Paleolithic

The article presents first and preliminary results of an ​experimental study conducted as a part of the multidisciplinary exploration of the Middle Paleolithic complexes in Chagyrskaya Cave in 2017. Research program included physical simulation of mineral raw material knapping and stone tools production, as well as experiments on manufacturing bone tools and using the resulting bone replicas for processing organic and non-organic materials available to the inhabitants of Chagyrskaya Cave. The experiments on processing stone tools by retouchers made of long bones of large mammals have made it possible to identify the sequence traces of utilization and compare the results with the tools from the archaeological assemblage of Chagyrskaya Cave. This data forms the basis for the further experimental trace analysis of the Middle Paleolithic complexes from the Altai Mountains.

Grégor Marchand, Jean-Laurent Monnier, François Pustoc’h and Laurent Quesnel, « An original settlement during the Tardiglacial in Brittany: the rock shelter of Kerbizien in Huelgoat », PALEO [Online], 25 | 2014, Online since 02 June 2016, connection on 01 October 2016. URL : http:// paleo.revues.org/3012

There were four same types of point geometry between The İstanbul PaleoCulture and The Culture of Paleoindians of Americas  in the first version of this article.     
          After I published the first version of this article,  I determined two more same point geometries between İstanbul PaleoCulture and The Culture of the first Paleoindians of Americas. Then the total number of same geometries became six.
            Moreover, I determined  some new points from İstanbul Paleoculture which have similar geometries with the first four point geometries that I published in the first version of this article. And then I decided to revise  this article to make the information stronger and more comprehensive for academicians and peoples.         
            Now, There are 10 points and 6 point types from İstanbul PaleoCulture in this second version of this article.
            As I said before, The letters had helped me to solve and determine the relations between cultures in my research about ancient  alphabets and inscriptions and in my two books about that researchs. Besides, the keys were point geometries in the research of  this paleolithic culture and its descendents,  .
        When we look the samenesses and similarities of point geometries,  The most close culture which is the descendent of Istanbul PaleoCulture  is the culture of the first paleoindians of Americas.  . The second similar culture in terms of similar arrowhead geometries is Solutrean Culture which is associated with Cro-Magnons, and also Gravittean Culture in the same region, in France and  Spain. 
        The third similarity in terms of point geometries is  Çatalhöyük and  Göbeklitepe cultures, and continued cultures of Göbeklitepe that reached to Byblos(Lebanon) and  Egypt. This third branch is less similar than the culture of paleoindians of Americas and Cro-Magnons Culture. But the presence of this similarity  could be seen.
          Against previous beliefs about that Istanbul was a crossroad of paleolithic human migrations, It seems that İstanbul PaleoCulture is the root of the paleolithic human migrations.

Chapter 5 Neanderthal Landscapes and Their Home Environment: Flora and Fauna Records from Level J Ethel Allué, Francesc Burjachs, Ana Garcıa, Juan Manuel López-Garcıa, Maria Benna`sar, Florent Rivals, Hugues-Alexandre Blain, Isabel Expósito and Jordi Martinell ...

Article represents results of functional analysis of end-scrapers from Ushki sites, cultural layer vI (Central Kamchatka). We identified a series of instruments for working hides, bone / antler and wood. Most of the studied tools has a hafting wear from bone or wooden handle. The results of these research indicate to the presence of specialisation in the process of the leather industry. Obtained new data about the ratio of the morphology studied end-scrapers and their functionality.

In this paper we discusses the first results of a morphological and functional analysis of end scraper from Ushki sites, paleolithic cultural layer VI (Kamchatka). Based on the study of the morphology and technology we identified some morphological groups of end scrapers. The use-wear study allows identified this artifacts as  tools for planing and scraping of skin and solid organic materials.

