Ancient Treasure
Art and Markets in the Greco-Roman World
Federico Etro
Journal of Economic History, forthcoming
Abstract:
We study art markets in the Greco-Roman world to explore the origins of artistic innovations in classical Greece and the mass production of imitative works in the Roman Empire. Economic factors may have played a role, on one side fostering product innovations when a few rival Greek city-states competed, outbidding each other to obtain higher-quality artworks, and on the other side fostering process innovations when a large integrated market promoted art trade across the Mediterranean Sea. The evidence on art prices is consistent with this. Literary evidence on classical Greek painting from V–III centuries BC (largely from Pliny the Elder) shows that the real price of masterpieces increased up to the peak of creativity reached with Apelles. Epigraphic evidence on Roman sculpture from I–III centuries AD (largely from inscriptions at the base of statues) shows that the real price of statues was stable and largely equalized across the imperial provinces.
Human brains preserve in diverse environments for at least 12,000 years
Alexandra Morton-Hayward et al.
Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 27 March 2024
Abstract:
The brain is thought to be among the first human organs to decompose after death. The discovery of brains preserved in the archaeological record is therefore regarded as unusual. Although mechanisms such as dehydration, freezing, saponification, and tanning are known to allow for the preservation of the brain on short time scales in association with other soft tissues (≲4000 years), discoveries of older brains, especially in the absence of other soft tissues, are rare. Here, we collated an archive of more than 4400 human brains preserved in the archaeological record across approximately 12,000 years, more than 1300 of which constitute the only soft tissue preserved amongst otherwise skeletonized remains. We found that brains of this type persist on time scales exceeding those preserved by other means, which suggests an unknown mechanism may be responsible for preservation particular to the central nervous system. The untapped archive of preserved ancient brains represents an opportunity for bioarchaeological studies of human evolution, health and disease.
Iron Age Connectivity Revealed by an Assemblage of Egyptian Faience in Central Iberia
Linda Chapon et al.
European Journal of Archaeology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research concerning transactions in the early first millennium BC in the westernmost Mediterranean has tended to focus on colonial coastlands occupied by scattered Levantine outposts, whereas cross-cultural interactions in hinterland regions have remained ill-defined. This article presents an assemblage of Egyptian vitreous artefacts, namely beads, a Hathor amulet, and further items from the seventh-century BC rural village of Cerro de San Vicente (Salamanca) in the interior of Spain. Macroscopic and chemical analyses demonstrate their likely manufacture in Egypt during the Middle and New Kingdom (second millennium BC), attesting to a far-reaching Phoenician maritime network that connected both ends of the Mediterranean. The authors interpret the items as liturgical objects, rather than mere high-status trinkets, that formed part of a widely shared Mediterranean world view and associated ritual mores. They consider the impact of cultural syncretism, which reached even remote and allegedly isolated peripheral settings in Iberia.
Figurative Representations in the North European Neolithic -- Are They There?
Rune Iversen, Valeska Becker & Rebecca Bristow
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article offers a comprehensive survey of figurative finds from Neolithic northern Europe. The survey shows that the immediate absence of figurative representation in the region is real and that the almost complete lack of figuration stands out from the previous Mesolithic and the contemporary northern and northeastern European Neolithic hunter-gatherer groups. Furthermore, the absence of figurative representations contrasts strongly with the thousands of clay figurines that characterize the southeastern European and Anatolian Neolithic. The survey provides a well-documented basis for discussing the significant differences between a figurative southeastern European Neolithic and an imageless northwestern European Neolithic. We suggest that the absence of figurative representations indicates that severe socio-cultural and religious/ideological changes took place within the Neolithic communities as agriculture spread from southeastern Europe via central Europe to northern and western Europe.
Food storage, mobility, and the density-dependence of hunter-gatherer movement ecology
Marcus Hamilton et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, April 2024
Abstract:
Mobility, food storage, and population density are central to the movement ecology of hunter-gatherer populations and understanding how these lifestyle traits covary over time and space has long been of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists. An important question that remains unresolved is the conditions under which hunter-gatherer populations reduce the cost of mobility by increasing sedentism. Here, we model the interaction of movement frequency, distance, food storage technology and population density in ethnographic data. We show that increasing levels of food storage technology reduces annual movement frequencies but has little impact on annual total mobility costs: mobility costs are more often related to population density than storage capacity. This is because while food storage effectively increases the window of time over which resources are available, storage in non-food-producing economies cannot increase the net productivity of landscapes. Therefore, populations who move less frequently have to move further each time they move because resources remain finite and so become depleted. We derive a mathematical model of hunter-gatherer movement ecology based on optimization principles and scaling theory and test its predictions using spatially-explicit linear mixed models. We show that the interaction of mobility, storage, and population density in data are remarkably consistent with theoretical predictions. Our results suggest that while food storage is a technological response to seasonal environments, mobility reduction is primarily a behavioral response to increasing population density.
Early Holocene rice cultivation integrated into marine adaptation in eastern China
Keyang He et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, April 2024
Abstract:
Coastal regions play a significant role in human migration, population growth, and social interactions. However, the transition of subsistence strategies from foraging to farming at the onset of the Neolithic Age in such regions remains obscure. Here, we analysed microfossil data of phytoliths and diatoms and morphological and morphometric data of rice bulliform phytoliths at the Jingtoushan site in the lower Yangtze River to investigate the relationship between rice cultivation and marine exploitation during the early Holocene. Our research showed a delayed rice domestication process at the Jingtoushan site owing to environmental and social factors induced by sea level rise; this remained in the initial stages of domestication. Contrary to the previous notion that the shell middens of southern coastal China merely relied on marine adaptation without evidence of rice farming, our research suggests that rice cultivation was integrated into marine adaptation at the Jingtoushan site around 8000 cal. BP and subsequently dispersed to southeast China around 5000 cal. BP. Thus, the Jingtoushan site may not only serve as an ancestor of the Hemudu culture but also as a precursor to the Neolithic expansion of maritime Austronesian.