Clive Bonsall

A freshwater diet-derived 14C reservoir effect at the Stone Age sites in the Iron Gates gorge

Human bones from single inhumation burials and artifacts made from terrestrial mammal (ungulate) bone found in direct association with the skeletons were obtained from the Stone Age site of Schela Cladovei situated just below the Iron Gates Gorge of the River Danube. The results of stable isotope analyses of the human bone collagen are consistent with a heavy dependence on aquatic protein while radiocarbon dating of the samples reveals an offset of 300-500 years between the two sample types, indicating a freshwater reservoir effect in the human bone samples. Since protein consumption is by far the major source of nitrogen in the human diet we have assumed a linear relationship between delta (super 15) N and the level of aquatic protein in each individuals diet and derived a calibration for (super 14) C age offset versus delta (super 15) N which has been applied to a series of results from the site at Lepenski Vir within the gorge. The corrected (super 14) C ages (7310-6720 BP) are now consistent with the previous (super 14) C age measurements made on charcoal from related contexts (7360-6560 BP). In addition, the data indicate a change from a primarily aquatic to a mixed terrestrial/aquatic diet around 7100 BP and this may be argued as supporting a shift from Mesolithic to Neolithic. This study also has wider implications for the accurate dating of human bone samples when the possibility exists of an aquatic component in the dietary protein and strongly implies that delta (super 15) N analysis should be undertaken routinely when dating human bones.

A review of the mid-Holocene elm decline in the British Isles

Over the past 50 years the most enigmatic feature of pollen diagrams from northwest Europe has been the mid-Holocene ‘elm decline’, and there has been much speculation as to the origin(s) and cause(s) of this event. A total of 150 radiocarbon dates from 139 sites spanning the elm decline in Britain and Ireland have been collated and scrutinized. Statistical analyses on 138 dates show that the event has a mean date of 5036 14C yr BP with a standard deviation of ± 247. Calibration of the dates and combining the sum probabilities yielded a range spanning 6347-5281 cal yr BP (1s), covering 1066 years. The start of the elm decline event lies between 6343 and 6307 cal yr BP (1s), a period of 36 years, indicating that the onset was rapid. The end of the event lies between 5290 and 5420 cal yr BP (1s), a period of 130 years. The probability distribution indicates that the elm decline was a uniform phased event across the British Isles. It appears that the elm decline can be explained to a large extent by the outbreak of disease. However, recent research on palaeoclimatic change and the nature of the transition from the Mesolithic to Neolithic in the British Isles suggests that both climatic change and human activities were implicated. It was probably the interplay between these factors, rather than any in isolation, that catalyzed the widespread, catastrophic decline of elm populations during the mid-Holocene.

Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in the Iron Gates: A Paiaeodietary Perspective

Abstract This paper is a study of diet and subsistence among Mesolithic and Early Neolithic populations in the Iron Gates section of the Danube Valley, with emphasis on the sites of Lepenski Vir and Vlasac in Serbia and Schela Oadovei in Romania. The first part of the paper reviews the evidence of animal and plant residues and human skeletal indicators; the second presents new data from stable isotopic analyses of human bone supported by AMS 14C dates. Isotopic and dental evidence suggest that Mesolithic people prior to 7600 BP had high protein diets in which the bulk of the protein was derived from riverine food sources. Significant differences are evident between the isotopic signals of Mesolithic males and females buried at Vlasac and Lepenski Vir, indicating differences in overall diet. These differences are most easily explained in terms of movement of individuals between groups, linked to the practice of local group exogamy. A shift in dietary pattern occurred at Lepenski Vir between ca 7600 and 730...

Problems of dating human bones from the Iron Gates

It is widely recognized that when marine resources form a significant proportion of the human diet, this results in radiocarbon ages for human remains that are significantly older than the contemporary atmosphere. While there has been widespread assessment of marine 14C reservoir ages, there has been little study of the freshwater equivalent. However, recent analyses of human bone from archaeological sites in the Danube Valley have confirmed the existence of a large freshwater 14C reservoir effect.

