Between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, many Neolithic societies declined throughout western Eurasia due to a combination of factors that are still largely debated. Here, we report the discovery and genome reconstruction of Yersinia pestis, the etiological agent of plague, in Neolithic farmers in Sweden, pre-dating and basal to all modern and ancient known strains of this pathogen. We investigated the history of this strain by combining phylogenetic and molecular clock analyses of the bacterial genome, detailed archaeological information, and genomic analyses from infected individuals and hundreds of ancient human samples across Eurasia. These analyses revealed that multiple and independent lineages of Y. pestis branched and expanded across Eurasia during the Neolithic decline, spreading most likely through early trade networks rather than massive human migrations. Our results are consistent with the existence of a prehistoric plague pandemic that likely contributed to the decay of Neolithic populations in Europe.
Gabriella Darabos, Máté Róbert Merkl, Pál Raczky
et al.
In the prehistoric communities of the Great Hungarian Plain (GHP), the exploitation of forest steppe and floodplain woodlands started at ∼6000 cal BC. So far, only scattered and irregular wood charcoal analyses have been performed on Holocene archaeological sites, therefore the species composition of the GHP woodlands is known mainly from pollen records. This study aims to fill this gap by systematic sampling and analysis of key Early, Middle and Late Neolithic, and Copper and Middle Bronze Age archaeological sites. Pollen records from the vicinity of some archaeological sites accompany the charcoal assemblages along with potential vegetation and soil maps. Our results show that oak (Quercus sp.) was dominant in the floodplain and forest steppe, used as construction timber and firewood. Both high and low floodplain forest woody elements (Populus, Salix, Fraxinus) were represented. Elm species (Ulmus spp.) were widespread and often co-dominated the charcoal assemblages. In the long-term charcoal assemblages of the Late Neolithic SE GHP, Ulmus was more frequent than in the NE GHP. Soil and potential vegetation maps of these sites show meadow soil predominance with occasional chernozem meadow soils. Floodplain woodlands predominate in the potential vegetation with the likely presence of U. laevis and U. minor today corroborating the predominance of alluvial forests in SE Hungary during the Neolithic likely with high amplitude water table fluctuation. During the Early Chalcolithic (4500–4000 cal BC), we found a significant decline in Ulmus in the SE GHP both in the pollen and charcoal assemblages suggesting a climate change and/or pathogen induced elm-decline. In comparison with the Balkan region, we demonstrated that the SE border of the GHP was a major environmental barrier, north of which vast riparian and alluvial forests were alternating with steppe oak woods. The Early Neolithic communities had to adapt to this environment.
It is well known that the Cucuteni-Trypillia (CT) group constitutes an exception to the late 5th – early 4th millennium cal BCE trend of settlement dispersion through its continuation of Neolithic lifeways (settlement nucleation and exuberant material culture) for far longer than most other Balkan and Carpathian groups. This alone makes it hard to fit CT into a grand narrative of 5th millennium cal BCE collapse or even transformation and impossible to link such persistence to palaeo-environmental changes. But, at the same time, no general story of changes can omit the CT group and their deviant trajectories. In this paper, we propose that the CT Big Other was a vital source of continuity and cultural heritage, helping CT to continue for almost two millennia and distributed over 250,000 km2. The widespread acceptance of the CT Big Other minimized schismogenesis – the greatest danger to climax Copper Age communities. Our approach is to seek to integrate the internal development of significant planning practices, which reached their apogee in the Trypillia megasites (TMS), with the changing interactions between forest-steppe communities and those living further East and South in the steppe zone. The two advances in archaeological science that allowed the development of these ideas face opposite directions: while new techniques of geophysical investigation focussed on the local, the advances of aDNA forces archaeologists to consider regional and inter-regional aspects of mobility if not migration. The combination of a weakening of Trypillia cohesive community planning and the availability in the form of steppe barrow burial of an attractive alternative to the CT Big Other led to the eventual disappearance of Trypillia lifeways in the early centuries of the 3rd millennium cal BCE.
Piyush Pallav, Purba Bhattacharya, Supratik Mukhopadhyay
et al.
The research focuses on the non-invasive imaging technique using cosmic muon absorption tomography to monitor the internals of archaeological / civil / industrial structures of intermediate size. It integrates experimental measurements and numerical simulations with Geant4, ascertaining the reliability and precision of muon absorption tomography using easily available components for the stated purpose. The experiment probes muon interactions across a range of materials including those commonly used in building civil and industrial structures. An experiment, fondly named MARS (Muon Absorption in Rigid Structures), was carried out to explore the possibility of using overlapped scintillation paddles for improved mapping of inhomogeneities in structures made of concrete. Good correlation of experimental and simulated results for all tests indicates that this simple approach can be implemented for non-destructive evaluations of structures of civil and industrial interest
Matteo Mazzamurro, Petra Hermankova, Michele Coscia
et al.
Economic complexity is a powerful tool to estimate the productive capabilities and future growth of modern economies. Little is known of how economic complexity evolves over long periods in history. In this paper, we use archaeological evidence from the Roman Empire in the form of short texts preserved on a durable material (i.e. inscriptions) to estimate the economic complexity of the various provinces of the empire. By connecting the occupations listed in the text of inscriptions with the location in which the inscribed objects were found we can estimate that the most complex areas during the first four centuries of the Roman Empire have a remarkable and statistically significant overlap with the most complex countries today. While we lack an explanation for the reason of the preservation of economic complexity through the ages, this evidence provides a suggestion about how difficult the development of economic capabilities might be.
Existing solutions to the hotspot prediction problem in the field of geographic information remain at a relatively preliminary stage. This study presents a novel approach for detecting and predicting geographical hotspots, utilizing point cloud-voxel-community partition clustering. By analyzing high-dimensional data, we represent spatial information through point clouds, which are then subdivided into multiple voxels to enhance analytical efficiency. Our method identifies spatial voxels with similar characteristics through community partitioning, thereby revealing underlying patterns in hotspot distributions. Experimental results indicate that when applied to a dataset of archaeological sites in Turkey, our approach achieves a 19.31% increase in processing speed, with an accuracy loss of merely 6%, outperforming traditional clustering methods. This method not only provides a fresh perspective for hotspot prediction but also serves as an effective tool for high-dimensional data analysis.
Wspomnienie o Profesorze Zbigniewie Bukowskim, archeologu, który przez całe życie zawodowe związany był z Instytutem Archeologii i Etnologii PAN. Zajmował się problematyką epoki brązu i wczesnej epoki żelaza w Europie Środkowej, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem kultury łużyckiej. Był wieloletnim redaktorem naczelnym czasopisma "Archeologia Polski".
Auxiliary sciences of history, Prehistoric archaeology
Muon imaging technology is an innovative imaging technique that can be applied in volcano imaging, heavy nuclear material detection, and archaeological research. The Micromegas detector is a promising choice for muon imaging due to its high spatial resolution and large area. However, the large number of readout channels poses a challenge for electronics. In this paper, a compact front-end electronics (FEE) for reading Micromegas detectors is presented. The electronics use the commercial current-to-digital readout chip, ADAS1128, which integrates 128 current amplifiers for multi-channel charge measurement. After verifying the basic performance of the electronics, the energy resolution was obtained with a radioactive source. Furthermore, a muon imaging system prototype was set up and its spatial resolution was evaluated in a test with cosmic ray muons. The system prototype can reconstruct the boundaries of sufficiently massive objects with a size of 2 cm in a scattering imaging test.
