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Article Reference Animal remains from Mahal Teglinos (Kassala, Sudan) and the arrival of pastoralism in the Southern Atbai
Faunal remains from Mahal Teglinos span the period from about 3000 to 1000 BC. They indicate that the arrival of cattle, sheep and goat in the region predates the occupation of the site, but the evidence available from other and older sites near Khashm-el-Girba does not suffice to document precisely the development of pastoralism and its consequences in the Southern Atbai. Among the limited mammalian game, the many gazelles and dikdiks point to steppe conditions, while the equally numerous buffalo remains suggest that this large bovid thrived in the seasonally inundated land along the Gash River.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference The role of animals in the funerary rites at Dayr al-Barshā
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference The roman trade in salted Nilotic fish products : some examples from Egypt
A description is given of two fi sh bone assemblages found at Mons Claudianus, a Roman site in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, and one from Quseir al-Qadim, a contemporaneous settlement on the Red Sea coast. The material is interpreted as the skeletal remains of salted fi sh products that were imported from the Nile Valley. In two cases the reconstructed sizes of the fi sh and the presence of articulating bones allow the defi nition of the fi sh product as salsamenta made from small Nilotic fi sh, rather than as fi sh sauce. Information about the seasoning of the product is provided in two cases by archaeobotanical data, and the analysis of the insect remains found in one of the assemblages provides evidence for local attack by carrion feeders feeding on the spoiled fi sh product. In addition, the presence of some of the beetle taxa representing pests typical for stored plant foods can only be explained as resulting from of the use of already infested plant ingredients during the preparation of the product. The analysis permits a comparison of these Nilotic fi sh bone assemblages to fi sh products found elsewhere in the Roman world. Older and more recent parallels are also briefl y discussed.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Fish remains from three Upper Palaeolithic cave deposits in southern Belgium
Fish remains are described that were excavated in the 19th century from Trou de Chaleux, Trou du Frontal and Trou du Sureau, three Upper Palaeolithic cave sites in the Meuse basin, Belgium. After a critical assessment of possible taphonomic agents acting in caves, it is concluded that the material — consisting mainly of medium-sized and large salmonids, burbot and cyprinids — is anthropogenic. Using present-day behavioural information on the identified fish species it is hypothesised that the exploited fish were an abundant and predictable food resource during the spawning season, when they occurred en masse in shallow, marginal waters. Finally the possible fishing techniques and the dietary role of freshwater fish in Palaeolithic times are discussed.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Oxygen and strontium isotopes as provenance indicators of fish at archaeological sites: the case study of Sagalassos, SW Turkey
In this paper, we investigate the potential use of oxygen and strontium isotope ratios (d18Op and 87Sr/86Sr) measured in archaeological fish enamel as provenance indicators. d18Op and 87Sr/86Sr were measured in a suite of archaeological carp remains recovered from the Anatolian townsite of Sagalassos dated to the Early Byzantine period (AD 450e650) and compared to that of modern fish, river and lake waters from the Anatolian region. We used sequential leaches in weak acetic acid to remove diagenetic Sr from fossil tooth enamel, monitoring the effectiveness of this approach by measuring the Sr/Ca ratios of the leachates via an isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry method (ID-TIMS). d18Op values mostly excluded a riverine origin. 87Sr/86Sr ratios of one fish overlapped with the 87Sr/86Sr signatures of two lakes in the Anatolian region, and at least one lake (Gölcük) could be removed as a candidate owing to a very distinctive 87Sr/86Sr signature not found in any of the fish remains. Most of the tooth samples analyzed could not be assigned a precise geographical origin since the 87Sr/86Sr ratios measured in enamel did not match that of any of the local lakes selected as potential origin. This result suggests that carp may have originated from lakes that have not yet been sampled, although this conclusion is not supported by other archaeological evidence. Alternatively, the lack of correspondence between lakes and fish Sr isotope ratios highlights several possible sources of uncertainties including spatial heterogeneity in 87Sr/86Sr ratio within a lake, the contribution of dietary strontium to the 87Sr/86Sr ratio of fish tooth enamel, and post-mortem alteration of the tooth Sr isotope signal during fossilization. In spite of the high precision of the strontium isotope analyses and the wide range of variation in the surface waters of the Anatolian lakes and rivers, this method may remain limited to distinguishing between lakes situated in regions of bedrock of very distinct age and geology until these sources of uncertainty are more fully investigated.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Pig husbandry and environmental conditions in Northern Gaul during Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: the contribution of hypoplasia analysis
Ongoing archaeozoological analyses into the Roman –early medieval transition in the fertile area of the Middle Belgian and Dutch loess region have shown a diachronic shift in the importance of pigs. The present paper examines the linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) of pig teeth from five sites covering the early Roman, late Roman and early medieval periods. The results are confronted with palynological, archaeological and textual data regarding land use and forest cover in an attempt to explain the observed trends in species composition and to document possible changes in pig husbandry and the environment.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference The distinction of isolated bones from plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), flounder (Platichthys flesus) and dab (Limanda limanda): a description of the diagnostic characters
