 Subjects -> GEOGRAPHY (Total: 493 journals)
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- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 1: Impacts of Loss of Cryosphere in the High
Mountains of Northwest North America
Authors: John J. Clague, Dan H. Shugar
First page: 1
Abstract: Global atmospheric warming is causing physical and biotic changes in Earth’s high mountains at a rate that is likely unprecedented in the Holocene. We summarize changes in the presently glacierized mountains of northwest North America, including a rapid and large reduction in glacier ice and permafrost, a related increase in slope instability and landslides, river re-routing and other hydrological changes, and changing aquatic ecosystems. Atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise and will likely do so for at least the next several decades, if not longer, and mountains will continue to warm, perhaps reaching temperatures up to several degrees Celsius warmer than present over the remainder of this century. As a result, the rate of physical and biotic changes documented in this paper is very likely to dramatically increase and transform high-mountain environments.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-01-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010001
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 2: Disentangling Holocene Climate Change and
Human Impact from Palaeoenvironmental Records from the Scottish West Coast
Authors: Katherine A. Selby, Jane Wheeler, Sally Derrett
First page: 2
Abstract: Phases of rapid climate change throughout the early to mid Holocene coincide with regional human population expansion in Scotland and North-West Europe. Palaeoenvironmental signals of climate and anthropogenically driven vegetation changes can therefore be difficult to separate. To identify whether it is possible to distinguish potential signatures of anthropogenic clearance and agricultural activities from climatic drivers of landscape change in the early to mid Holocene in the region, two topographically contrasting sites on the Isle of Skye and the Isle of Bute were investigated. A multiproxy approach including pollen, spore, microcharcoal, loss on ignition and particle size analyses was adopted to investigate changes in vegetation and climate. There are subtle indications that the 8200 cal BP climate event had an effect on the vegetation composition at both sites. Signals of anthropogenic woodland clearance are apparent early in the sequence at Peat Hill (Bute), indicated by a peak in Poaceae (grass) cereal-type (7–14%) at 8592–8793 cal BP, alongside a decrease in arboreal pollen, which could not be associated with a regional episode of climate change. Early to mid Holocene vegetation changes at Lyndale House (Skye) occur alongside regional changes in precipitation and sea level and therefore cannot be readily separated. Continuous declines in arboreal pollen from ca. 5000 cal BP at Lyndale House indicates the onset of widespread clearance on Skye via felling and sustained grazing pressures.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-01-03
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010002
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 3: Early to Mid-Holocene Tree Immigration and
Spread in the Isle of Man: The Roles of Climate and Other Factors
Authors: Richard C. Chiverrell, James B. Innes, Jeff J. Blackford, Peter J. Davey, David H. Roberts, Mairead M. Rutherford, Philippa R. Tomlinson, Simon D. Turner
First page: 3
Abstract: The Isle of Man is a large island which lies in the middle of the northern Irish Sea between Britain and Ireland and, because of its insularity and size, has an impoverished flora compared with the two main islands. This has been the case throughout the postglacial and warrants the island’s description as a separate phytogeographic province. We have considered Holocene tree pollen data from seventeen sites on the island which together preserve a vegetation history that spans the six thousand years of the early and mid-postglacial from the end of the Lateglacial at 11,700 cal. BP to the mid-Holocene Ulmus decline at ca. 5800 cal. BP. Radiocarbon dating of the rational limits of the pollen curves for the main tree taxa has allowed an appraisal of the timing of each one’s expansion to become a significant component of the island’s woodland, and comparison with the dates of their expansion on the adjacent regions of Britain and Ireland. The radiocarbon dates show that, although some variability exists probably due to local factors, there is considerable concordance between the timings of major pollen zone boundaries in Britain and Ireland around the northern Irish Sea. On the Isle of Man the expansions of both Juniperus and Betula were delayed by several centuries compared to the British/Irish data, however the timing of the expansions of Corylus, Ulmus, Quercus, Pinus and Alnus on the Isle of Man all appear closely comparable to the ages for these pollen stratigraphic events in north Wales, northwest England, southwest Scotland and eastern Ireland, as are those for the Ulmus decline. It is likely that local pedological and edaphic factors on the island account for the differences in the first Holocene millennium, while regional climatic factors governed the timings for the rest of the expansions of tree taxa across the wider region, including the Isle of Man. Disturbance, including by human agency, was important at the site scale and perhaps triggered early tree expansion in some places, including Quercus, Ulmus and Alnus. Insularity seems not to have been a significant factor in the expansion of the major forest trees.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-01-04
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010003
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 4: The Evaluation of Non-Destructive Tests for
the Strength and Physical Properties of Granite, Marble, and Sandstone: A
Case Study from North Pakistan
Authors: Waqas Ahmed, Niaz Ahmad, Hammad Tariq Janjuhah, Ihtisham Islam, Muhammad Sajid, George Kontakiotis
First page: 4
Abstract: Nondestructive tests, commonly employed in rock mechanics, estimate mechanical parameters without affecting the rocks in situ properties. This study evaluates non-destructive tests (ultrasonic pulse velocity and Schmidt hammer) for forecasting the strength and physical properties of commonly used rocks. Weathering grades and moisture content are provided as variables that produce variances in both non-destructive tests. The coefficient of determination (R²) and subsequent empirical equations for the best-fit trend line are calculated using a simple regression method. The ultrasonic pulse velocity is found to be more efficient in estimating most of the physical properties (specific gravity, porosity, water absorption, and dry density) of granite, marble, and sandstone, with high correlation coefficients. Whereas the Schmidt hammer is found to be more reproducible in determining the strength (compressive and tensile) of granite, marble, and sandstone. The student’s t-test proved the sensitivity and correctness of the acquired equations from the suggested correlations, and agreement was established between measured and estimated plots of strength and physical properties. Although the student’s t-test confirms that the performance of all empirical models established in this study are significant, any non-destructive test with a low R² value should be used with caution when estimating the studied properties.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-01-04
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010004
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 5: Climate Change, Fire and Human Activity Drive
Vegetation Change during the Last Eight Millennia in the Xistral Mountains
of NW Iberia
Authors: Tim M. Mighall, Antonio Martínez Cortizas, Noemí Silva-Sánchez, Olalla López-Costas, Lourdes López-Merino
First page: 5
Abstract: An 8500-year record of high-resolution pollen, non-pollen palynomorph, microscopic charcoal and selected geochemical data (Ti, Zr and Pb) is presented from an ombrotrophic mire from the Xistral Mountains, Galicia, North-West Iberia. The results suggest that vegetation changes over the last eight millennia are primarily the result of human disturbance, fire and climate change. Climate and fire were the main factors influencing vegetation development during the early to mid-Holocene, including a short-lived decline in forest cover c. 8.2 cal. ka BP. Changes associated with the 4.2 and 2.8 cal. Ka BP events are less well defined. Human impact on vegetation became more pronounced by the late Holocene with major periods of forest disturbance from c. 3.1 cal. ka BP onwards: during the end of Metal Ages, Roman period and culminating in the permanent decline of deciduous forests in the post-Roman period, as agriculture and metallurgy intensified, leading to the creation of a cultural landscape. Climate change appears to become less influential as human activity dominates during the Late Holocene.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-01-05
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010005
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 6: Prehistoric Astronomical Observatories and
Paleoclimatic Records in Bulgaria Estimate Astroclimate during
4000–4500 BCE: A Critical Assessment
Authors: Alexey Stoev, Yavor Shopov, Penka Maglova, Ognyan Ognyanov, Lyubomira Raykova
First page: 6
Abstract: Prehistoric astronomical observatories include a specific type of rock-cut monuments from the Mountainous Thrace in Bulgaria, with a specific shape and orientation in space, which are part of the characteristic representatives of the archeoastronomical sites on the Balkan Peninsula from the period of 4000–4500 BCE. Earlier societies focused on the triad “astronomical instrument”—celestial objects—trained observers. When choosing sites for the construction of oriented stone complexes for astronomical observations, prehistoric people were interested in the number of clear days and nights within the tropical year, which is connected with the paleoclimate of the region and to the astroclimate, which determines the possibility of observing heavenly bodies. Here we examine 13 prehistoric astronomical observatories using the methods of archaeoastronomy in order to determine the period of their operation. Since the existence of a large number of such objects is indirect evidence of a good astroclimate, we make an assessment of the paleoclimate in the relevant era in the Bulgarian lands in order to find out if it was suitable for astronomical observations. The estimations are made according to the geological data and solar insolation luminescence proxy records of the evolution of cave speleothems from Duhlata cave in the village of Bosnek, Pernik municipality, which is still the only available experimental record of past solar insolation in Europe covering the last 20,000 years. The number of clear days and nights are estimated, and a critical assessment of the possibility of successful observations of the Sun during equinoxes and solstices is made using the methods of “horizon” astronomy and meridional culminations. It is also shown that the climate at the end of the Ice Age was cooler than today. About 11,700 years ago (11,700 radiocarbon years before 1950 CE or 11,700 BP), the climate began to warm, and forest vegetation developed on the territory liberated from the glaciers. During the Upper Atlantic (6–8 thousand years BCE), the average annual temperature on the Balkan Peninsula and in particular in Bulgaria was about 2–2.5 °C higher than it is today. This climate allows some very good astroclimatic conditions for observations of the Sun near the horizon and increases the accuracy of the observational data in determining the time of occurrence in its extreme positions on the horizon. We show that changes in climate (and astroclimate accordingly) influence the type of prehistoric astronomical observatories.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-01-05
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010006
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 7: Sedimentary Ancient DNA Reveals Local
Vegetation Changes Driven by Glacial Activity and Climate
Authors: Lucas D. Elliott, Dilli P. Rijal, Antony G. Brown, Jostein Bakke, Lasse Topstad, Peter D. Heintzman, Inger G. Alsos
First page: 7
Abstract: Disentangling the effects of glaciers and climate on vegetation is complicated by the confounding role that climate plays in both systems. We reconstructed changes in vegetation occurring over the Holocene at Jøkelvatnet, a lake located directly downstream from the Langfjordjøkel glacier in northern Norway. We used a sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) metabarcoding dataset of 38 samples from a lake sediment core spanning 10,400 years using primers targeting the P6 loop of the trnL (UAA) intron. A total of 193 plant taxa were identified revealing a pattern of continually increasing richness over the time period. Vegetation surveys conducted around Jøkelvatnet show a high concordance with the taxa identified through sedaDNA metabarcoding. We identified four distinct vegetation assemblage zones with transitions at ca. 9.7, 8.4 and 4.3 ka with the first and last mirroring climatic shifts recorded by the Langfjordjøkel glacier. Soil disturbance trait values of the vegetation increased with glacial activity, suggesting that the glacier had a direct impact on plants growing in the catchment. Temperature optimum and moisture trait values correlated with both glacial activity and reconstructed climatic variables showing direct and indirect effects of climate change on the vegetation. In contrast to other catchments without an active glacier, the vegetation at Jøkelvatnet has displayed an increased sensitivity to climate change throughout the Middle and Late Holocene. Beyond the direct impact of climate change on arctic and alpine vegetation, our results suggest the ongoing disappearance of glaciers will have an additional effect on plant communities.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-01-07
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010007
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 8: Taphonomy and Palaeoecology of Quaternary
Vertebrates: Advances in Fossil and Experimental Studies
Authors: Stoetzel, Ochoa, Rofes
First page: 8
Abstract: Since the founding work of Efremov in 1940 [...]
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-01-10
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010008
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 9: Acknowledgment to the Reviewers of Quaternary
in 2022
Authors: Quaternary Editorial Office Quaternary Editorial Office
First page: 9
Abstract: High-quality academic publishing is built on rigorous peer review [...]
