Anthracological analysis from Kovacevo, southwest Bulgaria: woodland vegetation and its use during the earliest stages of the European Neolithic

Wood charcoal analysis from Kovacevo in southwest Bulgaria, one of the earliest Neolithic sites in southeastern Europe, provided information about the first stages of anthropogenic impact on vegetation during the Early Neolithic (6159–5630 cal b.c.). Deciduous oak was the most abundant and frequently used taxon in the wood charcoal assemblages. Cornus charcoal was also abundant, probably connected with the use of its twigs as building material in wattle and daub structures. The dominant deciduous oak forest was opened during the Kovacevo I period, as shown by evidence from the Kovacevo Ia and Kovacevo Ib occupation phases. Other types of vegetation, like Black pine (Pinus nigra) woodland, riverine forests and some sub-Mediterranean elements, were used only sporadically, indicating high and sustained availability of wood resources in the oak forests. Anthropogenic impacts were gradual, a pattern that matches contemporary studies elsewhere in the region.     

Morphological studies of free-threshing wheat ears from a Neolithic site in southwest Germany, and the history of the naked wheats

Two hundred and seventy carbonized naked wheat ears from the Neolithic pile dwelling at Hornstaad-Hörnle IA/Lake Constance (Germany) were analysed. The characteristics of internodes and glumes show that only tetraploid naked wheat types were cultivated. Following the history of free-threshing wheats it seems conceivable that the tetraploid naked wheats spread from their point of origin in the Middle East (7th/8th millennium B.C.) via a Mediterranean route to southwest Europe, reaching the northern foothills of the Alps about 4000 B.C.     

Cultivated plant remains of the late Neolithic Michelsberg Culture at Heilbronn-Klingenberg (southwest Germany) - a comparison of different features, find assemblages and preservation conditions relating to the representation of archaeobotanical remains

A large area investigation was undertaken of the plant remains from a Michelsberg Culture (late Neolithic) settlement. The charred macroscopic remains and imprints in pieces of daub were expected to show both the spectrum of the cultivated plants there, and also the degree of their cultivation and use. The loess covered hill-top lies in a landscape with favourable climatic and soil conditions and is blocked off by two parallel ditches running in an arc. Ditches and pits filled with different sediments were investigated. The daub, unearthed in several pits, had been deliberately mixed with chaff of the glume wheats einkorn and emmer to temper it when it was originally made. The investigated imprints and charred plant remains give hints of spatial distribution of crop processing activities. To determine the amounts of the crops that were cultivated and used, it is necessary to study the charred remains. The degree of ubiquity (frequency of occurrence) of grains in the pit sediments seems to be the best indicator of the representation of cereals. Four main cereals were found: Triticum monococcum, T. dicoccum, T. aestivum/T. durum and Hordeum vulgare var. nudum. Pisum sativum also was an important cultivated plant, much more than Lens culinaris. The role of Linum usitatissimum and Papaver somniferum is less clear.     

Grain versus chaff: identifying a contrast between grain-rich and chaff-rich sites in the Neolithic of northern Greece

Recent archaeobotanical investigations of Late Neolithic sites in northern Greece have revealed a pattern as regards the crop parts represented at each site. Some sites appear to be dominated by chaff, mainly glume wheat chaff, while other sites are mainly characterised by cereal grain and pulses. This pattern could be the outcome of various factors: a. pre-depositional differential treatment of crops selecting for one category of plant remains to arrive at the site, b. depositional, therefore related to the type of activity represented at the excavated contexts and the use of space in relation to plants, and c. post-depositional factors such as erosion, or the type of features sampled. These alternative factors are considered in light of the preliminary results of the archaeobotanical investigation of seven Late Neolithic (5500–4000 cal. B.C.) sites from northern Greece. It is suggested that this pattern is the outcome of a differential use of space in relation to plants (storage, processing/food preparation, refuse disposal), probably related to aspects of the socioeconomic organisation of the settlements.     

