bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Supervised near-peer clinical teaching in the ambulatory clinic: an exploratory study of family medicine residents’ perspectives
Authors: Ince-Cushman Daniel , Rudkin Teresa , Rosenberg Ellen
Published: January 2015

Near-peer teaching is used extensively in hospital-based rotations but its use in ambulatory care is less well studied. The objective of this study was to verify the benefits of near-peer teaching found in other contexts and to explore the benefits and challenges of near-peer clinical supervision unique to primary care. A qualitative descriptive design using semi-structured interviews was chosen to accomplish this. A faculty preceptor supervised senior family medicine residents as they supervised a junior resident. We then elicited residents’ perceptions of the experience. The study took place at a family medicine teaching unit in Canada. Six first-year and three second-year family medicine residents participated. Both junior and senior residents agreed that near-peer clinical supervision should be an option during family medicine residency training. The senior resident was perceived to benefit the most. Near-peer teaching was found to promote self-reflection and confidence in the supervising resident. Residents felt that observation by a faculty preceptor was required. In conclusion, the benefits of near-peer teaching previously described in hospital settings can be extended to ambulatory care training programmes. However, the perceived need for direct observation in a primary care context may make it more challenging to implement.
MMP‐2 inhibits PCSK9‐induced degradation of the LDL receptor in Hepa1‐c1c7 cells
Authors: Wang Xiang , Berry Evan , Hernandez-Anzaldo Samuel , Sun Difei , Adijiang Ayinuer , Li Liang , Zhang Dawei , Fernandez-Patron Carlos
Published: January 2015

Low‐density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) catalyzes the uptake of LDL‐cholesterol by liver and peripheral organs. The function of the LDLR is antagonized by pro‐protein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9), which binds to LDLR at the plasma membrane inducing LDLR degradation. Here, we report that matrix metalloproteinase‐2 (MMP‐2) interacts with and cleaves PCSK9, as evidenced by proteomic, chemical cross‐linkage, blue native‐PAGE and domain‐specific antibodies Western blot analyses. Furthermore, MMP‐2 overexpression renders Hepa1‐c1c7 cells resistant to PCSK9‐induced LDLR degradation. The data suggest that pathological MMP‐2 overexpression may protect the LDLR from PCSK‐9‐induced degradation.
Bringing Home the “Danish” Bacon: Food Chains, National Branding and Danish Supremacy over the British Bacon Market, c. 1900–1938
Authors: HIGGINS DAVID M. , MORDHORST MADS
Published: January 2015

A substantial literature documents the importance of trademarks and brands to business success. How does this relationship change when we enlarge our focus from individual firms to industries and nations? This articles examines the dominance of Danish bacon in Britain between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We argue that this supremacy required state intervention and cooperation between government and producers to underpin high and consistent levels of quality throughout the supply chain, both of which were necessary to ensure the successful marketing of “Danish” bacon. In Britain, by contrast, state intervention to increase bacon production was only partially successful because it was undermined by a nineteenth-century legacy of uncoordination and deregulation. Such weaknesses affected the supply of appropriate pigs and the production of bacon that was uniform in quality, and ultimately negated the efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to promote a “British” bacon brand.
Description and outcome evaluation of Jigsaw: an emergent Irish mental health early intervention programme for young people
Authors: O’Keeffe L. , O’Reilly A. , O’Brien G. , Buckley R. , Illback R.
Published: January 2015

Objectives

Jigsaw is an early intervention mental health service developed by Headstrong which provides support to young people, aged 12–25 years, in 10 communities across Ireland. This study aimed to profile young people who availed of Jigsaw, in one calendar year, and to provide evidence that Jigsaw’s model facilitates the reduction of psychological distress.

Methods

Participants were 2420 young people who received support, directly or indirectly, from Jigsaw. Demographic details, including age, gender, presenting issues and referral pathways, captured on the Jigsaw Data System were described and psychological distress was assessed using the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE) questionnaires.

Results

A gender balance was almost observed and the majority of participants were between 15 and 17 years old. The most common presenting issue was anxiety and the most common referral sources were self, parent, general practitioner, school and Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS). Participants reported high levels of psychological distress pre-intervention and levels were significantly lower post intervention.

Conclusions

Although a lack of control group limits interpretation of the study findings, this study provides emerging evidence that Jigsaw is an accessible and effective service which plays a key role in the continuum of mental health care for young people in Ireland.
Linear stability analysis of a premixed flame with transverse shear
Authors: Lu Xiaoyi , Pantano Carlos
Published: January 2015

