Mediterranean prehistory

It was a February afternoon in 2009, in the prehistoric
antiquities room of the Archaeological Museum of Naxos,
when I first talked with Colin Renfrew about the publication
of all the Early Cycladic figurines found in excavations.
Our conversation took place among the cases in which
the antiquities from Keros, and all the large figurines
from Aplomata, Phiondas, and other sites are exhibited.
Renfrew, as the excavator of Keros, where a large number
of marble figurine fragments and vases have been recently
found, wanted to look for comparanda in the excavated
material. The author, as the then Ephor of the Ephorate
of Antiquities for the Cyclades but also the excavator of
Skarkos, wished to see all the excavated material published.
Thus we joined forces and after a long collaboration our
efforts materialized in the form of a symposium entitled
Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context, held at the Athens
Archaeological Society on 27–29 May 2014.

The results of this symposium are presented here.
The current volume aims to publish a very important
class of material, partly unknown to scholarship. At the
same time, it constitutes a break from the usual way of
treating and publishing Early Cycladic sculptures...

This chapter presents the important but not very well known
archival material relating to James Stewart’s
Vounous excavations kept in the archive of the
Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm. The Medelhavsmuseet
was founded in 1954 as a direct result of the Swedish
Cyprus Expedition in order to store the Swedish share
of the finds from the excavations. The archival material
from the Swedish Cyprus Expedition, including field
diaries, drawings, photographs, manuscripts and
correspondence, is kept in the archive of the museum.
Stewart’s excavations at Vounous were published by the
Swedish Institute in Rome in 1950 and Einar Gjerstad
invited Stewart to write about the Early Bronze Age in
Cyprus for Swedish Cyprus Expedition Volume IV, Part
1A (Stewart 1962). The good collaboration between
Stewart and Gjerstad prompted Stewart to donate
his field records to the Swedish Cyprus Expedition,
which thus duly came to the museum.

Though Odysseus’ tales to Eumaios and Aninoos in Odyssey 14.199–359 and 17.417–44, respectively, are presented as fictional tales within Homer’s larger myth, some elements have striking analogs in Late Bronze–Early Iron Age reality.

This article examines these portions of the hero’s false ainoi within their fictive context for the purpose of identifying and evaluating those elements. Particular focus is given to Odysseus’ declaration that he led nine successful maritime raids prior to the Trojan War; to his twice–described ill–fated assault on Egypt; and to his claim not only to have been spared in the wake of that Egyptian raid, but to have spent a subsequent seven years in the land of the pharaohs, during which he gathered great wealth.

Through a comparative examination of literary and archaeological evidence from the Late Bronze–Early Iron transition in the Eastern Mediterranean, it is shown that these aspects of Odysseus’ stories are not only reflective of the historical reality surrounding the time in which the epic is set, but that Odysseus’ fictive experience is remarkably similar to that of one specific member of the ‘Sea Peoples’ groups best known from 19th and 20th dynasty Egyptian records: the ‘Sherden of the Sea.’

In molti contesti preistorici e protostorici italiani sono largamente rinvenuti resti strutturali in terra e conglomerati architettonici combusti o parzialmente cementati. La loro caratterizzazione tecnologica è un passo importante per ottenere dati rigurdanti la paleoeconomia,  lo sfruttamento delle risorse e l’esistenza di tradizioni costruttive su scala locale o regionale. L’integrazione al protocollo di analisi tecnologica di osservazioni effettuate ad occhio nudo o con microscopio ottico su sezioni levigate può aiutare ad una migliore comprensione dei resti in una fase intermedia dello studio, successiva alla loro caratterizzazione morfologica ed al riconoscimento di classi di impasto, ma preliminare all’approfondimento dello studio per mezzo di analisi specialistiche. La realizzazione su alcuni campioni di una sezione rettificata e polita (sezione levigata) permette infatti di descrivere con maggiore completezza l’organizzazione e la natura dei componenti, nonché le alterazioni subite dal materiale, ad esempio in caso di esposizione al calore. Si tratta dunque di associare le caratteristiche osservate ai meccanismi di deformazione della materia e a gesti specifici, che una volta messi in sequenza potranno permettere di ricostruire materie prime utilizzate, tecniche e catene operative. Qualche osservazione rilevante può riguardare anche le dinamiche di funzionamento delle strutture o il loro ingresso nel record archeologico. Sono qua presentati alcuni casi studio e chiavi di lettura preliminari, da completare ed affinare con l’avanzamento delle ricerche. Le prime applicazioni di tale tecnica hanno fornito risultati incoraggianti, soprattutto per il rapporto positivo tra massa di dati prodotta e costo finanziario ridotto.

