The persistence of ancient settlements and urban sustainability.

We propose a dedicated research effort on the determinants of settlement persistence in the ancient world, with the potential to significantly advance the scientific understanding of urban sustainability today. Settlements (cities, towns, villages) are locations with two key attributes: They frame human interactions and activities in space, and they are where people dwell or live. Sustainability, in this case, focuses on the capacity of structures and functions of a settlement system (geography, demography, institutions) to provide for continuity of safe habitation. The 7,000-y-old experience of urbanism, as revealed by archaeology and history, includes many instances of settlements and settlement systems enduring, adapting to, or generating environmental, institutional, and technological changes. The field of urban sustainability lacks a firm scientific foundation for understanding the long durée, relying instead on narratives of collapse informed by limited case studies. We argue for the development of a new interdisciplinary research effort to establish scientific understanding of settlement and settlement system persistence. Such an effort would build upon the many fields that study human settlements to develop new theories and databases from the extensive documentation of ancient and premodern urban systems. A scientific foundation will generate novel insights to advance the field of urban sustainability.

Central European Early Bronze Age chronology revisited: A Bayesian examination of large-scale radiocarbon dating.

In archaeological research, changes in material culture and the evolution of styles are taken as major indicators for socio-cultural transformation. They form the basis for typo-chronological classification and the establishment of phases and periods. Central European Bronze Age material culture from burials reveals changes during the Bronze Age and represents a perfect case study for analyzing phenomena of cultural change and the adoption of innovation in the societies of prehistoric Europe. Our study focuses on the large-scale change in material culture which took place in the second millennium BC and the emergence at the same period of new burial rites: the shift from inhumation burials in flat graves to complex mounds and simple cremation burials. Paul Reinecke was the first to divide the European Bronze Age (EBA) into two phases, Bz A1 and A2. The shift from the first to the second phase has so far been ascribed to technical advances. Our study adopted an innovative approach to quantifying this phenomenon. Through regressive reciprocal averaging and Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon-dated grave contexts located in Switzerland and southern Germany, we modelled chronological changes in the material culture and changes in burial rites in these regions in a probabilistic way. We used kernel density models to summarize radiocarbon dates, with the aim of visualizing cultural changes in the third and second millennium BC. In 2015, Stockhammer et al. cast doubt on the chronological sequence of the Reinecke phases of the EBA on the basis of newly collected radiocarbon dates from southern Germany. Our intervention is a direct response to the results of that study. We fully agree with Stockhammer's et al. dating of the start of EBA, but propose a markedly different dating of the EBA/MBA transition. Our modelling of radiocarbon data demonstrates a statistically significant typological sequence of phases Bz A1, Bz A2 and Bz B and disproves their postulated chronological overlap. The linking of the archaeological relative-chronological system with absolute dates is of major importance to understanding the temporal dimension of the EBA phases.

The prehistoric roots of Chinese cuisines: Mapping staple food systems of China, 6000 BC-220 AD.

We conducted a meta-analysis of published carbon and nitrogen isotope data from archaeological human skeletal remains (n = 2448) from 128 sites cross China in order to investigate broad spatial and temporal patterns in the formation of staple cuisines. Between 6000-5000 cal BC we found evidence for an already distinct north versus south divide in the use of main crop staples (namely millet vs. a broad spectrum of C3 plant based diet including rice) that became more pronounced between 5000-2000 cal BC. We infer that this pattern can be understood as a difference in the spectrum of subsistence activities employed in the Loess Plateau and the Yangtze-Huai regions, which can be partly explained by differences in environmental conditions. We argue that regional differentiation in dietary tradition are not driven by differences in the conventional "stages" of shifting modes of subsistence (hunting-foraging-pastoralism-farming), but rather by myriad subsistence choices that combined and discarded modes in a number of innovative ways over thousands of years. The introduction of wheat and barley from southwestern Asia after 2000 cal BC resulted in the development of an additional east to west gradient in the degree of incorporation of the different staple products into human diets. Wheat and barley were rapidly adopted as staple foods in the Continental Interior contra the very gradual pace of adoption of these western crops in the Loess Plateau. While environmental and social factors likely contributed to their slow adoption, we explored local cooking practice as a third explanation; wheat and barley may have been more readily folded into grinding-and-baking cooking traditions than into steaming-and-boiling traditions. Changes in these culinary practices may have begun in the female sector of society.