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-01-16
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010009
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 10: Seismic Activity in the Celje Basin
Authors: Miklós Kázmér, Petra Jamšek Rupnik, Krzysztof Gaidzik
First page: 10
Abstract: Searching for unknown earthquakes in Slovenia in the first millennium, we performed archaeoseismological analysis of Roman settlements. The Mesto pod mestom museum in Celje exhibits a paved Roman road, which suffered severe deformation. Built on fine gravel and sand from the Savinja River, the road displays a bulge and trench, pop-up structures, and pavement slabs tilted up to 40°. The city wall was built over the deformed road in Late Roman times, supported by a foundation containing recycled material (spolia) from public buildings, including an emperor’s statue. We hypothesize that a severe earthquake hit the town before 350 AD, causing widespread destruction. Seismic-induced liquefaction caused differential subsidence, deforming the road. One of the nearby faults from the strike-slip Periadriatic fault system was the seismic source of this event.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-02-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010010
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 11: Vegetation Dynamics and Hydro-Climatic
Changes during the Middle Holocene from the Central Himalaya, India
Authors: Mohammad Firoze Quamar, Anoop K. Singh, Lalit M. Joshi, Bahadur S. Kotlia, Dhruv Sen Singh, Corina Anca Simion, Tiberiu Sava, Nagendra Prasad
First page: 11
Abstract: Understanding the spatiotemporal monsoonal variability during the Holocene helps in understanding the rise and fall of many civilizations. In this study, a 2.65 m high palaeo lake sedimentary profile from the Kumaun Lesser Himalaya, Uttarakhand State, India was pollen analysed to reconstruct the variability in the monsoonal precipitation during the Middle Holocene. The study revealed that between ~7522 and 7216 cal yr BP, conifers dominated mixed broad-leaved forests occurred around the landscape of the study area, indicating a less cold and dry climate with decreased monsoon precipitation. Broad-leaved taxa during this phase show increased values considerably, indicating amelioration in climatic condition, which could be, in global perspective, broadly falling within the time-interval of the Holocene Climate Optimum (HCO; 7000–4000 BP). Between ~7216 and 6526 cal yr BP, dense conifers-dominated mixed broad-leaved forests transformed the conifers-dominated broad-leaved forests around the study area under a cold and drier climate with further reduction in monsoon precipitation. Subsequently, between ~6526 and 5987 cal yr BP, conifers-dominated broad-leaved forests continued to grow, but with lesser frequencies, around the study area under a comparatively less cold and dry climate with reduced monsoon precipitation. Finally, between ~5987 and 5817 cal yr BP, the frequencies of conifers-dominated broad-leaved forests further decreased around the landscape of the study area under a comparatively lesser cold and dry climate, probably indicating decreased monsoonal precipitation. Hence, the present study mainly showed the dominance of conifers forests around the study area between ~7522 and 7216 cal yr BP, ~7216 and 6526 cal yr BP, ~6526 and 5987 cal yr BP and between ~5987 and 5817 cal yr BP; however, broad-leaved forests also demonstrated increasing tendency between ~7522 and 7216 cal yr BP in the milieu of cold and dry climates. Moreover, the study also revealed that a lake was formed around 7522 cal yr BP along the Kulur River, a tributary of Saryu River around the study area and existed until 5817 cal yr BP.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-02-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010011
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 12: ‘Pine Decline or pine
declines'’ Analysis and Interpretation of Bog-Pines from Wem
Moss, Shropshire, UK
Authors: Jonathan G. A. Lageard
First page: 12
Abstract: A dendrochronological investigation was undertaken on subfossil Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stumps following their discovery during conservation management at Wem Moss, a small (28 ha) former raised mire in Shropshire, UK. Two ring-width chronologies were constructed from 14 of the 17 trees sampled spanning 198 and 208 years, respectively. Whilst dendrochronological dating was not possible, radiocarbon assays provided an estimated age for this mire-rooting woodland of between 3015 and 2505 years cal. BCE, coinciding with the age traditionally associated with the widespread mortality of pine trees throughout much of the UK and Ireland, often referred to as the Pine Decline (ca. 4000 radiocarbon years BP). Placed in a wider geographical context, the Wem Moss pines are located within the lowland Meres and Mosses region, where previous studies on subfossil pine have demonstrated protracted declines in mire-rooting trees. These have included tree mortality significantly post-dating the Pine Decline, especially at larger peatland sites that exceed 5 km2. Such macrofossil evidence for the presence of Scots pine into the late Holocene is supported by continuous Pinus pollen representation at peatland sites in the Welsh Marches (English–Welsh border), suggesting the possible survival of native Scots pine trees in this area up to the present day. The investigation of Wem Moss bog pines and their wider geographical context highlights the incomplete and patchy nature of palaeo-vegetational records and also the need for future genetic research on living Scots pine in possible refugial areas in Britain and Ireland.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-02-02
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010012
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 13: Evaluation of the Linkages between Ecosystem
Services and Land Use/Land Cover Changes in Matenchose Watershed, Rift
Valley Basin, Ethiopia
Authors: Markos Mathewos, Alemu O. Aga
First page: 13
Abstract: The global ecosystem services that are essential to sustaining life on the planet have been disrupted by different anthropogenic activities. This study’s objective is to examine how ecosystem services vary with changes in land use and land cover (LULC) across 29 years at the Matenchose watershed. Landsat images for 1991 (TM), 2003 (ETM+), and 2020 (OLI-8) were used for the categorization of LULC. To evaluate the changes in ecosystems service valuations (ESVs) as a result of LULC changes in combination with ArcGIS, the value transfer valuation approach was utilized. Farmlands, towns, and bare land exhibited growing trends among the five major LULC classes, but forest and grassland showed declining trends. From 1991 to 2020, ESVs decreased by a total of US $157.24 million due to the LULC modifications. In terms of ESV functions, provisional services (US $89.23 million) and cultural services (US $69.36 million) made up the majority of the loss of ESV. Overall, the reduction of ESV showed the environment is degrading because of existing LULC changes, this calls for immediate sustainable land management intervention by responsible actors. To attain sustainable development goals regarding food and life on the land, it is imperative to reverse the loss of ecosystem services.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-02-03
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010013
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 14: Evidence for an Extreme Cooling Event Prior
to the Laschamp Geomagnetic Excursion in Eifel Maar Sediments
Authors: Johannes Albert, Frank Sirocko
First page: 14
Abstract: We present a timeseries of flood and slumping phases in central Europe for the past 65,000 years from event layers in sediment cores from infilled Eifel maar basins (Germany). Palynological, petrographic and organic carbon (chlorins) records are used to understand the precise timing of these events. Periods of increased flood activity seem to coincide with Heinrich stadials in marine sediment records, which are associated with cold and more arid climate conditions, indicating a vegetation response within the maars’ catchment areas. This multi-proxy correlation reveals prominent slumps at different maar sites during Greenland Stadial (GS) 12. The stratigraphy is based on sediment records from the Auel infilled maar and we thus call this event Auel Cold Event (ACE). Frozen and fractured sediment packages within the slump suggest deep frost or permafrost conditions for the region during the stadial. The results agree well with sediment archives and archeological sites across Europe that report severely cold and arid conditions for the stadial. This supports the assumption that GS12 was indeed one of the coldest periods of the last glacial cycle rather than the Heinrich stadials. Based on our age model, the ACE occurred at 43,500 yr b2k (years before the year 2000), which coincides with the initial weakening of Earth’s magnetic field strength prior to the Laschamp geomagnetic excursion.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-02-12
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010014
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 15: Chihuahuan Desert Vegetation Development
during the Past 10,000 Years According to Pollen and Sediment Data at
Upper Arroyo, Saltillo, Mexico
Authors: Bruce M. Albert
First page: 15
Abstract: Pollen and sediment data from a 10.5 m-deep alluvial exposure and a secondary tributary exposure at Upper Arroyo, a seasonal river, in Saltillo, Mexico, were examined with the aim of reconstructing the vegetation and environmental history during the Holocene as a whole. The role of climate change in Chihuahuan Desert flora development after 8800 BP was assessed, in addition to more local physiographic factors, such as erosion and accumulation, soil development and denudation, and hydrological entrenchment. Climate change appeared to have been a principal agent of vegetation change in the Early and Middle Holocene, with a periodic expansion of desert vegetation. A reduction in the environmental carrying capacities for mesophytic flora according to physiographic factors, such as soil erosion and channel entrenchment, was then identified after 2300 BP, also promoting azonal ecological niches for xerophytic vegetation in southern Coahuila, Mexico, that persist despite modern variations in precipitation.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-02-13
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010015
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 16: What Does the “Elephant-Equus”
Event Mean Today' Reflections on Mammal Dispersal Events around the
Authors: Alessio Iannucci, Raffaele Sardella
First page: 16
Abstract: The dispersal of primitive elephantines and monodactyl equids in Eurasia has long been regarded as representative of a substantial turnover in mammal faunas, denoting the spread of open environments linked to the onset of cold and dry conditions in the Northern Hemisphere. During the 1980s, this event was named the “Elephant-Equus event” and it was correlated with the Gauss-Matuyama reversal, today corresponding to the Pliocene-Pleistocene transition and the beginning of the Quaternary, dated at ~2.6 Ma. Therefore, the Elephant-Equus event became a concept of prominent biochronological and paleoecological significance, especially in western Europe. Yet, uncertainties surrounding the taxonomy and chronology of early “elephant” and “Equus”, as well as conceptual differences in adopting (or understanding) the Elephant-Equus event as an intercontinental dispersal event or as a stratigraphic datum, engendered ambiguity and debate. Here, we provide a succinct review of the Elephant-Equus event, considering separately the available evidence on the “elephant” and the “Equus”. Elephantines dispersed out of Africa during the Pliocene (Piacenzian). Their earliest calibrated occurrences from eastern Europe date at ~3.2 Ma and they are usually referred to Mammuthus rumanus, although the allocation of several samples to this species is tentative. Available dating constraints for other localities do not resolve whether the dispersal of Mammuthus was synchronous across Eurasia, but this possibility cannot be ruled out. The spread of Mammuthus was part of an intercontinental faunal exchange between Africa and Eurasia that occurred during the Piacenzian, but in this scenario, Mammuthus is quite unique in being the only genus of African origin dispersing to western Eurasia. The arrival of monodactyl equids from North America coincides with the Pliocene-Pleistocene transition, with several occurrences dated or calibrated at ~2.6 Ma and no compelling evidence prior to this age. In Europe, early monodactyl equids are often aligned to Equus livenzovensis, but the material from the type locality of this species is chronologically time-averaged and taxonomically heterogeneous, and western European samples are seldom abundant or informative. Regardless, this does not diminish the biochronological significance of the “Equus event”. Indeed, while the term “Elephant-Equus event” should no longer be used, as the appearance of elephantines in the European fossil record markedly precedes that of monodactyl equids, we endorse the use of the “Equus event” as a valid alternative to refer to the intercontinental dispersal event that characterizes the middle Villafranchian faunal turnover, epitomized by but not limited to monodactyl equids.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-02-28
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010016
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 17: Neanderthal Hunting Weapons Re-Assessed: A
Tip Cross-Sectional Area Analysis of Middle Palaeolithic Point Assemblages
from South Eastern France
Authors: Marlize Lombard, Marie-Hélène Moncel
First page: 17
Abstract: There are many opinions and arguments about the types of weapons that Neanderthals may have used. We list five assumptions about Neanderthal weapon-assisted hunting and suggest that the tip cross-sectional area (TCSA) approach may be used to assess these, and to provide a hypothetical overview of stone-tipped weaponry used in south eastern France between MIS 7 and MIS 3. We analysed stone points from Abri du Maras, Saint-Marcel, Grotte du Figuier, and Payre, and discuss possible hunting strategies in tandem with faunal evidence. Our results suggest that early Neanderthals may have hunted with bimanual thrusting spears in combination with one-handed stabbing spears, but that later groups possibly introduced javelin hunting to the Neanderthal arsenal. Stone-tipped assegais or one-handed stabbing spears, however, stand out as the Neanderthal weapons of choice throughout the Middle Palaeolithic, and we discuss the adaptive advantages of hunting with these weapons. Comparative results that include assemblages from elsewhere in the Old World suggest similarities in hunting with stone-tipped weapons between Neanderthal and H. sapiens before MIS 5, marked differences during MIS 5–4, but similarities again during MIS 3. We suggest that caution is needed when attributing MIS 3 point assemblages to Neanderthals based on age and/or technology only.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-03-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010017
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 18: Evidence of Copper and Iron Deposits of the
Protohistoric City of Temesa
Authors: Virgilio Vecchio, Maurizio Cannatà, Edoardo Proverbio, Elpida Piperopoulos, Lorenzo Torrisi, Letteria Silipigni
First page: 18
Abstract: With the name ‘Temesa’ (Latin Tempsa), the ancients identified a settlement located along the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria, cited by sources as an international metal exchange emporium. The town is mentioned by Homer as being famous in the ancient world for the production of bronze, and in the I century A.D. Strabo wrote that there were rich copper mines near the city. Many years of study led to the recognition of Temesa as a complex urban system located between the Oliva and Savuto rivers, near Amantea. To confirm this hypothesis, we searched, in the surrounding rocky outcrops, for the presence of minerals useful for the extraction of iron and copper. Samples of 3 different rock stratifications were taken near the protohistoric settlement of Serra Aiello. The observation under an polarized reflected light microscope and the X-ray diffraction patterns revealed the presence of many minerals useful for the extraction of iron and copper in every sample. The heating of samples under both oxidizing and reducing conditions helped us to better quantify copper and iron minerals content causing, at the same time, the appearance of a marked paramagnetic behavior that could be associated with the presence of goethite. X ray fluorescence analysis showed a high concentration of iron and a low copper content.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-03-07
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010018
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 19: Vegetation History and Estuarine Ecology of
the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain in Relation to Climate and Sea-Level Changes
According to Three Pollen Cores
Authors: Bruce M. Albert
First page: 19
Abstract: The vegetation history of the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain in the Holocene is considered according to pollen evidence from three coring sites where both terrestrial and marine ecology are reconstructed. These pollen sites record oscillations in the limit of the Southeastern US Forest zone in relation to climate changes, with a major, southward migration of the forest limit and expansion of the range limit of Betula nigra being recorded in the 6th millennium BP and a northward migration in the 4th millennium BP. The appearance of Rhizophora pollen also indicates increased tropical influence in the Middle Holocene. Moreover, changes in the salinity profiles of estuaries are reconstructed in relation to broader coastal environmental changes, such as sea-level oscillations and the formation of barrier islands, with a major sea-level transgression phase being recorded in the 4th millennium BP and still-stand conditions after the 3rd millennium BP. These vegetation changes are finally compared to occupational evidence of prehistoric humans in the Central Texas Gulf Coastal Plain region in relation to ecological factors. Here, human occupation of the coastal zone is correlated with afforestation, the proliferation of pecan and the emergence of low-salinity estuaries.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-03-09
