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The Azraq oasis in the Eastern Desert of Jordan has produced considerable stone artefacts attributed to the early Palaeolithic, yet relatively few data are available regarding the chronology and palaeoenvironmental contexts of the remains. In this study, we present stratigraphic, sedimentological, and micropalaeontological analyses of the Late Acheulean site SM1 located within the former Shishan Marsh, which we combine with geochronological and sedimentological data from 13 neighbouring geological exposures to reconstruct landscape evolution at the western margin of the Shishan Marsh. We then discuss the Late Quaternary palaeolandscapes of the Greater Azraq Oasis Area over the past c. 350 ka. Our work demonstrates that the central Azraq Basin experienced three local wetting-drying cycles since the late Middle Pleistocene that would have dramatically shifted the quantity and distribution of freshwater resources, ranging from expansive wetland landscapes to desert refugia characterised by isolated spring pools—changes that would have significantly impacted the mobility decisions and settlement patterns of Palaeolithic inhabitants. Our study highlights that developing long-term records of human-environment dynamics in arid environments requires a mosaic approach to palaeoenvironmental reconstruction that is nested within a well-developed understanding of landscape evolution.

Canteen Kopje was a prominent location within the spread of nineteenth century mining camps at Klipdrift along the Vaal River. This article presents the results of excavation of the historical component of Canteen Kopje that produced an artifact assemblage in which European manufactured ceramics and glass are associated with objects of local manufacture, which attests to the cultural interaction that took place in the context of early mining. These finds of material culture are associated with a faunal assemblage of wild animals primarily the remains of quagga, a species that was soon to go in extinct. Based on historical documentation and pictorial representation it is argued that the earliest Vaal River diamond diggings here represent a stage of extractive economies in southern Africa when the rigid control of space and people that emerged subsequently was not yet fully developed.

Recent research on the origins of domesticated herd animals and bronze metallurgy in China suggests that the Ejiin gol in western China was a primary conduit of trade between northern pastoralists and southern agriculturalists (Jaang, 2015). It is within the context of long-distance trade in luxury goods that we see the shift from isolated populations of pastoralists in the mountains of western Mongolia to the widespread adoption of pastoralist cultural traditions. Based on evidence of interaction between Gobi Desert groups and agrarian villages to the south, we see this desert region as the geographic core of cultural transformations among indigenous populations, and at the forefront of a third stage of advance in the spread of East Asian pastoralism. Evidence presented here for increased trade in luxury goods at the beginning of the second millennium BC, when production was at its height, combined with the rapid pace of transformations in burial culture during the mid-second millennium BC suggests that the movement of goods held extreme significance for the spread of pastoralism. Therefore, the role that Gobi Desert groups played in the formation of early trade networks is vital for understanding the spread of pastoralism in Mongolia. Here, we present new evidence for stone bead production and dairying in the Gobi Desert, and discuss the full range of evidence for the role of Gobi Desert groups in emerging long-distance trade networks.

Recent research into the Paleolithic in the Balkans has provided better insights into the push-and-pull factors that influenced the expansion of modern humans into Europe, and the processes which led to the demise of the Neanderthals. This research has shown that modern humans probably used the Danubian corridor as the main route for their migration. It has also been demonstrated that the Middle Paleolithic ended significantly before the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) eruption in some places, but that groups of Neanderthals may have survived longer in the western and central parts of the Balkans. Given these findings, two non-mutually exclusive scenarios are proposed. In the first scenario, Neanderthals would have been pushed towards more marginal western and central areas of the Balkans where their extinction occurred. Under the second scenario, the Neanderthal communities withdrew to the interior of the peninsula at a time when there was a concentration of Upper Paleolithic groups in the eastern Balkans and in the most favorable ecological zones. Under the latter scenario, the acculturation of Neanderthals (possibly indicated by some transitional industries) was due to factors of attraction. Further research is needed to test both scenarios.

This paper examines Neo-Inuit (ca. AD 1250 to present) responses to the decreased temperatures of the Little Ice Age (LIA) climate change episode (ca. AD 1300–1900) in the Foxe Basin region of central Nunavut, Arctic Canada. Cooler temperatures (and increased sea ice) would be expected to have reduced both bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) and Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) habitats, forcing Neo-Inuit to refocus their hunting activities on landfast-ice-dwelling small seals (e.g., Pusa hispida) during winter months. However, an analysis of faunal remains from Foxe Basin's largest-known Neo-Inuit (Thule, historic and modern Inuit) archaeological site, Pingiqqalik (NgHd-1), reveals a long-term subsistence economy based largely on multi-seasonal walrus hunting. Two interrelated factors may explain these results: (1) a system of recurring polynyas provided a degree of ecological stability for local walrus populations, and (2) the development of a distinctive walrus caching regime—a form of which continues among the region's contemporary Inuit—allowed residents to adeptly exploit an ecological niche, thereby ensuring food security. Together, these factors likely insulated northern Foxe Basin Neo-Inuit from the worst effects of the LIA.

We show that known archaeological sites in the Wemindji area of central eastern James Bay in Canada are more likely to show higher shoreline stability within a 2 km radius than randomly selected locations. We show that archaeological sites are surrounded by areas of greater diversity in shoreline stability within a 20 km radius than random locations. We propose that a cultural algorithm guides the selection of occupation sites in the region, including by today's Cree occupants, which identifies islands of stability in a sea of change in order to minimize the need for residential mobility while maximizing the diversity of resources available through logistical trips. This algorithm favours residential stability and logistical mobility, and evolved in the context of rapid shoreline displacement caused by post-glacial isostatic land-uplift.

Previously identified periods of aridity in the palaeoclimate record for the Near East have been argued to have greatly impacted ancient societies, causing widespread changes to food production and the collapse of multiple ancient civilizations. This study employs a meta-analysis of zooarchaeological data from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age of the southern Levant and upper Mesopotamia to determine the impact of climatic oscillations upon animal food production systems. Comparisons of animal production strategies for sites across a range of zones of water availability demonstrates patterns of animal production contrary to what would be expected in response to increased aridity. These patterns indicate instead the resilience of production systems to periods of drought in the maintenance of desired levels of animal production.

International audience; Recently, the development of taphonomically-oriented studies of avifaunal assemblages have contributed towards renewing our perceptions of the complexity of Neandertal behavioral adaptations in Europe. In contrast, few studies have been conducted on bird samples dated to the Early Upper Paleolithic. Here, we provide new data for three archeological sites (Isturitz, le Piage, Abri Cellier) from southwestern France that have produced Aurignacian material. Evidence of bird processing, use of raptor talons and that bird bones served as raw material aid in enlarging our knowledge of how birds were exploited during the Aurignacian. Overall, the available information shows a clear focus on scavenging birds and points to only marginal changes in the way humans used birds during the Mousterian and Early Upper Paleolithic.

