Geoarchaeological Evidence Research Articles

Chapter 7. Mapping land use with integrated environmental archaeological datasets

AbstractArchaeologists have developed tools to reconstruct the locations of farming and animal herding using ecological and digital modeling of ancient landscapes. The determination of where on a landscape farming and herding took place, however, can remain elusive in environments with evidence for substantial geomorphological and/or ecological change since the period of occupation. Archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological evidence from the site of Gordion, in central Anatolia, indicates substantial landscape change over the last 4000 years, including deforestation, overgrazing, erosion, and alluviation. These have been inferred to be the result of past agricultural practices, but no firm evidence has pointed to specific locations (geographic and temporal) where ancient farming and herding may have caused these changes. Integrating extant archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and geoarchaeological evidence with new isotopic data provides a more detailed reconstruction of the sequence of agricultural practices that shaped the present landscape and ecology of the region, offering a model for future archaeological research within substantially transformed landscapes.

Wells, fields and the emergence of early-to-middle Holocene villages in the Huai River region, China: Contesting regional similarities and differences on prehistoric water management with new archaeological and palaeo-environmental evidence

The history of water management is closely intertwined with evolution of social structures. In particular, the emergence of rice farming and transition to sedentary life contributed significantly to the development of water management practices, with increasing labour and economic investments to build and operate water-management infrastructures. Here we present archaeological, archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological evidence of early water management obtained from the excavations of three early-to-middle Holocene sites in the upper and middle Huai River region (UMHR), including Hanjing from Sihong County of Jiangsu Province and Xielaozhuang and Zhangwangzhuang from Luohe City and Zhumadian City of Henan Province. Our 14C dates suggest multiple episodes of regional inhabitation in the UMHR region. Our results also reveal that the wells at Xielaozhuang represent some of the earliest attempts to ensure water consumption in the village, and importantly, the rice-field-like structures at Hanjing and Zhangwangzhuang are evidence of a more systematic effort to modify and transform local landscapes for rice cultivation and related economic activities. In line with the results from published phytolith studies, we found that the early experiment of rice cultivation altered local soil and hydrological conditions at these sites. These early forms of rice fields share some similarities in micro-and-macro- morphologies and represent successful adaptations to the low-lying plains that continued to have fluctuating hydrological regimes. The construction and operation of these wells, moats and rice-field-like structures stimulated collaboration beyond individual households and groups in these early-to-middle Holocene villages in the UMHR region and thus would have had profound social and economic ramifications.

Fire as high-elevation cold adaptation: An evaluation of fuels and Terminal Pleistocene combustion in the Central Andes

The use of fire constitutes an essential cultural adaptation to cold, and archaeological evidence for fire can be expected in high-latitude and high-elevation regions successfully inhabited by modern humans. At Cuncaicha rockshelter (4480 m above sea level, or masl) in the southern Peruvian Andes, evidence for fire is present from the earliest occupation, dating to the Terminal Pleistocene (∼12,500–11,200 cal BP). Yet, the site contains relatively few identifiable carbonized macrobotanical remains useful for identifying plants employed as combustible fuel. Based on a comprehensive review of nearly 40 early Andean archaeological sites above 2500 masl, little is known about fuels used for combustion. To understand fuel selection strategies at Cuncaicha, we conducted a combustion field experiment, evaluating the three highland plant taxa most likely to have been used as combustible fuels: Polylepis rugulosa (queñua) tree branches, Parastrephia spp. (tola) woody shrubs, and Azorella compacta (yareta) cushion plants. Temperature measurements informed on the combustion characteristics and efficiency of each fuel. We then compared the experimentally-produced fire residues to the geoarchaeological evidence from Cuncaicha. The resinous cushion plant yareta, endemic to the high Andes, may have been the primary fuel used at Cuncaicha based on the experiment outcome and the geoarchaeological evidence. Due to its high-temperature and complete combustion, yareta leaves little to no macrobotanical evidence, thus its identification at other Andean sites may require a multi-methodological approach. Because the geographic range of this plant corresponds with most early archaeological sites in the high Andes, yareta may have been a key resource enabling early settlement throughout the region.

