Dating the End of the Greek Bronze Age: A Robust Radiocarbon-Based Chronology from Assiros Toumba

Over 60 recent analyses of animal bones, plant remains, and building timbers from Assiros in northern Greece form an unique series from the 14^th to the 10^th century BC. With the exception of Thera, the number of ¹⁴C determinations from other Late Bronze Age sites in Greece has been small and their contribution to chronologies minimal. The absolute dates determined for Assiros through Bayesian modelling are both consistent and unexpected, since they are systematically earlier than the conventional chronologies of southern Greece by between 70 and 100 years. They have not been skewed by reference to assumed historical dates used as priors. They support high rather than low Iron Age chronologies from Spain to Israel where the merits of each are fiercely debated but remain unresolved.     

Mortality changes in Central European populations from Bronze Age to Iron Age: Comparative analysis

The influence of cultural factors on the biological state, of prehistorical populations inhabiting Central Europe in the Bronze and Iron Ages have been analyzed. To achieve this goal the author studied changes in mortality structure of human groups said to belong to two various archeological cultures.     

Radiocarbon Dating the Wylie Focus North Central Texas

Abstract

Many archeological complexes in the Southern Plains and Texas have not been adequately dated. Many complexes in northern Texas are still dated by their association with tree-ring dated Puebloan ceramics. This paper describes recent advances in radiocarbon dating the Wylie Focus on the East Fork of the Trinity River. Based upon radiocarbon dates and associated ceramics, it is evident that these sites were occupied before A.D. 1000.     

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.     

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.     

Evidence of ancient DNA reveals the first European lineage in Iron Age Central China

Various studies on ancient DNA have attempted to reconstruct population movement in Asia, with much interest focused on determining the arrival of European lineages in ancient East Asia. Here, we discuss our analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of human remains excavated from the Yu Hong tomb in Taiyuan, China, dated 1400 years ago. The burial style of this tomb is characteristic of Central Asia at that time. Our analysis shows that Yu Hong belonged to the haplogroup U5, one of the oldest western Eurasian-specific haplogroups, while his wife can be classified as haplogroup G, the type prevalent in East Asia. Our findings show that this man with European lineage arrived in Taiyuan approximately 1400 years ago, and most probably married a local woman. Haplogroup U5 was the first west Eurasian-specific lineage to be found in the central part of ancient China, and Taiyuan may be the easternmost location of the discovered remains of European lineage in ancient China.     

Spirometry Reference Equations for Central European Populations from School Age to Old Age

Background

Spirometry reference values are important for the interpretation of spirometry results. Reference values should be updated regularly, derived from a population as similar to the population for which they are to be used and span across all ages. Such spirometry reference equations are currently lacking for central European populations.

Objective

To develop spirometry reference equations for central European populations between 8 and 90 years of age.

Materials

We used data collected between January 1993 and December 2010 from a central European population. The data was modelled using “Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape” (GAMLSS).

Results

The spirometry reference equations were derived from 118''891 individuals consisting of 60''624 (51%) females and 58''267 (49%) males. Altogether, there were 18''211 (15.3%) children under the age of 18 years.

Conclusion

We developed spirometry reference equations for a central European population between 8 and 90 years of age that can be implemented in a wide range of clinical settings.     

A New Chronology for the Bronze Age of Northeastern Thailand and Its Implications for Southeast Asian Prehistory

There are two models for the origins and timing of the Bronze Age in Southeast Asia. The first centres on the sites of Ban Chiang and Non Nok Tha in Northeast Thailand. It places the first evidence for bronze technology in about 2000 B.C., and identifies the origin by means of direct contact with specialists of the Seima Turbino metallurgical tradition of Central Eurasia. The second is based on the site of Ban Non Wat, 280 km southwest of Ban Chiang, where extensive radiocarbon dating places the transition into the Bronze Age in the 11th century B.C. with likely origins in a southward expansion of technological expertise rooted in the early states of the Yellow and Yangtze valleys, China. We have redated Ban Chiang and Non Nok Tha, as well as the sites of Ban Na Di and Ban Lum Khao, and here present 105 radiocarbon determinations that strongly support the latter model. The statistical analysis of the results using a Bayesian approach allows us to examine the data at a regional level, elucidate the timing of arrival of copper base technology in Southeast Asia and consider its social impact.     

