“Steppe Neolithic” and paleogeographic reconstructions of the Early and Middle Holocene...
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result in true burial ages being derived. It is proposed here that these distributions contain information on the depositional processes operating within glacial catchments and the luminescence signatures of source sediments. Both sediment sources, and transport processes, will encode into a deposits’ luminescence age distribution. The luminescence distri- butions of a suite of sediments from a group of modern Norwegian glacial catchments have been analysed to determine whether sediment sources have different luminescence distribution signatures, whether those signatures are apparent in resultant sedimentary deposits, and finally whether different transport pathways have discernibly distinct signatures. Modern subglacial, supraglacial, paraglacial and various glacifluvial samples were collected from the catchments of Bergsetbreen, Fåbergstølsbreen, and Nigardsbreen during June 2008. These catchments were selected as they are dominated by glaciofluvial systems, through which material derived from paraglacial, subglacial and supraglacial sources are transported. Initial results indicate that the distribution signatures of different depositional settings are distinct, as are the sedi- ment source signals. Furthermore, high residual ages indicate that in these glacial environments, the potential for age overestimation is high. INDIAN DOMESTICATION OF RICE: THE STORY FROM ORISSA, EAST INDIA, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF RICE CULTIVATION SYSTEMS Ellie Kingwell Banham. Institution of Archaeology, University College Lon, United Kingdom E-mail address: [email protected] Archaeobotanic evidence from Orissa, East India, suggests that the area played an important role in the development of the domestic rice crop and it's cultivation. Rice (Oryza sativa) was domesticated within the Gangetic plains of Northern India between c.6000 and 2000 BC. Early finds of rice from mounded settlement sites in Orissa date to c.2000 BC, and include both morphologically domestic and wild Oryza spikelet bases. By c.1500 BC secure archaeobotanic evidence shows that rice had become part of a mixed agricultural system incorporating Indian pulses. Subsequently, the spread of rice cultivation, particularly into Central India, appears to be associated with large scale irrigation works. This suggests that the devel- opment of irrigated rice agriculture may have occurred in Orissa. Recent research as part of UCL's Early Rice Project has focussed on identifying the rice cultivation systems used in prehistoric Orissa through macrobotanic and phytolith assemblages. Using associated weed assemblages the development of rice agriculture in Orissa has been analysed, tracing the trajectories of cultivation from an initial wild and domestic rice exploita- tion, through a refinement of the rice crop and agricultural intensification. PALAEOENVIRONMENTS OF THE OLORGESAILIE BASIN DURING MIDDLE TO LATE PLEISTOCENE INFERRED FROM PHYTOLITH ANALYSES Rahab Kinyanjui. National Museums of Kenya, Kenya E-mail address: [email protected] Olorgesailie basin is an important prehistoric locus and holds a prominent place in African Quaternary research. It is located in the southern Kenya rift system (1 35’S and 36 27’ E) and has preserved numerous archaeological findings of the Early and Middle Stone Age occupations, and most importantly, hominin cranium associated with the Acheulean handaxes. Evidence of past vegetation has hitherto been scarce, however, because the arid / semi-arid conditions are not conducive to the preservation of fossil pollen, phytolith analyses is applied to understand the hominin habitat preference and environmental change during the period covered by this study. Modern phytolith analogue are used to interpret the fossil assem- blage. In addition, determination of climatic factors controlling the vege- tation changes is computed by changes in C3 versus C4 grass proportions. Results of phytolith analyses from palaeosol layers exposed in three localities provide record of past vegetation cover and possible prevailing climates during middle-late Pleistocene period (w746-w64ka) enabling the determination of the vegetation component of the Olorgesailie palaeoenviroments with which early hominin interacted with temporally