One-dimensional planar premixed flames propagating in a uniform flow are susceptible to hydrodynamic instabilities known (generically) as Darrieus–Landau instabilities. Here, we extend that hydrodynamic linear stability analysis to include a lateral shear. This generalization is a situation of interest for laminar and turbulent flames when they travel into a region of shear (such as a jet or shear layer). It is shown that the problem can be formulated and solved analytically and a dispersion relation can be determined. The solution depends on a shear parameter in addition to the wavenumber, thermal expansion ratio, and Markstein lengths. The study of the dispersion relation shows that perturbations have two types of behaviour as wavenumber increases. First, for small shear, we recover the Darrieus–Landau results except for a region at small wavenumbers, large wavelengths, that is stable. Initially, increasing shear has a stabilizing effect. But, for sufficiently high shear, the flame becomes unstable again and its most unstable wavelength can be much smaller than the Markstein length of the zero-shear flame. Finally, the stabilizing effect of low shear can make flames with negative Markstein numbers stable within a band of wavenumbers.
The geology of the Amstel river in Amsterdam (Netherlands): Man versus nature
Authors: de Gans W.
Published: January 2015

The Amstel river is located in the peat-covered coastal plain of the Netherlands and gives Amsterdam its name (Amstel dam). It is a small secondary branch of the repeatedly bifurcating Rhine delta system. Historically, the Amstel debouched into the peat-fringed former Oer-IJ estuary, which was connected to the North Sea, but after the closure of this inlet the estuary was transformed into an inland sea (IJ) due to erosion of the adjacent peat. The Amstel river was active between 3000 BP and 1122 AD after which time the supply water from the Rhine was stopped due to the construction of a dam far upstream near Wijk bij Duurstede. On the basis of borehole data from various sources, four cross-sections were constructed in the Amstel branch to study the unknown lithology and lithostratigraphy of the Amstel sediments in the Amsterdam area. The deposits show the Amstel was a low-energy river which carried mainly clay. The cross-sections reveal that the Amstel in its downstream part was flanked by two lithologically identical layers of overbank clay, intercalated by a peat layer. The lowermost overbank clay was deposited from 3000 BP to about 1000 AD. The intercalated peat layer is estimated to have developed between the 11th and 12th centuries AD, indicating a decreased sediment supply in the Amstel, and rise of water level in the downstream river caused by Zuiderzee influences such as storms and tide. The uppermost overbank clay was deposited during major storm surges such as those documented in 1164 and 1170 AD, and was derived from the brackish Zuiderzee; it has been traced upstream along the Amstel for over 10 km. Near the mouth of the Amstel channel in the Oer-IJ estuary its bottom has been scoured by estuarine processes to a lower level. On the basis of archaeological and geological data it is argued that the Amstel channel of medieval Amsterdam had a water depth of about 6 m before the construction of a dam in the 13th century. Soil scientists, historical geographers and historians have argued that the Amstel once consisted of two separate rivers: a northern Oer-IJ connected channel draining from the Amsterdam Stopera to the north, and a southern peat draining channel draining from the Amsterdam-Watergraafsmeer to the south. The relatively straight stretch of the present-day Amstel now positioned within the urban area has been hypothesised to be man-made between the 11th and 13th centuries AD. In this paper, on the basis of geological arguments such as channel depths, overbank clays, peat composition and other characteristics, it is concluded that the Amstel had a natural channel in the Amsterdam area.
The archaeology of Britain&s first modern humans
Authors: Dinnis Rob
Published: January 2015

The sites of the first modern humans who occupied what is now Britain have been reduced to a handful by subsequent glaciation and the rise in sea level, and their assemblages have been further depleted because early excavators ignored the microliths. Confronting the challenges of this exiguous material, the author succeeds in painting a vivid picture of Aurignacian hunters following prey down the now submerged Channel River Valley, colonising the preferred hilly zones at the west of Britain. The presence of two types of bladelet manufacture suggests a lengthy or repeated period of subsequent occupation.
The oldest art of the Eurasian Arctic: personal ornaments and symbolic objects from Yana RHS, Arctic Siberia
Authors: Pitulko Vladimir V. , Pavlova Elena Y. , Nikolskiy Pavel A. , Ivanova Varvara V.
Published: January 2015

The excavated site termed Yana RHS is dated to about 28000 BP and contained a stunning assemblage of ornamented and symbolic objects—the earliest art to be excavated in the Arctic zone. Decorated beads, pendants and needles connect the site to the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic; but other forms and ornaments are unparalleled. Shallow dishes and anthropomorphic designs on mammoth tusks find echoes among hunting practice and shamanistic images of the indigenous Yukaghir people recorded in the early twentieth century.
The southern San and the trance dance: a pivotal debate in the interpretation of San rock paintings
Authors: Lewis-Williams J. David , Pearce David G.
Published: January 2015

Cave paintings and first-hand ethnographic accounts from living peoples have led to the notion that southern African spiritual experts routinely mediated with the other world through energetic dances leading to the trance state. The evidence for this idea has been challenged in recent years, and the importance of the trance dance diminished accordingly. The authors confront these criticisms and place the shamanistic dance back on centre stage—with important consequences not only for the study of San peoples, but for wider prehistoric interpretations.
Recognising ritual: the case of Campanayuq Rumi
Authors: Matsumoto Yuichi
Published: January 2015

