Journal of World Prehistory最新文献

This paper analyses and re-evaluates current explanations and interpretations of the origins, development and societal context of metallurgy in the Balkans (c. 6200–3700 BC). The early metallurgy in this region encompasses the production, distribution and consumption of copper, gold, tin bronze, lead and silver. The paper draws upon a wide range of existing archaeometallurgical and archaeological data, the diversity and depth of which make the Balkans one of the most intensively investigated of all early metallurgical heartlands across the world. We focus specifically on the ongoing debates relating to (1) the independent invention and innovation of different metals and metal production techniques; (2) the analysis and interpretation of early metallurgical production cores and peripheries, and their collapses; and (3) the relationships between metals, metallurgy and society. We argue that metal production in the Balkans throughout this period reflects changes in the organisation of communities and their patterns of cooperation, rather than being the fundamental basis for the emergence of elites in an increasingly hierarchical society.

We studied 36 dogs (Canis familiaris) from the Can Roqueta site in the Catalan pre-littoral depression (Barcelona), dated between the Late Bronze Age and the First Iron Age (1300 and 550 cal BC). We used a sample of 27 specimens to analyse the evolution of the dogs’ diet based on the carbon δ¹³C and nitrogen δ¹⁵N isotope composition. The results show a marked human influence in that these natural carnivores display a highly plant-based diet. The offset between canids and herbivorous ungulates does not reach the minimum established for a trophic level, which implies an input of C₃ and C₄ (millet) cultivated plants. Moreover, the homogeneity in the values indicates that humans prepared their dogs’ food.

The colonisation of eastern parts of the Pacific Islands was the last phase in the preindustrial expansion of the human species. Given the scale and challenges of the endeavour it is unsurprising that scholars have long been interested in understanding the conditions that drove and supported the exploration and settlement of this vast region. There has been speculation as to the influence of demographic factors, either as drivers or in some way regulating the rate and success of human expansion, but testing this has proven challenging. This study evaluates two hypotheses of population dynamics: the adaptation/resilience hypothesis, which proposes that populations respond to localised environmental conditions and changes in subsistence strategy, technology, differences in pathogen loads, and other events that occur at different times in different places; and the temporal hypothesis, which proposes that populations respond to major events such as climate change that occur in a region at an absolute point in, or over an absolute period of, time (noting that the two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive). Applying new methods for estimating the rate of natural population increase from human skeletal remains, this study utilised 23 samples to evaluate trends in population increase following the human expansion into the region. The results indicate a trend in population growth following colonisation, with initially high population growth, followed by a significant decrease and subsequently an increase in growth rates. The lack of a temporal trend may represent a high degree of heterogeneity in the impacts of climate change on individual archipelagos and islands.