Description: Publication date: 30 August 2018 Source: Quaternary International, Volume 486 Author(s): Özlem Bulkan, M. Namık Yalçın, Heinz Wilkes Beginning from the Early Holocene marked environmental changes have been revealed by a multi-proxy study of two radiocarbon-dated sediment cores from Lake Marmara. Both cores are composed of fine clastic sediments deposited over the last 1845 years. The core taken from the western depocentre supplementary consists of a 20 cm thick interval which represents a time period of 10.28 to 8.28ka yrBP. A desiccation event caused 6435 year hiatus in the sedimentary record. The lake was established again at 1.85ka yrBP. After a transitional humid phase at the beginning of the Late Holocene, overall arid conditions were continuously effective. Especially the difference between the geochemical composition of Early and Late Holocene sediments indicates distinctive environmental conditions. Respective humid phases took place in between 10.28 and 8.28ka yrBP (Early Holocene) and 1.85 to 1.72ka yrBP (Late Holocene). The Early Holocene phase is characterized by higher fluvial activity controlled by the humid climate and active tectonics. Right after the Middle Holocene droughts, a short-termed tendency to relatively fresh and oxic conditions prevailed. However, the small surface area of the lake and its shallow conditions caused fast variations of hydrology, oxidation level, salinity and organic productivity during the last 1850 years. We suggest that a combination of the instability of the Eastern Mediterranean climate and local conditions is the main control on the changing paleo-environment during the study period.

Description: Publication date: 10 August 2018 Source: Quaternary International, Volume 484

Description: Publication date: 10 August 2018 Source: Quaternary International, Volume 484 Author(s): Albert Hafner, Christoph Schwörer Since 2003 a melting ice field on the Schnidejoch Pass (2756 m a.s.l.) has yielded several hundred objects from the Neolithic period, the Bronze and Iron Ages and from Roman and early medieval times. The oldest finds date from the beginning of the 5th millennium BC, whilst the most recent artefacts date from around AD 1000. Most of the objects belong to the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age and are of organic origin. A series of over 70 radiocarbon dates confirm that the Schnidejoch Pass, which linked the Bernese Oberland with the Rhône Valley, was frequented from no later than 4800–4500 BCE onwards. The pass was easily accessible when the glaciers descending from the nearby Wildhorn mountain range (summit at 3248 m a.s.l.) were in a retreating phase. On the other hand, the area was impassable during periods of glacial advances. A recent palaeoecological study of sediment cores from nearby Lake Iffigsee (2065 m a.s.l.) provides clear indications of early human impact in this Alpine area. Linking archaeological finds from the Schnidejoch Pass and the Rhône Valley with the palaeoecological data provides results that can be interpreted as early indications of Alpine pastoralism and transhumance. The combined archaeological and paleoecological research allows us to explain vertical mobility in the Swiss Alps.

Description: Publication date: 10 August 2018 Source: Quaternary International, Volume 484 Author(s): Claudia Gerling, Corina Knipper, Lucie Martin, Thomas Doppler

Description: Publication date: 10 August 2018 Source: Quaternary International, Volume 484 Author(s): Thomas Reitmaier, Thomas Doppler, Alistair W.G. Pike, Sabine Deschler-Erb, Irka Hajdas, Christoph Walser, Claudia Gerling Based on a series of new radiocarbon dates we examine the vertical mobility of cattle in the Alps by means of strontium isotope analysis on samples from the prehistoric settlement of Ramosch-Mottata (Canton of Grisons, Switzerland). By identifying variations in the strontium isotope ratios of high-crowned cattle molars, we investigate the seasonal use of alpine pastures (vertical transhumance) and changes in cattle husbandry practices between the early and later stages of the site's occupation. Combined with the evidence of multiple high-altitude sites, indications of dairying and ethno-archeological observations, we see an economic shift and a reorganization of domestic animal exploitation from the early to the late Bronze/early Iron Age in the Alps.