Exploration of a group of Early Horizon platforms by quadrat in Peru made contact with a midden, rich in artefacts and faunal remains. Was this the result of discard from an elite residence, or deposits of ‘ceremonial trash’ emanating from ritual performance? The author shows how this question may be decided, even through the analysis of a single small sample.
Life of an ancient monument: Hadrian's Wall in history
Authors: Hingley Richard , Witcher Robert , Nesbitt Claire
Published: January 2015

The Romans are Britain's favourite invaders, and Hadrian's Wall is among the largest and finest of the relics they left behind on the island. However, as our authors urge, we should demand more intellectual depth from our monuments today. Not simply a cultural asset anchored in the Roman empire, Hadrian's Wall had a busy afterlife, a material history reflecting the uses, attitudes and emotions of later centuries. Its ‘biography’ not only captures new information about the last two millennia, it offers a story that the modern visitor deserves to hear.
A new interpretative approach to the chemistry of copper-alloy objects: source, recycling and technology
Authors: Bray P.J. , Pollard A.M.
Published: January 2015

The metal composition of bronze alloys has been routinely examined as a means of inferring the source of the ore. But bronze is recycled, and the quantity of some components, such as arsenic, is depleted every time the alloy is melted down. Since the Early Bronze Age of the British Isles was largely supplied from a single mine on Ross Island, Co. Kerry, tracking arsenic content shows the number of re-melts and this gives the object a biography and a social context. Applying this ingenious new procedure to their large database, the authors also winkle out other sources of supply and new insights about the technology involved.
Synchronising radiocarbon dating and the Egyptian historical chronology by improved sample selection
Authors: Dee M.W. , Rowland J.M. , Higham T.F.G. , Shortland A.J. , Brock F. , Harris S.A. , Ramsey C. Bronk
Published: January 2015

Egypt has some of the oldest written records and extended lists of named rulers. But radiocarbon dates have only fulfilled expectations 66 per cent of the time. So why haven&t the two types of dating made a better match? The authors provide a dozen excellent reasons, which will sound the alarm among researchers well beyond Dynastic Egypt.
Three-dimensional recording of archaeological remains in the Altai Mountains
Authors: Plets Gertjan , Gheyle Wouter , Verhoeven Geert , De Reu Jeroen , Bourgeois Jean , Verhegge Jeroen , Stichelbaut Birger
Published: January 2015

In the course of their research campaign in Siberia, Ghent University archaeologists have developed a simple and cost effective method for the rapid 3D imaging of rock art, standing stelae and surface monuments. Their procedure will undoubtedly have a big role to play in archaeological research in advance of the oil pipeline expected soon.
Dealul Guran: evidence for Lower Palaeolithic (MIS 11) occupation of the Lower Danube loess steppe
Authors: Iovita Radu , Fitzsimmons Kathryn E. , Dobos Adrian , Hambach Ulrich , Hilgers Alexandra , Zander Anja
Published: January 2015

Owing to a thick blanket of loess and other later geological disruptions, the earliest hominins to reach Europe are hard to find. To a handful of possible sites, our authors add a new assemblage of lithics with a clear local context and corroborated OSL ages. Ancient humans were present in what is now Romania between 300 000 and 400 000 years ago.
New evidence for the processing of wild cereal grains at Ohalo II, a 23 000-year-old campsite on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel
Authors: Nadel Dani , Piperno Dolores R. , Holst Irene , Snir Ainit , Weiss Ehud
Published: January 2015

Traces of starch found on a large flat stone discovered in the hunter-fisher-gatherer site of Ohalo II famously represent the first identification of Upper Palaeolithic grinding of grasses. Given the importance of this discovery for the use of edible grain, further analyses have now been undertaken. Meticulous sampling combined with good preservation allow the authors to demonstrate that the Ohalo II stone was certainly used for the routine processing of wild cereals, wheat, barley and now oats among them, around 23 000 years ago.
Substantial settlement in the European Early Mesolithic: new research at Star Carr
Authors: Conneller Chantal , Milner Nicky , Taylor Barry , Taylor Maisie
Published: January 2015

The authors rewrite the character of Early Mesolithic settlement in Europe with their new research at one of its most famous sites. The picture of small mobile pioneering groups colonising new land is thrown into contention: far from being a small hunter-gatherer camp, Star Carr in 9000 cal BC extended for nearly 2ha and involved the construction of an estimated 30m of lakeside waterfront and at least one post-built house. With some justice, they suspect that the ‘small groups’ of Early Mesolithic Europe may have their rationale in the small excavations of archaeologists.
Stonehenge remodelled
Authors: Darvill Timothy , Marshall Peter , Pearson Mike Parker , Wainwright Geoff
Published: January 2015

We are pleased to present the latest account of the sequence of burial and construction at the site of Stonehenge, deduced by its most recent excavators and anchored in time by the application of Bayesian radiocarbon modelling. Five prehistoric stages are proposed, of varied duration, and related by our authors to neighbouring monuments in the Stonehenge environs. While it may never be possible to produce a definitive chronology for this most complex of monuments, the comprehensive and integrated achievement owed to these researchers has brought us much closer to that goal. It is from this firm platform that Stonehenge can begin its new era of communication with the public at large.
The topographic and environmental context of the earliest village sites in western South Asia
Authors: Petrie C.A. , Thomas K.D.
Published: January 2015

