The Upper Palaeolithic Lithic Industry of Nazlet Khater 4 (Egypt): Implications for the Stone Age/Palaeolithic of Northeastern Africa

Between Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 and 2, Northeast Africa witnessed migrations of Homo sapiens into Eurasia. Within the context of the aridification of the Sahara, the Nile Valley probably offered a very attractive corridor into Eurasia. This region and this period are therefore central for the (pre)history of the out-of-Africa peopling of modern humans. However, there are very few sites from the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic that document these migration events. In Egypt, the site of Nazlet Khater 4 (NK4), which is related to ancient H. sapiens quarrying activities, is one of them. Its lithic assemblage shows an important laminar component, and this, associated with its chronological position (ca. 33 ka), means that the site is the most ancient Upper Palaeolithic sites of this region. The detailed study of the Nazlet Khater 4 lithic material shows that blade production (volumetric reduction) is also associated with flake production (surface reduction). This technological duality addresses the issue of direct attribution of NK4 to the Upper Palaeolithic.     

Thinking with Montaigne: evidence, scepticism and meaning in early modern demonology

In 1612 the Bordeaux witchcraft inquisitor Pierre de Lancre (1556–1631), himself linked by marriage to Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592), revealed that the essayist and sceptic was related on his mother’s side to a leading authority on magic and superstition, the Flemish-Spanish Jesuit Martin Delrio (1551–1608). De Lancre confounded historians' expectations by using the revelation to defend Montaigne against his cousin's criticism. This article re-evaluates the relationships of De Lancre, Delrio and Montaigne in the light of recent scholarship, which casts demonology as a form of "resistance to scepticism" that conceals deep anxiety about the existence of the supernatural. It explores De Lancre’s and Delrio’s very different attitudes towards Montaigne and towards evidence and scepticism. This, in turn, reveals the different underlying preoccupations of their witchcraft treatises. It hence argues that no monocausal explanation linking scepticism to witchcraft belief is plausible.     

Domesticating Animals in Africa: Implications of Genetic and Archaeological Findings

Domestication is an ongoing co-evolutionary process rather than an event or invention. Recent zooarchaeological and animal genetics research has prompted a thorough revision of our perspectives on the history of domestic animals in Africa. Genetic analyses of domestic animal species have revealed that domestic donkeys are descended from African ancestors, opened a debate over the contribution of indigenous aurochs to African domestic cattle, revealed an earlier and possibly exogenous origin of the domestic cat, and reframed our vision of African dogs. Genetic diversity studies and mapping of unique traits in African cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens indicate adaptations to regional environmental challenges and suggest hitherto unknown and complex patterns of interactions both among Africans and with Southwest Asia and other Asian regions on the Indian Ocean. This article argues against the static perspective on domestication as invention and for viewing it as a dynamic, locally based and continuing process.     

Geochronology of vegetation stages of south-east Baltic coast (Kaliningrad region) during the middle and Late Holocene

The raised bog sediments that have been continuously accumulated over time represent the most suitable natural object which enables us to reconstruct Late Glacial and Holocene vegetation and palaeoclimates. Bog peat consists of organic carbon formed in situ. It contains moss, plant fragments and microfossils that are necessary for the study of palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate. However, a successful study of palaeoenvironment can be carried out on the basis of investigation of a great quantity of samples along the whole peatbog thickness. In the present paper, the authors present the results of palynological, botanical investigations and radiocarbon dating of 31 peat samples taken from the raised bog Velikoye, located in the eastern part of Kaliningrad Region. The data obtained have enabled us to reconstruct the palaeovegetation, reveal the evolution of the bog and determine rate of peat formation at different evolutional stages over the last 7500 cal BP.     

