New Archeology Papers (Titles and Abstracts Only, Please)

[Kapisa]

Coastal-hinterland exchange during the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age across the northern Ḥajar mountains: the case of marine shells at Masāfī 5 (Emirate of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates).
Kevin Lidour, Maria Paola Pellegrino & Julien Charbonnier
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences volume 15, Article number: 29 (2023)

Abstract
Archaeological investigations conducted since 2006 at Masāfī (hinterlands of the Emirate of Fujairah, UAE) have led to the discovery of several architectural entities organised around the local palm grove and in use from the Bronze Age onwards. The whole complex constitutes an important site for understanding the regional protohistory in Eastern Arabia, in particular regarding the development of oasis agriculture as well as copper mining and metallurgy. The site of Masāfī 5 has revealed the presence of an ancient settlement organised on a series of terraces which have been occupied during the Late Bronze Age (1600–1300 BCE) and at the beginning of the Iron Age (1300–300 BCE). Domestic and potential metallurgical activities at the site have been evidenced by the presence of fireplaces and furnaces that could have been used for copper smelting. The site economy is also documented by faunal remains, including those of domesticated mammals and a substantial amount of marine shells.

The results of the present study highlight that marine molluscs were not only exploited as seafood at Masāfī 5 but also for their shell, which was used both as tools and raw material for the production of adornments, including polished plaques of mother-of-pearl and Conus rings. Use-wear analyses have shown the use of shell tools for processing vegetal fibres—we suggested that date palm fibres (i.e., leaflets and leaf sheath) were exploited and used. Coastal-hinterland exchange across the region during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age (3rd-1st millennia BCE) is discussed in light of the present results.

https://link.springer.com/article/10...20-023-01732-5

[Kapisa]

Pointing to the Ahmarian. Lithic Technology and the El-Wad Points of Al-Ansab 1

Jacopo Gennai, Marcel Schemmel & Jürgen Richter
Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology volume 6, Article number: 6 (2023)

Abstract
The Ahmarian is the earliest fully fledged Upper Palaeolithic Levantine industry, and its hallmark is the el-Wad point, assumed to be a projectile implement. The Ahmarian is a blade-bladelet volumetric industry; however, bladelet production has frequently been portrayed as undifferentiated or secondary to blade production. El-Wad points are blades or bladelets with a fine to steep lateral retouch, often further shaping the tip. The role of bladelets and blades, both in the retouched and unretouched assemblages, is highly debated in order to refine Early Upper Palaeolithic (EUP) taxonomical and technological issues. Here, we use data coming from our excavations at the southern Ahmarian site of Al-Ansab 1 to reconsider the role of bladelets and el-Wad points in the assemblage. We show that bladelet production was key, and blades were mostly used to shape the convexities to produce convergent bladelets. El-Wad point blanks mostly stemmed from an early stage of the reduction sequence, being conventionally classified as small blades or big bladelets. Modification of these blanks likely improved their suboptimal shape, while smaller bladelets were not modified. Our detailed review of the existing literature produced corresponding evidence regarding lithic technology, while the exact function of el-Wad points is still pending on complementary use-wear analyses. With our new data, we expect to provoke a reconsideration of the Ahmarian technological system. As bladelets attract more and more attention in EUP research, we propose that the southern Ahmarian had already fully completed the technological and cultural shift to the preferred use of small projectile inserts.
https://link.springer.com/article/10...82-022-00131-x

[pmokeefe]

Early presence of Homo sapiens by 86-68 kyrs in Southeast Asia at Tam Pà Ling cave, Northern Laos.
Sarah Freidline, Kira Westaway, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Philippe Duringer, and 27 more

This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal.
https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2410300/v1

Abstract
The timing of the first arrival of Homo sapiens in East Asia from Africa and the degree to which they interbred with or replaced local archaic populations is controversial. Previous discoveries from Tam Pà Ling cave (Laos) identified H. sapiens in Southeast Asia by 46 kyr. We report on a new frontal bone (TPL 6) and slightly older tibial fragment (TPL 7) discovered in the deepest layers of TPL. Bayesian modeling of luminescence dating of sediments and U-series and combined U-series-ESR dating of mammalian teeth reveals a depositional sequence spanning ~ 86 kyr. TPL 6 confirms the presence of H. sapiens by 70 ± 3 kyr, and TPL 7 extends this range to 77 ± 9 kyr, supporting an early dispersal of H. sapiens into Southeast Asia. Geometric morphometric analyses of TPL 6 suggest descent from a gracile immigrant population rather than evolution from or admixture with local archaic populations.

