Population history of the middle Euphrates valley: Dental non-metric traits at Tell Ashara,Tell Masaikh and Jebel Mashtale,Syria

Fifty-nine dental non-metric traits were scored using Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System on a sample of teeth from 350 human skeletons excavated at three sites in the lower middle Euphrates valley. The dataset was divided into six chronological subsets: Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Early Iron Age with Neo-Assyrian period, Classical/Late Antiquity, Early Islamic (Umayyad and Abbasid) period and Modern period. The matrix of Mean Measure of Divergence values exhibited temporal homogeneity of the sample with only dental non-metric trait scores in the Modern subset differing significantly from most other subsets. Such a result suggests that no major gene flow occurred in the middle Euphrates valley between the 3rd millennium BCE and the early 2nd millennium CE. Only after the Mongolian invasion and large depopulation of northern Mesopotamia in the 13th century CE a major population change occurred when the area was taken over in the 17th century by Bedouin tribes from the Arabian Peninsula.     

Carbonized plant remains from a pre-Roman Iron Age house site at Opperdoes,West Friesland,The Netherlands

The eastern part of the region of West Friesland (The Netherlands) was densely inhabited in the Middle and Late Bronze Age (Hoogkarspel culture). In the whole of this area, Iron Age settlement has only been found around Opperdoes. Carbonized plant remains from features associated with a pre-Roman Iron Age house near Opperdoes are discussed and compared with Bronze Age data from the region. The evidence suggests that the Iron Age food economy was different from that in the Bronze Age. Barley and linseed were possibly imported, while gold-of-pleasure was cultivated at the site.     

Genetic Continuity of Bronze Age Ancestry with Increased Steppe-Related Ancestry in Late Iron Age Uzbekistan

Although Uzbekistan and Central Asia are known for the well-studied Bronze Age civilization of the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC), the lesser-known Iron Age was also a dynamic period that resulted in increased interaction and admixture among different cultures from this region. To broaden our understanding of events that impacted the demography and population structure of this region, we generated 27 genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism capture data sets of Late Iron Age individuals around the Historical Kushan time period (∼2100–1500 BP) from three sites in South Uzbekistan. Overall, Bronze Age ancestry persists into the Iron Age in Uzbekistan, with no major replacements of populations with Steppe-related ancestry. However, these individuals suggest diverse ancestries related to Iranian farmers, Anatolian farmers, and Steppe herders, with a small amount of West European Hunter Gatherer, East Asian, and South Asian Hunter Gatherer ancestry as well. Genetic affinity toward the Late Bronze Age Steppe herders and a higher Steppe-related ancestry than that found in BMAC populations suggest an increased mobility and interaction of individuals from the Northern Steppe in a Southward direction. In addition, a decrease of Iranian and an increase of Anatolian farmer-like ancestry in Uzbekistan Iron Age individuals were observed compared with the BMAC populations from Uzbekistan. Thus, despite continuity from the Bronze Age, increased admixture played a major role in the shift from the Bronze to the Iron Age in southern Uzbekistan. This mixed ancestry is also observed in other parts of the Steppe and Central Asia, suggesting more widespread admixture among local populations.     

新疆哈密拉甫却克墓地人的颅面部测量学特征

新疆地处欧亚大陆东西方交汇处,公元前200年以后的人群迁徙、融合历程能够反映丝绸之路沿线地区不同族群的形成历史和多元文化的互动模式。拉甫却克墓地是东疆哈密地区首次发掘的历史时期墓葬群。本文基于该墓地10例成年人颅面部测量数据,采用多元统计及生物距离的方法来评估拉甫却克墓地的人群结构,并对哈密绿洲地带青铜时代晚期到历史时期的人群变迁进行初步探索。结果显示：1）拉甫却克人群呈现出明显的异质性,既有与欧亚大陆东部人群颅面部特征相近的个体,也有表现出东西方混合特征的个体;2）青铜时代晚期至早期铁器时代（公元前2000年至公元前1000年）,哈密人群在体质特征上存在连续性;而早期铁器时代到历史时期（公元前1000年以后）,随着欧亚大陆东部人群遗传贡献的增加,哈密人群体质特征发生明显变化。结合考古证据和历史记录,新的人骨标本让我们对哈密历史时期的人群迁徙和融合有了初步认识,也使后续可以针对这一问题展开更详细的多学科研究。     

