Abstract. The goal of this case study is to further the understanding of the social and economic structure, such as trade routes and/or prehistoric man’s movement, during prehistory in the inland of Västerbotten, Sweden. This is achieved by studying the sets of lithic tools found in six archaeological sites (RAÄ 977:1 Vilhelmina, RAÄ 553:1 Vilhelmina, RAÄ 132:1 Vilhelmina, RAÄ 519:1 Vilhelmina, RAÄ 399:1 Vilhelmina och RAÄ 129:1 Åsele) using NIR-spectroscopic (Near InfraRed-spectroscopy), statistical and archaeological methods. By using PCA-models (Principal Component Analysis-models) and the classification method SIMCA (Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogies) on NIR-spectroscopic data collected over the course of this study, it was possible to show signs that prehistoric man in the studied area, might have deposited quartzite materials, not naturally occurring at the RAÄ 519:1 Vilhelmina, Sweden, site. Four geographic areas (the vicinity of the sea Vojm, the North and South part of the sea Malgomaj and the vicinity of the Southwest part of the Ångerman river in the studied area) could also be shown to display distinct patterns in the PCA-models, related to the use of particular combinations of quartzites. These findings lead to the conclusion that prehistoric man in this area, typically used locally available materials for toolmaking. Furthermore, this study resulted in a large NIR-spectroscopic dataset from the archaeological sites that makes up the main material for this study, that may be beneficial to future NIR-spectroscopic studies in archaeology and/or further studies of NIR-spectroscopy applied to lithic materials.

The implementation and application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analyses have become standard practice in many archaeological projects. In this study, we demonstrate how GIS can play a crucial role in the study of taphonomy, i.e., understanding the processes that underpinned the creation of archaeological deposits, in this case the distribution of artifacts across an archeological site. The Stelida Naxos Archeological Project (SNAP) is focused on the exploration of a Paleolithic-Mesolithic stone tool quarry site located on the island of Naxos, Greece. An extensive pedestrian survey was conducted during the 2013 and 2014 archeological field seasons. An abundance of lithic material was collected across the surface, with some diagnostic pieces dating to more than 250 Kya. Spatial statistical analysis (Empirical Bayesian Kriging) was conducted on the survey data to generate predictive distribution maps for the site. This study then determined the contextual integrity of the surface artifact distributions through a study of geomorphic processes. A digital surface model (DSM) of the site was produced using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) aerial photography and Structure from Motion (SfM) terrain modeling. The DSM employed to develop a Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model and hydrological flow models. The model results provide important insights into the site geomorphological processes and allow categorization of the diagnostic surface material locations based on their contextual integrity. The GIS analysis demonstrates that the surface artifact distribution has been significantly altered by post-depositional geomorphic processes, resulting in an overall low contextual integrity of surface artifacts. Conversely, the study identified a few areas with high contextual integrity, loci that represent prime locations for excavation. The results from this study will not only be used to inform and guide further development of the archeological project (as well as representing significant new data in its own right), but also contributes to current debates in survey archaeology, and in mapping and prospection more generally. This project demonstrates the benefit of using spatial analysis as a tool for planning of pedestrian surveys and for predictive mapping of artifact distributions prior to archaeological excavations. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

No description available.

<p>This dissertation contributes to Indigenous archaeology, particularly along the Northwest Coast, the Coast Salish region and the territory of the Squamish Nation. I examine the regional archaeological sequence and provide an Indigenous perspective of time and space of Squamish Nation territory. Closer examination of this region’s archaeological record focuses on the occurrence of suitable igneous tool stone sources and their use over the past 10,000 years. A full understanding of these lithic sources comes from three different perspectives Squamish Nation culture, the archaeological and geological records.</p> <p>I propose that lithic sources are important places of the Squamish Nation cultural landscape and that the distributions of certain material types is linked to Squamish Nation place names and oral histories. Expanding this concept outward, I consider the distribution of the occurrence of these materials from 25 archaeological sites ranging from sea level ocean shore to mountainous alpine contexts. I then examine lithic source materials and artifacts from these sites on a visual and chemical basis (X-Ray Fluorescence) to illustrate the varying importance of certain lithic materials across Squamish Nation territory. Resulting analysis demonstrates that these materials have varying spatial and temporal distributions that relate to predominant themes of Squamish Nation oral history, concepts of Transformation and Mythical Beings. Material distributions, place names, oral history related to the region’s archaeological record are discussed under different theoretical frameworks of the Northwest Coast building from culture history, processual, post processual, and humanist perspectives cumulating at a Indigenous perspective of lithic sources and flaked stone artifact distributions.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

