Search results for "history."
showing 10 items of 17659 documents
A multi-proxy, diachronic and spatial perspective on the urban activities within an indigenous community in medieval Riga, Latvia
2017
Abstract The research presented here represents the first urban medieval context in Latvia where an integrated, multi-proxy environmental sampling strategy has been applied. The establishment of Riga, the modern capital of Latvia, is synonymous with the Livonian Crusade, and the foundation of the medieval town is examined here. This study uses an intra-site comparison of environmental datasets from several buildings to provide a unique, high resolution, diachronic analysis of the daily life of the inhabitants within the pre-Hansa town, and specifically of the indigenous ‘Liv’ population during the period of the Livonian crusades, 1198–1291. The integrated zooarchaeological, archaebotanical,…
Neanderthal and carnivore activities at Llonin Cave, Asturias, northern Iberian Peninsula: Faunal study of Mousterian levels (MIS 3)
2018
Abstract This paper presents a study of the macromammalian fauna recovered from Mousterian levels of Llonin Cave. The sample is highly heterogeneous and comprises six species of ungulates, including Rupicapra pyrenaica, Capra pyrenaica, and Cervus elaphus, and seven species of carnivores, predominantly Ursus spelaeus, Crocuta spelaea, Canis/Cuon and Panthera pardus. The archaeozoological and taphonomic study of the remains shows preferential use of basal levels of the cave as a den for hyenas and leopards. Neanderthals were also present during this phase and they would have acted mainly on deer and some caprines, while the action of hyenas would mainly have been linked to scavenging of elem…
Cocina cave revisited: Bayesian radiocarbon chronology for the last hunter-gatherers and first farmers in Eastern Iberia
2018
Abstract Recent excavations and radiocarbon work conducted at Cocina Cave (Valencia region, Eastern Iberia) provide new insights into the transition from foraging to farming in the eastern Iberian Peninsula between 8000 and 7300 cal yrs. BP. Cocina cave was discovered in 1940 and excavated by L. Pericot from 1941 to 1945. J. Fortea continued excavations in the 70s. Despite early international recognition and great promise of significance, the materials recovered from these excavations have only been partially analyzed and published. A new project started in 2012 is focused on these cave deposits with the main goal of understanding the occupation sequence during the neolithization process in…
Changing patterns of eastern Mediterranean shellfish exploitation in the Late Glacial and Early Holocene: Oxygen isotope evidence from gastropod in E…
2016
Abstract The seasonal pattern of shellfish foraging at the archaeological site of Haua Fteah in the Gebel Akhdar, Libya was investigated from the Epipaleolithic to the Neolithic via oxygen isotope (δ 18 O) analyses of the topshell Phorcus (Osilinus) turbinatus . To validate this species as faithful year-round palaeoenvironmental recorder, the intra-annual variability of δ 18 O in modern shells and sea water was analysed and compared with measured sea surface temperature (SST). The shells were found to be good candidates for seasonal shellfish forging studies as they preserve nearly the complete annual SST cycle in their shell δ 18 O with minimal slowing or stoppage of growth. During the ter…
The early Upper Palaeolithic of Cova de les Cendres (Alicante, Spain)
2019
Abstract This paper presents a synthesis of the Early Upper Palaeolithic of Cova de les Cendres. Points of special attention are the sedimentary and micromorphological characterisation of level XVI, the analysis of the vegetal and animal resources and their incidence on the economy of the Gravettian human groups, and the characterisation of the landscape during this period. Furthermore, the paper offers important information of the lithic and bone assemblages, economic behaviour and radiocarbon dates of sub-levels XVIA and XVIB, related to the Gravettian, and XVIC and XVID, corresponding to the Aurignacian. Finally, the Gravettian and Aurignacian regional contexts in the Mediterranean Basin…
Breaking the waves: Human use of marine bivalves in a microtidal range coast during the Upper Pleistocene and the Early Holocene, Vestíbulo chamber, …
2016
Abstract This paper presents the results obtained from the study of the bivalves recovered during the archaeological excavations in the Vestibulo chamber of Nerja Cave (Malaga, southern Spain) carried out by Professor Francisco Jorda Cerda between 1983 and 1987. These excavations recovered the archaeological record of the sequence from the Gravettian to the Neolithic. The mollusc remains from the Vestibulo chamber of Nerja Cave record constitute an extraordinary collection, composed of more than 136000 specimens which correspond to more than 78 kg. In this work, only marine bivalves were studied. The bivalve remains are more than 124000 specimens, corresponding to more than 65 kg from 31 ta…
New advances on the Aurignacian in the central Iberian Mediterranean basin
2021
Abstract This study aims to obtain a chronological and cultural framework of the Evolved Aurignacian in the central Iberian Mediterranean basin and find agreement between this framework and other sequences of the Iberian southeast. Over the last few years, there has been remarkable progress in the research of the Evolved Aurignacian sites in the Valencian area, making a review of the main characteristics of the technocomplex on a regional scale necessary. The recent fieldwork carried out in Cova de les Malladetes (Valencia) and in Cova de les Cendres (Alicante) have been key to understanding the lithic, osseous and ornament assemblages ascribed to the Evolved Aurignacian. Several Bayesian m…
Different parts of the same plants. Charcoals and seeds from Cova de les Cendres (Alicante, Spain)
2018
Abstract The analysis of archaeobotanical macroremains from Cova de les Cendres (Teulada-Moraira, Alicante, Spain) allows a better understanding of the dynamic of the vegetation during the Upper Palaeolithic in the region. The anthracological sequence shows that Pinus type nigra/sylvestris dominates in the area during the Upper Palaeolithic, while more open formations of Juniperus and Fabaceae spread in Upper Solutrean and Early-Middle Magdalenian. The carpological analysis that has been carried out in the Middle Magdalenian level has brought to light different species of Juniperus (J. sabina, J. communis and J. oxycedrus). This information indicates that during the period, Cova de les Cend…
Landscape and fuel management in the context of prehistoric and historical occupations of Cova des Moro (Manacor, Mallorca, Spain)
2021
Abstract In this paper, the first results of charcoal analyses carried out at Cova des Moro (Manacor, Mallorca, Spain) are presented. This cave is an archaeological but also palaeontological site that provides information on endemic fauna (the extinct caprine Myotragus balearicus) before the arrival of humans and, later, the relationship between the first farmers and the landscape. Several human occupations in the cave have been documented, from the Chalcolithic (end of the 3rd millennium cal BC), the Bronze Age (2nd millennium cal BC) and, finally, the Almohad period (13th century AD), during which the cave was used for different purposes. The first results of charcoal analyses at Cova des…
Dietary evidence from Central Asian Neanderthals: A combined isotope and plant microremains approach at Chagyrskaya Cave (Altai, Russia).
2021
Neanderthals are known primarily from their habitation of Western Eurasia, but they also populated large expanses of Northern Asia for thousands of years. Owing to a sparse archaeological record, relatively little is known about these eastern Neanderthal populations. Unlike in their western range, there are limited zooarchaeological and paleobotanical studies that inform us about the nature of their subsistence. Here, we perform a combined analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes on bone collagen and microbotanical remains in dental calculus to reconstruct the diet of eastern Neanderthals at Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai Mountains of Southern Siberia, Russia. Stable isotopes identify…