Human Occupation Sites Research Articles

Radiocarbon Dating of the Human Occupation of Australia Prior to 40 ka BP—Successes and Pitfalls

Charcoal samples from ancient human occupation sites in Australia have been subjected to a rigorous pretreatment and stepped combustion regime in order to explore the possibility that these sites may be older than previous radiocarbon dating had suggested. In one case, the Devil's Lair site in southwest Australia, the methodology has clearly removed vestiges of contamination by more modern carbon and has led to a revised radiocarbon chronology that provides evidence for human occupation of southwest Australia by at least 44 ka BP and probably by 46–47 ka BP. In contrast, charcoal from the Nauwalabila site has been so severely altered that insufficient of the original carbon remains for reliable 14C dating. Finally, where the charcoal is well preserved, such as at the Carpenter's Gap site, the new results provide reassurance that earlier 14C results of ∼40 ka BP are indeed true ages and are not simply at the limit of the 14C technique.

Archaeological evidence for vertical movement on the continental shelf during the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age periods

Abstract Submarine archaeological sites of human occupation on the continental shelf provide evidence of palaeo-shorelines during the last 50 000 years, with possibly longer periods of accessible data. Sites are widely distributed globally, and provide a rich source of peripheral information on landscapes, climate, water supply, sediment transport, and soil types, which are relevant to coastal tectonics and processes, in addition to location, elevation, and date. More than 500 sites have been discovered world-wide where there are the remains of human occupation under the sea. Artefacts embedded in a few metres of sediments can survive multiple marine transgression, given local topography that creates suitable wave and current conditions. The raw data have been analysed to separate glacial eustatic fluctuations of global sea level and local or regional tectonic processes. The number of sites in the Mediterranean permits the detection of regional vertical tectonic displacement with a spatial resolution of a few tens of kilometres in many regions. In other parts of the world the density of sites is not yet sufficient to achieve this, but indicators of vertical movements, or lack of vertical movement, provide valuable point data. Continuing discovery of new sites indicates that the technique will provide data with improved spatial resolution, and outside the Americas, over a timescale extending to hundreds of millennia, and possibly one million years

The age of two human occupation sites in the Eastern MacDonnell Ranges, Central Australia

 This paper reports on the radiocarbon chronology of two occupation sites discovered during the geomorphic investigation of the Todd River catchment in central Australia. While it is widely accepted that the arid zone has been occupied since the Pleistocene (Smith 1987, 1996), there are no dates available for the eastern MacDonnell Ranges. Data provided here on late Holocene archaeological sites will contribute to the larger spatial and temporal framework of human occupation of the central Australian arid zone. Â

Back into the North: the Radiocarbon Evidence for the Human Recolonisation of the North-Western Ardennes after the Last Glacial Maximum

This paper critically examines the known radiocarbon evidence for the human recolonisation of a part of north-western Europe, the north-western Ardennes. Two sites in this region, the Trou de Blaireaux at Vaucelles and the Grotte de Sy Verlaine, have been suggested as two of the earliest human occupation sites after the Last Glacial Maximum in northern Europe. The dating evidence from these two sites, alongside other late Magdalenian sites in the immediate area, is reviewed and found to be highly problematic. More recent radiocarbon work using AMS is described and the results discussed. On this basis it is suggested that there is no direct evidence for human presence in this region prior to the start of the Böiling Interstadial phase of the Lateglacial, c. 13,000 BP.

TL dating of Sri Lankan archaeological sites

TL dating in archaeology was initiated in Sri Lanka in 1985 at the research laboratories of the UNESCO Sri Lanka Cultural Triangle Project. Initially three test programs were carried out to see how well this dating method works in Sri Lanka: (1) Dating of bricks and pottery of historically well established structures and contexts. (2) Dating a series of samples: (a) bricks from different phases of Mirisewetiya stupa, (b) pottery from different contexts of citadel, Anuradhapura. (3) Heated sediments from the prehistoric human occupation site of Beli-Cave, Kitulgala (Abeyratne, 1994). All TL age estimates agree well with 14C chronologies or with the historical dates given in the ancient chronicle, Mahavamsa (the great chronicle of Ceylon) (Geiger and Bode, 1960).

