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Silver mining and landscape changes in medieval Central Europe: Reconstructing ore processing in a buried fir forest on the Bohemian‐Moravian Highlands (Koječín, Czech Republic) Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Petr Hrubý, Knut Kaiser, Petr Kočár, Karel Malý, Libor Petr
This study discusses the potential of archaeological organic objects in anthropogenic sediments in terms of research into human impact on the medieval landscape and environment. In the Bohemian‐Moravian Highlands, at a mid‐altitudinal stream valley site (ca. 510 m asl), remains of a cut medieval forest stand with anthropogenic wooden structures and buried by technogenic sediments (e.g., ore, gangue
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Chronology of Upper Paleolithic human activities recorded in a stalagmite at Points Cave (Aiguèze, Gard, France) Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Maïlys Richard, Edwige Pons‐Branchu, Hélène Valladas, Michael B. Toffolo, Stéphan Dubernet, Arnaud Dapoigny, Jean‐Pascal Dumoulin, Pierre‐Antoine Beauvais, Julien Monney
In this article, we propose an approach to reconstruct the timing of human activity at Points Cave, an Upper Paleolithic rock art site located in the middle of the Ardèche River Gorge (Rhône valley, France), based on the dating and characterisation of a stalagmite containing soot. Points Cave (‘Grotte aux Points’ in French), also called the ‘little sister of Chauvet Cave’, is famous for its parietal
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Patterns of lithic procurement strategies in the Pre‐Pyrenean Middle Magdalenian sequence of Cova del Parco (Alòs de Balaguer, Spain) Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Luis M. Jiménez, Xavier Mangado, Cynthia B. González, François‐Xavier Le Bourdonnec, Bernard Gratuze, Josep M. Fullola, Marta Sánchez de la Torre
Archaeological studies carried out in recent decades have demonstrated that the Pre‐Pyrenees, a mountain range in north‐east Iberia, were regularly frequented by several human groups during the Late Pleistocene. The Cova del Parco archaeological site is an example of this large‐scale and regular human presence. The site was discovered and first excavated in the 1970s, and since the 1980s, a team from
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The medieval croft plužina field system in a mountain region of central Europe: The interdisciplinary record of the earthen field boundaries in Debrné, Czechia Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-21 Sahar Poledník Mohammadi, Ivana Šitnerová, Lenka Lisá, Jiří Bumerl, Veronika Komárková, Václav Fanta, Tereza Majerovičová, Ján Marko, Piotr Moska, Jaromír Beneš
The integration of archaeological, historical and geoarchaeological records represents a significant contribution to research into the medieval landscape. This study focuses on the medieval field system in the deserted village of Debrné, located in northeastern Bohemia, Czechia. The village features a well‐preserved croft plužina field system, a typical historical landscape of central Europe. The main
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Coping with marsh floods and fires: Resilience at the pile-dwelling site of Dispilio, Northwestern Greece Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-15 Myrsini Gkouma
Lacustrine environments are considered favorable locations for Neolithic settlements, constituting a reliable year-round water resource, which contributes to fertile arable land, rich biodiversity, and natural protection. Living by the wetlands, however, is characterized by intensive ecological vulnerabilities, that is, floods and fire events. These recurrent episodes are difficult to trace in the
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Correction to “Writ in water—Unwritten histories obtained from carbonate deposits in ancient water systems” Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-15
Sürmelihindi, G., & Passchier, C. (2024). Writ in water—Unwritten histories obtained from carbonate deposits in ancient water systems. Geoarchaeology, 39, 63–88. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21980 In the published version, the acknowledgments section was missing, which should have been stated as “Funding by the EU scheme of Marie Curie Individual Fellowship AQUEA (890454) and SU864/2-1 is gratefully
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Evolution of water extraction technology (spring tunnels) in the Southern Levant during the last three millennia Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-09 Azriel Yechezkel, Amos Frumkin, R. Lawrence Edwards, Xianglei Li, Uzi Leibner
A spring tunnel is an ancient water installation used to artificially increase the water yield of a spring through a subterranean tunnel. We have developed a database of 216 spring tunnels documented in the central region of the Southern Levant (present-day Israel), constructed between Iron Age II and the modern era. The study focuses on the evolution of this water installation over a period of 2500
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Linking archaeology and paleoenvironment: Mid-Holocene occupational sequences in the Varamin Plain (Iran) Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Robert Busch, Reinhard Bernbeck, Morteza Hessari, Fabian Kirsten, Christopher Lüthgens, Susan Pollock, Nolwen Rol, Brigitta Schütt
