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Metapopulation Processes in the Long-Term Colonization of the Andean Highlands in South America Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2022-07-23 Luis A. Borrero, Calogero M. Santoro
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The First ‘Urnfields’ in the Plains of the Danube and the Po Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2022-03-18 Claudio Cavazzuti, Alberta Arena, Andrea Cardarelli, Michaela Fritzl, Mario Gavranović, Tamás Hajdu, Viktória Kiss, Kitti Köhler, Gabriella Kulcsár, Eszter Melis, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, Géza Szabó, Vajk Szeverényi
Archaeological research is currently redefining how large-scale changes occurred in prehistoric times. In addition to the long-standing theoretical dichotomy between ‘cultural transmission’ and ‘demic diffusion’, many alternative models borrowed from sociology can be used to explain the spread of innovations. The emergence of urnfields in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe is certainly one of these
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Landscapes for Neolithic People in Mainland, Orkney Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2022-03-15 M. Jane Bunting, Michelle Farrell, Elaine Dunbar, Paula Reimer, Alex Bayliss, Peter Marshall, Alasdair Whittle
Neolithic occupation of the Orkney Islands, in the north of Scotland, probably began in the mid fourth millennium cal BC, culminating in a range of settlements, including stone-built houses, varied stone-built tombs and two noteworthy stone circles. The environmental and landscape context of the spectacular archaeology, however, remains poorly understood. We applied the Multiple Scenario Approach (MSA)
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The Use of Desert Kites as Hunting Mega-Traps: Functional Evidence and Potential Impacts on Socioeconomic and Ecological Spheres Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2022-03-01 Rémy Crassard, Wael Abu-Azizeh, Olivier Barge, Jacques Élie Brochier, Jwana Chahoud, Emmanuelle Régagnon
For almost a century there has been debate on the functional interpretation of desert kites. These archaeological structures have been interpreted as constructions for animal hunting or domestication purposes, sometimes for both, but with little conclusive evidence. Here, we present new evidence from a large-scale research programme. This unprecedented programme of archaeological excavations and geomatics
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Earliest Herders of the Central Sahara (Tadrart Acacus Mountains, Libya): A Punctuated Model for the Emergence of Pastoralism in Africa Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2022-01-04 Savino di Lernia
This paper focuses on a reassessment of the emergence of herding in Africa seen from the Tadrart Acacus and neighbouring regions in the Libyan central Sahara. The paper examines whether the presence of wild animals in the Early Holocene ‘green’ Sahara could have represented a ‘disease challenge’ to the spread of domestic livestock, as proposed for sub-Saharan Africa. Analysis of the zooarchaeological
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Resilient Social Actors in the Transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age on Cyprus Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2021-12-29 Nathan Meyer, A. Bernard Knapp
Our understanding of the earliest Iron Age on Cyprus has long remained somewhat obscure. This is the result of both a relative lack of material evidence and the fact that scholarly attention has focused more on the preceding Late Bronze Age and on the subsequent Cypro-Archaic period. As more, and more varied, data have accumulated, there have been calls for a more theoretically informed approach to
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Radiocarbon Dated Trends and Central Mediterranean Prehistory Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2021-10-07 Parkinson, Eóin W., McLaughlin, T. Rowan, Esposito, Carmen, Stoddart, Simon, Malone, Caroline
This paper reviews the evidence for long term trends in anthropogenic activity and population dynamics across the Holocene in the central Mediterranean and the chronology of cultural events. The evidence for this has been constituted in a database of 4608 radiocarbon dates (of which 4515 were retained for analysis following initial screening) from 1195 archaeological sites in southern France, Italy
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Long-Term Demographic Trends in Prehistoric Italy: Climate Impacts and Regionalised Socio-Ecological Trajectories Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2021-10-07 Palmisano, Alessio, Bevan, Andrew, Kabelindde, Alexander, Roberts, Neil, Shennan, Stephen
The Italian peninsula offers an excellent case study within which to investigate long-term regional demographic trends and their response to climate fluctuations, especially given its diverse landscapes, latitudinal range and varied elevations. In the past two decades, summed probability distributions of calibrated radiocarbon dates have become an important method for inferring population dynamics
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The Western Periphery of the Red Sea as a Hominin Habitat and Dispersal Corridor: Marginal or Central? Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2021-08-13 Beyin, Amanuel