Oracle bone script (OBS), as China's earliest mature writing system, present significant challenges in automatic recognition due to their complex pictographic structures and divergence from modern Chinese characters. We introduce OracleSage, a novel cross-modal framework that integrates hierarchical visual understanding with graph-based semantic reasoning. Specifically, we propose (1) a Hierarchical Visual-Semantic Understanding module that enables multi-granularity feature extraction through progressive fine-tuning of LLaVA's visual backbone, (2) a Graph-based Semantic Reasoning Framework that captures relationships between visual components and semantic concepts through dynamic message passing, and (3) OracleSem, a semantically enriched OBS dataset with comprehensive pictographic and semantic annotations. Experimental results demonstrate that OracleSage significantly outperforms state-of-the-art vision-language models. This research establishes a new paradigm for ancient text interpretation while providing valuable technical support for archaeological studies.
Laura Magrini, Thomas Bensby, Anna Brucalassi
et al.
The High-Resolution Multi-Object Spectrograph (HRMOS) is a facility instrument that we plan to propose for the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), following the initial presentation at the VLT 2030 workshop held at ESO in June 2019. HRMOS provides a combination of capabilities that are essential to carry out breakthrough science across a broad range of active research areas from stellar astrophysics and exoplanet studies to Galactic and Local Group archaeology. HRMOS fills a gap in capabilities amongst the landscape of future instrumentation planned for the next decade. The key characteristics of HRMOS will be high spectral resolution (R = 60000 - 80000) combined with multi-object (20-100) capabilities and long term stability that will provide excellent radial velocity precision and accuracy (10m/s). Initial designs predict that a SNR~100 will be achievable in about one hour for a star with mag(AB) = 15, while with the same exposure time a SNR~ 30 will be reached for a star with mag(AB) = 17. The combination of high resolution and multiplexing with wavelength coverage extending to relatively blue wavelengths (down to 380\,nm), makes HRMOS a spectrograph that will push the boundaries of our knowledge and that is envisioned as a workhorse instrument in the future. The science cases presented in this White Paper include topics and ideas developed by the Core Science Team with the contributions from the astronomical community, also through the wide participation in the first HRMOS Workshop (https://indico.ict.inaf.it/event/1547/) that took place in Firenze (Italy) in October 2021.
Mario Ortigoza-Urdaneta, Katherine Vieira, José G. Fernández-Trincado
et al.
Based on high-quality APOGEE DR17 and Gaia DR3 data for 1,742 red giants stars within 5 kpc of the Sun and not rotating with the Galactic disc ($V_φ<$ 100 km s$^{-1}$), we use the nonlinear technique of unsupervised analysis t-SNE to detect coherent structures in the space of ten chemical-abundance ratios: [Fe/H], [O/Fe], [Mg/Fe], [Si/Fe], [Ca/Fe], [C/Fe], [N/Fe], [Al/Fe], [Mn/Fe], and [Ni/Fe]. Additionally, we obtain orbital parameters for each star using the non-axisymmetric gravitational potential {\tt GravPot16}. Seven structures are detected, including the Splash, Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus (GSE), the high-$α$ heated-disc population, N-C-O peculiar stars, and inner disk-like stars, plus two other groups that did not match anything previously reported in the literature, here named Galileo 5 and Galileo 6 (G5 and G6). These two groups overlap with Splash in [Fe/H], G5 being lower metallicity than G6, both between GSE and Splash in the [Mg/Mn] versus [Al/Fe] plane, G5 in the $α$-rich in-situ locus, and G6 on the border of the $α$-poor in-situ one; nonetheless their low [Ni/Fe] hints to a possible ex-situ origin. Their orbital energy distributions are between the Splash and GSE, with G5 being slightly more energetic than G6. We verified the robustness of all the obtained groups by exploring a large range of t-SNE parameters, applying it to various subsets of data, and also measuring the effect of abundance errors through Monte Carlo tests.
In the East European region between Prut and Dnieper, proto-urban mega-sites developed ca. 4100−3600 BCE with population agglomerations of around 10000 inhabitants per site. An outline of complexity categories, based on P. Turchin et al. (2018), illustrates that “computational abilities” are first developed to make the shift from dispersed to agglomerated settlement patterns. The development of an internal decision-making system for a polity that organizes communication via public buildings on different levels, together with a site-specific track system, may be responsible for this shift (or made it possible). However, after generations, this communication pattern was not developed into further collective communication abilities (e.g., into a writing system), while at the same time a tendency toward centralizing decision processes probably destroyed the communication flow. This ultimately led to the collapse of Tripolye mega-sites.
