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Willow Smoke and dog's tails: Hunter‐Gatherer settlement systems and archaeological site formation

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... También se incorporan otras capas temáticas ráster que pertenecen a diferentes rangos de tiempo (Tabla 1). Las capas temáticas se dividen en tres tipos: a) Datos bioclimáticos de los cuales se obtiene el índice de temperatura efectiva (TE) (sensu Binford, 1980Binford, , 2001. Se utilizaron las capas de temperatura media anual (Bio1), rango de temperatura anual (Bio7), temperatura media del trimestre más cálido (Bio10) y temperatura media del trimestre más frío (Bio11) (Fick y Hijmans, 2017) 2 . ...
... A partir del promedio de las temperaturas promedio estivales e invernales (Bio10 y Bio11) se obtuvo la temperatura efectiva (TE) 3 , que mide la longitud de la estación de crecimiento como la intensidad de la energía solar disponible (Binford, 1980(Binford, , 2001. Donde la TE es alta, se esperan ambientes ricos en recursos y donde es baja se espera lo contrario (Binford, 1980). ...
... A partir del promedio de las temperaturas promedio estivales e invernales (Bio10 y Bio11) se obtuvo la temperatura efectiva (TE) 3 , que mide la longitud de la estación de crecimiento como la intensidad de la energía solar disponible (Binford, 1980(Binford, , 2001. Donde la TE es alta, se esperan ambientes ricos en recursos y donde es baja se espera lo contrario (Binford, 1980). De tal forma, este indicador es informativo sobre la variabilidad ambiental, permitiendo evaluar la organización de la movilidad y el asentamiento. ...
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Resumen El objetivo de este trabajo es contribuir a la caracterización del uso humano del espacio de la región de Melipeuco (Provincia de Cautín, La Araucanía, Chile), considerando tendencias espaciales de los asentamientos en el área durante el Holoceno y los factores y procesos naturales y humanos que influyeron en ello. Se realiza una jerarquización del paisaje considerando la incidencia del marco topográfico y su relación con variables hídricas, bioclimáticas de temperatura, humedad, estacionalidad y de biomasa fotosintéticamente activa. A partir de los resultados, se generan expectativas sobre las tendencias espaciales y temporales preliminares en la distribución de los sitios con relación a la heterogeneidad ambiental. A partir de estos datos se construye un modelo SIG que sugiere cierto grado de variabilidad y heterogeneidad en el uso de estos entornos andinos de Sudamérica. Palabras clave: Uso del espacio; Jerarquización del espacio; Biogeografía humana; Ambientes boscosos; Andes; SIG.
... Therefore, within the scope of the research, the prehistoric period will not start with homo sapiens, where the transition to cultural evolution has been completed, but with homo habilis, which biological evolution has not yet ended and constitutes the starting point of the transition to cultural evolution. Homo Habilis was the first to use stones, which are used to scrape the leftover meat from animals hunted by more predatory and wild animals and extract the marrow inside the bones, which are considered the first cultural products (Binford, 1980). Some researchers include the paleolithic period, which is dated the first phase of humanity, not into the culture but nature because of the dependence of man on nature. ...
... The most apparent evidence of fire control is the fire-hardened tools found in Africa near the Kalombo waterfall in the north of Zambia (James, 1989). Apart from Africa, the quarries built by Homo sapiens and Neanderthals on the edges of the food they processed in Europe are also considered evidence of the control of fire (Binford, 1980). Binford (1980) considers two quarries of different sizes and varieties, especially in Combe Granel cave, as depicting the social structure and technology of 110,000-100,000 Neanderthals. ...
... Apart from Africa, the quarries built by Homo sapiens and Neanderthals on the edges of the food they processed in Europe are also considered evidence of the control of fire (Binford, 1980). Binford (1980) considers two quarries of different sizes and varieties, especially in Combe Granel cave, as depicting the social structure and technology of 110,000-100,000 Neanderthals. According to the researcher, especially the small pits established outside the caves are the places where the joints and large bones of the animals at the end of the long bones are treated with edge scrapers. ...
... A less commonly discussed concept is that of tactics. Where strategies constitute the broad knowledge systems that hunter-gatherer's use to approach survival (Binford, 1980;Sutton, 2000), tactics represent the ways in which strategies are adapted to address immediate problems (Knox, 2010;Mintzberg, 1987;Sutton, 2000;Sutton and Anderson, 2010). The tactical spectrum is confined within the bounds of a given strategy, though the potential range of tactical solutions and their material signatures are seldom discussed (though see Jenkins et al., 2017;Ruini et al., 2010;Sutton, 2000). ...
... Thus, the two are hierarchically related, such that strategies are broadly framed and operate over longer spatial and temporal scales, while tactics are subtle, contingent, and Moderate rates of artefact discard; raw materials largely from within the day-return foraging radius. (Binford, 1979(Binford, , 1980(Binford, , 1982Brantingham, 2006;Lin and Premo, 2021;Schoville et al., 2021) Low High rates of artefact discard; raw materials largely from within the day-return foraging radius. Residential High Low rates of artefact discard; high proportions of materials from beyond the day-return foraging radius Low ...
... Moderate rates of artefact discard; moderate proportions of materials from beyond the day-return foraging radius Provisioning Individual Expedient Opportunistic implements on a variety of rocks; tools discarded before exhaustion; moderate ratio of retouched flakes to cores; low proportions of small flaking debris from on-site maintenance. (Ambrose, 2002;Binford, 1980Binford, , 1982Kuhn, 1991Kuhn, , 1992Kuhn, , 1994Kuhn, , 2004Lin and Premo, 2021;Mackay et al., 2018;Schoville et al., 2021;Wilkins et al., 2017) Curated Standardise implements on high quality, often non-local rocks; tools discarded when broken/exhausted; high ratio of retouched flakes to cores; moderate proportions of small flaking debris from on-site maintenance. Place Expedient High proportions of cores from local materials; early core discard (large cores); moderate core to flake ratios; high core to retouched flake ratios; moderate proportions of small flaking debris from on-site knapping. ...
... Bamforth, 1986;Henry, 1989;Hilbert et al., 2016;Marks et al., 1991). Landscape physiography, in terms of altitude and topography, has a major influence in structuring the distribution of food and water resources, with a resultant impact on hunter-gatherer group mobility (Binford, 1980(Binford, , 2001Henry, 1994). Water sources are especially important in governing the distribution of human settlement (Hallinan & Parkington, 2017;Kelly, 1983;Yellen, 1977) and technological strategy (Maloney, 2021). ...
... Elongation and flattening values are not available for the Abydos sites, but all other Nile Valley cores have similar proportions, even though the Nazlet Khater cores are smaller overall. Nazlet Khater 1 is interpreted as a chert quarrying site exploiting in situ Nile gravels (Vermeersch et al., 2002), as part of a radiating (logistical, sensu Binford, 1980) mobility strategy (Van Peer, 2001). In contrast, the Abydos high desert sites are interpreted as showing a highly mobile circulating (residential, sensu Binford, 1980) strategy, with most sites not located directly on (although not far from) sources of chert (Olszewski et al., 2010). ...
... Nazlet Khater 1 is interpreted as a chert quarrying site exploiting in situ Nile gravels (Vermeersch et al., 2002), as part of a radiating (logistical, sensu Binford, 1980) mobility strategy (Van Peer, 2001). In contrast, the Abydos high desert sites are interpreted as showing a highly mobile circulating (residential, sensu Binford, 1980) strategy, with most sites not located directly on (although not far from) sources of chert (Olszewski et al., 2010). Therefore, at least some metric variation observed in Nile Valley NLCs may be explained in terms of locally available raw materials and different patterns of site use. ...
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Nubian Levallois cores are currently one of the most debated artefact types in Palaeolithic archaeology. Previous work has focused mainly on the definition and technological characteristics of these cores, with discussion of their distribution framed only in qualitative terms. Here, we present the first quantitative spatial analysis of sites with Nubian Levallois cores across the five global regions where they occur. Using modelled Pleistocene conditions for various bioclimatic and topographic variables, we compare the environmental context of 84 sites featuring Nubian cores with 81 contemporaneous sites where they are absent. Metric analysis of cores from 14 new and previously published sites offers further insights into technological and behavioural patterns at an inter-regional scale. Our results show that Nubian cores during MIS 5 are present in areas characterised by aridity, complex topography, and high biomass, whereas for MIS 3, only temperature was a significant predictor. Metric results reveal distinct patterns in both space and time, finding the largest and most standardised cores in Southern Arabia during MIS 5, with the smallest cores in MIS 3 Eastern and Southern Africa. We propose that environmental factors were a more significant driver behind the adoption of the Nubian Levallois method than previously acknowledged. Our results provide essential environmental context for future model-testing of Late Pleistocene demography and cultural connectivity during this critical phase of human evolution.
... También se incorporan otras capas temáticas ráster que pertenecen a diferentes rangos de tiempo (Tabla 1). Las capas temáticas se dividen en tres tipos: a) Datos bioclimáticos de los cuales se obtiene el índice de temperatura efectiva (TE) (sensu Binford, 1980Binford, , 2001. Se utilizaron las capas de temperatura media anual (Bio1), rango de temperatura anual (Bio7), temperatura media del trimestre más cálido (Bio10) y temperatura media del trimestre más frío (Bio11) (Fick y Hijmans, 2017) 2 . ...
... A partir del promedio de las temperaturas promedio estivales e invernales (Bio10 y Bio11) se obtuvo la temperatura efectiva (TE) 3 , que mide la longitud de la estación de crecimiento como la intensidad de la energía solar disponible (Binford, 1980(Binford, , 2001. Donde la TE es alta, se esperan ambientes ricos en recursos y donde es baja se espera lo contrario (Binford, 1980). ...
... A partir del promedio de las temperaturas promedio estivales e invernales (Bio10 y Bio11) se obtuvo la temperatura efectiva (TE) 3 , que mide la longitud de la estación de crecimiento como la intensidad de la energía solar disponible (Binford, 1980(Binford, , 2001. Donde la TE es alta, se esperan ambientes ricos en recursos y donde es baja se espera lo contrario (Binford, 1980). De tal forma, este indicador es informativo sobre la variabilidad ambiental, permitiendo evaluar la organización de la movilidad y el asentamiento. ...
Article
Full-text available
El objetivo de este trabajo es contribuir a la caracterización del uso humano del espacio de la región de Melipeuco (Provincia de Cautín, La Araucanía, Chile), considerando tendencias espaciales de los asentamientos en el área durante el Holoceno y los factores y procesos naturales y humanos que influyeron en ello. Se realiza una jerarquización del paisaje considerando la incidencia del marco topográfico y su relación con variables hídricas, bioclimáticas de temperatura, humedad, estacionalidad y de biomasa fotosintéticamente activa. A partir de los resultados, se generan expectativas sobre las tendencias espaciales y temporales preliminares en la distribución de los sitios con relación a la heterogeneidad ambiental. A partir de estos datos se construye un modelo SIG que sugiere cierto grado de variabilidad y heterogeneidad en el uso de estos entornos andinos de Sudamérica.
... Another important way that foragers use to mitigate risk of resource shortfalls is through mobility and land use strategieshow human groups distribute themselves across the landscape in space and time. Many hunter-gatherers, and especially those living in tropical/subtropical environments that are the original human habitat, are central-place foragers characterized by what is termed residential mobility (Binford, 1980;Grove, 2009;Kelly, 1995). They establish a camp in a locale with locally abundant resources and then collect those resources from a relatively limited foraging radius around the camp. ...
... Among recent foragers, this is the case in high-latitudes where much human-edible biomass comes from large ungulates that congregate in large, but widely spaced herds whose locations can vary greatly over time. An alternative land use strategy, termed logistical mobility is often practiced in these ecosystems (Binford, 1980;Grove, 2010a). A central base camp is established with access to some important stationary resources like water. ...
... There is considerable variation in the distance foragers travel to acquire resources, the lengths of time camps are occupied, and the distance that camps are moved (Bettinger, 1991;Kelly, 1995), and we might consider residential and logistical land use strategies to be the ends of a continuum of mobility. However, these different strategies involve significant differences in the organization and nature of technologies, social organization and group size, diet, and the distribution of activities (Binford, 1980;Grove, 2009Grove, , 2010bKelly, 1983Kelly, , 1992Kelly, , 1995. Hence, it may be better to consider them as stable attractor states under different ecological conditions (Barton and Riel-Salvatore, 2014). ...
Article
The interrelated concepts of risk and resilience are inherently future-focused. Two main dimensions of risk are the probability that a harmful event will happen in the future and the probability that such an event will cause a varying degree of loss. Resilience likewise refers to the organization of a biological, societal, or technological system such that it can withstand deleterious consequences of future risks. Although both risk and resilience pertain to the future, they are assessed by looking to the past – the past occurrence of harmful events, the losses incurred in these events, and the success or failure of systems to mitigate loss when these events occur. Most common risk and resilience measures rely on records extending a few decades into the past at most. However, much longer-term dynamics of risk and resilience are of equal if not greater importance for the sustainability of coupled socioecological systems which dominate our planet. Historical sciences, including archeology, are critical to assessing risk and resilience in deep time to plan for a sustainable future. The challenge is that both past and future are invisible; we can directly observe neither. We present examples from recent archeological research that provide insights into prehistoric risk and resilience to illustrate how archeology can meet this challenge through large-scale meta-analyses, data science, and modeling.
... Esta involucra aspectos ambientales, tales como la disponibilidad, densidad, accesibilidad, y predictibilidad de los recursos líticos (Kuhn, 1994;Beck et al., 2002;Jones et al., 2003). Además, está sujeta a las múltiples decisiones de la organización humana que involucran la movilidad, los rangos de acción, la distancia de las fuentes al lugar de uso y la existencia de interacciones y/o intercambios con otros grupos (Binford, 1980;Torrence, 1983;Beck y Jones, 1997). ...
... A su vez, los sectores intermedios presentaron una mayor variabilidad de materias primas, lo que evidenciaría una mayor permanencia y recurrencia en el uso de estos entornos a lo largo del tiempo (Veth, 2005). De este modo, por su posición ecotonal y geográfica, habrían funcionado como lugares centrales (Zeanah, 2004), desempeñando un rol de carácter residencial (sensu Binford, 1980) dentro de los sistemas de asentamiento y movilidad humana a escala regional, aunque el mismo no sería excluyente de otras formas de uso. Esto es compatible con el registro artefactual de la secuencia del sitio CY, ubicado en estos sectores de la región, que mostró una elevada intensidad ocupacional en particular durante los últimos ca. ...
... El mayor aporte del grupo LM2-RB se registra en los espacios altos, a donde habría llegado como parte de los toolkits transportados. Al respecto, planteamos que, dentro de los espacios bajos de la LBB, el aprovisionamiento de esta obsidiana habría sido de manera directa en el lugar, pero en el marco de otras actividades (embedded, sensu Binford, 1979Binford, , 1980. Por último, la obsidiana LM1-LN, presente en muy bajos porcentajes en todos los espacios, posee su mayor aporte en sectores altos. ...
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En este trabajo se presenta la caracterización distribucional del registro lítico de superficie de la localidad Barrancas-Buta Ranquil (Neuquén), noroeste de Patagonia, Argentina. En particular, se exponen los resultados de los análisis tecnomorfológicos y arqueométricos que dan cuenta del uso de la obsidiana local (Cerro Huenul y Laguna del Maule 2-Río Barrancas), accesible en toda el área, para la manufactura de artefactos. Además, se registra el uso de obsidiana no local (Laguna del Maule 1-Laguna Negra), mayormente sobre artefactos formatizados. En cambio, rocas silíceas y basalto se emplearon en menor proporción, especialmente en instrumentos vinculados a actividades de procesamiento que requieren de estadías de mayor permanencia. De este modo, las evidencias distribucionales y arqueométricas permitieron dar cuenta de una gran movilidad logística y de distintas formas de uso humano del espacio dentro de la región de estudio.
... While some exotics at Moravian Aurignacian sites (i.e., obsidian, metarhyolite, andesite) indicate the extent of social networks, others (e.g., EFs or Polish Jurassic chert from Cracow area), which predominated elsewhere, testify to larger travel distances during direct (s.l.) procurement of raw materials by local groups (see Binford 1980). Longer travel distances generally accorded with higher latitudes and continentality (Féblot-Augustins 2009) and were principally related to northeastern-southwestern movements during the Moravian Aurignacian (Fig. 7). ...
... One trip from the Moravian Aurignacian site at Milovice I to Ostrava Basin (163 km) to gather EFs, then to radiolarite sources in the White Carpathians (83 km) and back (114 km) is 360 km as the crow flies. This is farther than the median annual distances travelled by groups discussed from the ethnographic study by (Binford 1980), but similar to the Palaeoindians of northeastern North America or the Palaeoarchaic groups of the Great Basin (Tankersley 1998;Jones et al. 2003;Burke et al. 2006). The difference is probably caused first by the greater mobility of Aurignacian groups and secondly by the occupational breadth of the studied Aurignacian sites (reflected in the thick stratigraphy at Milovice I), which accumulated lithologies from long-distance forays. ...
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Chemical fingerprinting and spectrophotometry were combined to conduct a provenance analysis of radiolarite artefacts from three Moravian (Czech Republic) Aurignacian sites of Tvarožná I, Nová Dědina I and Milovice I. Of the different methods used, laser ablation with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) was the best suited to distinguish the different areas containing radiolarite outcrops. Based on their chemical fingerprint, Moravian Aurignacian radiolarite artefacts were most likely imported from the western Slovak part of the Pieniny Klippen Belt. The abundant radiolarite outcrops in the Vienna region were apparently ignored, with the possible exception of two radiolarite artefacts from the Milovice I site. However, these could also have been manufactured from gravel radiolarites found around the site. Upon assigning other lithologies from Aurignacian sites in Moravia to their areas of provenience, it transpired those imports derived primarily from non-south-western regions. A similar situation was previously observed in the Moravian Szeletian, possibly indicating information exchange between the two Upper Palaeolithic cultures. Although the subsequent Gravettian culture relied more on long-distance imports, north-eastern − south-western movements and transfers were predominant up until the end of the Moravian Upper Palaeolithic, largely due to the communication corridor of the Moravian Gate. Upper Palaeolithic Moravia was an important source of raw materials and a hub for gathering other materials and information from concrete supply zones, while others were neglected.
... For example, the exploitation of raw materials to anticipate inadequate conditions is proposed as one of the features that differentiates the concept of curation (intentional maintenance, reuse, and prolonged use-life of stone objects) from the one of expediency (minimal technological effort in object production) 77 . Going beyond the multiple definitions of these concepts [78][79][80][81][82][83] , it was proposed that curated objects are produced where the need to cope with unpredictable environmental conditions leads to an anticipated preparation of raw materials. Objects were curated because there was no guarantee of always having the necessary raw materials available, in this way time was invested in advance [84][85][86] At Gotera, only a small portion of the lithic assemblage is retouched, consisting mainly of notches and denticulates on blade and bladelet supports, primarily made of quartz 87,88 . ...
... gatherer groups would have the opportunity to rely on a stable toolkit for activities such as hunting and fishing, which would require homogeneous, longer and thinner blades77,78,80 .On the other hand, a preference for more variable, shorter, and thicker blades may be a response to an environment where resource availability is relatively unpredictable. In such environments, hunter-gatherer groups would be less specialized in their hunting or foraging strategies, and more versatile to cope with the unpredictable fluctuations in food resources.The analysis reveals that the levels characterized by longer and thinner blades and bladelets, in descending order, are GG1 from Enkapune ya Muto, DBL from Enkapune ya Muto, DekaIn the Late Holocene levels of Goda Buticha, retouched tools mainly consist of microliths, particularly backed microliths and retouched bladelets, predominantly made from obsidian. ...
