Henny Piezonka

Freie Universität Berlin | FUB

This paper sheds light on two crucial phases of Franz Boas’s life linked to Kiel: his early academic pursuits leading to his PhD in 1881 and his return fifty years later to deliver a lecture that would become a seminal text in the fight against racism. Boas initially arrived in Kiel in 1879 and completed his PhD on the optical properties of water i...

Political practices are fundamental for co-existence in human groups, yet the systematic investigation of such practices within prehistoric societies is still very much pending. Relevant discussions are often limited to cases of obvious asymmetric power relations and the alleged establishment of elites. In order to fill this complex gap in the curr...

Political practices are fundamental for co-existence in human groups, yet the systematic investigation of such practices within prehistoric societies is still very much pending. Relevant discussions are often limited to cases of obvious asymmetric power relations and the alleged establishment of elites. In order to fill this complex gap in the curr...

We present new AMS ¹⁴ C dates and technological characteristics of an enigmatic osseous implement – the T-shaped antler axe. T-shaped axes (T-axes) are made of red deer ( Cervus elaphus L.) antler beams with the perforation for a shaft through the removed trez tine. Our study centres on 33 axes from Belarus, Latvia and Lithuania, most of which were...

We present a robust radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) chronology for burials at Sakhtysh, in European Russia, where nearly 180 inhumations of Lyalovo and Volosovo pottery-using hunter-gatherer-fishers represent the largest known populations of both groups. Past dating attempts were restricted by poor understanding of dietary ¹⁴ C reservoir effects (DREs). We dev...

Archaeological narratives have traditionally associated the rise of social and political 'complexity' with the emergence of agricultural societies. However, this framework neglects the innovations of the hunter-gatherer populations occupying the Siberian taiga 8000 years ago, including the construction of some of the oldest-known fortified sites in...

To investigate changes in culinary practices associated with the arrival of farming, we analysed the organic residues of over 1,000 pottery vessels from hunter-gatherer-fisher and early agricultural sites across Northern Europe from the Lower Rhine Basin to the Northeastern Baltic. Here, pottery was widely used by hunter-gatherer-fishers prior to t...

We present the first robust radiocarbon (14C) chronology for prehistoric burial activity at Sakhtysh, in European Russia, where nearly 180 inhumations attributed to Lyalovo and Volosovo pottery-using hunter-gatherer-fishers represent the largest known mortuary populations of these groups. Past attempts at 14C dating were restricted by poor preserva...

People and spaces have always been connected by routes: paths, trails, roads – on land, on water and sometimes even through the air, over hill and dale as well as over wooden planks, pavement and asphalt. Humans and animals followed them. The routes directed the circulation of raw materials and goods. They determined the paths on which humans fled...

The taiga zone of Western Siberia is an area with a long history of fortification construction. The number of known sites and their prototypes is more than 1 000, most of them belong to the Early Iron Age and the Middle Ages, but the first fortifications are dated to the Neolithic period and appear in the region at the turn of 7th–6th millennium BC...

With the spread of Linearbandkeramik farmers into the north-central European lowlands c. 5200 BCE, a contact zone with late hunter-gatherer communities was established for c. 1000 years. First contacts between the different groups are indicated by artefacts in a foreign context in the period 5000–4900 BCE. About 400 years later, such contacts consi...

Human history has been shaped by global dispersals of technologies, although understanding of what enabled these processes is limited. Here, we explore the behavioural mechanisms that led to the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer communities in Europe during the mid-Holocene. Through radiocarbon dating, we propose this dispersal occurred at...

In archaeology, narratives prevail of peaceful, non-stratified hunter-gatherer societies that supposedly have limited impacts on their natural environment. Based on such notions, hunter-gatherers have rarely been linked with monumental constructions. New research on fortified hunter-gatherer settlements of western Siberia, however, show that forage...

Artificial illumination is a fundamental human need. Burning wood and other materials usually in hearths and fireplaces extended daylight hours, whilst the use of flammable substances in torches offered light on the move. It is increasingly understood that pottery played a role in light production. In this study, we focus on ceramic oval bowls, mad...

Kaum eine andere Region der Erde wähnt man landläufig so menschenleer wie die sibirische Taiga. Doch dieser Eindruck trügt, denn tief im Nadelwald verborgen liegen rätselhafte Wallanlagen, errichtet von JägerSammlerGruppen und teils über 8000 Jahre alt. Neue Expeditionen eines deutschrussischen Teams in dieses entlegene Gebiet tragen inzwischen Frü...

Proteomic analysis of absorbed residues is increasingly used to identify the foodstuffs processed in ancient ceramic vessels, but detailed methodological investigations in this field remain rare. Here, we present three interlinked methodological developments with important consequences in paleoproteomics: the comparative absorption and identificati...

