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1. Archaic human remains from Hualongdong, China, and Middle Pleistocene human continuity and variation

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1902396116  

   Wu, Xiu-Jie ; Pei, Shu-Wen ; Cai, Yan-Jun ; Tong, Hao-Wen ; Li, Qiang ; Dong, Zhe ; Sheng, Jin-Chao ; Jin, Ze-Tian ; Ma, Dong-Dong ; Xing, Song ; et al ( May 2019 , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Middle to Late Pleistocene human evolution in East Asia has remained controversial regarding the extent of morphological continuity through archaic humans and to modern humans. Newly found ∼300,000-y-old human remains from Hualongdong (HLD), China, including a largely complete skull (HLD 6), share East Asian Middle Pleistocene (MPl) human traits of a low vault with a frontal keel (but no parietal sagittal keel or angular torus), a low and wide nasal aperture, a pronounced supraorbital torus (especially medially), a nonlevel nasal floor, and small or absent third molars. It lacks a malar incisure but has a large superior medial pterygoid tubercle. HLD 6 also exhibits a relatively flat superior face, a more vertical mandibular symphysis, a pronounced mental trigone, and simple occlusal morphology, foreshadowing modern human morphology. The HLD human fossils thus variably resemble other later MPl East Asian remains, but add to the overall variation in the sample. Their configurations, with those of other Middle and early Late Pleistocene East Asian remains, support archaic human regional continuity and provide a background to the subsequent archaic-to-modern human transition in the region. 

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2. POWDERED X-RAY DIFFRACTION AND PORTABLE X-RAY FLUORESCENCE STUDY OF THE CALOOSAHATCHEE AND FORT THOMPSON FORMATIONS, LEE AND HENDRY COUNTIES, SOUTHWEST FLORIDA. INSIGHTS INTO THE MINERALOGY AND ORIGIN OF THESE CARBONATES

   https://doi.org/10.1130/abs/2023SE-385752  

   Lentz, Evan S. ; Aurelio, R. Peter ; Pennella, Rocco L. ; Pecora, Domenic R. ; Gordon, Emily P. ; MacDonald, James ; Barbosa, Alli ( January 2023 , Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs,)

   Two carbonate units from Southwest Florida, the Caloosahatchee and Fort Thompson Formations, were studied using X-ray instruments to understand more about their origins. The Caloosahatchee Fm. is late Pliocene to early Pleistocene in age while the Fort Thompson Fm. is late Pleistocene in age. Powdered X-ray diffraction (PXRD) was used to obtain the mineral composition of these formations. PXRD revealed the Caloosahatchee Fm. consists predominantly of calcite with lesser quartz and aragonite. PXRD of the carbonate rocks from the Fort Thompson Fm. are also predominantly calcite with lesser quartz and aragonite. Fossils were picked by hand from poorly cemented Caloosahatchee Fm. samples and analyzed on the PXRD. These fossils were predominantly aragonite with minor calcite. Carbonates from the Caloosahatchee and Fort Thompson Fms. were also analyzed for their major and trace element geochemistry using a portable X-Ray fluorescence (pXRF). The Caloosahatchee Fm. has a Mg/Ca ratio which ranges from 0.07 to 0.10, Sr which ranges from 368 to 1650 ppm, and Al which ranges from 0.08 to 0.35 wt.%. No As was detected in the Caloosahatchee Fm. The Fort Thompson Fm. was divided into lower and upper units for pXRF analysis. The lower Fort Thompson Fm. has a Mg/Ca ratio which ranges from 0.08 to 0.10, Sr which ranges from 197 to 1097 ppm, and Al which ranges from 0.05 to 0.38 wt.%. The upper Fort Thompson Fm. has a Mg/Ca ratio which ranges from 0.07 to 0.10, Sr which ranges from 92 to 1015 ppm, and Al which ranges from 0.21 to 1.33 wt.%. The lower Fort Thompson Fm. has no As detected in it, but the upper Fort Thompson had 5 ppm As. The low (< 0.8) Mg/Ca ratio and calcite being the predominant mineral in both formations indicate they are limestone. The presence of quartz, and the Al values suggest both formations have terrestrial contributions and are not pure marine limestone. The higher Al of the upper Fort Thompsons suggest it might have the largest terrestrial contribution. The Sr values for the Caloosahatchee Fm. are higher than the Fort Thompson Fms. This could be due to a higher marine influence in the Caloosahatchee Fm. The PXRD suggests the aragonite is originating from the shells within the formations. The lack of significant As in all rocks suggests leaching of this metal into the environment is not a concern. 

