Chronological Evidence Research Articles

GROTTA ROMANELLI (SOUTHERN ITALY, APULIA): LEGACIES AND ISSUES IN EXCAVATING A KEY SITE FOR THE PLEISTOCENE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

Grotta Romanelli, located on the Adriatic coast of southern Apulia (Italy), is considered a key site for the Mediterranean Pleistocene for its archaeological and palaeontological contents. The site, discovered in 1874, was re-evaluated only in 1900, when P. E. Stasi realised that it contained the first evidence of the Palaeolithic in Italy. Starting in 1914, G.A. Blanc led a pioneering excavation campaign, for the first-time using scientific methods applied to systematic paleontological and stratigraphical studies. Blanc proposed a stratigraphic framework for the cave. Different dating methods (C 14 and U/Th) were used to temporally constrain the deposits. The extensive studies of the cave and its contents were mostly published in journals with limited distribution and access, until the end of the 1970s, when the site became forgotten. In 2015, with the permission of the authorities, a new excavation campaign began, led by a team from Sapienza University of Rome in collaboration with IGAG CNR and other research institutions. The research team had to deal with the consequences of more than 40 years of inactivity in the field and the combined effect of erosion and legal, as well as illegal, excavations. In this paper, we provide a database of all the information published during the first 70 years of excavations and highlight the outstanding problems and contradictions between the chronological and geomorphological evidence, the features of the faunal assemblages and the limestone artefacts.

Technological variability in the Late Palaeolithic lithic industries of the Egyptian Nile Valley: The case of the Silsilian and Afian industries.

During the Nubia Salvage Campaign and the subsequent expeditions from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, numerous sites attributed to the Late Palaeolithic (~25–15 ka) were found in the Nile Valley, particularly in Nubia and Upper Egypt. This region is one of the few to have allowed human occupations during the dry Marine Isotope Stage 2 and is therefore key to understanding how human populations adapted to environmental changes at this time. This paper focuses on two sites located in Upper Egypt, excavated by the Combined Prehistoric Expedition: E71K18, attributed to the Afian industry and E71K20, attributed to the Silsilian industry. It aims to review the geomorphological and chronological evidence of the sites, present a technological analysis of the lithic assemblages in order to provide data that can be used in detailed comparative studies, which will allow discussion of technological variability in the Late Palaeolithic of the Nile Valley and its place within the regional context. The lithic analysis relies on the chaîne opératoire concept combined with an attribute analysis to allow quantification. This study (1) casts doubts on the chronology of E71K18 and related Afian industry, which could be older or younger than previously suggested, highlights (2) distinct technological characteristics for the Afian and the Silsilian, as well as (3) similar technological characteristics which allow to group them under a same broad techno-cultural complex, distinct from those north or south of the area.

At the lakeshore – An Early Nubian Complex site linked with lacustrine sediments (Eastern Desert, Egypt)

Open-air sites dating to the Pleistocene are very rare in the Eastern Desert of Egypt due to the often erosive hyper-arid landscape and its highly geomorphological dynamics. But information retrieved from such sites is also important for an enhanced understanding of the Middle Stone Age in Northeast Africa, though open-air sites present challenges of their own in comparison with cave sites. During an archaeological survey conducted by the universities of Cologne and Leuven, such a new open-air site associated with Pleistocene lacustrine deposits in close proximity to the Sodmein Cave was discovered. The recorded lithic artefacts, which eroded out of the sediments, can be attributed to the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Several Nubian type 2 cores assigned this assemblage most likely to the Early Nubian Complex. Together with the stone artefact material from the lowest layer J at the nearby Sodmein Cave, this new open-air site clearly establishes the presence of the Early Nubian Complex in the region east of the Nile. Although chronometric dating of the Pleistocene playa silts is in progress, the Early Nubian Complex can be correlated, according to the Northeast African chronological evidence, to the Last Interglacial.

