The view that the Châtelperronian is the acculturation of late Neandertals brought about by contact with nearby moderns assumes an age of ca. 40,000 years ago for the earliest Aurignacian. However, the cultural meaning of the dated samples is dubious, either because they were collected from palimpsests containing other archaeological components or because the definition of the associated artifact suites as Aurignacian is not warranted. Wherever sample context is archaeologically secure, the earliest occurrences of the Aurignacian date to no earlier than ca. 36,500 B.P. This is in accordance with the strati-graphic pattern demonstrating the precedence of the Châtelperronian and equivalent technocomplexes of central and eastern Europe, consistently dated by various methods to before ca. 38,000 B.P. Given the Neandertal authorship of the Châtelperronian, it must be concluded that Neandertals had already accomplished their own Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition when the first Aurignacian moderns arrived in Europe. Therefore, such a transition occurred simultaneously and independently among European Neandertals and sub-Saharan moderns, across biological boundaries and irrespective of geographical proximity. This suggests that its causes lie in the domain of social process, not in that of putative biological mutations that would have bestowed symbolism upon a lineage of “chosen people.”

The Chronology and Taphonomy of the Earliest Aurignacian and Its Implications for the Understanding of Neandertal Extinction

Current images portray childhood as primarily a time of play and learning, de-emphasizing children's economic contributions and relegating them, like women, to the less-visible realm of the home. Ethnographic and historic literature amply demonstrates that age categories are constructs and, thus, exhibit considerable temporal and cross-cultural variability. Nevertheless, archaeologists have tended to ignore prehistoric children, perhaps viewing them as only peripheral to central research concerns, or to treat them stereotypically. The archaeological record provides opportunities for the exploration of numerous aspects of childhood and archaeologists are encouraged to respond to the challenge.

http://disciplinas.stoa.usp.br/mod/resource/view.php?id=44580

Where Have All the Children Gone?: The Archaeology of Childhood

The New World Arctic, the last region of the Americas to be populated by humans, has a relatively well-researched archaeology, but an understanding of its genetic history is lacking. We present genome-wide sequence data from ancient and present-day humans from Greenland, Arctic Canada, Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Siberia. We show that Paleo-Eskimos (~3000 BCE to 1300 CE) represent a migration pulse into the Americas independent of both Native American and Inuit expansions. Furthermore, the genetic continuity characterizing the Paleo-Eskimo period was interrupted by the arrival of a new population, representing the ancestors of present-day Inuit, with evidence of past gene flow between these lineages. Despite periodic abandonment of major Arctic regions, a single Paleo-Eskimo metapopulation likely survived in near-isolation for more than 4000 years, only to vanish around 700 years ago.

/pdf/the-genetic-prehistory-of-the-new-world-arctic-48xm9kok26.pdf

The genetic prehistory of the New World Arctic

The Genetic Prehistory of the New World Arctic

Background: Virtually all well-documented remains of early domestic dog (Canis familiaris) come from the late Glacial and early Holocene periods (ca. 14,000-9000 calendar years ago, cal BP), with few putative dogs found prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ca. 26,500-19,000 cal BP). The dearth of pre-LGM dog-like canids and incomplete state of their preservation has until now prevented an understanding of the morphological features of transitional forms between wild wolves and domesticated dogs in temporal perspective. Methodology/Principal Finding: We describe the well-preserved remains of a dog-like canid from the Razboinichya Cave (Altai Mountains of southern Siberia). Because of the extraordinary preservation of the material, including skull, mandibles (both sides) and teeth, it was possible to conduct a complete morphological description and comparison with representative examples of pre-LGM wild wolves, modern wolves, prehistoric domesticated dogs, and early dog-like canids, using morphological criteria to distinguish between wolves and dogs. It was found that the Razboinichya Cave individual is most similar to fully domesticated dogs from Greenland (about 1000 years old), and unlike ancient and modern wolves, and putative dogs from Eliseevichi I site in central Russia. Direct AMS radiocarbon dating of the skull and mandible of the Razboinichya canid conducted in three independent laboratories resulted in highly compatible ages, with average value of ca. 33,000 cal BP. Conclusions/Significance: The Razboinichya Cave specimen appears to be an incipient dog that did not give rise to late Glacial - early Holocene lineages and probably represents wolf domestication disrupted by the climatic and cultural changes associated with the LGM. The two earliest incipient dogs from Western Europe (Goyet, Belguim) and Siberia (Razboinichya), separated by thousands of kilometers, show that dog domestication was multiregional, and thus had no single place of origin (as some DNA data have suggested) and subsequent spread.

