Ricerc@Sapienza

In this article we evaluate the isotopic variability in ?13C and ?15N values of diets among maritime hunter-gatherers of the Beagle Channel (Southern Argentina). A system with two end members –marine and terrestrial resources– is not enough to describe populations with diversified subsistence strategies. Moreover, these marine hunter-gatherers are characterized as highly mobile groups whose foraging ranges comprised not only nearshore areas, but also offshore spaces.

This chapter presents an overview of the functional studies applied to the toolkit of the Levant communities prior to the Upper Palaeolithic. Despite the enormous chronological span and the broad geographical area comprised by “the Levant”, a functional approach being applied to mineral and organic toolkits, is nowadays quite rare. Surveys and excavations have

Environmentally transformative human use of land accelerated with the emergence of agriculture, but the extent, trajectory, and implications of these early changes are not well understood. An empirical global assessment of land use from 10,000 years before the present (yr B.P.) to 1850 CE reveals a planet largely transformed by hunter-gatherers, farmers, and pastoralists by 3000 years ago, considerably earlier than the dates in the land-use reconstructions commonly used by Earth scientists.

Archaeological deposits in rock shelters have enormous informative potential, particularly in arid environments where organic materials are well preserved. In these areas, sub-fossilized coprolites and dung remains have been identified as valuable proxies for inferences about past environments, subsistence economies and cultural trajectories. Here we present a multidisciplinary analysis of bovid (ovicaprine) coprolites collected from the Early Holocene hunter-gatherer occupation at Takarkori rock shelter (SW Libya, central Sahara).

The chapter summarized the main climatic, environmental and archaeological phenomena of Holocene central Sahara.

The abundant faunal remains from the Takarkori rock shelter in the Tadrart Acacus region of southwestern Libya are described. The material that covers the period between 10,200 to 4650 years cal BP illustrates the more humid environmental conditions in the Central Sahara during early and middle Holocene times. Particular attention is focussed on the aquatic fauna that shows marked diachronic changes related to increasing aridification.