Dd Gilbertson

Early-Holocene environments in the Wadi Faynan, Jordan

Evidence for early-Holocene environments in the Wadi Faynan in the rift-margin in souther Jordan is described. The early Holocene of Jordan is not well known and palynology, plant macrofossils and molluscs from Wadi Faynan provide evidence for a much more humid-forest-steppe and steppe-environment than the present stony desert and highly degraded steppe. The early-Holocene fluvial sediments in the Faynan catchment are predominantly fine-grained, epsilon crossbedded and highly fossiliferous. They provide convincing evidence for meandering perennial rivers before 6000 cal. BP. It is probable that this early-Holocene landscape was disrupted by the impact of early farmers and by climate change-the 8.1 ka event appears to be marked by desiccation. By the Chalcolithic, environmental degradation was well advanced.

The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey 1980

Two seasons of work have now been conducted by British and French survey teams, in conjunction with members of the Libyan Antiquities Department, under the charge of Dr. Abdullah Shaiboub. The objectives of the survey are to locate, survey and analyse the extensive remains of the ancient agricultural settlements that can be found in the wadis of the hinterlands of Tripolitania and the Sirtica. Within the framework established by the Department in cooperation with Unesco lies the archaeological aim of recording the evidence for periods when extensive areas of the pre-desert were, for whatever reasons, cultivated in ways that are not similarly practised today. In the longer term the programme is designed to locate those areas where modern farming might be re-established. Archaeology is thus brought into line with the aims of the modern world. For the purposes of this report we intend to concentrate on the period which we call the Romano/Libyan in which the great majority of those farming settlements flourished. The prehistoric evidence is in any case mainly of the palaeolithic period, on which there is a separate section. The preferred zone of settlement in Tripolitania has traditionally been the well watered coastal plain and the adjacent limestone hills of the Tarhuna Gebel as far south as the town of Beni Ulid, for these regions have more than 200 mm of rain a year, regarded as the threshold for settled farming without irrigation. Prehistoric settlement concentrated here, and mixed farming has probably characterised this zone from the fourth millennium b.c. In the Roman period the coastal cities like Sabratha and Leptis Magna were supported by prosperous farms on the plain and in the Gebel. In the Islamic period, too, the same region was densely settled.

Past human activity and geomorphological change in a guano-rich tropical cave mouth: initial interpretations of the Late Quaternary Succession in the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak

This paper presents initial interpretations of the processes and events responsible for the late Quaternary sequence in the West Mouth of the Great Cave of Niah, in the hot and humid lowland rainforest and swamp forest of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo. It evaluates the geomorphological context of the site within the known pattern of rapid late Quaternary climate change. Attention is given to the proximity to the sea and the likelihood of humid tropical or cooler drier conditions. The stratigraphic succession is described and four units or lithofacies (2C, 2, 3 and 4) are recognized as being of particular geomorphological and archaeological importance. The key processes operating within the site are the accumulation and subsequent failure and flow of bat and bird guano, hillslope colluviation, and ephemeral stream flow and pond development. Units 2C and 2 contain the critical archaeology, including the Deep Skull from an anatomically modern human, discovered by Tom Harrisson. These were formed by colluviation from a complex cave-mouth rampart and stream flow from within the cave. The stream transported fine-grained sediment to a shallow pond, and both the stream and pond deposits show evidence for prolonged desiccation. Human activity is associated with these surfaces. The human remains and related archaeology are preserved because a mudflow (Unit 3) plowed into and overrode the land surface upon which the humans had lived, resulting in the deformation and burial of the surface and the preservation of the archaeological material. Provisional radiocarbon dates indicate that Units 2C and 2 accumulated from before ca. 45,000 B.P. until ca. 38,000 B.P. Dates bracketing the Deep Skull give this an age of ca. 45,000 B.P. to ca. 43,000 B.P. Overlying the mudflow, Unit 4, a silty diamicton with a relatively high carbonate and organic content, appears to have formed by a mix of natural colluvial and human transport processes, and is associated with human cultural material. Unpublished radiocarbon dates indicate that this deposit formed from before ca. 19,500 B.P. to ca. 8500 B.P. (uncalibrated).This interpretation of the site and its finds has required detailed reconstruction of the changing palaeogeography within and beyond the cave entrance and the nature and rate of geomorphological processes operating within the region, which have been placed within models for rapid Quaternary environmental change. The results suggest that during the earlier period of human presence in the Great Cave of Niah(earlier than ca. 45,000 B.P. until ca. 38,000 B.P.), the climate was episodically wet with much longer periods of relative dryness. During the later period of human occupancy (ca. 19,500 B.P. to ca. 8500 B.P. [uncalibrated]), the evidence is less secure and a slightly moister climate is suggested.

