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Publication date: March 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 79 Author(s): Yanhua Song, David J. Cohen, Jinming Shi, Xiaohong Wu, Eliso Kvavadze, Paul Goldberg, Shuangquan Zhang, Yue Zhang, Ofer Bar-YosefGlobal cooling during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) posed significant challenges to peoples living in northern Eurasia. Using micromorphology, pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP), and faunal analyses, this study reconstructs the local paleoenvironmental contexts of repeated ephemeral occupations at Shizitan 29 in Shanxi Province, North China, across the LGM, from ca. 28 to 18 Ka cal BP, followed by a gap until a final occupation ca.13.5 Ka cal BP. Among the significant finds at Shizitan 29 are remains of 285 hearths and a rich lithic assemblage that contains the earliest radiocarbon-dated evidence for microblades in China, appearing first in Layer 7. The environmental data show that the low mountains and tributary river valleys of the Yellow River in the Loess Plateau provided abundant sources of water and food in spite of environmental fluctuations. Microblade-producing groups repeatedly visiting this locality survived severe climate change by making use of fire, selective herbivore hunting, processing plant foods with grinding stones, and symbolic ornamentation such as ostrich shell beads. NPP data also indicate the potential presence of flax and other fiber processing. The Shizitan 29 data demonstrate how humans adapted to challenging local conditions throughout the LGM, allowing them to stay within this northerly region without migrating to warmer southern latitudes.

Publication date: March 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 79 Author(s): Ivana Živaljević, Danijela Popović, Aleš Snoj, Saša MarićThe paper presents and discusses the results of the first ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis of cyprinid remains recovered from the Mesolithic-Neolithic sites of Vlasac, Lepenski Vir and Padina in the Danube Gorges (North-Central Balkans). Cyprinids constitute a significant portion of the identified fish remains recovered from these sites, which is indicative of their dietary role, and their large pharyngeal teeth have been worn as garment appliqués and associated with a great number of buried individuals. aDNA analysis (involving mitochondrial and nuclear markers) of pharyngeal bones with teeth corresponding to those used as appliqués has determined that they originate from anadromous Rutilus frisii (vyrezub), previously unrecorded in the Middle and Lower Danube. At present, the species inhabits the Black, Azov and Caspian Sea basins, but the only known populations in the Danube inhabit solely its upper reaches in Austria. The results of our study and the occurrence of R. frisii in the Danube Gorges further corroborate that its Upper Danube and Black Sea habitat had been connected in the past, i.e. that the species was entering the whole stretch of the river during its spawning migrations. Furthermore, precise taxonomic identification has important implications for a better understanding of fishing practices and their seasonal schedule in the Danube Gorges, and the distribution of cyprinid pharyngeal teeth ornaments in Europe during the Mesolithic.

Publication date: March 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 79 Author(s): Heather A. Robinson, Timothy Insoll, Benjamin W. Kankpeyeng, Keri A. Brown, Terence A. BrownThe pre-colonial 6th–14th century terracotta forms of Koma Land, Northern Ghana, contain cavities which may have been intended to hold liquids. These have been linked to traditional African libation, but the specific nature of their contents is unclear. We used generic polymerase chain reactions that would amplify DNA from a range of plant and fungal species in order to identify remains of libations applied to fourteen terracotta items. We anticipated difficulties in distinguishing genuine ancient DNA sequences from those resulting from contaminating material, and therefore also carried out a series of control experiments to assess the extent to which the samples had become contaminated with exogenous DNA during burial, excavation and downstream analysis. Taking account of the results of the control experiments, as well as the difficulties in assigning matches between ancient DNA sequences and database entries, we provide evidence for the use of three different types of plant – plantain/banana, pine and grasses – in libations associated with the terracotta items. We also identified DNA from Coniochaeta yeast within the mouth cavity of one figurine, suggesting that this structure was burnt prior to deposition.

Publication date: January 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 77 Author(s): M. Stephens, J. Rose, D.D. GilbertsonThe post-depositional alteration of cave sediments is of critical importance for the recognition, identification and investigation of geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence. There have been relatively few studies of tropical cave sediments using micromorphology and this work represents one of the most detailed with 26 samples taken from deposits in the West Mouth of the Great Cave of Niah that cover the last >∼55,000 BP, and contain the earliest known evidence for the remains of modern humans in Southeast Asia. Cave sediments situated in the humid tropics are subject to relatively high temperatures and moisture conditions that promote high rates of chemical alteration and geomorphic change. This paper outlines those post-depositional features that occurred in situ in the West Mouth and include: translocation and concentration; bioturbation; excrement; bone alteration; plant alteration; clast alteration and guano decomposition. It examines their implications for recognising past human activities (e.g. fire-altered materials), the preservation of archaeological remains, the nature of palaeoenvironments and of localised physical and bio-geochemical processes.

Publication date: January 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 77 Author(s): David K. Wright, Jessica C. Thompson, Flora Schilt, Andrew S. Cohen, Jeong-Heon Choi, Julio Mercader, Sheila Nightingale, Christopher E. Miller, Susan M. Mentzer, Dale Walde, Menno Welling, Elizabeth Gomani-ChindebvuThe Southern Montane Forest-Grassland mosaic ecosystem in the humid subtropics southern Rift Valley of Africa comprised the environmental context for a large area in which modern human evolution and dispersal occurred. Variable climatic conditions during the Late Pleistocene have ranged between humid and hyperarid, changing the character of the ecosystem and transforming it at different points in time into a barrier, a refuge, and a corridor between southern and eastern African populations. Alluvial fans presently blanket the areas adjacent to major river systems, which were key areas of prehistoric human habitation. These sets of variables have created conditions that are both challenging and advantageous to conduct archaeological research. Lateritic soil development has resulted in poor organic preservation and facilitated insect bioturbation, which has demanded an integrated micro-macro scale approach to building a reliable geochronology. An integrated field and analytical methodology has also been employed to identify the nature and degree of post-depositional movement in alluvial deposits, which preserve a wide range of spatial integrity levels in buried stone artifact assemblages between 47 and 30 ka in Karonga, northern Malawi. This paper describes the methodological advances taken toward understanding open-air Middle Stone Age archaeology in sub-tropical Africa, and explores the inferential potential for understanding Pleistocene human ecology in the important southern Rift Valley region.