A presente tese tem como objetivo apresentar os resultados alcançados por meio de pesquisas sistemáticas de campo, laboratório e gabinete, que interligadas coligiram dados responsáveis uma compreensão mais assertiva sobre o modo de vida e dinâmica cultural dos grupos pré-históricos que ocuparam a Área Arqueológica de Xingó durante quase oito milênios. A pesquisa baseou-se em diferentes posicionamentos teóricos, tendo como foco as indústrias líticas evidenciadas e coletadas em dezesseis sítios arqueológicos, todos da área 03 de Xingó. Essa característica foi fundamental e nos permitiram inferir com maior segurança sobre as diferentes escolhas/estratégias envolvidas para concepção e manufatura dos conjuntos artefatuais (similaridades e diferenças), porém sempre cerceando a possibilidade de compreensão de como as populações pré-históricas que ocuparam a região estabeleceram seu sistema regional de assentamentos em terraço, tendo como hipótese norteadora que todos os sítios contemporâneos estariam conectados entre si no chamado complexo situacional de sítios. Metodologicamente, nossos dados foram sistematizados por meio da análise dos atributos formais e tecnológicos das indústrias líticas e de técnicas estatístico-comparativas, de forma que nos possibilitou reconstruir, mesmo que parcialmente, as seqüências operacionais dessa cultura material, inclusive partindo do pressuposto de variabilidade isocréstica. Em relação ao referencial teórico, foram utilizados múltiplos conceitos e abordagens que convergiram para a compreensão da paisagem enquanto construção social que, dotada de valores e significados, foi ser compreendida como o loci de ocupação continuada, ou lugares persistentes. / This thesis presents the final results of a long-term study after systematic research in field, in laboratory and in office that interconnected unify data which give us an assertive understanding of the life and cultural dynamic of prehistoric societies who occupied the Archaeological Zone of Xingo during eight thousand years. The research is based in different theoretical approaches, but focusing the lithic assemblage revealed and collected in sixteen archaeological sites, all of them into the included in the Area 3 of Xingo. These different approaches were essential in this research, giving me the opportunity to infer with security the differences on the co-participating strategies related to the conception and manufacture of the artefactual assemblages (similarities and differences), hence delimitating the possibility to understand how the Xingo an prehistoric populations established their regional settlement system on the fluvial benches. I used as a guide hypothesis the fact that all contemporaneous sites were connected among them in a situational complex of sites. Methodologically, my data was systematized through of formal analysis of the morphological and technological attributes of the lithic assemblages and through statistical-comparative techniques, which helped me to reconstruct partially the operational sequences of the material culture manufacture, including the isocrestic variability. In relation to my theoretical frames, I used multiples concepts and approaches that worked together to understand the landscape while a social construction immersed in social means and values which have been understood as a loci of continuous occupation or persistent places

