Hiding to eat: the role of carnivores in the early Middle Pleistocene from the TD8 level of Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca,Burgos, Spain)

Damage generated by large and small carnivores is common in many Middle Pleistocene sites. However, identifying the predator that produces the faunal accumulations is often a difficult task. In order to recognize the main type of carnivore that acts on a faunal assemblage, a combination of several characteristics should be taken into account: taxonomic and skeletal element representation, age profiles, carnivore damage (location, frequencies and dimensions of tooth-marks, bone breakage and digested bones), degree of fragmentation and frequencies of coprolites. But, adding environmental characteristics and the ethology of non-human predators/scavengers is also important. All these aspects are applied to the faunal assemblage from the TD8 level of the Gran Dolina site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). Paleomagnetic data combined with ESR and U-series place the TD8 level at the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, specifically circa 700 kyr ago. The TD8 level contains a large faunal accumulation primarily composed of ungulate skeletal elements, and to a lesser extent carnivore remains. This assemblage is characterized by an overrepresentation of fallow deer (Dama vallonetensis), a skeletal profile biased towards cranial remains and limb bones, diversity of ages at death, a high proportion of carnivore damage and tooth-marks of large size, and an absence of human activity. According to these data, the accumulation seems to have been produced primarily by large carnivores, possibly hyenas. This observation does not rule out the possible occasional activity by other carnivores. Nevertheless, the characteristics of the TD8 assemblage do not correlate entirely with those traditionally used to define carnivore dens. In TD8, there are (1) no immature carnivore remains (remains of just one young Mosbach wolf); (2) scarce traces related to the end stages of consumption and some anatomical connexions; (3) few coprolites; (4) high proportion of adult ungulates and; (5) high quantities of whole bones and epiphyses. From this perspective, the TD8 faunal assemblage seems to correspond to a succession of carnivore occupations that allows the development of a suite of features to identify the activities of several species of predators that may have used the cave in different ways and durations. This study aims to emphasize the importance of these analyzes in order to know the behaviour of different non-human predators/scavengers in the European Middle Pleistocene sites.     

The Palaeo‐Environmental Contexts of Three Possible Phoenician Anchorages in Portugal

The 2002 Joint Expedition of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology and the Centro Nacional de Arqueologia Náutica e Subaquática examined Phoenician maritime involvement in Portugal, combining archaeological, geological and geophysical surveys of former coastal sites—Santa Olaia, Abul and Castro Marim—where previous excavations have uncovered Phoenician remains. Significant geomorphic evolution of bay‐head delta and estuarine settings masks the fact that Phoenician sites were situated at the head of marine embayments or on estuary margins, had easy access to the sea, and immediate access to at least one natural anchorage. All sites exhibited topographical criteria familiar from Phoenician trading‐stations and merchant outposts in the Mediterranean. © 2009 The Authors     

On the question of historical injuries: Transitional justice,anthropology and the vicissitudes of listening (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

In this paper I am concerned with how certain kinds of violence and injuries, located simultaneously in multiple spaces and temporalities, question the prospect of what I call an ‘imagined new future’. I take the proceedings of a recent workshop on transitional justice, held in a university situated in the global North, as an avenue to unpack this idea. Here, I distinguish two instances when testimonies of violence embodied by survivors, may challenge broader assumptions about transitional justice. Firstly, when the prospect of historical injuries emerge, when difference and inequality – despite the promise of new post‐violence nations – are in fact woven together into a longue durée, a longer temporality, that remains beyond the theoretical contours and technical mandates defined by experts in the field. From this perspective, transitions may be experienced by specific communities not as fractures but as relative continuities, for example, of historically rooted political and economic hegemonies. Secondly, when the voice of survivors fracture the theoretical space created by larger discourses of reconciliation. In this case, they may incarnate an unforgiving victim, displaced outside the moral economy of reconciliation that stresses forgiveness and unity over resentment and fragmentation. In the end, the question I would like to pose is how certain forms of violence are rendered unintelligible by mainstream transitional justice discourses.     

To see or to be seen… is that the question? An evaluation of palaeolithic sites’ visual presence and their role in social organization

Visibility is one of the most common features considered when analyzing site location; visual control of a territory is usually considered to be a desirable characteristic for a prehistoric settlement. However, the role that visibility could have played in the perception of sites, as a significant element of palaeolithic landscapes, has been rarely evaluated. Sites can act not only as settlements but as places for population aggregations, social interactions and symbolic activities; in this context, the relevance presence of a site within the landscape could have been an influencing factor in site location preferences. This paper focuses on the visual presence of a set of sites from Late palaeolithic Cantabria (Northern Iberian Peninsula), and evaluates how the way they were perceived could have been related to their role in the social organization of foraging communities.