Radiocarbon dating and microarchaeology untangle the history of Jerusalem's Temple Mount: A view from Wilson's Arch.

Radiocarbon dating is rarely applied in Classical and Post-Classical periods in the Eastern Mediterranean, as it is not considered precise enough to solve specific chronological questions, often causing the attribution of historic monuments to be based on circumstantial evidence. This research, applied in Jerusalem, presents a novel approach to solve this problem. Integrating fieldwork, stratigraphy, and microarchaeology analyses with intense radiocarbon dating of charred remains in building materials beneath Wilson's Arch, we absolutely dated monumental structures to very narrow windows of time-even to specific rulers. Wilson's Arch was initiated by Herod the Great and enlarged during the Roman Procurators, such as Pontius Pilatus, in a range of 70 years, rather than 700 years, as previously discussed by scholars. The theater-like structure is dated to the days of Emperor Hadrian and left unfinished before 132-136 AD. Through this approach, it is possible to solve archaeological riddles in intensely urban environments in the historical periods.

Commingled crypts: Comparative health among Byzantine monastics in the Levant.

OBJECTIVES: Early Byzantine (A.D. 330-842) monastic rules stipulated that entrants relinquished familial connections, personal belongings and secular relationships to become part of the ascetic collective that continued in death, resulting in bioarchaeological marginalization, as was the case of the monastics excavated from the Chapel of Robebus at Mount Nebo, Jordan (ca. A.D. 491-640). It was hypothesized that compared to contemporary monastic groups, the Mount Nebo monastics experienced poorer health and gravitated to Mount Nebo, owing to its association with the Prophet Moses and proximity to the Dead Sea, Livias baths and Jordan River, all associated with curative benefits, especially for those suffering from leprosy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The commingled remains of 73 adult males from Mount Nebo and the articulated skeletons (n = 27) from the Sanctuary of Agios Lot at Deir 'Ain 'Abata (Jordan) were assessed for paleopathology, then compared with a contemporary commingled group from the Monastery of Saint Euthymius at Khan-el-Ahmar (Judean Desert) (n = 117). RESULTS: No skeletal evidence of leprosy was observed among the groups. Most Mount Nebo individuals did not reach an older age, yet injuries, severe osteoarthritis, lower leg osteoperiostitis and antemortem tooth loss were common. The paleopathological profile was similar at Deir 'Ain 'Abata, but paleopathology was negligible at Khan-el-Ahmar. CONCLUSIONS: The similar paleopathological profiles of the Jordanian monastic groups suggest that the proximity to the Dead Sea may have attracted monastics to both sites, in addition to spirituality, but leprosy was not a factor based on the skeletal evidence.

ZooArchNet: Connecting zooarchaeological specimens to the biodiversity and archaeology data networks.

Interdisciplinary collaborations and data sharing are essential to addressing the long history of human-environmental interactions underlying the modern biodiversity crisis. Such collaborations are increasingly facilitated by, and dependent upon, sharing open access data from a variety of disciplinary communities and data sources, including those within biology, paleontology, and archaeology. Significant advances in biodiversity open data sharing have focused on neontological and paleontological specimen records, making available over a billion records through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. But to date, less effort has been placed on the integration of important archaeological sources of biodiversity, such as zooarchaeological specimens. Zooarchaeological specimens are rich with both biological and cultural heritage data documenting nearly all phases of human interaction with animals and the surrounding environment through time, filling a critical gap between paleontological and neontological sources of data within biodiversity networks. Here we describe technical advances for mobilizing zooarchaeological specimen-specific biological and cultural data. In particular, we demonstrate adaptations in the workflow used by biodiversity publisher VertNet to mobilize Darwin Core formatted zooarchaeological data to the GBIF network. We also show how a linked open data approach can be used to connect existing biodiversity publishing mechanisms with archaeoinformatics publishing mechanisms through collaboration with the Open Context platform. Examples of ZooArchNet published datasets are used to show the efficacy of creating this critically needed bridge between biological and archaeological sources of open access data. These technical advances and efforts to support data publication are placed in the larger context of ZooarchNet, a new project meant to build community around new approaches to interconnect zoorchaeological data and knowledge across disciplines.

