20 research outputs found
Coastal Subsistence, Maritime Trade, and the Colonization of Small Offshore Islands in Eastern African Prehistory
Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa's offshore islands as important localities for understanding the region's pre-Swahili maritime adaptations and early Indian Ocean trade connections. While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonizationâand in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially became âmaritimeââare still relatively poorly understood. Here we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks
Coastal subsistence, maritime trade, and the colonization of small offshore islands in eastern African prehistory
Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africaâs
offshore islands as important localities for understanding the regionâs
pre-Swahili maritime adaptations and early Indian Ocean trade connections.
While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands
to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has
long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonizationâand
in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially
became âmaritimeââare still relatively poorly understood. Here
we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia
Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and
situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and
pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zooarchaeological,
archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating
to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing
significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss
the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of
local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.The Sealinks Project is funded through a
grant toNicole Boivin from the European Research
Council (StarterGrant 206148) under
the âIdeasâ specific Programme of the 7th
Framework Programme (FP7). Additional
funding includes: postdoctoral fellowships
from the British Academy (2010â2013) and
the University of Queensland (2015â2017)
to Alison Crowther; a Fondation Fyssen Postdoctoral
Grant toErÂŽendira Quintana Morales;
and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Government
of the Balearic Islands (Conselleria
dâEducaciÂŽo) and the European Social Fund
to Llorencž Picornell-Gelabert. Fieldwork was
carried out under COSTECH Research Permit
no. 2012-303-ER-2011-85 and the Division
of Antiquities (Ministry of Natural Resources
and Tourism, Tanzania) excavation
license no. EA.402/605/01 issued to Alison
Crowther, and with the support and permission
of theRegionalAdministrative Secretary
(Dar es Salaam andCoast/Pwani), the District
Administrative Secretary (Mafia), and the Village
Executive Officer (Mtendaji wa Kijiji,
Juani).http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uica20hb2016Anthropology and Archaeolog
Coastal subsistence, maritime trade, and the colonization of small offshore islands in eastern African prehistory
Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africaâs
offshore islands as important localities for understanding the regionâs
pre-Swahili maritime adaptations and early Indian Ocean trade connections.
While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands
to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has
long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonizationâand
in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially
became âmaritimeââare still relatively poorly understood. Here
we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia
Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and
situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and
pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zooarchaeological,
archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating
to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing
significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss
the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of
local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.The Sealinks Project is funded through a
grant toNicole Boivin from the European Research
Council (StarterGrant 206148) under
the âIdeasâ specific Programme of the 7th
Framework Programme (FP7). Additional
funding includes: postdoctoral fellowships
from the British Academy (2010â2013) and
the University of Queensland (2015â2017)
to Alison Crowther; a Fondation Fyssen Postdoctoral
Grant toErÂŽendira Quintana Morales;
and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Government
of the Balearic Islands (Conselleria
dâEducaciÂŽo) and the European Social Fund
to Llorencž Picornell-Gelabert. Fieldwork was
carried out under COSTECH Research Permit
no. 2012-303-ER-2011-85 and the Division
of Antiquities (Ministry of Natural Resources
and Tourism, Tanzania) excavation
license no. EA.402/605/01 issued to Alison
