Large-scale violence in Late Neolithic Western Europe based on expanded skeletal evidence from San Juan ante Portam Latinam.

This paper explores the nature and extent of conflict in Late Neolithic Europe based on expanded skeletal evidence for violence from the San Juan ante Portam Latinam rockshelter in present-day Spain (ca. 3380-3000 cal. BC).

Yersinia pestis genomes reveal plague in Britain 4000 years ago.

Extinct lineages of Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of the plague, have been identified in several individuals from Eurasia between 5000 and 2500 years before present (BP). One of these, termed the 'LNBA lineage' (Late Neolithic and Bronze Age), has been suggested to have spread into Europe with human groups expanding from the Eurasian steppe. Here, we show that the LNBA plague was spread to Europe's northwestern periphery by sequencing three Yersinia pestis genomes from Britain, all dating to ~4000 cal BP.

Provenancing antiquarian museum collections using multi-isotope analysis.

Many of the most significant archaeological sites in Europe were excavated by antiquarians over one hundred years ago. Modern museum collections therefore frequently contain human remains that were recovered during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here we apply multi-isotope analysis (Sr/Sr, O, C, N) and C dating to evaluate the provenance of human remains within a collection that is thought to have been recovered from one of the most important archaeological sites in Britain.

A sting in the tail: An embedded stingray spine in a mid-1st millennium AD adult male skeleton from Rebun Island, Hokkaido, Japan.

Objectives: We report here a stingray spine (Dasyatidae) found embedded in the femur of a male skeleton from the archaeological site of Uedomari-5, Rebun Island, Hokkaido, Japan.

Materials: A single well-preserved but incomplete human skeleton.

Methods: Macroscopic observation and low power magnification, CT imaging, radiocarbon dating and stable isotope (carbon, nitrogen) analysis.

Micromilling vs hand drilling in stable isotope analyses of incremental carbonates: The potential for δ C contamination by embedding resin.

Rationale: Embedding resins are commonly used to facilitate high-resolution sampling for stable isotope analysis but anomalous δ C values have been observed in some cases. Here we compare the results of microsampling strategies for hand-drilled versus resin-embedded micromilled samples from the same marine shells to assess whether resin contamination is implicated in δ C spikes. The comparison allows assessment of the relative benefits for spatial resolution, seasonal range for both δ O and δ C, and sample failure rates.

Physicochemical Changes in Bone Bioapatite During the Late Postmortem Interval Pre- and Post-Burning.

Postmortem chemical transformation of bone bioapatite can take place during early diagenesis, resulting in a more thermodynamically stable mineral phase. This paper examines the impact of a one year postmortem interval on unburnt and burnt bone's structural and chemical alterations. This question is of importance for the reconstruction of funerary practices involving cremation in the archaeological record, as well as forensic anthropological investigations.

Radiocarbon dating from Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov cemetery reveals complex human responses to socio-ecological stress during the 8.2 ka cooling event.

Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov in Karelia, northwest Russia, is one of the largest Early Holocene cemeteries in northern Eurasia, with 177 burials recovered in excavations in the 1930s; originally, more than 400 graves may have been present. A new radiocarbon dating programme, taking into account a correction for freshwater reservoir effects, suggests that the main use of the cemetery spanned only some 100-300 years, centring on ca. 8250 to 8000 cal BP.

'White gold' guano fertilizer drove agricultural intensification in the Atacama Desert from AD 1000.

The archaeological record shows that large pre-Inca agricultural systems supported settlements for centuries around the ravines and oases of northern Chile's hyperarid Atacama Desert. This raises questions about how such productivity was achieved and sustained, and its social implications. Using isotopic data of well-preserved ancient plant remains from Atacama sites, we show a dramatic increase in crop nitrogen isotope values (δN) from around AD 1000.

Towards a biologically available strontium isotope baseline for Ireland.

Strontium isotopes are used in archaeology, ecology, forensics, and other disciplines to study the origin of artefacts, humans, animals and food items. Strontium in animal and human tissues such as bone and teeth originates from food and drink consumed during life, leaving an isotopic signal corresponding to their geographical origin (i.e.

Author Correction: Ancient genomes indicate population replacement in Early Neolithic Britain.

In the version of this Article originally published, there were errors in the colour ordering of the legend in Fig. 5b, and in the positions of the target and surrogate populations in Fig. 5c.

Ancient genomes indicate population replacement in Early Neolithic Britain.

The roles of migration, admixture and acculturation in the European transition to farming have been debated for over 100 years. Genome-wide ancient DNA studies indicate predominantly Aegean ancestry for continental Neolithic farmers, but also variable admixture with local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Neolithic cultures first appear in Britain circa 4000 BC, a millennium after they appeared in adjacent areas of continental Europe.

Strontium isotope analysis on cremated human remains from Stonehenge support links with west Wales.

Cremated human remains from Stonehenge provide direct evidence on the life of those few select individuals buried at this iconic Neolithic monument. The practice of cremation has, however, precluded the application of strontium isotope analysis of tooth enamel as the standard chemical approach to study their origin. New developments in strontium isotopic analysis of cremated bone reveal that at least 10 of the 25 cremated individuals analysed did not spend their lives on the Wessex chalk on which the monument is found.

