The Regional History of the Guan River Valley,China: Cultural Periphery,Ecological Diversity,and the Development of Social Complexity before A.D. 220

Regional settlement pattern studies in China have overlooked interregional interaction in the development of social complexity. This study examines settlement patterns, land use practices, sociopolitical structure, and interregional interaction from 4000 b.c. to the early Imperial period (before a.d. 221) in the Guan River valley, China. The Guan valley is located at the inter-montane corridor to three cultural core zones in China. An international collaborative team used regional full-coverage survey to locate 96 sites in 135?km² in the Middle Guan valley, the earliest of which dated to the middle Yangshao period (4000–3500 b.c.). In the late Yangshao period (3500–2900 b.c.), occupation increased rapidly and expanded to the upper reach and tributaries of the river. After an occupational collapse during the Early States period (1900–771 b.c.), the population recovered rapidly and reached a new level of organizational complexity in the Eastern Zhou period (770–221 b.c.). This pattern continued into the Qin-Han period (220 b.c.–a.d. 220), when hamlets increased in number and expanded into hilly areas.     

Palaeoecology and Archaeology of the Village of Uukuniemi,Eastern Finland

Abstract

In the present article, pollen analytical results from Lake Kirkkolampi are presented and compared with results provided by archaeological material. Pollen analysis is connected with the archaeological research project at Papinniemi in Uukuniemi. Papinniemi is one of the numerous Greek Orthodox settlements that existed in Karelia in the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. Archaeological evidence of settlement preceding this period is very scarce, and in this respect Uukuniemi represents a typical area in eastern Finland. There is no archaeological evidence of permanent settlement in Uukuniemi from the Early Metal Period (c. 1800 bc–ad 400), the Middle Iron Age (c. ad 400–800) or from the Late Iron Age (c. ad 800–1300). Pollen analysis demonstrated the onset of cultivation c. cal ad 300. Marked intensification of agricultural activities and cultivation in permanent fields took place around cal ad 800. A shift in land-use practises, including a declining use of fire, is visible at cal ad 1520–1600. The discrepancy between archaeological and palaeoecological records raises several questions, and the problems of Early Metal Period and Iron Age populations, as well as settlement continuity, are discussed.     

A Multi-Method Approach to Reconstructing Occupational History and Activity Areas: A Case Study at the Formative Site of Tlalancaleca,Central Mexico

While surface collection constitutes an important component of field research at the site and regional levels, the association between surface and sub-surface materials needs to be examined through independent lines of evidence. This study employed manual bucket auger probing and soil geochemistry at the Formative site of Tlalancaleca, Central Mexico (800 b.c.–a.d. 250), to evaluate the results of surface collection and to understand the formation process of the anthropogenic landscape. The combined results at one of the largest architectural complexes at Tlalancaleca indicate that it was built during the Late Formative period (500–100 b.c.) and rebuilt during the subsequent Terminal Formative period (100 b.c.–a.d. 250), which is corroborated by radiocarbon dates. Moreover, the results suggest segregated uses of space such as cooking/storage, waste disposal, and craft production areas within the complex. Overall results demonstrate the effectiveness of this multi-method approach for reconstructing occupational history and activity areas.     

Agricultural production in the Central Asian mountains: Tuzusai,Kazakhstan (410–150 b.c.)

Abstract

The site of Tuzusai is located in the Tien Shan Mountains of eastern Kazakhstan; occupation at the site between 410 B.C. and a.d. 150 represents the transition between the Saka and Wusun periods (Saka: 800–200 b.c.; Wusun: 200 b.c.–a.d. 400). Iron Age people of Central Asia are often described simply as mobile pastoralists, yet at Tuzusai, we have evidence that agriculture was practiced along with pastoral transhumance. This multiresource economic system combined pastoralism and hunting with the cultivation of a variety of crops. Our new finding is significant because Tuzusai has the first clear evidence for the presence of agriculture from the Iron Age of northern Central Asia. The diversity of crops grown at Tuzusai required varying labor and time inputs and a well-planned scheduling system.     

