The National Museum of Raqqa in Syria has suffered immensely from the ongoing violence since 2011. Much of its valuable collection of movable archaeological heritage (ca. 6000 items) is considered... Show moreThe National Museum of Raqqa in Syria has suffered immensely from the ongoing violence since 2011. Much of its valuable collection of movable archaeological heritage (ca. 6000 items) is considered lost. Starting from 500 of the most precious objects of the museum stored in the Raqqa Central Bank and stolen from there in 2013, the pilot project Focus Raqqa created a concrete, workable database to enable identification by Syrian and international police and heritage institutions. The project made a pivotal first step towards potential reconstruction of the Raqqa Museum in the future. The Raqqa museum collection included cuneiform tablets. Some of the tablets were cast before the war to allow detailed study in Europe. Today the tablets have vanished. The pilot project Scanning for Syria safeguarded information from the lost artefacts by making high-resolution three-dimensional scans of the silicone rubber moulds and subsequently physical replicas of the original objects by 3D printing. The short life expectancy (30 years) of the moulds necessitated measures for long-term preservation. The Scanning for Syria team not only succeeded at the preservation and sharing of knowledge in the academic circle. It also told the story of Syrian culture and its people to everyone for raising more voices in the united effort to keep cultural heritage safe in a zone of conflict. Show less
Schneider, A.; Gussone, M.; Müller-Wiener, M.; Lambers, K.; Ullrich, B.; Kniess, R.; ... ; Dorrestein, J.P. 2023
The large-scale magnetometer prospection conducted in 2021 south of the al-Najaf International Airport, Iraq, reveals the complex settlement structure of the late Antique and early Islamic site of... Show moreThe large-scale magnetometer prospection conducted in 2021 south of the al-Najaf International Airport, Iraq, reveals the complex settlement structure of the late Antique and early Islamic site of al-Ḥīra. The manual archaeo-geophysical interpretation resulted in 16 classes and the three most relevant archaeological classes will serve as a baseline for a (semi-) automated classification workflow. Show less
This paper aims to demonstrate the level to which Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) can be used for spatial analyses and, more specifically, Least-Cost-PathAnalysis (LCPA). To do this, ground... Show moreThis paper aims to demonstrate the level to which Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) can be used for spatial analyses and, more specifically, Least-Cost-PathAnalysis (LCPA). To do this, ground-truthed routes which connected major Mycenaean hubs in the Argolid, such as Mycenae and Tiryns, were compared to generated least-cost-paths (LCPs) using both the FOSS platform QGIS and the proprietary software ArcGIS. There were two available options to generate LCPs in QGIS and one in ArcGIS. Different routes were produced in all three cases with the ones generated in QGIS appearing to be following the contours of the landscape and being closer to the surveyed paths. In the end the study shows that advanced spatial analyses can be conducted by employing FOSS. Additionally, thanks to their transparency and the provided tools being easy to understand, the methodologies are reliably replicable and reproducible, resulting in making the archaeological landscapes accessible to all. The research carried out for this paper falls under the SETinSTONE project, funded by an ERC consolidator grant (nbr 646667), under the direction of prof. Ann Brysbaert, and conducted at Leiden University (The Netherlands). Show less
A destructive force across entire landscapes, mining at times threatens the preservation of priceless archaeological sites across southern Africa. The UNESCO World Heritage site of the Mapungubwe... Show moreA destructive force across entire landscapes, mining at times threatens the preservation of priceless archaeological sites across southern Africa. The UNESCO World Heritage site of the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape is one of the recent legal battlegrounds pitting the interests of the natural world and archaeological heritage against mining. Mineral resource extraction carries within its destruction creative potential too. In southern Africa mining has been instrumental in illuminating human history and in the creation of archaeological landmarks.The relationship between archaeology and mining is a complex one. The gold industry and associated lime-mining has specifically been instrumental in the development of palaeoanthropology in South Africa (Bonner 2007). With the discovery of gold, lime was required for the desulfurization process. This was obtained locally and many lime works were exploited during the 1890s (Esterhuysen 2019). The miners drew attention to fossils found within the deposits leading to the discovery of hominins at Taung, Makapan and Sterkfontein in the early 20th century. Mining may thus be seen as crucial to the genesis of the Cradle of Humankind UNESCO World Heritage site in South Africa. Similarly guano, zinc and vanadium mining have yielded important palaeoanthropological finds in southern Africa.In the 19th and early 20th century, scientific focus was on discovering unknown objects. In this context, the efficient removal of great quantities of overburden was a great asset. With increasing scientific rigour in the 20th century, archaeological focus shifts from objects to their interrelationships and their