Neolithic Assemblages Research Articles

DMP XIV: Prehistoric sites in the Wadi Barjuj, Fazzan, Libyan Sahara

AbstractThis paper reports on the fifth season of fieldwork for the Palaeoanthropology part of the Desert Migrations Project. Previous seasons established an extensive archaeological map based on a wide survey of the rich record along the edges of the Ubari Sand Sea, a small area of the Messak Settafet, the Wadi al-Ajal, the Wadi ash-Shati and the Wadi Barjuj. These surveys, complemented with small excavations, demonstrated a deep prehistory to the Fazzan, with Mode 1 technologies, Acheulean, Mode 3 (classic Levallois, large blade technologies, and Aterian), and Late Stone Age and Neolithic assemblages, some with pottery and grinding stones. The focus of the 2011 season was the Wadi Barjuj. This is an extensive wadi system to the South of the Messak, running along the northern edge of the Murzuq Sand Sea, and draining towards the east. Geomorphologically, it comprises old channel cut and fill gravels, usually finely graded, with areas of ancient lacustrine duricrusts, some of which are elevated significantly above the landscape. Surveys, complementing those of 2008, revealed a particularly rich and extensive Holocene series of sites, with microliths, pottery and grinding stones. These sites indicate a dense early Holocene occupation which seems associated with both hunter-gatherers and pastoralists. In addition, there was a low frequency of MSA lithics (compared to other survey areas), although one extremely rich site (BJJ4) had a very large number of water-worn, highly diagnostic small bifaces, characteristics of some Africa MSA traditions. Acheulean was relatively rare. One restricted locality (BJJ6) provided further evidence for a Mode 1 presence in the region, similar to that reported earlier from the Messak and Wadi ash-Shati (Mirazón Lahr et al. 2009, 2010). The context for the finds suggests that at various points during the Pleistocene the Wadi Barjuj was a low lying, swampy and/or lacustrine region, possibly riverine at times, and attractive to hominin populations because of its relatively rich resource base. This paper describes the localities and finds underpinning these conclusions.

MEZRAA-TELEİLAT TARAK-BASKI 'IMPRESSO' ÇANAK ÇÖMLEĞİ BEZEME TEKNİKLERİ ÜZERİNE DENEYSEL BİR ÇALIŞMA

Excavations at Mezraa Teleilat, a medium sized mound by the Euphrates, have revealed an uninterrupted sequence of the Pottery Neolithic period, providing for the first time data on the emergence and on the development of pottery in south-eastern Turkey. Within the pottery assemblages noted at the site, a certain ware group, easily distinguishable with its comb-impressed decoration stands out as a major component of the Middle Neolithic horizon. As this distinct ware group bears distinct resemblance to the so-called 'impresso' wares of the early Neolithic assemblages of the Mediterranean basin, it evidently connotes questions related to the diffusion of Neolithic way of life. A large scale project has already been initiated as to see whether or not the comb-impressed group of Mezraa-Teleilat has any genetic relations with the impresso pottery groups of the Mediterranean region. Defining the technologies employed in impressed decorations of Mezraa Teleilat and of the Mediterranean basin has been taken as an initial step of this project. In this respect, a number of experiments have been conducted to reproduce the motifs; the results have been compared with previous experimental studies conducted on other impress-decorated wares. The paper, by referring to the methodology of the experimental work carded out at the site of El Geili in Sudan, is a presentation of the work conducted at Mezraa Teleilat.

The earliest Neolithic complex in Siberia: the Ust-Karenga 12 site and its significance for the Neolithisation process in Eurasia

The discovery of Neolithic (i.e. pottery-containing) components at the Ust-Karenga 12 site in northern Transbaikal brought to light new data on the appearance of pottery in Siberia. Excavations and geoarchaeological studies identified the pottery complex in layer 7, 14C-dated to c. 12 180–10 750 BP (charcoal dates) and c. 11 070–10 600 BP (pottery organics dates). The pottery is thin and plant fibre-tempered; vessels are round-bottomed and with a comb-pattern design. Ust-Karenga 12 thus preserves by far the earliest Neolithic assemblage in Siberia, and is only slightly younger than the Initial Neolithic complexes of the Amur River basin, Russian Far East (c. 13 300–12 400 BP).

The Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic Transition at Teleilat Ghassul: Context, Chronology and Culture

Abstract: The issue of the nature of the transition from the Late Neolithic to the Early Chalcolithic at Teleilat Ghassul is re-examined in this article. A stratigraphic review of all work at the site suggests a new equivalencing between Hennessy’s ten-phase (A+-I) and the traditional Pontifical Biblical Institute (PBI) five-level (I-IVB) division. It is suggested that no PBI excavation (Mallon, Koeppel, North) sampled Hennessy’s Neolithic phase H-I assemblages. Once the PBI material is set to one side, a detailed comparison between Hennessy’s Neolithic (phase H-I) and Early Chalcolithic (phase G-F) assemblages is undertaken. Architecture is sharply contrasted, but more nuanced views of the ceramic, lithic and ecofactual assemblages emerge. The Late Neolithic assemblages are closely to be identified with earlier Neolithic norms, whereas the Early Chalcolithic assemblages display all the hallmarks of the later Classic Ghassulian culture. Radiometric data old and new is then considered, with the result that the old high dates for the Ghassul Neolithic are set aside, and a new “low” chronology proposed, based on recent short-life samples. Finally, in the light of the considerable differences between the Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic assemblages, we raise anew the question of Ghassulian origins.

Distinguishing food from fodder through the study of charred plant remains: an experimental approach to dung-derived chaff

Distinguishing human food from fodder in the archaeobotanical record is a difficult task. These categories are culturally defined and, therefore, not obvious from the plant species represented in archaeological samples, while context, such as storage area or container is not necessarily distinctive for each category. While grain can be consumed as either human food or fodder, depending on the particular needs of a given society, chaff is less suitable for human consumption and more appropriate for other uses, one of which is fodder. Archaeobotanical assemblages from two Late Neolithic sites in northern Greece (Makriyalos and Makri) are dominated by glume-wheat chaff, often in association with fig seeds. This material may well represent the remains of dung, but it was not known if the cereal component was eaten by livestock or mixed with the dung to form dung cakes. Our contribution presents the results of an experiment involving the feeding of einkorn grain and chaff (whole and pounded spikelets) and figs to goats to investigate the effect of livestock digestion on plant material. The implications of this work for the interpretation of archaeobotanical assemblages that may derive from animal dung are considered using the Greek Neolithic assemblages.

Epipalaeolithic/ Mesolithic, Neolithic Periods Chipped-Stone Assemblages from Southern Bulgaria and Northwest Turkey: Similarities and Differences

Epipalaeolithic/ Mesolithic, Neolithic Periods Chipped-Stone Assemblages from Southern Bulgaria and Northwest Turkey: Similarities and Differences

Tarihöncesi Dönemlerde Anadolu ile Balkanlar Arasındaki Kültür İlişkileri ve Trakya'da Yapılan Yeni Kazı Çalışmaları

Tarihöncesi Dönemlerde Anadolu ile Balkanlar Arasındaki Kültür İlişkileri ve Trakya'da Yapılan Yeni Kazı Çalışmaları

Preliminary Report on the Chipped Stone Assemblage from the Aceramic Neolithic Site of Ayia Varvara Asprokremnos, Cyprus.

The chipped stone assemblage from the previously unpublished site of Ayia Varvara Asprokremnos demonstrates both similarities and differences in the proportions of various tool and core types from other Aceramic Neolithic assemblages in Cyprus. These differences suggest that our interpretations of the Aceramic Neolithic period in Cyprus need to be expanded in order to account for diversity exhibited by the chipped stone industry, which until recently has been largely ignored in the study of the early prehistory of the island.

AMS dating of the Manx Ronaldsway Neolithic

The Ronaldsway Culture of the Isle of Man was recognized as a classic later Neolithic assemblage over 50 years ago; its dating and duration have been matters of debate. AMS radiocarbon determinations from carbonaceous deposits on Ronaldsway-style pots resolve chronological questions, while new research provides a more secure social context.

