The Origins of Early Sapiens Behaviour: Origins Centre, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

This exhibition showcases the results of archaeological research at three coastal sites in the southern Cape of South Africa: Blombos Cave, Klipdrift Shelter and Klasies River main sites. Part of a long-term programme aiming to make palaeosciences accessible to the public, the exhibition befittingly started more locally, first at Stellenbosch and then at the Iziko South African Museums in Cape Town, before moving to Johannesburg. The exhibition opened at the Origins Centre of the University of the Witwatersrand on 25 November 2021. To those of us who attended the opening, it provided an opportunity to hear from the archaeologists, curators and designers behind the exhibition. The exhibition opened to the public on 27 November.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH OF THE MUSEUM OF THE YENISEI REGION IN 1920 (TO THE CENTENARY SINCE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ARCHEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT)

На основе архивных материалов рассматривается история организации и первого года работы отдела доисторической археологии Музея Приенисейского края (Красноярского краевого краеведческого музея). Публикуется отчет Г. К. Мергарта о деятельности отдела в первый год его создания в 1920 г. Представлен маршрут археологической экспедиции музея от Минусинска до Красноярска и Енисейска. Информацию о результатах работ отдела дополняет переписка Г. Мергарта с директором Красноярского музея А. Я. Тугариновым. Публикуемые архивные материалы сопровождаются иллюстрациями археологических коллекций музея. Документы показывают процесс становления начинающего археолога Г. П. Сосновского и его вклад в деятельность отдела. В публикации дана краткая характеристика выразительных археологических коллекций В. А. Данилова, С. М. Сергеева и других исследователей, передавших свои материалы в Красноярский музей в 1920 г. Делается вывод об успешной работе и решающем вкладе австрийского археолога Г. К. Мергарта в создание археологического отдела музея Приенисейского края. On the basis of archival materials, the history of the establishment and the fi rst year of work of the Department of Prehistoric Archaeology of the Museum of the Yenisei Region (Krasnoyarsk Regional Museum of Local Lore) is considered. G. K. Mergart’s report on activities during the fi rst year of the establishment of the department in 1920 is published. The route of the museum’s archaeological expedition from Minusinsk to Krasnoyarsk and Yeniseysk is presented. Information about the results of the department’s work is supplemented by correspondence of G. Mergart with the Director of the Krasnoyarsk Museum A. Ya. Tugarinov. The published archival materials are accompanied by illustrations from archaeological collections of the museum. The documents show the process of formation of novice archaeologist G. P. Sosnovsky and his contribution to the activities of the department. The publication gives a brief description of the distinguished archaeological collections of V. A. Danilov, S. M. Sergeev and other researchers who transferred their materials to the Krasnoyarsk Museum in 1920. The conclusion about the successful work and decisive contribution of Austrian archaeologist G. K. Mergart to the establishment of the Archaeological Department of the Museum of the Yenisei Region is made.

Pre-Colombian Mesoamerica Childhoods

Research on pre-Columbian childhood refers to all those studies that consider the different evidence and expressions of children in Mesoamerica, prior to the Spanish invasion in the 16th century. Archaeology, understandably by its very focus, has been one of the most prolific disciplines that has approached this subject of study. Currently, archaeological research focuses on highlighting the different social experiences of the past (or multi-vocality) of social identities, such as gender and childhood, and its relationship with material culture. In addition, archaeologists recognize a modern stereotype that considers children as passive or dependent beings and therefore biases childhood research in the past. Consequently, it is necessary to critically evaluate the cultural specificity of past childhood since each culture has its own way of considering that stage of the life cycle. Another problem, in the archaeological study of childhood, is to consider that children are not socially important individuals. It has been said that their activities are not significant for the economy or the social realm of communities and societies of the past. From archaeology, there exists a general perception that children are virtually unrecognizable from the archaeological record because their behavior leaves few material traces, apart from child burials. It has been since feminist critiques within the discipline that the study of childhood became of vital importance in archaeology to understand the process of gender acquisition through enculturation. This process refers to the way children learn about their gender identity through the material world that surrounds them and the various rituals that prepare them to become persons. Thus, the intent of recent studies on childhood has been to call upon archaeologists to consider children as social actors capable of making meaningful decisions on their own behalf and that they make substantial contributions to their families and their communities. In this sense, studies on pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures have focused at the most basic sense on identifying the presence of children in the archaeological record or ethnohistoric sources. Its aim has been to document the different social ages that make up childhood, the ritual importance of Mesoamerican children, funerary practices, and health conditions marked in children’s bones as well as the different material and identity expressions of childhood through art and its associated material culture.