Researchers in several continents have found that agriculture began not in major river valleys but up in the hills, where early farmers tended crops on alluvial fans and improved irrigation by building earth barriers across them. Here the authors reveal a similar process in the hills of Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where early farming villages overlook the plains of the Punjab and Sindh, heartland of the later Indus civilisation. Today this is a troubled border zone, with difficult access on the ground, but our researchers make exemplary use of satellite survey to map the villages in their specific local environments.
The earliest representations of royal power in Egypt: the rock drawings of Nag el-Hamdulab (Aswan)
Authors: Hendrickx Stan , Darnell John Coleman , Gatto Maria Carmela
Published: January 2015

The vivid engravings on vertical rocks at the desert site of Nag el-Hamdulab west of the Nile comprise a rock art gallery of exceptional historical significance. The authors show that the images of boats with attendant prisoners, animals and the earliest representation of a pharaoh offer a window on Dynasty 0, and depict the moment that the religious procession of pre-Dynastic Egypt became the triumphant tour of a tax-collecting monarch.
Immigration and transhumance in the Early Bronze Age Carpathian Basin: the occupants of akurgan
Authors: Gerling Claudia , Bánffy Eszter , Dani János , Köhler Kitti , Kulcsár Gabriella , Pike Alistair W.G. , Szeverényi Vajk , Heyd Volker
Published: January 2015

You never know until you look. The authors deconstruct a kurgan burial mound in the Great Hungarian Plain designated to the Yamnaya culture, to find it was actually shared by a number of different peoples. The Yamnaya were an influential immigrant group of the Late Copper Age/Early Bronze Age transition. The burials, already characterised by their grave goods, were radiocarbon dated and further examined using stable isotope analysis on the human teeth. The revealing sequence began with a young person of likely local origin buried around or even before the late fourth millennium BC—a few centuries before the arrival of the Yamnaya. It ended around 500 years later with a group of different immigrants, apparently from the eastern mountains. These are explained as contacts built up between the mountains and the plain through the practice of transhumance.
Mancala at the pyramids of Meroe
Authors: Voogt Alex de
Published: January 2015

Game-boards carved on monuments offer an intriguing opportunity to track a certain mindset in time and space. In an earlier Antiquity article, the author showed us that mancala boards were carved on the Roman plinths at Palmyra by Arab soldiers. Here he takes us into Sudan, finding new mancala boards on the first-millennium pyramids at Meroe. With adroit detective work, he shows that these too are probably owed to military visitors, this time a group of nineteenth-century Turkish soldiers of the Ottoman empire—perhaps those assigned to help Giuseppe Ferlini to blow up and pillage the tombs.
Macrofractures on bone-tipped arrows: analysis of hunter-gatherer arrows in the Fourie collection from Namibia
Authors: Bradfield Justin
Published: January 2015

Bone points of two types, the one thin and poisoned and the other robust and not poisoned, are examined in this study of impact fractures. The bone points seem to have had similar experiences to stone points, producing fractures of a similar kind. Most of the fractures in the historical collection examined were caused by impacts. However, this early twentieth-century collection is not thought to be representative of contemporary fracture frequencies that occurred in hunting.
The lowest levels at Dikili Tash, northern Greece: a missing link in the Early Neolithic of Europe
Authors: Lespez Laurent , Tsirtsoni Zoï , Darcque Pascal , Koukouli-Chryssanthaki Haïdo , Malamidou Dimitra , Treuil René , Davidson Robert , Kourtessi-Philippakis Georgia , Oberlin Christine
Published: January 2015

Tells famously capture the historical sequences of the earliest farmers—but digging them is not easy. With a depth of strata of 17m at Dikili Tash, the earliest occupation was out of reach of a trench. But our researchers got there by coring, extending the date of the first occupation back 1000 years, and deducing, from small samples, the changing environment and possible connections with Anatolia.
Edges of bronze and expressions of masculinity: the emergence of a warrior class at Kerma in Sudan
Authors: Hafsaas-Tsakos Henriette
Published: January 2015

The author revisits the celebrated cemetery of the Bronze Age Kerma culture by the third cataract of the Nile and re-examines its monumental tumuli. The presence of daggers and drinking vessels in secondary burials are associated with skeletal remains that can be attributed to fighting men, encouraging their interpretation as members of a warrior elite. Here, on the southern periphery of the Bronze Age world, is an echo of the aggressive aristocracy of Bronze Age Europe.
Soundscapes and community organisation in ancient Peru: plaza architecture at the Early Horizon centre of Caylán
Authors: Helmer Matthew , Chicoine David
Published: January 2015

