Hidden in Plain Sight? Looking for the Indigenous Agricultural Fields of Gran Canaria,Agüimes and Temisas,Canary Islands,Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

International Journal of Historical Archaeology - The location, size, and structure of the farmlands and hydraulic systems built by the Indigenous inhabitants of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands,...     

Archaeogenetic study of prehistoric rice remains from Thailand and India: evidence of early <Emphasis Type="Italic">japonica</Emphasis> in South and Southeast Asia

We report a successful extraction and sequencing of ancient DNA from carbonized rice grains (Oryza sativa) from six archaeological sites, including two from India and four from Thailand, ranging in age from ca. 2500 to 1500 BP. In total, 221 archaeological grains were processed by PCR amplification and primary-targeted fragments were sequenced for comparison with modern sequences generated from 112 modern rice populations, including crop and wild varieties. Our results include the genetic sequences from both the chloroplast and the nuclear genomes, based on four markers from the chloroplast and six from the nuclear genome. These markers allow differentiation of indica rice from japonica rice, the two major subspecies of Asian rice (O. sativa) considered to have separate geographical origins. One nuclear marker differentiates tropical and temperate forms of subspecies japonica. Other markers relate to phenotypic variation selected for under domestication, such as non-shattering, grain stickiness (waxy starch) and pericarp colour. Recovery and identification of sequences from nuclear markers was generally poor, whereas recovery of chloroplast sequences was successful, with at least one of four markers recovered in 61 % of archaeological grains. This allowed for successful differentiation of indica or japonica subspecies variety, with japonica identified in all the Thai material and a mixture of indica and japonica chloroplasts in the two Indian assemblages. Rice subspecies was also assessed through conventional archaeobotanical methods relying on grain metrics, based on measurements from 13 modern populations and 499 archaeological grains. Grain metrics also suggest a predominance of japonica-type grains in the Southeast Asian sites and a mixture of japonica and indica in the Indian sites with indica in the minority. The similar results of grain metrics and ancient DNA (aDNA) affirm that grain measurements have some degree of reliability in rice subspecies identification. The study also highlights the great potential of ancient DNA recovery from archaeological rice. The data generated in the present study adds support to the model of rice evolution that includes hybridization between japonica and proto-indica.     

Policy Support for the Diffusion of Innovation among SMEs: An Evaluation Study in the Spanish Region of Madrid

Innovation is increasingly supported by public authority action focused on regions and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In this line, the region of Madrid launched a programme to create Technology Diffusion Centres (TDCs) in order to promote innovation culture among the SMEs of the region. This article analyses the nature of innovation activities in these firms, and the achievements of the TDCs through their work with them. Different types of TDCs are compared according to the approach they applied and the agent to which they were linked. Ten indicators were used to examine the degree of embeddedness and performance of the different TDCs among the SMEs. Results show that a sectoral approach in conjunction with links to business association is the best option for the TDCs in urban and industrial areas. However, in the peripheral or less favourable areas, such as rural ones, a territorial approach in conjunction with links to local entities is the most effective alternative.     

A reappraisal of Neocalamites and Schizoneura (fossil Equisetales) based on material from the Triassic of East Antarctica

Sphenophytes are a common floral element in the Triassic of Gondwana. Most sphenophyte compression fossils have been conventionally assigned to a few, presumably very widespread species of Neocalamites based on vegetative features of the stems (or pith casts) and the foliage. During recent decades, however, new reports on morphological and anatomical details of some of these fossils have cast doubt on the systematic affinities of many Gondwanan Triassic sphenophytes. Here we describe Neocalamites suberosus (Artabe & Zamuner) nov. comb. et emend. and Schizoneura africana Feistmantel emend. from several Triassic deposits in the central Transantarctic Mountains and Victoria Land, East Antarctica. The material enables a critical reevaluation of morphological and anatomical features that have been historically used to define the two genera, including leaf-base morphology, degree of leaf fusion, stem vasculature and vallecular canals, and features of the nodal diaphragm. The diagnoses of Neocalamites and Schizoneura are emended so that they more accurately reflect recent advances in our understanding of the anatomy and ontogeny of these plants.

[Benjamin Bomfleur [bbomfleur@ku]edu], Rudolph Serbet [serbet@ku.edu], Edith L. Taylor [etaylor@ku.edu] and Thomas N. Taylor [tntaylor@ku.edu], Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA; Ignacio H. Escapa [iescapa@mef.org.ar], CONICET—Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, Trelew, Chubut 9100, Argentina. Received 4.7.2012; revised 22.12.2012; accepted 7.1.2013.

Bomfleur, B., Escapa, I.H., Serbet, R., Taylor, E.L. & Taylor, T.N., 2013. A reappraisal of Neocalamites and Schizoneura (fossil Equisetales) based on material from the Triassic of East Antarctica. Alcheringa 37, 1–17. ISSN 0311-5518.     

The Transition to the Acheulean in East Africa: an Assessment of Paradigms and Evidence from Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania)

The origin of the Acheulean constitutes a key aspect of current research in the archaeology of human evolution. Olduvai Gorge is one of the main sites in Africa in the study of the transition from the Oldowan to the Acheulean, due to both the uniqueness of its archaeological record, and the influence of early investigations at Olduvai on the development of Early Stone Age research. This paper reviews the impact of work at Olduvai in shaping a modern view of cultural evolution from the Oldowan to the Acheulean. It also evaluates the lithic assemblages excavated by Mary Leakey in Olduvai Middle and Upper Bed II, based on a first-hand review of the collections. We conclude that previous paradigms used to explain inter-assemblage variability are not superseded as much as generally assumed, and that a modern view of the origins of the Acheulean requires a reassessment of the cultural, biological, and paleoecological evidence at Olduvai and elsewhere in Africa.     

Consilience of genetics and archaeobotany in the entangled history of rice

Major leaps forward in understanding rice both in genetics and archaeology have taken place in the past decade or so—with the publication of full draft genomes for indica and japonica rice, on the one hand, and with the spread of systematic flotation and increased recovery of archaeological spikelet bases and other rice remains on early sites in China, India and Southeast Asia. This paper will sketch a framework that coherently integrates the evidence from these burgeoning fields. This framework implies a reticulate framework in the phylogeny of early cultivated rice, with multiple starts of cultivation (two is perhaps not enough) but with the key consolidations of adaptations that must have been spread through hybridisation and therefore long-distance cultural contacts. Archaeobotanical evidence allows us to document the gradual evolutionary process of domestication through rice spikelet bases and grain size change. Separate trends in grain size change can be identified in India and China. The earliest centre of rice domestication was in the Yangtze basin of China, but a largely separate trajectory into rice cultivation can be traced in the Ganges plains of India. Intriguingly, contact-induced hybridisation is indicated for the early development of indica in northern India, ca. 2000 BC. An updated synthesis of the interwoven patterns of the spread of various rice varieties throughout Asia and to Madagascar can be suggested in which rice reached most of its historical range of important cultivation by the Iron Age.