On the Nature and Antiquity of the Manix Lake Industry

The antiquity of human occupation in the New World undoubtedly is one of the major unresolved culture-historical problems in North American prehistory. On the one hand, a dominant position with a long history in American archaeology (cf. Wilmsen 1965) holds that human beings arrived in the New World at the close of the Pleistocene, no longer than 12,000 years ago, and that Clovis sites represent the oldest occupation in the Americas (Haynes 1970; Martin 1973; Waters 1985). On the other hand, a less widely accepted school of thought sees a variety of evidence for human occupation in the Americas well back into the Pleistocene, with dates ranging from 19,000 B.P. at Meadowcroft Rockshelter, Pennsylvania (Stuckenrath et al 1984), to 32,000 B.P. at Boquiero do Sitio da Pedra in Brazil (Guidon and Delibrias 1986), and to at least 220,000 B.P. at Calico Hills in the California desert (Bischoffetal. 1981)

Addition of Aegilops U and M chromosomes affects protein and dietary fiber content of wholemeal wheat flour

Cereal grain fiber is an important health-promoting component in the human diet. One option to improve dietary fiber content and composition in wheat is to introduce genes from its wild relatives Aegilops biuncialis and Aegilops geniculata. This study showed that the addition of chromosomes 2Ug, 4Ug, 5Ug, 7Ug, 2Mg, 5Mg, and 7Mg of Ae. geniculata and 3Ub, 2Mb, 3Mb, and 7Mb of Ae. biuncialis into bread wheat increased the seed protein content. Chromosomes 1Ug and 1Mg increased the proportion of polymeric glutenin proteins, while the addition of chromosomes 1Ub and 6Ub led to its decrease. Both Aegilops species had higher proportions of β-glucan compared to arabinoxylan (AX) than wheat lines, and elevated β-glucan content was also observed in wheat chromosome addition lines 5U, 7U, and 7M. The AX content in wheat was increased by the addition of chromosomes 5Ug, 7Ug, and 1Ub while water-soluble AX was increased by the addition of chromosomes 5U, 5M, and 7M, and to a lesser extent by chromosomes 3, 4, 6Ug, and 2Mb. Chromosomes 5Ug and 7Mb also affected the structure of wheat AX, as shown by the pattern of oligosaccharides released by digestion with endoxylanase. These results will help to map genomic regions responsible for edible fiber content in Aegilops and will contribute to the efficient transfer of wild alleles in introgression breeding programs to obtain wheat varieties with improved health benefits

On the (Non-)Scalability of Target Media for Evaluating the Performance of Ancient Projectile Weapons

When they work, controlled experiments can efficiently and clearly reveal essential characteristics of the functions and performance of ancient hunting and fighting weapons. However, homogenous target media must be carefully validated to ensure that controlled tests capture the same variables that made weapons effective in their original application. Although homogenous flesh simulants have proven effective for studying firearms, the same simulants cannot be assumed to be effective when testing low-velocity cutting/piercing projectiles, which have significantly different performance characteristics than bullets. We build on past research showing that two flesh simulants that are commonly used by archaeologists, ballistics gelatin and pottery clay, fail to capture how atlatl darts and arrows perform when penetrating biological tissues. In accord with forensic research of knife-thrust attacks, natural and polymeric skin simulants may prove effective in future experiments, but this requires further research