An early instance of upper palaeolithic personal ornamentation from China: The freshwater shell bead from Shuidonggou 2.

We report the discovery and present a detailed analysis of a freshwater bivalve from Shuidonggou Locality 2, layer CL3. This layer is located c. 40 cm below layer CL2, which has yielded numerous ostrich eggshell beads. The shell is identified as the valve of a Corbicula fluminea. Data on the occurrence of this species in the Shuidonggou region during Marine Isotope Stage 3 and taphonomic analysis, conducted in the framework of this study, of a modern biocoenosis and thanatocoenosis suggest that the archeological specimen was collected at one of the numerous fossil or sub-fossil outcrops where valves of this species were available at the time of occupation of level CL3. Experimental grinding and microscopic analysis of modern shells of the same species indicate that the Shuidonggou shell was most probably ground on coarse sandstone to open a hole on its umbo, attach a thread, and use the valve as a personal ornament. Experimental engraving of freshwater shells and microscopic analysis identify an incision crossing the archaeological valve outer surface as possible deliberate engraving. Reappraisal of the site chronology in the light of available radiocarbon evidence suggests an age of at least 34-33 cal kyr BP for layer CL3. Such estimate makes the C. fluminea recovered from CL3 one of the earliest instances of personal ornamentation and the earliest example of a shell bead from China.This research was supported by the Sino-French collaborative Programme Cai Yuanpei, the Chinese Ministry of National Education, the Chinese Higher Education and Research Council (MENESR), the China Scholarship Council (CSC), and the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZZD-EW-15).SP201

Elastomer and resin replicas for sem observation of metallic materials

The replica technique is often used to study damage evolution at the surface of specimens or industrial components and understand the physicial phenomena responsible for fatigue crack initiation before failure. Replicas are usually made from acetate cellulose film. This paper presents an alternative technique generally used by archaeologists to study lithic use-wear and bone modification. A mold is made from a dental elastomer (silicon based impression material) and a positive replica is made by casting epoxy resin in the mold. Comparative SEM analysis of damaged metallic specimens and their resin replicas show that this technique provides a good resolution and preserves details up to 0.5 micrometer. This easy and low cost method allows a systematic study of micro-crack growth

Presumed Symbolic Use of Diurnal Raptors by Neanderthals

In Africa and western Eurasia, occurrences of burials and utilized ocher fragments during the late Middle and early Late Pleistocene are often considered evidence for the emergence of symbolically-mediated behavior. Perhaps less controversial for the study of human cognitive evolution are finds of marine shell beads and complex designs on organic and mineral artifacts in early modern human (EMH) assemblages conservatively dated to ≈100–60 kilo-years (ka) ago. Here we show that, in France, Neanderthals used skeletal parts of large diurnal raptors presumably for symbolic purposes at Combe-Grenal in a layer dated to marine isotope stage (MIS) 5b (≈90 ka) and at Les Fieux in stratigraphic units dated to the early/middle phase of MIS 3 (60–40 ka). The presence of similar objects in other Middle Paleolithic contexts in France and Italy suggest that raptors were used as means of symbolic expression by Neanderthals in these regions

Lithic technological responses to Late Pleistocene glacial cycling at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, South Africa

There are multiple hypotheses for human responses to glacial cycling in the Late Pleistocene, including changes in population size, interconnectedness, and mobility. Lithic technological analysis informs us of human responses to environmental change because lithic assemblage characteristics are a reflection of raw material transport, reduction, and discard behaviors that depend on hunter-gatherer social and economic decisions. Pinnacle Point Site 5-6 (PP5-6), Western Cape, South Africa is an ideal locality for examining the influence of glacial cycling on early modern human behaviors because it preserves a long sequence spanning marine isotope stages (MIS) 5, 4, and 3 and is associated with robust records of paleoenvironmental change. The analysis presented here addresses the question, what, if any, lithic assemblage traits at PP5-6 represent changing behavioral responses to the MIS 5-4-3 interglacial-glacial cycle? It statistically evaluates changes in 93 traits with no a priori assumptions about which traits may significantly associate with MIS. In contrast to other studies that claim that there is little relationship between broad-scale patterns of climate change and lithic technology, we identified the following characteristics that are associated with MIS 4: increased use of quartz, increased evidence for outcrop sources of quartzite and silcrete, increased evidence for earlier stages of reduction in silcrete, evidence for increased flaking efficiency in all raw material types, and changes in tool types and function for silcrete. Based on these results, we suggest that foragers responded to MIS 4 glacial environmental conditions at PP5-6 with increased population or group sizes, 'place provisioning', longer and/or more intense site occupations, and decreased residential mobility. Several other traits, including silcrete frequency, do not exhibit an association with MIS. Backed pieces, once they appear in the PP5-6 record during MIS 4, persist through MIS 3. Changing paleoenvironments explain some, but not all temporal technological variability at PP5-6.Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada; NORAM; American-Scandinavian Foundation; Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia [SFRH/BPD/73598/2010]; IGERT [DGE 0801634]; Hyde Family Foundations; Institute of Human Origins; National Science Foundation [BCS-9912465, BCS-0130713, BCS-0524087, BCS-1138073]; John Templeton Foundation to the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State Universit