The Western Periphery of the Red Sea (WPRS) is an important region for paleoanthropological discussions about the history of hominin dispersal out of Africa. This paper examines the existing Paleolithic evidence in the region and some key aspects of its environmental setting, with the goal of assessing its role in hominin survival and dispersals. The paper’s chronological focus is the span 1.8–0.05
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Early Balkan Metallurgy: Origins, Evolution and Society, 6200–3700 BC Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2021-07-15 Miljana Radivojević, Benjamin W. Roberts
This paper analyses and re-evaluates current explanations and interpretations of the origins, development and societal context of metallurgy in the Balkans (c. 6200–3700 BC). The early metallurgy in this region encompasses the production, distribution and consumption of copper, gold, tin bronze, lead and silver. The paper draws upon a wide range of existing archaeometallurgical and archaeological data
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The Origins of the Apple in Central Asia Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2021-06-07 Elizabeth Baker Brite
The study of agricultural origins has been revolutionized by genomic science. Whole genome sequencing of plant domesticates opens a door to multiple new approaches by which the timing, nature, and geography of human selective pressures on the evolution of domesticated species might be detected. These new scientific pathways greatly enhance understandings of domestication as an evolutionary process
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Dogs that Ate Plants: Changes in the Canine Diet During the Late Bronze Age and the First Iron Age in the Northeast Iberian Peninsula Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2021-03-25 Silvia Albizuri, Aurora Grandal-d’Anglade, Julià Maroto, Mònica Oliva, Alba Rodríguez, Noemí Terrats, Antoni Palomo, F. Javier López-Cachero
We studied 36 dogs (Canis familiaris) from the Can Roqueta site in the Catalan pre-littoral depression (Barcelona), dated between the Late Bronze Age and the First Iron Age (1300 and 550 cal BC). We used a sample of 27 specimens to analyse the evolution of the dogs’ diet based on the carbon δ13C and nitrogen δ15N isotope composition. The results show a marked human influence in that these natural carnivores
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Temporal trends in the Colonisation of the Pacific: Palaeodemographic Insights Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2021-02-10 Clare McFadden, Richard Walter, Hallie Buckley, Marc F. Oxenham
The colonisation of eastern parts of the Pacific Islands was the last phase in the preindustrial expansion of the human species. Given the scale and challenges of the endeavour it is unsurprising that scholars have long been interested in understanding the conditions that drove and supported the exploration and settlement of this vast region. There has been speculation as to the influence of demographic
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Resisters, Vacillators or Laggards? Reconsidering the First Farmer-Herders in Prehistoric Egypt Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2020-12-28 Noriyuki Shirai
This article discusses the diffusion of food production from the Levant to Egypt in the Early–Middle Holocene. It attempts to explain how the diffusion and adoption of food production occurred in Egypt in light of optimal foraging theory, niche construction theory and innovation diffusion models. It disputes an old argument that Southwest Asian domesticates appeared late in Egypt and played only a
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A New Perspective on Copper Age Technology, Economy and Settlement: Grinding Tools at the Valencina Mega-Site Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2020-12-10 Francisco Martínez-Sevilla, Leonardo García Sanjuán, José Antonio Lozano Rodríguez, Juan Manuel Martínez Jordán, Chris Scarre, Juan Manuel Vargas Jiménez, Ana Pajuelo Pando, Pedro López Aldana
Activity patterns at large prehistoric sites are often difficult to interpret, as they frequently combine productive, domestic and funerary components. Valencina, the largest of the Copper Age mega-sites in Iberia, has proved particularly challenging in this regard. Macrolithic tool assemblages have been generally neglected in these debates but can provide specific insight into the nature and patterning
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Beyond the Bounds of Western Europe: Paleolithic Art in the Balkan Peninsula Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2020-10-24 Aitor Ruiz-Redondo, Diego Garate, Manuel R. González-Morales, Ivor Janković, Jacques Jaubert, Ivor Karavanić, Darko Komšo, Steven L. Kuhn, Dušan Mihailović, Óscar Moro Abadía, Marc Vander Linden, Nikola Vukosavljević
Paleolithic art offers unique perspectives on prehistoric societies and cultures. It is also considered a key component of modern human behavior. Until recently, Paleolithic artworks were thought to be geographically restricted to a very few areas, especially southwestern Europe. Discoveries of art in other parts of Europe and other parts of the globe have challenged this vision, expanding the documented
