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1. Calendar Age of the Baigetobe Kurgan from the Iron Age Saka Cemetery in Shilikty Valley, Kazakhstan

   https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2015.15  

   Panyushkina, Irina P ; Slyusarenko, Igor Y ; Sala, Renato ; Deom, Jean-Marc ; Toleubayev, Abdesh T ( March 2016 , Radiocarbon)

   Abstract This study addresses the development of an absolute chronology for prominent burial sites of Inner Asian nomadic cultures. We investigate Saka archaeological wood from a well-known gold-filled Baigetobe kurgan (burial mound #1 of Shilikty-3 cemetery) to estimate its calendar age using tree-ring and 14 C dating. The Saka was the southernmost tribal group of Asian Scythians, who roamed Central Asia during the 1st millennium BC (Iron Age). The Shilikty is a large burial site located in the Altai Mountains along the border between Kazakhstan and China. We present a new floating tree-ring chronology of larch and five new 14 C dates from the construction timbers of the Baigetobe kurgan. The results of Bayesian modeling suggest the age of studied timbers is ~730–690 cal BC. This places the kurgan in early Scythian time and authenticates a previously suggested age of the Baigetobe gold collection between the 8th and 7th centuries BC derived from the typology of grave goods and burial rites. Chronologically and stylistically, the Scythian Animal Style gold from the Baigetobe kurgan is closer to Early Scythians in the North Caucasus and Tuva than to the local Saka occurrences in the Kazakh Altai. Our dating results indicate that themore »Baigetobe kurgan was nearly contemporaneous to the Arjan-2 kurgan (Tuva) and could be one of the earliest kurgans of the Saka-Scythian elite in Central Asia.« less
2. The Archaic and “Early Formative” of Northern Belize: With special reference to San Estevan and Progresso Lagoon.

   Rosenswig, Robert M ( January 2020 , Research reports in Belizean archaeology)

   In this paper, I discuss what is known of the Late Archaic occupation in northern Belize. The second millennium BC is the “Early Formative” for most of Mesoamerica but the subsistence and residential adaptation of the Maya lowlands residents up until ~1100 BC consisted of mixed foraging-horticulturalists with no ceramic containers or permanent villages. This means that an “Archaic” strategy persisted in the Maya area for almost a thousand years longer than elsewhere in Mesoamerica. I review evidence from the site of San Estevan where first ceramic-using (i.e., Swasey phase) villagers are documented with little evidence of their predecessors. Next, I review evidence of Archaic-period occupation on the west shore of Progresso Lagoon where maize, squash and chili peppers were cultivated by mobile foragers. Finally, I present plans to thoroughly document and date the second and third millennium BC occupation of Progresso Lagoon and explore how the global climatic change impacted the adaptation of forager-horticulturalists.
3. Genetic history from the Middle Neolithic to present on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14523-6  

   Marcus, Joseph H. ; Posth, Cosimo ; Ringbauer, Harald ; Lai, Luca ; Skeates, Robin ; Sidore, Carlo ; Beckett, Jessica ; Furtwängler, Anja ; Olivieri, Anna ; Chiang, Charleston W. K. ; et al ( February 2020 , Nature Communications)

   The island of Sardinia has been of particular interest to geneticists for decades. The current model for Sardinia’s genetic history describes the island as harboring a founder population that was established largely from the Neolithic peoples of southern Europe and remained isolated from later Bronze Age expansions on the mainland. To evaluate this model, we generate genome-wide ancient DNA data for 70 individuals from 21 Sardinian archaeological sites spanning the Middle Neolithic through the Medieval period. The earliest individuals show a strong affinity to western Mediterranean Neolithic populations, followed by an extended period of genetic continuity on the island through the Nuragic period (second millennium BCE). Beginning with individuals from Phoenician/Punic sites (first millennium BCE), we observe spatially-varying signals of admixture with sources principally from the eastern and northern Mediterranean. Overall, our analysis sheds light on the genetic history of Sardinia, revealing how relationships to mainland populations shifted over time.
4. The earliest herders of East Asia: Examining Afanasievo entry to Central Mongolia

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2021.100264  

   Honeychurch, William ; Rogers, Leland ; Chunag, Amartuvshin ; Diimaajav, Erdenebaatar ; Erdene-Ochirc, Nasan-Ochir ; Hall, Mark E. ; Hrivnyakf, Michelle ( June 2021 , Archaeological research in Asia)

   null (Ed.)

   The Afanasievo world reportedly overlaps the borders of five nations including two countries of East Asia: Mongolia and China. Across these several regions, the first appearance of domestic herd animals (sheep, goat, cattle) and the initial practice of copper and bronze metallurgy are associated with Afanasievo communities. Since mobile pastoralism has long been a significant part of the Mongolian cultural tradition the question of when, where, and how Afanasievo groups entered Mongolia is of extreme interest to archaeologists. Over the past 50 years several important sites have been reported and analyzed but these are still little known among Western scholars. In this study we provide a brief overview of Afanasievo archaeology, its peripheries, and its recent analytical breakthroughs and then develop a unique perspective on the Afanasievo world from its farthest eastern edge in central Mongolia. We assess the different roles of migration and diffusion in the process of herd animal introduction and present two current hypotheses explaining the intensification of pastoralism in this region during the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC. We argue that the impact of Afanasievo entry into East Asia was a transformative process but must be understood in the context of significant innovations mademore »by East Asian indigenous communities, eventually leading to a unique form of eastern steppe pastoralism in Mongolia.« less
5. Preceramic Cultural History in Southern Belize and its Environmental Context.

   Prufer, Keith M ( August 2018 , Research reports in Belizean archaeology)

   This paper presents the environmental context for Early Holocene cultural developments in southern Belize and describes three archaeological sites that are producing evidence of human activities starting at the end of the last ice age and continuing until the advent of agriculture. It is well known that humans colonized Central America by at least 10,500 BC, and likely earlier (Chatters et al. 2014; Kennett et al. 2017). Central America formed a bottleneck for humans migrating from North to South America, and given its diverse geology, climate, and tropical resources it is not surprising that people successfully exploited this region throughout the Holocene. We focus this discussion primarily on the context for early humans in southern Belize, but also draw broadly on well-documented archaeological accounts from elsewhere in the region.