lisbon 1755 a case of triggered onshore rupture it has been widely recognized both in classical and in modern studies that the lisbon earthquake of 1755 was a multiple event composed of three shocks separated by a few minutes see e g reid 1914 attempts to constrain the location of the source have led to a diversity of proposals reflecting apparent contradictions in the data the tsunami and damage along the south and southwest iberian coast and in morocco favor an offshore source whereas the presence of an additional zone of strong shaking in the lower tagus valley ltv near lisbon favors a more northerly location by combining the contemporary accounts with intensity data from other earthquakes we favor a compound source with a large distance between the faults we propose that although the mainshock was offshore the resulting stress changes induced the rupture of the ltv fault at a distance on the order of 350 km but subject to large uncertainty in the offshore location a few minutes after the mainshock we favor this model rather than site effects causing high intensities in the lisbon area because the highest intensities show a negative correlation to soft soil several other phenomena described in the eyewitness accounts can also be explained by the local rupture now proposed such as a tsunamilike wave in the tagus river ground deformation affecting the course of the tagus river and the spatial pattern of damaging aftershocks recognition of this missing episode of rupture on the ltv fault significantly changes the hazard estimate for the lisbon area

fluvial dispersal potential of guanaco bones lama guanicoe under controlled experimental conditions the influence of age classes to the hydrodynamic behavior hydrodynamic sorting is a taphonomic process able to transport and scatter bones deposited in archaeological and paleontological sites this study presents the results of experimentation performed in an artificial flume with guanaco lama guanicoe bones of different ontogenetic development dry and saturated in water in hydric flows velocities of 15 and 30 cm s the obtained results show that bone global density the age of the individual the dry or wet bone state and the hydric flow velocity influence significantly bone dispersion in this way bones from immature individuals with unfused secondary growth centers and relatively low bulk density have better possibility of being transported than fused bones from adult individuals taking into account the results obtained in this experimentation and the feasibility of discriminating age categories in fossil assemblages two bone groups with differential potential transport are presented in this paper these transport groups constitute a methodological tool to evaluate the role hydric current may had played in the formation of a fossil assemblage

the abrasion of modern and archaeological bones by mobile sediments the importance of transport modes abstract fresh weathered archaeological and fossilized bones were subjected to a series of abrasion experiments using fine sand in an annular flume in order to link bone surface abrasion to flow regimes and sediment transport modes compare these effects on bones of different states and quantify the extent and types of wear occurring flow velocities were chosen to replicate the predominant transport modes of bedload saltation and suspension comparative scanning electron microscopic image analysis was performed to assess the degree and type of wear occurring on each bone type for the different transport modes over a range of exposure periods from 24 to 72 h these preliminary investigations have shown that both the amount and type of wear experienced was related to the bone type duration of exposure and the mode of sediment transport with wear being the result of deformation rather than cutting wear the formation of scour pits in the sand bed on the upstream side of the bone samples significantly reduced wear and appears to be an important control mechanism for impact related wear that has been overlooked until now

on applications of micro photogrammetry and geometric morphometrics to studies of tooth mark morphology the modern olduvai carnivore site tanzania abstract recent application of photogrammetric and geometric morphometric approaches to the study of cut marks on bones has yielded positive results in discriminating different types of tools and even some raw materials here we apply this analytical technique to the study of carnivore tooth scores the goal is twofold on the one hand we intend to differentiate carnivore types and on the other one we show the application of this approach to a sample of tooth scores from long bones documented at the modern assemblage of the olduvai carnivore site ocs previous taphonomic work at ocs suggested that this bone assemblage constituted a good evidence of a carcass accumulation behavior by lions followed by hyena ravaging the application of these 3d techniques to the selected sample of tooth marks shows that lions as well as spotted hyenas did indeed impart marks on the ocs assemblage this reinforces the dual nature of the assemblage and the implication of lions in its formation

when felids and hominins ruled at olduvai gorge a machine learning analysis of the skeletal profiles of the non anthropogenic bed i sites abstract in the past twenty years skeletal part profiles which are prone to equifinality have not occupied a prominent role in the interpretation of early pleistocene sites on africa alternatively taphonomic studies on bone surface modifications and bone breakage patterns have provided heuristic interpretations of some of the best preserved archaeological record of this period namely the olduvai bed i sites the most recent and comprehensive taphonomic study of these sites dominguez rodrigo et al 2007a showed that flk zinj was an anthropogenic assemblage in which hominins acquired carcasses via primary access that study also showed that the other sites were palimpsests with minimal or no intervention by hominins the flk n flk nn and dk sequence seemed to be dominated by single agent mostly felid or multiple agent mostly felid hyenid processes the present study re analyzes the bed i sites focusing on skeletal part profiles machine learning methods which incorporate complex algorithms are powerful predictive and classification methods and have the potential to better extract information from skeletal part representation than past approaches here multiple algorithms via decision trees neural networks random forests and support vector machines are combined to produce a solid interpretation of bone accumulation agency at the olduvai bed i sites this new approach virtually coincides with previous taphonomic interpretations on a site by site basis and shows that felids were dominant accumulating agents over hyenas during bed i times the recent discovery of possibly a modern lion accumulated assemblage at olduvai gorge arriaza et al submitted provides a very timely analog for this interpretation

palaeoenvironments of the last neanderthals in sw europe mis 3 cova del coll verdaguer barcelona ne of iberian peninsula abstract marine isotope stage 3 mis 3 was characterised by marked oscillations of extreme cold episodes with very short warm events during the stadial and several regional differences have been recorded in the ice cores and marine deposits the aim of this study is to reconstruct this period by evaluating both terrestrial and regional responses cova del coll verdaguer a site located on the iberian peninsula preserves a sedimentary deposit dated to between 34 and 56 ka bp and provides an opportunity for evaluating the impact of climate changes on the regional landmass during a period that coincided with the last neanderthal population on the iberian peninsula several dating methods including u series electron spin resonance amino acid racemization and radiocarbon 14c were applied to the site and the ages obtained show good agreement the biotic evidence obtained is substantial comprising floristic data from palynology and charcoal analysis and faunal data from large and small mammals birds and gastropods environmental reconstruction points to an initially open meadow landscape at the base of the sequence 56 ka that progressively changes to a woodland environment dominated by conifers 34 ka the presence of few thermophilous taxa in contrast with lower latitudes of the iberian peninsula is also detected the environmental conditions of mid altitude mediterranean limestone mountains for the last neanderthal populations appear to have been dominated by a forested landscape comprising boreal or mixed coniferous forest characterised by a low usable biomass with poor comestible plant resources and dispersed herbivore populations

the archaeology and paleoenvironment of an upper pleistocene hyena den an integrated approach abstract data of high resolution for reconstructions of archaeological site formation processes can be obtained only by the use of precise excavation methods and comprehensive recovery techniques using fine mesh water screening followed by meticulous sorting and quantitative studies of all the small organic components from the screens these methods are generally used at human occupation sites but are not often employed at paleontological or mixed human carnivore sites at the site of bois roche an upper pleistocene hyena den we have used these meticulous recovery techniques in combination with absolute dating geoarchaeological observations taphonomic analyses studies of microvertebrates and pollen analysis correlation of the site environmental data from pollen and microvertebrate assemblages with the vegetation record of a deep sea core taken in the bay of biscay have allowed us to constrain the ages provided by esr dating of bovid teeth and to reconstruct the physical environment of the site with a degree of confidence rarely achieved by the use of fossil remains from archaeological sites alone prior to our excavations the site was interpreted as containing a mixed assemblage with evidence of hyena activities and human occupation in situ quantitative analysis of the small organic components present in large quantities in the sediments deciduous hyena teeth coprolite fragments digested small bone fragments prove more than all other lines of evidence that hyenas were in residence at bois roche thus providing diagnostic criteria for distinguishing between occasional visitors and the main inhabitants of mixed human carnivore sites the analytical procedures presented in this paper have a value beyond the significance of the bois roche site because they can be applied to other sites

los batanes a trap for the pyrenean wild goat during the late pleistocene spain abstract los batanes cave 1025 m a s l is a karstic system formed by pressure ducts near the locality of biescas in the upper gallego valley huesca spain many fossil remains were retrieved from the cave sediments the minimum sediment calendar age was determined to be 12 770 60 bp this date indicates that the deposit was formed before the late pleistocene early holocene transition at the pyrenees here we analyze the faunal assemblage of the site that is only conformed by remains of pyrenean wild goat capra pyrenaica pyrenaica which is a recently extinct subspecies of iberian wild goat c pyrenaica in the site 1079 remains of iberian wild goat have been recovered being one of the most numerous both in minimum number of individuals mni and number of identified specimens nisp recovered until now in a natural trap in the spanish pyrenees the population of los batanes shows a wide range of ages between juvenile and senile individuals and the mni estimated from the number of right metatarsus is nine the taphonomic features indicate that the cave acted as a trap for the goats which inhabited the vicinity of the cave these goats probably stumbled and fell to the bottom of the pit and they could not get out dying inside due to the origin of the accumulation numerous complete bones have been recovered these fossil allow us to perform a biometric analysis that indicates that population of los batanes is in the range size of other goats from late pleistocene of iberian peninsula

