HolocenePub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1177/09596836231176486
L. Caruso Fermé, Ivana Leticia González Bagur
{"title":"3D digitization and archaeobotanical analysis of wooden artifacts","authors":"L. Caruso Fermé, Ivana Leticia González Bagur","doi":"10.1177/09596836231176486","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231176486","url":null,"abstract":"The study of wooden artifacts recovered in dry context is scarce. The objective of this work is to identify morphometric patterns in wooden artifacts and to evaluate their relationship with the technological manufacturing processes. To this end, wooden artifacts were analyzed from the site Cerro Casa de Piedra 7, through the 3D scanning, calculation of curvature directions and archaeobotanical analysis. These artifacts are associated to hunter-gatherer groups and different occupations of the early Holocene. The results obtained show, on the one hand, the efficiency of the use of these techniques in the analysis of wooden artifacts recovered in completely dry contexts. The use of 3D scanning techniques showed that they can improve the analysis of manufacturing traces and/or use of wooden artifacts and the possibility of simulating the obtained results by computer. On the other hand, they show the existence of morphometric patterns, sustained in time, which are related to the manufacturing of the artifacts from the Cerro Casa de Piedra 7. In summary, the archaeobotanical analysis methodology presented and developed in this work allows its application to the study of different woody materials regardless of their chronology and recovery site.","PeriodicalId":50402,"journal":{"name":"Holocene","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41950859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HolocenePub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1177/09596836231176497
I. Rivera-Collazo, S. Perdikaris
{"title":"Climate change, site formation, and indigenous use of coastlines in Barbuda","authors":"I. Rivera-Collazo, S. Perdikaris","doi":"10.1177/09596836231176497","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231176497","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the landscape dynamics at the island of Barbuda in the context of changing climate to understand (1) the environmental setting of indigenous settlements; (2) the impacts of current coastal processes; and (3) the potential threats moving forward toward increasing pressure of climate change. Focusing on the site of Seaview, on the east coast of Barbuda, we use geoarchaeological methods to reconstruct the ancient geomorphological setting, investigate changes post-abandonment, and identify the hazards faced under future sea-level projections. Our study shows that (1) sea level stabilization after the Mid-Holocene allowed the formation of coral reefs, seagrass beds and other benthic ecosystems that allowed for biogenic sediment accumulation and growth of sand dune retention ridges. (2) These environmental characteristics, including rich marine food sources, supported the establishment and flourishing of Seaview starting ca. 160 BC. (3) Occupation ended at some point between AD960 and 1000. This change coincided with a period of increased storminess, higher SSTs, and possible coral reef mortality that affected both food availability and sediment supply. (4) Lack of sediments triggered progressive sand dune erosion that continues today and has left the sand dune ridge past the tipping point of erosion. (5) Looking into a future of rapidly changing climate, sea level rise poses a severe and devastating threat to the land- and seascapes of Barbuda. With the lowland coastal plain at or only slightly above current sea level, a rate of SLR comparable to Mid-Holocene rates, and rapid loss of sand dune ridges and coral reefs as natural barriers, it is just a matter of time before the lowlands become transformed beyond recognition. The results of this analysis can be used to improve long-term management of the heritage resources of Barbudans and shed light on parallel challenges experienced on other tropical coastal locations.","PeriodicalId":50402,"journal":{"name":"Holocene","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44335655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HolocenePub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1177/09596836231176502
R. Blong, K. Fryirs, R. Wood, Fleur King, L. Schneider, Emilie Dotte-Sarout, S. Fallon, R. Gillespie, Qianyang Chen, R. Esmay
{"title":"Inherited age of floating charcoal fragments in a sand-bed stream, Macdonald River, NSW, Australia: Implications for radiocarbon dating of sediments","authors":"R. Blong, K. Fryirs, R. Wood, Fleur King, L. Schneider, Emilie Dotte-Sarout, S. Fallon, R. Gillespie, Qianyang Chen, R. Esmay","doi":"10.1177/09596836231176502","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231176502","url":null,"abstract":"Radiocarbon dates on multiple individual charcoal fragments floating together down the Macdonald River, New South Wales, Australia, have calibrated ages spanning >1700 years. Partial explanations of this range of inherited ages can be attributed to the inbuilt age of living biomass, charcoalisation conditions, hillslope transport and storage and/or valley floor (fluvial) transport and storage, but the contribution of each of these components can be constrained only rarely. These results caution against using radiocarbon dating of charcoal as the sole dating technique to interpret Late-Holocene sedimentary histories. These findings also show that it is unlikely that deposit age has a dependable relationship to charcoal age.","PeriodicalId":50402,"journal":{"name":"Holocene","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41985042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HolocenePub Date : 2023-08-04DOI: 10.1177/09596836231185839
