Anthropological analysis of neolithic and Early Bronze Age skeletons--a classical and molecular approach (East Slavonia, Croatia)

Theories about the first Indo-European migration are numerous. Significant contribution in attempt to resolve these theories is given by analysing skeletal material from two biggest prehistoric archaeological sites from N-E Croatia. Eight skeletons of Starcevo culture from sites "Nama" and "Hotel" at Vinkovci (6100-5500 BC) and seven skeletons of Vucedol culture from the site Vineyard Streim at Vucedol near Vukovar (3000-2500 BC) were analysed. Methods of classical anthropological analysis tried to distinguish the differences among members of both populations, while the methods of molecular genetics were used in defining possible genetic structure of both ancient populations. Established differences speak on the behalf of the theory of Maria Gimbutas about the first Indo-European migration with a cattle breeding population from the east around 3500 BC.     

Fibres of Linum (flax), Gossypium (cotton) and animal wool as non-pollen palynomorphs in the late Bronze Age burials of Saphar-Kharaba, southern Georgia

Pollen analyses were performed on sediment samples from ten different Saphar-Kharaba burials dating to the 15th–14th centuries b.c. Along with pollen and spores, a large amount of micro-remains of textile fibres was found near skeleton bones and especially under big bones. It was established that in all the studied samples 95% of the remains of the clothing and shroud of the deceased was made of Linum (flax) and Gossypium (cotton). Wool fibres were found in very small quantities. Based on pollen spectra and the number of the fibres found in the samples taken from under the skull it became possible to identify the sex of the deceased and especially that of children, which is rather difficult to do using palaeoanthropological methods alone. The discovery of cotton fibres in the burials of the early late Bronze Age is new not only for the Georgian region under consideration, but also for the whole Caucasus. This might indicate trade relations of the peoples of the southern Caucasus with India, where at that time cotton textiles were manufactured.     

The first find in southern Georgia of fossil honey from the Bronze Age,based on palynological data

The results of a palynological analysis of the organic content of earthenware pots from the Kodiani burial mound (27th–25th centuries b.c.) are reported. The character of the palynological spectrum differs significantly from that of a buried soil within the same burial mound. In the samples taken from the pots, pollen concentration is very high, pollen grains are perfectly preserved and an abundance of pollen from insect-pollinated plants is recorded. It is well known that these features are peculiar to honey palynospectra. In all three pots the pollen of Rosaceae, a family of plants that produce good honey, is dominant. However, the second, third and fourth most dominant pollen types in all three samples are different. For example, Tilia pollen is the second dominant in only one pot. In the second pot, Apiaceae and Poaceae are predominant, and in the third pot, Poaceae, both wild and cultural, is the second dominant. It is clear that the different pots contained different types of honey. The variety of honey types indicates highly developed bee-keeping in the Early Bronze Age. In the same regions of Georgia, agriculture was also highly developed. Wheat cultivation was very important. According to the palynospectra, the landscape and climate of this period were probably quite different to those of today.     

Analysis of the fuel wood used in Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age copper mining sites of the Schwaz and Brixlegg area (Tyrol,Austria)

Charcoal analysis was carried out as part of an interdisciplinary project focusing on the copper mining history of the former mining area of Schwaz and Brixlegg, a region pivotal as a copper source in prehistoric Europe. The goal was to use remains of carbonised wood to investigate environmental implications of prehistoric mining, as well as to gain new insight about the ancient mining technique of fire-setting. Charcoal samples from seven copper mining sites (Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age) were analysed. The results reveal a strong preference for coniferous wood as fuel in fire-setting, but not in ore smelting/roasting processes. Species composition at the ore-processing sites indicates moderate forest degradation processes caused by human intervention.     

Disease and mortality in the Early Bronze Age people of Bab edh-Dhra, Jordan.

During the 1977 field season at the Early Bronze Age site of Bab edh-Dhra 92 individuals were recovered from underground shaft tomb chambers. Morbid conditions found in these skeletons include trauma, possibly two cases of tuberculosis, osteomyelitis, post-menopausal osteoporosis and congenital anomalies. Of the 92 skeletons recovered 56 (61%) were 18 years of age or older, 28 (30%) were between 1 and 18 years of age and 8 (9%) were less than one year of age.     

Analysis of human skeletal remains from Nadin iron age burial mound

This analysis attempts to reconstruct health, disease and life conditions of the population buried in Nadin, a burial mound, situated in central Dalmatia, Croatia. The analyzed skeletal material belongs to Liburnian culture and could be dated to early Iron Age, from 9th to 6th century B.C. The sample consists of a minimum number of 37 individuals, 7 children and 30 adults. The frequency of all the observed conditions is relatively low. Cribra orbitalia was observed only in females, the frequency of periosteal reaction on the tibiae is 26.1%. Two cases of cranial trauma were observed. Analyzed teeth exhibit low prevalence of carious lesions, ante mortem tooth loss and linear enamel hypoplasia. The case of hyperostosis frontalis interna on the endocranial surface of the frontal bone was observed. The affected skull belongs to the older adult female.     

