The significance of the fossil hominid skull from Petralona,Greece

Evidence is accumulating that the hominid cranium found in the Petralona cave in 1960 is associated with cave deposits of middle Pleistocene age. If this is so, the fossil is the most complete middle Pleistocene cranium yet discovered and provides important morphological, metrical and radiographic information on the possible evolutionary transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens. The classification of the specimen is discussed and it is suggested that a grade system within Homo spaiens should be erected. The Petralona fossil would be allocated to Homo sapiens grade 1 rather than to Homo erectus or to a subspecies of Homo sapiens.     

Archaeological associations with extinct pleistocene mammals in North America

It has often been argued that there are insufficient associations between extinct Pleistocene mammalian genera and cultural materials to support the argument that human predation played a major role in causing the extinctions. This argument assumes that there are many records for most or all of the extinct mammals that date to the very end of the Pleistocene. An analysis of a sample of radiocarbon dated sites with extinct mammals and younger than 12,000 BP suggests that this criticism of the overkill hypothesis is weakly based.     

Preliminary geology, paleontology and paleoecology of a sangoan site at Andalee, Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia

A rich stone tool assemblage is described of the Sangoan-type from a potentially semi-primary site, in association with a well-preserved fauna, and in paleo-environmental context. The site appears to be late Middle Pleistocene and contains a high proportion of small to medium-sized mammals (e.g. rodents, monkeys) deposited in low energy conditions. The environment is suggestive of a fringing woodland or riverine forest contained in a subarid climate.     

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.     

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。     

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.     

Integrating pattern and context in spatial archaeology

Traditional approaches to intrasite spatial analysis in archaeology have concentrated on identifying associations among classes of artifacts over a site surface. This focus has tended to ignore the possible effects of contextual constraints on inter-class relationships, for example the “gravity effects” of hearth features on object deposition. Consequently, sets of co-occurring artifact classes defined in space are usually ascribed behavioural significance as “tool kits”, even though they may represent unrelated objects simply discarded into the same spatial location. This paper attempts to illustrate this problem through contextual integration of artifact and feature distributions. Quantitative methods are employed to carry out contextual spatial analysis of artifact distributions from the Upper Palaeolithic rockshelter site Le Flageolet I (Dordogne, France). Results indicate that associations among artifact classes in space might be constrained by feature locations at Le Flageolet I and that contextual interpretations are warranted for the observed inter-class relations.     

Relative and absolute dating of the human skull and skeleton from Galley Hill,Kent

Over a period of some 100 years it has gradually been accepted that the human skeletal remains found in the late nineteenth century in ancient gravels at Galley Hill, Kent are not those of early man, but are of much more recent date. This conclusion was finally verified by means of relative (N, F) and absolute (¹⁴C) dating. Here we present the results of further analysis of the remains from Galley Hill for their uranium content by a method having general application to the relative dating of fossil human and other mammalian bone.