Palaeoenvironmental proxies indicate long-term development of agro-pastoralist landscapes in Inner Asian mountains

A growing body of archaeological research on agro-pastoralist populations of the Inner Asian mountains indicates that these groups adapted various systems of mobile herding and cultivation to ecotopes across the region from as early as 5000 BP. It has been argued that these adaptations allowed the development of flexible social-ecological systems well suited to the long-term management of these mountain landscapes. At present, less attention has been paid to examining the long-term ecological legacy of these adaptations within the sedimentary or palaeoenvironmental record. Here we present sediment, palynomorph and charcoal data that we interpret as indicating agro-pastoralist environmental perturbations, taken from three cores at middle and high altitudes in the Kashmir Valley at the southern end of the Inner Asian mountains. Our data indicate spatially and temporally discontinuous patterns of agro-pastoralist land use beginning close to 4000 BP. Periods of intensification of upland herding are often coincident with phases of regional social or environmental change, in particular we find the strongest signals for agro-pastoralism in the environmental record contemporary with regionally arid conditions. These patterns support previous arguments that specialised agro-pastoralist ecologies across the region are well placed to respond to past and future climate deteriorations. Our data indicating long-term co-evolution of humans and landscape in the study area also have implications for the ongoing management of environments generally perceived as “pristine” or “wilderness”.

The spread of agriculture in south-eastern Europe: new data from North Macedonia

North Macedonia is a crucial region for understanding the spread of agriculture into the Mediterranean and Central Europe. To date, however, the area has been subject to relatively limited archaeological research. Here, the authors present use-wear and archaeobotanical analyses on material from two Neolithic sites, Govrelevo and Vrbjanska Čuka, to investigate practices that were previously unstudied in this part of the Balkans, such as sowing, cultivation and harvesting techniques. The results suggest the presence of permanent crop fields located in wetlands, with autumn and spring sowing, and harvesting using curved sickles. The study illuminates early agricultural practices in North Macedonia and adds to our knowledge of the spread of the Neolithic package across Europe.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTATION OF HISTORICAL EVENTS IN THE HOLY QURAN - STORIES OF THE PROPHETS AS A MODEL-

The modern scientific revolution has imposed on the researcher to broaden his view by referring to more than one science in addressing his research issues, and in the light of the contemporary ideological debate that the unspoken and the accepted are recognized to without the slightest prestige, it is necessary to discuss what these debates erupt with objectivity and impartiality. The issue of the historical existence of the Qur’anic events, which was taken - according to Arab modernists - from the school of archaeological criticism of the Bible as an example, and since the prevailing belief among Muslims is the infallibility of the Holy Qur’an from distortion and falsification through recurrent and because it contained - equivalent to a third - on Historical events, including stories, and previous facts, it is not possible “beliefly” and “realistically” that the divine news contradict the achieved historical reality, and since the main purpose of the Holy Qur’an - including the verses of the stories - is guidance , the Qur’an has transmitted history To achieve this purpose without being a book of history that delves into the details and identifies the dates and respects the chronologies with precision and detail, it is not possible “methodologically” and “realistically” to require the archaeological evidence for each Qur’anic event, especially since the nature of the archaeological research itself He suffers from technical and epistemological gaps that make his discoveries and reading of him between the hypothesis of the results of the auxiliary sciences and the self-interpretation of the archaeologist, and the process of archaeological documentation of historical events in Holy Qur’an remains - if it is achieved - as a matter of concerted evidence - despite its suspicion - that raises the believer's faith - and faith in degrees. - It also obliges the non-believer in the Qur’an as a divine source to conform to the material evidence of the divine revelation or what is termed in Islamic thought with the « scientific miracles of the Holy Qur’an ».

Origins of cotton.

The history of the domestication of cotton is very complex and is not known exactly. Cotton has been found during archaeological research at sites in both the old and new world, independently, indicating that the crop had been grown and domesticated with the fibres converted into fabric, using the earliest forms of combs, spindles and primitive looms. Information on the history of cotton cultivation and manufacture of cotton textiles in various Asian and European countries are also presented.