Journal of World Prehistory最新文献

This paper reviews archaeological research on the transmission of writing knowledge between literate and pre-literate societies. It proposes the use of productive approaches, such as cultural epidemiology and cultural attraction theory (CAT). The case study focuses on East-Central Europe and discusses the role of writing in the construction of social group identity and the transition from local communities with a prehistoric mindset to a historically acting society during the first millennium AD. The study collects relevant archaeological records of Early Mediaeval writing and explains them using reflective archaeology. It is shown that interactions between literate and pre-literate societies are highly complex social processes that function not only at the cultural and cognitive levels of individuals but also among larger groups of people. By combining cultural attraction theory with empirical archaeological data, this study formulates a conclusive explanation for the introduction of writing among Europe’s Slavic-speaking population.

This research combines Strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) and Oxygen (δ¹⁸O) isotope analysis to challenge the prevailing interpretation of patrilocal exogamic practices among eastern European Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) communities. Patrilocality has been considered the key factor influencing the mobility patterns of central Europe’s first farmers (c. 5500–4900 cal. BC), especially in the south-eastern Moravian region (Czech Republic). Focusing our attention on both male and female tooth enamel samples from cemeteries, settlement graves and small clusters of graves, this paper reassesses the correlation between mobility, biological sex, and funerary practices. This task is accomplished by establishing a new isotopic footprint using new ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr data, as well as significantly increasing the number of sampled individuals for ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and δ¹⁸O. The outcome of this research contributes to a better understanding of the mobility patterns among early farmers in central Europe, challenging existing theories and providing new insights into their social and cultural dynamics.

Abstract

Europe is characterized by an uneven record of Middle Paleolithic occupations. Specifically, large parts of southeastern Europe display markedly lower site densities and less intensive evidence of human presence than is found elsewhere; this has often resulted in the exclusion of the Balkans from debates related to Pleistocene human adaptation. The discrepancy stems either from the lower population densities of southeastern Europe or an imbalance in research across Europe. Additionally, our understanding of Balkan Middle Paleolithic stone tool industries suffers from the use of Mousterian labels defined when Bordian typology was the chief method of lithic analysis. Industrial facies then defined and still in use include Balkan Charentian, Levallois Mousterian, Micromousterian, Denticulate Mousterian; their relation with the rest of the Eurasian record was and remains unclear. This paper sets aside the issue of scarcity of Pleistocene occupations and tries to address Neanderthal biogeography, and variations in Neanderthal technological behavior and subsistence, based on the available record. It reviews the current Middle Paleolithic record in the Balkans, presents the apparent temporal and spatial trends, and presents the provisional biogeography of hominins, including scenarios for the demise of Neanderthals at or soon after the arrival of modern humans in Europe. The paper ends with a discussion of perspectives for future research arising from this analysis of the available record and proposes some hypotheses regarding the role of the Balkans in the overall context of the occupational history of western Eurasia in the Middle/Late Pleistocene.

Funerary monuments appeared shortly after the arrival of the first farmers along the Atlantic Coast of continental Europe, during the first half of the fifth millennium. These enormous constructions, belonging to the ‘Passy’ phenomenon, can measure over 350 m in length and were erected to commemorate high-status individuals. No funerary evidence from the previous period hints at the emergence of these monuments. They do not exhibit any geographical continuity, originating from different cultural substrates. Nevertheless, these structures are characterized by the repetition of specific traits, including their layout and their spatial articulation, as well as a high degree of gender segregation and a focus on hunting or archery. This convergence reflects a well-established social structure and ideology, shared between communities. Moreover, it implies that the descendants of the two main cultures responsible for the spread of agriculture in Europe, the Linearbandkeramik and the Impresso-Cardial, which met at the end of the continent and which absorbed the descendants of the last hunter-gatherers, generated a new value system, and likely a new religious universe. While the funerary monumentality that appeared alongside the Passy phenomenon continued in the form of megaliths, the system eventually collapsed after a few centuries—which was to be expected, given its extreme character.

Any approach to the economic organization of a society depends on our knowledge of the productive forces and relations of production involved. In archaeology, this line of research requires an analysis of the technical quality and quantity of the means of production, as well as their spatial distribution and contextualisation. Macrolithic artefacts constituted the means of production in many of the productive processes of past communities, from the Neolithic period to the end of prehistory. This article seeks to utilize macrolithic data to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the economic organisation of the Chalcolithic communities in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula between c. 3100 and 2200 cal BC. These communities produced one of the most outstanding, but at the same time puzzling archaeological records known in later prehistory. The main aim of this exploratory approach, the first of its kind, is to determine if the different forms of occupation of the Chalcolithic, namely monumental, ditched enclosures, fortified and unfortified hill-top settlements, and simple, open settlements were distinguished by specific modes of production. This issue is crucial to the on-going debate about the meaning and relevance of the notion of social complexity in the context of Chalcolithic societies and their political organisation. Our study describes the productive forces of the Chalcolithic settlements as highly variable, both in the type of productive tasks performed and in their intensity, and such variability is not explained by aspects like geographic location, form of occupation, or monumentality. The observed wealth and productive diversity, without signs of marked social hierarchies, emerge as a characteristic feature of what can be defined as cooperative affluent societies.

This article sets out to broaden our knowledge of the sociopolitical dynamics of Santarém (AD 1000–1600), a regional society in the Lower Amazon, by synthesizing the existing archaeological data relating to settlement patterns, ritual ceramics, prestige goods and chronology, as well as exploring aspects linked to the technology of ceramic production at the Carapanari site, a small-scale community located in the region during the late precolonial period. Using an integrated approach, the research combines a techno-functional analysis of a sample basically composed of ceramic fragments, providing information on the original forms and possible uses, with microscopy and compositional analyses of fragments based on instrumental neutron activation analysis. This enables the identification of technological choices, processes of innovation and behavioral changes, also present at other sites in the region that are expressed over time. The set of information presented here engages with recent debates on the emergence of complex societies, providing some insight into the historical development of this polity in Amazonia during the late precolonial period.