The worked bone industry and intrusive fauna associated with the prehistoric cave burials of Abri des Autours (Belgium)

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Death and the Societies of Late Antiquity

Ce volume bilingue, comprenant un ensemble de 28 contributions disponibles en français et en anglais (dans leur version longue ou abrégée), propose d’établir un état des lieux des réflexions, recherches et études conduites sur le fait funéraire à l’époque tardo-antique au sein des provinces de l’Empire romain et sur leurs régions limitrophes, afin d’ouvrir de nouvelles perspectives sur ses évolutions possibles. Au cours des trois dernières décennies, les transformations considérables des méthodologies déployées sur le terrain et en laboratoire ont permis un renouveau des questionnements sur les populations et les pratiques funéraires de l’Antiquité tardive, période marquée par de multiples changements politiques, sociaux, démographiques et culturels. L’apparition de ce qui a été initialement désigné comme une « Anthropologie de terrain », qui fut le début de la démarche archéothanatologique, puis le récent développement d’approches collaboratives entre des domaines scientifiques divers (archéothanatologie, biochimie et géochimie, génétique, histoire, épigraphie par exemple) ont été décisives pour le renouvellement des problématiques d’étude : révision d’anciens concepts comme apparition d’axes d’analyse inédits. Les recherches rassemblées dans cet ouvrage sont articulées autour de quatre grands thèmes : l’évolution des pratiques funéraires dans le temps, l’identité sociale dans la mort, les ensembles funéraires en transformation (organisation et topographie) et les territoires de l’empire (du cœur aux marges). Ces études proposent un réexamen et une révision des données, tant anthropologiques qu’archéologiques ou historiques sur l’Antiquité tardive, et révèlent, à cet égard, une mosaïque de paysages politiques, sociaux et culturels singulièrement riches et complexes. Elles accroissent nos connaissances sur le traitement des défunts, l’emplacement des aires funéraires ou encore la structure des sépultures, en révélant une diversité de pratiques, et permettent au final de relancer la réflexion sur la manière dont les sociétés tardo-antiques envisagent la mort et sur les éléments permettant d’identifier et de définir la diversité des groupes qui les composent. Elles démontrent ce faisant que nous pouvons véritablement appréhender les structures culturelles et sociales des communautés anciennes et leurs potentielles transformations, à partir de l’étude des pratiques funéraires.This bilingual volume proposes to draw up an assessment of the recent research conducted on funerary behavior during Late Antiquity in the provinces of the Roman Empire and on their borders, in order to open new perspectives on its possible developments. The considerable transformations of the methodologies have raised the need for a renewal of the questions on the funerary practices during Late Antiquity, a period marked by multiple political, social, demographic and cultural changes. The emergence field anthropology, which was the beginning of archaeothanatology, and then the recent development of collaborative approaches between various scientific fields (archaeothanatology, biochemistry and geochemistry, genetics, history, epigraphy, for example), have been decisive. The research collected in this book is structured around four main themes: Evolution of funerary practices over time; Social identity through death; Changing burial grounds (organisation and topography); Territories of the Empire (from the heart to the margins). These studies propose a review and a revision of the data, both anthropological and archaeological or historical on Late Antiquity, and reveal a mosaic of political, social, and cultural landscapes singularly rich and complex. In doing so, they demonstrate that we can truly understand the cultural and social structures of ancient communities and their potential transformations, based on the study of funerary practices

Avian resources in Medieval and Modern Belgium

As part of a wider project aimed at clarifying the importance and role of birds in past human societies, the use of avian resources in the medieval and Modern periods is explored in the geographical area of modern Belgium. A previous synthesis carried out on the Brussels area highlighted variations in the exploitation of birds, mainly related to the social status of urban consumers (Thys & Van Neer 2010). The present contribution is based on studies of archaeozoological assemblages from about sixty archaeological sites spread over the Belgian territory, in order to expand the scope of the previous observations made on the material from Brussels. This larger corpus includes other cities as well as other types of occupations, such as castles or abbeys. Diachronic trends are examined in these different categories of sites and are compared with each other. The influence of the social status, the geographical location and the natural environment are evaluated on the basis of the archaeological remains of the domestic and wild bird species