Description: Publication date: 10 August 2018 Source: Quaternary International, Volume 484 Author(s): J. Agirre-García, J.M. Edeso-Fito, A. Lopetegi-Galarraga, A. Moraza-Barea, M. Ruiz-Alonso, S. Pérez-Díaz, T. Fernández-Crespo, I. Goikoetxea, M.A. Martínez de Pancorbo, L. Palencia, M. Baeta, C. Núñez, S. Cardoso, J.A. Mujika-Alustiza Aralar is a karstic mountainous landscape situated to the south of the western-most part of the Pyrenees where, apart from forests, mountain pastures are very important. We have found evidence of seasonal shepherds' settlements from the Neolithic to the present in the form of megaliths, caves and foundations of dwelling huts dating from the Bronze Age, and confirmed by radiocarbon dating. Pastoralism, apart from gathering and some hunting, enables the use of resources in these areas. The environmental, cultural and economic conditions determine the characteristics of the animal herds here. Thus, mountain areas are used in summer, when grass and nutritional resources are good but, when lignification increases, the livestock is moved lower down the valleys. More than two decades of archaeological research in this landscape has helped to understand the shepherds' way of life over time.

Description: Publication date: 10 August 2018 Source: Quaternary International, Volume 484 Author(s): Carlos Tornero, Mónica Aguilera, Juan Pedro Ferrio, Héctor Arcusa, Marta Moreno-García, Sheila Garcia-Reig, Manuel Rojo-Guerra Although the frequency of pastoral activities involving vertical sheep mobility has decreased over the last century, this is a herding strategy still used in the Ebro basin, where animals move from overwintering valley locations up to the Pyrenees from late spring to early autumn. Such practice allows herders to avoid the worst climatic conditions, seasonally balancing the great contrast between ecological zones in this region, from dry lowland Mediterranean steppe to wet mountain subalpine grasslands. As recent regional archaeological works have suggested, the altitudinal movement of flocks may have begun with the first early Neolithic groups settled in this territory. Here we investigate through stable isotope analyses one of the last flocks that still performs this activity. Sheep specimens were analyzed by sequential analyses (δ 13 C and δ 18 O) in bioapatite of tooth enamel, allowing detection of seasonal changes. Tooth series are interpreted according to rainfall distribution, seasonal patterns in δ 18 O of meteoric water, vegetation changes and δ 13 C values in pastures along the altitudinal gradient in the area. Vertical movements in sheep sequential series are recognized by an inverse relationship between δ 13 C and δ 18 O values. Monthly δ 18 O values in meteoric water obtained in valley and mountain locations describe the same type of seasonal oscillation, with high values during the warm months and low values during the cold months. Pastures analyzed along the altitudinal gradient showed a decrease in δ 13 C values with altitude, linked to the seasonal availability of precipitation and vegetation differences among locations. These results define a new analytical and conceptual framework for the interpretation of archaeological samples in this region.

Description: Publication date: 30 July 2018 Source: Quaternary International, Volume 483

Description: Publication date: 30 July 2018 Source: Quaternary International, Volume 483 Author(s): Tara Beuzen-Waller, Friederike Stock, Yasuhisa Kondo

Description: Publication date: 30 July 2018 Source: Quaternary International, Volume 483 Author(s): Jaafar Jotheri, Mark Altaweel, Akihiro Tuji, Ryo Anma, Benjamin Pennington, Stephanie Rost, Chikako Watanabe For decades, it has been unclear as to how the world's first cities, in southern Mesopotamia, not only arose in a fluvial environment but also how this environment changed. This paper seeks to understand the long-term fluvial history of the region around Uruk, a major early city, in relation to water-human interactions. This paper applies geomorphological, historical and archaeological approaches and reveals that the Uruk region in southern Mesopotamia had been under the influence of freshwater fluvial environment since the early Holocene. It further demonstrates how canals and long-term human activities since the mid Holocene have been superimposed on the natural river channel patterns. Fieldwork has been conducted to ground-truth features identified applying remote sensing techniques. Five sediment cores were analysed to elucidate palaeoenvironmental changes. Radiocarbon ages for organic samples suggest that the oldest sediment layers, at a depth of 12.5 m, are from the Early Holocene, while results from diatom analyses imply that the whole sediment column was deposited in a freshwater environment. Intensive networks of palaeochannels and archaeological sites within the study area have been reconstructed and these networks have been divided into four different time intervals based on changes in channel courses. The first is from the early 4th to the late 1st millennium BCE; the second is from the late 1st millennium BCE to the middle 2nd millennium CE; the third lasted from after the Islamic period until the 1980s; the fourth is from the 1980s until the present. Key results include evidence for freshwater environments and favourable settlement conditions had already formed by the 8th millennium BCE. The favourable settlement environment resulted in stable (long-lived) canals between the 4th millennium BCE and 1st millennium CE. A significant settlement and irrigation expansion occurred in the early 1st millennium CE. Major abandonment ensued in the late 1st millennium CE and lasted until the mid 2nd millennium CE.