Spreading Waves in a Farmers and Hunter-Gatherers Model of the Neolithic Transition in Europe.

The Neolithic transition began the spread of early agriculture throughout Europe through interactions between farmers and hunter-gatherers about 10,000 years ago. Archeological evidence produced by radiocarbon dating indicates that the expanding velocity of farming is roughly constant all over Europe. Theoretical understanding of such evidence has been performed from mathematical modeling viewpoint. However, the expanding velocity determined by existing modeling approaches is faster than the observed velocity. For understanding this difference, we propose a three-component reaction-diffusion system which consists of two different types of farmers (sedentary and migratory) and hunter-gatherers from the viewpoint of the influence of farming technology. Our purpose is to study the relation between the expanding velocity of farmers and the farming technology parameter (say, [Formula: see text]). In this paper, we mainly focus on the one-dimensional traveling wave solution with minimal velocity and show that the minimal velocity decreases, as [Formula: see text] increases. This can be compatible with the observed velocity when farming technology is developed. Our results suggest that the reason for the slowdown of the Neolithic transition might be related to the increase in the development of farming technology.

Exceptionally high levels of lead pollution in the Balkans from the Early Bronze Age to the Industrial Revolution.

The Balkans are considered the birthplace of mineral resource exploitation and metalworking in Europe. However, since knowledge of the timing and extent of metallurgy in southeastern Europe is largely constrained by discontinuous archaeological findings, the long-term environmental impact of past mineral resource exploitation is not fully understood. Here, we present a high-resolution and continuous geochemical record from a peat bog in western Serbia, providing a clear indication of the extent and magnitude of environmental pollution in this region, and a context in which to place archaeological findings. We observe initial evidence of anthropogenic lead (Pb) pollution during the earliest part of the Bronze Age [∼3,600 years before Common Era (BCE)], the earliest such evidence documented in European environmental records. A steady, almost linear increase in Pb concentration after 600 BCE, until ∼1,600 CE is observed, documenting the development in both sophistication and extent of southeastern European metallurgical activity throughout Antiquity and the medieval period. This provides an alternative view on the history of mineral exploitation in Europe, with metal-related pollution not ceasing at the fall of the western Roman Empire, as was the case in western Europe. Further comparison with other Pb pollution records indicates the amount of Pb deposited in the Balkans during the medieval period was, if not greater, at least similar to records located close to western European mining regions, suggestive of the key role the Balkans have played in mineral resource exploitation in Europe over the last 5,600 years.

Chemical profiling of ancient hearths reveals recurrent salmon use in Ice Age Beringia.

Current approaches to reconstruct subsistence and dietary trends in ancient hunter-gatherer societies include stable isotope analyses, but these have focused on human remains, cooking pottery, and food residues, which are relatively rare in the archaeological record. In contrast, short-term hearths are more ubiquitous worldwide, and these features can provide valuable evidence for ancient subsistence practices, particularly when faunal remains are not preserved. To test the suitability of hearths for this purpose, we conducted multiple chemical analyses: stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of total organic matter (expressed as δ(13)C and δ(15)N values) and compound-specific carbon isotope analyses of individual fatty acids (δ(13)C16:0 and δ(13)C18:0) from 17 well-preserved hearths present in three occupations dating between ∼13,200-11,500 calibrated years B.P. at the Upward Sun River (USR) site in central Alaska. We combined δ(15)N and δ(13)CFA data in a Bayesian mixing model (stable isotope analysis in R) with concentration dependency to each hearth. Our model values were tested against faunal indices, indicating a strong positive relationship between marine proportional contributions to each hearth and salmon abundance. Results of the models show substantial anadromous salmon use in multiple USR components, indicating recurrent use of the site for salmon processing during the terminal Pleistocene. Our results demonstrate that salmonid and freshwater resources were more important for late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers than previously thought and highlight the potential of chemical profiling of hearth organic residues for providing greater geographic and temporal insights into resource use by prepottery societies.

Structure and growth of the leeward Kohala field system: an analysis with directed graphs.

