Richard I. Macphail

Soil micromorphological evidence of early agriculture in north‐west Europe

Abstract The study of early agricultural soils using micromorphology is outlined. The effects of tillage due to modern agriculture are reviewed and the results from four experiments in ‘prehistoric cultivation’ are presented. These are used in the interpretation of prehistoric agricultural practices, based on a study of soils from various archaeological sites in north‐west Europe. It is suggested that microfabric features, varying according to soil texture, can be diagnostic of tillage. Microfabric type, textural features (e.g. coatings) and structure are, taken together, better indicators of ancient tillage than single features.

Excavation of the Lower Palaeolithic Site at Amey's Eartham Pit, Boxgrove, West Sussex: A Preliminary Report

The acheulian site at Boxgrove contains one of the most extensive areas of in situ fauna and flintwork yet discovered in Britain. This material is found in a complex sequence of sediments which represent depositional conditions from a 42 m sea level rise to the onset of a full periglacial climate. Excavation of the archaeological horizon has been accompanied by a programme of multidisciplinary research examining site formation processes, palaeolandscape and palaeoecological development, using sedimentological and environmental reconstruction techniques. Dating of the site is tentative as no absolute dates are available at present. However, comparative analysis with other British sites would suggest a position for the Boxgrove sequence within the Middle Pleistocene. The archaeological horizon is interpreted as being deposited towards the latter part of an interglacial or an interstadial period.

A future for Dark Earth

A recent workshop on ‘dark earth’, the homogeneous soil layer that often separates Roman from Early Medieval and Medieval strata in towns, prompted the authors to show how this concept, which developed in England, became altered when employed in mainland Europe. They present new research on what is actually a widespread phenomenon, and warn that uncritical assumptions about such layers made on the ground are losing important information.

Late Middle Pleistocene deposits at Norton Farm on the West Sussex coastal plain, southern England

The coastal plain of West Sussex, southern England, is internationally important because of the sequence of discrete high-sea-level events preserved at Various elevations across it. New evidence is presented from a site at Norton Farm, near Chichester, on the Lower Coastal Plain, where Pleistocene marine sands, fining upwards into silts, occur between 5.3 m and 9.1 m OD. The sequence reflects a regressive tendency at the transition from an interglacial to a cold stage. The marine sands have yielded foraminifera, ostracods and molluscs that indicate a declining marine influence through the sequence, culminating in a tidal mudflat, strongly weathered in places. Cool-climate foraminifera (including Elphidium clavatum, Cassidulina reniformis and Elphidium albiumbilicatum) and ostracods have been recovered from the marine sands. Some species with an apparent preference for warmer water conditions, however, are also present. Freshwater taxa washed into the terminal marine sediments include some cold climate indicators, such as Pisidium stewarti and P. obtusale lapponicum. Additional evidence for cool climatic conditions during the deposition of the upper part of the marine sequence is provided by the lack of tree taxa in the pollen record and by features of the micromorphology. The marine sediments probably began accumulating during OIS 7, a conclusion based on their elevation, on amino acid ratios from shells, but especially on vertebrate evidence, particularly the presence of a small form of horse, together with a large, distinctive, form of northern vole (Microtus oeconomus). The occurrence of cool climate indicators in these marine sediments may demonstrate a lag between the climatic deterioration and the expected glacio-eustatic fall in relative sea-level. This evidence appears to support the conclusions drawn from the study of coral terraces in Barbados. Such a scenario would provide the conditions necessary for the emplacement of the large erratic boulders reported from the Lower Coastal Plain of West Sussex. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Comment on “DNA from Pre-Clovis Human Coprolites in Oregon, North America”

Gilbert et al. (Reports, 9 May 2008, p. 786) presented DNA analysis of coprolites recovered from an Oregon cave as evidence for a human presence in North America before the Clovis culture. Results of our micromorphological and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analyses of one of the reported coprolites are difficult to reconcile with the DNA results identifying the coprolite as human.

