On stone-boiling technology in the Upper Paleolithic: behavioral implications from an Early Magdalenian hearth in El Mirón Cave,Cantabria, Spain

Stone boiling is one of the principal cooking methods used by hunter-gatherer societies. The present paper proposes behavioral and organizational inferences as to how stone boiling was incorporated into hunter-gatherer subsistence practices through an examination of a shallow-basin hearth in an Early Magdalenian level (c. 15,500 ¹⁴C B.P.) of El Mirón Cave, Cantabria (northern Spain). Exploratory analysis of spatial patterns of archaeological remains (bones, lithic artifacts, and fire-cracked rocks) and use-life analysis of fire-cracked rocks demonstrate that the hearth was used and maintained during visits of humans who preyed mainly on ibex and red deer near the site. The relative accessibility of these ungulates and cost-induced technology of stone boiling suggest the implication that stone boiling was employed to maximize the energy and nutrition obtained from carcasses of these game taxa under the circumstance of resource intensification.     

What is past is prologue: excavations at the Econfina Channel site,Apalachee Bay,Florida, USA

Offshore submerged sites can retain valuable data concerning many questions of interest to archaeology, including what form coastal occupations may have taken during periods before the establishment of modern coastlines and late Holocene climate and ecological conditions. However, submerged offshore sites experience postdepositional forces entirely unlike those in terrestrial contexts, including erosion/deflation of sediments, and degradation of artifacts and/or features caused by the marine environment. Methodological and theoretical approaches to assessing submerged marine sites, versus terrestrial ones, must be adjusted accordingly to extract valuable data and interpretations from them. This study demonstrates the application of these different approaches at the Econfina Channel site (8TA139) in Apalachee Bay, Florida, USA. The site appears to contain significant evidence for coastally adapted occupation during the final part of the Middle Archaic period (～8600–5000?cal?BP), but we needed to address marine site formation processes before we could assess human activities at the site. Sedimentological and archaeological traces of human activities can be teased out using geoarchaeological methods, which differentiate between nonhuman postdepositional processes and the cultural material remains left behind by those who used the site before it was abandoned and subsequently submerged.     

Technological Change and Economy in the Epipalaeolithic: Assessing the Shift from Early to Middle Epipalaeolithic at Kharaneh IV

Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities in the Southern Levant exhibit numerous complex trends that suggest that the transition to the Neolithic was patchy and protracted. This paper explores the changing nature of occupation at the Epipalaeolithic site Kharaneh IV, Jordan, through an in-depth analysis of the lithic and faunal assemblages. Focusing on the analysis of a single deep sounding (unit AS42), we address how Kharaneh IV occupations link to the local landscape and environmental changes. As an aggregation site, Kharaneh IV represents an interesting locale to explore the changing nature of aggregation and social cohesion prior to the origins of agriculture, as well as changes in technology and subsistence between the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic. We explore the tempo and nature of transition from one archaeological culture to the next through changes in technology and how this reflects the people making and using tools, to understand how foragers adapted to a changing landscape.     

Holocene Deposits of Saharan Rock Shelters: The Case of Takarkori and Other Sites from the Tadrart Acacus Mountains (Southwest Libya)

The excavation at Takarkori rock shelter is part of a long-term study of Holocene cultural dynamics in southwest Libya begun in the early 1990s. With a rich Holocene occupation, the area is one of the key spots for reconstruction of human occupation of the last 10,000 years. In this region, similar to the case in the rest of the Sahara, most of the data come from surface investigations at open-air sites, while excavated caves and rock shelters provide just a few. Although less exposed than open-air sites, Holocene archaeological deposits in Saharan caves and rock shelters are characterized by a fairly dynamic nature. Loose sediments, coupled with variability of human occupations and magnitude of natural agents, determine multiple alterations to the archaeological deposits in sheltered sites. In this paper, we present the nature and meaning of the archaeological deposits at Takarkori rock shelter, where a relatively large area has been recently excavated, showing a stratigraphic sequence extending from c. 9,000 to 4,200 BP, unevenly represented by several occupation pulses. In order to sharpen understanding of the development of human occupation at this site, specific procedures for the study and recording of the archaeological deposit have been developed, along with a program of extensive radiocarbon dating. Data from the Takarkori sequence ultimately will be integrated with available published stratigraphies from the Acacus Mountains, with the aim of reviewing the results from past excavations.     

