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• Spectroscopy for non invasive investigation. • Pigments for pottery during Neolithic. • Technology of pottery production by Infrared Spectroscopy. The Neolithic painted pottery, spread all over southern Italy, is considered as an important chronological indicator for the development of VI-V millennium BC prehistoric settlements and cultural traditions. The goal of this work is to contribute to the study of this ceramic class through the chemical characterization of some samples coming from the Aeolian Islands. 16 different sherds have been selected and the pigments preserved in their decorations analyzed via non-invasive techniques: Fiber Optical Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS), X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), Raman Spectroscopy and Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). The different pigments, some of which no longer clearly visible to the naked eye (red ochre and raw umber) were identified, while the FT-IR data provided information about the pottery differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Description of the shoes The shoes consist of a bearskin sole, deerskin upper leatherattached to the sole with a thin cow hide strap. Inside the shoe is a lime bast net structure that holds the grassplaced in the shoe for insulation and to give stability to the shapeof the foot and the shoe. In thereconstruction I used the lacing of the left shoe with this methodof closing the shoe (See Figure 38 b) Plausible addition to the shoes In the red circle in Figure 42 there is a leather strap visible. Reviewed Article Keywords: Keywords: Ötzi; shoe; Country; Italy EN Ötzi shoe Country Italy Ötzi the Gletshermummie, Ötzi the Iceman and Tisenjoch are thenames we gave the man that walked in the Alps 5,300 years ago. [Extracted from the article]

Current models of the peopling of the higher-elevation zones of the Tibetan Plateau postulate that permanent occupation could only have been facilitated by an agricultural lifeway at ~3.6 thousand calibrated carbon-14 years before present. Here we report a reanalysis of the chronology of the Chusang site, located on the central Tibetan Plateau at an elevation of ~4270 meters above sea level. The minimum age of the site is fixed at ~7.4 thousand years (thorium-230/uranium dating), with a maximum age between ~8.20 and 12.67 thousand calibrated carbon-14 years before present (carbon-14 assays). Travel cost modeling and archaeological data suggest that the site was part of an annual, permanent, preagricultural occupation of the central plateau. These findings challenge current models of the occupation of the Tibetan Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the study of Holocene geomorphic evolution of rivers around Songshan Mountain in relation to human frequentation in Prehistoric periods. The investigations were performed by means of an integration of GIS data processing; field surveys and particle size analysis. In 8000-3000 aBP; in the Songshan Mountain Region, large-scale river sedimentation occurred. This increased the elevation of river beds that were higher than today. After 3000 aBP; the upper reaches of the rivers experienced a down cut; while the lower reaches experienced continuing sedimentation. The data on the elevation of prehistoric settlements above the river levels were obtained from Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). These data were corrected according to the evolutionary features of fluvial landforms in order to obtain synchronous elevations above river levels of prehistoric settlements. The relationship between sediment distribution and the Holocene geomorphic evolution was investigated through the statistical analysis of the elevation above the river levels. Outputs from our analyses enabled us to differentiate three evolutionary stages. During the first one, related to Peiligang culture (9000-7500 aBP), populations mainly settled on both hilly relief and high plateaus depending on their agriculture production modes. During the second stage, from Yangshao (7500-5000 aBP) to the Longshan period (5000-4000 aBP), settlements were mainly distributed on mountainous areas and hilly lands to avoid flooding and to develop agriculture. Finally, during the Xiashang culture (4000-3000 aBP), a large number of settlements migrated to the plain area to facilitate trade of goods and cultural exchanges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines settlement density and settlement patterns in the Roman colonial territories of Venusia, Cosa and Aesernia, located in three different landscapes of central southern Italy (modern Basilicata, Tuscany and Molise). Using a series of GIS tools, we conducted a comparative analysis of the density and spatial distribution of sites dating to the Hellenistic period (ca. 350–50b.c.). We used the legacy settlement data collected by previous large-scale, intensive, site-oriented field surveys to test the validity of two competing rural settlement models of early Roman colonization: the conventional model of neatly organized settlements regularly dispersed across the landscape and the recently proposed theory that colonists adopted a polynuclear settlement strategy. After calculating the extent to which the archaeological datasets conform to the regular or polynuclear model, we conclude that only a very small portion of the colonized areas actually meets traditional expectations regarding the organization of early colonial settlements. Our analyses show that the legacy survey data is more consistent with the polynuclear settlement theory, but the data also reveals some completely