Journal of Archaeological Science最新文献

{"title":"Thermal constraints on Middle Pleistocene hominin brain evolution and cognition","authors":"R.I.M. Dunbar","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106226","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106226","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>High latitude habitats are subject to thermally-driven energetic constraints that make their occupation challenging. This is likely to have had a particularly significant impact on energy-expensive tissue like the brain, especially during periods of lower global temperatures during the Mid-Pleistocene Ice Ages. I analyse data on endocranial volumes for archaic humans (<em>Homo heidelbergensis</em>, <em>H. neanderthalensis</em> and allies) to show (1) that cranial volumes were typically smaller at high latitudes than in the tropics and (2) that they declined during cold phases and increased during warm phases of the Middle Pleistocene Ice Ages. Within this broad pattern, there is a significant uplift in cranial volumes after 400 ka that seems to coincide with widespread presence of hearths at high latitudes, suggesting that hominin populations might have gained at least partial release from this constraint through cultural control over fire. While this might pinpoint the time at which hominins first began to cook on a regular basis, fire offers other important benefits (notably warmth and extending the length of the working day) that might have played an equally important role in buffering populations against thermal stresses. The larger brain sizes that this made possible have implications for social cognitive capacities like mentalising, that in turn have implications for language skills, cultural behaviour and social group size.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"179 ","pages":"Article 106226"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143828244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Millet dominance and rice resilience at the Shang's eastern frontier: Climate, cultural interaction, and agricultural adaptation (1300–1046 BCE)","authors":"Huiyu Xu ,&nbsp;Qiye Peng ,&nbsp;Wenjie Wang ,&nbsp;Yuyao Wu ,&nbsp;Zhaoyang Zhang ,&nbsp;Yingying Wu ,&nbsp;Youpeng Qin ,&nbsp;Zimeng Wang ,&nbsp;Can Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106225","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106225","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Haidai region, renowned for its Neolithic cultural fluorescence (Dawenkou-Longshan traditions), underwent sociopolitical reorganization during the Yueshi period (ca. 1900–1500 BCE). Late Shang (1300–1046 BCE) expansion into Northern Shandong, driven by the Shang polity's control over Laizhou Bay salt resources, catalyzed regional revitalization, yet the agricultural foundations of this transformation remain poorly defined. Through AMS ¹⁴C dating, systematic analysis of carbonized plant remains from the Chengxixincun site, and synthesis of regional archaeobotanical datasets, we reconstruct Late Shang agricultural practices in Northern Shandong. Results of the site reveal a foxtail millet (<em>Setaria italica</em>)-dominated dryland system (93.24 % by count; 92.78 % ubiquity), supplemented by broomcorn millet (<em>Panicum miliaceum</em>, 6.12 %), with wheat (<em>Triticum aestivum</em>), soybean (<em>Glycine max</em>), and rice (<em>Oryza sativa</em>) as marginal crops. Weed and fruit remains attest to complementary wild resource exploitation. Comparative analysis demonstrates that Northern Shandong transitioned from Longshan-era rice-millet systems to intensified millet agriculture during Yueshi-period aridification (impact of the 4.2 ka BP event), later amplifying foxtail millet's dominance under Late Shang climatic amelioration and Central Plains agrotechnical diffusion. Crucially, rice cultivation—though never recovering Longshan-era prominence—persisted regionally (1.40 %), contrasting sharply with its near absence in contemporaneous Central Plains sites (0.03 %). This trajectory underscores the resilience of regional agricultural traditions amid climatic fluctuations and their negotiated adaptation to Shang cultural expansion, as ecological constraints and imperial resource demands shaped divergent agricultural pathways. By bridging archaeobotanical data with climatic and cultural proxies, this study establishes the first empirical model of agricultural adaptation in Shang frontier zones, redefining understandings of subsistence resilience and resource politics in early territorial states.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 106225"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143817455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The emergence, development, and impact of prehistoric agriculture on the Tibetan plateau","authors":"Jishuai Yang ,&nbsp;Yu Gao ,&nbsp;Xiaoyan Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106216","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106216","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Tibetan Plateau, the highest region in the world, presents significant challenges for human survival due to its extreme environment characterized by hypoxia, low temperatures, intense radiation, and limited food resources. The formation and development of agriculture (including crop cultivation and livestock husbandry) on the Tibetan Plateau reflect human adaptation to high-altitude environments. In the past