Chronology and palaeoenvironment of levantine prehistoric sites as seen from sediment studies

Analysis of sediments from the sites of et-Tabun, Jebel Qafza, and Sefunim in Israel, of Ksar 'Aqil in Lebanon, and of Yabrud Rockshelter I and Jerf 'Ajla in Syria leads to a reconstruction of the environments of deposition, periods of weathering and erosion, and relations to changing sea level during the times of occupation of these sites by prehistoric man. The overlapping sequences span the interval from part or all of the last interglaciation through the time of the last glaciation into historic time. Aeolians and from the last interglacial littoral zone and aeolian silt from more distant deserts dominate the site sediments until the early part of the last glaciation (especially at Tabun), whereas colluvial slope deposits, alluvium (Ksar 'Aqil), and angular rockfall debris are characteristic of the mid-last glaciation sediments in most sites, commonly with an admixture of reworked terra rossa soil sediment. These latter sediments seem to reflect a period or periods of greater available moisture or surface run-off. Prominent unconformities mark many sites at times coincident with the final middle palaeolithic (mousterian) occupations or in the interval between middle palaeolithic and upper palaeolithic occupations. It is not clear, in the absence of firm radiometric dates, whether these hiatuses should be correlated from site-to-site or whether they are site-specific. Freeze/thaw phenomena appear not to have played a significant role, if any at all, in the origin of sediments in coastal Levantine sites, although the middle palaeolithic of the Syrian Desert (Yabrud, Jerf 'Ajla) is contained in typical cryoclastic rubble. Finally, the reconstructed sedimentary environments are compared with the still-too-sparse palynological record for the Near East. Parallels of more humid and less humid climatic intervals throughout the past 60,000 to 70,000 years in both of these records reinforce the growing impression of a regionally fluctuating climate in the eastern Mediterranean region during the time of the last glaciation.     

The potential of bird remains for environmental reconstruction

Until relatively recently, studies of bird remains have been regarded as peripheral to mainstream research on early archaeological and palaeontological sites, rather than a potentially crucial factor in the reconstruction of the past environments in which hominids and other larger mammals were present This paper sets out to define the range of ecological information for a site which can be gained through study of the bird bones, using as an example the bones recovered in the excavations at Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Daily growth increments on fish otoliths as seasonality indicators on archaeological sites: The Tilapia from late palaeolithic Makhadma in Egypt

Daily growth increments in fish otoliths have been demonstrated for the first time on Quaternary sagittae from a late palaeolithic site in Egypt and they have allowed us to establish the season of fishing. Transverse sections of tilapia sagittae studied under light-microscope demonstrate that recrystallization during diagenesis renders the majority of the margins unreadable. The well-preserved otoliths, however, all have widely spaced outer growth lines, indicating that the fish died during a period of fast growth which coincides with the flood season. Moreover, counting the daily increments showed that late palaeolithic man captured the animals on the floodplain of the Nile after the maximum of the flood, when residual pools were present.     

中国旧石器考古学研究的动态与展望

中国旧石器时代考古学实践,在二十世纪取得了举世瞩目的成果,二十一世纪定能取得新的辉煌。     

Identification of a possible engraved Venus from Předmostí, Czech Republic

One Gravettian feminine representation – the schematic Venus of P?edmostí – is so different from all the others that it has always been regarded as unique. The engraving, which was closely examined for the purpose of comparison in this study, represents a woman composed of geometric shapes, including a triangular head with interior lattice-work, concentric ellipses for the breasts, belly and pelvis, a double ladder for the remaining arm, hatch marks, and a thigh made up of parallel vertical lines. This article presents the discovery and discusses the authenticity of a second, feminine anthropomorph engraved on a bone shaft fragment, which is labelled as coming from the same site and is highly similar to the one described at the end of the nineteenth century. The modern history of P?edmostí reveals that the site was used as a quarry for the extraction of loess and limestone, and that tons of mammoth bones were extracted to produce spodium. Remarkable objects that were found both during early archaeological excavations and the site’s commercial exploitation went towards private collections. The history of the piece under study traces it back through a succession of owners to the collection of René de Poilloüe de Saint-Périer (b.1877–d.1950) and Raymonde-Suzanne de Saint-Périer (b.1890–d.1978). The engraving is on the periosteal surface of a limb bone from a very large mammal, probably a proboscidian. Microscopic analysis of the bone surface and engravings identify the chronology of the grooves and their relations to the stages of the bone’s alteration and fracturing, starting with: 1) heavy weathering of the bone surface that produced longitudinal cracks, which probably led to its breakage, 2) engraving of the feminine representation, 3) intense mechanical and chemical attacks that smoothed all of the bone’s surfaces and wore down the engravings, 4) covering with a consolidation agent, and, most recently, 5) some abrasion, which resulted in the creation of a few straight lines. Since no evidence is found to suggest that the highly worn appearance of the engravings composing the feminine representation resulted from modifications that were meant to artificially age the periosteal surface of the bone, we conclude that the engraving can be plausibly attributed to the Gravettian and that further analyses are warranted.     

