Sheep were one of the first livestock species domesticated by humans. After initial domestication in the Middle East they were spread across Eurasia. The modern distribution of endogenous Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus insertions in domestic sheep breeds suggests that over the course of millennia, successive introductions of improved lineages and selection for wool quality occurred in the Mediterr...

Lead isotopic ratios of cassiterite, the dominant tin ore, evolve after crystallization through decay of uranium and thorium to lead. We show that the lead isotopic ratios of smelted tin at Rooiberg, South Africa, form an isochron that matches the known geological age of the Rooiberg cassiterite deposits. Since the lead isotopic ratios of several prehistoric tin and bronze artifacts throughout ...

This paper considers pollution/toxicological science in an archaeological context. Copper mining was an important activity in southern Jordan, especially during the Bronze Age, Nabatean, Roman, and Byzantine periods, and the environmental legacy of such intensive mining and smelting activities exists today in the form of massive, ancient spoil and smelting tips. The environment was heavily poll...

Many potteries have been discovered from excavations and a surface survey at Shahdad, but few works have beendone to examine craft specialization in pottery production at this important site. Different types of potteries, some ofwhich bearing potter marks demonstrate that craftsmen of the site had involved in manufacturing of centralized potteryproduction. A number of kilns and many waste of po...

The second season of the archaeological survey of Qeshm Island was conducted during the winter of 2012, during which the team identified a total of 138 sites. The preliminary analysis of the ceramic assemblage from these sites suggests that 5 sites date to the 3rd millennium B.C.(Bronze Age) and represent the earliest in the directory. The remainder includes 3 Iron Age, 4 Achaemenid, 23 Parthia...