Paleolithic (Other Keyword)
276-300 (409 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Culturing the Body: Prehistoric Perspectives on Identity and Sociality" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition is a watershed. By the later Upper Paleolithic, all continents were occupied, all the world’s ecosystems were exploited, and all aspects of ethnographically observed hunter-gatherer culture the archaeological record can preserve are indeed found. Prior to about 100,000 years...
Photogrammetry, Excavation Surfaces, and Sediment Packages: Measuring Site Occupational Intensity at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In order to understand changes in the way hominins have used a site through time, it is critical to understand temporal changes in artifact density (i.e., a quantitative measure of the number of artifacts relative to the amount of supporting sediment in a given stratigraphic...
Photogrammetry, Spatial Patterning, and Site Formation of the Hominin-Bearing Layers at the Lower Paleolithic Site of Dmanisi, Georgia (2018)
The Lower Paleolithic site of Dmanisi, Georgia, is well known for its rich archaeological and paleontological deposits, which include bones from at least five individuals attributed to Homo erectus. Taphonomic analyses show that carnivores contributed greatly to the accumulation of faunal material, while contributions by hominins were present, but uncommon. Recent excavations in the hominin-bearing layers of Block 2 at Dmanisi have revealed a complex underlying basalt formation that likely...
Phytolith Analysis and Micromorphology of Neandertal Combustion Features at Roc de Marsal, SW France (2015)
Phytolith analysis can be used to investigate the relationship between hominins, plants, and environmental change. It has proven useful in understanding specific hominin behaviors (e.g., use of fire and fuel composition), and diachronic changes in plant species for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The integration of phytolith analysis with soil micromorphology allows for an identification of the ways phytoliths were deposited in archaeological sites, and addresses both site formation...
Phytolith Analysis of Experimental Fires: Insights into the Prehistory of Fire (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Cooking Hypothesis suggests the morphological changes in the Homo lineage, including larger brains, were due to incorporating controlled combustion to cook food. Most archaeological evidence for fire comes from cave sites, which are less likely to be exposed to post-depositional processes (e.g. wind and water) that can destroy combustion evidence. Yet the...
Phytolith Assemblages as a Proxy for Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction in the Southern Caucasus (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Pleistocene Landscapes and Hominin Behavior in the Armenian Highlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Southern Caucasus is a biodiversity hotspot, encompassing a spectrum of environments from temperate forests to semidesert steppes. Having seen hominin occupation since 1.8 Ma, the region offers a unique opportunity to study the expansion and evolution of the genus Homo, as well as their interaction with the local...
Phytolithic Analysis of Site FxJj 20 AB (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Controlled fire could have significantly impacted hominin evolution, providing an adaptive release resulting in reduced teeth and gut size, and larger brains. Evidence of hominin controlled fire is sparse in the early Pleistocene archaeological record. These sites are usually in open-air contexts where taphonomic factors can obscure the identification of...
Pleistocene–Holocene Transition at Arene Candide Cave, Liguria (Italy): A Geoarchaeological Approach (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of Liguria: Recent Research and Insights" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Arene Candide is a cave located along the coast of Liguria and repeatedly excavated for scientific studies since the second half of the nineteenth century. The sedimentary sequence has been accumulated within the cavity from Pleistocene to Holocene, conferring to this site an essential role for the understanding of the...
Post-depositional Processes and Their Impact of Inferences of Behavior at FxJj 34 (Koobi Fora Formation, Northern Kenya) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. It is often argued that surface assemblages provide insight into human behaviors at a regional scale. Measures of artifact use life and reduction intensity at this broad scale are often used to characterize the structure of stone tool use across space. However, once re-exposed, artifacts are subject to a variety of processes that potentially bias the...
The Potential of Zn Isotope Ratios (δ66Zn) to Track Different Types of Plant Consumption (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There is currently a growing body of evidence that Zn isotope ratios (δ66Zn) are a useful tool to assess the trophic level of past humans and animals from archaeological sites. However, the isotopic variability which has been previously measured in herbivorous species remains unexplained. In this contribution, we explore and attempt to explain the...
A Preliminary Overview of the Lithic Raw Material Outcrops Southeast of Crvena Stijena (Area of Vilusi–Grahovo–Boka Kotorska), Montenegro (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Crvena Stijena rockshelter is located on the Banjani Karst Plateau in westernmost Montenegro. Excavations at one of the longest human occupation sequences in the Balkans yielded 20 Middle Paleolithic layers containing numerous artifacts and faunal remains. Recent...
A Preliminary Report of the 2021 Excavation at the Taiziling Locality in Jizhou County, Tianjin City (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Taiziling locality, buried in the second terrace near the Prince Mausoleum of the Qing Dynasty is located in the Sungezhuang village, Jizhou County, Tianjin City, which was discovered in 2005 and excavated in October 2021, covering an area of 50m2. In this excavation, over 100 artifacts were unearthed. The lithic assemblage includes cores, flakes,...
A Probabilistic Approach to Study Diachronic Patterns in Human Behavior: A Case Study from the Paleolithic Sequence at Jebel Faya, UAE (2018)
Jebel Faya is a key Paleolithic site in Arabia. The site provides important data on the history of human occupation of desert environments during the Late Pleistocene. One central question is if the observed diachronic pattern of occupation is largely driven by climatic change, as often assumed, or if other factors such as adaptation processes play significant roles. Based on the assumption that survival in the often unpredictable environments of SE Arabia requires increased behavioral...
