Anne Pirie

Juniper smoke, skulls and wolves' tails. The Epipalaeolithic of the Anatolian plateau in its South-west Asian context; insights from Pinarbaşi

Abstract This paper discusses the only substantive evidence for the Epipalaeolithic of central Anatolia. This evidence allows revised understandings of phenomena often proposed as characteristic of the Epipalaeolithic of South-west Asia including the appearance of sedentism, a putative Broad Spectrum Revolution, intensive plant exploitation and the emergence of distinctive ritual and symbolic practices. It also allows further evaluation of the effect of Late Glacial climate change on human behaviours.

The Dana-Faynan-Ghuwayr early prehistory project

Abstract This is the report of the 1997 and 1998 field seasons. Survey has located a number of aceramic sites in Wadis Dana, Faynan and Ghuwayr. Excavation has to date focussed on WF16, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site on a knoll above the confluence of Wadi Ghuwayr and Wadi Faynan. A sequence of construction and midden deposits has been located, along with the remains of human burial, faunal, floral, lithic and ground stone assemblages. Archaeological survey is linked to extensive geomorphological survey to provide the landscape context for the sites.

The archaeology of Western Sahara: results of environmental and archaeological reconnaissance

Western Sahara has one of the last remaining unexplored prehistories on the planet. The new research reported here reveals a sequence of Holocene occupation beginning in a humid period around 9000 bp, superceded around 5000 bp by an arid phase in which the land was mainly given over to pastoralism and monumental burial. The authors summarise the flint and pottery assemblage and classify the monuments, looking to neighbouring cultures in Niger, Libya and Sudan.