In 1890 the so called “Shigir Idol” was found in a peat bog and for a long time discussion on the dating of the wooden sculpture was going on. In the 1990s first conventional radiocarbon dates suggested a Mesolithic context, but a series of recent AMS-results date the object close to the beginning of the Holocene (c. 10,000 calBC). The surprisingly early date makes the find the earliest monumental wooden sculpture of the world. A direct parallel is not available and this hampers the interpretation and contextualization of the find. Here we discuss the find according to aspects such as wood working and the type of sculpture and decoration in the Late Palaeolithic to Early Mesolithic context of Eurasia. We can show that there is a long tradition of wood working since the Lower Palaeolithic and the very limited evidence of wooden objects from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic is due to preservation conditions. Anthropomorphic figures are sometimes present in Late Glacial art and less anthropomorphic representations are available from the Early Mesolithic. The geometric patterns of the Shigir sculpture such as simple lines and zigzag-ornaments are common elements of Late Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic decoration. In conclusion the different elements of the Shigir sculpture fit better to the record of Late Glacial to Early Mesolithic art in Eurasia than expected. We see this as a confirmation of the early date of the monumental sculpture. The figure demonstrates a complex expression of symbolic behavior and art of hunter-gatherers at that time. The only general parallel of monumental anthropomorphic figures from that time can be mentioned from the far distant Gobekli Tepe site in eastern Anatolia.

Since the middle of the 19th Century, when the first elephant remains were excavated near Madrid (Spain), continuous discoveries of proboscideans have taken place on the riverbanks of the middle and lower courses of the Manzanares and Jarama rivers. The pioneering research carried out by Aguilera y Gamboa in Torralba and Ambrona (Soria, Spain) in the early 20th Century was followed decades later by Howell and others. These various studies have ensured that the Iberian Peninsula is central to the debate over the human exploitation of proboscideans during the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic in Europe. An updated revision of the relationship between hominins and proboscideans in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula, specifically in the area located along the valleys of the Manzanares and Jarama rivers, has been carried out by the authors and is presented in this paper. European sites which show evidence of proboscidean exploitation are substantially greater in number during the Lower Palaeolithic than during the Middle Palaeolithic. In the Manzanares and Jarama valleys, a substantial number of sites with Acheulean lithic industry associated with elephant remains have been recorded, although plenty of evidence dating to the Middle Palaeolithic has also been found. This implies that Mousterian groups made use of these animal resources in a similar way to the Acheulean groups, and that there were no substantial changes to their subsistence strategies in relation to these mammals. Therefore, the exploitation of mega-mammals for food was a recurrent phenomenon during the Acheulean and Middle Palaeolithic in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula.

Human territoriality and the evolution of social boundaries are important and long-standing issues of concern to anthropologists and social scientists. One notable phenomenon is the intertribal buffer zone, an area that is generally devoid of occupation where certain resources can flourish without being overhunted. We examine the relative importance of resource depression and conflict on the formation of the buffer zone. We first develop a dynamic spatial model of a human group harvesting a large game resource at varying distances from a residential base locale. We then introduce a second human group and evaluate the model under two assumptions regarding the interaction between groups: 1) the groups maintain an amicable relationship and both harvest the game, and 2) the groups are hostile and engage in conflict as each hunt for game. We show how the potential for conflict reduces the incentive to harvest high-ranking resources, and prevents the overexploitation of resources in the buffer zone. We use the model expectations to evaluate two well-known North American case studies.

To understand the behavioral significance of the emergence and proliferation of blade technology in the northeastern Asian Upper Paleolithic, this paper explores the function of the earliest blade technology in Hokkaido, northern Japan, through an integrated analysis of edge morphology and use-wears on blade tools from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) assemblage of Kawanishi C. Although varied edge morphologies (i.e., straight, convex, concave, denticulate) have been distinguished, the results of use-wear analysis suggest that morphological differences of edges are not related to specific functions. Straight and convex edges experienced different use-lives and use-trajectories: both straight and convex edges were principally served for cutting/sawing and whittling, while some edges changed their functions to scraping as edge resharpening blunted the edges. The results of use-wear analysis also suggest that LGM blades were intensively used for performing a narrow range of activities (e.g., skin and meat stripping). Because this blade technology differs from the dominant flake technology in LGM Hokkaido, LGM foragers were able to employ it to perform intensive processing activity to exploit critical faunal resources that may have been sporadically clumped in the landscape. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

This paper presents a synthesis of the Early Upper Palaeolithic of Cova de les Cendres. Points of special attention are the sedimentary and micromorphological characterisation of level XVI, the analysis of the vegetal and animal resources and their incidence on the economy of the Gravettian human groups, and the characterisation of the landscape during this period. Furthermore, the paper offers important information of the lithic and bone assemblages, economic behaviour and radiocarbon dates of sub-levels XVIA and XVIB, related to the Gravettian, and XVIC and XVID, corresponding to the Aurignacian. Finally, the Gravettian and Aurignacian regional contexts in the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula are discussed, and the recent proposals for regional technological variation in the Iberian Gravettian industries are critically evaluated.

At the Holocene site of El Portalon at the Cueva Mayor in the karstic system of the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain), located in the northern plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, we found a Neolithic ceramic fragment with a very unique iconography, linking the inhabitants of this zone to populations in the peninsular Mediterranean and to other sedentary populations in Italy and Germany, which is a novel finding. Accordingly, we reflect on the creation of Early Neolithic symbolism in Europe and its cross-border circulation. Throughout their development, ramiform-anthropomorphic representations have been multiplied in very diverse designs and mediums, a fact that allows us to also reflect on a ceramic vessel found in another gallery at the Cueva Mayor, the Galeria del Silex, which possesses the same type of iconography. We suggest that the regional entities of the European Neolithic maintain strong alliances and a certain tendency towards symbolic globalization.

A basic premise of economics is that more secure property rights reduce conflict and provide an incentive for individuals to increase the productivity of their land. This premise underlies recent theories that food production and more secure property rights, by necessity, co-evolve. The argument goes like this: Dense and predicable resources provide an incentive for more secure property rights and more secure property rights provide an incentive for individuals to modify ecosystems in ways that increase the production of food. Here, we evaluate the effect of property rights on food production among ethnographically recorded hunter-gatherers. In particular, we use path models to evaluate a recent theory for the evolution of ownership rights and ecosystem management in forager-resource systems called the Niche Construction Model of Economic Defense. We conclude that ownership has a positive effect on food production strategies that require reduced coordination between individuals (such as planting and tending patches), but potentially has a negative effect on other food production strategies such as landscape burning. Further, the coefficient of variation in rainfall and population density consistently have positive effects on the presence of food production. We discuss the implications of our results for explaining different trajectories of hunter-gatherer intensification in the archaeological record.