Magnetic stratigraphy of the Danube loess: A composite Titel-Stari Slankamen loess section over the last one million years in Vojvodina, Serbia

In Europe, the most complete loess-paleosol sequences over the past million years are preserved in the Serbian part of the Danube River drainage basin. The similarity in stratigraphy and climatic cycles between the Serbian and the Chinese loess sequences suggests that the loess deposits in these two regions could play an important role in the study of intercontinental climatic correlations and linkage. However, previous magnetostratigraphic studies of the Serbian loess, mainly conducted using the alternating field (AF) demagnetization approach, show significant differences with the Chinese loess, especially the stratigraphic positioning of the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary (MBB). Here, we conduct a detailed magnetostratigraphic investigation of a composite Titel-Stari Slankamen loess section in the Vojvodina (northern Serbia), using thermal and hybrid demagnetization methods, aiming to establish new chronological constraints for the Danube Basin loess. Based on the analyses of the mineral magnetic properties, anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility, progressive thermal and hybrid demagnetization, the MBB was determined within S8, broadly consistent with the MBB position seen in the Chinese loess. Present evidence supports the hypothesis that the overall normal polarity in the upper part of L9, with a thickness of 2.1 m, was possibly caused by a combination of the remagnetization of remanence-carrying coarse-grained magnetite during the Brunhes normal chron and bioturbation during the forming of the overlying paleosol S8. Thus, our magnetostratigraphic results provide solid chronological evidence for the coherence of pedostratigraphy and climatostratigraphy for the loess deposits in the Danube Basin and China. The synchronous occurrence of the strongest developed paleosol S5 (corresponding to MISs 15–13) and the least weathered thick loess unit L9 (corresponding to MISs 24–22) in the two regions confirms that extreme climatic events during these two intervals are possibly common features of the climate in the Northern Hemisphere at those times.

The genetic link between the Azores Archipelago and the Southern Azores Seamount Chain (SASC): The elemental, isotopic and chronological evidences

New geochemical, isotopic (Sr-Nd-Hf-Pb) and K-Ar data, are presented here on samples from the Southern Azores Seamount Chain (SASC) located south of the Azores Plateau. The SASC also includes the Great Meteor, Small Meteor and Closs seamounts, morphologically connected by a saddle at −4100m deep. We conclude that the SASC are characterized by a narrow isotopic variability that falls within the Azores isotopic field. Although each seamount has its own isotopic signature, their mantle source must comprise four local mantle end-members, three of which are common to the Azores, e.g. Plato isotopic signature results from the mixing between HIMU and N-MORB while Great Meteor signature results from this mix with the Azores Common Component (AzCC). A fourth end-member with high 208Pb/204Pb and decoupled Th/U ratios (Δ8/4 up to 59.2) is identified on Great Meteor northern flank. New K-Ar ages on Plato (33.4±0.5Ma) and Small Hyeres (31.6±0.4Ma) show nearly coeval volcanism, which is contemporaneous with the E-MORBs erupted at the MAR, drilled on oceanic crust with 30-34Ma (DSDP82). This study endorses the genetic link between the Azores Archipelago and the SASC to the long-term activity of the Azores plume and the large-scale ridge-hotspot interaction, contributing to better constrain the temporal-spatial evolution of this region of the North Atlantic.

A Mesozoic orogenic cycle from post-collision to subduction in the southwestern Korean Peninsula: New structural, geochemical, and chronological evidence

The Early to Middle Mesozoic basins, distributed sporadically over the Korean Peninsula, preserve important records of the tectonic history of some of the major orogenic belts in East Asia. Here we present a comprehensive study of the structural, geochemical, geochronological, and paleontological features of a volcano-sedimentary package, belonging to the Oseosan Volcanic Complex of the Early to Middle Mesozoic Chungnam Basin, within the Mesozoic subduction-collision orogen in the southwestern Korean Peninsula. The zircon U-Pb data from rhyolitic volcanic rocks of the complex suggest Early to Middle Jurassic emplacement age of ca. 178–172Ma, harmonious with plant fossil taxa found from the overlying tuffaceous sedimentary rock. The geochemical data for the rhyolitic volcanic rocks are indicative of volcanic arc setting, implying that the Chungnam Basin has experienced an intra-arc subsidence during the basin-expanding stage by subduction of the Paleo-Pacific (Izanagi) Plate. The Jurassic arc-related Oseosan Volcanic Complex was structurally stacked by the older Late Triassic to Early Jurassic post-collisional basin-fill of the Nampo Group by the Jangsan fault during basin inversion. The Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous K-feldspar and illite K-Ar ages marked the timing of inversion tectonics, contemporaneous with the magmatic quiescence in the southern Korean Peninsula, likely due to flat-lying or low-angle subduction. The basin evolution history preserved in the Mesozoic Chungnam Basin reflects a Mesozoic orogenic cycle from post-collision to subduction in the southwestern Korean Peninsula. This, in turn, provides a better understanding of the spatial and temporal changes in Mesozoic tectonic environments along the East Asian continental margin.

