New Archeology Papers (Titles and Abstracts Only, Please)

[JMcB]

Continuing the thread begun by pmokeefe on Anthrogenica:


Journal of Archaeological Science
Volume 157, September 2023


Destruction by fire: Reconstructing the evidence of the 586 BCE Babylonian destruction in a monumental building in Jerusalem

N. Shalom ,  Y. Vaknin,  R. Shaar, E. Ben-Yosef, et al.



Abstract

Evidence of fire is one of the most important features for identifying and characterizing destruction events. Analysis of microscopic remains of fire has developed exceedingly in recent years, enabling archaeologists to examine new questions relating to the intensity of destruction events and to the circumstances of the creation of destruction layers. One of the most crucial events in the history of the Southern Levant is the Babylonian destruction of Judah and its capital Jerusalem in 586 BCE, which shaped the biblical narrative and theology for generations to come. Building 100 was an extraordinarily large and rich elite building, thoroughly destroyed during the Babylonian campaign. This paper presents a study of the destruction layer excavated within the rooms of the building. FTIR spectrometry and archaeomagnetic analysis were combined in the micro-archaeological study of the remains in order to create a detailed reconstruction of the destruction event. This reconstruction sheds new light on how the Babylonian destruction was manifested in reality in the elite buildings of Jerusalem.


Link:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440323001036

[dilettante layman]

Climate amelioration, abrupt vegetation recovery, and the dispersal of Homo sapiens in Baikal Siberia

Abstract
The dispersal of Homo sapiens in Siberia and Mongolia occurred by 45 to 40 thousand years (ka) ago; however, the climatic and environmental context of this event remains poorly understood. We reconstruct a detailed vegetation history for the Last Glacial period based on pollen spectra from Lake Baikal. While herb and shrub taxa including Artemisia and Alnus dominated throughout most of this period, coniferous forests rapidly expanded during Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events 14 (55 ka ago) and 12 to 10 (48 to 41 ka ago), with the latter presenting the strongest signal for coniferous forest expansion and Picea trees, indicating remarkably humid conditions. These abrupt forestation events are consistent with obliquity maxima, so that we interpret last glacial vegetation changes in southern Siberia as being driven by obliquity change. Likewise, we posit that major climate amelioration and pronounced forestation precipitated H. sapiens dispersal into Baikal Siberia 45 ka ago, as chronicled by the appearance of the Initial Upper Paleolithic.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi0189

[Gene188288]

Genomes from Pastoral Neolithic Sahara reveal ancestral north African lineage

Speaker: Nada Salem
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany


Co-authors: Marieke van de Loosdrecht1,2, Arev Pelin Sümer1, Stefania Vai3, Alexander Hübner1, Kay

Prüfer1, Raffaela Bianco1, Marta Burri4, Mary Anne Tafuri5, Giorgio Manzi5, Harald Ringbauer1, David

Caramelli3, Savino di Lernia5,6, Johannes Krause1



Abstract:

Known as one of the most arid areas on the planet today, the Sahara Desert was, in fact, a green savannah in the Holocene, dotted by forests and water bodies that promoted human occupation and fostered pastoralism. Due to the present-day climatic conditions, ancient DNA does not preserve well in the region, resulting in limited knowledge of the
Sahara’s demographic past. Here, we report the first ancient human genome-wide data from the Saharan Pastoral Neolithic. We obtained genomic data from two ca. 7000-year- old female pastoralists buried in the Takarkori rock shelter at the heart of the Tadrart Acacus massif in southwestern Libya, which was used as a burial ground by pastoral communities. We find that the majority of the Takarkori individuals’ ancestry stems from a previously unknown lineage that appears to have remained isolated for most of its existence. Both individuals are most closely related to the preceding 15,000-year-old foragers from Morocco associated with the Iberomaurusian techno-complex, whereas both Takarkori and Iberomaurusian individuals are distantly related to sub-Saharan African lineages. The quality of one of the genomes from Takarkori is sufficient to detect prospective Neandertal ancestry and we find evidence for few segments of ancestry that sum to a total comparable to that detected in the genomes of sub-Saharan Africans. Our results therefore support a model of cultural diffusion, rather than human migration, for the emergence of pastoralist subsistence in the Sahara region.

