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Humans were regularly heat-treating stone tool raw materials as early as 130,000 years ago. The late Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Late Stone Age (LSA) of South Africa's Western Cape region provides some of the earliest and most pervasive archaeological evidence for this behaviour. While archaeologists are beginning to understand the flaking implications of raw material heat treatment, its potential functional benefits remain unanswered. Using silcrete from the Western Cape region, we investigate the impact of heat treatment on stone tool cutting performance. We quantify the sharpness of silcrete in its natural, unheated form, before comparing it with silcrete heated in three different conditions. Results show that heat-treated silcrete can be significantly sharper than unheated alternatives, with cutting forces halving and energy requirements reducing by approximately two-thirds. The data suggest that silcrete may have been heat treated during the South African MSA and LSA to increase the sharpness and performance of stone cutting edges. This early example of material engineering has implications for understanding Stone Age populations’ technological capabilities, inventiveness and raw material choices. We predict that heat-treatment behaviours in other prehistoric and ethnographic contexts may also be linked to increases in edge sharpness and concerns about functional performance.

Holocene relative shore level (RSL) changes and Stone Age palaeogeography of Hiiumaa Island are reconstructed using airborne LiDARelevation data, sedimentological and archaeological proxies as well ...

ERC‐Advanced Grant. Grant Number: 832980; National Natural Science Foundation of China. Grant Numbers: 41372032, 41872029; the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Grant Number: XDB26000000; John Templeton Foundation through a grant to the Stone Age Institute; the UCAS Joint PhD Training Program.

Previous studies show that the indigenous people of the southern Cape of South Africa were dramatically impacted by the arrival of European colonists starting ~400 years ago and their descendants are today mixed with Europeans and Asians. To gain insight on the occupants of the Vaalkrans Shelter located at the southernmost tip of Africa, we investigated the genetic make-up of an individual who lived there about 200 years ago. We further contextualize the genetic ancestry of this individual among prehistoric and current groups. From a hair sample excavated at the shelter, which was indirectly dated to about 200 years old, we sequenced the genome (1.01 times coverage) of a Later Stone Age individual. We analyzed the Vaalkrans genome together with genetic data from 10 ancient (pre-colonial) individuals from southern Africa spanning the last 2000 years. We show that the individual from Vaalkrans was a man who traced ~80% of his ancestry to local southern San hunter–gatherers and ~20% to a mixed East African-Eurasian source. This genetic make-up is similar to modern-day Khoekhoe individuals from the Northern Cape Province (South Africa) and Namibia, but in the southern Cape, the Vaalkrans man's descendants have likely been assimilated into mixed-ancestry “Coloured” groups. The Vaalkrans man's genome reveals that Khoekhoe pastoralist groups/individuals lived in the southern Cape as late as 200 years ago, without mixing with non-African colonists or Bantu-speaking farmers. Our findings are also consistent with the model of a Holocene pastoralist migration, originating in Eastern Africa, shaping the genomic landscape of historic and current southern African populations. Authors in thesis list of papers: Coutinho, A., Edlund, H., Malmström, H., Henshilwood, C., van Niekerk, K., Lombard, M., Schlebusch, C. & Jakobsson, M.

In the nineteenth century, the exchange of anthropological specimens between museum curators and collectors was a widespread practice used to fill gaps in collections. Within the specimen exchange industry, one's ability to exchange required a steady supply of described or catalogued artifacts considered duplicates. Exchanging duplicates allowed anthropological specimens to move through institutional and personal scientific collections over time. Italian zoologist and anthropologist Enrico Giglioli relied on the practice of specimen exchange to build his personal collection of “stone age” tools from Indigenous peoples, sourced from a worldwide network of museums and collectors, including the Smithsonian Institution. As a master negotiator, Giglioli was remarkably successful in procuring valuable specimens from major museum collections. Analyses of the negotiation of exchanges by museum-based anthropologists reveals the intersection of object value as produced by museums, agents' desire for rare and underrepresented objects, and professional standards of anthropological practice in the late nineteenth century. [exchange and value, duplicate, Smithsonian Institution, Enrico Giglioli]

Walter Scheidel's monumental new study traces the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, and shows that inequality never dies peacefully. His claim – that inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return – is of critical importance to debates about the future of equality. In this interview, IPPR Progressive Review discuss the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world and what lessons progressives can draw in trying to promote inequality in the future.

