Recent studies have broadened our knowledge regarding the origins of agriculture in southwest Asia by highlighting the multiregional and protracted nature of plant domestication. However, there have ...been few archaeobotanical data to examine whether the early adoption of wild cereal cultivation and the subsequent appearance of domesticated-type cereals occurred in parallel across southwest Asia, or if chronological differences existed between regions. The evaluation of the available archaeobotanical evidence indicates that during Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) cultivation of wild cereal species was common in regions such as the southern-central Levant and the Upper Euphrates area, but the plant-based subsistence in the eastern Fertile Crescent (southeast Turkey, Iran, and Iraq) focused on the exploitation of plants such as legumes, goatgrass, fruits, and nuts. Around 10.7–10.2 ka Cal BP (early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B), the predominant exploitation of cereals continued in the southern-central Levant and is correlated with the appearance of significant proportions (∼30%) of domesticated-type cereal chaff in the archaeobotanical record. In the eastern Fertile Crescent exploitation of legumes, fruits, nuts, and grasses continued, and in the Euphrates legumes predominated. In these two regions domesticated-type cereal chaff (>10%) is not identified until themiddle and late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (10.2–8.3 ka Cal BP). We propose that the cultivation of wild and domesticated cereals developed at different times across southwest Asia and was conditioned by the regionally diverse plant-based subsistence strategies adopted by Pre-Pottery Neolithic groups.
We present the results of the microstratigraphic, phytolith and wood charcoal study of the remains of a 10.5 ka roof. The roof is part of a building excavated at Tell Qarassa (South Syria), assigned ...to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period (PPNB). The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) period in the Levant coincides with the emergence of farming. This fundamental change in subsistence strategy implied the shift from mobile to settled aggregated life, and from tents and huts to hard buildings. As settled life spread across the Levant, a generalised transition from round to square buildings occurred, that is a trademark of the PPNB period. The study of these buildings is fundamental for the understanding of the ever-stronger reciprocal socio-ecological relationship humans developed with the local environment since the introduction of sedentism and domestication. Descriptions of buildings in PPN archaeological contexts are usually restricted to the macroscopic observation of wooden elements (posts and beams) and mineral components (daub, plaster and stone elements). Reconstructions of microscopic and organic components are frequently based on ethnographic analogy. The direct study of macroscopic and microscopic, organic and mineral, building components performed at Tell Qarassa provides new insights on building conception, maintenance, use and destruction. These elements reflect new emerging paradigms in the relationship between Neolithic societies and the environment. A square building was possibly covered here with a radial roof, providing a glance into a topologic shift in the conception and understanding of volumes, from round-based to square-based geometries. Macroscopic and microscopic roof components indicate buildings were conceived for year-round residence rather than seasonal mobility. This implied performing maintenance and restoration of partially damaged buildings, as well as their adaptation to seasonal variability.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study examines 100 charred plant macroremains from the inner galleries of Cueva de Nerja in order to better understand the context of Palaeolithic rock art and obtain information about possible ...lighting systems. The remains were retrieved on the surface, very close to Palaeolithic cave paintings, and also from inside possible points of fixed lighting. The predominant wood-type is Pinus sp., especially Pinus tp. sylvestris/nigra. The taphonomic alterations recorded are attributable to the combustion process (vitrification and cracks), the possible gathering of dead wood (fungal hyphae/mycelia), the use of branches and twigs (reaction wood) and the burning of resinous taxa (resin marks). The identification of a vegetative bud of Pinus sylvestris furnishes information about the use of tree branches, as well as the time of year at which the Cueva de Nerja may have been frequented by prehistoric groups.
Cette étude examine 100 macrovestiges de plantes carbonisées provenant des galeries intérieures de Cueva De Nerja, afin de mieux comprendre le contexte de l’art pariétal paléolithique et d’obtenir des informations sur les possibles systèmes d’éclairage. Les restes ont été récupérés en surface, très près des peintures paléolithiques de la caverne, et également à l’intérieur des possibles lieux d’éclairage fixe. Le type de bois prédominant est Pinus sp., particulièrement Pinus tp. sylvestris/nigra. Les altérations taphonomiques enregistrées sont attribuables au processus de combustion (vitrification et fissures), à un possible ramassage de bois mort (hyphes/mycéliums de champignons), à l’utilisation de branches et de brindilles (bois de réaction) et à la combustion de taxons résineux (marques de résine). L’identification d’un bourgeon végétatif de Pinus sylvestris documente l’utilisation de branches d’arbre, ainsi que l’époque au cours de laquelle la Cueva de Nerja a pu être fréquentée par les groupes préhistoriques.
We analysed assemblages of shells of land snails and small aquatic and wetland gastropods from a late Mesolithic-early Neolithic deposit in the cave of Pico Ramos (Basque Country). Shells were ...recovered by hand during excavation and all excavated deposit was processed by flotation, with a 250 μm mesh to recover floating material and a 1.0 mm mesh to recover the heavy fraction. The total assemblage comprised 5780 individuals (MNI) among 33 taxa, the sieved sub-assemblage having the highest proportions of these (2841 MNI in 31 taxa) and the hand-picked sub-assemblage the lowest (698 MNI in 11 taxa). Eleven taxa were absent from the flotation sub-assemblage, although the recovered MNI (2241; 39% of the total MNI) was high. The palaeoecological implications of the results are considered. Adult and large-sized juvenile shells of the edible land snail Cepaea nemoralis are abundant in the hand-picked sub-assemblage, but it is the absence of small-sized juvenile shells in the flotation and wet-sieved sub-assemblages that permits the inference that the species was collected for consumption. Wet sieving is therefore essential, both for interpreting hand-picked samples and in particular for the recovery of representative assemblages of land molluscs.
