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The demographic shift observed during the Kura-Araxes (KA) period, alongside the diversity of ceramic productions, metallurgical activities and funerary practices, raises the question of the dietary diversity of these societies. In addition, the adoption of different modes of life based on herding and farming and the issue of mobility versus the sedentary life of these societies raise the question of the availability of dietary resources and their relationship with settlement location. In order to further our understanding of the social and economic characteristics of KA societies and their associated “cultural identity”, this paper focuses on the study of dietary practices based on the re-examination of anthropological material from two Georgian populations located in mountainous zones (Kiketi and Tiselis Seri). The paper aims to explore (1) the relationship between highland KA populations and their environment and (2) dietary homogeneity within KA populations. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios (δ13Ccoll, δ13Cap and δ15N) were used for determining human dietary practices. Human collagen and apatite data have evidenced a diet with a similar domestic animal protein intake at the sites of Kiketi and Tiselis Seri. Judging by previously published isotopic data, these populations would have consumed less animal protein than the inhabitants of Chobareti. Our results corroborate the archaeozoological data and point to a possible low population mobility. The inter-individual isotope variability between these highland Georgian KA populations points to the absence of specific practices between females and males, as well as between the different group members buried in the same tombs, which could be interpreted as an egalitarian society, a theory already put forward by some scholars. Le changement démographique observable à la période kuro-araxe, ainsi que la diversité des productions céramiques, des activités métallurgiques et des pratiques funéraires soulèvent la question de la diversité alimentaire dans ces sociétés. Par ailleurs, l’adoption de différents modes de vie basés sur l’élevage et l’agriculture, ou encore le nomadisme opposé au sédentarisme amènent à des questionnements sur la disponibilité des ressources alimentaires et leurs liens avec le lieu d’implantation. Afin de contribuer à une meilleure connaissance des caractéristiques économiques et sociales des sociétés kuro-araxes et de leur « identité culturelle », cet article se penche sur les pratiques alimentaires, en réexaminant le matériel anthropologique de deux populations montagnardes géorgiennes des zones de Kiketi et Tiselis Seri. Cet article se propose d’analyser d’une part les relations entre les populations kuro-araxes vivant en altitude et leur environnement ; et d’autre part, l’homogénéité du régime alimentaire des populations kuro-araxes. Pour retracer les pratiques alimentaires humaines, on a eu recours à l’analyse des rapports isotopiques du carbone et de l’azote (δ13Ccoll, δ13Cap et δ15N). Les données sur le collagène et l’apatite des sujets humains montrent un régime comprenant la même quantité de protéines animales à Kiketi qu’à Tiselis Seri. D’après des données isotopiques publiées antérieurement, les habitants de ces deux zones auraient consommé moins de protéines animales que ceux de Chobareti. Nos résultats corroborent les données archéozoologiques et semblent indiquer une faible mobilité de la population. La variabilité isotopique inter-individuelle au sein de ces populations vivant en altitude en Géorgie signale l’absence de pratiques spécifiques distinguant les hommes et les femmes ; on ne relève pas non plus de différence entre les membres d’un même groupe inhumés ensemble dans des tombes collectives. Ceci pourrait être interprété comme le signe d’une société égalitaire, confirmant une théorie déjà avancée par d’autres chercheurs.

This atlas presents a concrete tool to identify xylophagous activity by the remains they left in wooded areas in Western Europe. Xylophagous insects are among the largest predators of woody tissues. They leave discriminating traces, different for each species according to their bioecology, and so it is necessary to know how to recognize and characterize them. The book is a practical tool to help identify and interpret them through a standardized presentation of the most ubiquitous families and a key to their determination. It presents descriptions of the galleries and of morphometry of the faecal pellets based on macroscopic features for xylophagous identification, and includes information about the origin and distribution of the xylophagous biological cycles, bioclimatic conditions and bioecology, and the type of woods that are attacked. The book will be a useful guide for forest managers, heritage conservationists, environmental engineers, bioarchaeologists, entomologists, loggers, and wood anatomists. International audience