Early Holocene Ground Stone Assemblages in the Levant

Abstract Ground stone assemblages increase in number, size and diversity in the Neolithic of the Levant. The significance of this development is discussed in relation to the development of sedentary villages; the origins of agriculture and pastoralism; and the elaboration of craftsmanship. An increase in the frequency of grinding tools relative to pounding tools characterizes the early Neolithic sites by comparison to Natufian and earlier assemblages. Regional variations in Neolithic assemblages reflect differences in mobility and subsistence economies in the woodland and arid zones. An apparent decline in the diversity of certain “food processing” tools may be characteristic of Late Neolithic sites and this pattern is consistent with the hypothesis that more mobile subsistence economies were developing. Evidence from the PPNB and Late Neolithic also suggests that ground stone technology played a key role in the development of other crafts, including ceramics.

THE OCCURRENCE OF DRILLED HOLES IN LATER NEOLITHIC POTTERY

Summary. Holes drilled after firing are an occasional occurrence in earlier prehistoric pottery, and are generally accepted as intended to enable repair of cracks or breaks by binding. It would seem reasonable to expect that rates of repair would be fairly consistent, but this is not the case with later Neolithic ceramics in southern Britain. There, drilled holes are more common in the Grooved Ware tradition than in the Beaker or Peterborough traditions, and it is suggested that this may be owing to the high symbolic content of Grooved Ware rendering the repair of such vessels particularly worthwhile to their users. Other factors likely to influence the decision to repair rather than discard vessels are considered, and in this connection the fabrics of repaired vessels in the earlier Neolithic assemblage at Maiden Castle are also briefly discussed. A short list of sites with repaired vessels is appended.

Paleorivers and geoarchaeology in the southern Egyptian Sahara

AbstractInterpretation of Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR) images acquired during the November 1981 flight of Columbia led to the idea that a paleodrainage system of regional and perhaps transcontinental proportions crossed southern Egypt and northern Sudan prior to the onset of Quaternary aridity. Three seasons of field investigations in two locales (Wadi Arid and Wadi Safsaf, some 70‐80 km apart) near the Sudan border of southern Egypt confirmed initial interpretations of the radar images and produced geologic evidence of fluvial deposition in broad “radar river” valleys (designated RR‐1) whose presence is now obscured by eolian sand sheets. Development of an integrated, regional river system probably occurred in the late Paleogene or early Neogene. the river courses eventually were disrupted by tectonism, volcanism, and stream piracy. Their broad valleys were almost fully aggraded long before the middle Pleistocene appearance of man in the area. Some of the large paleovalleys on the radar images contain narrow (0.05‐2.0 km wide), braided inset channels (designated RR‐2). the RR‐2 channels, we believe, represent the last episodes of running water in the valleys during the Quaternary pluvials.In Wadi Arid (the type area for the RR‐1 valleys) 36 backhoe trenches and manual excavations yielded Acheulian handaxes, flakes, and cores from nearshore alluvial sediments and surface and shallow subsurface locales. These assemblages are typologically Middle to Late Acheulian and date from ca. 0.15th 0.5 million years ago. the unabraded, unrolled, buried artifacts and their geological contexts indicate that human groups were widely present in a subhumid riparian environment along the edges of the ancient valleys, while these localities were undergoing episodic, local aggradation. Scarce Middle Paleolithic and abundant Neolithic assemblages are widespread along the edges of Wadi Arid and bordering interfluves.In Wadi Safsaf, another broad RR‐1 valley, geologic evidence from 20 backhoe excavations demonstrates that an RR‐2 channel complex is inset into the alluvial fill in the central part of the valley. No artifacts were found in the alluvium excavated there, but Late Acheulian, Middle Paleolithic, and Neolithic surface assemblages are present nearby. Stratigraphic relations indicate the RR‐2 channels are late Pleistocene in age; they were already fully aggraded and their surfaces deflated before an eolian sand sheet of Holocene age was deposited on them. Bir Safsaf, on the northern edge of Wadi Safsaf, was a magnet for Late Acheulian populations, and the paleovalley just south of the bir is bordered with extensive alignments of artifacts, mainly handaxes. Some of these handaxes were found in situ, embedded in alluvial sediments, while others appear to have been exposed on the surface by deflation of the valley fill.The accumulated data support a provisional archaeo‐geochronological framework for the last half‐million years in the Wadi Arid‐Wadi Safsaf area. This framework provides a new geomorphic explanation for the widespread distribution of buried and exposed Middle Acheulian and Late Acheulian assemblages. the interpretation emphasizes the importance of exploring the non‐oasis zones for their archaeological and geochronological potential. Although our research has literally only scratched the surface, it demonstrates the potential of radar imaging for defining ancient drainage patterns in arid regions and their associated habitats for human occupation.

