Tonga was unique in the prehistoric Pacific for developing a maritime state that integrated the archipelago under a centralized authority and for undertaking long-distance economic and political exchanges in the second millennium A.D. To establish the extent of Tonga's maritime polity, we geochemically analyzed stone tools excavated from the central places of the ruling paramounts, particularly...

The Paleolithic stone tool industry from the Bose Basin (Guangxi, China) is best known for the presence of Acheulean-like bifacially and unifacially-worked handaxes found in the same horizon with tektites dated to 803,000 BP. One point that is often not included in discussion of the Bose lithics is the variability in the distribution of sites and artifacts across the basin. This paper reports t...

One of the greatest difficulties with evolutionary approaches in study stone tools (lithics) has been finding a mechanism for tying culture and biology way that preserves human agency operates at scales are visible archaeological record. The concept niche construction, whereby organisms actively construct their environments change conditions selection, could provide solution to this problem. In...

In the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic after about 35,000 years ago, abstract or depictional images provide evidence for cognitive abilities considered integral to modern human behavior. Here we report on two abstract representations engraved on pieces of red ochre recovered from the Middle Stone Age layers at Blombos Cave in South Africa. A mean date of 77,000 years was obtained for the layers cont...

Abstract Bubble and crystal textures evolve during magma ascent, altering properties that control ascent such as permeability viscosity. Eruption style results from feedbacks between bubble nucleation growth, microlite crystallization, gas loss, all processes recorded in pyroclasts. We show pyroclasts of the mafic Curacautín ignimbrite Llaima volcano, Chile, record a history repeated autobrecci...

The PALAEOSILKROAD project has been conducting field surveys in Kazakhstan to explore the regional Palaeolithic record by targeting primarily caves and rockshelters. However, survey also discovered numerous sites that were occupied during Holocene. In this paper, we present our preliminary findings from Nazugum rockshelter, a new archaeological site located south-eastern (Almaty region). strati...