Journal of Archaeological Science最新文献

{"title":"Dual role of human activities and climate in pre-industrial nitrogen shifts in Ireland","authors":"Sarah Ferrandin ,&nbsp;Gill Plunkett ,&nbsp;Kate Britton ,&nbsp;Eric Guiry ,&nbsp;Fiona Beglane","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106271","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106271","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Past research has uncovered a shift in herbivore collagen <em>δ</em>¹⁵N values during the Middle to Late Bronze Age (3700–2750 BP) in Ireland, attributed to intensified land-use - another example in a growing body of evidence that suggests that the Anthropocene concept (whereby humans have made significant impacts to the Earth's systems) began far earlier than previously thought (the ‘Palaeoanthropocene’). While human activity was clearly an important driver of this shift, it remains possible that climate may also have played a role. In Ireland, this shift in <em>δ</em>¹⁵N appeared to be sustained despite subsequent reforestation, suggesting that Bronze Age and later peoples left a profound biogeochemical mark on the environment. Here, we revisit this topic, presenting new stable isotope (<em>δ</em>¹⁵N and <em>δ</em>¹³C) measurements from directly radiocarbon-dated wild and domesticated adult herbivorous ungulate bones from the Bronze and Iron Ages, with the aim of constraining the timing of this shift and disentangling the role of human land use from climatic influences. A sustained nitrogen isotopic shift was constrained to ca. 3000 cal BP. Notably, during the Iron Age, a time of widespread reforestation, wild and domesticated herbivorous ungulates exhibited <em>δ</em>¹⁵N values that were not significantly different from one another. This suggests that, while the <em>δ</em>¹⁵N shift was initiated by land-use change, climate variability, particularly shifts towards warmer and drier conditions during the Late Bronze/Iron Age transition and later Iron Age, may have contributed to its persistence. This study refines the chronology of nitrogen cycle changes in Ireland, demonstrating that human activity initiated a long-term shift in <em>δ</em>¹⁵N values during the Late Bronze Age, but that climatic factors may have played a role in maintaining elevated <em>δ</em>¹⁵N values during periods of reduced land use. These findings underscore the complexities of understanding the nitrogen cycle in ancient environments and highlight the potential interplay between anthropogenic and environmental drivers of biogeochemical change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"180 ","pages":"Article 106271"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144106038","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":"Applying habitat suitability modelling to establish the species identity of ambiguous animal depictions in archaeology: new insights into the wild bovids of ancient Egypt","authors":"Jakob Bro-Jørgensen ,&nbsp;Salima Ikram ,&nbsp;Juliet V. Spedding ,&nbsp;Chris D. Thomas ,&nbsp;Steven Snape ,&nbsp;Maria Nilsson ,&nbsp;Ignacio A. Lazagabaster","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106239","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106239","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>For researchers studying wildlife distributions of the past, the assignment of faunal depictions and remains to species can often present considerable challenges. Regrettably, many studies do not systematically consider all options and sources of evidence and, as a result, questionable identifications are widespread in the literature, which compromises the trustworthiness of meta-analyses of human-animal interactions in an environmental context. Here we present a cross-disciplinary 3-step approach to species identification of ancient animal depictions and remains featuring habitat suitability modelling from the discipline of spatial ecology. By applying the protocol in a case study of selected images of wild bovids from Predynastic and Dynastic Egypt, we provide evidence that the zoogeographic origin of the faunal elements now locally extinct were in the Mediterranean and Sudanian bioregions without the need to invoke also the more distant Somalian and Zambezian bioregions as previously suggested. Such more moderate range shifts may primarily have promoted cultural exchange between Egypt and neighbouring communities in the Levant and Nubia, which is consistent with the archaeological evidence. The study highlights the potential of habitat suitability modelling to contribute to the identification of ambiguous species representations and faunal remains from the past, which in turn can allow testing of hypotheses on a wide range of central archaeological questions pertaining to introduction of animals and indigenous domestication, cultural exchange and trade, as well as human migration and dispersal.