bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Genetic characterization ofToxoplasma gondiiisolates from Portugal, Austria and Israel reveals higher genetic variability within the type II lineage
Authors: VERMA S. K. , AJZENBERG D. , RIVERA-SANCHEZ A. , SU C. , DUBEY J. P. 
Published: February 2015

SUMMARYThis study compared genetic diversity ofToxoplasma gondiiisolates from Portugal, Austria and Israel. For this, we genotyped 90T. gondiiisolates (16 from Portugal, 67 from Austria and 7 from Israel) using 10 nested PCR-restriction length polymorphism (RFLP) genetic markers and 15 microsatellite (MS) markers. By PCR-RFLP typing, 7 isolates from Portugal chickens were identified as type II (ToxoDB #1 or #3), 4 were type III (ToxoDB #2) and the remaining 4 isolates have unique genotype pattern were designated as ToxoDB #254. One mouse virulent isolate from a bovine fetus (Bos taurus) in Portugal was type I (ToxoDB #10) at all loci and designated as TgCowPr1. All 67 isolates from Austria and 7 from Israel were type II (ToxoDB #1 or #3). By MS typing, many additional genetic variations were revealed among the type II and type III isolates. Phylogenetic analysis showed that isolates from the same geographical locations tend to cluster together, and there is little overlapping of genotypes among different locations. This study demonstrated that the MS markers can provide higher discriminatory power to reveal association of genotypes with geographical locations. Future studies of the type II strains in Europe by these MS markers will be useful to reveal transmission patterns of the parasite.
Esoteric Knowledge? Ancient Bronze Artefacts from Iron Age Contexts
Authors: Hingley Richard 
Published: February 2015

‘Esoteric knowledge is knowledge of the unusual, the exceptional, the extraordinary; knowledge of things that in some way lie beyond the familiar everyday world’ (Helms 1988, 13)This paper explores the ways in which Bronze Age bronze artefacts may, on occasions, have been used in the commemoration of place during the southern British Iron Age. The chronologically-based typological systems adopted by archaeologists indicate that these artefacts occur out of their time as they were already several centuries old when they were buried, but it should not be supposed that Iron Age societies necessarily viewed these items entirely in terms of a linear sequence of time. While broadly similar in form and material to items in the cultural repertoire of contemporary society, the bronzes were also quite distinct in the particular forms that they adopted. That these items often appear to have been deposited at sites with a pre-existing monumentality may suggest that objects and places were felt to share ‘otherworldliness’. These items and places may have been used to construct esoteric knowledge through reference to spirits but it is also likely that particular acts of curation and deposition created genealogical associations, incorporating ideas of the mythical past into the context of the present. Drawing on the evidence for the form and contexts of depositions of these objects, this paper addresses the connected topics of what Iron Age society did to objects and sites derived from its own past and what we, in turn, do to (and can do with) the information derived from the Iron Age.
Transforming Beaker Culture in North-West Europe; Processes of Fusion and Fission
Authors: Needham Stuart 
Published: February 2015

‘It is the slippery assemblages and the social traditions they represent, that we are trying to precipitate from the mass of beaker data’. Clarke 1970, 33The pottery we collectively call ‘Beakers’ is united by the thread of a potting and style tradition, Wrapped up in that tradition are also expressions concerning what such a pot is for and who it may represent. Both style and those embedded meanings mutate through the long currency of British Beakers. Indeed, the newly emerging chronology for Beaker grave groups suggests that there was one critical point of rapid mutation in both pot form and associated artefacts. This phase is referred to as a fission horizon, c. 2250–2150 cal BC, and it underlines the difficulties that past schemes of steady evolution have run into.In reviewing the continental background for Beaker-carrying cultures, a corridor of Bell Beaker/Corded Ware fusion is perceived along the southern flanks of the Channel. This created a modified spectrum of Beaker culture which stands at the head of the insular phenomenon. The long ensuing currency of Beaker pottery and Beaker graves in Britain does not hold up as a unified, steadily evolving entity. Instead, three ‘phases of meaning’ can be suggested: 1) Beaker as circumscribed, exclusive culture; 2) Beaker as instituted culture; 3) Beaker as past reference. The fission horizon initiates phase 2.
A Middle Palaeolithic Site at Lynford Quarry, Mundford, Norfolk: Interim Statement
Authors: Boismier W.A. , Schreve Danielle C. , White Mark J. , Robertson D.A. , Stuart A.J. , Etienne S. , Andrews J. , Coope G.R. , Field M.H. , Green F.M.L. , Keen D.H. , Lewis S.G. , French Charles , Rhodes E. D. , Schwenninger J.-L. , Tovey K. , Donahue R.E. , Richards M.P. , O'Connor S. 
Published: February 2015

