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Showing papers in "Antiquity in 2012"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Gobekli Tepe is one of the most important archaeological discoveries of modern times, pushing back the origins of monumentality beyond the emergence of agriculture as discussed by the authors, and it has been considered to be a significant archaeological site.
Abstract: Gobekli Tepe is one of the most important archaeological discoveries of modern times, pushing back the origins of monumentality beyond the emergence of agriculture. We are pleased to present a summary of work in progress by the excavators of this remarkable site and their latest thoughts about its role and meaning. At the dawn of the Neolithic, hunter-gatherers congregating at Gobekli Tepe created social and ideological cohesion through the carving of decorated pillars, dancing, feasting—and, almost certainly, the drinking of beer made from fermented wild crops.

173 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors rewrites the early history of Britain, showing that while the cultivation of cereals arrived there in about 4000 cal BC, it did not last, and between 3300 and 1500 BC Britons became largely pastoral, reverting only with a major upsurge of agricultural activity in the Middle Bronze Age.
Abstract: This paper rewrites the early history of Britain, showing that while the cultivation of cereals arrived there in about 4000 cal BC, it did not last. Between 3300 and 1500 BC Britons became largely pastoral, reverting only with a major upsurge of agricultural activity in the Middle Bronze Age. This loss of interest in arable farming was accompanied by a decline in population, seen by the authors as having a climatic impetus. But they also point to this period as the time of construction of the great megalithic monuments, including Stonehenge. We are left wondering whether pastoralism was all that bad, and whether it was one intrusion after another that set the agenda on the island.

135 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used a social network analysis to map the changing patterns of obsidian supply among the Maya during the period of Classic to Postclassic transition and found that a shift from inland to coastal supply routes appears to have contributed to the collapse of inland Maya urban centres.
Abstract: The authors use a social network analysis to map the changing patterns of obsidian supply among the Maya during the period of Classic to Postclassic transition. The quantity of obsidian received from different sources was calculated for 121 sites and the network analysis showed how the relative abundance of material from different sources shifted over time. A shift from inland to coastal supply routes appears to have contributed to the collapse of inland Maya urban centres. The methods employed clearly have a high potential to reveal changing economic networks in cases of major societal transitions elsewhere in the world.

104 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors have excavated a settlement where the occupants were harvesting and processing barley 1000 years in advance of its domestication, using querns installed in square stone and daub buildings leave no doubt that this was a community dedicated to the systematic production of food from wild cereals.
Abstract: At Jerf el Ahmar in northern Syria the authors have excavated a settlement where the occupants were harvesting and processing barley 1000 years in advance of its domestication. Rows of querns installed in square stone and daub buildings leave no doubt that this was a community dedicated to the systematic production of food from wild cereals. Given the plausible suggestion that barley was being cultivated, the site opens a window onto a long period of pre-domestic agriculture. Rye was also harvested, its chaff used to temper mud walls.

98 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The south-east coast of Africa in the later first millennium was busy with boats and the movement of goods from across the Indian Ocean to the interior, and landing places were crucial mediators in this process, in Africa as elsewhere as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The south-east coast of Africa in the later first millennium was busy with boats and the movement of goods from across the Indian Ocean to the interior. The landing places were crucial mediators in this process, in Africa as elsewhere. Investigations at the beach site of Chibuene show that a local community was supplying imported beads to such interior sites as Schroda, with the consequent emergence there of hierarchical power structures.

90 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The metal composition of bronze alloys has been routinely examined as a means of inferring the source of the ore as discussed by the authors. But bronze is recycled, and the quantity of some components, such as arsenic, is depleted every time the alloy is melted down.
Abstract: The metal composition of bronze alloys has been routinely examined as a means of inferring the source of the ore. But bronze is recycled, and the quantity of some components, such as arsenic, is depleted every time the alloy is melted down. Since the Early Bronze Age of the British Isles was largely supplied from a single mine on Ross Island, Co. Kerry, tracking arsenic content shows the number of re-melts and this gives the object a biography and a social context. Applying this ingenious new procedure to their large database, the authors also winkle out other sources of supply and new insights about the technology involved.

89 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the popular notion of social collapse consequent on natural catastrophe is elegantly disentangled in a study of the dark summer of AD 536 leaving aside the question of its cause, the authors show there is good scientific evidence for a climatic downturn, contemporary with archaeological evidence for widespread disruption of settlement and population displacement in the northern latitudes.
Abstract: The popular notion of social collapse consequent on natural catastrophe is here elegantly disentangled in a study of the dark summer of AD 536 Leaving aside the question of its cause, the authors show there is good scientific evidence for a climatic downturn, contemporary with good archaeological evidence for widespread disruption of settlement and population displacement in the northern latitudes. They then navigate through the shifting shadows of myth, and emerge with a welcome prize: strong circumstantial reasons for recognising that this widespread horror, like so many others, did leave its imprint on Scandinavian poetry and sculpture.

80 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this pioneering review, the author explores distinctions among chimpanzees in ecology, diet and innovation, sets a wider agenda for a prehistory of primates and explains how archaeology could serve it.
Abstract: Using the behaviour of related primates to provide analogies for early humans has a long tradition in archaeology. But these primates too have a past, and experienced particular contexts for the adoption of tool-using. In this pioneering review, the author explores distinctions among chimpanzees in ecology, diet and innovation, sets a wider agenda for a prehistory of primates and explains how archaeology could serve it.

74 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Tierra del Fuego represents the southernmost limit of human settlement in the Americas as mentioned in this paper, and the coexistence in the area of maritime hunter-gatherers (in canoes) with previous terrestrial occupants pre-echoes the culturally distinctive groups encountered by the first European visitors in the sixteenth century.
Abstract: Tierra del Fuego represents the southernmost limit of human settlement in the Americas. While people may have started to arrive there around 10 500 BP, when it was still connected to the mainland, the main wave of occupation occurred 5000 years later, by which time it had become an island. The co-existence in the area of maritime hunter-gatherers (in canoes) with previous terrestrial occupants pre-echoes the culturally distinctive groups encountered by the first European visitors in the sixteenth century. The study also provides a striking example of interaction across challenging natural barriers

71 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, traces of starch found on a large flat stone discovered in the hunter-fisher-gatherer site of Ohalo II were used for the routine processing of wild cereals, wheat, barley and now oats among them, around 23 000 years ago.
Abstract: Traces of starch found on a large flat stone discovered in the hunter-fisher-gatherer site of Ohalo II famously represent the first identification of Upper Palaeolithic grinding of grasses. Given the importance of this discovery for the use of edible grain, further analyses have now been undertaken. Meticulous sampling combined with good preservation allow the authors to demonstrate that the Ohalo II stone was certainly used for the routine processing of wild cereals, wheat, barley and now oats among them, around 23 000 years ago.

70 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Azema and Rivere as mentioned in this paper explored the representation of animal movement in cave art for more than 20 years, and here shares with us his latest examples, culled from the parietal art in the Chauvet Cave (Ardeche) and La Baume Latrone (Gard).
Abstract: Marc Azema a Palaeolithic researcher and film maker has been exploring the representation of animal movement in cave art for more than 20 years, and here shares with us his latest examples, culled from the parietal art in the Chauvet Cave (Ardeche) and La Baume Latrone (Gard). Here he has shown that Palaeolithic artists have invented systems of breaking down movement and graphic narrative. His co-author, Florent Rivere, discovered that animal movement was also represented in more dynamic ways�with the use of animals drawn on a spinning disc. In these flickering images created by Palaeolithic people, the authors suggest, lie the origins of cinema

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the course of their research campaign in Siberia, Ghent University archaeologists have developed a simple and cost effective method for the rapid 3D imaging of rock art, standing stelae and surface monuments as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the course of their research campaign in Siberia, Ghent University archaeologists have developed a simple and cost effective method for the rapid 3D imaging of rock art, standing stelae and surface monuments. Their procedure will undoubtedly have a big role to play in archaeological research in advance of the oil pipeline expected soon.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors rewrite the character of Early Mesolithic settlement in Europe with their new research at one of its most famous sites, Star Carr in 9000 cal BC, which involved the construction of an estimated 30m of lakeside waterfront and at least one post-built house.
Abstract: The authors rewrite the character of Early Mesolithic settlement in Europe with their new research at one of its most famous sites. The picture of small mobile pioneering groups colonising new land is thrown into contention: far from being a small hunter-gatherer camp, Star Carr in 9000 cal BC extended for nearly 2ha and involved the construction of an estimated 30m of lakeside waterfront and at least one post-built house. With some justice, they suspect that the "small groups" of Early Mesolithic Europe may have their rationale in the small excavations of archaeologists

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Using excavation and radiocarbon dating, the authors show that construction of megalithic pillar sites begins in eastern Africa by the fifth millennium BP, and is contemporary with the earliest herding in the region.
Abstract: Using excavation and radiocarbon dating, the authors show that construction of megalithic pillar sites begins in eastern Africa by the fifth millennium BP, and is contemporary with the earliest herding in the region. Mobile herders and/or hunter-gatherers built and used these sites in a dynamic context of economic and social change. We are more familiar with monumentality as an adjunct of cereal cultivators�but this study demonstrates a relationship between early herding and monuments, with clear relevance to pre-cultivation monumentality of very much earlier periods elsewhere.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The role of the "pottery-using foragers" as mentioned in this paper was defined as sophisticated hunter-gatherers who left shell or fish middens in caves and dunes.
Abstract: The authors present new research on social and economic developments in southern China in the Early Holocene, ninth to fifth millennia BC. The �Neolithic package� doesn't really work for this fascinating chapter of the human experience, where pottery, social aggregation, animal domestication and rice cultivation all arrive at different places and times. The authors define the role of the �pottery-using foragers�, sophisticated hunter-gatherers who left shell or fish middens in caves and dunes. These colonising non-farmers shared numerous cultural attributes with rice cultivators on the Yangtze, their parallel contemporaries over more than 5000 years. Some agriculturalists became hunter-foragers in turn when they expanded onto less fertile soils. No simple linear transition then, but the practice of ingenious strategies, adaptations and links in a big varied land.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The case study of Xuch, and the judicious application of phospha... as mentioned in this paper explains why Mayan cities are so dispersed, with a ceremonial core surrounded by spacious neighbourhoods.
Abstract: The author sets out to explain why Maya cities are so dispersed, with a ceremonial core surrounded by spacious neighbourhoods. Using the case study of Xuch, and the judicious application of phospha ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Huaca Prieta as discussed by the authors, a large coastal mound settlement in Peru, has been investigated to date back more than 7000 years to a first human exploitation ~13720 BP, and the community of Huaca prieta emerges as innovative, complex and ritualised, with no antecedents.
Abstract: Renewed in-depth multi-disciplinary investigation of a large coastal mound settlement in Peru has extended the occupation back more than 7000 years to a first human exploitation ~13720 BP. Research by the authors has chronicled the prehistoric sequence from the activities of the first maritime foragers to the construction of the black mound and the introduction of horticulture and monumentality. The community of Huaca Prieta emerges as innovative, complex and ritualised, as yet with no antecedents

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show how distribution patterns can be validated, and sample bias minimised, through comparison with maps of known populations and by presenting the distributions more sharply by risk surface analysis.
Abstract: Finds distributions plotted over landscapes and continents, once the mainstay of archaeological cultural mapping, went into a lengthy period of decline when it was realised that many were artefacts of modern recovery rather than patterns of their own day. What price then, the rich harvest of finds being collected by modern routine procedures of rescue work and by metal-detectorists? The author shows how distribution patterns can be validated, and sample bias minimised, through comparison with maps of known populations and by presenting the distributions more sharply by risk surface analysis. This not only endorses the routine recording of surface finds currently undertaken in every country, but opens the door to new social and economic interpretations through methods of singular power.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors deconstruct a kurgan burial mound in the Great Hungarian Plain designated to the Yamnaya culture, to find it was actually shared by a number of different peoples.
Abstract: You never know until you look. The authors deconstruct a kurgan burial mound in the Great Hungarian Plain designated to the Yamnaya culture, to find it was actually shared by a number of different peoples. The Yamnaya were an influential immigrant group of the Late Copper Age/Early Bronze Age transition. The burials, already characterised by their grave goods, were radiocarbon dated and further examined using stable isotope analysis on the human teeth. The revealing sequence began with a young person of likely local origin buried around or even before the late fourth millennium BC-a few centuries before the arrival of the Yamnaya. It ended around 500 years later with a group of different immigrants, apparently from the eastern mountains. These are explained as contacts built up between the mountains and the plain through the practice of transhumance.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a history of travel and exchange in the Buenavista Valley Corridor that vividly reflects the rivalry of two polities and the rise and fall of their nodal settlements.
Abstract: Travellers naturally prefer to use the most passable routes and establish staging points on the way. Cost surface analysis predicts the easiest routes and viewshed analysis the territory visible from a staging point or destination. Applying these GIS techniques to the Buenavista Valley Corridor, our authors write a history of travel and exchange that vividly reflects the rivalry of two polities and the rise and fall of their nodal settlements

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors place the shamanistic dance back on centre stage, with important consequences not only for the study of the San peoples, but also for wider prehistoric interpretations.
Abstract: Cave paintings and first-hand ethnographic accounts from living peoples have led to the notion that southern African spiritual experts routinely mediated with the other world through energetic dances leading to the trance state. The evidence for this idea has been challenged in recent years, and the importance of the trance dance diminished accordingly. The authors confront these criticisms and place the shamanistic dance back on centre stage�with important consequences not only for the study of San peoples, but for wider prehistoric interpretations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Areni-1 cave complex in the southern Caucasus revealed evidence for early social complexity, ritual burial and wine-making in the early fourth millennium as mentioned in this paper, and the marvellous preservation of wood, leather and plants offers a valuable contrast to the poorer assemblages on contemporary tell sites.
Abstract: The archaeological exploration of a cave in the southern Caucasus revealed evidence for early social complexity, ritual burial and wine-making in the early fourth millennium. The marvellous preservation of wood, leather and plants offers a valuable contrast to the poorer assemblages on contemporary tell sites. The authors make the case that the Areni-1 cave complex indicates connections between the urbanisation of early Mesopotamia and the Maikop culture of south Russia

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explored responses to political violence through the materiality of three aspects of the Civil War in Spain: military lines in the battle for Madrid, a concentration camp in Extremadura and a remote settlement of forced labourers and their families.
Abstract: The author explores responses to political violence through the materiality of three aspects of the Civil War in Spain: military lines in the battle for Madrid, a concentration camp in Extremadura and a remote settlement of forced labourers and their families. He shows how archaeology's revelations reflect, qualify and enrich the story of human survival under the pall cast by a dictatorship. Sharing the inquiry with the public of today also revealed some of the disquieting mechanisms by which history is composed and how archaeology can be used to deconstruct it.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The earliest art to be excavated in the Arctic zone was found at Yana RHS as discussed by the authors, which dates to about 28000 BP and contained a stunning assemblage of ornamented and symbolic objects.
Abstract: The excavated site termed Yana RHS is dated to about 28000 BP and contained a stunning assemblage of ornamented and symbolic objects—the earliest art to be excavated in the Arctic zone. Decorated beads, pendants and needles connect the site to the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic; but other forms and ornaments are unparalleled. Shallow dishes and anthropomorphic designs on mammoth tusks find echoes among hunting practice and shamanistic images of the indigenous Yukaghir people recorded in the early twentieth century.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a Bayesian analysis of the contemporary stratigraphic sequence on the neighbouring island of Keros to date the acts of pilgrimage from 2750 to 2300 cal BC.
Abstract: The sanctuary on the island of Keros takes the form of deposits of broken marble vessels and figurines, probably brought severally for deposition from elsewhere in the Cyclades. These acts of devotion have now been accurately dated, thanks to Bayesian analyses of the contemporary stratigraphic sequence on the neighbouring islet of Dhaskalio. The period of use�from 2750 to 2300 cal BC�precedes any identified worship of gods in the Aegean and the site is among the earliest ritual destinations only accessible by sea. The authors offer some preliminary thoughts on the definition of these precocious acts of pilgrimage.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used a dendrochronology approach to date the break-ins with some precision, and found that they took place during the domination of Norway by Harald Bluetooth in the tenth century as part of an extensive campaign which included subduing local monuments as well as converting Scandinavians to Christianity.
Abstract: Not the least of the unusual revelations that have come from the wonderfully preserved ninth-century Norwegian ship burials at Oseberg and Gokstad, is the fact that both had been later broken into—by interlopers who defaced the ship, damaged the grave goods and pulled out and dispersed the bones of the deceased. These ‘mound-breakers’ helpfully left spades and stretchers in place, and through the application of some highly ingenious dendrochronology our authors have been able to date the break-ins with some precision. Mound-breaking, it seems, took place during the domination of Norway by Harald Bluetooth in the tenth century as part of an extensive campaign which included subduing local monuments as well as converting Scandinavians to Christianity. The old mounds retained such power in the landscape that it was worth desecrating them and disinterring their occupants a century after their burial.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The first description of the prehistory of the coastal Congo, won by the author and his colleagues against considerable odds: war, exploitation by big business and, above all, the entrenched assumption that this part of the world had no history to save.
Abstract: This is the first description of the prehistory of the coastal Congo, won by the author and his colleagues against considerable odds: war, exploitation by big business and, above all, by the entrenched assumption that this part of the world had no history to save. Here is a first glimpse of that history: 3300 years of prehistoric settlement, movement and change chronicled by radiocarbon dating and a new ceramic typology.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The discovery of a Han period farming site sealed beneath 5m of flood deposits, where courtyard houses have been excavated belonging to the Western Han Dynasty and Wang Mang period (c 140 BC�AD 23) is described in this paper.
Abstract: The authors present the discovery of a Han period farming site sealed beneath 5m of flood deposits, where courtyard houses have been excavated belonging to the Western Han Dynasty and Wang Mang period (c 140 BC�AD 23) Preservation is exceptional, both at the village of Sanyangzhuang itself and, by dint of satellite reconnaissance, over a vast landscape contemporarily covered by the flood Deep profiles show that here land surfaces of the Neolithic and Warring States periods also lie buried The potential for the study of the early agricultural sequence and a deeper knowledge of Han society is truly outstanding The discoveries also offer a vivid account of the way a settlement was overwhelmed by flooding

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Bone points of two types, the one thin and poisoned and the other robust and not poisoned, are examined in this study of impact fractures, finding that the bone points seem to have had similar experiences to stone points, producing fractures of a similar kind.
Abstract: Bone points of two types, the one thin and poisoned and the other robust and not poisoned, are examined in this study of impact fractures. The bone points seem to have had similar experiences to stone points, producing fractures of a similar kind. Most of the fractures in the historical collection examined were caused by impacts. However, this early twentieth-century collection is not thought to be representative of contemporary fracture frequencies that occurred in hunting.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors made the case for cultural change during the period traditionally assigned to the Middle Palaeolithic in China (140-30 kya), challenging an earlier proposal (Antiquity 2002) that the period saw little change and the term should be abandoned.
Abstract: The author makes the case for cultural change during the period traditionally assigned to the Middle Palaeolithic in China (140-30 kya), challenging an earlier proposal (Antiquity 2002) that the period saw little change and the term should be abandoned.