Thermoluminescence dating of a 50,000-year-old human occupation site in northern Australia

THE oldest secure date for human occupation in Greater Australia is 40kyr from eastern Papua New Guinea1, whereas slightly younger dates have been reported from southern Australia2. We now report thermoluminescence (TL) dates that suggest the arrival of people between 50 and 60 kyr in northern Australia. TL dates were obtained from sandy footslope deposits at two former occupation sites that yielded a range of stone artefacts in their primary depositional setting. Artefacts terminated mid-way down one profile, which had a basal age of about 100 kyr. Confidence in the TL dates is given by their close correspondence with radiocarbon dates obtained from the upper occupation levels. These TL dates are not only the oldest yet proposed for Aboriginal occupation but also may mark the time of initial human arrival on the Australian continent.

Flakes, Breaks and the First Americans

T o many archaeologists, the contention that humans first trooped into North America 200,000 years ago or more is outrageous at worst, an interesting but unproven assumption at best. But evidence for this controversial view from two archaeological sites located just east of the Calico Mountains in southern California's Mojave Desert, the other straddling the Old Crow River in Canada's Yukon Territory is, after more than two decades, undergoing a rigorous analysis that is sure to stoke up further debate over when the first Americans arrived. my opinion, we're at a critical turning point, says archaeologist Alan L. Bryan of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. We no longer have any logical basis for proclaiming an arbitrary limit beyond which people could not have entered For the last half century, that limit has generally been agreed to be about 12,000 years ago, or 2,000 years before the end of the Ice Age. Radiocarbon dates of stone spear or arrowhead points found near Clovis and Folsom, N.M., in the 1920s laid the foundation for this view. Some of the stones, carefully flaked on both sides to form sharp edges, were found among the bones of mammoth and extinct bison. It appeared that hunters with advanced methods of tool-making had migrated from Siberia to North America across a land bridge where the Bering Straits are now located and rapidly filtered southward in their search for big game. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that there were earlier settlers whose way of life was a far cry from biggame hunting on the High Plains, says Bryan. Human occupation at two South American sites was recently shown to extend back at least 33,000 years (SN:6/28/86,p.405). Since migration via the Bering land bridge is, he contends, the most plausible route for the first immigrants, there must be earlier human occupation sites in North America. His view is supported by the 19,600-year-old radiocarbon date for a braided fragment, apparently a remnant of a woven basket or mat, found at the Meadowcroft Rockshelter near Pittsburgh. Furthermore, explains Bryan, the majority of early Americans may have been hunter-gatherers who used simple (not necessarily human-made) stone flakes, broken animal bones and wood implements to obtain and prepare food. Artifacts such as these do not preserve well and are often difficult to recognize as tools if they survive the millennia. Waterlogging of the 13,000-year-old Monte Verde village site in Chile protected an abundance of these simple tools and demonstrates that the inhabitants were foragers, not predatory hunters with sophisticated stone weapons. Indians whose hunting tools were found at Clovis and Folsom had one of the most highly specialized ways of making a living that developed anywhere in the says Bryan. The forests surrounding Monte Verde, on the other hand, were a bountiful source of perishable materials such as bone and wood that could be used in gathering and preparing various foods, including the occasional kill of a large animal. If perishable bone and wood tools were once used at the arid Calico Mountains site in California, they did not have the benefit of a protective liquid bath. Yet thousands of flaked stones excavated from several pits appear to have been modified by humans and, according to a preliminary analysis in a book edited by Bryan (New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, Center for the Study of Man, University of Maine, 1986), some of the stones are from a layer of earth that is at least 200,000 years old. A more extensive examination of the Calico stones will appear later this year in the JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY. Early man appears to have crossed over to North America in the midPleistocene and to have used a variety of simple stone tools, says archaeologist and Calico project director Ruth D. Simpson of the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, Calif. The Pleistocene epoch stretched from 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago. It is difficult to tell if the new reports out of Calico will meet with the approval of skeptical archaeologists. In the past, some of the stones have been described by Calico investigators as human-produced tools when, to many outside observers, they appeared to have been shaped by natural forces. Another concern with the site, says Dennis J. Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., is the lack of additional signs of human occupation, such as hearths. Several stone arrangments resembling hearths have been

A 40,000 year-old human occupation site at Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea.

