Precedents
Human footprints provide snapshot of last interglacial ecology in the Arabian interior
Mathew Stewart et al.
Science Advances, September 2020
Abstract:
The nature of human dispersals out of Africa has remained elusive because of the poor resolution of paleoecological data in direct association with remains of the earliest non-African people. Here, we report hominin and non-hominin mammalian tracks from an ancient lake deposit in the Arabian Peninsula, dated within the last interglacial. The findings, it is argued, likely represent the oldest securely dated evidence for Homo sapiens in Arabia. The paleoecological evidence indicates a well-watered semi-arid grassland setting during human movements into the Nefud Desert of Saudi Arabia. We conclude that visitation to the lake was transient, likely serving as a place to drink and to forage, and that late Pleistocene human and mammalian migrations and landscape use patterns in Arabia were inexorably linked.
Stressful times for women - Increased physiological stress in Neolithic females detected in tooth cementum
Kristina Penezić et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We used the tooth cementum annulation method (TCA) to investigate physiological stress before and during the Neolithic demographic transition in Europe. Episodes of physiological stress are reflected as “stress layers” in the tooth cementum at an almost annual resolution. We used the TCA method to detect and count the number of the stress events for a sample of 21 Mesolithic and 25 Neolithic individuals from the Central Balkans from the period between 9500 and 5400 years BC. In accord with the theory of the Neolithic demographic transition, we hypothesize that the Neolithic individuals will have more stress than the Mesolithic individuals. Our results suggest that the Neolithic females had significantly more stress layers in the tooth cementum per year of life than the Mesolithic females. The difference between Mesolithic and Neolithic males was not statistically significant. We conclude that Neolithic women had more physiological stress episodes than Mesolithic women. The differential pattern between sexes, combined with the fact that pregnancies are one of the major causes of stress layer formation in tooth cementum, might indicate that the observed differences are mostly due to increased fertility in the Neolithic.
The evolutionary history of Neanderthal and Denisovan Y chromosomes
Martin Petr et al.
Science, 25 September 2020, Pages 1653-1656
Abstract:
Ancient DNA has provided new insights into many aspects of human history. However, we lack comprehensive studies of the Y chromosomes of Denisovans and Neanderthals because the majority of specimens that have been sequenced to sufficient coverage are female. Sequencing Y chromosomes from two Denisovans and three Neanderthals shows that the Y chromosomes of Denisovans split around 700 thousand years ago from a lineage shared by Neanderthals and modern human Y chromosomes, which diverged from each other around 370 thousand years ago. The phylogenetic relationships of archaic and modern human Y chromosomes differ from the population relationships inferred from the autosomal genomes and mirror mitochondrial DNA phylogenies, indicating replacement of both the mitochondrial and Y chromosomal gene pools in late Neanderthals. This replacement is plausible if the low effective population size of Neanderthals resulted in an increased genetic load in Neanderthals relative to modern humans.
Micro-slag and “invisible” copper processing activities at a Middle-Shang period (14th-13th century BC) bronze casting workshop
Siran Liu et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Micro-slag artefacts from ancient bronze casting workshops were largely ignored in previous research despite their rich information potential. Current research demonstrates they could significantly enhance our understanding about past metallurgical activities but their identification requires careful in-situ analysis and a well-designed sampling strategy. Here we present an innovative methodology combining in-situ geochemical survey, wet-sieving of soil samples and detailed microscopic study, employed to investigate an important Middle-Shang site, Taijiasi, in the Huaihe River valley. The micro-slags from this site revealed that in addition to bronze alloying and casting, raw copper refining was also practiced. Material evidence for the refining process was not immediately visible in the archaeological excavation since most slag was mechanically crushed to retrieve any copper trapped in them, leaving only micro-slag fragments typically smaller than 3000 μm (3 mm). The fact that most micro-slag was recovered from one sector (H234) of a small building (F16) located on the same platform as the elites’ long houses suggests that mechanical processing of refining slag was conducted in a confined area and closely supervised. It might reflect people of this site valuing copper as a highly precious material and making all effort to recover copper otherwise lost in slag. This find will potentially shed new light on a range of important issues of Shang archaeology, including the regional variation of Shang metallurgical styles and the provenance of copper in the Shang period. This research also encourages researchers to look into archaeological soil samples with abnormally high copper content and understand the particles in them causing these high readings.
