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This article presents the results of research carried out at two previously unreported Eastern Desert Atbara River project (EDAR) Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites—EDAR 134 and EDAR 155. Luminescence dating results indicate human activity in this area during the Marine Isotope Stage 5 period (MIS 5), approximately 90 kya. Discussion concerning the affiliation of both analyzed inventories will be provided, including another MSA site from the EDAR area, where an assemblage dated to MIS 6/5e does not have technological features known from other technocomplexes in the eastern Sahara region (EDAR 135). Microscopic analysis of traces of tool use for the EDAR 155 assemblage shows the high impact of post-depositional (aeolian) processes on the state of preservation of lithic material. Sites EDAR 134 and 155 provide evidence for hominin activity during the late Pleistocene within an area only episodically accessible, due to arid conditions prevailing in the Saharan deserts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers a newly developed model of Holocene shoreline displacement in the southern part of the former Ventspils Lagoon of the Baltic Sea basin (present-day western Latvia) in relation to data from previous and new archaeological research in the area, assessing the changing pattern of Stone Age settlement and resource utilisation during the Mesolithic and Neolithic. An extensive lagoon was formed at the time of the maximum level of the Ancylus Lake and once again during the Littorina Sea maximum. In the south of the lagoon, the former shores from the two separate phases of the lagoon's existence lie at similar elevations, providing the conditions for site re-occupation. There were river mouth sites on the continental shore of the lagoon and island sites on the seaward side, whereas in the periods with a low water level, human settlement focused on the relict waterbodies and watercourses within the exposed low-lying terrain of the former lagoon bed. The water-level fluctuations and resulting landscape changes were much more rapid during the Ancylus stage, the loci of settlement and resource exploitation necessarily shifting at fairly short intervals. The two lagoon phases also represent rather different aquatic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pleistocene climate variability is often seen as a major cause of much of the evidence observed in the archaeological and palaeontological record of Africa. While continent-wide climate systems play an important role when testing pan-African human evolutionary processes, a more focused perspective centred on specific ecosystems at a regional level allows a detailed assessment of the different spatiotemporal scales of the proxies used to reconstruct past environments and the ways humans adapted to their change over time. Recent research in the arid interior of South Africa has provided insights into the availability of freshwater in the open landscape, which is a fundamental factor for human survival and the spatiotemporal distribution of which may have had a major influence on adaptive strategies. This article reviews the Pleistocene archaeological and environmental evidence of the Free State province of South Africa, which has produced major localities such as Cornelia-Uitzoek, Florisbad and Rose Cottage Cave, with the aim of providing a starting point for the discussion over freshwater availability with regard to southern Africa's Grassland Biome. Particular emphasis is given to the description of multi-proxy approaches including the analysis of sediments, faunal remains, enamel stable isotopes, pollens and phytoliths and absolute dating based on trapped-charge methods. The picture that emerges highlights the paucity of Pleistocene datasets in the Free State and the necessity to expand research at open-air sites and improve the chronological resolution of human occupations and palaeoenvironmental proxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has become increasingly clear that, through the millennia, travel by water has been generally safer, faster, and more economical than travel by land. Humans possessed seagoing watercraft early on, disablings and uncontrolled storm-generated drifts would inevitably have occurred, and the prevailing winds and oceanic surface currents would have impelled some of these craft over oceans, leading to insular and extrahemispheric discoveries and exchanges. Intentional exploratory voyages also occurred. Although there is much material evidence of developed watercraft from the Late Neolithic on, few Stone Age vessel vestiges other than of logboats have been recovered archaeologically. However, indirect means exist to obtain a sense of what occurred long ago. First is demonstration of very early human presences on islands. Here, many contemporary scientific proxies for otherwise-undocumented human occupancy are described. In the New World, the presence of tropical/subtropical human intestinal parasites implies trans-ocean crossings impressively early in time, including by the seventh millennium B.C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Later Stone Age (LSA) site of Zuurberg in the Cape Fold Mountains of South Africa was excavated in the 1920s by F.W. FitzSimons. As with his other excavations, not much is known about the exact provenance and detailed archaeological context of the remains. This paper reports the re-analysis and dating of the human skeletal remains from Zuurberg. The remains were commingled but here sorted according to previously published sources. The remains of eight individuals are present, of which only one (Zg3) is fairly complete. The assemblage includes four older adults, two younger or middle-aged adults, an adolescent and a child. Two of the three individuals who could be assessed showed signs of enamel hypoplasia, which probably attests to some hardship. One of the individuals was dated to 4795 ± 42 BP (Ua-61976), which places this site into the Wilton period of the South African LSA. However, the different levels of burials, as well as the presence of potsherds, may suggest an extended use of the site. Isotopic analysis suggests a mixed diet, which was not depleted of protein. The reassessment, sorting and dating of these remains add value to the collection, especially as they come from an open-air, non-coastal forager site. This assemblage can now be included in future studies of southern African Stone Age foragers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reconstructs the history of the publications relating to the results of Captain Montagu Brownlow Parker's 1909–1911 excavations in Jerusalem, comprising the English and French versions of the book Underground Jerusalem by Père Louis-Hugues Vincent, and four articles by that same author appearing in the pages of Revue Biblique. The significant part played by the English translator, Theodore Andrea Cook, is shown, and as it transpires, he is the reason why archival materials relating to the Parker expedition eventually ended up in the Palestine Exploration Fund's archives. Importantly, an unpublished drawing by Vincent of an Iron Age stone toilet seat, which had been referred to by the excavators as the 'Throne of Solomon', was found among these archival materials. The paper investigates thirteen similar parallel stone toilet seats from the Iron Age II and examines what is known concerning issues of sanitation during that period in the Kingdom of Judah. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the first general treatment of the material from the 1954 and 1988–1989 excavations at the fourth millennium BC site of Siliņupe, examined within a broad framework of food and non-food resource use on the Baltic Sea's Gulf of Riga coast, present-day Latvia. Located at the boundary of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial biotopes, the site offered a high abundance and diversity of wild food resources: marine and terrestrial mammals, birds, and fish. The aquatic environment of the gulf was enriched with nutrients from a wide drainage basin, ensuring very high biological productivity and a rich food chain, while also receiving marine water inflows that promoted the seasonal ingress of marine species. The spectrum of marine and freshwater resources would have permitted year-round habitation, while pottery vessels enabled food processing on a large scale, possibly for delayed consumption. Amber, collected from the beaches and made into jewelry on the site, circulated in an exchange network reaching far into the continental interior, where the major rivers flowing into the gulf served as traffic arteries. Conversely, flint brought from present-day southern Lithuania or Belarus provided the main lithic material for toolmaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In The Politics of Modernism, Raymond Williams pointed out that as a category for understanding the new, modernism was thoroughly ideological. This article addresses the problem of modernism's exclusivity and the ways in which it associates the new, and by extension the present, with certain qualities and privileges as well as with coloniality in general. Building on recent expansions of modernism by Susan Stanford Friedman and David Damrosch as well as on a general turn against historicism in the literary humanities, it suggests the value to reading modernism in relation to prehistory. Thinking in terms of the memory of things, the persistence of landscapes and materials, offers a way in which we can arrive at an untimely conception of modernism: a conception that is meaningful and useful beyond the limited scope of conventional constructions of the field. In illustrating this argument, the essay discusses the Maryhill Monument as well as the sculptural work of Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Kurt Schwitters, Carl Andre, and Thomas Hirschhorn. The essay concludes with a consideration of Williams's awareness of the revisionary potentials of prehistory in relation to modernism in his last, unfinished, novel, People of the Black Mountains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early archaeological investigations of the Uasin Gishu Plateau of west-central Kenya highlighted its potential importance as a geographic link between the Central Rift, the Lake Victoria Basin and the western Kenyan highlands from the Middle Stone Age to the Pastoral Neolithic and Iron Age periods. Despite this, the region has seen little focused research in recent decades. Here, we report on archaeological research at the site of Kapsoo Rockshelter, Chebinyiny Hill (GmJf1), near Moiben on the northern end of the Uasin Gishu Plateau. We combine data from original fieldwork in 1982 with renewed test excavations at Kapsoo carried out in 2022. Results of lithic, faunal and material analyses combined with radiocarbon dating reflect occupation of the northern plateau from the late Pleistocene to the late Holocene and provide the first radiometric dates for the presence of mobile herders in this region. Quantitative assessment of the rich lithic record at the site identifies significant technological change over time, providing a description of the regional Later Stone Age sequence. Finally, we present hypotheses for the relationship between Kapsoo and the nearby undated sequence at Muringa, as well as how these records fit into broader patterns of economic change across southwestern Kenya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is longstanding evidence in the archaeological record of southern Africa for the application of hafting adhesives in the production of composite tool technology. Despite the limitations in the preservation of organics in archaeological contexts, the preservation of these materials can inform us about aspects of technological production and function, including hafting arrangements, adhesive production and resource acquisition. In some instances where we see the prevalence of organic materials that are at odds with the ecological landscape, these same materials can also elucidate social interactions between cultural groups. This paper presents the results of the analysis by microscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) of hafting residues from stone tools from the ceramic final Later Stone Age assemblages at Sehonghong, Lesotho. It argues that an adoption of novel resources including Pinus sp. resin, castor oil and paraffin by nineteenth-century San facilitated the continued existence of hunter-gatherer lifeways in increasingly marginalised circumstances amid tense relationships between the last huntergatherers of the Maloti-Drakensberg, newly arriving Basotho communities and European colonists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In southern Africa, the Howiesons Poort is one of the earliest technocomplexes in which small blades and bladelets were systematically produced and retouched into formal tools. While the presence of small lithic artefacts in an assemblage is welldocumented, little is known about production pathways. This paper reports on the analysis of the lithic assemblage from Horizon 6/7 of Charles Keller's excavations of Montagu Cave, South Africa, to evaluate how raw material and decision-making affects the size of stone tools in Howiesons Poort assemblages. It addresses the following questions: how were small blades produced? Was it a deliberate choice or a constraint imposed by raw material availability? Results show branching modes of production for large and small blanks beginning with raw material acquisition. The independent production of small blanks is reinforced by the presence of cores on flakes in the assemblage. However, a relatively standardised core reduction process was used consistently, regardless of core size. The main technological and typological features observed in Horizon 6/7 are in line with other known Howiesons Poort assemblages. Considered as a whole, these observations highlight the consistency of Howiesons Poort blade technology and the deliberate production of small blanks and tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jonathan Nicholas Tubb, born on December 21, 1951, in Coventry, was a prominent archaeologist and curator of Levantine Antiquities at the British Museum. He initially pursued a career in biochemistry but switched to numismatics and later to Levantine archaeology. Tubb conducted excavations in Iraq and Syria and played a significant role in expanding the Levant Gallery at the British Museum. He also directed excavations in Jordan and Oman. Tubb was known for his modernist approach to archaeology and his efforts to modernize the Palestine Exploration Fund. He transformed the Fund into a dynamic academic society and oversaw its move to a new building. Jonathan Tubb passed away on September 25, 2023. [Extracted from the article]