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3. UPDATING THE CLASSIC NEW YORK LAMOKA LAKE AND SCACCIA SITES: REFINED CHRONOLOGIES THROUGH AMS DATING AND BAYESIAN MODELING

   https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2023.37  

   Hart, John P ; Birch, Jennifer ; Manning, Sturt W ; Lorentzen, Brita ( June 2023 , Radiocarbon)

   The Lamoka Lake and Scaccia sites in present-day New York have played important roles in the development of archaeology in New York, and in the case of Lamoka Lake, in eastern North America. Lamoka Lake is the type site for the “Archaic” period in eastern North American culture history and the “Late Archaic” “Lamoka phase” in New York culture history. The Scaccia site is the largest “Early Woodland” “Meadowood phase” site in New York and has the earliest evidence for pottery and agriculture crop use in the state. Lamoka Lake has been dated to 2500 BC based on a series of solid carbon and gas-proportional counting radiometric dates on bulk wood charcoal obtained in the 1950s and 1960s. Scaccia has been dated to 870 BC based on a single uncalibrated radiometric date obtained on bulk charcoal in the early 1970s. As a result, the ages of these important sites need to be refined. New AMS dates and Bayesian analyses presented here place Lamoka Lake at 2962–2902 BC (68.3% highest posterior density [hpd])) and Scaccia at 1049–838 BC (68.3% hpd).

    

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4. Diet, Mobility, Technology, and Lithics: Neolithization on the Andean Altiplano, 7.0–3.5 ka

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-021-09525-7  

   Kitchel, Nathaniel ; Aldenderfer, Mark S. ; Haas, Randall ( May 2021 , Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory)

   Neolithization was a complex, protracted process of domestication, sedentarization, and technology change that occurred in various combinations in various times and places around the world. Understanding the causal relationships among those and other important human behaviors remains an analytical challenge. This study examines Neolithization through the lens of lithic artifact variation in the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru. Drawing on previous lithics research, we outline a synthetic model linking changing diet, mobility, and projectile technology to predicted trends in lithic assemblages. The expectations are then compared to two large, well-dated lithic assemblages from the Titicaca Basin—one from the Middle/Late Archaic forager site of Soro Mik’aya Patjxa (8.0–6.5 cal. ka) and the other from the Terminal Archaic horticultural site of Jiskairumoko (5.2–3.4 cal. ka). We find that the strongest signal in lithic technology change is related to the introduction of archery technology. Signals for subsistence change and declining mobility are relatively weak. The results suggest an early but unconfirmed adoption of archery technology in the Terminal Archaic Period with major transitions in mobility and diet likely to have occurred subsequently in the Terminal Archaic or Formative periods. The findings are consistent with a behavioral model in which changes in projectile technology played a prominent role in the evolution of resource intensification and residential sedentism as well as resource privatization and sexual division of labor in the high Andes.

    

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5. OPINIONS ON THE LOWLAND MAYA LATE ARCHAIC PERIOD WITH SOME EVIDENCE FROM NORTHERN BELIZE

   https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536121000018  

   Rosenswig, Robert M. ( January 2021 , Ancient Mesoamerica)

   Abstract The fourth millennium b.p. in the Maya lowlands provides an interesting case, with mobile, aceramic peoples documented, while ceramic-using villagers lived in other parts of Mesoamerica. Rather than ask why ceramic containers and village life took so long to reach the Maya lowlands, the question can be inverted to posit that a mixed horticultural-foraging adaptation was so effective that it persisted longer than elsewhere. I propose that the so-called 4.2 ka b.p. event was the ultimate cause of increased sedentism and the first adoption of ceramic containers in a limited number of regions of Mesoamerica. My musings are grounded in the comparisons of data from the Soconusco region of southern Mexico and evidence from northern Belize at Colha and Pulltrouser Swamp, as well as the Freshwater Creek drainage. I assume that proximate behavior must account for local adaptations and different rates of change in each region of Mesoamerica. Therefore, regional adaptation in northern Belize during the Late Archaic period provides the evidence with which to reconstruct local adaptation. Excavations and regional reconnaissance document a distinctive orange soil horizon at Progresso Lagoon associated with patinated chert tools and an absence of ceramics. Stone tool assemblages from the preceramic components of three sites in the region indicate a spatial separation of tool use and resharpening at island versus shore. Starch grains recovered from these stone tools indicate that preceramic peoples in northern Belize harvested maize and several other domesticated plant species. These data are consistent with local paleoenvironmental studies that document an extended period of horticultural activity during the fifth and fourth millennia b.p. prior to the adoption of ceramics. Lithic assemblages and associated dietary information from multiple sites provide glimpses of the data necessary to reconstruct Late Archaic period adaptation from a single locale. Such data will be required to understand the proximate causes for the transition to a more settled, village life. 

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