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ter Schure AT, Bruch AA, Kandel AW, Gasparyan B, Bussmann RW, Brysting AK, de Boer HJ, Boessenkool S. Sedimentary ancient DNA metabarcoding as a tool for assessing prehistoric plant use at the Upper Paleolithic cave site Aghitu-3, Armenia. J Hum Evol 2022; 172:103258. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2022] [Revised: 08/26/2022] [Accepted: 08/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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Carter T, Kilikoglou V. Raw material choices and technical practices as indices of cultural change: Characterizing obsidian consumption at ‘Mycenaean’ Quartier Nu, Malia (Crete). PLoS One 2022; 17:e0273093. [PMID: 35998178 PMCID: PMC9397941 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
This paper takes a practice-based approach to the study of cultural identity, focusing on how raw material and technical choices involved in the production of quotidian tools served to both reproduce, and reflect a social group’s very way of being. We then consider the (dis)continuity of obsidian blade-making traditions from Middle–Late Bronze Age Malia (north-central Crete), i.e., before and after a period of island-wide destructions, and appearance of foreign elements believed to reflect the arrival of a population from the Greek mainland (Mycenaeans). Methodologically this involves an integrated, ‘thick description’ obsidian characterisation study to detail long-term cultural traditions, including the use of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) to source the raw materials of 36 artifacts. The results show a significant degree of continuity in the community’s lithic traditions, suggesting that many of the innovative features at Malia can be interpreted in terms of local factions appropriating new and foreign means of social distinction, rather than wholescale changes in community composition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tristan Carter
- Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
- School of Earth, Environment & Society, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
- * E-mail:
| | - Vassilis Kilikoglou
- National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, Athens, Attica, Greece
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Tejero JM, Bar-Oz G, Bar-Yosef O, Meshveliani T, Jakeli N, Matskevich Z, Pinhasi R, Belfer-Cohen A. New insights into the Upper Palaeolithic of the Caucasus through the study of personal ornaments. Teeth and bones pendants from Satsurblia and Dzudzuana caves (Imereti, Georgia). PLoS One 2021; 16:e0258974. [PMID: 34748581 PMCID: PMC8575301 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258974] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2021] [Accepted: 10/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The region of western Georgia (Imereti) in the Southern Caucasus has been a major geographic corridor for human migrations during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Data of recent research and excavations in this region display its importance as a possible route for the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (AMH) into northern Eurasia. Nevertheless, within the local research context, bone-working and personal ornaments have yet contributed but little to the Upper Palaeolithic (UP) regional sequence's characterization. Here we present an archaeozoological, technological and use-wear study of pendants from two local UP assemblages, originating in the Dzudzuana Cave and Satsurblia Cave. The ornaments were made mostly of perforated teeth, though some specimens were made on bone. Both the manufacturing marks made during preparation and use-wear traces indicate that they were personal ornaments, used as pendants or attached to garments. Detailed comparison between ornament assemblages from northern and southern Caucasus reveal that they are quite similar, supporting the observation of cultural bonds between the two regions, demonstrated previously through lithic techno-typological affinities. Furthermore, our study highlights the importance attributed to red deer (Cervus elaphus) by the UP societies of the Caucasus in sharing aesthetic values and/or a symbolic sphere.
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Affiliation(s)
- José-Miguel Tejero
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Seminari d’Estudis I Recerques Prehistòriques, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Guy Bar-Oz
- Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Ofer Bar-Yosef
- Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States of America
| | | | | | | | - Ron Pinhasi
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Anna Belfer-Cohen
- Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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Short-term occupations at high elevation during the Middle Paleolithic at Kalavan 2 (Republic of Armenia). PLoS One 2021; 16:e0245700. [PMID: 33539405 PMCID: PMC7861461 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245700] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2020] [Accepted: 01/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The Armenian highlands encompasses rugged and environmentally diverse landscapes and is characterized by a mosaic of distinct ecological niches and large temperature gradients. Strong seasonal fluctuations in resource availability along topographic gradients likely prompted Pleistocene hominin groups to adapt by adjusting their mobility strategies. However, the role that elevated landscapes played in hunter-gatherer settlement systems during the Late Pleistocene (Middle Palaeolithic [MP]) remains poorly understood. At 1640 m above sea level, the MP site of Kalavan 2 (Armenia) is ideally positioned for testing hypotheses involving elevation-dependent seasonal mobility and subsistence strategies. Renewed excavations at Kalavan 2 exposed three main occupation horizons and ten additional low densities lithic and faunal assemblages. The results provide a new chronological, stratigraphical, and paleoenvironmental framework for hominin behaviors between ca. 60 to 45 ka. The evidence presented suggests that the stratified occupations at Kalavan 2 locale were repeated ephemerally most likely related to hunting in a high-elevation within the mountainous steppe landscape.
