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In the Comment by Dr. I. Rabin from Bundesanstalt fur Materialforschung und -prufung in Berlin are stated many conjectures and apparent guesses contradicting several of our interpretations. Most of Rabin's ‘guesses’ and interpretations are unwarranted. Below we rebut some of the misinterpretations under separate headings.

The paper “The constituents of the ink from a Qumran inkwell: New prospects for provenancing the ink on the Dead Sea Scrolls” by Rasmussen et al. (2012) presents an account of the analysis of a residue from an unprovenanced inkwell. In this comment, I reassess their study and offer alternative interpretations of their experimental results.

The assertion that the phosphate content of ceramic is an established marker for the presence of residues of organic substances such as fats and blood (Bollong et al. , Direct dating and identity of fibre temper in pre-Contact Bushman (Basarwa) pottery, Journal of Archaeological Science 20, 41-55, 1993) is refuted. Phosphate is a common contaminant of buried pottery and may not be considered an indicator of function.

Bark cloth (‘tapa/kapa’) is a fabric made from beaten plant fibres. In the Pacific tapa made of paper mulberry has been of great cultural importance and its use is associated with both utilitarian and ceremonial contexts. In the 19th century, traditional bark cloth was largely replaced by Western cloth. On some islands, tapa making was banished with the arrival of missionaries and Christianization. This is the case for the Gambier Islands in French Polynesia. Only a few tapa pieces from this island group survive and are held in Museum collections. In this work, we present results of the analysis of a bark cloth bundle discovered at the Te Ana o te Tetea cave on Agakauitai in the Gambier Archipelago. The bundle was made up of large and small strips of thin tapa, with some watermarks left by the beaters. Associated with the tapa, were a piece of wood and cordage. A few of the bark cloth samples showed symmetrical black lines along some of the folds. This paper presents the results of a number of analyses performed on the bark cloth bundle from this island with the aim of determining its age, if the decorations were man-made and the plant species used for its manufacture. Samples were dated by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) and the designs were analyzed by portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Scanning Electron Microscopy - Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) for elemental characterization. Raman spectroscopy was also performed in order to assess the chemical nature of pigments. These analyses allow us to conclude that the finds date to the pre-European contact period for this island group and that these lines can be attributed to man-made designs. In addition, genetic analysis of the ribosomal region were performed to identify the species used in its manufacture, which indicate that the plant used to make the tapa cloth was Broussonetia papyrifera or paper mulberry. The availability of new genetic sequencing techniques allow for new and very sensitive analyses of archaeological material that require careful handling from the beginning in order to avoid sample contamination.

In a paper based on recent excavations and analysis of recovered material at the French Middle Paleolithic site of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, Rendu et al. (2014) concluded that there is sufficient evidence to support the long-held interpretation that the Neandertal remains found in the bouffia Bonneval locality represents an intentional Neandertal burial. This paper critically examines their data and arguments in relation to criteria that can be used to provide an objective evaluation of such evidence. In each case, the evidence from La Chapelle-aux-Saints either fails to meet these criteria or supports other interpretations equally well. As a result, this site fails to provide unequivocal evidence in support of the notion that Neandertals intentionally interred their dead, whether in any ritualistic or symbolic context or not.

It has been argued that the transition to maize based diets across much of the Eastern Woodlands of North America ca. A.D. 1000 was the primary catalyst for the population increases, technological innovations, and fundamental shifts in social and cultural organization characteristic of Late Woodland, Mississippian, Upper Mississippian, and Iroquoian societies. However, raw or uncooked maize kernels alone are known to be a nutritionally inadequate subsistence staple. Nixtamalization, or the alkaline processing of dried raw maize to produce hominy, yields a more readily digestible and therefore healthier food resource. Such processing is ubiquitous amongst maize-based societies in the Americas. The timing of the transition to maize agriculture was also closely associated with the adoption of shell-tempered ceramics. As a result, an hypothesis has been offered by multiple authors that burned and crushed mollusc shell aplastic may act as an alkaline agent in the nixtamalization process. The research reported here provides a formal empirical test of this hypothesis. Findings indicate that no substantial structural or chemical changes to maize kernels result from the leaching of shell tempering alkaline products from the fabric of a ceramic vessel. Two constraints are noted in this process: the reduction in adherence of wet paste due to the addition of mussel shell derived calcium oxide (lime) or calcium hydroxide (slaked lime) as a tempering agent, and the necessity to avoid the decomposition of calcium carbonate to lime or slaked lime in order for the successful firing of shell-tempered vessels.

Three sediment cores and five test-pits at Anaura Bay, New Zealand were examined for evidence of Maori horticulture, and compared with descriptions of this site made in 1769 by Captain Cook's Endeavour expedition. The pits revealed soils modified for gardening and plant microfossil analysis (pollen, phytoliths and starch) identified four introduced prehistoric cultigens, all featured in the descriptions. These comprise three starch field crops: taro (Colocasia esculenta), common yam (Dioscorea alata) and sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), and an orchard-based crop: paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera). This activity, occurring on steep hills and a recently uplifted surface, was accompanied by deforestation and consequently an extremely accelerated erosion rate. In one of the cores, maize (Zea mays) pollen and cf. potato (Solanum tuberosum) starch possibly older than other evidence of European settlement may confirm early adoption and spread by Maori of these European-introduced crops.