Here, we present new sedimentary data of the amber bearing layer from the Holocene coastal plain on the SW Saaremaa Island where amber is not known in sedimentary successions but is common in Stone Age and Bronze Age archaeological sites. A layer of buried organic matter (BOM), sandwiched between sandy coastal deposits and containing pieces of natural amber, was discovered during fieldwork and analysed in detail. Results show that the BOM layer is buried under approximately 90-cm-thick sandy coastal deposits and consists of the remains of different coastal plants. Palaeogeographical reconstructions and sediment compositions indicate that the layer was deposited in the coastal zone and buried quickly by sandy marine sediments. According to AMS radiocarbon dating of knotgrass seeds (Polygonum lapathifolium), deposition of the BOM layer took place in the Late Bronze Age; about 2.7–2.5 cal. ka BP. Infrared spectra and isotopic composition of the analysed amber from the BOM layer indicate Baltic amber, also known as succinite. The stable isotope ratio indicates the origin of the amber to be south of Estonia. Therefore, it is proposed that the amber was probably transported to Saaremaa within organic matter (along the main SW–NE orientated current flows) from the SE coast of the Baltic Sea where secondary Baltic amber deposits are known to exist widely. Amber items are common in Late Bronze Age settlement sites and burials in Saaremaa and are considered to originate from present-day Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad district (Russia) and Poland. The current study shows that during the Late Bronze Age natural amber accumulated in the coastal zone of Saaremaa Island and that the islanders could collect it. Therefore, the possibility exists that some Bronze Age archaeological amber objects could be made of local material as opposed to being a result of trade with southern neighbours, as formerly thought.

Aim: The majority of the non-volant mammals now present on the island of Gotland, Sweden, have been introduced in modern times. One exception is the mountain hare (Lepus timidus), which was present ...

We present early to mid-Holocene palaeocoastline reconstructions for the Tolkuse-Rannametsa area on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Riga. Radiocarbon-dated sediment stratigraphies and diatom analyses, supported by ground-penetrating radar data and GIS-based modelling, were used in the palaeogeographical reconstructions to strip back younger sediments and landforms from the LiDAR-derived digital elevation model. The reconstructions show an open coast environment during the Ancylus Lake stage and the formation of a peatland after the lake drainage at about 9000–8600 cal. a BP. The waters of the Litorina Sea flooded the study area between 8200 and 7700 cal. a BP, forming a 25-km-long and up to 5.5-m-deep lagoon with two connections to the sea. This brackish water lagoon existed in the area for about 4000 years and terminated around 3800–3500 cal. a BP as a result of isostatic uplift and growth of the barrier spit. The reconstructions illustrate the relationships between the lagoonal system and three Mesolithic and Neolithic settlement sites found in the study area. A comparative analysis which besides palaeogeographical and ecological data included a data set with more than 100 Stone Age sites from the eastern Baltic region, was used to propose the most suitable locations for coastal settlements in the Tolkuse-Rannametsa area. However, some of these areas are presently covered by a peat layer that is several metres thick, which may explain the relative scarcity of the archaeological finds on the shores of the palaeo-lagoon. The proposed multiproxy approach has the capability to delimit the areas that would have been favourable for prehistoric habitation, but might not be observable in the present-day topography. In return, this increases the likelihood of locating any well-preserved preserved settlement sites and artefacts that are buried under the protective sediment layer.

Current fossil, genetic, and archeological data indicate that Homo sapiens originated in Africa in the late Middle Pleistocene. By the end of the Late Pleistocene, our species was distributed across every continent except Antarctica, setting the foundations for the subsequent demographic and cultural changes of the Holocene. The intervening processes remain intensely debated and a key theme in hominin evolutionary studies. We review archeological, fossil, environmental, and genetic data to evaluate the current state of knowledge on the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa. The emerging picture of the dispersal process suggests dynamic behavioral variability, complex interactions between populations, and an intricate genetic and cultural legacy. This evolutionary and historical complexity challenges simple narratives and suggests that hybrid models and the testing of explicit hypotheses are required to understand the expansion of Homo sapiens into Eurasia.

