Search

The first results are presented for U-Pb SHRIMP-II dating of zircons from the upper part of the Khivachian regional horizon (stage) of the Regional Stratigraphic Scale (RSS) of the Permian in northeastern Russia. The obtained isotope age of 255 ± 2 Ma is close to that of the present boundary between the Wuchiapingian and Changhsingian stages of the Permian system in the International Stratigraphic Scale (254.1 Ma). Based on the distribution of bivalves- Intomodesma spp. and Claraioides aff. primitivus (Yin)-in the sections considered, their relations to the stratigraphic positions of the samples considered and dated formerly, and in view of the interregional correlation of recent δС data for clayey rocks, one may assume with certainty that most of the regional zone of Intomodesma costatum corresponds to the upper part of the Wuchiapingian stage. Here, the Changhsingian stage in northeastern Asia complies only with the uppermost part of this zone within the I. postevenicum subzone and, partially, of Otoceras layers within the Otoceras concavum zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variations in the dental crown form are widely studied to interpret evolutionary changes in primates as well as to assess affinities among human archeological populations. Compared to external metrics of dental crown size and shape, variables including the internal structures such as enamel thickness, tissue proportions, and the three-dimensional shape of enamel-dentin junction (EDJ), have been described as powerful measurements to study taxonomy, phylogenetic relationships, dietary, and/or developmental patterns. In addition to providing good estimate of phenotypic distances within/across archeological samples, these internal tooth variables may help to understand phylogenetic, functional, and developmental underlying causes of variation. In this study, a high resolution microtomographic-based record of upper permanent second molars from 20 Neolithic individuals of the necropolis of Gurgy (France) was applied to evaluate the intrasite phenotypic variation in crown tissue proportions, thickness and distribution of enamel, and EDJ shape. The study aims to compare interindividual dental variations with burial practices and chronocultural parameters, and suggest underlying causes of these dental variations. From the non-invasive characterization of internal tooth structure, differences have been found between individuals buried in pits with alcove and those buried in pits with container and pits with wattling. Additionally, individuals from early and recent phases of the necropolis have been distinguished from those of the principal phase from their crown tissue proportions and EDJ shape. The results suggest that the internal tooth structure may be a reliable proxy to track groups sharing similar chronocultural and burial practices. In particular, from the EDJ shape analysis, individuals buried in an alcove shared a reduction of the distolingual dentin horn tip (corresponding to the hypocone). Environmental, developmental and/or functional underlying causes might be suggested for the origin of phenotypic differences shared by these individuals buried in alcoves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Early Cambrian Burgess Shale-type fossil Lagerstätten of Yunnan Province (Chengjiang; Guanshan) are crucial in understanding the Cambrian bioradiation. Brachiopods are applied here as a critical model phylum to analyze the taphonomy of Yunnan fossil Lagerstätten, because shell and tissue composition of modern brachiopods can be compared with exceptionally preserved Cambrian remains. Systematic elemental mapping and energy-dispersive X-ray analyses have been carried out to study fossil brachiopods and their matrix from Cambrian Stages 3-4 and modern linguliform brachiopods from several geographical regions in order to evaluate the detailed structure of the shells and the biological and environmental influences on shell composition. Analyses of earliest Cambrian fossils encompassing the complete spectrum of weathering stages show a primary organo-phosphatic brachiopod shell, visible in unweathered specimens, and a successive dissolution and replacement of the shell during weathering, observable in specimens that underwent different stages of weathering. Therefore, our study reveals that earliest Cambrian linguliform brachiopods from the Chengjiang and Guanshan Biotas developed organo-phosphatic shells as their Recent counterparts. Early carbon and apatite preservation together with rapid deposition in claystone, instead of early iron adsorption, appears crucial for the preservation of highly delicate tissue. Primary calcium, phosphorus, organic carbon, and a multilayered shell are present, by inference between Cambrian fossils and Recent specimens, through the whole Phanerozoic. Elements such as silicon, sulphur, calcium, phosphorus, and iron were detected, impregnated with organic compounds in some organs of modern Lingula, and related to the potential of fossilization of Cambrian linguliform brachiopods. Ferromanganese precipitates traced in the shell of in vivo specimens of modern Lingula may enhance the potential for fossilization too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origin