Flemish 15–17th century tapestries are among the most precious testimonies of European cultural heritage. Even in their deteriorated condition, they are still highly valued and exhibited in many museums all over the world. The present state of degradation evidenced by visual assessment in conservation practice, and confirmed with macro-scaled tensile strength tests, reveals the vulnerability of the wool and silk fibres to light exposure. The focus of this study is in the development of a micro-destructive tool that can be applied to provide information about protein breakdown at an early stage, long before fibre deterioration becomes visible. High performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection is a very efficient technique to determine the amino acid composition of proteins at sub-microgram level. In the first part of the study, the technique is evaluated for its efficiency in the detection of oxidative fibre damage at molecular level. The pathway for initial oxidative degradation of textile proteins is studied using a set of new and accelerated aged wool and silk reference samples. Characteristic alterations in amino acid composition of both proteins are detected and sensitive markers for the monitoring of oxidative deterioration of keratin and fibroin determined and validated on a large set of dyed reference samples. Correlation between the developed early warning markers and the physical degradation of the fibres is demonstrated. In the second part of the study, the developed early warning markers are applied to monitor the state of oxidative degradation of a large dataset of historical wool and silk samples from 15–17th century Flemish tapestries in Belgian, Spanish and British collections, allowing condition evaluation of the prestigious historical collections. The developed early warning system is found to be a powerful, micro-destructive tool for conservators and restorers to evaluate the condition of the tapestry or textile collection and to prioritise the conservation or restoration treatment of the most fragile pieces of the collection.

13 C abstract Among the multiple proxies for detecting maize in precontact economies is the use of d 13 C analysis of carbonized residues from ceramic cooking vessels. Although maize horticulture was widely established in Eastern North America (ENA) by A.D. 1000, there are carbonized residues from ceramic assemblages after this date that lack the elevated d 13 C values indicative of the presence of maize. This may be due to

This study investigated wet charred wood excavated at an archaic cemetery in Corfu, Greece, dating from 6th century B.C. The preservation condition of the material was evaluated based on its physicochemical properties and micromorphology in comparison to modern combusted wood. Charring temperature of the material was estimated by Electron Spin Resonance (ESR). Results indicated a severe degree of decay, resulting not only from charring. Conservation treatments involved spraying, as the material readily collapsed during immersion. Aqueous solutions of polyethylene glycol (PEG) were applied, as solvent soluble materials were found to be unsuitable due to the solvent’s volatility. Results showed that treatment efficacy was dependant on the moisture content of the material. Wet charred wood cannot be handled or treated like other wet or waterlogged organic materials. Further investigation is required to identify those properties which best characterize its preservation state and to assess the effectiveness of a wider range of conservation treatments.

Elimination of extraneous DNA in fossil specimens is of paramount importance for the successful isolation and analysis of authentic DNA; this is especially true when the specimens are of human origin. Bones and teeth are commonly decontaminated with bleach containing the powerful oxidising hypochlorite ion. The procedures involve either submersion in or wiping with the chlorine agent. Using the radioactive isotope Cl 36 we showed that submersion of fossil teeth in solutions of small ions such as Cl − or hypochlorite, ClO − , cause that they migrate right into the pulp. This may lead to the unwanted destruction of authentic DNA. However, using pairs of teeth from the remains of four ancient Europeans (1000–2000 YBP) as well as tooth and hair from an Inuit skull (>300 YBP) we provide evidence that at least some endogenous human fossil DNA survives in powdered pulp/dentin that has been submersed in 2% hypochlorite. Further, we show that powdered pulp/dentin deliberately contaminated with huge amounts of a 414 bp PCR product is effectively decontaminated by suspension in 2% hypochlorite for 5 min. Decontamination of fossil material from teeth may therefore be accomplished by a short direct action of hypochlorite on the powdered specimen rather than less controllable and less efficient external treatments of the whole specimen.

Twenty-eight stone flakes were produced, sterilised and then used for a variety of tasks involving the processing of plants and animal products. Precautions were taken to avoid contaminating the residues. One set of used flakes was stored in sealed plastic bags; the other set was buried in compost for a month and then exposed to open-air conditions for three days. The bagged tools were used for a blind test (Test One) to assess the identification skills of the residue analyst who was not provided with any information prior to conducting the analysis. She obtained a high score for recognition of residues and tasks performed. Test Two used the tools that had been buried in compost and here the aim was to study the effects of acidic, organic-rich deposits on plant and animal residues. The Test Two results intimate that animal residues are more sensitive to certain burial and exposed conditions than plant residues, but more closely controlled experiments are needed before definite conclusions can be drawn.

