Le Gravettien est le deuxième ensemble chrono-culturelle du Paléolithique supérieur après l’Aurignacien. La diffusion du Gravettien en Europe s’est produite rapidement, entre 30.000 et 20.000 ans BP. Pendant cette période, l’instabilité climatique due à l’approche du LGM a engendré la formation d’environnements différents. En particulier, la péninsule italienne était divisée en deux régions par la chaîne des Apennins: la côte adriatique, froide et aride à Est et la côte tyrrhénienne plus tempérée, à Ouest. Cette dernière fait l’objet de la présente étude. Dans le but de comprendre les stratégies de mobilité adoptées par les groupes gravettiens et leur développement, plusieurs assemblages lithiques ont été analysés. Notamment, la séquence gravettienne du Riparo Mochi (Balzi Rossi, Ligurie – Italie), qui livre une des plus importantes stratigraphies du Paléolithique supérieur italien, a été entièrement étudiée. À l’intérieur du complexe archéologique des Balzi Rossi, une comparaison directe a été faite avec la collection gravettienne de la Grotte des Enfants. Plusieurs collections mineures provenant de sites provençaux ont été examinées, en permettant d’effectuer une comparaison avec les données des Balzi Rossi. Enfin, l’analyse du site de Bilancino situé en Toscane (Italie) a rendu possible de contextualiser le Gravettien entre l’arc liguro-provençal et l’Italie. La relation entre les aspects techno-typologiques et la provenance des matières premières fournit des avancées importantes dans notre compréhension du comportement des chasseur-cueilleurs qui ont habités ces sites et permet de discuter la chronologie et la mobilité territoriale du Gravettien tyrrhénien. / The Gravettian is the second chrono-cultural complex of the Upper Paleolithic after the Aurignacian. The Gravettian diffusion, throughout Europe, took place in a short span of time between 30.000 and 20.000 years BP. During this period, the climate instability due to the LGM approach created different environments. Particularly, Italy was split in two regions separated by the Apennine mountains: the cold and arid Adriatic coast on the first hand and the more temperate Tyrrhenian coast on the other hand. The latter region is the main object of this research. With the aim to understand the development and the mobility strategies used by the Gravettian groups in this area, several lithic assemblages have been analyzed. Specifically, the Gravettian sequence of Riparo Mochi (Balzi Rossi, Liguria - Italy), providing one of the most important stratigraphy of the Italian Upper Paleolithic, has been entirely studied. Inside the Balzi Rossi archaeological complex a direct comparison has been provided by the Gravettian collection of Grotta dei Faniculli. Moreover, some other smaller collections coming from the Provence area have been studied, allowing a comparison with the Balzi Rossi area. Finally, the site of Bilancino located in Tuscany let to contextualize the Gravettian between the liguro-provençal arc and Italy. The relation between techno-typological aspects and the raw materials provenance gives important advances in our comprehension of the behavior of the hunter-gatherer groups who inhabited the sites, discussing the timing and territorial mobility of the Tyrrhenian Gravettian.

abstract: My dissertation contributes to a body of knowledge useful for understanding the evolution of subsistence economies based on agriculture from those based on hunting and gathering, as well as the development of formal rules and norms of territorial ownership in hunter-gatherer societies. My research specifically combines simple formal and conceptual models with the empirical analysis of large ethnographic and environmental data sets to study feedback processes in coupled forager-resource systems. I use the formal and conceptual models of forager-resource systems as tools that aid in the development of two alternative arguments that may explain the adoption of food production and formal territorial ownership among hunter-gatherers. I call these arguments the Uncertainty Reduction Hypothesis and the Social Opportunity Hypothesis. Based on the logic of these arguments, I develop expectations for patterns of food production and formal territorial ownership documented in the ethnographic record of hunter-gatherer societies and evaluate these expectations with large ethnographic and environmental data sets. My analysis suggests that the Uncertainty Reduction Hypothesis is more consistent with the data than the Social Opportunity Hypothesis. Overall, my approach combines the intellectual frameworks of evolutionary ecology and resilience thinking. The result is a theory of subsistence change that integrates elements of three classic models of economic development with deep intellectual roots in human ecology: The Malthusian, Boserupian and Weberian models. A final take home message of my study is that evolutionary ecology and resilience thinking are complementary frameworks for archaeologists who study the transition from hunting and gathering to farming. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Anthropology 2014

