Showing papers in "Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory in 2019"

The Mental Template in Handaxe Manufacture: New Insights into Acheulean Lithic Technological Behavior at Boxgrove, Sussex, UK

Abstract: The morphological variability of large cutting tools (LCT) during the Middle Pleistocene has been traditionally associated with two main variables: raw material constraints and reduction intensity. Boxgrove — c.500 ka — is one of the most informative sites at which to analyze shaping strategies and handaxe morphological variability in the European Middle Pleistocene, because of the large number of finished handaxes, and the presence of complete operational chains. We focused on the entire handaxe and rough-out sample from Boxgrove-Q1/B with the aim of assessing the role of raw material characteristics — size, form, and homogeneity of nodules — in the shaping process, and to ascertain if they represent real constraints in the production of handaxes. Additionally, given the large number of handaxes and the intensity of the thinning work at Boxgrove, we also aimed to determine if reduction intensity affected the final shape to the degree that some authors have previously postulated. The methodology combines traditional technological descriptions, metrical analysis, and experimental reproduction of shaping processes together with geometric morphometry and PCA. The conclusions we draw are that the Q1/B handaxe knapping strategies were flexible and adapted to the characteristics of the blanks. These characteristics affected the reduction strategy but there is no clear relationship between initial nodule or blank morphology and final handaxe shape. Throughout the experiments, we explored the capacity to solve problems arising from reduction accidents, which led to re-configuring the knapping strategy to achieve the predetermined “mental template.” Furthermore, no substantial morphological differences related to reduction intensity were noticed with the Q1/B handaxes. Systematic re-sharpening as the cause of shape variation seems highly unlikely, perhaps related to the short use-life of the Boxgrove-Q1/B handaxes. Preferred forms constitute part of a broader pattern emerging for specific handaxe types at different times during the British Acheulean. The patterns have tentatively been interpreted as the result of changing environments and the movement of hominin populations.

On Applications of Space–Time Modelling with Open-Source 14C Age Calibration

Abstract: In archaeology, the meta-analysis of scientific dating information plays an ever-increasing role. A common thread among many recent studies contributing to this has been the development of bespoke software for summarizing and synthesizing data, identifying significant patterns therein. These are reviewed in this paper, which also contains open-source scripts for calibrating radiocarbon dates and modelling them in space and time, using the R computer language and GRASS GIS. The case studies that undertake new analysis of archaeological data are (1) the spread of the Neolithic in Europe, (2) economic consequences of the Great Famine and Black Death in the fourteenth century Britain and Ireland and (3) the role of climate change in influencing cultural change in the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Ireland. These case studies exemplify an emerging trend in archaeology, which is quickly re-defining itself as a data-driven discipline at the intersection of science and the humanities.

Participatory Mapping and Participatory GIS for Historical and Archaeological Landscape Studies: a Critical Review

Abstract: This article presents participatory mapping (PM) and Participatory Geographical Information Systems (PGIS) approaches as an appropriate and still developing kind of community-based spatial study in archaeology. Researchers and practitioners who advocate reflexive mapping practices in the field recognize that mapping is not an objective practice and that maps are necessarily the product of those who create them. We consider that a PM/PGIS approach can contribute to this reflexive practice through the incorporation of local spatial knowledge (LSK) which is always place-based and reflects a long and close physical interaction with the landscape. For local communities, this approach helps them to be incorporated as active subjects in the registration and interpretation of their cultural heritage, as well as in the defense and management of it. At the same time, archaeological studies are enriched by incorporating contemporary perspectives and local people’s knowledge into interpretations of past landscapes.

Birch Bark Tar Production: Experimental and Biomolecular Approaches to the Study of a Common and Widely Used Prehistoric Adhesive

Abstract: Birch bark tar, the oldest adhesive known in Europe, was widely used during Prehistory. This material, produced by the dry distillation of birch bark, has been identified in various spheres of activities and provides valuable information on the know-how and technical and territorial systems of past societies. This biomaterial can also provide evidence on socio-economic networks and mobility. However, very little is known about the production systems of birch bark tar during Prehistory, including the Neolithic period. The lack of findings in the archaeological record necessitates the development of an approach that combines experimental archaeology and biomolecular chemistry. We present here (1) the results of experiments in which different birch bark tar production systems were tested and (2) the molecular signatures of the birch bark tars produced according to different processes based on the use of ceramic vessels. The key role of bark quality is highlighted for the first time. This study also details direct archaeological inference of the experimental results obtained: a total of 23 samples from the site of Nice-Giribaldi (France, second part of the fifth century BCE) was investigated. Different categories of birch bark tars were identified during Neolithic in the south of France, providing evidence for the existence of complex manufacturing systems and procurement networks.