"Decolonising the Mesolitic?" was a virtual workshop held on May 21st 2021. It was attended by 38 researchers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, mainly, but not exclusively, active Mesolithic researchers from Europe. This short paper reports on the organisation of this workshop, and the response it elicited from its participants.

New research at the Mesolithic burial site Groß Fredenwalde, NE-Germany, has yielded exceptional evidence of Late Mesolithic burial ritual in north-central Europe. Besides newly discovered graves from around the main phase of the cemetery c. 6000 cal BC, the place was used for the last time c. 1000 years later for a unique burial of a c. 25 year-ol...

Palaeolithic and Mesolithic burials are rare discoveries in the archaeological record, and frequently receive special attention. As seen for the Late Palaeolithic burial(s) from Bonn-Oberkassel, reconstruction of the burial context can be difficult when they have been unearthed during old excavations, due to differing documentation standards. Here...

Archaeological information on Stone Age settlement patterns and dwelling structures is heterogeneous in Northeastern Europe. The study examines evidence on mobility and sedentism among hunter-fisher groups in the region between the Eastern Baltic and the Barents Sea from the Late Mesolithic until the transition to the Early Metal Ages. It explores...

In the mid-7th — early 6th millennium BC at the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition, a number of innovations appeared in the lifeways of people in the West Siberian taiga, including the first appearance of pottery (the defi ning criterion for the onset of the Neolithic), the intensifi cation of the subsistence economy with an increasing role of aquatic...

Purpose. The Stone Age settlement of Amnya I in North-Western Siberia represents the northernmost hunter-gatherer-fisher fort in Eurasia. Dating back to the beginning of the 6th millennium BC, this unique site enables the study of key innovations of the Neolithization process in the taiga zone, such as defensive structures, early pottery, and an in...

Purpose. The article presents results of new research at one of the most prominent Early Neolithic enclosed settle-ments in the North of Western Siberia – the stronghold of Kayukovo-2, which is characterized by a regular architec-tural plan with one central and five surrounding buildings, pottery of a specific shape and type, including flat as well...

The boreal forests of the northern hemisphere, also referred to as taiga, stretch almost continuously across the high latitudes of Europe, Asia and North America, forming the world's largest biome. The economic and ecological aspects of subarctic forests have been important for generations of people and their significance prevails, especially in vi...

The site of Groß Fredenwalde was discovered in 1962 and has been known as a Mesolithic multiple burial since 14C-dates verified an early Atlantic age in the early 1990s. New research since 2012 reconstructed the situation of the poorly documented rescue excavation in 1962 and identified six individuals from at least two separate burials. The new ex...

You will find the complete book using the following link: https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/catalog/book/714 https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.714

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.192016.].

The earliest ceramic vessels of the world have been produced in southern China by Late Glacial hunter-gatherers in the remote times around 18,000 calBC. Over the following millennia the new technology became known among forager communities in the Russian Amur region, in Japan, Korea, Transbaikalia and ultimately appeared also in the Urals and in ea...

The introduction of pottery vessels to Europe has long been seen as closely linked with the spread of agriculture and pastoralism from the Near East. The adoption of pottery technology by hunter-gatherers in Northern and Eastern Europe does not fit this paradigm, and its role within these communities is so far unresolved. To investigate the motivat...

The emergence of pottery among Stone Age hunter-gatherer societies of Eurasia constitutes one of the major open questions in Old World prehistory. Located halfway between the earliest Late Glacial cores of pottery production in East Asia, and Eastern Europe with forager ceramic starting around 6000 cal BC, the Urals and West Siberia are a key regio...

Purpose. The article presents results of new research at one of the most prominent Early Neolithic enclosed settlements in the North of Western Siberia – the stronghold of Kayukovo-2, which is characterized by a regular architectural plan with one central and five surrounding buildings, pottery of a specific shape and type, including flat as well a...

Purpose. The Stone Age settlement of Amnya I in North-Western Siberia represents the northernmost hunter-gatherer-fisher fort in Eurasia. Dating back to the beginning of the 6th millennium BC, this unique site enables the study of key innovations of the Neolithization process in the taiga zone, such as defensive structures, early pottery, and an in...

An ethno-archaeological study of the Taz Selkups, a mobile community of hunter-fishery-reindeer herders that migrated to the northern taiga of Western Siberia in the 17th and 18th centuries BC gives an idea of the consequences of migration to the new environment and the associated long-term transformations of life, material culture and ethnic ident...

The role of fishing in Stone Age hunter-gatherer societies of the European forest zone has been gaining importance as a research question over the last years. In order to better understand temporal developments in the role of fishing, changing strategies and their connection to environmental conditions, the study of multi-period stratified site hol...

The article explores the role of migration as a trigger for transformations of life ways, subsistence strategies, material culture and ethnic identity in boreal hunter-fisher societies based on ethnoarchaeological evidence. Fieldwork among the Taz Selkup, a mobile hunter-fisher-reindeer herder community that migrated into the northern taiga of West...

