An Alternative Way Towards Food Production: The Perspective from the Libyan Sahara

Food production originated in various ways in different parts of the world. Plant domestication with the adoption of agriculture has been successful in some areas, but not in others, where animal domestication with nomadic pastoralism proved to be more effective. Likewise, the preceding phases of pre-adaptation and development of a broad spectrum of wild resource exploitation followed different pathways, according to the locally available resources, climatic and geographic conditions, and social organizations. Northern Africa greatly contributed to the understanding of the origin of food production under preconditions that differed from those in the Fertile Crescent. Apart from a narrow strip along the Nile valley, northern African lands are arid and scarcely productive for agriculture. Nevertheless, early studies interpreted northern African archaeological records of the Early and Middle Holocene according to the traditional north-western Mediterranean and Near Eastern frames of reference. Consequently, terms such as Epipalaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic were uncritically applied to northern African contexts. This paper compares and discusses the evidence for food production in the Near East and northern Africa, considering the question of introduction or local breeds of domesticated animals in the Maghreb and the Sahara. It then reviews the relevant data for long-held diffusionist models of pastoralism into Africa to provide a different perspective and the proper means of interpretation of the northern African archaeological records. Finally, it examines some recent findings from the Tadrart Acacus, in the Libyan Sahara, which contribute to clarification of distinctive African pathways and propose an alternative model for the beginnings of food production.     

Sedentism and economic change in the Balkan Neolithic

The effects of sedentism on economic behavior, with special reference to the activities involved in the exploitation of ceramic and lithic resources, are discussed. The context of the study is the late Neolithic of Southeast Europe. It is argued that the widespread establishment of sedentary communities in the Balkans was followed by changes in the production of pottery and stone tools, entailing the routine investment of increasing amounts of labor in most phases of production, increased complexity in the organization of production, and a more selective approach to resource exploitation. Ceramic and lithic production form an important part of the nonsubsistence side of the Neolithic economy, and an understanding of changes in this sphere of activity is crucial to a comprehension of the wider effects of sedentism on economic behavior.     

Ford revisited: A critical review of the chronology and relationships of the earliest ceramic complexes in the New World, 6000-1500 B.C.

In 1969, Ford offered a comprehensive model for the diffusion of ceramic production and Formative lifeways in the New World. Although criticized as simplistic, it was echoed by other unitary models, such as Lathrap's spread of Tropical Forest culture outward from a lowland South American hearth. Radiocarbon dates suggest that the earliest American pottery appears in the Amazon basin as early as 6000 B.C. However, there is little support for an ex Amazonas lux spread of pottery technology. Diffusionary models predict early complexes will resemble one another at first and then diverge over time, but comparative analysis reveals substantial variability even at the earliest time level. Heterogeneity among the earliest complexes indicates several likely hearths for the independent evolution of ceramic production, including (1) lowland Brazil, (2) northern Colombia, (3) coastal Ecuador, (4) coastal Peru, (5) central Panama, (6) southern Mesoamerica, (7) the southeastern United States, and (8) the central United States.     

Increased Sedentism in the Central Oases of the Egyptian Western Desert in the Early to Mid-Holocene: Evidence from the Peripheries

Two locations adjacent to the great central oases of the Egyptian Western Desert experienced an unusual period of sedentism in the early to mid-Holocene. Around the Southeast Basin near Dakhleh Oasis and in the Wadi el-Midauwara above Kharga, areas sharing close cultural ties, groups of slab structure sites attest to increased sedentism spanning 2,500 years. Kharga seems to have been settled fairly continuously through the two and a half millennia, but little is known of subsistence practices in this location. Dakhleh experienced two episodes of increased sedentism. Early Holocene Masara groups occupied a well-watered location within a generally dry desert. In the wetter mid-Holocene, Bashendi settlers in large stone-built sites hunted, collected wild cereals, and may have kept herds. As the desert dried after 5300 BC, the settlers switched to a life of mobile forager-herders.

