Paleolithic (Other Keyword)
276-300 (499 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology has conducted excavations and research in the Principality of Monaco and surroundings for more than 100 years. In this contribution, we tackle the issue of the prehistoric Liguro-Provencal panorama, including some major comparative items and new results obtained through the...
More Than Just Pretty Things: Taphonomic and Behavioral Observations from the Unworked Ostrich Eggshell Assemblage Recovered from Grassridge Rockshelter, South Africa (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Current Zooarchaeology: New and Ongoing Approaches" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Grassridge Rockshelter demonstrates one of the largest assemblages of ostrich eggshell beads and preforms in southern Africa that dates to the mid-Holocene. The site, located in the interior of the Eastern Cape of South Africa, therefore reflects an intensive use of ostrich eggshell as a raw material source for the production of...
Morphometric Comparison of Early Hominin Butchery Evidence to Carnivore Modifications within a Bayesian Framework (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Bayesian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The emergence of stone tool use for butchery by early hominins is a contested topic due to the rarity of early tool evidence. In the absence of tools, the primary trace evidence for their use as butchery implements is bone surface modifications (BSM). However, current BSM recognition protocols are subjective. They can lead to conflicting identifications—for example,...
The Mountain Exile Hypothesis: How Humans Benefited from African High Altitude Ecosystems in Ethiopia (2018)
Although high-altitude mountain habitats are often regarded as unfavorable for human occupation; on the other hand tropical highlands in Africa are suggested as potential refugia during times of environmental stress. The presentation gives a review of new evidence of human occupation in the tropical highlands of Ethiopia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene period. A first correlation of the archaeological data with the climate record suggests a complex interplay between humans and their...
Moving toward a Nuanced View of Symbols and Symbolic Culture (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Harold Dibble had strong views about the cognitive abilities and symbolic behavior of premodern humans as he gleaned them from the archaeological record through engravings, ornaments, burials, etc. After publishing a number of papers touching on these issues, mostly in the 1990s, Dibble...
MSA Technology in Kerma, Sudan: The Development of Fieldwork Methods for Data Acquisition in Basalt Outcrop Settings (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the primary centers for understanding Anatomically Modern Human dispersal is the Nile Valley. In this paper, we present preliminary results from a survey and MSA lithic collection during a second field season to take place in the Kerma region, northern Sudan, during January 2023....
The Msikaba Red Sand Dunes: Middle Pleistocene Lithic Technological Variability in Pondoland, South Africa (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances and Debates in the Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Msikaba Red Sand Dunes along South Africa's Pondoland coast are a recently discovered open-air site complex that documents Middle Pleistocene lithic technological and morphological change. The deposit comprises ancient dune surfaces stacked over time with repeated sea-level highstand events. Initial excavations and...
Multi-isotopic Investigation of Late Pleistocene Human Diet from the Site of Taforalt, Morocco (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Paleolithic to Neolithic transition generally denotes a dietary change from hunting, gathering, and fishing to agriculture. However, due to the limited number of Pleistocene sites that have yielded preserved human remains, our knowledge of the diets of pre-agriculturist human populations is still limited. Previously published isotopic studies have...
A multi-proxy site formation analysis of a late Middle Pleistocene occupation in the Azraq wetlands of northeastern Jordan (2017)
The Azraq Marshes Archaeological and Paleoecological Project (AMAPP) aims to understand and evaluate the importance of the Azraq wetlands for Pleistocene hominin populations. Ongoing research since 2009 indicates that the northern wetland, the Druze Marsh, acted as a desert refugium for hominins throughout the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Excavations in the southern marsh—known as the Shishan Marsh—began in 2013 and uncovered a rich assemblage of bifaces, small tools, and flakes, along with...
Namib IV: Assessing Acheulean Technology in Relation to Depositional Processes in an Arid Landscape (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Namib IV is an Earlier and Middle Stone Age interdunal pan site in the Namib Desert’s Sand Sea. New investigations of the this hyper-arid landscape are piecing together the hominin occupations in relation to dry/wet climatic cycles. Hominins at Namib IV occupied the site multiple times...
Narabeb Pan: Exploring Middle Stone Age Archaeology of the Namib Sand Sea (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The vast Sand Sea region of the Namib desert in western Namibia has begun to yield evidence of long-term human occupations. In the past decades, several Early Stone Age (ESA) sites have been identified and described but the Middle Stone Age (MSA) human presence remains poorly understood. Here we describe in detail the newly documented site of Narabeb Pan,...
Narabeb: Examining the Middle Stone Age of the Namib Sand Sea (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Namib Sand Sea (NSS) in Namibia is known to preserve a wide variety of Pleistocene-age archaeological sites. However, few Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites in this region have been systematically investigated and basic questions around chronology and technological organization remain open. Here we examine Narabeb Pan, an open air MSA surface site deep in...
Neanderthal Activities in Caves: Was There a Ritual Dimension? (2018)
We know that Neanderthals used the mouths of caves for habitation, and on occasion buried their dead in such contexts. The behavioural repertoire was recently extended to include the assembly of a circle of stones deep in a cave in France. But can any evidence be taken to imply specifically 'ritual' behaviour? I build here on ongoing collaborative research on the emergence of art, and on wider Neanderthal activities in caves and their environs to address the question as to whether 'ritual' use...