Studying the human exploitation of birds during the Paleolithic in Belgium from old and recent bone collections

editorial reviewedIn last decades, scholars have highlighted the usefulness of birds, as part of the small game, to help understanding complex human behaviour and choices during the Prehistory. While the exploitation of birds has been documented in several sites in eastern or southern Europe, what happened in north-western Europe is still largely unknown due to a lack in the preservation and in the study of bird material. In this context, archaeological assemblages from Belgium offer a great opportunity to better understand the exploitation of birds in this part of Europe, because of the good conditions of preservation offered by its partially karstic subsoil. Here, we present results of an ongoing project aiming at analysing old and recent bone collections preserving bird remains in order to fill this gap. More in particular, the study of the bird remains from Trou de Chaleux, a major Magdalenian site, and from the Gravettian site of Maisières “Canal” will be discussed. Archaeological excavations at the Trou de Chaleux at the end of the 19th century yielded a vast assemblage of lithic and bone material as well as figurative art, characteristic of the Late Magdalenian. AMS dates with calibrated ages range from 15,733 cal BP to 14,134 cal BP, situating the main archaeological deposit from the Trou de Chaleux at the transition of Greenland Stadial-2 to Greenland Interstadial-1 (Bølling-Allerød Interstadial). Among the archaeozoological material, more than 500 bird bones have been isolated, which had never been studied. Excavated in 1966, the Gravettian site of Maisières “Canal” has revealed traces of a human presence confined to the Dansgaard-Oeschger 5 event, at around 32 500 cal BP. Apart from a rich archaeological, it yielded a limited but exceptionally well-preserved bird bone assemblage. We performed the taxonomic and skeletal identification of the material and we examined in detail the surface of the bones in search of human modifications such as tool marks, fire traces or pigment deposits. Surface alterations were investigated based on a macro- and microscopic analysis, including an analysis of wear traces and elementary composition. In both sites, bird bones displaying traces of human intervention were identified. The traces observed indicate an intense exploitation of birds for food, technical but also apparently symbolic purposes

A new look at the exploitation of birds by Middle and Upper Palaeolithic human groups in Wallonia (Belgium) through the prism of archaeozoology and experiment: Contributions and limitations of 150 years of archaeological collections

Dès les premières fouilles archéologiques d’occupations humaines du Paléolithique menées au cours du 19e siècle en Belgique, des os d’oiseaux ont été mis au jour. Les riches collections accumulées ont rarement été étudiées d’un point de vue archéozoologique, malgré la présence avérée de traces d’outils sur certains restes aviaires. L’exploitation des oiseaux par les chasseurs-cueilleurs de la Préhistoire demeurait ainsi largement méconnue en Belgique. La présente étude vise à palier cette lacune au travers de l’étude archéozoologique d’ensembles d’os d’oiseaux récoltés dans six sites archéologiques ayant livré des occupations humaines attribuées à différents faciès chronoculturels du Paléolithique moyen et supérieur. Ces sites incluent le site de plein air de Maisières-Canal (Gravettien) et les grottes du Trou de Chaleux (Magdalénien), du Trou des Nutons (Magdalénien), du Trou du Frontal (Magdalénien), Walou (Paléolithique moyen, Aurignacien, Gravettien, Magdalénien et Federmesser) et Scladina (Paléolithique moyen et supérieur). Des expérimentations ont été menées afin de mieux cerner les impacts liés à la manipulations d’ailes de canards et de créer des référentiels de traces de raclages laissées par des outils métalliques, de fractures sur os secs et de traces produites par des cycles de gel-dégel. Ce travail fournit les premières preuves de l’exploitation des oiseaux au cours du Paléolithique moyen en Belgique et complète les connaissances relatives au Paléolithique supérieur. Grâce à l’identification de nombreux taxons, il constitue également un apport à la biogéographie de ces oiseaux. Cette recherche réaffirme, malgré certaines limites, l’intérêt d’étudier des collections de restes d’oiseaux mises au jour récemment, mais aussi anciennement.Bird bones were unearthed as early as the first archaeological excavations of Palaeolithic human settlements in Belgium in the 19th century. These rich collections have rarely been studied from an archaeozoological point of view, despite the proven presence of tool marks on certain avian remains. As a result, the exploitation of birds by prehistoric hunter-gatherers remains largely unknown in Belgium. The present study aims to fill this gap through an archaeozoological study of bird bone assemblages recovered from six archaeological sites that have yielded human occupations attributed to different chronocultural facies of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. These sites include the open-air site of Maisières-Canal (Gravettian) and the caves of Trou de Chaleux (Magdalenian), Trou des Nutons (Magdalenian), Trou du Frontal (Magdalenian), Walou (Middle Palaeolithic, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Magdalenian and Federmesser) and Scladina (Middle and Upper Palaeolithic). Experiments were carried out to gain a better understanding of the impacts associated with handling duck wings, and to create a reference collection of scrape marks made with metal tools, fractures on dry bones and marks produced by freeze-thaw cycles. This work provides the first evidence of the exploitation of birds during the Middle Palaeolithic in Belgium and adds to our knowledge of the Upper Palaeolithic. Thanks to the identification of numerous taxa, it also contributes to the biogeography of these birds. Despite several limitations, this research reaffirms the value of studying collections of bird remains excavated recently, but also formerly