of Hymenoptera remains controversial. Currently accepted hypotheses consider Hymenoptera as the first side branch of Holometabola or sister-group to Mecopteroidea. In contrast, fossils confirm the idea of Martynov that Hymenoptera are related to Megaloptera and Raphidioptera. Hymenoptera have descended along with Raphidioptera from the earliest Megaloptera, the Permian Parasialidae. A related new family, minute Nanosialidae from the Permian of Russia is supposedly ancestral to Raphidioptera. The fusion of the third ovipositor valvulae is shown to be not a synapomorphy of Neuropteroidea. Parasialids and nanosialids bridge the gap between megalopterans and snakeflies; all can be classified into a single order, Panmegaloptera nom. n., including a new suborder Siarapha for Nanosialidae. The earliest megalopterans and their descendants, Raphidioptera and Hymenoptera, have passed through a "miniaturization bottleneck," likely a common macroevolutionary mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Paleolithic in Jordan as an example, we review aspects of international, multidisciplinary collaboration that can lead to areas of conflict between foreign and indigenous archaeologists. We begin with some observations on the logic of inference to underscore problems arising from differences in the intellectual traditions involved in this research. This excursion into epistemology (how we know what we think we know about the past) is followed by an analysis of the practical considerations that can create difficulties in various aspects of the research process, from proposal writing through final publication. We conclude with suggestions to alleviate these problems and discuss where to situate paleoarchaeology within the larger context of transnational collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an update on the fossil record of ophiuroids (Ordovician-Holocene) within the Americas. These data allow us to evaluate the abundance and distribution of fossil ophiuroids by age and country, as well as to identify the ages and the regions that have been most thoroughly studied. It also provides data on the different types of fossils comprising the record, such as the species described and identified, disaggregated ossicles, brittlestars beds, ichnospecies and data which only report the presence of these specimens in fossil localities. Moreover, there is also an analysis of different types of work -systematic, ecological / taphonomic, evolutive, behavioral or stratigraphic-, in which is recorded the appearance of fossil ophiuroids in the continent for the first time, in addition to the decades with most publications of this nature. Finally, this paper includes a list of the species described and relevant literature for each country on the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excavation and field survey at Ballachly, Dunbeath, Caithness in 2007-10 produced evidence which suggests the existence of a possibly early medieval and later Norse site centred around the hillock known as Chapel Hill, on top of which is located an, as of yet, indeterminate unicameral stone building. The site, already well-known for its Early Christian inscribed stones, lay within a substantial stone-walled enclosure of late medieval to early post-medieval date, possibly constructed to enclose an undeveloped burgh of barony, thought to be Magnusburgh, which was reported to have been licensed in 1624. Although most of the enclosed area did not yield evidence of occupation, two separate areas at the base of the hillock produced evidence for medieval industrial activity, including ironworking and a cobbled possible working surface. This activity post-dated a palaeo-channel, possibly reused as a ditch, and substantial stone wall, forming a possible boundary enclosure, whose lower-lying area has since been heavily disturbed by flooding and subsequent agricultural activity. Evidence of the sites association with an early monastery was not substantiated, though the site's character still suggests a former centre of some importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A clear case study of local-scale, fluid-induced dehydration of the Paleoarchean Sand River biotite–hornblende gneiss from the Central Zone of the Limpopo Complex is presented here. Field and petrographic examination of three adjacent zones—darker Sand River orthogneiss with local occurrence of orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene, a lighter intermediate gneissic zone with more orthopyroxene than the Sand River orthogneiss, and tonalitic veins containing large orthopyroxene-bearing patches—indicates the local transformation of a light grey, fine- to medium-grained, hornblende–biotite gneiss into a greenish brown, medium- to coarse-grained orthopyroxene-bearing dehydration zone. Field evidence indicates that the tonalitic veins were emplaced in discrete ductile shear zones, with development of large orthopyroxene-bearing patches in a sigmoidally transposed foliation bounded by shear planes. Orthopyroxene-forming reaction textures after biotite and amphibole together with the occurrence of microveins of K-feldspar along quartz–plagioclase grain boundaries in the three adjacent zones, and the higher modal abundance of orthopyroxene and K-feldspar with lesser biotite and amphibole from the Sand River orthogneiss to the intermediate gneissic zone to the orthopyroxene-bearing patches, indicate that the three adjacent zones represent progressive stages of the dehydration process. Such K-feldspar microveins along quartz–plagioclase grain boundaries have been proposed as evidence for the presence and passage of a low H2O activity fluid. Further, the occurrence of monazite inclusions in fluorapatite in orthopyroxene-bearing zones suggests dissolution and reprecipitation involving a free fluid phase. Fluid inclusion studies indicate the presence of a fluid with CO2, NaCl and H2O components, with higher salinity of the fluid (up to 29% NaCl) in the orthopyroxene-bearing patches relative to the intermediate gneissic zone. The increase in Cl content in amphibole, biotite and fluorapatite from the Sand River orthogneiss to the orthopyroxene-bearing patches supports the presence of a Cl-rich brine fraction in the fluid responsible for the dehydration process. Further, the increase in An content of plagioclase at the contact with the K-feldspar rims on quartz reflects an increase in potassium activity in the fluid. The whole-rock major, trace and rare-earth element enrichment or depletion patterns of the orthopyroxene-bearing zones relative to the precursor support the dehydration process. The diffuse contact relationship of a granite pegmatite occurring in the vicinity of the dehydration zones, together with fluid inclusion and whole-rock major, trace and rare element characteristics of samples collected along a traverse from the granite pegmatite to the Sand River orthogneiss, suggests a scenario in which the dehydrating fluids derived from an external source utilized lithological contrasts, such as the gneiss–pegmatite boundaries, as fluid conduits. Dehydration of the gneissic wall-rock occurred where permeability was sufficient for fluid penetration. The occurrence of orthopyroxene-bearing tonalitic veins along deformation-transposed foliation planes further attests to a structural control to the channeling of the dehydrating fluids. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The sequence of Orgnac 3 in southern Europe is dated to MIS 9 and the beginning of MIS 8. The site contains records of Upper Acheulian occupations with evidence of Middle Palaeolithic technological strategies at the top of the sequence. In order to address the question of gradual versus punctuated changes in the onset of the Middle Palaeolithic, nine criteria on subsistence strategies and technological behaviour were selected throughout the whole stratigraphic sequence to describe behavioural patterns. Results indicate a mosaic of changes in hominin subsistence and technical behaviour and attest to both gradual and punctuated changes over time. For the most part, they cannot be explained by environmental factors such as site formation processes or climatic transitions. Thus, behavioural change at Orgnac 3 may be interpreted as ‘multifaceted,’ with a combination of gradual and punctuated shifts by hominins inhabiting the area. Orgnac 3 may be considered as a ‘key-site’ for understanding the basis of the Neanderthal material world and possibly the onset of clearly differentiated traditions in Neanderthal populations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Archean sub-seafloor has been proposed as an environment for the emergence of life, with septate clusters of titanite microtextures in pillow lava rims argued to be the earliest traces of microbial microboring. Here we use nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS) to test possible geochemical traces of life in ca. 3.45 Ga pillow lavas of the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. Sulfi de inclusions in the titanite microtextures record strongly negative sulfur isotope fractionations of δ34SVCDT --39.8‰ to --3.2‰ (VCDT--Vienna Canyon Diablo Troilite). These represent the largest range and most negative δ34S values so far reported from the Archean, and are consistent with an early biogenic origin for the sulfi des. Extensive in situ elemental mapping did not find any organic linings associated with the microtextures, despite the high spatial resolution and sensitivity of the NanoSIMS. The absence of organic linings thus excludes a key line of evidence previously used to support the biogenicity of the microtextures. In contrast, in situ sulfur isotope analysis of basalt-hosted sulfi des provides an alternative approach to investigating the existence and nature of an Archean subseafl oor biosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating the mass of an extinct organism is naturally difficult. Practicality and simplicity means that often some linear measurement is used as a proxy. In the case of non-avian dinosaurs, the total length of the animal (from the snout to the tip of the tail) is sometimes used for this purpose. However, the total length of the tail is unknown in all but very few dinosaurian taxa. Tail length data taken from specimens and the literature are shown here to have remarkable variation both between and within clades (and even within single species). Comparison with body length data shows that total length (including the tail) is therefore a less reliable measure of size than using the snout-vent length of the animal. ‘Snout-sacrum’ lengths are suggested as a more reliable alternative. Total length should not be abandoned, however, both to provide a comparison with older works and specimens lacking complete presacral axial columns, and for communication with the general public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Bioerosion is a common process in hard substrates. This study introduces an example from the rocky palaeoshore cropping out at a sea cliff on the Bozcaada Island. It includes bioerosion trace fossils preserved in limestone boulders of the shallow marine and lacustrine Alcitepe Formation of Late Miocene age. The ichnotaxa include borings produced by duraphagous drillers (Oichnus isp.), phonorids (cf. Conchotrema isp.), clionid sponges (Entobia cf. goniodes, Entobia geometrica, Entobia laquea, Entobia ovula, E. cf. solaris, Entobia isp.), endolithic bivalves (Gastrochaenolites torpedo, Gastrochaenolites lapidicus, Gastrochaenolites isp., Phrixichnus isp.), polychaete annelids (Maeandropolydora isp., Maeandropolydora sulcans, Maeandropolydora decipiens, Caulostrepsis taeniola, Caulostrepsis isp.), echinoids (cf. Circolites isp.) and spinculid worms (cf. Trypanites isp.). Barnacles are also common as encrusters. The borings can be ascribed to the Gastrochaenolites-Entobia assemblage, which is typical of Neogene rocky-shores. They belong to the Entobia ichnofacies indicating various conditions of light, energy, and depth. Therefore they can reveal environmental changes and play an important role in forming palaeo-rocky shores and wave-cut platforms during marine trangressive events. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article highlights the site on the hillock called VÕnnumägi less than 1 km from the fort of Keava, which was discovered and excavated within the Keava project. In view of the fact that one end of the hill was cut off with a prominent rampart, the site can be classified as promontory fort; other sides of the enclosed area were without fortifications. Unlike in typical hill forts, there was no definite occupation layer in the compound. A few potsherds and radiocarbon dates prove that the site belongs to the Early Pre-Roman Iron Age. Among the known hill sites of the time, VÕnnumägi is standing out as the only one having a substantial earthwork barrier, whereas the rest of the sites have had some wooden defences or had no artificial fortifications. The function of the site is still disputable [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article concentrates on a birch-bark formation at the foot of Keava hill fort, introducing the course of its archaeological excavations and various ways of explaining its presence. In addition, the complicated way of archaeological interpretation, especially in case of rather limited background information, and the search for the "right" solution, is tackled. The author reaches the conclusion that the birch-bark deposition is most likely not a human creation after all, but a natural formation where birches growing in a kettle-basin (Verevainu Mire) that became inundated for a longer time, died and decayed on the spot [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the potential value of geoarchaeological and paleoenvironmental data for the contextualization of human activity at the site of Domuztepe, southeast Turkey. The data come from cores excavated on a series of transects centered on the höyük and from samples collected for paleoenvironmental assessment and radiocarbon dating. The results indicate that the site is situated on an alluvial plain of some stratigraphic complexity. Deep (up to 9 m) sediment sequences consisting of pears, mans, silts, clays, sands, and gravels appear on all sides of the höyük. Soil and water conditions during the Holocene on the Narlı plain were quite probably different from present conditions, which are partly attributable to recent drainage and irrigation, with climatic changes also playing a significant role. The evidence suggests there were both periods of relatively wet local conditions with deep freshwater close to the site and episodes of drier, brackish conditions. Episodes of peat formation are recorded during the later Pleistocene (19,000-21,000 b.p. [calibrated]) and Early Holocene (9,500 b.p. [calibrated]). It seems unlikely that the site of Domuztepe was originally located on any topographic high point. While the extent of cultivatable land in the close vicinity of the settlement is unclear on the basis of the current data, local wetlands would have provided a range of resources, including plants, clays, and marls, evidenced in both the architecture and the cultural and environmental material from the excavations. The deposition of the alluvial silts and clays seems to have occurred during the later Holocene, with Roman pottery in these deposits providing a terminus post quem for the uppermost clays. These sediments probably mask the actual depth and extent of the archaeological remains at Domuztepe and might also obscure other early archaeological sites on the Narlı plain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to a debate in the palaeoarchaeological community about the major time-lag between the origin of anatomically modern humans and the appearance of typically human cultural behaviour. Why did humans take so long—at least 100 000 years—to become ‘behaviourally modern’? The transition is often explained as a change in the intrinsic cognitive competence of modern humans: often in terms of a new capacity for symbolic thought, or the final perfection of language. These cognitive breakthrough models are not satisfactory, for they fail to explain the uneven palaeoanthropological record of human competence. Many supposed signature capacities appear (and then disappear) before the supposed cognitive breakthrough; many of the signature capacities disappear again after the breakthrough. So, instead of seeing behavioural modernity as a simple reflection of a new kind of mind, this paper presents a niche construction conceptual model of behavioural modernity. Humans became behaviourally modern when they could reliably transmit accumulated informational capital to the next generation, and transmit it with sufficient precision for innovations to be preserved and accumulated. In turn, the reliable accumulation of culture depends on the construction of learning environments, not just intrinsic cognitive machinery. I argue that the model is (i) evolutionarily plausible: the elements of the model can be assembled incrementally, without implausible selective scenarios; (ii) the model coheres with the broad palaeoarchaeological record; (iii) the model is anthropologically and ethnographically plausible; and (iv) the model is testable, though only in coarse, preliminary ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the archeological excavations at the Casa Bianca area of the Sibari site in Italy, with a focus on the first archeological botanical dates of the site. Topics discussed include paleobiological and paleodietary research conducted on the Sibari site to establish historical dates, research on the vegetable environment of the Sibari plains and the history of plant life in the region, and a description of the methodology used to establish the history of plant life in the region, using the Laboratorio di Restauro research laboratory of the Museo di Sibari.

The article focuses on a study that investigates the isotopic composition of igneous rocks from the paleoarc terranes from the eastern Kamchatka, Russia. It adds that such investigation may further provide opportunities to define the changes in geodynamic settings during the development of paleoarc systems. Included in the study were the Early Paleogene, Late Cretaceous and Eocene volcanic and plutonic complexes represented by tholeetic and calc-alkaline rocks. A solid-phase multi-channel mass spectrometer Triton T1 has been used in determining the isotopic composites of neodymium (ND) and lead[2] (Pb).

Sandia Cave in New Mexico was excavated in the late 1930s by Frank Hibben, who described a unique type of chipped stone artifact—the "Sandia point"—in association with a faunal assemblage that included extinct Pleistocene species. The site was interpreted as a late Pleistocene Paleoindian hunting station, making it the earliest human occupation known in America at the time. Despite the pivotal role the faunal assemblage has played in interpretations of the site, there was never a confirmed behavioral association between the artifacts and the fossils. A subsequent series of controversies about the age of the site and the integrity of the stratigraphy has since pushed Sandia Cave into obscurity. Results from a recent taphonomic study of the large and small mammal assemblages from the original excavations are reported here. These show that the majority of the fauna were accumulated by nonhuman agents (carnivores, raptors, and rodents), but that a small proportion of large mammal fragments retain human modification. The three major points of controversy are discussed in light of these and other findings, and it is shown that Sandia Cave remains an important datapoint in archaeological, paleontological, and paleoecological studies of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recovery of anomalous (red-slipped, shell/grog/sandstone-tempered) pottery from three sites in the Upper Mississippi Valley (UMV) prompted a petrographic analysis of thin sections of 21 vessels from these sites. The goal was to evaluate their possible derivation from the American Bottom, the nearest locality where such pottery commonly occurs. Among the 12 UMV vessels tempered with shell (nine red slipped), ten were determined, based on comparisons to thin sections of stylistically similar pottery from the American Bottom, to have essentially identical physical compositions. Additionally, four vessels suspected of being limestone-tempered were determined to have been tempered with a type of sandstone that Out-crops only farther south in Illinois and Iowa. Of the three UMV sites, only the Fisher Mounds Site Complex (FMSC) produced the presumed exotic pottery in undisturbed, dated contexts. The petrographic evidence is consistent with the C-14 age and lithic assemblage at FMSC in suggesting an actual influx of people from the American Bottom into the UMV. The time of this influx, the Edelhardt phase of the Emergent Mississippian/Terminal Late Woodland period, ca. cal AD. /000-1050, is earlier than previously believed, i.e., precedes the main Mississippian period in the American Bottom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decades ago the Diablo Canyon site (CA-SLO-2) on the central California mainland revealed one of the oldest and longest sequences (ca. 9400 radiocarbon years ago to contact) of coastal occupation on the shore of the northeastern Pacific. The artifacts from these important deposits were reported in detail by Greenwood (1972), but only a fraction of the site's faunal collections was analyzed in the original site report. Acquisition of 30 additional radiocarbon dates and analysis of the complete vertebrate fauna have produced a coarse-grained record of human foraging on the California mainland from 8300 cal B.C. to cal A.D. 1769. The temporally controlled faunal matrix, constituting one of the largest trans-Holocene records from western North America, speaks in a meaningful way to two significant issues in hunter-gatherer prehistory: early Holocene foraging strategies and economic intensification/resource depression over time. The site's earliest component suggests a population invested in watercraft and intensely adapted to the interface of land and sea along the northeastern Pacific coastline. While boats were used to access offshore rocks, terrestrial mammals (e.g., black-tailed deer) were also of primary importance. Dominance of deer throughout the Diablo occupations is inconsistent with recent generalizations about big-game hunting as costly signaling in western North American prehistory. Diachronic variation, correlated with super-imposed burials that show growth in human populations through the Holocene, includes: (1) modest incremental changes in most taxa, suggesting resource stability and increasing diet breadth; (2) gradual but significant variation in a few taxa, including the flightless duck which was hunted into extinction and eventually replaced by sea otters; (3) punctuated, multidirectional change during the late Holocene related to historic contingencies of the Medieval Climatic Anomaly and protohistoric disruptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New World archaeologists have long agreed that there was prehistoric cultural interaction between the southeastern United States and Mesoamerica, but seldom are the details of such potential relationships discussed, especially recently. The farthest westward extent of Southeastern cultural influences, as shown through the distributions of fiber-tempered pottery, Archaic and Woodland mounds, later platform mounds, ceramic styles, and other material culture, seems to be east Texas. Only a few Mexican artifacts have been found at the edges of the Southeast—obsidian at Spiro and coastal Texas, asphalt-covered pottery extending northward from Mexico into southern Texas—though general ideological connections, not to mention the sharing of maize agriculture, seem obvious. In northeast Mexico, outside the Mesoamerican heartland, Huastecan people made artifacts similar to types in the Southeast. But long-distance interactions overland or via the Gulf of Mexico were apparently sporadic, despite some common cultural foundations. Strong Southeastern cultural identities plus the presence of the north Mexico/south Texas desert may have discouraged movement into the Southeast of many important Mesoamerican traditions, such as cotton growing and beer drinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the identification of a hafting adhesive on an antler point, slotted for microblade insertion. The adhesive, found in the slots of the point, would have held the microblades in place. Radiocarbon dated to 7310 ± 40 B.P. (uncalibrated), the point is one of the oldest and best-preserved artifacts recovered from the melting alpine ice patches in southwestern Yukon, Canada. Because the artifact was frozen, the organic components have not degraded and a detailed chemical analysis was possible. Analyses of residue in the slots of the point by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry showed that a conifer resin adhesive was used. The high concentration of diterpene resin acids with an abietane or pimerane skeleton confirmed a Pinaceae source for the resin. There were no chemical markers to indicate that the resin had been strongly heated to produce tar or pitch. Based on a comparison with five Pinaceae resins from trees common to southern Yukon, the resin from the slotted point most closely resembles the chemical profile of spruce (Picea sp.). The identification of this hafting adhesive on a slotted point adds significantly to our understanding of early hunting technology in Yukon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a reaction to a rebuttal of an article in a previous issue by the same authors regarding the Solutrean-Clovis connection. The rebuttal by Straus, Meltzer and Goebel takes issue with the some of the authors' speculation as to the origin and arrival time of the first Americans, whereas the authors' contend their methodology and comparison of Solutrean and Beringian technology is fundamentally sound.

