Central Anatolia is one of the earliest areas to practice agriculture outside of the Fertile Crescent. This makes it an important case study in how the shift to agriculture affected the use of wild ...resources, in this case birds. The Pınarbaşı site, located next to a major wetlands area on the Konya Plain in central Anatolia, has components from the 14th-12th millennia, 10th-9th millennia, and 7th millennium cal BC – spanning the Epipaleolithic to the Ceramic Neolithic. While agriculture is present in the region during the middle (10th-9th millennia) occupation, the Pınarbaşı people remained foragers. The 7th millennium occupation is contemporary with the later levels at agricultural Çatalhöyük and very likely derives from seasonal use by task groups from that site.
Not surprisingly given its location, waterbirds dominate throughout all these periods. Although the Epipaleolithic (14th-12th millennia) use of the site consists of a palimpsest of brief visits while the 10th-9th millennia occupation was permanent, the bird assemblages are very similar. However, the proportion of waterbirds reduces considerably in the 7th millennium. In contrast to the bird assemblage at nearby Çatalhöyük, which is weighted toward wings probably reflecting the extensive use of feathers, the Pınarbaşı bird bones are spread fairly evenly through the body at all periods, suggesting that birds were taken primarily for food. This is true even in the 7th millennium assemblage, linked to Çatalhöyük; these Çatalhöyük people made quite different use of birds away from the site. Pınarbaşı also differs from Çatalhöyük in the selection of waterbirds: whereas geese outnumber ducks in the contemporary levels at Çatalhöyük, geese are quite scarce at Pınarbaşı in all periods, although proportionately slightly more common in the 7th millennium. More strikingly, ducks, which dominate the earlier assemblages, decrease sharply. With 7th millennium occupation during spring and fall migrations when geese and ducks should have been abundant, this does not appear to be a seasonal effect. Birds seem to have been less important to the shepherds and hunters visiting Pınarbaşı than they were to the earlier foragers: farming reoriented relations to the landscape.
This paper presents a further step in the integral documentation of prehistoric rock art, combining 2D and 3D digital recording techniques. Image processing and digital enhancement techniques are an ...invaluable aid to obtain high quality and accurate 2D recordings, especially when working with faint motifs or complex superimpositions. But what constitutes a real breakthrough is the possibility of combining 2D digital tracings with metric 3D models, providing a whole set of metric outputs that improve our understanding of the motifs in their context and, at the same time, can be used to deliver accurate metric reproductions.
The Levantine rock art at Cingle de la Mola Remigia (Ares del Maestre, Castellón, Spain) is used to test the integral documentation performance combining 2D and 3D recording techniques to yield not merely digital copies, but state-of-the-art documentation.
► The potential of combining 2D and 3D rock art recording techniques is explored. ► 2D tracings are useful to identify faded motifs or complex superimpositions. ► However, 2D digital recordings lack metric accuracy when reproducing compositions. ► 3D models provide accurate metric reproductions but faded motifs are invisible. ► Combining 2D and 3D digital recordings we obtain highly precise integral reproductions.
Cities, Monuments and Objects in the Roman and Byzantine Levant celebrates Gabriel Mazor and his lifetime of work at the monumental city of Nysa-Scythopolis, Bet Sheʼan Baysān. This metropolis, part ...of the storied Decapolis, or league of ten cities, that flourished during the Hellenistic, Roman-Byzantine and very early Islamic periods until the devastating earthquake of AD 748, has been the singular focus of Gabi Mazor for a generation. The excavations, conservation and reconstruction at the site, and the detailed publications all are deserving of praise and appreciation.Chapters by leading archaeologists in Israel and the Levant explore themes and sites, in most cases by the chief archaeologists themselves, providing the latest information and insights about cities and villages from the Hellenistic to early Islamic periods across the region. This rare assemblage of scholars offers new material and interpretations of many of the key archaeological sites active today. The result is a rich trove of up-to-date data and insights that will be a must read for scholars and students active in this part of the ancient Mediterranean world.
A metallurgically-oriented excavation in Area A at Tell es-Safi/Gath yielded evidence for iron and bronze production dating to the early Iron Age IIA. Two pit-like features, which differed ...considerably from one another in colour, texture and content, were excavated. Evidence shows that each feature represents a different
in situ activity related to iron production, inferred by the presence of hammerscales, slag prills and slag. An upturned crucible was found on top of one of the features. Analysis of the crucible slag showed that it was used for bronze metallurgy. Tuyères, both round and square in cross-section, were found in and around the two features. The presence of the two industries together presents a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between copper and iron working. This is especially important against the background of the scarcity of evidence for iron production in the Levant during the early phases of the Iron Age.
► An
in situ Iron Age IIA smithy was identified at Tell es-Safi/Gath. ► Two features were identified; a pit used for iron smelting and a forging hearth. ► The
in situ slag was identified as a bloomery slag. ► We suggest a possible explanation for the scarcity of evidence for iron working.
Archaeological charcoal remains are often used to reconstruct local woodland composition in the past, but rarely address how and why people may have selected specific woody taxa for particular ...purposes. Models from the field of human behavioral ecology predict that people forage for wood resources by taking into account the relative usefulness, abundance, and handling time related to procuring different wood types. Archaeological and ecological data from the site of Gordion, in Central Anatolia (modern Turkey), were used to test expectations associated with such models. Results suggest that inhabitants of Gordion used wood types for fuel in proportion to their local availability, but that they selected specific, more distant woods for construction. In most occupation periods pine was preferred for construction, perhaps because it produces long, straight timbers for roofing, despite the distance at which it grows from the site. This case study demonstrates that behavioral ecology modeling can help to distinguish between multiple wood acquisition strategies potentially used in the past and improve our understanding of wood use from archaeological charcoal remains.
We sequenced the genomes of a ∼7,000-year-old farmer from Germany and eight ∼8,000-year-old hunter-gatherers from Luxembourg and Sweden. We analysed these and other ancient genomes with 2,345 ...contemporary humans to show that most present-day Europeans derive from at least three highly differentiated populations: west European hunter-gatherers, who contributed ancestry to all Europeans but not to Near Easterners; ancient north Eurasians related to Upper Palaeolithic Siberians, who contributed to both Europeans and Near Easterners; and early European farmers, who were mainly of Near Eastern origin but also harboured west European hunter-gatherer related ancestry. We model these populations' deep relationships and show that early European farmers had ∼44% ancestry from a 'basal Eurasian' population that split before the diversification of other non-African lineages.
Early Neolithic wine of Georgia in the South Caucasus McGovern, Patrick; Jalabadze, Mindia; Batiuk, Stephen ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS,
11/2017, Letnik:
114, Številka:
48
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Chemical analyses of ancient organic compounds absorbed into the pottery fabrics from sites in Georgia in the South Caucasus region, dating to the early Neolithic period (ca. 6,000–5,000 BC), provide ...the earliest biomolecular archaeological evidence for grape wine and viniculture from the Near East, at ca. 6,000–5,800 BC. The chemical findings are corroborated by climatic and environmental reconstruction, together with archaeobotanical evidence, including grape pollen, starch, and epidermal remains associated with a jar of similar type and date. The very large-capacity jars, some of the earliest pottery made in the Near East, probably served as combination fermentation, aging, and serving vessels. They are the most numerous pottery type at many sites comprising the so-called “Shulaveri-Shomutepe Culture” of the Neolithic period, which extends into western Azerbaijan and northern Armenia. The discovery of early sixth millennium BC grape wine in this region is crucial to the later history of wine in Europe and the rest of the world.
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