David Gilbertson

Fieldwork in geography teaching: A critical review of the literature and approaches

Abstract Virtually all lecturers in geography recognise the importance of fieldwork as a vital mode of teaching in the subject. This paper draws on material produced as part of a HEFCE review of teaching and learning in the field and assesses the implications of recent changes in higher education for field studies in geography. The literature on the development of, and recent changes in, fieldwork practice is reviewed and assumptions about appropriate forms of teaching and assessment are challenged. The need for carefully integrated preparation of project‐orientated fieldwork is stressed and the importance of debriefing and feedback after field visits is emphasised. Various suggestions for guidelines on good practice are presented. Finally, a range of future issues and problems in fieldwork is identified and discussed.

Radon in the Creswell Crags permian limestone caves

An investigation of radon levels in the caves of Creswell Crags, Derbyshire, an important Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) shows that the Lower Magnesian Limestone (Permian) caves have moderate to raised radon gas levels (27-7800 Bq m(-3)) which generally increase with increasing distance into the caves from the entrance regions. This feature is partly explained in terms of cave ventilation and topography. While these levels are generally below the Action Level in the workplace (400 Bq m(-3) in the UK), they are above the Action Level for domestic properties (200 Bq m(-3)). Creswell Crags has approximately 40,000 visitors per year and therefore a quantification of effective dose is important for both visitors and guides to the Robin Hood show cave. Due to short exposure times the dose received by visitors is low (0.0016 mSv/visit) and regulations concerning exposure are not contravened. Similarly, the dose received by guides is fairly low (0.4 mSv/annum) due in part to current working practice. However, the risk to researchers entering the more inaccessible areas of the cave system is higher (0.06 mSv/visit). This survey also investigated the effect of seasonal variations on recorded radon concentration. From this work summer to winter ratios of between 1.1 and 9.51 were determined for different locations within the largest cave system.

Environment and land use in the Wadi Faynan, southern Jordan : The second season of geoarchaeology and landscape archaeology (1997)

AbstractThis report describes the third season of fieldwork by an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and geographers working to reconstrnct the landscape history of the Wadi Faynan in southern Jordan over the past 200,000 years. The particular focus of the project is the long-term history of inter-relationships between landscape and people, as a contribution to the study of processes of desertification and environmental degradation. The geomorphological and palaeoecological studies have now established the outline sequence of landform changes and climatic fluctuations in the late Pleistocene and Holocene. The complex field system WF4 has now been recorded in its entirety in terms of wall construction, suiface artefacts, and hydrological features, as well as most of the outlying field systems. From these studies, in combination with the analysis of the suiface artefacts, an outline sequence of the water utilization and management strategies they represent can now be discerned. Ethnoarchaeology is als...

‘Death... more desirable than life’? The human skeletal record and toxicological implications of ancient copper mining and smelting in Wadi Faynan, southwestern Jordan

Skeletal material from 36 people, dating from the early Christian era, who lived by or worked in the notorious Roman copper mines of Phaeno, were analysed to determine their exposure to copper and lead. We demonstrate that many of the bones analysed had a substantially higher concentration of these cations than modern individuals exposed to metals through industrial processes. Health, toxicological and environmental implications of these data are reviewed.

The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey VII: An Interim Classification and Functional Analysis of Ancient Wall Technology and Land Use

Interpretations of ancient wall-technologies in the Libyan pre-desert are briefly reviewed. The forms, patterns, distributions and geological/geomorphic/hydrologic relationships of walls in a series of study areas are described and interpreted with the aid of a new, non-genetic, ‘wall-technology’ classification. The remarkable hydrological and geomorphic insights of their constructors are clear. Several wall types are shown to have been primarily concerned with functions other than water control, although this aspect is usually dominant. In some cases the location of the walls appears to have been likely to exacerbate the perennial problems of soil erosion and gullying, in others walls appear to have been constructed specifically to control soil erosion. These data have implications for reconstructing past land use and evaluating the degree of success or failure experienced in particular situations.

