraphic studies, pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating have been carried out on three representative profiles. From these investigations it would appear that the “cover sands” in this area were stabilized under mixed oak woodland by c. 300 BC. After c. 100 BC woodland clearance and farming activities have been distinguished. Local alterations in land-use may be linked with cultural developments at the nearby Iron Age and Romano-British settlement of Dragonby. It is suggested that the impact of man upon the vegetation during Iron Age and Romano-British times probably facilitated podzolization and sand blowing.     

From limestone caves to concrete graves: 3000 years of mortuary practice in the Palauan archipelago,Micronesia

Human skeletal remains have been discovered from a variety of contexts in the Palauan archipelago of western Micronesia. These include caves, rockshelters, earthen mounds, stone platforms, midden burials, crypts, sarcophagi, and historic period gravesites. Recent excavation of a prehistoric cemetery in a rockshelter on Orrak Island dating from ca 1000 BC–AD 200, combined with nearly contemporaneous surface finds in caves on both Orrak and other nearby islands, shed light on the earliest known burial practices in Palau. Interment in limestone caves and rockshelters was then replaced in succession by burial in earthwork terraces, beneath stone platforms, in middens, within limestone slab crypts and at least one known stone sarcophagus, and finally in Western or Asian‐style gravesites with headstones. Here we present the first major synthesis of mortuary patterns in Palau from the earliest periods of known settlement (ca. 1000 BC) to modern times. Understanding how these burial practices change over time provides valuable insight into changing sociocultural practices within Palauan society, including how contact with outsiders during the historical period drastically altered traditional mortuary behaviours. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CONTRASTING SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES IN THE EARLY IRON AGE? – NEW RESULTS FROM THE ALFÖLD PLAIN,HUNGARY, AND THE THRACIAN PLAIN,BULGARIA

Summary. What can students of the past do to establish the predominant land‐use and settlement practices of populations who leave little or no artefactual discard as a testament to their lifeways? The traditional answer, especially in Eastern Europe, is to invoke often exogenous nomadic pastoralists whose dwelling in perpetuo mobile was based on yurts, minimal local ceramic production and high curation levels of wooden and metal containers. Such a lacuna of understanding settlement structure and environmental impacts typifies Early Iron Age (henceforth ‘EIA’) settlements in both Bulgaria and eastern Hungary – a period when the inception of the use of iron in Central and South‐East Europe has a profound effect on the flourishing regional bronze industries of the Late Bronze Age (henceforth ‘LBA’). The methodological proposal in this paper is the high value of palynological research for subsistence strategies and human impacts in any area with a poor settlement record. This proposal is illustrated by two new lowland pollen diagrams – Ezero, south‐east Bulgaria, and Sarló‐hát, north‐east Hungary – which provide new insights into this research question. In the Thracian valley, there is a disjunction between an area of high arable potential, the small size and short‐lived nature of most LBA and EIA settlements and the strong human impact from the LBA and EIA periods in the Ezero diagram. In the Hungarian Plain, the pollen record suggests that, during the LBA–EIA, extensive grazing meadows were established in the alluvial plain, with the inception of woodland clearance on a massive scale from c.800 cal BC, that contradicts the apparent decline in human population in this area. An attempted explanation of these results comprises the exploration of three general positions – the indigenist thesis, the exogenous thesis and the interactionist thesis. Neither of these results fits well with the traditional view of EIA populations as incoming steppe nomadic pastoralists. Instead, this study seeks to explore the tensions between local productivity and the wider exchange networks in which they are entangled.