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In the transition between the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and the Late Stone Age (LSA) in eastern Africa, the archaeological record shows a gradual and asynchronous decline in MSA features and an increase in LSA characteristics. A link between this pattern and climatic variations has not yet been tested in the region using lithic attribute analysis. To investigate that, we integrated technological data of blades and bladelets from eastern African contexts (Marine Isotope Stages 5-1) with large-scale paleoclimatic reconstructions. A principal component analysis (PCA) finds the first component (reflecting artifacts' dimensions) significantly correlating with time. This highlights a progressive reduction in size over time, a trend that has already been suggested for the MSA-LSA transition. The second principal component reflects artifact shape and shows a significant correlation with seasonality. Based on this, we propose that more variable blades reflect greater versatility in foraging strategies as adaptation to unpredictable environments. On the other hand, during periods of mild seasonal change, a more standardized toolkit with thinner, longer elements would emerge from refining and adapting to familiar situations and challenges.
... The higher diversity of likely local ochre sources used consistently over the LSA occupation at Siphiso is indicative of more varied procurement strategies and preferences, and perhaps different social contexts for its use. It suggests that ochre procurement may have been aligned with more frequent logistical mobility (sensu Binford 59 ), and may have been embedded with other provisioning activities where the teaching and learning about networks of resources, such as lithic raw materials or seasonal food procurement, had more varied nodes of experience to share. In contrast to Ngwenya ochre, most of the Lebombos are source materials tend to be more weathered, friable, lighter in hue, and have a higher proportion of impurities, such as mica, quartz, feldspars, and clay minerals. ...
... The procedure bracketed ten unknown samples with a set of standards and quality control samples at the beginning and end of each to monitor instrument stability and drift throughout analytical runs (approximately every 30 mins). The ablated sample vapor was transported to the ICP-MS using He carrier gas and mixed with argon gas at the plasma torch, where the sample was ionized and passed through two detectors that measured the signal intensity in counts per second for 60 isotopes: 7 Li, 9 Be, 11 B, 23 Na, 24 Mg, 27 Al, 29 Si, 31 P, 34 S, 35 Cl, 39 K, 44 Ca, 45 Sc, 47 Ti, 51 V, 52 Cr, 55 Mn, 57 Fe, 59 Co, 60 N, 63 Cu, 66 Zn, 71 Ga, 75 As, 77 The results of trace element analyses were analyzed using multivariate statistics, detailed in Supplementary Notes 4.0 and 5.0. ...
Article
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Our species and other hominins have used earth mineral pigments since at least ~500,000 years ago, if not earlier. Its preservation and ubiquity within archaeological records across sub-Saharan Africa are well documented, but regional-scale networks of mineral selection, mining, transport, and use is an underdeveloped field. Here, we present a framework for interpreting regional variations within an overarching ochre-behavioral community of practice. Deep-time records of ochre provisioning span the final Middle Stone Age and Late Stone Age in modern day Eswatini, revealing longstanding cultural continuities in the intergenerational transmission of shared knowledge on landscapes, geology, and the desired physicochemical properties of mineral pigments. These communities of practice did not develop in isolation, and were part of a wider system of relations that were influenced and mediated by social interactions, such as technological learning, seasonal traveling, material culture exchange, and symbolic expression. We use compositional analyses to determine localized ochre procurement strategies and long-distance transport across a network of fifteen archaeological sites and mineral resources. Newly refined chronologies from Lion Cavern at Ngwenya using optically stimulated luminescence dating also reaffirm its antiquity as the oldest known evidence for intensive ochre mining worldwide (~48,000 years ago).
... The identification, quantification and biometric analyses of mollusc remains provide a better understanding of models of littoral resource exploitation and the mobility of the community that obtained them. Regardless of whether these hunters-gatherers were foragers or collectors, they coped with variability in the productivity of mollusc resources and their irregular distribution in space by adjusting their flexible mobility strategies (Binford 1980(Binford , 1983. ...
... So, in general, the Asturian huntergatherer settlement system seems to fit better into a more residential mobility model (cf. Binford 1980), that included travelling multiple kilometres to the coast to procure resources, and then transporting them to caves and rock-shelters inland. Thus, the scale of the mobility of the occupants of La Chora to acquire marine resources is atypical of this region, especially in relation to the distances travelled to obtain open shore resources, with more proximate examples like El Carabión (Pérez-Bartolomé et al. 2016) underscoring that exceptionality. ...
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Littoral resources have been consumed by humans since at least the Middle Palaeolithic. Examples of the use of molluscs have been documented along the shores of Europe during that period but it was not until many millennia later that European hunter-fisher-gatherer societies exploited those resources intensively—see the case of Nerja cave during the Younger Dryas. This economic activity caused the accumulation of shells at archaeological sites during the Mesolithic, resulting in the formation of the so-called shell middens, a very common type of deposit along the Atlantic seaboard of Europe. Despite the large number of research projects that have studied the exploitation of coastal environments and the way of life of Mesolithic populations, questions such as the relationship between human mobility and mollusc exploitation patterns still remain. The archaeomalacological study of the shell midden in La Chora cave (Cantabria, Spain) confirms that people foraged for shellfish at several places along the coast, mainly in the estuary of the River Asón. The main difference between La Chora and other Mesolithic sites is its longer shellfish collection radius as the inhabitants travelled over 10 km to the open coast to collect shellfish. This study has expanded the available data about the subsistence strategies of Mesolithic groups in a little-studied area and improved our knowledge of mobility patterns among Mesolithic societies in the northern Iberian Peninsula.
... This pattern holds true for both occupations and shows that the forager group returned to a familiar campsite and performed activities in the same places. This is conformable to the expectations derived from Binford's model of the continua of forager to collector site-use under different ecological conditions [53,54]. This continuity in settlement layout suggests a fixed strategy in the dispositions of logistical tasks. ...
... Moreover, we have evidence of multiple visits to the site with the layout of activities being similar for successive visits. This organization of standardized tasks seems to suggest a fixed strategy in the dispositions of logistical tasks, supporting Binford's [53,54] model for foraging in a new environment. Additional excavations at the site will provide data to refine our interpretations from the first two seasons and begin to start making site-specific foraging models. ...
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The Belson site is located on an outwash plain draining the Early Algonquin stage of the central Great Lakes (coinciding with the Older Dryas stadial period around 14,000 Cal B.P) southwest across Lower Michigan into the Ohio tributaries. By 13,000 Cal B.P the St. Joseph River had incised multiple channels into this plain. On a terrace just north of a now-abandoned channel, a detailed surface study by Talbot from 2005–2018 showed several flake clusters largely of Attica chert, procured about 235 km southwest of Belson. A study of the surface sample was published by the authors in 2021 and indicated that the points were made with the Clovis technological pattern. Excavations in 2020–21 revealed hundreds of buried flakes and multiple tools in the lower, less-disturbed terrace sediment. Plotting of this material indicates successive occupations below the ploughed deposit and covering more than 30 m². The buried assemblages are similar to the published surface assemblage with the addition of more small scrapers and manufacturing debris. Several of the buried tools have traces of proteins from a range of mammals, suggesting a broad-spectrum subsistence strategy. The documentation of a succession of little disturbed deposits with precisely recorded micro-debris will allow for testing of models describing settlement choice and developing dynamics of internal site organization. Initial analysis of recovered data provides support for an ‘outcrop centered’ model where high-quality chert outcrops serve as central places on the landscape. Samples of sediment and charcoal for identification and dating await study.
... Preliminary analy- 29 VUKOSAVLJEVIĆ 2012: 122, 254-255. 30 See BINFORD 1980;SINCLAIR 1999. 31 ZILHÃO 1997 (pločice, sječiva i odbojci) bilježe jednaku fragmentiranost, otprilike 50 %. ...
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The paper presents the results of trial excavations at Vela Pećina cave near Kali on the island of Ugljan, and in particular the results of techno-typological and petrographic analyses of the lithic find assemblage. It considers the site's significance in the settlement grid of Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers within the context of the time period confirmed by radiocarbon dating and the site's geographic location on the margins of the presently submerged Adriatic Plain.
... Preliminary analy- 29 VUKOSAVLJEVIĆ 2012: 122, 254-255. 30 See BINFORD 1980;SINCLAIR 1999. 31 ZILHÃO 1997 (pločice, sječiva i odbojci) bilježe jednaku fragmentiranost, otprilike 50 %. ...
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U radu se iznose rezultati probnog iskopavanja Vele pećine kod Kali na otoku Ugljanu, s naglaskom na rezultate tehno-tipološke i petrografske analize litičkog skupa nalaza. Razmatra se značenje lokaliteta u mreži naseljavanja gornjopaleolitičkih lovaca sa-kupljača s obzirom na vremensko razdoblje potvrđeno radiokarbonskim datiranjem i geografski položaj lokaliteta na rubu danas potopljene Jadranske nizine.
... De manera similar, Salcedo (2012: 53-54) propone que la puna tendría un sistema de asentamiento de baja movilidad residencial bi-estacional, con "locaciones" articuladas en torno a un campamento base. Si bien recoge un modelo sistémico (Binford 1980), reconoce que existe variedad en el modelo pues a lo largo de la secuencia del Arcaico hay cambios en las estrategias de explotación. ...
... • Embedded procurement as part of other, predominantly subsistence, activities (e.g., Binford, 1979Binford, , 1980Binford, , 1985Gould & Saggers, 1985). Typically associated with hunter-gatherer economies, it cannot entirely be ruled out for sedentary farmers and herders (and particularly herders, since they regularly moved across the landscape with their animals). ...