Early human habitation of the arid to semiarid Central Iranian Plateau was strongly connected to the availability of water and associated natural hazards, such as flooding and drought events. In this geoarchaeological study, we focus on the occupation at the prehistoric site of Ajor Pazi within the formerly active fluvial environment of the Varamin Plain. Through radiocarbon and luminescence-dated
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The Bronze Age occupation of the Black Sea coast of Georgia—New insights from settlement mounds of the Colchian plain Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Hannes Laermanns, Mikheil Elashvili, Giorgi Kirkitadze, Christopher P. Loveluck, Simon Matthias May, Daniel Kelterbaum, Revaz Papuashvili, Helmut Brückner
Along the lower course of the Rioni and several minor rivers, more than 70 settlement mounds (local name: Dikhagudzuba) have been identified by field surveys and remote sensing techniques. They give evidence of a formerly densely populated landscape in the coastal lowlands on the Colchian plain (western Georgia) and have been dated to the Bronze Age. As yet, limited information is available on their
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An interdisciplinary approach to the collapse of the port and degradation of freshwater resources at Panama Viejo (Panama), 1519–1671 Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-01-24 Miriam Martos, Bethany Aram, Gonzalo Malvarez
The Archaeological Site of Panama Viejo (Panama) comprises a protected area of 28 km2 within present-day Panama City, on America's Pacific coast. In 1519, the Spaniards founded the city of Panama Viejo to secure a natural port in an area inhabited by indigenous peoples since at least the eighth century CE. The site, along the coastline and between two rivers, became a principal gateway for goods and
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Exploring the past through lynchet landscapes in the Vosges Mountains and the Lorraine Plateau (France) Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-01-23 Benjamin Keller, Robin Vincent, Dominique Schwartz, Damien Ertlen
Lynchets are ridges formed by erosion and sediment accumulation downstream of agricultural plots and offer valuable insights into past agricultural activity. These microtopographies cover vast areas and serve as indicators of historical changes in land use. As a result, their ubiquity across Europe makes them particularly interesting. In this study, we propose a geoarchaeological approach to analyze
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Development of water management strategies in southern Mesopotamia during the fourth and third millennium B.C.E. Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-01-23 Simone Mantellini, Vincenzo Picotti, Abbas Al-Hussainy, Nicolò Marchetti, Federico Zaina
The last two decades witnessed increasing scholarly interest in the history of water management in southern Mesopotamia. Thanks to many geoarchaeological research projects conducted throughout the central and southern Iraqi floodplains, a general understanding of the macrophases of anthropogenic manipulation of this vast hydraulic landscape has been achieved. However, current narratives mostly rely
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The role of geoarchaeology in the interpretation of fragmented buildings and occupation surfaces: The case of coastal settlements in northeast Scotland Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-12-28 Vanessa Reid, Karen Milek, Charlotte O'Brien, Óskar G. Sveinbjarnarson, Gordon Noble
Around the world, poorly preserved buildings and occupation deposits often represent the primary evidence for archaeological structures and settlements. Integrated geoarchaeological methods, such as soil chemistry and micromorphology, can be used to maximise the information obtained from such deposits regarding site preservation and the use of space. However, archaeologists are often reluctant to apply
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Sand, hearths, lithics and a bit of bioturbation: Site formation processes at Umhlatuzana rockshelter, South Africa Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-12-19 Irini Sifogeorgaki, Hans Huisman, Panagiotis Karkanas, Viola C. Schmid, Gerrit L. Dusseldorp
Umhlatuzana rockshelter is known for its continuous record of Middle and Later Stone Age lithic assemblages. This study presents multiproxy geoarchaeological data (micromorphology, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy) to reconstruct the depositional and post-depositional history of the site. Although the Stone Age deposits macroscopically appear homogeneous
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Retraction: Applying geoarchaeological principles to marine archaeology: A reappraisal of the “first marine” and “in situ” lithic scatters in the Dampier Archipelago, NW Australia Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-12-12
Retraction: Ingrid Ward, Piers Larcombe, Peter J. Ross, and Chris Fandry. (2022). Applying geoarchaeological principles to marine archaeology: A reappraisal of the “first marine” and “in situ” lithic scatters in the Dampier Archipelago, NW Australia. Geoarchaeology, 37(5), 783–810. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21917 The above article, published online on June 20, 2022 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary
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‘Paleoenvironmental study of modern charcoal making activity on forest soils in the Northern Vosges Mountains (Bitche, France): A multidisciplinary study of two remaining charcoal platforms and associated soils sequences’ Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-11-30 Anne Gebhardt, Anne Poszwa, Laurence Mansuy-Huault, Vincent Robin, Luc Vrydaghs, Catherine Lorgeoux
This multidisciplinary study aims to decipher the impact of ancient charcoal production on past and present-day soils in the northern Vosges Mountains. Soil observations in the field and laboratory were complemented by charcoal and phytolith studies on large thin sections, molecular analyses of organic pollutants, and phytolith analysis on bulk samples. The complex technosol platform records an ancient
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Reconstruction of fluvio-lacustrine landscapes and settlement history in the Texcoco region, Mexico, using a modern geomorphic analog Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-11-28 Kurt H. Wogau, Carlos E. Cordova, Luis Morett-Alatorre, Guillermo Acosta Ochoa
Located in the Basin of Mexico, the eastern shore of former Lake Texcoco sustained a variety of human occupations throughout the Holocene, including preceramic hunter-gatherers, incipient agriculturalists, and a variety of settlements in the ceramic periods. Nonetheless, the environmental dynamics of occupations on the lakeshore have not been fully addressed. The Archaic preagricultural Texcoco Man
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Magnetic properties as indicators of pedogenic and pyrogenic processes at the Upper Paleolithic site of Kostenki 14 Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-11-22 Anastasiia Kurgaeva, Sergey Sedov, Sol Moreno-Roso, Hermenegildo Barceinas Cruz, Beatriz Ortega Guerrero, Elizabeth Solleiro-Rebolledo, Andrei Sinitsyn
In geoarchaeological studies, there is an issue with distinguishing between natural and anthropogenic signals in pedological paleoarchives. With the pedostratigraphy of the Upper Paleolithic site of Kostenki 14, this issue is reflected by problems with the determination of features of pedogenic and pyrogenic processes. This issue was addressed by means of a thorough analysis of the magnetic properties
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An exploration of potential raw materials for prehistoric pottery production in the Tao River Valley, Gansu Province, China Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-11-21 Evgenia Dammer, Anke Hein, Michela Spataro
Northwest China is known for its Majiayao-style Neolithic painted pottery which has received much praise for its high level of craftsmanship, yet its chain of production, in particular the step of raw material selection, is still poorly understood. To fill this lacuna, the present study explores the raw materials used in producing these wares from a geological and technological perspective. At its
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The Big Circles in Jordan: First absolute ages using rock luminescence surface dating Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-11-14 Sahar al Khasawneh, Fawzi Abudanah, Warren Thompson, Andrew Murray
In this study, we provide the first absolute ages for a Big Circle megalithic structure in Jordan, using rock surface luminescence dating of the buried surface of rocks collected from circle J4 in southern Jordan. Five rocks were used for this study. All rocks showed evidence of previous daylight exposure before being used in the construction of the circle. The exposure was sufficient to bleach the
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Paleoshoreline reconstruction: A proposed method to approach submerged prehistoric landscapes of Espiritu Santo Island, Baja California Sur, Mexico Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-11-14 Mayra C. Robles-Montes, Guillermo Martínez-Flores, Michael K. Faught, Enrique H. Nava-Sánchez
When the first Americans inhabited the area now known as Isla Espiritu Santo, around 12.5 and 6 ka, the sea level continuously rose. This resulted in the loss of the coastal territory and the retreat of the human population further inland. Part of the archaeological evidence of this period currently lies over the seafloor and under the seabed. Therefore, reconstructing paleoshorelines is a necessary
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Writ in water—Unwritten histories obtained from carbonate deposits in ancient water systems Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-10-30 Gül Sürmelihindi, Cees Passchier
Calcium carbonate deposits from ancient water systems such as aqueducts are a hidden archive for archaeology and environmental sciences. These deposits formed wherever carbonate-rich water was in contact with a water-containing structure and recorded water composition, temperature, biological content, the operation or nonoperation of a water system segment, flow discharge and velocity, the shape of
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Masters of mudbrick: Geoarchaeological analysis of Iron Age earthen public buildings at Ashdod-Yam (Israel) Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-10-30 Marta Lorenzon, Benjamín Cutillas-Victoria, Eli Itkin, Alexander Fantalkin
Excavations at Ashdod-Yam exposed a fortification system that features a massive mudbrick wall with large earthen ramparts laid on either side. This fortified horseshoe-shaped enclosure once surrounded what was likely a human-made harbor and an adjacent acropolis with complex earthen architecture, constructed and active during Iron Age IIB–C (eighth–seventh centuries B.C.E.). These Iron Age public
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Holocene landscape reconstruction in the surroundings of the Temple of Pepi I at ancient Bubastis, southeastern Nile Delta (Egypt) Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-10-10 Philipp Garbe, Amr Abd El-Raouf, Ashraf Es-Senussi, Eva Lange-Athinodorou, Julia Meister
In ancient Egypt, lakes, canals, and other water bodies were an essential part of the sacred landscape in which temples were embedded. In recent years, geoarchaeological research at the site of the Temple of Bastet at Bubastis in the southeastern Nile Delta has proven the existence of two water canals surrounding the temple. It has now been investigated whether these canals were connected to the Temple
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Coastal archaeological site visibility problems and underwater prospects in the Northern Lake Superior Basin Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-10-06 Matthew Boyd
The early to middle Holocene was marked by considerable variability in lake levels in the Lake Superior Basin due to a combination of meltwater runoff, isostatic adjustment, shifting glacial margins, and climate change. These processes likely had a large impact on the preservation and visibility of coastal archaeological sites dating from the Early Period (Paleoindian) to the Middle Period (Shield
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Paleoecological data complete historical and archaeological archives: Human–environment nexus at the fluvio maritime city port of Chilia (Licostomo; Northern Danube delta) since the 14th century Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-09-01 Luminița Preoteasa, Diana Hanganu, Anca Dan, Gabriela Florescu, Gabriela Sava, Daniela Pascal, Mihaela Dobre, Dan Olteanu, Laurențiu Țuțuianu, Aurel Stănică, Alfred Vespremeanu-Stroe
This study reconstructs the paleoecological settings of Chilia/Licostomo, the most important Genoese colony in the Danube delta. Our paleoenvironmental data (i.e., sedimentology, pollen, charcoal, radiocarbon ages) corroborate historical and archaeological information over the last seven centuries to document the habitation at Chilia and its military and socioeconomic activity during ca. 14th–19th
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Infrared spectra of mixtures of heated and unheated clay: Solving an interpretational conundrum Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-08-11 Isaac Ogloblin Ramirez, Zachary C. Dunseth, Dina Shalem, Ruth Shahack-Gross
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is frequently used for archaeological studies related to fire, allowing, among other things, researchers to distinguish between unheated and heated clay minerals. However, heat signatures are not always clear-cut in infrared spectra of bulk sediments, as spectra occasionally appear with ambiguous absorbance bands attributed to hydroxyl (OH) in clay minerals
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The use of OBIA and petrography in the study of stone masonry: The case of La Palma, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-08-04 Daniel Rodríguez Osorio, Marion Weber Scharff, Dayan Danilo Izurieta, Andrés Agudelo Bermúdez, Jonathan Renjifo, Joseph Knight
In this case study, rubble masonry walls from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Northern Colombia were investigated. We applied a combined object-based image analysis (OBIA), photogrammetry, and petrography method to characterize and determine the provenance of the materials used in three targeted terraces of the archaeological site of La Palma. In situ data acquisition included detailed photographic
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Geoarchaeological and microstratigraphic view of a Neanderthal settlement at Rambla de Ahíllas in Iberian Range: Abrigo de la Quebrada (Chelva, Valencia, Spain) Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-08-02 M. Mercè Bergadà, Aleix Eixea, Valentín Villaverde
The Abrigo de la Quebrada is a Middle Palaeolithic rockshelter located in the Rambla de Ahíllas in the Iberian Range (Valencia, Spain). Archaeological work began in 2007 and was completed in 2015, reaching the rockshelter substratum and uncovering a record that spans from MIS 5 to MIS 4/3. The data from the geoarchaeological and micromorphological study of the site allow us to deduce that it was formed
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Reconstructing formation processes at the Canary Islands indigenous site of Belmaco Cave (La Palma, Spain) through a multiproxy geoarchaeological approach Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-07-28 Enrique Fernández-Palacios, Margarita Jambrina-Enríquez, Susan M. Mentzer, Caterina Rodríguez de Vera, Ada Dinckal, Natalia Égüez, Antonio V. Herrera-Herrera, Juan Francisco Navarro Mederos, Efraín Marrero Salas, Christopher E. Miller, Carolina Mallol
The indigenous populations of La Palma (Canary Islands), who arrived on the island from Northwest Africa ca. 2000 years B.P., were predominantly pastoralists. Yet, many aspects of their subsistence economy such as the procurement, management, and use of wild plant resources remain largely unknown. To explore this, we studied the 600–1100-year-old archaeological site of Belmaco Cave, which comprises