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010019
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 20: The Role of Large Mammals as Vitamin C
Sources for MIS 3 Hominins
Authors: José Luis Guil-Guerrero
First page: 20
Abstract: The acquisition of large prey by hominins living during the Marine Isotope Stage 3, including Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans, had nutritional and bioenergetic implications: these contain high fat amounts, provide a high energy return, and the strategies and skills required to acquire small prey were different from those required to acquire the former. Vitamin C availability at several MIS 3 periods could have had a strong seasonal variability and would have been decisive for hominin groups’ survival. During the cold periods of the MIS 3, Paleolithic hominins had variable available amounts of vitamin C-containing plants only in the short summers, and for the remainder of the year, viscera would have been their best source of vitamin C. Meanwhile, the dependence on small mammals could have caused an erratic distribution of viscera to be consumed by such hominins, thus leading to chronic scurvy, and compromising their survival. Then, the hunting of large mammals would have helped to meet the daily vitamin C needs, besides an efficient energy supply. Therefore, the decline of large prey during the MIS 3 could have been critical for hominins survival, and thus the efficient exploitation of alternative vitamin C-rich food resources such as birds and aquatic animals could have favored the evolutionary success of hominin populations.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-03-10
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010020
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 21: High-Resolution Multiproxy Record of
Environmental Changes and Anthropogenic Activities at Unguja Ukuu,
Zanzibar, Tanzania during the Last 5000 Years
Authors: Apichaya Englong, Paramita Punwong, Rob Marchant, Tosak Seelanan, Stephanie Wynne-Jones, Prae Chirawatkul
First page: 21
Abstract: A high-resolution multiproxy sedimentary record comprising pollen, charcoal, trace element, stratigraphy and particle size data is used to reveal environmental changes from the mangrove ecosystem at Unguja Ukuu, Zanzibar, Tanzania, over the last 5000 years. Historical human–environment interactions over the last millennia are explored by a comparison of the stratigraphic and archaeological data. The area was characterised by a mixture of mangrove forest and beaches, indicating a low level of tidal inundation to at least 3300 BCE. From 2750 BCE, mangrove forest expanded as the area experienced sea-level rise. Further sea-level rise is recorded between 600 and 1100 CE, indicated by the pollen record, particle size analysis and the presence of shell fragments. After 1100 CE, mangrove forest decreased with back mangrove species increasing, indicating a falling sea level. Cocos nucifera decreased after 1900 CE, which reflects a recent sea-level rise and possibly a phase of exploitation. Cereal pollen shows a high presence at around 1500 CE, which coincided with the arrival of the Portuguese on Zanzibar and the transition to Omani colonisation. The sedimentation rate in the core top indicates that mangroves in Unguja Ukuu cannot keep pace with the current rate of sea-level rise.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-03-13
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010021
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 22: Enigmatic Surface Ruptures at Cape Rytyi and
Surroundings, Baikal Rift, Siberia: Seismic Hazard Implication
Authors: Oksana V. Lunina, Ivan A. Denisenko, Anton A. Gladkov, Carlos Braga
First page: 22
Abstract: The geomorphic expression of active faulting and distinction of paleoseismic events in areas that are rapidly obscured by erosion/sedimentation still remains a considerable scientific problem. The present article discusses the revealing of surface faulting ruptures and their parameters to identify capable faults without trenching and to estimate the magnitude of earthquakes. The case study was at Cape Rytyi, located in Baikal-Lena Nature Reserve on the northwestern shore of Lake Baikal. Based on unmanned aerial photography, GPR, and structural observations, we mapped and investigated the relation between geomorphological forms and ruptures. The obtained results show that past landslides and paleoruptures at Cape Rytyi and its surroundings are associated with at least two earthquakes. The Mw of the earlier event was 7.3 (Ms = 7.4); the Mw of the later one was 7.1 (Ms = 7.3). The paleoruptures in the distal part of the delta of the Rita River and on the southeastern slope of the Baikal Ridge were included in the seismogenic rupture zone, which traces some 37 km along the Kocherikovsky fault. The approximate intervals in which earthquakes occurred are 12–5 ka and 4–0.3 ka, respectively. The applied analysis methods can be useful for paleoseismology and assessing seismic hazards in similar regions elsewhere.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-03-16
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010022
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 6, Pages 23: Local Differentiation in the Loess
Deposition as a Function of Dust Source: Key Study Novo Orahovo Loess
Paleosol Sequence (Vojvodina, Serbia)
Authors: Slobodan B. Marković, Jef Vandenberghe, Zoran M. Perić, Dávid Filyó, Tamás Bartyik, Milica G. Radaković, Qingzhen Hao, Rastko S. Marković, Tin Lukić, Nemanja Tomić, Milivoj B. Gavrilov, Aleksandar Antić, Ivana Cvijanović, György Sipos
First page: 23
Abstract: Typical patterns of the Late Pleistocene loess–paleosol units are preserved in the Novo Orahovo brickyard, Northern Serbia. Presented preliminary luminescence chronology supports the chronostratigraphic interpretations of global isotopic marine climate reconstructions. Magnetic susceptibility and sedimentological evidence exhibit general similarities with the marine oxygen-isotope stratigraphy. These records provide new insights into the dust accumulation regimes over the eastern side of the Bačka loess plateau and offer new paleoenvironmental information for the region. They represent an important step forward towards the establishment of a catena from the thin loess-like sediments of the Banat foothills in the east towards the thicker and seemingly more complete loess sections of the southeastern and central Carpathian Basin. Grain-size data from the loess record of Nova Orahovo explain the regional differentiation in dust deposition.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2023-03-16
DOI: 10.3390/quat6010023
Issue No: Vol. 6, No. 1 (2023)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 39: Erosion Risk Assessment for Prioritization
of Conservation Measures in the Watershed of Genale Dawa-3 Hydropower Dam,
Ethiopia
Authors: Ashenafi Dechasa, Alemu O. Aga, Takele Dufera
First page: 39
Abstract: Sedimentation is a leading global problem that affects the environment and dams by reducing the live storage capacity of reservoirs and the life expectance of dams. Hence, prioritizing watersheds according to the risk of soil loss is crucial for extending the useful life of dams and reservoirs. The objectives of this study were to assess sediment flow in the Genale Dawa-3 reservoir, identify subbasins that are prone to soil erosion, and evaluate the impact of different management practices on minimizing sediment yields by using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. The SWAT model was calibrated and validated by observed streamflow and sediment data based on the SUFI-2 algorithm by SWAT-CUP, and its performance was assessed. The model simulated the average annual sediment yield; the input to the reservoir was 16.83 ton/ha/yr for the period of 1990–2015. From a total of 31 subbasins, 12 were categorized from high to very severe (11–60 ton/ha/yr) sediment-yielding subbasins and selected for sediment management. The simulated scenarios showed that the average annual sediment reductions at critical erosion hot spots in subbasins after the application of filter strips, soil/stone bund, terracing, and contour farming were 35.03%, 66.54%, 80.88%, and 53.11%, respectively. Therefore, this study concluded that reducing sediment yield by implementing terracing in critical areas at risk of soil erosion was more effective than other soil conservation measures. Overall, this research can help planners and decision-makers to implement appropriate soil conservation measures in the most erosive subwatersheds in order to extend the useful life of the Genale Dawa-3 hydropower dam and reservoir.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-09-23
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040039
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 40: Quaternary Loess Deposition and Climate
Change in Europe—Recent Progress
Authors: Dávid Molnár
First page: 40
Abstract: The current climate changes are not unique in Earth’s history [...]
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-09-25
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040040
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 41: Multiporate Pollen of Poaceae as
Bioindicator of Environmental Stress: First Archaeobotanical Evidence from
the Early–Middle Holocene Site of Takarkori in the Central Sahara
Authors: Anna Maria Mercuri, Eleonora Clò, Assunta Florenzano
First page: 41
Abstract: This paper reports on the most ancient unusual morphological trait of the apertures of Poaceae pollen found in archaeological layers. In Poaceae, high levels of hybridization, polyploidy, apomixis, and multiporate pollen are often related. Multiple genomes in polyploids are critical for the adaptation of plant species to stresses and could be revealed by anomalies in pollen development. Therefore, the paleoenvironmental research can gain great benefits from identifying polyploids in past contexts by observing anomalous pollen morphology during pollen counts. The occurrence of multiporate pollen in Poaceae has also been related to special features of the ecology of the species showing this anomaly, as well as to climatic and environmental stresses experienced by Poaceae living in a given region. Multiporate and bi- or tri-porate instead of monoporate pollen grains have been observed in samples taken from Takarkori rockshelter, an archaeological site in southwestern Libya (central Sahara) that has been occupied between ~10,200 and ~4650 cal BP. Multiporate pollen was found in organic sands and coprolites of ovicaprines. On the basis of archaeobotanical research, this work aims to investigate whether the presence of supernumerary pores in Poaceae pollen may be an effect of both climatic/hydrological changes and continued anthropogenic pressure on the wild grasses living in the region. The presence of multiporate pollen reveals that Poaceae that lived in central Sahara tackled several kinds of stress during the early and middle Holocene. The Takarkori pollen record suggests that climate change could have played a major role in the early Holocene, while human pressure became stronger during the middle Holocene. The change in environmental conditions determined adaptive responses of polyploid grasses even in the form of multiporate pollen.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-10-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040041
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 42: Tracing Raw Material Sources of Prehistoric
Stone Artefacts by Non-Invasive Techniques: The Case of the Early Bronze
Age (3rd mill. BCE) Site of Vathy, Astypalaia, Greece
Authors: Maria Kokkaliari, Eugenia Adam, Andreas Vlachopoulos, Ioannis Iliopoulos
First page: 42
Abstract: Recent findings of archaeological research in the Vathy gulf area, Astypalaia island, indicate its continuous habitation since prehistoric times, most importantly in the transitional period from the Final Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (late 4th/early 3rd millennium BC). The evaluation of the prehistoric stone artefacts from Vathy using non-invasive analytical methods (Near Infrared Spectroscopy—NIR), in combination with the mineral-petrographic characterization of the main lithological formations of the island, is expected to provide important information about raw material procurement and possible exchange networks. The geological study of the island combined with the analytical methods applied to the archaeological artefacts and the geological samples led to the identification of both local and allogenic materials. The possible locations of raw material sources were established and the origin of allogenic materials was estimated. The stone artefacts made of local geo-materials consist mainly of calcitic sandstone, shale, marl, and limestone/marble, comprising the largest part of the lithological formations of the island, as well as pumice and volcanic rocks of varying chemical composition. By means of a portable microscope and NIR spectroscopy, we were further able to identify allogenic geo-materials including chalcedony, mica schist, bauxite and meta-bauxite, steatite, and paragonite. Based on the mineralogical and petrographic characterization of the stone artefacts, a first attempt is made to evaluate the possible raw material sources and to identify potential intra-island modes of stone exploitation.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-10-09
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040042
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 43: Climate and Vegetation Change, Hillslope
Soil Erosion, and the Complex Nature of Late Quaternary Environmental
Transitions, Eastern Mojave Desert, USA
Authors: Joseph R. McAuliffe, Leslie D. McFadden, Lyman P. Persico, Tammy M. Rittenour
First page: 43
Abstract: In what are now the warm deserts of the American Southwest, direct effects of changing climate on plant distributions are typically viewed as the principal driver of vegetation changes that followed the late Pleistocene–Holocene transition (LPH). However, at a semi-arid site in the eastern Mojave Desert, the transition to modern, shrub-dominated desert scrub on xeric, south-aspect hillslopes occurred only after the erosion of relatively thick soils toward the end of the mid-Holocene. Soils with well-developed Bt horizons began to form in the late Pleistocene on both north- and south-aspect hillslopes through the entrapment and accumulation of aeolian sediments in coarse colluvium. Those soils are capable of absorbing and retaining substantial moisture and support relatively dense stands of perennial C4 grasses that have diffuse, fibrous root systems. The age of alluvial deposits on the basin floor indicates a surge in sediment production through the erosion of some of those hillslope soils toward the end of the mid-Holocene. However, that erosion was largely limited to the more xeric, more sparsely vegetated, south-aspect hillslopes. The soils formed on mesic north-aspect hillslopes remain largely non-eroded to the present day, demonstrating the central role of vegetation in modulating erosion and sediment supply. The loss of soils from south-aspect hillslopes fundamentally changed the capacity of those environments to absorb and store moisture, and altered the depth and temporal durations of plant-available moisture. Those hydrological changes drove a loss of perennial C4 grasses and a transition to dominance by xerophytic plants—shrubs with deeper taproots capable of extracting moisture stored within bedrock joints and fractures, and shallow-rooted succulent plants that store moisture internally. Following the LPH, vegetation change at the site apparently occurred in two distinct phases separated in time: (1) initial vegetation changes driven directly by increasing climatic aridity and (2) subsequent changes linked to the later episode of soil erosion. Although climate shifts ultimately generate vegetation changes, the proximate mechanisms to which plants directly respond can lag far behind climatic transitions and involve complex relationships of vegetation, soils, and changing soil hydrologic conditions.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-10-14
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040043
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 44: Application of Parameterized Grain-Size
Endmember Modeling in the Study of Quaternary Oxbow Lake Sedimentation: A
Case Study of Tövises Bed Sediments in the Eastern Great Hungarian
Plain
Authors: Abdelrhim Eltijani, Dávid Molnár, László Makó, János Geiger, Pál Sümegi
First page: 44
Abstract: Abandoned channels are essential in the Quaternary floodplains, and their infill contains different paleoenvironment recorders. Grain-size distribution (GSD) is one proxy that helps characterize the alluviation and associated sedimentological processes of the abandoned channels. The classic statistical methods of the grain-size analysis provide insufficient information on the whole distribution; this necessitates a more comprehensive approach. Grain-size endmember modeling (EMM) is one approach beyond the traditional procedures that helps unmix the GSDs. This study describes the changes in the depositional process by unmixing the GSDs of a Holocene abandoned channel through parameterized EMM integrated with lithofacies, age–depth model, loss-on-ignition (LOI), and magnetic susceptibility (MS). This approach effectively enabled the quantification and characterization of up to four endmembers (EM1-4); the characteristics of grain-size endmembers imply changes in sedimentary environments since 8000 BP. EM1 is mainly clay and very fine silt, representing the fine component of the distribution corresponding to the background of quiet water sedimentation of the lacustrine phase. EM2 and EM3 are the intermediate components representing the distal overbank deposits of the flood. EM4 is dominated by coarse silt and very fine sand, representing deposition of overbank flow during the flood periods. This paper demonstrates that the parametrized grain-size EMM is reasonable in characterizing abandoned channel infill sedimentary depositional and sedimentation history.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-10-25