A reassessment of many of the archaeological assemblages older than two million years has resulted in a general
consensus that the earliest Oldowan artifacts were made by skilled toolmakers who had a clear understanding of the
fracturing mechanics of different toolstone materials. This has led several researchers to propose a simpler lithic reduction
stage that occurred prior to 2.6 Ma. Three lithic reduction techniques that are within the behavioral repertoire of our
closest living relatives in the genus Pan are proposed as potential intermediate stages between the percussion behaviors of the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans and the skilled knapping of the Oldowan toolmakers. These include direct and indirect projectile percussion and bipolar flaking techniques. Measures of productivity, expediency, and efficiency were obtained and compared between these three reduction techniques and novice freehand knapping in order to better understand some of the factors that influenced how early hominins with little to no understanding of lithic fracturing mechanics achieved sharp flake tools. The results of this experiment indicate that, of these four conditions, dropping or throwing a large hammer stone on a brittle core is the most efficient way to exploit a core, while bipolar flaking is the most expedient method; however, novice freehand knapping creates the most productive flakes with large, sharp cutting edges. Thus, the transition to knapping in the late Pliocene may have been due to a shifting emphasis on
productive toolmaking over expediency or efficiency.

The basic methodological aspect suggested in the paper is based on the cultural-historical approach and complex analysis of all available materials. Special stress is made on the comparative historical analysis of separate monuments, as well as the economic-cultural models typical of the society of hunters and food gatherers of the Upper Palaeolithic that inhabited the territory of present Ukraine. The research technique is based on the methods of theoretic generalisation, synthesis, and practical modelling.

SITE OF STONE AGE VISHNEVIY DOL

In this work the preliminary information about the Paleolithic site in territory of Lugansk area
Vishneviy Dol is submitted. Archaisms form of massive instruments, engineering of stone
processing and typological parallel allow to assume the Low Paleolithic dating of the found
subjects.

Interhuman violence during the Upper Palaeolithic is a hot topic in palaeoanthropological sciences and many traumas recognized in fossil human skeletons have often been related to deliberate human violence. Such traumas are only occasionally fatal and cranial fractures often show signs of healing. The complete human skeleton discovered in 1962 in the Chiostraccio Cave (Italy) shows the first evidence of a lethal cranial trauma in the Upper Palaeolithic. Medical and anthropological investigations carried out on the skull and skeleton, combined with geological and palaeontological analyses of the cave, have allowed us to conclude that the cranial trauma was due to an accidental fall into the 18-m deep cave entrance shaft. Morphologies, orientations and general features of the fractures are similar to cranial fractures attributed to deliberate interhuman violence. Consequently, it is possible that many of the cranial traumas classically interpreted as human-derived, are indeed consequence of accidental injuries.

The age of this newly identified late Upper Palaeolithic skeleton has been determined by radiocarbon dating single amino acid hydroxyproline.

Grâce aux nombreuses recherches et fouilles entreprises, la période sudarabique, qui s’étend du IXe siècle av. J.-C. au IVe siècle ap. J.-C., est la mieux documentée de l’archéologie yéménite. Toutefois, nous savons encore peu de choses sur la Préhistoire dans cette région du monde, tout particulièrement en ce qui concerne sa chronologie. Il n’existe par exemple aucune preuve d’un contrôle de la nature ni d’une sédentarisation sur les sites dits néolithiques, ces éléments sont pourtant ceux qui habituellement caractérisent cette période. La pertinence de ce découpage chronologique est alors questionnée. Dans ce contexte, depuis quelques années, la recherche préhistorique au Yémen se développe et tente, pour faire face au manque de données et de moyens, d’employer des expériences méthodologiques innovantes.

(see attached full proposal)

This project builds on James' Scott synthesis of “reactive statelessness” theory (famously beginning with Pierre Clastres), in which he argues that pastoralism, nomadism, and foraging were often secondary forms of adaptation in response to the coercive forces of agrarian states (Scott, 2009).