Fossil wood of the Mimosoideae from the early Paleocene of Patagonia,Argentina

Brea, M., Zamuner, A.B., Matheos, S.D., Iglesias, A. & Zucol, A.F., December, 2008. Fossil wood of the Mimosoideae from the early Paleocene of Patagonia, Argentina. Alcheringa 32, 427–441. ISSN 0311-5518.

An anatomically preserved mature stem from the Salamanca Formation (early Paleocene) at Palacio de Los Loros, central Patagonia, Argentina, is described and assigned to Paracacioxylon frenguellii sp. nov. The material was preserved by siliceous permineralization and shows features of the secondary xylem typical of subfamily Mimosoideae. This species represents the oldest record of the genus and of the Leguminosae along the western border of Gondwana, and is the world's second oldest record of Leguminosae wood. The species is characterized by ring-porous to semi-ring-porous vessels that are solitary, in multiples of 2–4 and clustered, simple perforation plates, alternate and vestured inter-vessel pitting, homocellular 1–6 seriate rays, tyloses, crystals and diffuse apotracheal, vasicentric paratracheal and confluent axial parenchyma. Paracacioxylon frenguellii has anatomical similarities to Acacia Miller. The presence of Paracacioxylon frenguellii associated with pulvinate leaves suggests that the legumes might have been a component of mesothermal forests developed along the western margin of the Golfo San Jorge Basin during the early Paleocene.     

New Late Permian rugose corals from Pahang,peninsular Malaysia

Aye Ko Aung, Ng Tham Fatt, Kyaw Kyaw Nyein & Myo Htut Zin, 2013. New Late Permian rugose corals from Pahang, peninsular Malaysia. Alcheringa 37, 422–434. ISSN 0311-5518.

Late Permian rugose corals are described from a limestone unit of the Gua Musang Formation at Selborne Estate, Padang Tengku area, Pahang, peninsular Malaysia. These include one genus, Iranophyllum, which is reported for the first time from Malaysia, with two new species Iranophyllum aequabilis and I. pahangense belonging to Waagenophyllidae. A Late Permian age is confirmed by a Paleofusulina–Colaniella–Reichelina foraminiferal fauna co-preserved with the corals.

Aye Ko Aung [akaung.mm@gmail.com], Ng Tham Fatt [thamfatt@gmail.com], Kyaw Kyaw Nyein [konyein@gmail.com], Department of Geology, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Myo Htut Zin [myohtutgreat@googlemail.com], Lab. Services, Pte. Co. Ltd., Singapore. Received 16.10.2012; revised 5.1.2013; accepted 17.1.2012.     

Fixation of the type species of the genus Protoretepora de Koninck, 1878 (Bryozoa,Fenestrata)

Wyse Jackson, P.N., Reid, C.M. & McKinney, F.K., iFirst article, 2011. Fixation of the type species of the genus Protoretepora de Koninck, 1878 (Bryozoa, Fenestrata). Alcheringa, 1–2. ISSN 0311-5518.

The type species of the Palaeozoic bryozoan genus Protoretepora de Koninck, 1878 was originally fixed as Fenestella ampla Lonsdale in Darwin, 1844, but this taxon has been shown to belong to the bryozoan genus Parapolypora Morozova & Lisitsyn, 1996 Morozova, I. P. and Lisitsyn, D. V. 1996. Revision of the genus Polypora. Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal, 1996(4): 38–47. [English translation: Paleontological Journal30(5), 530–541] [Google Scholar]. The original type species designation for Protoretepora de Koninck, 1878 is set aside, and in accordance with Article 70.3 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (4th edition, 1999) the nominal species Protoretepora crockfordae Wyse Jackson, Reid & McKinney, 2011 from the Permian of Tasmania, Australia is herein fixed as the type species.     