The agroecology of an early state: New results from Hattusha
Charlotte Diffey et al.
Antiquity, forthcoming
Abstract:
The discovery of a large underground silo complex with spectacular intact grain stores at the Late Bronze Age Hittite capital of Hattusha in Turkey provides a unique snapshot of the mobilisation of crop production by the Hittite state. A combination of primary archaeobotanical analysis, crop stable isotope determinations and functional weed ecology reveals new insights into Hittite cultivation strategies, featuring a range of relatively low-input, extensive production regimes for hulled wheats and hulled barley. Taxation of extensively produced grain in the sixteenth century BC reveals how an ancient state sought to sustain itself, providing wider implications for the politics and ecology of territorially expansive states in Western Asia and beyond.
Maritime Paleoindian technology, subsistence, and ecology at an ~11,700 year old Paleocoastal site on California’s Northern Channel Islands, USA
Jon Erlandson et al.
PLoS ONE, September 2020
Abstract:
During the last 10 years, we have learned a great deal about the potential for a coastal peopling of the Americas and the importance of marine resources in early economies. Despite research at a growing number of terminal Pleistocene archaeological sites on the Pacific Coast of the Americas, however, important questions remain about the lifeways of early Paleocoastal peoples. Research at CA-SRI-26, a roughly 11,700 year old site on California’s Santa Rosa Island, provides new data on Paleoindian technologies, subsistence strategies, and seasonality in an insular maritime setting. Buried beneath approximately two meters of alluvium, much of the site has been lost to erosion, but its remnants have produced chipped stone artifacts (crescents and Channel Island Amol and Channel Island Barbed points) diagnostic of early island Paleocoastal components. The bones of waterfowl and seabirds, fish, and marine mammals, along with small amounts of shellfish document a diverse subsistence strategy. These data support a relatively brief occupation during the wetter “winter” season (late fall to early spring), in an upland location several km from the open coast. When placed in the context of other Paleocoastal sites on the Channel Islands, CA-SRI-26 demonstrates diverse maritime subsistence strategies and a mix of seasonal and more sustained year-round island occupations. Our results add to knowledge about a distinctive island Paleocoastal culture that appears to be related to Western Stemmed Tradition sites widely scattered across western North America.
Chromium crucible steel was first made in Persia
Rahil Alipour, Thilo Rehren & Marcos Martinón-Torres
Journal of Archaeological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
For more than a century, evidence for the production of crucible steel in Central and Southern Asia, prior to the European Industrial Revolution, has fascinated and challenged material scientists, historians and archaeologists. At the same time, chromium-alloyed stainless steel was developed in the early 20th century, building upon 19th century experiments with low chromium steel. Here we demonstrate new evidence of the intentional addition of chromium to steel nearly a millennium earlier, as part of the Persian crucible steel (pulad) tradition including the production of low-chromium crucible steel in early 2nd millennium CE Persia. We analysed archaeological finds from the 11th c. CE site of Chahak in Iran showing the intentional and regular addition of chromium mineral to the crucible charge, resulting in steel containing around 1 wt% chromium. A contemporaneous crucible steel flint striker held in the Tanavoli Collection is reported to also contain chromium, suggesting its origin from Chahak. We argue that the mysterious compound ‘rusakhtaj’ from Biruni's (10th – 11th c. CE) recipe for crucible steel making refers to the mineral chromite. Additional historical sources up to the mid-2nd millennium CE refer to crucible steel from Chahak as being particularly brittle, consistent with its increased phosphorus content.