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Ancient Sites (ancient + site)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Earth and Environmental Science	40%

Selected Abstracts

The hidden record: Late Holocene landscapes and settlement archaeology in the Lower Ohio River Valley

GEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2002
C. Russell Stafford
From extensive backhoe trenching and coring in the Great Miami,Ohio River confluence region, in conjunction with a large suite of radiocarbon ages, we have identified large tracts of late Holocene alluvium. Thick blankets of Historic alluvium (post-settlement) may also cover levees of the Ohio River. In conjunction with other studies in the Outer Bluegrass Region of the lower Ohio River valley, it is possible to document an association between floodplain Mollisols, Inceptisols, and Entisols and late Holocene-aged landforms. Levees appear to have stabilized between 1000 and 2000 yr B.P. Although buried soils are rare, archaeological materials were ubiquitous in late Holocene Landform Sediment Assemblages. Because a substantial volume of valley fill is late Holocene in age, Woodland sites of all types are frequently buried, and Fort Ancient sites may be buried by Historic alluvium. Therefore, if Woodland or later settlement studies in this region are based on surface evidence alone, they are likely to be biased. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source]

Eating between the Lines: Mississippian Migration and Stable Carbon Isotope Variation in Fort Ancient Populations

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 3 2009
Robert A. Cook
ABSTRACT Appreciating variation along the edges of traditional archaeological Culture Historical boundaries requires close consideration of social contexts associated with culture contact. We focus on dietary variation as a function of these concerns through a case study of Fort Ancient populations who, on average, consumed lower quantities of maize than their Mississippian neighbors as determined by stable carbon isotope ratios of bone collagen. However, this dichotomy is not as rigid as initially thought, with some Fort Ancient burials producing stable carbon isotope ratios similar to Mississippian cases. Detailed investigation of internal variation of carbon isotopes for human burials at the SunWatch site provides evidence that contact included small-scale Mississippian migrations to Fort Ancient sites. The main conclusion is that variation in diet and archaeological context can be a useful approach for examining prehistoric migration. [source]

Mixing virtual and real scenes in the site of ancient Pompeii

COMPUTER ANIMATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS (PREV: JNL OF VISUALISATION & COMPUTER ANIMATION), Issue 1 2005
George Papagiannakis
Abstract This paper presents an innovative 3D reconstruction of ancient fresco paintings through the real-time revival of their fauna and flora, featuring groups of virtual animated characters with artificial-life dramaturgical behaviours in an immersive, fully mobile augmented reality (AR) environment. The main goal is to push the limits of current AR and virtual storytelling technologies and to explore the processes of mixed narrative design of fictional spaces (e.g. fresco paintings) where visitors can experience a high degree of realistic immersion. Based on a captured/real-time video sequence of the real scene in a video-see-through HMD set-up, these scenes are enhanced by the seamless accurate real-time registration and 3D rendering of realistic complete simulations of virtual flora and fauna (virtual humans and plants) in a real-time storytelling scenario-based environment. Thus the visitor of the ancient site is presented with an immersive and innovative multi-sensory interactive trip to the past. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The restoration of ecological interactions: plant,pollinator networks on ancient and restored heathlands

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2008
Mikael Lytzau Forup
Summary 1Attempts to restore damaged ecosystems usually emphasize structural aspects of biodiversity, such as species richness and abundance. An alternative is to emphasize functional aspects, such as patterns of interaction between species. Pollination is a ubiquitous interaction between plants and animals. Patterns in plant,pollinator interactions can be analysed with a food web or complex-systems approach and comparing pollination webs between restored and reference sites can be used to test whether ecological restoration has taken place. 2Using an ecological network approach, we compared plant,pollinator interactions on four pairs of restored and ancient heathlands 11 and 14 years following initiation of restoration management. We used the network data to test whether visitation by pollinators had been restored and we calculated pollinator importance indices for each insect species on the eight sites. Finally, we compared the robustness of the restored and ancient networks to species loss. 3Plant and pollinator communities were established successfully on the restored sites. There was little evidence of movement of pollinators from ancient sites onto adjacent restored sites, although paired sites correlated in pollinator species richness in both years. There was little insect species overlap within each heathland between 2001 and 2004. 4A few widespread insect species dominated the communities and were the main pollinators. The most important pollinators were typically honeybees (Apis mellifera), species of bumblebee (Bombus spp.) and one hoverfly species (Episyrphus balteatus). The interaction networks were significantly less complex on restored heathlands, in terms of connectance values, although in 2004 the low values might reflect the negative relationship between connectance and species richness. Finally, there was a trend of restored networks being more susceptible to perturbation than ancient networks, although this needs to be interpreted with caution. 5Synthesis and applications. Ecological networks provide a powerful tool for assessing the outcome of restoration programmes. Our results indicate that heathland restoration does not have to occur immediately adjacent to ancient heathland for functional pollinator communities to be established. Moreover, in terms of restoring pollinator interactions, heathland managers need only be concerned with the most common insect species. Our focus on pollination demonstrates how a key ecological service can serve as a yardstick for judging restoration success. [source]

An improved method for determination of Holocene coastline changes around two ancient settlements in southern Anatolia: a geoarchaeological approach to historical land degradation studies

LAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2003
Y. Bal
Abstract Two well-known ancient sites in southern Anatolia were selected to investigate and quantify the impact of historical land degradation on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. These sites are the Luwian settlements of Kelenderis (modern Ayd,nc,k) and nearby Nagidos (Bozyaz,), both in Mersin Province and both occupied since around 4000,BP. Changes in local climatic conditions over this period have produced variations in the rates of fluvial transport of sediment/soil from the hinterland into the relevant deltaic regions, thus influencing rates of coastal progradation and aggradation. In addition, both eustatic and neotectonic movements have contributed to deltaic subsidence and/or hinterland uplift, with consequential impact on coastal evolution (positive or negative). The novel geoarchaeological methodology adopted in this study involves the creation of a graphical archive from detailed and standardised measurements taken from rectified mono- and stereoscopic aerial photographs. These archival data were then integrated with data from several types of historical map and field measurements in order to develop a geographical information system (GIS) database that could be interrogated, enabling graphical models of past coastal change to be constructed and calculations then made of the coastal configurations at successive historical periods. These calculations reveal that over the past 6000 years there has been only limited erosion/degradation in the karstic hinterland supplying the sediment to these two study sites (contrary to some previous statements concerning the high degradation risk of Mediterranean karst terrains). Furthermore, rates of progradation in each delta appear to have become diminished or even reversed in the past several decades as a result of both natural and anthropogenic factors. The precise contribution of neotectonic movements in this seismically active zone remains unquantified and is a topic requiring further interdisciplinary study. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]