The osteology of 38 skeletal elements is investigated in plaice, dextral and sinistral flounder, and dab with the aim of defining diagnostic characters that allow species identification of isolated bones from archaeological excavations. Five of these 38 skeletal elements have been mentioned in the literature as being diagnostic, but they appear to be unreliable for identification. All other elements allow identification, although only 23 permit the recognition of all three species. The individual bone elements and their diagnostic criteria are depicted and described in detail. Attention is paid to individual variation, and, when relevant, size-related morphological changes are also described. The keys that are developed for the various elements are finally tested on a large flatfish bone assemblage from an archaeological site. On the basis of these results, the success rate of the identifications for the various bones is discussed. Possible strategies for identification work on this group are suggested that take into account the extent of the reference collection, the time spent on the identifications and the experience needed in comparative osteology of these flatfish.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Evidence for early cat taming in Egypt
The remains are described of a young small felid found in a Predynastic burial at Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt. Osteometric and zoogeographical arguments indicate that the specimen, dated to around 3700 B.C. on the basis of the associated pottery, belongs to Felis silvestris. In the same cemetery several other animal species, both wild and domestic, have been found. The left humerus and right femur of the cat show healed fractures indicating that the animal had been held in captivity for at least 4e6 weeks prior to its burial. We believe that this pathology suggests early cat taming more convincingly than a buried cat recently reported from Neolithic Cyprus (7500 B.C.). Such taming events were probably part of the processes that eventually led to the domestication of Felis silvestris. However, the absence of the cat in Predynastic and Early Dynastic depictions and its rare attestation in the archaeozoological record indicates that domestic status had not yet been attained during those early periods. Other species that were also held in captivity by Ancient Egyptians probably never became domesticated because they had one or more characteristics that prevented it.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Brassicaceae seed oil identified as illuminant in Nilotic shells from a first millennium AD Coptic church in Bawit, Egypt
Burned greasy deposits were found inside shells of the large Nile bivalve Chambardia rubens, excavated in an eight- to tenth- century AD church of the Coptic monastery of Bawit, Egypt, and supposedly used as oil lamps. The residues were subjected to a combination of chromatographic residue analysis techniques. The rather high concentrations of unsaturated fatty acids, as analysed by gas chromatography (GC) in the methylated extract, suggest the presence of a vegetal oil. Analysis of the stable carbon isotopes (δ13C values) of the methyl esters also favoured plants over animals as the lipid source. In the search for biomarkers by GC coupled to mass spectrometry on a silylated extract, a range of diacids together with high concentrations of 13,14-dihydroxydocosanoate and 11,12- dihydroxyeicosanoate were found. These compounds are oxidation products of erucic acid and gondoic acid, which are abundantly present in seeds of Brassicaceae plants. Liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry analysis showed low concentrations of unaltered triglycerides, but revealed sizeable amounts of triglycerides with at least one dihydroxylated acyl chain. The unusual preservation of dihydroxylated triglycerides and α,ω-dicarboxylic acids can be related to the dry preservation conditions. Analysis of the stereoisomers of the dihydroxylated fatty acids allows one to determine whether oxidation took place during burning of the fuel or afterwards. The results prove that the oil of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) or radish (Raphanus sativus L.) was used as illuminant in early Islamic Egypt, and that not only ceramic lamps but also mollusk shells were used as fuel containers.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Detecting the medieval cod trade: a new method and first results
This paper explores the potential of stable isotope analysis to identify the approximate region of catch of cod by analysing bones from medieval settlements in northern and western Europe. It measures the d13C and d15N values of cod bone collagen from medieval control samples collected from sites around Arctic Norway, the North Sea, the Kattegat and the Baltic Sea. These data were considered likely to differ by region due to, for example, variation in the length of the food chain, water temperature and salinity. We find that geographical structuring is indeed evident, making it possible to identify bones from cod caught in distant waters. These results provide a new methodology for studying the growth of long-range trade in dried cod and the related expansion of fishing effortdimportant aspects of the development of commercialisation in medieval Europe. As a first test of the method, we analyse three collections of cod bones tentatively interpreted as imported dried fish based on a priori zooarchaeological criteria. The results tentatively suggest that cod were being transported or traded over very long distances since the end of the first millennium AD.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications