Bones of recent mammals in the Amboseli Basin, southern Kenya, exhibit distinctive weathering characteristics that can be related to the time since death and to the local conditions of temperature, humidity and soil chemistry. A categorization of weathering characteristics into six stages, recognizable on descriptive criteria, provides a basis for investigation of weathering rates and processes. The time necessary to achieve each successive weathering stage has been calibrated using known-age carcasses. Most bones decompose beyond recognition in 10 to 15 yr. Bones of animals under 100 kg and juveniles appear to weather more rapidly than bones of large animals or adults. Small-scale rather than widespread environmental factors seem to have greatest influence on weathering characteristics and rates. Bone weathering is potentially valuable as evidence for the period of time represented in recent or fossil bone assemblages, in- cluding those on archeological sites, and may also be an important tool in censusing populations of animals in modern ecosystems.

Taphonomic and Ecologic Information Form Bone Weathering

Anatomy of the Dicotyledons

Eating and Healing is aimed at exploring the idea that food can heal. The underlying argument of the volume is that, around the world, indigenous and rural people do not separate food and medicine, but rather consider them in a continuum. From the use in Spain of herbal teas as digestive beverages, to the antioxidant properties of Tibetan foods, we learn that the continuum concept is not unique to a single culture, but a common way in which humans use the natural environment. The various chapters of the volume describe a range of wild and semi-domesticated foods that traditionally have been used both as food and medicine. Although most chapters focus on the use of wild and semi-domesticated plants, the consumption of other foods (i.e., fish, mushrooms, seaweed) suggests that the overlapping nature of food and medicine is not particular to the plant kingdom, but a common way of conceptualizing. The publication of this volume is timely. The book appears at a moment in which the use of food as medicine is gaining attention among the general public in Western society. The volume, however, presents a refreshing perspective of the link between food intake and health. While medical doctors recommend the intake of dietary supplements and food scientists work to develop new “miraculous” foods (such as the golden rice) containing the nutrients lacking in many diets, this book is a call to go back to the essentials, to look at the local resources around us, and to consider the cultural context interwoven with the consumption of foods and medicines. As a whole, however, the volume does not present an overly optimistic and simplistic approach. Throughout the book, different authors point at three potential caveats of generalizing the ingestion of traditional foods as medicines. First, plants that are highly nutritious also have the potential to be highly toxic, so it is not possible to generalize their consumption without further inspection. Second, the eating of traditional foods and medicines is culturally prescribed and their intake disregarding the cultural system associated to them can result in a loss of effectiveness. Last, promoting the consumption of wild foods as medicines can increase the demand of those foods with potential pernicious effects on their sustainable use because of overextraction. By addressing the interface between food, medicine, and culture, Eating and Healing fills an important gap in ethnobiological research. The volume, however, would have benefited from including more quantitative contributions testing the various hypotheses presented. For example, quantitative data should allow researchers to test whether, in fact, people maintaining traditional diets enjoy better health. Future studies on the topic would benefit from using quantitative methods to test the relations between food and medicine. Victoria Reyes-García Institut de Ciencia i Tecnologia Ambiental Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain Victoria.Reyes@uab.es

First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies

Phytolith Analysis: An Archaeological and Geological Perspective.

The Smithsonian institution

Fil: Bonomo, Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Departamento Cientifico de Arqueologia; Argentina

Montículos, jerarquía social y horticultura en las sociedades indígenas del Delta Del Río Paraná (Argentina)

Archaeology of the Upper Delta of the Paraná River (Argentina): Mound Construction and Anthropic Landscapes in the Los Tres Cerros locality

Fil: Politis, Gustavo Gabriel Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Tandil Investigaciones Arqueologicas y Paleontologicas del Cuaternario Pampeano Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires Investigaciones Arqueologicas y Paleontologicas del Cuaternario Pampeano; Argentina

La entidad arqueológica Goya-Malabrigo (ríos Paraná y Uruguay) y su filiación arawak

A model for the Guaraní expansion in the La Plata Basin and littoral zone of southern Brazil

Resumen Este trabajo revé el problema del surgimiento, adopción y cronología de la tecnología cerámica en las tierras bajas del Cono Sur sobre la base de los resultados obtenidos de la investigación del sitio arqueológico Zanjón Seco 2 (Región Pampeana, Argentina). Se resume la información cronológica, los aspectos estratigráficos y artefactuales del sitio, con especial énfasis en la interpretación y discusión de las implicaciones del hallazgo de tiestos cerámicos lisos e incisos en un contexto de cazadores recolectores fechado en ca. 3,000 años A. P. La información obtenida es relevante para entender dos problemas que han sido frecuentemente objeto de debate. En primer lugar, el referido a los centros de surgimiento y/o invención de esta innovación tecnológica, ya que los fechados de Zanjón Seco 2 son tan antiguos como los del noroeste Argentino. En segundo lugar, se discuten las condiciones para la adopción de esta innovación tecnológica. En este sentido, se comparan los resultados de distintos sitios de la Región Pampeana, se discuten las posibles vías de incorporación y los contextos de integración de la cerámica en el marco de una complejización en las condiciones socioeconómicas que habrían estado operando en las sociedades de cazadores-recolectores pampeanos del Holoceno tardío.

Mariano Bonomo

Papers

Montículos, jerarquía social y horticultura en las sociedades indígenas del Delta Del Río Paraná (Argentina)

Archaeology of the Upper Delta of the Paraná River (Argentina): Mound Construction and Anthropic Landscapes in the Los Tres Cerros locality

La entidad arqueológica Goya-Malabrigo (ríos Paraná y Uruguay) y su filiación arawak

A model for the Guaraní expansion in the La Plata Basin and littoral zone of southern Brazil

Alfarería temprana en sitios de cazadores—recolectores de la región pampeana (Argentina)