Article
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The expansion of the Neolithic way of life triggered the most profound changes in peoples’ socioeconomic behaviors, including how critical resources for everyday life were managed. Recent research spearheaded by ancient DNA analysis has greatly contributed to our understanding of the main direction of Neolithisation spreading from western Anatolia into central Europe. Due to the diverse processes involved in Neolithisation, which resulted in a high diversity of regional and local phenomena, the underlying mechanisms of these developments are still largely unexplored. One of these mechanisms is economic behavior and resource management. Neolithic economic behavior is the result of social processes involving the physical actions of the procurement, processing, use, discard, and distribution of raw materials as well as finished products for utilitarian needs and to create and maintain social relations. Within this continuum, the key for tracing meaningful behavioral patterns is the identification of raw material procurement. Since stone tools are among the most ubiquitous and stable finds at Neolithic sites, they are ideally suited for this endeavor. Here, we present the results of a case study from the Neolithic site of Çukuriçi Höyük in western Anatolia tracing lithic raw material procurement. We employ a novel approach using geochemical provenance analyses coupled with quantitative technological and econometric methods. The key finding of this diachronic study covering almost 700 years revealed patterns of socioeconomic dynamics undetectable through conventional analytical approaches. We demonstrate that technological concepts fluctuate over time and are subject to innovations, whereas raw material procurement remains a stable element. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10816-024-09681-6.
... Por ejemplo, si estamos considerando un grupo de cazadores recolectores en un campamento logístico como La Coipa para la obtención de recursos vegetales (Binford, 1980), nos preguntamos primeramente quiénes realizan esa actividad, si son hombres, mujeres, niños, ancianos, todos ellos o algunos. Luego, en segundo lugar, al observarlos en la imaginación, nos lleva a considerar las vestimentas, si siquiera realmente usaban, de qué estaban hechas y si era diferente para cada grupo (etario y de género). ...
Conference Paper
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En este proyecto realizamos la reconstrucción virtual y posterior recreación del sitio arqueológico La Coipa 1, en su momento de ocupación más tem-prana, hace 13.000 años cal. AP. Nuestra intención ha sido demostrar la aplicabilidad de las nuevas tecnologías al trabajo arqueológico y patrimonial en general, junto con avanzar en la forma de gene-ración de contenido, en la formulación y revisión de hipótesis. Nuestro trabajo da cuenta que realizar una reconstrucción virtual obliga a considerar las distintas líneas de evidencia de manera integral, cuestionando profundamente nuestros preceptos. Por otro lado, consideramos también que se ha logra-do desarrollar una plataforma divulgativa del cono-cimiento arqueológico, la cual alcanza un sinnúmero de instancias de participación, ya sea museológicas, científicas o educativas. Finalmente, nuestro trabajo ha demostrado que la virtualización patrimonial es, además, una herramienta que amplía las formas de protección y conservación patrimonial. In this project we carried out the virtual reconstruction and subsequent recreation of the archaeological site La Coipa 1, at the time of its earliest occupation, 13,600 years BC. Our intention has been to demonstrate the applicability of new technologies to archaeological and heritage work in general, along with advancing in the form of content generation, in the formulation and revision of hypotheses. Our work shows that carrying out a virtual reconstruction forces us to consider the different lines of evidence in an integral way, deeply questioning our precepts. On the other hand, we also consider that we have managed to develop a platform for the dissemination of archaeological knowledge, which reaches countless instances of participation, whether museological, scientific or educational. Finally, our work has shown that heritage virtualization is also a tool that expands the forms of heritage protection and conservation.
... Residential mobility is a key aspect of hunter-gatherer foraging economies, and is therefore an issue of central importance in hunter-gatherer studies. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Hunter-gatherers vary widely in annual rates of residential mobility, and understanding the sources of this variation has long been of interest to anthropologists and archaeologists. The vast majority of hunter-gatherers dependent on terrestrial plants and animals move camp multiple times a year because local foraging patches become depleted, and food, material, and social resources are heterogeneously distributed through time and space. ...
Preprint
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Residential mobility is deeply entangled with all aspects of hunter-gatherer life ways, and is therefore an issue of central importance in hunter-gatherer studies. Hunter-gatherers vary widely in annual rates of residential mobility, and understanding the sources of this variation has long been of interest to anthropologists and archaeologists. Since mobility is, to a large extent, driven by the need for a continuous supply of food, a natural framework for addressing this question is provided by the metabolic theory of ecology. This provides a powerful framework for formulating formal testable hypotheses concerning evolutionary and ecological constraints on the scale and variation of hunter-gatherer residential mobility. We evaluate these predictions using extant data and show strong support for the hypotheses. We show that the overall scale of hunter-gatherer residential mobility is predicted by average human body size, and the limited capacity of mobile hunter-gatherers to store energy internally. We then show that the majority of variation in residential mobility observed across cultures is predicted by energy availability in local ecosystems. Our results demonstrate that large-scale evolutionary and ecological processes, common to all plants and animals, constrain hunter-gatherers in predictable ways as they move through territories to effectively exploit resources over the course of a year. Moreover, our results extend the scope of the metabolic theory of ecology by showing how it successfully predicts variation in the behavioral ecology of populations within a species.
... By using historical and artifactual data we can propose types of sites (cf. locations, Binford, 1980) which can be specifically linked to the commercial fishery. Bone data is invaluable, but it is only one category of evidence that bears on our common problem. ...
Article
A la vista del colapso general de las pesquerías del Atlántico Norte en la década de los años noventa, se podría concluir que la pesca comercial intensiva a gran escala constituye una pésima iniciativa. ¿Cómo llegaron a tal grado de dependencia de un tal sistema interregional a gran escala las comunidades humanas, sistema que, a la postre ha sido incapaz de responder a nuestra demanda y tecnología? ¿Dónde y cómo tuvo lugar la transformación de la pesca de subsistencia? ¿¿Qué indicadores zoológicos y arqueológicos marcan los comienzos de la comercialización en un determinado lugar? ¿Cómo podemos comparar distintas secuencias de de- sarrollo en diferentes zonas? Estas y otras preguntas podrían ser mucho más complejas de lo que hasta ahora pensábamos. Nuestro trabajo pretende abordarlas en detalle así como formular nuevas preguntas que canalizen futuras investigaciones en las diferentes áreas del Atlántico Norte en un intento por comprender mejor los procesos de comercialización de la pesca y diseñar pruebas de contraste que permitan la eventual contrastación de nuestros datos.
... Subarctic forager subsistence is likely structured around seasonal land use (Binford 1980(Binford , 2001Kelly 2013), and multiple proxies were used to estimate season of death of the USR infants and occupation of the site. As noted, the infants were buried in a pit feature excavated within a central cooking hearth of a residential structure. ...
Article
In the late summer about 11,500 years ago, probably in the space of a few weeks, three young Paleoindian children died and were buried in a residential camp alongside Xasaa Na’ (Upward Sun River). An infant and neonate were buried together with associated funerary objects below a central cooking hearth, and later a ~three-year-old child was cremated and buried above the same feature. This article explores the lifeways of the Ancient Beringians that summer, reconstructed through zooarchaeology, stable isotope, spatial, and artifact analyses and implications of the mortuary treatment of these individuals with respect to the regional group, theDenali Complex, and early Paleoindian ideologies.
... However, apart from a small freshwater source, the late Boreal landscape no longer offered the same biodiverse hunter-gatherer environment as during the early Boreal. From these resident sites close to the remaining water sources the wider environment could be exploited following a logistical exploitation system (Binford 1980(Binford , 1982. One of these potential residential sites is situated~4 km downstream of the Daknam sampling location, where the Kale/Durme leaves the former Lateglacial Moervaart lake (Cromb e et al. 2011) (Fig. 1). ...
Article
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A high‐resolution palynological record from northwest Belgium is presented. The record encompasses the second part of the Younger Dryas and the Early Holocene. The basal part of the pollen record reflects a relatively open landscape, characteristic for the Younger Dryas. The transition to the Holocene is marked by an expansion of birch woodland, followed by an expansion of pine in the Late Preboreal (~11.2–10.7 cal. ka BP). Subsequently, the record shows an expansion of mixed deciduous forest with hazel, elm and oak, characteristic for the Boreal (~10.7–8.6 cal. ka BP). Early Holocene forest expansion was interrupted by a number of short‐lived fluctuations, presumably driven by climatic changes. The most distinct event is the Rammelbeek phase (~11.4–11.2 cal. ka BP), during which forest development was temporarily interrupted in favour of grasses, while wildfires increased. Following this climatic event, hunter‐gatherers returned to the area after a period of almost 1.5 millennia of low population density. They most likely were attracted by the increased temperatures and abundance of edible plants present in the birch‐pine forests and on the banks of the river Kale/Durme. A temporary expansion of pine during the Boreal (~10.7–8.6 cal. ka BP) may correspond with the 9.3‐ka event. At this time, superimposed on a trend of gradual infilling of the channel, a temporary change to drier conditions is observed. The significant drop in the number of prehistoric sites in the Moervaart region clearly cannot be attributed to this short‐term climatic event alone but was most likely caused by a combination of environmental changes, such as the decreasing availability of hazelnuts as well as freshwater and edible (semi‐)aquatic plants as the Kale/Durme river gradually turned dry. The study provides insight into, partly climate‐driven, Early Holocene environmental changes and the effect this may have had on human occupation.
... What is clear from this earliest period of agricultural economies is that while sedentism is an important emergent process, mobility on a larger scale than simple daily rounds plays a significant role for many famers, not just foragers. Within foraging communities, mobility has long been understood as a means of mapping behaviors onto resources as their availability shifts through time relative to the demands of producers and consumers (e.g., Binford 1980). Within agricultural communities, space and mobility can be used in similar manners, with small labor bases for household corporate units and the potential for crop failures driving choices about how best to guard against these novel risks. ...
Article
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The shift from foraging to farming economies was deeply intertwined with increasing sedentism and the emergence of house-based corporate units in southwestern Asia, with a number of researchers arguing that in the early Neolithic, households become primary economic units within communities for the first time. In order to understand how this role for households articulated with new subsistence systems, this paper analyzes the knapped stone assemblage from the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B agricultural field house of al-Khayran in the west-central Jordanian Highlands. Results demonstrate that al-Khayran's residential unit enacted household maintenance activities, intensive cereal production, bidirectional blade reduction, and caching of stone tools in anticipation of repeated temporary occupations at the site. These findings show that the corporate household which occupied al-Khayran enacted novel mobility practices in order to accommodate emergent risks in agricultural economies.
