Old Debates
Environmental Drivers of Wealth Inequality among Ancestral Puebloan Farmers in Bears Ears National Monument
Roxanne Lois Lamson et al.
American Antiquity, forthcoming
Abstract:
Here, we explore variation in a new record of archaeological house-floor sizes from the southwestern United States relative to spatially explicit time series estimates of local precipitation. Our results show that inequality becomes more severe during periods of high precipitation. This supports the theory suggesting that inequality may emerge where resources are dense, predictable, and clumped within heterogenous and circumscribed environments. Our findings indicate that wealth inequality may emerge among populations with similar subsistence adaptations as a result of local socioenvironmental variation.
Was the Hephthalite Empire in Central Asia the Cradle of the Justinianic Plague?
Frantz Grenet & Kyle Harper
Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Summer 2025, Pages 1-42
Abstract:
The origins and early diffusion of the Justinianic Plague likely involved the Hephthalite and Alkhan Huns as an essential conduit for the bacterium’s dispersal from Central Asia. Written and DNA evidence together support this route of transmission. The plague is an enzootic bacterial disease, and DNA suggests that the animal reservoirs hosting the lineage that gave rise to the pandemic lived near the Tianshan mountains. Written sources from the Roman Empire describe the plague’s appearance via the Red Sea, which suggests importation across the Indian Ocean. Connections emerge between the Hephthalite military campaigns both to the north and to the south, the presence of plague-bearing animals like camels and marmots, and routes of ancient trade. Several Buddhist sources echoing the situation in the last period of Hephthalite domination in India (c. 540 C.E.) report mass deaths, allegedly from massacres, which, according to associated details, can be reinterpreted as an epidemic. The proposed journey of the plague involved two major stages, first from Central Asia to India and then across maritime routes to Africa and the Red Sea. This hypothesis aligns with the available sources, offering a plausible model that is most consistent with written and genetic evidence.
Relationality, Immanence, Hierarchy: The Nature and Culture of Being(s) at Göbekli Tepe
Marc Verhoeven
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper deals with symbolic and ontological human–animal relationships at the Early Neolithic (PPNA) site of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey. Here a series of megalithic round stone buildings, built by hunter-gatherers, were embellished by large stone pillars with depictions of animals, particularly predators. On the basis of an analysis of the pillar iconography and of recent anthropological and archaeological insights about alterity and perceptions of nature and culture, it will be argued that human–animal relationships at Göbekli Tepe were part of an ontology marked by both immanence and hierarchy. Imagistic ritualization in evocative architectural contexts, probably directed by shamans, served to express such relations. The internal logic of this is exemplified in a model of the world of Göbekli Tepe, based on a novel approach with so-called referential relations and compositional hierarchy as ways to explore and interpret relations between beings and things.
Amber Networks in Prehistory: North-Eastern Iberia as a Case Study
Mercedes Murillo-Barroso et al.
European Journal of Archaeology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study concerns prehistoric amber networks in north-eastern Iberia, emphasizing its distinct exchange dynamics compared to other regions of the Iberian Peninsula. Baltic amber dominated assemblages in this area from the Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age, contrasting with the prevalence of Sicilian amber in southern Iberia, or Cretaceous Iberian amber in the northern region. The findings underscore the region’s connection to southern France, with the Pyrenees serving as a cultural conduit, unlike the river Ebro, which acted as a boundary. Here the authors present the results of a Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) analysis of twenty-one amber beads, primarily from collective burials. Eighteen were made of Baltic succinite. Baltic amber may have begun to arrive as early as 3634–3363 cal BC, and continued to be used until the Late Bronze Age. Exceptions included a unique spacer-bead made of gum and two bolus pigments misidentified as amber. The results highlight Iberia’s regional diversity in raw material sourcing and exchange, reflecting distinct sociocultural dynamics and challenging linear narratives of Iberian prehistory.
The impact of human dispersals and local interactions on the genetic diversity of coastal Papua New Guinea over the past 2,500 years
Kathrin Nägele et al.
Nature Ecology & Evolution, June 2025, Pages 908-923
Abstract:
The inhabitants of New Guinea and its outlying islands have played an important role in the human history of the Pacific region. Nevertheless, the genetic diversity, particularly of pre-colonial communities, is still understudied. Here we present the ancient genomes of 42 individuals from Papua New Guinea (PNG). The ancient genomic results of individuals from Watom Island (Bismarck Archipelago) and the south and northeastern coasts of PNG are contextualized with new (bio-) archaeological data. The individuals’ accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates span 2,500 years of human habitation, and our results demonstrate the influences of different dispersal events on the genetic make-up of ancient PNG communities. The oldest individuals show an unadmixed Papuan-related genetic signature, whereas individuals dating from 2,100 years before present carry varying degrees of an East-Asian-related contribution. These results and the inferred admixture dates suggest a centuries-long delay in genetic mixture with local communities after the arrival of populations with Asian ancestry. Two geographically close communities on the South Coast, AMS dated to within the past 540 years, diverge in their genetic profiles, suggesting differences in their interaction spheres involving groups with distinct ancestries. The inferred split time of these communities around 650 years before present coincides with intensified settlement activity and the emergence of regional trade networks.