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040044
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 45: The 2022 Mw 6.1 Pasaman Barat, Indonesia
Earthquake, Confirmed the Existence of the Talamau Segment Fault Based on
Teleseismic and Satellite Gravity Data
Authors: Bondan Galih Dewanto, Ramadhan Priadi, Leni Sophia Heliani, Al Shida Natul, Muhammad Yanis, Indranova Suhendro, Admiral Musa Julius
First page: 45
Abstract: A Mw 6.1 earthquake on 25 February 2022, at around 8:39 a.m. local time, struck Pasaman Barat Regency, West Sumatra, Indonesia, and was felt in Singapore and Malaysia. The hypocenter of this earthquake was 12 km deep and preceded by an Mw 4.9 foreshock a few minutes earlier. The earthquakes originated on a blind fault and triggered a landslide at Mount Talamau. Herein, the slip distribution and asperities along the plane fault during the earthquake were examined by teleseismic inversion and the fault location was identified by Global Gravity Model plus (GGMPlus) satellite gravity data. The slip distribution was calculated from the source parameters (strike: 136°; dip: 70°; rake: 174°) by inversion techniques based on teleseismic data. Based on the slip distribution, the earthquake was generated by stress from the Sianok fault that spread to the north and reached the uncertain fault segment in the Talamau area. In addition, the results of the First Horizontal Derivative and Second Vertical Derivative from the GGMplus data revealed a straight Simple Bouguer Anomaly pattern, confirming the existence of the uncertain Talamau fault as part of the Great Sumatra Fault. This work shows the potential application of the combination of teleseismic and gravity observation for delineating the fault structure that caused the 2022 Mw 6.1 Pasaman earthquake, which can also be applied to other locations of similar geological backgrounds.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-11-02
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040045
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 46: Late-Holocene Sediment Storage in Upland
Valley Systems in the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia
Authors: Alemayehu Kasaye Tilahun, Gert Verstraeten, Margaret Chen, Guchie Gulie, Femke Augustijns, Ward Swinnen
First page: 46
Abstract: Part of the eroded soil material from the hillslopes is temporarily stored on hillslopes and in river valleys as colluvial and alluvial storage, respectively. This storage component of a catchment’s sediment budget is an important archive reflecting past erosion and sediment delivery processes in relation to both natural and anthropogenic environmental changes. Information on long-term sediment dynamics (i.e., centennial to millennial timescales) is generally lacking for tropical mountain environments. Here, we quantify long-term floodplain sediment storage and sedimentation dynamics in the Gamo highlands of the southern Ethiopia Rift Valley. In two upstream catchments (Chencha and Dembelle), a detailed survey of the floodplain sediment archive was conducted through hand augering of 37 cross-valley transects. Sediment thicknesses vary between 4 and 8 m and total storage equals 0.03 Mt ha−1 floodplain area for the Chencha area and 0.05 Mt ha−1 floodplain area for the Dembelle area. Radiocarbon dating of organic material retrieved from the sediment archives provided a temporal framework for interpretation of sedimentation processes dynamic. The mean sedimentation rate in the Chencha floodplain is ~3.22 ± 0.33 kt ha−1 catchment area, whereas it is ~3.76 ± 0.22 kt ha−1 catchment area for the Dembelle floodplain. Up to 70% of the total sediment mass is stored in the floodplains within the most recent 2000 years. Cumulative probability function plots of radiocarbon dates show that sedimentation started to increase from ca 2000 to ca 1600 cal BP, roughly coincident with an increase in human presence, as is indicated through archaeological data.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-11-04
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040046
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 47: Comparison of High-Resolution 14C and
Luminescence-Based Chronologies of the MIS 2 Madaras Loess/Paleosol
Sequence, Hungary: Implications for Chronological Studies
Authors: Pál Sümegi, Dávid Molnár, Sándor Gulyás, Thomas Stevens, László Makó, Péter Cseh, Mihály Molnár, Kathryn Fitzsimmons, Janina J. Nett, Dmytro Hlavatskyi, Frank Lehmkuhl
First page: 47
Abstract: Numerous loess/paleosol sequences (LPS) in the Carpathian Basin span the period of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2 and the last glacial maximum (LGM). Nevertheless, only two known records—Madaras and Dunaszekcső—preserve highly resolved records with absolute chronologies with minimal uncertainties, which enable the meaningful assessment of feedbacks and short-term climatic fluctuations over this period. The Madaras profile is located at the northern margin fringe of the Bácska loess plateau; Dunaszekcső, located on the Danube to its west, yields a chronology built on over 100 14C dates yet spans only part of MIS 2, missing half of the LGM including its peak. Here, we add to the previously published 14C chronology for Madaras (15 dates) with an additional 17 14C and luminescence ages. Resulting age models built solely on quartz OSL and feldspar pIRIRSL data underestimate the 14C based chronology, which is likely based on inaccuracies related to luminescence signal behavior; we observe age underestimations associated with unusual quartz behavior and significant signal loss, a phenomenon also observed in Serbian and Romanian loess, which may relate to non-sensitized grains from proximal sources. Our new chronology provides higher resolution than hitherto possible, yielding consistent 2 sigma uncertainties of ~150–200 years throughout the entire sequence. Our study indicates that the addition of further dates may not increase the chronological precision significantly. Additionally, the new age model is suitable for tackling centennial-scale changes. The mean sedimentation rate based on our new age-depth model (10.78 ± 2.34 years/cm) is the highest yet recorded in the Carpathian Basin for MIS 2. The resolution of our age model is higher than that for the Greenland NGRIP ice core record. The referred horizons in our profile are all characterized by a drop in accumulation and a higher sand input, the latter most likely deriving from nearby re-exposed sand dunes.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-11-10
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040047
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 48: Geochemistry and Sedimentology of a
Minerotrophic Peat in a Western Mediterranean Mountain Wilderness Area
Authors: Vladimir Goutiers, Christopher Carcaillet
First page: 48
Abstract: Sedimentological and biogeochemical measurements were conducted on minerotrophic peat in a wilderness area on a granitic plateau to reconstruct the local ecosystem’s history and clarify the peat’s response to local and global changes. The peat is less than 1900 years old. Its clay and iron (Fe) concentration profiles revealed an increasing atmospheric influx over time, whereas the levels of its nutrients (P, K, Ca, Mg) have increased since the 19th century. Additionally, changes in the relative abundance of amorphous aluminium indicated a gradual decrease in soil weathering. The dominant metallic trace elements were cadmium during the Roman epoch and early Middle Ages, then lead and mercury during the modern and the industrial eras. Unexpectedly, the peat proved to be sub-modern and lacks wildfire proxies, probably indicating an absence of nearby woodlands over the last 1900 years. Its concentrations of Ca and Mg indicate that airborne transport of particles released by soil erosion in lowland agricultural plains has strongly affected the peat’s composition since the 18th–19th century. The site has also been heavily influenced by metallic contamination due to regional metallurgy and agriculture, producing a peat that has been modified by social imprints over several centuries.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-11-21
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040048
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 49: Paleoenvironmental Changes for the Last 3000
Cal Years BP in the Pueyrredón Lake Basin, Southern Patagonia,
Argentina
Authors: Maria A. Marcos, Florencia P. Bamonte, Marcos E. Echeverria, Gonzalo D. Sottile, Maria V. Mancini
First page: 49
Abstract: Patagonian shrub and ecotonal communities were sensitive to past environmental changes and thus may also be affected by future ones. Therefore, their paleoecological study constitutes a valuable tool to understand the way in which these plant communities respond to the forcings responsible for environmental variability. The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the vegetation dynamics of the Pueyrredón Lake area (47°25′55′′ S; 72°0.7′7′′ W) for the last 3000 cal yr BP and to contextualize these changes in a regional paleoclimatic framework. The results indicate that at the beginning of the 2900 cal yr BP, the vegetation in the northwest of Santa Cruz, Argentinian Patagonia, was represented by a grass-shrub steppe associated with forest–shrub steppe ecotonal elements. This information correlates with the larger-scale environmental inferences described for the period, which indicate an increase in moisture availability due to the weakening of the westerly winds. A marked change to arid conditions is indicated in the last 1050 cal yr BP, with the establishment and development of different shrub steppe communities and the lack of ecotonal elements. Although vegetation was sensitive to changes in moisture conditions related to the variability of the westerly winds, there is evidence of differences in the composition of shrub vegetation regarding the sequences analyzed. Variations in pollen proportions of the shrub steppes in the Pueyrredón Lake area suggest that changes in vegetation are not only due to climate variability but also local factors in the areas where shrub communities grow. The integration of the information with other Patagonian sequences allowed to frame these changes in a regional context. The results obtained provide useful information to understand the way vegetation changed in the past and the manner in which it may respond to future changes.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-12-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040049
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 50: Palaeoenvironment, Settlement, and Land Use
in the Late Neolithic—Bronze Age Site of Colombare di Negrar di
Valpolicella (N Italy, On-Site)
Authors: Umberto Tecchiati, Paola Salzani, Fiorenza Gulino, Barbara Proserpio, Chiara Reggio, Cristiano Putzolu, Eleonora Rattighieri, Eleonora Clò, Anna Maria Mercuri, Assunta Florenzano
First page: 50
Abstract: Palynological and archaeobotanical analyses have been carried out as part of the interdisciplinary project of Colombare di Negrar, a prehistoric site in the Lessini Mountains (northern Italy). The palaeoenvironmental and economic reconstruction from the Late Neolithic to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age was based on 16 pollen samples and three samples of macroremains taken from two contiguous trenches. The landscape reconstruction shows the presence of natural clearings in the wood. Forest cover was characterised by oak wood, with Ulmus and Tilia. The intermediate morphology of size and exine of Tilia cordata/platyphyllos pollen may be regarded as the first palynological evidence of lime hybrids in palaeorecords. Hygrophilous trees and Vitis vinifera testify to the presence of riparian forests and moist soils. Among trees supplying fruits, in addition to the grapevine, hazelnut (Corylus avellana) and walnut (Juglans regia) were present. A mixed economy based on animal breeding and cultivation of cereals (Hordeum vulgare, Triticum monococcum, T. dicoccum, T. timopheevii) emerged from the data. The combined analysis of pollen and plant macroremains suggests that different activities were carried out simultaneously in Colombare and a relationship between natural resources and the socio-economic and cultural evolution of the territory.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-12-05
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040050
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 51: Preservation of Mammalian Teeth and Bones
Influences Identification of Terminal Pleistocene to Middle Holocene
Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence at Ban Rai Rockshelter, Northwest Thailand
Authors: Athiwat Wattanapituksakul, Rasmi Shoocongdej, Cyler Conrad
First page: 51
Abstract: Ban Rai Rockshelter in northwest Thailand, dating to the Terminal Pleistocene and Middle Holocene, includes evidence for hunter-gatherer exploitation of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and arthropods. Abundant faunal remains, identified throughout site deposits, include macaques (Macaca sp.) and Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor), but these identifications are influenced by an assemblage largely comprised of preserved tooth elements and fragmented bone. Area 3 at Ban Rai has the largest abundance and diversity of faunal remains recovered and identified in this study. Here, we examine the zooarchaeological assemblage from Ban Rai Rockshelter, to understand long-term hunter-gatherer subsistence change, influenced by site preservation, during and after the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. Our results support the presence of the exploitation of arboreal taxa during the Early and Middle Holocene in northwest Thailand.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-12-06
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040051
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 52: Lateglacial to Mid-Holocene Vegetation
History in the Eastern Vale of Pickering, Northeast Yorkshire, UK: Pollen
Diagrams from Palaeolake Flixton
Authors: Ian G. Simmons, Gaynor E. Cummins, Barry Taylor, James B. Innes
First page: 52
Abstract: Palaeolake Flixton, in the eastern Vale of Pickering in northeast Yorkshire, UK, existed as open water during the Lateglacial and early to mid-Holocene, until hydroseral succession and gradual terrestrialisation changed it to an area of fen and basin peatland by the later mid-Holocene. The environs of the lake were occupied by Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic people over thousands of years and many Early Mesolithic sites, in particular, have been found located along the ancient lake edge, including the paradigm site for the British Early Mesolithic at Star Carr, where occupation occurred over several centuries. We have analysed eleven sediment cores, distributed in most parts of the palaeolake area, for pollen and stratigraphic data with which to reconstruct lake development and vegetation history. These new diagrams augment earlier pollen studies from the western part of the lake, particularly in the Star Carr area and near other major Mesolithic sites around Seamer Carr. Especially informative are a long core from the deepest part of the lake; cores that document the Lateglacial as well as early Holocene times, and evidence for the later Mesolithic that helps to balance the high density of Late Mesolithic sites known from research in the adjacent uplands of the North York Moors. There are many records of charcoal in the deposits but, especially for the earliest examples, it is not always possible to tie them firmly to either human activity or natural causes. Overall, the new and previously existing diagrams provide evidence for the spatial reconstruction of vegetation history across this important wetland system, including (a) for the progression of natural community successions within the wetland and on the surrounding dryland (b) the influence of climate change in bringing about changes in woodland composition and (c) for discussion of the possibility of human manipulation of the vegetation in the Late Upper Palaeolithic, Early and Late Mesolithic. Results show that climate was the main driver of longer-term vegetation change. Centennial-scale, abrupt climate events caused significant vegetation reversals in the Lateglacial Interstadial. The Lateglacial vegetation was very similar throughout the lake hinterland, although some areas supported some scrubby shrub rather than being completely open. Immigration and spread of Holocene woodland taxa comprised the familiar tree succession common in northern England but the timings of the establishment and the abundance of some individual tree types varied considerably around the lake margins because of edaphic factors and the effects of fire, probably of human origin. Woodland successions away from proximity to the lake were similar to those recorded in the wider landscape of northern England and produced a dense, homogenous forest cover occasionally affected by fire.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-12-08
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040052
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 53: Hyperspectral Core-Logging for Past Primary
Productivity Assessment
Authors: Antonin Van Exem, Maxime Debret, Yoann Copard, Kévin Jacq, Charles Verpoorter, Stéphane Marcotte, Benoit Laignel, Boris Vannière
First page: 53
