Galilei’s mutter,archeoprimatology, and the ´blue´ monkeys of Thera: a comment on Pruetz and Greenlaw (2021)

Primates - A recent debate on the taxonomic identification of the monkeys depicted in a fresco from Room 6 of Building Complex Beta in the Bronze Age town of Akrotiri, Thera (Greece) has triggered...     

Deformity in the "Boxing Boys"

The late Bronze Age wall painting the Boxing Boys (c. 17th-16th century BCE) was excavated in the ancient town of Akrotiri on the Greek island of Thera. This article considers a medical interpretation for the spinal-pelvic anomaly in the anatomy of one of the boys.The artist has depicted a combination of structural anatomical adjustments diagnostic of spondylolisthesis, a forward slippage of one of the lumbar vertebrae. The accurate portrayal of the surface appearance of this condition suggests that the artist painted directly from a live subject. Thus, the Boxing Boys mural may be the earliest visual record of a sports-induced injury. Although the meaning of the wall paintings is unclear, the wild goats (agrimia) on the adjoining walls simulate swayback as a reflection of the boy's torso deformity and share other features with the boxers, adding to the unifying characteristics of the room. The abnormal morphology appears to be the earliest achievement of transforming disease into aesthetic charm on a monumental scale.     

Symbolic Metal Bit and Saddlebag Fastenings in a Middle Bronze Age Donkey Burial

Here we report the unprecedented discovery of the skeleton of a ritually interred donkey with a metal horse bit in association with its teeth and saddlebag fastenings on its back. This discovery in the Middle Bronze Age III sacred precinct (1700/1650-1550 BCE) at Tel Haror, Israel, presents a unique combination of evidence for the early employment of equid harnessing equipment, both for chariot bridling (horse bit) and pack animals (saddlebags). The ritually deposited donkey with its unique accoutrements advances our understanding of the broad social and religious significance of equids in the Levantine Bronze Age, previously known mainly from textual and iconographical sources.     

Chemical and sensory analysis of saffron produced through tissue cultures of Crocus sativus

Stigma-like structures were produced in tissue cultures (TC stigmas) from the ovary explants of C. sativus on MS medium supplemented with NAA and BA. The size of these structures was 2 to 3 cm in length. At higher concentrations of both NAA (54 µM) and BA (44 µM) white tubular abnormal structures were observed from ovary explants in addition to the TC stigmas. Crocin and picrocrocin, responsible for colour and bitter taste respectively, were found to be 6 and 11 times lower in TC stigmas than in the natural stigmas. The saffron obtained from tissue cultures was subjected to sensory analysis and compared with the data obtained from chemical analysis. The sensory data indicated that the saffron pigments produced in tissue cultures were one tenth that of natural stigmas. Sensory profile test showed that the tissue culture saffron was low in floral, spicy and fatty characteristics as compared to saffron obtained from flowers. This is the first report on the sensory analysis of a spice produced in tissue cultures.Abbreviations BA benzyladenine - NAA naphthaleneacetic acid     

Population history of the middle Euphrates valley: Dental non-metric traits at Tell Ashara,Tell Masaikh and Jebel Mashtale,Syria

Fifty-nine dental non-metric traits were scored using Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System on a sample of teeth from 350 human skeletons excavated at three sites in the lower middle Euphrates valley. The dataset was divided into six chronological subsets: Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Early Iron Age with Neo-Assyrian period, Classical/Late Antiquity, Early Islamic (Umayyad and Abbasid) period and Modern period. The matrix of Mean Measure of Divergence values exhibited temporal homogeneity of the sample with only dental non-metric trait scores in the Modern subset differing significantly from most other subsets. Such a result suggests that no major gene flow occurred in the middle Euphrates valley between the 3rd millennium BCE and the early 2nd millennium CE. Only after the Mongolian invasion and large depopulation of northern Mesopotamia in the 13th century CE a major population change occurred when the area was taken over in the 17th century by Bedouin tribes from the Arabian Peninsula.     

Towards an Absolute Chronology for the Aegean Iron Age: New Radiocarbon Dates from Lefkandi,Kalapodi and Corinth

The relative chronology of the Aegean Iron Age is robust. It is based on minute stylistic changes in the Submycenaean, Protogeometric and Geometric styles and their sub-phases. Yet, the absolute chronology of the time-span between the final stages of Late Helladic IIIC in the late second millennium BCE and the archaic colonization of Italy and Sicily toward the end of the 8^th century BCE lacks archaeological contexts that can be directly related to events carrying absolute dates mentioned in Egyptian/Near Eastern historical sources, or to well-dated Egyptian/Near Eastern rulers. The small number of radiocarbon dates available for this time span is not sufficient to establish an absolute chronological sequence. Here we present a new set of short-lived radiocarbon dates from the sites of Lefkandi, Kalapodi and Corinth in Greece. We focus on the crucial transition from the Submycenaean to the Protogeometric periods. This transition is placed in the late 11^th century BCE according to the Conventional Aegean Chronology and in the late 12^th century BCE according to the High Aegean Chronology. Our results place it in the second half of the 11^th century BCE.     