a chronicle of crisis the late mousterian in north iberia cueva del esquilleu cantabria spain abstract during the last decades the cantabrian region has become one of the zones of greater interest in the study of the final mousterian on the european scale the particular ecological and physiographic conditions of this region provide an especially attractive picture for analyzing the advanced moments of this period almost all the mousterian levels of cantabrian sites are dated to the later part of wurm ii as occurs in some other european regions close to 35 ka bp the esquilleu sequence expresses a process of change in archaeological record and probably in the subsistence strategies this late occupation extends through the h4 cold event and the interglacial to wurm iii between level vif 34 3 ka bp approx ams and level iv 22 8 ka bp approx ams all the archaeological evidence non selective and directly adjacent to the river catchment limited technical investment with fast discoid production mainly points but objectively indeterminate from a morphological point of view lithic and even microlithic production and their interpretation in a spatial contextual perspective high fragmentation of the chaine operatoire between the river and the cave would indicate changes in the site function within an articulated network archaeologically the change in the significance of el esquilleu intervals is evident the raw material catchment analysis indicates a much more fuzzy relationship of the site in relation to the environment esquilleu would have ceased functioning as a place of integration of elements of the territory there is no evidence of transport or territorial relationship defined between sites another point for reflection is that in the esquilleu sequence different production methods and the archaeological evidence interpretation can be grouped easily into discrete sets the lower interval is technically variable probably representing the time with more functional complexity in the cave subsequently the quina levallois discoid and final intervals occur archaeological evidence of these higher levels including the technical domains changes gradually with clearly recognizable features along the sequence these common elements sometimes very slightly detected selected lithologies very small size discoid productions pointed morphologies from diametric fractures would refer to a cultural continuity in the communities that inhabited the esquilleu region for millennia

islands in a stream reconstructing site formation processes in the late middle paleolithic site of ein qashish northern israel abstract information retrieved from open air sites is necessary for a more complete reconstruction of middle paleolithic behaviors which is currently often based mainly on data from caves and rockshelters however open air sites present methodological and analytical challenges that differ from those encountered in cave sites being essentially an integral part of their paleo landscape open air sites are affected by localized as well as landscape scale processes that need to be distinguished from the anthropogenic signatures ein qashish is an open air late middle paleolithic occurrence located in the yizra el valley just east of mt carmel situated on the pleistocene floodplain of the qishon stream the site is found at the interface of the sediments deposited by the qishon stream which drains the yizra el valley and paleo wadi qashish which flowed off mt carmel artifacts and bones are dispersed over a vertical distance of some 90 cm observations in geological trenches located at variable distances from the excavated area indicate that this cluster of finds occurred at a circumscribed locality on the landscape rather than as a part of a continuous distribution on the paleo surface we reverse engineer site formation processes starting with the latest post depositional moving to earlier syn depositional processes and relate them to their most likely causative agents through the examination of a series of explicit models gis techniques were applied in order to parse the variable lines of information which include lithic and faunal taphonomy size distributions and spatial and stratigraphic dispersal of objects fabric analysis and osl results we discuss the implications of the results for distinguishing anthropogenic from non anthropogenic effects and for reconstructing the timeline of depositional events that led to the current distribution of artifacts insights into these questions inform our understanding of human activities at the site suggesting that the excavation samples the margins of an occupation horizon where activities focused on knapping and resource processing rather than task specific behaviors such as hunting

leopards as taphonomic agents in the iberian pleistocene the case of raco del duc valencia spain bone accumulations created by carnivores during the pleistocene have been largely associated with the action of cave hyenas crocuta spelaea golfuss 1823 identified all over europe yet in recent years it has been shown that leopards panthera pardus linnaeus 1758 played a role in the creation of sites in the iberian peninsula in this study we present the taphonomic study of the bone accumulation of the pre solutrean level at the raco del duc cave south of the province of valencia where the dominant species capra pyrenaica schinz 1838 has been accumulated by leopards together with new data and other references taken from the bibliography we have summarised the main taphonomic characteristics of the sites accumulated by leopards the predator prey relationship has also been analysed and it has shown that during the pleistocene leopards in the iberian peninsula were specialised in catching goats showing similar behaviour to that of snow leopards said specialisation may have been due to the occupation of caves in steep areas where rupicolous fauna predominated

characterization and depositional evolution of hyaena crocuta crocuta coprolites from la valina cave northwest spain archaeological excavation of la valina site a karstic cave located in northwest spain documented a level of human occupation and a later one of carnivores that can be attributed to upper plesitocene 35 000 bp by the 14 c dating obtained from bone samples among carnivore remains many coprolites were recovered which based on morphological and biometrical characteristics correspond to crocuta crocuta micromorphological analysis of thin sections mineralogical and palynological analysis let us deduce the deposition period of scats during the year and also the postdepositional changes undergone by coprolites to reach their present state

comparisons of impact flakes derived from hyena and hammerstone long bone breakage abstract archaeological interpretations of the agent of bone breakage are important for reconstructing site formation impact flakes or bone flakes created during bone breakage that exhibit features analogous to flakes produced during lithic reduction are often used as evidence of hominin marrow acquisition however it has long been acknowledged that carnivores mainly hyenas also create flakes with these features but the body of literature on these flakes is virtually non existent here we present and analyze impact flakes from hammerstone and hyena created assemblages and compare them to published research on hammerstone generated flakes in experimental and archaeological contexts impact flake frequencies in the experimental hyena assemblage occur at half the rate as found in the hammerstone created assemblages however hyena created flakes do display typical impact flake features at similar rates to those found in the hammerstone created assemblage finally we compare some frequencies of impact flakes found in other experiments and at archaeological sites due to equifinality impact flakes can only be used as supporting evidence rather than central evidence for understanding hominin marrow access especially when multiple agents of bone accumulation are present

cave deposits as a sedimentary trap for the marine isotope stage 3 environmental record the case study of pod hradem czech republic pod hradem cave located in the moravian karst czech republic offers an excellent opportunity for environmental reconstructions of marine isotope stage 3 mis 3 in central europe due to its detailed sedimentary record dated 50 000 to 28 000 cal bp identifying the natural environments of the middle to upper palaeolithic mup transition is necessary to understand the settlement strategies and related behaviour of both neanderthals and anatomically modern humans both of whom may have occupied the region at the same time a multidisciplinary excavation was carried out between 2011 and 2016 detailed analyses of the sediments vertebrate microfauna pollen and charcoal revealed minor but observable fluctuations in climate with little change in the surrounding vegetation the pod hradem palaeoenvironmental dataset is complex but generally reflects a predominantly glacial climate with a range of vegetation types and habitats during the late pleistocene followed by the warmer and more humid holocene the mup transition as recorded in pod hradem cave was a glacial environment interrupted by two relatively warmer periods central europe experienced extreme climate fluctuations during mis3 as recorded from different sedimentary archives but it seems that the pod hradem cave environment may have acted as a buffer zone ameliorating those extremes and providing a suitable refuge for both bears seeking winter hibernation dens and occasionally visiting humans

autochthonous anisotropy of archaeological materials by the action of water experimental and archaeological reassessment of the orientation patterns at the olduvai sites abstract anisotropic patterns documented indirectly through m leakey s drawings of olduvai archaeological sites have led to questions about the integrity of these sites most experiments on bone transport by water have been carried out using complete elements that do not replicate specimen bone breakage and size as documented in archaeological sites in the present work an experimental framework is provided using experimental proxies of archaeological assemblages results show that autochthonous assemblages affected by hydraulic processes can adopt anisotropy in their fabric archaeological comparisons between drawings and excavated sites at olduvai stress the bias in leakey s drawings of flk zinj and flk north in bed i a large scale open excavation recently carried out at tk bed ii exposes an area comparable in size to leakey s excavations comparing the orientation patterns of this site to those reported by leakey shows how biased the drawing of the site is and how easily this can lead to misinterpretations of isotropy anisotropy with fatal consequences for the understanding of site formation processes

pollen analysis of hyena coprolites and sediments from equus cave taung southern kalahari south africa equus cave in quaternary tufa near taung in the semiarid woodland of the southern kalahari yielded 2 5 m of sediment in which a rich assemblage of bones and coprolites was preserved the fossils were accumulated mainly by hyenas during the late pleistocene and holocene pollen from coprolites reflects diet as well as vegetation over relatively large areas visited by hyenas while pollen from sediments represents more local sources the pollen sequence derived from coprolites and sediments demonstrates how the vegetation evolved from open grassland with small shrubs and occasional trees during the late pleistocene to open savanna with more small shurbs then during the last 7500 yr to modern savanna temperatures were not more than 4 c cooler and it was slightly moister than today during the late pleistocene phase it became gradually warmer but relatively dry before optimal temperature and moisture conditions developed around 7500 yr b p climatic conditions slightly less favorable for woodland occurred during part of the late holocene

taphonomy of some articulated skeletal remains transport potential in an artificial environment flume experiments demonstrated that disarticulated bones did not display the same behaviour when combined as articulated elements the character of movement and rates of movement were recorded skeletal elements were identified as displaying either a transportable or a non transportable potential some of which were common to all three species that were tested the experiments demonstrated that articulated bones displayed a greater transport potential and that in one species the rate of movement was significantly faster than when disarticulated it is suggested that the taphonomic history of a fluvial transported assemblage could be misinterpreted if the bones were treated as a mixture of individually transported elements

