Mitochondrial DNA from 3000-year old chickens at the Teouma site,Vanuatu

Chickens were part of the Lapita cultural complex, transported into and through the Pacific by prehistoric colonists; as such they can be used as a proxy for tracking prehistoric migration and interaction. The Lapita site of Teouma in Vanuatu is well known for the recovery of complete dentate stamped pots and a cemetery containing the largest collection of Lapita period skeletons ever found. Chicken bones recovered from these excavations provide the first ancient DNA sequences from any commensal organism directly associated with a Lapita context. The ancient mtDNA sequences obtained from two Teouma chicken bones are compared with previously published archaeologically derived ancient DNA sequences to extend our understanding of the spread of chickens in Pacific prehistory. The results also show that the haplogroup E signature was present in very early populations of chickens transported into Remote Oceania. This study also adds to the suite of available data relating to isotopic signatures for commensal animals during the early settlement of Vanuatu and may reveal a different diet for Teouma chickens than those from other early prehistoric assemblages in the Pacific.     

Lapita subsistence strategies and food consumption patterns in the community of Teouma (Efate,Vanuatu)

The subsistence strategies of the Lapita populations (3100–2800 BP), the first colonisers of the pristine environments of the islands of Eastern Melanesia and Western Polynesia, have been a matter of ongoing debate for decades. Opinions have ranged between the two extremes of Lapita colonisers being either characterised as highly mobile foragers to fully horticultural communities. To further address the question, this paper presents stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic data obtained from analyses of human and animal collagen samples from the site of Teouma (Efate, Vanuatu) dated to between c. 3000–2500 BP. The isotopic signatures obtained from 28 samples (23 human and 5 animal), interpreted in combination with isotopic information from several coastal and insular environments, suggest a diet primarily made up of terrestrially derived animal protein with lesser contributions from vegetable produce and inshore marine species. Comparisons linking the isotopic data gleaned from the Teouma individuals and Lapita subsistence patterns reconstructed through archaeozoological and archaeobotanical remains support the hypothesis of a mixed economy, that included terrestrial foraging, inshore marine exploitation and a low level of food production for at least some of the earliest Lapita colonists in Vanuatu.     

Pre-Clovis in Texas? A critical assessment of the “Buttermilk Creek Complex”

Lithic artifacts from the lowest strata of the Debra L. Friedkin site, located on Buttermilk Creek in central Texas, have been interpreted as an undisturbed pre-Clovis assemblage (Waters et al., 2011a). Stone tools and debitage were recovered from sediments stratified just below diagnostic Clovis artifacts and dated by OSL to between 13.2 and >15.5 cal kya. Invoking commonly observed cultural and natural site formation processes, we offer an alternative explanation of the “Buttermilk Creek Complex” as a Clovis assemblage in secondary association with the dated sediments.     

HOUSEHOLD LOCATION AND RACE: A 20‐YEAR RETROSPECTIVE*

ABSTRACT In research conducted some 20 years ago, we elucidated the starkly lower suburbanization propensities of black households in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The paper showed that simulated closure of large socio‐economic gaps between blacks and whites did little to diminish prevailing high levels of residential segregation or otherwise enhance moves by black households to areas of educational, employment, and housing opportunity. Some two decades later and in the wake of significant urban evolution, this paper assesses anew racial variations in residential location choice. Results of the multinomial logit (MNL) analysis indicate large, persistent racial differentials in intrametropolitan residential location choice. While black location choice in 2000 was relatively more dispersed than in 1980, it remained remarkably concentrated in D.C. and Prince George's County. As in our prior analysis, results showed that large simulated gains in black economic and educational status had little effect on prevailing racial segregation. These findings underscore the ongoing, limited access of black households to schooling, employment, and homeownership opportunities available outside traditional areas of settlement. In marked contrast, the locational choices of Latino and immigrant households bore greater similarity to those of whites and were more sensitive to improvements in socio‐economic status.     

