The authors identify natural bitumen on stone implements dating to 70 000 BP. It is proposed that this represents residue from hafting, taking the practice back a further 30 000 years from the date previously noted and published in Nature. The bitumen was tracked to a source 40km away, using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and carbon isotopes.

The distribution, abundance and feeding behaviour of sea urchins (Paracentrotus lividus, Psammechinus miliaris, Sphaerechinus granularis) and the macro-algal biomass were assessed in two maerl beds within a north-east Atlantic coastal ecosystem (Bay of Brest, Brittany, France). To study the possible control of herbivorous sea urchins on the macrophytic algae, one maerl bed under the influence of urban sewage (northern site) was compared to one less influenced by urban and industrial outlets (southern site). Macrophytic biomass in the northern site was estimated as 40-fold higher than in the southern site where sea urchins were, on average, 38-times more numerous. Preliminary results support the hypothesis that grazing of sea urchin, even in low densities, can be a factor regulating the macrophytic biomass on maerl beds except in too nutrient enriched environments. So in the northern basin of the Bay, data pointed out the role of anthropogenic impacts on macrophytic biomass increase which was concomitant with the progressive disappearance of sensitive herbivorous species like sea urchins, both processes result in change in the ecosystem.

Prior to their modern invention, the use of petroleum products (bitumen, asphalt, etc.) was common in the prehistory of the Near East. In Mesopotamia where they are plentiful, often occurring at the surface of the ground, these products have been utilized in diverse ways: for construction and caulking of buildings, as a waterproofing agent, and even as a medicine to remedy coughing. Archaeologists have questioned the location of principal sites exploited in antiquity and the ways that these products have been used. As the result of a close collaboration between petroleum specialists and archaeologists, this article explains how geochemical analysis has enabled identification of the provenance of bitumen utilized at Babylon in Iraq, how the inhabitants of Susa in Iran used bitumen, its preparation and also its fabrication as an artificial material which has proven to be as durable as stone.