In late February and early March 2002, an archaeological watching brief at Lynford Quarry, Mundford, Norfolk revealed a palaeochannel with a dark organic fill containing in situ mammoth remains and associated Mousterian stone tools and debitage buried under 2–3 m of bedded sands and gravels. Well-preserved in situ Middle Palaeolithic open air sites are very unusal in Europe and exceedingly rare within a British context. As such, the site was identified as being of national and international importance, and was subsequently excavated by the Norfolk Archaeological Unit with funding provided by English Heritage through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund.This report presents some of the initial results of the excavation. It sets out how the site was excavated, outlines the stratigraphic sequence for the site, and presents some provisional findings of the excavation based on the results of the assessment work carried out by project specialists and Norfolk Archaeological Unit staff.
The Prehistoric Rock Art of Great Britain: A Survey of All Sites Bearing Motifs more Complex than Simple Cup-marks
Authors: Morris Ronald W. B. 
Published: February 2015

The prehistoric rock art of Great Britain — England, Scotland and Wales — is surveyed, with specific reference to the over 900 sites bearing motifs more complex than cup-marks alone and apparently random grooves. Of sites bearing cup-marks alone, there are at least 700.The majority of motifs is geometric, with a few animals, weapons and human hands and footprints. Two main groups are recognized, the Boyne or Passage Grave type and the Galician type. The former occurs mainly on the slabs of Neolithic tombs, especially in Ireland, and includes spirals, rings, lozenges, zigzags and flower-like figures, only some of which occur in Britain. The latter is more restricted in design, with mainly cup-and-rings, rings, and spirals, usually on rock outcrops and boulders. A third group is recognized by some workers, in which cist and burial stones are carved with mostly the Boyne type, but sometimes with Galician or simple cup-marks or a mixture of these. There is also occasional overlap between Galician and Boyne types, occurring on natural rocks and tombs.The main characteristics, locations in relation to topography and archaeology, and distribution are detailed. Dating and significance are briefly discussed.Most of the art occurs in a central belt of Britain, but within that it is recognized as being distributed spatially among 16 main regions which are defined both geographically and with regard to concentrations of sites.There is a gazetteer of all sites, similarly arranged.
Far'ah II: A Middle Palaeolithic Open-Air Site in the Northern Negev, Israel.
Authors: Gilead Isaac , Grigson Caroline 
Published: February 2015

The middle palaeolithic open-air site of Far'ah II was discovered and tested by the British Western Negev Expedition during the years 1972–73 (Price Williams 1973; 1975). After the British team concluded its field programme in 1976, the Archaeological Division of Ben Gurion University of the Negev in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem took over. For three seasons during 1976, 1977, and 1978, the site was excavated under the direction of I. Gilead.A preliminary report of the results of the 1977 season described the basic aspects of the flint technology and typology (Gilead 1980). It is the intention of this article to discuss new data acquired during the field season of 1978 and to present a more detailed analysis of the flint artefacts and animal remains and of their spatial distribution on the archaeological surfaces.
The Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery, Co. Sligo
Authors: Kitchin F. T. 
Published: February 2015

