Pre-pottery farmers on the Pacific coast of southern Mexico

Large island-like shell mounds along the southern coast of Mexico are the earliest known archaeological sites on the Pacific margin of Mesoamerica. These aceramic deposits date to between 7500 and 3800 cal BP and have been interpreted as locations where foragers, living elsewhere seasonally on the coastal plain, harvested shellfish and other estuarine resources. Based on an accumulation of paleoecological data from elsewhere in the lowland Neotropics of Mesoamerica, southern Central America and South America we pose and provide a first test of an alternative subsistence model: that the Archaic Period populations in this area were slash and burn farmers. Burned maize phytoliths first appear in these sedimentary records at 6500 cal BP in association with macroscopic charcoal and forest disturbance plant taxa. Periodic burning and forest disturbance, consistent with farming activities, are also evident in the macroscopic charcoal record between 6500 and 4700 cal BP. Pollen, phytolith and charcoal records all point to sustained burning, forest disturbance and the cultivation of maize between 4700 and 3800 cal BP. These data suggest that people were slash and burn farming during the Archaic Period prior to the adoption of pottery and the proliferation of Early Formative Period villages and full-fledged agriculture based on near or total reliance on crop plants after ∼3800 cal BP.     

Accuracy of obsidian hydration dating based on obsidian–radiocarbon association and optical microscopy

Most archaeologists using obsidian hydration dating (OHD) in the United States develop hydration rates from association of obsidian hydration rims with dates based on radiocarbon, subsequently using the rate for chronometric analysis. The overall accuracy of the process has never been quantified. This paper reports an accuracy analysis in which sources of uncertainty are defined and modeled and their effects quantified. A Monte Carlo simulation is used to quantify errors from rate development, while uncertainties in age resulting from chronometric analysis are calculated analytically. For typical ranges of error values, hydration rate errors of ∼5% or less are achievable in the absence of systematic errors, with errors of chronometric age estimates ∼20–30% or less.     

Who were the Meroites? A biological investigation into the Nubian post‐hiatus group

Scholars have identified a hiatus in the archaeological record of Lower Nubia that spans approximately 1000 years. This interval may represent a desertion of Lower Nubia by its inhabitants. Evidence of occupation did not reappear in the area until the Meroitic time period. However, the identity of the returning people has been the subject of speculation. In order to determine who the Meroites of Lower Nubia were, 20 cranial non‐metric traits were observed on six Nubian groups, representing five time periods. Two groups date to time periods immediately before (Kerma) and immediately after (X‐Group) the Meroitic period. Three additional Nubian groups (two Christian samples from different sites and Sesebi, a contemporary sample) were utilised as outgroups to elucidate a clearer picture of the relationship among the six samples. Mahalanobis D² with a tetrachoric matrix was employed for calculating biological distances among the groups. Principal coordinates analysis produced two clusters of Nubians, where the Meroitics clustered with other Nubian groups. Specific distance scores indicate the Meroites were biologically similar to individuals from the time periods prior to and after their arrival in Lower Nubia. The Meroites therefore appear to be a Nubian group returning to Lower Nubia after its desertion. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Incisor microwear textures of five bioarcheological groups

Dental microwear texture analysis has proven to be a valuable tool for inferring aspects of subsistence behaviour in human groups and diet in other mammals. Studies have to date been limited to molar teeth. Here we report on the first microwear texture analysis of incisors. Five bioarcheological groups were included in this analysis: Aleuts from various islands in the Bering Sea (n = 24), Arikara from the Mobridge site in South Dakota (n = 18), ethnic Chinese cannery workers from Kodiak Island (n = 16), a Late Woodland Bluff sample from Jersey County, Illinois (n = 18) and Puye Pueblo from Pajarito Plateau in New Mexico (n = 18). First, point clouds with 0.18 µm lateral spacing and 0.005 µm vertical resolution were obtained from maxillary central incisor labial surfaces using a white‐light confocal profiler. Four adjoining fields were sampled for a total area of 276 µm × 204 µm for each specimen. Surface data were then imported into scale‐sensitive fractal analysis software for texture characterisation. Results indicate significant variation among groups in anisotropy, fill volume and heterogeneity. These differences are likely related to differences in diet, degrees and types of non‐dietary incisor use, as well as exposure to abrasives. This study also suggests that texture variables most useful for characterising and comparing incisor microwear may differ from those most useful for distinguishing molar microwear patterns. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

