Pioneers in the hills: Early Mesolithic foragers at Šebrn Abri (Istria, Croatia)

2000 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Preston Miracle ◽  
Nena Galanidou ◽  
Stašo Forenbaher

In this paper, we examine the strategies used by early Mesolithic people as they moved into the karstic uplands of north-eastern Istria, Croatia. These strategies are inferred from detailed analyses of the lithic and faunal assemblages from Šebrn, a small upland rock-shelter occupied for a relatively short period of time in the early Holocene. We conclude that Šebrn's lithic assemblages are in technology and typology relatively homogeneous and can be treated as a single unit (related to the Sauveterrian and Epigravettian, sensu lato). The faunal remains, in contrast, reveal a dynamic situation of temporal changes in the scope and focus of activities on site. Drawing on several lines of evidence from the lithic and faunal assemblages, we suggest that the initial use of the site was intermittent and people who pursued a generalized subsistence strategy visited it. With the passage of time and as people learned about upland environments, they turned to a specialized procurement of red deer. Šebrn became part of a settlement system that related lowlands to uplands and the site gained significance in the cultural landscape as people brought to it expectations about what they would do and how long they would stay.

1991 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Mithen ◽  
B. Finlayson

Knowing the source of the red deer in the Mesolithic shell middens on Oronsay is necessary for a reconstruction of the early post-glacial settlement patterns in the southern Hebrides. If they came from Colonsay, then it is conceivable that the combined resources of Colonsay and Oronsay could have supported a population on these small islands for extended periods of time — as the seasonally data from the middens suggests when taken at face value. If there were no red deer on Colonsay, it is more likely that the Oronsay middens result from many short intermittent visits to the island. Since early post-glacial faunal assemblages are unknown from Colonsay, and unlikely to be found, this paper discusses the relevance of lithic assemblages for inferring the hunting of red deer. It describes recent fieldwork on Colonsay and the discovery of the first Mesolithic sites, notably that of Staosnaig. It concludes that the microlithic elements within the assemblages are too small to indicate red deer hunting. If Mesolithic foragers went to Colonsay to hunt red deer, they probably left rather quickly and empty-handed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc Doyon ◽  
Li Zhanyang ◽  
Wang Hua ◽  
Lila Geis ◽  
Francesco d'Errico

Activities attested since at least 2.6 Myr, such as stone knapping, marrow extraction, and woodworking may have allowed early hominins to recognize the technological potential of discarded skeletal remains and equipped them with a transferable skillset fit for the marginal modification and utilization of bone flakes. Identifying precisely when and where expedient bone tools were used in prehistory nonetheless remains a challenging task owing to the multiple natural and anthropogenic processes that can mimic deliberately knapped bones. Here, we compare a large sample of the faunal remains from Lingjing, a 115 ka-old site from China which has yielded important hominin remains and rich faunal and lithic assemblages, with bone fragments produced by experimentally fracturing Equus caballus long bones. Our results provide a set of qualitative and quantitative criteria that can help zooarchaeologists and bone technologists distinguish faunal remains with intentional flake removal scars from those resulting from carcass processing activities. Experimental data shows marrow extraction seldom generates diaphyseal fragments bearing more than six flake scars arranged contiguously or in interspersed series. Long bone fragments presenting such characteristics can, therefore, be interpreted as being purposefully knapped to be used as expediency tools. The identification, based on the above experimental criteria, of 56 bone tools in the Lingjing faunal assemblage is consistent with the smaller size of the lithics found in the same layer. The continuity gradient observed in the size of lithics and knapped bones suggest the latter were used for tasks in which the former were less or not effective.