context. The documentation of finds and find contexts requires time that is not available in the context of industrial resource extraction. Fruitful collaboration now becomes more difficult. As the early lime works closed down in the first half of the 20th century, archaeologists were free to continue work at a comparative snail’s pace but yielding far greater insight in the human past.In active mining operations, collaboration is difficult. While mining still exposes valuable sites and materials that would otherwise be inaccessible, this is of limited value in current archaeological practice. Current ethical standards emphasise in situ preservation of archaeological remains over excavation. When finds are documented, the time-pressure from mining companies makes these situations ambiguous in value. Examples are the discovery of Pleistocene shell middens after their partial destruction, or the recovery of lithic materials from conveyor belts in diamond plants.In the late 20th century and 21st century, the discipline of archaeology has been included in legal frameworks on environmental planning. Archaeological contractors conduct Heritage impact assessments and advise on mitigation measures for large-scale environmental projects such as mining operation and the building of large dams of infrastructure works.Highlighting human history was an unintended consequence for large mining operations. Yet both on a grand level, the activity of mining, as well as on a personal level, the activities of miners and foremen have played a crucial role in uncovering ancient humans and their world in southern Africa. I argue that the insights produced as a result of early resource extraction are one (albeit often minor) consideration in the network of values, stakeholders and resources that embed mining operations in society. Show less
Dental calculus is increasingly used by researchers looking at diet in past populations. These studies employ a range of methods including microscopy, and DNA and protein extraction. Despite the... Show moreDental calculus is increasingly used by researchers looking at diet in past populations. These studies employ a range of methods including microscopy, and DNA and protein extraction. Despite the promise of these methods little attention has been given to the potential biases associated with the accumulation of dietary compounds into dental calculus during the lifetime of an individual. Our recently-developed oral biofilm model has the potential to elucidate these biases by growing in vitro dental calculus in a controlled environment. Here we report on one validation test of the system, which explored whether our model calculus mineralizes in a manner similar to actual calculus. FTIR was conducted on multiple samples across 25 days of model calculus growth. Results show an overall increase in the inorganic component relative to organic over the course of the experiment. This is especially evident in the hydroxyapatite peak at 1040 and doublet at 605 and 565 wave-numbers (cm -1), and a reduction in intensities of the peaks at 1546 and 1654 wavenumbers (cm-1). IR splitting factors (IRSF) ranged from 2.38–3.30, indicating a similar level of crystallinity to modern human-derived calculus samples (IRSF 3.46–3.76). The final model calculus consisted mainly of carbonated hydroxyapatite, the principal component of real calculus, although with a higher organic component than the comparative modern samples. This and prior validation of the model dental calculus suggests that it is a viable method to supplement the analysis of fossil dental calculus. Show less
Williams, F.L.; Schmidt, C.W.; Henry, A.G.; Droke, J.L.; Becam, G.; De Lumley, M.A. 2022
Neandertals are characterized as highly carnivorous from nitrogen isotopes and fauna remains. However, it has become increasingly clear that plants also were included in their diets, even during... Show moreNeandertals are characterized as highly carnivorous from nitrogen isotopes and fauna remains. However, it has become increasingly clear that plants also were included in their diets, even during challenging environmental conditions. Southwest France during late Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 and early MIS 3 was a particularly cold and arid time interval associated with open steppe habitat dominated by reindeer, which were hunted by the Neandertals of La Quina cave. One of these individuals, La Quina 5, is examined using dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) and plant microremain analysis to reconstruct the diet. Reference samples for the DMTA include Hortus (n " 5), Krapina (n " 19), Malarnaud, Spy I, Vindija (n " 4), as well as Holocene Homo sapiens having various subsistence strategies (n " 150). For the plant microremain analysis, we compared La Quina 5 to Spy I and II, Shanidar III, La Ferrassie and a modern reference sample. La Quina 5 may have relied signi ܪcantly on hunted resources in the cold glacial interval of Heinrich Stadial 6 or 5, indicated by a low complexity value that suggests limited hard food consumption. Plant microremains, such as starch grains from grass seeds and plant underground storage organs, are evidenced in the dental calculus. These coarse and poorly processed plant foods were masticated using varied movements of the jaws compared to most other Neandertals, reflected in the low anisotropy of La Quina 5. These findings emphasize the consumption of plant foods in Neandertal diets even during Ice Age climate extremes. Show less
