Prehistoric Material Research Articles

What Rivers Did: a Study of if and how Rivers Shaped Later Prehistoric Lives in Britain and Beyond

Countering the passive representation of rivers in many previous accounts of later prehistory – as static vessels for spectacular deposits, highways for transport and communication, and backdrops for settlement and farming – this paper asks if and how rivers actively shaped prehistoric lives. Rivers have long been hailed as conduits for prehistoric materials and ideas. However, positive archaeological correlates of the processes involved are notoriously difficult to identify and have rarely been scrutinised in detail. Using the example of Late Bronze and Early Iron Age pottery in the east of England (1150–350 bc), we examine in detail how prehistoric pottery-making traditions cohered around river valleys over an extended time period and were thus, to a certain extent, generated by rivers. Drawing on wider evidence for the flow of people and things in this region we build a broader multi-dimensional account of how people, objects, and practices moved in a period of diverse lifeways in which the makeup of human mobility is not well understood. In doing so, we hope to tether abstract arguments about the active role of rivers and other non-human elements in shaping past lives and to approach the often missing ‘middle ground’ – small-scale movements at local and regional scales – in existing archaeological discussions about mobility.

Peptide mass fingerprinting as a tool to assess micromammal biodiversity in Pleistocene South Africa: The case of Klipdrift Shelter

Remains of small mammals from archaeological sites are often used as palaeoenvironmental proxies in the reconstruction of past environments. Yet, identification of micromammals to species-level based on morphological traits is often difficult due to fragmentation of diagnostic skeletal elements. Here we test the potential of Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) as a tool for the taxonomic identification of micromammal remains from Middle Stone Age (MSA) sequences in South Africa. ZooMS peptide markers are first established for 14 extant micromammal species present in the region. These novel peptide markers are then used to identify micromammal bone remains from the MSA levels of Klipdrift Shelter (c. 72–51 ka), De Hoop Nature Reserve, South Africa. Our study shows that collagen preservation in micromammal bones from MSA contexts is sufficient for successful ZooMS analysis. To our knowledge, these results represent the oldest material successfully analysed with ZooMS from an African context. The peptide markers developed as part of this study can be used to characterize a larger number of micromammal assemblages. This holds significant promise for the future application of ZooMS to prehistoric material in South Africa and elsewhere in the continent.

3D study of the vibrational behaviour of lithic flint blades

Stone Age sites are well known to often contain many lithic flint blades and flakes, which may provide important information about early European Stone Age cultures and their environment. Understanding the mechanical behaviour of lithic flint blades represents an important problem for scientists in general and archaeologists in particular. In this study, the structural behaviour of lithic flint blades is studied. Ten specimens with different geometric shapes (tilted, curved, with bumping surfaces) were studied and tested. Their natural frequencies, damping ratios, and mode shapes (that is how the specimen deforms under any external excitation) are estimated using two models: an analytical model that accounts for the specimen's curvature and a 3D Finite Element (FE) method. Advanced experimental methods, including ultrasound techniques, were used to measure the mechanical properties of the specimens. The experimental set-up was built around a laser vibrometer that measured the specimen's displacement. The model predictions were compared with the experimental data to validate their effectiveness. A good agreement is observed between the models and the real data. It is particularly observed that despite their complicated geometries, the specimens still follow a structured pattern in their dynamic response. The presented study supports the use of acoustic methods as an effective tool to characterize and detect submerged prehistoric materials. This work contributes to the dynamic characterization of submerged Stone Age materials.

Chronological and genetic analysis of an Upper Palaeolithic female infant burial from Borsuka Cave, Poland

Six infant human teeth and 112 animal tooth pendants from Borsuka Cave were identified as the oldest burial in Poland. However, uncertainties around the dating and the association of the teeth to the pendants have precluded their association with an Upper Palaeolithic archaeological industry. Using <67mg per tooth, we combined dating and genetic analyses of two human teeth and six herbivore tooth pendants to address these questions. Our interdisciplinary approach yielded informative results despite limited sampling material, and high levels of degradation and contamination. Our results confirm the Palaeolithic origin of the human remains and herbivore pendants, and permit us to identify the infant as female and discuss the association of the assemblage with different Palaeolithic industries. This study exemplifies the progress that has been made toward minimally destructive methods and the benefits of integrating methods to maximize data retrieval from precious but highly degraded and contaminated prehistoric material.