Carthamus species in the ancient Near East and south-eastern Europe: archaeobotanical evidence for their distribution and use as a source of oil

We present an overview of archaeobotanical Carthamus spp. finds from Neolithic to medieval sites in the Near East and adjacent areas. A particular focus is put on the cultivated form of the genus. Safflower appears first in a number of early Bronze Age (3000 b.c.) sites in northern and central Syria. From there it apparently spread to Egypt, the Aegean and south-eastern Europe. The Near Eastern Bronze Age evidence shows a striking exclusiveness in the distribution patterns of safflower and flax, with flax being restricted to Levantine and Iranian sites. This may reflect the contrasting ecological requirements of the two crops, with safflower being well adapted to drought and salinity and thus to arid conditions. At the same time the geographically complementary evidence may indicate a similar use of the two crops and most probably suggests that the safflower was also used for oil almost from the beginning of its cultivation. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Population continuity, demic diffusion and Neolithic origins in central-southern Germany: The evidence from body proportions

The transition to agro-pastoralism in central Europe has been framed within a dichotomy of “regional continuity” versus exogenous “demic diffusion”. While substantial genetic support exists for a model of demographic diffusion from an ancestral source in the Near East, archaeological data furnish weak support for the “wave of advance” model. Nevertheless, archaeological evidence attests the widespread introduction of an exogenous “package” comprising ceramics, cereals, pulses and domesticated animals to central Europe at 5600 cal BCE.Body proportions are under strong climatic selection and evince remarkable stability within regional lineages. As such, they offer a viable and robust alternative to cranio-facial data in assessing hypothesised continuity and replacement with the transition to agro-pastoralism in central Europe. Humero-clavicular, brachial and crural indices in a large sample (n=75) of Linienbandkeramik (LBK), Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age specimens from the middle Elbe-Saale-Werra valley (MESV) were compared with Eurasian and African terminal Pleistocene, European Mesolithic and geographically disparate recent human specimens.Mesolithic Europeans display considerable variation in humero-clavicular and brachial indices yet none approach the extreme “hyper-polar” morphology of LBK humans from the MESV. In contrast, Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age peoples display elongated brachial and crural indices reminiscent of terminal Pleistocene and “tropically adapted” recent humans. These marked morphological changes likely reflect exogenous immigration during the terminal Fourth millennium cal BC. Population expansion and diffusion is a function of increased mobility and settlement dispersal concomitant with significant technological and subsistence changes in later Neolithic societies during the late fourth millennium cal BCE.     

Carbonized plant remains from a pre-Roman Iron Age house site at Opperdoes,West Friesland,The Netherlands

The eastern part of the region of West Friesland (The Netherlands) was densely inhabited in the Middle and Late Bronze Age (Hoogkarspel culture). In the whole of this area, Iron Age settlement has only been found around Opperdoes. Carbonized plant remains from features associated with a pre-Roman Iron Age house near Opperdoes are discussed and compared with Bronze Age data from the region. The evidence suggests that the Iron Age food economy was different from that in the Bronze Age. Barley and linseed were possibly imported, while gold-of-pleasure was cultivated at the site.     

Brewing beer in wine country? First archaeobotanical indications for beer making in Early and Middle Bronze Age Greece

This paper revisits and old question “Beer or wine?” as regards the potential alcoholic drinks consumed by prehistoric societies in southeastern Europe. Archaeobotanical remains of sprouted cereal grains as well as cereal fragments from the Bronze Age sites of Archondiko and Argissa on mainland Greece, presented here for the first time, provide strong indications for the making of something similar to beer in late 3rd millennium bc Greece, opening up a series of new questions about the recipes followed in this process and their origins. Beyond the recipes themselves, the paper highlights a range of available options as regards alcoholic drinks in Bronze Age Greece, beer and wine, offering thus a more detailed approach to preferences and possible identities reflected in the choice of alcoholic drink among prehistoric societies inhabiting the southernmost tip of the Balkan Peninsula, the Aegean and mainland Greece.     

