This study researched the energy efficiency of acorn collecting in the Netherlands through experimental archaeology. The goal of this project was to expand the knowledge about diet in the past....Show moreThis study researched the energy efficiency of acorn collecting in the Netherlands through experimental archaeology. The goal of this project was to expand the knowledge about diet in the past. Diet is an important topic in archaeology, but organic material decomposes after death. This results in a gap in the archaeological record. The animal-plant subsistence rate is currently unknown, however, diversity is important for our diet and plants would have been a part of the subsistence of foragers in the past. According to the optimal forager theory, foragers use the most optimal resources in a habitat for their needs. The archaeological record shows that acorns were gathered by foragers, due to their many benefits. This study researched the energy efficiency of collecting acorns. The experiment was performed in a public park called Leidse Hout in the Netherlands. Eleven volunteers gathered acorns from the ground, while their energy expenditure, their VO2 level, was measured during different phases with a portable VO2 master device. Two standard energetic measurements, MET value, and kcal, were calculated and compared to different activities and studies to understand the intensity of the activity. A few conclusions could be made with the experiment data. Firstly, acorns have a high caloric return rate. Secondly, acorn collecting is, according to the low MET value, a low-intensity activity, comparable to slow walking and playing the cello. Thirdly, compared to other gathering activities, acorn collecting was the lightest. Lastly, this study showed no significant difference between the energy expenditure of men and women. Following the optimal foraging theory, foragers looking for energy efficient resources would have collected acorns, if available, due to the low costs and high benefits of the resource. This experiment archaeology project increased our current knowledge about the optimal foraging potential of acorns and showed that these nuts would have been a great addition to the diet of humans.Show less
Due to the unique difficulties of studying hunter-gatherers in an archaeological context, researchers have been attempting to create accurate models to understand these contexts for decades....Show moreDue to the unique difficulties of studying hunter-gatherers in an archaeological context, researchers have been attempting to create accurate models to understand these contexts for decades. Although many schools of thought have emerged from this work, one of the most promising has been Optimal Foraging Theory, which attempts to model the optimal subsistence behaviour in a given context using environmental and anthropological data as inputs. One of the major limitations of Optimal Foraging Theory is that it requires a broad base of accurate data on the costs and benefits of different subsistence activities in order to create precise models. To help address this problem, we used hip-worn Triaxial Accelerometry to estimate relative energy expenditure during specific subsistence-related activities among the Baka of southeastern Cameroon. Our results demonstrate that hunting activities among the Baka involve significantly more movement than gathering or agriculture, implying more energy expenditure, while gathering and agricultural activities involve roughly similar levels of movement. Through the analysis of other variables, we also found that men perform significantly more movement than women when periods of rest are not included. However, there is no significant difference between these values when periods of rest are included. Furthermore, there are no significant differences in the average movement performed per unit time (including or excluding rest), or in the proportion of time spent at rest, between villages.Show less
The issue of H. neanderthalensis’ diet has long been a debate between archaeologists, with interpretations ranging from faunal assemblages in neanderthal sites, stable isotope analysis, cooking...Show moreThe issue of H. neanderthalensis’ diet has long been a debate between archaeologists, with interpretations ranging from faunal assemblages in neanderthal sites, stable isotope analysis, cooking evidence, and studies of dental calculus. Traditional isotope research has focused on the δ13C or δ15N isotopic signature is based on the use of collagen found in bone, however it suffers the problem of easy degradation in deep time. The introduction of novel isotope techniques focused on the signatures of δ42/44Ca and δ66Zn can bypass this problem due to samples being extracted directly onto bone and enamel, thus decreasing the chances of lacking evidence and presenting similar and accurate results in dietary research. However, results position species into trophic levels and lack data on plant consumption, thus presenting H. neanderthalensis as a nearly exclusive carnivore in the hominin lineage. The objective of this thesis is a comprehensive review of the literature to study the feasibility of adopting such techniques into the research mainstream and the consequences that this would entail. Furthermore, techniques such as biomolecular analysis of dental calculus and faunal assemblages that refer directly to dietary habits and tendencies are both explored and used as proxies for increasing accuracy. While the scope of this thesis has significant limitations to fully asses dietary research techniques used for analysis of middle palaeolithic European neanderthals, the comprehensive review of the latest published literature and a comparative approach between different research methods aims to produce an accurate assessment of both novel isotope techniques and H. neanderthalensis diets.Show less
