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Teledyne Chirp III high-resolution seismic data were acquired over a three-year period at a water depth of 6.0–9.0 m, with a clear concentration of acoustic "haystack" features, in the dredged Svanemøllen Harbor, Copenhagen. The recordings show haystacks related to preserved shallow basins and rivers in the paleo-coastal setting. Eleven short vibrocores were retrieved below these pronounced haystacks and a sandy interval, underlain by clayey till and overlain by harbor mud, which represent the basin configuration. Two cores contained four pieces of knapped flint in the sandy interval (statistical density of around 230 pieces per square meter), while the remaining cores did not reach the desired depth. Finite Element (FE) modeling revealed that the small pieces of knapped flint were resonant and that the acoustic impedance of the flint was high. The Svanemøllen Harbor site is a hitherto unknown buried Stone Age site, and this is the first time ever that an unknown submerged, buried Stone Age site has been acoustically detected (using Teledyne Chirp III), verified by means of coring and modeled using FE modeling. The Innomar and Geopulse data acquired at the site did not register any haystacks. Due to the global sea level rise after the Last Glacial Maximum, a significant part of the world's submerged Stone Age sites must be expected to be buried in seafloor sediments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Lithic artefacts provide the principal means to study cultural change in the deep human past. Tools and cores have been the focus of much prior research based on their perceived information content and cultural relevance. Unretouched flakes rarely attract comparable attention in archaeological studies, despite being the most abundant assemblage elements and featuring prominently in ethnographic and experimental work. Here, we examine the potential of flake morphology for tracing cultural change utilising 4,512 flakes, each characterised by 16 standard mixed-scale attributes, from a well-documented cultural sequence at the Middle Stone Age site of Sibhudu, South Africa. We quantified multivariate similarities among flakes using FLEXDIST, a highly versatile method capable of handling mixed, correlated, incomplete, and high-dimensional data. Our findings reveal a significant gradual change in flake morphology that aligns with the documented cultural succession at Sibhudu. Furthermore, our analysis provides new insights into the patterning of variability throughout the studied sequence. The demonstrated potential of flakes to track cultural change opens up additional avenues for comparative research due to their ubiquity, the availability of commonly recorded attributes, and especially in the absence of cores or tools. FLEXDIST, with its versatile applicability to complex lithic datasets, holds particular promise in this regard.

Anthropomorphic clay figurines comprise an enigmatic category of finds associated with Pitted Ware culture sites during the latter part of the middle Neolithic period (c. 2900–2300 BC) in the Baltic Sea region. As with most figurative objects, previous research has often been preoccupied with questions of representation, for example focusing on what the figurines might depict. In this paper, the anthropomorphic figurines are instead explored through their physical properties, primarily their ability to look back at their human makers, handlers and onlookers. Considering these figurines as clay beings that have the ability to look back at their viewers shifts the perspective from representation to presentation. This conceptual shift results in a more dynamic picture of human-figurine interactions at Pitted Ware culture sites.

The Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project area in the Afar Region of Ethiopia arguably contains one of the most complete records of archaeological sites anywhere in the world, from the earliest Oldowan dated to 2.6 Ma, to the Later Stone Age (LSA) dated to ca. 12-7 Ka. This makes Gona an ideal place to examine long-term trends in hominin-environment interaction. We revisited archaeological and hominin fossil sites at Gona and characterized the fossil soils using paleopedology and found evidence of paleo-Fluvisols, -Cambisols and -Vertisols. Greater than 70% of those archaeological sites spanning Oldowan to the Later Stone Age are found in buried paleosols with A-C and A-Bk-C paleosol profiles resembling modern-day Fluvisols or Fluvic Cambisols. Fluvisol morphology shows presence of bedding, incipient soil structure development and overprinting after burial. Stratigraphy and lithofacies show that these paleo-Fluvisols were proximal to the ancestral Awash River (Type I depositional system) or a distal fan channel (Type II depositional system). These data suggest that soil burial rates were rapid due to proximal flooding, where this would be a primary factor inhibiting soil development. This style of sedimentation and weathering resembles a narrow (5–10 m width) strip of land in a modern-day channel shelf and bar setting, separating the river from the adjacent gallery forest. A review of the literature shows that the frequent association of artifacts with paleo-Fluvisols may be prevalent throughout eastern Africa and indicates a long history of hominin reliance on a riverine ecosystem edge, proximal stream water and gallery forest resources within broader river valleys. The few older archaeological sites (e.g., Oldowan and Acheulian) found in/on more well-developed paleosols at Gona are an exception to this rule. These latter sites may hint at different land-use patterns and thus differing trajectories of hominin-environmental interactions. Because most paleosol studies at Gona and