An air-pollution history of metallurgical innovation in iron- and steel-making: A geochemical archive of Sheffield

This paper explores the degree to which palaeoecological analyses can determine the history of metallurgical innovation and complex technological developments that took place in the iron- and steel industries of the City of Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.A knowledge of the key scientific breakthroughs as well as documentary evidence of industrial growth and decline in Sheffield are used as base-line historical data with which to interpret the palaeoecological and geochemical evidence presented here as a result of investigations of peats and clays collected from the Tinsley Park Bog in the Lower Don Valley of Sheffield. These deposits were analysed for charcoal, pollen, mineral magnetic properties and some trace elements (Ti, V, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, and Pb). Metal concentrations (measured using AAS) were as high as 320 ppm Ni, 472 ppm Cu, 613 ppm Zn, and 827 ppm Pb. Compared to the typical concentrations found in crustal rocks, Ni is enriched in the peats and sediments by as much as a factor of 5 times, Cu and Zn by a factor of 10, and Pb by more than 60 times. The lowest concentrations of Cu, Ni, Zn and V were found in the basal peats of Tinsley Park Bog arguing against a natural geochemical source as the cause of the enrichments. The greatest Cu and Zn enrichments are found in the peats in the top 0.1 m of the bog, possibly an indication of a large Special Steels Plant which began production nearby in 1963. Below these levels in the peat, in contrast, Ni and V are relatively abundant. They are believed to reflect the manufacture of complex steels during the earlier part of the twentieth century. Lead is most abundant in samples from depths in the peat which are though to post-date the onset of coal utilisation at the nearby Rothervale Mine.Interpretation is hampered because at present there is no independent evidence of the antiquity of the peat deposits studied. Neither is there any clear understanding of the significance of the taphonomic processes which have influenced the geochemical and paleoecological records obtained from the deposits. Nevertheless, our present interpretation of the data presented here indicates that to a suprising extent, it is possible to detect in the peat monolith (i) evidence of the expansion and relative decline of the adjacent steel industry; (ii) the impact of this manufacturing economy and associated coal-mining upon the adjacent vegetation; and (iii) the introduction of trace elements in pure forms or as alloys, as steel-making processes developed through the 19th and 20th centuries.

Studies of late prehistoric and modern opal phytoliths from coastal sand dunes and machair in Northwest Britain

Abstract This paper investigates the possibilities of identifying the origins of, and classifying, modern and prehistoric sand samples from coastal dune environments based on a study of their phytolith content. A simple, conservative classification of phytolith morphotypes has been developed for specimens from this type of sedimentary environment. This classification has facilitated the recognition of anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic depositional levels in ancient sand dunes on the basis of their contained phytolith suites. Areas of ancient human occupation and activity are shown to be characterized by phytolith concentrations which are larger by orders of magnitude than those that occur naturally in these coastal dune systems. Correspondence analysis has been used to investigate the extent to which some specific aspects of past human activity can be distinguished: specifically the introduction of “cut” peat, plant and animal waste; and possible differences in the character of grazing or pasture in the dune.systems.

A simple preparation technique for the study of opal phytoliths from archaeological and quaternary sediments

Abstract This note describes a simple and inexpensive method for the extraction and counting of opal phytoliths from archaeological and Quaternary sediments.

The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey VIII: Image Analysis of Landsat Satellite data for Archaeological and Environmental Surveys

Digital image data from the Landsat satellite Multispectral scanner have been analysed using a Dipex Image Processor. The image data were classified by a clustering algorithm to produce a thematic map for trial use in areas of archaeological interest. The archaeological, pedological, geomorphic and geological importance of these new data are discussed in the context of ground data obtained during the UNESCO April 1984 field season.

ULVS XVII: Palaeoecology and Agriculture of an Abandonment Phase at Gasr Mm 10, Wadi Mimoun, Tripolitania

This study documents the sediments, pollen, seeds, molluscs, vertebrates and mineral magnetism of deposits found in an abandoned water supply system at gasr Mm 10 in the Wadi Mimoun in the pre-desert of Tripolitania. These new data suggest (1) at or close to an episode of probable abandonment of that gasr , the growth of cereals (and perhaps general agricultural activity) still occurred on the wadi catchment upstream of the gasr , and (2) the vegetation of the adjacent wadi floor was richer in species (which included olive) than occurs today.

Radon and 'King Solomon's Miners': Faynan Orefield, Jordanian Desert.

Concentrations of 222Rn were measured in ancient copper mines which exploited the Faynan Orefield in the South-Western Jordanian Desert. The concentrations of radon gas detected indicate that the ancient metal workers would have been exposed to a significant health risk and indicate that any future attempt to exploit the copper ores must deal with the hazard identified. Seasonal variations in radon concentrations are noted and these are linked to the ventilation of the mines. These modern data are used to explore the differential exposure to radon and the health of ancient mining communities.

Allochthonous and autochthonous mire deposits, slope instability and palaeoenvironmental investigations in the Borve Valley, Barra, Outer Hebrides, Scotland

This paper suggests that sediment depth-age anomalies, and the lithological and palaeoecological properties of a peat core from Borve mire on the Outer Hebridean island of Barra, reflect the episodic impacts of rapid mass-movement of superficial peats and mineral soils from the adjacent hillslopes in the period 3000 to 1750 14C years BP. Alternative explanations such as mismeasurement of radiocarbon or contamination by floods, are thought less likely. The research implies that there is a general need for caution in the interpretation of mire deposits from sites which are adjacent to steep peat-covered hillslopes and which have not been investigated with the support of substantial radiocarbon and lithological studies programmes. The environmental and vegetational history of this exposed and isolated Atlantic island is shown to have not been one of treeless homogeneity. A variety of deciduous and coniferous tree species colonized early in the Holocene, with distinctive birch-hazel woodland developing at one point in time. The landscape became increasingly treeless in the Bronze Age, with most but not all trees having been lost by the Medieval period. Valley side peats provide palynological evidence of pastoral and arable farming on poor soils in the Dark Age-Early Medieval period, at sites beyond the present limits of cultivation.