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Cullen VL, Smith VC, Tushabramishvili N, Mallol C, Dee M, Wilkinson KN, Adler DS. A revised AMS and tephra chronology for the Late Middle to Early Upper Paleolithic occupations of Ortvale Klde, Republic of Georgia. J Hum Evol 2020; 151:102908. [PMID: 33370643 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2020] [Revised: 10/26/2020] [Accepted: 10/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
The nature and timing of the shift from the Late Middle Paleolithic (LMP) to the Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) varied geographically, temporally, and substantively across the Near East and Eurasia; however, the result of this process was the archaeological disappearance of Middle Paleolithic technologies across the length and breadth of their geographic distribution. Ortvale Klde rockshelter (Republic of Georgia) contains the most detailed LMP-EUP archaeological sequence in the Caucasus, an environmentally and topographically diverse region situated between southwest Asia and Europe. Tephrochronological investigations at the site reveal volcanic ash (tephra) from various volcanic sources and provide a tephrostratigraphy for the site that will facilitate future correlations in the region. We correlate one of the cryptotephra layers to the large, caldera-forming Nemrut Formation eruption (30,000 years ago) from Nemrut volcano in Turkey. We integrate this tephrochronological constraint with new radiocarbon dates and published ages in an OxCal Bayesian age model to produce a revised chronology for the site. This model increases the ages for the end of the LMP (∼47.5-44.2 ka cal BP) and appearance of the EUP (∼46.7-43.6 ka cal BP) at Ortvale Klde, which are earlier than those currently reported for other sites in the Caucasus but similar to estimates for specific sites in southwest Asia and eastern Europe. These data, coupled with archaeological, stratigraphic, and taphonomic observations, suggest that at Ortvale Klde, (1) the appearance of EUP technologies of bone and stone has no technological roots in the preceding LMP, (2) a LMP population vacuum likely preceded the appearance of these EUP technologies, and (3) the systematic combination of tephra correlations and absolute dating chronologies promises to substantially improve our inter-regional understanding of this critical time interval of human evolution and the potential interconnectedness of hominins at different sites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victoria L Cullen
- Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Victoria C Smith
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | | | - Carolina Mallol
- Archaeological Micromorphology and Biomarker Research Lab, Instituto Universitario de Bio-Orgánica Antonio González, Tenerife, Spain; Departamento de Geografía e Historia, Universidad de La Laguna Campus de Guajara, Tenerife, Spain
| | - Michael Dee
- Centre for Isotope Research, ESRIG, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Keith N Wilkinson
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Winchester, United Kingdom
| | - Daniel S Adler
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, CT, USA.
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d'Errico F, Doyon L, Zhang S, Baumann M, Lázničková-Galetová M, Gao X, Chen F, Zhang Y. The origin and evolution of sewing technologies in Eurasia and North America. J Hum Evol 2018; 125:71-86. [PMID: 30502899 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2018] [Revised: 09/27/2018] [Accepted: 10/08/2018] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
When, how, and following which paths hominins created the innovations that allowed them to colonize regions of the planet that were not suited to their thermal physiology is still a matter of inquiry. In this paper, we elaborate a theoretical framework to investigate the origin and diversification of bone needles, summarize the evidence for their emergence, create a large database of their morphometric and stylistic characters, and present results of the study of an exceptionally well-preserved collection of needles from Shuidonggou Locality 12 (SDG12), a site located in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Northern China, dated to ca. 11.2 ka BP. Bone needles are reported from 271 sites and 355 archaeological layers. Revision of the evidence shows they represent an original cultural innovation that emerged in Eurasia between 45-40 ka BP. Size differences between the earliest known specimens, found in Siberia and China, indicate needles may have been invented independently in these two regions. Needles from Eastern Europe may represent either an independent invention or a geographic extension of earlier Siberian and Caucasian sewing traditions. In Western Europe, needles appear during the Solutrean. The wider size range characteristic of Magdalenian specimens supports the idea that needles of different sizes were used in a variety of tasks. In China, the robust sub-circular needles found at sites dated between 35-25 ka BP are followed, between 26-23 ka BP, by small flat needles, which may represent an innovation associated with the microblades/microcores toolkit. At SDG12, technological, functional, and morphometric analyses of finished needles and manufacturing by-products identify two previously undetected reduction sequences for the production of needles of different size and, probably, function. The bone needles found at Paleoindian sites are the smallest and reflect a never previously achieved mastery in the production of such tools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco d'Errico
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 5199 - PACEA, Université de Bordeaux, Bât. B18, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, CS 50023, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France; SSF Centre for Early Sapiens Behavior (SapienCe), University of Bergen, Øysteinsgate 3, Postboks 7805, 5020, Bergen, Norway.
| | - Luc Doyon
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 5199 - PACEA, Université de Bordeaux, Bât. B18, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, CS 50023, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France; Institute of Cultural Heritage, Shandong University, 27 Shanda Nanlu, Jinan 250100, China
| | - Shuangquan Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China
| | - Malvina Baumann
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 5199 - PACEA, Université de Bordeaux, Bât. B18, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, CS 50023, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France
| | - Martina Lázničková-Galetová
- Institut Anthropos, Moravian Museum, Zelný Trh 6, 65937 Brno, Czech Republic; Hrdlicka Museum of Man, Faculty of Science Charles University, Prague, Viničná 1594/7, 12800 Praha, Czech Republic
| | - Xing Gao
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China
| | - Fuyou Chen
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China
| | - Yue Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, China.
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