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Lithological description and provenancing of a collection of bluestones from excavations at Stonehenge by William Hawley in 1924 with implications for the human versus ice transport debate of the monument's bluestone megaliths Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-07-22 Richard Bevins, Rob Ixer, Nick Pearce, James Scourse, Tim Daw
A rhyolite boulder collected by R. S. Newall in 1924 from an excavation at Stonehenge has been pivotal to arguments concerning glacial versus human transport of the bluestones to Stonehenge. Initial studies suggested that the boulder came from north Wales, and hence was a probable glacial erratic. New petrographic and geochemical analyses however support it being from Craig Rhos-y-Felin in west Wales
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An interdisciplinary approach to Late/Final Neolithic coastal gallery graves in Brittany, Western France: The 3D structure, origin of stone material, and paleoenvironmental setting of the Kernic and Lerret monuments Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-07-05 Aneta Gorczyńska, Bernard Le Gall, Pierre Stéphan, Yvan Pailler
This article presents an interdisciplinary study of two Late/Final Neolithic gallery graves (Kernic and Lerret) located on the orthwestern coast of Brittany (Western France). These monuments show striking similarities in terms of architectural style and geographical position. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the construction strategy of these monuments by (i) determining the origin
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Preliminary results on the applicability of neutron activation analysis (NAA) to identify cherts from the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-06-21 Nathaniel R. Kitchel, Brandi L. MacDonald, Matthew T. Boulanger, Heather M. Rockwell
Red chert attributed to the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA is common in late Pleistocene fluted-point-period archaeological sites located throughout the New England states and Quebec, appearing more frequently than any other material type in the region. Despite the assumed association between red Munsungun chert and fluted-point-period sites, until recently, it was not possible to link red chert
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Evidence for sophisticated raw material procurement strategies during the Lower Paleolithic—Hula Valley case study Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-06-15 Meir Finkel, Oded Bar, Yoav Ben Dor, Erez Ben-Yosef, Ofir Tirosh, Gonen Sharon
The Hula Valley has two key Acheulian sites: Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY), a large flake Acheulian site with hundreds of basalt bifaces and a significant number of flint handaxes, and Ma'ayan Barukh (MB), where more than 3500 flint handaxes were collected. Over the last one million years, the valley was filled by alluvium and basalt flows, devoid of flint sources suitable for handaxe production. We conducted
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Microarchaeological approach to underwater stratigraphy of submerged settlements: A case study of Atlit-Yam Pre-Pottery Neolithic site, off the Carmel Coast, Israel Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-06-12 Isaac Ogloblin Ramirez, Elle Grono, Roni Zuckerman-Cooper, Dafna Langgut, Ehud Galili, David E. Friesem
The investigation of submerged archaeological sites faces numerous logistical challenges in the recovery of stratigraphic sequences and, as a result, is often restricted to surface deposits limiting the application of geoarchaeology. This paper outlines a new integrated field and microanalytical methodological protocol to investigate deep stratigraphic sequences (up to 2 m) within the submerged Pre-Pottery
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Planetary geoarchaeology as a new frontier in archaeological science: Evaluating site formation processes on Earth's Moon Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-06-11 Justin A. Holcomb, Beth O'Leary, Ann G. Darrin, Rolfe D. Mandel, Corbin Kling, Karl W. Wegmann
On October 4, 1957, Homo sapiens crossed a new threshold of technological innovation after constructing an artifact capable of entering Low Earth Orbit and effectively paving the way for a future of space exploration. This artifact was Sputnik 1, launched by the Soviet space program which triggered the “space race” of the mid-20th century. Over the past 65 years, we have continued to explore and populate
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The fabric of Torre d'en Galmés, Menorca, Spain Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-06-07 Paul Goldberg, Amalia Pérez-Juez
The term fabric has a variety of meanings, particularly in geology and archaeology. In the former case, it can encapsulate the three-dimensional arrangement of particles and voids, including organizational aspects such as bedding. In archaeology, it can also refer to positions of sites on a landscape or the structure and geometry of, say, buildings within a site; it can also refer to the infillings
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Three thousand years of river channel engineering in the Nile Valley Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-05-27 Matthew Dalton, Neal Spencer, Mark G. Macklin, Jamie C. Woodward, Philippa Ryan
Across a 1000-km stretch of the River Nile, from the 1st Cataract in southern Egypt to the 4th Cataract in Sudan, many hundreds of drystone walls are located within active channels, on seasonally inundated floodplains or in now-dry Holocene palaeochannel belts. These walls (or river groynes) functioned as flood and flow control structures and are of a type now commonly in use worldwide. In the Nile