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The Dawn of the Mesolithic on the Plains of Poland Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2020-10-13 Tomasz Płonka, Dariusz Bobak, Michał Szuta
In this article we take a fresh look at the population dynamics of the Polish Plain in the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, using Bayesian analysis and modelling of radiocarbon dates, and contrast the results with data from the North German Plain. We argue against simple adaptationalist models and instead see the cultural landscape as a complex patchwork of old forms and the emerging
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Neanderthal Spatial Patterns and Occupation Dynamics: A Focus on the Central Region in Mediterranean Iberia Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2020-08-04 Aleix Eixea, María Gema Chacón, Amèlia Bargalló, Alfred Sanchis, Francesca Romagnoli, Manuel Vaquero, Valentín Villaverde
This paper focuses on the study of some Middle Palaeolithic assemblages from Mediterranean Iberia to examine Neanderthal occupation patterns and territory management strategies, paying special attention to raw material procurement and technological behaviours, zooarchaeological data and microspatial patterning. The site occupation types are variable, and some of the results may have more importance
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The Organisation and Practice of Metal Smithing in Later Bronze Age Europe Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2020-07-16 Barry Molloy, Marianne Mödlinger
During the later Bronze Age in Europe (c. 1500–800 BC), the archaeological visibility of the production and consumption of bronze increases substantially. Yet there remains a significant imbalance between the vast number of finished artefacts that survive and the evidence for where, how, and by whom they were produced. At the centre of these questions is the metal smith, who has been variously regarded
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Chariotry and Prone Burials: Reassessing Late Shang China’s Relationship with Its Northern Neighbours Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2020-07-02 Jessica Rawson, Konstantin Chugunov, Yegor Grebnev, Limin Huan
In place of the traditional view that raids and invasion from the north introduced new weapons and chariots to the Shang (c. 1200 BC), we argue that archaeological evidence illustrates the presence of several regional groups at or near the late Shang centre, Anyang. Here we review burial practices at Anyang dating to the late second millennium BC, and describe a substantial group of prone burials that
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Against the Grain: Long-Term Patterns in Agricultural Production in Prehistoric Cyprus Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2020-06-19 Leilani Lucas, Dorian Q. Fuller
Our understanding of the timing and dynamics of the spread of human populations to the island of Cyprus has changed significantly in the last few decades. Ongoing research on a few sites has provided more detail not only on when the initial explorers and farming populations arrived, but also on how the unique culture of prehistoric Cyprus developed. This research explores patterns in the archaeobotanical
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The World Ends Here, the World Begins Here: Bronze Age Megalithic Monuments in Western Scotland Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2020-05-28 Gail Higginbottom
This paper presents a study of free-standing Bronze Age megalithic monuments across western Scotland: Argyll, Lochaber, Kintyre, and the isles of Mull, Coll and Tiree. The original project was designed to unearth the locational choices of their builders, the reasons for these choices, and what they reveal about the belief systems of these societies. Using statistical analyses and 2D and 3D GIS, it
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Making Sense of Material Culture Transformation: A Critical Long-Term Perspective from Jomon- and Yayoi-Period Japan Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2020-03-19 Koji Mizoguchi
This JWP Focus paper argues that material culture transformation can be understood as the transformation of the way human beings and material culture mutually open up their potentialities. Such opening up/becoming takes place in the domains of their encounter, which often take the form of human communications. In communication, human beings and material culture mutually mediate/intervene/transform
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Asian Crop Dispersal in Africa and Late Holocene Human Adaptation to Tropical Environments Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2019-11-21 Robert C. Power, Tom Güldemann, Alison Crowther, Nicole Boivin
Occupation of the humid tropics by Late Holocene food producers depended on the use of vegetative agricultural systems. A small number of vegetative crops from the Americas and Asia have come to dominate tropical agriculture globally in these warm and humid environments, due to their ability to provide reliable food output with low labour inputs, as well as their suitability to these environments.
