Suchergebnisse

Foraging societies present unique ways of livings and sociality which are manifested by distinctive practices and use of space. From an archaeological point of view, understanding forager sociality and studying their practices and the resulted material deposition patterns is crucial to reconstruct archaeological site formation processes. When studying archaeological sites in tropical environments, such as rainforests, one must take into account and study the role of the tropics in the formation of the archaeological record. Human adaptation to tropical environment influences people's practices, use of space and materiality. In addition, the environmental setting plays a significant role in post-depositional processes which may alter, preserve or disrupt archaeological materials. This study involve a long term ethnographic research among a contemporary forager group in South India, which allowed us to associate the social aspects of forager ways of living – such as mobility, immediacy and adaptation to the tropical forest - with patterns of use of apace and material deposition. Excavations of an abandoned open-air site and a rock-shelter of the same group, included field observations and sediment sampling followed by laboratory analyses which enabled the investigation of post-depositional processes at both the visible and invisible (microscopic and sub-microscopic) scales. Overall, although forager ways of living and the environmental conditions in tropical forests challenge the formation of a well preserved archaeological evidence, an integrated approach examining the different scales of the archaeological record can successfully reconstruct the formation processes of archaeological sites in tropical forests and associate the archaeological evidence with social aspects of forager ways of living. ; Excavation and laboratory analyses were funded by the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA agreement n° 623293 granted to D.E.F. at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. ; This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.06.036

Hunter-gatherer societies have distinct social perceptions and practices which are expressed in unique use of space and material deposition patterns. However, the identification of archaeological evidence associated with hunter-gatherer activity is often challenging, especially in tropical environments such as rainforests. We present an integrated study combining ethnoarchaeology and geoarchaeology in order to study archaeological site formation processes related to hunter-gatherers' ways of living in tropical forests. Ethnographic data was collected from an habitation site of contemporary hunter-gatherers in the forests of South India, aimed at studying how everyday activities and way of living dictate patterns of material deposition. Ethnoarchaeological excavations of abandoned open-air sites and a rock-shelter of the same group located deep in the forests, involved field observations and sampling of sediments from the abandoned sites and the contemporary site. Laboratory analyses included geochemical analysis (i.e., FTIR, ICP-AES), phytolith concentration analysis and soil micromorphology. The results present a dynamic spatial deposition pattern of macroscopic, microscopic and chemical materials, which stem from the distinctive ways of living and use of space by hunter-gatherers. This study shows that post-depositional processes in tropical forests result in poor preservation of archaeological materials due to acidic conditions and intensive biological activity within the sediments. Yet, the multiple laboratory-based analyses were able to trace evidence for activity surfaces and their maintenance practices as well as localized concentrations of activity remains such as the use of plants, metals, hearths and construction materials. ; The research leading to these results has received funding form the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions—http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA agreement n° 623293 granted to DF at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ; This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from PLOS via https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164185

Hunter-gatherer societies have distinct social perceptions and practices which are expressed in unique use of space and material deposition patterns. However, the identification of archaeological evidence associated with hunter-gatherer activity is often challenging, especially in tropical environments such as rainforests. We present an integrated study combining ethnoarchaeology and geoarchaeology in order to study archaeological site formation processes related to hunter-gatherers' ways of living in tropical forests. Ethnographic data was collected from an habitation site of contemporary hunter-gatherers in the forests of South India, aimed at studying how everyday activities and way of living dictate patterns of material deposition. Ethnoarchaeological excavations of abandoned open-air sites and a rock-shelter of the same group located deep in the forests, involved field observations and sampling of sediments from the abandoned sites and the contemporary site. Laboratory analyses included geochemical analysis (i.e., FTIR, ICP-AES), phytolith concentration analysis and soil micromorphology. The results present a dynamic spatial deposition pattern of macroscopic, microscopic and chemical materials, which stem from the distinctive ways of living and use of space by hunter-gatherers. This study shows that postdepositional processes in tropical forests result in poor preservation of archaeological materials due to acidic conditions and intensive biological activity within the sediments. Yet, the multiple laboratory-based analyses were able to trace evidence for activity surfaces and their maintenance practices as well as localized concentrations of activity remains such as the use of plants, metals, hearths and construction materials. ; The research leading to these results has received funding form the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions—http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA agreement n° 623293 granted to DF at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ; Peer Reviewed

Abstract