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Late Roman–Early Byzantine Leukos settlement, Karpathos, Greece: Geoarchaeology, archeoseismology, and paleogeography Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-05-06 Karen L. Kleinspehn, Michael C. Nelson
This archeoseismologic study focuses on the Leukos settlement that thrived on the west coast of the forearc island of Karpathos in the 4th−6th centuries CE. The onshore site occupies the eastern rim of the offshore Karpathos Basin, the deepest Aegean basin, in a sector of the Hellenic forearc typically regarded as seismically insignificant. Investigations of faulting, sedimentary processes, and secondary
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New data on chert catchment analysis in inland Iberia during the Late Pleistocene Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-04-16 Marta Sánchez de la Torre, Xavier Mangado Llach, Samuel Castillo-Jiménez, Luis Luque, José J. Alcolea-González, Manuel Alcaraz-Castaño
In this paper, we present the first results obtained after new fieldwork and laboratory studies of chert catchment sources during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic in inland Iberia, a region that has been traditionally depicted as marginal and sparsely populated during the last glacial due to its harsh ecological conditions compared to the coastal areas of the Iberian Peninsula. Our main aim is to
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Pleistocene freshwater ostracods from the Homo erectus site at Bilzingsleben, Germany—Review of historic collection and unpublished manuscript material for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-04-12 Thomas Daniel, Peter Frenzel
We provide a review of micropalaeontological research on Ostracoda from the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 11, Holstein interglacial) hominin site Bilzingsleben in Thuringia in Central Germany from 1963 to the 1990s. Samples from four sections inside and six search pits outside the excavation area were investigated and, in total, 49 ostracod species were identified. The ostracod assemblages of the sections
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Anthropogenic impact on a seacoast landscape during the last 1300 years in central Latvia, Northeastern Europe Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-03-28 Normunds Stivrins, Inga Doniņa, Muntis Auns, Ansis Blaus, Merlin Liiv, Dace Steinberga, Nauris Jasiunas, Ieva Grudzinska
Human-induced activities around Lake Lilaste in the central Latvian sandy coastal area have been reconstructed over a 1300-year period. We use a combination of well-established geoarchaeological research methods (14C dating, pollen, nonpollen palynomorphs, REVEALS modeling, diatoms, C/N ratio, magnetic susceptibility, loss on ignition) to study the human impact on the environment. Historical context
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Lidar visualization techniques for the construction of geoarchaeological deposit models: An overview and evaluation in alluvial environments Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-03-26 Nicholas Crabb, Chris Carey, Andy J. Howard, Matthew Brolly
Lidar has become an essential tool for the mapping and interpretation of natural and archaeological features within the landscape. It is also increasingly integrated and visualized within geoarchaeological deposit models, providing valuable topographic and stratigraphic control from the contemporary ground surface downwards. However, there is a wide range of methods available for the visualization
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Characterising mine wastes as archaeological landscapes Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-03-02 Susan Lawrence, Peter Davies, Greg Hil, Ian Rutherfurd, James Grove, Jodi Turnbull, Ewen Silvester, Francesco Colombi, Mark Macklin
Industrial-scale metal mining has long been a feature of developing economies. Processing ores to recover minerals has generated large quantities of waste rock, tailings and contaminants. Mining-related deposits, along with associated soil and water geochemistry, river modifications and other environmental changes, are a product of the nature, scale and intensity of past operations. These artefacts
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Geostatistical and geoarchaeological study of Holocene floodplains and site distributions on the Sha-Ying River Basin, Central China Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-02-23 Hai Zhang, Wei Li, Andrew Bevan, Hui Wang, Fawei Liang, Yanpeng Cao, Yijie Zhuang
Geostatistics has become a powerful method for investigating complex spatial variations of prehistoric settlements in floodplains and other geomorphological settings. A geoarchaeological drilling program that covers most of the Sha-Ying River Basin provides a rare opportunity with unusually detailed environmental data to contest and develop the geostatistics method, which proves to be essential, in
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Coastal changes and human occupation in the eastern part of Thessaloniki Bay: Geoarchaeological investigations of Toumba Gona Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-01-16 Jakub Niebieszczański, Iwona Hildebrandt-Radke, Janusz Czebreszuk, Cezary Bahyrycz, Konstantinos Vouvalidis, Georgios Syrides, Panagiotis Tsourlos, Maria Pappa, Stylianos Andreou
