1,721,032 research outputs found
A new species of rhinoceros from the site of Bethlehem: ‘Dihoplus’ bethlehemsis sp. nov. (Mammalia, Rhinocerotidae)
No full textThe Plio-Pleistocene fossil rhinoceroses of Eurasia are relatively well known, although their taxonomy and phylogeny are still debated. The fossil rhinoceros material collected at the Bethlehem site during the first half of the 20th century is revised and re-described. Based on morphological comparison of the Bethlehem material with the latest Miocene, Pliocene and Early Pleistocene Eurasian and African species, the specimens are assigned as Rhinocerotini indet., Dihoplus sp. and 'Dihoplus' bethlehemsis sp. nov. The comparison revealed that the studied material displays more features in common with the genus Dihoplus than with the genus Stephanorhinus. Tooth microwear analysis revealed that the diet of Bethlehem rhinoceros was probably composed of leaves of trees, bushes, or part of dicots. The new species could be one of the latest representatives of the Miocene genus Dihoplus that survived in Eurasia until the end of the Pliocene. Thus again the site of Bethlehem being unique in its biogeographically setting, provides novel understanding of the ‘Levantine Corridor’ dispersal route
Updating Neanderthals: Understanding Behavioural Complexity in the Late Middle Palaeolithic
No full textUpdating Neanderthals: Understanding Behavioral Complexity in the Late Middle Paleolithic provides comprehensive knowledge on Neanderthals who lived throughout the European and Asian continents. The book synthesizes historical information about the study of Middle Paleolithic populations and presents current debates about their genetics, subsistence, technology, social and cognitive behaviors. It focuses on the last phase of Neanderthal settlements and presents the main patterns of modern humans across Europe. Written by international experts on the Middle Paleolithic who have conducted innovative studies in the last three decades, this book explores the implications of interactions between different human species, including Neanderthals, Denisovans and Sapiens. In addition, the book discusses the diversity and variability of human adaptations and behaviors in the changing climate and environment of the Late Pleistocene, and the relationship between these behaviors, demography and cognitive capabilities
Measurements of Ovis ammon antiqua and Hemitragus bonali from the Middle Pleistocene site of Arago Cave (Tautavel)
No full textRaw measurements of the bones and teeth of the small bovids (Ovis ammon antiqua and Hemitragus bonali) from the Arago Cave (Middle Pleistocene, France). References for the measurements are available in the atlas of measurements (file #1).
The data are the result of the PhD thesis of Rivals (2002):
Rivals, F., 2002. Les petits bovidés pléistocènes dans le bassin méditerranéen et le Caucase. Etude paléontologique, biostratigraphique, archéozoologique et paléoécologique. PhD thesis, Université de Perpignan, Perpignan
Spiritual and symbolic activities of Neanderthals
No full textVarious Neanderthal cultural remains can be interpreted as related to symbolic activities: burials, ornaments, pigments, unusual objects that do not fall within the technical sphere (wings, feathers, raptor claws) and, more recently, the frequentation of deep underground environments which implies freeing of oneself from trepidations about darkness and relies on the discovery of unknown or even dangerous environments. The findings of the last few years are ground-breaking, and have increased in number and quality and, among them, are unique and exceptional discoveries. However, many older discoveries still need to be re-visited from a taphonomic perspective or through new dating programmes. The main conclusion is that Neanderthal cultural and behavioural capacities do not look very different from those of contemporary populations in Africa (Homo sapiens or other still undefined taxa) of the Near and Middle East. They are rather comparable or indistinguishable in some instances, up to and including technological innovations, which can also be attributed to the Neanderthal lineage, despite these innovations not being as widespread and rapidly adopted as they appear to have been in the Upper Palaeolithic
From teeth to seasons: Integrated analysis on ungulate game applied to two late Neanderthals’ contexts in the Italian Alps
No full textHuman-environment interactions and spatio-temporal organization of the activities are of prime importance to decipher Paleolithic way of life. To address this topic, ungulates teeth offer a valuable tool to understand seasonality and extent of site occupation. In this paper, we present the results of the integrated application of two methodologies, dental wear analyses and cementochronology, to molars from cervids (Capreolus capreolus, Cervus
elaphus and Megaloceros giganteus) exploited by the Neanderthal groups at Fumane Cave, in the Italian eastern Alps. By focusing on the diet-related meso- and microwear patterns on the teeth’s occlusal surface and comparing them with samples from extant ungulates, dental wear analyses characterized the main exploited taxa as browser. This finding carries significant implications for understanding both the paleoenvironmental conditions of the area and Neanderthal subsistence strategy. Notably, the results align with the idea that the Italian peninsula served as a refugium during particularly harsh climatic periods. Moreover, the microwear signal yielded promising results in determining the duration of site occupation and cementum analysis sheds light on seasonality of the human frequentation. These findings shed light on the complexity of animal resource management practiced by Neanderthal groups, highlighting the varied strategies they employed to exploit different taxa. Furthermore, the present study served as a crucial testing ground to assess the reliability of a new multiproxies technique that integrates tooth wear analyses and cementochronology. Combining cementochronology and dental wear analysis enhances data resolution by integrating two complementary approaches. Cementochronology allows us to determine the exact season of death, which is often challenging to ascertain solely from microwear analysis – especially when the variability in microwear signals is low. On the other hand, dental wear analysis provides insights both into the functional aspects of teeth over time and into the duration of the mortality event (i.e. the hunting event in anthropogenic contexts). This combined approach allowed us to doublecheck and validate the results and obtain higher resolution data, overcoming potential gaps in information that may arise from relying on a single technique
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Neanderthal mobile toolkit in short-term occupations at Teixoneres Cave (Moia, Spain)
Full text linkHunter–gatherers have a nomadic lifestyle and move frequently on the landscape based on the seasonal distribution of resources. During these displacements, carrying capacities are limited, and the composition of the transported gear is generally planned ahead of the activity to perform. During the Pleistocene, prehistoric hunter–gatherers faced similar difficulties in exploiting the territory and employed different strategies for coping with their subsistence needs and the possible shortage of stone tools. The understanding of how these behaviors developed diachronically is pivotal for the reconstruction of the human trajectories of land use in different environments, orographic settings, and climates. Thus far, the identification of the mobile toolkit has been related to blanks produced with allochthonous rocks, whereas the recognition of the transported artefacts knapped in local and semi-local raw materials encounters more difficulties because of the possible association with the lithic production conducted at the site. In this paper, we present the mobile toolkit of sub-unit IIIb and IIIa of Teixoneres Cave, a Middle Paleolithic site where a clear differentiation between in-situ knapping activities in local quartz and the import of stone tools in other raw materials is documented. The analysis of these latter assemblages reveals that the bulk of the toolkit is composed of knapping by-products and that the number of curated artefacts, Levallois flakes, and cores is significantly lower. Results show that the main strategy of transport at Teixoneres Cave was a combination of hunting and cutting tools aiming toward a generalized set of gears instead of narrowing the equipment to few specialized items. These new data highlight the plasticity of Neanderthals’ technological organization in the western Mediterranean
- …
