New dates from Ushki-1, Kamchatka,confirm 13,000 cal BP age for earliest Paleolithic occupation

For many years cultural layer 7 at the Ushki sites, Kamchatka was considered to represent the earliest human occupation of Beringia, because four radiocarbon dates indicated an age of 16,000–17,000 calendar years ago (cal BP). In 2003, however, Goebel et al. reported that layer 7 more likely formed only 13,000 cal BP, nearly 4000 years later than N.N. Dikov, the site’s primary excavator, originally reported. Some researchers have downplayed the significance of the new dates, continuing to regard Dikov’s early dates as evidence that at least some of the hearth and dwelling features previously excavated at Ushki-1 date to as early as 17,000 cal BP. Here we present four new radiocarbon dates (and two previously unpublished dates) on curated charcoal from hearth features excavated at Ushki-1 more than 20 years ago. They indicate that these hearths and associated dwelling features date to about 13,000 cal BP. We now know 15 radiocarbon dates on charcoal from a variety of features and profiles across Ushki-1 and Ushki-5 that indicate the age of layer 7 is about 13,000 cal BP. We discount the four 16,000–17,000 cal BP dates, first, because two of them came from a deeply dug human burial pit and were likely secondarily introduced into the burial; second, because provenience data for the other two dated samples were never reported and do not exist in the records of the radiocarbon laboratories that produced them; and, third, because sediments immediately underlying layer 7 at Ushki-1 are only a few centuries earlier than 13,000 cal BP, providing an important lower-limiting age for the layer-7 occupation. We conclude that the age of all of the layer-7 features at Ushki-1 and Ushki-5 should be considered to be about 13,000 cal BP, at least until the earlier obtained old dates of 16,000–17,000 cal BP can be replicated.     

Of stones and bones: Interpreting site function in the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic of Western Europe

Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic excavations have usually yielded both artifacts and faunal remains in a variety of environmental settings across a latitudinal range from Belgium to Portugal. In some cases there seem to be functional relationships within levels between ungulate species and skeletal elements on the one hand and associated lithic and osseous artifacts on the other. In other cases—perhaps because of their nature as occupational and depositional palimpsests—the relationships are murkier. Examples examined here include La Riera and El Mirón caves (coastal and montane Cantabrian Spain, respectively), Dufaure rockshelter (Pyrenean lowland France), Magrite cave, Pape rockshelter, and Bois Laiterie cave and the Huccorgne open-air site (Ardennes upland, transitional zone, and central plateau of Belgium, respectively), and the Vidigal shell midden (coastal southern Portugal). The interpretation of site function (e.g., multi-purpose residential site, specialized logistical camp, or transit bivouac) is a matter of pragmatic, interdisciplinary, situation-specific analyses, and parsimony.     

Investigating links between ecology and bifacial tool types in Western Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum

We apply Eco-Cultural Niche Modeling (ECNM), using the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-Set Prediction, to reconstruct the ecological niches exploited by Middle Solutrean and Upper Solutrean populations during the latter stages of Heinrich Event 2 and the early part of the Last Glacial Maximum, respectively. We focus on the Upper Solutrean technocomplex and its regionally distinct styles of hunting weaponry to investigate whether regional cultural variability reflects a link between material culture and ecology. Our analytical approach uses archaeological and geographic data in conjunction with high-resolution paleoclimatic simulations and vegetation reconstructions for the two climatic phases in question. Our results indicate that cultural choices behind the production of specific projectile point types have at some level an ecological basis and are linked to particular environments. We also find that the identified pattern of Upper Solutrean territoriality has an ecological foundation, but that its stylistic expression in the variation of diagnostic armature types is likely a byproduct of cultural drift. We argue that ECNM is an effective means with which to evaluate the paleoecological pertinence of archaeologically defined artifact types and to identify the ecological and cultural mechanisms underlying material culture variability.     

Comments on Graf, Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 2009 “ “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”: evaluating the radiocarbon chronology of the middle and late Upper Paleolithic in the Enisei River valley, south-central Siberia”

Here I present a critical evaluation of the analysis conducted by Graf [Graf, K.E., 2009. “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”: Evaluating the radiocarbon chronology of the middle and late Upper Paleolithic in the Enisei River valley, south-central Siberia. Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 694–707] of the Paleolithic radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dataset for the Upper Paleolithic sites in the Yenisei River basin of Central Siberia. Graf applied a rating system to the corpus of existing ¹⁴C data for the region, and announced some new ¹⁴C dates. The results obtained, however, are highly biased due to several factors, including prejudice concerning the higher accuracy of the AMS technique in ¹⁴C dating and that ¹⁴C dates from the same cultural component should overlap with plus–minus two sigmas; ambiguities with the subdivision of the Lateglacial period; artificially high sample selection criteria; incomplete factual material; and unjustifiable and misleading statements on the ¹⁴C dating of fossil bones and the issue of Last Glacial Maximum human presence in Siberia. As a result, the conclusions made by Graf [Graf, K.E., 2009. “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”: Evaluating the radiocarbon chronology of the middle and late Upper Paleolithic in the Enisei River valley, south-central Siberia. Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 694–707] are unconvincing. New analysis is necessary in order to improve the quality of treatment of the original data for the Upper Paleolithic ¹⁴C chronology in the Yenisei River basin.     

