A Palaeolithic fishhook made of ivory and the earliest fishhook tradition in Europe

Prehistoric fishhooks have previously been described in northern Europe as being common since the Mesolithic. Here we present a Final Palaeolithic ivory fishhook from the site Wustermark 22 (north-eastern Germany), the raw material of which is about 19,000 years old. Five further fishhooks were discovered in situ at the same site one of which has a calibrated radiocarbon age of about 12,300 years. The tool industries of flint artefacts and bone/antler tools are associated with descendants of the Federmesser-culture and the palynological context indicates a Younger Dryas environment. Wustermark 22 represents the largest collection of Palaeolithic fishhooks so far found at a single European site. A comparison with other sites in Europe, containing Palaeolithic fishhooks suggests that the appearance and development of fishhooks may be associated with a general change in resource availability during the Greenland Interstadial 1 (Bølling/Allerød warming), which is also connected with a change from late Upper Palaeolithic to Final Palaeolithic industries in Northern Central Europe. We conclude that Mesolithic fishhook tradition has its roots in the Final Palaeolithic.     

Wissen in Geschichten. Zur wechselseitigen Erhellung von Literatur,Medien und Wissenschaft

Knowledge in Stories. On the Mutual Lucidation of Literature, Media, and Science. What are science studies for? The article faces this question by arguing, 1. that they can help to improve literary criticism, and 2. that such an improved criticism allows to recognize how knowledge, whether scientific or not, is linked with history and culture respectively. Both aspects are demonstrated by some remarks on Theodor Fontane's most famous novel, Effi Briest, and its allusions to the then newly discovered microbes on the one hand as well as to mediumistic phaenomena on the other hand.     

Acheulean variability and hominin dispersals: a model-bound approach

Understanding the pattern of hominin dispersal is a fundamental component of Palaeolithic archaeology and palaeoanthropology. A widely held assumption is that bifacial handaxe (i.e. Acheulean or ‘Mode 2’) technologies evolved in Africa and dispersed into northern and western Eurasia via subsequent hominin migrations. To date, however, few formal tests of this hypothesis have been presented. Here, we use a combination of morphometrics, cultural transmission theory, and a dispersal model drawn from population genetics in order to test this hypothesis. The iterative founder effect (repeated bottlenecking) model is assumed to be supported if a significant inverse relationship is found between geographic distance from source along an estimated dispersal route and within-assemblage variance. The results of our analyses support the hypothesis that Acheulean technologies evolved in Africa and dispersed with migrating hominin populations into northern and western Eurasia under the assumptions of this iterative founder effect model. Based on our results we suggest that the occurrence of certain Mode 1 technologies such as those east of the Movius Line, and some assemblages assigned to the Clactonian of Britain, plausibly represent instances where effective population sizes in colonising populations dropped below levels where Mode 2 technologies could be maintained.     

Investigation of past archaeological landscapes using remote sensing and GIS: a multi-method case study from Mount Ida,Crete

Spatial analysis in geoarchaeological applications can be improved by implementing a wider set of geoecological parameters, in order to provide more precise results. The aim of the paper is to show how geoscientific ground-truth and techniques can be adopted for detailed archaeological studies using a comprehensive set of environmental variables that might have influenced ancient settlement patterns. The project focuses on spatial patterns of archaeological sites as well as Bronze Age communication paths in Central Crete by applying a multi-method approach (surveying, remote sensing, DEM analysis, least-cost analysis, candidate site detection, predictive modelling, etc.). In contrast to conventional archaeological GIS applications this enhanced strategy offers promising prospects regarding landscape and settlement modelling.