esr dating of the neanderthal site kebara cave israel abstract in 1985 a neanderthal skeleton was found in the cave of kebara in southern mt carmel electron spin resonance esr dates have been obtained on tooth enamel of gazelles found in layer x just overlying the layer in which the skeleton was found assuming early uptake of uranium by the teeth they yield an age of 60 6 ka assuming gradual linear uptake of uranium yields an age of 64 6 ka both age estimates are consistent with a previous estimate for the skeleton based on tl dating of burnt flint of 60 4 ka

quaternary stratigraphy of the buried valleys of the lower red deer river alberta canada the quaternary fills of the buried valleys of southern alberta and saskatchewan have provided a wealth of information for the reconstruction of the glacial interglacial record of the western plains of canada and this paper reports on the previously unstudied stratigraphy of the buried calgary valley and its former tributaries in the lower red deer river area we attempt to differentiate empress group sediments which potentially relate to pre glacial interglacial interstadial and post glacial lake and river deposition using sedimentology stratigraphy and palaeoecology twenty nine stratigraphical logs indicate that empress group sediments have infilled a considerably large area of badlands and tributary coulees that once drained into the calgary valley located 15 km to the north of dinosaur provincial park radiocarbon dates of 52 4 ka 27 4 ka and 42 4 ka and glacially modified quartz grains suggest that at least some of the valley fills date to interglacial or interstadial periods and may be mid wisconsinan in age however outcrops of an older till overlying other valley fills suggest that the buried valleys were only partially excavated during interglacials interstadials and that older even pre glacial sediments could have survived subglacial channels recognisable on air photographs largely coincide with buried valley positions due to the preferential excavation of the quaternary sediment by meltwater and are filled with post glacial lake sediment from which a radiocarbon date of 16 ka bp was obtained pre glacial and glacial post glacial empress group sediments are lithologically indistinct but cover a large time span in southern alberta

mode of occupation of tabun cave mt carmel israel during the mousterian period a study of the sediments and phytoliths alternative modes of occupation of tabun cave during the deposition of the mousterian levels b and c have been proposed garrod bate 1937 excavations at the wady el mughara volume 1 oxford clarendon press interpreted the archaeological record of both levels as being indicative of domestic occupational activities jelinek et al 1973 palaeorient 1 151 183 proposed that the presence of articulated limb bones of dama mesopotamica in the level b sediments below the cave chimney indicated that the cave was used as a natural game trap they also noted that the white ash layers in level c extended across the whole cave and proposed that this was due to the burning of natural vegetation in the cave this study aims at clarifying the modes of occupation during these periods level b sediments closely resemble the terra rossa soil that is common in this region burning activity is inferred from charcoal fragments seen in thin sections a minor wood ash component is present based on the preponderance of phytoliths with a variable morphology as compared to those with a consistent morphology as well as phytoliths with shapes characteristic of those formed in wood and bark of local trees thus fires were produced in the cave during this period the cave may also have been used as a game trap level c is composed of multiple layers of brown black and white sediments micromorphology mineralogy and phytolith analyses all show that these layers are mixtures of terra rossa soil and ash with the latter being abundant in the white layers the phytoliths in these layers are derived almost entirely from wood and bark and not from grasses these observations are consistent with a domestic occupational mode 1999 academic press

landform classification and soil distribution in hummocky terrain saskatchewan canada this study presents a classification of distinct three dimensional landform elements and examines the relationship between these landform elements and selected soil morphological properties of udic boroll soils in southern saskatchewan canada the classification is based on defined ranges of three criteria derived from topographic data gradient profile downslope curvature and plan across slope curvature seven landform elements are recognized convergent shoulders divergent shoulders convergent backslopes divergent backslopes convergent footslopes divergent footslopes and level elements all of the elements are easily identified in the field the thicknesses of a horizons and depths to calcium carbonate of the soils were consistently greater in convergent versus divergent elements in the same profile group e g shoulders and showed an overall increase in the sequence shoulders backslopes level footslope elements distinct groups of elements emerge from a statistical analysis of the differences between individual and bivariate means of soil morphological properties associated with each landform element the differences in soil properties among the elements can be largely explained by differences in water movement and distribution in hillslope systems the results of the study highlight the need to consider land surface morphology during the development of research designs for soil related studies

ash deposits in hayonim and kebara caves israel macroscopic microscopic and mineralogical observations and their archaeological implications abstract a study of the hearths and ash layers preserved in hayonim and kebara caves israel showed that they are composed of one or several different minerals these include the polymorph of caco3 calcite a variety of phosphate minerals and a suite of siliceous minerals the major component of the latter are siliceous aggregates that are present in wood detailed studies of the mineral associations in these fossil ash layers as well as in fresh wood ash using optical and scanning electron microscopy in the back scattered electron mode together with elemental analyses showed that ash in these caves undergoes a series of diagenetic changes the best preserved ash layers resemble fresh ash and are composed mainly of calcite with minor amounts of siliceous minerals the calcite reacts with phosphate rich solutions to form carbonated apatite and with time the latter dissolves and a variety of other phosphate containing minerals form with each diagenetic change some of the more soluble minerals are lost and ultimately only the ash derived siliceous minerals remain in both caves there are local accumulations of such siliceous minerals that are metres thick in fact ash derived minerals in general are major components of the sediments in both kebara and hayonim caves their diagenesis involves a hugh reduction in volume which in turn may have important effects on the geological structures and stratigraphy of the sediments the changing mineralogy of the sediments due to diagenesis complicates the use of present day estimates of radiation content of the sediments for correcting age estimates by thermoluminescence and electron spin resonance finally the presence of the relatively stable ash derived siliceous minerals in a sedimentary layer in other caves could be a useful means of identifying the presence of ash in other archaeological sites where macroscopic hearth features are absent