Namib IV (S23° 44.829', E14° 19.720') is frequently cited, as it is one of few Earlier Stone Age sites in the Sand Sea of the Namib Desert. The site was first investigated in 1978 by Myra Shackley, who described 582 artifacts on the surface of a pan as representing an Acheulean butchery site. Descriptions of the artifacts, their number, and area were inconsistently reported. Recently rediscovered, the site of Namib IV is a rare example of a tool-rich and fossil fauna-bearing pan system in the Namib Sand Sea. This project aims to investigate when, how, and under what environmental conditions hominins utilized these landscapes. This article presents the first archaeological research conducted at the site in over 40 years. Typological and technological data was collected from surface-exposed artifacts and large cutting tools (LCTs) and compared to Shackley's assemblage. Data demonstrate that her collection is representative of the Namib IV site and raise many new questions about the original research and the site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this systematic review was to examine the characteristics of Paleolithic diet (PD) interventions designed for adult patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) in order to determine if diet elements have the potential to successfully reduce thyroid antibodies (Ab) such as thyroglobulin (Tg), thyroid peroxidase (TPO), and thyroid stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR), and improve thyroid hormones (thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH)) or resolve AITD pathogenesis. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with an adult population of 18 years and older, diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) or Graves' disease (GD) (Basedow's), who were placed on a diet of Paleolithic or ancestral nature, and achieved reduction of AITD Abs, improvement of thyroid hormones, and, or resolution of AITD were searched. Various electronic databases were used. Bias was assessed using critical appraisal tools from the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). Studies were excluded according to exclusion criteria and results analyzed. One randomized controlled trial (RCT), a pilot study, and six case studies were found. In total, eight AITD studies focusing on Paleolithic or ancestral interventions were located. In highlight, females were the predominant gender. Case studies solely focused on AITD with protocols ranging from 8–60 weeks. All studies showed clinical improvements, one had significant improvement, two showed AITD resolution. After structured evaluation of nutritional interventions utilizing the PD on the effects of AITD, it was concluded foods of ancestral nature along with the addition of specific supplements, food components, exercise and mindfulness meditation, and exclusion of modern day foods have a considerable impact on thyroid Ab and hormones. The relevant studies suggest while this dietary protocol can be useful in clinical practice, larger-scale studies need to be conducted. There are currently no dietary interventions recommended for the treatment of autoimmune thyroid disease. The Paleo diet has been documented to improve AITD antibodies and thyroid hormones in both Hashimoto's thyroiditis and Graves' disease. The Paleo diet can provide a natural source of nutrients similar to supplemental nutrients that have shown positive results on AITD. The paleo diet provides specific macronutrient percentages that may be beneficial in reducing AITD antibodies, while improving thyroid hormones. Methylation supplementation may be useful in AITD cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While ground slate technology is a trademark of maritime hunter-gatherers across the circumpolar region, we lack robust understanding of 1) the organization of slate tool production and 2) its initial production stages – maintained by the absence of formally investigated slate sourcing sites and the loss of diagnostic production features inherent to grinding techniques. This paper contributes along both dimensions, presenting the first investigated prehistoric slate raw material source in Arctic Europe (Djupvik, Norway). Technological analyses of the assemblage rich in initial production stages are related to the material properties of the geological slate formation, supplemented by experimental research. The paper discusses the role of slate technological organization within the broader context of mid-Holocene adaptations in Arctic Norway. The results from Djupvik help establish the production stages and techniques distinct to slate tool technologies and demonstrate organizational principles diverging from cryptocrystalline lithic resources of the contemporary lithic technocomplex. Finally, potential secondary (non-tool) uses of Djupvik materials are discussed, referencing the intriguing possibility of ochre and red pigment production both at Djupvik and a nearby site, suggesting a relation to rock art paintings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lotshitshi is a small site on the edge of the Thamalakane River floodplain on the southern margin of the Okavango Delta, Botswana. A component with Later Stone Age lithic artefacts radiocarbon-dated to the second/third millennia BC is overlain by a component with the same kind of stone tools, but with the addition of Bambata pottery and domestic cattle radiocarbon-dated to the earlier decades of the first century AD. A component with Recent pottery is at the top of this sequence. Although modest in size and content, Lotshitshi adds valuable details to our knowledge of Bambata pottery-making peoples with cattle and provides additional evidence for the movement of peoples during this time from the Chobe-Zambezi confluence region to western Botswana, thus supplementing efforts to understand Early Iron Age population dynamics in southern Africa as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to raise awareness of the relevance of the philosophy of Charlotte Mason to primary school education today. First a biography of Mason, tracing her development from an orphaned pupil apprentice to an internationally influential figure, puts her philosophy in context. This is followed by an overview of her philosophy, with a focus on outdoor learning and on learning in history. Then three case studies of outdoor history investigations are analysed to explore the ways in which they reflect both the English National Curriculum and Mason's philosophy. First, eight-nine-year-old children visit Stone Age sites, then five-to-seven-year-olds visit a medieval castle and finally a group of primary school teachers investigate a seventeenth-century farmhouse during a residential weekend. The paper explores how Mason's philosophy and practice