Site Identification and Correlation Using Geoarchaeological Methods at the Cabeço do Porto Marinho (CPM) Locality, Rio Maior, Portugal

Several geoarchaeological techniques have been employed in evaluating an open-air site within a uniform sand matrix, near Rio Maior, Portugal. Electrical resistivity data, acquired at the Upper Palaeolithic site complex of Cabeço do Porto Marinho (CPM), delineated an important new occupational locus. This result was confirmed, first by auger testing which recovered subsurface artefacts, and then by direct excavation. In addition, 107 samples were recovered at the site for magnetic susceptibility measurements. Comparisons between magnetic susceptibility profiles from two loci, including the new area at CPM, show distinctive patterns which allow direct correlation between the occupation areas. These methods provide quick and inexpensive means for investigators to evaluate new sites or to correlate between and within sites, without resorting to other more time-consuming and expensive techniques.     

Excavations at Mlambalasi Rockshelter: a Terminal Pleistocene to Recent Iron Age Record in Southern Tanzania

The Mlambalasi rockshelter in the Iringa Region of southern Tanzania has rich artifactual deposits spanning the Later Stone Age (LSA), Iron Age, and historic periods. Middle Stone Age (MSA) artifacts are also present on the slope in front of the rockshelter. Extensive, systematic excavations in 2006 and 2010 by members of the Iringa Region Archaeological Project (IRAP) illustrate a complex picture of repeated occupations and reuse of the rockshelter during an important time in human history. Direct dates on Achatina shell and ostrich eggshell (OES) beads suggest that the earliest occupation levels excavated at Mlambalasi, which are associated with human burials, are terminal Pleistocene in age. This is exceptional given the rarity of archaeological sites, particularly those with human remains and other preserved organic material, from subtropical Africa between 200,000 and 10,000 years before present. This paper reports on the excavations to date and analysis of artifactual finds from the site. The emerging picture is one of varied, ephemeral use over millennia as diverse human groups were repeatedly attracted to this fixed feature on the landscape.     

Estimating parent population of pottery vessels from a sample of fragments: a case study from inter-tidal surface collections,Roviana Lagoon,Solomon Islands

Archaeologists frequently interpret the duration and type of prehistoric occupation at a location/site from the relative abundance of prehistoric materials (accumulations research). Taphonomic factors have the potential to alter substantially the archaeological record leading to inaccurate assumptions about the nature of prehistoric settlement. Where vessel families of potsherds can be established, we provide a general method to estimate the parent population from which the sample of sherds derives, through analysis of vessel completeness of the sample. This provides a basis for archaeological interpretation of the scale of discard represented at a location. The approach used has broad applicability to many archaeological settings where behavioural inferences are made from poorly preserved ceramic samples. Statistical analysis of a ceramic assemblage from Roviana Lagoon stilt villages indicates that most of the ceramic assemblage has been destroyed over time. An unexpectedly severe taphonomic regime is inferred for this relatively sheltered landlocked lagoon setting. Rather than marking an ephemeral occupation, estimating a parent ceramic population indicates instead that early stilt village sites in the Solomon Islands region were probably permanently occupied for several centuries. Results also suggest that the relative absence of recorded Lapita sites in the main Solomon Islands, and possibly elsewhere in Near Oceania may be a result of a harsh taphonomic regime for the remains of stilt village occupation.     