Crowther, and with the support and permission
of theRegionalAdministrative Secretary
(Dar es Salaam andCoast/Pwani), the District
Administrative Secretary (Mafia), and the Village
Executive Officer (Mtendaji wa Kijiji,
Juani).http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uica20hb2016Anthropology and Archaeolog
Palaeogenomic analysis of black rat (Rattus rattus) reveals multiple European introductions associated with human economic history
The distribution of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and different introductions may have occurred during the Roman and medieval periods. Here, in order to reconstruct the population history of European black rats, we first generate a de novo genome assembly of the black rat. We then sequence 67 ancient and three modern black rat mitogenomes, and 36 ancient and three modern nuclear genomes from archaeological sites spanning the 1st-17th centuries CE in Europe and North Africa. Analyses of our newly reported sequences, together with published mitochondrial DNA sequences, confirm that black rats were introduced into the Mediterranean and Europe from Southwest Asia. Genomic analyses of the ancient rats reveal a population turnover in temperate Europe between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, coincident with an archaeologically attested decline in the black rat population. The near disappearance and re-emergence of black rats in Europe may have been the result of the breakdown of the Roman Empire, the First Plague Pandemic, and/or post-Roman climatic cooling.Peer reviewe
Identifying species threatened with local extinction in tropical reef fisheries using historical reconstruction of species occurrence
Identifying the species that are at risk of local extinction in highly diverse ecosystems is a big challenge for conservation science. Assessments of species status are costly and difficult to implement in developing countries with diverse ecosystems due to a lack of species-specific surveys, species-specific data, and other resources. Numerous techniques are devised to determine the threat status of species based on the availability of data and budgetary limits. On this basis, we developed a framework that compared occurrence data of historically exploited reef species in Kenya from existing disparate data sources. Occurrence data from archaeological remains (750-1500CE) was compared with occurrence data of these species catch assessments, and underwater surveys (1991-2014CE). This comparison indicated that only 67 species were exploited over a 750 year period, 750-1500CE, whereas 185 species were landed between 1995 and 2014CE. The first step of our framework identified 23 reef species as threatened with local extinction. The second step of the framework further evaluated the possibility of local extinction with Bayesian extinction analyses using occurrence data from naturalists' species list with the existing occurrence data sources. The Bayesian extinction analysis reduced the number of reef species threatened with local extinction from 23 to 15. We compared our findings with three methods used for assessing extinction risk. Commonly used extinction risk methods varied in their ability to identify reef species that we identified as threatened with local extinction by our comparative and Bayesian method. For example, 12 of the 15 threatened species that we identified using our framework were listed as either least concern, unevaluated, or data deficient in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature red list. Piscivores and macro-invertivores were the only functional groups found to be locally extinct. Comparing occurrence data from disparate sources revealed a large number of historically exploited reef species that are possibly locally extinct. Our framework addressed biases such as uncertainty in priors, sightings and survey effort, when estimating the probability of local extinction. Our inexpensive method showed the value and potential for disparate data to fill knowledge gaps that exist in species extinction assessments
Iron Age agriculture, fishing and trade in the Mafia Archipelago, Tanzania: new data from Ukunju Cave
Small-scale excavations were recently undertaken at the site of Ukunju Cave in the Mafia Archipelago, Tanzania, to collect new bioarchaeological and material culture data relating to the site's occupation and the nature of early subsistence and long-distance trade in the region. Our findings suggest that occupation of the cave began during the Middle Iron Age (MIA, seventh to tenth centuries AD), as indicated by the presence of local Early Tana Tradition (ETT)/Triangular Incised Ware (TIW) pottery in the lowest layers above bedrock, as well as small quantities of imported ceramics and glass beads also dating from the mid- to the late first millennium AD. Small assemblages of faunal and botanical remains, including introduced African crops (pearl millet, sorghum, baobab and possibly cowpea) were found in association with these finds, indicating that these MIA communities practised a mixed economy of fishing, domestic livestock keeping and agriculture. In addition, the presence of cotton suggests they may have also been producing fibres or textiles, most likely for local use, but possibly also for long distance trade. Although some quartz artefacts were recovered, we found no evidence of any pre-Iron Age LSA culture at the cave, contrary to previous claims about the site
