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Exploring Diversity in Neolithic Agropastoral Management in Mainland Greece Using Stable Isotope Analysis Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2021-01-17 Petra Vaiglova; John Coleman; Charlotte Diffey; Vasiliki Tzevelekidi; Melanie Fillios; Maria Pappa; Paul Halstead; Soultana Maria Valamoti; William Cavanagh; Josette Renard; Michael Buckley; Amy Bogaard
ABSTRACT New stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope values of charred plant and bone collagen remains from 6th mill. BCE Halai, central Greece, together with datasets from 6th mill. BCE Kouphovouno, southern Greece, and later 6th/early 5th mill. BCE Makriyalos, northern Greece, demonstrate how early farming communities in mainland Greece adapted mixed farming strategies to distinct local
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Elite Food Between the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance: Some Case Studies from Latium Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Francesca Alhaique; Claudia Moricca; Lia Barelli; Alessia Masi; Raffaele Pugliese; Laura Sadori; Giuseppe Romagnoli; Lavinia Piermartini; Luca Brancazi; Federica Gabbianelli; Giovanni Chillemi; Alessio Valentini
ABSTRACT The study of plant and animal remains from archaeological sites provides important evidence about past human diets and habits: this includes species selection, food preparation, consumption and disposal practices. Furthermore, such information may also provide inferences about social status. Data from refuse disposal features identified in some elite contexts in central Italy – a high-status
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Production and Transport of Goods in the Roman Period: Residue Analysis and Wine Derivatives in Late Republican Baetican Ovoid Amphorae Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Alessandra Pecci; Paul Reynolds; Simona Mileto; José Manuel Vargas Girón; Darío Bernal-Casasola
ABSTRACT Amphorae are key materials in the investigation of the production and transport of goods in ancient times. For the Roman period, many typologies of amphorae are standardised and there are hypotheses concerning their uses and contents mainly based on the shape, provenance, tituli picti and, when preserved, the solid contents. However, there are still many amphora types that have to be investigated
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Lead in the Bones of Cows from a Medieval Pb-Ag Metallurgical Settlement: Bone Mineralization by Metalliferous Minerals Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Jerzy Cabala; Dariusz Rozmus; Grzegorz Kłys; Magdalena Misz-Kennan
ABSTRACT Pb contents (13-53 mg kg−1) and pathological changes in almost complete cow skeletons discovered in graves adjacent to Pb and Ag smelting furnaces active in the Silesian-Cracovian region, in the mid-12th century are reported in the article. In addition to Pb, elements such as Zn, Cd, Fe, Mn, Cd, and Ba characteristic of Zn-Pb-Ag ores in the region were identified. Bone fragments and the soil
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Iconography and wetsite archaeology of Florida’s watery realms Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-12-22 Trent Carney
(2020). Iconography and wetsite archaeology of Florida’s watery realms. Environmental Archaeology. Ahead of Print.
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Plant Assemblage of the Phoenician Sacrificial Pit by the Temple of Melqart/Herakles (Motya, Sicily, Italy) Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-12-11 Claudia Moricca; Lorenzo Nigro; Federica Spagnoli; Sharon Sabatini; Laura Sadori
ABSTRACT Archaeobotanical remains from the Phoenician – Punic site of Motya, set in the Marsala Lagoon in Western Sicily (Italy), were collected through flotation and sieving during the excavation campaigns of 2017–2019. Analyses focused on a sacrificial favissa, on the SW side of the Temple of Cappiddazzu, dedicated to Melqart/Herakles, where the buried remains of seven bovines were also found. Plant
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‘Seeing Shit’: Assessing the Visibility of Dung Tempering in Ancient Pottery Using an Experimental Approach Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-12-07 S. Amicone; L. F. Morandi; S. Gur-Arieh
ABSTRACT Widespread ethnographic evidence exists for the addition of animal dung to clay during the process of ceramic production. However, conclusive evidence of dung tempering in archaeological ceramics is relatively rare. The aim of this study is to ascertain whether, and under which conditions, dung tempering of pottery is identifiable. To answer these questions, we assessed whether a combination
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Paleoclimate of the Little Ice Age to the Present in the Kankakee Valley of Illinois and Indiana, USA Based on 18O/16O Isotope Ratios of Freshwater Shells Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-12-07 Madeleine McLeester; Mark Schurr
ABSTRACT The cooling associated with the Little Ice Age (LIA) had differential severity across the globe. Within the American Midwest, the local impacts of this cooling have not been established. Our purpose here is to determine its local effects and establish the impacts on the environment encountered at a seventeenth century Native American village in Illinois, USA. We obtained oxygen and carbon