Identifying Experimental Tool Use Through Confocal Microscopy

Abstract: Characterizing use-wear traces quantitatively is a valid way to improve the capacity of use-wear analysis. This aim has been on specialists’ agenda since the beginning of the discipline. Micropolish quantification is especially important, as this type of trace allows the identification of worked materials. During the last decade, confocal microscopy has been used as a promising approach to address this question. Following previous efforts in plant microwear characterization (Ibanez et al. Journal of Archaeological Science, 48, 96–103, 2014; Journal of Archaeological Science, 73, 62–81, 2016), here we test the capacity of the method for correctly grouping experimental tools used for working eight types of materials: bone, antler, wood, fresh hide, dry hide, wild cereals, domestic cereals, and reeds. We demonstrate, for the first time, that quantitative texture analysis of use-wear micropolish based on confocal microscopy can consistently identify tools used for working different contact materials. In this way, we are able to move toward using texture analysis as part of the standard functional analysis of prehistoric instruments.

Persistent Place-Making in Prehistory: the Creation, Maintenance, and Transformation of an Epipalaeolithic Landscape

Abstract: Most archaeological projects today integrate, at least to some degree, how past people engaged with their surroundings, including both how they strategized resource use, organized technological production, or scheduled movements within a physical environment, as well as how they constructed cosmologies around or created symbolic connections to places in the landscape. However, there are a multitude of ways in which archaeologists approach the creation, maintenance, and transformation of human-landscape interrelationships. This paper explores some of these approaches for reconstructing the Epipalaeolithic (ca. 23,000–11,500 years BP) landscape of Southwest Asia, using macro- and microscale geoarchaeological approaches to examine how everyday practices leave traces of human-landscape interactions in northern and eastern Jordan. The case studies presented here demonstrate that these Epipalaeolithic groups engaged in complex and far-reaching social landscapes. Examination of the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic (EP) highlights that the notion of “Neolithization” is somewhat misleading as many of the features we use to define this transition were already well-established patterns of behavior by the Neolithic. Instead, these features and practices were enacted within a hunter-gatherer world and worldview.

New Insights into Use-Wear Development in Bodily Ornaments Through the Study of Ethnographic Collections

Abstract: The use of microwear analysis has made substantial contributions to the study of archaeological bodily ornaments However, limitations persist with regard to the interpretation of use and the reconstruction of systems of attachment, hampering a holistic understanding of the diversity of past bodily adornment This is because the complexities of ornament biographies and the resulting wear traces cannot be grasped exclusively from the study of experimental reference collections In this paper, we propose to bridge this gap in interpretation by systematically researching ethnographic collections We conducted a microscopic study of 38 composite ornaments from lowland South America housed at the Musee du quai Branly (Paris) These objects involve organic, biomineral, and inorganic components, attached through different string configurations The combined use of optical and 3D digital microscopy at different magnification ranges provided a thorough understanding of wear trace formation, distribution, and characterization We demonstrate how individual beads develop characteristic use-wear in relation to one another and to the strings We further challenge common assumptions made in the analysis of archaeological ornaments In sum, this research addresses methodological and interpretative issues in the study of bodily adornment at large, by providing insight into the biographies of objects that were actually worn in a lived context In the future, our results can be applied as reference for a more effective understanding of the use of ornaments worldwide

Pastoralist Foodways Recorded in Organic Residues from Pottery Vessels of Modern Communities in Samburu, Kenya

Abstract: Organic residue analyses of archaeological ceramics can provide important insights into ancient foodways. To date, however, there has been little critical reflection on how lipid residues might (or might not) reflect dietary practices or subsistence strategies more generally. A combination of ethnoarchaeological research and chemical and isotopic analyses of lipid residues from pottery made and used by modern Samburu pastoralists in northern Kenya was undertaken to supplement the interpretive framework used in archaeological investigations. A total of 63 potsherds were collected from various contexts, including settlement sites and rockshelters, and analysed using gas chromatography (GC), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS). The results showed that the free fatty acids, palmitic (C16:0) and stearic (C18:0), dominated the lipid profiles, with extremely broad ranges of δ13C values. The majority of the Δ13C values from Samburu pots suggest that vessels were intensively used to process ruminant carcass products, yet the Samburu economy is not, in fact, meat-based at all. Despite an overall reliance on dairy products, milk is rarely processed in ceramic vessels, largely due to cultural prohibitions. Surprisingly, a number of vessels from one site, Naiborkeju Hill, were used to process dairy products. Compound-specific radiocarbon dating of lipids from these sherds suggests that this pottery originated from an earlier period, demonstrating a possible shift in ceramic use by pastoralist communities in this region over time. The overall conclusion is that lipid residues may not necessarily reflect, in a simple way, the day-to-day consumption or the perceived relative importance of different foodstuffs. In the Samburu case, lipid residues reflect the functional and ideological suitability of ceramics for processing only certain types of food (meat/fat/bones), despite an overall reliance on milk. These conclusions are important when considering the origins and development of African pastoralism, for example, as interpreted from the archaeological record.

