Hiatus In Occupation Research Articles

Trans-Holocene Bayesian chronology for tree and field crop use from El Gigante rockshelter, Honduras.

El Gigante rockshelter in western Honduras provides a deeply stratified archaeological record of human-environment interaction spanning the entirety of the Holocene. Botanical materials are remarkably well preserved and include important tree (e.g., ciruela (Spondias), avocado (Persea americana)) and field (maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus), and squash (Cucurbita)) crops. Here we provide a major update to the chronology of tree and field crop use evident in the sequence. We report 375 radiocarbon dates, a majority of which are for short-lived botanical macrofossils (e.g., maize cobs, avocado seeds, or rinds). Radiocarbon dates were used in combination with stratigraphic details to establish a Bayesian chronology for ~9,800 identified botanical samples spanning the last 11,000 years. We estimate that at least 16 discrete intervals of use occurred during this time, separated by gaps of ~100-2,000 years. The longest hiatus in rockshelter occupation was between ~6,400 and 4,400 years ago and the deposition of botanical remains peaked at ~2,000 calendar years before present (cal BP). Tree fruits and squash appeared early in the occupational sequence (~11,000 cal BP) with most other field crops appearing later in time (e.g., maize at ~4,400 cal BP; beans at ~2,200 cal BP). The early focus on tree fruits and squash is consistent with early coevolutionary partnering with humans as seed dispersers in the wake of megafaunal extinction in Mesoamerica. Tree crops predominated through much of the Holocene, and there was an overall shift to field crops after 4,000 cal BP that was largely driven by increased reliance on maize farming.

ESTABLISHING AN ABSOLUTE CHRONOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE LATE CHALCOLITHIC TO EARLY BRONZE AGE IN IRAQI KURDISTAN: RADIOCARBON DATES FROM KANI SHAIE

ABSTRACTThe possibility to conduct new fieldwork projects in previously largely unexplored Iraqi Kurdistan during the past decade has reinvigorated research into the transformative fifth to third millennium BCE (Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age) in southwest Asia when human societies grew from small, autonomous villages to centralized states with urban centers. Major efforts to synchronize stratigraphic sequences from various sites in order to reach a consensus on archaeological periodization and to identify the absolute chronology of societal transformations necessarily focused on available datasets from Syria, Turkey, and Iran. However, increased understanding of differences in communities’ adoption, adaptation, or rejection of new forms of technologies and social organization demands the need for constructing region-specific absolute chronological models for comparative analysis. Such work is particularly challenging in the case of Iraqi Kurdistan where sites frequently have major hiatuses in occupation. The site of Kani Shaie (Sulaymaniyah Governorate) offers the rare opportunity to investigate the Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age with a largely uninterrupted sequence of occupation from ca. 5500 to 2500 BCE. This paper presents a series of fourteen radiocarbon dates, representing every archaeological period in this timeframe, as a first step toward the construction of a regional absolute chronology.

When the well runs dry: climatic instability and the abandonment of early Hellenistic Berenike

Evidence from a newly discovered well at Berenike, a Hellenistic port on Egypt's Red Sea coast, suggests that the late third-century BC hiatus in occupation may have resulted from a multi-year drought that caused the city's freshwater source to run dry. This climatic shift was probably triggered by a volcanic eruption in 209 BC, an event that also caused a failure of the Nile to flood, leading to the famine-induced revolt of 207–186 BC in Upper Egypt. The Berenike excavations have not only uncovered the first Hellenistic city on the East African coast, but have also contributed to a better understanding of the effect of natural disasters on ancient societies.

Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene human settlement and environmental dynamics in the southern Atacama Desert highlands (24.0°S–24.5°S, Northern Chile)

AbstractThe earliest known population of the Atacama Desert coincided with the Central Andean Pluvial Event II (CAPE II), an extensive pluvial event recorded during the Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene (13,800–8,500 cal years BP). A large number of archaeological sites from this period have been found along the borders of the Imilac and Punta Negra (24.5°S) high‐altitude basins (ca. 3,000 masl). By combining the results of proxy data obtained from geomorphological, sedimentological, and paleoecological (rodent middens) archives and the spatial location of archaeological sites and radiocarbon series analyses, this paper examines the links between human activities and paleoenvironmental dynamics at different times during CAPE II in the southern Atacama Desert. This is done at a finer spatial and temporal scale than previous studies. The first archaeological sites (ca. 12,000–11,200 cal years BP) are concomitant with increased paleowetland occurrence frequency. An occupational hiatus is recorded between 11,200 and 10,800 cal years BP, synchronous with a drop in precipitation and wetland development. This is followed by a displacement of the archaeological sites toward the south‐east of the Punta Negra Basin and concomitant again with a second peak of wetland development in the area (10,800–10,400 cal years BP) before the final abandonment of the salt flat margins.

A buried past: five thousand years of (pre) history on the Jing-Wei floodplain

The Jing-Wei Floodplain, located in Shaanxi, China, has been home to various groups of people over the last 5000 years. Drawing together evidence from archaeology, paleobotany, geomorphology, climate sciences, and history, this paper provides a longue durée study of the local (pre)history of human occupation in this area with a special focus on human adaptation strategies and environmental history. In particular, the study summarizes and evaluates archaeological and geomorphological field research conducted over the last ten years and connects it with often overlooked local historical accounts and recent climate research in the Wei River Valley and observations on recent economic developments and their impact on both the environment and the people living in it. In spite of a rather long hiatus in occupation from the second century BCE to the twelfth century CE, the evidence shows that there are close similarities in human-environment relations and even continuities into the modern period. Though being a highly localized study, this paper can serve as an example for how such longue durée studies may be conducted in other regions, and it provides some suggestions for future field and laboratory research.

Regional stratigraphy and human occupation of the upper Susitna River basin, central Alaska Range

AbstractThis study presents geomorphological, paleoenvironmental, and archaeological data from the upland upper Susitna River basin in the central Alaska Range. The goal of this study is to establish the landscape history and record of human use of the study area and test regional land‐use models. The results indicate that the upper Susitna was first occupied in the early Holocene at least 2,000 years after the end of full‐glacial conditions and 1,000 years after evidence of landscape recovery. Early Holocene land‐use consisted of short‐term task‐specific camps occupied by highly mobile groups on logistical forays. Upland land use intensified in the middle and late Holocene after modern vegetation patterns were established; during this time hunter‐gatherers occupied both residential and task‐specific camps in the study area in a logistical land‐use system. These results support a shift in land use in the early Holocene to include upland landscapes and intensification of upland landscape use in the late–middle Holocene. A shift in residential base camp location in the late Holocene may be tied to changing subsistence activities. There is evidence for a hiatus in human occupation following Holocene tephra fall, but it is unclear whether this was related to tephra deposition or broader climate instability.

Testing the perspectives for discovery of the Paleolithic sites in the northern portion of the Ob river valley: Quaternary geology, paleogeography, and geomorphology

The earliest known archaeological sites North of the Arctic circle are separated from the other Paleolithic sites in Eurasia by vast territories, for which early human occupation is yet to be found. In the Ob River valley, Paleolithic sites are known in the Arctic while the northernmost Late Pleistocene site is located one thousand kilometers south. In the Lower Ob, previous environmental reconstructions supported the idea of a hiatus in occupation, however; new data demonstrate that the development of glaciers and lakes was asynchronous. It suggests that the West Siberian Plain became more suitable for human population than originally thought after the Taz glacial stage. The abundance of landforms and lithic raw material sources suitable for human settlement predicts that the area could have been inhabited during the Late Pleistocene. Hence, we conducted surveys to fully test the potential of this region. We report here the discovery of Pleistocene fauna (including mammoth bones) and possible Paleolithic artefacts in the Ob River Valley, on the slopes near Belogorsk Heights, and the North in the Hashgort Ob area. These findings provide perspectives for further investigation in the lower of the Ob river valley in search for the evidence for human occupation during the Paleolithic.

An elusive record exposed: radiocarbon chronology of late Holocene human settlement in the northern Congo Basin, southern Central African Republic

ABSTRACTArchaeological surveys and excavations in the NGotto Forest Reserve, Central African Republic, discovered 98 artefact concentrations or cultural features that included ceramic scatters, iron-ore mines and iron smelting features. These investigations provide, for the first time, a series of radiocarbon dates that chronicle the timing and context of prehistoric occupation along the northern margin of the Congo Basin rain forest in the Central African Republic. Thirty-three age estimates from 19 sites are distributed throughout the late Holocene and together document 2500 years of occupations. A number of the dates are from iron extraction and processing features that reflect extensive pre-colonial use of the area between about AD 1750 and 1840, while a radiocarbon date of 2179 ± 37 BP in direct association with pottery signals settlement by ceramic-bearing peoples perhaps as early as 350 cal. BC. Three radiocarbon dates from two sites reflect occupations during the purported hiatus and reduction in regional forest populations c. 1400-800 BP and five dates from four additional sites in southern Central African Republic rain forests also fall during this interval. In concert with scrutiny of summed probability distributions and potential artefacts embedded within the radiocarbon calibration curve, the number of these dates question the reality of this occupational hiatus, at least in the north-central Congo Basin.

Landscapes of Prehistoric Northwestern Sichuan: From Early Agriculture to Pastoralist Lifestyles

ABSTRACTWe describe a preliminary survey of a relatively unknown part of the eastern Himalayas: northwestern Sichuan. This survey revealed that three phases of occupation are represented across the landscape. Large settlements with dense remains characterize the landscape during the Neolithic (3400–2000 cal b.c.). Following a hiatus in occupation, stone-cist graves characterize the region during the Bronze Age (1450–800 cal b.c.). The lack of settlement remains from this period indicates that mobile pastoralism increased in importance. Finally, between a.d. 500 and 1500, dense scatters of ceramics over a wide altitudinal range correspond to a fragmentation in Tibetan history, when local warlords established themselves in the region. While some changes in occupation and subsistence practices are linked to climate change, others relate to changes in political power. We argue that further survey work is needed to expand our understanding of past land use and the development of pastoralist practices.

Radiocarbon Dates Constrain the Timing of Environmental and Cultural Shifts in the Holocene Strata of Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa

AbstractWonderwerk Cave has yielded one of the longest and most complete Holocene Later Stone Age (LSA) records for the arid interior of South Africa. This paper presents the results of a new radiocarbon dating program for Excavation 1 that is explored within a Bayesian model of all existing Wonderwerk Cave radiocarbon (14C) dates for the Holocene. The proposed model, usingPhaseswithin an OxCalSequencemodel, provides robust age estimates for changes in the technological and paleoenvironmental record at the site. The more precise dates allow a comparison of the timing of climate shifts across the interior of southern Africa and begin to allow us to identify whether hiatuses in human occupation, or cultural shifts, are synchronous across broader areas of the subcontinent, or not.

A COLLECTION OF FIBER SANDALS FROM LAST SUPPER CAVE, NEVADA, AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR CAVE AND ROCKSHELTER ABANDONMENT DURING THE MIDDLE HOLOCENE

Last Supper Cave, located in northwestern Nevada, was excavated in the 1960s and 1970s. It contained a rich record of human occupation spanning the Holocene, but many artifacts from the site, including a large basketry collection, remain unstudied. We report the results of our technological analysis and radiocarbon dating of 14 fiber sandals from Last Supper Cave, which include examples of Fort Rock, Multiple Warp, and Spiral Weft types found at other sites in the northwestern Great Basin. Radiocarbon dates on the sandals correspond well with previous dates from Last Supper Cave and suggest that it was visited episodically for over 10 millennia; however, when considered together with the growing list of dates from the site, the sandal dates suggest that Last Supper Cave saw a prolonged hiatus in occupation during the Middle Holocene—a pattern common at other sandal-bearing sites in the northwestern Great Basin.