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Isotopic Ecology in Modern and Holocene Populations of Pampas Deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus) from Eastern Central Argentina. Implications for Conservation Biology and Ecological Models of Hunter-gatherer Subsistence Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-11-16 Nahuel A. Scheifler; Mariano L. Merino; Paula Vitale; Cristian A. Kaufmann; Pablo G. Messineo; María Clara Álvarez; Hervé Bocherens
ABSTRACT The Pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus) is an endangered ungulate from South American. The following paper presents the first investigation on the isotopic ecology (δ13Ccollagen; δ15Ncollagen) of modern populations of Pampas deer. The information obtained is compared with new δ13C and δ15N data of Pampas deer bones recovered from archaeological sites in the Central Pampean Dunefields (Inland
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Medieval Whalers in the Netherlands and Flanders: Zooarchaeological Analysis of Medieval Cetacean Remains Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-10-19 Youri van den Hurk; Luke Spindler; Krista McGrath; Camilla Speller
ABSTRACT Medieval historical sources suggest that cetacean exploitation was, for large parts of Europe, restricted to the social elite. This appears to have also been the case for the Netherlands and Flanders. It remains unclear, however, how frequently active hunting was undertaken, and which species were targeted. Zooarchaeological cetacean remains are often recovered from Medieval (AD 400-1600)
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Changing Plant-based Subsistence Practices among Early and Middle Holocene Communities in Eastern Maghreb Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-10-14 Marta Portillo; Jacob Morales; Yolanda Carrión Marco; Nabiha Aouadi; Giulio Lucarini; Lotfi Belhouchet; Alfredo Coppa; Leonor Peña-Chocarro
ABSTRACT The eastern Maghreb is a key area for understanding environmental and cultural dynamics during the early and middle Holocene. Capsian populations from around 10000–7500 cal BP were among the last foragers in the region. Capsian sites are known as escargotières (land shell middens), and locally called rammadiyat (meaning ashy mound). As taphonomic conditions in Capsian open-air sites generally
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Wood in Pre-Columbian Funerary Rituals: A Case Study from El Caño (Panama, AD 880–1020) Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-10-13 María Martín-Seijo; Joeri Kaal; Carlos Mayo Torné; Julia Mayo Torné
ABSTRACT This research presents for the first time a comprehensive study of charcoal directly related to the multiple burials interred in Tomb 2 of El Caño (Coclé province, Panama). This funerary context, which dates to between AD 880 to AD 1020, contained three different burial levels accompanied by substantial ceramic offerings and rich mortuary assemblages. The challenge of taxonomically identifying
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Dietary and Weaning Habits of the Roman Community of Quarto Cappello del Prete (Rome, 1st-3rd Century CE) Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-10-13 Flavio De Angelis; Virginia Veltre; Sara Varano; Marco Romboni; Sonia Renzi; Stefania Zingale; Paola Ricci; Carla Caldarini; Stefania Di Giannantonio; Carmine Lubritto; Paola Catalano; Olga Rickards; Cristina Martínez-Labarga
ABSTRACT This paper aims to provide the isotopic characterization of the diet consumed by people buried in a graveyard of the Imperial Rome Suburbium (1st–3rd centuries CE), where numerous children were buried. A sample of 50 human remains from Quarto Cappello del Prete was selected for carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis. Published data related to coeval faunal remains set the baseline of
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The Presence of Decayed Wood in Iron Age Contexts of Northwest Iberia: Wood-borer Galleries and Fungal Hyphae Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-10-09 María Martín-Seijo
ABSTRACT Decayed wood occurs relatively frequently in charcoal assemblages from Iron Age sites in northwest Iberia, and the presence of fungal hyphae and wood-borer galleries has been identified in charred wood remains from different kinds of archaeological contexts. This study analysed the evidence of decayed wood, as a result of fungal and insect attack, including the affected taxa and other dendrological
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Reconstruction of the Use of Space at Tianluoshan, China, Based on Palynological and Lipid Evidence Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-10-07 Yunan Zhang; Guoping Sun; Yingliang Yang; Xiaohong Wu
ABSTRACT The spatial heterogeneity at archaeological sites associated with human arrangements has mostly been evidenced by the analyses of artefact assemblages and constructions. Here we test the potentials of - pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and lipid biomarkers in indicating intra-site spatial patterns and uses of space at the waterlogged archaeological site of Tianluoshan, Lower Yangtze Region
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Correction Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-06-30
(2020). Correction. Environmental Archaeology: Vol. 25, Special Issue: Past Andean Pastoralism: A Reconsidered Diversity. Edited by Elise Dufour and Nicolas Goepfert, pp. 365-366.
