Along the Rivers and into the Plain: Early Crop Diversity in the Central and Western Balkans and Its Relationship with Environmental and Cultural Variables

Agriculture is a complex and dynamic socio-ecological system shaped by environmental, economic, and social factors. The crop resource pool is its key component and one that best reflects environmental limitations and socio-economic concerns of the farmers. This pertains in particular to small-scale subsistence production, as was practised by Neolithic farmers. We investigated if and how the environment and cultural complexes shaped the spectrum and diversity of crops cultivated by Neolithic farmers in the central-western Balkans and on the Hungarian Plain. We did so by exploring patterns in crop diversity between biogeographical regions and cultural complexes using multivariate statistical analyses. We also examined the spectrum of wild-gathered plant resources in the same way. We found that the number of species in Neolithic plant assemblages is correlated with sampling intensity (the number and volume of samples), but that this applies to all archaeological cultures. Late Neolithic communities of the central and western Balkans exploited a large pool of plant resources, whose spectrum was somewhat different between archaeological cultures. By comparison, the earliest Neolithic tradition in the region, the Starčevo-Körös-Criş phenomenon, seems to have used a comparatively narrower range of crops and wild plants, as did the Linearbandkeramik culture on the Hungarian Plain.

Le Bosquet del Vau un établissement du néolithique final

Summary:The Neolithic site of the Bosquet del Vau is located in the Brabant Province in Belgium. Two different rescue excavations took place on the site both in 2006 and 2007 : the first was subsequent to a housing project of about 110 houses, the latter to the building of the R.E.R. (Express Regional Transportation System).The site was discovered in the 1980 by a group of three teenagers going flint tools hunting all around Waterloo and Braine l’Alleud. Flint tools pertaining to the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age were recovered on site as well as some Mesolithic flint tools.The site is located on a small sandy hill and covers 2.5 hectares. Steep slopes surround it to the west and north-west and gentler ones to the northeast and south, an isthmus exists to the east linking it o the plateau.The settlement is protected by a palisade to the east and south, a wide ditch links the palisade to the nearly valley to the west. The western side of the hill has seen its slope artificially steepened as did part of the northern side. No palisade was found on either of those two sides.Part of one house and a complete second one were discovered in 2006 and 2007. They are aligned north to south, 18 meters long and 4.5 meters wide. A narrow ditch houses the post holes, posts are maximum 0.30 m in diameter and spaced evenly. Central posts suggest a two-sloped roof. No hearth was found inside of the first house, the one of the second has yet to be associated with the house.A phosphate map was made in both cases, evidence points to a house divided into three parts, with maybe a cattle area next to the second one.Potsherds recovered in two postholes of the 2007 house fit together and could be dated to the Late Neolithic Period.Flint tools are mostly micro-denticulates though a few polished axes fragments have been discovered as well as arrowheads and a beautifully knapped flint knife.The various types of stones used: from black flintstone to Parisian flintstone and phtanite suggest here again a Late-Neolithic dating.

A multi-proxy Holocene palaeoenvironmental record of climate change and prehistoric human activity from Lough Cullin, southeast Ireland

A multiproxy (pollen, microcharcoal, loss-on-ignition, magnetic susceptibility and geochemistry) sequence from Lough Cullin, southeast Ireland, supported by a high-resolution radiocarbon chronology, modelled using Bayesian approaches, provides a record of environmental change for much of the Holocene. Following the establishment of mixed deciduous woodland, climatic deterioration was likely responsible for pronounced vegetation change and erosion, 7615–6500 cal. BC to 6245–5575 cal. BC, evidence for the ‘8.2 Kyr’ BP climate event. The so-called ‘elm decline’ is dated to 4220–3980 cal. BC and whilst there are possible indications of an anthropogenic cause, clear evidence of woodland clearance with cereal pollen is recorded at 3900–3700 cal. BC, 3790–3580 cal. BC and 3760–3650 cal. BC, during a period of clearance and farming of 320–450 years duration. A reduction in farming/settlement and woodland regeneration during the Middle Neolithic parallels the archaeological record, with low levels of activity during the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic after 2960–2525 cal. BC, prior to increases during the Bronze Age then woodland clearance and agriculture between 1500–1410 and 1275–1000 cal. BC, corresponding with the archaeological evidence. A subsequent ‘step-wise’ reduction in human activity follows, from the latter date to 815–685 cal. BC, and a brief but pronounced cessation at 690–535 cal. BC. Renewed woodland clearance and agriculture commenced until 415–250 cal. BC. From the latter date until cal. AD 390–540, the Late Iron Age/Early Medieval period, a phase of woodland recovery is attested, followed by renewed landscape disturbance and arable agriculture in particular, continuing to the close of the record at cal. AD 780–1035.

Is the Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo (Ericaceae), native to Ireland, or was it brought by the first copper miners?

The Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo L.) is often referred to as one of Ireland’s ‘Lusitanian’ species to describe its disjunct distribution, since it is absent from Britain and is mainly found around the Mediterranean Sea and on the Iberian Peninsula. In Ireland, it is regarded as native in the south-west and in Co. Sligo. However, a recent genetic study suggests that it could have been introduced to Ireland directly from northern Spain. This possibility was previously dismissed, since palynological and archaeological evidence showed it to be present in south-west Ireland 4,000 years ago. Here, we examine how an introduction might have occurred prior to this date, by first reviewing what is known of its distribution, ecology and history in Ireland along with archaeological information. Then, combining an updated distribution of A. unedo where it is regarded as native in Ireland with historical accounts, palynological and archaeological records and other information from the literature, we present two online maps, designed to be an ongoing accessible resource. The information has enabled us to propose a means by which A. unedo might have arrived in Ireland with miners who came to work the first known copper mine in north-west Europe, in the Chalcolithic phase of the Late Neolithic, which was at Ross Island on Lough Leane in Co. Kerry. The species’ distribution today suggests that it then spread with subsequent Bronze Age copper mining activity in south-west Ireland, though this is unlikely to account for its arrival in Co. Sligo. Previous suggestions that A. unedo was once much more widely distributed in Ireland and subsequently contracted due to preferential cutting for smelting, are shown to be unfounded.

INTELLIGENT APPROACHES TO ORGANIZING REMOTE QUALITY CONTROL OF STORAGE OF GRAIN PRODUCTS

Cereals are an essential part of the diet of Homo sapiens. Since late Neolithic times, with the transition to sedentary farming, working with grain (growing, storing, processing, cooking food) has become a traditional type of professional human activity. As part of the accumulated historical experience, numerous technological processes have been developed and optimized for this type of activity. The relevant technologies evolved in close correlation with the changing conditions of life, literally under the pressure of Darwinian natural selection, because they were directly related to the survival of the Homo sapiens. Further development of grain-processing technologies remains invariably urgent today, as evidenced by the report [1] presented by the UN on the state of food security and nutrition in the world - with horrifying figures depicting the need and misery of the wide masses of the population of the planet. An important component of grain processing is the technology associated with the storage of grain products. Part of the stored grain products is used as seed stock for a new cycle of grain sales, the other - a significant part - for processing into food products. At the same time, new developed (optimized, improved) grain storage technologies must be safe, low-cost, maximally compatible with previously developed (available) equipment, and scalable to large volumes of stored material. Of course, the technology must ensure proper efficiency, an indicator of which should be a reduction in the percentage of grain product losses. In this regard, management methods used in the technological processes of grain products storage are substantially important, as well as methods of control over the current state of grain products for the correct organization of the technological processes. In particular, methods using elements of artificial intelligence are of high interest. Among them, neural networks are promising, especially those capable of learning "without a teacher" - Kohonen Maps (KK). Modified KK algorithm [2] implements reduced learning time[3], which is relevant in the implementation of adaptive procedures for processing the results of measurements of controlled parameters. The purpose of this paper is to consider the principles of using modified Kohonen maps to classify situations with applicability to remote quality control of grain products storage.

In the Sorraia River Valley (Coruche, Portugal): Settlement Dynamics of Ancient Peasant Societies on the Left Bank of the Lower Tagus River (5500 to 1800 B.C.E.)

This article is the result of archaeological and paleoenvironmental investigations carried out within the scope of the ANSOR project in the Sorraia valley (Coruche), on the left bank of the Lower Tagus. In the analysis of settlement dynamics between 5500 and 1800 a.n.e. we considered four moments: 1) The first peasant societies of the ancient Neolithic; 2) The Middle and Late Neolithic; 3) Chalcolithic; 4) The Early Bronze Age. The Sorraia valley was also framed in the framework of the Center and South of Portugal during the period under analysis. Interpretative models are presented for changes in the implantation patterns in the four stages under study, oscillating between paleoenvironmental factors and the socio-economic changes registered in the old peasant societies.

Steinalderkeramikken fra Rogaland – en kronologisk studie

From the 1800’s and onwards, pottery sherds have been found at a number of Neolithic occupation sites in Rogaland County, Southwestern Norway. In this paper, pottery assemblages from nine contexts are analyzed in order to produce an interpretative chronology. Typological analysis is combined with correspondence analysis and Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates. The result is a coherent chronological model that accounts for variations in pottery decoration styles between the late Early Neolithic and the Late Neolithic. There is a development in decorative styles from cord and cord-stamp ornamented vessels followed by a period of pots decorated with cord-stamp, small imprints and incisions, and finally a phase with added lines, comb, and cord-stamp. However, the multi-phased nature of the sites suggests that there are still many unanswered questions. New excavations and re-analyses of older sites are necessary for a better understanding of the developments in Neolithic pottery styles.

Human communities living in the central Campania Plain during eruptions of Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei

Archaeological and volcanological studies have revealed that eruptions of Neapolitan volcanoes have conditioned human settlement patterns since prehistoric times. The occurrence of high intensity explosive eruptions, interspersed with long periods of quiescence, has characterized the last 10 ka of activity of these volcanoes. Geoarchaeological studies, carried out in advance of investigations for the construction of the Rome-Naples and the new Naples-Bari railway lines, have made possible a detailed reconstruction of human presence in the central part of the Campania Plain up to the coastal strip, between the late Neolithic and the late Bronze Age. The examined chronological interval includes sequences of pyroclastic deposits erupted by both Campi Flegrei and Somma-Vesuvius, and paleosols with evidence of anthropic frequentation. Altogether, the geoarchaeological data have provided a detailed picture of human settlement and activities through time with a particular focus on a long period of quiescence of the two volcanoes and also during their intense activity.