... I argue that macroevolutionary questions on the lithic record can ultimately only be answered by understanding the configuration, assembly and long-term transformation of such technological worlds. Weißmüller (2003) and the jubilarian of this volume, Jürgen Richter (1997Richter ( , 2005Richter ( , 2006, and then carried on and further elaborated by their students and collaborators (Uthmeier & Richter 2005;Pastoors 2001;Uthmeier 2017;Bataille 2010Bataille , 2020Bataille & Conard 2018), TA can be regarded as one of the few methodological proposals to date seeking to integrate the systemic analysis of lithic technology as pioneered by chaîne opératoire approaches (Boëda et al. 1990;Geneste et al. 1997;Geneste 2010;Inizan et al. 1999;Tixier 2012;Perlès 2018) with a dedicated research interest in homininecology intersections, resource management and modes of landscape utilization including mobility and transport decisions (Kelly 1988;Binford 1980;Nelson 1991;Conard 2001;Uthmeier et al. 2008). The distinct version of TA championed by Richter can be regarded as a creative synthesis of site-oriented and raw material-centred "transformation-thinking" matured in Erlangen (Weißmüller 1996; and the landscape-archaeological perspective on past human economy, resource distribution and settlement organization (Ger. ...
Chapter
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Macroarchaeological questions on the long-term evolution of lithic technology have in recent years become a major focus of research in Palaeolihic archaeology. Big-picture accounts on lithic macroevolution have, however, either concentrated on assemblage-level variability, aggregated artefact-level patterns or millennial-scale trajectories of individual lithic systems. I here show that general systems-theory provides an alternative framework to tackle these questions with particular advantages with regard to macroarchaeological data. Based on lithic transformation analysis developed by Richter and others as well as chaîne opératoire insights, I offer a scalable perspective on higher-level dynamics in technological evolution. I present an ecosystem approach to lithic macroevolution and outline resultant research opportunities and key insights into why and how lithic systems co-exist and interact. This macro-scale perspective draws attention to the co-evolution and interrelationship of spatiotemporally associated technologies and investigates how such varied lithic systems are integrated into broader hominin-devised technological worlds. I argue that macroevolutionary questions on the lithic record can ultimately only be answered by understanding the configuration, assembly and long-term transformation of such technological worlds.
... Firstly, the presence of material remnants may evoke reminiscences of past occupations, leading to the preservation of previous patterns as part of an active social tradition [49,53,[116][117][118][119]. Alternatively, these material remains may provide favorable conditions that enhance the attractiveness of specific locations within the site for certain activities [94,102,120]. Areas designated for waste disposal, for instance, may continue to serve that purpose, while activity areas may be reused for similar or related tasks, facilitating the reuse of debris as recycled materials [15,56,121]. ...
Article
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This study investigates botanical remains from the Takarkori site in the Tadrart Acacus region (SW Libya) to reconstruct socio-economic and cultural characteristics of human groups during the Holocene. By analyzing micro- and macrofossils of plant origin, we aim to understand the availability and management of environmental resources and how plant taxa were used by humans. The exceptional preservation of archaeobotanical material across all occupation levels, facilitated by the region’s geomorphological and environmental conditions, provides a unique opportunity to study pre-Pastoral and Pastoral Neolithic activities within a comprehensive diachronic framework. Our research extends previous investigations by examining the spatial distribution of archaeobotanical remains in association with site furniture and material correlates, offering insights into the functional use of space within the site. Also, the features of plant assemblages and their distribution patterns indicate the planning in the use of plant resources and the diverse uses beyond subsistence, including ritual and cultural practices. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of Holocene environmental and cultural dynamics, highlighting the importance of archaeobotanical data in archaeological research.
... Much later, taphonomy was introduced in archaeology to study the effect of post-depositional processes on archaeological material, including human and natural agencies [2][3][4][5]. Originally, the primary emphasis in archaeology was to study the impact at a macroscopic scale, either for individual artefacts or entire assemblages [6,7]. Over the last three decades, the focus has expanded to investigating alterations caused by post-depositional processes on micro to nanoscale [8][9][10][11][12]. ...
Article
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Studying taphonomy is crucial for understanding how post-depositional processes impact archaeological remains. This knowledge is pivotal for accurately interpreting the archaeological record. Although taphonomy has a long tradition in archaeology, it is less developed in the analysis of stone tool residues compared to other subdisciplines. To address this gap, our study aims to further develop our understanding of the preservation potential of stone tool residues in temperate environments through actualist experiments. To achieve this, we develop a multidimensional experimental program that features the first biweekly monitoring of weathering processes on residues over a one-year cycle, aiming to understand the short-term effects of weathering immediately after tool discard. Additionally, the program involves the study of longer-term burial and weathering visual effects on different residue types within various previously unexplored depositional environments. This approach allows us to observe the visual effects of both weathering and burial processes and to improve our understanding of the different mechanisms involved in the diagenesis of stone tool residues. While known factors such as microbial activity and soil acidity play a primary role in residue decay, specific stone tool-related factors also prove important, underscoring the need to develop further a specific branch of taphonomy related to stone tool residues. Moreover, our results show that certain residue types may survive within these environments that are often considered as being hostile. A residue analysis of stone tools from temperate contexts may thus contribute unique data that can improve our understanding of past human behaviour. Future research with more diverse residue types and depositional conditions will permit further refinement of our understanding of how taphonomy affects residue preservation and enhance the reliability of residue identifications. As such, stone tool residue analysis will become firmly rooted within broader functional approaches to address how humans use stone tools and how this affects stone tool variability.
... 1904;Turnbull, 2017). Variability along these dimensions of mobility was also almost certainly present in the past, and in turn, it would have had massive consequences for the social networks of different prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies, the structure of cultural diversity in them, and in turn, the archaeological remains of such societies (Binford, 1980;Yellen, 1977). This means that that the precise nature of the mobility regimes practiced by societies in the past can have profound impacts inferences we make from their archaeological remains. ...
Article
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Hunter-gatherer mobility patterns are extremely variable across the world and through time, in ways that have been shown to profoundly affect, among other things, cultural dynamics throughout our species' evolutionary history. Unlike studies of contemporary hunter-gatherers, where culture and social interactions can be sampled separately, the archaeological record is the product of a social system in the past which we cannot directly observe. Yet, methods derived from the analyses of social networks have been increasingly used to make inferences about patterns of past social interactions using archaeological material as a proxy. It remains a question whether networks built from material cultural remains are indeed representative of the social processes that created them. Here, we use the ArchMatNet agent-based model to investigate how variability in hunter-gatherer mobility patterns and social organization affect our ability to reconstruct prehistoric social networks from artefact stylistic similarities. We find that variability in daily mobility, seasonal aggregations and patterns of migration have profound effects on our ability to recover social networks from archaeological assemblages. Moreover, that several metrics commonly used in SNA should not be interpreted in the same manner when applied to networks built from archaeological datasets. Our results highlight the fact that the archaeological record is the product of social interactions rather than analogous to them. Moreover, it points at a need to better understand the role of mobility in shaping human evolutionary patterns.
... There are several models that are used in the reconstruction of the strategy for landscape and resource exploitation in the Middle Palaeolithic and those, in essence, are a generalisation of ethnographically documented subsistence strategies of hunter-gatherers (e.g. Mortensen 1972;Marks and Friedel 1977;Binford 1980;. Newly proposed typologies of the sites in the Crimean foothills (Chabai 2004;Chabai and Uthmeier 2006) based on the totality of archaeozoological, geological and technological features, are consistent with the model of suppliers according to Binford's research (1980). ...
Chapter
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The chapter consists of several thematic sub-sections focusing on the historiography, periodisation and geochronological framework of the early Stone Age period, the availability of key resources, settlement issues, general characteristics of the available Lower and Middle Palaeolithic records, reconstructions of the probable economy and social organization of the fnal middle Palaeolithic period, and fnally some signifcant issues relating to the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Ukraine.
... Podemos observar que la economía de estas comunidades se basa en una amplia movilidad, entendiéndose esta como la manera en la cual los grupos se trasladan a través del paisaje en relación a las propiedades del medio ambiente, no solo natural sino también social, lo cual tiene un amplio impacto en la localización y composición de los asentamientos de una región (Binford, 1980). Las investigaciones etnográficas y arqueológicas han generado modelos que permiten identificar las estrategias de subsistencia (Newlander, 2012), entre las cuales destacaremos la dimensión de la movilidad. ...
Article
Este trabajo tiene por finalidad presentar un panorama de la economía de subsistencia por medio de patrones de movilidad que practican los habitantes actuales de la zona de Centla en la costa de Tabasco. En particular se documenta la producción de carbón vegetal en el ecosistema de manglares. De igual manera, como un primer paso para estudiar los patrones espaciales de degradación forestal, se presenta un modelo sobre el impacto en el ambiente por la producción de carbón.
... Stone Age settlements should be understood not only as habitation areas for prehistoric humans but also as dumps for the waste from the organisms (animals and plants) their inhabitants extracted from their immediate environment for food, clothes, etc. [61][62][63][64]. Good examples of this are the enormous shell middens (accumulated shells of consumed molluscs, together with other food remains) or the waste/refuse layers (with mammal, bird, and fish bones as well as the remains of acorns, hazelnuts and other nuts, fruits and berries) directly associated with the living areas and often deposited in water, probably to reduce the stink of decomposing organic material [65][66][67][68][69]. ...
