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.     

贵州最早的骨制装饰品

贵州最早的骨制装饰品出自距今一万二千年至一万五千年前的普定白岩脚洞旧石器时代晚期遗址。装饰品有1件骨笄和1件穿孔兽牙。它们是贵州的首次发现,也体现了贵州远古人类最早的爱美意识。从装饰品本体携带的信息,探索其制作技能,反映出当时人类加工技术的复杂和进步,即对不同用途的装饰品采用不同的加工方式和对同一制品的制作技术逐步改良的处理能力。这既是思维进化指导行为的结果,亦是原始人类迈向更加文明时代的一大进步。     

Limb bones asymmetry and stress in medieval and recent populations of Central Europe

Monitoring the degree of asymmetry in different parts of the human body can contribute to population studies, as it may be connected indirectly with the social structure, living conditions, and also with biomechanical stress affecting the person. Analysis of asymmetry may also assess preferential use of the right or left of the body during specific activities. This study is based on the measurements of bones of the upper and lower limbs of skeletons derived from the remarkable medieval cemeteries of Mikulčice‐Kostelisko (78 male, 132 female) and Prušánky (66 male, 69 female) (9th–12th centuries AD), and a series of skeletons representing a recent population from Bohemia (143 male, 157 female). The objective was to assess directional asymmetry (DA), fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and antisymmetry (AS) of the dimensions of the evaluated bones, and to use these data to compare the characteristics of the medieval and recent populations. DA was recorded in most dimensions. In the upper limb, the humerus exhibited the greatest expression of asymmetry, and, with the exception of the clavicle, DA was always more pronounced on the right side. Conversely, DA was less prevalent in the lower limb bones. It was more pronounced on the transverse, sagittal and circumferential dimensions of the diaphyses and epiphyses than on the length, and in most cases it was on the left side. The FA values were very low, and almost negligible in relation to the size. Nevertheless, FA was markedly more frequent on the lower than on the upper limb. In contrast to the medieval population, the recent population had higher FA and DA values. Thus, we propose that people from this medieval population were subjected to lower developmental stress than the recent sample. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Early Aptian (Early Cretaceous) freshwater bivalves from the Australian–Antarctic rift,southeast Victoria

The brissid echinoid Schizobrissus insignis (Duncan &; Sladen, 1883) is described from the Fulra Limestone (late middle Eocene), in Kachchh, India. Formerly assigned to Peripneustes or to Meoma it is shown that the species possesses a complete subanal fasciole throughout ontogeny, a characteristic feature of Schizobrissus. Eocene species of Schizobrissus and Meoma show several morphological similarities, but diverged during the late Paleogene and early Neogene.     

茂县及岷江上游地区在古蜀文明形成中的重要作用与地位

"古蜀文明"即"三星堆文明",形成的时间大致在公元前1600年～前1500年之间。三星堆文明形成时期的代表性文明因素主要有3种:一是以三星堆城址城墙为代表的本土文明因素,二是以具有二里头文化特征的文化遗存为代表的中原文明因素,三是以具有齐家文化特征的文化遗存为代表的甘青地区文明因素。后二者是通过早在公元前3500年前后就已经形成的岷江上游地区的文化通道,由陇西南进入成都平原地区,并促使成都平原本土文化发生巨变,产生了三星堆文明,开始了古蜀文明的历程。三星堆文明的形成过程反映了岷江上游地区在古蜀文明的形成这一重大历史事件中,发挥了无可替代的桥梁作用。     

Partitioning chi-square for the analysis of frequency table data: an archaeological application

Archaeologists often wish to compare observed frequency distributions with expectations generated by a model. We describe a technique of partitioning chisquare which yields information about goodness of fit to a model and about homogeneity among populations simultaneously, and which is often superior to other commonly used methods of evaluating frequency data. The technique is demonstrated with data from the Upper Paleolithic rockshelter Le Flageolet I. The results suggest selective raw material use by the Aurignacian occupants.     

First records of Geinitziidae (Insecta: Grylloblattida) from the Upper Triassic of Argentina (Mendoza)

Lara, M.B. & Aristov, D., August 2016. First records of Geinitziidae (Insecta: Grylloblattida) from the Upper Triassic of Argentina (Mendoza). Alcheringa 41, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

A new grylloblattid (Permoshurabia argentina sp. nov.: Geinitziidae) is described and illustrated from the Upper Triassic of Argentina. The material represents the first record of this family from Argentina and expands the geographic distribution of this group during the Triassic.

María Belén Lara [lara.maria.belen@live.com.ar], Area Paleontología (Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral-Universidad Nacional del Nordeste-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), Casilla de Correo 128, 3400 Corrientes, Argentina; Danil Aristov [danil_aristov@mail.ru], Borissak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya str. 123, Moscow, 117997, Russia.     

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。