Abstract: Past primary productivity is tracked in lake sediments to reconstruct environmental changes. However, the resolution of the routinely used destructive techniques is not suitable for the analysis of a large number of samples due to cost. Non-destructive analysis of chlorophyll-a performed by hyperspectral imagery enables the quick determination of indices of past primary productivity. Eighteen indices used in paleo-environmental reconstruction were inventoried to define the best index capable of tracking chlorophyll-a by this technique. All the indices were applied to hyperspectral data measured on the sediment of Lake Bresson, in which detrital organic matter input is likely to skew chlorophyll-a identification, and the results were compared with concentrations measured by a routinely used destructive analysis. The 18 indices all produced a different result and only three indices were positively correlated with chlorophyll-a concentrations (n = 28, p < 0.0001). The detrital organic matter impacts chlorophyll-a characterization and shows the bias produced by the sediment matrix variations. Moreover, artificial modification of the sediment matrix revealed an impact of the mineral phase. To tackle this issue, the indices are normalized by two proxies of the sediment components. This new approach reduces the impact of detrital organic matter, hence the sediment matrix variations also reduce the normalization of the chlorophyll-a indices by a specific proxy of the mineral phase. These results identify the impact of local geochemical features that limit past primary productivity assessment and show the necessity of characterizing the sediment composition prior to tracking the chlorophyll-a by hyperspectral imaging.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-12-12
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040053
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 54: Landscape Response to Dynamic Human Pressure
in the Paliouras Lagoon, Halkidiki Peninsula, Macedonia, Greece
Authors: Lucrezia Masci, Cristiano Vignola, Georgios C. Liakopoulos, Katerina Kouli, Olga Koukousioura, Elina Aidona, Matthias Moros, Konstantinos Vouvalidis, Adam Izdebski, Alessia Masi
First page: 54
Abstract: High-resolution pollen analysis of a sediment core recovered from Paliouras lagoon (Greece) allowed us to reconstruct the environmental dynamics of the Halkidiki peninsula during the last 4000 years. Palynological results have been interpreted and compared with detailed historical data, showing distinct phases of human-landscape interactions from the Bronze Age until recent times. Pollen spectra revealed an environment characterized by Mediterranean vegetation, mixed deciduous forest, and pine stands from the Late Bronze Age until the 11th century CE. The first signs of human impact were attested during the Archaic period with the cultivation of Olea, Castanea, and Vitis in the inland of the study area. An intensive land management was highlighted by arboriculture and cereal cultivation (Secale and Hordeum group) in Roman times. Late Antique-Early Medieval times coincided with less human pressure due to warfare-related crises, leading to the expansion of the forest and the abandonment of fields colonized by Amaranthaceae. A massive increase in pastoral activities, suggested by the high percentages of Cichorieae during the Ottoman period, is possibly linked to the significant demographic growth of the nearby city of Thessaloniki in the 16th century CE.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-12-16
DOI: 10.3390/quat5040054
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 4 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 29: Middle Holocene Environment on the Ozark
Margin in Southeast Missouri: Deciphering a Testudine Testament
Authors: James J. Krakker, Linda A. Krakker
First page: 29
Abstract: Turtle taxa represented at Lepold site 23RI59 in southeastern Missouri, USA provide a record of environmental conditions spanning the Middle Holocene. Identified turtle taxa show that open water was present between 7500 and 4000 radiocarbon years ago. Aquatic resources seem to be more intensively exploited beginning about 6300 years ago, about 1200 years after intensive occupation of the site had begun. The observed turtle taxon composition is consistent with the presence of a floodplain with shallow, seasonal, overflow ponds, but with riverine and upland habitats also being represented.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-06-29
DOI: 10.3390/quat5030029
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 3 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 30: On the Use of Spores of Coprophilous Fungi
Preserved in Sediments to Indicate Past Herbivore Presence
Authors: Claire M. Lee, Bas van van Geel, William D. Gosling
First page: 30
Abstract: Fungal spores that grew on the faeces of herbivores in the past can be extracted from sediments and used to identify the presence of herbivores in former ecosystems. This review: (i) examines the factors that should be considered when interpreting these fungal spores, (ii) assesses the degree to which they can be used to estimate past herbivore populations and biomass density change, and (iii) identifies gaps in our current understanding that limit, or confound, the information that can be extracted from the fungal spore record. We focus on the life cycles of coprophilous fungi and highlight the importance of understanding spore dispersal mechanisms to ensure robust palaeoecological interpretation. We then discuss how variation in methodological approaches across studies and modifications can influence comparability between studies. The key recommendations that emerge relate to: (i) improving our understanding of the relationship between spores of coprophilous fungi (SCF) and herbivores through the study of the coprophilous fungi succession; (ii) refining our understanding of how climate and environment parameters effect fungal spore abundance, with particular reference to estimating past herbivore biomass density; and (iii) enhancing sedimentary DNA (SedaDNA) analysis to identify SCF that do not allow preservation in a way that allows visual identification. To further this field of study and provide more robust insights into herbivores in the past, we suggest that additional research is required to help to reduce bias during the preparation process, that concertation metrics are used for the quantification of SCF, and that multiple cores should be taken in each site and multiproxy analysis should be utilised.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-06-29
DOI: 10.3390/quat5030030
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 3 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 31: Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Birds of
Northern Vietnam (Caves Dieu and Maxa I, Thanh Hoa
Province)—Paleornithological Results of the Joint
Bulgarian-Vietnamese Archaeological Expeditions, 1985–1991
(Paleoavifaunal Research)
Authors: Boev
First page: 31
Abstract: The examined material (207 bones and bone fragments) of 53 avian taxa from two human cave dwellings is dated between 24,000 ± 1000 BP and 9400 ± 100 BP. It reveals that 49.0% of the bird species/taxa disappeared from the recent bird fauna of the Thanh Hoa Province; 39.6% disappeared from the recent bird fauna of North Vietnam (except Thanh Hoa Province); 33.9% disappeared from the recent bird fauna of Vietnam (except North Vietnam); 28.3% are not extant in the recent bird fauna of Indochina (except Vietnam); and 52.8% disappeared from the recent bird fauna of Southeast Asia (except Indochina). This suggests more considerable influence of the Late Pleistocene climatic events on the environment and bird fauna than previously accepted in the Eastern part of the Indochinese peninsula in the last 24–millenia. The gallinaceous birds are best represented. Of the 39 Southeast-Asian species, 18 species/taxa (46.2 percent) are Galliforms. They consist of 34 percent of all bird taxa recorded in both caves. Four categories of the IUCN Red List have been represented among the established birds in the sites: LC—28, NT—7, VU—2 (Buceros bicornis and Rhyticeors undulates), and CR—2 (Lophura edwardsi and Rhinoplax vigil).
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-07-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat5030031
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 3 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 32: When the Land Sings: Reconstructing
Prehistoric Environments Using Evidence from Quaternary Geology and
Geomorphology, with Examples Drawn from Fluvial Environments in the Nile
and Son Valleys
Authors: Martin Williams
First page: 32
Abstract: Geomorphic evidence from rivers and lakes can help explain past changes in the locations of archaeological sites as well as environmental and climatic changes in their catchment areas. Examples drawn from the Blue and White Nile valleys in northeast Africa and from the Son and Belan valleys in north-central India reveal how Quaternary climatic fluctuations in the headwaters of these rivers are reflected in changes in river channel patterns downstream as well as in the type of sediment transported. Soils and sediments that contain prehistoric and historic artefacts can be analysed to show the type of environment in which the artefacts accumulated. Beds of volcanic ash may preserve former landscapes and their fossil remains and can provide a synchronous time marker against which to assess changes in the archaeological record. The pattern and tempo of past sea level fluctuations has controlled the distribution of coastal archaeological sites and helps to explain the absence of certain Holocene Neolithic sites in southeast Asia. Disturbance of archaeological sites by plants and animals, especially termites in tropical regions, can affect the stratigraphic and chronological integrity of the site.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-07-18
DOI: 10.3390/quat5030032
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 3 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 33: Disasters and Society: Comparing the Shang
and Mycenaean Response to Natural Phenomena through Text and Archaeology
Authors: Alexander Jan Dimitris Westra, Changhong Miao, Ioannis Liritzis, Manolis Stefanakis
First page: 33
Abstract: Disasters do and have happened throughout human existence. Their traces are found in the environmental record, archaeological evidence, and historical chronicles. Societal responses to these events vary and depend on ecological and cultural constraints and opportunities. These elements are being discovered more and more on a global scale. When looking at disasters in antiquity, restoring the environmental and geographical context on both the macro- and microscale is necessary. The relationships between global climatic processes and microgeographical approaches ought to be understood by examining detailed societal strategies conceived in response to threatening natural phenomena. Architectural designs, human geography, political geography, technological artefacts, and textual testimony are linked to a society’s inherited and real sense of natural threats, such as floods, earthquakes, fires, diseases, etc. The Shang and Mycenaean cultures are prime examples, among others, of Bronze Age societies with distinctive geographical, environmental, and cultural features and structures that defined their attitudes and responses to dangerous natural phenomena, such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, and drought. By leaning on two well-documented societies with little to no apparent similarities in environmental and cultural aspects and no credible evidence of contact, diffusion, or exchange, we can examine them free of the onus of diffused intangible and tangible cultural features. Even though some evidence of long-distance networks in the Bronze Age exists, they presumable had no impact on local adaptive strategies. The Aegean Sea and Yellow River cultural landscapes share many similarities and dissimilarities and vast territorial and cultural expansions. They have an apparent contemporaneity, and both recede and collapse at about the same time. Thus, through the microgeography of a few select Shang and Mycenaean sites and their relevant environmental, archaeological, and historical contexts, and through environmental effects on a global scale, we may understand chain events of scattered human societal changes, collapses, and revolutions on a structural level.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-07-25
DOI: 10.3390/quat5030033
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 3 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 34: A Review of Event Deposits in Lake Sediments
Authors: Pierre Sabatier, Jasper Moernaut, Sebastien Bertrand, Maarten Van Daele, Katrina Kremer, Eric Chaumillon, Fabien Arnaud
First page: 34
Abstract: Event deposits in lake sediments provide invaluable chronicles of geodynamic and climatic natural hazards on multi-millennial timescales. Sediment archives are particularly useful for reconstructing high-impact, low-frequency events, which are rarely observed in instrumental or historical data. However, attributing a trigger mechanism to event deposits observed in lake sediments can be particularly challenging as different types of events can produce deposits with very similar lithological characteristics, such as turbidites. In this review paper, we summarize the state of the art on event deposits in paleolimnology. We start by describing the sedimentary facies typical of floods, glacial lake outburst floods, avalanches, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and spontaneous delta collapses. We then describe the most indicative methods that can be applied at the scale of lake basins (geophysical survey, multiple coring) and on sediment cores (sedimentology, inorganic and organic geochemistry, biotic approach). Finally, we provide recommendations on how to obtain accurate chronologies on sediment cores containing event deposits, and ultimately date the events. Accurately identifying and dating event deposits has the potential to improve hazard assessments, particularly in terms of the return periods, recurrence patterns, and maximum magnitudes, which is one of the main geological challenges for sustainable worldwide development.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-08-03
DOI: 10.3390/quat5030034
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 3 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 35: Late Pleistocene Geomorphic Evolution of
Authors: Konstantinos Tsanakas, Giannis Saitis, Niki Evelpidou, Efthimios Karymbalis, Anna Karkani
First page: 35
Abstract: Combined with eustatic sea-level changes, uplifted Quaternary marine terraces provide insight into the tectonics of coastal areas. Cephalonia Island lies 35 km off the western coast of mainland Greece and 15 km northeast of the Hellenic subduction zone. Late Pleistocene eustatic sea-level oscillations and the long-term tectonic movements are imprinted on the landscape of the southern part of the island, in the form of seven uplifted marine terraces. In the present study we aim to identify and map in detail these terraces, applying Digital Elevation Model analysis, utilizing Geographic Information Systems techniques and extensive fieldwork. The GIS-based analysis combined with field geomorphological observations revealed a sequence of seven marine terraces at the southern part of the main island ranging in elevation between 4 m and 176 m asl. Microscope, petrological and microgeomorphological analyses on two caprock samples suggest strong marine influence during the deposition of the sediments covering the marine terraces. The age of the formation of the 32 m marine terrace was assigned to the MIS 3e, based on OSL dating of a caprock sample, and an average uplift rate of 1.4 ± 0.35 mm a−1 was calculated for the last 61 ± 5.5 ka. Assuming a uniform uplift rate for the Late Pleistocene allowed us to correlate the marine terrace with the sea-level highstands and constrain their ages.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-08-06
DOI: 10.3390/quat5030035
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 3 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 36: Saltwater Intrusion of Coastal Karstic
Aquifer on the Example of the Boljkovac Water Supply Pumping Station near
Zadar, Croatia
Authors: Ranko Biondić, Lucija Plantak, Ana-Maria Radovan, Hrvoje Meaški
First page: 36
Abstract: Numerous coastal karst springs of the Mediterranean region have problems with salinization. Salinization usually occurs during summer dry periods as a result of long droughts and excessive pumping for water supply. The Boljkovac water supply pumping station has slightly increased parameters that indicate the possibility of salinization during the dry summer periods, but the main salinization occurs post heavy rains which appear after long dry periods in the fall, winter, and spring. Due to the occasional occurrence of salinization, continuous monitoring of the aquifer by depth was set up at the piezometric well drilled near the water supply pumping station. The results of the monitoring were analyzed in relation to external factors that can negatively affect the disruption of the labile dynamic balance of salt and fresh water. The analyzed external factors are the pumping rate for the water supply, the amount of precipitation, surface flow and the interaction of surface water and groundwater, as well as the sea level changes. In Croatia, and the wider Mediterranean area, there are a large number of springs and water wells that have the same or similar problems, so the results of this analysis can be used in designing monitoring and setting up management systems for these coastal aquifers.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-08-27
DOI: 10.3390/quat5030036
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 3 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 37: Mid-Late Quaternary Fluvial Archives near
the Margin of the MIS 12 Glaciation in Southern East Anglia, UK:
Amalgamation of Multi-Disciplinary and Citizen-Science Data Sources
