Search results for "history."
showing 10 items of 17659 documents
Iberian Neolithic Networks: The Rise and Fall of the Cardial World
2017
Recent approaches have described the evolutionary dynamics of the first Neolithic societies as a cycle of rise and fall. Several authors, using mainly c14 dates as a demographic proxy, identified a general pattern of a boom in population coincident with the arrival of food production economies followed by a rapid decline some centuries afterwards in multiple European regions. Concerning Iberia, we also noted that this phenomenon correlates with an initial development of archaeological entities (i.e., ‘cultures’) over large areas (e.g. the Impresso-Cardial in West Mediterranean), followed by a phase of ‘cultural fragmentation’ by the end of Early Neolithic. These results in a picture of high…
Uneven Data Quality and the Earliest Occupation of Europe—the Case of Untermassfeld (Germany)
2017
AbstractThe database regarding the earliest occupation of Europe has increased significantly in quantity and quality of data points over the last two decades, mainly through the addition of new sites as a result of long-term systematic excavations and large-scale prospections of Early and early Middle Pleistocene exposures. The site distribution pattern suggests an ephemeral presence of hominins in the south of Europe from around one million years ago, with occasional short northward expansions along the western coastal areas when temperate conditions permitted. From around 600,000-700,000 years ago Acheulean artefacts appear in Europe and somewhat later hominin presence seems to pick up, w…
Regional provenance of dolerite prehistoric objects through mineral analysis
2016
Abstract A methodology based on the mineral analysis determination has been developed to identify the origin of dolerite stone outcrops collected to fabricate lithic objects during the Prehistoric period. The method is based on the use of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to analyse rare earth elements (REE) and trace elements. Additionally a no destructive geochemical analysis based on X-ray fluorescence (XRF) was employed for major elements analysis. The aforementioned methodologies were applied to samples from different archaeological fields or natural outcrops located in the Mediterranean area of Spain, between Valencia and Alicante. Principal component analysis (PCA…
Micro-PIXE/PIGE analysis of Palaeolithic mammoth ivory: Potential chemical markers of provenance and relative dating
2014
Abstract Micro-Proton Induced X-ray and Gamma-ray Emission (micro-PIXE/PIGE) provide non-destructive methods for the evaluation of the major, minor and trace element compositions of archaeological material. The current study applies micro-PIXE/PIGE analysis to mammoth ivory artefacts from four Palaeolithic sites (Abri Castanet, Vogelherd Cave, Grottes de la Verpilliere I and II) in France and Germany in order to assess the effectiveness of this approach to material older than 30,000 y BP. It has thus far not been established whether such methods of analysis can yield results of scientific and archaeological interest on ivory material that has undergone such extended periods of diagenesis. T…
Electron Paramagnetic Resonance and petrographic analysis for dating Mesolithic and Neolithic pottery from Al Khiday (Sudan)
2016
Abstract Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) dating, like luminescence techniques, is based on the time-dependent accumulation of trapped charges at mineral defect centres. However, Fe(III) ions prevent the common Continuous Wave (CW-EPR) approach for dating pottery, which always contains iron. The Pulsed method (ED-EPR) allowed this limitation to be overcome, with recording of radiation-induced defect signals, as shown by increased signal intensity after artificial irradiation of samples. The method was applied to studying Mesolithic and Neolithic pottery from Al Khiday (Central Sudan), characterized by quartz-rich tempers and coming from dated contexts. As the occurrence of a natural ED…
Genomic transformation and social organization during the Copper Age–Bronze Age transition in southern Iberia
2021
Description
Characterization of recent marks produced on fossil bone surface during sullegic and trephic processes and their influence on taphonomic studies
2018
Different taphonomic processes throughout the history of a fossil assemblage may preserve, modify or destroy, particular palaeobiological traits, but these processes always increase taphonomic information of the past. Similarly, fossils are affected during later stages of taphonomic history, i.e. excavation, preparation, study and storage of fossils, known as sullegic and trephic phases. Tools used during excavation and preparation of fossils can damage them and produce marks on their surface. Some of these recent marks highly mimic taphonomic marks produced before excavation. Both modern and fossil marks lead to misinterpretations and erroneous conclusions when similarities are not clearly…
Taphonomic processes inconsistent with indigenous Mesolithic acculturation during the transition to the Neolithic in the Western Mediterranean
2018
Abstract We applied taphonomic analysis combined with geostatistical approaches to investigate the hypothesis that Cocina cave (Eastern Iberia) represents an acculturation context for the appearance of Neolithic Cardial pottery. In the 1970s, Fortea suggested that this important site was a prime example of acculturation because of the presence of early Neolithic pottery in late Mesolithic contexts. Since that time Cocina cave has been heralded as an example of indigenous hunter-gatherers incorporating Neolithic cultural elements into their lifeways. We analyzed the area excavated by Fortea in the 1970s by digitizing archaeological records and testing the spatial distribution of artifacts us…
Jaws and teeth of the earliest bony fishes
2007
Extant jawed vertebrates, or gnathostomes, fall into two major monophyletic groups, namely chondrichthyans (cartilaginous fishes) and osteichthyans (bony fishes and tetrapods). Fossil representatives of the osteichthyan crown group are known from the latest Silurian period, 418 million years (Myr) ago, to the present. By contrast, stem chondrichthyans and stem osteichthyans are still largely unknown. Two extinct Palaeozoic groups, the acanthodians and placoderms, may fall into these stem groups or the common stem group of gnathostomes, but their relationships and monophyletic status are both debated. Here we report unambiguous evidence for osteichthyan characters in jaw bones referred to th…
Monastère Saint-Pierre d’Osor (Croatie, île de Cres). Bilan de la mission franco-croate 2016
2016
Cet article présente un rapport détaillé sur la campagne de recherche en 2016. L'église médiévale du début du XIe siècle récemment découverte sous la basilique est en cours d'analyse.