validity of the radiocarbon dates beyond 35 000 years b p abstract if we take in account both the different kinds of material used for 14c dating and the old and new methods of sample preparation it is possible to estimate the reliability of the oldest of all the radiocarbon dates published it becomes clear that most of them should be considered as minimal ages and in particular those which were obtained by the isotopic enrichment method consequently all the radiocarbon ages attributed to the first interstadials of the early wurm may be considered as too young

automated mapping of land components from digital elevation data an algorithm for automating the mapping of land components from digital elevation data is described land components are areas of relatively uniform slope and aspect and often correspond with ridge crests shoulders head slopes back slopes or foot slopes aspect regions which generally span from stream to ridge are first identified by generalizing an aspect map derived from digital elevation data the aspect regions are then split successively into land components by grouping pixels above or below an automatically determined contour of elevation or distance from stream the contour approximates a slope break the land components mapped in this way give a complete polygonization of a hilly landscape and are a reasonable approximation of manually mapped land components

how heat alters underlying deposits and implications for archaeological fire features a controlled experiment abstract while it is true that the use of fire is undoubtedly an important behavioral trait fire can also leave important traces in archaeological deposits including altering previously deposited sediments and artifacts the set of controlled experiments reported here do not focus on fire per se but rather on the effects of some of the most important variables underlying the transfer of heat to subsurface sediments these variables including temperature duration sediment type moisture and mineralogy are altered here in ways that essentially bracket the range of conditions under which past fires may have existed the results show that sediments as much as 10 cm directly below a heat source routinely reach temperatures of 200 c with higher temperatures and greater depth of heat transfer possible with longer durations or higher surface temperatures one of the implications of these results is that a surface can produce substantial thermal alterations of archaeological artifacts and sediments deposited much earlier in the sequence likewise there are significant implications for the analyses and chronometric dating of thermally altered sediments and burned artifacts

soil landscape chronograms for pedochronological analysis abstract pedochronology is defined as the sequence of soil changes over time in a given landscape integrated stratigraphical and paleogeomorphic analysis of soil landscape systems can offer information on landscape history that provides a rational basis for further pedological and soil geomorphological studies to connect these aspects of research a new scheme called chronogram is introduced in which geogenic and pedogenic events can be summarized soil landscape chronograms have time on one axis and depict erosion deposition and soil formation across a given landscape along the other axis using open and enclosed hillslope systems as examples the construction of chronograms and their relations to other summarizing schemes are demonstrated these schemes include butler s k cycle system bos and sevink s site history scheme the catena the toposequence the nine unit land surface model and huggett s simulation model opportunities for further pedochronological analysis using paleosols authigenic and allogenic pedorelicts are identified

diagenesis in prehistoric caves the use of minerals that form in situ to assess the completeness of the archaeological record an interpretation of the archaeological record in particular that of a prehistoric cave site is complicated by the diversity of depositional and post depositional processes that affect the material deposited here we propose to use the authigenic minerals that form in situ within the cave sediments to reconstruct the ancient chemical environments in the sediments this can be done by experimentally determining the conditions under which each of the authigenic minerals are stable although this information is not available to date for minerals formed in a prehistoric cave we present calculated stability field data for the relevant minerals the results clearly demonstrate the feasibility of this approach this information particularly if based on measurements of real authigenic cave minerals will facilitate an assessment of the completeness of the cave archaeological record this is particularly important for determining whether or not the distributions of archaeologically important materials such as bones teeth plant phytoliths charcoal and ash reflect their original burial distributions or were altered as a result of secondary diagenetic processes

combustion structures of archaeological level o and mousterian activity areas with use of fire at the abric romani rockshelter ne iberian peninsula abstract the human use of fire generates a cultural sedimentary record that can be used to characterize prehistoric activity areas the aim of this paper is to develop a field guide for recognizing and describing combustion structures the use of fire as suggested by the results of ethnoarchaeological and prehistoric archaeological studies has served as the foundation for the analytical design of the field observations of the combustion structures at the abric romani rockshelter flat and concave combustion structure types have been uncovered in archaeological level o the systematic recording of the sedimentary and dimensional attributes of the combustion structures can be used as empirical evidence with which to characterize the use of fire differences in the use of fire represent a significant finding in the cultural repertoires of neanderthals recognizing and recording the specific organizational patterns of these activity areas such as fire use in sleeping and resting activity areas indicate the definitive emergence of home bases in the spatial record of the living floors of the archaic human groups

