Journal of Human Evolution

Volume 60, Issue 5, Pages 523-672 (May 2011)

Parque Arqueológico e Museu do Côa

Já se encontra disponível o site do Parque Arqueológico e Museu do Côa.

http://www.arte-coa.pt

XIV Semináro Internacional de Arte Pré-Histórica

Workshop - Flakes not Blades

SHOULDER GLANCE RESEARCH - International Symposium at the Neanderthal Museum

With the Upper Paleolithic (about 35,000 before present) long narrow stone artifactswin in the tool of the hunter-gatherers in importance. These so-called blade-likemass is a prerequisite for the manufacture of tools, only through them can emergefrom almost identical series of peaks, scratches, inserts and much more.

Nevertheless, such blades make the total amount of a group finds from this period, only about half the remainder are reductions. What were these discounts? Why does the Stone Age man is not contented with blades? In research, these issues were previously covered only by the edges.

Under the heading "flake not Blades - Discussing the role of flake-production at theonset of the Upper Palaeolithic" ("The significance of the advance-production at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic"), the Neanderthal Museum in collaboration withthe University of Ferrara (Italy) Last week an international conference aimed. The participants from across Europe have been intensively discussed and alive on the presentations. Thus the event a great success for all. At the end of the year if all goes well, appear in our own series 'Scientific publications' a band with various articles of the conference participants.

Traduzido do blog do Museu de Neanderthal

texto original aqui

O NAP foi à escola

No passado mês de Fevereiro o NAP foi à escola!

A convite de uma professora do 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico, da Escola E.B. 1 D. Francisca de Aragão (Quarteira), o NAP foi conversar com os mais pequenos sobre arqueologia. A recepção foi calorosamente recebida com um "hino"...

Abaixo fica o link do blog de uma das turmas que visitámos

A ilha dos sonhos

Programa Geral JIA 2011

Caros colegas,

O Comité Organizador do JIA 2011 tem o prazer de informar que já se encontra disponível em www.jia2011.com o Programa Geral das Jornadas, a realizar entre os dias 11 e 13 de Maio no Edifício da Faculdade de Economia, Campus de Gambelas, Universidade do Algarve, Faro.

Para além da lista de sessões temáticas anteriormente divulgadas, o evento irá contar com duas Mesas Redondas subordinadas aos temas:

• Las dinámicas de individuación/colectivización en la negociación de las relaciones sociales. rasgos de identidad en la cultura material.
• Coord.: Núria Gallego Lletjós; Sandra Lozano Rubio; Lucía Moragón; Manuel Sánchez-Elipe Lorente

• Arqueología para qué, Arqueología para quién.
• Coord.: Estrat Jove - Col·lectiu d’estudiants d’arqueologia de la Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona

Relembramos ainda que o último dia do JIA 2011, 14 de Maio, contará com uma excursão a um conjunto de sítios arqueológicos do Algarve, que em breve serão divulgados. A participação na excursão está incluída no preço da inscrição.

Para quem ainda não formalizou a sua inscrição poderá fazê-lo preenchendo o formulário disponibilizado em www.jia2011.com.

O valor da inscrição até 15 de Abril será de 50 euros com actas e 30 euros sem actas

Após esta data o valor será de 60 euros com actas e 40 euros sem actas

Os melhores cumprimentos

O Comité Organizador do JIA 2011

nap-ualg@jia2011.com

Água, Fogo e Terra. Uma viagem pelos banhos proto-históricos

Associando-se ao conjunto de actividades culturais promovidas para assinalar o Dia Internacional dos Monumentos e Sítios, 18 de Abril, que em 2011 foi subordinado ao tema "Água: Cultura e Património", a Sociedade Martins Sarmento irá promover, no dia 16 de Abril, pelas 21h30m, a actividade "Água, Fogo e Terra. Uma viagem aos banhos proto-históricos". Esta iniciativa irá levar os participantes numa pequena viagem pelo mundo das saunas castrejas, numa visita nocturna aos dois edifícios de banhos da Citânia de Briteiros, os banhos Sul e Este. Esta última estrutura não se encontra, normalmente, visitável, mas será também um dos pontos a focar no trajecto pedestre nocturno, que irá atravessar as ruínas da Citânia.

Esta iniciativa, inédita no local, permite aos visitantes observar estes monumentos particulares, em que a água, o fogo e a terra se conjugavam, de uma perspectiva diferente, sublinhando os aspectos arquitectónicos mais característicos, desde as pedras formosas, às fornalhas que aqueciam aqueles espaços.

