Archaeological Chronology Research Articles

Late Neolithic vegetation history at the pile‐dwelling site of Palù di Livenza (northeastern Italy

AbstractThe Late Neolithic pile‐dwelling of Palù di Livenza yielded archaeological remains typical of the Square Mouth Pottery and Lagozza Cultures. A palynological investigation reveals important changes in the vegetation due to anthropogenic pressure. Between ca. 6590 and 5960 cal. yr BP, dense oak wood forests with deciduous Quercus, Fagus and Corylus extended around the mire, with no signs of human impact. The establishment of the pile‐dwelling, dated to ca. 5960 cal. yr BP, led to a strong reduction of forests, reclamation of wetlands, and expansion of herbaceous communities, with cultivated species, infestant weeds, nitrophilous and ruderal herbs, pastures and meadows. According to AMS dates and previous archaeological chronologies, the pile‐dwelling persisted for about 700 years (from ca. 5960 to 5260 cal. yr BP). The history of the pile‐dwelling after ca. 5260 cal. yr BP cannot be reconstructed because of recent contamination of the top part of the section. Rarefaction analysis was applied to estimate changes of palynological richness through time: the highest E(Tn) (between 56 and 69 taxa) are contemporaneous with the local development of the pile‐dwelling. The comparison of pollen data with archaeobotanical evidence indicates that Fragaria vesca, Malus sylvestris, Papaver somniferum and Physalis alkekengi were gathered at some distance from the site and that Linum usitatissimum is strongly under‐represented in pollen samples. Crop cultivation can be estimated for a radius of several hundred metres around the mire. Palù di Livenza is significant in the context of Neolithic archaeobotany of northern Italy and neighbouring countries. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

14C age determination for human bones during the Yayoi period – the calibration ambiguity around 2400 BP and the marine reservoir effect

14C ages for Japanese prehistoric samples from the Latest Jomon period to the early Yayoi period have a calibration ambiguity for dates around 2400 BP. It is also necessary to correct for the marine reservoir effect on 14C ages of human bone samples from people who consumed marine food as a protein source. The Ohtomo site in western Japan, is a cemetery site used from the end of the Latest Jomon period to the Kofun period, provide a useful archaeological chronology. Human bones found in dolmen burials, jar burials and cist burials. In this study, we determined the 14C ages of human bone samples and calculated the marine reservoir effect, using diet analysis based on carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes. Diet analysis showed that these people obtained from 40% to 60% of their protein from marine sources. Their 14C ages with calibration and marine reservoir correction were serially matched with the archaeological chronology.

An illustrated guide to measuring radiocarbon from archaeological samples

Radiocarbon dating has been central to the construction of archaeological chronologies for over 50 years. The archaeological, scientific and (increasingly) statistical methods for interpreting radiocarbon measurements to produce these chronologies have become ever more sophisticated. The accurate measurement of the radiocarbon content of an archaeological sample is, and always has been, fundamental to any interpretation. This article provides an overview of the different approaches adopted for measuring radiocarbon from archaeological samples by laboratories at the start of the 21st century.

Hunter-Gatherers and the Archaeology of Discard Behavior: An Analysis of Surface Stone Artifacts from Sturt National Park, Western New South Wales, Australia

An analysis of surface scatters of stone artifacts from late Holocene contexts at Stud Creek, Sturt National Park in the northwest of New South Wales, Australia, is reported. A sedimentological and archaeological chronology for Stud Creek shows archaeological remains are no older than 2000 years and Stud Creek saw repeated occupation during the last two millennia. Methods are proposed whereby conflated stone artifact assemblages from different locations within the Stud Creek catchment can be analyzed to understand how use of the catchment differed from place to place. We propose "place use history," as a more useful concept than "settlement system" for understanding surface artifact assemblages.

A late Holocene record of arid events from the Cuzco region, Peru

AbstractThe small recently infilled lake basin of Marcacocha (13°13′S, 72°12′W, 3355 m) in the Cuzco region of Peru has a morphology and location that renders it extremely sensitive to environmental change. A record of vegetation, human impact and climatic change during the past 4200 yr has been obtained from a highly organic core taken from the centre of the basin. Sustained arid episodes that affected the Peruvian Andes may be detectable using the proxy indicator of sedge (Cyperaceae) pollen abundances. As the lake‐level was lowered during sustained drier conditions, the local catchment was colonised by Cyperaceae, whereas during lake floods, they retreated or were submerged and pollen production was correspondingly reduced. Drier episodes during prehistoric times occurred around 900 bc, 500 bc, ad 100 and ad 550, with a longer dry episode occurring from ad 900 to 1800. Evidence from the independently derived Quelccaya ice‐core record and the archaeological chronology for the Cuzco region appears to support the climatic inferences derived from the sedge data. Many of these aridity episodes appear to correspond with important cultural changes in the Cuzco region and elsewhere in the Central Andes. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Iron Age society and chronology in South-east Kazakhstan