Ethnographic populations throughout Western North America relied on strategies and institutions to protect resources for exclusive use, though the degree of territorial defense varied significantly across the region. Attempts to explain this variation typically focus on the ecological contexts that promote economic defensibility, however, it is increasingly recognized that social dynamics also play a critical role because territoriality requires within group coordination or cooperation. Building on ideal distribution models, here we present a hypothesis for territorial defense that links ecological, economic, and social factors through Allee's principle: positive covariance between utility and the number of cohabiting individuals up to intermediate population densities. We predict that when foragers experience an Allee-like economy of scale, individual interests are more likely to align and facilitate within group cooperation and the exclusion of out-group competitors. We evaluate this model using data on 157 foraging populations from contact-era Western North America. The results support our predictions, showing that larger cooperative groups have greater levels of territorial behavior, specifically higher levels of resource ownership and intergroup violence. Thus, incorporating Allee's principles may help to explain how territorial behaviors can emerge, driven by the individual benefits gained from aggregation in ecological contexts where economic returns to scale make in-group cooperation and out-group exclusion worthwhile.

The territorialization of resources is a continual topic of interest for researchers investigating human social organization and resource competition. While scholars have proposed numerous archaeological markers of territoriality, these indicators are often established using qualitative observation and speculation rather than standardized methods and quantitative tests. In this article, we investigate the link between archaeological data and prehistoric territoriality using Formative period Fremont sites from Nine Mile Canyon (NMC), Utah, and geospatial statistical tests. Numerous researchers have suggested the presence of NMC sites with explicit defensive functions. The existence of large tower structures and remote storage units have led many to hypothesize that these features were part of a Fremont strategy to maintain territorial boundaries and defend resources from human predation. Here, we focus on the tower sites and their relationship to Fremont territoriality. Our results support the hypothesis that the tower sites of NMC functioned as defensive refuges. The presence of refuge sites reveals that the NMC Fremont avoided the confrontations necessary to exclude competitors and maintain territorial boundaries. We propose an explanatory model relating to seasonal mobility and settlement dispersion to explain why the costs of territoriality may have outweighed the benefits.

A century ago, in the excavation of El Penicial Cave in Asturias (North Spain), Count Vega del Sella documented the first materials known to belong to the Asturian culture. That was the name for the new culture proposed by H. Obermaier in his book El Hombre Fósil (1916). Due to this German prehistorian's publications and those of authors like M. C. Burkitt, the Asturian soon became well-known internationally. This situation was especially noticeable after the 1970s, and has continued until the present time. After a hundred years of studies from different theoretical viewpoints and debates in different forums, this paper presents a critical reflection on what is known and not known about this classic European Mesolithic culture, characterised by the massive presence of shell-middens. Cultural-history and processual approaches have guided research on the Asturian. This determines the nature of our knowledge about this culture, localised in the central part of the southern coast of the Bay of Biscay. After a long debate on the Asturian chronology, doubts do not exist now regarding its post-Azilian age. However, the question of the relationship between the Asturian and Neolithic remains unresolved. The hypothesis of the continuity of the Asturian shell-middens after the sixth millennium cal BC is, for the moment, the best way to fill the information gap covering the period of 5000-4300 cal BC. Research in recent years has provided more information about the economy of these hunter-gatherer societies. However, key aspects, such as the use of wild plants are still little understood. The latest finds of lithic hunting weapons and shells used as tools open new perspectives for the study of Asturian technology. The role played by the shell-middens in their cultural context is still one of the key issues in Asturian research. Recent excavations have confirmed that there were occupations inside the middens, which at other times were mere accumulations of waste. Open-air settlements outside the caves also existed. Further research is required to understand how both realities, the middens and the nearby open-air sites, interacted. Although archaeological evidence linked to symbolic behaviour is scarce, the symbolic thought of the Asturian groups is seen in their mortuary sites, whose noticeable increase is probably related to the stable/recurrent use of the sites. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA

Bedrock mortars were an integral part of intensive acorn economies in Native California and are a prominent feature of the Late Holocene archaeological record of the Sierra Nevada. Construction of these milling features also indicates a long-term investment in the landscape. Ethnographic evidence suggests the importance of local acorn crops and other resources led to ownership and defense of property and resource rights in many areas. Through a combination of time-sensitive projectile points and obsidian hydration dating, we show that bedrock mortars became widely used in the Sierra Nevada after 1300 cal BP, and that this was coincident with the arrival of the bow and arrow to the region. When and where bedrock milling features occur provides evidence for evolving territorial behavior during the Late Holocene and further insights into how prehistoric Californians leveraged technology and behavioral changes to solve the difficult problem of making a back-loaded resource both palatable and profitable.

Articulating cultural constructs in time and space and associating them with molecular biology data yield a consistent picture of European history in the late Western prehistory (24–18,000 years). A number of different African migrations resulted in deep-seated acculturation of the local ethnic populations, and these changes led to the Magdalenian civilisation (Lascaux). From that point onward this new tradition resting on well-established values and equipped with sophisticated technical devices was clearly distinct from other original components and would gradually spread upon Northern plains as far as Poland, while the planet was still in the grip of a periglacial age.

The Levantine sites of Skhul and Qafzeh have been interpreted as indicating an early, short and unsuccessful expansion of Homo sapiens out of Africa. Chronometric age estimates, however, indicate a history of prolonged occupation, and suggest that Skhul (∼130–100 thousand years ago [ka]) may have been occupied earlier than Qafzeh (beginning ∼110–90 ka). Morphologically, the Skhul individuals can be described as somewhat more primitive in comparison to the Qafzeh fossils. Though the lithic assemblages of sites such as Skhul and Qafzeh are often described as being technologically similar, as part of the ‘Tabun C’ phase/industry, limited detailed information on the Skhul lithic assemblage has been published, and little comparative work has been conducted. Here, we present an analysis of the Skhul stone tool assemblage to describe its characteristics, to evaluate the lithic results against the fossil and chronological data, and for inter-site regional comparison. Our findings indicate that the Skhul lithic assemblage differs from other Levantine Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 sites, such as Qafzeh. For example, there was more of an emphasis on diverse methods of point production at Skhul, and the available samples indicate a greater emphasis on preferential rather than recurrent Levallois reduction at Skhul. The current findings suggest that neither the Levantine Middle Palaeolithic in general, nor MIS 5 assemblages in particular, were technologically homogeneous. These data are consistent with either a long occupation of the Levant by Homo sapiens in MIS 5, or at least two phases of occupation (early MIS 5 and mid to late MIS). Whatever the fate of the Skhul and Qafzeh population(s), their occupation of the Levant was neither short nor culturally uniform. Our findings add to the growing pool of evidence that the dispersal of our species ‘Out of Africa’ was more complex than hitherto thought. Further work on MIS 5e contexts in the Levant and elsewhere in Southwest Asia should be a research priority.