Iron Age agriculture, fishing and trade in the Mafia Archipelago, Tanzania: new evidence from Ukunju Cave
Small-scale excavations were recently undertaken at the site of Ukunju Cave in the Mafia Archipelago, Tanzania, to collect new bioarchaeological and material culture data relating to the site\u27s occupation and the nature of early subsistence and long-distance trade in the region. Our findings suggest that occupation of the cave began during the Middle Iron Age (MIA, seventh to tenth centuries AD), as indicated by the presence of local Early Tana Tradition (ETT)/Triangular Incised Ware (TIW) pottery in the lowest layers above bedrock, as well as small quantities of imported ceramics and glass beads also dating from the mid- to the late first millennium AD. Small assemblages of faunal and botanical remains, including introduced African crops (pearl millet, sorghum, baobab and possibly cowpea) were found in association with these finds, indicating that these MIA communities practised a mixed economy of fishing, domestic livestock keeping and agriculture. In addition, the presence of cotton suggests they may have also been producing fibres or textiles, most likely for local use, but possibly also for long distance trade. Although some quartz artefacts were recovered, we found no evidence of any pre-Iron Age LSA culture at the cave, contrary to previous claims about the site. Un travail pionnier visant Ă l\u27Ă©tude de l\u27occupation de la cĂŽte est-africaine avant l\u27Ăge de Fer a relevĂ© les indices d\u27une installation de groupes Ă l\u27Ăge de Pierre tardif et au NĂ©olithique sur plusieurs Ăźles dont Zanzibar, Pemba et Mafia. Il a Ă©tĂ© proposĂ© que ces occupations Ă©taient associĂ©es Ă des marchandises de l\u27OcĂ©an Indien et des animaux domestiques et qu\u27elles dataient des derniers millĂ©naires av. J.-C. Ces donnĂ©es ont fait l\u27objet de beaucoup de controverses et de dĂ©bats, conduisant certains Ă remettre en cause la datation des sites, la qualitĂ© de la stratigraphie et l\u27identification des restes bio-archĂ©ologiques. Pour rĂ©soudre ces problĂšmes chronologiques, le projet Sealinks a rĂ©cemment menĂ© des fouilles Ă petite Ă©chelle dans la grotte de Ukunju, sur l\u27Ăźle de Juani, Mafia. Un ancien sondage a Ă©tĂ© rĂ©-ouvert et les sĂ©diments basaux fouillĂ©s jusqu\u27au sol stĂ©rile. Nos rĂ©sultats suggĂšrent que l\u27occupation de la grotte commença au cours de l\u27Ăge de Fer moyen (MIA), comme l\u27indique la prĂ©sence de poterie de tradition Tana/Triangulaire IncisĂ© (TT/TIW) dans les niveaux les plus bas, ainsi que de petites quantitĂ©s de cĂ©ramiques et de perles de verre importĂ©es datant de la deuxiĂšme moitiĂ© du premier millĂ©naire ap. J.-C. Une petite quantitĂ© de plantes africaines introduites, y compris du mil, du sorgho, du baobab et peut-ĂȘtre du niĂ©bĂ©, a Ă©tĂ© recueillie en association avec ces objets, ce qui indiquerait que ces communautĂ©s MIA cultivaient le mil et peut-ĂȘtre aussi des lĂ©gumineuses. La prĂ©sence de coton suggĂšre qu\u27ils produisaient peut-ĂȘtre aussi des fibres ou des textiles, soit pour une utilisation locale ou pour le commerce sur de longues distances. Bien que certains lithiques en quartz aient Ă©tĂ© retrouvĂ©s, nous n\u27avons dĂ©celĂ© aucune donnĂ©e indiquant une occupation de la grotte Ă l\u27Ăge de Pierre tardif ou au NĂ©olithique
The palaeogenetics of cat dispersal in the ancient world
The cat has long been important to human societies as a pest-control agent, object of symbolic value and companion animal, but
little is known about its domestication process and early anthropogenic dispersal. Here we show, using ancient DNA analysis
of geographically and temporally widespread archaeological cat remains, that both the Near Eastern and Egyptian populations
of Felis silvestris lybica contributed to the gene pool of the domestic cat at different historical times. While the catâs worldwide
conquest began during the Neolithic period in the Near East, its dispersal gained momentum during the Classical period, when
the Egyptian cat successfully spread throughout the Old World. The expansion patterns and ranges suggest dispersal along
human maritime and terrestrial routes of trade and connectivity. A coat-colour variant was found at high frequency only after
the Middle Ages, suggesting that directed breeding of cats occurred later than with most other domesticated animals.status: publishe