Iron Age pastoral nomadism and agriculture in the eastern Eurasian steppe: implications from dental palaeopathology and stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes

Iron Age societies of the eastern Eurasian steppe are traditionally viewed as nomadic pastoralists. However, recent archaeological and anthropological research in Kazakhstan has reminded us that pastoralist economies can be highly complex and involve agriculture. This paper explores the nature of the pastoralist economies in two Early Iron Age populations from the burial grounds of Ai-Dai and Aymyrlyg in Southern Siberia. These populations represent two cultural groups of the Scythian World – the Tagar Culture of the Minusinsk Basin and the Uyuk Culture of Tuva. Analysis of dental palaeopathology and carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes suggests that domesticated cereals, particularly millet, and fish formed a major component of the diet of both groups. The findings contribute to the emerging picture of the nuances of Early Iron Age subsistence strategies on the eastern steppe.     

An exploration of Hul’qumi’num Coast Salish peoples’ attitudes towards the establishment of no‐take zones within marine protected areas in the Salish Sea,Canada

The Canadian Government has committed to establishing a national network of Marine Protected Areas. Progress in the Salish Sea (Strait of Georgia) of British Columbia has been slow. Opposition by First Nations is a factor as these protected areas have the potential to impact on Aboriginal rights. This case study with the Hul’qumi’num First Nations examines their approaches to marine conservation and their perspectives on “no‐take zones” as a component of marine conservation. The study used a variety of community engagement procedures including relationship building, hiring of a Hul’qumi’num research assistant, conducting individual interviews, focus groups, and field surveys. Interviews were conducted with 41 participants contacted because of their knowledge and interest in marine resource use. The views reported provide a rich understanding of Hul’qumi’num attitudes, but cannot be generalised to the whole population. There was widespread support for efforts to involve local First Nations communities in the development of management plans for marine resources, and also for recognition of First Nation reliance on marine resources for food, social, and ceremonial needs and for economic development opportunities. The establishment of permanent no‐take zones was met with both opposition and support. The most highly endorsed statement about no‐take zones is one of principle—that they are a violation of Aboriginal rights. However, there was also strong agreement that permanent no‐take zones would help reduce over‐fishing. The National Marine Conservation Area program is in its infancy and it remains to be seen how the “strictly protected” zone of the legislation will be interpreted in relationship to Aboriginal harvesting practices. However it is clear that successful conservation will only occur with Aboriginal consent in many areas and there needs to be greater investment in understanding Aboriginal perspectives on marine conservation.     

Mapping by matching: a computer vision-based approach to fast and accurate georeferencing of archaeological aerial photographs

To date, aerial archaeologists generally apply simple rectification procedures or more expensive and time-consuming orthorectification algorithms to correct their aerial photographs in varying degrees for geometrical deformations induced by the topographical relief, the tilt of the camera axis and the distortion of the optics. Irrespective of the method applied, the georeferencing of the images is commonly determined with ground control points, whose measurement and identification is a time-consuming operation and often limits certain images from being accurately georeferenced. Moreover, specialised software, certain photogrammetric skills, and experience are required. Thanks to the recent advances in the fields of computer vision and photogrammetry as well as the improvements in processing power, it is currently possible to generate orthophotos of large, almost randomly collected aerial photographs in a straightforward and nearly automatic way. This paper presents a computer vision-based approach that is complemented by proven photogrammetric principles to generate orthophotos from a range of uncalibrated oblique and vertical aerial frame images. In a first phase, the method uses algorithms that automatically compute the viewpoint of each photograph as well as a sparse 3D geometric representation of the scene that is imaged. Afterwards, dense reconstruction algorithms are applied to yield a three-dimensional surface model. After georeferencing this model, it can be used to create any kind of orthophoto out of the initial aerial views. To prove the benefits of this approach in comparison to the most common ways of georeferencing aerial imagery, several archaeological case studies are presented. Not only will they showcase the easy workflow and accuracy of the results, but they will also prove that this approach moves beyond current restrictions due to its applicability to datasets that were previously thought to be unsuited for convenient georeferencing.     

Leadership and Coordination in Legislatures: The "President" of the First American Congress: 1774-1789

We analyze the viability of the office of President of Congress as a source of leadership in the Continental and Confederation Congresses.1 Our primary interest is in institutionally grounded, as opposed to and separate from charismatic or personal, bases for leadership. We show that virtually every institutional support for leadership power recognized to be at work in the modern Congress was absent in the Continental Congresses. We trace the origins of these limitations on leadership power and potential to a series of decisions taken during 1774 and 1775 and substantially maintained and even elaborated over the fifteen-year history of the Congress. The result was that even though the institution was awash in "leaders," men like Virginia's Peyton Randolph, Massachusetts' John Hancock, and New York's John Jay, stable and effective "leadership" from the office of President of Congress proved to be impossible.     

Diet uniformity at an early farming community in northwest Anatolia (Turkey): carbon and nitrogen isotope studies of bone collagen at Aktopraklık

Aktoprakl?k is a settlement site composed of three areas (A–C) in the Marmara region of northwest Anatolia, with phases of occupation that date to the Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic periods, mid-seventh to mid-sixth millennium bc (ca. 6400–5600 cal. bc). Here, we present 54 human and fauna bone collagen stable isotope results from the site, alongside five modern fish bone collagen isotope results, to examine the nature of human diet. The stable isotope analysis shows that human diet comprised the consumption of select C₃ terrestrial resources, with a preference for domestic animal proteins over plant proteins. The evidence to date suggests that animal husbandry was at the forefront of Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic subsistence practices. No isotopic difference in humans is observed between biological sex or between areas B and C at the settlement.     

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis on human remains from the Early Mesolithic site of La Vergne (Charente-Maritime,France)

We report here the results of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of human and faunal remains from La Vergne (Charente-Maritime, western France), a rare Early Mesolithic burial site (ca. 8500–8000 cal BC). The results for nine humans (average δ¹³C = −19.3‰; δ¹⁵N = 9.4‰) indicate a strongly terrestrial diet, dominated by animal protein, with the possibility of, at best, a slight contribution of marine-derived protein. Given lower sea-levels in the early Holocene, the site would have been some 60–80 km from the sea at the time of its use; nevertheless, contacts with the coast are shown by the presence of numerous marine shell beads in the graves. In the light of the stable isotope results, it is suggested here that such contacts most likely took the form of exchange with coastal communities whose remains now lie underwater.