the taphonomy and preservation of wood and dung ashes found in archaeological cooking installations case studies from iron age israel cooking installations are among the most abundant features in bronze and iron age archaeological sites in the southern levant yet until now their study has been mostly descriptive we present a study of 11 purported archaeological cooking installations from three different bronze and iron age sites in israel in which we deployed a variety of microarchaeological techniques we provide direct physical evidence based on fourier transform infrared ftir spectroscopy demonstrating that the archaeological installations were operated with temperatures as high as 900 c using this technique we also demonstrate that all the mud constructed installations studied by us were internally fueled and therefore should be identified as tannurs rather than the externally fueled tabuns we studied in detail the quantities of ash related microscopic remains including opaline phytoliths calcitic wood ash pseudomorphs and dung spherulites we show that phytolith morphotype analysis cannot distinguish between wood dominated and dung dominated fuel materials while a newly developed method that calculates the ratio of ash pseudomorphs to dung spherulites psr method makes such a distinction possible moreover we experimented with the effect of partial dissolution on fuel ash psr values and utilize the results to explain taphonomy and diagenesis associated with two types of archaeological cooking installations pebble hearths and baking ovens in addition we identified micromorphological criteria that can be used to assess whether ash deposits in or above a cooking installations are in situ and or disturbed taken together all lines of evidence used in this study indicate that wood was the major fuel material across time and space in the studied archaeological contexts while dung was a secondary source of fuel this observation also cross cuts different culture historical entities philistines canaanites israelites and egyptians in addition wood was preferred as fuel irrespective of environmental differences among the studied sites this study is yet another demonstration of the value of integrating microarchaeological techniques and approaches to traditional macroscopic archaeology

ash bones and guano a study of the minerals and phytoliths in the sediments of grotte xvi dordogne france abstract very few prehistoric cave deposits in western europe contain visible hearth remains even though there is abundant evidence of fire use by cave inhabitants grotte xvi dordogne france is exceptional in this respect in that it contains a most conspicuous layer couche c characterized by a series of brightly coloured bedded sediments the formation of couche c has previously been ascribed to the ash and charcoal produced by the cave s mousterian occupants burning mainly lichens the mousterian sedimentary layers below couche c and the upper palaeolithic sediments unconformably overlying couche c are quite different in texture and colour and show no visible evidence of ash deposits analyses of the minerals microstructures and phytoliths in couche c are consistent with the notion that these sediments were derived mainly from ash produced by burning wood and to a lesser extent grass the original calcite component of the ash has been diagenetically altered to carbonated apatite around the cave periphery and to even more insoluble phosphate minerals in the centre one such mineral newberyite most likely formed by the reaction between guano degradation products and the ash under these circumstances bone preservation is also affected the overlying upper palaeolithic sediments contain calcite one of these layers abb contains much more calcite than all the other layers as well as abundant phytoliths derived from wood and grass this layer also contained many artifacts and bones it is thus concluded that ash is a major component of layer abb even though it is not visible to the maked eye in the form of hearths

spatial dependence and classification of the soil along a transect in northeast scotland abstract this paper analyses a problem common to almost all general purpose soil surveys namely how to classify the soil of a region so that each class is both reasonably homogeneous with respect to soil profile and occurs as reasonably large parcels of land a spatial analysis and a classification have been made of the soil along a transect in northeast scotland semi variograms of subsoil properties were computed from sample data at 20 m intervals they showed spatial dependence extending to about 360 m for some properties in particular colour and ph and little or no spatial dependence in others notably the particle size fractions and organic matter content the form of the first group of semi variograms suggested that there were several discontinuities on the transect i e boundaries between distinct soil types these were identified by two segmentation techniques thereby providing a spatial classification the results were then compared with an optimal classification of the same data irrespective of position on the ground there was close agreement between the two classifications in some parts of the transect particularly where the soil was strongly gleyed elsewhere segments contained mixtures of non spatial classes

the palimpsest problem hearth pattern analysis and middle paleolithic site structure abstract a principal behavioral issue in paleoanthropology centers on the degree to which the behaviors of neanderthals and modern humans may have differed efforts to address this problem have employed the analysis of living floors and site structure in which researchers have traditionally emphasized a dichotomy between the site structures thought to distinguish modern human and neanderthal occupations this thinking links complex site structures characterized by several discrete activity areas to modern humans in contrast to the simple structure of neanderthals as seen in single hearths associated with overlapping generalized activities correlations between prehistoric behaviors and site structures however may be masked distorted and even destroyed by a variety of natural and cultural agencies natural post depositional processes may be associated with bioturbation cryo turbation and the degradation of sediments through wind and water erosion both post and synch deposition disturbance of artifact distributions and features by human activities may involve cleaning scuffage and other site alterations perhaps the most vexing of problems associated with post depositional distortion is from subsequent overlapping occupations in which a smearing or blurring of artifact distributions occurs i e the palimpsest problem using the results of a multi year research program of stratified living floors at the late levantine mousterian rockshelter site of tor faraj southern jordan an introduction to a partial solution of addressing the palimpsest problem through hearth pattern and ring and sector analyses is described here

soil variations on hillslopes in humid temperate climates abstract considerable insight into the nature and causes of soil variations on hillslopes has been provided by studies which have incorporated both pedological and geomorphological concepts into their methodology even so there is still a great deal of uncertainty concerning the relationships between soils and landforms this paper attempts to outline the conceptual and methodological issues involved in such a synthesis by examining the nature of soil variation on specific examples of landscapes in humid temperate climates it has not been possible to examine soils across the whole of this region but soil landform relationships on the chalk of southeast england the granite uplands of dartmoor and in the wyre forest of england have been used to examine a number of well established principles one of these principles is that many landscapes possess slopes with easily identifiable toposequences the hillslopes analysed have shown that relationships do exist between soils and landforms but the idea that many slopes are integrated along their entire length is not necessarily true individual components of slopes possess soil characteristics that appear to be related to the morphological nature of those components but the slopes as a whole do not possess integrated soil systems different parts of the slope appear to act independently this questions the validity of employing traditional concepts such as that of the catena in soil landform relationships