The Holocene marine transgression in the Aegean Sea area has significantly impacted prehistoric societies. Toumba Gona is a tell site located at the mouth of the Anthemous River, east of Thessaloniki Bay. According to earlier research, the site should be dated at most to the late stage of the Early Bronze Age. Geoarchaeological research by means of electrical resistivity tomography, vibra-coring, sedimentological
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Mid- to Late Holocene landscape dynamics and rural settlement in the uplands of northern Bavaria, Germany Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-12-27 Katja Kothieringer, Timo Seregély, Doris Jansen, Raphael Steup, Andreas Schäfer, Karsten Lambers, Markus Fuchs
We present results from a systematic interdisciplinary study on (pre-)historic rural settlement and landscape development in an upland region of northern Bavaria, Germany. The archaeological and geoarchaeological investigations—supported by radiocarbon dating, optically stimulated luminescence dating, and palaeoecological analysis—were performed to (i) identify so far unknown prehistoric rural settlement
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Structure, evolutionary context and chronological data of the Monforte de Moyuela Roman dam (Ebro Basin, NE of Spain) Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-12-24 José Luis Peña-Monné, María Marta Sampietro-Vattuone, Uribe Agudo Paula, Rosario García Giménez, Arsenio Muñoz, David Badia Villas, María Ángeles Magallón Botaya
The Monforte de Moyuela dam, also known as Ermita de la Virgen del Pilar dam, is a Roman reservoir built on a tributary of the Aguasvivas River (Ebro basin, Spain). A multidisciplinary study has been carried out to investigate this kind of Roman water infrastructure. It is the fifth-highest dam (16.8 m) in the Iberian Peninsula and the seventh in the Roman Empire. The initial dam was built ca. 100
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Climatic shifts, geomorphic change, ancient routes of migration and adaption in southwestern China: Site formation processes at Luojiaba, Sichuan Province Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-12-18 Junna Zhang, Michael J. Storozum, Weidong Chen, Zongyue Rao, Rebecca Hamilton, Zhexuan Zheng, Zhiyao Chen, Xuetong Yu, Zhengkai Xia
Archaeologists frequently invoke climate change as a driving cause for ancient expansions of human populations, but geomorphic changes can also play an important role in opening or closing routes of migration. In China, archaeological evidence demonstrates that valleys in the Jialing River's watershed were important routes for the movement of Neolithic populations from the catchments of the Yellow
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Early medieval human–environment interaction in the context of changes in the hydrological regime in the Upper Vistula valley (Central Europe) Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-12-18 Sylwia Skreczko, Artur Szymczyk, Krzysztof Szopa, Weronika Nadłonek
Human–environment interactions relating to changes in the hydrological system of the Upper Vistula valley are poorly understood. This valley lies in the foreland of the Transcarpathian transition, an area in Central Europe, which is crucial for the migration of people. Using palaeobotanical and geochemical analyses, archaeological data, and data on the river's fluvial activity, we retrace the sequence
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Novel insights into the sea level evolution along the coast of Bozburun Peninsula (Turkey): A study on submerged Bronze Age harbor in Çamçalık Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-12-15 Nilhan Kızıldağ, Harun Özdaş, Winfried Held, Giorgio Spada, Daniele Melini
A recent discovery of a Bronze Age harbor site in Çamçalık provides new data for the relative sea level history along the coast of the Bozburun Peninsula over the last 3600 years. In this study, we compared the new and previously published data from nearby sites to determine the long-term relative sea level changes. Further comparison of the observed sea level data and newly produced glacial isostatic
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Using X-ray fluorescence to examine ancient Maya granite ground stone in Belize Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-12-03 Tawny L. B. Tibbits, Meaghan M. Peuramaki-Brown, Marieka Brouwer Burg, Matthew A. Tibbits, Eleanor Harrison-Buck
While ubiquitous among ancient Maya sites in Mesoamerica, archaeological analysts frequently overlook the interpretive potential of ground stone tools. The ancient Maya often made these heavy, bulky tools of coarse-grained, heterogeneous materials that are difficult to chemically source, unlike obsidian. This paper describes an application of handheld, energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to
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A 7000-year record of environmental change: Evolution of Holocene environment and human activities in the Hangjiahu Plain, the lower Yangtze, China Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-11-12 Chengshuangping Zhao, Duowen Mo, Jin Yuxiang, Peng lu, Liu Bin, Ningyuan Wang, Minghui Chen, Yinan Liao, Peng Zhan, Yijie Zhuang
