scholarly journals There can be no confidence that the “first marine” and “in situ” artefact scatters in the Dampier Archipelago, NW Australia are in their primary archaeological context.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Ward ◽  
Piers Larcombe ◽  
Peter Ross ◽  
Chris Fandry
Keyword(s):  
Site Formation ◽  
Shallow Waters ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Bathymetric Data ◽  
Land Surfaces ◽  
Nw Australia ◽  
Inner Continental Shelf ◽  
Stone Artefact

The absence of known prehistoric underwater cultural heritage (UCH) sites on the inner continental shelf of Australia stands in stark contrast to the thousands of sites revealed elsewhere in the world. Two recent claims – Dortch et al. (D2019) and Benjamin et al. (B2020) – put forward the first in situ (i.e., primary context) marine UCH sites in the shallow waters of the Dampier Archipelago, NW Australia, each arguing the stone artefact scatters are at least 7000 years old and are now submerged because of post-glacial sea-level rise. From the data published in D2019 and B2020, we assess the explicit and implicit assumptions and uncertainties of these claims. We include new results of hydrodynamic modelling, new data on coastal erosion and new bathymetric data of northern Flying Foam Passage, leading to a reinterpretation of the archaeology and the sites' sedimentary settings.Whilst the presented lithic material of D2019 and B2020 clearly includes cultural artefacts, we find that the arguments for the sites being of primary context and reflecting early Holocene land surfaces do not stand up to scrutiny and that the available evidence is insufficient to establish the facts. In describing the assumptions and uncertainties in D2019 and B2020, we include example tests to help resolve them. On balance, it appears that these sites are intertidal, and many or all artefacts are likely to have been reworked. These and similar sites would benefit from a thorough appraisal of past and present coastal processes to produce a defensible understanding of site formation processes before it is possible to determine their true nature and significance, noting that, even as secondary sites, they would still inform our understanding of process and change. Such work would support more powerful contributions to submerged prehistory than attempts to seek the first, the earliest, the oldest or deepest.

Excavation of the Lower Palaeolithic Site at Amey's Eartham Pit, Boxgrove, West Sussex: A Preliminary Report.

1986 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 215-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. B. Roberts ◽  
M. R. Bates ◽  
C. Bergman ◽  
A. P. Currant ◽  
J. R. Haynes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Preliminary Report ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Environmental Reconstruction ◽  
Multidisciplinary Research ◽  
Lower Palaeolithic

The acheulian site at Boxgrove contains one of the most extensive areas of in situ fauna and flintwork yet discovered in Britain. This material is found in a complex sequence of sediments which represent depositional conditions from a 42 m sea level rise to the onset of a full periglacial climate. Excavation of the archaeological horizon has been accompanied by a programme of multidisciplinary research examining site formation processes, palaeolandscape and palaeoecological development, using sedimentological and environmental reconstruction techniques. Dating of the site is tentative as no absolute dates are available at present. However, comparative analysis with other British sites would suggest a position for the Boxgrove sequence within the Middle Pleistocene. The archaeological horizon is interpreted as being deposited towards the latter part of an interglacial or an interstadial period.

A New Type of Muddy Sediment Undisturbed Gravity Sampler in Shallow Waters

2013 ◽  
Vol 431 ◽  
pp. 151-154
Author(s):  
Qing Peng Kong ◽  
Qiao Di Zhou ◽  
Qing Hua Sheng
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Waters ◽  
Light Weight ◽  
Muddy Sediment ◽  
Deformation Method ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Membrane Deformation ◽  
Sediment Records ◽  
Undisturbed Sample ◽  
New Type

Muddy sediment records environmental change information water experienced. Due to the sampling disturbance, parameters provided by sediment analysis can't truly reflect the true nature of in situ sediment and water environmental information. This paper introduces a kind of muddy sediment undisturbed gravity sampler used in shallow waters, through a unique rubber sealing membrane deformation method. The sampler proved to be an effective tool of muddy sediment undisturbed sample in shallow waters, with characteristics of light weight, easy to carry, and convenient operation.

Late Pliocene Oldowan excavations at Kanjera South, Kenya

Antiquity ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (290) ◽  
pp. 809-810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Plummer ◽  
Joseph Ferraro ◽  
Peter Ditchfield ◽  
Laura Bishop ◽  
Richard Potts
Keyword(s):  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Large Mammal ◽  
Late Pliocene ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Kanjera South ◽  
Adaptive Shifts ◽  
Innovative Techniques ◽  
Stone Artefact

The appearance of Oldowan sites c. 2.5 million years ago signals one of the most important adaptive shifts in human evolution. Large mammal u butchery, stone artefact manufacture and novel transport and discard behaviours led to the accumulation of the first recognized archaeological debris. Although the earliest instances of these behaviours are 2.5 million years ago, most of what we know about Oldowan palaeoecology and behaviour is derived from localities more than half a million years younger, particularly c. 1.8 million-year-old sites from Bed I Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (Potts 1988). Sites from Kanjera South, Homa Peninsula, southwestern Kenya, yield dense concentrations of artefacts in association with the oldest (c. 2.2 million years) substantial sample of archaeological fauna known thus far from Africa. This study is the first to use a wide range of traditional and innovative techniques to investigate Oldowan hominin behaviour and site formation processes before 2 million years ago.

scholarly journals A Estação Paleolítica da Praia da Aguda (Arcozelo, Vila Nova de Gaia). Notícia preliminar

