DIG2015
“DIG” (Developing International geoarchaeology) (http://www.developinginternationalgeoarchaeology.org/first.html)is
the title of a series of international conferences aiming at bringing together a wide variety of international researchers
in this interdisciplinary field in order to facilitate discussion, stimulate research, and promote international scholarship.
Venue: Sassari University at Alghero, Department of Architecture and Design, Muralla de l'Hospital
(BastioniPigafetta), Aula 7, 07041 Alghero (SS).
Program
Monday 8 June
Afternoon
(Tue 9 June)
(Afternoon)
Wed 10 June
All day
DIG2015
Thurs 11 June
All day
Fri 12 June
All day
Half-day excursion to
Fordongianus
(DIG2015)
(only registration )
DIG2015
Presentations and
Posters
Lunch included
CONFERENCE DINNER
MIRAMARE 8.30 p.m.
DIG2015
Presentations and
Posters
(lunch included)
Excursion
(with packed lunch)
WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE
9- 9.45 Welcome Addresses by University of Sassari and Architecture and Design Department
9.45 – 9.55 Maria Raimonda Usai. On John B Dalrymple
Morning: Methodology Session - Chair: Maurizio Minchilli
10.00-10.20. Giovanni De Giudici- Characterization of microscopic properties by synchrotron based techniques: an
overview and some examples.
Continued
10.30-10.50 Susan M. Mentzer, Christopher E. Miller - Applications of micro-FTIR in the identification of phosphate
minerals in micromorphology samples from archaeological sites Coffee break
11.00- 11.30 Coffee Break.
(Chair continues: Maurizio Minchilli)
11.30-11.50 Christopher E. Miller, Susan M. Mentzer, Ximena Villagran, David Friesem - Using Fourier-Transform
infrared Microspectrometry (micro-FTIR) to assess heat-induced alteration of clays in thin sections from
archaeological combustion features: promises and pitfalls
12.00-12.40. Presentation and discussion of posters
(Chair continues: Maurizio Minchilli)
12.00 – 12-10. Matthias Czechowski, Susan Mentzer,, Christopher Miller, - A GIS-based method for determining
heterogeneity of burnt-bone assemblages
12.00-12.20. Lucia Leierer and David Friesem -Identifying char particles using FTIR
12.20-12-30. H. B. Martinez-Dyrzo, S. M. Mentzer,, C. E. Miller. Variation in morphology and composition of woodderived ashes—an experimental approach
12.30-12.40 Simone Moser, Barbara Brilmayer Bakti, Martin Kehl -Automated detection and quantification of
features in thin sections from archaeological sites
12.40-12-50. Ariana Fernandez, Steve Victor, Reed Morgan, Thomas Fenn, Roderick McIntosh - A New
Archaeomagnetic Dating Curve for Peru:Reconstructing the Secular Variation Curve for the Middle and Late Moche
13.00-14.00LUNCH
Wednesday 10 June Afternoon - Chair: Marco Milanese
14.00 – 14.20 - KatjaKothieringer, KarstenLambers - Archaeological, palaeoecological, and pedological
evidence of Holocene human-environment interaction in the Silvretta Alps
14.30-14.50. Magnus M. Haaland, David Friesem, Christopher Miller, Christopher S. Henshilwood - Heat-induced
alteration of glauconitic minerals in the Middle Stone Age levels of Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for
evaluating site structure and burning events
15.00-15.20 AlviseBarbieri, , C.J. Kind, N. J. Conard and C.E. Miller- The impact of landscape changes on the site
formation processes of the HohlensteinStadel cave.
15.30-15.50. Nina Helt Nielsen, Søren Much Kristiansen, Kristian Dalsgaard - Geoarchaeological investigations of the
Danish Celtic fields at ØsterLemHede, Western Jutland, Denmark
16.00-16.30. Coffee break
(Chair continues: Marco Milanese)
16.30-16.50 Carol Lang and Daryl Stump - A Geoarchaeological Contribution to the Study of Archaeological
Agricultural Resilience in Eastern Africa
17.00 – 17.20 Banerjea Rowena Y, Alex Brown, Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz, Aleks Pluskowski‘Geoarchaeological perspectives on societal change in the landscape in medieval Europe’
17.00-17.30 Presentation and discussion of Posters (Chair continues: Marco Milanese)
17.30- 17.40 M Uzdurum, S Mentzer, J Quade, M Özbaşaran- Geoarchaeological analyses of construction materials
from the Neolithic site of AşıklıHöyük, Turkey
17.40-17.50. M. Milanese, Martina Zipoli .Water draining and regimentation in the site of Mesumundu (Siligo, SS).
The coracovaccada and the paleoriverbed of area 2700
17.50-18.00. Marco Milanese,Maria Antonietta Zoroddu, Massimiliano Peana,Serenella Medici, Martina Zipoli.
Chemistry applied to Archaeology - “The informative potential of the invisible”
Wednesday 10 June at 20.00. CONFERENCE DINNER – Ristorante MIRADOR (Bastioni Marco Polo,63)
THURSDAY 11 JUNE
Morning - Chair: Vincenzo Pascucci
9.00 – 9.20 – V. Pascucci, C. Del Vais, S. Andreucci, G. De Falco, A. Depalmas, A.C. Fariselli, R.T. Melis, G. Pisanu,
I. Sanna. Climatic changes and human impact on coastal evolution: the Mistras-Cabras barrier-lagoon system
(Oristano Gulf, Central-Western Sardinia)
9.30-9.50 - Rachel Kulick - Micromorphological analyses of an open-air stone structure at the Magdalenian site of
PeyreBlanque, France
10.00-10.20 - Erhard Schulz, Attila Bencsik and HoreaCacovean - Wildfire versus slash-and-burn and flaming and the
fate of charcoals
10.30-11.00. Coffee break
Chair continues: Vincenzo Pascucci
11.00-11.20, Matt Pickering, Annika Burns,Maria Raimonda Usai,Don Brothwella and Brendan Keely. InterArChive:
exploiting the hidden archive in archaeological grave soils 11.30-11.50 – InterArChive team – title t.b.e.
12.00- 12.20 - Maria-Raimonda Usai, Matt Pickering, Scott Hicks, Brendan Keely and Don Brothwell (InterArChive) Intra-site variation in soils from archaeological human burials at Fewston, North Yorkshire, UK
12.30-13.00 . Carol Lang, Maria-Raimonda Usai, Brendan Keely, Don Brothwell . InterArChive - soils from
archaeological burials: The mass graves at Fromelles and Ridgeway
13.00-14.00 LUNCH
Afternoon Chair: Brendan Keely
14.00-14.20. Flora Schilt, Susan Mentzer, David Wright, Jessica Thompson, Christopher E. Miller, Elizabeth GomaniChindebvu - Reconstruction of the formation of iron-manganese nodule accumulations associated with Middle
Stone Age artefacts in a lateritic profile in northern Malawi
14.30-14.50. Mario Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Margarita Orfila Pons, Paul Goldberg, Francisco José Martín Peinado,
Thomas Schattner, Wolfram Martini, Marcelo Castro - Urban Transformation and Site Formation Processes in the
Roman cities of Hispania: a micromorphological view
15.00-15.20. L Wilson, A Agam, R Barkai, A Gopher- Sources of lithic raw materials at Qesem Cave, Israel: Analysis of
a preliminary set of thin sections.
15.30-15.50. Maria Raimonda Usai, Angelo Aru, Sergio Vacca, Rita Melis. Soil Associations and Nuragic
palaeosettlement distribution in the Marmilla Trexenta areas, Sardinia, Italy
16.00-16.30. Coffee break
Chair Continues: Brendan Keely
16.30-16.50 - Valentina Caruso,, Luca Trombino, Giorgio Caudullo, Valentina Scarpulla, Annalisa Cappella, Emanuela
Maderna, Nicoletta Marinoni, Debora Mazzarelli, Emanuela Sguazza,, Cristina Cattaneo. - Bone tissue conservation
in archaeological and contemporary human remains: the role of degradation of organic and mineral phases
17.00-17.20 – Natàlia Égüez, Carolina Mallol, Cheryl Makarewicz, Ruth Blasco, Jordi Rosell, Florent Rivals, Eugène
Morin, François Bachellerie, Isabelle Crevecoeur,Hélène Rougier - Micro-characterization of carnivore coprolites: a
contribution to the study of Pleistocene anthropogenic sedimentary deposits
17.30-18.10 Presentation and discussion of posters
(Chair continues: Brendan Keely)
17.30 – 17.40 Mario Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Margarita Orfila Pons, Francisco José Martín Peinado, Oliva Rodríguez
Gutiérrez, Enrique García Vargas, Carlos Márquez Moreno, Elena H. Sánchez López, Marcelo Castro López and Paul
Goldberg - Gea in front of Chronos: Geoarchaeological Research in Roman Contexts of Andalusia, Spain
17.40-17.50. Carlos Duarte, EnekoIriarte& Pablo Arias - The Final (Asturian) Problem: reviewing the formation of the
Mesolithic shell middens of northern Spain using micromorphology and other geoarchaeological approaches
(Poster)
17.50-18.00. M. Mercè Bergadà, Tània Polonio and F. Xavier Oms. Cova Colomera (Southeastern Pre-Pyrenees)
during the late Early Neolithic: pastoral practices and bat and bird occupation
Excursion
The conference will be followed by an excursion including:

Observations of “statues of Mont’e Prama” (http://www.comunedicabras.it/vivi-cabras/museo-e-area-archeologica-ditharros/index.aspx?m=53&did=285 ) at Cabras Museum, followed to site from where Statues were/are excavated,
with archaeological, soil and geological guide.

Packed lunch break

Visit to Phoenician-Punic-Roman site of Tharros(see http://www.tharros.info/ViewSites.php?cat=100&lng=it and
http://www.sardegnacultura.it/j/v/253?s=21268&v=2&c=2489&c1=2125&t=1)
All the best,
DIG2015 Organizing Committee:
Maria Raimonda Usai1, Andrea Vacca2, Sergio Vacca1, Giovanni De Giudici2, Salvatore Madrau3 ,Salvatore
Carboni2 , Maria Bonaria D’Anna, Giovanni Mastinu1
(1: Department of Architecture and Design, University of Sassari; 2: Department of Chemical and Geological
Sciences, University of Cagliari; 3: , Department of Agriculture, University of Sassari)
ABSTRACTS
JOHN B. DALRYMPLE
This year’s Archaeological Soil Micromorphology Workshop is dedicated to Dr John B..Dalrymple, one of the most important soil
micromorphologists of his generation and this times, who has recently passed away.
Dr Dalrymple was outstanding as a human being and for his dedication to his students, with whom he pioneered, both
theoretically and experimentally, important Pedology and Micromorphology work. His contribution was fundamental to the
progress of the disciplines of Pedology, Paleopedology, Soil Micromophology and applications to archaeological interpretations.
He was born in Coventry on 23 November 1930 and, after his secondary schools, was first student for his Bachelor Degree in
Geography at the University of Sheffield.
He then did an MSc in Archaeology in the Institute of Archaeology in London, followed by
a PhD on the Pedology, Archaeology and Geography in Wye College, Kent. During his PhD
he taught first as a Demonstrator and then as a Junior Lecturer.
It was during these years, that he did his pioneering work on the application of soil
micromorphology to Archaeology, published in 1958 in the Journal of Soil Science [‘The
application of Soil Micromorphology to fossil soils and other deposits from archaeological
sites’]. This was the beginning of an entirely new field of studies, and opened the way to
today’s archaeological soil micromorphology and geoarchaeological applications.
In 1960 he was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Pedology in the Department of Geography in
Oakland, New Zealand. His work here diversified again, extending to his then lifelong treasured
multi-scale perspectives going from microscopy to large landscape and soil interpretations with
three-dimensional approach. Hence, his research in New Zealand was again of a ground-breaking
character, as he developed the ‘Hypothetical Nine Land Surface Model’ (published in 1968),
worldwide-famous and important for the understanding of the relationships between slopes and soils. The model’s principle was the recognition
that all natural slopes potentially consist of a convex upper part and a concave lower part, separated by mid-slope variations, and defined for
the first time nine ‘units’ where the type and extent of weathering, hydrology and soil formation are all causally related to the characters of the
slope ‘unit’ in which they occur.