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Simulation of Land Use/Cover Change in the Kingdom of Calakmul During the Late Classic Period (AD 600–900) Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-08-16 Laura Alfonsina Chang-Martínez; Jean-François Mas
Spatio-temporal modelling of land use allows an analysis of change considering socio-economic, ecological and biophysical factors. We developed a ‘spatially explicit’ model to simulate land use/cover change in the Calakmul realm during the Late Classic period, taking into account the relationship between population density, agriculture strategies and erosion and drought. Different scenarios were simulated
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The Ideal Distribution Model and Archaeological Settlement Patterning Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-08-10 Elic M. Weitzel; Brian F. Codding
ABSTRACT Human populations distribute themselves across landscapes in clearly patterned ways, but accurate and theoretically informed predictions and explanations of that patterning in the archaeological record can prove difficult. Recently, archaeologists have begun applying a unifying theoretical framework derived from population and behavioural ecology to understand human population distribution
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Later Prehistoric and Norse Communities in the Northern Isles: Multi-Proxy Environmental Investigations on Orkney Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-08-10 Scott Timpany; Tim Mighall; Ian Foster; Antonio Martinez Cortizas; Olwyn Owen; Anthony Krus; Ilse Kamerling
Little is known about the impact that Norse communities had on the landscape of Orkney. To redress this, a palaeoenvironmental investigation was conducted from the infilled Loch of Tuquoy, a basin located close to the high-status Norse farmstead and Crosskirk at Tuquoy on Westray, Orkney. Pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, microscopic charcoal, sediment geochemistry and mineral magnetic measurements
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Wood-borers in Historic Ships Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-08-04 Diana Davis
Using evidence of wood-borers in several of the National Museum of the Royal Navy’s historic ships, this article will examine the threat posed to the historic fabric by non-marine species and the reasons that we struggle to eradicate the problem. The relationship between fungal attack and beetle activity will be discussed, and the need for supporting research into this and other aspects of damage due
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The Taphonomy of Plant and Livestock Dung Microfossils: An Ethnoarchaeological and Experimental Approach Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-08-04 Marta Portillo; Kate Dudgeon; Georgia Allistone; Kamal Raeuf Aziz; Wendy Matthews
This study examines the contribution of ethnoarchaeological and experimental research to interdisciplinary approaches on the identification and taphonomy of livestock dung. Ethnographic and experimental records provide comparative reference models on a range of taphonomic issues that are still understudied, such as variation in the type and preservation of plant and faecal microfossils that are excreted
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Power Centres and Marginal Landscapes: Tracking Pre- and Post-Conquest (Late Iron Age and Medieval) Land-Use in the Cēsis Castle Hinterland, Central Latvia Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-07-09 Alex Brown; Aleks Pluskowski
During the late Iron Age, the eastern Baltic was inhabited by Finno-Ugric and Baltic speaking societies whose territories were conquered in the thirteenth century as a result of the crusades. This paper examines the degree to which indigenous landscapes were transformed as a result of the crusades, and the evidence for maintenance of indigenous land-use practices. Vegetation and land-use history are
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Pig-Breeding Management in the Early Medieval Stronghold at Mikulčice (Eighth–Ninth Centuries, Czech Republic) Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-06-30 L. Kovačiková; S. Drtikolová Kaupová; L. Poláček; P. Velemínský; P. Limburský; J. Brůžek
The archaeozoological analysis sets point to the vital role of pigs in the subsistence economy of Early Medieval Mikulčice, an important Great Moravian centre (Czech Republic). The results of slaughtering distribution analyses indicate that pigs were a meat source for a consumer population. Analyses of stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon suggest that the demand for pork was predominantly met by
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The Visibility of Mobility: Coprolites, Dung and Neolithic Herders in Central Saharan Rock Shelters Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-06-18 Rocco Rotunno; Anna Maria Mercuri; Assunta Florenzano; Andrea Zerboni; Savino di Lernia