Tendo em conta as necessárias limitações, e condições de segurança, a participação implica uma inscrição prévia pelo e-mail citania@msarmento.org, ou pelo telefone 253 478 952, com indicação do número de participantes. A entrada é gratuita.

Forensics: Overweight People Really Are Big-Boned

ScienceDaily (Mar. 22, 2011) — One of the blind spots in forensic science, particularly in identifying unknown remains, is the inability of experts to determine how much an individual weighed based on his or her skeleton. New research from North Carolina State University moves us closer to solving this problem by giving forensic experts valuable insight into what the shape of the femur can tell us about the weight of an individual.

Researchers found that the heavier an individual was, the wider the shaft of that person's femur. (Credit: Image courtesy of North Carolina State University)

Volume 1 AP: Online Journal in Public Archaeology

Ha sido un camino largo, pero espero que desde ahora vaya rodado...
Ya está disponible el primer volumen de AP Journal. Recordad que es totalmente gratuito y sólo hace falta registrarse para poder descargarlo.

VI Encontro Nacional de Estudantes de História

Are you smarter than a Neanderthal toolmaker?

Archaeologists look into whether Neanderthals copied human tools or innovated their own designs

Neanderthals may have been pretty good at innovating tools. [Image Credit: Lígia Santos Rodrigues, flickr]
By Mary Beth Griggs | Posted March 7, 2011
Posted in: Life Science

El primer humano llegó a Benidorm hace 15.000 años.

15.000 años de la llegada del primer turista Benidorm...

Estudios preliminares llevados a cabo en el yacimiento arqueológico del Abric de la Cantera, en la Serra Gelada de Benidorm, datan la presencia de los primeros pobladores en la zona a finales del Paleolítico Superior, entre los años 15.000 y el 11.000 antes de Cristo.

Mais em paleorama.wordpress.com

A Importância da Palinologia nas Arqueociências

Caros colegas,

No âmbito do Ciclo de Conferências Arqueologia ao Sul realizar-se-á no próximo dia 24 de Março pelas 17h30 a conferência:

"A Importância da Palinologia nas Arqueociências"

por Sandra Gomes.

O evento terá lugar na sala 2.35 do edifício da FCHS da Universidade do Algarve (Campus de Gambelas).

Stone Tools Influenced Hand Evolution in Human Ancestors, Anthropologists Say

ScienceDaily (Mar. 8, 2011) — New research from anthropologists at the University of Kent has confirmed Charles Darwin's speculation that the evolution of unique features in the human hand was influenced by increased tool use in our ancestors.

New research from anthropologists at the University of Kent has confirmed Charles Darwin's speculation that the evolution of unique features in the human hand was influenced by increased tool use in our ancestors. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Kent)

Neanderthals Were Nifty at Controlling Fire

ScienceDaily (Mar. 15, 2011) — A new study involving the University of Colorado Boulder shows clear evidence of the continuous control of fire by Neanderthals in Europe dating back roughly 400,000 years, yet another indication that they weren't dimwitted brutes as often portrayed.

A new study involving the University of Colorado Boulder indicates Neanderthals had achieved continuous control of fire by roughly 400,000 years ago. (Credit: JPL/NASA)

Praxis Archaeologica

A Associação Profissional de Arqueólogos anuncia que já está disponível o quarto volume da sua revista electrónica Praxis Archaeologica, que apresenta como tema central a relação, nem sempre harmoniosa, entre a Arqueologia e a Avaliação de Impactes Ambientais.

Para além dos artigos dedicados à exploração desta temática, destacamos ainda a segunda parte do trabalho de António Faustino de Carvalho versando o estudo das indústrias líticas talhadas em Portugal e uma primeira aproximação ao tema da aplicação das normas de higiene e segurança aos trabalhos arqueológicos.

Assinalamos, igualmente, a inauguração de uma nova funcionalidade no website da revista que consiste na introdução de um módulo de comentários com moderação, por forma a permitir a todos os interessados o expressar das suas opiniões e a publicação de contributos críticos a cada um dos artigos que constam deste volume.

