Paleoenvironment and plant cultivation on terraces at La Quemada,Zacatecas, Mexico: the pollen,phytolith and diatom evidence

This paper reports the results of pollen, phytolith and diatom analyses conducted on a series of soil samples collected from a large, possibly communal, system of terraces associated with La Quemada in the Malpaso Valley, Zacatecas, Mexico. These analyses rendered data related to both paleoenvironmental and plant cultivation in the area. Preliminary pollen analyses of soil sediments suggest Agave sp. and Opuntia spp. cultivation played an important role on the terraces. The phytolith analyses recovered abundant, well preserved grass phytoliths, including Zea mays. The composition of the grass community suggests that paleoenvironmental conditions in this area were warm and dry, similar to those of today. The presence of three fresh water diatom taxa and sponge spicules in several archaeological soil samples suggests the possibility that water was carried to the terraces for irrigation from the nearby Rio Malpaso on a regular basis.     

Paleoenvironmental reconstruction at Canyon del Muerto,Arizona, based on principal-component analysis

A multivariate statistical technique, principal-component analysis, is used to interpret pollen assemblages from archaeological context in terms of paleoenvironmental information. The pollen samples originate from an archaeological site in northeastern Arizona (Canyon del Muerto) covering the period between AD 700 and AD 1300. Through the use of principal-component analysis the percentage constraint in the pollen counts is removed and the data set effectively reduced to groups of co-varying taxa. Once these groups are ecologically defined as to the environment they represent, their changes of dominance through time can be analysed. This study has shown a correlation between a population expansion in Canyon del Muerto (AD 1050–1150) and the dominance of upland forest types suggesting slightly cooler and/or wetter conditions. The pollen data compare well with the tree-ring indices for this region. Local disturbance is reflected in the record during the period of greatest population. A shift to a shrubland vegetation during the peak construction phase indicates the clearing of cottonwood, fir, spruce and pine (all found within the site) by local inhabitants. Thus, the palynological evidence suggests both cultural and climatic factors are involved in the explanation of pollen deposition.     

Porotic hyperostosis in a Late Upper Palaeolithic skeleton (Villabruna 1, Italy)

Porotic hyperostosis (PH) is a well‐recognised skeletal indicator of physiological stress occurring during the early years of childhood growth. Although frequently found starting from the Neolithic, PH is poorly documented among earlier Palaeolithic hunter–gatherers. This study reports a case of PH in a Late Upper Palaeolithic skeleton (Villabruna 1) from northern Italy. Macroscopic and radiographic examinations of the skeleton show symmetric porotic lesions of the cranial vault, hair‐on‐end appearance, thinning of the cortical bone, diploic expansion and very slight cribra orbitalia (CO). All lesions are highly remodelled and suggest a condition suffered long before death. A differential diagnosis, carried out in order to discriminate between infectious and acquired conditions, points to anaemia as likely aetiology for the changes observed. Absence of postcranial involvement, lesion healing and survival to adulthood suggest a diagnosis of acquired anaemia. Among acquired anaemias, both dietary and infectious models are discussed in light of the individual's skeletal characteristics, as well as geographic location, paleoenvironmental data, subsistence modality and dietary information. The combined analysis of these data suggests that parasitic infestation resulted in megaloblastic anaemia in this individual. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The changing biosphere: recent insights from paleoenvironmental science into drivers,mechanisms and impacts

Paleoenvironmental science has experienced a recent surge in interest and activity as concerns grow over global environmental change. Key research questions in the biotic realm of paleoenvironmental science focus on explaining climatic change at time scales of decades to centuries and understanding ecosystem responses to these changes. Biotic responses are increasingly being studied at smaller spatial scales to identify local factors that determine the sensitivity of a particular system to climatic change. These findings can then be applied to solving a variety of problems, such as setting conservation targets or testing mechanisms for observed climatic and biogeographic phenomena. Research approaches commonly used today include hypothesis testing, which has now become more sophisticated as paleoecologists and paleoclimatologists integrate with modellers. Other frameworks involve the quantitative integration of multiple proxy indicators and the use of extensive publicly available data networks to produce new datasets for paleoclimatic reconstructions and other applications.     