Reassessing the Emergence of Village Life in the Near East

This article reassesses the timing, context, and impetus for the onset of sedentary, complex hunter-gatherers, food production, and village life in the Near East during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Drawing on recent paleoclimatic and archaeological results, I argue that sedentism and then village life were rapid rather than gradual events that occurred during optimal climatic conditions and took place in resource-rich settings. These two social milestones included fundamental changes in economic strategies, social interaction, and ideology. Only by understanding the interplay between preexisting social institutions and human agency within communities prior to and during these periods of major social change will we be able to understand how and why food production began.     

The Monumental Cemeteries of Northern Pictland

THE EMERGENCE OF FORMAL CEMETERIES is one of the most significant transformations in the landscapes of 1st millennium ad Scotland. In eastern and northern Scotland, in the lands of the Picts, square and circular burial monuments were constructed to commemorate a small proportion of the population — perhaps a newly emerging elite in the post-Roman centuries. This paper presents the results of a project that has consolidated and reviewed the evidence for monumental cemeteries of the northern Picts from Aberdeenshire to Inverness-shire, transcribing the aerial evidence of many sites for the first time. In addition, the landscape location of the cemeteries is assessed, along with their relation to Pictish symbol stones, fortified sites and settlement landscapes of the 1st millennium ad. Two particular elements of the burial architecture of northern Pictland are highlighted — barrow enlargement, and the linking of barrows through the sharing of barrow/cairn ditches. Both of these practices are suggested here to be implicated in the creation of genealogies of the living and the dead during an important transitional period in northern Europe when hereditary aristocracies became more prominent.     

Refining the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization</Emphasis>: How Plant Fiber Technology Drove Social Complexity During the Preceramic Period

Moseley’s (1975) Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization hypothesis challenges, in one of humanity’s few pristine hearths of civilization, the axiom that agriculture is necessary for the rise of complex societies. We revisit that hypothesis by setting new findings from La Yerba II (7571–6674 Cal bp) and III (6485–5893 Cal bp), Río Ica estuary, alongside the wider archaeological record for the end of the Middle Preceramic Period on the Peruvian coast. The La Yerba record evinces increasing population, sedentism, and “Broad Spectrum Revolution” features, including early horticulture of Phaseolus and Canavalia beans. Yet unlike further north, these changes failed to presage the florescence of monumental civilization during the subsequent Late Preceramic Period. Instead, the south coast saw a profound “archaeological silence.” These contrasting trajectories had little to do with any relative differences in marine resources, but rather to restrictions on the terrestrial resources that determined a society’s capacity to intensify exploitation of those marine resources. We explain this apparent miscarriage of the Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization (MFAC) hypothesis on the south coast of Peru by proposing more explicit links than hitherto, between the detailed technological aspects of marine exploitation using plant fibers to make fishing nets and the emergence of social complexity on the coast of Peru. Rather than because of any significant advantages in quality, it was the potential for increased quantities of production, inherent in the shift from gathered wild Asclepias bast fibers to cultivated cotton, that inadvertently precipitated revolutionary social change. Thereby refined, the MFAC hypothesis duly emerges more persuasive than ever.     

Current archaeological research in the Middle Atlantic region of the eastern united states

A major theme of current archaeological research in the Middle Atlantic region of Eastern North America is the recognition of cultural variability across space and through time. The most significant culture change experienced during the entire time frame of regional prehistory occurred ca. 5000 B.P., when there were major changes in regional environments. Before 5000 B.P., adaptations were characterized by small groups of mobile hunters and gatherers. After 5000 B.P., there were continued growth in regional populations and increases in sedentism, intensive use of a limited range of food resources, social group size, and social complexity.     

On Neolithic Origins in Western Georgia

The emergence and distribution of a production economy in western Georgia remains a contentious issue. To date, no Neolithic sites have provided evidence of sedentism or animal domestication. This conclusion is upheld by findings of new excavations carried out at a number of sites – Anaseuli I, Gurianta, Urta, Kobuleti, Odishi, and Paluri attributed to the Neolithic.     