Environmental status of the Jilantai Basin, North China, on the northwestern margin of the modern Asian summer monsoon domain during Marine Isotope Stage 3

Two drill cores were obtained from the Jilantai sub-depression (JLT(d)) and the neighboring Dengkou sub-uplift (DK(u)), within a huge, former lake basin in northern China. From an analysis of the lithology and pollen assemblages, combined with radiocarbon dating of extracted pollen and OSL dating of extracted quartz, we concluded the following: JLT(d) was continuously occupied by lakes since 85ka; however, DK(u), the neighboring sub-uplift, was covered by lakes during 80–74ka, 50–44ka, 32.5–27.5ka and <13ka, and covered by sand during 44–32.5ka and 27.5–13ka. The evidence from lithology and dating results supports the occurrence of lakes on DK(u) during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3. Evidence from shorelines, previously published cores, and the sedimentary and chronological evidence presented in this paper indicate the occurrence of a sub-humid environment, characterized by the occurrence of lakes separated by dunes, in the Jilantai Basin during MIS 3. However, further work is needed to understand the environmental significance of the co-existence of lakes and dunes during MIS 3, although a sub-humid climate background during MIS 3 is supported by well-dated geological archives along the western front of the present-day Asian Summer Monsoon domain and its eastern extensional area.

Uzbrojenie z cmentarzyska kultury luboszyckiej w Sadzarzewicach, pow. Krosno Odrzańskie

The cemetery in Sadzarzewice (former Sadersdorf) is one of the most important archaeological sites in Lower Lusatia and it dates back to the pre-Roman and Roman iron ages. It was included into the Luboszyce culture by Grzegorz Domanski in his work from 1979. Along with two other cemeteries, located nearby in Grabice and Luboszyce, the Sadzarzewice complex constitutes the oldest chronological horizon of this taxonomic group, and the region is regarded as the starting point of its later expansion. Despite the site’s great significance for the prehistory studies of the Oder basin, its state of study is far from satisfactory. This is mostly due to the fact it was discovered and explored at the end of the XIXth century, that is in the time archaeological methods were still in development. Further complication was caused by the history of the region – nearly all of the artifacts were lost during WWII, and as an effect, the cemetery’s inventory is known only from a publication dating back to 1895. Nevertheless, during my research for my dissertation on the armament of the Luboszyce culture, I managed to identify a couple of those lost finds. This small group consisted of an ornamented spearhead, an untypical javelin- or arrowhead, and a shield grip. The total number of Roman iron age weapon and equestrian equipment finds from the cemetery is 41 – 4 swords, 2 sword scabbard belt loops, 2 axes, 6 spearheads, 2 javelin heads, 7 arrowheads, 4 shield bosses, 2 shield grips and 12 spurs. The artifacts from Sadzarzewice fit into the phase B2b–C2 (late 2nd–3rd cent. A.D.) range. Those weapons that were possible to date with considerable precision can be situated within the phase C1, some even can be as old as B2b, although there is no certain evidence of such early chronology. Another notable feature of the Sadzarzewice artifacts is the evidence of various interregional influences – either from the West (the Elbian circle) and East (the Wielbark and Przeworsk cultures) which phenomenon, although characteristic for the Luboszyce culture in general, is best observed in the early stages of this unit’s development.

