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The dataset includes stratigraphic information for boreholes of ten cross sections that were hand drilled from 2013-2015 CE in the bayhead region of the Lafourche subdelta, Mississippi Delta, USA. The study area spans ~6000 km2 and the cross sections are located near distributary channels. Data herein describe the location, surface elevation, and depth of each borehole as well as the depth relative to the surface of the mouth-bar to overbank (M-O) boundary and OSL ages for the mouth-bar deposits. We used these data to estimate centennial- to millennial-timescale cumulative subsidence and subsidence rates of a buried stratigraphic horizon, the M-O boundary, as detailed in the associated publication. Subsidence calculation methods are presented in the dataset, and subsidence data obtained from peat-top elevations at a relatively inland site (Paincourtville, LA, USA) are presented for comparison.

This study presents Last Interglacial and Holocene vegetation and climate changes at Fog Lake (67°11′N, 63°15′W) on eastern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada. The vegetation cover is reported as vegetation structural types (or biomes). July air temperature and sunshine during the growing season (June–July–August–September) were reconstructed from pollen assemblages using the modern analogue technique. The vegetation of the Last Interglacial period evolved from a prostrate dwarf-shrub tundra to a low- and high-shrub tundra vegetation. The succession of four Arctic biomes was distinguished from the Last Interglacial sediments, whereas only one Arctic biome was recorded in the Holocene sediments. From ca. 8300 cal. years BP to present, hemiprostrate dwarf-shrub tundra occupied the soils around Fog Lake. During the Last Interglacial, growing season sunshine was higher than during the Holocene and July air temperature was 4 to 5 °C warmer than present. A principal component analysis helped in assessing relationship between floristic gradients and climate. The major vegetation changes through the Last Interglacial and Holocene were driven by July air temperature variations, whereas the minor, or subtle, vegetation changes seem rather correlated to September sunshine. This study demonstrates that growing season sunshine conditions can be reconstructed from Arctic pollen assemblages, thus providing information on feedbacks associated with cloud cover and summer temperatures, and therefore growing season length.

Multiproxy analysis of a 38 m long sediment core recovered from the Vancouver Island margin (48.97°N, 127.04°W, water depth 1243 m) has yielded a millennial-scale history of upwelling and export production over the last ∼50 ka. Higher concentrations of marine organic carbon, opal, and trace Mo suggest that production was higher, and sedimentary pore waters more anoxic, during the warm Holocene, Bølling–Allerød, and interstadial events between 31 and 44 ka BP. Relatively lower production and higher inputs of terrigenous organic matter occurred during the last glacial (14.7–31 ka BP; Cordilleran ice sheet proximal to coring site at ∼19.5 ka BP) and from 44–50.4 ka BP. Enrichments in sedimentary δ15N during interstadial events are interpreted to reflect episodic delivery and upwelling of isotopically heavy nitrate to the surface waters and subsequent vectoring to the seafloor via settling planktonic detritus. Similar patterns are seen in southern California and other areas along the western margin of North America, implying that heavier nitrate generated by denitrification in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific has in the past been carried northward in the California Undercurrent at least as far as central Vancouver Island. This inference is consistent with modern hydrographic observations in the region. Comparison of the coherent Vancouver Island, Oregon, California, and northwest Mexico margin records with late Pleistocene climate history in Greenland reinforces the conclusion that a tight physical and biogeochemical coupling has existed for at least 50 ka between the North Atlantic and North American margin waters, including those off Vancouver Island.

We present new temperature and precipitation reconstructions for the past 25 000 cal. years BP from across eastern Beringia based on a network of pollen diagrams, an updated modern pollen calibration database, and an improved methodology using the modern analogue technique (MAT). Time series show July temperatures were around 4 °C lower during full glacial and January temperatures were about 2 °C lower than present. Annual temperatures rose beginning around 16 000 cal. years BP, reaching a maximum around 12 000 cal. year BP. The warming was more rapid in southern Beringia. Annual precipitation varied by 250 mm during the past 25 000 cal. years BP. Maps of reconstructed precipitation patterns show increasingly drier conditions since 12 000 cal. years BP. that vary regionally, suggesting Holocene atmospheric circulation changes at multiple time and space scales. Orbitally forced seasonality changes during the late glacial and early Holocene resulted in reversed seasonal temperature reconstructions due to methodological constraints using the MAT and (or) non-analogue conditions. The magnitude of millennial-scale climate variability in this region was greater during the last glacial and late glacial periods than during the past 8000 years.