Household Incomes in Central Asia: The Case of Post-Soviet Kazakhstan

Two European geographers present the findings of a sizeable survey (n = 7,515) providing a detailed geographical analysis of household incomes and reliance on personal subsidiary garden plots across Kazakhstan. The authors focus on assessing the extent to which Kazakhstan's rising GDP during the post-Soviet period has coincided with an increase in the general population's personal income and ability to secure adequate food supplies for personal consumption. The fine geographical scale of analysis of the survey data (significantly less coarse than oblast-level data) enabled them to identify regions characterized by "trickle-down" income, largely centered on the country's two main urban centers and areas of resource exploitation. The patterns revealed in the paper have relevance to the debate concerning the uneven distribution of benefits from resource exploitation (notably oil and gas) to Kazakhstan's population. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D100, D310, I300, Q120, R290. 2 figures, 6 tables, 51 references.     

Low-Level Food Production

Societies with low-level food production economies occupy the vast and diverse middle ground between hunting–fishing–foraging and agriculture. Efforts by Ford, Harris, Rindos, Zvelebil, and others to characterize this in-between territory are discussed, and a new conceptual framework is proposed. Domestication, the central landmark of this middle ground, is situated well away from the boundaries with hunting–gathering and agriculture, and separates low-level food production economies into two broad categories. Key issues and questions concerning societies with low-level food production, both with and without domesticates, are discussed. Hunter–gatherer and agriculture boundary zones on either side of the middle ground are considered, as are the developmental pathways that traverse them.     

The Circulation,Distribution and Consumption of Marine Products in Byzantium: Some Considerations

Marine exploitation in Byzantium had developed to become an industry by the early 10th century, but the systematic study of the various pieces of information scattered through a range of sources has only just begun. Despite the piecemeal nature of the evidence, it has been possible to sketch out a picture of the organised and methodical exploitation of the empire’s marine resources through large and expensive investments, such as in epochai and vivaria, which facilitated an uninterrupted supply of marine products to the cities. It is the development of these features that merits the use of the term “industry”. Byzantium sustained elaborate methods for supplying food to its employees which was provided either during the exercise of their duties, as part of their reward, as a mark of their privileged status, or even based on legitimate legal claims. Large groups of people benefited from the work of those involved in primary production (fishermen, epochai/vivaria owners and lease holders), without necessarily having contributed to the initial investments or expenses. By clarifying these distribution methods, it is evident that the circulation and consumption of marine products in Byzantium was larger than previously thought, and middle and lower class citizens actually did participate and have a share in it. Marine product consumption was not simply restricted by the producer-buyer or offer-demand relationship, it involved social parameters that are not immediately and easily recognisable because of the fragmentary nature of the available information.     

Late Pleistocene Technology at Rose Cottage Cave: A Search for Modern Behavior in an MSA Context

Recent excavations at Rose Cottage Cave, located in the Free State, South Africa, have revealed both a transitional assemblage, dated to ca. 20,000 bp, and a final Middle Stone Age (MSA) assemblage, dated to ca. 28,000 bp. Preliminary analysis of these assemblages was undertaken to determine if the current European model of a cultural revolution for the emergence of the Upper Palaeolithic can be applied to the southern African evidence. Examination of these assemblages revealed that differences occurred between the transition in Europe and that in southern Africa in both the chronology of the transition and the degree to which this complete cultural package is linked to the emergence of Late Stone Age (LSA) technology. The methods of lithic production, the chronology of the MSA/LSA transition, and the associated behavioral characteristics were examined and results indicated that the technological change which occurred during the MSA/LSA transition was not a dramatic innovation in technology but, rather, a shift in the emphasis of production from a level of technology already in place and demonstrate a level of continuity between the MSA and the LSA. As a gradual occurrence, the MSA/LSA transition does not seem to fit the time frame for the European Upper Palaeolithic; it both occurs at a later period and takes longer to transpire. In addition, the origins of symbolic use of lithics appear to lie within the MSA, indicating that a more complex set of behavioral adaptation was occurring in the late Pleistocene in southern Africa, and that the MSA/LSA transition in this region does not adequately conform to the model of a revolutionary shift in behavior and technology that is proposed for the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic transition in Europe     

Diatom-inferred salinity changes in relation to Holocene sea-level fluctuations in estuarine environments of Argentina

Espinosa, M.A., Hassan, G.S. & Isla, F.I., September 2012. Diatom-inferred salinity changes in relation to Holocene sea-level fluctuations in estuarine environments of Argentina. Alcheringa 36, 377–391. ISSN 0311-5518.