Garumele Revisited: Retracing Vanished Fired-Brick Elite Constructions and New Data on Settlement Foundation

Some of the most notable and largely endangered archaeological remains from the Lake Chad area consist of the ruins of fired-brick elite constructions connected to the Kanem-Borno Empire (ca. eighth–nineteenth century AD). In the course of the last 200 years, several of the elite structures known west of the lake were destroyed as a consequence of war, later having their fired-bricks looted for constructions elsewhere. One of the largest and most thoroughly plundered of those structures once stood within the walled settlement of Garumele, SW Niger Republic. In the scope of an experimental field study at that location and with a view to future work at related sites, we demonstrate that it is still possible to retrace the ground plans of Kanem-Borno fired-brick structures, even if these have been already completely pillaged. In addition, we present new chronological evidence suggesting that Garumele—as a walled urban settlement—was founded sometime between the mid-fifteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries, but most probably between the late sixteenth to mid-seventeenth centuries AD.

10Be exposure age chronology of the last glaciation of the Roháčská Valley in the Western Tatra Mountains, central Europe

10Be exposure ages from moraines and bedrock sites in the Roháčská Valley provide chronology of the last glaciation in the largest valley of the Western Tatra Mts., the Western Carpathians. The minimum apparent exposure age of 19.4±2.1ka obtained for the oldest sampled boulder and the mean age of 18.0±0.8ka calculated for the terminal moraine indicate that the oldest preserved moraine was probably deposited at the time of the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The age of this moraine coincides with the termination of the maximum glacier expansion in other central European ranges, including the adjacent High Tatra Mts. and the Alps. The equilibrium line altitude (ELA) of the LGM glacier in the Roháčská Valley, estimated at 1400–1410m a.s.l., was 50–80m lower than in the eastern part of the range, indicating a positive ELA gradient from west to east among the north-facing glaciers in the Tatra Mts. Lateglacial glacier expansion occurred no later than 13.4±0.5ka and 11.9±0.5ka, as indicated by the mean exposure ages calculated for re-advance moraines. This timing is consistent with the exposure age chronology of the last Lateglacial re-advance in the High Tatra Mts., Alps and lower mountain ranges in central Europe. The ELA in the Roháčská Valley estimated at 1690–1770m a.s.l. in this period was located 130–300m lower than in the north-facing valleys in the High Tatra Mts. 10Be exposure ages obtained for a rock glacier constrains the timing of this landform stabilization in the Salatínska Valley and provides the first chronological evidence for the Lateglacial activity of rock glaciers in the Carpathians.

High-precision 14C and 40Ar/39Ar dating of the Campanian Ignimbrite (Y-5) reconciles the time-scales of climatic-cultural processes at 40 ka

The Late Pleistocene Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) super-eruption (Southern Italy) is the largest known volcanic event in the Mediterranean area. The CI tephra is widely dispersed through western Eurasia and occurs in close stratigraphic association with significant palaeoclimatic and Palaeolithic cultural events. Here we present new high-precision 14C (34.29 ± 0.09 14C kyr BP, 1σ) and 40Ar/39Ar (39.85 ± 0.14 ka, 95% confidence level) dating results for the age of the CI eruption, which substantially improve upon or augment previous age determinations and permit fuller exploitation of the chronological potential of the CI tephra marker. These results provide a robust pair of 14C and 40Ar/39Ar ages for refining both the radiocarbon calibration curve and the Late Pleistocene time-scale at ca. 40 ka. In addition, these new age constraints provide compelling chronological evidence for the significance of the combined influence of the CI eruption and Heinrich Event 4 on European climate and potentially evolutionary processes of the Early Upper Palaeolithic.

Peopling of the high Andes of northwestern Argentina

The goal of this presentation is to review the current evidence in order to model the early peopling of the highlands of Northwestern Argentina. Paleoenvironmental evidence of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene is thoroughly reviewed in order to set the stage of the process of human settlement of the Puna region of Argentina. I will analyze chronological evidence and the archaeological record –especially the archaeofaunas- of early hunter-gatherer occupations dated between 10,500 and 9000 BP (12,500 to 10,000 cal. BP). Finally, I discuss specific cultural and environmental aspects related to the dispersion and human colonization of the highland plateau.

Propaganda on Trial: Structural Fragility and the Epistemology of International Legal Institutions.