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"179 ","pages":"Article 106239"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143941516","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":"Population expansion as a main driver for the shift of agricultural strategies through the Yangshao culture (6.8-4.7 ka BP) in the west Central Plain of China","authors":"Yibin Sun ,&nbsp;Xingtao Wei ,&nbsp;Tianxing Cui ,&nbsp;Xiaohu Zhang ,&nbsp;Xiaoyan Li ,&nbsp;Yongge Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106256","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106256","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, charred plant seeds from the Yangshao culture (6.8 − 4.7 ka BP) in the Western Central Plain of China were collected for nitrogen isotopic measurements to probe the drivers for the shift of agricultural strategies in the prehistoric societies. The nitrogen isotope values (1.1–6.2 ‰) reveal the widespread use of manuring, but their intensity depends on settlement size, with higher manuring intensity at sites ranging from 5 to 40 hm², suggesting that cropland management strategies were shaped by both population size and resource availability. This is further indicated by positive correlations between quick increases in manuring intensity and regional demographic data from the summed probability distribution of radiocarbon dates and settlement patterns during the early phase. Intensified agricultural strategies led to population growth quickly and development of larger settlements at the middle phase. While larger settlements demonstrated lower manuring intensities, this likely indicates cropland expansion. Although climatic deterioration induced a decline in population growth, elevated nitrogen isotope values during the late phase still indicate ongoing cultivation practices. This study highlights population growth as one of the most important drivers promoting the development of early agriculture, offering new insights into the role of agriculture in shaping early social structures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"179 ","pages":"Article 106256"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143941517","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 glaze is less opaque on the other side: The development of Egyptian and southern Levantine glazed ceramic production from the early Islamic to Crusader periods","authors":"Carmen Ting ,&nbsp;Itamar Taxel ,&nbsp;Stephen W. Merkel ,&nbsp;Oren Tal","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106255","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106255","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Our study seeks to explore the beginnings and spread of glazed ceramic technologies across Islamic lands by focusing on the evidence from the southern Levantine coast. We selected 98 glazed ceramic samples recovered through stratified excavations of four sites along the southern Levantine coast. These ceramic samples include glazed tableware (especially the ones that do not feature the use of opaque glaze) and cooking vessels that are representative of the range of ware types dating to the early Islamic and Crusader periods (9th to 13th centuries CE) in the region. All samples were subjected to technological reconstruction based on the data we generated using petrographic analyses and scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive spectrometry. A subset of 30 glazed ceramics were submitted for portable laser ablation (pLA) sampling for lead isotope analysis – making our study one of the first to test this sampling method on lead-based glazed materials.</div><div>Our results show that the production and consumption habits of glazed ceramics was embedded in, and thus susceptible to, the broader historical developments. The vast majority of glazed ceramics dating to the early Islamic period (9th to 11th centuries CE) were imported from Egypt, which were made using pre-existing technologies. Our findings also highlight the importance of cross-craft and -cultural interactions, which serve to mark a departure from the traditional narrative on the beginnings and spread of glazed ceramic production across Islamic lands. We further noticed a greater presence of glazed ceramics that were produced along the Levantine coast, possibly in Beirut and/or northern Israel, from the end of the Islamic Fatimid caliphate to the Crusader periods (11th to 13th centuries CE), using technologies different from the Egyptian workshops. The results of our lead isotope analysis reveal that while the ores from Iran remain to be the main lead sources from the early Islamic to Crusader periods, the Egyptian and Levantine workshops also had access to different ore sources, namely in Tunisia and Sardinia, respectively, largely reliant on the exchange networks they were part of.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"179 ","pages":"Article 106255"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143906672","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":"A new method for fingerprinting ochre sources using mineral magnetic measurements","authors":"Maddison L. Crombie ,&nbsp;Agathe Lisé-Pronovost ,&nbsp;Marcus J. Giansiracusa ,&nbsp;Colette Boskovic ,&nbsp;Amy Roberts ,&nbsp;Felix Lauer ,&nbsp;River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation ,&nbsp;Rachel S. Popelka-Filcoff","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106222","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106222","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fingerprinting of iron-rich natural pigments commonly known as ochre, provides the opportunity to trace the cultural movement of these ochres in the archaeological past. This manuscript presents a proof-of-concept approach to the analysis and characterisation of ochre deposits, through the application of magnetic analytical methods. The use of measurements such as room temperature – saturation isothermal remnant magnetisation (RT-SIRM), isothermal magnetisation sweeps (hysteresis loops) and zero-field-cooled/field-cooled (ZFC-FC) remanence allow for the identification of a magnetic mineral profile in the ochre samples, which can, in turn, be used to fingerprint sources. Using low-temperature remanence and hysteresis measurements, we have demonstrated the ability to discriminate between geological contexts and thereby contribute to the greater goal of tracing cultural exchange via the movement of ochre from their original sources.