A micropaleontological investigation was conducted on two sediment cores from the Reykjanes Ridge (RR; core LO09-14; 59°12.30′N, 31°05.94′W) and the Faroe–Shetland Channel (FSC; core HM03-133-25; 60°06.55′N, 06°04.18′W) to document hydrographical changes of the North Atlantic Current (NAC) during the Holocene. Dinocyst and coccolith assemblages were analyzed, and quantitative reconstructions of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and sea surface salinities (SSSs) were conducted based on dinocyst assemblages. Both proxies suggest a major reorganization of surface circulation patterns in the northeastern North Atlantic between 7 and 5.4 ka BP. At both sites, SSSs before 6.5–7 ka BP were lower than during the mid-late Holocene, suggesting dispersal of meltwater through the NAC. Long term trends of SSTs, however, show higher than present summer SSTs on the RR from 9.3 to ∼6 ka BP, and lower than present SSTs in the FSC until ca. 5.4 ka BP. The contrasted SST trends at the two sites suggest that decreasing summer insolation was not the only forcing behind hydrographical changes in the region. Decoupling of the NAC and the Slope Current (SC), which both influence the FSC, is proposed as a possible mechanism. We hypothesize that a strong NAC during the early to middle Holocene resulted in a SST increase on the RR and decrease in the FSC. Inversely, a weaker NAC after 5–6 ka BP, leading to decreased SSTs on the RR, would have enhanced the relative contribution of the warmer, saltier SC in the FSC, thus resulting in a regional SST and SSS increase.

Two piston cores recovered from the Chukchi and the Beaufort seas document Arctic Holocene geomagnetic field behaviour and highlight the potential of secular variation and relative paleointensity as a regional chronostratigraphic tool. Several centennial- to millennial-scale Holocene declination and inclination features can be correlated in both cores, with other high-resolution western North American lacustrine and volcanic paleomagnetic records and with records of changes in Earth’s dipole moment, supporting the geomagnetic origin of these features and implying that they are associated with changes in Earth’s dipole moment.

Cores from site HLY0501-05 on the Alaskan margin in the eastern Chukchi Sea were analyzed for their geochemical (organic carbon, δ13Corg, Corg/N, and CaCO3) and palynological (dinocyst, pollen, and spores) content to document oceanographic changes during the Holocene. The chronology of the cores was established from 210Pb dating of near-surface sediments and 14C dating of bivalve shells. The sediments span the last 9000 years, possibly more, but with a gap between the base of the trigger core and top of the piston core. Sedimentation rates are very high (∼156 cm/ka), allowing analyses with a decadal to centennial resolution. The data suggest a shift from a dominantly terrigenous to marine input from the early to late Holocene. Dinocyst assemblages are characterized by relatively high concentrations (600–7200 cysts/cm3) and high species diversity, allowing the use of the modern analogue technique for the reconstruction of sea-ice cover, summer temperature, and salinity. Results indicate a decrease in sea-ice cover and a corresponding, albeit much smaller, increase in summer sea-surface temperature over the past 9000 years. Superimposed on these long-term trends are millennial-scale fluctuations characterized by periods of low sea-ice and high sea-surface temperature and salinity that appear quasi-cyclic with a frequency of about one every 2500–3000 years. The results of this study clearly show that sea-ice cover in the western Arctic Ocean has varied throughout the Holocene. More importantly, there have been times when sea-ice cover was less extensive than at the end of the 20th century.

