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Dive into the research topics where Alexia Smith is active.

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Featured researches published by Alexia Smith.


Current Anthropology | 2009

A Holistic Approach to Examining Ancient Agriculture

Alexia Smith; Natalie D. Munro

Agriculture provided the foundation for the development and sustenance of Bronze and Iron Age civilizations in the Near East, yet remarkably little is known about how its practice varied across the region at this time. Archaeobotany and zooarchaeology have been used independently to study ancient agriculture, but there is a dire need for a more comprehensive and holistic approach, one that integrates the two data sets and better represents the reality of food production. Correspondence analysis can be an effective tool for quantitatively integrating regional Bronze and Iron Age plant and animal data spanning Syria and Jordan. Distinct regional patterns of food production and wild resource use are evident. The main variable driving this trend is available moisture. Theoretically, the method outlined here can be applied to any region and time period.


PLOS ONE | 2010

First Direct Evidence of Chalcolithic Footwear from the Near Eastern Highlands

Ron Pinhasi; Boris Gasparian; Gregory E. Areshian; Diana Zardaryan; Alexia Smith; Guy Bar-Oz; Thomas Higham

In 2008, a well preserved and complete shoe was recovered at the base of a Chalcolithic pit in the cave of Areni-1, Armenia. Here, we discuss the chronology of this find, its archaeological context and its relevance to the study of the evolution of footwear. Two leather samples and one grass sample from the shoe were dated at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). A third leather sample was dated at the University of California-Irvine Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility (UCIAMS). The R_Combine function for the three leather samples provides a date range of 3627–3377 Cal BC (95.4% confidence interval) and the calibrated range for the straw is contemporaneous (3627–3377 Cal BC). The shoe was stuffed with loose, unfastened grass (Poaceae) without clear orientation which was more than likely used to maintain the shape of the shoe and/or prepare it for storage. The shoe is 24.5 cm long (European size 37), 7.6 to 10 cm wide, and was made from a single piece of leather that wrapped around the foot. It was worn and shaped to the wearers right foot, particularly around the heel and hallux where the highest pressure is exerted in normal gait. The Chalcolithic shoe provides solid evidence for the use of footwear among Old World populations at least since the Chalcolithic. Other 4th millennium discoveries of shoes (Italian and Swiss Alps), and sandals (Southern Israel) indicate that more than one type of footwear existed during the 4th millennium BC, and that we should expect to discover more regional variations in the manufacturing and style of shoes where preservation conditions permit.


Journal of Field Archaeology | 2012

Areni-1 Cave, Armenia: A Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age settlement and ritual site in the southern Caucasus

Keith Wilkinson; Boris Gasparian; Ron Pinhasi; Pavel Avetisyan; Roman Hovsepyan; Diana Zardaryan; Gregory E. Areshian; Guy Bar-Oz; Alexia Smith

Abstract The beginning of the Bronze Age in the southern Caucasus has been thought to coincide with the appearance of the Kura Araxes (KA) culture around 3500 cal b.c. KA artifacts are known not only from the southern Caucasus but also from sites in Anatolia, Iran, and the Levant. Recent discoveries from Areni-1 Cave in the Vayots Dzor region of Armenia demonstrate that the origin of the distinctive KA artifact assemblage lies in the Late Chalcolithic of the late 5th to early 4th millennia b.c. The cave contains rich assemblages of desiccated botanical remains that allow the site to be precisely dated and that demonstrate that its inhabitants exploited a wide variety of domesticated and wild plants. It would appear that from 4000 cal b.c. onwards, people used Areni-1 Cave for habitation and for keeping goats, storing plant foods, and ritual purposes; unusual for this time period are ceramic vessels containing the skulls of children.


Antiquity | 2012

The chalcolithic of the Near East and south-eastern Europe: discoveries and new perspectives from the cave complex Areni-1, Armenia

Gregory E. Areshian; Boris Gasparyan; Pavel Avetisyan; Ron Pinhasi; Keith Wilkinson; Alexia Smith; Roman Hovsepyan; Diana Zardaryan

The archaeological exploration of a cave in the southern Caucasus revealed evidence for early social complexity, ritual burial and wine-making in the early fourth millennium. The marvellous preservation of wood, leather and plants offers a valuable contrast to the poorer assemblages on contemporary tell sites. The authors make the case that the Areni-1 cave complex indicates connections between the urbanisation of early Mesopotamia and the Maikop culture of south Russia.


Antiquity | 2013

A day in the life of an Ubaid household: archaeobotanical investigations at Kenan Tepe, south-eastern Turkey

Philip J. Graham; Alexia Smith

The Ubaid period in south-west Asia constitutes a key period of social and political change anticipating the emergence of complex societies in the following millennium. Well-preserved archaeobotanical assemblages have enormous potential to document these changes at both the site and individual household levels. The conflagration that consumed Structure 4 at the Ubaid settlement of Kenan Tepe in south-eastern Turkey provides a case study through the analysis of almost 70 000 charred macrobotanical remains. The results suggest that labour may have been pooled between households to process emmer wheat to spikelet stage after harvesting. Final processing was conducted on the roof of the house by members of the individual household as need arose. The pooling of resources may reflect the intensification of production and the emergence of elites during the Ubaid period in this region.


Journal of Archaeological Science | 2016

The limits and potential of paleogenomic techniques for reconstructing grapevine domestication

Nathan Wales; Jazmín Ramos Madrigal; Enrico Cappellini; Aldo Carmona Baez; Jose Alfredo Samaniego Castruita; J. Alberto Romero-Navarro; Christian Carøe; María C. Ávila-Arcos; Fernando Peñaloza; J. Víctor Moreno-Mayar; Boris Gasparyan; Diana Zardaryan; Tamara Bagoyan; Alexia Smith; Ron Pinhasi; Giovanna Bosi; Girolamo Fiorentino; Anna Maria Grasso; Alessandra Celant; Guy Bar-Oz; Yotam Tepper; Allan Hall; Simone Scalabrin; Mara Miculan; Michele Morgante; Gabriele Di Gaspero; M. Thomas P. Gilbert


Current Anthropology | 2009

Integrating Plant and Animal Data

Alexia Smith; Naomi F Miller


Ethnobiology Letters | 2015

Examining fuel use in antiquity: archaeobotanical and anthracological approaches in Southwest Asia.

Alexia Smith; Krista Dotzel; Joyce Fountain; Lucas Proctor; Madelynn von Baeyer


Ethnobiology Letters | 2014

Some Phrygian Plant and Insect Remains from Kerkenes Dağ, Central Anatolia (Turkey)

Alexia Smith; Scott Branting


Vegetation History and Archaeobotany | 2018

The burning issue of dung in archaeobotanical samples: a case-study integrating macro-botanical remains, dung spherulites, and phytoliths to assess sample origin and fuel use at Tell Zeidan, Syria

Alexia Smith; Lucas Proctor; Thomas C. Hart; Gil Stein

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Diana Zardaryan

National Academy of Sciences

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Lucas Proctor

University of Connecticut

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Ron Pinhasi

University College Cork

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Boris Gasparyan

National Academy of Sciences

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Pavel Avetisyan

National Academy of Sciences

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Roman Hovsepyan

National Academy of Sciences

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Boris Gasparian

Armenian National Academy of Sciences

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