The introduction of the Neolithic cultural and economic practices in the Basque region has been traditionally understood as a late process, in parallel to the achievement of the production of the ...first metals in neighbouring areas where the production economy has been considered to arrive much earlier. This paper presents an updated view of the beginnings and consolidation of the Neolithic practices in the Basque area and the current state of knowledge based on data from recent excavations and advances in 14C dating and micro/macro-plant remains, fauna, lithic raw materials, artefact and micromorphological analysis. The results challenge traditional interpretations and provide a timeframe and cultural and palaeoenvironmental characterisation of the Early, Middle and Late Neolithic periods in the region through data currently available from rockshelter, cave and open-air site deposits.
This paper presents archaeobotanical results from the Neolithic levels (5,300—4,000 B.C.) of two recently excavated sites in northern Iberia: El Mirón cave (Cantabria) and the open-air site of Los ...Cascajos (Navarra). A cereal grain from El Mirón is currently the earliest domesticated plant remain from this region. Despite the large number of samples examined, plant remains are few. They include basically cereals (Triticum monococcum, T. dicoccum, T. aestivum/durum/turgidum and Hordeum vulgare) and some nuts and fruits (Corylus avellana, Quercus sp., Vitis sp., etc.). The presence of free-threshing wheats at El Mirón opens up an interesting subject for debate, as until now naked wheats have been absent from the early Neolithic archaeobotanical record of the coastal Cantabrian region. Hulled wheat chaff is the main plant component from Los Cascajos, south of the Cantabrian Cordillera in Navarra, indicating waste from processing activities. The association of barley almost exclusively with both a burial and a ritual vase in Los Cascajos could be related specific rituals or ceremonies.
Wood charcoal is an important tool for inferring human use of fire and exploitation of woodland resources. Using Cabeço da Amoreira shellmidden as study case, this paper aims to understand fuelwood ...use in the site, identifying patterns of wood exploitation and combustion related to different activities. Pine wood and presence of oak are the most common and are present in almost every context. Minor taxa is present, but the relation with specific activities in the site is not conclusive. However, data seem to indicate a usage of deadwood and exploitation of the most abundant taxa in the Muge valley.
Having found Setaria italica (foxtail millet) and Panicum miliaceum (broomcorn millet) still being cultivated traditionally in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, we carried out ethnographic ...interviews with farmers to help us document an agricultural process on the verge of extinction. Crop processing of S. italica and P. miliaceum varies depending on the use of either plant. In Asturias, Setaria italica is harvested while green and used as fodder. In Galicia and in the north of Portugal, P. miliaceum grain is used mainly for human consumption. This distribution of millet in the north of the Iberian Peninsula appears to have been the case in prehistory too, although this will need to be confirmed by future research.
El estudio tecnológico del material cerámico requiere de la aplicación de técnicas de análisis arqueométrico que permitan un acercamiento a su mineralogía y composición química, con la finalidad de ...identificar las etapas de su secuencia de elaboración. Este artículo presenta el análisis tecnológico de la cerámica neolítica documentada en los niveles inferiores del yacimiento de Kobaederra (Cortézubi, Bizkaia), a partir de su análisis mineralógico (petrografía y difracción de rayos X, DRX) y geoquímico (microscopio electrónico de barrido-espectómetro de dispersión de energía, MEB-EDS). Su objetivo es discriminar las potenciales áreas de aprovisionamiento de las materias primas y su modificación mediante la adición de desgrasantes. Por último, se discuten las implicaciones de los resultados obtenidos en relación con el resto de las evidencias arqueológicas disponibles para los niveles IV y III de Kobaederra.
This research aims to shed light on the early stages of agricultural development in Northern Africa through the analysis of the rich macro-botanical assemblages obtained from Ifri Oudadane, an ...Epipalaeolithic–Early Neolithic site from North-East Morocco. Results indicate the presence of domesticated plants, cereals (Hordeum vulgare, Triticum monococcum/dicoccum, Triticum durum and Triticum aestivum/durum) and pulses (Lens culinaris and Pisum sativum) in the Early Neolithic. One lentil has been dated to 7611 ± 37 cal BP representing the oldest direct date of a domesticated plant seed in Morocco and, by extension, in North Africa. Similarities in both radiocarbon dates and crop assemblages from Early Neolithic sites in Northern Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula suggest a simultaneous East to West maritime spread of agriculture along the shores of the Western Mediterranean. Wild plants were abundantly collected in both the Epipalaeolithic and the Early Neolithic periods pointing to the important role of these resources during the two periods. In addition to fruits and seeds that could have been consumed by both humans and domesticated animals, fragments of esparto grass (Stipa tenacissima) rhizomes have been identified. This is a western Mediterranean native plant that may have been used as a source of fibres for basketry.
► We studied seed remains from the Epipalaeolithic–Neolithic site of Ifri Oudadane, Morocco. ► Lentil, wheat, barley and pea are identified in Early Neolithic levels. ► A lentil is dated to c. 7600 BP, the earliest date for a crop in northern Africa. ► Wild plants are abundant in both the Epipalaeolithic and the Neolithic levels. ► Wild plants were probably used as food, for fodder and for basketry.
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