the earthquakes of 29 july 2003 12 february 2007 and 17 december 2009 in the region of cape saint vincent sw iberia and their relation with the 1755 lisbon earthquake abstract the cape saint vincent region is of major seismological interest for its tectonic complexity and for the occurrence of the great 1755 lisbon earthquake no structure capable of generating such a large earthquake has yet been convincingly identified but all authors agree that there is a possibility of a similar earthquake occurring offshore of the cape sometime in the future to shed some light on the region s dynamics we here examine the mechanism of the three largest earthquakes to have occurred in the last 40 years west of the cape 29 july 2003 m w 5 3 12 february 2007 m w 6 1 and 17 december 2009 m w 5 5 by inversion of the body waves and the kinematic slip distribution we estimated the three earthquakes to have had similar characteristics dimensions maximum slip stress drop source time function focal depth and rupture velocity although there were differences in the geometry of the rupture that reflect the great seismotectonic complexity of the zone the focal mechanisms of the 2003 and 2007 earthquakes were similar corresponding to thrusting motion but the 2009 earthquake had a dip slip motion in a vertical plane as deduced from the slip distributions the three shocks show ne sw rupture planes with the energy released propagating to the ne compatible with the regional nw se horizontal compression produced by the convergence of the eurasian and african plates applied to the generation of the 1755 lisbon earthquake this direction of faulting would correspond to a complex rupture along ne sw trending thrust faults at the gorringe bank the horseshoe scarp and the marquis de pombal fault with the rupture propagating to the ne towards the portuguese coast such a model could explain that unusually large and tsunami generating earthquake

leopards as taphonomic agents in dolomitic caves implications for bone accumulations in the hominid bearing deposits of south africa it has been hypothesised that leopards were significant contributors to the bone accumulations of the plio pleistocene hominid bearing caves of south africa interpretations of leopard activity in these fossil caves were previously based upon reports of modern leopard behaviour in areas of southern africa that were lacking in caves in 1991 a leopard lair with an accompanying bone accumulation was discovered in a dolomitic cave on the john nash nature reserve south africa all of the bones in this cave could be unambiguously attributed to the activity of one individual leopard over a 1 year period the resulting bone assemblage indicates that when available leopards will preferentially utilise the deep recesses of caves to the exclusion of trees when feeding and that the size of prey leopards are capable of capturing killing and transporting has previously been underestimated the implications this may have for understanding the accumulation of fossils in the hominid bearing caves of south africa are that bones derived form leopards consuming prey in trees probably did not contribute significantly to the assemblages and further that it is not necessary to invoke sabre tooth cat involvement for the larger animals found in these assemblages this modern cave probably represents a more appropriate model for the accumulation of bones in the fossil caves of the sterkfontein valley and the assemblage is being continually monitored to view any and all taphonomic alterations that are occurring

range of bone modifications by human chewing in this paper we present an experimental study of bone modifications caused by human chewing during consumption traditionally tooth marks have been attributed to non human actors however ethnoarchaeological as well as previous experimental work has shown that humans can make many modifications during chewing our results suggest that the range of damage is as extensive as that most likely to be produced by carnivores this damage includes furrowing scooping out crenulated and saw toothed edges longitudinal cracking crushing peeling and tooth marks in this paper we present a description of the types of damage observed in the experimental sample some of this damage shows parallels between the experimental modifications and archaeological assemblages from pleistocene and holocene deposits at the sierra de atapuerca sites burgos spain the repetition of morphologies allowed us to attribute some of the damage to tooth marks made by human chewing

scaling properties of faults and their populations abstract faults are natural shear fractures which while active and growing are the source of seismicity and deformation within the brittle upper crust of the earth and when dead are the relicts of past such deformation results are now conclusive that fault growth is a self similar process in which the total geological slip scales linearly with fault length with a proportionality constant typically 10 2 more limited data also suggest linear scaling with fault length of the process zone size and consequently fracture energy these observations as well as the characteristic slip profiles of faults are broadly consistent with a dugdale barenblatt type elastic plastic model of crack propagation the scaling parameters are not universal but depend on rock properties secondary fault structures such as the width of the cataclasite zone and of the process zone wake the zone of enhanced brittle deformation surrounding the fault also exhibit linear scaling with fault length and slip fault populations have often been found to be fractal exhibiting a power law fault size distribution similar observations have been made for the scaling laws governing veins and joints the primary difference is that the proportionality constant between aperture and length is 10 3 about a tenth that of faults reflecting the lower strength of rock in tension than in shear

post depositional bone destruction in cave sediments a micromorphological study of the mis 5a d cave bear strata of biśnik cave poland

the source of the lisbon earthquake in his perspective what caused the great lisbon earthquake 27 aug 2004 p 1247 1 m a gutscher proposes an eastward dipping subduction zone under the straits of gibraltar as a likely candidate responsible for the magnitude m 8 5 1755 lisbon earthquake and associated tsunami 1 2

palaeoecology of neanderthals during dansgaard oeschger cycles in northeastern iberia abric romani from regional to global scale abstract the sequence from abric romani has provided several palaeoecological studies this paper presents a synthesis of the results yielded by palynology including the data from the entire non excavated deposits and the data obtained through the study of large mammals micromammals herpetofauna and anthracology from the excavated layers the palaeobotanical studies show that the sequence is mainly related to pine forests and near or within these dominant forests there were smaller plant formations and or secondary species with a mediterranean and or atlantic character nevertheless continuous forest did not dominate the entire region the fauna occupying the territory indicate open spaces in which seasonal grasslands proliferated dry assemblages in sunny areas and humid ones in mountain shadows the non excavated archaeological layers correspond to mis 4 initially characterized by temperate and humid conditions and thereafter cool and humid until hs 6 and mis 3 afterwards at the beginning of the mis 3 the dansgaard oeschger cycles 1500 yr rapid and abrupt climatic changes occurred during the deposition of the archaeological levels o n m l k and j later these events were interrupted by a cold and dry phase between ca 49 and 47 ka bp which affected levels ja i and h culminating with hs 5 finally this cold episode was followed by the hengelo interstadial or do 12 characterized by a temperate and humid climate identified in levels e and d

identification and importance of critical depositional gaps in pitfall cave environments the fossiliferous deposit of cuvieri cave eastern brazil abstract the majority of extinct brazilian late quaternary mammal i e megafauna remains comes from cave deposits and was retrieved through excavations lacking detailed stratigraphical context this poses a major problem since these deposits present multifaceted processes of formation based on the meticulous excavation of a pitfall site within cuvieri cave minas gerais eastern brazil this article describes a critical albeit subtle temporal discontinuity between different fossiliferous sedimentary facies and discusses its significance to the contextualization of the paleontological remains recovered from the site the discontinuity was described based on sedimentary analyses bone deposition processes taxonomy and ams radiocarbon chronology two facies were distinguished and named according to their color and texture an upper dark brown silt loam bsl and a lower dark reddish brown silt loam rbsl besides color differences they present differences in grain size distribution and chemical composition these analyses show that the rbsl has in its composition only half the sand and one third more the silt than bsl it also shows that mean percent values for the rbsl in comparison to the bsl are higher for silica 42 35 versus 15 80 aluminum 18 63 versus 7 58 and iron 8 45 versus 3 79 and lower for calcium 10 07 versus 36 14 and volatiles 13 86 versus 30 10 these differences are attributed to changes in sediment source and entrance route differences were also observed in the faunal remain analyses rbsl has abundant megafauna remains originally deposited within this facies while the scarce megafauna material found in bsl is the result of mixing processes despite these differences animal entrapment is considered the best scenario to explain bone accumulation in both facies ams radiocarbon dates indicate that the bsl was deposited during the holocene with dates ranging from 8580 cal yr bp to the present while the rbsl deposition dates to the holocene pleistocene transition 13 600 10 660 cal yr bp radiocarbon dating also indicates that the subtle erosional surface that limits both facies represents a temporal gap between a minimum age of 8 4 cal kyr bp and a maximum age of 11 0 cal kyr bp the recognition of this discontinuity allows for a more accurate interpretation of bone accumulation enabling the differentiation of faunal assemblages that might otherwise be considered part of a continuum