“[The] argument reverses much received wisdom about “primitivism” generally. Pastoralism, foraging, shifting cultivation, and segmentary lineage systems are often a “secondary adaptation,” a kind of “self-barbarianization” adopted by peoples whose location, subsistence, and social structure are adapted to state evasion. For those living in the shadow of states, such evasion is also perfectly compatible with derivative, imitative, and parasitic state forms in the hills. (Scott, 2000, pX)”

My contention is that new foraging and nomadic livelihoods are on the rise  in the wake of global neoliberalism and the transnational corporatization of power on the one hand, and the techno-militarization of States on the other. These need to be examined and contrasted with studies of the new forms of alienation that are also arising among the world's “middle” and “affluent” classes. There is nothing new here, of course (see David Graeber on the past 5000 years), except for a question of scale.

I argue that the world's old and new foragers have a lot to teach us about sustainable knowledge and livelihoods, socio-political organization, and ecological justice.

The aim of this research effort, then, is to gather ethnographic and empirical data to support the claim that there are strong overall benefits (social, political, ecological, epidemiological, etc.) to foraging lifestyles.

A word of warning, of course, about using  “foraging” as an ideological, atemporal, naturalized category. 19th and 20th century science and anthropology have produced too much of that.
My use of the term is heuristic. Tim Ingold's critique of narrow extrapolations of Optimal Foraging Theory and rational choice in biology, economics, and anthropology is a good starting point for this discussion (see Ingold, 2000; see also Barnard, 1983; 2004, or anything by Richard Lee). Following Ingold and others (see bibliography below), I focus on a few broad aspects of livelihood that can be loosely characterized as foraging, and contrasted to the increasingly standardized systems of “modernity”.

An emphasis on autonomy, immediacy, and sharing at the level of social organization; autonomy being defined as relational—in contrast to the self-contained, self-interested 'rational' individual of modern societal constructs (Ingold, 2004); relationality being forged through decentralized, established or emerging relationships among humans and non-humans in a non-finite, complex, and dynamic field of operation.
Knowledge derived and kept alive from (not just of) the environment (“natural” or not); collaborative knowledge established through the “fine-tuning” of  these “relational contexts” between humans and the world (Ingold, 2000);
Perceptual and relational involvement with the world through open-ended wayfinding, or wayfaring practices, in contrast to grid-and-point, goal-and-destination oriented navigation and cartography (Ingold, 2000; 2007).

While we must be cautious about using modern constructs like “equality” (e.g., in terms of “gender” or “poverty”--Karen Endicot (2004) has a good review of debates on gender equality among foragers), the emphasis on relational autonomy must include more-or-less conscious efforts to avoid coercion and alienation. This usually entails knowledge of more coercive systems (e.g., agrarian, industrial, militaristic, etc.), and the “reactive” adaptive efforts to “vote with one's feet” (Lee, 2004), or “take to the hills” (Scott, 2009).

“Traditional Ecological Knowledge” is not a model to be put in a powerpoint pie-chart! The point here is to look for anti-model forms of wayfaring knowledge and social organization that are constantly renegotiated in adaptive contexts.  The Inuit Elders Saullu Nakasuk, Hervé Paniaq, Elisapee Ootoova, and Pauloosie Angmaalik put it best in their group interviews with anthropologists Jarich Oosten & Frédéric Laugrand:

“Traditional knowledge is not static and not something abstract and separated from the context in which it is produced, but is always related to the present. In this respect, it contrasts with the modern education system, which sets great value on the absorption of objectified knowledge”. (Aupilarjuk  et al, 2002, p3, emphasis added)

Greenfield, Haskel J. 1986b A zooarchaeological perspective on the Secondary Products Revolution: A view from the Central Balkans. In Advance Papers of the Symposium on The Appropriation, Domination and Exploitation of Animals: Early Husbandry and the Exploitation of Domestic Stock, vol. 2, pp. ??, edited by Juliet Clutton-Brock. Final Papers of the World Archaeological Congress, 1-7 Sept. 1986, Southampton, England