The RESET project: constructing a European tephra lattice for refined synchronisation of environmental and archaeological events during the last c. 100 ka

This paper introduces the aims and scope of the RESET project (. RESponse of humans to abrupt Environmental Transitions), a programme of research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) between 2008 and 2013; it also provides the context and rationale for papers included in a special volume of Quaternary Science Reviews that report some of the project's findings. RESET examined the chronological and correlation methods employed to establish causal links between the timing of abrupt environmental transitions (AETs) on the one hand, and of human dispersal and development on the other, with a focus on the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic periods. The period of interest is the Last Glacial cycle and the early Holocene (c. 100-8 ka), during which time a number of pronounced AETs occurred. A long-running topic of debate is the degree to which human history in Europe and the Mediterranean region during the Palaeolithic was shaped by these AETs, but this has proved difficult to assess because of poor dating control. In an attempt to move the science forward, RESET examined the potential that tephra isochrons, and in particular non-visible ash layers (cryptotephras), might offer for synchronising palaeo-records with a greater degree of finesse. New tephrostratigraphical data generated by the project augment previously-established tephra frameworks for the region, and underpin a more evolved tephra 'lattice' that links palaeo-records between Greenland, the European mainland, sub-marine sequences in the Mediterranean and North Africa. The paper also outlines the significance of other contributions to this special volume: collectively, these illustrate how the lattice was constructed, how it links with cognate tephra research in Europe and elsewhere, and how the evidence of tephra isochrons is beginning to challenge long-held views about the impacts of environmental change on humans during the Palaeolithic. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.RESET was funded through Consortium Grants awarded by the Natural Environment Research Council, UK, to a collaborating team drawn from four institutions: Royal Holloway University of London (grant reference NE/E015905/1), the Natural History Museum, London (NE/E015913/1), Oxford University (NE/E015670/1) and the University of Southampton, including the National Oceanography Centre (NE/01531X/1). The authors also wish to record their deep gratitude to four members of the scientific community who formed a consultative advisory panel during the lifetime of the RESET project: Professor Barbara Wohlfarth (Stockholm University), Professor Jørgen Peder Steffensen (Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen), Dr. Martin Street (Romisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Neuwied) and Professor Clive Oppenheimer (Cambridge University). They provided excellent advice at key stages of the work, which we greatly valued. We also thank Jenny Kynaston (Geography Department, Royal Holloway) for construction of several of the figures in this paper, and Debbie Barrett (Elsevier) and Colin Murray Wallace (Editor-in-Chief, QSR) for their considerable assistance in the production of this special volume.Peer Reviewe

Changing Plant-based Subsistence Practices among Early and Middle Holocene Communities in Eastern Maghreb

The eastern Maghreb is a key area for understanding environmental and cultural dynamics during the early and middle Holocene. Capsian populations from around 10000–7500 cal BP were among the last foragers in the region. Capsian sites are known as escargotières (land shell middens), and locally called rammadiyat (meaning ashy mound). As taphonomic conditions in Capsian open-air sites generally favour the preservation of resistant materials such as shells and bones rather than fragile plant remains, this study integrates macro-botanical and microfossil evidence from phytoliths, calcitic wood ash pseudomorphs and dung spherulites, since each is influenced by different formation and post-depositional processes. Archaeobotanical results from recent excavations in four Tunisian sites located across the lowland steppe, the Dorsale Mountains and the eastern coast display a wide range of wild plant resources, such as pine, oak, wild legumes, and grasses, in particular Alfa grass. These findings suggest that these plants could have played an important role in Capsian diet, whereas the presence of Alfa grass suggests the use of fibre sources for basketry, matting, building and fuel. Integrated macro-botanical and microfossil records contribute to a better understanding of changing subsistence practices on the threshold of early food-producing systems in north-west Africa.This research was carried out within the framework of the European Research Council, ERC project PALEOPLANT (ERC-2013-CoG 614960), EU Horizon 2020 MICROARCHEODUNG, and ‘Les derniers chasseurs-cueilleurs Holocènes et la transition néolithique en Tunisie’ project, a cooperation programme currently directed by Nabiha Aouadi and Lotfi Belhouchet (Institut National du Patrimoine, Tunis), Alfredo Coppa (Sapienza University of Rome), and Giulio Lucarini (Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council of Italy, ISPC-CNR). The MICROARCHEODUNG project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No H2020-MSCA-IF-2015-702529. JM and YCM are beneficiaries of a Ramón y Cajal research fellowship funded by the Spanish Ministry of Competitiveness and Economy (MINECO). We are very grateful to all the excavation team members and especially to our colleague and friend Simone Mulazzani (previous co-Director of the cooperation programme) for access to the samples and amicable cooperative work. Thanks are extended to Oriol López-Bultó and Joan Manuel Soriano (Autonomous University of Barcelona), as well as to Ana Polo-Díaz and M. José Iriarte (Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology/ Ikerbasque) and Ramón J. Barrio (Department of Analytic Chemistry) for further support at the laboratories of the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU). This research was carried out within the framework of the FP7 Ideas: European Research Council, ERC project PALEOPLANT [grant number ERC-2013-CoG 614960], EU Horizon 2020 MICROARCHEODUNG, and ‘Les derniers chasseurs-cueilleurs Holocènes et la transition néolithique en Tunisie’ project, a cooperation programme currently directed by Nabiha Aouadi and Lotfi Belhouchet (Institut National du Patrimoine, Tunis), Alfredo Coppa (Sapienza University of Rome), and Giulio Lucarini (Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council of Italy, ISPC-CNR). The MICROARCHEODUNG project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No [grant number H2020-MSCA-IF-2015-702529]. JM and YCM are beneficiaries of a Ramón y Cajal research fellowship funded by the Spanish Ministry of Competitiveness and Economy (MINECO).Peer reviewe

