Stone Tool-Making and Brain Activation: Position Emission Tomography (PET) Studies

This study introduces to archaeology a new experimental technique for examining the relationship between stone tool-making and brain function. The principal focus of this exploratory study was the development of effective methods for the identification and examination of the regions of the modern human brain recruited during the manufacture of simple (Oldowan or Mode I) stone tools. The functional brain imaging technique employed, Positron Emission Tomography (PET), examines task-related brain activity by assessing changes in regional cerebral blood flow during specific tasks. The single-subject study reported here represents a heuristic, initial exploration of this subject. Results indicate that during stone tool-making there was heavy activation of cortical and subcortical regions of the brain associated with motor and somatosensory processing. Especially interesting was the high degree of activation in areas known to be involved with complex spatial cognition requiring integration of diverse sensory inputs (e.g. vision, touch, and proprioception, or sense of body position and motion). Expansion of such higher-order association areas has been particularly important during the course of human evolution. This single-subject pilot study demonstrates the application of the PET brain imaging technique to the study of early stone technologies and suggests hypotheses to be tested in more comprehensive studies in the future.     

The Amarna Stone Village Survey and life on the urban periphery in New Kingdom Egypt

Abstract

Recent fieldwork at Amarna, the short-lived capital city of Egypt in the late 2nd millennium B.C., added a second area of peripheral settlement, the Stone Village, to the well-known Workmen’s Village, the subject of an intensive excavation campaign in the 1970s and 1980s. Both villages were evidently involved in tomb cutting and/or stone quarrying, but the Stone Village is smaller, conveys a particularly vernacular style of architecture, and seems to have had less state support than the Workmen’s Village. This paper describes the Stone Village as a source for the study of urban life in ancient Egypt. The two village sites offer a case study of the tensions that arose from controlling human populations in a border zone and from longestablished belief frameworks concerning desert landscapes and sacred space.     

TL DATING OF BURNT LITHICS FROM BLOMBOS CAVE (SOUTH AFRICA): FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR THE ANTIQUITY OF MODERN HUMAN BEHAVIOUR*

This paper presents the first TL dates for burnt quartzites and silcretes from the Still Bay layers of Blombos Cave (South Africa). These layers contained engraved ochres and marine shell beads that could be an early manifestation of symbolic and thus ‘modern’ behaviour by the Middle Stone Age humans. The procedure devised to calculate the ages is presented in detail, particularly with regard to internal microdosimetry, because the problems faced in estimating the dose rates require an approach different from the one usually used on flints and sediments. A mean age of 74 ± 5 ka was obtained for five burnt lithics unearthed in the BBC M1 member of the Still Bay layers. This result is in good agreement with both ESR dates on teeth and OSL dates on sediment, and demonstrates the great antiquity of the archaeological remains discovered at Blombos Cave.     

UNDER THE HAMMER: RESIDUES RESULTING FROM PRODUCTION AND MICROWEAR ON EXPERIMENTAL STONE TOOLS*

This paper presents the results of an experimental programme investigating the effects of production processes on stone tools and their interference with use‐related features. In the first part of the experimental programme, a series of flint flakes was retouched with different kinds of hammers in order to assess the extent and nature of percussion residues. After careful environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) observation and energy‐dispersive X‐ray (EDX) analysis, the retouched flakes were thoroughly cleaned and the underlying flint deformation was recorded. The second part of the experimental programme involved selecting several uncleaned retouched pieces for use in short woodworking, hide‐processing and butchery experiments. These pieces were observed and analysed before, during and after use. Some of the percussion features proved to be surprisingly resistant to use, and in some cases turned out to be strikingly similar in appearance to use‐generated features.     

GEOCHEMICAL PROVENANCE OF OBSIDIAN ARTEFACTS FROM THE MSA SITE OF PORC EPIC,ETHIOPIA*

Obsidian geochemical analysis has become an indispensable tool in archaeological research and has wide applications. However, in spite of the abundance of geological and archaeological obsidian, there has been virtually no such investigation in Ethiopia. Recent instrumental characterization of 31 obsidian artefacts from the Middle Stone Age site of Porc Epic and numerous obsidian geological sources show that artefacts were being transported from as far as 250 km away. We believe this has relevance to the understanding of the emergence of modern human behaviour.     

