Ceramics and Society in Northern Europe

Neolithic pottery in Britain and Ireland was produced from shortly after 4000 BC. There are regional variations but overall a four phase chronology for the pottery is also suggested: First Neolithic, approximately 4000–3800 BC; Early Neolithic, approximately 3800–3500 BC; Middle Neolithic, approximately 3500–2900 BC; and Late Neolithic, approximately 2900–2400 BC. Within this framework evidence for the processes of pottery production and use are studied to define a number of different traditions and practices. The external form of vessels seems to be strongly codified in the early part of the period, although there was a range of different inclusion recipes used. In the Middle and Later Neolithic there seem to be much simpler fabrics but a greater range of vessel shapes. This later pottery also seems to have been used for a much wider range of tasks

Diet uniformity at an early farming community in northwest Anatolia (Turkey) : carbon and nitrogen isotope studies of bone collagen at Aktopraklik

Aktopraklık is a settlement site composed of three areas (A–C) in the Marmara region of northwest Anatolia, with phases of occupation that date to the Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic periods, mid-seventh to mid-sixth millennium bc (ca. 6400–5600 cal. bc). Here, we present 54 human and fauna bone collagen stable isotope results from the site, alongside five modern fish bone collagen isotope results, to examine the nature of human diet. The stable isotope analysis shows that human diet comprised the consumption of select C3 terrestrial resources, with a preference for domestic animal proteins over plant proteins. The evidence to date suggests that animal husbandry was at the forefront of Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic subsistence practices. No isotopic difference in humans is observed between biological sex or between areas B and C at the settlement

Human Dental Microwear From Ohalo II (22,500–23,500 cal BP), Southern Levant

Dietary hardness and abrasiveness are inferred from human dental microwear at Ohalo II, a late Upper Palaeolithic site (22,500–23,500 cal BP) in the southern Levant. Casts of molar grinding facets from two human skeletons were examined with a scanning electron microscope. The size and frequency of microwear was measured, counted, and compared to four prehistoric human groups from successive chronological periods in the same region: pre-pottery Neolithic A, Chalcolithic (this study); Natufian, pre-pottery Neolithic B (Mahoney: Am J Phys Anthropol 130 (2006) 308–319). The Ohalo molars had a high frequency of long narrow scratches, and a few small pits, suggesting a tough abrasive diet that required more shearing rather than compressive force while chewing. These results imply that the diet of the two late Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers did not focus on very hard foods. Aquatic foods with adherent contaminants, as well as grit from plant grinding tools seemed likely causal agents. The size of the pits and scratches on the Ohalo molars were most similar to microwear from the pre-pot- tery Neolithic A period, though they also compared well to the Chalcolithic period. These results contrasted with the larger pits and scratches from the Natufian hunter-gath- erers and pre-pottery Neolithic B farmers, implying that there is no simple increase or decrease in dietary hard- ness and abrasiveness across the late Upper Palaeolithic to Chalcolithic development in the Southern Levant

Fire and memory: transforming place using fire at henge monuments

Henges — Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age earthwork monuments — often have long life-histories of reuse and rebuilding over generations. At some sites, fire-lighting and the deposition of fire-altered materials played a significant role in certain phases of the use of the henge. This article reviews the evidence for fire in the life-histories of four henges in Scotland, and interprets the various ways in which fire was employed at different times and at different sites. It argues that fire had a transformational effect, not only upon monuments and materials, but it also characterized and transformed people’s experiences and memories of particular sites, thus creating links between monumental sites and quotidian experience during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Scotland

Insights on the changing dynamics of cemetery use in the neolithic and chalcolithic of southern Portugal. Radiocarbon dating of Lugar do Canto Cave (Santarém)

Lugar do Canto Cave is one of the most relevant Neolithic burial caves in Portugal given not only its extraordinary preservation conditions at the time of discovery but also the quality of the field record obtained during excavation. Its material culture immediately pointed to a Middle Neolithic cemetery but recent radiocarbon determinations also allowed the recognition of an apparent two step phasing of its use within the period (ca. 4000-3400 cal BC): an older one characterized by a single burial and a later reoccupation as a collective necropolis. Comparisons with other well-dated cave cemeteries in Southern Portugal permitted the recognition of changing funerary practices and strategies of cemetery use during the later stages of the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic: 1) ca. 3800 cal BC as the possible turning point from the practice of individual to collective burials; 2) alternating periods of intensive use and deliberate abandonment of cemeteries (evidenced by their intentional closure). Research avenues to investigate the social organization and ideological context underlying these aspects of the Neolithic communities in greater depth are tentatively pointed out in this paper.FEDER funds through the Programa Operacional Factores de Competividade (COMPETE

