Onset Of Occupation Research Articles

Exploring Sea Country through high-resolution 3D seismic imaging of Australia’s NW shelf: Resolving early coastal landscapes and preservation of underwater cultural heritage

Almost 2 million square km of Australia’s continental shelf was flooded following the termination of the last glacial maximum, and with it the cultural heritage of the first arrival and coastal occupation of Australia beginning some 65,000 years ago. In order to prospect for this missing cultural record, we must first identify submerged coastal landscapes and landforms that likely provided favourable environments for occupation and resource use. However, this task is challenged by the sheer size of the Australian continental margin. To help address this, we use industry 3D seismic datasets, that cover vast areas of Australia’s continental shelf, to map seafloor bathymetry at high resolution (10–25 m). Our study focuses an area of 6500 square km on the mid/outer shelf regions proximal to Barrow Island. The 3D seismic bathymetry revealed a highly complex and geomorphically mature coastal landscape preserved at depths of 70–75 m below sea level, including coastal barrier dunes, lagoonal systems, tidal flats and estuarine channels. Based on the depth of the submerged shorelines and reconstructed sea level curves, the age range of these coastal landforms is constrained to Marine Isotope Stage 3 (57–29 ka), which overlaps with the known onset of occupation at Barrow Island and the wider Carnarvon bioregion and the adjacent Pilbara. Such feature preservation has significant geoheritage value, but also allows for human behavioural ecology modelling and provides targets for future dating and site survey.

Mapping of the spatial and temporal distribution of archaeological sites of northern China during the Neolithic and Bronze Age

This study presents statistical analyses and mapping of the spatial and temporal distribution of 36,422 archaeological sites in northern China (ca. 31–53°N, 90–131°E) for six selected time slices from middle Neolithic to late Bronze Age (ca. 8000–500 BC). Archaeological data were digitalized and georeferenced from 11 provincial/regional volumes of the Atlas of Chinese Cultural Relics and for the first time combined in one database and on one comprehensive base map. The results demonstrate the first high concentration of Neolithic sites in the Wei and Yellow River basins and in the Xiliao River basin, i.e. on mountain ridges and plateaus elevated to ∼1000–2000 m, at ca. 4250 BC. The period from the onset of occupation on the northeastern part of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (∼3000 m) until ca. 3750 BC corresponds to the phase of a strong summer monsoon. Unprecedented maximum site concentration on the Loess Plateau but at minimum in northeastern China was documented at ca. 2350 BC (late Neolithic). About 1750 BC (early Bronze Age), the trend reversed. Between ca. 850 BC and ca. 650 BC, sites agglomerate in eastern China. This eastward shift of site concentration and the decrease in the absolute number of sites correspond to the evolution and spread of mobile pastoralism along with weak summer monsoon and increasing aridity in western and northern China.

Radiocarbon and stable isotope investigations at the Central Rhineland sites of Gönnersdorf and Andernach-Martinsberg, Germany

The late glacial open-air sites of Gönnersdorf and Andernach-Martinsberg in the German Central Rhineland are well known for their Magdalenian occupation and activities. The latter site also produced evidence for a younger, Final Palaeolithic occupation of the locality by people of the Federmessergruppen. Both sites are particularly well preserved, largely due to their burial beneath volcanic deposits of the late glacial Laacher See eruption. We conducted a program of AMS radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analyses with the aim of improving understanding of the chronological history and ecological setting of the two sites. Previously published radiocarbon dates appeared to indicate that the earliest Magdalenian occupation at Gönnersdorf fell around 12,900 uncalibrated 14C yr BP, while the earliest occupation at Andernach may have been more than 500 radiocarbon years earlier. The AMS determinations presented here revise this impression and suggest that the onset of occupation at the two sites was in fact simultaneous and prior to the warming of Greenland Interstadial GI 1e. At Gönnersdorf, a chronological hiatus exists between the main Magdalenian faunal assemblage and mega-faunal remains interpreted as collected sub-fossil material. At Andernach-Martinsberg, there is a clear chronological hiatus between the Magdalenian occupation and subsequent Federmessergruppen activities at the site. However, an intermediate radiocarbon date on an atypically preserved horse bone is suggestive of ephemeral human visits to the site between these well demonstrated phases. A date of similar age on an elk bone from Gönnersdorf may indicate broadly contemporaneous human presence at Gönnersdorf too. Stable isotope analysis of faunal remains from Gönnersdorf and Andernach-Martinsberg was conducted with the aim of both reconstructing and comparing local environmental conditions at the two sites, and also potentially identifying subtle variations in the chronological development of the two sites not detectable at the level of precision of current radiocarbon dating techniques. No spatial trends in the faunal isotope signatures were observed within each site. In the case of samples with both radiocarbon and isotope data, no chronological pattern was observed for the isotope results. The Magdalenian faunal isotope signatures at the two sites resembled each other, suggesting comparable climatic and environmental conditions. The faunal δ 13C signatures at Gönnersdorf and Andernach-Martinsberg were similar to those at contemporary European sites. While the faunal δ 15N values were similar to those at contemporary sites in Germany, the UK, and Belgium, they were lower than those from the South of France. This difference in δ 15N values is thought to relate to regional differences in the timing of changes in soil and plant nitrogen cycling in response to ameliorating climatic conditions.

