<p>Surveying at the landscape scale to find archaeological sites is a parti... more <p>Surveying at the landscape scale to find archaeological sites is a particular challenge in the dryland environments of Arabia, the Sahara and other similar hyper-arid regions. Here we present how novel high-resolution palaeoydrological mapping of the entirety of the Saharo-Arabian desert belt has not only revealed large numbers of palaeolakes, shorelines and past drainage courses, but also proved particularly fruitful for finding new palaeolithic sites, and lacustrine pleistocene proxy records in Arabia. We describe the integrated survey methodologies which have helped us to locate large numbers of new sites in Arabia, including the earliest fossil and footprints of our species in Arabia, thus helping to enhance our understanding of pleistocene climatic change in these deserts, and of Hominin dispersals into and through them.</p>
This dataset is associated with Phelps et al. (2019) and is comprised of archaeological informati... more This dataset is associated with Phelps et al. (2019) and is comprised of archaeological information from Holocene faunal assemblages in Africa, including assemblage, radiocarbon and taxonomic information. This dataset was modified from Jousse 2017 and associated datasets compiled by H. Jousse.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2020
Large anthropogenic 14 C datasets are widely used to generate summed probability distributions (S... more Large anthropogenic 14 C datasets are widely used to generate summed probability distributions (SPDs) as a proxy for past human population levels. However, SPDs are a poor proxy when datasets are small, bearing little relationship to true population dynamics. Instead, more robust inferences can be achieved by directly modelling the population and assessing the model likelihood given the data. We introduce the R package ADMUR which uses a continuous piecewise linear (CPL) model of population change, calculates the model likelihood given a 14 C dataset, estimates credible intervals using Markov chain Monte Carlo, applies a goodness-of-fit test, and uses the Schwarz Criterion to compare CPL models. We demonstrate the efficacy of this method using toy data, showing that spurious dynamics are avoided when sample sizes are small, and true population dynamics are recovered as sample sizes increase. Finally, we use an improved 14 C dataset for the South American Arid Diagonal to compare CPL...
The site of Sphinx (SBK.W-60) is located about 3.5 km from the present Nile in the western part o... more The site of Sphinx (SBK.W-60) is located about 3.5 km from the present Nile in the western part of Jebel Sabaloka, upstream of the Sixth Nile Cataract, in Sudan. This site uniquely includes Early Khartoum (Mesolithic) artifacts with no intrusive elements and has been dated from the ninth to the end of the sixth millennium cal BC. Excavations at Trench 7, in particular, brought to light a 1.2-m thick deposit with the quantitatively and qualitatively richest artifactual materials. Analysis and classification of the pottery assemblage from this site have been conducted with the aim of observing manufacturing techniques from a broad perspective correlating pottery production to cultural change and chronological variability. Analyses of the ceramic assemblage regarded visual examinations of the manufacturing techniques combined with petrographic (optical microscopy, OM) and chemical analyses (instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis, iNAA), observations of manufacturing and decorative techniques, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS) on absorbed organic residues. The vertical distribution of the ceramic assemblage reveals consistent technological variability through the timespan of occupation of the site.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which... more This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The climate deterioration after the most recent African humid period (AHP) is a notable past exam... more The climate deterioration after the most recent African humid period (AHP) is a notable past example of desertification. Evidence points to a human population expansion in northern Africa prior to this, associated with the introduction of pastoralism. Here we consider the role, if any, of this population on the subsequent ecological collapse. Using a climatevegetation model, we estimate the natural length of the most recent AHP. The model indicates that the system was most susceptible to collapse between 7 and 6 ka; at least 500 years before the observed collapse. This suggests that the inclusion of increasing elements of pastoralism was an effective adaptation to the regional environmental changes. Pastoralism also appears to have slowed the deterioration caused by orbitally-driven climate change. This supports the view that modern pastoralism is not only sustainable, but beneficial for the management of the world's dryland environments.