Flint Procurement and Exploitation Strategies in the Late Lower Paleolithic Levant: A View from Acheulo-Yabrudian Qesem Cave (Israel)

Flint Procurement and Exploitation Strategies in the Late Lower Paleolithic Levant: A View from Acheulo-Yabrudian Qesem Cave (Israel)

A Major Earthquake and Tsunami in the Gulf of Cadiz in the Sixth Century B.C.? A Review of the Historical, Archaeological, and Geological Evidence

AbstractThis article offers an overview of the published evidence of the possible occurrence of an earthquake and tsunami that, if factual, would have struck the shores of the Gulf of Cadiz sometime in the sixth century B.C. It addresses the oldest literary sources containing accounts of earthquakes and tsunamis in the Iberian peninsula, and their inclusion in the most important seismic catalogs in Spain and Portugal, as well as examining the geoarchaeological evidence of an earthquake and tsunami in the city of Huelva, dating to the first quarter of the sixth century B.C., relating it to geomorphological and sedimentary evidence of extreme wave events in the Gulf of Cadiz in about 2500 B.P. The information provided by Greek authors writing in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., which depicts the ocean beyond the Strait of Gibraltar as impassable and replete with shallows, might also be an indirect reference to that seismic and high-energy marine event, whose intensity, exact date, and repercussions for the inhabitants of the Gulf of Cadiz are essential objects of research.

Aquatic landscape and the emergence of walled sites in late Neolithic Central Plains of China: Integrating archaeological and geoarchaeological evidence from the Guchengzhai site

The emergence of many late-Neolithic and early Bronze-Age walled sites on China's Central Plains coincided with some prominent Holocene climate events. Recent excavation and geoarchaeological investigation at one of the largest walled sites of Guchengzhai provide important data to examine some of the questions concerning the long-term relationship between the formation of aquatic landscape and social evolution in late prehistoric Central Plains. We collected fine-grained paleo-environmental and archaeological evidence from a range of on- and off-site contexts to reconstruct the late-Holocene paleo-environment surrounding the walled site, and examine the construction, maintenance and abandonment processes of its large-size moat. Our results show that there existed many small-to-large-sized waterbodies during the late Holocene, which, together with local rivers, were the main source of water to the site. The Guchengzhai population was drawn to the low-lying land near the river and other waterbodies with an optimal hydrological condition. During its use, the moat might have been linked to the nearby wetlands and/or rivers. The hydrological regime was dominated by gentle but relatively sediment-laden flow, being punctuated by several high-energy flood events. The sedimentation of light yellowish silt and sand with some anthropogenic inclusions during the use of the moat gave way to a quick siltation with the deposition of rich organic matter when the moat ceased to function as a main channel for water flow, although other land-use activities such as fire (land clearance?) continued to occur in the vicinity. The reconstructed ‘life-history’ of the moat demonstrates the increasingly acute challenge facing the growing population living at Guchengzhai as the climate was becoming drier. The construction and operation of the moat signified technological innovations and intensified water management at Guchengzhai, which led to the formation of distinctive aquatic landscape that featured large-scale hydraulic infrastructures in a hydrologically optimal environment. We contend that such was a common characteristic or trend shared by many contemporary or later-period walled sites on the Central Plains.

High-resolution investigation of a conflagration event in the North-East Temple at Lachish via integration of forensic, stratigraphic and geoarchaeological evidence: A model for studying architectural destruction by fire

Burnt structures are well known archaeologically throughout the Near East. This study proposes an integrated interpretational framework for reconstructing fires in mud-brick structures using macro- and micro-archaeological types of evidence employing well-established tools. While previous research often utilized either macroscopic field evidence or micro-geoarchaeological data, here we present the integration of stratigraphy, architecture and location of artefacts in the framework of archaeology of crisis, spatial reconstruction of fire temperatures using micro-geoarchaeology, insights from experimental archaeology, and concepts from fire investigation. We demonstrate the utility of this integrative framework in a high-resolution reconstruction of a destructive fire event that occurred in the Late Bronze Age North-East Temple at Tel Lachish, ca. 1210–1126 BCE. We identify the area of ignition and the fire propagation path, and propose the cause of the fire in relation to the archaeology and history of the site in the 12th century BCE.