The archaeological landscape of the Tadrart Acacus massif (SW Libya, central Sahara) is made of sites testimony of complex systems of cultural-specific settlement and economic strategies stretching over millennia of occupation. Here, caves and rock shelters represent the main physiographic features exploited by prehistoric herders. Climate fluctuations, settlement patterns and economic strategies regulate
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Dynamic Modeling of the Effects of Site Placement on Environmental Suitability: A Theoretical Example from Northwest Morocco Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-06-18 Stephen A. Collins-Elliott; Christopher S. Jazwa
This paper offers a new numerical approach to model the effects of archaeological site placement and population density on environmental suitability using two ecological models, the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) and Ideal Despotic Distribution (IDD), treating the Oued Loukkos in northern Morocco as an example. This method incorporates local resource depletion with increasing population density consistent
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Auto-Fluorescent Phytoliths: A New Method for Detecting Heating and Fire Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-06-15 Yannick Devos; Martin J. Hodson; Luc Vrydaghs
A range of methods have been applied to identify whether phytoliths have been heated or fired: morphological alterations, changes in colour and opacity, refractive index and Raman spectroscopy. As not all phytoliths seem to be affected in the same way, these methods are obviously limited and none provide satisfactory results for sufficient discrimination between heated/burned and unheated/unburned
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Domestication in Motion: Macrofossils of Pre-Colonial Brazilian Nuts, Palms and Other Amazonian Planted Tree Species Found in the Upper Purus Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-06-15 Martti Pärssinen; Evandro Ferreira; Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen; Alceu Ranzi
Evidence from several earthwork-building societies has recently been discovered in Amazonia that challenges existing theories about precolonial, human-environment interactions. Combining data obtained by plant macrofossil analyses, archaeological excavations, historical sources, and indigenous oral histories, we focus on the pre-colonial sources of subsistence and domestication processes of some tree
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Crop Field Management and Social Structure at Gricignano d’Aversa (Campanian Plain, Southern Italy) in the Early Bronze Age Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-06-12 Fabio Saccoccio
Campanian Plain (southern Italy) mid-late Holocene landscape information is preserved by repeated eruption debris from the Mt Vesuvius volcano and the Campi Flegrei caldera and suggests a long-lasting prehistoric settlement pattern based on extensive plough-based agriculture dating between at least c. the 3rd millennium BC Agnano Monte Spina eruption and the Middle Bronze Age (1620-1430 cal BC) AP2
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Fire on the Mountain: The Ideal Free Distribution and Early Hunter-gatherer Demography in the Tennessee River Drainage, USA Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-06-09 D. Shane Miller; Stephen B. Carmody
The colonisation of North America and subsequent adaptation to climate change are major research foci in the American Southeast. Here, we used the Ideal Free Distribution from Behavioural Ecology and projections of fossil pollen to generate predictions for landscape use. We tested these predictions against the distribution of previously recorded projectile points in the Paleoindian Database of the
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Defining Suitability in Mixed Agropastoral Societies: A Case Study from Bactria in Northern Afghanistan Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-06-06 Daniel Plekhov; Evan I. Levine
This paper explores the concept of suitability within applications of Ideal Distribution Models (IDMs). Specifically, we investigate the effectiveness of single measures of suitability in contexts where diverse local populations practised a range of subsistence strategies with different environmental requirements and sociocultural consequences. To do so, we draw on legacy survey data from northern
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Correction Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-06-06
ABSTRACT The beginning of commercial fishing in and around the North Sea is dated to ca. AD 1000, but it only reached the north-eastern Baltic with the Danish and Swedish colonists at the beginning of the 13th century. Their arrival changed the market and also the demand for seafood amongst locals. In this article, the foodways of fish resources, namely the production and consumption of fish, are examined
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Hidden Husbandry: Disentangling a Disturbed Profile at Beckery Chapel, a Medieval Ecclesiastical Site Near Glastonbury (UK) Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-05-19 Rowena Y. Banerjea; Lionello F. Morandi; Kevin Williams; Richard Brunning
