Elusa. From Nabatean Trading Post to Late Antique Desert Metropolis: Results of the 2015−2020 Seasons

In Roman to late Byzantine times, Elusa (Hebrew: Haluza, Arabic: al-Khalasa) was the most important settlement in the Negev region and its only proper city. Identified in 1838 by E. Robinson, it was subsequently visited by numerous researchers. The most important investigations took place in the form of surveys and excavations from the 1970s until 2001, during which, among other things, the only theatre in the region and the city’s cathedral were uncovered. However, despite several research projects, very basic information on the city and its genesis, history and structure has been lacking until now. Since 2015, this has been the focus of an international cooperation project that is investigating these fundamental questions using a multi-method approach. The focus here is also on the role of the city in the region, as it appears as an economic, administrative, cultural and religious centre. Particular emphasis is placed on the city’s flourishing in light of its precarious natural location within the Negev Desert. The article reflects the combined findings of remote sensing, archaeological survey, geophysical prospection, targeted excavations, geochemical soil sampling and extensive find material analyses and thus provides an unprecedented insight into the character and development of ancient Elusa.In Roman to late Byzantine times, Elusa (Hebrew: Haluza, Arabic: al-Khalasa) was the most important settlement in the Negev region and its only proper city. Identified in 1838 by E. Robinson, it was subsequently visited by numerous researchers. The most important investigations took place in the form of surveys and excavations from the 1970s until 2001, during which, among other things, the only theatre in the region and the city’s cathedral were uncovered. However, despite several research projects, very basic information on the city and its genesis, history and structure has been lacking until now. Since 2015, this has been the focus of an international cooperation project that is investigating these fundamental questions using a multi-method approach. The focus here is also on the role of the city in the region, as it appears as an economic, administrative, cultural and religious centre. Particular emphasis is placed on the city’s flourishing in light of its precarious natural location within the Negev Desert. The article reflects the combined findings of remote sensing, archaeological survey, geophysical prospection, targeted excavations, geochemical soil sampling and extensive find material analyses and thus provides an unprecedented insight into the character and development of ancient Elusa

New criteria for the molecular identification of cereal grains associated with archaeological artefacts.

The domestication and transmission of cereals is one of the most fundamental components of early farming, but direct evidence of their use in early culinary practices and economies has remained frustratingly elusive. Using analysis of a well-preserved Early Bronze Age wooden container from Switzerland, we propose novel criteria for the identification of cereal residues. Using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS), we identified compounds typically associated with plant products, including a series of phenolic lipids (alkylresorcinols) found only at appreciable concentration in wheat and rye bran. The value of these lipids as cereal grain biomarkers were independently corroborated by the presence of macrobotanical remains embedded in the deposit, and wheat and rye endosperm peptides extracted from residue. These findings demonstrate the utility of a lipid-based biomarker for wheat and rye bran and offer a methodological template for future investigations of wider range of archaeological contexts. Alkylresorcinols provide a new tool for residue analysis which can help explore the spread and exploitation of cereal grains, a fundamental component of the advent and spread of farming

The Basel-Gasfabrik research project: Addressing complex topics by an integrative approach

The late La Tène period site of Basel-Gasfabrik has been under investigation for more than a century. During that time, the unfortified settlement with its two cemeteries has yielded huge amounts of everyday and exceptional objects and features. Beginning in the mid-1970s, samples were systematically collected for scientific analyses during ongoing excavations, thus producing ideal preconditions for interdisciplinary research. In 2011-2014, the international research project “Approaching the living via the dead: human remains from the Late La Tène site Basel-Gasfabrik and their cultural-historical interpretations” addressed the multifarious ways in which the Iron Age community handled their deceased. The intense collaboration involved researchers from the Archäologische Bodenforschung Basel-Stadt and the universities of Basel (CH), Mainz and Freiburg i.Br. (D) and spanned eight disciplines: archaeology, archeoanthropology, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, geoarchaeology, biogeochemistry, molecular genetics and statistics. Research topics and theoretical frameworks were developed jointly as well as procedures to combine the disciplinary results in multistage processes in order to generate integrative syntheses of novel insights. The challenges and specific research potentials of the integrative approach may serve as a positive example for future interdisciplinary research project

On-site data cast doubts on the hypothesis of shifting cultivation in the Late Neolithic (c. 4300-2400 cal. BC): Landscape management as an alternative paradigm

This article brings together in a comprehensive way, and for the first time, on- and off-site palaeoenvironmental data from the area of the Central European lake dwellings (a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site since 2011). The types of data considered are as follows: high-resolution off-site pollen cores, including micro-charcoal counts, and on-site data, including botanical macro- and micro-remains, hand-collected animal bones, remains of microfauna, and data on woodland management (dendrotypology). The period considered is the late Neolithic (c. 4300–2400 cal. BC). For this period, especially for its earlier phases, discussions of land-use patterns are contradictory. Based on off-site data, slash-and-burn – as known from tropical regions – is thought to be the only possible way to cultivate the land. On-site data however show a completely different picture: all indications point to the permanent cultivation of cereals (Triticum spp., Hordeum vulgare), pea (Pisum sativum), flax (Linum usitatissimum) and opium-poppy (Papaver somniferum). Cycles of landscape use are traceable, including coppicing and moving around the landscape with animal herds. Archaeobiological studies further indicate also that hunting and gathering were an important component and that the landscape was manipulated accordingly. Late Neolithic land-use systems also included the use of fire as a tool for opening up the landscape. Here we argue that bringing together all the types of palaeoenvironmental proxies in an integrative way allows us to draw a more comprehensive and reliable picture of the land-use systems in the late Neolithic than had been reconstructed previously largely on the basis of off-site data