In 1965 he moved back to the UK, where he joined the University of Reading, Department of Soil Science, where he taught
Pedology, Soil Survey and Land Evaluation, Paleopedology (with work with the Working Group on the Origin and Nature of
Paleosols) and particularly Soil Micromorphology. With his students he carried out pioneering and innovative research on processes
and soil genesis, with both empirical and experimental applications and, also with support of highly qualified technician Karen
Gutteridge, developed new methods for thin section preparations and interpretations and established a soil micromorphology lab
where many of the then future micromorphology scientists were trained.
John Dalrymple was intolerant of scientific assumptions based on circumscribed concepts that did not fully account for the
wholeness and interrelatedness in space between land, environment and soil, and on this basis, he fought with persistence and dignity
to develop, maintain and uphold standards of micromorphology and pedology at the levels he believed right.
His students and then research collaborators were many and it is impossible to name them all in this note.
We, your past students, are grateful to you, Dr Dalrymple, from whom we learnt most of what we know in soil
science and... a bit more about life.
Maria Raimonda Usai
Characterization of microscopic properties by synchrotron based techniques: an
overview and some examples.
Giovanni De Giudici
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche - Università di Cagliari
Characterization of (solid) geo-materials can be thought as a multi-scale problem whose advances
are often due to a development in microscopic techniques. Routine characterization by optical
microscopy allows one to recognize size and shape of the grains, crystal phases and texture of the
samples. These basic informations are generally limited The advent of electron microscopy and the
use of electron microbeam, allowed us to acquire more information on the morphology and
chemical composition with micrometric and sub-micrometric resolution. Moreover, innovative
manipulations based on digital microfocus techniques such as Focus Ion Beam (FIB) offer us
opportunities to prepare oriented thin slices with micrometric precision and, thus, having access to
structures, textures and interfaces buried below the surface of the samples. Synchrotron light,
generally because of its particularly high brilliance, offers better opportunities to acquire definitive
information on grains shape and size, texture, crystal phases, chemistry and coordinative and
chemical environment. In this talk, generalities about synchrotron techniques will be presented as
well as some example to the characterization of geoarcheological materials. Focus will be on
sample manipulation, microXRF, microFTIR, microXRD and microXAS tecnhiques (1, 2). Specific
benefits from using synchrotron based techniques will be illustrated with relevant examples.
References
1Torresday, et al. Coord. Chem. Rev. 249, 1797–1810 (2005)
2De Giudici et al. (2014) Synchrotron Radiation and Environmental Sciences. Synchrotron
Radiation Chapter 25. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Applications of micro-FTIR in the identification of phosphate minerals in
micromorphology samples from archaeological sites
Susan M. Mentzer 1, 2 Christopher E. Miller 1, 3
1
Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany
2
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
3
Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Germany
Phosphate-induced diagenesis is a taphonomic process that negatively impacts the preservation of
archaeological materials, such as ashes, bones and shell. The process is most common in cave and
rockshelter settings; however, phosphatic minerals can form under a variety of conditions in sites of
all ages. Identification of specific phosphatic minerals using their optical properties in thin section
is difficult due to often small crystal sizes and similarity in crystal habits, color in PPL and
interference colors in cross-polarized light. In this study, we selected a series of unknown
phosphatic minerals visible in thin sections from archaeological sites ranging in age from Middle
Stone Age to Neolithic. After documenting their optical properties, we analyzed the minerals using
Fourier infrared microspectrometry (micro-FTIR) and compared the resulting spectra to a database
of minerals and other archaeological materials. Depending on crystal density, some spectra required
further processing to account for the presence on resin. We positively identified a variety of
minerals including hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2), leucophosphite (K(Fe)2(PO4)2(OH) · 2 H2O,
taranakite ((K, NH4)Al3(PO4)3(OH) · 9 H2O, brushite (CaHPO4 · 2 H2O) and whitlockite
(Ca18Mg2H2(PO4)14). These mineral identifications were confirmed using analyses of nodules and
other materials present in loose sediment samples. Our results suggest that micro-FTIR is a viable
technique for the identification of unknown secondary phosphatic minerals in archaeological
sediments, and that the integration of this type of analysis with micromorphology will allow us to
better reconstruct the formation sequences of the minerals and their impacts on archaeological
materials.
Using Fourier-Transform infrared Microspectrometry (micro-FTIR) to assess
heat-induced alteration of clays in thin sections from archaeological combustion
features: promises and pitfalls
Christopher E. Miller1,2 Susan M. Mentzer1,3 Ximena Villagran1,4 David Friesem1,5
1 Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Germany; 2 Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment,
University of Tübingen, Germany; 3 Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA; 4 Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology,
University of Sao Paolo, Brazil; 5 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Archaeological combustion features consist of the remnants of burnt fuel (charcoal and ashes) and often
exhibit clay-rich substrates or inclusions that have been variably influenced by heating. Previous studies
using Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry of loose sediments have demonstrated the
applicability of this method for assessing the degree of heating in clays in archaeological sites (e.g., Berna et
al. 2007; Forget et al. 2015). Here we present the results of a micro-FTIR study of heat-altered clays in
archaeological combustion features from a variety of time periods and geological contexts.
We selected combustion features from an Upper Paleolithic cave in the Caucasus, an Aceramic Neolithic tell
in Turkey, a Paleoindian cave in Brazil, and an ethnohistoric village in Greece for the study. Loose samples
of unheated clays from the sites themselves, or surrounding areas, were heated in a step-wise experiment,
following the protocol developed by Berna et al. (2007). Spectra were obtained on the heated loose samples
using potassium-bromide (KBr) pellets and a diamond-crystal Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR)
attachment. We also indurated the experimental loose samples in resin and obtained spectra using an FTIR
microscope, attached to the same bench, with germanium- and diamond-crystal ATRs. We compared these
spectra with those obtained using the FTIR microscope from thin sections of archaeological combustion
features.
The results from this study demonstrate that micro-FTIR can be used to assess whether clays in thin section
have been altered by heat. However, our results also show that one must carefully adjust the measurement
protocols depending on the site and the clays which were heated. We therefore recommend that all future
studies include site-specific heating experiments to calibrate results. Furthermore, a combination of
reflectance, transmittance, and ATR measurements on thin sections provide the appropriate spectral range to
identify key peak shifts. For example, sites where kaolinite is the likely dominant clay mineral, diagnostic
peak shifts at high wavenumbers are obvious in transmittance spectra. For heat-altered clays derived from
volcanic bedrock, many of the key peaks can only be measured using reflectance or ATR objectives.
Furthermore, these overlap with those specific to the indurating resin, or fall outside of the spectral range of
the instrument. Overlap with resin peaks requires subtraction corrections to the spectra, making the
measurement of peak-height ratios difficult. Therefore, we only recommend using micro-FTIR to determine
if a clay has been altered, and not to determine specific degree ranges of heating. Despite some of these
setbacks, we believe that micro-FTIR measurements of heated clays in thin section provides valuable
microcontextual information that can be used to augment other studies of combustion features.
References
Berna, F., Behar, A., Shahack-Gross, R., Berg, J., Boaretto, E., Gilboa, A., ... & Weiner, S. (2007). Sediments exposed to high
temperatures: reconstructing pyrotechnological processes in Late Bronze and Iron Age Strata at Tel Dor (Israel). Journal of
Archaeological Science, 34, 358-373.
Forget, M. C., Regev, L., Friesem, D. E., & Shahack-Gross, R. (2015). Physical and mineralogical properties of experimentally
heated chaff-tempered mud bricks: Implications for reconstruction of environmental factors influencing the appearance of mud bricks
in archaeological conflagration events. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2, 80-93.
A GIS-based method for determining heterogeneity of burnt-bone assemblages
Matthias Czechowskr , Susan Mentzert2, Christopher Miller' '3
'Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of TObingen, Germany2
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
3
Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of TObingen, Germany
Using a geographic information system (GIS) for data-management, analysis, and visualization of
archaeological sediment thin sections, provides a powerful and easy method for resolving spatial
archaeological issues. Here, we show how the method can used for determining the heterogeneity of
burnt-bone assemblages from Gravettian-aged deposits at Hohle Fels Cave, Swabian Jura, Germany
and from a sacrificial ash altar at Mt. Lykaion, Peloponnese, Greece.
In situ Fourier Transform infrared microspectrometry (micro-FTIR), and Fourier Transform
infrared (FTIR) spectrometry reference data from burning experiments with varying temperatures,
allows us to establish parameters for the degree of bone-burning. Together with qualitative data,
such as micromorphological features, bone-color-values, bone-size and spatial data like plane- and
cross polarized images (scans) of the thin sections, all data are integrated in a GIS-framework.
Spatial analysis and the visualization of these data provide contextual arguments for interpretation.
The detailed determination of the burnt-bone assemblages on a micro scale allows differentiation of
intact or re-worked combustion features and intentionally or unintentionally dumped bone deposits.
The case study attempts to show an efficient method for handling archaeological sediment thin
sections. In a GIS-Environment, spatial data from different sources is organized, processed and
presented in a user-friendly way. This allows easy interdisciplinary collaborative work,
information exchange and publication of results. The use of open software and open file formats
guarantees reproducibility of the method and long-term preservation of data.
Identifying char particles using FTIR
Lucia Leierer1, David Friesem2
1
University of Tübingen; 2 of Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
Charred materials are an important as well as numerous component of archaeological sediment and
are often better preserved than their unburned counterparts. In micromorphological studies one
often encounters charred material in thin sections. They appear black in both polarized and cross
polarized light. Whereas some charred materials, like charcoal or charred plant material, can be
identified very easy, others are more difficult to clearly identify.
One of these materials is char, which can occur in two forms: bone-derived char and fat-derived char.
The purpose of this work is to identify fat-derived char particles in thin section using Fourier
Transform Infrared Microspectrometry (micro-FTIR). The ability to differentiate between charcoal,
burned bone and fat-derived char in thin section can aid in evaluating cooking habits and fire use.
For the purpose of having a control sample, animal and vegetable fat was burned experimentally
and measured with attenuated total reflection (ATR) at different temperatures of burning.
Archaeological char was located in thin section from Hohle Fels, an Upper Palaeolithic cave in
southern Germany. It was measured under micro-FTIR using ATR.
The spectra of the experimental char showed differences in peaks and peak ratios between animal and
vegetable fat and between different degrees of burning. The archaeological char showed an overlap
between the peaks of the char and the resin the sample was embedded in, but after subtraction some
significant peaks stood out. Two of them were similar to peaks from the experimental char but
different from the surrounding matrix and other charred particles like bone and charcoal. An
identification of the archaeological char between vegetable and animal fat was not possible, since the
archaeological char was likely subjected to taphonomic processes. Analyzing char with FTIR yields
some obstacles, since the particles are often small and porous, making it difficult to find good areas to
obtain spectra with the micro-FTIR. Additionally, the interference with the resin used for impregnating
the samples mostly overlaps with the main peaks, leaving only two significant peaks to identify.
Despite these drawbacks, this method can help identifying char particles quickly, especially when one is
already identifying other charred materials (such as burnt bone) with the micro-FTIR. Future work on
archaeological char with the micro-FTIR will also focus on alteration and preservation of char.
Variation in morphology and composition of wood-derived ashes—an
experimental approach
H. B. Martinez-Dyrzo1, S. M. Mentzer1,2, C. E. Miller1,3
1 Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstrasse 23. 72070 Tübingen, Germany
2 Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
3 Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Germany
The identification of wood ash in archaeological contexts using soil micromorphology is largely based
on the observation of rhombic, carbonate pseudomorphs of calcium oxalate crystals. The in situ
preservation of this particular proxy is an important requirement for establishing the presence of certain
types of combustion features in archaeological sites. However, despite numerous studies investigating
the effects of post-depositional processes on the preservation of wood-derived ash, little work since
Courty et al. (1989), Wattez (1988) and Canti (2003) has focused on variation in morphology of
unaltered ashes. Here, we present the results of burning experiments that document variation in
morphology of ashes as a function of species, plant part and burning temperature.