elsewhere in eastern Africa use paleo-Vertisols or other more well-developed calcareous soils to reconstruct paleoenvironment, there is a potential spatial and temporal decoupling between those well-studied paleosols and the more weakly-developed ones where archaeology is found. • Over 70% of archaeological sites are found in buried Fluvisols and Cambisols, highlighting hominin dependence on gallery forest ecosystems. • Rapid soil burial next to the stream channel suggests flooding inhibited soil development, shaping hominin land-use and ecological adaptation. • A review of East African archaeology literature suggests many previously documented sites may be situated in buried Fluvisols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 (KEH-1), a south-facing archaeological site on the southern coast of South Africa preserves the first record directly relevant to the lives and environments of people living on the edge of the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain (PAP) from later Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 after ∼45 thousand years ago (ka) and continuing throughout the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 26.5–19 ka). This stratified deposit dated from at least ∼45 ka until ∼15 ka (modelled ages), includes periods of intensive site use by human forager populations from ∼34 ka to ∼19 ka and during the Holocene. Here we present a synthesis of the stratigraphy, chronology, and archaeological find distribution, including estimates of relative find density over time. We show that forager populations exploited coastal resources during late MIS 3. This contrasts with a subsequent and prolonged period of intensive site use during the LGM when foragers shifted their focus more to terrestrial resources. KEH-1 bridges a critical chronological gap between key Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological sites along the southern coast and provides the first evidence of an intensive and continuous record of occupation on the edge of the PAP near the end of the Pleistocene. This result provides the first archaeological record explicitly tested against a recently published dynamic model of the PAP ecosystem that predicts relatively high concentrations of human foragers on the plain during the LGM. Given the continuity of the KEH-1 archaeological record and its contemporaneity with multiple technological transitions known from archaeological sites across southern Africa, the site is important to interpretations of the MSA to LSA transition. Further, the temporal overlap between KEH-1 and the deep inland sequence at Boomplaas Cave, as well as the later MIS 2 deposits at nearby Nelson Bay Cave provides an important expansion of the Western Cape regional archaeological record. [Display omitted] • A unique well-dated record of human activity during late MIS 3 and MIS 2 adjacent to the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain. • A dense and continuous anthropogenic record across the MIS 3 to MIS 2 transition and during the LGM until ∼19 ka. • Evidence for coastal resource use during late MIS 3 along the south coast. • Increasing site use intensity in the LGM consistent with forager attraction to the resources of the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review emphasizes the significance of archaeological faunal remains in understanding past foraging and agropastoralist societies, highlighting their substantial potential for future scientific analyses. These remains have been underrepresented in Zambian archaeology due to a historical focus on durable materials such as Stone Age lithics and Iron Age ceramics, the latter being crucial for typological and cultural sequencing during mid-twentieth-century Bantu expansion studies. Here, we synthesize a half-century of zooarchaeological data from Later Stone Age and Iron Age sites in Zambia, demonstrating that methods and theoretical frameworks used there align with broader African and global zooarchaeological trends. We analyze relative species abundance and other zooarchaeological information for past hunting, fishing, and agropastoralist societies, identifying important gaps in the faunal and chronological records as well as unresolved questions, particularly surrounding introductions of nonnative domestic and commensal animals. We assess the current state of zooarchaeology in Zambia and propose future research pathways to enhance our understanding of human-animal-environment relations in south-central Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines climate conditions in Northwest Africa for Marine Isotope Stage 4, 3, and 2 (71,000–11,000 years ago) and their impact on the distribution of potential suitable areas on a regional scale. The analysis uses climate simulations to model: 1) the geographical extent and variability of macro-refugia based on ethnographic data; and 2) the frequency of suitable areas based on climate ranges obtained at dated archaeological occupations. The results include the production of maps of MSA and LSA site distribution, and annual precipitation and temperature values for each dated human occupation. The macro-refugia models confirm the persistence and low variability of ecological macro-refugia along the Mediterranean coast but reveal limitations in Central Sahara. Macro-refugia models aligned closely with climate-archaeological models, except for Marine Isotope Stage 4. Despite the general spatio-temporal limitations of climate simulations, our study offers valuable data to be integrated with local environmental proxies. These climate frameworks and insights can contribute to the exploration of past human demography, connectivity and human-environment interactions across different scales of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]