In this paper, we look at the emergence of territorial behavior through the lens of ritual and stylistic expression. Our task is made approachable by an extraordinary Archaic-age collection of over 1500 incised stones recovered from the Sacramento River Canyon in northern California. This location marks a major ecological boundary where quintessential Californian food staples, such as oak, grey pine, and salmon, abruptly become much more discontinuous and less productive. We position the incised stones in terms of their signaling potential, particularly their role in ritual behaviors that promoted in-group cooperation and solidarity that, in turn, were crucial for the defense and territorial control of these productive resource tracts. The appearance of such ritual expression at approximately 6000 to 5000 years ago may mark a fundamental transition in demography, land-use, and social complexity observed throughout much of California at this time.

Historical charcoal production has long been an unconsidered type of forest utilization in lowland areas. The archaeological discovery of a large charcoal burning area in the forefield of the active opencast lignite mine Janschwalde in SE Brandenburg (North German Lowlands) has highlighted the need for multidisciplinary research in the study of the dimensions of historical charcoal burning. The charcoal produced in our study area, the former royal forest district Tauer, provided energy for the nearby Peitz ironworks during its operation from the mid-16th to the mid-19th century. Here, we aimed to record the amount, size and distribution of relict charcoal hearths (RCHs) to examine their context with respect to the ironworks and to better understand the potential impacts on late Quaternary landscape change. The applied methods combined archaeological research with shaded-relief mapping of RCHs. To evaluate the detection success of RCHs in the shaded-relief maps (SRMs), we compared the results with the results from specific archaeological surveys and conventional forest site mapping. Furthermore, we analyzed our dataset with descriptive, comparable and spatial statistics. Additionally, dendrochronological dating of charcoal fragments from selected RCHs was used to investigate the temporal relationships among the RCHs. Approximately 6000 circular RCHs were manually digitally identified in the SRMs of the 109-km2 evaluable area. However, ground truthing showed that the shaded-relief maps could not completely capture all RCHs in our study area due to local conditions. At the regional scale, two focus areas with high RCH site densities were found. Statistical analysis revealed that the diameters of the RCHs range widely from 4 to 30.5 m. Spatial statistics were applied to the RCH diameters to aggregate areas with larger or smaller RCHs. At the small scale, no systematic arrangement of RCHs was obvious in the SRMs. Dendrochronological dating of selected RCHs lying close together could not detect significant spatiotemporal relationships or patterns. The dating results also showed that some areas have been preferentially used for charcoal production for over 300 years. Due to the homogeneity of the physio-geographical location factors, we assume that these factors are not superficially responsible for site selection. Instead, economic location factors and contemporary regulations are more likely responsible for the distribution of RCHs.

In this paper, I intend to show that the notion of an exchange network is much more useful than that of territory in the study of Paleolithic societies. The heuristic benefit of the notion of exchange network is demonstrated by its adaptability to different spatial scales, from local to regional and supra-regional, the last one being difficult to integrate in the traditional concept of territory. Models issued from the study of contemporary hunter-gatherers are easily applied to the European Upper Paleolithic. Interactions between groups should satisfy two contradictory requirements: each group needs to maintain its identity through specific markers, but on the other hand, it needs to communicate with neighbors and share with them material resources and cultural features such as beliefs and symbols. Hence the complex patterns that can be found in rock art and portable art, consisting in a mixture of strictly localized traits and other widely shared features. Exchange networks may be analyzed at different scales and their fluctuations over the course of time give us some access to the dynamics of Paleolithic human geography. In particular, I will evaluate this hypothesis using examples from the graphic images and forms of the Upper Paleolithic “arts”.

Dagmar Cave, Czech Republic, is the first locality in the Moravian Karst where sediments of Cromerian age have been discovered and it is the first locality with such a large number of species of molluscs of this age. It was originally a swallow hole initiated in the Neogene, which has since accumulated sediments. Basal sediments are palaeontologically-sterile stream boulders, originating from weathered Lower Carboniferous rock. After this, fossiliferous, loamy sediments were carried in from the entrance by streams and/or gravity. Molluscan and vertebrate assemblages, along with palynological remains, are indicative of interglacial conditions. Faunal analysis determined that this could only consist of one interglacial, either Cromerian III or IV. This is the first record of Middle Pleistocene molluscan fauna in the Moravian Karst. Palynology demonstrated a humid and thermophilic vegetation typical of a Cromerian interglacial, with forest, and probably water, and an open grassy/bushy area close to the cave. The age is constrained by a MIS 7 U-Th date (182 ka) on the calcite flowstone that overlies the interglacial material and underlies the palaeontologically more sterile upper sediments.

Signs in Upper Palaeolithic art provide an important criterion of assessing cultural affinities or differences. The Swabian Jura in southern Germany and Grotte Chauvet in the Ardeche region in southern France – both inscribed in the list of the UNESCO world heritage - supply the most important examples of Aurignacian art known so far. Of a particular interest in this respect are characteristic types of signs which can be associated with depictions of animals. This paper examines the distinctive ways in which this association is realized in these two regions, including the question which type of signs was employed. Despite of the small data base and the lack of sophisticated statistical tests, this study may help to provide first hints to the question if the Aurignacian groups of the Ardeche and the Swabian Jura, whose areas are linked by important river systems, used similar or different sets of signs and in which animal contexts these signs were used. These results may give indications to what extent these groups were part of the same or different cultural entities and subsequently shared feelings of a common ethnicity and belief-world or not.

Transformation of landscape with symbolic art does not only mark a space as sacred. Such demarcations also serve as symbols of other social functions, such as the delineation of territories and exchange of information. As enduring monuments to the past, they symbolise a territory of time; as part of a cultural landscape, they symbolise a territory of space. A distributional study of evidence of symbolic territoriality in the landscapes of three rock art sites from the Neolithic – Early Metal periods in Finland, this work utilises GIS spatial analysis to locate prehistoric dwelling sites and sacred sites (red ochre burials, cairn burials, cremation burials, and cup-stones) within 5 and 10 km catchment zones of the pictographs sites. The results are interpreted with explanatory models from Information Exchange Theory and territorial analysis.

In this paper, we focus on the most critical but low-studied Late Roman phase (3rd-6th century AD) of Mutina, an important Roman colony situated in Northern Italy. During this period, partly including the Late Antique, the seasonal variability with inconstant precipitation might have been responsible for devastating flood events. In the Po Plain, lying on four regions of Northern Italy (Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto), an impressive set of flood events occurred that resulted in evident, sometimes thick sediment strata, in between the Roman archaeological layers, and after their full deposition. The research is a key example of integrated archaeobotanical analyses based on five archeological sites (on-site records) excavated within the modern city of Modena and studied for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Plant micro- and macro-remains were analysed in the framework of interdisciplinary archaeological studies, aiming at reconstructing the main floristic, vegetational and palaeoecological features of Mutina and its surroundings. Since early phases of the Roman age, there have been wetlands and thinly scattered mixed oakwoods that together with human environments, i.e. cereal fields and gardens, characterised the plant landscape of the area. Interestingly, during the Late Roman period, the woodland cover increased. Overall, the archaeobotany studies highlighted the effects of the floods on the city of Modena and its surroundings showing that subsequent episodes of floods favoured the expansion or spreading of wetlands with the development of hygrophilous woods in the later phases, after the flood of the 6th century AD.