This paper is inspired by and based upon a field survey of the Carrowmore megalithic cemetery carried out by the writer and Mr Desmond Smith, then Hon. Secretary of the Sligo Field Club, in 1972–73 and revised in 1977 following the clearance of scrub from a number of sites which had hitherto been incapable of proper examination. So far as is known, this is the first attempt at a definitive, if admittedly superficial, survey of this unique assemblage of tombs and other sites since that conducted by Col. W. G. Wood-Martin almost a century ago and recorded in The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland (1888). The only other definitive survey was that made in 1837 by George Petrie, archaeologist to the Ordnance Survey, and recorded in the Ordnance Survey Letters for County Sligo. In addition, Petrie prepared a map of the area of the cemetery (unfortunately not reproduced in the Ordnance Survey letters) in which he marked and numbered all sites to his knowledge then extant. This map was revised and used by Wood-Martin and it is on this later version that the identification of sites in the present survey is based.A fairly close acquaintance with Carrowmore over the past twenty years or so has encouraged the conviction that the problems posed are of greater variety and complexity than have up to now been acknowledged.
The Re-excavation of Zarzi, 1971
Authors: Wahida Ghanim 
Published: February 2015

SummaryStratigraphic and typological analysis tends to confirm the two-fold division of the Zarzian suggested by Dorothy Garrod, while palaeobotanical data indicate that a very dry steppe prevailed throughout the sequence. Both the low carrying capacity of the contemporary vegetation then and at present in winter, and the resultant winter migration to warmer areas of wild game at present (and presumably in the past) suggest cyclical short distance movements by hunter-gatherers and fishers within two ecological zones: 1, the mountainous area which must have been occupied from spring to autumn; 2, the winter camping grounds in the upper plains along the foothills region of the Zagros Mountains.
Some Aspects of the Prehistory of Northern Italy from the Final Palaeolithic to the Middle Neolithic: a Reconsideration on the Evidence Available to Date
Authors: Biagi Paolo 
Published: February 2015

This article concerns the prehistory of Northern Italy from the end of the ninth to the beginning of the fourth millennium bc. The main aim in this work is to interpret the available archaeological evidence in an attempt to understand the cultural change which occurred through the period under study.The gap existing in our knowledge between the Late Epigravettian and the Early Mesolithic has been partially rilled by recent discoveries of Final Epigravettian encampments on the Baldo (Bagolini and Nisi 1976) and Bondone (Bagolini 1976) mountains in the Veneto. and Trentino regions. Unfortunately nothing is known about the natural history of the area, because the Baldo and Bondone sites did not yield any faunal remains. Only a few charcoal samples were recovered from the peat bog of Viotte on Bondone, where Final Epigravettian hunters settled. These charcoal samples have not yet been identified. In my opinion, the Bondone encampment might be attributed to the Alleröd oscillation. Palynological evidence of this period is almost totally lacking except for the area south of Lake Garda. At the Castellaro Lagusello peat bog, Bertoldi (1965) identified both the Bölling and Alleröd oscillations from the same core at the depths of 6·50 and 6·0 m respectively. The presence of oak pollen at the depth of 6·50 m varies from 0·2 to 0·6%. This pollen disappears after this moment to reappear at the depth of 6·0 m when birch pollen increases and pine decreases abruptly. The Bölling oscillation has been dated by the radio-carbon method to 11250±250 bc, while no date is available for the Alleröd one.
Fish Otoliths as Indicators of Seasonality in Prehistoric Shell Middens: the Evidence from Oronsay (Inner Hebrides)
Authors: Mellars P. A. , Wilkinson M. R. , Fieller N. R. J. 
Published: February 2015