Determining climate variations over the Holocene requires high-resolution records with well-developed age models. A 40 m long marine sediment core raised from Effingham Inlet, an anoxic fjord on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, yields such a record. Forty six14C accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates determined from terrestrial plant material form the age model. Downcore sampling at both 5 cm (20 year) and 1.5 cm (7 year) resolution indicates that high-frequency oceanographic variability has prevailed at this site over the last 10 000 years. Spectral analysis of wt.% opal, a proxy for diatom productivity in the basin, reveals the bidecadal and pentadecadal periods of the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) – North Pacific index (NPI) that are related to changes in the strength of the Aleutian Low. Coherence analysis between the Effingham Inlet data and δ18O records from Jellybean Lake (a high elevation site in southwest Yukon) indicates regional coherence at periods of 45, 70, and 510 years between productivity in Effingham Inlet and changes in the Aleutian Low strength. Over the entire Holocene, the strength of decadal variability has changed. Both 20- and 50-year periods are present to some degree in the early Holocene, and only the 50 year period is evident in the late Holocene. These data imply that regime shifts would have been more frequent in the early Holocene relative to the last several thousand years.

A 40.32 m piston core recovered from Effingham Inlet, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, provides the basis for a high-resolution geochemical study of the last deglaciation and the Holocene. Glacial retreat, basin isolation, sea-level rise, and productivity variations are determined using proxies for sediment composition (K/Al, Fe/Al, Mg/Al), grain size (Ti/Al, Zr/Al), sedimentary redox conditions (Mo/Al, U/Al), and productivity (wt.% organic carbon, wt.% opal). As local ice retreated and marine waters inundated the basin, coarse-grained glacimarine sediments were replaced by finer grained, laminated, opal-rich sediments. During meltwater pulse-1a, the dominance of local crustal rise over eustatic sea-level rise resulted in the progressive restriction of ocean circulation in Effingham Inlet and the formation of a temporary freshwater lake. The transition into stable Holocene conditions was initiated at ∼12 700 BP, which corresponds to the onset of the Younger Dryas, as identified by the Greenland Ice core Project (GRIP) ice core δ18O record and was completed by 10 700 BP, ∼800 years after the GRIP ice core record stabilized. Holocene Mo/Al and U/Al ratios range between 12–35 (×104) and 1–3.4 (×104), respectively, indicating that although large-amplitude, high-frequency fluctuations occur, the sediments of Effingham Inlet inner basin have remained organic rich and oxygen depleted for the entire Holocene period. The combination of anoxic bottom waters and a Holocene sedimentation rate of 217 cm/ka have preserved a high-resolution record of environmental change in the northeast Pacific over the last 11 000 years.