This paper discusses the Neolithic beginnings of metal-using and metal-working in the central Mediterranean region. In particular, a basic yet surprisingly long-standing question is addressed: when did metallurgy appear in this region? In the middle Neolithic, as Lawrence Barfield controversially proposed, or in the late Neolithic, as most scholars seem now keen to believe? And if the latter proves true, when exactly can we date its inception considering that the Italian late Neolithic lasted for about 700 years? The first section of the paper will examine whether some of the most archaic copper axes from this region can be dated to the middle Neolithic (c.5000-4500 cal. BC). The second section will discuss whether large copper implements including axes circulated south of the Alps in the late/final Neolithic (c.4500-3600 cal. BC), and if these were made locally or were all imported from neighbouring regions where extractive technology was already practised in this time period. The final section will briefly present Copper Age developments of the metallurgical practices established in Neolithic along with concluding remarks concerning the social and technological transformation, which occurred in the Central Mediterranean region in the 4th millennium BC.

The article’s aim is to foster an interdisciplinary debate regarding the direction that archaeometallurgical studies in the central Mediterranean region, from the late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (c4500-1650 BC), ought to take in the next decade. It is argued that early metallurgical studies in the area have followed an idiosyncratic course due to the sway held on the discipline by Idealism, an influential philosophical movement that greatly hindered the development of science-based archaeology until the late 20th century. The last fifteen years, however, have witnessed an unprecedented if rather tumultuous expansion of metallurgical research, and important advances have been made in the chronology and chaîne opératoire of early metal technology and artefacts. Yet it is the author’s contention that, in order to reap full benefits from the recent disciplinary growth, an explicit research agenda must be set. Above all, it is argued that the new agenda must be grounded in the cross-disciplinary examination of the materiality of metalwork, hitherto poorly explored in this region.

Forthcoming April 2017

http://upers.kuleuven.be/en/book/9789462701052

Chapters by:
Simon Jusseret (The University of Texas at Austin, Université catholique de Louvain)
Manuel Sintubin (KU Leuven)
Jan Driessen (Université catholique de Louvain)
Susan E. Hough (U.S. Geological Survey)
James P. McCalpin (GEO-HAZ Consulting Inc.)
Christoph Grützner (RWTH Aachen University, University of Cambridge)
Thomas Wiatr (RWTH Aachen University, German Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy)
Charalampos Fassoulas (Natural History Museum of Crete, University of Crete)
Gerassimos A. Papadopoulos (National Observatory of Athens)
Jack Mason (RWTH Aachen University)
Klaus Reicherter (RWTH Aachen University)
Clairy Palyvou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Eleftheria Tsakanika (National Technical University of Athens)
Jeffrey S. Soles (University of North Carolina – Greensboro)
Floyd W. McCoy (University of Hawaii – Windward)
Rhonda Suka (Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii)
Colin F. Macdonald (The British School at Athens)
Tim Cunningham (Université catholique de Louvain)

This paper investigates the stable isotopic composition from late Pleistocene–Holocene (~ 13 to ~ 10.5 cal ka BP) shells of the land snail Helix figulina, from Franchthi Cave (Greece). It explores the palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental implications of the isotope palaeoecology of archaeological shells at the time of human occupation of the cave. Modern shells from around the cave were also analysed and their isotopic signatures compared with those of the archaeological shells. The carbon isotope composition of modern shells depicts the consumption of C3 vegetation. Shell oxygen isotopic values are consistent with other Mediterranean snail shells from coastal areas. Combining empirical linear regression and an evaporative model, the δ18Os suggest that modern snails in the study area are active during periods of higher relative humidity and lower rainfall δ18O, probably at night. Late glacial and early Holocene δ18Os show lower values compared to modern ones. Early Holocene δ18Os ...