The samples to be discussed in this paper derive from a series of late Mesolithic shell-midden sites on the island of Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides. Despite the small size of the island (less than six square kilometres) at least six separate middens have now been identified on Oronsay, of which all except one are located along the south-east-facing coast of the island (fig. 1). Radiocarbon dates ranging from 3695 ± 80 to 3200 ± 380 bc have been obtained on samples of charcoal from the middens, and point to a considerable measure of chronological overlap in the occupation of the different sites (Mellars 1978).Archaeologically, the chief interest of these sites lies in the excellent conditions for the preservation of faunal remains, which provides a unique insight into the economic activities of coastal-living groups shortly before the appearance of formally ‘Neolithic’ communities in northern Britain. In addition to a wide range of molluscan, mammalian and bird remains, the sites have yielded exceptionally large numbers of fish bones. While the total range of fish exploited from the sites is impressive (comprising at least 12 species), analysis has shown that by far the major emphasis in the fishing activities was placed on the exploitation of a single species—the saithe or coalfish (Pollachius virens L.). In all the samples so far analysed this species accounts for at least 95 per cent of the total fish-bone material, and in many of the samples it is the only species represented.
Stone Axes as a Guide to Neolithic Communications and Boundaries in England and Wales
Authors: Cummins W. A. 
Published: February 2015

Six of the twenty-five British implement petrology groups (Clough and Cummins 1979, 127)—Group I (Penzance, Cornwall), Group IV (Callington, Cornwall), Group VI (Langdale, Lake District), Group VII (Penmaenmawr, North Wales), Group VIII (South-west Wales), and Group XVI (Camborne, Cornwall)—account for almost half of all the stone axes so far examined from England and Wales. In every part for the country, one or other of these six is the most abundant individual group. On the basis of stone axe distribution studies (Cummins 1979), the country seems to fall naturally into three major provinces (fig. 1), which might possibly be interpreted as Neolithic tribal territories. Northern and Central England, the largest of these provinces, is dominated by Group VI axes which, though originating in the Lake District, seem to have been distributed from a secondary centre in Humberside. Wales, including Herefordshire and part of Shropshire, forms another province and is dominated by Welsh axes, Group VII in the north, and Group VIII in the south. Southern England, the third province, is dominated by Cornish ‘greenstone’ axes, mainly Group I but locally, in the south-west, Groups IV and XVI.Cumulative percentages of all axes belonging to each group plotted against distance from its distribution centre (Cummins 1979, figs. 4–9) give an indication of absolute frequency variation in relation to that centre. The shape of the plots is controlled by two variables, (i) the cumulative increase of area with distance from the centre, and (ii) the variation in average frequency of the grouped axes (per unit area) with distance from the centre.
Carbonised Cereals from Grooved Ware Contexts
Authors: Jones Martin 
Published: February 2015

In their report of Durrington Walls, Wainwright and Longworth (1971) comment ‘It is noteworthy that not one certain grain impression has been recorded on any Grooved Ware sherds, nor is there any other evidence for the cultivation of cereals’. They conclude that the economy of Grooved Ware cultures is based on pastoralism and strandlooping rather than agriculture, and this conclusion has been generally accepted. Two points may be raised about this conclusion. First, the absence of grain impressions need not imply the absence of cereal cultivation. Hubbard (1975) has convincingly argued that the occurrence of pottery impressions does not provide the representative picture of crop economy suggested by Jessen and Helbaek (1944, 28). Such variables as the nature of the refuse deposited in the potter's working area and the degree of cleanliness required by the potter in his work will strongly influence the occurrence of impressions. For example, Hubbard has suggested that the sharp decrease in the frequency of impressions of emmer wheat in the Bronze Age may reflect its careful storage for human consumption, in contrast to barley which, as animal feed, would be more likely to get scattered around the site and incorporated into pottery.The second point concerns the apparent absence of carbonised grain. This may be an illusory consequence of inadequate methods of retrieval in the field. Over the last decade, the use of water flotation has demonstrated that carbonised grain and seeds are many times more common than had previously been thought (Jones 1978).
Excavation of Three Long Barrows near Avebury, Wiltshire
Authors: Ashbee Paul , Smith I. F. , Evans J. G. 
Published: February 2015