Human-environment interactions during the Holocene: new data and interpretations from the Oban area, Argyll, Scotland

Investigations of the archaeological, geochemical, microscopic charcoal and palynological records from five localities in the Oban area, along an altitudinal transect from coast to upland, have provided new information on human–environment interactions during the Holocene. Some of the results are at variance with previous interpretations of Mesolithic human impacts and the timing of the transition to farming in Atlantic Scotland. High charcoal values and the occurrence of cereal-type pollen grains, which have commonly been used to infer human activity during the Mesolithic, appear in the Oban area at least to be related to climate change. However, the greater frequency of woodland-decline episodes in inland and upland areas prior to 5000 BP is more easily explained in terms of human impact. Archaeological and palynological evidence indicates that the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in the Oban area occurred atc. 5000 BP and, on evidence from elsewhere in northern Britain, coincided with a marked shift to drier climatic conditions. Up untilc. 1000 BP agricultural communities appear to have had comparatively little impact on the environment. Thereafter, there was rapid and permanent deforestation possibly linked to the development of a distinctive land-use strategy and settlement pattern that survived until the nineteenth century ad.

Unravelling the complexity of domestication: a case study using morphometrics and ancient DNA analyses of archaeological pigs from Romania

Current evidence suggests that pigs were first domesticated in Eastern Anatolia during the ninth millennium cal BC before dispersing into Europe with Early Neolithic farmers from the beginning of the seventh millennium. Recent ancient DNA (aDNA) research also indicates the incorporation of European wild boar into domestic stock during the Neolithization process. In order to establish the timing of the arrival of domestic pigs into Europe, and to test hypotheses regarding the role European wild boar played in the domestication process, we combined a geometric morphometric analysis (allowing us to combine tooth size and shape) of 449 Romanian ancient teeth with aDNA analysis. Our results firstly substantiate claims that the first domestic pigs in Romania possessed the same mtDNA signatures found in Neolithic pigs in west and central Anatolia. Second, we identified a significant proportion of individuals with large molars whose tooth shape matched that of archaeological (likely) domestic pigs. These large ‘domestic shape’ specimens were present from the outset of the Romanian Neolithic (6100–5500 cal BC) through to later prehistory, suggesting a long history of admixture between introduced domestic pigs and local wild boar. Finally, we confirmed a turnover in mitochondrial lineages found in domestic pigs, possibly coincident with human migration into Anatolia and the Levant that occurred in later prehistory.

Deep-Sea Fishing in the European Mesolithic: Fact or Fantasy?

Some previous authors have argued for the practice of offshore, deep-water fishing in the European Mesolithic. In this article, various lines of evidence are brought to bear on this question: the kinds of fishing gear employed, the evidence relating to the use of boats and navigation, site location, ethnographic data, and fish biology and behaviour. It is concluded that the existence of deep-sea fisheries cannot be demonstrated on the basis of the available data. However, around much of Europe Mesolithic shorelines now lie below sea level and the study highlights the need for underwater archaeological investigation of submerged landscapes.

Paleogenomic Evidence for Multi-generational Mixing between Neolithic Farmers and Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherers in the Lower Danube Basin