On de Mundo and pseudo‐Aristotle, a geoarchaeological analysis

Abstract“De Mundo” (“On the Cosmos”), an influential ancient anonymous treatise (manuscript) covering natural phenomena and philosophical ideas, is assigned by the majority of investigators to pseudo‐Aristotle, an unknown philosopher of Roman times mimicking Aristotle. This article focuses on differences in the geological content between “Meteorologica” (“Meteorology”), the famous work of Aristotle on Natural Sciences, and “de Mundo.” Four themes are examined: the evolution of the legend of the 373 BC earthquake and tsunami at Helike and Boura (Gulf of Corinth, Greece) based on new geoarchaeological and archaeological evidence, volcanic eruptions of the Aeolian Islands and Etna, but not of Vesuvius (Italy), neurotoxic effects of gas seepage, mostly in oracles, and the style of referencing to geological information. The new geoarchaeological evidence permits the dating of “de Mundo” in the first century AD, thereby refining previous interpretations, and implies no evidence of change in Aristotle's philosophical and geographical ideas at the end of his life. The overall analysis provides an explanation for the legend of the catastrophe of Helike, and it highlights the potential of geoarchaeological methods to provide new insights even into literary, philosophical, and geographical issues, and the dating of various ancient manuscripts.

Under the Mediterranean I: Studies in Maritime Archaeology

Under the Mediterranean I: Studies in Maritime Archaeology

Did a 3800-year-old Mw ~9.5 earthquake trigger major social disruption in the Atacama Desert?

Early inhabitants along the hyperarid coastal Atacama Desert in northern Chile developed resilience strategies over 12,000 years, allowing these communities to effectively adapt to this extreme environment, including the impact of giant earthquakes and tsunamis. Here, we provide geoarchaeological evidence revealing a major tsunamigenic earthquake that severely affected prehistoric hunter-gatherer-fisher communities ~3800 years ago, causing an exceptional social disruption reflected in contemporary changes in archaeological sites and triggering resilient strategies along these coasts. Together with tsunami modeling results, we suggest that this event resulted from a ~1000-km-long megathrust rupture along the subduction contact of the Nazca and South American plates, highlighting the possibility of Mw ~9.5 tsunamigenic earthquakes in northern Chile, one of the major seismic gaps of the planet. This emphasizes the necessity to account for long temporal scales to better understand the variability, social effects, and human responses favoring resilience to socionatural disasters.

Morteza Djamali, Elnaz Rashidian, Alireza Askari-Chaverdi, Cyril Aubert, Elodie Brisset, François Demory, Nicolas Faucherre, Emmanuel Gandouin, Hamid Lahijani, Nick Marriner, Abdolmajid Naderi-Beni, Andrew Parnell. “Early Sasanian landscape modification: New geoarchaeological evidence from the Ardashir Pond in southwest Iran (Palace of Ardashir, third century CE)”

Morteza Djamali, Elnaz Rashidian, Alireza Askari-Chaverdi, Cyril Aubert, Elodie Brisset, François Demory, Nicolas Faucherre, Emmanuel Gandouin, Hamid Lahijani, Nick Marriner, Abdolmajid Naderi-Beni, Andrew Parnell. “Early Sasanian landscape modification: New geoarchaeological evidence from the Ardashir Pond in southwest Iran (Palace of Ardashir, third century CE)”

Geoarchaeological Evidence of the Late Chalcolithic Circular Structure at Ovçular Tepesi in Nakhchivan

This article provides indirect evidence of the function of circular structures by focusing on the sedimentological process of the circular structures by the groups in the Late Chalcolithic period that occupied Ovçular Tepesi in Nakhchivan. Microstratigraphic has gained increasing importance in archaeological research and many studies. It has become an indispensable pillar of research methods, going beyond its role as an auxiliary method. The main scope of this study is considered not only as a way to reveal the physical structure of external factors experienced in the past but also as part of the process of understanding the extent and variability of human-environment interaction in the context of time-space. In addition to the microstratigraphic field studies conducted to determine the sedimentological deposition process of the circular structures in Ovçular Hill and to reveal the differentiation range in sedimentation, texture and SEM images and EDX analyzes were also supported in this study. Besides, determinations regarding the construction applications of circular structures such as masonry technique, plaster and soil floors were also shared.