Micromorphology of Cave Sediments in the Humid Tropics: Niah Cave, Sarawak

This is the first detailed study of the micromorphology of archaeologically important cave sediments in the Great Cave of Niah, in the humid tropics of Sarawak, Borneo. Micromorphology is used to describe the sediments and post-depositional alteration, reconstruct the palaeoenvironments, and refine the environmental history of late Pleistocene deposits associated with the human remains (the so-called Deep Skull dated to ca. 43,000-42,000 B.P.). Micromorphology provides details of the shape, roundedness, arrangement, and chemistry of grains, aggregates, precipitates, and sedimentary structures that make up the cave sediments. The dominant processes in the West Mouth of the Great Cave of Niah are guano sedimentation, fluvial and shallow pond deposition interrupted by desiccation, mass movement, and chemical weathering. Also important is post-depositional alteration by bioturbation, mineral translocation and reprecipitation, and diagenesis. Micromorphology also provides evidence for short periods of soil development, burnt surfaces, and deposition of small fragments of bone within the sediment. Together this information indicates the fine details of the environment occupied by humans, the scale and effects of the mass movement processes that deformed the beds in which the human remains are preserved, and the taphonomic processes that reworked and redistributed archaeological material within this part of the cave.

Analyses of patterns of copper and lead mineralization in human skeletons excavated from an ancient mining and smelting centre in the Jordanian desert: a reconnaissance study

Abstract In this reconnaissance study, skeletal materials from people, dating from ~1500 B.P., who lived by or worked at the ancient copper mines and furnaces of the Wadi Faynan in southern Jordan, were analysed using atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) to determine the intensities of accumulation of copper and lead in their bones. Many of the bones analysed contained concentrations of these metals which are comparable to those of modern individuals who are heavily exposed to metals through contemporary industrial processes. Patterns of partitioning throughout the skeleton of a number of individuals were also studied. These AAS data suggest that within the human organism there may be some ability to influence the patterns of accumulation of copper within the skeleton. The humerus was frequently found to contain more copper than other bones studied. Within the humerus itself, the medial epicondyle frequently contained the highest concentrations, which may indicate a significant degree of organization or control of the process. These metal concentration data together with their toxicological consequences suggest that the health of the ancient human populations must have been adversely affected by exposure during life to copper in the environment. They also point to the need for further detailed studies of metal partitioning within the bones of the human skeleton.

Archaeology and Desertification in the Wadi Faynan: the Fourth (1999) Season of the Wadi Faynan Landscape Survey

Abstract This report describes the fourth season of fieldwork by an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and geographers working together to reconstruct the landscape history of the Wadi Faynan in southern Jordan. The particular focus of the project is the long-term history of inter-relationships between landscape and people, as a contribution to the study of processes of desertification and environmental degradation. The 1999 fieldwork contributed significantly towards the five objectives defined for the final two field seasons of the project in 1999 and 2000: to map the archaeology outside the ancient field systems flooring the wadi that have formed the principal focus of the archaeological survey in the previous seasons; to use ethnoarchaeological studies both to reconstruct modern and recent land use and also to yield archaeological signatures of land use to inform the analysis of the survey data; to complete the survey of ancient field systems and refine understanding of when and how they functioned; to complete the programme of geomorphological and palaeoecological fieldwork, and in particular to refine the chronology of climatic change and human impacts; and to complete the recording and classification of finds.

The Human Use of Caves in Peninsular and Island Southeast Asia: Research Themes

This paper introduces the essays in this volume. The challenging complexities of site formation and cave taphonomy in humid tropical environments are emphasized, as is the need for more sophisticated understanding of the geomorphological, biological, and taphonomic processes that affect tropical caves if archaeological remains within them are to be better understood. As the case studies in this collection illustrate, however, tropical cave excavations in peninsular and island Southeast Asia continue to provide new information that is shaping the agenda of discussions about the pathways of colonization of Pleistocene and Holocene human populations, their lifeways as foragers and farmers, and their belief systems as represented by their burials and cave art. The papers also emphasize the complexity of cave use in this region through time and space, but perhaps the most important argument of the volume is that the human use of caves here, past and present, can be understood only as integral components of wider cultural landscapes.

Pollen taphonomy of trees in a windy climate: Northbay Plantation, Barra, Outer Hebrides

Abstract Studies of the representaion of tree pollen on moss polsters within and around a mixed plantation on the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides revealed that relatively high concentrations of tree pollen (>20per cent) occurred within the plantation, but that proportions fell to background levels at distances between 1 and 40m of the woodland margin. These very short distances imply that palynological studies of the vegetational history of the Outer Hebrides might fail to record patches of woodland that may, in the past, have existed within an overall open (moorland) environment. ‘Alnus’ and ‘Pinus’ were well represented; ‘Acer’, ‘Fraxinus’ and ‘Picea’ under‐represented.