Author(s):  
Дмитрий Николаевич Замятин

Геокультурное пространство любого региона формируется в результате взаимодействия двух слабо отделимых друг от друга элементов – геокультур, развивающихся на данной территории, и культурных ландшафтов. Полноценное развитие геокультурного пространства предполагает формирование уникальной онтологии воображения, создающей когнитивный «фундамент» для построения соответствующих моделей. Онтологические модели воображения характеризуют возможности расширенной репрезентации и интерпретации культурных ландшафтов какого-либо региона. Визуальность культурного ландшафта представляет собой сложное образование, в котором зрительные реакции и рефлексии оказываются результатом множественного воображения – одновременно и личностного, и группового. Геокультурное пространство Арктики в его визуально-дискурсивном измерении является сложным, поскольку традиция «колониального взгляда» вкупе с тенденцией к анализу постколониальных практик и к деколонизации различных арктических дискурсов создаёт амбивалентное дискурсивное поле актуальных визуальных практик и политик. Экзистенциальная ситуация постэкзотизма, типологически характерная для арктических регионов, является полем онтологизации множественных визуальных практик, закрепляющих ризоматические процедуры геокультурных различений. В результате полевого исследования прибрежных территорий Северо-Восточной Чукотки были выделены наиболее визуально интенсивные ключевые ландшафтные ассамбляжи: 1) морской охоты; 2) традиционных праздников морских охотников; 3) «первозданной» природы. Ландшафтные ассамбляжи репрезентируются теми или иными визуальными диспозитивами. Под визуальными диспозитивами понимаются устойчиво воспроизводящиеся и феноменологически фиксируемые визуальные ландшафтные (геокультурные) образы, характеризующие специфику определённых ландшафтных ассамбляжей. В результате проведённого исследования выделено пять ключевых визуальных диспозитивов, обусловливающих специфические формы воспроизводства и развития как самих геокультур, так и соответствующих культурных ландшафтов данных территорий: 1) диспозитив морских охотников, наиболее пограничный и фрактальный; 2) диспозитив праздников традиционной культуры морских охотников; 3) диспозитив разрушения и руинирования, связанный как с экстремальными природными условиями региона, так и с эпохой советского и постсоветского развития; 4) диспозитив «природного», «первозданного» пространства, связанный с низкой освоенностью территории; и 5) диспозитив мультинатурализма, проявляющийся в особенностях визуальных сред чукотских поселений (сел, поселков городского типа, небольшого города). Эти диспозитивы, переплетаясь и взаимодействуя между собой, создают множественные, постоянно трансформирующиеся ландшафтные ассамбляжи. В рамках представленных визуальных диспозитивов формируются феномены арктического постэкзотизма и внутреннего экзотизма, фиксирующие невозможность возвращения к доколониальной «ландшафтной оптике». The geocultural space of any region is formed as a result of the interaction of two weakly separable elements – geocultures developing in the given territory and cultural landscapes. The full development of a geocultural space involves the formation of a unique ontology of imagination, which creates a cognitive “foundation” for the construction of appropriate models. Ontological models of imagination characterize the possibilities of an expanded representation and interpretation of the cultural landscapes of a region. The visuality of a cultural landscape is a complex formation in which visual reactions and reflections are the result of multiple imaginations – both personal and group. The geocultural space of the Arctic, in its visual-discursive dimension, is complex, since the tradition of the “colonial view”, coupled with the tendencies to analyze postcolonial practices and to decolonize various Arctic discourses, creates an ambivalent discursive field of relevant visual practices and policies. The existential situation of post-exoticism, typologically characteristic of the Arctic regions, is a field of ontologization of multiple visual practices that consolidate rhizomatic procedures of geocultural distinctions. As a result of a field study of the coastal territories of North-Eastern Chukotka, the most visually intensive key landscape assemblages have been identified: 1) sea hunting, 2) traditional holidays of sea hunters, 3) “pristine” nature. Landscape assemblages are represented by various visual dispositives. Visual dispositives are understood as consistently reproducing and phenomenologically fixed visual landscape (geocultural) images that characterize the specifics of certain landscape assemblages. As a result of the study, five key visual dispositives have been identified that determine the specific forms of the reproduction and development of both geo-cultures themselves and the corresponding cultural landscapes of these territories: 1) the dispositive of sea hunters, the most borderline and fractal; 2) the dispositive of holidays of the traditional culture of sea hunters; 3) the dispositive of destruction and ruin associated with both the extreme natural conditions of the region and the era of the Soviet and post-Soviet development; 4) the dispositive of the “natural”, “pristine” space associated with the low development of the territory, and 5) the dispositive of multi-naturalism, manifested in the features of the visual environments of Chukchi settlements (villages, urban-type settlements, small towns). These dispositives, intertwining and interacting, create multiple, constantly transforming landscape assemblages. Within the framework of the presented visual dispositives, the phenomena of Arctic post-exoticism and internal exoticism are formed, which fix the impossibility of returning to the pre-colonial “landscape optics”.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 567-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yftinus T. van Popta

