Showing papers in "Journal of Archaeological Science in 2009"

TL;DR: In this article, a multivariate analysis of more than a dozen variables and show that butchery and trampling marks have very distinctive microscopic morphology, which can be confidently used to correctly differentiate butchers and tramping marks in more than 90% of cases.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined several skulls of fossil large canids from sites in Belgium, Ukraine and Russia to look for possible evidence of the presence of Palaeolithic dogs.

TL;DR: Surovell et al. as discussed by the authors developed an empirical model of taphonomic bias, which is the tendency for younger things to be overrepresented relative to older things in the archaeological record due to the operation of destructive processes like erosion and weathering.

TL;DR: In this paper, the main characteristics of the tree-ring series of European oaks (Quercus robur and Q. petraea) are discussed and the latest methodological advances in defining the calendar year in which tree-rings were formed and in interpreting such dating in terms of the age of a wooden object.

TL;DR: This work documented the changes that occur in the starch grains of 10 domesticated plant species due to exposure to different cooking methods, in order to better understand how cooking alters the appearance of the grains, and if these cooking methods might be identifiable in the archaeological record.

TL;DR: In this article, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) was applied to the analysis of burned bones to examine changes in Crystallinity Index (CI), Ca/P and C/C ratios in bone experimentally burned to known, but varying, temperatures and durations.

TL;DR: Dimensional data from feeding experiments with 16 omnivore and carnivore species of known age and mass are presented, significantly expanding the taxonomic and size range of carnivores for which carnivore taxa for which tooth mark dimensional data are available are limited.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used isotopic data to reconstruct patterns of immigration at the Inca site of Machu Picchu, which are in turn used to directly estimate the social class of the population.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate fracture predictability through mechanical tests of stone and investigations of the affect of stone properties on fracture patterns in archaeological collections, concluding that the ability for a stone to fracture consistently does not appear to be as important in hominin toolstone preference as previously assumed.

TL;DR: A technological and morphometric analysis of all the Still Bay points (n ¼ 371) recovered from the 1993 to 2004 excavations at Blombos Cave is presented in this article.

TL;DR: Politis et al. as discussed by the authors co-ordinated the AMS dating of multiple bone and charcoal samples from previously-excavated strata at the following sites: Arroyo Seco 2, Paso Otero 5, Piedra Museo, and Cueva Tres Tetas (all in Argentina).

TL;DR: Dual-element isotopic profiles were created from incrementally developed dental tissues of five individuals selected from a modern herd of migratory Alaskan caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) and one individual displays a very different trend and may represent a behavioural outlier or an immigrant from a semi-domesticated reindeer herd.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reconstruct the late Quaternary environments in the Cantabrian region of Spain using small-mammal assemblages from El Miron Cave.

TL;DR: This paper examined the effects of alkaline cooking on carbon and oxygen stable isotopic ratios of mineralized tissues from nine pigs raised on monotonous mixed C3/C4 vegetarian diets.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse the three-dimensional micromorphology of cut marks on fossil mammal remains from a ∼0.5 million year old Acheulean butchery site at Boxgrove (West Sussex, southern England), and make comparisons with cut marks inflicted during the experimental butchery of a roe deer (Capreolus caproelus) using a replica handaxe.

TL;DR: A 3D documentation system for Umayyad desert palaces in the Jordan desert will be presented using digital photogrammetry and laser scanning, and high realistic 3D textured models for Amra and Kharanah palaces are demonstrated.

TL;DR: Using dental calculus to extract starch granules from dental calculus sidesteps many other questions still inherent in using starch granule to reconstruct aspects of ancient diet, such as the effects of diagenesis on their morphology; as the starches are trapped inside a concreted matrix they are less likely to alter over time.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the potential variables that underlie variation in flake size and shape, and in some instances shape, in a newly designed experiment with glass cores molded to a specific shape.

TL;DR: In this paper, the spread of early farming in Europe is revisited using a sample of 3072 audited 14C calBC dates from 940 georeferenced early Neolithic sites.

TL;DR: The African Cultural Heritage and Landscape Database (ALAHALD) as discussed by the authors is a digital library of spatial and non-spatial materials relating to cultural heritage sites in Africa, including the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined possible patterns in the processing sequence of birds from Level XI of Bolomor Cave and to improve the data on their butchery and human consumption in the Middle Pleistocene of Iberian Peninsula.

TL;DR: This article explored the influence of alkaline conditions, often encountered in the soil environment, on the preservation potential of charcoalified material and found that chemically mediated physical interactions occur resulting in fragmentation of the charcoal samples into (very) small pieces the size of which depends upon the initial temperature of charcoalification.

TL;DR: In this paper, the performance of simple stone points as arrow armatures was evaluated using a series of 51 Levallois points against a uniform density target and a simulated animal carcass.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the find of impact scars on six Middle Paleolithic points from the rock shelter site of Oscurusciuto in southern Italy, dated to MIS 3.

TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that naturally coloured, blue or green are the most common glass colours found in assemblages from the Roman world from the end of the 1st century BC onwards.

TL;DR: In this article, a set of Roman and Late Antiquity period mosaic glass samples were analyzed using Raman spectroscopy, which allowed a good characterization of both the glass matrix and the crystalline inclusions.

TL;DR: In this paper, the origins of raw glass used to fashion Mycenaean beads were explored using trace elements analyzed by laser ablation ICP-TOFMS, which was ideal given that the material is exceedingly rare and thus too sensitive to make use of traditional micro-sampling (e.g., by scalpel).

TL;DR: In the early Holocene in western North America, a large number of hot-rock cook-stone griddles, earth ovens and steaming pits with rock heating elements were constructed as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse experimental smelting and smithing assemblages (including ore, furnace lining, fuel and slag) to compare these to slag inclusions in the resulting bloom and worked objects, and then explore the relationships between ore, slag and slagg inclusions.

TL;DR: In this article, a range of experiments were conducted to understand the identification of hammerstone percussion (dynamic loading) and its differences from carnivore bone breakage through tooth pressure (static loading) for taphonomic inferences about human and carnivore involvement in bone breakages in faunal assemblages.