Time has consistently been regarded as the missing dimension from our renderings of space, having a significant impact on how we interpret and represent past interaction. Nowhere is this more keenly felt than in discussion of maritime mobility. This paper outlines an innovative approach to mapping maritime spaces by taking into account the performance of Bronze Age sailing ships in different weather conditions and the subsequent time of sailing journeys. The use of cartograms is demonstrated to be invaluable for reconceptualisation of maritime space and rethinking maritime connectivity in the past. This marks a step-change in approach, which has implications for regions beyond the case study area (eastern Mediterranean). The results presented in this paper foreground meaningful differences in maritime connectivity between Egypt and the Levant during the earlier Bronze Age than are easily realised through traditional static representations. This demonstrates the significance of developing alternative representations of space/time for archaeology.

Smalt is a ground blue pigment made of potassium glass whose color comes from a small amount of cobalt oxide added during its preparation. It was very frequently used during the 15th to 19th centuries in Europe, but has by contrast been rarely mentioned or studied by Chinese researchers, despite having been identified in recent years on many Chinese antiques. This paper discusses analytical results from a selection of twenty-one samples of smalt, including wall paintings, architectural polychromy, polychrome sculptures, cave murals and textile paintings, each of which has been subject to a combination of polarized light microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and scanning electronic microscopy. This paper discusses the smalt's identification, as well as its historical uses and trade.

While ancient Near Eastern cuneiform texts and iconography unambiguously demonstrate the social, economic, and ritual significance of beer, direct archaeological evidence for beer production or consumption remains surprisingly rare. This scarcity of material evidence renders it difficult to extrapolate information about the ingredients and production processes of beer, on the one hand, and the paraphernalia and social contexts of its consumption, on the other. In recent decades, organic residue analysis has become an essential tool in the identification of ancient alcoholic beverages, but research on Near Eastern beer has focused largely on production and storage vessels, whose form, archaeological context, and associated macroscopic residues already indicated their use in beer production. In this paper, we present a novel field sampling protocol that prevents contamination along with a refined organic residue analysis methodology that relies on a series of co-occurring compounds to identify confidently beer in ceramic vessels. The same compounds were identified in several modern beer samples and, thus, support our identification of a similar fermented barley-based beverage in archaeological samples from the late second millennium BCE site of Khani Masi in northeastern Iraq. The results presented in this paper allow us, for the first time, to unambiguously link a diverse range of vessel types to the consumption and production of beer, identify a fundamental change in Mesopotamian consumption practices, and shed light on the cultural dimensions of Babylonia's encounter with the Zagros-Mesopotamian borderlands.

This paper introduces the applicability of underwater photogrammetric survey within challenging conditions as the main tool to enhance and enrich the process of documenting archaeological excavation through the creation of 4D models. Photogrammetry was being attempted on underwater archaeological sites at least as early as the 1970s’ and today the production of traditional 3D models is becoming a common practice within the discipline. Photogrammetry underwater is more often implemented to record exposed underwater archaeological remains and less so as a dynamic interpretative tool. Therefore, it tends to be applied in bright environments and when underwater visibility is > 1m, reducing its implementation on most submerged archaeological sites in more turbid conditions. Recent years have seen significant development of better digital photographic sensors and the improvement of optical technology, ideal for darker environments. Such developments, in tandem with powerful processing computing systems, have allowed underwater photogrammetry to be used by this research as a standard recording and interpretative tool. Using multi-source photogrammetry (5, GoPro5 Hero Black cameras) this paper presents the accumulation of daily (4D) underwater surveys carried out in the Early Bronze Age (3,300 BC) to Late Ottoman (17th Century AD) archaeological site of Ropotamo in the Bulgarian Black Sea under challenging conditions (< 0.5m visibility). It proves that underwater photogrammetry can and should be used as one of the main recording methods even in low light and poor underwater conditions as a way to better understand the complexity of the underwater archaeological record., {"references":["G. F. Bass, \"Archaeology Under Water,\" in Ancient peoples and places,\nNew York, 1966.","J. Green, \"Maritime archaeology: a technical handbook,\" 1990.","M. Rule, \"The Mary Rose: The Excavation and Raising of Henry VIIIs\nFlagship,\" 1982.","N. Rule, \"Some techniques for cost-effective three-dimensional mapping\nof underwater sites,\" BAR International Series, vol. 598, p. 51, 1995.","I. Karayotov, \"The Antique and Medieval port at the mouth of the river\nRopotamo,\" Acta TAB, vol. 5, pp. 64–66, 1990.","C. J. Lister, R. N. Hiscott, A. E. Aksu, and P. J. Mudie, \"Compositional\ntrends through the Holocene mud succession of the southwestern Black\nSea shelf: Implications for sedimentary provenance and water-level\nhistory,\" Sedimentary Geology, vol. 316, pp. 13–25, 2015.","G. Lericolais, J. Bourget, I. Popescu, P. Jermannaud, T. Mulder, S. Jorry,\nand N. Panin, \"Late Quaternary deep-sea sedimentation in the western\nBlack Sea: New insights from recent coring and seismic data in the\ndeep basin,\" Global and Planetary Change, vol. 103, no. April 2013,\npp. 232–247, apr 2013.","H. Br¨uckner, D. Kelterbaum, O. Marunchak, A. 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Ya, \"Oscillating Quaternary water\nlevels of the Marmara Sea and vigorous outflow into the Aegean Sea\nfrom the Marmara Sea Black Sea drainage corridor,\" vol. 153, pp.\n275–302, 1999.\n[13] W. B. F. Ryan, W. C. Pitman, C. Major, K. Shimkus, V. Moskalenko,\nG. A. Jones, P. Dimitrov, N. Goriir, M. Saking, and H. Yiice, \"An abrupt\ndrowning of the Black Sea shelf,\" vol. 138, pp. 119–126, 1997.\n[14] J. McCarthy and J. Benjamin, \"Multi-image Photogrammetry for\nUnderwater Archaeological Site Recording: An Accessible, Diver-Based\nApproach,\" Journal of Maritime Archaeology, mar 2014.\n[15] C. Beltrame and E. Costa, \"3D survey and modelling of shipwrecks in\ndifferent underwater environments,\" Journal of Cultural Heritage, 2017.\n[16] O. Barkai and Y. Kahanov, \"The Tantura F Shipwreck, Israel,\"\nInternational Journal of Nautical Archaeology, vol. 36, no. 1, p. 21,\n2007.\n[17] M. Eliyahu, O. Barkai, Y. Goren, N. Eliaz, Y. Kahanov, and\nD. Ashkenazi, \"The iron anchors from the Tantura F shipwreck:\ntypological and metallurgical analyses,\" Journal of Archaeological\nScience, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 233–245, 2011.\n[18] N. Rule, \"The Direct Survey Method (DSM) OF Underwater Survey,\nAnd Its Application Underwater,\" International Journal of Nautical\nArchaeology, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 157–162, 1989."]}