Northeastern Jordan is one of the few remaining regions in the Middle East where pastoral nomadism is still practiced. In this desert region, pastoral mobility is an adapted land use able to cope with low rainfall rates, great seasonal and annual rainfall variations and thus heterogeneous vegetation and water availability. During winter, herders and their livestock move into the desert; in summer they move to the desert margins to places with perennial water supply. First traces of mobile pastoralism date back to the beginning of the Late Neolithic. Within the basaltic region of northeastern Jordan, there is a dense distribution of archaeological remains; some of them can be linked to pastoral groups due to the herders' ancient practice of building agglomerations of sub-circular enclosures ('clustered enclosures') made of basalt boulders for corralling their flocks and domestic activities. These features provide an excellent opportunity to investigate a landscape that shows traces of pastoral activity since eight to nine Millennia. In this study, 9118 clustered enclosures in the northeastern Jordanian basalt desert have been systematically recorded using satellite imagery. In order to investigate potential migration or communication routes, grazing lands and social interactions of former pastoralists, we examine their first- and second-order characteristics using distance and density based approaches of point pattern analyses by integrating geomorphometric and geomorphological site properties. The results of this spatial analysis are combined with available archaeological data and a review on traditional herding practices in northeastern Jordan. Overall, the results demonstrate that the observed spatial distribution of clustered enclosures is influenced locally by natural characteristics but regionally by cultural practices.

Archaeological excavations at the settlement of Vilauba (north-east of the Iberian Peninsula) carried out since 1984 until now have allowed the documentation of a rural villa occupied from the 1st century BC to the second half of the 7th century AD. During its extensive and continued occupation, the villa suffered several architectural changes as a result of the different needs in each period. The most important transformation in the organization of the building was during the 6th-7th centuries. The plan, organization and general characteristics of this settlement clearly contrast with the scheme of the villa from the preceding phases. With this paper, we want to analyse if these architectural changes can be linked with economic transformations. The analyses of faunal and seed remains from the different occupations of the villa show that important changes also took place in animal husbandry during the 6th-7th centuries. There was an emphasis on the exploitation of caprines while the archaeobotanical record shows continuity in the management of the fields already observable during the 4th-5th centuries. This shows to some extent the emergence of a different land use connected to animal exploitation after the arrival of the Visigoths to the site. The study and comparison of the available bioarchaeological data from the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula corroborates that there was a general transformation in animal herding practices during the 6th-7th centuries in the region.

The transition from the Late Pleistocene to the Early Holocene in the Eastern Mediterranean is marked by an abrupt change in sea levels, landforms, ecology and resources. These new geomorphological conditions favored the formation of attractive environmental settings for the early farmers, having at the same time a significant taphonomic impact on the archaeological record of the Late Pleistocene. During the Early Holocene, on the other hand, the abrupt climatic 8.2 ka event has been recorded as a period of hyperaridity in Anatolia and the Levant, associated with pronounced cultural discontinuities. At the same time, increasing humidity and cooling is documented in central Europe, while seasonality and variability characterizes the intermediate zones, whose magnitude and spatial expression are not yet fully understood. This article reviews the geomorphological configuration and palaeoclimatic records of the Late Pleistocene–Holocene transition in Northern Greece, a key location for understanding the pathways of neolithization in Europe. With its fragmentary Early Neolithic record, Northern Greece demonstrates significant geomorphological modifications during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition, while being part of the transitional climatic zone in the 8.2 ka event. The landscape configuration is described, emphasizing the role of wetlands as significant locales for the onset of agriculture, while the environmental–cultural interaction in the first centuries of the neolithization is discussed, combining the paleoenvironmental, stratigraphical and chronological evidence for the first farmers and last hunter-gatherers.

Resinous and tarry materials have been valuable commodities since prehistory as their widespread use for numerous purposes indicates, but remain largely neglected by archaeological research, in part due to their poor preservation and the need for chemical analyses to identify them. This paper explores the use of these plant exudates in northern Greece and the Balkans during the Early and Middle Holocene with the aim of documenting the production and use of tarry materials and the exploitation of woodland resources. To this end tarry material found on pottery from 10 neolithic settlements located in North Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, spanning the Early to Late Neolithic periods (7th to 5th millennia BC), were analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and identified using the biomarker approach. Data from analysis of wood charcoal found at Neolithic sites together with the pollen record have also been considered in order to assess the availability of raw materials to local populations. The results of biomolecular analysis show that birch-bark tar was almost exclusively used by Neolithic communities located in the Balkan hinterland, while a more complex picture arises for the northern Aegean area. Here, in addition to the predominant birch-bark tar, pine resin and pitch have also been identified as well as beeswax. The pollen and anthracological record suggest that birch existed in northern Greece and the Balkans hinterland during the Early Holocene, but must have been restricted to the uplands. Procurement of raw material may have taken place, therefore, at some distances from the settlements, involving the movement of people and raw materials or final products within the wider region. Chemical analysis provides evidence for variability in the production of tarry materials between settlements in northern Greece, while in the Balkan interior tar-making appears to have followed a more standardised recipe.

The emergence of agriculture in Greece denotes the start of the Neolithic in Europe, however, little is known about dietary practices in the region. Archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological remains indicate reliance on cereals and pulses, together with meat-based subsistence practices, including sheep/goat and pig husbandry. Preliminary investigations of dietary practices obtained through lipid residue analysis of pottery of a small number of sites in the region have confirmed primarily carcass products were processed. The weak evidence for dairy products contrasts with finding of dairy-based subsistence strategies in NW Anatolia, which is surprising given its close proximity. This paper aims to build on this earlier work to provide a more detailed model for the dietary changes throughout the region, both chronologically and spatially. To achieve this >900 potsherds from 11 sites spanning the Early (EN) to Late Neolithic (LN) periods from the north of Greece have been investigated using the lipid biomarker approach involving high temperature-gas chromatography (HT-GC), GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and GC-combustion-isotope ratio MS (GC-C-IRMS) to determine the nature and origins of organic residues preserved in the fabric of pottery vessels. Lipid residue analysis of pottery vessels revealed ruminant and non-ruminant carcass fats comprise the majority of animal fat types identified, reflecting the high abundance of sheep/goat and pig in faunal assemblages. The emergence of dairying in northern Greece can now be dated to the site of EN/Middle Neolithic (MN) Ritini (5900/5700 - 5500 cal. B.C.E.), however, the frequency of dairy fat residues was low, overall, indicating that dairying was not intensively practised. The δ13C values of the fatty acids extracted from potsherds reflect a predominately C3 diet, however, in the EN and MN there is greater variation with some lipids exhibiting enriched δ13C values indicating a significant abundance of C4 plants in the ecosystem(s) covered by the study. Significantly, plant-derived n-alkanes (C22 to C34) detected in pottery vessels provide the first evidence for plant processing identified in lipid residues from ceramic vessels in Neolithic northern Greece, supporting the abundant archaeobotanical evidence for the processing of cereals and pulses.

