C. Michael Barton

The Upper Paleolithic in Mediterranean Spain: A Review of Current Evidence

In spite of an active and sophisticated archaeological research program, the Paleolithic of the Iberian peninsula remains comparatively little known to English-speaking prehistorians, with the exception of Cantabrian Spain. The rich data set compiled by Spanish prehistorians and their colleagues over the past several decades stands to make a valuable and unique contribution to our understanding of the Pleistocene prehistory of Europe. We present a detailed overview of Upper Paleolithic chronology, sites, and assemblages for Mediterranean Spain, an area of over 1,600,000 km2that extends from the French border to the Straits of Gibraltar. To interpret these data, we employ a regional perspective that emphasizes studies of paleoeconomy (especially zooarchaeology) and settlement. The Middle–Upper Paleolithic transition and Upper Paleolithic art also receive detailed treatment, and the Upper Paleolithic of Mediterranean Spain is discussed in the broader context of the late Upper Pleistocene of western Europe and the Mediterranean Basin.

Late Pleistocene technology, economic behavior, and land-use dynamics in Southern Italy

This paper proposes a new methodology to study prehistoric lithic assemblages in an attempt to derive from that facet of prehistoric behavior the greater technoeconomic system in which it was embedded. By using volumetric artifact density and the frequency of retouched pieces within a given lithic assemblage, it becomes possible to identify whether these stone tools were created by residentially mobile or logistically organized foragers. The linking factor between assemblage composition and land-use strategy is that of curation within lithic assemblages as an expression of economizing behavior. This method is used to study eight sites from southeastern Italy to detect changes in adaptation during the Late Pleistocene. We compare and contrast Mousterian, Uluzzian, proto-Aurignacian and Epigravettian assemblages, and argue that the first three industries overlap considerably in terms of their technoeconomic flexibility. Epigravettian assemblages, on the other hand, display a different kind of land-use exploitation pattern than those seen in the earlier assemblages, perhaps as a response to deteriorating climatic conditions at the Last Glacial Maximum. While we discuss the implications of these patterns in the context of modern human origins, we argue that the methodology can help identify land-use patterns in other locales and periods.

Art as information: Explaining Upper Palaeolithic art in western Europe

Abstract Proceeding from the information exchange theory of style, we argue that the changing temporal and spatial distributions of mobile and parietal art in Paleolithic Europe are related aspects of a single evolutionary process: alternating selective pressures differentially favoring the expression of assertive and emblemic style over the 30–7 kyr BP interval. These pressures result from demographic and social change across the European subcontinent in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. We develop a model of cultural selection for symbolic behavior manifest as art that proceeds from and parallels natural selection in neo‐Darwinian evolutionary theory.

Land use, water and Mediterranean landscapes: modelling long-term dynamics of complex socio-ecological systems

The evolution of Mediterranean landscapes during the Holocene has been increasingly governed by the complex interactions of water and human land use. Different land-use practices change the amount of water flowing across the surface and infiltrating the soil, and change water’s ability to move surface sediments. Conversely, water amplifies the impacts of human land use and extends the ecological footprint of human activities far beyond the borders of towns and fields. Advances in computational modelling offer new tools to study the complex feedbacks between land use, land cover, topography and surface water. The Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics project (MedLand) is building a modelling laboratory where experiments can be carried out on the long-term impacts of agropastoral land use, and whose results can be tested against the archaeological record. These computational experiments are providing new insights into the socio-ecological consequences of human decisions at varying temporal and spatial scales.

Computational modeling and neolithic socioecological dynamics: A case study from Southwest Asia

Archaeology has an opportunity to offer major contributions to our understanding of the long-term interactions of humans and the environment. To do so, we must elucidate dynamic socioecological processes that generally operate at regional scales. However, the archaeological record is sparse, discontinuous, and static. Recent advances in computational modeling provide the potential for creating experimental laboratories where dynamic processes can be simulated and their results compared against the archaeological record. Coupling computational modeling with the empirical record in this way can increase the rigor of our explanations while making more transparent the concepts on which they are based. We offer an example of such an experimental laboratory to study the long-term effects of varying landuse practices by subsistence farmers on landscapes, and compare the results with the Levantine Neolithic archaeological record. Different combinations of intensive and shifting cultivation, ovicaprid grazing, and settlement size are modeled for the Wadi Ziqlab drainage of northern Jordan. The results offer insight into conditions under which previously successful (and sustainable) landuse practices can pass an imperceptible threshold and lead to undesirable landscape consequences. This may also help explain long-term social, economic, and settlement changes in the Neolithic of Southwest Asia.

