Prehistoric Archaeology

The Middle Mississippian component at Aztalan was a mixed, Late Woodland / Mississippian occupation sited within a heavily fortified habitation and mound center that is located on a tributary of the Rock River in Wisconsin. It represents the northernmost large Cahokian-related village recorded. The Oneota Lake Koshkonong Locality of the Rock River drainage is located approximately 20 km south of Aztalan, and it consists of a 25 km2 area along the northwest shore with a small cluster of habitation settlements. Sixty-eight radiocarbon measurements have been obtained from Aztalan, and 52 from Oneota settlements in the Lake Koshkonong Locality. We discuss how to best interpret this dataset, and we use Bayesian chronological modeling to analyze these dates. The results suggest that (1) Aztalan's Late Woodland (Kekoskee phase) occupation began in the AD 900s or early AD 1000s, (2) Aztalan's Mississippian occupation ceased in the AD 1200s, (3) Oneota occupations at Lake Koshkonong ...

Tobacco use was widespread amongst the indigenous populations throughout North and South America prior to
European contact; however, the geographical and temporal spread of the plant is poorly understood. Organic
residue analysis is providing a new source of information on the diffusion of tobacco based on the presence of
nicotine extracted from smoking pipes recovered from archaeological contexts. Using gas chromatography-mass
spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) we identified
nicotine in a Late Archaic (1685-1530 cal B.C) smoking pipe from the Flint River site in Northern Alabama. This
evidence suggests the exploitation of tobacco spread into the southeastern North America nearly a millennium
earlier than the current hypothesis on the rate of dispersion of tobacco in pre-Columbian North America

Pottery is one of the most abundant artifact categories recovered from Northern Iroquoian archaeological village sites dating prior to the widespread adoption of European technologies. As a result, it receives a great deal of attention from archaeologists. Of particular note on sites dating after ca. AD 1300 is the presence of pots with collars and collarless pots with wedges (broad, flat lips). These platforms were used by Iroquoian potters for the creation of often very intricate designs generally composed of straight incised or stamped lines. While we do not know the meanings of these designs, we can deduce that they were signals, a means of conveying to others information about the potters and pottery users (Hart and Engelbrecht 2012).

A partir del análisis de contextos arqueológicos con restos humanos y las manifestaciones rupestres del Paleolítico Superior europeo, se proponen dos principales formas de tratamiento mortuorio; uno dirigido a la dispersión y eventual desaparición de los difuntos y otro centrado en su preservación y retención. En el primero se observa una tendencia a la difuminación de las diferencias sociales y, en el segundo, se nota una distinción en función del grupo de edad y género. Tras el cambio climático y de patrones de asentamiento en el paso del Gravetiense al
Magdaleniense y Epigravetiense, se percibe que, hasta cierto punto, las formas en que se inhumaban los diversos sectores sociales se tornaron más homogéneas. Pero, reconociendo constantes, se concluye que las concepciones paleolíticas de la muerte conformaron un fenómeno de larga duración en el que, pese a la existencia de modificaciones superficiales, pudieron mantenerse una serie de elementos más centrales.

Elena Rossoni-Notter, Olivier Notter, Suzanne Simone, Patrick Simon

Balzi  Rossi  (Ventimiglia,  Imperia):  researches  of  the  Museum  of  Prehistoric    Anthropology  of  Monaco  on  the  technical  behaviour  of  the  Acheulean  and    Mousterian collections from Grotta del Principe. New insights and future programs.

The area corresponding to the modern city of Rome is usually known for the magnificent remains of the Roman civilization and the myths of its foundation in 753 BC. Less known is evidence of the prehistoric occupation occurring until the Bronze Age along the territory corresponding to the city of Rome and the surrounding area, called "Campagna Romana". Indeed, until a few years ago, the archaeological evidence relating to the phases of recent prehistory, from the Neolithic to the beginning of the Bronze Age, were completely, or almost completely, unknown. Recent excavations, mainly related to preventive archaeology, led to the identification of settlements and necropolises associated with a complex cultural scenario and shed light on the social and cultural aspects of daily life of the human groups who occupied this territory before the Latium civilization.

Della città di Roma, ben nota per le maestose vestigia riguardanti la civiltà romana e per i miti che precedono la sua fondazione avvenuta nel 753 a.C., sono poco conosciute le fasi antecedenti l’età del Bronzo finale , sia nell’area urbana, che nel territorio al di fuori delle mura, definito come “Campagna Romana” che va dal Neolitico antico fino agli inizi dell'età del Bronzo. Scavi recenti, legati principalmente all’archeologia preventiva, hanno portato all’individuazione di insediamenti e necropoli riferibili ad un complesso ed articolato panorama culturale, gettando luce su aspetti della vita quotidiana, sociale e culturale di gruppi umani che hanno occupato questo territorio prima della formazione della civiltà laziale.

Bringing together American and Canadian scholars of Great Lakes prehistory to provide a holistic picture of caribou hunters, this volume covers such diverse topics as paleoenvironmental reconstruction, ethnographic surveys of hunting features with Native informants in Canada, and underwater archaeological research. It also presents a synthetic model of ancient caribou hunters in the Great Lakes region. This book is well suited for anyone with interests in Great Lakes prehistory generally, past environments, or the archaeological discovery of the world’s oldest caribou hunting structures 120 feet below Lake Huron.

The ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project (Fragility and sustainability in small island environments: adaptation, culture change and collapse in prehistory, 2013–18) led by Caroline Malone (Queen’s University Belfast) has focused on the unique Temple Culture of Neolithic Malta, and its antecedents and successors through investigation of archaeological sites and monuments. This, the second volume of three, presents the results of excavations at four temple sites and two settlements, together with analysis of chronology, economy and material culture.

The project focused on the integration of three key strands of Malta's early human history (environmental change, human settlement and population) set against a series of questions that interrogated how human activity impacted on the changing natural environment and resources, which in turn impacted on the Neolithic populations. The evidence from early sites together with the human story preserved in burial remains reveals a dynamic and creative response over millennia. The scenario that emerges implies settlement from at least the mid-sixth millennium bc, with extended breaks in occupation, depopulation and environmental stress coupled with episodes of recolonization in response to changing economic, social and environmental opportunities.

Excavation at the temple site of Santa Verna (Gozo) revealed an occupation earlier than any previously dated site on the islands, whilst geophysical and geoarchaeological study at the nearby temple of Ġgantija revealed a close relationship with a spring, Neolithic soil management, and evidence for domestic and economic activities within the temple area. A targeted excavation at the temple of Skorba (Malta) revisited the chronological questions that were first revealed at the site over 50 years ago, with additional OSL and AMS sampling. The temple site of Kordin III (Malta) was explored to identify the major phases of occupation and to establish the chronology, a century after excavations first revealed the site. Settlement archaeology has long been problematic in Malta, overshadowed by the megalithic temples, but new work at the site of Taċ-Ċawla (Gozo) has gathered significant economic and structural evidence revealing how subsistence strategies supported agricultural communities in early Malta. A study of the second millennium bc Bronze Age site of In-Nuffara (Gozo) likewise has yielded significant economic and chronological information that charts the declining and changing environment of Malta in late prehistory.

Investigations at Dorstone Hill in the parish of Dorstone in the Dore Valley, Herefordshire, have taken place annually since 2011, with the aim of investigating Neolithic settlement in the area just to the south of the chambered tomb of Arthur’s Stone. The project has been directed by Professor Julian Thomas of Manchester University and Dr. Keith Ray, formerly County Archaeologist with Herefordshire Council, in association with Professor Koji Mizoguchi, of Kyushu University, Japan, and Tim Hoverd of Herefordshire Council. The project has deployed local volunteers and students from (mostly) the Universities of Manchester, Kyushu and Cardiff. Irene Garcia-Rovira, Ellen McInnes and Lara Bishop of the University of Manchester have supervised the work in the field during all four seasons.
The hilltop at Dorstone Hil is a promontory extending south-westwards from the ridge separating the Dore and Wye valleys east of Hay-on-Wye. The field occupying the hilltop was cleared of scrub and levelled to be brought into cultivation during the Second World War, and had, by the 1960s, produced a significant assemblage of worked flints. The site was test-excavated by Roger Pye and members of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club in the 1960s, and was provisionally classified as a Neolithic hilltop enclosure. The low earthen bank that extends east-west for 120m across the narrow neck of the promontory was surveyed by English Heritage in the late 1990s, and it was concluded that it was a defining feature of the putative enclosure.
In 2011, a trench was dug across the bank where it appeared to survive best, close to its eastern limit, and well to the east of a putative entrance gap. No ditch accompanying the bank was found, but a historically-recent quarry was intercepted. The bank itself was found to comprise large stone slabs on its north-facing side, and burnt clay on its crest. A pit containing sherds of Neolithic pottery was found on the southern side of the bank. In 2012, a trench opened to the west of the ‘entrance gap’ revealed that the bank was covered on both northern and southern sides with a capping of stones, and a stone-lined cist, with a broken leaf-shaped arrowhead, was uncovered on the northern side. Again, no ditch was evident, and a burnt deposit was found within two parallel lines of palisade slots.
In 2013, this trench was further investigated and the burnt deposit was seen to cover the remains of a timber aisled hall. It was deduced that this had burned down and that the burnt clay was super-structural daub. Structural timbers were recorded, decayed from charred posts and woodwork. Also in 2013, a further trench was excavated between the eastern and western mounds. A pit containing distinctive flint items of likely Late Neolithic date was found to have been dug into the top of the eastern mound, close to where a rectangular mortuary chamber of Early Neolithic character (large upright timber posts linked by a stone-lined trough) had previously been dug into the subsoil. An early Neolithic axe was found, albeit displaced by a modern drain, immediately west of this chamber. Further finds included the eastern end of the aisled building intercepted in the 2012-13 trench, and a series of Bronze Age deposits apparently located deliberately to reference the earlier features.
In 2014, a further trench was opened across what had been supposed was the western end of the western of two long mounds. This revealed a third long mound that had been created in similar sequence to the central mound, with a burnt deposit then capped by turf. It was, however, retained within a stone wall (lost to bulldozing along its southern side) that had formed the basis for a ‘Cotswold-Severn’-style cairn that included modest side-chambers. The eastern end of this trapezoidal cairn had been reinforced with stone buttressing before all three mounds were linked by further stonework. In 2015, planned excavations will complete the investigation of this western mound/cairn.