On Neanderthal subsistence strategies and land use: A regional focus on the Rhone Valley area in southeastern France

This study of Middle Palaeolithic assemblages from the Rhone Valley, in the South-East of France, increases our understanding of Neanderthal subsistence strategies and modes of territorial organisation by comparing a wide corpus of human occupations in limited chronological and geographical frameworks. The Neanderthal occupation modes may be examined using sites located in a reduced area, linking medium-altitude territories (Massif Central and the Alpine foothills) to the Rhone corridor. Through the combined analysis of the occupation levels of ten sites, all dated to between Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 7 and the beginning of MIS 3, we identify three types of occupation durations: (1) type 1 as long-term residential camps, (2) type 2 as short-term regular hunting camps and (3) type 3 as brief stopover camps. We discuss this variability of habitat types according to various parameters: site age, technical behaviour, environmental conditions, and site localisation and occupation seasons. The aim is to discern the underlying motivations behind Neanderthal group mobility. One of the main features of the Rhone Valley area is the great homogeneity of behaviours reflected within the sequences. This homogeneity, linked to the variability of the site occupations, supports the hypothesis of Neanderthal groups anticipating their land use requirements, and furthermore suggests that another type of circulating model was used in this area.     

Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Strategies in the High Andes of Northern Chile during the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Transition (ca. 11,500–9500 CAL B.P.)

The high Andes of western South America feature extreme ecological conditions that impose important physiological constraints on humans including high-elevation hypoxia and cold stress. This leads to questions regarding how these environments were colonized by the first waves of humans that reached them during the late Pleistocene. Based on previous research, and aided by human behavioral ecology principles, we assess hunter-gatherer behavioral strategies in the Andean highlands during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. Specifically, we formulate three mobility strategies and their archaeological expectations and test these using technological and subsistence evidence from the six earliest well-dated highland sites in northern Chile. Our results suggest that all of the studied sites were temporarily occupied for hunting, processing animals, and toolkit maintenance. The sites also exhibit shared technological features within a curatorial strategy albeit with different occupation intensities. From this evidence, we infer that the initial occupations of the highlands were logistical and probably facilitated by increased local resource availability during a period of environmental amelioration.     

The Upper Mississippian Occupation at the Collier Lodge Site (12PR36): Ceramics and Chronology on the Eastern Edge of Oneota

The Upper Mississippian Fisher/Huber occupations of northwestern Indiana are part of the easternmost extension of Oneota. Excavations at the Collier Lodge site (12PR36) found 18 Upper Mississippian features from a seasonal encampment on the edge of the Kankakee Marsh. The ceramic assemblage and radiocarbon dates indicate the site was created during the late fifteenth century, placing it in the northwestern Indiana temporal sequence between the previously known Fifield site occupation and the Huber phase component at the Griesmer site. The ceramic decorative elements include relatively low proportions of medium trailing and cordmarking, with higher proportions of wide trailing and smooth surfaces, suggesting a very late pre-Huber occupation (fine trailing is virtually absent). The assemblage could also reflect a Late Fisher occupation followed after a short period of time by a terminal Fisher/early Huber occupation. Oneota sites in northwestern Indiana appear to have been relatively rare, widely distributed, small, and seasonal.     

Reconnaissance survey for Palaeolithic sites in the Debed River Valley,northern Armenia

Abstract

The southern Caucasus is a critical region for those interested in Palaeolithic research because of its varied topography and location at the crossroads of Europe, Africa, and Asia. Modern Armenia sits at the heart of this area, but has until now played a small role in broader debates, largely because of its paucity of well-excavated and well-dated sites. To improve this situation, a survey was conducted for Palaeolithic sites along the valley of the Debed River (Lori Depression, northeastern Armenia). Twenty-three open-air sites, spanning the Lower through the Upper Palaeolithic periods, were identified. Most of the lithic material is of Middle Palaeolithic manufacture. Upper Palaeolithic material is also well represented, but only a handful of Lower Palaeolithic artifacts have been identified. Test excavations at several sites suggest that they preserve in situ deposits that may help us to understand the role of the southern Caucasus in the Palaeolithic occupation of Eurasia.     