Neanderthal and carnivore interplay at Escoural Cave: preliminary evidence from the archaeofaunal and spatial analysis of two new test pits (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Escoural Cave (Portugal) represents a key window into Neanderthal-carnivore interactions during the Middle Paleolithic. Excavations in the 60’s and 90’s unearthed abundant archaeological findings, including Neolithic burial grounds, cave art and Upper and Middle Paleolithic remains. The Middle Paleolithic layers are characterized by abundant quartz...
Neanderthal Communities of Care: How & Why Did Non-modern Hominins Care for Victims of Interpersonal Violence? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Systems of Care in Times of Violence" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Within the constantly evolving field of human origins, researchers are looking for new methods and theories to infer behavior from the paleoanthropological record. Here, Shanidar 3, a Neanderthal specimen with evidence of partially healed sharp force trauma, is examined using the Bioarchaeology of Care approach. Based on a comparison with...
A Neanderthal Hunting Sanctuary in the Interior of the Iberian Peninsula (Pinilla de Valle, Madrid, España) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Embodied Essence: Anthropological, Historical, and Archaeological Perspectives on the Use of Body Parts and Bodily Substances in Religious Beliefs and Practices" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Des-Cubierta Cave, in the Central System Range of the Iberian Peninsula, 35 crania of large herbivores (Bison priscus, Bos primigenius, Cervus elaphus, and Stephanorhinus hemitoechus) were recovered in an area where the...
Neanderthals and Early Modern Humans in Western Iberia: Diet and Ecology at Lapa do Picareiro (Central Portugal) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Research on the Paleolithic in the Mediterranean Region" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In Iberia, potentially the last place where Neanderthals survived, the demographic breakdown of small, loosely connected populations seems to have been a significant driver for their demise. Human responses to the climatic fluctuations of the Late Pleistocene, particularly Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3, could be an...
Neanderthals in Porto Selvaggio, Southern Italy (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Peninsular Southern Europe Refugia during the Middle Paleolithic" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Porto Selvaggio of southern Italy is where the Uluzzian culture was first identified and documented, providing key insights into the transition of the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic. The area has also yielded evidence of continuous Neanderthal occupations spanning MIS 5-3. Situated in the Natural Park of Porto Selvaggio,...
Neanderthals, Denisovans and Modern Humans: Unravelling the Chronology of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic of Eurasia (2018)
For more than half a century Paleolithic archaeologists have grappled with radiocarbon-based chronologies that are often contradictory and imprecise. Several key debates in the Palaeolithic have their roots in basic issues related to chronology; did the Aurignacian predate the Chatelperronian in some regions of Europe? When did Neanderthals disappear? How long did anatomically modern humans (AMH) and Neanderthals overlap, and what implications did this have for interaction, acculturation or...
Neotaphonomy of a "Common Amenity" on the Grasslands of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Identifying the variables that influence the deposition, preservation, and spatial distribution of faunal material across landscapes remains a key goal of taphonomic research. Here, we report on the results of pedestrian surveys for faunal material around a seasonal waterhole surrounded by woodland within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). All visible...
Network Analysis of Magdalenian (Upper Paleolithic) Perforated Disks (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Applications of Network Analysis" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Magdalenian (ca. 20,000 to 14,000 cal BP) of western and central Europe witnessed both a rapid expansion of Upper Paleolithic human populations after the Last Glacial Maximum and the creation and circulation of an unprecedented abundance and diversity of portable decorated items. The materials, design details, and chrono-spatial...
A Neurobiological Explanation for Spheroids as Embodied Cognition (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Spheroids (i.e., intentionally shaped or gathered round rocks) first appeared about 1.8 million years ago. Sahnouni et al. (1997) proposed that they were by-products from core reduction knapping. Walker (2008) concluded they served as evidence of modern-like behavior in a belief system. Wilson et al. (2016) viewed them as throwing-affordances for killing...
New Archaeological Data from “Ortvala Cave” (Multilayer Cave Complex from Georgia, South Caucasus) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. “Ortvala Cave” (Double Eye) is located in the southern part of Georgia (South Caucasus), a distance of 98 km from present day Georgian-Armenian border, and represents a multilayer cave complex, combining deposits of Mousterian culture (Lower Paleolithic), as well as the deposits of Chalcholithic, Early Bronze, and medieval periods. Archaeological and...
New Caches from Area B at the Cooper’s Ferry Site, Idaho, Reveal Key Technological Insights and Extend the Age of Stemmed Points in the Americas (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Late Pleistocene Stemmed Points across North America: Continental Questions and Regional Concerns" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Continued analysis of materials excavated from Area B at the Cooper’s Ferry site has clarified details about a well dated artifact assemblage containing 11 stemmed projectile points. New radiocarbon analyses show that these stemmed points are significantly older than classic Clovis fluted...
New Discoveries on Late Upper Paleolithic (Final Epigravettian) Funerary Behavior at Arene Candide (Finale Ligure, Italy) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Epigravettian "necropolis" at Arene Candide Cave (Finale Ligure), excavated in the 1940s, yielded a large Late Upper Paleolithic skeletal series consisting of 10 primary burials and six clusters of bones in secondary deposition, accumulated during two distinct phases separated by a few centuries (AMS dates spanning...