This volume covers the Prehistory of Ukraine from the Lower Palaeolithic through to the end of the Neolithic periods. This is the first comprehensive synthesis of Ukrainian Prehistory from earliest times through until the Neolithic Period undertaken by researchers who are currently investigating the Prehistory of Ukraine. At present there are no other English language books on this subject that provide a current synthesis for these periods. The chapters in this volume provide up-to-date overviews of all aspects of prehistoric culture development in Ukraine and present details of the key sites and finds for the periods studied. The book includes the most recent research from all areas of prehistory up to the Neolithic period, and, in addition, areas such as recent radiocarbon dating and its implications for culture chronology are considered; as is a consideration of aDNA and the new insights into culture history this area of research affords; alongside recent macrofossil studies of plant use, and anthropological and stable isotope studies of diet, which all combine to allow greater insights into the nature of human subsistence and cultural developments across the Palaeolithic to Neolithic periods in Ukraine. It is anticipated that this book will be an invaluable resource for students of prehistory throughout Europe in providing an English-language text that is written by researchers who are active in their respective fields and who possess an intimate knowledge of Ukrainian prehistory.

Malcolm C. Lillie (PhD 1998, University of Sheffield) is Professor of Archaeology at Umeå University, Sweden. Previously he was Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology and Wetland Science at the University of Hull, England. Malcolm undertook MSc and PhD research at Sheffield University, the latter under the supervision of the late Professor Marek Zvelebil. His main research interests are the Prehistory of Ukraine, in situ preservation in wetlands, prehistoric and wetlands archaeology in general and the analysis of prehistoric human remains.

Inna Potekhina (PhD 1992, Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev) is Head of the Bioarchaeology Department in the Institute of Archeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev and an Associate Professor at the University of 'Kyiv-Mohyla Academy', where she teaches a course of anthropology and bioarchaeology. Inna is an author of more than 150 articles and four monographs on the anthropology of the prehistoric populations of Ukraine and Eastern Europe, the genomic history of Mesolithic-Eneolithic Ukraine and palaeodemography and palaeodiet reconstructions.

Chelsea Budd (PhD 2016, University of Oxford) is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Archaeology at the University of Umeå, Sweden. Her main research interests are Early European Prehistory, isotope geochemistry and the application of statistical modelling techniques to archaeological research.

The decline and disappearance of a range of giant marsupials, reptiles and birds from the Australian landscape during the last Glacial cycle continues to capture the imagination of both researchers and the general public. The events hinted at in the Australian fossil sequences appear to be mirrored on other continents through similar time periods, though the exact cause or sequence of extinctions remains largely unresolved. In recent years debate over megafaunal extinctions in Australia has been dominated by reports that humans were the primary drivers, leading some to assert that it is no longer a question of whether humans drove these extinctions, only how. Following the review of Wroe and Field, new reports have been published that claim support for a human-driven extinction (HDE). On closer scrutiny however, the key sites and samples lack firm contextual data and/or clear provenance. These studies fail to prove a key tenet of the HDE e that all, or even most now-extinct species were present at the time of human colonization of the continent. As compared with the easy assertion 5 years ago that this had been established, there are now more faunal species (c. 69% of total known to have become extinct) that cannot be placed within 50e100 ka of human arrival. There are still only two sites that demonstrate a coexistence of humans with some species of megafauna e Nombe Rockshelter in the PNG highlands and Cuddie Springs in the semi-arid southeast of Australia. If there is so little empirical evidence for coexistence or association of megafauna with humans, then support for an HDE through overhunting and ecosystem disruption is seriously compromised. Furthermore, the popularly cited "extinction window", proposed as c. 51e39 ka when the HDE is argued to occur, is still only a theoretical construct. There is no clear evidence indicating that this period was particularly significant in terms of faunal loss. At present, the great majority of 'Pleistocene' sites remain poorly dated and the understanding of faunal turnover through this epoch is almost non-existent. Small datasets, poorly constructed hypotheses and assertive rhetoric are the prominent features of current discussions on a human role in megafaunal extinctions. Importantly, it is yet to be established whether the extinctions are an archaeological problem. The sparse fossil record known from Australia hampers a clear resolution as to how and when the megafauna disappeared, a situation likely to continue into the near future.