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Article Reference Resolving an enigma by integrative taxonomy: Madagascarophis fuchsi (Serpentes: Lamprophiidae), a new opisthoglyphous and microendemic snake from northern Madagascar
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Body length estimation of the European eel Anguilla anguilla on the basis of isolated skeletal elements
Using a large series of dry skeletons of modern European eel Anguilla anguilla (Linnaeus, 1758) from Belgium and the Netherlands, the relationship between fish length and individual bone measurements is investigated. The aim of the study is to provide adequate regression equations between both parameters. This methodology is relevant for both palaeoecological and ecological researches since isolated skeletal elements survive in large numbers on archaeological sites and in the stomach contents, faeces or regurgitations of piscivorous animals. The predictive value for the length estimations is explored for various skeletal elements and the accuracy of the obtained regression formulae is compared to that of the formulae already existing in literature. Particular attention is paid to the use of vertebrae, taking into account that different morphotypes can be distinguished amongst them.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Interpreting the expansion of sea fishing in medieval Europe using stable isotope analysis of archaeological cod bones
Archaeological fish bones reveal increases in marine fish utilisation in Northern and Western Europe beginning in the 10th and 11th centuries AD. We use stable isotope signatures from 300 archaeological cod (Gadus morhua) bones to determine whether this sea fishing revolution resulted from increased local fishing or the introduction of preserved fish transported from distant waters such as Arctic Norway, Iceland and/or the Northern Isles of Scotland (Orkney and Shetland). Results from 12 settlements in England and Flanders (Belgium) indicate that catches were initially local. Between the 9th and 12th centuries most bones represented fish from the southern North Sea. Conversely, by the 13th to 14th centuries demand was increasingly met through long distance transport e signalling the onset of the globalisation of commercial fisheries and suggesting that cities such as London quickly outgrew the capacity of local fish supplies.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Stable isotope evidence for late medieval (14th-15th C) origins of the eastern Baltic cod (Gadus morhua) fishery
Although recent historical ecology studies have extended quantitative knowledge of eastern Baltic cod (Gadus morhua)exploitation back as far as the 16th century, the historical origin of the modern fishery remains obscure. Widespreadarchaeological evidence for cod consumption around the eastern Baltic littoral emerges around the 13th century, threecenturies before systematic documentation, but it is not clear whether this represents (1) development of a substantialeastern Baltic cod fishery, or (2) large-scale importation of preserved cod from elsewhere. To distinguish between thesehypotheses we use stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to determine likely catch regions of 74 cod vertebrae andcleithra from 19 Baltic archaeological sites dated from the 8th to the 16th centuries.d13C and d15N signatures for six possiblecatch regions were established using a larger sample of archaeological cod cranial bones (n=249). The data stronglysupport the second hypothesis, revealing widespread importation of cod during the 13th to 14th centuries, most of itprobably from Arctic Norway. By the 15th century, however, eastern Baltic cod dominate within our sample, indicating thedevelopment of a substantial late medieval fishery. Potential human impact on cod stocks in the eastern Baltic must thus betaken into account for at least the last 600 years
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Sites with Holocene dung deposits in the Eastern Desert of Egypt: visited by herders?
The Tree Shelter and Sodmein Cave are two sites in the Egyptian Eastern Desert with stratified archaeological deposits. In Middle Holocene contexts of both sites, dated to the 7th millennium BP and later, animal dung has been found, in the shape of small concentrations of pellets at the Tree Shelter and of large accumulations at Sodmein Cave. The combination of several lines of evidence, including the size and weight of the excrements, the dimensions of the dung layers from Sodmein and the presence of hearths and artefacts inside them, and the species represented in the bone assemblages from Sodmein and the Tree Shelter, indicates that the dung was mostly deposited by herds of domestic ovicaprines. Sodmein Cave and the Tree Shelter belong to the oldest sites of the African continent where evidence for domestic small livestock has been attested. The importance and size of the herds seems to have been greater than would be suspected from the scant bone remains that were found. The visits to the caves were probably short but repeated over a long time period. Macrobotanical remains recovered from the dung suggest that these visits took place after seasonal winter rains.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference The first fossil record of Lophiomys in Egypt
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Pig Domestication and Human-Mediated Dispersal in Western Eurasia Revealed through Ancient DNA and Geometric Morphometrics
Zooarcheological evidence suggests that pigs were domesticated in Southwest Asia ∼8,500 BC. They then spread across the Middle and Near East and westward into Europe alongside early agriculturalists. European pigs were either domesticated independently or more likely appeared so as a result of admixture between introduced pigs and European wild boar. As a result, European wild boar mtDNA lineages replaced Near Eastern/Anatolian mtDNA signatures in Europe and subsequently replaced indigenous domestic pig lineages in Anatolia. The specific details of these processes, however, remain unknown. To address questions related to early pig domestication, dispersal, and turnover in the Near East, we analyzed ancient mitochondrial DNA and dental geometric morphometric variation in 393 ancient pig specimens representing 48 archeological sites (from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the Medieval period) from Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Our results reveal the first genetic signatures of early domestic pigs in the Near Eastern Neolithic core zone. We also demonstrate that these early pigs differed genetically from those in western Anatolia that were introduced to Europe during the Neolithic expansion. In addition, we present a significantly more refined chronology for the introduction of European domestic pigs into Asia Minor that took place during the Bronze Age, at least 900 years earlier than previously detected. By the 5th century AD, European signatures completely replaced the endemic lineages possibly coinciding with the widespread demographic and societal changes that occurred during the Anatolian Bronze and Iron Ages.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Animal remains from predynastic sites in the Nagada region, Middle Egypt
Faunal samples from excavations between 1974 and 1981 in predynastic sites and a late predynastic/early dynastic cemetery in the Nagada region are inventoried. The faunal spectra compare well with those of other neolithic and predynastic sites of Nilotic Egypt. They point to agrarian communities relying mainly on fishing and livestock, as also suggested by most other known sites of the same neolithic and predynastic contexts. The neolithisation of the Nile Valley is an earlier event, perhaps coeval with and related to the origin and development of the complex pastoralist Late Neolithic of Nabta and the Western Desert.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) Pellets from Roman Sagalassos (SW Turkey): Distinguishing the Prey Remains from Nest and Roost Sites
Two concentrations of animal bones, almost exclusively from small mammals and wild birds, were found within the destruction debris of a Roman bath complex in Sagalassos (SW Turkey). The overall species spectrum, skeletal element representation, fragmentation and preservation condition of the bones indicate that they represent the prey remains of a large nocturnal avian predator, more precisely the eagle owl (Bubo bubo). Differences in skeletal element representation and in prey species’ spectrum show that the two bone clusters derive from pellets deposited near a nest site and a roost site, respectively. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the bones indicate that eagle owls lived in the collapsing bath complex during the second half of the 6th to the beginning of the 7th century AD, before the final abandonment of the town. The MNI of the prey animals found at the nest site, confronted with the daily dietary needs of a female eagle owl and its young, indicates repetitive use of the same place during several years.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference The Holocene occurrence of the European catfish Silurus glanis in Belgium: the archaeozoological evidence
An overview is given of the skeletal remains of the European catfish Silurus glanis found thus far in Belgian archaeological sites. These finds demonstrate that the species is autochthonous and allow documenting its occurrence and disappearance during the Holocene in the Scheldt and Meuse basins. Possible causes for the local extinction of this catfish are discussed.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications