Testing the “shift in the balance of power” hypothesis at Swartkrans, South Africa: Hominid cave use and subsistence behavior in the Early Pleistocene

C.K. Brain documented two interesting patterns in the Pleistocene faunas of Swartkrans Cave, South Africa: (1) The earliest depositional units, Members 1 and 2, preserve high numbers of hominid fossils, while the numbers drop sharply in the more recent Member 3. (2) Burned bone specimens, which seem to have been altered in fires tended by hominids, appear for the first time in Member 3. It was suggested that mastery of fire provided a “shift in the balance of power”, allowing hominids to carry out activities in the cave for the first time unmolested by predators. A lack of butchered bones in Members 1 and 2 and their presence in Member 3 provided support for the hypothesis. However, we have now identified butchered bones in all three units. Further, our findings reveal a lack of variability in butchery patterns through time at Swartkrans; in all cases hominids appear to have been proficient carcass foragers. The real “shift” at Swartkrans does not appear to be one of eventual hominid dominance over carnivores, but rather one of a predominance of leopards at Swartkrans in Member 1 times to the alternating presence of leopards and hyenas in Members 2 and 3. Consistent leopard presence in Member 1 seems to have discouraged hominid activity in the vicinity of the cave. In contrast, by the time Members 2 and 3 were forming hominids may have temporarily used the cave, taking advantage of those periods of carnivore absence.     

Lapa das boleiras rockshelter: stratigraphy and formation processes at a paleoamerican site in Central Brazil

Lapa das Boleiras rockshelter, a Paleoamerican archaeological site in Central Brazil, was intensely occupied by humans from 10,000 ¹⁴C BP (11.8 cal kyr BP), until approximately 7500 ¹⁴C BP (8.4 cal kyr BP). In this paper we present some interpretations about the formation processes operating on the site. One of our main conclusions is that the bulk of accumulated sediments at the site is of anthropogenic origin: they are constituted by volumetrically significant quantities of plant ash remains, what is somewhat unexpectedly in view of prevailing models about the lifestyle of Paleoamerican hunter–gatherers in South America. The evidence we discuss below is also consistent with paleoenvironmental data that suggest a dry period during the mid-Holocene in the region, probably leading to a decrease in human occupation [Araujo, A.G.M., Neves, W., Piló, L.B., Atui, J.P., 2005. Holocene dryness and human occupation in Brazil during the ‘Archaic Gap’. Quaternary Research 64, 298–307]. We surmise that both factors underpin a surprising reduction in sediment accumulation at the site during the mid-Holocene.     

Hunting and Scavenging by Early Humans: The State of the Debate

During the last 25 years, there has been a shift towards the belief that early humans were scavengers instead of hunters. This revisionist interpretation has brought a reconciliation with the Darwinian paradigm of gradual progressive evolution that has traditionally guided (and very often, misled) an important part of anthropological thinking. However, empirical support for the scavenging hypothesis is still lacking. Recent data based on bone surface modifications from archaeological faunas suggest, in contrast, that hominids were primary agents of carcass exploitation. Meat seems to have been an important part of Plio-Pleistocene hominid diets. Passive scavenging scenarios show that this kind of opportunistic strategy cannot afford significant meat yields. Therefore, the hunting hypothesis has not yet been disproved. This makes the hunting-and-scavenging issue more controversial than before, and calls for a revision of the current interpretive frameworks and ideas about early human behavior.     

Implementing Artificial Intelligence in H-BIM Using the J48 Algorithm to Manage Historic Buildings

ABSTRACT

The preservation of the architectural heritage is characterized by the intervention of different technicians, who may disagree on decision-making criteria. In recent years, the H-BIM methodology has emerged to manage these buildings, although the multidisciplinary technical personnel make the decision-taking something of a challenge. In this regard, artificial intelligence may be an opportunity to establish automatic responses, thus optimizing the process. This article proposes a methodology to implement models of classification using the J48 algorithm in a H-BIM model. The case study was focused on a tiles panel from a building which belongs to the Real Alcazar of Seville. First, a model of classification was developed to estimate the degree of intervention with an adequate degree of adjustment. Then, the model was implemented in the H-BIM software by programming using GDL. This methodology automates the decision-making and reduces times of assessments, visualizing and managing the information in the H-BIM model.     