A presente tese fornece um primeiro quadro arqueológico para a ocupação pré-cerâmica da Região Cárstica do Alto São Francisco, uma área com cerca de 1500 km² localizada no centro-oeste de Minas Gerais, baseando-se na análise de sete elementos: cronologia (relativa e absoluta), tecnologia lítica, subsistência (fauna), sepultamentos, mobilidade, uso do espaço em cavidades naturais e arte rupestre. Os registros e amostras mais significativos foram obtidos em sondagens e escavações realizadas por níveis arbitrários de 10 cm em quatro sítios em cavidade natural de calcário, totalizando 28m² de área aberta em 11 setores, todos eles situados na área abrigada a partir da linha de goteira para dentro, com destaque, em termos de superfície aberta, para a Gruta do Marinheiro (20m²). Após a análise dos diferentes tipos de evidências por nível, setor e sítio, foi realizada uma síntese onde foram enfocadas as mudanças verticais ou diacrônicas, de origem quantitativa e/ou qualitativa, ao longo dos níveis arbitrários, permitindo observar eventuais tendências, rupturas ou transformações. As variações horizontais ou sincrônicas intra- e intersítio também foram consideradas à luz das diferenças entre os setores escavados. A partir da análise dos sete elementos supracitados obteve-se, de forma resumida, o seguinte quadro geral: observa-se uma ocupação intensa dos abrigos naturais por grupos humanos nos primeiros três mil anos do Holoceno na região (de cerca 10,2 a 7,2 mil anos AP), apresentando uma indústria lítica lascada e bruta com instrumentos tanto bifaciais quanto unifaciais, padronizados ou não. Praticavam uma caça generalizada com destaque para mamíferos de pequeno e médio porte, uma pesca/coleta de peixes não-migradores como os siluriformes (mandi, bagre, etc.) e uma coleta de caramujos gigantes (Gastrópoda). Produziram sepultamentos com padrões diferenciados, conforme também foi observado em outros sítios abrigados de Minas Gerais para o período paleoíndio. Exerciam uma alta mobilidade em que ocupavam os espaços de uma variedade de abrigos naturais, localizados em todos os compartimentos topográficos do carste, de forma padronizada (no total 27 sítios pré-cerâmicos sob abrigo natural foram contemplados). Não restringiam seus movimentos, provavelmente sazonais, apenas a este ambiente como demonstram vestígios 24 encontrados por arqueólogos amadores nas margens do Lago de Furnas (cerca de 80 km a SW do carste). Existem, enfim, indícios circunstanciais para que esses grupos sejam associados à tradição rupestre Planalto. No final argumenta-se pela existência de algumas semelhanças e paralelos com a região de Lagoa Santa, situada 200 km a NE (em linha reta) da região em estudo. / This thesis brings a first archaeological framework for the pre-ceramic occupation of a carstic area situated in the upper São Francisco river valley, also known as the Pains region, with an area of about 1500 km², in the central-western portion of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. This was done by the study of seven elements related to these populations: chronology (relative and absolute), technology (lithic and bone), subsistence (faunal remains), burials, mobility, use of space in rock-shelters and rock-art. The most relevant findings were made in excavations and test-pits by artificial levels of 10 cm in four limestone rock-shelter sites, distributed in eleven different places or sectors, all of them from the drip-line to the interior of the shelters, with a total area of 28m². The most important site is the \"Gruta do Marinheiro\" cave, where 20m² were excavated. After the analysis of the different types of materials by level, sector and site, the quantitative and qualitative vertical changes were studied in search for tendencies, ruptures and/or transformations. The horizontal variations between sectors were also observed. These analysis showed that the rock-shelters were intensely occupied in the first three millennia of the Holocene, between ca. 10200 and 7200 years BP, associated with an unifacial and bifacial lithic industry and faunal remains, indicating they hunted small and middle-sized mammals, fished mainly Siluriformes and gathered Gastropoda. They buried their dead in a variety of manners, in patterns that are also seen in other rock-shelters of Minas Gerais associated with the paleo-indian occupation. Looking at 27 known rock-shelters in the region with pre-ceramic evidence, it was also possible to see that they were present in all main topographical areas of this limestone region, indicating a high mobility within it, but also showing some connections with areas outside, as seen by very similar lithic material found by amateurs in the \"Lago de Furnas\" area (80 km to the SW). There is also circumstantial evidence that could relate these groups to the \"Planalto\" rock-art tradition. Finally we argue that there are many elements that put the Pains region close archaeologically to the better-known Lagoa Santa region, situated 200 km to the NE.

The goal of the thesis is to find the way how to apply use-wear analysis as well as functional analysis to archaeological assemblages of selected artefacts from Central European archaeological contexts, namely lithics (chipped stone artefacts) and obtain the greatest potential from the analysis. Thesis consists of: current state in the field of functional studies research worldwide, method of use-wear application in connection with material science knowledge, especially tribology. Use-wear analysis is applied to the selected lithic artefacts from Paleolithic to Eneolithic Periods. The results of this work are based on the following microscopic approaches: low power approach (LPA), high power approach (HPA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). There are described and stated differences in potential of above mentioned approaches in connection with specific archaeological artefacts (assemblages of artefacts). The question answered in the conclusion is how to apply the above mentioned methodological approaches in application to various archaeological materials (period, number, context etc.) to obtain the greatest informational potential from the material analysed. Work is concluded with specific terminology from the field of tribology and use-wear analysis...

