2
|
Gravel-Miguel C, Cristiani E, Hodgkins J, Orr CM, Strait DS, Peresani M, Benazzi S, Pothier-Bouchard G, Keller HM, Meyer D, Drohobytsky D, Talamo S, Panetta D, Zupancich A, Miller CE, Negrino F, Riel-Salvatore J. The Ornaments of the Arma Veirana Early Mesolithic Infant Burial. JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHOD AND THEORY 2022; 30:757-804. [PMID: 37600347 PMCID: PMC10432373 DOI: 10.1007/s10816-022-09573-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/09/2022] [Indexed: 08/22/2023]
Abstract
Personal ornaments are widely viewed as indicators of social identity and personhood. Ornaments are ubiquitous from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene, but they are most often found as isolated objects within archaeological assemblages without direct evidence on how they were displayed. This article presents a detailed record of the ornaments found in direct association with an Early Mesolithic buried female infant discovered in 2017 at the site of Arma Veirana (Liguria, Italy). It uses microscopic, 3D, and positional analyses of the ornaments as well as a preliminary perforation experiment to document how they were perforated, used, and what led to their deposit as part of the infant's grave goods. This study provides important information on the use of beads in the Early Mesolithic, in general, as well as the relationship between beads and young subadults, in particular. The results of the study suggest that the beads were worn by members of the infant's community for a considerable period before they were sewn onto a sling, possibly used to keep the infant close to the parents while allowing their mobility, as seen in some modern forager groups. The baby was then likely buried in this sling to avoid reusing the beads that had failed to protect her or simply to create a lasting connection between the deceased infant and her community. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10816-022-09573-7.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- C. Gravel-Miguel
- Département d’anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC Canada
| | - E. Cristiani
- DANTE – Diet and ANcient TEchnology Laboratory, Department of Oral and Maxillo-Facial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - J. Hodgkins
- Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO USA
| | - C. M. Orr
- Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO USA
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO USA
| | - D. S. Strait
- Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO USA
- Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - M. Peresani
- Prehistory and Antropology Science Unit, Department of Humanities, University of Ferrara, Sezione Di Scienze Preistoriche E Antropologiche, Ferrara, Italy
- Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering (IGAG), National Research Council, Milan, Italy
| | - S. Benazzi
- Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Ravenna, Italy
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - G. Pothier-Bouchard
- Département d’anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC Canada
- Département des sciences historiques, Université Laval, Québec, Canada
| | - H. M. Keller
- Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT USA
| | - D. Meyer
- Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI), University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA
| | - D. Drohobytsky
- Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI), University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA
| | - S. Talamo
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - D. Panetta
- Institute of Clinical Physiology - CNR-IFC, Pisa, Italy
| | - A. Zupancich
- DANTE – Diet and ANcient TEchnology Laboratory, Department of Oral and Maxillo-Facial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
- Archaeology of Social Dynamics, Institución Milá Y Fontanals, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
| | - C. E. Miller
- Institute for Archaeological Sciences and Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - F. Negrino
- Department of Antiquities, Philosophy, History, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
| | - J. Riel-Salvatore
- Département d’anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC Canada
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Riede F, Walsh MJ, Nowell A, Langley MC, Johannsen NN. Children and innovation: play, play objects and object play in cultural evolution. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2021; 3:e11. [PMID: 37588535 PMCID: PMC10427281 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2021.7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Cultural evolutionary theory conceptualises culture as an information-transmission system whose dynamics take on evolutionary properties. Within this framework, however, innovation has been likened to random mutations, reducing its occurrence to chance or fortuitous transmission error. In introducing the special collection on children and innovation, we here place object play and play objects - especially functional miniatures - from carefully chosen archaeological contexts in a niche construction perspective. Given that play, including object play, is ubiquitous in human societies, we suggest that plaything construction, provisioning and use have, over evolutionary timescales, paid substantial selective dividends via ontogenetic niche modification. Combining findings from cognitive science, ethology and ethnography with insights into hominin early developmental life-history, we show how play objects and object play probably had decisive roles in the emergence of innovative capabilities. Importantly, we argue that closer attention to play objects can go some way towards addressing changes in innovation rates that occurred throughout human biocultural evolution and why innovations are observable within certain technological domains but not others.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Felix Riede
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, Moesgård Allé 20, 8270 Højbjerg, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Matthew J. Walsh
- Department of Ethnography, Numismatics, Classical Archaeology and University History, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, 0164Oslo, Norway
| | - April Nowell
- Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Michelle C. Langley
- Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
- Forensics and Archaeology, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Niels N. Johannsen
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, Moesgård Allé 20, 8270 Højbjerg, Denmark
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| |
Collapse
|