The results of three archaeological seasons carried out in a settlement discovered in the Congreso lsland (Chafarinas lslands, North Africa, Spain) are presented, where different habitat structures (hearths, silos), which yielded an important amount of interesting archaeological materials, like cardial pottery, ostrich shell vessels and a highly specialized lithic industry, were located. lt is a small habitat with agriculture and livestock rising as showed by the-faunal and palaeobotanical analyses, but with an important role of shellfish gathering. This site has been 14C dated to the mid Vth millennium cal BC.

"The district of Cugno Case Vecchie is located about 3 km in the north-west of the modern town of Canicattini Bagni, in the province of Siracusa. This territory has been occupied from Prehistory to the present day because of the abundant presence of raw materials and water courses and its strategic location along the ancient Via Acrense. In Cugno Case Vecchie, in fact, is located a small necropolis of the Early Bronze Age, a second cemetery dating to the Late Bronze Age and a rocky settlement of Late antiquity and Medieval Age, populated in later times by shepherds and farmers.
The purpose of this article is to present the first results of a survey conducted in September 2008 during which two tombs with pseudo-pillars and one tomb with pilasters dating XVIII century A.D. were found."

This paper presents the results of a recent systematic review of the zoomorphic figures of the Romito shelter, a key site for Upper Palaeolithic rock art and one of the best‐preserved in Europe. The research led to the discovery of two new animal figures and re‐examines the chronology of the rock art evidence and the chrono‐stylistic data. The zoomorphic figures are discussed within the wider chrono‐cultural frame of Magdalenian figurative productions, casting new light on the Palaeolithic rock art phenomenon of southern Italy. This seems to go beyond the fixed limits of the ‘Mediterranean artistic province’, being part of the bigger contemporary picture of the Magdalenian cultures and extended over a broader territory.

Late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological deposits from the central Mediterranean regions contain abundant terrestrial gastropod shell remains. Stable isotope studies of their shell carbonate are valuable proxies for various aspects of climate and environmental change such as temperature, hydrological sources and balance, as well as vegetation. Here we present stable carbon and oxygen isotope data of snail shells from several archaeological deposits in the western Mediterranean (Iberian, Italian Peninsula and Sicily). Isotope ratios differ remarkably between the Late Pleistocene, Holocene and modern shells. The results can be interpreted in terms of hydrological variations and changes in vegetation over time. Fossil shells offer the opportunity to examine the effects of past climate change on local and regional environments.

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AD GLORIAM 

N. A. Răileanu (Kishinev, Moldova)N. A. Chetraru: The Beginnings9
S. I. Covalenco (Kishinev, Moldova)The Leading Stone Age Researcher of Moldova11
N. K. Anisyutkin, G. V. Grigorieva (St. - Petersburg, Russia)N.A. Chetraru and the Palaeolithic of Moldova14
List of Published Works by N.A. ChetraruList of Published Works18

MAN – MAMMOTH – CULTURE 

Z. A. Abramova (St. - Petersburg, Russia)A Catalogue of Depictions of Mammoth in European Palaeolithic Miniature Art23
Z. A. Abramova (St. - Petersburg, Russia)A Catalogue of Depictions of Mammoth in European Palaeolithic Wall Art68
N. K. Anisyutkin (St. - Petersburg, Russia)Mammoth in the Middle Paleolithic of East Europe (on the problem of Mousterian living structures and the use of mammoth bones)114
S. A. Vasiliev (St. - Petersburg, Russia)Man and Mammoth in the Paleolithic of North America130
I. E. Kuzmina (St. - Petersburg, Russia)Late Anthropogenic Fauna of South-Western and Central Russian Plain141
V. V. Popov (Voronezh, Russia)Bones of Mammoth in Construction of Dwellings of Anosovka-Mezin Type on the Station Kostenki 11 (Anosovka 2)157

RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS 

V. N. Stepanchuk (Kiev, Ukraine)The site of Mira in the Middle Dnieper area: On the question of homogeneity of Paleolithic layers187
A. V. Glavenchuk (Odessa, Ukraine)Study of a Manufacture Area on the Late Palaeolithic Settlement of Anetovka II206
A. P. Veselsky (Simferopol, Ukraine)Bodrak: A New Upper Paleolithic Site in South-Western Crimea228
S. P. Smolyaninova (Odessa, Ukraine)Some Groups of Retouched Stone Tools from Mesolithic Sites on the Northwest Coast of the Black Sea248
S. O. Remizov (Volgograd, Russia)A New Stone Age Station in Volgograd Oblast’267

PROBLEMS OF THE PALAEOLITHIC AND MESOLITHIC OF EUROPE 

Yu. E. Demidenko (Kiev, Ukraine)Problems of Epochal and Industrial Attribution for Kiik-Koba Rock-Shelter, Lower Layer Type Complexes in the Crimea271
S. I. Covalenco (Kishinev, Moldova)A Contribution to the Problem of the Dniester Epi-Aurignacien301
N. P. Olenkovskiy (Kherson, Ukraine)Nizhnedniprovska (Lower Dnieper) Epigravettian Culture307
I. V. Sapozhnikov (Odessa, Ukraine)The Ciobruci Station and Periodization of the Final Stage of the Late Palaeolithic in the Black Sea Steppes334

MONOGRAPH IN THE JOURNAL 

A. N. Sorokin (Moscow, Russia)The Mesolithic Stations on the Lower Moksha River359

ECO-SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTIONS 

E. V. Smyntyna (Odessa, Ukraine)Landscape in Archaeology and Primitive History: Main Approaches to Conceptualisation444
S. I. Medyanik (São Paulo, Brazil – Kishinev, Moldova), I. V. Sapozhnikov (Odessa, Ukraine)Natural Habitat of the Early Man in South-West of the Eastern Europe in Late Palaeolithic (based on palynological data and sections from the station Bolshaya Akkarzha)454
G. V. Grigorieva (St. - Petersburg, Russia)Planigraphy of Sew-on-Beads on the Upper Palaeolithic Settlement of Yudinovo (excavations of 1988 – 1990, 1995 – 1997 and 2000 – 2001)467

ARCHAEOLOGICAL THEOREMS 

L. S. Klejn (St. - Petersburg, Russia)How to Distinguish a Good Theoretical Archaeological Work of a Bad One?482
M. V. Anikovich (St. - Petersburg, Russia)Some Methodological Problems of Primitive Archaeology and Basic Generalizing Concepts: «Archaeological Stage», «Archaeological Culture», «Technical Complex», «Cultural-Historical Region»487

REVIEWS 

Yu. E. Demidenko, D. Yy. Nuzhnyi (Kiev, Ukraine)Upper Palaeolithic Problems in the North Black Sea Region and I.V. Sapozhnikov’s Book “Bolshaya Akkarzha. Upper Palaeolithic Economy and Culture of the Ukrainian Steppe”507
V. Ya. Shumkin (St. - Petersburg, Russia)The Death Again Has Chosen the Best One...To the Memory of Vladimir Ivanovich Timofeev (14.06.1947 – 08.08.2004)524

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

List of abbreviations527


Содержание

AD GLORIAM 

Н. А. Рэйляну (Кишинёв, Молдова)
Н.А. Кетрару: Начало большого пути Free!9
С. И. Коваленко (Кишинёв, Молдова)
Первый «каменщик» Молдовы Free!11
Н. К. Анисюткин, Г. В. Григорьева (Санкт-Петербург, Россия)
Н.А. Кетрару и палеолит Молдовы Free!14
Список опубликованных работ Н.А. Кетрару
Список опубликованных работ Free!18


