All,
Here are a few titles and abstracts from the last issues of Geoarchaeology that should attract the attention of a few Forum members.
Pearl, Frederic B. and D. Bruce Dickson. 2004. Geoarchaeology and prehistory of the Kipsing and Tol river watersheds in the Mukogodo Hills region of Central Kenya. Geoarchaeology19(6): 565 – 582.
Abstract:
An archaeological survey and geomorphological investigation were conducted over a period of three years in the Tol and Kipsing River valleys, both located in the Mukogodo Hills-Upper Ewaso Ng'iro Plains region of Central Kenya. Eleven alluvial-stratigraphic sections were studied, and five late-Quaternary alluvial stratigraphic units were identified on the basis of lithology, chronology, and soil stratigraphy. The locations of 63 archaeological sites recorded during the reconnaissance were compared with the distribution of the alluvial units. These data were used to predict where sites of different cultural periods are most likely to be found and to determine the relationship between site location and alluvial deposition. Since natural processes of deposition and erosion do not fully account for the distribution of Middle and Later Stone Age sites in the study area, the hypothesis that these differences reflect human choices, not the operation of natural processes, cannot be rejected.
© 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Wyatt ,Steve. 2004. Ancient transpacific voyaging to the new world via Pleistocene South Pacific Islands. Geoarchaeology
19(6): 511 – 529.
Abstract:
How humans first arrived in America remains a mystery. Although the Beringian and coastal options have been discussed in detail, a transpacific route from the Old World to the New World via the islands of Oceania has been essentially ignored. Of the many factors involved in completing such a voyage, besides an adequate watercraft, landfall frequency and prevailing winds and currents were most important. A chain of islands in the landless eastern South Pacific, with its consequent and possibly favorable modifications of regional sea surface currents, would have been particularly beneficial to eastbound mariners. Comparing present-day bathymetry with estimated late Pleistocene glacially induced sea level fluctuations suggests that latent islands may actually exist, especially when the effects of other geological phenomena are also considered. If exposed during the last glacial maximum (LGM), such a chain of islands could have provided facilitating layover points for ancient eastbound seafaring explorers, thus making a transpacific journey more plausible.
© 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Smith, Jennifer R. Robert Giegengack, Henry P. Schwarcz, Mary M. A. McDonald, Maxine R. Kleindienst, Alicia L. Hawkins, and Charles S. Churcher. 2004. A reconstruction of Quaternary pluvial environments and human occupations using stratigraphy and geochronology of fossil-spring tufas, Kharga Oasis, Egypt. Geoarchaeology 19(5): 407 – 439.
Abstract:
We carried out a geologic survey and a preliminary archaeological survey of four fossil-spring tufa localities in Kharga Oasis, Egypt, to constrain the timing of pluvial episodes in the Western Desert, and to document prehistoric occupation contemporaneous with times of increased rainfall. Uranium-series dating of the tufas confirms that at least five episodes of tufa deposition are represented in Kharga, although not every event is represented at each locality. Across the region studied, tufas were most frequently deposited as part of a fluvial barrage system, characterized by terraced, vegetated pools impounded by arcuate tufa dams and separated by small waterfalls. Available water resources during pluvial phases would have included not only spring-fed streams but also small freshwater lakes. While Earlier Stone Age (ESA) and Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithic artifacts may be found either as surficial lags on tufas, or, less commonly, encased within tufas, Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic artifacts are generally found in or on silts within surface deflation depressions in the tufas, principally at Wadi Midauwara.
© 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Wagner, Daniel P. and Joseph M. McAvoy. 2004. Pedoarchaeology of Cactus Hill, a sandy Paleoindian site in southeastern Virginia, U.S.A. Geoarchaeology 19(4): 297 – 322.
Abstract:
Cactus Hill is located in the Virginia Coastal Plain on a terrace above the Nottoway River. The site has a record of occupation that spans the Holocene and also offers evidence of humans late in the Pleistocene before Clovis time. Soil investigations identified several deposit types, and demonstrated that multisequal eolian sands forming the site's primary core are arrayed in spatially and temporally discrete horizons. Resting atop an ancient paleosol, the earliest sand stratum (19,540 ± 70 14C yr B.P.) is marked by a conspicuous but culturally sterile buried surface horizon. Eolian sand above this surface supports another sequum in which Clovis and underlying Blade artifacts are associated with a fainter surface horizon and pronounced subsoil lamellae. Early Archaic and successively younger artifacts occur above the Clovis level in a more weakly developed uppermost sequum. This soil and cultural stratigraphy, together with considerations of regional topography, demonstrate that the landscape has evolved incrementally since about the last glacial maximum.
© 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Latham, A.G. and A.I.R. Herries. 2004. The formation and sedimentary infilling of the Cave of Hearths and Historic Cave complex, Makapansgat, South Africa. Geoarchaeology 19(4): 323 – 342.
Abstract:
The archaeology of caves is best served by including a study of natural effects prior to and during anthropogenic input. This is especially true for the Cave of Hearths because not only has erosion determined the area of occupation, but also subsequent undermining has caused collapse of some of the rearward parts of the site during Early Stone Age (Acheulian) and later times; and this had a major impact on excavation. The key to understanding the nature of the collapsed layers was the rediscovery of a lower part of the cavern below the whole site. This lower cavern is no longer accessible, but the evidence for it was revealed in a swallow hole by R.J. Mason, and in archived material at the Department of Archaeology, University of Witwatersrand. The creation and dissolution of dolomite fragments in the upper layers has resulted in the formation of thick, carbonate-cemented breccia that has preserved underlying layers and prevented further collapse. We agree with Mason that further archaeological and hominid finds await excavation under the proximate Historical Cave west entrance. This area has the potential for archaeological and palaeoanthropological material that predates the layers in the Cave of Hearths.
© 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Haynes, C. Vance Jr., Marcel Kornfeld , and George C. Frison . 2004. New geochronological and archaeological data for the Sheaman Clovis site, eastern Wyoming, U.S.A. Geoarchaeology19(4): 369 – 379.
Abstract:
Excavation of the Sheaman Clovis site in eastern Wyoming by University of Wyoming in the late 1970s produced one radiocarbon age of uncertain relationship to the Clovis level and one age on bone of poor reliability. New excavations in 2000 recovered additional material for radiocarbon dating as well as a Clovis elongated flake multiple use tool at the base of a black, cumulic A horizon. This paper presents evidence of an age of ca. 11,200 ± 50 yr B.P. for the Clovis occupation, and an Allerød-Younger Dryas age for the paleosol, along with a detailed description of the Clovis tool.
© 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
For authors’ info and access to the actual papers, click on:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/36011Jacques Cinq-Mars