The present special issue gathers contributions from the Polar Climate Stability Network (PCS-N), a network funded by the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences. These contributions fall primarily under one of its four research themes, that of ‘‘The Arctic/North Atlantic Oscillation and the role of the Arctic Ocean in the Climate System: Paleoclimatological Perspectives’’. A companion special issue on ‘‘Polar Climate Stability’’, in the Journal of Climate (ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=getcollectionc cf. also Koerner 1989) still deserves full recognition. The bridging of ice, land, and ocean studies at high latitudes encounters major difficulties, particularly associated with the uneven time control of relevant time series, but it is a focus point of the PCS-N group, and it will thus receive special attention at a later stage of our research activities. A first attempt has been made, though, during a dedicated meeting held two years ago at the GEOTOP research centre (Montreal, Quebec). During this meeting, ice-, land-, and oceanbased geoscientists tried to address the specific issue of seaice variability during the Holocene (Fisher et al. 2006). ‘‘Fritz’’ Koerner, who passed away just a few months ago, was part of this initiative, and the PCS-N group would like to acknowledge his exceptional contribution to Canadian paleoclimate studies by dedicating this special issue to his memory (see his obituary at www.igsoc.org/news/ fritzkoerner/index.html). On land, pioneering work by many Quaternary geologists started as early as the 18th century, but has steadily increased since the late 19th century (see Andrews (1985); or Dyke (1999) for an overview of benchmark papers and early work). For the obvious reason of their location, below the (previously) thick Arctic sea-ice cover, deep-sea records from the Arctic Ocean remained much less documented than land records, although here also, pioneering work started quite early (see the review by Weber and Roots (1990)). A major step forward was made in 2004, when IODP (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program) supported the ACEX (Arctic Coring Expedition) on Lomonosov Ridge (Moran et al. 2004), which yielded a discontinuous but critical sedimentary sequence illustrating major climate and environmental changes in the Arctic, since the Eocene, and then with the 2005 US–Swedish Healy Oden TRansArctic eXpedition (HOTRAX; Darby et al. 2005a, 2005b), which yielded a series of deep-sea cores from all Arctic ridges. Several papers from this special issue report on this freshly recovered material. However, a critical step in the planning of the work behind most of the present contributions was achieved earlier, during a GEOTOP meeting held in 2002 at the St-Michel-des Saints field station of the University of Quebec at Montreal. Several contributors of the present special issue attended this meeting, as well as, most importantly, two of the chief-scientists of HOTRAX, Leonid Polyak (Byrd Polar Research Center, the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio) and Dennis Darby (Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia), thus helping to determine future coring targets and objectives (see Fig. 1). This special issue represents a first step in PCS-N achievements with respect to the setting of robust paleoclimate time series from ocean and land records. From this Received 1 September 2008. Accepted 1 October 2008. Published on the NRC Research Press Web site at cjes.nrc.ca on 14 January 2009.

The wetland archaeological evidence for Phase 1 at Kuk Swamp, Wahgi Valley, Papua New Guinea, is evaluated in terms of previous interpretations of the artificiality and agricultural function of the palaeochannel and palaeosurface. The evaluation concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to warrant claims of artificiality for the palaeochannel and some palaeosurface elements. Drawing on previous multi-stranded arguments proposed by Jack Golson and Philip Hughes, new lines of multi- disciplinary evidence suggest a revised interpretation of the wetland archaeological evidence for Phase 1 at Kuk does not negate a long-term trajectory towards agriculture in the highlands of New Guinea from the Early Holocene.

This dataset represents an invaluable compilation of 14C and non-14C ages from archaeological sites for most of the 89 bio-regions of Australia. Critically harvesting some 5,000 14C and 500 non-14C dates from over 1,000 publications, the dataset provides information on each date in 26 fields including its location, site type, biogeographic zone, sample material, context and age details (including 13C and error). This data provides a comprehensive foundation for any regional archaeology in Australia illustrating past research foci, strengths and biases in sampling of bioregions, geomorphic context, site type, sample type, and adequacy of contextualisation (e.g. association with cultural events). Such datasets can improve time series and summed probability methods and are being used as a mainstream proxy to explore archaeological trends and specifically demographic fluctuations for the tropical northern, central arid zone and southern ocean provinces. Such reconstructions will always rely on coverage and adequacy of sampling (52 bioregions register less than 50 dates). While both closed rockshelter sites and open/midden sites account for a similar proportion of dates, less than 14% of sites have returned 4 or more dates. Given that 74% of dates fall within the Holocene epoch, this period is most amenable to archaeological enquiry at a fine-scaled regional level. For the Pleistocene era, larger scale questions such as occupation patterns during the LGM might reasonably be addressed and refined. The data may be re-used for studies of a) timing of colonisation of differing bioregions, b) characterising varying mobility patterns of groups occupying the arid zone, c) identifying gaps in previous research (the Great Victoria and Tanami Deserts), d) as proxy for demographic changes, e) the responses of groups to environmental stochasticity such as OIS2 and ENSO, f) the relationship between occupation and phases of rock art production through time, g) the nature of coastal occupation during lower sea stands and specifically following mid-Holocene stabilisation, and h) not least, as a fundamental building block for any regional archaeology of Australia.

Publication activity analysis reveals that the term “pediment” has remained popular in geomorphological literature over the past decades. However in the East-European Plain, pediments have still been studied only in its eastern part; for the central part of the Plain this is the first journal publication, that determines its relevance. The mass-wasting pedestals of the Oka river valley slopes, which were described by the authors, are rather elements of local mass-wasting systems – transitional elements of slump slopes, than classical pediments that make a part of landscape planation system. However they do fit the formal definition of a pediment. Data by V.A. Krivtsov and S.A. Pravkin show the close dependence of valley pediment formation in this case on lateral erosion of the river banks: undercutting of a rather long section of the valley side triggers slump activity and subsequent pediment formation. Deciphering the river lateral migrations at a given valley stretch could help to estimate the pediments’ ages. In particular, one of the pediments in the vicinity of the Ryazan’ city is based upon a downstream part of a small Holocene palaeomeander. Small palaeochannels in the river valleys of the region are known to have been formed in the Mid-Holocene. This fact suggests that the palaeochannel was abandoned and the related pediments was formed between 7–8 and 2.5 ka BP. A more accurate estimation of this and other pediment age requires absolute geochronology data from palaeofluvial features in the Oka valley.

The southeastern United States has one of the richest records of early human settlement of any area of North America. This book provides the first state-by-state summary of Paleoindian and Early Archaic research from the region, together with an appraisal of models developed to interpret the data. It summarizes what we know of the peoples who lived in the Southeast more than 8,000 years ago when giant ice sheets covered the northern part of the continent, and such mammals as elephants, saber-toothed tigers, and ground sloths roamed the landscape. Extensively illustrated, this benchmark collection of essays on the state of Paleoindian and Early Archaic research in the Southeast will guide future studies on the subject of the region's first inhabitants for years to come.Divided in three parts, the volume includes: Part I: Modeling Paleoindian and Early Archaic Lifeways in the SoutheastEnvironmental and Chronological Considerations, David G. Anderson, Lisa D. O'Steen, and Kenneth E. Sassaman Modeling Paleoindian and Early Archaic Settlement in the Southeast: A Historical Perspective, David G. Anderson and Kenneth E. SassamanModels of Paleoindian and Early Archaic Settlement in the Lower Southeast, David G. Anderson Early Archaic Settlement in the South Carolina Coastal Plain, Kenneth E. Sassaman Raw Material Availability and Early Archaic Settlement in the Southeast, I. Randolph Daniel Jr. Paleoindian and Early Archaic Settlement along the Oconee Drainage, Lisa D. O'Steen Haw River Revisited: Implications for Modeling Terminal Late Glacial and Early Holocene Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems in the Southeast, John S. Cable Early Archiac Settlement and Technology: Lessons from Tellico, Larry R. Kimball Paleoindians Near the Edge: A Virginia Perspective, Michael F. JohnsonPart II: The Regional RecordThe Need for a Regional Perspective, Kenneth E. Sassaman and David G. Anderson Paleoindian and Early Archaic Research in the South Carolina Area, David G. Anderson and Kenneth E. Sassaman The Taylor Site: An Early Occupation in Central South Carolina, James L. Michie Paleoindian and Early Archaic Research in Tennessee, John B. Boster and Mark R. Norton A Synopsis of Paleoindian and Early Archaic Research in Alabama, Eugene M. Futato Statified Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Deposits at Dust Cave, Northwestern Alabama, Boyce N. Driskell Bone and Ivory Tools from Submerged Paleoindian Sites in Florida, James S. Dunbar and S. David Webb Paleoindian and Early Archaic Data from Mississippi, Samuel O. McGahey Early and Middle Paleoindian Sites in the Northeastern Arkansas Region, J. Christopher GillamPart III: CommentaryA Framework for the Paleoindian/Early Archaic Transition, Joel Gunn Modeling Communities and Other Thankless Tasks, Dena F. Dincauze An Arkansas View, Dan F. Morse Comments, Henry T. Wright"

The Archaic was the longest cultural period in the prehistory of North America. Although the timing and duration of the period vary regionally, it spans roughly the six millennia between 8,000 and 2,000 years before present. A number of important cultural changes took place during the Archaic period, including a move toward sedentism, the refinement of a sophisticated hunting and gathering economy coupled with the cultivation of indigenous plants, and interaction and trade among people in distant areas. Given the length of this period and the significance of the cultural transitions that occurred, one would expect that archaeological understanding of Archaic cultures would be thorough. This is not the case, however, and this volume underscores one of the primary reasons why our knowledge is so fragmentary: physical changes that occurred in the land during the Holocene make it difficult to identify Archaic sites.