We present a detailed response to the critique by Mr. Jansen of the paper “ Digging Deeper: Insights into Metallurgical Transitions in European Prehistory through Copper Isotopes ”. When we consider Cu isotope ratios of European Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age artifacts in the context of their local geological settings, climates, and archaeological contexts, Mr. Jansen's hypothesis that 63 Cu enrichment results from the adoption of fahlore ores is untenable. In both Serbia and Central Europe, the earliest copper production is associated with 65 Cu-enriched ores and subsequently produced artifacts yield lower ranges δ 65 Cu. This shift in Cu isotopic composition correlates with the initial use of predominantly hypogene ores, not with variations in their trace element content. Essentially the expanded dataset supports the conclusions that were presented in the original paper—Cu isotopes are an effective means of delineating the transition from oxide-based smelting to methodologically more complex smelting of sulphide ores in prehistoric Europe with its relatively limited production and trade. Mixing did not mask the critical Cu isotope signatures in this setting. Therefore, Cu isotope compositions of artifacts can be used to interpret the mineralogical character of the ores from which they were produced, regardless of their provenance, as long as trade networks remained within a region of similar climatic history.

We present a detailed response to Professor Pernicka's critique of our paper entitled “Iridium to provenance ancient silver”. We have concluded that Pernicka's hypothesis, which suggests that elevated levels of iridium in ancient silver artefacts is a consequence of silver deriving from the cementation (parting) process, does not account for the available evidence and that his critiques of the analyses we presented seem misplaced. We offer a simpler solution and show that the structure of our transformed data is founded on logical reasoning which is borne out by the empirical results. Essentially, this response supports our view reported in the original paper that the variation in iridium in ancient silver is largely geological rather than a consequence of de-silvering gold.

Over 30 years ago, Kintigh and Ammerman (1982) outlined and applied a heuristic approach to spatial archaeology that balanced quantitative analyses and culturally and historically contextualized archaeology. The theoretical and methodological messages were that we need to do more than “eyeball” spatial patterns, we need to apply the proper analyses based on the characteristics of our datasets, and we need to ensure that our models, quantitative analyses, and resulting interpretations are based in the proper cultural and historical contexts. My goal in this paper is to examine how two of the concepts in this approach, significance and context, apply to a modern spatial archaeology that heavily utilizes geospatial computing tools. Although these tools help to solve several concerns that existed in the field 30 years ago, they can also cause others, such as mistaking autocorrelation for correlation or confusion about which of the multitude of available analytical tools is appropriate for particular questions and datasets. In this paper, I present a simplified version of the methodology I have used to address these concerns. I use archaeological, historical, and GIS-modeled data to compare the regional patterning of hierarchical and egalitarian societies in southeastern North America to examine why hierarchical sociopolitical organizations may have arose where they did. I end with a critical review of this approach and a discussion of how such research can be improved moving forward.

Archaeological GIS is moving towards increasingly detailed, embodied, multidimensional simulations and analyses of human experience in the past. Most of the emerging GIS research synthesizing spatial modeling and subject-centered approaches has been concerned with practices and perceptions of landscape. This paper tightens the analytical focus to the more intimate scale of a single settlement, combining models of movement and visual experience within a planned colonial town in highland Peru. Such a rendering is important, since controlling movement and visual experience were central to the colonial project that built this and other such towns in the Viceroyalty of Peru. This study centers on an exceptionally well-preserved, relict planned colonial town in highland Peru to investigate affordances of movement and visibility within it. Several GIS-based simulations and analytical techniques are brought together, including drone-based high resolution three dimensional modeling, spatial network analysis, walking models, and cumulative viewshed analysis, to simulate aggregate visual experience as people moved through the town. The results are suggestive of how the layout of the town specifically routed transit to facilitate the visual prominence of the church and original Inka plaza of the reduccion, as well as the prominence of indigenous elite households. Both continuities and discontinuities of movement and visual experience relative to Inkaic and Spanish colonial spaces are evident. By extension, this paper also provides a pathway for quantitative and reproducible modeling of site-scale movement and visual affordances as dimensions of subject and community formation in other global contexts.

