Geoarchaeology-An International Journal最新文献

This study provides the first detailed insight into the composition and properties of structural mortars used in a 4th-century AD bath complex in Aquileia, the emblematic center of Roman culture in Northern Italy. Eighteen mortars, taken from different structures of the site, and three stone samples from the vaulting opus caementicium have been analyzed adopting a multianalytical approach integrating optical microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive spectroscopy. The properties of the compounds are outstanding, as revealed by the formation of hydraulic phases (i.e., Al-tobermorite and AFm) in most of the samples: the waterproofing capabilities of cocciopesto mortars are remarkable, as revealed by the formation of anthropogenic Al-tobermorite (5.5 wt%) in pool coating samples; the lightweight of the vaults was guaranteed by the use of porous caementa and pozzolanic volcanic aggregates imported from the Gulf of Naples, as demonstrated by petro-mineralogical features and chemical analysis of major and trace elements. This is the first proven case of trade in these building materials to the north of the Italian peninsula. These outcomes shed new light on the robust technical expertise of local artisans in Aquileia and indicate that the Cisalpina province was by no means a peripheral reality in the Roman Empire, as far as mortar-based materials are concerned.

The rework of daily refuse, including large quantities of faunal remains, is a common explanation for earthen mound construction in the Uruguayan lowlands, which started about 5000 years ago. While some earthen mounds contain human and animal bones in high abundance, several others contain only a few fragments. Thousands of years later (17th to 18th centuries), stone structures known as cairns were used in the same region and are believed to have served as the burial ground for local chiefs. However, no bone remains were ever found during excavations. The acidity of local soils has been the common explanation for the low frequency and/or complete absence of bone remains in earthen mounds and cairns. To investigate the absence of bones possibly induced by a corrosive environment, we applied Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), and micromorphology to study the sediments at three sites: (1) an earthen mound rich in macroscopic bone fragments (CH2D01 site—CH); (2) an earthen mound with only a few macroscopic bone fragments (Las Palmas—LP); and (3) sediments from beneath a cairn with no macroscopic bone remains (Mario Chafalote cairn—MC). FTIR and XRPD showed the existence of burnt bones at the CH mound and a complete absence of bone mineral at LP and MC. Micromorphology revealed that, though invisible in the FTIR spectra, the LP mound contains micro-bone fragments, but in extremely low frequency. Analyses indicate that taphonomy did not play a major role in the low frequency or absence of bones at the LP and MC sites, located in a similar environmental context, and that differences in site use and mound technology explain the contrasting composition of the CH mound.

Buildings and monuments constructed from stone provide some of the best-preserved surface archaeology, but their construction ages can be difficult to determine using radiocarbon techniques. In Australia, stone arrangements are recognised as architectural or symbolic features belonging to Aboriginal societies. The structures are predominantly inorganic with shallow infill, hampering attempts to determine their antiquity. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques have the potential to date these features, but their complex geometry requires careful consideration of the background radiation. Here, we present the first ages for Australian Aboriginal stone construction using single-grain OSL techniques on quartz from stone arrangements in central Australia. Beta and gamma dose rates and the cosmic ray dose have been estimated from mapping the gross geometry of stone and sand courses. The resulting OSL ages are internally consistent and, together with fallout radionuclides ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb, indicate a minimum age for construction between 1959 and 1981 AD. We demonstrate that single-grain OSL techniques can be used to determine the age of emplaced sand between stones and, assuming a stable substrate, can be used to date stone building construction as well as building occupation, providing chronologies for sites where organic material for radiocarbon analysis is limited or unavailable.

The present work represents the first attempt using an archaeometric approach to characterize the potential chert outcrops and retrace the provenance of the chert raw materials in the Mesolithic and Neolithic contexts of the Eastern Iberia central site of Cueva de la Cocina (Dos Aguas, Valencia). Therefore, a research project aimed at identifying and characterizing potential sources in the surroundings of the site was carried out, as a first step, to test some hypotheses related to raw material provenance. Elemental profiles of several archaeological artifacts and of geological samples collected in different local and nonlocal outcrops were obtained using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. These chemical data were processed using multivariate statistics to investigate the possible links between the outcrops and archaeological artifacts. Preliminary results point to the use of local raw materials and also the presence of rocks outcropping in a perimeter of more than 50 km around Cueva de la Cocina, opening a new window to investigate the socioecological dynamics of the last hunter-gatherer and the first farmer inhabitants from a diachronic point of view in this region.

Stone that fractured conchoidally was an important resource for prehistoric hunter-gatherers. In recent years, archaeologists have come to realize that rather than defining stone “quality” simply and implicitly as “high” or “low,” a stone's quality can be best defined in several different explicit and often quantitative ways involving production, function, or social benefits. Here, we examine the stone quality—defined as “fracture predictability”—of Upper Mercer chert when it is locally versus nonlocally acquired by prehistoric people in Ohio, USA. By quantitatively assessing silicon dioxide (SiO₂) content and loss on ignition, we compared stone tools from a site at the Upper Mercer outcrop (n = 42) to those found at archaeological sites over 100 km north of it (n = 126). Our results showed that the former on average were of significantly higher quality than the latter. We conclude with a consideration of factors that could cause this difference in quality, suggesting that the lower quality of Upper Mercer chert in northern Ohio might be explained by northern people's decreased familiarity with it during the Archaic period and by their decreased access to it during the Woodland and Late Precontact periods.

