Danielle A. Macdonald

Twenty Thousand-Year-Old Huts at a Hunter-Gatherer Settlement in Eastern Jordan

Ten thousand years before Neolithic farmers settled in permanent villages, hunter-gatherer groups of the Epipalaeolithic period (c. 22–11,600 cal BP) inhabited much of southwest Asia. The latest Epipalaeolithic phase (Natufian) is well-known for the appearance of stone-built houses, complex site organization, a sedentary lifestyle and social complexity—precursors for a Neolithic way of life. In contrast, pre-Natufian sites are much less well known and generally considered as campsites for small groups of seasonally-mobile hunter-gatherers. Work at the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic aggregation site of Kharaneh IV in eastern Jordan highlights that some of these earlier sites were large aggregation base camps not unlike those of the Natufian and contributes to ongoing debates on their duration of occupation. Here we discuss the excavation of two 20,000-year-old hut structures at Kharaneh IV that pre-date the renowned stone houses of the Natufian. Exceptionally dense and extensive occupational deposits exhibit repeated habitation over prolonged periods, and contain structural remains associated with exotic and potentially symbolic caches of objects (shell, red ochre, and burnt horn cores) that indicate substantial settlement of the site pre-dating the Natufian and outside of the Natufian homeland as currently understood.

Using metrology in early prehistoric stone tool research: further work and a brief instrument comparison.

Early prehistoric research aims to discover the activities of our ancestors and piece together the process of evolution and sociocultural development. A key element in this process is the study of stone tools, particularly how these tools functioned in prehistory. Currently, there are no established quantitative methods that address stone tool function. This article provides a summary of previous studies using metrological methods in stone tool research and details the use of laser scanning confocal microscopy to conduct areal surface analysis using three-dimensional data sets. Research to-date is preliminary but promising and shows that microscopic metrological approaches can provide a quantitative method to identify how stone tools were used. A limited comparison of two metrological systems is presented, the results of which highlight a need for caution and further investigation on the comparability of related data sets.

New method development in prehistoric stone tool research: evaluating use duration and data analysis protocols.

Lithic microwear is a research field of prehistoric stone tool (lithic) analysis that has been developed with the aim to identify how stone tools were used. It has been shown that laser scanning confocal microscopy has the potential to be a useful quantitative tool in the study of prehistoric stone tool function. In this paper, two important lines of inquiry are investigated: (1) whether the texture of worn surfaces is constant under varying durations of tool use, and (2) the development of rapid objective data analysis protocols. This study reports on the attempt to further develop these areas of study and results in a better understanding of the complexities underlying the development of flexible analytical algorithms for surface analysis. The results show that when sampling is optimised, surface texture may be linked to contact material type, independent of use duration. Further research is needed to validate this finding and test an expanded range of contact materials. The use of automated analytical protocols has shown promise but is only reliable if sampling location and scale are defined. Results suggest that the sampling protocol reports on the degree of worn surface invasiveness, complicating the ability to investigate duration related textural characterisation.

Risk, reliability and resilience: Phytolith evidence for alternative 'Neolithization' pathways at Kharaneh IV in the Azraq Basin, Jordan

‘Neolithization’ pathway refers to the development of adaptations that characterized subsequent Neolithic life, sedentary occupations, and agriculture. In the Levant, the origins of these human behaviors are widely argued to have emerged during the Early Epipaleolithic (ca. 23 ka cal BP). Consequently, there has been a pre-occupation with identifying and modeling the dietary shift to cereal and grains during this period, which is considered to have been a key development that facilitated increasing sedentism and, eventually, agriculture. Yet, direct evidence of plant use in the form of macrobotanical remains is extremely limited at Epipaleolithic sites and the expected ‘Neolithization’ pathway has not been robustly demonstrated. However, new direct microbotanical phytolith evidence from the large aggregation site of Kharaneh IV, in the Azraq Basin, suggests that increasingly settled occupation was not the result of wild grass and cereal use, but rather the result of a typical hunter-gatherer balance, based on the use of mostly reliable resources supplemented by some risky resources. Moreover, and illustrating this balance, the direct botanical evidence emphases the importance of the wetlands as an under-recognized reliable plant resource. Significantly, the use of these reliable wetland plant resources at Kharaneh IV represents an unexpected ‘Neolithization’ pathway.

Evaluating Surface Cleaning Techniques of Stone Tools Using Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy

Introduction Stone tool use-wear analysis reconstructs how tools were used in the distant past. This is accomplished through the identification of microscopic traces of polish, striations, and fractures left on the tool’s surface. Use-wear analysis is based on the hypothesis that different contact materials (e.g., wood, wheat, or meat) and different motions (e.g., cutting, scraping, or drilling) produce distinct microscopic traces on the used tool including microfractures, polish, and striations. Understanding the function of tools gives archaeologists insight into the behaviors of past peoples, allowing for the reconstruction of ancient ways of life. Traditional use-wear analysis uses light microscopy to visually identify wear traces [1, 2, 3]. However, this qualitative analysis can lead to interpretive conflicts between researchers. In recent years, new methods for measuring usewear have been developed that quantify functional traces on stone tools [4-12]. Many of these methods quantify the surface roughness of the polished areas, measuring topographic features at small scales to understand variation in surface texture created by contact materials such as antler, meat, and wood. One method that shows particular promise uses a laser scanning confocal microscope (in this case, the OLYMPUS LEXT OLS4000) to characterize surface texture. Outlined here are the results of measurements taken with the above instrument to understand the effects of various cleaning methods on the surface roughness of experimental stone tools used to cut wheat. Currently, there is little consensus among use-wear analysts on how to adequately clean stone tools prior to analysis. Standardization is integral to the development of use-wear analysis and for continued research into the quantification of wear traces as it allows for comparability of the results from different researchers. In the research presented here, experimental stone tools were subjected to three levels of cleaning: (1) with alcohol, (2) alcohol followed by soap and water, and finally (3) chemical cleaning with potassium hydroxide (10%) and hydrochloric acid (10%). These three stages of cleaning represent commonly used techniques of sample preparation and are increasingly invasive. The results of this study contribute to the standardization of sample preparation and show the application of the LEXT OLS4000 for archaeological use-wear studies. This article describes measurements that indicate how different commonly used cleaning protocols affect surface roughness measurements.

Technological Change and Economy in the Epipalaeolithic: Assessing the Shift from Early to Middle Epipalaeolithic at Kharaneh IV

ABSTRACT Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities in the Southern Levant exhibit numerous complex trends that suggest that the transition to the Neolithic was patchy and protracted. This paper explores the changing nature of occupation at the Epipalaeolithic site Kharaneh IV, Jordan, through an in-depth analysis of the lithic and faunal assemblages. Focusing on the analysis of a single deep sounding (unit AS42), we address how Kharaneh IV occupations link to the local landscape and environmental changes. As an aggregation site, Kharaneh IV represents an interesting locale to explore the changing nature of aggregation and social cohesion prior to the origins of agriculture, as well as changes in technology and subsistence between the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic. We explore the tempo and nature of transition from one archaeological culture to the next through changes in technology and how this reflects the people making and using tools, to understand how foragers adapted to a changing landscape.