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Summary Background & aims Uncertainty still exists on the impact of low to moderate consumption of different drink types on population health. We therefore investigated the associations of different drink types in the form of beer/cider, champagne/white wine, red wine and spirits with various health outcomes. Methods Over 500,000 participants were recruited to the UK Biobank cohort. Alcohol consumption was self-reported as pints beer/cider, glasses champagne/white wine, glasses of red wine, and measures of spirits per week. We followed health outcomes for a median of 7.02 years and reported all-cause mortality, cardiovascular events, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular events, and cancer. Results In continuous analysis after excluding non-drinkers, beer/cider and spirits intake associated with an increased risk for all-cause mortality (beer/cider: hazard ratio, 1.56; 95% confidence interval, 1.45–1.68; spirits: 1.47; 1.35–1.60), cardiovascular events (beer/cider: 1.25; 1.17–1.33; spirits: 1.25; 1.16–1.36), ischemic heart disease (beer/cider:1.12; 0.99–1.26 [P = 0.056]; spirits: 1.17; 1.02–1.35), cerebrovascular disease (beer/cider: 1.63; 1.32–2.02; spirits: 1.59; 1.25–2.02) and cancer (beer/cider: 1.14; 1.05–1.24; spirits: 1.14; 1.03–1.26), while both champagne/white wine and red wine associated with a decreased risk for ischemic heart disease only (champagne/white wine: 0.84; 0.72–0.98; red wine: 0.88; 0.77–0.99). Conclusions Our findings do not support the notion that alcohol from any drink type is beneficial to health. Consuming low levels of beer/cider and spirits already associated with an increased risk for all health outcomes, while wine showed opposite protective relationships only with ischemic heart disease.

Shamanic belief systems represent the first form of religious practice visible within the global archaeological record. Here we report on the earliest known evidence of shamanic costume: modified red deer crania headdresses from the Early Holocene site of Star Carr (c. 11 kya). More than 90% of the examples from prehistoric Europe come from this one site, establishing it as a place of outstanding shamanistic/cosmological significance. Our work, involving a programme of experimental replication, analysis of macroscopic traces, organic residue analysis and 3D image acquisition, metrology and visualisation, represents the first attempt to understand the manufacturing processes used to create these artefacts. The results produced were unexpected-rather than being carefully crafted objects, elements of their production can only be described as expedient.

The aim of this research is to examine the isotopic characterisation of archaeological fish species as it relates to freshwater, brackish and marine environments, trophic level and migration patterns, and to determine intraspecies variation within and between fish populations in different locations within central and northern Europe. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis was undertaken on collagen extracted from 72 fish bone samples from eight Mesolithic and Neolithic archaeological sites in this region. Thirty-six (50%) of the specimens analysed produced results with acceptable carbon to nitrogen atomic ratios (2·9–3·6). The fish remains encompassed a wide spectrum of freshwater, brackish and marine taxa (n = 12), which were reflected in the δ13C values (−24·5 to −7·8‰). The freshwater/brackish fish (pike, Esox lucius; perch, Perca fluviatilis; zander, Sander lucioperca) had δ13C values that ranged from −24·2 to −19·3‰, whereas the brackish/marine fish (spurdog, Squalus acanthias; flatfish, Pleuronectidae; codfish, Gadidae; garfish, Belone belone; mackerel, Scomber scombrus) ranged from −14·9 to −9·4‰. Salmonidae, an anadromous taxon, and eel (Anguilla anguilla), a catadromous species, had carbon isotope values consistent with marine origin, and no evidence of freshwater residency (−12·7 to −11·7‰). The δ15N values had a range of 6·2‰ (6·5–12·7‰) indicating that these fish were on average feeding at 1·7 trophic levels higher than their producers in these diverse aquatic environments. These results serve as an important ecological baseline for the future isotopic reconstruction of the diet of human populations dating to the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic of the region.

International audience; The formation of shell middens by hunter-gatherers and research into them has been a common field of study in different parts of Atlantic Europe. Although evidence of marine resource exploitation has been identified since the Middle Palaeolithic, and an increase can be seen during the Upper Palaeolithic, it is during the Mesolithic when true shell middens have been identified, apparently showing an increase in the exploitation of coastal areas. This paper summarizes the available information about the formation of shell middens and the exploitation of the coast in several regions of Atlantic Europe, and discusses the main research problems, as the differences in availability of information, the definition and characteristics of shell middens, the relation between shell middens and molluscan exploitation and the problems regarding the chronology of the sites. Finally, the paper proposes the main approaches that should be pursued by future research into this topic. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

As part of the excavations at Star Carr in the summer of 2007, a 'block' sample of peat from the archaeologically rich lake-edge deposits was removed for micro-excavation in the laboratory. The main aim was to compare on-site excavation and excavation in the laboratory. The techniques employed for the block were intended to maximise the chances of recovering fragile organic remains and provide an understanding of the spatial relationships between them. In addition, the time and resources required to excavate the block were evaluated in order to assess the merits of undertaking block lifting and excavation, with a view to informing future work.

A number of charred surface residues, adhering to ceramic containers, were obtained from various coastal and inland sites in north-west Europe dating from the sixth to the fourth millennium cal bc. In order to investigate the use of these vessels and in particular to identify any marine products, the residues were subjected to carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis. Variation in carbon isotope ratios between different samples indicated that some vessels may have been used to process marine products. This analysis was corroborated by specific identification of aquatic products following structural and isotopic characterization of lipids extracted from selected samples.

General accounts of global trends in world prehistory are dominated by narratives of conquest on land: scavenging and hunting of land mammals, migration over land bridges and colonisation of new continents, gathering of plants, domestication, cultivation, and ultimately sustained population growth founded on agricultural surplus. Marine and aquatic resources fit uneasily into this sequence of social and economic development, and societies strongly dependent on them have often been regarded as relatively late in the sequence, geographically marginal or anomalous. We consider the biases and preconceptions of the ethnographic and archaeological records that have contributed to this view of marginality and examine some current issues focusing on the role of marine resources at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition of northwest Europe. We suggest that pre-existing conventions should be critically re-examined, that coastlines may have played a more significant, widespread and persistent role as zones of attraction for human dispersal, population growth and social interaction than is commonly recognised, and that this has been obscured by hunter-gatherer and farmer stereotypes of prehistoric economies.

Shell middens are one of the most important and widespread indicators for human exploitation of marine resources and occupation of coastal environments. Establishing an accurate and reliable chronology for these deposits has fundamental implications for understanding the patterns of human evolution and dispersal. This paper explores the potential application of a new methodology of amino acid racemization (AAR) dating of shell middens and describes a simple protocol to test the suitability of different molluscan species. This protocol provides a preliminary test for the presence of an intracrystalline fraction of proteins (by bleaching experiments and subsequent heating at high temperature), checking the closed system behaviour of this fraction during diagenesis. Only species which pass both tests can be considered suitable for further studies to obtain reliable age information. This amino acid geochronological technique is also applied to midden deposits at two latitudinal extremes: Northern Scotland and the Southern Red Sea. Results obtained in this study indicate that the application of this new method of AAR dating of shells has the potential to aid the geochronological investigation of shell mounds in different areas of the world.