内蒙古中南部地区青铜—早期铁器时代居民的龋病研究

本文对内蒙古中南部地区青铜—早期铁器时代5个考古地点出土人骨的龋病患病情况做了研究, 在与其他国内材料对比的基础上, 探讨了文化类型与龋病患病率之间的关系。龋病在以农业经济为主的人群中患病率最高, 在农牧兼营的人群中龋病率其次, 在以畜牧业为生的游牧人群中患病率最低。龋病是反映内蒙古地区该时段古代居民经济模式的一个有效指标。     

From forest to open pastures and fields: cultural landscape development in western Norway inferred from two pollen records representing different spatial scales of vegetation

The cultural landscape development of a farming community in western Norway was investigated through pollen analyses from a lake and a peat/soil profile. The pollen record from the lake indicates that there was a decrease in arboreal pollen (AP) by the end of the Mesolithic period (ca. 4200 cal b.c.), and that a substantial forest clearance occurred during the Bronze Age (ca. 1500 cal b.c.). The latter, together with grazing indicators and cereals, suggests a widespread establishment of farming. At the beginning of the Roman Iron Age there is an increase in heath communities. The pollen diagram from the peat/soil profile shows the forest clearance in the Bronze Age more clearly than the lake profile. This local pollen diagram is compared with modern pollen samples from mown and grazed localities in western Norway. Both analogue matching and ordination (PCA) indicate that the site was characterised by pastures and cereal fields from the Late Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age. An expansion of cereal cultivation took place during the Pre-Roman Iron Age, and an arable field was established at the site after ca. a.d. 800. This investigation illustrates the potential of selecting pollen sites reflecting different spatial scales, and complements the cultural history of the area as inferred from archaeological and historical records.     

新疆于田流水墓地青铜时代人类牙齿非测量性状

我国新疆地区自古以来即是东西方文明相互交融的摇篮,以往的考古学、体质人类学研究表明,该区域内不同文化之间的互通有无早在我国青铜-早期铁器时代便已经发生。关于这种交流与融合产生的原因,目前学术界仍未有定论。新疆于田流水墓地(2950±50 BP)是由中国社会科学院考古研究所于2003-2005年主持发掘的青铜时代墓葬群,该墓地共发掘墓葬65座,被视为是昆仑山北麓发现的最早人类文化遗存。本文从采集自流水墓地108例人骨标本的19项牙齿非测量性状研究入手,将其与欧亚大陆范围内的古今人群进行比较研究,并进行史密斯生物学距离的计算以及主成分分析。结果表明:生活在新疆流水地区的古代人类与南西伯利亚地区、日本绳纹、阿富汗/巴基斯坦、中国姜家梁地区人群之间在牙齿非测量性状方面存在某种程度上的相似性,这或许可以说明至少在3000年前,我国新疆西南部地区可能已经存在了东西方的人群迁徙。     

Rewriting the Central European Early Bronze Age Chronology: Evidence from Large-Scale Radiocarbon Dating

The transition from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in Central Europe has often been considered as a supra-regional uniform process, which led to the growing mastery of the new bronze technology. Since the 1920s, archaeologists have divided the Early Bronze Age into two chronological phases (Bronze A1 and A2), which were also seen as stages of technical progress. On the basis of the early radiocarbon dates from the cemetery of Singen, southern Germany, the beginning of the Early Bronze Age in Central Europe was originally dated around 2300/2200 BC and the transition to more complex casting techniques (i.e., Bronze A2) around 2000 BC. On the basis of 140 newly radiocarbon dated human remains from Final Neolithic, Early and Middle Bronze Age cemeteries south of Augsburg (Bavaria) and a re-dating of ten graves from the cemetery of Singen, we propose a significantly different dating range, which forces us to re-think the traditional relative and absolute chronologies as well as the narrative of technical development. We are now able to date the beginning of the Early Bronze Age to around 2150 BC and its end to around 1700 BC. Moreover, there is no transition between Bronze (Bz) A1 and Bronze (Bz) A2, but a complete overlap between the type objects of the two phases from 1900–1700 BC. We thus present a revised chronology of the assumed diagnostic type objects of the Early Bronze Age and recommend a radiocarbon-based view on the development of the material culture. Finally, we propose that the traditional phases Bz A1 and Bz A2 do not represent a chronological sequence, but regionally different social phenomena connected to the willingness of local actors to appropriate the new bronze technology.     