A arqueologia do Estado de São Paulo é um tema ainda pouco explorado nas pesquisas acadêmicas. Tal negligência pode ser justificada tanto pela constante transformação da paisagem quanto pelo próprio desconhecimento de seu alto potencial informativo. Essa dissertação tráz resultados inéditos para dois sítios localizados na região de Rio Claro, porção centro-leste do estado. Foram trabalhados os sítios: Abrigo do Alvo - que como o próprio nome sugere encontra-se em contexto abrigado - com duas cronologias bem estabelecidas, sendo a ocupação mais recente em torno de 1.170 cal AP e a mais antiga em 7.500 cal AP; e o Bastos - sítio a céu aberto - com a idade mais recente em 7.650 cal AP e a mais antiga em 12.640 cal AP. O objetivo da pesquisa foi o de caracterizar o conjunto artefatual dos dois sítios considerando os materiais líticos associados apenas à datação do Holoceno Médio, tendo como referencial teórico o conceito de Cadeia Operatória. Os resultados, quando comparados, mostram que esses grupos caçadores-coletores que habitaram o interior paulista no mesmo período, não compartilhavam características tecnológicas em comum, indicando grupos culturalmente distintos. / The archaeology of São Paulo State is a subject not fully explored in academic research. Such state of the art can be justified both by the constant transformation of the landscape and by the lack of knowledge of its high information potential. This dissertation brings new data from the Rio Claro region, central-eastern portion of the state. Two sites have been worked: Alvo Rockshelter with two well established occupations, the most recent around 1,170 cal AP and the oldest around 7,500 cal AP; and Bastos - am open air site - with the most recent chronology at 7,650 cal AP and the oldest at 12,640 cal AP. The aim of this research was to characterize the assemblages of the two sites considering the lithic materials dated from the middle Holocene, having as theoretical reference the concept of Châine Opératoire. The results, when compared, show that these hunter-gatherer groups that inhabited the interior of São Paulo in the same period did not share common technological characteristics, indicating culturally distinct groups.

No / Concepts of residential and logistic mobility are applied to survey assemblages from multiple decades of research along the interior drainages of central lower Michigan. Drawing on the ethnographic record of boreal hunter-gatherers and archaeological interpretations of long-distance logistic mobility from the Mesolithic of northern England and continental Europe, it is argued that the importance of logistic mobility is underrepresented in summaries of northern hemisphere hunter-gatherers. Reconstruction of Middle Holocene environments suggests that the resource structure of the central Michigan uplands was one that fostered use of logistic mobility, and that interior Middle Archaic assemblages and site structures reveal special function activities systemically tied to residential and other special function sites at lower coastal elevations, as well as currently submerged under Lake Huron. We conclude that rising levels of Lake Huron ca. 4500 B.P. resulted in decreased land area, population packing, and a consequent shift to residential mobility by the Late Archaic. Further, the results of this analysis can serve as a comparative framework for recognizing the role of logistic mobility in the evolution of hunter-gatherer adaptive strategies in other regions.

Preventing emissions from deforestation is propagated as an effective strategy to combat climate change. At the same time forest landscapes are habitat to the last remaining traditional societies of this planet. For a long time forest conservation programs neglected the role of these indigenous communities for forest landscapes. Historical ecology pushes a change of environmental narratives towards an understanding that biocultural diversity has had and will have a significant impact on resource use and on the transformation of landscapes. A growing number of debates on global environmental justice and poverty alleviation goals call for such an integrated approach in protecting biodiversity and cultural diversity when conserving forest landscapes. Although this topic is discussed, there is a gap in scientific literature on how such an approach can actually be implemented in practise. This paper examines how the dual-objective of forest conservation and protection of cultural diversity can be achieved in practise by applying a case study of a conservation project, Carbon Tanzania. Carbon Tanzania is operating in an area in northern Tanzania inhabited by one of the few remaining hunting and gathering societies on the planet, the Hadzabe. Carbon Tanzania conservation project issues carbon credits which can be bought by companies, organisations and individuals to offset their emissions. Interviews with the different actors have been conducted in the course of the research project in order to examine how Carbon Tanzania’s ‘community-led project’ contextualizes the dual objective of protecting forests and the Hadzabe culture. The results show that the implementation of the project is facilitated through an integrated network of different actors and organisations. Critical for the operations in the area is secured land ownership and a binding land use plan in order to protect the area from external pressure and to manage the utilization of the landscape by the different communities within the area. Payments for ecosystem services generate benefits for the local forest community and support community development. This form of ‘productive’ land utilization offers a path in changing development narratives for African countries.