Searching for the Origins of Bere Barley: a Geometric Morphometric Approach to Cereal Landrace Recognition in Archaeology

Abstract: Bere is a landrace of barley, adapted to the marginal conditions of northern Scotland, especially those of the Northern and Western Isles. The history of bere on these islands is long and, in an era of diminishing landrace cultivation, bere now represents one of the oldest cereal landraces in Europe still grown commercially. The longevity of bere raises the possibility of using grain characteristics of present-day specimens to identify bere in the archaeological record. Geometric modern morphometric (GMM) analysis of grains from bere and other barley landraces is conducted to determine whether landraces can be differentiated on grain morphology. Results indicate that there are morphological differences between bere and other British and Scandinavian landraces, and between bere from Orkney and the Western Isles, both of which are apparent in genetic analysis. This finding paves the way for the identification of bere archaeologically, helping to establish its status as living heritage and securing its commercial future. More broadly, this work indicates the potential of grain GMM for the recognition of cereal landraces, permitting the ancestry and exchange of landraces to be traced in the archaeological record.

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Neolithic Life Reconstruction

Abstract: The expansion of Neolithic stable isotope studies in France now allows distinct regional population-scale food patterns to be linked to both local environment influences and specific economic choices. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values of more than 500 humans and of animal samples also permit hypotheses on sex-biased human provenance. To advance population scale research, we here present the first study that draws together carbon (C), nitrogen (N), sulphur (S) and strontium (Sr), dental calculus, aDNA, and palaeoparasitology analysis to infer intra-population patterns of diet and provenance in a Middle Neolithic population from Le Vigneau 2 (human = 40; fauna = 12; 4720–4350 cal. BC) from north-western France. The data of the different studies, such as palaeoparasitology to detect diet and hygiene, CNS isotopes and dental calculus analysis to examine dietary staples, Sr and S isotopes to discriminate non-locals, and aDNA to detect maternal (mtDNA) versus paternal lineages (Y chromosome), were compared to anthropological information of sex and age. Collagen isotope data suggest a similar diet for all individuals except for one child. The provenance isotopic studies suggest no clear differences between sexes, suggesting both males and females used the territory in a similar pattern and had access to foods from the same environments.

A Critical Review of Four Efforts to Resurrect MNI in Zooarchaeology

Abstract: Evaluation of zooarchaeology’s quantitative units known as NISP (number of identified specimens) and MNI (minimum number of individuals) during the last three decades of the twentieth century suggested neither provided ratio scale measures of taxonomic abundances. Many researchers at that time began to use NISP as often as MNI to measure taxonomic abundances. In part because of a desire to determine the composition of human diet more precisely, and in light of the fact that different taxa have different numbers of identifiable bones, four zooarchaeologists have, since 1990, used assemblages with known ANI (actual number of individuals) to evaluate whether NISP or MNI provides the most accurate measure of ANI. ANI data from ethnoarchaeological and historical contexts suggest taxonomic abundance data quantified as NISP or MNI are ordinal scale at best, something previously shown to be highly probable. Experimental data used to evaluate the accuracy of NISP and MNI as measures of ANI are either inappropriate or not designed to assess which quantitative unit produces the most accurate measure. A new quantitative unit proposed as an alternative to MNE (minimum number of [skeletal] elements)—the NDE (number of distinct elements)—is said to provide proportional abundances of taxa but demonstrably undercounts skeletal parts and fails to provide ratio scale abundance data.

Materiality and Human Cognition

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the role of materiality in human cognition. We address issues such as the ways in which brain functions may change in response to interactions with material forms, the attributes of material forms that may cause change in brain functions, and the spans of time required for brain functions to reorganize when interacting with material forms. We then contrast thinking through materiality with thinking about it. We discuss these in terms of their evolutionary significance and history as attested by stone tools and writing, material forms whose interaction endowed our lineage with conceptual thought and meta-awareness of conceptual domains.