This new view of Iron Age society in Kazakhstan breaks away from the old documentary and ethnic framework and offers an independent archaeological chronology. Excavated house types and new environmental data show that nomadism and cultivation were practised side by side. Scholars had previously tended to emphasise the ability of documented Saka leaders to plunder and collect tribute from sedentary agriculture groups through military aggression. But what really gave them a political and economic edge over other steppe groups was a dual economy based upon farming and herding.

Results of quantitative analysis of Celtic glass artefacts by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry

Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry measurements were applied on more than 200 Celtic glass artifacts from the middle and late periods of the La Tène Culture (≈250–50 bc) which were found in the area that is presently Austria. This analysis yielded approximately 14 000 concentration data on 25 elements which could give analytical results for major, minor, and trace elements. Both bulk-material and ornamentation were analyzed. Coloring and opacifying elements were found in accordance with literature. In particular the concentration data of Zr and Sr show strong clustering and in comparison with archaeological chronology of the analyzed artifacts an excellent agreement of present historic knowledge was found.

The climatic interpretation of pan-European signature years in oak ring-width series

Large-scale signature years, in which oak growth across much of northern Europe varies consistently, are identified. Postulating that the likely cause of such widespread departures in growth is climatic, it is shown that these years were characterized by pan-European anomalies in soil-moisture availability, rainfall and temperature, with enhanced growth associated with an extended period of increased soil-moisture availability and reduced growth associated with lower temperatures and reduced soil moisture. These climatic anomalies are, in turn, associated with a large-scale and persistent perturbation in the atmospheric circulation that involves the circumpolar vortex and appears related to the Arctic Oscillation. The 2000-year record of signature-year occurrence shows variations in frequency at the decadal and century levels. It is necessary to interpret this record with caution. Nevertheless, these results do confirm earlier suggestions that large-scale climatic information is contained in regional composite archaeological chronologies. With supporting evidence from other sources, it should be possible to extract useful proxy climate data, even though the precise provenance of the timbers from which the records were derived might not be known.

New Radiocarbon Ages of Colonization Sites in East Polynesia

The archaeological chronology of initial human colonization in East Polynesia has relied substantially upon radiocarbon dating results from a small number of sites in the central region, notably Motu Paeao cemetery (Maupiti) and Vaito'otia-Fa'ahia (Huahine) in the Society Islands, and Hane (Ua Huka) and Ha'atuatua (Nuku Hiva) in the Marquesas Islands. Recent field research and new radiocarbon dates showed that Ha'atuatua and Motu Paeao were occupied significantly later than had been suggested by earlier results. We now report the results of new radiocarbon dating on the remaining two sites. Leaving aside questionable results on bone and wood samples, six shell samples from Vaito'otia-Fa'ahia indicate occupation in the period a.d. 1050–1450. Five shell and five charcoal samples from Hane indicate that occupation did not begin earlier than about a.d. 1000. Taken together with other recent research on the chronology of initial colonization in East Polynesia we suggest that habitation did not begin until a.d. 900 or later.

Radiocarbon Dates from the Oxford Ams System: Archaeometry Datelist 31

Radiocarbon Dates from the Oxford Ams System: <i>Archaeometry</i> Datelist 31

Archaeological Tree-Ring Dating at the Millennium

Tree-ring analysis provides chronological, environmental, and behavioral data to a wide variety of disciplines related to archaeology including architectural analysis, climatology, ecology, history, hydrology, resource economics, volcanology, and others. The pace of worldwide archaeological tree-ring research has accelerated in the last two decades, and significant contributions have recently been made in archaeological chronology and chronometry, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and the study of human behavior in both the Old and New Worlds. This paper reviews a sample of recent contributions to tree-ring method, theory, and data, and makes some suggestions for future lines of research.

Differential Resolution in History and Archaeology

History and archaeology often operate on different levels of resolution. Using archaeological means to solve historical questions is at best difficult if not impossible. Historical chronology demands exact dates, whereas archaeological chronology provides only a rough framework of time. Regardless of the recent technological advancement in radiocarbon dating, it still has little impact in the determination of historical chronology. Nevertheless, the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project has fostered a close relationship between the radiocarbon specialists and archaeologists and produced a fine-grained radiocarbon chronology of the Three Dynasties. This new archaeological absolute chronology revolutionizes the thinking of the interaction of political change and culture change.