[ronin92]

Wild macaques challenge the origin of intentional tool production

Wild macaques challenge the origin of intentional tool production

Abstract
Intentionally produced sharp-edged stone flakes and flaked pieces are our primary evidence for the emergence of technology in our lineage. This evidence is used to decipher the earliest hominin behavior, cognition, and subsistence strategies. Here, we report on the largest lithic assemblage associated with a primate foraging behavior undertaken by long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis). This behavior results in a landscape-wide record of flaked stone material, almost indistinguishable from early hominin flaked pieces and flakes. It is now clear that the production of unintentional conchoidal sharp-edged flakes can result from tool-assisted foraging in nonhominin primates. Comparisons with Plio-Pleistocene lithic assemblages, dating from 3.3 to 1.56 million years ago, show that flakes produced by macaques fall within the technological range of artifacts made by early hominins. In the absence of behavioral observations, the assemblage produced by monkeys would likely be identified as anthropogenic in origin and interpreted as evidence of intentional tool production.

[JMcB]

Magical practices? A non-normative Roman imperial cremation at Sagalassos
Johan Claeys, Katrien Van de Vijver, Elena Marinova


Abstract:

Many thousands of burials have been excavated from across the Roman world, documenting a variety of funerary practices and rites. Individual burials, however, sometimes stand out for their atypical characteristics. The authors report the discovery of a cremation burial from ancient Sagalassos that differs from contemporaneous funerary deposits. In this specific context, the cremated human remains were not retrieved but buried in situ, surrounded by a scattering of intentionally bent nails, and carefully sealed beneath a raft of tiles and a layer of lime. For each of these practices, textual and archaeological parallels can be found elsewhere in the ancient Mediterranean world, collectively suggesting that magical beliefs were at work.


Introduction:

Occasionally, the archaeological record allows us a glimpse beyond the mere material and into the mindset of people in the past. A cremation burial from the eastern necropolis of Sagalassos, south-west Turkey, provides one such opportunity, documenting funerary practices that clearly deviate from other contemporaneous burials at the site. Such irregular practices strongly suggest that a non-normative approach was taken to the burial of this particular individual, inviting us to seek an explanation based in ‘unsanctioned’ (Phillips Reference Phillips III, Faraone and Obbink1991: 262) or unconventional liturgy. Specifically, we look to a set of beliefs that the former inhabitants of Sagalassos would probably have labelled ‘magic’. But what purpose did magic fulfil in ancient communities in general, and in this case in particular? In this article, we seek to address these questions by deconstructing the unique characteristics of this particular burial and contextualising it within current research on non-normative burials and the materiality of ancient magical practices.


https://www.cambridge.org/core/journ...CACE733F758D1E

[pmokeefe]

Archaeoastronomy and the alleged ‘Stonehenge calendar’ | Antiquity | Cambridge Core
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2023
Giulio Magli and Juan Antonio Belmonte

Abstract
In a recent Antiquity article, Darvill (2022) proposed that the mid third-millennium BC Stage 2 sarsen settings of Stonehenge (comprising the Trilithon Horseshoe, Sarsen Circle and the Station Stone Rectangle) were conceived in order to represent a calendar year of 365.25 days—that is, a calendar identical in duration to the Julian calendar. In the present article, the authors argue that this proposal is unsubstantiated, being based as it is on a combination of numerology, astronomical error and unsupported analogy.

