Lithic Technology and Chronology of Initial Upper Paleolithic Assemblages at Tor Fawaz, Southern Jordan

The Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) is a key chrono-cultural concept in our understanding of the cultural and population dynamics at the transition from the Middle Paleolithic to Upper Paleolithic period. This paper presents technological and chronological analyses of lithic assemblages from a rockshelter site at Tor Fawaz in the Jebel Qalkha area, southern Jordan, to provide accurate dating and detailed recognition of the IUP variability in the Levant. We present integrated micromorphological, phytolith, and dung spherulite analyses to evaluate formation and postdepositional processes of archaeological remains through high-resolution micro-contextual studies. As a result, the Tor Fawaz assemblages show general similarity to those of Boker Tachtit Level 4, Tor Sadaf A–B, and Wadi Aghar C–D1 that represent the late phase of the IUP in the southern Levant. Based on the detailed recognition of site-formation processes, we suggest ca. 45–36 ka as the age of IUP occupations at Tor Fawaz. More specifically, the IUP occupations at Tor Fawaz and Wadi Aghar, a nearby IUP site in the same area, may represent slightly different phases that show a lithic technological trend paralleling the IUP sequence at Tor Sadaf in southern Jordan, and possibly post-date Boker Tachtit Level 4. We also discuss the issue of partial chronological overlap between the late IUP and the Ahmarian and also argue for the geographically different trends in cultural changes from the late IUP to the Ahmarian.

Indigenous built structures and anthropogenic impacts on the stratigraphy of Northern Australian rockshelters: insights from Malarakk 1, north western Arnhem Land

Malarrak 1 is currently the northernmost excavated rockshelter on the Australian mainland, located in the Wellington Range in north western Arnhem Land. The site contains a rich late Holocene deposit, with extensive contact rock art, stone artefacts, shell, bone, contact materials, ancestral human remains, and other cultural material. Excavation of the Malarrak 1 rockshelter and analysis of its sediments revealed many impacts on site formation processes within the deposit. We attribute the disturbance to possible erosion or sediment deposition during periods of intense rainfall and also to the construction of timber structures within the site. This is supported by modern and historical observations and is the focus of this paper. The extent of the disturbance to Malarrak 1 provides a cautionary tale for other excavations in the region that may be affected by similar Indigenous site occupation, as these anthropogenic activities enhance the risk of further impacts arising from biological and geomorphological processes that can impinge on the stratigraphic integrity of the cultural deposits.

Dating painted Panel E1 at Nawarla Gabarnmang, central-western Arnhem Land plateau

IntroductionThe southern Arnhem Land plateau contains a rich mosaic of thousands of rock art sites located in outcrops of Proterozoic Marlgowa Sandstone of the Kombolgie formation (Carson et al. 1999) (Figure 11.1). Within this region in Jawoyn Country can be found Nawarla Gabarnmang, an impressive rockshelter exhibiting a gridded network of pillars that supports a thick ceiling of 10 cm to 40 cm thick cross-beds of hard sandstone and quartzite (Figures 11.2 and 11.3; see also Chapter 10). The inter-layer joints and fissures between these compact and poorly soluble quartz-rich sandstones and quartzites have witnessed geologically slow dissolution of the bedrock, resulting in a hollowing out of the rock in a process known as ‘ghost rock’ formation or ‘phantomisation’ (Quinif 2010), a particular cave-forming process causing the regular gridshaped structure of underground cavities and pillars (for details of site formation processes, see Chapter 13).The remnant pillars supporting ceiling rock strata at Nawarla Gabarnmang are an anthropic cave structure (Delannoy et al. 2013; see Chapter 10): in addition to the slow geological dissolution of the rock along layer planes and fissure lines, people have also entirely or partially removed individual pillars, and possibly ceiling strata, over a period commencing sometime after the site was first occupied around 50,000 years ago (e.g. David et al. 2011, completed manuscript). What catches one’s attention at Nawarla Gabarnmang are the voids between the pillars, typically c. 1–2 m apart in the southwestern corner of the site, but more than 8 m apart in the central eastern portion. In that noticeably more open central-eastern area, a large, sub-horizontal and flat ceiling is supported by some 20 sparsely distributed pillars. Here, as in most other parts of the site, the floor of the sheltered area is generally flat and sub-horizontal, consisting of ashy sand with sparsely scattered, relatively small blocks of rock originating from the ceiling but not in their original fallen positions (these blocks have all, without exception, been moved by people). Within the fill across the site are rich archaeological deposits including stone artefacts, ochre pieces and animal bones, as revealed in the archaeological excavations (David et al. 2011; Geneste et al. 2012). What we see today in the shelter are the results of tens of thousands of years of human occupation, modification of rock surfaces and site use that express well the notion of ‘dwelling’ and ‘inhabitation’ (e.g. David et al. 2013, 2014; Delannoy et al. 2013; Geneste et al. 2010; cf. Ingold 2000; Thomas 2008).