unexpected patterns, suggesting that early Roman colonial landscapes were more diverse than previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The settlement of Racot 18 in the western Polish lowlands is used as a case study in the investigation of continued development and expansion following initial Neolithic beginnings, and in the formal chronological modeling, in a Bayesian framework, of settlement development. The site belongs to the Late Lengyel Culture of the later 5th millenniumcal b.c., and represents the intake of new land following earlier initial colonization. The formally estimated chronology for the settlement suggests individual house biographies spanned from as little as a generation to over a century; distinctive substantial buildings from late in the sequence may have lasted longest. Racot 18 is compared to its formally modeled context of the later 5th millenniumcal b.c. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the integration of two variables that are typically difficult to use in spatial analysis: time and uncertainty. A framework is constructed to analyse mid- and long-term variation in settlement dynamics during late prehistory in northeastern Spain. Following previous proposals, an aoristic model is built with ceramic dating to feed a Monte Carlo simulation that explores the case study using a discrete time-step approach. At the same time, available radiometric dating is used to validate the accuracy of the simulation results. Departing from the static analysis of spatial variables, the model proposes a new approach by which researchers can address temporal uncertainty. The results show that patterns detected by classical spatial analysis can be produced by artefacts derived from the division of time in chronological units instead of discrete time periods. The model is also used to compare a priori identical variations whose rate of change, when analysed with this approach, is revealed to be completely different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 1986, the cover of Nature featured rock paintings from the Pedra Furada rock shelter in the Serra da Capivara National Park in Brazil. In that issue, Niède Guidon, head of the excavations at Pedra Furada, co-authored an article that pushed back the arrival of the first humans to South America to 32,000 years ago. This controversial claim was widely reported by newspapers in Brazil and in other countries like the USA. Using this case, this paper aims to shed light on the role of newspapers in prehistory in three different ways. Firstly, it will analyze how Guidon's early outreach effort helped to transform the Serra da Capivara research into a well-known scientific project in Brazil - a project that tried to protect and economically promote this area, promoting at the same time the disputed claims. Secondly, this paper will highlight how Guidon's research adapted to the logic of the media by using the rock paintings at Pedra Furada as 'legitimators' of the idea of an early human presence in the shelter. And thirdly, this paper will emphasize how newspapers became the platform for the scientific debate that took place before, during and after the discussion in more traditional scientific media. All this will help to provide insight into how newspapers became a crucial agent in the construction of late 20th century prehistoric knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses that the expansion of developer-funded fieldwork into lesser-known areas has brought a realization that archaeology of periods once considered almost absent in Hertfordshire, such as the middle Iron Age or early to middle Saxon period, is present, although perhaps not in great density. It mentions that it is still uncertain whether the low number of identified sites from these periods represents a drop in population at those times.

The settlement of Boroo Gol was explored by a Swiss-Mongolian team from 2005 to 2007. The following article gives an overview over the most important results of this latest research, emphasising the special position Boroo Gol occupies in Xiongnu civilisation. This settlement in the middle of the Mongolian steppes raises questions concerning its role, function and place vis-à-vis the traditionally nomadic populations. We propose some original interpretations which might shed new light on Xiongnu society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sessera valley is an under-populated Italian alpine valley located in the north-eastern Piedmont (northwest Italy) between the provinces of Biella and Vercelli. We discuss the data obtained during the first and the second year of the project “ Survey Alta Val Sessera ” held in 2013 and in 2014 under the scientific direction of Soprintendenza Archeologia del Piemonte in collaboration with Associazione Culturale 3P – Progetto Preistoria Piemonte and DocBi – Centro Studi Biellesi that had as its main purpose the identification of new prehistoric human frequentations in the valley. The theoretical scheme employed starts from the one developed for Trentino and the South Tyrolean region (north-eastern Italy) by Broglio and Improta. During the campaigns, surveys in the Sessera and in the neighbouring Dolca valley have been carried out using the patterns of settlement and mobility in the alpine environment developed by Kompatscher and Kompatscher, in order to identify the most interesting areas to investigate. The most important results obtained during the first two survey campaigns indicate that the Sessera valley was occupied by human groups using knapped lithic industries made of local vein quartz. Another important result is the identification of a