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Publication date: September 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 73 Author(s): Emma Jenkins, Khalil Jamjoum, Sameeh Nuimat, Richard Stafford, Stephen Nortcliff, Steven MithenWater management was critical to the development of complex societies but such systems are often difficult, if not impossible, to recognise in the archaeological record, particularly in prehistoric communities when water management began. This is because early irrigation systems are likely to have been ephemeral and as such would no longer be visible in the archaeological record. We conducted a three year crop growing experiment in Jordan to test the hypothesis that phytoliths (opaline silica bodies formed in plants) can be used to detect the level of past water availability and hence be used as a source of information for inferring past water management. Over a three year period we grew native land races of six-row barley (Hordeum vulgare) and durum wheat (Triticum durum) at three crop growing stations in Jordan with the crops being subjected to different irrigation regimes. Seeds were sown in the autumn and the crops harvested in the spring. The plants were then exported to the University of Reading for phytolith processing. Our results show that while there were unknown factors that influenced phytolith production between years, at the higher levels, the ratio of ‘fixed’ form phytoliths (those formed as a result of genetically determined silicon uptake) to ‘sensitive’ form phytoliths (those whose silicon uptake is environmentally controlled) can be used to assess past water availability. Our study is the first large scale experimental project to test this method and take into account multiple variables that can affect phytolith production such as soil composition and chemistry, location, climate and evapotranspiration rates. Results from the cereals grown at two of the crop growing stations, Deir ‘Alla and Ramtha, which received between 100 mm and 250 mm rainfall per annum, demonstrate that if the ratio of fixed to sensitive phytolith forms is >1, the level of past water availability can be predicted with 80% confidence. Results from the crops grown at the other growing station, Kherbet as-Samra, which received less than 100 mm of rainfall per year show that if the ratio of fixed to sensitive forms is >0.5, the level of past water availability can be predicted with 99% confidence. This demonstrates that phytolith analysis can be used as a method to identify past water availability.

Publication date: July 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 71 Author(s): Jean-Victor Pradeau, Didier Binder, Chrystèle Vérati, Jean-Marc Lardeaux, Stéphan Dubernet, Yannick Lefrais, Martine RegertIn the N.-W. Mediterranean area, the development of the Neolithic way of life during the 6th millennium cal. BCE is related to the spread of sailing pioneer groups. In the course of the 5th millennium cal. BCE, more stable agro-pastoral settlements expand their hold on the hinterland and exchange networks increase in complexity (obsidian, flints, clastic rocks). Although previous research showed high variability in the N.W. Mediterranean Neolithic diffusion modalities, the place of colouring materials, naturally abundant in this area, has received scant attention despite their technical and symbolic value. With the aim of assessing the place of these materials in the initial Neolithic package and within the development of the neolithisation process, we investigated series of more than 2000 blocks of colouring materials from two key-sites (Pendimoun and Giribaldi) recently excavated by one of us (DB), with dates ranging from 5750 to 3650 cal. BCE. This study was implemented by geological surveys that allowed the establishment of cartography of putative sources of raw colouring materials and the determination of their nature and composition. Combining petrographic examination and physico-chemical-characterisation (SEM-EDS, XRD), we determined a wide range of raw materials: psammitic sandstone, allochthonous and parallochthonous bauxite, oolithic ironstone, oxidised marcasite and ferruginous rocks derived from weathered glauconitic limestones. Comparing archaeological series to this frame of reference highlights two contrasting economic systems: one based on exploitation of local sources from the Early to the Middle Neolithic, the other one founded on a dual use of both close geomaterials and exogenous rocks during Middle Neolithic.

Publication date: September 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 73 Author(s): Juan José Ibáñez, Patricia C. Anderson, Jesús González-Urquijo, Juan GibajaWhen and where cereal cultivation and domestication took place in the Near East are still matters of debate. This quantitative analysis, using confocal microscopy to study “sickle gloss” texture on flint tools used for cereal harvesting, shows that wild cereals were most probably cultivated during the 13th millennium BP in the Middle Euphrates. At that moment, a local and continuous process of cereal domestication began to unfold in this region of the Northern Levant, lasting for over 3 millennia and culminating at the end of the 10th millennium BP. Thus, our research provides a new method for investigating the origins of agriculture, while the data gathered allow us to support the hypothesis of early cereal cultivation during the Younger Dryas and the protracted model of plant domestication, pointing to the Middle Euphrates as one region where this process occurred.