Profiling the Past: About the Importance of Excavating Side View and Sieving with a Small Mesh for Retrieving Blade/Bladelet Production in Middle Paleolithic and Early Upper Paleolithic Contexts (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Developing Paleolithic Excavation Methods for the Twenty-First Century" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavation involves working both in side-view (i.e., with profiles), to recognize the stratigraphy, and in plan-view to excavate features and layers. Here we want to elaborate on the advantages of working mainly in side-view at Paleolithic sites with long, complex stratigraphies with high find densities. Sieving is...
Ptghavan-4: A Middle Paleolithic Open-Air Site in the Debed River Gorge, Armenia (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Pleistocene Landscapes and Hominin Behavior in the Armenian Highlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The recently excavated site of Ptghavan-4 in the Armenian Highlands provides rare data on Middle Paleolithic hominin behaviors during the early Upper Pleistocene. The site contains a dense accumulation of lithic artifacts that are Middle Paleolithic in character within a pedogenically modified aeolian deposit, which...
Quality Control: The Impact of Raw Material Quality on Inter-analyst Variation and Interpretation of Lithic Assemblages (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The issue of inter-analyst variation is common across nearly all archaeological artifacts. Within lithic analysis, there are many quantitative and qualitative assessments that could vary among analysts, which can cause problems in interpretation of stone tool assemblages. In addition, the effects of raw material on inter-analyst variation is not entirely...
Quantifying Basalt Artifact Weathering and Depositional Context: Insights from the Koobi Fora Formation, Kenya (2018)
Stone artifact weathering is important for understanding the formational history of surface and in situ assemblages. While much of this work has focused on chert and other crypto-crystalline sillicas, the weathering of basalt is under-studied. As a large proportion of the Early Stone Age record consists of basalt, it is necessary to explore the weathering process of this material. Characterizing basalt weathering currently relies on the subjective characterization of both mechanical and chemical...
Quantitatively and Qualitatively Evaluating the Impact that Palaeoanthropology Makes on the Lives of the Maasai People of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Tanzania’s Oldupai Gorge is a flagship human origins research site, yet less recognised is that the lands surrounding Oldupai are home to the pastoralist Maasai society. Even though scientists have, for over a century, sought to illuminate the shared past of our species in what many regard to be a cradle of humankind, there has seldom been meaningful and...
Quaternary Vegetation and Climate in the Lesser Caucasus, an Update (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Pleistocene Landscapes and Hominin Behavior in the Armenian Highlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The numerous archaeological discoveries in the Lesser Caucasus document the crucial role that this territory had for humans more than 2 Ma. In particular, the scientific debate has highlighted its strategic position for phases of migration “out of Africa,” and expansion to the Eurasian continent. The role of climate...
Queer Eye for the Cave Guy: Exploring Non-Normativity in Upper Paleolithic Burials (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Future Is Fluid...and So Was the Past: Challenging the 'Normative' in Archaeological Interpretations" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Studies of Upper Paleolithic burials in Europe have illuminated several aspects of Upper Paleolithic lifeways, from health and diet, to status and social organization. These studies, while recognizing the rarity of Upper Paleolithic burials, interpret the Upper Paleolithic burial...
Rabbit remains analysis in the Upper Paleolithic in Portugal (2015)
Ongoing excavations and research at the cave site of Lapa do Picareiro in the Estremadura region of Portugal have recovered a large number of faunal remains, including thousands of rabbit bones. These remains have yielded new data and insight on human exploitation of small prey during the Upper Paleolithic. This poster focuses on the spatial and temporal distribution of rabbit remains within the cave and the taphonomic processes acting on these bones. The work builds upon previous research using...
Radiocarbon Dating of Land Snail Shell and the Chronology of MSA-Neolithic Human Activity in the Haua Fteah, Libya (2018)
Land snails have a radiocarbon ecology which leads to offsets in shell radiocarbon age, relative to contemporary biogenic carbon. We describe new methods for evaluating and calculating this offset. We radiocarbon date and apply the new methods to land snail food debris, from the deep MSA to Neolithic sequence in the Haua Fteah cave, NE Libya. Oxcal modelling of the resulting 136 dates over ~45000 years shows the site was used for short episodes separated by long periods of abandonment. The...
The rapid generation and visualization of 3D timelapse reconstructions of the excavation at the Paleolithic site Arma Veirana in Italy. (2017)
Arma Veirana is a Middle/Upper Paleolithic cave site of the Maritime Alps of Liguria, Italy, which has the potential to offer insight into the interaction between Modern Humans and the Neandertals. Preliminary excavations have shown a continuous occupation between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic time periods, yet the complexity of the cave morphology and geology have made it difficult to isolate erosion as well as environmental and non-natural factors to understand the full image of hominin...
Raw Material Variability and Its Effects on Flake Production (2018)
Archaeologists have long studied the effects of raw material variation on different aspects of lithic technology, primarily focusing on raw material availability and nodule size and shape. This paper presents the results of a controlled experiment designed to compare different rock types (obsidian, flint, basalt, quartzite, and silcrete) and assess their effects on flake production. The experiment utilizes a mechanical robot that applies force to pre-shaped cores, controlling for known...
Recent Insights and Research on Paleolithic of Istria: Examples from Romuald’s Cave (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. The recent decade saw a rapid rise in the research on Paleolithic sites in Istria. This renewed interest started with field surveys and continued with new research projects aimed at better understanding of biocultural patterns and adaptations of hunter-gatherers in the region during the Pleistocene. The research included new...