The transition from hunter-gatherer-fisher groups to agrarian societies is arguably the most sign... more The transition from hunter-gatherer-fisher groups to agrarian societies is arguably the most significant change in human prehistory. In the European plain there is evidence for fully developed agrarian societies by 7,500 cal. yr BP, yet a well-established agrarian society does not appear in the north until 6,000 cal. yr BP for unknown reasons. Here we show a sudden increase in summer temperature at 6,000 cal. yr BP in northern Europe using a well-dated, high resolution record of sea surface temperature (SST) from the Baltic Sea. This temperature rise resulted in hypoxic conditions across the entire Baltic sea as revealed by multiple sedimentary records and supported by marine ecosystem modeling. Comparison with summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites indicate that this temperature rise coincided with both the introduction of farming, and a dramatic population increase. The evidence supports the hypothesis that the boundary of farming rapidly extended north at 6,000 cal. yr BP because terrestrial conditions in a previously marginal region improved. The transition from foraging to farming provided the basis for a massive increase in food production and human population density, which in turn drove the accumulation of technology and specialization, ultimately enabling the establishment of modern day societies 1. The reasons and mechanisms for this Neolithic Revolution occurring at different times in different places continues to be debated. In Northern Europe cereal agriculture and animal husbandry did not begin until ca. 6,000 cal. yr BP, i.e. 1,500 years later than in neighboring populations to the south 2-6. It has been proposed that foraging societies were successful in relying largely on the marine resources from the Baltic Sea and had no incentive to adopt an agrarian lifestyle 5 , which required more intensive labor with no immediate increase in living standards 7. This leaves the question of why the transformation did eventually occur at 6,000 cal. yr BP. It has been suggested that climate change may have been responsible for the late onset of farming in the northern European regions 2 ; however, due to the lack of high resolution climate reconstructions the effects of environmental change on human societies in these regions have been unclear. In order to examine this at a fine temporal scale, we employed an approach combining sediment proxy studies with 3D ecosystem
The datasets described in this paper comprise the core spatial and temporal structure of the Cult... more The datasets described in this paper comprise the core spatial and temporal structure of the Cultural Evolution of Neolithic Europe project (EUROEVOL), led by Professor Stephen Shennan, UCL. This is one of three datasets resulting from the EUROEVOL project, the other two comprising the faunal (EUROEVOL Dataset 2) and archaeobotanical (EUROEVOL Dataset 3) data (http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1469811/). The dataset offers the largest repository of archaeological site and radiocarbon data from Neolithic Europe (4,757 sites and 14,053 radiocarbon samples), dating between the late Mesolithic and Early Bronze Age (Figure 1). It also offers the core archaeological information structured at the site and phase level, which provide the primary links between the datasets.
Inferential mistakes in population proxies: A response to Torfing's "Neolithic population and sum... more Inferential mistakes in population proxies: A response to Torfing's "Neolithic population and summed probability distribution of <sup>14</sup>C-dates".
Sustainability, culture change, inequality and global health are among the much-discussed challen... more Sustainability, culture change, inequality and global health are among the much-discussed challenges of our time, and rightly so, given the drastic effects such variables can have on modern populations. Yet with many populations today living in tightly connected geographic communities—cities, for example—or in highly networked electronic communities, can we still learn anything about societal challenges by studying simple farming communities from many thousands of years ago? We think there is much to learn, be it Malthusian pressures and ancient societal collapse, the devastating effects of European diseases on indigenous New World populations or endemic violence in pre-state societies (e.g. Pinker 2012). By affording a simpler, ‘slow motion’ view of processes that are greatly accelerated in this century, the detailed, long-term record of the European Neolithic can offer insight into many of these fundamental issues. These include: human adaptations to environmental change (Palmer &...