This study illustrates how the theory of directed graphs can be used to investigate the structure and growth of the leeward Kohala field system, a traditional Hawaiian archaeological site that presents an unparalleled opportunity to investigate relative chronology. The relative chronological relationships of agricultural walls and trails in two detailed study areas are represented as directed graphs and then investigated using graph theoretic concepts including cycle, level, and connectedness. The structural properties of the directed graphs reveal structure in the field system at several spatial scales. A process of deduction yields a history of construction in each detailed study area that is different than the history produced by an earlier investigation. These results indicate that it is now possible to study the structure and growth of the entire field system remnant using computer software implementations of graph theoretic concepts applied to observations of agricultural wall and trail intersections made on aerial imagery and/or during fieldwork. A relative chronology of field system development with a resolution of one generation is a possible result.

Linguistic evidence supports date for Homeric epics.

The Homeric epics are among the greatest masterpieces of literature, but when they were produced is not known with certainty. Here we apply evolutionary-linguistic phylogenetic statistical methods to differences in Homeric, Modern Greek and ancient Hittite vocabulary items to estimate a date of approximately 710-760 BCE for these great works. Our analysis compared a common set of vocabulary items among the three pairs of languages, recording for each item whether the words in the two languages were cognate - derived from a shared ancestral word - or not. We then used a likelihood-based Markov chain Monte Carlo procedure to estimate the most probable times in years separating these languages given the percentage of words they shared, combined with knowledge of the rates at which different words change. Our date for the epics is in close agreement with historians' and classicists' beliefs derived from historical and archaeological sources.

Estimating the richness of a population when the maximum number of classes is fixed: a nonparametric solution to an archaeological problem.

BACKGROUND: Estimating assemblage species or class richness from samples remains a challenging, but essential, goal. Though a variety of statistical tools for estimating species or class richness have been developed, they are all singly-bounded: assuming only a lower bound of species or classes. Nevertheless there are numerous situations, particularly in the cultural realm, where the maximum number of classes is fixed. For this reason, a new method is needed to estimate richness when both upper and lower bounds are known. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we introduce a new method for estimating class richness: doubly-bounded confidence intervals (both lower and upper bounds are known). We specifically illustrate our new method using the Chao1 estimator, rarefaction, and extrapolation, although any estimator of asymptotic richness can be used in our method. Using a case study of Clovis stone tools from the North American Lower Great Lakes region, we demonstrate that singly-bounded richness estimators can yield confidence intervals with upper bound estimates larger than the possible maximum number of classes, while our new method provides estimates that make empirical sense. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Application of the new method for constructing doubly-bound richness estimates of Clovis stone tools permitted conclusions to be drawn that were not otherwise possible with singly-bounded richness estimates, namely, that Lower Great Lakes Clovis Paleoindians utilized a settlement pattern that was probably more logistical in nature than residential. However, our new method is not limited to archaeological applications. It can be applied to any set of data for which there is a fixed maximum number of classes, whether that be site occupancy models, commercial products (e.g. athletic shoes), or census information (e.g. nationality, religion, age, race).

A critical review of the protracted domestication model for Near-Eastern founder crops: linear regression, long-distance gene flow, archaeological, and archaeobotanical evidence.

The recent review by Fuller et al. (2012a) in this journal is part of a series of papers maintaining that plant domestication in the Near East was a slow process lasting circa 4000 years and occurring independently in different locations across the Fertile Crescent. Their protracted domestication scenario is based entirely on linear regression derived from the percentage of domesticated plant remains at specific archaeological sites and the age of these sites themselves. This paper discusses why estimates like haldanes and darwins cannot be applied to the seven founder crops in the Near East (einkorn and emmer wheat, barley, peas, chickpeas, lentils, and bitter vetch). All of these crops are self-fertilizing plants and for this reason they do not fulfil the requirements for performing calculations of this kind. In addition, the percentage of domesticates at any site may be the result of factors other than those that affect the selection for domesticates growing in the surrounding area. These factors are unlikely to have been similar across prehistoric sites of habitation, societies, and millennia. The conclusion here is that single crop analyses are necessary rather than general reviews drawing on regression analyses based on erroneous assumptions. The fact that all seven of these founder crops are self-fertilizers should be incorporated into a comprehensive domestication scenario for the Near East, as self-fertilization naturally isolates domesticates from their wild progenitors.