The thriving study of acoustic archaeology is here applied to an excavated plaza site in Peru, where the authors show that an intimate sound-space was intended, one which featured panpipe music as well as the spoken word. Their method involved the measurement of three sound levels of speech at various distances from the plaza, giving us an easy-to-use mode of on-site investigation, which will surely win wide application. The study also showed a dramatic change from the use of acoustics in a previous period, where sound was canalised in U-shaped temples in order to address large numbers of people.
Cultural hybridity and social status: elite tombs on China's Northern Frontier during the third century BC
Authors: Wu Xiaolong
Published: January 2015

It is a pleasure to present this vivid account of elite tombs on China's Northern Frontier, together with a closely argued case for cultural hybridity within the postcolonial paradigm. This incisive exposition of political interaction on a frontier will resonate with all of us who work with ‘imperial-barbarian’ relations—on any continent.
Stable isotopes and diet: their contribution to Romano-British research
Authors: Müldner Gundula
Published: January 2015

The study of stable isotopes surviving in human bone is fast becoming a standard response in the analysis of cemeteries. Reviewing the state of the art for Roman Britain, the author shows clear indications of a change in diet (for the better) following the Romanisation of Iron Age Britain—including more seafood, and more nutritional variety in the towns. While samples from the bones report an average of diet over the years leading up to an individual's death, carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures taken from the teeth may have a biographical element—capturing those childhood dinners. In this way migrants have been detected—as in the likely presence of Africans in Roman York. While not unexpected, these results show the increasing power of stable isotopes to comment on populations subject to demographic pressures of every kind.
A four-tier approach to the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict
Authors: Stone Peter G.
Published: January 2015

This vitally important article sets out the obstacles and opportunities for the protection of archaeological sites and historic buildings in zones of armed conflict. Readers will not need to be told that modern munitions are devastating and sometimes wayward, nor that cultural heritage once destroyed cannot simply be rebuilt. The author makes a vivid case for the role of respect for the past in mitigating hostility and so winning the peace as well as aiding the victory, and guides us through the forest of players. Agencies so numerous, so obscure and so often ineffective might prompt the response ‘a plague on all your acronyms’. All the more important, then, that the author and his associates continue their campaign and are supported by everyone who believes that cultural property has a value that lies beyond sectional interests.
Luminescence dating of brick stupas: an application to the hinterland of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
Authors: Bailiff Ian K. , Lacey Harriet R. , Coningham Robin A.E. , Gunawardhana Prishanta , Adikari Gamini , Davis Chris E. , Manuel Mark J. , Strickland Keir M.
Published: January 2015

The domed stupas are among the most distinctive of South Asia's religious monuments and have been shown to be sensitive indicators for their society. Since arguments for economic and political change depend on accurate dating, and since the stupas are largely composed of brick, the authors here assess the potential for dating building sequences by applying optically stimulated luminescence to brick fabric. As so often, good scientific dates obtained from specimens must be tempered by their context: brick may be replaced or recycled during repair and embellishment. Nevertheless, the method promises important insights by distinguishing different episodes of building, and so writing ‘biographies’ for stupas with different functions.
Burial mounds and settlement patterns: a quantitative approach to their identification from the air and interpretation
Authors: Oltean Ioana A.
Published: January 2015

The author describes a process of systematic integration of aerial and satellite imagery, which has provided a huge increase in the number of known burial mounds in the area where the Danube meets the Black Sea. Careful evaluation of newly acquired and archival imagery from satellites and lower level platforms shows where data is comparable and how visibility varies with imagery type. Excavations to date suggest the majority of the mounds are of Greco-Roman date and associated with the large towns and their road networks. Clusters of barrows exist, hinting at associated settlement aggregation, but a large proportion are single tumuli, raising interesting questions about their social role in this period. Above all, the large numbers revealed by the survey must invite new thoughts on whether, or in what way, the mounds reflect social ranking.
Modern political views and the emergence of early complex societies in the Bronze Age Mediterranean
Authors: Herrero Borja Legarra
Published: January 2015

The Tea Party, the Arab Spring and the _Occupy movements may seem to have little in common. They respond to very different circumstances, and they are fuelled by very different ideologies. Furthermore, they do not represent homogeneous movements and each of them amalgamates very different groups with very different interests. Stripped of their most obvious traits, however, they share a common dissatisfaction with the nature of power in the present world, and each has opened a debate on the nature and legitimacy of current power structures.
The Great East Japan Earthquake and cultural heritage: towards an archaeology of disaster
Authors: Okamura Katsuyuki , Fujisawa Atsushi , Kondo Yasuhisa , Fujimoto Yu , Uozu Tomokatsu , Ogawa Yumiko , Kaner Simon , Mizoguchi Koji
Published: January 2015

The earthquake that struck Japan on 11 March 2011, named the Great East Japan Earthquake by the Japanese government, was one of the largest seismic events the world has seen for generations. Akira Matsui reported his experience of visiting the areas devastated by the earthquake and tsunami soon afterwards, outlining the initial assessment of damage caused to museums and cultural heritage assets, and the plans for their rescue (Kaner et a/ 2011; Matsui 201 I a). The present contribution reports how far the implementation of these plans has been successful, the prospects for the future, and situates all of this in a broader context of archaeological response to earthquakes.
Butchering with small tools: the implications of the Evron Quarry assemblage for the behaviour ofHomo erectus
Authors: Chazan Michael
Published: January 2015