A Critical Reassessment of Cultural Taxonomies in the Central European Late Palaeolithic

Abstract: In the analysis of archaeological relationships and processes, a uniform classification of the dataset is a fundamental requirement. To achieve this, a standardised taxonomic system, as well as consistent and valid criteria for the grouping of sites and assemblages, must be used. The Central European Late Palaeolithic (ca. 12,000–9700 cal BC) has a long research history and many regionally and temporally specific units—groups and cultures—are recognised. In this paper, we examine the complex taxonomic landscape of this period and critically analyse the use of typological, functional and economic criteria in the definition of selected groups. We subject three different archaeological taxonomic units, the Bromme culture from Denmark, the Furstein group from Switzerland and the Atzenhof group from Germany, to particularly detailed scrutiny and highlight that the classificatory criteria used in their definition are inconsistent across units and most likely unsuitable for circumscribing past sociocultural units. We suggest a comprehensive re-examination of the overarching taxonomic system for the Late Palaeolithic, as well as a re-evaluation of the methodologies used to delineate sociocultural units in the Palaeolithic.

Mapping the Adena-Hopewell Landscape in the Middle Ohio Valley, USA: Multi-Scalar Approaches to LiDAR-Derived Imagery from Central Kentucky

Abstract: Archaeologists around the world have shown that LiDAR has the potential to map a wide range of architectural features built by humans. The ability to map archaeological sites at a landscape scale provides researchers the possibility to reconstruct and assess the ways humans organized, constructed, and interacted with their surroundings. However, LiDAR can be impacted by a variety of modern development and land use practices. In this article, we confront these issues by presenting the first examination of high-resolution LiDAR-derived imagery from Central Kentucky, part of the larger heartland for late-Early and Middle Woodland-era (ca. 300 bc–ad 500) Adena-Hopewell societies. Our investigations demonstrate that multiple issues can arise when analyzing LiDAR imagery for monumental earthen architecture in this region. We outline an integrated strategy to rediscover and confirm the presence of earthen architecture made by Adena-Hopewell societies that incorporates aerial photographs, multi-instrument geophysical surveys, and geoarchaeological methods into the examination of LiDAR imagery. This methodology will be applicable in other global contexts where archaeologists are seeking to rediscover ancient forms of earthen architecture within heavily disturbed or developed landscapes.

Assumptions and Protocol of the Taxonomic Identification of Faunal Remains in Zooarchaeology: a North American Perspective

Abstract: Identification of the species of animal represented by ancient bones, teeth, and shells based on the size and shape of those materials is one of the most fundamental and foundational steps in paleozoology, yet only scattered comments in the literature regarding this matter have been published. The history of taxonomic identification of faunal remains began with researchers learning which anatomical traits were taxonomically diagnostic; this required the creation of reference collections of skeletons of known taxonomy. To identify the taxon of animal represented by an ancient bone or tooth or shell requires comparison between the taxonomically unknown and reference materials of known taxonomy. The key assumption underpinning taxonomic identification is that anatomical similarity in size and shape of a reference bone and a paleozoological bone signifies genetic similarity and, thus, taxonomic similarity. Reference collections must be large both in terms of the number of species represented and the number of skeletons per species. Anatomical traits are morphological (qualitative), metric (quantitative), and meristic (frequency). Reporting of the identification protocol followed, including the reference skeletons, illustrated guides, and anatomical traits used, is strongly recommended so that what are believed to be taxonomically diagnostic traits can be tested and either used, revised, or discarded by others. An online database listing what are believed to be taxonomically diagnostic traits will increase efficiency, enhance accuracy of identifications, and should prompt re-identification of collections studied in the past.

Single Context, Metacontext, and High Definition Archaeology: Integrating New Standards of Stratigraphic Excavation and Recording

Abstract: Recently, new augmented recording techniques have entered archaeological fieldwork. We review a major urban excavation in Ribe, Denmark, which has adopted a systematic use of 3D laser scanning and intensive soil and sediment micromorphological sampling as part of the excavation recording practice. Both methods represent a major advance in field documentation, achieving a higher degree of detail and precision for the recording of archaeological features. We argue that these technologies also challenge the current paradigm of single-context recording, i.e. the separation of layers and features as all-encompassing units of recording. First, 3D digital recording implies that contexts are defined in a more definite way than previously, with less flexibility for recursive revision. Second, micromorphology demonstrates how the strata separated in excavation are only a subset of those created in deposition. We call for a new approach, which takes into consideration the fact that excavation units do not always mirror depositional events, as assumed by single-context theory, and that different kinds of observations may not overlap, as assumed in single-context practice. Instead, interfaces, matrices and assemblages are restored as separate units to record and feed into the interpretation cycle. This may be described as recording metacontext: observations that go across or between contexts. We demonstrate how a systematic metacontext registration can lead to a manageable and more detailed excavation record, more faithful to the archaeologists’ observations.