The oldest evidence of Nigella damascena L. (Ranunculaceae) and its possible introduction to central Europe

After the beginning of metal processing at the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, further knowledge of ore mining and smelting had spread from the Near East to central Europe. In the copper ore deposits of Schwaz, in the central part of the Alps, the oldest traces of copper mining derive from the early to middle Bronze Ages. Investigation of a middle to late Bronze Age (1410–920 cal B.C.) slag-washing site in the area revealed a carbonised seed of Nigella damascena (Ranunculaceae) (love-in-a-mist) together with individual other food plants. The plant remains had become incorporated into the slag sediments by chance and had been preserved in an excellent state due to toxic copper salts contained in the soil. Nigella damascena, like N. sativa (black cumin), is traditionally used as a condiment and healing herb in southern Europe and the Near East, but has never grown in the wild in central Europe. Until now, there has been no evidence of prehistoric large-scale cultivation of N. damascena in central Europe. This leads to two possible conclusions: the find may either originate from an exchange of goods with the cultures in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age, or indicate an introduction of the plant by an immigrant population from that area. Implicating the latter alternative together with the archaeological context of the ore processing site suggests that Nigella damascena had been introduced to the Alps by foreign miners in the course of ore exploitation during the middle to late Bronze Age.     

Brief communication: new evidence of tuberculosis from prehistoric Korea-Population movement and early evidence of tuberculosis in far East Asia

Tuberculosis has been recognized in Japan and Korea for more than 500 years in historical medical documents. However, the origin and early existence of tuberculosis is poorly understood in these regions. Very recently, skeletal evidence for tuberculosis from the Bronze Age (or Aneolithic) period was reported from Japan and Korea. This article describes a possible case of spinal tuberculosis from an archeological site in Korea, which was dated to the first century BC. This date corresponds to the Aneolithic (Yayoi) period in Japan. Skeletal evidence for tuberculosis during the Bronze Age period found in both Korea and Japan are, therefore, discussed as evidence of the earliest tuberculosis outbreaks in East Asia and as biological indicators of population movement between Korea and Japan during this period.     

Rewriting the Central European Early Bronze Age Chronology: Evidence from Large-Scale Radiocarbon Dating

The transition from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in Central Europe has often been considered as a supra-regional uniform process, which led to the growing mastery of the new bronze technology. Since the 1920s, archaeologists have divided the Early Bronze Age into two chronological phases (Bronze A1 and A2), which were also seen as stages of technical progress. On the basis of the early radiocarbon dates from the cemetery of Singen, southern Germany, the beginning of the Early Bronze Age in Central Europe was originally dated around 2300/2200 BC and the transition to more complex casting techniques (i.e., Bronze A2) around 2000 BC. On the basis of 140 newly radiocarbon dated human remains from Final Neolithic, Early and Middle Bronze Age cemeteries south of Augsburg (Bavaria) and a re-dating of ten graves from the cemetery of Singen, we propose a significantly different dating range, which forces us to re-think the traditional relative and absolute chronologies as well as the narrative of technical development. We are now able to date the beginning of the Early Bronze Age to around 2150 BC and its end to around 1700 BC. Moreover, there is no transition between Bronze (Bz) A1 and Bronze (Bz) A2, but a complete overlap between the type objects of the two phases from 1900–1700 BC. We thus present a revised chronology of the assumed diagnostic type objects of the Early Bronze Age and recommend a radiocarbon-based view on the development of the material culture. Finally, we propose that the traditional phases Bz A1 and Bz A2 do not represent a chronological sequence, but regionally different social phenomena connected to the willingness of local actors to appropriate the new bronze technology.     

A review of the chemistry and uses of crocins and crocetin,the carotenoid natural dyes in saffron,with particular emphasis on applications as colorants including their use as biological stains

The perennial flowering plant, saffron crocus (Crocus sativus L.), is the source of the most expensive spice in the world. The dried stigmas of saffron flowers are the source of a natural dye, saffron, which has been used from ancient times for dyeing silk and fabric rugs, and for painting; it also has been used for cooking and in medicine. The yellow compounds present in the dye include crocins, which are 20-carbon water soluble glycosyl derivatives of the carotenoid, crocetin, and the dicarboxylic acid itself. We review the chemistry of these compounds and discuss various applications of saffron as a natural dye. We review in particular the use of saffron or its constituents in histopathologic techniques.     

Mobility in Central European Late Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age: femoral cross-sectional geometry

