Archaeology, genetics and a population bottleneck in prehistoric Finland

Antiquity ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 88 (342) ◽  
pp. 1132-1147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarja Sundell ◽  
Juhana Kammonen ◽  
Petri Halinen ◽  
Petro Pesonen ◽  
Päivi Onkamo
Keyword(s):  
Population Bottleneck ◽  
Genetic Profile ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Finnish Population ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Combined Use ◽  
History Of ◽  
Stone Artefact

The long-term history of prehistoric populations is a challenging but important subject that can now be addressed through combined use of archaeological and genetic evidence. In this study a multidisciplinary team uses these approaches to document the existence of a major population bottleneck in Finland during the Late Neolithic period, the effects of which are still detectable in the genetic profile of the Finnish population today. The postglacial recolonisation of Finland was tracked through space and time using radiocarbon dates and stone artefact distributions to provide a robust framework of evidence against which the genetic simulations could be compared.

The Great Kod of Pulu: Mutual Historical Emergence of Ceremonial Sites and Social Groups in Torres Strait, Northeast Australia

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian J. McNiven ◽  
Bruno David ◽  
Goemulgau Kod ◽  
Judith Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Structural Basis ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
The Status ◽  
Island Communities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Torres Strait

Communal ceremonial sites and social groups often share mutually reinforcing and structuring properties. As a result of this dynamic relationship, ceremonial sites and social groups exhibit ever-emergent properties as long-term works-in-progress. Ceremonial kod sites featuring shrines of trumpet shells and dugong bones were central to the communal ritual life of Torres Strait Islanders. Continuously formed over the generations by ritual additions, these shrines were linked to ongoing maintenance, legitimization and cohesion of totemic clans and moieties that formed the structural basis of island communities. As such, understanding the history of kod sites provides an opportunity to investigate the historical emergence of ethnographically-known social groups in Torres Strait. This mutual emergence is investigated archaeologically at the kod on Pulu islet which is owned and operated by the Goemulgal people of nearby Mabuyag island. Multiple radiocarbon dates from shell and bone shrines and an underlying village midden indicate that the kod, and by association the Goemulgal and their totemic clan and moiety system, emerged over the past 400 years. Aided by local oral history and ethnography, it is argued further that establishment of the kod saw the status of Pulu change from a residential to a ceremonial and sacred place.

scholarly journals TIMING THE EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF ARABLE FARMING IN SOUTHEASTERN NORWAY BY USING SUMMED PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION OF RADIOCARBON DATES AND A BAYESIAN AGE MODEL

Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Steinar Solheim
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Bayesian Modeling ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Arable Farming ◽  
Age Model

ABSTRACT The paper explores the emergence and development of arable farming in southeastern Norway by compiling and analyzing directly dated cereals from archaeological contexts. By using summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates and Bayesian modeling, the paper presents the first comprehensive analysis of the directly dated evidence for farming in the region. The models provide a more precise temporal resolution to the development than hitherto presented. The results demonstrate that the introduction of arable farming to southeastern Norway was a long-term development including several steps. Three different stages are pointed out as important in the process of establishing arable farming: the Early and Middle Neolithic, the Late Neolithic, and the Early Iron Age.

Some Problems Concerning China's Early Copper and Bronze Artifacts

Early China ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 53-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia K. Murray ◽  
An Zhimin
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Shang Dynasty ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Slave Society ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Bronze Age

(Translator's Note: This article originally appeared in Kaogu Xuebao 1981.3: 269-284, and is translated with the author's permission.)I. The appearance of metal is a very important event in human history, marking the start of an age. From the patriarchal clan communes of the late Neolithic period to the slave society of the Bronze Age, there was a great change in the relationship between social development and production. As a result, the origin and development of metal-working is one of the important issues in archaeological research (p. 269).Early in the Shang dynasty, China had already advanced into slave society, and its brilliant bronze culture is an outstanding phenomenon in the history of the ancient world. Shang civilization evolved from Longshan foundations, and there is ample archaeological proof of the close relationship between the two. But from what origins did Shang bronze arise? Before the Shang, was there an aeneolithic period in which copper was used? These questions have not yet been satisfactorily answered. Since 1949 the new discoveries of copper objects and of bronze objects belonging to an early period have contributed important clues to the solution of these problems.