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The Invention of Prehistory and the Rediscovery of Europe: Exploring the Intellectual Roots of Gordon Childe’s ‘Neolithic Revolution’ (1936) Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2019-11-08 Maxime N. Brami
This article re-examines the ‘neolithic revolution’—Gordon Childe’s great contribution to prehistoric archaeology. Childe first articulated his model of three revolutions in history—neolithic, urban and industrial—in 1936. Many authors have sought to understand it in the light of subsequent archaeological theory; here I proceed differently. A broader appreciation of the context in which Childe operated
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The ‘Copper Age’—A History of the Concept Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2019-08-30 Mark Pearce
The idea that there was a Copper Age between the Neolithic and Bronze Age was inspired by the discovery of the use of native copper in prehistoric North America. Its currency in European prehistory owes much to the 1861 observations by William Wilde that copper tools preceded the use of bronze in Ireland, though Wilde did not postulate a Copper Age per se. Acceptance of the existence of a Copper Age
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The Northern Iranian Central Plateau at the End of the Pleistocene and Early Holocene: The Emergence of Domestication Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2019-08-13 Hamed Vahdati Nasab, Sanaz Shirvani, Solange Rigaud
Until recently, the Iranian Central Plateau (ICP) was considered to have been unoccupied at the end of the Pleistocene (Marshall 2012 in ‘Missing Links: Demic Diffusion and the Development of Agriculture on the Central Iranian Plateau’. Durham University e-Theses. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3547/), raising questions about the mechanisms that drove Neolithic diffusion in this area. However, recent field
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The Neolithic and ‘Pastoralism’ Along the Nile: A Dissenting View Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2019-08-03 Sandro Salvatori, Donatella Usai
A largely accepted paradigm in African recent prehistory considers pastoralism to be the main subsistence source of food-producing communities along the Sudanese Nile valley from the 6th millennium cal BC onwards. This paradigm is constraining the development of a wider theoretical perspective that assumes, instead, a regionally differentiated picture of the economic and social organisation of local
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Diversification, Intensification and Specialization: Changing Land Use in Western Africa from 1800 BC to AD 1500 Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2019-05-16 Andrea U. Kay, Dorian Q. Fuller, Katharina Neumann, Barbara Eichhorn, Alexa Höhn, Julie Morin-Rivat, Louis Champion, Veerle Linseele, Eric Huysecom, Sylvain Ozainne, Laurent Lespez, Stefano Biagetti, Marco Madella, Ulrich Salzmann, Jed O. Kaplan
Many societal and environmental changes occurred between the 2nd millennium BC and the middle of the 2nd millennium AD in western Africa. Key amongst these were changes in land use due to the spread and development of agricultural strategies, which may have had widespread consequences for the climate, hydrology, biodiversity, and ecosystem services of the region. Quantification of these land-use influences
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From Iberia to the Southern Levant: The Movement of Silver Across the Mediterranean in the Early Iron Age Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2019-01-22 Jonathan R. Wood, Ignacio Montero-Ruiz, Marcos Martinón-Torres
The origins of the silver trade across the Mediterranean, and the role of the Phoenicians in this phenomenon, remain contentious. This is partly because of difficulties encountered when trying to assign archaeological silver to its geological sources. Here we present a reanalysis of Iron Age silver hoards in the southern Levant, which demonstrates not only that recycling of silver was widespread in
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Midden or Molehill: The Role of Coastal Adaptations in Human Evolution and Dispersal Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2019-01-19 Manuel Will, Andrew W. Kandel, Nicholas J. Conard
Coastal adaptations have become an important topic in discussions about the evolution and dispersal of Homo sapiens. However, the actual distribution and potential relevance of coastal adaptations (broadly, the use of coastal resources and settlement along shorelines) in these processes remains debated, as is the claim that Neanderthals exhibited similar behaviors. To assess both questions, we performed
