Twenty-Three Propositions for Stone Artefact Studies

While we often consider a stone artefact as belonging to the sphere of technology, ultimately its beginning and end exists within that of geology and sedimentary process. Between these end points we can attempt to understand the material’s interaction with,and modification by, a biological agent. From this starting point how we might re-approach stone artefact analysis is considered through 23 propositions

Engineering the Anthropocene: Scalable social networks and resilience building in human evolutionary timescales

The Anthropocene represents the emergence of human societies as a ‘great force of nature’. To understand and engage productively with this emergent global force, it is necessary to understand its origins, dynamics and structuring processes as the long-term evolutionary product of human niche construction, based on three key human characteristics: tool making, habitat construction and most importantly: social network engineering. The exceptional social capacities of behaviourally modern humans, constituting human ultrasociality, are expressed through the formation of increasingly complex and extensive social networks, enabling flexible and diverse group organisation, sociocultural niche construction, engineered adaptation and resilience building. The human drive towards optimising communication infrastructures and expanding social networks is the key human adaptation underpinning the emergence of the Anthropocene. Understanding the deep roots of human ultrasocial behaviour is essential to guiding contemporary societies towards more sustainable human–environment interactions in the Anthropocene present and future. We propose that socially networked engineered solutions will continue to be the prime driver of human resilience and adaptive capacity in the face of global environmental risks and societal challenges such as climate change, sea-level rise, localised extreme weather events and ecosystem degradation

Mesolithic and late neolithic/Bronze Age activity on the site of the American Express Community Stadium, Falmer, East Sussex

Excavations on the site of the American Express Community Stadium, Falmer, East Sussex have revealed evidence for over 7,000 years of human activity. The earliest occupation was a mesolithic camp, where the production of flint tools (microliths) was carried out, on a scale unprecedented in East Sussex. There was little recognisable human activity in the early and middle neolithic but geoarchaeological investigations have shown that the landscape continued to change, with probable deforestation causing colluvial deposition within the river valley to the west. In the late neolithic/Early Bronze Age, a series of three ring ditches were dug, close to the location of the mesolithic pits. There are a number of possibilities as to what these ring ditches represent, but the most likely explanation is a group of barrows or other type of ceremonial ring ditch. Whatever their function, the structures were re-visited later in prehistory, a testament to the continued topographic importance of the site. Finally the site became the focus of Anglo-Saxon habitation, including a sunken-featured building, perhaps an outlying part of the precursor to Falmer village

General relation for stationary probability density functions

A linear relation between a normalized, time (t) dependent, statistically stationary quantity (z) and the normalized conditional expectation (r) of ∂2z/∂t2 allows r to generally satisfy two conditions subject to the stationarity requirement. Experimental data for both temperature and vorticity in several turbulent flows indicate that this relation appears universal. As a result, the exact expression derived by Pope and Ching [Phys. Fluids A 5, 1529 (1993)] for the probability density function (PDF) of any stationary quantity should generally reduce to the simpler form obtained by Ching [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 283 (1993)].J. Mi and R. A. Antoni

Biface form and structured behaviour in the Acheulean

According to some perspectives, the standardised nature of biface forms and the rule- governed nature of biface discard reflect a highly structured and static adaptation. Furthermore, it has also been suggested that the Acheulean represents a period of over a million years in which technological and social development were in relative stasis due to social limitations. In this paper we explore the possibility that this apparently static and highly conformable adaptation may have represented a crucial pre-linguistic phase in which humans became adept at engaging with, reacting to and manipulating an early semiotic environment. We also present evidence which suggests that, in addition to symmetry, there may have been an underlying preference for the manufacture of bifaces with proportions conforming to the ‘Golden Section’. The possibility that bifacial tool form and structured archaeological signatures might have combined to produce a self-organising effect on early human land-use behaviour is explored. These behaviours, we argue, formed through simple feedback mechanisms which led to the ordered transformation of artefact scatters over time. We suggest that the apparent homogeneity of Acheulean technology might therefore signal a cognitive phase in which material culture played a semiotic role prior to the development of language

Star Formation and AGN Activity in Galaxy Clusters from z=1−2z=1-2: a Multi-wavelength Analysis Featuring HerschelHerschel/PACS

We present a detailed, multi-wavelength study of star formation (SF) and AGN activity in 11 near-infrared (IR) selected, spectroscopically confirmed, massive ($\gtrsim10^{14}\,\rm{M_{\odot}}$) galaxy clusters at $1<z<1.75$. Using new, deep $Herschel$/PACS imaging, we characterize the optical to far-IR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for IR-luminous cluster galaxies, finding that they can, on average, be well described by field galaxy templates. Identification and decomposition of AGN through SED fittings allows us to include the contribution to cluster SF from AGN host galaxies. We quantify the star-forming fraction, dust-obscured SF rates (SFRs), and specific-SFRs for cluster galaxies as a function of cluster-centric radius and redshift. In good agreement with previous studies, we find that SF in cluster galaxies at $z\gtrsim1.4$ is largely consistent with field galaxies at similar epochs, indicating an era before significant quenching in the cluster cores ($r<0.5\,$Mpc). This is followed by a transition to lower SF activity as environmental quenching dominates by $z\sim1$. Enhanced SFRs are found in lower mass ($10.1< \log \rm{M_{\star}}/\rm{M_{\odot}}<10.8$) cluster galaxies. We find significant variation in SF from cluster-to-cluster within our uniformly selected sample, indicating that caution should be taken when evaluating individual clusters. We examine AGN in clusters from $z=0.5-2$, finding an excess AGN fraction at $z\gtrsim1$, suggesting environmental triggering of AGN during this epoch. We argue that our results $-$ a transition from field-like to quenched SF, enhanced SF in lower mass galaxies in the cluster cores, and excess AGN $-$ are consistent with a co-evolution between SF and AGN in clusters and an increased merger rate in massive haloes at high redshift.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures, 6 tables with appendix, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Early spears as thrusting weapons: Isolating force and impact velocities in human performance trials

Human hunting has been a cornerstone of research in human evolutionary studies, and decades worth of research programmes into early weapon systems have improved our understanding of the subsistence behaviours of our genus. Thrusting spears are potentially one of the earliest hunting weapons to be manufactured and used by humans. However, a dearth of data on the mechanics of thrusting spear use has hampered experimental research. This paper presents a human performance trial using military personnel trained in bayonet use. Participants thrusted replicas of Middle Pleistocene wooden spears into PermaGel™. For each spear thrust, impact velocity was recorded with high-speed video equipment, and force profiles were recorded using a force transducer. The results demonstrate that training improves performance when compared with previous experimental results using untrained participants, and that the mechanics and biomechanics of spear thrusting are complex. The trial confirms that previous spear thrusting experiments firing spears as projectiles are failing to replicate the entire spear thrusting event, and that crossbows are too powerful to replicate the low velocities involved in spear thrusting. In order to better understand evidence of spear thrusting in the archaeological record, experimental protocols accurately replicating and recording the mechanics of spear thrusting in the past are proposed