Se presentan los resultados del análisis de restos óseos y dentarios de micromamíferos (≤1 kg) recuperados en Vaquería Gruta 2 (VQG2), un sitio arqueológico localizado en el piedemonte alto de la precordillera de Mendoza (Argentina) con dataciones correspondientes al Holoceno tardío. Estos resultados se comparan con aquellos reportados para conjuntos óseos de micromamíferos cordilleranos del Centro-Occidente Argentino. Se realizó un análisis tafonómico para aproximarse a los posibles agentes acumuladores del conjunto óseo, sobre la base de abundancias relativas, patrones de fractura y digestión. Se analizaron variables orientadas a evaluar la actividad antrópica, tales como huellas de corte y termoalteraciones. Los resultados también se compararon con valores reportados en estudios tafonómicos actualísticos regionales para distintos depredadores. El análisis tafonómico permitió determinar que fueron aves rapaces los agentes responsables de la acumulación ósea recuperada en VQG2. Esta misma fue producto, probablemente, de una acumulación mixta. Asimismo, se realizó un análisis de la composición taxonómica de VQG2. Tanto la presencia de especies extirpadas en el registro arqueológico (Reithrodon auritus) como la mayor diversidad y equitatividad en dicho registro, en comparación con los ensambles actuales de micromamíferos, permiten pensar en un escenario de mayor heterogeneidad ambiental durante el Holoceno tardío, con mayor disponibilidad de parches de recursos que en el presente.

Predictive modelling has identified rockshelter sites to the north-east of the Laacher See volcano in western Germany. These will be excavated to investigate the impacts of volcanic eruption on Late Pleistocene foragers.

This article focuses on the production of bone tools during the seventh millennium cal BC. A large number of fishhooks and waste from fishhook production have been found at the sites of Sævarhelleren and Viste cave, in western Norway. The data have been studied by means of the chaîne opératoire concept, meaning that the artefacts are described and analysed in order to identify the different steps in the production process and to characterize the technology in a comparative northern European perspective. The result shows that bone tools and fishhooks were crafted in a similar way at these two sites, with techniques that were mastered by all makers, and in close relation to stone tool production. When compared to other contemporaneous sites, the technology resembles the Mesolithic bone technology of north-eastern Europe. It thus contradicts the hypothesis of a strong connection between western Norway and the Maglemose cultural group in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany.

The rock art of Southeast Asia has been less thoroughly studied than that of Europe or Australia, and it has generally been considered to be more recent in origin. New dating evidence from Mainland and Island Southeast Asia, however, demonstrates that the earliest motifs (hand stencils and naturalistic animals) are of late Pleistocene age and as early as those of Europe. The similar form of the earliest painted motifs in Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia suggests that they are the product of a shared underlying behaviour, but the difference in context (rockshelters) indicates that experiences in deep caves cannot have been their inspiration.