The United Nations as the ‘Parliament of Man’

Abstract

Paul Kennedy. The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present, and Future of the United Nations. Toronto, ON: HarperCollins, 2006. Pp. xvii, 361. $36.95 (CDN); Ronald St John Macdonald and Douglas M. Johnston, eds. Towards World Constitutionalism: Issues in the Legal Ordering of the World Community. Leiden: Brill, 2005. Pp. xviii, 968. €235.00; $317.00 (US); S. Neil MacFarlane and Yuen Foong Khong. Human Security and the UN: A Critical History. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006. Pp. xix, 346. $35.00 (US), paper; David M. Malone. The International Struggle over Iraq: Politics in the UN Security Council, 1980–2005. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. xiv, 398. $59.95 (CDN); Michael J. Matheson. Council Unbound: The Growth of UN Decision Making on Conflict and Postconflict Issues after the Gold War. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2006. Pp. xvi, 422. $19.95 (US), paper; Ramesh Thakur. The United Nations, Peace, and Security: From Collective Security to the Responsibility to Protect. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Pp. xvi, 388. $32.99 (US), paper.     

Early Construction of a Maya Sacred Landscape: The Sector Y “E-Group” of Nixtun-Ch’ich’ (Petén,Guatemala)

The southern lowland Maya city of Nixtun-Ch’ich’ exhibits an atypical gridded layout imposed in the Middle Preclassic period (800–400 b.c.). Sector Y, in the monumental core, consists of a two-part sub-structural platform with an “E-Group” quasi-astronomical architectural complex (Platform Y1) and a deep natural depression or fosa, Fosa Y (Platform Y2). Earliest construction began with bedrock leveling, probably around 1100–1000 b.c., followed by late Terminal Early Preclassic and transitional Terminal Early to early Middle Preclassic building, subsequent massive Middle Preclassic rebuilding, and Late Preclassic enlargement. Excavations in Sector Y provide evidence of the early phases of construction of a sacred landscape proposed to have been based on a mythical creation-crocodile’s back. More broadly, this work contributes to studies of early societal complexity and urbanization in the Maya lowlands, in Mesoamerica, and beyond.     

New light on the prehistoric Purrón Dam Complex: Small corporate group collaboration in the Tehuacán Valley,Puebla, México

Abstract

The 2003 and 2004 surveys at the Purrón Dam Complex (PDC) demonstrate the value of resurveying previously studied areas. Additional habitation sites, water management features, a cave with pictographs, and a major canal were discovered, increasing the number of recorded sites from eight to 57. From this survey, the collected ceramics and a synthesis of 12 chronometric dates suggest that water management was initiated in the complex by Early Formative times at ca. 1050–1100 b.c., and that the Purrón Dam was completed by the Middle Formative Period (ca. 650–450 b.c.), when settlements were small and decentralized. This challenges previous interpretations that place the PDC florescence during the Early Classic Period (ca. 150 b.c.–a.d.250), a period with larger aggregated communities displaying social ranking. The results of our survey have implications for understanding the links between political complexity and agricultural intensification, and support recent ethnographic and archaeological research discrediting the argument that increasing social complexity necessarily leads to the construction of large water management systems.     

Multiple Waves of Political Disintegration in the Classic Maya Collapse: New Insights from the Excavation of Group D,Ceibal, Guatemala

In the study of the Classic Maya collapse around the 9th century a.d., scholars tend to emphasize its gradual nature. New data, however, point to multiple episodes of rapid social change that affected wide areas. We investigated these critical moments at Ceibal (Seibal), Guatemala, through intensive excavations in its Group D. This naturally defensible location was used as a primary elite complex, possibly including a royal palace, during the Late Classic period (a.d. 600–810). By refining the chronology, we have identified four episodes of political disruption, including the impact of a military defeat by the Dos Pilas dynasty in a.d. 735, the takeover of Ceibal by an illegitimate ruler in a.d. 771, the ritual destruction of various buildings at the Ceibal dynastic collapse around a.d. 810, and the final abandonment of Ceibal around a.d. 900. These finds provide significant insights into the process of political disintegration in the Maya lowlands.     

