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

Resumen: En este articulo se presentan los estudios taxonomicos, anatomicos y tafonomicos de los materiales faunisticos y los analisis tecnologicos-decorativos y los remontajes de la alfareria del sitio arqueologico Cerro Tapera Vazquez (Nordeste argentino). El sitio esta ubicado en un monticulo sobre un albardon contiguo al arroyo El Ceibo, donde se excavaron 16 m 2 en el ano 2008. Alli, se registraron abundantes materiales ceramicos lisos, incisos y modelados (asas y apendices zoomorfos) y numerosos restos oseos de Myocastor coypus (taxon dominante), Blastocerus dichotomus , Ozotoceros bezoarticus , Cavia aperea , Leopardus geoffroyi , Lycalopex gymnocercus , Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris , aves y peces (Siluriformes y Characiformes). Salvo el cuis y el zorro, los restantes taxa muestran evidencias de procesamiento antropico (huellas de corte, fracturas frescas y termoalteraciones). Se obtuvieron dos dataciones radiocarbonicas: 650 y 520 anos AP. Los resultados alcanzados en este estudio permiten concluir que las poblaciones prehispanicas que ocuparon Cerro Tapera Vazquez a fines del Holoceno tardio eran grupos canoeros riberenos, con una compleja tecnologia ceramica y cuya subsistencia se basaba en la caza de coipo, carpincho y cervidos, en la pesca y la horticultura a pequena escala. Abstract:  In this paper, the results of the studies carried out on ceramic and bone materials recorded at Cerro Tapera Vazquez site (Argentinean Northeast) are presented. Taxonomic, anatomic and taphonomic studies of bone assemblages and technological-decorative analysis and refitting of pottery were undertaken. The site is located on a mound next to El Ceibo Creek, where 16 m2 were excavated in 2008. Abundant smooth, incised and modeled pottery (handles and zoomorphic appendages) and numerous bones remains of Myocastor coypus (most frequent taxon), Blastocerus dichotomus, Ozotoceros bezoarticus, Cavia aperea, Leopardus geoffroyi, Lycalopex gymnocercus, Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris, birds and fish (Siluriformes and Characiformes) were recorded. Except Cavia aperea rodent and Dusicyon gimnocercus fox, all taxa show evidence of anthropic modification (cut marks, fresh fractures and burning). Two radiocarbon dates were obtained: 650 and 520 yrs. BP. The results reached in this study lead to the conclusion that the pre-Hispanic populations that occupied Cerro Tapera Vazquez by the end of the Late Holocene were riverine canoe peoples, with complex ceramic technology and subsistence based on hunting of coypu, capybara and cervids, fishing and small-scale horticulture.

Tecnología y subsistencia en el sitio arqueológico cerro tapera vázquez (parque nacional pre-delta, república argentina)

En este trabajo se abordan los descubrimientos ocurridos durante las investigaciones arqueologicas
en la localidad de Miramar en la costa atlantica de la Provincia de Buenos Aires durante las
primeras decadas del siglo XX. Se analizan los hallazgos arqueologicos, sobre la base de la lectura de
las publicaciones cientificas, de documentos de archivo y a la consulta de los periodicos de la epoca.
A partir de los descubrimientos arqueologicos de Florentino Ameghino, la costa bonaerense se
constituyo en un punto de interes, relacionado con el establecimiento de la antiguedad de la ocupacion
humana. Luego, se intensificaron las investigaciones en Miramar en un ambiente de fuertes polemicas,
que incluyeron desde la defensa de la presencia humana en epocas terciarias al integro
rechazo de los materiales por sospechas de fraude.
Las expediciones a Miramar fueron objeto de numerosas notas periodisticas. De esta forma el lector
tomaba conocimiento de los descubrimientos que se efectuaban en el territorio argentino. Paralelamente
al debate academico, existio otro ambito publico de discusion a traves de los medios de comunicacion.
En estos articulos el tema del Hombre Fosil era alineado en los carriles de la cuestion
nacional que ligaba la interpretacion del pasado con los movimientos nacionalistas de ese momento.

El Hombre Fósil de Miramar

The archaeological record from different Atlantic littoral regions of Southern South America shows a clear intensive use of marine resources mainly since 6000 RCYBP, after the global Middle Holocene Marine Transgression. This evidence became observable in the shell mounds of Southern Brazil (Gaspar et al. 2008; Lima 1999–2000), Uruguay (Castineira et al. 2010; Inda et al. 2006), and Patagonia (Borella and Favier Dubois 2009; omez Otero 2007; Moreno 2008; Sanguinetti de Bormida 1999, among others). Moreover, in the island zone of Southern Patagonia, the Beagle Channel, and the Magallanian Strait were inhabited by coastal populations that also formed shell mounds. These societies were adapted to the exploitation of marine fauna with special technological equipment prepared for that purpose (i.e., harpoons and canoes) (Legoupil 2003; Orquera and Piana 1999; Vila et al. 1995; Zangrando 2009). Unlike the Atlantic sector, the Pacific coast of South America shows that maritime adaptations are very nearly as old as the presence of human groups in the continent (Sandweiss 2008:145). The coast of Peru and Northern Chile presents evidence of marine mollusks consumption dated to the Late Pleistocene and the Early Holocene (Jackson and Baez; Llagostera 1992; Sandweiss 2003).

The Use of the Space in the Pampean Atlantic Coast and the Adjacent Plains (Argentina, South America): A Comparative View

Archaeometallurgy in the Paraná Delta (Argentina): Composition, manufacture, and indigenous routes

The southern distribution of the Arecaceae palm family (=Palmae) in southern South America reached the La Plata Basin. This paper focuses on two species of this family, Syagrusromanzoffiana and Butia yatay which micro and macroremains have been preserved in Late Holocene archaeological sites in the Argentinean Northeast. The archaeological record indicates that they were important in the diet and surely in technology. In addition, ethnographic groups belonging to different linguistic stocks (Tupi, Macro-Je, Guaycuru) show that these plants had a central role in La Plata Basin. However, prior to this study it had not been done any systematic analysis in the Northeast region, or approaches from different lines of analysis in order to increase the taxonomic and economic information that can be obtained from both palms remains. By the review of the ethnographic literature, the determination of fruit net returns and the study of the qualitative-quantitative attributes of endocarps, the potential uses of this resource and the fruit productivity are established, and tools for taxonomic identification are also provided. These allow us to deepen our knowledge of the pre-Hispanic use of palm trees in the region.

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Mariano Bonomo

Papers

Tecnología y subsistencia en el sitio arqueológico cerro tapera vázquez (parque nacional pre-delta, república argentina)

El Hombre Fósil de Miramar

The Use of the Space in the Pampean Atlantic Coast and the Adjacent Plains (Argentina, South America): A Comparative View

Archaeometallurgy in the Paraná Delta (Argentina): Composition, manufacture, and indigenous routes

Uso prehispánico de las palmeras Syagrus romanzoffiana y Butia yatay en el Nordeste argentino: aportes desde la etnografía y la biometría