Anthropogenic changes to the Holocene nitrogen cycle in Ireland.

Humans have always affected their ecosystems, but finding evidence for significant and lasting changes to preindustrial landscapes is rare. We report on human-caused changes to the nitrogen cycle in Ireland in the Bronze Age, associated with intensification of agriculture and animal husbandry that resulted in long-term changes to the nitrogen isotope values of animals (wild and domesticates) during the Holocene. Major changes to inputs and cycling of soil nitrogen occurred through deforestation, land clearance and management, and more intensive animal husbandry and cereal crop cultivation in the later Bronze Age; after this time, the Irish landscape took on its current form.

New radiocarbon dating and demographic insights into San Juan ante Portam Latinam, a possible Late Neolithic war grave in North-Central Iberia.

Objectives: San Juan ante Portam Latinam is one of a small number of European Neolithic sites meeting many of the archaeological criteria expected for a mass grave, and furthermore presents evidence for violent conflict. This study aims to differentiate between what is potentially a single episode of deposition, versus deposition over some centuries, or, alternatively, that resulting from a combination of catastrophic and attritional mortality. The criteria developed are intended to have wider applicability to other such proposed events.

Living different lives: Early social differentiation identified through linking mortuary and isotopic variability in Late Neolithic/ Early Chalcolithic north-central Spain.

Variation in burial location and treatment is often observed in the prehistoric archaeological record, but its interpretation is usually highly ambiguous. Biomolecular approaches provide the means of addressing this variability in a way not previously possible, linking the lives of individuals to their funerary treatment. Here, we undertake stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses on a substantial sample of 166 individuals from a series of broadly contemporary Late Neolithic/ Early Chalcolithic (3500 to 2900 cal BC) mortuary monuments (El Sotillo, Alto de la Huesera, Chabola de la Hechicera and Longar) and caves (Las Yurdinas II, Los Husos I and Peña Larga) within a very spatially restricted area of north-central Spain, with sites separated by no more than 10 km on average.

Mobility during the neolithic and bronze age in northern ireland explored using strontium isotope analysis of cremated human bone.

Objectives: As many individuals were cremated in Neolithic and Bronze Age Ireland, they have not featured in investigations of individual mobility using strontium isotope analysis. Here, we build on recent experiments demonstrating excellent preservation of biogenic (87) Sr/(86) Sr in calcined bone to explore mobility in prehistoric Northern Ireland.

Materials And Methods: A novel method of strontium isotope analysis is applied to calcined bone alongside measurements on tooth enamel to human remains from five Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Northern Ireland.

Calcined bone provides a reliable substrate for strontium isotope ratios as shown by an enrichment experiment.

Rationale: Strontium isotopes ((87) Sr/(86) Sr) are used in archaeological and forensic science as markers of residence or mobility because they reflect the local geological substrate. Currently, tooth enamel is considered to be the most reliable tissue, but it rarely survives heating so that in cremations only calcined bone fragments survive. We set out to test the proposition that calcined bone might prove resistant to diagenesis, given its relatively high crystallinity, as the ability to measure in vivo (87) Sr/(86) Sr from calcined bone would greatly extend application to places and periods in which cremation was the dominant mortuary practice, or where unburned bone and enamel do not survive.

Isotopic evidence for divergent diets and mobility patterns in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile, during the Late Intermediate Period (AD 900-1450).

The decline of the Tiwanaku state saw the emergence of two new cultures-Pica-Tarapacá and Atacama-during the Late Intermediate Period in northern Chile. Archeological evidence suggests that both groups practised maize agriculture and pastoralism, but that their interaction zones differed significantly. Marine resources are common at Pica-Tarapacá sites, even those far from coast, while Atacama sites in the desert oases and precordilleran area seem to have directed their networks towards the highlands.

Patterns of violence-related skull trauma in Neolithic Southern Scandinavia.

This article examines evidence for violence as reflected in skull injuries in 378 individuals from Neolithic Denmark and Sweden (3,900-1,700 BC). It is the first large-scale crossregional study of skull trauma in southern Scandinavia, documenting skeletal evidence of violence at a population level. We also investigate the widely assumed hypothesis that Neolithic violence is male-dominated and results in primarily male injuries and fatalities.

Mitochondrial DNA analysis shows a Near Eastern Neolithic origin for domestic cattle and no indication of domestication of European aurochs.

The extinct aurochs (Bos primigenius primigenius) was a large type of cattle that ranged over almost the whole Eurasian continent. The aurochs is the wild progenitor of modern cattle, but it is unclear whether European aurochs contributed to this process. To provide new insights into the demographic history of aurochs and domestic cattle, we have generated high-confidence mitochondrial DNA sequences from 59 archaeological skeletal finds, which were attributed to wild European cattle populations based on their chronological date and/or morphology.

A Mid-Upper Palaeolithic human humerus from Eel Point, South Wales, UK.

We report here on a human humerus directly dated to 24,470 +/- 110 BP, placing it within the Gravettian, or Mid-Upper Palaeolithic. The partial humerus is an isolated find and can be attributed (with some caution) to the Pleistocene 'bone cave' of Eel Point on Caldey Island, Wales (UK). The humerus is probably male, similar in robusticity to other Gravettian right humeri.