Beckery Chapel, near Glastonbury, is the site which has the earliest scientific dating evidence for monastic life in the UK, and later in the medieval period became a Chapel that played a significant role as a destination for pilgrims, as part of the Glastonbury Abbey estate. The site was previously excavated in the 1880s and the 1960s, and in 2016 the South West Heritage Trust excavated a building
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Spatially-Resolved Ca Isotopic and Trace Element Variations in Human Deciduous Teeth Record Diet and Physiological Change Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-05-13 Qiong Li; Alessia Nava; Linda M. Reynard; Matthew Thirlwall; Luca Bondioli; Wolfgang Müller
Dental enamel represents an important mineralized archive of an individual’s early life. Previously, isotopic (Ca) or trace element ratios (Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca) have been used to reveal dietary and weaning histories, although few studies have utilized both proxies to evaluate the respective results. Here we report histologically-defined, spatially-resolved Ca-isotope (laser-cut & TIMS) and trace element ratio
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First Speleothem Evidence of the Hiera Eruption (197 BC), Santorini, Greece Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-05-12 Katerina Theodorakopoulou; Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos; Constantin D. Athanassas; Evangelos Galanopoulos; George Economou; Yannis Maniatis; Athanasios Godelitsas; Elissavet Dotsika; Fanis Mavridis; Andreas Darlas
Speleothems are useful in detecting past geoenvironmental events. Variations in trace element concentrations may constitute a diagnostic of volcanic eruptions, enabling both dating and environmental impact assessment. This work attempts to detect possible ‘signatures’ of past volcanic eruptions in speleothems from Zoodochos Pigi cave on Santorini. Higher-than-usual concentrations of elements and minerals
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Detecting Medieval Foodways in the North-eastern Baltic: Fish Consumption and Trade in Towns and Monasteries of Finland and Estonia Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-05-05 Lembi Lõugas; Auli Bläuer
Lembi Lõugas is a research track associate professor at the Tallinn University and the head of the Archaeological Research Collection department. Lembi’s special area of research includes archaeozoology, environmental archaeology and multidisciplinary studies. The animal groups included in her research are mostly those living in the North Europe, both the aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates are in
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Main Territories in South Norway in the Mesolithic Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-04-29 Lotte Selsing
ABSTRACT The focus of this paper is on regionality, the use of main territories and how they are interlinked in the Mesolithic in south Norway during the culmination of the settlement of the mountain area, 8500–7600 cal BP. The main territories and their boundaries are identified by the distribution of specific lithic raw materials and one artefact type, distribution of ungulates and drainage systems
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Decomposing Habitat Suitability Across the Forager to Farmer Transition Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-04-22 Kenneth B. Vernon; Peter M. Yaworsky; Jerry Spangler; Simon Brewer; Brian F. Codding
How might subsistence strategies structure the costs and benefits of habitat selection and, therefore, drive settlement patterning? We explore this question within an Ideal Distribution framework, arguing that (i) a habitat can be decomposed into its environmental covariates, (ii) their relative contributions to suitability can vary as a function of subsistence strategy, and (iii) the resulting differences
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Multi-proxy Archaeobotanical Analysis from Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Sites in South-west Ukraine Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-03-26 Aurélie Salavert; Emilie Gouriveau; Erwan Messager; Vincent Lebreton; Dmytro Kiosak
This paper presents the results of archaeobotanical studies carried out on the Late Mesolithic layer at Melnychna-Krucha (6460–6100 cal BC) and the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) site of Kamyane-Zavallia (5295–4960 cal BC), close to the Southern Bug River. Despite the relatively modest dataset presented in this paper, these preliminary results provide new data for a region where the environmental setting
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Terra, Silva et Paludes. Assessing the Role of Alluvial Geomorphology for Late-Holocene Settlement Strategies (Po Plain – N Italy) Through Point Pattern Analysis Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-03-13 Filippo Brandolini; Francesco Carrer