Agriculturalists and pastoralists: Bronze Age economy of the Murghab alluvial fan,southern Central Asia

Archaeological investigations of pastoral economies often emphasize exchange relations with agricultural populations, though for Bronze Age Eurasia the notion of a ubiquitous ‘pastoral realm’ has masked various forms of mixed subsistence economies. In Central Asia, there are few attempts to specifically identify the domestic crops utilized by mobile pastoralists or what they may suggest about the role of agriculture in mobile pastoral production or subsistence strategies. This study reports the macrobotanical remains from two Late/Final Bronze Age (ca. 1950–1300 bc) mobile pastoralist habitation sites in the Murghab alluvial fan region of southern Turkmenistan. We compare our results with published macrobotanical data from contemporary agricultural settlements in the Murghab region, as well as with other sites in broader prehistoric Eurasia. We find that mobile pastoralists in the Murghab utilized some of the same domestic crops as their sedentary neighbors. While the data presented here do not preclude the possibility that mobile pastoralists may have practiced some low-investment cultivation (particularly of millet), we hypothesize an economic model that places mobile pastoralists in direct contact with nearby sedentary farming communities through exchange for pre-processed grains. These results highlight one of the possible strategies of mobile pastoral subsistence in Central Asia, and are a further step toward identifying the various degrees of agricultural involvement in the conceptually outdated pastoral realm of Eurasia.     

Palynology of the Paravani burial mound (Early Bronze Age, Georgia)

Information from pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs was used to reconstruct ritual burial traditions in the first half of the third millennium b.c. The floor of the burial chamber of the Paravani barrow and a ceremonial wagon were covered with flax textiles (Linum), as evidenced by the abundance of flax microfibres. The wagon was made of pine (Pinus), oak (Quercus) and juniper (Juniperus) wood. This is demonstrated by parenchyma cells of wood which were linked to the destroyed remains of the wagon. The presence of an animal skin could be established. The presence of the skin is evidenced by large amounts of pollen, ascospores of coprophilous fungi, hairs of dermestid beetle larvae and the bristle of a moth grub. According to the taxonomic composition of the flowers used for decoration of the ceremonial wagon and numerous mite remains, the burial occurred during the first half of the summer.     

Radiocarbon Dating of Pollen and Spores from Ice Wedges of the Yamal and Kolyma Regions

Radiocarbon dating of the pollen concentrate from late Pleistocene syngenetic ice wedges was carried out using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in Seyakha and Bizon sections. Comparison of the results with palynological data and the results of AMS radiocarbon dating previously obtained for other organic fractions of the same samples allowed the accuracy of dating of different fractions to be evaluated. Quantitative criteria for data evaluation in terms of possible autochthonous or allochthonous accumulation of the material on the basis of pre-Pleistocene pollen content in these samples were considered. Paleoecological information content of pollen spectra from late Pleistocene syngenetic wedge ice was evaluated.     

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.     

Dental enamel hypoplasias and health changes in the Middle Bronze Age - Early Iron Age transition at Pella in Jordan.

Dental enamel hypoplasias are increasingly being used in epidemiological studies as indicators of health within both modern and prehistoric populations. This symptom of growth disruption is used here to examine possible changes in health occurring at the transition between the Bronze Age and Iron Age in Jordan, through examination of enamel hypoplasias in skeletal remains from two tombs at the archaeological site of Pella. A small but not statistically significant difference in the prevalence and frequency of hypoplastic defects was found between the two time periods. These results suggest that the political and economic changes occurring at this time were not sufficiently stressful to cause a dramatic deterioration in health at the onset of the Early Iron Age.     

New insights into agriculture in northwestern France from the Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age: a weed ecological approach

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany - New plant macrofossil studies in northwestern France enable a better insight into agriculture through the Bronze and Iron Age. Most of the previous analyses,...     

Living-floors and structures from the Lower Paleolithic to the Bronze Age in Italy

New researches have been performed on the analysis of some Italian dwelling structures dating from the Lower Paleolithic to Bronze Age. Different methods have been applied to each study according to the extensions of the areas explored. The following sites have been analyzed: Isernia La Pineta (Molise), Visogliano (Trieste) - Lower Paleolithic; Grotta del Cavallo (Lecce), Grotta Grande and Riparo del Molare (Salerno) - Middle Paleolithic; Grotta di Fumane (Verona), Riparo Tagliente (Verona), Grotta Continenza (Fucino L'Aquila), San Bartolomeo (Maiella Mountain, Abruzzo) - Upper Paleolithic; Mondeval de Sora (Belluno), Alpe Veglia (Verbania) and Grotta Edera (Aurisina, Trieste) -Mesolithic; Cala Giovanna Piano (Pianosa Island, Livorno), Contraguda (Perfugas, Sassari), Colle Santo Stefano (Fucino, L'Aquila), Catignano (Pescara), Settefonti (L'Aquila) - Neolithic; Castellaro Lagusello (Monzambano, Mantua) - Bronze Age.