Geoarchaeology-An International Journal最新文献

Recent archaeological investigations in the Kohgiluyeh region of southwestern Iran revealed numerous Neolithic sites along with diverse settlement strategies adapted to the local resources and environmental conditions of this high mountainous stretch of the Zagros Mountains. The regional Neolithic chipped stone collections mainly indicate the acquisition and use of local mineral resources, with obsidian being uncommon. Its occurrence suggests the existence of long-distance acquisition and/or distribution networks. This study presents a provenance analysis of two rare obsidian artifacts recovered during intensive surveys in the Kohgiluyeh region. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), we characterized the obsidian samples and determined their elemental compositions for source attribution. The results of these analyses indicate that the two artifacts originated from two distinct source areas in southeastern Anatolia: the Nemrut Dağ and Bingöl-A volcanic complexes. These findings provide evidence to reconstruct socio-cultural interactions between Neolithic communities along the Zagros Mountains and improve our understanding of settlement strategies in the southern Zagros region during the early stages of sedentism.

With more than 2000 excavated archaeological iron artifacts, the Roman–Germanic conflict site Harzhorn is among the best-preserved battlefields from Classical Antiquity. The Harzhorn hogback, with its steep front face oriented to the north, is situated perpendicular to an important north–south passage west of the Harz Mountains in central Germany. The geological setting shows abrupt transitions at the surface between different Triassic and Quaternary deposits. To investigate possible relationships between the preservation status and detection probability of iron artifacts and geology, geomorphology, and properties of the substratum, 497 samples were investigated in terms of the pH value, electric conductivity, loss on ignition, and grain size. These parameters were systematically compared to the distribution, type, and preservation status of recovered iron objects. The pH value proved to be the most significant indicator for the preservation status. Within increasingly acidic environments, the iron objects showed severe corrosion damages, whereas the same type of objects showed a good preservation status when recovered from areas with more neutral pH values. Additionally, historical and modern human impacts on the landscape modified the distribution of finds. We mapped in detail areas with good, intermediate, and poor preservation conditions, which should be considered in the reconstruction of the battle.

Although the primary purpose of agricultural terracing can be assumed to be food production, it has been suggested that a secondary purpose was the control of soil erosion. In this paper, we explore this thesis with multi-proxy data from the TerrACE project, which studied 20 sites in a latitudinal transect across Europe. These sites show that terrace construction was often related to previous slope instability or erosion and that terracing maintained greater soil depths than the surrounding slopes. In some cases, it seems likely that the observation of landsliding that lowered slope angles and produced an accumulation of fractured regolith may have led to opportunistic terracing. The almost universal occurrence of multiple-phase sequences revealed maintenance and re-use that protected buried soil organic carbon. Three case studies show; headwater sediment and carbon retention by terracing, how terracing could be resilient to severe regional environmental events (eruption of Thera) and, lastly, the modelling of failure and sediment supply from vineyard terraces. Although there is no doubt that terracing reduced soil loss from slopes, whether the perception of an erosion risk was part of the conscious reasons for terrace construction is far harder to ascertain, but cross-cultural awareness of these factors does seem to be likely.

Geophysical surveys and multiproxy analyses of sediment cores have been used to reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental evolution of the Santa Giusta coastal lagoon (SGL), along the western coast of Sardinia. This area served as a natural harbour mainly during the Punic and Roman Republican periods (6th–2nd century bc). The inlet of the SGL is connected to the adjacent mouth of the River Tirso and lies on the incised valley of an ancient tributary that once fed into the Tirso during the last sea-level lowstand. The SGL formed after the sea level rose following the LGM, resulting in the inundation of the incised valleys, which were subsequently filled with estuarine sediments. About 6000 years ago, the area that is now occupied by the mouth of the river and the SGL was protected by a sandy barrier enclosing an open lagoon. About 4500 years ago, the deposition of alluvial sediments marked the beginning of the progradation of the river mouth, leading to the gradual enclosure of the SGL. Before 2100 years ago, the SGL was a suitable location for a sheltered harbour, as evidenced by archaeological indicators, both pottery and wooden structures, found within the lagoon sediments. By this time, the progressive narrowing of the inlet had reduced the accessibility of the site from the sea and the harbour lost its functionality.

