Using Multistaged Magnetic Survey and Excavation to Assess Community Settlement Organization: A Case Study from the Central Peninsular Gulf Coast of Florida

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
Christina Perry Sampson ◽  
Timothy J. Horsley
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Community Organization ◽  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Occupational Activity ◽  
Magnetic Survey ◽  
Significant Patterns ◽  
Remote Sensing Techniques ◽  
Structure Of Deposits ◽  
A Site

AbstractIntegrating geophysical survey with the study of community settlement patterns can be challenging because of cultural and environmental factors including (1) site formation and house preservation, (2) the coordination of domestic tasks at extra-household scales, and (3) the survey environment of the study area. In this article, we present the results of a program of geophysical survey comprising magnetic susceptibility and magnetometry at Weeden Island (8Pi1)—a shell-bearing, wooded site with nearly pure sand soils on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Combining remote sensing techniques mitigated some of the challenges of surveying forested terrain while providing insight into community organization at a site with minimal preserved structural remains. Compared with previous traditional surveys of the area, the geophysical survey extended the recognized boundaries of occupational activity, provided additional definition to the spatial structure of deposits, and allowed us to identify specific domestic features. Excavations at each area of intensive occupation provided evidence about the organization of the domestic economy at the site and showed the potential of this approach to reveal significant patterns of community settlement.

scholarly journals Magnetic Survey at the Roman Military Camp of el Benian in Mauretania Tingitana (Morocco): Results and Implications

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Francesco Martorella
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Magnetic Survey ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Military Camp ◽  
Building Activity ◽  
Economic Studies

The topic of military settlements and the role of troops in the northern provinces of North Africa during the age of the Roman Empire has recently gained a strong interest in historical, archaeological, epigraphical, and economic studies. In particular, at Mauretania Tingitana (in the north-east area of modern-day Morocco), the presence of numerous military camps in the Early and Later Roman Empire has now been assessed. In this framework, the present work deals with the geophysical survey, by means of magnetometry, at the site of el Benian, where the largest military camp is located. In particular, the magnetic survey has highlighted the organization of the camp, almost totally unknown previously. The result of the magnetic survey has confirmed intense building activity over the centuries and made it possible to identify and characterize the structures typical of a military field.

Geoarchaeology and Bayesian Statistical Modeling of Radiocarbon Dates from 40CH171, a Multicomponent Shell-Bearing Site in Cheatham County, Tennessee

2019 ◽  
pp. 75-90
Author(s):  
D. Shane Miller ◽  
Thaddeus G. Bissett ◽  
Tanya M. Peres ◽  
David G. Anderson ◽  
Stephen B. Carmody ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Site Formation ◽  
State University ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
University Of Tennessee ◽  
Middle Tennessee State University ◽  
Blue Creek ◽  
Middle Archaic ◽  
Cumberland River ◽  
A Site ◽  
The University

Using multiple lines of evidence from 40CH171, including opportunistic sampling, geoarchaeology analysis, and Bayesian radiocarbon modeling, this chapter constructs a site formation process narrative based on fieldwork conducted from 2009 to 2010 by the University of Tennessee, Middle Tennessee State University, and the Tennessee Division of Archaeology. This chapter argues that the shell-bearing strata were deposited relatively close to an active channel of the Cumberland River and/or Blue Creek during the Middle Holocene (ca. 7170–6500 cal BP). This was followed by an abrupt shift to sandier sediments, indicating that deposition after the termination of the shell-bearing deposits at the Middle Archaic/Late Archaic boundary took place in the context of decreasing distance from the site to the Cumberland River and Blue Creek.

