Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences最新文献

{"title":"Longevity, creativity, and mobility at the “oldest city in Europe”: ceramic traditions and cultural interactions at Poliochni-Lemnos, northeast Aegean","authors":"Sergios Menelaou,&nbsp;Ourania Kouka,&nbsp;Noémi S. Müller,&nbsp;Evangelia Kiriatzi","doi":"10.1007/s12520-024-02080-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12520-024-02080-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The settlement of Poliochni, located on the east coast of Lemnos Island (northeast Aegean), stands out as one of the largest early urban centres in the Early Bronze Age Aegean. It is often referred to as the “oldest city in Europe” due to its remarkable urban planning and richness of material culture. Excavations at Poliochni have brought to light important evidence that testify to its nodal position and receptiveness to cultural interactions across the Aegean and beyond, including an array of craft innovations and acts of communal control. Traditionally viewed as a maritime-oriented community with strong Trojan influences and extensive connections with the Cyclades and Mainland Greece, as indicated by distinctive pottery styles and imported raw materials and artefacts, Poliochni’s ceramic assemblage presents a diverse array that incorporates elements from both the Aegean and western Anatolia. This paper offers an analytical overview of the pottery excavated by the Italian Archaeological School at Athens during the 1930s and 1950s. Thin-section petrography and elemental analysis with WD-XRF have allowed a first characterisation of the local potting traditions and a diachronic assessment of raw material exploitation strategies of southeast Lemnos. More importantly, this paper significantly contributes to our knowledge of exchange networks and connectivity during the third millennium BC, through the identification of imports with provenance locations on several islands in the central and northeast Aegean.</p>","PeriodicalId":8214,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences","volume":"16 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142431020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Alteration by natural processes or anthropogenic manipulation? Assessing human skull breakage through machine learning algorithms","authors":"Francesc Marginedas,&nbsp;Abel Moclán,&nbsp;Miriam Cubas,&nbsp;Asier Gómez-Olivencia,&nbsp;Palmira Saladié,&nbsp;Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo","doi":"10.1007/s12520-024-02083-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12520-024-02083-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Bone breakage is one of the most common features in the archaeological record. Fractures occur at different times and are classified as fresh or dry depending on the presence or absence of collagen in the bone. In the study of human remains, the timing of the occurrence of a fracture is of crucial importance as it can sometimes be linked to the cause of death. Types of skull breakage can be classified based on when they occurred, though not all fractures correspond to the expected features. This variability is added to the challenge of working with bones covered in consolidant, which obstructs the bone surface and hinders taphonomic analysis. This is the case of the Txispiri calotte, which was categorized as a skull cup in the early 20th century, though this classification was later rejected in the 1990s. In this study, we used statistics and machine learning (ML) to test the breakage characteristics of one set of skull fragments with fresh fractures, another set with dry fractures, and the Txispiri calotte. For this purpose, we considered the fracture type, trajectory, angles, cortical delamination and texture of each of the individual fractures. Our results show that the 13 fractures of the Txispiri calotte correspond to dry breakage and bear no relation to artificially produced skull cups. This study shows the potential of ML algorithms to classify fresh and dry fractures within the same specimen, a method that can be applied to other assemblages with similar characteristics.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8214,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences","volume":"16 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12520-024-02083-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142411379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"Fuel use in medieval iron production in central Jutland, Denmark","authors":"Jannie Koster Larsen,&nbsp;Nina Helt Nielsen,&nbsp;Jesper Olsen","doi":"10.1007/s12520-024-02087-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12520-024-02087-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Knowledge about medieval iron production in Denmark is very limited. However, recent excavations in the area around Silkeborg in central Jutland, Denmark, have led to the discovery of several slag heaps and furnaces testifying to considerable iron production in this part of the country. Charcoal from slag heaps at six sites has been analysed to learn about fuel use in iron production. At two sites from the 12th-13th century, many species were used as fuel. Only 50–63% of the fuel consisted of high-density wood with a high caloric value, which at these sites included species such as birch, elm and pomaceous fruit. At the other four sites from the 14th-15th century, species diversity was smaller, and species with a high caloric value constituted 85–93% of the fuel, with beech, oak and birch being most common. Thus, a change in fuel use over time, which possibly could be related to access rights to the high forest, is indicated in the study. Some horizontal and vertical variations within the slag heaps were also recorded. A detailed analysis of vertically sampled charcoal at Gødvad Bygade III showed that the tree species used for fuel changed slightly at some point during the period of iron production, and that the accumulation period was likely 5–60 years. The study demonstrates that there is a great potential in analysing charcoal from iron production sites, as this approach can provide not only information about fuel use but in some cases even about organizational aspects of the production.