NATUFIAN TRADE/EXCHANGE IN BASALT IMPLEMENTS: EVIDENCE FROM NORTHERN ISRAEL*

Three Natufian base camps in Israel—el-Wad, Hayonim and Eynan—have nearby basalt sources, but K/Ar ages indicate that their inhabitants obtained implements, made of Miocene-Pliocene and Quaternary basalts, further afield. The nearest locations, in which raw material sources representing the whole range of dated basalts occur within a relatively restricted area, are to be found east of the Jordan Valley, suggesting movement of the material some 100 km to el-Wad, 60 km to Hayonim and 20 km to Eynan. The exact nature of these longdistance contacts and the underlying social and economic systems and mechanisms are yet to be determined.     

VARIETIES AND SOURCES OF ARTEFACTUAL OBSIDIAN IN THE MIDDLE STONE AGE OF THE MIDDLE AWASH,ETHIOPIA*

Recent investigation of the geochemical provenance of obsidian artefacts from spatially and temporally variable archaeological sites in Ethiopia has shown the diversity of geological sources and concomitant differences in the transport of raw material to archaeological sites, thus allowing reconstruction of the utilization of raw material by early hominids as well as recent humans. We recognize 30 compositionally different obsidians that were used at the Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeological sites of Aduma (A8), Halibee Herto, Aladi Springs and Porc Epic in the Middle Awash region. Probable sources of nine of these obsidians are Adokoma, Ayelu, Ida'ale, Assebot, Asboli, Gira‐Ale and Kone. Many compositional types are confined to a single site, but others are shared between sites, although shared obsidians between sites more than 300 km apart are exceptional.     

Fuel Fodder and Faeces: An Ethnographic and Botanical Study of Dung Fuel Use in Central Anatolia

Abstract

The Norse inhabited Greenland between AD 1000 and AD 1500 and, toward the end of the occupation, according to archaeological evidence, they were predominately marine mammal hunters. Despite the fact that marine resources became important for subsistence, the Norse Greenlanders settled the area in o?der to farm. This is indicated by site locations, faunal material, archaeobotanical, and palynological evidence.

Phytolith analysis from a quern stone, likely made from stone of local origin, found at Gården Under Sandet, a Norse farmstead in Greenland, was examined to determine if there was any evidence indicating domestic cereal processing. The phytoliths found on the quern stone can be associated with grasses and sedges, but the absence of dendritic phytoliths likely indicates that the quern stone was not used to grind seed. This preliminary study demonstrates that information about Norse agriculture may be obtained by examining the phytolith remains from a quern stone.     

REVIEW ARTICLE USE-WEAR ANALYSIS: THE STATE OF THE ART

This paper is a review of the recent developments in use-wear analysis. The focus is on some key issues: polish formation, quantification of use-wear, residue analysis and the way these related themes have affected methods of use-wear analysis. A brief history of the development of use-wear analysis is presented and a discussion of blind tests, expert systems (explained at length in the ‘Appendix’) and how use-wear analysis can be incorporated into the chaîne opératoire approach to the interpretation of Stone Age sites.     

FINGERPRINTING ANCIENT EGYPTIAN QUARRIES: PRELIMINARY RESULTS USING LASER ABLATION MICROPROBE-INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETRY*

Microchemical analysis of minerals present in pottery and stone artefacts may help determine their provenance. Electron microprobe major element analyses of augite suggest that minor elements (Ti0₂,MnO, Aa₂O) are important in fingerprinting basalts. This points to the potential usefulness of trace elements. Augite present in six basalt samples (representing all known/suspected Pharaonic basalt quarries in northern and middle Egypt) and basaltic temper fragments in two New Kingdom pottery sherds was analysed for 28 trace elements (Sr, Ba, Th, U, Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu. Sc, V, Cr, Ni, Ga) by laser ablation microprobe-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LAM-ICP-MS, laserprobe). Cluster and discriminant analysis indicate that (1) laserprobe trace element data are more effective at fingerprinting basalts than conventional electron-microprobe data and (2) basaltic temper in the two sherds does not match any of the quarries. Microbeam techniques providing trace element data may represent the future for mineral-based provenance studies.