Prehistoric shield production, utilizing hides and hot-stone technology as an alternative to leather to reconstruct the Clonbrin shield

The survival and prosperity of many communities has been intertwined with the utilisation of all that the dead animal has to offer. The often-hazardous act, energy used, and commitment required to hunt and kill, is often acknowledged with solemn respect, demonstrated by the division of meat and the extensive and varied use that the different parts of a carcus offers. With this in mind, understanding the value and opportunities that such a sizable piece of material as the skin has to offer should not be underestimated. Studies from Europe and North America have demonstrated numerous methods of skin processing, from simply scraping and drying, to manipulation after it has been emersed in a solution of brains, liver, or eggs, to freeze drying in snow, that all enable the production of viable skin-based materials (Baillargeon, 2011; Belitz, 1973; Churchill, 1987; Frink and Weedman, 2006; Hurcombe, 2014; King et al., 2005; Lyons, 2011; Richards, 2004; Webley, 2006; Wilder, 1976). But the application of heat from hot-stones and coals, is not one that is commonly recognised.This research presented here forms part of a larger investigation into the processing and use of hides and skins in late prehistoric Europe. As part of that research a series of experiments were carried out to establish if alternative production method for the prehistoric skin shield from Clonbrin could be achieved simply by using hot-stone technology, and if this removed the need for the shield to be made from leather.Alongside this research was conducted into how differently processed skins were affected by peat-bog deposition. This enabled discussion regarding the classification of skin-based materials and if the influence of environments that have the potential to alter the original nature of the skin should influence how skin-based artefacts are categorised.This experimental research seeks to widen the discussion on organic prehistoric material culture, and to establish a fresh narrative for the use of hot-stone technology and the production of the Clonbrin shield. The process from preparation of unprocessed cow skin to viable martial object will be detailed, demonstrating how this innovative method provides a credible alternative to the use of leather and the cuir-bouilli technique, which is presently considered to be the production method for this prehistoric artefact.

Diachronous Settlement on the Territory of the Turgay Trough

The article introduces into the scholarship the collection of findings of prehistoric material culture obtained at Bestamak during the stationary studies of 2001 field season. The total area of the archaeological site is 260,000 m2. It was excavated by Turgay expedition in the 1980s. Bestamak settlement is situated on the Turgay trough connecting the West Siberian and Turan plains. In the west, the Turgay trough is bounded by the Trans-Ural Plateau; in the east — by the Kazakh upland and spurs of the Ulutau mountains. Natural and geographical features of Turgay trough allow for their cultural layers to mainly contain diachronous material, with Bestamak serving as an example. Due to this specificity, the collections of stone industry discovered in the monuments of the Turgay trough should be studied on the basis of technical and typological analysis, the main parameters of which being products of primary cleavage; morphological parameters of the plates, the size of plates and tools on the plates; percentage ratio of ingots and tools from plates and rock flakes; secondary processing methods; typological composition of tool kit. The composition of raw materials is used as an independent indicator. In the course of the research, the author concluded that the primary cleavage, nuclei “rejuvenation” and secondary processing of blanks were performed on the site of the settlement. Judging by the results of the technical and typological analysis, the stone industry was deposited from the end of the Mesolithic-the Early Neolithic to the Late Eneolithic. The Neolithic stone industries, starting from the early and late Eneolithic, are predominant at Bestamak. The presence of Mesolithic and Early Eneolithic stone industries on the site is just an assumption. Fragments of ceramics and metal products suggest that people stayed at Bestamak until Late Bronze.

Within small things. Reflections on techno-social boundaries between prehistory and recent past during a Lebanese fieldwork

The village of Qleiaat, in the Mount Lebanon, has recently been the centre of archaeological activities aimed at studying late prehistoric and Early Bronze Age vestiges. But from the very beginning this research has also tried to investigate with purely archaeological means the remains of the recent past of the village, especially the pithoi used in the 19th-20th centuries for food storage, and the ruins left by violent clashes that took place in Qleiaat at the end of the Lebanese civil war. Through a reflection on the possibility of reconstructing physical frontiers starting from the archaeology of fossil techniques, this paper applies to a recent case-study an approach used until now only for prehistoric material culture. The aim is to recognize the frontier between the militias having clashed in Qleiaat in 1988-1990 on the basis of the chaînes opératoires of the pithoi.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Correlating changes for environmental, technological and societal transformation in prehistoric eastern Asia