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Polished Stone Axes in Caput Adriae from the Neolithic to the Copper Age Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2018-11-15 Federico Bernardini
This paper reports the results of a long-term project on the stone axes from Caput Adriae. Available data show that jade axes originating in the western Alps reached the Neolithic groups of Friuli Venezia Giulia and coastal Istria as early as the second half of the 6th millennium BC, during the Danilo/Vlaška culture. The exchange of this and other classes of lithic artefacts testifies that in this
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Eurasian Steppe Chariots and Social Complexity During the Bronze Age Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2018-10-16 Igor V. Chechushkov, Andrei V. Epimakhov
This paper aims to examine some societal principles that underlie the development of horse-drawn chariots in Inner Eurasia during the Middle and Late Bronze Age (cal. 2050–1750 BC). Analysis is based on an evaluation and re-examination of the archaeological evidence for horse-drawn chariots, and the social constructs they entail. Chariots were developed in the zone of the Northern Eurasian steppes
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Being Mesolithic in Life and Death Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2018-08-25 Hannah Cobb, Amy Gray Jones
Fifty years ago, approaches to Mesolithic identity were limited to ideas of ‘Man the Hunter’ and ‘Woman the Gatherer’, while evidence of non-normative practice was ascribed to ‘shamans’ and to ‘ritual’, and that was that. As post-processual critiques have touched Mesolithic studies, however, this has changed. In the first decade of the 21st century a strong body of work on Mesolithic identity in life
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Introduction: A Social History of the Irish and British Mesolithic Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2018-08-09 Ben Elliott,Aimée Little
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From Moments to Histories: A Social Archaeology of the Mesolithic? Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2018-07-26 Graeme Warren
This contribution will provide a critical overview of the other papers within this special issue of Journal of World Prehistory (Elliott and Little 2018), identifying key aspects of the discussion and assessing potentials and problems in the development of Mesolithic archaeology in Britain and Ireland as a whole since 2006 (Conneller and Warren in Mesolithic Britain and Ireland: New approaches, Stroud
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Being Ritual in Mesolithic Britain and Ireland: Identifying Ritual Behaviour Within an Ephemeral Material Record Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2018-07-17 Edward Blinkhorn, Aimée Little
Acceptance of ritual as a valid interpretation of Mesolithic behaviour has slowly emerged over the past decade; the ‘silly season’ heralded by Mellars (Antiquity 83:502–517, 2009) has not materialised, though in Ireland and Britain difficulties persist in defining what might constitute ‘ritual’ away from the graveside. New discoveries from both the development-led and academic sectors enable Mesolithic
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Living Mesolithic Time: Narratives, Chronologies and Organic Material Culture Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2018-06-22 Ben Elliott, Seren Griffiths
British and Irish Mesolithic studies have long been characterized by a reliance on broad-scale lithic typologies, both to provide chronologies, and in discussion of ‘cultural’ groups. More recently, traditional narrative structures—period definitions of ‘Early’ and ‘Late’, or culture typologies—have been complemented by a host of other evidence. This has included new studies of site stratigraphy, evidence
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Approaches to Interpreting Mesolithic Mobility and Settlement in Britain and Ireland Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2018-06-12 Paul Richard Preston, Thomas Kador
The Mesolithic communities of northwest Europe have generally been considered inherently mobile, and all the material evidence associated with them has been interpreted accordingly. This has resulted in entrenched, theoretically polemical and largely hypothetical mobility models, focusing on seasonal rounds and extraction activities. However, recent reanalyses of the ethnographic sources, and discoveries
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The Danube Corridor Hypothesis and the Carpathian Basin: Geological, Environmental and Archaeological Approaches to Characterizing Aurignacian Dynamics Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2018-05-29 Wei Chu