Late Ancient site located at high altitude (1642 m a.s.l.) along one of the ridge paths investigated. Even if the lithic findings have no diagnostic elements for a precise chronological positioning, the importance of the data obtained consists mainly in having successfully tested a method of research aimed at identifying human frequentations at high altitude in this part of Piedmont, where no comparable research has been carried out until now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The placement of the Middle Bronze Age settlement Villaggio dei Faraglioni on the Ustica island, one of the best preserved prehistoric village of the Mediterranean area, is analyzed from a cognitive point of view, taking into account archaeoastronomy and landscape archaeology aspects. It turns out that the place might have been selected because of its privileged position with respect to the landscape, better than conforming to utilitarian/defensive considerations, as instead occurs for contemporary, for instance Mycenaean, sites. From the village it was indeed possible to follow the rising and setting of the sun in the months close to the winter solstice on the two elevated peaks existing on the opposite side of the island, in a symmetric way. As a consequence, the inhabitants could determine the day of the winter solstice with an approximation of a few days, using this "partial calendar" for agricultural and navigational purposes. A possible astronomical orientation of the urban layout is also analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability of plants and freshwater shapes the diets and social behavior of chimpanzees, our closest living relative. However, limited evidence about the spatial relationships shared between ancestral human (hominin) remains, edible resources, refuge, and freshwater leaves the influence of local resources on our species' evolution open to debate. Exceptionally well-preserved organic geochemical fossils—biomarkers—preserved in a soil horizon resolve different plant communities at meter scales across a contiguous 25,000 m² archaeological land surface at Olduvai Gorge from about 2 Ma. Biomarkers reveal hominins had access to aquatic plants and protective woods in a patchwork landscape, which included a spring-fed wetland near a woodland that both were surrounded by open grassland. Numerous cut-marked animal bones are located within the wooded area, and within meters of wetland vegetation delineated by biomarkers for ferns and sedges. Taken together, plant biomarkers, clustered bone debris, and hominin remains define a clear spatial pattern that places animal butchery amid the refuge of an isolated forest patch and near freshwater with diverse edible resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tibetan Plateau is the highest and one of the most demanding environments ever inhabited by humans. We investigated the timing and mechanisms of its initial colonization at the Nwya Devu site, located nearly 4600 meters above sea level. This site, dating from 40,000 to 30,000 years ago, is the highest Paleolithic archaeological site yet identified globally. Nwya Devu has yielded an abundant blade tool assemblage, indicating hitherto-unknown capacities for the survival of modern humans who camped in this environment. This site deepens the history of the peopling of the “roof of the world” and the antiquity of human high-altitude occupations more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is focused on the multi-period sites in the core southern Neolithic region of south India to highlight their potential archaeological features and resources to assess land use and settlement patterns adopted by the mid-Holocene societies. Systematic archaeological reworks at the multi-period sites require particular attention to identify the resource locations and non-occupation sites for developing a comprehensive picture of the demographic and social models for explaining how people managed and shared resources within the site environs that continued to exist and operated for more than three thousand years spanning from Neolithic (3000-1200 BCE), Iron Age (1200-300 BCE) and Early History (300 BCE- 500 CE). Published archaeological data on major multi-period sites of south India is reviewed, compiled and attested with exploration findings from the Brahmagiri Hill. Here a fresh approach is made to assess the impact of Ashokan rock edicts on the social fabric and any landscape changes it brought to Isila (Isila is believed to be an early historic townsite at Brahmagiri). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archaeologia Lituana is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archaeologia Lituana is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archaeologia Lituana is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archaeologia Lituana is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Middle Holocene cultures have been widely studied around the Eastern-Mediterranean basin in the last 30 years and past cultural activities have been commonly linked with regional climate changes. However, in many cases such linkage is equivocal, in part due to existing climatic evidence that has been derived from areas outside the distribution of ancient settlements, leading to uncertainty from complex spatial heterogeneity in both climate and demography. A few high-resolution well-dated paleoclimate records were recently established using speleothems in the Central and Eastern-Mediterranean basin, however, the scarcity of such records in the western part of the Mediterranean prevents us from correlating past climate evolutions across the basin and deciphering climate-culture