The new Basrah Museum: dedicated to the archaeological and historical inheritance of Basrah and Iraq

Antiquity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 93 (369) ◽  
pp. 811-813
Author(s):  
Adil Hashim Ali
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Arabian Gulf ◽  
Fertile Crescent ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
A Site ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The City

Located in the Fertile Crescent and at the head of the Persian/Arabian Gulf, the city of Basra is steeped in history. Close to the heart of ancient Mesopotamia, the territory of modern Iraq was occupied variously by Achaemenids and Seleucids, Parthians, Romans and Sassanids, before the arrival of Islam in the early middle ages. In more recent history, the city's strategic position near the Gulf coast has made Basra a site of contestation and conflict. This exposure to so many different cultures and civilisations has contributed to the rich identity of Basra, a wealth of history that demands a cultural museum able to present all of the historical periods together in one place. The original Basra Museum was looted and destroyed in 1991, during the first Gulf War. The destruction and loss of so much of Iraq's history and material culture prompted official collaboration to build a new museum that would represent the city of Basrah and showcase its significance in the history of Iraq. The culmination of an eight-year collaborative project between the Iraq Ministry of Culture, the State Board of Antiquities and the Friends of Basrah Museum, the new museum was opened initially in September 2016. Already established as a cultural landmark in the city, with up to 200 visitors a day and rising, the museum was officially opened on 20 March 2019. The author was fortunate to be present for this event and able to explore the new galleries (Figure 1).

Americas - Frank Salomon & Stuart B. Schwartz (ed.). South America (Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas Vol. III) (2 vols), xxviii+2030 pages, 63 figures, 51 maps. 1999. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 0-521-33393-8 (the 2 vols), 0-521-63075-4 (Part 1), 0-521-63076-2 (Part 2) hardback £120. - Richard E.W. Adams & Murdo J. MacLeod (ed.). Mesoamerica (Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas Vol. II) (2 vols), xxx+1026 pages, 99 figures, 17 tables, 51 maps. 2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 0-521-65205-7 (the 2 vols), 0-521-35165-0 (Part 1), 0-521-65204-9 (Part 2) hardback £120 & US$175. - David R. Abbott. Ceramics and community organization among the Hohokam. xii+259 pages, 33 figures, 22 tables. 2000. Tucson (AZ): University of Arizona Press; 0-8165-1936-6 hardback $40. - John Kantner & Nancy M. Mahoney (ed.). Great House communities across the Chacoan landscape (Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona no. 64). x+194 pages, 76 figures, 18 tables. 2000. Tucson (AZ); University of Arizona Press; 0-8165-2072-0 paperback $16.95. - Marcello A. Canuto & Jason Yaeger (ed.). The archaeology of communities: a New World perspective. xv+271 pages, 42 figures, 5 tables. London: Routledge; 0-415-22277-X hardback £60,0-415-22278-8 paperback £19.99. - Laura Laurencich Minelli (ed.). The Inca world: the development of pre-columbian Peru, AD 1000–1534 (tr. Andrew Ellis, James Bishop & Angelica Mercurio Ciampi). 240 pages, 232 figures, 112 colour photographs. 2000. Norman (OK): University of Oklahoma Press; 0-8061-3221-3 hardback $49.95. - Richardson Benedict Gill. The great Maya droughts: water, life, and death, xx+464 pages, 99 figures, 16 tables. 2000. Albuquerque (NM): University of New Mexico Press; 0-8263-2194-1 hardback $49.95. - Maria Isabel D’Agostino Fleming (ed.). Anais da I Reunião Internacional de Teoria Arqueológica na América do Sul (Revista do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia Supplement 3). x+403 pages, figures, tables. 1999. Säo Paulo: São Paulo University; ISSN 0103-9709 paperback. - Patricia A. McAnany. Living with the ancestors: kinship and kingship in ancient Maya society, xvi+213 pages, 37 figures, 1 table. 2000. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press; 0-292-75236-9 paperback £11.50. - Frank Hamilton Cushing. Exploration of ancient key-dweller remains on the Gulf coast of Florida. xxii+120 pages, 11 figures. 2000. Gainesville (FL): University Press of Florida; 0-8130-1791-2 paperback $29.95. - Warren King Moorehead (ed.). Exploration of the Etowah Site in Georgia: the Etowah papers. xxxix+178 pages, 104 figures, 1 table. 2000. Gainesville (FL): University Press of Florida; 0-8130-1793-9 paperback $29.95.