Authors: Peter Allen, David R. Bain, David R. Bridgland, Paul Buisson, Jan-Pieter Buylaert, Rachel Bynoe, William H. George, B. Andrew Haggart, David J. Horne, Ellen-May Littlewood, Alan R. Lord, Anna C. March, Ian Mercer, Rosalind Mercer, Andrew S. Murray, Kirsty E. H. Penkman, Richard C. Preece, John Ratford, Danielle C. Schreve, Andrew J. R. Snelling, Kadri Sohar, John Whittaker, Mark J. White, Tom S. White
First page: 37
Abstract: This paper presents an updated geological reconstruction of the Quaternary evolution of the River Thames at its downstream extremities, close to the North Sea coast, based on new data from multi-disciplinary and citizen-science sources. In this area, the interaction of the Thames with the MIS 12 (Anglian) glaciation is an important part of the Quaternary archive. The Anglian ice sheet, which reached parts of north and east London, was responsible for diverting the Thames southwards into its present course, although the footprint of the maximum ice sheet(s) does not reach the North Sea coast south of Hollesley, Suffolk. Further south, the coastal zone hosts pre-Anglian and early Anglian river-terrace deposits of the pre-diversion Thames system, superimposed upon which are products of later post-Anglian rivers, of both Middle and Late Pleistocene age. On the peninsula between the Stour and Blackwater–Colne estuaries, the lowest and most recent terrace of the pre-diversion Thames includes evidence directly pertaining to the glacial disruption event, for which geochronological data are reported here for the first time. The first post-diversion terrace of the Thames also reaches this peninsula, the river having essentially re-joined its original valley before crossing the alignment of the modern coastline. This terrace passes beneath Clacton-on-Sea, where it includes the type locality of the Clactonian Palaeolithic Industry. The area of interest to this paper, in NE Essex and southern Suffolk, includes a number of interglacial and Palaeolithic sites, the data from which assist in constraining the chronostratigraphy of the sequence. In some cases, there has been uncertainty as to whether these sites represent pre-Anglian environments and hominin occupations, part of the palaeo-Thames sequence, or whether they are the product of later post-Anglian streams, formed after the Thames had migrated southwards. This paper compiles evidence from a wide range of recent sources, including developer-funded archaeological appraisal and citizen-science activities, to explore and update the evidence from sites at Ipswich, Upper Dovercourt and Thorpe-le-Soken, as well as a number of localities associated with the Clacton Channel Deposits (host to the type-Clactonian), amongst others. The resulting new data are placed within the wider context of the Quaternary fluvial archives in southern Britain, with a discussion of how disparate sources of information, including the work of citizen scientists, have contributed.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-09-03
DOI: 10.3390/quat5030037
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 3 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 38: Old World Fossil Equus (Perissodactyla,
Mammalia), Extant Wild Relatives, and Incertae Sedis Forms
Authors: Vera Eisenmann
First page: 38
Abstract: Discussion of the phylogenetic relations between Plesippus, Allohippus, and Equus. Descriptions and illustrations of 30 Equid extant and fossil species younger than 2 Ma. Particular attention is given to slender forms with short protocones usually referred to ‘Equus altidens’ from Süssenborn and Untermassfeld (Germany), Akhalkalaki and Dmanisi (Georgia), Pirro (Italy), Venta Micena (Spain) and Aïn Hanech (Algeria). Occurrence of Asinine features in fossil taxa from Africa, Greece, Mongolia, and North-Eastern Siberia. Supplementary materials include additional discussions and photographs of fossils in particular from Süssenborn (especially those referred to E. altidens and E. marxi by Reichenau) and from Dmanisi from where a new species is described.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-09-11
DOI: 10.3390/quat5030038
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 3 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 19: Synchronous or Not' The Timing of the
Younger Dryas and Greenland Stadial-1 Reviewed Using Tephrochronology
Authors: Simon A. Larsson, Malin E. Kylander, A. Britta K. Sannel, Dan Hammarlund
First page: 19
Abstract: The exact spatial and temporal behaviour of rapid climate shifts during the Last Glacial–Interglacial Transition are still not entirely understood. In order to investigate these events, it is necessary to have detailed palaeoenvironmental reconstructions at geographically spread study sites combined with reliable correlations between them. Tephrochronology, i.e., using volcanic ash deposits in geological archives as a dating and correlation tool, offers opportunities to examine the timing of events across wider regional scales. This study aims to review the posited asynchrony of the Younger Dryas stadial in comparison with Greenland Stadial-1 by correlating new proxy data from southernmost Sweden to previous palaeoclimate reconstructions in Europe based on the presence of the Hässeldalen Tephra, the Vedde Ash, and the Laacher See Tephra. μ-XRF core-scanning data were projected using a recently published age–depth model based on these tephras and several radiocarbon dates, and compared to previous findings, including by adapting previous chronologies to the recently proposed earlier date of the Laacher See Tephra (13,006 ± 9 cal. a BP). Although the results to some extent support the idea of a more synchronous Younger Dryas event than previously assumed, this issue requires further high-resolution proxy studies to overcome limitations of temporal precision.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-04-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat5020019
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 2 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 20: Geoarchaeological Analyses of a
Late-Copper-Age Kurgan on the Great Hungarian Plain
Authors: Péter Cseh, Dávid Molnár, László Makó, Pál Sümegi
First page: 20
Abstract: Kurgans are the custodians of outstanding archaeological, natural and environmental-historical value in the lowland landscape of Eastern Europe, which has been continuously transformed over millennia by agricultural activity. Their protection and study are, therefore, essential. By comparative soil and sedimentological analysis of the soil levels buried during the kurgans’ construction, the levels of buried soil, and the recent surface soil, we can gain information on the environmental changes of the second half of the Holocene; we can also gain information about how the activity of humans, even in the case of prehistoric cultures, can cause changes in the soil and environment on a local scale, beyond the regional scale. The aim of our research was to conduct a geoarchaeological examination of the Császárné Mound, which is one of the kurgans in the Hungarian Great Plain. For this purpose, sedimentological analyses (grain size distribution, magnetic susceptibility measurements), a pollen analysis, and a malacological analysis were carried out on the samples from the Császárné Mound. The complex geoarchaeological investigation of the mound allowed us to distinguish three different construction layers in the kurgan’s soil material. Besides the archaeological results, we were able to reconstruct steppe-like environmental conditions before and during construction in the local surroundings of the kurgan.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-04-03
DOI: 10.3390/quat5020020
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 2 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 21: Correction: Konidaris et al. Dating of the
Lower Pleistocene Vertebrate Site of Tsiotra Vryssi (Mygdonia Basin,
Greece): Biochronology, Magnetostratigraphy, and Cosmogenic Radionuclides.
Quaternary 2021, 4, 1
Authors: George E. Konidaris, Dimitris S. Kostopoulos, Matteo Maron, Mirjam Schaller, Todd A. Ehlers, Elina Aidona, Mattia Marini, Vangelis Tourloukis, Giovanni Muttoni, George D. Koufos, Katerina Harvati
First page: 21
Abstract: The authors wish to make the following corrections to their paper [...]
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-04-08
DOI: 10.3390/quat5020021
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 2 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 22: The Evolution of an Ancient Coastal Lake
(Lerna, Peloponnese, Greece)
Authors: Efterpi Koskeridou, Danae Thivaiou, Christos Psarras, Evangelia Rentoumi, Niki Evelpidou, Giannis Saitis, Alexandros Petropoulos, Chryssanthi Ioakim, George Katopodis, Konstantinos Papaspyropoulos, Spyros Plessas
First page: 22
Abstract: Degradation of coastal environments is an issue that many areas in Europe are facing. In the present work, an ancient coastal lake wetland is investigated, the so-called Lake Lerna in NE Peloponnese, Greece. The area hosted early agricultural populations of modern Greece that started modifying their environment as early as the early–middle Neolithic. Two drill cores in the area of the ancient lake were analysed to establish the sedimentological succession and the depositional environments using sub-fossil assemblages (molluscs and ostracods). Three lithological and faunal units were recovered, the latter being confirmed by the statistical ordination method (non-metric multidimensional scaling). The usage of sub-fossil mollusc species for the first time in the region enriched the dataset and contributed significantly to the delimitation of the faunas. These consist of environments characterised by various levels of humidity (from stagnant waters to freshwater lake) and salinity, with ephemeral intrusions of salt water to the lake, documented by mollusc and ostracod populations. We conclude that the lake and its included fauna and flora were mostly affected by climatic fluctuations rather than human intervention in the area.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-04-08
DOI: 10.3390/quat5020022
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 2 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 23: Late-Glacial and Holocene Lake-Level
Fluctuations on the Kenai Lowland, Reconstructed from Satellite-Fen Peat
Deposits and Ice-Shoved Ramparts, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Authors: Edward E. Berg, Darrell S. Kaufman, R. Scott Anderson, Gregory C. Wiles, Thomas V. Lowell, Edward A. D. Mitchell, Feng Sheng Hu, Alan Werner
First page: 23
Abstract: Recent decades of warmer climate have brought drying wetlands and falling lake levels to southern Alaska. These recent changes can be placed into a longer-term context of postglacial lake-level fluctuations that include low stands that were as much as 7 m lower than present at eight lakes on the Kenai Lowland. Closed-basin lakes on the Kenai Lowland are typically ringed with old shorelines, usually as wave-cut scarps, cut several meters above modern lake levels; the scarps formed during deglaciation at 25–19 ka in a kettle moraine topography on the western Kenai Lowland. These high-water stands were followed by millennia of low stands, when closed-basin lake levels were drawn down by 5–10 m or more. Peat cores from satellite fens near or adjoining the eight closed-basin lakes show that a regional lake level rise was underway by at least 13.4 ka. At Jigsaw Lake, a detailed study of 23 pairs of overlapping sediment cores, seismic profiling, macrofossil analysis, and 58 AMS radiocarbon dates reveal rapidly rising water levels at 9–8 ka that caused large slabs of peat to slough off and sink to the lake bottom. These slabs preserve an archive of vegetation that had accumulated on a lakeshore apron exposed during the preceding drawdown period. They also preserve evidence of a brief period of lake level rise at 4.7–4.5 ka. We examined plant succession using in situ peat sequences in nine satellite fens around Jigsaw Lake that indicated increased effective moisture between 4.6 and 2.5 ka synchronous with the lake level rise. Mid- to late-Holocene lake high stands in this area are recorded by numerous ice-shoved ramparts (ISRs) along the shores. ISRs at 15 lakes show that individual ramparts typically record several shove events, separated by hundreds or thousands of years. Most ISRs date to within the last 5200 years and it is likely that older ISRs were erased by rising lake levels during the mid- to late Holocene. This study illustrates how data on vegetation changes in hydrologically coupled satellite-fen peat records can be used to constrain the water level histories in larger adjacent lakes. We suggest that this method could be more widely utilized for paleo-lake level reconstruction.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-04-08
DOI: 10.3390/quat5020023
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 2 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 24: Quaternary Evolutionary Stages of Selinitsa
Cave (SW Peloponnese, Greece) Reveal Sea-Level Changes Based on 3D
Scanning, Geomorphological, Biological, and Sedimentological Indicators
Authors: Isidoros Kampolis, Stavros Triantafyllidis, Vasilios Skliros, Evangelos Kamperis
First page: 24
Abstract: Significant evolutionary stages of Selinitsa Cave (SW Peloponnese, Greece) were revealed by 3D mapping, as well as geomorphological study of the cave and the nearby landscape. Four marine terraces were identified in the area of the coastal cave at 6, 10.7, 16.6, and 30–32 m above sea level (asl), with the terrace at 16.6 m representing Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5. The widest karstified space of Selinitsa Cave clusters between 15.73 and 18.05 m above sea level (asl), with the peak lying at 16.4 m asl, corresponding to the level where the phreatic/epiphreatic zone was stable for a sufficient period of time. A tidal notch at 16.4 m asl at the cave entrance is correlated to the marine terrace at 16.6 m. Both features correspond to the sea-level stand at which intense karstification occurred. The tidal notch bears a horizontal arrangement of Lithophaga borings at the vertex. Sedimentological investigation of the Selinitsa fine-grained deposit revealed the paleohydrologic regime of the cave. It is characterized by “slack-water” facies, indicating very low water flow speeds, whereas the thickness of the deposit points to stable hydrological conditions for prolonged periods. The cave sediment height of 18.8 m asl indicates a flooding level higher than sea level. The overlying Plattenkalk flysch is most probably the major source of detritus, and the predominance of authigenic dolomite (>98% modal in the carbonate fraction) indicates a hyposaline environment related to mixing of sea water with percolating fresh water. The approach of this study shows the significance of 3D mapping, bio-geo-Relative Sea Level (RSL) indicators, and sedimentology in deciphering the paleogeographic evolution of coastal karstic systems and subsequently defining the paleoclimate regime of coastal areas in Greece and the eastern Mediterranean during the Late Quaternary.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-04-16
DOI: 10.3390/quat5020024
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 2 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 25: Weather, Land and Crops in the Indus Village
Model: A Simulation Framework for Crop Dynamics under Environmental
Variability and Climate Change in the Indus Civilisation
Authors: Andreas Angourakis, Jennifer Bates, Jean-Philippe Baudouin, Alena Giesche, Joanna R. Walker, M. Cemre Ustunkaya, Nathan Wright, Ravindra Nath Singh, Cameron A. Petrie
First page: 25
Abstract: The start and end of the urban phase of the Indus civilization (IC; c. 2500 to 1900 BC) are often linked with climate change, specifically regarding trends in the intensity of summer and winter precipitation and its effect on the productivity of local food economies. The Indus Village is a modular agent-based model designed as a heuristic “sandbox” to investigate how IC farmers could cope with diverse and changing environments and how climate change could impact the local and regional food production levels required for maintaining urban centers. The complete model includes dedicated submodels about weather, topography, soil properties, crop dynamics, food storage and exchange, nutrition, demography, and farming decision-making. In this paper, however, we focus on presenting the parts required for generating crop dynamics, including the submodels involved (weather, soil water, land, and crop models) and how they are combined progressively to form two integrated models (land water and land crop models). Furthermore, we describe and discuss the results of six simulation experiments, which highlight the roles of seasonality, topography, and crop diversity in understanding the potential impact of environmental variability, including climate change, in IC food economies. We conclude by discussing a broader consideration of risk and risk mitigation strategies in ancient agriculture and potential implications to the sustainability of the IC urban centres.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-05-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat5020025
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 2 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 26: Novel Combined Approach of GIS and
Electrical Tomography to Identify Marsh/Lake at Kastrouli Late Mycenaean
Settlement (Desfina, Greece)
Authors: Ioannis Liritzis, Niki Evelpidou, Ilias Fikos, Alexandros Stambolidis, Nectaria Diamanti, Theano Roussari, Maria Tzouxanioti, Prodromos Louvaris, Gregorios N. Tsokas
First page: 26