Early Stone Age cut marks created during tool-assisted carnivory potentially offer inferences into hominin butchery behaviour and access to complete or defleshed carcasses. Actualistic butchery trials of 16 goat and cow half-carcasses were completed by an experienced butcher with replicated Oldowan tools to investigate how the geometric organisation of cut mark clusters reflects flake versus core tool use and bulk muscle versus scrap defleshing. A cluster of cut marks is defined as a series of adjacent cut mark striations that occur at an anatomical location and are bounded by unmarked cortical surface. Tool type and butchery action were predicted to differentially mark certain long bone portions and influence cluster attributes. Moulds of 613 cut mark clusters were photographed and measured using ImageJ software (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA) for cluster area, cut mark count, median cut mark length and standard deviation of cut mark length and angle. Analysis suggests the following results: (i) cluster attributes are correlated;(ii) changes in cluster geometry are related to increasing cut mark count and length but not tool type or defleshed muscle amount; (iii) large clusters occur on large animals; and (iv) long bone midshaft portions are cut-marked during both bulk and scrap muscle defleshing. Analysis of 179 cut mark clusters on long bone shafts of sizes 1–4 mammals from three Okote member assemblages at Koobi Fora, Kenya, shows that archaeological clusters have a similar number of marks when compared with experimental clusters but are significantly smaller, have shorter median marks and include less deviation in mark length and angle. Archaeological clusters corroborate that increasing area is positively correlated with cut mark count, median mark length and standard deviation of mark length and angle. A quantitative inferential model that links cut mark cluster geometry to tool type or the amount of muscle defleshed is not supported by these data. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Amber has fascinated people since the Stone Age and as one of the best means of preservation of fossil organisms, it tickles our senses. The animals that are sometimes trapped in amber, like frozen moments of long-lost ecosystems, can be so incredibly well preserved that they look modern—which, in some cases, has proven to be just the case. Because fossil-bearing amber not only has a significant scientific value but is also a desired commodity on the open market, fake amber has unfortunately been around for centuries.

This study reviews the occurrence and potential of bryozoans within lithic artifacts and also sets out a methodology for their use in sourcing and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. We present case studies from our own research and from the literature on using bryozoans in sourcing archaeological lithic artifacts. Fossil bryozoans of different ages and clades can be effectively used to determine the material source of lithic artifacts from a variety of prehistoric ages. The case studies included in this report span the stratigraphic range of bryozoans from the Ordovician to the Neogene. The bryozoans came from four different orders: trepostome, fenestrate, cyclostome, and cheilostome. The use of these lithic artifacts ranged back to 25 ka. Although the majority of the fossil bryozoans were incidental in the artifacts, the bryozoans were still useful for determining their original source rock. The improved searchable online paleontologic databases allow for more efficient use of fossil bryozoans to constrain the stratigraphic and paleogeographic distribution of source outcrops. Although generally underutilized in sourcing prehistoric lithic artifacts, it is clear that by analyzing bryozoans, an increased understanding of the lithologic nature of these materials could be gained by the archaeological community.

A combined ground-penetrating radar (GPR), drilling and diatom survey was carried out in order to characterize formation of the Kudrukula Stone Age Comb Ware archaeological site, northeast Estonia. A few decades ago a cultural layer was discovered, located within fine-grained sands of the right bank of the Kudrukula Stream an altitude of 1.25–1.60 m above sea level. The layer is 15–35 cm thick and composed of poorly sorted sand of intensive reddish colour with abundant arte- and ecofacts, human bones, burned hearthstones and charcoal pieces. Artefacts, in particular pottery, are well preserved and frequently present as large pieces. The Kudrukula site holds an exceptional position among other Stone Age coastal settlements in that it is not located directly on top of beach ridges, but is buried under ~3 m of sand. When the Kudrukula settlement existed the level of the Litorina Sea was ~6 m above present sea level, which is ~4.5 m above the present location of the cultural layer. The current research is used to describe the geological structure of the area to provide a perspective on the history of the cultural material, and reveals that the cultural material is not restricted to one layer/lens only because it is irregularly and widely distributed within the sands of Kudrukula. The GPR and diatom analyses show that the Kudrukula cultural material is redeposited, because it occurs within an ancient point-bar succession of a (Narva) river meander. Originally, the dwelling site had been located on top of the Narva-Joesuu sandy coastal ridges, which subsequently suffered erosion and the sand resedimented at the Kudrukula location. Good preservation of the cultural items shows that, after redeposition, they were buried fast, probably within a year. The present Kudrukula stream has cut into the floodplain of the ancient (Narva) river to expose the redeposited layer/lens. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The site of Mwanganda's Village, located along a paleochannel in northern Malawi, is one of only a few sites that have characterized the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Malawi for decades (Clark & Haynes, ; Clark etal., ; Kaufulu, ). The Malawi Earlier-Middle Stone Age Project has re-examined the site using new mapping and chronometric tools in order to reinterpret the site's significance within the context of current debates surrounding human origins and the potential role the environment played in shaping human behavior. The new data do not support the previous hypothesis that the site was an elephant butchery location (contra Clark & Haynes, ; Clark etal., ; Kaufulu, ). Instead, the evidence shows successive colonization of riparian corridors by MSA hunter-gatherers focused on exploiting localized resources during periods of generally humid climates while other lakes desiccated across Africa. We challenge the hypothesis that stable and intermediately high lake levels within the African Rift Valley System (sensu Trauth etal., ) catalyzed the evolution of regional interaction networks between 42 and 22 ka. Instead, we interpret the evidence to suggest that regional variants of technology persist into the late MSA as foragers focused on exploiting resources from local catchments. (C) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This study presents the application of neutron tomography to the analysis of ironstone slabs found in a late Earlier Stone Age context (Fauresmith industry) at the back of Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape Province, South Africa. These slabs have markings on the surface that might be anthropogenic, and thus significant to understanding the emergence of human symbolic behaviour. Neutron tomography proved to be an effective tool for distinguishing surface incisions from lines that are the expression of internal fissures in the rock.