Victor Lundström
{"title":"Living through changing climates: Temperature and seasonality correlate with population fluctuations among Holocene hunter-fisher-gatherers on the west coast of Norway","authors":"Victor Lundström","doi":"10.1177/09596836231185839","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231185839","url":null,"abstract":"The use of archaeological proxy records representative of population dynamics is paramount for a richer understanding of prehistoric cultural change, but its use require a dialectic assessment between proximate climatic drivers and ultimate cultural responses. Focusing on the Stone Age archaeological record of Western Norway (11,500–4300 cal. BP), this paper presents an exhaustive empirical curation and statistical testing between changing climates and demographic responses among coastal hunter-fisher-gatherers. The results connect long-term demographic fluctuations with changes in annual mean temperatures and seasonality and the results are discussed in relation changes in technology, subsistence and mobility. The paper also highlights the process of population decline and cultural loss towards the end of the Late Mesolithic (ca. 7000–6000 cal. BP) and emerging cultural novelties and population re-growth during the Early and Middle Neolithic (ca. 6000–4300 cal. BP). However, despite its strong correlation, the archaeological record of Western Norway lacks sufficient detail to ascribe an exclusive explanatory role to climate change, especially in episodes of significant population decline. This helps to emphasise that changing climates, while evidently central, form but a part of a larger system of interactions leading to demographic fluctuations and cultural change, the substantiation of which requires significant empirical improvements to the archaeological record.","PeriodicalId":50402,"journal":{"name":"Holocene","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43654948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HolocenePub Date : 2023-07-31DOI: 10.1177/09596836231185826
Rebecca Topness, R. Vachula, N. Balascio, W. D'Andrea, G. Pugsley, Moussa Dia, Martina T. Tingley, L. Curtin, S. Wickler, R. Anderson
{"title":"Northern Norway paleofire records reveal two distinct phases of early human impacts on fire activity","authors":"Rebecca Topness, R. Vachula, N. Balascio, W. D'Andrea, G. Pugsley, Moussa Dia, Martina T. Tingley, L. Curtin, S. Wickler, R. Anderson","doi":"10.1177/09596836231185826","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231185826","url":null,"abstract":"Paleofire records document fire’s response to climate, ecosystem changes, and human-activity, offering insights into climate-fire-human relationships and the potential response of fire to anthropogenic climate change. We present three new lake sediment PAH records and a charcoal record from the Lofoten Islands, Norway to evaluate the Holocene fire history of northern Norway and examine human impacts on fire in this region. All three datasets show an increase in PAH accumulation rate over the past c. 7500 cal years BP, with an increase c. 5000 cal years BP that signals initial human impacts on fire activity. More significant increases c. 3500 cal years BP reach a maximum c. 2000 cal years BP that correlates with the establishment and expansion of agricultural settlements in Lofoten during the Late Bronze Age and Pre-Roman Iron Age. Decreased PAH accumulation rates c. 1500–900 cal years BP reflect less burning during the Late Iron Age and early medieval period. A shift toward higher molecular weight PAHs and increasing PAHs overall from c. 1000 cal years BP to present, reflects intensified human activity. Sedimentary charcoal (>125 and 63–125 µm) in the Lauvdalsvatnet record does not vary until an increase in the last 900 years, showing a proxy insensitivity to human-caused fire. The Late-Holocene increase in fire activity in Lofoten follows trends in regional charcoal records, but exhibits two distinct phases of increased fire that reflect the intensity of burning due to human landscape changes that overwhelm the signal of natural variations in regional fire activity.","PeriodicalId":50402,"journal":{"name":"Holocene","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47334849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HolocenePub Date : 2023-07-30DOI: 10.1177/09596836231185830
M. Gjerde, Oddmund Løkensgard Hoel, A. Nesje