Installation épipaléolithique à Hergla, Tunisie littorale: SHM-1, note préliminaire (stratigraphie, culture matérielle, subsistance)

Un projet d’études multidisciplinaires portant sur le peuplement holocène côtier de la Tunisie orientale a été mis en place à partir de 2002, désignant Hergla et son environnement lagunaire et côtier comme épicentre de nos études. Des prospections extensives ont permis de cartographier de nouveaux sites et stations. En raison de son fort potentiel stratigraphique nous avons choisi de fouiller la rammadiya de SHM-1 (VIIe-VIe millénaire cal B.C.). La lecture comparative de plusieurs coupes et celle des surfaces exposées en planimétrie, ont permis de reconnaître une série d’au moins sept niveaux majeurs d’occupation. Chacun apparait comme ayant été intentionnellement structuré par des aménagements de l’espace depuis la première phase d’occupation, qui s’installa directement sur le sol dunaire vierge bordant la sebkha-lagune de Halk el Menjel. L’analyse préliminaire des complexes structurels mis au jour permet d’envisager de considérer le site comme un véritable village. Il s’agit d’empierrements, interrompus par des trous de poteaux, associés à des restes de murets en pierres sèches, à des foyers, à des structures en creux de différentes dimensions et à des zones destinées à des activités spécifiques. L’étude de l’ensemble archéologique nous permet d’avancer les premières interprétations sur le comportement des groupes humains qui s’installèrent dans ce contexte littoral, et sur leurs interactions avec d’autres communautés contemporaines. Ces résultats, acquis grâce à une lecture attentive de la stratigraphie, ainsi qu’à une méthodologie adaptée à ce type de terrain permettent, enfin, de proposer plusieurs hypothèses sur la gestion des espaces de vie des communautés épipaléolithiques finales ayant fréquenté SHM-1

Integrating Human-Animal Relationships into New Data on Aterian Complexity: a Paradigm Shift for the North African Middle Stone Age

International audienc

A matter of space and time: How frequent is convergence in lithic technology in the African archaeological record over the last 300 kyr?

Stone artefacts are frequently used to identify and trace human populations in the Paleolithic. Convergence in lithic technology has the potential to confound such interpretations, implying connections between unrelated groups. To further the general theoretical debate on this issue, we first delineate the concepts of independent innovation, diffusion and migration and provide archaeological expectations for each of these processes that can create similarities in material culture. As an empirical test case, we then assess how these different mechanisms play out in both space and time for lithic technology across several scales of the African Stone Age record within the last 300 thousand years (kyr). Our findings show that convergence is neither the exception nor the norm, but a scale-dependent phenomenon that occurs more often for complex artefacts than is generally acknowledged and in many different spatio-temporal contexts of the African record that can crosscut the MSA/LSA boundary. Studies using similarly-looking stone tools to recognize past populations and track human dispersals in the Stone Age thus always need to test for the potential of independent innovation and not assume migration or diffusion a priori