Fluvial environments represent complex human-water systems, as floodplains have always been among the most suitable environments for human subsistence. In this paper, we present one of the first attempts to investigate human adaptation to fluvial environments in the past using spatial statistics (Point Pattern Analysis). In particular, the paper addresses the influence of alluvial geomorphology on
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Food Production and Domestication Produced Both Cooperative and Competitive Social Dynamics in Eastern North America Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-03-04 Elic M. Weitzel; Brian F. Codding; Stephen B. Carmody; David W. Zeanah
Recent research emphasises the importance of both within-group cooperation and between-group competition for human sociality, past and present. We hypothesise that the shift from foraging to food production in eastern North America provided novel socioecological conditions that impacted interpersonal and intergroup interactions in the region, inspiring both greater cooperation as well as competition
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Seasonal Shellfishing across the East Adriatic Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition: Oxygen Isotope Analysis of Phorcus turbinatus from Vela Spila (Croatia) Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-02-09 Tansy L. Branscombe; Marjolein. D. Bosch; Preston T. Miracle
The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition is a classic topic of archaeological discussion, and the East Adriatic is of particular interest as a gateway region for agriculture entering Europe from the Near East. Neolithisation along the East Adriatic coast has been characterised as a two-wave process of leap-frog demographic replacement along the Dalmatian coast, followed by a longer process of acculturation
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Isotopic Evidence for Changes in Cereal Production Strategies in Iron Age and Roman Britain Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-02-07 Lisa Lodwick; Gill Campbell; Vicky Crosby; Gundula Müldner
ABSTRACT Following the Roman conquest, agricultural production in Britain faced increasing demand from large urban and military populations. While it has long been thought that this necessitated an increase in agricultural production, direct archaeological evidence for changes in cultivation practices has been scarce. Using a model that conceptualises cereal farming strategies in terms of intensive
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The Elm Decline is Dead! Long Live Declines in Elm: Revisiting the Chronology of the Elm Decline in Ireland and its Association with the Mesolithic/Neolithic Transition Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-01-30 Kevin Kearney; Benjamin R. Gearey
The Elm Decline (ED), is a marked reduction in Ulmus recognised in pollen diagrams from across north/northwest Europe c. 5-6000 cal BP, the causes of which have been much discussed for over half a century, partly because of its broad chronological correspondence with the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. We present a formal statistical analysis of the ED chronology in Ireland, analysing its association
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Curation of the Historic England Zooarchaeology Reference Collection: Developing Strategies for Monitoring and Controlling Pests and Moulds Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-01-23 Eva Fairnell; Polydora Baker; Sophie Burgham; Claire Tsang; Fay Worley
The Historic England Zooarchaeology Reference Collection includes more than 3470 mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile and fish specimens, the majority of which are complete skeletons. It comprises important research collections that support internal, national and international projects, and is being continuously developed, mainly through in-house specimen preparation. The collection is housed in different
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Identifying Social Transformations and Crisis during the Pre-Monastic to Post-Viking era on Iona: New Insights from a Palynological and Palaeoentomological Perspective Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-01-19 Samantha E. Jones; Enid P. Allison; Ewan Campbell; Nick Evans; Tim Mighall; Gordon Noble
Iona is renowned for its early monastery, founded following the arrival of Columba in AD 563. This paper uses palaeoecological data to provide insight into the social and environmental transformations that influenced the landscape of Iona during the later prehistoric and historic periods. The identification of cereal pollen suggests that arable farming occurred during the Bronze Age and possibly continued
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Insect Pests of Pulse Crops and their Management in Neolithic Europe Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2020-01-17 Ferran Antolín; Marguerita Schäfer