The open-air settlement of Revenia-Korinou has yielded the largest Early Neolithic (7th millennium BC) faunal assemblage to date from Greece. The assemblage, recovered from numerous pits, is heavily dominated by domestic sheep, goats, pigs and cattle. Here we focus on the evidence for butchery and consumption of animals, to explore how carcass products were cooked (in the absence of cooking pots) and what if any role they played in commensal politics. Evidence for dismembering and filleting is sparse, implying butchery of domestic animal carcasses into large segments (including more or less complete limbs) for cooking, apparently in ovens or pits rather than on open fires. Subsequently limb bones were intensively smashed to extract marrow and probably grease, perhaps by boiling in organic containers. Dismembering, filleting and marrow extraction were most intensive for cattle, but bone grease was more systematically exploited in the case of sheep/goats, implying differences between taxa in contexts of consumption. Significant differences between pits in taxonomic composition and the incidence of gnawing and burning suggest that each represents short-term and/or localized discard, perhaps by a small residential group. Within individual pits, matching unfused diaphyses and epiphyses and joins between fragments broken in antiquity confirm rapid burial, but bones separated by dismembering seem to have been dispersed across the settlement before discard. The distribution of carcass products, both cooked and uncooked, played a role in shaping relationships between small residential units and the wider community at Early Neolithic Revenia-Korinou.

Wood charcoal (anthracological) remains accumulated in archaeological deposits provide a valuable tool for reconstruction of past local vegetation and its use. They can offer evidence complementary to pollen analysis or be the main source on past vegetation change in areas where no pollen preservation is available. The current study assembles the anthracological evidence from 18 Neolithic sites situated in the zone spanning between the Lower Danube plain and the Aegean coast. This evidence is presented within the broader archaeological and paleoecological context of the region and in cal. years BC and/or BP. The data is interpreted in terms of land-use related to woodland management and exploitation of woodland resources during three chronological phases which could be distinguished within the Neolithic of south-eastern Europe: a) 6500-5800 cal. BC, b) 5800-5500 cal. BC, and c) 5500-4900 cal BC). The main vegetation type targeted by the Neolithic population were the thermophilous, mixed deciduous oak communities, which contained a rich and diverse undergrowth of light-demanding and fruit/nut bearing trees, shrubs and herbs. Those plant communities were the major source of fuel wood, forest pasture, fodder, gathered fruits, etc. The analyses indicate stability and sustainability of the firewood procurement and woodland management practices for the whole considered period and further suggest that the Neolithic land-use strategies favoured the rich and often fruit-bearing undergrowth of the oak forests and woodland.

The Upper Palaeolithic open-air site of Landry, near Perigueux in the Aquitaine region of southwestern France, lies on an alluvial plain of the Isle River. The site contains two stratified Late Solutrean levels preserved over 300 m2 within aeolian silts and dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to between 27 and 16 ky. Only lithic material was present in both levels, with organic material having been destroyed by post-depositional processes. The upper level, associated with a thermoluminescence (TL) date of 21 ky, obtained from burnt flint, produced the remains of a hunting camp organised into different sectors containing cobble reserves, features in large alluvial blocks or heated cobbles, and specialised activity zones for the production and use of highly varied domestic as well as hunting tools. The lithic assemblage comprises more than a hundred laurel leaf points, bifacial tools and shouldered points that reflect either considerably different degrees of technical knowledge and know-how amongst the group(s) who occupied the site and or highly diversified needs. The importation and circulation of flint points in non-local raw materials likely suggests the occupation to have been connected with other Late Solutrean sites within an expansive subsistence and raw material provisioning territory. The remarkable preservation of habitation features, the varied composition of the toolkit and the exceptional presence of mobiliary art makes Landry a benchmark for better understanding the technology and socio-cultural organisation of Late Solutrean groups in the Aquitaine Basin.

At the sites of Monruz and Champreveyres highly diverse allochtonous siliceous raw materials were introduced sometimes from very distant regions (up to 200 km). Analysis of the composition of the lithic assemblages enables us to identify the form in which these materials arrived and to observe that some cores and tools were exported from the site. Other materials, such as jet, fossil shells and amber, are geolocatable and also demonstrate circulations over very long distances (over 200 km). While the flints suggest regions that were directly frequented by Magdalenian people and/or exchanges between human groups, the other materials were most likely obtained through exchanges of objects and/or persons. They attest to contacts beyond the territory directly occupied by the groups living at Monruz and Champreveyres.

Close examination of the geographic position of Early Neolithic settlements in SE-Europe shows that the oldest sites are almost exclusively situated in some very specific biogeographic areas. These earliest Neolithic settlements are all concentrated in a region that Pavle Cikovac calls the Sub-Mediterranean-Aegean biogeographic region. It covers the northern and north-western edge of the Aegean, including Thessaly, Greek Macedonia and Greek Thrace, and extends further into the Balkans, but only along the valleys of the Vardar (Axios), Struma (Strymon) and Mesta (Nestos) rivers. Surprisingly, although Thrace is the closest landscape to Anatolia, it does not contain any sites of the earliest phase of the Neolithic at all beyond the narrow zone of the northern Marmara. In the present paper we explain this remarkable situation in terms of the natural environment in this particular region of the southern Balkans. To begin, we propose that the lack of oldest Early Neolithic settlements in Thrace is related to the extreme microclimate of this region. As shown by modern vegetation analogues, Thracian oriental hornbeam-downy oak forests are exposed to stronger continental influence with frosts in the winter and average temperatures during the coldest months that are ca. 2–3 °C lower than those in the Central Balkans that have Sub-Mediterranean vegetation. In general terms, what we may expect is that the earliest Neolithic groups would first appear in regions with similarly mild conditions, on a yearly average, to those in the Mediterranean. Such mild conditions are indeed present in the Sub-Mediterranean biogeographic region. On the other hand, before moving further to the north along the north-south oriented river systems of the Central Balkans, the Neolithic economy based on agriculture and stockbreeding would first have to be adapted to the relatively harsh winters in the Balkans. In consequence, it would have been possible to apply the new Neolithic lifestyle in the neighbouring areas of Thrace, Walachia, Dobrudža and the Carpathian Basin only after a certain period of adaptation. Available 14C-data show that the adaptation period is identical to the time-span of Rapid Climate Change (RCC: 6550-6050 calBC) as defined in previous studies. ispartof: Quaternary International vol:496 pages:24-41 ispartof: location:GREECE, Thessaloniki status: published

Marine faunal remains from Grotta d’Oriente (Favignana Island, NW Sicily) offer invaluable snapshots of human-coastal environment interaction in the central Mediterranean from the Late Pleistocene to the Middle Holocene. The long-term shellfish and fish records reflect human exploitation of coastal environments undergoing considerable reorganizations during the postglacial sea level rise and the progressive isolation of Favignana from mainland Sicily. We detected an intensification of marine resource exploitation between ∼9.6 ka and ∼7.8 ka BP, which corresponds with the isolation of Favignana Island and, later on, with the introduction of early agro-pastoral economy in this region. We suggest that a higher investment in marine resource exploitation by late foragers and early farmers in NW Sicily was also supported by an increase in marine productivity in the south Tyrrhenian Sea in the Middle Holocene.

An apparently unique part of the Earlier Stone Age record of Africa are a series of bone tools dated to between ∼2 and ∼1 Ma from the sites of Olduvai in East Africa, and Swartkrans, Drimolen and Sterkfontein in South Africa. The South and East African bone tools are quite different, with the South African tools having a number of distinct characters formed through utilisation, whereas the East African tools are flaked tools that in some cases mirror stone tool production. The South African bone tools currently consists of 108 specimens from the three sites above. They have been interpreted as being used for digging into homogenous grained soil to access high quality food resources, or as a multi-purpose tools. It has generally been assumed that they were made by Paranthropus robustus, as this species is most often associated with bone tool bearing deposits, especially when high numbers occur. However, early Homo is also found at these sites. Here we report on two fossils from the Paranthopus robustus site of Kromdraai B, which has only yielded one stone tool to date, that have the same characteristic wear patterns as the bone tools identified at other sites. We also describe a small collection (N = 6) of the first stone tools recovered from the bone tool and Paranthropus and early Homo bearing site of Drimolen Main Quarry. These discoveries further increase the association between bone and stone tool technologies in the South African Earlier Stone Age. However, there remains no direct correlation between the occurrence of bone or stone tools and a particular species being found at the different sites. We then review the place of these bone tools within the South African archaeological record. They appear to be a consistent part of the South African record for around a million years or so between ∼0.8 Ma. While they change little over this time, they occur with both Oldowan and Acheulian assemblages.

In this study we present data on bone mineral density (BMD) values for the cranial and post-cranial skeleton of the leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis). We found significant inter and intra-skeletal variation in different values of BMD within this species. The intra-skeletal, but not inter-skeletal pattern, was comparable to that of terrestrial mammals of similar size, despite differences in bone structure. Overall, the tortoise has bone density that is intermediate between that of leporids (rabbits/hares) on the one hand and canids (dogs/wolves etc.) and marmots on the other. In this study we have used random effects to test regression models of BMD and demonstrate their value over the simple linear regression models that are currently in use. Finally, we applied the modern leopard tortoise proxy data to test whether different parameters of BMD impact survivorship of tortoise bones in the Holocene strata from Wonderwerk Cave (Northern Cape Province, South Africa). Results indicate that this assemblage has undergone some degree of bone density-mediated attrition, probably influenced by burning and deposition time rather than animal agents.

The recently discovered Vlakno Cave, situated in the central part of the island of Dugi Otok (Croatia), is one of the most prominent Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites along the eastern part of the Adriatic coast. Its uninterupted stratigraphy offers a rare opportunity to study the response of Pleistocene populations to a post-glacial environment. The artifact assemblage shows a gradual transition toward a typical Mesolithic assemblage, but with strongly pronounced Epigravettian traditions. Subtle changes within mostly uniform material culture are best seen in the ornamental assemblage, but similar patterns can be observed in subsistence strategies and lithic production. The Epigravettian deposits are dominated with the remains of red deer. Changes can be observed with the beginning of the Holocene, when marked diversification of mammalian taxa is accompanied with an increasing number of fish and molluscs remains.

An aurochs right humerus with a fragment of an embedded projectile point was discovered during excavations at early Neolithic Gobekli Tepe in south-eastern Turkey. Evidence for hunting trauma in bones is extremely rare in the prehistoric record from the Near East and Africa, while the dataset from Europe is much larger. In this contribution a hunting lesion from Gobekli Tepe and its context will be described and discussed against the background of data on similar hunting lesions found in Europe, the Near East and Africa. Communal hunting is identified as one strategy to hunt down large game like aurochs, which, in the case of Gobekli Tepe, will be placed in the socio-cultural context of large scale gatherings.

Sheep and goats have been kept by Bantu-speaking farmers since their arrival during the Early Iron Age in southern Africa. Published samples dating from the Early, Middle and Late Iron Ages are used in this paper to investigate the exploitation of these two domestic animals. A Caprine Index is introduced to measure the ratio of sheep and goats in samples. In almost all cases, samples from the entire Iron Age are dominated by sheep, although the representation of goats increases slightly towards the Middle and Late Iron Age. Three exceptions to the pattern exist in the region, namely Mapungubwe Hill (Middle Iron Age), Nyanga and Hill X (Late Iron Age). At Mapungubwe Hill, the possibility exist that the dominance of goats over sheep is a factor of identification limitations when the original study was conducted in the late 1970s. However, a study is currently underway to re-analyse the fauna from this site. By the middle of the 20th century, goats are more common than sheep under Bantu-speaking farmers in South Africa, a pattern that may be attributed to social, economic, political and/or environmental changes.

The Taihu Lake basin is one of the cradles of Chinese civilization with abundant archaeological sites, but the humid and acidic soil conditions of this part of China limit the application of studies using stable isotope ratios of bone collagen. To circumvent this problem, we explore the suitability of using bone hydroxyapatite for stable isotope ratio measurements of carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) as a substitute to collagen in order to obtain dietary and mobility information about humans (n = 22) and animals (n = 7) from the Neolithic site of Zhuangqiaofen. The human δ13C values range from −14.0‰ to −11.5‰ and have an average of −12.8 ± 0.7‰ which indicates that they were mainly consuming a C3 diet, most likely rice (Oryza sativa). The range of δ13C values of the dogs (−13.6‰ to −12.5‰; n = 5) and pigs (−13.9‰ and −12.7‰; n = 2) are similar to the humans and also suggest that they consumed C3 foods. Humans have a wide range of δ18O values (−12.7‰ to −8.5‰) with an average value of −10.8 ± 1.2‰, which suggests that they were mobile and ingested water from a variety of different sources. This human mobility might be attributed to: the need for labor to construct public works at larger sites in the area, trade networks involving jade and pottery in the Jianghuai region or to the unique funerary customs of the Liangzhu Culture that were based on blood relationships. In contrast, the dog δ18O values have a much smaller range (−12.0‰ to −11.4‰) and have an average value of −11.7 ± 0.2‰. The δ18O values of the two pigs are nearly identical at −12.1‰ and −12.2‰ and similar to the dogs, and these results can be used as an isotopic baseline with which to compare the human δ18O results.

