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La transición del Neolítico Pre-Cerámica a la Cerámica (PPN a PN) en el Levante representa un momento clave en la evolución cultural de las primeras sociedades agrícolas en el Cercano Oriente, testigo de la evolución de sistemas agrícolas emergentes a consolidados. Las renovadas excavaciones en Beisamoun revelan la importancia del sitio para reconstruir esta transición en el Levante Sur.

The Earlier Stone Age (ESA) sequence of Excavation 1 at Wonderwerk Cave is the longest stratified sedimentary sequence associated with hominin occupation in Southern Africa. This sequence has been constrained chronologically on the basis of cosmogenic burial age and paleomagnetic dating. Geoarchaeological analysis of two exposed profiles covering strata 12-9 that combine micromorphology and FTIR on the ESA deposits shows shifts in depositional sources, transport, and diagenesis. This analysis provides insight into the paleoenvironmental context of hominin occupation and suggests that during part of the stratigraphic sequence, there was an ephemeral body of water in proximity to the cave. These results provide the basis for ongoing geoarchaeological research on the landscape outside the cave and other components of the cave deposits.

Geoarchaeological research at the Middle Pleistocene site of Schöningen 13 II-4, often referred to as the Speerhorizont, has focused on describing and evaluating the depositional contexts of the well-known wooden spears, butchered horses, and stone tools. These finds were recovered from the transitional contact between a lacustrine marl and an overlying organic mud, originally thought to be a peat that accumulated in place under variable moisture conditions. The original excavators proposed that hominin activity, including hunting and butchery, occurred on a dry lake shore and was followed by a rapid sedimentation of organic deposits that embedded and preserved the artifacts. Our geoarchaeological analysis challenges this model. Here, we present evidence that the sediments of Schöningen 13 II-4 were deposited in a constantly submerged area of a paleolake. Although we cannot exclude the possibility that the artifacts were deposited during a short, extreme drying event, there are no sedimentary features indicative of surface exposure in the sediments. Accordingly, this paper explores three main alternative models of site formation: anthropogenic disposal of materials into the lake, a geological relocation of the artifacts, and hunting or caching on lake-ice. These models have different behavioral ramifications concerning hominin knowledge and exploitation of the landscape and their subsistence strategies.

When and how humans began to control fire has been a central debate in Paleolithic archaeology for decades. Fire plays an important role in technology, social organization, subsistence, and manipulation of the environment and is widely seen as a necessary adaptation for the colonization of northern latitudes. Many researchers view purported hearths, burnt wooden implements, and heated flints from Schöningen as providing the best evidence for the control of fire in the Lower Paleolithic of Northern Europe. Here we present results of a multianalytical study of the purported hearths along with a critical examination of other possible evidence of human use or control of fire at Schöningen. We conclude that the analyzed features and artifacts present no convincing evidence for human use or control of fire. Our study also shows that a multianalytical, micro-contextual approach is the best methodology for evaluating claims of early evidence of human-controlled fire. We advise caution with macroscopic, qualitative identification of combustion features, burnt flint, and burnt wood without the application of such techniques as micromorphology, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, organic petrology, luminescence, and analysis of mineral magnetic parameters. The lack of evidence for the human control of fire at Schöningen raises the possibility that fire control was not a necessary adaptation for the human settlement of northern latitudes in the Lower Paleolithic.

The sedimentary sequence at Diepkloof Rock Shelter formed through a complex interaction of depositional and post-depositional processes and was variously influenced by biogenic, geogenic, and anthropogenic agents. Here, we present the results of a micromorphological study of the sediments at Diepkloof, focusing in particular on the numerous anthropogenic inputs and modifications recorded within the sequence. By applying the microfacies concept, we were able to identify hearth burning and maintenance, bedding construction and burning, and surface modification by trampling as major processes that contributed to the formation of the site. The human activities recorded within the sediments show a marked change throughout the sequence, implying a shift in the use of the site over time. The present study also provides a context for evaluating other classes of artifacts and data collected from the site.

Past research on Madagascar indicates that village communities were established about AD 500 by people of both Indonesian and East African heritage. Evidence of earlier visits is scattered and contentious. Recent archaeological excavations in northern Madagascar provide evidence of occupational sites with microlithic stone technologies related to foraging for forest and coastal resources. A forager occupation of one site dates to earlier than 2000 B.C., doubling the length of Madagascar’s known occupational history, and thus the time during which people exploited Madagascar’s environments. We detail stratigraphy, chronology, and artifacts from two rock shelters. Ambohiposa near Iharana (Vohémar) on the northeast coast, yielded a stratified assemblage with small flakes, microblades, and retouched crescentic and trapezoidal tools, probably projectile elements, made on cherts and obsidian, some brought more that 200 km. 14C dates are contemporary with the earliest villages. No food remains are preserved. Lakaton’i Anja near Antsiranana in the north yielded several stratified assemblages. The latest assemblage is well dated to A.D. 1050–1350, by 14C and optically stimulated luminescence dating and pottery imported from the Near East and China. Below is a series of stratified assemblages similar to Ambohiposa. 14C and optically stimulated luminescence dates indicate occupation from at least 2000 B.C. Faunal remains indicate a foraging pattern. Our evidence shows that foragers with a microlithic technology were active in Madagascar long before the arrival of farmers and herders and before many Late Holocene faunal extinctions. The differing effects of historically distinct economies must be identified and understood to reconstruct Holocene histories of human environmental impact.