The present study includes a collection of 200 grain mounts of six different species of trees from the
Swabian Jura, Germany (fir tree, oak, beech, ash tree , pine and birch), four species from the TransVolcanic Belt, Mexico (yucca, cuammochitl, violet copal and white copal), one representative from
Australia (eucalyptus), a grass representative (bamboo) and an herb (spinach). All of the species are C3
plants with the exception of yucca, a CAM plant.
For each species, samples from the trunk (first meter from the base in the European species), bark,
leaves and branch were taken. The samples were burnt at 400 °C, 500 °C and 600 °C for 4 hours and at
900 °C for 1 hour at room pressure (970 hPa) in an Carbolite® ELF 11/6B/E301 oven. We kept an
ambient humidity measurement during the immediate cooling process. An additional extraction of
calcium oxalates from the trunk was performed using tetraamminediaquacopper dihydroxide
(Schweizer's reagent) and hydrogen peroxide in order to compare the ash samples with their progenitors.
In addition to grain mounts of all of the ashes, a Fourier transform infrared-attenuated total reflectance
(FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy analysis was performed for each sample, using a Cary 660 (Agilent
Technologies) spectrometer.
The results show the existence of charcoal and organic material (a polymer organic component) at 400
°C and preservation of charcoal at 600 °C. The samples heated to 900 °C show in some cases an
incomplete combustion. For some species (Pine, eucalyptus and yucca) the ashes do not appear in the
typical rhombic form, but rather appears as linear aggregates of micrite. This shape is congruent with
the morphology of the original oxalate crystals in these plants. Additionally, the spinach does not form
typical rhombic pseudomorphs, but spherical grains. Bamboo has an anomalous result. The infrared
spectra show that the major chemical compound is calcium carbonate in all the samples at 600 °C and
900 °C with the exception of bamboo. Traces of calcium oxide and magnesium oxide can be detected at
temperatures above 500°C. Meanwhile, traces of calcium carbonate are found at 900° C.
Automated detection and quantification of features in thin sections
from archaeological sites
Simone Moser1, Barbara Brilmayer Bakti1, Martin Kehl1
1Institute
of Geography, University of Cologne, Albertus Magnus Platz, 50923 Cologne, Germany Contact: [email protected]
In the past decades micromorphology has become an indispensable tool in geoarchaeological
research. It provides information on mineral and organic components, their nature, spatial
distribution, and possible diagenesis. This supports the identification of site formation processes.
Although micromorphology traditionally is a qualitative approach, quantitative analyses add
valuable information. The application of the Feature Analyst® for ArcGIS is a method to quantify
micromorphological results. It is an automated feature extraction (AFE) software extension for
geospatial features, usually applied for the interpretation of satellite or arial images to identify i.e.
buildings, roads, land-use changes or vegetation types.
The Feature Analyst® enables the user to extract features in a short amount of time and to narrow
the classification, if necessary. This quantitative approach is more precise and less time consuming
as for example a manual detection. Also, standardised settings guarantee the same set of algorithms
applied to the data set. The use of these standards on micromorphological thin sections increases the
comparability of those, regarding mineral and organic constituents, as well as fabrics and
groundmasses. To demonstrate the application the Feature Analyst® is applied to rock shelter
deposits of the Iberian Peninsula and Northern Morocco. It is trained to detect and distinguish pore
space, micritic and sparitic limestone, travertine, quartz grains, bones, burnt bones, and opaque
particles as separate feature classes.
Through the generation of feature classes it is possible to determine total volumes and polygon sizes
for each feature class and to assess feature orientation. This improves statistical analysis when
investigating a large number of thin sections. Also, it is possible to combine high resolution images
captured under plane polarised light or crossed polarizers using a flat-bed scanner or the polarizing
microscope. This makes results more reliable and precise i.e. a differentiation between quartz and
pore space is possible. In addition, an error matrix could be created to assess the accuracies of the
defined classes in comparison to manual detection.
With the help of the Feature Analyst® several steps of a quantitative data acquisition method could
be integrated within ArcGIS. It starts with the image acquisition and processing, followed by the
identification of possible feature classes, and, as next steps, the data preparation, evaluation and
visualisation.
A New Archaeomagnetic Dating Curve for Peru:
Reconstructing the Secular Variation Curve for the Middle and Late Moche
Ariana Fernandez1, Steve Victor, Reed Morgan, Thomas Fenn, Roderick McIntosh2
1
2
Yale University; Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, The Center for the Study of Ancient Pyro-Technology; 51 Hillhouse, New Haven, CT
Yale University;
Archaeomagnetism has the potential to equal and perhaps surpass radiocarbon dating in accuracy—
particularly for sites inhabited during the Hallstatt Plateau period of the radiocarbon curve (800 - 400
B.C.E.). Using remnant magnetism present in burnt soil containing magnetite or hematite collected from
archaeological contexts, archaeomagnetism tracks the movement of the magnetic north pole over time.
Curves plotting the movement of the pole through time are constructed with historic data and
archaeological samples. The more samples that are taken, the more precise this dating method becomes.
With sufficient data, the potential exists for a resolution of plus or minus eleven to forty years.
However, it is still a developing field and therefore requires more intensive study to test its validity and
achieve this accuracy. While researchers have developed several potential curves in parts of Africa and
North America, little work has been done in South America. The northern coast of Peru holds the
archaeological remains of complex and rapidly developing societies. Previous dating in Peru relied
heavily on relative dating using pottery. Radiocarbon dating proved insufficient in cases as many
archaeological contexts existed during the Hallstatt Plateau and others yielded insufficient organic
material. In 1998, Wolfman published a partial Peruvian archaeomagnetic curve spanning from AD 675
until 1550. This curve provided foundational insight into Peru’s magnetic past, but more dates must be
added to increase its breadth and accuracy. Building upon Wolfman's work, archaeomagnetic samples
were collected by the current authors from the Moche sites of Huacas Moche and San Jose de Moro.
Both had extensive Moche occupations and contain archaeological components predating the period
covered by Wolfman’s curve. Using an alternating frequency demagnetizer, these samples were
demagnetized in 4mT intervals from 0mT-60mT and in 5mT intervals from 65mT-100mT; after each
demagnetization step, the declinations, inclinations, and intensities of the samples were recorded. The
new dating curve for Peru between 350 and 750 AD contains 5 new points, all of which are supported
by consistent data. These points appear to accurately document the movement of the magnetic north
pole for both the Middle and Late Moche periods. By combining these new results with Wolfman's
data, we present the most comprehensive, if still preliminary, archaeomagnetic dating curve available
for Peru.
Archaeological, palaeoecological, and pedological evidence of Holocene humanenvironment interaction in the Silvretta Alps
Katja Kothieringer1, Karsten Lambers1
1
: Digital Geoarchaeology; Institute of Archaeology, Heritage Sciences and Art History; University of Bamberg, Germany
When did people exploit natural resources available in the high-altitude zone of the Alps for the first time? When
did they start to stay in this extreme environment over extended periods of time for herding purposes, and not just
for short-term hunting activities? These topics have recently been discussed in various regional studies of past
land-use patterns in high mountainous regions of the Alps, e.g. in Tyrol, Montafon (both Austria), and Trentino
(Italy). Building on archaeological research initiated by the University of Zurich in 2007, we selected the valleys
of the Silvretta Massif in the central Eastern Alps between Paznaun (Austria) and Lower Engadine (Switzerland)
as an appropriate study area for analyzing the relationship between Holocene climate, settlement dynamics, and
human impact on the landscape in the course of an interdisciplinary research project. Based on our findings, we
present new evidence from archaeological, palaeoecological, and pedological investigations that aimed at
reconstructing human-environment interaction in the Silvretta from the Early Holocene to the modern era. For
this purpose, archaeological sites as well as environmental archives such as peat bogs and soils have been
documented and analyzed.
A rock shelter in Val Urschai, Switzerland, at about 2300 m a.s.l. represents the oldest known archaeological site
in the study area. At this site, a fire place dating to the mid-9th millennium BC indicates early Mesolithic hunting
activities. Later on, archaeological data suggest a shift in subsistence strategies in the wider study area from
hunting to herding at the end of the Neolithic Period (2800-2500 BC), i.e. earlier than previously assumed. This
shift is evidenced, among other finds, by the earliest ceramic fragments at another rock shelter in Val Urschai.
These finds indicate that people stayed at that site over extended periods of time, preparing meals and possibly
processing milk. While palaeoecological data confirm this shift at that time, they also show potentially earlier
human and livestock impact through forest clearances by fire and grazing from about 4200 BC onwards.
Further evidence of early human impact can be obtained from subalpine soils. Soil formation was disturbed
repeatedly by human activity like slash-and-burn. In addition to fire residues, certain characteristics of special soil
types like “brown podzols” or alpine pasture cambisols situated on moraines high above the modern timberline
can be ascribed to human activity, e.g. vegetation opening and subsequent long-term pastoral land-use. In our
study area, soil types with podzolic features show such characteristics, e.g. charcoal fragments and eroded
material that were partly reworked into fossil Bs-horizons. These widespread, podzolic soil relics were
presumably formed under forest or dwarf shrub vegetation during warmer periods of the Mid-Holocene. This
climatic relation is confirmed by the presence of a compaction zone during the Neolithic in the stratigraphy of a
peat bog in Val Fenga, Switzerland, which is probably due to drying up of the bog and simultaneous soil
formation processes. While peat bogs may be used to reconstruct the past environment on a regional scale due to
their extended catchment area, human impact on the environment through fire and land-use changes can be
deduced from soils on a local scale.
An extensive dating program by means of 14C and OSL is expected to provide further information on soil age and
soil development in the course of a follow-up project. Based on the interdisciplinary results of this reference
region, the goal is to obtain an overall view of human-environment interaction in the Central Alps in high
temporal resolution.
Heat-induced alteration of glauconitic minerals in the Middle Stone Age levels of
Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for evaluating site structure and
burning events
Magnus M. Haaland1, David Friesem2, Christopher Miller3,4, Christopher S. Henshilwood1
Institute for Archaeology, History, Culture and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway; 2University of Cambridge, McDonald
Institute for Archaeological Research, United Kingdom; 3Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Tübingen,
Germany; 4Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany;
5Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
1
The identification of hearths and combustion features is a recurrent theme in the study of prehistoric site structure.
In some sites, an intact, unlined open hearth can be recognized by the presence of a rubified and reddened
substrate, overlain by thin layers of charcoal and ash; however, this is relatively rare. In clay-poor contexts, for
example, rubification of the substrate does not always readily occur, making the identification of hearths and other
combustion features more difficult. The sedimentary sequence in Blombos Cave, dated to 101 – 70 ka ago,
represents such a clay-poor context, being highly calcareous and dominated by quartz-rich, aeolian sand.
However, sand-sized grains of glauconite, a green, marine clay mineral, are present throughout the well stratified anthropogenic deposits inside the cave. The main source for the glauconite is the limestone bedrock
ceiling (Pliocene aeolianites) in which the cave is formed. As with many other clay minerals, glauconite may
alter its colour and chemical structure due to weathering processes. While the glauconite in the bedrock occurs
as unaltered, dark green grains (PPL), some of the glauconite observed in the stratified archaeological deposits
appear red. The red glauconite grains are primarily found in association with lenses rich in ash, charcoal and
other burnt material.
Here we present a study on the structural properties and spatial distribution of glauconitic minerals in the Middle
Stone Age levels of Blombos Cave, South Africa. We analyzed and compared the mineral properties of various
glauconitic grains (i.e., green and red) by measuring them with Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometry.