The geographical position of the island of New Guinea suggests that it may have been an early staging post in the Pleistocene settlement of Australia from the Indonesia-Indochina region. Previous data have not supported this, as archaeological sites 35,000 to 40,000 years old occur in southern Australia, whereas the earliest previously known in Papua New Guinea is 26,000 years old. We now report evidence that the north coast of Papua New Guinea was occupied at least 40,000 years ago. Sahuland, which is the greater land area of Australia and New Guinea plus their connecting continental shelf exposed as land when Pleistocene sea levels were lower than now, was occupied by humans in several widely separated areas at that time. A distinctive 'waisted axe' culture appears to have existed in New Guinea and probably in Australia in the Late Pleistocene, but antecedents are not yet known from east and southeast Asia. There is evidence for hafting of these tools at a date which is earlier than known elsewhere in the world.

Subsurface Valleys and Geoarcheology of the Eastern Sahara Revealed by Shuttle Radar

The shuttle imaging radar (SIR-A) carried on the space shuttle Columbia in November 1981 penetrated the extremely dry Selima Sand Sheet, dunes, and drift sand of the eastern Sahara, revealing previously unknown buried valleys, geologic structures, and possible Stone Age occupation sites. Radar responses from bedrock and gravel surfaces beneath windblown sand several centimeters to possibly meters thick delineate sand- and alluvium-filled valleys, some nearly as wide as the Nile Valley and perhaps as old as middle Tertiary. The now-vanished major river systems that carved these large valleys probably accomplished most of the erosional stripping of this extraordinarily flat, hyperarid region. Underfit and incised dry wadis, many superimposed on the large valleys, represent erosion by intermittent running water, probably during Quaternary pluvials. Stone Age artifacts associated with soils in the alluvium suggest that areas near the wadis may have been sites of early human occupation. The presence of old drainage networks beneath the sand sheet provides a geologic explanation for the locations of many playas and present-day oases which have been centers of episodic human habitation. Radar penetration of dry sand and soils varies with the wavelength of the incident signals (24 centimeters for the SIR-A system), incidence angle, and the electrical properties of the materials, which are largely determined by moisture content. The calculated depth of radar penetration of dry sand and granules, based on laboratory measurements of the electrical properties of samples from the Selima Sand Sheet, is at least 5 meters. Recent (September 1982) field studies in Egypt verified SIR-A signal penetration depths of at least 1 meter in the Selima Sand Sheet and in drift sand and 2 or more meters in sand dunes.

Trace elements in man.

It is likely that most, if not all, of the elements found to be essential in animals will be shown to be so for man, and the clinical picture produced by deficiency of the elements in the human patient will differ little from that seen in the animal, although this has been established for only five elements (I, Fe, Cu, Co and Zn). However, the link between lack of a given element in the soil and a human patient is far less direct and much more complex than that met with in the animal grazing on deficient pastures, except in isolated primitive communitis. Zn is the most protean of the trace elements and has been chosen to illustrate this in human practice. Excesses of essential elements (both trace and major) give rise to toxic effects and the importance of a proper balance especially of the transitional elements in the human diet is discussed with special reference to Cu, Zn and Fe. Certain non-essential trace elements are individual and community hazards: Cd, Pb and Hg are the principal offenders for humans. Mankind is now largely dependent on grassland products, cereals and livestock with increasing dominance of the former in human nutrition. This has reduced the bioavailability of trace elements so that study of trace metals, especially Zn and Cu, in skeletal and dental remains at human burial and occupation sites should prove useful in assessing the consequences of this striking change in dietary habits.