Early Upper Paleolithic sites in the Danube catchment have been put forward as evidence that the river was an important conduit for modern humans during their initial settlement of Europe. Central to this model is the Carpathian Basin, a region covering most of the Middle Danube. As the archaeological record of this region is still poorly understood, this paper aims to provide a contextual assessment
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Humans in the Environment: Plants, Animals and Landscapes in Mesolithic Britain and Ireland Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2018-05-29 Nick J. Overton, Barry Taylor
Environmental archaeology has historically been central to Mesolithic studies in Britain and Ireland. Whilst processual archaeology was concerned with the economic significance of the environment, post-processual archaeology later rejected economically driven narratives, resulting in a turn away from plant and animal remains. Post-processual narratives focused instead on enigmatic ‘ritual’ items that
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Assembling the Dead, Gathering the Living: Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Modelling for Copper Age Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain). Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2018-05-19 Leonardo García Sanjuán,Juan Manuel Vargas Jiménez,Luis Miguel Cáceres Puro,Manuel Eleazar Costa Caramé,Marta Díaz-Guardamino Uribe,Marta Díaz-Zorita Bonilla,Álvaro Fernández Flores,Víctor Hurtado Pérez,Pedro M López Aldana,Elena Méndez Izquierdo,Ana Pajuelo Pando,Joaquín Rodríguez Vidal,David Wheatley,Christopher Bronk Ramsey,Antonio Delgado-Huertas,Elaine Dunbar,Adrián Mora González,Alex Bayliss
The great site of Valencina de la Concepción, near Seville in the lower Guadalquivir valley of southwest Spain, is presented in the context of debate about the nature of Copper Age society in southern Iberia as a whole. Many aspects of the layout, use, character and development of Valencina remain unclear, just as there are major unresolved questions about the kind of society represented there and
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Cultural, Demographic and Environmental Dynamics of the Copper and Early Bronze Age in Iberia (3300–1500 BC): Towards an Interregional Multiproxy Comparison at the Time of the 4.2 ky BP Event Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2018-03-15 A. Blanco-González, K. T. Lillios, J. A. López-Sáez, B. L. Drake
This paper presents the first comprehensive pan-Iberian overview of one of the major episodes of cultural change in later prehistoric Iberia, the Copper to Bronze Age transition (c. 2400–1900 BC), and assesses its relationship to the 4.2 ky BP climatic event. It synthesizes available cultural, demographic and palaeoenvironmental evidence by region between 3300 and 1500 BC. Important variation can be
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Early North African Cattle Domestication and Its Ecological Setting: A Reassessment Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2017-12-14 Michael Brass
Nearly four decades have passed since an independent North African centre for cattle domestication was first proposed in 1980, based on the Combined Prehistoric Expedition’s work in the Nabta Playa—Bir Kiseiba region of southern Egypt, and the initial rigorous debates between Andrew B. Smith and Fred Wendorf, Romuald Schild and Achilles Gautier. More recently, geneticists have entered the fray with
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Mass Migration and the Polynesian Settlement of New Zealand Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2017-10-07 Richard Walter, Hallie Buckley, Chris Jacomb, Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith
This paper reintroduces the concept of mass migration into debates concerning the timing and nature of New Zealand’s settlement by Polynesians. Upward revisions of New Zealand’s chronology show that the appearance of humans on the landscape occurred extremely rapidly, and that within decades settlements had been established across the full range of climatic zones. We show that the rapid appearance
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Alternatives to Urbanism? Reconsidering Oppida and the Urban Question in Late Iron Age Europe Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2017-09-06 Tom Moore
The mega-sites of Late Iron Age Europe (traditionally known as oppida) provide an important dataset for exploring how complex social systems can articulate power in novel ways. The question of whether these can be described as ‘urban’ has overshadowed a deeper understanding of the development and role of such sites, with many studies examining this issue almost wholly against peculiarly classical concepts