2010 ◽  
pp. 23-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sérgio Monteiro-Rodrigues ◽  
António González
Keyword(s):  
Stone Tools ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Stratigraphic Correlation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
De Se ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
First Time

A existência de materiais líticos paleolíticos no litoral do Porto e de Vila Nova de Gaia é conhecida, pelomenos, desde os finais do século XIX. A partir de 1987, trabalhos de prospecção neste último concelhoconduziram à descoberta do sítio do Cerro (freguesia da Madalena), escavado em 1989 e em 1992. Taisescavações permitiram a recolha de uma indústria técnica e tipologicamente conectável com o Acheulense.A estação paleolítica da Praia da Aguda (Arcozelo, Vila Nova de Gaia), agora apresentada, foi, porseu turno, identificada em 2004. Pouco depois da sua descoberta recolheram-se mais de uma centena deartefactos macrolíticos conectáveis com o Paleolítico Inferior (bifaces, machados de mão, núcleos, utensíliossobre lasca, etc.). Inicialmente, estes artefactos foram correlacionados com um depósito marinho,possivelmente de idade eemiana, existente na área dos achados. Porém, trabalhos de campo subsequentespermitiram constatar que essa correlação não é segura uma vez que os artefactos líticos detectados insitu surgem num depósito com caraterísticas diferentes das observadas na formação atribuída à últimainterglaciação. Na impossibilidade, até ao momento, de se proceder a uma caraterização sedimentológicado depósito onde ocorrem os artefactos e de se estabelecer qualquer correlação estratigráfica entre este ea praia fóssil do Eemiano, equacionam-se algumas hipóteses relativamente à génese do sítio arqueológicoe à sua cronologia relativa. The existence of Palaeolithic stone tools on the coast of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia has been knownfrom at least the late nineteenth century. In 1987, survey investigations in the latter municipality led tothe discovery of the site of Cerro (Madalena), excavated in 1989 and 1992. These excavations produceda collection of lithics that are techno-typologically related to the Acheulian. The Palaeolithic site of Praiada Aguda (Arcozelo), now published for the first time, was identified in 2004. Shortly after its discovery,more than one hundred macrolithic artefacts were found. The presence of hand-axes and cleavers suggestsa Lower Palaeolithic chronology. Initially, these artefacts were associated with a marine deposit,possibly of Eemian age, which was outcropping in the area of the site. However, subsequent fieldworkshowed that this correlation is not clear since the lithic artefacts that were found in situ were collectedfrom another deposit with features that differ from those observed in the Eemian deposit. So far it hasnot been possible to carry out a sedimentological characterisation of the deposit where the artefacts occur,nor to establish any stratigraphic correlation between this deposit and the Eemian fossil beach. Therefore,our main objective is to draft some hypotheses regarding the site formation processes and its relativechronology.

A Prehistoric Ford near Rough Castle, Falkirk

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-103
Author(s):  
JAMIE HAMILTON ◽  
CIARA CLARKE ◽  
ANDREW DUNWELL ◽  
RICHARD TIPPING
Keyword(s):  
Coal Mining ◽  
Pollen Analysis ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Small Stream ◽  
Mining Project ◽  
First Millennium

This report presents the results of the excavation of a stone ford laid across the base of a small stream valley near Rough Castle, Falkirk. It was discovered during an opencast coal mining project. Radiocarbon dates and pollen analysis of deposits overlying the ford combine to indicate a date for its construction no later than the early first millennium cal BC. Interpreting this evidence was not straightforward and the report raises significant issues about site formation processes and the interpretation of radiocarbon and pollen evidence. The importance of these issues extends beyond the rarely investigated features such as fords and deserve a larger place in the archaeological literature.

The Archaeological Record

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manjil Hazarika
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Site Structure ◽  
Reserve Forest ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Ways Of Life

This chapter elaborates the data and results of the explorations conducted in the Garbhanga Reserve Forest. The area has been intensively surveyed for the location of potential archaeological sites and the collection of ethnographic data in order to draw direct historical analogies. An ‘area-approach’ study has been conducted in order to formulate a general model for archaeological site structure, locations, geomorphic situations, and site formation processes that can be used for archaeological study in the hilly landscape of Northeast India. Present-day agricultural implements have been analysed and compared with Neolithic implements in order to reconstruct ancient farming culture by way of undertaking systematic study of modern peasant ways of life in the study area. The ideological significance of stone artefacts as ‘thunderstone’ in Northeast India and among the Karbis has also been discussed.

Approaching daily life at Late Palaeolithic camps: The case of Lubrza 10, Western Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-333
Author(s):  
Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka ◽  
Aleksandr Diachenko
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
The North ◽  
Locational Analysis ◽  
Research Procedure ◽  
Sandy Sediments ◽  
Integrative Social ◽  
Late Palaeolithic

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to develop a systematic approach to understanding daily life at Late Palaeolithic camps and identifying its impact on broader site formation processes. Late Palaeolithic contexts are often poorly preserved, especially those found in the sandy sediments of the North European Plain. However, taphonomic obstacles may be overcome through the introduction of spatial statistics into research procedures. We illustrate our approach using a case study of Federmesser and Swiderian campsites at the site of Lubrza 10, Western Poland. The locational analysis of hearths, features that constitute the most important integrative social foci of Palaeolithic camps, provides information on activity areas, seasonality and occupational duration. Additionally, we examine the function of spatially distinct artefact concentrations and their methods of aggregation. The presented research procedure enables us to trace the contribution of individuals to group behaviour, as well as specific individual activities at both camps.

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