Showing papers in "Antiquity in 1995"
TL;DR: Stable-isotopic analyses of human bone, now an established aid to dietary reconstruction in archaeology, represent the diet as averaged over many years as mentioned in this paper, giving a fuller life-history for long-dead individuals.
Abstract: Stable-isotopic analyses of human bone, now an established aid to dietary reconstruction in archaeology, represent the diet as averaged over many years. Separate analysis of different skeletal components enables changes in diet and place of residence to be tracked, giving a fuller life-history for long-dead individuals.
321 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a modified version of the wave-of-advance model of demic diffusion is proposed to explain the success of European farmers in the empty plains of Thessaly.
Abstract: Some 9000 years ago the first European farmers established themselves in the empty plains of Thessaly, the only region in Greece that provided a reasonably assured harvest and was large enough for significant population growth. They flourished there and after more than a thousand years spread to the Balkans and beyond. The recognition that their success may have depended on the natural irrigation of river and lake floodplains leads us to a modified version of the wave-of-advance model of demic diffusion.
202 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that such findings can form the basis for a new theoretical framework, human ecodynamics, which can capture the world of human affairs with its numerous reversals and unintended consequences really be captured by such models.
Abstract: First generation modelling of cultural systems, as applied in archaeology, frequently invoked linear, deterministic relationships as well as privileging concepts such as stability and an assumed cumulative evolution towards increasing complexity But can the world of human affairs with its numerous reversals and unintended consequences really be captured by such models? Recent advances in the natural sciences have demonstrated the central role of non-linear phenomena, discontinuities and unpredictable breaks from established patterns and events It is argued that such findings can form the basis for a new theoretical framework, human ecodynamics
142 citations
TL;DR: For a century a notion of a prehistoric Mother Goddess has infused some perceptions of ancient Europe, whatever the realities of developing archaeological knowledge as mentioned in this paper, and with the reverent respect now being given to Marija Gimbutas, and her special vision of a perfect matriarchy in Old Europe, a daughter-goddess is now being made, bearer of a holy spirit in our own time, to be set alongside the wise mother of old.
Abstract: For a century a notion of a prehistoric Mother Goddess has infused some perceptions of ancient Europe, whatever the realities of developing archaeological knowledge. With the reverent respect now being given to Marija Gimbutas, and her special vision of a perfect matriarchy in Old Europe, a daughter-goddess is now being made, bearer of a holy spirit in our own time, to be set alongside the wise mother of old.
126 citations
TL;DR: A comparison of the evidence for the earliest scripts in different parts of the world suggests that an apparent preponderance of ceremonial; and symbolic usage should not be interpreted too literally as mentioned in this paper, it seems to have more to do with archaeological preservation, the better survival in archaeological contexts of the durable materials preferred as vehicles for ceremonial texts.
Abstract: A comparison of the evidence for the earliest scripts in different parts of the world suggests that an apparent preponderance of ceremonial; and symbolic usage should not be interpreted too literally. It seems to have more to do with archaeological preservation–the better survival in archaeological contexts of the durable materials preferred as vehicles for ceremonial texts–than with any deep-seated differences in the function of the scripts. It may well be that the earliest Chinese, Egyptian or Mesoamerican texts were largely as utilitarian in their application as those of Mesopotamia.
106 citations
TL;DR: The role of fires set by people is an important issue in the changing natural landscape of Australia, a dry island continent in mid latitude, spans from tropical to cold temperate regions; long isolation has given it its own flora and fauna as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Australia, a dry island continent in mid latitude, spans from tropical to cold temperate regions; long isolation has given it its own flora and fauna. Environmental changes in the late Quaternary have had their own and special courses in the continent and its several regions. The role of fires set by people is an important issue in the changing ‘natural’ landscape.
86 citations
TL;DR: The distribution of food-plants reflects the natural history of contact across the seas and through the region, often long before Pleistocene times as discussed by the authors, and the human contribution has to be discerned from varied lines of evidence.
Abstract: The distribution of food-plants—both potential and actually exploited — reflects the natural history of contact across the seas and through the region, often long before Pleistocene times. The later and the human contribution has to be discerned from varied lines of evidence. The inventive process of early domestication leading to cultivation in the Sahulian north (New Guinea) was not a part of plant adaptation in the south (Australia). Neither did species diffusion result in adoption of agriculture or stimulation towards domestication among the Aboriginal hunter-gatherers.
76 citations
TL;DR: The story of Silk was first brought across the steppe from far China towards the European world by Silk from the Middle Bronze Age of Uzbekistan, in Scythian burials of Siberia and among the Hallstatt grave-goods of western Europe.
Abstract: When was silk first brought across the steppe from far China towards the European world? There is silk from the Middle Bronze Age of Uzbekistan, in Scythian burials of Siberia and among the Hallstatt grave-goods of western Europe. Teasing out the story of silk depends on identifying the textile, and distinguishing its several varieties apart.
75 citations
TL;DR: The high country of New Guinea offers a complex and well-studied environmental sequence as the arena for early and puzzling human adaptations, precursor of the extraordinary societies of the island today as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: At the south and north limits of our region are mountainous areas very different from the open arid spaces of the Australian continent between. In the north, the high country of New Guinea offers a complex and well-studied environmental sequence as the arena for early and puzzling human adaptations, precursor of the extraordinary societies of the island today.
74 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a sharp disjunction between two different and relatively stable states is seen: a transforming transition rather than a gradual change in Australian Aboriginal societies in the great river-systems of the southeast.
Abstract: The rise of cemeteries, extreme biological diversification, size decrease, increased violence, disappearance of megafauna, exploitation of different resources, evolution of rivers to an expanded system of microenvironments, changes in occupation. How are these features of Australian Aboriginal societies in the great river-systems of the southeast related? From evidence of geomorphology, skeletal biology and other aspects of the archaeological record, a sharp disjunction between two different and relatively stable states is seen: a transforming transition rather than a gradual change.
70 citations
TL;DR: The dating studies of modern rock-art scientists, when critically examined, are found not to show that the Coa valley petroglyphs are of recent age.
Abstract: The dating studies of the ‘modern rock-art scientists’, when critically examined, are found not to show that the Coa valley petroglyphs are of recent age Their Upper Palaeolithic characteristics, and therefore their likely late Pleistocene age, are consistent with their archaeological context
TL;DR: A comparative study of modeles de datations de contextes archeologiques and non-archeologiques peuvent donner des informations can be found in this paper.
Abstract: Des articles parus dans Antiquity ont expose differents points de vue sur les modeles de datations des implantations humaines en Australie. La date de -40 000/-35 000, limite apparente due au C14, est-elle la date la plus basse pour la presence de l'homme? Ou alors un resultat artificiel du a la methode de datation? Une etude comparative des modeles de datations de contextes archeologiques et non-archeologiques peuvent donner des informations
TL;DR: A newly found cache of hippopotamus ivory at Gao, medieval city of the south Saharan edge, opens a wider place for the material in contact across the great north African desert as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The hippopotamus is a large beast with large teeth—large enough for hippopotamus ivory, then and now, to be a useful alternative to elephant ivory (there are both kinds in the Aegean Bronze Age, as well as the little tusks of wild boar). A newly found cache of hippopotamus ivory at Gao, medieval city of the south Saharan edge, opens a wider place for the material in contact across the great north African desert.
TL;DR: In this article, a rare and perhaps unique synthesis can be built by "bridging" between these three themes, by "building" between the three themes of rock art, archaeological sequence, and human presence in Western Arnhem Land.
Abstract: Western Arnhem Land is a small area (by Australian standards) on the north coast where remarkable sequences of sediment illuminate its complex landscape history. Matching the enviromental succession is an archaeological sequence with lithic sites running back into the Pleistocene. The famous richness of the region's rock-art also documents the human presence, again over a great time-depth, and gives a direct report of how ancient Arnhem Landers depicted themselves. By ‘bridging’ between these three themes, a rare and perhaps unique synthesis can be built.
TL;DR: A characteristic feature of human subsistence as the last glaciation ended was the turn towards new food sources, in a ‘broad spectrum' transformation as discussed by the authors, and Australia took an unusual course, and the trajectory in its arid zone is especially striking.
Abstract: A characteristic feature of human subsistence as the last glaciation ended was the turn towards new food sources, in a ‘broad spectrum’ transformation. Australia took an unusual course, and the trajectory in its arid zone is especially striking. What were the broad spectrum diets in arid Austalia? Why did they arise so late? Did they arise late?
TL;DR: A central issue in the regional prehistory over the Transition is the different life-ways that came to be followed in Papua New Guinea and in Australia itself; the one became agricultural, the other hunter-gatherer as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A central issue in the regional prehistory over the Transition — and therefore of this whole set of papers — is the different life-ways that came to be followed in Papua New Guinea and in Australia itself; the one became agricultural, the other hunter-gatherer. There is more to the story than that divide; this is a story of a human and created world, rather than a simple response to directing environment.
TL;DR: An element in the changing pattern of Australian archaeology has been the filling-in of great blanks on the archaeological map, once survey and excavation has begun to explore them as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: An element in the changing pattern of Australian archaeology has been the filling-in of great blanks on the archaeological map, once survey and excavation has begun to explore them. The dry lands of the great central and western deserts of Australia, a hard place for humans to this day, have in the last couple of decades come to find a large place in the transitional story.
TL;DR: In this article, an analysis of diagnostic forms in the megalithic art of Irish passage-tombs is presented, with its spirals, lozenges and turning curves.
Abstract: A timely book now in press explores the roles of drink and drugs in the lives of prehistoric Europeans. Here, an analysis of diagnostic forms in the megalithic art of Irish passage-tombs—with its spirals, lozenges and turning curves—develops the explorations of that visionary interpretation begun by Bradley in 1989.
TL;DR: The obscure and ugly language of theoretical archaeology conceals as well as reveals fundamentals that no real practice of archaeology can actually escape as mentioned in this paper, and one of the cannier of the old hands puts some of those fundamentals into proper place.
Abstract: The obscure and ugly language of theoretical archaeology conceals as well as reveals fundamentals that no real practice of archaeology can actually escape. In this paper, revised from a plenary address at the TAG conference at Bradford last year, one of the cannier of the old hands puts some of those fundamentals into proper place.
TL;DR: A new field is opening up in biological archaeology, as it is found that ancient DNA and other bio-molecules may survive over the long term as mentioned in this paper, under the right conditions.
Abstract: A new field is opening up in biological archaeology, as it is found that ancient DNA and other bio-molecules may–under the right conditions–survive over the long term. Is the same true of blood residues on stone tools?
TL;DR: The Coa petroglyphs belong in the corpus of west European parietal art of late Pleistocene age, as found in scores of caves and some open-air locations as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The Coa petroglyphs, seen in the established framework of rock-art studies, belong in the corpus of west European parietal art of late Pleistocene age, as found in scores of caves and some open-air locations. One of the four researchers who this summer studied the age of the figures using ‘modern rock-art science’ summarizes the group's' conclusions, and states how they kill off the stylistic dating of Palaeolithic rock-art.
TL;DR: The evidence reviewed in this paper shows a late settlement for nearly all of the islands, and a perplexing lack of pattern for the settlement of these islands in the early 1800s.
Abstract: The settlement of mainland Australia at an early (and uncertainly known) date required a water-crossing. What about the settlement of the islands — neither numerous nor large compared with the island continent itself — that are offshore from Australia? The evidence reviewed shows a late settlement for nearly all of them, and a perplexing lack of pattern.
TL;DR: The base nourriciere de la civilisation japonnaise a toujours ete constituee sur la culture intensive du riz Qu'est-ce qui poussait avant l'introduction de cette culture seculaire?
Abstract: La base nourriciere de la civilisation japonnaise a toujours ete constituee sur la culture intensive du riz Qu'est-ce qui poussait avant l'introduction de cette culture seculaire? Un apercu des plantations, pendant la periode du Jomon final, commence a fournir des reponses
TL;DR: In this article, the Indo-European question is still unanswered, and new discoveries across the steppe zone of eastern Europe, and dates relating to those discoveries, keep that oldest of archaeological puzzles, the Indo European question, happily unanswered.
Abstract: New discoveries across the steppe zone of eastern Europe, and new dates relating to those discoveries, keep that oldest of archaeological puzzles, the Indo-European question, happily unanswered. A version of this paper was given at a 1994 meeting, on ‘Language, culture and biology in prehistoric central Eurasia’—its title a reminder that the biological view of Indo-European may again be a growing interest.
TL;DR: A recent study from the Dordogne decisively identifies and confirms the use of fires in a Mousterian context; and the thick ashy deposit, identified as the remains of burnt lichen, clarifies the real nature of those distinctive deposits, known from other sites of the era.
Abstract: A new study from the Dordogne decisively identifies and confirms the use of fires in a Mousterian context; and the thick ashy deposit, identified as the remains of burnt lichen, clarifies the real nature of those distinctive deposits, known from other sites of the era.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report on what cave art outside the caves amounts to, and of the confrontations over the Coa site that were in the headlines early this year.
Abstract: It is over a decade since Palaeolithic parietal art was first spotted in Europe on exposed open-air surfaces—cave art without the caves. Now the major site in Portugal is threatened by the lake behind a river-dam under construction. Here is a report on what cave art outside the caves amounts to, and of the confrontations over the Coa site that were in the headlines early this year.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied Australia's coastal adaptation over the transition and found that what can be discerned has a place in a larger and longer-term pattern of adaptation.
Abstract: Australia, with its wide continental shelves, is a difficult region for the study of coastal adaptations over the Transition, as so much land was drowned by the post-glacial sealevel rise. What can be discerned has a place in a larger and longer-term pattern of adaptation.
TL;DR: In the Lake Baikal region of southeast Siberia, new radiocarbon determinations on sites of difficult history suggest that the earliest Upper Palaeolithic emerged there as early as 39,000 years ago, 6000 years earlier than previously thought.
Abstract: Across Eurasia and Africa new studies are encouraging archaeologists to rethink the age of of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition. In the Lake Baikal region of southeast Siberia, new radiocarbon determinations on sites of difficult history suggest that the earliest Upper Palaeolithic emerged there as early as 39,000 years ago, 6000 years earlier than previously thought.
TL;DR: The Mesolithic human remains from Franchthi Cave, that remarkable, deeply stratified site in southern Greece, offer a rare glimpse into the burial practices of early Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Mediterranean.
Abstract: Mesolithic sites are rare in the Aegean, and Mesolithic burials are uncommon throughout Europe. The Mesolithic human remains from Franchthi Cave, that remarkable, deeply stratified site in southern Greece, offer a rare glimpse into the burial practices of early Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Mediterranean.