The significance of sea-level change and ancient submerged landscapes in human dispersal and development: A geoarchaeological perspective

In this paper we highlight the impact of sea-level change on the archaeological record of key developments in human history that took place during the late Pleistocene and the early Holocene. Before modern sea level became established from ∼7 ka onwards, most palaeoshorelines and large areas of coastal hinterland were exposed as habitable land and then drowned again by sea-level rise. We summarise the archaeological implications of this pattern and the conditions in which archaeological and geoarchaeological evidence from these submerged landscapes is preserved despite the potentially destructive erosional impact of sea-level rise. We provide examples of palaeolandscape reconstruction made possible through multi-disciplinary collaboration between archaeology and marine science, drawing on recent underwater research in the North Sea, the Red Sea and on the Cape Coast of South Africa, and discuss evidence of past human responses to sea-level change. We identify the types of modelling procedures that need to be developed to advance this field of research, emphasise the importance of inter-disciplinary collaboration involving two-way exchange of ideas and information between archaeology and marine science, and highlight the value of a long-term perspective in understanding the present and future human impact of sea-level rise.

Early Sasanian landscape modification: New geoarchaeological evidence from the Ardashir Pond in southwest Iran (Palace of Ardashir, third century CE)

AbstractThe Sasanian period (224–651 CE) marked an era of large‐scale urban projects in southwest Asia, including Iran's semi‐arid highlands, with particular efforts to manipulate water bodies. This study presents a recent interdisciplinary investigation of a spring‐fed pond at the entrance of the Palace of Ardashir (Firuzabad plain, southwest Iran), part of a recently registered World Heritage site. Historical accounts suggest that the entire water system of the plain, including the pond, underwent a hydraulic re‐organization at the beginning of the Sasanian period, a fact that has never been investigated geoarchaeologically. A series of sediment cores were retrieved from the pond to probe its evolution and examine the extent of its landscape modification. The cores were sedimentologically described and radiocarbon‐dated with age–depth models established based on 57 AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) 14C dates to understand the basin's depositional history. The results indicate that (i) Ardashir Pond has existed as part of a larger wetland complex since at least 4500 years ago, (ii) it was substantially enlarged at the beginning of the Sasanian era, and (iii) it was abandoned at the end of the Sasanian period. The Ardashir Pond is one of the first geoarchaeologically investigated case studies to demonstrate the Sasanian landscape in the framework of the “Iranshahr” sociopolitical concept.

Rivers in the making; the definition of \u201cNahr\u201d as a hybrid watercourse based on geoarchaeological evidence from Southwestern Iran

This paper explores a new perspective to study the settlement dynamics of riverine landscapes by addressing human–environment interaction in the Ancient Near East through integration of remote sensing, new geodata, and developing a definition of a new category of a watercourse. The complex and entangled network of watercourses in the archaeologically crucial region of southwestern Iran, the Greater Susiana, hinders a clear view of the spatial relations between ancient settlements and their respective environments. The watercourses are known to be of either natural (rivers) or anthropogenic (canals) origin. However, many current watercourses do not fit into either category, which causes misinterpretations of the archaeological record. This paper introduces a third category, which consists of a hybrid of the two existing categories and suggests using the term “Nahr” to address such watercourses. The author implements this idea to a case study, Nahr-e Atiq, a watercourse in north Susiana, which passes two prominent sites, Abu Fanduweh and Haft Tappeh. Based on the results of a geoarchaeological investigation(including a survey, eight sediment cores, and several soil profiles, as well as 58 known archaeological sites), several hydro-morphologic elements are presented for identifying Nahrs. These include sedimentation, morphology, and physical characteristics. The most crucial aspect is the biography of a Nahr, as these hybrid watercourses might consist of different sections with different genesis. The author argues that Nahr, as defined here, must be considered an artifact, and studied as such in the landscape archaeology of the Ancient Near East.

Geoarchaeological evidence on a Late Bronze Age earthquake, Ohrid Basin (North Macedonia)

ABSTRACTGeoarchaeological investigations on the northeastern shore of Lake Ohrid revealed 3.5 m thick deepwater lacustrine sediments overlying terrestrial vegetation macrofossils, worked wood and abundant potsherds dated to the Late Bronze Age (LBA). Distinct contact of deepwater sediment with the sub‐aerial weathered limestone bedrock point to a sudden increase in lake level. According to radiocarbon data, catastrophic flooding occurred shortly after 1214 yr bc. Because the area is located in a highly active seismic zone, we propose that this event was caused by tectonically induced, metre‐scale coseismic subsidence related to faults bordering the Ohrid alluvial plain. Moreover, this event coincides well with a dramatic switch in the habitation and settlement strategy in the region. More important, however, is the finding that the age of the proposed massive tectonic event and change in habitation lies within the interval of the proposed ‘earthquake storm’ in the eastern Mediterranean dated to 1225–1175 bc. As the Ohrid‐Korça zone belongs to the same tectonic province, a relationship between the abovementioned earthquakes and the proposed event can be expected. This research therefore might provide the first direct evidence of a large‐scale earthquake event linkable to the LBA collapse of Europe's first urban civilisation in the Aegean.