relation at fine timescales. Here we report the first decadal-resolved Mid-Holocene climate proxy records from theWestern-Mediterranean basin based on the stable carbon and oxygen isotopes analyses of two U/Th dated stalagmites from the Gueldaman GLD1 Cave in Northern Algeria. Comparison of our records with those from Italy and Israel reveals synchronous (multi) centennial dry phases centered at ca. 5600, ca. 5200 and ca. 4200 yr BP across the Mediterranean basin. New calibrated radiocarbon dating constrains reasonably well the age of rich anthropogenic deposits (e.g., faunal remains, pottery, charcoal) excavated inside the cave, which allows the comparison between in situ evidence of human occupation and of climate change. This approach shows that the timing of a prolonged drought at ca. 4400-3800 yr BP blankets the onset of cave abandonment shortly after ca. 4403 cal yr BP, supporting the hypothesis that a climate anomaly may have played a role in this cultural disruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiocarbon dates obtained for the coastal hilltop settlement of Aghios Antonios Potos in south Thasos are statistically treated to define the absolute chronology for the start and the end of the various habitation and cultural phases at the site. The location was first occupied during the Final Neolithic (FN) between 3800 and 3600 BC, extending this much contested phase to the lowest up to now record for Thasos and the northern Greece. The site is continuously inhabited from Early Bronze Age I until the early Late Bronze Age (LBA; 1363 BC) when it was abandoned. Comparison with other sites in Thasos and particularly with the inland site of Kastri Theologos showed that the first occupation at Aghios Antonios came soon after the abandonment of Kastri in the beginning of the 4th millennium. In fact, after the decline and abandonment of Aghios Antonios in the LBA, the site of Kastri was reinhabited, leading to the hypothesis that part of the coastal population moved inland. The presumed chronological sequence of alternate habitation between the two settlements may evoke explanations for sociocultural and/or environmental dynamics behind population movements in prehistoric Thasos. A major conclusion of the project is that the 4th millennium occupation gap attested in many sites of Greece, especially in the north, is probably bridged in south Thasos, when the data from all sites are taken together. The mobility of people in Final Neolithic south Thasos may explain the general phenomenon of limited occupational sequences in the FN of north Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the population fluctuation in the central-western region of the Korean Peninsula is investigated using radiocarbon data obtained from prehistoric pit houses in residential bases or settlements during the seventh to third millennium cal BP comprising the Neolithic, Bronze and Early Iron ages in Korea. Fluctuation in radiocarbon date distribution is compared with summed probability distribution of calibrated dates as well as total numbers of settlements and dwellings arranged in chronological order. Results indicate the appearance of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements in the early sixth and the late fourth millennium BC each followed by a rapid growth of population with a peak around 5500 and 3000 cal BP. Population decline is identified from 5300, 4900, 4500 cal BP during the Neolithic and 2800 and 2400 cal BP during the Bronze Age. The period between 4500 and 3500 cal BP corresponds with the lowest density of settlements and dwellings. Agricultural villages collapsed 2400–2000 cal BP. The paper suggests the hypothesis that climate change, especially cold or dry climate induced by weak Asian monsoon events, is possibly responsible for the fluctuation of settlements and population in prehistoric Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the hypothesis that human landscape modifications involving early agriculture contributed to greenhouse gas emissions in preindustrial times, a proposal that has significant implications for the timing of the Anthropocene era. In synthesizing recent papers that both advocate and challenge this hypothesis, we identify a major bias in the ongoing debate, which focuses on the land clearance practices of agrarian people, with insufficient consideration of a diverse range of hunter-gatherer societies who regularly utilized landscape-scale burning for various purposes. Employing California as a case study, we examine how the exclusion of hunter-gatherers from this debate may have shortchanged estimates of human biomass burning in preindustrial times. We also suggest that human population size may be a poor proxy for the degree of land clearance and anthropogenic burning, and we describe how previous approaches to these questions may have underplayed the importance of variation in the timing and magnitude of depopulation in different regions of the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship between sea level, culture, the sense of place and long-term prehistoric human settlement on the central coast of British Columbia (B.C.), often referencing archaeological charts and diagrams. An overview of excavations of archaeological sites on the central coast of B.C., including the Namu site, British Columbia, is provided.

The article discusses prehistoric settlements during the Holocene period on the Dundas Islands Archipelago in northern British Columbia (B.C.), heavily referencing archaeology on the island. An overview of seashells found at settlement sites on Dundas Island is provided. The sea level history of Dundas Island is discussed.