The timing and development of Holocene human occupation in the now hyperarid Sahara has major imp... more The timing and development of Holocene human occupation in the now hyperarid Sahara has major implications for understanding links between climate change, demography and cultural adaptation. Here we use summed probability distributions from 3287 calibrated 14 C dates from 1011 archaeological sites to demonstrate a major and rapid demographic shift between 10,500 and 5500 years BP. This event corresponds with the African Humid Period (AHP) and is sub-continental in scale, indicating climate as the prime factor driving broad-scale population dynamics in northern Africa. Furthermore, by providing a high temporal resolution proxy for effective carrying capacity our population curve offers an independent estimate of environmental change in northern Africa, indicating a temporal delay in the terrestrial response to atmospheric climate change. These results highlight the degree to which human demography is a function of environment at the appropriate scale of observation in both time and space and sheds important new light on the social response to global environmental change.
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
Archaeologists have long sought appropriate ways to describe the duration and floruit of archaeol... more Archaeologists have long sought appropriate ways to describe the duration and floruit of archaeological cultures in statistical terms. Thus far, chronological reasoning has been largely reliant on typological sequences. Using summed probability distributions, the authors here compare radiocarbon dates for a series of European Neolithic cultures with their generally accepted ‘standard’ date ranges and with the greater precision afforded by dendrochronology, where that is available. The resulting analysis gives a new and more accurate description of the duration and intensity of European Neolithic cultures.
It has long been recognised that the proportions of Neolithic domestic animal species—cattle, pig... more It has long been recognised that the proportions of Neolithic domestic animal species—cattle, pig and sheep/goat—vary from region to region, but it has hitherto been unclear how much this variability is related to cultural practices or to environmental constraints. This study uses hundreds of faunal assemblages from across Neolithic Europe to reveal the distribution of animal use between north and south, east and west. The remarkable results present us with a geography of Neolithic animal society—from the rabbit-loving Mediterranean to the beef-eaters of the north and west. They also demonstrate that the choices made by early Neolithic herders were largely determined by their environments. Cultural links appear to have played only a minor role in the species composition of early Neolithic animal societies.
&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Surveying at the landscape scale to find archaeological sites is a parti... more &amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Surveying at the landscape scale to find archaeological sites is a particular challenge in the dryland environments of Arabia, the Sahara and other similar hyper-arid regions. Here we present how novel high-resolution palaeoydrological mapping of the entirety of the Saharo-Arabian desert belt has not only revealed large numbers of palaeolakes, shorelines and past drainage courses, but also proved particularly fruitful for finding new palaeolithic sites, and lacustrine pleistocene proxy records in Arabia. We describe the integrated survey methodologies which have helped us to locate large numbers of new sites in Arabia, including the earliest fossil and footprints of our species in Arabia, thus helping to enhance our understanding of pleistocene climatic change in these deserts, and of Hominin dispersals into and through them.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;
This dataset is associated with Phelps et al. (2019) and is comprised of archaeological informati... more This dataset is associated with Phelps et al. (2019) and is comprised of archaeological information from Holocene faunal assemblages in Africa, including assemblage, radiocarbon and taxonomic information. This dataset was modified from Jousse 2017 and associated datasets compiled by H. Jousse.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2020
Large anthropogenic 14 C datasets are widely used to generate summed probability distributions (S... more Large anthropogenic 14 C datasets are widely used to generate summed probability distributions (SPDs) as a proxy for past human population levels. However, SPDs are a poor proxy when datasets are small, bearing little relationship to true population dynamics. Instead, more robust inferences can be achieved by directly modelling the population and assessing the model likelihood given the data. We introduce the R package ADMUR which uses a continuous piecewise linear (CPL) model of population change, calculates the model likelihood given a 14 C dataset, estimates credible intervals using Markov chain Monte Carlo, applies a goodness-of-fit test, and uses the Schwarz Criterion to compare CPL models. We demonstrate the efficacy of this method using toy data, showing that spurious dynamics are avoided when sample sizes are small, and true population dynamics are recovered as sample sizes increase. Finally, we use an improved 14 C dataset for the South American Arid Diagonal to compare CPL...