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8214,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences","volume":"16 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142411345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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 perspective on vessels usage in the Yangshao culture: Were amphorae brine purification devices?","authors":"Linlin Song,&nbsp;Marcella Festa","doi":"10.1007/s12520-024-02086-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12520-024-02086-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The <i>jiandiping</i> 尖底瓶 amphora is a distinctive pottery type of the Yangshao culture (5000 − 3000 BCE), predominantly found along the middle course of the Yellow River, with a significant concentration in the Wei River Valley. Despite its widespread presence, the function of this vessel has remained elusive in scholarly discourse. This article investigates the amphora’s spatial relationship to salt deposits and examines its physical characteristics, evaluating these aspects within the context of the Yangshao population’s lifestyle in the Wei River Valley. By incorporating evidence from Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions and various ethnoarchaeological studies, we propose a new interpretation of the <i>jiandiping</i> amphora as a tool for salt processing. This study prompts a reevaluation of Neolithic cultural and technological practices, highlighting the Yangshao society’s potential involvement in salt exploitation in the Wei River Valley.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8214,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences","volume":"16 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142411233","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Geochemical and mineralogical characterization on an ochre residue adhering to a pebble found in the Oriente A Epigravettian burial, in the Grotta d’Oriente of Favignana (Egadi, Italy)","authors":"Gerlando Vita,&nbsp;Maria Luisa Saladino,&nbsp;Francesco Armetta,&nbsp;Luca Sineo","doi":"10.1007/s12520-024-02084-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12520-024-02084-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The Grotta d’Oriente, on the island of Favignana (Egadi, Sicily) has yielded a series of burials and human remains attributable to the final Epigravettian and Mesolithic. The Epigravettian burial, known as Oriente A, is characterised by funerary equipment consisting of perforated shells and a pebble with traces of red ochre. This site is one of the rare cases in which there is evidence of the use of ochre in a funerary context in Sicily and therefore the archaeological reconstruction requires the chemical-mineralogical characterization of this pigment using SEM, EDS, XRD, FORS and Raman spectroscopy. The comparative analysis of this pigment with a series of Terra Rossa from Favignana and other areas of Sicily has demonstrated that the Oriental A ochre does not derive from these sediments. This study shows the importance of applying different analysis methods for the characterization of ochres to try to define their origin.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8214,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142410069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the limits of the provenience postulate: chemical and mineralogical characterization of Bronze Age ceramics from the Great Hungarian Plain","authors":"Mark Golitko,&nbsp;Danielle J. Riebe,&nbsp;Attila Kreiter,&nbsp;Paul R. Duffy,&nbsp;Györgyi Parditka","doi":"10.1007/s12520-024-02076-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12520-024-02076-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Determining the provenience of archaeological objects relies on the so-called “provenience postulate,” namely, that sources of these objects are more compositionally distinct from each other than they are internally variable. For ceramics, it can be relatively straightforward in geologically heterogeneous environments to determine where vessels were produced, and whether they were traded or not. In geologically homogeneous regions, this can be far more complicated. In this study, we mineralogically and chemically compare Bronze Age ceramics (primarily Middle Bronze Age) from five archaeological sites on the Great Hungarian Plain to a large regional clay sample. The Great Hungarian Plain is comprised almost entirely of Pleistocene loess deposits, yet prior compositional studies have identified patterned variability between ceramics from different sites. Our results show that chemical variation in the region is continuous and clinal, making it difficult to strictly apply the provenience postulate to identify distinct production locations. However, we show that this clinal chemical variability can be used to make broad statements about whether most ceramics at any given site were produced relatively locally or were obtained from further distances (c. 50 km or more). We show that while production at most of our study sites was likely relatively localized, in one instance (the tell at Berettyóújfalu-Herpály-Földvár), many ceramics may have been obtained from other Bronze Age communities, including those in the Körös River drainage.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8214,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12520-024-02076-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142415136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"The Jerusalem pilgrimage road in the second temple period: an anthropological and archaeological perspective","authors":"Omri Abadi,&nbsp;Bartłomiej Szypuła,&nbsp;Michał Marciak","doi":"10.1007/s12520-024-02079-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12520-024-02079-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The pilgrimage to the Second Temple included ceremonial elements of strong spiritual significance that elevated the participants to spiritual exaltation. This ceremonial process began with the first steps pilgrims took from their homes towards Jerusalem and concluded when they reached the Temple. This article presents the ceremonial element of the pilgrimage in light of archaeological and anthropological research, integrated with historical sources and with reference to the topography of Jerusalem and its surroundings (including the use of geographic information systems). These tools are used to retrace the path that pilgrims walked and present what the pilgrimage meant for them. The article also investigates whether the physical act of walking can shape the pilgrimage experience and, if so, how this occurs. It is also argued that the main approach to the Temple Mount for Jewish pilgrims led from the south (via the Kidron and Hinnom valleys), and that the construction of this route was designed with geophysical and architectural details meant to enhance the spiritual experience of the pilgrims.