Taphonomy at Hermies,France: A Mousterian Knapping Site in a Loessic Context

Abstract

The recent excavation of Hermies, a Mousterian (Middle Palaeolithic) flintknapping site in northern France, sheds light on natural alteration of a lithic assemblage in a loessic sediment. An extensive, well preserved stratigraphic zone grades into a more disturbed area. During excavation we recorded taphonomic indicators such as the dip and strike of in situ pieces, the scattering of artifacts and refitting of broken specimens, and microscopic alteration, principally natural, of flakes. While the composition of the lithic assemblage is less sensitive to erosion than we would expect, the vertical and horizontal dispersion of finds at Hermies is related to natural processes active in the lower and wetter parts of the site. Of particular note is that the dispersion can be associated with polish produced by the natural growth of roots rather than by human use. Some “tools”conventionally identified as denticulaters and notches display no use-wear, and we suggest they were created accidentally by processes such as shock, trampling, and crushing within dense clusters of debitage. This correlation of debitage clusters with increased presence of notches and denticulates is reported from many open-air Mousterian sites; since these two tool forms define the Denticulate Mousterian facies, some reevaluation of those facies is necessary.     

The chert abundance ratio (CAR): a new parameter for interpreting Palaeolithic raw material procurement

Raw material provenance and procurement studies are an essential research line to infer landscape exploitation, mobility dynamics and territorial management among prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups. This paper proposes an original and intuitive method, the chert abundance ratio, aimed at quantifying lithic resource occurrence in the landscape while considering the geological natural factors of an area (chert-bearing formation extent, thickness, occurrence index, size and chert content). The resource availability can be statistically compared to any archaeological assemblage distribution to define the procurement strategies, whether generalist or selective, and the mobility patterns. The study area, the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula, focused in the Prades Mountains, represents a regional scenario with high chert disposal shared by several Late Upper Palaeolithic occupations. The discrimination of the procurement areas is used as a parameter for outlining the foraging radius and the territorial range, contributing to an understanding of several aspects of the settlement, such as site functions, occupation length or intensity and group size.     

东秦岭山地商洛市和山阳县新发现的两处旧石器地点

上世纪70～80年代以来,东秦岭山区的古人类和旧石器考古调查及发掘工作取得了较大的进展,一大批重要的古人类或旧石器遗址相继被发现,它们对研究中国远古人类和南北旧石器工业的发展与演化、黄土堆积地层具有十分重要     

Assessing the Scale and Pace of Large Shell-Bearing Site Occupation in the Prince Rupert Harbour Area,British Columbia

Methodological advancements in geoarchaeology and spatial and chronological modeling are opening new avenues to interpreting large coastal shell-bearing sites. We document the developmental histories of two such sites around Prince Rupert Harbour, Canada, using systematic percussion coring, intensive radiocarbon dating, and 3D surface mapping with Total Station and LiDAR. We also re-analyze a third site (Boardwalk/GbTo-31) excavated and radiocarbon dated in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 2000s using archival field notes, site maps, and stratigraphic profiles georectified using LiDAR. We map the natural landform beneath the sites and document the degree to which people physically modified landforms through the deposition of massive shell accumulations. We model site development through time and space and use accumulation rates and OxCal modeling to test for intentional deposition events. All three sites demonstrate complex and heterogeneous occupation histories. At each we identify instances of very rapid deposition that effectively terraced and extended parts of the natural landform to create places for constructing houses, though these episodes take place within longer histories of slower quotidian deposition. The anthropogenic modifications to the coastline in this area are the result of these mixed processes associated with long histories of occupation.     

Evidence for Interaction from Recent Hunter-Gatherer Sites in the Caledon Valley

Evidence for contact between hunter-gatherers and agropastoralists from excavated sites in a well-documented frontier zone in the eastern Free State, South Africa, reveals varied intensities of interaction. These interactions range from clientship to relative autonomy. Comparison between recent (eighteenth- to early twentieth-century) hunter-gatherer occupations of rock shelters in the Caledon Valley also suggests that a variety of social relationships between hunter-gatherers and farmers, known ethnographically, occurred simultaneously.     