ABSTRACT Insect pests affecting standing and stored crops can cause severe damage and reduce yields considerably. Was this also the case in Neolithic Europe? Did early farming populations take a certain amount of harvest loss into account? Did they decide to change crops or rotate them when they became too infested? Did they obtain new crops from neighbouring communities as part of this process? Or
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Barn Owls and Black Rats from a Rural Roman Villa at Gatehampton, South Oxfordshire Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-12-04 Thomas Walker; Janet Ridout Sharpe; Hazel Williams
A large assemblage of small mammal and other small vertebrate bones was excavated within a relatively small area of a single room in a Roman villa close to the River Thames in South Oxfordshire. It is argued that these bones are the remains of barn owl pellets and that their presence shows that the roof on this room at least had remained intact for some time after either the entire building or this
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Parasites in a Holocene Environment: Their Presence on the Floor of Caves Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-11-21 Giorgina Amalfitano; Romina S. Petrigh; Martín H. Fugassa
Exploratory examinations were performed in sediments of archaeological levels from Cerro Casa de Piedra, cave 7 (CCP7). The aim of the present study was to identify parasitic remains present in the floor where human occupation has been reported. Parasite remains of Eimeria macusaniensis, molineids and two capillariids nematodes were identified. A single oocyst of Eimeria ivitaensis was found, resulting
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Bioavailable Strontium in the Southern Andes (Argentina and Chile): A Tool for Tracking Human and Animal Movement Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-11-13 Ramiro Barberena; Augusto Tessone; Mariana Cagnoni; Alejandra Gasco; Víctor Durán; Diego Winocur; Anahí Benítez; Gustavo Lucero; Darío Trillas; Inés Zonana; Paula Novellino; Mauricio Fernández; Marta A. Bavio; Erica Zubillaga; Eduardo A. Gautier
Strontium isotopes allow tracking the scale and pattern of movements of people and animals. With the ultimate goal of reconstructing human mobility in the southern Andes (Argentina and Chile), we present isotopic values for rodent samples selected from the main geological units, thus contributing to building a macro-regional framework of bioavailable strontium. The results show an important variation
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An Islandscape IFD: Using the Ideal Free Distribution to Predict Pre-Columbian Settlements from Grenada to St. Vincent, Eastern Caribbean Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-11-11 Jonathan A. Hanna; Christina M. Giovas
This study employs an ideal free distribution (IFD) model to conduct a fine-grained analysis of environmental factors affecting the pre-Columbian colonisation sequence and settlement patterning in the southern Lesser Antilles of the Eastern Caribbean. We compiled a database of all known archaeological site locations and associated chronological data from St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and Grenada, and
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Parasite Assemblages from Feline Coprolites through the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in Patagonia: Cueva Huenul 1 Archaeological Site (Argentina) Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-11-11 Eleonor Tietze; Ramiro Barberena; María Ornela Beltrame
The aims of the present study were: (1) to examine the parasite fauna found in carnivore coprolites from Cueva Huenul 1 archaeological site, located in northern Patagonia (Neuquén Province, Argentina), (2) to evaluate the role of this carnivores in the cycle of zoonotic parasites in the past, (3) to discuss the possible effect of the infections in humans that inhabit the cave during the Quaternary
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Southern Portugal Animal Exploitation Systems: Trends and Changes from Neolithic to Bronze Age. A Follow-up Overview Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-10-17 Maria João Valente; António Faustino Carvalho
Zooarchaeological studies in Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Portugal have witnessed important developments in recent years, even if still largely based on taxonomic analyses. Other approaches depend heavily on the abundance and preservation conditions of faunal collections, which are often inadequate; such limitation prevents in-depth studies of animal exploitation strategies (e.g. the
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Pushing the Limits: Palynological Investigations at the Margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Norse Western Settlement Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-10-17 J. Edward Schofield; Danni M. Pearce; Douglas W.F. Mair; Brice R. Rea; James M. Lea; Nicholas A. Kamenos; Kathryn M. Schoenrock; Iestyn D. Barr; Kevin J. Edwards