/pdf/a-33-000-year-old-incipient-dog-from-the-altai-mountains-of-5ebyf3tqsd.pdf

A 33,000-year-old incipient dog from the Altai Mountains of Siberia: evidence of the earliest domestication disrupted by the Last Glacial Maximum.

Most Arctic archaeologists believe that the people of the Thule culture, who arrived in the eastern Arctic approximately 1,000 years ago, met people of the Dorset culture and acquired important knowledge from them while replacing them in this region. The most convincing indication for technology transfer comes from the Thule adoption of Dorset harpoon-head styles. However, a review of radiocarbon dates, artifact styles, and site data reveals no conclusive evidence for face-to-face contact between the people of these two cultures. Given evidence that the Thule actively salvaged harpoon heads and carvings from abandoned Dorset sites, I contend that salvage was the sole means of contact between these cultures and the means by which harpoon-head technology was transferred. This example points out the importance of salvage as a mode of culture contact and the weakness of studies that interpret changes in material culture solely in a culture-historical context.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600057139

The Dorset-Thule Succession in Arctic North America: Assessing Claims for Culture Contact

The role and place of children is frequently overlooked in archaeology. Here Robert Park presents an intriguing analysis of the toys of childhood found in Inuit societies in Canada and Greenland, and assesses how such objects inform on the role of children in Arctic societies.

Size counts: the miniature archaeology of childhood in Inuit societies

In late prehistoric times the Canadian Arctic was occupied sequentially by the peoples known to archaeologists as the Dorset and the Thule cultures, the latter being the direct cultural and biological ancestors of the Inuit who live there today. For archaeologists interested in exploring aspects of childhood, the Thule culture has three very desirable characteristics: potentially magnificent preservation due to the effects of permafrost; a complex and varied material culture; and, from their Inuit descendants, a rich and detailed body of ethnographic information that can be drawn upon for analogy. With these advantages it is possible to identify a wide range of Thule items, especially miniature versions of implements, specifically associated with children. These can be studied to explore the roles of children in Thule society. Intriguingly, it is far more difficult to identify items associated with children of the Dorset culture, despite their material culture's being equally complex and their sites being often almost as well preserved. This chapter summarizes the results of research into childhood among the Thule and shows how the experience of childhood for Dorset children may have been somewhat different from that experienced by their Thule successors.

Growing Up North: Exploring the Archaeology of Childhood in the Thule and Dorset Cultures of Arctic Canada

A collection of dog bones recovered from a Thule culture site at Porden Point, Devon Island, N.W.T., was found to include abundant evidence of trauma consistent with the dogs have been repeatedly struck in the facial area. The proportional representation of bones found suggests that the Porden Point dogs ultimately formed part of the diet there. A survey of historical and ethnographic accounts of the treatment of dogs by various Inuit groups indicates that the beating of dogs to discipline them was quite common, although evidence from other sources suggests that this type of behaviour is related more to the realities of dog keeping anywhere rather than to Inuit culture in particular. The evidence from other sources suggests that this type of behaviour is related more to the realities of dog keeping anywhere rather than to Inuit culture in particular. The evidence concerning the use of dogs in the diet among the various Inuit groups suggests that this varied greatly. Detailed descriptions of the types of trauma found on the Porden Point skulls are provided, in the hope that it may prove possible to identify similar evidence from earlier cultures where the nature of dog use is less certain. Key words: dogs, Thule culture, Devon Island, archaeology, faunal osteology

https://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic40-3-184.pdf

Dog Remains from Devon Island, N.W.T.: Archaeological and Osteological Evidence for Domestic Dog Use in the Thule Culture

Res. d'A. Les reconstitutions des schemes d'etablissement thuleens ont surtout ete faites a partir de donnees provenant de deux types de structures d'habitations semi-souterraines : les maisons d'hiver et les qarmat. Sur cette base nous avons propose deux circuits d'exploitation relativement differents et nous avons tire plusieurs inferences sur le developpement des Inuit historiques a partir des Thuleens. En utilisant des donnees historiques et archeologiques nous avons essaye d'evaluer l'utilite de la distinction entre les maisons d'hiver et les qarmat. Nous en concluons que plusieurs modeles courants sur la subsistance et le mode d'etablissement des Thuleens devraient etre soumis a l'epreuve

Robert W. Park

Papers

The Dorset-Thule Succession in Arctic North America: Assessing Claims for Culture Contact

Size counts: the miniature archaeology of childhood in Inuit societies

Growing Up North: Exploring the Archaeology of Childhood in the Thule and Dorset Cultures of Arctic Canada

Dog Remains from Devon Island, N.W.T.: Archaeological and Osteological Evidence for Domestic Dog Use in the Thule Culture

Winter Houses and Qarmat in Thule and Historic Inuit Settlement Patterns : some Implications for Thule Studies