geologic constraints on archeological interpretations of a late wisconsinan site at varsity estates calgary alberta abstract a corollary of j chlachula s interpretation that chipped quartzite cobbles at the contact of lake calgary sediments and underlying till represent an early late wisconsinan lithics industry is the conclusion that laurentide and cordilleran ice did not coalesce in late wisconsinan time contrary to that conclusion are 1 nw se oriented streamlined landforms in the foothills area which could have been created only by coalescent ice flow along with numerous radiocarbon dates which indicate that laurentide ice did not advance to central and western alberta before late wisconsinan time 2 cosmogenic 36 cl dates of 12 17 ka on the foothills erratics train indicating late wisconsinan coalescence 3 an estimated thickness of 1000 m or more of late wisconsinan coalesced ice in western calgary based on mapped laurentide limits 100 km south of calgary furthermore recently discovered rare shield clasts in the till at the varsity estates and silver springs sites suggest that the till was deposited by ice at least partly of laurentide origin as laurentide ice retreated lake calgary would have immediately inundated the site allowing no time or space for human cobble chipping paleomagnetism indicates that the lake sediments at the varsity estates site rotated 25 degrees to the nw after deposition presumably by rotational slumping slumping may have been syndepositional or due to channel cutting during periods of lake drainage and refilling neither scenario either supports or contradicts the archeological interpretation it is possible that the broken and chipped clasts interpreted to be artifacts were created by natural processes

microflint in archaeological sediments from boker tachtit israel a new method for quantifying concentrations of small flint fragments abstract flint is one of the most common rock types used for producing stone tools during flint knapping huge amounts of microscopic sized flint particles are produced thus the presence of high concentrations of microflint in a sedimentary layer could be a good indication that flint was knapped at that location we have developed and tested a method for quantification of microflint concentrations in sediments the method involves concentrating the microflints in specific density fractions and then counting a representative proportion of the flint fragments using a polarized light microscope we show that the method successfully identifies a knapping layer in an initial upper palaeolithic level at the site of boker tachtit israel this level also contains macroscopic flint debitage including refitted artifacts microflint quantification can aid in identifying knapping areas and be useful for better understanding site formation processes

insights on neanderthal fire use at kebara cave israel through high resolution study of prehistoric combustion features evidence from phytoliths and thin sections abstract kebara cave mount carmel israel exhibits extensive use of fire by neanderthals in the middle paleolithic phytoliths are abundant indicating that plants were common in the cave in addition micromorphological analyses of archaeological deposits furnish precise contextual background to the phytolith analysis and provide constraints on how phytolith and other micro remains can be interpreted phytolith data are coupled with micromorphological observations from undisturbed combustion features from kebara from the middle and upper paleolithic in order to maximize accuracy of interpretations different factors have been taken into account such as phytolith preservation the discrimination between anthropogenic and non anthropogenic plant deposition and the variability of plant uses the results show that dissolution is an important factor in certain areas of the cave mostly because of high ph conditions whereas in other areas of the cave secondary silica has affected the original cell morphology of the phytoliths in general wood was the main fuel used for the fires and the presence of other plant remains such as grasses or dicotyledonous leaves is in certain areas mostly related to contamination attached to the bark of the trees whereas in others it might be associated with other reasons such as tinder to help start the fires seed coats of plants from the boraginaceae family which grow around the cave entrance are abundant in certain levels and mostly related to their fall out at the cave mouth

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

stability of phytoliths in the archaeological record a dissolution study of modern and fossil phytoliths opaline phytoliths are important microfossils used in archaeological and ecological research relatively little is known about the stability of phytoliths after burial under alkaline ph conditions they can dissolve and mechanical disturbances can cause a loss of their more delicate appendages here we present an experimental study of phytolith stability combination of solubility and abrasion modern and fossil phytoliths were extracted from wheat using new methods to minimize dissolution and by burning in an oven these assemblages were placed in a solution buffered to ph 10 and maintained under constant temperature and shaking conditions the silicon concentrations in the solution were monitored once a week for 5 weeks the phytolith morphologies in each assemblage were determined at the outset of the experiment and after 5 weeks the results show that there are differences in stability between various assemblages modern inflorescence wheat phytolith assemblages are more unstable than those from leaves stems burnt assemblages are less stable than unburnt assemblages and a fossil phytolith assemblage about 3000 years old is more stable than the modern wheat assemblages the results also show that individual phytolith morphotypes have different stabilities and as a result of dissolution and abrasion some morphotypes may resemble others this study further shows that archaeological and or paleo environmental interpretation of phytolith assemblages may change with the assemblage s state of preservation

quantitative phytolith study of hearths from the natufian and middle palaeolithic levels of hayonim cave galilee israel abstract a study of the mineralogy and phytolith assemblages of hearths and their associated sediments in hayonim cave israel shows that wood ash is a major component of the sediments of both the natufian approximately 12 000 bp and the mousterian deposits approximately 100 to 250 000 bp interestingly phytolith analyses show that in the natufian deposits grasses are the second most abundant form of vegetation preserved whereas in the mousterian deposits leaves of dicotyledonous plants are the second most abundant form of vegetation preserved significant differences were repeatedly observed in phytolith assemblages from closely associated but different stratigraphic layers showing that vertical mixing of intact sediments is not intensive and that there was a diverse input of vegetation over relatively short time periods no consistent differences were observed in the mineralogy and the phytolith assemblages between hearths and their associated sediments both contain abundant ash components this study demonstrates that quantitative analyses of phytoliths together with mineralogical analyses can provide much information on the use of plants for fuel and other purposes by the cave occupants