decade, in addition to traditional archaeobotany and zooarchaeology based on morphological studies, analyses of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope, lipid, ancient DNA, and ancient sedimentary DNA have been employed to investigate the history of agricultural development on the Tibetan Plateau, resulting in a series of new findings. Based on comprehensive analyses of flora and fauna remains, along with a database of archaeological radiocarbon dates, we summarize the evolution and impacts of prehistoric agriculture on the Tibetan Plateau as follows. (1) The development of agriculture can be divided into three phases: millet agriculture, mixed millet-barley-wheat agriculture, and barley-wheat agriculture. (2) Crops from the East and the West spread via the “Plateau Road.” (3) The sequential emergence of millet and barley-wheat agriculture triggered two significant waves of human exploitation of the high-elevation regions. This is evidenced by the onset of sedentism in the lower-elevation river valleys (1500–3000 masl) initiated by intensive millet agriculture, followed by the expansion of settlements into higher altitudes (&gt;3000 masl) facilitated by barley-wheat agriculture. Future research directions may focus on several key areas: the adaptation processes of introduced domesticates (including crops and livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats, and horses) to high-altitude environments, the local domestication of yak and Chenopodium, and the impacts of introduced crops and domestic animals on both human societies and alpine ecosystems. These investigations could be advanced through increased archaeological work and the application of cutting-edge methods, particularly ancient DNA and ancient sedimentary DNA analyses.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 106216"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143785299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modeling maize-based carrying capacities and population pressure in prehispanic central Panama","authors":"C. Adam Berrey","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106208","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106208","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Few realms of archaeological research are as fraught with potential error as the study of prehistoric population pressure. Much of this error stems from the challenges involved in making prehistoric population and carrying capacity estimates, both of which are conceptually complex and entail numerous assumptions and relatively wide error ranges. But overcoming these challenges is well worth the effort, as it allows archaeologists to push beyond traditional lines of inquiry into the diverse range of ways that population pressure can impact human societal development. Leaving aside for the moment the many important issues involved in making prehistoric population estimates (issues that have been addressed elsewhere in the archaeological literature), this paper builds on the conceptual advancements that have been made in the anthropological literature on estimating carrying capacities and puts them to use in the analytical realm. A model is developed for estimating maize-based carrying capacities in prehispanic central Panama, which is then used to assess population pressure among early complex societies. This assessment reveals patterns that run counter to traditional models of population pressure and complex society development and urge further analytical exploration. The model developed here for estimating maize productivity can be adapted and applied to other regions, especially those where data on prehistoric maize productivity (such as prehistoric cob lengths) is limited or non-existent.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 106208"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143783543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Provenance study of the official architectural glazed tiles of Wudang Mountain in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 CE): Insights from Wulong Palace and Laojun Hall","authors":"Jiahui Zhang ,&nbsp;Guofeng Wei ,&nbsp;Yuhu Kang","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106221","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106221","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Wudang Mountain ancient building complexes were royal Taoist buildings during the Ming Dynasty, comprising over 20,000 structures. The question of whether the architectural glazed tiles in huge demand were transported from other regions or produced locally reflects the organizational system of glazed tile production and the supply of raw materials in royal architectural engineering. Glazed tiles from Wulong Palace and Laojun Hall were analyzed, using WDXRF, HR-ICP-MS, and TIMS to characterize both the major, minor, and trace elements of the body and the lead isotope ratios of the glaze layer. The results exclude the possibility that the studied glazed tile samples originate from the Pangwan Kiln (an official glazed tile supplier for Wudang Mountain). Furthermore, when compared with glazed tile data from the Ming Dynasty imperial capitals and official kilns, it is clear that these reference samples do not share the same origin as those of Wulong Palace and Laojun Hall. Lead isotope analysis suggests that the lead used for Wulong Palace and Laojun Hall likely originated from western Hubei. This exploratory study contributes to revealing the organizational system and lead supply network of imperial engineering in the Ming Dynasty while providing a reference for the future restoration of Ming architecture.