Stratified stone tools found with elephant and hippopotamus teeth at Evron Quarry can be dated to before 780 000 years ago. The assemblage includes handaxes, but less expectedly, small stone tools in the form of flakes with notches and points. Not thought to be points for spears or arrows, these small tools are suggested to be usable for butchery. They represent an adaption of local materials that make poor handaxes—so showing an ingenious improvisation on the part ofHomo erectus.
The development of Upper Palaeolithic China: new results from the Shuidonggou site
Authors: Li Feng , Gao Xing , Chen Fuyou , Pei Shuwen , Zhang Yue , Zhang Xiaoling , Liu Decheng , Zhang Shuangquan , Guan Ying , Wang Huimin , Kuhn Steven L.
Published: January 2015

The Shuidonggou site cluster in northern China contains 12 different early prehistoric sequences with great potential to cast light on the transition to Upper Palaeolithic behaviour in East Asia. Here researchers present the latest results from Locality 2, reporting seven occupation levels with hearths, animal bone and diverse industries. Although previously compared with European Upper Palaeolithic sequences, the new work proposes a different trajectory of development. Distinctive macroblade technology arrived in the area, possibly from Mongolia or Siberia, about 41000–34000 years ago. This industry subsequently disappeared, to be replaced by flake technologies.
The first towns in the central Sahara
Authors: Mattingly D. J. , Sterry M.
Published: January 2015

At first sight Saharan oases appear unlikely locations for the development of early urban communities. Recent survey work has, however, discovered evidence for complex settlements of the late first millennium BC and early first millennium AD, surrounded and supported by intensive agricultural zones. These settlements, despite their relatively modest size, satisfy the criteria to be considered as towns. The argument presented here not only presents the evidence for their urban status but also argues that it was not agriculture but trade that conjured them into existence. Without the development of trans-Saharan trade, these complex oasis communities would have been unsustainable, and their subsequent economic fortunes were directly linked to the fluctuating scale and direction of that trade.
‘The king in the car park’: new light on the death and burial of Richard III in the Grey Friars church, Leicester, in 1485
Authors: Buckley Richard , Morris Mathew , Appleby Jo , King Turi , O'Sullivan Deirdre , Foxhall Lin
Published: January 2015

Archaeologists today do not as a rule seek to excavate the remains of famous people and historical events, but the results of the project reported in this article provide an important exception. Excavations on the site of the Grey Friars friary in Leicester, demolished at the Reformation and subsequently built over, revealed the remains of the friary church with a grave in a high status position beneath the choir. The authors set out the argument that this grave can be associated with historical records indicating that Richard III was buried in this friary after his death at the Battle of Bosworth. Details of the treatment of the corpse and the injuries that it had sustained support their case that this should be identified as the burial of the last Plantagenet king. This paper presents the archaeological and the basic skeletal evidence: the results of the genetic analysis and full osteoarchaeological analysis will be published elsewhere.
Marking resistance? Change and continuity in the recent rock art of the southern Kimberley, Australia
Authors: O'Connor Sue , Balme Jane , Fyfe Jane , Oscar June , Oscar Mona , Davis June , Malo Helen , Nuggett Rosemary , Surprise Dorothy
Published: January 2015

Enhanced by recent survey, the authors define new kinds of rock art along the Lennard and Fitzroy rivers in Western Australia—black pigment and scratch-work images featuring anthropomorphic figures with elaborate head-dresses. These are shown to belong to the Contact period and represent the response of Indigenous artists to European land-taking by recalling and restating traditional themes from earlier times.
Reconsideration of the Copper Age chronology of the eastern Carpathian Basin: a Bayesian approach
Authors: Raczky Pál , Siklósi Zsuzsanna
Published: January 2015

Understanding the prehistoric narrative of a region requires good dating, and in recent years good dating has moved increasingly from models drawn from types of artefacts to a framework provided by radiocarbon sequences. This in turn is bringing a change in the way events are described: from broad cultural histories to a network of local sequences. In this case study, the authors apply this rethinking to the Copper Age in a key region of Europe, the Great Hungarian Plain in the Carpathian Basin. They replace the traditional Early and Middle Copper Age, defined by pottery types, with an 800-year sequence in which six cemetery and settlement sites experience different trajectories of use, and the pottery types make intermittent and often contemporary appearances. In this new chronology based on radiocarbon, the variations in pottery use must have some other explanation.
Acoustics of historic spaces as a form of intangible cultural heritage
Authors: Brezina Pavol
Published: January 2015

