Abstract Several significant milestones in human evolution date to the period between 70,000 and 12,000 years ago, including the replacement of archaic humans, the global dispersal of Homo sapiens and the introduction of Upper Palaeolithic traditions. The Arabian Peninsula provides only sparse records illuminating this period. We introduce here the Buhais Rockshelter archaeological sequence and paleoenvironmental records from the Faya Palaeolandscape in the Emirate of Sharjah (UAE). Buhais Rockshelter provides stratified stone artifact assemblages reflecting habitation phases around 125,000, 59,000, 35,000 and 16,000 years ago. Palaeoenvironmental fieldwork further shows that settlement at Buhais Rockshelter is contemporaneous with increased water availability in the landscape at these times. Our results contradict the prevailing view of human absence in Arabia at the end of the Pleistocene and call for reassessing the inhabitability of southern Arabia during the last glacial period. Results from Buhais Rockshelter extend known records from Jebel Faya and demonstrate repeated occupation of the region between 210,000 and 16,000 years ago. Together, this contributes data for a critical timeframe in human evolution providing an empirical foundation for testing anthropological models about human adaptation to and dispersal through the desert landscapes of southern Arabia.
El presente trabajo realiza una aproximación arqueológica a una pieza singular de la Edad del Hierro del Noroeste: el tablero cerámico de Castro Curbín (Arzúa). Este insólito objeto se define por una base plana realizada en cerámica, con numerosas oquedades y vinculada a varias fichas de forma circular, que encajan en los huecos. La pieza, muy fragmentada, fue recuperada en un depósito estructurada en el entorno del sistema defensivo del asentamiento. Dada la extraña factura del objeto, se propone una aproximación integral al yacimiento que permita establecer una base sólida para el análisis. Así, se definen, en primer lugar, las características más relevantes del poblado, las condiciones del paisaje habitado y su secuencia ocupacional, contextualizando el asentamiento con relación a las dinámicas sociales, territoriales y arqueológicas del interior de la Edad del Hierro del Noroeste. A continuación, el trabajo se focaliza en las características del depósito en el que se integra el tablero, una acumulación de materiales estructurada y de probable orientación votiva. Se analizarán las características generales de este tipo de expresiones en otros asentamientos fortificados del Noroeste, señalando su reiteración en otros poblados del interior y su habitual vínculo con el entorno de las murallas. Finalmente, se sugiere un análisis funcional e interpretativo del tablero, considerando su orientación lúdica como la más acorde a sus características. Estas consideraciones se relacionarán con otras expresiones lúdicas documentadas en distintos ámbitos, procurando establecer un marco comparativo de análisis que permita realizar una primera aproximación a este posible juego de mesa en el Hierro del Noroeste.
Felix Henselowsky, Karin Kindermann, Christian Willmes
et al.
The Last Interglacial period is important for the spread of humans from Africa to Eurasia. Significant wetter climatic conditions allowed humans to live in the present-day arid landscape in Northeastern Africa. However, not only the environment but also other parameters, such as the topography and the availability of good raw material sources, impact past human behaviour. Our mapping with the integration of archaeological sites and environmental archives clarifies regional differences and similarities across Egypt. The Eastern Desert is characterized by a small structured landscape with an above-average occurrence of eligible raw material and it differs from the more homogeneous landscape of the Western Desert with its large palaeo-lakes. The given map allows a more distinct evaluation of regional variabilities for Out-of-Africa’s northern migration route as a complex intermediate scale between a global and local approach to human-environment relations.
