Old World
Isotopes prove advanced, integral crop production, and stockbreeding strategies nourished Trypillia mega-populations
Frank Schlütz et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 26 December 2023
Abstract:
After 500 y of colonizing the forest-steppe area northwest of the Black Sea, on the territories of what is today Moldova and Ukraine, Trypillia societies founded large, aggregated settlements from ca. 4150 BCE and mega-sites (>100 ha) from ca. 3950 BCE. Covering up to 320 ha and housing up to 15,000 inhabitants, the latter were the world’s largest settlements to date. Some 480 δ13C and δ15N measurements on bones of humans, animals, and charred crops allow the detection of spatio-temporal patterns and the calculation of complete agricultural Bayesian food webs for Trypillia societies. The isotope data come from settlements of the entire Trypillia area between the Prut and the Dnieper rivers. The datasets cover the development of the Trypillia societies from the early phase (4800–4200/4100 BCE), over the agglomeration of mega-sites (4200/4100–3650 BCE), to the dispersal phase (3650–3000 BCE). High δ15N values mostly come from the mega-sites. Our analyses show that the subsistence of Trypillia mega-sites depended on pulses cultivated on strongly manured (dung-)soils and on cattle that were kept fenced on intensive pastures to easy collect the manure for pulse cultivation. The food web models indicate a low proportion of meat in human diet (approximately 10%). The largely crop-based diet, consisting of cereals plus up to 46% pulses, was balanced in calories and indispensable amino acids. The flourishing of Europe’s first mega-populations depended on an advanced, integral mega-economy that included sophisticated dung management. Their demise was therefore not economically, but socially, conditioned.
A historical evaluation of the disease avoidance theory of xenophobia
Ceyhun Sunsay
PLoS ONE, December 2023
Abstract:
Historical psychology is emerging as a multidisciplinary field for studying psychological phenomena in a historical context. Historical records can also serve as testbeds for psychological theories, particularly the evolutionary ones. In Study 1 we aimed to gather evidence to evaluate the disease avoidance theory of xenophobia by analyzing the narratives of European explorers from the 15th and 16th centuries. Contrary to the theory’s expectations, the narratives revealed numerous instances of close physical contact between the explorers and the native populations. Furthermore, rather than using disgust-laden words, the explorers portrayed the natives in a positive light. In Study 2, we employed a word embedding algorithm to explore whether native group names and their unfamiliar appearance were associated with disgust-laden words in the 19th century travel literature. The results indicated that while native group names showed such associations, their appearance did not. Finally, through network analysis, we demonstrated that embedded words such as “savages” mediated the perception of native groups as potential disease-threat. The findings highlight the significance of cultural factors that evolve over time, rather than cognitive adaptations believed to have evolved prior to the emergence of human culture, in explaining xenophobia.
Copper-alloy belt fittings and elite networking in Early Medieval Central Europe
Jiří Macháček et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science, January 2024
Abstract:
This paper attempts to change the traditional view of the Late Avar belt fittings, which in the 8th century AD delineated an extremely dense communication network within the Carpathian Basin and beyond, by using a groundbreaking combination of iconography, energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), lead isotope analysis, digital morphometry and 3D comparative prototyping. It presents a complex analysis of bronze belt ends decorated with an exceptional scene of a snake eating a frog-like creature, discovered in the last decade in Czech Republic, Hungary and Germany. According to the iconography, this motif represents an important cosmogonic and fertility myth, known to various early medieval populations living in Central Europe. Some of these belt ends come from the same workshop and/or are derived from a common model, even though they were found in very distant regions. The study also focuses on the provenance of the raw material used in the production of Avar-style belt fittings in general. For the first time, it was possible to locate the Early Medieval source of copper in the Slovak Ore Mountains, using lead isotope analysis.
Exploring geomagnetic variations in ancient Mesopotamia: Archaeomagnetic study of inscribed bricks from the 3rd–1st millennia BCE
Matthew Howland et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 26 December 2023
Abstract:
This study presents 32 high-resolution geomagnetic intensity data points from Mesopotamia, spanning the 3rd to the 1st millennia BCE. These data contribute to rectifying geographic disparities in the resolution of the global archaeointensity curve that have hampered our understanding of geomagnetic field dynamics and the viability of applying archaeomagnetism as a method of absolute dating of archaeological objects. A lack of precise and well-dated intensity data in the region has also limited our ability to identify short-term fluctuations in the geomagnetic field, such as the Levantine Iron Age geomagnetic Anomaly (LIAA), a period of high field intensity from ca. 1050 to 550 BCE. This phenomenon has hitherto not been well-demonstrated in Mesopotamia, contrary to predictions from regional geomagnetic models. To address these issues, this study presents precise archaeomagnetic results from 32 inscribed baked bricks, tightly dated to the reigns of 12 Mesopotamian kings through interpretation of their inscriptions. Results confirm the presence of the high field values of the LIAA in Mesopotamia during the first millennium BCE and drastically increase the resolution of the archaeointensity curve for the 3rd–1st millennia BCE. This research establishes a baseline for the use of archaeomagnetic analysis as an absolute dating technique for archaeological materials from Mesopotamia.
Bullion mixtures in silver coinage from ancient Greece and Egypt
Francis Albarede et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science, February 2024
Abstract:
Was silver coinage minted from fresh metal newly extracted from the mine or was it from recycled silver deriving from older coins, silverware, or cult objects? The answer helps understand the provenance of coins and their circulation. Using Pb isotopes, the present work proposes a method to disentangle the sources of 368 silver-alloy coins from Athens, Corinth, Aegina, Thasos, Thrace, Macedonia, and Ptolemaic Egypt. We outline a new mixing model based on Principal Component Analysis and allowing for multiple steps of bullion recycling. The first component accounts for 94–99% (typically 97–99%) of the total variance, which indicates that the data form a well-defined alignment indicative of a nearly binary mixture between two source ores referred to as ‘end-members’. Isotopic evidence establishes the subordinate but pervasive practice of remelting. The strong skewness of the first principal component distribution shows that lead is dominated by the binary mixing of end-members. The geologically young end-member has high 206Pb/204Pb and is best exemplified by Laurion ore used in Athenian coinage. With the possible exception of Ptolemaic samples, the second end-member attests to the persistence of a low-206Pb/204Pb, geologically much older, end-member. In most cases, the distributions of a further two principal components are nearly symmetric and can be considered normal. If they represent ore sources, their very small contribution to the total variance qualifies them as ‘noise’ (caused by random isotopic fluctuations in the ores and analytical issues). We find that the Pb isotope ratios in the coinage issued by each minting authority are distributed as a power law. The slope of this distribution varies from one mint to another, with the steepest slopes (Corinth and Ptolemaic Egypt) indicating the predominance of freshly mined silver. The shallow slope of Macedonia demands a larger proportion of geologically old Pb. Silver supplied to the mint of Athens shifted from a mixture of high- and low-206Pb/204Pb in the late 6th c. BCE to a predominance of unmixed high-206Pb/204Pb ore from the mines of Laurion thereafter and fell back to a mixture with intermediate Pb isotope compositions in the second half of the 4th c. BCE. The limitation of the present study resides in the relatively small number of Pb isotope data for each mint, which, in most cases, prevents a statistically significant analysis of these data by periods. Nevertheless, the quasi-binary nature of most silver mixes stands out as a new and strong first-order, albeit somewhat counterintuitive, inference from the present data.