Conceptions of Time and the Development of Paleolithic Chronology

Until recently the reflexive archaeological literature on concepts of time has been sparse. As a result, chronologies have been treated as a conceptual black box, tools about which nothing need be known except their input and output. Recent theoretical discussions have begun to pry open the lid of this black box, revealing the complexities that lie within. The historical analysis presented here highlights the importance of chronologies to the archaeological treatment of time. The 19th-century Paleolithic chronologies of Lartet, de Mortillet, and Breuil are not simply lists of periods but rather the expression of differing conceptions of the relations between people, the archaeological record, and time.     

Reconstructing the history of marriage strategies in Indo-European-speaking societies: monogamy and polygyny

Explanations for the emergence of monogamous marriage have focused on the cross-cultural distribution of marriage strategies, thus failing to account for their history. In this paper I reconstruct the pattern of change in marriage strategies in the history of societies speaking Indo-European languages, using cross-cultural data in the systematic and explicitly historical framework afforded by the phylogenetic comparative approach. The analysis provides evidence in support of Proto-Indo-European monogamy, and that this pattern may have extended back to Proto-Indo-Hittite. These reconstructions push the origin of monogamous marriage into prehistory, well beyond the earliest instances documented in the historical record; this, in turn, challenges notions that the cross-cultural distribution of monogamous marriage reflects features of social organization typically associated with Eurasian societies, and with "societal complexity" and "modernization" more generally. I discuss implications of these findings in the context of the archaeological and genetic evidence on prehistoric social organization.     

Matrilocal residence is ancestral in Austronesian societies

The nature of social life in human prehistory is elusive, yet knowing how kinship systems evolve is critical for understanding population history and cultural diversity. Post-marital residence rules specify sex-specific dispersal and kin association, influencing the pattern of genetic markers across populations. Cultural phylogenetics allows us to practise ‘virtual archaeology’ on these aspects of social life that leave no trace in the archaeological record. Here we show that early Austronesian societies practised matrilocal post-marital residence. Using a Markov-chain Monte Carlo comparative method implemented in a Bayesian phylogenetic framework, we estimated the type of residence at each ancestral node in a sample of Austronesian language trees spanning 135 Pacific societies. Matrilocal residence has been hypothesized for proto-Oceanic society (ca 3500 BP), but we find strong evidence that matrilocality was predominant in earlier Austronesian societies ca 5000–4500 BP, at the root of the language family and its early branches. Our results illuminate the divergent patterns of mtDNA and Y-chromosome markers seen in the Pacific. The analysis of present-day cross-cultural data in this way allows us to directly address cultural evolutionary and life-history processes in prehistory.     

Human skeletal and dental remains from Lapita sites (1600-500 B.C.) in the Mussau Islands, Melanesia

The Lapita Cultural Complex, radiometrically dated to between 3,600 and 2,500 B.P., is regarded on archaeological evidence as ancestral to modern Austronesian-speaking cultures of eastern Melanesia and Polynesia. To date, there has been a lack of human skeletal and dental material from Lapita sites; thus, the present sample from Mussau Island, although small, offers an opportunity to present some preliminary observations of their importance to Oceanic prehistory. The present analysis, based mainly on teeth, suggests that the Mussau Island Lapita people had slightly closer affinities with Indonesian than with Melanesian populations. These results correspond well with linguistic and archaeological evidence regarding the origin of the Lapita Cultural Complex.     

A limits-oriented approach to evolutionary ecology

Evolutionary ecology focuses on optimal traits to provide a mechanistic understanding of ecological patterns. For some issues, however, It might be a mismatch to marry optimality and ecology. Given that many ecological questions involve limits (to species distributions and abundances; to species diversity), it might be useful to focus on `limiting traits' rather than optimal traits; that is, to understand ecological limits it might be useful to identify the things that organisms do poorly, and to study constraints on the evolution of these limiting traits. While a limiting-traits approach has a long history in ecology, relatively few studies have fully applied the approach, and some ecological issues have only recently been examined from this view.     