The Last Glacial maximum (LGM), spanning from 26.5 to 19 thousand years before present (ka bp), is a period of extreme climatic degradation associated with reduced biomass production and resource stress throughout Eurasia. Arguably, one of the most fundamental tools for human survival during this cold and arid period was the ability to create, maintain and use fire. While fire is widely considered a ubiquitous tool in modern human behaviour, there are surprisingly few well-described combustion features during the LGM in Europe. In this paper, we provide high-resolution geoarchaeological research into three combustion features associated with Epigravettian occupations at the site of Korman' 9 (Ukraine) with ages falling in the LGM. Our results show distinct variations in the size and structure of the combustion features, potentially indicating multiple occupations within the same layer or reflect differences in site organization or function during a single occupation. Additionally, our analysis shows clear evidence of the effect of solifluction and the lack of preservation of the ash layer(s) of the combustion features, as well as the development of bioturbation features enhanced by anthropogenic input. To better estimate heating temperatures of the combustion events, we employed a novel approach using colour analysis showing temperatures reaching 600°C in the substrate underlying the combustion features. In all, the combustion features at Korman' 9 provide invaluable new insights as well as high resolution description of pyrotechnological behaviours during the LGM, which has been lacking during this critical period in our evolutionary history.

Understanding the formation and stratigraphy of sequences in southern African Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites is vital for contextualizing evidence for the evolution of modern human behaviors and cognition. Deposits at these sites often have complex formation histories, typically involving a range of anthropogenic, geogenic, and biogenic depositional and post-depositional processes, and micro-laminated deposits are common. Consequently, archaeological micromorphology and related micro-analyses are now routinely a major component of MSA geoarchaeological research in the region. In the past few decades, microscale studies of the formation of anthropogenic features and deposits at MSA sites have begun to provide important behavioral information, including evidence for varying occupational intensities and the structuring and maintenance of living spaces. Here, a microscale geoarchaeological approach is applied to deposits dating to the MSA I cultural phase (> 110 ka) in the Cave 1 Witness Baulk. The results show that humans played a considerable role in site formation and that subsequent diagenesis affected the guano, charcoal, ash, and shell, with particular impact on the carbonates which were variably dissolved, altered, or recrystallized. This latter process helped to preserve ash through reduced dissolution potential. Spatial and temporal patterns in these factors influence the macroscopic properties of the deposits in any particular area, with significant implications for the correlation of extant deposits across areas excavated at low resolution during the 1960s. Different, variably preserved, anthropogenic features and deposits were found to make up a significant proportion of the deposits. Inferred behaviors range from repeated long-term low-intensity use of individually stacked hearths to the formation of dumped deposits (including shell middens) due to repeated hearth maintenance and patterned discarding of food waste during more intensive occupations. Differences in occupational intensity and frequency both within and between the two recognized MSA I members could indicate adaptation to changing conditions as temperatures and sea levels fluctuated during Marine Isotope Stage 5e and early Stage 5d, but changes in geogenic depositional rates over the same period could skew our perception of occupational frequency. The current limited and low-resolution dating evidence prevents correlation with any specific event/s, which might have affected behavior and/or depositional rates.

This article presents an interdisciplinary programme for research on historic landscapes that has emerged since 2020 in the framework of the project Terraces as Sustainable Agricultural Environments (‘TerraSAgE’). While the methodology has been tested in specific Mediterranean case studies, it is also applicable in other locations and regions. Our integrated approach provides new insights into the development of terraced agrarian landscapes and the changing dynamics in land management. It can provide knowledge of the extent to which past change has influenced present-day landscapes and has implications for the development of sustainable landscape practices. The research framework proposed here has been tested through case studies in different landscape types across southern Europe, including small-scale mixed farming landscapes of the Aegean islands (Naxos, Greece); terraces for vines and olives (Pelješac, Croatia); a landscape of dairy production (northern Apennines, Italy), which was until quite recently agroforestry; modern cereal cultivation (around Els Prats de Rei, Catalonia, Spain); upland irrigated landscapes on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada (Andalucia, Spain) and mixed farming in a wooded Atlantic environment (Galicia, Spain).