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Lake sediment records from Holzmaar and the infilled maar of Auel (Eifel, Germany) are used to reconstruct landscape changes and megafauna abundances. Our data document a forested landscape from 60,000 to 48,000 yr b2k and a stepwise vegetation change towards a glacial desert after 26,000 yr b2k. The Eifel landscape was continuously inhabited from 48,000 to 9000 yr b2k by large mammals, documented by the presence of spores of coprophilous fungi from Sordaria and Sporormiella fungi that grow on fecal remains of the megafauna. Megafauna reached higher numbers during cold stadial climates but was present also during the warmer interstadials. Highest abundance was at 56,500/48,500/38,500/33,000/27,000/21,000/16,200/14,000 yr b2k, i.e. under different climate regimes. Some of these dates were associated with clear human presence, which indicates that megafauna was not overkilled by humans. In contrast, human presence could quite likely have been stimulated by the abundant food supply. Megafauna presence decreased significantly when tree abundance increased during interstadials. The Megafauna disappeared finally at 11,400 yr b2k with the development of the early Holocene forest cover, which appears to be the most important threshold for megafauna presence., Scientific Reports, 12, ISSN:2045-2322

This paper is written in the framework of the project Altägyptische Kursivschriften and presents an experiment for applying OCR to Hieratic, examining the final step of the OCR pipeline. A convolutional neural network is used to classify individual hieratic characters. The results prove that the classification of hieratic characters is in principle possible, but they also show, where improvements and combinations with other methods promise a better performance of recognition models.

The term “Bergstraßenneckar” (BSN) refers to an abandoned course of the river Neckar. It flowed in a northern direction east of the river Rhine in the eastern part of the northern Upper Rhine Graben in southwestern Germany. The former meandering course merged with the Rhine ca. 50 km further north of the site of the present-day confluence near Mannheim. The palaeo-channels are still traceable by their depressional topography, in satellite images and by the curved boundaries of adjacent settlements and land parcels. In the plan view, satellite and aerial images reveal a succession of meander bends, with older bends being cut off from younger channels. Based on stratigraphic investigations of the channel infill in the northern part of the BSN, fluvial activity is assumed from ca. 14 500 years ago until the onset of the Holocene. We present results of the first stratigraphic investigations at two sites in the southern part of the BSN near Heidelberg (Rindlache, Schäffertwiesen), together with results from granulometric, carbonate and organic content analyses, as well as electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements. The data clearly show a change from high-energy fluvial bedload (sand, gravel) to low-energy fluvio-limnic suspended load (organoclastic and calcareous mud) and to peat formation. Radiocarbon dating indicates a time lag of ca. 1500 years between the cut-off meander site (Schäffertwiesen) and the younger site (Rindlache) that was possibly still active until the present-day confluence near Mannheim was established and the BSN eventually became abandoned. Our preliminary data conform with the pedo-sedimentary evidence from the northern BSN, but slight differences in the stratigraphic pattern of the youngest channels are identified: whilst for the younger channel sections of the northern BSN the channel-bottom facies (sand, gravel) is directly overlain by peat, the channel at Rindlache shows substantial intervening mud deposition, which is interpreted as suspension load from flooding by the new Neckar channel nearby. The study shows that more chronostratigraphic data from channel sections of the southern BSN are needed to better constrain the timing of the fluvial activity and to decipher the reasons for the abandonment of the BSN. These data are also necessary to better understand the pattern of temporary reactivation of the BSN channels across the Holocene and their usage by humans, which can be deduced from historical sources and archaeological data.

Throughout the second century AD, the civic centres of the wealthy coastal cities of Africa Proconsularis underwent deep-rooted changes. Up to this point local stone had been largely employed for their buildings, but from the Hadrianic period onwards there was an increasing use of marbles, which were imported with considerable efforts and at great expense. These marbles came primarily from Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, and brought with them new architectural concepts, as well as architects and artisans who have been generally identified as ‘Italian’ and ‘Eastern’ in past scholarship. This article will examine a temple, a structure presumed to be a portico, and a basilica from the harbour city of Meninx, located in southern Djerba (Tunisia). The exceptionally good preservation of these buildings’ architectural components and the documentation produced during their on-site recording in 2017–18 allow for a detailed understanding of their original building processes. This will show how mobile the building industry of the Roman Empire was during the second century AD, which in turn challenges any attempts of an overly schematic territorial placement of architectural concepts, building traditions, and the provenance of the artisans themselves.