can enrich the teaching of history within contexts of the English Curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of prehistoric lithic artefacts helps to answer a wide array of questions concerning archaeological contexts and prehistoric human behaviour. During three projects, we studied the origin of the raw materials of 32 inventories from the Late Glacial and Early Holocene in northwest and southern Germany. The basal petrographic analysis was conducted by the geologist and petro-archaeologist Jehanne Affolter. In addition, data of more than 60 published assemblages from Switzerland as well as western and southern Germany were recorded. The origin of lithic raw materials from most of these inventories was determined using the microfacial method. GIS-based maps of the raw material sources from the aforementioned regions are compiled and raw material catchment areas of the Stone Age sites are mapped. The area calculations of the raw material catchments revealed a diachronic alternation of larger and smaller areas, which above all suggest culturally determined cycles in the range of mobility and communication networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Late Pleistocene and Holocene settlement record of southern Africa shows clear discontinuities both through time and across space. While there is considerable variability between different ecological biomes, the sub-continent's interior arid zones show particularly unstable occupation histories. However, understanding the nature of and reasons for these discontinuities is hampered by substantial spatial gaps in our archaeological knowledge. This paper presents evidence from the Tankwa Karoo region — intermediate between the well-studied Western Cape Cederberg Mountains and the interior Upper Karoo — to capture Later Stone Age (LSA) behaviour at the interface between Cape and Karoo environments. Off-site surveys recorded surface artefacts across a 100 km-long study area, documenting LSA settlement at a landscape scale and testing expected patterns against settlement records of regions to the west and east. The results indicate that in contrast to the strongly pulsed occupation evidence from the Cederberg Mountains and the Upper Karoo, no LSA phases show particularly high site densities or sustained use of longer-term sites. Additionally, the most arid parts of the eastern Tankwa Karoo show very limited LSA evidence. This suggests that this marginal environment was occupied only ephemerally during the LSA, potentially serving as a corridor between more reliably resourced regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mining operations in Africa have played a considerable role in the reconstruction of human evolution. These contributions would not have been possible without co-operation between the mining industry, archaeology and palaeontology. However, closer scrutiny of their initially fortuitous relationship reveals limitations and fundamental differences in approach. A compelling case study is that of palaeontologist and archaeologist Gudrun Corvinus, employed by Consolidated Diamond Mines in the Sperrgebiet region of Namibia between 1976 and 1980. Corvinus wrote numerous internal mine reports and scientific publications, but also left behind an exhaustive body of private records along with palaeontological and archaeological museum collections. By contrasting this legacy, this paper presents a rich narrative of her attempt to reconcile the fulfilment of her contract requirements with her scientific principles. It sketches a progressively conflict-laden relationship between her and the profit-centred management of a multi-national company. The scientific legacy of Gudrun Corvinus and the historiographical facts and ramifications of this loss of co-operation are discussed in terms of cultural heritage, scientific knowledge and dissemination. Assessing her fight in the naturally and culturally rich environment of the Sperrgebiet, the paper concludes by considering the threat that mining poses to Pleistocene heritage sites in Namibia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Acheulean has long been considered a single, unified tradition. Decades of morphometric and technological evidence supports such an understanding by demonstrating that a single fundamental Bauplan was followed for more than 1.6 million years. What remains unknown is whether sites assigned to the Acheulean represent multiple socially-independent iterations of the same technological solution to shared ecological (functional) and ergonomic demands. Here, using the 'surprise test', the temporal cohesion of the Acheulean record is statistically assessed for the first time. Chronological data from 81 early and late Acheulean sites are investigated to see if breaks in this record warrant the designation of separate, culturally distinct groupings of sites. No significant results were returned, suggesting the Acheulean to be temporally cohesive and there to be no evidence of cultural convergence from a temporal perspective. When combined with previous morphometric, technological and spatial evidence, the best-fit scenario for the Acheulean continues to be that it represents a single, but variable, tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I am not an archaeologist, but I do know a bit about cultural politics and the ways in which ideas circulate between researchers and the cultures they inhabit. This is not a contribution that can emerge from an insular research practice, but from one - like that recommended here by Elliott and Warren - that is sufficiently open to dialogue and exchange with other disciplines and the wider world in which it finds itself. Alert to such issues, Elliott and Warren use the term "Indigenous" to describe cultures and communities who have been subjected to the material and symbolic violence of Western colonialism, and not to claim an intrinsic and necessary connection to the distant human past. [Extracted from the article]

The archaeological record is one piece of the puzzle in understanding the evolution of humans, helping to trace the cultural connections between different species and their technologies, as well as their expansion in time and space. Here we demonstrate a method for mapping the boundaries, centers, and peripheries of ancient cultures, as well as the technological similarities between different cultures. The proposed workflow includes: a systematic collection of archaeological information in a database; a process to infer the similarities between assemblages and generate a network; and finally, a graphical method for big data visualization, a technique also used in social media analysis. We present the geography of multiple cultural complexes that span several stages of cultural evolution from the Lower to the Upper Paleolithic (Stone Age) and involve several species of the genus Homo. Finally, we discuss some alternative trajectories in which this workflow can be developed further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the analysis of a late Acheulean horizon from the EDAR 135 site, which was discovered in the Eastern Desert, Sudan, in an area heavily transformed by modern mining activity. A lithic assemblage was discovered