terrasses de la riera dels canyars gava barcelona the landscape of heinrich stadial 4 north of the ebro frontier and implications for modern human dispersal into iberia abstract terrasses de la riera dels canyars is an upper pleistocene fluvial deposit containing the remains of large mammals principally accumulated in the framework of hyena denning in the area as well as a few artifacts radiocarbon dated to 39 6 ka cal bp the time of heinrich stadial hs 4 this site enables us to reconstruct the environmental conditions then prevalent in the ne of the iberian peninsula the concentration in a single locus of finds generated by different agents relates to a flash flood event the rapidity of which combined with the absence of archaeological ecological or paleontological incongruities in the composition of the assemblage warrants an assumption of broad contemporaneity for its contents the ecofactual evidence fauna pollen charcoal phytoliths indicates a steppe dominated environment for the coastal areas between the pyrenees and the ebro delta the dominant elements are cold and dry adapted species but a mediterranean component is present implying a less rigorous climate than farther north in europe the artifacts are clearly upper paleolithic and assignment to the modern human associated aurignacian technocomplex is supported by the radiocarbon dates and the typology of a bilaterally retouched blade this evidence is consistent with the notion that anatomical modernity spread across europe over open landscape niches available pollen data from deep sea cores indicate that during some of the interstadials of marine isotope stage mis 3 a significant vegetation gradient existed at 40 n broadly coincident with the ebro frontier temperate and warm temperate trees expanded significantly to the south while steppe tundra landscapes remained dominant to the north a contrast best seen during greenland interstadial gi 8 such an environmental boundary must have implied a durable barrier to diffusion and migration during interstadials under the cold and arid conditions of hs4 the site of canyars shows that the eurasian steppe tundra extended as far south as the llobregat delta however the environmental reconstructions available for the lower ebro valley and adjacent mountains of the iberian range farther south suggest that they formed at this time a belt of semi desert or steppe desert landscapes thus maintaining the boundary effect despite the climatic reversal the persistence of such a boundary through hs4 and the interstadials that bracket it must have played a role in the delayed arrival of the aurignacian and modern humans to southern and western iberia which continued to be settled by middle paleolithic neanderthals well beyond 40 ka cal bp

autochthony and orientation patterns in olduvai bed i a re examination of the status of post depositional biasing of archaeological assemblages from flk north flkn recent excavations at flk north olduvai gorge tanzania have produced new information on the orientation of archaeological materials at various levels of the site this information includes the uniform distribution of material azimuths which contrasts with previous inferences of highly patterned orientations of materials in the bed i archaeological sites those previous inferences of patterned material orientations are based on mary leakey s 50 year old drawings of artifact and fossil bone distribution but are not verified by our precise measurements of archaeological objects made in situ nor do those previous results agree with the general lack of geological geomorphological and or taphonomic data that would indicate significant post depositional movement of archaeological materials in the sites we argue here that leakey s drawings are incomplete only portions of each assemblage were drawn and inaccurate in their representation of the original locations shapes and orientations of most archaeological specimens this argument is supported by several important mismatches in object representations between a photograph taken of a small portion of the flk 22 zinjanthropus site floor before the removal of the archaeological items and the sketch of the same area drawn by leakey thus we conclude that primary orientation data of excavations i e direct measurements taken from items generated prior to object removal are the only valid indicators of the relative isotropy or anisotropy of these important paleoanthropological assemblages

fluvial transport of bovid long bones fragmented by the feeding activities of hominins and carnivores this study explores the hydraulic transportability of bovid long bone fragments created through hominin and carnivore carcass consumption in order to determine the effect of fluvial transport on the incidences of hominin and carnivore induced bone surface modifications transportability was determined using an oval race track flume and 311 long bone fragments from modern control collections of hominin and carnivore modified bone results show that the fluvial transport of long bone fragments is predicted by animal size class and bone specimen size as measured by maximum cortical thickness maximum length and maximum width all of these variables can be measured on fossil specimens long bone portion midshaft near epiphysis and epiphysis does not affect transport and hydraulic transport does not substantially modify the incidences of tooth percussion and cut marking in transported or lag assemblages in low energy fluvial environments implications of this study are 1 animal size classes and cortical thickness length and width of long bone fragments can be used to identify fluvial winnowing in fossil assemblages 2 analyses concerning the relative timing of hominin and carnivore carcass consumption based on the proportions of long bone fragments bearing tooth percussion or cut marks can be meaningfully applied to fossil assemblages deposited in low energy fluvial environments

ground motion models for seismic hazard assessment in western iberia constraints from instrumental data and intensity observations abstract the lack of constraints regarding ground motion propagation characteristics in western iberia remains one of the major hindrances to accurate seismic hazard and seismic risk assessment in the region the fact that western iberia is geographically located near the confluence of oceanic crust active continental crust and stable continental crust further complicates the selection of appropriate ground motion models to address this question we compare through visual inspection and residual analysis the regional ground motion data for moderate magnitude earthquakes with a set of six ground motion prediction equations some of which were developed for active tectonic regions and the others for stable continental regions although the available data pertain mostly to offshore moderate magnitude earthquakes m 4 8 6 0 at large distances 100 400 km the few records from an onshore m 4 0 earthquake and from the 1969 m 7 8 earthquake display similar trends the results show that the performance of the models is period dependent with shorter spectral periods 0 01 s 0 1 s 0 2 s and 0 5 s being strongly underpredicted by models developed for shallow active tectonic regions more interestingly the performance of the models for stable continental regions seems to be magnitude dependent with response spectra amplitudes for magnitudes of engineering interest being accurately estimated by the models the inspection of the residual distributions of intensity observations leads to similar conclusions for the offshore data while highlighting the extent of epistemic uncertainty in predicting the ground motions for moderate magnitude earthquakes at short to moderate distances

first evidence of an underwater final pleistocene terrestrial extinct faunal bone assemblage from central chile south america taxonomic and taphonomic analyses abstract site gnl quintero 1 gnlq1 located in quintero bay 32 s central chile constitutes the first evidence of a drowned terrestrial site on the continental west coast of south america covered by sea level rise after the last glacial maximum the site currently lies 650 m offshore and 13 m underwater covers an area of 64 m 2 and contains several discrete exposed and shallow buried bone deposits through underwater archaeology survey and test excavations a significant amount of animal bone assigned to the late pleistocene was successfully recovered and analyzed after recovery and prior to the analyses the bones were subjected to conservation and stabilization treatments resulting in good preservation of the material taxonomic analyses nisp 224 revealed high taxonomic diversity of extinct fauna camelidae cervidae artiodactyla equidae mylodontidae canidae rodentia and xenarthra the sample represents a continental faunal assemblage belonging to a drowned terrestrial context probably related to an estuarine lagoon environment taphonomic analysis allowed macroscopic identification of natural marks punctures associated with large and small size carnivores the bones also show abrasion related to the action of marine sands along with colour alterations by applying scanning electron microscope sem micrographs and energy dispersive spectroscopy eds to fossil bones marks and colour alterations were identified marks indicated rodent gnawing and trampling while colour alterations were attributed to diagenesis processes discarding thermal treatment site gnlq1 is identified as having very high potential for it provides the first evidence for a submerged palaeolandscape viable for human occupation and movement along the pacific coast of south america during the late pleistocene

dynamics and scaling characteristics of shear crack propagation a model for a description of a shear crack fault propagation is proposed on the basis of the unification of continuum damage and fracture mechanics with ideas of fracture models for random media energy release linked with local failures of elements as a result of evolution of fracture processes at lower scale levels stimulated by the stress concentration in the vicinity of the fault is treated as a seismicity source 2d simulations are performed for analysis of the effect of the size of pre existing fault on characteristic features of rupture evolution scaling including multifractal character of crack propagation and of respective energy release is shown

taphonomic analysis of an ungulate dominated accumulation at the pleistocene cova del rinoceront site near barcelona spain northeastern iberian peninsula abstract the upper pleistocene mis5 site known as cova del rinoceront near barcelona spain contains a large assemblage of ungulate remains among which the most dominant in the uppermost layer i are those of the rare mediterranean deer haploidoceros mediterraneus in this paper zooarchaeological and coprogenic analyses are used to evaluate the taphonomic and geological processes involved in determining the nature of the layer i assemblage the assemblage cannot have been generated by either hyenids or humans nor does it constitute an accidental collection as seen in other pleistocene accummulations instead the skeletal frequencies coprogenic tracemarkers and the diagnostic biological damage on bones suggest it accumulated as a result of the feeding of a carnivore the homogeneous pattern of carcass utilization and the predation of similar sized ungulates suggest a canid as the main biological agent

depositional and post depositional processes in human modified cave contexts of west central patagonia southernmost south america abstract this contribution aims to analyse depositional and post depositional processes from two volcanic caves bano nuevo 1 and cueva de la vieja from west central patagonia in order to evaluate if natural and anthropogenic processes recorded therein are representative of basin scale processes for this purpose geomorphological sedimentological micromorphological petrographic magnetic paleontological and archaeological data are integrated results allow correlating the bano nuevo 1 and cueva de la vieja sequences comprising a record of ca 19 000 years in the first place the distinction between endogenous and exogenous detritus input mainly recorded by the mineralogy and lithotypes provided environmental data related to landscape stability i e vegetation cover the latter in turn could be interpreted as part of a complex feedback associated with major climatic changes on the other hand cave weathering rates observed through vertical variations of the gravel fraction along with bioactivity recorded by percentages of total organic carbon and micromorphological analysis provided constraints on temperature and or humidity being in agreement with available regional information main regional palaeoenvironmental changes observed in the sequences were the deglaciation processes the pleistocene holocene transition the holocene amelioration and the anthropocene although no distinctive variations were observed within holocene deposits biological processes mainly resultant of the human occupations could have obliterated such finer scale distinctions

magnitude scaling of the near fault rupture directivity pulse abstract current ground motion models all assume monotonically increasing spectral amplitude at all periods with increasing magnitude however near fault recordings from recent earthquakes confirm that the near fault fault normal forward rupture directivity velocity pulse is a narrow band pulse whose period increases with magnitude this magnitude dependence of the period of the near fault pulse is expected from theory because the period of the pulse is related to source parameters such as the rise time duration of slip at a point on the fault and the fault dimensions which generally increase with magnitude this magnitude dependence of the pulse period causes the response spectrum to have a peak whose period increases with magnitude such that the near fault ground motions from smaller earthquakes may exceed those of larger earthquakes at intermediate periods around 1 s this paper presents preliminary equations relating the period of the fault normal component of the forward rupture directivity velocity pulse to the earthquake magnitude and a preliminary model for the acceleration response spectra of near fault fault normal ground motions that includes the magnitude dependence of the period of the response spectral peak

testing heterogeneity in faunal assemblages from archaeological sites tumbling and trampling experiments at the early middle pleistocene site of gesher benot ya aqov israel abstract the current paper reports an experimental case study to test the heterogeneity of faunal assemblages from the early middle pleistocene layers v 5 and v 6 of the gesher benot ya aqov acheulian site israel tumbling and trampling experiments were initiated to gain qualitative insight into processes of bone modification and to assess the timing of the biostratonomic chronology as it was assumed that both mechanisms were responsible for the formation of striations documented on the bone surfaces from the site the tumbling experiments mimicked sediment movement in a calm lacustrine shoreline environment whereas the trampling experiments investigate the role of animal hominin activities in dry muddy and wet environments models for the internal operational sequence of an abrasional process due to uni and multidirectional water movement and of a trampling scenario are presented these models are used for the interpretation of the fauna from gesher benot ya aqov

bronze age barrows at longstone edge taphonomy and site formation the taphonomy of the small vertebrate fauna from longstone edge is compared and contrasted with the site formation processes of the bronze age round barrows from which they were recovered the microfauna may provide important clues about the site formation processes of the barrows including access to and exposure of the structures in different periods two contexts the earth barrow 1 and the burial cists beneath barrow 1 have rich small vertebrate faunas preserved and taphonomic evidence of breakage and digestion provides evidence of two predators responsible for the accumulation of the faunas the preservation context indicates that the predators were nesting or roosting on the ground three other contexts in barrow 1 subsoil stone mound underlying the earth mound and a later fissure cutting across the mound have only scattered remains and barrow 2 also has dispersed remains the taphonomy and site formation processes of the two longstone edge barrows complement each other but the nature of the evidence from the two sources is quite different taphonomy is a constructive discipline that adds information to animal and plant assemblages shows what processes were operating in the past and allows us to retrieve the original information of past ecosystems site formation processes and destruction of the structural elements that make up the barrows may show how the site was formed and how it has deteriorated over time attempts to refer to both subjects as aspects of taphonomy are misguided

an exclusively hyena collected bone assemblage in the late pleistocene of sicily taphonomy and stratigraphic context of the large mammal remains from san teodoro cave north eastern sicily italy a detailed taphonomic analysis of the large mammal assemblage from 1998 to 2006 excavations at san teodoro cave is presented taking into account the stratigraphic context of the deposits three not strictly contemporary fossiliferous levels having different lithological features have been detected here named b i b ii and b iii fossil remains are prevalently accumulated in b i and b ii the three levels are characterized by evidence of crocuta crocuta spelaea occupation represented by their skeletal remains coprolites and distinctive damages on the bones similar to fossil and modern spotted hyena dens from europe and africa a differential distribution of coprolites and small digested bones probably due to different humidity conditions has been recognized in b i and b ii and can be related to different topographic locations within the cave or to different climate conditions during the sedimentation phases the very low density of fossil remains in b iii which is the oldest level could indicate an area that was less inhabited by hyenas probably due to geomorphological conditions taphonomic comparison of the three fossiliferous levels of the san teodoro cave deposits points to a long term perhaps cyclic occupation of the cave by hyenas and confirms the cave as one of the most important pleistocene hyena dens in europe

micromammal taphonomy of el wad terrace mount carmel israel distinguishing cultural from natural depositional agents in the late natufian a taphonomic analysis of micromammal remains from the late natufian deposits of el wad terrace mount carmel israel was conducted in order to test the long standing premise of owl deposition as the primary accumulating agent the inferred taphonomic sequence was modeled within an actualistic recent comparative framework incorporating a locally derived barn owl pellet collection and an off site control assemblage of micromammal remains from the cliff overhanging the terrace the sequence was reconstructed based on multiple types of recorded taphonomic data comprising skeletal modifications breakage digestion weathering gnawing and charring and age structure evidence for post depositional processes including fluvial transport trampling and weathering was isolated and consequently the typical owl imprints were traced through the two actualistic and the archaeological assemblages based on the extent of breakage and patterning in skeletal element frequencies it was also possible to scale the preservation potential of primary data in el wad terrace as a discrete site type intermediate between true cave and open air depositional environments verifying the role of owls as principal agents of accumulation of the el wad terrace micromammal remains enabled the detection of two minor superimposed cultural patterns consumption of mole rats spalax sp by the natufians and commensalism of mice mus spp

not only hyenids a multi scale analysis of upper pleistocene carnivore coprolites in cova del coll verdaguer ne iberian peninsula three morphotypes of fossil fecal material coprolites have been identified from the upper pleistocene site of cova del coll verdaguer ne iberian peninsula coprolites are commonly found in pleistocene records and also in places in which human and carnivore activities co occurred however coprolite identification is typically limited to hyenids the most readily recognizable fossilized feces owing to their distinctive shape and good preservation although non hyena carnivore coprolites are also likely to be present in these assemblages several criteria for a multi scale integrative analysis are proposed here for discriminating different morphotypes hence this analysis provides an opportunity to assess the involvement of several carnivores in bone accumulations to identify carnivores not specifically represented by skeletal remains and to evaluate interactions between humans and the carnivore guild especially medium and small carnivores

comment on the earthquakes of 29 july 2003 12 february 2007 and 17 december 2009 in the region of cape saint vincent sw iberia and their relation with the 1755 lisbon earthquake by c pro e buforn m bezzeghoud and a udias

estimates of strain due to brittle faulting sampling of fault populations abstract the geometry of sampling domains is a first order consideration in the characterization of brittle fault populations in most cases descriptions of fault size distributions based on map cross section traverse or borehole data systematically underestimate the number of small faults present in a volume the geometry of sampling domains may be accounted for using an empirical proportionality between fault displacement and trace length estimates of strain in which the sampling geometry is considered suggest that small faults accommodate a significant portion of the total strain due to the brittle faulting process

the 11 april 2012 east indian ocean earthquake triggered large aftershocks worldwide although strong remote aftershocks are exceedingly rare their rate increased fivefold during the six days following the 2012 east indian ocean earthquake perhaps as a result of the strike slip nature of the 2012 event or a build up of close to failure nucleation sites

land of the ground sloths recent research at cueva chica ultima esperanza chile ultima esperanza is a region known worldwide where some of the best preserved remains of late pleistocene ground sloths were found cueva del milodon produced a large piece of mylodon darwini skin in 1895 as well as extensive deposits of ground sloth dung that were sampled several times during the 20th century these deposits are dated within 13 500 and 10 200 radiocarbon years at cueva del medio not far from cueva del milodon evidence of human exploitation of extinct fauna was discovered also at nearby dos herraduras rockshelter several ground sloth elements were found within a tephra layer regionally dated ca 12 600 bp this paper presents new data derived from stratigraphic work at cueva chica a site located near cueva del milodon which in spite of its obvious potential was not studied previously the work revealed more than one layer of late pleistocene fauna where remains of ground sloth a large felid and other species were preserved radiocarbon studies produced some of the oldest evidence for the presence of mylodon sp in the region the integration of these results within the context of the paleoecology of late pleistocene ultima esperanza is presented

gombore ii melka kunture ethiopia a new approach to formation processes and spatial patterns of an early pleistocene acheulean site abstract to assess the integrity of pleistocene archaeological sites is crucial in the analysis of human behaviour most of the early palaeolithic sites are in active fluvial environments where it is necessary to understand the degree of sedimentary disturbance the analysis of the formation processes through geoarchaeological and geostatistical techniques offers new tools to evaluate if the archaeological assemblage is in autochthonous or allochthonous position gombore ii 850 ka within the archaeological and paleontological complex of melka kunture ethiopia extends over estimated 1000 m2 and yielded a large number of acheulean artefacts fossil mammal bones and two fossil hominin remains the geomorphological setting and deposition patterns of high energy sedimentation in a fluvial channelized environment are similar to those of many other early palaeolithic african sites this is traditionally described as producing a disturbed record with the fortuitous association of faunal remains and lithic industry driven by fluvial processes to assess this hypothesis we analyse here the formation processes and the spatial patterning of the remains we apply geoarchaeological orientation and fabric and spatial tests density grouping k means to the mapped archaeological surfaces and to a present day fluvial surface we observe substantial differences in geoarchaeological features and spatial patterning between the archaeological record lithic materials and faunal remains and the natural clasts of both the archaeological deposit and the bed of the present day river this suggests different depositional processes or temporal events we conclude that the remains produced by the hominins did not haphazardly accumulate after extensive erosion and re sedimentation they rather preserve a reasonable degree of taphonomic and spatial integrity and are possibly representative of different activities

one bone two bones wet bones dry bones transport potentials under experimental conditions flume experiments demonstrated that bones had varying hydraulic transport potentials depending on whether the bones were wet or dry articulated or disarticulated when placed into a water flow dry and articulated bones demonstrated the greatest transport potential while wet and disarticulated bones demonstrated the least the velocity at which bones were transported was plotted against a range of attributes such as the shape weight volume and density of the bones with varying degrees of success although several attributes did prove to be significant as indicators of bone transport potential no single attribute emerged as more useful than another

developing a geographic information system gis for mapping and analysing fossil deposits at swartkrans gauteng province south africa the accumulation of fossil remains bone tools and stone tools at the plio pleistocene site of swartkrans has been attributed to a variety of depositional agents these agents include hominin activity carnivore activity alluvial deposition and gravitation based on recent studies it is highly probable that the accumulations found at swartkrans and other plio pleistocene cave sites in south africa have resulted from a combination of these processes in order to explore further the taphonomic nature of swartkrans a geographic information system gis was developed combining all existing information produced from the final seven year period of c k brain s excavations and a recent survey of the site the amalgamation of this information into a gis has resulted in a digital archive of swartkrans information that allows the user to simultaneously visualize and analyse fossil artifact and geological materials within their original spatial contexts allowing a more comprehensive investigation of the site post excavation three dimensional reconstruction and gis development for sites such as swartkrans present many obstacles when using traditional gis approaches due to the presence of overhanging features certain limitations of conventional gis software yield erroneous results these limitations are based on the fact that conventional gis packages interpret z values as attributes rather than as true spatial coordinates a brief overview of gis and the challenges involved in the mapping and three dimensional reconstruction of sites such as swartkrans using traditional gis approaches are discussed as well as potential applications of the system

reply to comment on the earthquakes of 29 july 2003 12 february 2007 and 17 december 2009 in the region of cape saint vincent sw iberia and their relation with the 1755 lisbon earthquake by c pro e buforn m bezzeghoud and a udias

biotic and abiotic processes affecting the formation of bk level 4c bed ii olduvai gorge and their bearing on hominin behavior at the site abstract excavations at bk have provided insights into the behavior of early hominins through the study of several archaeological levels the present study shows the results for a new archaeological sub level bk4c the main goal is to contribute to the knowledge of the different taphonomic processes that shaped bk4c and to better understand the role played by hominins in its formation due to the presence of a fluvial depositional context and a slight channel in bk4c a spatial analysis has been applied in order to determine the impact caused by water flows we conclude that water played a role in the rearrangement of the assemblage however the spatial properties of the assemblage indicate a limited impact of post depositional disturbance processes supporting the autochthonous nature of the site the taphonomic study of this sub level indicates that hominins had a primary role in the accumulation bulk defleshing and demarrowing of carcasses bk4 assemblages bk4b and bk4c indicate a repeated occupation of the site for short time periods this is interpreted by the overall fast sedimentation recorded in the fluvial system and the paucity of highly weathered bones showing extensive periods of sub aerial exposure in between sedimentary episodes the site functionality is potentially different from that inferred for earlier oldowan periods where sites were smaller and showed less marked spatial clustering of lithics and stone tools caused by hominin behavior

understanding the ancient habitats of the last interglacial late mis 5 neanderthals of central iberia paleoenvironmental and taphonomic evidence from the cueva del camino spain site the cueva del camino site pinilla del valle madrid represents the most complete mis 5 record from the iberian peninsula away from the mediterranean margin including a large accumulation of fossilized remains of small and large vertebrates and two human teeth the presence of carnivores mainly hyenas and humans suggests that the site should be interpreted as a spotted hyena den a human occupation or both during an earlier phase of excavation undertaken during the 1980s an anthropic origin was suggested for the accumulation at the site however research was resumed in 2002 leading to an increase in the number of vertebrate remains recovered as well as the recognition of new vertebrate species these have now been incorporated into the site s list of fauna in addition new palaeobotanical geochronological and stratigraphic data have been recorded and analysed and the human teeth identified as being of neanderthal origin floristic data pollen and charcoal remains obtained for the north sector of this site indicate an open landscape with pinus sylvestris nigra as the main arboreal taxon the available evidence suggests this accumulation to be the result of spotted hyena activity during a warm phase of marine isotope stage 5 mis 5 in an environment in which fallow deer was the most abundant herbivore

testing the savannah corridor hypothesis during mis2 the boh dambang hyena site in southern cambodia abstract the boh dambang karstic site in southern cambodia kampot province is a mammal bone rich deposit in a hyena site very few hyena sites have been recovered in the pleistocene of southeast asia thus little information is known about the foraging abilities of hyenas during that period and their decline in the region while the other hypercarnivores tiger leopard and dhole persisted until present day to constrain the site we applied luminescence red tl and single grain osl esr and u th dating methods to the sediments and faunal teeth respectively the resulting age estimates suggest that the site represents an accumulation of a young deposit with faunal teeth in the range of 25 18 ka that was last exposed to sunlight between 8 and 7 ka and an older deposit containing older teeth 100 80 ka that have been eroded from the upper caves in the system and incorporated into the younger deposit thus the faunal age of 25 18 ka mis2 provides the best estimate for the age of the hyena site during lgm 26 5 19 ka we analysed the assemblage of isolated teeth in terms of taxonomic diversity and abundance the role of bone accumulators either carnivores or rodents has been precised through a taphonomic analysis diet was reconstructed through measurement of 13 c values of tooth enamel the taphonomic analysis reveals that the hyenas were the main bone accumulators at boh dambang porcupines were aslo a factor in the accumulation of remains the results show that the spotted hyenas hunted large sized herbivores 600 kg in a mixed environment dominated by grassland these data along with evidence from other pleistocene faunas from southeast asian mainland in terms of prey preference of hyenas rhinoceroses versus large bovines also reveal marked differences in relation to habitat type possible causes of the decline of the spotted hyena in the indochinese sub region hypercarnivory high trophic level comparable foraging strategies with hunters gatherers and climatic changes are tentatively proposed at this point

towards a middle pleistocene terrestrial climate reconstruction based on herpetofaunal assemblages from the iberian peninsula state of the art and perspectives abstract the pattern of the varying climatic conditions in southern europe over the last million years is well known from isotope studies on deep ocean sediment cores and the long pollen records that have been produced for lacustrine and marine sedimentary sequences from greece italy and the iberian margin however although relative glacial and interglacial intensities are well studied there are still few proxies that permit quantitative terrestrial temperature and precipitation reconstruction in this context fauna based climate reconstructions based on evidence preserved in archaeological or palaeontological sites are of great interest even if they only document short windows of that climate variability because a they provide a range of temperature and precipitation estimates that are understandable in comparison with present climate b they may allow the testing of predicted temperature changes under scenarios of future climate change and c quantitative temperature and precipitation estimates for past glacials and interglacials for specific regions latitudes can help to understand their effects on flora fauna and hominids as they are directly associated with those cultural and or biological events moreover such reconstructions can bring further arguments to the discussion about important climatic events like the mid bruhnes event a climatic transition between moderate warmths and greater warmths during interglacials in this paper we review a decade of amphibian and reptile based climate reconstructions carried out for the iberian peninsula using the mutual ecogeographic range method in order to present a regional synthesis from mis 22 to mis 6 discuss the climate pattern in relation to the mid bruhnes event and the thermal amplitude suggested by these estimates and finally to identify the chronological gaps that have still to be investigated

combining machine learning algorithms and geometric morphometrics a study of carnivore tooth marks abstract since the 1980s an intense scientific debate has revolved around the hunting capacities of early hominin populations and the behavioral patterns of carnivores sharing the same ecosystem and thus competing for the same resources this debate commonly known as the hunter scavenger debate fostered the emergence of a new research line into the bone surface modifications bsms produced by both taphonomic agents throughout the following 20 years multiple studies concerning the action of carnivores have been developed with a particular focus on the oldest archaeological sites in east africa recent technological advances applied to taphonomy have provided new insight into carnivore bsms a newly developed part of this work relies on geometric morphometrics gmm studies aimed at discerning carnivore agency through the morphologic characterization of tooth scores and pits gmm studies have produced promising results however methodological limitations are still present this paper presents the first combined application of machine learning ml algorithms and gmm to the analysis of carnivore tooth marks generating classification rates of 100 between carnivore species in some cases

palynological interpretation of the early neolithic coastal open air site at sa punta central western sardinia italy abstract the major goal of the present study has been to assess the ecological context of the early neolithic settlement under excavation in the coastal site of sa punta marceddi terralba sardinia italy where a trench of neolithic age has been brought to light based on the origins of the site s organic fossiliferous content the purpose of this work is to achieve an understanding of 1 the reasons why this location was chosen by en man and 2 its functions this research has enabled us to suggest a human paleoecological scenario over the course of the last three centuries of the 6th millennium bc in the inland area of the oristano gulf on the basis of pollen spectra and the phytolith morphologies recognised it is suggested that herbaceous vegetation covered the alluvial plain arable agriculture does not seem to have been practiced on the site but the record of coprophilous fungi and endoparasites along with clues that there were burning practices suggest livestock farming activity to date a univocal interpretation of the function of this trench is still lacking however it is the oldest and the only evidence in sardinia of a remarkable transformation of an open air space due to settlement

contrasting impacts of dansgaard oeschger events over a western european latitudinal transect modulated by orbital parameters abstract terrestrial and marine proxies pollen planktic and benthic foraminiferal oxygen isotopes alkenone and foraminifer derived sea surface temperatures ssts ice rafted debris from images deep sea cores md95 2042 and su81 18 37 n 10 w md99 2331 and md03 2697 42 n 9 w and md04 2845 45 n 5 w show that western european and offshore environments were strongly affected by dansgaard oeschger d o and heinrich h events we concentrate here on latitudinal variability in the forest cover extent and composition of western europe during the succession of d o events showing new pollen records for core md04 2845 and for marine isotopic stages mis 3 and 4 of core md99 2331 in general cold ssts characteristic of greenland stadials were contemporaneous with the expansion of semi desert or steppic vegetation while greenland interstadials were synchronous with the expansion of forest our data reveal that the amplitude of atlantic and mediterranean forest expansions differs for any given d o warming during the glacial period 74 18 ka in the western mediterranean d o 16 17 and d o 8 and 7 corresponding to minima in precession were associated with strong expansion of forest cover contrasting with weak expansion of forest cover during d o 14 and 12 the opposite pattern is revealed at the atlantic sites further north the strongest greenland warmings are recorded for d o 19 11 and 8 this contrasting latitudinal climatic scenario is compared with other northern hemisphere records revealing similarities between the mediterranean climate and the asian monsoon regime which may relate to a summer atmospheric teleconnection between the two regions comparable to the present day situation parallels between mediterranean climate enhancement and peaks in global methane ch 4 during the last glacial period suggest a significant role of monsoon activity in determining ch 4 emission from wetlands

structure and composition of the aleutian island arc and implications for continental crustal growth we present results of a seismic reflection and refraction investigation of the aleutian island arc designed to test the hypothesis that volcanic arcs constitute the building blocks of continental crust the aleutian arc has the requisite thickness 30 km to build continental crust but it differs strongly from continental crust in its composition and reflectivity structure seismic velocities and the compositions of erupted lavas suggest that the aleutian crust has a mafic bulk composition in contrast to the andesitic bulk composition of continents the silicic upper crust and reflective lower crust that are characteristic of continental crust are conspicuously lacking in the aleutian intraoceanic arc therefore if island arcs form a significant source of continental crust the bulk properties of arc crust must be substantially modified during or after accretion to a continental margin the pervasive deformation intracrustal melting and delamination of mafic to ultramafic residuum necessary to transform arc crust into mature continental crust probably occur during arc continent collision or through subsequent establishment of a continental arc the volume of crust created along the arc exceeds that estimated by previous workers by about a factor of two

in situ u series dating by laser ablation multi collector icpms new prospects for quaternary geochronology the capabilities and potential applications of in situ dating of quaternary materials using laser ablation mc icpms are explored 234 u 238 u and 230 th 234 u can be measured with precision sufficient for dating at a spatial resolution of 100mm or better in samples that contain as a little as 1 ppm uranium moreover u and th concentrations and u series isotope ratios can be continuously profiled to determine changes in age that occur with sample growth e g in speleothems these capabilities additionally permit the dating of bones teeth and possibly molluscs which are subject to post mortem open system behaviour of useries isotopes and can be employed to elucidate processes of u series migration during weathering and diagenesis a drawback of laser ablation mc icpms is that it cannot in general provide u series age estimates with the high precision and accuracy of conventional tims or solution mc icpms methods however sample preparation is straightforward the amount of sample consumed negligible and it can be used to rapidly characterise or screen and select samples from which more precise and accurate dates can be obtained using conventional methods given further instrumental developments and the establishment of suitable matrix matched standards for carbonates and other materials we foresee that laser ablation mc icpms will play an increasingly important role in quaternary dating research r 2005 published by elsevier ltd

the jou puerta cave asturias nw spain a mis 3 large mammal assemblage with mixture of cold and temperate elements abstract the cave of jou puerta asturias nw spain provided an interesting large mammal assemblage including cold adapted elements like coelodonta antiquitatis and mammuthus primigenius which are not frequent in iberian sites the chronology of the fossils ranges from 36 6 to 30 2 cal ka bp corresponding to mis 3 an episode characterized by fast climate changes from extreme cold to temperate conditions the origin of the bone accumulation is related to a natural trap so most of the fossils were unusually well preserved the woolly rhinoceros remains yielded one of the most numerous and well preserved populations of this species from the iberian peninsula which allowed carrying out a detailed comparative anatomical study the faunal composition of jou puerta was statistically analyzed in comparison with other iberian and western european fossil assemblages where c antiquitatis and or m primigenius occurred the results showed that temperate ungulate species are predominant at most of the iberian assemblages including jou puerta resulting in a particular mixture of temperate and cold elements which does not reflect the typical faunal composition of the eurasian mammoth steppe this particular situation supports the idea that these cold taxa only reached the peninsula occasionally during the coldest episodes of the pleistocene resulting in a mixing of cold and temperate faunas instead of a faunal replacing

the paleoecology and taphonomy of amk bed i olduvai gorge and its contributions to the understanding of the zinj paleolandscape abstract amk amin mturi korongo is a newly discovered site situated under tuff ic bed i 1 84 ma it contains several fossiliferous levels and the top one is situated on the same paleosurface as flk zinj for the first time this allows sampling the zinj paleoenvironment well into the secondary gorge and expands the known area of this paleolandscape fossils found at this site show exceptional preservation several articulated units have been discovered indicating minimal postdepositional disturbance and rapid sedimentation this assemblage allows a general estimation of time span the most elusive variable in archaeological analyses for the formation of amk phytolith analyses have discovered a dense palm forest at the site expanding the forested area known on the slightly elevated platform that contains the flk zinj flk nn ptk sites although a few artifacts have been discovered in the vicinity of amk the site was mostly naturally i e non anthropogenically formed this is of major relevance to determine that factors other than forested habitats must have influenced the formation of anthropogenic sites on the same platform as amk in the olduvai lacustrine basin

aeromagnetic investigation of southern calabria and the messina straits italy tracking seismogenic sources of 1783 and 1908 earthquakes southern calabria and the ne corner of sicily italy were struck in 1783 and 1908 a d by two of the most catastrophic earthquakes ever in european history although it is generally acknowledged that the seisms were yielded by normal faults rupturing the upper crust of the calabria peloritani terrane no consensus exists on seismogenic source location and orientation here we report on a high resolution low altitude aeromagnetic survey of southern calabria and messina straits in southern calabria we document a broad weakly positive 5 10 nt anomaly zone interrupted by three en echelon sw ne null to negative magnetic anomaly corridors euler deconvolution and magnetic modeling show that the anomaly pattern is produced by a 1 1 5 km thick crustal layer located within 3 km depth this layer is offset by a 25 km long ne trending fault that corresponds to the armo normal fault recently inferred to be the source for the 1908 earthquake few kilometers to the south we also document a subparallel and previously unrecognized fault entering the messina straits and likely joining the armo fault at depth further east we model a 40 km long normal fault probably extending northeastward for additional 40 km running along the south calabria axis from aspromonte to the serre mountains and partly following the 18 km long surface rupture witnessed by deodat de dolomieu after the 1783 earthquake thus aeromagnetic data suggest that the sources of the 1783 and 1908 earthquakes are en echelon faults belonging to the same nw dipping normal fault system straddling the whole southern calabria

a study of pleistocene and holocene hyaena coprolites abstract hyaena coprolites from a diachronic series of archaeological sites in israel were examined and compared with recent faecal material from striped hyaena dens and zoos three methods were applied in the analysis of all samples gross morphometrical attributes x ray diffraction and petrological thin sections this last method is an innovation in the field of coprolite studies and facilitates the long term preservation of the original textural characteristics and fabric of sections of the coprolite the combination of these three approaches facilitated among other things the assessment of hyaena diet in the past as well as in the present and determination of local environmental factors affecting the composition of the coprolite we also obtained some indication of changes related to ageing of the material

probabilistic seismic hazard assessment for portugal the probabilistic seismic hazard of portugal is analyzed with a logic tree approach a critical part of the work was the review of the seismic catalog and the moment magnitude m estimation for historical earthquakes to produce a cat alog with a uniform magnitude scale the instrumental magnitudes were converted to m through empirical relations two seismic zonations were considered each in cluding two broad tectonic zones and a set of smaller seismicity zones catalog completeness and the b value for the truncated exponential recurrence model were calculated for the broad sources defined by tectonic criteria the smaller seismicity sources were used to calculate the a value using the fixed b value of the correspond ing tectonic zone this approach allows for a larger amount of data to estimate the most critical parameters by statistical methods without compromising the spatial detail of hazard results three published attenuation relations were used in the logic tree with weights that were based on tectonic considerations and on the comparison with macroseismic data converted to horizontal peak ground acceleration pga the ambraseys et al 1996 attenuation model for pga used by most previous hazard studies of the region seems to underestimate considerably the ground motion for mainland portugal a total of 96 hazard curves were calculated with seisrisk iii for each point of the map the resulting mean hazard map for 10 exceedence probability in 50 years displays pga values that range from 0 05g to 0 20g these mean values are slightly higher than in previous pga studies the hazard patterns obtained display a maximum related to intraplate onshore seismicity whereas pre vious studies using intensities highlighted the southwest offshore contribution fur ther work on ground motion attenuation in western iberia is necessary to improve the seismic hazard assessment

using experimental studies of recent faecal material to examine hyaena coprolites from the west runton freshwater bed norfolk u k abstract coprolites fossilized droppings found during the excavation of the west runton elephant in 1992 and 1995 were studied and attributed to the spotted hyaena crocuta crocuta on the basis of their distinctive morphology and content recent droppings of captive spotted hyaenas were compared with the coprolites in terms of size morphology and content and were used in simple laboratory experiments devised to improve understanding of their behaviour in depositional environments generally and their mode of burial at this locality specifically the coprolites are 22 32 larger than the recent droppings consistent with the interpretation that the european spotted hyaenas of the cromerian interglacial were larger than modern african equivalents the fresh spotted hyaena droppings are hard and durable sink rapidly through water and are able to withstand considerable trampling into sediment whilst maintaining a coherent form the droppings have a high threshold entrainment velocity in water far higher than that for silt or fine sand and consequently it is unlikely that the west runton coprolites were transported to the site with the host sediment this suggests three possible histories of deposition 1 the droppings were deposited around the elephant skeleton possibly by the same animals which caused damage to the skeleton and the fine sediment was then washed in around them 2 they were deposited by hyaenas while fine sediment was being deposited 3 they were deposited after the sediment was deposited and then they were subjected to faunal disturbance by trampling and scattering this approach studying the behaviour of in this case modern fresh droppings in experimental situations to answer specific questions may be of use in investigating other sites with similar natural depositional settings not necessarily involving faecal material

phytoliths in the middle palaeolithic deposits of kebara cave mt carmel israel study of the plant materials used for fuel and other purposes abstract kebara cave israel is a well studied archaeological site it contains abundant visible hearths ash derived minerals are a major component of the mousterian sediments and are present in varying states of preservation furthermore archaeobotanic information is available from charred remains kebara cave is thus an ideal location to study the potential of phytoliths to provide information on the mode of fire use in the cave to assess the input of other plant materials as well as to determine the effects of diagenesis on phytolith preservation twenty samples were analysed in terms of their mineralogy phytolith contents per unit weight of acid insoluble fraction and phytolith morphologies in general the preservation of the phytoliths is good except for the two samples in which the mineral component associated at present with the phytoliths is mainly ash derived calcite the cave sediments contain about ten times more phytoliths than those present in the four samples analysed from outside the cave the major source of plant material input into the cave is clearly from the wood and bark used for the fuel for fires the grass phytoliths present in the samples are also thought in part to have been brought into the cave associated with the wood bark fuel sediments from the hearths as well as those between the hearths contain abundant wood bark phytoliths the two samples of the latter contain appreciable amounts of phytoliths not known to be present in wood and bark as do other hearth derived samples plant materials other than those used as fuel were thus also brought into the cave this study shows that phytolith analyses in conjunction with detailed mineralogical stratigraphic archaeobotanic and field information can provide a more complete understanding of the use of plant materials in prehistoric caves for fuel

new taphonomic data of the 1 myr hominin butchery at untermassfeld thuringia germany abstract untermassfeld has provided a butchered bone assemblage and a mode 1 lithic record demonstrating hominin presence at a site which was classically viewed as paleontological this archaeological record was found during fieldwork and surveying in fluvial river banks and low to medium energy channel erosion sediments paleomagnetism and biostratigraphy has yielded an age for this hominin occupation close to the onset of the jaramillo subchron ca 1 07 myr in this paper we present new taphonomic data of the cut marked and hammer related bone material corresponding mainly to large sized herd species i e bison but also from cervids eucladoceros giulii and cervus s l nestii vallonnetensis and megafaunal species i e stephanorhinus hundsheimensis and hippopotamus amphibius antiquus distribution of skeletal elements and bone surface features suggests that this bone assemblage consists of animal remains with different taphonomic origins the assemblage formed during at most two or three sediment laden floods transporting both lithic tools and remains of animals that died of natural causes or were killed by predators the new taphonomic results presented here are important to analyze hominin colonization and adaptation to european mid latitude environments at 1 myr in competition for meat resources with large carnivores i e pachycrocuta brevirostris and panthera onca gombaszoegensis

fault strain and seismic coupling on mid ocean ridges the contribution of extensional faulting to seafloor spreading along the east pacific rise epr axis near 3 s and between 13 n and 15 n is calculated using data on the displacement and length distributions of faults obtained from side scan sonar and bathymetric data it is found that faulting may account for of the order of 5 10 of the total spreading rate which is comparable to a previous estimate from the epr near 19 s given the paucity of normal faulting earthquakes on the epr axis a maximum estimate of the seismic moment release shows that seismicity can account for only 1 of the strain due to faulting this result leads us to conclude that most of the slip on active faults must be occurring by stable sliding laboratory observations of the stability of frictional sliding show that increasing normal stress promotes unstable sliding while increasing temperature promotes stable sliding by applying a simple frictional model to mid ocean ridge faults it is shown that at fast spreading ridges 90 mm yr the seismic portion of a fault ws is a small proportion of the total downdip width of the fault w the ratio ws w interpreted as the seismic coupling coefficient x and in this case x 0 in contrast at slow spreading rates 40 mm yr ws w and therefore x 1 which is consistent with the occurrence of large magnitude earthquakes mb 5 0 to 6 0 occurring for example along the mid atlantic ridge axis

european climatic response to millennial scale changes in the atmosphere ocean system during the last glacial period abstract pollen foraminifer dinocyst and coarse lithic high resolution analyses and 18 o measurements have been carried out for the last glacial section of marine core md95 2042 located near the southwestern margin of the iberian peninsula the pollen data indicate a high frequency of vegetational changes on the adjacent continent during this period suggesting a climatic variability very similar to that of the dansgaard oeschger cycles recorded by the greenland ice cores the detailed direct correlation of the terrestrial and marine proxy data from core md95 2042 indicates a three phase pattern of heinrich events in land and ocean environments the first and last phases of the h5 and h4 events are characterized by a mild and humid climate in southwestern europe probably associated with the european origin of the ice rafted detritus the middle phase exhibits a cold and dry climate in iberia linked with the maximum input of ice rafted detritus this phase seems to correspond with the laurentide ice sheet surges between the heinrich events several cold and dry periods on land are correlated with stades of the dansgaard oeschger cycles the impact of the dansgaard oeschger stades in southwestern europe seems to be preferentially connected to the cold winter air masses reaching this mid latitude region

abrupt climatic changes during the last glaciation based on pollen analysis of the abric romani catalonia spain the abric romani continental pollen record provides evidence of abrupt climate variations during the last glaciation the pollen record reveals a pattern of high frequency variations similar to that in ice cores as shown by oxygen isotopes or dust content analyses of 14 travertine samples yield coherent u series ages in correct stratigraphic order ranging from 40 000 to 70 000 yr according to changes in the composition and structure of the vegetation five paleoclimatic phases have been differentiated the oldest ranging from 70 200 to 65 500 yr ago records thermophilous taxa which correspond to the last warm events of isotopic stage 5 the next phase from 65 500 to 56 800 yr records a cold humid climate that correlates with isotope stage 4 during the third phase from 56 800 to 49 500 yr relatively warm and cold events alternate the fourth phase from 49 500 to 46 200 yr records a cold dry climate the fifth phase ranging from 46 200 to 40 800 yr records a milder phase that is similar in appearance to the beginning of the holocene

the timing and cause of megafauna mass deaths at lancefield swamp south eastern australia abstract lancefield swamp south eastern australia was one of the earliest sites to provoke interest in pleistocene faunal extinctions in sahul pleistocene australia new guinea the systematic investigation of the deposit in the early 1970s identified megafaunal remains dominated by the 100 200 kg kangaroo macropus giganteus titan associated radiocarbon ages indicated that the species was extant until c 30 000 bp suggesting significant overlap with human settlement of sahul this evidence was inconsistent with contemporary models of rapid human driven extinctions instead researchers inferred ecological tethering of fauna at lancefield swamp due to intense drought precipitated localised mass deaths consistent with late pleistocene climatic variability later investigations in another part of the swamp the mayne site remote to the initial investigations concluded that mass flow disturbed this area and electron spin resonance esr analyses on megafauna teeth returned wide ranging ages to clarify site formation processes and dating of lancefield swamp we excavated new test pits next to previous trenches in the classic and mayne sites we compared absolute chronologies for sediments and teeth sedimentology palaeo topography taphonomy and macropod age at death across the swamp luminescence dating of sediments and esr analysis of teeth returned ages between c 80 000 and 45 000 years ago we found no archaeological remains in the bone beds and evidence of carnivore activity and fluvial action in the form of reactivated spring flow the latter disturbed limited parts of the site and substantial areas of the bone beds remained intact the faunal assemblage is dominated by megafaunal adult macropus consistent with mass die offs due to severe drought such droughts appear to have recurred over millennia during the climatic variability of marine isotope stages 4 and 3 these events began tens of millennia before the first appearance of aboriginal people in sahul and only the very youngest fossil deposits could be coeval with the earliest human arrivals therefore anthropogenic causes cannot be implicated in most if not all of mass deaths at the site climatic and environmental changes were the main factors in site formation and megafauna deaths at lancefield swamp