{"title":"The ‘Little Ice Age’ advance of Nigardsbreen, Norway: A cross-disciplinary revision of the chronological framework","authors":"M. Gjerde, Oddmund Løkensgard Hoel, A. Nesje","doi":"10.1177/09596836231185830","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231185830","url":null,"abstract":"This study presents a cross-disciplinary revision of the Little Ice Age (LIA) advance of Nigardsbreen glacier, an outlet from Jostedalsbreen ice cap in western Norway. The associated glacier foreland is characterised by a well-preserved moraine series succeeding the 1748 CE LIA culmination, and a robust age control of individual moraines exists from abundant historical written and pictorial information as well as extensive lichenometric studies. The retreat dynamics of Nigardsbreen ever since the LIA maximum extent was attained is considered well-known. The timing of initiation of the LIA advance and dynamics of the glacier growth prior to reaching its maximum extent, however, is less understood as any moraines predating 1748 CE have been subsequently overridden. Potential archives available for exploring the glacier advance are therefore mostly confined to historical data such as for example, tax records, paintings, and church books, which has resulted in a present-day consensus of the LIA onset of Nigardsbreen c. 1710 CE. However, we show that a lack of adequate critical analysis on the accuracy of published historical data has allowed erroneous ages of glacier terminus positions to manifest in literature, resulting in for example, overestimated glacial advance rates. Here, we combine a novel data set of local tax load directly reflecting glacial impact on farming productivity with a cross-disciplinary assessment of published historical data, including rejection of several data points of former glacier extents. As a result, we present a revised glacier length curve for the LIA advance of Nigardsbreen towards its maximum extent.","PeriodicalId":50402,"journal":{"name":"Holocene","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46289395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HolocenePub Date : 2023-07-30DOI: 10.1177/09596836231185836
A. de Vareilles, J. Woodbridge, R. Pelling, R. Fyfe, David Smith, G. Campbell, Wendy Smith, W. Carruthers, Stacey Adams, Karine le Hégarat, Lucy Allot
{"title":"The development of arable cultivation in the south-east of England and its relationship with vegetation cover: A honeymoon period for biodiversity?","authors":"A. de Vareilles, J. Woodbridge, R. Pelling, R. Fyfe, David Smith, G. Campbell, Wendy Smith, W. Carruthers, Stacey Adams, Karine le Hégarat, Lucy Allot","doi":"10.1177/09596836231185836","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231185836","url":null,"abstract":"The onset of prehistoric farming brought unprecedented changes to landscapes and their biodiversity. Past biodiversity patterns are broadly understood for different parts of Europe, and demonstrate trajectories that have been linked to prehistoric and historic demographic transitions, and associated land-use practices. To our knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to directly link evidence of agricultural practice from the archaeological record to biodiversity patterns. Records of fossil pollen are used to estimate plant and landscape diversity patterns, and novel approaches are employed to analyse 1194 harmonised archaeobotanical samples (plant macrofossil remains) spanning the prehistoric and Roman periods, from southern England. We demonstrate changes in the use of crops and gathered edible plants and non-linear trends in cultivation practices. Whilst, overall, cereal production is characterised by ever larger and extensive regimes, different trajectories are evident for most of early prehistory, the Middle Iron Age and the Late Roman period. Comparisons with the Shannon diversity of fossil pollen records from the same region suggest a positive relationship between developing agricultural regimes and landscape scale biodiversity during the prehistoric period. The Roman period represents a tipping point in the relationship between expanding agriculture and pollen diversity, with declining pollen diversity evident in the records from the region.","PeriodicalId":50402,"journal":{"name":"Holocene","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44828238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HolocenePub Date : 2023-07-29DOI: 10.1177/09596836231185827
Xiner Wu, Mathieu Lemay-Tougas, A. de Vernal, M. Garneau, B. Fréchette, T. Audet, C. Hillaire‐Marcel
{"title":"Multi-proxy reconstruction of climate changes in the Lower St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada, during the Middle and Late-Holocene","authors":"Xiner Wu, Mathieu Lemay-Tougas, A. de Vernal, M. Garneau, B. Fréchette, T. Audet, C. Hillaire‐Marcel","doi":"10.1177/09596836231185827","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231185827","url":null,"abstract":"The micropaleontological and palynological content, and geochemical and isotopic composition of a marine sediment core collected off Pointe-des-Monts in eastern Québec, Canada, reveal regional palaeoclimatic and paleoceanographic conditions in the Lower St. Lawrence Estuary over the last ~8200 years. The pollen and spore content allows comparison with the terrestrial palynostratigraphy, whereas dinoflagellate cysts and benthic foraminifera are used to reconstruct sea-surface conditions and bottom water properties, respectively. The dinocyst-based reconstructions indicate shifts between estuarine and oceanic conditions with important changes