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The Complexity and Fragility of Early Iron Age Urbanism in West-Central Temperate Europe Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2017-09-05 Manuel Fernández-Götz, Ian Ralston
The development of large agglomerations is one of the most important phenomena in later Eurasian prehistory. In west-central temperate Europe, the origins of urbanism have long been associated with the oppida of the second to first centuries BC. However, large-scale excavations and surveys carried out over the last two decades have fundamentally modified the traditional picture of early centralization
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The Standard Model, the Maximalists and the Minimalists: New Interpretations of Trypillia Mega-Sites Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2017-09-02 John Chapman
The currently prevailing view of the Trypillia mega-sites of the fourth millennium BC has been the dominant model for over 40 years: they were extra-large settlement examples of the Childean ‘Neolithic package’ of permanent settlement, domesticated plants and animals, and artifact assemblages containing polished stone tools and pottery. Trypillia mega-sites have therefore been viewed as permanent,
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The Mega-Site of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain): Debating Settlement Form, Monumentality and Aggregation in Southern Iberian Copper Age Societies Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2017-08-29 Leonardo García Sanjuán, Chris Scarre, David W. Wheatley
Study of the Iberian Copper Age has experienced a remarkable upheaval in the last two decades. The discovery in central and southwestern Iberia of a significant number of ditched enclosures, a site type almost unknown in this region until the mid 1990s, has opened up new lines of research. Particularly interesting is the existence of some exceptionally large sites. Largest of all is Valencina de la
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Proto-Cities or Non-Proto-Cities? On the Nature of Cucuteni–Trypillia Mega-Sites Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2017-08-24 Aleksandr Diachenko, Francesco Menotti
The Eneolithic Cucuteni–Trypillia mega-sites were undoubtedly the largest residential agglomerates in southeastern Europe from c. 4100 to 3400 cal BC. Their sheer size and estimated population have triggered animated discussion of whether or not they should be regarded as ‘proto-cities’. Considering trajectories of change in, for instance, density of dwellings and settlement size, this paper discusses
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Introduction: European Prehistory and Urban Studies Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2017-07-24 Bisserka Gaydarska
The idea for this special issue arose out of a session on ‘Pre-Roman Urbanism in Eurasia’ at the conference of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) in Istanbul in 2014. This was preceded by an international symposium in Vienna in 2012 on proto-urbanization in Western Anatolia and neighbouring areas in the fourth millennium BC, and succeeded by two more conferences on early urbanism with
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The Urban Quandary and the ‘Mega-Site’ from the Çatalhöyük Perspective Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2017-07-24 Lindsay Der, Justine Issavi
This paper considers the phenomenon of urbanism and the ‘mega-site’ from the perspective of the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Anatolia. At 13 hectares, with 18 levels of Neolithic occupation spanning 1100 years, and peaking at around 8000 inhabitants, Çatalhöyük is considered to be an important source of evidence regarding the transition from settled villages to urban agglomeration. While parallels
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‘Multi-cropping’, Intercropping and Adaptation to Variable Environments in Indus South Asia Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2017-05-09 C. A. Petrie, J. Bates
Past human populations are known to have managed crops in a range of ways. Various methods can be used, singly or in conjunction, to reconstruct these strategies, a process which lends itself to the exploration of socio-economic and political themes. This paper endeavours to unpack the concept of ‘multi-cropping’ by considering diversity and variation in the cropping practices of the populations of
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Re-thinking the Migration of Cariban-Speakers from the Middle Orinoco River to North-Central Venezuela (AD 800) Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2017-05-05 Andrzej Antczak, Bernardo Urbani, Maria Magdalena Antczak