The Morphology of a Working Place Linked to the World: The Railway Workshops of Jundiaí (Brazil, 1892–1998)

ABSTRACT

Material sources have done little to contribute to research on Brazilian railway history (except for heritage studies and history of architecture). This interdisciplinary case study focuses on archaeological evidence to reflect on topics not often discussed in Brazil: the physical and functional configuration of the workplaces related to railways; the changing of these spaces through time due to the evolution of technology; and their characterisation as highly globalised sites. In doing so, we take the railway workshops of Jundiaí (São Paulo) as a study sample and analyse it under the light of the expansion of industrialisation from the World's great powers to its outlying economies.     

Portable Steam Engines and Traction Engines and Their Use in Rural Areas: The Case of Lezíria Ribatejana,Portugal

In the second half of the 19th century, the area known as Lezíria, in Portugal, started to use portable steam and traction engines in agricultural production. Out of more than a hundred original examples, all of them manufactured in England, little more than a dozen survive today, with different levels of preservation. This article studies these for the first time through an archaeological perspective, identifying their use and importance in different agricultural activities in the production of goods such as olive oil.     

The Radiocarbon Chronology of Southern Spain's Late Prehistory (5600–1000 cal BC): A Comparative Review

This paper is the first updated review of the scope, depth and problems related to the current radiocarbon chronology of the late prehistory of southern Iberia. The aim is twofold. First, it critically analyses the quantity and quality of radiocarbon dates used to interpret the diverse trajectories of western Mediterranean societies throughout more than four millennia. Secondly, it reviews a set of three different and prominent archaeological phenomena from an inter‐regional comparative perspective: primary and secondary burial practices, domestic stone architecture and ditched enclosures. Our long‐term, geographically wide‐ranging approach locates similarities while highlighting the effects of local and historical conditions in certain divergent circumstances.     

Iron Age Saunas of Northern Portugal: State of the Art and Research Perspectives

Special buildings used as saunas have been found in certain large hillforts in the north of Portugal and in the Cantabrian coastal area of Asturias and Galicia in Spain. The principal aim of this study is to highlight the importance of these buildings in the archaeology and art of the European Iron Age, where they are very rarely mentioned. Two approaches are developed: in Parts 1 and 2, we explain the structure of the buildings, their function, and the current debate surrounding their dating. In Parts 3 and 4, further analyses are developed on their position in the landscape, associating the saunas with the public life of the hillforts, and on the decorative structure of the pedras formosas (‘beautiful stones’) found in some of them, and their relation to certain artistic trends in so‐called Celtic art.     

The oldest handaxes in Europe: fact or artefact?

Hominin presence is well documented in a number of Early Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene European localities. However, the evidence currently available indicates that Acheulean handaxes spread in the fluvial basins of Western Europe during MIS 11, ～400 kyr ago, associated with Homo heidelbergensis, although a number of early Middle Pleistocene Acheulean assemblages have been dated from MIS 16 onwards. For this reason, the magnetostratigraphic dating in Southeast Spain of two archaeological localities, the open-air site of Solana del Zamborino (SZ) and the rock-shelter site of Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Quípar (EQ), that put back the appearance of handaxes to the Early-Middle Pleistocene limit (Scott and Gibert, 2009) is of particular interest, as the new ages suggest that H. heidelbergensis was a contemporary of H. antecessor that had the ability to produce Levallois debitage and to control fire during the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition. However, we have detected a number of errors in the interpretation of the archaeological assemblage from the first site as well as striking discrepancies with the original faunal lists published for both localities, with several large mammal species that are omitted or arbitrarily changed to make the assemblages consistent with the new ages deduced from magnetostratigraphy. For this reason, we suggest that: (1) the finding of reverse polarity in the sediments sampled for paleomagnetism in SZ may simply record one of the polarity reversals that took place during the Brunhes Chron, although the use by Scott and Gibert (2009) of a composite stratigraphic column precludes correlating these levels with a specific reversal; and (2) the fauna and tools of EQ correspond to the late Middle Pleistocene sedimentary infillings of this karst site, while the samples taken for paleomagnetism belong to a previous sedimentary cycle during the Matuyama Chron. Such interpretations would be in better agreement with the age estimates provided by biostratigraphy and also with the currently accepted chronology for the appearance of Acheulean industries in Western Europe.