From forest to settlement: Magdalenian hunter-gatherer interactions with the wood vegetation environment based on anthracology and intra-site spatial distribution

Mas, Bàrbara; Allué, Ethel; Alonso, Esteban; Vaquero, Manuel

doi:10.1007/s12520-020-01264-2

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Hunter-gatherers through space and time have shaped their domestic spaces, as well as the wider landscapes in which they live; the ways in which they do so, however, are typically quite different from the strategies used among sedentary agricultural societies (Maher & Conkey 2019). In Palaeolithic Europe, evidence for the structuring of space by hunter-gatherers extends back into the Middle Palaeolithic (Clark 2016(Clark , 2017Jaubert et al 2016) and becomes prominent during the Magdalenian (17-12 ky BP; Simek 1984;Utrilla et al 2003;Fuentes et al 2019;Mas et al 2021). While evidence for structuring of space across wider landscapes (that is, economic and social territories) is especially well documented (e.g.…”

Section: Structuring Domestic Space In Magdalenian Cantabriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Structuring domestic space in the Lower Magdalenian: an analysis of the fauna from Level 115 of El Mirón Cave, Cantabria

et al. 2023

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Documenting the intentional structuring of space by hunter-gatherers can be challenging, especially in complex cave contexts. One approach is the spatial analysis of discard patterns. Here, the authors consider the spatial distribution of faunal remains from the Lower Magdalenian Level 115 in El Mirón Cave, Cantabria, to assess a possible structuring function for an unusual alignment of rocks. Although it is impossible to determine whether the alignment was intentionally constructed, differences in the distributions of taxa and in specimen sizes on different sides of this feature suggest that it played a role in structuring the living space of the cave's inhabitants.

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Section: Structuring Domestic Space In Magdalenian Cantabriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Structuring domestic space in the Lower Magdalenian: an analysis of the fauna from Level 115 of El Mirón Cave, Cantabria

et al. 2023

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“…Some other types of observation were also made. When present, fractures in radial directions (radial cracks) [66][67][68][69][70][71], vitrification, consisting in a variable fusion of some anatomical parts of the wood (which make the wood structure homogeneous) [69][70][71][72][73][74], and radial groves in the inner part of tracheids cells (known as reaction wood) [69] were recorded.…”

Section: Anthracological Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthracological study of a Chalcolithic funerary deposit from Perdigões (Alentejo, Portugal): A new analytical methodology to establish the wood burning temperature

et al. 2023

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Anthracological analyses of charcoal samples retrieved from Pit 16 of Perdigões (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal), a secondary deposition of cremated human remains dated back to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, enabled the identification of 7 different taxa: Olea europaea, Quercus spp. (evergreen), Pinus pinaster, Fraxinus cf. angustifolia, Arbutus unedo, Cistus sp. and Fabaceae. All taxa are characteristic of both deciduous and evergreen Mediterranean vegetation, and this data might indicate that the gathering of woods employed for the human cremation/s occurred either on site, or in its vicinity. However, considering both the large distribution of the identified taxa and data about human mobility, it is not possible to conclusively determine the origin of the wood used in the cremation(s). Chemometric analysis were carried out to estimate the absolute burning temperature of woods employed for the human cremation/s. An in-lab charcoal reference collection was created by burning sound wood samples of the three main taxa identified from Pit 16, Olea europaea var. sylvestris, Quercus suber (evergreen type) and Pinus pinaster, at temperatures between 350 and 600 °C. The archaeological charcoal samples and the charcoal reference collection were chemically characterized by using mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy in the 1800–400 cm-1 range, and Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression method was used to build calibration models to predict the absolute combustion temperature of the archaeological woods. Results showed successful PLS forecasting of burn temperature for each taxon (significant (P <0.05) cross validation coefficients). The anthracological and chemometric analysis evidenced differences between the taxa coming from the two stratigraphic units within the Pit, SUs 72 and 74, suggesting that they may come from two different pyres or two different depositional moments.

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“…In this study, we present a comprehensive synthesis of wood charcoal records from northwestern China. Since the first charcoal analysis, beginning in the 1940s (Salysbury and Jane, 1940), the application of reflected-light microscopy has allowed for the rapid identification of charcoal, making it widely used in the (1) reconstruction of firewood collection strategies (Asouti and Austin, 2005;Marguerie and Hunot, 2007;Li et al, 2016;Shen et al, 2018;Kabukcu, 2017;Mas et al, 2021), (2) elucidation of the impacts that woodcutting had on local forests (Li et al, 2011;Asouti et al, 2015;Knapp et al, 2015;Shen et al, 2018), (3) identification of woody communities' compositions (Wang et al, 2014;Asouti et al, 2015;Allué and Zaidner, 2022;Mas et al, 2022), and (4) determination of fruit and/or nut tree management (Miller, 2013;Asouti and Kabukcu, 2014;Shen and Li, 2021). Here, we seek to identify patterns within wood charcoal assemblages recovered from seven archeological sites in Xinjiang, which we contrast with more than 30 other published regional records.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing the wood for the trees: active human–environmental interactions in arid northwestern China

Shen,

Spengler,

Zhou

et al. 2024

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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Abstract. Due largely to demographic growth, agricultural populations during the Holocene became increasingly more impactful ecosystem engineers. Multidisciplinary research has revealed a deep history of human–environmental dynamics; however, these pre-modern anthropogenic ecosystem transformations and cultural adaptions are still poorly understood. Here, we synthesis anthracological data to explore the complex array of human–environmental interactions in the regions of the prehistoric Silk Road. Our results suggest that these ancient humans were not passively impacted by environmental change; rather, they culturally adapted to, and in turn altered, arid ecosystems. Underpinned by the establishment of complex agricultural systems on the western Loess Plateau, people may have started to manage chestnut trees, likely through conservation of economically significant species, as early as 4600 BP. Since ca. 3500 BP, with the appearance of high-yielding wheat and barley farming in Xinjiang and the Hexi Corridor, people appear to have been cultivating Prunus and Morus trees. We also argue that people were transporting preferred coniferous woods over long distances to meet the need for fuel and timber. After 2500 BP, people in our study area were making conscious selections between wood types for craft production and were also clearly cultivating a wide range of long-generation perennials, showing a remarkable traditional knowledge tied into the arid environment. At the same time, the data suggest that there was significant deforestation throughout the chronology of occupation, including a rapid decline of slow-growing spruce forests and riparian woodlands across northwestern China. The wood charcoal dataset is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8158277 (Shen et al., 2023).

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From forest to settlement: Magdalenian hunter-gatherer interactions with the wood vegetation environment based on anthracology and intra-site spatial distribution

Cited by 10 publications

References 67 publications

Structuring domestic space in the Lower Magdalenian: an analysis of the fauna from Level 115 of El Mirón Cave, Cantabria

Structuring domestic space in the Lower Magdalenian: an analysis of the fauna from Level 115 of El Mirón Cave, Cantabria

Anthracological study of a Chalcolithic funerary deposit from Perdigões (Alentejo, Portugal): A new analytical methodology to establish the wood burning temperature

Seeing the wood for the trees: active human–environmental interactions in arid northwestern China

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