ЧЕЛОВЕК – МАМОНТ – КУЛЬТУРА 

З. А. Абрамова (Санкт-Петербург, Россия)
Каталог изображений мамонта в европейском палеолитическом искусстве малых форм23
З. А. Абрамова (Санкт-Петербург, Россия)
Каталог изображений мамонта в палеолитическом настенном искусстве Европы68
Н. К. Анисюткин (Санкт-Петербург, Россия)
Мамонт в среднем палеолите Восточной Европы (к вопросу о мустьерских жилых структурах и использовании костей мамонта)114
С. А. Васильев (Санкт-Петербург, Россия)
Человек и мамонт в палеолите Северной Америки130
И. Е. Кузьмина (Санкт-Петербург, Россия)
Позднеантропогеновая териофауна юго-запада и центра Русской равнины141
В. В. Попов (Воронеж, Россия)
Кости мамонта в конструкции жилища аносовско-мезинского типа на стоянке Костёнки 11 (Аносовка 2)157


ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ И ПУБЛИКАЦИИ 

В. Н. Степанчук (Киев, Украина)
Стоянка Мира в Среднем Поднепровье: к вопросу o гомогенности палеолитических слоев187
А. В. Главенчук (Одесса, Украина)
Исследование производственного участка на позднепалеолитическом поселении Анетовке206
А. П. Весельский (Симферополь, Украина)
Бодрак – новый памятник верхнего палеолита в Юго-Западном Крыму228
С. П. Смольянинова (Одесса, Украина)
О некоторых группах изделий с вторичной обработкой ряда мезолитических стоянок Северо-Западного Причерноморья248
С. О. Ремизов (Волгоград, Россия)
Новая стоянка каменного века на территории Волгоградской области267


ПРОБЛЕМЫ ПАЛЕОЛИТА И МЕЗОЛИТА ЕВРОПЫ 

Ю. Э. Демиденко (Киев, Украина)
Проблемы эпохальной и индустриальной атрибуции комплексов находок типа нижнего слоя грота Киик-Коба в Крыму271
С. И. Коваленко (Кишинёв, Молдова)
К вопросу о днестровском эпиориньяке301
Н. П. Оленковский (Херсон, Украина)
Нижнеднепровская эпиграветтская культура307
И. В. Сапожников (Одесса, Украина)
Стоянка Чобручи и периодизация заключительного этапа позднего палеолита причерноморских степей334


МОНОГРАФИЯ В ЖУРНАЛЕ 

А. Н. Сорокин (Москва, Россия)
Мезолитические стоянки низовьев р. Мокши359


ЭКО-СОЦИАЛЬНЫЕ РЕКОНСТРУКЦИИ 

Е. В. Смынтына (Одесса, Украина)
Ландшафт в археологии и первобытной истории: основные подходы к концептуализации444
С. И. Медяник (Сан-Паулу, Бразилия – Кишинёв, Молдова), И. В. Сапожников (Одесса, Украина)
Природная среда обитания древнего человека на юго-западе Восточной Европы в позднем палеолите (по данным палинологии стоянки Большая Аккаржа и опорных разрезов)454
Г. В. Григорьева (Санкт-Петербург, Россия)
Планиграфия бус-нашивок верхнепалеолитического поселения Юдиново (раскопки 1988–1990, 1995–1997, 2000–2001 гг.)467


ТЕОРЕМЫ АРХЕОЛОГИИ 

Л. С. Клейн (Санкт-Петербург, Россия)
Как отличить хорошую теоретическую работу по археологии от плохой?482
М. В. Аникович (Санкт-Петербург, Россия)
Некоторые методологические проблемы первобытной археологии и основные обобщающие понятия: «археологическая эпоха», «археологическая культура», «технокомплекс», «историко-культурная область»487


РЕЦЕНЗИИ 

Ю. Э. Демиденко, Д. Ю. Нужный (Киев, Украина)
Проблемы верхнего палеолита Северного Причерноморья и книга И.В. Сапожникова «Большая Аккаржа. Хозяйство и культура позднего палеолита Степной Украины» 507
В. Я. Шумкин (Санкт-Петербург, Россия)
Опять смерть лучших выбирает… Памяти Владимира Ивановича Тимофеева (14.06.1947 – 08.08.2004) 524