... Au début des années 1960, cet ornithologue anglais s'attache en effet à comparer l'organisation sociale et les comportements de différentes espèces de tisserins d'Afrique et d'Asie avec des variables écologiques (Crook 1964 Les deux exemples que nous venons de citer ne sont qu'un échantillon des études comparatives qui se développent durant cette période (voir synthèse in Gautier 1982). Ainsi, l'importance des facteurs écologiques dans l'organisation des structures sociales va être mis en évidence par exemple chez les carnivores (Kruuk 1975), les primates (Crook & Gartlan 1966, Clutton Brock et Harvey 1977 ou encore chez l'Homme (Binford 1980, Kelly 1983. L'ensemble de ces travaux initiés par J.H. Crook peuvent être rangé sous l'étiquette d'une nouvelle discipline, la socioécologie (Gautier 1982 V.C. Wynne-Edwards (1906 est l'un des premiers à s'intéresser à ces interactions écologiques. ...
Thesis
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En biologie évolutive, l'approche fonctionnelle vise à comprendre comment des traits, qu'ils soient morphologiques ou comportementaux, évoluent pour s’ajuster aux exigences environnementales, afin d’optimiser la survie et la reproduction d'un organisme. L’écologie comportementale humaine propose d’utiliser cette approche pour appréhender les comportements de subsistance des chasseurs-cueilleurs actuels et passés. Les archéozoologues ont examiné plus spécifiquement les prédictions des modèles économétriques issus de la théorie de l’approvisionnement optimal (optimal foraging theory) pour appréhender les décisions et les stratégies liées à l’alimentation et plus globalement à l’économie de la matière première alimentaire. Bien que la dimension évolutionniste de cette démarche ait séduit plusieurs générations d’archéozoologues en Amérique du Nord, elle peine à obtenir une reconnaissance académique en Europe. Elle y est souvent perçue comme une approche réductrice et déshumanisante en raison de l’accent qu’elle met sur des données quantifiables et économiques des comportements de prédation, au détriment de dimensions plus sociales et culturelles. Ce jugement idéologique occulte malheureusement la puissance heuristique des modèles d’optimisations pour l’archéologie et j’ai souhaité, à travers ce manuscrit, démystifier et clarifier cette approche en déconstruisant avec pédagogie ses soubassements conceptuels et méthodologiques. Cet objectif m’a conduit à remonter l’histoire des grands piliers conceptuels de l’écologie comportementale pour mettre en évidence les spécificités de cette discipline vis-à-vis des autres sciences du comportement, actuelles et passées, en particulier l’éthologie et la sociobiologie. Par la suite, je me suis penché sur l’écologie comportementale humaine en examinant son évolution, les controverses qu’elle a suscitées aux États-Unis et en France, ainsi que la réception de cette discipline par l'archéologie. Les deux derniers chapitres se focalisent sur le principal modèle de l’optimal foraging theory utilisé en archéozoologie : le modèle de la sélection optimale des proies (prey choice model). Après avoir examiné en détail les concepts et le fonctionnement de ce modèle, je m’attarde sur la manière de l’opérationnaliser en archéologie et sur les limites méthodologiques associées à son application. Je termine par une mise en perspective de ses résultats, en mettant l'accent sur les variations de l'efficacité du foraging.
... Nevertheless altitude, topography, precipitation, latitude, continentality, and oceanity are factors that should be contemplated. In that sense, other measures such as effective temperature, a concept designed by Bailey (1960) that Binford (1980Binford ( , 2001 has utilized as an operational definition of growing season, could be a more synthetic way of establishing extreme environments. ...
... Movement has also been known to respond to social and cultural factors, including trips to acquire information, create and maintain social relationships, for intermarriage and even just avoid boredom (Kelly, 2013;Murdock, 1967;Whallon, 2006). Binford (1980) also noted that, responding to the distribution of key resources in the landscape hunter-gatherers could move their entire residences several times a year following resources (foragers), or only a couple of times a year preferring to forage farther from their residences (collectors). Aside from food, however, there are two things that hunter-gatherer groups will need on a daily basis, and that are heavy and hard to transport, so they have to be present close to their residential camp; these are water and firewood. ...
Thesis
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For centuries the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, and particularly its hyperarid core (<2,300 masl), has been considered a marginal, uninhabitable place. In the general historic and Chilean imagination, the Atacama is a passage-way between the Andes and the Pacific coast, and a place for the extraction of minerals and salts that provide with c. 12.5% of the country’s GDP (Sernageomin, 2021). However, the Atacama is still inhabited by traditional indigenous communities that strive to continue herding and cultivating in the steep western slope of the Andes, despite the contamination and excessive consumption of water by large mining companies and cities along the coast (Santoro et al., 2018). Not only today, but also in the distant past, the Atacama reveals the presence of life. Due to improved environmental conditions and increased rainfall in the Andes, communities of people managed to make this desert their home between 12,800 and 11,200 years ago. This dissertation is devoted to understanding how these small groups of hunter-gatherers, who were part of the some of the earliest groups to populate South America, were able to access, map, understand and navigate through the core of the desert for over 1,000 years. Specifically, we focus on the relationship established between these groups of people and the trees that were highly adapted to the harsh conditions of the desert. This dissertation uses information from a wide range of sources, including ethnographic records, radiocarbon dating of old trees and archaeological material, soil and sediment analyses and stable isotope analyses of bones, hair, and soils in order to reconstruct and understand the local environments in which these early hunter-gatherers of the Atacama lived. A survey of ethnographic literature indicates that, recent hunter-gatherers in every kind of environment have established profound relationships with the nature around them, treating trees as social beings. Trees are not only important for their economic profitability but also for their shade and temperature regulation capacity, as a source of protection from wind, predators, enemies and spirits, as places for recreation, and because they provide a natural framework upon which several kinds of residences, ephemeral camps, and storage structures are created even without modifying the trees. The results of our surveys, excavations and radiocarbon dating of PaleoIndigenous sites in the Atacama indicate that, in an environment where groves were scarce, circumscribed and vital, hunter-gatherers took care of their trees. Our spatial and chronological record indicates that in at least two residential sites people preferred to live close to tamarugo trees (Strombocarpa tamarugo), which provided shade and shelter. The presence of ancient groves coincided with the placement of hearths. Our data also suggests that in one site, a grove of trees was contemporaneous and spatially coincident with human activities. Diagnostic artifact assemblages suggest the possibly two different human groups (perhaps bands) could have co-existed, congregating around the rich micro-environment provided by this grove for c. 400 years, between 11,600 and 11,200 cal yrs BP. The taxonomic identification of these tree stumps, together with the identification of wood represented as charcoal and tools, indicates that people preferred to use the second most common species (Schinus molle) or sub-fossil wood, and thus to preserve the most common tree species (S. tamarugo) as structural protection for their residential sites. A stable isotope analysis strengthens the hypothesis that at least two different groups of people were co-existing in the area and using a tree grove. The first one, that camped on site QM32, either came from the Puna (3,000 – 3,400 masl) or traveled to this ecological area, bringing with them Vicugna vicugna fiber. These animal remains display a more pronounced C4 plant consumption and higher d15N values. The second group was likely local and inhabited site QM35. These people did not use vicuña hair or any kind of fiber for cordage. In addition, bones and hair coming from QM35 and other sites, such as PR7, contain the remains of probable guanacos (Lama guanicoe) and Caviomorpha rodents, which had a more C3 rich diet and surprisingly, a lower d15N signal. Overall, this dissertation shows us how some hunter-gatherer groups became highly adapted to the hyperarid environment of the Atacama’s core, making this part of the world their permanent home. Some of the scarce biotic resources, specifically S. tamarugo trees, were tended as part of maintaining the value of residential locations. These places may even have become nuclei for the occasional convergence of different groups. Our research also suggests that more than one group of people were using the ecosystem seasonally, and in so doing perhaps establishing social networks linking the coast and highlands, to complement the patchy resources of the western Andean slope.
... In this paper, forager and hunter-gatherer are used as synonyms. While these terms have been defined differently (eg Binford 1980, see also Fitzhugh and Habu 2002), they are used here to generally refer to groups of individuals living prior to the wide-scale adoption of settled agriculture. While used interchangeably throughout the paper to reference a range of subsistence practices, in the case study hunting activities will be highlighted in relation to a preserved record of stone-constructed hunting features. ...
Article
Hunting and gathering is the longest human adaptation ever to exist. Foraging peoples moved over the planet, encountered every type of habitat, engaged with their environments in flexible and innovative ways, and were witnesses to vast climatic changes. One of the most notable planetary shifts since the Pleistocene is fluctuation in global water levels and its impact on the landscapes it exposed and submerged. This dynamic would have significantly impacted foraging communities across the globe, but neither water fluctuations nor human responses to them were uniform. Rates of water oscillations were variable, including long-term, slow changes, catastrophic events and others that were likely observable on a generational basis. Human adaptations to shifting water levels likely included mobility and changes in subsistence, among others. Further responses, such as the creation and sharing of traditional ecological knowledge about water level events, were likely codified in cultural practices that are not easily discernible in the archaeological record. To address these issues, this paper presents a case study of submerged archaeological sites in the North American Great Lakes, evidence of a hunter-gatherer occupation on a now submerged landscape. Nine-thousand-year-old stone-built hunting sites represent a specific subsistence strategy used during a time of lower water levels, and an archaeologically visible example of traditional ecological knowledge. This project brings together archaeology and virtual reality with indigenous partners and other knowledge holders to explore forager responses to Holocene water levels.
... The settlement pattern of Ertebølle people consisted of a larger site with a wide range of activities, which was surrounded by several smaller sites often with specialised use or short occupation. This type of pattern would put the EBK people within Binford's 'collectors' category (Binford 1980;Price 2020). ...
