Search results for " agriculture"
showing 10 items of 2212 documents
Priedaine: A Neolithic Site at the Head of the Gulf of Riga
2016
The Neolithic site of Priedaine in Jūrmala was excavated on a small scale in 2007–2008, yielding an assemblage of Comb Ceramics, along with unique wooden implements and fragments of pine-lath fishing structures. The environment and subsistence resources are indicated by plant macrofossil remains and a small faunal collection. Located by a palaeolake and also very close to the sea, the site, dated to c. 3700–3500 cal BC, would have been oriented towards aquatic resource exploitation. However, it had a wider range of functions, as indicated by the evidence of flint and amber processing. Key words: Neolithic, pottery, fishing gear, plant macro-remains, faunal remains, lake, coastal settlement.…
A multi-isotope analysis of Neolithic human groups in the Yonne valley, Northern France: insights into dietary patterns and social structure
2019
With the arrival of the Neolithic to Europe, new ways of life and new subsistence strategies emerged. In the Paris Basin (northern France), the appearance of some monumental funerary structures during the Middle Neolithic highlights in particular the increasing complexity of the social organisation. At the same time, several sites, such as open-air cemeteries, do not display any evidence of such arrangement. In the southeast of this area, the two primary routes of neolithisation meet. Several funerary parameters attest to the diverse influence received from other surrounding cultures. In order to assess potential differences in diet, and therefore on purported social distinctions at the int…
Changing Plant-based Subsistence Practices among Early and Middle Holocene Communities in Eastern Maghreb
2020
The eastern Maghreb is a key area for understanding environmental and cultural dynamics during the early and middle Holocene. Capsian populations from around 10000–7500 cal BP were among the last foragers in the region. Capsian sites are known as escargotières (land shell middens), and locally called rammadiyat (meaning ashy mound). As taphonomic conditions in Capsian open-air sites generally favour the preservation of resistant materials such as shells and bones rather than fragile plant remains, this study integrates macro-botanical and microfossil evidence from phytoliths, calcitic wood ash pseudomorphs and dung spherulites, since each is influenced by different formation and post-deposi…
Climate, environment and human behaviour in the Middle Palaeolithic of Abrigo de la Quebrada (Valencia, Spain): The evidence from charred plant and m…
2019
Abstract The Abrigo de la Quebrada rock shelter was occupied by Neanderthal groups during the early Upper Pleistocene, yielding evidence for their subsistence practices and local resource exploitation. This paper focuses on the plant macroremains and the micromammals, which provide information about occupation patterns, the surrounding landscape, the use of resources, and the environment. Mountain pine forests and permanent grass formations containing humid zones and open spaces that would have harboured an eurythermal microfauna were the dominant landscape type. Cold-climate pines provided most of the firewood. The data are consistent with a recurrent, seasonal occupation pattern, in which…
Spatial and temporal disparities in human subsistence in the Neolithic Rhineland gateway
2020
International audience; The Alsace region bordering the Rhine River was extensively occupied during the Neolithic by farming societies with domesticated animal. The first settlers were two sub-groups of the Linearbandkeramik who appeared to diverge in several respects, including: pottery styles, house orientations and funerary rituals. To explore whether this was reflected in food procurement practices investigations were performed of organic residues in nearly 900 pottery vessels from sites across the region. The results reveal lipid biomarker and stable carbon evidence for exploitation of plant and bee products, and most significantly, extensive domestic animal products including: non-rum…
Stone-age subsistence strategies at Lake Burtnieks, Latvia
2018
Abstract Zvejnieki, on Lake Burtnieks in northeastern Latvia, is the largest known prehistoric cemetery in the eastern Baltic; > 300 inhumations, most dating to c.7000–3000 cal BC, have been excavated. Archaeozoological and artefactual evidence from graves and nearby settlement layers show that throughout this period, the community depended on wild resources for subsistence, with a particular emphasis on fishing. Dietary stable isotopes (δ 15 N and δ 13 C) from human remains show significant dietary variation within the Zvejnieki population, in terms of access to and dependence on freshwater and marine species (Eriksson 2006); we provide new stable isotope data for another 13 individuals. E…
The Anthropogenic Use of Firewood During the European Middle Pleistocene: Charcoal Evidence from Levels XIII and XI of Bolomor Cave, Eastern Iberia (…
2017
Human control of fire is a widely debated issue in the field of Palaeolithic archaeology, since it involved significant technological innovations for human subsistence. Although fire evidence has been the subject of intense debate regarding its natural or anthropogenic nature, most authors agree that combustion structures represent the most direct evidence of human control of fire. Wood charcoal fragments from these contexts represent the fuel remains that result from humans' collection of firewood, which means they can reveal significant behavioural and palaeoenvironmental information relevant to our understanding of Middle Palaeolithic societies. In this work, we present anthracological d…
Micro-lithic production at Abric Romaní levels L and Ob: Exploring economic and evolutionary implications for Neanderthal societies
2020
Abstract The phenomenon of microlithism continues to be one of the most interesting topics in the prehistoric archaeology of the Middle Palaeolithic period because it is key to understanding the technology and cultural and economic organisation of Neanderthal societies. The aim of this research is to characterise small-flake industries based on two archaeological levels from the Abric Romani which present different occupation patterns. Level L is characterised by a shorter and more opportunistic occupational pattern, while the occupations found at archaeolevel Ob were longer and more complex, indicating a greater degree of planning involved in subsistence activities. The analysis was conduc…
Dental calculus indicates widespread plant use within the stable Neanderthal dietary niche.
2018
The ecology of Neanderthals is a pressing question in the study of hominin evolution. Diet appears to have played a prominent role in their adaptation to Eurasia. Based on isotope and zooarchaeological studies, Neanderthal diet has been reconstructed as heavily meat-based and generally similar across different environments. This image persists, despite recent studies suggesting more plant use and more variation. However, we have only a fragmentary picture of their dietary ecology, and how it may have varied among habitats, because we lack broad and environmentally representative information about their use of plants and other foods. To address the problem, we examined the plant microremains…
Last Interglacial Iberian Neandertals as fisher-hunter-gatherers.
2020
Fruits of the sea The origins of marine resource consumption by humans have been much debated. Zilhão et al. present evidence that, in Atlantic Iberia's coastal settings, Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals exploited marine resources at a scale on par with the modern human–associated Middle Stone Age of southern Africa (see the Perspective by Will). Excavations at the Figueira Brava site on Portugal's Atlantic coast reveal shell middens rich in the remains of mollusks, crabs, and fish, as well as terrestrial food items. Familiarity with the sea and its resources may thus have been widespread for residents there in the Middle Paleolithic. The Figueira Brava Neanderthals also exploited stone pine…