Short Report: A déjeté Levallois tool from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) and the role it plays in the chronology of the Pleistocene terraces of the Bannu Basin

This paper discusses the importance of the discovery of one déjeté Levallois tool from the surface of a dark grey and black patinated gravel terrace located ca. 500 m south-west of the Neolithic site of Sheri Khan Tarakai in the Bannu Basin (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan), and provides a detailed geomorphological description of the area where it was found. The Neolithic site rests on a large gravelly fan, at present terraced and dismembered by small seasonal streams. Scatters of black varnished pebbles, at the top of a thick ochre silt of possible alluvial origin, cover its surface. Amongst the numerous siliceous gravels forming the deposit, some are of a good quality chert, whose source can be found in the Tertiary Sulaiman Formation. The typological characteristics of the tool, the chert employed for its manufacture, its location and the presence of black patina on its cortex are all important elements that contribute to the definition of the Pleistocene period during which pebble terraces formed. The tool comes from a region where Middle Palaeolithic artefacts had never been found before, though the re-analysis of old collections would suggest their presence as far as the course of the Indus in Lower Sindh. Moreover, its discovery contributes to the study of the south-eastern spread of the Middle Palaeolithic Levallois technique, an important topic that still needs to be fully understood

Exploiting Mangroves and Rushing Back Home

The research carried out between 2000 and 2014 along the northern coast of the Arabian Sea in Lower Sindh and Las Bela (Balochistan, Pakistan) has shown that the two regions started to be settled during the last two centuries of the 8th millennium BP. The sites consist of shell middens, shell scatters and fishermen villages, many of which were sampled for conventional and AMS radiocarbon dating from mangrove and marine shells. So far 95 sites have been AMS (GrA-) or conventionally (GrN-) radiocarbondated. This paper describes the results obtained from three well-defined macro areas (Lake Siranda, the coastline between Cape Gadani and the Hab River mouth, and the Indus Delta) where the aforementioned research methodology has been applied. The results contribute to the interpretation of the archaeology of the coastal area of Pakistan and the Arabian Sea, the definition of the sea-level variations since the mid-Atlantic period, the presence/absence and exploitation of ancient mangroves, the dynamic of the Indus Delta advance, and the chronology of the early navigation along the northern coast of the Indian Ocea

Where mountains and Neanderthals meet: The Middle Palaeolithic settlement of Samarina in the Northern Pindus (Western Macedonia, Greece)

The surveys carried out since 2002 in the Northern Pindus of Western Macedonia (Greece), have led to the discovery of an impressive number of sites, lithic scatters, findspots and isolated artefacts, techno-typologically attributed to the Levallois Mousterian Middle Palaeolithic. The chipped stone artefacts are mainly distributed along the watersheds that surround the highaltitude Vlah town of Samarina up to ca. 2100 m, on the ridges of the Boghdani and Gurguliu mountains in the Smolikas massif. Apart from the aforementioned finds, outcrops rich in good quality chert have also been discovered. They are often associated with decortication areas located close to the extractive points. Important sites were found also along the southern terraces of the Samariniotikos River at some 1500 m of altitude. This paper describes the results so far achieved from the study of the landscape on which late Neanderthal groups moved, obtained knappable raw material for making tools from local sources, settled in base camps close to the river course, and practised hunting activities along the mountain open landscapes. According to the typological characteristics of the chipped stone artefacts, and the location at the top of morainic circles, the assemblages have been attributed to a recent period in the development of the Levallois Mousterian Middle Palaeolithic. The Samarina finds show that Neanderthal groups seasonally exploited the natural resources of the Pindus highland zones most probably after 70,000 BP, during a period of climatic amelioration of the OIS-3. The unique finds from the Northern Pindus chain help us understand some modes of behaviour of the Middle Palaeolithic groups within an activity radius of ca. 20 km between some 1350 and 2100 m of altitud

The Botanical Record of Archaeobotany Italian Network - BRAIN: a cooperative network, database and website

Con autorización de la revista para autores CSIC[EN] The BRAIN (Botanical Records of Archaeobotany Italian Network) database and network was developed by the cooperation of archaeobotanists working on Italian archaeological sites. Examples of recent research including pollen or other plant remains in analytical and synthetic papers are reported as an exemplar reference list. This paper retraces the main steps of the creation of BRAIN, from the scientific need for the first research cooperation to the website which has a free online access since 2015.Peer reviewe