Laboratoire Méditerranéen de Préhistoire Europe Afrique

This chapter summarizes recent efforts by historians and archaeologists to reconstruct the landscape dynamics around Iglesias, a major silver-mining hub in southwestern Sardinia between the 12th-15th centuries, and their legacies.

ABSTRACTCharacterization of prehistoric lifeways tends to work at the level of generalization, but can we investigate microvariation? For example, it is common to discuss the “Neolithic diet”, but how much did what people ate vary, not only between individuals but from year to year or from place to place? Similarly, discussions of mobility tend to focus either on large‐scale population movements or on lifelong changes in residence, implying that people remained statically in their villages under other circumstances, but how much did people normally move around the landscape? The “isobiography” approach we apply here combines fine‐grained incremental sampling of multiple isotopes to investigate these questions. Here, we explore the life histories of five Neolithic individuals from Passo di Corvo (Foggia) and Titolo (Bari) in Puglia, southeastern Italy, by analyzing the stable carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotopic signals from bone elements and dentine increments. Our findings unveil nuanced individual narratives. Variations in breastfeeding and weaning practices suggest flexible cultural norms; aquatic resources may have been introduced during weaning and their consumption continued during childhood in some individuals. Broadly, our findings reveal adaptations throughout the lifespans studied, potentially reflecting dietary shifts or physiological responses to climatic, environmental, or nutritional challenges. Additionally, our data indicate connections beyond local contexts: Some individuals were mobile over short ranges (Passo di Corvo), whereas others displayed connections to more distant inland locations (Titolo). Our study underscores the complexity of Neolithic lifeways, demonstrating variations not only between individuals but also within the lifespan of a single individual.

ABSTRACT In this study, we quantify the impact of environmental conditions (temperature, productivity, and salinity) and taphonomic (carbonate dissolution) processes in the test (shell) size variation of planktonic foraminifera. To do so, we measured the cross-sectional area of over 16,000 tests from core SAT-048A, recovered from the Western South Atlantic. Core SAT-048A spans the last 45 ka and was collected in a highly dynamic (palae)oceanographic setting. We perform multiple linear correlation analyses that reveal significant relations between the test sizes and the studied environmental parameters, notably, smaller sizes during periods of intensified upwelling, which is consequent with enhanced carbonate dissolution. We hypothesise that smaller sizes of Globigerinoides ruber (comprising Globigerinoides ruber albus and Globigerinoides elongatus) might result from slower metabolic rates of its symbionts under high productivity conditions where increased suspended particles attenuate the incoming light. Globigerinoides ruber is sometimes considered a dissolution-prone species; thus, its apparent smaller sizes may (also) be due to carbonate dissolution. The remineralisation of exported organic matter decreases the pH of the seawater, meaning carbonate tests can fragment, a process often signposted by the loss of the thinner and more fragile terminal chamber. We document the interplay between living and post-mortem conditions, noting that they are additive in the fossil record. This paper provides a framework to understand the differential effect of dissolution on calcite tests, which without proper identification can lead to underestimation of test sizes (by ∼25±9%) and planktonic foraminifera fragmentation, potentiallyimpacting all foraminifera-based ecology and geochemical proxies. Finally, we highlight the use of different size descriptors and environmental parameters to better comprehend the effect of living and post-mortem conditions in the test size variation of planktonic foraminifera.

Cet article étudie les pratiques économiques des femmes à l’aune du droit provençal et de sa jurisprudence aux xviie et xviiie siècles. La ville et le port de Marseille, alors en plein essor économique, permettent de comprendre en quoi les femmes marchandes font l’objet d’un traitement particulier et dans quelle mesure cela peut entraver la bonne marche de leurs affaires. Ainsi, il peut être difficile de se voir reconnaitre le statut de marchande et plus encore de percevoir des bénéfices pour les épouses de marchands.

• Archaeobotany successfully records viticulture in the absence of specialised production facilities. • Similar trends in seeds and charcoals suggest local viticulture by the 6th-5th c. BCE. • Winegrowing has developed in a favourable climatic context. • Taphonomic causes prevent archaeobotany from accurately recording the scale of specialised viticulture. Winegrowing has dramatically shaped the landscapes as well as the culture and economy of societies in the Mediterranean region. It is generally accepted that it appeared and expanded in Mediterranean France during the Iron Age and the Roman period (ca 750 BCE − 500 CE). Viticulture flourished massively during the Early Roman Empire, when wine was widely exported throughout the Empire. The objective of this paper is to propose an updated overview of the history of viticulture based on a multidisciplinary survey combining archaeobotanical, archaeological data and modelling of wine potential yields. We aim to compare the information provided by seed-fruits and by charcoal, and to better understand how these data can be used to trace ancient viticulture in relation to other archaeological data. We collected and entered into a database all available results of charcoal and seed-fruit analyses from Mediterranean France and the middle Rhône valley. Seed and fruits provide evidence of fruit consumption and processing (table vs . pressing), while charcoal remains are stronger indicators of local cultivation. We also included published archaeological information about wineries and amphorae factories. This provides another way of identifying areas of cultivation and processing into wine, and gives hints on the scale of production and the possible destination for export. The reconstructions based on the multi-proxy information contained in the database are compared to the climate-vegetation LPJmL model estimates of wine potential yields and their variations over space and time. Charcoal and seed evidence concur to show that viticulture started in the 6th-5th c. BCE and developed with the progressive increase of potential wine yields throughout the Iron Age and then with the Roman Climatic Optimum. In the Roman period, the development of specialised winemaking facilities provides impressive evidence of viticulture, but is at the same time less favourable to its record by archaeobotany. Apparently, charcoals and seeds are more frequently preserved in rubbish assemblages when winemaking activities are still associated with domestic activities. While wineries and amphorae factories bear witness to a wine crisis in the Late Roman period, archaeobotanical remains indicate that viticulture persisted, probably in a less specialised mode, and modelling suggests that potential wine yields did not decline in comparison with the heyday of regional viticulture. Archaeobotany also provides consistent evidence of the existence of grapevine cultivation in urban Roman contexts.

stables d'Arco et Riva del Garda (Trente)

International audience

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Dans la vallée de la Haute Seine, au nord-est de la France, la transition entre l’âge du Bronze moyen et l’âge du Bronze final révèle un changement culturel marqué. Les études montrent une évolution des dynamiques de population et des pratiques funéraires, influencées par des groupes venus de l’est, associés à la culture du Tumulus. L’étude se concentre sur deux sites à Marolles-sur-Seine, dans l’interfluve Seine-Yonne : la Croix-Saint-Jacques et la Croix de la Mission, distants de 5 km. Ces...