Upper Pleistocene loess-palaeosol records from Northern France in the European context: Environmental background and dating of the Middle Palaeolithic

In Northern France the loess cover from the Last glacial (Weichselian) is represented by a semi-continuous mantle up to 8 m in thickness in the best localities such as leeward slopes (E–NE exposures). In this large area, pedostratigraphic sequences from the last Interglacial-glacial cycle (Eemian-Weichselian) have been intensively studied, especially under the auspices of active rescue archaeological programmes that have provided hundreds of individual sequences from test-pits or excavations. In spite of variations in the thickness of the different stratigraphic units, driven by differences in geomorphological contexts, the pedostratigraphic sequences from the last Interglacial-glacial cycle exhibit a particularly constant pedosedimentary pattern, including well-identified pedological and periglacial marker horizons that can be followed towards the East in Belgium, in Germany and even in Central Europe. According to the newest data, it is shown that northern France loess-palaeosol sequences are well suited to record the response of Western European environments to rapid climatic changes (Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles). The main objective of this paper is to present a summary of the pedostratigraphic sequence from Northern France, supplemented by the data from the new reference sequence of Havrincourt and a global correlation scheme with surrounding areas. In Northern France, the synthesis of the observations carried out on ca. 100 sequences during the last 20 years allows the establishment of a highly detailed pedostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic scheme that represents a unique database for the discussion of the relations between Palaeolithic occupation and environment. In this context, a strong relationship between the intensity of human occupation and the climatic and environmental context is demonstrated. This relationship appears to be conditioned by the relative abundance of large mammal fauna, itself linked to vegetation density, as indicated by the extremely sparse biomass and the hiatus in human occupation that characterise Upper Pleniglacial loess.

Exploitation of dolphins (Cetacea: Delphinidae) at a 6000 yr old Preceramic site in the Pearl Island archipelago, Panama

Dolphins are widespread in warm oceanic and coastal waters. They habitually frequent islands. In California, Chile, and other localities, prehistoric peoples targeted dolphins. Some communities specialised in their capture. Elsewhere, prehistoric human use of cetaceans is attributed to opportunistic exploitation of active or stranded animals. In Meso- and Central America, the scarcity of cetaceans in archaeological sites is inferred to reflect the difficulties of their capture at sea with available technology. An unrecorded regional pattern is evident on Pedro González Island in the Pearl Islands (Panama). Remains of bottlenose and common dolphins were found in a Preceramic midden (“Playa Don Bernardo” [PDB]) located in a reef- and mangrove-fringed bay. Eight 14C-dates bracket the deposit between 6200 and 5600calibrated yearsBP. The Preceramic strata, which are between 0.8m and nearly 4m deep, are capped by a pottery-bearing soil deposited after a 3000-yr. hiatus in occupation. Delphinid bones and teeth represent 8% of 3660 mammal specimens identified to Family in three small test cuts. These cuts represent only 0.7% of the estimated midden area. A minimum of fourteen dolphin individuals is inferred: 11 belong to common dolphin (Delphinus), two to bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops), and one, possibly, to harbour dolphin (cf Stenella). Several bones show evidence for cuts, scrapes and thermal alteration. Some modifications are anthropogenic. Dry season upwelling induces shoaling fish to enter bays in the Pearl Islands attracting their nektonic, avian and dolphin predators. Ecologically, Don Bernardo Bay suits the short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) and the common bottlenose nose dolphin (Tursiops tuncatus) — the most likely species to be present on the basis of osteology and zoogeography. The opportunistic use of naturally beached dolphins is one hypothesis for their procurement at PDB. Another is intentional human interference: corralling and driving dolphins with watercraft when they entered Don Bernardo Bay to feed or under threat from shark attacks. Ethnographic evidence around the world is supportive. PDB's total subsistence strategy was multi-faceted, comprising exploiting dolphins and marine turtles, farming, marine shore collecting, marine coastal fishing, and hunting in island forests and secondary vegetation. The population included experienced seafarers. Among the exploited mammals, dolphins provided easily the largest quantities of edible tissues, fats and oils.