This paper presents a political ecological framework for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis to examine changes in agricultural land in ancient and early historical contexts. It raises several issues pertinent to archaeological epistemology and science, with a particular focus on the limitations of using fixed data categories to examine fluid environmental processes and ecological relationships. The paper draws on political ecological theories that define land as a social process, moving beyond economic conceptions of agricultural land that rest on productive capacity and phenomenological theories that examine the physical environment in terms of cultural perception. It combines qualitative (archival) and quantitative (archaeological) data in a GIS methodology to address how linked changes in physical land attributes and labor routines can affect regional ecologies and foment social conflict. In empirical terms, the paper traces changes from maize to wheat fields during Spanish colonization (ca. 1533-1670) in Ollantaytambo, Peru, a monumental Inca town near the capital of their empire. It reveals how ecological transformations that occurred during this century–widespread deaths throughout, abandonment of Inca fields, and introduction of European biota–in part framed conflicts between Andean people and the colonial regime, and also empowered local farmers to claim land in previously undeveloped areas.

The origin of copper used in Late Bronze Age (LBA) Egypt is very poorly understood despite its cultural and economic importance attested in archaeological and historical sources. Extensive literature discusses major LBA copper sources such as Cyprus (oxhide ingots), Oman (bun ingots) and Egyptian-controlled sites in the Sinai. This paper presents new chemical and lead isotope data for Egyptian copper alloys excavated in several bronze production workshops from the New Kingdom capital Pi-Ramesse, expanding on earlier data from Amarna. Supporting data is obtained from the analysis of crucible remains from the same context, for which the potential contribution of lead isotope analysis is critically evaluated. Diachronic changes in the provisioning of these Egyptian workshops are discussed, incorporating an extensive overview of currently known Egyptian mining and metallurgy. The results have major implications for our understanding of LBA copper circulation in the wider region, for the first time analysing a major Egyptian ‘consumer’ assemblage. The analytical results reveal a complex picture of variable copper supply to the Ramesside workshops, which involved both the recycling of existing bronzes and the use of freshly smelted copper from various origins to produce fresh alloys. Importantly, this includes crucial new evidence for the melting of (Cypriot) oxhide ingot fragments in crucibles for alloying. The royal, internationally connected nature of these workshops makes Pi-Ramesse an exceptional case study of LBA metal trade, and hypotheses raised in this paper highlight the need for more extensive analysis of ancient Egyptian copper artefacts to grasp metal circulation throughout Egypt's long history. More refined frameworks, incorporating the variety of private as well as royal contexts, will improve understanding of Egypt's ancient economic organisation. This paper offers new perspectives onto LBA metal supply and consumption networks, with broader archaeological interpretative models of economic and political interactions across the wider ancient Near East.

This paper follows two earlier papers about Portuguese gesso gilding grounds, a typical decoration from the 13th to the 18th century but with a special focus on the Baroque period. It concentrates on understanding the reasons why these gilded surfaces are so durable. The main concerns of the people involved in the production of the gilded surfaces, as revealed in contemporary historical documents, are the quality and durability of the decorations. The investigation of ‘durability’ involved the study of factors not explored before regarding materials and practices commonly used to produce gilded wooden surfaces in South Europe. The paper discusses the probable effects on durability of loading a binder with a filler, of the shape and size of the filler particles, of the interaction of filler and binder, and of using a multi-layered system; it discusses the science underlying the use and behaviour of particular gilding materials and practices. This paper is followed by a second paper focused on technological choices. Together they aim to contribute to understanding why Portuguese gilders clearly chose double-structured gesso grounds in preference to other possibilities, and to aid on conservation decision-making and the design of new strategies for the treatment and preservation of these historical gilded surfaces.

This paper is the fourth in a series covering Portuguese gesso gilding grounds from the late 13th to the 18th century, but with a special focus on the Baroque period when gilded surfaces played an important religious, political and social role in Portugal. This fourth paper concentrates on unravelling the motives of the craftsmen who chose to produce grounds for gilded surfaces using very specific materials and techniques: gypsum, as the raw material, and a double-structured layered system. It seems plausible that the properties of this type of ground, the religious and social importance and the function of the gilded objects, cultural influences from southern European, and the particular Portuguese historical context all contributed to this choice. This paper aims to contribute to enrich understanding of gilding technology and to inform conservation decision-making for the preservation of these gilded objects.