Some scholars explain the absence of settlements in the Bohemian and Moravian Late Eneolithic (Corded Ware archaeological culture) as a consequence of pastoral subsistence with a high degree of mobility. However, recent archaeological studies argued that the archaeological record of the Late Eneolithic in Central Europe exhibits evidence for sedentary subsistence with mixed agriculture, similar to the subsequent Early Bronze Age. Because the archaeological data do not allow us to address unambiguously the mobility pattern in these periods, we used cross-sectional analysis of the femoral midshaft to test mobility directly on the human skeletal record. The results of femoral midshaft geometry do not support a high degree of mobility in the Late Eneolithic in Central Europe. This conclusion is supported mainly by no significant differences in male groups between the Late Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age in mechanical robusticity and shape of the femoral midshaft, although Corded Ware males still exhibit the highest absolute mean values of the diaphyseal shape (I(A-P)/I(M-L)) ratio and antero-posterior second moment of area. However, Late Eneolithic females have significantly higher torsional and overall bending rigidity because of a significantly higher medio-lateral second moment of area. This finding cannot be directly linked with a higher degree of long-distance mobility for these females. A significant difference was also found in overall decrease of size parameters of the femoral midshaft cross section for one of the Early Bronze Age samples, the Wieselburger females. Since the decrease of size and mechanical robusticity for Wieselburger females does not correspond with the parameters of Early Bronze Age females, we can expect a mosaic pattern of changes during the Late Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age period, instead of a simple unidirectional (diachronic) change of the mechanical environment.     

Lallemantia, an imported or introduced oil plant in Bronze Age northern Greece

This paper reports on seeds of Lallemantia (Lamiaceae) found at Bronze Age sites in northern Greece. At several of these sites, the seeds were found in significant concentrations in storage contexts, suggesting that they were deliberately stored for use by the inhabitants. Oil from the seeds of Lallemantia can be used for a variety of purposes, including food, lighting and medicine. This genus is not native to Greece, the nearest modern occurrences of Lallemantia species being in Anatolia from where they extend further east as far as Iran, or beyond. To date, it has not been found in Neolithic deposits in Greece, despite significant archaeobotanical research, especially in northern Greece. This suggests that it first appeared in Greece in the early Bronze Age, and indicates long distance contacts with communities to the east or north at this time. It is difficult to establish whether its continued use indicates that seeds of this genus were repeatedly brought into Greece throughout the Bronze Age or that the genus was introduced in the early Bronze Age and then locally cultivated. The presence of seeds, however, may suggest that Lallemantia was locally cultivated, as it would have been possible to import it in the form of oil. The appearance of a new import or introduction at this time adds to the evidence for external contact during the Bronze Age. Lallemantia may have been part of a group of oil producing taxa which became significant during the Bronze Age in northern Greece paralleling the increased importance of the olive in southern Greece.     

Cloning and characterization of a glucosyltransferase from Crocus sativus stigmas involved in flavonoid glucosylation

Background  

Flavonol glucosides constitute the second group of secondary metabolites that accumulate in Crocus sativus stigmas. To date there are no reports of functionally characterized flavonoid glucosyltransferases in C. sativus, despite the importance of these compounds as antioxidant agents. Moreover, their bitter taste makes them excellent candidates for consideration as potential organoleptic agents of saffron spice, the dry stigmas of C. sativus.     

Homogénéité ou hétérogénéité dans le métal des dépôts de l’Âge du Bronze : estimations sur leur formation à partir des isotopes du plomb

Lead isotope analysis was applied to three representative Late Bronze Age hoards from the Iberian Peninsula, for all of which compositional analyses are available. Unpublished isotopic evidence from the cave of Muricecs (Lleida) and the settlement of Las Lunas (Toledo) are compared to the published results for weapons from the Ría de Huelva, one of the most important Late Bronze Age hoards from Western Europe. Lead isotope analysis can tell us the sources of the metal used to make the artifacts in each hoard. The limited number of geologic reference points makes it difficult to determine all of the ore sources, but the analyses do give us evidence about the degree of homogeneity of the metal in the artifacts. As a result, one can separate metallic composition from artifact typology and thereby evaluate how the hoards were formed and what their functions were. Elemental analysis is unsuitable for this purpose because Late Bronze Age metals from Iberia are very homogenous and have few impurities.     

Land-use patterns and cultural change in the Middle to Late Bronze Age in Ireland: inferences from pollen records

In Ireland, the Middle to Late Bronze Age (1500–600 cal b.c.) is characterised by alternating phases of prolific metalwork production (the Bishopsland and Dowris Phases) and apparent recessions (the Roscommon Phase and the Late Bronze Age-Iron Age transition). In this paper, these changes in material culture are placed in a socio-economic context by examining contemporary settlement and land-use patterns reconstructed from the pollen record. The vegetation histories of six tephrochronologically linked sites are presented, which provide high-resolution and chronologically well-resolved insights into changes in landscape use over the Middle to Late Bronze Age. The records are compared with published pollen records in an attempt to discern if there are trends in woodland clearance and abandonment from which changes in settlement patterns can be inferred. The results suggest that prolific metalworking industries correlate chronologically with expansion of farming activity, which indicates that they were supported by a productive subsistence economy. Conversely, declines in metalwork production occur during periods when farming activity was generally less extensive and perhaps more centralised, and it is proposed that disparate socio-economic or political factors, rather than a collapse of the subsistence economy, lie behind the demise of metalworking industries.