Publication date: January 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 77

Publication date: January 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 77 Author(s): Dorcas Vannieuwenhuyse, Sue O’Connor, Jane BalmeThe Pleistocene continent of Sahul was first settled by people who arrived by watercraft from Island South East Asia about 50,000 years ago. Some of the oldest archaeological sites in Sahul are located in the southern Kimberley, in northwest Australia. This area lies within the southern zone of influence of the tropical monsoon and thus has always been highly sensitive to changes in monsoon dynamics over time. How these climatic changes have affected the colonisation and occupation of Australia is an important research theme in Australian archaeology. This paper illustrates the contribution and challenges of micromorphology in deciphering palaeoenvironmental and anthropogenic markers in a still largely unexplored Australian context. Micromorphological analysis of two archaeological sequences in the Napier Range (Carpenters Gap 1 and 3) provides a complementary and comprehensive reconstruction of the human-climate history in this area spanning nearly 50,000 years of Australian human presence. The results demonstrate an opportunistic use of sites by people through time, surprisingly independent of local climatic variation, suggesting highly flexible subsistence strategies.

Publication date: January 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 77 Author(s): Sue O’Connor, Anthony Barham, Ken Aplin, Tim MaloneyMany of the key debates in archaeology hinge on the chronology and interpretation of data gathered from cave and rockshelter stratigraphies, especially those in karstic limestone environments which are selectively targeted by archaeologists because of their superior preservation characteristics. It has long been recognized that such sites often contain a variety of cemented deposits including cave breccias and that some breccias contain anthropogenic inclusions such as stone artefacts, shell and burnt animal bones. Cementation enhances the survival through time of such brecciated deposits. This can result in chrono-stratigraphic intervals surviving on cave walls and speleothems that are no longer represented in the stratigraphy of cave floors. This has important implications for understanding apparent presence/absence of human occupation and cultural continuity as seen in archaeo-stratigraphy in caves and rockshelters, especially in relation to human migration in the humid tropics in SE Asia and the Pacific, and over Pleistocene to Holocene timescales. Here we discuss localized breccia formation, the erosional processes that leave remnant deposits adhering to walls and speleothems at heights well above current cave floors, and the possible significance of local and regional processes, especially changing base levels, in triggering gutting out phases impacting cave floor sediment architectures. Equally significant in terms of chronological completeness, representativeness and bias is the contribution made by cultural materials encased in older breccias as they erode and are (re-)incorporated into younger accumulating cultural deposits. Case studies from cave sites in Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste are used to illustrate these issues.

Publication date: February 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 78 Author(s): A.C. Colonese, A. Lucquin, E.P. Guedes, R. Thomas, J. Best, B.T. Fothergill, N. Sykes, A. Foster, H. Miller, K. Poole, M. Maltby, M. Von Tersch, O.E. CraigPoultry products are rarely considered when reconstructing pottery use through organic residue analysis, impinging upon our understanding of the changing role of these animals in the past. Here we evaluate an isotopic approach for distinguishing chicken fats from other animal products. We compare the carbon isotopes of fatty acids extracted from modern tissues and archaeological bones and demonstrate that archaeological bones from contexts associated with pottery provide suitable reference ranges for distinguishing omnivorous animal products (e.g. pigs vs. chickens) in pots. When applied to pottery from the Anglo-Saxon site of Flixborough, England, we succeeded in identifying residues derived from chicken fats that otherwise could not be distinguished from other monogastric and ruminant animals using modern reference values only. This provides the first direct evidence for the processing of poultry or their products in pottery. The results highlight the utility of ‘in-situ’ archaeological bone lipids to identify omnivorous animal-derived lipids in archaeological ceramic vessels.

Publication date: Available online 11 January 2017Source:Journal of Archaeological Science Author(s): Dolores R. Piperno, Anthony J. Ranere, Ruth Dickau, Francisco AceitunoThe various theoretical approaches advanced over the past 50 years to explain the origins of agriculture have prompted much discussion and debate. Most recently, controversy has arisen concerning the utility of two Darwinian approaches; namely, cultural niche construction (CNC) and human behavioral ecology-derived optimal foraging theory (OFT). Recent papers advocate for the primacy of cultural niche construction, calling for optimal foraging approaches to be all but disregarded in the quest to explain how and why foragers became farmers (Smith, 2015, 2016; Zeder, 2015, 2016). In particular, it is claimed that archaeological, paleo-environmental, and paleontological evidence from the Neotropics of northern South America fail to meet predictions derived from OFT theory, while predictions said to be derived from CNC-based approaches are supported (Smith, 2015, 2016; Zeder, 2015). However, a number of misreadings of the northern South America evidence are made in those discussions, while some pertinent literature is not considered. In this paper we discuss these misreadings and provide a clear re-articulation of the original data and interpretations, finding support for OFT predictions. Our re-evaluations of OFT and CNC further suggest they can, in fact, be complimentary explanatory approaches.