Abstract: The Kastrouli Late Bronze settlement in Phocis province, central Greece, has been proved to have been an important center in the periphery of the Mycenaean palaces. It was reused at least partially and was cultivated until the 20th century. The presence of a flat area off the Kastrouli hill and the seasonal flooding nowadays led to the present investigation, questioning the formation of an ancient lake or marsh/swamp. A methodological approach was applied combining the digital elevation model (DEM) and GIS of the wider and confined area, examining slopes between 0 and 5 degrees (0 and 8.75%), with electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) traverses of around 300 and 500 m, reaching a depth of 100 m. The ERT data were rapidly collected on profiles and provided a cross-sectional (2D) plot. It was found that, in the area, there is a basin with a length of 100 m and a depth of around 40–50 m. The sedimentation process over the millennia has filled the basin, with the upper 5–6 m surface layers of the area having a low resistivity. The presence of two natural sinkholes with apparent engineered hydraulic works is noted to conform to drainage and produce a habitable environment, protecting the cultivated land and avoiding a swamp associated with health issues.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-05-04
DOI: 10.3390/quat5020026
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 2 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 27: Ecological and Wildfire Responses to Rapid
Landscape Changes within the Last ~900 Years on the South Haven Peninsula,
Dorset (Southern England)
Authors: Daniel Howlett, Sabine Wulf, Scarlett Wharram, Mark Hardiman, Harry Byrne
First page: 27
Abstract: A multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental dataset (LOI, pollen, charcoal, grain sizes and the humification index) was extracted and radiocarbon dated from a sedimentary sequence from Spur Bog, central South Haven Peninsula (Dorset, southern England) to reconstruct ecological and environmental changes within the last ~900 years. These analyses reveal highly unstable environmental conditions at the site, evidencing the occurrence of multiple, often rapid changes during this period. The results significantly expand upon the existing palaeoenvironmental and geomorphological frameworks of the South Haven Peninsula which previously relied upon sparse, vague historical records prior to ~1750 AD. The multi-proxy dataset of Spur Bog sediments recorded a primary “development” phase (~1150–1470 AD) during which marine processes were the dominant control upon environmental conditions at the site, resulting in marked geomorphological changes that lead to the progressive eastward expansion of the South Haven Peninsula. This is followed by a secondary “maturation” phase (~1470–1880 AD) during which the Spur Bog sequence exhibits significant ecological changes in response to fluctuations in sea level, coastal erosion and human activity, demonstrating the vulnerability of the site to future climatic and anthropogenic pressures.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-05-04
DOI: 10.3390/quat5020027
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 2 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 28: Theoretical Principles and Perspectives of
Hyperspectral Imaging Applied to Sediment Core Analysis
Authors: Jacq, Debret, Fanget, Coquin, Sabatier, Pignol, Arnaud, Perrette
First page: 28
Abstract: Hyperspectral imaging is a recent technology that has been gaining popularity in the geosciences since the 1990s, both in remote sensing and in the field or laboratory. Indeed, it allows the rapid acquisition of a large amount of data that are spatialized on the studied object with a low-cost, compact, and automatable sensor. This practical article aims to present the current state of knowledge on the use of hyperspectral imaging for sediment core analysis (core logging). To use the full potential of this type of sensor, many points must be considered and will be discussed to obtain reliable and quality data to extract many environmental properties of sediment cores. Hyperspectral imaging is used in many fields (e.g., remote sensing, geosciences and artificial intelligence) and offers many possibilities. The applications of the literature will be reviewed under five themes: lake and water body trophic status, source-to-sink approaches, organic matter and mineralogy studies, and sedimentary deposit characterization. Afterward, discussions will be focused on a multisensor core logger, data management, integrated use of these data for the selection of sample areas, and other opportunities. Through this practical article, we emphasize that hyperspectral imaging applied to sediment cores is still an emerging tool and shows many possibilities for refining the understanding of environmental processes.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-06-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat5020028
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 2 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 2: A 1900 Year Sediment Record Suggests Recent
Establishment of Black Mangrove (Avicennia Germinans) Stands within a Salt
Marsh in St. Augustine, Florida, USA
Authors: Jessica Chamberlin, Camryn Soehnlein, Jason Evans, Benjamin Tanner
First page: 2
Abstract: Salt marshes and mangroves are currently being affected by rising temperatures. Mangroves thrive below −29° N latitude in Florida, USA, and have a low tolerance for extreme cold events, whereas salt marshes dominate further north. One potential effect of climate change is a reduction in the frequency of extreme cold events, which may lead to mangrove expansion into salt marsh systems. Our research identified sediment proxy indicators of salt marsh and mangrove environments. These indicators were applied to soil cores from intertidal wetlands near the current northern limit of mangrove presence on the east coast of Florida, to determine if mangrove expansion into salt marsh environments has precedence in the deeper past. Our findings suggest that mangrove and salt marsh sediments can be distinguished using a combination of stable carbon isotope ratios of sedimentary organic matter and macroscopic plant fragments, and our results showed that a mangrove stand that we cored established only recently. This result is consistent with other work in the southeastern United States that suggests that mangroves established at the current boreal limit only recently after the end of the Little Ice Age, and that the current mangrove expansion may be fueled by anthropogenic climate change.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-01-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010002
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 3: Characterization of the Obsidian Used in the
Chipped Stone Industry in Kendale Hecala
Authors: Üftade Muşkara, Ayşin Konak
First page: 3
Abstract: Kendale Hecala is located on the Ambar River in the Upper Tigris Basin, province of Diyarbakır in Southeast Anatolia. Various raw materials, including obsidian, radiolarite, chert, jasper, chalcedony, and quartzite, were used in the lithic industry. Obsidian artefacts constitute an average of 64% of the chipped stone assemblage. Technological analysis reveals that obsidian was brought to the settlement as nodules and chipped into various tools at the settlement. Understanding the operational sequence of the lithic industry, chaîne opératoire, including the distribution of raw material from source to site, is important to demonstrate the socio-cultural organization of the settlement in Southeastern Anatolia during the Ubaid period. In order to identify source varieties, the obsidian artefacts uncovered from Ubaid layers of Kendale Hecala were analyzed by macro-observations, and the characterization of archaeological samples was performed using a handheld XRF. Multivariate analysis of the data indicates the use of obsidian from different resources at the settlement, including Nemrut Dağ, Bingöl B, and Group 3d.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-01-07
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010003
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 4: The Microvertebrates of Shanidar Cave:
Preliminary Taphonomic Findings
Authors: Emily Tilby, Preston Miracle, Graeme Barker
First page: 4
Abstract: Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan, is one of the most important Palaeolithic sites in Southwest Asia. This is due to the long sequence of hominin occupation of the cave and the discovery of multiple Neanderthal individuals from the original Solecki excavations (1951–1960) and recent excavations (2014 to present). Preliminary taphonomic analyses of the microvertebrate assemblage were undertaken to understand the factors affecting assemblage formation and accumulation, and this paper presents the first results of these analyses. All contexts display a high proportion of fragmentation, with a slight decrease in breakage towards the base of the sequence. Black staining and root etching were observed in a similar pattern, present in most contexts but with an increase in the lower levels. A significant proportion of the microvertebrate remains examined displayed light traces of digestion, indicating some contribution to the assemblage by predators. The results are consistent with wider palaeoecological records that indicate relatively warm, wet conditions at the base of the sequence and cooler, drier conditions at the top.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-01-10
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010004
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 5: Digital Deforestation: Comparing Automated
Approaches to the Production of Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) in Agisoft
Metashape
Authors: Matthew D. Howland, Anthony Tamberino, Ioannis Liritzis, Thomas E. Levy
First page: 5
Abstract: This paper tests the suitability of automated point cloud classification tools provided by the popular image-based modeling (IBM) software package Agisoft Metashape for the generation of digital terrain models (DTMs) at moderately-vegetated archaeological sites. DTMs are often required for various forms of archaeological mapping and analysis. The suite of tools provided by Agisoft are relatively user-friendly as compared to many point cloud classification algorithms and do not require the use of additional software. Based on a case study from the Mycenaean site of Kastrouli, Greece, the mostly-automated, geometric classification tool “Classify Ground Points” provides the best results and produces a quality DTM that is sufficient for mapping and analysis. Each of the methods tested in this paper can likely be improved through manual editing of point cloud classification.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-01-14
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010005
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 6: Along the Rivers and into the Plain: Early
Crop Diversity in the Central and Western Balkans and Its Relationship
with Environmental and Cultural Variables
Authors: Anne de Vareilles, Dragana Filipović, Djurdja Obradović, Marc Vander Linden
First page: 6
Abstract: Agriculture is a complex and dynamic socio-ecological system shaped by environmental, economic, and social factors. The crop resource pool is its key component and one that best reflects environmental limitations and socio-economic concerns of the farmers. This pertains in particular to small-scale subsistence production, as was practised by Neolithic farmers. We investigated if and how the environment and cultural complexes shaped the spectrum and diversity of crops cultivated by Neolithic farmers in the central-western Balkans and on the Hungarian Plain. We did so by exploring patterns in crop diversity between biogeographical regions and cultural complexes using multivariate statistical analyses. We also examined the spectrum of wild-gathered plant resources in the same way. We found that the number of species in Neolithic plant assemblages is correlated with sampling intensity (the number and volume of samples), but that this applies to all archaeological cultures. Late Neolithic communities of the central and western Balkans exploited a large pool of plant resources, whose spectrum was somewhat different between archaeological cultures. By comparison, the earliest Neolithic tradition in the region, the Starčevo-Körös-Criş phenomenon, seems to have used a comparatively narrower range of crops and wild plants, as did the Linearbandkeramik culture on the Hungarian Plain.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-01-15
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010006
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 7: Palaeogeographical Reconstruction of Ancient
Diolkos Slipway by Using Beachrocks as Proxies, West Corinth Isthmus,
Greece
Authors: Giannis Saitis, Anna Karkani, Niki Evelpidou, Hampik Maroukian
First page: 7
Abstract: Beachrocks are well known as significant proxies for paleoenvironmental analysis as they indicate the coastal evolution. The combination of geomorphological and archaeological sea level indicators has a significant contribution to the coastal paleogeographic reconstruction. In this study, we studied a beachrock from the Diolkos area (West Corinth canal, Greece) and remnants of Diolkos slipway to reconstruct the coastal evolution before Diolkos construction until today. We conducted detailed mapping of Diolkos beachrock using DGPS-GNSS, as well as mineralogical analysis and OSL dating of beachrock samples. The results showed that a beachrock slab was preserved before the construction of Diolkos below it, followed by its submergence by a co-seismic event after Diolkos abandonment during 146 B.C. Consequently, a new beachrock was developed on top of the submerged Diolkos around 120 ± 14 A.D. The RSL was stable until 1596 ± 57 A.D. when the beachrock developed even closer to the present-day coastline. After 1596 A.D., it was uplifted by 12 cm until it reached today’s condition.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-01-18
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010007
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 8: A Late Holocene Stable Isotope and Carbon
Accumulation Record from Teringi Bog in Southern Estonia
Authors: Nathan D. Stansell, Eric S. Klein, Kristyn Hill, Jaanus Terasmaa, Justin Dodd, Maxwell Boes, Mariliis Eensalu, Carolyn Fortney, Annabella Fritts, Roxana Garcia, Brittany Price, Brandy Swanson
First page: 8
Abstract: Radiocarbon-dated peat cores collected from an ombrotrophic bog in southern Estonia record shifting environmental conditions and carbon accumulation rates in northern Europe during the late Holocene. Modern observations indicate that the water balance of the peatland is highly influenced by changes in relative humidity, followed by temperature and precipitation. The modern δ18O and δ2H values of surface water suggest that the groundwater is an integration of several months of precipitation. There also appears to be little or no direct influence of surface evaporation on the water within the bog, suggesting that water loss is preferentially through transpiration and sub-surface flow. Bulk peat δ13C values exhibit a trend of higher values through the late Holocene, suggesting a pattern of overall increased surface wetness. The δ15N values were low from ~4130 to 3645 cal yr BP, suggesting drier conditions, followed by intermediate values until ~2995 cal yr BP. The δ15N values decrease again from ~2995 to 2470 cal yr BP, suggesting a return to drier conditions, followed by intermediate values until ~955 cal yr BP. The δ15N values were high, suggesting wetter conditions from ~955 to 250 cal yr BP, followed by intermediate values through the modern. Carbon accumulation rates were low to intermediate from ~4200 to 2470 cal yr BP, followed by intermediate-to-high values until ~1645 cal yr BP. Carbon accumulation rates were then low until ~585 cal yr BP, followed by intermediate values through the modern. The geochemical data, combined with observed changes in peat composition and regional proxies of temperature and water table fluctuations through the late Holocene, suggest that carbon accumulation rates were relatively low under dry and warm conditions, whereas accumulation was generally higher (up to ~80 g C m−2 yr−1) when the climate was wetter and/or colder. These findings further suggest that future environmental changes affecting the regional water balance and temperature will impact the potential for northern peatlands to capture and store carbon.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-02-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010008
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 9: Reconstructing Paleoflood Occurrence and
Magnitude from Lake Sediments
Authors: Bruno Wilhelm, Benjamin Amann, Juan Pablo Corella, William Rapuc, Charline Giguet-Covex, Bruno Merz, Eivind Støren
First page: 9
Abstract: Lake sediments are a valuable archive to document past flood occurrence and magnitude, and their evolution over centuries to millennia. This information has the potential to greatly improve current flood design and risk assessment approaches, which are hampered by the shortness and scarcity of gauge records. For this reason, paleoflood hydrology from lake sediments received fast-growing attention over the last decade. This allowed an extensive development of experience and methodologies and, thereby, the reconstruction of paleoflood series with increasingly higher accuracy. In this review, we provide up-to-date knowledge on flood sedimentary processes and systems, as well as on state-of-the-art methods for reconstructing and interpreting paleoflood records. We also discuss possible perspectives in the field of paleoflood hydrology from lake sediments by highlighting the remaining challenges. This review intends to guide the research interest in documenting past floods from lake sediments. In particular, we offer here guidance supported by the literature in how: to choose the most appropriate lake in a given region, to find the best suited sedimentary environments to take the cores, to identify flood deposits in the sedimentary sequence, to distinguish them from other instantaneous deposits, and finally, to rigorously interpret the flood chronicle thus produced.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-02-01
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010009
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 10: Acknowledgment to Reviewers of Quaternary in
2021
Authors: Quaternary Editorial Office Quaternary Editorial Office
First page: 10
Abstract: Rigorous peer-reviews are the basis of high-quality academic publishing [...]
