Archaeology and Climate Change: Evidence of a Flash-flood During the LIA in Asturias (NW Spain) and its Social Consequences

This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary study of the impact of climate change during the Little Ice Age on a medieval village in Asturias, Spain. The research focused on tracing evidence for a catastrophic flood that buried the village beneath a thick layer of debris, including examining the remains of structures and agricultural land sealed beneath the debris, and considering the social and economic implications of the event in the subsequent history of the area. First, a series of test pits was excavated within the area of the modern village to map the full extent of the damage. Following this, analysis of the stratigraphy, architectural remains, datable artefacts and radiocarbon dating contributed further details, while historical evidence revealed the privatisation of the agricultural land following the catastrophe. The findings offer a snapshot of climate change and its social contexts in a specific, under-studied area with possible implications for the study of risk behaviour and disaster response in currently inhabited areas.     

Of Ships and Deer: early Western Mediterranean ship graffiti reappraised

Re‐analysis of the Hal Tarxien prehistoric ship graffiti, the incised figure on a pottery sherd, from the Neolithic site of Grapceva cave on a Croatian island, known as the ‘Hvar boat’, and the Villanovian‐Etruscan bronze razor from Bologna allow the last two to be reinterpreted as animals rather than ships, and the first to be dated to the Bronze Age Cemetery phase of the site. These findings require the earliest ship graffiti in the western Mediterranean to be reconsidered.     

Micromorphological Study of Concotto Surfaces Protected by the Avellino Eruption in 3945 ± 10 cal. BP at the Early Bronze Age of Afragola Village in Southern Italy

ABSTRACT

The term Concotto refers to fragments or patches of hard heated clay that derive from living surfaces, walls, and ovens. Concotto fragments are found throughout the Italian peninsula and date from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. Current studies express contradictory opinions about whether or not the Concottos on living surfaces represent intentionally constructed surfaces or the secondary products of the contact between hot embers and sediments. This study uses micromorphological analysis to investigate the function and composition of Concotto surfaces from several domestic structures at the Early Bronze Age village of Afragola in southern Italy. Afragola is an exceptionally preserved agricultural village that was covered by almost 1?m of volcanic ash during the Vesuvius eruption in 3945?±?10 cal. BP. The Concottos at Afragola are hard, red surfaces that are typically associated with burned materials. Micromorphological analysis reveals that the Concottos were intentionally made by laying down patches of clay and then heating them to create a hard, flat surface. This study explores the potential uses of the Concotto as cooking surfaces during the Early Bronze Age of southern Italy.     

Late Holocene Artifact Patterns and the Introduction of Herding to Semi-Arid Coastal Namaqualand,South Africa

ABSTRACT

Considerable change occurred in the Late Holocene Later Stone Age of Namaqualand, northwestern South Africa. Focusing on stone artifacts, pottery, and ostrich eggshell beads, the cultural sequence for the area is described. Two additions are identified, complicating the traditional model for the introduction of herding into the country. From the mid-Holocene onward, lithic assemblages are based on milky and/or clear quartz and cryptocrystalline silica and initially contain many backed tools with scrapers more common during the first millennium BC. These are hunter-gatherer assemblages. During the final centuries BC, backed bladelet-rich assemblages based on clear quartz appear, with the earliest examples demonstrating typological continuity with the existing assemblages. About 1,500 years ago, expedient assemblages lacking retouch and based on poorer quality quartz appear. The three types co-occur during the last 1,500 years, occasionally in combination with one another. This contrasts strongly with other parts of South Africa where just two distinct assemblage types are identified, suggesting that the hunter-gatherer-herder dichotomy is not universally valid. The artifact patterns between about 200 cal BC and cal AD 500 and the introduction of livestock suggest considerable cultural and social change, heralding the onset of a local Neolithic, but the exact mechanisms remain unclear.     

From Alloy Composition to Alloying Practice: Chinese Bronzes

We propose a new methodology based on standard statistical processes for displaying and rigorously comparing the alloy composition of archaeological bronze alloys. Although traditional approaches using visual comparisons of histograms of alloying elements in an assemblage of archaeological objects are adequate for observing differences between these distributions, we argue that differences in sample size cannot be adequately accounted for without using a statistical approach. We demonstrate this methodology by comparing the alloy composition of bronzes from the sequence of Bronze Age cultures in Central China—Erlitou, Erligang (Zhengzhou, or early Shang), Anyang (late Shang) and Western Zhou. We suggest that this approach allows the identification and rigorous comparison of ‘regional alloying practices’, which in turn enables us to link the alloy composition of the objects with the intentions and skills of foundry workers.     