Estimations of population density for selected periods between the Neolithic and AD 1800.

Abstract We describe a combination of methods applied to obtain reliable estimations of population density using archaeological data. The combination is based on a hierarchical model of scale levels. The necessary data and methods used to obtain the results are chosen so as to define transfer functions from one scale level to another. We apply our method to data sets from western Germany that cover early Neolithic, Iron Age, Roman, and Merovingian times as well as historical data from AD 1800. Error margins and natural and historical variability are discussed. Our results for nonstate societies are always lower than conventional estimations compiled from the literature, and we discuss the reasons for this finding. At the end, we compare the calculated local and global population densities with other estimations from different parts of the world.

Frecuencia del hueso interparietal o incaico en cráneos atácamenos (Lican antai) prehispánicos del norte de Chile / Frequency of interparietal bone or inca bone in pre-hispanic Atacamenos (Lican Antai) skulls of the north of Chile

El hueso interparietal se considera un hueso intercalar originado de centros independientes de osificación y rodeado por sus propias suturas. Se encontró en fósiles homínidos y humanos tempranos. Se cree que el occipucio sufre transformaciones por mutaciones al iniciarse la evolución humana reforzando esta teoría las variaciones suturales que presenta el occipital. Sería un rasgo genéticamente dominante, propuesta ratificada por estudios experimentales. Se observa con variadas formas según la fusión de los núcleos de osificación, por lo que todos los huesos ubicados en la zona de la escama del occipital no se pueden clasificar como suturales o wormianos y deben considerarse como parte del hueso interparietal. Tratando de confirmar la alta frecuencia obtenida en investigaciones anteriores realizadas en cráneos de individuos originarios del norte de Chile, se analizaron 83 cráneos de atacamenos prehispánicos de ambos sexos, seleccionados al azar entre 293 individuos exhumados del cementerio Coyo-Oriente, datados entre 300-1200 D.C período post-Tiwanaku y que forman parte del Museo R.P. Gustavo Le Paige en San Pedro de Atacama, dependiente del Instituto de Investigaciones Arqueológicas de la Universidad Católica del Norte, que fueron fotografiados en todas sus normas anatómicas y que se midieron paras obtener el índice craneal o cefálico. El hueso interparietal está presente en 23 de 83 cráneos, con una frecuencia de 27,71 por ciento, sin diferencias estadísticas significativas al 95 por ciento con investigaciones realizadas en cráneos de origen étnico similar y en otras etnias que presentan alta frecuencia de hueso interparietal. Por el contrario, se encontraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas al 95 por ciento con frecuencias determinadas en cráneos europeos caucásicos y euroasiáticos. Los autores integraron las tablas clasificatorias de Kadanoff y Hanihara-Ishida, para obtener una tabla modificada que permitiera clasificar ...

The interparietal bone is considered an intercalary bone originated by independent ossification centers and surrounded by its own sutures. It is found in early hominids and human fossils. It is believed that the occipital bone undergoes transformations by mutations at the beginning of human evolution. Reinforcing this theory are the suture variations that presents the occipital bone. It would be a dominant genetic characteristic, proposal ratified by experimental studies. It is observed with varied forms according to the fusion of the ossification nuclei; reason why all the bones located in the zone of the occipital flake cannot be classified as sutures or wormians and must be considered part of the interparietal bone. Trying to confirm the high frequency obtained in previous investigations realized in skulls of original individuals of the north of Chile, we analyzed 83 skulls of pre-Hispanic atácamenos (lican antai) of both sexes, selected at random between 293 individuals of the Coyo-Orient cementery, dated between 300-1200 A.C, post-Tiwanaku period and these remains are part of R.P Gustavo Le Paige's Museum in San Pedro de Atacama, which is part of the Institute of Archaeological Investigations of the North Catholic University. The remains were photographed in all anatomical norms and that were measured to obtain the cranial or cephalic Index. The interparietal bone is present in 23 of 83 skulls, with a frequency of 27.71 percent, without significant statistical differences to 95 percent with investigations realized in skulls of similar ethnic origin and other ethnic groups who present high frequency of interparietal bone. On the contrary, statistically significant differences to 95 percent were found with frequencies determined in caucasian and euroasiatics european skulls. The authors integrated the classificatory tables of Kadanoff and Hanihara-Ishida, to obtain a modified table that allowed to classify all the found variations ...