Human occupations and environmental changes in the Nile valley during the Holocene: The case of Kerma in Upper Nubia (northern Sudan)

Our article presents a detailed Holocene archaeological sequence from the Nile Valley at Kerma in Upper Nubia, northern Sudan. This sequence retraces the evolution of human populations thanks to the study of several sites, supported by 90 14C dates. Reconstruction of the environmental changes was supported by a study of dated stratigraphic sections located near the archaeological sites studied, and illustrates the effects on human occupation of changes in river flow and floods, which are in turn forced by climatic changes. The results shed new light on the evolutionary dynamics of the Holocene populations in Nile Valley, little known due to the numerous hiatuses in occupation. When compared with the situation in the Sahara and the rest of the Nile Valley, they confirm that the initial occupation took place ca. 10.5 kyr BP after the start of the African Humid Period, followed by a migration towards the banks of the Nile commencing 7.3 kyr BP. They also confirm the appearance of the Neolithic by ca. 8.0 kyr BP. The Kerma stratigraphic sequences show two prosperous periods (10–8 and 7-6 kyr BP) and two hiatuses in the occupation of the sites (7.5–7.1 and 6.0–5.4 kyr BP), resulting from increased aridity.

Divination and Sovereignty: The Late Bronze Age Shrines at Gegharot, Armenia

The advent of the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500–1250 B.C.E.) on the Tsaghkahovit Plain in central Armenia witnessed the establishment of a series of hilltop fortresses following a 900-year hiatus in regional occupation. These new settlements testify to the emergence of a South Caucasian political tradition founded on the regularization of radical inequality, centralizing practices of economic redistribution, and new institutions of rule. However, the discovery of three shrines and associated assemblages at Gegharot, one of the primary fortress sites, also suggests that divinatory practices were critical to the emergent principles of regional sovereignty. In this article, we present the evidence for esoteric rituals—particularly osteomancy, lithomancy, and aleuromancy—within the shrines at Gegharot, situating them within the available comparanda from the Caucasus and adjacent Near East. We further examine how divination—a technique for mitigating risks posed by unsettled presents and uncertain futures—provided a key source of power vital to sovereignty.

High-precision AMS 14C chronology for Gatecliff Shelter, Nevada

Gatecliff Shelter provides a deeply stratified record of human–environment interaction in the Desert West spanning most of the middle and late Holocene. The well-preserved 10 m-deep deposits serve as an important reference sequence for technological and subsistence change in the Great Basin. Archaeological work started at Gatecliff in 1970 and a geochronological framework was established based on 47 uncalibrated radiocarbon (14C) dates obtained from several conventional radiometric laboratories between 1972 and 1982. These radiocarbon dates are not well accommodated within a Bayesian chronological model for these important deposits due to multiple temporal reversals and large analytical errors. This model was discarded in favor of one based on a combination of high-precision AMS 14C dates of short-lived carbonized plant remains supplemented with existing 14C dates culled from the original set using a Bayesian chronological model. Summed probabilities of the modeled posterior distributions of these 14C dates (N = 24) show episodic use of the shelter as a logistic hunting camp between 6050 and 3315 cal BP, a significant hiatus in occupation between 3315 and 2145 cal BP, and more persistent use by family bands after this time. In the future, this high-precision chronology will provide the foundation for reinterpreting broader patterns of technological and subsistence change in the Intermountain West and evaluating these changes relative to high-resolution climate records.