During the shift from the Hallstatt to the La Tène period, we can observe through the archaeological record the upcoming importance of iron in the central European Celtic culture. The ample...Show moreDuring the shift from the Hallstatt to the La Tène period, we can observe through the archaeological record the upcoming importance of iron in the central European Celtic culture. The ample discovery of long swords, daggers, spearheads and other sorts of weaponry, suggests a significant value given to these items of war. Lavished burials and large votive deposits in water-bodies such as the renowned lake of La Tène, provide us with an ever growing record. When we zoom in on the Celtic long sword, we can observe an interesting commonly found feature, namely punch marks. These are small, round marks occurring on the blade of some of the long swords and can be found as single marks, sometimes two, or occasionally even three marks on a single blade. Recurring themes on these punchmarks are animals which were more often depicted in the Celtic world. Interestingly, zoomorphic marks only represent boars, birds, horses or bulls, yet considering the large range of animals that were included in La Tène art, there must have been a specific meaning linked to these animals. For the larger part, these animals have a clear explanation as to why they are depicted on these items of warfare; the boars for their ferocity and violence, the horses for their use in combat, and the bulls for their strength and impressive stature. When we look at birds, the scavenger birds such as ravens were renowned for their pitilessness and them being the scavengers of war. However, when we look at the six known bird-like punch marks, we can identify three of them as being scavenger birds, and three of them as being a waterbird-like species. In this research, I will be solely focusing on three punch marks, which are situated on swords found in Ilbesheim, Heuchelheim and La Tène, and I will attempt to establish a clear linkage between the symbols and warfare. The observed fact that there are waterbird-like symbols on swords, raises the question what the linkage between waterbirds and warfare could be, and if we are actually able to attempt to give meaning to their symbolism. Hence, my main question arose, i.e. can a clear linkage between the Celtic waterbird imagery and warfare be established through the use of contextual analysis of similar Celtic waterbird imagery? And if I cannot establish a clear linkage to warfare, are there any other linkages that can be made?Show less
Due to the largely ungraspable nature of skill, the academic discourse lacks a structured research method for it. Material scientists make inferences about skill in hand-made artefacts based on...Show moreDue to the largely ungraspable nature of skill, the academic discourse lacks a structured research method for it. Material scientists make inferences about skill in hand-made artefacts based on subjective judgements, despite missing the knowledge craftspeople possess. These sometimes rather unquantified inferences could lead to incorrect views on past societies and their socio-economic organisation. The craftsperson’s perspective, recently proposed by Kuijpers (2018) provides a toolbox based on perceptive categorisation for more structured skill research for archaeometallurgy. Perceptive categorisations are made of different steps in the production process, which can be used to create a technological roadmap of an archaeometallurgical assemblage. This thesis concerns a pilot study for establishing a craftsperson’s perspective for the ceramic chaîne opératoire. The focus lies on one suitable sensory aspect therein, being temper concentrations in clay. A newly devised method is introduced and tested. This method is used for investigating human tactile sensitivity for differing temper (sand) percentages in clay in direct- and indirect-comparison experiments. Through doing sensory experiments with people with different levels of experience with working with clay, it is hypothesised that a positive correlation can be demonstrated between an increased sensory attunement to a material and a higher level of skill. Conclusions about the relationship between skill and sensory attunement were not reached. However, it can be concluded that in direct comparison, sand content differences between 0 % and 2,5 % can mostly be recognised and that the sample containing more sand can be mostly correctly identified up to a 5 % difference. In indirect comparison, on average, temper (sand) percentages in clay can be perceived rather accurate. In both cases, large differences exist between individuals. Based on error analysis of indirect comparison, a perceptive categorisation for sand content in clay is proposed. The combination of such categorisations for all relevant sensory aspects of the ceramic chaîne opératoire could stand at the basis of the establishing of a craftsperson’s perspective for ceramic analysis. This perspective could be applied to ceramic assemblages to develop new ideas, and challenge existing ones, on ceramics, craft, craft organisation, skill and specialisation, and socio-economic organisation, in past and present societies.Show less