[JMcB]

Courtesy of an article posted by leonardo:


The Stonehenge Altar Stone was probably not sourced from the Old Red Sandstone of the Anglo-Welsh Basin: Time to broaden our geographic and stratigraphic horizons?

Richard E. Bevins, Nick J.G. Pearce, Rob A. Ixer, Duncan Pirrie, Sergio Andò, Stephen Hillier, Peter Turner, Matthew Power


Abstract:

Stone 80, the recumbent Altar Stone, is the largest of the Stonehenge foreign “bluestones”, mainly igneous rocks forming the inner Stonehenge circle. The Altar Stone’s anomalous lithology, a sandstone of continental origin, led to the previous suggestion of a provenance from the Old Red Sandstone (ORS) of west Wales, close to where the majority of the bluestones have been sourced (viz. the Mynydd Preseli area in west Wales) some 225 km west of Stonehenge. Building upon earlier investigations we have examined new samples from the Old Red Sandstone (ORS) within the Anglo-Welsh Basin (covering south Wales, the Welsh Borderland, the West Midlands and Somerset) using traditional optical petrography but additionally portable XRF, automated SEM-EDS and Raman Spectroscopic techniques. One of the key characteristics of the Altar Stone is its unusually high Ba content (all except one of 106 analyses have Ba > 1025 ppm), reflecting high modal baryte. Of the 58 ORS samples analysed to date from the Anglo-Welsh Basin, only four show analyses where Ba exceeds 1000 ppm, similar to the lower range of the Altar Stone composition. However, because of their contrasting mineralogies, combined with data collected from new automated SEM-EDS and Raman Spectroscopic analyses these four samples must be discounted as being from the source of the Altar Stone. It now seems ever more likely that the Altar Stone was not derived from the ORS of the Anglo-Welsh Basin, and therefore it is time to broaden our horizons, both geographically and stratigraphically into northern Britain and also to consider continental sandstones of a younger age. There is no doubt that considering the Altar Stone as a ‘bluestone’ has influenced thinking regarding the long-held view to a source in Wales. We therefore propose that the Altar Stone should be ‘de-classified’ as a bluestone, breaking a link to the essentially Mynydd Preseli-derived bluestones.


Link:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...via%3Dihub

[JMcB]

Also courtesy of an article posted by leonardo:


Human occupations of upland and cold environments in inland Spain during the Last Glacial Maximum and Heinrich Stadial 1: The new Magdalenian sequence of Charco Verde II

Javier Aragoncillo-del Río, José-Javier Alcolea-González, Luis Luque, Samuel Castillo-Jiménez, Guillermo Jiménez-Gisbert, José-Antonio López-Sáez, José-Manuel Maíllo-Fernández, Mónica Ruiz-Alonso, Ignacio Triguero, José Yravedra, Manuel Alcaraz-Castaño