This paper presents two high-resolution pollen records dating to ∼AD 1000–1400 that reveal the impacts of Norse colonists on vegetation and landscape around a remote farmstead in the Western Settlement of Greenland. The study is centred upon a ‘centralised farm’ (ruin group V53d) in Austmannadalen, near the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet (64°13′N, 49°49′W). The climate is low arctic and considered
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Arrhenatherum elatius ssp. bulbosum Revisited – A Practical Approach to Decode Past Plant-related Activities Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-10-07 Henrike Effenberger; Martin Nickol; Wiebke Kirleis
ABSTRACT The charred bulbs of tuber oat grass (Arrhenatherum elatius ssp. bulbosum) are found in different archaeological contexts from various periods all over Europe. However, following the pre-Roman Iron Age, the occurrence of the plant gets scarcer. To understand why and how the bulbs of tuber oat grass have entered the archaeological record, it is crucial to study the habitus and the ecology of
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Shifts Along a Spectrum: A Longitudinal Study of the Western Eurasian Realized Climate Niche Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-08-20 Christopher M. Nicholson
ABSTRACT Climate niches that modern humans and earlier hominin ancestors occupied have changed dramatically over time, but the extent of those changes has gone largely undocumented. This study investigates the manner in which the realised hominin climate niche has expanded, contracted, or stayed stationary across four time periods (Last Interglacial, Last Glacial Maximum, Mid-Holocene, and 1950–2000)
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Ephemeral Archaeology South of the Central Pyrenees (Huesca, NE Iberia): The Exceptional Preservation of Woody Objects in Moro de Alins Cave-site Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-08-19 Marta Alcolea; José M. Rodanés
Desiccated objects made out of wood and plant fibres are exceptional archaeological finds in Europe, due to prevailing climatic conditions. The use of wood and plant fibres as raw materials in the past is not well-known due to the scarce availability of archaeological finds, especially in comparison with other non-perishable materials (lithic, pottery, metals). Dry environments suitable for the conservation
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The Analysis on Nanhai No. 1 Shipwreck Site Based on the Mollusca Debris Data Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-08-17 Quan Li; Yafang Li; Jian Sun; Yong Cui; Haiyan Li; Anna Cao; Jie Nie; Runlin Xu
ABSTRACT The Nanhai No. 1 Shipwreck is a wooden ship sunk 800 years ago during the Southern Song Dynasty of China. The zoobenthic shellfish communities in the sediments covering the wreck came from 296 species from 5 phylums, of which 290 were molluscs. These molluscs were mainly composed of local marine fauna based on the literature. By comparing the structural parameters of the zoobenthic debris
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Global Expansion of the Australian Biting Louse Heterodoxus spiniger Facilitated by Human Transport of Dog (Canis familiaris), and Implications for Prehistoric Cultural Interaction in Australasia Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-08-12 Loukas Koungoulos; Peter Contos
For over a century, it has been pondered how the biting louse Heterodoxus spiniger, which evolved on the agile wallaby (Macropus agilis) in Australia/New Guinea, came to be found on domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) throughout much of the world. Various theories suggest that ancient transport of Australian dingoes (Canis dingo), or recent transport of domestic dogs or macropods are responsible for its
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Chinook Salmon, Late Holocene Climate Change, and the Occupational History of Kettle Falls, a Columbia River Fishing Station Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-08-01 Ian Hutchinson; Mark E. Hall
ABSTRACT Kettle Falls, located 1125 km from the mouth of the Columbia River in present-day Washington State (USA), was the second-most important salmon fishing and trading locus on that river in the early historic era. We encapsulate the late Holocene history of the fishery by deriving a summed probability distribution function (SPDF) from 50 radiocarbon ages from 13 archaeological sites within 2 km
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What Could the ‘Sea Ice Machine’ do to its People? On Lateglacial Doggerland, Marine Foraging, and the Colonisation of Scandinavian Seascapes Environ. Archaeol. (IF 1.475) Pub Date : 2019-07-23 Hein B. Bjerck
ABSTRACT ‘Climate’ is rarely experienced directly – contrary to day-to-day ‘weather’ and ‘seasons’ that manifest in landscapes (‘weather-worlds’). This paper elaborates the role of sea ice and sea ice hunting outside the lateglacial Doggerland beaches. The winter–spring sea ice was a seasonal extension of the continental plains, and a potential meeting ground for the human hunters of the plains and
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