Prehistoric palaeoecology of the Sahara Atlantic coast in the last 10,000 years: a synthesis

Multidisciplinary study of human occupation sites along the coastal Sahara (28° N–20° N) points to a decrease in aridity around 3500 B.P., allowing the development of Neolithic cultures in a semi-arid to Sahelian environment.

Observed formation and burial of a recent human occupation site in Kenya

A recent human campsite, occupied in 1973 by members of the Dassanetch tribe of northern Kenya, was observed from its creation through its subsequent burial in flood events 4 months later. The site was excavated as an archeological occurrence in the summer of 1974. Analyses of field and laboratory data yield a detailed picture of sedimentary structures, bone transport and burial, and site preservation in a well-documented depositional situation. Trampling by site occupants was apparently instrumental in burying much small bone prior to the flood events which acted on the site. About 30 cm of sediments accumulated on the site during four or five flood events. Individual sedimentary beds can be related to specific observed flood events in the drainage system. The ultimate preservation of the site as part of the region's archeological record would depend upon the interaction of sediment deflation and the varying local water table. Specific conditions which tend to preserve human sites in water-poor environments may consistently select seasonally biased vestiges of human settlement and economy.

Recherches archéologiques dans la moyenne vallée du Chillon

A series of borings and prospections effectuated from May to July 1976 allowed us to recognize 19 sites of human occupation situated between 1000 and 1400m, in the middle valley of the Chillón (department of Lima, Peru). The oldest traces of occupation are dating from the Early Horizon. This region has known also an important peopling at the Early Intermediate, at the late Intermediate and during the late Horizon. The present study is divided in two parts : in the first one are analyzed the sites and the archaeological met ; in the second one, there is a discussion on the relations of the sites between them and with the others establishments of the valley.

Pleistocene date for man in Tasmania.

THE Pleistocene colonisation of Tasmania has long been predicated1,2 but no dated human occupation sites of that age have been reported before. The excavation of a cave site on Hunter Island3, 6 km off the coast of north-western Tasmania (40° 34′S, 144° 45′E; Fig. 1) has yielded the first radiocarbon date of Pleistocene age from a human occupation site in Tasmania.

Geology and early man in Central Mexico: The Henry Stopes lecture, 1970

Sites of early human occupation in Central Mexico are mainly confined to the shores of ancient lakes and are interstratified with their deposits. Included are beds of pumice and ash emanating from the numerous Pleistocene and Recent volcanoes. An attempt is here made to correlate in time, by means of a stratigraphical ‘bridge’, sites in the Mexico and Puebla Basins which are some 100 km. apart and separated by a range of mountains. The terrestrial volcanic deposits and the buried soils developed on them during intervals of quiescence provide the structural members for the ‘bridge’. The work remains incomplete, but some progress has been made.

Potassium-Argon Dating at Olduvai Gorge

Potassium-Argon Dating at Olduvai Gorge

Underwater Archaeology: Its Nature and Limitations

AbstractThe recent development of efficient free-diving apparatus has made possible underwater exploration for both sport and science. Human and cultural remains underwater are being extensively exploited. Although the term “underwater archaeology” is frequently applied to such activities, most are at the best only underwater salvage. Archaeological remains in lakes, springs, rivers, or the sea have considerable to offer. Perhaps their greatest value is the more complete condition of such artifacts in contrast to similar remains on land. However, they often suffer from decomposition, impregnation with minerals, or incrustation by algae or corals. Although context and sequential (or stratigraphic) position are not so easily found or recognized as on land, they are present in many cases. Any body of water is a possible site of study, but in practice, areas of potential importance are limited by location, depth, visibility, and bottom factors. There are four major types of underwater archaeological sites: (1) discarded refuse and “lost” material; (2) submerged sites of former human occupation; (3) shrines or places of offerings; and (4) shipwrecks.

Man's Role in the Distribution of the Corozo Palm ( Orbignya spp.)