there, within a layer of gravel sediments formed by a paleostream in a humid period of the Middle Pleistocene. This layer is OSL dated between 220 ± 12 and 145 ± 20 ka (MIS 7a/6). These dates indicate that the assemblage could be the youngest trace of the Acheulean in northeastern Africa. Technological analysis of the lithics reveals different core reduction strategies, including not only ad hoc ones based on multiplatform cores, but also discoidal and prepared cores. The use of prepared core reduction methods has already been confirmed at other Late Acheulean sites in Africa and the Middle East. Microwear traces observed on lithic artifacts could relate to on-site butchering activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southern Africa is an ecologically highly varied region, yet many generalisations about past human behaviour are drawn from rock shelter sites in coastal and montane Fynbos Biome environments. The Tankwa Karoo region offers the opportunity to extend our archaeological knowledge from the well-researched Western Cape into the arid interior Karoo in order to better capture behavioural variability and identify specific adaptations to more marginal conditions. This research presents the results of off-site surveys in the Tankwa Karoo, which spans the Cape to Karoo transition, mapping surface stone artefacts from the Earlier and Middle Stone Ages. The observed patterns in landscape use and lithic technology for each time-period were tested against a set of expectations based on previous research in the Western Cape and the Upper Karoo. The results indicate that in the Earlier Stone Age the most arid parts of the Tankwa Karoo saw only ephemeral use, with the better-watered mountain fringes preferred. In contrast, various strategies in the Middle Stone Age allowed groups to occupy these marginal parts of the landscape, including new kinds of technological behaviour suggestive of specific adaptations to this environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historic built environments of the modern colonial era survive in cityscapes of former colonies the world over, often featuring largely in the projected urban identities of cities in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Tunisia is no exception. The complex relationships between extant architectures of colonialism and current users, designers, and preservationists there are shifting within the context of contemporary globalization. Though ties between Europe, France, and Tunisia are less overt than they once were—now taking the form of international development loans, professional and educational exchanges, tourism programmes, popular culture and the media—they are nonetheless significant in their sustained influence. This article explores the nature and products of neocolonialism in postcolonial heritage management and tourism practices, using several case studies from Tunis including curated medina walking tours, the renovation of the Avenue Bourguiba, and expansion of the renowned Bardo Museum. Rather than dismissing contemporary preservation and tourism management practices, the article invites further debate regarding the influence of foreign actors, conservation approaches, and potential alternatives for the future of heritage management in a rapidly changing Tunisia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses archaeological evidence of sound- and music-related artefacts from the southern African archaeological record, from Later Stone Age, Iron Age and historic contexts. The artefacts described fall within two groups, aerophones and idiophones. They include a bullroarer, spinning disks, bone tubes that might have been used as flutes, a trumpet, whistles, bells and mbira keys. The artefacts are made of bone, clay and metal. Original research and information gained through a literature review are reported. Ethnographic sources were also consulted in order to attempt to provide a broader contextual background against which knowledge of the archaeological implements could be expanded. This research is one of the first reports on southern African sound- and music-related artefacts. It is not exhaustive, but is intended as the basis for further development through collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of landsenses ecology is closely connected with Chinese philosophy and ecological wisdom. Many ancient settlements contain the ideas of landsenses ecology in the process of site determination, planning and development. From the perspective of landsenses ecology, this paper takes ancient house, fortress-village, town and city in Yu County, Hebei Province, China, as typical cases, and summarizes the characteristics and changes of the influencing factors in the process of these site determination, planning and development over history through literature search and field investigation. The main factors of site determination, planning and development would have different focuses and changes in different historical stages (from the Stone Age to Qing Dynasty) and on different scales (from house to city). The main factors ranged from macro factors, including natural factors, political economy, military defense and landscape structure, to specific factors, including road traffic, microclimate characteristics, human physical and psychological perception, financial situation, etc. It can be seen that there is a correspondence between the process of Chinese ancient site determination, planning and development and the theory of landsenses ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canteen Kopje has long been known for its alluvial diamond-bearing gravel deposits, and historically these have featured frequently in archaeological literature over the last century. Studies have shown the site preserves a stratified gravel sequence with assemblages of Fauresmith mixed into the upper gravels, Victoria West Acheulean (1.2 ± 0.07 Ma) and two Early Acheulean assemblages (1.51 ± 0.8 Ma and > 1.51 Ma). Although previous geomorphological studies provide an understanding of site formation, most recently describing the gravels as a splay deposit at the terminal point of a palaeo-channel, or loop, there have been debates regarding their origin and whether they represent colluvial and/or alluvial deposition. This palaeo-channel facilitated the interaction between two nearby koppies and the palaeo-Vaal River, which subsequently influenced the nature, composition and character of the gravel deposits found across the site. Yet no study has investigated the visibly dipping surface of the gravels, nor sought to explain gravel fabric patterns that are preserved in exposed sequences. Through recording fabric data, this study confirms that the gravels retain an easterly dip direction, which provides strong evidence for the east-to-west flow of water from the upstream direction of the palaeo-channel. These findings challenge earlier models suggesting the upper gravels at Canteen Kopje are colluvial, and have implications for understanding the preserved Earlier Stone Age assemblages. This research also provides a better understanding of geomorphological processes involved in site formation and investigates the overall role that colluvial processes have played at Canteen Kopje. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Alta rock art area in northern Norway has more than 6000 carvings made between about 5200–1BC. The focus for this paper is the Bergbukten 4B panel in Alta. With more than 200 figures this is one of the largest panels with Stone Age rock art in northern Europe. The panel holds several scenes, compositions and narratives. Studying relations between the figures and the interaction with the natural features of the rock canvas show some of the rock art refers to activities and places of activities mirroring real places. Moreover, the figures are also placed in relation to a three-tiered cosmological framework. This intertwined 'world as we know it' can be interpreted as a cosmographical knowledge of the hunter-fisher-gatherers making the rock art in the Stone Age about 6000–7000 years ago where real and imaginary landscapes were part of a cosmographical representation visualizing their 'memoryscapes' stored in the rocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the Later Stone Age (LSA) assemblages along the coast of mainland Tanzania and the surrounding islands date back to the 1960s. However, most of these involved sketchy descriptions of lithic materials from varied contexts, including excavations and surface collections. Most were also by-products of accidental discoveries during other research endeavours, since no one had focused their research on the Tanzanian coastal Stone Age. Excavation of the Madola LSA site in Kiwangwa Village was aimed at addressing this problem, as well as building up a database for the Tanzanian coastal LSA industry. Unlike most areas of the Tanzanian coast where lithic artefacts occur in light scatters, the Madola site consists of a richer artefact assemblage that is comparable to those of inland sites, despite variation in artefact types and quantities. The Madola LSA assemblage predates 14,404 ± 86 BP, with quartz as the predominant raw material and bipolar flaking the main method used to produce artefacts. The site was later occupied by Plain Ware makers, after which it was abandoned until modern times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports results of a recent Stone Age-focused archaeological survey in the Red Sea coastal region of the Republic of Sudan, northeast Africa. Bifaces (handaxes) are the most conspicuous artifact class encountered during the survey and are characteristic of the Acheulean technocomplex. Other recorded artifact types include points, scrapers, and prepared core products referable to the Nubian and recurrent Levallois methods. Most of the artifact-bearing localities lie landward—outside of the coastal margin—thus, the evidence does not signify direct coastal adaptation per se. Our preliminary findings suggest that multiple Pleistocene-age hominin settlements tied to a terrestrial niche existed in the region. The western margin of the Red Sea occupies a pivotal location, linking the Horn of Africa and the Levant, two vital regions in human evolutionary research. Thus, the Stone Age data from the Sudan region has direct relevance for assessing hominin dispersal routes out of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological material was initially discovered in 1993, eroding from a small cliff on the north side of the peninsula of Asnæs near the town of Kalundborg in western Sjælland, Denmark. Ertebølle Excavations in 2007 exposed the Ertebøllwe  cultural layer and obtained materials to describe the site and its contents before it was destroyed by the sea. The 22 m2 of careful excavations exposed a terrestrial midden deposit and the late Mesolithic cultural layer which had been partially preserved under a raised beach ridge. The flint tools consist primarily of projectile points, flake axes, some distally concave truncated blade knives, and a very few scrapers. There were large numbers of well-preserved faunal remains including bone fishhooks and preforms, seal bones, large bird bones, and an extraordinary amount of fish bone. A quantity of pottery was recovered in the excavations as well, including both pointed-bottom vessels and oval lamps in different sizes from the late Mesolithic and several examples of what are probably Early Neolithic ceramics. The rich occupation layer with its diverse artifactual content, including a fragment of a human jaw, documents a sizable residential settlement on the north coast of the Asnæs peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is highly conceivable that prehistoric peoples richly narrated and celebrated their lives and relationship with their environment, but, with no written records available and limited artefacts, recent generations have created their own narratives of the lives of these peoples. This article examines visual representations of prehistoric ('Stone Age') societies in popular science published in Britain from 1960s to the present. Stereotyping of gender and division of labour, including its spatiality, is an obvious example of the projection of modern societies' views onto the past and this is evident in the material examined in this study. Specific images often become 'viral' as uncritically repeated 'schema' (units of cultural transmission) that reinforce stereotypes; for example, the 'cave woman' as 'drudge', trapped in the domestic sphere. Such stereotypes remain prevalent in popular science books aimed at children as well as adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human evolution and lifestyle changes caused by the agricultural and industrial revolutions have led to great advances in medicine and increased life expectancy, whilst also profoundly altering the ecological relationships and disease patterns of populations. Studies involving populations that still enjoy a rural way of life and with traits similar to the Paleolithic period reveal them to present a more robust, resistant and diverse gut microbiota, in comparison to highly industrialized civilizations. The human diet has expanded and broadened to include the consumption of high-calorie foods, particularly from animal sources such as game meat and eggs. For some time, authors have been alert to the fact that a modern lifestyle leads to reduced intake of beneficial bacteria, suggesting that nonpathogenic bacteria are being eradicated. Furthermore, therapeutic procedures, including the use of probiotics and prebiotics, have been proposed to lead to recovery of this microbiota, which is altered due to both the ageing process and lifestyle related aspects. Accordingly, this article aims to review the impact of human aging and modern lifestyle on gut microbiota, within an evolutionary, ecological, epidemiological and therapeutic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses tradition and transitions in the periodical from 1996 to 2015 on terrain of universally applied scholarly standards and of academic professionalism. It mentions struggled to ensure the financial stability of our nonprofit organization and administrative affairs for nonprofit and assisted with numerous other tasks including proofreading. It also mentions earnings from part-time employment and wrestling with stone-age computer equipment and software.