THE MIDDLE–LATE NEOLITHIC TRANSITION AT KOUPHOVOUNO

2014 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 65-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Mee ◽  
Bill Cavanagh ◽  
Josette Renard
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Roman Villa ◽  
British School ◽  
Gradual Evolution ◽  
Chronological Sequence ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequences ◽  
Southern Greece

The site of Kouphovouno, just south of Sparta, is one of the main Neolithic sites in Laconia. It was first settled in the Middle Neolithic period and developed into a large village with remains occupying some 4–5 hectares. A joint team from the British School at Athens and the Ecole française d'Athènes carried out excavations at the site in 2001–6. There is evidence for occupation during the Bronze Age, and for an extensive Late Roman villa, but this article concentrates on the chronology of the site during the Middle and Late Neolithic phases. The evidence from stratigraphic sequences, pottery typology, seriation and Bayesian analysis of the radiocarbon dates is brought together to present a detailed chronological sequence covering the periodc.5800–5000bc. In particular the analysis relies on the results from two deep soundings, one excavated in Area C carried down to the natural sediments underlying the site and exposing the earliest period of occupation, and the second in Area G covering the later Middle Neolithic and much of the Late Neolithic phase. The findings from Kouphovouno are placed more generally in the context of finds from other sites in the Peloponnese and in particular in relation to the important sequence from Franchthi Cave. On the basis of the evidence it is argued that the transition from Middle Neolithic to Late Neolithic in southern Greece was not abrupt, as had previously been thought, but showed a gradual evolution. This finding has implications for our understanding of the process of transformation that southern Greece underwent in the course of the later sixth millenniumbc.

Development of a peatland complex in boreal western Canada: lateral site expansion and local variability in vegetation succession and long-term peat accumulation

2003 ◽  
Vol 81 (8) ◽  
pp. 833-847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilka E Bauer ◽  
L Dennis Gignac ◽  
Dale H Vitt
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation History ◽  
Community Change ◽  
Vegetation Succession ◽  
Peat Accumulation ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Nucleation Sites ◽  
Peatland Development ◽  
Water Tables ◽  
History Of

The spatial development and vegetation history of a large boreal peatland complex in east-central Alberta was reconstructed to examine factors that control peatland development in continental regions. Peat depth throughout the site was interpolated from over 300 depth measurements, and basal radiocarbon dates were obtained from 16 cores. Peat first initiated about 7400 calibrated 14C years BP (cal. BP), and early peat-forming communities were wet fens or marshes. Rates of expansion from these nucleation sites were dependent on both moisture availability and topography, with asynchronous expansion in different regions. Basal macrofossil assemblages suggest that paludification on slopes of large basins was the result of flooding caused by rising peatland water tables. In many areas that initiated after 3000 cal. BP, paludification involved invasion of upland forest by Sphagnum. Long-term apparent rates of peat accumulation were fastest in wet, moderate-rich fen areas where little community change has occurred over time. Macrofossil analysis of core profiles reveals a tendency for sites that initiated wet and minerotrophic to eventually be colonized by Sphagnum. However, the thickness of surficial Sphagnum layers differs between cores, and there are several examples of minimal or apparently reverse successional development.Key words: peatlands, boreal, paleoecology, vegetation succession, peat accumulation, paludification.

The world recreated: redating Silbury Hill in its monumental landscape

Antiquity ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (311) ◽  
pp. 26-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Bayliss ◽  
Fachtna McAvoy ◽  
Alasdair Whittle
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ritual Landscape

A classic exposition of the difficulties of dating a major monument and why it matters. Silbury Hill, one of the world's largest prehistoric earth mounds, is too valuable to take apart, so we are reliant on samples taken from tunnels and chance exposures. Presenting a new edition of thirty radiocarbon dates, the authors offer models of short- or long-term construction, and their implications for the ritual landscape of Silbury and Stonehenge. The sequence in which monuments, and bits of monuments, were built gives us the kind and history of societies doing the building. So nothing matters more than the dates…

scholarly journals BAS’YANOVO ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX OF THE NEOLITHIC IN THE FOREST TRANS-URALS: THE HISTORY OF RESEARCH

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-149
Author(s):  
Alexander F. Shorin ◽  
◽  
Anastasia A. Shorina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
Local Variant ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Stone Industry ◽  
Similarity And Difference

The article is devoted to the analysis of the history of exploring the Bas’yanovo archaeological complex of the Neolithic in the forest Trans-Urals. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries A. F. Shorin and V. A. Arefiev identified this ceramic complex initially as an independent type of ceramics based on materials from the Koksharovsky hill sanctuary. The authors of the first researches showed the markers of this ceramic complex, its similarity and difference from the vessels of the Boborykino culture. After the excavations of the Vtoroy poselok I site, the features of the stone industry of this new archaeological phenomenon, similar and distinguishing features of it from the Boborykino culture, were highlighted. The data on the relative stratigraphy of Koksharovsky hill, as well as the analysis of the base of radiocarbon dates, made it possible to determine the chronological framework of this cultural phenomenon within the last quarter of the 6th–5th millennium BC, i. e. the late Neolithic of the Trans-Urals. However, at present, based on materials from the excavations of the Beregovaya II site on the Gorbunovsky peat bog, the age of the Bas’yanovo cultural tradition is proposed to be dated to the turn of the 7th–6th millennium BC, i. e. attributed to the very beginning of the Neolithic in the region. The status of this cultural phenomenon in the accepted archaeological definitions can be assessed as a local variant of the Boborykino culture. The assessment of the ratio of the Boborykino and Bas’yanovo complexes of the Trans-Urals can also be interpreted from the standpoint of another culturological approach — the concept of “archaeological continuity”.

