Before Farming: the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers

ref: 2004/1 article 1

Taphonomy and stratigraphy in European prehistory

Paola Villa
University of Colorado Museum, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0265
villap@buffmail.colorado.edu

Keywords: Paleolithic sites, western Europe, refitting, living structures, small assemblages, hunting and scavenging.

Abstract

This paper reports on past and recent studies of archaeological stratigraphy and human occupation features at several Paleolithic cave and open air occurrences seen in the light of refitting, taphonomy and sedimentary context. The Lazaret, Lunel Viel, Fontbrégoua, Caminade, Ambrona and Grotta dei Moscerini occurrences are examined in detail. The adequacy and significance of samples and the value of the refitting method are discussed for some cases. The most successful interpretations of site function, behavioural patterns or models of cultural stratigraphy are those that integrate bone taphonomy or lithic analyses, whether or not based on refitting, with sedimentary and contextual analyses. Some occurrences show that taphonomy without contextual or stratigraphic controls is not likely to produce solid data and that honesty in inference requires that our interpretations do not imply more than we actually know.

ref: 2004/1 article 2

Spaces and species: archaeology, landscape ecology and spatial models in northern Patagonia

V Scheinsohn
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
scheinso@mail.retina.ar

SD Matteucci
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas CONICET, Grupo de Ecología del Paisaje y Medio Ambiente, Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
smatt@gepama.com.ar

Keywords: Landscape ecology, spatial modelling, landscape archaeology, Argentine, Patagonia.

Abstract

In the context of a project framed on ecological landscape archaeology, a predictive model of site location is constructed from broad patterns of hunter-gatherer ecology (Binford 2001) applied to the specific environmental characteristics of a sub-antarctic steppe-forest ecotone. Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and image processing are used to model the location of archaeological sites in Comarca Andina del Paralelo 42º (parallel 42° Andean region), northern Patagonia, Argentina. The model is tested against the spatial distribution of known archaeological sites, and shown to be a good predictor of site location. The methodology has wider application as a means of minimising the cost of intensive field surveys in areas with poor archaeological visibility.

ref: 2004/1 article 3

The Mesolithic in Scotland: action archaeology for the twenty-first century

CR Wickham-Jones
Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland
c.wickham-jones@mesolithic.co.uk

Keywords: Mesolithic, Scotland, survey, lithics, settlement.

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of existing information on the Mesolithic in Scotland with two aims: to inform others; and to generate discussion and comparison in order to aid our own interpretations in the light of work elsewhere. The main developments in Mesolithic archaeology in Scotland in the mid twentieth century are presented together with the changes in the situation as we enter the early twenty-first century. From a cultural setting that was generally regarded as poorly developed, and even late in many places, to the general recognition today of a well developed and varied archaeological record that indicates increasingly early settlement at the start of the Holocene, Mesolithic archaeologists in Scotland are now able to make use of many new techniques and have an increasingly rich database at their disposal. What do these developments mean? Where might the Mesolithic of Scotland be going? And how can we learn from our colleagues elsewhere?

ref: 2004/1 article 4

E-scapes and E-motion: other ways of writing the Mesolithic

Nyree Finlay
Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow
The Gregory Building, Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland
n.finlay@archaeology.gla.ac.uk

Keywords: Mesolithic, Scotland, environment, narratives, interpretation.

Abstract

This paper aims to review and address some recent trends in writing about the Mesolithic and consider fruitful approaches for understanding the gatherer-hunter-fisher experience of 'scapes' (landscape, seascape, taskscape). Attention is focused on the narratives that result from our encounters with the archaeological record and a series of examples, drawn from Scotland and the rest of Britain, are presented that reflect on the treatment of various categories of archaeological evidence. Of central concern is how some recent trends in understanding mobility, identity and experience in anthropology inform Mesolithic archaeology. The focus of attention also lies with the conceptual spaces that we as archaeologists create to understand past environments and the places and routines of gatherer-hunter lifeways. A dominant theme is that of materiality and how material culture can be used to evince a deeper understanding of place and scape. Achieving this necessitates re-animating the material we work with and revisiting many of the traditional and often entrenched perspectives that we bring to site and artefact interpretation.