Because people conceptualize the land on which they live metaphorically, it is suggested that metaphor theory is an important component of landscape theory. One kind of metaphorically charged landscape is the hunting landscape, a type of gendered landscape that embodies hunting and animal metaphors related to gender categories and provides afield on which to perform and establish maleness. Two archaeological examples of hunting landscapes in the American Southwest are explored to show how hunting and its associated landscapes facilitate the creation and substantiation of the male persona through metaphorical linkages between humans and animals, hunting and warfare, and game animals and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides the reader with a brief guide about the origins of the Paleoindians of the U.S. Based on geological evidence and the discovery of human remains, many assumed that Homosapiens arrived in the U.S. from Asia. In the last two decades, geneticists and physical anthropologists have intensified the debate over the peopling of the U.S. and challenged the original three-migration model. These investigators have used genetic material taken both from archaeological samples of human remains, and from extant populations of Native Americans. To date, a majority of the studies have used mitochondrial DNA an abundant, rapidly evolving source of genetic material.

Archaeologists began to study slavery more than two decades ago, and since that time this interest has rapidly grown to become one of the most popular research specialties in the archaeology of the post-Columbian period. This essay reviews the interpretation of the archaeological record of slavery directed toward the analysis of four themes: living conditions under slavery, status differences within the plantation community, relationships of planter dominance and slave resistance, and formation of African-American cultural identity. It also discusses the sociopolitical context within which this study has operated and strongly recommends that greater efforts be taken to include African-American perspectives to inform this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The antiquity of the first Americans is one of the most controversial issues in American archaeology, and it must be resolved to understand fully the adaptive radiation of Homo sapiens into the New World. Humans were in the Americas at least by Clovis times 11,200 years ago. Accepting that these were the first Americans, however, is complicated by claims of an even earlier presence, by the absence of a Clovis source (i.e. an Alaskan predecessor is lacking), and by the theoretical demands of explaining how or why Clovis groups apparently migrated rapidly through the hemisphere. New models from evolutionary ecology, along with possible changes in the Clovis chronology (resulting from improved radiocarbon calibration), may address some of these anomalies. But there still remains the possibility of an earlier (pre-Clovis) entry, supported by some mtDNA and archaeological evidence. The mtDNA evidence, however, is complicated by questions about the viability of the presumed founder effect (on which the mtDNA clock is based). Also, the several possible pre-Clovis archaeological sites have not yet been accepted. Resolution of the timing of the peopling of the Americas, on which several theoretical and methodological issues hinge, remains a question of developing archaeological evidence, resolving ambiguity in analytical techniques and dating methods (and rejecting ones that now appear critically flawed), and expanding search strategies. The Monte Verde site in Chile is the most viable pre-Clovis candidate, although for now neither it nor any other site resolves when and by which route humans first came to the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many animals, and in particular great apes, show evidence of culture, in the sense of having multiple innovations in multiple domains whose frequencies are influenced by social learning. But only humans show strong evidence of complex, cumulative culture, which is the product of copying and the resulting effect of cumulative cultural evolution. The reasons for this increase in complexity have recently become the subject of extensive debate. Here, we examine these reasons, relying on both comparative and paleoarcheological data. The currently best-supported inference is that culture began to be truly cumulative (and so, outside the primate range) around 500,000 years ago. We suggest that the best explanation for its onset is the emergence of verbal teaching, which not only requires language and thus probably coevolved with the latter's evolution but also reflects the overall increase in proactive cooperation due to extensive allomaternal care. A subsequent steep increase in cumulative culture, roughly 75 ka, may reflect the rise of active novelty seeking (curiosity), which led to a dramatic range expansion and steep increase in the diversity and complexity of material culture. A final, and continuing, period of acceleration began with the Neolithic (agricultural) revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prehistoric evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo has so far been limited to isolated cases from less than six millennia ago. Here we describe eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan that dates from 7,500–9,000 years ago. These findings provide evidence for a long tradition of a type of proto-dentistry in an early farming culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archeologists use artifacts to make statements about occupants of a physical space. Users of information resources leave behind data-based artifacts when they interact