The site of Sphinx (SBK.W-60) is located about 3.5 km from the present Nile in the western part o... more The site of Sphinx (SBK.W-60) is located about 3.5 km from the present Nile in the western part of Jebel Sabaloka, upstream of the Sixth Nile Cataract, in Sudan. This site uniquely includes Early Khartoum (Mesolithic) artifacts with no intrusive elements and has been dated from the ninth to the end of the sixth millennium cal BC. Excavations at Trench 7, in particular, brought to light a 1.2-m thick deposit with the quantitatively and qualitatively richest artifactual materials. Analysis and classification of the pottery assemblage from this site have been conducted with the aim of observing manufacturing techniques from a broad perspective correlating pottery production to cultural change and chronological variability. Analyses of the ceramic assemblage regarded visual examinations of the manufacturing techniques combined with petrographic (optical microscopy, OM) and chemical analyses (instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis, iNAA), observations of manufacturing and decorative techniques, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS) on absorbed organic residues. The vertical distribution of the ceramic assemblage reveals consistent technological variability through the timespan of occupation of the site.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which... more This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The climate deterioration after the most recent African humid period (AHP) is a notable past exam... more The climate deterioration after the most recent African humid period (AHP) is a notable past example of desertification. Evidence points to a human population expansion in northern Africa prior to this, associated with the introduction of pastoralism. Here we consider the role, if any, of this population on the subsequent ecological collapse. Using a climatevegetation model, we estimate the natural length of the most recent AHP. The model indicates that the system was most susceptible to collapse between 7 and 6 ka; at least 500 years before the observed collapse. This suggests that the inclusion of increasing elements of pastoralism was an effective adaptation to the regional environmental changes. Pastoralism also appears to have slowed the deterioration caused by orbitally-driven climate change. This supports the view that modern pastoralism is not only sustainable, but beneficial for the management of the world's dryland environments.
The transition from hunter-gatherer-fisher groups to agrarian societies is arguably the most sign... more The transition from hunter-gatherer-fisher groups to agrarian societies is arguably the most significant change in human prehistory. In the European plain there is evidence for fully developed agrarian societies by 7,500 cal. yr BP, yet a well-established agrarian society does not appear in the north until 6,000 cal. yr BP for unknown reasons. Here we show a sudden increase in summer temperature at 6,000 cal. yr BP in northern Europe using a well-dated, high resolution record of sea surface temperature (SST) from the Baltic Sea. This temperature rise resulted in hypoxic conditions across the entire Baltic sea as revealed by multiple sedimentary records and supported by marine ecosystem modeling. Comparison with summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites indicate that this temperature rise coincided with both the introduction of farming, and a dramatic population increase. The evidence supports the hypothesis that the boundary of farming rapidly extended north at 6,000 cal. yr BP because terrestrial conditions in a previously marginal region improved. The transition from foraging to farming provided the basis for a massive increase in food production and human population density, which in turn drove the accumulation of technology and specialization, ultimately enabling the establishment of modern day societies 1. The reasons and mechanisms for this Neolithic Revolution occurring at different times in different places continues to be debated. In Northern Europe cereal agriculture and animal husbandry did not begin until ca. 6,000 cal. yr BP, i.e. 1,500 years later than in neighboring populations to the south 2-6. It has been proposed that foraging societies were successful in relying largely on the marine resources from the Baltic Sea and had no incentive to adopt an agrarian lifestyle 5 , which required more intensive labor with no immediate increase in living standards 7. This leaves the question of why the transformation did eventually occur at 6,000 cal. yr BP. It has been suggested that climate change may have been responsible for the late onset of farming in the northern European regions 2 ; however, due to the lack of high resolution climate reconstructions the effects of environmental change on human societies in these regions have been unclear. In order to examine this at a fine temporal scale, we employed an approach combining sediment proxy studies with 3D ecosystem
The datasets described in this paper comprise the core spatial and temporal structure of the Cult... more The datasets described in this paper comprise the core spatial and temporal structure of the Cultural Evolution of Neolithic Europe project (EUROEVOL), led by Professor Stephen Shennan, UCL. This is one of three datasets resulting from the EUROEVOL project, the other two comprising the faunal (EUROEVOL Dataset 2) and archaeobotanical (EUROEVOL Dataset 3) data (http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1469811/). The dataset offers the largest repository of archaeological site and radiocarbon data from Neolithic Europe (4,757 sites and 14,053 radiocarbon samples), dating between the late Mesolithic and Early Bronze Age (Figure 1). It also offers the core archaeological information structured at the site and phase level, which provide the primary links between the datasets.
