scholarly journals Ancient lipids document continuity in the use of early hunter–gatherer pottery through 9,000 years of Japanese prehistory

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (15) ◽  
pp. 3991-3996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Lucquin ◽  
Kevin Gibbs ◽  
Junzo Uchiyama ◽  
Hayley Saul ◽  
Mayumi Ajimoto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Residue Analysis ◽  
Analysis Data ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Aquatic Products ◽  
Isotopic Analyses ◽  
Ceramic Vessels

The earliest pots in the world are from East Asia and date to the Late Pleistocene. However, ceramic vessels were only produced in large numbers during the warmer and more stable climatic conditions of the Holocene. It has long been assumed that the expansion of pottery was linked with increased sedentism and exploitation of new resources that became available with the ameliorated climate, but this hypothesis has never been tested. Through chemical analysis of their contents, we herein investigate the use of pottery across an exceptionally long 9,000-y sequence from the Jōmon site of Torihama in western Japan, intermittently occupied from the Late Pleistocene to the mid-Holocene. Molecular and isotopic analyses of lipids from 143 vessels provides clear evidence that pottery across this sequence was predominantly used for cooking marine and freshwater resources, with evidence for diversification in the range of aquatic products processed during the Holocene. Conversely, there is little indication that ruminant animals or plants were processed in pottery, although it is evident from the faunal and macrobotanical remains that these foods were heavily exploited. Supported by other residue analysis data from Japan, our results show that the link between pottery and fishing was established in the Late Paleolithic and lasted well into the Holocene, despite environmental and socio-economic change. Cooking aquatic products in pottery represents an enduring social aspect of East Asian hunter–gatherers, a tradition based on a dependable technology for exploiting a sustainable resource in an uncertain and changing world.

scholarly journals The impact of environmental change on the use of early pottery by East Asian hunter-gatherers

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (31) ◽  
pp. 7931-7936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Lucquin ◽  
Harry K. Robson ◽  
Yvette Eley ◽  
Shinya Shoda ◽  
Dessislava Veltcheva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Residue Analysis ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Aquatic Resources ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Japanese Archipelago ◽  
The Impact

The invention of pottery was a fundamental technological advancement with far-reaching economic and cultural consequences. Pottery containers first emerged in East Asia during the Late Pleistocene in a wide range of environmental settings, but became particularly prominent and much more widely dispersed after climatic warming at the start of the Holocene. Some archaeologists argue that this increasing usage was driven by environmental factors, as warmer climates would have generated a wider range of terrestrial plant and animal resources that required processing in pottery. However, this hypothesis has never been directly tested. Here, in one of the largest studies of its kind, we conducted organic residue analysis of >800 pottery vessels selected from 46 Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites located across the Japanese archipelago to identify their contents. Our results demonstrate that pottery had a strong association with the processing of aquatic resources, irrespective of the ecological setting. Contrary to expectations, this association remained stable even after the onset of Holocene warming, including in more southerly areas, where expanding forests provided new opportunities for hunting and gathering. Nevertheless, the results indicate that a broader array of aquatic resources was processed in pottery after the start of the Holocene. We suggest this marks a significant change in the role of pottery of hunter-gatherers, corresponding to an increased volume of production, greater variation in forms and sizes, the rise of intensified fishing, the onset of shellfish exploitation, and reduced residential mobility.

Late Quaternary Climate and Vegetation of the Sudanian Zone of Northeast Nigeria

2002 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Salzmann ◽  
Philipp Hoelzmann ◽  
Irena Morczinek
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Lake Levels ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Quaternary Climate ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sudanian Zone ◽  
Humid Period

AbstractThe Lake Tilla crater lake in northeastern Nigeria (10°23′N, 12°08′E) provides a ca. 17,000 14C yr multiproxy record of the environmental history of a Sudanian savanna in West Africa. Evaluation of pollen, diatoms, and sedimentary geochemistry from cores suggests that dry climatic conditions prevailed throughout the late Pleistocene. Before the onset of the Holocene, the slow rise in lake levels was interrupted by a distinct dry event between ca. 10,900 and 10,500 14C yr B.P., which may coincide with the Younger Dryas episode. The onset of the Holocene is marked by an abrupt increase in lake levels and a subsequent spread of Guinean and Sudanian tree taxa into the open grass savanna that predominated throughout the Late Pleistocene. The dominance of the mountain olive Olea hochstetteri suggests cool climatic conditions prior to ca. 8600 14C yr B.P. The early to mid-Holocene humid period culminated between ca. 8500 and 7000 14C yr B.P. with the establishment of a dense Guinean savanna during high lake levels. Frequent fires were important in promoting the open character of the vegetation. The palynological and palaeolimnological data demonstrate that the humid period terminated after ca. 7000 14C yr B.P. in a gradual decline of the precipitation/evaporation ratio and was not interrupted by abrupt climatic events. The aridification trend intensified after ca. 3800 14C yr B.P. and continued until the present.

