Cave dig shows the earliest Australians enjoyed a coastal lifestyle

[Extract] Archaeological excavations in a remote island cave off northwest Australia reveal incredible details of the early use by people of the continent’s now-submerged coast. Our latest study reveals that at lower sea levels, this island was used as a hunting shelter between about 50,000 and 30,000 years ago, and then as a residential base for family groups by 8,000 years ago

A Holocene sequence from Walufeni Cave, Southern Highlands Province, and its implications for the settlement of the Great Papuan Plateau, Papua New Guinea

This paper presents preliminary results from the 2019 excavations at Walufeni Cave, at the eastern end of the Great Papuan Plateau (GPP) in western Papua New Guinea. Preliminary dating and analysis of the unfinished excavations at Walufeni Cave span the Holocene and probably continue into the Late Pleistocene, confirming the presence of people on the Plateau from at least the Early Holocene and potentially much earlier. The data presented here offer a site-specific model of early intensive site use from at least 10,000 years ago, then ephemeral use, followed by a sustained Late Holocene occupation. Although there are significant changes in the quantity of material discard over time, there is little evidence for significant change in the subsistence base or technology, reflecting a degree of relative homogeneity until the Late Holocene, when we see the introduction of pig, a change of focus in the plant economy and the presence of marine shell from the southern coast

Vale Boi (Algarve, Portugal) y el Solutrense en el suroeste de la Península Ibérica

Located at the crossroads of two rather different ecological and cultural worlds (Mediterranean Spain and Portuguese Atlantic), the site of Vale Boi (Algarve, Portugal) is a crucial element in understanding the economic and social traits of the communities that inhabited Southwestern Iberia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Combining an open-air with a rockshelter component, Vale Boi presents a lengthy Solutrean record starting with a Proto-Solutrean phase followed by a set of occupations in the 25 to 20.3 ka cal BP time-span. The very rich and well preserved assemblages proved that the site was treated, throughout, as a seasonal residential camp and although a striking combination of exogenous cultural traits has been identified, regional adaptive idiosyncrasies are quite evident. This paper focuses on the results of the lithics, fauna, beads and portable art analysis from Vale Boi, and their impact on the comprehension of the LGM ecodynamics in Southwestern Iberia.Localizado en el marco de dos contextos diferentes desde el punto de vista ecológico y cultural (el Mediterráneo español y el Atlántico portugués), el yacimiento de Vale Boi (Algarve, Portugal) es un lugar fundamental para comprender la organización económica y social de las comunidades que habitaron el sudoeste de la Península Ibérica durante el Último Máximo Glacial (LGM). Situado en una zona en la que se combinan ocupaciones al aire libre y en abrigo, Vale Boi presenta un amplio registro solutrense que comienza con el Proto-Solutrense y a la que le siguen un amplio número de ocupaciones entre el 25 y el 20,3 ka BP. El importante y bien preservado conjunto demuestra que este asentamiento funcionó como un campamento residencia estacional. Aunque han sido identificados diversos caracteres culturales de origen exógeno, son también evidentes los elementos adaptativos idiosincráticos. El presente artículo se centra en los resultados de los análisis del utillaje lítico, la fauna, las cuentas ornamentales y los objetos de arte mueble de Vale Boi y su impacto en la comprensión ecodinámica del LGM en el sudoeste de la Península Ibérica

Upper Paleolithic foraging decisions and early economic intensification at Vale Boi, southwestern Portugal

The Upper Paleolithic site of Vale Boi in coastal, southwestern Portugal currently represents the earliest known case of grease-rendering in Eurasia, with initial occupation occurring during the early Gravettian at ~ 27,000 BP. Long-term exploitation of marine resources is indicated by marine shellfish remains, mainly in the form of limpets (Patella), recovered from all three cultural periods (Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian). High-level exploitation of rabbits (Oryctolagus) began with initial use of the site and continued throughout the occupations, with a possible increase in intensity at the onset of the Solutrean. Grease-rendering of red deer (Cervus elaphus), horse (Equus caballus), European ass (Equus hydruntinus) and aurochs (Bos primigenius) bones was identified through multi-dimensional taphonomic and zooarchaeological analyses. Ungulate remains demonstrated extensive fragmentation and abundant evidence of impact features such as cone fractures, crushing, denting and cracking. The intensity of fragmentation and impact damage to red deer remains is significantly correlated with quantities of marrow and bone grease within these portions. Lack of density-mediated attrition of either the leporid remains or the cranial bone of red deer and horse, demonstrates that the loss of low-density, grease-rich post-cranial skeletal portions is due to human subsistence activities. Balanced body-part representation of ungulates indicates that density-mediated attrition of post-cranial elements is not related to differential transport of carcass portions. Comparison of element portion frequencies to food utility indices further demonstrates that humans were systematically harvesting marrow and bone grease throughout the Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian culture periods. The co-occurrence of fire-cracked rock, stone anvils and hammerstones corroborates this suggestion. Although grease rendering at Vale Boi pre-dates other known sites in Eurasia by several thousand years, faunal assemblages in southeastern Spain indicate that resource diversification and intensification appeared there coevally with Vale Boi. The persistence and continued intensification of subsistence practices throughout the Upper Paleolithic suggests a sustained depression of large game in relation to human populations. This was likely due to patchy, spatially-restricted resources, resulting in territorial circumscription. Only through technological innovation and novel approaches to resource harvesting, were foragers able to maintain and ultimately expand their populations in southern Iberia.Embargo: Release after 12/6/201

A taphonomic signature for quolls in the Australian archaeological record

Australian archaeofaunal assemblages are often heavily fragmented by taphonomic agents whose identity or origins are frequently difficult to discern. This study explores whether the fragmentation and accumulation of bone by carnivorous marsupial quolls may be distinguished from that produced by humans. Analyses of 140 scats obtained from captive feeding trials and wild populations of three quoll species (Dasyurus maculatus, Dasyurus viverrinus and Dasyurus hallucatus) indicates that damage to bones by quolls may be identified through a combination of the median length of bone specimens and observations of specific types of damage to the bone surface. Our results demonstrate that bone consumed by D. viverrinus and D. hallucatus is highly unlikely to be confused with human-accumulated assemblages due to low dietary overlap and the very small bone fragment size produced by both quoll species. Bone accumulations of the larger D. maculatus species, however, may be incorrectly attributed to humans due to the consumption of medium-large mammals by both humans and quolls, and the larger size of bone fragments produced by D. maculatus. Although fragments as large as 25 mm were recovered from wild D. maculatus scats, the median length of scat-bone fragments for D. maculatus falls between ~. 8.30-10.40 mm. This is significantly different statistically to the median fragment length (11.90 mm) of bone in scats of the Tasmanian devil, Sarcophilus harrisii, as reported by Caroline Northwood (1990). Scats from wild D. maculatus indicate that polish and pitting are the most common forms of surface damage to bone, with more than 25% of specimens displaying these marks. Punctures and tooth drag marks are far rarer, with only 5% of bone specimens exhibiting this kind of damage. In light of these results, we advocate for detailed observation of the surface of bone specimens, along with obtaining specimen lengths, in order to distinguish quoll accumulated bone in archaeofaunal assemblages