Linking Land and Navy: archaeological investigations at the site of the Woolwich Royal Dockyard,south‐eastern England

This paper outlines the archaeological evidence found at the demolished Royal Naval Dockyard at Woolwich for the development and construction of dockyard structures of the 18th to early‐19th centuries. This is set within the framework provided by historic, documentary, map and historic‐model evidence. The results of earlier excavations at the same facility are also reviewed. The themes covered include; the interplay of ‘carpentry’ versus ‘shipwrightry’ in dockyard construction, aspects of naval timber‐supply and landscape, the recycling of ships' timbers, dockyard craft specialisation and changing relative sea‐levels. © 2011 Pre‐Construct Archaeology Limited     

Coire a’ Cheud‐chnoic,the ‘hummocky moraine’ of Glen Torridon

EUROPE

France; A Geographical Survey. By P. Pinchemel, translated by C. Trollope and A. J. Hunt. 454 pp. Illustrations, Tables, Bibliography. Bell, London, 1969. 100s.

Italy. By George Kish. 8 × 5 1/4. 125 pp. 12 figures and index. Van Nostrand, New York, 1969. $1.lb95.

AFRICA

A Historical Geography of Ghana. By Kwamima B. Dickson. 15#lb5 × 23.lb5 cms. xiv + 379 pp., 58 maps and diagrams, 7 tables, appendices, bibliography, index. Cambridge U.P., London, 1969. 150s.

The Soil Resources of Tropical Africa. Edited by R. P. Moss. 8 1/2 × 5 1/2. Cambridge University Press, 1968. £2.

ASIA

Afghanistan. By Ludolph Fischer. Geomedical Monograph Series No. 2, 12 × 8 1/2. Text (German and English), 16 plates and 10 maps. Springer‐Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg and New York, 1968. DM48, $12.lb00.

GEOLOGY AND GEOMORPHOLOGY

Readings in the Earth Sciences, Vols. 1 and 2. 11 1/4 × 8 1/2 Published W. H. Freeman, San Francisco, 1969. 94s. each.

Fife and Angus Geology. By A. R. MacGregor. 266 pp. Blackwood, Edinburgh and London, 1968. 21s.

METEOROLOGY

Essentials of Meteorology. By D. H. McIntosh and A. S. Thorn. 8 1/2 × 5 1/2. xv + 239 pp., numerous illustrations, answers to problems. Taylor and Francis, London. 20s.

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

Industrial Britain: The North West. By David M. Smith. 10 × 6 1/4, 271 pp., 36 figures, 31 plates, bibliography and statistical appendix. David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1969. 95s.

Industrial Demand for Water: A study of South East England. By Judith Anne Rees. 8 1/2 × 5 1/2 L.S.E. Research Monographs 3, xiv + 194 pp., Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969, London. 65s.

CARTOGRAPHY AND MAPS

The Antonine Wall. Ordnance Survey 2 1/2 Inch Map. 1969. 11s.

Maps and Air Photographs. By G. C. Dickinson. 10 × 17 1/2. xiv + 286 pp. Edward Arnold, London, 1969. 45s.

Atlas Four. 10 1/2 × 8 1/2. 115pages, + index 60 pages. Collins/Longmans, 1969. 15s.

EDUCATIONAL

Learning Through the Environment. By Muriel F. S. Hopkins. 7 3/4 × 5 1/8. 151 pages, 26 figures. Longmans, London. 1969. 15s.

Investigating Geography. By J. Philip Dodd. 9 3/4 × 7 1/4. 214 pp., 192 figures. Heinemann, London, 1969. 15s.

The London Regional Geographies. Book 3: Asia. By Leonard Hadlow and Reginald Abbott. 8 1/2 × 5 1/2. 294 pp., 145 figs. U. of London Press, 1969. 18s.

A Geography of Manufacturing. By H. R. Jarrett. 8 3/4 × 5 3/4. xvii + 349 pp. 67 illustrations. Macdonald &; Evans, 1969, London. 35s.

The Mediterranean Lands. By J. Brannigan and H. R. Jarrett. The New Certificate Geography Series: Advanced Level. 9 × 5l. xiv + 620, 150 illustrations. Macdonald and Evans Ltd., 1969. 38s.