Nouvelles données sur le peuplement ancien de la Nouvelle-Calédonie : la vallée de la Koumac (Grande-Terre)

Les premières fouilles préhistoriques et datations réalisées dans la vallée de la Koumac montrent que l'occupation des vallées de Nouvelle-Calédonie est aussi ancienne que les premiers sites "Lapita" de la côte (ca. 3000 BP). Les vallées permettent également une étude interdisciplinaire de l'ensemble des activités humaines, y compris la production d'industrie lithique, peu étudiée jusqu'alors. (Résumé d'auteur

THE SANGIRAN FOSSIL SHELL ASSEMBLAGES CATALOGUE

Abstrak. Katalog Himpunan Fosil Kerang Sangiran. Makalah ini merupakan pemutakhiran himpunan fosil cangkang Sangiran di Jawa Tengah. Tujuannya untuk mendokumentasikan dan menyajikan  gastropoda dan kerang dari seri Kalibeng atas dan Pucangan Bawah Kubah Sangiran dari periode Plio-Pleistosen. Tercatat 61 taksa moluska hingga tingkat genus. Informasi yang dikumpulkan dari kumpulan moluska ditentukan oleh sejarah geologi dan lingkungan Sangiran. Mereka diasosiasikan dengan fasies yang berbeda: a) napal masif dan lempung biru, b) lapisan batugamping lempung, c) lempung kelabu berlumpur, d) breksi vulkanik dan lahar dan e) lempung hitam, dan terdiri dari sedimen yang merepresentasikan lingkungan laut hingga rawa yang mengarah ke perkembangan kontinental. Pola kuantitatif yang dicatat dalam kumpulan moluska menjelaskan palaeo-lingkungan dan hubungan antara kumpulan palaeodataset yang mapan dari analisis dan tingkat variabilitas dalam data paleontologi. Selain itu, cangkang yang teridentifikasi dapat digunakan sebagai referensi untuk perwakilan taksonomi Sangiran dan moluska di lapisan Kalibeng dan Pucangan Cekungan Solo di Jawa Tengah.   Abstract. This paper is an update of fossil shell assemblages of Sangiran in Central Java. It is aimed to document and present the gastropods and bivalves from the Upper Kalibeng and Lower Pucangan series of the Sangiran dome from the Plio-Pleistocene period. There are 61 mollusc taxa recorded up to the genus level. Information gathered from mollusc assemblages are determined by the geological and environmental history of the Sangiran. They are associated with different facies: a) massive marls and blue clays, b) layered clayey limestone, c) silty gray clay, d) volcanic breccia and lahars and e) black clays, and composed of sediments representing marine to swampy environments leading to continental development. The quantitative patterns recorded in mollusc assemblages elucidate the palaeoenvironment and the relationship between the established palaeodatasets of analysis and the levels of variability in palaeontological data. Moreover, the identified shells may be utilized as a reference for Sangiran and molluscan taxonomic representative in Kalibeng and Pucangan layers of Solo Basin in Central Java

The Exploitation of Toxic Fish from the Terminal Pleistocene in Maritime Southeast Asia: A Case Study from the Mindoro Archaeological Sites, Philippines

Representatives of the Diodontidae family (porcupinefish) are known to have been fished by prehistoric Indo-Pacific populations; however, the antiquity of the use of this family is thus far unknown. We report here on the presence of Diodontidae in the archaeological sites of Bubog I, II, and Bilat in Mindoro, Philippines, dating back to c. 13,000 BP (Before Present). This evidence demonstrates the early exploitation by islanders of poisonous fish. Every part of porcupinefish can be toxic, but the toxicity is mostly concentrated in some organs, while other parts are edible. The continuous presence of Diodontidae remains throughout the stratigraphic record of these Philippines shell middens suggests that porcupinefish were prepared by human inhabitants of the sites to render them safe for consumption, indicating an advanced cultural knowledge of the preparation needed to separate the toxic principle from the edible parts. This constitutes one of the rare examples of poison processing by humans, aside from the contentious wooden stick poison applicator from Border Cave (South Africa)