The existence of freshwater ferromanganese concretions has been known for decades, but we are not aware of a generally accepted explanation for their formation, and there has been little research into their potential use as records of Holocene climate and paleohydrology. A conceptual model is presented to describe the environmental and geochemical processes which result in the formation and growth of freshwater ferromanganese concretions. In order to evaluate their potential as historical geochemical records, a concretion from Magaguadavic Lake, New Brunswick, Canada is the focus of a detailed geochronological and geochemical investigation. The radiocarbon data provide a coherent growth curve and a maximum age for the concretion of 8448 ± 43 years, consistent with the establishment of Magaguadavic Lake as a stable post-glacial lacustrine system. The data suggest accretion rates of 1.5 and 3.4 mm per 1000 years during the Northgrippian and Meghalayan stages of the Holocene, respectively. The abrupt change in growth rate observed at the stage boundary may be an indicator of Holocene climate change. These features are consistent with inferences from previous research that warmer climate in the Northgrippian led to eutrophication in some lakes in eastern North America. The results confirm that freshwater Fe–Mn concretions may yield important information about past climatic and environmental conditions.

Early herders in eastern Africa built elaborate megalithic cemeteries ~5000 BP overlooking what is now Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya. At least six `pillar sites' were constructed during a time of rapid change: cattle, sheep, and goats were introduced to the basin as the lake was shrinking at the end of the African Humid Period. Cultural changes at this time include new lithic and ceramic technologies and the earliest monumentality in eastern Africa. Isolated human remains previously excavated from pillar sites east of Lake Turkana seemed to indicate that pillar site platforms were ossuaries for secondary burials. Recent bioarchaeological excavations at four pillar sites west of the lake have now yielded ≥49 individuals, most from primary and some from secondary interments, challenging earlier interpretations. Here we describe the mortuary cavities, and burial contexts, and included items such as adornments from Lothagam North, Lothagam West, Manemanya, and Kalokol pillar sites. In doing so, we reassess previous hypotheses regarding pillar site construction, use, and inter-site variability. We also present the first osteological analyses of skeletons buried at these sites. Although the human remains are fragmentary, they are nevertheless informative about the sex, age, and body size of the deceased and give evidence for health and disease processes. Periosteal moulds of long bone midshafts (n=34 elements) suggest patterns of terrestrial mobility. Pillar site deposits provide important new insights into early herder lifeways in eastern Africa and the impact of the transition to pastoralism on past human populations. Introduction Background Methods Results - Mortuary sequence -- Lothagam North -- Other pillar sites - Cultural materials from the burials -- Lothagam North -- Other sites - The human remains - Indicators of health - Biomechanical indicators of mobility Discussion - Mortuary patterns at the pillar sites - Intra-site variability: personal adornment - Skeletal indicators for health, disease, and activity Conclusions

