Ancients Ruins of Mahabharata Prominence Hastinapur Giving Vindication of Bioarchaeology

Hastinapur, capital of the Kuru Kingdom in the era of Mahabharata. Some ancient structures imply the name of Mahabharata personages such as Karna Ghat Mandir, Draupadi Ghat Mandir, Pandeshwar Mahadev Mandir, Pandv Tila, or Ulta Khera Mound, etc. In the year 1950-52 some portion of Ulta Khera and Mound of Raghunathji was excavated by B.B. Lal. He found 5 culture strata starting from Pre 1200 B.C. to the early 15th Century A.D and the first time he brings in limelight a new ceramic industry Painted Grey Ware. The recovery of somehow Kushan Period bones(?,for exact time period, the Archaeological Survey of India should remove all these evidences from the site and go through carbon dating.) from near site HST 2 connects this mound with Bio-archaeology. Keywords: Hastinapur, Ulta Khera Mound, Mahabharata, Bioarchaeology

Two earthquake events on the Pamsoa Segment of the Matano Fault, Sulawesi

Sulawesi Island crossed by the importance active faults of the Palukoro Fault in the western part and the Matano Fault in the eastern part. Pamsoa Segment, the fourth of six-segments of the Matano Fault (from west to east), located near importance Sorowako mining city, Sulawesi. Pamsoa segment has a 38 km length, oriented N295°E, and has an obvious 475 m sinistral river offset. A reconnaissance survey conduct in this segment along the fault crosses the mining dirt road. Two fault rupture existed on the Holocene river terrace. Accelerated Mass Spectrometry (AMS) carbon dating shows age about 5218 BP and 4446 BP on the soil samples. Nice slicken-side on red soil shows as a fresh fault rupture. This rupture shows a possible two earthquake event on the Pamsoa Segment. The Matano fault has potency similar to the 2018 Palu earthquake. If the fault has similar multi fault rupture earthquake characteristic, the Matano Fault is also classified as a Magnitude 7+ class earthquake. Further research is needed to get precise earthquake geology parameters and ideal charcoal samples.

2013–2014 Survey of Chars Using Raman Spectroscopy

In late 2013, an open call for charcoal and biochar samples was distributed in an effort to compare a wide range of char samples by Raman spectroscopy. The samples contributed to this survey included: laboratory produced biochars, recent biochars produced in field conditions, and ancient char samples previously analysed by carbon dating. By using selected Raman measurements, the char samples could be ranked in terms of the degree of thermochemical alteration or extent of carbon nanostructural development. The Raman results for recently produced biomass chars were generally consistent with the conversion of amorphous carbon formed at lower temperatures into condensed, polyaromatic, and graphene-like carbon formed at higher temperatures. A number of parameters calculated from the Raman spectra could be used to estimate the effective heat treatment temperatures in the recently produced biochars. Other samples such as anthracite coal, tire pyrolysis carbon, and ancient chars departed from the trends observed in the recently produced biomass chars using this approach. In total, 45 samples were analysed by Raman spectroscopy for this survey. Ancient and buried char samples displayed higher intensities for features in the Raman spectra associated with amorphous carbon.

Song Gede: Situs Gua Hunian Sejak Masa Pleistosen Akhir di Pulau Nusa Penida, Bali

Prehistoric archaeological research in Indonesia recently showed the existence of dwelling caves from the late Pleistocene, starting from Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi to East Nusa Tenggara. The Song Gede site is one of the dwelling caves from the late Pleistocene which was very interesting to be discused, especially when tracing the distribution of early modern humans in Southeast Asia. The location of the Song Gede site is considered to have a very strategic position because it was located at the eastern end of the Sunda Shelf towards Wallacea. The purpose of this paper is to study the chronology of the Song Gede Site and review the results of research at the Song Gede Site as an ocupation site that is on the migration route in the southern part of the Sunda Shelf to the Wallacea region or vice versa. The research method used was stratigraphic analysis, contextual and carbon dating methods. The results showed that the Song Gede Site has been inhabited since the late Pleistocene to the Holocene. The human living in the cave uses various natural resources to meet their daily needs, such as the use of rock materials, and the rest of the animal remains for tools and the use of animal and plants to fulfill their daily consumption.

The Oglakhty-Tom Petroglyphs of the Lower Tom Rock Art Complex

The present research featured the cultural and chronological context of the Oglakhty-Tom petroglyphs found in the lower valley of the Tom river. The author compiled a complete list of geometric petroglyphs of South Siberia, as well as a series of representational parallels that can help to date geometric zoomorph characters carved by the Bronze Age peoples of West Siberia. The author also illustrated some representational parallels for geometric petroglyphs from the early Andronian period found in the Vasyugan complex and the Lugavskoye burial mound in the Middle Yenisei. The paper introduces some results of carbon dating for these petroglyphs. The author detected some new archaeologic and petroglyphic complexes in the Lower Tom that go back to the epoch between Early Andronian time and the Bronze Age. He established the connection between the geometric petroglyphs and the Early Andronian complex in the Lower Tom, while the Minor Tuva-Altai petroglyphs proved to be as old as the Early Seyma-Turbino period. The paper contains palimpsests and ritual assemblages that prove that Oglakhty-Tom and Late Angara petroglyphs once co-existed. The author believes that the geometric petroglyphs and the realistic Late Angara petroglyphs date back to the same Early Andronian communities. The research also traces back various sources of these art traditions.

Millet arrived in the South China Coast around 5,500 years ago

<p>Crop dispersal has long been recognised as an important topic in agricultural archaeology and food globalisation. One of most pressing questions facing archaeologists is determining when and where millet arrived in the South China Coast. Our study focused on the millet phytoliths remains from three Neolithic sites in southeast coastal Fujian. Multiple dating methods, including charred carbon dating, phytolith carbon dating, and optically stimulated luminescence were used to construct the chronologies of the sites. The dating results showed that BTS was initially occupied at approximately 5,500 cal a BP. The millet phytoliths recovered in this study are likely the earliest millet remains found in Fujian, suggesting that millet arrived in the South China Coast at least 5,500 years ago. However, questions about whether millet agriculture in northern China dispersed southward through the inland or coastal routes remain unanswered. Given that millet remains were found in Jiangxi and northern Fujian – two important gaps in the inland route – no earlier than 5,000 cal a BP, it seems that the millet remains recovered from the coastal sites of Fujian might have dispersed following a coastal route from northern China. Nevertheless, Fujian is an important junction of the coastal route for the dispersal of millet from northern China. These findings not only provide new insights to millet dispersal routes in China, but also have significant implications for crop communications between Taiwan and mainland China during the Neolithic age.</p><p> </p><p> </p>