Like any other living being, humans constantly influence their environment, be it intentionally or unintentionally. By extracting natural resources, they shape their environment and also that of plants and other animals. A great difference setting people apart from all other living beings is the ability to construct and develop their own niche inte...

The ancient fortified settlement of Amnya I is a unique Early Neolithic site in the northern taiga zone of Western Siberia (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the Amnya river). It is located on a promontory and has three lines of defense and ten dwelling depressions. The structures of the excavated dwellings are very similar, though the artifact assemb...

Burial practices, as a kind of ritual activities, consist of many steps, represented archaeologically by different types of burial objects and features, which quite often reflect and clarify cultural distinctions. From this point, the Northeast European forest zone from the Baltic to the Urals is of great interest in the Early and Mid-Holocene. Bes...

Abstract.The ancient fortified settlement of Amnya I is a unique early Neolithic site in the northern taiga zone of Western Siberia (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region, the Amnya river). It is located on a promontory and has three lines of defense and ten dwelling depressions. The structures of the excavated dwellings are identical, though the artifact...

There is a long lasting debate on the nature of the neolithisation process in the northern European lowlands and in southern Scandinavia. Early evidence of domesticates and crop cultivation indicate a transition to farming in this area during the late 5th millennium cal BC. However, there is limited information how this process took place and to wh...

The article studies the chronology of the Early Neolithic period in the Vozhe lake basin located in the north of the Vologda region based on the materials of the peat bog occupation site Karavaikha 4. The authors discovered some fishing structures made of wooden poles, various artifacts including pottery sherds deposited under the peat and sapropel...

The onset of the Neolithic period in the Russian North is defined by the emergence of pottery vessels in the archaeological record. The ceramics produced by mobile hunter-gatherer-fisher groups in the north-eastern European forest zone are among the earliest in Europe, starting around 6000 cal BC. After the initial mosaic of local styles in the Ear...

The article studies the chronology of the Early Neolithic period in the Vozhe lake basin located in the north of the Vologda region based on the materials of the peat bog occupation site Karavaikha 4. The authors discovered some fishing structures made of wooden poles, various artifacts including pottery sherds deposited under the peat and sapropel...

The onset of the Neolithic period in the Russian North is defined by the emergence of pottery vessels in the archaeological record. The ceramics produced by mobile hunter-gatherer-fisher groups in the north-eastern European forest zone are among the earliest in Europe, starting around 6000 cal BC. After the initial mosaic of local styles in the Ear...

The relative chronology determines only the sequence of events, so preferences absolute chronology, which are used the natural-science methods. Due to the general lack of reliable dates and contextual information in the layers of the Stone Age, absolute chronology is still subject to discussion. As a result of many years of research work in the bas...

In May 2010 an exceptionally well preserved 14th century burial was excavated in a cave of Tsagaan Khad mountain in Southern Mongolia by a Mongolian-German team of archaeologists. Among the Inner Asian cave burials known today, the grave is of special importance because it was scientifically documented in a relatively undisturbed state, and because...

Where did pottery first appear in the Old World? Statistical modelling of radiocarbon dates suggests that ceramic vessel technology had independent origins in two different hunter-gatherer societies. Regression models were used to estimate average rates of spread and geographic dispersal of the new technology. The models confirm independent origins...

Pottery produced by mobile hunter-gatherer-fisher groups in the northeast European forest zone is among the earliest in Europe. Absolute chronologies, however, are still subject to debate due to a general lack of reliable contextual information. Direct radiocarbon dating of carbonized surface residues (“foodcrusts”) on pots can help to address this...

Archaeological information on Stone Age settlement patterns and dwellings structures is heterogeneous in northeastern Europe. The study examines evidence on mobility and sedentism among hunter‐fisher‐gatherers in the region between the Eastern Baltic and the Barents Sea from the Late Mesolithic until the transition to the Early Metal Ages. It explo...

In order to investigate the use to which recently discovered and recorded large oval enclosures surrounded by a low wall and ditch were put, a series of topsoil samples were taken and subjected to an analysis of specific lipids; such soil chemical evidence from human and domesticated animal faeces can provide significant insights into the land use...

The Grotta di Cala dei Genovesi on the island of Levanzo off Sicily's western coast contains one of the most important records of Late Glacial rock art in the Mediterranean region. The animal and human engravings stem from the Late Epigravettian period and are characterized by a naturalistic style, stylistic parallels can be found on the island of...

The area east of Lake Baikal in Siberia is one of a small number of regions in Eurasia where pottery was already used in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene from the 12th millennium cal BC onwards. Here, the adoption of pottery by hunter–gatherer communities marks the end of the Late Paleolithic and the beginning of the Initial Neolithic. The c...