SummaryThe three long barrows described in this report were totally excavated between 1959 and 1967. They have been presented in a single report because they had several features in common: they were in close proximity; they were built as single phase monuments; two conformed to a common specification which required elaborate internal structures; and they produced no evidence of funerary function or intent. There are four sections: I. The Horslip (or Windmill Hill) Long Barrow (P. A.). II. The Beckhampton Road Long Barrow (I.F.S.). III. The South Street Long Barrow (J.G.E.). The fourth section (IV) deals with the environmental history of the area as revealed in the long barrow soils and sediments (J.G.E.).
Earthen Long Barrows and Timber Structures: Aspects of the Early Neolithic Mortuary Practice in Denmark
Authors: Madsen Torsten 
Published: February 2015

More than twenty years have elapsed since Stuart Piggott suggested the possibility of a connection between the primary Neolithic cultures of Britain and the early phases of the Funnel necked Beaker (TRB) Culture of northern Europe (Piggott 1956). What appeared at that time to many scholars, not least in Denmark, to be a very far fetched idea, must today in the light of the many new Danish excavations be considered seriously. Piggott pointed to three categories of finds which could possibly be advanced as indicators of contact: Pottery, causewayed camps and ‘unchambered’ earthen long barrows. In all three areas decisive new results have been obtained, and although this paper deals with the earthen long barrows, both the pottery and the causewayed camps will be briefly commented upon.C. J. Becker's division of the Danish early Neolithic pottery into four major classes, the A, B, non-megalithic and megalithic C types of pottery, is still useable for the general categorization of site inventories (Becker 1948). The neat derivative system that he built, with A originating somewhere in eastern Europe, followed by B, and terminating with two contemporary C-groups, is however no longer warranted, and especially not with reference to the radiocarbon dates. Nor can the clear-cut typological division of the pottery into the four groups be maintained, since many types of pots and ornamentation occur in more than one group. For instance the B type beaker, with lines of twisted cord beneath the rim, is an integral part of the inventory of non-megalithic C sites, and also occurs in connection with megalithic C pottery.
The Use and Character of Wood in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland
Authors: Coles J. M. , Heal S. V. E. , Orme B. J. 
Published: February 2015

Wood was one of early man's most valuable and important raw materials. It furnished him with shelter, heat and a range of tools and weapons necessary for his survival. It was perhaps the first material to be employed for tools, even before stone was actively worked, yet wood hardly figures in the minds of many archaeologists, and it plays no part in the traditional, outmoded but convenient Three Age system of European Prehistory: Stone-Bronze-Iron. Yet there is hardly a tool or weapon used by Stone Age, Bronze Age or Iron Age man or woman which did not have a wooden part, and it is the purpose of this paper to point out the wealth of information that is available, or could be obtained, from studies of wooden artifacts.The reason for neglect of such studies is obvious. Wood is perishable; it decays if left exposed, it is easily broken, it burns to nothing, it rots in the soil, it loses its surface in moving water. Its survival for long periods of time is exceptional, and requires certain conditions of deliberate or accidental burial. Yet wood as a fact and a feature of prehistoric economy cannot be disputed. Without the survival of wooden remains, our knowledge of the Neolithic and Bronze Age lake-side settlements in Switzerland would be quartered, and our information about the Iron Age villages at Glastonbury and Biskupin would be substantially reduced. Only in circumstances where conditions are exceptionally favourable has wood survived in an identifiable state, and in these situations it can tell us much about economic life. Grahame Clark expressed the view long ago that ‘less attention (should be) paid to amassing residual fossils from sites unfavourable to the survival of the organic materials which play so important a part in the economy of simple societies, and more to exploring sites where these materials are likely to survive’ (Clark 1940, 58).
A Bronze Age Flint Industry from a Barrow Site in Micheldever Wood, Hampshire
Authors: Fasham P. J. , Ross J. M. 
Published: February 2015

AbstractThe excavation of a multi-tumped oval barrow led to the discovery of a post-barrow flint industry, which utilized flint nodules incorporated in the mounds, thus damaging the original profile of the monument. 16,030 pieces of worked flint were recovered, 10,539 from the industrial levels. The material was analyzed by computer making use of programmes already developed for daily use by the M3 Archaeological Rescue Committee.