Identifying and explaining changes in the prehistoric material and social world is one of the greatest research interests in archaeology, palaeoclimate and environmental science. In the last two decades or so, a considerable number of studies have made significant contributions to the associated disciplines in eastern Asian archaeology. However, due to the more specialised scientific approaches and the rapid accumulation of new excavation materials, it becomes increasingly difficult for scholars to examine and correlate research outputs from different areas and achieve a holistic picture of the past. Using eastern Asian archaeology as an example, this Special Issue aims to break down the disciplinary boundaries and present the current research debate on how to correlate different climate, environmental and social changes and explain human past. One of the fundamental issues is the lack of adequate chronological resolution to order various archaeological events. To tackle this, a large number of radiocarbon dates, primarily derived from short- lived materials, are provided in the Special Issue. A great variety of changes in local environment, agricultural practice, animal husbandry, technologies, migration, demography and social organisations are revealed in the following papers but there are two profound drivers to all of these changes. One is the broad climate change since the start of the Holocene and the other is the communication between the West and the East.

Karasor-2 Site in the Upper Tobol

The present article introduces a collection of prehistoric material culture finds obtained at the Karasor-2 site during a stationary study of the Karasor archaeological site in 1998. A group of Karasor monuments is located near the town of Lisakovsk in the Upper Tobol river valley, which is in the northern Turgai depression. The territory of the Turgai depression connects the West Siberian and Turan plains. The Turgai depression borders on the Trans-Ural Plateau in the west and on the Kazakh hillocky area and the spur of the Ulutau mountains in the east. The local nature and geography destroy the cultural layer on the monuments. Thus, the finds represented by fragments of ceramics and stone products at the Karasor-2 site were collected from the surface, as the cultural layer had been destroyed. The article gives descriptive characteristics of the ceramics, while the stone tools were studied with the technical and typological method. Since the ceramic fragments are too small, the dating and cultural affiliation of the artifacts was based on the results of the technical and typological analysis of the stone tools. Most likely, the stone finds date back to the Mesolithic and Late Eneolithic periods. Most tools are similar to the stone industry of the Tersek culture and belong to the Eneolithic Age. The author believes that the time range of the stone tools and ceramics is from the Late Mesolithic to the Bronze Age.

Prehistoric Art as a Boundary Object: Technology and Temporality of South African Petroglyphs

Decades ago I argued for the limited analytic purchase of the term “art.” I was then primarily concerned with the relatively recent invention of the present day category; the lack of local and archaeological specificity when “art” was discussed in broad classificatory lumps; and the minimal reflection on the geopolitical ground of archaeological practice. While I continue to find little analytic value in the term “art” when used to describe a broad range of prehistoric materials, I offer a defense of its transactional nature. I embrace the term “art” to show some of the classificatory work the term has done and the potential it may have if decoupled from certainty. I will show that the category “prehistoric art” has been historically controlled through networks of materials, archives, and scholars. As a contrasting point of reference, the concept of a boundary object, a productive term in science studies, might allow for a far greater flexibility and inclusion of different communities to participate in the conversation about “art.” To illustrate my point, I discuss technologies and temporalities of art at Wildebeest Kuil, Northern Cape, South Africa.

A Rákóczifalva-Kastélydombon feltárt bronzkori embertani leletek vizsgálatának eredményei

In 1962, a bi-ritual Bronze Age cemetery (cremation and inhumation burials) were excavated by Zsolt Csalog at Rákóczifalva-Kastélydomb (Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county, Hungary). The Early Bronze Age skeletons and cremains belonged to the Nagyrév culture. The Late Bronze Age individuals were the bearers of the so-called Rákóczifalva cultural group of the Tumulus culture. The study provides the results of the biological anthropological analysis of human remains buried at Rákóczifalva-Kastélydomb Bronze Age cemetery. Both the inhumated and the cremated remains were very poorly preserved and fragmented. The low number of the investigable skeletons that belonged to the Nagyrév culture did not allow us to make any conclusions about the Early Bronze Age populations lived at Rákóczifalva. However, the publication of the basic anthropological results is relevant because these metric data are the first published data of the populations of the Nagyrév culture. The age distribution of the Late Bronze Age community shows a high percentage of sub-adults in the cemetery, similar to Jánoshida-Berek Tumulus culture community. In Rákóczifalva material the sex distribution was balanced. The pathological alterations that are usually frequent in almost every prehistoric material were observable in this series too (e.g. degenerative alterations of the spine and joints, porotic hyperostosis and entheseal changes).