ДОПОЛНИТЕЛЬНАЯ ИНФОРМАЦИЯ 

Список сокращений527

Bodies make space speak. This graduate seminar investigates the relationship between bodily practice, social performance, and the production of architectural space. Critical literature on the human body, its gender and sexuality, its materiality, and everyday life have flourished in the recent decades, while discussions of architectural space, place and landscape came to the foreground. Drawing on this corpus of recent scholarship in the social sciences and humanities, we will work closely with architectural, art historical and archaeological case studies drawn from the ancient Near Eastern world, and consider the impact of such new paradigms on the field. Neolithic figurines, megalithic monuments, rock reliefs, cave paintings, funerary rituals, urban festivals and festive spaces with visual narrative programs will constitute some of the case studies. Discussions of embodiment, embodied subjectivity, agency of objects, animism of architectural spaces and landscapes, gendered representation of the body, gender performance, multi-sensorial experience of the everyday world, spectacles of the state and biopolitics will play a central role in the seminar. While reading theoretical scholarship on body, performance and space, we will also be studying closely select case studies of archaeological sites, bodies of material evidence drawn from athe ancient Middle Eastern world from prehistory to the late Iron Age.

During the II millennium BC (Castelluccio culture, 2200 / 2100-1440-1420 BC), the area where the Greek colony of Megara Hyblaea will be founded, was characterized by several indigenous settlements. Among these, the most important sites are Bernardina, Secchiera, Mostringiano, Vallone della Neve and Cana Barbara, all located in the “cave”, a short distance from the rivers and the coast. They were explored for the  rst time by Paolo Orsi to the end of the nineteenth century. On that occasion, Orsi discovered numerous chamber tombs, mostly with well-preserved grave-goods. Most of the burials date back to the Early and Middle Sicilian Bronze Age, with some traces of later occupation.
As for the Early Bronze, the tombs generally contained a large amount of local pottery and stone tools, along with some metal objects. Although since then many excavations have been carried out by the Soprintendenza (mostly unpublished), the investigations of P. Orsi of the late nineteenth century have not yet been overcome. The same goes for the ceramic productions, the main indicator of the Castelluccio culture and never studied in the “megarese” area.
In this perspective, the analysis of ceramics from the necropolis of Bernardina (Orsi 1891), Secchiera (Orsi 1893), Vallone della Neve (Orsi 1899) and Cana Barbara (Orsi 1902) could provide signi cant data.
In autumn 2013, the Author was authorized by the director of the Archaeological Museum of Siracusa to start a complete study of all the material coming from the archaeological researches carried out by Orsi. Over 260 complete objects have been identi ed, belonging to the Early and Middle Bronze Age (objects in precious stone, basalt,  int, metal, bone and ceramics).
The aim of this work is the study and classi cation of Castelluccio-style pottery from the aforementioned sites in the context of the Bronze Age in Sicily. Paolo Orsi, between 1889 and 1899 published the preliminary re- ports, in which he brie y described the characteristics of some of the tombs and their grave-goods. The publica- tions included a few illustrations and schematic drawings of some objects. There were no further investigations on these sites by P. Orsi and he has never published a  nal report. The materials discovered by Orsi are now kept at the Archaeological Museum of Siracusa and they are largely unknown and almost forgotten.
The 51 ceramic samples from the above mentioned sites make an important contribution to the knowledge of the ceramic horizons of the Early and Middle Bronze Age chronological phases. In particular, 47 specimens belong to the Castelluccio style, 2 to the Rodì-Tindari-Vallelunga style and 2 to the Thapsos culture, that means Early and Middle Bronze Age.
The analysis of the ceramic production took place through an attempt at classi cation, organized according to morphological, dimensional and decorative criteria. Taxonomy is organized into a hierarchical system with  ve different levels of classi cation: Form, Group, Type, Variety and Variation.

