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1. Sourcing Obsidian from Late Neolithic Sites on the Great Hungarian Plain: Preliminary p-XRF Compositional Results and the Socio-Cultural Implications

   https://doi.org/10.24916/iansa.2019.2.1  

   Riebe, Danielle J. (November 2019, Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica)

   Significant archaeological research has been conducted on chipped stone tools recovered from prehistoric sites throughout Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The limited number of obsidian geological sources throughout the region, combined with the relatively homogeneous nature of obsidian and the increased use of new techniques for conducting compositional analysis in the field, has facilitated in accurately sourcing obsidian artifacts from sites in the region. This article presents the compositional results of 203 obsidian artifacts recovered from seven Late Neolithic (5,000 – 4,500 BCE) sites from the Great Hungarian Plain. Compositional results of the archaeological specimens obtained with a Bruker portable X-ray fluorescence device (p-XRF) were compared with obsidian geological compositional data to determine artifact provenience. By sourcing the obsidian chipped stone tools, it is possible to reconstruct prehistoric patterns of exploitation/exchange and to note how these patterns vary throughout the Plain. The results illustrate that a majority of the studied artifacts originated from the Carpathian 1 source, however, a limited number of samples came from the Carpathian 2E and Carpathian 2T sources. Based on this preliminary study, the variation in geological source exploitation may be linked to socio-cultural practices that differentiated the Tisza and Herpály archaeological units during the Late Neolithic. 

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2. Mapping land use with integrated environmental archaeological datasets

   https://doi.org/10.1111/apaa.12185  

   Marston, John M; Vaiglova, Petra (July 2024, Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association)

   McLeester, Madeleine; Casana, Jesse (Ed.)

   Archaeologists have developed tools to reconstruct the locations of farming and animal herding using ecological and digital modeling of ancient landscapes. The determination of where on a landscape farming and herding took place, however, can remain elusive in environments with evidence for substantial geomorphological and/or ecological change since the period of occupation. Archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological evidence from the site of Gordion, in central Anatolia, indicates substantial landscape change over the last 4000 years, including deforestation, overgrazing, erosion, and alluviation. These have been inferred to be the result of past agricultural practices, but no firm evidence has pointed to specific locations (geographic and temporal) where ancient farming and herding may have caused these changes. Integrating extant archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and geoarchaeological evidence with new isotopic data provides a more detailed reconstruction of the sequence of agricultural practices that shaped the present landscape and ecology of the region, offering a model for future archaeological research within substantially transformed landscapes. 

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3. Exploring the impact of mobility and selection on stone tool recycling behaviors through agent-based simulation

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294242  

   Coco, Emily (November 2023, PLOS ONE)

   Barkai, Ran (Ed.)

   Recycling behaviors are becoming increasingly recognized as important parts of the production and use of stone tools in the Paleolithic. Yet, there are still no well-defined expectations for how recycling affects the appearance of the archaeological record across landscapes. Using an agent-based model of recycling in surface contexts, this study looks how the archaeological record changes under different conditions of recycling frequency, occupational intensity, mobility, and artifact selection. The simulations also show that while an increased number of recycled artifacts across a landscape does indicate the occurrence of more scavenging and recycling behaviors generally, the location of large numbers of recycled artifacts is not necessarily where the scavenging itself happened. This is particularly true when mobility patterns mean each foraging group spend more time moving around the landscape. The results of the simulations also demonstrate that recycled artifacts are typically those that have been exposed longer in surface contexts, confirming hypothesized relationships between recycling and exposure. In addition to these findings, the recycling simulation shows how archaeological record formation due to recycling behaviors is affected by mobility strategies and selection preferences. While only a simplified model of recycling behaviors, the results of this simulations give us insight into how to better interpret recycling behaviors from the archaeological record, specifically demonstrating the importance of contextualizing the occurrence of recycled artifacts on a wider landscape-level scale. 

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4. ‘They came from the ends of the earth’: long-distance exchange of obsidian in the High Arctic during the Early Holocene

   https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.2  

   Pitulko, Vladimir V.; Kuzmin, Yaroslav V.; Glascock, Michael D.; Pavlova, Elena Yu.; Grebennikov, Andrei V. (February 2019, Antiquity)

   Zhokhov Island in the Siberian High Arctic has yielded evidence for some of the most remote prehistoric human occupation in the world, as well as the oldest-known dog-sled technology. Obsidian artefacts found on Zhokhov have been provenanced using XRF analysis to allow comparison with known sources of obsidian from north-eastern Siberia. The results indicate that the obsidian was sourced from Lake Krasnoe—approximately 1500km distant—and arrived on Zhokhov Island c . 8000 BP. The archaeological data from Zhokhov therefore indicate a super-long-distance Mesolithic exchange network. 

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5. Rethinking the Landscape: Emerging Approaches to Archaeological Remote Sensing

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-101819-110344  

   Casana, Jesse (October 2021, Annual Review of Anthropology)

   An emerging arena of archaeological research is beginning to deploy remote sensing technologies—including aerial and satellite imagery, digital topographic data, and drone-acquired and terrestrial geophysical data—not only in support of conventional fieldwork but also as an independent means of exploring the archaeological landscape. This article provides a critical review of recent research that relies on an ever-growing arsenal of imagery and instruments to undertake innovative investigations: mapping regional-scale settlement histories, documenting ancient land use practices, revealing the complexity of settled spaces, building nuanced pictures of environmental contexts, and monitoring at-risk cultural heritage. At the same time, the disruptive nature of these technologies is generating complex new challenges and controversies surrounding data access and preservation, approaches to a deluge of information, and issues of ethical remote sensing. As we navigate these challenges, remote sensing technologies nonetheless offer revolutionary ways of interrogating the archaeological record and transformative insights into the human past. 

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