The Haasgat fossil-bearing karstic system is situated within the Skurweberg Mountain range in the northeastern portion of the Fossil Hominids of South Africa UNESCO World Heritage Site in South Africa. As is the case for the nearby Gondolin hominin locality, Haasgat occurs in an area of substantial modern topographic relief that contrasts with the low-relief landscape of the southwestern extent of the World Heritage Site surrounding the Blauubank Stream Valley sites (e.g., Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, Bolt's Farm). This suggests differential landscape formation processes during the Neogene and potentially novel palaeoecosystems and taphonomic processes governing karstic fossil assemblage composition across even a small geographic region. This is particularly critical given the overall paucity of taphonomic data from the region, the substantial cercopithecoid primate assemblage that is uniquely dominated by the basal baboon species Papio angusticeps, and the recent announcement of the first hominin specimen from Haasgat. Here we provide the first comprehensive taphonomic analysis of the Haasgat HGD faunal assemblage that was developed from ex situ calcified sediment blocks in the 1990s. There is direct evidence for biotic activity (e.g., large-bodied carnivores and porcupines) mediating the formation of parts of the HGD faunal assemblage, including at least part of the primate craniodental and postcranial sample. There is minimal evidence for pre-depositional element UV exposure and weathering or winnowing of the assemblage, but there is abiotic distortion and crushing of elements. Our analysis has equally found that taphonomic data from the HGD assemblage is compromised by a modern ‘overprint’ of damage through mechanical preparation and a lack of documentation generated during sampling, processing, and initial curation. Nearly half the cortical surfaces and many dental specimens in the assemblage exhibit evidence of substantial preparation damage rendering many purported biotic modifications ambiguous or suspect. Element proportions may be artificially skewed towards craniodental specimens and more reflective of block selection and/or selective processing rather than original deposition composition. As a result, the Haasgat HGD sample provides only limited data on the depositional processes mediating karstic assemblage formation in the region, and ultimately serves as a cautionary tale of the impacts of palaeontological sampling strategies on subsequent analysis and research.

In this paper the new excavations at Klasies River main site are introduced and the first results presented and linked with previous work, establishing a baseline for future reporting. Data from the earliest phase of the SAS member, comprising the basal SASU and SASL sub-members from caves 1 and 1A are discussed. A new U-Th date of 126.0 ± 1.5 ka on flowstone associated with fallen tufa material within the base of the SASU sub-member provides a maximum age for this part of the sequence. The lowermost SASU sub-member formed most likely around 100 000 years ago during a period associated with increased precipitation whereas the age of the underlying SASL sub-member is uncertain. The SASU sub-member contains in situ deposits that include hearths, in contrast to the underlying SASL sub-member that was subject to post depositional disturbance. Despite the different site formation processes the lithic industry of both sub-members is similar although quartz utilization is somewhat more prominent in the SASL sub-member. The main reduction strategy involves a parallel unidirectional convergent method to produce quartzite blade and point blanks with rare retouch. Relatively more browsing fauna and riparian species, indicating more closed environments, occur in the SASU layers. The older SASL sub-member, not previously described as an independent unit, contains relatively more grazers suggesting drier and more open habitats. It is vital to link evidence from coastal sites such as Klasies River to data from the interior to promote insight into modern human origins from a wider landscape perspective. The work of James Brink, to whom this paper is dedicated, is invaluable in developing this connection.

The petroglyphs of Gobustan are an important historical source that allows us to get an idea about the material and spiritual culture of the population inhabiting the region in various historical periods. The analysis of the specific features of the creative process let us imagine how the ancient artists of Gobustan conveyed some aspects of their creative perception and specifics of their world view. In this respect, the “Firuz 2” shelter on Kichikdash Mountain in Gobustan is of special interest. “Firuz 2” lies at the foot of a vertically standing boulder oriented N-S. (stone №19). The archaeological site is located at the western side of this stone covered with petroglyphs. On this surface numerous female figures, images of hunters, animals and boats are fixed. Visual domination of images of female figures and boats make a uniform semantic plot. It should be noted that from Mesolithic and Neolithic occupation layers of Gobustan separate stones on which female figures near boats are also represented are found. It is quite possible that this composition is characteristic to this period. Images of female figures on stone №19 stylistically differ from each other and some of them are executed in profile with prominent bellies. Besides these, images of animals (aurochs, wild boars, onagers, gazelles, bezoar goats) were depicted on stone №19. Under the stone and on the north side, there is a strip of rocky blocks lying deep in the soil. On one of these rocks (stone 19-a), split in two parts, images of boats were recorded. The stone was found in the Neolithic layer. Images of boats of this kind are also registered on stone №19. On three of them the symbol of the sun is represented on the bow. In the Caucasian region, images of boats are only met in Gobustan rock art. Considering attentively these images of boats, can be supposed that they belong to the Neolithic period of Gobustan culture and existed throughout millennia. In order to get some chronological control, various methods were combined: analogies with stones found in cultural layers and bearing similar images, study of the stylistic features and the stratigraphic method. AMS dating of the cultural layers of the “Firuz 2” site allowed to understand the variability in the form and meaning of the petroglyphs of various periods. Previously, artifacts from the cultural layer of “Firuz 2” site had been dated to the end of Mesolithic and beginning of Neolithic period. The last AMS dating provided the result: 7850 ± 30 BP, which led to suppose that Gobustan was the earliest center in which navigation emerged in the Caucasian region.

Traditionally, studies of Palaeolithic cave art have largely ignored or directly overlooked the red marks of anthropogenic origin that do not belong to figurative categories, in spite of their importance in quantitative terms in this type of art. This paper highlights their importance for better understanding the significance of the cave remains commonly classified as “rock or cave art.” To this end, we analysed these marks directly in a number of caves (Etxeberri -Pyrenees-Atlantiques, France-, Lumentxa -Bizkaia, Spain-, Morron -Jaen, Spain- and Nerja -Malaga, Spain-). This allowed us to differentiate between intentional and other incidental or involuntary red marks. Furthermore, depending on the intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics of these marks, as well as information provided by archaeological and ethnographic findings, we related them to the body painting of their authors. Therefore, an identifiable part of the red marks so common in Palaeolithic cave art (and which could therefore not be considered as art sensu stricto) seems to be produced involuntarily. This could be related with the customs of the Palaeolithic groups attested by the archaeological record, as the frequentation of the innermost areas in the caves or as the decoration their bodies with ochre-based paint.