Feasting, Craft Specialization, and the Ritual Mode of Production in Small-Scale Societies

Economic intensification has been documented in a diversity of small-scale societies. The existing archaeological theory concerning such intensification has tended to privilege economic and political explanations and largely ignores social action and ritual performance as motivations for economic change. In this article, 1 use both ethnographic and archaeological data to argue that ceremonial feasting and the need for socially valued goods, which are critical for ritual performance and necessary for a variety of social transactions, create the demand that underwrites and sustains economic intensification in small-scale societies. Food for large-scale feasts is acquired through the intensification of food production and procurement targeted specifically for feasting, rather than from the surplus available from routine subsistence production. Large-scale demands for socially valued goods tend to result in specialization on the production of "extraordinary" material culture, which is characterized by two modes of circulation, in networks of social obligations or as offerings in sacred locations. [Key words.craft specialization, exchange, feasting, ritual]     

Freshwater as shared between society and ecosystems: from divided approaches to integrated challenges

The paper has its focus on water's key functions behind ecosystem dynamics and the water-related balancing involved in a catchment-based ecosystem approach. A conceptual framework is being developed to address fundamental trade-offs between humans and ecosystems. This is done by paying attention to society's unavoidable landscape modifications and their unavoidable ecological effects mediated by water processes. Because the coevolution of societal and environmental processes indicates resonance rather than a cause-effect relationship, humanity will have to learn to live with change while securing ecosystem resilience. In view of the partial incompatibility of the social imperative of the millennium goals and its environmental sustainability goal, human activities and ecosystems have to be orchestrated for compatibility. To this end a catchment-based approach has to be taken by integrating water, land use and ecosystems. It is being suggested that ecosystem protection has to be thought of in two scales: site-specific biotic landscape components to be protected for their social value, and a catchment-based ecosystem approach to secure sustainable supply of crucial ecosystem goods and services on which social and economic development depends.     

Prehistory, Identity, and Archaeological Representation in Nordic Museums

In this article, I examine the variable representation of Saami (Lapp) prehistory in several Nordic museums. The analysis is situated at the intersection of (1) the examination of the ideology of archaeological practice, (2) the discourse about creation of indigenous identity, and (3) the visual culture of museum exhibitions. I describe and analyze displays about archaeology and prehistory from seven museums in Sweden, Finland, and Norway. The presentation of Saami prehistory differs significantly between majority community museums and those run by Saami communities. These presentations reflect ideologies implicated in building indigenous, nationalist, and pannational identities as well as in establishing legitimacy of Saami claims to land and heritage. Representations of the past are inevitably political because they are about linking people, place, and legitimacy. Ambiguities in these uses of prehistory are discussed, as is the globalizing role of the European Union.     

Home Range Analysis in the Study of Spatial Organization on the Comb in the Paper Wasp Polistes Dominulus

In order to understand how the apparent freedom of individual movements can concur with social order in a colony, we investigated spatial relationships between foundresses, workers and immature brood in a paper wasp. This is the first time an ecological analytical approach (home range analysis) has been employed to describe small scale spatial use in a social context. In this study, home range was not used in its strictly ecological sense, but rather applied to the comb. Our results show that the positions individual wasps assumed on Polistes dominulus combs are spatially structured. Workers and foundresses do not occupy the comb in random distribution, but rather follow predictable spatial patterns. Each active wasp has its own spatial fidelity area, at least over a 1 d observation period, spending the majority of its time within a very small area averaging approx. 12% of the comb but occasionally it may cover an area of up to 50% of the comb surface. Dominant females occupied a significantly smaller area that either subordinate foundresses or workers. Areas patrolled by workers varied in shape and size, with no relation to time spent on the comb, wasp density or position of immature brood. All the wasps clumped around the dominant female, who proved to be the only individual affected by cell content. Nevertheless, although the wasps tended to clump together, average superimposition rates among nest‐mates was very low (higher in workers than foundresses), suggesting that the wasps limit each other’s individual spaces.     