Índice deste volume:

• Legislação de Avaliação de Impacte Ambiental: um estudo comparativo entre Portugal e Angola, por Leonor Rocha
• Critérios para quantificar o valor do Património Arqueológico, por Fernando Real e Gertrudes Branco
• Arqueologia Preventiva e Licenciamento Ambiental de Projectos no Brasil, por Solange Bezerra Caldarelli
• Diálogos transatlânticos: contribuições da arqueologia consultiva à pesquisa e proteção do patrim(ó)(ô)nio arqueológico no Brasil e em Portugal, por Maria José de Almeida et al.
• Rescue Archaeology: the Archaeology of Future, por Jerzy Gassowski
• Metodologia de Avaliação de Impacte Arqueológico, por Associação Profissional de Arqueólogos
• A Segurança Laboral na Arqueologia Portuguesa, por Andreia Lopes
• O talhe da pedra na Pré-História Recente de Portugal: 2. O estado actual da investigação, por António Faustino de Carvalho
• O Património Arqueológico no contexto da Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica, por Gertrudes Branco

Em torno da escrita do Sudoeste...

Entrada livre
Se solicitado será emitido certificado de presença

Journal of Human Evolution

Volume 60, Issue 4, Pages 319-522 (April 2011)

International Journal of Primatology

Volume 1 / 1980 - Volume 32 / 2011

Nas margens do passado: os concheiros de Muge II

Teve lugar passado dia 5 pelas 17:00 horas a inauguração da explosição Nas margens do passado: os concheiros de Muge, a Capela do Paço real em Salvaterra de Magos. A exposição inclui materiais provenientes do Museu Geológico e das escavações recentes no concheiro do Cabeço da Amoreira.

Aqui ficam alguns momentos.



Relembramos que a exposição permanecerá aberta ao público até dia 30 de Março.

Nas margens do passado: os concheiros de Muge

A exposição...

Nas margens do passado: os concheiros de Muge

tem a sua inauguração hoje, dia 5 de Março pelas 17:00 horas na Capela do Paço real em Salvaterra de Magos. A exposição estará aberta ao público até dia 30 de Março e inclui materiais provenientes do Museu Geológico e das escavações recentes no concheiro do Cabeço da Amoreira.

Tecnología lítica. Como hacer un núcleo Levallois de lascas preferentes

Levallois en video. Proceso completo

Os dejamos una serie de vídeos sobre fabricación de planos preferenciales de salida, en tecnología Levallois. El tallador en cuestión ha trabajado con Bruce Bradley, se nota. Muy buena la parte 1, con numerosas imágenes comentadas (en inglés).

Pasos previos (utilización de un nódulo con geometría apropiada)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maxNIfZ9X2o

Facetado y obtención de lascas desbordantes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll7ajOVtxqQ

Los ejemplos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srs6d36zbV0&feature=player_detailpage

Valladolid. Científicos de Atapuerca visitan el Museo de Anatomía para analizar huesos de chimpacé

Tres científicos que desarrollan su trabajo en el yacimiento arqueológico de Atapuerca visitan desde hoy y por espacio de tres días el Museo de Anatomía de la Universidad de Valladolid, ubicado en la Facultad de Medicina.

El motivo es consultar y analizar distintos huesos de chimpacé catalogados y expuestos en el museo universitario con vistas a completar un estudio comparativo que realiza en estos momentos el equipo de arqueólogos.

El Museo de Anatomía de la UVa cuenta con varias publicaciones de científicos vallisoletanos sobre disecciones de primates, gracias a la donación de estos animales procedentes de varios zoos de España, con los que la Universidad de Valladolid tiene firmados convenios de colaboración para la cesión de los cuerpos de estos animales cuando mueren.

vía Universidad de Valladolid.

Discovery of Oldest Northern North American Human Remains Provides New Insights Into Ice-Age Culture

In ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2011) — Scientists have discovered the cremated skeleton of a Paleoindian child in the remains of an 11,500-year-old house in central Alaska. The findings reveal a slice of domestic life that has been missing from the record of the region's early people, who were among the first to colonize the Americas.

The child's remains, shown in excavation here, indicate that he or she died and then was cremated in a large pit in the center of the home. The child has been named Xaasaa Cheege Ts'enliin, which translate to "Upward Sun River Mouth Child," based on a local native place name. (Credit: Ben Potter, University of Alaska, Fairbanks)

The discovery, by Ben Potter of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and colleagues, appears in the 25 February issue of the journal Science.

"The site is truly spectacular in all senses of the word," Potter said. "The cremation is quite significant, but the context of the find is important too."

In contrast to the temporary hunting camps and other specialized work sites that have produced much of the evidence of North America's early habitation, the newly discovered house appears to have been a seasonal home, used during the summer. Its inhabitants, who included women and children, foraged for fish, birds and small mammals nearby, according to Potter's team.

"Before this find we knew people were hunting large game like bison or elk with sophisticated weapons, but most of sites we had to study were hunting camps. But here we know there were young children and females. So, this is a whole piece of the settlement system that we had virtually no record of," he said.