with a digital library or other Web-based information space. One process for examining these patterns is bibliomining, or the combination of data warehousing, data mining and bibliometrics to understand connections and patterns between works. The purpose of this paper is to use a research framework from archeology to structure exploration of these data artifacts through bibliomining to aid managers of digital libraries and other Web-based information resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical accounts of the Inca indicate that they greatly valued trees and practiced planting to fulfil their needs for fuel and timber.These records are evaluated in the light of palaeoecological and archaeological evidence suggesting a dramatic increase in arboreal taxa from c. AD 1100 during a period of significant global temperature increase. This natural vegetation response to improving environ-mental conditions may have stimulated management; it is suggested that agroforestry has a long tradition in the Andes. With the arrival of the Spanish, in the 1530s, land management practices changed and forest resources became increasingly overexploited. A multidisciplinary approachmay provide important lessons from the past for modern policy makersin Peru. Widespread planting of Eucalyptus may not be an appropriatesolution. Land restoration projects should take account of natural diversity and utilize a range of native species. This is relevant in view of the current period of rising temperatures, and may help to alleviate both soil erosion and rural poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern sea-floor sedimentary environments within the glaciated, topographically complex Long Island Sound estuary have been interpreted and mapped from an extensive collection of sidescan sonographs, bottomsamples, and videocamera observations together with supplemental bathymetric, marine-geologic, and bottom-current data. Four categories of environments are present that reflect the dominant long-term processes of: erosion or nondeposition; coarse-grained bedload transport; sediment sorting and reworking; and fine-grained deposition. (1) Environments of erosion or nondeposition contain exposures of glacial drift, coarse lag deposits, and possibly bedrock and include sediments which range from boulder fields to gravelly coarse-to-medium sands. (2)Environments of coarse-grained bedload transport are mantled by sandribbons and sand waves and contain mostly coarse-to-fine sands with only small amounts of mud. (3) Environments of sediment sorting and reworking comprise both uniform and heterogeneous sediment types and contain variable amounts of fine sand and mud. (4) Environments of fine-grained deposition are blanketed by muds and sandy muds. The patchydistribution of sedimentary environments within Long Island Sound reflects both regional and local changes in bottom processes. Regional changes are primarily the result of a strong, east-to-west decreasinggradient of bottom tidal-current speeds, coupled with the net (westward) estuarine bottom drift. The regional current regime has produceda westward succession of environments along the basin floor beginning with erosion or nondeposition at the narrow eastern entrance to theSound, changing to an extensive area of coarse-grained bedload transport, passing into a contiguous band of sediment sorting, and ending with broad areas of fine-grained deposition in the central and western Sound. However, local changes in processes are superimposed on the regional conditions within the central and western parts of the basinand alo [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental impact assessments in the United States usually contain an element dealing with impacts on 'cultural resources.' This element is often very limited, addressing only archeological sites or historic buildings, and often addressing even these only by deferring attention to them until after key project decisions have been made. A number of US laws, and good practice, demand a broader and more effective approach. Such an approach is outlined here, following the organization of a typical chapter in a popular university environmental impact assessment textbook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beans of several species were domesticated in tropical America thousands of years ago, to be combined with maize and other crops in highly successful New World agricultural systems. Radiocarbon dates on charcoal associated with Phaseolus in archaeological sites, in Mexico and Peru indicated the presence of domesticated beans as early as 10,000 years ago. However, direct dates on the beans and pods themselves by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) do not provide evidence for thecultivation in Mexico of common beans, P. vulgaris, and teparies, P.acutifolius, before about 2500 B.P. in the Tehuacan Valley, and of common beans about 1300 years ago in Tamaulipas and 2100 years ago in the Valley of Oaxaca. AMS dates support the presence in the Peruvian Andes of domesticated common beans by about 4400 B. P. and lima beansby about 3500 B. P. and lima beans by about 5600 B.P. in the coastalvalleys of Peru. The late appearance of common and lima beans in theCentral Highlands of Mesoamerica supports the importance of missing evidence that may be obtained from prehistoric agricultural sites in western Mexico and in Central America which are located within the range of the wild populations of these species. Additionally, biochemical studies of subsamples of the dated specimens should be carried outill order to extend the molecular evidence for the independent domestication of North and South American common beans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]