Article
The late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of what is now Denmark have long captivated archaeologists, who have meticulously studied the archaeological remains of their foraging economy since the mid-twentieth century. However, these studies – predominantly focused on subsistence – have often overlooked how individual decisions based on social and environmental settings can greatly structure foraging behaviours and, subsequently, the patterns observed in the zooarchaeological record. Perceiving hunting not just as an activity, but as a cultural practice shaping identities and social bonds, underscores the importance of considering social, symbolic and economic dimensions in Mesolithic hunting research. This study bridges this gap by integrating theoretical frameworks from human behavioural ecology (HBE), such as optimal foraging theory (OFT), costly signalling theory (CST) and notions of prestige. By doing so, it aims to elucidate the complex motivations underlying prey selection among the Ertebølle hunters. Through analysis of five sites from the Danish Ertebølle period (5400–3950 BC) using a simplified prey choice model (PCM), this research seeks to shed light on the interplay of ecological and social factors shaping hunting practices. The findings are discussed through the lens of optimal choice and prestige to examine patterns of prey selection at these archaeological sites.
... Frequencies of tool types present were then used to infer activities undertaken [14,15]. In doing so, a site could be assigned a 'type'; for example, butchery, wood working and hunting activities would lead to a categorisation of a home base [15][16][17][18][19][20] the absence of microwear data, more recent studies of Mesolithic settlements continue to implement this approach of inferring activity areas from tool types and assigning site function on this basis [18,[21][22][23][24][25]. This has led to broad categorisations of Mesolithic structures, such as home base or hunting camp, which lack an understanding of the variation in the range of tasks that may have been undertaken within these spaces. ...
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This paper explores tool-using activities undertaken in and around the earliest known evidence of post-built structures in Britain. Microwear results associated with at least three structures identified at the Early Mesolithic site of Star Carr, North Yorkshire, are examined as a means of identifying activity zones associated with the diverse stone tools used to process a variety of materials (e.g. wood, bone, antler, plant, hide, meat, fish). With 341 lithic artefacts analysed, this research represents the first microwear study focused on the post-built structures at Star Carr. A combination of spatial and microwear data has provided different scales of interpretation: from individual tool use to patterns of activity across the three structures. Different types of tool use observed have aided interpretations of possible activity areas where objects were produced and materials were processed. Zones of activity within one of the structures suggest that the working of some materials was more spatially restricted than others; even where there are high densities of flint deposition, spatial patterns in tool-using activity were observed. From this, it is interpreted that social norms and behaviours influenced the spatial organisation of different spaces. Our results demonstrate the importance of combining microwear analysis with GIS to explore function and variability in the use of Mesolithic structures—providing new insights into their role as social spaces.
... A day's foraging range represents the approximate distance that food-collecting groups typically travel from their home base before returning (Binford 1980(Binford , 1982Grove 2009;Lombard and van Aardt 2023). These distances do not account for variation in movement energetics driven by topographic variability. ...
... Complexity in the formation of Palaeolithic sites makes it difficult to single out human occupation episodes and resolve the time between them. Yet, models based on cross-cultural comparisons predict that the timing and duration of hunter-gatherer camps and of the activities carried out in them may be conditioned by seasonal cycles, the distribution of raw materials, diet, ritual and other such natural and cultural factors and that their interplay results in settlement and mobility patterns recognizable in the archaeological record 5,6 . Narrowing down the timescales of the Palaeolithic to a degree of resolution sufficiently high to test these models remains a challenging problem for different reasons. ...
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Resolving the timescale of human activity in the Palaeolithic Age is one of the most challenging problems in prehistoric archaeology. The duration and frequency of hunter-gatherer camps reflect key aspects of social life and human–environment interactions. However, the time dimension of Palaeolithic contexts is generally inaccurately reconstructed because of the limitations of dating techniques¹, the impact of disturbing agents on sedimentary deposits² and the palimpsest effect3,4. Here we report high-resolution time differences between six Middle Palaeolithic hearths from El Salt Unit x (Spain) obtained through archaeomagnetic and archaeostratigraphic analyses. The set of hearths covers at least around 200–240 years with 99% probability, having decade- and century-long intervals between the different hearths. Our results provide a quantitative estimate of the time framework for the human occupation events included in the studied sequence. This is a step forward in Palaeolithic archaeology, a discipline in which human behaviour is usually approached from a temporal scale typical of geological processes, whereas significant change may happen at the smaller scales of human generations. Here we reach a timescale close to a human lifespan.
... 10. The nature of the artifact inventory at Hiscock suggests a pattern of hunting-gathering that may be called collecting (sensu Binford, 1980), in which fluted point-making people who were not resident in the immediate area opportunistically entered the range centering around the Hiscock water source in order to kill or scavenge mastodons. I suggest this possibility based on an interesting comparison that Meltzer (1995) made of expected archeological signatures at a water-well site used by southern High Plains people during an early Holocene drought (Table 1, adapted from Meltzer, ibid.). ...
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The Hiscock mastodon bone assemblage, although created by multiple depositional events, does seem to provide coherent lines of evidence about late Pleistocene refugial die-offs caused probably by noncultural events such as seasonal food or water shortages. Mastodon behavior and the specific death processes affecting mastodons at Hiscock were very similar to those observed in studies of modern elephants. Fluted point makers opportunistically visited the locale to take advantage of stressed mastodons. INTRODUCTION In this paper I review studies of elephant behavior and taphonomy and then interpret the Hiscock Site's evidence supporting the hypothesized occurrence of mastodon (Mammut ameri-canum) mass deaths and human hunting (or scavenging) of stressed animals. The bone assemblage from the site's late Pleistocene levels is a mixture of bones from different generations of deposition, erosion, and reworking events, and therefore the process of building interpretations is not straightforward. To support my interpretations , first I summarize important facts about the Hiscock Site's late Pleistocene assemblage and stratigraphy; next I describe what is known about death processes affecting modern elephants, and I discuss how these observations provide lessons for understanding the Hiscock Site; finally, I interpret the Hiscock Site mastodon bone assemblage in light of the empirical data and interpretive analogues.
... After sporadically distributed evidence for most of the Pleistocene, a burst in symbolically mediated behaviors becomes apparent as of 50 ka, i.e., at roughly the time when Homo sapiens settled across the Old World. While those Paleolithic societies have traditionally been examined primarily through proxies such as stone toolkit production (Andrefsky, 2009;Cowan, 1999;Jones et al., 2003;Kelly, 1995) and spatial variation in hunting and gathering strategies (Binford, 1980;Delagnes and Rendu, 2011;O'Shea et al., 2013), it is becoming increasingly evident that past foragers conceptualized their world in ways that extended far beyond mere subsistence needs. Accumulating the various resources necessary for symbolic productions likely required long-term foresight and planning (Rigaud et al., 2014(Rigaud et al., , 2019. ...
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The emergence of symbolic behaviors remains a central debate in paleoanthropology. The notion that abstract drawings, engravings, and the use of pigments and personal ornaments are exclusive to Homo sapiens is challenged by evidence attesting to a gradual emergence of similar behaviors among pre- and coexisting hominin taxa. Rather than being the product of a sudden cognitive leap, early symbolic behaviors, predating the dispersal of modern human populations in Eurasia, suggest complex, non-linear cultural trajectories. Here, the regional trajectories of symbolic behaviors in Africa and Eurasia are presented with an emphasis on how recent methodological developments have impacted our understanding Pleistocene symbolic practices.
... However, we cannot exclude the use of different combinations of high mobility residential systems and logistic systems in the whole region, conditioned by the seasonal availability of resources (Hovers and Belfer-Cohen 2013;Malinsky-Buller et al. 2021). Further, it was suggested that hunter-gatherer societies in lower latitudes, such as the southern Levant Mediterranean zone, adopted settlement strategies that were more oriented toward residential mobility (Binford 1980(Binford , 1990Hovers 2009;Kelly 1983). The desert environments certainly presented more acute seasonal conditions and more patchy resource distributions, leading to higher mobility than in the Mediterranean environments. ...
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Nahal Dimona 24 is a Middle Paleolithic rock shelter, the first Middle Paleolithic sheltered site identified and excavated in the arid Negev region, southern Israel. The site exhibits at least one well preserved in situ archaeological horizon that was dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to MIS 3–4 (Late Middle Paleolithic). The lithic assemblage from Nahal Dimona 24 is dominated by the centripetal Levallois knapping mode, sharing technological characteristics with earlier Middle Paleolithic sites from the southern Levant such as Qafzeh Cave and Nesher Ramla Quarry. At the same time, Nahal Dimona 24 differs from other late Middle Paleolithic sites mainly in the paucity of unidirectional convergent Levallois strategy and triangular end-products. Within the southern Levant Middle Paleolithic, dominance of centripetal Levallois knapping mode has frequently been associated with MIS 5 chronology and is seen by some as a cultural marker of human demic diffusion into the Levant during this time span. Based on the lithic assemblage and OSL ages from Nahal Dimona 24, we suggest that within the technological variability of the Middle Paleolithic in the Levant, the dominance of a specific lithic production mode is not a sufficient cultural or chronological marker. We further propose that since long stratified sequences may be a result of many visits by different human groups, short-term occupations like Nahal Dimona 24 might shed new light on the use of the different modes of Levallois preparation in the late Middle Paleolithic since they may better reflect the use of specific technological traditions related to Levallois preparation.
... Lithic raw materials are a key element to study the settlement, subsistence, and mobility patterns of hunter-gatherer groups in different parts of the planet. This fact is a direct consequence of their excellent preservation, informative potential, and significance for people (Andrefsky, 2008;Binford, 1979Binford, , 1980Borie et al., 2017;Gould & Saggers, 1985;Kelly, 2012;Torrence, 1984; among many others). The TP constitutes a very good example of this because lithic resources constitute 99% of the recovered material. ...
Chapter
In arid and semi-arid environments of central Argentina, archaeological research agendas are implemented to understand the ways in which human groups explored and inhabited these spaces. In this chapter, we seek to address the use of space and mobility of hunter-gatherer populations that occupied a sector of the arid and semi-arid center of Argentina, known as the Travesía Puntana (Puntana Traverse). This name is probably motivated by the difficulties faced by the Hispanic-Creole populations to generate routes and enclaves in its interior, mainly due to the scarcity of surface water. However, such a European notion is contested by the archaeological evidence. The sites are located in dunes with little or no vegetation, which functioned as ecorefuges thanks to the presence of high-quality water in the nearby groundwater. It was recently proposed that the Travesía Puntana was part of an internodal space where human activities were infrequent, ephemeral, or non-existent in relation to neighboring regions. To investigate the role of this internode we carried out the technological study of 66 sets of surface lithic artifacts and the geochemical analysis of obsidian artifacts. These two lines of research are adequate to answer questions about social interaction and circulation of information or objects. The results show the input of rocks and tools with different vectors and distances from non-local sources. We believe that in these landscapes, the dunes favored dynamics of “population convergence,” as places of potential shared use.