From 2017, an unknown rural settlement in Contrada Castro at Corleone (Palermo Province, western Sicily) was investigated as part of the ‘Harvesting Memories Project’. The stratigraphic sequence, supported by radiocarbon dating, has demonstrated a reoccupation of a pre-Roman site during the transition between the Byzantine and Islamic periods. In particular, the main occupation occurred in the late 8th–9th century when pottery kilns and a probable warehouse were constructed. During the 10th–11th century, a new structure with different orientations replaced the previous buildings that had already collapsed. Specifically focusing on a perspective of the household production and its relationship to the surrounding landscapes of this site, this paper presents the results of a geological survey and petrographic analysis of ceramic finds and lithic samples to identify the source area of the geomaterials used in the studied settlement. The ceramic finds were divided into different Paste Groups based on the characteristics of a polarizing microscope study. The use of some locally available raw materials was recorded both for ceramic and lithic samples. Such an approach enables us to better understand ceramic craft technology, clay and lithic procurement strategies and, more broadly, the consumption of household pottery in the Early Medieval site in Contrada Castro. Furthermore, this study verifies the close relationship that this rural settlement had with the surrounding resources in the area and reveals a connection with the city of Palermo during the Early Middle Ages.

Despite the ubiquity of obsidian in early Holocene archaeological assemblages across Southeast Alaska, artifact sourcing using bi-plots and Principal Component Analysis has been hampered by the highly correlated geochemistry of two major sources: local Aguada Cove on Suemez Island, and distant Mount Edziza, in the Coast Mountain range. Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) models constructed with device-specific portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) source catalogs benefit from the precision of individual pXRF machines and the ability of PLS-DA to handle highly correlated data sets to provide a source classification system that complements existing methods. Of the known obsidian sources in or near Southeast Alaska, four are identified in early Holocene archaeological assemblages: Obsidian Cove and Aguada Cove on Suemez Island, Mount Edziza in the Coast Mountain Range, and a newly identified source on Zim Creek, Kupreanof Island. A comprehensive reanalysis of early Holocene microblade cores (101 cores from 13 archaeological sites) across Southeast Alaska confirms the presence of exotic obsidian from Mount Edziza in one of the oldest sites, alongside possible evidence of landscape learning: testing of the obsidian source on Kupreanof Island. The dominance of the Obsidian Cove source for microblade core production supports hypotheses framing Northwest Coast microblade core morphology as an adaptation to the small nodules of raw material available at the source. A simple distance-decay model indicates no relationship between core reduction intensity and distance from the source, suggesting high forager mobility characterized by regular trips to Suemez Island (a voyage of up to 380 km) throughout the early Holocene.

In this special issue, articles include research from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay, plus a special paper from the United States of America. Several of the articles are from Chilean scientists and/or focus on Chilean geoarchaeology and are intended to reflect the spirit of the symposium carried out during the Congreso Nacional de Arqueología Chilena 2018 (National Chilean Archaeology Conference). The topics, techniques, and research questions of the articles in this special issue are varied, but we have recognized four main themes that are common and encompass all the contributions: (1) Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene human settlement or migration; (2) pre-Hispanic soil use and conservation; (3) monumental landscape modification—shell middens and mounds; and (4) bioarchaeology and mobility.

In preliterate contexts, diverse knowledge was accumulated, processed and communicated orally. Recent research demonstrates that observations of memorable events were transferred in this way for thousands of years sometimes. Much of this information was eventually written down to reach literate audiences, which commonly judge such ‘myths and legends’ to be cultural inventions rather than ancient memories. This study examines 15 ‘submergence stories’ from northwest European coasts and argues that they plausibly represent memories of postglacial sea-level rise, which, in this region, was spatially and temporally variable owing to the interaction of sea-level rise with glacial isostatic adjustment. This study combines culture history and knowledge of earth rheology to argue that memories of the effects of postglacial land submergence in northwest Europe have endured for 5000–15,000 years. This requires a longevity of memory, orally communicated, that is not unprecedented, yet surprises many. It also shows that scientists might benefit from trying to better understand oral traditions from cultures elsewhere in the world that may have preserved observations of memorable events.

We present results from a palaeoecological analysis conducted on deposits accumulated in an oxbow lake of the Prosna River (Poland), next to the Grodzisko fortified settlement. Palaeobotanical and geochemical analyses—supported by radiocarbon dating—were performed to (i) reconstruct palaeoenvironmental conditions of the oxbow lake and its surrounding area; (ii) determine the beginning of the human activity in the fortified settlement vicinity; and (iii) assess the impact of human pressure on the environment. The Grodzisko fortified settlement was originally located on a river island, encircled by a wetland, improving its defensive value. Increases in the water level (1800–1300 BC and 700–200 BC) created a small lake/moat around the fortified settlement. Indicators for human activity from pollen records suggest the presence of human populations from the late Neolithic, ca. 2800 BC, with a clear intensification ca. 1700 BC. From ca. 1600 BC, a decrease in some decidous trees suggests forest clearance. Low levels of human activity indicator pollen ca. 2000 BC suggest a reduction of human pressure (possible depopulation). The regular presence of macrocharcoal pieces and an increase in human activity indicator pollen from ca. 1300 to 200 BC provide evidence for renewed human habitation around the sampling site.