The present paper investigates the material culture of Togolok 1 in the Murghab region (SouthernTurkmenistan) during the latest phases of occupation by a semi-mobile community between the... Show moreThe present paper investigates the material culture of Togolok 1 in the Murghab region (SouthernTurkmenistan) during the latest phases of occupation by a semi-mobile community between the finalstage of the 3rd millennium and the 2nd millennium BCE. In the last decades, archaeological research inthe Murghab region has focused on the scattered semi-mobile occupations and their economic trendsduring the Late Bronze Age. The semi-mobile community in Togolok 1 presents a remarkable materialculture among the semi-mobile excavated contexts in the Murghab region. Although archaeologicalevidence in Togolok suggests a semi-mobile identity, the overall morphological and iconographicalanalysis of small objects shows strong cultural associations with the sedentary BMAC (Bactro-MargianaArchaeological Complex) communities. Moreover, the association with sedentary communities isconsistent with the economic activities, which suggest a constant interplay between pastoralism andfarming. Therefore, we propose that the community settled in Togolok 1 was reshaped by the intenseeconomic and cultural interaction with the neighbouring BMAC communities. Show less
This paper will focus on the arrangement and the function-related organisation of space as a proxy for the characterisation of social and productive units, and of socio-economic complexity, in pre... Show moreThis paper will focus on the arrangement and the function-related organisation of space as a proxy for the characterisation of social and productive units, and of socio-economic complexity, in pre-protohistoric non-urban societies, focusing in particular on Early Bronze Age Eastern Arabia.Thoroughly explored, the sites of Ra’s al-Hadd HD-6 (c. 3100-2600 BCE) and Ra’s al-Jinz RJ-2 (c. 2600/2500-2000 BCE), located in coastal Oman, will be used as case studies to present an approach that integrates the three dimensions conceptualised by Amos Rapoport – within the scope of environment-behaviour research – as fixed-feature elements (buildings, walls…), semi-fixed-feature elements (“furnishing” of all sorts – including artefacts) and non-fixed-feature elements (people and their activities and behaviours). This relation is investigated in a diachronic perspective by combining the analysis of structural design with the analysis of systems of activities, examined through the distribution of ecofacts / artefacts, and including the various classes of manufacturing indicators. Show less
Murungi, M.; Esteban, I.; Sifogeorgakis, E.; Dusseldorp, G.L. 2021
The period between ~40 and 20 ka BP encompassing the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) transition has long been of interest because of the associated technological change.... Show moreThe period between ~40 and 20 ka BP encompassing the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) transition has long been of interest because of the associated technological change. Understanding this transition in southern Africa is complicated by the paucity of archaeological sites that span this period. With its occupation sequence spanning the last ~70,000 years, Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter is one of the few sites that record this transition. Umhlatuzana thus offers a great opportunity to study past environmental dynamics from the Late Pleistocene (MIS 4) to the Late Holocene, and past human subsistence strategies, their social organisation, technological and symbolic innovations. Although organic preservation is poor (bones, seeds, and charcoal) at the site, silica phytoliths preserve generally well throughout the sequence. These microscopic silica particles can identify different plant types that are no longer visible at the site because of decomposition or burning to a reliable taxonomical level. Thus, to trace site occupation, plant resource use, and in turn reconstruct past vegetation, we applied phytolith analyses to sediment samples of the newly excavated Umhlatuzana sequence. We present results of the phytolith assemblage variability to determine change in plant use from the Pleistocene to the Holocene and discuss them in relation to taphonomical processes and human plant gathering strategies and activities. This study ultimately seeks to provide a palaeoenvironmental context for modes of occupation and will shed light on past human-environmental interactions in eastern South Africa. Show less
The Dutch wetlands witness the gradual adoption of Neolithic novelties by foraging societies during the Swifterbant period. Recent analyses provide new insights into the subsistence palette of... Show moreThe Dutch wetlands witness the gradual adoption of Neolithic novelties by foraging societies during the Swifterbant period. Recent analyses provide new insights into the subsistence palette of Middle Swifterbant societies. Small-scale livestock herding and cultivation are in evidence at this time, but their importance if unclear. Within the framework of PAGES Land-use at 6000BP project, we aim to translate the information on resource exploitation into information on land-use that can be incorporated into global climate modelling efforts, with attention for the importance of agriculture. A reconstruction of patterns of resource exploitation and their land-use dimensions is complicated by methodological issues in comparing the results of varied recent investigations. Analyses of organic residues in ceramics have attested to the cooking of aquatic foods, ruminant meat, porcine meat, as well as rare cases of dairy. In terms of vegetative matter, some ceramics exclusively yielded evidence of wild plants, while others