Measuring the Complexity of Past Social Systems: a Task Analysis Approach to the Study of Late Prehistoric Monumentality in Iberia

In this paper, we explore the heuristic potential of a set of ideas about the structural and functional complexity of systems, proposed in the 1990s by theoretical biologist Daniel McShea. In particular, we focus on the structural aspects of the complexity exhibited by social systems organized into low- and intermediate-level functional units (i.e., groups and teams). To address this subject, we describe a methodology suited for measuring the complexity in the organization of work in such systems, which is primarily based on hierarchical task analysis. With this methodology, we approach a concrete case study: the construction of megalithic monuments in late prehistoric Iberia (ca. 3800–1800 BC). On the basis of the analysis of the three best documented, most structurally, and functionally complex monuments built within each of the three periods under study (Late Neolithic, Copper Age, and Early Bronze Age), we found that there was a trend towards less complexity in work organization related to monument building from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. We discuss the importance of these results in light of the existing models of social complexity in European Later Prehistory, concluding that a more balanced view of social processes would be obtained if we look at complexity as a property of every different social system integrated into the whole society, and not as an exclusive property of the latter.

     

AMS C dating of early human occupation of southern South America

The time of appearance of a persistent and demographically-viable hunter-gatherer population in late Pleistocene southern South America must be determined by evaluating evidence from as large as possible a sample of candidate archaeological sites in the region. We co-ordinated the AMS dating of multiple bone and charcoal samples from previously-excavated strata at the following sites: Arroyo Seco 2, Paso Otero 5, Piedra Museo, and Cueva Tres Tetas (all in Argentina), and Cueva del Lago Sofia 1 and Tres Arroyos (both in Chile). With one possible exception, we did not obtain new results to confirm earlier observations of pre-Clovis-age cultural activity at any of the sites considered in this study. The possible exception, Arroyo Seco 2, is considered in detail elsewhere [Politis G., Gutierrez M.A., Scabuzzo, C. (Eds), in press. Estado actual de las Investigaciones en el sitio 2 de Arroyo Seco (región pampeana, Argentina). Serie Monográfica INCUAPA 5. Olavarría]. However, our results for the samples which were the most preferred indicators of cultural events (hearth charcoal and cut-marked bone) confirm that people were in the southern cone of South America at or soon after 11,000 BP (13,000 cal BP). Considered alongside recent age estimates for the Clovis culture in North America, these results imply the contemporaneous emergence of a consistent and archaeologically-robust human occupation signal at widely-separated locations across the Western Hemisphere. Such findings suggest that Palaeoindian demic expansion may have involved more than one terminal Pleistocene dispersal episode.     

Palaeoenvironmental implications of the giant crocodylian Mourasuchus (Alligatoridae,Caimaninae) in the Yecua Formation (late Miocene) of Bolivia

Tineo, D.E., Bona, P., Pérez, L.M., Vergani, G.D., González, G., Poiré, D.G., Gasparini, Z.N. & Legarreta, P., 1.10.2014. Palaeoenvironmental implications of the giant crocodylian Mourasuchus (Alligatoridae, Caimaninae) in the Yecua Formation (late Miocene) of Bolivia. Alcheringa 39, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

Outcrops of the Yecua Formation (late Miocene) are exposed for approximately 230 m along the La Angostura section of the Piraí River (50 km southwest of Santa Cruz de la Sierra). These reveal massive (argillic palaeosols) and laminated (quiet-water lacustrine and marsh settings) mudstones interbedded with thin sandstones containing microfossils, molluscs and vertebrate remains. Significantly, the succession hosts a giant crocodylian, Mourasuchus (Alligatoridae, Caimaninae), which is represented by both skull and postcranial fragments found in association with freshwater turtles and fishes. Mourasuchus was distributed widely from the middle Miocene of Colombia to upper Miocene of Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina, suggesting connections between major fluvial systems and an active mechanism for dispersal of South American freshwater vertebrates during the Miocene.

David Eric Tineo [tineo.d.e@gmail.com] and Daniel Gustavo Poiré [dgpoire@yahoo.com.ar], CONICET—Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Calle 1 (644), B1900FWA, La Plata, Argentina; Paula Bona [paulabona26@gmail.com] and Zulma Gasparini [zgaspari@fcnym.unlp.edu.ar], CONICET—División Paleontología Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata. Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWA, La Plata, Argentina; Leandro Martín Pérez [pilosaperez@gmail.com] CONICET—División Paleozoología Invertebrados, Museo de La Plata. Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWA, La Plata, Argentina; Gustavo Dardo Vergani [gvergani@pluspetrol.net]—Pluspetrol S.A. Lima (339), C1073AAG, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Gloria González Rigas [ggonzalez@pluspetrol.net]—Pluspetrol Bolivia Corporation SA, Av. Grigotá esq. Las Palmas, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia; Pablo Legarreta [plegarreta@pluspetrol.net]—Pluspetrol S.A. Lima (339), C1073AAG, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.