"As part of the Beringian Land Bridge, Alaska was an important crossroads for the Old and the New Worlds. This study makes an important contribution to our understanding of the early inhabitants of Beringia and their culture," said Brooks Hanson, Deputy Editor, Physical Sciences, at Science.

The young child probably died -- it's not clear how -- before being cremated in a large pit in the center of the home. This pit had many purposes, including cooking and waste disposal. After the cremation, the pit was sealed up and the house was abandoned, the researchers report.

The name of the site where this discovery took place, "Upper Sun River," is a translation of a nearby Athabaskan placename, Xaasaa Na'. The site lies within a dune field in the boreal forest of the Tanana lowlands. The child has been named Xaasaa Cheege Ts'eniin (or Upward Sun River Mouth Child) by the local Native community, the Healy Lake Tribe.

The house's floor was dug about 27 centimeters below the original ground surface. Colored stains in the sediment suggest that poles may have been used to support the walls or roof, though it's not clear what the latter would have been made of. The entire house has not yet been fully excavated, so its total size is still unknown.

The pit at the center was oval-shaped and about 45 centimeters deep. In sediment layers beneath the skeleton, the researchers found bones of salmon, ground squirrels, ptarmigan and other small animals. The skeleton was a particular surprise, since no human remains older than a few hundred years have ever been found in Subarctic Alaska.

Only about 20 percent of the burned skeleton was preserved. The remains don't reveal the child's sex, but they do include teeth, which allowed the researchers to conclude the child was around three years old. The remains showed no signs of injury or illness, though that isn't surprising, since most health problems don't leave traces in bones.

Potter's team didn't find any objects that were clearly grave goods. The researchers did excavate two pieces of red ochre along with the skeleton, but their significance is unclear. While red ochre has been part of burials around the world, it also has many other uses.

This lack of symbolic objects is typical for a mobile hunter-gatherer society like the one at Upper Sun River, according to Potter. It should not be interpreted as a sign that the child's death was treated casually, Potter said.

"All the evidence indicates that they went through some effort. The burial was within the house. If you think of the house as the center of many residential activities: cooking, eating, sleeping, and the fact that they abandoned the house soon afterward the cremation, this is pretty compelling evidence of the careful treatment of the child," Potter said.

While the findings certainly provoke questions about the story of this particular death, for Potter and other archeologists, the site is perhaps even more valuable for what it says broadly about the lifestyles of the early people who lived in the region.

Although many of the specifics are still under debate, researchers generally believe that the first people in North America came across the Bering Land Bridge from Siberia some time near the end of the last ice age, around 13,000 years ago or earlier. Archaeological evidence from this time period is scanty, however, especially in the northern regions adjacent to the Bering Sea, known as Beringia.

Scientists have discovered only a handful of known houses in North America from the continent's first 2,000 years of human occupation. And, except for the one at Upper Sun River, those houses are in the lower 48 states or at Ushki Lake in Siberia. Ushki Lake also includes the only known burial site from this time period in Beringia.

The stone tools from contemporaneous sites in central Alaska fit into a category known as microblade technology, which consists of small, stone, razor-blade-like pieces set into larger organic points. In contrast, the more well-known Clovis people of central North America did not make microblades. In fact, the stone artifacts, along with the house structure and the types of animal remains found at Upper Sun River appear more similar to those of Siberia's Ushki Lake than to anything from the lower 48 states.

"We've got this basic technological organization system that links Alaska with the Old World," Potter said.

Researchers have debated over whether the people in central Alaska during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene were all part of one larger cultural group or whether they belonged to different groups. The tools and other remains at Upper Sun River, and their similarities to some others in the region, support the former scenario, Potter and his colleagues say.

Differences exist among the sites, but these may reflect this people's versatility, with different members carrying out different tasks, such as hunting large game or foraging for small mammals and birds, during different times of year, the researchers argue.

Throughout the excavation, Potter's groups worked closely with leaders of the Healy Lake Tribe and other native groups that live near the Upper Sun River site.

"Our consultation with the local Native groups is not only an ethical imperative in archaeology today, it has been a fulfilling and productive partnership, from my perspective," said Potter.

"We strove to be diligent with full and open negotiations from the time of discovery and before, and we have worked together to build a foundation for continued work on this find and for future discoveries."

This research was supported by the National Science.

California Islands Give Up Evidence of Early Seafaring: Numerous Artifacts Found at Late Pleistocene Sites on the Channel Islands

In ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2011) — Evidence for a diversified sea-based economy among North American inhabitants dating from 12,200 to 11,400 years ago is emerging from three sites on California's Channel Islands.