Late Precolonial Culinary Practices: Starch Analysis on Griddles from the Northern Caribbean

Abstract: Late precolonial (c. 800–1500 CE) culinary practices in the northern Caribbean have received limited investigations. Determining foodways has been integral for the study of cultures, yet there has never been a comparison of foodway dynamics in the Caribbean between the Greater Antilles (the presumed origin of people who migrated into The Bahamas) and the Bahama archipelago. The objective of our study was to analyze microbotanical residues (starches) extracted from 45 clay griddles (food preparation platters) to illuminate a partial view of the phytocultural repertoire of this region and explicate variations of the identified culinary practices. The griddles were excavated from three archaeological sites: El Flaco and La Luperona in northwestern Dominican Republic and Palmetto Junction on the western coast of Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands. Regarding the production of plant-based food on griddles, our produced data suggests that the people who lived at El Flaco focused on the production of maize (Zea mays L.) derivatives, La Luperona residents prepared guayiga/coontie/zamia (Zamia spp.) food products, and Palmetto Junction ostensibly had a focus on the production of manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz) based foods. This survey of foodways has exposed particular cultural niches, different adaptation strategies, and associated culinary practices.

An Experimental Program for Obsidian Use-Wear Analysis in Central Mexican Archaeology

Abstract: Obsidian tools are ubiquitous at archaeological sites throughout the pre-Hispanic period (ca. 1500 B.C.–A.D. 1521) in central Mexico. However, the method of high-magnification use-wear analysis has been underutilized for functional interpretations of obsidian tools in the region, especially compared to lithic studies in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, Oceania, and North America. In order to establish a reliable foundation for future archaeological investigations of obsidian tool functions, I performed approximately 300 experiments with 145 obsidian tool specimens controlling for two obsidian sources, two activity durations, and 29 different materials that were accessible to pre-Hispanic residents of central Mexico. This paper synthesizes results from prior experimental obsidian use-wear studies with the results from my experiments and discusses their broader impacts for use-wear analysts working in all regions as well as specific implications for future use-wear projects in central Mexico. This paper also presents high-quality images of use-wear characteristics and their patterns linked to specific materials in order to stimulate student training and comparisons between studies. Results indicate that the start times for initial use-wear patterns resulting from slicing meat, fish, maize, and soft plants, respectively, can be revised down to 5 min of tool use. There are distinct use-wear patterns for maguey heart scraping and maguey leaf scraping, which are new and crucial findings for archaeologists interested in ancient practices of pulque and fiber production. Finally, human and animal blood residues can be observed microscopically on obsidian tool surfaces and removed for presumptive testing using Hemastix® strips.

The Shell Midden Conundrum: Comparative Micromorphology of Shell-Matrix Sites from South America

Abstract: Shell-matrix sites are one of the most widespread archaeological deposits in the world. They inform archaeologists about human adaptations to coastal environments, the evolution of coastal economies, ritual practices, and prehistoric architecture. In recent years, the micromorphological study of Brazilian shellmounds and a shell midden from Tierra del Fuego revealed unique information about the human behaviors related to the formation of shell-matrix sites. These investigations refined our knowledge concerning the upward sequence of events involved in the growth and post-depositional evolution of the deposits. Micromorphological studies denied the traditional view of shell-matrix sites as simple secondary deposits of food remains, providing evidence of trampling surfaces, midden redeposition, domestic spaces, abandonment episodes, and intra-site differences. Dissimilarities were detected in the pre-depositional history of sediments in the shellmounds and shell middens that also attest to differences in site use and function. This comparative study highlights the role of micromorphology in the study of shell-matrix sites as a unique approach intended to disassemble the sequence of events hidden in the intricate stratigraphies. The technique has the potential to reveal microdepositional events and/or the weathering process of the seemingly thick layers of densely packed shell that characterize shell-matrix sites worldwide.

Rubbish, Reuse, and Ritual at the Ancient Maya Site of El Zotz, Guatemala

Abstract: This article questions the limits of archaeological categories. It highlights the ways in which labels created to interpret archaeological phenomena can, over time, become reified and even appear as archaeological entities themselves. To illustrate this point, I provide a common example from Mesoamerican archaeology, where one particular archaeological category—“termination”—is applied to a diverse array of complex assemblages of fragmented materials. The “termination” label is widely accepted, but ambiguous. Over time, the term has become so capacious as to not only describe quite varied archaeological assemblages, but also explain how they came to be formed and why they exist. This article critically examines the history, usage, and limits of “termination” as a cultural concept, an archaeological category, and a hermeneutic tool. Drawing on a case study from the ancient Maya site of El Zotz, Guatemala, I show that attention to the specific ways that people in the past manipulated, collected, and buried the components of an assemblage can yield more nuanced interpretations of ancient practices than those provided by an a priori label like “termination.” Extending indicators of pre- and post-depositional processes commonly employed in osteological analyses (e.g., visible burning, breakage, and surface modification patterns) to other types of artifacts (including lithics and ceramics) not only reveals the curation and ritual reuse of refuse by the ancient Maya of El Zotz, but also troubles the stability of the category of “termination.” More broadly, I call attention to the fact that employing reified archaeological categories may actively impede the identification of differences among ancient activities. Reflexively reconsidering archaeological labels not only prevents archaeologists from seeing the past as a mirror of the present, effectively explained by the categories and concepts we generate, but also raises new possibilities for rethinking traditional interpretations and long-held assumptions.

Energy Cost of Stone Knapping

Abstract: Stone tool manufacture and use are considered key adaptations in human evolution. The understanding of the biomechanical features and anatomical constraints of hominins during stone tool production have received increased attention in recent years. Similarly, research on the cognitive capabilities and manipulative complexity involved in toolmaking is in progress. However, data on the palaeophysiological constraints of stone knapping are scarce. The balance between energy acquisition and energy expenditure is a key factor to determine the fitness of any individual, and stone knapping is essential for resource procurement in any Palaeolithic society. Thus, the combination of energetic analyses and experimental archaeology provides an excellent tool to improve our understanding of prehistoric behaviours. Here, we present experimental research on the energetics of stone tool production that involves nine experienced subjects. Each subject produced three handaxes through direct hard- and soft-hammer percussion in a total of 27 experiments of toolmaking. All knappers were described by their anthropometric data, and their energetic expenditure was monitored in a breath-by-breath indirect calorimetry procedure. Because knapping is considered a light-intensity level activity, based on its MET (Metabolic Equivalent Task of Intensity) value, our results show some differences in net energy expenditure between direct hard percussion and soft percussion knapping during the configuration of a handaxe. Furthermore, our results suggest that the brachial index of the subjects represents an anatomical constraint for stone knapping because the lever of a shorter forearm reduces energy expenditure during striking and represents an advantage during handaxe production. Differences in the energetic efficiency of knapping, even if they are low, may increase the general fitness of the individual and, indeed, its survival.

From the Streets: Public and Private Space in an Early Maya City

Abstract: Modern life in cities involves perpetual tensions between private and public spaces evoking the question whether such tensions existed when cities first emerged. This paper investigates such tensions at the lowland Maya site of Nixtun-Ch’ich’ in Peten, Guatemala. The city developed along with other such settlements in the Maya region, sometime between 2800 and 2500 years ago. This anomalous site has the earliest known rectangular urban grid in the Americas. Such grids have not been found in other preColumbian Maya settlements. Gridded urban space requires the invention of public space, streets, and the grid. Even with these three characteristics present, they require social mechanisms (city planning and the means to implement the plan) capable of “rationalizing” city space. They also necessitate the power to regulate public spaces if the grid is to exist over long periods of time. The gridded streets of Nixtun-Ch’ich’ seem to be the most public of all spaces at the site. Nevertheless, a longue duree examination of the site reveals that private space gradually extended into and decreased the size of public space. These transformations tend to suggest a shift from a more cooperative to a more competitive social environment, which may correlate with elaborated social differentiation and segmentation.

Experimentally Derived Sedimentary, Molecular, and Isotopic Characteristics of Bone-Fueled Hearths

Abstract: Molecular and isotopic analysis of sediments from archaeological combustion features is a relatively new area of study. Applications can inform us about ancient pyro-technologies and patterns of animal exploitation in a wide range of human contexts, but may be particularly informative with regard to ancient hunter-gatherers. Our analyses of sediments from experimental bone and wood fires, and from controlled laboratory heating sequences, provide fine-grained data on the formation and location of biomarkers from pyrolyzed animal fats in hearths. Integrating microstratigraphic, molecular, and isotopic data can improve recognition of bone fires in archaeological contexts, perhaps even where bone preservation is poor. Experimental bone fires produced an upper layer of calcined bone above a thin layer of tarry black amorphous material coating mineral sediments. Mineral sediments beneath the black layer showed little alteration but high lipid content. Sampling for molecular and isotopic analysis should target the black layer as the bulk of pyrolyzed biomarkers are located here and stable isotope values are less affected than in the overlying layer of ash or calcined bone. The combined presence of certain symmetric and slightly asymmetric saturated long-chain ketones (14-nonacosanone, 16-hentriacontanone 16-tritriacontanone, and 18-pentatriacontanone), especially together with heptadecane (C17n-alkane), are molecular indicators of the thermal degradation of terrestrial animal fat. Formation and relative dominance of these molecules in hearth sediments relates to the initial prevalence of specific precursor fatty acids and can provide broad separations between sources. We suggest that separations could be further supported and expanded by combining stable isotope analysis of the same compounds.