This dissertation presents an evaluation of coprolite specimens from the Lower Pecos canyonlands as records of individual dietary decisions. Prior studies of coprolites from this region have greatly expanded our knowledge of Archaic subsistence patterns, but have not taken full advantage of the record of individual dietary decisions recorded in each coprolite specimen. The menu, or dietary combinations, reflected in individual coprolite specimens are assessed through the identification of several congruent botanical components derived from the same food resource, phytoliths, fiber ultimates, and epidermal sheets. The data is analyzed with hierarchical cluster analysis, an exploratory statistical technique. The resultant menus reflected in these clusters are evaluated with reference to the diet-breadth model developed for the known staple resources of the canyonlands as well as the seasonal subsistence patterns observed in the ethnohistoric record of modern-day Mexico and Texas. This same technique is also applied to the coprolite data available from previous studies in the Lower Pecos canyonlands. Overall, the combined dietary data available for the Lower Pecos canyonlands presents a similar dependence on desertic plant resources throughout the Archaic. Three main menus are apparent in the specimens. The first menu consists of prickly pear (Opuntia sp.) cladodes, or nopales, and was principally, although not exclusively, consumed in the late spring. This menu is primarily consumed when other resources were not readily available and may be considered a dependable but undesirable meal. The second menu consists of pit-baked lechuguilla (Agave lechuguilla) and sotol (Dasylirion sp.) caudices, or hearts, common throughout the cool season. This menu entails high processing costs, but would provide a reliable caloric return. The third menu exhibits a monolithic reliance on prickly pear fruits, or tunas, during the summer. The ease of harvest and consumption is reflected in the seasonal dominance of this resource, which was assuredly a highly desirable meal. The dietary patterns recorded in the coprolite specimens from the Lower Pecos canyonlands demonstrate a seasonally variable diet-breadth that incorporated low-ranked resources during times of seasonal scarcity as well as a monolithic dependence on high-ranked resources when they were available in the local landscape.