Estimation of soil erosion on cultivated fields on the hilly Meghalaya Plateau,North-East India

The estimation of soil erosion rates in complex subtropical agricultural systems of hilly environment is difficult and most of the traditional methods have serious limitations. The ¹³⁷Cs technique allows to obtain relatively quickly retrospective medium term soil erosion results. The objective of this study was using ¹³⁷Cs approach to quantify soil loss under agricultural system which develops under growing human pressure on the hilly terrain of the Meghalaya Plateau. The measured values of caesium inventory for all sampling points are between 2% and 63% of the reference value of caesium inventory. The estimated annual soil loss for sampling points located on the slope are between 29 and 79 Mg·ha⁻¹·yr⁻¹ in the case of an improved mass balance model. It means that soil erosion in this manually tilled agricultural area cannot be neglected.     

Radiocarbon dating of the bronze age bone pins from Eurasian steppe

Bone catapult and hammer-headed pins played one of very specific roles in funerary offerings in the Bronze Age graves uncovered in the Eurasian Steppes and the North Caucasus. Scholars used different types of pins as key grave offerings for numerous chronological models. For the first time eight pins have been radiocarbon dated. ¹⁴C dating of bone pins identified the catapult type pin as the earliest one. They marked the period of the Yamnaya culture formation. Then Yamnaya population produced hammer-headed pins which became very popular in other cultural environments and spread very quickly across the Steppe and the Caucasus during 2900–2650 cal BC. But according to radiocarbon dating bone pins almost disappeared after 2600 cal BC.     

Upper Cretaceous volcanoclastic deposits from the Haţeg basin,south Carpathians (Romania): K-Ar ages and intrabasinal correlation

In order to constrain the age of the Upper Cretaceous continental Densuş-Ciula Formation from the Haţeg basin, South Carpathians, and correlate it with the other continental unit that occurs in the region, the Sanpetru Formation, we separated and dated by the K-Ar method biotites and amphiboles from volcanoclastic deposits. The mineral phases analysed are from two tuff layers and volcanic bombs cropping out near Rachitova village. Two tuff layers from the Densuş-Ciula Formation give early Maastrichtian ages of 69.8±1.3 and 71.3±1.6 Ma, respectively. The ages determined for the tuff layers constrain the age of deposition for the Densuş-Ciula Formation and enable further correlations with the available palaeomagnetic data from the deposits occurring along the Sibişel Valley that belong to the Sanpetru Formation. The volcanic bombs collected near to Răchitova village are andesites and dacites. The age determined by K-Ar method on hornblende separated from a volcanic bomb is 82.7±1.5 Ma, which is older than the underlying Campanian marine deposits in turbidite facies. This suggests that the volcanic bombs were re-deposited during the early Maastrichtian. Thus, the volcanics found at Răchitova have at least two origins: one type is related to an explosive synsedimentary volcanic activity, and the other type is represented by older andesitic/dacitic bombs, which most probably originate from a volcanic centre situated in the Haţeg region.     

Age and sedimentological features of fluvial series in the Toruń Basin and the Drwęca Valley (Poland)

The deposits of the Toruń Basin are dominated by a few-metre thick sand series which fill up buried valley-like depressions. In many cases they underlie the Weichselian till which builds up the ice marginal streamway (pradolina) terraces or they are exposed at the basin slopes. As the results of the geological and sedimentological studies, as well as of the dating of the deposits at the sites in the Toruń Basin indicate, the deposits include two fluvial series accumulated before the advancement of the Leszno Phase ice sheet, i.e. in Middle Weichselian and at the beginning of Late Weichselian. The oldest fluvial series connected with the Saalian Glaciation was found at the mouth section of the Drwęca Valley. The fluvial system of the Toruń Basin during Middle Weichselian and at the beginning of Late Weichselian developed in two phases of the sand-bed braided river. During the first one the river channel were dominated by large mid-riverbed sandbars, while during the second phase the water flow was smaller and, as a result, low transverse sandbars and two-dimensional dunes developed. Other active river channel also showed low-energy flows, more intensive meandering than in the case of the braided rivers, as well as sandy side-bars. Analysis of the rounding and frosting of the quartz grains indicate that the studied series of the Weichselian sandy deposits represent alluvia of a river which were fed from two diverse sources. The first one might have represented the alluvia of a warm river which transformed its load, while the other one might have mainly carried the underlying Quaternary deposits.