There can be no confidence that the “first marine” and “in situ” artefact scatters in the Dampier Archipelago, NW Australia are in their primary archaeological context.

The absence of known prehistoric underwater cultural heritage (UCH) sites on the inner continental shelf of Australia stands in stark contrast to the thousands of sites revealed elsewhere in the world. Two recent claims – Dortch et al. (D2019) and Benjamin et al. (B2020) – put forward the first in situ (i.e., primary context) marine UCH sites in the shallow waters of the Dampier Archipelago, NW Australia, each arguing the stone artefact scatters are at least 7000 years old and are now submerged because of post-glacial sea-level rise. From the data published in D2019 and B2020, we assess the explicit and implicit assumptions and uncertainties of these claims. We include new results of hydrodynamic modelling, new data on coastal erosion and new bathymetric data of northern Flying Foam Passage, leading to a reinterpretation of the archaeology and the sites' sedimentary settings.Whilst the presented lithic material of D2019 and B2020 clearly includes cultural artefacts, we find that the arguments for the sites being of primary context and reflecting early Holocene land surfaces do not stand up to scrutiny and that the available evidence is insufficient to establish the facts. In describing the assumptions and uncertainties in D2019 and B2020, we include example tests to help resolve them. On balance, it appears that these sites are intertidal, and many or all artefacts are likely to have been reworked. These and similar sites would benefit from a thorough appraisal of past and present coastal processes to produce a defensible understanding of site formation processes before it is possible to determine their true nature and significance, noting that, even as secondary sites, they would still inform our understanding of process and change. Such work would support more powerful contributions to submerged prehistory than attempts to seek the first, the earliest, the oldest or deepest.

The Potential of Micromammals for the Stratigraphy and the Timing of Human Occupations at La Roche-à-Pierrot (Saint-Césaire, France)

As micromammals are highly sensitive to changes in their habitat, variations in species representation are often used to reconstruct local environmental conditions. However, taphonomic aspects of micromammals are often overlooked, despite the fact that they can provide important information for our understanding of archaeological sites. La Roche-à-Pierrot, Saint-Césaire, is a major archaeological site for our understanding of the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition in Western Europe. Clearly documenting site formation processes, the post-depositional reworking of deposits and the sequence of human occupations is fundamental for providing a secure archaeostratigraphic context of the site. The exceptionally large accumulation of micromammals from recently excavated stratigraphic units at the site makes it possible to track variations in the density of micromammals across the stratigraphic sequence. The taphonomic analysis of micromammals demonstrates these variations are not related to a change in the main accumulation agent or post-depositional phenomena. A negative correlation between small mammal remains and archaeological material suggests that peaks in micromammal densities can potentially be correlated with periods when the site was abandoned or when human occupation was less intense, and therefore provide new data for interpreting the Saint-Césaire stratigraphic sequence.