in sea-surface temperature, salinity, and primary productivity. Both the dinocyst assemblages and the quantitative sea-surface estimates highlight a distinct transition at ca. 4200 cal years BP. It is notably marked by a change towards higher salinity, which suggests reduced freshwater discharge, hence lower precipitation in the watershed, during the Late-Holocene. The isotopic composition (δ18O and δ13C) and assemblages of the benthic foraminifera indicate centennial to millennial frequency variability of bottom water properties, over a general trend towards decreasing temperatures and increasing ventilation from the beginning of the Middle Holocene until the last century. Since then, reverse trends with abrupt warming and decreasing dissolved oxygen content in bottom water have been observed.","PeriodicalId":50402,"journal":{"name":"Holocene","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45018244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HolocenePub Date : 2023-07-29DOI: 10.1177/09596836231185838
Krzysztof Ninard, Mateusz Stolarczyk, Piotr Łapcik, A. Uchman
{"title":"Buried Podzols as a pedostratigraphic marker for the Medieval Climatic Optimum: Grębociny soil in the dune deposits of the European Sand Belt","authors":"Krzysztof Ninard, Mateusz Stolarczyk, Piotr Łapcik, A. Uchman","doi":"10.1177/09596836231185838","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231185838","url":null,"abstract":"The paleopedological record documented in aeolian dunes of the eastern European Sand Belt comprises predominantly Arenosols and only occasionally well-developed Podzols. There are several Late Pleistocene pedostratigraphic marker horizons of varied soil types designated in the European dune and loess deposits, but none falls within the range of the Holocene. Buried Podzol occurrences found recently in 10 inland dune sites dispersed throughout Central and Eastern Poland share similar pedological properties, geomorphological setting, and age in the 5th–15th century AD range of the historical Middle Ages. Therefore, they meet the criteria for distinction as a pedostratigraphic marker under the name Grębociny soil, after a locality with the most advanced podzolization of the paleosol dated to the High Middle Ages (1000–1300 AD). Preservation of the soils was enabled by burial during anthropogenically induced dune remobilization. At least some of the investigated dunes were used as pasture during soil development, as evidenced by tetrapod hoofprints recorded in and above the buried Podzols. Prevalent podzolization during the Middle Ages, in contrast to preceding and later times, could be facilitated by not only an impact of agriculture and forestry, but also relative warmth and humidity of the Medieval Climatic Optimum (ca. 900–1400 AD).","PeriodicalId":50402,"journal":{"name":"Holocene","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47184851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HolocenePub Date : 2023-07-29DOI: 10.1177/09596836231185828
Kurt H. Wogau, Benjamin Keenan, H. Arz, H. Böhnel
{"title":"Paleoenvironmental study of the Late Preclassic period in the Northern Mesoamerican Frontier","authors":"Kurt H. Wogau, Benjamin Keenan, H. Arz, H. Böhnel","doi":"10.1177/09596836231185828","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231185828","url":null,"abstract":"The Northern Mesoamerican Frontier was a complex multicultural region characterized by frequent human settlement changes and shifts in agricultural conditions during the Late Preclassic period (~400 BCE-150 CE). Here, we report a high-resolution paleoenvironmental record from the varved sedimentary sequence of the crater maar La Alberca which spans the Late Preclassic (~400 BCE-150 CE) to part of the Early Classic period (~150 CE-250 CE) corresponding to Late Chupicuaro phase (400 BCE-100 CE) and Mixtlan phase (0–250 CE). Our work aims to study the paleoenvironmental conditions during the rise of agriculture in the Northern Mesoamerican Frontier and provide insights related to landscape alteration by human activity. To reach these aims, a multiproxy investigation was conducted by means of varve counting, high-resolution XRF scans, magnetic susceptibility, pollen data and fecal stanol biomarkers as a proxy for human population change. Our results reveal two varve type. Type 1 is characterized by the alternation of detrital-organic layers and aragonite layers, type 2 by alternating detrital-organic layers with an organic layer formed by diatom frustules and aragonite layers. This study suggest that the increase of erosion by human activity during the Late Chupicuaro phase (400 BCE-100 CE) and the start of the Mixtlan phase (0–250 CE) coincide with a high percentage of Amaranthaceae pollen, a rise of sedimentation rates, increase in nutrient content and the increase of human waste flux interpreted with the (Coprostanol + epi) :((Coprostanol + epi)+cholestanol biomarker. Moreover, a wetter period (~137 BCE-37 CE) interpreted during the Late Chupiacuaro phase and the start of the Mixtlan phase could suggest favorable environmental conditions for the establishment of agriculture.","PeriodicalId":50402,"journal":{"name":"Holocene","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49330105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}