Due to the scarcity of stratified and well-dated archaeological horizons, diachronic as well as spatial patterns of Pleistocene lithic traditions are not very well understood in Arabia. To contribute to this topic, we present new archaeological, sedimentological and chronological data from archaeological horizon II (AH II), the stratigraphically youngest Middle Palaeolithic...
For the first time, the three bronze doors of the Lateran Baptistery and Cloister of the Archbasilica of St John Lateran in Rome have been studied to determine their chemical composition and to obtain further information about their manufacture. The doors studied include two made at the end of the twelfth century by Pietro and Uberto from Piacenza, Italy, and one made by an...
This study examines the role of the Eura region as a nexus linking the inland with Baltic Sea trade routes. Luistari cemetery, spanning from the early Merovingian to Medieval periods, provides key insights into South-Western Finland’s socio-economic structure and communication networks. Despite its significance, this burial community’s chronological dynamics and regional role...
Reconstruction of the Roman road network must be approached from different methodologies of multidisciplinary character. Once the traditional approaches have been exhausted without achieving a historiographical consensus, the problem may appear insurmountable. However, leveraging Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provides an avenue for re-evaluating existing proposals and...
The present study aims at a better understanding of personal ornaments during the Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic transitions. The approach consists of a combination of the shell beads and pendants from Santa Maira (Alacant) and the information from the Mediterranean façade of the Iberian Peninsula, including the Ebro valley, allowing a systematic evaluation of species richness...
Thirty-eight Neolithic sherds from Yangshao and Majiayao period contexts were analysed via polarised light microscopy and by scanning electron microscope used with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM–EDX). Sixteen sherds come from the early Yangshao-period Banpo site in the Wei River Valley, east of Xi’an, 17 from the eponymous site of Majiayao and five from Waguanzui in the...
The origin of animal tissue consumption within the hominin lineage remains a central question in palaeoanthropology and taphonomy. This question is mostly addressed through the study of bone surface modifications (e.g., butchery marks) observed on fossils from East African sites. Albeit somewhat overlooked compared to East Africa, South Africa provides an additional body of...
This research explores the modes of exploitation of marine molluscs at Riparo Bombrini (Ventimiglia, north-west Italy) during the Protoaurignacian and the Early Aurignacian. Our results prove that Early Modern Humans who inhabited the rockshelter extensively exploited marine malacofauna for both dietary purposes and ornament production, offering new insights into human adaptation...
This study addresses longstanding questions concerning the ore sources used in the first series of coins of ancient Athens known as the Wappenmϋnzen (c.540-c.500 BCE) by combining comprehensive numismatic data on 22 coins (16 new and 6 legacy analyses) with lead isotope and surface elemental measurements (MC-ICP-MS and XRF). It finds usage of ores from Spain to Romania and...
We present the organic residue analysis of sherds of 50 cooking vessels from the 16th-century town of Nya Lödöse, Sweden. We confirm previous analyses showing that lipids are absorbed by glazed ceramic. By analyses of biomarkers and compound-specific stable carbon isotope analyses of fatty acids, we show that pipkins and pans were used for cooking ruminant carcass products, dairy...
From their first appearance in the archaeological record, the varying degree of biface presence in individual assemblages has long been a notable aspect of discussions surrounding the nature of the Early Acheulean. These debates have largely focused on the relative influence of random processes, site formation dynamics, raw material constraints, biological and/or cultural...
Drawing on modelling of age at death in skeletal remains, this article unveils hitherto unrecognized demographic patterns in the Nordic Corded Ware complex. This population formed part of the European Corded Ware complex that has been linked to disruption observed in the archaeological and genetic record. The newly developed methods of transition analysis 3 (TA3) and death rate...
Olduvai Gorge, nestled between the East African Rift Valley and the Mozambique Belt, is key to understanding human evolution. Even though extensive archaeological and palaeoanthropological findings have been unearthed here since the 1930s, the Middle Stone Age in this area has nonetheless received less attention than the Oldowan or the Acheulean. This paper presents the lithic...
The isotopic composition of body tissues can provide information about diet and patterns of movement or migration during life. Here, we report δ13C, δ15N and 87Sr/86Sr analyses for a small sample of fauna and for the 12 humans buried at Faraoskop, and make inferences about how these people ranged across the landscape as they hunted and foraged. δ13C and δ15N values for collagen...
Traditional research approaches on pottery production based on typological and morphometric classifications have changed in favour of new lines of research. One of them is based on the study of the technological equipment used in ceramic manufacturing processes. For example, ethnographic evidence shows the use of shell tools as technological equipment in different phases of...
Technological skills associated with the Paleolithic culture have been explored extensively in recent years, with regard to the production of stone tools. Aspects of skill related to the use of these tools, however, have yet to be comprehensively explored. In this paper, we use a combined experimental-traceological approach to explore aspects of skill in the use of Lower...
In recent years, archaeological research has demonstrated the presence of abstract non-utilitarian behaviour amongst palaeolithic hominins, fuelling discussions concerning the origin and implications of such complex behaviours. A key component in these discussions is the aesthetic and symbolic character of intentionally incised artefacts. In this study, we emphasize the geometry...
A group of metal objects excavated at Qasr-e Abu Nasr in south-central Iran in the 1930s, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has been analyzed to examine metalworking techniques and metallurgical processes. Thirty-three objects were studied and analyzed by micro-X-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and...
The Later Stone Age site Faraoskop Rock Shelter yielded the human remains of twelve individuals in an ash-rich sedimentary sequence that also preserved anthropogenic bedding features. This geoarchaeological study is concerned with the sedimentary context of the human remains, the reconstruction of the human activities that formed the ash deposits as well as the bedding features...
Chemical fingerprinting and spectrophotometry were combined to conduct a provenance analysis of radiolarite artefacts from three Moravian (Czech Republic) Aurignacian sites of Tvarožná I, Nová Dědina I and Milovice I. Of the different methods used, laser ablation with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) was the best suited to distinguish the different areas...
In this study, we use high-resolution data from airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) acquisitions to comprehensively analyse late prehistoric earthwork structures in the alluvial plain of Friuli (NE Italy). By comparing LiDAR-derived models with direct topographic surveys of the structures carried out in the past we provide a detailed overview of the main characteristics...
This study investigates the underlying mechanisms driving the formation of the largest known burial site of the Northern European Mesolithic, Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov (YOO). Radiogenic strontium isotope analysis (87Sr/86Sr) was used to identify group dynamics within the cemetery and examine the site’s place within local and supra-regional networks. The analysis of 57 humans and 31...
During the Iron Age, north-eastern Iberian communities relied on crop cultivation and animal husbandry for their subsistence. The latter was mainly focused on caprine, with sheep being prominent due to their suitability to the Mediterranean climate, orography, and environment. Despite the pivotal role of sheep in livestock husbandry, information on Iberian communities’ feeding...
The transition to agriculture-based economies and sedentary lifeways during the Neolithic brought significant changes in oral health and diet. Despite the influence of physiological and cultural factors, the frequency of dental pathologies, such as caries and dental calculus, is a common consequence of carbohydrate-rich diets. Caries result from bacterial activity that transforms...
As the vast majority of excavated palaeontological skeletal remains are fragmentary to the extent that they cannot be identified by morphological analysis alone, various molecular methods have been considered to retrieve information from an otherwise underutilised resource. The introduction of collagen fingerprinting, known as Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS), has...