Search results for "Prehistory"

Etude documentaire sur les portails

2007

Le mobilier céramique

2012

In : Bully (S.) dir. - Baume-les-Messieurs (Jura). Fouille programmée du chœur de l'ancienne abbatiale Saint-Pierre

Tiempos de crisis y cambios socioculturales en Chupicuaro al final del Preclásico: evidencias paleoambientales e indicadores arqueológicos en el vall…

2012

International audience; "Los trabajos realizados en el valle de Acámbaro evidenciaron para finales del Preclásico (hacia 100 a.C.), una serie de cambios que denota un tiempo de crisis y de transición. El estudio revela una reducción drástica del número de sitios del Preclásico Terminal (fase Mixtlán: 1-250 d.C.), así como una nueva configuración espacial. Las excavaciones avalan las observaciones de superficie y comprueban que, a partir de 100 a.C., los asentamientos sufren una desocupación: en dos sitios excavados observamos estratos de abandono y luego de reocupación, y en los demás constatamos un abandono definitivo. Esta evolución parece coincidir con una baja demográfica. Los acontecim…

The Cave of Vecchiuzzo: anthropology, paleopathology and hierarchy of the human group with a statistical overview (Petralia Sottana – Palermo, Italy)

2013

Lo scavo della Grotta del Vecchiuzzo fu il primo effettuato nelle Madonie (Sicilia centrooccidentale). Fin dalla sua scoperta avvenuta per mano di Collisani e Carapezza nel 1936, il ritrovamento di manufatti nel vano principale indicò che la grotta era stata abitata. Gli scavi, effettuati a partire dal 1937, indicarono che la grotta era stata adibita ad abitazione o forse a santuario e che era stata abitata intorno al terzo millennio a.C. I resti scheletrici, attribuiti ad almeno quindici individui, sono stati studiati dal punto di vista antropologico, antropometrico e paleopatologico, combinando metodologie tradizionali a quelle più moderne. Sui dati odontometrici raccolti è stata effettua…

Ceramics, Marbles and Stones in the Light of Neutrons: Characterization by Various Neutron Methods

2016

In this chapter we give a brief overview of neutron based analytical investigations applied to study archaeological ceramics, and different types of stones. Since the vast majority of archaeological objects are made of ceramics and various stones—all are of geological origin—, one of the key objectives of these studies to determine the origin of raw material. This research is called provenance research, and a wide range of neutron based methods are applicable in it. Following a very basic, user-oriented description of the methods, we introduce examples from our everyday practice. The examples are about provenance of prehistoric stone tools, about the sources of 4th–3rd c. B.C. millennium li…

New research at Riņņukalns, a Neolithic freshwater shell midden in northern Latvia

2014

The prehistoric shell middens of Atlantic Europe consist of marine molluscs, but the eastern Baltic did not have exploitable marine species. Here the sole recorded shell midden, at Riņņukalns in Latvia, is on an inland lake and is formed of massive dumps of freshwater shells. Recent excavations indicate that they are the product of a small number of seasonal events during the later fourth millennium BC. The thickness of the shell deposits suggests that this was a special multi-purpose residential site visited for seasonal aggregations by pottery-using hunter-gatherer communities on the northern margin of Neolithic Europe.

An approximation to the study of black pigments in Cova Remigia (Castell on, Spain). Technical and cultural assessments of the use of carbon-based bl…

2014

International audience; Spanish Levantine Rock Art is a unique pictorial expression within the prehistoric European context. Located in shelters in the inland regions of the Iberian Mediterranean basin, this art form, which must be necessarily studied in the frame of the process of neolithization of this territory, still lacks direct dating, and therefore its authorship is still open to debate. In this paper we present the first characterization of black pigments used in the Cova Remigia shelters in the Valltorta-Gassulla area (Castell on, Spain) by means of EDXRF spectrometry combined with SEM-EDS and Raman spectroscopy. Our aim is both to identify the raw material used for the preparation…

Palaeolithic dogs and the early domestication of the wolf: a reply to the comments of Crockford and Kuzmin (2012)

2013

This is a response to the comments of Crockford and Kuzmin (2012) on our identification of Palaeolithic dogs from different European Palaeolithic sites. In their comments Crockford and Kuzmin (2012) present some errors, misunderstandings and misrepresentations that we remedy here. In our opinion, the early wolf domestication must be regarded as an intimate relationship between humans and canids including the breeding of the latter by prehistoric people, resulting in the European Palaeolithic dogs.

The burial of Bad Dürrenberg, Central Germany: osteopathology and osteoarchaeology of a Late Mesolithic shaman's grave

2006

The isolated burial of Bad Durrenberg is one of the richest Mesolithic graves in Europe. Although it was excavated in the 1930s, new spectacular anthropological and archaeological evidence has emerged during a recent re-study. Firstly, we present here the results of an anthropological re-evaluation of certain features of the skull base and the foramen magnum. Our work has clearly established that the observable features are caused by an anatomical variation that also includes an atlar anomaly. This developmental variation possibly caused various neuropathological symptoms. The Bad Durrenberg burial consequently represents a unique case of the possible interpretation of abnormal behaviours i…

A special body: Exposure ritual of a Bronze Age seated cadaver from the cemetery of Humanejos (Parla, Madrid, Spain)

2020

Abstract Seated positions are extraordinarily exceptional in prehistoric graves and despite the increasing number of new cases its social meaning remains uncertain. This paper presents a new finding of a Bronze Age seated burial discovered in the prehistoric cemetery of Humanejos (Parla). Such a unique burial is carefully analyzed in the context of the IInd millennium cal BC burial rituals. Firstly, the different phases of the inhumation were described through an archaeothanatological approach, which showed that the body was originally bound in a sitting position and then the upper part, which was exposed, naturally collapsed after the decomposition process. Furthermore, the biological feat…