Micromorphological Study of Site Formation Processes at El Sidrón Cave (Asturias, Northern Spain): Encrustations over Neanderthal Bones

El Sidrón Cave is an archaeological and anthropological reference site of the Neanderthal world. It shows singular activity related to cannibalisation, and all existing processes are relevant to explain the specific behaviour of the concerned individuals. This paper presents geoarchaeological data, primarily based on mineralogical and petrographic techniques, from an investigation of the nature of the encrustations or hard coatings that affect a large part of the Neanderthal bone remains and their relationship with the depositional and post-depositional processes at the archaeological site. Crusts and patina were found to be numerous and diverse, mainly composed of calcite and siliciclastic grains, with different proportions and textures. The analysis indicated different origins and scenarios from their initial post-mortem accumulation to the final deposit recovered during the archaeological work. The presence of micromorphological features, such as clotted-peloidal micrite, needle-fibre calcite (NFC) aggregates, clay coatings, iron–manganese impregnation, and/or adhered aeolian dust may indicate that a significant proportion of the remains were affected by subaerial conditions in a relatively short period of time in a shelter, cave entrance, or shallower level of the karstic system, prior to their accumulation in the Ossuary Gallery.

The Battle of Lepanto Search and Survey Mission (1971–1972) by Throckmorton, Edgerton and Yalouris: Following Their Traces Half a Century Later Using Marine Geophysics

A series of marine remote sensing and ground-truth surveys were carried out at NW Gulf of Patras (W. Greece). The same area was surveyed in 1971 by Throckmorton, Edgerton and Yalouris, who are among the pioneers in the application of remote sensing techniques to underwater archaeology. The researchers conducted a surface reconnaissance survey to locate the site where the Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571. Their remote sensing surveying resulted in a map of two “target” areas that showed promise as possible remnants of wrecks from that battle and proposed a ground truth survey for their identification and in the detection of two modern shipwrecks. The ground truth survey was never fulfilled. The objectives of our repeat surveys, which were completed 50 years later, were to relocate the findings of this pioneer survey with higher spatial and vertical resolution, to ground-truth the targets, fulfilling their investigation, and to interpret the newly collected data in the light of modern developments in marine geosciences. Our repeat surveys detected mound clusters and individual mounds referred to “target” areas. These mounds could be interpreted as the surface expression of mud and fluid expulsion from the underlying deformed soft sediments. The ground truth survey demonstrated that the tops of mounds represent biogenic mounds. The ROV survey did not show any indication of wreck remnants of the Battle of Lepanto within the two survey areas. The site formation processes of the two modern shipwrecks were also studied in detail. Two noticeable seafloor morphological features were detected around the wreck sites; field of small-sized pockmarks and seafloor depressions. We would like to dedicate this work to the memory of Peter Throckmorton and Harold E. Edgerton, who are among the pioneers in the formative years of underwater archaeology in Greece.

The place beyond the trees: renewed excavations of the Middle Stone Age deposits at Olieboomspoort in the Waterberg Mountains of the South African Savanna Biome

Olieboomspoort is one of the few rock shelters in the vast interior of southern Africa documenting pulses of occupation from the Acheulean until the end of the Later Stone Age. Revil Mason excavated the site in 1954 and attributed the large Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithic assemblage to his middle phase of the so-called Pietersburg Industry. Recent work at the site has focused on the Holocene layers, but little is known about the earlier phases of shelter use. Here, we provide some background to the shelter, give a history of past research and present initial results following renewed fieldwork at the site. The MSA deposits contain abundant lithic artefacts and ochre, and we present an initial description of these cultural remains. Palynological analysis reveals limited potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, but some faunal remains indicate open grasslands. We dated two equid teeth that provided highly consistent combined U-series-ESR estimates, resulting in a mean age of 150 ± 14 ka (1σ). Even when considering potential sources of uncertainty such as variations in water-intake, these fossils can securely be dated to Marine Isotopic Stage 6. Our reappraisal of site formation processes highlights the fact that the archaeological assemblage is strongly time-averaged. We discuss these different results in the context of a recently rekindled interest in the so-called Pietersburg Industry.

The Role of Palynology in Archaeoecological Research: Reconstructing Human-Environment Interactions during Neolithic in the Western Mediterranean

This paper provides an overview of the potential of palynology within palaeoenvironmental research to reconstruct past landscapes and assess the relationship between vegetation and the first farming communities. The analysis of pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs in natural records evidenced how the adoption of farming and new sedentary settlement patterns resulted in major landscape transformation on extra-local or regional scales in the Western Mediterranean, affecting sclerophyllous and riparian forests in North Corsica, Mediterranean maquis in South Corsica, and oak forests in NE Iberia. In addition, palynology has been confirmed as a relevant source of data to address the local palaeoenvironmental evolution in lakes, wetlands, and archaeological sites, providing evidence of the presence of flocks (spores of coprophilous fungi), and changes in hydrology (salinity, dryness/wetness, aquatic/palustrine phases) and in geomorphology (soil erosion indicators). Finally, the spatial analysis of pollen and NPP intra-site distribution is presented here as a valuable tool to assess the social use of space in archaeological sites. In that sense, archaeopalynology has provided detailed information about site formation processes, social use of space, and the use of plants and fungi in the site of La Draga (Girona, Spain).

African Maritime Archaeology

The continent of Africa has had a lengthy involvement in global maritime affairs and archaeological research with Middle Stone Age people using marine resources on the coasts of southern Africa, the Classical Pharos lighthouse of Alexandria, and Medieval Indian Ocean trade on the Swahili coast to the Atlantic triangular slave trade. Maritime archaeology is the identification and interpretation of physical traces left by people who use the seas and oceans. Middle Stone Age sites in South Africa such as Klasies River Mouth and Pinnacle Point have the earliest evidence for human use of marine resources including birds, marine mammals, and shellfish. This exploitation of marine resources was also coincident with the use of pigment, probably for symbolic behavior, as well as the production of bladelet stone tool technology. The extensive timespan of human activity on the coast around Africa occurred during changing relative sea levels due to Ice Ages and tectonic movement affecting the location of the coastline relative to maritime archaeological sites. Geomorphological changes may also take place over shorter periods such as the 1909 ce shipwreck of the Eduard Bohlen in Namibia lying c. one and half thousand feet landward of the shoreline. Ancestors of sea-going vessels have been recorded on rivers from dugout canoes excavated at Dufuna in northern Nigeria and the first plank-built boats, such as the Old Kingdom Royal Ship of Cheops of Khufu, found at the Giza pyramids, which imitated the shape of earlier papyrus rafts. Classical documents such as the Periplus Maris Erythraei and Ptolemy’s Geographia record Arabian and Indian trade with eastern Africa including ivory and rhinoceros horn and describe fishing practices using baskets and sewn-hull boats of the inhabitants. The increase in oceanic trade links here during the medieval period encouraged the formation of Swahili port cities such as Kilwa and Mombasa. The former was in a strategic position to manage much of the gold trade between Sofala in Mozambique and the northern Swahili Coast. Portuguese forts, constructed in the 15th and 16th centuries on their trade routes around Africa, such as Elmina Castle in Ghana, Fort Jesus in Mombasa, Kenya, and Fort São Sebastião on Mozambique Island, dominate the ports and harbors. The first sub-Saharan underwater scientific investigations took place in 1976 of the Portuguese frigate Santo Antonio de Tanna that sunk during an Omani siege from 1696 to 1698. At Elmina in West Africa, studies were made of wreck-site formation processes around the 17th-century Dutch West India Company vessel Groeningen, which had caught fire when firing its guns in salute to Elmina Castle after arrival. More broad-based studies that interpret the functioning of the African maritime society in its wider environmental setting, both physically in the context of its religious buildings, harbors, fishing grounds, sailing routes, and shipwrecks, and by taking account of non-material aspects of the beliefs that influence behavior of coastal societies, have led to interpretations of their maritime outlook.