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Publication date: June 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 70 Author(s): M. Benvenuti, A. Orlando, D. Borrini, L. Chiarantini, P. Costagliola, C. Mazzotta, V. RimondiIron deposits from Elba Island (Tuscan Archipelago) were extensively exploited since the 1st millennium BC: both raw iron ore and smelted blooms were extensively traded through the Mediterranean region. Within the frame of the multidisciplinary research Project “AITHALE” (from the Greek name for Elba Island), we have performed a series of archaeometallurgical experiments primarily to investigate the traceability of Elban iron ores during the various steps of the chaîne opératoire of bloomery iron production. Results of experiments performed both in the field (reconstruction of a bloomery furnace) and in the laboratory (smelting experiments carried out in a gas mixing furnace) are discussed in the text. Slags produced by smelting of W-Sn-rich iron (hematite) ores, like those from Elba island, show the presence of these elements in phases of their own, either relic (scheelite, ferberite, cassiterite) and/or newly formed (iron-tin alloys). Iron bloom obtained from this kind of iron ore could also bear evidence of the peculiar geochemistry of smelted ore, with tungsten preferentially associated with slag inclusions and tin eventually enriched in the metallic phase.

Publication date: September 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 73 Author(s): F. Pagliaro, F. Nardecchia, F. Gugliermetti, F. BisegnaThe indoor microclimate of ancient storage buildings has been widely investigated since they could reach optimal conditions for goods preservation only through passive systems. However it is difficult to fully understand the real behaviour of these systems since they are often not existing anymore nowadays: this is the case of the warehouses of Portus, an archaeological site originally composed of about 300 storage-rooms. A significant amount of important information, like the one related to shape and structure, are not available for the archaeologists who investigate the site. A detailed analysis of these buildings has been carried out in order to assess the optimal indoor microclimate for wheat storage. Different hypotheses focusing on the presence of openings have been developed, even if the archaeologists suppose that the rooms were completely closed. The combination of numerical tools and historical research allowed to formulate, test and validate a hypothesis regarding the architecture and the operation of these ancient buildings. In the present paper, conjugated heat transfer in different configurations of the warehouses of Portus has been numerically studied, taking into account the models subjected to different transient temperatures as a consequence of the summer outdoor microclimate. This work aims to propose and validate archaeological and structural hypotheses regarding the functioning of storage-rooms in Ancient Rome, through an improved and optimized definition of the reconstruction of one of the warehouses of Portus.

Publication date: Available online 17 June 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science Author(s): Richard I. Macphail, Elizabeth Graham, John Crowther, Simon TurnerMarco Gonzalez, on the south-west end of the island of Ambergris Caye, Belize, has well-preserved Maya archaeological stratigraphy dating from Preclassic times (ca. 300 B.C.) to the Late Classic period (ca. A.D. 550/600 to 700/760). Although later occupations are recorded by house platforms and inhumations (Terminal Classic to Early Postclassic), and use of the site continued until the 16th century A.D., intact stratigraphy is rare in these cases owing to a greater degree of disturbance. Nonetheless, understanding site formation entails accounting for all processes, including disturbance. The site’s depositional sequence—as revealed through soil micromorphology and chemistry and detailed here—has yielded critical information in two spheres of research. As regards archaeology and the elucidation of Maya activities on the caye over time, soil micromorphology has contributed beyond measure to what we have been able to distinguish as material remains of cultural activity. Detailed descriptions of the nature of the material remains has in turn helped us to clarify or alter interpretations based on artefacts that have been identified or sediments characterised according to traditional recovery techniques. The other major sphere in which soil micromorphology and chemistry play a critical role is in assessment of the environmental impact of human activity, which enables us to construct and test hypotheses concerning how the site formed over time; what materials and elements contributed to the character of the sediments, especially in the formation of a specific Maya Dark Earth type that is developed from carbonate rich deposits; and how the modern surface soils acquired the appearance of a Dark Earth, but essentially differ from them. In terms of agricultural soil sustainability, the Marco Gonzalez surface soil is neo-formed by a woodland vegetation drawing upon the nutrients and constituents present in both the Dark Earth and underlying better preserved stratified deposits.

Publication date: September 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 73 Author(s): Scott G. Ortman, Kaitlyn E. Davis, José Lobo, Michael E. Smith, Luis M.A. Bettencourt, Aaron TrumboThere is a longstanding debate in anthropology and history regarding the extent to which the determinants of past economic change are similar in any specific ways to those that operate today. In this paper, we examine the extent to which increasing returns to settlement scale in material outputs, which are apparent in contemporary urban systems, also operated in the Late Pre-Hispanic Tarma and Mantaro drainages of the Peruvian Central Andes. Proxy measures for material outputs across settlements and households show that this region experienced a marked economic expansion following its incorporation into the Inka Empire ca. 1450 CE. We argue that these changes in living standards are consistent with expectations of an emerging framework known as settlement scaling theory that specifies relationships between human aggregation, social connectivity and material outputs. Our results suggest that intensification of human social connectivity and material flows—as measured through settlement size distributions—can be sufficient to raise living standards even in the absence of markets.

Publication date: July 2016Source:Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 71 Author(s): Dolores R. PipernoSantos et al. claim that a recent phytolith 14C study by Piperno of Neotropical plants that grew during the post-bomb era provided anomalously old ages due to 14C depletion. They argue the depletion source is likely old carbon in soils transported into plants via root uptake. Here I show: 1) their claims for anomalous 14C depletions in phytoliths are unfounded because they fail to consider uncertainties created in the bomb curve from local and regional environmental variability and other factors shown to lead to bomb curve offsets in post-bomb 14C study, 2) they error by not calibrating the phytolith dates, a standard procedure with post-bomb 14C determinations, 3) they inexplicably consider an ancient (1640 14Cyr B.P) age for one of the dated samples to be accurate when (a) it is known the sample was treated with substances made from fossil fuels that were not removed with the extraction process, and (b) the amount of radiocarbon dead carbon required to generate the ancient age from SOM is unreasonable, and 4) their theory that old soil carbon from root uptake is sequestered in phytoliths causing significant skews to phytolith ages is not supported by accumulated evidence from ancient, and now modern Neotropical contexts.

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.