[razyn]

Anttiroiko et al, Detecting the Archaeological Traces of Tar Production Kilns in the Northern Boreal Forests Based on Airborne Laser Scanning and Deep Learning

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/7/1799

Abstract
This paper presents the development and application of a deep learning-based approach for semi-automated detection of tar production kilns using new Finnish high-density Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data in the boreal taiga forest zone. The historical significance of tar production, an important livelihood for centuries, has had extensive environmental and ecological impacts, particularly in the thinly inhabited northern and eastern parts of Finland. Despite being one of the most widespread archaeological features in the country, tar kilns have received relatively little attention until recently. The authors employed a Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) U-Net-based algorithm to detect these features from the ALS data, which proved to be more accurate, faster, and capable of covering systematically larger spatial areas than human actors. It also produces more consistent, replicable, and ethically sustainable results. This semi-automated approach enabled the efficient location of a vast number of previously unknown archaeological features, significantly increasing the number of tar kilns in each study area compared to the previous situation. This has implications also for the cultural resource management in Finland. The authors’ findings have influenced the preparation of the renewal of the Finnish Antiquities Act, raising concerns about the perceived impacts on cultural heritage management and land use sectors due to the projected tenfold increase in archaeological site detection using deep learning algorithms. The use of environmental remote sensing data may provide a means of examining the long-term cultural and ecological impacts of tar production in greater detail. Our pilot studies suggest that artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques have the potential to revolutionize archaeological research and cultural resource management in Finland, offering promising avenues for future exploration.

[Kapisa]

David Anthony: The origin of Indo-Europeans
4,893 views Oct 23, 2022
https://razib.substack.com

This is where you will find all the podcasts from Razib Khan's Substack, https://razib.substack.com, and original video content.

David Anthony is an emeritus professor of Hartwick College and now a collaborator with David Reich at Harvard. Over the past four decades, Anthony has been involved in exploring the origin and rise of Indo-Europeans from the perspective of archaeology, most especially in his magisterial 2007 book The Horse, The Wheel, and Language.

In the 2010’s he began collaborating with geneticists. He provided many of the Yamnaya samples for 2015’s Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe. This paper vindicated Anthony’s argument that the Yamnaya spread westward into Europe in the early Bronze Age. But even he was shocked by the enormous genetic impact of these people.

We talked about the past few generations in archaeology and its attitude toward migration, as well as possible future directions, including the domestication of the horse. Anthony also mentions the intriguing working title for his next book: The Dogs of War.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtcjMS2AvKA

Thomas Olander: The Origin and Spread of Indo-European Languages

2,245 views Oct 23, 2022
45% of humans speak an Indo-European language. English is Indo-European. Hindi is Indo-European. The language of the ancient Hittites was Indo-European. This is one reason the origin and expansion of this language family is so interesting to so many.

Thomas Olander is an associate professor of Indo-European studies in Denmark. He has a deep interest in the question of when and where the Proto-Indo-European speakers flourished. In the podcast we talk about different hypotheses in terms of the “homeland problem” (Pontic steppe vs. Anatolia), the issues historical linguists have with Bayesian phylogenetics, and the impact of ancient DNA in clarifying long-stand disputes. I also push Thomas on what we do, and don’t, know, at least from his view as a historical linguist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO3nfUhCXFc

James P. Mallory: Finding the Indo-Europeans

3,215 views Oct 23, 2022
https://razib.substack.com

This is where you will find all the podcasts from Razib Khan's Substack, https://razib.substack.com, and original video content.

James P. Mallory received in Ph.D. in Indo-European studies from UCLA in 1975 under the supervision of Marija Gimbutas. He is the author of In Search of Indo-Europeans, The Origins of the Irish, and The Tarim Mummies, and an emeritus professor at Queen’s University Belfast.

Mallory devoted much of his career to understanding the origins of the Indo-Europeans. Over the first 30 minutes of he gives a magisterial overview of the question, the field, and where we are now. Mallory begins in the 18th century, proceeds through the 19th and 20th centuries, before finally arriving in 2015 when he was asked to review Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe by Nature.

