Search

This paper presents an exploratory study on the taxonomic diversity of pre-Hispanic archaeofaunas in the South-Central Andes (SCA; western South America) from the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary to the Late-Holocene. The SCA is a complex of diverse environments and has undergone distinct climate events for the last 13,000 years, such as the occurrence of warmer and drier conditions in the Middle-Holocene. The South-Central Andean area was part of the larger Andes interaction area, which was a primary center for animal and plant domestication and the emergence of agro-pastoralist economies. Since subsistence was key to these processes, the SCA provides a relevant case study on the interactions among environment, foodways and sociocultural evolution. Taxonomic diversity was used here as a proxy for diet breadth. A total of 268 archaeofaunal assemblages were sampled from the zooarchaeological literature. Reviewed variables included the cultural chronology and spatial coordinates of the assemblages, as well as the presence and abundance of taxa at the family rank. Taxonomic diversity covered two dimensions: composition (families present in each assemblage) and structure (quantitative relationships among taxa), which was measured through richness (NTAXA), ubiquity and relative abundance (NISP based rank-order). Despite the uneven distribution of samples, the analyses revealed the following trends: (1) a moderate relationship between NTAXA and distance from coastline for most of the Holocene; (2) a potential decrease in assemblage richness for coastal ecoregions during the Late-Holocene; and (3) a generalized increase in the relative abundance of Camelidae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore and integrate different currencies that may underlie large-game hunting to guide a trans-Holocene analysis of variation in artiodactyl utilization using massive archaeofaunal data-sets from predominantly open-air sites from the Bonneville and Wyoming basins. The available empirical data continue to suggest that artiodactyls yield consistently higher return rates than lagomorphs allowing us to leverage predictions from both the prey choice and energetic risk-gain models that the relative importance of artiodactyl hunting should scale closely with climate-based change in their abundance on the landscape. We document with modeled climate data that seasonal variables correlated with the relative frequency of artiodactyl hunting, but that summer temperature had a significant overriding effect in both regions. Controlling for the negative relationship between summer temperature and artiodactyl abundances, we then document enhanced artiodactyl hunting in general and bison more specifically during the Fremont period that is consistent with a costly signaling hypothesis and the unique socio-ecological conditions of this context. Thus, climatic variation and its influence on artiodactyl abundances drives the overall trajectory of Holocene large game hunting variation but measurable and more subtle influences of costly signaling are also detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of disarticulated ossicles of recent sea cucumbers from Campos Basin, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from various Holocene strata, obtained by micropaleontological methods, resulted in the identification of at least eight holothurian taxa, belonging to the five of the seven orders of Holothuroidea: Apodida (Synaptidae, Chiridotidae), Dendrochirotida (Psolidae and Cucumariidae), Holothuriida (Holothuria), and Molpadiida (Molpadiidae, Eupyrgidae). Our paper endorses the importance of studies of recent fauna based on isolated ossicles for taxonomy, biostratigraphy, and ecology. This study represents the first effort at the study of recent fauna of sea cucumbers based on the analysis of preserved ossicles in marine sediments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents isolation basin stratigraphy in bottom sediments from nine lakes in the Teriberka area on the Kola Peninsula, northwestern Russia. Isolation contacts in these basins, identified from lithological and diatom analysis, were used together with 25 radiocarbon dates, to construct a relative sea-level (RSL) curve for the Holocene. Records of marine water re-influx were found in the sediment sequence from one lake, located at c. 17 m a.s.l. The re-influx of marine water seems to be caused by the mid-Holocene (Tapes) transgression and tsunami event. The RSL curve indicates several phases in the postglacial evolution of the Kola coast. An early phase of rapid sea-level fall of c. 32 m around 11,500 cal yr BP, at a rate of c. 40 mm per year, corresponds to glacio-isostatically induced emergence following deglaciation at the Younger Dryas and beginning of the Holocene. In the time interval between c. 11,000 and 7600 cal yr BP, either a stillstand or a slight rise in relative sea level, cresting at about 21 m a.s.l., is suggested in the Teriberka area. This is followed, after c. 7300 cal yr BP to the present day, by a slow glacioisostatic emergence with an average rate of about 2–3 mm per year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanity's relationship with the environment during the Holocene, and into the Anthropocene, is structured around our dependance on agricultural production, which has resulted in risk mitigation strategies that include intensive landscape modifications, among other tactics. However, to understand broader patterns of human resilience and the shifts in human/environment relationships, we need to look further back in time. Through this paper, we explore cultural strategies of risk management and resilience in pre-Holocene communities and how these practices allowed hunter-gatherer communities to adapt to a changing environment. For over 1000 years, the Epipalaeolithic site of Kharaneh IV was a focal point on the landscape for hunter-gatherer groups, acting as an aggregation site for Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic peoples. Located in the eastern desert of Jordan, at the time of occupation the site was a lush wetland surrounded by a rich grassland environment, providing abundant food and other resources for the site's occupants. However, over time the wetland began to dry up and by 18,600 cal BP Kharaneh IV was abandoned. In this paper, we discuss the final occupation of Kharaneh IV, linking the site's abandonment to the increasing aridification of eastern Jordan. Environmental change led to the eventual abandonment of Kharaneh IV and other nearby sites, as people relocated within the Azraq Basin in search of new water resources during the Holocene. Flexible technological strategies and knowledge of the landscape created resilient cultural practices that allowed these communities to use population movement as a risk management strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drylands are diverse and dynamic ecosystems that have been occupied by humans throughout the Holocene. Nonetheless, drylands are often conceived of as marginal, rare, and inimical to human livelihoods. This Special Issue interrogates the interactions between humans and arid and aridifying environments to investigate how drylands offer unique risks and opportunities to their resilient inhabitants. This article introduces the 11 environmental archeology papers and 1 discussion paper in this Special Issue, the proceedings of a 2021 virtual workshop on the topics of risk and resilience. Each contribution explores a different geographic and chronological context around the globe. We also introduce three subthemes of this Special Issue: "Multi-Scalar Analysis," "Abundance and Diversity," and "Cascading Risks." Collectively, a key strength of the case studies in this volume is the range of environmental archeology methods and datasets that they showcase. These authors draw out details within a multi-scalar understanding of risk and risk perception in the particular contexts in which they work. As we face compounding contemporary risks associated with the global impacts of a changing climate, it is more important than ever to recognize the range of human relationships with aridification, and the dynamic, localized socio-environmental histories of drylands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the early Holocene onward, the Indian Subcontinent has accommodated a range of diverse human cultures and associated ecological adaptations and lifestyles. Around 10 kyrs ago, the Subcontinent has witnessed the development of later Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and their subsequent regional transitions to pastoralist (Neolithic) and agricultural (Chalcolithic) lifeways. The Holocene climate records reveal discrepancies in the timing and duration of climatic events, which can be attributed to a vast geographic isolation, the influence of height, elevation, and local climatic conditions. These changing climatic patterns including the development of a geographically variable monsoon directly impacted these various cultures including the Harappans and their contemporaries as well as younger Historical and Medieval empires across India, at various levels. In some regions, environmental changes led to uneven cultural transitions, geographic migrations, and the development of regionally-distinct material cultures along with establishment of sedentary life-ways. This paper attempts to present a review broadly correlating general climatic patterns throughout the Holocene period of India with regional cultural dynamics. All geomorphic-climatic zones of the Subcontinent showed strong inter-proxy coherence between 9 and 5 kyrs in response to increased precipitation. After this warming period ends, we see a moderate dry period as a result of a weakening monsoon and an overall tendency toward aridity throughout all zones (after 4 kyrs). The temporal variation of human habitation and respective adaptive responses suggest broad linkages to the varying climatic and physiographic features at a regional scale. Learning how this shaped human eco-dynamics in the past can help us expand our understanding of human history and implement lessons for the present as well as the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies on the geomorphological evolution of the Holocene from the Ebro depression (NE Spain) are focused on the period up to the Roman Epoch (218 BC–476 AD) while some references to medieval (476 AD–15th century) deposits are also occasionally dated. This paper focuses on the establishment of aggradation units on the valley bottoms and slopes of the Ebro depression after 1400 BP, their origin, comparison with other areas, and relationship with global paleoenvironmental changes. These units were produced after the incision phase that marked the end of the large Holocene accumulation (unit H1) around 1400 BP (at the end of the Late Roman Epoch). Morphosedimentary records enable us to establish three aggradation units during the last 1400 years: unit H2 (ca. 1400–650 cal BP); unit H3 – with two H3A subunits (ca. 650–500 cal BP) and H3B (ca. 500–320 cal BP); and the H4 unit (after 320 cal BP). These units are organized following five types of aggradation/incision arrangements with differing complexities. There are also connections among these units and two slope stages in the region. Finally, the genetic relationships between these units and global paleoenvironmental changes are shown (LALIA, MCA, and LIA) and related to anthropic activity. This contribution is the first detailed and systematic approach to the study of morphosedimentary units and sedimentary arrangements during the Recent Holocene in the Mediterranean area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dryland regions are particularly challenging for human survival over the course of deep time. This is true for institutionally complex communities as well as small-scale societies that have existed in semi-arid regions