Discovery of stone age tools from Tripura and its relevance to the Prehistory of Southeast Asia

Recent discovery of stone age sites in the Quaternary fluvial terraces has brought Tripura-on the prehistoric cultural map of India and Southeast Asia. Artifacts have been collected from 25 localities spread over 45 km radius around Agartala in course of Quaternary mapping in West Tripura. These findings demonstrate the existence of multiple dispersed colonies of stone age people on the stabilised river terraces. The geological context of these sites is well established. The tools occur in open stations (primary sites) mostly on the dissected remnants of the upper most terrace (T1) lying between 5 m and 15m above extent floor regime (20 m-83 m) above m.s.l. These are found profusely scattered in open fields, and as interlayers within the moderate yellowish brown light brown and greyish orange (1 0 YR 5/4, 5 YR 5/6 and 10 YR 7/4),loamy latosols up to a depth of l. 7 m. The soil mantle overlies a fining upward, polycyclic, fluvial sequence, comprising ferruginised, dark yellowish orange (10 YR6/6), arkosic, medium sands. Generally, mottled soft latosols occur below the humus enriched A~zone. Locally, hard concretionary laterite is also observed. The above terrace sequence is unlithified and belongs to the Upper Pleistocene (34680 ± 2960 Y.B.P. by C 14 dating). It lies over the folded Neogene strata with a demonstrable angular unconformity. The younger, unoxidisedfunaltered, Holocene terrace sediments (T 3 ) dated at 3450 ± II 0 to II 00 ± 90 Y.B.P.,and (T4 =nascent floodplain) at 165 ± 80 Y.B.P. by C14 method, occur as successive insets. T2 has very limited distribution. Typologically, the artifacts include flaked axes, polished celts, chopping (bifacial) tools, adzes, scrapers, points, hammerstones, grooved stones, prepared cores, blades, pebble tools and a bulk of flakes. It is noteworthy that 98 % of the tools are made of silicified wood embedded within or derived from the Neogenes by recycling. Interestingly, the flakes are removed from the silicified wood core, generally either oblique to or across the wood structure, possibly for controlling the size of the flakes. Controlled flaking is extremely difficult in petrified woods, except along an axis transverse to the growth rings. Consequently, the tool types are restricted mainly to tabular varieties. Rarely, levalloisian technique of flaking is ~n. The tool as5emblage points to a wood land e~ology in the area. The tool ensemble can be grouped into: (A) Preneolithic assemblage without polished axes but having typological affinity with neolithic tools and (B) Neolithic assemblage dominated by polished axes. The Preneolithic assemblage belongs to the Late Pleistocene(?) age (much younger than 35,000 Y.B.P. and older than 3,500 Y.B.P. as indicated by the dated stratigraphic records of the older and younger terrace deposits). In its totality, the artifact assemblage bears a close semblance with the Anyathian and Neolithic tools reported from the Irrawaddy valley of Burma. The present discovery thus establishes cultural linkages across the barrier ofthe.Indo-Burma ranges during the prehistoric times.

Making sense of waste flakes: New methods for investigating the technology and economics behind chipped stone assemblages

This paper looks at how waste flakes can be used to characterize production on working floors, and describes a replication experiment designed to test the fit of two neolithic assemblages from different cultural contexts to a simulated pattern of axe manufacture, using a multivariate classification technique. Further discussion examines the basis of a typological approach to the classification of flake assemblages, and seeks an explanation for apparent type shifts during the Neolithic in a “demand” based model of raw material supply.