Antiquity ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (285) ◽  
pp. 719-721
Author(s):  
N. James
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Community Organization ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Native Peoples ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
University Of New Mexico ◽  
University Of Arizona ◽  
History Of

Measuring Sedentariness and Settlement Population: Accumulations Research in the Middle Atlantic Region

2002 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin D. Gallivan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Community Organization ◽  
Community Size ◽  
Atlantic Region ◽  
James River ◽  
Middle Atlantic ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Village Communities ◽  
A Site ◽  
Residential Settlement

Archaeologists have long sought to understand the relationships between the quantity and diversity of material that accumulates at a site and the variables of community size and occupation duration. This paper examines these relationships through an analysis of mobility and settlement population in the late precontact and early colonial Chesapeake region of the eastern U.S. Drawing on previous accumulations research and two “strong” archaeological cases that provide critical values, the study develops measures of relative sedentariness and ceramic-discard behavior that can be used to model behavior at sites without stratified deposits or well-preserved architecture. Application of this model to the James River Valley of Virginia produces more reliable dates for the inception of village communities, several centuries following the adoption of maize-based horticulture in the region. The analysis also suggests that the fundamental nature of residential settlement changed dramatically in the study area after A.D. 1200 with the emergence of a settlement hierarchy including relatively large communities with lengthy occupation durations. The creation of a new cultural landscape containing substantial villages, combined with related changes in household and community organization, is central to the origins and development of the Powhatan paramountcy, one of North America's archetypal complex chiefdoms.

Soils and Landscape Evolution

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vance T. Holliday
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Evolution ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
External Component ◽  
A Site

Soils and archaeological sites are intimately related to the landscape. Investigating soils across past and present landscapes provides a means of reconstructing and understanding the regional environmental and geomorphic context of archaeological site settings and specific site locations, regional site formation processes, and aspects of the resources available to people in a region. Archaeological sites tend to occupy small segments of the landscape, but human activity may affect a much larger area, and in any case, people wander far and wide from sites, interacting with the environment—including the landscape. Thus, no matter whether a site is just a lithic scatter or bone bed or if it is a tell, understanding the regional landscape is an important part of understanding a site and human behavior, and soils are an important means of understanding a landscape. Soils are also important in reconstructing the evolution of landscapes and, consequently, the evolution of archaeological sites. That is, landscape evolution is an important external component of site-formation processes. Landscapes form the physical framework or underpinning for people and their activities and their resulting sites. As landscapes evolve, so do human activities and so do sites. Soils are key to recognizing and interpreting the evolutionary processes that shape the landscape and associated archaeological sites. Furthermore, the concept of landscape evolution also 1) is a logical continuation of the discussion of soil stratigraphy (chapters 5, 6) because it places soil stratigraphy in three or even four dimensions; 2) is a complement to the discussion of soils as environmental indicators (chapter 8), because landscape evolution can be linked to environmental change and because the evolution of the landscape itself, regardless of changes in other factors, represents a change in the environment from a human perspective; and 3) provides yet another means for predicting site locations. The discussion in this section, therefore, represents an integration of some of the principals outlined previously. Some of the studies presented in other chapters, such as the work on the Loess Plateau of China (chapters 6 and 8), and at Harappa and along the Ravi River (chapter 4), are good examples of landscape reconstructions for very large regions and are not repeated here.