In addition, we analyzed in-situ glauconitic grains present in thin sections using Fourier-Transform Infrared
Microspectrometry (micro-FTIR). Our results show that the differences in grain color - green versus red
glauconite grains - represents a structural alteration of the mineral, following exposure to heat. The green
glauconitic grains are naturally abundant in the cave deposits,and their measurements showed no signs of mineral
alteration. In contrast, measurements conducted on the red glauconitic grains indicated their structural alteration.
A similar pattern of alteration is known to occur in other types of clay minerals as a result of exposure to high
temperatures. Furthermore, high-density clusters of red glauconite suggest strong contextual correlation with the
spatial distribution of burnt material.
Using our preliminary results we were able to use optical properties of glauconite in order to identify loci of past
human pyrogenic activity in Blombos Cave. Thus, we suggest that the structural property of glauconitic minerals
– and their potential for heat-induced optical and structural alteration – makes them particularly informative
sedimentary components in an otherwise clay-poor, stratigraphic sequence. The spatio-contextual distribution of
unaltered (green) and heat-altered (red) glauconitic minerals grains within the anthropogenic deposits of Blombos
Cave thus have the potential of providing us with valuable insights into Middle Stone Age site structures and
burning events: site forming processes that otherwise would be difficult to recognize and evaluate.
The impact of landscape changes on the site formation processes of the
Hohlenstein Stadel cave.
A. Barbieri1, C.J. Kind2, N. J. Conard3 and C.E. Miller1
1University
of Tübingen, Institute for Archaeological Science, Rümelinstrasse 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany; 2Regierungspräsidium
Stuttgart, Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Berliner Str. 12, D-73728 Esslingen; 3 University of Tübingen, Institute for Archaeological
Science, Pre- and Protohistory and Archaeology of the Middle Ages, Burgsteige 11, 72070 Tübingen
The prehistoric cave sites of the Ach and Lone valleys in the Swabian Jura (Germany), have provided important
information on the arrival of our ancestors into central Europe around 40.000 years ago, and their relation with the
endemic Neanderthals. In The Ach Valley, previous micromorphological studies conducted at Geißenklösterle
suggested the presence of a discontinuity at the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition marked by an erosive
surface that was subjected to phosphatization and clay translocation. This surface was overlain by a deposit of
fresh calcareous löss that contained the earliest Aurignacian artifacts at the site. At Hohle Fels, also in the Ach
Valley, geoarchaeologists noticed that the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition was marked by a conformable
transition from extensively phosphatized to non-phosphatized sediment.
At Hohle Fels, geoarchaeologists noted field evidence for a phase of erosion that occurred shortly after the Last
Glacial Maximum and potentially affected the preservation of the Gravettian deposits. Similarly, in the Lone
Valley, archaeologists have noted a lack of Gravettian-aged deposits within the caves and have hypothesized that
the caves of this valley might have experienced heavier erosion than those located in The Ach Valley.
From 2008 to 2013 the State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Württemberg has conducted new excavations in
the Hohlenstein Stadel Cave, in The Lone Valley, and in front of the cave entrance (Vorplatz) aiming at verifying
the data collected during previous excavations in the first half of the twentieth century. This new field season gave
us the chance to collect micromorphological samples from both Hohlenstein Stadel Cave and the Vorplatz
covering the lowermost sterile layer, most of the Middle Paleolithic and the transition to the Upper Paleolithic
deposit. Additionally we have performed geophysical prospecting, coring and mapping in The Lone Valley.
In the study presented here we discuss the impact of major landscape changes on the formation and preservation
of the archaeological sequence deposited within Hohlenstein Stadel Cave. In particular, we focus on the results
from Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometry and thin section analysis.
As expected from the archaeological evidence, the presence of clear anthropogenic features in the sequence is
very little and it is usually related to thin surfaces associated with calcined bones. The sedimentation processes are
mainly natural and are dominated by low-energy surface runoff and gravitational grain flow. As in Hohle Fels,
reworked löss, clay aggregates, medium-sized quartz gravel and Bohnerz are present in almost all the Stadel cave
sediments. These components were originally deposited on top of the Jura plateau and were subsequently
incorporated in to the karstic system. Different depositional episodes of varying energies are present in the Middle
Paleolithic deposit, in particular an erosional surface that marks the transition between the sterile layer and the
Middle Paleolithic deposits. Unlike at Hohle Fels, no microstructures resulting from freeze-thaw cycles were
found within the cave probably because the sampled profile was located far inside from the cave entrance. As in
Hohle Fels, the Hohlenstein sediments are extensively phosphatized. Remarkably, as in Hohle Fels, the Upper
Paleolithic sediments display a much lower occurrence of calcite dissolution.
Geoarchaeological investigations of the Danish Celtic fields at Øster Lem Hede,
Western Jutland, Denmark
Nina Helt Nielsen
Department of Archaeology, Aarhus University, Denmark; Søren Much Kristiansen, Department of Geoscience, Aarhus University,
Denmark; Kristian Dalsgaard, Department of Geoscience, Aarhus University, Denmark.
Celtic fields are the most widespread and well-known type of prehistoric field systems in North-West Europe.
However, after about 100 years of research, many questions still remain to be answered regarding their age, the
formation history of the banks and lynchets demarcating the fields, and the land use of these Bronze/Iron Age
field systems. Furthermore, the dynamics within the field systems deserve more attention – the numerous maps
of Celtic fields give a very static impression of the field systems that is somewhat misleading.
In a geoarchaeological investigation of the almost 1 km2 large Celtic fields at the protected heathland Øster Lem
Hede, Denmark, four trenches were dug through six selected banks/lynchets and samples were taken for
geochemical, grain size, thin section, pollen and archaeobotanical analyses in addition to optical stimulated
luminescence (OSL) dating.
OSL-dates from two banks show that these were created before c. 600±140 BC, i.e. in the Late Bronze Age/Early
Iron Age, but evidence of cultivation, e.g. ard marks, predating the regular field system is also present beneath
some banks.
Grain size and multi-element analyses by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) suggest that
the soil in the banks came from the fields (no significant difference between the soil in the banks and in the
fields), and it appears to have accumulated gradually in the banks/lynchets over the years. The formation of the
banks cannot be explained by aeolian processes alone (as it has sometimes been suggested), but must primarily
be due to tillage erosion and deposition of soil directly by humans. Stones were also rare in the investigated
banks – they appear primarily to have been deposited in clearance cairns.
Dynamic alterations of the layout and the field boundaries in the form of added banks and temporarily
discontinued boundaries, which were ploughed over and incorporated into the neighboring fields, were
identified. This shows that even very regular systems, such as the Celtic fields of Øster Lem Hede, were
somewhat temporal dynamic in their structure and use.
ICP-MS analysis showed that among the 42 analysed elements, 11 were significantly (P < 0.01) enhanced in the
fields relative to a reference outfield soil, still from within the protected heathland. The enhanced elements
were: Na, P, K, Ca, Mn and Sr and the rare earth elements (REE’s), Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd and Dy. Enhanced P levels
show that manuring was practiced, while elevated concentrations of Sr indicate that not only animal manure but
also bones/domestic waste was added. Ceramics, charred material, and exotic soil particles in thin sections
further confirmed that manuring was practiced. Moreover, the enhancement pattern of some major and minor
elements indicates that unweathered subsoil was incorporated into the topsoil, probably through tillage erosion.
Thus, the geoarchaeological investigations of Øster Lem Hede provide new insight into the date, formation and
use of Celtic fields – insight that cannot be revealed through analyses of the layout of field systems alone.
A Geoarchaeological Contribution to the Study of Archaeological Agricultural
Resilience in Eastern Africa
Carol Lang and Daryl Stump
Department of Archaeology, University of York
The AAREA project (Archaeology of Agricultural Resilience in Eastern Africa) is a multi-disciplinary research
project that brings together complimentary analytical techniques to retrieve the maximum amount of information
from two historic terraced and irrigated landscapes: Engaruka in north west Tanzania and Konso in south east
Ethiopia. The earliest occupation of Engaruka has been radiocarbon dated to the 14thcenturyand was abandoned
prior to the first European accounts of the area in the late 19th. In contrast, genealogical evidence from Konso
suggests that irrigation and terraces have been used in this area for over 500 years, leading some to regard it the
system highly sustainable.
The overarching aim of the project is to answer one key question: ‘can archaeological investigations contribute to
assessments of long-term sustainability, thereby informing future policies that can be applied to agricultural
systems of the future?’ The research will allow us to understand adaptations that had occurred through increasing
agricultural intensification, whilst gathering an extensive archaeological archive that will enable us to comprehend
the resilience of the historic agronomic systems. The data obtained from the archaeological information may
provide a resource base of environmental evidence that could be employed by development programmes and
policies maker at a scale they require.
This presentation aims to focus on the highly visible agricultural archaeology of stone circles, habitations
platforms, terraces, fields and irrigation systems at the abandoned site of Engaruka, Tanzania. It will explore the
hypothesis that soils and sediments associated with past habitation and cultivation, across the site, can provide a
record of past land utilisation, manipulation of alluvial deposits and soil amendment processes that were occurring
during its period of occupation. Soil micromorphological investigation techniques were employed to analyse
strategically collected undisturbed soil samples, from across a small area of the 2000 hectare site, to aid the
understanding of the pedogenic processes and elemental composition associated with intensive agricultural.
The samples collected in 2010 and 2014 were from various locations that encompassed visible stone structures,
alluvial deposition and gullies. Significant uniformity of soil texture and mineralogy was observed in the postabandonment aeolian sediments from across the site. In contrast, fragments of burned bone were discovered in the
upper archaeological context of a stone circle (one of approximately 50 such features interpreted by some
researchers as former cattle enclosures), whilst there was a clear differentiation in the soil development between
stratigraphic layers, suggesting there had been differential factors affecting the deposition and development of the
sediment; the lower, older sediments displaying a high frequency of organic matter inclusions compared with the
younger, overlying soil/sediments and, further up the stratigraphy, the abandonment layer.
Calcitic pendant hypo-coatings, observed in the samples collected from behind the revetment walls were in
preferential positions and might relate to irrigation processes. The variation in the soil texture between the
stratigraphic contexts may in addition indicate differences in the methods of alluviation and ultimately the
irrigation processes employed. The micromorphological analysis provided a comprehensive inventory of
information and confirms the delineation of land use, whilst providing a spatial analysis of diagnostic soil
features.
These results and the data generated, through the utilisation of soil micromorphology, may potentially provide a
wider understanding of the measures taken to attain long-term agricultural resilience and will provide information
on the construction methods, maintenance, landscape utilisation and later abandonment of Engaruka, thus
informing future decisions concerning sustainable agricultural policy.
‘Geoarchaeological perspectives on societal change in the landscape
in medieval Europe’
Rowena Y Banerjea1*, Alex Brown1, Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz1,2, Aleks Pluskowski1
1 Department
of Archaeology, School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, RG6 6AB, UK
de Historia Medieval y Ciencias y Técnicas Historiográficas, Universidad de Granada, 18071, Spain
2 Departamento
The medieval period in Europe sees shifting geographical boundaries and frontiers as a result of multiple waves of
conquest and colonisation, as well as areas where different religious communities co-existed in the landscape;
these processes have played an integral role in the shaping of present day European society. Frontiers remain
largely perceived as zones of cultural polarisation, and our understanding of how multiculturalism was defined
and sustained within the annexed territories remains problematic.
This paper draws together the results from sites in the eastern Baltic region from areas that were formerly Prussia
and Livonia within the Ordensland, the former territories of the Teutonic Order (present day northern Poland,
Latvia and Estonia), and presents the geoarchaeological research framework that has been developed and adapted
to examine frontier landscapes in context of the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula. Castles and their hinterlands
(commanderies) within Prussia and Livonia were compared to examine the longue durée development of
occupation as a result of conquest and colonisation processes, and the scale of the impact of the crusades on
existing communities. Geoarchaeological techniques enabled diachronic examination of the development of
occupation, the use of settlements, and their hinterlands, through high resolution, multi-scalar analysis to
understand the range of on-site and off-site activities, and the geochemical traces of sites in their hinterlands,
specifically within lake sediments in conjunction with palynological approaches.
