Stéphanie Thiébault

First wave of cultivators spread to Cyprus at least 10,600 y ago

Early Neolithic sedentary villagers started cultivating wild cereals in the Near East 11,500 y ago [Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)]. Recent discoveries indicated that Cyprus was frequented by Late PPNA people, but the earliest evidence until now for both the use of cereals and Neolithic villages on the island dates to 10,400 y ago. Here we present the recent archaeological excavation at Klimonas, which demonstrates that established villagers were living on Cyprus between 11,100 and 10,600 y ago. Villagers had stone artifacts and buildings (including a remarkable 10-m diameter communal building) that were similar to those found on Late PPNA sites on the mainland. Cereals were introduced from the Levant, and meat was obtained by hunting the only ungulate living on the island, a small indigenous Cypriot wild boar. Cats and small domestic dogs were brought from the mainland. This colonization suggests well-developed maritime capabilities by the PPNA period, but also that migration from the mainland may have occurred shortly after the beginning of agriculture.

Phytolith assemblages as a promising tool for reconstructing Mediterranean Holocene vegetation

The reliability of phytolith assemblage analysis for characterizing Mediterranean vegetation is investigated in this study. Phytolith assemblages are extracted from modern and buried Holocene soils from the middle Rhone valley (France). The relation between modern phytolith assemblages and the surrounding vegetation, as well as between fossil assemblages and contemporaneous vegetation, already reconstructed through other proxies, is discussed. We demonstrate that the main northwestern Mediterranean biomes are well distinguished by soil phytolith assemblage analysis. In particular, the density of pine and nonconiferous trees (densities expressed relatively to the grass cover) and the overall degree of opening of the vegetation appear well recorded by three phytolith indexes. North Mediterranean vegetation changes during the Holocene period, mainly tree line shifts, pine wood development and deforestation are poorly documented, due to the scarcity of proxy-preserving sites. Phytolith assemblage analysis of soils, buried soils, and sediments appears to be a promising technique to fill this gap.

Early-Holocene vegetation and the human impact in central Provence (Var, France): charcoal analysis of the Baume de Fontbrégoua

In order to reconstruct the history of the arboreal vegetation in central Provence (southeast France), charcoal analysis was undertaken on the charred remains excavated in the prehistoric settlement of Fontbrégoua. The results allow us to understand the evolution of vegetation during the first four millennia of the Holocene. After an open vegetation typical of the beginning of the Holocene, there follows a deciduous oak vegetation with Pinus halepensis prevalent at an early stage. The emergence and the development of vegetation in which Pinus halepensis and Quercus cf. pubescens dominate one after the other relate to human occupation and pastoral activities during the middle Neolithic.

Evidence of pre-industrial air pollution from the Heads of the Kings of Juda statues from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Pollution originating from wood combustion characterised the urban atmospheres of the past and led to the formation of thin grey crusts on the surface of the stone of monuments. The grey crusts discovered on the Heads of the Kings of Juda statues, which adorned the facade of Notre Dame in Paris from the 13th century until 1792, constitute a material record of the effects of this ancient air pollution. The height at which the statues stood suggests that the effect was not the result of a point phenomenon, but was caused by a generalised pollution of the Paris atmosphere at the time.

Fuel and Vegetation at Asa Koma (Republic of Djibouti) during the Second Millennium BC

Charcoal analyses were performed on hearths and ash layers from a seasonally occupied Neolithic dwelling site in the eastern lowlands of the Horn of Africa, dated to the first half of the second millennium BC. It was suggested by an earlier study that the predominance of two taxa, Suaeda (seablite)/Chenopodiaceae and Salvadora persica (saltbush), could be an over-representation due to the selection of wood for specialized use, i.e. fish processing. In this study, we show that this can be ruled out, and that the characteristics of the charcoal spectra can be explained in terms of past vegetation composition. We suggest that arid steppe plant formations prevailed, from which most of the fauna was hunted, and that the nearby water channel was not active all year round.