Coastal occupation and foraging during the last glacial maximum and early Holocene at Waterfall Bluff, eastern Pondoland, South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 1-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erich C. Fisher ◽  
Hayley C. Cawthra ◽  
Irene Esteban ◽  
Antonieta Jerardino ◽  
Frank H. Neumann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Marine Fish ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial

AbstractWaterfall Bluff is a rock shelter in eastern Pondoland, South Africa, adjacent to a narrow continental shelf that limited coastline movements across glacial/interglacial cycles. The archaeological deposits are characterized by well-preserved stratigraphy, faunal, and botanical remains alongside abundant stone artifacts and other materials. A comprehensive dating protocol consisting of 5 optically stimulated luminescence ages and 51 accelerator mass spectrometry 14C ages shows that the record of hunter-gatherer occupations at Waterfall Bluff persisted from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene, spanning the last glacial maximum and the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene. Here, we provide detailed descriptions about the sedimentary sequence, chronology, and characteristics of the archaeological deposits at Waterfall Bluff. Remains of marine mollusks and marine fish also show, for the first time, that coastal foraging was a component of some hunter-gatherer groups’ subsistence practices during glacial phases in the late Pleistocene. The presence of marine fish and shellfish further demonstrates that hunter-gatherers selectively targeted coastal resources from intertidal and estuarine habitats. Our results therefore underscore the idea that Pondoland's coastline remained a stable and predictable point on the landscape over the last glacial/interglacial transition being well positioned for hunter-gatherers to access resources from the nearby coastline, narrow continental shelf, and inland areas.

scholarly journals Honey-collecting in prehistoric West Africa from 3500 years ago

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Dunne ◽  
Alexa Höhn ◽  
Gabriele Franke ◽  
Katharina Neumann ◽  
Peter Breunig ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Residue Analysis ◽  
Fatty Acyl ◽  
Prehistoric Pottery ◽  
Alkanoic Acids ◽  
Complex Lipid ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Early Farming ◽  
Early Farmers ◽  
Chemical Evidence

AbstractHoney and other bee products were likely a sought-after foodstuff for much of human history, with direct chemical evidence for beeswax identified in prehistoric ceramic vessels from Europe, the Near East and Mediterranean North Africa, from the 7th millennium BC. Historical and ethnographic literature from across Africa suggests bee products, honey and larvae, had considerable importance both as a food source and in the making of honey-based drinks. Here, to investigate this, we carry out lipid residue analysis of 458 prehistoric pottery vessels from the Nok culture, Nigeria, West Africa, an area where early farmers and foragers co-existed. We report complex lipid distributions, comprising n-alkanes, n-alkanoic acids and fatty acyl wax esters, which provide direct chemical evidence of bee product exploitation and processing, likely including honey-collecting, in over one third of lipid-yielding Nok ceramic vessels. These findings highlight the probable importance of honey collecting in an early farming context, around 3500 years ago, in West Africa.

Residue Analysis of Cooking Vessels from Early Postclassic Xaltocan, Central Mexico

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Kristin De Lucia ◽  
Linda Scott Cummings
Keyword(s):  
Fourier Transform ◽  
Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Residue Analysis ◽  
Food Preparation ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Ceramic Vessels

This article examines the use of cooking vessels from Early Postclassic (AD 900–1250) Xaltocan, Mexico, through residue analysis of ceramic sherds. The analysis combined phytolith and starch analyses with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Because our understanding of prehispanic foodways in central Mexico is based largely on sources that describe or depict Aztec practices in the sixteenth century, we ask how foods were similar or different prior to the Aztecs. We also seek a better understanding of how plainware vessels were used in prehispanic times. Although there is long-term continuity in the preparation of foods such as tamales and corn gruels, we find that additional foods such as tuber-based stews were prepared in the Early Postclassic. In addition, some ceramic vessels, such as comales and crude bowls, had a wider range of food preparation functions than expected.

Forager Interactions on the Edge of the Early Mississippian World: Neutron Activation Analysis of Ocmulgee and St. Johns Pottery

2015 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Ashley ◽  
Neill J. Wallis ◽  
Michael D. Glascock
Keyword(s):  
Neutron Activation Analysis ◽  
Activation Analysis ◽  
Neutron Activation ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Analysis Data ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Interaction Studies ◽  
American Southeast ◽  
Southern Central

This study integrates disparate geographical areas of the American Southeast to show how studies of Early Mississippian (A.D. 900-1250) interactions can benefit from a multiscalar approach. Rather than focus on contact and exchanges between farming communities, as is the case with most Mississippian interaction studies, we turn our attention to social relations between village-dwelling St. Johns II fisher-hunter-gatherers of northeastern Florida and more mobile Ocmulgee foragers of southern-central Georgia; non-neighboring groups situated beyond and within the southeastern edge of the Mississippian world, respectively. We draw upon neutron activation analysis data to document the presence of both imported and locally produced Ocmulgee Cordmarked wares in St. Johns II domestic and ritual contexts. Establishing social relations with Ocmulgee households or kin groups through exchange and perhaps marriage would have facilitated St. Johns II access into the Early Mississippian world and enabled them to acquire the exotic copper, stone, and other minerals found in St. Johns mortuary mounds. This study underscores the multiscalarity of past societies and the importance of situating local histories in broader geographical contexts.