Dating the End of the Greek Bronze Age: A Robust Radiocarbon-Based Chronology from Assiros Toumba

Over 60 recent analyses of animal bones, plant remains, and building timbers from Assiros in northern Greece form an unique series from the 14^th to the 10^th century BC. With the exception of Thera, the number of ¹⁴C determinations from other Late Bronze Age sites in Greece has been small and their contribution to chronologies minimal. The absolute dates determined for Assiros through Bayesian modelling are both consistent and unexpected, since they are systematically earlier than the conventional chronologies of southern Greece by between 70 and 100 years. They have not been skewed by reference to assumed historical dates used as priors. They support high rather than low Iron Age chronologies from Spain to Israel where the merits of each are fiercely debated but remain unresolved.     

Genetic variation in prehistoric Sardinia

We sampled teeth from 53 ancient Sardinian (Nuragic) individuals who lived in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, between 3,430 and 2,700 years ago. After eliminating the samples that, in preliminary biochemical tests, did not show a high probability to yield reproducible results, we obtained 23 sequences of the mitochondrial DNA control region, which were associated to haplogroups by comparison with a dataset of modern sequences. The Nuragic samples show a remarkably low genetic diversity, comparable to that observed in ancient Iberians, but much lower than among the Etruscans. Most of these sequences have exact matches in two modern Sardinian populations, supporting a clear genealogical continuity from the Late Bronze Age up to current times. The Nuragic populations appear to be part of a large and geographically unstructured cluster of modern European populations, thus making it difficult to infer their evolutionary relationships. However, the low levels of genetic diversity, both within and among ancient samples, as opposed to the sharp differences among modern Sardinian samples, support the hypothesis of the expansion of a small group of maternally related individuals, and of comparatively recent differentiation of the Sardinian gene pools. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

青铜时代中晚期辽西地区农业活动特征

辽西地区城子山遗址和夏家店遗址农作物种子遗存研究显示,城子山地区青铜时代中期以旱作农业种植为主.粟的栽培比例要明显高于黍.青铜时代晚期的夏家店地区属半农半牧区,存在黍与粟为主的旱作农业种植,但黍的栽培比例要远高于青铜时代中期的城子山地区.干旱化可能是导致夏家店地区青铜时代晚期黍栽培比例升高的主要原因.城子山和夏家店地区农业种植结构在青铜时代晚期可能已有所不同,但这2个地区农业种植的差异究竟从何时开始,仍是一个需要继续深入研究的问题.     

Bronze Age olive domestication in the north Jordan valley: new morphological evidence for regional complexity in early arboricultural practice from Pella in Jordan

Recent research from the site of Pella in Jordan examines the process and timing of olive cultivation. The frequent presence of olive remains from the Pottery Neolithic, beginning in the Yarmoukian, suggests that exploitation of the olive dates from as early as c. 6200 cal bce, with evidence of oil pressing from at least c. 5200 cal bce. Morphometric data, spanning the Late Neolithic to the Middle Iron Age II, using the measurement of olive endocarp length and width, demonstrates a reduction in the size variation of olive endocarps through time, in addition to an increase in their length, likely the result of selection pressure on trees. At Pella, this change occurs sometime after the Chalcolithic and before the Late Bronze Age, probably post-dating the earliest phases of the Early Bronze Age. Domestication is thus later than Teleilat Ghassul (Jordan), which has the earliest morphological evidence for olive domestication, and suggests that olive domestication was a regionally and temporally diverse process.     