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 106221"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143783544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assemblage first: Using provenance methods to understand 38,000 years of ochre use at Gledswood Shelter 1, Woolgar Country (northwest Queensland), Australia","authors":"Jillian Huntley ,&nbsp;Brandi L. MacDonald ,&nbsp;Woolgar Aboriginal Cooperation ,&nbsp;Kathryn Fitzsimmons ,&nbsp;Lynley A. Wallis","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106210","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106210","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Like stone artefacts, ochres (Earth mineral pigments) are durable, surviving from deep time archaeological contexts across the globe, leaving lasting records of the lifeways of those people who gathered and used them. However, unlike stone tools, variation between ochres is not always obvious. Ochres that look the same in colour and texture may have been gathered from distinct or disparate locations. Scientific analyses (such as trace element chemistry) are therefore required to be able to differentiate ochre sources, providing insights into the interactions of past peoples with their landscapes and each other. To date, most ochre provenance investigations have extrapolated archaeological patterns from the physicochemical analysis of few artefacts. This is especially true in Australia. Here, we describe patterns of ochre use through the 38,000-year occupation sequence at Gledswood Shelter 1 in Woolgar Country (what is now northwest Queensland). Using an analytic mainstay of sourcing studies, neutron activation analysis, we were able to geochemically characterise all suitable ochre artefacts, analysing 61 % of the assemblage to define patterns in procurement and use from prior to and throughout the Last Glacial Maximum, up until the recent past. Our findings demonstrate that valuable, otherwise unattainable, archaeological insights are generated through the application of provenance methods to archaeological ochre assemblages, regardless of their comparison to known or potential raw source materials. Ochre procurement and use at Gledswood Shelter 1 are discussed in the context of models of Pleistocene human population dispersal and Holocene social reorganisation in semi-arid, tropical northern Australia.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 106210"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143776472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Material characterisation of the Neo-Assyrian writing boards from Nimrud","authors":"Diego Tamburini ,&nbsp;Joanne Dyer ,&nbsp;Francesco Palmas ,&nbsp;Caroline Cartwright ,&nbsp;Jonathan Taylor ,&nbsp;Rebecca Stacey","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106218","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106218","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The writing boards excavated from Nimrud (modern Iraq) represent the first material evidence of cuneiform writing on wax. Scientific investigations conducted in the 1950s identified the yellowish writing paste as a mixture of beeswax and orpiment (As₂S₃), with the boards possibly made from walnut (<em>Juglans regia</em>). Advances in analytical techniques and further archaeological discoveries of writing boards have renewed interest in these artifacts and their materiality. This study re-examines some board fragments in the British Museum using Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with <em>in situ</em> silylation (Py(HMDS)-GC-MS) and gas chromatography coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-QToF-MS) for the characterisation of the organic components of the wax paste. Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used for pigment and wood species identification, respectively. The results confirmed that the yellow paste is composed of beeswax mixed with orpiment. The wax components are particularly well preserved, and no organic additives were detected. GC-QToF-MS detected traces of wax even from areas of the boards where no visual evidence of wax survived. Charred vegetable matter, consistent with the use of a carbon black pigment, suggests that writing boards with a grey/black colour, relatively common in Greek and Roman practices, were also produced in the Middle East. The wood was confirmed to be walnut, which is native to Southwest Asia. As no ancient Near Eastern recipe for wax writing boards has come to light so far, the information gathered is key to better understand this ancient practice, ground this knowledge in scientific evidence and enhance the contextualisation of wooden writing boards in the Middle East and beyond.