Professor Nick Barton

Evidence for specialised bone tools has recently been reported for the Middle Stone Age of North Africa [one], which complements similar finds of slightly younger age in South Africa [two, three]. However, until now scant reference has been made to lesser known tools also made of bone ('bone retouchers') that were employed specifically as intermediaries for working or refining stone artefacts, that are sometimes present in these assemblages. In this paper we describe 20 bone retouchers from the cave of Grotte des Pigeons at Taforalt in north-east Morocco. This is the largest stratified assemblage of bone retouchers from a North African MSA site, and the biggest single collection so far from the African Continent. A total of 18 bone retouchers was recovered in securely dated archaeological levels spanning a period from ~ 84.5 ka to 24 ka cal BP. A further two bone retouchers were found in a layer at the base of the deposits in association with Aterian artefacts dating to around 85,000 BP and so far represent the earliest evidence of this type of tool at Taforalt. In this paper we present a first, detailed description of the finds and trace the stages of their production, use and discard (chaîne opératoire). At the same time, we assess if there were diachronic changes in their form and function and, finally, explore their presence in relation to stone tools from the same occupation layers of the cave.

Infant remains are relatively uncommon in the late Pleistocene (Upper Palaeolithic) archaeological record. Funerary treatment is considered indicative of social status and mirrors cultural attitudes toward the deceased or the group they represent. Here we report on the burials of six infants, including three who died at birth or shortly thereafter, from Later Stone Age (Iberomaurusian) levels at Grotte des Pigeons, Taforalt, in Morocco dating to ∼14,500 cal BP. Funerary treatment of the infants was equivalent to that of older individuals within the community, indicating an inclusive social status. The burials of two of the six infants, shown by previous aDNA analysis to be brother and sister, were overlain by ochre stained grinding stones that may have served as grave markers. In this case, a uniquely shared funerary treatment mirrored a close biological relationship, suggesting that kinship contributed to the patterning of funerary behavior within this Pleistocene burial assemblage.

© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Bird remains that are difficult to identify taxonomically using morphological methods, are common in the palaeontological record. Other types of challenging avian material include artefacts and food items from endangered taxa, as well as remains from aircraft strikes. We here present a DNA-based method that enables taxonomic identification of bird remains, even from material where the DNA is heavily degraded. The method is based on the amplification and sequencing of two short variable parts of the 16S region in the mitochondrial genome. To demonstrate the applicability of this approach, we evaluated the method on a set of Holocene and Late Pleistocene postcranial bird bones from several palaeontological and archaeological sites in Europe with good success.