青铜时代中晚期辽西地区农业活动特征

辽西地区城子山遗址和夏家店遗址农作物种子遗存研究显示, 城子山地区青铜时代中期以旱作农业种植为主, 粟的栽培要明显高于黍。青铜时代晚期的夏家店地区属半农半牧区, 存在黍与粟为主的旱作农业种植, 但黍的栽培比例要远高于青铜时代中期的城子山地区。干旱化可能是导致夏家店地区青铜时代晚期黍栽培比例升高的主要原因。城子山和夏家店地区农业种植结构在青铜时代晚期可能已有所不同, 但这2个地区农业种植的差异究竟从何时开始, 仍是一个需要继续深入研究的问题。     

Land-use patterns and cultural change in the Middle to Late Bronze Age in Ireland: inferences from pollen records

In Ireland, the Middle to Late Bronze Age (1500–600 cal b.c.) is characterised by alternating phases of prolific metalwork production (the Bishopsland and Dowris Phases) and apparent recessions (the Roscommon Phase and the Late Bronze Age-Iron Age transition). In this paper, these changes in material culture are placed in a socio-economic context by examining contemporary settlement and land-use patterns reconstructed from the pollen record. The vegetation histories of six tephrochronologically linked sites are presented, which provide high-resolution and chronologically well-resolved insights into changes in landscape use over the Middle to Late Bronze Age. The records are compared with published pollen records in an attempt to discern if there are trends in woodland clearance and abandonment from which changes in settlement patterns can be inferred. The results suggest that prolific metalworking industries correlate chronologically with expansion of farming activity, which indicates that they were supported by a productive subsistence economy. Conversely, declines in metalwork production occur during periods when farming activity was generally less extensive and perhaps more centralised, and it is proposed that disparate socio-economic or political factors, rather than a collapse of the subsistence economy, lie behind the demise of metalworking industries.     

Tracing the Origin of the East-West Population Admixture in the Altai Region (Central Asia)

A recent discovery of Iron Age burials (Pazyryk culture) in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia may shed light on the mode and tempo of the generation of the current genetic east-west population admixture in Central Asia. Studies on ancient mitochondrial DNA of this region suggest that the Altai Mountains played the role of a geographical barrier between West and East Eurasian lineages until the beginning of the Iron Age. After the 7th century BC, coinciding with Scythian expansion across the Eurasian steppes, a gradual influx of East Eurasian sequences in Western steppes is detected. However, the underlying events behind the genetic admixture in Altai during the Iron Age are still unresolved: 1) whether it was a result of migratory events (eastward firstly, westward secondly), or 2) whether it was a result of a local demographic expansion in a ‘contact zone’ between European and East Asian people. In the present work, we analyzed the mitochondrial DNA lineages in human remains from Bronze and Iron Age burials of Mongolian Altai. Here we present support to the hypothesis that the gene pool of Iron Age inhabitants of Mongolian Altai was similar to that of western Iron Age Altaians (Russia and Kazakhstan). Thus, this people not only shared the same culture (Pazyryk), but also shared the same genetic east-west population admixture. In turn, Pazyryks appear to have a similar gene pool that current Altaians. Our results further show that Iron Age Altaians displayed mitochondrial lineages already present around Altai region before the Iron Age. This would provide support for a demographic expansion of local people of Altai instead of westward or eastward migratory events, as the demographic event behind the high population genetic admixture and diversity in Central Asia.     

Earliest evidence of a primitive cultivar of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Vitis vinifera</Emphasis> L. during the Bronze Age in Sardinia (Italy)

The discovery of the Nuragic culture settlement of Sa Osa, Cabras-Oristano, Sardinia, has made it possible to investigate the domestication status of waterlogged uncharred grape pips that were recovered from three wells dating from the Middle and Late Bronze Age (ca. 1350–1150 bc). Applying the stepwise linear discriminant analysis method, a morphological comparison of archaeological seeds and modern wild and cultivated Sardinian grapes pips was performed to determine the similarities between them. The results showed that the archaeological seeds from the Middle Bronze Age have intermediate morphological traits between modern wild and cultivated grape pips from Sardinia. In contrast, the analyses performed on the archaeological seeds from the Late Bronze Age showed a high degree of similarity with the modern cultivars in Sardinia. These results provide the first evidence of primitive cultivated Vitis vinifera in Sardinia during the Late Bronze Age (1286–1115 cal bc, 2σ). This evidence may support the hypothesis that Sardinia could have been a secondary domestication centre of the grapevine, due to the presence of ancient cultivars that still exhibit the phenotypic characteristics of wild grapes.     