Reporting in the March 4 issue of Science, a 15-member team led by University of Oregon and Smithsonian Institution scholars describes the discovery of scores of stemmed projectile points and crescents dating to that time period. The artifacts are associated with the remains of shellfish, seals, geese, cormorants and fish.

Funded primarily by grants from the National Science Foundation, the team also found thousands of artifacts made from chert, a flint-like rock used to make projectile points and other stone tools.

A three-view look at a chert crescent dating to ancient seafarers on San Miguel Island. (Credit: Courtesy of Jon Erlandson)

Some of the intact projectiles are so delicate that their only practical use would have been for hunting on the water, said Jon Erlandson, professor of anthropology and director of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon. He has been conducting research on the islands for more than 30 years.

"This is among the earliest evidence of seafaring and maritime adaptations in the Americas, and another extension of the diversity of Paleoindian economies," Erlandson said. "The points we are finding are extraordinary, the workmanship amazing. They are ultra thin, serrated and have incredible barbs on them. It's a very sophisticated chipped-stone technology." He also noted that the stemmed points are much different than the iconic fluted points left throughout North America by Clovis and Folsom peoples who hunted big game on land.

The artifacts were recovered from three sites that date to the end of the Pleistocene epoch on Santa Rosa and San Miguel islands, which in those days were connected as one island off the California coast. Sea levels then were 50 to 60 meters (about 160-200 feet) below modern levels. Rising seas have since flooded the shorelines and coastal lowlands where early populations would have spent most of their time.

Erlandson and his colleagues have focused their search on upland features such as springs, caves, and chert outcrops that would have drawn early maritime peoples into the interior. Rising seas also may have submerged evidence of even older human habitation of the islands.

The newly released study focuses on the artifacts and animal remains recovered, but the implications for understanding the peopling of the Americas may run deeper.

The technologies involved suggest that these early islanders were not members of the land-based Clovis culture, Erlandson said. No fluted points have been found on the islands. Instead, the points and crescents are similar to artifacts found in the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau areas, including pre-Clovis levels at Paisley Caves in eastern Oregon that are being studied by another UO archaeologist, Dennis Jenkins.

Last year, Charlotte Beck and Tom Jones, archaeologists at New York's Hamilton College who study sites in the Great Basin, argued that stemmed and Clovis point technologies were separate, with the stemmed points originating from Pacific Coast populations and not, as conventional wisdom holds, from the Clovis people who moved westward from the Great Plains. Erlandson and colleagues noted that the Channel Island points are also broadly similar to stemmed points found early sites around the Pacific Rim, from Japan to South America.

Six years ago, Erlandson proposed that Late Pleistocene sea-going people may have followed a "kelp highway" stretching from Japan to Kamchatka, along the south coast of Beringia and Alaska, then southward down the Northwest Coast to California. Kelp forests are rich in seals, sea otters, fish, seabirds, and shellfish such as abalones and sea urchins.

"The technology and seafaring implications of what we've found on the Channel Islands are magnificent," said study co-author Torben C. Rick, curator of North American Archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution. "Some of the paleo-ecological and subsistence implications are also very important. These sites indicate very early and distinct coastal and island subsistence strategies, including harvest of red abalones and other shellfish and fish dependent on kelp forests, but also the exploitation of larger pinnipeds and waterfowl, including an extinct flightless duck.
"This combination of unique hunting technologies found with marine mammal and migratory waterfowl bones provides a very different picture of the Channel Islands than what we know today, and indicates very early and diverse maritime life ways and foraging practices," Rick said. "What is so interesting is that not only do the data we have document some of the earliest marine mammal and bird exploitation in North America, but they show that very early on New World coastal peoples were hunting such animals and birds with sophisticated technologies that appear to have been refined for life in coastal and aquatic habitats."
The stemmed points found on the Channel Islands range from tiny to large, probably indicating that they were used for hunting a variety of animals.
"We think the crescents were used as transverse projectile points, probably for hunting birds. Their broad stone tips, when attached to a dart shaft provided a stone age shotgun-approach to hunting birds in flight," Erlandson said. "These are very distinctive artifacts, hundreds of which have been found on the Channel Islands over the years, but rarely in a stratified context, he added. Often considered to be between 8,000 and 10,000 years old in California, "we now have crescents between 11,000 and 12,000 years old, some of them associated with thousands of bird bones."
The next challenge, Erlandson and Rick noted, is to find even older archaeological sites on the Channel Islands, which might prove that a coastal migration contributed to the initial peopling of the Americas, now thought to have occurred two to three millennia earlier.