The history of crops and crop weeds in south-western Germany from the Neolithic period to modern times, as shown by archaeobotanical evidence

The results of more than 100 archaeobotanical investigations from south-western Germany have been arranged into chronological groups and analyzed with a spreadsheet to obtain presence data and the numbers of taxa present in the various time periods. They show an increase in the number of plant taxa cultivated in gardens since the Roman period, a decrease in the crops that were the earliest to be cultivated, especially emmer, and an increase of spelt, rye and oats in the course of time. New crop weeds appear, including an increasing number of southern plants originating from open vegetation. This is more likely to be a result of the intensification of agriculture than from increased human mobility. The crop weeds, grouped together according to their requirements for soil nutrients, show increasing soil acidification through the course of time.     

Dietary change and the effects of food preparation on microwear patterns in the Late Neolithic of abu Hureyra, northern Syria

Comparison of the microwear features created on the occlusal surfaces of molar teeth from different cultural horizons at abu Hureyra, northern Syria, indicates that the hardness of the food eaten changed profoundly after the introduction of domestic cereal grains at the beginning of the Neolithic (Neolithic 2A), and again after the introduction of pottery in Neolithic 2C times. Comparison with the microwear features on the teeth of human groups known to eat cooked food demonstrated the identity of the microwear on the abu Hureyra teeth from the pottery levels with those who had eaten cooked food. It is suggested that the evidence for an increase in the population in Neolithic 2C times is a direct consequence of changes in food preparation techniques.     

Branch wood from the lake shore settlements of Horgen Scheller, Switzerland: Evidence for economic specialization in the late Neolithic period

596 waterlogged, uncarbonized branch wood specimens from four cultural layers of the late Neolithic lake shore site of Horgen Scheller (between 3080 and 3030 B.C.) on Lake Zilrich, Switzerland, were examined. The following parameters were analysed: taxonomy, diameter and age of the twigs, cutting season, and distribution of the branches over the area as well as their distribution in the different cultural layers. The twigs were divided into the following three groups, based on differences observed in these analyses: conifers, deciduous trees with catkins, and deciduous trees without catkins. Branch diameter examinations revealed that branches of deciduous trees were thicker on average than those of conifers. While branches from deciduous trees without catkins were gathered at the age of seven years on average, those of conifers and deciduous trees with catkins were older. Waney edge analyses showed that the majority of the twigs were cut within the winter months. Among the deciduous trees without catkins there is, however, a markedly higher proportion of branches cut in summer than in the other two groups. The taxonomic examinations demonstrated that 70% of the specimens consisted of twigs of eitherCorylus avellana L. (hazel),Taxus baccata L. (yew), orAbies alba Mill. (silver fir), thus implying the great economic importance of these species in the settlements of Horgen Scheller. To our knowledge this is the first report that a remarkably high proportion of yew twigs (26.8%) has been found in an analysis of subfossil twigs. The possibility is discussed that the inhabitants had specialized in obtaining yew from the region. Concentrations of wood finds, possible remains of buildings, became evident from the analyses of the distribution of the branch wood over the excavated area. A very similar spatial distribution pattern of the taxa was found through the different cultural layers. Therefore it seems likely that existing structures were reused when a new settlement was built. The data also show that the building outlines slowly moved towards land over time. A rising lake water level could have led to gradual dislocation of the settlements.     

Fish remains from the Neolithic site of El Mirador cave (Atapuerca,Spain): Seasonality and resource management

Ichthyoarchaeological analyses of the freshwater fish remains from levels 19 and 20 in El Mirador cave (Atapuerca, Spain) have been conducted. Fish were always present as a source of animal protein, although their importance in the human diet was not fully exploited by people during the Neolithic on the Iberian Peninsula. Two principal goals are treated here: a taxonomic study of the fish remains and a characterization of the exploitation of this resource. The results show that the human community of El Mirador cave practiced fishing, and that fish was part of their diet and social life.     

How copying affects the amount, evenness and persistence of cultural knowledge: insights from the social learning strategies tournament

Darwinian processes should favour those individuals that deploy the most effective strategies for acquiring information about their environment. We organized a computer-based tournament to investigate which learning strategies would perform well in a changing environment. The most successful strategies relied almost exclusively on social learning (here, learning a behaviour performed by another individual) rather than asocial learning, even when environments were changing rapidly; moreover, successful strategies focused learning effort on periods of environmental change. Here, we use data from tournament simulations to examine how these strategies might affect cultural evolution, as reflected in the amount of culture (i.e. number of cultural traits) in the population, the distribution of cultural traits across individuals, and their persistence through time. We found that high levels of social learning are associated with a larger amount of more persistent knowledge, but a smaller amount of less persistent expressed behaviour, as well as more uneven distributions of behaviour, as individuals concentrated on exploiting a smaller subset of behaviour patterns. Increased rates of environmental change generated increases in the amount and evenness of behaviour. These observations suggest that copying confers on cultural populations an adaptive plasticity, allowing them to respond to changing environments rapidly by drawing on a wider knowledge base.     

Space,Time, Rhetoric and Agricultural Change in the Transition Zone of Ghana

This paper examines change within farming systems in the Brong Ahafo Region in Ghana, and the impact of agricultural modernization and mechanization on the regional economy and local farming systems. It combines anthropological, historical, and remote sensing techniques to document changes in farming practice and land use and land cover. It argues that change is not the product of simple evolutionary sequences of responses to population pressures or adoption of modern technologies, but arises out of a complex set of factors interacting within wider regional economies, which are increasingly commodified and commercialized and subject to global market pressures. These include technical, institutional, market, movements of labor, and transport infrastructure development dimensions, which often create new opportunities for local farmers other than those envisaged in agricultural development policies. Tracing the opening up of the transition zone over the last 40–50 years through the development of state farms and mechanized synthetic agriculture, the paper examines the changing fortunes of farming systems within a radius of 30–40 km from agricultural technology hubs and the implications for models of agricultural development.

The Establishment and Defeat of Hierarchy: Inalienable Possessions and the History of Collective Prestige Structures in the Pueblo Southwest

The role of social valuables in establishing and defeating hierarchies in prestate societies is explored through the use of Annette Weiner's concept of "inalienable possessions." Inalienable possessions are objects made to be kept (not exchanged), have symbolic and economic power that cannot be transferred, and are often used to authenticate the ritual authority of corporate groups. Ethnographic examples from Zuni are used to understand the range of individually and collectively owned inalienable objects in Pueblo societies. I then use three classes of these objects from archaeological contexts to gain insight into the history of collective prestige structures in the Southwest. I argue that inalienable goods are more useful than shape prestige goods for understanding the role of social valuables in many nonstate societies, especially those in which inequalities are based on ritual knowledge.     

Mode and tempo in the evolution of socio-political organization: reconciling 'Darwinian' and 'Spencerian' evolutionary approaches in anthropology

Traditional investigations of the evolution of human social and political institutions trace their ancestry back to nineteenth century social scientists such as Herbert Spencer, and have concentrated on the increase in socio-political complexity over time. More recent studies of cultural evolution have been explicitly informed by Darwinian evolutionary theory and focus on the transmission of cultural traits between individuals. These two approaches to investigating cultural change are often seen as incompatible. However, we argue that many of the defining features and assumptions of 'Spencerian' cultural evolutionary theory represent testable hypotheses that can and should be tackled within a broader 'Darwinian' framework. In this paper we apply phylogenetic comparative techniques to data from Austronesian-speaking societies of Island South-East Asia and the Pacific to test hypotheses about the mode and tempo of human socio-political evolution. We find support for three ideas often associated with Spencerian cultural evolutionary theory: (i) political organization has evolved through a regular sequence of forms, (ii) increases in hierarchical political complexity have been more common than decreases, and (iii) political organization has co-evolved with the wider presence of hereditary social stratification.     

The distribution, natural habitats and availability of wild cereals in relation to their domestication in the Near East: multiple events, multiple centres

In this article we examine the natural habitats and distribution of the six wild cereals: Triticum urartu (wild urartu wheat), T. boeoticum aegilopoides (single-grained wild einkorn), T. boeoticum thaoudar (two-grained wild einkorn), T. dicoccoides (wild emmer wheat), Secale spp. (wild ryes) and Hordeum spontaneum (wild barley). A comparison of late Pleistocene/early Holocene archaeobotanical assemblages in the Near East with present-day distributions of wild cereals shows a good correlation. The regional variation in the archaeobotanical cereal assemblages and the ensuing domestication provide evidence that different cereal species were domesticated independently in different areas. Some sites were not situated near wild cereal habitats and a few were located outside the limits of distribution, even accounting for moister climatic conditions. I argue here that current models which try to explain the shift to farming have tended to over-emphasize the effect of the Younger Dryas climatic change. First, it would have had only a minor effect on cereal availability. Secondly, agriculture appears to have been established after the Younger Dryas. Thirdly, there is no evidence for a single centre of origin; agriculture arose in widely separated geographic and climatic regions. And fourthly, agriculture depends on stable climatic conditions which were not established until after the Younger Dryas.     

Infectious disease,behavioural flexibility and the evolution of culture in primates

Culturally transmitted traits are observed in a wide array of animal species, yet we understand little about the costs of the behavioural patterns that underlie culture, such as innovation and social learning. We propose that infectious diseases are a significant cost associated with cultural transmission. We investigated two hypotheses that may explain such a connection: that social learning and exploratory behaviours (specifically, innovation and extractive foraging) either compensate for existing infection or increase exposure to infectious agents. We used Bayesian comparative methods, controlling for sampling effort, body mass, group size, geographical range size, terrestriality, latitude and phylogenetic uncertainty. Across 127 primate species, we found a positive association between pathogen richness and rates of innovation, extractive foraging and social learning. This relationship was driven by two independent phenomena: socially contagious diseases were positively associated with rates of social learning, and environmentally transmitted diseases were positively associated with rates of exploration. Because higher pathogen burdens can contribute to morbidity and mortality, we propose that parasitism is a significant cost associated with the behavioural patterns that underpin culture, and that increased pathogen exposure is likely to have played an important role in the evolution of culture in both non-human primates and humans.     

Palynological evidence of anthropogenic pressure: effect on pollination dynamics in the Evian area since the middle Neolithic: the pollen record of La Beunaz (971 m a.s.l., northern Alps, France)

This paper presents a pollen diagram from La Beunaz peat-bog (southeast of Evian, Haute-Savoie, France), which provides the first detailed record of human impact on vegetation of the southern bank of Lake Geneva since the Middle Neolithic. The radiocarbon-dated pollen profile is correlated with micro-charcoal record and archaeological data. The results suggest that several phases of deforestations since 4615+75/-70 years BP occurred, in relation to human activities (agriculture, pastoralism). Tombs and vestiges of lacustrine villages indicate that the region was intensively and recurrently occupied by man during at that time.     

"The Vulgar Spirit of Blogging": On Language, Culture, and Power in Persian Weblogestan

This article is an ethnographic study of Persian-language weblogs (blogs), focusing on a divisive argument among Iranian bloggers that came to be known as the "vulgarity debate." Sparked by a controversial blogger who ridiculed assertions that Islam was compatible with human rights, the debate revolved around the claim that blogging had a "vulgar spirit" that made it easy for everything from standards of writing to principles of logical reasoning to be undermined. My study focuses primarily on the linguistic side of the controversy: I analyze blogging as an emergent speech genre and identify the structural features and social interactions that make this genre seem "vulgar." I also examine the controversy as a confrontation between bloggers with unequal access to cultural capital and a struggle over "intellectualist" hegemony. In the conclusion, I use the construct of "deep play" to weave together multiple layers of structure, explanation, and meaning in the debate.     

The base of the cilium: roles for transition fibres and the transition zone in ciliary formation, maintenance and compartmentalization

Both the basal body and the microtubule-based axoneme it nucleates have evolutionarily conserved subdomains crucial for cilium biogenesis, function and maintenance. Here, we focus on two conspicuous but underappreciated regions of these structures that make membrane connections. One is the basal body distal end, which includes transition fibres of largely undefined composition that link to the base of the ciliary membrane. Transition fibres seem to serve as docking sites for intraflagellar transport particles, which move proteins within the ciliary compartment and are required for cilium biogenesis and sustained function. The other is the proximal-most region of the axoneme, termed the transition zone, which is characterized by Y-shaped linkers that span from the axoneme to the ciliary necklace on the membrane surface. The transition zone comprises a growing number of ciliopathy proteins that function as modular components of a ciliary gate. This gate, which forms early during ciliogenesis, might function in part by regulating intraflagellar transport. Together with a recently described septin ring diffusion barrier at the ciliary base, the transition fibres and transition zone deserve attention for their varied roles in forming functional ciliary compartments.