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Article Reference Urban-rural integration at ancient Sagalassos (SW Turkey). Archaeological, archaeozoological and geochemical evidence
Archaeological and archaeozoological data from the antique site of Sagalassos (southwest Turkey) are combined with data from geochemical analyses of trace elements in archaeological animal bones, to document the changing relation between city and countryside from the 1st to the 7th century AD. These data reveal that during the Early to Middle Imperial period (c. 25BC – 300 AD) the city’s subsistence requirements were largely met by the production capacity of its immediate vicinity, found to be a highly polluted area, and that the inhabitants of Sagalassos were relying little on the countryside. The integration of the city and the countryside was strengthened during the Late Roman period (c. AD 300-450), when more rural products seemed to reach Sagalassos. Animal bones are at that time significantly lower in metal content and must have originated from animals that were kept in areas beyond the zone of heavy pollution. At the same time, occupation density in the countryside reached its climax. Then, in the Early Byzantine time (c. AD 450-700), the inhabitants seemed to return to the situation of the Early to Middle Imperial period and were sustained by the exploitation of the land close to the city.
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 ‘Pisidian’ culture? The Classical-Hellenistic site at Düzen Tepe near Sagalassus (southwest Turkey)
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Fish bones and amphorae: evidence for the production and consumption of salted fish products outside the Mediterranean region
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 Consumption patterns and living conditions inside Het Steen, the late medieval prison of Malines (Mechelen, Belgium).
Excavations at the Main Square (Grote Markt) of Malines (Mechelen, Belgium) have unearthed the building remains of a tower, arguably identifiable as the former town prison: Het Steen. When this assumption is followed, the contents of the fills of two cesspits dug out in the cellars of the building illustrate aspects of daily life within the early 14th-century prison. An integrated approach of all find categories, together with the historical context available, illuminates aspects of the material culture of the users of the cesspits, their consumption patterns and the living conditions within the building.
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 Palaeoecology of the Giant Catfish (Arius gigas, Ariidae) in Holocene Saharan and tropical West African waters
The Giant Catfish Arius gigas is an endemic species of West African freshwaters that is almost extinct today, and its way of life is poorly known to ichthyologists. However, this species is known from the Holocene archaeofaunal record, in particular from the Niger basin. The skeletal anatomy of the Giant Catfish described in this paper should facilitate its future identification within palaeo-ichthyological assemblages. In addition, the species’ occurrence is studied from a palaeogeographical and palaeoecological point of view. A. gigas certainly has ecological requirements similar to the related large carnivorous fish inhabiting well oxygenated waters, and would not tolerate shallow, muddy and stagnant ecotopes of marginal waterways. By over fishing such a large species, humans contribute to the lowering of its reproduction potential, and to its recent drastic decline.
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