The Hangjiahu Plain in the lower Yangtze is one of the core areas that sustained the flourishment of the Liangzhu Civilization. This study reconstructed Holocene environmental change on the Hangjiahu Plain based on a sediment core collected from the Tangqi ZK-3 location situated on the low-lying Hangzhou-Taihu region of the Yangtze Delta. We applied OSL dating, grain size analysis, pollen analysis
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Rare Holocene sediment deposits from Sodmein Playa (Eastern Desert, Egypt)—Stratigraphic assessment and environmental setting Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-11-12 Felix Henselowsky, Nicole Klasen, Rhys Timms, Dustin White, Paul Lincoln, Simon Blockley, Karin Kindermann, Olaf Bubenzer
Sodmein Playa is one of the rare Pleistocene open-air sites in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Based on the associated stone artefact material, it could be assigned to the Middle Stone Age/Last Interglacial. However, it has not yet been possible to clarify whether the sediments at the basin originated during the Pleistocene or later during Holocene wet phases. Our integrative approach combining Optically
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Holocene coastal evolution and environmental changes in the lower Río Guadiaro valley, with particular focus on the Bronze to Iron Age harbour ‘Montilla’ of Los Castillejos de Alcorrín (Málaga, Andalusia, Spain) Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-11-09 Simon Matthias May, Helmut Brückner, Maike Norpoth, Anna Pint, Dennis Wolf, Dominik Brill, César León Martín, Hans-Peter Stika, José Suárez Padilla, Pierre Moret, Dirce Marzoli
Phoenicians were the first to systematically develop the area surrounding the Strait of Gibraltar at the end of the 9th century B.C. Following pioneering studies in the Río Guadiaro estuary (Málaga/Cádiz) in the 1980s, a German-Spanish cooperation project focussed on the role of indigenous people in the Phoenician colonisation trading networks at Los Castillejos de Alcorrín (Manilva, Málaga), one of
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Trace organic compounds in oxalate rock accretions from the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwestern Texas Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-11-04 Sarah A. Ginsberg, Logan P. Rayburn, Asya J. Bray, Francisco S. Nuñuz-Parker, Amelia Dowling, Jon Russ
Calcium oxalate-rich rock coatings occur worldwide and commonly occur associated with prehistoric rock paintings. Radiocarbon dates of oxalates that cover or encapsulate rock paints have become the primary strategy for establishing chronologies of these artifacts. It is also apparent that oxalate films form episodically and are governed by particular climate conditions and thus could serve as a paleoclimate
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Arroyo formation impacts on an early dryland agricultural community in Northeastern Utah, USA Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-11-03 Judson Byrd Finley, Erick Robinson, R. Justin DeRose
Indigenous Fremont farmers in Cub Creek, a part of northeastern Utah's Dinosaur National Monument, occupied the northern ecological margin of maize cultivation in western North America from A.D. 300 to 1300. Agriculture in Cub Creek was a response to multidecadal precipitation variability, but when precipitation stabilized between A.D. 750 and 1050, agricultural conditions improved and populations
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Comparing different machine-learning techniques to date Nile Delta sediments based on portable X-ray fluorescence data Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-11-01 Martin Seeliger, Andreas Ginau, Marina Altmeyer, Pascal Neis, Robert Schiestl, Jürgen Wunderlich
Geomorphology generally aims to describe and investigate the processes that lead to the formation of landscapes, while geochronology is needed to detect their timing and duration. Due to restrictions on exporting geological samples from Egypt, modern geoscientific studies in the Nile Delta lack the possibility of dating the investigated sediments and geological features by standard techniques such
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Linking anthropogenic burning activities to magnetic susceptibility: Studies at Brazilian archaeological sites Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-10-09 Daniel V. de Sousa, Maria J. Rodet, Déborah Duarte-Talim, Wenceslau G. Teixeira, André Prous, Bruno N. Vasconcelos, Edithe Pereira
This study provides the first survey of Brazilian magnetic susceptibility (MS) data from varying archaeological and geological contexts, including open-air sites, quartzite, and limestone rockshelters, and Amazonian dark earths. Our MS analyses associated with archaeological findings allow us to propose MS values as proxies of intense anthropogenic burning activities for archaeological sites with (i)
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Assessing raw material diversity at Poverty Point (16WC5) using non-destructive reflectance spectroscopy Geoarchaeology (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-10-08 Simon P. Sherman, Ryan M. Parish, Diana M. Greenlee, D. Shane Miller
Lithic raw material variation is valuable for assessing the scale of human mobility, differential access to and from raw material sources, and prehistoric exchange patterns. Recent advancements in non-destructive reflectance spectroscopy have proven to be more accurate in provenance investigations compared with the macroscopic (visual) identification technique for lithic artifacts. Here, we use visible/near-infrared