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Ballester, B. 2017 Parentesco y política de los cazadores, pescadores y recolectores marinos del Desierto de Atacama según crónicas, documentos históricos y restos materiales. En Monumentos funerarios de la costa del desierto de Atacama. Los cazadores-recolectores marinos y sus intercambios (500 a.C.-700 d.C.), editado por F. Gallardo, B. Ballester y N. Fuenzalida, pp. 47-53. CIIR & SCHA, Santiago. ISBN: 978-956-393-029-0
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Resumo: O sítio RS-LN-62 está localizado em Osório, litoral norte do Rio Grande do Sul. É um sítio de ocupação lagunar característico do sudeste do Estado, é solitário e aparenta alguma permanência de um pequeno grupo de pessoas. O material arqueológico está representado por uma pequena quantidade de cerâmica da tradição Vieira, artefatos líticos e abundantes vestígios faunísticos. Sua ocupação data de 1.430 ± 40 anos AP (Beta-285995), período de maior expansão da tradição. O objetivo do trabalho é entender a implantação do assentamento e a movimentação dos moradores na exploração do ambiente local. A metodologia usada é a análise dos remanescentes faunísticos e a sua caracterização se torna mais definida quando o colocamos no contexto de povoamento da região das lagoas litorâneas do Rio Grande do Sul, comparando sua instalação com a de outros sítios representativos e bem estudados do mesmo sistema.Abstract: The matter of the paper is the archaeological site RS-LN-62, a fishing-collecting-hunting campsite of the Vieira ceramic tradition, on the complex of lagoons of Southeast Rio Grande do Sul. Localized in the proximity of a string of lagoons, on the northern coastal plain of the federal state, the site is a testimony of the tradition’s maximum expansion, and is its most northern site, founded when the region was uninhabited. It is a solitary encampment of a small group of persons. The aim of the paper is to understand the settlement and the movements of its dwellers exploring the local environment. The site’s characterization is more comprehensive when considered in the context of the coastal lagoons peopling and in the confrontation with different and better-studied sites of the same system. The poor representation of osseous and rocky artifacts moved the authors to compare especially the ever abundant and well-preserved food remnants.
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La ricostruzione delle dinamiche insediative adottate dai gruppi di cacciatori-raccoglitori paleolitici è oggetto di grande interesse presso gli studiosi di preistoria. Sin dagli studi pionieristici della New Archaeology, la ricerca ha identificato, nei moderni gruppi umani, differenti modalità di gestione del territorio in funzione del tipo di mobilità adottato. Inoltre, diversi correlati materiali (suscettibili di entrare a far parte del record archeologico) sono stati riconosciuti come proxy più o meno caratterizzanti di questi tipi di mobilità. Il concetto di mobilità, tuttavia, non può essere astratto e separato dallo specifico contesto in cui un certo gruppo umano effettua i propri spostamenti, né questo contesto geografico può essere compreso senza l’insieme di componenti che ne fanno un “paesaggio” (le quali non sono astoriche, ma cambiano nel tempo). È qui presentata la prima ricostruzione paleogeografica ad alta risoluzione della zona costiera intorno alla Grotta dei Santi (Monte Argentario – GR), relativa al periodo in cui tale sito era frequentato da gruppi neandertaliani. In un ambiente GIS, attraverso la combinazione di dati relativi a diversi dataset, è stata ricostruita l’orografia intorno al sito intorno a 45000 anni fa (quando il livello del mare era più basso di circa 74 m). La vasta pianura costiera che si estendeva di fronte alla grotta svolgeva un importante ruolo strategico per la vicinanza e il controllo di diverse risorse essenziali.
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Across cultures, mothers balance childcare with other labour. Hunter-gatherer mothers face a daily choice of whether to take infants on foraging trips or leave them with caregivers in the settlement, as well as deciding with whom to forage. Yet, it remains unclear how infant presence affects mothers’ mobility and food returns during group foraging. Using GPS, heart rate measurements, and food return data from 348 foraging trips by 22 BaYaka mothers in the Republic of the Congo, we found that mothers go on longer-duration foraging trips when they take infants along, compared to when they leave them behind. Despite this, infant presence does not affect mothers’ mobility, energy expenditure, or food returns. Mothers also go on longer-duration and longer-distance trips during group foraging, compared to foraging alone. However, they have decreased food returns in larger groups with more adults, possibly due to food competition. Nevertheless, BaYaka mothers maintain their energy expenditure and net food returns in general, regardless of infant presence or group dynamics, likely due to their individual foraging strategies and support from group members. Particularly, children in foraging groups increase mothers’ food returns, aligning with women’s reports of children assisting as caregivers. These findings provide insights into how BaYaka mothers accommodate childcare with subsistence activities during group foraging.
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As part of the Putting Life into Late Neolithic Houses project this study focuses on hide-working traces, as an argument in the discussion about the occupation duration in Vlaardingen group sites (3400-2500 BCE), located in the Rhine/Meuse basin. Our working hypothesis suggested that traces of initial stages of hide-working would be dominant in temporary extraction camps, while traces of later and more time-consuming hide-working activities would represent permanent settlements. For that matter experiments with fresh hide scraping and dehairing were conducted accordingly with results demonstrating that, under certain conditions, traces of dry hide scraping can be differentiated from those of dehairing. The archaeological material studied comes from the permanent coastal dune site of Den Haag Steynhof, and includes 37 flint scrapers from zone 5. Notably, matching traces were found between scrapers experimentally used for dehairing and three of the scrapers from the archaeological assemblage, making Steynhof the first Vlaardingen group site to have yielded such traces. Furthermore, our results showed that in Steynhof later stages of hide-working, as well as resharpening, were represented better than the initial stages of hide-working. Our hypothesis is further confirmed by the fact that this pattern can also be observed in other permanent settlements of the Vlaardingen group, while in the temporary extraction camp of Hekelingen III traces of the initial stages are dominant. Consequently, variation in hide-working traces could be used to infer information about the occupation duration of Vlaardingen group sites as well as other Neolithic sites in the region characterised by the 'broad spectrum economy'.
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The thesis investigates the Viking Age rattles and hooks employing experimental, experiential and ethnoarchaeological methods to examine whether they may have been used as strapping devices on sleighs. Replicas of rattles, rope and hooks were made by experienced craftsmen, based on extensive research of the archaeological record. The replicas were assessed in various settings and discussed with a knowledge network of craftsmen and members of the trading reenactment community travelling to Røros by horse every year, the “Forbonde and Lasskjører Union”. The thesis includes a collected typological overview of rattles and hooks, distribution maps and graphs. The underlying catalog can be accessed on Google Docs. Blacksmith templates will be made available through the Unimus catalog. This is the first time the strapping hypothesis has been tested in practice. The results were promising, but more research is needed.
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Reindeer are part of the faunal suite that dominated central Europe during the last glacial cycle. Their importance to Late Gravettian hunters as prey and a source of raw materials (hide, bone, antler) is well attested, however the context of Late Gravettian reindeer predation is lesser understood. This paper presents an investigation of human and reindeer predator-prey interactions at the Late Gravettian kill-butchery site of Lubná VI, Czech Republic. We reconstruct seasonal mobility (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, δ¹⁸O), diet (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N) and season of death (dental cementum) of up to nine reindeer prey, to inform on the strategic choices made by Late Gravettian hunters. Results indicate that most hunted reindeer lived year-round in the foothills of the Bohemian-Moravian highlands near where Lubná is located, at altitudes between ~ 200–450 m above present sea level, while a smaller number showed evidence of seasonal migration between this area and the open plains of the Elbe river corridor (Bohemian Cretaceous basin). No evidence for long distance migration of reindeer was detected, indicating that productive local environments were supporting reindeer herds within a single annual territory. Meanwhile, areas higher than ~ 450 m above present sea level were avoided entirely by all analysed individuals, consistent with these areas being topographic barriers to movement due to climate severity. We conclude that hunters visited Lubná as part of a logistically-organised subsistence strategy, deliberately targeting reindeer in late autumn when fat supplies, hides and antler are in prime condition knowing that they would reliably encounter their prey at this location.
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En el contexto de su residencia y de sus actividades logísticas, los grupos cazadores-recolectores utilizan campamentos de tareas múltiples y/o específicas donde realizan prácticas de subsistencia o trabajo artesanal. El objetivo de esta investigación fue analizar las estrategias tecnológicas, los procedimientos operativos y las técnicas de talla que utilizaron los grupos cazadores-recolectores en dos campamentos de actividades múltiples situados en una cantera-taller de la localidad Punta de la Peña (Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca). Para ello se efectuó un análisis tecno-morfológico y morfológico-funcional de conjuntos líticos completos recuperados en muestreos y excavaciones realizadas en los Campamentos 1 y 2 de Punta de la Peña Zona de Aprovisionamiento y Cantera. A partir de esta investigación se logró constatar diferentes criterios, procedimientos (talla bifacial, multifacial, etc.) y gestos técnicos para obtener formas-base a partir de núcleos. Asimismo, se registraron distintas operaciones de manufactura de artefactos formatizados, para las que se utilizaron técnicas de adelgazamiento bifacial (confección de bifaces y puntas de proyectil) y retoque marginal de filos y/o puntas (raspadores, raederas, etc.). La variabilidad de grupos tipológicos documentada demostró que las personas emplearon, a lo largo de milenios, diferentes conocimientos y modos de hacer para trabajar las rocas y generar productos.
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