and spatially for the period between w220-340ka. A series of radiometric dates on geological markers (tuff and pumice) bracketing the palaeosols are used. “STEPPE NEOLITHIC” AND PALEOGEOGRAPHIC RECONSTRUCTIONS OF THE EARLY AND MIDDLE HOLOCENE ENVIRONMENT IN NORTH- WESTERN BLACK SEA COAST AREA Dmytro Kiosak. Odessa National University, Ukraine E-mail address: [email protected] North-Western Black Sea coast area is the westernmost territory of Great Eurasian Steppe. It always was a contact zone between the latter and the Balkans. It had its own way of neolitization. The appearance of the first agricultural population in Steppe, its “domestication” constitutes the main subject of this paper. In the second half of the VII mill. BC the first bearers of pottery made their appearance in the steppe zone of Western Ukraine. This early arrival is attested by radiocarbon dates of Gyrzheve site and relative chronological position of newly discovered lower complex of Gard site. Other wave of “Steppe Neolithic” is attested after the 8200 calBP climatic event. A group of sites of this period functioned in the close proximity to the Khadzhibej lyman western coast – Katarzhyno 1, Karpove, Bognatove. Their origin and subsistence type is still disputable. Neolithic of Steppe is markedly different from both the “classic” Balkans Neolithic and Bug-Dniester culture. There are no settlements with thick cultural layers and intense habitation, beautiful painted pottery, developed arts and architecture. Steppe “pottery-bearing” sites resemble the sites of their precursors – Mesolithic hunters and gatherers. The paleolandscapes reconstruction is crucial for defining the lifestyles of these people. The Khadzhybej lyman was a deep valley of shallow steppe-type meandering river in the area of the sites location during Middle Holocene. Then, the sites were situated not on the coast of salt lake, like they are now, but in the quite inland, high topographic position. This fact is highly consistent with hunter-gatherer economy as opposed to the agricultural activities. The future interdisci- plinary research aimed at the reconstruction of paleolandscapes inhabited by the first Neolithic population of Ukraine would clarify the issue of their subsitence and place them properly in the neolithisation process of Great Eurasian Steppe. A NEW LATE HOLOCENE RELATIVE SEA-LEVEL RECORD FROM DONEGAL, NW IRELAND Jason Kirby. Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom E-mail address: [email protected] We present here a new relative sea-level record compiled from salt-marsh deposits in Donegal, north-western Ireland. The stratigraphy of the site was investigated with two bisecting transects consisting of 22 hand drilled cores. The stratigraphy is characterised by peat and peaty-clay sediment which is eroded and replaced by channel deposits at the north of the site close to the Bracky river. A two metre sample core was taken from a central location where the stratigraphy is not affected by erosion. The sea-level record is derived from 10 radiocarbon and 12 210Pb dated sea-level index points. The relationship between these samples and a former tidal height (i.e. indicative meaning) has been established using the known elevation of modern foraminiferal and diatom assemblages in relation to Irish datum. The reconstruction shows that there has been 1.8 metres of relative sea- level rise in the past 2500 years. Whilst there are limitations with sample resolution, the record indicates that relative sea-level rise has been grad- ually rising for the past 2500 years. GIA models have been presented that indicate a mid-Holocene high-stand of RSL of up to +2 m at 6000 BP (c. 4800 BC) in Donegal. Our data includes a basal peat sample at +0.48 m Irish Grid containing freshwater pollen and no marine diatoms which dates from c.2900 BC. This indicates that relative sea level has been below the present during the last 5000 years. NOVAYA ZEMLYA - A NUCLEUS FOR GLACIATION IN THE BARENTS-KARA SEA DURING MIS 3-2? Nina Kirchner. Stockholm University, Sweden E-mail address: [email protected] To improve understanding of paleo-ice sheets in the Eurasian North, we utilize high-resolution simulations of the Barents-Kara ice sheet-ice shelf Abstracts / Quaternary International 279-280 (2012) 233–345 246
Transcript of “Steppe Neolithic” and paleogeographic reconstructions of the Early and Middle Holocene...
