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van den Hurk Y, Sikström F, Amkreutz L, Bleasdale M, Borvon A, Ephrem B, Fernández-Rodríguez C, Gibbs HMB, Jonsson L, Lehouck A, Cedeira JM, Meng S, Monge R, Moreno M, Nabais M, Nores C, Pis-Millán JA, Riddler I, Schmölcke U, Segschneider M, Speller C, Vretemark M, Wickler S, Collins M, Nadeau MJ, Barrett JH. The prelude to industrial whaling: identifying the targets of ancient European whaling using zooarchaeology and collagen mass-peptide fingerprinting. R Soc Open Sci 2023; 10:230741. [PMID: 37711146 PMCID: PMC10498027 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230741] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Accepted: 08/21/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023]
Abstract
Taxonomic identification of whale bones found during archaeological excavations is problematic due to their typically fragmented state. This difficulty limits understanding of both the past spatio-temporal distributions of whale populations and of possible early whaling activities. To overcome this challenge, we performed zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry on an unprecedented 719 archaeological and palaeontological specimens of probable whale bone from Atlantic European contexts, predominantly dating from ca 3500 BCE to the eighteenth century CE. The results show high numbers of Balaenidae (many probably North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis)) and grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus) specimens, two taxa no longer present in the eastern North Atlantic. This discovery matches expectations regarding the past utilization of North Atlantic right whales, but was unanticipated for grey whales, which have hitherto rarely been identified in the European zooarchaeological record. Many of these specimens derive from contexts associated with mediaeval cultures frequently linked to whaling: the Basques, northern Spaniards, Normans, Flemish, Frisians, Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians. This association raises the likelihood that early whaling impacted these taxa, contributing to their extirpation and extinction. Much lower numbers of other large cetacean taxa were identified, suggesting that what are now the most depleted whales were once those most frequently used.
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Affiliation(s)
- Youri van den Hurk
- Department of Archaeology and Cultural History, University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
- Groningen Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Fanny Sikström
- Department of Archaeology and Cultural History, University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Luc Amkreutz
- National Museum of Antiquities, Papengracht 30, 2301EC Leiden, The Netherlands
- Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Einsteinweg 2, 2333 Leiden, The Netherlands
| | | | - Aurélia Borvon
- CNRS, UMR 7041 ArScAn Equipe Archéologies Environnementales, Nanterre, France
- Laboratoire d'Anatomie Comparée, ONIRIS (École Nationale Vétérinaire, Agroalimentaire et de l'Alimentation, Nantes-Atlantique), Nantes, France
| | - Brice Ephrem
- CNRS, UMR 6566 CReAAH Laboratoire Archéosciences, University of Rennes, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France
| | | | | | - Leif Jonsson
- Osteology, Aschebergsgatan 32, Gothenburg, SE 41133, Sweden
| | - Alexander Lehouck
- Abbey Museum of the Dunes, Koninklijke Prinslaan 6–8, 8670 Koksijde, Belgium
| | - Jose Martínez Cedeira
- Coordinadora para o Estudio dos Mamíferos Mariños, Rúa do Ceán, No 2, 36350 Nigrán, Pontevedra, Spain
| | - Stefan Meng
- Institute of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn Strasse 17A, 17487 Greifswald, Germany
| | - Rui Monge
- UNIARQ – Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, 1600-214, Portugal
| | - Marta Moreno
- Instituto de Historia - CSIC, Albasanz 26-28, Madrid, 28037, Spain
| | - Mariana Nabais
- Institute of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn Strasse 17A, 17487 Greifswald, Germany
- IPHES-CERCA - Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain
- Departament d'Història i Història de l'Art, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain
| | - Carlos Nores
- INDUROT – Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Ordenación del Territorio, Universidad de Oviedo, Mieres, 33600, Spain
| | - José Antonio Pis-Millán
- Centro de Experimentación Pesquera, Dirección General de Pesca Marítima, Gobierno del Principado de Asturias, 33212 Gijón, Spain
| | - Ian Riddler
- Independent Researcher, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, Germany
| | - Ulrich Schmölcke
- Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA), Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, Germany
| | - Martin Segschneider
- Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research, Viktoriastrasse 26/28, 26382 Wilhelmshaven, Germany
| | - Camilla Speller
- Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, 6303 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver V6T 1Z1, Canada
| | | | | | - Matthew Collins
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- The Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Kobenhavns, Denmark
| | - Marie-Josée Nadeau
- National Laboratory for Age Determination, NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Erling Skakkes Gate 47b, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
| | - James H. Barrett
- Department of Archaeology and Cultural History, University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
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Davin L, Tejero JM, Simmons T, Shaham D, Borvon A, Tourny O, Bridault A, Rabinovich R, Sindel M, Khalaily H, Valla F. Bone aerophones from Eynan-Mallaha (Israel) indicate imitation of raptor calls by the last hunter-gatherers in the Levant. Sci Rep 2023; 13:8709. [PMID: 37296190 PMCID: PMC10256695 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-35700-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2023] [Accepted: 05/22/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Direct evidence for Palaeolithic sound-making instruments is relatively rare, with only a few examples recorded from Upper Palaeolithic contexts, particularly in European cultures. However, theoretical considerations suggest that such artefacts have existed elsewhere in the world. Nevertheless, evidence for sound production is tenuous in the prehistoric archaeological record of the Levant, the study of music and its evolution being sparsely explored. Here we report new evidence for Palaeolithic sound-making instruments from the Levant with the discovery of seven aerophones made of perforated bird bones in the Final Natufian site of Eynan-Mallaha, Northern Israel. Through technological, use-wear, taphonomic, experimental and acoustical analyses, we demonstrate that these objects were intentionally manufactured more than 12,000 years ago to produce a range of sounds similar to raptor calls and whose purposes could be at the crossroads of communication, attracting hunting prey and music-making. Although similar aerophones are documented in later archaeological cultures, such artificial bird sounds were yet to be reported from Palaeolithic context. Therefore, the discovery from Eynan-Mallaha contributes new evidence for a distinctive sound-making instrument in the Palaeolithic. Through a combined multidisciplinary approach, our study provides important new data regarding the antiquity and development of the variety of sound-making instruments in the Palaeolithic at large and particularly at the dawn of the Neolithic in the Levant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurent Davin
- Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
- CNRS, UAR 3132 Centre de Recherche français à Jérusalem (CRFJ), Jerusalem, Israel.