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"179 ","pages":"Article 106222"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143902236","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":"Stress markers and survivorship over the last 2,000 years in Milanese females and males","authors":"Lucie Biehler-Gomez ,&nbsp;Samantha L. Yaussy ,&nbsp;Claudia Moro ,&nbsp;Paolo Morandini ,&nbsp;Marta Mondellini ,&nbsp;Daniele Petrosino ,&nbsp;Mirko Mattia ,&nbsp;Cristina Cattaneo","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106240","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106240","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study combines paleopathological data and paleoepidemiological analyses, specifically survival analyses, to investigate the impact of eight physiological and mechanical stress markers on survivorship in a sample of 492 adult Milanese males and females across five historical periods. Pearson's Chi-squared, post-hoc tests, and survival analyses were performed on the entire dataset. The findings reveal that certain stress markers, such as <em>cribra orbitalia</em>, <em>cribra femoralis</em> and/or <em>humeralis</em>, porotic hyperostosis, and linear enamel hypoplasia, were associated with decreased survivorship, while osteoarthrosis and Schmorl's nodes were associated with increased survivorship. Harris lines and antemortem trauma did not significantly affect longevity. Analysis across historical periods indicated that living conditions deteriorated through the Modern era but improved in recent times. Despite lower survival among females in the Roman period, the low prevalence of skeletal stress markers in females suggests that other factors or hazards, such as childbirth, influenced female frailty to a greater degree. In the Modern era, post-cranial cribriotic lesions, porotic hyperostosis, and Harris lines were associated with decreased survival in females, reflecting greater exposure to environmental stressors, whereas cribriotic lesions and porotic hyperostosis were associated with decreased survival among males in the Roman, Early Medieval, and Modern eras. These findings offer robust insights into the historical impact of stress markers on survivorship and mortality in Milan and improve our understanding of the quality of life of males and females in Milan over the last 2000 years.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"179 ","pages":"Article 106240"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143892279","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":"How global is archaeological science?","authors":"Thilo Rehren","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106254","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106254","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As the leading international journal for archaeological science, <em>JAS</em> not only serves as an indicator for the global state of archaeological science, but also carries a particular responsibility for the health of the field. Here, I trace the growth of archaeological science on a global scale both diachronically and geographically, offering what is a strongly positive trend of increasing research output in general, but also a markedly skewed picture of current participation in archaeological science research geographically. While the strength and distribution of archaeological science across Europe continue to increase from an already high base, and China is rapidly increasing its participation, both the UK and the US are falling behind – at least proportionately. This, however, is all par for the course and can be considered a simple re-arrangement among the wealthiest countries. The real story is in the near-absence of authors from precisely those countries whose archaeological heritage supplies much of archaeological science research: the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, South and Southeast Asia. Here, <em>JAS</em>, like all other journals, faces a dark reality that requires concerted efforts to change, by not only increasing access to science-based facilities and instruments, but crucially by increasing active in-country participation in archaeological science research, co-shaping agendas for the future of our discipline.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"179 ","pages":"Article 106254"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143886028","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":"Towards a new history of bronze making: Explaining the selection of tin bronze alloying techniques across prehistoric N.E. Iberia (2100-200BC)","authors":"Julia Montes-Landa ,&nbsp;Enriqueta Pons ,&nbsp;Carme Rovira ,&nbsp;Andreu Moya ,&nbsp;Natàlia Alonso ,&nbsp;Marcos Martinón-Torres","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106206","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106206","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Copper-tin bronzes can be obtained through different techniques (i.e. natural alloying, co-smelting, cementation, co-melting and recycling). This paper presents a methodology and theoretical framework to contextually explain the logic behind the selection of bronze alloying techniques in different contexts, avoiding deterministic, aprioristic and linear narratives. To do so, we selected Northeast Iberia as a case study and present comparative results