Boxgrove, West Sussex : Rescue excavations of a lower Palaeolithic landsurface (Boxgrove project B, 1989-91)

In 1988 an area of 12,000 m 2 in Quarry 2 at Boxgrove, West Sussex, was identified as being under threat front gravel and sand extraction. It was decided to sample the threatened area in 1989 with a series of 6 m 2 test pits. The results of this survey identified two areas that merited further investigation, and area excavations were carried out at Quarry 2/C and Quarry 2/D in 1990 and 1991 respectively. These concentrated on the main Pleistocene landsurface (Unit 4c) and revealed spreads of knapping debris associated with the production of flint handaxes. Two test pits and area Q2/C produced handaxes, over 90% of which had tranchet sharpening at the distal end. A small amount of core reduction and only a few flake tools were found: these were all from Quarry 2/C. Faunal remains were located in the northern part of the excavations where Unit 4c had a calcareous cover. In Quarry 2/C the bones of C. elaphus and Bison sp. exhibited traces of human modification. The project employed two methods of artefact retrieval: direct excavation in metre squares and bulk sieving of units within them. Comparison of the results from these methods suggests that, when on-site time is limited, the integration of these methods is a valid technique in both qualitative and quantitative terms for data recovery. The excavated areas are interpreted as a tool-sharpening and butchery site that may have been a fixed and known locale in the landscape (Q2/C), and a location on the periphery of an area of intensive knapping reduction (Q2/D). Sedimentological and microfaunal analyses demonstrate that Unit 4c was formed as a soil in the top of a marine-lagoonal silt, the pedogenic processes being similar to those observed after draining Dutch polder lakes. The palaeoenvironment is interpreted as an area of open grassland with some shrub and bush vegetation. In places the surface of the soil supported small ephemeral pools and flashes. This area of grassland is seen as a corridor for herds of ungulates moving east and west between the sea to the south and the relict cliff and wooded downland block to the north. Within this corridor these herds were preyed upon by various carnivores, and hominids. The temperate sediments at Boxgrove were deposited in the later part of the Cromerian Complex and immediately pre-date the Anglian Cold Stage; they are therefore around 500,000 years old. The archaeological material from these and overlying cold stage deposits is broadly contemporary with that at High Lodge, Suffolk and Waverley Wood, Warwickshire.

SOIL MICROMORPHOLOGY IN ARCHAEOLOGY

Abstract Soil micromorphology has been a recognized technique in soil science for some 50 years and experience from pedogenic and palaeosol studies first permitted its use in the investigation of archaeologically buried soils. More recently, the science has expanded to encompass the characterisation of all archeological soils and sediments and has been successful in providing unique cultural and palaeoenvironmental information from a whole range of archaeological sites.

26 – Archaeological Materials

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the archaeological materials. It deals with the use of soil micromorphology for examining archaeological materials, in order to understand their formation and the manner in which they enter the archaeological record. Soil micromorphology, using optical microscopy and associated techniques, is one of the best methods for characterizing and identifying archaeological materials, especially when they occur as microscopic fragments at archaeological sites. In fact, although bulk and microfossil studies can provide useful supporting information, often the data from these techniques can only really be properly understood when soil micromorphology is available. Archaeological materials include natural mineral and organic materials that have been used in their raw state or as little transformed material, as well as fully manufactured products. Other archaeological matter includes waste from occupation, such as dung and mineralized coprolites from domestic animals, human waste, food, and hearth remains.

The Soil Micromorphologist as Team Player

Soil micromorphology is one of the major subdisciplines within soil science, with subcommission status in the International Society of Soil Science since 1978. It held its initial working-meeting in London in 1981, where Goldberg (1983) made the first review of the application of soil micromorphology to archaeology. First developed by Kubiena (1938) as a way of studying undisturbed soil in thin sections, soil micromorphology now encompassess a range of ultramicroscopic techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that is often linked to microchemical instrumental analyses (e.g., qualitative energy dispersive X-ray analysis or Energy Dispersion X-ray Analysis (EDXRA) and microprobe; e.g., Courty et al., 1989).

Lago di Bargone, Liguria, N Italy: a reconstruction of Holocene environmental and land-use history

Sediment micromorphology, chemistry and magnetic susceptibility of basin edge deposits at the small, mid-altitude peat site of Lago di Bargone, eastern Liguria, Italy, is compared with a full Holocene palynological sequence and radiocarbon dates from the central part of the peat bog. Micromorphology and MS550 results show that Neolithic to Copper Age forest disturbances and clearings as inferred from the pollen diagrams, occurred during a period of lower water-tables and intermittent drying out of the basin edge deposits. Extensive deforestation and expansion of heath and grassland during the Iron Age and Roman periods is associated with increases in soil erosion and in micromorphological indications of burning. It is argued that the very fine size range of the charred fragments seen in thin sections and the seeming absence of charcoal of coarser size range suggest a system of light, controlled burning, possibly akin to the local tradition of using fire to control weeds and to encourage new grass and herbaceous growth, and not local forest clearance by fire. Micromorphology of the late-Holocene peat contains herbivore dung possibly indicating the use of the site as a watering hole by domesticated stock. The overlying colluvium displays evidence of deep-seated erosion of the local soils and geology which is most likely to have been associated with local mining activities.