The Optimal Foraging Theory, rooted in the processual archaeology, uses a measuring methodology where the foraging strategy that gives the highest payoff measured as the highest ratio of energy gain per time unit is analysed (Mac Arthur & Pianca 1966, Emlen 1966). The theory is a branch of evolutionary ecology why much attention is paid to the interdependence of humans and preys and environmental conditions caused by climatologically and geographical changes or by overexploitation or other changes caused by humans. The analysis of Early Mesolithic pioneers onGotland, who settle in a transforming landscape, leaves indications of a Maglemose culture origin, probably from flooded original settlements in the south/southwest Baltic basin. The pioneers have to adapt to a seal-hunting economy dominated by grey seal which give the best cost-benefit outcome as big terrestrial mammals are missing and only mountain hare is available. The diet is narrow and there is a great risk for deficiency diseases as well as for acquiring hypervitaminosis and osteoporosis caused by excess of seal food. There is a hiatus c. 5000-4500 BC in the archaeological records on Gotland and the south-western Baltic region, and the master thesis hypothesises that Littorina Transgression I with a severe cold dip called the “8.2 ka BP cold event” has a delayed, but such a severe impact also on fauna and flora on Gotland, that the ecological system is destroyed. The possibility for humans to survive in a sustainable society is questionable. The extremely cold winters during this c. 400 years cold event, with glaciers moving southwards, delayed the blooming season, diminished the harvest and changed both flora and fauna. When the ecological niche for the grey seal is destroyed with flooded beaches close to the pioneers, human overexploitation is reinforced. With a diminishing population of mountain hare, which eventually gets extinct at the end of the Mesolithic, there are no alternatives but some birds and fish, hard to catch. Probably the pioneers abandon Gotland or move to a higher level on Gotland but no records are yet found why the period is called a hiatus. Extinction is the worst scenario or survival in such a small number that a sustainable society is lost. If so, new population groups repopulatedGotlandafter the Littorina transgressions. The origin is still unknown of the Pitted-ware and Funnelbeaker cultures that are populating Gotland after the transgressions. This master thesis can not confirm an affluent life style but rather a suffering starving society flooded by Littorina transgressions and struggling with the severe cold, caused by the “8.2 ka cold event” that makes the environmental conditions even worse. The subsistence economy is successively destroyed which probably causes the hiatus in archaeological records. The Littorina Transgression I with the “8.2 cold event” and the lack of terrestrial big animals are bottle necks. / Optimal Foraging Theory, med sina rötter i den processuella arkeologin, använder en metodik utgående från mätningar där insamlingsstrategin som ger den högsta avkastningen per tidsenhet analyseras (Mac Arthur & Pianca 1966, Emlen 1966). Teorin är en undergrupp inom den evolutionära ekologin och därför ägnas stor tid åt att uppmärksamma det ömsesidiga beroendet och påverkan som sker i miljön p.g.a. klimatologiska och geologiska orsaker men också p.g.a. mänsklig påverkan som exempelvis överförbrukning.  Analysen av tidigmesolitiska pionjärbosättare på Gotland, som möter ett landskap i förvandling, lämnar spår efter sig som tyder på ett ursprung i Maglemosekulturen i södra/sydvästra Östersjöregionen. De tvingas bli adapterade till en säljägarekonomi dominerad av gråsäl som ger det bästa energiutbytet, eftersom stora landdäggdjur saknas och endast bergshare finns tillgänglig. Dietvalet är smalt och det föreligger stor risk för både bristsjukdomar och A-vitaminförgiftning och osteoporos p.g.a. överkonsumtion av sälprodukter. Det finns ett uppehåll i de arkeologiska fynden c. 5000-4500 BC på Gotland liksom i södra Östersjöområdet. Magisteruppsatsens hypotes är att den kalla perioden med temperatursänkning som kallas ”8.2 ka BP cold event” under Littorinatransgression I har en fördröjd men så kraftigt övergripande effekt, på både djur- och växtliv på Gotland, att den förstör det ekologiska systemet och därmed möjligheten för människor att överleva i ett hållbart samhälle. De mycket hårda vintrarna under de c. 400 årens ”cold event” medför att glaciärerna dras sig söderut, blomningssäsongen fördröjs, skörden minskar och både fauna och flora förändras. När den ekologiska nischen för gråsälen förstörs av översvämmade stränder nära bosättarna förstärks överexploateringen, och då det inte finns någon alternativ föda utom en minskande harstam, svårfångade fåglar och fiskar, blir situationen fatal för de tidigmesolitiska bosättarna. Troligtvis flyttar de till andra platser inom Östersjönätverket eller till en högre nivå på Gotland, men fynd saknas hittills varför detta tomrum benämns ”hiatus”. Det värsta scenariot är att bosättarna dör ut eller överlever i ett så litet antal att det hållbara samhället går under.Om så är fallet återbefokas Gotland av gropkeramisk kultur och trattbägarkultur i anslutning till Littorinatrasgressionernas slut. Denna magisteruppsats kan inte konfirmera en livsstil i överflöd, utan snarare ett lidande svältande samhälle som översvämmas av Littorinatransgressioner med miljömässiga förhållanden som förvärras av den allvarliga kylan orsakad av ”8.2 ka cold event”.  Försörjningsmöjligheterna förstörs succesivt och befolkningen försvinner vilket troligen orsakar ett hiatus i de arkeologiska fynden. Littorina Transgression I med ”8.2 ka cold event” och bristen på stora landdjur är stora flaskhalsar.

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Den här studien analyserar den moderna paleodieten genom en postmodernistisk teori och observerar om de aktörer som förespråkar den moderna paleodieten har ett nyanserat och problematiserande förhållningsätt till paleodieten. Studien baseras på fyra källor skrivna av tre aktörer, två böcker av arkeologen Göran Burenhult. Ytterligare en källa är The Paleo Solutionav Robb Wolf, den fjärde källan som förespråkar paleodieten är Swedish Paleo, ett företag som marknadsför paleodieten samt AIP-dieten online. Marlene Zuk är i sin bok Paleofantasymotståndare till paleodieten och hennes argument står i kontrast till de andra källorna. Honräknas dock inte som en huvudaktör och granskas inte av studien. Istället används hon endast för att analysera det positiva metanarrativet kring paleodieten. Studien kommer fram till att förespråkare för den moderna paleodieten ofta exkluderar information som motsäger den bildav dieten som de vill presentera. / This study analyses the modern paleodiet through a postmodernist lens and tries to find out if the proponents of the diet have a honest approach to archeological science. The study is based on four sources written by three individuals, two books by the archeologist Göran Burenhult, another source is The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf. The fourth positive source to the paleodiet is Swedish Paleo, a company which markets the paleodiet and AIP-diet online. Marlene Zuk in her book Paleofantasy is an opponent to the paleodiet and her arguments are in opposition to the other sources. She is not however considered to be a main actor to be analyzed in this study, instead her arguments are only meant to analyze the positive metanarrative which proponents of the paleodiet advocates. The result of the study is that the modern paleodiet often excludesinformation which contradicts the image of the paleodiet the proponents of the diet wants to present.

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