of slag and slagged technical ceramics from four sites (Minferri, Vilars, Mas Castellar and Ullastret) dated between 2100-200BC. Materials were analysed using pXRF, OM, SEM-EDS, and ICP-MS to characterise technological choices through time. Patterns of choice are considered in relation to the technical affordances of each alloying technique and contextualised within the relevant environmental and socioeconomic parameters. The results show that bronze-making technique choices were primarily dependent on (1) the (in)stability of raw material procurement networks, and (2) the existent selective pressures on performance characteristics for which each technique offered different trade-offs. Discrete combinations of these two variables can explain instances of different techniques co-existing (e.g. Minferri, Mas Castellar, and Ullastret) and cases of commitment to a single one (e.g. Vilars).</div><div>This is the first diachronic study of bronze alloying practices investigated through direct analyses of bronze-making residues for a given area. The analytical framework employed and the derived behavioural rules can be applied to other case studies to collectively build a multi-path history of bronze alloying development. This will be fundamental to understand the link between bronze alloying technique selection and social change, to better contextualise metal finds within their production and exchange networks, and to requestion existing models of bronze production organisation and technological diffusion across the world.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"178 ","pages":"Article 106206"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143879068","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 afterlife of Roman roads in England: insights from the fifteenth-century Gough map of Great Britain","authors":"Eljas Oksanen ,&nbsp;Stuart Brookes","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106227","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106227","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper presents a new Geographic Information Systems database of travel and communications routes in England and Wales derived from medieval cartographic evidence. We argue on the basis of archaeological, physical landscape, onomastic, documentary, cartographic and other historical evidence that the network of red distance lines on the Gough Map of Great Britain, dated <em>c</em>. fifteenth century, represents travel routes and roads connecting medieval settlements. As such it constitutes the earliest depiction of a British network of medieval overland routes at a reasonable level of complexity and geographical extent. Taking this as a very partial, but important, sample of the fuller medieval travel networks, we investigate which elements were carried over from the road network of Roman Britain. Using a selection of computational and qualitative methods and approaches, we thereby evaluate the character, regionality and relative quantity of Roman routeway survival, shedding light into the complex transformations of human landscapes that occurred both at macro (national) and micro (regional, local) scales across approximately one thousand years.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"179 ","pages":"Article 106227"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143877188","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":"Culturing island biomes: marsupial translocation and bone tool production around New Guinea during the Pleistocene–Holocene","authors":"Dylan Gaffney ,&nbsp;Annette Oertle ,&nbsp;Alvaro Montenegro ,&nbsp;Erlin Novita Idje Djami ,&nbsp;Abdul Razak Macap ,&nbsp;Tristan Russell ,&nbsp;Daud Tanudirjo","doi":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106241","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jas.2025.106241","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Humans have shaped island ecosystems for tens of millennia. A crucial part of this process included the anthropogenic translocation of wild animals between islands. Archaeological evidence presented here suggests humans introduced forest wallabies to Island Southeast Asia from Sahul (Pleistocene New Guinea–Australia) before 12,800 years ago. This is the earliest reported anthropogenic translocation west of Sahul, and one of the earliest in the world. Our agent-based modelling indicates anthropogenic and natural processes could account for wallabies in the Raja Ampat Islands, but humans were likely needed to move animals further west into the Maluku Islands. Zooarchaeological analyses from Raja Ampat show wallabies were hunted throughout the Holocene but became locally extirpated in the Mid–Late Holocene. Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) indicates macropods (the family of forest wallabies) persisted until at least 4400–4200 years ago, with skeletons being reused for bone point manufacture. The capture, translocation, exchange, hunting, and recycling of marsupials was part of a wider process of ‘culturing’ island biomes centred around New Guinea in the Terminal Pleistocene to Mid Holocene. Recognising that Pleistocene humans partly shaped and extended the ‘native’ distribution of animals in island rainforests has important implications for tropical biogeography, ecology, and conservation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50254,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science","volume":"179 ","pages":"Article 106241"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143877189","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}