Raw Materials
Taphonomy of the Kraków Spadzista (Late Gravettian) mammoth killing and butchering site
Piotr Wojtal et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, November 2025
Abstract:
Kraków Spadzista (Poland) is an important Late Gravettian site that is unusual because of its direct evidence of mammoth hunting, its enormous amount of mammoth remains, and its separate zones of different human activities. Excavations have been conducted at the site from 1968 until the present day. Nearly 400 sq. m. of the site have been studied. Earlier analysis of the archaeological and osteological materials revealed that three distinct activity zones are present as parts of a single large site. These include a camp area where domestic activities were conducted, a workshop and animal processing area, and a large accumulation of mammoth remains. This article presents the results of zooarchaeological and taphonomic studies of all osteological material from all trenches excavated between 1968 and 2017. During the course of the fieldwork a total of ∼119,000 mammal remains were discovered, belonging to 16 species (including rodents and other mammals). Some osteological materials were studied for the first time and other materials were subjected to a second round of examination and analysis. The abundant remains of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) (MNI = 113) and Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) (MNI = 35) represent a significant majority of the total faunal remains. It is inferred that the mammoths were killed very near or within the area of accumulated bones and teeth, where they were dismembered and butchered. The hunters did not adhere to a strict age-based selection of mammoths for killing and may have opportunistically selected mammoths of varying ages as prey, along with a few individuals of other taxa. Mammoth ribs with embedded lithic fragments presumed to be from weapon points are direct evidence of killing rather than scavenging. The meat-removal and dismembering of carcasses of just killed animals is evidenced by cut marks on various mammoth bones and cut marks on a reindeer tibia. The presence of burned bones suggests the utilisation of mammoth long limb bones as fuel in hearths or cooking fires. Gravettian people did not remain at the site year-round and temporarily left after several weeks or months. After they had departed, the site was visited by animals attracted to scavengeable remains during the spring and summer. Although the mammoth bones likely had been stripped of most meat by Gravettian butchers, carnivores gnawed on remnant soft tissue and the nearly fresh bones. Additionally, the site was utilised by raptors, probably nesting Snowy owls which regurgitated pellets or casts containing remains of rodent prey, which became incorporated into the site sediments.
First evidence of hippopotamus ivory exchange networks in north-eastern Iberian Peninsula: The object of Bòbila Madurell (Barcelona, Spain)
José Miguel Morillo León et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, November 2025
Abstract:
This study examines a Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic ivory object (Véraza facies) found at the Bòbila Madurell settlement (Sant Quirze del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain). The main objective was to date the object and determine the provenance of the raw material. The radiocarbon analysis places it in the second quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. FTIR analysis identified it as hippopotamus ivory, marking the first and currently the oldest discovery in north-eastern Iberia. While most Iberian ivory is attributed to Asian or African proboscideans, hippopotamus ivory is known in southern Iberia during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, reflecting emerging trade networks from the Near East and Africa. Though the object is fractured, the archaeological context, together with morphological and residue analyses, suggests a possible use in textile work.
The earliest evidence of blue pigment use in Europe
Izzy Wisher et al.
Antiquity, forthcoming
Abstract:
Blue pigments are absent in Palaeolithic art. This has been ascribed to a lack of naturally occurring blue pigments or low visual salience of these hues. Using a suite of archaeometric approaches, the authors identify traces of azurite on a concave stone artefact from the Final Palaeolithic site of Mühlheim-Dietesheim, Germany. This represents the earliest use of blue pigment in Europe. The scarcity of blue in Palaeolithic art, along with later prehistoric uses of azurite, may indicate that azurite was used for archaeologically invisible activities (e.g. body decoration) implying intentional selectivity over the pigments used for different Palaeolithic artistic activities.
Prehistoric water control works in the Loess Plateau: An ancient ditch system at Shuanghuaishu, China
Peng Lu et al.
Antiquity, forthcoming
Abstract:
The emergence, on the Loess Plateau of Central China, of settlements enclosed by circular ditches has engendered lively debate about the function of these (often extensive) ditch systems. Here, the authors report on a suite of new dates and sedimentological analyses from the late Yangshao (5300–4800 BP) triple-ditch system at the Shuanghuaishu site, Henan Province. Exploitation of natural topographic variations, and evidence for ditch maintenance and varied water flows, suggests a key function in hydrological management, while temporal overlap in the use of these three ditches reveals the large scale of this endeavour to adapt to the pressures of the natural environment.
Revising the chronology of the Darband Wall in Central Asia
Ladislav Stančo et al.
Antiquity, forthcoming
Abstract:
The Darband Wall in southern Uzbekistan marks an important political border in the Classical world, yet the dating of its construction is largely relative and contested. Presenting 10 new radiocarbon dates from the wall, the authors argue that construction began in the early or middle third century BC, likely under Seleucid or early Greco-Bactrian rule, while later reconstruction efforts coincide with Kushan expansion around the first and second centuries AD. Early Hellenistic-style fortifications reveal a defensive, and possibly an orientational, shift during Kushan rule that underscores both the strategic significance of the wall and the need for more extensive investigation.