Search results for "Feature"
showing 10 items of 4091 documents
Taphonomic processes inconsistent with indigenous Mesolithic acculturation during the transition to the Neolithic in the Western Mediterranean
2018
Abstract We applied taphonomic analysis combined with geostatistical approaches to investigate the hypothesis that Cocina cave (Eastern Iberia) represents an acculturation context for the appearance of Neolithic Cardial pottery. In the 1970s, Fortea suggested that this important site was a prime example of acculturation because of the presence of early Neolithic pottery in late Mesolithic contexts. Since that time Cocina cave has been heralded as an example of indigenous hunter-gatherers incorporating Neolithic cultural elements into their lifeways. We analyzed the area excavated by Fortea in the 1970s by digitizing archaeological records and testing the spatial distribution of artifacts us…
Geology of Monte Gallo (Palermo Mts, NW Sicily)
2016
The promontory of Monte Gallo (Palermo, NW Sicily) is a spectacular site where Upper Triassic-Eocene carbonate platform rocks and Quaternary continental to marine deposits are well exposed. A Mesozoic-Paleogene rock succession allows the potential visitor to easily detect the features and the evolution of the Panormide carbonate platform, a shallow-water paleogeographic domain of the Southern Tethyan margin. Quaternary deposits, as well many landforms, enable the visitor to directly identify the interplay between climate changes, tectonics and fluctuations of marine level that occurred during the Quaternary Period. A detailed geological map (1:15,000 mapping scale) is presented, accompanied…
Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Signals from the Callovian–Oxfordian in French Sedimentary Basins
2013
3 pages; International audience; High-resolution carbon and oxygen isotope data from the Paris Basin and the Subalpine Basin (France) are available in a precise biostratigraphic framework for the Callovian-Oxfordian stages. A biostratigraphically well-constrained δ13C curve, derived from bulk carbonates in the Paris Basin and the Subalpine Basin, is provided in order to document carbon-cycle evolution and to serve as a chemostratigraphic reference for the Callovian-Oxfordian in the Tethyan domain. Sea-temperature reconstructions, using diagenetically screened belemnite and oyster data, reveal major climate perturbations at the Middle-Late Jurassic transition.
Occurrence of organic-matter-rich beds in Early Cretaceous coastal evaporitic setting (Dorset, UK): a link to long-term palaeoclimate changes?
2009
11 pages; International audience; In Dorset (southern U.K.), the Durlston Bay and Lulworth Cove sections expose lowermost Cretaceous coastal marine and non-marine partly evaporitic sediments (the so-called Purbeckian facies). An interval with organic matter (OM)-rich layers is recognized in both sections. This OM-rich interval is 20 m thick in the middle of the Durlston Bay section. Within these beds, a large OM accumulation is recorded, with total organic carbon (TOC) of up to 8.5 wt%. High hydrogen index (HI) values (up to 956 mgHC/gTOC) point to a Type I OM, generally considered as derived from algal-bacterial biomass. This contrasts with the OM present in the underlying and overlying in…
Facies variations in response to Holocene sea-level and climate change on Bora Bora, French Polynesia: Unravelling the role of synsedimentary siderit…
2017
International audience; Five mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sedimentary facies were identified in the barrier-reef lagoon of Bora Bora using microfacies and statistical analyses of 70 sediment samples taken at high resolution from two vibrocores. Fades and fades successions were interpreted with respect to Holocene sea-level and climate changes. The windward lagoon core is characterized by sideritic marly wackestones and foraminifera-sideritic wackestones, deposited around 7700 years BP (years before present) during the early-mid Holocene transgression. At that time, extensive weathering and erosion of iron-bearing minerals from the volcanic island, due to a wetter climate, were expressed in…
A multi-proxy, diachronic and spatial perspective on the urban activities within an indigenous community in medieval Riga, Latvia
2017
Abstract The research presented here represents the first urban medieval context in Latvia where an integrated, multi-proxy environmental sampling strategy has been applied. The establishment of Riga, the modern capital of Latvia, is synonymous with the Livonian Crusade, and the foundation of the medieval town is examined here. This study uses an intra-site comparison of environmental datasets from several buildings to provide a unique, high resolution, diachronic analysis of the daily life of the inhabitants within the pre-Hansa town, and specifically of the indigenous ‘Liv’ population during the period of the Livonian crusades, 1198–1291. The integrated zooarchaeological, archaebotanical,…
Neanderthal and carnivore activities at Llonin Cave, Asturias, northern Iberian Peninsula: Faunal study of Mousterian levels (MIS 3)
2018
Abstract This paper presents a study of the macromammalian fauna recovered from Mousterian levels of Llonin Cave. The sample is highly heterogeneous and comprises six species of ungulates, including Rupicapra pyrenaica, Capra pyrenaica, and Cervus elaphus, and seven species of carnivores, predominantly Ursus spelaeus, Crocuta spelaea, Canis/Cuon and Panthera pardus. The archaeozoological and taphonomic study of the remains shows preferential use of basal levels of the cave as a den for hyenas and leopards. Neanderthals were also present during this phase and they would have acted mainly on deer and some caprines, while the action of hyenas would mainly have been linked to scavenging of elem…
Cocina cave revisited: Bayesian radiocarbon chronology for the last hunter-gatherers and first farmers in Eastern Iberia
2018
Abstract Recent excavations and radiocarbon work conducted at Cocina Cave (Valencia region, Eastern Iberia) provide new insights into the transition from foraging to farming in the eastern Iberian Peninsula between 8000 and 7300 cal yrs. BP. Cocina cave was discovered in 1940 and excavated by L. Pericot from 1941 to 1945. J. Fortea continued excavations in the 70s. Despite early international recognition and great promise of significance, the materials recovered from these excavations have only been partially analyzed and published. A new project started in 2012 is focused on these cave deposits with the main goal of understanding the occupation sequence during the neolithization process in…
Calcareous nannofossil palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and preservation in sapropel S1 at the Eratosthenes Seamount (Eastern Mediterranean)
2019
Abstract The most recent organic carbon-enriched layer (sapropel S1) deposited at the Eratosthenes Seamount has unique features, such as an early lithological interruption, fine light silt laminae and an exceptional vertical extent that is over 25 cm thick. Here we investigate calcareous nannofossil assemblages to reconstruct very high-resolution palaeoenvironmental and palaeoceanographic variations recorded before, during and after the perturbation episode that involved the eastern Mediterranean Sea, due to the massive freshwater discharge via Nile River. Our results show that the deep chlorophyll maximum development, observed in all micropalaeontological groups from previous studies, is a…
Fire–vegetation relationships during the last glacial cycle in a low mountain range (Eifel, Germany)
2021
Abstract Lake sediments can provide useful archives to reconstruct past vegetation changes or fire history. To comprehend how vegetation and fire history have correlated during the last 130,000 years, we used two lake sediment records with known patterns of pollen and botanical macro remains and supplemented this data by analyses of lignin-derived phenols as markers for local vegetation inputs and by benzene polycarboxylic acids (BPCAs) as markers for total fire residue inputs (black carbon, BC). The two sediment archives originated from two maar lakes in the Eifel, which is part of the low mountain ranges in central Germany. A lignin-derived phenol index showed woody angiosperms and gymnos…