Studying Neolithic lithics – from a cross-border dialogue to a common language

This paper aims at introducing a recent European collaborative project dedicated to lithic studies of the Neolithic. It unites a group of archaeologists from France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, who belong to different research traditions. Our first meetings stressed the need for a cross-border dialogue and a common language for lithic analysis, including raw material analysis, blank production and tool production. We began by highlighting the differences and proximities between the different approaches, the potentialities to bridge these differences, the archaeological goals and the training needed. Our project, therefore, aims to harmonise our study practices in order to promote international communication and collaboration.In diesem Beitrag soll ein kürzlich ins Leben gerufenes europäisches Gemeinschaftsprojekt vorgestellt werden, das sich mit lithischen Studien des Neolithikums befasst. Es vereint eine Gruppe von Archäolog*innen aus Frankreich, dem Vereinigten Königreich, Belgien, den Niederlanden und Deutschland, die unterschiedlichen Forschungstraditionen angehören. Unsere ersten Treffen verdeutlichten die Notwendigkeit eines grenzüber- schreitenden Dialogs und einer gemeinsamen Sprache für die lithische Analyse, zu der die Analyse des Rohmaterials, der Grundformproduktion und der Werkzeugproduktion gehören. Wir begannen damit, die Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen den verschiedenen Ansätzen, die Möglichkeiten zur Überbrückung dieser Unterschiede, die archäologischen Ziele und die erforderliche Ausbildung herauszustellen. Unser Projekt zielt darauf ab, unsere Untersuchungspraktiken zu vereinheitlichen, um die internationale Kommunikation und Zusammenarbeit zu fördern

Light for the - Dead Strike-a-Lights in the Late Neolithic Megalithic Tombs from Erwitte-Schmerlecke (Kr. Soest)

In this article a larger series of Neolithic strike-a-lights from a verified closed find is presented for the first time. 206 strike-a-lights were discovered in two late Neolithic gallery tombs from Erwitte-Schmerlecke in the Westphalian Hellweg zone which were completely examined between 2009 and 2013. The series mainly consist of little-worked Baltic flint fragments; however, tools of Western European flint were used as well. Particularly noteworthy are the fragments of two types of axe blades of Lousberg flint as well as two flint strike-a-lights with inherent spherical remains of the associated marcasite nodule. Comparable archaeological finds and the number of individuals buried in the graves from Schmerlecke indicate that only men were provided with such percussion strike-a-lights perhaps as a part of their day-to-day equipment/costume

Optical dating of sediments in Wadi Sabra (SW Jordan)

At Wadi Sabra (SW Jordan) human occupation dates back to the Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic. Although there is stratigraphic correlation based on archaeological finds of Ahmarian origin, numerical age estimates are lacking. We applied single-aliquot optical dating of coarse grained quartz of wadi deposits and investigated the luminescence properties in detail to achieve more accurate age information about the time of human occupation. Weak luminescence signals and scattered dose distributions characterise the multi-grain aliquots. The residual doses of the investigated modern wadi sediment are between 0 and 7 Gy. Moreover, comparison of equivalent dose (De) values of 1 mm and 8 mm aliquots shows higher equivalent doses for the large aliquots. Both experiments indicate that the luminescence signal is partially bleached prior to deposition. The dose distributions of all samples are broadly scattered and have overdispersion values between 25 and 43%, some samples are significantly skewed. The shape of the dose distributions points to other sources of scatter, in addition to partial bleaching. Comparison of 1 mm multi-grain and single-grain data demonstrates that the luminescence signal of one multi-grain aliquot most likely is from a single grain. For this reason, variation in the number of photon counts due to the weak luminescence intensity and variations in beta microdosimetry have a bigger impact on the spread of dose distributions. However, we cannot quantify the particular impact of partial bleaching, weak luminescence intensity and beta microdosimetry. To account for the spread of the dose distribution, we use the central age model to calculate equivalent doses. Age calculations yield results in the range of 30-48 ka. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Multiple environmental change at the time of the Modern Human passage through the Middle East: First results from geoarcheological investigations on Upper Pleistocene sediments in the Wadi Sabra (Jordan)

Upper Pleistocene sediments at Wadi Sabra (Ma'an District, Jordan) were geoarcheologically investigated from 2008-2010. The Wadi Sabra valley system, situated east of the Dead Sea Rift and south of the ancient Nabataean capital of Petra, has preserved sedimentary deposits which are connected with several Upper Paleolithic sites. First results from sedimentological and geochemical analysis supported by archeological and radiometric dating provide evidence of fluvial and fluvio-eolian sedimentation during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 and 2 from at least 38 ka to 18 ka, followed by at least one erosional event that finally determined the recent valley morphology. Several calcretes, buried surfaces and initial soil horizons indicate phases of landscape stability and potentially moister climatic conditions than today. Inferred favorable environment of the time allowed for human occupation of the Wadi Sabra attested throughout the cultural stages of the Initial. Early, and evolved Upper Paleolithic and the early Epipaleolithic, thus illustrating the occurrence of Homo sapiens in the Near East. Field work at Wadi Sabra is expected to further elucidate the Out of Africa II movement of our species, leading modern humans to Europe, possibly via the Middle East and the Balkan Peninsula, both regions now under comparative investigation by the Cologne-Aachen B1 project group of the CRC 806. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved

The impact of rapid climate change on prehistoric societies during the Holocene in the Eastern Mediterranean

In this paper we explore the impact of Rapid Climate Change (RCC) on prehistoric communities in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Early and Middle Holocene. Our focus is on the social implications of the four major climate cold anomalies that have recently been identified as key time-windows for global RCC (Mayewski et al. 2004). These cooling anomalies are well-dated, with Greenland ice-core resolution, due to synchronicity between warm/cold foraminifera ratios in Mediterranean core LC21 as a proxy for surface water temperature, and Greenland GISP2 non sea-salt (nss) [K+] ions as a proxy for the intensification of the Siberian High and for polar air outbreaks in the northeast Mediterranean (Rohling et al. 2002). Building on these synchronisms, the GISP2 age- model supplies the following precise time-intervals for archaeological RCC research: (i) 8.6–8.0 ka, (ii) 6.0–5.2 ka, (iii) 4.2–4.0 ka and (iv) 3.1–2.9 ka calBP. For each of these RCC time intervals, based on detailed 14C-based chronological studies, we investigate contemporaneous cultural developments. From our studies it follows that RCC-related climatic deterioration is a major factor underlying social change, although always at work within a wide spectrum of social, cultural, economic and religious factors