The analysis of diatoms from three sedimentary sequences in the Quequén Grande River basin (Buenos Aires province, Argentina) has allowed the reconstruction of local and regional palaeosalinity changes in relation to Holocene sea level fluctuations. An established diatom-based salinity transfer function is used in combination with autecological methods to reveal a maximum sea level between ca 7000 and 6000 ¹⁴C years BP. This marine influence was recorded in deposits exposed 2 km and 12 km upstream, but not 32 km from the mouth. The fossil diatom assemblages are characteristic of an estuarine lagoon with maximum inferred salinities of 15‰. When the Holocene transgression began to flood the former valley (ca 7000 ¹⁴C years BP), brackish lagoons evolved into estuarine settings in the lower valley, but shallow freshwater ponds with salinities <4‰ persisted at 32 km from the mouth.     

Technological organization and sedentism in the Epipalaeolithic of Dakhleh Oasis,Egypt

At Dakhleh Oasis in south-central Egypt, a group of Epipalaeolithic or Masara sites featuring stone-built structures suggests a degree of sedentism that was unusual for the Eastern Sahara in early Holocene times. The paper investigates this apparent increased sedentism by focusing on the organization of lithic technology within the three Masara units defined in the oasis, including that with which the stone structures are associated. Information on three aspects of technological organization — the acquisition of raw material, core reduction sequences, and the portability of the resulting toolkits — when combined with evidence on other artifact categories and on site features and locations, points to a dramatic dichotomy within the Masara between small, highly mobile groups that ranged far beyond the oasis (Masara A), and a more sedentary element (Masara C), consisting of groups confined for at least part of the year to a particularly favoured locale in south-eastern Dakhleh.

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Résumé A l'oasis de Dakhleh, en Egypte Sud-Centrale, un groupe de sites Epipaléolithiques ou Masara a livré des structures en pierre qui suggèrent un degré de sédentarisation peu courant pour l'Est du Sahara au début de l'Holocène. Cet article étudie l'accroissement apparent de la sédentarisation en se concentrant sur l'organisation de la technologie lithique au sein des trois unités Masara définies dans l'oasis, y compris celle associée aux cercles de pierre. L'acquisition de la matière première, les séquences de réduction des nucleus, et le transport des outils qui en résultent sont des informations sur trois aspects de l'organisation technologique qui une fois combinées avec les données obtenues à partir d'autres catégories d'artefacts lithiques, de la configuration et de la situation du site, mettent en évidence une dichotomie très claire au sein du Masara entre des groupes petits et très mobiles qui se déplacaient bien au delà du périmeètre de l'oasis (Masara A) et un elément beaucoup plus sédentaire (Masara C) consistant en des groupes confinés pour au moins une partie de l'année dans un site particulièrement apprécié de la partie sud-est de Dakhleh.

     

Late Stone Age subsistence in the Tilemsi Valley, Mali: Stable isotope analysis of human and animal remains from the site of Karkarichinkat Nord (KN05) and Karkarichinkat Sud (KS05)

The pathways leading to the adoption of cereal cultivation and pastoralism in West Africa are poorly understood. In order to elucidate the transition to food production during the Late Stone Age in Mali’s Tilemsi Valley samples of ancient and modern human and animal remains were selected for carbon and oxygen isotope analysis. Our results indicate the inhabitants of Karkarichinkat Nord (KN05) consumed considerable quantities (85%) of carbon derived from C₄ plants, either directly in the form of C₄ grasses such as wild Panicum sp. and possibly domestic Pennisetum sp. or indirectly through the consumption of C₄ grazers such as Bos sp. and Ovis sp.     