- CNRS, UMR 8068 Technologie et Ethnologie des Mondes PréhistoriqueS (TEMPS), Nanterre, France.
| | - José-Miguel Tejero
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
- Human Evolution and Archeological Sciences (HEAS), University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
- Seminari d'Estudis I Recerques Prehistoriques (SERP), University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Tal Simmons
- Department of Forensic Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
| | - Dana Shaham
- Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Aurélia Borvon
- CNRS, UAR 3132 Centre de Recherche français à Jérusalem (CRFJ), Jerusalem, Israel
- CNRS, UMR 7041 Archéologies Environnementales, Nanterre, France
- Laboratoire d'Anatomie Comparée, École Nationale Vétérinaire, Agroalimentaire et de l'Alimentation (ONIRIS), Nantes, France
| | - Olivier Tourny
- CNRS, UAR 3132 Centre de Recherche français à Jérusalem (CRFJ), Jerusalem, Israel
- CNRS, UMR 7307 Institut d'ethnologie mediterraneenne, europeenne et Comparative (IDEMEC), Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Anne Bridault
- CNRS, UAR 3132 Centre de Recherche français à Jérusalem (CRFJ), Jerusalem, Israel
- CNRS, UMR 7041 Archéologies Environnementales, Nanterre, France
| | - Rivka Rabinovich
- Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- Institute of Earth Sciences, National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Marion Sindel
- CNRS, UAR 3132 Centre de Recherche français à Jérusalem (CRFJ), Jerusalem, Israel
- Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Hamudi Khalaily
- CNRS, UAR 3132 Centre de Recherche français à Jérusalem (CRFJ), Jerusalem, Israel
- Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), Jerusalem, Israel
| | - François Valla
- CNRS, UAR 3132 Centre de Recherche français à Jérusalem (CRFJ), Jerusalem, Israel
- CNRS, UMR 8068 Technologie et Ethnologie des Mondes PréhistoriqueS (TEMPS), Nanterre, France
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Borvon A, Guintard C, Monchot H. A case of bone fracture with callus on the right femur of a chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus, L. 1758) from the ancient site of Dharih, Jordan. Int J Paleopathol 2018; 22:135-139. [PMID: 30096630 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpp.2018.07.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2017] [Revised: 05/03/2018] [Accepted: 07/18/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Archaeozoology provides bones, which quite regularly present traces of fractures. These fractures are more or less at an advanced level of healing and bear witness to traumas or pathologies. These cases of palaeopathology are not always the subject of publications, which further restricts our knowledge about them. This short note allows the scientific community to be aware of an original case from an archaeological context in Jordan of a fracture on a hen's femur, consolidated by a callus and with displacement of the distal ends. Beyond the "anecdotal" aspect, and without imagining the circumstances in which the fracture occurred, the animal survived.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aurélia Borvon
- UMR 7041 Équipe Archéologie Environnementale, 21 allée de l'Université, 92000 Nanterre, France; Unité d'Anatomie Comparée, Département des Sciences Cliniques, École Nationale Vétérinaire, Agroalimentaire et de l'Alimentation, Nantes-Atlantique ONIRIS, route de Gachet, CS 40706, 44307 Nantes Cedex 03, France.
| | - Claude Guintard
- Unité d'Anatomie Comparée, Département des Sciences Cliniques, École Nationale Vétérinaire, Agroalimentaire et de l'Alimentation, Nantes-Atlantique ONIRIS, route de Gachet, CS 40706, 44307 Nantes Cedex 03, France; Groupe d'Études Remodelage osseux et bioMatériaux (GEROM), Université d'Angers, Unité INSERM 922, LHEA/IRIS-IBS, 4 rue Larrey, CHU d'Angers, Angers, France.
| | - Hervé Monchot
- Labex Resmed, UMR 8167 Orient & Méditerranée, Sorbonne Universités, 1 place Victor Cousin, 75005 Paris, France.
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