This article focuses on the maritime cultural landscape of the former Zuiderzee (ad 1170–1932) in the central part of the Netherlands. Since the large-scale reclamations from the sea (1932–1968), many remains have been discovered, revealing a submerged and eroded late medieval maritime culture, represented by lost islands, drowned settlements, cultivated lands, shipwrecks, and consequently socio-economic networks. Especially the north-eastern part of the region, known today as the Noordoostpolder, is testimony to the dynamic battles of the Dutch against the water. By examining physical and immaterial datasets from the region, it is possible to give a modern-day idea of this late medieval maritime cultural landscape. Spatial distribution and densities of late medieval archaeological remains are analysed and compared to historical data and remote sensing results. This interdisciplinary approach has led to the discovery of the remains of the drowned settlement of Fenehuysen.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo C. Stampella ◽  
Daniela Alejandra Lambaré ◽  
Norma I. Hilgert ◽  
María Lelia Pochettino

This contribution presents information about the history of introduction, establishment, and local appropriation of Eurasian fruit trees—species and varieties of the generaPrunusandCitrus—from 15th century in two rural areas of Northern Argentina. By means of an ethnobotanical and ethnohistorical approach, our study was aimed at analysing how this process influenced local medicine and the design of cultural landscape that they are still part of. As a first step, local diversity, knowledge, and management practices of these fruit tree species were surveyed. In a second moment, medicinal properties attributed to them were documented. A historical literature was consulted referring to different aspects on introduction of peaches and citric species into America and their uses in the past. The appropriation of these fruit-trees gave place to new applications and a particular status for introduced species that are seen as identitary and contribute to the definition of the communities and daily life landscapes. Besides, these plants, introduced in a relatively short period and with written record, allow the researcher to understand and to design landscape domestication, as a multidimensional result of physical, social, and symbolic environment.


1986 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 247-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milla Y. Ohel

The central and most intricate occurrence among the acheulean sites of the Yiron Plateau and environs, Israel, is studied. All lines of evidence favour an interpretation of Mitzpeh Yiron (Y25) as an aggregation node where small groups assembled to concentrate on the exploitation of a relatively short-term seasonal subsistence resource. Concurrently the congregation event enhanced co-operative activities, sociocultural relationships, and particularly kinship ties. With the present effort a better understanding is hopefully achieved of the general configuration of the settlement system of the area along with the technological and other variabilities of the constituent units.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. e0189278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annik Schnitzler ◽  
José Granado ◽  
Olivier Putelat ◽  
Rose-Marie Arbogast ◽  
Dorothée Drucker ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (13) ◽  
pp. 2101-2108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emil Srebočan ◽  
Zdravko Janicki ◽  
Andreja Prevendar Crnić ◽  
Kristijan Tomljanović ◽  
Marinko Šebečić ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Red Deer ◽  

2001 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 219-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Wenban-Smith ◽  
David Bridgland ◽  
Simon Parfitt ◽  
Andrew Haggart ◽  
Phillip Rye

This paper reports on the recovery of Palaeolithic flint artefacts and faunal remains from fluvial gravels at the base of a sequence of Pleistocene sediments revealed during construction works at two sites to the south of Swanscombe village, Kent. Although outside the mapped extent of the Boyn Hill/Orsett Heath Formation, the newly discovered deposits can be firmly correlated with the Middle Gravels and Upper Loam from the Barnfield Pit sequence dating to c. 400,000–380,000 BP. This increases greatly the known extent of these deposits, one horizon of which produced the Swanscombe Skull, and has provided more information on their upper part.Comparison of the lithic assemblages from volume-controlled sieving with those from general monitoring demonstrated that artefact collections formed without controlled methods of recovery, such as form the majority of the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic archaeological record, are likely to be disproportionately dominated by larger, more visible, and more collectable neatly-made handaxes to the detriment of more poorly made, asymmetrical handaxes and cores, flakes, and percussors. The lithic assemblage from the fluvial gravel was confirmed as dominated by pointed handaxes, supporting previous studies of artefacts front the equivalent Lower Middle Gravel at Barnfield Pit. The raw material characteristics of the assemblage were investigated, and it was concluded that there was no indication that the preference for pointed shapes could be related to either the shape or source of raw material.This paper also reviews the significance of lithic assemblages from disturbed fluvial contexts, and concludes that, contrary to some current perspectives, they have a valuable role to play complementing less disturbed evidence in developing understanding of the Palaeolithic.


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