Publication date: September 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 73 Author(s): Sarah Maltoni, Alberta Silvestri, Alessandra Marcante, Gianmario MolinThe present paper focuses on the archaeological, chemical and isotopic characterisation of glass finds from the Domus of Tito Macro (former Domus dei Fondi Cossar) in Aquileia (Italy), dated between the 1st and the 7th century AD. The assemblage comprises both vessels and glassworking residues, including a few chunks. Aims of the study are the identification of the main glass compositions and their contextualisation in Roman and Late Antique reference groups, and of provenance of primary glass. Chemical analyses were conducted by XRF and EPMA. All the analysed fragments are silica-soda-lime glasses, produced with natron as a flux, and are compositionally similar to the Roman coloured (intentionally and unintentionally) and colourless (antimony-, manganese-, and antimony + manganese-decoloured) groups and to the Late Antique groups HIMT, Série 3.2 and Levantine 1. Specific compositional traits of HIMT glass circulating in the north-Adriatic area and a scarcity of Levantine 1 glass are evidenced. The presence of rare HIT blue glasses including a chunk suggests that colouring took place also at primary stage of production. Sr and Nd isotopic analyses, performed on a selection of samples, confirmed the eastern Mediterranean origin of the glasses, although with minor internal differences depending on the compositional group. Chemical and isotopic data suggest a continuity between the Roman and Late Antique glassmaking in terms of sand deposits and sand/flux ratio, although with a major change in the decolouring technique after the 4th century AD. The prompt reception of the Late Antique glass compositions took place in Aquileia alongside the persistence of earlier compositions, probably with the aim of satisfying different segments of the glass market.

Publication date: September 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 73 Author(s): Sophy Charlton, Michelle Alexander, Matthew Collins, Nicky Milner, Paul Mellars, Tamsin C. O’Connell, Rhiannon E. Stevens, Oliver E. CraigIn the last decade, our knowledge of the transition from foraging, fishing, and hunting to agricultural food production has been transformed through the molecular analysis of human remains. In Britain, however, the lack of Late Mesolithic human remains has limited our understanding of this dietary transition. Here, we report the use of a novel strategy to analyse otherwise overlooked material to identify additional human remains from this period. ZooMS, a method which uses bone collagen sequences to determine species, was applied to unidentifiable bone fragments from 5th millennium deposits from the Late Mesolithic site of Cnoc Coig (Oronsay, Inner Hebrides) using an innovative new methodology. All samples bar one produced ZooMS results, with 14/20 bone fragments identified as human, and the remainder a mixture of pig and seal. 70% of bone fragments had sufficient collagen for stable isotope analyses, however none of three human bone fragments analysed had sufficient endogenous DNA. By conducting AMS dating and stable isotope analysis on this identified collagen, we provide new data that supports the view that the exploitation of marine resources partially overlapped with the earliest agricultural communities in Britain, and thus argues against the idea that forager lifeways in Britain were immediately replaced by agriculture c.4000 cal. BC. Unfortunately, we were unable to explore the genetic relationship between contemporaneous farmers and foragers. However, the more persistent bone protein could be used to identify species, determine date, and assess diet. This novel approach is widely applicable to other early prehistoric sites with fragmentary skeletal material.

Publication date: June 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 70 Author(s): Kerstin Schillinger, Alex Mesoudi, Stephen J. LycettSpatio-temporal patterns of artifactual variation are increasingly being studied via the explicit application of cultural evolutionary theory and methods. Such broad-scale (macroevolutionary) patterns are mediated, however, by a series of small-scale (microevolutionary) processes that occur at the level of individual artifacts, and individual artifact users and producers. Within experimental biology, “model organisms” have played a crucial role in understanding the role of fundamental microevolutionary processes, such as mutation and the inheritance of variation, in respect to macroevolutionary patterns. There has, however, been little equivalent laboratory work to better understand how microevolutionary processes influence macroevolutionary patterns in artifacts and their analysis. Here, we adopt a “model artifact” approach to experimentally study the issues of copy error (mutation) and resultant phylogenetic signal in artifact traditions. We used morphometric procedures to examine shape copying error rates in our “model artifacts.” We first established experimentally that statistically different rates of copying error (mutation) could be induced when participants used two different types of shaping tool to produce copies of foam “artifacts.” Using this as a baseline, we then tested whether these differing mutation rates led to differing phylogenetic signal and accuracy in two separate experimental transmission chains (lineages), involving participants copying the previous participant’s artifact. The analysis demonstrated that phylogenetic reconstruction is more accurate in artifactual lineages where copying error is demonstrably lower. Such results demonstrate how fidelity of transmission impacts directly on the evolution of technological traditions and their empirical analysis. In particular, these results highlight that differing contexts of cultural transmission relating to fidelity might lead to differing patterns of resolution within reconstructed evolutionary sequences. Overall, these analyses demonstrate the importance of a “model artifact” approach in discussions of cultural evolution, equivalent in importance to the use of model organisms in evolutionary biology in order to better understand fundamental microevolutionary processes of direct relevance to macroevolutionary archaeological patterns.