­The Eastern Fertile Crescent region of western Iran and eastern Iraq hosted major developments in the transition from hunting and gathering to more sedentary agricultural lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000 BC. Within the scope of the Central Zagros Archaeological Project, excavations have been conducted at two Early Neolithic sites in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: Bestansur and Shimshara, as well as survey in the region of the Epipalaeolithic site of Zarzi since 2012. Bestansur represents an early stage in the transition to sedentary, agricultural life, where the inhabitants pursued a biodiverse strategy of hunting, gathering, herding and cultivating, maximising the new opportunities afforded by the warmer climate of the Early Holocene. They also constructed a substantial settlement of mudbrick, including a major building with a minimum of 78 human individuals buried under its floor in association with hundreds of beads. ­ These buildings and human remains provide new insights into social relations, mortuary practices, demography, diet, health and disease during the early stages of sedentarisation. ­ The material culture of Bestansur and Shimshara is rich in imported items such as obsidian, carnelian and sea-shells, indicating the extent to which Early Neolithic communities were networked across the Eastern Fertile Crescent and beyond along routes that later became the Silk Roads. This volume includes final reports by a large-scale interdisciplinary team on a wealth of new data from excavations at Bestansur and Shimshara, through application of state-of-the-art scientific techniques, integrated ecological and social approaches and sustainability studies. ­ The net result is to re-emphasise the enormous significance of the Eastern Fertile Crescent in one of the most important episodes in human history: the Neolithic transition.

C’est au Ier millénaire av. J.-C. que le dromadaire et, plus marginalement, le chameau commencent à imposer leurs hautes silhouettes sur les routes du Proche-Orient et d’Égypte. Réunis lors de deux ateliers, à Lyon puis à Nanterre, seize archéologues et historiens ont tenté de prendre la mesure de cette révolution chamelière. Du Xinjiang au désert Libyque, l’usage de plus en plus intensif des grands camélidés de l’ancien monde est en effet venu bouleverser les domaines du transport caravanier mais aussi l’agriculture, redessinant les routes commerciales, accroissant les capacités d’exportation des oasis, désenclavant des régions autrefois isolées. Devenus progressivement une pièce majeure des systèmes économiques des régions désertiques ou semi-désertiques, les camélidés demeurent en même temps associés à des populations nomades disposant d’un savoir-faire sans lequel l’élevage et le dressage de ces grands animaux se révèlent impossibles à réaliser.Les sources écrites (akkadiennes, bibliques, démotiques, grecques…) mais aussi l’archéozoologie, l’iconographie, sans oublier l’ethnologie et la zootechnologie, sont convoquées pour traiter cette révolution chamelière dans ses multiples aspects. Ce livre présente un très grand nombre de documents, dont des inédits, et aborde un large éventail de thématiques : les différents usages des camélidés, le lien entre ces animaux et les populations nomades et sédentaires, leur place au sein des imaginaires des peuples d’Asie et d’Égypte, mais aussi dans la vie quotidienne des Grecs, Romains, Nabatéens, Arabes, habitants du Levant byzantin, populations d’Asie centrale ; au sein d’environnements aussi variés que la Mésopotamie, l’Assyrie, la péninsule Arabique, le Levant, l’Égypte et l’Asie centrale. Deux articles sur le devenir récent de l’animal et sur les pratiques actuelles de l’élevage camelin en Mongolie complètent ce tour d’horizon sur un animal décidément central dans l’histoire des régions envisagées. During the first millennium BCE, the dromedary and, more marginally, the camel began to impose their tall silhouettes on the roads of the Middle East and Egypt. Gathered in two workshops, in Lyon then Nanterre, sixteen archaeologists and historians have tried to assess this camel revolution. From Xinjiang to the Libyan Desert, the increasingly intensive use of the old-world camelids has indeed disrupted the fields of caravan transport but also agriculture, redesigning the trade routes, increasing the export capacities of oases, opening up previously isolated areas. Gradually becoming a critical agent of the economic systems of the desert or semi-desert regions, the camels remain at the same time associated with nomadic populations whose expertise is essential to breed and train these large animals.Written sources (in Akkadian, Hebrew, Demotic, Greek...) but also archaeozoology, iconography, as well as ethnology and zootechnology are examined to reconstruct the camel revolution in its many aspects. This book presents a very large number of documents, including unpublished ones, and addresses a wide range of issues: the different uses of camelids, the link between these animals and the nomadic and sedentary populations, their place in the imagination of the peoples of Asia and from Egypt, but also in the daily life of the Greeks, Romans, Nabateans, Arabs, inhabitants of the Byzantine Levant, populations of Central Asia in environments as varied as Mesopotamia, Assyria, the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Egypt and Central Asia. Two articles on the recent fate of the animal and the current practices of camel breeding in Mongolia round off this overview of an animal that is definitely a central one in the history of the regions under consideration. International audience

