The discovery of an in situ Neanderthal remain in the Bawa Yawan Rockshelter, West-Central Zagros Mountains, Kermanshah

Neanderthal extinction has been a matter of debate for many years. New discoveries, better chronologies and genomic evidence have done much to clarify some of the issues. This evidence suggests that Neanderthals became extinct around 40,000–37,000 years before present (BP), after a period of coexistence with Homo sapiens of several millennia, involving biological and cultural interactions between the two groups. However, the bulk of this evidence relates to Western Eurasia, and recent work in Central Asia and Siberia has shown that there is considerable local variation. Southwestern Asia, despite having a number of significant Neanderthal remains, has not played a major part in the debate over extinction. Here we report a Neanderthal deciduous canine from the site of Bawa Yawan in the West-Central Zagros Mountains of Iran. The tooth is associated with Zagros Mousterian lithics, and its context is preliminary dated to between ~43,600 and ~41,500 years ago.

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The Genesee Connection: The Origins of Iroquois Culture in West-Central New York

North American Archaeologist ◽

10.2190/gp1m-x2xd-1wf6-ej77 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 15-44

Author(s):

Mary Ann Palmer Niemczycki

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Diagnostic Criteria ◽

Current Concept ◽

The West ◽

Diagnostic Significance ◽

West Central ◽

Central New York

The Genesee Valley has long been recognized as a center of Iroquois development, but the connection between Owasco sites in the Genesee and Iroquois sequences in the adjacent regions has never been adequately demonstrated. Attempts to identify transitional Owasco-Iroquois sites in this region have been hampered by the use of diagnostic criteria based on data from eastern New York. This article examines ceramic patterns in the Genesee and establishes a regional cultural sequence based on ceramic criteria which have local diagnostic significance. This sequence reveals the transition from Owasco to Iroquois culture begins in the Genesee with a sudden influx of Ontario Iroquois ceramic traits from the west ca. 1250 A.D. This Owasco-Ontario Iroquois connection in the Genesee negates certain assumptions regarding Iroquois origins and alters our current concept of in situ development.

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A note on John Hawkins (1761–1841) and the Hawkins archive

Archives of Natural History ◽

10.3366/anh.2000.27.2.261 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 261-268

Author(s):

R. J. CLEEVELY

Keyword(s):

Major Part ◽

Reference Lists ◽

The West ◽

History Of ◽

The 1960S

A note dealing with the history of the Hawkins Papers, including the material relating to John Hawkins (1761–1841) presented to the West Sussex Record Office in the 1960s, recently transferred to the Cornwall County Record Office, Truro, in order to be consolidated with the major part of the Hawkins archive held there. Reference lists to the correspondence of Sibthorp-Hawkins, Hawkins-Sibthorp, and Hawkins to his mother mentioned in The Flora Graeca story (Lack, 1999) are provided.

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