Jonathan Haws

Sudan is a vitally important region for understanding the migrations of Anatomically Modern Humans from the African continent. Here, the authors present the results of a preliminary survey in the Kerma region, during which, 16 new Middle Stone Age sites were discovered.

EnglishThe central question of this research focuses on the identification of settlement patterns by communities that inhabited the LunhoValley region (NW Mozambique) from c. 300 to c. 10 thousand years ago. Specifically, we tried to identify and characterize the settlement dynamics of each cultural phase (Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age), in order to verify the existence of resilience or rupture factors in the selection of site location with respect to natural/landscape-related factors, and visual prominence in the landscape, among others. Using data collected during archaeological field survey conducted in the Lunho valley in 2014 and GIS techniques we explore a series of simple but important issues in relation to visibility and patterning of archaeological data. Spatial analysis of the archaeological sites identified in the LunhoValley demonstrates that the sites are not randomly distributed across the landscape. portuguesA pesquisa aqui apresentada centra-se na identificaca...

EnglishSoutheast Africa has become an important region to better understand the development of Stone Age and Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH). In the last decade, Mozambique has received some attention from various researchers probably because it is located between the earliest finds of AMH in the Omo Kibish formation and those with early evidence for cognitive complexity in coastal South Africa. Starting in 2011 we carried out a series of non-systematic surveys in various regions of Mozambique, including the Elephant and Limpopo Rivers (Massingir), where we located c. 100 Stone Age new sites. Here, we present preliminary data from testing, dating and material analyses (lithic, faunal and ornaments) from the new Later Stone Age site of Txina Txina, discovered during the 2016 field season. The site is located in the Machampane river gorge, a small stream that runs to the major Elephant River. portuguesO Sudeste da Africa tornou-se uma regiao importante para o estudo da Idade da Pedra...

Caves represent portions of past landscapes that were, for a long time, used by humans and their ancestors for various purposes and therefore, they have been a focus of researchers for more than two hundred years. Accumulated artifacts, ecofacts, and sediments can be used to reconstruct the environments and lives of the past. Here, we describe current methods applied to excavations of cave sites with emphasis put on their interdisciplinary nature. The case of systematic interdisciplinary research is documented with regard to the Lapa do Picareiro limestone cave, located in central Portugal, approximately 100 km north of Lisbon. The cave sediments have been dated to between 45 and 8 kya BP. A wide range of evidence from the cave (artifacts, faunal and floral remains, sediments, etc.) is used to reconstruct past natural environments (e.g., Bicho et al. 2011; Haws 2012), including fauna (Haws and Valente 2006; Hockett and Haws 2009; Valente 2004), human diet (Hockett and Haws 2009) and...

Neandetherthal skeletal remains are the first described and longest-studied modern human ancestors. The history of research on Neanderthals dates back to the discovery of the first specimen in the Feldhoffer cave in 1856. Initially, the debate focused on the taxonomic position of the Neanderthals and their exact anatomical relationship with modern humans. Later research concentrated on many other issues including partial aspects of life, biological and cultural adaptation to glacial conditions in Europe, issues of diet and health, or issues such as paleobiology of Neanderthals (reproductive behavior, ontogeny, mortality). Another important direction is the question of Neanderthal extinction in the period between 30 to 25 thousand years BP. This paper provides an overview of the research directions related to Neanderthals in the context of new discoveries of skeletal remains and the development of new methods of study. The authors use the specific research conducted on the Lapa do Pi...

Lapa do Picareiro is a cave site located in Serra d’Aire, Portuguese Estremadura. Zooarchaeological studies suggest that the cave was a specialized site for hunting and processing animals during the Magdalenian and the Epipaleolithic. Lithic analyses seem to confirm this idea with the presence of backed bladelets used as projectile points and flakes with evidence of cutting meat and hide processing.

Significance We report the remarkable discovery of an early Aurignacian occupation, ∼5,000 years older than any Upper Paleolithic site in westernmost Eurasia. The archaeological and radiocarbon data provide definitive evidence that modern humans were in western Iberia at a time when, if present at all, Neanderthal populations would have been extremely sparse. This discovery has important ramifications for our understanding of the process of modern human dispersal and replacement of Neanderthal populations. The results support a very rapid, unimpeded dispersal of modern humans across western Eurasia and support the notion that climate and environmental change played a significant role in this process.

Adaptation to Late Pleistocene climate change is an oft‐cited potential contributor to Neanderthal disappearance in Eurasia. Accordingly, research on Neanderthal behaviour – including subsistence strategies, mobility, lithic technology, raw material procurement and demography – often focuses on linking changes observable in the archaeological record to specific phases of climate and environmental change. However, these correspondences are often tenuous because palaeoclimatic and archaeological records are rarely available on the same scale. In Iberia, a critical location for understanding the demise of Neanderthals, some research indicates that Neanderthal populations were unable to recover from environmental degradations known as Heinrich Events, while other studies suggest that enclaves of Neanderthal populations survived for several millennia longer in refugial zones. Here, we present a palaeoenvironmental reconstruction study using analysis of δ13C and δ18O of herbivore tooth enamel recovered from two Mousterian deposits at Lapa do Picareiro, a site located in Portuguese Estremadura. We then use these data, combined with other site‐based palaeoenvironmental indicators, to assess whether central Portugal acted as a refugium during periods of unfavourable climate, and to test whether Neanderthals in Portuguese Estremadura reorganised their mobility strategies after severe climate episodes.

