The Climatic Significance of the Hosterman’s Pit Local Fauna, Centre County, Pennsylvania

1967 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Guilday
Keyword(s):  
Local Fauna ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Mammal Fauna ◽  
Central Pennsylvania

AbstractThe change from a boreal to a temperate mammal fauna in central Pennsylvania is believed bracketed by radiocarbon dates associated with two cave faunas at from ca. 9300 to 7290 B.C.

Quantitative comparisons and models of time-averaging in bivalve and brachiopod shell accumulations

Paleobiology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 428-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Krause ◽  
Susan L. Barbour ◽  
Michał Kowalewski ◽  
Darrell S. Kaufman ◽  
Christopher S. Romanek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Resolution ◽  
Time Averaging ◽  
Local Fauna ◽  
Stochastic Variation ◽  
Extrinsic Factors ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽  
Deep Site ◽  
Age Frequency Distribution

The variation in time-averaging between different types of marine skeletal accumulations within a depositional system is not well understood. Here we provide quantitative data on the magnitude of time-averaging and the age structure of the sub-fossil record of two species with divergent physical and ecological characteristics, the brachiopodBouchardia roseaand the bivalveSemele casali.Material was collected from two sites on a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic shelf off the coast of Brazil where both species are dominant components of the local fauna.Individual shells (n= 178) were dated using amino acid racemization (aspartic acid) calibrated with 24 AMS radiocarbon dates. Shell ages range from modern to 8118 yearsb.p.for brachiopods, and modern to 4437 years for bivalves. Significant differences in the shape and central tendency of age-frequency distributions are apparent between each sample. Such differences in time-averaging magnitude confirm the assumption that taphonomic processes are subject to stochastic variation at all spatial and temporal scales. Despite these differences, each sample is temporally incomplete at centennial resolution and three of the four samples have similar right-skewed age-frequency distributions. Simulations of temporal completeness indicate that samples of both species from the shallow site are consistent with a more strongly right-skewed and less-complete age-frequency distribution than those from the deep site.We conclude that intrinsic characteristics of each species exert less control on the time-averaging signature of these samples than do extrinsic factors such as variation in rates of sedimentation and taphonomic destruction. This suggests that brachiopod-dominated and bivalve-dominated shell accumulations may be more similar in temporal resolution than previously thought, and that the temporal resolution of multi-taxic shell accumulations may depend more on site-to-site differences than on the intrinsic properties of the constituent organisms.

Uintan land mammals (excluding rodents) from an estuarine facies of the Laredo Formation (Middle Eocene, Claiborne Group) of Webb County, Texas

1990 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 454-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Westgate
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Middle Eocene ◽  
Mammalian Fauna ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Gulf Coastal Plain ◽  
Local Fauna ◽  
West Texas ◽  
Mammal Fauna ◽  
Land Mammal

A newly discovered vertebrate fossil assemblage, the Casa Blanca local fauna, comes from the Laredo Formation, Claiborne Group, of Webb County, Texas, and is the first reported Eocene land-mammal fauna from the coastal plain of North America. The mammalian fauna is correlated with the Serendipity and Candelaria local faunas of west Texas, the Uinta C faunas of the Rocky Mountains, the Santiago Formation local fauna of southern California, and the Swift Current Creek local fauna of Saskatchewan. The vertebrate-bearing deposit lies approximately 32 m above a horizon containing the marine gastropod Turritella cortezi, which ranges from east Texas to northeast Mexico in the lower half of the Cook Mountain and Laredo Formations and is a guide fossil for the Hurricane Lentil in the Cook Mountain Formation. Nannoplankton found in these middle Eocene formations belong to the upper half of Nannoplankton Zone 16 and allow correlation with European beds of late Lutetian to early Bartonian age.Over 700 specimens represent at least 30 species of 28 mammal genera. The Casa Blanca fauna is the southernmost and easternmost North American land-mammal fauna of definite Eocene age, and is the westernmost Paleogene vertebrate fauna from the Gulf Coastal Plain.

Paleoclimatic implications of late quaternary lacustrine sediments in Western Nubia, Sudan

1991 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Joachim Pachur ◽  
Philipp Hoelzmann
Keyword(s):  
Lake Sediment ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Lacustrine Sediments ◽  
The West ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Freshwater Molluscs ◽  
Mammal Fauna

AbstractOwing to the hypercontinental location of Western Nubia, secular fluctuations of climate have been filtered and wet phases can be considered as representative of conditions throughout the southeastern Sahara. The study area is crossed by the 20-mm isohyet; between 9300 and about 4000 yr B.P., however, there were widespread lake and swamp environments with freshwater molluscs, ostracods, and diatoms, and a species-rich savanna mammal fauna. The center of the West Nubian Basin (approx. 18°N), an area of about 20,000 km2, was occupied by a semiaquatic landscape which was situated at the same latitude as Paleolake Chad. From extensive lake carbonates up to about 4 m thick, a long-term rise of the groudwater table is inferred. Environments developed that now exist at about latitude 13°N. Radiocarbon dates from lake sediment sequences cluster between 30,000 and 21,000 yr B.P., indicating a Pleistocene wet phase. A gap in radiocarbon dates between 21,000 and 11,000 yr B.P. signals a phase of hyperaridity, similar to the present hyperarid phase, with eolian deflation and deposits of sand being the dominant forms of erosion and accumulation.

Excavation of a Roman Bathhouse at Bothwellhaugh, 1975—76

1981 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
L J F Keppie
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Animal Bone ◽  
Cold Room ◽  
Hot Bath

Summary In 1975—76 the extra-mural bathhouse of Bothwellhaugh Roman fort near Motherwell, Lanarkshire, was completely excavated prior to flooding of the site. The bathhouse, which probably overlay a small native settlement, was in use during the Antonine phase of the Roman occupation of Scotland (AD 142—c. 165). The bathhouse consisted of a vestibule, a cold room (Frigidarium) and cold plunge bath, two warm rooms (the First and the Second Tepidarium), a hot room (Caldarium) with adjacent hot bath, and a furnace room (Praefurnium). Three main phases of use were detected. After the building ceased to function as a bathhouse, it was occupied by squatters who adapted parts of the structure to their own needs and left evidence of their presence in a large quantity of animal bone. Radiocarbon dates on this bone indicate activity in the 2nd or 3rd centuries ad.

Investigating Burnt Mounds in Clydesdale during Motorway Construction

1998 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
John A Atkinson ◽  
Camilla Dickson ◽  
Jane Downes ◽  
Paul Robins ◽  
David Sanderson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Short Account ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Bronze Age

Summary Two small burnt mounds were excavated as part of the programme to mitigate the impact of motorway construction in the Crawford area. The excavations followed a research strategy designed to address questions of date and function. This paper surveys the various competing theories about burnt mounds and how the archaeological evidence was evaluated against those theories. Both sites produced radiocarbon dates from the Bronze Age and evidence to suggest that they were cooking places. In addition, a short account is presented of two further burnt mounds discovered during the construction of the motorway in Annandale.

A Medieval Burial from Graham Street, Leith, Edinburgh

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-169
Author(s):  
Paul R. J. Duffy ◽  
Olivia Lelong
Keyword(s):  
Contextual Information ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Housing Development ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Archaeological Excavation ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Physical Evidence ◽  
Research Division ◽  
The North ◽  
The Individual

Summary An archaeological excavation was carried out at Graham Street, Leith, Edinburgh by Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) as part of the Historic Scotland Human Remains Call-off Contract following the discovery of human remains during machine excavation of a foundation trench for a new housing development. Excavation demonstrated that the burial was that of a young adult male who had been interred in a supine position with his head orientated towards the north. Radiocarbon dates obtained from a right tibia suggest the individual died between the 15th and 17th centuries AD. Little contextual information exists in documentary or cartographic sources to supplement this scant physical evidence. Accordingly, it is difficult to further refine the context of burial, although a possible link with a historically attested siege or a plague cannot be discounted.

Excavation of an Early Historic Palisaded Enclosure at Titwood, Mearnskirk, East Renfrewshire

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Johnson ◽  
Alastair Rees ◽  
Ian Ralston ◽  
T. Ballin ◽  
M. Cressey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Historic Period ◽  
Historic Period ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Early Historic

Summary A palisaded enclosure and associated features were excavated by CFA Archaeology Ltd (CFA) in advance of the construction of the proposed Glasgow Southern Orbital Road. Radiocarbon dates indicate that the palisade and at least some of the internal features date to the Early Historic period, between the 8th and 10th centuries cal. AD. The Titwood palisade is currently the only site of this date to have been excavated in western mainland Scotland, as well as being one of the few known Early Historic palisaded sites in Scotland. Evidence of Neolithic activity on the site was also established. The work was commissioned by ASH Consulting Group on behalf of East Renfrewshire Council.

A Prehistoric Ford near Rough Castle, Falkirk

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

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

The importance of stock herding and dairying in the Neolithic Balkans and the subsistence diversity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darko Stojanovski ◽  
Ivana Živaljević ◽  
Vesna Dimitrijević ◽  
Julie Dunne ◽  
Richard Evershed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Milk Proteins ◽  
Domestic Animal ◽  
Dental Calculus ◽  
Isotopic Study ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
New Information ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Ceramic Vessels

The application of biomolecular techniques to archaeological materials from the Balkans is providing valuable new information on the prehistory of the region. This is especially relevant for the study of the neolithisation process in SE Europe, which gradually affected the rest of the continent. Here, to answer questions regarding diet and subsistence practices in early farming societies, we combine organic residue analyses of archaeological pottery, taxonomic and isotopic study of domestic animal remains and biomolecular analyses of human dental calculus. The results from the analyses of the lipid residues from pottery suggest that milk was processed in ceramic vessels. Dairy products were shown to be part of the subsistence strategies of the earliest Neolithic communities in the region but were of varying importance in different areas of the Balkan. On the other hand, we did not confidently detect any milk proteins within the dental calculus. The molecular and isotopic identification of meat, dairy, plants and beeswax in the pottery lipids also provided insights into the diversity of diet in these early Neolithic communities. We also present the first compound-specific radiocarbon dates for the region, obtained directly on absorbed organic residues extracted from pottery, identified as dairy lipids.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document