Analyse typologique et technologique des fibules romaines de Han-sur-Lesse

This study presents the technological analysis by X-ray fluorescence of the copper alloy Roman brooches from the Musée du Monde souterrain in Han-sur-Lesse (Namur, Belgium) which allows us to obtain comparable data with that of Britain for the continent. Roman brooches discovered in Gaul have rarely been chemically studied. Moreover, the enamel of two Roman brooches from Han-sur-Lesse were also analysed by XRF and compared with the studies on the British enamel objectsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

An evaluation of the contribution of avian species to the archaeozoological record of Belgium (Iron Age to recent times)

This preliminary study aims to document general trends in the representation of bird remains in anthropogenic contexts from Belgian archaeological sites. A large dataset is analysed, consisting of 186 faunal assemblages from 79 different sites. The contexts included vary in terms of their taphonomic nature (refuse layers, latrines, pits, etc.) and date, ranging from the Iron Age to the modern period. The characteristics of the study area and the dataset as a whole are described, with a focus on identification rates, past and present avian taxonomic diversity, and relative abundance of bird remains compared with domestic mammal remains. The impact of recovery methods (sieving or hand collecting) on these various aspects is also evaluated. A taxonomic analysis describes the diversity and abundance of the different groups of species that are encountered and shows which habitats were preferentially exploited for the hunting of wild birds. The study shows that there is significant taxonomic diversity across the dataset. However, this diversity is not necessarily present in each separate archaeological context, as the number of remains identified by taxon is generally low. Some species or groups of species are ubiquitous and dominant, in particular domestic fowl. Although this analysis is broad and exploratory, it is believed that it will serve as a sound methodological basis for future, more detailed studies focusing on the role that birds played in past human societies during specific chronological periods.status: publishe

Have birds ever mattered? An evaluation of the contribution of avian species to the archaeozoological record of Belgium (Iron Age to recent times)

© 2017 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature This preliminary study aims to document general trends in the representation of bird remains in anthropogenic contexts from Belgian archaeological sites. A large dataset is analysed, consisting of 186 faunal assemblages from 79 different sites. The contexts included vary in terms of their taphonomic nature (refuse layers, latrines, pits, etc.) and date, ranging from the Iron Age to the modern period. The characteristics of the study area and the dataset as a whole are described, with a focus on identification rates, past and present avian taxonomic diversity, and relative abundance of bird remains compared with domestic mammal remains. The impact of recovery methods (sieving or hand collecting) on these various aspects is also evaluated. A taxonomic analysis describes the diversity and abundance of the different groups of species that are encountered and shows which habitats were preferentially exploited for the hunting of wild birds. The study shows that there is significant taxonomic diversity across the dataset. However, this diversity is not necessarily present in each separate archaeological context, as the number of remains identified by taxon is generally low. Some species or groups of species are ubiquitous and dominant, in particular domestic fowl. Although this analysis is broad and exploratory, it is believed that it will serve as a sound methodological basis for future, more detailed studies focusing on the role that birds played in past human societies during specific chronological periods.status: publishe

A handful of duck radiuses – Peculiarities of the avifaunal exploitation at the Gravettian site of Maisières ‘Canal' (Belgium)

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