Moving back in time from the early colonial to the late pre-colonial period we evaluate the hypothesis asserting the migratory movement of Cariban-speaking groups from the Middle Orinoco River area towards north-central Venezuela. The explanation in vogue maintains that the migration followed fluvial routes and occurred between 1350 and 1150 BP (AD 600–800). We examine archaeological, linguistic, ethnohistorical
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Exotica in Context: Reconfiguring Prestige, Power and Wealth in the Southern African Iron Age Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2016-11-16 Abigail Joy Moffett, Shadreck Chirikure
Prestige goods, in various combinations and permutations, feature prominently in anthropological and archaeological templates of the emergence of social inequality and early state formation in premodern societies. In Africa, discussion of the contribution of prestige goods to the evolution of cultural behaviours such as class distinction and statehood has been conducted primarily through theoretical
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House Societies in the Ancient Mediterranean (2000–500 BC) Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2016-11-11 Alfredo González-Ruibal, Marisa Ruiz-Gálvez
House societies have become popular with archaeologists in recent years, due to (among other things) their conspicuous material basis (wealth, heirlooms and the houses themselves). As yet, however, most archaeological studies have focused only on individual societies. In this article, we offer a comparative and long-term approach to the phenomenon, using as case studies the Bronze Age and Iron Age
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Extensive Paleolithic Flint Extraction and Reduction Complexes in the Nahal Dishon Central Basin, Upper Galilee, Israel Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2016-09-17 Meir Finkel, Avi Gopher, Ran Barkai
Recently found open-air flint extraction and workshop sites in the Eastern Galilee, Israel, are the focus of this paper. Lithic assemblages from among a few of the thousands of tailing piles documented in a field survey, indicate mostly late Lower Palaeolithic/Middle Palaeolithic and rarely Neolithic/Chalcolithic affinities. These discoveries substantially increase our knowledge of the scope of lithic
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Between the Vinča and Linearbandkeramik Worlds: The Diversity of Practices and Identities in the 54th-53rd Centuries cal BC in Southwest Hungary and Beyond. Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2016-09-08 János Jakucs,Eszter Bánffy,Krisztián Oross,Vanda Voicsek,Christopher Bronk Ramsey,Elaine Dunbar,Bernd Kromer,Alex Bayliss,Daniela Hofmann,Peter Marshall,Alasdair Whittle
Perhaps nowhere in European prehistory does the idea of clearly-defined cultural boundaries remain more current than in the initial Neolithic, where the southeast–northwest trend of the spread of farming crosses what is perceived as a sharp divide between the Balkans and central Europe. This corresponds to a distinction between the Vinča culture package, named for a classic site in Serbia, with its
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Fire Events, Violence and Abandonment Scenarios in the Ancient Andes: The Final Stage of the Aguada Culture in the Ambato Valley, Northwest Argentina Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2016-07-08 Henrik B. Lindskoug
Understanding how archaeological sites are abandoned is a vital part of archaeology. This paper explores abandonment as a phenomenon in a worldwide context, particularly in relation to sites with evidence of fire, and with a special focus on the South-Central Andes. I evaluate the patterns from an area of the Argentinian Andes and discuss the disappearance of the Aguada Culture, one of the central
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The Changing Face of Neolithic and Bronze Age Ireland: A Big Data Approach to the Settlement and Burial Records Journal of World Prehistory (IF 3.545) Pub Date : 2016-06-10 T. Rowan McLaughlin, Nicki J. Whitehouse, Rick J. Schulting, Meriel McClatchie, Philip Barratt, Amy Bogaard
This paper synthesizes and discusses the spatial and temporal patterns of archaeological sites in Ireland, spanning the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age transition (4300–1900 cal BC), in order to explore the timing and implications of the main changes that occurred in the archaeological record of that period. Large amounts of new data are sourced from unpublished developer-led excavations and combined