Sites at Święta Góra, Prussia, and Riekstu Hill, C?sis, and R?ga, Livonia provided opportunities to examine the
nature of activities and settlement use before the Crusading period. Święta Góra, Prussia, is an indigenous Prussian
settlement in the tribal territory of Galindia that was incorporated into the Teutonic Order’s territory during the
crusades, where the occupation during the transition from the period of ‘Roman Influences’ to the Migration period
was investigated. The stronghold at Riekstu Hill, occupied by the pagan ‘Wends’ and also used the ‘Sword
Brothers’ from the early 13th Century shortly before the construction of the castle, has been examined using thinsection micromorphology to understand the destruction of timber fortifications and the periodicity of the formation
of occupation deposits. Multi-proxy analysis of occupation deposits from buildings and streets in the area of the
‘Liv’ village, R?ga, has provided insights into life within the indigenous quarter, which was later incorporated into
the medieval town by the end of the 13th century with the construction of the outermost town walls.
In order to examine how occupation developed with the arrival of the Teutonic Order, a multi-proxy
geoarchaeological approach was applied at Biała Góra, Prussia, to examine the nature of occupation at this rural
colony. The examination of the occupation within the outer bailey at the castle in Elbląg, Prussia, and within the
high castle at Karksi, Livonia, has presented a unique opportunity to study the early colonising activities,
particularly the animal husbandry practices of the Teutonic Order in these key administrative centres.
There is a requirement for consistency in settlement and context sampling to produce good comparative data.
Therefore, it is important to strategically select case study sites by considering issues such as multiple phases of
use, changes in occupiers, the type of settlement, and the proximity of geochemical catchments such as lakes and
bogs to settlements. In the Iberian Peninsula, issues relating to the occupation within frontiers can be examined in
different geographical regions and landscape formations, and to examine different agricultural practices such as
terracing and irrigation, which are being investigated through two geoarchaeological pilot studies at the fortified
complex of Molina de Aragón, Guadalajara, and a 16th century Carthusian monastery with previous Islamic phase
in Granada.
Geoarchaeological analyses of construction materials from the
Neolithic site of Aşkl Höyük, Turkey
Melis Uzdurum1,Susan M. Mentzer2, Jay Quade3, Mihriban Özbaşaran1
1 Istanbul University, 2 University of Tubingen; 3 University of Arizona
Aşkl Höyük is the oldest Aceramic Neolithic tell in the Cappadocia region of Central Anatolia. The
site spans five major levels composed of the degraded remains of earthen structures and occupation
debris. Excavations reveal that the morphology and general composition of architectural elements
changed at the site over time. The earliest structures excavated to date are subterranean and round,
with outer covering of wattle and daub. Later round structures were constructed from kerpiç
(mudbrick) and mortar, with plaster floors and walls. Over time, the shape of the structures shifted
from round to rectangular, and buildings were clustered into “neighborhoods.” Finally, the village
was divided into broad residential and “special purpose” sectors. We sampled construction
materials from all major areas of the site and occupation levels in order to document changes over
time in the production of kerpiç, mortar and plaster. As part of a preliminary geoarchaeological
study, we analyzed a subset of the loose sediment samples for texture, organic material, carbonate
content and source, and stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen. In addition, we conducted
micromorphological analyses of a subset of samples. Our results indicate that construction materials
vary in composition, particularly in the presence or absence of carbonate and its source, and the use
of different tempering elements. There are also several trends in construction material production
over time, including a shift in source material for mortar production. In addition, we confirm using
stable isotopes and FTIR that lime plaster was used in the production of plasters at the site. Future
work will expand upon these pilot analyses.
Chemistry applied to Archaeology - “The informative potential of the invisible”
Marco Milanese,a Maria Antonietta Zoroddu,b Massimiliano Peana,b Serenella Medici,b Martina Zipolia
aDepartment
of History, Human Sciences and Education, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy
(Methodology of Archaeological Researches, Medieval and Post-Medieval Archaeology)
bDepartment
of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Sassari, Via Vienna 2, Sassari, Italy
Within the archaeological excavation campaigns carried out at the sites of Mesumundu (Siligo) and S.
Antioco di Bisarcio (Ozieri) (SS), the group of Medieval and Post-medieval Archaeology started a
collaboration with the Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry group of the University of Sassari (Dept. of
Chemistry and Pharmacy) with the aim of clarifying some specific issues emerging from the archaeological
research in progress. Departing from the analytical perspective of chemical studies, it was sought to offer
solutions and interpretative integration of archaeometric data.
Any human activity leaves its traces, both visible and “invisible”. The latter can be chemical traces. Indeed,
every surface can absorb inorganic and organic compounds and retain them for centuries, even millennia.
Starting from this consideration and looking towards the informative potential of all the archaeological
contexts, investigative strategies were oriented along two main research topics:
- chemical analysis of archaeological sediments for the characterization of activity surfaces;
- chemical analysis of compounds absorbed by artifacts and vessels for the determination of their use.
For the analysis of sediments, the excavation units were mapped according to a series of chemical markers in
order to establish the anthropic activities that characterized life in the times when the sediments formed, or to
infer the use of specific structures in cases where the functional determination from an archaeological point
of view was questionable or uncertain (for example, a drainage system identified at S. Antioco di Bisarcio).
Two chemical methodologies were applied: a quick-response set of spot tests that makes it possible to
rapidly determine the presence of some classes of organic and inorganic compounds; the application of gaschromatography coupled to mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) analysis, a method capable of separating and
identifying different molecules present in the substrate.
The same techniques were also applied to the study of ceramic artifacts in order to identify which substances
they once contained.
Keywords:
Chemical analyses, sediments, sampling, spot test, GC-MS, informative potential
Water draining and regimentation in the site of Mesumundu (Siligo, SS)
Marco Milanese, Martina Zipoli .
Department of History, Human Sciences and Education, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy; (Methodology of Archaeological
Researches, Medieval and Post-Medieval Archaeology), Municipality of Siligo (Sassari)
Within the archaeological campaigns carried out in the sites of S. Vincenzo di Ferrer and
Mesumundu (Siligo, SS), in the years 2011-2014, both natural and artificial paleoriverbeds, and
contemporary rural buried canalizations have been localized, targeted to drain waters. Thanks to the
local oral sources they can be brought back to a typology locally known as the cora covaccada.
This contribute is aimed at presenting the results collected in area 2700 (2014 excavation campaign)
of the site of Mesumundu, where a contemporary buried cora covaccada was found. It was dug
within the middle of the XX century and built with limestone slabs partially wrought, whose course
retraces that of a more ancient paleoriverbed. The stratigraphic excavation of the whole context
allowed highlighting interesting technical-constructive features of the canalization and of the
sediments found inside the structure, relative to the use activity and subsequent obliteration of the
cora covaccada, whose task was to direct water drained from the soil towards a close by stream.
The excavation also evidenced that the rural canalization insisted onto a paleoriverbed, fully buried,
of a small watercourse: the stratification presented an interesting sequence of slime-clay sediments
with variable shades of colours, due to a natural formation process caused by a recurring seasonal
variation of the water saturation level in the sediments, until a very superficial aquifer was reached.
Keywords:
Water draining, canalizations, paleoriverbed, sediment saturation, cora covaccada
Climatic changes and human impact on coastal evolution: the Mistras-Cabras
barrier-lagoon system (Oristano Gulf, Central-Western Sardinia)
V. Pascucci1, C. Del Vais2, S. Andreucci3, G. De Falco4, A. Depalmas5, A.C. Fariselli6, R.T. Melis3, G. Pisanu7, I.
Sanna8
Università degli Studi di Sassari, Dipartimentodi Architettura, Design, Urbanistica ([email protected]); 2 Università degli Studi di
Cagliari, Dipartimento di Storia, Beni Culturali e Territorio ([email protected]); 3 Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Dipartimento di
Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche; 4 Istituto per l’Ambiente Marino IAMC-CNR; 5 Università degli Studi di Sassari, Dipartimento di
Storia, Scienze dell’Uomo e della Formazione; 6 Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali; 7 Soprintendenza per i Beni
Archeologici per le province di Cagliari e Oristano
1
The current interglacial differs from past ones particularly because of the human presence. Coastal areas are the
most affected by environmental modifications induced by climate fluctuations, small eustatic changes and
anthropogenic impact.
In this context, Sardinia is a key area for the definition of interactions between man and climate during the last 64000 years. The sparse population of the coast up to modern times is an advantage for distinguishing between
anthropogenic and climate signals. Integrated archaeological and geological studies conducted in the coastal
barrier-lagoon Mistras-Cabras system (Oristano Gulf) showed that the lagoon developed as transgressive during
the final stages of the Holocene sea level rise (about 6000 years BP) and become regressive (prograding) from
about 2600 years BP.
The regression of the coast , however, was not continuous but rather characterized by three distinct phases
associated to precise climatic fluctuations. The first phase lasted about 400 years between 2600 and 1900BP. It
was associated with 250 m coastal progradation that lasted until 1900 BP. This time interval, known as GreekRoman Warm, coincided with the beginning of the Punic and Roman attendance of the Mistras-Cabras area. At
that time, the area, close to the ancient city of Tharros, hosted a landing and perhaps the port of the city, probably
in front of the trading centre located at short distance from the shoreline. Recent archaeological excavations have
proved the presence of pottery and organic material dating back to Phoenician and Punic periods in marine
sediments. Punic wood and boulders breakwaters dated at 2300 BP are well-documented around the innermost
Mistras present-day lagoon.
The second phase lasted about 440 years, between 1140 and 700 years BP, during a new warm period - the
Medieval. During this phase, the progradation of shorelines was very wide and fast (about 4 m/y). This anomaly
could be explained considering the little or none land use of the coastal area during Medieval times. The harbour
was no more active and large sandy dunes developed and nourished the shore favouring progradation of the coast
with no human influence. An intense exploitation of the coast, instead, occurred during Punic and Roman time.
The break-water construction modified the natural evolution of the beach. This developed as a sand spit nourished
by offshore sediment carried in to the gulf by a long shore current from NW between 2500 and 2300 BP. The
beach evolved from 2300 to 1900 BP into a barrier-lagoon system. This new beach system was induced by the
construction of break-water artefact that isolated an open sea embayment creating a lagoon.
The third stage is the current one and begun about 164 years ago (after 1850 AD) i.e. after the end of the ‘Little
Ice’ Age.
Geological and archaeological data of the Mistras-Cabras system revealed that little human activities on the coast
could influence its natural behaviour. In addition the study showed that even small climatic changes (both positive
and negative), could induce significant progradation or erosion of the system.
Micromorphological analyses of an open-air stone structure at the Magdalenian
site of Peyre Blanque, France
Rachel Kulick
Recent studies of structural remains at Magdalenian open-air sites have afforded valuable insights
into patterns of occupational and intra-site spatial organization and have enhanced understandings
of the Magdalenian cultural landscape. However, identifying more detailed use-of-space within the
Magdalenian structures has been challenging due to modifications by natural and anthropogenic
post-depositional processes and difficulties in amalgamating structural data from recent studies with
those of previous excavations (e.g., at Oelknitz and Gönnersdorf). Current excavations at the site of
Peyre Blanque, Fabas, Ariège, have revealed a possible Magdalenian stone structure, and spatial
analyses of the associated archaeological finds and structural remains have been implemented.
Geoarchaeological analyses of the potential structure have been conducted to better understand the
use-of-space within the structure and the post-depositional and soil formation processes that have
affected the structure and overall site. The preliminary results of the soil micromorphological
analyses demonstrate dynamic geological processes and complex taphonomic processes at play and
indicate overall stratigraphic stability since the site’s Magdalenian occupation.