Paleoindian technological provisioning strategies in the northwestern Great Basin

Great Basin populations during the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition (PHT) are often characterized as being mobile and focused on wetlands; however, the factors that influenced where Paleoindians selected residential campsites are poorly understood. Using predictions derived from optimal foraging-based patch choice models and GIS reconstructions of the PHT landscape, some researchers have argued that occupations in smaller wetlands should have been shorter than occupations in larger wetlands but such arguments have rarely been evaluated using empirical data. The PHT lithic record provides an opportunity to evaluate the relationship between wetland size and occupation span by applying Kuhn's (1995) concept of technological provisioning. Kuhn expects more mobile populations to provision individuals and more sedentary populations to provision places and suggests that: (1) a strategy of provisioning individuals should be reflected by a high proportion of more extensively used artifacts made on non-local raw materials; and (2) a strategy of provisioning places should be reflected by a high proportion of less extensively used artifacts made on local raw materials. We apply the technological provisioning concept to lithic assemblages from two of the Parman localities, extensive PHT sites in the northwestern Great Basin, and compare local and nonlocal artifacts to determine if Paleoindians shifted from provisioning individuals while moving to/from the sites to provisioning the place while occupying them. There is no relationship between artifact transport distance and artifact use intensity. We interpret these findings as evidence that Paleoindians did not alter their provisioning strategies while occupying the Parman localities, likely because occupations were brief within a small wetland poorly-suited to support groups for long periods.     

Shepherds,cowherds and site function on middle Neolithic sites of the Rhône valley: An archaeozoological approach to the organization of territories and societies

Our understanding of the organization of the territories and the Neolithic societies of the north-western Mediterranean region remains incomplete because of the preference long accorded to caves and rock shelters in archaeological research, and because these sites are closely linked to one taxon, the sheep and goats. In the middle valley of the Rhône, comparison of the pastoral practices specific to cattle and to sheep and goats, in relation to cave as well as open-air occupations, enables definition of the relations that existed between the sites during the late phase of the Chassean culture. It is demonstrated that the different stages of the annual pastoral cycle were distributed among several sites, whether for sheep and goats or for cattle, and that the large open-air sites had distinct functions according to the species exploited. The discovery of a specialization of places and of practices (general for the caves, partial for the large open-air sites) then leads us to propose the existence of a specialization of individuals or at least small groups (shepherds and cattle herdsmen) as of the beginning of the fourth millennium BC in this region. These elements suggest that population movements of different kinds occurred in the Chassean period in the middle Rhône Valley.     

Paleoindian subsistence strategies and late Pleistocene paleoenvironments in the northeastern and southwestern United States: a tooth wear analysis

Paleoindians of North America entered a continent undergoing rapid climatic and environmental changes. This paper is a preliminary contribution toward obtaining a better picture regarding how climate and environmental change might have impacted the first settlers of North America. The Paleoindian sites we analyzed are, from the oldest to the youngest, Ingleside (Texas), Blackwater Draw Locality No. 1 (New Mexico), Hiscock Site (New York), and Plainview Quarry (Texas). Paleoenvironmental reconstruction involves identifying the dietary traits of ungulate species that might reflect the environmental conditions where they were living, and also where they might have been hunted by Paleoindians. Such an approach is realized through tooth microwear and mesowear analyses. Results indicate that a variety of food resources were available for the ungulates at these sites as well as the likely presence of mosaic environments around these sites which allowed Paleoindians to exploit resources in a large variety of habitats. The application of a method that allows for the estimation of the duration of occupation at archaeological sites reveals that results for Blackwater Draw and Hiscock Site indicate a long-term occupation of probably several months. However, during short events, Paleoindians were most likely hunting herds of horse and bison when these prey were available near the site. Results indicate that Plainview Quarry was likely used only for short-term occupations, with large game hunting focusing on bison. These patterns identified at the archeological sites studied are related to the fact that Paleoindians follow a high-technology forager model and frequently shifted their territory depending on the composition and distribution of the large mammal fauna.     

The formation process of a paleoindian open-air site in Central Brazil: integrating lithic analysis,radiocarbon and luminescence dating

Lithic analysis, radiocarbon dating and luminescence dating are applied to a stratified open-air Paleoindian site in Central Brazil, lending some balance to a published record dominated by rock shelter sites. Most lithics are found in two discrete occupation layers. Lithics found outside these layers are attributed to post-depositional movement of small flakes mainly upwards. Single-grain luminescence dating on quartz grains also suggest post-depositional movement. Both wind and bioturbation are suspected mechanisms. The luminescence analysis does not provide precise depositional dates in this situation but does support such dates suggested by radiocarbon.