Fish as diet resource in North Spain during the Upper Paleolithic

During the last glacial maximum, the west European modern humans adapted to adverse conditions and their populations subsisted exploiting the natural resources available. Fish were always present as a source of animal protein, although their importance in the human diet and their contribution to the expansion of humans has not been fully explored. Based on the compilation of zooarchaeological evidences from north Spanish sites we have discovered a constant pattern of exploitation of freshwater fish (Salmonids) with high incidence in the human diet during the Upper Paleolithic. Shifts in the exploitation of marine resources can be explained by climate-related geographical changes. The characteristics of salmonids that make them target species for supporting human survival in adverse climate periods are identified and discussed.     

Cave sediments,upper pleistocene stratigraphy and mousterian facies in Cantabrian Spain

Archaeological sediments are analysed from karst cave columns in Cantabrian Spain: Cueva Morín, El Pendo, the Castillo cave complex (including La Flecha, Las Chimeneas, La Pasiega, Las Monedas), Hornos de la Peña and Cobalejos. External sediment influx, including loess, is calibrated by an index of cave and slope run-off energy, while other features (slope and roof rubble, chemical precipitates, cryoturbations, fine soil derivatives, and cultural components) are discussed. The key sequences (Morín, El Pendo, Castillo) are each interpreted in local terms and then combined into a regional climatostratigraphy that includes 40 environmental phases within deep-sea isotope stages 2–5. Trends in run-off energy (reflecting slope stability), temperature, and summer-moisture are rarely in phase, indicating complex environmental change. Mid-Pleistocene and older deposits exist but have largely been destroyed, explaining the apparent absence of Acheulian settlement. Mousterian occupation is verified by isotope stage 5b, and two or three Mousterian facies that span 25–50,000 years are coeval in several caves, regardless of the direction of climatic oscillations. This suggests the flexible lithic technology of a single population, maintaining an adaptive steady state despite repeated environmental changes. By contrast, the distinct upper palaeolithic industries each span only a few millennia, but in part overlap temporally within the region between 35,000 and 9500 bp.     

中国中东部新石器中晚期玉文化遗址分布的时空特征

新石器中晚期(8000～3000a B.P.)玉器从石器中分出形成相对独立的玉文化.玉文化遗址是玉文化保留至今的载体,本文通过田野考古资料结合陆地卫星遥感图像分析技术探讨我国中东部各流域玉文化遗址的时空分布特征,得出如下结论:(1)玉文化扩散包括扩展扩散和迁移扩散两种形式;(2)玉文化扩散具有纬度扩散性、经度扩散性和垂...     

The transatlantic Muslim diaspora to Latin America in the nineteenth century

Since the 16th century, African Muslims figured prominently among the slave population of the Americas. While the number of Muslims pulled into the trade has always been a matter of speculation, lists of Africans rescued from slave ships provide us with some clues about the size and direction of the Muslim diaspora to Latin America in the 19th century. Based on an analysis of tens of thousands of names recorded in these lists, this essay argues that the majority of Muslim captives leaving Africa departed from Upper Guinea and suggests that Cuba was the center of the forced Muslim diaspora in the Americas. It traces the transatlantic links that connected particular regions of embarkation in Africa to their counterparts in Latin America and considers the implications of those connections for religious and cultural change within 19th-century slave populations. The essay challenges in important ways the colonial/postcolonial divide in Latin American history and uses Islam to pose important questions about the dynamics of social change across slave societies.     

Toothpick use among Epigravettian Humans from Grotta Paglicci (Italy)

This paper deals with two teeth (an upper right M1 and an upper right dM2) from the Epigravettian found in the site of Paglicci (Southern Italy) showing interproximal grooves that are situated below the crown, on the root walls just apical to the cementum–enamel junction. These grooves have been examined on a digital microscope which displays 3D images of the analysed surfaces. The images obtained made it possible to interpret these interproximal grooves as tooth picking activities that can be interpreted as an attempt to alleviate sore gums. The comparison with experimental images from available literature made it possible to form hypotheses concerning the nature of the probes that might have been used by the humans. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.