Abstracts / Quaternary International 279-280 (2012) 233–345246
result in true burial ages being derived. It is proposed here that thesedistributions contain information on the depositional processes operatingwithin glacial catchments and the luminescence signatures of sourcesediments. Both sediment sources, and transport processes, will encodeinto a deposits’ luminescence age distribution. The luminescence distri-butions of a suite of sediments from a group of modern Norwegian glacialcatchments have been analysed to determine whether sediment sourceshave different luminescence distribution signatures, whether thosesignatures are apparent in resultant sedimentary deposits, and finallywhether different transport pathways have discernibly distinct signatures.Modern subglacial, supraglacial, paraglacial and various glacifluvialsamples were collected from the catchments of Bergsetbreen,Fåbergstølsbreen, and Nigardsbreen during June 2008. These catchmentswere selected as they are dominated by glaciofluvial systems, throughwhich material derived from paraglacial, subglacial and supraglacialsources are transported. Initial results indicate that the distributionsignatures of different depositional settings are distinct, as are the sedi-ment source signals. Furthermore, high residual ages indicate that in theseglacial environments, the potential for age overestimation is high.
INDIAN DOMESTICATION OF RICE: THE STORY FROM ORISSA, EASTINDIA, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF RICE CULTIVATION SYSTEMS
Ellie Kingwell Banham. Institution of Archaeology, University College Lon,United KingdomE-mail address: [email protected]
Archaeobotanic evidence from Orissa, East India, suggests that the areaplayed an important role in the development of the domestic rice crop andit's cultivation. Rice (Oryza sativa) was domesticated within the Gangeticplains of Northern India between c.6000 and 2000 BC. Early finds of ricefrom mounded settlement sites in Orissa date to c.2000 BC, and includebothmorphologically domestic and wild Oryza spikelet bases. By c.1500 BCsecure archaeobotanic evidence shows that rice had become part ofa mixed agricultural system incorporating Indian pulses. Subsequently, thespread of rice cultivation, particularly into Central India, appears to beassociated with large scale irrigation works. This suggests that the devel-opment of irrigated rice agriculture may have occurred in Orissa. Recentresearch as part of UCL's Early Rice Project has focussed on identifying therice cultivation systems used in prehistoric Orissa through macrobotanicand phytolith assemblages. Using associated weed assemblages thedevelopment of rice agriculture in Orissa has been analysed, tracing thetrajectories of cultivation from an initial wild and domestic rice exploita-tion, through a refinement of the rice crop and agricultural intensification.
PALAEOENVIRONMENTS OF THE OLORGESAILIE BASIN DURING MIDDLETO LATE PLEISTOCENE INFERRED FROM PHYTOLITH ANALYSES
Rahab Kinyanjui. National Museums of Kenya, KenyaE-mail address: [email protected]
Olorgesailie basin is an important prehistoric locus and holds a prominentplace in African Quaternary research. It is located in the southern Kenya riftsystem (1�35’S and 36�27’ E) and has preserved numerous archaeologicalfindings of the Early and Middle Stone Age occupations, and mostimportantly, hominin cranium associated with the Acheulean handaxes.Evidence of past vegetation has hitherto been scarce, however, because thearid / semi-arid conditions are not conducive to the preservation of fossilpollen, phytolith analyses is applied to understand the hominin habitatpreference and environmental change during the period covered by thisstudy. Modern phytolith analogue are used to interpret the fossil assem-blage. In addition, determination of climatic factors controlling the vege-tation changes is computed by changes in C3 versus C4 grass proportions.Results of phytolith analyses from palaeosol layers exposed in threelocalities provide record of past vegetation cover and possible prevailingclimates during middle-late Pleistocene period (w746-w64ka) enablingthe determination of the vegetation component of the Olorgesailiepalaeoenviroments with which early hominin interacted with temporallyand spatially for the period between w220-340ka. A series of radiometricdates on geological markers (tuff and pumice) bracketing the palaeosolsare used.
