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The main objective of the Belspo-funded LIMAMAL project was to support archaeologists in creating 3D terrain visualizations based on Lidar data and Pléiades stereoscopic imagery, and a combination or “fusion” thereof. A case study was developed to demonstrate the application of Pléiades imagery and light detection and ranging (lidar) technologies for prospection and visualization of the Mesoamerican archaeological landscape. Based on this case study, guidelines in English and Spanish have been developed to explain the technical processing. The project involved a stakeholder: the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), a Mexican federal government institution responsible for research, conservation, protection and spreading of knowledge on Mexican cultural heritage. The case study and guidelines were presented to the stakeholder and other interested parties during several meetings held during a short mission to Yucatan, Mexico in the spring of 2022.

Peer reviewed: True Increased and enhanced utilisation of remote sensing and robotics in the Arctic can further enhance cultural safety and well-being and reduce the risks posed to archaeologists, heritage workers and others in the field. In this preliminary scoping survey, the authors review the current use of these technologies and consider a range of related issues, from cultural safety to nefarious use by criminals. Initial discussions with experts have informed areas of concern; and the potential for further integration. In the future, the University of Tromsø’s new Tromsø Arctic Simulation Integration Centre (TASIC) will be utilised to evaluate a range of scenarios to inform risk analysis and contribute towards safety enhancement in the Arctic Heritage at Risk Project (Arctic-HARP). The following is an overview of the significant state-of-the-art technologies and related matters.

There are many environments on Earth that are so remote that they are inhospitable to humans and conventional sensing equipment. Yet, these environments can hold information of ecological and cultural significance that cannot be gathered anywhere else. Current methods of gathering information in these environments give an important window, but utilizing modern sensors to capture 3D information can allow us to interpret existing data and understand the environments in new and unique ways. This thesis will demonstrate how 3D capture can improve data collection and interpretation in three separate remote environments. First, I will show how Synthetic Aperture Sonar on autonomous underwater vehicles paired with optimized feature detectors can improve target detection and seafloor recognition. Next, I will show how RGBD cameras, photogrammetry, and LIDAR can be used in isolated Guatemalan archaeological excavations to visualize and contextualize ancient sites in relation to each other and to our broader understanding of Mayan history. Finally, I will demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of RGBD cameras for fish stock assessment through detection and length and biomass measurement in open waters and in aquaculture.

Eastern Mediterranean archaeological sites record intensified marine resource use among coastal hunter-gatherer groups in the Upper Mesolithic (~10.5-8.5 ka (1)) and into the Early Neolithic, followed by a decline in fishing effort as the widespread use of agriculture and pastoralism was established in the Neolithic (~8.5-4 ka (2)). We used a fish microfossil record of teeth, bones, scales, and otoliths deposited in an Aegean deep-sea sediment core to show that pelagic fish availability may have played a role in shaping this dietary evolution. We found elevated deposition of pelagic fish remains during what broadly corresponds to the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic periods, with fish fossil abundance increasing 12-fold starting around ~10 ka. The abundance of fish remains then declines in the open ocean during the Middle-Late Neolithic, with fish fossils decreasing 6-fold after ~6 ka. Our findings reveal that fish were abundant when Mesolithic and Early Neolithic coastal hunter-gatherer groups were exploiting them more heavily, and diminished as human fish use declined and widespread agriculture was established in the Neolithic. We infer that environmental changes in fish availability altered the costs and benefits of the different subsistence strategies, with fishing being a productive strategy during the Upper Mesolithic, and reliance on domesticated resources becoming increasingly advantageous as fish availability declined into the Neolithic. We argue that Early Holocene environmental changes influenced not only the uppermost marine trophic levels, but also the choices and economies of early humans, ultimately favoring the development of agriculture in the Neolithic.

2020 m. atliekant tyrimus magistralinio dujotiekio vietoje, aptikta ir tirta Kakliniškių 7 gyvenvietė (2 pav.). Archeologiniai pėdsakai čia buvo gana menki – archeologinio sluoksnio beveik neišlikę, aptikti įgilinti objektai koncentravosi vos 10 m skersmens areale. Iš viso užfiksuota 19 objektų, kurių devyni greičiausiai yra gamtinės kilmės (3, 4 pav.; 1 lentelė). Visgi įgilintuose objektuose surinkta gausi ir reprezentatyvi, tik vienam trumpam apgyvenimo etapui priklausančios keramikos kolekcija, archeobotaninė medžiaga (11 pav.; 3 lentelė) ir kiti radiniai (10 pav.) suteikė itin vertingų duomenų, leidžiančių naujai pažvelgti į I tūkstantmečio pr. Kr. kultūrinę situaciją Pietryčių Lietuvoje. Visa keramika priklauso vienam tipui, kurio išskirtinis bruožas – brūkšniuotas paviršius su papildomai užteptu kruopėtumo suteikiančiu sluoksniu. Visų indų formos labai panašios – tai puodai gaubtomis sienelėmis ir nežymiai išreikštais peteliais (5–9 pav.; 2 lentelė). Šis keramikos tipas iki šiol nebuvo išskirtas, o tokios keramikos žinota tik iš kapinynų. Naujai išskirtas keramikos tipas pavadintas Kakliniškių tipu. Kakliniškių tipo keramikos išskyrimas ir požymių apibrėžimas leido tokią keramiką identifikuoti ir kitose Pietryčių Lietuvos ir rytinėse Užnemunės gyvenvietėse. Tai Kakliniškės 6 ir 8, Migūčionys bei Žebertonys 4 ir 5 (12 pav.) tame pačiame mikroregione kaip ir Kakliniškės 7; Kernavė ir Ardiškis 2 (13 pav.) prie Neries; Vilūnai 5 Kruonio apylinkėse; Alytus ir Panemuninkai 3 prie Nemuno; Skituriai 2 rytinėje Užnemunės dalyje (1 pav.). Skirtingose gyvenvietėse gautų 14C datų modeliavimas leido Kakliniškių tipo keramikos datavimą apibrėžti maždaug 410–320 cal BC (15 pav.; 4, 5 lentelės). Kakliniškių tipo keramikos aptikta ir kapinynuose. Urnų kruopėtu paviršiumi, priskirtinų Kakliniškių tipui, buvo visuose trijuose tyrinėtuose Užnemunės ir Rytų Lietuvos I tūkstantmečio pr. Kr. laidojimo paminkluose – Kernavėje, Semeniškiuose ir Paveisininkuose (14 pav.). Visose gyvenvietėse, kuriose aptikta Kakliniškių tipo keramikos, IV a. pr. Kr. atstovauja labai menkos archeologinės liekanos, paplitusios nedideliame areale. Tai leidžia kelti hipotezę, kad gyvenvietės buvo neįtvirtintos, išsklaidyto tipo, sodybos nutolusios viena nuo kitos ir vienoje vietoje ilgai nestovėjusios, dažnai perkeliamos į naują vietą. Šiais požymiais gyvenvietės su Kakliniškių tipo keramika labai skiriasi tiek nuo ankstesnių, ankstyvosios brūkšniuotosios keramikos kultūros, tiek ir nuo vėlyvesnių, vėlyvosios brūkšniuotosios keramikos kultūros, gyvenviečių, kurioms būdingi stori archeologiniai sluoksniai su dideliu kiekiu radinių, o dominuojantis gyvenviečių tipas – įtvirtintos gyvenvietės. Tokie skirtumai leidžia kelti hipotezę, kad jie galėjo būti nulemti svarbių skirtingų šiose gyvenviečių grupėse praktikuotų ūkio modelių. Apie priešromėniškojo geležies amžiaus žemdirbystę Lietuvoje iki šiol duomenų beveik neturėjome. Todėl nauja gausi medžiaga iš gerai išlikusių ir patikimai datuotų kontekstų Kakliniškių 7 gyvenvietėje šiuo atžvilgiu suteikė itin reikšmingos informacijos. Čia surinkta kultūrinių augalų liekanų kolekcija leidžia įžvelgti tam tikrus skirtumus nuo Lietuvos vėlyvojo bronzos amžiaus įtvirtintų gyvenviečių medžiagos. Svarbiausiu skirtumu galima įvardyti mažą sorų skaičių – tuo ši kolekcija artima tirtoms romėniškojo laikotarpio gyvenvietėms. Minėtas gyvenviečių su Kakliniškių tipo keramika sodybų trumpalaikiškumas leidžia kelti hipotezę apie praktikuotą ekstensyvios formos žemdirbystę. Vis dėlto tokio spėjimo pagrindimas lieka ateities tyrimų uždavinys. Straipsnyje pristatyti duomenys paneigia literatūroje besikartojančius teiginius, kad kultūrinė situacija visoje Rytų Lietuvoje ištisą I tūkstantmetį pr. Kr. buvo labai statiška, nekito nei materialinė kultūra, nei socialinė santvarka, apgyvenimo sistema ar kiti kultūriniai bruožai. Šiandien galima konstatuoti, kad regiono negalima laikyti homogeniška nei geografiniu, nei chronologiniu lygmenimis. Nauji archeologiniai duomenys rodo, kad ankstyvoji brūkšniuotosios keramikos kultūra, kuriai neabejotinai atstovauja tik apie 800–400 m. pr. Kr. datuotos Šiaurės rytų Lietuvos, Pietryčių Latvijos ir Šiaurės vakarų Baltarusijos įtvirtintos gyvenvietės, nepagrįstai buvo apibrėžiama gerokai platesniu regionu ir chronologiniu laikotarpiu. Panašu, kad gyvenvietės su Kakliniškių tipo keramika atstovauja kitoms nei minėtos kultūros tradicijoms ir rodo, kad bent jau Pietryčių Lietuvoje I tūkstantmečio pr. Kr. kultūrinė raida buvo kur kas dinamiškesnė, nei iki šiol manyta. The article presents the data from Kakliniškės 7 settlement site, discovered and excavated in 2020 during the construction of the gas pipeline. The rich and representative collection of pottery and archaeobotanical material gathered in the site have provided valuable data on the hitherto unknown 4th century BC in Lithuania. Pottery such as that found at Kakliniškės 7 has not previously been identified, and is therefore referred to here as Kakliniškės Ware. These are pots with slightly curved walls, rounded shoulders and vertical rims, featuring a striated surface topped with an additional coarse layer. The defined attributes of this new type of pottery have allowed the identification of the same ware in other settlement and burial sites in southeastern Lithuania and the Trans-Nemunas region. All of these settlement sites share some common features; most likely they are the sites of short-lived farmsteads belonging to highly dispersed settlements. Such data allow us to hypothesise a hitherto unidentified cultural group that briefly spread in southern Lithuania in the 4th century BC. This challenges the prevailing model of a static cultural development and a homogeneous material culture in the 1st millennium BC in all of eastern Lithuania. Our data show that the cultural situation here was much more dynamic than previously thought. Keywords: The Earliest Iron Age, pottery, unenclosed settlements, agriculture.

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This article discusses the policy of collectivization in agriculture. It also analyzes the rapid growth of cotton fields as a result of collectivization.

Head of Communication: Abel Grau; Editorial board: Esther M. García Pastor, Alejandro Parrilla García; Writers: Lucía Casas Piñeiro, Isidoro García Cano, Esther M. García Pastor, Carmen Fernández, Ana Iglesias, Mónica Lara del Vigo, Silbia López de Lacalle, Víctor Lloret Blackburn, Alejandro Parrilla García, Belén Remacha; Photography: César Hernández, Álvaro Muñoz Guzmán, Joan Costa, Artur Martínez y Pau Franch; Translation: Fabiola Barraclough. This special issue of ‘CSIC Investiga. Journal of Science’ shows the performance of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) within the EU R&D framewok programme Horizon 2020. It presents reportages on research projects about Qur’an heritage in Europe, the exploration of Mars, the new robots that assist people, more efficient parasites controls in fishery, new sustainable packaging, methods to trace asymptomatic tuberculosis transmisión, and the historic legacy of the Senegal’s region of Pathiana, among others. Peer reviewed

The emergence of an incipient city represents not only a moment in time, but also the beginnings of a social experiment. Aggregated living introduced new challenges such as the need to feed more mouths than ever before. Yet studying responses to these challenges becomes difficult in the case of early cities as excavations of these contexts do not provide adequate temporal and/or spatial resolution to assess change over time. This dissertation examines subsistence strategies at the archaeological site of La Blanca (900-500 BCE), a Middle Preclassic period incipient city on the Pacific coast of Guatemala with a long history of household excavations. I analyze macrobotanical and microbotanical plant remains from La Blanca to assess both the types of foods used to feed inhabitants and the distribution of intra-site food processing activities across time and space. The analysis of plant remains can provide unique insights into social differentiation in comparison to other commonly used indices, such as the distribution of prestige goods. I rely on Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical construct of social fields to disentangle the study of economic ranking based on prestige goods from economic activities pursued by households. Rather than grouping households by elite or commoner status first and then comparing plant remains second, I look to the plant data first to assess their own non-binary insights into social relations. My research uses Exploratory Data Analysis to investigate spatial and temporal patterning. I integrate a wide variety of techniques including paleoethnobotanical methods (macrobotanical, starch granule, and phytolith analysis), spatial statistics, and Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates to conduct intra-site and inter-site comparisons of plant data from the La Blanca site. My results present novel perspectives on subsistence planning in early cities and long-term changes in the regional subsistence practices of Pacific Mexico and Guatemala during the Preclassic period. Spatial statistics reveal that domestic contexts at La Blanca are clustered, identifying five neighborhoods and one additional area with a more complex use history. Comparisons of botanical remains from these six locales indicate that their uses changed over time. Moreover, temporal comparisons illustrate that diversification played a key role in meeting subsistence needs during the Conchas D subphase, the most populous period of the early city’s occupation. Inter-site comparisons with other Early and Middle Preclassic sites on the Pacific Coast indicate that, contrary to expectations, maize intensification predated the initial urbanization of the region. La Blanca also represents the highest taxonomic diversity of the sequence, revealing that diversification is more characteristic of early urbanism on the Pacific Coast than previously considered. Analysis of plant use as a social field does not provide strong evidence of differences in household subsistence strategies by economic ranking, but instead highlights key differences by spatial cluster that are more indicative of early efforts at city planning.