The various theoretical approaches advanced over the past 50 years to explain the origins of agriculture have prompted much discussion and debate. Most recently, controversy has arisen concerning the utility of two Darwinian approaches; namely, cultural niche construction (CNC) and human behavioral ecology-derived optimal foraging theory (OFT). Recent papers advocate for the primacy of cultural niche construction, calling for optimal foraging approaches to be all but disregarded in the quest to explain how and why foragers became farmers (Smith, 2015, 2016; Zeder, 2015, 2016). In particular, it is claimed that archaeological, paleo-environmental, and paleontological evidence from the Neotropics of northern South America fail to meet predictions derived from OFT theory, while predictions said to be derived from CNC-based approaches are supported (Smith, 2015, 2016; Zeder, 2015). However, a number of misreadings of the northern South America evidence are made in those discussions, while some pertinent literature is not considered. In this paper we discuss these misreadings and provide a clear re-articulation of the original data and interpretations, finding support for OFT predictions. Our re-evaluations of OFT and CNC further suggest they can, in fact, be complimentary explanatory approaches.

Biometric analysis of faunal remains is crucial for estimating the age/sex composition of assemblages and exploring large-scale processes that affected animal biology in the past. The LSI technique is a premier method for examining biometry in different zooarchaeological scenarios, particularly domestication research and regional-scale surveys. Despite the technique's popularity, several early arguments describing limitations or concerns about the LSI technique still impact interpretations and applications today. More generally, though, the LSI technique is treated as a method of increasing sample sizes as a last resort when unmodified measurements are too scarce to use. This paper re-examines the theoretical foundations of the LSI technique to update best practices in LSI analyses in zooarchaeology. Redefining the LSI technique as a pseudo-centering process shows why LSI values are preferable to unmodified measurements for biometric analyses. This new definition also highlights the arbitrary nature of standard animal and logarithm base choice, though certain decisions (smaller standard animals and base e logarithms) can aid interpretation by closely linking changes in LSI values to proportional changes of the original measurements relative to the standard. Of more consequence on LSI analyses, however, is the way to aggregate LSI values from different measurement types; this paper shows how multilevel modeling uses partial pooling to balance the trade-offs of bias and variance caused by aggregation. To showcase the benefits of the Bayesian multilevel LSI model, the biometric variation of ten simulated sites using a reference set of Shetland sheep measurements (Popkin Peter et al., 2012). Modeling all ten sites within a single multilevel structure provides a clear way to evaluate biometric differences while accounting for potential allometries and variation in body part representation between different sites. These results clarify earlier arguments about the limitations of the LSI technique, summarized in a set of best practices for LSI applications.

For over half of a century, ethnoarchaeology has served as an important analytical tool in the development of archaeological theory and the interpretation of human culture. In recent years, with the growth of geoarchaeology as a subdiscipline of archaeological research, scholars have begun to examine contemporary and recent contexts by applying analytical methods from the field of geosciences (e.g., soil micromorphology, mineralogical, elemental, phytolith and isotope analysis) in order to better understand site formation processes and depositional and post-depositional processes. First, this paper explores, as contributions to archaeological sciences, the concept of ethnoarchaeology in general and the emergence of geo-ethnoarchaeology in particular. Second, through examination and synthesis of several key case studies, this paper emphasizes the usefulness of a broad range of laboratory-based analytical methods in linking the archaeological record and human activity. Third, this paper brings together data from recent geo-ethnoarchaeological studies conducted in Africa, South and Central America, Europe and South and West Asia that analyze floor deposits, hearths, degradation of mud houses, use of space, use of plants, animal husbandry and cooking installations. A wealth of information is assembled here to form a reference framework crucial to any study of archaeological materials and sites and for the interpretation of archaeological site formation.

This paper approaches, from a computational perspective, the problem of predicting the stature of human skeletal remains from bone measurements. There are traditional methods for constructing models that give good results for stature estimation. In this paper, we aim to investigate the usefulness of using machine learning-based models to approximate stature. Assuming that the stature of an individual is indirectly related to bone measurement values, we can derive methods that learn from archaeological data and construct models that give good estimates of the stature. Two novel machine learning-based regression models for stature estimation are proposed in this paper. Experiments using artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms were performed on samples from the Terry Collection Postcranial Osteometric Database, and the obtained results are discussed and compared with the results from other similar studies. The experimental evaluations indicate that the machine learning-based regression models are efficient for the stature estimation of archaeological remains and highlight the potential of our proposal.

This special issue examines new trends in phytolith scholarship and assesses the future direction of this field of research. The papers presented represent a broader shift in phytolith research into a new phase called the “Period of Expanding Applications”. It is characterized by 1) a rapid increase in the number of phytolith publications; 2) a diversification of research topics; 3) a reassessment of the use of radiocarbon and other isotopes in phytoliths; 4) the development of digital technologies for refining and sharing phytolith identifications; 5) renewed efforts for standardization of phytolith nomenclature and laboratory protocol; and 6) the development of the field of applied phytolith research. This paper argues that interdisciplinary collaborations and a continued effort to understand the basics of phytolith production patterns are essential for the growth of the discipline and its application in archaeological studies.