MAN'S ROLE IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE COROZO PALM (Orbignya spp.) By CARL L. JOHANNESSEN University of California, Berkeley Those interested in man's past and in his relationships to his environment receive satisfaction and even a certain exhilaration in finding sites of former human occupation. In some cases, vegetation may be an indicator of these sites. Some plants indicate habitation sites while others indicate areas disturbed by agricultural clearings. In central California certain wild tobaccos, Nicotiana bigelovii and N. attenuata, and the buckeye, Aesculus californiens, are often indicators of early Indian occupance. In Central America the tree gourd, Crescentia cujete, and a bromeliad with edible fruit, penguin or penuela, Bromelia karatas, are found near present or past home gardens or fences. Chicle, Achras zapote, ramón or breadnut (a livestock feed), Brosimum alicastrum, and mahogany, Swietenia macrophylla, are good indicators of past clearings whenever these trees occur in large numbers. Many more indicators of former, perhaps long forgotten, occupation by man probably remain to be noted. Such relationships have been observed in Central America in the case of the Corozo palm, and when groves are found they are worth looking into as possible indicators of nearby archeological sites. The Corozo palm (Orbignya cohune [Mart.] Dahlgren and O. guacuyule [Liebm. ex Mart.] H.X.) is widely distributed in Middle America.1 Areas where the Corozo palm may be found as one of the most numerous of the taller trees in the rain forest are shown on the map; much of this land has been cleared at sometime in the past and it appears that the abundance of the Corozo is probably related to such disturbances. Also indicated on the map are locations where the Corozo is more typically found in isolated groves. Description of the Corozo Palm The two species of Orbignya are very much alike in external appearance although they differ in the size and shape of their staminate flowers and in size of nut. Since they also behave similarly in nature they will be treated under the native designation of Corozo. The mature tree grows as high as 100 feet, to a diameter of 2? feet and, when young, has pinnate leaves 25 to 30 feet long. The nuts of the Corozo are produced on a stalk 3 to 4 feet long, each nut being about the size of a turkey egg; the drooping stalk hangs down like a giant bunch of grapes and weighs about 100 pounds. The tree has many uses. The nuts are used as an oil source by the local inhabitants and in the last few years they have become a source of special oils for the soap industry .2 Until recently the oil was also used in lamps in some areas. The flowers are demanded for certain religious services and, on special occasions, for the decoration of graveyards on the West coast of southern Mexico. Wood and wine are obtained from the main trunk and from the "cabbage" at the top of the tree. Thatch, umbrellas, and a bulky kind of cape are made from the leaves. 1 Efraim Hernández Xoloxotzi, "Estudio Botánico de las Palmas Oleaginosas de Mexico." Sociedad Botánica de Mexico, Bol. 9.T7, 1949. The basis of the species designations is presented . Paul C. Standley, The cohune palm an Orbignya, not an Attalea. Tropical Woods, 30: 1-3, 1932. No difference was recorded for the two separate ranges of the species of Orbignya. 2 Two vegetable oil companies with sizeable factories were using the Corozo nuts in 1956, La Blanquita in Honduras and Kong Hnos. in Guatemala. 29 CP=7^l¿rMEXICO 0 \¦--áíWac·-!Bel ire Chilpacinao 01anchoP^l^*»r.:.::> UATEMALA^^,^ DISTRIBUTION OF THE COROZO PALM£] Orbiauyg. cohune — Abundant \n ralnJÔTesl· /^ VICARACUA Q. cohune Usually found in Grave« in fhe valleys O, QUOC uvule Usually found in Groves COSTA RiCl Distribution of the Corozo Palm The definitive study on the distribution of the Corozo palm remains to be made. The designation of O. guacuyule as a separate species from O. cohune was made in 1949 by Hernandez; prior to this time other workers, for example Standley and Lundell, used O. cohune for both forms. (See...

Stone Stripes in Breckland, Norfolk

AbstractThe usefulness of plants in directing the attention of the archaeologist to likely sites of human occupation is well known. Their value to the geomorphologist is indicated in the following example, which puts on record the existence of stone stripes in Breckland.