preserve cereal remains. Elevated δ15N values of human were interpreted as demonstrating an important aquatic component of the diet well into the 4th millennium BC. Yet recent assays on livestock remains suggest grazing on salt marshes partly accounts for the human values. Finally, renewed archaeozoological investigations have shown the early presence of domestic animals to be more limited than previously thought. We discuss the relative importance of exploited resources to produce a best-fit interpretation of changing patterns of land-use during the Middle Swifterbant phase. Our review combines recent archaeological data with wider data on anthropogenic influence on the landscape. Combining the results of plant macroremains, information from pollen cores about vegetation development, the structure of faunal assemblages, and finds of arable fields and dairy residue, we suggest the most parsimonious interpretation is one of a limited land-use footprint of cultivation and livestock keeping in Dutch wetlands between 4600 and 3900 BCE. Show less
An overview of six recently excavated Roman cemeteries in the Dutch Eastern River Area shows that after Willems’ study 35 years ago, there is a lot to be gained by re-examining the Roman cemeteries... Show moreAn overview of six recently excavated Roman cemeteries in the Dutch Eastern River Area shows that after Willems’ study 35 years ago, there is a lot to be gained by re-examining the Roman cemeteries. Not only has the number of known, and excavated, cemeteries increased also the knowledge of the surrounding areas and the material culture. The six cemeteries described here show strong similarities and diff- erences in burial customs. Differentiation in gender, status and identity are not easily made. However, in the future more thorough analysis of the cemeteries and their material culture will be able to shed more light upon the burial customs and possible (sub-)regional differences. Show less
In this paper, we present the development of a training dataset for Dutch Named Entity Recognition (NER) in the archaeology domain. This dataset was created as there is a dire need for semantic... Show moreIn this paper, we present the development of a training dataset for Dutch Named Entity Recognition (NER) in the archaeology domain. This dataset was created as there is a dire need for semantic search within archaeology, in order to allow archaeologists to find structured information in collections of Dutch excavation reports, currently totalling around 60,000 (658 million words) and growing rapidly. To guide this search task, NER is needed. We created rigorous annotation guidelines in an iterative process, then instructed five archaeology students to annotate a number of documents. The resulting dataset contains ~31k annotations between six entity types (artefact, time period, place, context, species & material). The inter-annotator agreement is 0.95, and when we used this data for machine learning, we observed an increase in F1 score from 0.51 to 0.70 in comparison to a machine learning model trained on a dataset created in prior work. This indicates that the data is of high quality, and can confidently be used to train NER classifiers Show less
On the north bank of Wādī al-Zahaimi, east of the town of Liwaʾ in northern Oman, a remarkably well-preserved Bronze Age cultural landscape was discovered and documented in January 2018 by the Wadi... Show moreOn the north bank of Wādī al-Zahaimi, east of the town of Liwaʾ in northern Oman, a remarkably well-preserved Bronze Age cultural landscape was discovered and documented in January 2018 by the Wadi al-Jizzi Archaeological Project. It includes first, a well-preserved Umm an-Nar settlement with two circular tombs, a possible watchtower, and imported pottery from the Indus and Dilmun; second, a large transitional cemetery, with about 170 tombs dating to the late Umm an-Nar and early Wadi Suq periods, which has striking parallels with the famous linear alignments from ʿAsimah; and third, a small Wadi Suq settlement with stone-built houses. In this paper, we present this well-preserved Bronze Age cultural landscape and its relevance to our understanding of the late third and early second millennia BC in south-eastern Arabia Show less
In 2007-2008, the Amsterdam Archaeological Centre of the University of Amsterdam excavated in the small Roman town of Voorburg (Forum Hadriani) near The Hague in The Netherlands. The excavations... Show moreIn 2007-2008, the Amsterdam Archaeological Centre of the University of Amsterdam excavated in the small Roman town of Voorburg (Forum Hadriani) near The Hague in The Netherlands. The excavations were undertaken in the expectation of examining one or two insulae of this Roman town. We were very surprised when a dredged channel (110 x 32m) with quay installations consisting of two successive periods of driven piles was uncovered. An immense quantity of portable finds – especially pottery – was retrieved from this channel. The provenances in combination with the form and function of the retrieved pottery make clear that the settlement played a role in trade and military supplies. At first there seems to be a British connection by means of retrieved Romano-British artefacts in Voorburg. Next to that there are some striking resemblances between the Roman harbours of Voorburg-Arentsburg and London when comparing the origin of pottery and several formation processes. Secondly, the pottery provenances and the form and function of the retrieved ware show that the harbour of Voorburg played an important role in supplying the regional coastal forts in the C2nd and C3rd. Show less