人類進化と新生代後期の環境変化 中部ヨーロッパの最終氷期と人類の適応

A framework of climatic changes and archaeological chronologies during the Last Glacial is discussed with particular reference to the correlation among MIS stages, GISP2 ice core oscillation, and calibrated radiocarbon dates from palaeolithic sites in Rhineland, Germany as one of the most intensively studied areas in Central Europe. Although the fine chronologies have been set up in the last decade, an analysis of a concrete example of a palaeollithic site is needed when hominid adaptation in the Last Glacial has to be discussed. This paper focuses on the subsistence of a late Magdalenian Gennersdorf settlement in the oldest Dryas period. Excavations have revealed two large houses, one big hut, and two small huts. Archaeological features that have been well preserved made it possible to set out a hypothesis that the large house was repeatedly used every winter and the small huts were used in summer by different human groups, in relation to the lithic raw material, procurement systems. Hominids of the late Palaeolithic period were characterized by having developed a subsistence system for the all round adaptive procurement of environmental conditions through seasonal migrations.

Bayesian Models for Relative Archaeological Chronology Building

SUMMARY For many years, archaeologists have postulated that the numbers of various artefact types found within excavated features should give insight about their relative dates of deposition even when stratigraphic information is not present. A typical data set used in such studies can be reported as a cross-classification table (often called an abundance matrix or, equivalently, a contingency table) of excavated features against artefact types. Each entry of the table represents the number of a particular artefact type found in a particular archaeological feature. Methodologies for attempting to identify temporal sequences on the basis of such data are commonly referred to as seriation techniques. Several different procedures for seriation including both parametric and non-parametric statistics have been used in an attempt to reconstruct relative chronological orders on the basis of such contingency tables. We develop some possible model-based approaches that might be used to aid in relative, archaeological chronology building. We use the recently developed Markov chain Monte Carlo method based on Langevin diffusions to fit some of the models proposed. Predictive Bayesian model choice techniques are then employed to ascertain which of the models that we develop are most plausible. We analyse two data sets taken from the literature on archaeological seriation.

Seismic deformation structures of the post-2300 a BP muddy sediments in Kawachi lowland plain, Osaka, Japan

Deformed zones, consisting mainly of muddy sediments, deposited in palustrine environments, found during the excavations of archaeological sites, have been examined. The beds belong to the uppermost Holocene sequence, within 6 m depth from the present ground surface, in Kawachi alluvial lowland plain, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Each deformation zone contained basically three deformation units related to fluidity and plasticity decreasing with depth beneath the fresh sedimentation surface. The units recognized were, from top to bottom: (1) a liquidized deformation unit expressed by a homogenized layer, in which the sediment and water have been mixed by turbulent flow; (2) a hydroplastic deformation unit characterized by a plumose pattern in the upper part of the unit and load structures in the lower part; and (3) a brittle deformation unit characterized by downward fissures and microfaults. The plumose pattern in the second unit may have formed where the more cohesive sediments in the lower part of the unit were dragged horizontally with repeated directional changes, and pulled upward by the movement of the sediments in the upper part. The load structures in the lower part of this unit are assumed to have been formed mainly by differential vertical and compressive forces applied to the sedimentary horizons. In the uppermost part of the liquidized deformation unit, load casts and pseudonodules with short horizontal tracks, suggesting movement while sinking, were seen locally. These features in the units are assumed to have been formed by the oscillatory and rotational force, irregular in intensity and direction, of an earthquake. The minor displacement of deformed sediments, such as mixing, truncation, intrusion, and injection, at the boundaries between the units and their internal layers suggests that the deformation process was initiated simultaneously in each unit, and was of short duration. The vertical occurrence order of the deformational features, similar to that of ‘fault-graded bedding’, especially of the plumose pattern and load structures, was recognizable in most deformation zones. By defining and separating superposed deformation zones according to the vertical order of the features, and by the relative dating of the zones based on the archaeological artifact chronology, a regional correlation of deformational event horizons may be proposed. Consequently, several synchronous seismic event horizons in prehistoric time have been recognized, and their lateral extents have been documented. Additionally, within one site, chronological correlation reveals that the ages of the post-13th century deformational event horizons are in accordance with the ages of historically recorded earthquakes.