Abstract

The settlement of cold and arid environments by Pleistocene hunter-gatherers has been a heated topic in Paleolithic Archaeology and the Quaternary Sciences for years. In the Iberian Peninsula, a key area for studying human adaptations to such environments is composed by the large interior and upland regions of the northern and southern plateaus (Mesetas) and bordering areas. As, traditionally, these regions have been relatively under-investigated compared to the ecologically more favored coastal areas of the peninsula, our knowledge of the human settlement of the whole Iberian hinterland remains scarce for the Last Glacial. In this paper we present the discovery and first geoarcheological, paleoenvironmental and chronometric evidence obtained at Charco Verde II, a new site close to the southwestern foothills of the Iberian system range (Guadalajara province, Spain), bearing a sequence of Magdalenian human occupations starting at least at 20.8–21.4 ka cal BP during the Last Glacial Maximum, and covering Greenland Stadial 2 until ∼15.1–16.6 ka cal BP, including Heinrich stadial 1. As this site is located in an upland region which today faces one of the harshest climates in Iberia, such occupation sequence, occurred during some of the coldest and most arid phases of the Last Glacial, has relevant implications for our understanding of human-environment-climate interactions and population dynamics in Iberia and Western Europe. These findings support the hypothesis that the Iberian hinterland was not avoided by Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers due to ecological constraints, but it hosted a complex and relatively dense settlement at least in some areas, even during cold periods. This suggest, one more time, that the historical scarcity of Upper Paleolithic sites in inland Iberia is, to a significant extent, an artifact of research bias.


Link:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/articl...ne.0291516

[JMcB]

The earliest basketry in southern Europe: Hunter-gatherer and farmer plant-based technology in Cueva de los Murciélagos (Albuñol)

FRANCISCO MARTÍNEZ-SEVILLA, MARIA HERRERO-OTA, et al.



From Fig. 4. Mesolithic organic-based artifacts.
(A) Basket 579 (Beta-627332: 8350 ± 30 BP). (B) Basket 580 (Beta-627333: 8320 ± 30 BP). © Basket 581 (Beta-627334: 8300 ± 30 BP). 



Abstract

Plant material culture can offer unique insights into the ways of life of prehistoric societies; however, its perishable nature has prevented a thorough understanding of its diverse and complex uses. Sites with exceptional preservation of organic materials provide a unique opportunity for further research. The burial site of Cueva de los Murciélagos in southern Iberia, uncovered during 19th-century mining activities, contained the best-preserved hunter-gatherer basketry in southern Europe, together with other unique organic artifacts associated with the first farming communities, such as sandals and a wooden hammer. We present 14 14C dates for the perishable artifacts (N = 76), situating the assemblage between the Early and Middle Holocene (c. 7500 to 4200 cal BCE). Our integrated analysis includes raw material determination and technological and chrono-cultural contextualization of this unique and important set of materials.

INTRODUCTION

Perishable organic raw materials are widely available and versatile, and have played a crucial role in human history. Wood, plant fibers, and skins have been used for the manufacture of multiple artifacts essential to the daily life of past populations. The poor preservation of such objects means that they can rarely be studied in detail, even though they are key to understanding human adaptations to environments and past technological and ecological knowledge, and provide insight into the diversity of needs for which these materials have provided a solution. For this reason, sites with well-preserved perishable materials present a unique opportunity to study past societies (1, 2). Plant-based goods and tools were among the first artifacts in history, as suggested by the use-wear of lithic tools dated to early Pleistocene (3, 4). The earliest direct evidence derives from the Middle Pleistocene (5–8), but examples are scarce and widely dispersed.
Most current knowledge of past societies is built from analysis of durable materials. Information relating to vegetal crafts in prehistory is limited (1) because of the lack of recovered remains, but, like nonperishable objects, plant-based artifacts allow us to study ethnicity (9–11), frontiers of culture and identity (12–15), trade networking (16, 17), and human-environmental relationships including economy, adaptation, and subsistence (18–21). The craft of basketry is considered a particularly useful indicator for defining technological and cultural traditions (2) …


For the rest, see:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi3055

[dilettante layman]

Human consumption of seaweed and freshwater aquatic plants in ancient Europe

Abstract
During the Mesolithic in Europe, there is widespread evidence for an increase in exploitation of aquatic resources. In contrast, the subsequent Neolithic is characterised by the spread of farming, land ownership, and full sedentism, which lead to the perception of marine resources subsequently representing marginal or famine food or being abandoned altogether even at the furthermost coastal limits of Europe. Here, we examine biomarkers extracted from human dental calculus, using sequential thermal desorption- and pyrolysis-GCMS, to report direct evidence for widespread consumption of seaweed and submerged aquatic and freshwater plants across Europe. Notably, evidence of consumption of these resources extends through the Neolithic transition to farming and into the Early Middle Ages, suggesting that these resources, now rarely eaten in Europe, only became marginal much more recently. Understanding ancient foodstuffs is crucial to reconstructing the past, while a better knowledge of local, forgotten resources is likewise important today.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41671-2