Evolution and management of humid landscapes in northern Dauphiné (Rhone valley, France): Contribution of charcoal and wood studies

Using various archaeological and geoarchaeological operations, charcoal and waterlogged wood assemblages have been sampled in the marshy areas from the lower Dauphiné (Rhone valley, France). Their identification allows reconstructing the evolution of the woody vegetation in relation to climatohydrological changes and with human practices in the plain since the mid Holocene. It appears that humid-land forests have experienced a shift from ash formations (dominating during Pre- and Protohistory) toward alder formations between the Bronze Age and Roman Period. That vegetation change seems to be linked with pastoral practices in which fire is used as a clearing and regeneration tool. The intense pastoral use of the plain, together with the humidity of the soils when not artificially drained, may also have prevented the development of dense and mature forests. Finally, we show that beech, which is currently absent from the plain, probably grew in the marshlands during the past.

Neolithic Human Societies and Woodlands in the North-Western Mediterranean Region: Wood and Charcoal Analysis

An overview of woodland history in the north-western Mediterranean region, based on charcoal analysis (Anthracology) from Mesolithic and Neolithic sites, is proposed for the Mediterranean areas of France, Spain and Portugal. The taxonomic identification of charcoal fragments and the diachronic variations of taxa frequencies provide, for each settlement, an accurate image of the local vegetal cover. During the end of the last glaciation, beginning of the Holocene, vegetation dynamics reflects the evolution of climatic and geographic conditions. Any potential ecological impact by hunter-fisher-gatherer communities (Mesolithic) remains invisible; the same comment applies to the farming-herding communities from the beginning of the Neolithic. Charcoal data from the Preboreal onwards testify to the increasing diversity of the plant cover, with open formations dominated by conifers (Juniperus, Pinus type sylvestris), later replaced by temperate forests in association with Mediterranean species and light-demanding plants. Important regional variations, correlated with the bioclimatic conditions, pinpoint the dominance of deciduous Quercus in eastern Spain and southern France, Olea europaea in southern Spain and southern Portugal, Pinus halepensis in southern Catalonia, the Ebro valley and in the extreme south-east of France. From the Middle Neolithic onwards, farming/pastoral activities instigate important changes in woodland composition, with the development of mixed coppiced/pollarded woods, followed by open matorrals. Transformations identified in different sites were not synchronous and were still reversible; the rapidity of the process depended on the complex interaction between human activities and regional climatic characteristics.

Past air pollution recordings on stone monuments: The Heads of the Kings of Juda Statues from Notre-Dame Cathedral (Paris)

Publisher Summary Pollution linked to the combustion of wood is characteristic of the atmosphere of the cities in the past. It led to the development of thin grey crusts on the surface of the stones of monuments. The grey crusts were discovered on the Heads of Kings of Juda Statues, present on the western facade of Notre-Dame in Paris from the 13 th Century to 1792. These thin grey crusts are the material witnesses of the effects of the ancient air pollution, prevalent during the French revolution and the period immediately before it. This chapter focuses on the research conducted on the character and evolution of urban air pollution in the past; and the comparison of results with those derived from studies on the modern industrial black crusts. Several analytical techniques were used to highlight the main physicochemical and mineralogical characteristics of the grey crusts: colorimetric technique, X-ray diffraction, and photon microscopy. Many of the characteristics of the ancient grey crusts of the Heads of Kings of Juda directly contrast with those of the modern day black crusts: color, texture, thickness, and chemicomineralogical nature of the crusts and of the prismatic or spherical particles embedded in the matrix. Diffractometric analysis of the modem black crusts highlights the presence of the same minerals as those found in the ancient crusts of the Heads, but in different proportions greater amounts of gypsum than calcite, followed by quartz and weddellite. A further major difference between the ancient grey crusts and the modern black crusts lies in the kind of particles contained in the gypsum-calcite cement. While the grey crusts only contain the residues of incomplete wood combustion, the modern crusts embed microspheres, which turn out to be fly-ash released into the atmosphere by the combustion of coal or heavy fuel.