Domesticating Mathematics: Taxonomic Diversity in Archaeozoological Assemblages

Understanding taxonomic richness is indispensable in studying the choices made in the exploitation of the local fauna such as those of the broad-spectrum revolution in the Near East. Such investigations, however, sometimes disregard the stochastic nature of human decision-making, while others present complex mathematical models. The basic nature of samples is rarely discussed. The fundamental thesis of our study is that assemblages of different sizes can be compared only exercising extreme caution. When species richness is studied as a function of assemblage size, the remains of birds, large and “micro-” mammals show strongly differing statistics. Diversity increases along with the number of identifiable bones in the case of birds, while the same trend is most protracted in the case of large mammals. This means that taxonomic diversity in animal bone assemblages is a function of not only assemblage size but also of taxonomic composition. The structure of “input” data is thus qualitatively dependent on assemblage size. The underlying factors influencing the archaeological representation of the fauna, including sampling, anatomical and taphonomic traits of the three types of vertebrates are discussed by animal groups. Taxonomically different animal remains should not be included within the same faunal list as their culture historical interpretations (animal keeping, hunting, random natural deposition) also differ. These phenomena must all be considered when a reliable interpretation of animal remains is attempted in various archaeological periods. A régészeti állatcsont-anyagok fajgazdagságának megértése nélkülözhetetlen olyan kérdések kutatásában, mint pl. a közel-keleti őskori közösségek által fogyasztott állatfajok rendszertani spektrumának szélessége, választékának kihasználása. Az ilyen vizsgálatok során sokan figyelmen kívül hagyják az emberi döntések sztochasztikus természetét, míg mások bonyolult matematikai modellekkel igyekeznek leírni azt. A minták alapvető természetére kevesen fordítanak figyelmet. Vizsgálataink alaptétele, hogy a különböző nagyságú minták csak rendkívüli körültekintéssel hasonlíthatók össze. Amikor a meghatározott fajok számát a mintanagyságok függvényében vizsgáljuk, a madarak, a nagytestű emlősállatok és a „mikrofauna” emlős fajai más-más értékeket mutatnak. A fajgazdagság nem lineárisan követi a csontok darabszámának alakulását: ahhoz viszonyítva a madarak esetében növekszik a legintenzívebben, leginkább pedig a nagytestű emlősök csoportjában marad el a mintanagyság gyarapodásától. Eszerint az egyes leletegyüttesek állattani változatossága nemcsak a mintanagyságtól, hanem a taxonómiai összetételtől is függ. Ez azt mutatja, hogy a régészeti értelmezésben már a „bejövő” alapadatok összetétele is minőségileg függ a mintanagyságtól. A tanulmányban körvonalazzuk a háttérben meghúzódó okokat, a három vizsgált gerinces állatcsoport reprezentáltságát meghatározó mintavételi, tafonómiai és anatómiai különbségeket. E maradványok értelmezése nem mosható egybe egyetlen „faunalistában”, hiszen kultúrtörténeti jelentésük (állattartás/vadászat, madarászat és véletlenszerű, természetes lerakódás) is változó. Mindez nem mellőzhető az állatok különböző régészeti korszakokban játszott szerepének hitelességre törekvő értékelésekor

Massive migration from the steppe is a source for Indo-European languages in Europe

We generated genome-wide data from 69 Europeans who lived between 8,000-3,000 years ago by enriching ancient DNA libraries for a target set of almost four hundred thousand polymorphisms. Enrichment of these positions decreases the sequencing required for genome-wide ancient DNA analysis by a median of around 250-fold, allowing us to study an order of magnitude more individuals than previous studies and to obtain new insights about the past. We show that the populations of western and far eastern Europe followed opposite trajectories between 8,000-5,000 years ago. At the beginning of the Neolithic period in Europe, ~8,000-7,000 years ago, closely related groups of early farmers appeared in Germany, Hungary, and Spain, different from indigenous hunter-gatherers, whereas Russia was inhabited by a distinctive population of hunter-gatherers with high affinity to a ~24,000 year old Siberian6 . By ~6,000-5,000 years ago, a resurgence of hunter-gatherer ancestry had occurred throughout much of Europe, but in Russia, the Yamnaya steppe herders of this time were descended not only from the preceding eastern European hunter-gatherers, but from a population of Near Eastern ancestry. Western and Eastern Europe came into contact ~4,500 years ago, as the Late Neolithic Corded Ware people from Germany traced ~3/4 of their ancestry to the Yamnaya, documenting a massive migration into the heartland of Europe from its eastern periphery. This steppe ancestry persisted in all sampled central Europeans until at least ~3,000 years ago, and is ubiquitous in present-day Europeans. These results provide support for the theory of a steppe origin of at least some of the Indo-European languages of Europe