Craft Theory in Prehistory: Case Studies from the Mesolithic of Britain and Ireland

This paper reflects critically on the use of the term ‘craft’ within prehistoric archaeology and its recent rise to prominence within a variety of analytical contexts. Having briefly evaluated the way in which prehistorians employ craft, it moves on to consider the potential value that Craft Theory, a growing interdisciplinary body of literature relating to practices of making, might hold for thinking about prehistoric material culture within an archaeological context. Three case studies originating from Mesolithic Britain and Ireland are used as a vehicle to explore some of this potential in practice, before a broader discussion reflects on these initial efforts and sketches out other areas of interest for future research. The picture which emerges from this discussion is one of promise, within which prehistorians simultaneously draw from, and contribute towards, the ongoing interdisciplinary debates on craft in contemporary society.

Attitudes towards prehistoric objects in Romanian folk culture (19th-20th century)

In the present study we intend to reconstruct the attitudes of Romanian peasants towards the vestiges of prehistoric material culture. They have been in contact with a diversity of prehistoric artefacts: polished and perforated stone axes, silex arrow tips, chisels, scrapers, spindle whorls, jewellery, etc. We try to find answers to the following questions: What people thought about the origin of prehistoric artefacts? What meanings were associated with such artefacts? What was their place in the collective imaginary? Which were the uses of these objects?

Origins of Archaeology in the Pacific: The Emergence and Application of Archaeological Field Techniques

ABSTRACT When was archaeology first practised in the Pacific as a distinct discipline – that is, following a prescribed set of field methods to investigate human change over time, different from those used for other areas such as ethnology, geology, or linguistics? Did Pacific archaeology develop as the application of a metropolitan model, or did it evolve in situ, progressing in fits and starts and communicated only sporadically? We approach these questions by exploring the nature of early archaeological practice in the Pacific from the 1870s to the 1900s, as it was imagined in metropolitan manuals and instructions issued by German and British institutions, and comparing this with the development of actual practices in the field. We also discuss how early archaeological excavations and artefacts (prehistoric material culture) from the Pacific were interpreted, in prescription and in practice, and consider how these interpretations related to European perceptions of Pacific peoples.

Addendum Report: Additional Cultural Resources Investigations of the Vista Ridge Regional Water Supply Project in Burleson, Lee, Bastrop, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Comal and Bexar Counties, Texas

Addendum Report: Additional Cultural Resources Investigations of the Vista Ridge Regional Water Supply Project in Burleson, Lee, Bastrop, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Comal and Bexar Counties, Texas

Introduksjonen av dreiekvernen i Sørvest-Norge

The introduction of the rotary quern in South West NorwayThis article presents the main findings of the work on early rotary querns in Rogaland, as part of The Norwegian Millstone Landscape research project initiated by the Norwegian Geological Survey (NGU). Querns are heavy and bulky, and usually considered an uninteresting class of objects. Despite their crucial role in subsistence and household economy, they have received very little attention by archaeologists. The present study concentrated, therefore, on the classification of querns, their production and raw materials, and their chronology. Two main types of upper and lower stones were identified in the prehistoric material. They were produced from erratic blocks collected on the surface, reflecting the local basement. Querns made from garnet mica schist by true bedrock extraction are only found in medieval and later contexts in Rogaland. Querns from the quarries in Hyllestad and Saltdal were identified. The chronological study revealed that the rotary quern had been introduced at least 150 years earlier than previously thought and rapidly replaced the saddle quern, and that its introduction was not directly connected to the introduction of new cereal crops.