scholarly journals Late Pleistocene human paleoecology in the highland savanna ecosystem of mainland Southeast Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kantapon Suraprasit ◽  
Rasmi Shoocongdej ◽  
Kanoknart Chintakanon ◽  
Hervé Bocherens
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Stable Carbon Isotope ◽  
Lower Latitude ◽  
Stable Carbon ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Carbon And Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Northwestern Thailand ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia

AbstractThe late Pleistocene settlement of highland settings in mainland Southeast Asia by Homo sapiens has challenged our species’s ability to occupy mountainous landscapes that acted as physical barriers to the expansion into lower-latitude Sunda islands during sea-level lowstands. Tham Lod Rockshelter in highland Pang Mapha (northwestern Thailand), dated between 34,000 and 12,000 years ago, has yielded evidence of Hoabinhian lithic assemblages and natural resource use by hunter-gatherer societies. To understand the process of early settlements of highland areas, we measured stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of Tham Lod human and faunal tooth enamel. Our assessment of the stable carbon isotope results suggests long-term opportunistic behavior among hunter-gatherers in foraging on a variety of food items in a mosaic environment and/or inhabiting an open forest edge during the terminal Pleistocene. This study reinforces the higher-latitude and -altitude extension of a forest-grassland mosaic ecosystem or savanna corridor (farther north into northwestern Thailand), which facilitated the dispersal of hunter-gatherers across mountainous areas and possibly allowed for consistency in a human subsistence strategy and Hoabinhian technology in the highlands of mainland Southeast Asia over a 20,000-year span near the end of the Pleistocene.

scholarly journals Reconstructing Late Pleistocene paleoclimate at the scale of human behavior: an example from the Neandertal occupation of La Ferrassie (France)

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Pederzani ◽  
Vera Aldeias ◽  
Harold L. Dibble ◽  
Paul Goldberg ◽  
Jean-Jacques Hublin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Human Scale ◽  
Winter Temperatures ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Climatic Records

AbstractExploring the role of changing climates in human evolution is currently impeded by a scarcity of climatic information at the same temporal scale as the human behaviors documented in archaeological sites. This is mainly caused by high uncertainties in the chronometric dates used to correlate long-term climatic records with archaeological deposits. One solution is to generate climatic data directly from archaeological materials representing human behavior. Here we use oxygen isotope measurements of Bos/Bison tooth enamel to reconstruct summer and winter temperatures in the Late Pleistocene when Neandertals were using the site of La Ferrassie. Our results indicate that, despite the generally cold conditions of the broader period and despite direct evidence for cold features in certain sediments at the site, Neandertals used the site predominantly when climatic conditions were mild, similar to conditions in modern day France. We suggest that due to millennial scale climate variability, the periods of human activity and their climatic characteristics may not be representative of average conditions inferred from chronological correlations with long-term climatic records. These results highlight the importance of using direct routes, such as the high-resolution archives in tooth enamel from anthropogenically accumulated faunal assemblages, to establish climatic conditions at a human scale.

scholarly journals Climatic variations during the Holocene inferred from radiocarbon and stable carbon isotopes in a high-alpine cave

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Welte ◽  
Jens Fohlmeister ◽  
Melina Wertnik ◽  
Lukas Wacker ◽  
Bodo Hattendorf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Stable Carbon Isotopes ◽  
Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Stable Carbon ◽  
Δ13c Values ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Exchange Processes ◽  
Radiocarbon Data

Abstract. A novel technique making use of laser ablation coupled online to accelerator mass spectrometry (LA-AMS) allows analyzing the radiocarbon (14C) concentration in carbonate samples continuously at high spatial resolution within very short analysis times. This new technique can provide radiocarbon data similar to the spatial resolution of stable carbon (C) isotope measurements by isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) and, thus, can help to interpret δ13C signatures, which otherwise are difficult to understand due to numerous processes contributing to changes in C-isotope changes ratios. In this work we analyzed δ13C and 14C on the Holocene stalagmite SPA 127 from the high-alpine Spannagel Cave (Austria). Combined stable carbon and radiocarbon profiles allow to identify three growth periods characterized by different δ13C signatures: (i) the period > 8 ka BP is characterized by relatively low δ13C values with small variability combined with a comparably high radiocarbon reservoir effect (expressed as dead carbon fraction, dcf) of around 60 %. This points towards C contributions of host rock dissolution and/or from an old organic matter (OM) reservoir in the karst potentially mobilized due to the warm climatic conditions of the early Holocene. (ii) Between 3.8–8 ka BP a strong variability in δ13C reaching values from −8 to +1 ‰ with a generally lower dcf was observed. The δ13C variability is most likely caused by changes in gas exchange processes in the cave, which are induced by reduced drip rates as derived from reduced stalagmite growth rates. Additionally, the lower dcf indicates that the OM reservoir is contributing less to stalagmite growth in this period possibly as a result of reduced precipitation or because it is exhausted. (iii) In the youngest section between 2.4–3.8 ka BP, comparably stable and low δ13C values combined with an increasing dcf reaching up to 50 % are again hinting towards a contribution of an aged OM reservoir in the karst.

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