Riassunto Dopo una breve introduzione sull'importanza delle grotte per lo studio della Preistoria, si parla delle grotte vulcaniche dell'Etna. Si accenna alla storia delle loro scoperte e delle interpretazioni che le accompagnarono e si passa poi a ricostruire la successione delle diverse culture preistoriche in Sicilia e nella regione etnea, in rapporto alle testimonianze che possono avere lasciato all'interno delle grotte: da ciò emerge la grande densità di presenze durante il periodo tra la Tarda Età del Rame e l'Antica Età del Bronzo, quando risultano frequentate decine di grotte. Si elencano quindi brevemente le varie ipotesi fatte sugli usi delle grotte da parte dell'uomo preistorico (abitativa, funeraria, cultuale): risulta evidente che sull'Etna la seconda ipotesi è quella con più certezza attestata, ma recenti indagini hanno fatto ipotizzare una attività cultuale probabilmente collegata con quella funeraria, in particolare nella grotta Petralia, di recente esplorazione. Segue una breve descrizione di 8 grotte dell'Etna particolarmente significative per i dati che forniscono sulla loro frequentazione durante la Preistoria. Le grotte e l'archeologia Contrariamente a quello che si crede comunemente (ma l'idea risale alla cultura classica e la troviamo in Lucrezio) la caverna non costituì l'originaria abitazione dell'uomo, che nelle prime fasi della preistoria era un cacciatore nomade che si accampava all'aperto con ripari di fortuna. Ciò non toglie che le cavità naturali siano state saltuariamente frequentate per vari scopi durante quasi tutto il corso della Preistoria e costituiscano uno dei luoghi migliori per lo studio archeologico di alcuni aspetti delle comunità primitive. I fattori di questa favorevole situazione sono di ordine fisico e antropico. Innanzitutto, nel corso dei millenni le grotte, con poche eccezioni hanno avuto momenti di frequentazione e altri, molto più lunghi di abbandono. Ciò ha fatto sì che ci siano cavità che, specie nelle parti più interne, non sono state più visitate dall'epoca preistorica a quella attuale, quando qualche speleologo ne ha violato i recessi più profondi e che hanno perciò mantenuto visibili le ultime situazioni di frequenza antropica senza troppi disturbi. Anche da un punto di vista fisico-geologico, le grotte, specie se non attive carsicamente e non interessate da frane recenti, sono ambienti nei quali le azioni degli agenti atmosferici sono per forza di cose ridotte, soprattutto nel campo dell'erosione, e gli spostamenti del contenuto antropico (organico e inorganico) sono stati di minore entità. L'unica conseguenza negativa, nel caso di grotte senza interro, può essere che importanti resti organici come le ossa non si mineralizzino e quindi si dissolvano, come si è verificato proprio in alcune grotte etnee. Nei casi, invece, in cui esse siano state interessate, nel corso della preistoria, da qualche evento eccezionale (frane, alluvioni), ciò ha comportato il formarsi di strati sterili, in seguito non manomessi, che hanno permesso di separare le varie fasi di vita e distinguere i manufatti e le altre forme di cultura materiale tipiche di quelle fasi. Per questo motivo nei primi periodi della ricerca paletnologica, la ricerca in grotta è stata la più praticata, e ha permesso di avere attendibili sequenze di culture per le varie fasi della Preistoria. Se il grado di informazioni che possono darci le grotte può considerarsi buono per l'aspetto cronologico, minore può essere la loro attendibilità per gli aspetti dell'economia e dell'organizzazione sociale, non trattandosi di siti di normale attività quotidiana. Quando però sia certa la loro frequentazione per aspetti specifici legati alla sfera funeraria o religiosa, allora tornano ad essere un luogo privilegiato per lo studio della cultura dei vari gruppi umani.

The island of Sardinia has been of particular interest to geneticists for decades. The current model for Sardinia’s genetic history describes the island as harboring a founder population that was established largely from the Neolithic peoples of southern Europe and remained isolated from later Bronze Age expansions on the mainland. To evaluate this model, we generate genome-wide ancient DNA data for 70 individuals from 21 Sardinian archaeological sites spanning the Middle Neolithic through the Medieval period. The earliest individuals show a strong affinity to western Mediterranean Neolithic populations, followed by an extended period of genetic continuity on the island through the Nuragic period (second millennium BCE). Beginning with individuals from Phoenician/Punic sites (first millennium BCE), we observe spatially-varying signals of admixture with sources principally from the eastern and northern Mediterranean. Overall, our analysis sheds light on the genetic history of Sardini...