GEOPHYSICAL SURVEY OF THE ARKANSAS BAUXITE REGION

Geophysics ◽  
1944 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 324-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. Malamphy ◽  
James L. Vallely
Keyword(s):  
Hot Spring ◽  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Geophysical Data ◽  
Magnetic Survey ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Clark County ◽  
Ore Bodies ◽  
Geophysical Surveys ◽  
Bauxite Ore ◽  
Geophysical Anomalies

Magnetic and gravimetric surveys were conducted over an area of approximately 1400 square miles in the bauxite district of central Arkansas. The primary purpose of these surveys was to discover any possible buried and hitherto unknown syenite masses favorable for the occurrence of bauxite and to determine the approximate position of the buried flanks of the known syenite masses which might offer conditions favorable for the discovery of new ore bodies. These surveys indicated that the various syenite outcrops are domes or bosses on a large batholith and that other similar domes occur on the batholith but do not outcrop. Drilling on the local geophysical anomalies proved the presence of 10 buried domes, but only 2 were found to project above the upper surface of the Midway clays, a requisite of conditions favorable for the occurrence of bauxite ore bodies. The geophysical data indicated the approximate configuration of the buried flanks of the known syenite outcrops, and the portions of these flanks that project above the Midway have now been outlined more accurately by drilling. The geophysical surveys have produced evidence permitting the elimination of a large area as unfavorable for the occurrence of bauxite. Magnetic surveys extending along the Midway‐Wilcox contact from Gurdon in Clark County on the southwest to Searcy in White County on the northeast have proved the improbability of the existence of other syenite masses similar to those found in Pulaski and Saline Counties. A detailed magnetic survey of the Magnet Cove area in Hot Spring County has proved that the syenite mass exposed in that locality is an isolated intrusion and entirely unrelated to those of Pulaski and Saline Counties. This syenite mass does not occur under conditions believed to be favorable for the occurrence of bauxite.

UAV magnetic survey for geological exploration: A case study of the Synnyr Massif, Buryatia, Russia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Maev ◽  
Anastasiya Karaman ◽  
Alexander Kajukov
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Magnetic Data ◽  
Alkaline Magmatism ◽  
Magnetic Survey ◽  
Magnetic Field Measurements ◽  
Airborne Magnetic ◽  
Made In

<p>The Synnyr alkaline massif is a concentrically zoned body located in the Baikal Vitim folded area, Holodninskiy graben. It is controlled by the deep-seated Precambrian Baikal-Synnyr fault, while major rock types of the massif were dated as 230-350 Ma (Kostuk et al., 1990; Mitrofanova 2009). However, there were no young strike-slip faults or thrusts identified throughout the massif. Studying the area is compounded by the climate and landscape conditions, which makes the airborne geophysical survey a very cost-effective mapping tool. Main geological investigations of the Synnyr massif were made in the 1960s and in the 1980s. In those times, an airborne geophysical survey was not as accurate as it was required and didn’t bring up any significant results.</p><p>The next stage of Synnyr massif exploration began in 2016. The first airborne magnetic survey based on unnamed aerial vehicles (UAV) was made in 2018 and increased our knowledge about the geological situation in the studying area. Main goals of the UAV magnetic survey were tracing highly magnetic foidal gabbroids named shonkinites, which are located in the central part of the ore zone, and mapping major faults.</p><p>The airborne geophysical complex included a multirotor aerial vehicle and quantum magnetometer with a rubidium magnetic field sensor that was placed in the special gondola and attached to the UAV. The study area was surveyed at 20 meters height with detailed terrain following and accuracy of magnetic field measurements comparable with the ground magnetic survey.</p><p>As a result, airborne magnetic data helped to clarify geological structure and tectonics in the areas covered with glacier or without any outcrops. Furthermore, magnetic field measurements allowed to locate faults and lineaments which were not traced in previous geological studies of the Synnyr massif and to make an assumption about the neotectonic activity of Baikal-Synnyr fault system.</p><p>Due to cost-efficiency, informativeness and high accuracy of geophysical surveys based on UAV, we are planning to continue research and extend the studying area.</p><p>References:</p><p>Mitrofanova N.N. Report for Aldan-Transbaikal geological maps, 2009</p><p>Kostuk V.P., Panina L.I., Zhidkov A. Y., Orlova M.P., Bazarova T.Y. Potassium alkaline magmatism in Baikal-Stanovoi rift system, 1990</p>

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