Ribe in the 8th and 9th Century: A Contribution to the Archaeological Chronology of NorthWestern Europe

Ribe in the 8th and 9th Century: A Contribution to the Archaeological Chronology of NorthWestern Europe

A new late glacial to early Holocene palaeobotanical and archaeological record in the Eastern Pre-Alps: the Palughetto basin (Cansiglio Plateau, Italy)

A late glacial to early Holocene lacustrine and peat succession, rich in conifer remains and including some palaeolithic flint artefacts, has been investigated in the Palughetto intermorainic basin (Venetian Pre-Alps). The geomorphological and stratigraphical relationships, 14C dates and pollen analyses allow a reconstruction of the environmental history of the basin and provide significant insights into the reforestation and peopling of the Pre-Alps. The onset of peat accumulation is dated to 14.4–14.1 kyr cal. BP, coinciding with reforestation at middle altitudes that immediately post-dates the immigration of Larix decidua and Picea abies subsp. europaea. Plant macrofossils point to the expansion of spruce about 14.3 kyr cal. BP, so far one of the earliest directly dated in the late glacial period of southern Europe. The previous hypothesis of an early Holocene spruce immigration in the Southern Alps from Slovenia needs reconsideration. Organic sedimentation stopped at the end of the Younger Dryas and was followed by the evolution of hydromorphic soils containing lithic artefacts, anthropic structures and wood charcoal. The typological features of the flint implements refer human occupation of the site to the end of the recent Epigravettian. Charcoals yielded dates either consistent with, or younger than, the archaeological chronology, in the early and middle Holocene. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

AMS Radiocarbon Dating of the Type Plainview and Firstview (Paleoindian) Assemblages: The Agony and the Ecstasy

Plainview and Firstview are two of the principal post-Folsom Paleoindian artifact assemblages on the Great Plains, but good radiometric age control for these artifact styles is relatively poor, due in part to lack of reliable age control on the type collections. This study reports the results of AMS-radiocarbon dating of specific amino acids from Bison antiquus bone associated with the type Plainview and Firstview assemblages from the Plainview and Olsen-Chubbuck sites, respectively. Seven samples of bone and teeth from Plainview produced a surprisingly wide array of ages. As a result, the age of the bone bed and the type Plainview collection remain uncertain, but it is most likely ≥ 10,000 B.P. (but late or post-Folsom) given the dating and stratigraphic relationships at Plainview and other sites. Seven samples of bone from Olsen-Chubbuck yielded a tight cluster of ages averaging ca 9400 B.P., fitting well with other dated Firstview features on the Southern Plains. These results show that much better age control from more sites is needed in order to understand the Paleoindian record. AMS-radiocarbon dating of specific amino acids from bone has revolutionized such issues of chronology in archaeology, but like any other method, it can provide confusing results and must be used in conjunction with other chronometric data.

Change of Diet of the Greenland Vikings Determined from Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis and 14C Dating of Their Bones

Bone samples from the Greenland Viking colony provide us with a unique opportunity to test and use 14C dating of remains of humans who depended upon food of mixed marine and terrestrial origin. We investigated the skeletons of 27 Greenland Norse people excavated from churchyard burials from the late 10th to the middle 15th century. The stable carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) of the bone collagen reveals that the diet of the Greenland Norse changed dramatically from predominantly terrestrial food at the time of Eric the Red around AD 1000 to predominantly marine food toward the end of the settlement period around AD 1450. We find that it is possible to 14C-date these bones of mixed marine and terrestrial origin precisely when proper correction for the marine reservoir effect (the 14C age difference between terrestrial and marine organisms) is taken into account. From the dietary information obtained via the δ13C values of the bones We have calculated individual reservoir age corrections for the measured 14C ages of each skeleton. The reservoir age corrections were calibrated by comparing the 14C dates of 3 highly marine skeletons with the 14C dates of their terrestrial grave clothes. The calibrated ages of all 27 skeletons from different parts of the Norse settlement obtained by this method are found to be consistent with available historical and archaeological chronology. The evidence for a change in subsistence from terrestrial to marine food is an important clue to the old puzzle of the disappearance of the Greenland Norse, obtained here for the first time by measurements on the remains of the people themselves instead of by more indirect methods like kitchen-midden analysis.

Unpeeling Pompeii

Pompeii, recovered from under Vesuvius ash, offers a famous ‘frozen moment’ in archaeological time: a city as it stood at a certain day. Beyond and beneath the dating evidence visible in its standing buildings is to be found a more archaeological chronology.