soil geomorphology present dilemmas and future challenges abstract understanding the manner in which landscapes change is still a major challenge for geomorphologists recent work has shown quite convincingly that landscape evolution occurs during relatively short periods of intense adjustment followed by longer periods of stability the challenge is to determine the way in which such change occurs and the factors which control the changes this paper by using a number of specific examples from a variety of environments suggests that many of these issues may be resolved by adopting an integrative approach involving soil information as well as geomorphological concepts

calibration review and geomorphic implications of postglacial radiocarbon ages in southeastern alberta canada abstract calibration of radiocarbon dates of postglacial geomorphic events in southeastern alberta canada reveals a strong association between type of geomorphic event and seasonality of insolation the late glacial and postglacial periods can be divided into four major episodes glaciation ca 20 000 cal yr b p deglaciation ca 20 000 12 000 cal yr b p landscape stability ca 12 000 10 000 cal yr b p and landscape instability ca 10 000 0 cal yr b p this indicates that there was significantly more time than previously thought 12 000 13 000 yr for postglacial processes glaciation deglaciation maximum landscape stability indicating maximum aridity and landscape instability did not lag behind minimum increasing maximum and decreasing seasonality of insolation respectively

the black layer of middle palaeolithic combustion structures interpretation and archaeostratigraphic implications certain aspects of the formation processes of simple flat archaeological combustion structures such as those present in the middle palaeolithic record remain unexplained such kind of combustion structures are commonly affected by postdepositional agents and often their only distinct well preserved component is a thin black lens on the ground hence understanding the nature of this black lens is essential towards archaeological interpretation from an interdisciplinary microstratigraphic approach we present a case study in which for an entire experimental series of flat combustion structures the black layer represents the fire altered topsoil on which the fire was made parallel analysis of archaeological middle palaeolithic combustion structures from the site of el salt alicante spain reveal similar patterns leading to significant implications for archaeological interpretation in the light of these results special attention must be paid to the formation processes of flat middle palaeolithic combustion features as black layers and the material contained in them are not necessarily linked with combustion but with preceding activities or events in such cases black layers represent intact remnants of occupation surfaces concealing significant behavioural and palaeoenvironmental information relevant to the reconstruction of middle palaeolithic societies

bone preservation in kebara cave israel using on site fourier transform infrared spectrometry abstract the distribution of bones in kebara cave israel is very heterogeneous in order to address the question of whether the bone concentrations were created secondarily by differential dissolution or represent the original burial distributions a portable fourier transform infrared spectrometer ftir was operated on site it was used to map the distribution of the minerals in the sediments in order to delineate the zone in which original ash derived calcite was preserved as well as the zone in which carbonate apatite dahllite was still preserved the bone distribution in the former zone must be primary as calcite is less stable than dahllite the mineral phase of bone the boundary between the zone containing dahllite in the sediments and the zone in which it was absent also essentially mapped the southernmost distribution of bones in the cave the distribution of bones in the dahllite zone is thus also likely to be original supporting this notion was the observation that the bones at the periphery of the concentrations were not less well preserved than those in the centre except at one location which coincided with the boundary of the dahllite zone in the third zone the bones appear to have been lost by dissolution the operation of an ftir on site proved to be an efficient and useful method for resolving this important archaeological problem

soil geomorphology the linkage of pedology and surficial processes geologists have made significant contributions to the discipline of pedology however until recently direct contributions came largely prior to 1935 as exemplified by those of powell and shaler during the late 19th century tandarich et al 1987 during much of the twentieth century geology and pedology have generally evolved along nearly separate pathways re integration of the two disciplines began slowly in the late 1950s and early to middle 1960s through the research and publications of ruhe 1956 1960 1964 richmond 1962 and morrison 1964 1965 1967 richmond s and morrison s research has provided much of the basis for the use of soils in the study of the stratigraphy of quaternary deposits in the western u s a birkeland 1984 the soil stratigraphic unit the geosol is a key component of the methodology developed by morrison geosols are presumed to have formed only during soil forming intervals interglacial or interstadial periods when climatic conditions were deemed optimal for rapid soil development recognition of soil stratigraphic units as geosols automatically conferred climatic as well as stratigraphic significance to buried soils this approach may have great utility in regions at higher latitudes that were characterized by extremes of climatic fluctuation during the qua ternary catt 1986 with little or no soil development during cold climate intervals a rather different approach involving the use of soils has been adopted by geoscientists conducting geomorphological research during the mid to late 1960s studies by researchers such as balster daniels hawley gile parsons and yaalon focussed on the nature of the relationships linking soils and landscape elements in many respects the philisophical approach to soil geomorphic research emphasized in the studies of these scientists strongly reflected the intellectual impact of jenny 1941 on the science of pedology this philosophy also strongly influenced the research of birkeland and following publication of birkeland s important textbook pedology weathering and geomorphological research 1974 a dramatic increase in the use of pedology in the geosciences occurred as researchers focussed on the study of landscape evolution in our view this emerging marriage of pedology and studies of surficial processes provides a critical framework for both the study of soil genesis and the study of evolution of and or stability of landscape elements

experimental tests of middle palaeolithic spear points using a calibrated crossbow abstract controlled experiments using a calibrated crossbow to thrust stone tipped spears into animal carcasses reveal a relationship between levallois point morphology and their performance as spear points a comparative study of morphometric variation of levallois points from levantine mousterian contexts supports the hypothesis that the demand for stone spear points was an important factor in levallois point production

taphonomy of phytoliths and macroplants in different soils from olduvai gorge tanzania and the application to plio pleistocene palaeoanthropological samples the abundance and types of phytoliths in the fossil record are taphonomically biased and do not correspond with the macroplant record to better understand the bias and improve the interpretation of samples from olduvai gorge tanzania we analysed the phytoliths from three sample sets modern grasses sedges palm and dicots in the area modern soils in the area and the fossil soils from the eastern palaeolake margin in lowermost bed ii fourier transform infrared spectrometry analyses were performed in parallel to compare the mineral composition of both modern soils and fossil soils we found that the abundance of phytoliths is greatly reduced in soil samples compared with modern plant material but the morphotypes can be reliably interpreted dicotyledonous wood bark phytoliths appear to be over represented in the soil types grass phytoliths and sedges to a lesser degree are preserved in the soils but in lower abundances resulting in these groups being under represented the macroplant fossils are fragments of grass and sedge aerial culms and dicotyledonous stems that are preserved in fluvial and lacustrine deposits it is suggested that phytoliths represent the continuous flora whereas macroplant fossils represent the more robust tissues of selected plants preserved under more catastrophic conditions a post depositional model is proposed and the palaeovegetation is reinterpreted as being richer and more complex than indicated by other fossil data

pseudo ice wedge casts of connecticut northeastern united states since 1965 ice wedge casts have been reported in deposits of sand and gravel in connecticut these are wedge forms up to 1 1 m wide and many meters high most are single forms not in polygonal array they are found in adjoining states as well their distribution dimensions structure and fabric and an assessment of the former physical environment preclude their origin as permafrost features they appear to be tension fractures produced by the loading of coarse clastics on fine clastics near and below the water table where sediments creep toward a stream or depression locally movement started with kettle formation during deglaciation however some wedges cut horizontal layers of iron coated sand and gravel and must be younger than those distinctly postglacial phenomena moreover modern b horizons of the overlying soil have moved down into some wedges more than 2 m indicating that fracturing is still active today complex fracture fillings in bedrock also have been attributed to a permafrost origin but this too seems unlikely

phytolith and ftir studies applied to combustion structures the case of the middle paleolithic site of el salt alcoy alicante abstract the combination of phytolith and ftir analyses is a powerful tool to investigate the use of fire by past human populations here we apply these methods to study the hearths of the subunit xb at the middle palaeolithic site of el salt in alcoi el salt is characterized by recurrent neanderthal occupations that produced a succession of combustion structures and other anthropogenic remains using ftir analysis we have been able to detect the presence of ashes thermally altered clay and phosphatic minerals in the sediments phytolith results point to the use of wood as fuel in subunit xb however most of the phytoliths have been deposited in the site by natural agents probably in the form of bird guano characterized by the presence of distinctive phytoliths of seed coats from celtis sp differentiating between natural and anthropogenic deposited phytoliths is essential to evaluate the impact produced by human activities in the archaeological sediments

evidence of cordilleran late wisconsinan glaciers in the ice free corridor abstract glaciers flowing down the athabasca river valley during the last glacial period were fed both by local montane glaciers and by cordilleran ice moving easterly across the continental divide from british columbia resulting in a major eastward surge into the ice free corridor the timing of this event has been disputed for many years and has important implications for the study of paleoenvironmental conditions and the north south migration of biota in the corridor chronologic and lithostratigraphic data from the jasper region suggest that this event took place in the late wisconsinan subtill radiocarbon dates on wood in the athabasca river valley indicate that non glacial alluvial sediments began accumulating there sometime before 48 ka a finite date of 29 100 560 bp gsc 3792 on wood under till near jasper provides a maximum age for the onset of the last glaciation in the region although ice from west of the rocky mountain trench probably did not cross the continental divide until after 21 5 ka the occurrence of supraglacial metamorphic erratics as well as the distribution and nature of mapped glacial deposits and the trend of subglacial paleoflow indicators in the region east of the rockies suggests that late wisconsinan glaciers flowing from the mountains coalesced with laurentide glaciers and were deflected southeasterly along the mountain front an even more extensive glacial event may have effected the region in pre late wisconsinan times the model of late wisconsinan glaciation presented here is in agreement with all known radiocarbon data from the area and is especially attractive when supratill dates on non woody lacustrine organics are viewed in light of possible contamination by old carbon

phytolith evidence for hearths and beds in the late mousterian occupations of esquilleu cave cantabria spain esquilleu cave site has provided a moderately well preserved archaeological cave deposit from the late pleistocene in the cantabrian area phytolith quantification identification and determination of the refractive index have been carried out together with ftir analyses from sediment samples collected in the profile the comparison of the data obtained with the previous micromorphological results allows us to make inferences about the site formation processes and the neanderthals use of the cave phytolith results show the presence of grass leaves nearby the hearth suggesting the repetitive existence of a bedding zone on the same area neanderthal behavioral patterns should be revised on the light of high resolution analyses since diagenetic processes can obscure the existence of differentiated activity areas in the site

local topography and erosion rate control regolith thickness along a ridgeline in the sierra nevada california the ridgelines of mountain ranges are a source of geomorphic information unadulterated by the arrival of sediment from upslope studies along ridgecrests therefore can help identify and isolate the controls on important regolith properties such as thickness and texture a 1 5 km section of ridgeline in the sierra nevada ca with a tenfold decrease in erosion rate inferred from ridgetop convexity provided an opportunity to conduct a high resolution survey of regolith properties and investigate their controls we found that regolith along the most quickly eroding section of the ridge was the rockiest and had the lowest clay concentrations furthermore a general increase in regolith thickness with a slowing of erosion rate was accompanied by an increase in biomass changes in vegetation community broader ridgeline profiles and an apparent increase in total available moisture the greatest source of variation in regolith thickness at the 10 100 m scale however was the local topography along the ridgeline with the deepest regolith in the saddles and the thinnest on the knobs because regolith in the saddles had higher surface soil moisture than the knobs we conclude that the hydrological conditions primarily driven by local topography i e rapid vs slow drainage and water storage potential provide the fundamental controls on regolith thickness through feedbacks incorporating physical weathering by the biota and chemical weathering moreover because the ridgeline saddles are the uppermost extensions of first order valleys we propose that the fluvial network affects regolith properties in the furthest reaches of the watershed

formation processes through archaeobotanical remains the case of the bronze age levels in el mirador cave sierra de atapuerca spain el mirador site has a sequence formed by burnt dung resulting from pastoral activities during the bronze age and the neolithic period because there is a high sediment variation in the profile facies descriptions were used to guide the archaeologists in their work paleobotanical and mineralogical analyses were used to describe and understand the formation of the facies from the mir 4 level furthermore the paleobotanical results serve to reconstruct the landscape in atapuerca during the bronze age most seeds recovered are from triticum aestivum durum but other cereals and also leguminoseae and fruits have been identified charcoal analysis has yielded mainly deciduous and evergreen quercus pollen analysis has revealed a low arboreal cover with pinus quercus and riverside trees most of the pollen record corresponds to herbs such as poaceae and asteraceae all these results indicate a mosaic of different biota with forest pastureland and cultivated fields near the site most of the phytoliths come from the leaves and stems of festucoid grasses however there are some differences in the phytolith type and number the amount of faecal spherulites the mineralogical composition and the percentage of multicellular structures that indicate that not all the facies in the site have been formed in the same way thus the work carried out has demonstrated that some facies are related more to agricultural activities than to pastoralism activities and that other facies have been affected by incipient diagenetic processes

laurentide glaciation in west central alberta a single late wisconsinan event the grande prairie region in west central alberta shows evidence of late wisconsinan laurentide glaciation in the form of a widespread till containing abundant erratic clasts derived from the canadian shield two sections located on the smoky river at watino and on the simonette river 80 km to the southwest expose sediment lying stratigraphically below the till a similar sequence is exposed in both localities 5 10 m of coarse quartzite gravel overlain by a thick sequence of sand and silt the gravel contains no laurentide erratics and is thus preglacial the contact between the basal gravel and the overlying sand and silt is sharp and conformable 14c dates from the base of the simonette section and throughout the watino section suggest a middle wisconsinan age thus the sediment exposed is interpreted as a conformable middle wisconsinan sequence the sedimentary sequences were deposited in a moderate to low energy braided stream system flowing towards the north the general fining up trend in the

bedrock erosion by root fracture and tree throw a coupled biogeomorphic model to explore the humped soil production function and the persistence of hillslope soils 1 in 1877 g k gilbert reasoned that bedrock erosion is maximized under an intermediate soil thickness and declines as soils become thinner or thicker subsequent analyses of this humped functional relationship proposed that thin soils are unstable and that perturbations in soil thickness would lead to runaway thinning or thickening of the soil to explore this issue we developed a numerical model that simulates the physical weathering of bedrock by root fracture and tree throw the coupled biogeomorphic model combines data on conifer population dynamics rootwad volumes tree throw frequency and soil creep from the pacific northwest usa although not hardwired into the model a humped relationship emerges between bedrock erosion and soil thickness the magnitudes of the predicted bedrock erosion rates and their functional dependency on soil thickness are consistent with independent field measurements from a coniferous landscape in the region imposed perturbations of soil erosion during model runs demonstrate that where bedrock weathering is episodic and localized hillslope soils do not exhibit runaway thinning or thickening the pit and mound topography created by tree throw produces an uneven distribution of soil thicknesses across a hillslope thus although episodes of increased erosion can lead to temporary soil thinning and even the exposure of bedrock patches local areas of thick soils remain these soil patches provide habitat for trees and serve as nucleation points for renewed bedrock erosion and soil production model results also suggest that where tree throw is a dominant weathering process the initial mantling of bedrock is not only a vertical process but also a lateral process soil mounds created by tree throw flatten over time spreading soil over bedrock surfaces

detection of burning of plant materials in the archaeological record by changes in the refractive indices of siliceous phytoliths abstract the most resilient remains of plants in most archaeological sites are the siliceous phytoliths special cells that are partially or completely silicified during the plant s life these cells have characteristic morphologies and thus the phytoliths can often be used to identify the taxonomic affinities of plants brought to an archaeological site in order to determine what they were used for other means of analysis are needed we present here a method to distinguish burnt from unburnt phytolith assemblages the method is based on measuring the refractive index ri of individual phytoliths the phytoliths even from a single plant have a range of ri values burning a phytolith sample causes a shift to higher ri comparing burnt and unburnt samples we demonstrate that it is possible to differentiate between them based on the fraction of phytoliths with ri higher than 1 440 this serves as a basis for a simplified mode of measurement that requires only the use of a petrographic light microscope and a mineral oil of ri 1 440 we apply the simplified method to two natufian samples from hayonim cave western galilee israel

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

late pleistocene glacial geomorphology and environment of the hand hills region and southern alberta related to middle wisconsin fossil prairie dog sites ichnofossils burrow casts and fossils from an extinct form of prairie dog cynomys niobrarius churcherii in the hand hills of south central alberta have provided an important late pleistocene stratigraphic marker the marker fossils provide relative and chronostratigraphic radiocarbon ages for nonglacial periglacial glacial and glaciotectonic events and environments in the region the high elevation hilltop position of the fossil sites 200 m above the surrounding plains permits reliable extrapolations of glacial environments to the surrounding region the burrow casts were preserved by infilling from surrounding and overlying sediments through processes of inwashing and animal activity three thousand bones primarily of the extinct prairie dog cynomys niobrarius churcherii were recovered from one site and several hundred more from other locations accelerator radiocarbon dates ams on bone collagen show that the prairie dogs lived in the area from at least 33 000 bp to around 22 000 bp p

the earliest evidence of hearths in southern europe the case of bolomor cave valencia spain abstract most researchers agree about the importance of the fire during the pleistocene the controlled use of fire could allow advances in the ways of life not only for its value as a constant source of light and heat but also because it contributed to the processing of food to warding off the carnivores and especially to human socialization as fire can be understood as a focus of concentration of activities and structuring of inhabited space apart from the many utilities that the hearths may have had during the pleistocene this research does not allow specification of the chronological and geographical context of the first controlled use of fire from this perspective the present study contributes to this discussion with the data from bolomor cave valencia spain this site contains a sedimentary deposit composed of seventeen stratigraphical levels ranging from mis 9 to mis 5e c 350 100 ky the stratigraphical series presents clear evidence of the controlled and reiterative use of fire the used analytic techniques have confirmed the presence of hearths at levels ii iv xi and xiii of the site this paper discusses the hearths from level xiii chronologically located in mis 7c with an amino acid racemization aar date of 228 53 ky these combustion structures are the most ancient known today not only at bolomor cave and in spain but also in southern europe from this perspective the aim of this study is to make known the hearths from level xiii of bolomor cave and to provide data that contribute to the general debate about the presence knowledge and use of fire in the european middle pleistocene

manganese coating of the tabun faunal assemblage implications for modern human behaviour in the levantine middle palaeolithic abstract during the taphonomic and archaeozoological reappraisal of garrod s material from tabun cave mount carmel israel a distinctive dark colouring of bones was observed in the level c and d assemblages based on several geochemical tests the presence of insoluble manganese oxides in those coatings was confirmed the origin of this mineral given the geological context could be attributed to the decomposition of large quantities of organic matter due to an intensive human occupation of the site in mis 5 this fact reinforces the hypothesis of the existence of a larger logistic mobility around more permanent residential sites among anatomically modern humans in the levantine middle palaeolithic which constitutes early evidence of a more complex economic behaviour

microarchaeology of a collective burial cova des pas minorca ftir and phytolith analyses have been used to understand the exceptional preservation of the organic remains at the burial cave of cova des pas minorca and to obtain high resolution data of the plant remains present in the sediments the presence of sodium nitrate and gypsum suggests a relatively dry environment that has enabled the preservation of the organic material and contributed to the natural mummification the dry conditions also favored phytolith preservation grass inflorescence phytoliths are abundant all over the site suggesting that phytolith accumulations might have an anthropogenic origin and are related to the burial ritual

plio pleistocene macroplant fossil remains and phytoliths from lowermost bed ii in the eastern palaeolake margin of olduvai gorge tanzania abstract fossil macroplants and phytoliths occur in the sediments of the palaeoanthropological site of olduvai gorge northern tanzania current research on hominin land use in the basin during the plio pleistocene has a strong palaeoenvironmental emphasis on the palaeovegetation in particular the occurrence of macroplants and phytoliths at olduvai and their usefulness and reliability for palaeovegetation interpretation are assessed here for the first time modern reference collections from analogous environments have been established and used to identify the fossil taxa from the eastern palaeolake margin of lowermost bed ii as the test case for very detailed spatially and temporally constrained vegetation reconstruction fourier transform infrared spectrometry ftir analysis was used to identify the minerals of the fossil sediments modern plants produce more phytoliths than are preserved in the fossil soils but there were sufficient numbers to show diverse and changing vegetation over short time periods silicified macroplant fragments of sedge culms and dicot stems occur with phytoliths but do not always represent the same plant taxa a more complex flora was shown when using both forms of fossil plants during lowermost bed ii times at the locality of flkn monocots and dicots occurred indicating the presence of marshland and grassland after the deposition of tuff if at vek the phytoliths indicate a shift in dominance from dicots to monocots to a mixture of the two and including palms at hwkee initially palms dominated then there was a mixture of palms grasses and dicots the vegetation at mck comprised dicots monocots sedges and grasses this detailed vegetation data complements the more broad scale vegetation interpretations that have been deduced from the pollen isotopes and faunal data sets