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 106218"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143776473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Written in ‘her’ bones: Cremation and identity in Roman Beirut","authors":"Vana Kalenderian ,&nbsp;Tim J.U. Thompson ,&nbsp;Deandra De Looff ,&nbsp;Alexander P.H. Surtees ,&nbsp;Geoff M. Nowell ,&nbsp;Georges El Haibe ,&nbsp;Assaad Seif","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106153","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106153","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>At the time of its annexation in the 1st c. BC, cremation was not a customary practice in the Roman province of Syria. This contrasts with the western provinces of the Empire, where burning the body for burial remained the method of choice until the turn of the 2nd c. AD. As such, the discovery of cremation burials in the Roman Near East raises questions about the identities and origins of the buried individuals. This article focuses on one such example from Berytus, the first Roman colony in the Near East (modern Beirut, Lebanon). It implements a multidisciplinary approach through osteological, chemical, and material analyses to explore various aspects of mortuary practice and identity. Osteological and isotopic results indicate that the buried individual was likely a female of non-local origin. On the other hand, FTIR-ATR analysis, along with the macroscopic examination of the bones, suggest the burning of a fresh body at elevated temperatures. Furthermore, exceptional environmental conditions led to the formation of calcite crystals within the urn and on the human remains, which were identified using Raman spectroscopy. Similarly, unique burial conditions resulted in the preservation of textile pseudomorphs, which offer rare insights into body treatment practices that are typically absent from the archaeological record of the Levantine coast. By contextualizing the different bioarchaeological and material findings, this study reconstructs the life-history of the interred individual and examines the social and cultural significance of this burial within the context of the Roman colonization of Beirut.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"177 ","pages":"Article 106153"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143768844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An experimental archaeological project in recreating an ancient bronze naval ram","authors":"Stephen DeCasien ,&nbsp;Christopher Dostal ,&nbsp;Glenn Grieco","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106217","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106217","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ancient bronze naval rams were a weapon used in Mediterranean naval warfare to destroy, swamp, or sink enemy vessels for nearly a millennium (c. 500 BCE–500 CE). This study utilized experimental archaeological methods to reconstruct a ram using shipbuilding and casting techniques reflective of those from Greek and Roman cultures. This project represents the first successful casting of a ram in over 1500 years, informed by textual, iconographic, and archaeological evidence. The findings challenge the prevailing assumption that rams were manufactured using sand-casting or indirect lost-wax casting techniques. Instead, this study supports the theory that rams were produced using the direct lost-wax casting method, employing standardized processes that were customized to accommodate the specific dimensions of each ship and the required ram size. Furthermore, this experimental project provides critical insights into the process, labor, time, and materials required for ram production, offering a deeper understanding of the socioeconomic dimensions of naval warfare in the ancient Mediterranean.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 106217"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143768972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Metaproteomic approaches to ancient foodways: A review","authors":"Miranda Evans","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106211","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106211","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Proteomic approaches to understanding ancient foodways have rapidly expanded in recent years, addressing diverse questions, regions and sample types. Proteins are well placed to explore questions of ancient food given that they can sometimes provide tissue and taxonomically specific ingredient detections and can be resistant to degradation into archaeological timescales. Here I review the development of protein studies of ancient foodways, and current and future research agendas. The development of protein-based approaches to ancient foodways is reviewed, spanning early amino-acid and immunological approaches to residues on stone tools and pottery, then shifting to a discovery based “shotgun” approach. The sample types that have yielded proteomic insights into ancient food are outlined, including stone tools and pottery and their residues, well preserved food remains, dental calculus and other organic remains. Finally, the current research agendas are laid out, including understanding the biases which impact protein preservation, optimising extraction and data analysis pipelines for ancient samples, and implementing multi-method approaches. Suggestions for future studies include further development and refinement of ancient protein authentication and screening approaches, and a focus on benchmarking expected protein results from a diverse range of experimental studies of intentional actions such as food preparation practices and incidental taphonomic factors, the results of which will inform expected preservation and provide a basis of archaeological interpretations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 106211"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143726239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}