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8214,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12520-024-02079-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142415245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"The emergence of large flake-based Acheulian technology: perspective from the highland site-complex of Melka Wakena, Ethiopia","authors":"Tegenu Gossa,&nbsp;Erella Hovers","doi":"10.1007/s12520-024-02072-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12520-024-02072-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Isaac GL (1969) proposed that Large Cutting Tools (LCTs) made on large flake blanks detached from giant/boulder cores are the key technological variable that distinguishes the Acheulian from the Oldowan. The production of large flake blanks was initially observed in the earliest records of the Acheulian technology in Africa ca. 1.75 Ma, subsequently becoming a technological feature of many sites across eastern Africa. Still, the mode and tempo of evolution of the large flake-based Acheulian technology remains poorly understood. Here we report on the large flake-based Acheulian assemblage at locality MW5 in the Melka Wakena site-complex, chronologically constrained between 1.37 and 1.34 Ma. At the site-complex level we note that aspects related to small flake production remain relatively unchanged since ~ 1.6 Ma. Secondary modification of small flakes by retouch remained marginal and there is only a slight increase in the frequency of structured reduction of cores, compared to the earlier 1.6 Ma assemblage. In contrast, the MW5 lithic assemblages inform of the diachronic shift of lithic techno-economy into a large flake-based LCTs technology. This shift is characterized by: (1) A highly selective use of a specific raw material (glassy ignimbrite) for the production of large flake blanks; (2) transport of prepared large flake blanks from relatively distant sources into the sites as part of a spatially and temporally fragmented reduction sequence; (3) improved know-how of large flake production, (4) the introduction of the Kombewa technology; (5) a unified technological concept for the production of handaxes and cleavers, diverging only in the specific decisions determining their final shape parameters. Taken together, these trends indicate changes in techno-economic strategies related to LCT production, including higher levels of pre-planning in the raw material acquisition stage and higher investment in controlling the morphometric properties of the artifacts.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8214,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12520-024-02072-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142414886","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"A comprehensive workflow for compositional data analysis in archaeometry, with code in R","authors":"Michael Greenacre,&nbsp;Jonathan R. Wood","doi":"10.1007/s12520-024-02070-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12520-024-02070-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Compositional data, which have relative rather than absolute meaning, are common in quantitative archaeological research. Such multivariate data are usually expressed as proportions, summing to 1, or equivalently as percentages. We present a comprehensive and defensible workflow for processing compositional data in archaeometry, using both the original compositional values and their transformation to logratios. The most useful logratio transformations are illustrated and how they affect the interpretation of the final results in the context of both unsupervised and supervised learning. The workflow is demonstrated on compositional data from bronze ritual vessels to provide compositional fingerprints for the Shang and Zhou periods of the Chinese Bronze Age. Predictions, with caveats, of the fabrication age of the vessels are made from the compositional data – in effect, compositional rather than typological seriation of the bronzes. In the Supplementary Material, we further explore the effect of zeros in the dataset and compare logratio analyses with the chiPower approach, where we replace any value in the original data determined as being below the detection limit of the instruments for the element, with zeros. The data and R code for reproducing all the analyses are provided both in the Supplementary Information and online.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8214,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142414442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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 third dimension of stone points: 2D vs. 3D geometric morphometric shape analysis","authors":"Heather L. Smith,&nbsp;Thomas A. Jennings,&nbsp;Ashley M. Smallwood","doi":"10.1007/s12520-024-02069-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12520-024-02069-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Only recently has the use of 3D-scanning technology enhanced our ability to consider shape using landmark approaches to geometric morphometrics (GM). Studies examining several types of anthropological datasets have provided mixed reviews of the utility of the third dimension in landmark GM shape analyses. In this paper we present the results of a study examining the methodological utility of three dimensions in landmark GM shape analysis of prehistoric stone points. We used GM to generate principal components (PCs) of shape variation from independent data sets of Clovis and Dalton points in different shape spaces using 2D and 3D versions of the same sample and examined variation in the distribution of shape variables on PCs generated for each data set. Results of uniform multivariate statistical tests performed on each dataset’s PCs were compared to observe whether 2D or 3D data is more effective at determining group membership. We then generated PCs of shape variation in the same shape space using dependent 2D and 3D datasets to observe whether 2D versions of the data cluster with corresponding 3D versions of each point in a PC biplot and multivariate cluster analysis. Results suggest that 2D GM analysis is as capable of discriminating between Clovis and Dalton points as analyses conducted with 3D data. However, those interested in manufacturing technology will benefit from information provided by 3D data sets, which can capture information such as original blank form and thinning strategies.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8214,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142414198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}