The arrival of ancient DNA transformed the whole field within just a few years, vindicating some of Mallory’s conjectures and commitments, but leaving others even more clouded. We discuss whether the Hittites and Tocharians remain “mysterious,” and how surprising it was that the Corded Ware were basically Yamnaya despite striking differences in their material culture.

Mallory also discusses the nature of data analysis in a field like archaeology, where material culture can transform overnight, and richness (the last Neolithic societies of Europe) can give way to the poverty of remains (the Corded Ware). It turns out most of what we know about the Yamnaya and Corded Ware are from their burials because that’s all they left.

It’s a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c2i0LICJHg

[pmokeefe]

A new chronological framework for Chuandong Cave and its implications for the appearance of modern humans in southern China

Yanan Wang, Xinglong Zhang, Xuefeng Sun, Shuangwen Yi, Kai Min, Dengke Liu, Wenxuan Yan, Huiyang Cai, Xinjin Wang, Darren Curnoe, Huayu Lu
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103344
Abstract
Chuandong Cave is an important Late Paleolithic site because it documents the early appearance of bone tools in southern China. We used the single-aliquot regenerative-dose protocol for optically stimulated luminescence dating to improve the precision of the chronology for the Chuandong Cave sedimentary sequence. The age of each layer was determined using a Bayesian modeling approach which combined optically stimulated luminescence ages with published AMS 14C dates. The results showed that Layer 10 began accumulating since 56 ± 14 ka and provides the upper age limit for all artifacts from the sequence. Bone awl tools from Layer 8, the earliest grinding bone tools in this site, were recovered within sediments between 40 ± 7 ka and 30 ± 4 ka. Layer 8 also indicates the appearance of modern humans in the Chuandong Cave sequence. Layers 4–2, ranging from 15 ± 3 ka until 11 ± 1 ka and including the Younger Dryas period, contain a few bone awls and an eyed bone needle. The shift from bone awls to eyed bone needles in the Chuandong Cave sequence indicates that modern humans adapted to the changing climate of southern China. We conclude that modern human behavior in bone tools appeared in southern China as early as 40 ± 7 ka, became more sophisticated during the Last Glacial Maximum, and spread more widely across southern China during the Younger Dryas

[pmokeefe]

Ivory from early Anglo-Saxon burials in Lincolnshire – A biomolecular study
Katie A. Hemer, Hugh Willmott, Jane E. Evans, Michael Buckley
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.103943
Highlights
• Ivory used for bag rings was imported to England between the 5th and 7th centuries AD.
• Biomolecular analysis of ivory excavated from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Lincolnshire.
• Radiocarbon dating and ZooMS confirmed the ivory came from extant African elephants.
• 87Sr/86Sr suggests the elephants inhabited an area of volcanic geology in East Africa.

Abstract
Ivory bag rings have been found in more than 70 cemeteries across southern, central, and eastern England dating to between the late-5th and 7th centuries AD. These rings are most frequently found in richly furnished female graves, and would have served as the framework for bags that hung at the waist. Debate over the source of this ivory has prevailed since the 19th century, with walrus and mammoth ivory considered as possible contenders to elephantid ivory. Recent excavations at an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Scremby, Lincolnshire revealed a number of elaborate female burials containing such bag rings. Using radiocarbon dating this study aimed to establish whether the rings were contemporary with the burials before seeking to identify the species of ivory through Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS). Strontium analysis was also used to identify the place of residence of the elephantids at the time of tusk formation. Through a multi-methodological approach, we have established that the ivory used for the Scremby bag rings came from elephants living in an area of young volcanic rocks in Africa at some point during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. This preliminary evidence allows us to consider the networks and socio-economic factors that facilitated the distribution of ivory from Africa to the British Isles at this time.

Finery in an Anglo-Saxon grave came from African ivory
An ornament buried with an elite woman from the fifth or sixth century AD was probably made in an East African workshop.
--- news report about the paper in Nature