新疆喀什下坂地墓地青铜时代人群颅骨的测量性状

下坂地墓地青铜时代居民是帕米尔高原区早期人群的代表。通过颅骨测量性状特征对该人群来源和流向问题的讨论,为建立欧亚大陆青铜时代人群的流动、变迁史提供了新的素材。与欧亚大陆青铜时代时空相关人群对比分析的结果表明,下坂地青铜组居民的祖先人群,可能是来自东欧南部草原地带的洞室墓文化居民。他们在安德罗诺沃文化的繁盛期,自东欧草原地带迁徙到帕米尔高原区,逐渐发展为安德罗诺沃文化的一个地方变体。     

全新世中国北方人群第一臼齿齿冠面积和齿尖相对面积的测量分析

通过对532枚中国北方地区新石器时代到青铜时代和铁器时代人类上、下颌骨第一臼齿(M1和M1)齿冠面积和齿尖面积的测量和分析, 得到以下关于中国北方近代人群牙齿尺寸的准确数据和变异情况的结果: 两性M1和M1齿冠面积存在显著性差异, 男性齿冠面积大于女性齿冠面积, 齿尖相对面积不存在性别差异; 从新石器时代到青铜时代男性M1和M1分别缩小了1.16%和4.96%, 女性分别缩小了5.68%和6.11%,青铜时代到铁器时代齿冠面积无明显变化; M1颊侧尖相对基底面积大于舌侧尖, 形成齿尖大小差异的原因很可能是在人类演化过程中, 齿冠面积整体缩小的趋势下, 为使咬合面最大化使用, 各齿尖朝着更利于扩大咬合面基底面积的方式进化的结果; 世界各地区近代人群M1和M1各齿尖大小顺序基本一致, 其中M1为原尖>前尖>后尖>次尖, M1下原尖最大, 下次小尖最小, 其他三个齿尖面积非常接近, 不存在明显大小变化。     

The Early Bronze Age dendrochronology of Sovjan (Albania): A first tree-ring sequence of the 24th – 22nd c. BC for the southwestern Balkans

The archaeological site of Sovjan is situated on the edge of the Korçë Basin, southeastern Albania. Its remarkably long and well investigated stratigraphic sequence, spanning from the Neolithic till the Iron Age, makes it an important type- and reference-site for the whole region. At different periods of prehistory it was located on the shores of the former Lake Maliq that once filled the Korçë Basin, but was definitely drained in the 1940′s. These permanent wetland conditions on the site allowed for a high degree of preservation of organic material, especially wood. Based on the current knowledge, level 8 of Sovjan contains the best-preserved wooden material of all the Early Bronze Age sites in the Balkans. Through the combination of dendrochronology and Bayesian modelling, i.e. wiggle-matching, a floating 269-years long tree-ring chronology was constructed, with an absolute end-date range falling between 2158 and 2142 cal BC (2σ). It was possible to establish that the dwellings and the trackway associated with the last occupation phase of level 8 are contemporaneous. Additionally, with the help of the new dendrochronological data and based on previously published charcoal dates, the absolute chronology of the subsequent level 7 is being narrowed-down to a range from the mid-22nd to mid-20th c. cal BC (2σ). The Early Bronze Age layers of the archaeological site of Sovjan, which are particularly pertinent for the 3rd millennium chronology of the southwestern Balkans, can now be dated with high precision for the first time and hence offer a major chronological reference point in the region.     

The prehistoric hillfort at Grad (Peljesac, Dalmatia)--preliminary results of intensive surface survey

An intensive surface survey, covering an area of approximately 10.000 m2, was carried out at Grad, a hillfort in southern Dalmatia. Its aims were to obtain information relevant for determining the spatial extent of the site, its function(s), periods of occupation, degree of preservation, and potential for further investigation. Research strategy included mapping of the visible structural remains and systematic recovery of all surface finds. Majority of the collected finds are coarse Hellenistic ceramics followed by Bronze Age and Iron Age pottery. The central area of the hillfort was intensively used during the last few centuries B.C., while its origins can be traced back to the Bronze Age. The recorded structures and the recovered finds hint at a residential and defensive function of the site, while its central, elevated area may have been a focus of special activities.