Le nord-ouest du Massif central est un terrain privilégié pour étudier l’occupation au cours de la Protohistoire dans un contexte de moyenne montagne. Au cours d’un doctorat, plusieurs sites de hauteur de Haute-Auvergne (Cantal, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) et de haute Corrèze (Nouvelle-Aquitaine) ont fait l’objet de prospections, de sondages et d’études de mobilier. Pour l’âge du Bronze et le premier âge du Fer, des données inédites permettent de reconsidérer les modalités d’occupation de ces territoires. À l’aide d’analyses spatiales, les rythmes d’occupation de ces sites et leurs caractéristiques d’implantation ont été examinés. Des esquisses de dynamique d’occupation peuvent être proposées, en particulier entre le Bronze moyen et La Tène ancienne. Ainsi, la disposition des sites de hauteur n’apparaît pas comme anodine : elle s’appuie sur des voies de passages naturelles, plus ou moins utilisées au cours du temps, et un maillage régulier du territoire se dessine à certaines périodes. The Northwestern area of Massif Central is a privileged ground for the study of Protohistoric human occupation in a mid-mountain context. For the purpose of a PhD, many entrenched or hilltop settlements of Haute-Auvergne (Cantal, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) and of Haute-Corrèze (Nouvelle-Aquitaine) have been subjected to prospections, surveys, or studies of collections. For Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, new data are now available, and allow us to reconsider the occupation modalities of these territories. With spatial analyses, the occupation rhythms of these sites and their characteristics can be observed and discussed. The first drafts of occupation dynamics in western Massif Central during Protohistory can be proposed, especially between the Middle Bronze age and La Tene I for the Haute-Auvergne. Thus, the positioning of hilltop settlements doesn’t appear as random: it is based on more-or-less used in time natural passage ways, and designs a regular territorial network in certain periods.

Au Néolithique, les montagnes sont exploitées pour leurs ressources minérales, cynégétiques et pastorales. À partir de 5 500 ans avant notre ère, les premières communautés agropastorales atteignent les Alpes depuis le nord de l’Italie et la vallée du Rhône et s’établissent dans les massifs subalpins comme dans les Alpes internes. Les études archéobotaniques (analyse des macrorestes végétaux, principalement des graines, des fruits et des charbons de bois) permettent de comprendre l’économie végétale de ces communautés néolithiques : quelles espèces, sauvages ou cultivées, étaient récoltées pour le fourrage, pour construire, se nourrir, se soigner, se chauffer ? Les données de cinq sites néolithiques nous indiquent les différentes façons dont ces populations ont exploité leur territoire en tirant profit des ressources de divers biotopes, de l’étage collinéen à l’étage alpin, contribuant ainsi à mieux comprendre la mobilité verticale au Néolithique en contexte alpin. During the Neolithic, mountains were exploited for their mineral, hunting and pastoral resources. The first agro-pastoral communities reached the Alps from Northern Italy and the Rhone valley and settled in the subalpine massifs and in the internal Alps. Archeobotanical studies (plant macroremains and charcoal analysis) conducted at five sites allow us to understand the plant economy of these Neolithic communities: they determine which crops were cultivated, used as fodder, or gathered for consumption, medicine or other purpose, such as firewood. In the present paper, we support that the use of plant resources and the exploitation of territory are very different for the same period from one region to another, depending on the activities carried out at each site but also on cultural backgrounds. Archeobotanical data indicate how these people took resources from various plant associations growing from the colline to the subalpine level, and thus contribute to the understanding of vertical mobility in alpine contexts.

CESifo Working Paper No. 7095, 47 p.; Fuelwood collection is often cited as the most important cause of deforestation in developing countries. Use of fuelwood in cooking is a leading cause of indoor air pollution. Using household data from India, we show that households located farther away from the forest spend more time collecting. Distant households are likely to sell more fuelwood and buy less. That is, lower access to forests increases fuelwood collection and sale. This counter-intuitive behavior is triggered by two factors: lower access to forests (a) increases the fixed costs of collecting, which in turn leads to more collection; and (b) drives up local fuelwood prices, which makes collection and sale more profitable. We quantify both these effects. Using our estimates we show that a fifth of the fuelwood collected is consumed outside of rural areas, in nearby towns and cities. Our results imply that at the margin, fuelwood scarcity may lead to increased collection and sale, and exacerbate forest degradation.