Documenting the Evolution of Agrobiodiversity in the Archaeological Record: Landraces of a Newly Described Domesticate ( Polygonum erectum ) in North America

Abstract: Relatively few farmers today actively maintain crop biodiversity, but for most of the history of agriculture this was the norm. Archaeobotanical analyses can reveal the processes that led to the evolution of crop biodiversity throughout the Holocene, an issue of critical importance in an era of climate change and agrobiodiversity loss. Indigenous eastern North Americans domesticated several annual seed crops, called the Eastern Agricultural Complex, beginning c. 1800 BC. Using population morphometrics, this paper reports new evidence for the evolution of a domesticated sub-species of one of these crops, erect knotweed (Polyongum erectum L.), and its subsequent diversification under cultivation. Morphometric analyses were conducted on archaeological erect knotweed populations spanning its ancient cultivated range, and these were directly dated to c. 1–1350 AD, anchoring the evolution of this crop in both time and space. Domesticated erect knotweed first appears c. 1 AD in the Middle Ohio Valley. A diachronic series of populations from western Illinois shows that this species was domesticated again c. 150–1000 AD. This study shows how agricultural knowledge and material were maintained and shared (or not) by communities during an important era in eastern North America’s history: when small communities were aggregating to form the earliest urban center at Cahokia, in the American Bottom floodplain. A distinctive landrace was developed by farmers in the American Bottom which is significantly different from cultivated populations in other regions. Subsequent Mississippian assemblages (c. 1000–1350 AD) indicate divergent agricultural communities of practice, and possibly the eventual feralization of erect knotweed. Archaeobotanical studies have a vast untapped potential to reveal interaction between communities, or their isolation, and to investigate the evolution of crops after initial domestication.

Knowledge Transmission Through the Lens of Lithic Production: a Case Study from the Pastoral Neolithic of Southern Kenya

Abstract: This paper examines theoretical and methodological approaches to measuring and discussing skill in the archaeological record. Focusing specifically on evaluating skill in lithic production, a case study is presented which quantifies production errors in several assemblages of obsidian blades from early pastoralist sites of the Elmenteitan culture in southern Kenya (c. 3000–1400 BP). Analysis of error frequency through the blade core reduction sequence and relationships between error types suggest that production errors in blade production may relate, in part, to the presence of novices’ practice and learning. Comparison among assemblages shows that sites closer to the primary obsidian quarry site display higher proportions of blade production errors. Communities-of-practice theory is drawn upon to interpret these patterns and to generate hypotheses for how early Elmenteitan producing herders may have structured knowledge transmission related to lithic production. Finally, the paper discusses how lithic learning may have been integrated into broader social systems relating to pastoralist resilience in eastern Africa.

From Stone to Metal: the Dynamics of Technological Change in the Decline of Chipped Stone Tool Production. A Case Study from the Southern Levant (5th–1st Millennia BCE)

Abstract: The shift from stone to metal has been considered one of the main technological transformations in the history of humankind. In order to observe the dynamics underlying the disappearance of chipped stone tools and their replacement with metal implements, we adopt an approach which combines two different levels of analysis. At the first, by focusing on the Southern Levant as a case study, we consider the developmental forces internal to the technology itself and the conditions favorable to the invention, spread, continuation, or disappearance of technical traits. At the second, by considering specific historical scenarios, we test the existence of general principles which guide technological changes. Flint knapping and metallurgy, and notably their relationship, are particularly appropriate to observe regularities which operate at different scales, the first one within the developmental lines of objects, techniques and technologies, and the second one within the conditions of actualization of technological facts. On the one hand, following the “rules” of technical tendencies, a techno-logic perspective allows observation of how metal cutting objects, overcoming the “limits” of knapping technology, represent the logical development of flint tools. On the other hand, the analysis of the socioeconomic contexts in which chipped stone tools were produced permits identification of regularities which conditioned changes in lithic production systems, their decline, and the final replacement with metal tools.