The ecology of marine exploitation in prehistoric Hawaii

Archaeological evidence for prehistoric strategies of marine exploitation in Oceania may be profitably analyzed from an ecological perspective, in which individual sites and assemblages are viewed in the context of adaptation to local environmental constraints. This perspective is illustrated through the contrastive analysis of environment, technology, and faunal remains at three prehistoric Hawaiian sites. Differing strategies of marine exploitation evidenced for each site are shown to reflect local marine environmental conditions. An ecological approach shows greater promise for an understanding of prehistoric adaptation to marine environment than the typological analyses current in much archaeological work on fishing.     

Prehistoric settlement developments in the multi-period sites of south India,Brahmagiri Hill

This paper is focused on the multi-period sites in the core southern Neolithic region of south India to highlight their potential archaeological features and resources to assess land use and settlement patterns adopted by the mid-Holocene societies. Systematic archaeological reworks at the multi-period sites require particular attention to identify the resource locations and non-occupation sites for developing a comprehensive picture of the demographic and social models for explaining how people managed and shared resources within the site environs that continued to exist and operated for more than three thousand years spanning from Neolithic (3000-1200 BCE), Iron Age (1200-300 BCE) and Early History (300 BCE- 500 CE). Published archaeological data on major multi-period sites of south India is reviewed, compiled and attested with exploration findings from the Brahmagiri Hill. Here a fresh approach is made to assess the impact of Ashokan rock edicts on the social fabric and any landscape changes it brought to Isila (Isila is believed to be an early historic townsite at Brahmagiri ).     

Early Iron Age agriculture: archaeobotanical evidence from an underground granary at Overbyg»rd in northern Jutland, Denmark

In the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age an underground granary in the village of Overbyg»rd was destroyed by fire and the contents were carbonised. Almost 2000 years later, analyses of the macroremains of the granary, which included a range of processed and unprocessed crops and weed seeds, showed that naked barley (Hordeum vulgare var. nudum) and bread wheat (Triticum aestivum s.l.) were the main crops cultivated, hulled barley (Hordeum vulgare) and flax (Linum usitatissimum) also played a role, whereas emmer (Triticum dicoccum) and gold of pleasure (Camelina sativa) were present as weeds or contaminants. The arable weed flora suggests that crops were sown in spring and that ecological conditions in the arable fields were very variable. The crops were harvested on the straw and may have spent some time drying and maturing in the fields before being transported home to be stored as severed ears in pest-proof granaries. Winnowing or, more probably, casting appears to have been used to clean the crop after threshing. It could not be ascertained if the crops had been sieved. Large collections of weed seeds in the granary were apparently the result of intentional gathering for food, rather than by-products of crop processing. In the light of the investigation it is suggested that future research into Iron Age agrarian practices should include both the analysis of archaeobotanical finds and a programme of practical experiments. This dual approach will give us a much better understanding of arable agriculture, not only in the Iron Age, but in prehistory as a whole.     

Intertooth patterns of hypoplasia expression: Implications for childhood health in the Classic Maya collapse

Enamel hypoplasias, which record interacting stresses of nutrition and illness during the period of tooth formation, are a key tool in the study of childhood health in prehistory. But interpretation of the age of peak morbidity is complicated by differences in susceptibility to stress both between tooth positions and within a single tooth. Here, hypoplasias are used to evaluate the prevailing ecological model for the collapse of Classic Period Lowland Maya civilization, circa AD 900. Hypoplasias were recorded in the full dentition of 160 adult skeletons from six archaeological sites in the Pasión River region of Guatemala. Instead of constructing a composite scale of stress experience, teeth are considered separately by position in the analysis. No statistical differences are found in the proportion of teeth affected by hypoplasia between “Early,” Late Classic, and Terminal Classic Periods for anterior teeth considered to be most susceptible to stress, indicating stability in the overall stress loads affecting children of the three chronological periods. However, hypoplasia trends in posterior teeth may imply a change in the ontogenetic timing of more severe stress episodes during the final occupation and perhaps herald a shift in child-care practices. These results provide little support for the ecological model of collapse but do call to attention the potential of posterior teeth to reveal subtle changes in childhood morbidity when considered individually. Am J Phys Anthropol 102:233–247, 1997 © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Clients, Contracts, and Profits: Conflicts in Public Archaeology