Absolute dating of hominids and palaeolithic artifacts of the cave of La Chaise-de-Vouthon (Charente), France

Two adjacent chambers of the cave of La Chaise, Grotte de Bourgeois-Delaunay (B-D) and Grotte Suard, have been studied. Both were partly filled with detrital sediments containing lower and middle Palaeolithic artifacts and skeletal remains of pre-Neanderthalian hominids. Layers of stalagmitic calcite occur interstratified in the sediments of both chambers. Dates obtained by ²³⁰Th/²³⁴U ratios have provided a time scale for hominid and cultural evolution as represented in this cave.In B-D the lower travertine rests on a breccia containing cranial remains of juvenile Neanderthals. The base of the travertine dates to 151 ± 15 Ky (Ky = 1000 years BP); the top of the travertine yields a date of 112±5 Ky. The travertine contains pollen of an interglacial flora. Overlying detrital sediments 1·2 m in thickness contain artifacts transitional from Acheulian to Mousterian industries. They are capped by a travertine (Layer 7) whose base is dated at 100±6 Ky, and which is capped by stalagmites ranging in age down to 58±7 Ky. Overlying the travertine is sediment containing first Mousterian, and then Aurignacian artifacts.Near the base of the sediments filling Grotte Suard is a stalagmite layer dated to 249±30 Ky. It contains interglacial pollen and presumably dates to the beginning of the isotope stage 7 interglacial. Neanderthaloid hominid teeth and cranial fragments are found scattered through the overlying sediments, up to a capping stalagmitic layer whose base is dated at 101±7 Ky. The best described hominids from Suard are from a section that was probably overlying the capping stalagmite. The capping stalagmite is temporally correlated with layer 7 of B-D.     

The oldest human traces north of the Carpathians (Kończyce Wielkie 4, Poland)

In the area of the Kończyce Wielkie quarry (middle-southern Poland), the Quaternary deposits of different genesis crop out. The lower fluvial series is overtopped with the glacigenic sediments occurring below the Matuyama–Brunhes boundary. This ice-sheet advance is correlated with the Günz and with the oldest traces of glaciations in Western Europe. Culture materials were located within layer of fluvial sands with fine-grained gravels, below the boulder pavement and diamicton – interpreted as till. Raw materials inventory are local flint and hornstone, also foreign flint, hornstone, quartzite, opalite and gneissose granite. The inventory contained macrolithic and microlithic cores, flakes and tools. The tools are made from pebbles, flakes and microlithic-flakes.     

Site exploitation territories and topography: Two case studies from palaeolithic spain

Several methods of relating on-site and off-site data for developing and testing hypotheses about man-environment relationships and prehistoric subsistence economies have been devised since the original proposal for site-catchment analysis in 1970. We review the principles involved in these methods, and emphasize the importance of distinguishing clearly between Site Catchments (SCs) and Site Exploitation Territories (SETs). We propose that the distorting effects of variable topography have crucial importance in understanding the tactical reasons for using particular sites in regional exploitation strategies and demonstrate a simple technique for calculating this distortion. Two case studies from the Upper Palaeolithic of Spain show the potential of the technique. One focuses on the relationships between site clusters, the other explores the relationships between sites within site clusters.     

Plant-food preparation area on an Upper Paleolithic brush hut floor at Ohalo II,Israel

While a division of domestic space into separate sectors dedicated to different activities has been suggested for a number of Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherer sites, it has never been demonstrated based on plant remains from this period. Moreover, due to the usual scarcity of plant macrofossils in archaeological deposits, only animal food preparation activities associated with hearths have been reported in the literature on Near Eastern prehistory. Ohalo II (Israel) is the first Upper Paleolithic site where such a patterned use of interior space and plant processing are evidenced by the distribution of plant remains on a sealed floor of a brush hut. This paper describes and interprets the distribution of almost 60,000 identified seeds and other plant remains on that floor, proposing a reconstruction of three activity areas in the interior of the 12-m² hut: processing of food centered on a grinding stone; a flint knapping area; and an access area in between. Finally, it is suggested that these activity areas might represent male-female division of labor.     

Butchering and cooking of birds in the palaeolithic site of Grotta Romanelli (Italy)

Grotta Romanelli is one of the most important sites of the Italian palaeolithic. It contains a lithic industry from the Final Epigravettian, examples of rock and mobiliary art and numerous bone remains, among which were abundant remains of birds. Approximately 32 000 bird bones from over 3650 individuals and 109 species were identified. The most common species were bustards, Otis tetrax and O. tarda, and three species of goose, Anser fabalis, A. albifrons and Branta bernicla. Traces of butchering and burning were evident on numerous bones. The nature and location of the cut marks and burning is described here. The analysis has involved mostly the hind limbs and the shoulder girdle where traces are most numerous. The cut marks reflect a codified sequence of actions of disarticulation and dismemberment. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.