The discovery of prehistoric cave paintings in the nineteenth century led to the shocking realisation that humans have been creating art for over 30,000 years. Episode two reveals how the very first pictures were created, and how images may have triggered the greatest change in human history.

To discover the first two dimensional paintings we need to look at the art created in caves such as Altamira, Chauvet and Lascaux; these were created roughly 35,000 years, the time Archeologists identify with a ‘creative explosion’.

The first of these cave paintings were discovered in Altemira by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, and his 8yr old daughter Maria, in 1879. The paintings they discovered on the walls of the caves were of animals such as aurochs, a long extinct relative of the bison. As these matched similar stone-age images he had seen, Sautuola concluded they were prehistoric. When the caves were opened to the public, however, they were considered a hoax, and unfortunately despite trying to clear his name, his discovery was not scientifically accepted until long after his death. Following this the caves of Lascaux and Chauvet came to light, and it is said that when Picasso saw images of the caves he declared “we have learned nothing”.

Today artists create images of every aspect of life, but back then the images were almost exclusively of animals,  in particular horses, bison and reindeer. The expert Henri Breuil believed the paintings to be linked to rituals that increased the chances of a successful hunt, however more recent archeology has shown that the animals depicted were not those eaten by the people of the time. In addition some of the paintings were in very hard to reach areas of the caves and featured dots and lines. However, it is easy to take a modern view such as this and miss the point completely, that being how did we learn to project our 3D world into 2D.

There are very similar paintings to be found in the Drakensburg Mountains of South Africa, however unlike their European cousins, these were not produced thousands of years ago, but much more recently. These images were produced by the San “bush men” and although they do not produce paintings like this today, Professor David Lewis Williams discovered papers from the late nineteenth century by a German settler that documented the life and rituals of the San people. It became clear to Williams that their religion was based around traveling in a trance state to a spirit world and that they documented in these pictures their experiences of the trance. Often these transitory states involved animals, and the animals depicted were normally large or powerful, such as the Eland, that were respected by the San people. Williams also noticed another similarity with their European counterparts, that of the dots and lines.

Research into altered states, such as the trances of the San people, show that on entering these states, visual disturbances similar to migraine aura that involved lines and dots occur. Furthermore, these images can also be produced through sensory deprivation, for example from being placed deep in a cave for a long time. Prehistoric people, it appears, had hallucinations , which took the form of things that were close to them, such as the horses, bison and aurochs. These hallucinations were remembered and prehistoric people then recreated them on the walls of their caves.

Returning to the European palaeolithic caves, it seems that 12,000 years ago people stopped painting. We don’t know why, but the discovery of Göbekli Tepe, in Southern Turkey may hold the answer.  When excavated the site revealed monolithic pillars built around 12,000 years ago, dated to just the time that the paintings in caves seem to stop. These stone pillars feature carvings of animals such as those in the caves. The effort in creating these stone pillars would have required considerable  labour and organisation, the workers for example, all needed feeding. Recent research has shown that modern wheat can be traced to wild wheat that grows within 20 miles of this site, which has lead scholars to speculate that this was the birthplace of agricultural farming and, in turn, complex society,'civilisation', itself.

In this paper we approach the study of a ceramic recipe based on the addition of crushed spathic calcite as temper. We first briefly discuss the anthropological significance underlying the identification of technological paste recipes, as well as the spatial distribution of the spathic calcite recipe in the Mediterranean basin. Subsequently, we focus on the possibilities of identifying this recipe using several analytical methods, including binocular microscopy, image analysis, petrology, X-ray powder diffraction and X-ray fluorescence. Thus, the complementarity existing between different methods commonly applied in pottery analysis is considered in order to know the potential of these various techniques to identify spathic calcite recipe and classify the ceramic record to maximize the social archaeological interpretation of the data. The final objective is to know the feasibility and limitations that certain analytical procedures - such as the binocular microscopy- have for extrapolating the identification of this recipe to a larger series of ceramics from only certain features of the paste.