How Was Neolithic Pottery Fired? An Exploration of the Effects of Firing Dynamics on Ceramic Products

Abstract: The presented study is focused on the development of a new methodology for estimating the heating rate during firing as one of the principal characteristics of the firing process. We experimentally determined the limits of the heating dynamics (heating rate, cooling rate and soaking time) of the firing processes for two basic alternatives for pottery firing considered for the Early Neolithic in Central Europe—bonfires and single-chamber kilns—and analysed the thermal gradient within the walls of the fired pottery as the effect of these heating dynamics. Mineralogical transformations caused by the firing procedures were estimated by X-ray diffraction in order to apply the results of the experimental measurements in a study of archaeological ceramics. The difference between the maximum temperatures on the outer surfaces and in the cores of the vessel walls at the places where the pottery is exposed to the fastest heating and cooling rates appears to be a usable basis for distinguishing between the tested firing structures. XRD analysis has demonstrated that temperature differences measured and modelled experimentally can be traced to the products of these processes with sufficient reliability. The results of the experimental study were applied in the interpretation of the firing process employed in the manufacture of Early Neolithic pottery obtained from the Linear Pottery culture settlement in Bylany (Czech Republic).

Towards an Archaeological Theory of Infrastructure

Abstract: Infrastructure makes up a considerable portion of the material culture that archaeologists study. Whether measured in terms of spatial extension or just sheer mass, infrastructural entities are often among the biggest artifacts that archaeologists encounter in the field. Yet there is no overarching theoretical framework for the archaeological study of infrastructure, and its different varieties tend to be treated in a rather piecemeal fashion. This article therefore seeks to lay some foundations for a more theoretically unified approach to infrastructure within the discipline. It offers a general definition or infrastructure, as well as a basic typology. The typology presented is fourfold, encompassing (1) static infrastructure (e.g., terraces, harbors and storehouses), (2) circulatory infrastructure (e.g., highways, canals, aqueducts, and sewers), (3) bounding infrastructure (e.g., palisades, ditches, and corrals), and (4) signaling infrastructure (e.g., lighthouses and beacons). By analogy with more heavily theorized categories such as urbanism, it is suggested that infrastructure should be a topic of global comparative analysis within archaeology and its allied disciplines.

Prehistoric Coastal Mass Burials: Did Death Come in Waves?

Abstract: Recent large tsunamis in the twenty-first century have provided graphic reminders of the catastrophic impacts such natural hazards can have upon coastal communities. Death tolls in the thousands give rise to the rapid adoption of coastal mass burials for the interment of the dead. While recognised as a necessary practice in the aftermath of such contemporary tragedies, the paucity of coastal mass burial sites related to earlier tsunamis reported in the archaeological record is unusual. We establish a suite of criteria for identifying the geological and archaeological evidence of inundation by past tsunamis and review case studies from two well-documented prehistoric coastal mass burial sites in the Southern Hemisphere (Solomon Islands and Vanuatu). To varying degrees, both sites possess numerous characteristics that suggest direct correlation with previously reported catastrophic palaeotsunamis. In the Northern Hemisphere, we investigate palaeotsunami inundation as an alternative hypothesis for mass burial sites in Orkney and Shetland, a relatively tectonically inactive region where such an association is unlikely to have ever been considered. The nature, chronology and location of these mass burial sites fit well with the proposed archaeological evidence for palaeotsunami inundation, and they also appear to be contemporaneous with the as-yet poorly documented Garth tsunami (~ 5500 years BP). We suggest that a potentially key diagnostic criterion for determining a palaeotsunami linkage is the use of diatom testing on skeletal remains to establish whether death was caused by drowning in saltwater, a test which has never been applied in this context.

Urban and Transport Scaling: Northern Mesopotamia in the Late Chalcolithic and Bronze Age

Abstract: Scaling methods have been applied to study modern urban areas and how they create accelerated, feedback growth in some systems while efficient use in others. For ancient cities, results have shown that cities act as social reactors that lead to positive feedback growth in socioeconomic measures. In this paper, we assess the relationship between settlement area expressed through mound area from Late Chalcolithic and Bronze Age sites and mean hollow way widths, which are remains of roadways, from the Khabur Triangle in northern Mesopotamia. The intent is to demonstrate the type of scaling and relationship present between sites and hollow ways, where both feature types are relatively well preserved. For modern roadway systems, efficiency in growth relative to population growth suggests roads should show sublinear scaling in relation to site size. In fact, similar to modern systems, such sublinear scaling results are demonstrated for the Khabur Triangle using available data, suggesting ancient efficiency in intensive transport growth relative to population levels. Comparable results are also achieved in other ancient Near East regions. Furthermore, results suggest that there could be a general pattern relevant for some small sites (0–2 ha) and those that have fewer hollow ways, where β, a measure of scaling, is on average low (≈ < 0.2). On the other hand, a second type of result for sites with many hollow ways (11 or more) and that are often larger suggests that β is greater (0.23–0.72), but still sublinear. This result could reflect the scale in which larger settlements acted as greater social attractors or had more intensive economic activity relative to smaller sites. The provided models also allow estimations of past roadway widths in regions where hollow ways are missing.