Burning, Cleaning, Dumping, and Dissolution: Site Formation Processes and Stratigraphy of Pre-110,000-Year-Old MSA l Deposits in Cave 1, Klasies River Main Site, South Africa

IF 1.4 3区 地球科学 0 ARCHAEOLOGY
Peter Morrissey, Sarah Wurz, Bertrand Ligouis, Susan M. Mentzer
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Abstract

Understanding the formation and stratigraphy of sequences in southern African Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites is vital for contextualizing evidence for the evolution of modern human behaviors and cognition. Deposits at these sites often have complex formation histories, typically involving a range of anthropogenic, geogenic, and biogenic depositional and post-depositional processes, and micro-laminated deposits are common. Consequently, archaeological micromorphology and related micro-analyses are now routinely a major component of MSA geoarchaeological research in the region. In the past few decades, microscale studies of the formation of anthropogenic features and deposits at MSA sites have begun to provide important behavioral information, including evidence for varying occupational intensities and the structuring and maintenance of living spaces. Here, a microscale geoarchaeological approach is applied to deposits dating to the MSA I cultural phase (> 110 ka) in the Cave 1 Witness Baulk. The results show that humans played a considerable role in site formation and that subsequent diagenesis affected the guano, charcoal, ash, and shell, with particular impact on the carbonates which were variably dissolved, altered, or recrystallized. This latter process helped to preserve ash through reduced dissolution potential. Spatial and temporal patterns in these factors influence the macroscopic properties of the deposits in any particular area, with significant implications for the correlation of extant deposits across areas excavated at low resolution during the 1960s. Different, variably preserved, anthropogenic features and deposits were found to make up a significant proportion of the deposits. Inferred behaviors range from repeated long-term low-intensity use of individually stacked hearths to the formation of dumped deposits (including shell middens) due to repeated hearth maintenance and patterned discarding of food waste during more intensive occupations. Differences in occupational intensity and frequency both within and between the two recognized MSA I members could indicate adaptation to changing conditions as temperatures and sea levels fluctuated during Marine Isotope Stage 5e and early Stage 5d, but changes in geogenic depositional rates over the same period could skew our perception of occupational frequency. The current limited and low-resolution dating evidence prevents correlation with any specific event/s, which might have affected behavior and/or depositional rates.

Abstract Image

了解南部非洲中石器时代(MSA)遗址序列的形成和地层学,对于确定现代人类行为和认知进化的证据至关重要。这些遗址的沉积物往往具有复杂的形成历史,通常涉及一系列人为、地质和生物沉积及沉积后过程,微层状沉积也很常见。因此,考古微观形态学和相关微观分析现已成为该地区澳门金沙线上领彩金网地质考古研究的常规主要内容。在过去的几十年里,对澳门金沙线上领彩金网遗址人为特征和沉积物形成的微观研究开始提供重要的行为信息,包括不同职业强度的证据以及生活空间的结构和维护。在此,我们将微尺度地质考古学方法应用于 1 号洞穴证人包克的澳门星际娱乐网址第一文化阶段(110 ka)的沉积物。研究结果表明,人类在遗址形成过程中发挥了重要作用,随后的成岩作用对鸟粪、木炭、灰烬和贝壳产生了影响,特别是对碳酸盐产生了影响,碳酸盐被不同程度地溶解、改变或重结晶。后一过程有助于通过降低溶解潜力来保存灰烬。这些因素的空间和时间模式影响着任何特定地区沉积物的宏观属性,对 20 世纪 60 年代低分辨率发掘地区现存沉积物的相关性具有重要影响。研究发现,不同的、保存不一的人为特征和沉积物在沉积物中占有很大比例。推断的行为包括长期反复低强度使用单独堆放的炉灶,以及在较高强度居住期间因反复维护炉灶和有规律地丢弃食物残渣而形成的倾倒沉积物(包括贝壳堆)。在海洋同位素第 5e 阶段和第 5d 阶段早期,由于气温和海平面的波动,两个公认的澳门金沙线上领彩金网第一期成员内部和之间的活动强度和频率存在差异,这可能表明它们适应了不断变化的条件,但同一时期地质沉积速率的变化可能会扭曲我们对活动频率的认识。目前有限和低分辨率的年代测定证据无法与任何可能影响行为和/或沉积速率的特定事件相关联。
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来源期刊
Geoarchaeology-An International Journal
Geoarchaeology-An International Journal 地学-地球科学综合
CiteScore
3.60
自引率
5.90%
发文量
51
审稿时长
>12 weeks
期刊介绍: Geoarchaeology is an interdisciplinary journal published six times per year (in January, March, May, July, September and November). It presents the results of original research at the methodological and theoretical interface between archaeology and the geosciences and includes within its scope: interdisciplinary work focusing on understanding archaeological sites, their environmental context, and particularly site formation processes and how the analysis of sedimentary records can enhance our understanding of human activity in Quaternary environments. Manuscripts should examine the interrelationship between archaeology and the various disciplines within Quaternary science and the Earth Sciences more generally, including, for example: geology, geography, geomorphology, pedology, climatology, oceanography, geochemistry, geochronology, and geophysics. We also welcome papers that deal with the biological record of past human activity through the analysis of faunal and botanical remains and palaeoecological reconstructions that shed light on past human-environment interactions. The journal also welcomes manuscripts concerning the examination and geological context of human fossil remains as well as papers that employ analytical techniques to advance understanding of the composition and origin or material culture such as, for example, ceramics, metals, lithics, building stones, plasters, and cements. Such composition and provenance studies should be strongly grounded in their geological context through, for example, the systematic analysis of potential source materials.
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