Charcoal scarcity in Epigravettian settlements with mammoth bone dwellings: the taphonomic evidence from Mezhyrich (Ukraine)

Fuel management during the Paleolithic periods is an important issue to understand past human subsistence. Numerous Palaeolithic sites relate an abundance of burnt bones in hearths and an absence or scarcity of wood charcoals, which leads studies to focus on burnt bone remains and the use of bones in hearths. Few works take into account the micro-residues of wood charcoals which can still be present in hearth areas and excavated sediments. We studied the Epigravettian site with mammoth bone dwellings of Mezhyrich (Ukraine) previously characterized by its high content of burnt bones and an “absence” of wood charcoal during the so-called mammoth steppe. The presence or absence and proportions of both wood charcoals and burnt bones were quantified in macro-, meso- and microscale sediment size fractions by an image analysis method. Our results show that excavations during field-works at Mezhyrich give only a partial image of the original anthracological record and that most charcoal materials are lost with standard archaeological and anthracological approaches. The scarcity of charcoals in this site was possibly due to an important mass reduction accentuated by the addition of bones in hearths. By applying our protocol we recovered a significant amount of wood charcoals which provides the first ¹⁴C dates from charcoals at Mezhyrich. Numerous charcoals are identified contributing subsequent information about vegetation, environment and burning practices. They indicate, by comparison with pollen data already collected, the presence of forest patches in a mammoth steppe landscape, which might have influenced the collecting behavior of Epigravettian populations.     

FROM VALUE CHAIN TO VALUE CREATING ECOLOGY

The metaphor of a “value creating ecology” is developed to describe the operation of the creative industries. This encapsulates three important trends, namely the shift from consumers to co‐creators of value; the shift from thinking about product value to thinking about network value; and the shift from thinking about cooperation or competition to thinking about co‐opetition. Underlying this metaphor is recognition of the need to consider both public mechanisms as well as the market when framing creative industries development policy. Policy implications for human capital, urban policy and sectoral infrastructure are described.     

Sequential Incisions on a Cave Bear Bone from the Middle Paleolithic of Pešturina Cave,Serbia

We present the detailed analysis of a cervical vertebra from a cave bear, found at Pe?turina cave, Serbia, in a Mousterian archaeological level dated by radiocarbon at 43.5–44.6 kyr cal BP, and by ESR to between 93.5 and 102.5 kyr BP. Identified as a portion of the cranial articular facet, the fragment displays ten subparallel grooves. The microscopic study of these grooves and other surface modification present on the bone fragment, conducted with multifocus optical and confocal microscopes and complemented by a taphonomic analysis of the associated faunal assemblage, supports the hypothesis that the incisions were made by humans. Results are used to critically examine ambiguities implicit in the analysis and interpretation of early engravings, a category of material culture that has been playing a key role in the identification of early instances of symbolically mediated behavior.     

评蒙古帝国衰亡对蒙古社会发展的影响

成吉思汗建立了蒙古帝国,以千户制巩固了统治,国土横跨欧亚。至忽必烈在中原大地建立了蒙元王朝。１３６８年元朝灭亡后,众多蒙古人返回蒙古本土,与当地统治者发生权力斗争。蒙古本土也因无法为骤然增多的人口提供给养而导致经济崩溃。蒙古人不断侵扰明朝边境,迫使永乐皇帝率兵亲征,更加剧了蒙古困难局面。重建蒙古强力政权的努力一再破产。直至达延可汗,蒙古再现生机。     

高地亚洲三年探险记

伯希和亲口叙述了他于1906～1908年在新疆喀什、库车等地进行长时间勘察、发掘．收集了大量文物,尔后又到甘肃敦煌,通过诱骗等手段,获取大量敦煌宝藏并顺利运走的过程。法国朝野各界因此把它视为“英雄”,举行了盛大欢迎会。本文就是伯希和在欢迎会上的汇报演讲。     

Cutmarks and hominid handedness

Handedness in humans has been linked to brain lateralization and the evolution of language, but recent data on chimpanzee tool use suggest that the lateralization of hand and brain function may have instead preceded the time when the hominid and panid lineages split. The hominid paleontological and archaeological records are two sources for testing this hypothesis by helping to establish the antiquity of hominid handedness. As such, several methods have been proposed for identifying traces of hominid handedness in those records. Included among those methods is using the orientation of stone tool cutmarks on ungulate limb bone fragments. Here we report on an experiment created to test the accuracy and efficacy of one such method proposed by Bromage and his colleagues [Bromage, T.G., Boyde, A., 1984. Microscopic criteria for the determination of directionality of cutmarks on bone. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 65, 359–366; Bromage, T.G., Bermudez de Castro, J.M., Jalvo, Y.F., 1991. The SEM in taphonomic research and its application to studies of cutmarks generally and the determination of handedness specifically. Anthropologie 29, 163–169]. Our data indicate that the methodology proposed by Bromage and colleagues can yield accurate results in an experimental setting. However, considering the complexity of uncontrolled (i.e., non-experimental) human butchery, we question the method's efficacy for investigating the antiquity of human handedness as potentially recorded in the zooarchaeological record. Our results highlight the limitations of current approaches, but it is hoped that they will also stimulate new, more productive techniques that use the archaeological record to discern the development of human handedness and its evolutionary significance.