“STEPPE NEOLITHIC” AND PALEOGEOGRAPHIC RECONSTRUCTIONS OFTHE EARLY AND MIDDLE HOLOCENE ENVIRONMENT IN NORTH-WESTERN BLACK SEA COAST AREA
Dmytro Kiosak. Odessa National University, UkraineE-mail address: [email protected]
North-Western Black Sea coast area is the westernmost territory of GreatEurasian Steppe. It always was a contact zone between the latter and theBalkans. It had its own way of neolitization. The appearance of the firstagricultural population in Steppe, its “domestication” constitutes the mainsubject of this paper.In the second half of the VII mill. BC the first bearers of pottery made theirappearance in the steppe zone of Western Ukraine. This early arrival isattested by radiocarbon dates of Gyrzheve site and relative chronologicalposition of newly discovered lower complex of Gard site. Other wave of“Steppe Neolithic” is attested after the 8200 calBP climatic event. A groupof sites of this period functioned in the close proximity to the Khadzhibejlymanwestern coast – Katarzhyno 1, Karpove, Bognatove. Their origin andsubsistence type is still disputable. Neolithic of Steppe is markedlydifferent from both the “classic” Balkans Neolithic and Bug-Dniesterculture. There are no settlements with thick cultural layers and intensehabitation, beautiful painted pottery, developed arts and architecture.Steppe “pottery-bearing” sites resemble the sites of their precursors –
Mesolithic hunters and gatherers. The paleolandscapes reconstruction iscrucial for defining the lifestyles of these people. The Khadzhybej lymanwas a deep valley of shallow steppe-type meandering river in the area ofthe sites location during Middle Holocene. Then, the sites were situatednot on the coast of salt lake, like they are now, but in the quite inland, hightopographic position. This fact is highly consistent with hunter-gatherereconomy as opposed to the agricultural activities. The future interdisci-plinary research aimed at the reconstruction of paleolandscapes inhabitedby the first Neolithic population of Ukraine would clarify the issue of theirsubsitence and place them properly in the neolithisation process of GreatEurasian Steppe.
A NEW LATE HOLOCENE RELATIVE SEA-LEVEL RECORD FROMDONEGAL, NW IRELAND
Jason Kirby. Liverpool John Moores University, United KingdomE-mail address: [email protected]
We present here a new relative sea-level record compiled from salt-marshdeposits in Donegal, north-western Ireland. The stratigraphy of the sitewas investigated with two bisecting transects consisting of 22 hand drilledcores. The stratigraphy is characterised by peat and peaty-clay sedimentwhich is eroded and replaced by channel deposits at the north of the siteclose to the Bracky river. A twometre sample core was taken from a centrallocation where the stratigraphy is not affected by erosion. The sea-levelrecord is derived from 10 radiocarbon and 12 210Pb dated sea-level indexpoints. The relationship between these samples and a former tidal height(i.e. indicativemeaning) has been established using the known elevation ofmodern foraminiferal and diatom assemblages in relation to Irish datum.The reconstruction shows that there has been 1.8 metres of relative sea-level rise in the past 2500 years. Whilst there are limitations with sampleresolution, the record indicates that relative sea-level rise has been grad-ually rising for the past 2500 years. GIA models have been presented thatindicate a mid-Holocene high-stand of RSL of up to +2 m at 6000 BP (c.4800 BC) in Donegal. Our data includes a basal peat sample at +0.48m IrishGrid containing freshwater pollen and no marine diatoms which datesfrom c.2900 BC. This indicates that relative sea level has been below thepresent during the last 5000 years.
NOVAYA ZEMLYA - A NUCLEUS FOR GLACIATION IN THE BARENTS-KARASEA DURING MIS 3-2?
Nina Kirchner. Stockholm University, SwedenE-mail address: [email protected]
To improve understanding of paleo-ice sheets in the Eurasian North, weutilize high-resolution simulations of the Barents-Kara ice sheet-ice shelf