I explore the ramifications of applying some recent research on cities, built on the work of Jane Jacobs, to early city development. A communications approach to ‘city ness’ is offered as a way of understanding early cities as qualitatively new social worlds enabling world-changing processes. Returning to Jacobs’ use of Catalhoyuk to push back the timing of the first cities, I review recent work on the site to support her thesis. In the process I also argue in favour of her controversial thesis of cities inventing agriculture using Sahlin’s ‘stone age economics’. Further, and going beyond Jacobs, I argue that states were also invented in cities and harness evidence for this in Mesopotamian studies. In both cases I provide generic conclusions that briefly indicate examples from other parts of the world.

Flint was one of the most widely employed raw materials for artefact manufacture in Denmarkand Sweden during the Stone Age, and it continued to be used during subsequent periods.Prehistoric flint m ...

The Priiskovoe site in the Transbaikal Region of Siberia has long been considered one of the most ancient examples of the area's Middle Paleolithic. Priiskovoe and many other regional Paleolithic sites are part of a sequence of alluvial sediments found on or close to valley floor environments. We present several key pieces of evidence to suggest that Priiskovoe and its chipped-stone assemblage are Upper Paleolithic in age. We examine the depositional history of the Selenga and Chikoi rivers and assess Priiskovoe's stratigraphy, geomorphology, and geochronology to argue that the Paleolithic component is dated around 26,000 14C yr B.P. within a thick buried soil ascribed to the Karginsk Interstadial. We then analyze the lithic material to conclude that the artifacts are characteristically Upper Paleolithic in terms of regional raw material selection, tool frequencies, and core reduction. Although several sites in the Transbaikal are potentially Middle Paleolithic contenders, Priiskovoe is best considered part of Siberia's Upper Paleolithic tradition. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Artifacts of Paleolithic age were first recognized in eastern Europe during the 1870s. Archeologists have struggled ever since to integrate them into the better known record of western Europe, where the interpretive framework of Paleolithic archeology was originally developed.1–5 The essential elements of both the Middle and Upper Paleolithic were recognized quickly in eastern Europe, and a close connection with a major middle Upper Paleolithic industry of central Europe (Gravettian) was established many years ago. The early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) has remained a major challenge, however; it is represented primarily by a bewildering array of local archeological cultures that exhibit limited similarity to contemporaneous industries of western and central Europe.6–9

The surface site of Jebel Thanais 1 is located in the Emirate of Sharjah (U.A.E.) at the western flank of the Jebel Faya/Jebel Buhais anticline structure. A dense scatter of lithic artefacts and fireplaces indicates Stone Age settlement activities in this area. Radiocarbon dates obtained from fireplaces date the occupation of the site to both the beginning and the very end of the fifth millennium cal. BC. During the second half of the fifth millennium the deterioration of climatic conditions in south-east Arabia had a noticeable impact on settlement patterns and subsistence strategies. While coastal habitation sites from this time are well known along the shores of the Oman peninsula, only a few poorly dated sites allow insights into habitation and raw material procurement strategies and lithic technology in the interior. Investigations into the spatial structure of the site and an analysis of lithic finds will contribute to a better understanding of this period.