IntroductionDuring periods of climate change, catastrophic floods have occurred, mainly due to extreme rainfalls, leading to widespread damages and heavy economic losses, the spread of epidemics, and the mortality of many people. Psychological research related to current global warming also indicates the appearance or exacerbation of mental disorders after the occurrence of this natural event. In this study, the socio-economic and health consequences of floods have been studied, and also, using paleoclimate, archeological, and historical researches, some severe and extensive flood events from prehistory to the present have been presented. Finding reports of flood events from historical documents and discovering evidence of floods among the cultural layers of ancient sites, along with paleoclimate and paleo-flood studies, can yield more accurate results from past climatic and environmental conditions. In the studies of environmental sedimentology of some ancient sites of Iran, evidence of catastrophic floods belonging to the mid-fourth millennium B.C. has been found and some have been reported in the historical books of the Islamic period. These events coincide with periods of climate change called medieval warming and the Little Ice Age and occurred mostly in Iran due to extreme rainfalls and flooding of rivers and seasonal streams.Materials and MethodsIn this study, first, the devastating social, economic, and health consequences of floods are explained. Then, archaeological evidence is examined, some of which are the result of field research. Finally, historical documents and reports that mention the occurrence of great and influential floods from the early Islamic period to the present are presented.Results and DiscussionFloods kill more than 2,000 people each year and affect 75,000,000 of the world's population. The reason is the geographical distribution of alluvial fans and shorelines that have long been attractive for human habitation. The occurrence of floods, due to the extreme rainfalls related to climate change, mainly overlapped with drought periods. One of the most important archeological evidence of floods dates back to the fourth millennium B.C. According to the high-resolution paleoclimate research of Lake Neor in Ardabil, from about 4200 to 3000 B.C., there was a very dry period with increasing dust. During this period, at least two periods of severe drought occurred, 3600-3700 B.C. and 3150-3250 B.C., which are shown by the paleoclimate research of Soreq Cave in the west of Jerusalem. Archaeological evidence of floods in the middle and late fourth millennium B.C. as a result of environmental sedimentology and archaeological excavations in the sites of Mafin Abad Islamshahr, Meymanat Abad Robat Karim and Qara Tepe of Qomroud in North Central Iran, as well as in the sites of Shuruppak, Kish and Ur in Iraq have been identified. The flood of 628 A.D., which occurred due to the flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia, was probably one of the main reasons for the fall of the Sassanid dynasty. Blazeri, the historian of the Islamic period, attributes the occurrence of this great flood to the end of the reign of Khosrow Parviz. This event has led to the death of many people, the destruction of crops, famine, displacement, and the spread of plague.ConclusionTherefore, it can be said that if flood prevention and control in Iran are not managed efficiently and effectively, extreme rainfalls related to current climate change (global warming) can cause serious damages and irreparable losses.
River, lake, and water-supply engineering (General), Engineering geology. Rock mechanics. Soil mechanics. Underground construction
Melania Lucila Lambri, Ana María Rocchiett, Mónica Valentini
et al.
Se realizaron estudios arqueométricos que involucraron la aplicación de microscopía electrónica de barrido y técnicas termoanalíticas sobre distintas piezas óseas recuperadas del sitio de Boca de Lega (BL), Provincia de Santa Fe, Argentina. El material ósteoarqueológico recuperado de BL, exhibe una baja integridad mecánica y una distribución a nivel superficial, debido a procesos de acumulación de depósitos sedimentarios, re-depósitos y erosión del ambiente fluvial. También se observó signos de posible termoalteración. Los primeros estudios arqueométricos sobre un elemento denominado como BL21, lograron determinar la existencia de accionar antrópico de sociedades pretéritas. A partir de estos resultados, se avanzó en el análisis de otros elementos óseos de BL, denominados BL07, BL26 y BL49, mediante nuevos estudios arqueométricos en donde se aplicaron técnicas analíticas como ser: análisis térmico diferencial, termogramimetría y microscopía electrónica de barrido con microanálisis dispersivo de energías. El uso conjunto de estas técnicas permitió identificar la alta incidencia de componentes edáficos en las muestras como también el registro de un calentamiento que fue superior a 673K/400°C. En virtud de los resultados obtenidos fue posible reconfirmar el muy posible accionar humano como factor originario de la termoalteración previamente observada.
This article introduces one of the largest rock art sites found in the central Dakhleh Oasis. Firstly, an overview of all the panels with petroglyphs is provided and the images briefly described. The panels’ description contains basic information on their location and visibility, motifs and their compositional aspects, and chronology. This is followed by a brief summary of the presented data and a discussion situating the site in the broader context of Dakhleh and the surrounding Western Desert. Particular motifs and their arrangements, like a herd of giraffes, are further briefly discussed, and parallels from the Dakhleh region and the Nile valley cited in order to compare the CO178 rock art.
The article discusses the contribution of Jan Kowalczyk to the study of the Funnel Beaker culture. The paper presents his achievements in field research on settlements and funerary sites in Central and Eastern Poland (cemeteries and settlements on the Nałęczów Plateau, settlement in Gródek in the Hrubieszów Basin) and thoughts on the methodology of searching and exploration of the Neolithic graves. The most important publications of this author were also recalled. The results of his work are placed in the context of the present state of research.