Archaeological interest in the study of the acoustics of important historic buildings is currently gaining in importance, and there are several areas where research is conducted. Among these I include music archaeology, archaeology of sound, archaeomusicology and archaeoacoustics (Watson & Keating 1999; Scarre & Lawson 2006; Knight 2010: 1). Research on acoustic space can, in principle, be divided into two types of project: the measurement of acoustic parameters and the storage of acoustics as audio heritage.
Surfaces and streets: phytoliths, micromorphology and changing use of space at Neolithic Çatalhöyük (Turkey)
Authors: Shillito Lisa-Marie , Ryan Philippa
Published: January 2015

The site of Çatalhöyük occupies a key position within the development of larger settlements in south-west Asia, but the apparent absence of outdoor activity areas has challenged conceptions of social interaction within the site. Where did the inhabitants of this substantial settlement meet together if there were no public spaces? The identification of outdoor activity areas is difficult in such a densely patterned settlement, but micromorphology and phytolith analysis, when used together, can provide secure interpretations. The present study applies these methods to a stratigraphic sequence of deposits in the South Area, where a succession of open areas was located adjacent to a series of buildings. The analysis reveals that these open areas were gradually transformed from a place for the dumping or accumulation of midden material in the early phases, to an informal and then a formally laid surface in the later stages. This suggests that although streets or courtyards may have been rare or absent in the early centuries at Çatalhöyük, they were present in the later phases of the occupation.
DNA evidence for multiple introductions of barley into Europe following dispersed domestications in Western Asia
Authors: Jones G. , Charles M.P. , Jones M.K. , Colledge S. , Leigh F.J. , Lister D.A. , Smith L.M.J. , Powell W. , Brown T.A. , Jones H.
Published: January 2015

It has long been recognised that the Neolithic spread across Europe via two separate routes, one along the Mediterranean coasts, the other following the axis of the major rivers. But did these two streams have a common point of origin in south-west Asia, at least with regard to the principal plant and animals species that were involved? This study of barley DNA shows that the domesticated barley grown in Neolithic Europe falls into three separate types (groups A, B and C), each of which may have had a separate centre of origin in south-west Asia. Barley was relatively rarely cultivated by the early Linearbandkeramik farmers of Central and Northern Europe, but became more common during the fifth and fourth millennia BC. The analysis reported here indicates that a genetic variety of barley more suitable for northern growing conditions was introduced from south-west Asia at this period. It also suggests that the barley grown in south-eastern Europe at the very beginning of the Neolithic may have arrived there by different routes from two separate centres of domestication in south-west Asia. The multiple domestications that this pattern reveals imply that domestication may have been more a co-evolutionary process between plants and people than an intentional human action.
Fourth-millennium-BC ‘leopard traps’ from the Negev Desert (Israel)
Authors: Porat Naomi , Avner Uzi , Holzer Assaf , Shemtov Rahamim , Horwitz Liora Kolska
Published: January 2015

Stone-built installations known as ‘leopard traps’ are found throughout the deserts of the Middle East. They have generally been considered to be recent in date, and to have been built by Bedouin or other local communities to trap carnivores that threatened their flocks. But how much older might they be? Survey in the hyper-arid ‘Uvda Valley of the southern Negev Desert in Israel discovered 23 ‘leopard traps’, 19 of them clustered in a relatively small area. This study describes the architecture and function of these structures and presents the first optically stimulated luminescence ages for two of them. These results demonstrate that the traps are ancient and were already in use before the late fourth millennium BC, not long after the adoption of herding by the desert dwellers.
Melting snow patches reveal Neolithic archery
Authors: Callanan Martin
Published: January 2015

High altitude snowfields provide repositories of well-preserved organic remains of considerable antiquity, as spectacular discoveries such as the Similaun Iceman illustrate. In Scandinavia, melting snow patches have been systematically surveyed by volunteer groups for almost a century, and a growing collection of archaeological artefacts has been recovered. Only recently, however, has AMS dating confirmed that some of the finds go back as far as the Neolithic. Here fragments of five Neolithic arrowshafts and a Neolithic longbow discovered in 2010–11 in the Oppdal area of Norway are described. They throw light on Neolithic bow and arrow technology and tangentially on the hunting techniques which may have attracted hunters to these snow patches in search of game. The progressive and accelerated melting of the snow patches in recent years draws attention to processes of climate change and the urgency of discovering and recovering these fragile perishable artefacts.
Site of Baodun yields earliest evidence for the spread of rice and foxtail millet agriculture to south-west China
Authors: Guedes Jade d'Alpoim , Jiang Ming , He Kunyu , Wu Xiaohong , Jiang Zhanghua
Published: January 2015