In this paper, we discuss human occupation during the Early and Middle Holocene in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, based mainly on the data provided by excavated deposits from the Sodmein Cave, which produced an important Holocene stratigraphic sequence. This sequence is dated by a large number of conventional and AMS C dates. It appears that the area was empty of human occupation during the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the earliest Holocene. With improved climatic conditions, humans arrived in the area, as hunter-gatherers using no ceramics, from around 7.1 to 6.4 Ka cal BC. Humans were absent from the cave during the Holocene 8.2 Ka event ( ca. 6.3 Ka cal BC). From 6.2 to 5.0 Ka cal BC, herders visited the site on a regular basis importing caprines. The bone evidence for domesticated small stock is very limited at Sodmein but is nevertheless extremely important, as it contains the oldest known specimens for Africa to date. After 5.0 Ka cal BC, the area was almost entirely deserted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diachronic survey in the Marmara Lake basin of western Turkey confirms long-term settlement activity from the 5th millennium b.c. to the present. Here we present the results from a study of ceramics and settlement distribution pertaining to the Chalcolithic through the Iron Age periods (ca. 5th/4th-1st millennium b.c.). Our dataset confirms the value of a multi-pronged approach when establishing ceramic typologies from survey datasets, incorporating distribution in the landscape with macroscopic, microscopic (petrographic), and chemical (Instrumental Neutron Activation) analyses. Our results offer valuable insights into continuity as well as change of ceramic recipes in western Anatolia during the rise of urbanism in the Middle to Late Bronze Age followed by the establishment of an imperial realm in the Iron Age. From a methodological perspective, our results illustrate the value of macroscopic and chemical approaches, including principal component, distribution, density, and discriminant analyses that can be refined further by petrography, for the interpretation of surface survey ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Located in northwestern Nevada, Last Supper Cave was tested in 1968 and fully excavated in 1973-1974 under the direction of Thomas Layton. The site revealed a long sequence of human occupation, including a Paleoindian component initially dated to - 9,000-8,000 radiocarbon years ago (B.P.). In 2008, a hearth from the lowest deposits returned an AMS date of 10,280±40 B.P., suggesting that initial occupation occurred during the latest Pleistocene, over a millennium earlier than initially believed. Here we present the results of further AMS dating of the Last Supper Cave deposits and an analysis of the vertical distribution of time-sensitive projectile points in order to evaluate the site's stratigraphic integrity. Results indicate that while some portions of the deposits were mixed, others appear to have been relatively intact, and materials recovered from them hold great potential for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early human societies and their interactions with the natural world have been extensively explored in palaeoenvironmental studies across Central and Western Europe. Yet, despite an extensive body of scholarship, there is little consideration of the environmental impacts of proto-historic urbanisation. Typically palaeoenvironmental studies of Bronze and Iron Age societies discuss human impact in terms of woodland clearance, landscape openness and evidence for agriculture. Although these features are clearly key indicators of human settlement, and characterise Neolithic and early to Middle Bronze Age impacts at Corent, they do not appear to represent defining features of a protohistoric urban environment. The Late Iron Age Gallic Oppidum of Corent is remarkable for the paucity of evidence for agriculture and strong representation of apophytes associated with disturbance. Increased floristic diversity – a phenomenon also observed in more recent urban environments – was also noted. The same, although somewhat more pronounced, patterns are noted for the Late Bronze Age and hint at the possibility of a nascent urban area. High percentages of pollen from non-native trees such as Platanus, Castanea and Juglans in the late Bronze Age and Gallic period also suggest trade and cultural exchange, notably with the Mediterranean world. Indeed, these findings question the validity of applying Castanea and Juglans as absolute chronological markers of Romanisation. These results clearly indicate the value of local-scale palaeoecological studies and their potential for tracing the phases in the emergence of a proto-historic urban environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including prehistoric inhabitants; information on some of the artifacts from the E. J. Sims Collection, Snake Effigies, early archaic blades, engraved crescent bannerstones; and artifacts from the Wyandotte Cave, United States.

The article reports on a genetic study by archaeologist Catherine Hills et al published in "Nature" on how the Anglo-Saxons settled in England in the first millennium common era (C.E.). Topics include the study's agreement to some extent with English monk Bede's claim that Anglo-Saxons invaded the island, the result of an analysis of DNA samples from people who died in England between 400 to 900 C.E. and a confirmation of Bede's tale by archaeological finds from Anglo-Saxon houses and burials.