Late Quaternary sea-level change and early human societies in the central and eastern Mediterranean Basin : an interdisciplinary review

This article reviews key data and debates focused on relative sea-level changes since the Last Interglacial (approximately the last 132,000 years) in the Mediterranean Basin, and their implications for past human populations. Geological and geomorphological landscape studies are critical to archaeology. Coastal regions provide a wide range of resources to the populations that inhabit them. Coastal landscapes are increasingly the focus of scholarly discussions from the earliest exploitation of littoral resources and early hominin cognition, to the inundation of the earliest permanently settled fishing villages and eventually, formative centres of urbanisation. In the Mediterranean, these would become hubs of maritime transportation that gave rise to the roots of modern seaborne trade. As such, this article represents an original review of both the geo-scientific and archaeological data that specifically relate to sea-level changes and resulting impacts on both physical and cultural landscapes from the Palaeolithic until the emergence of the Classical periods. Our review highlights that the interdisciplinary links between coastal archaeology, geomorphology and sea-level changes are important to explain environmental impacts on coastal human societies and human migration. We review geological indicators of sea level and outline how archaeological features are commonly used as proxies for measuring past sea levels, both gradual changes and catastrophic events. We argue that coastal archaeologists should, as a part of their analyses, incorporate important sea-level concepts, such as indicative meaning. The interpretation of the indicative meaning of Roman fishtanks, for example, plays a critical role in reconstructions of late Holocene Mediterranean sea levels. We identify avenues for future work, which include the consideration of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) in addition to coastal tectonics to explain vertical movements of coastlines, more research on Palaeolithic island colonisation, broadening of Palaeolithic studies to include materials from the entire coastal landscape and not just coastal resources, a focus on rescue of archaeological sites under threat by coastal change, and expansion of underwater archaeological explorations in combination with submarine geomorphology. This article presents a collaborative synthesis of data, some of which have been collected and analysed by the authors, as the MEDFLOOD (MEDiterranean sea-level change and projection for future FLOODing) community, and highlights key sites, data, concepts and ongoing debates

L'impact de la variabilité climatique rapide des OIS3-2 sur le peuplement de l'Europe.

International audienceLes changements climatiques qui ont affecté notre planète ont influencé les populations d'hominidés à de multiples échelles. Nombreuses sont les études qui se sont intéressées aux conséquences des changements climatiques à long terme sur les processus d'émergence, d'adaptation et d'extinction des espèces d'hominidés (Vrba, 1988 ; Wolde Gabriel et al. , 1994 ; Vrba et al. , 1995 ; Foley, 1994 ; Potts, 1996, 1998 ; Finlayson et al. , 2004 ; de Menocal, 1995, 2001 ; Behrensmeyer et al. , 1997 ; Bobe et al. , 2002). Moins nombreux sont les travaux qui se sont intéressés aux conséquences sur les populations humaines de changement climatiques de forte amplitude et de relativement brève durée (d'Errico et al. , 2001 ; d'Errico et Sánchez Goñi, 2003 ; Sánchez Goñi et d'Errico, 2004 ; Demars, 2003 ; Joris et al. , 2003 ; Jöris et Weniger, 2002). Nous savons, grâce aux avancées de la paléoclimatologie, que de tels changements climatiques se sont produits entre 40 0000 ans et 10 000 ans avant le présent (Heinrich, 1988 ; Dansgaard et al. , 1993 ; Bond et al. , 1993) et ont affecté de plein fouet le continent européen (Sánchez Goñi et al. , 2002). C'est la période au cours de laquelle on assiste dans cette région du globe à l'arrivée des hommes anatomiquement modernes, à l'extinction des néandertaliens et, par la suite, au développement des civilisations dites du Paléolithique supérieur. Comment évaluer l'impact de ces changements climatiques sur les populations paléolithiques ? Les recherches menées jusqu'à présent se sont souvent limitées à proposer un lien de cause à effet en s'appuyant sur la contemporanéité présumée entre un événement ou une série d'événements climatiques et des phénomènes biologiques (extinction ou émergence de nouvelles espèces, changement dans leur biogéographie) ou culturels (apparition ou déclin de systèmes techniques, modes d'organisation sociale, changements dans la distribution géographique de ces traits). Il est évident, cependant, que la contemporanéité entre un événement climatique et culturel/biologique ne constitue pas en elle-même la preuve que le premier soit la cause du second. D'où la nécessité de rendre explicite l'approche susceptible d'étayer et, dans une certaine mesure, de vérifier l'hypothèse climatique