Understanding the Past Through Indigenous Knowledge and Archaeological Research

This article is the product of an intercultural archaeological project which main goal and praxis is to promote and empower indigenous voices and knowledge in contemporary Argentina, in a context of re-emergence of indigenous identities and organizations after decades of invisibilization and denial. Here we explore the past by combining two sources of knowledge: the archaeological one (with its theories and methods) and the indigenous knowledge (based on a non-Western ontology and informed by oral traditions, cosmological observations, practical know-hows, and the experience acquired by dwelling in the indigenous territory). To accomplish this task, the graphic representations that the Diaguita communities of the North Calchaqui Valley (Argentina) painted on their pots and engraved on rocks during the late intermediate period (AD 1000-1450) is examined and discussed. We claim that analysing prehistoric material culture from these two perspectives and sources of knowledge allows the production of richer, plural, and better-informed narratives of the past.

A survey of plant and insect exudates in the archaeology of Arizona

The Arizona State Museum has more than 30,000 archaeological perishable artifacts. A large scale inventory of this collection led to an analytical survey to identify the indigenous adhesives that are present in these objects. Adhesive samples from 64 objects that covered 31 different archaeological sites and encompassed every major cultural tradition in Arizona were analyzed with attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The study found that Pinaceae exudates and insect lac were the primary adhesive materials. Insect lac was the predominant adhesive used by the Hohokam, and both pine resin and insect lac were found in artifacts from the Mogollon and Ancestral Pueblo. Because insect lac is produced by insects (Tachardiella spp.) endemic to the desert lowlands, this indicates exchange of insect lac throughout the cultural regions of Arizona. This study illustrates the value of addressing a collection as a whole to increase understanding of prehistoric material culture and fabrication technology.

Speciation, range contraction and extinction in the endemic New Zealand King Shag complex

New Zealand’s endemic King Shag (Leucocarbo carunculatus) has occupied only a narrow portion of the northeastern South Island for at least the past 240years. However, pre-human Holocene fossil and archaeological remains have suggested a far more widespread distribution of the three Leucocarbo species (King, Otago, Foveaux) on mainland New Zealand at the time of Polynesian settlement in the late 13th Century CE. We use modern and ancient DNA, and morphometric and osteological analyses, of modern King Shags and Holocene fossil Leucocarbo remains to assess the pre-human distribution and taxonomic status of the King Shag on mainland New Zealand, and the resultant conservation implications. Our analyses show that the King Shag was formerly widespread around southern coasts of the North Island and the northern parts of the South Island but experienced population and lineage extinctions, and range contraction, probably after Polynesian arrival. This history parallels range contractions of other New Zealand seabirds. Conservation management of the King Shag should take into account this species narrow distribution and probable reduced genetic diversity. Moreover, combined genetic, morphometric and osteological analyses of prehistoric material from mainland New Zealand suggest that the now extinct northern New Zealand Leucocarbo populations comprised a unique lineage. Although these distinctive populations were previously assigned to the King Shag (based on morphological similarities and geographic proximity to modern Leucocarbo populations), we herein describe them as a new species, the Kohatu Shag (Leucocarbo septentrionalis). The extinction of this species further highlights the dramatic impacts Polynesians and introduced predators had on New Zealand’s coastal and marine biodiversity. The prehistoric presence of at least four species of Leucocarbo shag on mainland NZ further highlights its status as a biodiversity hotspot for Phalacrocoracidae.

Origin and timing of New Zealand's earliest domestic chickens: Polynesian commensals or European introductions?

Human settlers transported chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) to most East Polynesian archipelagos between AD 1000 and 1300; however, it has long been assumed that New Zealand was an exception. Despite the fact that chicken bones have been recovered from localities of early archaeological middens in New Zealand, their age and genetic relationships have never been critically assessed. Here, we test the assumption that chickens were not introduced to New Zealand during prehistory through ancient DNA and radiocarbon analyses of chicken bones from sites of Māori middens containing prehistoric material. The chickens belong to the widespread mitochondrial control region haplogroup E. Radiocarbon dating reveals that the bones are not prehistoric, but are still the earliest chicken remains known from New Zealand. Two of the bones pre-date permanent European settlement (ca 1803s onwards) but overlap with the arrival of James Cook's second voyage (1773–1774), and, therefore, they are likely to be chickens, or progeny thereof, liberated during that voyage. Our results support the idea that chickens were first introduced to New Zealand by Europeans, and provide new insights into Māori uptake and integration of resources introduced during the early post-European period.