Beyond the Graver: Reconsidering Burin Function

AbstractBurins have long been considered to represent a special class of stone tools, used primarily for engraving. A number of studies, however, have indicated that burins functioned in a variety of very different ways. This study finds evidence that burins were used as cutting/scraping tools, engraving tools, hafting elements, and bladelet cores at three late Pleistocene sites in SW Asia. We suggest that burins should not be considered as a class of tools, but the varied products of a manufacturing technique analogous to retouch. Burination is simply a technique for removing mass from flakes and (more often) blades, serving to modify edges and produce spalls. This has important implications for the interpretation of lithic assemblages from the Upper Paleolithic through the Neolithic.

Resilience Lost: Intersecting Land Use and Landscape Dynamics in the Prehistoric Southwestern United States

The interdisciplinary framework known as resilience theory used by ecologists, social scientists, as well as policy makers, is primarily concerned with the sources of transformation and stability in complex socioecological systems. The laboratory of the long and diverse archaeological record is uniquely suited to testing some of the implications of this theoretical perspective. In this paper, we consider the history of land use and landscape change across the transition from foraging to agricultural subsistence economies in the Middle Chevelon Creek region of northern Arizona. Through this discussion, we highlight the potential roles of diversity and flexibility at multiple spatial and temporal scales in the resilience of human land use practices from the prehistoric past. Expressing the long-term history of this region in a more general theoretical language that bridges the social and natural sciences promotes the collaboration of scientists with expertise deriving from different traditional disciplines. Such a broad perspective is necessary to characterize changes and stabilities in complex socioecological systems.

Land-use dynamics and socioeconomic change : An example from the Polop Alto Valley

The Polop Alto valley, in eastern Spain, serves as the focus of study of long-term temporal and spatial dynamics in human land use. The data discussed here derive from intensive, pedestrian, non-site survey. We employ the concept of artifact taphonomy to assess the various natural and cultural processes responsible for accumulation and distribution patterns of artifacts. Our results suggest that the most significant land-use changes in the Polop Alto took place at the end of the Pleistocene and accompanying the late Neolithic, while much less notable changes in land-use patterns are associated with the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition and the initial use of domestic plants and animals in the valley.

Human Behavioral Ecology and Climate Change during the Transition to Agriculture in Valencia, Eastern Spain

Using the behavioral ecological model of ideal free distribution (IFD), McClure, Jochim, and Barton (2006) identified the tight linkage between agricultural subsistence strategies, herd management, and long-term dynamics of human land use. Missing from their discussion, however, was placing these changes into a broader environmental context. The IFD provides a useful heuristic device to illustrate cost-benefit decisions within a spatial context. This paper compares the previous interpretations of land use during the Neolithic with climatic data from the Holocene. Two main arid periods have been identified during the early and middle Holocene that correspond chronologically to Neolithic cultural horizons. Climate models recently generated for the area further suggest shifts in precipitation cycles may have exacerbated the impacts of broader climatic fluctuations on agricultural production.

A Computational Model Library for publishing model documentation and code

We present a repository for disseminating the computational models associated with publications in the social and life sciences. The number of research projects using computational models has been steadily increasing but the resulting publications often lack model code and documentation which hinders replication, verification of results and accumulation of knowledge. We have developed an open repository, the CoMSES Net Computational Model Library, to address this problem. Submissions to the library can be original models accompanying publications or replications of previous studies. Researchers can request that their models undergo a certification process that verifies that the model code successfully compiles and runs and that it follows documentation best practices. Models that pass the certification process are assigned persistent URLs and identifiers. We present the basic components of our repository, discuss our initial experiences with the library, and elaborate on future steps in the development of this cyberinfrastructure.