Summary The transition from hunting and gathering to farming involved profound cultural and technological changes. In Western and Central Europe, these changes occurred rapidly and synchronously after the arrival of early farmers of Anatolian origin [1, 2, 3], who largely replaced the local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers [1, 4, 5, 6]. Further east, in the Baltic region, the transition was gradual, with little or no genetic input from incoming farmers [7]. Here we use ancient DNA to investigate the relationship between hunter-gatherers and farmers in the Lower Danube basin, a geographically intermediate area that is characterized by a rapid Neolithic transition but also by the presence of archaeological evidence that points to cultural exchange, and thus possible admixture, between hunter-gatherers and farmers. We recovered four human paleogenomes (1.1× to 4.1× coverage) from Romania spanning a time transect between 8.8 thousand years ago (kya) and 5.4 kya and supplemented them with two Mesolithic genomes (1.7× and 5.3×) from Spain to provide further context on the genetic background of Mesolithic Europe. Our results show major Western hunter-gatherer (WHG) ancestry in a Romanian Eneolithic sample with a minor, but sizeable, contribution from Anatolian farmers, suggesting multiple admixture events between hunter-gatherers and farmers. Dietary stable-isotope analysis of this sample suggests a mixed terrestrial/aquatic diet. Our results provide support for complex interactions among hunter-gatherers and farmers in the Danube basin, demonstrating that in some regions, demic and cultural diffusion were not mutually exclusive, but merely the ends of a continuum for the process of Neolithization.

Chronological and dietary aspects of the human burials from Ajdovska Cave, Slovenia

Ajdovska Jama (The Pagans Cave) in southeast Slovenia lies within the catchment of the River Sava, a major tributary of the Danube. The site is well known for its Neolithic burials and has been excavated to a high standard on various occasions since 1884. The human remains at the site occurred as distinct clusters of mainly disarticulated bones belonging to at least 31 individuals. Hitherto, dating of the burials has been based on the associated archaeological finds, including a few low-precision radiometric radiocarbon measurements on charred plant material. In the present study, bones from 15 individ- uals were subsampled for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and stable isotope analyses. These comprised adults and chil- dren from 3 of the clusters. The results of the study indicate that the burials all belong to a relatively short time interval, while the stable isotope data indicate a mixed diet based on C3 plant and animal food sources. These interpretations differ somewhat from those of previous researchers. The AMS 14C and stable isotope analyses form part of a wider investigation of dietary and demographic change from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age in the Danube Basin.

Boats and Pioneer Settlement: The Scottish Dimension

boats’. His main point is that the boats were ‘simple’, and had ‘only moderate seagoing qualities’ and that their use was restricted to ‘small-scale sea traffic’. Evidently, the long-term history perspective needs to cool down theMesolithic, to enhance the contrast to ‘the great change in the Scandinavian history of communication’, with the late Neolithic ‘plank built boats, metal craft and elite networks throughout Europe’. With reference to Prescott and Glørstad (2011), this is claimed to be an ‘historical watershed’. In the need for a better profile in the long-term cultural trajectory, the Mesolithic needs some flattening, to be rendered more basic and primitive, a handto-mouth, barely-making-it lifestyle. In the world according to Glørstad, the colonizers are left with vessels that he most certainly would not recommend for himself or his immediate family, not even on calm days, perhaps not even for his worst cousin. The connection between ‘plank-built boats’ and the ‘historical watershed’ is turned on its head. I also believe that overseas travels (like crossing the North Sea) did not occur until late Neolithic/Bronze Age. But overseas seafaring was hardly a result of new boat-building techniques. Quite the opposite, it was the need for travels as a strategy in a new political and social regime, it was the urge for objects, alliances, warfare that followed in the wake of long sea journeys that carved out a need for the bigger boats that could make this happen. Thus, there is no need (or any archaeological clues) to ‘reserve’ this technological development for the ‘big watershed’. Quite to the contrary, plank boats may just as well have considerable longer traditions. The polished or pecked gouges of basaltic rock, including the local Nøstvet adzes in the Oslo region, were a new development in parallel with the emergence of the Boreal forests. As demonstrated by Sanger (2009), there is no clear-cut relation between gouges and dugout canoes like Glørstad suggests. These gouges could also have been involved in a wood– splitting and plank-procurement industry, making seaworthy vessels for the coastal regions of Scandinavia throughout the millennia of marine foraging societies. Without reducing the importance of the late Neolithic achievements, it seems timely to hint at the often experienced fact that ‘historical watersheds’ tend to coincide with focuses of interest. Is there any reason to claim that the development of marine foraging and the colonizing of Scandinavian seascapes are achievements of lesser grandeur and cultural importance?