[JMcB]

Crisis? What crisis? Recycling of silver for Roman Republican coinage

Jonathan R. Wood, Matthew Ponting & Kevin Butcher


Abstract:

Dated measurements of lead pollution in deep Greenland ice have become a useful proxy to monitor historical events because interruptions in lead-silver production result in fluctuations in lead emissions. However, the application of the lead emission record has not perhaps received the attention it deserves because of the difficulty in connecting macroscale events, such as wars and plagues, to their economic repercussions. For instance, although debasement of silver coinage with copper has been proposed as a reasonable response to interruptions in silver production, reductions in fineness of the silver denarius, the backbone of Roman coinage from the late third century BC, are not always coincident with decreases in lead deposited in Greenland. We propose that extensive recycling of silver that is evident in the numismatic record can better explain drops in lead emissions and, thereby, the responses to major historical events, such as warfare in the silver-producing areas of the Iberian Peninsula and southern France during the middle and late Roman Republic.


Introduction

During the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), the silver denarius was introduced as a replacement of Rome’s early currency silver systems (Crawford 1987, 43–51), and this became the backbone of Roman coinage for nearly 450 years (Elliot 2020, 68–85). The silver used for the Republican denarius was of a good standard of purity (often over 95% silver) and seems to have been maintained over time (Crawford 1974, 569).

The application of lead emissions based on dated measurements of lead pollution in deep Greenland ice has become a useful proxy for historical events, including imperial expansion, wars, and major plagues (McConnell et al. 2018). For example, increases in lead pollution around 500 BC (Fig. 1) have been shown to be consistent with a transition from extracting silver from lead-poor ‘dry’ silver ores to the massive exploitation of lead ore deposits for their trace amounts of intrinsic silver at Laurion in Greece (Wood 2023). Here, the focus is placed on the downturn in lead emissions evident during late second- to mid–first-century BC (shaded ellipse in Fig. 1). This decline in lead emissions has been attributed to major interruptions in lead-silver production, coinciding with warfare during the middle and late Roman Republic in the silver-producing areas of the Iberian Peninsula and southern France (McConnell et al 2018). In effect, because lead ores were often exploited for their low amounts of silver and lead is used to refine silver in the cupellation process, recurring wars and periods of stability and instability instigating peaks and troughs in lead-silver production resulted in fluctuations in the lead pollution deposited in Greenland ice.



Estimated lead emission data (thousands of tonnes/year) derived from ice cores in Greenland (adapted from McConnell et al. 2018). Approximate chronologies for relevant events are signposted. The shaded ellipse represents the main period under investigation



Link:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.100...23-01854-w

[JMcB]

Severe multi-year drought coincident with Hittite collapse around 1198–1196 BC

Sturt W. Manning, Cindy Kocik, Brita Lorentzen & Jed P. Sparks


Abstract:

The potential of climate change to substantially alter human history is a pressing concern, but the specific effects of different types of climate change remain unknown. This question can be addressed using palaeoclimatic and archaeological data. For instance, a 300-year, low-frequency shift to drier, cooler climate conditions around 1200 BC is frequently associated with the collapse of several ancient civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East1,2,3,4. However, the precise details of synchronized climate and human-history-scale associations are lacking. The archaeological–historical record contains multiple instances of human societies successfully adapting to low-frequency climate change5,6,7. It is likely that consecutive multi-year occurrences of rare, unexpected extreme climatic events may push a population beyond adaptation and centuries-old resilience practices5,7,8,9,10. Here we examine the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1200 BC. The Hittites were one of the great powers in the ancient world across five centuries11,12,13,14, with an empire centred in a semi-arid region in Anatolia with political and socioeconomic interconnections throughout the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean, which for a long time proved resilient despite facing regular and intersecting sociopolitical, economic and environmental challenges. Examination of ring width and stable isotope records obtained from contemporary juniper trees in central Anatolia provides a high-resolution dryness record. This analysis identifies an unusually severe continuous dry period from around 1198 to 1196 (±3) BC, potentially indicating a tipping point, and signals the type of episode that can overwhelm contemporary risk-buffering practices.



https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05693-y

[JMcB]

A wall or a road? A remote sensing-based investigation of fortifications on Rome's eastern frontier

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 October 2023

Jesse Casana,David D. Goodman and Carolin Ferwerda


Abstract




During a pioneering aerial survey of the Near East in the 1920s, Father Antoine Poidebard recorded hundreds of fortified military buildings that traced the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire. Based on their distribution, Poidebard proposed that these forts represented a line of defence against incursions from the east. Utilising declassified images from the CORONA and HEXAGON spy satellite programmes, the authors report on the identification of a further 396 forts widely distributed across the northern Fertile Crescent. The addition of these forts questions Poidebard's defensive frontier thesis and suggests instead that the structures played a role in facilitating the movement of people and goods across the Syrian steppe.


https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/...EC6DC414FD

[Orentil]

Demographic dynamics between 5500 and 3500 calBP (3550–1550 BCE) in selected study regions of Central Europe and the role of regional climate influences

Ralph Großmann, Mara Weinelt, Johannes Müller

Abstract

With their rich Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age archives, the Circumharz region, the Czech Republic/Lower Austria region, and the Northern Alpine Foreland are well-suited for research on potential links between human activities and climate fluctuations of this period with pronounced archaeological changes. In this paper, we reconstruct the rate and density of the available 14C data from 5500 to 3500 calBP (3550–1550 BCE). We ask to what extent population patterns varied over time and space, and whether fluctuations in human populations and their activities varied with local/regional climate changes. To answer these questions, we have compiled an extensive list of published radiocarbon dates and created 14C sum calibrations for each region. We also compare population dynamics with local and regional palaeoclimate records derived from high-resolution speleothems. At the regional scale, the results suggest a causal relationship between regional climate and population trends. Climate and associated environmental changes were thus at least partly responsible for demographic trends. These results also allow us to question the motivation for the construction of so-called “Early Bronze Age princely tombs” in the Circumharz region during a period of population decline. Among other things, it can be argued that the upper echelons of society may have benefited from trade relations. However, this process was accompanied by ecological stress, a cooling of the winter climate, a decline in the total population and an increase in social inequality.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/articl...ne.0291956

[Alain]

ARCHAEOLOGISTS FIND NORDIC BRONZE AGE MEETING HALL FROM TIME OF LEGENDARY KING HINZ

Archaeologists have uncovered a large meeting hall near the Bronze Age burial mound of King Hinz, also known as the “King’s Grave”, located in Seddiner in northwestern Brandenburg, Germany.



https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/11/ar...9127?amp=1

[dilettante layman]

Terminal ballistic analysis of impact fractures reveals the use of spearthrower 31 ky ago at Maisières-Canal, Belgium