Economic draining – German black market operations in France, 1940–1944

Study of the black market is vital to understanding the social, economic and political stakes of the occupation in the Second World War. It allows a re-examination of German occupation policy, but also highlights civilian survival strategies, wealth distribution and the changing occupier – occupied relationship. In France, the German occupiers spent at least 15% of all financial resources made available to them through the Vichy occupation levy on the illegal market. This purchasing started from the onset of occupation and until the December 1941 resource crisis; German economic agencies bought ‘anything, at any price’. This uncoordinated bidding led to a black market bubble, the effects of which spilled over into the official markets where they caused havoc. Spring 1942 brought the centralisation of purchasing. During the ensuing second phase (until spring 1943), the occupier still bought ‘anything’, but no longer at ‘any price’. Although this stabilised prices, it also encouraged illegal production, with raw materials diverted from official industry allocations. During this period 50–60% of all Vichy occupation payments were spent on the black market, at a strategic juncture of the war when such extravagance was no longer justifiable. This undermined German finances in France and became a liability to exploitation and collaboration. The third phase of black market exploitation, from summer 1943 to the end of the occupation, was the most rational. The Germans restricted purchasing to genuinely indispensable strategic raw materials. This built on the effective implementation of a German black market purchasing ban in spring 1943, the support of the Vichy government and French industrial leaders for economic collaboration, business concentrations and closures, market monitoring and resource management methods. As a result, the illegal market in the industrial economy was largely controlled. Arguably the same degree of economic mobilisation could have been achieved one or even two years earlier, had the Germans abstained from unilateral black market purchasing and instead heeded Vichy calls for closer cooperation. German failure in this area was due to lack of coordination, institutional chaos, economic dilettantism, endemic corruption and reckless resource competition; all have their origin in the structure of the Nazi system. Illegal food markets, on the other hand, demonstrated the limits of coercion. As the nutritional value of official civilian rations remained below subsistence level, the French continued to depend on the illegal market for sustenance. Evading food restrictions became something of a national pastime. This further compounded Vichy's lack of willingness (and authority) in enforcing economic regulation in the countryside.

Models for Third Sound in Thin 3He-4He Films

Third sound speeds in 3 He- 4 He thin films are sensitive to the transverse single-particle state occupied by the 3 He. The third sound speed in the low coverage region with the 3 He occupying the transverse ground-state can be understood quantitatively. The onset of occupation of the first excited transverse state is signaled by a high coverage feature in the third sound speed. Three third sound models for the high coverage region, differing in their assumptions about the spatial distribution of the excited states, are introduced. Using the experimental third sound data, these models can also be used to infer the fractional population of the 3 He in the first excited state as a function of coverage. It is found that the third sound analyses each predict a larger fractional population in the first excited state at monolayer completion than a recent analysis of magnetization step data taken on the same system.

Effects of higher sub-band occupation in (100) Si inversion layers

At low temperatures and for moderate surface charge densities, electrons in inversion layers on (100) $p$-type Si are two-dimensional in character; i.e., they occupy only one electric quantum level, or sub-band. For electron densities greater than about 6 \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} ${10}^{12}$ per ${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$, depending upon substrate doping, we have observed deviations from two-dimensional behavior in oscillatory magnetoconductance (Shubnikov-de Haas) measurements, which are interpreted as evidence of the onset of occupation of a higher sub-band. The effects of such occupation of higher sub-bands have been calculated for the four different resistivities used in the experiments. The observed change in effective density of states [(10-20)%] and its dependence upon substrate resistivity are in good agreement with theory. The experimental values for the threshold charge densities for higher sub-band occupation are higher than the theoretical values by a factor of about 1.5.