Economic Change in the Prehistoric Hexi Corridor (4800–2200 bp), North‐West China

It is widely known that the Hexi Corridor in North‐West China lies at a hub of trans‐Eurasian cultural exchange. Its role became increasingly important during the late prehistoric period, particularly as the ancient Silk Road began to be used. While the profound transformation of local cultural characteristics in the late Neolithic and the Bronze Age is well documented, the detailed economic dynamics of cultural evolution have not yet been clearly illustrated. In this paper, we report on significant new zooarchaeological and faunal isotopic data from the Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in the Hexi Corridor. The primary objective is to systematically reconstruct the prehistoric economic context of this area by combining these new data with previous archaeological studies and radiocarbon dates. We argue that the primary economic activities of local inhabitants changed dramatically in the prehistoric Hexi Corridor. This was marked by agricultural production at c.4800–4000 bp , agro‐pastoral production at c.4000–3000 bp and animal husbandry at c.3000–2200 bp , respectively. The major subsistence strategies of these three periods show considerable variation. It is very likely that these transformations of economic patterns in the prehistoric Hexi Corridor were primarily triggered by transcontinental cultural exchange and, to a lesser extent, by climate change.     

四川会理县李家坪遗址新石器时代遗存发掘简报

2018年3月至6月,为配合金沙江下游河段的乌东德水电站建设,四川省文物考古研究院等对位于四川会理县新安傣族乡新开田村的李家坪遗址进行了考古发掘,发掘面积1000平方米。发现新石器时代晚期的房址、灰坑等数十座遗迹,出土百余件遗物及大量陶片标本,为研究城河流域乃至金沙江中下游地区新石器时代晚期考古学文化谱系提供了重要实物资料。     

山东省菏泽市定陶区何楼遗址大汶口早期动物资源利用初探

何楼遗址位于鲁西南地区,遗存的年代分别属于新石器时代、汉代及金元时期,其中新石器时代遗存十分丰富,有助于认识和了解这一地区考古学文化格局的演变。何楼遗址出土了较为丰富的动物骨骼遗存,其中哺乳动物以猪为主,鹿等野生动物也占有一定的比例,此外还包括少量的贝类、鱼类、爬行类和鸟类等。通过动物遗存研究,对于认识该地区的古代自然环境、古人对动物资源的利用和当时的生业特点具有重要意义。     

Between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic: nautical iconography in the south‐west Iberian Peninsula

This study presents two new representations of ships, recently found in Casas del Turuñuelo, Spain, and dated to the end of the 5th century BC. They depict river barges, which supports the importance of river navigation in structuring the central Guadiana region in the Tartessian era. The systematization of all known ship iconography found in the area from the Early Iron Age makes it possible to highlight their homogeneity, and their Mediterranean hallmark. This serves to emphasize the interconnectivity that existed in Iberia's south‐west, fostering a process of cultural hybridization of which the vessels were both result and vehicle.     

About two seal-impressed jars from Tell Abraq (Emirate of Umm al-Quwain). New evidence for intercultural networks in the lower Arabian Gulf in the late 2nd – beginning of the 1st millennium BC

Ongoing excavations at Tell Abraq (Emirate of Umm al-Quwain, U.A.E.) are revealing new aspects of this multiperiod site, which was occupied from c. 2500 BC to 300 AD. Together with substantial architecture dated to the 2nd and 1st millennia BC, relevant assemblages of archaeological materials are being collected and dated to different phases of the site’s life. Among this material, exceptional is the discovery of two jars bearing the impression of two different cylinder seals, which will be presented here. Seal impressions on any media are extremely rare in the whole of south-eastern Arabia and strongly indicate a foreign provenance for the jars. Their iconographic study, the fabric and morphological parallels for the jars, and probable chronology will be discussed, as this can highlight transmarine connections during the late 2nd-first half of the 1st millennium BC, as well as provide new data to address chronological issues in south-eastern Iran itself.