This paper is part of a volume on the anthropology of global institutions and it draws from the anthropology of law and knowledge to analyze a at an international criminal tribunal. The majority of high-level defendants who are charged at international criminal tribunals with ordering or instigating crimes against humanity are not accused of participating directly in physical acts of violence. Prosecuting political leaders for speech acts conventionally requires proof of a direct causal nexus between a speech act and subsequent felonies. This paper looks closely at what demonstrating causation involves in the trial of Serb nationalist Vojislav Seselj, and it examines the assumptions and models of cause-and-effect used by prosecutors and judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. To qualify as instigation, international criminal law requires that speech acts directly cause the crimes in question, and this necessitates a paring down of multiple factors into a single chain of causation that can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The model of causation commonly employed at international tribunals is markedly different from that of social science, and actors in the two systems handle evidence in distinctive ways. Despite the very high standard of proof required by criminal law, in practice prosecutors, lacking solid insider testimony, rely upon weak chronological evidence to demonstrate causation. The paper concludes by assessing the pitfalls of arguing legal causation by way of temporal proximity and chronology, and by reflecting on wider epistemological problems in criminal law’s understandings of propaganda and inciting speech.

Abstract 120: Radiocarbon Birth Dating of Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformations

Introduction: The chronological development of brain arteriovenous malformations (AVM) is controversial. Atmospheric nuclear testing until 1963 produced a global bomb-pulse of 14 C and thus a chronometer of molecular synthesis in the entire biosphere from 1955 to the present. We isolated and dated a durable, representative structural protein from human cerebral arteries (CA) and brain AVMs. Method: Samples from cadaveric CAs or from brain AVMs from patients undergoing surgical resection were processed to ultra- purify elastin. The age of purified elastin extracted from cerebral arteries or from AVMs was measured using 14 C bomb-pulse technique. We modified a 14 C biological incorporation equation model using variable AVM formation dates and elastin formation and degradation rates. Results: A total of 62 CAs from individuals with ages ranging from 1 month to 100 years and 30 unruptured or ruptured AVMs were collected. All CAs and nearly all AVMs yielded ultra-purified elastin in sufficient amount for further 14 C birth dating. Mean age of elastin was 13.4± 11.2 years (n = 34), whereas elastin derived from AVMs was less than 5 years old (n = 15, p = 0.002). Based on 14 C content relative subject birthdate and date of tissue collection, best-fit modeling of CA and AVM elastin demonstrated turnover rates less than 2% and 25 - 50%, respectively. Amongst AVMs, those with associated aneurysms had younger elastin (p=0.007). Larger AVMs tended to have younger elastin (p=0.086) and AVM rupture was not associated with elastin age (p=0.358). Conclusions: Our data provides the first chronological evidence for the longevity of elastin in CAs, as evident based on the inclusion of bomb carbon in elastin from subjects who reached maturity prior to 1955. Importantly it also demonstrates elastin isolated from brain AVMs is contemporary and likely immature suggesting a non-congenital origin and/or rapid vascular turnover.

Neolithic ‘Celtic’ Fields? A Reinterpretation of the Chronological Evidence from Céide Fields in North-western Ireland

It has long been claimed that the coaxial stone boundaries of Céide Fields, County Mayo, are a phenomenon of the Irish Early Neolithic — analogous to later prehistoric ‘Celtic’ fields in all but age. This study argues that the age disparity is an artefact of the research methods, and that the age of the main Céide Fields complex has been overestimated by as much as two-and-a-half millennia.

Taming Surface Water in Pre-Islamic Southeast Arabia: Archaeological, Geoarchaeological, and Chronological Evidence of Runoff Water Channeling in Masāfī (UAE)

ABSTRACTIn semi-arid to arid environments, water is the most constraining resource for agricultural communities. In Southeast Arabia (Sultanate of Oman and United Arab Emirates), the demographic growth and the increase of sites at the beginning of the Iron Age II (1100–600 b.c.) is generally attributed to the development of groundwater harvesting techniques, and more precisely to qanāt technology. While only little is known on the origin of this technology, even less is known about other hydraulic techniques, which could have been used as a complementary source of water. An irrigation system, recently discovered near an Iron Age settlement in the oasis of Masāfī (UAE) was studied thanks to the combination of various methods—archaeology, geoarchaeology/micromorphology, spatial analysis, and chronology—which have allowed us to identify the technological development of small-scale runoff farming and to link this practice to social as well as environmental issues.

