A palaeoenvironmental reconstruction (based on palaeobotanical data and diatoms) of the Middle Pleistocene elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) butchery site at Marathousa, Megalopolis, Greece

Bioarchaeolog

Puglia 2003 -Final Conference Project IGCP 437 Coastal Environmental Change During Sea-Level Highstands: A Global Synthesis with implications for management of future coastal change Project 437

Late Quaternary coastal changes along the western shores of the Laconic gulf (Peloponnesus, Greece) based on geomorphological and archaeological data Abstract The study area, located in southeastern Peloponnesus, extends along the western shores of the Lakonic gulf. Morphotectonicaly, the gulf and its northern extension form an asymmetric graben situated between the mountain masses of Parnonas (1935m) in the east and Taygetos (2407m) in the west. The Alpine lithology is composed of marbles, flysch, phyllites, volcanosedimentary rocks and limestones. The post Alpine formations are PlioPleistocene marls, conglomerates and sandstones together with upper PleiostoceneHolocene alluvial and coastal deposits. Regarding the tectonics, en echelon normal faults having NW-SE directions and dipping to the NE are observed in the west. As the archaeological observations suggest, these faults have been reactivated in historical times. Moreover the area is characterized by intense seismicity, as strong earthquakes have been reported since ancient times, indicating recent tectonic activity. Geomorphological and archaeological data have been used in order to determine the changes that have taken place in the western shores of the Laconic gulf since the Tyrrhenian period ( Lakonis: The Middle Paleolithic (120.000B.P. -35.000B.P.) finds come from the archaeological site Lakonis, which forms a cave complex on the beach. The site preserves rich lithic and fauna material characteristic of the Middle Paleolithic perio

People and plants: piecing together archaeological and archaeobotanical data to reconstruct plant use and craft activities in Mycenaean Tiryns

Archaeology of the Near East and the Mediterranea

Tracing the missing fragments of Cycladic architecture: a geo-ethnoarchaeological study on the degradable architectural elements of the Cyclades

Cycladic architecture has been the focus of archaeological, ethnographic and architectural studies, which have produced significant knowledge about the islands’ built environment. Despite the number of published studies, there is little archaeological evidence related to the parts of buildings, such as roofs and second storeys made of degradable materials (i.e. sediments and organic materials), which are nowadays lost or poorly preserved. On the other hand, ethnographic and architectural studies lack the details of local variabilities regarding the construction of the fragile architectural components. This geo-ethnoarchaeological study applied a high-resolution analysis including soil micromorphology and phytoliths to the roofs of abandoned traditional farmsteads (mitata) on two islands, Kato Kouphonisi and Naxos in the Cyclades, supplemented by oral testimonies from elderly residents and published ethnographic information. This was combined with comparable microstratigraphic analysis conducted on sediments from the nearby Early Bronze Age site of Dhaskalio, Keros. The analysis of abandoned farmsteads generated a high-resolution dataset of micro-characteristics linked to known practices and materials of traditional roof construction. These were then traced into our archaeological samples to detect similar features and ultimately improve on contextual interpretation beyond field observations. We therefore suggest that this geo-ethnoarchaeological approach is useful in the identification of roof sediments in archaeological deposits, enhancing the ability to recognise such events in the field and demonstrating that a signature of collapse events can be defined. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

Palaeoenvironments and site formation processes at the Neolithic lakeside settlement of Dispilio, Kastoria, Northern Greece

Dispilio is a lakeside settlement by the Orestias Lake, Kastoria, northern Greece. The site was inhabited from the Middle Neolithic to the Chalcolithic, with some surface evidence of Bronze Age occupation. Microfacies analysis of the sediments, supported by a suite of environmental indices, has provided detailed paleoenvironmental data and elucidated the main processes involved in the formation of the site and its history of occupation. The settlement was established on the lakeshore, on a shallow sand ridge and a shore marsh. Initially, houses were built on raised platforms above the water. After a major conflagration, a range of depositional microenvironments were established that caused local changes in the sedimentation rate. Therefore, some areas quickly emerged and became dry land, while some others continued to be flooded as part of the transitional supra-littoral environment. On the dry land, houses were built directly on the ground, whereas in the transitional areas houses continued to be built on raised platforms. Thus, gradually, a mound was formed and further shaped by subsequent lake-level fluctuations. One of the lake-level rises is tentatively related to the abandonment of the mound in the Chalcolithic and the development of a hardpan on its surface. There is also evidence of later occupation during the Bronze Age in the form of a few, mostly surface, archaeological remains. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

A forager-herder trade-off, from broad-spectrum hunting to sheep management at A kl Hoyuk, Turkey

Aşıklı Höyük is the earliest known preceramic Neolithic mound site in Central Anatolia. The oldest Levels, 4 and 5, spanning 8,200 to approximately 9,000 cal B.C., associate with round-house architecture and arguably represent the birth of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic in the region. Results from upper Level 4, reported here, indicate a broad meat diet that consisted of diverse wild ungulate and small animal species. The meat diet shifted gradually over just a few centuries to an exceptional emphasis on caprines (mainly sheep). Age-sex distributions of the caprines in upper Level 4 indicate selective manipulation by humans by or before 8,200 cal B.C. Primary dung accumulations between the structures demonstrate that ruminants were held captive inside the settlement at this time. Taken together, the zooarchaeological and geoarchaeological evidence demonstrate an emergent process of caprine management that was highly experimental in nature and oriented to quick returns. Stabling was one of the early mechanisms of caprine population isolation, a precondition to domestication