Nicolas et al. (2021) recently published a very interesting interpretation of the Bronze Age Dalle (slab) de Saint-Bélec as a Bronze Age map of a region in Brittany. The interpretation is rooted in the intuition felt by some of the early discoverers of the slab, in the early 20th century, that it might be a…
Comment on Boëda et al.’s claim of a 24 000 year old stone tool at Vale da Pedra Furada, Brazil
As part of their continuing work on establishing that there are archaeological remains in Brazil dating to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) or earlier, Boëda et al. (2021) present a techno-functional analysis of a piece recovered in an LGM layer in their excavation at Vale da Pedra Furada. As usual by now with claims of…
Oak Island Archaeology Update: Is there a stone road?
The later part of Season 8 of Curse of Oak Island (COOI) focuses largely on the possibility that a stone road connects a wharf-like structure at the edge of The Swamp area and the Money Pit area. The COOI team, this time supported by archaeologists Aaron Taylor and environmental scientist Ian Spooner, are putting forward…
Oak Island archaeology update: A Serpent Mound and an ancient Chinese coin?
The last few episodes of Season 8 of The Curse of Oak Island (COOI) have focused on the possibility that there is a serpent mount on Lot 15, and that the team found an ancient Chinese coin on the Island. Let’s start with the Serpent Mound. Serpent mounds are part of a larger class of…
Thinking about Neanderthals part II : What if one population is more efficient at mobilizing carrying capacity?
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a simulation tool for thinking about environmental change and population competition and replacement, along with some results that built on recent work on Neanderthals by Timmerman and a few others. The basic conclusion was that a population is more likely to replace a competing population that has a…