The physical environment in Northern Greece at the advent of the Neolithic

The transition from the Late Pleistocene to the Early Holocene in the Eastern Mediterranean is marked by an abrupt change in sea levels, landforms, ecology and resources. These new geomorphological conditions favored the formation of attractive environmental settings for the early farmers, having at the same time a significant taphonomic impact on the archaeological record of the Late Pleistocene. During the Early Holocene, on the other hand, the abrupt climatic 8.2 ka event has been recorded as a period of hyperaridity in Anatolia and the Levant, associated with pronounced cultural discontinuities. At the same time, increasing humidity and cooling is documented in central Europe, while seasonality and variability characterizes the intermediate zones, whose magnitude and spatial expression are not yet fully understood. This article reviews the geomorphological configuration and palaeoclimatic records of the Late Pleistocene–Holocene transition in Northern Greece, a key location for understanding the pathways of neolithization in Europe. With its fragmentary Early Neolithic record, Northern Greece demonstrates significant geomorphological modifications during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition, while being part of the transitional climatic zone in the 8.2 ka event. The landscape configuration is described, emphasizing the role of wetlands as significant locales for the onset of agriculture, while the environmental–cultural interaction in the first centuries of the neolithization is discussed, combining the paleoenvironmental, stratigraphical and chronological evidence for the first farmers and last hunter-gatherers.

Quantitative reconstruction of precipitation and runoff during MIS 5a, MIS 3a, and Holocene, arid China

Marine oxygen isotope stage 5a (MIS 5a), MIS 3a, and Holocene were highlighted periods in paleoclimate studies. Many scientists have published a great number of studies in this regard, but they paid more attention to qualitative research, and there was often a lack of quantitative data. In this paper, based on chronological evidence from a paleolake in arid China, MIS 5a, MIS 3a, and Holocene lake area, the precipitation of the drainage area and the runoff of the inflowing rivers of the lake were reconstructed with ArcGIS spatial analysis software and the improved water and energy balance model which was calibrated by modern meteorological and hydrological data in the Shiyang River drainage basin. The results showed that the paleolake areas were 1824, 1124, and 628 km2 for MIS 5a, MIS 3a, and Holocene; meanwhile, the paleoprecipitation and runoff were 293.992–297.433, 271.105–274.294, and 249.431–252.373 mm and 29.103 × 108–29.496 × 108, 18.810 × 108–18.959 × 108, and 10.637 × 108–10.777 × 108 mm, respectively. The quantitative data can help us not only strengthen the understanding of paleoclimatic characteristics but also recognize the complexity and diversity of the climate system.

An Echo of the Original Text ofSir Thomas Morein Additions II (D) and III

IN a series of articles written between 1975 and 1978, Eliot Slater used the occurrences of rare words to link Shakespeare’s plays to one another in a way that would establish their sequence of composition. Words that are uncommon, either in Shakespeare or his contemporary playwrights, tend to emerge in works written at about the same time. 1 Gary Taylor endorsed Slater’s advocacy of the hypothesis that the ‘proximity of composition generates similarity of vocabulary’, while acknowledging that factors other than chronology may ‘warp’ the sequential inferences drawn from rare word linkages. 2 MacDonald P. Jackson concurred with the overall point as he opined, M.W.A. Smith, evaluating Slater’s work with the rigour of a professional statistician, confirmed that word-links could offer evidence for chronology but concluded that Slater’s method had not been validated for distinguishing authorship. 3

New Evidence for Middle Bronze Age Chronology and Synchronisms in the Levant: Radiocarbon Dates from Tell el-Burak, Tell el-Dabʿa, and Tel Ifshar Compared

We report a set of radiocarbon data for the Middle Bronze Age monumental building at Tell el-Burak in Lebanon, dating it to the 19th century b.c., and summarize the relevant archaeological informat...