Convict bastards, common-law unions, and shotgun weddings: premarital conceptions and ex-nuptial births in nineteenth-century Tasmania

This article uses reconstituted family data from birth, death, and marriage registers to measure ex-nuptial fertility and premarital pregnancies in nineteenth-century Tasmania. It also examines the extent to which convict origins of European society on the island caused a departure from English norms of family formation behavior, during a period when men greatly outnumbered women. Illegitimacy was high during the convict period. From the mid-1850s, after the convict system collapsed, levels of ex-nupital births were relatively constant until the end of the century, as indicated both by the illegitimacy rate and by the proportion of marriages associated with prenuptial births. By the end of the nineteenth-century, rates of illegitimacy and prenuptial conceptions in Tasmania were well within the range of those of contemporary English-speaking populations.     

TESTING FOR EVIDENCE OF PALEOINDIAN RESPONSES TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES DURING THE YOUNGER DRYAS CHRONOZONE IN GEORGIA

Abstract

For the Southeast, it has been proposed that climate changes during the Younger Dryas period triggered a human population decline and/or substantial reorganization. We use the Georgia point record in the Paleoindian Database of the Americas to test for evidence of changes in landscape use through the Paleoindian period and consider these changes in the context of the Georgia paleoenvironmental record spanning the Younger Dryas. Based on differences in point frequencies, distributions, raw material types, and transport distances and directions, we conclude that significant changes in landscape use occurred during the Paleoindian period, and these correspond to destabilization of the immediate coastal zone due to fluctuations in sea level.     

Metallurgy and specialisation in Prepalatial Mesara, Crete

The purpose of this paper is to examine the technological knowledge and the technological level of copper metallurgy in the Mesara plain in Crete, during the Prepalatial period. In order to investigate this issue, objects from several (12) sites in the area were chosen for examination. In this way, the technological level of the area and each site could be safely ascertained. From the 55 objects that were examined, a very small sample was taken, which was the subject of metallographic and chemical analyses. By using these methods, the manufacturing processes for the production of each object, as well as the alloy that was used in each case, were identified. The combination of these two methods, along with typology of the objects and the number of objects produced at each site, provided safe conclusions as to the technological knowledge and the possible specialisation of metal production in each site and period. In the end, a lack of homogeneity in the Mesara plain was noticed as concerns the production of copper objects. Some sites seem to have a dominant position, with larger production and trading of metal artefacts, while other sites fail to provide any indication of metal production, and it is very possible that the metal objects were obtained from the neighbouring sites. Finally, the existence of specialised production is obvious in some sites in the Mesara plain, especially in the case of two groups of objects (triangular and long daggers), while the lack of organised and standardised production is obvious in the case of some other sites in the same area.     

Holocene artiodactyl population histories and large game hunting in the Wyoming Basin,USA

Regional paleoenvironmental reconstructions and data on artiodactyl response to climate change suggest that large game densities would have expanded during the late Holocene in the Wyoming Basin. Within this context, we use the prey model of foraging theory to predict a late Holocene increase in the hunting of artiodactyls, relative to lagomorphs and rodents. This prediction is then tested against 144 dated components documenting human subsistence in the Wyoming Basin. Close fits are found between the deductively derived prediction and the empirical records: significant increases in artiodactyl hunting occurred during the late Holocene. These results have implications for the interpretation of long-term increases in large-game in Holocene archaeofaunas throughout North America.     

Investigations at Tor al-Tareeq: An Epipaleolithic Site in the Wadi el-Hasa,Jordan

Abstract

The Epipaleolithic site of Tor al-Tareeq (WHS 1065) was discovered in 1982 by Burton MacDonald's Wadi Hasa Survey in west-central Jordan, surface collected and tested in 1984, and partially excavated in 1992. The earliest and best represented occupation is an early Epipaleolithic industry, overlain in places by an ephemeral geometric industry identified by a higher incidence of geometric microliths. Six radiocarbon determinations span the period between 16,900 and 15,600 b.p. and confirm an early Epipaleolithic date but the subsequent geometric phase has not been dated. The site consists of a series of camps, near a collapsed rockshelter and a spring, and strung out along the shore of a mildly-alkaline, late Pleistocene lake. The permanent water and varied resource zones surely made the locale attractive in an otherwise arid landscape. Faunal remains and pollen from the site indicate diverse resources in conditions substantially different from those of today. This report examines a wide range of archaeological and paleoenvironmental data in order to understand aspects of the regional system of settlement and subsistence of which Tor al-Tareeq was a part. Continuing research in the eastern Hasa drainage seems likely to provoke a reassessment of current models of hunter-gatherer adaptation during the Epipaleolithic in the southern Levant.     