As archaeologists continue to be interested in understanding how people encountered and engaged with past landscapes, layering them with social knowledge, it is important to harness geospatial techniques that are not tethered analytically to discrete points and can represent the flow of processes across a whole landscape. This paper explores landscape permeability modeling as one such geospatial approach. Applied archaeologically, permeability modeling examines the degree to which a given landscape, with a specific mix of physical and social variables, was conducive to the movement of people and the flow of social, economic, political, and/or ideological processes. An archaeological case study is presented that uses a resistant-kernel permeability model to examine food storage suitability in an inland lake landscape in northern Michigan during Late Precontact (ca. AD 1100/1200 – 1600) and how people in their intimate, day-to-day, encounters with this landscape understood the storage potential(s) of this matrix. While a specific case is detailed in this paper, the procedures employed are adaptable to other archaeological landscapes.

Small, bowl-shaped pits characterized by a lower fill rich in charred organic material are among the most frequent features found on Mesolithic sites in the sand belt of NW Europe, in particular in the Netherlands and Belgium. Traditionally they are interpreted as “pit hearths” used for food processing and/or tar production. However, in 2015 the present authors suggested an alternative explanation according to which these features represent ant nests which collapsed after burning caused by forest (wild)fires. In a recent paper Huisman et al. (2019) present new micromorphological data which they believe supports the anthropogenic character of these features. Mesolithic man would have put top soil turves on the pit floors before igniting the hearth; after the firing the pits would have been deliberately filled with topsoil material. The current paper challenges these interpretations and concludes that the micromorphological data better fit the ant nest hypothesis.

Remotely-piloted aircraft (RPA) thermography is one of the least utilized remote-sensing methods in archaeology, yet it has great potential for visualizing subsurface archaeological features. Given the logistic constraints of remote fieldwork, arctic archaeologists have much to gain from this portable and effective remote-sensing application. This paper presents a novel methodological approach for the collection, processing, and analysis of RPA thermal imagery in the Canadian High Arctic that accounts for the unique environmental and logistic challenges of RPA applications in polar regions. The development of this approach is based on a case study of two Pre-Inuit (4500–1000 B.P.) archaeological sites from the Foxe Basin region, Nunavut. The presented workflow demonstrates the effectiveness of RPA thermography in archaeological feature detection in an Arctic-tundra setting. Thermal detection of several previously unidentified subsurface features in Foxe Basin suggest that surface feature visibility is lower than previously anticipated, calling attention to potential judgemental biases in pedestrian archaeological surveys in Arctic contexts. Based on the utility of low-altitude thermography for visualizing the internal structures of Tuniit dwellings, this paper proposes that thermography facilitates archaeological spatial analysis beyond feature prospection. RPA thermography is a non-destructive and economic remote-sensing solution to some of the persistent logistic challenges to fieldwork in remote locations that often inhibit large-scale archaeological analyses not only in the Canadian Arctic, but remote Arctic-Alpine regions worldwide.

Demographic profiling of archaeological assemblages offers a window into the shifting exploitation strategies practiced by ancient societies. High resolution sex-specific age profiles, in particular, have yielded new insights into the evolution of early management practices taken during the initial stages of animal domestication (Zeder, 2001). This paper is the third in a series seeking to develop a method for constructing demographic profiles for Sus scrofa — one of the earliest major livestock species noteworthy for being independently domesticated in both Southwest and East Asia. The first paper in this series (Lemoine et al., 2014) presented a new system for constructing high resolution age profiles using patterns of dental eruption and wear. The second (Zeder et al., 2015) presented a new method for computing high resolution age profiles based on long bone fusion. Both papers used a reference assemblage of modern Eurasian wild boar for developing these new aging schemes, which were then applied to the large assemblage of S. scrofa remains from the Early Holocene age site of Hallan Cemi (c. 11,600 cal. BP) in southeastern Anatolia — an assemblage that previous researchers claimed provided evidence for early steps toward management (Redding, 2005). Here we focus on a subset of this modern reference collection consisting of 34 wild boar skeletons from Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. We employ a Logarithm Size Index scaling (LSI) technique to examine the effect of factors such as age, locality, and, sex on body size in modern wild boar. We find that even though both age and locality have an impact on body size, LSI values derived from select measurements of various different post-cranial elements can be used to classify individual osteological specimens as belonging to immature animals, and, for animals older than about eight months of age, as female or male. We test the reliability of these classifications by comparing the known demographic profiles of the modern reference population against those derived from the LSI classifications. Finally, we apply this new method to the Hallan Cemi assemblage and propose a method for adjusting LSI values to account for temporal size differences encountered between the modern and ancient populations. We also present methods for assessing the reliability of these classifications in the ancient population. We conclude by offering guidelines for the application of this new method to other archaeological assemblages of S. scrofa and other ungulate species that demonstrate strong degrees of sexual dimorphism.