Electronic computers. Computer science, Social sciences (General)
En los últimos años la historiografía ha prestado una enorme atención a la Gallaecia tardoantigua, lo que ha contribuido a un mejor conocimiento del desarrollo histórico de esta región. Sin embargo, restan aún muchísimos interrogantes en torno a numerosas problemáticas, en lo que sin duda influye el carácter lacónico de las fuentes. Este es el principal problema al que nos enfrentamos cuando intentamos aproximarnos al proceso de integración del antiguo reino suevo dentro del reino visigodo, producido entre finales del reinado de Leovigildo (569-586) y durante todo el reinado de Recaredo (586-601). Siendo conscientes de tales dificultades, es nuestro propósito a lo largo de las siguientes páginas abordar todo este proceso, ahondando en las circunstancias y motivaciones que llevaron a la conquista de la Gallaecia por los visigodos, así como en las estrategias empleadas por estos para lograr una integración efectiva y definitiva del territorio y su sociedad. Aquí pondremos el acento en la negociación entablada por el poder visigodo con las élites locales y regionales, cuya colaboración se tornaba imprescindible para un gobierno efectivo del desaparecido reino suevo. Para ello, nuestro análisis propone distinguir aquellas estrategias desplegadas sobre las élites seculares de aquellas otras empleadas sobre las jerarquías eclesiásticas galaicas, en particular sus obispos. En lo referido a las primeras, el carácter lacónico de las fuentes documentales nos forzará a recurrir a otro tipo de testimonios, como los ofrecidos por la numismática. No resulta mucho más halagüeño el panorama documental referido a la esfera eclesiástica. En general, nuestro conocimiento relativo a las relaciones entre el episcopado galaico y el poder central visigodo dependerá de la escasa información que nos aportan las suscripciones episcopales en el III Concilio de Toledo, entre otras pocas referencias indirectas.
Cassidy et al. of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, studied the social structure of farming communities, focusing on the ancient nobles buried in passage tombs (a channel-style megalithic tomb structure in Europe). Newgrange, built by complex engineering technology, is the most famous stone tunnel tomb in Ireland and one of the most famous prehistoric cemeteries in the country. The tomb is at the end of a stone-lined passage, with an opening like a window above the mausoleum entrance. On the shortest day of the year (winter solstice), this opening allows sunlight to enter the tomb. Researchers conducted DNA analysis of ancient human remains found in the tomb, revealing a rare and unexpected incident of incest. A man buried in Newgrange's tomb about 5000 years ago was the offspring of an incestuous marriage: his parents were either siblings or parents and children. This discovery led the researchers to speculate that the nobles associated with this magnificent tomb may have maintained their bloodlines through incest.①① Original source in Chinese: Kai Ye, The intersection of archaeology and genomics: Sparking the advances in cognitive human society, Bulletin of National Natural Science Foundation of China. 35 (2) (2021) 238-239.
In recent years, Galactic archaeology has become a particularly vibrant field of astronomy, with its main focus set on the oldest stars of our Galaxy. In most cases, these stars have been identified as the most metal-poor. However, the struggle to find these ancient fossils has produced an important bias in the observations - in particular, the intermediate metal-poor stars (-2.5<[Fe/H]< -1.5) have been frequently overlooked. The missing information has consequences for the precise study of the chemical enrichment of our Galaxy, in particular for what concerns neutron-capture elements and it will be only partially covered by future multi-object spectroscopic surveys such as WEAVE and 4MOST. Measuring at Intermediate Metallicity Neutron Capture Elements (MINCE) is gathering the first high-quality spectra (high S/N ratio and high resolution) for several hundreds of bright and metal-poor stars, mainly located in our Galactic halo. We compiled our selection mainly on the basis of Gaia data and determined the stellar atmospheres of our sample and the chemical abundances of each star. In this paper, we present the first sample of 59 spectra of 46 stars. We measured the radial velocities and computed the Galactic orbits for all stars. We found that 8 stars belong to the thin disc, 15 to disrupted satellites, and the remaining cannot be associated to the mentioned structures, and we call them halo stars. For 33 of these stars, we provide abundances for the elements up to zinc. We also show the chemical evolution results for eleven chemical elements, based on recent models. Our observational strategy of using multiple telescopes and spectrographs to acquire high S/N and high-resolution spectra has proven to be very efficient since the present sample was acquired over only about one year of observations. Finally, our target selection strategy proved satisfactory for our purposes.
