Search results for "Ala"
showing 10 items of 18976 documents
Land use change, soil erosion and alluvial dynamic in the lower Doubs Valley over the 1st millenium AD (Neublans, Jura, France)
2003
International audience; Geochemical and particle size analyses, surface scanning magnetic susceptibility, microscopic charcoal counting and pollen analysis, have been carried out on two cores from the lower Doubs valley in order to reconstruct the land use history. The interpretation of anthropogenic pollen indicators and micro-charcoal deposits is discussed in relation to the lithological variation of sedimentary accumulation and evolution of the settlement. The environmental changes which occurred during the 1st and the 6th century AD reflect the impact of human activities on the landscape in the immediate surroundings of the site. Multiproxy indicators indicate that soil erosion as a con…
A 2000-year record of lake ontogeny and climate variability from the north-eastern European Russian Arctic
2016
A lake sediment record from the north-eastern European Russian Arctic was examined using palaeolimnological methods, including subfossil chironomid and diatom analysis. The objective of this study is to disentangle environmental history of the lake and climate variability during the past 2000 years. The sediment profile was divided into two main sections following changes in the lithology, separating the limno-telmatic phase between ~2000 and 1200 cal. yr BP and the lacustrine phase between ~1200 cal. yr BP and the present. Owing to the large proportion of semi-terrestrial chironomids and poor modern analogues, a reliable chironomid-based temperature reconstruction for the limno-telmatic p…
New results in ancient Maya rituals researches: The study of human painted bones fragments from Calakmul archaeological site (Mexico)
2020
Abstract The funeral chambers of the ancient city of Calakmul (Mexico) and the individuals who were buried in them have brought in recent decades new knowledge about the beliefs and funeral customs of the pre-Hispanic Maya. Tombs and bodies were prepared as part of the rituals that should favor the return of ch'ulel to the Underworld, known as Xibalba by the ancient Maya. The ch'ulel is one of the two anemic entities that inhabit the individual, equivalent to our concept of the soul. Bodies preparation included coloured scented body ointments application, with a deep symbolic connotation and probably also a conservative purpose. The aim of this research was to characterize pigments and bind…
Hydroclimate variability of western Thailand during the last 1400 years
2020
Mainland Southeast Asia is located on the moisture transport route of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) where hydroclimate records from speleothems have rarely been investigated. Here, we present a new multi-proxy (δ18O and δ13C values, trace element concentrations, and grayscale values) data set of stalagmite KPC1 from Khao Prae cave in western Thailand spanning the last 1400 years (500–1900 CE; the Common Era). These multi-proxy data reveal a high variability between the wet and dry periods during 500–850 CE and 1150–1300 CE, stable climate conditions during 850–1150 CE, and overall dry conditions since 1300 CE. The δ13C values, trace elements concentrations, and grayscale values show cente…
The Maya wall paintings from Chajul, Guatemala
2020
The recent renovation of a house in Chajul in western Guatemala has revealed an unparalleled set of wall paintings, most probably from the Colonial period (AD 1524–1821). The iconography of the murals combines pre-Columbian elements with imported European components in a domestic rather than a religious setting, making them a unique example of Colonial-period art. Here, the authors present the results of iconographic, chemical and radiocarbon analyses of the Chajul house paintings. Dating to the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries AD, the paintings may be connected to a revival of the local religious organisation (cofradías) in the context of waning Spanish colonial control.
Human occupation and environmental change in the western Maghreb during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Late Glacial. New evidence from the Ib…
2019
With the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), hunter-gatherers of the so-called Iberomaurusian techno-complex appeared in what is now the Mediterranean Maghreb. During a period of about seven thousand years, these groups left sandy occupation layers in a limited number of archaeological sites, while at the beginning of Greenland Interstadial (GI) 1, the sudden shift towards the deposition of shell-rich sediments and the increase in number of sites document clear changes in subsistence strategies as well as occupation density. It is highly likely that these shifts in human behaviour are related to paleoenvironmental changes in the area, which, so far, are poorly documented in geological …
Dead wood gathering among Neanderthal groups: Charcoal evidence from Abric del Pastor and El Salt (Eastern Iberia)
2017
International audience; We present here a new approach combining the microscopic characterization of fungal decay features and the fragmentation degree of the charcoal remains from Middle Palaeolithic combustion structures: features H4 and H11 from Abric del Pastor, unit IV (>75 ka BP) and features H50 and H57 from El Salt, unit Xb (ca. 52 ka BP), Eastern Iberia. The observation of wood degradation patterns that occurred prior to charring followed by their quantitative analysis according to previous experimental studies revealed differences between the alteration degrees of the firewood used in the hearths, highlighting the existence of firewood acquisition criteria based on dead wood gathe…
Prehistoric palaeodemographics and regional land cover change in eastern Iberia
2019
Much attention has been placed on the drivers of vegetation change on the Iberian Peninsula. While climate plays a key role in determining the species pools within different regions and exerts a strong influence on broad vegetation patterning, the role of humans, particularly during prehistory, is less clear. The aim of this paper is to assess the influence of prehistoric population change on shaping vegetation patterns in eastern Iberia and the Balearic Islands between the start of the Neolithic and the late Bronze Age. In all, 3385 radiocarbon dates have been compiled across the study area to provide a palaeodemographic proxy (radiocarbon summed probability distributions (SPDs)). Modelled…
Astrochronology of the Valanginian Stage from reference sections (Vocontian Basin, France) and palaeoenvironmental implications for the Weissert Even…
2013
12 pages; International audience; High-resolution gamma-ray measurements performed on five biostratigraphically well-dated reference sections from the Vocontian Basin (south-eastern France) are used to develop a new astrochronology of the Valanginian Stage and its subdivisions (i.e. ammonite and calcareous nannofossil zones and subzones). Spectral analyses show a pervasive dominance of 405-kyr eccentricity cycles with the expression of 100-kyr eccentricity, obliquity and precession. Previous rough estimates of Valanginian Stage duration ranged from 3.9 to 6.5 myr but were generally based on less reliable or indirect methods. This study provides a precise duration of 5.08 myr, tuning the ser…
Community replacement of neritic carbonate organisms during the late Valanginian platform demise: a new record from the Provence Platform.
2012
24 pages; International audience; The Valanginian is marked by amajor platform demise inducing a hiatus in the northern Tethyan neritic carbonate record from the top of the lower Valanginian to the lower Hauterivian. New biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic data from the Ollioules section (Provence Platform, southern France) are presented here, demonstrating that a large part of the upper Valanginian is preserved in an inner platform environment. The thick, upper Valanginian, aggrading carbonate succession is observed in an aborted rift domain, implying relatively low subsidence. In this context, a relatively long-term sea-level rise was required to sustain a keep-up style of carbonate p…