The view from the Lincoln Cave: mid- to late Pleistocene fossil deposits from Sterkfontein hominid site, South Africa.

The Lincoln-Fault cave system lies adjacent to the Sterkfontein Cave system in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, Gauteng Province, South Africa. Lincoln Cave contains a mid- to late Pleistocene fossiliferous deposit which has been dated using uranium series methods to between 252,600+/-35,600 and 115,300+/-7,700 years old. Although speleologists presumed that there was no connection between the Lincoln Cave and Sterkfontein Cave systems, results of excavations conducted in 1997 suggest a link between the deposits. Detailed comparisons of artifacts, fauna, hominid material, and a statistical correspondence analysis (CA) of the macromammalian fauna in the deposits strongly support this hypothesis. The recovery of Early Acheulean-type artifacts from the Lincoln Cave suggests that older artifacts eroded out of Sterkfontein Member 5 West and were redeposited into the younger Lincoln Cave deposits. The close physical proximity of these deposits, and the nature of the material recovered from them, indicates that the material was probably redeposited via a link between the two cave systems. Although faunal mixing is present, it is possible to say that large carnivorans become more scarce at Sterkfontein during the mid- to late Pleistocene, while small canids and felids appear to become more abundant, indicating that large and small carnivorans probably varied their use of the site through time. This may also reflect an increasing presence of humans in the Sterkfontein area during the mid- to late Pleistocene.

Research trends in human osteology: a content analysis of papers published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

This paper explores recent research trends in human osteology, based on articles published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology (AJPA) during two 5-year intervals: 1980--1984 and 1996--2000. Topical "visibility" is measured in terms of article counts; "impact" is estimated through citation indices. Our results indicate that human osteologists continue to publish a range of methodological, analytical, and descriptive research papers that address a broad array of subjects. Analytical articles are cited more frequently than descriptive articles and thus have higher impact, reflecting the discipline's continued commitment to problem-oriented research. Differences in publication patterns exist between scholars during early and later stages of their careers. Articles published by students and Ph.D.s within 2 years of their doctoral degree are more frequently descriptive than analytical, when compared to people with longer career histories. Topics such as pathology, forensic anthropology, and biodistance modeling remain highly visible, while articles on the dentition have waned. An increase in functional research directed toward the postcranial skeleton is also reflected in our data. While continued visibility for morphological investigations is apparent, the impact of recently developed applications in bone chemistry and molecular anthropology is amply documented in our data, particularly during the more recent survey years.

Estimating the minimum number of skeletal elements (MNE) in zooarchaeology: a review and a new image-analysis GIS approach.

Most zooarchaeologists employ some type of derived measure of skeletal element abundance in their analyses of faunal data. The minimum number of individuals (MNI) and the minimum number of animal units (MAU) are two of the most popular derived measurements, and each is based on a prior estimate of the minimum number of elements (MNE). Thus, the estimate of MNE from fragmented faunal fragments is the essential foundation for all inferences emanating from MNI and MAU estimates of skeletal element abundance. Estimating the MNE represented by a sample of faunal fragments is a complicated procedure that involves various assumptions, possible mathematical manipulations, and subjectivity. Unfortunately, the reasoning and methods underlying this procedure are unstandardized in zooarchaeology, and even worse, rarely made explicit. We review the scarce literature on this topic and identify two different approaches: the fraction summation approach and the overlap approach. We identify strengths and weaknesses in both approaches. We then present a new method that is based on using image-analysis GIS software to count overlapping fragments that have been converted to pixel images. This method maintains the strengths of the other methods while overcoming most of their weaknesses. It promises numerous powerful analytical capabilities that go far beyond the routines available in spreadsheets and databases. It also offers nearly boundless flexibility in database recoding and extremely complete information storage. Perhaps its greatest strength is that it is based on very intuitive reasoning.