Death and Display in the North Atlantic: The Bronze and Iron Age Human Remains from Cnip, Lewis, Outer Hebrides

YesThis paper revisits the series of disarticulated human remains discovered during the 1980s excavations of the Cnip wheelhouse complex in Lewis. Four fragments of human bone, including two worked cranial fragments, were originally dated to the 1st centuries BC/AD based on stratigraphic association. Osteoarchaeological reanalysis and AMS dating now provide a broader cultural context for these remains and indicate that at least one adult cranium was brought to the site more than a thousand years after the death of the individual to whom it had belonged

A Brief Consideration of the Later Prehistoric Appearance and Possible Significance of the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) in the Covesea Caves of North-East Scotland

YesThis Short Note describes the distribution and composition of the great auk assemblage found within the Covesea Caves, and discusses its significance.Glasgow Natural History Society Professor Blodwen Lloyd Binns Bequest, the Prehistoric Society, and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Historic Environment Scotland and Aberdeenshire Council

Encounters and transformations in Iron Age Europe: the ENTRANS Project

YesThe Iron Age in Europe was a period of tremendous cultural dynamism, during which the values and constructs of urbanised Mediterranean civilisations clashed with alternative webs of identity in ‘barbarian’ temperate Europe. Until recently archaeologists and ancient historians have tended to view the cultural identities of Iron Age Europeans as essentially monolithic (Romans, Greeks, Celts, Illyrians etc). Dominant narratives have been concerned with the supposed origins and spread of peoples, like ‘the Celts’ (e.g. COLLIS 2003), and their subsequent ‘Hellenisation’ or ‘Romanisation’ through encounters with neighbouring societies. Yet there is little to suggest that collective identity in this period was exclusively or predominantly ethnic, national or even tribal. Instead we need to examine the impact of cultural encounters at the more local level of the individual, kin-group or lineage, exploring identity as a more dynamic, layered construct.HERA, European Commissio

Cultural Encounters in Iron Age Europe

noCultural encounters form a dominant theme in the study of Iron Age Europe. This was particularly acute in regions where urbanising Mediterranean civilisations came into contact with ‘barbarian’ worlds. This volume presents preliminary work from the ENTRANS Project, which explores the nature and impact of such encounters in south-east Europe, alongside a series of papers on analogous European regions. A range of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches are offered in an effort to promote dialogue around these central issues in European protohistory.HERAOnly the cover and contents pages are available on Bradford Scholars

From microanalysis to supercontinents: insights from the Rio Apa Terrane into the Mesoproterozoic SW Amazonian Craton evolution during Rodinia assembly

First published: 10 November 2021Deciphering the tectono-metamorphic evolution of Precambrian terranes can be difficult due to reworking by later superimposed events. Whole-rock elemental and isotopic geochemistry and zircon U–Pb geochronology are often employed in those studies, but these approaches are often not sensitive to the presence of multiple events and medium-grade metamorphic episodes. The Rio Apa Terrane (RAT), an allochthonous fragment of the Amazonian Craton, is a crustal block with a well-characterized evolution but with no detailed thermal constraints for its tectono-metamorphic evolution. In contrast to previous studies, we show the existence of four tectono-metamorphic events at c. 1780 Ma, c. 1625 Ma, c. 1420- 1340 Ma and c. 1300-1200 Ma on the basis of apatite, titanite and rutile U–Pb–REE, in-situ white-mica Rb-Sr and in-situ garnet Lu-Hf geochronology combined with mineral chemistry and phase-equilibria modelling. The c. 1780 Ma event is recorded in the basement of the Western domain, representing an extensional event coeval with the development of its Eastern domain in response to the retreat stage of the accretionary system. This is followed by juxtaposition of the Western and Eastern domains along a major crustal boundary at ca. 1625 Ma, which is defined by the magnetic profiles and zircon U–Pb-Hf data across the boundary. The third and fourth events correspond to progressive high-pressure/medium temperature (HP/MT) metamorphism, characterized by an anticlockwise P-T path, suggesting a convergent-to-collisional tectonic setting. The RAT was accreted to the adjoining Paraguá Terrane at c. 1420-1340 Ma under an isobaric P-T evolution spanning ~530 to 600 °C and ~10.0 kbar. Subsequently, the combined Rio Apa and Paraguá terranes collided with the SW Amazonian Craton at c. 1300-1200 Ma, reaching P-T conditions of ~560-580 °C and ~10.9- 11.7 kbar during crustal thickening. This study reveals for the first time the existence of a HP/MT metamorphic evolution related to the growth of the SW Amazonian Craton as part of an accretionary orogenic system during Rodinia assembly in the Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic.Bruno V. Ribeiro, Melanie A. Finch, Peter A. Cawood, Frederico M. Faleiros, Timothy D. Murphy, Alexander Simpson, Stijn Glorie, Mahyra Tedeschi, Robin Armit, Vitor R. Barrot

Redefining the timing and circumstances of the chicken's introduction to Europe and north-west Africa

This is the final version. Available on open access from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this recordLittle is known about the early history of the chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus), including the timing and circumstances of its introduction into new cultural environments. To evaluate its spatio-temporal spread across Eurasia and north-west Africa, the authors radiocarbon dated 23 chicken bones from presumed early contexts. Three-quarters returned dates later than those suggested by stratigraphy, indicating the importance of direct dating. The results indicate that chickens did not arrive in Europe until the first millennium BC. Moreover, a consistent time-lag between the introduction of chickens and their consumption by humans suggests that these animals were initially regarded as exotica and only several centuries later recognised as a source of ‘food’.Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Chair of Palaeoanatomy, LMU Munic