This volume of papers resulted from a symposium held at the 1980 Plains Conference at the University of Iowa. A unifying theme stressed by the editors is that paleoenvironmental reconstructions require interdisciplinary research exploiting as many different types of studies as possible. The book has nearly 500 oversized pages brimming with interpretations and data, much of which is not readily accessible anywhere else. The 12 papers have numerous maps; altogether there are over 150 pages of tables, which include commentary and information about sites and faunas in the American midcontinent. The editors have dedicated the book to Ernest Lundelius, Jr., and it is a fitting and dignified tribute to the contribution of Lundelius, whose own studies early on demonstrated the usefulness of such work. The first paper by Semken and Graham describes problems in interpreting fossil mammals, and also discusses the philosophy and goals of such analysis. Bruce McMillan contributed a short paper on the background of the Illinois State Museum's Quaternary research program. A paper by R. Graham discusses mammals and paleoenvironments of the southwestern Plains, followed by L. C. Davis's discussion of environmental changes in the Oklahoma-Kansas area. J. Purdue and B. Styles examine mammals and environments of Illinois and Missouri; H. Semken and C. Falk describe paleoenvironments and faunas of Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota, in the book's longest paper. J. Martin describes and interprets the fauna from a late Pleistocene site in South Dakota; D. Walker examines the evidence for Pleistocene and Holocene environmental changes in Wyoming; S. Chomko and B. M. Gilbert describe and interpret faunal and environmental data from one area on the Wyoming-Montana border, including a summary of information from one of the most fascinating paleontological sites in the world, Natural Trap Cave. M. Graham, M. Wilson, and R. Graham summarize knowledge and interpretations of the fossil mammal record from the "far" northwestern Plains (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Montana). It is gratifying to see Canada represented in the book-the Prairies and Plains do not end at the international border, as implied in many studies by American archaeologists. W. Wendland, A. Benn, and H. Semken evaluate the evidence for climatic changes in the Great Plains; and in the last paper, H. Semken and R. Graham reflect on the state of the science, and look to the future for improved techniques and the integration of different types of data in paleoenvironmental studies. A basic epistemological question about the evidence came to mind after I read the papers, because in some cases the "local faunas" were interpreted as snapshots of community mortality at a single point in time, while in other cases the interpretations preferred to separate different death events. The most obvious example of the latter case is the paper describing only one site, Lange-Ferguson in South Dakota, where the bones of about two dozen taxa were recovered, including mammoth. Because Clovis points were found near the bones, the site was interpreted as a mammoth kill; most of the other taxa were considered noncultural "background" that accumulated around the time of the cultural event. I would like to see a detailed comparison of the physical state of all bones, describing breakage and degree of articulation, supporting interpretations that different agencies contributed the bones of different taxa. Also, the potential problem of time averaging should have been addressed more clearly in the papers, though Semken and Graham briefly discuss it in their summary article, which is sensitive to the issues involved in finding the meaning of bone assemblages. I found very few typographical errors, a tribute to the excellent editing. The book has stitched binding, so it will last a long time, and the low cost is hardly believable. This volume is an essential purchase for archaeologists or paleontologists working anywhere in the world, as an example of the most useful work done today.

Previous paleolimnological studies demonstrated that the sediments of Garba Guracha, situated at 3950 m asl in the afro-alpine zone of the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia, provide a complete Late Glacial and Holocene paleoclimate and environmental archive. We revisited Garba Guracha in order to retrieve new sediment cores and to apply new environmental proxies, e.g. charcoal, diatoms, biomarkers, and stable isotopes. Our chronology is established using 210Pb dating and radiocarbon dating of bulk sedimentary organic matter, bulk n-alkanes, and charcoal. Although bedrock was not reached during coring, basal ages confirm that sedimentation started at the earliest ~ 16 cal kyr BP. The absence of a systematic age offset for the n-alkanes suggests that “pre-aging” is not a prominent issue in this lake, which is characterised by a very small afro-alpine catchment. X-ray fluorescence scans and total organic carbon contents show a prominent transition from minerogenic to organic-rich sediments around 11 cal kyr BP coinciding with the Holocene onset. While an unambiguous terrestrial versus aquatic source identification seems challenging, the n-alkane-based Paq proxy, TOC/N ratios, δ13C values, and the sugar biomarker patterns suggest a predominantly autochthonous organic matter source. Supraregional climate events, such as the African Humid Period, the Younger Dryas (YD), a 6.5 cal kyr BP short drying event, and the 4.2 cal kyr BP transition to overall drier climate are recorded in our archive. The Garba Guracha record suggests that northern hemisphere forcings played a role in the Eastern African highland paleoclimate., Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659