ČULÁKOVÁ, KATARÍNA. Contribution to the Study of the Mesolithic Settlement in Bohemia. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2015, 742 p. (including appendices and plates), PhD. thesis. This thesis wants to present lithic collections. Part of them come from an Eastern Bohemian region and part of them from the Bohemian Forest region. Firstly there is a description of how the collections were obtained. Most of the material comes from a surface survey, a smaller part comes from test pitting. A majority of the collections wasn't previously published and was processed for the purpose of this thesis, part of the information was obtained from published articles. This thesis presents a collection of 25 000 lithic pieces from Eastern Bohemia and 3 500 lithic pieces from the Bohemian Forest. At first there are the most numerous sites described according to their position in the landscape and composition of the lithic collection. Then there is a whole collection characterised according to the used raw material, typology and used technology. This information is incorporated into the wider frame of Central European mesolithics. One of the most interesting features of the collection is the variability of raw materials, which is especially high in the Eastern Bohemian region. From the technological point...

A presente tese fornece um primeiro quadro arqueológico para a ocupação pré-cerâmica da Região Cárstica do Alto São Francisco, uma área com cerca de 1500 km² localizada no centro-oeste de Minas Gerais, baseando-se na análise de sete elementos: cronologia (relativa e absoluta), tecnologia lítica, subsistência (fauna), sepultamentos, mobilidade, uso do espaço em cavidades naturais e arte rupestre. Os registros e amostras mais significativos foram obtidos em sondagens e escavações realizadas por níveis arbitrários de 10 cm em quatro sítios em cavidade natural de calcário, totalizando 28m² de área aberta em 11 setores, todos eles situados na área abrigada a partir da linha de goteira para dentro, com destaque, em termos de superfície aberta, para a Gruta do Marinheiro (20m²). Após a análise dos diferentes tipos de evidências por nível, setor e sítio, foi realizada uma síntese onde foram enfocadas as mudanças verticais ou diacrônicas, de origem quantitativa e/ou qualitativa, ao longo dos níveis arbitrários, permitindo observar eventuais tendências, rupturas ou transformações. As variações horizontais ou sincrônicas intra- e intersítio também foram consideradas à luz das diferenças entre os setores escavados. A partir da análise dos sete elementos supracitados obteve-se, de forma resumida, o seguinte quadro geral: observa-se uma ocupação intensa dos abrigos naturais por grupos humanos nos primeiros três mil anos do Holoceno na região (de cerca 10,2 a 7,2 mil anos AP), apresentando uma indústria lítica lascada e bruta com instrumentos tanto bifaciais quanto unifaciais, padronizados ou não. Praticavam uma caça generalizada com destaque para mamíferos de pequeno e médio porte, uma pesca/coleta de peixes não-migradores como os siluriformes (mandi, bagre, etc.) e uma coleta de caramujos gigantes (Gastrópoda). Produziram sepultamentos com padrões diferenciados, conforme também foi observado em outros sítios abrigados de Minas Gerais para o período paleoíndio. Exerciam uma alta mobilidade em que ocupavam os espaços de uma variedade de abrigos naturais, localizados em todos os compartimentos topográficos do carste, de forma padronizada (no total 27 sítios pré-cerâmicos sob abrigo natural foram contemplados). Não restringiam seus movimentos, provavelmente sazonais, apenas a este ambiente como demonstram vestígios 24 encontrados por arqueólogos amadores nas margens do Lago de Furnas (cerca de 80 km a SW do carste). Existem, enfim, indícios circunstanciais para que esses grupos sejam associados à tradição rupestre Planalto. No final argumenta-se pela existência de algumas semelhanças e paralelos com a região de Lagoa Santa, situada 200 km a NE (em linha reta) da região em estudo. / This thesis brings a first archaeological framework for the pre-ceramic occupation of a carstic area situated in the upper São Francisco river valley, also known as the Pains region, with an area of about 1500 km², in the central-western portion of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. This was done by the study of seven elements related to these populations: chronology (relative and absolute), technology (lithic and bone), subsistence (faunal remains), burials, mobility, use of space in rock-shelters and rock-art. The most relevant findings were made in excavations and test-pits by artificial levels of 10 cm in four limestone rock-shelter sites, distributed in eleven different places or sectors, all of them from the drip-line to the interior of the shelters, with a total area of 28m². The most important site is the \"Gruta do Marinheiro\" cave, where 20m² were excavated. After the analysis of the different types of materials by level, sector and site, the quantitative and qualitative vertical changes were studied in search for tendencies, ruptures and/or transformations. The horizontal variations between sectors were also observed. These analysis showed that the rock-shelters were intensely occupied in the first three millennia of the Holocene, between ca. 10200 and 7200 years BP, associated with an unifacial and bifacial lithic industry and faunal remains, indicating they hunted small and middle-sized mammals, fished mainly Siluriformes and gathered Gastropoda. They buried their dead in a variety of manners, in patterns that are also seen in other rock-shelters of Minas Gerais associated with the paleo-indian occupation. Looking at 27 known rock-shelters in the region with pre-ceramic evidence, it was also possible to see that they were present in all main topographical areas of this limestone region, indicating a high mobility within it, but also showing some connections with areas outside, as seen by very similar lithic material found by amateurs in the \"Lago de Furnas\" area (80 km to the SW). There is also circumstantial evidence that could relate these groups to the \"Planalto\" rock-art tradition. Finally we argue that there are many elements that put the Pains region close archaeologically to the better-known Lagoa Santa region, situated 200 km to the NE.

A presente tese tem como objetivo apresentar os resultados alcançados por meio de pesquisas sistemáticas de campo, laboratório e gabinete, que interligadas coligiram dados responsáveis uma compreensão mais assertiva sobre o modo de vida e dinâmica cultural dos grupos pré-históricos que ocuparam a Área Arqueológica de Xingó durante quase oito milênios. A pesquisa baseou-se em diferentes posicionamentos teóricos, tendo como foco as indústrias líticas evidenciadas e coletadas em dezesseis sítios arqueológicos, todos da área 03 de Xingó. Essa característica foi fundamental e nos permitiram inferir com maior segurança sobre as diferentes escolhas/estratégias envolvidas para concepção e manufatura dos conjuntos artefatuais (similaridades e diferenças), porém sempre cerceando a possibilidade de compreensão de como as populações pré-históricas que ocuparam a região estabeleceram seu sistema regional de assentamentos em terraço, tendo como hipótese norteadora que todos os sítios contemporâneos estariam conectados entre si no chamado complexo situacional de sítios. Metodologicamente, nossos dados foram sistematizados por meio da análise dos atributos formais e tecnológicos das indústrias líticas e de técnicas estatístico-comparativas, de forma que nos possibilitou reconstruir, mesmo que parcialmente, as seqüências operacionais dessa cultura material, inclusive partindo do pressuposto de variabilidade isocréstica. Em relação ao referencial teórico, foram utilizados múltiplos conceitos e abordagens que convergiram para a compreensão da paisagem enquanto construção social que, dotada de valores e significados, foi ser compreendida como o loci de ocupação continuada, ou lugares persistentes. / This thesis presents the final results of a long-term study after systematic research in field, in laboratory and in office that interconnected unify data which give us an assertive understanding of the life and cultural dynamic of prehistoric societies who occupied the Archaeological Zone of Xingo during eight thousand years. The research is based in different theoretical approaches, but focusing the lithic assemblage revealed and collected in sixteen archaeological sites, all of them into the included in the Area 3 of Xingo. These different approaches were essential in this research, giving me the opportunity to infer with security the differences on the co-participating strategies related to the conception and manufacture of the artefactual assemblages (similarities and differences), hence delimitating the possibility to understand how the Xingo an prehistoric populations established their regional settlement system on the fluvial benches. I used as a guide hypothesis the fact that all contemporaneous sites were connected among them in a situational complex of sites. Methodologically, my data was systematized through of formal analysis of the morphological and technological attributes of the lithic assemblages and through statistical-comparative techniques, which helped me to reconstruct partially the operational sequences of the material culture manufacture, including the isocrestic variability. In relation to my theoretical frames, I used multiples concepts and approaches that worked together to understand the landscape while a social construction immersed in social means and values which have been understood as a loci of continuous occupation or persistent places