Archaeologists continue to describe Stone Age women as home bound and their lithic technologies as unskilled, expedient, and of low quality. However, today a group of Konso women make, use, and discard flaked stone tools to process hides, offering us an alternative to the man-the-toolmaker model and redefining Western “naturalized” gender roles. These Konso women are skilled knappers who develop their expertise through long-term practice and apprenticeship. Their lithic technology demonstrates that an individual's level of skill and age are visible in stone assemblages. Most importantly, they illustrate that women procure high-quality stone from long distances, produce formal tools with skill, and use their tools efficiently. I suggest in this article that archaeologists should consider women the producers of Paleolithic stone scrapers, engaged in bipolar technology, and as such perhaps responsible for some of the earliest-known lithic technologies.

An Early Stone Age Acheulean lithic assemblage collected along a 1.5-km transect at the Garden Route Casino near Pinnacle Point, Mossel Bay, South Africa, was examined in order to assess the relative degree to which assemblage variability is impacted by post-occupational processes and/or terrain. It was found that post-occupational variables do vary across the study area, and they affect the positions of artifacts to different degrees. Terrain structure was determined to have minimal effect on artifact movement. Three analysis sections were identified as having artifacts that were likely close to their original positions and compositions. Future interpretations of differential land use can now be tempered with considerations of the post-occupational processes that formed the recovered assemblage. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This paper reports the earliest securely dated evidence for intentional dental modification in West Africa. Human remains representing 11 individuals were recovered from the sites of Karkarichikat Nord (KN05) and Karkarichinkat Sud (KS05) in the lower Tilemsi Valley of eastern Mali. The modified anterior maxillary dentitions of four individuals were recovered from KN05. The dental modification involved the removal of the mesial and distal angles of the incisor, as well as the mesial angles of the canines. The modifications did not result from task-specific wear or trauma, but appear instead to have been produced for aesthetic purposes. All of the filed teeth belonged to probable females, suggesting the possibility of sex-specific cultural modification. Radiocarbon dates from the site indicate that the remains pertain to the Late Stone Age (ca. 4500–4200 BP). Dental modification has not previously been reported from this region of West Africa and our findings indicate that the practice was more widespread during prehistory. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The southern and western coastlines of South Africa have an extensive archaeological record with many sites associated with widespread eolian deposits. While much of this rich archaeological record is based on cave sites, evidence of Late Stone Age occupation is additionally preserved in the form of open-site shell middens. We present here a comparative study of the application of amino acid racemization (AAR), optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), and radiocarbon analyses to three Late Stone Age (LSA) midden sites found within dunes on the southern coastline of South Africa. Preliminary geochronological analyses suggest that middens offer opportunity to fill in gaps in what is still a fragmentary archaeological record. Results show OSL and radiocarbon ages in good agreement, illustrating the potential to date not only the middens but also the surrounding dunes that constituted the dwelling sites. AAR results show increasing ratios with age and also that the application of paired shell and “whole rock” AAR can provide insights into the degree of biogenic sediment recycling at buried midden sites. However, the work also highlights that caution is required when OSL sampling sediment associated with middens which may have undergone human disturbance and that further work is required to improve the regional marine reservoir correction for radiocarbon dating in this part of South Africa. The study also illustrates that AAR will only provide useful data provided that middens have been sufficiently deeply buried to overcome fluctuations in environmental variables that affect the racemization rate and that inter-genus comparisons should be avoided. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This paper examines current theories of, and approaches to, style in flaked stone artefacts. In light of the simplicity of flaked stone artefacts and the more or less mixed nature of Stone Age assemblages of any size, it is concluded that, in this context, the most appropriate type of style is the subconscious variety that arises out of choices between functionally equivalent options, and that we should try to eliminate from consideration traits that represent either individual or deliberate stylistic input. For the Stone Age, style can usefully be pursued only at a fairly high level of social grouping. A case study of stylistic analysis is provided by Late Palaeolithic assemblages from the Nile Valley. These include the large series of sites from Wadi Kubbaniya, where several Late Palaeolithic “industries,” as traditionally defined, occur within a very confined geographical area and under well controlled and well dated stratigraphic conditions.