THE ORIGINS OF THE ANDRONOVO (FEDOROVKA) POPULATION OF SOUTHWESTERN SIBERIA,BASED ON A MIDDLE BRONZE AGE CRANIAL SERIES FROM THE ALTAI FOREST-STEPPE ZONE

A multivariate analysis of measurements taken from Andronovo (Fedorovka) cranial samples from the forest-steppe part of the Altai has revealed certain components that are likely to have contributed to the origins of this population. One component, resembling the robust (Cro-Magnon) variety observed in many Andronovo groups, would appear to have been introduced by migrants from the Kazakhstan steppes. Another component – Mediterranean, i.e., characterized by dolichocrany and narrow face, stemmed from the pre-Andronovo Bronze Age populations of southwestern Siberia, being especially noticeable in Andronovo (Fedorovka) groups of Rudny Altai and decreasing in the eastern and northern directions. The third component, on the contrary, becomes more and more prominent as one moves northward. This component was evidently associated with the Western Siberian native peoples. Its proportion in the forest-steppe zone of the Altai was minor, while being larger in the sub-taiga regions situated to the north.     

Estimation of age at death of sika deer (Cervus nippon) from an archaeological site based on radiographs of mandibular molariform tooth development

The development of permanent premolar and molar teeth was examined in mandibular radiographs from wild sika deer (Cervus nippon) of known ages (74 males, 66 females, 4 unknown; age range 1–54 months) from Hyogo Prefecture. Tooth development was scored according to the method described by Brown & Chapman (1991a, b). Stage‐specific scores for all molar and premolar teeth were summed, and simple cubic regression analysis was used to analyse the relationship between the total score and age in months. Our analysis showed a strong cubic correlation between the total score and chronological age in months. The equation obtained from this analysis was used to estimate age within a 95% prediction interval in seven archaeological specimens from the Asahi archaeological site in central Japan. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From First Reich to Third Reich: German Imperialism and Early Medieval Scholarship in the Southeastern Alpine Region (c. 1919–1945)

This article explores how the early medieval past was used to justify Germanic political and cultural hegemony across East Central Europe during the first half of the 20th century. It highlights the ways in which medieval historians and archaeologists contributed to, and were influenced by, the program of ??Ostforschung?? (Eastern Research). A close reading of the work of two prominent German archaeologists during the interwar and National Socialist periods suggests that their conception of the early medieval eastern Alps was not only influenced by national chauvinism, but also reveals striking parallels with Western imperial ideologies typical of overseas colonial contexts.     

Bairaki–a lower paleolithic site on the lower dniester

Findings of excavations at a Lower Paleolithic site, discovered in 2010 near Dubasari on the Lower Dniester, are described. Earlier, two sites with Lower Paleolithic fl int tools – Dubasari-1 (Bolshoi Fontan) and Pogrebya – were found nearby. The cultural layer, located in the top of the lower buried soil overlying the alluvial deposits of the sixth or seventh terrace of the Dniester, included a few stone artifacts and a fragment of an animal bone. The likely age of this buried soil is estimated at ca 500 ka by geological methods. In the alluvium gravel of the same terrace downstream, three pebble tools including two choppers made of a strong Cos?u?i sandstone, and four fl int pieces were found. Geological observations suggest that this alluvium is more than 800 ka old. So far these are the earliest stone tools discovered in a stratified context in the Russian, Moldavian, and Ukrainian parts of the Russian Plain.     

‘Home,and not some house’: young people's sensory construction of family relationships in domestic spaces

Drawing on recent work highlighting sensory experience of space, this paper argues that understandings of children's and young people's relationships, including difficult family circumstances, may be enriched by taking greater account of their embodied, sensory experience of the domestic spaces in which these relationships are lived. In a study of young people's family life in the context of parental substance misuse, we found that respondents often made sense of difficult family relationships, at different times and in particular spaces, through sensory experience. They also employed sensory and spatial strategies to construct safe and secure domestic places for themselves.     

Stone statue of Ailyan,Gorny Altai

A rare stone statue found in Gorny Altai and associated with the Ancient Turkic culture is described. Most Ancient Turkic statues in the Sayan-Altai and in Central Asia in general represent male warriors. This statue, however, depicts a female. Research is relevant to the understanding of Eastern Turkic funerary ritual.