LEAD ISOTOPIC ANALYSIS OF COPPER ORES FROM THE SIERRA EL ARAMO (ASTURIAS,SPAIN)*

This study presents the first ever lead isotope ratio data for copper ore samples (malachite and azurite) from the Sierra El Aramo (Asturias, northwestern Spain). The aim of this study was to supplement information in the existing reference database on the lead isotopic composition of Spanish ores. The Sierra El Aramo is particularly important because, while no data for the Asturian ores have been published so far, this northern province of Spain has played a significant role in terms of copper exploitation and metallurgy since the Copper Age.     

INVESTIGATING SEASONALITY AND SEASON OF BIRTH IN PAST HERDS: A REFERENCE SET OF SHEEP ENAMEL STABLE OXYGEN ISOTOPE RATIOS

Intra‐tooth sequential analysis of enamel δ¹⁸O is currently used to investigate birth seasonality in past animal populations, offering new insights into seasonal availability of animal resources, herd management and seasonality of site occupation. Reference data sets are still required to address two major difficulties: (1) that inter‐individual variability in the record of the seasonal cycle is affected by tooth size; and (2) that the season of birth cannot be directly estimated from the timing of tooth growth, because of a delay in enamel mineralization. We present a data set acquired on the lower second molar of 10 modern sheep from Rousay (Orkney) born within a few weeks of each other in April/May and submitted to the same environmental conditions until death. All sheep have recorded a sinusoidal pattern of δ¹⁸O variation spanning approximately a year. From the difference between the expected and the measured time sequence, the delay of enamel mineralization is estimated to be 5–6 months. The data set is then described using a model mainly based on a cosine function. The period, corresponding to the length of the M2 crown formed over a year, averaged 35.8 mm. A very slight variation of tooth growth rate with time and no attenuation of the isotopic signal towards the cervical margin of the crown could be detected in this data set. The lowest δ¹⁸O values, corresponding to the sheep's first winter, were tracked at a distance from the enamel/root junction that varied between 23.0 and 30.3 mm (x_min mean = 27.6 mm); the highest δ¹⁸O values, corresponding to the sheep's second summer, were between 6.3 and 11.6 mm (x_max mean = 9.9 mm). Most of the variability can be attributed to tooth size. When normalized on the period, x_min and x_max are 0.28 (± 0.05) and 0.78 (± 0.05) on average, meaning that the Rousay sheep have recorded the minimum and maximum δ¹⁸O values on average at 78% and 28%, respectively, of the end of the periodic cycle recorded in the second molar.     

THE COLOURED TESSERAE DECORATING THE VAULTS OF THE FARAGOLA BALNEUM (ASCOLI SATRIANO,FOGGIA, SOUTHERN ITALY)

Twenty‐six tesserae (red, orange, yellow, light amber, green, blue and white) from the balneum of the villa at Faragola (Ascoli Satriano, Foggia) have been examined by colorimetry, ICP–MS, ICP–OES and SEM–EDS. Different types of calcareous sands have been used as the source of silica (network former), also providing the stabilizing agent. A natron‐type soda source served as the network modifier; however, the use of a sodium‐rich plant ash and the recycling process have been hypothesized for the production of two tesserae (FT 1 red and FT 3 orange). The colouring and opacifying agents were Cu oxide (cuprite, orange), metallic copper (red), Pb antimonates (yellow), Ca antimonates (white), a mixture of copper (Cu²⁺) and Pb antimonates (green), a mixture of cobalt (Co²⁺) or copper (Cu²⁺) and Ca antimonates (blue). The light amber tesserae should owe their colour to iron (Fe³⁺) alone or associated with sulphide (S^2?) and Ca antimonates. It is likely that the Faragola tesserae were locally produced in a secondary glass workshop.     

An Analysis Of Mitochondrial Dna From The Pakhomovskaya Population Of The Late Bronze Age,Western Siberia

This article presents the results of an analysis of mitochondrial DNA extracted from bone samples from Stary Sad – a burial ground representing the eastern variant of the Late Bronze Age Pakhomovskaya culture in the Baraba forest-steppe, Western Siberia. Comparison with mitochondrial DNA data from earlier populations of the region and also with archaeological facts, points to the origins of the Pakhomovskaya people. Certain components of their gene pool were evidently derived from the local pre-Andronovo populations, others from the actual Andronovo (Fedorovka) population and also from later immigrants. In this article an integrative reconstruction based on biological and cultural facts is proposed.     

Palm reading: a pilot study to discriminate phytoliths of four Arecaceae (Palmae) taxa

A pilot study of an opal phytolith morphotype series diagnostic for palms (Arecaceae), using modern specimens of four economically important palm species (Areca catechu L., Calamus aruensis Becc., Cocos nucifera L., and Metroxylon sagu Rottb.), was undertaken to identify distinctive features of leaf phytoliths from each taxon. Our univariate and multivariate analyses documented that although it was not possible to identify individual palm phytoliths unambiguously to taxon, interspecific differences in phytolith morphology significantly outweighed intraspecific variation, revealing the potential value of further research in this area and the possible utility of assemblage-level analysis to palm phytoliths in archæological assemblages. The methods are applied to archæological phytoliths from Watom Island, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, and directions for further research outlined.     

