An integrated analysis of Maglemose bone points reframes the Early Mesolithic of Southern Scandinavia.

The extensive peat bogs of Southern Scandinavia have yielded rich Mesolithic archaeological assemblages, with one of the most iconic artefacts being the bone point. Although great in number they remain understudied. Here we present a combined investigation of the typology, protein-based species composition, and absolute chronology of Maglemosian bone points. The majority of the bone points are made from cervids and bovines. However, changes both in species composition and barb morphology can be directly linked to a paucity of finds lasting nearly 600 years in Southern Scandinavia around 10,300 cal BP. We hypothesize that this hiatus was climate-driven and forced hunter-gatherers to abandon the lakes. Furthermore, the marked change in bone points coincides with a change in lithic technology. We, therefore, propose that the Maglemose culture in Southern Scandinavia is fundamentally divided into an Early Complex and a Late Complex.

Drink types unmask the health risks associated with alcohol intake - Prospective evidence from the general population.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Uncertainty still exists on the impact of low to moderate consumption of different drink types on population health. We therefore investigated the associations of different drink types in the form of beer/cider, champagne/white wine, red wine and spirits with various health outcomes. METHODS: Over 500,000 participants were recruited to the UK Biobank cohort. Alcohol consumption was self-reported as pints beer/cider, glasses champagne/white wine, glasses of red wine, and measures of spirits per week. We followed health outcomes for a median of 7.02 years and reported all-cause mortality, cardiovascular events, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular events, and cancer. RESULTS: In continuous analysis after excluding non-drinkers, beer/cider and spirits intake associated with an increased risk for all-cause mortality (beer/cider: hazard ratio, 1.56; 95% confidence interval, 1.45-1.68; spirits: 1.47; 1.35-1.60), cardiovascular events (beer/cider: 1.25; 1.17-1.33; spirits: 1.25; 1.16-1.36), ischemic heart disease (beer/cider:1.12; 0.99-1.26 [P = 0.056]; spirits: 1.17; 1.02-1.35), cerebrovascular disease (beer/cider: 1.63; 1.32-2.02; spirits: 1.59; 1.25-2.02) and cancer (beer/cider: 1.14; 1.05-1.24; spirits: 1.14; 1.03-1.26), while both champagne/white wine and red wine associated with a decreased risk for ischemic heart disease only (champagne/white wine: 0.84; 0.72-0.98; red wine: 0.88; 0.77-0.99). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings do not support the notion that alcohol from any drink type is beneficial to health. Consuming low levels of beer/cider and spirits already associated with an increased risk for all health outcomes, while wine showed opposite protective relationships only with ischemic heart disease.

The resilience of postglacial hunter-gatherers to abrupt climate change.

Understanding the resilience of early societies to climate change is an essential part of exploring the environmental sensitivity of human populations. There is significant interest in the role of abrupt climate events as a driver of early Holocene human activity, but there are very few well-dated records directly compared with local climate archives. Here, we present evidence from the internationally important Mesolithic site of Star Carr showing occupation during the early Holocene, which is directly compared with a high-resolution palaeoclimate record from neighbouring lake beds. We show that-once established-there was intensive human activity at the site for several hundred years when the community was subject to multiple, severe, abrupt climate events that impacted air temperatures, the landscape and the ecosystem of the region. However, these results show that occupation and activity at the site persisted regardless of the environmental stresses experienced by this society. The Star Carr population displayed a high level of resilience to climate change, suggesting that postglacial populations were not necessarily held hostage to the flickering switch of climate change. Instead, we show that local, intrinsic changes in the wetland environment were more significant in determining human activity than the large-scale abrupt early Holocene climate events.

Lessons from Star Carr on the vulnerability of organic archaeological remains to environmental change.

Examples of wetland deposits can be found across the globe and are known for preserving organic archaeological and environmental remains that are vitally important to our understanding of past human-environment interactions. The Mesolithic site of Star Carr (Yorkshire, United Kingdom) represents one of the most influential archives of human response to the changing climate at the end of the last glacial in Northern Europe. A hallmark of the site since its discovery in 1948 has been the exceptional preservation of its organic remains. Disturbingly, recent excavations have suggested that the geochemistry of the site is no longer conducive to such remarkable survival of organic archaeological and environmental materials. Microcosm (laboratory-based) burial experiments have been undertaken, alongside analysis of artifacts excavated from the site, to assess the effect of these geochemical changes on the remaining archaeological material. By applying a suite of macroscopic and molecular analyses, we demonstrate that the geochemical changes at Star Carr are contributing to the inexorable and rapid loss of valuable archaeological and paleoenvironmental information. Our findings have global implications for other wetland sites, particularly archaeological sites preserved in situ.

Technological Analysis of the World's Earliest Shamanic Costume: A Multi-Scalar, Experimental Study of a Red Deer Headdress from the Early Holocene Site of Star Carr, North Yorkshire, UK.

Shamanic belief systems represent the first form of religious practice visible within the global archaeological record. Here we report on the earliest known evidence of shamanic costume: modified red deer crania headdresses from the Early Holocene site of Star Carr (c. 11 kya). More than 90% of the examples from prehistoric Europe come from this one site, establishing it as a place of outstanding shamanistic/cosmological significance. Our work, involving a programme of experimental replication, analysis of macroscopic traces, organic residue analysis and 3D image acquisition, metrology and visualisation, represents the first attempt to understand the manufacturing processes used to create these artefacts. The results produced were unexpected--rather than being carefully crafted objects, elements of their production can only be described as expedient.

Amino acid racemization dating of marine shells: A mound of possibilities.

Shell middens are one of the most important and widespread indicators for human exploitation of marine resources and occupation of coastal environments. Establishing an accurate and reliable chronology for these deposits has fundamental implications for understanding the patterns of human evolution and dispersal. This paper explores the potential application of a new methodology of amino acid racemization (AAR) dating of shell middens and describes a simple protocol to test the suitability of different molluscan species. This protocol provides a preliminary test for the presence of an intracrystalline fraction of proteins (by bleaching experiments and subsequent heating at high temperature), checking the closed system behaviour of this fraction during diagenesis. Only species which pass both tests can be considered suitable for further studies to obtain reliable age information. This amino acid geochronological technique is also applied to midden deposits at two latitudinal extremes: Northern Scotland and the Southern Red Sea. Results obtained in this study indicate that the application of this new method of AAR dating of shells has the potential to aid the geochronological investigation of shell mounds in different areas of the world.