Occupation at Carpenters Gap 3, Windjana Gorge, Kimberley, Western Australia

Carpenters Gap 3 (CG3), a limestone cave and shelter complex in the Napier Range, Western Australia, was occupied by Aboriginal people intermittently from over 30,000 years ago through to the historic period. Excavations at CG3 provide only slight evidence for occupation following first settlement in the late Pleistocene. Analysis of the radiocarbon dates indicates that following this there was a hiatus in occupation during the Last Glacial Maximum. In common with most Australian sites, the evidence for occupation increases sharply from the mid-Holocene. Faunal remains, interpreted predominantly as the remains of people’s meals, all suggest foraging of the immediate surroundings throughout the entire period of occupation. Fragments of baler shell and scaphopod beads are present from the early Holocene, suggesting movement of high value goods from the coast (over 200 km distant). Flakes from edge-ground axes recovered from occupation units dated to approximately 33,000 cal. BP, when overall artefact numbers are low, suggest that these tools formed an important component of the lithic repertoire at this time.

Archaeological Evidence for a Sealer's and Wallaby Hunter's Skinning Site on Kangaroo Island, South Australia

ABSTRACT Wallaby hunting began by sealers on Kangaroo Island south of Australia in the early 1800s as an off-season supplement to their whaling and sealing activities in the Southern Hemisphere. Compared to the northern hemisphere, very little is known about the activities of sealers who ventured to the south, particularly their means of survival between seasons and what occurred after leaving the industry. Other archaeological investigations around coastal Kangaroo Island have identified sealing and whaling, but sealer's camps are largely absent in such studies. This article presents the first reported archaeological site related to the “wallaby hunting” industry that operated on Kangaroo Island in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Wallaby hunting allowed sealers in this part of the southern hemisphere to shift to living permanently on Kangaroo Island. This site also provides critical ecological information on the impact of sustained hunting of mammals on islands. Prior to the arrival of whalers and sealers, Kangaroo Island underwent a hiatus in occupation for 4,000 years. Their arrival led to the local extinction of the Broad Faced Potoroo (wallaby-sized mammal) and the Kangaroo Island (dwarf) emu. The article adds to the poorly known biogegeographical data for these two animals as well as other mammals identified in the site assemblage.

Insect invaders, seasonality and transhumant pastoralism in the Icelandic shieling economy

The seasonal movement of people and animals to summer farms, or shielings in outfield pastures was a key element of Iceland's farming practice for over a millennium. At these sites, cattle and sheep husbandry, dairying and the harvesting of outfield resources took place. Despite their central role in the Icelandic economy, evidence for shielings in the landscape is ambiguous and the identification of a site as a shieling, as opposed to a farm, has relied upon written and place name evidence. The Norse colonists introduced a range of insects in their fodder, stored food, dunnage and ballast. Many of these are unable to live under natural conditions in Iceland and are dependent on people for survival. In 1991 Buckland and Sadler suggested that these species might be expected to be absent at shielings, as the sweepstake of their introduction and the seasonal hiatus in occupation would preclude their successful colonisation. This paper presents new evidence from a sub-fossil insect assemblage, which indicates that some of these insects are present at an Icelandic shieling. The implications of this for discerning the materials imported to shielings and the usefulness of Coleoptera for the identification of seasonality in the North Atlantic is discussed.

La séquence mésolithique et néolithique du Trou Al’Wesse (Belgique) : résultats pluridisciplinaires

The site of Trou Al’Wesse has been interpreted as a site of possible contact between Mesolithic and Neolithic populations, given the discovery of Neolithic ceramics and Mesolithic tools in stratum 4. However, recent excavations have also revealed the presence of three Early Mesolithic facies overlain by a Neolithic layer, while a Late Mesolithic presence is suggested for a fourth facies at the base of the terrace slope. Lithic and faunal analyses, as well as spatial analysis of the stratigraphic position of material recovered, indicate a clear separation of Mesolithic and Neolithic occupations. We present a new interpretation of the sequence of Holocene human occupations at Trou Al’Wesse in light of these data, arguing that the site was regularly occupied during the Early Mesolithic, forming a palimpsest of these visits, followed by an occupational hiatus and then reoccupation during the Late Mesolithic. The Early Neolithic is a separate occupation clearly unrelated to the Early Mesolithic underlying it, but ongoing fieldwork may recover data concerning the Final Mesolithic and its relation to the Early Neolithic at the site.