The client-oriented approach to contract archaeology is a technical service rather than genuine scientific research. Such an approach fails to meet the requirements of the law, fails to satisfy the needs of archaeological science, and frequently fails to protect the client's interests. A client orientation encourages an excessive emphasis on profits from contract work. Profits not only exclude a balance of archaeological, client, and public interests but threaten the scientific future of contract work. Solutions to the problem of client-oriented work include better academic training as researchers, support for government archaeologists, a strong professional consensus on ethical and performance standards, and attention to public interests. [ contract archaeology, client-oriented archaeology, research profits, research obligations, professionalism ]     

Lipids as carriers of anthropogenic signals from prehistory

Studies performed during the last two decades have shown that lipids are preserved in association with a wide range of artefacts and ecofacts recovered from archaeological sites, e.g. pottery vessels and skeletal remains. The majority of work in this area has focused on the use of molecular structures (''biomarkers'') and distributions (''fingerprints'') to assess the nature and origin of commodities associated with past cultural, economic and agricultural practices. However, since lipids, like all other classes of biomolecule, are affected by degradation (both pre- and post-burial), emphasis is now being placed on the complementary use of diagenetically robust, compound-specific stable isotope measurements to enhance the scope and reliability of archaeological interpretations. A feature of the δ¹³C values of individual lipids, rather than bulk measurements of biochemically more heterogeneous materials, lies in their capacity to reflect differences in both the isotopic composition of the carbon sources used in their biosynthesis and the routing of dietary lipids and their metabolites in consumer organisms. This isotopic information, accessible by gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry, has opened up new avenues of investigation concerning human activity in prehistory.     

Determinants of infant mortality and representation in bioarchaeological samples: A review

In bioarchaeological contexts, a complex relationship exists between infant representation in the age-at-death distribution, gestational and young child mortality rates, and the total fertility rate. The representation of infants in a skeletal sample may be influenced by a range of social, biological, and archaeological factors. To better understand the interactions between representation, fertility, and mortality, this study evaluates the relationship between infant-juvenile age-at-death proportions, fertility rates, and a range of gestational and early childhood mortality measures. The statistical component of this study found the correlation between fertility rates and infant-juvenile proportions was stronger than with any mortality rate variable of interest. This suggests that the proportion of infants in a mortuary sample is a stronger indicator of fertility than it is of infant-juvenile mortality. Social, biological, and archaeological variables potentially influencing infant representation in skeletal samples are discussed and a strongly contextualized and holistic approach to infant and juvenile mortality is recommended.     

The exploration of marginal spaces in Central-West Patagonia and the role of discontinuous occupation of forests and highlands

Regions with low population density, which are geographically marginal with respect to the most frequently occupied areas, are theoretically more prone to discontinuities in human occupation. This is the case in Central-West Patagonia (Chile, South America), where the discontinuities have had different characteristics and extents, some even lasting millennia. This work proposes that, given the prolonged and repeated periods of abandonment of some areas in Central-West Patagonia, its exploration is not to be considered a unique, one-time process; rather, it occurred more than once throughout its history. Because ascertaining each exploration is complex, this process can be investigated by focusing on spaces that represent the incorporation of new areas as human groups were enlarging their ranges of action. With this objective, updated archaeological data are presented in two different types of environments of the region: forests and highlands. These environments were marginal sectors that were not utilized as frequently or intensely as the valleys and where the archaeological record would be expected to preserve the actions associated with exploration contexts. The preliminary nature of data precludes defining exploratory contexts, but it is distinct in orienting its search in time and space.     