Wildfire versus slash-and-burn and flaming and the fate of charcoals
Erhard Schulz (1), Attila Bencsik (2) and Horea Cacovean (3)
(1) Institut für Geographie und Geologie, Universität Würzburg, Germany; (2) Department of Mineralogy, University of Szeged,
Hungary; (3) Oficiul pentru studii pedologica si agronomic, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
A wildfire site at Leghia in Transsylvania/Romania provides the opportunity to compare the
regeneration types of vegetation and soil after fire with the slash- and-burn-experiment at Forchtenberg/
SW-Germany. This is done by botanical, pedological and micromorphological investigations. Both sites
are situated in deciduous forests of maple, beech, oak and hornbeam. The climatic is comparable too –
500-800 mm precipitation per year, however, with a much more dry summer at Leghia. Here the forest
is on slope with a shallow rendzina on lime- and sandstone whereas the Forchtenberg site is on a loesscovered plateau showing cambisols and luvisols. At Leghia about 2 ha were afforested with Pinus nigra
60 years ago. In august 2011the pine area accidently took fire for about two days. Thus, there were
ground and crown fire and much more charcoals on the ground as on the slash and burn plot. Moreover,
they came from conifer wood. Looking to the 3-years period after fire there are several differences in
the early successions. At Leghia shrubs of Cotinus, Crataegus, Prunus, Ligustrum and Robinia
dominated. Gras cover was low but there were several plots of ruderal elements like Cirsium. The dense
Rubus-cover, typical for the Forchtenberg site, did not developed. Soil surfaces were covered be thick
Ol/Of/Oh –layers, which are rare at Forchtenberg.
Concerning the fate of charcoals on both sites it became evident that soil animals represent the most
important factor for their mobility or remain near the surface. From the droppings and transformation of
the soil material it got evident, that earthworms diminish charcoals stepwise and distribute them
vertically very effectively. However, enchytrees, mites and collemboles are keen to alterate charcoals on
or near the soil surface. The Leghia site, however, shows that under a contrasted seasonal climate
swelling and shrinking of clay or silt material provoke a mulching process with an alteration and even
distribution of charcoals, which is also supported by enchtyrees depositing small charcoal assemblages
by their droppings. This counteracts the conservation process of charcoals in the moder-layers beneath
Pinus stands. Earthworms are very rare under these conditions. However, they appear at places of
deciduous trees like Acer and Quercus
A burned wheat field near Kitzingen/N-Bavaria as well as a flamed meadow and wheat field near
Lehghia evidenced two main differences to slash-and-burn or wild fire. Charred material consisted only
of grasses. The soil surface was burned in a mosaic like manner. Charcoal was only very fine and
distributed on the surface with half a cm´s thickness. Enchytrees and swelling /shrinking processes were
responsible for the vertical transport to about 5 depth. As any flaming in Germany is strictly forbidden
the microcharcoals were very rare in the topsoil. In contrast to them microcharcoals were evenly present
in the topsoil of the two Transylvanian sites even flaming is forbidden too since many years. The wheat
field, however, showed a barrier of a clear Ap-horizon.
InterArChive: exploiting the hidden archive in archaeological grave soils
Matt Pickering,1 Annika Burns,2Maria Raimonda Usai3Don Brothwell,2and Brendan Keely1
of Chemistry, University of York, York, YO10 5DD; 2Department of Archaeology, University of York, King’s Manor,
York, YO1 7EP, UK; 3Department of Architecture and Design, University of Sassari, P.zza Pau Salit, Alghero, Italy
1 Department
The soils of archaeological graves represent an under-utilised or “hidden” archive of information
pertaining to the interred individual and the circumstances of their burial ritual. The InterArChive
project hasdeveloped, tested and applied a systematic multidisciplinary approach linking soil
micromorphology, high resolution inorganic chemical and trace organic chemical analyses to
recover environmental and cultural information from the soils of historic and archaeological burials.
In addition, the project aimedto assess the extent to which variation in body composition along a
corpse can result in regional anatomical contrasts within the grave.
The general sampling strategy captures representative undisturbed soil adjacent to the burial (C1),
the grave fill (C1, C2) and samples from the skull, pelvis hand and feet (Figure). For chemical
analysis alone, up to 17 positions around the remains are sampled to capture the degree of variation.
Micromorphology and scanning electron microscopy microprobe analyses are conducted on thin
sections prepared from consolidated sediment. Organic chemical approaches include elemental
analysis to provide a bulk measurement, pyrolysis gas chromatography to examine polymeric
organic matter and chromatographic-mass spectrometric studies of solvent extracts to reveal
specific marker compounds.
Signatures have been recovered from soils ranging from those in which a paucity of organic matter
now exists through to those where substantial abundances of organic matter are present. Case
studies from Viking age and Roman age burials reflect contrasting preservation of organic
signatures in ancient burials and an 18th century burials reveals key features of factors affecting
organic matter degradation.
Figure.InterArChive sampling strategy for archaeological graves.
Left, general strategy for
micromorphology and low resolution sampling for organic chemical analysis, C1 to C3 represent
controls. Right, high intensity sampling positions for organic chemical analysis.
Intra-site variation in post-medieval burials at Fewston, North Yorkshire, UK
Maria-Raimonda Usai1, Matt Pickering2, Scott Hicks2, Brendan Keely2 and Don Brothwell3
1Department
UK;;
of Architecture and Design, University of Sassari, Alghero, Italy; 2University of York, Department of Chemistry, York,
of York, Department of Archaeology, York, UK.
3University
Investigations for the InterArChive Project were carried out on an archaeological site within the
village of Fewston, North Yorkshire, UK. The settlement dated back to the 11th Century. By the
19th Century it was in decline and had contracted to a scattered village as seen today. The site
included a post-Medieval burial ground, situated on a slope, dipping south towards the extensive
Fewston Water Reservoir. The site was excavated between April and May 2009 and March and
April 2010. During the excavations, 155 discrete burials were uncovered. Of these, thirteen of the
late 19th and one of the early 20thcentury were sampled for the InterArChive project.
Soils in the area consisted of a set of different soil series arranged at different OD levels, well
drained on the upper slopes, whilst periodically waterlogged (with horizons Bg and BCg) in the
lower slopes, and possibly permanently (G horizons) waterlogged in the lowermost, southern parts
of the site. Local rocks were dominantly sandstone of the Carboniferous Coal Measures formation.
On the ground, the degree preservation of visible bone and organic remains within the burials
seemed to be correlated to such soil variation, with exceptionally well preserved burials located on
the lower slopes, and a succession with a variety of different degrees of preservation along the
medium and upper slopes.
Micromorphological investigations of soil from the graves and control samples showed the presence
of a set of 15 main types of organic inclusions, including fragments of leather, cotton fibre, wood
fragments, filaments, fibre with clear fibrils, wood plant parenchyma correlatable to the presence of
paper, fabric fragments with different patterns, phosphates and unidentified tubular objects, possibly
stitches.
The organic inclusions were mainly preserved in the lowermost or mid-low part of the
slope, and in the soil from a grave situated along a slight break of slope. Pedogenic-derived
humified organic matter was distributed throughout the site, but mainly in the upper parts of the
area and in the controls.
Chemical investigations on the same materials also showed better preservation in the lower
southern region of the cemetery than in the elevated parts of the area.
The work demonstrated that preservation of organic matter in grave soils can be significantly
influenced by soil catenary relationships and hydrology.
Soil Associations and Nuragic palaeosettlement distribution in the Marmilla
Trexenta areas, Sardinia, Italy
Maria Raimonda Usai1, Angelo Aru e Sergio Vacca1
1 Department of Architecture and Design, University of Sassari, Alghero, Italy
The Nuragic civilization and its settlements in Sardinia started during the Bronze Age (from 1800 BC) and
continued until the Iron Age, ending with the island subservience to Punic colonization. Thousands of
Nuragic buildings (‘Nuraghi’) are distributed throughout the island and have been attributed to both
housing and military functions.
Soil and nuragic distribution survey were carried out in a 50 Km2 area in central Sardinia. The area was
selected as it included most of the geological, pedological and land morphological types represented in the
whole island. A comparable area was also selected in Western Sardinia.
The soil survey defined 14 soil associations in relation to land morphology, hydrology, soil fertility,
workability, stability and parent materials.
The distribution of nuraghi was arranged in clusters of higher and lower densities. The higher densities
were situated over 3 main soil units: the first one on fertile volcanic-derived soils, light, easily workable and
often of flat land morphology. The second and third units were fertile and well drained lowland soils.
The study showed that Nuraghi’s distribution was strongly related to landscape features and, particularly,
to soil types and characteristics.
Bone tissue conservation in archaeological and contemporary human remains: the role of degradation of
organic and mineral phases
Valentina Caruso1,2, Luca Trombino1, Giorgio Caudullo2, Valentina Scarpulla2, Annalisa Cappella2, Emanuela
Maderna2, Nicoletta Marinoni1, Debora Mazzarelli2, Emanuela Sguazza2,3, Cristina Cattaneo2
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra “Ardito Desio”; Università degli Studi di Milano, Via L Mangiagalli 34, 20133, Milan, Italy; 2LABANOF, Laboratorio di Antropologia
e OdontologiaForense; Sezione di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via L
Mangiagalli 37, 20133, Milan, Italy; 3Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Scienze della Vita, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, Ottorino Rossi street, 9, 21100, Varese, Italy
1
Anthropologists are frequently required to date human bone remains, in order to recognize if osteological samples have
an archaeological, historic or forensic interest. The determination of post mortem interval (PMI), the time elapsed
between the death and the discovery of the corpse or skeletal remains, is extremely difficult to evaluate, since bones
might undergo several alterations, both structural and chemical, depending on the environment in which they are
recovered. In fact, many factors can alter the appearance of bones after death, e.g. climate, soil, sun, water, vegetation,
animals and fire; however, the properties of the bone tissue, both of the mineral and organic phases, can influence the
response to these processes.In an attempt to describe the manner and role of diagenesis, i.e. the alteration of bones
during burial, we studied archaeological, historical and contemporary skeletons that come from different burial grounds.
For these reasons, macroscopic, microscopic and chemiluminesce analyses, which are methods usually employed to
dating the human bone remains, were applied on 40 human skeletal remains (femora and tibiae), which came from
four different known populations of Milan, dated to III-V century AD (10 samples), XVII century AD (10 samples),
XV-XVII century AD (10 samples), and 1990-1992 AD (10 samples). For macroscopic analysis we evaluated the general
appearance of the remains and their state of preservation, in accordance to the Behrensmeyer’s classification, through
the observation of specific parameters and morphological characteristics. To evaluate the presence of haemoglobin in
bone we performed the Luminol test, a fast and inexpensive method developed to detect blood traces. The histological
analysis conducted on calcified thin sections considered the presence or absence of tunneling and bioerosion, in
accordance to the Oxford Histological Index (OHI). To evaluate the state of preservation of the organic component,
primarily collagen, the samples were decalcified and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Because of the lack of
literature in this field, we created a new Decalcified Histological Index (DHI), employing imaging analysis, on pictures
obtained in optical microscopy. Both calcified and decalcified bone thin sections were observed in transmitted and
polarized light microscopy, in order to test the optical behavior of structural components. Finally, to investigate how the
mineral phase preserves, i.e. structure, size, quantity, volume, distribution and ionic changes of hydroxyapatite, four
bones, one for each population, were analysed by means of the XRD (Wide-angle X-ray Diffraction) technique.
In general, the study shows that single analyses are not predictive of the degree of bone degradation, since the bone
conservation is heterogeneous on the different levels investigated, on the contrary the comparison of these methods on
the same specimen is efficient to discriminate between archeological and forensic bone. Furthermore the informative
potential of bone should not be based only on its external, microscopic or chemical deterioration since it was proven in
this study that in front of bad macroscopic conservation, biochemical information was still valid.
This means that, according to the type of environment and to other unknown variables, the evaluation of taphonomic
degradation has to be performed at different levels, and only if the results are in agreement the estimation of PMI can be
detect approximately.