Históricamente la llanura de la Selva (Girona) ha jugado un rol importante para comunicar las poblaciones humanas del noreste peninsular. Prueba de ello fue el paso de la Via Heraclea y el Camino Real de Madrid a Francia entre otros muchos caminos y las vías que actualmente comunican el llano. Aún así, hasta hace 30 años, el número de yacimientos que se conocía era escaso y no reflejaba un poblamiento muy denso en la Antigüedad. No fue hasta mediados de los años 90, cuando la construcción de carreteras y otras infraestructuras sacó a la luz distintos yacimientos de todos los periodos, buena parte de ellos silos, que cambiaron la percepción que se tenía de la llanura de la Selva. Sin embargo, a nuestro parecer esta zona geográfica puede albergar muchos más yacimientos de los que se conocen. Es por este motivo que hemos ideado una metodología basada en la fotografía aérea satelital, con el programa Google Earth, para poder detectar el mayor numero de yacimientos de forma rápida y efectiva, en su mayoría silos u fosas, seguido por una prospección superficial no agresiva del lugar. Por un lado, con este sistema hemos hallado 9 yacimientos del siglo II aC sin más precisiones, probablemente silos, situados al noroeste de Girona. No obstante, aún quedan muchas marcas que siguen sin ser comprobadas. Por último, determinaremos la dispersión del poblamiento rural entre los siglos II y I aC.
Jesús Francisco Torres Martínez, Ángel Fuentes, Santiago David Domínguez Solera
et al.
La necrópolis del oppidum de Monte Bernorio fue uno de los primeros cementerios de la Edad del Hierro excavados en España. No obstante, la atención a los excepcionales materiales metálicos descubiertos en ella, unido a la escasez de restos relacionados con los rituales, ha impedido conocer hasta este momento qué tipo de ceremonias funerarias se desarrollaron en ella. En este trabajo se presentan los diversos estudios y análisis realizados sobre las evidencias recuperadas en las excavaciones de las campañas de 2007 y 2008, así como los resultados obtenidos y las interpretaciones que de estos hemos realizado. El resultado es la identificación de un tipo de ritual que invisibiliza los restos y que implica un uso diferente de los espacios funerarios.
"Context" has been a major focus of archaeological theoretical studies since the early days of processualism or “New Archaeology”. In both processual and post-processual archaeology, context is more than just a space in which material data can be identified. Instead, it is a set of spatial, chronological, and socio-cultural terms set by the archaeologist through which (and through whom) material culture obtains meaning and function.In theoretical treatises, context has been divided into two types: dynamic or static. According to an ethno-archaeological research in Bam disaster context (SE Iran) and a pilot area in Pakistani Jamu and Kashmir, a new kind of context is introduced in this article which can be located in the spectrum between dynamic and static. It can be hypothesized that this new kind of context (Disaster context) is not particular and can be observed in sites which have passed the process of becoming an ancient site.
It is argued that whenever the political situation provides a favourable environment, the archaeological activities have been encouraged to provoke nationalism, and historians in various capacities have used archaeological data and historical records to advocate nationalist agendas. Owing to its rich archaeological and historical past and its contemporary socio-cultural diversity, Iran is, particularly interesting for exploring the connection between archaeological activities and manipulations of historical records, especially by taking into account the re-establishment of Achaemenid history by late nineteen century and then the rise of Reza Khan to power in the early twentieth century. Those developments, however, left a deeper impact on Iranian Historiography which the case of Pirniya’s Ancient History will be discussed in this paper. In this paper the process of establishment of Achaemenid history is reviewed and then, it has been argued that how the archaeological activities and re- establishment of Achaemenid history raised the historical nationalism and led to new trend in historiography of Iran in twenty century. It has been concluded that Pirniya’s approach to ancient history of Iran can be called as beginning of scholarly and modern historiography in Iran.
Twelve proto-Elamite tablets and fragments were found during the 2006-07 excavation at Tape Sofalin in the northernCentral Iranian Plateau. The form and content of these tablets is entirely consistent with that of the standard and late proto-Elamite tablets from Susa, except TSF 11, which we date to the Susa II/GodinV Period. Although all of the inscribedobjects from Tape Sofalin published here are very fragmentary, they document the existence of a developed administrationsystem.
A raíz de la construcción de la gran pesa de Asuán en los años 60 del pasado siglo, un grupo de entusiastas investigadores españoles participaron en el estudio, documentación y rescate de algunos yacimientos en la zona que se iba a inundar. En este texto se recogen algunas impresiones de uno de los participantes: el profesor Eduardo Ripoll.
As the results of the construction of the great dam of Asuán during the sixties of the past century, a group of enthusiastic Sanish researchers participated in the study, documentation and rescue of some sites in the zone that was going to be covered by the flood. In this text we resume some personal impressions of one of the participants: professor Eduardo Ripoll.
Prehistoric archaeology, Auxiliary sciences of history
En lo que se extiende de este apartado es nuestra intención ofrecerles, como lo hemos hecho
año tras año, una guía que sirva a modo de orientación en la búsqueda de información disponible
en Internet relativa a diferentes temáticas arqueológicas, siendo en este caso el turno del arte
rupestre.