Ancient Biological Invasions and Island Ecosystems: Tracking Translocations of Wild Plants and Animals

Biological invasions are one of the great threats to Earth’s ecosystems and biodiversity in the Anthropocene. However, species introductions and invasions extend deep into the human past, with the translocation of both wild and domestic species around the world. Here, we review the human translocation of wild plants and animals to the world’s islands. We focus on establishing criteria used to differentiate natural from human-assisted dispersals and the differences between non-native and invasive species. Our study demonstrates that, along with a suite of domesticates, ancient people transported numerous wild plants and animals to islands and helped shape ecosystems in ways that have important ramifications for modern conservation, restoration, and management.     

NEARCHOS. Networked Archaeological Open Science: Advances in Archaeology Through Field Analytics and Scientific Community Sharing

The full release and circulation of excavation results often takes decades, thus slowing down progress in archaeology to a degree not in keeping with other scientific fields. The nonconformity of released data for digital processing also requires vast and costly data input and adaptation. Archaeology should face the cognitive challenges posed by digital environments, changing in scope and rhythm. We advocate the adoption of a synergy between recording techniques, field analytics, and a collaborative approach to create a new epistemological perspective, one in which research questions are constantly redefined through real-time, collaborative analysis of data as they are collected and/or searched for in an excavation. Since new questions are defined in science discourse after previous results have been disseminated and discussed within the scientific community, sharing evidence in remote with colleagues, both in the process of field collection and subsequent study, will be a key innovative feature, allowing a complex and real-time distant interaction with the scholarly community and leading to more rapid improvements in research agendas and queries.     

Telepresence-Enabled Maritime Archaeological Exploration in the Deep

Telepresence-enabled exploration of deep sea environments has developed over the past 30 years, providing access to archaeologists, scientists, and the general public to sites otherwise inaccessible due to depth. Pioneered through the inception of the JASON Project in the late 1980 s, telepresence missions have expanded to two dedicated ships of exploration, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer and exploration vessel Nautilus, and has been implemented on a series of opportunistic missions on other vessels. This paper chronicles the history of the use of telepresence for the exploration of shipwrecks in deep water as well as how this capability has allowed the public to engage with such missions. Broadening the scope of who can explore the deep sea, telepresence has also expanded what is observed and documented in the deep, which speaks to humanity’s use of the maritime world and an archaeology of discard through our material disposed of into the deep sea.     

Fish and Fish Products in Late Antique Palestine and Babylonia in Their Social and Geographical Contexts: Archaeology and the Talmudic Literature

This paper looks at the ancient Jewish talmudic literature (4th-7th centuries CE) for information about fish and fish products in the ancient world and compares it with information from classical sources and from archaeology. Analysis of the texts show that information about food, and particularly fish and fish products, can be derived from texts originally written as religious regulations and moral narratives. Talmudic textual evidence, backed up by parallel archaeological finds, documents long-distance transport of preserved fish, including what is identified as Nile perch from Egypt and mackerel from Spain. Parallel papyrological evidence testifies to the import of the parrot wrasse. Graeco-Roman allec, a sauce made of macerated tiny fish, is identified by the Palestinian Talmud with tarit terufah, made of tiny chopped fish, and afitz, cf Greek afye, immature fish, often cooked as such. Remains of allec have been found archaeologically in Israel/Palestine. The Palestinian Talmud identifies tarit[a] with tza?ana, one of a trio of strong-smelling Babylonian fish-dishes eaten by the poor: the others are gildana and harsana. The varied material on these discussed here adds to our knowledge of ancient salted and/or fermented fish-dishes. The identification of tza?ana with 9th-to-10th century ?a?na from Baghdad of the Caliphs and 14th-century Cairo appears very likely. Thus tarit/tza?ana/?a?na appears to have been not very appetising processed fish food for the poor in Roman Palestine, Jewish Babylonia, Baghdad of the Abbasid Caliphs and Mamluk Egypt, and it may be identified with allec. The talmudic literature also discusses reasons for failure of the preservation processes, as well as of potentially lethal effects of insufficient preservation.     

Which Bone to Pick: Creation,Curation, and Dissemination of Online 3D Digital Bioarchaeological Data

A fluorescence of shape-capture technologies at many different scales, including synchrotron, CT, micro/nano-CT, laser scanning, and photogrammetry, has led to a proliferation of digital data in bioarchaeology. The question remains how these new 3D datasets, alongside traditional bioarchaeological data, can be disseminated, and what ethical concerns are raised by trying to bring a sensitive topic into the ‘Open Access’ era. A survey of current resources and policies suggest the need for establishing best-practice standards. This paper outlines a sample of current resources, alongside modes of access and dissemination strategies to develop a picture of online Digital Bioarchaeological Data (DBD) use.     