Paths to the early history of humanity: At the Gobekli Tepe in Anatolia, archaeologists are uncovering unique Stone Age monuments. They are thereby contributing to a new understanding of settlement history and of incipient agriculture

Many empirical studies have demonstrated that some indigenous technologies in the Americas survived for a long time after European colonization. Still, a narrative of the quick replacement of “Stone Age” indigenous technologies by more efficient European technologies continues to be the main model to explain postcontact technological change. I argue in this article that an important reason for the perseverance of this model is its clear narrative quality. I discuss alternative narrative strategies and examine in detail the case of Xaltocan, Mexico, where indigenous people resumed and intensified chipped-stone tool production and use after the Spanish conquest, instead of adopting steel knives. I argue that this trend was related to access to the means of production rather than to European notions of “practicality.” This model invites us to rewrite histories of postconquest technological change without assuming a quick replacement of indigenous tools and technologies.

The Chad Basin was sparsely inhabited during the Stone Age, and its continual settlement began with the Holocene. The role played by Lake Chad in the history and migration patterns of Africa is still unclear. We studied the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variability in 448 individuals from 12 ethnically and/or economically (agricultural/pastoral) different populations from Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. The data indicate the importance of this region as a corridor connecting East and West Africa; however, this bidirectional flow of people in the Sahel-Sudan Belt did not erase features peculiar to the original Chad Basin populations. A new sub-clade, L3f2, is described, which together with L3e5 is most probably autochthonous in the Chad Basin. The phylogeography of these two sub-haplogroups seems to indicate prehistoric expansion events in the Chad Basin around 28,950 and 11,400 Y.B.P., respectively. The distribution of L3f2 is virtually restricted to the Chad Basin alone, and in particular to Chadic speaking populations, while L3e5 shows evidence for diffusion into North Africa at about 7,100 Y.B.P. The absence of L3f2 and L3e5 in African-Americans, and the limited number of L-haplotypes shared between the Chad Basin populations and African-Americans, indicate the low contribution of the Chad region to the Atlantic slave trade.

Osteoporosis is a prevalent condition in Norway, as evidenced by the fact that this country has the highest reported incidences of hip and distal forearm fractures. Because recent studies suggest a higher bone density in rural populations compared with urban ones, increased physical activity is believed to be an important factor in reducing fracture incidence. In the present investigation, 185 femoral necks from the Schreiner Collection in Oslo were measured by means of a bone-mass scanner. The bones, anthropological specimens ranging from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages, were separated into three groups: prehistoric (n = 36), Viking Age (n = 38) and medieval (n = 111). The medieval group was further separated into urban, rural and monastic populations. The examination showed that: (a) there was no significant difference at a 5% level in average bone mineral density (BMD) between the male and female material; (b) there was no significant difference in average BMD among the prehistoric, Viking Age, and medieval periods (P = 0.151); (c) there was no significant difference in average BMD between the rural and urban medieval material; (d) there was a significant difference in average BMD only between the monastic and the rural medieval material; (e) only the medieval material showed a significantly higher average BMD than that of today (P = 0.001). These findings may indicate that factors in addition to physical activity are important for normal BMD maintenance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We have conducted a detailed taphonomic study of the avifauna of the Pitted Ware culture site of Ajvide on the Island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, in order to investigate the fowling patterns and the taphonomic history of the bird remains. We have investigated cultural as well as natural modifications on the bird bones, fragmentation and fracture patterns, and performed a systematic surface modification study. No specific area for the deposition of bird remains or specific bird species was identified. All major anatomical parts of birds are present in the assemblage, but there is a dominance of specimens from the wing elements. Traces of cultural modification were observed on the bones, including cut marks, burning, modification (implements, beads, raw material), and gnawing marks. The bone surface modifications and fracture analysis indicate that the majority of the bird bones at Ajvide did not lie on the soil surface for an extended period of time before being deposited in the soil. Dry fractures increase while fresh fractures decrease towards the upper levels of the stratigraphy, indicating more extensive post-depositional destruction. This may partly be connected to modern agriculture, but also to later use of the settlement area as a burial ground. The Ajvide assemblage contains a variety of birds living in different biotopes. However, bird hunting was mainly focused on sea birds. Auks and ducks are the most common families in the assemblage. We find it likely that the Ajvide hunters conducted organised hunting expeditions to two nearby islands for the hunting of auks, while it was possible to hunt other birds such as ducks closer to the site. The presence of medullary bone and bones from subadult birds indicates a main hunting season in late spring and early summer. However, comparisons with modern migration patterns indicate that hunting may have occurred throughout the year. Of special palaeozoological interest is the find of gannet (Morus bassanus), which apparently in Neolithic times visited the Baltic area more regularly than today. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Runciman's puzzle in his subtle and provocative article, 'Stone Age sociology' (2005), is in effect 'how did our Stone Age ancestors come to solve the problem of order while living in groups lacking leaders or any formal jural or political institutions?' In this the Stone Age hunter-gatherer groups differ sharply from both the ape bands which preceded them and the more complex societies which followed domestication of plants and animals. 'Why was it that would-be [human] alpha males became unable to acquire and hold positions of power in a way their [ape] ancestors had done before them, and their descendants were to do again?' (2005: 131). For in the more complex societies which later appeared, differentiation of wealth and power lead to rank and hierar? chy, big men and chiefs, patronage, kings and armies. In his article on 'Violence and social? ity in human evolution' (1991), Bruce Knauft describes this shift for primates from ape dominance roles, to egalitarianism, and back to elaborated dominance roles as 'U-shaped'. And he points out that such a reversal is unusual to fmd in evolution. Here Runciman