Very recently, the Pierre Auger and Telescope Array collaborations reported strong evidence for a correlation between the highest energy cosmic rays and nearby starburst galaxies, with a global significance post-trial of $4.6σ$. It is well known that the collective effect of supernovae and winds from massive stars in the central region of these galaxies drives a galactic-scale superwind that can shock heat and accelerate ambient interstellar or circumgalactic gas. In previous work we showed that, for reasonable source parameters, starburst-driven superwinds can be the carriers of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray acceleration. In this paper we assess the extent to which one can approach the archaeological ``inverse'' problem of deciphering properties of superwind evolution from present-day IR emission of their host galaxies. We show that the Outer Limits galaxy NGC 891 could provide ``smoking gun evidence'' for the starburst-driven superwind model of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.
Alice Minelli, Alessio Mucciarelli, Davide Massari
et al.
Chemical tagging is a powerful tool to reveal the origin of stars and globular clusters (GCs), especially when dynamics alone cannot provide robust answers. So far, mostly $α$- and neutron capture elements have been used to distinguish stars born in the Milky Way (MW) from those born in external environments such as that of dwarf galaxies. Here, instead, we use iron-peak elements abundances to investigate the origin of a sample of metal-rich globular clusters. By homogeneously analyzing high-resolution UVES spectra of giant stars belonging to four metal-rich GCs (namely NGC 5927, NGC 6388, NGC 6441, NGC 6496), we find that while the $α$-elements Si and Ca have similar abundance ratios for all the four GCs, and Ti and neutron capture elements (La, Ba and Eu) only show a marginal discrepancy, a stark difference is found when considering the abundances of some iron-peak elements (Sc, V and Zn). In particular, NGC 6388 and NGC 6441 have abundance ratios for these iron-peak elements significantly lower (by ~ 0.5 dex) than those measured in NGC 5927 and NGC 6496, which are clearly identified as born in-situ MW clusters through an analysis of their orbital properties. These measurements indicate that the environment in which these clusters formed is different, and provide robust evidence supporting an accreted origin from the same progenitor for NGC 6388 and NGC 6441.
El mundo funerario es un campo de investigación que siempre está proporcionando nuevos datos. Una de las mejores formas para conocer las sociedades del pasado y sus modos de vida es a través de sus enterramientos y de los propios espacios funerarios, los cuáles configuran un espacio circundante. En este sentido, para comprender el paisaje del que forma parte un yacimiento, hay que conocer la implantación que se produce en el propio espacio funerario, su proceso evolutivo y las transformaciones que pudieron realizarse en el sitio. En este trabajo se presentan tres necrópolis muy próximas entre sí pero que tienen sus propias particularidades, así como sus semejanzas. Los tres yacimientos son tardoantiguos y se encuentran en la zona del embalse Guadalteba en la provincia de Málaga.
Abstract
The funerary world is a research field that is always providing new information. One of the best way of knowing past societies and their respective lifestyle are the burials, and the funerary spaces that characterize the surrounding space. In this way, to understand the landscape from which a site is part of, we must know the implantation that is produced in the funerary space, his evolutive process and the transformations that were performed in the site. In this work, three necropolis are presented that are very close to each other, but that have their own particularities, as well as their similarities. The three sites are from late antiquity and are located in
Prehistoric archaeology, Auxiliary sciences of history