Past human mountain settlement patterns and resource and high-altitude landscape exploitation are underexplored research fields in archaeology. This study presents data gathered during more than 20 ...years of fieldwork in the Pindus range of Western Macedonia (Greece), focusing in particular on Holocene land use. The investigated territory is located around the Vlach town of Samarina. The area is partly bounded by Mounts Vasilitsa, Gurguliu, Bogdani and Anitsa, and their interconnecting watersheds between ca. 1400 and 2000 m a.s.l. This research led to the discovery of many sites and findspots of lithic and ceramic artefacts attributed to the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, and several Historical periods. The radiocarbon results show an unexpected longue durée of Holocene human landscape use. The number of sites, their distribution, location, and subsistence strategies exhibit shifts between the Middle Palaeolithic and different periods of the Holocene, which are closely related to the exploitation of the mountain environment and its resources. Moreover, typical knapped stone artefacts have been used as a proxy for dating the glacial landforms which characterise the Samarina highland zone; we correlate them to the better-known moraine systems of Mount Tymphi in Epirus and contribute to the reconstruction of the Pleistocene glacial landscapes of the Pindus Range.
This paper discusses the importance of the discovery of one déjeté Levallois tool from the surface of a dark grey and black patinated gravel terrace located ca. 500 m south-west of the Neolithic site ...of Sheri Khan Tarakai in the Bannu Basin (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan), and provides a detailed geomorphological description of the area where it was found. The Neolithic site rests on a large gravelly fan, at present terraced and dismembered by small seasonal streams. Scatters of black varnished pebbles, at the top of a thick ochre silt of possible alluvial origin, cover its surface. Amongst the numerous siliceous gravels forming the deposit, some are of a good quality chert, whose source can be found in the Tertiary Sulaiman Formation. The typological characteristics of the tool, the chert employed for its manufacture, its location and the presence of black patina on its cortex are all important elements that contribute to the definition of the Pleistocene period during which pebble terraces formed. The tool comes from a region where Middle Palaeolithic artefacts had never been found before, though the re-analysis of old collections would suggest their presence as far as the course of the Indus in Lower Sindh. Moreover, its discovery contributes to the study of the south-eastern spread of the Middle Palaeolithic Levallois technique, an important topic that still needs to be fully understood.
The authors attempt to specify the diffusion pattern of the Impressed-Ware Neolithic (Impresso-cardial complex, ICC), from south-eastern Italy onto the French Mediterranean coasts. Using ...ChronoModel® software, a Bayesian model was built with sets of dates obtained on well-contextualised, short-lived samples. The results highlight a clear tightening of the chronology in the so-called nuclear area (Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria) and a pioneer dispersal at record speed in the Tyrrhenian Basin. Moreover, they question the origins and initial developments of the Impressed-Wares techno-complex.
EINE FRAGE DER ZEIT Biagi, Paolo; Nisbet, Renato
Antike Welt,
01/2018
5
Journal Article
Die Erkundung der den Kaukasus umgebenden Hochlandzone hat einige neue Aspekte darüber ans Licht gebracht, wie sich die Kulturlandschaft mit ihren Hunderten Gräbern und Kurganen, mit einzigartigen ...megalithischen Monumenten und Siedlungsstätten im Laufe der Zeit veränderte. Gemeinsame archäologische Surveys der Ca' Foscari-Universität Venedig und der Iwane-Jawachischwili-Universität Tiflis zwischen 2012 und 2017 führten zur Entdeckung des größten bislang bekannten Obsidian-Abbaugebiets des Kaukasus.
The analysis of the settlement structures, material culture assemblages and handicraft activities of the aceramic, fifth millennium bp shell middens of the coast of Oman has shown that ...sedentarization had already taken place in this area among the Middle Holocene fisher-gatherers. These observations have been possible thanks to the study of four settlements and their habitation structures that indicate the relative permanence of their inhabitants throughout a long period of the year, at least during the autumn and winter months. The archaeological evidence for seasonal movements towards the regions of the interior is very limited, although ethnographic parallels would suggest that they occurred at least in the summer. Of particular importance are the observations regarding the handicraft activities. They show that some of the sites were related to the production of specific prestige and utilitarian goods such as polished stone earrings, different types of necklace beads and marine shell fishhooks.
Over the last millennia, the land between the Alps and the Mediterranean Sea, characterized by extraordinary habitat diversity, has seen an outstanding cross-cultural development. For the first time, ...this paper reports on the census of the Holocene archaeological sites that have been studied as part of archaeobotany in Italy (continental Italy, the Italian peninsula and islands) over the last quarter in a century. Pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, seeds and fruits, woods/charcoals and other plant remains have all been analysed in multidisciplinary researches. A list of 630 sites has been provided by more than 15 archaeobotanical teams. The sites are located across the 20 regions of Italy, and in the Republic of San Marino (356 sites in northern Italy, 118 in central Italy, 156 in southern Italy and on the islands). They belong to several cultural phases: 321 sites are only pre-Roman, 264 are Roman/post-Roman, and 45 sites cover a broader range of time, present in both time spans. Site distribution is plotted in maps of site density according to geographical districts and the main chronological phases. The reference list helps to find analytical data referring to the descriptive papers that may be scattered throughout monographs and specific books on the matter.
•This is the first archaeobotanical review of Holocene archaeological sites in Italy.•The number of studies on plant remains from archaeological sites is impressive.•Botany from archaeological sites helps to reconstruct cultural landscapes.
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