Abandonment,Authority, and Religious Continuity in Post-Classical Greece

Scholars have frequently invoked the abandonment of Early Christian basilicas in the sixth and seventh centuries as key evidence for the end of antiquity in Greece. The standard narrative treats the archaeological evidence for abandonment as the physical manifestation of decline recorded in textual sources. The neat equivalency between archaeology and text ignores the role that abandonment plays in the narrative strategies of the textual sources. By reexamining the tie between text and archaeology, we can read the life cycle of the Early Christian basilica in Greece more critically and consequently expand our understanding of this dynamic period in Greek history.     

Urbanization in Iron Age Europe: Trajectories,Patterns, and Social Dynamics

The development of the first urban centers is one of the most fundamental phenomena in the history of temperate Europe. New research demonstrates that the earliest cities developed north of the Alps between the sixth and fifth centuries BC as a consequence of processes of demographic growth, hierarchization, and centralization that have their roots in the immediately preceding period. However, this was an ephemeral urban phenomenon, which was followed by a period of crisis characterized by the abandonment of major centers and the return to more decentralized settlement patterns. A new trend toward urbanization occurred in the third and second centuries BC with the appearance of supra-local sanctuaries, open agglomerations, and finally the fortified oppida. Late Iron Age settlement patterns and urban trajectories were much more complex than traditionally thought and included manifold interrelations between open and fortified sites. Political and religious aspects played a key role in the development of central places, and in many cases the oppida were established on locations that already had a sacred character as places for rituals and assemblies. The Roman conquest largely brought to an end Iron Age urbanization processes, but with heterogeneous results of both abandonment and disruption and also continuity and integration.     

Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) as a paleothermometer: otolith oxygen isotope reconstruction

Stable isotope studies are increasingly important for understanding past environmental and cultural developments along the North Pacific Rim. In this paper, we present methods for using Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) otoliths as a paleothermometer using a case study from Kodiak Island, Alaska. The results of this study indicate that Pacific cod otoliths record variable paleoenvironmental conditions during the Little Ice Age. The broad distribution of Pacific cod and success in using the otoliths as a paleothermometer makes this method widely applicable to researchers working throughout the northern Pacific Rim.     

Life and death at precolumbian Lavoutte,Saint Lucia,Lesser Antilles

Abstract

The Caribbean archaeological record requires immediate attention and protection. Development and natural forces have impacted archaeological sites, destroying or severely damaging them. The precolumbian site of Lavoutte, located in northern Saint Lucia, has been known as a major Late Ceramic Age (a.d. 1000–1500) settlement since the 1960s, but it has been damaged over the past decades by both natural and human processes. Multidisciplinary field and laboratory methodologies were implemented during a rescue project at the site from 2009 to 2010. This paper presents the results of collaborative efforts between local and international organizations. The first goal was to demonstrate the importance of protection and rescue of endangered archaeological sites. Secondly, we aimed to show that by adopting a multidisciplinary approach including artifact analysis, bioarchaeology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and geochemistry, severely damaged sites can be of significant informational value.     

Dendroarchaeology of the mid-first millennium AD in Constantinople

The 1st millennium AD was a time of great transition in Europe and the Mediterranean. At the heart of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) was a pivotal trade hub for the Aegean region. Establishing a precise and accurate dating framework for the development of this remarkable city and a chronological reference for this critical time period for the Mediterranean region is of great importance to a wide range of scholars. Here we present a new 213 year tree-ring record from 89 oak samples placed in time by dendrochronology and supported by radiocarbon analysis and historical documentation. It represents the middle of the first millennium AD in Constantinople. The tree-ring series are derived from pilings recovered from the extraordinary excavations of the so-called “Theodosian harbor” at Yenikap?, Istanbul, along with timbers from other sites and buildings around the city, including one of the most famous sites on the Istanbul sky-line—Hagia Sophia. They provide potential for new insight into a time period in which earthquakes, the Justinianic plague, and even a possible tsunami struck the city, and during which dramatic changes in climate have been recorded in other paleoenvironmental proxies. The chronology is the first published tree-ring series from the Aegean region to cover the ‘event’ years of AD 536–7 and 542 which are characterized by anomalous growth in other tree-ring series from around the world, but interestingly these event years are not evident in this tree-ring sequence.     