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-02-08
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010010
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 11: Understanding the Impact of Trampling on
Rodent Bones
Authors: Yolanda Fernández-Jalvo, Lucía Rueda, Fernando Julian Fernández, Sara García-Morato, María Dolores Marin-Monfort, Claudia Ines Montalvo, Rodrigo Tomassini, Michael Chazan, Liora K. Horwitz, Peter Andrews
First page: 11
Abstract: Experiments based on the premise of uniformitarism are an effective tool to establish patterns of taphonomic processes acting either before, or after, burial. One process that has been extensively investigated experimentally is the impact of trampling to large mammal bones. Since trampling marks caused by sedimentary friction strongly mimic cut marks made by humans using stone tools during butchery, distinguishing the origin of such modifications is especially relevant to the study of human evolution. In contrast, damage resulting from trampling on small mammal fossil bones has received less attention, despite the fact that it may solve interesting problems relating to site formation processes. While it has been observed that the impact of compression depends on the type of substrate and dryness of the skeletal elements, the fragility of small mammal bones may imply that they will break as a response to compression. Here, we have undertaken a controlled experiment using material resistance compression equipment to simulate a preliminary experiment, previously devised by one of us, on human trampling of owl pellets. Our results demonstrate that different patterns of breakage can be distinguished under wet and dry conditions in mandibles, skulls and long bones that deform or break in a consistent way. Further, small compact bones almost always remain intact, resisting breakage under compression. The pattern obtained here was applied to a Pleistocene small mammal fossil assemblage from Wonderwerk Cave (South Africa). This collection showed unusually extensive breakage and skeletal element representation that could not be entirely explained by excavation procedures or digestion by the predator. We propose that trampling was a significant factor in small mammal bone destruction at Wonderwerk Cave, partly the product of trampling caused by the raptor that introduced the microfauna into the cave, as well as by hominins and other terrestrial animals that entered the cave and trampled pellets covering the cave floor.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-02-10
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010011
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 12: Neanderthal Fossils, Mobile Toolkit and a
Hyena Den: The Archaeological Assemblage of Lateral Gallery 1 in Cova Del
Gegant (NE Iberian Peninsula)
Authors: Joan Daura, Montserrat Sanz, Manuel Vaquero, Juan Manuel López-García, Hugues-Alexandre Blain, Antonio Sánchez Marco
First page: 12
Abstract: Lateral Gallery 1 (GL1) in Cova del Gegant is a Middle Palaeolithic assemblage yielding diagnostic Neanderthal remains, together with Mousterian tools and faunal remains. It is a good archive for evaluating the environmental conditions of the coastal areas during MIS 4 and MIS 3 in the NE of the Iberian Peninsula, and also the Neanderthals’ behaviour and mobility. Here we provide a comprehensive assessment of all of the data available from GL1, such as lithics, human remains, fauna and chronostratigraphic details. The biotic ecofacts studied point to the development of a coastal plain in front of the cave and indicate that local conditions likely favoured a large variety of ecosystems characterised by open environments and woodland-edge taxa, and favoured repeated visits by humans during the Middle Palaeolithic. The evidence suggests that the gallery was mainly used by carnivores, such as hyenas, and also by Neanderthals as a brief stopping place, in view of the presence of transported and abandoned ergonomic lithic artifacts and/or the placement of bodies (or parts of bodies). The regional context suggests high human mobility and emphasises the variability of Neanderthal behaviour.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-02-18
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010012
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 13: Evolution of the Upper Reaches of Fluvial
Authors: Andrey Panin, Olga Borisova, Vladimir Belyaev, Yuri Belyaev, Ekaterina Eremenko, Yulia Fuzeina, Elena Sheremetskaya, Aleksey Sidorchuk
First page: 13
Abstract: The headwaters of fluvial systems on the East European Plain between the boundaries of the Marine Isotope Stage 2 (MIS 2) and MIS 6 glaciations evolved during the last 150,000 years. At least three main events of high surface runoff caused intensive erosion: at the end of MIS 6, at the end of MIS 2 and in the Middle Holocene. Erosion developed in the territory with variable resistance of geological substrate, from hard-to-erode tills to weak sandy deposits. All erosional features in moraines formed in the pre-Holocene time. Even relatively large forms, such as balkas (small dry valleys), have not yet reached concave longitudinal profiles. A general tendency of their development was deepening. Short episodes of incision occurring during climatic events with increased water flow alternated with long periods of stabilization. Sand-covered areas are most favorable for linear erosion. The gullies formed in the Middle Holocene developed concave longitudinal profiles. The diversity of catchment areas, initial slope inclinations and sediment properties causing their resistance to erosion led to greater differences in the relief features and evolution of the upper reaches of the fluvial systems within the MIS 6 glaciation area compared to the more uniform landscape conditions in the extraglacial regions.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-02-22
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010013
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 14: Defining Fragmentation Patterns of
Archaeological Bone Remains without Typologies: A Landmark-Based Approach
on Rodent Mandibula
Authors: Marine Durocher, Sandrine Grouard, Violaine Nicolas, Renan Maestri, Allowen Evin
First page: 14
Abstract: Fragmentation is a recurring feature of archaeological faunal material, and impacts many aspects of zooarchaeological studies from taxonomical identification to biometric studies. It can result from anthropic and natural actions that occurred respectively before and/or after bone deposit. While several bone fragmentation typologies have been described, they are currently based on both macroscopic observations and researcher subjectivity and lack the universality necessary for inter-study comparisons. To fulfill this need we present a standardized landmark-based protocol for the description and quantification of mandibular fragmentation patterns, using two insular rodents of different sizes as models. The rice rats (Oryzomyini tribe) and the agouti (Dasyprocta) from the Lesser Antilles were abundant during the pre-Columbian Ceramic Age (500 BCE-1500 CE). Their mandibles’ shapes were quantified using the coordinates of 13 2D-landmarks. We show that landmark-based measurements can be used to:—assess the preservation differences between taxa of the same taxonomic group (e.g., rodents),—estimate the level of preservation of a skeletal part (e.g., mandible),—describe fragmentation patterns without pre-existing typologies and—facilitate the application of geometric morphometric methods to fragmented archaeological material. Our novel approach, leveraging fragmentation analyses and establishing specific fragmentation patterns, frees itself from existing typologies and could be systematically applied to future research.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-03-02
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010014
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 15: Macroscopic Chop Mark Identification on
Archaeological Bone: An Experimental Study of Chipped Stone, Ground Stone,
Copper, and Bronze Axe Heads on Bone
Authors: Tiffany R. Okaluk, Haskel J. Greenfield
First page: 15
Abstract: This paper presents a new macroscopic method for identifying chop marks on archaeological faunal assemblages and highlights the major differences in the morphology of chop marks created by stone and metal axes. The method provides macroscopic criteria that aid in the identification of both complete and incomplete chop mark types as well as the raw material of the axe. Experiments with modern stone (chipped and ground) and metal (copper and bronze) axes found that the degree of fragmentation within a chop mark is related to both the width and sharpness of the axe and can be classed on a scale from 1–5 using a variety of criteria. The experiments demonstrate that sharp chipped stone axes are fragile (often break upon impact) and do not create clean and well-defined chop marks. Ground stone axes are more durable but tend to create very fragmented chop marks without a clean cut (sheared) surface. Unalloyed copper metal axes can create sheared chopped surfaces; however, the relatively soft metal creates more crushing at the point of entry than bronze axes. In contrast, bronze axes are durable and create chop marks with exceptionally low rates of fragmentation resulting in a clean-cut sheared surface that extends into the bone for more than 3 mm. The method is applied to the faunal assemblage from the Early Bronze Age site of Göltepe, Turkey to determine whether the chop marks on bones were made by stone or metal axes at this early metal processing settlement. The results suggest that many of the chop marks were made by metal implements (e.g., axes). Hence, this method provides another means to monitor the adoption rates of new raw materials at a time when both metal and stone axes coexisted.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-03-02
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010015
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 16: Contextual, Taphonomic, and Paleoecological
Insights from Anurans on Tiwanaku Sites in Southern Peru
Authors: Juliana Rubinatto Serrano, Maria Camila Vallejo-Pareja, Susan D. deFrance, Sarah I. Baitzel, Paul S. Goldstein
First page: 16
Abstract: We examine the processes that resulted in the deposition of bones of at least three anuran genera on four archaeological sites associated with the Tiwanaku culture occupied between 700–1100 CE in the Moquegua Valley of far southern Peru. We review archaeological data and ethnographic accounts of Andean peoples using frogs and toads for food and in rain-quest rituals. Anuran bones are common in prehispanic cemeteries, but far less common in habitational and ceremonial sites. The quantity of anuran remains in certain cemeteries is anomalous in comparison to other archaeological sites in the valley and to Tiwanaku sites in other geographic settings. We conclude that anurans are most common where abandoned below-ground rock-covered tombs are likely to have been reused by nesting owls, and propose that most anuran remains in archaeological contexts in Moquegua are the result of predation. We consider environmental, cultural and taphonomic explanations and posit that the abundance of anuran remains relates to the 14th-century Miraflores ENSO event. This event generated increased rainfall in the desert, creating conditions favorable for frogs and toads, and predation by owls. We also advocate for the use of fine-screening to recover small-sized animal remains, such as anurans, that can be used to understand taphonomic processes and paleoenvironmental conditions.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-03-07
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010016
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 17: Extreme Body Size Variation in Pleistocene
Dwarf Elephants from the Siculo-Maltese Palaeoarchipelago: Disentangling
the Causes in Time and Space
Authors: Matthew Edward Scarborough
First page: 17
Abstract: The phenomenon of insular dwarfism in proboscideans is particularly well represented on the Siculo-Maltese Palaeoarchipelago, an island group on which a species complex of palaeoloxodont elephants evolved during the Middle-Late Pleistocene. This likely included three species from Malta, four from Sicily (and possibly its palaeo-islands), and one from Favignana Island, ranging in size from the 1 m-tall Palaeoloxodon falconeri to continental-sized 4m-tall P. antiquus. However, our understanding of the causes for extreme differences in body size among insular samples in such a small geographic region is still limited. Here, I document the full range in size of elephants from the palaeoarchipelago, and discuss the reasons for size differences on the three islands in time and space in relation to predation, competition, resource limitation, accelerated life history, and duration of isolation. Differences in size between larger and smaller Sicilian elephants from Luparello Fissure, as well as possibly also in P. ex gr. P. mnaidriensis from Puntali Cave, San Teodoro Cave, and Favignana Island, may relate to the duration of isolation, or alternatively environmental stressors associated with the Last Glacial Maximum in the case of the Favignana elephant. Additionally, small but significant differences in size observable in Middle Pleistocene P. ex gr. P. falconeri from different localities on Sicily, as well as in Maltese P. ‘melitensis’ may also relate to duration of isolation, highlighting the need for better geochronological data in order to better distinguish macro-ecological causes driving body size change from more subtle effects relating to duration of isolation.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-03-11
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010017
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
- Quaternary, Vol. 5, Pages 18: Late Quaternary Proboscidean Sites in Africa
and Eurasia with Possible or Probable Evidence for Hominin Involvement
Authors: Gary Haynes
First page: 18
Abstract: This paper presents a list of >100 publicly known late Quaternary proboscidean sites that have certain or possible traces of hominin utilization in Africa, Europe, and Asia, along with a sample of references, chronometric or estimated ages, and brief descriptions of the associated materials and bone modifications. Summary discussions of important sites are also presented. Lower Palaeolithic/Early Stone Age hominins created far fewer proboscidean site assemblages than hominins in later Palaeolithic phases, in spite of the time span being many times longer. Middle Palaeolithic/Middle Stone Age hominins created assemblages at eight times the earlier hominin rate. Upper Palaeolithic/Later Stone Age hominins created site assemblages at >90 times the rate of Lower Palaeolithic hominins. Palaeoloxodon spp. occur in nearly one third of the sites with an identified or probable proboscidean taxon and Mammuthus species are in nearly one half of the sites with identified or probable taxon. Other identified proboscidean genera, such as Elephas, Loxodonta, and Stegodon, occur in few sites. The sites show variability in the intensity of carcass utilization, the quantity of lithics bedded with bones, the extent of bone surface modifications, such as cut marks, the diversity of associated fauna, and mortality profiles.
Citation: Quaternary
PubDate: 2022-03-16
DOI: 10.3390/quat5010018
Issue No: Vol. 5, No. 1 (2022)
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