Study of the Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic began in the 1870s with excavations by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola in the caves of El Pendo, Camargo, and especially Altamira, where, in 1878, he discovered rupestral paintings and recognized their relationship to the Ice Age archeological deposits he was digging in the vestibule of the cavern1 (Fig. 1). Following two decades of dismissal by most of the prehistoric “establishment,” Cantabrian prehistory once again asserted its importance with the discovery, a century ago, by H. Alcalde del Rio and Lorenzo Sierra, of such major art and archeological sites as El Castillo, Hornos de la Pena, Covalanas, La Haza, El Miron, and El Valle.2 Since then, and at an intensified pace in recent years, some 100 cave art loci and many more Upper Paleolithic habitation sites have been discovered, making the relatively small Vasco-Cantabrian region of northern Spain one of the richest in the world for the archeology of the period between c. 40,000 to 10,000 radiocarbon years ago. The purpose of this article is to review and make available to an English-speaking readership some of the most salient and distinctive aspects of the Upper Paleolithic record of Cantabrian Spain, highlighting the discoveries and developments in our understanding of major problems that have occurred since publication, more than a decade ago, of my book on the Stone Age prehistory of northern Spain, Iberia Before the Iberians.3 In particular, this record is significant in relation to the ongoing debate about the socalled Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition; the impact of the Last Glacial Maximum on human settlement in Europe; study of Upper Paleolithic art in its broader socio-cultural-economic contexts; and the worldwide phenomenon of diverse human responses to the termination of Pleistocene environmental conditions around 10,000 radiocarbon years ago.

On September 19, 1991, a body protruding from glacial ice was discovered in the Alps between Austria and Italy. Considered a forensic case, and having been found on Austrian soil according to initial information, it was transported to the Department of Forensic Medicine in Innsbruck. Rumors about the body not being recent were readily confirmed, and news about the body and accompanying equipment immediately spread all over the world. The body itself was shown to be a natural mummy, as opposed to a corpse that has been embedded in glacial ice for some time, where soft tissue generally changes into grave wax (adipocere). The mummy was male and was remarkably well preserved. The preserved condition of his equipment and some organic material was astonishingly good. Isotope dating of the body by means of the 14C method has given an age of about 3,300 BC, or Late Stone Age. A survey of the border, however, revealed that the body was found just on the Italian side (within the autonomous province South Tyrol), and not as first assumed, in Austria (the province Tyrol). But according to an agreement between South Tyrol and the University of Innsbruck, the body will be kept at the Department of Anatomy in Innsbruck for a period of at least three years for research purposes. The research is to be carried out on an international basis, and the first symposium about the find was held in Innsbruck, June 3–5, 1992.

In attempting to understand the course of human evolution and the nature of hominid adaptation over the past few million years, it is necessary to consider prevailing evidence from all parts of the world. Eastern Asia provides a range of important questions and challenges with regard to this evolutionary puzzle. Although evidence for earlier ape evolution is present in China (for example, at Lufeng in Yunnan Province), the earliest evidence for hominid presence appears to be in the Early Pleistocene, apparently the result of a migration of hominids to and subsequent adaptation within Eastern Asia. The archeological record provides a closer look at some technological aspects of this adaptation during the Early and Middle Pleistocene, showing both distinctive contrasts and intriguing continuities relative to the rest of the Old World.

TRANSPORTATION PLANNING did not start with the contemporary' era in the Detroit Metropolitan Area. A combination of public and private choices has been made since the days of pre-history which has caused a more or less coherent system of communication arrangements to take form and shape. The thinking, willing, reasoned responses of man in the immediate post-Pleistocene period, the Stone Age and the Bronze Age, and in the paleo-neotechnical period have produced a regional system of transportational behavior which, despite its many drawbacks and imperfections, somehow works; is, in other words, more than a mere congeries of disconnected phenomena.

