Excavations on Buldir Island, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, have revealed the remains of several features dated between the 13th and 17th centuries A.D. Soil from an open-air workshop, represented by 2 excavated pits, and a structure built of whale bones were sampled for evidence of parasites and microfloristic remains. Two groups of helminth eggs (Diphyllobothrium and Ankylostomidae) were identified in samples from the open-air pits; microfloristical remains were found in all samples. This is the first paleoparasitological analysis conducted on an Aleutian midden.

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A unique window into the biological history of the Aleutian Islands is provided by the zooarchaeology of early human sites. We focus on the palaeoavifauna hunted by early Aleuts who inhabited Amchitka and Buldir islands (central Aleutians), and Shemya Island (western Aleutians) from c. 3500 yr ago to the present. Most of the seabird species recovered from these early sites varied widely in distribution and abundance through time and space. Pelagic procellariids such as short-tailed albatrosses and short-tailed shearwaters were present and abundant at most sites and at most times. During periods of increased temperatures and precipitation (e.g. 650-1100 yr BP), nearshore foragers such as cormorants and parakeet auklets increased in abundance, but during periods of cooling (e.g. 1800-2100 yr BP), piscivorous birds feeding offshore, such as murres and kittiwakes, predominated. Over three millennia, we found that marine bird populations were negatively correlated with temperature and positively correlated with precipitation. We detected hunterrelated depletions of populations breeding in accessible colonies at small scales of space and time, but we did not observe widespread or long-term effects. We conclude that local oceanography and regional changes in prey bases caused by environmental and climate change in the past had a significant impact on the distribution and abundance of Aleutian marine birds.

Bothriocephalid (Diphyllobothrium pacificum) and Ascarid (Ascaris lumbricoides) eggs have been identified in a sample taken in the abdominal cavity of a child skeleton found in Zeto Point (ADK-011), an archaeological site on Adak Island in the Central Aleutian Islands (Alaska).

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The NeoArabia project tries to understand how environmental, social, economic and technological factors work in concert to influence settlement and abandonment along a latitudinal transect of 1200 km from UAE to southern Oman. This region was affected by wide north-south variations in the Indo-Arabian monsoon, marine upwelling activity and eustatic variations in the Mid-Holocene. On the local settlement scale, this transect is based on fine stratigraphic excavations and permits the reconstruction of the site formation processes and site catchment analysis. A large number of studies have been conducted on the Ruways-1 site, focusing on a deep stratified sequence corresponding to three millennia of occupation. These studies include on-site climate-environmental signal analysis, local palaeogeography and environmental reconstruction, reservoir effect studies, typo-technological studies, palaeoeconomic strategies, anthropological studies, sclerochronological studies and, finally, site formation processes, the understanding of which makes it possible to explain the potential and limits of the archaeological excavation. The first results confirm the richness of these archaeological archives for documenting the socio-environmental dynamics, but also the richness of its complex sedimentary structure and the importance of conducting fine and multidisciplinary excavations to answer questions about the rhythms and functions of occupations and the causalities of socioenvironmental changes. K E Y W O R D S Coastal Neolithic, geoarcheology, shell midden, site catchment, site formation processes, Sultanate of Oman F I G U R E 8 (a) Map of the Ruways micro-region with the proposed Neolithic extension of a wide open lagoon with mangrove ecosystems (in purple) and the two khors situated on each side of the current village of Ruways, with the position of the four geological cores (yellow stars) and the RWY-1 site (orange area). (b) Electrical resistivity tomography section of the current sabkha located in the western part of the RWY-1 site, with the main superficial sedimentary formations and the location of core 4. (c) Lithological sequence of core 4 with the radiocarbon dating series on shells in BP and in cal. yr BC age [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

The furcula is a specialized bone in birds involved in flight function. Its morphology has been shown to reflect different flight styles from soaring/gliding birds, subaqueous flight to high-frequency flapping flyers. The strain experienced by furculae can vary depending on flight type. Bone remodeling is a response to damage incurred from different strain magnitudes and types. In this study, we tested whether a bone microstructural feature, namely Haversian bone density, differs in birds with different flight styles, and reassessed previous work using phylogenetic comparative methods that assume an evolutionary model with additional taxa. We show that soaring birds have higher Haversian bone densities than birds with a flapping style of flight. This result is probably linked to the fact that the furculae of soaring birds provide less protraction force and more depression force than furculae of birds showing other kinds of flight. The whole bone area is another explanatory factor, which confirms the fact that size is an important consideration in Haversian bone development. All birds, however, display Haversian bone development in their furculae, and other factors like age could be affecting the response of Haversian bone development.

RESUMENEl desarrollo de una prospección arqueológica en la costa de isla Dawson e isla Wickham, ubicadas en una posición estratégica entre las diferentes vías de comunicación que conectan la porción central del estrecho de Magallanes con el archipiélago fueguino, registró 27 yacimientos que corresponden a antiguos campamentos de cazadores-recolectores marinos que habitaron la zona. La realización de excavaciones de sondeo en seis de estos sitios permitió recuperar un interesante conjunto de restos arqueofaunísticos. A partir del análisis de éstos conjuntos, describimos las principales características observadas y ofrecemos un primer panorama referido a la subsistencia de los grupos que habitaron esta zona del archipiélago fueguino.PALABRAS CLAVE: isla Dawson, estrecho de Magallanes, Holoceno tardío, cazadores marinos, pesca, subsistencia. SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES OF HUNTER GATHERERS FROM DAWSON ISLAND (MAGELLAN'S STRAIT) DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE HOLOCENE: FIRST APPROXIMATIONS ABSTRACTThe development of an archaeological survey on the coast of Dawson and Wickham island, located in a strategic position between different path roads that connect the central portion of the Magellan strait with the fueguian archipelago, allowed detecting 27 sites that correspond to former marine hunter-gatherer camps of the inhabitants of the zone. The accomplishment of excavations in six of these sites allowed recovering an interesting set of archaeological fauna remains. From the analysis of these assemblages, we describe the main observed characteristics and offer a first panorama referred to the subsistence of the groups that lived in this zone of the fueguian archipelago.