Michael Gregg

TL;DR: This paper reported genome-wide ancient DNA from 44 ancient Near Easterners ranging in time between ~12,000 and 1,400 bc, from Natufian hunter-gatherers to Bronze Age farmers, showing that the earliest populations of the Near East derived around half their ancestry from a 'Basal Eurasian' lineage that had little if any Neanderthal admixture and that separated from other non-African lineages before their separation from each other.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present direct evidence of subsistence practices and pottery use at a Late Neolithic site at al-Basatin, northern Jordan, using microwave assisted silica gel and aminopropyl solvent protocol developed for the isolation and concentration of free fatty acids in marine sediments.

Abstract: This paper presents evidence for increased recovery of organic residues from archaeological pottery through use of a microwave-assisted liquid chromatography protocol. C 16:0 and C 18:0 saturated fatty acids were obtained from archaeological potsherds recovered from nine Neolithic settlements in the Middle East dating between 4700 and 7300 cal BC , including materials that had not produced evidence for the survival of any lipid species through use of 'conventional' solvent extraction techniques. Compound-specific isotopic analyses of C 16:0 and C 18:0 fatty acids in potsherd extracts subsequently revealed δ 13 C/δ 12 C compositions consistent with modern subcutaneous fats of wild boar and goats pastured on lands adjacent to the Jordan Valley, and residues from a modern pottery vessel used in the manufacturing of butte r cheese and yogurt in central Turkey. These results are presented as an illustration of capabilities of the microwave-assisted recovery protocol. The reclamation of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids from archaeological pottery fragments recovered from a number of the earliest ceramic horizons in the Middle East is herewith reported, and the extraction methods and instrumental analytical techniques are described.

TL;DR: In this paper, a multidisciplinary research initiative examined human responses to environmental change at the intersection of the southern coastal plain of the Caspian Sea and the foothills of the Alborz Mountains during the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present evidence for a high degree of variability in symbolic representation at the multi-component, Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer encampment at Wadi Mataha in the Petra Basin of southern Jordan and demonstrate that the full range of Natufian material culture covers a much broader geographic range than has been previously observed.