Sourcing ceramics with portable XRF spectrometers? A comparison with INAA using Mimbres pottery from the American Southwest

Seventy-five intact Mimbres and Jornada pottery sherds from the American Southwest were analyzed by portable XRF and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Examination of the data demonstrates that INAA and portable XRF results for elements common to both analyses can be used to construct similar compositional groups. When individual compositional groups are compared to one another, it is apparent that unambiguous separation of compositional groups is challenging by portable XRF given (1) the limited number of key discriminating elements that can be measured relative to INAA, and (2) the relative analytical precision and accuracy of portable XRF for measurements of intact heterogeneous ceramics. We conclude that sourcing intact ceramics by portable XRF is challenging and that bulk analytical measurements, such as INAA, remain a better approach for sourcing archaeological pottery.     

Hunter–gatherer foraging ranges, migrations, and travel in the middle Holocene Baikal region of Siberia: Insights from carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures

Foraging ranges, migrations, and travel among Middle Holocene hunter–gatherers in the Baikal region of Siberia are examined based on carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures obtained from 350 human and 203 faunal bone samples. The human materials represent Early Neolithic (8000–6800 cal BP), Late Neolithic (6000–5000 cal BP), and Early Bronze Age periods (∼5000–4000 cal BP) and come from the following four smaller areas of the broader region: the Angara and upper Lena valleys, Little Sea of Baikal’s northwest coast, and southwest Baikal. Forager diets from each area occupy their own distinct position within the stable isotope spectrum. This suggests that foraging ranges were not as large as expected given the distances involved and the lack of geographic obstacles between the micro-regions. All examined individuals followed a similar subsistence strategy: harvesting game and local fishes, and on Lake Baikal also the seal, and to a more limited extent, plant foods. Although well established in their home areas, exchange networks with the other micro-regions appear asymmetrical both in time and direction: more travel and contacts between some micro-regions and less between others. The Angara valley seems to be the only area with the possibility of a temporal change in the foraging strategy from more fishing during the Early Neolithic to more ungulate hunting during the Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age. However, the shift in stable isotope values suggesting this change can be viewed also as evidence of climate change affecting primary productivity of the Baikal–Angara freshwater system.     

Canids as persons: Early Neolithic dog and wolf burials, Cis-Baikal, Siberia

Interpretations of dog burials made by ancient foraging groups have tended to be based upon our own relationships with such animals and modern western cosmological and ontological concepts. Osteological studies of early dogs often focus only on issues of taxonomy, and as a result very little is known about these animals’ life histories. Eastern Siberia has produced many Holocene dog burials, but these are typically not well described and the explanatory frameworks provided for them are very underdeveloped. Here we examine in detail two Cis-Baikal canid burials, one of a wolf and the other a dog, both in large Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer cemeteries. We link the mortuary treatment of these animals to other cultural practices, particularly the treatment of the human dead, and broader patterns in Northern human-animal relationships. This interpretive model is combined with detailed osteobiographies for the canids and contextual information for these and other dogs and wolves from Middle Holocene Cis-Baikal. It is argued that canids here were understood and treated in a variety of ways. We suggest that some animals with unique histories were known as distinct persons with ‘souls’ and because of this at death required mortuary rites similar to those of their human counterparts.     

Timing the Neolithic transition: the application of fluoride dating at Tell Halula,Syria

The study of Near Eastern Neolithic villages provides a unique means of tracing subsistence strategy, population growth, health, and emerging social inequality associated with agricultural origins. However, disentangling these patterns requires a detailed comprehension of the chronological placement of individual households in the site. In this paper, we present a test to determine the reliability and applicability of the fluoride dating method (a relative dating method) on human dentition of 40 samples from 28 Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (or PPNB) burials from the site of Tell Halula, in Syria. This method, applied here for the first time on a Neolithic Near East case study, is an alternative when other dating methods, like radiocarbon dates, do not provide the required temporal resolution to address particular research problems. Nonetheless, the results obtained in the fluoride analysis show how both the age at death of individuals, and the integrity of the burial plug enormously affect the amount of fluoride absorbed by teeth, so that only a small subset of the full dataset was suitable for fluoride dating. Although the distribution of fluoride values of dentine from the small sample of burials from suitable contexts matches the expected chronology, and corroborates the hypothesis that the occupation at Halula extends from the Middle to the Late PPNB, our analysis illustrates the need for a better understanding of the different sources of error in fluoride dating to improve the method itself, and to obtain more reliable fluoride chronologies.