Elisabetta Boaretto

TL;DR: Dyed flax fibers from 30,000 years ago show that humans in the Caucasus were making colored twine at that time, and Radiocarbon dates demonstrate that the cave was inhabited intermittently during several periods dated to 32 to 26 thousand years before the present.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used micromorphology, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), X-ray powder diffractometry (XRD), and XRF spectrometers to characterize natural sediments sampled on and in the proximity of the tell and monitor their transformations due to exposure to high temperatures in an oven and in open fires, focusing on the transformations of the clay mineral components of mud-brick materials.

TL;DR: In this article, the structures and compositions of modern and fossil charcoal samples were compared in order to evaluate charcoal degradation processes in archaeological sites, and the results showed that the graphite-like phase of the fossil charcoal has much higher electrical resistivity, and its ESR properties show that it has markedly altered surface electronic states.

TL;DR: Manot 1 is the only modern human specimen to provide evidence that during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic interface, both modern humans and Neanderthal contemporaneously inhabited the southern Levant, close in time to the likely interbreeding event with Neanderthals.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors exploit differences in the infrared spectra of geogenic, biogenic and pyrogenic calcites for the identification of each calcite type, which can assist in distinguishing between the various calcites, and provide insights into homogeneity and preservation state of the calcitic materials in question.