• New approaches to deposition analysis were developed to study a large data set of prehistoric settlement discard. • The archaeological context was studied as a compressed, synoptic record of the lifecycle of things. • Phases of the cultural biography of Bronze Age houses were identified including their use, intentional cremation, the burial of remains (burnt settlement refuse) and closing deposits. • Houses are explained as the central (albeit non-human) actors of hybrid actor-networks. • The actor's role of the houses was strengthened by their ontological status as living beings. This paper deals with the application of deposition analysis to an unusual type of features in the Late Bronze Age settlements in Central Europe. These are long narrow trenches (referred to as 'long pits' in this text) with characteristic standard form and alignment, as well as find contents, including high amounts of secondary-burned pottery fragments. In the context of prehistoric research, these features represent a relatively new phenomenon that has attracted attention in the last two decades due to new excavations in Bohemia and Bavaria. Based on the finds from Březnice (Czechia), the authors conclude that the long pits were connected with the closing rituals following the abandonment and burial of dwellings. Although no houses were directly documented on this site, their presence must be assumed, and their cultural biography can be reconstructed from the depositional characteristics of the accompanying finds. In order to fully understand the processes of deposition, the authors find it useful to focus not only on human agency but also on the relationships between the things themselves. This way, houses are understood as the central element of a hybrid actor-network. Their role may have been strengthened by their ontological status of living beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the prehistoric period in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA), very few architectural remains and settlements have been identified and there is an absence of evidence for dwellings and domestic spaces. Loc Giang (3980–3270 cal BP) in Long An Province, southern Vietnam is one of the few prehistoric settlements excavated in the region, revealing compacted, laterally extensive layers hypothesised to be floors in association with several other occupation deposit types. Due to the complex occupation stratigraphy encountered in the field, as well as intensive post-depositional processes of tropical environments, a state-of-the-art micro-geoarchaeological approach was used to identify site formation processes. Here, we present a description and depositional history of eight major deposit types (microfacies); among these, we identify constructed lime mortar floors, pile dwellings, evidence for the systematic treatment of waste, and prepared organic deposits likely associated with the management of dog and pig populations. Through the study of site formation we reconstruct at high resolution the nature of dwellings and organisation of domestic spaces within one of the earliest neolithic and sedentary settlements in the region. We demonstrate that within destructive burial environments of the tropics, micro-geoarchaeology offers an effective scientific toolkit for detecting settlement features with low macro-archaeological visibility, thereby enabling us to reconstruct pile dwellings and associated lime floors that were poorly characterised previously in MSEA prehistory. • First micro-geoarchaeological study of a prehistoric settlement in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA). • Micro-geoarchaeology identifies pyrogenic lime mortar floors and pile dwellings. • Differential preservation of construction materials result from tropical post-depositional processes. • Early evidence (3510–3150 cal BP) for substantial dwellings and sedentism in MSEA. • Micro-geoarchaeology reconstructs the settlement record formerly missing in MSEA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kozarnika cave is a renowned prehistoric site in the Balkans, which contributes significantly to our understanding of the human past due to its rich assemblages associated with the Lower to Upper Palaeolithic. Various dating methods have been employed to unravel the timing of human occupations in Kozarnika. Radiocarbon dating was used to unfold the time frame for the Kozarnikian lithic tradition uncovered in the Upper Palaeolithic sequence of the cave, and palaeomagnetic dating assigned the Brunhes–Matuyama reversal to the layer beneath the Lower Palaeolithic assemblages. In this study, we employed luminescence-dating methods, including a body of different signals to date sediment layers from the top to the bottom of the sequence covering the period of ca 30 to 700 ka. Our investigations revealed that the Kozarnikian tradition in layers 5a-c falls between 30 and 35 ka. Following that, we suggest that the Middle Palaeolithic period initiated between 250 and 309 ka and lasted until 40–53 ka. More importantly, we have updated the age of the Neanderthal radius discovered in the Mousterian assemblages to 201 ± 17 ka. Our dating resulted in a period of ca 300–700 ka for the Lower Palaeolithic assemblages in the cave. Although this age range fits perfectly with the palaeomagnetic boundary <780 ka established for Kozarnika, the possibility of reaching the threshold of luminescence dating cannot be ruled out. Thus, at this stage, this age range may represent the minimum age for the Lower Palaeolithic. • Multiple luminescence dating approaches to date a Lower to Upper Palaeolithic site. • Dating beyond the conventional limit of luminescence dating methods. • Complete chronology for the Palaeolithic site of Kozarnika in Bulgaria. • Violet stimulated luminescence (VSL) and infrared radiofluorescence (IR-RF). • Temporal constraining the prehistoric Human settlement in the Balkans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]