Pyrotechnology must be seen as one of the most important technological developments in human prehistory. Once developed it eventually came to serve a wide range of applications, but when this actually occurred is not well understood. Fire is well known at a number of Middle Palaeolithic sites in Western Europe, and the Neandertals of this region clearly made use of it at some times and at some sites. Recent excavations at two generally contemporaneous Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Dordogne region of France, Pech de l'Azé IV and Roc de Marsal, have provided significant data on Neandertal use of fire. Both sites have revealed a number of extremely well preserved and delineated fire features at the base of their sequences. The goals of this paper are to describe and contrast the combustion features from these two sites using both field observations and laboratory data that employ micromorphological and FTIR techniques. Pyrotechnological differences can be seen, representing differences in Neandertal fire use and, potentially, site use.

The association of Neandertal occupations with fire has been reported for several European late Middle Paleolithic sites. Renewed excavations at the French site of Roc de Marsal (Dordogne) have exposed a series of well-preserved fire features associated with artifact-rich Neandertal occupations. This paper provides detailed descriptions of the combustion sediments and associated archaeological assemblages, using field observations and laboratory methods, including soil micromorphology, FTIR, and GIS techniques. From an integrity point of view, the available data demonstrate the excellent preservation of the hearths at Roc de Marsal, which display minimal or no post-depositional movement. However, our results suggest that it is often impossible to access the level of contemporaneity between different combustion events, the absence of association between burned objects and the hearths, and that it is often very difficult to distinguish distinct fire events based solely on macroscopic observations. These problems have significant implications for how such features are excavated and analyzed.

Introduction In marked contrast to East Africa, where the emergence of stone tool technology (∼2.6 Ma) is well documented at a wide range of sites (Semaw, 2000; Schick and Toth, 2006; Hovers and Braun, 2009), the earliest stages of tool production are known from only a small number of localities in southern Africa, none of which is interpreted as representing primary contexts (Kuman, 1998; Schick and Toth, 2006). Here we provide the first comprehensive description of an in situ Oldowan deposit from basal Stratum 12 inside Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Kebara Cave (Mount Carmel, Israel) exhibits extensive use of fire by Neanderthals in the Middle Paleolithic. Phytoliths are abundant, indicating that plants were common in the cave. In addition, micromorphological analyses of archaeological deposits furnish precise contextual background to the phytolith analysis, and provide constraints on how phytolith and other micro remains can be interpreted. Phytolith data are coupled with micromorphological observations from undisturbed combustion features from Kebara from the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. In order to maximize accuracy of interpretations, different factors have been taken into account, such as phytolith preservation, the discrimination between anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic plant deposition, and the variability of plant uses. The results show that dissolution is an important factor in certain areas of the cave, mostly because of high pH conditions, whereas in other areas of the cave, secondary silica has affected the original cell morphology of the phytoliths. In general, wood was the main fuel used for the fires, and the presence of other plant remains such as grasses or dicotyledonous leaves is, in certain areas, mostly related to contamination attached to the bark of the trees; whereas in others, it might be associated with other reasons such as tinder to help start the fires. Seed coats of plants from the Boraginaceae family, which grow around the cave entrance, are abundant in certain levels and mostly related to their fall out at the cave mouth.

Six experimental fireplaces were constructed to investigate the ability of micromorphology to identify anthropogenic reworking of combustion features and to build a reference base of experimentally-derived conditions to calibrate micromorphological conditions. After burning, the fireplaces were either swept out, swept out and the material dumped, trampled, or a combination of these three. Micromorphological examination showed that these processes produce distinct characteristics readily identifiable at the microscopic scale. The application of this experiment to combustion-related features at the Paleolithic site of Hohle Fels in Germany showed that micromorphological examination of anthropogenic deposits-supported by experimental observations -provides an important context in which to evaluate other classes of artefacts.

This paper reconstructs the use of space and defines activity areas within a single hut (Hut 8) at the Early Bronze Age village of Afragola (southern Italy). The village, consisting of a number of huts and other structures, was covered by approximately 1m of volcanic ash during the eruption of Vesuvius in 3550 ± 20BP. Thirteen samples were collected from inside the hut to analyze the spatial variability in sedimentary characteristics among three areas of Hut 8-the apsidal, central, and entrance areas. The micromorphological analysis revealed details about the occupation surface and its relationship to features and material remains in the hut not apparent in the field. The apsidal area was probably used for storage but not of solids, as no significant quantities of organic material were found. The central area contains a small oven, calcareous ash from fires, and organic material composed of charred remains and bone fragments and was likely used for small-scale household tasks. A possible connection exists between the lithics and the microstratigraphic sequencing in the area west of the oven, suggesting that people congregated there to perform specific tasks. The entrance area contains highly compacted and heterogeneous sediments that were brought in from outside. Notable is the paucity of anthropogenic materials found inside the hut, especially given the remarkable preservation offered by the thick cover of volcanic ash. We hypothesize that Hut 8 was not occupied long enough to produce a large amount of debris or that it had limited indoor activities and was thoroughly cleaned.

Context is an important concept in archaeology, although the term tends to have a variety of meanings to different people. In this brief note we illustrate how context can be considered at a microstratigraphic scale using the technique of soil micromorphology. Examples are given from the sites of Geißenklösterle (Germany), Sibudu (South Africa), and Pech de l'Azé IV (France) to show that micromorphology is an indispensible and robust tool for not only documenting the contextual position of archaeological objects and features within the matrix of the site but also for making accurate interpretations of the archaeological record.

Gilbert et al. (Reports, 9 May 2008, p. 786) presented DNA analysis of coprolites recovered from an Oregon cave as evidence for a human presence in North America before the Clovis culture. Results of our micromorphological and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analyses of one of the reported coprolites are difficult to reconcile with the DNA results identifying the coprolite as human.