The reconstruction of past environments through small mammals: from the Mousterian to the Bronze Age in El Mirón Cave (Cantabria,Spain)

El Mirón is a large cave in the Cantabrian Cordillera of northern Spain that presents a long archaeostratigraphic sequence radiocarbon-dated by over 60 assays to between 41,000 and 2000 BP. The sediments, collected from four areas within the cave and sieved-washed with fine wire meshes, contain microvertebrate remains of fish, frogs, lizards, birds and mammals, of which the latter are most abundant. Preliminary taphonomic analysis suggests that the microvertebrates were naturally collected by owls and (less) small carnivores. Small mammal assemblages are useful for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction because they are linked to particular habitats and are sensitive to environmental changes. The small mammals from El Mirón are ideal for this because sample sizes are large, bone preservation is good, and the stratigraphic sequence is long. In this paper we reconstruct the late Quaternary environments in the Cantabrian region of Spain using small-mammal assemblages from El Mirón Cave. On the basis of the ecologic adaptations of this suite of fauna, the majority still extant, we have identified seven habitat types, which are plotted through time. The evolution of the small mammal assemblages at El Mirón reveals seven major climatic shifts that correspond closely to the climatic changes recognized in the Iberian Peninsula during the last 41 kyr.     

On stone-boiling technology in the Upper Paleolithic: behavioral implications from an Early Magdalenian hearth in El Mirón Cave,Cantabria, Spain

Stone boiling is one of the principal cooking methods used by hunter-gatherer societies. The present paper proposes behavioral and organizational inferences as to how stone boiling was incorporated into hunter-gatherer subsistence practices through an examination of a shallow-basin hearth in an Early Magdalenian level (c. 15,500 ¹⁴C B.P.) of El Mirón Cave, Cantabria (northern Spain). Exploratory analysis of spatial patterns of archaeological remains (bones, lithic artifacts, and fire-cracked rocks) and use-life analysis of fire-cracked rocks demonstrate that the hearth was used and maintained during visits of humans who preyed mainly on ibex and red deer near the site. The relative accessibility of these ungulates and cost-induced technology of stone boiling suggest the implication that stone boiling was employed to maximize the energy and nutrition obtained from carcasses of these game taxa under the circumstance of resource intensification.     

Stimulated Variation and Cascades: Two Processes in the Evolution of Complex Technological Systems

Michael Schiffer’s theoretical and methodological contributions to archaeology are substantial. For the last two decades, Schiffer has become increasingly interested in the history of electrical technology, including portable radios, electric automobiles, eighteenth-century electrostatic technology, and, most recently, nineteenth-century electric light and power systems. Schiffer has long held a behavioral view, which focuses analytical attention on interactions between humans and material things, including complex technological systems (CTSs). For Schiffer, two key aspects of the evolution of CTSs are stimulated variation, defined as an increase in invention resulting from changing selective conditions, and cascading, defined as sequential spurts of invention that occur through the recognition of emergent performance problems in a CTS. To attain maximum usefulness, these concepts should be placed in a modern evolutionary framework that correctly identifies, and does not oversell, the role played by cultural selection. Research on individual and social learning provides the critical link between Schiffer’s stimulated variation and cascade models and the diffusion of CTSs.     

Making screen production work at the margins: path-dependent development in Brisbane and the Gold Coast

While screen production is notoriously centralised, it is still found outside major media cities where the central problem for actors in these subordinate media cities is how to create sustainable levels of screen production capabilities in circumstances of increasing centralisation and globalisation in media production and its design. This article discusses how the screen production sectors of two subordinate media cities, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, are organised. Each city represents a different pathway for the sustainability of a media sector. The Gold Coast is a production location for globally and nationally dispersed high-budget feature film and TV drama production; while Brisbane is mostly a ‘national production’ location for domestically oriented news, documentary, infotainment and sports programming with a focus on lower budgeted feature filmmaking and occasionally, television drama. These different city pathways are the product of the creative resources and infrastructure evident in each city.