This paper reports on preliminary fieldwork at the Later Stone Age site of Txina-Txina in Mozambique. Excavation yielded a long stratigraphic sequence, a large lithic assemblage, a unique decorated gastropod shell fragment and two ostrich eggshell beads—the first of their type recovered from a Stone Age context in Mozambique.

Lithic studies during the last century tended to look at the artifacts, mainly retouched tools, as a final product and as an end product for archaeological analysis. In the last decades this traditional perspective has changed, but the tendency still is to examine the lithic assemblage as the main objective, even while integrating new methodological approaches. Perhaps the interpretive process is improved if one includes other data sets and analytical techniques to better understand the lithic assemblages. At Picareiro cave, Central Portugal, Magdalenian habitat structures, fauna, three dimensional plotting, typological, technological and use wear analyses, raw material economy allowed a solid knowledge of stone tool function for Layer F/G.

... Jonathan A. Haws, Caroline L. Funk, Michael M. Benedetti, Nuno F. Bicho, J. Michael Daniels ... Recently discovered open-air archaeological deposits at Praia Rei Cortiço and Mira Nascente in Estremadura ... cliffs at São Pedro de Muel and south of the Lagoa de Óbidos (Diniz 2003 ...

ABSTRACT During the Magdalenian and early Epipaleolithic between ca. 20,000 and 10,000 cal BP, mild and temperate environmental conditions existed in southwestern Iberia due to the position of the Polar Front, and proximity to the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Atlantic warm currents coming from the tropics. Thus, Portugal was marked by a relatively high diversity of terrestrial and marine animal species that were fully exploited by humans during this period.The differential use of caves, rock-shelters and open-air sites and the stone raw material economy suggests various patterns of land use characterized by inland-coastal movements through river valleys cutting through the limestone massif. Data suggest a logistic mobility pattern for Portuguese Magdalenian hunter-gatherer groups based on both diversification and specialization of natural resources.

David Clarke, in his essay "mesolithic Europe: the economic basis" (1976), challenged the " meat fixation" of archaeologists and highlighted the potential for intensive plant use in Europe prior to the introduction of agriculture. He argued that plants likely made up 60-80% of the diet of prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Europe. Indeed,ethnographically known hunter-gatheres in temperate regions incororate such percentages of plants in their diet (Kelly, 1995). The only area where meat completely dominates is the Artic, where the lack of edible plants during much of the year leaves little choice. Even in this extreme, people are known to eat the contents of reindeer stomachs and exchange meatfor seaweed with coastal peoples (Clark, 1952)

<p>To better understand Quaternary environmental changes in Southeastern Mozambique and their role in human evolution, it is first necessary to characterized the modern environment of this area and the environmental drivers on their evolution. For this reason, an international and interdisciplinary team interpreted the Inhambane Province’s geology, hydrographic and tectonic maps and open-access satellite imagery and derived products (for morphometric analysis and landscape interpretation). Inhambane province is in a coastal plain composed of a Pleistocene dune system, within which many lakes can be found. Additionally, a comprehensive review of the existing research for the region was conducted, to choose the most suitable lakes from which to collect sediment records for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The team carried out fieldwork during the summer of 2019 in four of the selected interdunal lakes (Muangue, Nyalonzelwe, Nhambutse and Chivanene). During fieldwork the vegetation cover and the land uses were carefully described, and the lakes water column parameters were measured. Additionally, in the two lakes that presented the longest sedimentological records (Muangue and Nyalonzelwe), an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) survey was carried out to create high resolution maps and elevation models of the lakes and their surroundings. UAV flights were carried out at 25 and 60 m height, with a front and side overlap between 60 to 70 %, using georeferenced Ground control points (GCPs). The lakes’ areas vary between 0.4 (Muangue) to 0.8 km<sup>2</sup> (Chivanene). The longest sedimentological records were found in lakes with a water level 5 m above the Mean Sea Level (MSL) and surrounded by higher dunes (between 31 and 121 m elevation in relation to MSL). Most of the lake margins are used for agriculture, livestock and housing and some have fish farming. Regarding vegetation, between 16 families and 27 species were identified around Nhambutse and 27 families and 43 species around Muangue. The lakes’ maximum depths vary between 1 (Nhambutse) and 4.6 meters (Muangue). All lakes are freshwater except Nyalonzelwe, which is brackish. On average, surface water pH varies between 7.2 (Chivanene) and 9.12 (Nyalonzelwe). Surface water temperature varies between 25.03 (Nhambutse) and 26.6 ° C (Chivanene). All the collected data highlight the diversity of interdunal lake environments in the Inhambane Province, and how these environments may impact the sedimentological record. This work was supported by project PTDC/HAR-ARQ/28148/2017, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.</p>

Southeast Africa has become an important region for understanding the development of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Anatomically Modern Humans. Due to its location between east and southern Africa, Mozambique is a key region for evaluating the development of Homo sapiens and the MSA across Africa. Here, we present the first results of lithic analyses of MSA assemblages collected during survey and testing in the Niassa and Massingir regions of Mozambique in 2014-2016. We were able to locate close to 200 new Stone Age surface sites. Data show that raw material use is different in the two areas. The lithic assemblages from both areas show the use of centripetal technology, but in Massingir, Levallois points, the respective cores and blade technology are frequent, they are almost absent in the northern region.

... US Bureau of Land Management, Elko District Office, 3900 East Idaho Street, Elko, NV 89801 USA Bryan_Hockett@nv.blm.gov Jonathan Haws Department of Anthropology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292 USA jonathan.haws@louisville.edu Keywords ...