Early water management in South Asia: Geochronology and micromorphology of rock pools and small‐scale water catchment features in Karnataka, India

AbstractArchaeologists and historians of South Asia have long emphasized the significance of large‐scale irrigation reservoirs to historical developments and precolonial land use. However, comparatively little attention has been directed at an extensive corpus of small‐scale water‐retention features, such as culturally modified weathering pans and rock pools. In this contribution, we provide the first geoarchaeological evidence from such features in southern India. Geochronological assessments, depositional models, and sediment and micromorphological analyses from two sites in northern Karnataka indicate that inhabitants used and modified these features in at least the first millennium BCE. Throughout later historical periods, even after the development of large‐scale, primarily elite‐sponsored, irrigation reservoirs, inhabitants continued to rely on small, dispersed water‐retention features. Our findings have implications for current debates concerning the introduction of water‐management practices in southern India, which appear to begin in association with dispersed land‐use practices rather than intensive irrigated agriculture, and also corroborate the importance of decentralized water management to historical processes more globally.

The battle of Vossenack Ridge: exploring interdisciplinary approaches for the detection of U.S. Army field positions on a Second World War battlefield

Abstract

Hipótesis sobre la antropización del territorio entre la desembocadura del Guadalquivir y la Bahía de Cádiz durante los siglos III a.C. y I d.C.

Between the 3rd centuries BC and 1st AD a series of historical changes take place in the Bay of Cadiz and the mouth of the Guadalquivir that will disrupt the organization and management of the environment. The war situation will mark the beginning of the time studied (at the end of the 3rd century BC), and will be the foundation of public works and new forms of territorial organization that, finally, will lead to the greatest modification of the landscape known prior to Industrialization. The hypothesis that is exposed is the fruit of a reflection on the nature of the landscape that is described in the Greco-Latin sources of the second centuries BC to the 1st AD, and its contrast with the geoarchaeological evidence, all considered from the criticism of the existing bibliography to the present day, based on a paradigm of several settlements that, for the time analyzed, is uniquely from one: Gadir.

Floodplain and Terrace Legacy Sediment as a Widespread Record of Anthropogenic Geomorphic Change

Anthropogenic erosion and sedimentation are critical components of global change that involve life-sustaining natural resources of soil and water. Many geomorphic systems have responded to intense land use disturbance with episodic erosion and sedimentation, often orders of magnitude greater than background geological rates in the Holocene. Accelerated sedimentation is a metric for land use change and provides evidence of geomorphic change in fans, floodplains, terraces, deltas, lakes, karst sinks, estuaries, and coastal marine deposits. This review describes high variability in the timing of alluvial sedimentation and the value of bottomland stratigraphy with emphasis on records and heterogeneity of anthropogenic change. Although floodplain sedimentary evidence might be ill-suited for defining the proposed Anthropocene epoch boundary based on stratigraphic boundary criteria, sedimentology and stratigraphy provide rich evidence for long-term human activities that measures buildups of human environmental alterations long before the proposed mid-twentieth-century onset of the Anthropocene. Anthropogenic sedimentation is globally widespread but is too time-transgressive to serve as a stratigraphic indicator for onset of the proposed Anthropocene epoch. The emphasis here is on an example of longue durée; that is, the long record of anthropogenically accelerated sedimentation and the valuable evidence that it provides of human-induced environmental change. A conceptual tripartite model summarizes the evolution of anthropogeomorphic change. Anthropogenic sediments preserve geoarchaeological evidence and other important contextual information in buried landscapes that include human infrastructure, fields, material culture, contaminants, and paleosols. Geomorphic change can threaten food production, flooding, water quality, and so on. Understanding erosion and sedimentation dynamics is a vital concern for humanity.