The fourth‐ and fifth‐century aqueduct system of Constantinople is, at 426 km, the longest water supply line of the ancient world. Carbonate deposits in the aqueduct system provide an archive of both archaeological developments and palaeo‐environmental conditions during the depositional period. The 246‐km‐long aqueduct line from the fourth century used springs from a small aquifer, whereas a 180‐km‐long fifth‐century extension to the west tapped a larger aquifer. Although historical records testify at least 700 years of aqueduct activity, carbonate deposits in the aqueduct system display less than 27 years of operation. This implies that the entire system must have been cleaned of carbonate, presumably during regular campaigns. A 50‐km‐long double‐aqueduct section in the central part of the system may have been a costly but practical solution to allow repairs and cleaning of the aqueducts of carbonate to ascertain a continuous water supply to the city. The fifth‐century channel was commonly contaminated with clay, caused by the nature of the aqueduct system and possible local damage to the channel. This clay‐rich water could have been one of the reasons for the construction of large reservoirs in Constantinople. image, Leverhulme Trust http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000275, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659

Twenty-four palaeogenomes from Mokrin, a major Early Bronze Age necropolis in southeastern Europe, were sequenced to analyse kinship between individuals and to better understand prehistoric social organization. 15 investigated individuals were involved in genetic relationships of varying degrees. The Mokrin sample resembles a genetically unstructured population, suggesting that the community’s social hierarchies were not accompanied by strict marriage barriers. We find evidence for female exogamy but no indications for strict patrilocality. Individual status differences at Mokrin, as indicated by grave goods, support the inference that females could inherit status, but could not transmit status to all their sons. We further show that sons had the possibility to acquire status during their lifetimes, but not necessarily to inherit it. Taken together, these findings suggest that Southeastern Europe in the Early Bronze Age had a significantly different family and social structure than Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age societies of Central Europe.

Ancient Ostia at the mouth of the River Tiber into the Tyrrhenian Sea was largely significant for the economic supply of Rome. Ostia itself experienced an extraordinary period of prosperity in the second century AD. Starting in AD 42, a first new harbour at Portus was built by Emperor Claudius close to Ostia. It reached its full functionality under Emperor Trajan in the early second century AD, only. At Ostia itself, previous archaeological and geoarchaeological studies have brought to light a lagoon-type harbour at the western fringe of the city operating between the fourth and the second century BC in an artificially excavated harbour basin. From the second century BC onwards, a considerably smaller and shallower part of this western harbour basin was still in function as a fluvial harbour. So far, it was unclear whether Ostia’s western harbour was still in use when the harbour at Portus was set into function in the first to second century AD, or if the latter partially replaced Ostia’s harbour infrastructure. According to archaeological evidence, Ostia’s navalia-temple-complex, the main building at the eastern fringe of the western river harbour basin, was built in the second quarter of the first century AD. Was this prestigious harbour building erected although the associated harbour seemed to have been already given up before? We conducted detailed geoarchaeological investigations at the immediate western front of the navalia-temple complex. Results were compared with archaeological data obtained from excavations carried out in 2000/2001. A multi-proxy approach was used to reconstruct the history and evolution of the harbour. It was possible to identify subsurface structures and evaluate the local stratigraphy. Vibracoring brought to light a more than 1 m thick section of an opus reticulatum wall with parts of the original opus latericium on top. Such walls originally separated vaulted shipshed chambers of the navalia-temple complex at Ostia, which in turn formed the substructure of a temple complex located above it. Another core revealed the sedimentary infill of a former chamber of the building. Based on radiocarbon dating, the navalia was in use between the first and the fourth centuries AD with a water depth of maximum ca. 1.2 m at the immediate western front. This is in agreement with the date of construction of the navalia-temple complex in the second quarter of the first century AD. The relative sea level at that time was around 0.64 m below the present sea level. The harbour and the navalia were obviously accessible only for flat-keeled lighters and cargo boats. Larger cargo ships were either unloaded along the riverbank to the north of ancient Ostia (Hadler et al. 2019) or moored offshore, their freight being reloaded to smaller lighters. Chronostratigraphic data further show that the navalia-temple complex was in use until the second half of the fourth century AD. It was not before AD 355–363 or shortly afterwards, that the harbour site was abandoned. Ostia’s western river harbour was neither abandoned nor completely silted up before the harbour at Portus was established as previously assumed by other authors. Actually, the western front of the navalia-temple complex was hit by an extreme wave event, leaving a sand layer approx. 0.5 m thick, at or shortly after AD 355–363 which led to the final abandonment of Ostia’s western river harbour. This event is interpreted as a tsunami that may have hit the wider coastal region.