Areni-1 Cave,Armenia: A Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age settlement and ritual site in the southern Caucasus

Abstract

The beginning of the Bronze Age in the southern Caucasus has been thought to coincide with the appearance of the Kura Araxes (KA) culture around 3500 cal b.c. KA artifacts are known not only from the southern Caucasus but also from sites in Anatolia, Iran, and the Levant. Recent discoveries from Areni-1 Cave in the Vayots Dzor region of Armenia demonstrate that the origin of the distinctive KA artifact assemblage lies in the Late Chalcolithic of the late 5th to early 4th millennia b.c. The cave contains rich assemblages of desiccated botanical remains that allow the site to be precisely dated and that demonstrate that its inhabitants exploited a wide variety of domesticated and wild plants. It would appear that from 4000 cal b.c. onwards, people used Areni-1 Cave for habitation and for keeping goats, storing plant foods, and ritual purposes; unusual for this time period are ceramic vessels containing the skulls of children.     

Landscapes of Prehistoric Northwestern Sichuan: From Early Agriculture to Pastoralist Lifestyles

We describe a preliminary survey of a relatively unknown part of the eastern Himalayas: northwestern Sichuan. This survey revealed that three phases of occupation are represented across the landscape. Large settlements with dense remains characterize the landscape during the Neolithic (3400–2000 cal b.c.). Following a hiatus in occupation, stone-cist graves characterize the region during the Bronze Age (1450–800 cal b.c.). The lack of settlement remains from this period indicates that mobile pastoralism increased in importance. Finally, between a.d. 500 and 1500, dense scatters of ceramics over a wide altitudinal range correspond to a fragmentation in Tibetan history, when local warlords established themselves in the region. While some changes in occupation and subsistence practices are linked to climate change, others relate to changes in political power. We argue that further survey work is needed to expand our understanding of past land use and the development of pastoralist practices.     

A new Late Silurian plant with complex branching from Xinjiang,China

Wang Yi, Fu Qiang, Xu Honghe, & Hao Shougang, June, 2007. A new Late Silurian plant with complex branching from Xinjiang, China. Alcheringa 31, 111-120. ISSN 0311-5518.

A new fossil plant is described from the middle part of the Wutubulake Formation (late Pridoli) of Xinjiang, China. This plant demonstrates at least two orders of branching. The first-order axis has pseudomonopodial branching with alternately attached second-order axes. Fertile units are alternately inserted along the second-order axis, and consist of a branching system and two sporangia at each tip. Sporangia are narrowly obovate with rounded apex and tapering base. This plant is characterized by more complex branching than other Silurian and Early Devonian plants, and is named Wutubulaka multidichotoma gen. et sp. nov., and placed under open higher-order nomenclature.     

A new Late Permian brachiopod fauna from Tanggula,Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its palaeogeographical implications

Weihong He, Jianjun Bu, Zhijun Niu & Yang Zhang, June, 2009. A new Late Permian brachiopod fauna from Tanggula, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its palaeogeographical implications. Alcheringa 33, 113–132. ISSN 0311-5518.

A brachiopod fauna described from the Late Permian of the Gongri and Lizai villages, northwest of the Qoima Co Lake, Tanggula area, southern Qinghai, northwest China, includes ten species in nine genera. This fauna from the (Qiangtang Block) has a strong affinity to coeval faunas of South China, sharing 74% of its species. In addition, the Late Permian Tanggula brachiopod assemblages also demonstrate a clear link with the Middle Permian brachiopod faunas of neighbouring microcontinents including the Indochina block (Malaysia and Cambodia) and the Shan-Thai block (Thailand), as suggested by the presence of Caricula sp. cf. C. salebrosa, Transennatia termierorum and Strophalosiina. This phenomenon indicates that there were relatively narrow seaways between these microcontinents to enable ready interchange of brachiopods during the Permian, and that brachiopods tended to retreat towards the palaeoequatorial region throughout the period.     