The present work is a preliminary study, part of a PhD project, carried out in collaboration between the Legal
Medicine Institute and the Department of Earth Science of the University of Milan; the purpose of the project is to
verify how the mineral and organic components degrades in bone tissues, respect to the propagation of peri and post
mortem fractures, at macroscopic and microscopic level.
Urban Transformation and Site Formation Processes in the Roman cities of
Hispania: a micromorphological view
Mario Gutiérrez-Rodríguez1, Margarita Orfila Pons1 , Paul Goldberg2, Francisco José Martín
Peinado3,Thomas Schattner4 Wolfram Martini5, Marcelo Castro6
1Prehistory
and Archaeology Department. University of Granada;2Archaeology Department. Boston University; 3Edaphology and
Soil Chemistry Department. University of Granada; 4German Archaeological Institute in Madrid; 5Sciences of Antiqity Department.
Giessen University; 6Archaeological Research Center of Castulo (Linares, Jaén)
As was noted by some researchers, future directions of archaeological soil micromorphology should
concentrate on deciphering the full spectrum of formation processes in historical complex urban sites,
expanding case studies both spatially and temporally. In this sense, the Roman archaeological record of
southern Iberia, ancient Hispania, is very heterogeneous but never explored on a micromorphological scale.
With this background, a new Project was created: Gea in front of Chronos, geoarchaeological research of
Roman contexts of Andalusia. The main objective of this Project is to focus on site formation processes for
these sites, and to understand how the Roman city is progressively transformed, especially in Late Antiquity.
Finally, is an attempt to resolve how contexts in a micromorphological scale are related to daily life activities
of a Roman city in southern Hispania. In this contribution, authors will show two different archaeological
sites that illustrate this situation.
The first is the Roman city of Munigua, in northern Sevilla (Villanueva del Río y Minas), which has been
excavated since the 1960s by the German Archaeological Institute at Madrid. A great diversity of spaces has
been documented, including the public thermae. Whereas the public architecture of Munigua was built
during Flavian times, the thermae were constructed in Claudian times and is the earliest public building in
the city. An intense urban transformation was noted. Micromorphology and soil analyses (pH, CE, C, N, P,
P2O5, CaCO3, grain size, pFRX) show initially a metallurgical use of the place before the thermae
construction. Different analyses provide data about technological aspects of the metallurgical work as well as
the materials involved in the productive process. This was followed by a phase of public bath use in which
the latrine was sampled. Different features inform us about the faecal waste management and its evacuation
through the channels system. The last stage, lead metallurgy use, showed a big transformation of the bath
complex during Late Antiquity. Soil Science provides data about how progressively metallurgical activities,
the rational of the roman city, enter in the cityspace when the public dimension of the architecture was lost.
The second archaeological site is the Roman city of Castulo, in northern Jaén (Linares), most recently
excavated by the Museum of Castulo. A great public building richly decorated with paintings and mosaics
was documented, and the archaeological sequence reveals an intense transformation of the building. During
Flavian times the building was abandoned. Paintings and plasters were intentionally destroyed and deposited
onto the mosaic floors and the roof was removed. Our study reveals that rural activities took place inside the
city after the II century AC when the public functionality disappeared. These two case studies show different
ways of urban transformation and the implementation of rural and artisan activities in previous public spaces
of the Roman city.
Soil Science and archaeological soil micromorphology are powerful tools that reveal not only the diversity of
formation processes but specific, short-term daily life activities, and particularly those related to progressive
urban transformation during Late Antiquity in Hispania.
Sources of lithic raw materials at Qesem Cave, Israel: Analysis of a preliminary
set of thin sections.
Lucy Wilson1, Aviad Agam2, Ran Barkai2, Avi Gopher2.
1 University
of New Brunswick in Saint John, N.B., Canada ([email protected]); 2 Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Qesem Cave is a multi-layeredsite east of Tel Aviv, Israel, with Lower Palaeolithic Amudian and
Yabrudian industry assemblages. We have been examining some of the lithic assemblages to
determine the rock types used, and exploring the surrounding area in order to locate potential
sources of these raw materials. The site is in an area underlain by Turonian (Upper Cretaceous)
limestones, whichcan contain flint nodules. These limestones extend to the south of Qesem Cave
with only minor interruptions for approximately 15 km, where they are overlain by Senonian
(Upper Cretaceous) levels including the Campanian Mishash Formation, which is rich in flint.
To date, we have studied roughly 2000 pieces from each of three assemblages: the Amudian and
Yabrudian from an area known as “under the shelf”, and the Amudian from the “hearth” area. We
have identified 51 types of raw materials: 49 flint varieties and 2 siliceous breccias. We have
sampled flint and breccia from 15 potential sources: 13 of Turonian age, located within 5 or 6 km
around the site, and2in the Mishash Formation, located about 15 km south of the site. Based on
visual examination, we suspected that 41 industry types are Turonian, while 5 are Campanian. We
had not yet identified possible sources of the other 5 types. In order to try to confirm or refute these
attributions, and to get further leads on possible sources of the as-yet unidentified types, we selected
an initial set of 22 rocks for thin sectioning: 13 industry types, and 9 from potential sources.Eight
industry specimens were suspected to be of Turonian age and therefore local origin; 2 were
suspected to be Campanian, and the other 3 were of unknown provenance. Of the environment
samples, 6 were Turonian (from 5 sources, located to the south, east and north of the site) and a
total of 3 were from the 2 Campanian sources. Analysis of these thin sections shows that in terms
of textures and microfossil content, the suspected Turonian types are consistent with the samples
from Turonian sources. The Campanian samples are distinctly different from the Turonian, because
of their brecciated texture, which is not always visible to the naked eye but is very clear and
characteristic under the microscope. The suspected Campanian samples from the industry share this
texture. The types of unknown provenance contain abundant sponge spicules, and may tentatively
be attributed to the Turonian.Anotherpossible indicator of origin is the presence ofsilicified ghosts
of diagenetic dolomite rhombsin type C from the Qesem Cave assemblage. This initial study has
thus demonstrated the worth of the petrographic approach, and should be followed up with selection
of further specimens for thin-sectioning and analysis.
Reconstruction of the formation of iron-manganese nodule accumulations
associated with Middle Stone Age artefacts in a lateritic profile in northern
Malawi
Flora Schilta, Susan Mentzera,b, David Wrightc, Jessica Thompsond, Christopher E. Millera, Elizabeth GomaniChindebvue
aInstitute
for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, Rümelinstrasse 23, 72070, Germany.;
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA; cDepartment of Archaeology and Art History, Seoul National
University, Seoul, South Korea; dDepartment of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; eMinistry of Tourism,
Wildlife, and Culture, Lilongwe, Malawi
Alluvial fan deposits along the shores of northern Lake Malawi are very rich in Middle and Later
Stone Age lithic artefacts. Archaeological excavations and test pits in the Karonga District indicate
a repeated pattern of artefact occurrences: lithic artefacts are concentrated directly on top of either
1) coarse layers consisting of gravel and cobbles or, 2) accumulations of gravel- and sand-sized
iron-manganese nodules. Artefacts generally appear freshly flaked and lateral refits of lithic debris
have been made. Combining field observations with thin section analyses, we address the question
of whether human activity was the primary agent in the formation of these stratigraphic
relationships or whether natural depositional and post-depositional processes played a more
important role in the concentration of the artefacts.
Based on field observations and micromorphological analyses, we infer that the pebble and cobble
layers represent abandoned streambeds, which were frequented by Stone Age people who exploited
these locations for lithic raw material and, likely, riparian resources. Such a scenario seems unlikely
for the artefact-bearing layers found on top of iron-manganese nodule concentrations, since these
nodules are not thought to have been an essential component of the Stone Age economy.
In this study we used field observations of the pedology and sedimentology of our test units and soil
micromorphology to assess the formation history of the nodules and to determine whether they are
detrital, residual or formed in situ. This approach allows us to establish whether “top-down” or
“bottom-up” processes have differentially affected aspects of the stratigraphic sequence.
Micro-characterization of carnivore coprolites: a contribution to the
study of Pleistocene anthropogenic sedimentary deposits.
Natàlia Égüez*1, Carolina Mallol2, Cheryl Makarewicz1, Ruth Blasco3, Jordi Rosell4,5, Florent Rivals4,5,6,
Eugène Morin7,8, François Bachellerie8, Isabelle Crevecoeur8, Hélène Rougier9
1
Graduate School Human Development in Landscapes. Institute for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology. Chrsitian-AlbrechtsUniversity, 24105 Kiel, Germany; 2 Instituto Universitario de Bio-Orgánica Antonio González. La Laguna University, 38071 Tenerife,
Spain; 3Departament de Prehistòria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Facultat de Lletres-Edifici B, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona,
Spain; 4IPHES; Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, C/ Marcel·lí Domingo s/n. Campus Sescelades URV
(Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain; 5 Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avinguda de Catalunya, 35, 43002
Tarragona, Spain; 6ICREA, Barcelona, Spain; 7Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Life and Health Sciences Building
Block C, 2140 East Bank Drive, Peterborough, Ontario K9J7B8, Canada; 8UMR 5199-PACEA, CNRS, Université de Bordeaux
Bâtiment B8, Allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, CS 50023, 33 615 Pessac Cedex, France; 9Department of Anthropology. California State
University Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St. Northridge, CA 91330- 8244, USA.
Presence of faecal remains in archaeological deposits is a robust indicator of animal presence
at a site. However, explanations of the ecological dynamics between humans and animals
living in cave habitats remain unclear. To adress this issue, here we present preliminary data
of an ongoing multi-technique investigation designed to provide standards for accurate
coprolite identification at the
microscale level. Micromorphology and stable isotopes analysis (δ 13C and δ15N) have been
applied to modern carnivore faecal remains provided by Doñana Biological Station (Sevilla,
Spain) and Middle Palaeolithic carnivore coprolite samples coming from Coves del Toll
(Moià, Spain), Cova de les Teixoneres (Moià, Spain) and La Roche à Pierrot (Saint-Césaire,
France). Preliminary results show differences in the internal structure, digested material
diagenesis and isotopic values depending on which species originated the coprolite. In
contrast, similarities between different individuals from the same species have been
observed.
Our micromorphological and biochemical characterization of carnivore coprolites provides a
stronger framework to 1) better understand palaeodietary and palaeoecological information
and 2) establish a precise microstratigraphy of the anthropogenic palimpsest deposits. Thus,
identification of animal activity through analyses of archaeological coprolites becomes a
crucial approach to better understand hunter-gatherer socio-ecological behavior.
Keywords: carnivore, coprolite, micromorphology, Middle Palaeolithic, stable isotopes
analysis.
Acknowledgements: The authors want to thank the following institutions which supported this
research: The Graduate School “Human Development in Landscapes” (Kiel University) in the
frame of the German Universities Excellence Initiative and the College of Social and Behavioral
Sciences of California State University Northridge, USA.
Gea in front of Chronos: Geoarchaeological Research in Roman
Contexts of Andalusia, Spain
Mario Gutiérrez-Rodríguez1 Margarita Orfila Pons1, Francisco J. Martín Peinado2 Oliva Rodríguez Gutiérrez3 Enrique
G. Vargas3 Carlos M. Moreno4 Elena H. Sánchez López1 Marcelo C. López5 Paul Goldberg6
1
Prehistory and Archaeology Department. 2University of Granada; Edaphology and Soil Chemistry Department. University of
Granada; 3Prehistory and Archaeology Department. University of Sevilla; 4Art History, Archaeology and Music Department.
University of Córdoba;5Archaeological Research Center of Castulo (Linares, Jaén); 6Archaeology Department. Boston University
The Roman urbanization process of Southern Hispania has been historiographically built around
cities, villae and the implantation of centuriations and other agrarian systems. In parallel, Earth
Sciences application to archaeological analysis has highlighted that there are many processes and
activities carried out in the past that, even if they had left their mark on the archaeological record,
usually become invisible to traditional analysis methods, and are a key to understand the true
dimension of the urbanization process. We are referring to processes in a landscape scale as
deforestation, erosion, implementation of agrarian systems, etc. as well as on site behaviours, like craft
activities or even daily life actions. The creation of cities and the anthropization of their surroundings
for a more effective installation of the city, or the economic resources exploitation, led to such
activities. Most of the topographical changes of the Roman cities during Late Antiquity are equally
invisible to traditional excavation process. Some examples are the amortization of public architecture
and the great domus, where rural and craft activities supersede the traditional Roman urban lifestyle.