Inferential mistakes in population proxies: A response to Torfing's "Neolithic population and sum... more Inferential mistakes in population proxies: A response to Torfing's "Neolithic population and summed probability distribution of <sup>14</sup>C-dates".
Sustainability, culture change, inequality and global health are among the much-discussed challen... more Sustainability, culture change, inequality and global health are among the much-discussed challenges of our time, and rightly so, given the drastic effects such variables can have on modern populations. Yet with many populations today living in tightly connected geographic communities—cities, for example—or in highly networked electronic communities, can we still learn anything about societal challenges by studying simple farming communities from many thousands of years ago? We think there is much to learn, be it Malthusian pressures and ancient societal collapse, the devastating effects of European diseases on indigenous New World populations or endemic violence in pre-state societies (e.g. Pinker 2012). By affording a simpler, ‘slow motion’ view of processes that are greatly accelerated in this century, the detailed, long-term record of the European Neolithic can offer insight into many of these fundamental issues. These include: human adaptations to environmental change (Palmer &...
The timing and development of Holocene human occupation in the now hyperarid Sahara has major imp... more The timing and development of Holocene human occupation in the now hyperarid Sahara has major implications for understanding links between climate change, demography and cultural adaptation. Here we use summed probability distributions from 3287 calibrated 14 C dates from 1011 archaeological sites to demonstrate a major and rapid demographic shift between 10,500 and 5500 years BP. This event corresponds with the African Humid Period (AHP) and is sub-continental in scale, indicating climate as the prime factor driving broad-scale population dynamics in northern Africa. Furthermore, by providing a high temporal resolution proxy for effective carrying capacity our population curve offers an independent estimate of environmental change in northern Africa, indicating a temporal delay in the terrestrial response to atmospheric climate change. These results highlight the degree to which human demography is a function of environment at the appropriate scale of observation in both time and space and sheds important new light on the social response to global environmental change.
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
Archaeologists have long sought appropriate ways to describe the duration and floruit of archaeol... more Archaeologists have long sought appropriate ways to describe the duration and floruit of archaeological cultures in statistical terms. Thus far, chronological reasoning has been largely reliant on typological sequences. Using summed probability distributions, the authors here compare radiocarbon dates for a series of European Neolithic cultures with their generally accepted ‘standard’ date ranges and with the greater precision afforded by dendrochronology, where that is available. The resulting analysis gives a new and more accurate description of the duration and intensity of European Neolithic cultures.
It has long been recognised that the proportions of Neolithic domestic animal species—cattle, pig... more It has long been recognised that the proportions of Neolithic domestic animal species—cattle, pig and sheep/goat—vary from region to region, but it has hitherto been unclear how much this variability is related to cultural practices or to environmental constraints. This study uses hundreds of faunal assemblages from across Neolithic Europe to reveal the distribution of animal use between north and south, east and west. The remarkable results present us with a geography of Neolithic animal society—from the rabbit-loving Mediterranean to the beef-eaters of the north and west. They also demonstrate that the choices made by early Neolithic herders were largely determined by their environments. Cultural links appear to have played only a minor role in the species composition of early Neolithic animal societies.
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