Late Prehistoric High-Altitude Hunter-Gatherer Residential Occupations in the Argentine Southern Andes

Test excavations were conducted at Risco de los Indios (RDLI), a site at 2480 masl with 29 residential features and a well-developed midden containing abundant floral, faunal, lithic, and ceramic materials. Analyses indicate the site was intensively used ca. 500 cal b.p. as a residential base for groups focused on hunting guanaco, supplemented by locally-available wild flora and fauna as well as domestic beans transported from the lowlands. Ceramic and obsidian artifacts indicate these groups were highly mobile and in contact with groups on the eastern and western margins of the Andes. These patterns compare favorably to those seen in the region’s other high altitude villages. It appears that the development of these patterns began with population increase and economic intensification in the lowlands ca. 2000 cal b.p. and that the move to slightly lower elevation settings like RDLI may have been conditioned by the onset of the Little Ice Age.     

The mandible and dentition of the Early Cretaceous monotreme Teinolophos trusleri

Rich, T.H., Hopson, J.A., Gill, P.G., Trusler, P., Rogers-Davidson, S., Morton, S., Cifelli, R.L., Pickering, D., Kool, L., Siu, K., Burgmann, F.A., Senden, T., Evans, A.R., Wagstaff, B.E., Seegets-Villiers, D., Corfe, I.J., Flannery, T.F., Walker, K., Musser, A.M., Archer, M., Pian, R. & Vickers-Rich, P., June 2016. The mandible and dentition of the Early Cretaceous monotreme Teinolophos trusleri. Alcheringa 40, xx–xx. ISSN 0311-5518.

The monotreme Teinolophos trusleri Rich, Vickers-Rich, Constantine, Flannery, Kool & van Klaveren, 1999 Rich, T.H., Vickers-Rich, P., Constantine, A., Flannery, T.F., Kool, L. & van Klaveren, N., 1999. Early Cretaceous mammals from Flat Rocks, Victoria, Australia. Records of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery 106, 1–34. [Google Scholar] from the Early Cretaceous of Australia is redescribed and reinterpreted here in light of additional specimens of that species and compared with the exquisitely preserved Early Cretaceous mammals from Liaoning Province, China. Together, this material indicates that although T. trusleri lacked a rod of postdentary bones contacting the dentary, as occurs in non-mammalian cynodonts and basal mammaliaforms, it did not share the condition present in all living mammals, including monotremes, of having the three auditory ossicles, which directly connect the tympanic membrane to the fenestra ovalis, being freely suspended within the middle ear cavity. Rather, T. trusleri appears to have had an intermediate condition, present in some Early Cretaceous mammals from Liaoning, in which the postdentary bones cum ear ossicles retained a connection to a persisting Meckel’s cartilage although not to the dentary. Teinolophos thus indicates that the condition of freely suspended auditory ossicles was acquired independently in monotremes and therian mammals. Much of the anterior region of the lower jaw of Teinolophos is now known, along with an isolated upper ultimate premolar. The previously unknown anterior region of the jaw is elongated and delicate as in extant monotremes, but differs in having at least seven antemolar teeth, which are separated by distinct diastemata. The dental formula of the lower jaw of Teinolophos trusleri as now known is i2 c1 p4 m5. Both the deep lower jaw and the long-rooted upper premolar indicate that Teinolophos, unlike undoubted ornithorhynchids (including the extinct Obdurodon), lacked a bill.

Thomas H. Rich [trich@museum.vic.gov.au], Sally Rogers-Davidson [srogers@museum.vic.gov.au], David Pickering [dpick@museum.vic.gov.au], Timothy F. Flannery [tim.flannery@textpublishing.com.au], Ken Walker [kwalker@museum.vic.gov.au], Museum Victoria, PO Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia; James A. Hopson [jhopson@uchicago.edu], Department of Organismal Biology & Anatomy, University of Chicago,1025 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Pamela G. Gill [pam.gill@bristol.ac.uk], School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, U.K. and Earth Science Department, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK; Peter Trusler [peter@petertrusler.com.au], Lesley Kool [koollesley@gmail.com], Doris Seegets-Villiers [doris.seegets-villiers@monash.edu], Patricia Vickers-Rich [pat.rich@monash.edu], School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia; Steve Morton [steve.morton@monash.edu], Karen Siu [karen.siu@monash.edu], School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia; Richard L. Cifelli [rlc@ou.edu] Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73072, USA; Flame A. Burgmann [flame.burgmann@monash.edu], Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy, 10 Innovation Walk, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia; Tim Senden [Tim.Senden@anu.edu.au], Department of Applied Mathematics, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia; Alistair R. Evans [alistair.evans@monash.edu], School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia; Barbara E. Wagstaff [wagstaff@unimelb.edu.au], School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia; Ian J. Corfe [ian.corfe@helsinki.fi], Institute of Biotechnology, Viikinkaari 9, 00014, University of Helsinki, Finland; Anne M. Musser [anne.musser@austmus.gov.au], Australian Museum, 1 College Street, Sydney NSW 2010 Australia; Michael Archer [m.archer@unsw.edu.au], School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Rebecca Pian [rpian@amnh.org], Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, USA. Received 7.4.2016; accepted 14.4.2016.     

Middle Cambrian to Lower Ordovician faunas from the Chingiz Mountain Range,central Kazakhstan

Tolmacheva, T.JU., Degtyarev, K.E., Samuelsson, J. & Holmer, L.E., December, 2008. Middle Cambrian to Lower Ordovician faunas from the Chingiz Mountain Range, central Kazakhstan. Alcheringa 32, 443–463. ISSN 0311-5518.

The middle Cambrian to Lower Ordovician back-arc sedimentary succession studied in the Kol'denen River and in the Zerbkyzyl Mountains of the central Chingiz Mountain Range is composed predominantly of siltstones, sandstones and volcaniclastic rocks with rare beds of micritic carbonates, black shales and cherts. Fossil assemblages including conodonts, lingulate brachiopods, arthropods, sponges and probable Tasmanites cysts were recorded both from the carbonate and chert beds showing that richly diverse marine environments existed directly adjacent to the volcanic arcs. The Kol'denen River localities contain a diverse upper Cambrian paraconodont assemblage of the open-sea affinity. The representatives of Rossodus, Cordylodus, Drepanodus and Variabiloconus, having an almost pandemic distribution and characteristic of basinal facies, dominate the Lower Ordovician conodont fauna. The Cambrian–Ordovician boundary transition is characterized by chert production that was more likely caused by a local productivity increase than by general changes in palaeooceanographic and palaeogeographical conditions.     

A new species of Aboilus (Insecta,Orthoptera) from the Jurassic Daohugou beds of China,and discussion of forewing coloration in Aboilus

Wang, H., Li, S., Zhang, Q., Fang, Y., Wang, B. & Zhang, H., 13.02.2015. A new species of Aboilus (Insecta, Orthoptera) from the Jurassic Daohugou beds of China, and discussion of forewing coloration in Aboilus. Alcheringa 39, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

He Wang* [wanghe0701@163.com], Sha Li* [lisha.paleo@gmail.com], Qi Zhang* [zhqi1105@126.com], Yan Fang [yanfang@nigpas.ac.cn], Bo Wang? [bowang@nigpas.ac.cn] and Haichun Zhang [hczhang@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China.*Also affiliated with University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China. ?Also affiliated with Steinmann Institute, University of Bonn, Bonn 53115, Germany.

A new species of Aboilinae (Orthoptera: Prophalangopsidae), Aboilus perbellus, is described and illustrated based on three well-preserved forewings recovered from the Middle–Upper Jurassic Daohugou beds of Inner Mongolia, China. The new species differs from all congeneric forms in its special forewing coloration and features of its wing venation. To date, three types of forewing coloration have been found among different species of Aboilus at Daohugou, suggesting that these taxa inhabited different ecotopes.