Recently, Alcantara Garcia et al. (in press) presented a new method and criteria for distinguishing between fractures imparted by hominid hammerstone percussion and carnivores chewing on ‘green’ limb bones of ungulates. The method uses a combination of fracture plane and fracture angle data that are useful for elucidating the relative role of hominids in the accumulation of prehistoric archaeofaunas, especially when employed in concert with other classes of taphonomic data. We briefly summarise the method and apply it to the ungulate limb bone subassemblage from Swartkrans Member 3, a c. 1.0 million year old site from South Africa that preserves Early Stone Age lithic artefacts, hominid fossils, and an abundant mammalian fauna with cutmarked, hammerstone-percussed and burned bone specimens. Results of the fracture pattern analysis corroborate indications from other lines of taphonomic data that there was minimal carnivore–hominid interdependence in the formation of the fauna, and that carnivores were probably responsible for the majority of the bone collection in Member 3. However, we also document a significant hominid influence on assemblage formation, a finding that expands and refines our understanding of large animal carcass foraging by hominids in southern Africa during the early Pleistocene. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The skeletal remains from the Middle Neolithic (2750-2300 BC) burial ground at Ajvide, Gotland, are analyzed in order to explore musculoskeletal patterns and to attempt to trace general as well as three specific prehistoric activities (archery, harpooning, and kayaking) that are likely to have been performed in this marine setting of fishing, hunting, and gathering. Scoring of muscular and ligament attachments is performed using the scoring method of Hawkey and Merbs ([1995] Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. 5:324-338) for muskuloskeletal stress markers (MSM). The skeletal material consists of 24 male and 15 female adult individuals divided into three age groups: young (24 years), middle (25-39 years), and old (40 years). Thirty upper body MSM sites, on both the left and right sides, are scored and form the basis of the study. Results show that males most frequently have higher mean MSM scores than females. Bilateral asymmetry was noted as low in both sexes. Age proved to be a contributing factor to increased MSM scores, with a greater age-related increase in females. MSM patterns were analyzed statistically in muscle groups associated with the three investigated activities. Significant positive correlations were observed in male individuals in muscle groups associated with archery and to some extent harpooning, an indication that these activities would mainly have been performed by men. Correlations in kayaking muscles were not evidently consistent with the kayaking motion. Furthermore, the costoclavicular ligament, often referred to in connection with "kayaker's clavicle," showed no positive statistical correlation with the kayaking muscles.

We carried out a geologic survey and a preliminary archaeological survey of four fossil-spring tufa localities in Kharga Oasis, Egypt, to constrain the timing of pluvial episodes in the Western Desert, and to document prehistoric occupation contemporaneous with times of increased rainfall. Uranium-series dating of the tufas confirms that at least five episodes of tufa deposition are represented in Kharga, although not every event is represented at each locality. Across the region studied, tufas were most frequently deposited as part of a fluvial barrage system, characterized by terraced, vegetated pools impounded by arcuate tufa dams and separated by small waterfalls. Available water resources during pluvial phases would have included not only spring-fed streams but also small freshwater lakes. While Earlier Stone Age (ESA) and Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithic artifacts may be found either as surficial lags on tufas, or, less commonly, encased within tufas, Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic artifacts are generally found in or on silts within surface deflation depressions in the tufas, principally at Wadi Midauwara. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The archaeology of caves is best served by including a study of natural effects prior to and during anthropogenic input. This is especially true for the Cave of Hearths because not only has erosion determined the area of occupation, but also subsequent undermining has caused collapse of some of the rearward parts of the site during Early Stone Age (Acheulian) and later times; and this had a major impact on excavation. The key to understanding the nature of the collapsed layers was the rediscovery of a lower part of the cavern below the whole site. This lower cavern is no longer accessible, but the evidence for it was revealed in a swallow hole by R.J. Mason, and in archived material at the Department of Archaeology, University of Witwatersrand. The creation and dissolution of dolomite fragments in the upper layers has resulted in the formation of thick, carbonate-cemented breccia that has preserved underlying layers and prevented further collapse. We agree with Mason that further archaeological and hominid finds await excavation under the proximate Historical Cave west entrance. This area has the potential for archaeological and palaeoanthropological material that predates the layers in the Cave of Hearths. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.