People as Ecological Participants in Ecological Restoration

In 1987, Bradshaw proposed that ecological restoration is the ultimate “acid test” of our understanding the functioning of ecosystems ( Bradshaw 1987 ). Although this concept is widely supported academically, how it can be applied by restoration practitioners is still unclear. This is an issue not limited to Bradshaw’s acid test, but moreover, reflects a general difficulty associated with the polarization between conceptual restoration (restoration ecology) and practical restoration (ecological restoration), where each has functioned to certain degree in isolation of the other. Outside of the more obvious pragmatic reasons for the relative independence between ecological restoration and restoration ecology, we propose that a more contentious explanation is that the approach taken toward understanding ecosystem development in restoration ecology is tangential to what actually takes place in ecological restoration. Current paradigms assume that the process of ecosystem development in restoration should follow the developmental trajectories suggested by classical ecological succession models. However, unlike these models, ecosystem development in restoration is, at least initially, largely manipulated by people, rather than by abiotic and biotic forces alone. There has been little research undertaken to explore how restoration activities impact upon or add to the extant ecological processes operating within a restoration site. Consequently, ecological restoration may not be so much an acid test of our understanding the functioning of ecosystems, but rather, an acid test of our understanding mutually beneficial interactions between humans and ecosystems.     

The Early Bronze Age dendrochronology of Sovjan (Albania): A first tree-ring sequence of the 24th – 22nd c. BC for the southwestern Balkans

The archaeological site of Sovjan is situated on the edge of the Korçë Basin, southeastern Albania. Its remarkably long and well investigated stratigraphic sequence, spanning from the Neolithic till the Iron Age, makes it an important type- and reference-site for the whole region. At different periods of prehistory it was located on the shores of the former Lake Maliq that once filled the Korçë Basin, but was definitely drained in the 1940′s. These permanent wetland conditions on the site allowed for a high degree of preservation of organic material, especially wood. Based on the current knowledge, level 8 of Sovjan contains the best-preserved wooden material of all the Early Bronze Age sites in the Balkans. Through the combination of dendrochronology and Bayesian modelling, i.e. wiggle-matching, a floating 269-years long tree-ring chronology was constructed, with an absolute end-date range falling between 2158 and 2142 cal BC (2σ). It was possible to establish that the dwellings and the trackway associated with the last occupation phase of level 8 are contemporaneous. Additionally, with the help of the new dendrochronological data and based on previously published charcoal dates, the absolute chronology of the subsequent level 7 is being narrowed-down to a range from the mid-22nd to mid-20th c. cal BC (2σ). The Early Bronze Age layers of the archaeological site of Sovjan, which are particularly pertinent for the 3rd millennium chronology of the southwestern Balkans, can now be dated with high precision for the first time and hence offer a major chronological reference point in the region.     

Multi-millennial occupation in northwestern Laos: Preliminary results of excavations at the Ngeubhinh Mouxeu rock-shelter

With over half a century of political instability, resulting from armed conflicts, decolonisation and the Cold War, archaeological investigations in Laos have been rare, leaving little more than a blank page in the chapter of Southeast Asia's prehistory. Recent research has shown that Laos holds a rich prehistoric heritage. In conjunction with the research initiated by J. White who conducted the first professional archaeological survey of northern Laos since decades, we have extended the investigations to the Luang Namtha province. This work allowed us to gather important data about Hoabinhian stone tool assemblages and former cultures. In particular, the archaeological remains and dating from the Ngeubhinh Mouxeu rock-shelter indicate that this mountainous region of Laos has been inhabited over a long period of time that possibly spans as far back as 56,000 ± 3000 BP.