Pinnacle Point, Mossel Bay, is best known for the preservation of the earliest evidence for systematic shellfish exploitation by humans during the African Middle Stone Age (MSA). Comparatively little is known about the shellfish gathering strategies of the Later Stone Age (LSA) inhabitants of this region. This article reports on five LSA sites at the Pinnacle Point Shell Midden Complex excavated by the Centre for Heritage and Archaeological Resource Management in 2006 and 2007. These sites represent 2,000 years of hunter-gather and herder settlement and subsistence in the region. Shellfish remains from the five middens were analyzed in order to understand the exploitation patterns of their LSA inhabitants. Information on the relative abundance of different mollusk species in these assemblages and, where possible, the average size of collected specimens, is then compared with published accounts of shellfish material from other sites along the southern Cape coast. These include roughly contemporary assemblages from Noetzie, Hoffman's/Robberg Cave and sites in the Garcia State Forest, and MSA assemblages from Pinnacle Point, Blombos Cave, and Klasies River Mouth. Regional continuities in gathering strategies focused on a range of bivalves and gastropods, and chronological shifts in the exploitation of rocky shores and sandy beaches, and different littoral zones, are apparent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Understandings of past human behaviour in southern Africa are hampered by a site-based approach to prehistoric technological systems that relies on spatially isolated samples from one or a few key ‘type-sites’. Lithic technological behaviour, however, was a landscape-scale process with raw material acquisition, reduction, transportation, use, maintenance and discard taking place at varied locations. This study takes a landscape approach to the investigation of Early Later Stone Age (ELSA) technology on the Doring River by exploring two points in what we believe to be one system. It compares data from an open-air lithic scatter from Uitspankraal 7 (UPK7) located on the Doring, the major river and lithic source in the area, with a published rockshelter sample from Putslaagte 8 (PL8) located 2 km from the Doring and 15 km to the northwest of UPK7. Differences between the two assemblages support a scenario in which hornfels blades and flakes were produced at the river and transported into the surrounding landscape, with limited transportation of cores. Intriguingly little evidence of quartz-bipolar reduction was found in the open-air sample at UPK7, raising the possibility that different ELSA technological components were organised in distinct patterns across the landscape. Results suggest that the composition of ELSA assemblages is highly situational, with proportions of quartz and/or bipolar technology, for instance, appearing responsive to local context. Overall, this study highlights the importance of taking a landscape-orientated approach to investigating the nature and cause of continuity and variability in the archaeological record. Such an approach will inevitably lead to a more comprehensive understanding of early LSA technology, behaviour and land-use patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stratified rockshelter deposits form the most important source of information on the prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Namibian Holocene Later Stone Age (LSA). This paper reports on two new test excavations conducted at rockshelters in the Sesfontein area in northwestern Namibia in 2005. Both archaeological sites are located between two archaeologically well researched regions, to the north Kunene and to the south the Brandberg and Erongo. Although the stratigraphies are rather problematic with regard to taphonomic integrity, their study identifies information that can be reliably used in order to contribute to our knowledge of prehistoric LSA hunter-gatherer societies in Namibia. The cultural material is examined in relation to available environmental, contextual and taphonomic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is historical evidence for the belief among Aboriginal communities of pre-colonial south-eastern Australia that the sky was in imminent danger of collapsing, and all of humanity perishing in an epic flood, unless stone axes were bestowed upon a powerful deity that dwelt in the Australian Alps. Previously, I have argued that this ‘falling sky’ story provides insight into the elaborate symbolism associated with stone axes in Aboriginal societies of the southeast, particularly with regards to cosmological dimensions of the vast axe trading network centred on the renowned Mount William quarry. Recently, however, Peter Hiscock (2013) has proposed that this entire incident is more parsimoniously interpreted as a response to the disruptions created by British colonisation, and hence, this notion of an impending apocalypse has no bearing on our understanding of the long distance exchange of stone axes in the pre-contact history of this region. Here, I provide a more detailed analysis of the falling sky story and its wider context in historically known Aboriginal societies of the southeast. I reject the argument proposed by Hiscock (2013) that the beliefs underpinning it contain Christian motifs. Aboriginal oral traditions from throughout the southeast refer to deity-induced floods that destroyed an ‘antediluvian’ world of humans and marked the beginning of a new cultural epoch. While these flood myths superficially resemble biblical notions of a world-ending deluge, I argue that they are probably oral histories of post-glacial sea-level rises, and thus, distinctly ancient. The falling sky story, I conclude, offers hints at the extent to which religious knowledge and symbolic belief were integrated with economic dimensions of the stone axe exchange system in south-eastern Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Considerable change occurred in the Late Holocene Later Stone Age of Namaqualand, northwestern South Africa. Focusing on stone artifacts, pottery, and ostrich eggshell beads, the cultural sequence for the area is described. Two additions are identified, complicating the traditional model for the introduction of herding into the country. From the mid-Holocene onward, lithic assemblages are based on milky and/or clear quartz and cryptocrystalline silica and initially contain many backed tools with scrapers more common during the first millennium BC. These are hunter-gatherer assemblages. During the final centuries BC, backed bladelet-rich assemblages based on clear quartz appear, with the earliest examples demonstrating typological continuity with the existing assemblages. About 1,500 years ago, expedient assemblages lacking retouch and based on poorer quality quartz appear. The three types co-occur during the last 1,500 years, occasionally in combination with one another. This contrasts strongly with other parts of South Africa where