In this sense, and as was noted by some researchers, future directions of archaeological soil
micromorphology should concentrate on deciphering the full spectrum of formation processes in
historical complex urban sites and their territories, expanding case studies both spatially and
temporally. In this regard, the Roman archaeological record of southern Iberia, ancient Hispania, is
very heterogeneous but never explored on a micromorphological scale.
With this background, a new Project was created: Gea in front of Chronos, geoarchaeological
research of Roman contexts of Andalusia. The main objective of this Project is to focus on site
formation processes in roman cities, and to understand how the Roman city is progressively
transformed, especially in Late Antiquity. Finally, it is an attempt to resolve how contexts in a
micromorphological scale are related to daily life activities of a Roman city in southern Hispania.
The study area is the Baetica province and its adjacent territories. This space was the scene of a major
urban development, and a senatorial province of the Roman Empire. It has been selected a diverse set
of contexts, both urban and rural, which represents a great diversity of land use in a diachronic
perspective. Thus, urban contexts, rural and agricultural installations, mining centers, pottery
fabrication complexes, and halieutic activities structures are being sampled. At the same time, cities
with different juridical status have been investigated, as capitals, coloniae and municipia. The research
team is composed both by archaeologist, micromorphologists and soil scientists. Three different
universities and a research center are involved. The authors of this poster want to present the Project
in a scientific forum as well as emphasise the relevance of Soil Science and archaeological soil
micromorphology in classical contexts. An oral presentation proposal titled “Urban Transformation
and Site Formation Processes in the Roman cities of Hispania: a micromorphological view” have
been sent to the Organizing Comitee in order to present preliminary results of this research in this
forum.
The Final (Asturian) Problem: reviewing the formation of the Mesolithic shell middens of
northern Spain using micromorphology and other geoarchaeological approaches
Carlos Duarte, Eneko Iriarte & Pablo Arias
Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria (IIIPC), Edificio Interfacultativo, Universidad de
Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros, s/n, 39005 Santander - Cantabria – SPAIN
In the early 20th century, the Count Vega del Sella defined the Asturian, a Mesolithic culture in the littoral
platform of the Cantabrian region (northern Spain), based on the particular shell middens (concheros)
found in several caves in the region, and its particular lithic industries as well. Since then it has been a
traditional topic of investigation in the region. However, the knowledge about the Asturian shell middens
still lacks information about the formation and post-depositional processes. This is due to the scarcity of
geoarchaeological approaches carried out in these contexts.
An Asturian shell midden is a deposit cemented by calcium carbonate precipitation in the walls and
ceilings of karstic cavities, with large amounts of marine shells and other archaeological materials, dated
mainly to the Mesolithic. There are more than one hundred sites identified, but only a few preserve shell
middens in stratigraphy. Vega del Sella interpreted these “speleothemic shell middens” as originally
anthropogenic accumulations that filled the caves completely during the Mesolithic and got eroded
afterwards, remaining only the parts cemented by calcium carbonate.
This interpretation implied that the same process of complete fill of caves with mollusc shells matrix
anthropogenic sediment followed by massive erosion of such big deposits in all these caves took place in
all the sites along the Cantabrian region. We consider that this bears problems that compromise the
interpretation of its archaeological record: 1) At the present, no archaeological context provides evidence
of a direct stratigraphic correlation between preserved Mesolithic shell-rich layers and the cemented ones;
2) what erosional event in the middle-late Holocene could have been responsible for emptying all the
caves known in the region, leaving only the cemented parts? Ultimately, we consider that it can not be
assumed that the cemented shell middens correspond to the original anthropogenic accumulation in its
primary position.
However, this hypothesis can be tested using geoarchaeological techniques. In the present contribution
we present the geoarchaeological approach applied in some of these contexts in Cantabrian region.
Micromorphology, in particular, is considered to have great potential to answer these open questions. The
thin sections from oriented block samples obtained both in cemented shell middens and anthopogenic
features (e.g. combustion features) with shell matrix in stratigraphy, allowed the contextual preservation
of the arrangement of the components and the post-depositional processes. The microstructure provides
insights on the processes of accumulations of the anthropogenic components, preserving the
chronological and spatial relationships between the various processes. Apart from the formation
processes, this approach also generates useful palaeoenvironmental data concerning the speleotheme
precipitation, since the morphology of these structures respond to very particular environmental
conditions, that can be used in the cultural integration of the Mesolithic societies in the region.
36
Cova Colomera (Southeastern Pre-Pyrenees) during the late Early Neolithic:
pastoral practices and bat and bird occupation
M. Mercè Bergadà1, Tània Polonio2 and F.Xavier Oms1
1. SERP. Department of Prehistory, Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Barcelona, (Catalonia, Spain).
2. Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain)
The Cova Colomera (Sant Esteve de la Sarga, Lleida) is located in the Pre-Pyrenees on the cliff of
Montrebei in the Montsec, 670 m above sea level and 150 m above the Noguera Ribagorzana river.
The genesis of the cavity is linked to the vertical plane of a NE - SW trending fracture line in
Maastrichtian limestone. It is a gallery structure 180 m long and about 10-12 m high; at the entrance of
the cave dimensions range from 70 m high to 30 m wide (Oms et al., 2013).
The area under study is located in the first big chamber of the cavity, called CE, with an area of 13 m2,
grid squares X-32 and W-31 of those profiles were studied. These levels correspond to late cardial Early
Neolithic and have radiocarbon dates between 6170 ± 30 BP and 6020 ± 50 BP (Oms et al., 2013).
Our study method was based mainly on a stratigraphic and sedimentary description of the site and an
analysis of the micromorphology of the layers that were identified. We also used scanning electron
microscopy (ESEM-EDX) in back-scattered electron (BSE) mode and microprobe analyses on thin
sections.
The three types of facies were documented in the profiles:
- Runoff detrital facies. Consists of silty sands with limestone gravels and burnt ovicaprid excrements,
silica phytoliths and plant residues. This facies is found in both profiles.
- Layer-cake facies. Developed in the upper part by an accumulation of ash composed mostly of calcite
pseudomorphs of plant origin, rhombic and cubic calcite pseudomorphs and mineralized ovicaprid
excrements; below that, partially charred plant residues and charcoals. This facies is located mainly in
the X-32 sector.
- Biogenic facies mainly associated with bat and bird guano. It is distinguished by faecal remains, chitin
fragments, gypsum nodules, yellow crytocrystalline apatite nodules and an organophosphatic crust. It is
localized primarily in the area W-31 and the upper X-32.
From the results obtained through the micromorphological analysis we conclude that during the late Early
Neolithic period between 6170 ± 30 and 6150 ± 40 BP there was ovicaprid pastoral activity in the area X32, which is manifested mainly in combustion episodes. This finishes with a guano accumulation that is
documented intensively in sector W-31. Later, between 6020 ± 40 and 6150 ± 50 BP, in the latter sector
there is a runoff episode that is followed by guano accumulation, culminating sedimentation in this area
of the cave.
Oms, F.X., López-garcía, J.M., Mangado, X., Martín, P., Mendiela, S., Morales, J.I., Pedro, M.Rodríguez, A., Rodríguez-Cintas,
A., Yubero, M. 2013. Hàbitat en cova i espai pels ramats CA 6200-6000 BP: la cova Colomera (Prepirineu de Lleida) durant el
Neolític antic. Saguntum, 45:25-38.
37
Geoarchaeology of the Bibocas quartzite rockshelter: the Late Pleistocene/Holocene
scenario of Central Brazil
Daniel Vieira Sousa 1; Carlos Ernesto Schaefer1, João Carlos Ker1, Maria Jacqueline
Rodet2,
2
André Prous , Wenceslau Geraldes Teixeira3, Renê Chagas Silva4.
1
Soil Department of University Federal of Viçosa. Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil; 2 Natural History Museum of University Federal of Minas Gerais, Belo
Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil; 3 EMBRAPA Soil, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 4 Physics Department of University Federal of Viçosa. Viçosa,
Minas Gerais, Brazil
Archaeological sites developed in quartzite rock shelters, despite hindering the preservation of organic remains, have the
potential to be the most ancient sites preserved, due to the low dissolution of the siliceous-rich rock and greater preservation
of the shelter. The site Bibocas, located in a quartzite landscape at the western edge of the Espinhaço Range dates back to
10,470 +/- 80 years BP and extends until historical times (Rodet 2010), representing one of the oldest sites in Brazil. The
anthropogenic contribution to soil formation and chemical and physical processes in rock shelters can be adequately studied
by geoarchaeological methods. With this purpose, soil samples were collected from the wall of the stratigraphic section at
all layers, for textural and chemical analysis: Mehlich-1 extractable P; exchangeable K+ Na and Ca2+ (EMBRAPA 2012);
Total Organic Carbon (Yeomans & Bremmer 1998) and Magnetic Susceptibility by a KT-10R Plus S/C device (TerraplusCanada). Micromorphological analyzes were carried out in undisturbed samples collected from the following layers: II (610
+/- 30); III (1.170 +/- 30); Mid IV; Lower IV; Mid V (8.580 +/- 30); V lower (9560 +/- 30), Top VI (10,470 +/- 70 years
AP) and Mid VI, all according to recommendations of Bullock et al. (1985), with further suggestions of Macphail and
Goldberg (2010).
The first humans to occupy the shelter came during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. At the oldest layer, burning
practices are indicated by high magnetic susceptibility, P, Ca and K amounts. The fine-fraction increase at the top VI layer
section in relation to the Mid VI layer, with the greatest presence of rounded, well-selected quartz grains, suggest the
income of allochtonous colluvial materials inside the shelter. The microstructure is pelicular grain and the distribution is
Monic-chitonic in all stratigraphic layers. The predominant soil features are nodules, coatings (hypocoating, quasicoating)
and loose, continuous or discontinuous, infillings, along pores and voids. Between 9,560 (bottom V layers) and 8580 years
BP (mid V layer) the increase of lithic fragments, magnetic susceptibility, combined with increased Ca and K amounts,
point to increasing shelter use and occupation. In the coarse fraction, we detected rounded rock fragments and quartz grains
with widespread coating, charcoal and minute bone fragments, microflakes, nodules and concretions, associated with
allochtonous materials, like metapellitic and feldspatic rocks, absent from the cave. The microstructure is also a pelicular
grain with variations to bridge grain structure.
At the lower, middle, upper IV layers (8560 yars to 1170 years BP), the site was used for chipping, burning and painting
activity. The fires became frequent, with increasing use for food preparation in the upper and middle IV layers, consistent
with increasing amounts of Ca and P. The coarse fraction is composed of rock fragments, anahedral quartz grains, charcoal
fragments of various sizes, phytoliths and typical, nucleic pseudomorphs nodules. The microstructure is pelicular grain to
"bridged grain structure" with some occasional zones with granular microaggregates,
Between 1,170 and 610 years BP fire was extremely common so to originate extensive lens of soil materials containing the
highest levels of OC, P and Ca. Most coarse material is rounded quartz with coatings, with common infillings, and similar
pelicular grain structure.
The amounts of OC, P, magnetic susceptibility, Ca2+ and K+ were proxies of human occupation associated with fires. The
Bibocas shelter site is basically an accumulation of allochtonous sediments mixed with local quartzite debris, with
subsequent subtle action of pedogenic processes, forming secondary pelicular grain structure" and "Bridged grain
structure". Abundant nodules of pedogenic origin, such as Feldspar degraded lithorelics and concretions, are associated
with oxidation/reduction cycles, and ferruginization by burning. Geoarchaeological tools are promising for helping
interpreting the anthropic evidence..
38

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