Abstract
The emergence of hunting technology in the deep past fundamentally shaped the subsistence strategies of early human populations. Hence knowing when different weapons were first introduced is important for understanding our evolutionary trajectory. The timing of the adoption of long-range weaponry remains heavily debated because preserved organic weapon components are extremely rare in the Paleolithic record and stone points are difficult to attribute reliably to weapon delivery methods without supporting organic evidence. Here, we use a refined use-wear approach to demonstrate that spearthrower was used for launching projectiles armed with tanged flint points at Maisières-Canal (Belgium) 31,000 years ago. The novelty of our approach lies in the combination of impact fracture data with terminal ballistic analysis of the mechanical stress suffered by a stone armature on impact. This stress is distinct for each weapon and visible archaeologically as fracture proportions on assemblage scale. Our reference dataset derives from a sequential experimental program that addressed individually each key parameter affecting fracture formation and successfully reproduced the archaeological fracture signal. The close match between the archaeological sample and the experimental spearthrower set extends the timeline of spearthrower use by over 10,000 years and represents the earliest reliable trace-based evidence for the utilization of long-distance weaponry in prehistoric hunting.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-45554-w

[SeriesOfExtraordinaryEvents]

THE BALTIC IN THE BRONZE AGE

Regional patterns, interactions and boundaries

Edited by Daniela Hofmann, Frank Nikulka, Robert Schumann | 2022

Abstract:
The Bronze Age is a time of increasing interaction with large-scale connections that cover vast parts of Europe. Some parts and regions of the Bronze Age are very well explored and for some very strong narratives of hierarchisation and differentiation, dependence on external raw material supplies and specialisation have been proposed.

In other regions, however, only some of these aspects appear, even though networks of contact would at least have been possible. This is the case in the Baltic area, where western and eastern regions show dramatic differences in subsistence, the amounts of metal produced and deposited (and therefore presumably the social role of metal), the settlement pattern and scale of social groups. A particularly interesting question is the intensity of culture contact that the eastern Baltic regions entertained across the sea with Scandinavia and also with directly neighbouring continental regions.

This volume brings together scholars from all regions around the Baltic Sea to discuss different aspects of Bronze Age interactions. It offers a perspective on regional and interregional connectivity and exchange beyond the usual large-scale models discussed in Bronze Age archaeology and includes both case studies of individual regions or finds categories and broader overview papers focusing on the diversity of interconnections − and their sometimes striking absence

Several papers, free digital copy;

https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-balt...bronze-age

[Orentil]

Tracing early life histories from Roman times to the Medieval era: weaning practices and physiological stress

Maren Velte, Andrea Czermak, Andrea Grigat, Deborah Neidich, Bernd Trautmann, Sandra Lösch, Bernd Päffgen & Michaela Harbeck

Abstract
In humans, breastfeeding and weaning depend on the infant’s needs and physiology but are also influenced by environmental and cultural factors. While infant feeding strategies vary across different regions and historical eras, the associated transition from breastmilk to solid foods is universally thought to be stressful. However, still little is known about infant feeding practices and possibly associated stress in former times. This also applies to the period of transition from classical antiquity to medieval times, which shaped modern Western civilization. To enhance the understanding of childhood nutrition and stress during this period, we first analyzed stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in serial dentine samples from the first molars of 38 individuals buried in the region once known as the Roman frontier province of Raetia secunda, now encompassing Southern Bavaria. In addition, we investigated the presence of linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH), known to be a marker of unspecific physiological stress, within their dentition. We used this data to create isotope profiles that display dietary changes in comparison with the occurrence of LEH. We found highly variable δ15N and δ13C values and different shapes of isotope profiles which indicate different nutrition of breastfeeding individuals, complementary foods and post-weaning diets, and individual weaning patterns. For most individuals, the weaning process was completed between the ages of two and three. Interestingly, some females of non-local origin show longer weaning periods, likely displaying the influence of different cultural practices in other communities. We also found that LEH most frequently occurred in the post-weaning phase, which supports the assumption that children were at increased risk once breastfeeding had ceased completely. Furthermore, a change in the post-weaning diet in the seventh century coincided with an increased prevalence of LEH, indicating that the foods chosen or available during this time affected the susceptibility of children to stress. In conclusion, our study unveiled diverse infant feeding strategies practiced across various communities, both in different historical eras and geographical locations.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.100...23-01882-6