In this paper I seek to show how cultural niche construction theory offers the potential to extend the human evolutionary story beyond the Pleistocene, through the Neolithic, towards the kind of very large-scale societies in which we live today. The study of the human past has been compartmentalised, each compartment using different analytical vocabularies, so that their accounts are written in mutually incompatible languages. In recent years social, cognitive and cultural evolutionary theories, building on a growing body of archaeological evidence, have made substantial sense of the social and cultural evolution of the genus Homo. However, specialists in this field of studies have found it difficult to extend their kind of analysis into the Holocene human world. Within southwest Asia the three or four millennia of the Neolithic period at the beginning of the Holocene represents a pivotal point, which saw the transformation of human society in the emergence of the first large-scale, permanent communities, the domestication of plants and animals, and the establishment of effective farming economies. Following the Neolithic, the pace of human social, economic and cultural evolution continued to increase. By 5000 years ago, in parts of southwest Asia and northeast Africa there were very large-scale urban societies, and the first large-scale states (kingdoms). An extension of cultural niche construction theory enables us to extend the evolutionary narrative of the Pleistocene into the Holocene, opening the way to developing a single, long-term, evolutionary account of human history.

International audience; Various studies using pollen stratigraphies have demonstrated significant correlations between Holocene plant diversity, climate, and human activities. Studies that have analyzed longer Holocene timescales tend to discuss cultural data very superficially. This is remarkable because detailed insights into past human activities may be key to gain an understanding of the observed trends in biodiversity. This study aims to reconstruct and explain spatio-temporal trends in past plant diversity (alpha, temporal, and spatial beta diversity) by integrating data on vegetation dynamics, human subsistence economy, and land-use patterns. The landscape of Northwest France during the greater part of the Iron Age and the start of the Roman period (600 BC–AD 100) is selected as a case study. In total, 30 high-quality pollen-stratigraphical sequences allow for the reconstruction of the main long-term trends in plant diversity and more generally of the changing fabric of the landscape. Additionally, increasingly detailed images of the Iron Age rural landscape are available because of a steep increase in archaeological data (aerial photography, surveys, and excavations). These different types of data are integrated and used as input for a wider discussion on the relation between human activities and plant diversity. In general, the taxonomic richness increases steadily during the period under study. Some spatio-temporal differences are observed. The increasing richness values correspond with the growing impact of human activities on the landscape. Archaeologically documented land-use changes on smaller timescales are less clearly reflected in the richness values and vegetation dynamics, which might result from the (large-scale) research design.

Holocene drift-sand activity in the northwest European sand belt is commonly directly linked to population pressure (agricultural activity) or to climate change (e.g. storminess). In the Pleistocene sand areas of the Netherlands, small-scale Holocene drift-sand activity began in the Mesolithic, whereas large-scale sand drifting started during the Middle Ages. This last phase not only coincides with the intensification of farming and demographic pressure but also is commonly associated with a colder climate and enhanced storminess. This raises the question to what extent drift-sand activity can be attributed to either human activities or natural forcing factors. In this study, we compare the spatial and temporal patterns of drift-sand occurrence for the four characteristic Pleistocene sand regions in the Netherlands for the period between 1000 BC and AD 1700. To this end, we compiled a new supra-regional overview of drift-sand activity based on age estimates (14C, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), archaeological and historical ages). The occurrence of sand drifting was then compared in time and space with historical-route networks, relative vegetation openness and climate. Results indicate a constant but low drift-sand activity between 1000 BC and AD 1000, interrupted by a remarkable decrease in activity around the BC/AD transition. It is evident that human pressure on the landscape was most influential on initiating sand drifting: this is supported by more frequent occurrences close to routes and the uninterrupted increase of drift-sand activity from AD 900 onwards, a period of high population density and large-scale deforestation. Once triggered by human activities, this drift-sand development was probably further intensified several centuries later during the cold and stormier ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA; AD 1570–1850).