Publication date: September 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 73 Author(s): Mélie Le Roy, Maïté Rivollat, Fanny Mendisco, Marie-Hélène Pemonge, Clément Coutelier, Christine Couture, Anne-marie Tillier, Stéphane Rottier, Marie-France DeguillouxThe French Paris Basin is well known as a complex cultural area of the Early/Middle Neolithic, particularly with respect to funerary practices. Gurgy “Les Noisats”, which is an important necropolis in the southern Paris basin, is a burial site (N = 128) associated with the first Neolithic groups established in that area. The understanding of the necropolis composition and organization is complicated given the substantial homogeneity of the site’s spatial organization in relation to a great diversity of characterized funerary traits. The unprecedented quantity of genetic (mitochondrial DNA), osteological (sex, age), and archaeological (funerary) data obtained for the Gurgy necropolis facilitates the search for potential correlations between cultural and biological (i.e. genetic and osteological) diversity at the site level. Despite the application of the powerful geographic information system, no correlation could be detected (i) between individual maternal lineages and specific bioarchaeological profiles (ii) or between maternal lineages and spatially identified bio-archaeological clusters. Therefore, analyses were performed to test for a correlation between the maternal ancestries of the individuals (i.e., hunter-gatherer/Central European farmer and Southern European farmer ancestries) and specific funerary traits. Again, the homogeneity of the funerary treatment of all of the individuals regardless of their potential maternal ancestries is striking. Taken together, our results regarding the way in which the Gurgy necropolis functioned provide strong evidence for the acculturation of all maternal ancestries groups, at least in terms of funerary practice. In addition, the demonstration of a recurrent association of adult men and immature individuals suggests a patrilocal system, which could be consistent with the detected acculturation of women who present a hunter-gatherer ancestry.

Publication date: Available online 29 June 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science Author(s): Mike W. Morley, Paul Goldberg, Thomas Sutikna, Matthew W. Tocheri, Linda C. Prinsloo, Jatmiko, E. Wahyu Saptomo, Sri Wasisto, Richard G. RobertsLiang Bua, a karstic cave located on the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia, is best known for yielding the holotype of the diminutive hominin Homo floresiensis from Late Pleistocene sediments. Modern human remains have also been recovered from the Holocene deposits, and abundant archaeological and faunal remains occur throughout the sequence. The cave, the catchment in which it is located and the gross aggradational phases of the sediment sequence have all been subject to a great deal of scientific scrutiny since the discovery of the holotype of H. floresiensis in 2003. A recent program of geoarchaeological research has extended analyses of the site’s deposits to the microstratigraphic (micromorphological) level. The stratigraphic sequence in the cave is well defined but complex, comprising interstratified sediments of diverse lithologies and polygenetic origins, including volcanic tephras, fine-grained colluvium, coarse autogenic limestone gravels, speleothems and anthropogenic sediments, such as combustion features. The sedimentological and chemical heterogeneity suggest that processes of site formation and diagenesis varied markedly through time, both laterally and vertically. We present initial results from samples collected in 2014 from an excavation area near the rear of the cave, which yielded radiocarbon ages from charcoal that fill an important temporal gap in the chrono-stratigraphic sequence of previously excavated areas of the site. The results indicate marked changes in site environment and hominin activity during the Late Pleistocene, relating primarily to the degree to which the cave was connected to the hydrogeological system and to the varying intensities of use of the cave by hominins. Importantly, we identify anthropogenic signs of fire-use at the site between 41 and 24 thousand years ago, most likely related to the presence of modern humans.

Publication date: September 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 73 Author(s): A. Nowell, C. Walker, C.E. Cordova, C.J.H. Ames, J.T. Pokines, D. Stueber, R. DeWitt, A.S.A. al-SoulimanExcavations at Shishan Marsh, a former desert oasis in Azraq, northeast Jordan, reveal a unique ecosystem and provide direct family-specific protein residue evidence of hominin adaptations in an increasingly arid environment approximately 250,000 years ago. Based on lithic, faunal, paleoenvironmental and protein residue data, we conclude that Late Pleistocene hominins were able to subsist in extreme arid environments through a reliance on surprisingly human-like adaptations including a broadened subsistence base, modified tool kit and strategies for predator avoidance and carcass protection.

Publication date: July 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 71