The Chengdu plain of south-west China lies outside the main centres of early domestication in the Huanghe and Yangzi valleys, but its importance in Chinese prehistory is demonstrated by the spectacular Sanxingdui bronzes of the second millennium BC and by the number of walled enclosures of the third millennium BC associated with the Baodun culture. The latter illustrate the development of social complexity. Paradoxically, however, these are not the outcome of a long settled agricultural history but appear to be associated with the movement of the first farming communities into this region. Recent excavations at the Baodun type site have recovered plant remains indicating not only the importance of rice cultivation, but also the role played by millet in the economy of these and other sites in south-west China. Rice cultivation in paddy fields was supplemented by millet cultivation in neighbouring uplands. Together they illustrate how farmers moving into this area from the Middle Yangzi adjusted their cultivation practices to adapt to their newly colonised territories.
Out of the Norwegian glaciers: Lendbreen—a tunic from the early first millennium AD
Authors: Vedeler Marianne , Jørgensen Lise Bender
Published: January 2015

As the temperature rises each year, the assemblages of prehistoric hunters emerge from the ice. Archaeologists in Norway are now conducting regular surveys in the mountains to record the new finds. A recent example presented here consists of a whole tunic, made of warm wool and woven in diamond twill. The owner, who lived in the late Iron Age (third–fourth centuries AD), was wearing well-worn outdoor clothing, originally of high quality.
Pitch production during the Roman period: an intensive mountain industry for a globalised economy?
Authors: Orengo Hector A. , Palet Josep M. , Ejarque Ana , Miras Yannick , Riera Santiago
Published: January 2015

The authors' research project in the Pyrenees mountains has located and excavated Roman kilns for producing pitch from pine resin. Their investigations reveal a whole sustainable industry, integrated into the local environmental cycle, supplying pitch to the Roman network and charcoal as a spin-off to the local iron extractors. The paper makes a strong case for applying combined archaeological and palaeoenvironmental investigations in upland areas, showing mountain industries to have been not so much marginal and pastoral as key players in the economy of the Roman period and beyond it into the seventh century AD.
From burials to population identity: archaeological appraisal of the status of a Lesser Antilles colonial cemetery (Baillif, Guadeloupe)
Authors: Kacki S. , Romon T.
Published: January 2015

Settlements and cemeteries associated with a European colonial presence provide rich opportunities to gain insights into the character and composition of those populations, even in the absence of written records. The study reported here has the added fascination of a detective story, seeking to match an unknown burial ground to a series of known but long lost cemeteries. The systematic analysis of the graves and their occupants is carried out within a comparative framework which highlights the variable composition and distinguishing features of the different types of graveyard that are encountered within a colonial context. The authors conclude that the Baillif cemetery was a nineteenth-century military graveyard, and that many of the young men who were buried here were new recruits who fell victim to endemic diseases such as dysentery, yellow fever and malaria.
Interpreting archaeological fish remains
Authors: Erlandson Jon M.
Published: January 2015

In an important paper, O'Connor et al. (2011) described evidence for marine fishing from around 42 000-year-old (cal BP) deposits at Jerimalai Shelter on Timor-Leste. The paper's title referred to evidence for pelagic fishing and the maritime skills of anatomically modern humans (AMH). Considering that not long ago human seafaring and marine fishing were considered to be limited to the terminal Pleistocene or early Holocene (see Erlandson 2001), the paper's broader significance lies in the further evidence for Pleistocene voyaging required to colonise Timor-Leste and the quantities of fish bone that represent a substantial marine fishing effort at a relatively early date.
Response to O'Connor and Ono, Bailey and Erlandson
Authors: Anderson Atholl
Published: January 2015

I thank the contributors for their comments. We all agree that the Jerimalai data provide an intriguing glimpse of maritime activity in the Wallacean Pleistocene by showing that Scombridae were unusually prominent amongst 15 families of fish that had been caught around 40 000 BP. In various ways, we also agree that the hypothesis interpreting these data in O'Connor et al. (2011) is far from robust. Its fundamental proposition was that the scombrids were oceanic tuna, but O'Connor and Ono (above) now concede that, 'as we did not speciate [sic] the scombrids at Jerimalai we cannot be certain that oceanic species were represented'. Their description of samples and methods, which confirms the inadequacy of the comparative collection and notes that scombrid bone from Jerimalai Square A also may not be from tuna, simply underlines the thrust of my critique. Some of the scombrids might be oceanic tuna but since no tuna were identified, either as a class or species, the marine zones involved in scombrid fishing cannot be inferred, and the empirical argument for offshore tuna fishing collapses.
The origins and spread of stock-keeping: the role of cultural and environmental influences on early Neolithic animal exploitation in Europe
Authors: Manning Katie , Downey Sean S. , Colledge Sue , Conolly James , Stopp Barbara , Dobney Keith , Shennan Stephen
Published: January 2015

It has long been recognised that the proportions of Neolithic domestic animal species—cattle, pig and sheep/goat—vary from region to region, but it has hitherto been unclear how much this variability is related to cultural practices or to environmental constraints. This study uses hundreds of faunal assemblages from across Neolithic Europe to reveal the distribution of animal use between north and south, east and west. The remarkable results present us with a geography of Neolithic animal society—from the rabbit-loving Mediterranean to the beef-eaters of the north and west. They also demonstrate that the choices made by early Neolithic herders were largely determined by their environments. Cultural links appear to have played only a minor role in the species composition of early Neolithic animal societies.