Feeding the scavengers. Actualistic taphonomy in the Jordan Valley,Israel

This paper describes the results of a 3‐year project carried out in the Jordan Valley, Israel, in which the influence of specific local environmental conditions, such as scavenging, weathering and scattering of carcasses, were related to the rate of their bone survival. During the 3 year period, the taphonomy of 16 whole animal carcasses, deposited in a nature reserve and agricultural cultivated area were compared. The exact age, date of death and weight of all animals was known. Results of animal scavenging activities on the carcasses, such as disappearance of bones and damage, such as tooth marks, breakage, gnawing to the leftover bones, were recorded at the end of the initial, intensive scavenging period (Phase I), and at later dates. Bone scattering maps were drawn at the end of Phase I and 2.5 and 3 years later. Weathering of surviving bones at the sites is described. Results show that in the Jordan Valley Nature Reserve, scavenging is the most important taphonomic agent causing total disappearance of all bones of young dairy calves, and reducing amount of bones remaining of more mature animals to a minimum. These small number of leftover bones, after only 2–3 years are the only candidates for eventual burial and fossilization. The loss of most of the bones through scavenging in the nature reserve might cause serious bias to conclusions about subsistence behaviour of prehistoric man. This is a taphonomic actualistic analogue to eventual conditions in prehistoric times. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

救援、革命、外交——华工联合会研究

华工联合会原名中华旅俄联合会,1917年由在俄学习的中国留学生发起成立。成立以后,华工联合会对第一次世界大战时期进入俄国的华工提供了大量帮助。1918年底,华工联合会转变为“无产主义者组织”,它积极对在俄华工进行革命宣传,建立起与中国境内革命组织之间的联系,促进了中国革命事业的发展。此外,华工联合会还促成中国政府与苏维埃俄国之间进行对话,在俄中两国的外交活动中发挥了重要的作用。本文依据大量史料,追溯了旅俄华工联合会在救援、革命和外交等方面做出的卓越贡献,对华工联合会这一以往较少引人注意的华侨组织进行了深入的探讨与研究。     

The emergence of food production in Neolithic Japan

Chestnuts and walnuts, both sun-loving plants, were the most important food resources for sedentary villagers in Japan throughout the Jomon (Neolithic) period. Though morphologically these nuts were wild types, ecologically they were symbiotic with man. Given this ecological relationship, the following interrelation of Jomon period subsistence may be proposed: lowland, waterside villages, a generalized subsistence tradition comprising fishing, hunting, gathering, and farming lasted until the end of the Jomon period (ca. 2300 B.P.). In the Central Honshu Highland, specialized farming villages dependent on chestnuts and walnuts appeared in the late stage of the Early Jomon period (ca. 5500 B.P.) as an adaptation of the former tradition to this highland environment which lacks significant fish resources.     

塔里木盆地近4 ka来的气候变迁与古人类文明兴衰

通过对尼雅剖面多环境替代指标的研究,结合塔里木盆地相关剖面的研究成果,重建了塔里木盆地近4.0 kaB.P.以未的气候环境演变过程与特征,研究揭示,近4.0 kaB.P以来塔里木盆地的气候环境经历了多次的干湿变迁;同时通过有关塔里木盆地的历史文献记载和考古发掘资料,恢复了历史时期以来塔里木盆地的古人类文明的兴衰变迁,并将气候环境的演变过程与古人类文明的兴衰阶段进行了对照研究,研究发现历史时期以来塔里木盆地的气候环境与人文历史之间具有很好的耦合关系:在气候的相对湿润期,环境条件适宜,有利于人类活动,使农牧业生产繁盛,人类活动范围扩大;在暖干的环境条件下,由于水份的减少,则会抑制人类的活动,导致农业歉收,人类的生存环境和条件恶化,古城废弃。     

Recent Research on Chaco: Changing Views on Economy, Ritual, and Society

Current research on Chaco Canyon and its surrounding outlier communities is at an important juncture. Rather than trying to argue for the presence or absence of complexity, archaeologists working in the area are asking different questions, especially how Chacoan political, economic, ritual, and social organization were structured. These lines of inquiry do not attempt to pigeonhole Chaco into traditional neoevolutionary types, but instead seek to understand the historical trajectory that led to the construction of monumental architecture in Chaco Canyon and a large part of the northern Southwest in the 10th through 12th centuries. This review discusses the conclusions of current research at Chaco including definitions of the Chaco region, recent fieldwork, histories of Chaco archaeology, chronology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, demography, political organization, outlier communities, economic organization, social organization, ritual, violence, and the post-Chacoan reorganization. Although many issues are hotly debated, there is a growing concensus that power was not based in a centralized political organization and that ritual organization was a key factor in the replication of Chacoan architecture across a vast regional landscape. Exactly how ritual, social, and political organization intersected is a central question for Chaco scholars. The resolution of this problem will prove to be of interest to all archaeologists working with intermediate societies across the globe.