The provenance of marbles used for ancient statuary and architecture is of utmost importance for archaeologists, art historians and archaeometrists. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive characterisation of the white marble exploited in antiquity in Goktepe (Mugla Province, Turkey) to increase the reliability for identifying this marble in ancient artefacts. A campaign of interdisciplinary archaeological and geological fieldwork undertaken by the Marmora Asiatica project is based on a multi-method approach and on a representative set of samples used for the archaeometric analyses. Petrographic investigation showed that the Goktepe marble is more variable with regard to fabrics and grain size than previously suggested, whereas it is generally non-luminescent and dolomite-free. Stable C and O isotope and elemental analyses confirmed the results reported so far. We also report, for the first time for Goktepe white marble, the results of Sr isotope measurements, which in combination with elemental ratios, e.g. Sr/Mg and Mn/Sr, and δ18O values, greatly improve the discrimination among Goktepe, Carrara and other fine-grained white marbles. Applicability of these proxies was tested on artefacts from Hadrian's Villa, for which Carrara and Goktepe provenance had been proposed. The paper also reports new archaeological findings and results of estimates of stone extracted from the quarries, which allowed for a recontextualization of the significance of quarries at Goktepe. High-resolution topographic measurements, performed for the first time with the use of a 3-D laser scanner, combined with geological field study, allowed for precise calculation of the volume of the white variety extracted in antiquity. Estimates of 17000 m3 is almost a half less than previously suggested. Moreover, a careful study of the existing literature showed that in some instances assignment of white marble artefacts to the Goktepe quarries may not be accurate. Verification of provenance for those problematic artefacts and a more reliable identification of Goktepe marbles in the future can be achieved by application of the set of analyses proposed in this work, which has a higher discrimination potential.

In a recent paper, Benson and Grimstead (2019) determined that only minimal amounts of maize could have been grown in Chaco Canyon due to its aridity, short growing season, and frequent summer flooding of the valley floor. In this paper it is shown that deer and rabbit densities within semiarid regions such as the Canyon are such that 2300 Canyon residents would eliminate essentially all small and large mammals within a year. This implies that food (meat and maize) must have been imported from one or more outlying areas to feed the Canyon's residential population. This would have entailed ~18,000 annual trips to the Canyon by porters carrying 45 kg. Although some Sr-isotope data on archaeofauna and maize recovered from Chaco match Sr-isotope values of soil extracts collected in the Canyon (Benson, 2010, 2012; Grimstead et al., 2016), the Canyon's low mammal densities and poor agricultural potential led to a search for other food-source areas with matching Sr-isotope ranges. New isotopic data indicated that the Chuska mountain region appears to be a primary source of these materials. However, there are also a number of other high-elevation relatively wet regions on the periphery of the San Juan Basin with soils having Sr-isotope values that match Chaco Canyon archaeofaunal values, especially values obtained on deer.

In this paper we contest the anthropogenic character of small and shallow charcoal-filled pits which occur in large numbers on Mesolithic sites in the coversand area of the northwest European plain. Despite uncertainties about their exact function, they have so far been generally interpreted as hearth-pits. Following this assumption, these features have been systematically used for dating Mesolithic sites and reconstructing Mesolithic settlement systems. However, chronological inconsistencies as well as the absence of in situ burning evidence call into question this anthropogenic interpretation. Based on anthracological, chronological and pedological evidence from two sites in NW Belgium (Verrebroek and Doel), it is argued that most of these features may be of natural origin. In particular there is good resemblance in morphology, distribution and content with remains of abandoned and burnt ant mounds. The paper ends with highlighting the consequences of this new interpretation, while suggesting new lines of investigation for future Mesolithic research.

This paper presents the results of a series of geochemical analysis conducted on 20 bitumen samples from the Neolithic site of Dosariyah (Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia). The aim of this study was to establish the geological origin of this bitumen in order to identify the bitumen seepage they were extracted from. The majority of the samples could be successfully related to bitumen seepages of northern Iraq. Two samples didn't match the bulk of the samples and probably came from the Burgan Hill seepage (Kuwait). Three samples were too badly degraded in order to deliver reliable data, and were removed from the dataset. These conclusions stand in contrast with H3/as-Sabiyah, —a site culturally and geographically linked with Dosariyah— which bitumen came exclusively from the Burgan Hill. In this paper we argue that this difference may be explained by the difference in dating between the two sites, as H3/as-Sabiyah slightly predates Dosariyah.

Using a conventional, off-the-shelf digital single lens reflex camera and flashes, we were able to create high-resolution panoramas of stratigraphic profiles ranging from a single meter to over 5 m in both height and width at the Middle Stone Age site of PP5-6 at Pinnacle Point, Mossel Bay, South Africa. The final photomosaics are isoluminant, rectilinear, and have a pixel spatial resolution of 1 mm. Furthermore, we systematically color-corrected the raw imagery. This process standardized the colors seen across the photomosaics while also creating reproducible and meaningful colors for relative colorimetric analysis between photomosiacs. Here, we provide a detailed discussion about the creation and application of our photomosaics. In the first part of the paper, we examine the specific characteristics of modern digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras and lenses that were important to us in developing our methodology. We also provide a detailed discussion about how to reproduce the methodology in the field and to post-process the imagery. In the final section of the paper, we give several examples to show how we apply our photomosaics within an empirical 3D GIS database. These examples are provided to show how photographic data can be integrated with other digitally-captured data and used to study the relationships between the stratigraphic features seen in the photomosaics and the 3D distribution of excavated archaeological piece-plots, geochronological samples, and other kinds of geological samples.