Stable carbon isotope analysis as a crop management indicator at Arslantepe (Malatya,Turkey) during the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age

In Near Eastern archaeology, studies on crop management during the early stages of civilisation have been based on cuneiform texts and only recently have geoarchaeological surveys and archaeobotanical studies tried to identify agricultural practices. Nevertheless, direct evidence for irrigation and water management is very rare and difficult to interpret. New possibilities for analysing these ways of management have been provided by stable carbon isotope analysis of ancient crops. In this study carbon isotope discrimination (Δ¹³C) was performed to assess the growing conditions of fossil cereal grains. Charred grains of emmer and barley recovered from the same site, Arslantepe in eastern Anatolia, over a 1,000 years long continuous sequence during the third millennium b.c. have been analysed and compared. The variation in water availability during grain filling, estimated by Δ¹³C, can be attributed to climate change and/or human practices. Distinguishing exactly which is to blame is complex but essential in reconstructing specific management practices. Variations in the ¹³C/¹²C ratio suggest that barley and emmer grew under different water regimes. In particular, a different management system was adopted between 3000 and 2800 cal. b.c. when emmer was sustained by human-induced water supply, whereas the more resistant barley was rain-fed and possibly assigned to more marginal terrains. Our results are compared with the stable carbon isotope data available for other Near Eastern sites. Emmer and barley records are also compared with deciduous oak Δ¹³C from Arslantepe in order to better understand the influence of environmental factors, climate and human impact.     

Palynology ofTelfairia L. (Cucurbitaceae)

Okoli B. E. etNyananyo B. L. (1988): Palynology ofTelfairia L. (Cucurbitaceae).—Folia Geobot. Phytotax., Praha, 23: 281–283.—Scanning and transmission electron microscopic studies were carried out on the pollen of the two species ofTelfairia, T. pedata (Sims.) Hooker andT. occidentolis Hooker fil. Pollen grains in both species are spheroidal, tricolporate and tectate. The extexine is finely reticulate. The tectum, foot layer and columellae are all well developed. Significant differences of taxonomic value do not exist in the structure of the pollen of the two species.     

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.     

Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia

Archaeological research in Central Eurasia is exposing unprecedented scales of trans-regional interaction and technology transfer between East Asia and southwest Asia deep into the prehistoric past. This article presents a new archaeobotanical analysis from pastoralist campsites in the mountain and desert regions of Central Eurasia that documents the oldest known evidence for domesticated grains and farming among seasonally mobile herders. Carbonized grains from the sites of Tasbas and Begash illustrate the first transmission of southwest Asian and East Asian domesticated grains into the mountains of Inner Asia in the early third millennium BC. By the middle second millennium BC, seasonal camps in the mountains and deserts illustrate that Eurasian herders incorporated the cultivation of millet, wheat, barley and legumes into their subsistence strategy. These findings push back the chronology for domesticated plant use among Central Eurasian pastoralists by approximately 2000 years. Given the geography, chronology and seed morphology of these data, we argue that mobile pastoralists were key agents in the spread of crop repertoires and the transformation of agricultural economies across Asia from the third to the second millennium BC.     

Human impact during the Bronze Age on the vegetation at Lago Lucone (northern Italy)

Lake-sediment records were used to reconstruct human impact on the landscape around Lago Lucone (45°33′N, 10°29′E, 249 m a.s.l.), a former lake in the western amphitheatre system of the Lago di Garda. Presence of prehistoric human populations is attested by pile-dwelling settlements from the Early-Middle Bronze Age, with one settlement at a distance of only 100 m from the coring site. Pollen, plant-macrofossil and microscopic charcoal analyses were applied to a 250 cm sediment core with four dates providing the time control. A mixed oak forest that was important during the Early-Middle Holocene was cleared and replaced by open vegetation during the Bronze Age (∼2000–1100 b.c.) when open lands were estimated to have covered more than 60% of the total relevant pollen-source area. During a phase of high human impact, independent climatic proxies suggest warm and dry climatic conditions. Later, ca. 1100 b.c., palaeobotanical evidence indicates a sharp decrease in human pressure in the Lago Lucone area. The comparison with other sedimentary palaeocultural records shows that the period 1300–1100 b.c. was characterised by general declines of agricultural activities both south and north of the Alps. These declines have been previously attributed to a change towards wetter and colder climatic conditions in and around the Alps. However, the decline in human impact around Lago Lucone cannot be exclusively attributed to climatic variation. Therefore other forcing factors independent of climatic changes, such as cultural crises or changes in spatial organisation of the habitats, cannot be ruled out under the present state of knowledge.     

Palynology of the perigoniate Aroideae: Zamioculcas,Gonatopus and Stylochaeton (Araceae)

The pollen of the perigoniate Aroideae sensu Mayo et al. (1997) ( Zamioculcas Schott, Gonatopus Hook. f. ex Engl. and Stylochaeton Lepr.) differs ultrastructurally from that of the aperigoniate Aroideae in several important exine and aperture characters. The almost identical zona-aperturate pollen of Zamioculcas and Gonatopus has outside the aperture an elaborated, thick ectexine, while the aperture consists of a thin, but continuous ectexine and a thick, lamellate endexine. In contrast, the omniaperturate pollen of Stylochaeton has a thin, not clearly stratified ectexine and a thin, heterogeneous endexine below. However, the zona-aperturate pollen of Zamioculcas and Gonatopus deviates significantly from the superficially similar zona-aperturate pollen of the unrelated Monstereae (e. g., Monstera Adans., Amydrium Schott): in the apertures of Monstera or Amydrium both the thin, but continuous ectexine and the lamellate endexine, which are typical features for Zamioculcas and Gonatopus , are absent. The palynological data underline not only the present classification of Zamioculcas , Gonatopus and of Stylochaeton into two tribes (Zamioculcadeae and Stylochaetoneae) and the differences of both tribes from the other Aroideae, but show also significant deviations in the respective zona-aperturate condition in Monstereae (Monsteroideae) and Zamioculcadeae (Aroideae).     

内蒙古中南部地区青铜—早期铁器时代居民的龋病研究

本文对内蒙古中南部地区青铜—早期铁器时代5个考古地点出土人骨的龋病患病情况做了研究, 在与其他国内材料对比的基础上, 探讨了文化类型与龋病患病率之间的关系。龋病在以农业经济为主的人群中患病率最高, 在农牧兼营的人群中龋病率其次, 在以畜牧业为生的游牧人群中患病率最低。龋病是反映内蒙古地区该时段古代居民经济模式的一个有效指标。     

Estimation of the total and active microbial biomass in burial mound paleosoils of a different age

Microorganisms that were isolated from steppe soils buried below kurgans from 5800 to 750 years ago were analyzed for the completeness of isolation, total biomass (the sum of glucose-reactivated and resting microbial cells), and active biomass (metabolically active cells). The metabolic state of microbial communities in buried and modern background soils was estimated from the proportion of active and total biomasses. The paleosoils were found to be characterized by lower total and active biomasses and a lower proportion of active microorganisms as compared to the modern background soils. The age-dependent decrease in the content of active microorganisms in the microbial communities of palesoils was not monotonic. For instance, the 4000-year-old paleosoil was characterized by a high total biomass and a relatively low content of active microorganisms, whereas the 1950-year-old paleosoil was characterized by a relatively low total biomass and a relatively high content of active microorganisms. This could reflect the temporal dynamics of paleoclimatic conditions in the geographic region under study.     

Environmental Roots of the Late Bronze Age Crisis

The Late Bronze Age world of the Eastern Mediterranean, a rich linkage of Aegean, Egyptian, Syro-Palestinian, and Hittite civilizations, collapsed famously 3200 years ago and has remained one of the mysteries of the ancient world since the event’s retrieval began in the late 19^th century AD/CE. Iconic Egyptian bas-reliefs and graphic hieroglyphic and cuneiform texts portray the proximate cause of the collapse as the invasions of the “Peoples-of-the-Sea” at the Nile Delta, the Turkish coast, and down into the heartlands of Syria and Palestine where armies clashed, famine-ravaged cities abandoned, and countrysides depopulated. Here we report palaeoclimate data from Cyprus for the Late Bronze Age crisis, alongside a radiocarbon-based chronology integrating both archaeological and palaeoclimate proxies, which reveal the effects of abrupt climate change-driven famine and causal linkage with the Sea People invasions in Cyprus and Syria. The statistical analysis of proximate and ultimate features of the sequential collapse reveals the relationships of climate-driven famine, sea-borne-invasion, region-wide warfare, and politico-economic collapse, in whose wake new societies and new ideologies were created.     

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.     

A fossil earthworm embryo (Oligochaeta) from beneath a Late Bronze Age midden at Potterne, Wiltshire, UK

An embryonic earthworm (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae), preserved with part of its cocoon wall by calcium phosphate mineralization, has been extracted from a deposit beneath a Late Bronze Age midden in southern England. The structure, possible identity and significance of the specimen are discussed.