Monica Tromp

Investigating Biogenic Versus Diagenetic Trace Element Incorporation in Archaeological Mineralized Tissues with LA-ICP-MS

In this chapter, we develop a method employing combined SEM-EDS and LA-ICP-MS analysis of mineralized tissue (bone apatite) to quantify trace element concentrations. We apply this method to bone and tooth samples from the Kammenyi Ambar 5 cemetery (Russia) to determine whether a trace element signal resulting from working of Arsenical Bronze can be distinguished from post-burial uptake of trace elements. Using raster mapping of bone and tooth cross-sections, we demonstrate that while some elements show a pattern consistent with post-burial uptake, other elements including arsenic appear to reflect uptake related to life activities including Bronze working. We review mechanisms by which trace elements may find their way into bone and tooth structure to explain these differences in incorporation pathway.

Between foraging and farming: strategic responses to the Holocene Thermal Maximum in Southeast Asia

Large, ‘complex’ pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherer communities thrived in southern China and northern Vietnam, contemporaneous with the expansion of farming. Research at Con Co Ngua in Vietnam suggests that such hunter-gatherer populations shared characteristics with early farming communities: high disease loads, pottery, complex mortuary practices and access to stable sources of carbohydrates and protein. The substantive difference was in the use of domesticated plants and animals—effectively representing alternative responses to optimal climatic conditions. The work here suggests that the supposed correlation between farming and a decline in health may need to be reassessed.

Origins of equine dentistry

Significance The domestication of horses and adoption of horse riding were critical processes that culminated in the emergence of mounted warriors and nomadic empires that shaped world history. The constraints of horse biology and riding equipment meant that equine veterinary care, particularly of teeth, was a core component of the success of the human–horse relationship. We report the earliest evidence of equine dentistry, from the Mongolian Steppe, at 1150 BCE. Key shifts in equine dentistry practice through time can be linked first to the emergence of horseback riding and later to the use of metal bits that enabled better control of horses. The maintenance of horse health through dentistry underwrote the key role of horses in cultures and economies around the world. From the American West to the steppes of Eurasia, the domestic horse transformed human societies, providing rapid transport, communication, and military power, and serving as an important subsistence animal. Because of the importance of oral equipment for horse riding, dentistry is an essential component of modern horse care. In the open grasslands of northeast Asia, horses remain the primary form of transport for many herders. Although free-range grazing on gritty forage mitigates many equine dental issues, contemporary Mongolian horsemen nonetheless practice some forms of dentistry, including the removal of problematic deciduous teeth and the vestigial first premolar (“wolf tooth”). Here, we present archaezoological data from equine skeletal remains spanning the past 3,200 y, indicating that nomadic dental practices have great antiquity. Anthropogenic modifications to malerupted deciduous central incisors in young horses from the Late Bronze Age demonstrate their attempted removal, coinciding with the local innovation or adoption of horseback riding and the florescence of Mongolian pastoral society. Horse specimens from this period show no evidence of first premolar removal, which we first identify in specimens dating to ca. 750 BCE. The onset of premolar extraction parallels the archaeological appearance of jointed bronze and iron bits, suggesting that this technological shift prompted innovations in dentistry that improved horse health and horse control. These discoveries provide the earliest directly dated evidence for veterinary dentistry, and suggest that innovations in equine care by nomadic peoples ca. 1150 BCE enabled the use of horses for increasingly sophisticated mounted riding and warfare.

The Difficult Place of Deserted Coasts in Archaeology: New Archaeological Research on Cooks Beach (Pukaki), Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand

ABSTRACT Sites which have been occupied semi-continuously in the past present some inherent difficulties for archaeology. Here we present new research from a coastal site on the North Island of New Zealand at Cooks Beach where anthropogenic vegetation changes are seen using microfossil analysis of obsidian tools, sediments and pit fill. The results indicate the initial presence of people in AD 1300–1400 followed by subsequent periods of disuse or abandonment and sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) cultivation. Around the time of initial settlement, obsidian from this location is found at sites across the country. After AD 1400 the area appears to be deserted for a century or more, after which we see evidence for the cultivation of sweet potato in AD 1500 as evidenced by extensive soil modification and numerous storage pits. There is no evidence of a permanent settlement at the site. The geographic distribution of Cooks Beach obsidian was constricted while the site was used for sweet potato cultivation, a pattern often attributed to increased warfare. It appears cultivation was abandoned after AD 1650 marking a second secession of use, a fact confirmed in AD 1769 when Captain Cook visited the area. We consider the possible drivers for the late abandonment of cultivation at Cooks Beach.

LA-ICP-MS Analysis of Prehistoric Copper and Bronze Metalwork from Armenia

Analysis of prehistoric copper and bronze in the Caucasus was performed previously on thousands of objects with arc optical emission spectroscopy (OES). While arc OES is no longer widely used in archaeometry, LA-ICP-MS has shown great promise for isotopic and chemical analysis of ancient copper and bronze artifacts. In order to explore the effectiveness of LA-ICP-MS for the characterization of materials in a large group of ancient copper-based metalwork from the South Caucasus, we analyzed 48 metal artifacts from the Horom necropolis and 16 from the Karashamb necropolis, at Idaho State University’s Center for Archaeology, Materials and Applied Spectroscopy (CAMAS). These artifacts had been recovered from burials dating to the late second–early first millennium bc, a period noted for the use of a variety of copper alloy mixtures, including antimony bronze (which is very unusual at this early period in Europe and Asia). The metal artifacts from Horom had been previously analyzed by arc OES at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Yerevan, Armenia. This provided the opportunity to compare the performance of arc OES with LA-ICP-MS for analysis of variations in the use of copper alloys in ancient metal artifacts. In addition to LA-ICP-MS, EDS was used to analyze major elements, especially the proportion of copper in relation minor and trace elements that were measured with LA-ICP-MS. Besides unalloyed copper, the alloys detected by EDS and arc OES included mixtures with arsenic, tin, lead and antimony. More alloys were detected in the assemblage by LA-ICP-MS and EDS than with arc OES. This may be because copper levels were measured by EDS allowing the results for all elements to be normalized in proportion to copper. Normalization of results was therefore not possible with arc OES, which is another advantage of using LA-ICP-MS together with EDS.