Standardisation in 3D Geometric Morphometrics: Ethics,Ownership, and Methods

The collection and analysis of 3D digital data is a rapidly growing field in archaeology, anthropology, and forensics. Even though the 3D scanning of human remains in archaeology has been conducted for over 10 years, it is still frequently considered as a new field. Despite this, the availability of 3D scanning equipment and the number of studies employing these methods are increasing rapidly, and it is arguably damaging to the validity of this field to continue to consider these methods new and therefore not subject to the same standardisations as other researches. This paper considers the current issues regarding the lack of standardisation in the methods, ethics, and ownership of 3D digital data with a focus on human remains research. The aim of this paper is to stimulate further research and discussion, allowing this field to develop, improving the quality and value of future research.     

Truth-Telling in the Wake of European Contact: Historical Investigation of Aboriginal Skeletal Remains from Normanton

This study heeds the call for a ‘truth-telling’ of injustices carried out on Aboriginal communities during the colonial acquisition of Australia as stated in the Uluru Statement from the Heart 2017. Here, we discuss the lives of eight Indigenous people buried in Normanton in north-west Queensland (QLD) who died and had their remains collected in the late 1890s as scientific specimens. The remains were later repatriated to the community before being further exposed by erosion in 2015. With the consent and participation of local traditional owners—the Gkuthaarn and Kukatj people—this assessment utilised bioarchaeological, historical and anthropological methodologies to gain a better understanding of Indigenous life and health on the Australian colonial frontier. Gkuthaarn and Kukatj people were engaged throughout the investigation, and statements throughout this piece made by them illustrate how bioarchaeology can inform on past injustices in Australia’s history, bringing them into the public consciousness and aiding the transition to reconciliation through ‘truth-telling’.     

Looking for Ancient Fish Products Through Invisible Biomolecular Residues in the Roman Production Vats from the Atlantic Coast

As organic materials, fish and its derivative products are perishable and break down rapidly and ultimately disappear. Unless they include bones or scales, the only means of identifying them in the archaeological record is through the identification of the chemical constituents that are left behind after decomposition. Fish flesh mainly consists of proteins and lipids. Since these molecules are unstable they degrade irreversibly after death or discard, losing a significant part of the original chemical elements, consequently hampering or complicating their identification. In this paper, two main types of fish products are considered: raw, salted or cooked fish, and fermented fish-based products. In the first case, the degradation of the native markers results from chemical post-depositional degradation, and eventually thermal degradation during cooking. In the second case, the biochemical processes involve bacteria that cause the rapid decomposition of fish as part of the process of forming fish sauces, such as Roman garum. To detect and identify fish products we combined experimental archaeology and organic analyses. The identification of the degradation products of cholesterol appeared to provide a strong indicator for detecting the presence of fish sauces. Analysis of samples taken from fish-salting vats located along the Atlantic coast (Marsa, Baelo Claudia, Troia, Kerlaz, and Etel) with samples taken from actual experimental garum sauces made from mackerel (Scomber scombrus), sardines (Sardina pilchardus), and/or oysters (Ostreidae), revealed the presence of common markers of fermented fish-based products. The application of the analytical methodology described here to structures involved in ancient fish sauce manufacture and storage has enabled investigation of the production of the sauces by searching directly for the fish markers on the inner sides of the containers. For the first time the addition of molluscs and fruits in the fish product has been identified as part of the process of manufacturing garum.     

Partial mummification and extraordinary context observed in perinate burials: a complex osteoarcheological study applying ICP-AES, μXRF,and macromorphological methods

Very small, green colored, partially mummified remains of a perinate individual were found buried in a ceramic pot with a copper coin in the Late Medieval cemetery of Nyárl?rinc-Hangár út (“Nyárl?rinc 3. lel?hely”) in southern Hungary. The remains must date back to the second half of the nineteenth century AD. In this paper; we present data gathered in a series of multidisciplinary investigations targeted to the partially mummified remains (ind. no. 14426) and two other non-mummified perinates (ind. no. 10662 and no. 14336) possibly buried under similar circumstances in the cemetery. Besides standard macromorphological and stereomicroscopic examinations, we compared Cu concentrations in the remains using ICP-AES and mapped Cu concentration changes using μXRF. The partially mummified perinate showed the highest Cu concentrations, while the individual buried without a possible Cu source showed the lowest. Body parts in the closer proximity of the copper coins always showed higher concentration. The mummified individual showed 497 times higher Cu values than average, and even the perinate buried without copper coin measured higher than the otherwise normal Cu content of the soil. Extremely high Cu values may be related to the corrosion of the coins included in the burials. Mummification must have been facilitated by copper deriving from the coins. Uneven Cu concentrations and only partial mummification of one of the individuals refer to the importance of other environmental factors involved in a possible quasi-natural mummification process. However, the Nyárl?rinc perinate burial no. 14426 may be the first solely copper-driven mummification case ever reported, and hopefully, more cases are to appear in the future.