Diversity Rules. On Late Prehistoric Settlement of the Eastern Netherlands and the Need for Regionally Specific Models

2011 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 25-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy van Beek
Keyword(s):  
Research Area ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Site Location ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Local Diversity ◽  
History Of

General habitation models based on well-researched regions tend to be applied to other, less intensively studied regions, usually implicitly. However, whether they lend themselves to do that is hardly ever tested. It may even be that such general models prevent us from obtaining a clear view of patterns of supra-regional, regional, and local diversity. As a test case, this paper focuses on the development of landscape and habitation in the eastern part of the Netherlands from the Late Neolithic period until the start of the Middle Roman period (c. 2850 BC–AD 100). Special attention is given to site location, settlement development, and landscape organisation. The research area until now has hardly entered the archaeological debate on the habitation history of the Low Countries. It is demonstrated that even though some habitation characteristics are well-known from other parts of the Low Countries, and sometimes beyond, the organisation of later prehistoric societies in the research area also deviates in interesting ways. The case-study makes clear that leaning too heavily on research results from other regions brings the risk that specific characteristics of a region will be overlooked or that regional diversity will be ignored in order to make the data fit the expected pattern. One size does not fit all. The only way to prevent this is to build new, solid interpretative frameworks for regions that have so far received little attention, and to create an awareness that existing models should not be applied uncritically.

scholarly journals New insights on the relative sea level changes during the Late Holocene along the coast of Paros Island and the northern Cyclades (Greece)

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleni Kolaiti ◽  
Nikos Mourtzas
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Recent Change ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Relative Sea Level ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
History Of

Geomorphological and archaeological indicators of former sea levels along the coast of Paros enabled us to determine and date six distinct sea level stands and the relative sea level (rsl) changes between them, as well as plot the rsl curve for the last 6,300 years. The Late Holocene history of the rsl change in Paros began with the sea level at 4.90 ± 0.10 m below mean sea level (bmsl) dated to the Late Neolithic period (4300 BC-3700 BC). The next sea level at 3.50 ± 0.20 m bmsl is dated to the Geometric and Archaic period of the Cyclades (1050 BC-490 BC) and most probably lasted during the Hellenistic period (323-146 BC). The sea level at 2.40 ± 0.25 m bmsl is dated to the Roman period (146-400 AD) and the next sea level at 1.35 ± 0.20 m bmsl to the Venetian period of the Cyclades (1207-1537). The sea level at 0.80 ± 0.10 m bmsl is dated to after the Venetian period, during the Ottoman rule of the island (1537-1821). The youngest sea level stand at 0.45 ± 0.10 m is attributed to the recent change in the sea level after the late 19th c. onward. The separation between glacio-hydro-isostatic signals and the observed rsl change on Paros Island, in an area of seismic quiescence, demonstrates a significant tectonic component in the rsl changes. Moreover, the sea level stands deduced from Paros in comparison with those from the northern Cyclades indicate a uniform tectonic behaviour of the entire northern and central section of the Cyclades plateau.

MEGALO NISI GALANIS (6300–1800 bc): CONSTRUCTING A CULTURAL SEQUENCE FOR THE NEOLITHIC OF WEST MACEDONIA, GREECE

2019 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Michael Fotiadis ◽  
Areti Hondroyanni-Metoki ◽  
Alexandra Kalogirou ◽  
Yannis Maniatis ◽  
Anna Stroulia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
History Of ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Surrounding Landscape ◽  
Early Phases

Scores of Neolithic sites have been excavated in west Macedonia since the 1990s, yet the majority are relatively short-lived installations, lacking high-resolution stratigraphies and sequences of radiocarbon dates. Megalo Nisi Galanis, a large mound in the Kitrini Limni basin, near modern Kozani, is a rare exception to that pattern. Systematically surveyed and excavated in 1987–9 and 1993, this site covers a large part of the Neolithic period in a stratified, radiocarbon-dated sequence capped in places by thin deposits of the Early Bronze Age. We present here the critical details of that sequence and relate them to evidence from other, recently excavated sites in west Macedonia. Megalo Nisi Galanis was first settled in the Early Neolithic (late seventh millennium bc), was intensively occupied until the early phases of the Final Neolithic (around 4500 bc), and continued to be inhabited, albeit sparely or intermittently, until the transition from the Early to the Middle Bronze Age, about 1800 bc. By the end of occupation, the mound covered more than eight hectares and rose up to five metres above the surrounding landscape. We attend closely to features of that landscape that are likely to have played an important role in the history of occupation of the site and Kitrini Limni in the course of the Holocene.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document