Jews in the Pre-Constitutional Years: The Shiraz Incident of 1905

During the Constitutional years (1906–11) the legal status of the Jews and some other religious minorities improved, even if only to a limited extent. Can one assume that this change in the legal status of the Jews reflected changes in the public's actual treatment toward the Jews in reality during the days leading up to the Constitutional Revolution in 1906? To an extent, the answer is in the affirmative. The present article argues, however, that the real life situation of the Jews in the years leading up to the Constitutional Revolution was still often one of abuse and occasional persecution. To prove this contention, section I of the article presents some such cases. Section II establishes some of the reasons for the attacks on the Jews—not only religious, but also economic and socio-political ones, as well as briefly suggesting certain recurring paradigms surrounding it. Section III looks at one case study from November 1905 in the city of Shiraz. Finally, this preliminary research ends with some concluding remarks.

Be-karestan-e Sane‘ kas cheh danad,

kherad dar kar-e U hayran bemanad.1 ¹Shahin, Shahin-i Turah, ed. M. Khooban (Los Angeles: Ketab, 1999), 280. View all notes     

Rethinking “Resistant Accommodation”: Toward an Archaeology of African-American Lives in Southern New England, 1638–1800

Scholarship concerning the lives of enslaved African Americans in southern New England has shifted rapidly from outdated models of acculturation to conflict-driven models of domination and resistance. With the assumption of conflict as the outcome of all power relations, both economic production and historical contextuality have been overlooked, with slavery systems in New England simply equated with other regions of the Atlantic world, rather than compared and contrasted. This essay reconsiders contests over power in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New England. Drawing on the work of Greene (1966), Piersen (1988), and others, I argue that the system of slavery in the region may represent an anomalous case in terms of the means of control or the means of resistance. By examining demographic patterns, economic production, and agricultural landscapes in Rhode Island's East Bay, I argue that there may be more to be learned from William D. Piersen's (1988, p. 143) concept of resistant accommodation as a middle ground between the two extremes of the theoretical spectrum. The essay concludes with suggestions for further research on the archaeology of African-American lives in the region.     

Evolutionary morphological changes in the new genus Duoforisa: implication for classification and habitat of the unilocular Foraminifera

Qianyu Li & Brian Mcgowran, 1994:03:28. Evolutionary morphological changes in the new genus Duoforisa: implication for classification and habit of the unilocular Foraminifera. Alcheringa 18, 121–134. ISSN 0311-5518.

Unlike other unilocular foraminifera, the new genus Duoforisa from the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene possesses a kidney-shaped test with two apertures on its distal ends. It contains two distinct and successional species, both new, and differentiated by their apertural details. In Duoforisa rima the apertures are slit-like, and become radial in the descendant D. diducta. Intermediate forms have transitional apertural configurations between the slit type and radial type, accompanied also by a change of the test outline from subtriangular to compactly U-shaped. The evolution of the lineage occurred during a period of enhanced upwelling in the Early Miocene and it was terminated just before the global warming at the Early-Middle Miocene boundary. This example suggests evolution of the unilocular foraminifera through successional morphological changes in test shape and in the aperture. Unilocular taxa have tended to flourish or speciate in cool or upwelling environments. Their contraction in the latest Early Miocene to early Middle Miocene was probably due to global warming and well oxygenated conditions which were widespread in the neritic domains of southern Australia.     

From early humans to farmers and herders—Recent progress on key transitions in Southwest Asia

Archaeologists conducting research on the Pleistocene and early Holocene prehistory of Southwest Asia have made a formidable series of new discoveries and fresh insights since 1987. This article examines recent progress and shortcomings on a series of diachronic research topics, including the transition to modern humans, the development of late Pleistocene regionalism and territoriality, the advent of sedentism near the end of the Pleistocene, the origins of food production, and the initial ascendance of social complexity.