just two distinct assemblage types are identified, suggesting that the hunter-gatherer-herder dichotomy is not universally valid. The artifact patterns between about 200 cal BC and cal AD 500 and the introduction of livestock suggest considerable cultural and social change, heralding the onset of a local Neolithic, but the exact mechanisms remain unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late Pleistocene and Holocene history of eastern Africa is complex and major gaps remain in our understanding of human occupation during this period. Questions concerning the identities, geographical distributions and chronologies of foraging, herding and agricultural populations — often problematically equated with the chronological labels ‘Later Stone Age (LSA)’, ‘Neolithic’ and ‘Iron Age’ — are still unresolved. Previous studies at the site of Kuumbi Cave in the Zanzibar Archipelago of Tanzania reported late Pleistocene Middle Stone Age (MSA) and LSA, mid-Holocene Neolithic and late Holocene Iron Age occupations (Sinclairet al.2006; Chami 2009). Kuumbi Cave considerably extends the chronology of human occupation on the eastern African coast and findings from the site have been the basis for the somewhat contentious identification of both a coastal Neolithic culture and early chicken, a domesticate that was introduced to Africa from Asia. The site therefore warrants further investigation. Here we report on a new excavation of the Kuumbi Cave sequence that has produced a suite of 20 radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates. Our results suggest that the cave’s stratigraphy is complex, reflecting taphonomic processes that present interpretive and dating challenges. Our assessment of the stratigraphic sequence demonstrates three phases of habitation, two of which reflect terminal Pleistocene occupation and are characterised by quartz microliths, bone points and the exploitation of terrestrial and marine species, and one of which reflects later reoccupation by AD 600. In this latter phase, Kuumbi Cave was inhabited by a population with a locally distinct material culture that included idiosyncratic Tana or Triangular Incised Ware ceramics and medium-sized limestone stone tools, but with a subsistence economy similar to that of the late Pleistocene, albeit with more emphasis on marine foods and smaller terrestrial mammals. Our results suggest that Kuumbi Cave may have been unoccupied for much of the Holocene, after Zanzibar became an island. Our findings also place into question earlier identifications of domesticates, Asian fauna and a mid-Holocene Neolithic culture at the site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological evidence for coastal shellfish exploitation in Arctic Norway mostly dates from 5300 to 1500 BC, encompassing the terminal Mesolithic, the Late Stone Age, and the beginning of the Early Metal Period. Shell middens are generally associated with semi-subterranean houses, but may also occur as free-standing deposits. The primary shellfish taxa exploited were Littorina littorea, Arctica islandica and Mytilus edulis. Most of the species utilized were available in the littoral zone and were easily procured in the course of daily household activities, but sub-littoral A. islandica would have required greater investment in procurement technology and time, as well as labor cooperation. Shellfish were an occasional dietary supplement and could also serve as fishing bait. Spatial and temporal variation in shellfish assemblages reflects local marine ecology, sea-level changes, household dynamics, and perhaps field processing. Interpretation of the existing data is constrained by inadequate midden sampling and documentation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burned fish bones are frequently discovered in excavations of Stone Age settlements in Finland. All the surviving fish bone finds from the Stone Age are burned and very fragmented. The aim of this experimental bone-burning study was to find out what burning actually does to the bones. How much of the original bones is destroyed in the fire before the remains are preserved in the ground and how does this affect the conclusions we can make about the fish bone finds? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the discussion on dissertation tests hypotheses on the MSA/LSA transition through the analysis of lithic assemblages from Melikane Rockshelter including microlithic LSA technologies being rooted in the Middle Stone Age.

Processing of mammoth ivory and manufacturing of diverse ivory artefacts is widely recognized as one of the most important characteristics of the material culture of ancient humans. These technological skills reach their greatest extent and development shortly before the Last Glacial Maximum but are recognizable until the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary across Northern Eurasia in all areas populated by mammoths and humans. As a cultural phenomenon, ivory working is intriguing with respect to flaking technology and especially the production of long ivory shafts. Technological operations in the Upper Palaeolithic of Northern Eurasia have been closely influenced, on the one hand, by the size and shape of the desirable final product and, on the other, by knowledge of raw material properties. Study of the morphology of the artefactual material from the Yana site complex in Arctic Siberia convincingly reveals the technological processes involved. Several technological cycles (chaînes opératoires) can be recognized, including the manufacture of long ivory shafts by exfoliation and wedging. The Yana ivory technology dates roughly to 28,000 bp in radiocarbon years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Zhokhov site is one of the northern most archaeological sites in the world and a very ancient vestige of occupation of high latitudes by people, indicating that this territory was settled as early as about 8000 years ago. Investigation of the site began in 1989-1990 and then continued in 2000-2005. Here we consider the taphonomy, spatial distribution, species and age- and sex-related composition of the faunal remains from the Zhokhov site. These data allow conclusions regarding the subsistence strategy practiced by Zhokhov inhabitants, including the hunting tactics. This was a peculiar adaptation model based on reindeer and polar bear hunting in a 2:1 ratio. Reindeer hunting was all-seasonal, whereas polar bears were hunted mostly in winters at their dens. Mortality data for reindeer and polar bears depict the yearly subsistence cycle. The Zhokhov site is found to be a base camp occupied year-round with modest summer activities, while wintertime is characterised by intense polar bear hunting. Most reindeer were hunted in the fall. Subsistence strategy of the Zhokhov hunters was largely facilitated by the fact that at the time of occupation Zhokhov Island was still part of the coastal Siberian plain margin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]