throughout the Holocene. This paper examines some of the successful strategies employed by small-scale mobile communities which enhanced their ability to thrive in drylands over the course of thousands of years. Small-scale societies living in drylands must rely on the transmission of Traditional Ecological Knowledge across generations. Some of this knowledge relates to the availability and use of wetlands and other more ephemeral water sources, the exploitation of a diverse range of resources, and the potential for natural storage of food resources as a buffer against regularly occurring drought years in these regions. We compare this understanding with our environmental archeological findings at the Mid-Holocene site of Zaraa Uul in the eastern Gobi Desert of Mongolia. At the site of Zaraa Uul, we show how hunter-gatherer groups returned to a campsite near the edge of a wetland environment over the course of at least two phases during the Mid-Holocene. Here they took advantage of a greater diversity of animal species and plants, including small-grained-grasses and sedges, which could enhance their caloric intake and increase the potential for storable commodities which could be collected as needed from their natural habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charcoal from archaeological contexts differs from off-site pollen samples as it is mainly a product of intentional human action. As such, analysis of charcoal from excavations is a valuable addition to studies of past vegetation and the interaction between humans and the environment. In this paper, we use a dataset consisting of 6186 dated tree species samples from 1239 archaeological sites as a proxy to explore parts of the Holocene forest development and human-vegetation dynamics in South-Eastern Norway. From the middle of the Late Neolithic (from c. 2000 BC) throughout the Early Iron Age (to c. AD 550) the region's agriculture is characterized by fields, pastures and fallow. Based on our data, we argue that these practices, combined with forest management, clearly altered the natural distribution of trees and favoured some species of broadleaved trees. The past distribution of hazel (Corylus avellana) is an example of human impact on the vegetation. Today, hazel is not even among the 15 most common tree species, while it is one of the most prevalent species in the archaeological record before AD 550. The data indicate that this species was favoured already by the region's Mesolithic hunter-fisher-gatherers, and that it was among the species that thrived extremely well in the early farming landscape. Secondly, our analysis also indicates that spruce (Picea abies) first formed large stands in the south-eastern parts of Norway c. 500 BC, centuries earlier than previously assumed. It is argued that this event, and a further westward expansion of spruce, was partly a consequence of a specific historical event – the first millennium BC farming expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desert regions of the Arabian Peninsula and Levant are criss-crossed by innumerable pathways. Across large areas of north-west Arabia, many of these pathways are flanked by stone monuments, the vast majority of which are ancient tombs. Recent radiometric dating indicates that the most abundant of these monuments, elaborate and morphologically diverse 'pendant' structures, were constructed during the mid-to-late third millennium BCE. Thousands of kilometres of these composite path and monument features, 'funerary avenues', can be traced across the landscape, especially around and between major perennial water sources. By evidencing routes of human movement during this period, these features provide an emerging source for reconstructing important aspects of ancient mobility and social and economic connectivity. They also provide significant new evidence for human/environment interactions and subsistence strategies during the later Middle Holocene of north-west Arabia, and suggest the parallel existence of mobile pastoralist lifeways and more permanent, oasis-centred settlement. This paper draws upon the results of recent excavations and intensive remote sensing, aerial and ground surveys in Saudi Arabia to present the first detailed examination of these features and the vast cultural landscape that they constitute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new decadal resolution stalagmite δ18O record covering 10.4–6.5 ka BP from Kulishu cave in Beijing, north China is presented in combination with the published stalagmite δ18O record covering 10.4–14.0 ka BP in the same cave. Five significant monsoon collapses were identified around 11.5, 11.0, 10.0, 9.4, and 8.2 ka BP as well as three smaller ones around 10.3, 9.0, and 8.6 ka BP. The weak monsoon episodes around 8.6 and 8.2 ka BP form the two-step structure of the 8.2 ka event. All monsoon collapses, coeval with the cooling in northern high-latitude records, are correlated with Lakes Agassiz-Ojibway outbursts. Thus, our data support the idea of freshwater forcing of abrupt climate anomalies during the early Holocene. Nevertheless, the decreased irradiance together with freshwater outburst may account for the 9.2/9.3 ka event, which is expressed more significantly in low-latitude records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paleoenvironmental data from wet-meadow environments in the arid-semiarid region of Patagonia are still incipient and the paleoenvironmental records came from pollen sequences of caves and rockshelters. The main reasons to study wetland records are their undisturbed (by humans) sedimentologic continuity, in contrast to deposits in rock shelters and caves; and their regional presentation of environmental changes that can be compared to archeological data. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the past hydrological dynamic of a wet-meadow from Deseado Massif and its relationship with the human occupation. For this purpose, we present the results of the sediment and pollen analysis of Mallín La Primavera wet-meadow that provide a sequence starting in the mid-Holocene. The results indicate a lower water table in the mallín prior to 6900 cal yr BP. Sediment analysis indicates low energy sedimentation environment with flood events and very low energy streams. Human occupational data show chronological discontinuities in mid-Holocene in several regions of Patagonia and the southern cone. In the studied region, two chronological hiatuses (7828–6434 cal yr BP and 3005–2710 cal yr BP) where recognized that appear to correlate with shrub steppes, indicating dry conditions. These conditions may explain the lack of archeological radiocarbon dates in the area during this period. The integration of sediment and pollen results from the Deseado Massif indicates dry and windy conditions for the middle Holocene. The lack of archeological radiocarbon dates would have been influenced by the loss of moisture in water sources such as springs and their associated wet meadows (mallines). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a reconstruction of the Holocene evolution of the Inskip Peninsula in SE Queensland. The peninsula links two major dune fields, the Cooloola Sand Mass to the south and K'gari (Fraser Island) to the north. Geomorphic features of this peninsula include remnant parabolic dunes, numerous beach ridges with foredunes, and a series of spits. Together these features provide insight into Holocene coastal evolution and changing marine conditions. A remnant beach ridge/foredune complex at the northern portion of Inskip may have been connected to K'gari and a river/tidal channel near Rainbow Beach township which separated it from the Cooloola Sand Mass to the south. This channel avulsed northward in the early mid-Holocene (after 8.8 ka) with spit development from the south. This was followed by a phase of beach-ridge/foredune complex development that started by ~6.7 ka. Stratigraphic evidence from the highest and best developed parabolic dunes in the northern portion of Inskip Peninsula indicates dune development from the mid-Holocene beach complex by 4.8 ka. Beach ridges with foredunes continued to prograde but notably declined in size during the late-Holocene. In the latest Holocene (<4.8 ka) many of the late-Holocene beach ridges/foredune complexes have been truncated by a re-orientation of the shoreline and longshore sediment transport has promoted the growth of the modern spit at the northern end of the peninsula. Erosive and longshore processes continue to be highly active because of tidal interactions between Great Sandy Strait and the Coral Sea. This detailed study of Inskip Peninsula's evolution aids significantly in future coastal management decisions, and provides evidence for World Heritage Area extension for the Cooloola Sand Mass, including the incorporation of Inskip Peninsula itself. It also contributes to the global understanding to coastal evolution in an area of strong wave and tidal interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying the relative influences of anthropogenic activities and climate change on soil erosion and deposition during the Holocene, when both forces have been interacting is a complex problem. Analysis of long-term patterns in soil erosion and lake deposition in a basin can provide the basis for untangling the complexities of climate and anthropogenic forcings. In this paper, sedimentary sequences from Xingyun Lake are compared with simulated soil erosion rates in the basin to explore the relationship between river basin soil erosion and lake deposition during the Holocene in Yunnan, China. Modern soil erosion rates are calculated using RUSLE, while Holocene soil erosion rates are estimated using modern rates with reconstructed precipitation and vegetation cover sequences. Through this investigation, we found the following results. First, Holocene vegetation in the lake basin was mainly affected by climate change, and the vegetation experienced the same pattern of changes as the climate. Soil erosion and lake deposition rates, along with changes to vegetation cover, were synchronous with precipitation trends during the Holocene. Second, soil erosion and lake deposition have been exacerbated by human activities, such as deforestation and land reclamation in the Xingyun Lake basin. Finally, this study provides new insights into the effects by anthropogenic impacts and climate forcing on the processes of soil erosion and lake deposition on the millennium scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past decades, the elongated mud belt, 1000 km length, in the inner shelf of the East China Sea (ECS), has been extensively studied. Previous studies mainly focused on the northern part of the mud belt. There are still many arguments on various issues of the mud belt, including the provenance discrimination, the formation mechanism, and its evolution response to climate and environmental changes. In this paper, a borehole acquired from the distal southern mud belt which penetrated the Holocene strata with the collected data was analyzed. According to the parameters of (La/Sm)UCC versus (Gd/Yb)UCC and the ternary diagram of smectite-illite-(kaolinite + chlorite), sediments from the top section of Core ECS1601 originated from the Yangtze River since 13.7 ka. Sediments from upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River can be clearly distinguished by (Gd/Yb)UCC value. The provenance of the distal mud belt shifted from upper reaches to lower valley since 5 ka and returned to the upper reaches again since 2.5 ka, which was related to the asynchronous evolution of Asian monsoon system and anthropogenic activities. The high sedimentation rates occurring in the distal mud belt between 5 and 2.5 ka were related to the decreased sediment supply of the upper reaches and the strengthened Zhejiang-Fujian Coastal Current (ZFCC) caused by the intensified East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]